Three of a Kind #60

I loved the Record Mirror as a teenager. Smash Hits was funnier and more irreverent, but RM held an equal place in my affections for one basic reason: it featured charts; lots of them. Not just yer bog-standard Top 100 singles and albums (which were exciting enough on their own) either. No, the Record Mirror also printed the following charts each week: Music Video, Compact Discs, Twelve Inch, US Singles & Albums, Disco, Eurobeat, Reggae, Indie Singles and Indie Albums. As someone who, at the time, regularly compiled my own weekly airplay chart based on stuff I'd heard on the radio (what can I say, I was an odd kid!) all this was very heaven to me.


(Pout, pout, knock yourself out: Dr Robert deigns to appear on this week's cover)
Anyway, for no reason other than pure, unabashed nostalgia we're going to focus on the charts from the April 19th 1986 issue of Record Mirror for today's Three of a Kind. Here's what was topping the various countdowns in each of the aforementioned categories that week, followed by three of my favourite chart-toppers from the list.

Gallup UK Singles: A Different Corner - George Michael

Gallup UK Albums: Hits 4 - Various

Music Video: Alchemy Live - Dire Straits

Compact Discs: Brothers In Arms - Dire Straits

Twelve Inch: Rock Me Amadeus - Falco

US Singles: Kiss - Prince

US Albums: Whitney Houston - Whitney Houston

Disco: The Finest - The SOS Band

Eurobeat: You're A Beat - Eastbound Expressway (me neither)

Reggae: Hello Darling - Tippa Irie

Indie Singles: Shellshock - New Order

Indie Albums: Black Celebration - Depeche Mode

New Order - Shellshock (12" version) mp3

Falco - Rock Me Amadeus (Salieri Mix) mp3

The S.O.S. Band - The Finest mp3

Mildly Interesting 12" Remix Fact: At a whopping 8 minutes and 21 seconds, this version of Rock Me Amadeus isn't even the longest track we're featuring today; Shellshock and its 9 mins 39 has that distinction. This is my favourite New Order track, by the way. Funnily enough Rock Me Amadeus is my favourite Falco track, too. Not quite so much competition for that one, though, admittedly

Mildly Interesting Pop Periodical Fact: All good things must come to an end, and the Record Mirror did just that in (I think) 1990. I had to reluctantly switch to the NME after that. Johnny Cigarettes was good, but it was never quite the same. Ho hum.

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