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Jason Maloney reviews

The Very Best of The Human League It was a triple Wham!-y for George Michael 20 years ago on the UK charts, as Freedom nestled in the #1 spot for a second week. 1984 had already seen Wham! top the charts with Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go in May, and then Michael had ventured out on his own to release Careless Whisper during the summer. Another chart-topping smash was the result. Freedom completed the hat-trick with ease, knocking Stevie Wonder's I Just Called To Say I Love You - the single which dethroned Carless Whisper - off #1 in the process. Moving up 2 places to #2, No More Lonely Nights continued Paul McCartney's hot streak of Top 3 hits that had begun 12 months earlier with the Michael Jackson collaboration Say Say Say and would later continue with We All Stand Together. No More Lonely Nights was taken from Macca's full-length feature Give My Regards To Broad Street; a critical and commercial failure, the accompanying album did however top the UK chart. Another film-related hit was at #3; Phil Oakey & Giorgio Moroder's Together In Electric Dreams, from the fluffy US romantic comedy Electric Dreams. Oakey's 1984 had not previously been a happy one; The Human League's long-awaited return woth the follow-up to 1981's epochal Dare! album was underwhelming, greeted with mixed reviews and failing to yield a Top 10 hit. Despite an inauspicious start, debuting at #39, Together In Electric Dreams climbed steadily for a month to reach the Top 5.

The Best of Culture Club Culture Club, who started the year as the biggest pop band on the planet, were about to experience a major wobble; The War Song (down from #3 to #6) hinted at the problems to come; a weak - some would say naff - record which only prospered thanks to the group's briefly-omnipotent status. The album Waking Up With The House On Fire was panned, its next single missed the Top 30 completely, and Culture Club never really recovered. For Spandau Ballet, 1984 was also a disappointing one; true, the Parade album made #2 and first single Only When You Leave hit the top 3, but subsequent releases failed to scale the same heights. Parade's third of four hits, Highly Strung (up from #25), had to settle for a #15 peak. At least Paul Young managed to maintain his commercial momentum from the previous year, as I'm Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down (falling from #9 to #11) had made it 4 Top 10 hits in a row.

The Very Best of Midge Ure & Ultravox Some 6 years after her debut smash I'm Every Woman, Chaka Khan had returned to the UK Top 40; first in tandem with Rufus on the evergreen (and much covered) Ain't Nobody - a #8 hit in April 1984 - and then courtesy of the Arif Mardin-produced cover of the little-known Prince song I Feel For You, which was soaring 17 places to #5 on the chart of October 27th en route to the very top. A strong Top 10 was completed by The Cars' Drive (going gently into reverse at #7), All Cried Out by a newly-solo Alison Moyet (up 4 to #8, to follow the #10 peak of her debut single Love Resurrection), John Waite's US #1 Missing You (inching up from #10 to #9) and The Style Council's anthemic Shout To The Top (falling from its high of #7 to #10). The same year as his late father appeared on the UK Top 40 with previously-unreleased material, Julian Lennon made his chart debut with Too Late For Goodbyes, climbing 18 to #12 this week in 1984. Although further hits would follow in America, it would be his last UK success until 1991's Saltwater reached #6. There would be no more Top 10 hits for Ultravox, however; Love's Great Adventure (moving #23-#13) - the one new track on their upcoming Greatest Hits set The Collection - ultimately went as high as #12, but none of the singles from 1986's swansong U-VOX progressed further than #30.

Rancho Texicano: Very Best of ZZ Top Meat Loaf (rising 9 to #17 with Modern Girl) and Kim Wilde (up from #33 to #29 with The Second Time) were both experiencing mid-80s blips, before periods of renewed popularity - Meat Loaf's 1993 comeback sequel to Bat Out Of Hell put him back on the map, while albums in 1986 and 1988 spawned no fewer than five Top 10 hits in 7 releases for Wilde. There were just 4 newcomers to the chart; Status Quo's cover of The Wanderer (originally a hit for Dion & The Belmonts) debuted at #23, two places above Billy Ocean's renamed US chart-topper Caribbean Queen (aka European Queen). It was the UK soul star's first Top 40 entry of the decade, having scored a run of major hits in the latter half of the 70s. Hirsute boogie men ZZ Top were in at #34 with a re-issued Gimme All Your Lovin'; the classic opener from the Eliminator album, it became the band's breakthough UK single and heralded a renewed promotional campaign for the album and its other singles Sharp Dressed Man and Legs that lasted well into 1985. Bringing up the rear at #40, Limahl's theme song for the children's fantasy film The Never Ending Story proved to be the former Kajagoogoo frontman's final hurrah on the UK chart, going as far as #4 but unfortunately (for him) failing to revive his already-flagging solo career in the longterm.

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: