Jason’s Jukebox Volume 9

Jason Maloney reviews

JASON’S JUKEBOX
V o l u m e # 0 9 Chart Date: Week Ending 19th March 1988 Online Date: 16th March 2004

That’s The Way It Is:
The Best of Mel & Kim Take just about any UK Top 40 from the late Eighties, and the odd Stock Aitken Waterman concoction or four are bound to feature prominently. So it was on this week some 16 years ago; Kylie Minogue‘s debut hit I Should Be So Lucky was at #1 for its fifth and final week, blocking stablemate (if not labelmate) Rick Astley‘s Together Forever from reaching the top. A little further down, Mel & Kim‘s That’s The Way It Is was falling 5 places from its peak of #10; the single had maintained the sisters’ 100% record of hitting the Top 10 with every release, but younger sibling Melanie’s failing health from the cancer which would sadly take her life in early 1990 meant it was the duo’s last-ever hit.

Chart success during the decade for homegrown reggae had largely been limited to the exploits of UB40, but Aswad finally crossed over in 1988 with Don’t Turn Around. Originally recorded by Tina Turner during the sessions for her 1986 album Break Every Rule, the song was ultimately relegated to B-side status, appearing on the flipside of one of the album’s six singles. In the hands of Aswad, it now climbed 18 places to #4 and would subsequently topple Kylie from the summit, but one medium-sized follow-up hit (Give A Little Love) later, the band returned to obscurity.

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Tiffany: Greatest Hits Former indie favourites The Primitives were in the process of launching their major-label career with Crash, up from #9 to #5, but the apparent benefits of the move soon turned to disappointment as come the end of the year the power-pop combo were heading rapidly towards that place Smash Hits magazine so memorably called The Dumper.

Adding a touch of exotic spice to the Top 10 were two female acts enjoying their debut hits. Coquettish teenager Vanessa Paradis was at #3 with Joe Le Taxi, then only the second French hit in chart history, while Taja Savelle rose 10 places to #7 with her only hit Love Is Contagious. Paradis would return to the UK Top 10 in 1992 under the patronage of retro rocker Lenny Kravitz, but even the Prince factor did little to aid Ms. Savelle’s longterm fortunes.

The year’s first chart-topper had been Heaven Is A Place On Earth by onetime/sometime Go-Go member Belinda Carlisle. A mere 2 months after that single hit #1, her next single I Get Weak was on the cusp of the Top 10, having moved #39-#17-#13-#11. Tiffany, whose I Think We’re Alone Now dethroned Heaven Is A Place On Earth at the end of January, was also charting with her own follow-up Could’ve Been, new in at #22.

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The Best of Climie Fisher Bros were synonymous with 1988, notching up no less than five Top 5 hits during the year. When Will I Be Famous (#2 in January) got things underway, albeit on the back of concerted repromotion by CBS after its failure to make the Top 75 in late 1987. Drop The Boy – officially their third single but only second chart entry – now stormed in at #17 and would soar 15 places to a #2 peak 7 days later. It proved to be third time lucky for Bros when a re-issued I Owe You Nothing hit #1 in June.

The policy of if at first you don’t succeed try, try again also worked for Heart, Climie Fisher and Debbie Gibson. The Wilson sisters Ann and Nancy, the focal point of AOR veterans Heart, had made significant inroads on the UK chart in 1987 with the album Bad Animals and its biggest singles Alone and Who Will You Run To, and now EMI/Capitol were cashing in by returning to the band’s previous self-titled set from 1985. First up was an AA-sided pairing for These Dreams (a US #1 in the spring of ’86) and Never (a #8 hit Stateside), which was climbing from #20 to #12 on its way towards the British Top 10.

In the cases of Climie Fisher and Debbie Gibson, chart breakthroughs with their third and second singles repectively were the catalyst for putting out the previous singles once again and this time scoring a hit. Love Changes (Everything), intended by writer-for-the-stars Simon Climie for Rod Stewart but only ever released by his own act, was given a second chance after Rise To The Occasion‘s Top 10 placing at the start of 1988. It entered at #38 and would eventually go all the way to #2. Only In My Dreams, a US smash in the summer of ’87, belatedly debuted on the UK Top 40 at #37 for Gibson on the back of Shake Your Love‘s #7 success in February, eventually reaching #11 here.

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The Very Best of
Johnny Hates Jazz Johnny Hates Jazz began the year in fine style, entering the UK album chart at #1 in January with their debut release Turn Back The Clock thanks to a trio of Top 20 hits in 1987. The fourth single Heart Of Gold now continued the trend, climbing 3 places to #19, but the fifth – a remixed Don’t Say It’s Love – only managed #44 and JHJ never graced the Top 40 again even after swapping lead vocalist Clark Datchler for producer Phil Thornally in 1991. Meanwhile, contemporaries Wet Wet Wet were also busy maintaining their record of hitting the Top 20 with every single to date. Temptation, the fourth and final release from their chart-topping debut Popped In Souled Out, was new at #36 and would ultimately reach a credible #12.

And so to the best track on the chart, and of the whole year. Moving up six places into the Top 20 with the seminal I’m Not Scared, Eighth Wonder were the shortlived vehicle for Patsy Kensit‘s bid for pop stardom. Self-penned efforts in 1986 and 1987 had yielded little reward, but courtesy of a Pet Shop Boys-penned track that elusive first hit was secured. The PSB were on the hottest streak of their illustrious career; I’m Not Scared‘s eventual #8 high coming between two of their own #1s; the recent Christmas chart champ Always On My Mind and the imminent Heart, which would quickly hit the top on April 2nd.

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