This week's Official UK Singles Chart
Preamble:
A fairly quiet week last week but not so last week as a batch of new hits explode onto the chart. A full 13 new entries, 5 climbers and 2 non-movers.
Analysis:
No. 39: NEW ENTRY. Ruby Turner - Stay With Me Baby
It's been a long time, but British soul talent Ruby Turner makes a return to the charts. A fine voice she may have but her entire career has been based around cover versions of other people's classics and whilst this has produced some stunning tracks in the past (most notably her 'Motown songbook' album which failed to produce any hits) she has never experienced major chart success. Her biggest hit ever was her version of Chicken Shack's I'd Rather Go Blind which made No.24 in March 1987, her last chart appearance of any kind being with It's Gonna Be Alright which peaked at No.57 in January 1990. This version of the 1966 Lorraine Ellison soul classic is pleasant enough but a bit pedestrian to become a massive hit.
No. 37: NEW ENTRY. Gin Blossoms - Hey Jealousy
The first in a series of debuts this week is the first ever UK hit for the Gin Blossoms with a catchy piece of guitar driven pop who really deserve a bigger hit with this than they are going to get.
No. 36: NEW ENTRY. Hyper Go Go - Raise
Here is a surprise, Hyper Go Go who scored a Top 30 hit with High during the summer of 1992 return after 18 months with their second hit, toning things down a little with a commercial dance hit that will probably climb a few notches next week at least.
No. 32: NEW ENTRY. POV featuring Jade - All Thru The Night
Combine girlie soul with blokey soul and you get a perfect combination right? Wrong, you get an extremely turgid piece of US FM fodder that doesn't really stand a chance over here. It's the first UK hit for POV but the fourth for Jade, who made the Top 10 last year with their debut Don't Walk Away.
No. 30: NEW ENTRY. Captain Hollywood Project - Impossible
The second hit for Captain Hollywood et al following 'More And More' which surprised many by failing to repeat its US success and peaked at No.23 in November. This new hit is more of the same really, Euro-disco in the Culture Beat mould yet probably not about to emulate their recent successes.
No. 29: NEW ENTRY. Slo-Moshum - Bells Of New York
Well as dance records go they don't come more unusual than this, unable to decide whether it is a piece of acidy-bleeps, a Chicago House piano instrumental or a New Orleans Jazz pastiche....
No. 28: FALLER. Depeche Mode - In Your Room
Relax, nothing unusual here, Depeche Mode fans, having bought all the versions of the song let it fall out of the Top 10, nobody else being at all interested.
No. 27: FALLER. ZZ Top - Pincushion
The album makes a Top 3 entry, harming the single and causing it to drop from its debut Top 20 position.
No. 25: NEW ENTRY. Bass Bumpers - The Music's Got Me
[I wrote nothing about this at the time, but it caught my eye given that this was the first chart appearance for the collaborators who would give the world Crazy Frog 11 years later..]
No. 24: NEW ENTRY. Charlatans - Can't Get Out Of Bed
I suppose it makes an interesting addition to the list of 'things to do if you are a fading indie band who want another hit'. Apparently if you are a fading indie band who want another hit these days you make sure your keyboard player gets banged up for taking part in an armed robbery [to be fair he was the unwitting getaway driver]. The ensuing publicity when this happened brought the Charlatans back into the music press for the first time in ages and so here they are with the first single from a new album and their first hit since Tremelo Song made No.44 in July 1992. Their biggest hit remains their debut The Only One I Know which peaked at No.9 in June 1990.
No. 22: NEW ENTRY. Wendy Moten - Come In Out Of The Rain
The debut hit for Wendy Moten crashes straight in at No.22. Joining Celine Dion as yet another slushy ballad in the charts this may yet have a chance to appeal to a wider audience, being as it is one of the better examples of stateside slush.
No. 19: NEW ENTRY. Orb - Perpetual Dawn
Following the re-released Top 10 success of their first single Little Fluffy Clouds, the Orb return with the single that really made their name back in the summer of 1991. A far cry from their usual ambient paintings, Perpetual Dawn is actually quite a commercial piece of dub-reggae and now on re-release becomes the massive hit it deserves having only made No.61 first time around.
No. 18: NEW ENTRY. Rozalla - I Love Music
Little has been heard from Rozalla since the spring of 1992 when she was the centre of a court battle over who had the rights to release her debut album. The reason for this battle was the string of hits the Zimbabwe-born singer had notched up since the summer of 1991 including her No.6 hit Everybody's Free (To Feel Good). After a protracted silence she returns with a bang with this cover of the 1973 O'Jays classic - one of the earliest disco records ever made which peaked at No.9 in April that year.
No. 12: NEW ENTRY. Deep Forest - Sweet Lullaby
One of the more surprising hits of the week is this continental smash from French act Deep Forest. The musical collage they create is startlingly reminiscent of something One Dove may produce but after much club exposure they have outdone them at a stroke and are destined for the Top 10 next week at least.
No. 10: NON-MOVER. Haddaway - I Miss You
A pattern seems to be emerging with Haddaway records, they enter the charts, climb to a peak and then take a bloody long time to go away again. An eighth week in the charts - not bad for a record which if you remember was released as a Christmas hit.
No. 9: NEW ENTRY. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Give It Away
...and as hits come they don't come more surprising than this. America's premier funk/rock outfit finally get a UK smash with their first single in two years. Ages spent on the periphery in the UK has meant they have never breached the Top 20 ever, making the Top 40 only twice and even an accepted classic such as Under The Bridge could only reach No.26. All that changes now with the biggest new hit of the week. What happens next week will be interesting though.
No. 7: CLIMBER. Celine Dion - The Power Of Love
As the arguments over the superiority of the various versions of the song rage, Celine Dion charges up to experience her biggest UK hit ever. That the song should reappear now so soon after Frankie Goes To Hollywood's own song The Power Of Love returned to the Top 10 conjures up memories of 1985 when in the space of the year Frankie, Jennifer Rush and Huey Lewis and the News had all had completely different hits with The Power Of Love. You can copyright a song's lyrics but not the title, which accounts for the rather bizarre fact that there have been no less than nine different UK hits called Tonight.
No. 1: THIRD WEEK. D:Ream - Things Can Only Get Better
Clinging onto the top, despite the appearance in the Top 10 of their album. Time may well still be limited for D:Ream but the odds on their replacement are wide open.
