Jason’s Jukebox Volume 6

Jason Maloney reviews

JASON’S JUKEBOX
V o l u m e # 0 6 Chart Date: Week Ending 28th February 1987 Online Date: 24th February 2004

The Very Best Of
Ben E. King The Top 40 of 17 years ago was in thrall to exhumed Atlantic Soul classics with TV Advertising links, as Ben E. King‘s Stand By Me and When A Man Loves A Woman by Percy Sledge occupied the #1 and #2 positions respectively. King’s single (originally a minor UK hit in 1960) had also enjoyed a siginifcant second wind on the US Hot 100 just the year before when it reached 9, but from a different source; the movie adaptation of the novel by Stephen King (no relation) which was in cinemas that autumn.

Over here, Stand By Me was used for one of two simultaneously-running Ad campaigns for Levi 501 jeans that played on iconic Americana imagery from the 1950s. When A Man Loves A Woman was the soundtrack for the other commercial. They were not the first retro beneficiaries of the Levi effect; in early 1986, Sam Cooke‘s Wonderful World hit #4 on the back of their advert for stone-washed jeans, thus triggering a trend that sent several other oldies back into the chart during subsequent years… and that’s besides Hollywood’s similar tactic for using golden oldies prominently in their films which took hold around the same time.

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The Very Best Of
Curiosity Killed the Cat In many ways, 1987 was a transitional period for pop music. The movers and shakers of the early 80s were on the wane, while the Stock Aitken Waterman dynasty was on the cusp of breaking through to the mainstream. So we had Curiosity Killed The Cat as the year’s designated dreamboat popstars; fittingly perhaps, as in every way they were the link between the immediate past (Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet) and the immediate future (Bros, Brother Beyond). Their debut single, Misfit, had bombed out at #76 the previous summer, and by the end of December 1986 the follow-up Down To Earth had failed to reach the Top 40.

It could have all been over there and then, but the fortuitous post-Christmas lull in the singles market plus frontman Ben’s very of-the-era good looks saw them through. Down To Earth was holding steady at #3 this week in 1987, but overexposure would kick in very quickly. For all the blanket teen press coverage, CKTC never had another Top 5 hit despite their debut album entering at #1 in early May. Single number four (the gorgeously jazzy Free, produced by Sly & Robbie Dunbar) stalled at #55 in September and that, bar an ill-advised comeback as a cosy covers band in 1992, was pretty much that.

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The Best of
The Christians Simply Red and Erasure would find their stock continue to rise even higher than it was in February 1987. Mick Hucknall‘s band were up 8 places to #15 with The Right Thing, but it would take until 1991 for their singles to be guaranteed top 40 entries. The accompanying album Men & Women spawned just one other Top 20 hit from four subsequent attempts. Meanwhile, Vince Clarke‘s fourth project (following Depeche Mode, Yazoo and The Assembly) was finally establishing itself after an unconvincing start. Erasure‘s opening trio of singles missed the Top 40, but once the late 1986 release Sometimes had made #3 there was no looking back. It Doesn’t Have To Be, the follow-up to Sometimes, was a new entry at #28. Eventually peaking at #12, it continued a sequence of consecutive Top 20 hits that lasted until 1995.

There were debut appearances on the UK chart for The Christians and Westworld, two new acts who came to attention on Channel 4’s music show The Tube long before their records were released. The Christians’ Forgotten Town (up 2 places to #27) made less of an immediate impact than Westworld’s Sonic Boom Boy (up 11 to #11), but Westworld’s disposable techno-rockabilly had a limited shelf-life; they faded into obscurity after the next two singles peaked at #37 and #42.

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Level 42:
The Ultimate Collection It was a very good year for Level 42. Minor chart success and terminal unfashionability in the early 1980s had been banished by the switch from proficient funk to solid, well-crafted pop songs on 1985’s World Machine. The follow-up, Running In The Family, was only denied the #1 spot by The Joshua Tree in March 1987 and stayed on the listings for the remainder of the year. Its title track was still climbing up the Top 40 this week, rising a further 3 places to #7, one short of its ultimate peak position.

Of the old guard, George Michael was doing very nicely as usual; his duet with Aretha Franklin on the Simon Climie-penned Trasatlantic chart topper I Knew You Were Waiting For Me was making a graceful slide down to #5. Climie would get his own stab at stardom later in the year, in partnership with the late Rob Fisher. Much further down the chart, Duran Duran were inching up 1 place to #24 with the excellent Skin Trade. Eventually peaking at #22, it became only the second time a Duran single had failed to reach the Top 20 at that point in their career.

They would of course continue to have hits, something which could not be said of one-time rivals Spandau Ballet. Both bands took a year off in 1985 (tax exiles, anyone?), but the fickle nature of the pop scene hit the latter hardest. How Many Lies? was the third single from their CBS label debut Through The Barricades, and came on the heels of the title song’s #6 success. Yet it could only manage a high of #34, dropping out altogether the following week. Spandau would never return to the Top 40, and by 1990’s Empty Spaces even a Top 75 entry was beyond them.

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Headlines and Deadlines:
The Hits of a-ha Other mid-80s luminaries were also struggling; Eurythmics (in at #31 with Missionary Man) were still selling albums by the million, but on the singles chart their Top 10 days were already over. Missionary Man was always the highlight of 1986’s unmemorable Revenge album, and in fact had been a #14 US hit when chosen as the first single across the pond. a-ha experienced a minor blip with Manhattan Skyline, which debuted at #17 on this week in 1987 but rose no higher than #13. A brave and far from obvious choice for a single, the track was their first to miss the top 10.

Later in the year, Bananarama would kickstart their faltering fortunes with material that also introduced the definitive SAW sound (I Heard A Rumour, I Want You Back et al) and would stand toe-to-toe with the Kylies, Jasons and Rick Astleys throughout the rest of the decade. For now, however, the old Bananarama sound attempted one last hurrah. Trick Of The Night was released after the bubblegum frenzy of Venus, but it had more in common with their earlier Swain/Jolley efforts like Cruel Summer and Rough Justice. Its peak of #32 was rough justice indeed.

Propping up the chart, Mantronix debuted at #40 with Who Is It, the last Mantronix hit to feature rapper MC Tee. Greater singles success awaited Kurtis Mantronik once he parted company with Tee (notably 1990’s Got To Have Your Love), but Who Is It was another superb slice of electro which never received the commercial recognition it deserved, joining early classics such as Bassline, Ladies and 1988’s Simple Simon as merely minor hits.

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