REMEMBER WHEN - 8TH SEPTEMBER 1979

TW	.......	LW	.......		.......
1		1		Cliff Richard		We Don't Talk Anymore
2		3		B.A. Robertson		Bang Bang
3		20		Gary Numan		Cars
4		4		Roxy Music		Angel Eyes
5		8		Flying Lizards		Money
6		6		Specials		Gangsters
7		16		Crusaders		Street Life
8		2		Boomtown Rats		I Don't Like Mondays
9		11		Randy Vanwarmer		Just When I Needed You Most
10		5		Earth Wind & Fire		After The Love Has Gone
11		38		E.L.O.		Don't Bring Me Down
12		10		Gibson Brothers		Ooh What A Life
13		15		Boney M		Gotta Go Home / El Lute
14		25		Stranglers		Duchess
15		13		Joe Jackson		Is She Really Going Out With Him
16		23		Dollar		Love's Gotta Hold On Me
17		18		Jam		When You're Young
18		7		Darts		Duke Of Earl
19		22		Bellamy Brothers		If I Said You Had A Beautiful Body Would You Hold It Against Me
20		9		Ian Dury & The Blockheads		Reasons To Be Cheerful
21		17		Showaddywaddy		Sweet Little Rock 'N' Roller
22		12		Sham 69		Hersham Boys
23		21		Spyro Gyra		Morning Dance
24		24		Sister Sledge		Lost In Music
25		28		Johnny Mathis		Gone Gone Gone
26		35		Frantique		Strut Your Funky Stuff
27		30		Bill Lovelady		Reggae For It Now
28		34		Racey		Boy Oh Boy
29		14		Abba		Angel Eyes / Voulez Vous
30		29		Angelic Upstarts		Teenage Warning
31		19		E.L.O.		The Diary Of Horace Wimp
32		NEW		Nick Lowe		Cruel To Be Kind
33		40		Gerry Rafferty		Get It Right Next Time
34		NEW		Commodores		Sail On
35		31		Me & You		You'll Never Know What You've Got
36		37		Planets		Lines
37		36		Buzzcocks		Spiral Scratch EP
38		NEW		Billy Connolly		In The Brownies
39		26		Dooleys		Wanted
40		NEW		Secret Affair		Time For Action

Cliff's first number one since 1968 ensured that he joined Elvis Presley in that elite club of acts to have hit number one in three decades. He may have only achieved the feat just in time, but the same was also true of his 50's number one, when yet again he did it in the last year of the decade. And as history shows, Cliff went on to become the only act to hit number one in five decades. He almost made it six decades, but his "Millenium Prayer" was knocked from the top in Christmas week 1999.
"We Don't Talk Anymore" was quite a surprising number one considering Cliff's recent chart form. Since early 1977's "My Kinda Life" had reached number 15, Cliff had failed to hit the top 40 with five consecutive single releases. This included his "Green Light" single from March of this year, a song that I recall a work mate 'Bernie' liking. So when this single entered at number 35, it did not look like a future number one. But five weeks later it got there and remained for four weeks. It was also only his second ever US top ten hit reaching number seven.

Something of a novelty hit for B.A. was the first and biggest of his five hits. A very catchy song that gave namechecks to various people from history, and even gave an explanation as to who they actually were on the back of the sleeve. This song always reminds me of working for the parks department in the Hightown area of Wrexham. Yes, the place that I have mentioned in my 1977 commentaries with the weekly disco that gave me so many happy memories of being 15 years old, and my employers had now sent me to work in that area. As it turned out I remained working in that area for two years, and yet another coincidence occured in 1984 when the council allocated my first wife and myself a flat in Hightown. So I ended up living there for 8 1/2 years. Something else that this song reminds me of, is another single around at the same time where someone proclaimed that they were in love with a tennis ball !
Any ideas out there ?

I'm clueless as to why this keeps hitting the chart. It reached number one for a week this first time around, and hit number 16 in 1987 and 17 in 1996. That's as well as stopping short at number 53 in 1993 and featuring on the number 27 peaking live EP in 1985. It seemed an ok kind of song when originally released, but one I tired of very quickly. It even reached number nine in the US.
It was number one in the week that I had the house to myself for a whole week, and we all know what happens when a seventeen year old has that kind of power. The result was that I was sleeping rough the following week after my Mum had discovered the damage that a spoon had done to a window, as well as pheasant feathers blocking up the hoover !

The second single into Roxy's best run in the singles chart, "Angel Eyes" spent two weeks at it's peak position of number four. There are purists who would say that Roxy were at their peak some 6-7 years earlier, and it's true that though that earlier work was different, most of it was pretty good stuff. But looking at things in the stark reality of popularity and sales figures (ie: If it sells more, then more people like it), there's a very good argument for the 79-82 period to be proclaimed Roxy's best years. My own feelings on the matter are irrelevent but, while I liked all the earlier hit singles, I found the albums a little indifferent at times. Best album for me was 1980's 'Flesh And Blood'.

Now this was really bad, and their album was even worse (apart from "TV"). It was a cover of the Barrett Strong song that everyone associates with the Beatles. Difference was this woman didn't sing it, she just talked her way through it very badly, even the so called music was bad. Like many of the songs in this chart, it was reviewed on 'Jukebox Jury' prior to it charting. I can't remember exactly, but I think that John Lydon was the only panelist to predict that it would be a hit (yet again). And a big hit it was, peaked at number five.

The first release on 'Two Tone' was also the first of seven consecutive top ten hits for the Specials. This was a re-working of Prince Buster's "Al Capone", and even sampled the screeching of brakes from the original (Hmmm, I expect they had permission and paid a royalty). The song was an attack on Bernie Rhodes, the Clash manager who almost became manager of the Specials, and on the music business as a whole. This number six peaking single featured a song called "The Selecter" by the Selecter on the flip. They of course had their own hit single just a few weeks later.

The only hit for the Crusaders, but the first of many for the featured vocalist 'Randy Crawford'. A great number five peaking song that reminds me of the Chinese Restaurant mentioned a few times in my 1981 commentaries. Except that it wasn't a Chinese Restaurant at the time, it was just a cafe. We used to go there most nights, buy a cup of coffee and make it last an hour or so. This was one of the most popular songs on the jukebox and brings back many happy memories. Isn't it a pity that we stop doing things like that when we turn 18, it was much more fun than pubs eventually turned out to be.

Four weeks on top for this second number one for the Rats. The song was based on the true story of American schoolgirl Brenda Spencer who shot dead a number of other school children, apparently because she didn't like Mondays (I think it was before PMT had been discovered). For this reason it was banned by many radio stations across the US for fear of it upsetting the victim's families. If we apply the same rules to every record ever released, then "Tubthumping" and Placebo's "Pure Morning" would be banned because I find them extremely distaseful, and can think of many other people who would also find them offensive. I'm sure that there are many who would also find Catatonia's "Road Rage" offensive, same goes for the Mansun single that mentions Cancer. In fact, if everyone's going to get so touchy about the lyrics to songs, radio programmers must find it really difficult to put a show together after the events of September 11th 2001.
Tori Amos covered this on her 2001 album "Strange Little Girls", and made it sound like a love song !

The third single from E.L.O. in less than four months, and this seemed to be everyone's favourite. I wasn't so sure. I liked the other tracks on the 'Discovery' album, and I did like this really, but it just wasn't E.L.O. was it ?
Ironic that in reaching number three, it gave them their highest chart position ever (not including the O.N.J. thing). It even gave them a surprise number four hit in the U.S.

Yes, I did like this one, both sides of it in fact. It took six weeks to finally reach a peak of number twelve, and then when it began to fall, the record company started promoting "El Lute". It didn't do a "Brown Girl In The Ring" and rebound back up, but it's downward slide was slowed a little and it completed ten weeks in the forty.

This was the first Stranglers single in 12 months, in fact the first since they were banned from TOTP in the wake of the 'Child' Incident. Yet, their ban was lifted with the release of this single. Just as well really, because at the same time, TOTP banned the promo as it featured the band as choir boys in a church (very controversial at the time). Great single anyway, the best of August '79s releases, reached number 14.
Was covered by 'My Life Story' in 1979 when it reached number 39.

Previously signed to M.A.M. records, this was Joe's first single for A&M, and was originally released in September 1978. It flopped that time (as did follow ups "Sunday Papers" & "One More Time"). But after missing out on the American top 20 by just one place, this was re-released over here (with a different B Side), and reached number 13.

Dollar had those first two hits with "Shooting Star" and "Who Were You With In The Moonlight", and even though I did like both of them, I didn't expect them to have a third hit. I thought that they were just another hit and run pop band that would soon be forgotten about. I certainly didn't expect anything as good as this. A love song that had some class about it. It didn't even go straight into the top forty when released, it didn't enter those upper reaches until it's third week. But eventually, it reached number four and spent nine weeks in the top forty.

I'm sure you all know this one. The Bellamy Brothers were finally following their 1976 hit "Let Your Love Flow", and slowly climbed the chart before finally settling at number three in it's seventh week. It then spent five weeks falling down the chart until spending it's 12th and last week in the chart at number 40. Myself, I prefer the Barron Knights' parody of the song, "If I jump into the back of your lorry, will you take me to Finchley", and that's weird because I'd never been to Finchley until the day after I wrote most of my comments about this song back in 1997.

Looking to many like a new entry at number six, and therefore a certainty for the following week's number one, it had been just outside the top forty the previous week (number 43 if I remember correctly). All the same, it should have gone to number one anyway after such a big climb. But it only reached number three and spent just six weeks in the forty. It was a bit of a rap record really, with Ian just talking his way through a list of things that made him cheerful. I quite liked the B Side "Common As Muck" too.

Well, well, well. A Showaddywaddy single that I like, what will they think of next ?
Maybe I allowed myself to like it as I was feeling smug that their run of top five success had recently come to an end. Or maybe it was because I already knew this song from sometime around 73-74 when Joe Dolan had won an edition of European Pop Jury with his recording of the song.
It reached number 15 and was their last top twenty hit.

"Laced up boots and corduroys"
Terrible when you really think about it. Yet, it gave Sham 69 their biggest hit reaching number six, and also their last ever top 40 entry. The rest of the album "The Adventures Of The Hersham Boys" was much better than this effort, and it included a free 12 inch single featuring "Borstal Breakout" and a very long bizzarre version of "If The Kids Are United"

Nice jazzy instrumental soul from an outfit that I imagined would come from South America rather than the North. It isn't the kind of thing that we'd expect to see in the top forty, let alone peaking at number 17. But I liked it a lot, as well as the two tracks on the B Side that I can't remember the titles of until I did out my copy (Helipocolis or something was one of them). "Catching The Sun" from the following year was also pretty good.

The third single to be released from the 'We Are Family' album, and one that was first of all less successful than the previous two, but then five years later became the most successful. This first time around, it reached number 17 and that's when I bought it and also listened to the B Side "Thinking Of You" a lot too. Then in 1984, "Thinking Of You" was issued as a single in it's own right, and reached number 11. After that, it seemed a good idea at Atlantic to re-mix "Lost In Music" and have another crack at the UK with it. It worked as it rose to number four to become their biggest hit to date.
After a number one single with "Frankie" the following year, the sisters seemed to have disappeared from the chart forever. But in 1993, they were back with another set of re-mixes for not only "We Are Family", but both sides of this single again too. That time "Lost In Music" made number 14, and "Thinking Of You" reached number 17. All in all, the two songs on this single have spent a total of 44 weeks in the UK top 75.

I didn't think that I'd ever rave over a Johnny Mathis single, but this one was outstanding. A disco effort that seemed to go on forever, but when it got to the end, I just wanted more of it. Not only that, but the ballad on the flip "Best Years Of My Life" (or maybe it was "Days") was quite good too. It reached number 15, then on the 9th October 1979 Johnny dropped out of the UK top forty for the last time, 21 years and five months after he had first entered.

I could cope with their first two hits ok, to be truthful, I quite liked them. But I didn't like this one at all. It was as though they were deliberately trying to turn into Showaddywaddy, and we certainly didn't need another one of those in our lives. After two top three hits, this only made number 22.

A great double A Sided single of which both songs should have been released in their own right. When this was featured on Juke Box Jury, three members of the panel surprisingly voted it a miss, Even more surprising, the only member of the panel to vote it a hit was John Lydon. The rotten one was right as it soared to number three.

The plastic punks were back with another horrible single. Something about winding him up like a clockwork orange in the first line of the song (no, doesn't make sense to me either), gave someone the bright idea to have an orange with a key protruding as the sleeve picture. I was disgusted when Trevor Pugh bought this single. It didn't advance beyond it's number 29 entry position.

Not very exciting at all. The vocals seemed more suited to country music than soul, in fact I wouldn't be surprised if this has been covered by a country act. It still managed to give the Commodores their first top 40 hit since the five week number one "Three Times A Lady" a year previous. It reached number eight.

In the summer of '79, it seemed as though we were getting hit with a new Buzzcocks single every other week. This was an EP of tracks recorded when Howard Devoto was with the band. I heard a couple of them, and while they were ok, I didn't feel that my life would be unfulfilled if I chose not to buy it. It reached number 31.

Incredible ! The Dooleys had managed four hits in the previous two years. All four were simple inoffensive songs that your grandparents would whistle along to. Then came this. It was also inoffensive, but after what had come before, it seemed as though the Dooleys rocked (well, kind of). They had the biggest hit of their career reaching number three.

Disclaimer All comments concerning the quality of the songs in this and any other chart, are purely my opinion and not a statement of fact. I believe that we are all equal when it comes to deciding what makes a good song. I do not believe that good songs have to be serious or dull. I am of the opinion that if a single sells many copies, then many people like it, so it must be good whether I like it or not. Good music is everything YOU like, and it's also everything I like.

Email: nige@innotts.co.uk
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