Charlie — “It’s Inevitable”

Entered Top 40:  August 6, 1983
 2 weeks 
Peaked at: 38

I don’t know if the fortunes of British band Charlie were hurt at all by the popular Revlon perfume brand and its ubiquitous ad campaigns in the ’70s and ’80s, but that cannot have helped. Charlie were prolific, putting out seven LPs from 1976 to 1983, most quite different from each other; and scoring some low Hot 100 US singles. Looking into them, I especially enjoyed “Killer Cut” (#60) from 1979, a bitter take on “So You Wanna Be a Rock & Roll Star.” The group’s Wikipedia page is a laundry list of lineup changes, label problems, and just bad luck, culminating in missing the satisfaction of hearing their one US Top 40 hit debut on American Top 40. Apparently Casey Kasem was handed some bad copy, and the show played a Diana Ross song at #38 instead of “It’s Inevitable.” The error was corrected the following week.

The constant in Charlie’s lineup was Terry Thomas, a guitarist/vocalist, but by the time of “It’s Inevitable” the lead singer was Terry Slesser, a pub rocker notable for replacing Brian Johnson in the group Geordie when Johnson was tapped to replace Bon Scott in AC/DC. The resulting Charlie album was a pivot toward arena rock of the era. Charlie disbanded shortly after “It’s Inevitable,” but Thomas brought back the name for a 1986 contractual record that was essentially a solo effort. He recorded as Charlie again in 2009 and 2015, reuniting with prior members Martin Smith and Julian Colbeck.