Chart Watch UK: Hits of 1988

By James Masterton

From the longest-serving music columnist online comes this comprehensive account of the Top 40 hit singles of 1988. Every artist to land a hit single during the year is documented and every one of their hits is catalogued. A full account of who made the charts, when, and most importantly why. The year when Kylie Minogue was transformed from Australian soap actress to global chart superstar. The year which saw House Music change the world. The year of Yazz, of S-Express, but also of Glen Medeiros. And the year which ended with Cliff redefining Christmas songs forever. The essential guide to a fascinating year in pop music, and the perfect reference book for any self-respecting 80s music fan.

• Language: English
• Publisher: James Masterton
• Release date: Apr 20, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463270998

James Masterton

James Masterton is one of the longest-serving music writers online, having written a weekly guide to the UK Charts since 1992. He has written for dotmusic.com, Yahoo! Music and About.com. The column now has a new permanent home at chart-watch.uk, where you can also read the complete archives dating back to the early 1990s. He has appeared on BBC and Channel 4 television as a music critic and spoken on radio stations across Europe about the latest events on the UK charts. He lives in Sidcup, South East London and spends his days making sports radio programmes, although he cannot tell you who won the FA Cup last year.

Book preview

James Masterton

Chart Watch UK - Hits of 1988

SECOND EBOOK EDITION

Copyright 2015, 2019 James Masterton. All rights reserved.

No part of this e-book may be reproduced in any form other than that in which it was purchased and without the written permission of the author. This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

https://chart-watch.uk/books

With grateful thanks to Andy Healing, Richard M. White, Matthew Rudd and Chris Barratt for their support and fact checking skills.

For Nina and Max, my two highest climbers.

HOW TO USE THIS BOOK

Chart Watch UK - Hits Of 1988 is a comprehensive account of almost every single artist and track to make the Official UK Top 40 during the course of 1988. Whether an artist spent an extended period at Number One or a single week at Number 40, they are listed in these pages with each of their chart entries discussed in detail.

To count as a 1988 hit single, the record must have reached its chart peak on the singles charts dated between January 9th 1988 and January 7th 1989.

Each hit single is listed with the date it first made the Top 75 singles chart (at the start of the continuous run which saw it reach its eventual peak), its peak position on the singles chart and the date of the chart on which it did so. For historical reasons, despite being published on Sundays, the UK charts carry the date of the Saturday at the end of the week in which they are published, matching the cover date of the corresponding issue of Music Week. This naturally results in the odd situation of singles being listed on a chart dated a full 13 days after they were first released to the shops, hence the occasional reference to singles having been released in the month prior to the date of their chart arrival.

All chart information is based on the charts compiled by the Official Charts Company and as published in Music Week magazine. Any errors or omissions however are entirely those of the author. Corrections of errors are welcomed with full credit given in future editions.

AC/DC

AC/DC had kept their worldwide legions of fans waiting for new material. The only release from the celebrated hard rock band since 1985’s Fly On The Wall had been Who Made Who, a collection of instrumentals, oldies and token new tracks released as the soundtrack to the film Maximum Overdrive. Hence the initially positive welcome for 1988 release Blow Up Your Video, their eleventh full studio album and the fifth with Brian Johnson as lead singer. Historic perspective now views the album as one of the group’s poorer efforts, containing fewer than its fair share of classic AC/DC moments. The album’s debut was nonetheless the first big rock moment of the new year and was eagerly consumed by fans across the genre. It did at least contain the track which lifted AC/DC to one of their highest ever chart placings.

HEATSEEKER

First charted: 16/1/1988

Chart peak: 12

Peak reached: 23/1/1988

Released a few weeks ahead of the album and neatly poised to take advantage of the pronounced new year sales lull, Heatseeker gave AC/DC what was at the time only their fifth Top 20 single. The track was accompanied by one of their more memorable videos, intercutting a wild stage performance of the song (Angus Young debuting the crushed purple velvet schoolboy outfit he would wear for the subsequent tour) with footage of a guided missile streaking through the countryside, its ultimate destination naturally being the very stage on which the group are performing. Entering at Number 17 in its first week on release, Heatseeker made a five place climb a week later to take pride of place as AC/DC’s highest charting single to that point - although still frustratingly short of that first ever Top 10 hit single. It was a chart position the group were never to top with a brand new release, two and a half decades and a further string of hits later. It took a fan-led campaign of mass purchasing in 2013 to finally propel them beyond the glass ceiling.

THAT’S THE WAY I WANNA ROCK N’ ROLL

First charted: 2/4/1988

Chart peak: 22

Peak reached: 9/4/1988

The Blow Up Your Video album had made a swift debut at Number 2 when released in February, so for its second single it seemed only appropriate to release the track whose lyric gave the collection its name. Derided a little as one of the group’s more lightweight efforts, That’s The Way I Wanna Rock N’ Roll was in essence the sound of five men having the most enormous fun with a set of guitars and drums, a track which began with a 12 bar blues riff and duly set off in a four minute frenzy of head banging bedlam. Although its chart life over the Easter holidays was brief and to the point, the single still peaked at Number 22 to give the group back to back Top 30 hits for only the third time in their career. In the hands of anyone else the single might have sounded faintly ridiculous, but with Brian Johnson screeching about his desire to shut down my brain control in such a manner that made you want to join him it was actually the sound of a rock band at the very peak of their confidence and appeal and a very welcome hit indeed.

A-HA

Having milked their second album Scoundrel Days dry for hits, A-Ha’s only new musical output in 1987 had been the James Bond theme tune The Living Daylights which meant that if nothing else they were destined to be preserved on celluloid long after the rest of their catalogue had faded from memory. Whilst still riding on the coattails of the intensive teen adulation which had propelled the Norwegian group (and in particular lead singer Morten Harket) to worldwide fame in 1985, their third album Stay On These Roads would see them continue down the more reflective alternative rock path they had started to explore with their previous release.

STAY ON THESE ROADS

First charted: 26/3/1988

Chart peak: 5

Peak reached: 2/4/1988

Written, unusually, by all three members of the group working in tandem, the title track to the album may not rank as one of their best-loved singles but it fully deserves its status as the masterpiece it was clearly intended to be. A brooding, moving and anthemic recording, Stay On These Roads saw producer Alan Tarney come as close as he has ever done to a all-out wall of sound production, the single awash with multi-layered synths over the top of which Morten Harket belted out one of the more intense vocal performances of his career. Essentially inventing Coldplay-esque melancholy pomp a decade and a half early, this was A-Ha taking advantage of the free pass their teen following gave them to take a moment of intense, passionate artistry into the Top 10 of the charts worldwide. Upon release in mid-March 1988, Stay On These Roads crept inside the Top 20 in its first week out before charging into the Top 10 for a two week run which saw it register a place inside the Top 5. It seems almost strange to relate however that the single also marked the final exclamation point on the intense period of chart success which followed their chart breakthrough in 1985. Although they would continue to have hit singles until the middle of the next decade, this would turn out to be A-Ha’s final Top 10 hit until their surprise comeback in 2006. The album Stay On These Roads would be released in May and chart comfortably at Number 2, yet despite continuing promotional efforts exited the charts after just 12 weeks - never again to return to quite the same heights on subsequent re-entries.

THE BLOOD THAT MOVES THE BODY

First charted: 18/6/1988

Chart peak: 25

Peak reached: 25/6/1988

Part of the problem was that by this stage there was only so long even their core audience would continue to indulge moments of creative weirdness such as this one. Although by no means any less challenging than previous ‘different’ singles such as 1986’s Train Of Thought, the second single from the album was far and away the least accessible A-Ha single to date, as this lacklustre chart performance neatly demonstrated. Featuring an enigmatic lyric which may or may not have been a reference to a then-topical series of teen suicides in Japan, The Blood That Moves The Body was a bold choice of second single but one which would ultimately lead them to their first chart failure in some time. A Number 25 peak made it the first A-Ha single since their debut to fail to reach the Top 30 and would mark the start of a slow and steady decline in the chart fortunes of the once-unstoppable trio.

TOUCHY!

First charted: 27/8/1988

Chart peak: 11

Peak reached: 10/9/1988

Restoring their fortunes just a little however was the more upbeat third single, one which brought the group back into the Top 20 in late summer and can count itself unlucky not to have added to their tally of Top 10 hits. Proving that no single with an exclamation mark in the title can fail to be bubbly and enthusiastic, Touchy! came complete with an entertaining video featuring the group messing about on a beach with surfboards as Morten recounted the tale of Donna who found them in her slow and dreamy way. A three-week climb saw the single peak at Number 11 just in time for school to return after the holidays, the single also lifting the Stay On These Roads album back into the charts for the second of what would be three separate runs. One further single would be taken from the album before the end of the year, You Are The One reaching a Top 20 peak of its own in the first weeks of 1989.

THE ADVENTURES

Formed in Belfast in 1984, The Adventures were one of the first ever managerial signings of then-upcoming impresario Simon Fuller who duly brokered them a deal with Chrysalis Records and a lucrative support slot with Tears For Fears. Despite this, the group’s debut album Theodore And Friends was a commercial failure when it came out in 1985 with none of its three singles coming close to reaching the Top 40, leading to Chrysalis dropping the group shortly after. Undaunted, the group signed a new deal with Elektra and prepared a new album The Sea Of Love which just happened to contain one of the most fondly remembered minor hit singles of the decade.

BROKEN LAND

First charted: 9/4/1988

Chart peak: 20

Peak reached: 21/5/1988

Ask anyone of a particular age for a piece of trivia about Broken Land and they will invariably fire back with the apparently true fact that despite its mid-table chart placing and otherwise disappointing sale, the single was far and away the most played record on BBC Radio One during the course of 1988. Admittedly that speaks more about the disconnect between the tastes of the station’s presenters and those of its audience at the time than it does about the quality of the single, but as media endorsements go it speaks volumes about the affection with which the song was held. A lovingly written and superbly performed song, Broken Land was the proof that The Adventures were indeed the best kept secret of the time, the single hitting its marks perfectly with a brooding lyric, an inspiring uplifting chorus and a Celtic-sounding production which saw the group sound both mid-Atlantic and true to their Belfast roots at the same time. The intensive radio airplay afforded to the single helped it to edge slowly but surely up the charts, finally (to what was surely the relief of everyone involved) making it into the Top 40 in its fourth week on sale. Even then progress was slow but steady and Broken Land would ultimately run out of steam in its seventh week on the chart after finally reaching a high point of Number 20. Theoretically the band should have built from there, follow-up single Drowning In The Sea Of Love was if anything even better than its predecessor, but when released in July it stalled outside the Top 40, putting an end to promotion of the album The Sea Of Love which made made the Top 40 in May. Two more Adventures albums would follow in subsequent years but despite several other memorable singles (1992 release Raining All Over The World well worth seeking out) Broken Land would prove to be their career high point and their one and only Top 40 hit single.

ALL ABOUT EVE

A former music journalist, Julianne Regan began her musical career playing in an early lineup of celebrated gothic band Gene Loves Jezebel before leaving to team up with bass guitarist Andy Cousin to form All About Eve. Although their early independently released singles from the mid-80s were steeped in goth rock, by the time they came to release their debut album in 1988 their style had mellowed to a more laid-back folk rock style, All About Eve songs generally containing lyrics drenched in white magic references and fairy tale allusions. With an intensely loyal following (who dubbed themselves Angels), the group seemed primed for a major commercial breakthrough, the narrow Top 40 miss of their first single In The Clouds in late 1987 seen as a sign of bigger things to come.

WILD HEARTED WOMAN

First charted: 23/1/1988

Chart peak: 33

Peak reached: 6/2/1988

To start with progress was slow, although the intense and brooding Wild Hearted Woman did at least give the group their first ever Top 40 single when it entered the charts at Number 36 in the week of its release. Hopes that this extra profile would see the single rise still further were dashed when its sales remained static for the next few weeks, the single peaking just three places higher a fortnight later before running out of energy and falling back. Attention quickly turned to the release of the group’s self-titled debut album which made a far more respectable Number 7 chart debut in late February.

EVERY ANGEL

First charted: 9/4/1988

Chart peak: 30

Peak reached: 23/4/1988

Easter rolled around and All About Eve tried once again for a hit single, this time with one of the album’s more upbeat songs and a track which essentially existed as a tribute to the Angels, the loyal fans who had stuck with the group since their earlier underground days. Musically Every Angel was a nod back to the more multi-layered gothic rock style which characterised their earlier material although there were enough fantasy elements within the lyrics to reassure people that the group were still very much on their own unique plane of existence. Although the single debuted just outside the Top 40 in its first week, a six-place climb in week two corrected that problem and in its third week on sale Every Angel became the biggest All About Eve single to date and their first ever Top 30 entry. Once again however the track ran out of steam before it had the chance to become a fully established chart hit and was relegated to bargain bins after just five weeks.

MARTHA’S HARBOUR

First charted: 30/7/1988

Chart peak: 10

Peak reached: 20/8/1988

If any track was going to be the one to give All About Eve their first major hit single it was always going to be the gentle Martha’s Harbour. A genuinely touching acoustic ballad, elegantly simple and showing off the power of Julianne Regan’s vocals to perfection, the song even managed to dial down the otherworldliness of their lyrics in favour of more conventional you are an ocean wave my love romantic imagery. After entering the charts at Number 36 the single leaped to 22 the following week to instantly become their highest charting single to date. It resulted in a debut Top Of The Pops appearance for All About Eve, a moment that now lives on in infamy as one of the most famous television cock-ups of all time. A fault with the stage monitoring on the live show meant that Regan and guitarist Tim Bricheno were unable to hear the playback of the song in order to mime to it and so were forced to sit in a state of bemusement for the whole of the first verse as the cameras panned around them. Profound apologies were offered by the producers and with the single having risen the charts once more to reach the Top 20 they were invited back the following week for a full live performance of Martha’s Harbour. This added notoriety helped to raise the profile of the track no end and it would eventually peak in its fourth week on sale just inside the Top 10 to stand as far and away the biggest hit the group would ever have in their career. In sympathy the All About Eve album re-entered the charts after having been absent since the spring.

WHAT KIND OF FOOL

First charted: 12/11/1988

Chart peak: 29

Peak reached: 19/11/1988

As the year drew to a close the group released the album’s fifth single for their fourth Top 40 hit of 1988. A more conventional sounding rock single this time around, despite a rather less troublesome Top Of The Pops performance the track failed to progress beyond the Number 29 peak it scaled in its second week on release. It would be the third and last Top 30 hit single for All About Eve, although they would make sporadic chart returns with singles from future albums before disbanding in 1993.

ALMOND, MARC

Following the dissolution of Soft Cell in 1984, lead singer Marc Almond had embarked on a solo career, one which even after three albums was still struggling to find its feet. His 1987 album Mother Fist And Her Five Daughters did however provide a clue as to where he might find greatest success in future, its European cabaret sound attracting great critical acclaim, even if it failed to add any more Top 40 hit singles to the solitary chart entry he had managed in 1985 with Stories of Johnny. With a slight change in personnel, his backing band The Willing Sinners became La Magia and Marc Almond signed to EMI in 1988 with a promise that he would be pushed as a priority act. Fans prepared themselves for the release of what was hoped would finally be his solo breakthrough - The Stars We Are.

TEARS RUN RINGS

First charted: 3/9/1988

Chart peak: 26

Peak reached: 17/9/1988

Progress, after a fashion, came in early September when the album’s lead single gave him his first Top 40 hit in three years. Although only a minor hit Tears Run Rings was a shining example of what is now considered classic Almond, a lavish and epic sounding track which saw the singer in full voice on a song co-written and expertly arranged by longtime collaborator Annie Hogan. Tears Run Rings didn’t quite match the Number 23 peak of Stories Of Johnny from three years earlier but did at the very least return him to the Top 30 and at one stage even threatened to give him an American hit when it became the first Almond single to reach the Hot 100 since the early Soft Cell days.

BITTER SWEET

First charted: 5/11/1988

Chart peak: 40

Peak reached: 12/11/1988

The Stars We Are album was released in late September to a rather muted response, charting at Number 41 and exiting the best seller lists just three weeks later. Audiences failed to be moved by its second single either, the track grabbing a brief week of glory inside the Top 40 in mid-November and remaining unloved and unremarkable ever since. Salvation for the project would finally come in the new year when a most unlikely cross-generational duet sent Almond back to the top of the charts for the first time in almost eight years.

ANDERSON, ANGRY

Born plain old Gary Anderson in 1947, the newly nicknamed Angry Anderson was for years best known in his native Australia as the bald-headed lead singer of rock group Rose Tattoo, joining the band shortly after their formation and going on to become the sole constant member during the course of their original six album career. Rose Tattoo’s one and only UK chart hit had been 1981 offering Rock N’ Roll Outlaw which made Number 60 and in theory that should have been the closest Angry Anderson ever came to the UK charts. But the group, and most importantly their singer, just happened to be signed to the same Australian record label - Mushroom - which had a deal to supply incidental music for a certain television soap opera.

SUDDENLY

First charted: 19/11/1988

Chart peak: 3

Peak reached: 10/12/1988

Just about any British person of a certain age will be able to recount with some accuracy where they were at 5.35pm on November 8th 1988. TV soap Neighbours finally aired an episode which, due to transmission gaps, had first been shown in Australia in early 1987. The climax to one of its biggest storylines, teenage sweethearts Scott Ramsey and Charlene Mitchell were married to bridge what had been portrayed as a Shakespearian family feud. Seeking a suitable soundtrack to accompany scenes of the marriage ceremony itself, the producers of Neighbours had selected the rock ballad Suddenly. Originally written by Anderson as a tribute to his wife, the song began life as a track on what was originally promoted as the final Rose Tattoo album Beats From A Single Drum in 1986 but when the band fell apart early the following year it was repackaged and re-promoted as the Angry Anderson solo debut. When the TV episode featuring the nuptials aired in Australia the Angry Anderson track became a large and unexpected hit, denied the chance to top the Australian charts only by Miss Minogue herself whose debut single was at the time destroying all opposition. 18 months later and upon the British airing of Scott and Charlene’s wedding, history duly repeated itself as Suddenly was released as a single, promoted unashamedly as the Neighbours Wedding Theme and found itself flying up the charts to peak in the Top 3 just prior to Christmas. All thanks to a TV show Angry Anderson became the owner of the most unlikely hit of the year, although he could forgive himself a wry smile at once again stalling on the singles chart as yet again in the week of its sales peak Suddenly was outsold by…. a Kylie Minogue track.

ANTHRAX

The quintessential American thrash metal band of the 80s were unlikely candidates for the Top 40 charts, but the sheer buying power of their fans at the time meant they were more or less guaranteed at least one hit per album. In fact, in 1987 they had landed two, I Am The Law making Number 32 and one of their most famous tracks, the rap-metal spoof I’m The Man climbing as high as Number 20 in December.

MAKE ME LAUGH

First charted: 10/9/1988

Chart peak: 26

Peak reached: 10/9/1988

Early September was always a good time for metal in the UK charts, the annual Monsters Of Rock festival at Donnington increasingly used by acts as a shop window for their brand new material which duly arrived in the shops during the following weeks. September 1988 was no different and so just ahead of the release of Anthrax’s fourth album State of Euphoria came this hit single which became their second to reach the UK Top 30. A scathing commentary on televangelism (an oddly popular subject for heavy metal tracks around the time), Make Me Laugh strayed just the right side of impenetrable to become a noisy but not totally unwelcome chart hit. Their follow-up was arguably the album’s most famous track Anti-Social but that couldn’t quite build on the work of its predecessors and missed out on a Top 40 place in spring 1989.

ART OF NOISE

Now reduced to a duo of JJ Jeczalik and arranger Anne Dudley, synthpop artisans Art Of Noise were all but on hiatus by 1988, their most recent work being the soundtracks of the films Dragnet and Hiding Out the previous year. They did however take time to come out of hiding for a one-off single release, a production which may well have carried the Art Of Noise branding front and centre on the credits, but which to all intents and purposes was actually a vehicle for their specially invited guest singer.

KISS (featuring Tom JONES)

First charted: 29/10/1988

Chart peak: 5

Peak reached: 5/11/1988

A long-time absentee from British shores thanks to lucrative work in cabaret in the United States and a failed attempt to reinvent himself as a country singer, Tom Jones had returned to his native country in 1987 when his son took over as his manager and suggested he participated in the concept album Matador with the intention of starring in it as a full musical. Although the plans for the stage show failed to take off at the time, Jones did at least have his biggest hit single in years with A Boy From Nowhere which hit the Top 3 and aided the popular rediscovery of the Welshman as a consummate performer with a genuine superstar aura. A well-received part of his live shows at the time was a raucous rendition of Kiss, a song written and recorded by Prince and which had been a worldwide hit for its composer back in 1986. Whereas the Prince original was a delicate, wispy track sung by the star in an exaggerated falsetto, Tom Jones had transformed the song into a swaggering, macho statement of lust, one which fitted his personality perfectly and which was crying out for recording as a single. Enter then Art Of Noise, as Jeczalik and Dudley threw caution to the wind and credibility out of the window, crafting an everything but the kitchen sink production which romped its way through the song, taking Tom Jones along as a willing passenger. A record with an enormous sense of fun and a refusal to take itself too seriously, Kiss is a perfectly example of being unafraid to rip the guts out of an established song and rebuild it from the ground up with joyful attention to detail, with even Prince’s virtuoso funk guitar solo in the instrumental break being replaced by brief retreads of past Art Of Noise classics including both Close To The Edit and Peter Gunn. An impossible to miss smash hit, Kiss stormed up the charts to peak at Number 5, the highest charting Art Of Noise production ever and Tom Jones’ second and final Top 10 hit of the 1980s.

ASTLEY, RICK

From tea boy to Top Of The Pops, the meteoric rise of Rick Astley was easily the biggest story of 1987. After the British singer’s debut single Never Gonna Give You Up became the year’s biggest seller he swiftly followed it with two more Top 3 hits, ending the year duelling it out with Nat King Cole as the original version of When I Fall I Love competed head to head with Astley’s own cover. One of Stock, Aitken and Waterman’s first ever in-house success stories, there was little to suggest that the run of hits would not continue into 1988 as well.

TOGETHER FOREVER

First charted: 27/2/1988

Chart peak: 2

Peak reached: 12/3/1988

So it proved, with the fourth and final single from his debut album Whenever You Need Somebody. After the crooning of his Christmas hit, this was a return to a more upbeat sound for Rick Astley with one of the most unashamedly ‘pop’ singles he would ever release. One of the standout tracks from the album and a genuine highpoint in the writing career of his producers, Together Forever was every inch the perfect pop record with a hummable verse and killer sing-along chorus all wrapped up in Rick Astley’s trademark warm soulful vocals. The kind of record that has ‘Number One’ written all over it in fact, hence it was something of a surprise when Together Forever stalled at Number 2, unable to shift fellow Stock-Aitken-Waterman star Kylie Minogue who was coming to the end of her own marathon run at the top of the charts. Not that Rick was in too much of a position to be bothered. In the same week that his latest single came to its British chart peak, his first hit Never Gonna Give You Up rose to Number One on the Billboard Hot 100 chart to launch Rick Astley’s US career in quite spectacular style. Before the end of June he was back again at the top of the American charts, as Together Forever did indeed fulfil its destiny as a triumphant and glorious Number One hit single.

SHE WANTS TO DANCE WITH ME

First charted: 24/9/1988

Chart peak: 6

Peak reached: 15/10/1988

There comes a point in the life of every ‘manufactured’ star when they get the urge to bite the hand that fed them in the first place and insist on contributing to the writing and production of their own material. Rick Astley proved to be slightly ahead of the curve in this respect for after just one fully written and produced Stock-Aitken-Waterman album he was able to insist that the follow-up contained some of his own material as well. Hence this fifth chart hit single, a brand-new track which heralded the swift release of his second album Hold Me In Your Arms and one of a number from the new record written entirely by Rick himself. His usual producers sensibly took a back seat for this one, leaving She Wants To Dance With Me in the hands of PWL staffers Phil Harding and Ian Curnow who turned Rick’s song into a breezy dance-pop single replete with chirping saxophones and impassioned hoo shouts from the singer as he put his heart and soul into proving that his own material was up to standard. Still, even if you overlooked the naff cheesiness of the lyrics, it was hard to escape the feeling that this was the first Rick Astley single to be entirely lacking in sensation and critical enthusiasm. For all that it was still a strong Top 10 hit single, albeit his smallest to date. America was still enchanted though, and She Wants To Dance With Me would go on to match its British chart placing when released in America in early 1989.

TAKE ME TO YOUR HEART

First charted: 26/11/1988

Chart peak: 8

Peak reached: 10/12/1988

So, if his own material was a step down from Stock-Aitken-Waterman songs, surely returning to the bosom of his former collaborators would restore things a little. Not so much it seemed, for a few weeks after the release of the Hold Me In Your Ar,ms album came this second single, another SAW production which was released with more than half an eye on the Christmas chart and the possibility of landing the seasonal Number One he missed out on a year earlier. Sadly, at the end of a twelve month period when the Stock-Aitken-Waterman hit factory had sprayed strong hit singles in all directions, Take Me To Your Heart was one of their limpest offerings of the year, a song which even the singer appeared to struggle to generate much enthusiasm for in his performance. The single is notable only for the way it is clearly an unsubtle pastiche of Inner City, being produced at the same time Big Fun was first making waves in clubland. For all its shortcomings, Take Me To Your Heart was still a Top 10 hit, Astley’s sixth in a row, but once again it was his lowest charting release to date.

ASWAD

Originally formed by a group of schoolmates from North London in the mid-1970s, reggae group Aswad had risen to prominence in the early 1980s thanks to a string of well-crafted records dealing with powerful social issues and the experience of growing up as black youths in the UK. Proper mainstream success had eluded them however, their only brush with the singles charts having been a brace of minor chart entries taken from their 1984 album Rebel Souls.

DON’T TURN AROUND

First charted: 27/2/1988

Chart peak: 1

Peak reached: 26/3/1988

Aswad’s long overdue commercial breakthrough came largely due to a switch in focus, a deliberate attempt to embrace a more mainstream sound and a choice of material which moved beyond their own self-penned songs in favour of music from some more established hitmakers. Originally written by American songwriting giants Albert Hammond and Diane Warren, Don’t Turn Around seemed destined to languish in obscurity, Tina Turner’s original recording having been relegated to the b-side of her 1986 single Typical Male whilst American soul singer Luther Ingram failed to make an impact with his 1987 version. It was however the Ingram version which inspired Aswad to record their own take on