January 13, 20214 yr Author 1989 6th place - Jason Donovan - Too Many Broken Hearts? 6.6 sL3NYV2weto And here's Jason with his white t-shirt and blue jeans combo that plagued the late 80s. SAW were almost totally without merit at this stage. Fourth best seller of the year.
January 13, 20214 yr Author 1989 5th place - The Bangles - Eternal Flame 7.0 PSoOFn3wQV4 This is rather great - despite what Atomic Kitten might have done to it. Something that always puzzled me about this single, or rather perhaps the single that it kept at number 2 for 3 week. The Bangles sat at number 1 for 4 weeks and for 3 of those, If You Don't Know Me By Now from Simply Red was the second best seller. Eternal Flame finished as the third biggest seller of the year. Normally, if a single was stuck at number 2 for 3 weeks behind one of the biggest sellers of the year you'd expect that it would finish in the top 20 best sellers. If You Don't Know Me By Now only managed 38th best seller of 1989. :o That is a huge gap and must surely be among the biggest gaps between a three-week 1/2 stand-off.
January 13, 20214 yr Author Four great singles are left. Three of them at the very forefront of popular music in 1989. Predict, if you will. I shall return tomorrow.
January 13, 20214 yr 1989 5th place - The Bangles - Eternal Flame 7.0 PSoOFn3wQV4 This is rather great - despite what Atomic Kitten might have done to it. Something that always puzzled me about this single, or rather perhaps the single that it kept at number 2 for 3 week. The Bangles sat at number 1 for 4 weeks and for 3 of those, If You Don't Know Me By Now from Simply Red was the second best seller. Eternal Flame finished as the third biggest seller of the year. Normally, if a single was stuck at number 2 for 3 weeks behind one of the biggest sellers of the year you'd expect that it would finish in the top 20 best sellers. If You Don't Know Me By Now only managed 38th best seller of 1989. :o That is a huge gap and must surely be among the biggest gaps between a three-week 1/2 stand-off. It was 8k, 25k and 33k adrift in those weeks plus it didn't accumulate many sales before its climb going 19-2 in its second week and only spent 4 weeks in the top 10 in its entirety.
January 14, 20214 yr ^I guess people were buying the parent album, a New Flame not sure what's left, Ride on Time for sure, maybe Technotronic too? Back to Life? did Like a Prayer make the top 10 of the year? I know Madonna is a bit of an underachiever in single sales, so maybe not?
January 14, 20214 yr ^I guess people were buying the parent album, a New Flame Yes they were. Well I did anyway.
January 14, 20214 yr Author It was 8k, 25k and 33k adrift in those weeks plus it didn't accumulate many sales before its climb going 19-2 in its second week and only spent 4 weeks in the top 10 in its entirety. I'm guessing it's 3rd week at number 2 must have had sales low enough to normally only reach number 5.
January 21, 20214 yr Author 1989 4th place - Marc Almond & Gene Pitney - Something's Gotten Hold Of My Heart 7.5 I8ZIErShjw0 I did not really get this at the time. I was a big fan of the song that it kept at number 2 - The Living Years and was baffled by this duet stopping it being a chart topper. From what I read, much of the industry was expecting the same until Something's Gotten Hold Of My Heart got an airing on Friday's Wogan show that week, and sales soared. I love this song now. It brings me back to early 1989 and being a chart fan. Still love the Living Years too. Sixth best selling single of the year.
January 21, 20214 yr Author 1989 3rd place - Soul II Soul - Back to Life (However Do You Want Me) 7.8 TB54dZkzZOY It's hard to really understand the impact of Soul II Soul's emergence in 1989. I was too young to appreciate them at the time, and even now, I'm sure I still don't grasp how it must have been to hear this effortlessly talented sound system as they presented their thoroughly modern soul music which commanded the lead in both the singles chart and the album chart in a Summer heat wave at the end of July. One thing that helped impress upon me their greatness was when I heard the (mostly acapella) album version of Back to Life. Like Teardrops in 1988, this is the sound of pure musical emotion; those vocal harmonies at 2:19 are a thing of rare beauty. The album version would have got a 9.0 at least. gsSYbQKNnNc
January 21, 20214 yr Great song. I liked it at the time but I’ve only grown to love it in subsequent years, I’m a fan of quite a lot of their material now.
January 21, 20214 yr Author 1989 2nd place - Technotronic - Pump Up The Jam 8.2 9EcjWd-O4jI Third song in a row that I didn't like at the time. Dance music was very much my thing in 1989. It had been my thing since early 1988 but there were plenty of instances when I didn't quite get the fuss over a song dance song that everyone else seemed to like. Pump Up the Jam was one of those tunes. It all comes down to that elastic, spring loaded bass synth as it bounces you from refrain to refrain. For anyone who likes mixing tunes - The Chems' Hey Boy Hey Girl mixes really well this. Eight best selling single of the year and the best selling song that didn't make it to number 1. --- Chart trivia section B-) While inspecting the chart run I noticed that the song Pump Up The Jam kept at number 3 for 2 weeks, Sydney Youngblood's If Only I Could (which was 1989's second best selling single that didn't get to number 1) was never very far from PUTJ. In the 11 weeks it spent in the top 40 it was within 2 chart places nine times and never more than 4 at any time. :o PUTJ 37-19-04-03-02-02-04-08-11-19-26 IOIC 36-17-06-04-03-03-05-10-15-20-29 DIFF 01-02-02-01-01-01-01-02-04-01-03
January 21, 20214 yr Author 1989 1st place - Black Box - Ride on Time 9.2 M0quXl_od3g Something something...Loleatta Holloway....something something.....Heather Small. :wub: Best selling single of the year
January 21, 20214 yr Great top 2, both dance classics that have held up really well over time. Strange how dance tracks from 1989 still sound great whilst dance tracks from 2018 can sound so dated!
January 21, 20214 yr Also, where would Like a Prayer have placed? It would be my #1 but I can’t remember if you’re that fond of it or not
January 21, 20214 yr Author Prob number 2, 3 or 4. It's great. There's a really ploddy version somewhere that really drags. I can't find it now. Maybe it has been deleted from existence.
January 22, 20214 yr Author Top 10 1 Pet Shop Boys - It's A Sin 10 2 Bee Gees - You Win Again 10 3 a-ha - Take On Me 10 4 Black Box - Ride on Time 9.2 5 The Jam - A Town Called Malice 9.1 6 Jennifer Rush - The Power of Love 9 7 Madonna - Into The Groove 8.5 8 Womack & Womack - Teardrops 8.4 9 Technotronic - Pump Up The Jam 8.2 10 Whitney Houston - I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me) 8.2
January 22, 20214 yr Author Bottom 10 91 Joe Dolce - Shaddap You Face 4.3 92 Goombay Dance Band - Seven Tears 4.1 93 Black Lace - Agadoo 4.1 94 Nick Berry - Every Loser Wins 4.1 95 Boris Gardiner 'I Want To Wake Up With You 4 96 Fern Kinney - Together We Are Beautiful 4 97 Blondie - The Tide it High 3.9 98 Dexys Midnight Runners - Geno 3.8 99 David Bowie & Mick Jagger - Dancing In The Street 3.8 10 Adam and the Ants - Stand and Deliver 3.5 Compare that to the 90s where the 10th worst got just 2.5 and the 80s wasn't so bad. Edited January 22, 20214 yr by Colm
January 22, 20214 yr It was probably the huge difference between the album and single versions of BTL that allowed them to make the top of both charts. I recall some people bought the album only to find that the single version was substantively different so bought that as well.
January 22, 20214 yr Great top 2 1988, and a good dance top 2 for 1989, fab top 10 of the 80's and also some fab ones in your bottom 10 :lol: Good thread, interesting take on rating big hits :cheer:
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