4-10 November
The highest new entry on the singles chart back in the first week in November 1986 belonged to Depeche Mode, a favourite of many TVV regulars but a band that your humble scribe has never taken to. Which is why there’s no link today to Blasphemous Rumours or Somebody, a double-A sided single which came in at #29 en route to becoming their 11th successive chart single going back to Dreaming Of Me in early 1981, (of which five had gone Top 10)
I’ve had to go all the way down to #54 to find a new entry worth offering a listen to:-
mp3: The Kane Gang – Respect Yourself
The trio’s third hit of the year, thanks to a cover of 1971 R&B/gospel number originally written and recorded by the Chicago-based Staple Singers. One of the highlights of the debut album The Bad and Lowdown World of The Kane Gang, which would reach #21 on its eventual release in March 1985.
Just two places further down the singles chart this week was another gang who often inhabited a bad and lowdown world, certainly in the eyes of the tabloid media:-
mp3: The Redskins – Keep On Keepin’ On (#56)
A real favourite in the student union discos among us who were of a left-wing persuasion. The Redskins delivered a fine mix of pop, soul, blues, folk, punk and politics, who, if it hadn’t been for the fact that collectively the idea of a career in pop music was not their idea of fun, would surely have enjoyed a run of great albums beyond their sole offering, Neither Washington Nor Moscow, which would eventually appear in early 1986. Keep On Keepin’ On would eventually reach #46, and the offering today is the 12″ version as that’s a bit of vinyl I proudly still have all these years later.
mp3: Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark – Never Turn Away (#70)
Probably the least-remembered of the twenty-two singles released by OMD during the 80s, it was also the one which performed the worst as #70 in the first week in November 84 was as good as it got. It’s one of those rare 45s on which Paul Humphreys rather than Andy McCluskey delivered the lead vocal.
11-17 November
The highest new entry on the singles chart back in the second week in November 1986 belonged to The Riddle by Nik Kershaw, someone who has his admirers among fans of 80s synth-pop. I always felt he was synth-pop with a soft rock edge, and while he may perhaps feature via guest postings, he’s not showing up today. This one came in at #17 and would peak at #3. It was his fourth smash hit of the year, and his success would continue throughout the following year.
mp3: The Human League – Louise (#36)
I think it’s worth lifting some stuff about this one from wiki:-
The lyrical story telling of “Louise” superficially seems to be a story about a chance encounter between a man and a woman on a bus who seem to be on the verge of a lover’s reconciliation. But like much of Phil Oakey’s songwriting, what seems ‘sugary sweet’ on the surface actually has a much darker subtext. Oakey points out that the story is actually about the original protagonists from “Don’t You Want Me” meeting up 4 years later. In “Louise” the man sees his lost love again and still cannot deal with reality. The anger that drove the earlier song has dissipated, and is replaced with a hopeful fantasy that his ex-lover is drawn to him all over again. So “Louise” is really about self-deception, delusion and eternal sadness. Oakey says about “Louise” in interview:
It’s about men thinking they can manipulate women when they can’t, even conning themselves that they have when they haven’t.
However, like the less savoury premise of “Don’t You Want Me”, the darker side of the “Louise” story went over the heads of the record buying public, who misinterpreted the lyrics as “sweet and upbeat”.
Louise would eventually reach #13 and still features in the band’s setlists to this day.
mp3: Strawberry Switchblade – Since Yesterday (#63)
I can’t claim I came up with this description, but it is so accurate:-
“From the ominous shadows of Goth suddenly appeared two young girls in polka-dot dresses, flaming red lipstick, and hair ribbons. Looking like the brides of Robert Smith, Strawberry Switchblade made a brief splash on the U.K. charts and then abruptly vanished in the mid ’80s, leaving their fans with a handful of collectible singles and one LP of deceptively sweet-sounding dance pop.”
Jill Bryson and Rose McDowall were very well-known figures in Glasgow in the early 80s. The look they had for their pop success was how they walked the streets of my homw city – everyone, while not knowing exactly who they were, certainly recognised them. Since Yesterday is a very 80s sounding song, and there’s an argument could be made that it hasn’t dated brilliantly thanks to its rather lightweight production. But I’ll always a have a soft spot for it….it’s just one of those songs which sound tracked the festive period of 84/85, eventually peaking at #5 in late January and spending an incredible 17 weeks in the Top 75.
mp3: Lloyd Cole & The Commotions – Rattlesnakes (#65)
The third and last single to be lifted from the debut album. Maybe it was all down to all the band’s fans having bought the album the previous month that this single, a genuinely outstanding song, stalled at #65.
mp3: Scritti Politti – Hypnotize (#67)
The third hit single of the year for Green Gartside & co, but #67 was as high as it got, coming nowhere near the success of Wood Beez (#10) and Absolute (#17). The band would bounce back in great style in 1985, with The Word Girl delivering a #6 hit and the album Cupid & Psyche ’85 going Top 5.
18-24 November
It was probably inevitable that after such a fine run of new singles the previous two weeks, the well would just about dry up completely this week. You could tell the Xmas marketing campaign was getting into full swing as the novelty records began to make showings – yup, this was the week We All Stand Together by Paul McCartney and The Frog Chorus came into the charts at #50, going on to reach #3 and particularly annoy the hell out of me for the many months it was never off the bleedin’ radio.
Having said that, there’s probably many fans of the lovable mop top who would have got annoyed with this one:-
mp3: The Art Of Noise – Close (To The Edit) (#62)
The ZTT collective’s music hadn’t struck a chord with the record-buying public. Debut single Beatbox had failed to chart in Aril 1984 and debut album Who’s Afraid Of The Art Of Noise had languished at the very lower end of the chart. But for whatever reason, and I think a lot had to do with the imaginative video(s), Close (To The Edit) found favour. It was also released in a ridiculous amount of formats – standard and picture disc 7-inch versions, five 12-inch singles (one a picture disc) and a cassette single – and would enjoy a 20-week residency in the Top 75 right through to the end of March 1985, peaking at #8. It did lead to a Top of the Pops appearance that they wasn’t taken too seriously while illustrating the actual size of the synths that were required back in those days:-
Anne Dudley would later say:-
Top of the Pops was one of the worst experiences of my life. We’d done so many edits of the single I wasn’t even sure what its final structure was. We just stood there behind three keyboards. The director saved our bacon by cutting away to the animated video the record company had commissioned – they hadn’t liked the original one made by Zbigniew Rybczyński, featuring a punkette girl and three blokes in tails dismantling musical instruments with a chainsaw. It was the polar opposite of Duran Duran on a luxury yacht.
25 November – 1 December
The Art of Noise might not have been making much money for ZTT but this lot were:-
mp3: Frankie Goes To Hollywood – The Power Of Love (#3)
The Xmas single – not an obvious one but the nativity-themed video, which was being aired everywhere, even on news programmes, made it clear what the marketing campaign was. It was all set to spend umpteen weeks at #1 and confirm the band’s total dominantion of the singles charts on the back of Relax and Two Tribes. It did reach #1 the following week, but then Band Aid came along………
Fun fact…..The Power Of Love was re-released just before Xmas 1993 and again went Top 10.
mp3: Big Country – Where The Rose Is Sown (#35)
The second single to be lifted from the #1 album Steeltown. Kind of feels strange that the record label pushed out a new 45 at this particular time of year. It certainly didn’t do anything to lift the album back up the charts and in reaching just #29, became the poorest-performing 45 of what was ‘peak’ Big Country.
mp3: Tears For Fears – Shout (#45)
I may have mentioned previously in this series that I couldn’t for the life of me recall Mother’s Talk which had charted in August 1984. But I certainly can’t say the same about Shout, which thanks to its boombastic chorus easily lodged into my brain. I recall being very disappointed with this. I had so much love and time for Tears for Fears when they emerged, and I still think the debut album The Hurting is a masterpiece. But Shout felt like synth pop with a stadium-rock edge and not for me, but loads of others loved it and took it to #4 in January 1985.
mp3: Bronski Beat – It Ain’t Necessarily So (#53)
A lot different from the previous two hit singles of Smalltown Boy and Why?, this inventive cover of a song written in 1935 by George Gershwin for the opera Porgy and Bess would spend 12 weeks in the chart, reaching #16. It helped further establish Bronski Beat as one of the best new arrivals in the UK music scene in 1984.
mp3: Dead Or Alive – You Spin Me Round (Like A Record) (#55)
I hadn’t, until now, appreciated that Pete Burns‘ biggest hit single actually dated from 1984. Turns out it came into the chart at the end of November 1984 and then spent another 11 weeks stuck in the lower regions of the Top 75 before bursting into the Top 20 and eventually reaching #1 in early March 1985. Say what you like about manufactured pop music and be as critical as you want to be, but this makes for a majestic, magnificent and memorable single. I will not tolerate any dissent!!!! Wylie, Cope and McCulloch must have been looking on in bewilderment.
So there you have it. November 1984. A month in which the singles chart, certainly at the lower end of things, was worth recalling in some detail. Keep an eye out later on for Part 2 looking at the new indie singles from the era.
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 