29TH OCTOBER
"Karma Chameleon" tops the chart this week and in doing so becomes the first single since Art Garfunkal's "Bright Eyes" in 1979 to spend 6 weeks in the position, Culture Club also score the double with "Colour By Numbers" sitting at the No 1 position on the album charts. That's the good news, the bad news is that it will probably all be over next week with the vultures lining up to dethrone them, not least of all Lionel Richie who still on the move up 4-2 (82,000) with a 50% sales hike- and that was without TOTP exposure! It was just 14,000 adrift of "Karma Chameleon" which suffered a 31% sales decline which would indicate a victory next week for Richie.
[video=youtube;TbvdbdkEPT8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbvdbdkEPT8[/video]
Richie may be a little too late to dethrone Culture Club though thanks to a new Duran Duran single, their last single "Is There Something I Should Know" debuted at No 1 back in March and now they return with a new album "Seven And The Ragged Tiger" in stores in time for Christmas and lead single "Union Of The Snake" which debuts at No 4 this week after selling 76,000 copies. The song comes with a typically exotic video, with ever expanding budgets Duran Duran seem to be ahead of the competition in the video age and there seems little doubt that they will be celebrating another No 1 next week.
Believe it or not Billy Joel is already on his 9th album "Innocent Man" which is at No 26 this week and has been out for 2 months already but is yet to impact. That should all change now that "Uptown Girl" is a top 10 hit, his chart career dates back 5 years but his previously highest placed single was the No 12 hit "My Life" but he rockets 15-7 (43,000) this week with his ode to his current girlfriend, the model Elle McPherson- lucky lady, the video also features another model Christie Brinkley.
Already a top 20 hit in their native Canada and a top 3 smash Stateside, Men Without Hats finally also get a top 10 UK hit with "The Safety Dance". It was written by the lead singer Ivan Doroschuk after he was thrown out of a club for pogoing, it's taken from their debut album "Rhythm Of Youth" which is displayed on the T-shirt of the dwarf in the video.
Tracey Ullman makes way for all the action at the top of the charts and recedes 2-3 (79,000) whilst Howard Jones (3-5, 75,000) George Benson (7-9, 34,000) and Black Lace (9-10, 33,000) all move the wrong way, better new for The Rocksteady Crew hold at No 6 (52,000).
