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Jason Maloney reviews

Tina Turner: Simply the Best 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.

Page Content copyright © Jason Maloney, 2004.

The following is a list of Jason's Jukeboxes online for week ending:

Vol.40: The 40 Best Singles That Missed The UK Top 40 (20/12/2004)
Vol.39: November 12th 1977 (12/11/2004)
Vol.38: October 29th 1984 (29/10/2004)
Vol.37: October 15th 1987 (15/10/2004)
Vol.36: October 6th 1973 (08/10/2004)
Vol.35: September 30th 1995 (30/09/2004)
Vol.34: September 22nd 1979 (24/09/2004)
Vol.33: September 13th 1986 (16/09/2004)
Vol.32: September 9th 1989 (09/09/2004)
Vol.31: September 4th 1982 (02/09/2004)
Vol.30: August 26th 1978 (26/08/2004)
Vol.29: August 21st 1976 (19/08/2004)
Vol.28: August 13th 1983 (12/08/2004)
Vol.27: August 3rd 1985 (06/08/2004)
Vol.26: July 25th 1981 (29/07/2004)
Vol.25: July 21st 1979 (22/07/2004)
Vol.24: July 4th 1992 (08/07/2004)
Vol.23: June 24th 1965 (01/07/2004)
Vol.22: June 16th 1984 (17/06/2004)
Vol.21: June 11th 1977 (10/06/2004)
Vol.20: June 8th 1967 (03/06/2004)
Vol.19: May 29th 1971 (27/05/2004)
Vol.18: May 18th 1991 (20/05/2004)
Vol.17: May 14th 1969 (13/05/2004)
Vol.16: May 8th 1982 (06/05/2004)
Vol.15: May 3rd 1980 (29/04/2004)
Vol.14: April 19th 1986 (20/04/2004)
Vol.13: April 14th 1990 (13/04/2004)
Vol.12: April 8th 1989 (08/04/2004)
Vol.11: April 2nd 1983 (06/04/2004)
Vol.10: March 24th 1979 (23/03/2004)
Vol.9: March 19th 1988 (16/03/2004)
Vol.8: March 9th 1985 (09/03/2004)
Vol.7: March 3rd 1973 (02/03/2004)
Vol.6: February 28th 1987 (24/02/2004)
Vol.5: February 20th 1993 (17/02/2004)
Vol.4: February 11th 1978 (10/02/2004)
Vol.3: February 3rd 1966 (03/02/2004)
Vol.2: January 31st 1981 (27/01/2004)
Vol.1: January 21st 1984 (20/01/2004)

And in chronological order:

June 24th 1965: Vol.23 (01/07/2004)
February 3rd 1966: Vol.3 (03/02/2004)
June 8th 1967: Vol.20 (03/06/2004)
May 14th 1969: Vol.17 (13/05/2004)
May 29th 1971: Vol.19 (27/05/2004)
March 3rd 1973: Vol.7 (02/03/2004)
August 21st 1976: Vol.29 (19/08/2004)
June 11th 1977: Vol.21 (10/06/2004)
November 12th 1977: Vol.39 (12/11/2004)
February 11th 1978: Vol.4 (10/02/2004)
August 26th 1978: Vol.30 (26/08/2004)
March 24th 1979: Vol.10 (23/03/2004)
July 21st 1979: Vol.25 (22/07/2004)
September 22nd 1979: Vol.34 (24/09/2004)
May 3rd 1980: Vol.15 (29/04/2004)
January 31st 1981: Vol.2 (27/01/2004)
July 25th 1981: Vol.26 (29/07/2004)
May 8th 1982: Vol.16 (06/05/2004)
September 4th 1982: Vol.31 (02/09/2004)
April 2nd 1983: Vol.11 (06/04/2004)
August 13th 1983: Vol.28 (12/08/2004)
January 21st 1984: Vol.1 (20/01/2004)
June 16th 1984: Vol.22 (17/06/2004)
October 29th 1984: Vol.38 (29/10/2004)
March 9th 1985: Vol.8 (09/03/2004)
August 3rd 1985: Vol.27 (06/08/2004)
April 19th 1986: Vol.14 (20/04/2004)
September 13th 1986: Vol.33 (16/09/2004)
February 28th 1987: Vol.6 (24/02/2004)
October 15th 1987: Vol.37 (15/10/2004)
March 19th 1988: Vol.9 (16/03/2004)
April 8th 1989: Vol.12 (08/04/2004)
September 9th 1989: Vol.32 (09/09/2004)
April 14th 1990: Vol.13 (13/04/2004)
May 18th 1991: Vol.18 (20/05/2004)
July 4th 1992: Vol.24 (08/07/2004)
February 20th 1993: Vol.5 (17/02/2004)
September 30th 1995: Vol.35 (30/09/2004)
The 40 Best Singles That Missed The UK Top 40: Vol.40 (20/12/2004)

DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.

PC games reviewed by the editor are on: