Top Ten when Carpenters Peaked

That must be by far the highest 'Beechwood' charted anywhere in the world. I wonder what the difference was. Just the DJs prepared to play it on the radio, maybe.

It’s also interesting how another song the Carpenter’s covered, ‘Daddy’s Home’ was also on the same chart. Plus it’s weird seeing ‘How Great Thou Art’ on a Top 10 Pop chart!
 
I just found this from New Zealand.

March 28, 1982

1 Hands Up (Give Me Your Heart) - Ottawan
2. Tainted Love - Soft Cell
3. Good Thing Going - Sugar Minott
4. Daddy's Home - Cliff Richard
5. I Can't Go For That (No Can Do) - Hall & Oates
6. Down Under - Men At Work
7. Centerfold - The J. Gells Band
8. Girls on Film - Duran Duran
9. How Great Thou Art - Sir Howard Morrison
10. Beechwood 4-5789 - Carpenters

I noticed some similarities between songs on this Top 10. Firstly, many were remakes of songs that were first recorded twenty or so years before and secondly, a number of the songs or artists had links to Motown.

'Hands Up' - a piece of Caribbean-French pop candy that sounds like Boney M;

'Tainted Love' - a different take on a 1964 song by Gloria Jones. (Some of Soft Cell's other earlier stuff was bizarre but interesting);

'Good Thing Going' - a remake of a Motown song, this time a reggae take on a song that Michael Jackson recorded on his 'Ben' album in 1972;

'Daddy's Home' - a song that Michael's brother Jermaine had a hit with on Motown, which was a remake of a 1961 song by Shep and the Limelites, (personally, I don't like Cliff Richard's version at all and like Richard Carpenter's version on 'Live in Japan' even less);

'I Can't Go for That' - a song with a cool bass line and keyboard riff, seemingly influenced by Motown, that I do like - and Hall and Oates later recorded with Motown artists David Ruffin and Eddie Kendricks;

'Down Under' - (I like a lot of Men at Work's songs, such as 'Who Can It Be Now', 'Johnny Be Good' and 'Overkill', but don't particularly like 'Down Under' - but it stinks that they got sued for having a tiny section of 'Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree' in the flute arrangement). I saw Men At Work in concert in about 1983 and loved it;

'Centrefold' - I don't like that song;

'Girls on Film' - a flimsy little song - I preferred 'My Own Way', from the same era;

'How Great Thou Art' - I know the hymn but don't know the recording. You could look at this recording as a remake - the hymn uses a traditional Swedish melody and a translation of a much later Swedish poem written in 1885 - no, I didn't know that until I looked it up;

'Beechwood 4-5789', another remake of a Motown classic, this time, a hit from 1962, written by Marvin Gaye, George Gordy and William Stevenson.

I visited New Zealand in 1990 and loved it. I remember that in Auckland, reggae and rap were especially big - you heard it everywhere. In Christchurch, you saw a lot of talented musicians playing on the streets. Seemed like a very musical place. The Irish influence was really evident music-wise and also obviously the Maori expression of music. Actually a huge number of musical acts successful in Australia over the years have come from New Zealand.
 
I noticed some similarities between songs on this Top 10. Firstly, many were remakes of songs that were first recorded twenty or so years before and secondly, a number of the songs or artists had links to Motown.

'Hands Up' - a piece of Caribbean-French pop candy that sounds like Boney M;

'Tainted Love' - a different take on a 1964 song by Gloria Jones. (Some of Soft Cell's other earlier stuff was bizarre but interesting);

'Good Thing Going' - a remake of a Motown song, this time a reggae take on a song that Michael Jackson recorded on his 'Ben' album in 1972;

'Daddy's Home' - a song that Michael's brother Jermaine had a hit with on Motown, which was a remake of a 1961 song by Shep and the Limelites, (personally, I don't like Cliff Richard's version at all and like Richard Carpenter's version on 'Live in Japan' even less);

'I Can't Go for That' - a song with a cool bass line and keyboard riff, seemingly influenced by Motown, that I do like - and Hall and Oates later recorded with Motown artists David Ruffin and Eddie Kendricks;

'Down Under' - (I like a lot of Men at Work's songs, such as 'Who Can It Be Now', 'Johnny Be Good' and 'Overkill', but don't particularly like 'Down Under' - but it stinks that they got sued for having a tiny section of 'Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree' in the flute arrangement). I saw Men At Work in concert in about 1983 and loved it;

'Centrefold' - I don't like that song;

'Girls on Film' - a flimsy little song - I preferred 'My Own Way', from the same era;

'How Great Thou Art' - I know the hymn but don't know the recording. You could look at this recording as a remake - the hymn uses a traditional Swedish melody and a translation of a much later Swedish poem written in 1885 - no, I didn't know that until I looked it up;

'Beechwood 4-5789', another remake of a Motown classic, this time, a hit from 1962, written by Marvin Gaye, George Gordy and William Stevenson.

I visited New Zealand in 1990 and loved it. I remember that in Auckland, reggae and rap were especially big - you heard it everywhere. In Christchurch, you saw a lot of talented musicians playing on the streets. Seemed like a very musical place. The Irish influence was really evident music-wise and also obviously the Maori expression of music. Actually a huge number of musical acts successful in Australia over the years have come from New Zealand.


Here’s “How Great Thou Art” that topped the charts. Morrison sings it in English and Maori, and at times it sounds operatic the way he sings it. And interesting Pop song!
 
How very bizarre to see these two tunes sharing the top 10.
‘Tainted Love’ and ‘Beechwood’ are both mid-tempo and bouncy, though, so there are similarities.

I thought that was a bit of a theme with this Top 10. A lot of the songs were mid-tempo and jaunty. Lots of sunny stuff.
 
Australian Charts
Source: iTunes Charts for Australia
October 19, 2020:
  1. T. R. U. T. H. - Guy Sebastian
  2. [12:00] - LOONA
  3. ; (Semicolon) - EP - SEVENTEEN
  4. So Fresh: The Hits of Spring 2020 - Various Artists
  5. Greatest Hits - Fleetwood Mac
  6. All-Time Greatest Hits - Neil Diamond
  7. THE SPEED OF NOW Part 1 - Keith Urban
  8. Gold: Greatest Hits (40th Anniversary Edition) - ABBA
  9. Rumours - Fleetwood Mac
  10. Gold: Greatest Hits - Carpenters
 
The late John Denver "Some Days Are Diamonds (Some Days Are Stone)" is my favorite Denver song from the Summer of 1981!!!
John Denver was great. Very talented singer-songwriter. I saw his concert in the round back in the 70's (stage gradually moves around). I really enjoyed seeing him on the Carpenters special.

My mother liked his records too, even learned to say 'Far Out' from seeing him on TV, which made teenage me roll my eyes.
 
Australian Charts
Source: iTunes Charts for Australia
October 19, 2020: 1. T. R. U. T. H. - Guy Sebastian 2. [12:00] - LOONA 3. (Semicolon) - EP - SEVENTEEN 4. So Fresh: The Hits of Spring 2020 - Various Artists 5. Greatest Hits - Fleetwood Mac 6. All-Time Greatest Hits - Neil Diamond 7. THE SPEED OF NOW Part 1 - Keith Urban 8. Gold: Greatest Hits (40th Anniversary Edition) - ABBA 9. Rumours - Fleetwood Mac 10. Gold: Greatest Hits - Carpenters

Almost all oldies there. I wonder why? Even Guy Sebastian has been around for about 18 years now - and Keith Urban, who isn't from the same era as the others, appeared on Australian TV about 37 years ago - although I think his first released album was thirty years ago.

I don't know Loona or Seventeen.

Speaking of Fleetwood Mac, weird that their 'Dreams' song and 'Rumours' albums have jumped into the Billboard Top 40, the UK singles and albums Top 40s and other charts, such as the Australian iTunes charts that you see above, because of that video on social media of the skater listening to 'Dreams'.

And relating this to 'I Believe You', 'Touch Me When We're Dancing' and 'Solitaire', which have all recently been discussed on this thread, I read that, last week, 'Dreams' by Fleetwood Mac sold 22,000 copies in the US in the week up to October 8th, 2020, to land at Number 21 on the Billboard Top 100 for week ending October 17th. The same week, the song had 13.4 million streams in the US.

in the same period, the album, 'Rumours', had the equivalent of 29,000 copies sold, (I guess it's tricky now to calculate sales, with different tracks being able to be bought separately), and this was enough to land it at Number 13 on the Billboard Albums Chart.

This week, 'Dreams' has moved up to Number 12 on Billboard. 'Rumours' is the 'greatest gainer' on the albums chart, climbing to Number 7 this week.

Relating this information to Carpenters' three singles mentioned, when 'Solitaire' and 'Touch Me When We're Dancing' peaked at Numbers 17 / 16 all those years ago, I would think that they would have sold a lot, lot more copies than the 22,000 copies of 'Dreams' required to land it at Number 21. Back then, there were tons more record sales than today, as there wasn't the opportunity to listen to or grab for free on the internet. Given that singles that spent only 11 weeks on the US Top 40 in the 70s could sell a million copies, (if they reached, say, the Top 5 - and this was how many weeks 'For All We Know', 'Rainy Days and Mondays' and 'Hurting Each Other' spent on the Top 40, selling a million), I imagine that records would still be selling a lot of copies if peaking in the Top 17. What do you reckon? 300,000 copies, all up? I have no idea.

I'm partly arguing that 'Solitaire' and 'Touch Me When We're Dancing' were sizeable hits, probably with significant sales.

Solitaire had amazing appeal coming over the radio. This recording, of all songs, really magnified Karen's phonogenic tone.
 
Actually, 'I Believe You', 'Touch Me When We're Dancing' and 'Solitaire' were being discussed on the 'I Believe You' thread. I got a bit confused, for a minute.
 
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