REMEMBER WHEN - 16TH JANUARY 1982

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1982
Week 3
WEEK ENDING 16TH JANUARY 1982

TOP 40 SINGLES

TW	.......	LW	.......		.......
1		2		Bucks Fizz		Land Of Make Believe
2		1		Human League		Don't You Want Me
3		7		Kool And The Gang		Get Down On It
4		8		Dollar		Mirror Mirror
5		3		Adam And The Ants		Ant Rap
6		5		Abba		One Of Us
7		10		Altered Images		I Could Be Happy
8		9		Jon & Vangelis		I'll Find My Way Home
9		4		Madness		It Must Be Love
10		21		Kraftwerk		The Model / Computer Love
11		12		Foreigner		Waiting For A Girl Like You
12		6		Cliff Richard		Daddy's Home
13		NEW		Shakin' Stevens		Oh Julie
14		14		Rod Stewart		Young Turks
15		13		Status Quo		Rock 'N' Roll
16		16		Duran Duran		My Own Way
17		11		Godley And Creme		Wedding Bells
18		15		Police		Spirits In The Material World
19		NEW		Human League		Being Boiled
20		31		Brown Sauce		I Wanna Be A Winner
21		17		Tweets		Birdie Song
22		25		Phil Lynott		Yellow Pearl
23		26		Four Tops		Don't Walk Away
24		27		Chas & Dave		Stars Over 45
25		NEW		Stranglers		Golden Brown
26		30		Meat Loaf		Dead Ringer For Love
27		NEW		Christopher Cross		Arthur's Theme (The Best That You Can Do)
28		23		Snowmen		Hokey Cokey
29		28		David Bowie		Wild Is The Wind
30		NEW		Mobiles		Drowning In Berlin
31		18		Imagination		Flashback
32		22		Soft Cell		Bedsitter
33		NEW		Alton Edwards		I Just Wanna (Spend Some Time With You)
34		20		Diana Ross		Why Do Fools Fall In Love
35		34		Julio Iglesias		Begin The Beguine
36		NEW		Shakatak		Easier Said Than Done
37		32		Earth Wind And Fire		Let's Groove
38		NEW		E.L.O.		Here Is The News / Ticket To The Moon
39		19		Kim Wilde		Cambodia
40		24		Toyah		Four More From Toyah

Bucks Fizz

Land Of Make Believe

Yes it was a low new entry at 35, but I knew that this was going to be big. It was number five over Christmas, and had made it to the top by the middle of January, spending two weeks there. Good single, deserved it's success.

Human League

Don't You Want Me

Funny that the fourth single to be lifted from an album was the most successful, it spent five weeks at number one. Also, I didn't think that this sounded as 'modern' as their previous hits. I'd even go so far as to say that this had a Seventies feel about it. Then again, I've never been convinced that the Eighties happened as far as music is concerned. The Seventies seemed to carry over until around the end of '79, then the Nineties began. You're probably confused, but at least I know what I mean (honest).

Kool And The Gang

Get Down On It

Another Kool And The Gang single that hardly impressed me. The vocals were good (as usual), but the song didn't do it for me. It became their biggest hit to date by reaching number three.

Dollar

Mirror Mirror

Good single, but I didn't rate it as highly as "Hand Held In Black And White". In fact I was quite surprised when it peaked at number four in the middle of January.

Adam & The Ants

Ant Rap

Some were disappointed with us, but I liked it. In fact I liked it much more than his recent four week number one "Prince Charming". It came in a strange picture sleeve where bits pulled away like an advent calendar. It also had a highly entertaining video starring Lulu and Mary Stavin. It also ended with the rat tat with a drum that began "Ant Music". After debuting at number nine, it eventually peaked at number three in it's fifth week. It was the last new single by Adam & The Ants.

Abba

One Of Us

As one reviewer commented at the time, it sounds as though Benny & Bjorn have been listening to Two Tone. Good job they made of it though, one of Abba's best songs lyrically. It spent three weeks at number three, and marked the occasion of their very 19th and last top twenty hit (save re-issues).

Altered Images

I Could Be Happy

Well I was when I listened to this. Not quite as good as "Happy Birthday", but damn good anyway. Full of nonsensical lyrics about being in a tree and going on holiday, but that's why it still sounds good today. A reminder that music doesn't have to be serious, political or suicide invoking, it can also be full of fun. It should have shot straight to number one for Christmas. Instead, it reached number seven in January.

Jon & Vangelis

I'll Find My Way Home

'The Friends Of Mr Cairo' was the name of the album, and this was the outstanding track on it (ok, there was another one, but I won't go into that now). The music had a kind of 'nice' quality about it, and the vocals, well, they wouldn't have sounded right had they been by someone with a deep voice. All in all, a perfect single. It gave them a number six hit.

Madness

It Must Be Love

The Ninth successive top ten hit for Madness was a cover version of Labi Siffre's 1971 number 14 hit. They even persuaded Labi to appear in the video. Unfortunately, TOTP refused to play the video on account of it featuring members of the band playing electric guitars in a swimming pool. Apparently, it may have influenced children so much that they may have taken to swimming with a toaster or something. It reached number four this time around, and then number six ten years later.

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.

Foreigner

Waiting For A Girl Like You

Another late in the year release that seemed to be around forever in the early months of 1982. They'd been having minor hits for over three years, never rising above number 24. That number 24 peak was achieved by their first classic "Cold As Ice". Here was their second. In the States, this spent ten weeks at number two. It didn't do quite as well over here, peaking at number eight, but it's parent album 'Foreigner 4' sold by the bucketload.

Cliff Richard

Daddy's Home

This single had flopped when recorded by 'Jermaine Jackson' in 1973, just as it had when recorded by 'Shep And The Limelites' 12 years before that (though both hit the US top ten). So it hardly had the pedigree to become a hit by Cliff or anyone else. But it was an enormous hit that was only kept from the top by the 'Human League' during it's four week stay at number two.

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.

Rod Stewart

Young Turks

Rod certainly was back in form, this made it two great singles entering the chart in eight weeks. I didn't think that it was quite as good as "Tonight I'm Yours", but it was thereabouts. It peaked at number 11 in only it's second week, but it held on to chart status for a total of eight weeks.

Status Quo

Rock 'N' Roll

This was a strange state of affairs. Over a year previous, the Quo had released "What You're Proposing" followed by "Lies", both from the "Just Supposin' " album. They had since released another album "Never Too Late" and it's offspring single "Something 'Bout You Baby I Like". But now, they had lifted another single from the one year old album "Just Supposin' ". It was a good choice though, this was the best Status Quo single for some time and peaked at number eight.

Duran Duran

My Own Way

The Fourth hit of the year for Duran Duran wasn't as instantly appealing as the previous three, and could only climb as high as number 14. They needn't have worried though, as they were about to have ten consecutive top ten hits and become one of the top bands of the decade. A different version of this track appeared on their album 'Rio', but it was inferior to the single version.

Godley And Creme

Wedding Bells

Kevin Godley and Lol Creme had left '10CC' in 1976 and as well as pursuing a not too successful recording career, had a parallel career as very successful video directors. In September of 1981 they had a shock number three hit with "Under Your Thumb", and it was that much of a shock that they had ironically not produced a video for it. This time around they had a video, and it helped the song to number seven during a nine week chart run.

Police

Spirits In The Material World

Very iffy single by the Police who seemed to be releasing singles very quickly in the last few months of 1981. Their reputation was so high that I expected it to at least creep into the top ten, but it failed to do so. It peaked at number 12 in Christmas week. The prompt releasing of new singles as the previous ones began to falter meant that the Police were in the top 40 continously from September 22nd 1981 until26th January, 18 weeks.

Human League

Being Boiled

Eight months since they'd made their commercial breakthrough, and the league had turned into a synth bersion of Abba. But before the girls had joined the band, they had a totally different sound about them. It could have been viewed as a very adventerous sound, but much as I've tried to like it, most of it comes across as pretentious claptrap. There were a few exceptions though, and both sides of this single came into that category. "Being Boiled" is better than any track on the 'Dare' album and I find it very surprising that it hadn't been a hit in the first place. The B Side "Circus Of Death" was even better, and could very easily have been stretched into a concept album. All round, it was one of the best singles of 1982, it reached number six.

Brown Sauce

I Wanna Be A Winner

This was Noel Edmonds, Maggie Philbin and Keith Chegwin from Multi Coloured Swapshop. A fun single about winning awards that couldn't really fail to become a hit. The video was quite amusing in places, particularly the part where Noel did his take on pretentious synth wizards. It peaked at number 15 at the end of January.

Tweets

Birdie Song

If you know someone who bought the 1997 hit "Tubthumping" by 'Chumbawamba', look at their parents (or maybe their older brother/sister). You are now looking at someone who probably bought this single, helping it to spend two weeks at number two and a total of twenty weeks in the top 40. They probably spent their Summer holiday in Spain that year and did the stupid dance to this record every night of their holiday. They probably woke up every morning and spent time practicing the said dance, so that they would be sure of getting it right that evening. They probably spent the following six months forcing people to view their holiday snaps. They probably got nowhere in life.

Phil Lynott

Yellow Pearl

Funny how both new entries in the first chart of the year had been around for quite a few months before belatedly making an impact. This one had only made number 56 the previous March, but after TOTP began using it as the theme to the show, it finally became a 'real' hit. Very different from what we normally expected from Phil, this was a collaboration with Midge Ure and vocals were scarce. It reached number 14.

Four Tops

Don't Walk Away

The best single that the Four Tops had released since the classic "Reach Out I'll Be There" back in 1966. This slowly climbed until peaking at number 16 in it's sixth week.

Chas And Dave

Stars Over 45

I'm glad that I'm not a real record reviewer. If I was, then I would have to listen to this again. It was a medley of songs from the 40s and beyond and peaked at number 21. It ended with quite a long segment that went "Oh What A Rotten Song" over and over again. I don't really need to add further comments.

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.

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.

Snowmen

Hokey Cokey

I don't think that this lot ever came out and revealed who they really were. The popular theory at the time was that it was Ian Dury handling the vocals. I still think that's a good bet (or maybe Jona Lewie). Not a brilliant single, but neither was it as irritating as it should have been.
On New Years Eve, I let a friend stay at our place with his girlfriend and use my Dad's bed. I also let a few other friends stay and we all watched my 'Music Videos' and listened to the radio until the last of us fell asleep in the living room. Sometime during the night (3am or something), "Hokey Cokey" came on the radio. So I picked up my portable radio, tuned it in to the station playing the song, we all crept up to the bedroom door, and turned up the volume at the same time as throwing the door open. Two people were not amused :-)

David Bowie

Wild Is The Wind

Not a very good single. It was originally on David's mediocre 1976 album "Station To Station", and was now also on his 'Changestwobowie' compilation. It struggled to number 24.

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.

Imagination

Flashback

Many bands release uptempo tracks as their first two singles followed by a slow smoochy song for the third. Imagination did things the opposite way around. After having hits with "Body Talk" and "In And Out Of Love", they ventured into disco territory for their third hit. It reached number 16 and spent 10 weeks inside the 40.

Soft Cell

Bedsitter

The follow up to the best selling single of the year and a worthy successor it was (better in my opinion). It only attained a week at number four, but managed an eleven week run in the top 40.

Alton Edwards

I Just Wanna (Spend Some Time With You)

Disco single that just seemed to go on without getting anywhere. I don't even remember hearing this being played in clubs at the time. It reached number twenty.

Diana Ross

Why Do Fools Fall In Love

The 1980-82 period was a good one for Diana. The preceding four years had not produced a top twenty single for her, but suddenly she never seemed to be away from the chart. This was her first single on 'Capitol Records' having just left 'Motown', and in reaching number four became the third highest charting single of her solo career. It was of course a cover of the 'Frankie Lymon And The Teenagers' number one from 1956 that had also been a hit for Alma Cogan. In the US chart it peaked at number seven.

Julio Iglesias

Begin The Beguine

At the time this entered the chart I was shocked to hear that Julio was CBS-Columbia Records' biggest selling artist in the World at that time (I'd never heard of the bloke !). After hearing it a few times, this single grew on me and I think it was yet another fully deserved number one single (whatever it all meant). Julio's success in the singles chart then tapered off with just the odd hit here and there, but I believe he still sells a colossal amount of albums now.
I don't like his son's music much though.

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.

Earth Wind And Fire

Let's Groove

Ironic that the biggest hit in the career of Earth Wind And Fire should also be their last major hit. It even looked as though it was going to make number one at one point. But Julio and Queen/Bowie kept it at bay the following week and it then started it's chart decline. It peaked at number three on both sides of the Atlantic.

E.L.O.

Here Is The News / Ticket To The Moon

Two for the price of one from the 'Time' album. Just like the previous "Twilight" single, both of these tracks did sound better when listened to on the album. Myself, I liked both because I was a fan. But I don't think they would have done anything for anyone indifferent to E.L.O. It reached number 24.

Kim Wilde

Cambodia

Kim's fourth hit of the year and, for me at least, her best so far. It boasted a promo where Kim had snakes crawling over her in a jungle and reached number 12.

Toyah

Four More From Toyah

After three good top ten hits Toyah came up with this single, with the featured track being the poor "Good Morning Universe". It rose to number 14 the week after entering at 23, but climbed no higher. As it transpired it was also Toyah's last top twenty hit, and she is now a presenter on 'VH1' as well as being a regular guest on Quiz shows. She also presents a sex guide show.

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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