Number 1
People sometimes ask - "What was number 1 in the charts on the day you were born?". Usually, they hope to be able to ridicule you for being born in a week when some really embarrassing group were top of the charts with a spoof record about carrots; sometimes, it's actually annoyingly cool.
I've always told people - after looking it up on one website - that the re-release of Jackie Wilson's Reet Petite was top of the pops on Wednesday, 21 January, 1987. But then, after testing my birthday again to show someone, a different song came up!!
Apparently there had been a mix-up, because although the charts are published on a Sunday, the date of the chart is given as the following Saturday's: the "week ending..." date is given. Jackie Wilson was number 1 the week before I was born, but Steve "Silk" Hurley was number 1 week ending January 24 with Jack Your Body!!
I was actually quite gutted. Granted, Jack Your Body has been mashed up for a relatively cool Citroen advert, but it's just not the same, is it? Feeling a little low, I decided to have a look around this second website: the Quirky Number 1s page would probably cheer me up, I thought... and how!!!
The Number One 'That Got Away With It'So there! I'm still claiming Reet Petite!
Steve 'Silk' Hurley - "Jack Your Body"
Strict chart rules govern which releases are eligible for the chart. One such rule stipulated the maximum playing time allowed on a 12" single (to avoid it being classed as an album). Unfortunately, nobody spotted that the 12" version of Steve 'Silk' Hurley's 1987 track "Jack Your Body" exceeded the maximum playing time. Its sales were incorporated into the overall total for the title. It, thus, enjoyed two weeks at number one in January of that year. In fact, it should never have been there! The effect was that Jackie Wilson's re-issue of "Reet Petite" (which it 'knocked off the top') should have enjoyed a fifth week at the summit and Aretha Franklin & George Michael's "I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)" (which eventually replaced it at the top) was deprived of its first week (of what should have been three) atop the chart.
