It’s starting to flag badly now but “Hello” makes it a fifth week at the top as it sold another 71,000 copies bringing its total to 491,000 and now lags behind only FGTH’s “Relax” in the year’s best sellers. Part of Richie’s ability to hold the top spot is that he has had little competition with no other track getting near him sales wise and there is no better illustration of that fact than this week’s runner up. The Thompson Twins, in a neat chart trajectory, move 3-2 to mean that their last three singles have peaked at No’s 4, 3, and now 2 so they should be on for a No 1 next time out but they incredibly lost sales to achieve the feat. “Hold Me Now” sold 59,000 at No 4 whilst “Doctor Doctor” sold 63,000 at No 3 but “You Take Me Up” sold just 43,000 last week to make the runner up spot, that’s a new low for the decade. Hopefully the Easter school holidays will buck sales up next week.
With a cross dressing video which has caused some controversy over in the states Queen return this week to the top 10 for a 13th time with “I Want To Break Free”. Parent album “The Works” peaked at No 2 last month behind The Thompson Twins and stages a slight recovery 12-8 this week, a move which is dwarfed by the single which powers from its debut position last week 18-5 (38,000).
An established disco funk act Rufus were popular in their native US without making any impression on the UK charts though their former frontwoman Chaka Khan certainly did with her solo hit “I’m Every Woman” (No 11, 1978). The group released their final album last year and recorded some tracks with Khan who returned to the fold for a final time and one of those songs “Ain’t Nobody” finds itself climbing 13-8 (33,000) this week. It’s featured in the soon to be released film “Breakin’” which is another breakdance film which should light up the cinema screen soon and provide further promo for this track.
With a name taken from a corruption of the Italian for "political writings" Scritti Politti are also new to the top 10 this week. Hailing from Leeds the band are another find by John Peel who started to play them back in 1979 and enabled them to get a deal with Rough Trade, the band charted with three singles though nothing that dented the top 40 before their current release “Wood Beez (“Pray Like Aretha Franklin)”. The connection between the track and the Queen Of Soul, in case you wondered, is that both were produced by Arif Mardin, the track shoots from 17-10 (29,000) this week and will be taken from the band’s second album due sometime this year, incidentally their debut album was, until the release of the recent Smiths album, the best seller on the rough trade label.
Phil Collins is looking like a real threat for No 1 as he rises 10-4 (40,000) almost catching a falling Shakin’ Stevens 2-3 (42,000) whilst Special AKA hold at No 9 (30,000). Heading south are Depeche Mode 4-6 (37,000) and Captain Sensible 6-7 (34,000).
https://forum.popjustice.com/thread...-by-week-1984-1985.38232/page-13#post-3579277