1982 - Every UK Number 1

The Intro

1981 had been a banner year for Shakin’ Stevens, with two number 1 cover versions of rock’n’roll classics This Ole House and Green Door. Shaky was back a year later and he topped the charts for the third time with a song of his own – the jaunty, Cajun-flavoured Oh Julie.

Before

The album Shaky had made Stevens one of the most popular singers of the previous year. With two number 1s under his belt, Epic Records milked the LP for one more hit. However, his cover of the vintage ballad It’s Raining proved it was time to make more music, when it peaked at 10.

Recording on the follow-up began at the end of a whirlwind year. Give Me Your Heart Tonight. As it wasn’t released until October 1982, it’s most likely that the album was still being worked on when Oh Julie was released, but Epic were understandably hoping to try and keep Stevens very much in the public eye.

Oh Julie was penned by Stevens and arranged by his guitarist Mickey Gee, who had previously worked with Tom Jones (when he was known as Tommy Scott), Joe Cocker and Dave Edmunds. He had also played in Shaky’s old backing band, The Sunsets.

It’s also worth talking about – on a song that there isn’t really much worth saying – Steven’s guitarist and producer, Stuart Colman, who played a large part in the singer’s success. In 1976, Colman organised a march to the BBC, complaining about the lack of rock’n’roll on Radio 1. Despite the fact the station, as always, was supposed to be playing chart music, Colman was awarded his own show, and that is why Epic gave him the fateful call to ask him to produce Stevens.

Also in the line-up for Oh Julie was the accordionist Geraint Thomas, who had recorded the album Geraint Thomas & the Dominators, produced by Andy Fairweather Low, in 1979. Thomas’s input adds some much needed colour to Stevens’ least-remembered chart-topper, giving it that authentic rockabilly feel.

Review

Before Shaky fans shake their fists at me, let me say, fair play to Stevens for Oh Julie. It’s a decent stab at songwriting, and a rather brave attempt to move away from only recording classic material. Anyone would have potentially come up short against rock’n’roll standards in that situation. But it’s middling at best – and Shaky doesn’t cover himself with glory by admitting later that he only called it Oh Julie because it rhymes with ‘truly’.

Actually… I’ve just scanned the lyrics. Bloody hell Shaky, I’ve changed my mind. They’re beyond lazy. Let’s face it, Colman deserves credit here for having polished a bit of a turd. There’s no excuse for this when you compare it to some of the amazing number 1s yet to come in 1982.

What is worth mentioning, however, is the unhinged video. Stevens can always be relied on for amusingly camp videos, and this is no exception.

Shaky is out in the cold, singing by a lamppost while an accordionist (Thomas himself?) plays on. Suddenly, our hero spies the sexy, glamorous Julie, who gives a sly look and goes inside, leaving her door open (ahem). Taking this as a red rag to a bull, Shaky goes in, and we then see that there’s CCTV cameras watching him. He starts singing to photos of Julie on the wall, which start coming to life, and then we see Julie sat in a control room casually watching him busting his moves. All totally normal. Once he’s had enough, Stevens just fucks off and Thomas carries on playing. Mental.

After

Although Give Me Your Heart Tonight was a top 10 album and spawned several hits, 1981-82 were the peak years for Stevens. However, there was one last number 1 to come – but that has to wait until we get to the 1985 Christmas number 1, Merry Christmas Everyone.

The Outro

There’s not a lot to say here, so I’m just going to use the chance to post once again the fantastic sight of a pre-fame Jim Moir before he became known as Vic Reeves, dancing in the video to his 1987 number five hit What Do You Want to Make Those Eyes at Me For? which had been the final number 1 of the 50s for Emile Ford and The Checkmates.

The Info

Written by

Shakin’ Stevens

Producer

Stuart Colman

Weeks at number 1

1 (30 January-5 February)

Trivia

Births

31 January: Footballer Allan McGregor

Deaths

30 January: Actor Stanley Holloway
1 February: Conservative MP Sir John Foster
4 February: Scottish blues-rock frontman Alex Harvey
5 February: Folklorist Peter Opie/Welsh novelist Ronald Welch

Meanwhile…

5 February: The collapse of Laker Airways leads to 6,000 passengers stranded.

The Intro

Bucks Fizz may be considered a bit of a joke, but they deserve better than that. Not only did they win the Eurovision Song Contest with the sugary sweet Making Your Mind Up, but they went on to have a further two number 1s, and The Land of Make Believe is an excellent pop song with more to it than the fairytale imagery and super-catchy chorus.

Before

Although Bucks Fizz had originally been intended as merely a vehicle for songwriter Andy Hill’s Making Your Mind Up, he and his girlfriend, music publisher Nichola Martin, were determined for the group to sustain that success. Together with RCA Records executive Bill Kimber, they decided to change tack, update the cheesy rock’n’roll sound of their debut, and make the whole project more polished. And it paid off when follow-up single Piece of the Action climbed to 12. That may not sound too impressive, but bear in mind that at the time this was the highest chart placing ever achieved by a Eurovision-winning act with their follow-up single. It became the first track on their eponymous debut LP, which also contained their next single, One of Those Nights. However, this track only reached 20, so alarm bells may have begun to ring. Had the well run dry already?

With this perhaps in mind, Hill sought help from fellow songwriter Pete Sinfield. He had been a founding member and lyricist for King Crimson, before writing words for Emerson, Lake & Palmer. He also wrote the lyrics for Lake’s classic I Believe in Father Christmas. Sinfield moved to Ibiza to live as a tax exile, and by the time he returned to London in 1980, progressive rock was largely extinct.

Sinfield was introduced to Hill and they set to work on Bucks Fizz’s fourth single. Though it may seem a simple task for the man who wrote the words to prog classic LP In the Court of the Crimson King, Sinfield said in a 2002 interview: ‘It is 10 times more difficult to write a three-minute hit song, with a veneer of integrity, than it is to write anything for King Crimson or ELP.’

During the recording, Mike Nolan told Hill he thought the song was a dud, and could even sink the group for good, but the producer told him that Bobby G and Cheryl Baker had already recorded their parts, and what’s more, they loved it. Nolan later admitted he had been totally wrong.

Review

Whether Hill’s fairytale tune came first or not, Sinfield nonetheless wrote lyrics that shone a light on the darkness behind so many fairytales, and that queasy, eerie feeling they can conjure. Though the first verse seems traditional enough:

‘Stars in your eyes, little one
Where do you go to dream
To a place, we all know
The land of make believe’

It’s followed up with this distinctly darker couplet: ‘Shadows tapping at your window/Ghostly voices whisper: “Will you come and play?”‘ and a genuinely creepy

This lyric, and ‘Something nasty in your garden’s waiting/Patiently, till it can have your heart’, take on a whole new meaning when you consider that Sinfield later revealed The Land of Make Believe was in fact an attack on Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government – something that’s focussed on brilliantly in episode one of director Adam Curtis’s recent BBC documentary Shifty.

Most eerie of all is the ending – usually not played on the radio. It’s a nursery rhyme, read by then-11-year-old Abby Kimber, who was the daughter of the RCA Records executive mentioned earlier:

‘I’ve got a friend who comes to tea
And no-one else can see but me
He came today but had to go
To visit you?
Ya never know’

This gains added weirdness when you consider that young Kimber would a year later star in Minipops, the ill-advised TV show in which young children performed pop songs. The series was cancelled after one series due to complaints over having children dressed up as adults performing songs with sexual lyrics. Conspiracy theorists would have a field day with this song – anti-Thatcher, who was mates with Jimmy Savile… what did Sinfield know?!

The hidden depth to The Land of Make Believe adds lots of appeal – but even if that depth wasn’t there, it’s a great pop song. The chorus is incredibly catchy and the early 80s electro production is leagues above Making Your Mind Up – fair play to Hill and co for not resting on their laurels. And as a young child at the time, I can tell you that this ticked all the boxes when it came to parties and discos.

With sights set on the Christmas market, the video to The Land of Make Believe has lots of pantomime imagery, glitter and sparklers. And for a change it’s Baker, not Jay Aston, that is the video’s sex symbol – which is ironic as it was Aston that chose the outfits.

After

The Land of Make Believe was released in November in time for the Christmas market, but stalled at five during the festive chart itself. However, when Don’t You Want Me finally ran out of steam, Bucks Fizz finally scored their second number 1. The Human League’s Phil Oakey was among many critics, fans and fellow pop stars that were full of praise for the first new chart-topper of 1982. It would be a hell of a year for chart music.

The Outro

A year later, The Land of Make Believe was recorded by future Eurovision winner Celine Dion, whose first UK number 1, Think Twice, was written by Hill and Sinfield.

The Land of Make Believe was covered by pop group allSTARS* in 2002. It reached nine in the singles chart.

The Info

Written by

Andy Hill & Pete Sinfield

Producer

Andy Hill

Weeks at number 1

2 (16-29th January)

Trivia

Births

16 January: Ordinary Boys singer Preston
19 January: Ice hockey player Shaun Wallis
21 January: Rugby union player Nick Duncombe

Deaths

21 January: Actress Penelope Dudley-Ward
27 January: RMS Titanic survivor Frank John William Goldsmith

Meanwhile…

18 January: ‘A Complaint of Rape’ – the third episode of BBC One fly-on-the-wall documentary series Police, shows police treating a female complainant dismissively, which led to changes in police treatment of rape allegations.

21 January: Miners vote against strike action and accept the offer of a 9.3% pay rise from the National Coal Board.

26 January: Unemployment is recorded at over 3 million for the first time since the 1930s.However, the 11.5% of the workforce currently unemployed is approximately half of the record percentage which was reached half a century ago.