2-8 September
The month of August 1984 did offer up some gems, including what I have long held to be the greatest 12″ release of all time, William It Was Really Nothing/Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want/ How Soon Is Now?, issued on Rough Trade Records and which, in the first week of September 1984, peaked at #17 in the UK singles charts. Turned out it would be another two years before The Smiths experienced another Top 20 single.
So here’s a few other things that were happening forty-one years ago.
The highest new entry was a re-release, and one that wasn’t all that old. We Are Family by Sister Sledge had been a #8 hit in May 1979, and here it was, just five years later, coming back in at #32, and before the month was over it would peak at #4. It does seem the 1984 edition of the song was different from the original in that it was a remix by Nile Rogers.
The second and third-highest new entries at #39 and #43 are again examples of songs I genuinely cannot remember a single not of. Torture by The Jacksons and Heaven’s On Fire by Kiss. There’s actually only two new entries in the Top 74 worth posting here, and even then, the first of them, as far as I’m concerned, is far from this particular synth-pop duo’s finest 45s
mp3: OMD – Tesla Girls (#48)
The second, and I think I’m right in saying this, was the only hit single on which keyboardist and main songwriter, Jerry Dammers, took the lead vocal, and he does so with a falsetto.
mp3: Special AKA – What I Like Most About You Is Your Girlfriend (#72)
The former would reach #21 and give OMD a ninth Top 30 hit in four years. The latter, in reaching #51, was the last single released on 2 Tone to reach the charts.
9-15 September
Dare I post the highest new entry this week, knowing that it’ll be met mostly by sneers and snorts of derision? Mind you, my young brother likes it, and he pops his head in almost every day
mp3: U2 – Pride (In The Name Of Love) (#9)
The lead-off single from the soon-to-be released album The Unforgettable Fire. This, more than any of their songs, was the one which suggested their future lay in arena-rock. It would, in due course, reach #3, and remain their biggest hit single through till 1988 when Desire became their first #1.
The rest of the new entries really are like a roll-call of Smooth Radio computer generated playlists. It was painful enough being reminded of them again without actually typing them out.
16-22 September
David Bowie’s new single was the highest new entry this week.
mp3: David Bowie – Blue Jean (#17)
1983 had been Bowie’s best year ever, in terms of the actual sales/success of hit singles with Let’s Dance (#1), China Girl (#2) and Modern Love (#2). There had also been Serious Moonlight, a hugely successful world tour of arenas and stadia which brought on board millions of new fans, but had left fans of old wondering why their hero had sold out to the shiny pop world. This brand-new song won’t have done too much to put smiles on the faces of the older fans, while the newer ones might have been less than impressed, as it was nowhere near as immediate as the offerings from the previous year. Time hasn’t been kind to Blue Jean, or indeed the parent album Tonight. Blue Jean would climb to #6 the following week before experiencing a rapid tumble out of the charts.
Queen had the next highest new entry at #22 with Hammer To Fall, another song from 1984 that I can’t recall. Unlike the song coming in at #22:-
mp3: Bronski Beat – Why?
An absolute floor-filler at the student discos, and quite possibly the discos where the girls in white stilettos danced around their handbags, but I wouldn’t know as I never went near such places. Too many pounds, shillings and pence were required to gain entry, while the drinks were way more expensive than any student union. Smalltown Boy had only just fallen out of the Top 75 after a 13-week stay, so it was great that Why? kept Bronski Beat’s name prominently featured on the radio and TV stations of our nation. It would eventually reach #6 around the same time as debut album Age of Consent entered the charts at #4.
Another interesting song came in at #25.
mp3: Prince & The Revolution – Purple Rain
Not one of my favourites, but loved by so many others. This single, its parent album and the film of the same name truly made a superstar out of Prince. This would also, like Why?, peak at #6.
I mentioned up above that Queen had a new entry at #22. The band’s lead singer, Freddie Mercury, saw his first ever solo single also chart this week. Love Kills came in at #27. Two weeks later, it peaked at #10 which meant it had outsold and outperformed the band’s new 45. I wonder if any tension was created from such an outcome.
And finally from this week’s chart, a prime example of a slow burner
mp3: Giorgio Moroder and Phil Oakey – Together In Electric Dreams (#74)
There is a very interesting and telling background to this one, as recalled by the director of the film Electric Dreams, for which this was written as the theme song:-
“Giorgio Moroder was hired as composer and played me a demo track he thought would be good for the movie. It was the tune of “Together in Electric Dreams” but with some temporary lyrics sung by someone who sounded like a cheesy version of Neil Diamond. Giorgio was insisting the song could be a hit, so I thought I’d suggest someone to sing who would be as far from a cheesy Neil Diamond as one could possibly go. Phil Oakey. We then got Phil in who wrote some new lyrics on the back of a fag packet on the way to the recording studio and did two takes which Giorgio was well pleased with and everybody went home happy”
The song would spend 13 weeks on the chart, taking six of them to reach its peak of #3, all of which made it feel as if the song had been around forever, and even worse, was never going to go away
23-29 September
Big Country had been one of the UK’s breakthrough bands in 1983, and the band’s willingness to be seemingly constantly out on the road was a huge factor in how their fan base continued to grow. There had been one ‘stopgap’ single, Wonderland, earlier in the year which had provided a third Top 10 hit, and hopes were very high for the lead off 45 from what was soon to their sophomore album:-
mp3; Big Country – East Of Eden (#27)
To the consternation of the band and the record label, East of Eden would stall at #17, which was maybe an indication that the new material was less radio-friendly and a tad more rock-orientated than had come before. The big consolation was that the album, Steeltown, would enter the charts at #1 in early October.
And finally, in what it has to be said, really is something of an underwhelming month in this series:-
mp3: XTC – All You Pretty Girls (#69)
XTC released loads of great singles over the years. This, I’m afraid to say, wasn’t one of them. It would peak at #55.
The good news is that Part 2 of this feature will have a bundle of non-hit singles that have proven to be absolute classics.
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 