How unfortunate was 'Vienna' being held off that by crap oops.

 

On the opposite spectrum I like Roxy Music and 'Jealous Guy' was a great cover.

 

'Kids In America' is fab as well.

'Reward' is an interesting song, very fast beat. Thought it was new wave but its actually more 60s psychadelic and Northern Soul infleunced apparently https://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/mar/...des-julian-cope

 

The Toyah song is also interesting, but I prefer 'I Want To Be Free' from her.

 

This debut from Duran Duran made #12 around this time, some great electronic new wave, a bit of an epic and its a song I have only started to appreciate quite recently.

 

 

I must check the rest of the 1981 top 40 chart for interesting new entries going forward.

 

Yeh ‘Planet Earth’ is a fantastic debut, would peak at 12 in this period after a 5 week rise!

 

The Teardrop Explodes were one of my fav discoveries from TOTP reruns at this time after Japan!!

 

Edited June 10, 20241 yr by Steve201

28TH MARCH

 

 

As predicted nothing could stop Shakin' Stevens this week as "This Ole House" makes its expected move 2-1 on a healthy sale of 101,000 taking overall sales to 263,000 for the track which is now easily his biggest seller. 27 years after the track first reached No 1 this is a pre-cursor to Shaky's re-issued and re-titled 2nd album for the Epic label also called "This Ole House" which is re-released this week, originally released last October entitled "Marie Marie" after his then single, perhaps it will have better luck with its new title after failing to chart initially.

 

 

Shaky's rise comes with a sales increase, not so for Kim Wilde whose "Kids In America" does moves 3-2 yet drops back in sales losing 9% at 67,000. Roxy Music were never in danger of retaining the top spot as they collapse 1-3 (59,000) almost falling further as Toyah drive 8-4 (57,000) after a strong TOTP performance.

 

 

Back with a third top 10 hit from "Hotter Than July" Stevie Wonder manages three top 10 singles on the trot for only the second time in his career (he previously did the trick in 1969/1970) as "Lately" climbs 18-6 (49,000).

 

 

 

It seems Fred Wedlock has started a trend, as now comedian Tony Capstick follows him into the top 10 with "Capstick Comes Home/ The Sheffield Grinder" which zooms 54-10 (38,000) this week! It features The Carlton Main/Frickley Colliery Band and can be heard on the latest Hovis advert, Capstick has been a performer on the Folk scene (like Wedlock), 1981 is shaping up to be an eclectic year!

 

 

The Who hold at No 9 (41,000) though sales slip despite TOTP, and on their way down are Adam & The Ants 4-5 (52,000), Coast To Coast 5-7 (48,000), and Teardrop Explodes 6-8 (41,000)

 

 

1- THIS OLE HOUSE- Shakin Stevens (101,000)

2- KIDS IN AMERICA- Kim Wilde (67,000)

3- JEALOUS GUY- Roxy Music (59,000)

4- FOUR FROM TOYAH- Toyah (57,000)

5- KINGS OF THE WILD FRONTIER- Adam & The Ants (52,000)

6- LATELY- Stevie Wonder (49,000)

7- DO THE HUCKLEBUCK- Coast To Coast (48,000)

8- REWARD- Teardrop Explodes (41,000)

9- YOU BETTER, YOU BET- The Who (41,000)

10- CAPSTICK COMES HOME/ SHEFFIELD GRINDER- Tony Capstick (38,000)

 

'You Better You Bet' reminds me a lot of Meatloaf.

 

Not the biggest fan of ballads but Lately' is a good song.

Edited June 10, 20241 yr by TheSnake

'Reward' is a great addition! On the other hand, I discovered that Tony Capstick thing on a random 80s TOTP repeat last year and still can't quite believe that was a hit single :lol:

 

My favourite run of #2s ever watch: 01. Antmusic | 02. In The Air Tonight | 03. Vienna | 04. Kings of the Wild Frontier | 05. Kids in America :wub:

There were plenty of classics in the top 10 while I was away: In The Air Tonight, I Am The Beat, Rapture, Vienna, Fade To Grey, Romeo And Juliet, Kids In America and Reward. 1981 is proving to be a great year so far.

4TH APRIL

 

 

Shaky embeds himself at the No 1 spot this week with "This Ole House" on an improved sale of 117,000 to take the tracks total sales to 380,000 and that's also enough to see the song sprint into the top 10 for the year (at No 9 to be exact), his album of the same title also finally makes the chart by entering at no 37. All this Shaky news is no good for Kim Wilde who finds herself barred from the top spot for a second week despite a TOTP performance, she can console herself with a sales hike of 22% week on week to a new best of 81,000 and a total now standing at 323,000 enough to place her 11th for the year.

 

 

 

 

Next Saturday sees the annual Eurovision Song contest and this years UK entrant are Bucks Fizz a group formed specifically for the contest and should produce some raised eyebrows at the competition with their skirt ripping routine. Early indications look promising for the song which races 24-5 today (66,000), it has easily outperformed last years entry "Love Enough For Two" by Prima Donna which peaked at No 48 though it came third on the night, in fact Bucks Fizz now have the highest peaking UK entry since Brotherhood of Man's "Save Your Kisses For Me" and we all know how well that did!

 

 

 

Richard Burgess may be better known for production on work by Spandau Ballet but he's back to the day job as part of the band Landscape who have been plugging away for the better part of 10 years with no chart success until their current single "Einstein A Go-Go" exploded in sales and now jumps 11-8 (39,000).

 

 

 

 

You may recall last month that there was an odd TOTP in which there was no audience and no live acts?! That was because of a short lived sound engineer strike at the BBC- but one of the side effects was that the show relied on repeat performances and promo's and the way the charts looked that week gave airtime to Link's "Intuition" was actually outside the top 40 in actual fact- a rarity for TOTP. That promotion helped the Follow up to "You're Lying" arrive in the top 10 for the first time this week. Rising 13-10 (36,000) the group have recently reduced their size to just two members but a little is clearly going a long way for the duo.

 

 

Dave Lee Travis is rewarded for his current championing of the Tony Capstick record as it continues to climb 10-3 (69,000) but seems too far off the pace to pose a threat to the top 2 next week, meanwhile Stevie Wonder continues to climb 6-4 (66,000). Everything else drops, Toyah 4-6 (55,000), Roxy Music 3-7 (39,000) and Coast To Coast 7-9 (39,000).

 

 

 

1- THIS OLE HOUSE- Shakin Stevens (117,000)

2- KIDS IN AMERICA- Kim Wilde (81,000)

3- CAPSTICK COMES HOME/ SHEFFIELD GRINDER- Tony Capstick (69,000)

4- LATELY- Stevie Wonder (66,000)

5- MAKING YOUR MIND UP- Bucks Fizz (66,000)

6- FOUR FROM TOYAH- Toyah (55,000)

7- JEALOUS GUY- Roxy Music (39,000)

8- EINSTEIN A GO GO- Landscape (39,000)

9- DO THE HUCKELBUCK- Coast To Coast (39,000)

10- INTUITION- Linx (36,000)

 

Intuition is tropical pop well before 2016.

 

Einstein A Go Go is an interesting novelty synthpop song.

Of course everyone loves Bucks Fizz - what a pop song!!

 

Also love Landscape and more brit funk in the shape of Linx!! Is the singer in the band from Fame Academy?

Of course everyone loves Bucks Fizz - what a pop song!!

 

Also love Landscape and more brit funk in the shape of Linx!! Is the singer in the band from Fame Academy?

Yes David Grant

Capstick is iconic and I will not have it said otherwise.

 

Einstein A Go Go is another great addition.

11TH APRIL

 

 

No change at the top of the charts today as "This Ole House" continues to rule the roost with a further 101,000 copies passing over the counter though that is a 13% drop making it vulnerable to defeat next week in the main thanks to Bucks Fizz who ascent 5-2 this week on a sale of 98,000 and with their victory on Saturday at Eurovision can anything really stop this from becoming the UK's next No 1 single next week? Another day of sales and it would be there already!

 

 

 

New entries to the top 10 are thin on the ground with the Whispers becoming the highest new entries as they move 11-9 (40,000). They were of course last in the top 10 back in early 1980 as "And The Beat Goes On" made No 2 held off by Kenny Rogers, "It's A Love Thing" is the first release from their new album "Imagination" and has improved considerably over their last single "My Girl" which made No 26.

 

 

 

Hazel O'Connor also makes a two place leap 12-10 (39,000) with her third single "D-Days" an abbreviation of "Decadent Days" and is the first single from O'Connor's second album "Sons and Lovers" which is on the albion label as O'Connor and A & M (the label who released the "Breaking Glass" album) are currently in dispute over copyright issues. Regardless her career continues at a fair pace and sees a second top 10 hit for her in under a year.

 

 

Climbers this week include Stevie Wonder 4-3 (73,000), Landscape 8-5 (55,000) and Linx 10-7 (48,000) whilst Kim Wilde 2-4 (71,000), Tony Capstick 3-6 (52,000) and Toyah 6-8 (43,000) all drop.

 

1- THIS OLE HOUSE- Shakin Stevens (101,000)

2- MAKING YOUR MIND UP- Bucks Fizz (98,000)

3- LATELY- Stevie Wonder (73,000)

4- KIDS IN AMERICA- Kim Wilde (71,000)

5- EINSTEIN A GO GO- Landscape (55,000)

6- CAPSTICK COMES HOME/ THE SHEFFIELD GRINDER- Tony Capstick (52,000)

7- INTUITION- Linx (48,000)

8- FOUR FROM TOYAH- Toyah (43,000)

9- IT’S A LOVE THING- The Whispers (40,000)

10- D-DAYS- Hazel O’Connor (39,000)

 

 

As we are also at the end of the first quarter of 1981 here's the top 10 best sellers of the year so far!

 

1- VIENNA- Ultravox 686,772

2- SHADDAP YOU FACE- Joe Dolce Musical Theatre 661,500

3- WOMAN- John Lennon 569.052

4- IMAGINE- John Lennon 523,548

5- THIS OLE HOUSE- Shakin Stevens 481,764

6- JEALOUS GUY- Roxy Music 469,092

7- ANTMUSIC- Adam & The Ants 423,096

8- IN THE AIR TONIGHT- Phil Collins 418,956

9- KIDS IN AMERICA- Kim Wilde 394,128

10- (DO) THE HUCKLEBUCK- Coast To Coast 392,424

 

You'll note that Joe Dolce has faded badly allowing Ultravox to take over as the current best seller of the year!

 

 

D Days is another good song from Hazel O'Connor and Einstein A Go Go is quirky synthpop.

Like the Hazel OConnor song!

 

Also great to see ‘Vienna’ winning out on the overall sales chart!!

18TH APRIL

 

 

There was never any doubt over the destination of this weeks No 1 as Bucks Fizz crown their Eurovision victory with a No 1 single with "Making Your Mind Up". It's a better performance for one member Cheryl Baker who was of course a member of Co-Co who came 11th in 1978 at the event, it also did it in style recording a sale of 134,000, leaving Shakin' Stevens a distant second with 64,000, not that he will be complaining, his album of the same name is still climbing 8-4 this week, and the single sprints to sales of 545,000 which is also enough for the 4th biggest seller of the year.

 

 

 

He may be a new name to the singles chart but you've heard the music of Ennio Morricone before as he composed several film scores for some of the biggest Westerns of the last 15 years. This time around however he's turned his attention to TV and provided the theme for the current BBC documentary drama of the life and times of David Lloyd George, it is however an old song as he composed it in 1971 and featured on his film "Maddalena", this week it jumps 19-4 (61,000) in its second chart week.

 

 

 

Having left Rainbow last year Graham Bonnet resumes his solo chart career with a third solo album due this year, the lead single "Night Games" becomes his first solo hit as it moves 12-6 (41,000) Francis Rossi of Status Quo has been confirmed as one of the albums producers- should be good.

 

 

 

Peddling a new genre of music called "Lovers Rock" the essentially UK take on Jamaican reggae is rewarded with a top 10 hit in the form of Sugar Minott and his cover of Michael Jackson's "Good Thing Going" which arrives 14-7 (40,000) Since his arrival in the UK last year the singer has quickly acquired a sizeable fanbase as his first single demonstrates.

 

 

 

And talking of Michael Jackson, he's back on group duties this week with "Can You Feel It" for the Jacksons. It is taken from the album "Triumph" which was released last October and peaked at No 13 and is the third track to be released as a single yet it is by far the biggest hit thanks in part to a rather expensive (and long) video to accompany the track- it rises 11-8 (38,000)

 

 

Elsewhere Stevie Wonder holds at No 3 as he loses 14% sales but still posts a sale of 62,000, similarly Landscape hold at No 5 (42,000, a decline of 23%) and The Whispers hold at No 9 (38,000) whilst Linx drop back to No 10 (35,000)

 

 

 

1- MAKING YOUR MIND UP- Bucks Fizz (134,000)

2- THIS OLE HOUSE- Shakin Stevens (64,000)

3- LATELY- Stevie Wonder (62,000)

4- CHI MAI (THEME FROM “THE LIFE AND TIMES OF LLOYD GEORGE”)- Ennio Morricone (61,000)

5- EINSTEIN A GO GO- Landscape (42,000)

6- NIGHT GAMES- Graham Bonnet (41,000)

7- GOOD THING GOING- Sugar Minott (40,000)

8- CAN YOU FEEL IT- The Jacksons (38,000)

9- IT’S A LOVE THING- The Whispers (38,000)

10- INTUITION- Linx (35,000)

 

That’s a pretty ropey top 10 for 1981!

Sugar Minnot is my favourite NE there, remember how catchy it was watching the TOTP repeats!

 

Wouldn’t mind watching that David Lloyd George programme tbh!

 

And how did Bucks Fizz not have a cover 🙄

And how did Bucks Fizz not have a cover 🙄

Funnily enough I was thinking about this. I think it was probably because the UK entry for eurovision hadn't been a decent hit since 1976 so maybe not much was expected?

'Chi Mai' is a stunning addition :wub:

Wouldn’t mind watching that David Lloyd George programme tbh!

Sorry just looked and all 9 episodes are on YouTube.