Cheryl Lynn - "Got to be real" in the UK charts for the first time EVER!

[darrens]

Our American readers probably find this hard to believe, but for some reason or the other, the huge disco hit "Got to be real" by Cheryl Lynn never made it into the UK Top 75 Charts back in 1978. Maybe it wasn't released, maybe it didn't get any airplay - does anyone know why this was the case?

Consequently, Cheryl's only previous slice of UK Chart action, if you can call it that, was two weeks in the lower reaches of the UK chart with Encore in September 1984, peaking at the, err, dizzy heights of #68.

So, step forward to the present day, and Marks and Spencer (one of the UK's most popular department stores) has been running an advertising campaign using "Got to be real" as its backing music, and starring the likes of Dannii Minogue and Twiggy. You can see the video here:



Consequently, due to the power of the download and without any radio play or advertising, "Got to be real" has, as of yesterday's new chart, climbed from a non-canon #78, to this week's number 70, which means it is an official hit for the first time. However, it's not the first time the song has been a hit; a cover version by "Erik" reached number 42 in 1994.

The nature of the charts these days is that the song stands every chance of climbing in the weeks to come, and if it can squeeze into the Top 40, that might then give it the leg-up needed to become a big hit - watch this space!

[SandraDee]

Our American readers probably find this hard to believe, but for some reason or the other, the huge disco hit "Got to be real" by Cheryl Lynn never made it into the UK Top 75 Charts back in 1978.

If radio 1 didn't get behind singles in those days they rarely became hits - scandalous if you ask me that they had such a monopoly on UK tastes. & also, let's not forget that you had to sell an awful lot of discs 30 years ago to make the charts, whereas these days a dozen copies probably gets you into the top 40!

[darrens]

let's not forget that you had to sell an awful lot of discs 30 years ago to make the charts, whereas these days a dozen copies probably gets you into the top 40!

Actually, believe it or not, that's not at all true. Singles sales have been through peaks and troughs over the last 30 years; a peak in 1984, a trough in 1992, another peak in 1999 and another trough in 2005.

We are currently at another peak; believe it or not more singles sales were recorded in 2009 than in any other year in history, including 1979 which was the previous biggest year for singles. The reason for that is the download, and per unit they are much cheaper than CD singles were, or vinyl singles were back in the day (taking inflation into account). However, the number of sales required to enter the Top 40 / Top 10 etc. is still probably a little lower than in 1979, as the sales today are spread across 100,000 or so titles, rather than just a few hundred when sales relied on physical stock.

At the moment, a number 1 single sells about 60,000 per week on average, a number 10 about 20,000, number 40 about 7,000, and number 75 about 3,000 copies. Sales are slightly lower than they were earlier this year at the moment. It turned out that "Got to be real" sold 2,857 copies last week, as can be seen in this report:
http://www.buzzjack.com/forums/index...owtopic=110291

[Davicillo]

That record has been a regular on playlists in some Brighton clubs for years and is added to many disco comps, and also has been used in sitcoms eg Will and Grace so the M&S exposure has given it that little shove it needed and also now we have downloads, you don't have to download the whole album just the track. Let's hope M&S resurrect some other great tracks in the future.

[RetroRuss]

Amazing! I just checked the UK Charts & it never charted. I bought the UK 12" in !978 (and played it again on Monday).

[Jackson9]

i used to follow the UK charts weekly.. i had alot of fun doing that as a teenager.. i used to make up my own disco charts omitting all the records from other genres of music, so if the top 5 were all rock songs and number six was by a black artist .. that would be my number one.. lol !

i haven't followed them since the early 1990's, i personally think including downloads has ruined the whole thing.. you could have the sound of a washing machine or indeed an X Factor contestant be number one if everyone deliberately got behind purchasing it.. that just seems like insanity to me.

[andyy]

I think the music of today is a manufactured sound and if any older better records from the past gets any airplay in adverts on TV thats great , sad Got To be Real was never air played in the UK but like most things in the UK from the past, some hits were a fix. I have this record on 12 inch and have the album too i love it and play it to this day.