Yeah 'Let's Groove' has a great chorus!

My favourite Ultravox song made #16 in the UK charts at around this time, an epic!

 

 

Yes brilliant tune :D

28TH NOVEMBER

 

 

Perhaps the rate at which "Greatest Hits" by Queen is selling is stopping "Under Pressure" from really taking off (even though it isn't on the album) but for whatever reason the track sold a very respectable 102,000 last week (up 20%) and is the 29th week in 1981 where the No 1 has sold in six figures weekly (7 more than in all of 1980 in its entirety). In total "Under Pressure" has sold 230,000 copies in 21 days.

 

 

 

Soft Cell have a double celebration this month as "Tainted Love" passed "Stand And Deliver" as the best selling single of 1981 (The Ants still can't pass Queen on the album charts), and follow up track "Bedsitter" also arrives in the top 10 today 13-5 (53,000) as a precursor to their debut album "Non Stop Erotic Cabaret" which is due this week and should be a big festive seller.

 

 

 

Pencilled in to be produced by Chic the new Diana Ross album actually marks the beginning of Ross as a producer himself and she's chosen the Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers classic "Why Do Fools Fall In Love" which topped the UK charts back in 1956, The album was released back in September and has already made the top 20 though it has so far disappointed in relation to previous set "Diana".

 

 

 

After covering the Kinks track "Stop Your Sobbing" to give them their first hit, the Pretenders return to the top flight today with another Kinks cover, this time "I Go To Sleep" which is a fourth single from their "Pretenders II" album. The fact that Hynde has just started dating the Kinks frontman Davies ensures that he won't be envious of the single's success as it leaps 12-10 (41,000) this week, a surprise to some given the last single bombed at No 45.

 

 

Julio Iglesias and Earth Wind & Fire benefit from TOTP this week as they move northwards 3-2 (94,000) and 9-3 (77,000) respectively, which means that Haircut 100 are stranded at No 4 despite a healthy sales increase themselves to 73,000. The rest are fallers, OMD drop 5-6 (50,000), Olivia Newton-John slips against predictions 7-8 (44,000) and the Police are heading out of the top 10 as they rush 2-9 (42,000)

 

 

 

1- UNDER PRESSURE- David Bowie & Queen (102,000)

2- BEGIN THE BEGUINE (VOLVER A EMPAZAR)- Julio Iglesias (94,000)

3- LET’S GROOVE- Earth, Wind & Fire (77,000)

4- FAVOURITE SHIRTS (BOY MEETS GIRL)- Haircut 100 (73,000)

5- BEDSITTER- Soft Cell (53,000)

6- JOAN OF ARC- O.M.D (50,000)

7- WHY DO FOOLS FALL IN LOVE- Diana Ross (49,000)

8- PHYSICAL- Olivia Newton John (44,000)

9- EVERY LITTLE THING SHE DOES IS MAGIC- The Police (42,000)

10- I GO TO SLEEP- The Pretenders (41,000)

 

 

With Christmas just a month away we turn to who will take the festive chart topper?

 

ANT RAP- Adam & The Ants

Bookies favourites and with two back to back chart toppers you can see why! The video will apparently feature none other than Lulu- who can stop them!

 

CHRISTMAS ON 45- Holly And The Ivys

Combining Christmas with the medley craze of 1981- what can go wrong and Starsound has already proved this can be commercial gold.

 

DON’T YOU WANT ME- Human League

Fourth cut from “Dare” which may hamper it, but it’s already touted as the best thing on the album and the last two singles both went top 10- should be there or thereabouts

 

HAPPY XMAS (WAS IS OVER)- John Lennon & Yoko Ono

Missed out on the top spot last year, is there enough goodwill to his memory to succeed this year?

 

HOKEY COKEY- Snowmen

Seasonal favourite given a 1981 twist- is it silly enough to succeed?

 

 

I WANNA BE A WINNER- Brown Sauce

The presenters of Multi-Coloured swapshop combine to give us this novelty wonder- it should have the Kids vote and that can be enough at Christmas!

 

IT MUST BE LOVE- Madness

On a hot streak of 8 straight top 10 singles in a row but the search is still on for their first chart topper- could this be the one?

 

JINGLE BELLS- Hysterics

Hysterical laughter to the tune of “Jingle Bells”- as entertaining as it sounds but then if St Winifred’s School Choir can convince people, who can say.

 

LAND OF MAKE BELIEVE- Bucks Fizz

Proving remarkably resilient to their critics- this one is getting rave reviews and the child friendly chorus and lyrics may prove a festive hit

 

MERRY XMAS EVERYBODY/ I WISH IT COULD BE CHRISTMAS EVERYDAY

The seasonals are back for anyone that wants to buy them though most of us are just asking why!

 

MY OWN WAY- Duran Duran

One of the most talked about new groups of the year, last single became a top 5 hit- can this do better?

 

ONE OF US- Abba

A new album and single in time for Christmas- Could Abba finally bag themselves the festive No 1?

 

SPIRITS IN THE MATERIAL WORLD- The Police

Their last single hit No 1 and they are rarely far from the top spot- discount them at your peril

Under Pressure, I bought that one and topped my chart, then I went off it a bit quite quickly - being Bowie & Queen it was almost obligatory to like it, but it took Vanilla Ice to help me come back to it again.

I feel similarly about it - I've mentioned elsewhere that the intro which Vanilla Ice sampled is my favourite part, and the rest of it sounds to me like different songs stuck together with Freddie's "de da de da" ad libs filling in the gaps - still it had a good message, and as superstar collaboration #1s of the 1980s went, it wasn't Bowie's worst :lol:

 

'Bedsitter' is a great addition this week with those lyrics about day and night life.

'Bedsitter' :wub: "battle scars of all the good times"

 

'Why Do Fools Fall In Love' is also a bit of a bop

Bedsitter is a good follow up for Soft Cell, it's a much better idea of the type of songs on the album too. On its own it sounds like quite an unlikely top 10 hit to me but I guess the success of Tainted Love must have helped it somewhat.

This thread has gone so fast, nearly Christmas already :drama:

 

The bass synth riff in Bedsitter sounds like a cowboy film or something, The song isn't anywhere as good as 'Tainted Love' but the lyrical themes about going to clubs and mundane life are interesting. I guess the genre of music played in different nightclubs at this time would be very varied just like the charts.

Edited July 15, 20241 yr by TheSnake

Bedsitter :wub:

Not the biggest fan of Bedsitter myself, surprised it did so well

 

More of a Pretenders fan <3 but never knew I Go to Sleep was a cover

Edited July 16, 20241 yr by Bjork

Bedsitter was OK but it's no Tainted Love, the next single would be the one to convince me about Soft Cell long-term. Diana Ross had already made her ego plain with Chic producers, wanting her vocal higher in the mix on the last album, so I'm guessing that's behind the first Capitol album sounding rubbish. I really rated the Frankie Lymon track at the time, so her version was just so bland it got on my nerves. Pretty much everything she released was plodding till Michael Jackson decided he'd like to donate a track to Aunty Di, as he had a thing for Muscles. His snake, obviously.

 

I Go To Sleep was fab, and I'd already seen Pretenders earlier in the year in Mansfield Sports Centre, standing gig only. They were cracking, sadly Mansfield was more of a Rockabilly town and people couldnt seem to be arsed to turn up in huge numbers - I think Chrissie even mentions it in a book I read once. Large numbers of people being on the dole is no excuse - I still managed to get the cash, and I was unemployed and the pubs were always full at weekends. Sadly 2 of the band would be dead within a couple of years. Support band The Bureau were Dexys Midnight Runners mark 1, minus Kevin Rowland, a shame they never made it.

5TH DECEMBER

 

 

We're now in the run up to the big day and those big festive hits are now starting to line up. Abba are releasing a new single next week a week ahead of a new album and are favourites in some quarters for the festive No 1 along with Adam & The Ants who will challenging Abba for a new entry in the top 10. All of this is by way of explanation of the curious "holding" nature of the top 10 this week and the fact that Julio Iglesias rises to the top of the charts despite a sales drop to just 83,000 copies, the song has now sold 341,016 in total so the track will be lucky to make vast inroads into the top 40 for the year. It is the second single in a foreign language to hit the top after "Je T'aime Moi (Non Plus)" in 1969 and the second Spanish act to make the top after Baccara in 1977

 

 

Iglesias was the only one of the top 3 not to feature on TOTP this week but in a curious reversal of the effect of the show the other tracks all lose sales indicating their appeal is truly on the wain, Queen & Bowie fall a spot 1-2 (71,000) and Earth, Wind & Fire hold at No 3 but lose 18% sales wise to post 63,000 sales this week.

 

 

Looking very confident in its challenge for Christmas No 1 Cliff Richard rounds off a successful 1981 with "Daddy's Home" a cover of a Shep and the Limelights 1961 US hit that did nothing in the UK charts so is still unknown to many in this country. It accelerates 15-6 (57,000) this week and in a weak market could easily go to No 1 next Sunday.

 

 

 

Nothing, it seems can stop the Human League in 1981, who today score a third top 10 hit in just 3 months with "Don't You Want Me". An usual video of a film within a film has garnered interest and helped in making the fourth single from the No 1 album "Dare" a hit. Indeed the band are reputedly not happy with the release of the single at all, only becoming convinced that it would be good value for their fans by including a poster of the band on the 7" vinyl, whether or not that's true it appears to have done the trick as the track becomes the 12th single to debut in the top 10 this year as it crashes in at No 9 (38,000). Incidentally if you're wondering why the single sleeve credits "Human League 100" instead of the usual "red" or "blue" label they employ, then the 100 is a reference to their favourite restaurant in Sheffield which at No 100 address wise apparently.

 

 

 

Formed from the remnants of the band Leyton Buzzards, Modern Romance broke onto the chart landscape this summer with "Everybody Salsa" and this week hope to get that Christmas office party all sown up with "Ay Ay Ay Ay Moosey" which climbs 12-10 (37,000), don't count against this one going much higher over the next weeks.

 

 

Elsewhere this week climbers include Diana Ross climbs 7-5 (61,000) and The Pretenders rocket 10-7 (50,000) whilst Soft Cell hold at No 4 (62,000) making a repeat of "Tainted Love" looking unlikely, and Haircut 100 drop 4-8 (43,000) as their challenge falters.

 

1- BEGIN THE BEGUINE (VOLVER A EMPAZAR)- Julio Iglesias (83,000)

2- UNDER PRESSURE- David Bowie & Queen (71,000)

3- LET’S GROOVE- Earth Wind & Fire (63,000)

4- BEDSITTER- Soft Cell (62,000)

5- WHY DO FOOLS FALL IN LOVE- Diana Ross (61,000)

6- DADDY’S HOME- Cliff Richard (57,000)

7- I GO TO SLEEP- The Pretenders (50,000)

8- FAVOURITE SHIRTS (BOY MEETS GIRL)- Haircut 100 (43,000)

9- DON’T YOU WANT ME?- The Human League (38,000)

10- AY AY AY AY MOOSEY- Modern Romance (37,000)

 

 

Next week all eyes on Abba and Adam & The Ants.

'Don't You Want Me' :wub: :wub: crazy that it was released so late in the campaign... one of the best synth-pop songs of all-time.

Ay ay aye Moosey is good fun I used to group it in with 2tone/ska, similar brass instruments but it's actually different more salsa.

 

Don't You Want Me is very good if a bit overplayed that's interesting about the blue and red single label covers for dance and pop the Human League used and how Don't You Want Me didn't have either, I would suggest it's more pop but it can be difficult sometimes to distinguish between what was defined dance and pop in this era.

Edited July 16, 2024Jul 16 by TheSnake

Pretty obvious what the highlight of the latest batch is, what a classic and one of my earliest musical memories. Even though I was only 2-3 years old I can really clearly remember enjoying this song. :wub:

'Don't You Want Me' :wub: :wub: crazy that it was released so late in the campaign... one of the best synth-pop songs of all-time.

 

Even more crazy that the band considered it being released as a single a bad idea. Imagine... ! 😳

love love Don't you want me, a masterclass in songwriting

 

but Julio at #1!!!!! What's wrong with people :D he really brainwash everybody into buying this pile of sh*te!! :D

Don't You Want Me is a classic and I bought the single with poster attached. I didn't know Daddy's Home, though my dad did know the song, and I liked the 50's vibes, one of Cliff's best non-Alan Tarney song hits of the 80's. Sweet. Modern Romance never a huge fave of mine but jolly enough.

 

Re the drop in sales, the UK entered a massive prolonged sub-zero cold snap in early December and people stayed at home. I ventured the walk into Mansfield town centre, trudging through the frozen snow, to buy Human League, Abba's new single and then the album. By the time I got the album home the vinyl had warped slightly from the bitter cold. That shows both dedication and stupidity! The cold snap lasted into january so I wouldnt be surprised if sales stayed low, bar pre-christmas week or two when everybody was shopping for xmas prezzies regardless.

^ pop, just curious what you thought of Julio? Who was buying his single?

 

Hmmm I’m guessing the sales of the #1 won’t stay that low!

 

 

I’ve spoilered myself just in case I’m accidentally giving anything away but I don’t know for certain what they will be

^ pop, just curious what you thought of Julio? Who was buying his single?

 

I wasnt a fan and it was definitely mums who were buying it, maybe younger grans too being such an old song. Not my mum, mind you, more into Queen pretty soon and Boney M already and I Will Survive, but then my mum was only 43 at the time and her idea of a hot man was more Steve McQueen, Paul Newman, Charles Bronson than Julio, and she'd rather watch Star Trek or Star Wars anyday.... :) Julio seemed older than his 41 somehow! I dont remember Radio 1 playing it except when they had to for chart purposes.