12/09/2026
This was your Retro Top 20 Countdown with Brent Meder this morning. The nostalgic trip via the Air FM Time Machine took us back to the SA Charts of 7 September 1979. Which songs bring back the memories? Which is your favourite? Please share below in the comments.
Having regained the top spot last week, Racey‘s ‘Some Girls’ could not hold on to it and relinquished it back to Joe Dolan’s ‘My Love’ this was the 5th time we had seen 2 songs swap place twice at the top of the charts.
Exile’s ‘How Could This Go Wrong’ gave them their 2nd biggest climber award as it climbed 5 from 17 to 12. They had picked up their previous one with ‘Kiss You All Over’. Patrick Henandez’s ‘Born To Be Alive’ was a star rater for a 3rd week running as it climbed 4 from 10 to 6.
Faller of the week was The Dooleys’ ‘Honey I’m Lost’ which fell 6 from 11 to 17.
Eruption’s ‘One Way Ticket’ left the charts this week after 15 weeks and a peak at 5. The other song to go also had a sense of finality to it in the title as it was Wings’ ‘Goodnight Tonight’. It managed a run of 5 weeks and a peak of 15.
Eruption’s ‘One Way Ticket’ had been the oldest on last week’s chart and that title now fell to Supertramp’s ‘The Logical Song’ which was on 14 weeks.
The first new entry was ‘Fire’, a Pointer Sister’s cover of a Bruce Springsteen song. Springsteen wrote the track in 1977 with Elvis Presley in mind to record it. He sent a demo off, but sadly Elvis died before he got it. The Pointer Sisters’ version would top the charts in New Zealand and The Netherlands as well as getting to 2 in the US and 34 in the UK. Toto’s David Paich plays organ and piano on the track.
Dan Hill had seen 2 songs chart on our charts already, but this week we saw the debut SA chart hit for Dan Hill. Confused? Well the answer is quite simple really. The Dan Hill who had previously charted was a local lad while the one charting this week was a Canadian bloke. His new entry was ‘Sometimes When We Touch’ and it was the 32nd song by a Canadian to make our charts.