That's four chart-toppers for Blondie now then in the span of a little over a year *.* fantastic stuff, British public.

 

I can understand disdain for 'Coming Up' but it's actually one of Paul's better solo songs for me. My favourite thing he ever did away from The Beatles/Wings is quite possibly 'Temporary Secretary', from the same album, so his quirkier moves were working for me.

3RD MAY

 

 

Just 7 days after Blondie became the first act to have two No 1 hits in the 80s they're bounced off the top slot. Indeed with sales of just 72,000 it doesn't look it will be a stellar seller, its total to date is 250,960 and unless something major happens it won't rival "Atomic" sales wise. Its fall from the top is thanks to Dexy's midnight Runners who rather explode to the top of the chart with "Geno" on sales of 95,000 and with Paul McCartney's "Coming Up" moving 7-2 on sales of 74,000 it looks safe for at least another week, so far ahead of the rest of the pack as it is.

 

 

David Essex continues to climb, this time helped with a TOTP performance which sees "Silver Dream Machine accelerate 6-4 (60,000) and easily becomes his biggest single in 2 years.

 

 

Onto the new entries of which there are two, First up are Sky (who also celebrate getting the No 1 album today) with their prog rock take on Bach's "Toccata" which moves 11-5 (47,000) and evidences the wide diversity of the British public taste,

 

 

 

Also new is Bobby Thurston who moves from the soul of his first album to a more disco feel for "Check Out The Groove" which soars 26-10 (31,000). It's his first hit though it is the first release from his second album.

 

 

As predicted last week UB40 fall 4-6 (44,000), Detroit Spinners move 3-7 (42,000) and Dr Hook drop 5-8 (34,000), the Pretenders meanwhile hold at No 9 though its sales are down to 34,000.

 

 

1- GENO- Dexy’s Midnight Runners (95,000)

2- COMING UP- Paul McCartney (74,000)

3- CALL ME- Blondie (72,000)

4- SILVER DREAM MACHINE- David Essex (60,000)

5- TOCCATA- Sky (47,000)

6- KING- FOOD FOR THOUGHT- UB40 (44,000)

7- WORKING MY WAY BACK TO YOU- FORGIVE ME GIRL- Detroit Spinners (42,000)

8- SEXY EYES- Dr Hook (34,000)

9- TALK OF THE TOWN- The Pretenders (34,000)

10- CHECK OUT THE GROOVE- Bobby Thurston (31,000)

 

Another two great 1980 #1s in a fortnight in 'Call Me' and 'Geno'

The Sky version of 'Toccata and Fugue in D Minor' is a pretty idiosyncratic hit single, am here for it *.*

'Geno' is a great #1. 'Toccata' is very good too.

 

Quite a few 2tone associated tracks in the top 40 at this time, my favourites are Missing Words - Selecter (#24)

and the slightly electronic ska of Ne Ne Na Na Na Na Nu Nu - Bad Manners

(#28)

Edited April 8, 20241 yr by TheSnake

This thread is very educational - did know the Sky track 'Toccata' from a Spotify hits of 1980 playlist but had never heard of the band before so no idea the band had a no.1 album (plus had 3 other top ten albums). I do like 'Toccata' and can see myself checking more of their stuff out. I do miss the times when we had classical music charting (it only does very rarely now for charity/novelty releases now). They'll be a few more in the next couple of years.

 

'Check out the Groove' is very pleasant although not exactly my kind of thing, and probably wouldn't distinguish it from the other late 70s/early 80s soul/disco tracks.

Geno is another great #1.

What a great and random top 10 that is with so many genres compared to the chart of 2024(sound like an old man already 😬).

 

 

‘Geno’ is a fantastic no1 and the TOTP performance is great and upbeat ike you’d expect from them. There really was a decent fast no1 turnover in 1980, always thought it was a lot slower but guess that only happens when sales are slow/low.

 

Also love the two NEs, wouldn’t call either of them classics but they def add something to the distinctiveness of the charts then. Had never heard of Sky but very prog rock even the performance and Bobby is standard disco but sounds like the kind of artist that many well change styles by mid decade when he hears the ‘house’ sounds coming out of chicagos clubs.

 

 

Macca was on experimental form in 1980, it's Beatles Goes Synth basically on McCartney II and it's fresh and vital and touching and fun in a way Paul hadn't been since Venus & Mars. Coming Up is fab, the US live version was very dull in comparison. America just not ready for quirky synth yet...

 

Geno I bought and helped get to number one, topped my chart, but Call Me just fell short.

10TH MAY

 

 

After a very healthy gap of 22% over the remainder of the field last week "Geno" increases the gap to 25% even though it loses sales itself to 93,000 which may on the surface make it look like a shoe-in for the top spot next week, and indeed it would be wrong not to expect such a victory for Dexy's Midnight Runners.

 

 

 

Its security in the top slot is threatened by Eurovision (Believe it or not) which has not threatened our No 1 position for 4 years since Brotherhood Of Man took "Save All Your Kisses For Me" to the top for a 6 week jaunt. With peak positions for subsequent winning entrant singles being 42-20-5 it's been on an upward trajectory and that continues with last months winner, Ireland's Johnny Logan. "What's Another Year?" was originally composed by Shay Healy as a song about the coming to terms of the death of his father's partner from cancer but it's transformed into a love ballad for the purposes of the competition and was Ireland's second victory in the annual event after Dana 10 years ago. It rockets from 15-2 in its second week of chart action on sales of 69,000, it may be a case of next week or bust for the song as the Eurovision memory fades though.

 

 

 

A bit of a tidy out in the top 10 this week with four other new tracks to keep Logan happy, that includes Rodney Franklin (13-7, 41,000) and shows that we can now add Jazz to the genres for a top 10 single this year. The single has been helped by the current dance graze "Freezing", in essence where the crowd stop and freeze when there is a stop in the music.

 

 

 

They might be on tour in Europe at the moment but Motorhead get their biggest UK hit this week. Their fifth hit "Golden Years EP" moves 23-8 (37,000) and is a live EP of their current tour which has easily surpassed last years "Bomber" which peaked at No 34

 

 

 

One of the 70s biggest groups return this week to the big 10, none other than Hot Chocolate who now have their 9th top 10 hit with "No Doubt About It" which soars from 31-9 (37,000) people must love the sight of Errol Brown in a spacesuit!

 

 

 

If critical acclaim were a measure of sales then the Undertones would rest easy at No 1 this week but as it is they advance to No 10 with 36,000 people being tempted to part with their cash and give the band the first top 10 hit of their 18 month career.

 

 

Thanks to Johnny Logan No's 3-6 all drop 1 place Paul McCartney (62,000), Blondie (58,000) David Essex (50,000) and Sky (43,000) must all be ruing Eurovision this week.

 

 

1- GENO- Dexy’s Midnight Runners (93,000)

2- WHAT’S ANOTHER YEAR- Johnny Logan (69,000)

3- COMING UP- Paul McCartney (62,000)

4- CALL ME- Blondie (58,000)

5- SILVER DREAM MACHINE- David Essex (50,000)

6- TOCCATA- Sky (43,000)

7- THE GROOVE- Rodney Franklin (41,000)

8- GOLDEN YEARS E.P- Motorhead (37,000)

9- NO DOUBT ABOUT IT- Hot Chocolate (37,000)

10- MY PERFECT COUSIN- The Undertones (36,000)

 

I've never been able to get into that Dexy's track... it's okay but it's definitely not a particular favourite of mine.

That Johnny Logan track is really quite dull.

The Johnny Logan song is the definition of snoozefest

'The Groove' by Rodney Franklin is very good, I think the early piano house producers were influenced by songs like 'The Groove'.

 

The Johnny Logan track isn't the most interesting, but its saved by a good chorus.

 

The Undertones track I prefer over the Motorhead one, but the Motorhead song has good drumming it it!

 

'No Doubt About It' is very good, I like the change of style between the verses and chorus. The verses with the bass guitar certainly sound like an example of early 80s Britfunk, which Steve was talking about a few posts back!

Edited April 9, 20241 yr by TheSnake

'My Perfect Cousin' has some brilliant lines, namechecking University Challenge, Subbuteo, and The Human League before the latter had even made their chart debut!

To the surprise of no-one I'm sure Johnny Logan was managed by........Louis Walsh

I agree that My Perfect Cousin has some brilliant lines, I hadn't noticed the Human League being mentioned before.

 

No Doubt About It is my favourite Hot Chocolate song.

No Doubt About It is my favourite Hot Chocolate song.

 

The bassline in the verses is basically like the intro of 'Too Shy' 3 years ahead of time

Hot Choc another massive fave of mine, bought that one right away, I was a fan from the moment I first Errol & Co, the sci-fi theme and sound obv appealed to me a lot. The band never had a hit album, bar Greatest Hits collections, and very much had to fight for every single to become a hit, it was never guaranteed, not least because they genre-hopped like crazy and were hard to pigeon-hole. Which is why I loved them, and why their record of 15 consecutive years of at least one top 40 hit was really impressive and much-quoted at the time.

 

Johnny Logan was nice enough but got annoying after a while, Motorhead I much preferred my BJSC flop Overkill, and The Undertones still on top of their game, quirky with great lyrics. Feargal still doing his bit for the environment slagging off the money-spewing privately-owned debt-ridden polluting-rewarding water companies.

oh The Groove is great! sounds so familiar, did it re-chart later or someone covered it?