4 April 1981
I thought three solo John Lennon number ones in a row was bad enough, but now the plague year of 1981 serves up three chart toppers in five months from Shakin’ Stevens. If the Lennon experience has taught us anything, it’s that even if someone had shot him it would have made no difference; the bloody things would still have gone to number one. Still, in the name of good science someone should have at least tested the hypothesis.
He’s photogenic, has an energy of sorts, and, like Lennon with ‘(Just Like) Starting Over’, Shaky is stepping into a gap cleared by the British and Irish public’s then-taste in ’50s musical tat. For possible explanations of why the citizenry of 1981 went so big for him, that’s the best I can come up with.
