"Karma Chameleon" joins "True" as the only tracks in 1983 to hold the top spot for 4 weeks, Culture Club however do it in style selling a further 166,000 copies, a drop of only 15% week on week, that puts it on 894,000 after 5 weeks and should pass the million mark next week, that would make it the quickest million seller certainly of the decade. It also becomes their biggest selling single, the next target is the 1,186,000 sold by "Come On Eileen"- keep em peeled!
Grabbing attention in part thanks to the appearance of mime artist Jed Hoile on TOTP, Howard Jones rises 13-5 (49,000) with his debut single "New Song". He came to the attention of the music industry after he booked the Marquee club in London and invited record executives, he got a Radio 1 session out of it along with support slots with OMD and China Crisis which led to a record deal. Jones is recording his debut album currently so if you like "New Song" you shouldn't have too long to wait for the LP!
George Benson scores his third top 10 single this week, "In Your Eyes" leaps 15-7 (35,000). The tracks lyrics are penned by Dan Hill who of course had a hit with "Sometimes When We Touch", the parent album, also called "In Your Eyes", is incredibly his 19th studio album making him one of the most prolific recording acts of the last 20 years and clearly he hasn't run out of steam yet, his current single now equals his highest peak achieved by 1980's "Give Me The Night".
After last weeks splurge of new hits it's a much calmer week this time around, Tracey Ullman is the big winner moving 9-2 with "They Don't Know"- she's starring in Paul McCartney's film "Give My Regards To Broad Street" hence his appearance in her promo for this hit, its sales spiral to a cool 124,000 and could pose a serious threat to "Karma Chameleon" next week, it's also the second highest tally for a No 2 record all year beaten only by Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" which sold 131,000 W/E 12.03.83.
The rest of the chart is more subdued, Siouxsie & The Banshees improve 4-3 and New Order bump 10-9 but both are losing sales, 54,000 (down 8%) and 31,000 (a 13% collapse). Four other fallers, David Bowie 2-4 (51,000), P.I.L 5-6 (36,000), UB40 3-8 (31,000) but sells its 700,000 copy, and David Essex 8-10 (29,000).