This week in 1981, there were seven new songs bubbling under the Australian top 100 that could not make their way onto the chart. Let's take a look at them.
Carole Bayer Sager was moving out of the top 100 in 1981.
Beyond the top 100:
Position 27 "Spellbound" by Siouxsie & The Banshees
Highest rank: 17th
Peak date: 21 September 1981
Weeks on below list: 3 weeks
British band Siouxsie & The Banshees, led by Siouxsie Sioux (real name Susie Ballion), formed in 1976. The group landed two top 40 singles in Australia, 12 years apart, with "Hong Kong Garden" (number 38, September 1979) and "Kiss Them for Me" (number 40, September 1991). Only one other Siouxsie & The Banshees single troubled the Australian top 100 - "Dear Prudence" (number 44, January 1984).
"Spellbound" was the lead single from Siouxsie & The Banshee's fourth studio album Juju, which did not chart in Australia. Internationally, the single peaked at number 22 in the UK in June 1981, and at number 47 in New Zealand in August 1981.
Siouxsie & The Banshees will next join us in 1989.
Position 28 "She Made a Monkey out of Me" by Allniters
Highest rank: 8th
Peak date: 5 October 1981
Weeks on below list: 5 weeks
Sydney ska band Allniters formed in 1980. "She Made a Monkey out of Me" was the band's first single. The track did not appear on their debut album D-D-D-Dance (number 18, October 1983), though made its way onto the compilation Rarities & B-Sides.
Allniters' commercial breakthrough came in 1983, when their fourth single "Hold On" peaked at number 40 in May of that year. Their next single, a cover version of Bobby Bloom's "Montego Bay", peaked at number 19 in October 1983, becoming Allniters' biggest hit.
We shall next see Allniters in 1984.
Position 31 "One Track Mind" by The Swingers
Highest rank: 7th
Peak dates: 28 September 1981 and 5 October 1981
Weeks on below list: 7 weeks
New Zealand band The Swingers formed in 1979. Led by Phil Judd, who was a founding member of Split Enz, The Swingers landed the best-charting single of 1981 (the Kent Music Report-era year-end charts were based on chart runs rather than sales) in Australia with "Counting the Beat", which spent three weeks at number 1 in March 1981.
The only other single The Swingers placed in the top 100 in Australia was "It Ain't What You Dance, It's the Way You Dance It" (number 43, July 1981).
"One Track Mind" was the third and final single from The Swingers' only album Practical Jokers (number 70, October 1981). The single peaked at number 27 in New Zealand in October 1981.
The Swingers split in 1982. Two of the original band members, Buster Stiggs (real name Mark Hough) and Bones Hillman (real name Wayne Stevens) have since died from cancer, in 2018 and 2020, respectively, aged 63 and 62. Bones went on to join Midnight Oil in 1987.
Position 33 "Anyone Who Had a Heart" by Gillian Eastoe
Highest rank: 22nd
Peak date: 21 September 1981
Weeks on below list: 3 weeks
Written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, "Anyone Who Had a Heart" was originally recorded by Dionne Warwick in 1963. This version, performed by Australian singer Gillian Eastoe, was Gillian's only single to (almost) chart in Australia. Gillian later went on to record several children's albums for the ABC.
Position 34 "Stronger Than Before" by Carole Bayer Sager
Highest rank: 24th
Peak date: 14 September 1981
Weeks on below list: 2 weeks
Speaking of Burt Bacharach, American singer-songwriter Carole Bayer Sager was married to him between 1982 and 1991!
Carole scored a major hit in Australia with "You're Moving out Today", which was number 1 for four weeks in September-October 1977. "You're Moving Out Today" was more-successful in Australia than in any other country. While two other singles of hers dented the Australian top 100, neither of these peaked higher than number 82.
Carole may not have had an enduring solo recording career of her own, but she shares writing credits on many songs that became big hits for other artists. Among them are Christopher Cross' "Arthur's Theme (The Best That You Can Do)" (number 13, December 1981), Carly Simon "Nobody Does It Better" (number 8, February 1978), Phil Collins' "A Groovy Kind of Love" (number 2, October 1988), and Dionne Warwick & Friends' "That's What Friends Are For" (number 1, March 1986) - to name but a few!
"Stronger Than Before" was lifted from Carole's third and final solo studio album Sometimes Late at Night. I cannot find evidence of the single charting elsewhere.
Position 36 "Don't Call Us" by The Eighty Eights
Highest rank: 20th
Peak date: 28 September 1981
Weeks on below list: 5 weeks
The Eighty Eights were an Australian band, formed in Newcastle in New South Wales. The band placed one single on the Australian top 100, "(She Fell in) Love with James Bond" (number 82, June 1981). Larry Van Kriedt, who performed vocals and played guitar for the band, was the original bass player for AC/DC in 1973-4.
"Don't Call Us", produced by Dragon's Todd Hunter, was the band's third single. It appears on their only album Top of the World (number 79, September 1981).
Unfortunately, there is nowhere to listen to this song - which I have not heard before - online that I could find.
Position 37 "Missing Person" by Mi-Sex
Highest rank: 2nd
Peak dates: 28 September 1981 and 5 October 1981
Weeks on below list: 9 weeks
New Zealand band Mi-Sex formed in 1978. Their second single, "Computer Games", went to number 1 in Australia for one week in November 1979. Between 1979 and 1984, Mi-Sex placed 11 singles on the Australian top 100. My favourite Mi-Sex single is, of course, one that did not chart - or even make the bubbling under list - in Australia, "5 O'Clock (In the Morning)", which was released locally in May 1984.
"Missing Person" was the second single from Mi-Sex's third album Shanghaied (number 28, November 1981). It followed "Falling in and out" (number 20, July 1981). "Missing Person" did not chart elsewhere.
Mi-Sex front man Steve Gilpin died in January 1992, aged 42, after spending seven weeks in a coma following a car accident in November 1991, while driving home from a gig.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Your comment will be published after it has been approved. If you have asked a question, please check back here for replies.