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Jason Maloney reviews

Steve Winwood: Chronicles 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 It was then repeated the following Sunday, by which time the chart was effectively a week out of date although the chart-dating format masked that fact.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.

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: