Jason’s Jukebox Volume 10

Jason Maloney reviews

JASON’S JUKEBOX
V o l u m e # 1 0 Chart Date: Week Ending 24th March 1979 Online Date: 23rd March 2004

The Very Best of
Elvis Costello It was a quarter of a century ago that Elvis Costello so nearly scored a UK #1. Unfortunately, his Oliver’s Army single had to settle for three weeks at #2 while first the Bee Gees and then Gloria Gaynor took top billing. Tragedy was already sliding down the Top 10 from #3 to #6, but I Will Survive was enjoying a second week at the summit and would remain there for another fortnight.

New wave and the remnants of punk continued to do battle with disco for chart dominance, so the likes of Lene Lovich and the post-Lydon, castrated Sex Pistols sat alongside The Real Thing and Chic in the upper reaches, with The Skids (up 3 to #10 with Into The Valley) and Buzzcocks (standing still at #29 with Everybody’s Happy Nowadays) also flying the flag for the new breed.

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The Essential Clash Chic, regulars in the top 10 around this time, also had a hand in Sister Sledge‘s seminal We Are Family album from 1979 courtesy of Nile Rodgers’ production. He’s The Greatest Dancer, the first single from We Are Family, entered at a modest #38 but quickly joined ‘s own incumbent hit I Want Your Love (currently a non-mover at #7) in the Top 20 just two weeks later.

Lovich’s Lucky Number was peaking at #3 – the biggest hit of an ultimately brief career. The Pistols, battling on as a pale imitation of their former selves and now prone to rather less idealistic sensationalism, were nonetheless continuing to chalk up Top 10 hits. Their cover of Something Else, the old rock’n’roll classic by Eddie Cochran, was up 2 places to #4, but its Double-A side – the witless Friggin’ In The Riggin’ – was endemic of their loss of direction and visceral edge. Tasteless collaborations with Great Train Robbers, the anti-climactic cheap shot The Great Rock’n’Roll Swindle, and finally Sid Vicious’ infamous suicide would follow.

By contrast, in 1979 The Clash still found themselves mid-table chart players; English Civil War rising no higher than #25. The epochal London Calling was not far around the corner, however, but until 1991’s re-issue of Should I Stay Or Should I Go? became a surprise #1 the band never graced the UK Top 10. The other third of Britain’s holy trinity of punk, The Jam, were also on the threshold of major singles success; their latest, Strange Town, was up 8 to #22 and about to take them into the Top 20 for the very first time.

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Sultans of Swing:
The Very Best of Dire Straits New names to the Top 40 included Dire Straits (up 5 to #23 with future Top 10 smash Sultans Of Swing), Toto (moving #18-14 with Hold The Line) and ace American New Wavers The Cars whose Just What I Needed was down a notch to #21 although it then rebounded to a high of #17 the following week.

The charts of 1979 weren’t complete without Blondie, Boney M and The Village People, and the Top 40 of 25 years ago had all three. The former’s onetime #1 Heart Of Glass tumbled a massive 16 places to #24 but was still the longest-running single left on the chart with a total of 9 weeks and counting. Boney M had suffered a relative blip by their recent standards when Painter Man only managed a peak of #10, and the single was now at #11. In The Navy, meanwhile, was in the process of very nearly giving The Village People consecutive number ones as it climbed 11 places to #16. It would leap up to #2 just seven days later, but never hit the top.

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Queen: The Platinum Collection
Greatest Hits I, II & III Two of EMI’s legendary acts originating from the 1970s – Queen and Kate Bush – both had singles on the Top 40. Freddie and the boys were up 9 to #13 with Don’t Stop Me Now from the critically-unloved Jazz album, whilst Wow (new at #35) was the first hit from Kate’s upcoming second set Lionheart barely a year after her memorable arrival on the scene with the UK chart-topper Wuthering Heights.

Fast forward three weeks to April 14th, and the top two singles would be Art Garfunkel‘s Bright Eyes at #1 and Cool For Cats by Squeeze at #2; this week, though, they were both new entries in the lower half of the chart at #27 and #33 respectively.

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