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Film Actors Who Had Just One Top 40 Chart Hit (in UK or US)

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    Wendy Richard - credited on 'Come Outside' with Mike Sarne (#1 1962) and appeared in a couple of Carry Ons, having earlier had a scene in Help! that was cut.

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      Hi-de-Hi stalwart Su Pollard made a cameo appearance in national embarrassment megaflop Run For Your Wife in 2012 alongside Danny Dyer and many many other "stars". This was the film which grossed ?602 on its opening weekend, and currently has a coveted 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

      But happily (or otherwise) it qualifies her for this thread. You might be thinking she had a #39 novelty record, in character as Peggy, called "Oh, Miss Cathcart!" or similar, but her hit "Starting Together" got to #2 in 1986, and it was played straight. It was the theme tune to "The Marriage", a Desmond Wilcox documentary following a young couple preparing for their wedding.

      Her other chart entry only made it to #71, entitled "Come To Me (I am a Woman)". Yikes.

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        Richard Burton on The Eve Of The War? Does the 1989 remix count separately? That was a much bigger hit (#3 compared to #36 for the original).

        Did Geoffrey Bayldon only appear on The Wizard? I can't find any trace of a Catweazle tie-in record, for example... although there is a label of that name, which confused me for a minute on Discogs.

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          If voice samples (rather than spoken word performances) count, Burton's 1984 co-star John Hurt appears on the Manics' Faster.

          There's a sample of Albert Finney's voice on the flipside, PCP, finally securing him the chart placing that had eluded him as a Motown recording artist.

          Originally posted by jwdd27 View Post
          Phil Daniels on Blur's Parklife is his only chart action.

          He was/is a musician and his band (Phil Daniels and The Cross) had a contract with RCA but no success, unlike his mate Gary Kemp's group. I also had to check that he didn't contribute to Breaking Glass (the album) and he didn't, he was only in the film. And Gary Tibbs played Hazel O'Connor's bassist, but then didn't play bass on her album.
          Some of his dialogue from Quadrophenia is sampled on Flowered Up's Weekender, a number 20 hit in May 1992.
          Last edited by Benjm; 01-07-2020, 07:52.

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            jwdd's mention of Su Pollard reminds me (for some reason) of Kate Robbins, the Crossroads 'star' who scored a 1981 #2 smash with More Than in Love. Although I was well aware of this song becoming a big hit back then, I don't believe that I've ever heard it. (Which might possibly qualify it for that long-defunct 'biggest hits you never heard'-thread of yore.)

            She appeared in a few films, but may be disqualified here for having contributed backing vocals to one of the versions of Wah's Story of the Blues - a fact-ette of which I was completely unaware until reading it on Wikipedia just now.

            Originally posted by 3 Colours Red View Post
            Did Geoffrey Bayldon only appear on The Wizard? I can't find any trace of a Catweazle tie-in record, for example... although there is a label of that name, which confused me for a minute on Discogs.
            If he did - which seems entirely plausible, given that all light-ent stars seemed contractually obliged to cut at least one novelty record in those days - then it wasn't a hit.

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              It should be noted that, despite a good eighteen-months' worth of chartbusters over here, David Soul only managed the one major hit in America - Don't Give Up On Us, which went to number one on Billboard in April 1977.

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                I thought that Pat Roach was a good bet here as a 70s/80s domestic TV figure who also appeared in films, but it seems not.

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                  I had no idea how many films Matt Frewer had been in until I just looked on Wikipedia, but his only chart appearance was in character as Max Headroom on the Art of Noise's Paranoimia

                  John Hurt also pops up very briefly with Art of Noise on Metaforce (he appears throughout the album it is taken from as a narrator), but this only reached No 53, so as you were.

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                    Originally posted by Jah Womble View Post
                    Kate Robbins....She appeared in a few films, but may be disqualified here for having contributed backing vocals to one of the versions of Wah's Story of the Blues - a fact-ette of which I was completely unaware until reading it on Wikipedia just now.
                    News to me too. This then set me off wondering if Leslie Ash actually sang backing vocals on 'Cool for Cats', leading me to this potentially NSFW link, if one strays too far from the page (I didn't), which discusses in some depth the identity of the backing singers in the video (neither of which were Leslie Ash, despite the common misunderstanding which I had).

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                      Got to #18 in the UK. I prefer Eastwood's effort myself.

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                        Wand'rin' Star featured in the OP - and, uh, it went to number one in the UK.

                        (But apart from that, etc.)

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                          Originally posted by Jah Womble View Post
                          Wand'rin' Star featured in the OP - and, uh, it went to number one in the UK.

                          (But apart from that, etc.)
                          Oops.

                          I have a rather soft spot for I Talk to the Trees. Eastwood doesn't embarrass himself vocally either.

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                            Kate Robbins would most likely have been on the Spitting Image records, so she's probably got a #1 to her name. If she also was on backing vocals for Santa Claus Is On The Dole/First Atheist Tabernacle Choir, that's a second hit.

                            Leslie Ash (and Caroline Quentin) got to #25 in 1996 with a cover of Tell Him, so anything else would disqualify her.

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                              Yes, I was thinking that La Robbins had featured prominently on Spitting Image and then didn't make the obvious leap to the spin-off 1986 chart successes. (Still needs confirming, mind...)

                              A fairly obvious omission thus far might be Vincent Price: has he appeared on any hits other than Jacko's Thriller (1983, UK #10; 1984 US #4)?

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                                Originally posted by Benjm View Post
                                I thought that Pat Roach was a good bet here as a 70s/80s domestic TV figure who also appeared in films, but it seems not.
                                Presumably Jimmy Nail hoovered up all the post-Auf Wiedersehen, Pet chart action. On the flip side, though, Jimmy never wrestled Giant Haystacks.

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                                  Originally posted by Jah Womble View Post
                                  A fairly obvious omission thus far might be Vincent Price: has he appeared on any hits other than Jacko's Thriller (1983, UK #10; 1984 US #4)?
                                  Not that I know of, but thinking of Vincent immediately makes me think of Christopher Lee – who recorded with several acts in minor capacities, I gather, but then in 2010 came out with a whole (and by all accounts extraordinary) symphonic metal concept album about Charlemagne when in his late 80s. I don't believe he's ever charted, however.

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                                    Good grief, I've just looked into Lee's recording history, and apparently a few years earlier he did an album of standards etc. called Revelation, which included none other than a version of the aforementioned Wanderin' Star:



                                    That was on Vanessa Feltz's talk show, of all places.

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                                      Originally posted by Jah Womble View Post

                                      A fairly obvious omission thus far might be Vincent Price: has he appeared on any hits other than Jacko's Thriller (1983, UK #10; 1984 US #4)?
                                      I'd just like to mention, if I may, that I've got a cousin called Vincent Price, who was born far too late for his parents not to know what they were letting him in for.

                                      He calls himself Vince, but, like all the Dave Nivens and Pete Lorres of this world, he's fooling nobody.

                                      I usually dislike name-based piss-takes, but he beat the shit out of me as a child (he's five years older than I am), so he can go do one, even now.
                                      Last edited by treibeis; 01-07-2020, 20:30.

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                                        Alison Thomas from London's Burning was a back-up vocalist on Tracey Ullman's Breakaway.

                                        I've got a something nagging away at the back of my mind, maybe an actor who gets a credit on one of Adam's, Elvis Costello's, or the Pogues' hits. Someone like John Cusack but it's not him.

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                                          I erred in calling "I Talk To The Trees" the b-side. It was credited as a Double-A on the chart. 'Paint Your Wagon' got to #2 on the LP chart and stuck around for 99 weeks (25 in the Top 10). Only denied #1 by the top-selling album of the decade, 'Bridge Over Troubled Water' ('Easy Rider' also got to #2 behind that album).

                                          Reggae act Clint Eastwood & General Saint fell short of the Top 40, which is a shame because I liked them when I saw them at a CND benefit at Brockwell Park in May 1983 (covered in the NME). Lee Perry released an Upsetters album called 'Clint Eastwood.'
                                          Last edited by Satchmo Distel; 01-07-2020, 23:54.

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                                            Patrick Allen deserves a nod for 'Two Tribes' because he re-recorded his 'Protect and Survive' lines for the single. Chris Barrie is also on it as Reagan (whom he did on Spitting Image).
                                            Last edited by Satchmo Distel; 02-07-2020, 00:01.

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                                              It'd be quicker to name who wasn't on the extended cuts of the Frankie singles.

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                                                ^Paul Rutherford, perhaps?

                                                Can barely bring myself to post this one, but Sid Owen (ie, 'Rick-ayyy' out of off of EastEnders) appeared in a couple of films and scored one Top 20 hit in 2000 with a decidedly dubious cover of Sugar Minott's Good Thing Going. So, 'him'.



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                                                  Originally posted by treibeis View Post
                                                  I'd just like to mention, if I may, that I've got a cousin called Vincent Price, who was born far too late for his parents not to know what they were letting him in for.

                                                  He calls himself Vince, but, like all the Dave Nivens and Pete Lorres of this world, he's fooling nobody.

                                                  I usually dislike name-based piss-takes, but he beat the shit out of me as a child (he's five years older than I am), so he can go do one, even now.
                                                  I work with James Dean, and he has admirably eschewed being a Jamie or a Jim.


                                                  Anyway, Mos Def - one UK top 40 with "Oh No" (Ms Fat Booty and the reworked Miss Fat Booty didn't break top 50).
                                                  Like a lot of rap and hip hop artists, he's a decent enough actor. It's all performing arts/showing off at the end of the day.

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                                                    Rutherford had a similar role to Bez? OTOH he had a brief very minor chart career as a solo act:

                                                    https://www.officialcharts.com/artis...ul-rutherford/

                                                    Last edited by Satchmo Distel; 02-07-2020, 10:51.

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