Weeks in top 150: 6 weeks (in 1989); 37 weeks in the top 100 in 1986-7.
Weeks in top 150: 8 weeks
Weeks in top 150: 6 weeks
Weeks in top 150: 7 weeks
Weeks in top 150: 4 weeks
Weeks on chart: 2 weeks
Weeks on chart: 4 weeks
Weeks on chart: 3 weeks
Top 150 debuts:
Before unearthing the 101-150 segment of the charts, I had no idea that the Daryl Braithwaite version of this song, which became a top 30 hit a mere 18 months later, was a cover version. Chosen Few were an Australian band, formed in 1985. They only released one album, Friends, Foes & Firewood, which I can exclusively reveal peaked at number 128 on the albums chart in July 1990. This track is lifted from that album. Chosen Few will bubble under again on the singles chart in 1990 and 1991; unfortunately, they never cracked the top 100.
Another track by an Australian artist I was unaware of at the time, Robyn Dunn has a Wikipedia page, despite not ever cracking the top 100. Her notability for warranting her own article (yes, I moonlight as a Wikipedia editor) was presumably established due to being nominated for an ARIA Award for Best Female Artist in 1990, for parent album Labour of Liberty. Only a snippet of the music video, screened on a 2019 rage Retro Month repeat of a 1989 episode of The Factory, is used in the video below.
Bee Gees (no 'The') made their first of three Bubbling Down Under appearances in 1989 with this track; another one I was unfamiliar with in 1989. As mentioned in my special post on singles peaking at number 101 between 1989 and 1991, Bee Gees were absent from the Australian top 100 singles chart for almost a decade, between January 1988 and June 1997. The trio fared marginally better in the UK, where this track peaked at number 54.
Without having access to the relevant chart book/s to verify the chart positions are accurate for myself, Del's Wikipedia article lists that he had numerous charting singles in Australia during the 1960s, including three number ones. Since the 60s, however, (I can verify that) he only scored one top 100 'hit' in Australia, with "Tell Her No" in 1975 (peaking at number 90). While this track just scraped into the Australian Music Report top 100 at number 99, it peaked 25 places lower on the ARIA chart. Tragically, Del died due to suicide less than a year later in February 1990, aged 55.
An American band, Dreams So Real dented the lower end of the Australian Music Report top 100 singles chart with this (at number 97), but peaked 51 places lower on the ARIA chart. Wikipedia tells me that this track peaked at number 28 on the US Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks (now Alternative Songs) chart - but because the Billboard website is so... how shall we say, crap, I can't actually verify whether this information is correct. The group released three studio albums between 1986 and 1990 before being dropped by their record label.
Bubbling WAY down under:
Will to Power are best known in Australia for their cover version medley of "Baby, I Love Your Way/Freebird Medley", which peaked at number 20 locally, and topped the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. That song, however, was not typical of the duo's sound; they instead were more of a dance (in that late 80s US kinda-way 'dance') act. "Fading Away" didn't perform nearly as well on the chart as its predecessor, peaking at number 65 in the US, and outside the top 150 locally. It would take another cover version ballad for the group to score a second, and final, hit in early 1991.
Next week (22 May): only four top 150 new entries, including a flop from an act responsible for one of the bigger hits of 1989. You can follow my posts on facebook.
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Top 150 debuts:
Next week (15 May): Seven new entries, plus two bubbling WAY down under debuts. Among them is the original version of a song that would become a hit when covered by another artist in 1990, and a rather bizarre cover of an AC/DC song.
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Top 150 debuts:
As big as John Farnham was in Australia in the mid-late 1980s, one thing I find surprising when looking at his chart history is how the third and fourth singles from Whispering Jack and Age of Reason didn't fare so well on our chart. Third Whispering Jack single, "A Touch of Paradise", didn't do too badly on the chart (peaking at number 24), but fourth single "Reasons" bombed at number 60. Given how frequently radio was plugging these songs, you could be forgiven for thinking they were both top 10 hits; I guess people were buying the album instead. Third Age of Reason single, "Beyond the Call", barely scraped the top 40, and fourth single, "We're No Angels", missed the top 100 altogether. The success of "We're No Angels" may well have been hindered by the lack of a music video; something shared with fourth Whispering Jack single "Reasons". I often wonder why record companies didn't invest in videos for every single release during the 1980s - especially for an artist of John Farnham's stature. The 80s were, after all, the golden era of the music video! If "We're No Angels" had taken off, surely they would have made a video for it. I don't think I was aware this track was a single until I saw it in Brashs, so lack of promotion was probably another factor that led to its floppage. I didn't know this until now, but "We're No Angels" was a cover version of a Mondo Rock song.