Wow crazy high sales!

Love love love Buffalo Stance! Such a great pop song, let's pretend it never started as a SAW song :D

 18 hours ago, dandy* said:

Have since sussed out that Petula Clark had a song called Cut Copy Me - and that you were in fact not referring to the band Cut Copy who were around in the 2010s 🫣

yes sorry about that, lazy typing on my part. It was also a BJSC track if I recall. It topped my chart anyway, love it. Bet Lana Del Ray would like it! :)

 

Cliff pipped Yazz at the post, then! I dont recall that headline at the time, but Kylie & Jason I knew did well on sales even before the end of the year. Record Mirror usually didn't do a Xmas/New Year edition, I think....at least with up-to-date info.

It was great having The Four Tops back in the top 10, one of my fave groups of the 60's and 70's and I caught them on tour in 3 months time, original 50's line-up still intact. Buffalo Stance is a great track too, What's 'e like?!

Buffalo Stance is easily the best this week, and indeed one of the best of the year. I remember thinking at the time it sounded so cool compared to everything else

7TH JANUARY



As expected the final week of 1988 proves to be particularly savage on sales with Christmas sales all jammed into one week in effect, almost everything in the top 10 slides saleswise with some spectacularly bad percentages coming into play. First up the good news, even with a 64% loss “Especially For You” rises 2-1 to finally hit the top and give Jason his first chart topper, Kylie her second, and S/A/W’s 6th as producers, it sold 66,827 copies to have a relatively easy victory in the end though they will doubtless be sad to miss out on the big one! The last record to spend 4 weeks at No 2 before hitting No 1 was Del Shannon's "Runaway" all the way back in 1961!  Erasure are playing bridesmaid’s this week with “Crackers International EP” buoyed 3-2 (38,488) accompanied by a 55% drop in sales, and Angry Anderson proving sticking power with “Suddenly” rebounds 4-3 (29,971 – 57%).

The very un-festive Inner City reach a new peak 6-4 (24,837 - 45%) a fact that bodes well in the Christmas shake out, probably, next week. Talking of Christmas the festive chart topper is, as expected, heading south, Cliff’s “Mistletoe & Wine” drops 1-5 (24,667 -89%), that percentage drop is eye watering and he may be lucky to be in the top 20 at all next week if that is replicated again, however it also means that the last three No 1 singles have all dropped 1-5, a unique chart feat!

Neneh Cherry and The Four Tops can both be happy though as they continue momentum north, Cherry rises 7-6 (22,491- 36%) and the Tops 9-7 (16,983- 50%) but it looks to be all over for Status Quo who drop 5-8 (16,626-68%) and Bros who slump 8-10 (14,365- 58%) but "Cat" has spent 6 weeks in the top 10- their most enduring hit chart wise to date!

The sole new song comes from Kim Wilde as she slices a fourth single from her “Close” album. Never before has she strung together three top 10 singles together but the decision to tour with Michael Jackson has been one of the best moves of her career with the revitalisation of her career something to behold. “Four Letter Word” climbs 14-9 (14,994) but despite that “Close” remains outside the top 5 and is yet to clear the 150,000 mark, disappointing as it seems that there aren’t many prepared to commit for an album’s worth from Wilde.

So farewell 1988, as we welcome the last year on our 80s journey, 1989.


1- ESPECIALLY FOR YOU- Kylie Minogue & Jason Donovan (66,827)
2- THE CRACKERS INTERNATIONAL EP- Erasure (38,488)
3- SUDDENLY- Angry Anderson (29,971)
4- GOOD LIFE- Inner City (24,837)
5- MISTLETOE AND WINE- Cliff Richard  (24,667)
6- BUFFALO STANCE- Neneh Cherry (22,491)
7- LOCO IN ACAPULCO- The Four Tops (16,983)
8- BURNING BRIDGES (ON AND OFF AND ON AGAIN)- Status Quo (16,626)
9- FOUR LETTER WORD- Kim Wilde (14,994)
10- CAT AMONG THE PIGEONS/ SILENT NIGHT- Bros  (14,365)

And so it only remains to thank all who commented and contributed to the thread! See you for 1989 next month!

yay so glad Kylie & Jason made it!! bye bye Cliff! and great that Stop made it to #2

love Four Letter Word by Kim Wilde, 3 great top 10s for her in a row. I did buy the Close album and was great too.

thanks for the thread @Gezza, easily the best thread in Buzzjack <3

I genuinely don't think, having completed this, that 1988 is as bad as some would have you believe, nor is it as S/A/W dominated either as thought. Many non SAW tracks did sound "S/A/W- ish" which I think makes it seems worse to those that don't enjoy them- but I think the year has something for everyone (much like the rest of the 80s to be honest).

Given the new found domination of young female acts and abundance of pure pop it is, in some ways, the most buzzjack friendly year of the 80s

Good Life is great, an enduring classic! Angel of Harlem is also a good tribute to Billie Holiday and a good song and also with the horns different to U2's usual style. Buffalo Stance is fab yes it owes a lot to previous late 80s female rap especially Real Roxanne but great still.

Edited March 2Mar 2 by TheSnake

Thanks Gezza for yet another amazing yearly thread.

I await April’s 1989 thread eagerly!

The only thing missing in 88 was Madonna otherwise music was similar to 86-87

Personally much better than early 80s, which are not for me

Theres nothing I dislike more than Culture club, Madness, Spandau Ballet, Ub40, Shakin stevens etc

Thanks, as always, for this thread.

Enjoyed seeing the arrival of Kylie and the five singles she managed to hit the Top 2 with throughout the year.

I remember Especially For You finally making the top spot at the time.

Onwards to 1989 now...

'Buffalo Stance' is my favourite in the last couple of Top 10s - one of the earliest songs on The Best Dance Album In The World Ever! 2 which was my introduction to a number of dance classics when I got it in 1995.

Thank you for the thread Gezza. Look forward to completing the 1980s soon!

As always, a wonderful thread Gezza. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed following it and really appreciate the huge effort to make these.

Thanks for doing this Gezza, lots of facts I didn't know, and I enjoyed 1988 at the time - I thought it was probably my least-fave year of the 80's but these things are always relative and there are always classics. Kim ended the year on another chart-topper for me in Four Letter Word, which still sounds lovely (she did it a couple of weeks back live on Radio 2), but in retrospect Never Trust A Stranger should have been my number one, and this one top 5.

On 23/02/2025 at 14:46, Gezza said:

Looking back on 1988 if they had released GTBC one week later, and Locomotion, JNSPP and EFY one week earlier then they would all have made No 1 in 1988 for Kylie (assuming the same sales pattern for all records).

You sound like Hadji there 🤣

1 hour ago, Steve201 said:

You sound like Hadji there 🤣

High praise

On 28/02/2025 at 06:56, Bjork said:

poor Especially for You, but at least it was beaten by quite strong sales from Cliff

that Bros cover of Silent Night is torture evil :o

Quite strong? They were consistently huge for 1988!

'Loco In Acapulco' is another fab 60s Motown influenced upbeat song, is it better than the fellow Dozier and Holland written 'Two Hearts' by Phil Collins?....probably imo!

Edited March 6Mar 6 by TheSnake