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51 Weeks: 51 Songs From The Past: Week 34: Dead Or Alive – You Spin Me Round (Like A Record)

Time to leave the 1990s behind, where we spent the last two weeks, and head back a decade to the 1980s. Back then, there was a certain trio by the names of Stock, Aitken and Waterman who were going to start making their move on the music industry. No, we won’t be meeting them today, but let me introduce you to the song that started it all off for them.

51 weeks 51 songs from the past poster

Here we are in the year 1984, where Mr Stock, Mr Aitken and Mr Waterman were about to produce their first number one single with a band by the name of Dead Or Alive. It was November, and they sat back and waited, and waited, and waited.  While we wait with them, let’s check out the song.

Incredible as it may seem, You Spin Me Round (Like A Record) took 17 weeks to reach the number one spot on the UK charts. Now, it may not hold the record (excuse the pun) for taking the longest time to get there but, back in those days, songs took a lot longer to reach the top of the charts compared to how they do today. Getting to the number one spot the week a record was released, was very rare.

Pete Burns, the lead singer of Dead Or Alive, also had to fund the recording of the song as the record company were not convinced it was going to be a hit. £2,500 later, Pete Burns and the group were delighted with the success of the song, given that they also had to pay for the video production. Of course, they made the money back with interest and left some staff at the record company with egg on their faces.

The song went on to become a worldwide hit, also making it to the number one spot in Canada, Switzerland and Ireland. In the U.S.A, it peaked at number 11 on the billboard hot 100.

Do you have a favourite song that was in some way a first for somebody? Share a link to that song in the comments section.

Thank you to everyone who left a link to a favourite song in the comments section of last week’s post. And a big thank you to Kat and Barbara, who joined in with publishing a blog post of a favourite song, and to Terri for linking a post to this weekly feature.

Want to join me in building up your 51 favourite songs from the past? Leave a link in the comments section below and showcase your next song.

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