Jason’s Jukebox Volume 15

Jason Maloney reviews

JASON’S JUKEBOX
V o l u m e # 1 5 Chart Date: Week Ending 3rd May 1980 Online Date: 29th April 2004

Paul McCartney:
All The Best The first of two UK chart-toppers for Dexy’s Midnight Runners was at #1 24 years ago this week. Geno, a tribute to musician Geno Washington, began its run in subdued fashion for a future #1; entering at #40 and slowly advancing to #37 and then #29 before racing up the chart, it reached the top on its 6th week.

The single at #2 was in rather more of a hurry. Paul McCartney‘s Coming Up had actually debuted outside the Top 40 at #62 when released, but subsequently made a staggering (and then all-time record) 55-place leap to #7 and now stood between Dexy’s and the outgoing #1, Call Me by Blondie. Coming Up’s status as the highest-ever climber in UK chart history lasted for just over 6 years, until Nick Berry‘s Every Loser Wins advanced 62 places to #4 in October 1986.

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The Very Best of David Essex Swapping places inside the Top 10 were David Essex, enjoying one of his last major hits with Silver Dream Machine (up from #6), and new British reggae outfit UB40, whose debut AA-sided single Food For Thought/King now dropped from its #4 peak. They would go on to score a UK #1 in 1985 with Chrissie Hynde, the lead singer of The Pretenders who were at #9 with Talk Of The Town. The follow-up to Brass In Pocket, the first #1 of the 80s, Talk Of The Town had risen as high as #8 before going into decline.

More future collaborations were in store for Feargal Sharkey, lead vocalist of The Undertones (up 10 to #11 with My Perfect Cousin) and Madness (down 4 to #14 with the Work Rest And Play EP). The Nutty Boys would make Sharkey their first signing to the Zarjazz label they set up in 1984, but a #17 hit in the shape of Listen To Your Father would be the sole result.

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Whitesnake: The Early Years May 3rd 1980 was a Groovy kind of chart, quite literally. Two singles with Groove in the title were charging up the Top 40. Rodney Franklin‘s The Groove (on the CBS imprint) was up 14 to #13, while Bobby Thurston‘s Check Out The Groove (issued through CBS affiliate label Epic) climbed from #26 to #10.

Home based Heavy Metal was enjoying a successful era, with Saxon up 8 to #20 with Wheels Of Steel and Motorhead the highest new entry at #23 with the Golden Years EP. Whitesnake, led by former Deep Purple singer David Coverdale, were making their inaugural UK Top 40 appearance at #30 with Fool For Your Loving while Thin Lizzy frontman Phil Lynott‘s solo effort Dear Miss Lonely Hearts was down 5 from its peak of #32.

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The Best of Johnny Logan May, of course, is the month of Eurovision and in 1980 the contest was won by crooner Johnny Logan for his adopted country Ireland. What’s Another Year, the winning song, went straight in at #15 – the highest of 11 new entries – and topped the UK chart a fortnight later.

The Top 40 of May 3rd also marked The Cure‘s chart breakthrough with the classic A Forest arriving at #35. Other newcomers included No Doubt About It at #31, the latest hit for chart regulars Hot Chocolate which would eventually reach #2, and Breathing by Kate Bush at #29. The first of her three hits during 1980, Breathing was taken from that September’s Never For Ever set which became the first #1 album by a British female artist.

Page Content copyright © Jason Maloney, 2004.