Bowie continues to dominate in the singles chart with "Let's Dance" racking up a further 130,000 sales last week to see it's overall tally to now amount to 456,000 copies in its first 28 days of release, the dip may be due to those who are waiting for the album which is unleashed today and is widely expected to knock Bonnie Tyler off the top spot next week. Bowie's biggest 80s seller is still "Ashes To Ashes" which has sold 622,000 copies to date but must now be under pressure from his current era.
Bowie had an easy victory this week, though Culture Club accelerate 9-2 with "Church Of The Poison Mind" it sold a still impressive 87,000 copies ( a hike of 113% sales wise) but is a long way from Bowie, as he is one of Boy George's heroes then I'm sure on this occasion he won't mind too much!
With a guitar riff courtesy of Eddy Van Halen, Michael Jackson has his third top 10 hit from "Thriller" in "Beat It". It rockets 30-5 (51,000) and is already top 10 in the US where "Billie Jean" is still at No 1 in its seventh week there! Being a Michael Jackson track it also comes with a stunning video featuring street gangs in LA, the album incidentally hasn't left the top 3 since it climbed there 8 weeks ago and is already the years 2nd biggest seller so far.
Next up is Elli Robert Fitoussi, professionally known as F.R.David, he's a Tunisian born French singer who had a big international hit with "Words" in late 1982 topping some European charts over the last few months. All this led to a cover version by the 60s group The Tremeloes which has been getting some airplay but only managed No 91 as it has since been eclipsed by the original from David which now flies 21-8 (41,000) and can now add the UK to its list of admirers.
The scots are back in the form of Big Country who have drummed up considerable music press over the last year which culminated in their debut single "Harvest Home" in late 1982 which underperformed when it failed to chart. Second single "Fields Of Fire (400 Miles)" does however do the business for them as it moves 13-10 (37,000), a debut album should be available by the end of the summer thanks in part to the success of this single.
In other news Duran Duran continue to slide slowly down the chart 2-3 (79,000) and are overtaken in terms of total sales by David Bowie despite their better start (both have been out for 4 weeks thus the comparison) and JoBoxers join them in defeat as they slide 3-6 (45,000) whilst Kajagoogoo hold at No 7 (43,000). Going the right way however are Tracey Ullman who climbs 6-4 (59,000) and Kenny Everett moves a spot 10-9 (41,000) it is co-written by Mike Moran who of course was the UK entrant for Eurovision 1977 with Lynsey De Paul, a fact I omitted last week.
Retrochart Top Ten w/e 16/04/83
03 01 06 Beat It Michael Jackson NEW NUMBER ONE
02 02 04 Let's Dance David Bowie 
01 01 13 Billie Jean Michael Jackson
