From: hid009@cent1.lancs.ac.uk (James Masterton)
Subject: CHART: UK Top 40 Analysis - Week Ending December 19th 1992
Date: Sat, 19 Dec 92 13:11:28 GMT
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(Sorry this is so late, I've been busy)

Preamble:
--------

The penultimate chart before Christmas and already it is clear that the
race is almost over with the records at the top end lining up for their
traditional logjam over the festive season. There is still time for a
few surprises to be strung but few of them are on the chart this week.

Analysis:
--------

No. 39: NEW ENTRY. Mike Oldfield - Tattoo. The tattoo in this instance
	being a piece of music played on bagpipes, Tubular Bells II
	beats its prequel by charting two singles edits. Clearly
	released with Christmas in mind but is unlikely to make a
	larger impact, if only due to the fact that the tune itself is
	not as famous as 'Sentinal' which made the Top 10 back in
	October.

No. 35: NEW ENTRY. Morrissey - Certain People I Know. He is either
	artistically and commercially dead or still the greatest singer
	ever to walk the earth. This record has confounded some of
	Mozzas critics by actually being quite good for a change but
	the low entry of this is a far cry from the days when he could
	chart in the Top 20 with no difficulty at all.

No. 34: NEW ENTRY. Kriss Kross - It's A Shame. Some would have expected
	big things for the teenage rappers when 'Jump' emulated its
	American success earlier this year and became a Top 3 hit.
	Since then their chart career has declined with 'Warm it up'
	only scraping the 20 and 'I missed the bus' doing just that and
	failing to chart at all. Sadly this new single may do little to
	convince Britain that Daddy Mac and Mac Daddy are little more
	than novelties.

No. 32: NEW ENTRY. Boyz II Men - Motownphilly. In charting this they
	become the first act since Queen over a year ago to chart two
	records simultaneously. This track is incredibly on its 3rd
	release here, demonstrating just how hard Motown were prepared
	to push the American sensations. This may climb to become a
	substantial new year hit but given the slow but ultimately
	successful progress of 'End of the Road' this harder track may
	fail yet again. Nonetheless the album contains some gems so
	expect more action from the Boyz in the new year.

No. 29: NEW ENTRY. SL2 - Way In My Brain. The charts would not be the
	same without the obligatory dance track. SL2 took their time
	but this is a followup to one of the years biggest dance hits
	'On A Ragga Tip' but the time of year means this is unlikely to
	match the No.2 peak of that hit.

No. 27: NEW ENTRY. Slipstreem - We Are Raving (The Anthem). Hmmm. You
	can picture the scene now. A producer wonders how he can cash
	in and make a Christmas novelty with a rave track. Simple
	really, take the old Rod Stewart song 'Sailing', change the
	lyrics a bit to a corny eulogy of club culture, add a dance
	track and voila, one Christmas hit. It really is a silly as it
	sounds.

No. 26: NEW ENTRY. East Side Beat - Alive And Kicking. German duo East
	Side Beat started off the current craze for dance versions of
	pop classics exactly a year ago with their Top 10 cover of Ride
	Like The Wind. Now it is the turn of the Simple Minds song to
	get the same treatment, ironically enough only a couple of
	months after the original returned to the Top Ten to promote
	Simple Minds' Greatest Hits package. That in itself should not
	harm this record, it's not a patch on the original but it gives
	club goers to be able to shout 'Ba Ba Da Da De' and dance at
	the same time this Christmas :-)

No. 25: NEW ENTRY. Wedding Present - No Christmas. A single a month for
	a year. That was the promise and so the Leeds band have
	delivered and in doing so have equalled the record set by Elvis
	Presley back in 1957 for having 12 Top 30 hits in a calendar
	year. For those of you that are interested the complete set of
	singles and b-sides are available on an album. The Hit Parade
	Volume 1 covering the six months to June with Volume 2 out
	shortly. The quality of the tracks may have varied throughout
	the year but they have to be commended for the exercise - done
	they claim as a statement of their belief in the 7" single.

No. 19: NEW ENTRY. Lisa Stansfield - Someday (I'm Coming Back). Hot
	favourite to be No.1 immediately after Christmas, this track
	becomes the second off the Bodyguard soundtrack to chart. This
	will easily add to Lisa Stansfield's tally of Top Ten hits and
	may even be Top 5 next week for Christmas, such are its sales
	so far this week.

No. 10: CLIMBER. Boney M - Megamix. Having checked up on this I can now
	reveal that this is a different meagmix to the one that was
	released back in 1988. The fact that it is also the 4th Boney M
	megamix to be released in the last 8 years does nothing to harm
	it though - the last time they were in the Top 10 was 'Hooray
	its a Holi Holiday' back in 1979. Are you feeling old yet?

No. 8: CLIMBER. Freddie Mercury - In My Defence. A climber alright but
	not as far as would have been expected for a former favourite
	for the Christmas No.1

No. 7: NEW ENTRY. Shamen - Phorever People. The Smash Hits award winners
	for best newcomers, achieved despite the fact that they have
	been around since 1984 in one form or another clock up their
	4th hit of the year. Thus the Boss Drum album has had all 4
	singles chart in the Top 10 on the first week of release. This
	track though will suffer from being so far down in the release
	schedule - Ebeneezer Goode will certainly be their biggest hit
	of the year.

No. 6: CLIMBER. Madonna - Deeper and Deeper. Alarm bells ring at WEA as
	Maddy fails to crack the Top 5 this week. He last single to
	miss that was 'The Look Of Love' back in 1987 and the 4 place
	climb of this may give cause for concern although it is also
	worth remembering that in 1989, 'Dear Jessie' entered at 9,
	climbed to 6, before climbing one place to 5 for the Christmas
	chart.

Top 5: Well I thought it would be interesting to take these as a whole,
	due to the fact that there is very little movement here and
	things are unlikely to change much here. Take That move up to
	5, the WWF superstars surpise a lot of people by staying at 4,
	ruling them out of the top slot, Charles and Eddie stay put at
	3 as does Michael Jackson at 2. That of course leaves Whitney
	supreme at the Top for a 3rd week. In actual fact it is very
	unlikely she will de displaced next week, her sales
	outstripping Jackson's by about 3 to one. By the start of this
	week she had sold 700,000 copies and by today (Saturday) was
	expected to outstrip Snap's 'Rhythm Is A Dancer' as the biggest
	seller of the year.

Next week then is the Christmas chart but it is not the last before
Christmas. The chart published on Sunday will determine who is No.1 for
Christmas alright, but will be based on sales for this week 14-19th
December. As a result, the chart to watch most closely will be the one
published on December 27th as this will be based on sales for 21st-24th
December - Christmas week itself. Effectively there is one extra chart
than usual at the end of the year. Another consequence is that as the
Christmas chart is a week earlier than usual there are still singles
released this week that could make an entry - upsetting the equation
even more. None, however, are likely to topple 'I Will Always Love You'
from the Top.

****************************************************************************
				James Masterton 19/12/92
		All Comments and Questions welcomed
****************************************************************************

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|	James Masterton		|	You don't have a lot		     |
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