REMEMBER WHEN - 24TH FEBRUARY 1979

TW	TW
1	1	Blondie	Heart Of Glass
2	7	Bee Gees	Tragedy
3	2	Abba	Chiquitita
4	3	Three Degrees	Woman In Love
5	13	Elvis Cosstello	Oliver's Army
6	4	Leif Garrett	I Was Made For Dancing
7	21	Gloria Gaynor	I Will Survive
8	6	Edwin Starr	Contact
9	5	Shadows	Don't Cry For Me Argentina
10	9	Dr. Feelgood	Milk And Alcohol
11	19	Rod Stewart	Ain't Love A Bitch
12	22	Gene Chandler	Get Down
13	25	Members	Sound Of The Suburbs
14	15	Judas Priest	Take On The World
15	37	Meat Loaf	Bat Out Of Hell
16	8	Ian Dury And The Blockheads	Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick
17	11	Generation X	King Rocker
18	NEW	Real Thing	Can You Feel The Force
19	17	Third World	Cool Meditation
20	20	Dan Hartman	This Is It
21	10	Driver 67	Car 67
22	31	Nazareth	May The Sun Shine
23	24	Anne Murray	You Needed Me
24	NEW	Skids	Into The Valley
25	27	Darts	Get It
26	30	Peaches And Herb	Shake Your Groove Thing
27	RE	Herbie Hancock	You Bet Your Love
28	NEW	Lene Lovich	Lucky Number
29	12	Billy Joel	My Life
30	28	Barry Manilow	Could It Be Magic
31	38	Queen	Don't Stop Me Now
32	39	Alan Price	Baby Of Mine / Just For You
33	NEW	Dooleys	Honey I'm Lost
34	23	Village People	YMCA
35	NEW	Chic	I Want Your Love
36	NEW	Donna Summer	Heaven Knows
37	NEW	Cars	Just What I Needed
38	NEW	Mick Jackson	Weekend
39	14	Earth Wind And Fire	September
40	32	Andy Gibb	(Our Love) Don't Throw It All Away

This was Blondie's first ever number one in the UK, and by the end of the following year, they had achieved five chart toppers with a combined total of 12 weeks at the summit (this attained four of them). The amazing fact about this (at the time), was that it was the third single to be lifted from the 'Parallel Lines' album. They didn't stop there either, as a fourth single from the said album also hit the top a few months later.

Just about everyone knows this one, and most seemed to be waiting for it's release. It sounded like a number one on first listen, and sure enough it spent two weeks there. The surprising thing is, the Bee Gees didn't hit the top ten again until October 1987.
Almost twenty years later, Steps took their cover of this song to number one.

"Chiquitita" was the highest new entry that Abba ever had. It entered the chart at number eight, but thankfully stalled at number two the following week. To most listeners this is just a nice inoffensive song by one of the best bands of all time. To me it's an awful piece of junk that was untypical of Abba. I've always thought of Abba as being over-rated, but most of their music was at least OK (despite the unneccesary accents). There are only two of their songs that I despise. This is obviously one of them, but the one I hate the most is the lyrically infantile "The Day Before You Came". Next record please !

The Three Degrees were enjoying a revival in their UK chart fortunes, and reached number three with their biggest hit in almost five years. It was actually their first single to make the top ten since "Take Good Care Of Yourself" climbed to number nine in April 1975. It was one of six singles on the Ariola label to be pressed on gold vinyl in January 1979

This spent four weeks at number one. Gloria also reached number one in the States for a two week stay. This song is considered by many to be the best disco song ever, but I'm not convinced. I can count twelve better disco records that were on the chart when this entered, let alone what had come before and would follow. It's the intro for one thing, it spoils it.
Shortly afterwards 'Billie Jo Spears' just missed the top 40 with her country cover of the song, while Gloria was back with the number five peaking re-sicks in 1993. Three years after that two further covers of the song made the top 20 courtesy of 'Diana Ross' and 'Chantay Savage'.

This was Edwin Starr's first hit in eight years. "Contact" is one of the greatest songs of the disco era, and one that I suspect is also liked by many who didn't particularly like disco music. It reached number six, failing to match the number three peak of "War" from 1970, and has since been included on almost every disco compilation album to be released since. I lived near Edwin a couple of years ago.

Great with lyrics, great without. This song had already hit number one exactly two years to the week before this version peaked at number five, when recorded by Julie Covington. But it was now being given the Shadows instrumental treatment. It was the Shadows first hit since their Eurovision entry "Let Me Be The One" back in the spring of 1975. It was also their first instrumental hit for 12 years and the biggest hit for the band since "The Rise And Fall Of Flingel Bunt" in 1964.

Another single that I thought didn't do as well as I thought it should have. When it fell from 11 to 13, it was only the second single from Rod to peak outside the top ten since 1971. But he had to wait until November 1981 before he next ventured into the top ten. Indeed, his follow up to "Ain't Love A Bitch" which was the title track from his album "Blondes Have More Fun" was a cracker of a rocking track, with an equally cracking ballad called "The Best Days Of My Life" on the B.Side, not only failed to reach the top ten, but didn't even reach the top 40. It peaked at number 63.

The first six months of 1979 saw disco music hit a peak in the UK charts. Not only was there so much of it in the top 40, there was a hell of a lot of it that didn't make it, but was still good anyway.
This was Gene's first hit since "Nothing Can Stop Me" had reached number 41 in 1968, and was one of the best 12 inches of the disco years. It's number 11 peak didn't do it justice.

The Members were also having their first hit, and this single that was available in clear vinyl peaked at number 12. They followed up with a minor hit a few months later and also released a half decent album titled 'At The Chelsea Nightclub'. At least I thought it sounded ok the only time I ever heard it, I didn't go out and buy it though.

This was the very first hit for Judas Priest and it reached number 14. I remember seeing them on Top Of The Pops, and they seemed to have an image that said "Don't mess with us". They must have scared every Punk/New Wave band into hiding in the toilets. Vocalist Rob Halford would have no doubt found them first.

So in 1978, someone who called himself Meat Loaf had two minor hits that I didn't take a deal of notice of. Then on New Year's Eve (or rather the early hours of New Year's Day), my sister and I watched 'Old Grey Whistle Test Pick Of The Year' (as we usually did). And there was Meat Loaf performing "Paradise By The Dashboard Light", hurling abuse at this poor woman, screaming and shouting, they threw each other about the stage, we'd never seen anything like it.
Six weeks later this track entered the top 40 at number 35 so I sat up and took notice. What an epic (and I don't just mean the record label). It dropped to 37 the following week, but then surprisingly shot up to a peak of number 15. It didn't stay around too long, in fact two weeks after it's big climb, it was spending it's last week in the chart at number 21. But from then on, the album sold and sold. But it would be almost three years before Meat Loaf next appeared in the top 40.
"Bat Out Of Hell" finally became a top ten hit when it reached number eight in 1993.

Ian's second hit and it went all the way to number one. Many bought it for the B Side "There Ain't Half Been Some Clever Bastards" but the A Side was the song that will always be remembered. Strange how Ian never really built on the success of this. It was nice to see him on the comback trail at Wollaton Park in May 1998. But the comeback was cut short by his death in early 2000.

This is when Billy Idol hit the top 20 for the first time as part of Generation X. It was their second top 40 hit, following the number 36 peaking "Your Generation" in 1977. They only managed one further top 40 hit coming very shortly after this one, before Generation X sank into oblivion. Lead vocalist Billy Idol is of course a different story.

Just when it looked as though the Real Thing were getting past their sell by date (the previous two singles had peaked at 39 + 40), they came up trumps with this classic hit. Full page advertisements to accompany the release of this single, 12 inch, and album didn't exactly do them any harm, and this single gave them a number five hit, their biggest since 1976. It re-appeared in the chart courtesy of a dreaded re-mix in 1986, when it reached number 24.

The follow up to "Now That We've Found Love" couldn't match the number ten peak of it's predecessor spending two of it's seven week chart run at a peak of number 17. Personally, I thought that it was a better track. It was also another of those big droppers out of the chart when it fell out from number 19. Third World were then absent from the chart until June 1981.

Dan Hartman was following up his first hit "Instant Replay" with a song that had nothing whatsoever to do with the Melba Moore classic from 1976. It peaked at number 17, after which Dan released two more singles during 1979 ("Time And Space" & "Boogie All Summer") that both failed to chart. He would not return to the chart until 1985 with "I Can Dream About You". The highest charting Dan composition was 'ReLight my Fire', a number one for Take That in 1993, though his work was sampled on Black Box's massive hit "Ride On Time" in 1989. Dan died of aids related illness in 1994.

Driver 67's novelty hit "Car 67" reached a high of number seven and he was to have no more hits. This was a song about a taxi driver being ordered to do a pick up at the home of the woman he'd broken up with the previous evening. Interesting concept, and I remember a follow up single being released, and I think it was called "Headlights" and available on luminous vinyl. Actually, I think I have it, but don't have time to check.

Anne Murray only reached number 22 with this song, and then after falling, climbed back up to reach number 23, 4 weeks later. In all this slow burner spent 9 weeks on the 40. This had been her first top 40 hit since "Snowbird" in 1970, and the last one that she's had to date. Though she did release a good follow up to this called "I Just Fall In Love Again". This kind of song wasn't particularly fashionable then let alone now, but you can't keep a good song down. Boyzone covered it and spent a week at number one in May 1999, yet I wouldn't be surprised if they sold less copies than Anne in the UK (Anne hit number one in the US).

The Skids had finally got themselves a hit, and in reaching number Ten, it proved to be their biggest. The B Side was an odd thing titled "TV Stars" that consisted entirely of the names of TV Stars, mostly ones from Coronation Street such as Ena Sharples, Albert Tatlock and Annie Walker. But does anyone know if "Into The Valley" really meant anything, or was it just total nonsense ?

Peaches And Herb were having their UK chart debut with "Shake Your Groove Thing", and reached number 26. But they had already had 11 hits in the USA before this, the 11th being a cover of "The Sound Of Silence" in 1971. That line up had comprised of 'Herb Fame' and 'Francine Barker' (replaced by 'Marlene Mack' on three of the hits). In this late '70s line up, female vocals were supplied by 'Linda Green'.

A low new entry position for Billy at number 40, but so what, this was 1978 not 1998. Three weeks later Billy had matched the number 36 peak of his previous single ("Movin' Out") and fallen to number 38. But he then started moving up again and peaked at number 12 in his ninth week of a 12 week run. Of course the Americans have always had much better taste where Billy Joel is concerned, and it hit number three over there.

Barry Manilow was having his first top 40 hit for almost five years with "Could It Be Magic", a song that had already been a minor hit for Donna Summer back in 1976. In actual fact, I remember clearly listening to this on the top 40 in the very week that it entered. I wondered why Barry was covering Donna's song, until I checked out my 'Donna Summer Greatest Hits' album and discovered that Barry had co-written it in the first place. Barry could only make it to number 25 with his version, but the song was taken to number two by Take That 14 years later. After the success of that version, Barry re-recorded the song in Take That/Donna Summer style (leaving out the orgasm) and took it to number 36.
Back to the year in question, and this release had been taken from the 'Manilow Magic' album, an album that seemed to be around forever and turned him into a housewives favourite.

I bought this one, but not because I liked "Baby of Mine", I thought that it was a terrible song that droned on and on. One reason for buying it was, the track "Just For You" which had narrowly missed the chart the previous spring and was an extremely pleasant song. But the major reason was the novelty value of it being on a red heart shaped disc.

This single had a three week stint at number two to close 1978. It then began 1979 with three weeks at number one. It was the first and biggest hit for the Village People and spent 13 weeks on the 40. A re-mixed version reached number 12 fifteen years later. It did get a little tiresome at the time, but it's a classic of the disco era.

This was Chic's highest charting UK hit and reached number four. Don't you just love those bells ?
I felt as though I got ripped off with this one though. I bought the 12 inch single and discovered that it was exactly the same length as the 7 inch. Great instrumental B Side called "Funny Bone" though.

The first of Earth Wind And Fire's three consecutive top five hits and also the biggest with a number three peak, though it took seven weeks to reach that position. It was a hell of a way for them to kick off their most successful year with them also having their 'Best Of' album released at this time, and the huge 'I Am' following six months later. A re-mix of this song reached number 25 in the summer of 1999.

Andy Gibb was having the last of his (only) three hits in the UK, and could only reach number 32. The flip side featured an extended version of his "Shadow Dancing" from the previous summer, which had surprisingly got no higher than number 42 in the UK, despite being number one in the US for seven weeks

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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