THIS WEEK IN 1987
1 Everything I Own Boy George
2 Stand By Me Ben E King
3 I Get The Sweetet Feeling Jackie Wilson
4 The Great Pretender Freddie Mercury
5 Live It Up Mental As Anything
6 When A Man Loves A Woman Percy Sledge
7 Respecatable Mel and Kim
8 Crush On You Jets
9 Male Stripper Man 2 Man meets Man Parrish
10 Running In The Family Level 42 At first glance, you could be forgiven for thinking that this chart from 1987 is of earlier origin. No fewer than five of the entries, including the top four songs, were originally released years before, as far back as the fifties. ‘Everything I Own’, the first solo single from Boy George post Culture Club, was written by David Gates and recorded by his band Bread in 1972 for their album ‘Baby I’m-a Want You’. That original version was a top five hit in the US but peaked at number 32 in the UK charts. Two years later, Jamaican Ken Boothe’s reggae version did reach No. 1 in the UK charts. Boothe only recorded the song as he needed a tenth track to complete his album. He received no royalties from the recording as his record company Trojan went bankrupt in 1975. ‘My career went down the drain for a while,’ he said, in an interview with The Guardian. ‘I lost everything I own, just like in the song, but I never gave up on music.’ Boy George’s version of ‘Everything I Own’ is his only number one to date. A major international hit, it topped charts in many countries, including the UK, Ireland, Norway, Italy and South Africa. • The classic ‘Stand By Me’, written by Ben E King and the great Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, only reached No 27 in the UK charts when first released in 1961, but finally hit the top in 1987 on the back of a Levi Jeans advert. • ‘I Get The Sweetest Feeling’ was originally recorded by Detroit soul singer Jackie Wilson in 1968. It reached number 9 when released in the UK four years later. It peaked at number three in 1987 having been re-released to capitalise on the huge success of Wilson’s reissued ‘Reet Petite’. • ‘The Great Pretender’ was first released as a single by The Platters in 1955 when it reached number 5 in the UK charts. It gave Queen frontman Freddie Mercury his biggest solo hit during his lifetime, peaking at number 4 in the UK, though two posthumous singles fared better: ‘Barcelona’, a No 2 hit in 1992, and ‘Living On My Own’, a UK charttopper in 1993.