- Kylie & Jason: Especially for You
- Erasure: Crackers International
- Angry Anderson: Suddenly
- Inner City: Good Life
- Cliff Richard: Mistletoe and Wine
- Neneh Cherry: Buffalo Stance
- The Four Tops: Loco in Acapulco
- Status Quo: Burning Bridges (On and Off and On Again)
- Kim Wilde: Four Letter Word
- Bros: Cat Among the Pigeons / Silent Night
- Phil Collins: Two Hearts
- Michael Jackson: Smooth Criminal
- Petula Clark: Downtown '88
- Rick Astley: Take Me to Your Heart
- a-ha: You Are the One [remix]
- Freiheit: Keeping the Dream Alive
- U2: Angel of Harlem
- Robin Beck: First Time
- New Order: Fine Time
- Tiffany: Radio Romance
- INXS: Need You Tonight
- Londonbeat: 9 a.m. (The Comfort Zone)
- Bananarama: Nathan Jones
- Bomb the Bass featuring Maureen: Say a Little Prayer
- Duran Duran: All She Wants Is
- A Tribe of Toffs: John Kettley Is a Weatherman
- Pet Shop Boys: Left to My Own Devices
- Gloria Estefan & Miami Sound Machine: Rhythm Is Gonna Get You
- Fine Young Cannibals: She Drives Me Crazy
- Hithouse: Jack to the Sound of the Underground
- Boy Meets Girl: Waiting for a Star to Fall
- Enya: Evening Falls...
- Bon Jovi: Born to Be My Baby
- Yazz: Stand Up for Your Love Rights
- Annie Lennox & Al Green: Put a Little Love in Your Heart
- Shakin' Stevens: True Love
- Climie Fisher: Love Like a River
- Humanoid: Stakker Humanoid
- Will to Power: Baby I Love Your Way/Freebird
- Natalie Cole: I Live for Your Love
~~~~~
1989. A new year and with it a brand new number one. Of course it a track that had languished in the chart's runner-up position all through December so there was absolutely nothing new about it. Perceptive readers will note that Especially for You had been my favourite throughout that time as well and you might expect me to have been thrilled by it's promotion to the top spot. While I wasn't indifferent to the news, I greeted the development with plenty of anticlimax: there was kind of the feeling that hitting the top spot in January was just a consolation prize for having missed the Christmas number one. It was an obvious case of too little, too late. Plus, you know, I was pretty damn sick of it by this point.
There's an odd quirk about this week's chart as several singles that had been trending down enjoyed a sudden resurgence. A full dozen tracks had bounce backs, including one - Yazz's Stand Up for Your Love Rights - which had been off the Top 40 entirely for several weeks. They say that January is dead time for chart activity and this would go some way to explain such an oddity. (I was going to examine similar post-Christmas Top 40's from the mid-eighties to the early nineties to see if they yielded similar results but I'm currently back home for the holidays and I just didn't have the time) In addition, English kids had Christmas record tokens to redeem and they probably opted to purchase singles with them that they'd grown familiar with over the holidays. (We never had record tokens back in Canada, just those Sam the Record Man gift certificates that I'd always spend on albums; the very idea of spending music money on a single seemed like a colossal waste to me)
We spent New Year's in Peterborough, as we continued to avoid our cramped and cold place, this time staying with the Douglas' at their equally cramped and cold place, thus finishing off our Christmas holidays where they'd began just over two weeks earlier. I spent some of the first day of 1989 at a wave pool, thus bringing back memories of visits to Calgary's Village Square Leisure Centre.
Back in Laindon on Monday, I was back at school the following day. Dad had meetings first thing in the morning and, due to some arrangement that I can no longer recall, dropped my sister and I off in the centre of Billericay from where we were to walk to Mayflower. The morning was cool and clear and we managed to make that walk take about as long as possible. As we trudged reluctantly to school we were stopped by the mother of Naomi, one of my sister's closest friends. She invited us to her place where we could relax and wait for school to start. My sister normally didn't want to have anything to do with me back then - looking back I can't say I blame her - but she made an exception as we sat on a sofa in Naomi's living room. They didn't even seem to mind that I was walking close to them as we all proceeded on to school.
For whatever reason we were requested to wait in the main gymnasium before classes were to begin. It was as if they'd chosen to herd us into a spot so we weren't kicking off the New Year by running amok on the playground or sports field. Remind them where they are.
And where exactly was I? I was starting a new term, I was mad about pop music and I was becoming more and more comfortable in my surroundings. I was leaving behind my childhood but I couldn't quite rid myself of the parallel universe life that I'd left behind in Calgary. '89 would be about throwing off the shackles of my previous jogging pants-professional wrestling-comic books world in favour of my newfound existence of Top 40-thinking about girls-travelling around Britain. Trading in one set of shackles for another, as it would turn out.
~~~~~
young Paul's favourite: You Are the One
older Paul's retro pick: Left to My Own Devices (what else?)
No comments:
Post a Comment