Peak UK Chart Position: #3 in March 1989.

Arguably Stock, Aitken and Waterman’s finest hour, and Donna Summer’s Biggest hit since her duet with Barbra Streisand on “No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)” also got to Number three ten years previous. “This Time I Know It’s For Real” climbed to number three itself on this day in 1989, and was the first of three SAW-produced singles to hit the top twenty for her that year. It also fared very well in America, where (on the Billboard Hot 100) it reached number seven, achieving the Gold certification for 500,000 units sold.

Quick facts:

• “This Time I Know It’s For Real” was the 22nd biggest seller of 1989 in the UK, selling over 200,000 copies.
• Her biggest UK hit was 1977’s chart-topper “I Feel Love”, a track that charted again in 1995 (courtesy of a remix by Rollo and Sister Bliss) getting to number eight.
• The Lonnie Gordon track “Happenin’ All Over Again” was originally written by SAW for Summer, but due to a fall out it never materialised.
• In 2013, Summer was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

This performance of “This Time I Know It’s For Real” was taken from Top of the Pops on 9th March 1989 – a Comic Relief special with Nicky Campbell, Lenny Henry, and Hale and Pace hosting – although Summer’s track had been prerecorded the week before.