Rivals in the great T-shirt war which is currently raging on streets up and down the land Frankie Goes To Hollywood were up against Wham! this week in the singles chart, but with pre orders for the new Frankie single exceeding 350,000 according to ZTT there was little chance of anything but “Two Tribes” ended up at No 1. So it proved with the single becoming the 7th single this decade to debut at No 1 but it does so with the highest first week sales of the 80s selling 206,000 copies in just 6 days and creating a new 1984 high. The song of course deals with the current cold war animosity between the US and Russia and comes with a controversial video depicting Reagan and Chernenko in a tussle which has already been banned in the USSR. To further the message there’s a shocking run down of the number of nuclear weapons owned by the two nations on the back sleeve of the single if you really fancy scaring yourself, and the voice at the beginning of the single comes courtesy of Patrick Allen who recreates his voiceover from the Government’s “Protect and Survive” public safety films from the last few years. It certainly seems to have lit up the charts this week along with the record shops, managing to stave off the traditional summer lull.
Frankie’s debut single “Relax” has still not left the top 40 and did drop as low as No 31 but has rebounded week on week for the last 6 weeks and currently has moved 16-11. It is by far the biggest seller of the year so far with total sales of the single now amounting to 972,000 since its release, the million mark must be a matter of weeks away. From the way “Two Tribes” has started it could overtake “Relax” in a relatively short time.
Any belief therefore that Wham! could fend off FGTH were soon squashed as soon as the figures started to roll in to Gallup, the duo sold a very healthy 89,000 copies of “Wake Me Up” so they won’t be disappointed and were well clear of Spandau Ballet who rise 5-3 but sold a mere 52,000 copies in what they must consider an underperformance given their last two singles.
Indeed if anyone is going to be challenging Wham! For the runner up spot next week then it’s going to be Bronski Beat. The group were signed after just 9 live gigs and are all openly gay which may very well be a first in British pop, this is reflected in their debut track “Smalltown Boy” which arrives 13-4 (41,000) this week. The song deals with the troubles of “coming out” and of societal reactions to it and the band, and in particular lead singer Jimmy Sommerville, have already been quite outspoken in the media on the subject which hasn’t gone down with the more conservative leaning daily papers.
Onto a man who now his 14th top 10 single of his 13 year career, yes Elton is back with his 18th album! Due in a fortnight entitled “Breaking Hearts” and the lead single “Sad Songs (Say So Much)”. The single sees him build on his return to commercial success of last year’s “Too Low For Zero” campaign and flies 12-8 (33,000) this week.
Evelyn Thomas and Howard Jones continue move towards the top spot advancing 9-5 (37,000) and 8-7 (33,000) respectively, both benefitting from TOTP exposure with the Smiths holding at anchor position on a slightly improved sale of 25,000. Two fallers to round off, Ultravox fall back 3-6 (34,000) whilst Deniece Williams falters 2-9 (30,000) as the tide turns against her.
https://forum.popjustice.com/thread...-by-week-1984-1985.38232/page-18#post-3590309