REMEMBER WHEN - 17th JANUARY 1981

1981
Week 3
WEEK ENDING 17th JANUARY 1981
TOP 40 SINGLES

No.	LW
1	1	John Lennon	Imagine
2	4	Adam And The Ants	Ant Music
3	2	John Lennon (etc)	Happy Christmas (War Is Over)
4	15	Specials	Do Nothing
5	5	John Lennon	(Just Like) Starting Over
6	3	Jona Lewie	Stop The Cavalry
7	20	Beat	Too Nice To Talk To
8	11	Chas And Dave	Rabbit
9	7	Police	De Do Do Do De Da Da Da
10	10	Queen	Flash
11	14	Status Quo	Lies / Don't Drive My Car
12	24	Nolans	Who's Gonna Rock You
13	9	Madness	Embarrassment
14	30	The Look	I Am The Beat
15	18	Matchbox	Over The Rainbow - You Belong To Me
16	12	Stray Cats	Runaway Boys
17	31	Stevie Wonder	I Ain't Gonna Stand For It
18	29	Racey	Runaround Sue
19	35	Yarborough And Peoples	Don't Stop The Music
20	27	Gary Numan	This Wreckage
21	17	Neil Diamond	Love On The Rocks
22	6	St. Winifred's School Choir	There's No One Quite Like Grandma
23	39	Adam And The Ants	Young Parisians
24	21	Barry Manilow	Lonely Together
25	NEW	David Bowie	Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)
26	19	Kenny Rogers	Lady
27	34	Mac Davies	Hard To Be Humble
28	8	Abba	Super Trouper
29	33	Bad Manners	Lorraine
30	13	Boomtown Rats	Banana Republic
31	NEW	Gap Band	Burn Rubber On Me
32	37	Rod Stewart	My Girl
33	NEW	Visage	Fade To Grey
34	NEW	Barbra Streisand & Barry Gibb	Guilty
35	16	Spandau Ballet	To Cut A Long Story Short
36	NEW	Phil Collins	In The Air Tonight
37	22	Barron Knights	Never Mind The Presents
38	23	Eddy Grant	Do You Feel My Love
39	NEW	James Brown	Rapp Payback
40	NEW	Sad Cafe	I'm In Love Again

John Lennon

Imagine

Just under five years after it had left the chart, it was back again. But this was always going to return wasn't it ?
Originally a 1971 album track that had belatedly seen single release and a number six peak in 1975, this is THE classic John Lennon song. This time it got it's deserved number one status and remained there for four weeks before being knocked off by John's "Woman". For the first two weeks of it's stay at the top, John held three of the top five places.
This time around, "Working Class Hero" was replaced as the B Side by "It's So Hard".
"Imagine" returned to the top three at Christmas 1999.

Adam And The Ants

Ant Music

Even before "Dog Eat Dog" had fallen out of the chart, Adam And The Ants entered with this follow up. It was a much catchier single and spent two weeks at number two in January '81 (behind Lennon's "Imagine") as well as sparking 'Antmania' in a big way.

John Lennon

Happy Christmas (War Is Over)

This 1972 number four peaking single had stopped eight places short of the top 40 when re-issued in 1975, and now following the death of John Lennon, re-entered the chart in style by leaping from just outside the top 40 to match that number four peak. Then, in the first new chart of 1981 (announced on January 6th), it climbed to number two. This brings me to the conclusion that had there been a new chart for the week ending January 3rd, then this would have given John another number one, bringing him a total of four different number one singles in 8 weeks. Great single, and it returned the following year.

Specials

Do Nothing

It hardly seemed as though these had been around for five minutes, and yet here they were already enjoying their sixth hit. Like all the others this hit the top ten, in fact it became their second biggest hit so far by reaching number four. I was quite surprised that it was allowed to be played on daytime radio one at the time, due to the lyric "Policeman came and smacked me in the teeth". But it did get through, and six months later policemen were smacking people in the teeth, people were smacking policemen in the teeth and all of that helped the Specials to their biggest ever hit.

John Lennon

(Just Like) Starting Over

"A great loss to music" is a very over used statement. I will not mention any names, but how can this be said about someone who's hardly been on the scene for five minutes ?
Yes, they may have released one good album, but how do we know that any future releases will live up to expectations ?
For example, let's take John Travolta who had four hit singles in 1978. If something tragic had happened to him in early 1979, we may have seen the phrase "A Great Loss To Music" (yes, I know you wouldn't have agreed). But look what happened. He's still alive, yet he didn't have any more hits (save for re-issues), so it wouldn't have been any loss to music would it ?
But when it's said about someone with a long proven track record, yes, they get it spot on. John Lennon is one such person.
During the summer of 1980, a new show called 'Studio B15' began on Radio One on Sunday afternoons. Someone wrote a letter to the show in which he asked what had happened to John Lennon. John had retired five years earlier to spend time with his new born son 'Sean'. Radio One set about finding him and discovered that he had almost completed recording a new album and secured a date for John to be interviewed for the show by Andy Peebles. On the sixth of December, that interview took place.
Meanwhile, this first single from the album had been released and entered the chart at number 30. It had a feel good quality about it and I expected it to be a big hit. Over the weekend of 6th/7th November, I heard three other tracks from the 'Double Fantasy' album, tracks that I liked a lot. So during my lunch break on Monday 8th December, I walked into town and bought the album. At approx 6pm that day I listened to it for the first time, and probably heard it again later that evening. Incidentally, the single had fallen from it's apparent peak of number eight to number the the previous Tuesday.
On December 9th, I got up for work as normal. Didn't put the TV on as there was nothing on in the mornings in those days. I took the five mile journey to work by bus and everything seemed normal. My workmate Laurie and myself were maintaining the shrub beds on the Hermitage estate, and as I remember, It was a dry mild day for the time of year. We didn't have the radio on as the batteries had ran out of power. Around Nine O'Clock he nipped off home for something asking me to say that he's gone to check on his wife as she isn't well if any bosses turn up.
Some 30 minutes later he came back and got back to work. Around ten minutes later he said "Guess who's died ?". I said "Who ?". He said "John Lennon, he's been shot".
I remember smiling a nervous smile (as I sometimes do at being told of a tragedy), and then feeling as though I didn't want to continue the conversation. I thought of one of my best friend's "Chris Squire", who was a really big fan of Lennon (bizzarrely, his first son was born a few hours before the tragedy happened). After a little while, I went to the shop and bought some batteries for the radio. Radio one played his music all day and played snippets from the Andy Peebles interview that had taken place just two days before his death. It was a really sad feeling, not the same kind of sorrow felt whe my grandmother had died four months previous, but the saddest I had felt about the death of someone I didn't know personally. "(Just Like) Starting Over" had now taken on a whole new meaning. No longer was it a 'feel good' song, right from the bell at the beginning to the echoic ending, it was a really sad song. John was starting over in the music business, but it had all ended !
Later that same day, the new chart was announced and the single had fallen to number 21. The following week, Paul Burnett started the new countdown with the words "John Lennon is at number one with "Starting Over" ", before counting down from number 40. It was expected to be the Christmas number one, but was knocked off the top after just one week by a school choir singing about their Grandma (more on this in three weeks time). It still stayed around for a while though. It spent a total of 13 weeks in the top 40, during which time it was joined in the chart by four other Lennon singles. At one point he occupied three places in the top five.
And the long awaited interview ?
It was later broadcast in it's entirety in six weekly parts.
Yes, John was a great loss to music.

Jona Lewie

Stop The Cavalry

This started out as favourite for Christmas number one, and certainly sounded a likely candidate. It did nothing to dispell the bookies choice when it crashed straight into teh chart at number 15 on the second of December. But then 2 things happened, St. Winifred's School Choir and the death of John Lennon. Jona was at number three in his second week and spent five weeks in that position.
Looking at the charts for that period, were it not for the death of John Lennon, this Christmas single would have hit number one in the week ending 10th January 1981 for one week, and would also have spent 3 weeks at number 2.

Beat

Too Nice To Talk To

One year and one week after they made their chart debut with "Tears Of A Clown", the Beat entered the chart with their 5th hit. This returned them to the top ten and a number seven peak. The subject matter is something that most of us can relate to (well, the male of the species anyway). You're in your teens, in a club or somewhere similar. You really fancy this girl you've been watching all night, when you suddenly find yourself (accidentally on purpose) standing next to her at the bar. You want to speak to her, but then that little voice in your head starts nagging at you "She's too pretty, she'll ignore you. She'll tell all your friends that you made a pass at her and they'll laugh. You'll make a fool of yourself". And so, you let the opportunity slip away.
If you can't relate to that, then you're a poseur and the rest of hate you *JK*

Chas And Dave

Rabbit

It makes me wonder how an act that recorded "Strummin' " and (later) "Ain't No Pleasing You" could also be responsible for this trash. "Rabbit" is cockney slang for talking too much. If you ask me, Chas and Dave performed too much. This peaked at number eight.

Police

De Do Do Do De Da Da Da

More silliness from the Police with a really bad choice for single release. Next to this, Black Lace could be taken very seriously. This reached number five.

Queen

Flash

As a Queen fan of long standing, I was quite embarrassed by this single. If the film dialogue had been removed and the singing bits extended, it wouldn't have been a bad single, but another song from the film soundtrack, "The Hero" would have been a better choice of single. This somehow reached number ten. The 1991 remix was much better.

Status Quo

Lies / Don't Drive My Car

"Lies" was run of the mill standard Status Quo material. "Don't Drive My Car" was a much better track, something a little different than what we were used to. It reached number 11.

Nolans

Who's Gonna Rock You

The Nolans capped off a fantastic 1980 by entering with their 4th hit of the year just before the year closed. This was an initial slow climber before peaking at number 12 in it's sixth week. A great track.

Madness

Embarrassment

Not as frantic as "Baggy Trousers", but still a huge hit. This dealt with the Embarrassment of a young unmarried woman getting pregnant, but this wasn't easy to suss out due their usual crazy antics while performing it. It spent 2 weeks at number four and 11 weeks in the chart.

The Look

I Am The Beat

This lot must have really got the poor old 'Beat' confused, they must have been wondering whether they would need to change their name on their UK releases too.
This sounded nothing like the Beat of course, it was a simple pop song, similar to the singles that dominated the chart during the mid '70s. It was quite ordinary really, the only thing that set it apart was the runout groove. For this they employed the Chris Hill technique of actually recording onto it. In this case, it was the word "Beat". They reached number six and had no further hits.

Matchbox

Over The Rainbow - You Belong To Me

Just like the previous hit "When You Ask About Love", this wasn't a bad track either. Put it this way, it was good news that they'd changed direction from the Rockabilly stuff. It was a cover of the Judy Garland song from Wizzard of Oz in a medley with "You Belong to Me" (was it the Jo Stafford song ?). It reached number 15.

Stray Cats

Runaway Boys

More rockabilly revival stuff. This was better than the Showaddywaddy, Matchbox and Shaky's of this world and managed to reach number nine before Christmas.

Stevie Wonder

I Ain't Gonna Stand For It

The second single release from Stevie's last great album. Good track it was too, despite the dodgy lyric about someone pickin' in his cherry tree, diggin' in his cake, rubbin' on his good luck charm, leaving their shoes under his bed !!!!!!----!!!!---Oh right, I get it now. A little risque for the early '80s don't you think, or do I just have a dirty mind ?
It peaked at number 10.

Racey

Runaround Sue

I thought we'd seen the last of these, but they made this one last defiant assault on the chart. It was a cover of the Dion number 11 hit from 1961, and gave Racey a number 13 hit.

Yarborough And Peoples

Don't Stop The Music

A great disco single, and also a good song to listen to, except for one thing. It's those irritating squeeky voices that keep repeating "You Don't Really Wanna Stop". But we do, those voices make us want to take up making plastic plant pots. It went to number seven anyway.

Gary Numan

This Wreckage

Yes it was wasn't it ?
Numanoids helped it to number 20.

Neil Diamond

Love On The Rocks

Great vocal peformance by Neil on this. It was taken from the soundtrack to Neil's film "The Jazz Singer", a remake of the first 'talkie picture'. It wasn't as big a hit as we may have expected and only got to number 17. Neil haad to wait 12 years for his next top 40 entry.

St. Winifred's School Choir

There's No One Quite Like Grandma

This is the single that stopped three consecutive number ones being peformed by John Lennon by reaching number one itself the day before Christmas Eve. Even if you have never heard this, you can imagine exactly what it sounds like, and it would be so easy to condemn. I'm not saying that I liked it myself because I didn't. But, it was what it was, it was supposed to appeal to children and Grandparents, that's exactly what it did. It sold the copies, and much to my disgust deserved it's 2 weeks at number one.

Adam & The Ants

Young Parisians

It was cashing in on Adam & The Ants time, and why not, as this was a much better track than his singles taken from the 'Kings Of The Wild Frontier' album. It spent a couple of weeks at number nine which gave the once mighty Decca label a rare top tenner.

Barry Manilow

Lonely Together

Since his British breakthrough with "Mandy" in 1975, Barry had not found it easy to get a second top 20 hit. This didn't do it for him, but it took nine weeks to reach number 21 and spent a total of 11 weeks in the 40. It was taken from the number five album 'Barry', an album that came into my possession by mistake thanks to Brittania Music Club. It wasn't an album that I would have gone out and bought, but I played it anyway (as you do). I was pleasantly surprised to hear a really good album. It contains a further two hit singles, but the highlight of the album is a duet with Lily Tomlin called "The Last Duet". It's a really comical song and the titles of quite a few recent hits by duos are inserted into the lyrics, but sometimes slightly altered such as "You're not the one that I want Ooh ooh ooh" & "With you I'm bored again".
Yes I've just raved about a Barry Manilow album, I'll be going for a lie down soon !

David Bowie

Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)

This seemed an odd choice of track to be lifted for the third single from the album of the same name. It just didn't sound like a single at all to me, so I wasn't in the least bit surprised that it only reached number 20.

Kenny Rogers

Lady

It wasn't hard to recognise this as a Lionel Richie song, but it was quite obvious that Lionel's nasal tones were missing. They had been replaced by Kenny's rough diamond vocals. Kenny had already had a number one in 1980, but he was unable to go beyond number 12 with one of the best ballads that Lionel ever composed. This was Kenny's last ever solo hit in the UK.

Mac Davies

Hard To Be Humble

Well it shouldn't have been that hard after this effort. It made number 27.

Abba

Super Trouper

The ninth and final number one for Abba. It wasn't the best, but it certainly wasn't the worst either. It spent eight weeks in the top ten including three weeks on top. It's final week in the chart was the week in which it dropped from number 8 to 28.

Bad Manners

Lorraine

The follow up to "Special Brew" sparked a lot of controversy due to the lyric suggesting bad treatment of women. On Top Of The Pops, Buster Bloodvessel dressed up as King Henry The Eighth, and Lorraine was a blow up doll. It didn't reach it's peak of number 21 until it's eighth week.

Boomtown Rats

Banana Republic

The long awaited return of the Rats and it wasn't what we expected. Starting off by fooling us that they were going reggae, it then switched to a smooth sounding song about the problems of Northern Ireland. It looked set to hit the top at one point, but had to settle for number three. It was their last top 20 hit.

Gap Band

Burn Rubber On Me

I always thought that this was a great track and worthy of achieving at least the same level of success as "Oops Upside Your Head". But it appears that rubber is a slow burner and despite seven weeks in the top 40, it could only climb as high as number 22.

Rod Stewart

My Girl

This wasn't a cover of either the Temptations or Madness hits. It was the second single to be lifted from Rod's "Foolish Behavior" album. Not many people liked it and it peaked at number 32. The album's title track and "Better Off Dead" would have brave, but better choices for singles.

Visage

Fade To Grey

Very original track, don't know what the hell it was all about, but that woman speaking a few lines sounded so darn sexy. It had to be a hit. It quickly stormed up the chart to number eight before surprisingly falling to number 13. And then after it clibed back up a place to number 12, something even more surprising happened, Top Of The Pops played the video. This was surprising for two reasons. Firstly, Top Of The Pops had already featured the video once and they had a rule that any video could only be shown once, unless a song is at number one. The exception to this was of course the 10-20 seconds of each video in the current top ten which was being shown each week at the time.
The other reason is that the song had already dropped, so again, Top Of the Pops rules were being broken. Once a single had dropped, it was not supposed to be featured on the show again unless it rose to a new peak position. So the chances are, it was all a major mistake and they didn't realise what they were doing, or was it a bung ?
These days of course, they don't seem to have any rules concerning which songs can be featured on the show. The same can be said about the presenters really, I mean who are these people, what has Gail Porter got to do with music ?
But of course, just as the chart doesn't really matter anymore, neither does what was once the BBC's most watched programme. That's why it is now broadcast at exactly the same time as the only programme that could beat it in the ratings twenty years ago.

Barbra Streisand & Barry Gibb

Guilty

Another duet from Barbra and one that surprisingly only spent this one week in the top 40. It was the title track from her Barry Gibb produced album. Twenty years later, Jamelia covered the track on her "Drama" album.

Spandau Ballet

To Cut A Long Story Short

This was the first of the 'New Romantic' hits apparently. By this I was led to believe that the new romantics were blokes wearing dresses who weren't very good at singing in a band with a silly name. It seemed a high new entry at number 19, but it was charting outside the top 40 the previous week. It went to number five for a week, and Spandau Ballet went on to have a further 16 top 40 hits.

Phil Collins

In The Air Tonight

Once I'd got over the news that the lead singer of Genesis was working with Earth Wind And Fire, I thought that this was a good song. But I didn't expect it to climb up the chart from number 36 to number 4 in it's second week. The swine looked likely to knock John Lennon's "Imagine" off the top, and prevent John's "Woman" from hitting number one. But it didn't happen like that, Phil moved up a place for the next two weeks and stopped short at number two. There really was a big buzz about Phil's "Face Value" album at the time though, especially the thing about the horn section from 'EWF', and the album did make number one. A re-mix of "In The Air Tonight" went to number four in 1988, and the song got a name check on Eminem's 2000 number one "Stan".

Barron Knights

Never Mind The Presents

This time the Barron Knights attacked three songs that had been in the Christmas chart of the year previous. They began with Father Christmas getting so drunk that he drove his sleigh through the wall to the tune of "Another Brick In The Wall". They followed it with a lovely time at the office Christmas party to the tune of "Day Trip To Bangor". And completed festivities with only a poor little fairy to the tune of "The Sparrow". It was released a little too late to have as much impact as their '77 and '78 hits and had to settle for number 17.

Eddy Grant

Do You Feel My Love

I was surprised to see Eddy's name back in the chart. He'd already had one solo hit back in the summer of '79, and it was quite usual for reggae acts to disappear after one hit (unless your name was Marley). But Eddy had come back with something better, and it gave him a number eight hit.

James Brown

Rapp Payback

I don't remember hearing this at the time, and it spent both of it's chart weeks at number 39. I wonder if it's more or less the same as his 1988 number 12 hit "The Payback Mix".

Sad Cafe

I'm In Love Again

This was the last of four top 40 hits for Sad Cafe, but it spent this solitary week inside the top 40. Lead singer 'Paul Young' went on to sing with Mike & The Mechanics until his untimely death in July 2000 of a heart attack aged just 53.

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

Donna Summer

Cold Love

This was Donna Summer turns Rock Chick and she did quite a good job at it. Trouble is, who was going to buy it ?
It reached number 44.

Motels

Dreams Are OK

This was the other near miss by the Motels. Many will remember the number 42 peaking first one "Whose Problem?", as it did receive a lot of airplay. This one didn't get anywhere near as much attention, yet, it did even better by reaching number 41.
Oddly, they only had seven weeks in the top 75 between the two of them.

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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Email: nige@innotts.co.uk