Wow I was not expecting that EBTG single to make the top 3 :o

 

 

I don't remember that Transvision Vamp single at all, I'd have guessed they were one hit wonders before seeing this

I know that Transvision Vamp song! I thought the "I don't want your money honey" chorus was really quite famous!

 

I only know that and the other "hit" though.

^ Yeah I'm also only familiar with that song and their next top 10... plus the Jennifer Ellison version of the latter :lol: *_*

 

'I Just Can't Stop Loving You' is an unfortunate #1 representative for the Bad era in the UK so far - 'Dirty Diana' is much better!

From memory of watching TOTP at the time TV had 4/5 top 40s, standard at the time!

Oh my love those 3 newbies all are 11/10 songs for me

I was obsessed with Debbie Gibson who had replaced Madonna as my fav artist

As Maddonna took 1988 off

Foolish beat was a US @1 which was fantastic for a teen playing and writing her songs

A world away from Tiffany and Glen Medeiros karaoke covers

 

And T Vamp were easily my fav bans, was also obsessed obsessed with Wendy James

I remember I got their albumon cassette and played it to death

No clue why I got it on cassette cos it was a chore when ithe tape got stuck

And you had to use a pencil to push it back

 

As with Debbie Gibson, I thought T vamp were here to stay

But both lasted 2 eras basically

 

Also love Dirty Diana, the best song in Bad

Pretty sure as a kid I thought it was about Lady Di and couldnt make it make sense :)

 

Tv had 7 top 40s and 3 more that peaked outside the t40

Funnily they had 1 US hit with Tell that girl to shut up, a uk flop!

I liked Transvision Vamp, a sort of throwback to singalong pop-punk, and this single was a step-up for them, Sadly not played that much these days which is shame, bet it'd sound fab loud in a karaoke bar on a bacardi n coke. Dirty Diana is great, I loved that album - on course to overtake Thriller as the best-selling album of all-time in the UK. But can it do it?! Are there any more singles that could come off it?! In my charts Bad, The Way You Make Me Feel and Man In The Mirror were a hat-trick of chart-toppers.

 

I thought Debbie Gibson showed more promise than the other teeny-bop stars, and this was her most accomplished single, and very obviously patterned on the Careless Whisper template. Using George as inspiration had already worked for David Cassidy (actual George on The Last Kiss) and Donny Osmond (Soldier Of Love) getting career revivals so surely it must pay dividends for Debbie...?

 

 

 

 

one thing I've always found unpredictable about music is how some artists last 1 era while others chart for 40 years and counting

and sometimes it's not easy to tell... who would have thought that all those teens would be gone in a couple of years to never trouble the single charts again while Kylie would still be charting in the 2020s

"Neighbours" undoubtedly helped Kylie initially, a daily reminder of her until October 89. She was also lucky that she seemed to get SAW's best output until she left them. Otherwise she's played the press game wisely and not gone off the rails in public view at least. Cultivating a gay audience has helped her to keep a certain level of fame regardless of how she was doing in the charts, and something that the others failed to do. That really saved her when she became "uncool" in the mainstream in the 90s.

30TH JULY

 

 

Suffering a 32% slump in sales yet still keeping the top slot shows just how far Glenn Medeiros was ahead last week, his tally this week is 63,274 which is still respectable in terms of 1988 and he remains 28,000 clear of Salt N Pepa who hold No 2 for a third week but are now in danger themselves as sales recede.

 

 

Indeed the whole top 5 are static for the first time since August 1984 and though Everything But The Girl (No 3, 32,453), Michael Jackson (No 4, 28,951) and Transvision Vamp (No 5, 27,064) all improve sales wise it isn’t by enough to pose any real threat to Medeiros yet who should see another week at the top if nothing else. Further down and also holding are Mac Band & The McCampbell brothers at No 8 (20,332) and Debbie Gibson at No 9 (20,077).

 

 

Supporting Michael Jackson on tour has paid off for Kim Wilde who has just done 5 nights at Wembley with the US Superstar and now has her 6th top 10 single with “You Came” shooting 16-6 (26,316). Wilde’s 6th studio album “Close” has been a bit of a wet squib so far, first single from the campaign “Hey Mr Heartache” fizzled out at No 31 seeing the album debut at peak at No 70, it re-enters at No 73 this week but has sold only 10,000 copies since it was released six weeks ago, hopefully the single will push it back up, only one of her previous albums (her debut album in fact) has gone top 10.

 

 

 

S Express return with their second single “Superfly Guy” which sees more of the same from Mark Moore which resulted in their debut release “Theme From S Express” top the charts for a fortnight in April. The album “Original Soundtrack” debuted at No 5 but left the chart after just 9 weeks and is yet to return. Meanwhile their second single advances 20-7 (23,749).

 

 

 

Yazz seems to have dumped Coldcut who gave her her first top 10 single back in February with “Doctorin The House” and headed out solo, that’s not strictly true as Coldcut are still present on the single producing it, but she’s chosen to do a cover of an Otis Clay track from 1980 called “The Only Way Is Up” for her first solo record. From the opening horn blast (sampled from Sharon Redd’s “Beat The Street”) this is a radical makeover of the Clay original and rockets 28-10 (19,890), Yazz is currently recording that all important debut album scheduled for Christmas.

 

 

 

1- NOTHING’S GONNA CHANGE MY LOVE FOR YOU- Glenn Medeiros (63,274)

2- PUSH IT/ TRAMP- Salt N Pepa (35,853)

3- I DON’T WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT- Everything But The Girl (32,453)

4- DIRTY DIANA- Michael Jackson (28,951)

5- I WANT YOUR LOVE- Transvision Vamp (27,064)

6- YOU CAME- Kim Wilde (26,316)

7- SUPERFLY GUY- S Express (23,749)

8- ROSES ARE RED- The Mac Band & The McCampbell Brothers (20,332)

9- FOOLISH BEAT- Debbie Gibson (20,077)

10- THE ONLY WAY IS UP- Yazz & The Plastic Population (19,890)

 

What an update!

 

'The Only Way Is Up' is way more poppy than 'Doctorin' The House', and its nice to hear a full song being done in the house style. I used to associate 'The Only Way Is Up' with the Communards 'Don't Leave Me This Way' and 'Never Can Say Goodbye' two and one years earlier respectively but it has that acid house bassline that makes it house and not hi-NRG. I still like to think of it as an evolution of the Communards' sound though, especially as its a cover of a song from the disco era.

 

'You Came's chorus is cheesy, of its time and very Stock Aitken Waterman!

 

Oh and that is a good follow up from S'Express with its quirky samples like AINT THIS THE MOTHER! But its more of a conventional song structure than Theme From S'express.

 

I'm more of an early 80s Kim Wilde fan ('Cambodia', 'Chequered Love', 'Kids in America' etc...) but do have a bit of a soft spot for 'You Came'.

 

I suspect a lot of my peers discovered 'The Only Way Is Up' via The Only Way Is Essex as it was very popular when I was at secondary school, however I never watched it.

'View From A Bridge' and 'The Second Time' have the best production for Kim Wilde songs I think both Hi-NRG but not as cheesy as S/A/W productions or 'You Came'.

Never Trust a Stranger >>>>

You Came is amazing, easily her #1 single. I much prefer late 80s Kim Wilde to early 80s. I own her albums Another Step and Close and both are fantastic albums

 

Also liked the Yazz song, not sure if I knew it was a cover. What a career start with Doctorin' the house and The only way is up, 2 late 80s classics

Kim Wilde was on the Live Lounge Radio 2 yesterday following her acclaimed live performance at the Radio 2 concert the other week. I always go to see Kim on tour, with brother/musical mastermind Ricky and Kim's niece Scarlett. The band is amazing, the new stuff is great and Close was a return to form for Kim in 1988 after her Motown cover smashed but the follow-ups didnt click. You Came she did a ballad version yesterday and it's still a great song however it's presented, Kim hits those notes. Never Trust A Stranger is as good as anything she has done (and she's done a lot of great stuff). She's touring, go and see her, she always commits and clearly loves what she's doing. New album Closer has 3 great tracks on it, at least, based on a quick runthrough I had yesterday. I was there for Kim at her Wembley support for Michael jackson. When I say I was there, I was there outside the building listening as I couldnt get tickets. Paul Young walked right by me with his model girlfriend in tow fashionably late. I went with friends to London for shopping record stores and we parked at Wembley on the offchance there might be tickets floating about.

 

The Only Way Is Up is a classic dancepop track with House production, and Yazz was clearly onto something special. S'Express was also a great dance track, this one a sort of 70's vibe to it, but still sounding very cool 1988 dance. So a hat-trick of goodies to me.

 

 

^you should have asked Pul Young for tickets :D

6TH AUGUST

 

 

It looked like a plain sailing week for Glenn Medeiros whose “Nothing’s Gonna Change My Love For You” seemed good to hold the top spot for a fifth week yet in the end it dropped 1-3 (48,382) it has sold over 400,000 copies as it departs the top spot and is the third biggest single of the year. TOTP decided the destination of the No 1 spot as Yazz & The Plastic Population catapult 10-1 (61,183) with their cover of “The Only Way Is Up”, it was sitting at No 3 on sales to the end of Thursday but in the last two day of sales it soared ahead overtaking the highest new entry right at the death.

 

 

 

Looking good for a sensation debut at No 1 until the end, that highest new entry becomes the highest debut by a female solo act ever in chart history overtaking Madonna’s “Who’s That Girl” which went in at No 3 last year, yes Kylie Minogue is doubtless celebrating tonight as a remixed version of her debut Australian single “The Loco-motion” comes straight in at No 2 after selling 50,762 copies. It’s her third top 2 single giving her the best start to any chart career since Frankie Goes To Hollywood in 1984 and is available (in an alternative version) on her debut album “Kylie” which peaked at No 2 four weeks ago. It’s the fourth version of the track to chart following in the footsteps of The Vernon Girls (No 47, 1962), Little Eva (No 2, 1962), and Dave Stewart and Barbara Gaskin (No 70, 1986) so Kylie has at least matched the peak of Little Eva, she also follows Bros in scoring a hat-trick of top 2 hits in 1988 though they of course needed re-issues to do the trick.

 

 

 

BVSMP stands for Baby Virgo Shocking Mister P, a US three piece whose rap hit “I Need You” jets in 22-7 (26,605) for the youngsters. The song was released here in March though did next to nothing but has taken off recently as it has become a big hit in Europe and most significantly hit No 2 in Spain which exposed it to a large UK audience holidaying who have snapped it up on their return though interestingly it failed to dent the US charts, perhaps mention of “virginity” was a step too far?

 

 

Lots of other action in the big 10 after last week’s stasis, Kim Wilde glides 6-4 (34,459), and S Express inch 7-6 (27,812), worse news for Salt N Pepa who give up the ghost 2-5 (27,914), Everything But The Girl slide 3-8 (26,333) as the re-issued “Idlewild” debuts at No 30, Transvision Vamp dip 5-9 (23,987) and Michael Jackson drops 4-10 (20,706) now that his UK tour dates are over.

 

 

1- THE ONLY WAY IS UP- Yazz & The Plastic Population (61,183)

2- THE LOCO-MOTION- Kylie Minogue (50,762)

3- NOTHING’S GONNA CHANGE MY LOVE FOR YOU- Glenn Medeiros (48,382)

4- YOU CAME- Kim Wilde (34,459)

5- PUSH IT/ TRAMP- Salt N Pepa (27,914)

6- SUPERFLY GUY- S Express (27,812)

7- I NEED YOU- BVSMP (26,605)

8- I DON’T WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT- Everything But The Girl (26,333)

9- I WANT YOUR LOVE- Transvision Vamp (23,987)

10- DIRTY DIANA- Michael Jackson (20,706)

 

^you should have asked Pul Young for tickets :D

 

Ha! :D I bet he got VIP complimentary tickets :teresa:

I swear I havent heard I Need You since 1988, I'd totally forgotten how it went - possibly something to do with peaking at 8 in my charts and then diving out after 6 weeks. They look about 15 years old! I quite enjoyed hearing it again actually. Sweet. Unlike Kylie's Locomotion remix, which was mostly annoying after the novelty wore off. Little Eva was top 3 for me in 1972, Grand Funk charted with it in 1974 in my charts, and I really didn't feel the need for any other version than Little Eva/Carole King. I still don't. It's one of those songs that sounds cheesy unless it's the original, party, version.