- MICHAEL JACKSON P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing) (Epic)
- Week Ending 21st April 1984
- 1 week at #1
Looking back, if ever a #1 on my 1984 charts inspires a bout of head-scratching, in a what-was-I-thinking? kind of way, then Michael Jackson’s sixth UK single from the ubiquitous Thriller album would be the most likely culprit.
It’s not that it’s bad (‘scuse the pun), far from it. P.Y.T. is one of those glorious examples of funky mid-80s pop that everybody from Kool & The Gang to James Ingram, via Lionel Richie and New Edition, were coming up with at the time. Unburdened by visual gimmicks, credibility-straining attitude or neurotic lyrics, it’s a light and breezy piece of fluff that already sounded rather dated when it finally scaled the dizzy heights of #11 on the UK Top 40.
Yet, because I still wasn’t listening to many albums at this stage, the only tracks on Thriller that I was familiar with were its previous five hits so while for most people the release of P.Y.T. must have been underwhelming (even the sleeve screams of will-this-do laziness….a still from the Thriller video, for goodness sake!), it was all new to me.
However, nice as the track undeniably is, this feels like the “Pointless” answer to the question….name one of Michael Jackson’s solo No.1s on my personal chart between 1984 and 2010.
Amazingly few discotheques provide jukeboxes 
[…] Chartwise, the void had been partially filled by old Motown outtakes (Farewell My Summer Love, Girl You’re So Together), and the lead single from the aforementioned Victory project, a duet with Mick Jagger (State Of Shock) that was apparently intended to feature Lord Frederick Of Mercury (and kind of makes more sense that way). All of these were in 1984, the same year as Thriller‘s final 45, P.Y.T (Pretty Young Thing) which somehow topped my personal chart (see #10 in this list). […]
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