Robbie

Lil Louis. Had a number 2 hit with 'French Kiss' in 1989. It was featured on the Top Of The Pops edition from 1989 that was shown last night on BBC4.

^ thanks for posting those clips. Out of them I only recognise 'Together' by Issy Bonn. Through the book I mentioned I discovered that back then records tended to be released at the start of a month rather than each week. That explains why for the last two weeks of the month the charts consist of records just swapping places with no new entries. Record sales were very low back then, about 10 million in 1945. Singles only of course as there were no long playing records so albums were literally singles housed in an box (the box itself being the album which is where the name album as we know it comes from). Most people didn't have a record player back then so many sales were to jukebox operators. I've seen no figures but I'd be surprised if the number 1 sold more than a few thousand. 78 RPM records as they were back then were made of shellac (vinyl didn't come along until the 1950s) and there simply wasn't the manufacturing capacity to make more records because of the war effort. I'm also assuming that records were expensive and were probably only selling to older people who had the money to buy them. The teen market as we know it was still a decade away.

As today is the 75th anniversary of VE Day I thought I'd post the charts from back then! These scanned pages are taken from the book British Hit Singles 1940-1952: The Missing Charts by Steve Waters. The charts were retro compiled a number of years ago by the late Colin Brown. Colin worked in the industry in the 1940s and had amassed lots of sales figures which he used to compile these charts. Are they going to be a 100% accurate guide to what the top 30 records were at the time? Most likely not. But they will be a very good guide to what were the most popular songs at the time. I've included the charts for both 7 May and 14 May as I don't know which one will be the chart that covers 8 May but whichever chart you choose the number 1 is the same - 'Too-Ra-Loo-Ra-Loo-Ra (That's An Irish Lullaby)' by Bing Crosby. aw9B49epS_M The charts: https://www.dropbox.com/s/414kja6q8qf6ps6/T...201945.pdf?dl=0

As a one-off, the YTD Singles top 20 with rounded sales (to nearest 500) 1 BLINDING LIGHTS The Weeknd 1,057,500 2 DANCE MONKEY Tones & I 872,000 3 BEFORE YOU GO Lewis Capaldi 719,500 4 DON'T START NOW Dua Lipa 717,500 5 ROSES SAINt JHN 712,000 6 THE BOX Roddy Ricch 686,000 7 OWN IT Stormzy featuring Ed Sheeran & Burna Boy 662,000 8 SOMEONE YOU LOVED Lewis Capaldi 576,000 9 ADORE YOU Harry Styles 477,500 10 ROXANNE Arizona Zervas 454,500 11 LIFE IS GOOD Future featuring Drake 449,500 12 EVERYTHING I WANTED Billie Eilish 446,000 13 PHYSICAL Dua Lipa 441,500 14 GODZILLA Eminem featuring Juice WRLD 436,500 15 LONELY Joel Corry 424,000 16 BRUISES Lewis Capaldi 409,000 17 SAY SO Doja Cat 408,500 18 BAD GUY Billie Eilish 372,500 19 YOU SHOULD BE SAD Halsey 360,500 20 NO TIME TO DIE Billie Eilish 357,500

I voted for Icehouse but would have gone for Patsy Cline but there was no option. It's by far the superior song.

Re: 'Dancing In The Moonlight' by Toploader I think the BPI / OCC (they share the same product database) use the main ISRC number (basically the digital barcode) allocated to a track to determine the year of release. The ISRC number sometimes shows the year of registration rather than year of release and may be allocated based on when the track was recorded. For 'Dancing In the Moonlight' the main ISRC number is GBBBL9902165 though the year of release is defintely 2000. Presumably it was recorded and registered in 1999. All other versions and variants of 'Dancing In the Moonlight', each with its own ISRC number, are linked to that main code number. https://isrcsearch.ifpi.org/#!/search?a...0&number=10 The format for an ISRC number is explained at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International...ing_Code#Format

There's some concern that some radio stations are close to going to the wall. https://radiotoday.co.uk/2020/04/government...ns-could-close/ At the moment it's the smaller, local stations who are in danger of collapsing but soon it will be the larger stations too. Advertising revenue has plummetted and this is having a knock on effect on radio. Some stations have laid off staff. Give it a couple of months and we could see even larger stations either going fully automated or even going under. Even Radios 1 and 2 are feeling the pinch. There are fewer presenters and there may come a time where there isn't enough presenters to do individual programmes. Scott Mills seems to be keeping Radios 1, 2 and 5 Live going so I hope he's looking after himself.

My favourite is The Bloodhound Gang. 'The Bad Touch' is a great song.

Five out of the six were great! Apart from the number 1 'Fill Me In' which wasn't that brilliant, the rest are quite excellent. I would love to give the sales from that week but Alan Jones' chart commentary in Music Week at the time didn't mention any sales at all. That wasn't unsual back then. He does reference the top 5 on 31 October, 1998 all being new entries, which at the time was a first.

It's got at least another three weeks on SCR (including this week) and is on course to record another sales increase so should make 25 weeks.

Quite a mixed back of tracks posted in the last few days, most of which I have absolutely no recollection of! I had forgotten though that Renee and Renato had make another attempt at a Christmas number 1 but a year to the week when they climbed to number 1 they were now languishing at the exact opposite end of the top 100. Although no chart was compiled between Christmas and New Year 1983/4, the chart published in Music Week for the issue dated 7 January 1984 indicates that it was based on sales from 19-31 December so, if correct, at least sales data in the week leading up to 24 December didn't just get discarded. 'Breaking Away' by Joe Fagin, one of the tracks listed as a two week wonder due to the frozen chart at the end of 1983, did in fact go on to be a top 5 hit. Record Mirror listed 'Breaking Away' for the chart dated 24/12/83 but for subsequent weeks the flip side of the single, 'That's Living Alright', was listed. Both songs were from Auf Wiedersehen Pet. 'Best Mix Of Our Lives' by Modern Romance was another of those megamix tracks that labels were releasing in 1985. Other acts to also have the megamix treatment in 1985 included The Sweet and T.Rex.

A very strange drop for 'Physical' by Dua Lipa. It's chart run on the Radio Airplay chart: 9-7-7-1-1-2-2-2-17.

Although the OCC database shows an entry for '16 Days' for This Mortal Coil at number 100 on the chart dated 15 October 1983 this is the same single as 'Song To The Siren' which is then listed as the title for subsequent weeks. Record Mirror lists the entry for 15/10/83 as '16 Days', Music Week lists the entry as 'Song To The Siren'. Both RM and MW list the same catalogue number of 4AD AD310. Record Mirror may have taken the title credit from the 12" version (4AD BAD310) which has '16 Days - Gathering Dust' as the A side with 'Song To The Siren' and '16 Days (Reprise)' on the B side. On the 7" only the last two tracks are on the single, as A and B side respectively.

^ the certification lists get longer by the week. Cheers Liam.k.!

Boris Johnson has just announced that all non-essential shops are to be closed with immediate notice. That means all record shops. It's also likely that the distribution chain for CDs to supermarkets will probably stop for the foreseeable future. Also only travel to and from essential work will be allowed. This means that the music industry will more or less grind to a halt with immediate effect. The OCC are already working from home. Now the actual chart compilers at Kantar Millward Brown, based in Leamington Spa, will have to do likewise. Presumably we'll still get a chart on Friday but don't be surprised if one doesn't appear if there are any teething problems as there'll be no-one there to solve any potential problems.

'Black Furs' by Judie Tzuke is a strange one. It's not like her normal ballad type songs that I associate her with. It has an almost new wave / Kim Wilde vibe to it. 'Stay With Me Til Dawn' is still a great song as is her first single 'For You' which was a flop not just once or twice but three times. It was first released in June 1978 and then re-issued thre months later. After 'Stay With Me Til Dawn' charted it was re-issued again and again flopped. Shame as it really is a good song.

Surprisingly a lot of these top 100 entries are new to me. Given how closely I was following the charts back then and how often I listened to the radio I'm very surprised at how few songs I even know of let alone remember how they sounded.

R.I.P. to a singer that I have always liked. He made the move from country star to pop star with numerous hits on the UK and US charts. My favourite song by Kenny is 'The Gambler'.

I quite like the Nevada version of 'In The Bleak Midwinter'. The band consisted of three members of Renaissance who had scored a top 10 hit in 1978 with the great 'Northern Lights'. One of Nevada's members is Peter Gosling. His son is Jake Gosling, a producer, songwriter, publisher and manager who is most closely associated with Ed Sheeran but who has also worked with a number of other acts. Peter played on a number of Ed's recordings while son Jake has co-wrote and produced many of them.

'Bag It Up' features backing vocals by Pepsi and Shirlie, of Wham fame along with Tracey Ackerman who has also featured on a number of chart hits as well as writing or co-writing several more.

Record Mirror also has 'Groove Baby, Groove (EP)' at number 61 on the chart they published on 13/02/82.

The one week wonders are coming thick and fast now but unlike the vast majority from before 1975 I know almost all of them. The Mo-dettes included June Miles-Kingston who would later duet with The Communards on their 1986 number 1 hit 'Don't Leave Me This Way'. It's also possible that Fogwell Flax appears on a 1986 number 1. He was one of the voices in Spitting Image in the mid 1980s so it's not beyond the realms of possibility that he too features on their 1986 number 1 'The Chicken Song'.

I loved (still do in fact) 'Touch' by Lori & The Chameleons. I bought the 7" in November 1979 and a 12" remix in November 1981. One third of Lori & Tee Chameleons was Bill Drummond who would later go on to be one half of KLF and its various incarnations such as The Timelords. Lori was Lori Lartley who seems to have vanished from the music scene as quickly as she arrived. The third member was David Balfe who had previously been a member of Dalek I (who featured pre OMD Andy McCluskey) and Big In Japan (along with Drummond as well as Holly Johnson, Ian Broudie and Peter Clarke who would later marry Siouxsie (of the & The Banshees fame). Balfe then joined Teardrop Explodes. After leaving Teardrop Explodes he set up Food Records and signed Blur. For an act that is largely consigned to being a footnote in chart history (one week in the top 75), Lori & The Chameleons had two very influential people in the band.

Would it be from this coming week? Looking at the chart rules I read it as being that the 3 year rule kicks in from when 'Perfect' returns to ACR, that is it then is no longer able to get an automatic reset back to SCR.

The rule was aimed at records that otherwise would have been placed between numbers 41 to 50. The wording in Music Week is a bit ambiguous but at the point the rule was introduced (from the chart dated 12 July 1975) the chart compiler BMRB issued an announcement: I assume this announcement appeared on the actual chart report that was produced each week and which was sent to all music industry subscribers. The Music Week Industry Yearbook 1977-78, published in early 1977, explained how the rule worked: There's a thread about this exclusion rule (which ended when the top 50 was expanded to a top 75 on 13 May 1978) at ukmix: https://www.ukmix.org/forum/chart-discussio...d-numbers-41-50 Incidentally Radio 1 only used the top 30 part of the chart up to 6 May 1978 rather than the top 40 as you mentioned in your earlier post. When the main chart expanded to a top 75 on Tuesday 9 May 1978 (chart dated 13 May 1978) Radio 1 began to count down the top 40 part of the chart.