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It was a week of change for the UK Top 40; traditionally each new chart had
been unveiled two days after the stores closed on Saturday and first broadcast
on Radio 1 during the Tuesday lunchtime slot. It was then repeated the
following Sunday, by which time the chart was effectively a week out of date
although the chart-dating format masked that fact.
As the independent broadcasting sector began to offer a serious alternative
to the BBC's monopoly in the 1980s, it was only a matter of time before a
rival chart appeared. In the late summer of 1984, The Network Chart was launched
with the backing of former Radio 1 DJs Paul Gambaccini and David "Kid" Jensen
and pitted directly against the Sunday evening re-run of the official Top 40
on the Beeb. It lacked the same integrity (its collated data was not based
on the standard Monday-Saturday period, while airplay on independent stations
was also factored in), but The Network Chart was more up-to-date than the
opposition. Eventually, as technology enabled it and the need for a more
relevant official UK rundown grew, Gallup - the industry's UK chart compilers since
1978 - were able to offer a response.
Michael Jackson: Bad: Special Edition
The Top 40 revealed on Sunday October 4th 1987 was still dated according to
the week-ending rule, but it was based on a sales window that had only closed
a few hours earlier. Unfortunately, the first chart of the new dawn wasn't
especially memorable. In fact, the top end had a distinctly odd look about it.
Pump Up The Volume by M/A/R/R/S, the first track hewn entirely from samples
to hit #1 in Britain, was enjoying its 2nd week at the summit with the equally
unusual Full Metal Jacket (I Wanna Be Your Drill Instructor) soared from #7
to #2 for the rock'n'roll-sounding Abigail Mead & Nigel Goulding. The latter
was inspired by the Stanley Kubrick film of the same name that was on
release at the time.
Amidst all the sampling, the latest Michael Jackson single Bad was manfully
hanging on at #3. The title track of his long-awaited follow-up to Thriller,
it was accompanied by a typically overblown video that ran to 17 minutes in
its full glory. Bad's first single, the lukewarm ballad I Just Can't Stop
Loving You, had topped the chart in early August probably due to unprecendented
aniticipation for the new album, but none of the other 8(!) singles from it
could emulate that achievement.
1987 was on course to end on an underwhelming
note for Madonna, as her ill-advised Hollywood adventure continued with Who's
That Girl and its soundtrack (the title song aside) failed to deliver the
chart goods; Causin' A Commotion was already in decline, dropping from #5 to #10
having peaked at #4. A few weeks later, The Look Of Love almost spoiled the
Material Girl's remarkable run of consecutive Top 10 UK hits that stretched
back to 1984's Like A Virgin. Perhaps wisely, she took a complete break in
1988.
Billy Idol: Greatest Hits
Veteran hit-makers Cliff Richard and the Bee Gees were both experiencing a
welcome return to favour; Cliff's reunion with producer Alan Tarney on the
Always Guaranteed set had already yielded a summer Top 10 smash with My Pretty
One, and now Some People (falling from #4 to #8) had given him his first Top 3
hit since 1982. You Win Again, meanwhile, was just a week away from taking
the Gibb brothers back to the top of the UK listings after a gap of 8 years.
Gary Numan, Steve Winwood and Billy Idol were all charting with remixed,
re-recorded or re-vamped versions of old material. Numan's #1 from 1979, Cars
(stuck at #16), was given an "E Reg Model" overhaul and duly returned him to the
regions of the chart his recent output had failed to reach. Valerie, a very
minor Top 75 entry in 1982 for Winwood, was resurrected with a glossy new
production sheen added to promote his Chronicles retrospective and was up to #23
having climbed 13 places. Idol's Mony Mony had also been around before, most
recently on a 1985 mini-album Best Of titled Vital Idol. Now, as a live
recording, it finally became a hit single, debuting at #35 and destined for the
UK Top 10 and, in America, #1.
Was (Not Was): The Collection
There was room for golden oldies Kiss, Bruce Springsteen and a solo-again
Mick Jagger; Crazy Crazy Nights (rising 20 places to #12, the highest climb of
the week) briefly gave the 70s make-up merchants a new lease of chart life,
The Boss' Brilliant Disguise inched up a notch to #20, and the inane Let's Work
(up 2 to #31) became the biggest hit of Jagger's extracurricular career thus
far.
The only other notable action on the chart was provided by a 17-place leap
to #21 for Erasure's atypical The Circus and the only arrivals, a clutch of 6
new entries between #34 and #40 led by Five Star's Strong As Steel and also
including the future Top 10 hits Walk The Dinosaur by Was (Not Was) and
Fleetwood Mac's Little Lies.
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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.
