This week's Official UK Singles Chart
Preamble:
A still sluggish chart awaits the arrival of all the Christmas hits, due out in the next few weeks. For the meantime everything continues as normal. 11 New Entries, 9 climbers and 2 non-movers.
Analysis:
No. 40: NEW ENTRY. Nu Colours - Power (The E Smoove Remixes)
If at first you don't succeed, remix. Dance outfit Nu Colours have charted a couple of times before in the UK. Tears made No.55 in June 1992 and Power made No.64 four months later. It is the latter track that has now been remixed and repackaged and finally makes its Top 40 debut over a year after it was first released.
No. 38: NEW ENTRY. Bee Gees - For Whom The Bell Tolls
The track on the Size Isn't Everything album that was crying out for single release charts after a great deal of media hype around the Brothers Gibb who this year are celebraing 30 years in showbusiness. A beautiful ballad it may be but for it to chart at all is an achievement. It's been over a decade since they last scored two consecutive Top 40 hits. That was when Love You Inside And Out was released in April 1979. Since then, despite having had a No.1 hit in 1987 with You Win Again the Bee Gees have struggled on several comebacks and only managed an average of one hit per album, meaning that but for the success of this single, August's Paying The Price Of Love would have been the only hit from the current album.
No. 37: NEW ENTRY. Messiah - Thunderdome
It's been a long time since we heard from this lot. Messiah have stood out from the crowd of dance artists by taking old song ideas and adapting them t their own - especially when often the songs are ones nobody has heard of in the first place. This is their first chart single since their version of I Feel Love made No.19 in September 1992. This new hit has nothing at all to do with the Tina Turner single of the same name but is in fact based around Automatic Lover by Dee D. Jackson which was a hit back in 1977.
No. 34: NEW ENTRY. Onyx - Throw Ya Gunz
Whatever happened to gangster rap? In the old days there was criticism that it was glorifying violence and sexual degradation. Nowadays even uncompromising artists such as Onyx go on about politically correct matters and the downing of arms and resorting to peace. Sheesh. Throw Ya Gunz is their second UK hit following Slam which made No.31 in August.
No. 33: NEW ENTRY. Belinda Carlisle - Lay Down Your Arms
Safe and predictable her earlier rock anthem style was, it was certainly what the public preferred as Belinda Carlisle sees her sales struggling. The frankly uninspiring Lay Down Your Arms is the followup to Bigscaryanimal which made No.12 back in September. It's unlikely to progress much further. Her last Top 10 hit was We Want The Same Thing in October 1990.
No. 32: NEW ENTRY. Aphex Twin - On EP
A Cornish techo prodigy, the Aphex Twin (real name Richard James) built his own synthesisers at the age of 13 and has since been churning out ambient dance tunes at a ridiculous rate. His LP Selected Ambient Works 85-93 was a range of his early efforts. Aphex Twin records for several record labels under different aliases - as Polygon Window he reached the Top 60 in April with Quoth but On is his first Top 40 hit.
No. 28: NEW ENTRY. Wonder Stuff - Full Of Life (And Happy Now)
Another band struggling to regain their once proud brilliance are the Wonder Stuff who have gone in the last five years from being lauded underground Indie Rockers to massive chart stars in 1991 until today becoming mid-chart curiosities. Full Of Life is the followup to September's On The Ropes EP which entered at No.10 and then made a rapid exit downwards. What is the betting on this doing the same?
No. 27: FALLER. Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince - I'm Looking For The One
Proving yet again the current maxim - you are only as good as your current hit. A No.1 hit again fails to translate into long-term chart success.
No. 26: NEW ENTRY. Kate Bush - Moments Of Pleasure
Now that the hype behind the new album has died down we can expect Kate Bush singles to settle down into their old routine. Rubberband Girl entered at No.12 in September and then made rapid progress down and out. The followup is the typically Kate ballad, all piano and wispy voice and destined for a similarly quick exit. In her entire career she's only ever scored 6 Top 10 hits although having said that only 3 of her singles have ever failed to make the Top 40.
No. 20: NEW ENTRY. Naughty By Nature - Hip Hop Hooray
If at first you don't succeed, reissue. Then again even if you do succeed, reissue anyway and do even better. The list of acts that have done so this year is growing by the day and here is another one. Rappers Naughty By Nature made No.22 with this track at the end of January earlier this year. Remixed and re-released in it crashes again to beat its original peak by two places.
No. 19: CLIMBER. Heart - Will You Be There In The Morning
Another big sleeper hit perhaps? Either way, Heart become the biggest climbers on the chart this week and register what is surprisingly only their fourth Top 20 hit.
No. 15: CLIMBER. 2 Unlimited - Maximum Overdrive
A small climb up the ladder for 2 Unlimited. Interestingly this is their first single to be released in the UK in its original full version. UK single releases have been mainly instrumental mixes rather than the full rapped versions of the songs enjoyed by record buyers on the continent.
No. 13: NEW ENTRY. K-Klass - Let Me Show You
They really do call this crawling out of the woodwork. Sporading dance hitmakers K-Klass who are best known for their 1991 Top 3 hit Rhythm Is A Mystery return after a years absence and score their biggest hit since that debut. Their last chart record was Don't Stop which made No.32 in November 1992.
No. 10: NEW ENTRY. Doobie Brothers - Long Train Running '93
Raise your eyebrows or hang your head in despair at the way sure is pure have massacred this 1973 American Top Tenner but its appearance in the chart this week gives the Doobies their biggest ever UK hit. Despite a career that has included two American No.1s and despite making one of the best records ever in the shape of What A Fool Believes [still true], their chart career in the UK has been inauspicious to say the least. To date their largest chart entries ever have been Listen To The Music (No.29 in March 1974), Take Me In Your Arms (No.29 in June 1975) and the aforementioned What A Fool Believes (No.31 in February 1979). That is it. Long Train Running has only ever charted once in any form in the UK and that was when Bananarama took a fairly dismal version to No.30 in April 1991. Happily all has been resolved now, at the expense of a dance remix anyway. Welcome to the top of the charts guys, 19 and a half years is the longest wait ever for a Top 10 hit.
No. 9: CLIMBER. Mariah Carey - Hero
Mariah Carey making a surprising two place reversal and returning to the Top 10 a fortnight after the single peaked at No.7.
No. 3: FALLER. Bryan Adams - Please Forgive Me
How quickly things can turn around. Two weeks ago I commented that the Top 10 showed a 60% bias in favour of dance music. This week things change completely as the presence of Meat Loaf, Elton and Kiki, Bryan Adams, Dina Carroll, Janet Jackson and Mariah Carey mean that 60% of the Top 10 records are slushy ballads. It must be Christmas.
No. 2: CLIMBER. Elton John and Kiki Dee - True Love
A fair bet for No.1 next week, Elton and Kiki prove to be the only act capable of unjamming the top few tracks as they all shift down one place, maintaining the same order as last week. The success of the single is a remarkeable return to form for Kiki Dee. Originally a signing to Elton John's Rocket Records in the early 1970s she scored her first chart hit with Amoreuse in November 1973. Her only Top 10 hit entry was her 1976 No.1 with Elton John and she has not been seen in the charts since Perfect Timing made No.66 in May 1981. Since then the only sighting of her by the public was in 1986 when she re-recorded her 1981 No.13 hit Star as the theme song to BBC TVs 'Opportunity Knocks' although that version was never released as a single.
No. 1: SIXTH WEEK. Meat Loaf - I'd Do Anything For Love
Entrenched at the top and overtaking 2 Unlimited's 'No Limit' as the longest-running No.1 hit of the year. With Elton and Kiki coming up fast though his prospects for a seventh week look gloomy. The album though goes from strength to strength, selling its millionth copy today (Tuesday).
