Chart collection - RAI Hit Parade (Italy)

Time for another chart collection. This time it's Italy - which didn't have an official chart until 1995! So three charts battled for domination (the story is covered in my chart guide). Books on album and single charts from "Musica e Dischi" and "TV Sorrisi e Canzoni" are published by Italian researcher Guido Racca and are available through Lulu.com. However the third important chart, RAI Hit/Top Parade, is still mostly obscure (Guido did a book on singles chart, but that included info only for Top 10, whereas during 1979-1990 the chart has been Top 20). Happily, the scans of RAI magazine, "Radiocorriere TV", are available on the net, so I managed to copy the charts from them.

So here goes the first post on them. It covers a time when the chart was called RAI Hit Parade and presented a Top 20s for singles and albums (from February 1979 to July 1985). These charts were also basis for a famous and influential Italian TV show "Discoring" - and Mr Racca told me that what was broadcasted and the published lists sometimes differed. You'll be able to see that for yourself in the scans, how songs appear with the "previous week" date when the previous chart doesn't feature them (not many such instances, though). But the magazine's issues are all I have, so... Note also that the names of the files cover a whole week, not one definite date - but that's how it was on the covers. Finally, there are a couple of gaps for 1983 and 1984, but that's because the charts simply weren't published. That's all for now, enjoy!

RAI Hit Parade (1979-1985)

Chartography - ABC

Interesting how many (if not most) of the big successes of the "New Wave" era fall on debut albums. And usually the bands and artists were unable to built on those foundations, spending their whole carriers trying to recapture the spirit of their first full-format outing. One of the bands to whom this applies the most is ABC. They really did a perfect pop album with "The Lexicon of love" - and were rewarded with worldwide success almost instantly. But they didn't want to repeat themselves and strayed from this style - with immediate (and disastrous) commercial results. So on many of their later albums they tried to write "The lexicon of love part II", to bridge the gap and recapture the audience. And predictably failed. Still, along the way they did manage some notable successes, especially building a fan base in the USA - which many of their contemporaries failed to do. They actually did write "The lexicon of love part II", though of course it wasn't a patch on "part I". Anyway, let's check their way through the world charts.

ABC

(Download and open in Microsoft Word for the bestest viewing experience😊)

Nb. Discography