I was obviously too busy getting drunk in June 83 to fully appreciate that the singles chart were particularly shite. Either that or being totally despondent from the results of the General Election that had taken place on 9 June 1983 – the first in which I had been of an age to cast a vote. Thatcher won in a landslide. It was fucking grim.
The chart of 19-26 June makes for equally grim reading. The Police were hanging on at #1 but Rod Stewart, with the atrocious Baby Jane, was poised to take over. The Top 20 was awash with mediocrity – Elton John, Wham!, Michael Jackson, Buck’s Fizz, George Benson, Kajagoogoo and Mike Oldfield among the better known names, while Flash In The Pan, Shalamar and Shakatak were also up there. So too was David Bowie, with his piss-poor cover of an Iggy Pop number, one that had become infamous thanks to a ‘racy’ video in which his bare arse was on display, along with the pubic hair of his Far Eastern dance-partner.
mp3: David Bowie – China Girl (#3)
Further down, likes of ELO, Imagination, Paul Young and Toto all had tunes that were airing regularly across the airwaves and shifting enough units to get mentioned in the Top of The Pops rundown. Thankfully, there was some respite via a hard-hitting anti-war song:-
mp3 : The Imposter – Pills And Soap (#27).
Elvis Costello‘s angry songwriting talents had previously taken Robert Wyatt back into the charts after many years (see last month’s piece). This time round, he penned another rant about the Tories in the forlorn hope that folk might hold a mirror up to Thatcher in the election. But at least he tried. (the song had actually been in the Top 20 a couple of weeks earlier).
Just outside the Top 40 were a couple of songs from much loved acts round these parts:-
mp3: Orange Juice – Flesh Of My Flesh (#41)
mp3: Altered Images – Bring Me Closer (#42)
Neither are among their best 45s.
Further down, just about dropping out of the Top 75 but having peaked at #64 a couple of weeks previously, was another local pop combo
mp3: Aztec Camera – Walk Out To Winter (#73)
A radically different mix than had been included on the album High Land Hard Rain.
And since I’m looking way down for crumbs of comfort in the lower ends of the charts in other weeks during June 1983:-
mp3 : Spear Of Destiny – The Wheel (peaked at #59)
And I’ll finish off with a song that was actually slowly climbing the charts in the last week of June 83, eventually making it to #41 in the middle of the following month.
mp3: Yello – I Love You
This was the first time the electronic group from Switzerland had come to any sort of recognition in the UK, having been on the go since the late 70s.
Come back next month. Things do get a fair bit better.
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 
Hey, don’t knock Shalamar. ‘I Can Make You Feel Good’ was a great piece of disco-funk and the 12-inch single nestles in alphabetical comfort in my record collection in between The Sex Pistols and The Shamen.
PS – To be fair to Bowie, he co-wrote China Girl and deliberately released his version of it because he knew it would make more money for Iggy than anything his friend might release under his own name, however much better it might be.
I quite like the mediocrities on offer from Georgie B and Mickey J. Yes to Shalamar – they did exactly what it said on the tin.
Spear of Destiny and Aztec Camera offer some hope. I thought Walk Out To Winter was going to be huge… I’m often wrong about such things.
Wrong time of year to release Walk Out To Winter. With a bit of thought they could have guaranteed themselves an annuity from christmas playlists.
The Wheel and Walk Out To Winter we’re quality songs !!
SC
I have to agree that the chart was dire then. But it was 1983; the line in the sand year for the rapidly ebbing energies of Post-Punk. I saw from my side of the pond the UK charts which were pretty vibrant in 82-82, began to clench down and purge the elements that appealed to me in favor of Culture Club and Wham! Wasn’t it that year that the phrase “As If Punk Never Happened” was coined? And for good reason!
Bowie was popular since I first was aware of him in the early 70’s. But Let’s Dance catapulted him into super-ultra-megastardom in an irretrievable way. I never lost interest, but China Girl was when Bowie fans like me lost him to the mainstream, which was a bummer.
I wouldn’t have minded Bowie becoming the hottest thing since sliced bread if the music weren’t so dire! I’m not a Rock Snob. I like bands I like having popularity; just not with meretricious dreck like “Let’s Dance!” INXS and PSB managed it quite nicely, I thought! But both acts were “very popular” yet not the sort of crazy-eyed-fan popularity that Bowie or [gag] Madonna engendered back then. Iconic popularity never seems to be a good thing to the artistic life of the artist involved.