Jason’s Jukebox Volume 1

Jason Maloney reviews

JASON’S JUKEBOX
V o l u m e # 0 1 Chart Date: Week Ending 21st January 1984 Online Date: 20th January 2004

Paul McCartney:
Pipes of Peace “It was twenty years ago today….” that Paul McCartney showed us how to play the Pipes Of Peace.

The ex-Beatle was celebrating a first solo #1 in the UK, as the title track from his October 1983 album topped the chart for a second week having taken full advantage of the New Year lull to move up from #9 to the very top.

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Frankie Goes To Hollywood:
Twelve Inches 1984 would belong to Frankie Goes To Hollywood, and their debut hit Relax was on the threshold of #1, climbing 6-2 and destined for the summit one week later.

The infamous BBC Radio 1 ban, initiated by Breakfast DJ Mike Reid, was slapped on the record once it had already entered the Top 40 and had been played on the chart rundown the Sunday before its spectacular rise to #6.

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The Best Of
The Icicle Works There were several big climbers on the chart. Up 14 places to #4, That’s Living Alright – theme tune to a then-new ITV programme called Auf Weidersehen Pet – took one-hit-wonder Joe Fagin into the Top 5 with indecent haste. Lionel Richie‘s Running With The Night – the second single from Can’t Slow Down – rose 13 places to #9. Love Is A Wonderful Colour, the first (and sadly biggest) hit for Liverpudlian outfit The Icicle Works, soared to #15 but would progress no further.

Another band from Merseyside, China Crisis, had the week’s highest climber with the gentle Wishful Thinking going from #36 to #16. The single would eventually peak at #9 and be their most successful hit. The final hit for The Police (re-issues and remixes notwithstanding) was also peaking on its second week having climbed from its debut position of #32 to #17; King Of Pain was the follow-up to Every Breath You Take in the US but had to wait until after Wrapped Around Your Finger on this side of the Atlantic.

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Eurthymics: Touch
(Deluxe Digipack) New to the Top 40 on this week were Eurythmics‘ Here Comes The Rain Again at #20 (soon to be their fifth Top 10 hit in a row and the catalyst for parent album Touch‘s spell at #1 a fortnight later, which is to be re-released on March 29th along in a deluxe digipack, as are several other of their albums), Wonderland by Big Country at #13 (a brand new song that wouldn’t feature on any regular album) and highest of all at #11 came John Lennon‘s Nobody Told Me. In the aftermath of his death on 8th December 1980 many Lennon tracks hit the UK chart but this was the first not to be taken from an album released in his lifetime; it would make #6 but nothing else from Milk & Honey (the accompanying album of unreleased recordings which quickly followed) did much at all.

Also making their introductory splash on the chart were Cyndi Lauper (Girls Just Wanna Have Fun at #22) and Madonna (Holiday bringing up the rear at #40). Lauper would win the first round, the singles peaking at #2 and #6 respectively, but Madonna of course became by far the more successful of the two, not to mention of all-time.

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Paul Young:
No Parlez On the album front, the Pretenders‘ third effort Learning To Crawl entered at #11 while the Top 10 still included many big selling chart-toppers from late in 1983; No Parlez (Paul Young) and Thriller (Michael Jackson) had been swapping places at the top for several weeks, but the first Now That’s What I Call Music temporarily returned to #1.

Until the BPI banished compilations to their own chart at the start of 1989, EMI/Virgin’s NOW! series dominated the UK album listings with only Volume 4 missing the top spot… held off by its CBS/WEA rival The Hits Album in December 1984.

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