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It was the week that Madonna's chart career really got Into The Groove. A
succession of Top 10 hits in 1984 and early 1985 had seen her stock steadily
rising (the Like A Virgin single - a #3 smash at the turn of the year - was
certified Gold for 500,000 sales), but that first UK chart-topper finally came
in the summer of 1985. Into The Groove - moving up from its debut position of
#4 to the very top - was taken from the soundtrack to Desperately Seeking
Susan, Madonna's high-profile attempt to become a Hollywood star as well as a
major popstar. It was in fact her second film theme in quick succession,
following Crazy For You (from the movie Vision Quest) which temporarily became her
biggest hit to date when it reached #2 in June and was still in the Top 20,
falling 6 places to #12.
The rapid ascent of Into The Groove reduced the reign of outgoing #1 There
Must Be An Angel by Eurythmics to just a solitary week. Those 7 days were to be
the only ones David A Stewart and Annie Lennox ever spent at the summit of
the UK Top 40. The second single from Be Yourself Tonight, it had moved
#37-10-3-1 on its way to the top but remains one of the least-remembered #1s by
virtue of being overshadowed first by the Live Aid concert itself and then the
extraordinary effects on album sales it had for some who performed that day.
For the recently-rehabilitated Tina Turner, the album chart had been where
the majority of her huge success took place; 1984's back-from-the-wilderness
Private Dancer was in the process of clocking up more than 150 weeks on the UK
listings, but only two of its six singles had made the Top 10. The last of
that sextet, I Can't Stand The Rain, had fallen short of the Top 40 in March.
However, We Don't Need Another Hero - soaring another 8 places to #3 a week
after a climb of 27 from its entry position of #38 - was a brand enw
recording, taken from the third Mad Max film Beyond Thunderdome in which Ms. Bullock
had a significant role. Her other release from the soundtrack - One Of The
Living - would only manage a #55 peak later in the year.
Dire Straits: Brothers In Arms
Yet more film-related chart activity in the Top 5 came courtesy of Harold
Faltermeyer's instrumental tune Axel F from Beverley Hills Cop. The single had
made little impact upon its original release at the beginning of 1985,
stopping well short of the Top 40, but stormed to #2 second time around. It now
dropped from #3 to #5.
Prior to Live Aid, Dire Straits were pretty popular. In May 1985 they had
played a record 20 nights at Wembley Arena, and the Brothers In Arms album
debuted at #1 in the UK during the same month. After Live Aid, they became
popular on a scale seldom seen either before or since. Brothers In Arms went on to
spend 2 years in the Top 10 alone, and their back-catalogue releases chalked
up several hundred weeks between them. Singles-wise, they were prone to the
occasional biggie - Sultans Of Swing (#7, 1978), Romeo & Juliet (#8, 1980) and
Private Investigations (#2, 1982), and Money For Nothing duly added itself
to that list by hitting the Top 10 during August 1985.
Aided by an
eye-catching, if now rather dated and crude, animated video, the single also featured
Sting on back-up vocals. His "Don't Stand So Close To Me" hookline on The
Police's 1980 chart-topper had been appropriated by the emerging Music Television
channel MTV as "I Want My MTV", and now it was payback time; the latter phrase
formed the intro to Money For Nothing, which moved #15-8 on the Top 40 of 19
years ago.
Billy Idol: Greatest Hits
One-hit wonders were in healthy supply in the higher regions of the chart.
The failure of Opus (peaking at #6 with Live Is Life) and Denise LaSalle (whose
My Toot Toot fell to #13) to grace the Top 40 ever again is probably reason
to celebrate, but whatever became of Trans-X? Their single Living On Video
moved up 1 notch to #9, but it would prove their only hit record.
(DVDfever Dom adds: Am I the only one who thought the line after the
last "Living in Video" in the chorus was, "S'alright if I swim in it?")
Gunning for the Top 10, Billy Idol's resurrected White Wedding shot up from
#18 to #11. Dating from 1982, the track was the first of several reissue hits
for the former Generation X frontman between 1985 and 1989. An American
breakthrough had proved easier than cracking the UK chart, and it wasn't until
1984's Eyes Without A Face made #18 in Britain that Idol's career got underway
on this side of the Atlantic. A mini-album entitled Vital Idol subsequently
appeared in September 1985, while the title song from 1983's Rebel Yell album
later emulated the Top 10 exploits of White Wedding upon re-release.
The Cult: Pure Cult
Indie-Goth favourites The Cult (formerly Southern Death Cult) were climbing
4 places to #15 with their debut Top 40 hit She Sells Sanctuary. The
tongue-twistingly-titled epic never went any higher, but it hung around the full Top
100 for well over 6 months and ranks behind only New Order's Blue Monday as
the biggest-selling single on an independent label in the 1980s. Also moving
into the Top 20 were the Pointer Sisters, whose Dare Me (recently sampled by
Junior Jack as the basis for Stupidisco) rose 6 to #17, Five Star's Let Me Be
The One was up from #22 to #18, while The Cure's glorious In Between Days
soared from its debut position of #35 to #20.
A trio of newcomers to the chart arrived immediately outside the top half of
the 40. Bruce Springsteen's Glory Days was the highest entry at #21, the
fourth single from Born In The USA debuting as the third (a Double A-side
featuring I'm On Fire and the album's title cut) continued its run in the Top 20 by
falling from #12 to #19. The unlikely pairing of UB40 and Chrissie Hynde (of
Pretenders fame) teamed up for a reggae-lite cover of I Got You Babe, going
straight in at #22 on their way to the very top a month later when it
dethroned Into The Groove.
One of 1984's chart sensations, with no fewer than five
Top 20 hit singles and two Platinum albums, Nik Kershaw's star was sadly about
to wane. Don Quixote - new at #23 - proved to be his last notable UK single,
with its #27 follow-up When A Heart Beats providing the final Top 40 entry
for Kershaw as a recording artist although he wrote and produced Chesney
Hawkes' 1991 #1 The One And Only, and later guested on Les
Rhythmes Digitales' classy synth-pop Sometimes, making No.56 in
August 1999.
The Best of Go West
OMD had seen better times, too; Secret was at its high of #34, one of three
singles from their Crush album that failed to crack the Top 20 during 1985.
The single was only the second to feature the plaintive tones of Paul Humphreys
rather than Andy McCluskey, the previous occasion being the band's biggest
UK hit Souvenir (#3 in September 1981). Apparently undeterred, Humphreys took
the mic again on 1986's Forever Live And Die, with far greater commercial
success.
Other entries included Prince & The Revolution at #33 with Raspberry Beret,
Phil Collins in at #38 with Take Me Home and Go West's third single Goodbye
Girl at #39. Not content with having records at #1 and #12, Madonna claimed a
hat-trick of hits on the chart of August 3rd 1985 when her debut hit Holiday
re-entered at #32. Shades of the previous summer, when Frankie Goes To
Hollywood's Relax rebounded back up the chart to join their incumbent #1 Two Tribes,
soon materialised when Holiday subsequently leapt 27 places to #5 before
completing a one-two of her own.
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This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
