18TH AUGUST
After 9 weeks at No 1 Frankie Goes To Hollywood finally give up the struggle and ebb 1-3 this week though they barely move sales wise with 56,000 buyers. The band announced this week that there will be an album in October and a Christmas single so the bets are surely off for this year’s festive chart topper. “Two Tribes” successor comes from George Michael who gets some revenge on the song which knocked Wham’s first chart topper “Wake Me Up Before You Go Go” off the top spot 10 weeks ago. “Careless Whisper” was never in any danger of not being the nation’s No 1 song this week after it sprinted away from the rest of the field selling 97,000 copies. Michael has revealed that Innervision had planned to release a version of the single late last year before his publisher’s refused the rights, a decision he must be thankful for now.
[video=youtube;Xsnuq1AU2TA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xsnuq1AU2TA[/video]
You’ll recall Laura Branigan for her No 6 hit “Gloria” back in 1982, you may also recall that that was a cover of a Umberto Tozzi track. Well she returned to Tozzi to co-compose her new single “Self Control” which was written in English and proves her comeback to the top 10 as it shoots 13-6 (39,000) to match the peak of her only other UK hit. Interestingly another of the song’s co-writers, Raffaele Riefoli, known professionally as Raf has released his own version which has been a hit all over Europe topping the charts in Switzerland in between spells at the top by the Branigan version!
Howard Jones is between albums but that doesn’t stop the singles flowing, his first release from as yet untitled second album “Like To Get To Know You Well” debuted at No 33 last week and now springs to No 10 (30,000). It gives Jones a 80% top 10 strike rate with only one single missing the mark, it’s also his fastest selling single as no other Jones single has been top 10 in its second week, an indication of how bright his star currently is.
In other news Hazell Dean has her biggest hit on her hand as “Whatever I Do” accelerates 8-4 (44,000) and taking a surprise bounce Grandmaster Flash & Melle Mel move back up 10-9 (33,000) in its 31st week on the chart making 1984 a year for long chart runs! The track has now sold over 400,000 making it a slow burner.
Tina Turner hits the skids 3-5 (40,000) while Frankie’s “Relax” gently recedes 6-7 (37,000) is itself in its 39th chart week though its sales tally is rather more impressive as it moves over the 1.5 million mark, and Prince heads south 5-8 (35,000).
