CHART BEATS: A JOURNEY
THROUGH POP

It's always fun discovering that a song you like is a cover version and then going back to listen to the original. Especially when for...

One of the best parts of these weekly trips back to the Australian singles chart of 1980 is seeing artists have their first hits and remembering a time when household names were up-and-coming unknowns. The first of many line-ups of The Pretenders This week in 1980, a British band (with an American singer) broke through with their third release, a song that became the first new number 1 of the decade in the UK and almost reached the top here. Still at number 1 this week in 198

So far in these flashbacks to the Australian top 50 from 1980, we've seen some of the first big hits of the decade. This week that year, all the new entries were firsts in another way. The song that changed everything for Split Enz From the first hip-hop hit to the first appearance of a influential British punk band, the debuting singles all brought something new to the singles chart. In one case, it took a locally based band all the way to number 1. Before then, Queen contin

This week in 1980, it was a big week for new entries on the Australian singles chart, with four future top 10 hits debuting. Two of those were follow-ups to other top 10 hits by Michael Jackson and The Police, another was the latest top 10 single by a country star who'd also been there before. Eric Idle was Mr Brightside in 1980 And one was a comic ditty from one of the biggest movies of the summer of 1979-80. A song so British you'd expect it to have been a big hit in the UK

Who said disco was dead? This week in 1980, the dance genre that was facing a backlash around the world was proving as popular as ever in Australia — but then we were about six months behind the UK and the US at that stage. Christie Allen wasn't our number 1, but she came close Three of the week's six new entries on the top 50 singles chart were disco tracks (or disco-influenced). And given the other three were new wave tunes, it was a pretty good week for a pop fan like me.

These days, some artists don't even bother with albums, opting to release a series of singles and EPs instead, but back in the 1970s, the album was king — and some bands didn't trouble themselves with putting out many (or any) singles.  Pink Floyd were never part of the singles chart sausage factory This week in 1980, a British band that'd helped define music over the previous decade-and-a-bit entered the Australian top 50 singles chart for the first time in their career — an

In "Paninaro", Pet Shop Boys' Chris Lowe listed rockabilly as one of the genres he doesn't like — there's quite a list (but what he does...

Husband and wife musical duos don't tend to end well. Look at Sonny & Cher and Ike & Tina Turner. But when the chemistry is right, they...

For celebrities in 2020, multi-tasking means appearing on a reality TV show and  maintaining an Instagram account. In the '70s and '80s, multi-tasking stars would do a bit of signing and a bit of acting, pop up on Blankety Blanks and Hey Hey It's Saturday , and tour on the RSL circuit. Edith Bliss: pop star one minute, kids' TV reporter the next Two of the entries on the Australian singles chart this week in 1980 came from two such multi-taskers — stars who moved from music

OK, let's get this 1980 party started for real. I wrote about the first new chart for the decade in 2018 and updated my post  last week ...

Originally posted in 2018. Updated in 2020. When I started this blog six years ago, I took a look back at the first ARIA chart I...