never liked Drama, was a very very very disappointing return for me after the 3 amazing singles from The Innocents

much prefer You keep it all in, another great one from The Beautiful South

Pump Up The Jam was a pounding dance tune, pity they didnt give credit to Ya Kid K though. Oww-wah! Sydney Youngblood also a great record, topped my charts that one. Cherish not quite up to Like A Prayer, maybe, but it's quite sweet and was big in the USA while I was touring. We went on a humpback/minky whale boat tour from Plymouth, mass around about this time. The video always reminds me of that, loads of photos of whales popping up to pose for me. I cherish the whale of a time. Sorry, couldnt resist!

I didnt know JAMC did backing vocals on Drama! A good track, that was one I bought in USA multi-track CD remixes mode. 8 tracks with mixes of Drama, Sweet Baby Sweet and Paradis, I couldnt resist. Wonder if it's worth owt these days... Just checked, nah, just a fiver second-hand. Must play it agin! You Keep It All In, wordplay always top-notch with Paul, but I often just found them musically pleasant and not much more, at least in the early Beautiful South days.

Just checked and Madonna in the US did: Like a prayer (1), Express yourself (2), Cherish (2)

Bit of a step down from True Blue, which gave her 3 US #1s with Live to tell, Papa dont preach and Open your heart

Same result actually in the Uk although the 3 #1s from True blue were Papa dont preach, True blue and La isla bonita

7TH OCTOBER

Not such a convincing victory for Black Box this week but “Ride On Time” holds on for a fifth week which, along with “Swing The Mood” marks the first time that back to back chart toppers have lasted 5 weeks at the top apiece in just under 6 years. Black Box "only" sold 84,252 copies this week though, its winning margin halved as “Pump Up The Jam” lifts 3-2 (69,105), total sales of the track are now 567,494 as it chases “Swing The Mood” for the title of biggest hit of 1989, as the year is now three quarters of the way done here’s the YTD top 10:



1- SWING THE MOOD- Jive Bunny & The Mastermixers 769,726
2- RIDE ON TIME- Black Box 567,494
3- ETERNAL FLAME- The Bangles 489,447
4- TOO MANY BROKEN HEARTS- Jason Donovan 447,984
5- SOMETHING’S GOTTEN HOLD OF MY HEART- Marc Almond & Gene Pitney 444,125
6- BACK TO LIFE (HOWEVER DO YOU WANT ME)- Soul II Soul Featuring Caron Wheeler 439,620
7- HAND ON YOUR HEART- Kylie Minogue 419,645
8- LIKE A PRAYER- Madonna 406,861
9- LOVE CHANGES EVERYTHING- Michael Ball 358,173
10- YOU’LL NEVER STOP ME LOVING YOU- Sonia 354,059

Wet, wet, wet’s third album “Holding Back The River” arrives in shops next month and first single “Sweet Surrender” sees the band record a 5th top 10 single as it rises 14-6 (39,406), the band have taken almost 18 months to follow up their last single, the chart topping “With A Little Help From My Friends” but their fans don’t seem to mind. The album apparently contains a cover of “Maggie May” and deals with weightier issues than their last LP including alcoholism, let’s see if their audience have grown up with them.

Talking of audiences growing up the signs are not good for Bros, their 7th single “Chocolate Box gets off to a flying start debuting straight into the charts at No 9 (33,575) which sounds like a good thing, and obviously 7 top 10 singles to start a career is no bad thing. Yet none of the last four Bros singles have ever climbed from their entry position and all made the top 4 so the chances of the single progressing further are slim meaning this could be the worst performing single to date. That second album “The Time” is out in 3 weeks and clearly a sold out date at Wembley arena in front of 77,000 people this summer proves they still have a dedicated fanbase. The single once again comes with 3 sleeve options, the duo together and one each with their individual pictures on.

Technotronic climb 3-2 as mentioned earlier and Sydney Youngblood follows them 4-3 (34,634) with Erasure also improving 6-4 (60,384)- that's the highest tally for the No 4 position for 1989 so far!, all of which is bad news for Richard Marx who collapses 2-5 (46,597). Tina Turner falls 5-7 (39,049) and Madonna drops 7-10 (24,463) but better news for Beautiful South who nip 9-8 (38,760)


1- RIDE ON TIME- Black Box  (84,252)
2- PUMP UP THE JAM- Technotronic Featuring Felly  (69,105)
3- IF ONLY I COULD- Sydney Youngblood (64,634)
4- DRAMA- Erasure (60,384)
5- RIGHT HERE WAITING- Richard Marx (46,597)
6- SWEET SURRENDER- Wet Wet Wet (39,406)
7- THE BEST- Tina Turner (39,049)
8- YOU KEEP IT ALL IN- Beautiful South  (38,760)
9- CHOCOLATE BOX- Bros (33,575)
10- CHERISH- Madonna (24,463)

Neither of those especially faves, both are what I would call borderline 6 to 7/10's, reasonably decent listens but nothing I'd be bothered about looking for a copy in my collection to play, but if they came on the radio I'd be mildly interested.

Personally I find them both very very disappointing. I actually really liked Wet Wet Wet's previous era and thought all their 4 first hits were great but this is not as good... Bros already lost me with Too Much and this is similarly bad

but @Gezza isn't Holding back the river Wet Wet Wet's 2nd rather than 3rd? Always though Popped In was their debut, unless I'm missing something?

4 minutes ago, Bjork said:

Personally I find them both very very disappointing. I actually really liked Wet Wet Wet's previous era and thought all their 4 first hits were great but this is not as good... Bros already lost me with Too Much and this is similarly bad

but @Gezza isn't Holding back the river Wet Wet Wet's 2nd rather than 3rd? Always though Popped In was their debut, unless I'm missing something?

"The Memphis Sessions" was their second though it was part compilation and re-recordings. You can argue either way on it.

yes hard call on how to classify Memphis sessions. I mean, 5 re-worked versions of tracks from their debut album + 3 newies

it's a sorta compilation, per wiki, and I kinda agree

Oh that's a pleasant surprise to see Drama! selling over 60k in a week, it had a pretty respectable increase from the debut sales. I love the track and it was the first one that really got me into Erasure, albeit I didn't know it as well until it featured on a 1989 compilation album that I received for christmas. I didn't buy the single at the time but I do now have it three times over, including the CD and 12" version of the US edition that PCF referred to in his post. I love the way the track builds and I really like the lyrics, very different from most pop tracks.

I also bought the Beautiful South single, I used to really like Briana's vocals and I preferred this to Song for Whoever. I remember thinking that the cover was so dull though amongst all my pop singles.

Out of the other new ones since I last posted, Technotronic is great and definitely a song I can remember hearing a lot from the time. Cherish is another good single from Madonna, I would eventually end up getting the album but it definitely wasn't until after Dear Jessie was released so I assume I had it in 1990. Sydney Youngblood is an odd one, even at a child I can remember thinking that the lyrics were just a bit too do-goody for my liking haha - I did like the production though, only finding out much later that basically the part of the track I enjoyed most was essentially Raze's 'Break 4 Love'.

Sorry I'm late posting but Erasure - Drama is great, a bit like 90s eurodance early with its production.

Pump Up The Jam is good too. I think I discovered the 2005 DONS remix first and the original is quite minimalist and bass heavy compared to it.

If Only I Could is a very nice song indeed, definitely sounds very 90s too. It also sounds like the sort of retro house song the 2013-15 deep house trend was inspired by.

Edited May 10May 10 by TheSnake

while the top 10 is really lacking in great songs for me,

many great classics inexplicably failed to make the top 10 at the time, including:

Depeche Mode - Personal Jesus, peaked at #13. Never understood that. Such a strong single from DM,

how could this miss the top 10? Too controversial?

The Cure - Lovesong, "only" made it to #18. This is the follow-up to Lullaby and deserved top 10 too.

The US got it right as Lovesong became their biggest hit ever peaking at #2

Kate Bush- The Sensual World, peaking at #12, the lead of her first album in 3 years

Incidentally, I recall Robert Smith mentioning it was his favourite song

14TH OCTOBER

The top 3 remain static this week but all of them are losing sales fast with the chances of “Ride On Time” being No 1 next week remarkably slim. For now at least it makes it 6 weeks at the top and in doing so it becomes the longest chart topper of the last 5 years, since Stevie Wonder in fact, it sold 73,746 copies, a gentle decrease of 12% as it turns platinum, it’s reign was allowed to continue only because Technotronic and Sydney Youngblood both suffered surprise falls in sales themselves of 5% and 2% to register 65,008 and 63,138 sales respectively.

Following more or less the same formula as they did with “Swing The Mood”, Jive Bunny & The Mastermixers return with “That’ What I Like” which is based around the “Hawaii Five-O” theme and uses session singers to record versions of classics such as “Great Balls Of Fire”, “Wipeout” and “The Twist” and it seems that we still love the bunny as the song debuts at No 4 (43,350) with nothing looking strong enough to prevent it from becoming the next chart topper.

One of the hottest dance acts around at present, Double Trouble are a London based outfit whose second release became their first hit “Just Keep Rockin” (No 11) and who know score even greater success with “Street Tuff” which rushes 12-5 (43,894). Both of those tracks feature the rapping skills of the Rebel MC (real name Michael West) with the latter hit based heavily around the Maytals track “54-46 That’s My Number”, the collaboration are currently in the studio making that debut album due sometime next year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zag5Q8Gqqwk

(won't embed for some reason)

Having turned 40 back in May Billy Joel has composed a song of the events that have occurred in his life and strung them together to the tune “We Didn’t Start The Fire” which is the first release from his new album “Storm Front”. It was inspired by an event in Joel’s life after he met an acquaintance who complained that it was a bad time to be 21 and that it was better for Joel as less happened when Joel was that age. The song has become only his 4th top 10 single of a chart career now 10 years old and his first major hit in 5 years as it flies 11-8 (39,814).

Milli Vanilli first rose to our attention last year on the No 3 hit “Girl You Know It’s True” but subsequent hits “Baby Don’t Forget My Number” and “Blame It On The Rain” have followed a pattern of diminishing returns hitting No 16 & 52 respectively. What has saved the group however is their US success which has seen “Girl” hit No 3 and “Number” hit the top spot along with a new song “Girl I’m Gonna Miss You” which spent a fortnight at the No 1 spot last month and drummed up interest in the UK. The song duly powers 24-10 (35,258) this week to become a second top 10 single for them, their debut album “All Or Nothing” suggested we wanted nothing when it peaked at No 37 but it is being re-issued in a fortnight along with some remixes and US album only tracks as “2 x 2” in the hope that we’re more interested now.

Some of 1988’s bigger names don’t do as well as they might have hoped this week with Erasure reversing 4-6 (41,429), Wet, wet, wet stumbling 6-7 (41,004), even the Beautiful South slip 8-9 (38,981) and let’s not mention Bros, though all have albums out within the next 4 weeks.  As a side note the amount needed to be top 10 hits a new high not only for 1989 but also the highest ever since Christmas 1985 and outside of Christmas then you have to go back to October 1984 to find a higher threshold- who said single sales were dead!


1- RIDE ON TIME- Black Box (73,746)
2- PUMP UP THE JAM- Technotronic Featuring Felly (65,008)
3- IF ONLY I COULD- Sydney Youngblood  (63,138)
4- THAT’S WHAT I LIKE- Jive Bunny & The Mastermixers (43,894)
5- STREET TUFF- Double Trouble Featuring Rebel MC (43,350)
6- DRAMA- Erasure (41,429)
7- SWEET SURRENDER- Wet, wet, wet (41,004)
8- WE DIDN’T START THE FIRE- Billy Joel (39,814)
9- YOU KEEP IT ALL IN- Beautiful South (38,981)
10- GIRL I’M GONNA MISS YOU- Milli Vanilli (35,258)

'Cherish' is right up there with Madonna's best for me. Shame she hates it 😥

'Pump Up The Jam' kind of annoys me these days, but I think that's probably more down to overplay than anything else. I do love how Philomena Cunk uses it as part of her show though!

oh Technotronic and even Sydney Youngblood were pretty close to the #1 sales

Meh at a new Jive Bunny starting at #4

Billy Joel the best of the newbies but more like than love

and that Milli Vanilli song ouch terrible one. I genuinely liked some of their songs, especially their debut and Blame it on the rain,

but Girl I'm gonna miss you is too sappy.

Agree with Bjork that Personal Jesus missing the top 10 is one of the strangest things about 1989. It's such a striking and strong song and with it being the first new single for a while, it deserved to do so much better.

Lovesong is also one of my favourite singles of the year, it's a pretty simple lyric from the Cure but it's so lovely and effective.

Black Box doing 1 more week at #1 than Yazz now!

'I Am Gonna Miss You' is a good easy listening track.

Edited May 11May 11 by TheSnake

21ST OCTOBER

Surprising no-one this week Jive Bunny & The Mastermixers casually saunter 4-1 this week selling a very respectable 89,845 copies as the producers reveal that they will be releasing a single for Christmas- be very afraid!

The success of “That’s What I Like” puts pay to “Ride On Time”’s reign at the top, it slips 1-2 but did sell 63,954 in the process and has now sold 705,194 copies in total as it continues to chase Jive Bunny’s first hit “Swing The Mood” in the YTD charts, the latter hit climbs in the light of the current No 1 32-27 and is now over the 780,000 mark- it might end up being very close!

Belinda Carlisle is hoping to get in on the spoils of the festive market with her third album “Runaway Horses” in a fortnight, but for now “Leave A Light On” does it job in promoting it with a steady climb 14-8 (34,901). The single comes with some help from George Harrison on guitar who has of course worked with her husband on “Sex, Lies & Videotape”.

Another returning star is Cher who is lucky enough to have had Diane Warren write her new hit for her, “If I Could Turn Back Time” comes with a rather suggestive video which has also raised some eyebrows but then this is Cher so that’s no surprise! The single is rocketing up the charts 13-9 (32,249) and makes up the disappointment of the first single from her recent album “Heart Of Stone” only making No 84 (“After All”). The album debuted at No 62 back in July but disappeared immediately, it has returned recently and hits a new peak of No 26 this week.

Following in the wake of Jimmy Nail’s 1985 remake of “Love Don’t Live Here Anymore” comes a cover of another Rose Royce hit “Wishing On A Star”. It comes courtesy of Fresh 4 Featuring Lizz E who get the production kudos of having Smith & Mighty produce their dance version of the No 3 1978 track, they’ve helmed “Manchild” into the top 10 already this year for Neneh Cherry and have created their own sound successfully. The track is on the move 21-10 (28,339) this week.

Milli Vanilli shoot 10-3 (54,706) to equal the peak of their previous biggest hit “Girl You Know It’s True” forcing Technotronic 2-4 (52,105) and Sydney Youngblood 3-5 (50,643), further down Double Trouble & Rebel MC drift 5-6 (48,467) but Billy Joel nudges upward 8-7 (38,301).


1- THAT’S WHAT I LIKE- Jive Bunny & The Mastermixers (89,845)
2- RIDE ON TIME- Black Box  (63,954)
3- GIRL I’M GONNA MISS YOU- Milli Vanilli (54,706)
4- PUMP UP THE JAM- Technotronic Featuring Felly (52,105)
5- IF ONLY I COULD- Sydney Youngblood (50,643)
6- STREET TUFF- Double Trouble Featuring Rebel MC (48,467)
7- WE DIDN’T START THE FIRE- Billy Joel (38,301)
8- LEAVE A LIGHT ON- Belinda Carlisle (34,901)
9- IF I COULD TURN BACK TIME- Cher (32,249)
10- WISHING ON A STAR- Fresh 4 Featuring Lizz E (28,339)

Leave a Light On

I've not heard this Jive Bunny one either, but based on listening to the last one I'm not even gonna bother.

That's one of my favourite Belinda Carlisle songs, think it is very underrated. Her second album was pretty good to be fair, barely a bad track on it

I'm away with work tomorrow so the thread will return on Wednesday!