Jason’s Jukebox Volume 26

Jason Maloney reviews

JASON’S JUKEBOX
V o l u m e # 2 6 Chart Date: July 25th 1981 Online Date: 29th July 2004

The Specials: Singles With their seventh chart hit Ghost Town, The Specials (or The Special A.K.A. as they were sometimes billed) had reached the summit at the beginning of the month and now continued to keep the likes of Starsound, Bad Manners and Imagination off the #1 spot. Ghost Town was unquestionably the collective’s finest moment, but within 6 months lead singer Terry Hall had left to form The Fun Boy Three and remaining members enjoyed limited success over the next three years (the #9 hit Nelson Mandela notwithstanding) until 1984’s sadly ignored In The Studio album signalled the end.

Dutch medleyists Starsound had already notched up an unlikely #2 smash in April 1981 with the Beatles-heavy Stars On 45, before repeating the trick with an ABBA-influenced Stars On 45 Volume 2, a non-mover at #2 on the Top 40 of 23 years ago. The craze for this sort of thing reached even greater heights shortly after; the Royal Philarmonic Orchestra (in at #33) would hit #2 with Hooked On Classics while acts such as Lobo, Startrax and Gidea Park all cashed in with varying degrees of success.

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Bad Manners: Anthology Bad Manners, fronted by Buster Bloodvessel, remained at #3 for a fourth consecutive week with Can Can. It was the sixth hit of their chart career, and equalled the peak position achieved by Special Brew the previous year. Body Talk by Imagination dropped a notch to #5, making way for Spandau Ballet‘s Chant No.1 (I Don’t Need This Pressure On) which soared 14 places from #18 to land them their highest chart return so far.

The rest of the Top 10 was a strange mixture of Heavy Metal (Motorhead sticking at #6 with the Motorhead Live EP), classic Pop (ABBA‘s Lay All Your Love On Me moving #17-7) as well as Tom Tom Club‘s Wordy Rappinghood at #8 and Dancing On The Floor by Third World climbing 2 places to #10.

Inbetween the latter two records was the week’s highest debutant; Happy Birthday – in at #9 – was Stevie Wonder‘s fourth Top 10 success in a row, following Masterblaster (Jammin’), I Ain’t Gonna Stand For It and Lately. The song was dedicated to the assassinated Martin Luther King, whose birthday would subsequently become a national holiday in America.

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Kate Bush:
The Whole Story Bob Marley, whose song Jamming inspired Masterblaster, had died of cancer in May 1981. A live recording of his 1975 single No Woman No Cry entered the Top 40 a month later, going on to reach #8 in early July. Now it fell back to #12. One place above, Kate Bush moved up from #15 with the madcap Sat In Your Lap.

1980’s Never For Ever set had seen her become the first British solo female artist to score a chart-topping album, yielding a trio of Top 20 hits in the process. These were followed by the non-album seasonal release December Will Be Magic Again, which only made #29. Sat In Your Lap was another brand-new recording, but was included on Bush’s September 1982 commercially-disastrous album The Dreaming which failed to produce another Top 40 entry with either the title track or There Goes A Tenner.

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Shakin Stevens:
Greatest Hits Also making gains this week were Sheena Easton‘s Bond theme For Your Eyes Only (up from #21 to #16), Saxon‘s Never Surrender (up 8 from #26), Walk Right Now by the Jacksons (climbing 10 to #20), Dexy’s Midnight Runners‘ Show Me (moving #33-23) and Take It On The Run by REO Speedwagon (up 6 to #28). The first-ever hit single for Depeche Mode, New Life, was continuing to ascend the Top 40 as well, rising another 4 places to #15, but after the Top 10 exploits of Fade To Grey, Visage‘s eponymous follow-up was stuck at a modest #25.

Further down at #36 were Kraftwerk – the influence on so many synth outfits of the early 80s. Computer Love, from their first album in over three years Computer World, was joined by The Model (a track from 1978’s The Man Machine) – as a double-A sided release. At the start of 1982, the single would return to the Top 40 in dramatic fashion; The Model was picked up by radio stations, given top billing, and went all the way to #1. Green Door by Shakin’ Stevens, new at #22, took rather less time to hit the top. A mere 7 days in fact. (Ralph Dring says: Boog-a-loo)

Last but not least, the Top 40 of July 25th 1981 saw the arrival of Duran Duran‘s Girls On Film at #29. It only went as high as #5, but it began a sequence of 10 consecutive UK Top 10 hits, including a brace of Number Ones, that lasted until 1987’s Skin Trade made #22.

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