The 1979 series was so well-received that I felt there really should be some sort of follow-up.
The 1979 series went into great detail, partly as I wanted to demonstrate just how magnificent a year it had been for singles. The spotlight on 1984 won’t quite be as intense, but I still intend to pick out quite a few tunes that have stood the test of time.
The year began with the #1 slot being occupied by a novelty song in the shape of The Flying Pickets acappella cover of Only You. The rest of the Top 20 was equally gruesome, with the likes of Slade, Billy Joel, Status Quo, Paul Young, Cliff Richard and Paul McCartney all vying with Roland Rat Superstar for the right to be exchanged for the record tokens that had been left under the Xmas tree. There were a few decent enough tunes from the likes of The Smiths, The Style Council, Aztec Camera, The Cure and Blancmange in the lower end of the charts that had been released towards the tail end of 1983 to make things slightly bearable. But in terms of new entries in the chart of 1-7 January 1984, there was nothing to write home about.
Fast-forward a week, and The Police had the highest new entry, at #32, with the distinctly underwhelming King of Pain, the fourth single to be lifted from the album Synchronicity. Just a few places below that was the fifth chart 45 from one of the many bands to emerge out of the Liverpool area in the early part of the decade:-
mp3: China Crisis – Wishful Thinking
In at #36, this was given a wonderful retrospective write-up by Post Punk Monk back in October 2011, and I’m sure he won’t mind me quoting him:-
“This single is one of my all time favorites by the group in that the A-side is sweetly melancholic and unapologetically gorgeous, with a wonderfully played synthetic string section sweeping the tune along. Other tracks on the album this single is from have live strings, but I guess the recording budget didn’t extend that far. The synth strings still sound rather good and more importantly, the addition of oboe and fretless bass, two of my favorite instruments, on this track lends it a gentle nobility that carries it far above the sound of the crowd in the charts at the time of its release.”
Loads of folk in the UK clearly agreed with him, as Wishful Thinking would eventually climb all the way to #9 and prove to be the band’s best charting single.
This week’s chart also saw the debut of someone who would, in quite a short period of time, become, arguably, the biggest pop icon of the late 20th century. It’s a tune that was later given this accolade many years later on one of the biggest digital sites out there:-
“A song as utterly ’80s as Rick Astley or the Pet Shop Boys, it is also surely the most evocative theme tune ever created when it comes to packing a suitcase and jetting off for beach cocktails […] A feel-good pop giant with an infectious chorus – and the closest thing we have to bottled sunshine”.
mp3: Madonna – Holiday
In at #53, it would reach #6 in mid-February, the first of what thus far have been 64 Top Ten hits in the UK for Madonna, of which 13 have reached #1.
The third of the new entries into the Top 75 being highlighted this time around turned out to be one which became a big hit six years down the line:-
mp3: Talk Talk – It’s My Life
The lead single from the band’s forthcoming second studio album came in at #67, and two weeks later peaked at #46. It was then re-released in May 1990 to support a Greatest Hits package, at which time it reached #13.
Scrolling down now to the chart of 15-21 January.
mp3: Big Country – Wonderland (#13)
mp3: Thomas Dolby – Hyperactive (#45)
mp3: The Colour Field – The Colour Field (#53)
mp3: Spear of Destiny – Prisoner of Love (#60)
mp3: Talking Heads – This Must Be The Place (#61)
I’m not going to argue that all of the above have aged well, but they provide a fine snapshot of the variety that was on offer to anyone seeking to expand their 7″ or 12″ vinyl collection. I certainly bought all five back in the day.
22-28 January. Have a look at what hit #1
mp3: Frankie Goes To Hollywood – Relax
Even back then, in an era when it was possible for a slow-burner to reach #1, it was almost unheard of for it to take 12 weeks. But that’s what happened with Relax. Released in late October 1983, it had spent two months very much at the lower end of the chart, reaching #46 in the final chart of that year, and reaching #35 in the first chart of 1984, which earned Frankie Goes To Hollywood an invitation onto Top of The Pops for the show broadcast on 5 January.
The following week it climbed to #6, at which point Mike Read Reid, one of the highest-profile DJs on BBC Radio 1, publicly expressed his disdain for the single and said he wouldn’t be playing it on any of his shows, leading to a chain of events where the single was banned right across the BBC on radio and television. None of which stopped it being played on independent radio stations, or indeed on The Tube TV show which aired on Channel 4; Relax would spend five weeks at #1, and indeed would go on to spend a total of 48 weeks in the Top 75, not dropping out until the chart of 14-20 October.
All of which kind of overshadowed these new entries that week:-
mp3: Echo and The Bunnymen – The Killing Moon (#17)
mp3: Simple Minds – Speed Your Love To Me (#20)
mp3: The Smiths – What Difference Does It Make (#26)
mp3: Prefab Sprout – Don’t Sing (#62)
Looking back at things, the singles charts of January 1984 weren’t too shabby, were they?
As with the 1979 series, I’ll be consulting my big red book of indie singles to identify those 45s that didn’t bother the mainstream charts, but were well worth forking out some money for. It should be with you in the next week or so.
JC
PS : Total coincidence that thirteen songs feature in this post…….or is it?????
(It is!!!)
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 
The FP’s version of Only You sits beside the Yazoo in my singles box. I’ve them both
would also take The Smiths, China and Frankie from that lot. Relax has stood the test of time remember them doing that on the tube in late 83 w.
And Holiday is a great pop song.
*love them both
WinterInMaypark
84 was the year indie went chart-hungry pop, with mainly unfortunate results, due to the discovery of hideous gimmicky, echoey bombastic production techniques that are as distressing a period indicator as 70s orange wallpaper or 90s Beatles-pastiches. Early that year, I was seeing the Smiths for the first time at Edinburgh Coasters in a chilly, wet Scottish late-winter, still a standout live show for me. The Killing Moon was majestic, but showing a few traces of the overblown self-regard and strings-fetish that would lessen the Bunnymen’s appeal within months. (My attitude to The Police could be summed up by a notorious NWA song title but I have a sneaking like for King Of Pain). We had to wait until September for the year’s best LP, and of course it went nowhere near the charts. So (Spring Hill) Unfair.
Superb choice if tunes, especially Spear Of Destiny !
SC
I approve of the series title, even though I always wince at giving you another opportunity to put the boot into Billy Joel. 😉
Thanks for the shout out, JC! I still stand by those words and have a warm regard for China Crisis to this day. But it’s true that 1984 can’t help but seem like a huge letdown from 1979! When everything was looking up and the skies seemed to be the limit. 1983 was the first year where I noticed the music decking in quality and 1984 only pushed further in that direction! I sensed that the Post-Punk/New Wave era was in decline and 1985 would the the year the coffin nails were hammered in!
I actually bought the first Madonna album very early on as I found a copy in the 50¢ bin at my beloved Cruncjy Armadillo Records. Owing to it being on the heretofore excellent Sire Records label. But I felt it was barely worth the investment and by the time that “Holiday” was her first hit in America I was able to sell off the disc for six times what I paid for it in late 1983! Once I caught wind of her personality on tv interviews my attitude went from antipathy to scorn. She seems so narcissistic, I can’t fathom how she has any fans. Talk Talk’s single was a corker. The point where they probably balanced art and pop in a just right soufflé. I hated Dolby’s gimmicky “Hyperactive.” It was a too obvious follow-up to his freak novelty hit “She Blinded Me With Science,” and 41 years later one can really hear the intended Michael Jackson song that it was. Too bad Jackson rejected it. A desperate for material Dolby having to quickly make a follow-up album leaned on it to his detriment, methinks. That single was so odious I didn’t hear the album “The Flat Earth” until decades later. It’s not too bad, but it’s spotty as hell. “Relax” was an obsession once I heard it. I taped it off of a MTV show called”London Calling” (aired to capitalize on the “Second British Invasion” of the time period. I played the tape repeatedly until the import 12” appeared in my local bins. It was the first record made with a computer and sounded like nothing else at the time. And give me “The Killing Moon” any day of the week! It’s still my favorite Bunnymen single. I look forward to the rest of the series with half-gritted teeth!
Runaround host Mike Reid is innocent! Poor fellow, always getting the blame for Mike Read’s prudishness…
Double-plus-good. Like always.
Ten chairs, eleven opinions: “This must be the Place” has withstood the last 40 years the best, I guess. The video is still great, too, and somehow relevant in a time when there is so much hate. Other favourites of mine are the songs by Echo & The Bunnymen and Talk Talk. Thanks [sk]