Countdown Episodes * 70s & 80s Australian Music Programs * Music Video * Molly Trading * Collecting * Archival Information * Record/CD releases and more .........
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COUNTDOWN IS BACK THIS JANUARY, 2019 ... ON rage !!!!! Stay tuned below with regular Countdown full archival information for each Countdown episode rage shall be airing every Saturday throughout January ...
Can anyone tell me if "Burning Up" was played on Countdown in late 1983 when it was originally released in Australia (and briefly entered the ARIA top 100)?
Yeah, I knew it did well in 1984 and got a lot of Countdown support then, but wondered if they gave it any support on the show before Holiday. Guess if they had, it might not only have got to number 95 in 1983!
Not related to the question, but I was inspired to dig this out after someone who seems knowledgeable on the early years of rage recently added to the wikipedia page that their first Saturday night artist special was for Madonna, in 1989 (which pre-dates the specials/guest programmers listed on the rage website that only go back to January 1990).
'Burning Up' may have been mentioned in a Humdrum segment or something, if the full video wasn't shown on Countdown. From memory, there are still quite a few 1983 episodes that haven't yet been repeated on rage; as 1983 has been a relatively neglected year (though not quite as much as 1986) during their retro months.
Doing a search for Madonna +"Burning Up" +Countdown on the ABC's TARA Online Search, the earliest result is episode 411, which appears to be from April 1984 (episode 414 is dated 27th April on this). However, this is only based on the information the ABC archives have included about each episode.
I think I remember someone posting on another forum that 'Molly was responsible for giving Madonna her first hit' - but then checking and seeing that 'Burning Up' wasn't really a 'hit' here until after 'Holiday'... and 'Holiday' entered the chart here later than it did in the US, so it's not true.
Holiday was the first Madonna video played on Countdown from Top Of The Pops.
In 1984 I remember when Madonna was premiered and I died and went to heaven when they played Holiday, and it was the episode hosted by Jane Clifton. Because of the success of Holiday, Countdown then played the Burning Up video after Holiday and Molly said on Countdown that even though Burning Up was before Holiday they played Burning Up because Holiday was a hit here and quick interest in this country for Madonna was high.
A small aside: "Burning Up" simply WAS the song that made me sit up and take note of this artist. It was also the signpost to me at least that she would not simply be a one-or-two-hit-wonder, but an artist that will be around for a while at least. Never did I think that I would be buying her single during the second decade of the following century though.
Well look at that ... Rage playing the Burning Up video right now as I type this (just the regular music video - nothing to do with Countdown - though I am counting down the days until I get to see more retro goodness!)
"Burning Up' was just on again, on ABC2 as part of the New Year's special. The hour or so I watched included a few rarely seen eighties videos, like Eddie Murphy's "Party All The Time'.