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Jason Maloney reviews
V o l u m e # 0 3 Week Commencing: 09th February 1981 Online Date: 10th February 2005
This is where it all started to kick off for the Genesis vocalist/drummer.
An obscenely-successful solo career began with In The Air Tonight, the first single from Face Value and a #2 smash. Face Value itself swiftly followed in the second week of February 1981, and hit the top spot in Britain. Nothing unusual in that for Collins, already an album chart-topper with Genesis’ 1980 effort Duke, but Face Value went on to spend a mind-boggling 274 weeks on the UK album listings during the decade that he ended up becoming a global megastar.
Curiously, despite Face Value’s ubquity in the 80s charts, it failed to produce another Top 10 hit, the #14 high of I Missed Again coming marginally closer than If Leaving Me Is Easy‘s #17 peak.
Christopher Cross
The multi-Grammy winner from the US cleaned up Stateside with his debut set, which included major hit singles Sailing, Ride Like The Wind and Say You’ll Be Mine.
Success on this side of the Atlantic proved harder to come by, initially at least, with none of the aforementioned tracks making the UK Top 40. Slick west-coast AOR with a pop sheen was popular at times over here, and in time Cross landed himself a Top 10 hit in the UK with Arthur’s Theme (The Best That You Can Do) from the Dudley Moore/Liza Minelli/John Gielgud movie Arthur.
This eponymous album did however notch up an impressive 77 weeks on the chart, although it never rose higher than #14. The eventual breakthrough with Arthur’s Theme doubtless helped its longevity.
The Stranglers’ follow-up to 1979’s The Raven arrived on the shelves, but THEMENINBLACK (United Artists) failed to sell beyond their fanbase, as continuing failure on the singles Top 40 (latest effort Thrown Away fell short at #42) impacted upon the ability of their albums to stay the course. A #8 entry on the chart dated February 21st was followed by just four further appearances on the listings.
Rush, by contrast, kept going from strength to strength. Moving Pictures (Vertigo) picked up where Hemispheres had left off, giving the Canadian prog rockers a UK Top 3 album. It was a level of a success they would match for the rest of the decade, until 1989’s live album A Show Of Hands broke the sequence by peaking at #12.
Rainbow (nee Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow) saw in the Eighties with a new line-up (minus Ronnie James Dio) and a new studio release, Difficult to Cure, (Polydor). Boosted by a third UK Top 10 single in as many years, this time with I Surrender, the album went top 5 despite dismay among hardcore fans at the record’s softer direction.
Page Content copyright © Jason Maloney, 2005.
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.