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Jason Maloney reviews

Lionel Richie & The Commodores: The Definitive Collection Once it debuted at #5, when such a feat was still a rarity, the odds on it going all the way were very high and so it proved. Twice in a row it was celebrating its place at #1 in the UK, a status it would continue to enjoy for a further 3 weeks. Three Times A Lady, the single in question, was The Commodores' only British chart-topper although their frontman and the song's writer Lionel Richie went on to huge solo success in the 1980s. A week earlier Three Times A Lady had been the record to finally bring to an end the domination of John Travolta & Olivia Newton-John's You're The One That I Want. For 9 consecutive weeks the pair had seen off all competition with the first of their back-to-back #1s. You're The One That I Want and its follow-up Summer Nights were both taken from the film Grease, which also yielded a third major hit single in the shape of Frankie Valli's title song, new this week at #31. The setting for Grease, although you wouldn't have guessed from the sleek funkiness of the Barry Gibb-penned effort from Valli, was 50s America; an era which vocal group Darts drew on very successfully for a period between 1977 and 1979. Daddy Cool opened their account at the tail end of 1977, reaching #7, followed by another Top 10 hit The Boy From New York City. Their third entry, It's Raining, would become their highest-charting single to date; curently up a notch to #3, it peaked at #2 in early September.

Boney M: Greatest Hits The single occupying the #4 position 26 years ago holds a unique place in UK chart history. Boney M's Rivers Of Babylon, released in May, reached #1 the following month before going into gentle decline. By the end of July, it had fallen down to #20 after 13 weeks on the listings. Then, something extraordinary began to unfold. The B-side Brown Girl In The Ring began to attract enough attention and generate significant popularity that it was give belated equal billing with Rivers Of Babylon; nothing unheard of there, but the impact on the single's chart fortunes was unprecedented. Now an AA-sided hit, the single started to go back up the Top 20, all the way into the Top 5 again. In total, it would clock up 26 weeks on chart, and on this - its 18th appearance - it was up from #5 and on its way to falling just short of the top spot for what would have been a second spell. Although they originally made their name on the singles Top 40 in 1964 with the chart-topping Go Now, the Moody Blues had long since become better known as an album act. The hits tailed off after 1970's Question made #2, although signature tune Nights In White Satin repeated its Top 20 successes of 1968 (#19) and 1972 (#9) with another visit to the charts in the autumn of 1979. In the meantime, lead vocalist Justin Hayward - who replaced the singer of Go Now, Denny Laine, not long after their initial breakthrough in the mid-60s - had a major solo hit courtesy of Forever Autumn. Taken from Jeff Wayne's musical extravaganza based on H.G.Wells' War Of The Worlds, the track was at its peak of #5. The album itself became one of the longest-running hits of all-time, spending over 5 years on the UK chart.

The Very Best of 10cc Among its star-studded cast, Jeff Wayne's War Of The Worlds included 70s hearthrob and star of stage and screen David Essex. The singer/actor's other main project at the time was Evita, the West End musical by Andrew Lloyd-Webber based on the life of Eva Peron. Evita's first and biggest hit single had come more than a year earlier; Julie Covington's Don't Cry For Me Argentina reaching #1 in February 1977. Essex's Oh What A Circus didn't quite match that chart performance, eventually peaking at #3, but on the Top 40 of August 26th 1978 it was by far the highest climber, soaring 24 places from its debut position of #36 right up to #12. 10cc, one of the most consistently successful singles bands of the decade, were in the Top 10 yet again. With its now-legendary chorus of "I Don't Like Cricket... I Love It", Dreadlock Holiday (rising 12 places to #6 on only its 2nd week in the Top 40) set its unsettling lyrics of a tourist's experiences in the Carribean to a almost jaunty reggae rhythm. The result was a late-summer smash, as the single toppled Three Times A Lady from the summit in September. For 60s icons such as Bob Dylan and The Who, significant singles chart careers were beginning to wind down. Baby Stop Crying, down from a high of #13 to #15, proved to be Dylan's last appearance on the UK singles rundown until the mid-90s, when Dignity sneaked into the lower region of the Top 40. Meanwhile, Who Are You (up 2 to #18) would only be followed by 1981's You Better You Bet and the #40 hit Athena a year later.

The Rezillos: Can't Stand the Rezillos Jilted John's eponymous single was one of the week's notable movers, climbing 15 places to #10. Also rising the same number of positions was Cold As Ice by Foreigner. The AOR masters' second UK hit was experiencing a literally up-and-down chart run; having entered at #30, it then fell back to #39 before its climb to #24. Bizarrely, it would then drop out of the Top 40 completely for one week, return at #39 and then disappear once more. Another odd sequence was chalked up by Jackson Browne's classic Stay (rebounding 2 places to #20), which after moving #32-#31-#12 - the sudden leap a common quirk of the pre-barcoded era - spent the next few weeks bobbing to and fro between #13 and #22 before this latest turnaround. Naming your single Top Of The Pops is shamelessly inviting attention, especially if said record fails to live up to its title by reaching #1, but The Rezillos did so anyway; Top Of The Pops (the song) climbed from #34 to #26, earning an appearance on Top Of The Pops (the music TV show) during its ascent to a high of #17. Highest entry to the chart was Forget About You, the Motors' follow-up to their Top 5 smash Airport, in at #31. Clearly the record-buying public still remembered them... for the time being at least. Immediately beneath them, an act destined for a longer career debuted with one of the earliest in a distinguished line of hits. The Jam's double A-side release David Watts/'A' Bomb In Wardour Street only managed #25 in the end, but it continued their steady progress from bright new things to fully-fledged national treasures. By contrast, Bryan Ferry's dismal #37 showing with Sign Of The Times temporarily called time on his previously lucrative solo escapades outside of Roxy Music. In 1979, Roxy Music returned with a drastically altered line-up and, most importantly, a series of major hit singles from the Manifesto album.

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: