Oooh!! - I think you should have a spare No 5 though - seeing the Simple Minds song wasn't officially a single!

This is a fair point

In which case technically it would be Pale Shelter but that was only a hit when re-released in 83, so the honour falls to another slightly offbeat song but massive hit, Golden Brown by The Stranglers..

All the sound tracks from TOTP 1982 are rubbish only when the audio is replaced with a WAV audio file (CD rip) can you appriciate the quality of the artists performances, I can assure you the production and sound quality of that Clannad single is staggering.

Sorry one more PS on my best songs of 82 I don't think anyone mentioned it in their favourites but noticed my 6th favourite, and easily the most contemporary-sounding is Back of Love by Echo & The Bunnymen, I was very surprised that that song was quite so old, I saw them last year supporting Charlatans and Ian Mcculloch still looks soo young!

Ok!

I don't ever recall seeing any video for 'the Girl is Mine' so I am not sure they actually made one. Seems a strange decision to take for the first single release from Thriller, as surely they would want to promote it heavily. Also, money (sometimes huge amounts) seemed to be spent on videos for the subsequent singles from this album, and we are well into the video age by the end of 1982.
Does anyone recall an official video to promote 'The Girl is Mine'?

I agree with an earlier post that mused that perhaps this was the lead single off the album because of the huge duet success of McCartney/Wonder earlier the same year, so they thought they would try and follow up on the successful formula.

All these Paul McCartney duets from 1982 are getting me confused! Wasn't there a video of them sitting on a back of a wagon for 'The Girl is Mine'? Or maybe that was 'Say Say Say' or it could've been 'Ebony & Ivory' or even all three - who knows?!

But Paul certainly liked his duets back then - maybe he was missing singing along with John!

Them on the wagon is 'Say Say Say'.
They play 'snake oil' con men I think.

There was no video for the first single off 'Bad' either ('I Just Can't Stop Loving You'). That was probably even stranger since it was the lead release from the follow-up to the biggest album of all time. So to start it off using a duet with no video was quite an odd move.

Before... http://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/wp-c...ke-score-2.jpg

and After... http://www3.pictures.zimbio.com/gi/W...64VrhagFCl.jpg

(They're usually the other way round in hair replacement adverts )

But there again when the first single is released, the only way to obtain it initially is by buying the single, which automatically many of Jackson's eager fans would do. Jackson's level of popularity was just so great. They had had a good five year wait for new material, so they were very hungry. Thereafter, with succeeding singles, where the option exists just to buy the album, Jackson is perhaps attempting to appeal to those who aren't already converted. It becomes then about expanding the life of the brand. "I Just Can't Stop Loving You" was a duet with Siedah Garrett, although their voices sound so similar, one could have presumed it was just Michael singing alone. If Garrett had been a bigger name i am sure the promotion of the song would have profiled her name on the same level as Jackson's. The original intention was that Barbara Streisand would duet with him, but she turned him down followed by Whitney Houston, who also wasn't interesting in dueting on the song. "I Just Can't Stop Loving You" isn't especially contemporary sounding as a first single release, or very cutting, and i have always found the song a little stiff, but it is also very accessible, and a No 1 hit. The follow up single and the title track of the album "Bad", was another song that was originally designed as a duet. On this occasion Prince was approached to record the track with Michael, but he was another who turned him down. Nevertheless, promotion (including video) went into overdrive this time round as Jackson tried to reach those who were yet to be converted. The video acting like a carrot so to speak. Jackson couldn't just rely on his fans who would already have the album, this time round.

Hello again pop pickers, after the great cut-off last week (I had no idea what was going on but found out eventually about the upgrade on the main site), I left it over the weekend in case it went on any longer, now to me it looks exactly the same as before and I don't see any updated emoticons either. Oh well, it's good to be back anyway, just stepping in to wish everyone a peaceful and enjoyable Christmas, hopefully there will be some TOTP to watch during the holiday.

i

Lol, I'm not shocked by the lyrics, in fact some of them are so ridiculous they make me laugh, it's just the way he goes on and on just comes across as annoying and creepy. If we're meant to feel sorry for him that he's not getting any sexual healing I certainly don't!

Re the Girl Is Mine, I'm guessing the didn't they didn't think when they recorded it it was going to be a single and when it was it was too late for them to do one. I have that edition of TOTP when they didn't have a video for I Just Can't Stop Loving My. It just seems so strange by that point in the 80s. They played Spagna's Call Me instead.

According to the Michael Jackson autobiography "Moonwalk" it was released first because it was guaranteed airplay because of McCartney's contribution and if they didn't release it first then radio stations would have played it anyway and worn it out prior to it's release date!

I can quite believe that.

However, I also suspect it created a precedent for Epic with MJ's next album, in that they realised that anticipation would be so great they could release a pretty low-key track with no video and it would make a huge impact ('I Just Can't Stop Loving You') …*then they could release multiple further singles with flashy videos that would generate more hype and help drive album sales.

Top 10 UK Albums, week ending 13th November 1982:

1. Kids From Fame — Kids From Fame (last week: 1)
2. Hello I Must Be Going — Phil Collins (new entry)
3. Singles 45s and Under — Squeeze (8)
4. Kids From Fame Again — Kids From Fame (4)
5. Heartbreaker — Dionne Warwick (13)
6. Love Over Gold — Dire Straits (3)
7. Famous Last Words — Supertramp (6)
8. Reflections — Various Artists (4)
9. Kissing To Be Clever — Culture Club (9)
10. From The Makers Of... — Status Quo (new entry)

http://www.officialcharts.com/charts...19821107/7502/


US singles chart, top 10, week ending 13th November 1982:

1. Up Where We Belong — Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes (1)
2. Truly — Lionel Richie (10)
3. Heart Attack — Olivia Newton-John (3)
4. Gloria — Laura Branigan (9)
5. Heartlight — Neil Diamond (7)
6. Who Can It Be Now — Men At Work (2)
7. Jack and Diane — John Cougar (5)
8. You Can Do Magic — America (8)
9. I Keep Forgettin' — Michael McDonald (4)
10. Muscles — Diana Ross (14)

https://weeklytop40.wordpress.com/19...ember-13-1982/

Thirteen years is one of a delayed reaction.

"It’s hard to believe now, but when Michael Jackson’s Thriller was released in the UK in time for Christmas 1982, there was an initial sense of misfire. In choosing the album's most lacklustre track, The Girl Is Mine, as its lead single, the postcard delivered was mildly disappointing. The playful duet with Paul McCartney, chosen no doubt to emulate the success McCartney had had earlier the same year with Stevie Wonder on Ebony and Ivory, was simply not what the listeners were expecting. It reached number eight on the UK chart, and the album sold well, but certainly not in the manner that the man who’d delivered Off the Wall should have done."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/649p/

The next edition or one after will feature the first appearances of Gary Davies, Pat Sharpe and Janice Long. Their first "proper" show "the end of year party" from 30th December 1982 won't be shown as it features Savile (Sigh).

I must have 'Amercian ears' as that top 10 features some brilliant songs...Heartlight, Who Can It Be Now, You Can Do Magic and especially I Keep Forgettin' are such well made pop songs. Did virtually nothing here...instead we got the Pinkees, Barry Manilow and the Kids From Fame.

Yes, 'Pale Shelter' more than underperformed when first released in 1982 with a peak of a very lowly number 193.

Other underperforming records, some of which would later make the top 75, taken from https://www.ukmix.org/forums/viewtop...1742&start=125

A-ha "Take on Me" 1984 No. 137 1985 No. 154
B-Movie "Marilyn Dreams" 1981 No. 99
Bananarama "Aie a mwana" 1981 No. 92
Culture Club "White Boy" 1982 No. 112
Culture Club "I'm Afraid of Me" 1982 No. 100
Eurythmics "The Walk" 1982 No. 89
Fatal Charm "Summer Spies" 1984 No. 122
Flying Lizards "Summertime Blues" 1978 No. 170
Graduate "Elvis Should Play Ska" 1980 No. 106
Honey Bane "Jimmy Listen to Me" 1981 No. 101
Human League "Holiday '80" (first release - double pack) 1980 No. 80
Pet Shop Boys "West End Girls" (first release) 1984 No. 121
Pet Shop Boys "Opportunities" (first release) 1985 No. 116
Seona Dancing "More to Lose" 1982 No. 117
Shock "Dynamo Beat" 1981 No. 110
Shakin' Stevens "Hey Mae" 1980 No. 83
Tears for Fears "Pale Shelter" (first release) 1982 No. 193
The Smiths "This Charming Man" 1983 No. 124
Tik & Tok "Everything Will Change" 1984 No. 146
Tin Tin "Kiss Me" 1982 No. 155
Tubeway Army "Down in the Park" 1979 No. 198
Vision "Lucifer's Friend" 1982 No. 108
Wham! "Wham Rap" 1982 (first release) No. 105

Interesting. Thanks for that Andy_JS

So I was right about a wagon!


Just a bit! - Hard to imagine The Beatles had only been split up for about 12 years at this stage! The 60s seemed such a long time ago when I was a teenager - but it was only a few years back! So I wonder how far back the 60s feel to teenagers of today!

I never knew record sales were counted after the Top 75 or 80 records, let alone the Top 100!! And more importantly - Who on earth counts them? I know most record stores had a Top 75 - but I'm guessing anything that didn't make the Top 75 or certainly Top 100 - wouldn't even be worth adding up would it?

Alan Jones (of Music Week) once revealed that the OCC / Millward Brown database was able to produce a top 10,000 (!) chart each week. That was as far down as a chart could be produced. There are however about 4 to 5 million tracks each week that register a sale so it is probably theoretically possible to tweak the database to list every title that records a sale. Most tracks only sell one or two copies per week. Many are most likely streamed rather than downloaded these days.

Since 13 May 1978 a top 200 has been compiled each week (prior to that, back to February 1969 it was a top 100) apart from a period in 2007 and 2008 when it briefly extended to a top 250. However the OCC only publish the top 100 part on their website while Music Week only publish the top 75. At one time only the top 75 was ever acknowledged (in publications such as British Hit Singles) from 13/05/78 and the top 50 prior to that. The larger top 200 chart is meant for industry eyes only but the chart is published in the weekly newsletter UKChartsPlus (of which I am a subscriber).