REMEMBER WHEN - 19TH JULY 1980

1980
Week 29
WEEK ENDING 19TH JULY 1980

TOP 40 SINGLES

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Dexy's Midnight Runners

There There My Dear

Their previous single "Geno" had gone all the way to number one. This time they only climbed as high as number seven, but it was still a great single, that in complete contrast to the previous one, rushed along at breakneck speed. It's another one that reminds me of the 'Duke' jukebox. Amazingly, neither of their next two singles made the top forty.

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.

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".

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Diana Ross

Upside Down

This was Diana's biggest hit for nine years, and peaked at number two. It was also her first visit to the top twenty for over four years, but she couldn't fail this time. The parent album had been written and produced by Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers who'd been responsible for all those Chic and Sister Sledge hits of the last couple of years. This set Diana up for another two year run of hits, before the next fallow period followed. Strangely, this happy upbeat single reminds me of my first real experience of death, as my grandmother died while it was charting.

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.

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.

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.

Whispers

My Girl

The Whispers had been around for a few years, but hadn't hit the UK chart until the number two hit "And The Beat Goes On" earlier this year. The Follow up "Lady" had been a flop, but they returned to the chart with this cover of the Temptations "My Girl", and took it to number 26.

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.

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.

Gap Band

Oops Upside Your Head

On first listen, "What a crap single !". Later, "Hey, this is ok", and it was. It went to number six and started a new dance craze, rowing. It was a fun thing to do in discos at the time, and this song was usually followed by the Black Slate single "Amigo" to carry on the rowing dance. It must be said though, that there was more to the Gap Band than novelty hits. They released quite a few good singles over the next seven years, some of which charted, some didn't. Their chart career ended with a remix of this reaching number 20.

Gene Chandler

Does She Have A Friend

Only a number 28 peak for this final hit from Gene. It didn't quite have the appeal of his "Get Down" single from the previous year, but was a pleasant enough song, that maybe deserved to go a little higher.

Gibson Brothers

Marianna

This fourth and final hit for the Gibson Brothers reached number 11. Like the other hits, this had a Latin feel to it and was very good if you like that sort of thing. I did actually like all of their hits, but they had already gone as far as they could go with this type of music.

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

Modettes

Paint It Black

I suppose it had to happen didn't it ?
There just had to be a female band calling themselves the Modettes release a single in 1980. Ok I suppose, but I'd already heard the original version by the Stones. It reached number 42, and they were still looking for their first top forty hit a year later.

John Otway & Wild Willy Barrett

D.K. 50-80

I don't know what it was all about, but I found it quite appealing. Always reminded me of something else, but I don't remember what it was now. It reached number 45.

Whitesnake

Ready And Willing

Great when played live, and not bad otherwise. It reached number 43.

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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BACK TO THE 1980 INDEX
THE REMEMBER WHEN ARCHIVES
GOLDEN DAYS INDEX

Email: nige@innotts.co.uk

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