The Retroscope: 5 December

1981: Juilio Iglesias scored a #1 in the UK singles chart with “Begin The Beguine”, a Cole Porter song from 1935 with Spanish lyrics. A beguine was originally a Christian lay woman of the 13th or 14th century living in a religious community without formal vows. However, this term came to mean “white woman” in the Creole or Caribbean, especially in Martinque and Gauadelope. It was then to be applied to a style of music and dance, particularly a slow, close couple’s dance that became popular in Paris and abroad in the 1940’s.
1987: Belinda Carlisle reached the #1 position on the US singles chart with “Heaven Is A Place On Earth”, a week later it hit number one on the UK singles chart and held the spot for two weeks. It became Carlisle’s only US chart topper with or without the Go-Go’s.