SHAKEDOWN, 1979 (November)

A slight deviation from the norm in that this instalment also happens to cover a few days from October 1979, with the first of the charts being recalled with much fondness today being that of 27 October – 3 November.  The first glance is enough to give anyone with good taste a bit of the dry boak as the Top 3 places really are easy listening hell with Lena Martell, Dr. Hook and Sad Cafe stinking the place out.  Thankfully, one of the year’s top songs did make its entry into the charts this week, coming in at #29.

mp3: The Jam – The Eton Rifles (7″ version)

The band’s third chart hit of 1979 following on from When You’re Young and Strange Town, both of which had been Top 20.  The Eton Rifles would take The Jam to the giddy heights of #3 in mid-November, confirmation that, for a certain age-group across Britain, they were becoming the biggest and most important band of their time.

Moving quickly on to the chart of 4-10 November, and it was still AOR hell across much of the Top 40.   I had to go a long way down to find something decent enough that was new this week:-

mp3: Madness – One Step Beyond

So, it’s now coming up for 45 years since those of us of a certain age, not only fell head-over heels for The Jam, but we all did the Chas Smash dance for the first time.  The Prince had been great fun to listen and dance to, but the band’s second 45 was truly something else.  In at #51, it would go on to enjoy a 14-week stay in the Top 75, not taking its leave until the end of February 1980.  The first Top of The Pop appearance for this one was memorable…..the audience had no idea what to make of it!!!

Sneaking in almost unnoticed at #75 was this:-

mp3: The Tourists – I Only Want To Be With You

As with The Jam, this was The Tourists third chart hit of 1979, and it would prove to be their biggest in their short existence. A cover of a Dusty Springfield hit from 1964, this would spend 7 weeks in the Top 10 throughout December and into the first few weeks of January 1980, thus gaining loads of sales in that crucial Christmas period.  It would peak at #4 which, coincidentally, was the same success that Dusty had enjoyed 15 years previously.

11-17 November was another that was short on quantity, but big on quality

mp3: Pretenders – Brass In Pocket (#57)

Another band enjoying a third chart hit of 1979, but where Stop Your Sobbing and Kid had barely dented the Top 40, Brass In Pocket was a different beast altogether. It’s one of those songs that gets lumped onto a fair number of ‘Alternative Hits of the 80s’ compilations, which is kind of understandable when you look at its chart trajectory.  In at #57….four weeks later in mid-December, it had crept up to #30.  Five weeks later, it reached #1 in mid-January, enjoying a two-week stay at the top, before eventually falling out of the Top 75 in March, a full 17 weeks after it had first come in.  A brilliant pop song that has aged superbly.

It was also a chart that delivered a cash-in.

mp3: The Police – Fall Out (#70)

The past 18 months had delivered worldwide pop success for The Police, but here was a reminder of their new wave roots.  The debut single, originally released in May 1977 on Illegal Records. It had been written by Stewart Copeland and the guitarist was Henry Padovani as Andy Summers had yet to join.  Sting‘s role was just to look pretty and sing.  Fall Out had flopped on its initial release, but the demand for product was such, and even though the band’s sound have move a long long way from new wave, that this would reach #47 in due course.

Moving swiftly on to 18-24 November, it proved to be a chart with some intriguing new entries.

Hands up if you can recall and then sing along to Gary Numan‘s follow-up single to Cars.   I thought so….very few of you

mp3: Gary Numan – Complex (#15)

Where Are Friends Electric and Cars had been upbeat and jaunty numbers and very much on the synth-pop side of things, this one is slow, meandering, serious and of the type that has listeners stroking their chins.  It takes almost 90 seconds, half the duration of the song, before the lyric begins.  I’ve a feeling that if Gary Numan hadn’t been such a phenomena back in 1979 that this would not have had much airplay on daytime radio.  It did, however, get A-listed and in due course would peak at #6 the following week.

I’ve mentioned a few bands for whom November 1979 brought a third chart hit across the calendar year.  It’s time to give praise to a band that was having its fourth hit of the year

mp3: The Skids – Working For The Yankee Dollar

It had all started with Into The Valley in February, followed by Animation and Charade.   There is no doubt that the band’s sound evolved and changed a huge deal across the year.  The first hit was new wave personified but the final hit, with all sorts of keyboards has more than a hint of prog.  What hadn’t changed, however, was the catchy sing-along nature of the verses and chorus, albeit it was till nigh-on impossible to get all the words right!   Working For The Yankee Dollar came in at #34 and nine weeks later it reached its peak of #20 after an incredibly slow rise to that position, going 34, 32, 28, 27, 24, 24, 23, 21, 20.

One place below The Skids in the new chart was a song from another band, enjoying a fourth hit single of the year

mp3: Blondie – Union City Blue

In at #35 and eventually peaking at #13.   A relative flop given that Heart of Glass, Sunday Girl and Dreaming had been #1 or #2.  A sign that the halcyon days of Blondie were over???  Don’t be silly……normal service would be resumed in February and April 1980 with two more #1s.  Union City Blue did, however, prove that the band were more likely to have hits with pop or disco orientated songs rather than rock-type efforts.

Coming in at #55, was someone on the comeback trail.

mp3: Marianne Faithfull – The Ballad Of Lucy Jordan

Back in 1979, I only knew of Marianne Faithfull through her acting and the fact she had been romantically involved with Mick Jagger. I had no idea that she had enjoyed a number of Top 10 hit singles back in 1965 and then a minor hit in 1967.  November 1979 had seen the release of an album, Broken English, with the music press and broadsheet newspapers in particular highlighting it was the work of someone coming back from a long period in the wilderness that had included periods of drug addiction, homelessness and anorexia, all of which had messed with her voice.  It’s an album that gained great critical acclaim on its release, and has done so ever since.  But sales wise, it didn’t initially do all that much, only reaching #57 in the UK, albeit it sold in better numbers across Europe.

In an effort to boost sales, a single was lifted from it.  It was one of a number of covers recorded for the album, of a tune originally recorded back in 1974 by Dr Hook & The Medicine Show. I really have to share the review that was printed in Smash Hits magazine, none of whose targetted readership would have had a clue about Marianne’s past history:-

“The Debbie Harry of the sixties returns to vinyl with an honestly outstanding offering, a version of an old Doctor Hook number related over a swimming synthesiser. If you can handle this, it sounds like Dolly Parton produced by Brian Eno. Only better.”

Absolute genius!!!!!!!!!

With that, it’s time to move on to the chart of 24 November – 1 December.  I wasn’t expecting much, given that this is when record company bosses put the emphasis on the festive or novelty songs that are likely to curry favour rather than promoting anything serious or worthwhile.

mp3: The Police – Walking On The Moon (7″)

A first in this series, with a band enjoying two new chart entries in the same month.  A&M Records weren’t happy with the Illegal Records re-release of Fall Out, but given the band weren’t involved in any way with its promotion, and the fact that the next ‘proper’ single would come in at #5, before hitting the #1 spot, demonstrated that no damage to the brand had been done.

And here’s some more proof of why 1979 was, without any question, the best-ever in terms of delivering chart success for great/memorable/important singles.

mp3: Sugarhill Gang – Rapper’s Delight

This would have been the first time I ever heard a rap song.  I’d be fibbing if I said I took to it instantly.  I did love the fact it made great use of Good Times by Chic, but the fast-flowing and difficult to decipher lyric was something I didn’t ‘get’.  Looking back on things, I am happy to acknowledge, and not for the first time, that my tastes in music had yet to fully form at the age of 16.  I had no immediate reference points for this type of music but over the next few years, thanks in part to The Clash and Blondie referencing rap music and incorporating it into their own songs, it began to make a great deal of sense.  By the time Grandmaster Flash appeared on the scene in 1982 with The Message, I was more than ready to embrace things, albeit I would still only dip my toes into the water for a few more years before fully immersing myself.

Rapper’s Delight came in at #38.  Within two weeks, it was at #3, and it wouldn’t leave the Top 75 until February 1980.  It’s far from the greatest rap song ever written and recorded, but it must be one of the most important as it was a game-changer.

I should mention in passing that this was the chart in which Pink Floyd, to the chagrin of their fans who saw the band as being an albums-only outfit, saw a single, Another Brick In The Wall, come in at #26.  It was their first Top 40 single since 1967 and would, in reaching #1 a couple of weeks later, become their best known song.  I thought of it back then as a novelty hit.  Still do.

It was also the chart in which Paul McCartney first got to tell us of his Wonderful Christmas Time, and he hasn’t stopped doing so since.  It came in at #61, and eventually reached #6.   It has subsequently featured in the Top 75 in 2007, 2011, 2012, 2015 and every year since 2017 since teh dawn of digital downloads counting towards chart positions.

Part 2 of this feature, with 45s from November 1979 that didn’t chart, will be with you in a couple of weeks.

JC