Comments for James Masterton

Comment on It Oughta Sell A Million by Rich

Rich — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 10:30:34 +0000

Excellent piece James. Really interesting. How far away is ‘Missing’ by Everything But The Girl? I thought that would have crossed the line by now.

Comment on It Oughta Sell A Million by Sen5c.

Sen5c. — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 23:01:09 +0000

‘Chasing Cars’ according to Wikipedia was at 816877 in November so must now be 825000+. Still a long way to go but must be a good bet for the first never to get in top 5 to sell a million.

Seems likely to me you’ll be looking at ever smaller original hits making the million landmark – any figures for ‘One Day Like This’ ?

Comment on It Oughta Sell A Million by Matt

Matt — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 17:07:11 +0000

The Everything She Wants factor will have helped Wham!'s sales in 1984 too, as it gave people a post-Christmas reason to keep on buying it. I must say I have no recollection of Ghostbusters getting a second wind in the charts. Was this with or without (Searchin' For The Spirit) in the title?

Comment on It Oughta Sell A Million by James

James — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 16:47:26 +0000

The Everything She Wants factor is a part of it, although I didn’t want to overplay this too much. Certainly it meant the record had a slower new year drop-off than might otherwise have been expected for a Christmas single, loitering in the Top 10 until the end of January and not actually dropping off the Top 75 until early March.

The initial chart success of Ghostbusters pre-dated the release of the film which didn’t open in the UK until early December, two and a half months after the single had peaked at Number 2. As a result the track spent two weeks at a low point of Number 46 in late November 1984, re-entered the Top 40 on December 15th and re-peaked at Number 6 on January 5th 1985. (Searchin’ For The Spirit) was a sub-title grafted on to the main 12-inch mix of the track, although confusingly there were two different extended mixes available – the “Spirit” edition (Arista 12 580) which ran 5:27 and the “Extended Mix” (Arista 22580) which ran 6:08, although Discogs is vague on just how extensively available this one was in the UK.

Comment on In Defence Of Christmas 1992–Part Four by Andy

Andy — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 03:21:10 +0000

“The Sun Rising” is a fantastic record.

Comment on In Defence Of Christmas 1992–Part Three by Andy

Andy — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 03:12:41 +0000

The Simply Red “Montreux EP” was the first record I ever blagged, and I did it from the indecent offices of URB and all.

I’d forgotten about the Freddie “In My Defence” thing. EMI milking, as Brian May and Roger Taylor have done ever since.

Comment on Smells Like Military Wives by Paulo

Paulo — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 22:40:25 +0000

@Billy Hicks: What about Band Aid 20 in 2004? I think it’s more accurate to say that it’s been 7 years since last festive hit.

But I agree with you about 2003, with its Jules & Andrews/Darkness race. That was the last time there was a Xmas #1 race genuinely for the songs themselves and their appeal, not because of charity or TV shows.

Comment on Smells Like Military Wives by jez

jez — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 17:37:43 +0000

As somebody who listens to your podcast, I find your rants about T.C.Cs as you like to call them very amusing. Those rants are funnier than most comedians these days. The only person that rants like you is Mark Kermode when he rants about movies he doesn’t like.

Comment on Smells Like Military Wives by jez

jez — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 12:40:51 +0000

James, I’m suprised that people aren’t getting Xmas #1s off the back of a performance on Strictly Come Dancing. You’d think that because Strictly gets around 11 million viewers a night, troucing X-Factor this year, the Xmas #1 would have a SCD connection instead.

My theory to why Millitary Wives are outselling the competition is simply due to a performance on the semi finals of Strictly.

What’s ironic is thet the MWC are reality stars in their own right since they appeared on the BBC2 series The Choir.

Comment on In Defence Of Christmas 1992–Part One by Ben

Ben — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 00:21:58 +0000

Pretty damn awful chart so far! 1992 wasn’t exactly a vintage year.. some classic records like Rhythm Is A Dancer and Stay, but too many disco re-issues and weird shit..

1994 would have been a good one to do since it was revealed on a Christmas Day and it was a classic Christmas top 3..

but will still enjoy this nevertheless.. might listen to the show along with you. Bruno is a legend!