Tracey Ullman – THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN

Bananarama, Bourgie Bourgie, Grandmaster Flash and Melle Mel, Madness, Orange Juice, Sade, Soft Cell, Style Council, Tracey Ullman

WHEN THE CLOCKS STRUCK THIRTEEN (February)

January 1984, with thirteen chart hits, got this series off to a handy enough start. Would February prove to be just as interesting, or was it all a false dawn? The first chart is actually spread across two calendar months, covering the period 28 January–4 February.

There were ten new entries into the Top 75. The list is rather depressing…….

Queen – Radio Ga Ga (#4)
Duran Duran – New Moon On Monday (#12)
The Thompson Twins – Doctor Doctor (#18)
Swans Way – Soul Train (#41)
Rockwell – Someone’s Watching Me (#52)
Slade – Run Runaway (#54)
Nena – 99 Red Ballons (#58)
Hot Chocolate – I Gave You My Heart (Didn’t I) (#59)
Van Halen – Jump (#60)
Truth – No Stone Unturned (#73)

I’m not averse to offering up the likes of Duran Duran or The Thompson Twins, but neither of those particular 45s hold much appeal, certainly in Villain Towers. Best if we fast-forward to 5-11 February.

The highest new entry this week was from a band enjoying a hit single for the 18th successive time, going back to 1979.

mp3: Madness – Michael Caine (#26)

It was the lead single from what would be their fifth studio album, Keep Moving. It was quite a departure from many of the previous 45s, being a slower number with a very serious subject-matter, telling the tale of an informant living in Northern Ireland, with the lyrics suggest a state of paranoia and mental disintegration. It was written partly by Carl Smyth, who took the lead on the song, with Suggs happy enough to do the backing vocals. The vocal samples from Michael Caine himself were recorded for the song, and being a repetition of him introducing himself by name, is based on his role in the 1965 film The Ipcress File, in which his character, Harry Palmer, repeats his name while trying to stay sane under torture.

It didn’t do quite as well as most previous Madness singles, peaking at #11 and becoming just the third of the eighteen not to reach the Top 10. Despite this, I think it is one of their finest 45s.

One of the UK’s pioneering synth bands, Ultravox, came into the charts this week at #37 with One Small Day. I genuinely couldn’t recall this song and looked up the video on YouTube. The tune was awful, sounding nothing like the band, with a dreadful guitar lick all the way through.

The various other new entries were just as annoying – with a special mention to Genesis and Illegal Alien in which Phil Collins adopted a faux-Spanish accent throughout. The video is beyond belief…….

The chart, however, was saved by this bona fide classic coming in at #74:-

mp3: Grandmaster Flash and Melle Mel – White Lines (Don’t Do It)

This would prove to be one of the most incredible stories of the singles chart in 1984. In at #74 on 5 February, it would take 21 weeks to climb its way gradually into the Top 10, eventually peaking at #7 in the chart of 22-28 July (and staying there the following week). It took until 28 October before it fell out of the Top 75, meaning it had enjoyed a stay of 37 weeks, and was placed at #13 in the end-of year chart in terms of total sales.

Moving on now to 12-18 February, 19-25 February and 26 February- 3 March.

mp3: The Style Council – My Ever Changing Moods (#8 on 12 Feb)
mp3: Soft Cell – Down In The Subway (#38 on 19 Feb)
mp3: Sade – Your Love Is King (#59 on 19 Feb)
mp3: Orange Juice – Bridge (#67 on 19 Feb)
mp3: Tracey Ullman – My Guy (#46 on 26 Feb)
mp3: Bananarama – Robert De Niro’s Waiting (#48 on 26 Feb)
mp3: Bourgie Bourgie – Breaking Point (#64 on 26 Feb)

A right mix of tunes!! I can’t deny that I really liked that Sade single, albeit its jazz-tinged nature is the sort of stuff I’d usually run a long way from, but it was reflective of a lot that was going on in early 1984, and given that I was listening to The Style Council and Everything But The Girl a fair bit (amongst others) then it’s impossible to deny Sade.

Tracey Ullman gets a mention for changing the sex of the song and taking a Madness number back into the charts – it would eventually peak at #23, not quite as good as My Girl which had reached #3 in 1980.

Bananarama appealed to the pop side of my nature, and I can’t deny that I would dance to this (while wearing my Bunnymen raincoat at the Student Union disco thinking I was being really ironic when in fact I probably looked like an idiot!!).

And what a joy to be reminded that Bourgie Bourgie‘s debut single (and one of THE greatest 45s of all time), did actually have an impact on the charts, eventually reaching #48 during the month of March……but it really deserved much more. Paul Quinn on Top of The Pops would have been a sight to behold.

JC

Elvis Costello & The Attractions, Freeez, Heaven 17, New Order, Public Image Limited, Siouxsie & The Banshees, Soft Cell, Specials, The The, Toyah, Tracey Ullman

DON’T LOOK BACK IN ANGER (9)

Let’s travel back in time to see what 45s were being most bought in UK record shops in September 1983

Chart dates 28 August – 3 September

Oh my. For once, the highest new entry had some merit. But the question really has to be…..How did Factory Records organise itself enough to get copies out and distributed into the shops?

mp3: New Order – Confusion (#17)

Released only on 12″ in the UK, it came with four different mixes. There was no way the radio stations would have played the full eight-plus minutes, and indeed promo discs were sent out with an edit, which was, many years later, made available on one of the numerous New Order compilations. Confusion would go up five places to #12 before slowly drifting out of the Top 75 over the following six weeks. Worth mentioning that in the same week Confusion entered the charts, Blue Monday was spending its 25th week in the Top 75 – and indeed was just about to gain a second wind and climb back up the way, peaking at #10 in mid-October.

Just slightly lower in the rundown was this.

mp3: Freeez – I.O.U. (#25)

I’ve deliberately kept I.O.U. away from this series until today. It had already been in the singles chart for twelve weeks, spending three weeks at #2, and kept off the top spot by Paul Young wailing about his hat. The sleeve for this single gives much prominence to the fact it was produced by Arthur Baker. I think it’s fair to say he got two-for-one out of this tune.

Much lower down the chart, entering at #64, and only ever getting up to #60, was a 45 with a message:-

mp3: The Special AKA – Racist Friend (#64)

Chart dates 4-10 September

Not a good week for new entries, with Status Quo (#24) and Paul Young (#27) being the highest, with both of Ol’ Rag Blues and Come Back And Stay annoyingly hanging around for a few more weeks to make the Top 10. Just below those was a little bit of agit-synth:-

mp3: Heaven 17 – Crushed By The Wheels Of Industry (#28)

The fourth and final chart hit lifted from the album The Luxury Gap, it went on to reach #17.

Chart dates 11-17 September

I’m not a fan of the tune, so I won’t share any mp3, but this was the week when Boy George really made the crossover into pop stardom, as Karma Chameleon entered the singles chart at #3. It went onto to sell 1.6 million copies in the UK, as 1 million in the USA and some 7 million all told across the world. That’s a lot of plastic……

It was also the first week that Howard Jones hit the charts. He’s another from that era I have no time for at all, but I was clearly in a minority. New Song came in at #51. It would go onto spend 12 weeks in the Top 75, reaching #2. He would follow that up with eight more Top 20 singles through to March 1986, and it seemed he was on Top of The Pops every other week.

Among the mediocre and mundane, there were a few gems

You’ve got to go a long way down to find a couple more excellent new singles:-

mp3: PiL – This Is Not A Love Song (#47)

The first new single in two-and-a-half years, it would go on to spend 10 weeks on the singles chart and get all the way to #5, easily the best performance by any of PiL‘s 45’s released between 1979 and 1992.

mp3: Elvis Costello & The Attractions – Let Them All Talk (#59)

A rather disappointing outcome for the second and final single from the album, Punch The Clock, as this was as high as it got. At least there was the consolation of the album reaching #3.

mp3: The The – This Is The Day (#71)

I placed this at #4 in my 45 45s @ 45 rundown. It’s very obviously one of my favourite songs of all time. It is criminal that it only ever got to #71 in the UK singles chart. It would take until 1989 before a single by The The cracked the Top 20.

Chart dates 18-24 September

Karma Chamaleon was at #1. It would stay there for six weeks. The one small consolation was that it kept David Bowie‘s awful new single off the top. Modern Love came in this week at #8 and would more than likely reached #1 is it hadn’t been for Culture Club.

Coming in at #21 was a synth duo who some had written off:-

mp3 : Soft Cell – Soul Inside (#21)

It reached #16 the following week, a welcome return to pop stardom after Where The Heart Is and Numbers had both peaked outside the Top 20 after the first five singles had been Top 5.

There will be some of you out there who are fond of Toyah Wilcox, so here’s a reminder of what she inflicted upon us in 1983:-

mp3: Toyah – Rebel Run (#29)

This one got to #24 the following week and then, thankfully, disappeared.

If you look closely at the bottom of the page:-

mp3: Tracey Ullman – They Don’t Know (#69)

One of the UK’s most popular actress/comediennes had embarked on a singing career. Having already enjoyed a Top 3 hit with Breakaway in which she had covered a 60s song, she turned to the back catalogue of Kirsty MacColl for her next venture, offering her take on a 1979 flop single. This one went all the way to #2, spending almost the rest of 1983 in the Top 75, and bringing some well-deserved royalties to Kirsty.

Chart dates 25 September – 1 October

A cover version was the highest new entry this week. And a good one too….

mp3: Siouxsie & The Banshees – Dear Prudence (#17)

Siouxsie and Budgie had been enjoying chart success with The Creatures. Robert Smith was often on Top of The Pops in 1983 with The Cure. Here they all were together on one gloriously psychedelic offering of a song originally found on The White Album, released by The Beatles in 1968.

I think that’s just about enough for this edition of nostalgia central. I’ll be back in about four weeks time.