REMEMBER WHEN - 6TH MARCH 1982

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1982
Week 10
WEEK ENDING 6TH MARCH 1982

TOP 40 SINGLES

TW	.......	LW	.......		.......
1		2		Tight Fit		The Lion Sleeps Tonight
2		11		Toni Basil		Mickey
3		1		Jam		A Town Called Malice / Precious
4		4		Haircut 100		Love Plus One
5		3		J. Geils Band		Centrefold
6		9		Fun Boy Three & Bananarama		Tain't What You Do It's The Way That You Do It
7		5		Soft Cell		Say Hello Wave Goodbye
8		10		Depeche Mode		See You
9		6		Stranglers		Golden Brown
10		7		O.M.D.		Maid Of Orleans (The Waltz Joan Of Arc)
11		19		Iron Maiden		Run To The Hills
12		8		Daryl Hall & John Oates		I Can't Go For That (No Can Do)
13		20		Adam And The Ants		Deutscher Girls
14		28		Madness		Cardiac Arrest
15		NEW		ABC		Poison Arrow
16		23		Bow Wow Wow		Go Wild In The Country
17		18		George Benson		Never Give Up On A Good Thing
18		22		Adrian Gurvitz		Classic
19		16		XTC		Senses Working Overtime
20		29		Starsound		Stars On Stevie
21		15		Meat Loaf		Dead Ringer For Love
22		12		Christopher Cross		Arthur's Theme (The Best That You Can Do)
23		30		Robert Palmer		Some Guys Have All The Luck
24		17		Elkie Brooks		Fool If You Think It's Over
25		35		Kraftwerk		Showroom Dummies
26		RE		Jets		Love Makes The World Go Round
27		13		Kraftwerk		The Model / Computer Love
28		25		Mike Post & Larry Carlton		Theme From 'Hill Street Blues'
29		14		Shakin' Stevens		Oh Julie
30		34		Abba		Head Over Heels
31		36		D-Train		You're The One For Me
32		33		UB40		I Won't Close My Eyes
33		27		Olivia Newton John		Landslide
34		21		AC/DC		Let's Get It Up
35		NEW		Gary Numan		Music For Chameleons
36		24		Mobiles		Drowning In Berlin
37		26		Shakatak		Easier Said Than Done
38		NEW		Associates		Party Fears Two
39		NEW		Goombay Dance Band		Seven Tears
40		NEW		Imagination		Just An Illusion

Tight Fit

The Lion Sleeps Tonight

I thought that we'd seen the last of these after their two medleys of Sixties hits had charted the previous year. But now they were back with a whole song, a song that had reached number 11 for the Tokens in 1961, number 34 for for Dave Newman in 1972, and a bigger number four hit for Karl Denver in 1962 under it's other title "Wimoweh". But this version was even bigger, it unbelievably spent three weeks at number one for Steve Grant and two scantily clad women. Scantily clad women or not, Steve appreciated the more mature woman and took up with Eartha Kitt.

Toni Basil

Mickey

Previously recorded by Racey on their album "Smash And Grab", this was a big number two hit for Toni. Much was made of the fact that Toni had taught David Bowie to dance, and also that Toni released a video of her album with promos having been made of all the tracks. It was shown on TV very quickly, but stopped a long way short of being thoroughly entertaining. The only other song I can remember is the track "Nobody", a much better song than "Mickey" but a failure as a single.
The 'Lolly' woman took this to number four in 1999.

Jam

A Town Called Malice / Precious

This did shock me. After the two very disappointing singles they released the previous year, the last thing I expected was for the Jam to enter the chart at number one with their first release of 1982. "A Town Called Malice" was nowhere near as good as 1980's "Going Underground" and what had come before it, But it was 'almost' worthy of it's number one position anyway. The other track must have helped to keep it there for three weeks. "Precious" introduced a dance element to the Jam's music, and was a much better track in my opinion. One historic week, they performed both tracks on Top Of The Pops.
The 1993 re-issue reached number 73.

Haircut 100

Love Plus One

This I did like, and still do. I'd rather not see them performing it, just listening can raise happiness levels very nicely thank you. It was their second and biggest hit peaking at number three, though it did falter a little on the way. After entering at number 36, it didn't move the folowing week, then shot up to number 12, up one to 11, two weeks at number four before peaking in it's seventh week.

J. Geils Band

Centrefold

Not bad, but the video wasn't as sexy as they thought it to be. It reached number three.
Now, if those young women had been dressed as St. Trinians schoolgirls instead of American schoolgirls, then that would have been a different matter.

Fun Boy Three & Bananarama

Tain't What You Do It's The Way That You Do It

Fun Boy Three's second single and our introduction to Bananarama. Good catchy single that didn't seem to suffer from the chart disturbances as it shot up to a number four peak.

Soft Cell

Say Hello Wave Goodbye

Different tempo to the first two, but another good single. Strange that the object of Marc's affection seemed to be a woman all things considered. It reached number three.
The very unexciting David Gray covered this in 2001.

Depeche Mode

See You

Slightly different, a cleaner sound than their previous two, looked as though they may survive without Vince Clark after all. Sure enough, it became their highest charting single to date when it reached number six. They only bettered that position three times in the remainder of the 20th Century, but at least they did survive into the 2000s.

Stranglers

Golden Brown

Change of sound from the Stranglers, but was it really OK for the Stranglers to release singles that my Dad liked ?
There was in fact a sinister underlying side to this. The song was about heroin, but no one said anything at the time, and the BBC completely missed it (as did the rest of it). Had they known, this wouldn't have had a cat in hells chance of ever getting airplay. But it became the Stranglers' biggest ever hit spending two weeks at number two.

O.M.D.

Maid Of Orleans (The Waltz Joan Of Arc)

THIS is the one that went "Joan Of Arc had a heart", not that other one, you know, th one that was actually called "Joan Of Arc". It was the third of a trio of excellent singles form the "Architecture And Morality" album, and it peaked at number four.

Iron Maiden

Run To The Hills

At last, I liked an Iron Maiden single. This was the first of four successive singles that I liked by them. It was also their first top ten hit and reached number seven. Their second top ten hit didn't come until 1988.

Daryl Hall And John Oates

I Can't Go For That (No Can Do)

Over five years after they'd first entered the lower reaches of the UK chart, and they finally achieved a 'real' hit with this one. As far as I'm concerned, it's nowhere near Hall & Oates at their best, but I like it anyway. It reached number eight.

Adam And The Ants

Deutscher Girls

Somwhere there will be someone telling all who will listen, all about the days when he used to run a record company. The record company in question (EGO records) had the distinction of releasing the last ever Adam & The Ants single to make the top Forty. This one seemed to be from the "Young Parisians" era, wasn't bad at all, but there is no way it would have charted for an unknown. It reached number 13.

Madness

Cardiac Arrest

Madness suffered a major setback due to the chart compiling cock up that was present for the first few months of 1982. After entering at number 26, the extremely entertaining video was shown on TOTP, but the single then dropped to number 28. It climbed to number 14 the following week, dropped to 15 and then back to 14. Had the charts been running properly, it would undoubtedly been their tenth successive top ten hit, and their final total would have been 16 in a row.

ABC

Poison Arrow

When ABC had their debut hit with "Tears Are Not Enough", I thought that they were going to be one of those bands to release a few singles that don't appeal to me, and then disappear. But no, this follow did appeal to me, very much so. ABC became the perfect pop group of 1982. If you didn't like any of their three top ten singles, then good morning Mr Hangman.
This one came complete with a glossy video and reached number six.

Bow Wow Wow

Go Wild In The Country

This is where the law of averages worked out. After all those plant pot contenders, they finally released a single that wasn't half bad. Still not sure about her hair with the mohican though, or the line "Where snakes in the grass are absolutely free".
It was their biggest ever hit, reaching number seven.
Oh yeah, Annabella Lewin was naked in the pic on the sleeve in a pastiche of a painting by Manet titled "Dejeuner Sur L'herbe. But as Annabella (Myant Myant Aye) hadn't quite reached her 16th birthday, it is possibly a criminal offence to have that sleeve in your possession, and you MUST NOT scan it if you intend taking your PC to PC World for repair (at anytime in your life).

George Benson

Never Give Up On A Good Thing

One of his better ones I suppose, but not too remarkable. It reached number 14.

Adrian Gurvitz

Classic

Adrian had recorded with Ginger Baker in the 'Baker Gurvitz Army', and had also released a good single called "The Way I Feel". But now he was giving us this,
"Gonna write a classic,
Gonna write it in an attic,
Babe I'm an addict
An adict for your love"
An awful song that reached number eight.

BUT, as this had only just dropped out of the chart on the occasion of my 20th birthday, it was still quite a popular choice for last dance at discos. For some reason, the Legion had started having discos on Sundays recently. That was good because my birthday was on a Sunday that year. The two Happy Birthdays were played for me (Altered Images & Stevie Wonder), and I had last dance with a young lady (who shall remain nameless), a smooch outside, and got to walk her home. Quite a successful birthday really.

XTC

Senses Working Overtime

They'd been gaining momentum for a couple of years and finally reached a commercial peak with this single. It just scraped into the top ten at the anchor position to give them their highest charting single ever. Surprisingly, it was to be ten years before they entered the top forty again, and that was with the number 33 peaking "The Disappointed". I bet they were !

Starsound

Stars On Stevie

Even I wasn't very keen on this one. It was Starsound's fourth and final hit, a medley of Stevie Wonder songs that reached number 14. I think that they released a Rolling Stones titled "The Greatest Rock & Roll Band In The World" afterwards, but it failed to chart. The medley era was almost over.

Meat Loaf

Dead Ringer For Love

Meat Loaf had little success in the singles chart before this was released. We all know about the huge success of the 'Bat Out Of Hell' album. His follow up was supposed to be 'Bad For Good', but he lost his voice and Jim Steinman recorded that instead. Then Jim came up with a new (not quite as good) set of songs and Meat recorded the 'Dead Ringer' album. A few weeks after the album release, the first track to be lifted as a single was "I'm Gonna Love Her For Both Of Us". I wasn't convinced of it's pedigree, neither were the public, it only reached number 62. Then, come November, Tiswas showed a short clip of Meat Loaf and Cher performing this one. I was surprised because I'd not previously read anywhere that it was to be released.
So, it entered the chart in the first week of December at 36, but didn't move the following week. Two weeks after that, it had only got as far as number 30 for Christmas, and after seven weeks in the forty, it stood at number 26. Then came the the big climb to number seven, followed by a drop to nine and another climb to five in it's tenth week on the chart. It eventually dropped out in the middle of March after 14 weeks in the forty.
Incidentally, the drop from 7-9 followed by the climb to 5 can be attributed to a change in the sample period used by BMRB in compiling the chart. They began using the period Saturday-Friday, instead of Monday-Saturday. This meant that most of the sales generated by TOTP appearances did not figure until the chart two weeks later. Many singles had strange chart movements in early 1982 because of this. BMRB soon reverted back to the old way of doing things, but lost the chart contract to Gallup at the end of the year after 14 years of compiling it.

Christopher Cross

Arthur's Theme (The Best That You Can Do)

Chris Cross (also the name of a member of Ultravox) had enjoyed massive stateside hits with "Sailing" and "Ride Like The Wind", but we hadn't been interested. The parent album didn't do that well over here and none of knew anyone who owned a copy. It would be five years or so before you noticed a copy in someone's collection with a "Sale- 99p" sticker still attached. Even this single had failed to make the top 40 when originally released in October 1981, settling for a number 56 peak.
Now, it had re-entered following the release of the film "Arthur" starring 'Dudley Moore' and 'Liza Minelli'. It gave the Mike Batt lookalike his only major hit and attained a number seven peak.

Robert Palmer

Some Guys Have All The Luck

Well, I suppose that it was about time Robert had a major hit. I think that he'd already done much better then this track on numerous occasions, but this was the one. and it reached number 15.
It could be said that it already sounded like a Rod Stewart track, and sure enough, two years later Rod went one place higher with his version.
Three years after that, Maxi Priest had an even bigger hit with it in reaching number 12.

Elkie Brooks

Fool If You Think It's Over

Chris Rea was still virtually unknown in the UK despite having a minor (#30) hit with his original bersion of this in the Autumn of 1978. Elkie on the other hand, had plodded along with a few semi-major hits between 1977-1978 before seemingly running out of steam. So it was a little surprising to see her back in the top 40 amongst the Synth and New Romantic boys. Due to the crazy nature of the chart at that time, she entered at number 30, dropped out of the top 40, and then re-entered at number 29. She followed that with a couple of climbs to peak at number 17.
It was almost five years before she next bettered that position, but the single in question "No More The Fool", gave her her biggest ever hit with a number five peak.

Kraftwerk

Showroom Dummies

More like "Computer Love" than "The Model" and not very good at all. It reached number 25.

Jets

Love Makes The World Go Round

Unbearable. Entered at 28, dropped out of the 40 (Hurrah !), Re-entered at 26 (Groan), climbed to 21 (winge), and then spent it's final two weeks falling (Ah, sanity prevails). But why did they have to do it ?

Kraftwerk

The Model / Computer Love

"Computer Love" droned on a bit and was a huge disappointment to me. But "The Model" was something else. Unfortunately, the DJs seemed to prefer playing "Computer Love" at the time of it's original release in July 1981, so it faltered at number 36.
Now Five months or so later, someone had picked up on "The Model" and the single re-entered the chart, eventually spending a week at number one in February 1982.

Mike Post & Larry Carlton

Theme From 'Hill Street Blues'

Quite a nice piece of music, but it's biggest fault was that it sounded like exactly what it was, a TV theme. It reached number 25.

Shakin' Stevens

Oh Julie

His worst yet. It took just three weeks to reach the top, but thankfully only spent one week there (we have the chart cock ups of the time to partly thank for that small mercy). One piece of good news for the Shaky haters is that it would be almost four years before he stood at number one again.

Abba

Head Over Heels

Abba's best single since, since, well, since the one before it anyway. An unusually low entry position of number 34 for this one. After all, Abba were still big two months ago, so it wasn't as if they'd fallen out of favour or anything like that. But that's exactly what was happening. It took three further weeks to reach a peak of number 25 (a position they would never again rise above with a new song) and then disappeared forever.

D-Train

You're The One For Me

A great dance track, though I don't remember actually seeing anyone getting up to dance when it was played at the Legion, Wynnstay, or Community Centre discos. It peaked at it's number 30 debut position.
Paul Hardcastle later informed the world that it was his favourite single ever, and he remixed it in 1985 and it reached number 15. Paul looked very pleased with himself when he appeared on TOTP with them.

UB40

I Won't Close My Eyes

Very poor single compared to "One In Ten" and their 1980 efforts. Peaked at number 32.

Olivia Newton John

Landslide

I hadn't been too impressed with "Physical", but this was much better. In reaching number 18, it became Olivia's final top forty hit as a solo act. Her only later hits were re-issues and mega mixes of her previous duets with John Travolta, and a 1995 duet with Cliff Richard.

AC/DC

Let's Get It Up

Oh, innuendo in the title, how clever !
I don't usually have a problem with AC/DC. They did some good stuff when Bon Scott was handling the vocals, but they made some music that was just as good with Brian Johnson. But this was the start of a short period when I couldn't seem to get into anything that they released. It was unusual that this single debuted on the chart at such a high position as number 14. They were not exactly prolific when it came to reaching the upper chart positions, they have never reached the top ten in over two decades of releases. It didn't go much higher though, only one more place actually.

Gary Numan

Music For Chameleons

After a few disappointing singles, here was a vast improvement from Gary. The trouble is, he followed it with two that seemed to be deliberately trying to sound like this, but were nowhere near as good. This only reached number 19 though.

Mobiles

Drowning In Berlin

This was a good one. A little like Toyah in places, but it also had that unusual section that sounded as though it came from the film "Cabaret". The video still gets shown on VH1 from time to time and it still sounds good today. It reached number nine and was their only top forty hit.

Shakatak

Easier Said Than Done

The Status Quo or Beach Boys of dance music, everything they did sounded more or less the same. But, it was ok to like them even if you didn't normally go for this sort of thing. This was because piano player Bill Sharpe was a mate of John Peel and the girl singers (also known as the UK Sluts) were very pleasing on the eyes, especially Jill Saward. This single followed the pattern of the others, it seemed as though it was going to be a nice jazz-funk instrumental and then just when it seemed too late, the pleasant vocals came in.
I've been thinking, maybe that was the trouble with Shakatak, they were too pleasant. Jill Saward was wasted doing this, she should have been in a raunchy female metal band.

Associates

Party Fears Two

This entered at number 38, in the same week that Goomday Dance Band's "Seven Tears" entered at 39. Few have shown any compassion to "Seven Tears" over the years, yet "Party Fears Two" was no better. The Associates were in the unfortunate position of having a lead vocalist who simply could not sing a note. His vocals suggested that he had severe pains in his stomach (My grandad said something like that when he heard it), and that someone should put him out of his misery. I'm sorry if that sounds cold considering that he is no longer with us, but that's what I felt about it (and still do). I think they should have drafted in that Bobby person from Boney M to handle the vocals because the actual melody was very good. You may think I was a sucker for buying the forthcoming Bucks Fizz single, but let's not forget, "Party Fears Two" reached number nine, so there were bigger suckers than me in the world.

Goombay Dance Band

Seven Tears

I knew that this was a number one the first time I heard it. It's one of those that you just knew was going to appeal to kids, parents, grandparents, even anyone from our generation who hadn't fallen into the trap of only liking (or admitting to liking) what they're supposed to. I fell into the latter category (with brackets). A very catchy song that didn't really need the gimmick with the fire-eating, it displaced "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" to spend three weeks on top.
My Grandad thought that the title of the B Side "Mama Coco" was very amusing !

Imagination

Just An Illusion

Their previous three singles were pretty much ok, if not outstanding. This was their masterpiece, the peak of their career. It gave them a richly deserved number two hit. It also meant that Lee John seemed to be appear on every TV show broadcast for the next couple of years.

In the top 50 this week, but failing to reach the top 40.

Blackfoot

Dry Country (Four From Blackfoot)

I wrongly suspected that this may have been a Blackfoot Sue revival, but it wasn't. It was just one of those songs that could have been by any American West Coast Rock Band. Too much formula rock, too clean, too poncy. Reached number 43.

Rod Stewart

How Long

No real difference between this and the original by Ace. Good song, can't fault the cover except it wasn't worth buying if you already had the original. Poor move by Rod, he should have just stuck it in his live set and left it at that. It reached number 41.

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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Email: nige@innotts.co.uk

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