#1 on the Billboard Hot 100: Never.
#1 on the Cash Box Top 100: Never.#1 on the U.K. Chart: March 22, 1980 through April 5, 1980.
Through this project, I will come across artists and songs that I have never heard before. This is one of those cases. I completely missed the Jam in the 1980s. Then again, I was twelve when the band broke up and they never made much of a splash in the United States.
The first interesting thing here is that these two songs reached number one in the U.K. in part due to a labeling error. When this record was released, Dreams of Children was intended to be the "A" side and the promoted single. Due to a printing error, Going Underground was mistakenly labeled as the "A" side, with Dreams of Children as the "B" side. As a result, Going Underground got most of the airplay and consequently became the "hit". This was all sorted out later and the two songs shared the top position on the U.K. charts.
The other interesting thing here is that this pair of songs reached the number one position on the U.K. chart directly after Fern Kinney's disco hit Together We Are Beautiful. This sort of rapid shift in tone - going from a disco song to a couple of punkish new wave songs from one week to the next - is emblematic of the chaotic nature of the music scene in the early 1980s. The 1980s would eventually establish their own musical identity, but at this point they were still groping in the dark, lurching from style to style.
Previous Musical Monday: Together We Are Beautiful by Fern Kinney
Subsequent Musical Monday: Working My Way Back to You - Forgive Me Girl by the Spinners
Previous #1 on the U.K. Chart: Together We Are Beautiful by Fern Kinney
Subsequent #1 on the U.K. Chart: Working My Way Back to You - Forgive Me Girl by the Spinners
List of #1 Singles from the Billboard Hot 100 for 1980-1989
List of #1 Singles from the Cash Box Top 100 for 1980-1989
List of #1 Singles on the U.K. Chart for 1980-1989
The Jam 1980s Project Musical Monday Home
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