REMEMBER WHEN - 12TH JULY 1980

1980
Week 28
WEEK ENDING 12TH JULY 1980

TOP 40 SINGLES

TW	LW
1	3	Olivia Newton John & E.L.O.	Xanadu
2	12	Odyssey	Use It Up Wear It Out
3	6	Stacy Lattisaw	Jump To The Beat
4	1	Don McLean	Crying
5	16	Detroit Spinners	Cupid-I've Loved You For A Long Time
6	2	Lipps Inc	Funky Town
7	8	UB40	My Way Of Thinking / I Think It's Going To Rain
8	5	Korgis	Everybody's Got To Learn Sometime
9	21	Bob Marley & The Wailers	Could You Be Loved
10	7	Splodgenessabounds	Simon Templar / Two Pints Of Lager And A Packet Of Crisps Please
11	11	Paul McCartney	Waterfalls
12	9	B.A. Robertson	To Be Or Not To Be
13	4	Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway	Back Together Again
14	19	Saxon	747 (Strangers In The Night)
15	10	Teena Marie	Behind The Groove
16	NEW	Kate Bush	Babooshka
17	14	Queen	Play The Game
18	30	Joy Division	Love Will Tear Us Apart
19	13	Liquid Gold	Substitute
20	NEW	Rolling Stones	Emotional Rescue
21	22	Thin Lizzy	Chinatown
22	NEW	Leo Sayer	More Than I Can Say
23	23	Rod Stewart	If Loving You Is Wrong (I Don't Want To Be Right)
24	29	Darts	Let's Hang On
25	36	Yellow Magic Orchestra	Theme From The Invaders
26	24	Siouxsie And The Banshees	Christine
27	17	Matchbox	Midnight Dynamos
28	34	Sex Pistols	(I'm Not Your) Stepping Stone
29	35	Change	A Lover's Holiday / Glow Of Love
30	NEW	Undertones	Wednesday Week
31	39	Joan Armatrading	Me Myself I
32	15	Mash	Theme From Mash (Suicide Is Painless)
33	37	Bad Manners	Lip Up Fatty
34	NEW	Black Sabbath	Neon Knights
35	NEW	Phil Lynott	King's Call
36	27	Crown Heights Affair	You Gave Me Love
37	38	AC/DC	Whole Lotta Rosie
38	18	Jermaine Jackson	Let's Get Serious
39	20	Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark	Messages
40	NEW	Gerard Kenny	Fantasy

Olivia Newton John & E.L.O.

Xanadu

These acts were very grateful for the Top Of The Pops strike that summer. With it being the title track from a film, it got enough promotion to push it to number one for two weeks. It was a pretty good soundtrack as these things go, with a healthy number of E.L.O. songs, and Olivia collaborating with everyone else in the film. More singles from the soundtrack will be discussed later in the year.
Strange that after all those years of great singles, this was the only number one that E.L.O. achieved.

Odyssey

Use It Up Wear It Out

We all thought that Odyssey had disappeared following their brilliant number five hit "Native New Yorker" at the beginning of 1978. But they were back with a bang. Obviously, part of the reason for the size of the success for this single was the TOTP strike, just as George McCrae had taken advantage in much the same way six years previous. Heavy play in discos had given it a great advantage over it's competitors. Although Odyssey singles did not sound the same as one another, you always knew when you were listening to Odyssey by the lovely vocals of Lillian & Louise Lopez. This was number one for two weeks, in a year that had so far seen 10 out of the 15 number ones spend two weeks at the top.

Stacy Lattisaw

Jump To The Beat

Thirteen year old Stacy released one of the finest singles of the disco era with this. She had previously been earmarked to record "Ring My Bell" , but that had instead been given to Anita Ward who took it to number one in 1979. So this was Stacey's debut and she took it to number three. Her follow up single "Dynamite" failed to make it past number 51, and Stacey was never heard of again in the UK. The same can't be said of the song though as Dannii Minogue took it to number eight in 1991.
The 1998 UK number one, "Because We Want To" by "Billie" reminds me of this song for no apparent reason. It just seems to have that 1980 sound about it.

Don McLean

Crying

Excellent cover of the Roy Orbison minor hit from 1961, but I did get fed up of it after a while. It spent three weeks at number one.

Detroit Spinners

Cupid-I've Loved You For A Long Time

Having hit number one earlier in the year with a cover of "Working My Way Back To You" (two weeks at the top, naturally), the Spinners had followed it with "Body Language" which could only struggle to number 40. So, it was time to try another cover, and the trick worked as they rose to number four. This marked the end of their top twenty days though, and their only further appearance in the top 40 was when featured on the number 30 peaking "I'll Be Around" by '4-Tay' in 1995.

Lipps Inc

Funky Town

This single doesn't seem to be held in very high regard these days. I still like it myself and think that it was a deserved number two smash, very typical of the era. But, there was an awful cover of it by Pseudo Echo that reached number eight in 1987.

UB40

My Way Of Thinking / I Think It's Going To Rain

These were the days when UB 40 weren't boring and recorded original songs. They reached number six with this, their second hit, and it was very good. They later turned to covers quite often, and though some were good (the Labour Of Love songs), some were very bad ("Can't Help Falling In Love"). There were some original songs inbetween, but most were very dreary songs sang in Ali's dreary tones.

Korgis

Everybody's Got To Learn Sometime

The inspiration behind at least two big dance hits. This original version was of course a really nice song that reached number five. It was then sampled by someone on an underground dance track that did the rounds for a couple of years. Baby D later sampled it and took it to number three in the summer of 1995. I can't get it out of my head that someone else sampled it at around that time too. But still they won't leave it alone, it was sampled yet again in the early twenty first century, but I can't remember who by.

Bob Marley & The Wailers

Could You Be Loved

Great single that reached number five to become Bob's biggest hit to date. It reminds me of a party I went to, and how I was given the cold shoulder by someone called Bridget, who'd been a big part of my life for the previous two years. That night was virtually the 'final straw' as far as that relationship was concerned.

Splodgenessabounds

Simon Templar / Two Pints Of Lager And A Packet Of Crisps Please

The intended A Side "Simon Templar" was a song about the TV Character "Simon Templar", the Saint (formerly played by Roger Moore, but by now the role had been taken over by Ian Ogilvy). It wasn't a very good song and relied on lines such as "And his bird never wears a bra" to sell it as a novelty item. It would not have been a hit, but,
"Two Pints Of Lager etc" was on the B side, and that's the one people wanted. This was no work of genius either, but that one line (the title) being repeated over and over, with just a few other lines thrown in and "Time gentleman please" at the end, struck a chord with many people. Anyone without a romantic view of British pubs, that is, anyone who actually lives here, will have witnessed theat very same scene, in fact probably been the actual victim at least once, on a Friday or Saturday evening. That mad scramble to get served as if life itself depended on it. There's no queueing or ticket system, you just take your chances. You may be lucky and get served within ten seconds of making it to the front of the bar, you may have to wait twenty minutes because all those tall blokes towering behind you get served first, along with all the people who don't move from the bar all night which is the reason why there's only enough room for two people to reach the bar at any one time anyway. And it gets even worse if you're NOT prepared to shout. If you don't want to sound desperate for a drink, you're quite a polite person, and you're putting your faith in human nature, you've very little chance of getting served at all. I don't miss pubs at all, I'm happy without them, and if I ruled the world etc :-)
The single reached number seven, and I find it funnier now than I did then.

Paul McCartney

Waterfalls

Paul McCartney is of course a legend. He has written some great songs, but sadly this wasn't one of them. I usually defend him to the hilt when people rubbish him in favour of whatever today's flavour of the month may be. But, I can never defend this one. The melody's ok, but the lyrics are so awful, it's unbelievable that they came from the creator of "Yesterday", "Live and Let Die" and "Silly Love Songs", and was later to bring us "Pipes Of Peace" and "All My Trials". He sang about keeping to lakes, chasing Polar bears and goodness knows what else. But, his loyal fanbase and a number of other people it seems bought it, and pushed it to number nine in the chart.

B.A. Robertson

To Be Or Not To Be

This is another song like "January February" earlier in this year, that seemed to get more than it's fair share of airtime on Radios One And Two. It was his fourth and last solo hit, and peaked at number nine. Some of the rhyming was awful though, the way he added "eo" to the end of words.

Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway

Back Together Again

This was Roberta's first top ten hit since "Killing Me Softly With His Song" had reached number six in 1973. It was Donny's only UK hit ever, but he hadn't lived to enjoy it. It was one of the sounds of that summer and peaked at number three.
Inner City reached number 49 with their cover of this in 1993.

Saxon

747 (Strangers In The Night)

Saxon were another band to have taken advantage of the metal revival. This number 13 peaking single from their "Wheels Of Steel" album was their second hit of the year. It was a good single, and had nothing at all to do with Frank Sinatra.

Teena Marie

Behind The Groove

Tina's biggest ever UK hit, and the only one to make it beyond number 28. This excellent disco single from the white Motown star reached number six, but surprisingly didn't make a dent on the chart in her native USA.

Kate Bush

Babooshka

Kate peaked at five with her biggest hit since her debut "Wuthering Heights" had gone all the way to the top in 1978. This was a favourite on the Jukebox at the 'Duke Of Wellington' in Ruabon which was one of my regular haunts in those days. She looked good in the video too, but not as good as the woman who did her on "Stars In Their Eyes" twenty years later.

Queen

Play The Game

The worst track on Queen's "The Game" album and a surprising choice for single release. It reached number 14, and the rest of the album was extremely good, their best since "A Night At The Opera".

Joy Division

Love Will Tear Us Apart

Joy Division had released an album and three singles over the previous two years with no mainstream chart success at all (the Indie charts were an entirely different matter). Then, after lead vocalist Ian Curtis hanged himself in May 1980, this single was released (along with an album), and made it to number 13. Out of the ashes came New Order, and we all know what happened to them. Whether this single would have been a hit were it not for Ian's death, we'll never know, but I suspect it would have been, as it was released at just the right time for music of this type.

Liquid Gold

Substitute

A little too similar to "Dance Yourself Dizzy" which was a shame, as they were quite capable of doing something different as their previous singles proved. Still, it got them into the top ten with a number eight peak.

Rolling Stones

Emotional Rescue

More great music from the Stones. Following on from the success of their disco orientated "Miss You" smash hit from 1978, they went down the same path with this single, and enjoyed the first of only two top ten hits that they would have during the '80's when it peaked at number nine. I suspect that many diehard Stones fans would list this near the bottom of their list of Stones singles though.

Thin Lizzy

Chinatown

It took a long time, but it finally reached number 21 in it's seventh chart week. It was the title track from the last really good Lizzy album to be released.

Leo Sayer

More Than I Can Say

After a hitless 1979, Leo was back with one of the biggest hits of his career. It was his fourth single to peak at number two, and his second consecutive hit to be a cover of a 'Crickets' song. He would have to wait two years for his next hit, even though he released a great follow up single to this, "Once In A While"(also recorded by Cliff Richard this year).

Rod Stewart

If Loving You Is Wrong (I Don't Want To Be Right)

Belated release for this track from 1977's "Footloose And Fancy Free" album. Reached number 23 and spent seven weeks in the top 40. Funny how I hardly noticed it tucked away on the album, but when released as a single, I thought that it was a really good song.

Darts

Let's Hang On

When Darts first appeared at the end of 1977, I wasn't keen. The last thing I wanted to see in the chart was another band playing covers of 50's hits, Showaddywaddy were already testing my patience far enough. But from their third single, they had started to cover 60's songs instead, and I could live with that. More than that, they were also very good at it, "Let's Hang On" was no exception. It reached number 11, but was sadly the last top 40 hit for a band that I now remember with fondness.

Yellow Magic Orchestra

Theme From The Invaders

As I previously mentioned, I had just become legally entitled to enter pubs and drink alcohol at this time. This coincided with Space Invader machines being introduced into pubs. Years previous I had been fascinated by the type of game where punters looked through a periscope and blasted ships on the horizon, but I had only seen those machines in amusement arcades at the seaside. But now, similar types of machines were everywhere. Personally, I thought the actual "Space Invaders" game was very boring, but some better, more exciting games such as "Galaxians", "Defender", "Astro Wars", and my favourite "Moon Cresta" soon followed, and all the pinball tables were taken out of the pubs.
Anyway, Ryuichi Sakamoto and his band used the music from the game as the central theme to this single which became their only UK hit reaching number 17. They followed it with "Behind The Mask" which although not charting for them (or Greg Phillingass:sp), was a hit when recorded by Eric Clapton in 1987.

Siouxsie & The Banshees

Christine

A regular on the jukebox at the Great Western Inn (known locally as "The Nant"). We used to play a game there, that I think was called Bar Billiards and it had these mushroom shaped things on the table (I think). There was also a drink that many favoured called "Top Hat", I never saw it anywhere else.
Anyway, I don't know why Siouxsie called "Christine" a "Strawberry Girl", but she did, and that's all there is to it.

Matchbox

Midnite Dynamos

They claimed to be the "Midnite Dynamos". Can't think of a much better place for them, than dangerously close to the spokes of the back wheel of a bike. It reached number 14, but they did get better after this one.

Sex Pistols

(I'm Not Your) Stepping Stone

The Swindle continued, this song isn't even in the film.
That's what the publicity machine proclaimed about this one. Well, after having two hits with Rock 'N' Roll classics that appealed to to the very people they seemed to set out to alienate, why not release a cover of a song from the days of flower power and hippies, in for a penny as they say ?
It was a cover of the song on the B Side of "I'm A Believer" by the Monkees. I'm not as 'taken in' by the Pistols as I used to be, but I still think that this was quite a good cover on the whole. Quite ironic how some of their best songs were covers of music that they'd tried to overthrow. They really ought to have tried covering "Freebird", "Big Yellow Taxi" and "I Feel I'm Fixing To Die Rag".
It reached number 21, and their next hit didn't arrive until "Anarchy In The UK" was re-issued in 1992.

Change

A Lover's Holiday / Glow Of Love

The first of four hits in a five year period by Change reached number 14. A typical disco single of the day, but nothing really special, especially compared to their next one. "Glow Of Love" was a much better track though, pity it didn't get the airplay.

Undertones

Wednesday Week

The Undertones were following their best and biggest hit "My Perfect Cousin" with this fun piece of pop that peaked at number eleven. I remember in those days that a group of lads about three years older than me and who always seemed to be in the same pubs as me, were keen followers of the Undertones and went to see them live quite regular. Unfortunately, I heard that one of the said lads fell victim to alcohol and died in 1998.

Joan Armatrading

Me Myself I

No, this isn't the same track that was a hit for De La Soul in 1989 (the title is slightly different anyway), but it is a great song. It was Joan's first hit for four years, and spent seven weeks in the top 40 despite peaking at a lowly 21. She followed it with another song that looked a sure fire hit "All The Way From America", but sadly it wasn't and she had to wait until 1983 for her third hit.

Mash

Theme From Mash (Suicide Is Painless)

I didn't like the film, I didn't like the TV show either, but this was alright. There didn't seem to be a good reason for releasing it as a single some ten years after the event, but it turned out to be a very wise decision. Two weeks after entering at number 23, it was spending the first of three weeks at number one.
But they were lying. I tried to cut my wrists with broken glass and it hurt. Explanation - I was drunk and on/off girlfriend Bridget wouldn't speak to me at a party, so I left and found some broken glass. YES, I still feel a bit of a dickhead when I think about that incident. It was three years later before I tried it for real.

Bad Manners

Lip Up Fatty

Bad Manners had found success on the back of the Two Tone Ska explosion, and did things the Madness way. They peaked at 15 with this second hit, and continued to hit the charts regularly for the next two years.

Black Sabbath

Neon Knights

With a strong heavy metal/hard rock revival taking place, who better to have a few hit singles this year than Black Sabbath ?
This was the first single to be released since Ozzy Osbourne left the band to be replaced by Ronnie James Dio, and reached number 22. He proved a competent replacement and stayed in the band for three years, but the album this was taken from "Heaven And Hell" was the last Black Sabbath album that I bought until "Headless Cross" in 1989.

Phil Lynott

King's Call

Wow, what a great single from Phil. he did seem to be getting a thing about Elvis though didn't he ?
Just one week in the top 40.

Crown Heights Affair

You Gave Me Love

And this was another of those great disco singles sounded good on the radio, great in the clubs and made you feel happy. It reached number ten.
This song was sampled by Utah Saints on "Believe In Me" in 1993 (I liked that too).

AC/DC

Whole Lotta Rosie

I heard this many times before I even knew what it was called let alone who the act was, but I loved it anyway. It was originally released as a track on their 1977 album "Let there Be Rock". Then this version was taken from their 1978 live album "If You Want Blood, You Got It", but failed to chart. It was then re-issued in March of 1980, and now yet again as one of four AC/DC re-issues in Atlantic's Heavy Metal series following singer Bon Scott's death.
Sadly, you miserable lot didn't all go out and buy it, so it struggled to number 36.

Jermaine Jackson

Let's Get Serious

One of the biggest disco singles of a great year for disco. It sounded great on the radio, and magnificent in the clubs, especially the 12 inch. It beat anything by Michael that year hands down. Reached number eight.

Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark

Messages

The first hit for a band that would continue to chart right to the end of the following decade. Great name for a band, and a great debut hit (even though they did better it a few times). It reached number 13.
Twenty years later vocalist Andy McCluskey was the man behind girl group 'Atomic Kitten'.

Gerard Kenny

Fantasy

Gerard's 1978 album "Made It Thru The Rain" was a pretty good album, and it pointed towards Gerard becoming the next Billy Joel. But it all seemed to go flat afterwards, and the only time he got into the top 40 of the singles chart was when this reached number34.

These were in the top 50 this week, but failed to reach the top 40.

Vapors

News At Ten

The follow up to "Turning Japanese" and we could have been forgiven for assuming that it was bound to be a hit. It certainly deserved to be, much better song in my opinion. But it only reached number 44.

Frank Hooker & Positive People

This Feelin'

Sounds like one of the tracks on "Saturday Night Fever" that you don't know the name of without looking at the album credits for the 100th time. Not good, not bad, just there.
Number 48 peak.

Some MP3s

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.

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