15 December 1979
The last number one of the ’70s was the first of the ’80s, so there’s a temptation to check it for remnants of the decade past and harbingers of the one we know to come. Granted, a similar exercise for 1999-2000 will enable us to review the ’90s, the 20th century and the first millennium A.D. all through the prism of Westlife’s double-A-side of ‘I Have A Dream’ and ‘Seasons In The Sun’, plus what that portends for the next thousand years. So, now that we’ve established the methodology is sound, back to the matter in hand.
As a ’70s number one, there’s its grudging four-on-the-floor beat but, that aside, ‘Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2)’ doesn’t show much real interest in glam, reggae, disco, electronica, ska, funk, punk or whatever ‘Wuthering Heights’ is. No, this is prog rock, which is SERIOUS and has SOMETHING TO SAY. As an ’80s number one, maybe we should have taken it as a warning about U2.
Perhaps more interesting than it seeing out one decade and ushering in another is the fact that ‘Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2)’ was the 1979 UK and Ireland Christmas number one. For lack of anything overtly Christmassy about it, what explains this? Well, there were other chart-toppers in the preceding months with a similarly serious and sparse rock sound: ‘I Don’t Like Mondays’, ‘Message In A Bottle’ and ‘Walking On The Moon’. (Again, more coded warnings about imminent U2.) Added to that, ‘ABITW(P2)’ has a chorus of children and what’s more, they’re giving out to their teachers! Given that a Christmas number one needs some sort of mainstream appeal and demographic cut-through and what have you, you can imagine this being bought by people who didn’t normally buy singles – maybe as a ‘hilarious’ Christmas present for the kid or teacher in your life, or for yourself because you found shouting “HEY! TEACHER! LEAVE THOSE KIDS ALONE!” inherently funny. Yes, this means that, just like the following year’s Christmas number one, the similarly kids-singing-to-grownup-figurehead record ‘There’s No One Quite Like Grandma’, ‘Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2)’ is a novelty hit. No, I won’t be taking questions on this.
So the Irish chart decade starts off unpromisingly, with the jackboot of prog rock in our faces, but ahead of us lie the 1980s! Like the 1970s, but with computers! Surely the next number one will be a sign of better things to come.
