REMEMBER WHEN - 24th JANUARY 1981

1981
Week 4
WEEK ENDING 24th JANUARY 1981
TOP 40 SINGLES

No.	LW
1	1	John Lennon	Imagine
2	2	Adam And The Ants	Ant Music
3	NEW	John Lennon	Woman
4	36	Phil Collins	In The Air Tonight
5	4	Specials	Do Nothing
6	14	The Look	I Am The Beat
7	7	Beat	Too Nice To Talk To
8	19	Yarborough And Peoples	Don't Stop The Music
9	3	John Lennon (etc)	Happy Christmas (War Is Over)
10	10	Queen	Flash
11	23	Adam And The Ants	Young Parisians
12	17	Stevie Wonder	I Ain't Gonna Stand For It
13	18	Racey	Runaround Sue
14	NEW	Blondie	Rapture
15	5	John Lennon	(Just Like) Starting Over
16	NEW	Ultravox	Vienna
17	12	Nolans	Who's Gonna Rock You
18	8	Chas And Dave	Rabbit
19	6	Jona Lewie	Stop The Cavalry
20	25	David Bowie	Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)
21	15	Matchbox	Over The Rainbow - You Belong To Me
22	29	Bad Manners	Lorraine
23	33	Visage	Fade To Grey
24	9	Police	De Do Do Do De Da Da Da
25	NEW	Dire Straits	Romeo And Juliet
26	11	Status Quo	Lies / Don't Drive My Car
27	NEW	Diana Ross	It's My Turn
28	13	Madness	Embarrassment
29	NEW	Heatwave	Gangsters Of The Groove
30	31	Gap Band	Burn Rubber On Me
31	20	Gary Numan	This Wreckage
32	24	Barry Manilow	Lonely Together
33	NEW	Cliff Richard	A Little In Love
34	27	Mac Davies	Hard To Be Humble
35	16	Stray Cats	Runaway Boys
36	NEW	Susan Fassbender	Twilight Cafe
37	21	Neil Diamond	Love On The Rocks
38	NEW	Madness	The Return Of The Los Palmas Seven
39	39	James Brown	Rapp Payback
40	NEW	Light Of The World	I Shot The Sheriff

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

Woman

This is the one that completed John Lennon's record breaking hat trick of number ones. In fact, he knocked his own single ("Imagine") off the top with it and spent two weeks on top. This is the one that John and Yoko nicknamed 'The Beatles track' while recording the 'Double Fantasy' album. I thought that it resembled a 'Bee Gees track' more myself. This was also available as a cassette single, and I bought that version just for the hell of it. I don't think that many other's bought that version, and I feel quite comfortable with myself that I did not contribute to the popularity of the cassette single, as that didn't happen until quite a few years later.

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".

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.

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.

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*

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Blondie

Rapture

One of the most over-rated songs ever spent two weeks at number five. I do sort of like it, but don't think it's that brilliant, that's all. Neither do I agree that it had a massive influence on rap music. The only real influence I can see is the fact that Grandmaster Flash sampled it on "Grandmaster Flash's Adventures On The Wheels Of Steel".

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.

Ultravox

Vienna

One of the best singles to make number two ever. It spent four weeks at number two, three of those it was held off the top by a song that many would consider one of the worst number one's ever, "Shaddap You Face" by Joe Dolce. Some consider the video promo to be something special too, but it means nothing to me ;-)

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Dire Straits

Romeo And Juliet

When Dire Straits were bad, they were really bad. But when they were good, they were excellent and this was one of those occasions. Not only that, but Side One of their 'Making Movies' album is one of the best sides of vinyl ever to see the light of day. I remember hearing someone comment on how this sounded like Bob Dylan, but I could never really hear the likeness myself, Mark Knopfler is a much better singer. This peaked at number eight and still gets regular airplay today.

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.

Diana Ross

It's My Turn

A change of pace for Diana after the 'Chic' produced trio of hits. A nice ballad this time that couldn't fail to hti the top twenty. Many who remember it will no doubt be surprised to learn that it only reached number 16.

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.

Heatwave

Gangsters Of The Groove

A comeback for Heatwave after two years away from the top 40. This was an average dance track and the British public got it just about right by deciding that it should peak at number 19.

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.

Gary Numan

This Wreckage

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

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 !

Cliff Richard

A Little In Love

A reasonable enough single from Cliff, even if it did resemble a few of his other recent singles. It peaked at number 15.

Mac Davies

Hard To Be Humble

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

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.

Susan Fassbender

Twilight Cafe

Great single just right for the time. Well, it would be just right for now too I suppose, I don't really get that expression "It sounds dated". Of course it's dated, it's two decades old. A single that came out a year ago is dated (by a year). Whenever I hear a song being described as dated, it usually means that it was a great song at the time, and much better than anything current, they just can't make music that good anymore.
"Twilight Cafe" was Susan's only hit peaking at number 21. This was despite trying to move up market with "The Outer Bistro" and "Restaurant Of The Unexpected".

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.

Madness

The Return Of The Los Palmas Seven

I knew all the words to this (Waiter). It was one of those tunes that you were sure you'd heard before, yet they claimed to have composed it themselves. Anyway, there were seven members in the band, it was their seventh hit single and it peaked at number seven. And how many weeks was it in the top 40 ?
Nine of course !

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".

Light Of The World

I Shot The Sheriff

This British funk band were tipped for really big things, but despite some good singles, never climbed higher than number 35 in the chart. This was one of only two to make the top 40, but only just, it only had this one week in the chart. It is indeed the song you know, but done quite differently.
Now if I remember correctly, the horn section of this band were Beggar & Co. who as well as having a couple of hits on their own, also played on Spandau Ballet's "Chant Number One".

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

UFO

Lonely Heart

I do not remember this at all. If I did there'd be a 50/50 chance that I'd like it. It reached number 41.

Steve Winwood

While You See A Chance

Great single, and if you know it, I bet you're surprised that it didn't make the top 40 aren't you ?
This was despite extensive play on Radio One, and it was even used as background music in a sketch on 'Not The Nine 'O Clock News'. It peaked at number 45 and I bought the album.

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