Jason’s Jukebox Volume 28

Jason Maloney reviews

JASON’S JUKEBOX
V o l u m e # 2 8 Chart Date: August 13th 1983 Online Date: 12th August 2004

KC & The Sunshine Band:
Dance Remixes KC & The Sunshine Band were at #1 in the UK for the first time in their career, and they weren’t about to Give It Up. Despite stiffing at #46 on the US chart (the American market having previously been a lucrative one for the band), Give It Up proved the surprise smash of 1983 thanks to strong support from radio, moving #30-19-5 on its way to the top.

The rise of KC & The Sunshine Band brought to an end the 3-week reign of ex-Streetband and Q-Tips vocalist Paul Young‘s Wherever I Lay My Hat (That’s My Home). Young’s only previous chart entry was courtesy of Streetband‘s #18 hit Toast/Hold On in 1978. Wherever I Lay My Hat was a striking cover of an old Marvin Gaye song, and the first four entries of Paul Young’s solo career would all be versions of other people’s material until 1984’s self-penned #9 hit Everything Must Change briefly halted the sequence.

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Depeche Mode:
Singles 1981-1985 Perhaps it was the scorching weather, but the rest of the Top 5 had a distinctly club-oriented flavour. Down a notch to #3 was I.O.U. by Freeez, while Malcolm McLaren‘s Double Dutch also fell one place from #3 to #4. Up 5 positions to #5 were Wham! and the immortal Club Tropicana, while holding steady at #6 was Gary Byrd & The GB Experience‘s The Crown. Some of the most seminal summer records were on the Top 40 of 21 years ago; Bananarama‘s Cruel Summer was falling from its peak of #8 to #13, The Sun Goes Down (Livin’ It Up) by Level 42 moved in the opposite direction from #38 to #33 en route to the Top 10, while The Style Council‘s Long Hot Summer (part of the A Paris E.P.) made the biggest entrance of the week at #8.

Highest climber, with a leap of 15 places to #9, was Elton John‘s I’m Still Standing; the second major hit single from Too Low For Zero, it consolidated an extraordinary return to form and commercial success after the period 1979-1982 had yielded just one Top 20 entry in the form of Blue Eyes. Also moving strongly into the Top 10 were Depeche Mode with Everything Counts, up from #16 and eventually destined for #6, the equal-highest position of their career thus far. Little more than 6 months later they would do even better, as People Are People reached #4 in March 1984.

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Robert Plant:
The Principle of Moments Despite becoming one of the biggest groups on the planet during the early 1970s with a string of legendary albums, Led Zeppelin never released an official UK single in their lifetime. Frontman Robert Plant went solo in 1982 following the band’s demise, and his first Top 40 entry Big Log (climbing #15-#11) was in fact his very first appearance on the UK singles chart. Plant’s debut solo set Picture At Eleven had failed to produce a hit single, but Big Log – taken from the Autumn ’83 follow-up The Principle Of Moments – made an immediate impact, and remains his biggest hit.

Other notable advances were made by Herbie Hancock‘s Rockit (up 10 to #15), The First Picture Of You by fancied newcomers The Lotus Eaters (moving #23-#21), and Wait Until Tonight (My Love) from Galaxy Featuring Phil Fearon (moving #37-#26). The credit on future hits by the latter during 1984 would be reversed to Phil Fearon & Galaxy.

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Kraftwerk:
Tour de France Soundtracks There were only five new entries to the Top 40; unthinkable in this day and age but more or less par for the course back in the early 1980s. Aside from The Style Council’s #8 debut, Spandau Ballet were in at #12 with Gold (the follow-up to their #1 smash True) which came tantalisingly close to the top itself just 7 days later.

New at #31 was Kraftwerk‘s Tour De France, a single that would return to the Top 40 in slightly remixed form during the summer of 1984 after its use in the Breakdance film. In 1983 it would reach #22, a year later #24.

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