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Posted by: Popchartfreak 17th April 2021, 04:08 PM

OK. I can't find any evidence of this existing on the internet, but I wrote down the list of songs at the time, so it's about time it went up. Why? Because as far as I can tell it was the first pop music rundown in the UK of listeners faves during the Rock Era. Radio One at the time was aimed at 15 to 35-year-olds, pretty much, with older listeners going to Radio 2, and that was it bar the fading-in-and-out far-off Radio Luxembourg and some new commercial stations starting up in big cities.

I found it quite interesting at the time, not least because some of my all-time faves were on the list. I don't recall the voting system, but it would have been my mail, and either just one track or a top 3 fave tracks. I'm inclined to think it was the latter, due to the proliferation of some artists that appealed largely to girls or women, and who would've been voting more for their fave pop stars as much as voting for their fave records. I'm looking at you Elvis & Cliff.

Clearly records were banned unless they were at least 2 years old (nothing from 1972 or 1973) and there is a clear cut-off point of 1955, and Rock Around The Clock. There's nothing pre-dating that, which would make sense for an audience that was in their teens in the 50's, 60's or early 70's. But there will be, shockingly, just two Beatles tracks on the list. To be clear, that's not cos they weren't the greatest band of all-time, it's more likely that this is a chart voted for mostly by girls, and also that The Beatles just had so much classic material votes would have been spread out over a huge back catalogue, rather than concentrated on just 5 or 6 tracks.

That said, there are some huge 60's tracks that don't feature, and nothing Glam Rock at all. No Kinks, Who, Stones, Small Faces. No "Imagine". No "Let It Be". No "Paint It Black". No "California Dreamin'". Nor many others now-regularly voted-amongst the best of the various decades. What this says to me is that what is popular at any given time is not necessarily an accurate reflection of what will be valued in 50 years time, either by the people who were around then, or those from subsequent generations.

Anyways, I'll do an ongoing analysis of each batch, and you can say to yourselves (or in response) "Wot! People actually thought death-songs where actually a great thing?!" to which the answer is a big, "Oh Yes indeed they did!"

Posted by: Popchartfreak 17th April 2021, 04:18 PM

100. THE MORE I SEE YOU - Chris Montez (1966)



Chris was a youthful Latino American popstar, who'd hit the big teen time as teen idol in 1962 with the terrific "Let's Dance", which was a hit all over again in 1972, it was so good. That would have been a great inclusion on the list. Sadly, listeners preferred this number 2 that was covered by Frank Sinatra and other crooners of the era, being as it's all cocktail jazz-styled with a slight bossa-nova feel to it. I mean, yes I liked it, I loved the tune as a kid, all very nice, all very pleasant, but this is never going to be quoted amongst the greatest 100 records of 1955 to 1971 these days! Chris is still around, happily, though now in his 70's he no longer pops up on 60's package nostalgia tours like he used to in the UK until, ooh, not that long ago.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 17th April 2021, 04:28 PM

99. SPANISH EYES - Al Martino (1966)



OK, so why is this on the list?! Al Martino topped the first-ever UK singles chart as crooner, and then had a US come-back in 1966 with this jaunty crooner ballad which never became a hit in the UK, though it was fairly well-known. My mum & dad loved it, along with loads of other mums and dads, who started buying it in large numbers in the summer of '73, to the extent that it went top 3 in the UK singles charts, and then hung around until voting started, I guess. So, really it was a currently popular tune amongst the 30-somethings who might have voted that slipped in because it was a 60's track. Trust me, teenagers at that time did NOT go for old crooners and wouldn't have voted for this in a million years.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 17th April 2021, 04:41 PM

98. ROCK AROUND THE CLOCK - Bill Haley with His Comets (1955)



The one that changed the face of popular music. The one that started Rock 'n' Roll. A mature bloke with a kiss-curl, adapting swing, adding beats, and whoosh, a popular music wildstorm. It was famous throughout the latter half of the 20th Century. It might well still be known. It was certainly still popular in 1974, cos it made the charts again and Bill Haley turned up on Top Of The Pops to promote it. That episode still exists because the tit tasked with erasing the tapes of 70's Top Of The Pops decided this was an important episode because it had a 50-something singing a 20-year-old song, while, say, David Bowie, Queen's debut and Abba weren't a good enough reason not to scrub. I've never been a fan of this one. I know it's important, it's quite jolly and easy to sing after one listen, and it rocks for those keen to jive...but not even Jive Bunny could transform into a piece of fun for me. Actually, I should say "despite Jive Bunny's efforts to kill it off, it still isn't that much fun for me". This also would never be listed amongst the best records of anyone voting for songs from that period. We would just appreciate it for what it did, and what it is, and move on to classic Elvis instead, or Chuck Berry, Little Richard, and others who are absent from the rundown.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 17th April 2021, 04:54 PM

97. APACHE - The Shadows



Hooray! A cool track at last, a tune that's still popular, albeit in adverts featuring The Sugar-Hill Gang 80's rap version. The Shads were Cliff's backing group, the biggest British band and the biggest British pop star in 1960. In fact, The Shads were the only significant British band, specialising in instrumental rock numbers that sounded American. Yes they were that good! For such a key band, it's surprising that this is their only track on the list, no "Wonderful Land" even, their biggest hit. Unlike a lot of the tracks on the list, though, this has never been a hit again - though the tune remains fairly well-known, and is generally critically-rated. It still sounds fab to me, though it was only ever a "golden oldie" on radio to me.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 17th April 2021, 06:52 PM

96. BUILD ME UP BUTTERCUP - The Foundations (1968)



And so onto the first track which would have made my all-time top 100 in 1974, I was mad on this over Xmas/New Year 1968/1969, loved the soulful song, and an actual British band, British songwriters (including Mike D'Abo, then-lead-singer of Manfred Mann, who knocked this one off the top of my charts with Fox On The Run). By 1977, my Uni room-mate was forced to listen to my latest 12" vinyl EP single of this and ventured the opinion that it sounded a bit old-fashioned, at 9 years old. Which it did. It was pure 60's popsoul. Then it got stuck in a 90's movie, There's Something About Mary (which I've still never seen) and became a minor hit again, and also became a party classic all over again after having been forgotten about for 20 years. It's still famous, and deservedly so, and I was right when I was 10 to love it, and I'm still right to love it (along with millions of others). Period charm, great song, sung beautifully by Colin Young on vocals.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 18th April 2021, 09:45 AM

95. HEY PAULA - Paul & Paula (1963)



A 60's record that sounds mid-50's teen appeal slushy pop, I've always had a soft spot for this mostly one-off. No, not the local heathland bog. It's a nice tune, it's twee, period-charm, even if the period was about 8 years earlier than 1963. By 1965 it was all over, "Paul" went off to College, and "Paula" eventually got married and gave up singing. Not their real names, of course, but once in a while they've got back together for an oldies show. That this track never crops up on "greatest hits of the 60's" lists, despite topping the US charts, nor been covered successfully, or re-issued, means I can put this in the "it was popular once but not so much long-term" camp.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 18th April 2021, 09:56 AM

94. IT'S OVER - Roy Orbison (1964)



Now this is moving things up a league! Roy may be the greatest singer in pop, the man had a magnificent range and a talent for writing heart-wrenching ballads that climbed to major climax. None more-so than "It's Over", which topped the UK charts in 1964, smack-dab in the middle off Beatlemania and the UK invasion of the US. The UK always adored The Big "O", as did musicians influenced by him - look to his supergroup membership Traveling Wilburys or his 1989 posthumous big album comeback with songs donated by the likes of Bono. A major timeless talent, and still popular among those of a certain age (40+). The song probably isn't his most-popular these days, and it wasn't then either (more to come), but it's right up there in my opinion. It's a brave act who covers a Roy Orbison song, but Morrissey and LP recently topped my personal charts in 2019 with their version - Mozza can sing shocker!

Posted by: Popchartfreak 19th April 2021, 06:40 PM

93. LITTLE CHILDREN - Billy J. Kramer & The Dakotas (1964)



Merseybeat star, Beatles-linked, Billy J. Kramer was a huge fave of mine aged 6, and I loved this record - as did, apparently, lots of other people, as the big number one from 1964 was still popular a decade later. Not that I would have voted it my all-time fave in 1974, but I certainly loved it nostalgically, and it was a pretty tune, but it was very-much sounding of it's time a decade on. Sadly, largely forgotten in the History of Rock these days, but Billy & the gang had a pretty good run for a couple of years, not least helped by a couple of gifted Lennon/McCartney tunes - it didn't hurt sharing the same manager and producer with The Beatles! Little Children, wasn't a Beatles track, but is still quite endearingly old-fashioned with it's social observation of a dating couple being pestered in the living room by kids so they can't get a little bit cuddly. As I like co-incidences, I lived in Chesham when this was huge, a London suburb to all intents and purposes (being on the London underground) when London was swinging the pop world and the George Martin stable of acts were recording at Abbey Road/ We moved to Liverpool a year or so later, where Merseybeat was still a big thing and Billy came from Bootle which was next to Waterloo (the area we lived in), and then we ended up in the Bournemouth area - where Billy J. Kramer ended up around the same time - in the mid 80's. Funny ol' world.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 19th April 2021, 06:50 PM

92. MAGGIE MAY - Rod Stewart (1971)



The second-most-recent recording on the countdown, Rod The Mod's big breakthrough came as I was settling into being back at RAF Swinderby, across the road from the house we left to go to Singapore just over 2 years earlier. The UK music scene was alive and exciting, and this was climbing the charts on it's way to a long run on top - and I wasn't really a fan! So many other great records around, it wasn't even amongst my top 20 faves. By 1976, when it was a hit again, I realised the error of my ways and loved this mandolin folkrockish tale of getting it off with an older woman. Rod had a unique writing style, and talent, that he spent a lot of his career ignoring in favour of bland covers. These days, Sailing would likely be the one sneaking into a top 100 songs of the 70's, for example, but that would be wrong. Maggie May is a classic record and is the second track so far likely to be still rated enough to make a popularity poll 50 years on of that era. Sadly the fab Top Of The Pops version of Rod singing this with legendary DJ John Peel on drums isn't available because it's not making the record company any dosh, so this is the best Rod will let you have.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 19th April 2021, 07:04 PM

91. (THEY LONG TO BE) CLOSE TO YOU - Carpenters (1970)



The Carpenters' Greatest Hits collection was huge in early 1974 in the UK, so that no doubt helped this debut classic Easy Listening Bacharach/David cover make the top 100, but to be fair, time has been very kind to Richard & especially tragic Karen Carpenter and their lush gems. Karen had the voice of an angel, warm and gorgeous, but always sad, perhaps due to her general insecurity and unhappiness with being in the spotlight, and subsequent anorexia. This is still a very great recording, still popular, and it's still not even the best, or saddest, or optimistic of their hits: Those would be Goodbye To Love, Superstar & We've Only Just Begun, respectively. I loved it in 1970, I love it now, and I never gave a flying fig that the Rock critics looked down their collective noses at their records at the time, because being trendy is no guide to lasting immortality. Being dead for nearly 40 years, and still popular, is a better guide to quality.

Posted by: fiesta 20th April 2021, 11:40 AM

Interesting countdown. Songs by The Carpenters and The Foundations definitely the stand out songs so far. If it's like alot of these polls the more recent tracks at the time will be higher up, even if in hindsight years later they weren't quite as deserving of a high chart placing
.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 21st April 2021, 04:11 PM

Yes, you're right, apart from, cough, Elvis there's not a lot from the 50's and it's mostly 60's and 1970/71. I am fascinated by how tastes change though, over the years, like how an obscure ballad from the early 80's is now regarded as an anthem (Don't Stop Believin')

There's one hugely oddly high track that isn't that well-known by anyone, either then or today, so I'm guessing a fan club mass mailing to fix the chart, and one big US hit/UK flop that qualified as old enough for a hugely popular teen band in 1974. As I've clearly only heard the former once in my life 47 years ago, that's going to be interesting to revisit as I have no memory of it whatsoever.....

Posted by: Popchartfreak 30th April 2021, 01:02 PM

90. ELOISE - Barry Ryan (1968)



So here's an all-time fave of mine, topped my charts as a ten-year-old, cos it was (and is) EPIC. It starts off pretty big, and 5 minutes it's in the territory of sweeping orchestral choir-filled thumping frantic passionate ballad hysteria. I mean, when I say "hysteria" I mean actual vocal hysteria. No-one has ever approached Barry Ryan's climactic 30 seconds on record that I've heard. The 60's was a time of the sweeping epic cinematic ballad, a format that seems to have largely died out in recent decades give or take the odd McAlmont-Butler, Pet Shop Boys or Trevor Horn production, but Eloise ranks among the very best of the genre, and the teen idol Barry Ryan (his twin brother Paul now doing only songwriting and production) had a run of 4 years of great (minor) hit-singles, and one monster: this one. It was still admired in 1974, and was still admired in 1986 when punk band The Damned put their own spin on it for another top 3 smash - Barry hit 2 in the charts. A decent version, but is it EPIC? Nah. THIS is how you do "Epic"....

Posted by: Popchartfreak 30th April 2021, 01:15 PM

89. RETURN TO SENDER - Elvis Presley (1962)



The first big Elvis hit on the countdown pulls in at 89, fresh from the Girls! Girls! Girls! film, The King being quite the cheesy movie star by this time, bunging out hit film after hit film for a good 12 or 13 years, 2 a year. Basically the extended videos of their era, then. Most of the films were rubbish, but I can tolerate nostalgic efforts like Fun In Acapulco and Speedway, which had Nancy Sinatra doing a duet. An actual duet with Elvis. Sort of. Unheard of! Return To Sender? S'OK. Easy to sing, short n sweet middle of the road pop, not Elvis at his best though, not Pop Elvis, not Ballad Elvis, not Gospel Elvis and not Rock'n'Roll Elvis. It is, however, better than Vegas-Elvis. I think it remained popular as it has a certain quaint charm in the lyrics, but there is much better to come, and plenty of better Elvis tracks that aren't on the list.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 30th April 2021, 01:32 PM

88. THE SUN AIN'T GONNA SHINE ANYMORE - The Walker Brothers (1966)



Talking of Eloise, here's another 60's Epic sweeping production from the USA's Walker Brothers, the trio were not brothers, nor named Walker, and were huge in the UK, but not the USA - Scott Walker, though, was the main man and as solo artist moved to the UK/France/Europe music scene and became a cult with Jacques-Brel-inspired solo epic productions like Jackie, which was banned at the time on radio and is more or less banned these days too, but for different reasons. Stupid reasons, but there you go. This Four Seasons cover is an example of taking a decent sad pop record, and transforming into a heart-wrenching, End Of The World-feeling break-up song. When I'm stressed to the nth and needing emotional release, this has been one of a handful of Go-To records for me for the best part of 35 years now. It drips emotion, a guaranteed 3-minute goosebump-fest that has me in tears if I attempt to singalong. Genius. Cher had a go, now there's a woman who can wring emotion out of a song when she tries, but it doesn't even come close. No other version does. Totally deserving of a place in any All-Time Top 100, then and now.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 30th April 2021, 01:42 PM

87. THE TWELFTH OF NEVER - Cliff Richard (1964)



Just as Elvis was going down an MOR pop route in the early 60's so too his UK rival, Clifford of Richard, not yet a Knight of the Order of the Garter. Listen to this and ponder demanding that knighthood and OBE back! What a pile of cack. So what was this mushy pedestrian cover of a lush Johnny Mathis song doing in the rundown? Well, Cliff and Elvis fans were very clearly out in force (the vast majority women in their 20's and 30's) but that still doesn't explain why this track was in and others were out. No Move It. No Summer Holiday. No The Next Time. No The Day I Met Marie. All vastly better records from his back catalogue. The answer is fairly easy: Donny Osmond. Donny had hit the top spot with his not-quite-so-rubbish cover of the song mere months before, so I'm guessing that some Donny fans voted for the song (but forgot to the write the artist name down) and some Cliff fans were pissed off at Donny's version and voted for it out of support for the bachelor boy.

Posted by: common sense 30th April 2021, 05:31 PM

I like both It's Over and Only The Lonely better than his most famous song and other No.1 that's overplayed, Oh Pretty Woman.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 1st May 2021, 08:42 AM

Yes I agree (though I loved Pretty Woman most of all as a kid) - so don't be too shocked that Roy will be back, given the popularity of Pretty Woman

Posted by: steve201 1st May 2021, 03:54 PM

I’m only really catching up with this thread but it is a fascinating read and interesting to see the big songs people loved in the mid point of rock and roll/pop history before punk and new wave.

Love songs like ‘Apache’ which of course I know but didn’t realise it was a Shadows songs so fair dues to them. Other great songs include The Walker Brothers, the Big O, The Carpenters and Rod Stewart (def think this is his most well known and played hit these days for the record)!

These things always make me wonder what music did people listen to before ‘Rock Around The Clock’ and was their actually big hits everyone knew 😅. Or am I being arrogant and of my time as of history only started with the top 40?!

Posted by: Popchartfreak 1st May 2021, 06:47 PM

Thanks Steve, I also find it fascinating - I was intrigued by it at the time, and it has a sort of historical interest in just how much time passing affects some tracks popularity. A poll of the same period now would be very very different, and given a wider age range of voters than then it would highlight those that have passed the test of time as great recordings in their own right, as opposed to those that were popular because the act was popular with a large group of loyal fans.

Rock n roll was a major dividing line in popular music - the fans of music on either side of it tended not to listen to the other side, except those that were kids in the 40's and early 50's and hit their teens as rocknroll exploded, like my parents who loved pre rock stuff too, in their case Country music especially, but big bands and singers from films like Sinatra, Louis Armstrong, Glen Miller were widely known, Blues & jazz to a lesser extent, but their were always huge new songs coming up - some are still known, like Irving Berlin, Cole Porter wrote many a standard you will know but not necessarily know you know. My grandma's partner had a notebook of songs he used to write down in the 30's and 40's, most of which I'd never heard of when I was young cos they weren't played on radio 1, but we did get exposed to them on shows like Morecambe & Wise, The Good Old Days.

I think the changing taste of popular music can be drawn between the most-recorded song of the 20th century vs the one that replaced it. Hoagy Carmichael's Stardust was hugely popular and famous, in films, radio, and countless versions, yet by the time my generation came along, who grew up in the 60's, it was as dead as a dodo and I doubt I've heard it more than 2 or 3 times in my life. That type of bland sentimentality of lyric just didn't wash with the post rock generation. Buy Yesterday did, and still does.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 1st May 2021, 07:01 PM

86. (TO BE) YOUNG, GIFTED AND BLACK - Bob Marcia (1970)



Reggae! This Nina Simone minor US hit from 1969 got the reggae cover treatment in 1970 from Bob & Marcia, which was a burgeoning list of success for Jamaican acts (and others) re-inventing soul & blues songs in the fresh new ska and reggae format which had burst out big a year or two earlier in the UK, and to a lesser extent the USA, not least thanks to the Windrush generation. This was a big UK hit, and the central message of black pride struck a note with everyone who liked reggae and/or supported the sentiment. That wasn't me in 1970, due to being out the country, but by 1974 I'd heard it and loved it, and it was a huge hit in my charts shortly after this poll as it was reissued and almost made the charts again. It's a great song, and a great performance. The music industry paid close attention to this poll, as will become very very clear as we go through the list and see how many of the higher-placed tracks became hits all over again in 1974/75 and beyond.

Posted by: steve201 2nd May 2021, 12:21 AM

Yeh I find football chants come from older melodies for some reason. That’s always a good start.

Music also seemed to be intrinsically linked to cinema and movies back then in a way it wasn’t so much post-Beatles!

Posted by: Popchartfreak 3rd May 2021, 03:43 PM

85. JAILHOUSE ROCK - Elvis Presley (1957)



Well, if any Elvis track deserves to be on the countdown it's this one, The King at his most rocking-est, taken from an early movie that wasn't just conveyor-belt romantic-fluff pap, and so good it topped the UK charts again in the next century. So, no complaints, just the question why it's so low given the general Elvis invasion of this list - this is the 2nd of 10 tracks, and the 2nd-most deserving of the 10. It's short, punchy, and famous, and at 17 years-old one of the oldest tracks on the list. If anything, it makes it look like male fans of 50's rock weren't voting in such numbers, so I can only assume they were either listening to Terry Wogan & Jimmy Young on Radio 2, or they were too busy at work to know about the poll. As a teen I had plenty of time to catch the radio (or today it would be streaming as well) and traditionally housewives would also have had more time for polls and stuff.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 3rd May 2021, 03:53 PM

84. RIDE A WHITE SWAN - T.Rex (1970)



Well, this one swooped into like a game-changer in late 1970, as it set up Glam Rock as the next phase in UK pop, and as usual the bloody BBc wiped everything from the era, so no Top Of The Pops clip, or anything else from anywhere else of that period of the great Marc Bolan pouting like a hippie elf en route from acoustic Donavon to the Primary electric guitar pop star of the day. This track was the big T.Rex breakthrough and even charted in the USA albeit a minor hit, and was a perky crossover between the bongo-strumming Tyrannosaurus Rex, beloved of hippie DJ & mate John Peel, and out and out pop star, not beloved of John Peel who tended to look down on pop, like most musos of the time. Quite why this (great) track is on the list, and bigger, classic hits Hot Love, Get It On and Jeepster aren't, is a mystery. I can only guess T.Rex fans were splitting votes over 6 or 7 tracks, and not listening to the rules by voting for hits from 1972 and 1973! Hey ho!

Posted by: common sense 3rd May 2021, 03:56 PM

Have you heard his very last album Mystery Girl? If not then why not, as it's brilliant. No duff tracks at all. My fave is California Blue but it's just a solid great album.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 3rd May 2021, 04:12 PM

83. RUNAWAY - Del Shannon (1961)



At the top end of the US Teen Idol post-rock'n'roll invasion, Del Shannon had his hits using his band member's trademark clavioline electric keyboard "fairground" sound, and were generally uptempo angst-ridden tales of lost love, Runaway being the biggest and best of all of them, and a genuine Hall Of Fame classic. It was great then, it's still great now, though less-well-known - Kasabian gave a good old go at a live cover on Dermot O'Leary's show in 2011, but it's yet to get a prime movie spot or the like to give it a new generational boost. Del was pretty popular in the UK with hard-core fans voting an obscure track that was never an A side and had been entirely forgotten about by 1974, never mind 2021, much higher in the list, just to smash any credibility of genuine overall popularity. Fan clubs, eh, tch! He was probably on tour or something.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 3rd May 2021, 04:15 PM

Oh I agree entirely, it's a brilliant album, I bought it at the time, it was Roy's parting gift to us all, really, aided and abetted by Jeff Lynne and other celebrity pals...

Posted by: Popchartfreak 3rd May 2021, 04:28 PM

82. LOVE GROWS (WHERE MY ROSEMARY GOES) - Edison Lighthouse (1970)



A tropical Singapore pop smash for me, where I was living at the time it was a hit, in the housing suburbs a few miles from RAF Changi, so in my mind it's multi-coloured, lush nostalgia and a fab UK pop song that rattles along beautifully, written by hit songwriters Tony Macauley (see Build Me Up Buttercup) and Barry Mason (more to come on him) and sung by Ultimate Studio vocalist Tony Burrows who featured in the UK charts under many guises from 1967 through 1974 (many of them simultaneously, 3 in the case of early 1970 when this topped), but this was his biggest. I'm peeved the TOTP clip is in black & white, but at least someone rescued that episode on videotape. I'd also rate his other tracks, The Flowerpot Men's Beach-Boys-ish Let's Go To San Fransisco, and 1974's Beach Baby under the band name First Class. Still quite popular, and a genuinely good inclusion, though I'd doubt it would make a top 100 of the era these days.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 3rd May 2021, 04:36 PM

81. JULIETTE - The Four Pennies (1964)



Harking back to an earlier musical period in style, Juliette was a sweet tune, and one I loved as a 6-year-old-Doctor-Who-and-Pop-music-obsessed kiddie living in Chesham, about as far from London on the London Underground as you could get. Even as late as 1974 this old-fashioned sentimental harmony tune was still giving me waves of nostalgia and joy - and apparently lots of other people too - though it's bizarre being 16 and getting all nostalgic for stuff from 10 years before, that very much did sound very old-fashioned by then. I'm still fond of it, a bit, but let's be honest, these largely one-hit wonders have been forgotten in the 21st century, and there is no way it would make a top 500 Best Of The 60's in any poll these days, let alone top 100 of 1954 to 1972.

Posted by: steve201 5th May 2021, 06:44 PM

Absolutely love that Del Shannon track, def heard it before but sounds great now!

Love ‘Ride A White Swan’ less obvious compared to their bigger hits but class all the same. The ‘Love Grows’ track sounds more early 60s than 1970, sounds decent though.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 6th May 2021, 07:14 AM

Oddly, since I wrote that I heard Runaway as a back-drop to a scene on a prime Netflix show the other day - Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, based on the Douglas Adams books, episode 1 series 2. So it is still cropping up in modern media, yay!

I adore Ride A White Swan, always have - my T.Rex fandom will become obvious if I ever get round to finishing off my Top 800 chart (it's now top 900 since I started an extra 100 have entered the chart )

Posted by: Popchartfreak 11th May 2021, 01:49 PM

80. IT'S NOW OR NEVER - Elvis Presley (1960)



It's The Pelvis again, three tracks already in the rundown, this time his mega-ballad adapted from the Italian O Sole Mio song, and very Italian-sounding it is too, dramatic and semi-operatic. Elvis does a decent job, though it's no Jailhouse Rock or Heartbreak Hotel, and it's his biggest international hit selling over 20 million copies, including achieving the feat of entering the UK charts at Number One after building up demand on a late release. Still pretty-well-known, and beloved of Elvis impersonators across the globe (still an ongoing industry) I think the main surprise here is that isn't higher on the rundown - especially considering what's to come from Elvis, given 10% of the chart is comprised of Elvis hits. The ups and downs of popularity of individual tracks is fascinating...

Posted by: Popchartfreak 11th May 2021, 02:17 PM

79. HELP! - The Beatles (1965)



Incredibly one of only 2 Beatles tracks on the rundown, Help! was hugely famous and popular, not least helped by the movie of the same name which I remember seeing at the cinema and for the first time in my life having the Fab Four in glorious technicolour. UK TV (2 channels) was black and white until the late 60's so this is how we all saw our pop stars - black and white. You had to go the pictures to see the biggest pop stars, and the biggest were Elvis, then Cliff, then The Beatles, in terms of hit movies. John wrote the song at a time when their songs were getting more sophisticated, and he was starting to use his own emotional and mental state as subject matter (in this case the pressures of massive global success). Despite the lack of global media, in comparison to today, The Beatles WERE the 60's in terms of pop culture and musical creativity, and massive popularity to the extent that they had the entire US top 5 - in the days before album tracks qualified to invade actual singles charts. They had around 10 or 12 in the US Hot 100, and in an alternate universe where streaming was a thing in 1964/65 they would have 100% certainly have charted every track on all their albums and EP's to boot (2 a year of each, bare minimum) and a lot of them for more than a quick curiosity-driven in-and-out from playlists. Just to put it in historical perspective...

So how did we only get 2 Beatles tracks when Elvis has 10? Partly, Elvis had a nearly-20-year-group of potential voters, partly latterday Beatles fans appealed to both sexes where voters likely were majority female, and partly The Beatles had so many classic tracks that the votes might have been spread more thinly over a lot of tracks with the result that 10 or 20 of them might have just fallen short of the final. Certainly, by 1976, a mere two years later, and despite huge-selling Red & Blue double-albums (which were selling well during the voting period), The Beatles biggest singles were one still to come on the rundown, Yesterday (the most-recorded-song of the 20th century), Get Back, Paperback Writer (due to it's use as a TV arts show theme), Help! and Strawberry Fields, as all made the UK top 50 charts that year when all Beatles singles were re-issued. The rest all peaked outside the top 50, but not that far outside. Elvis also had the same re-issue "boxed sets on record shop counters" advantage The Beatles reissues had had, but none of them charted until Elvis took the career-boosting decision to die suddenly and morph into a legend rather than struggle on as the Las Vegas mess he'd actually become.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 11th May 2021, 03:19 PM

78. BOBBY'S GIRL - Susan Maughan (1963)



Know this one? Thought not. It's kind of been forgotten about, along with Susan Maughan, but for a couple of years she was pretty big in terms of TV appearances in the UK, and this cover smash hit was a huge fave of 5-year-old little John. More, it was my earliest pop record obsession (excluding kiddie novelty tracks). I was mad on it, and remained fond of it through to 1974, so I'm guessing a lot of teens my age or a bit older still felt motivated to vote for it. Not me - there were other more recent tracks I loved more by then, and other vintage records I loved way more, but y'know, you never forget your first love. The song had been a US hit for Marcie Blaine in 1962, but where Susan Maughan's version was a total full-on belter of a vocal and orchestral arrangement (Bobby better not turn her down!) Marcie's is schoolgirly and soppy, and clearly she still is a kid, despite the lyrics saying she isn't. Susan was all woman! Fairly obviously, a product of the time, and the submissive girlie doesn't work these days, not least aided and abetted by comedian Tracey Ullman covering it in 1983, her pop career being more a fun retro-nostalgia trip with more than a bit of mickey-taking in it.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 11th May 2021, 03:28 PM

77. FROM A JACK TO A KING - Ned Miller (1957)



Well, I can vouch this was popular amongst mums and dads in their mid-30's, as my parents really liked this, along with the vast majority of 50's country hits which they'd grown-up with in their teen years and early 20's. As I wasn't born, and it was never amongst my parents' record-collection I remain unmoved by it. I knew it a bit, and always regarded it as hopefully old-fashioned, while aware people of a certain age were fans. I was mystified though, why it got voted into the best 100, still am, when there are so many more better records from that era that could have qualified: anything (absolutely anything!) by Buddy Holly for a start, who is also entirely absent from the list, despite It Doesn't Matter Anymore being still-great in 1974. Ah well, this has been forgotten these days, along with Country Music reluctant-star Ned Miller, and Buddy Holly hasn't.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 11th May 2021, 03:41 PM

76. ALL RIGHT NOW - Free (1970)



One of those Rock monsters that has, to a certain extent, passed me by. I mean, I like it, I've always liked since I first became aware of it in 1973 when it made the charts again after peaking at 2 in 1970 while I lived in Singapore blissfully unaware that a throbbing driving rock classic was a thing in the UK charts. It's just that, after being a hit again in 1978, and again in the 80's, and again remixed in the 90's, and never since being off oldies radio I'm, errr, sick of hearing it and have been for at least 20 years. So, yes it was a biggie, and would have been fresh in voters minds who could vote for a current-ish hit and get by the 2-years-old rule, and yes it's recognised as a classic, but I'll take either Little Bit Of Love (my first introduction to Free) or the sublime Wishing Well which pisses all over this but isn;t well-known at all. There may also have been a bit of "awww!" voting going on as Free had just split-up and Paul Rodgers (future Freddie Mercury Queen vocalist stand-in) had just started with Bad Company who's Can't Get Enough debut single was a plodding copy of this much better song.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 11th May 2021, 03:59 PM

75. WOODSTOCK - Matthews Southern Comfort (1970)



Talking of 1970 biggies, here's a hippie classic that isn't as remembered these days as Free's rock classic is - Ex-Fairport Convention member Iain Matthews filled the description "one-hit wonder" pretty much with this soft-rock version of the Joni Mitchell song about the legendary hippie rock festival Woodstock - not that she was there, she saw it on TV - and which Crosby, Stills & Nash had covered and grabbed a US hit out of. Neither version made the UK charts, but this softer, slower, sweet harmony version went all the way to the top of the charts, and is much more polished (some would say more commercial, but I think it brings out the qualities of the song better). This was an oldie I also didn't know at the time, but by 1974 had caught it a few times and was very much a fan of (I bought it as an oldie). Ian Matthews did more than just this (for example he had a US hit with 1979's fab Shake It), and has been prolific within the music industry for 50+ years right up to 2020 and his most-recent digital single, so I'm glad he's on the list cos I don't think he'd make a similar list these days, too many other acts have stood the test of time better than a one-hit-wonder could compete with.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 11th May 2021, 04:56 PM

74. MR. TAMBOURINE MAN - The Byrds (1965)



Bob Dylan is another 60's giant who doesn't appear in the rundown. Granted, he never had what you call a massive commercial hit, the nearest he came was the still-iconic Like A Rolling Stone which would appear close to the top 10 of any critically-acclaimed list of Greatest 60's list, and probably much lower down a popular hits of the 60's list these days. The Byrds, like many a 60's act, covered Dylan songs, and this chart-topping electric riff treatment of it was pretty influential in records of the mid-60's and beyond, including the Beatles (folk pop as a sub-genre of folk, and Roger McGuinn's 12-string rickenbacker sparking sales in the guitar). David Crosby moved on to Crosby, Stills & Nash in 1967, and everyone else also left until only Roger McGuinn remained, but they hadn't finished in the influence department - the psychedelic Eight Miles High is probably my fave from their back-catalogue, though this one is still a perennial radio staple. So, one of those Critically-acclaimed tracks, influential tracks, that is also still popular and almost as well-known as it was way back when. Cos it's still great and hasn't dated in the same way that a lot of the stuff on this list from the early 60's have.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 11th May 2021, 05:10 PM

73. THE WONDER OF YOU - Elvis Presley (1970)



It's that man again! This was Elvis first UK chart-topper in 5 years, and was essentially an introduction to younger Las Vegas Elvis, as entertainer covering a standard oldie, his new business model, which worked beautifully at first, before becoming a huge albatross round his neck, from a quality threshold point of view. Now I loved this at the time, topped my charts, loved Elvis (my 2nd-ever vinyl single purchase was In The Ghetto, Elvis as social-commentary in 1969, as he reached a creative high on several singles that he'd not been on for quite some time), mum is still a massive fan - she has advanced dementia but put on Elvis and she's up and dancing, or crying right away. This one would bring her tears, as a power ballad. So, yes, we all loved this one back in 1974 even if his current singles were pretty crappy by that point. Would it make the hypothetical 2021 list? No. It's still rousing, but it's also a bit cheesy, and cheesy has to be singalong fun. Sweet Caroline, f'rinstance. Everyone loves Sweet Caroline, it sells on itunes every week in 2021, pops in and out of the weekly sales charts (and does pretty well on streaming to boot) and EVERYONE knows it. Sweet Caroline is not on this list, nor are any other Neil Diamond tracks or songs.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 11th May 2021, 05:28 PM

72. SOMETHING IN THE AIR - Thunderclap Newman (1969)



One of my all-time favourite records, the third single I ever bought (in Singapore), and a massive "time for change" message that mirrored fractured society at the time, with war, social movements aplenty, and injustice rife throughout the world. So you'd think that this rockballad anthem might still be relevant in 2021. Apparently not, it hasn't remained as popular as it once was by any stretch of the imagination, despite occasional covers and media spots - yet to me it's as fresh and moving and powerful as it was the day Pete Townsend produced it to grab the UK top spot that had been denied The Who. The Who are also not on the rundown. No My Generation. No I Can See For Miles. No Pinball Wizard. Boys records you see, for the most part, who weren't prepared to spend the price of a stamp for some radio poll. Not when there were actual records or ciggies or a pint you could buy instead. Hey ho. Anyway, I would easily have placed this inside my own top 30 All-Time in 1974, and I still don't see me excluding it from a top 100 as it means too much to me not to. Thunderclap Newman never had another hit, though writer & singer Speedy Keen did give it a go for a few years solo, and guitarist Jimmy McCulloch ended up in Paul McCartney's Wings before dying of a heroine overdose in 1979, and all 3 members are now sadly gone.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 12th May 2021, 05:15 PM

71. SILENCE IS GOLDEN - The Tremeloes (1967)



Time for the Summer Of Love, 1967, everything hippie, Sgt. Pepper, All You Need Is Love and all that. Just kidding, it's this harmony pop song that was once very popular, but not so much these days: Silence Is Golden by The Trems. The one-time hitmaking rocking Brian Poole & The Tremeloes had split into two acts, with the backing band ending up with the hits, mostly jolly pop songs that kids and older folk could enjoy. I admit I loved this one, and The Tremeloes, but time has been less kind to the boys - better known for having Chesney Hawkes dad in the band these days. Silence Is Golden is a cover of a Four Seasons song - the US group were writing hit after hit throughout the 60's and into the 70's - but it wasn't until 2 years after this countdown that they got their own number one, by which time there had been yet another cover chart-topper from the then-popular Bay City Rollers, who were mercifully not eligible to be voted for, bar one track. The Four Seasons, sadly, with dozens of famous songs are not on the list, not even with the cracking number 2 hit Rag Doll. Unlike The Trems, The Four Seasons have stood the test of time - Jersey Boys, a musical based on their chaotic life story (The mafia! Bankruptcy!) ran for years and years and spun-off a movie directed by Clint Eastwood. The Trems have spun-off The One And Only (and mostly that's Nik Kershaw anyway). Me, I'll happily put on Me And My Life, Call Me (Number One) or their hit version of Cat Stevens Here Comes My Baby, any of which would have been better choices than this one, though admittedly they were never as popular as Silence Is Golden. I did catch them in the 80's, though, in a concert which might best be described as a "bit cabaret".

Posted by: King Rollo 16th May 2021, 06:26 PM

This is a great read. My favourites so far : Build Me Up Buttercup, The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore, Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes) and Something In The Air. I don't have a clue what topped this chart. I would guess at Hey Jude but as you've told us that there are only two Beatles songs and we've had one already, that seems unlikely so I'm going to predict it's Bridge Over Troubled Water.

Posted by: steve201 17th May 2021, 07:33 PM

‘Something in the Air’ is a great track, another song I know and have heard so many times and yet couldn’t have named the group!

Posted by: Popchartfreak 18th May 2021, 07:21 AM

Thanks Rollo Your reasoning is sound, and your hunches are in the right ballpark, but the top 2 will surprise anyone who hasn't had a look at the UK charts of 1974 and 1975 - they were reissued as a result of the poll and became big hits again...

Posted by: Popchartfreak 18th May 2021, 07:23 AM

Certainly one of my all-time faves to this day! When I get back to my top 800, expect it to be fairly high on the list as it's had ooh 3 chart runs in my charts

Posted by: Popchartfreak 2nd June 2021, 04:52 PM

70. REACH OUT I'LL BE THERE - The Four Tops (1966)



It's a genuine classic at 70, as The Four Tops most famous record, a 1966 chart-topper, and timeless wonder, Reach Out I'll Be There drops in, if anything, a bit too low. It's unthinkable this wouldn't make the top 100 tracks of that era. Levi Stubb's lead vocal is stunning, he had one of the all-time great voices in music, ever, and it was my great pleasure to catch the original line-up who were around in the 50's and still having hits into the early 90's. Oddly, though I liked this record at the time of this poll, it took Gloria Gaynor's banging disco cover the following year to make me notice just how incredible the Holland-Dozier-Holland song is, and how great the songwriter/producers were. I already knew how great The Four Tops were, and Motown, as I'd just had 3 of their tracks top my charts in 1971 (Simple Game), and 1972 (Bernadette reactivated and Keeper Of The Castle). Thing is, Bernadette is even better, and Simple Game is first-rate epic drama. Sadly, not on the list though so this'll have to do as the sole pick from their great back catalogue. Can't grumble about this choice though.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 2nd June 2021, 05:02 PM

69. OH PRETTY WOMAN - Roy Orbison (1964)



The video that was linked before it got taken down is pretty representative of what I was watching and loving as a 6-year-old boy heavily into pop music of the day - black and white and Roy with dark glasses crooning effortlessly. Mum and dad adored Roy, and so did me and my little brother. We all still do. Cos he's timeless. This was Roy's most-popular singalong track, unquestionably, and again, as with The Four Tops, if anything it's surprisingly low-down the list. I'm not so sure it would make a top 100 these days, as Roy's tortured ballads have weathered better, but it's still stompingly good. If I were to have a personal choice, I'd go for It's Over (see 94) or In Dreams, or Runnin' Scared, or Crying, or Only The Lonely or...but hey at least he got 2 tracks on the rundown which is more than some greats can claim. No Like A Rolling Stone, f'r'instance, so lower those expectations Dylan fans. Yes, I know, how can you have a top 100 without that one? Cos the voters didn't vote for Dylan when they could vote instead for some jaw-dropping pap still to come!

Posted by: mick745 4th June 2021, 10:34 AM

Was this a broadcast show(s) on Radio 1 and if so are any recordings still available?

Posted by: Popchartfreak 5th June 2021, 08:49 AM

Hi Mick,

Yes it was broadcast over a day or a few days I think, I had to tune in to write them down in the back of my "1974 UK Top 30" notepad. I wrote down charts avidly, including my own. I'm not aware anyone would have bothered to record it as it was so spread out, so unless the BBC have a copy (which I doubt given their habits of deleting everything from the 60's and early 70's) I'd be surprised if it was available anywhere. I've not even been able to find a basic list of it anywhere, which is why I decided to post it for posterity. I've got some more from later years which I might get round to if they aren't already online

Posted by: mick745 5th June 2021, 01:04 PM

I for one am interested in any old miscellaneous chart countdowns, i did post the 1987 Radio 1 anniversary charts a while ago, again i hadnt been able to find them on line anywhere.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 5th June 2021, 02:27 PM

okey-doke I'll keep them coming I find the changing face of what's popular fascinating, what can be out of fashion one year is back in vogue 10 years later, and acts who never had success during their lifetime becoming cool and known, or vice versa, famous becoming obscure with time....

I'll do a top 100 rundown chart at the end so it can be cut n pasted anywhere, I'd like it to get a minor little reference in popular music voting history

Posted by: Popchartfreak 5th June 2021, 02:43 PM

68. I CAN'T STOP LOVING YOU - Ray Charles (1962)



Probably not as well known these days as it was back in the day, this track was almost genre-inventing as the wonderful Ray Charles moved away from jazz/blues and cut a classy strings-laden album of Country & Western songs (Don Gibson wrote this one), and the result: lush Soul. And it was a huge hit, topping the UK chart. I don't remember not knowing this song, it's always been there for me, and as both my parents loved Ray (dad bought his Hit The Road Jack EP in the 60's) I kept on the family tradition with his more contemporary post-70's stuff when he got cool again. Is it his best record? It's up there for sure, but I might opt for Come Rain Or Shine or Georgia On My Mind these days, they are achingly brilliant recordings. Timeless.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 5th June 2021, 03:21 PM

67. THE GREEN GREEN GRASS OF HOME - Tom Jones (1966)



Easy-listening classic Green Green Grass Of Home was Tom's 2nd UK-chart-topper in late '66, and like Ray Charles' it's a cover of a country song from 1965 - Porter Waggoner had the hit, he of Dolly Parton's singing-partner fame - and like so many songs of the era (and in this countdown) it's a story-song dealing with death, in this case a man on death-row about to be executed. The lyrics belie the truth until half-way through, so it's kind of an "oh!" moment to what seems a gentle appreciation of the simple things in life - as opposed to being buried underneath them. Tom is, of course, a living legend, and oh what a voice. He's been in and out of fashion throughout his career, and has had a go at many genres, constantly re-inventing himself for the times. This song was a warning sign of things to come: Showbiz Las Vegas Tom was on the way, so that was his record charting career over for more than a decade from the mid-70's to the mid-80's. That said, I loved this song as a kid, and it was hugely popular in that era - but it hasn't weathered anywhere near as well as the UK chart-topper that kicked his career off, It's Not Unusual being so good it hit again in the 80's. Yet it's not in this chart. Nor is the much-better murder-song Delilah, that one had real oomph to it. So, instead, lay back, listen to this, and be grateful it's not Elvis Presley's later cover of it - where Tom's more-restrained vocals stayed the right-side of tasteful, Elvis was full-on cheese. An exercise in how to murder a murder ballad.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 5th June 2021, 03:35 PM

66. CONGRATULATIONS - Cliff Richard (1968)



When is a Eurovision Song Contest Winner not a winner? When the judges allegedly get nobbled by General Franco of Spain, who pipped Cliff to the post with a song called La La La and which wasn't the huge hit across Europe and beyond that this little catchy ditty had already become by the time of the contest. Cliff was globally famous and it seemed a shoe-in. Instead it's the second-most famous Eurovision song not to win (after Volare). Gotta be honest, it wasn't my fave Cliff track by 1968, and certainly not by 1974 - I preferred his 1973 Eurovision attempt Power To All Our Friends, which people couldn't vote for in this rundown, and back in 1968 I'd have gone for Summer Holiday or Bachelor Boy in the jaunty-Cliff stakes, or The Day I Met Marie in the actually-much-better stakes. He wasn't cool in 1974 (his cool rebirth was still 5 years away) but his fan-vlub has never cared about being cool, so it's the 2nd of 4 on the rundown. It's a bit of condemnation of his fan club that this is the second-best of the bunch! All the great Cliff hits they could have voted for and they went for obvious twee! Ah well.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 5th June 2021, 03:50 PM

65. BABY LOVE - The Supremes (1964)



The track that put The Supremes, Motown, and Holland-Dozier-Holland (songwriter-producers) onto the world stage, 3 giants of the 60's, and still timeless greats all three. The Supremes, or "Diana Ross & The Supremes" as they later became were the pop superstars of Motown (or Tamla Motown as the label was known in the UK until the 80's), with 9 US chart-toppers, most of them gems that I loved and have continued to love. Baby Love was their only UK chart-topper so it's logical that it'd be on the rundown - but even by 1974 it was blatantly obvious that it wasn't their greatest record (though it it's still great, don't get me wrong). Diana Ross & The Supremes had split into 2 acts, and a few months after this rundown Motown took notice and made Baby Love a hit all over again. This is a theme that will pop up again - record companies paid attention to the pent-up demand of voters! Diana Ross will appear again much later in the countdown, but for The Supremes, and genius records like You Keep Me Hangin' On, Love Child, Reflections, Stoned Love, Come See About Me, You Can't Hurry Love, Stop! In The Name Of Love, My World Is Empty Without You, or Nathan Jones, that's the end of the line.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 5th June 2021, 04:04 PM

64. WHEREVER I LAY MY HAT (THAT'S MY HOME) - Marvin Gaye (1962)



OK, hands-up who was expecting this non-hit to be on the list? Me, neither. I'd never heard of it, being as it wasn't actually a hit, on the grounds it wasn't released until 1969, and then only as a B side. I'm assuming it was a cult Northern Soul success of sorts, but part of the reason I think voters probably had the option to vote for 3 tracks is the inclusion of obscure stuff like this that would appeal to fans of the monster classic still to come, and instead of spreading the votes about they went for the same artist. Paul Young's fabulous cover version was still 9 years in the future, and no disrespect to Marvin (who should have been on the list for What's Going On? alone, another UK flop, far and away Marvin Gaye's second-most-important track) but this is just not worthy. It's a B-side - the underlying song is great, but this version ain't. I could name 30 better Gaye recordings off the top of my head...

Posted by: Popchartfreak 5th June 2021, 04:15 PM

63. (LET ME BE YOUR) TEDDY BEAR - Elvis Presley (1957)



Elvis was approaching the height of his popularity in 1957, the ground-breaking populariser of rock 'n' roll for the masses was hitting his stride. With this?! It's a jolly ditty. Cute and nothing more. So, here we are, 5 Presley tracks on and this is more-popular than Jailhouse Rock? I despair. That, I guarantee, would not be the case in 2021, amongst casual Elvis fans or hard-core fans. We have yet to hit rock-bottom, though, there's 5 more to come, including the best and worst! 50's songs from Elvis not on the list that should be? Heartbreak Hotel. That's All Right. Hound Dog. All Shook Up. Be worried....!

Posted by: Popchartfreak 5th June 2021, 04:28 PM

62. MY GIRL - Otis Redding (1965)



Another puzzler for me, it's a great version of the now-more-famous Temptations original version of the Smokey Robinson song, very Stax, and a bigger UK hit than the Temps 43-peaking version (until the 1990's number 2 hit re-issue from the film of the same name), but Top 100 in 1974? I prefer the original myself, and this version was only a UK hit, and only a number 11 hit. Obviously there was a lot of love for the late Otis in 1974 (his young son Dexter was attempting a solo career with a song called God Bless), but errr, big albatross in the room - (Sitting On The) Dock Of The Bay, his signature tune in 1974 and every year since, is not on the list. WTF?! Dock Of The Bay is brilliant, My Girl at best is a very good version of a classic. I can only explain it by assuming some dodgy vote-fixing going on! Sour grapes courtesy of me...

Posted by: Popchartfreak 5th June 2021, 04:42 PM

61. LIVIN' DOLL - Cliff Richard (1959)



OK he's back again. Back in 1974 you could play this catchy unchallenging singalong without thinking of "Fies My Soul" chanting after Cliff sings "satisfies my soul". I was never much of a fan of it though, not as a kid, not as a teen, and not especially even when I bought the 1986 charity hit with The Young Ones on tow. That version is more entertaining than the original fairly bland monster hit. And it was huge. It sold bucketloads and remains one of Cliff's best-known songs. It's not, though, anywhere near as good as gorgeous The Next Time. Or Move It, his proper rock 'n' roll debut. I suppose I should be adding in The Shadows to this one of Cliff's. In this case they were still called The Drifters, and I wouldn't want to include either band in the dissing, both of them were fabulous in their own right, rather than just the backing band. The Shads have Apache at 97 (way better than this) but I'll give them credit on the final Cliff track, cos they actually play a decent part in the appeal of the track.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 19th June 2021, 03:12 PM

60. FERRY CROSS THE MERSEY - Gerry & The Pacemakers (1965)



This Youtube video from Top Of The Pops, that's how I saw Gerry and the lads from '63 to '66 when Liverpool ruled the pop world and Gerry was a local legend. I know, cos my grandma lived in Liverpool and so did my brother, mum and me when dad was off in Aden in 1966. Going on the ferry across the Mersey to Birkenhead or New Brighton was an actual thing in those days - not any more, though, the big ships are gone and there's a tourist boat dwarfed by visiting supersized-ocean-liners filled with Merseybeat tourists. Plus side, the abject poverty is also somewhat in the past too. Anyways, Gerry's 2nd fab ballad didn't top the charts, but it did do it for Gerry, Paul McCartney, The Christians in 1989 following the awful Hillsborough disaster which affected so many families, including one I know. I try not to associate the song with that though, I prefer the black & white more-innocent images of Gerry & 60's Merseyside trips over the river with my grandma & mum & brother, and I still love the record. I don't think I'm giving much away to let slip there's another, Anfield, Pacemakers anthem still to come which is not quite the surprise that this one is being so high on the chart, outdoing 2 of their hat-trick of chart-toppers. Quite rightly, though.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 19th June 2021, 03:25 PM

59. DECK OF CARDS - Wink Martindale (1959)



You won't know this one unless you were around in 1973. This War Story "song" about a trooper getting caught playing cards first came out in 1959 and was a huge hit for the Post-WW2 generation who loved Country music and where religion was still a thing. My parents loved it and bought the bloody thing in 1973 when it was a hit all over again thanks to UK crooner Max Bygraves doing a cover version on his TV show and getting it into the charts. No disrespect to Much-loved Max, but he makes this sound pretty decent. And it's not. It is, however, why it's on the rundown - people had been buying it again and it was fresh in the mind but didn't fall foul of the 3-years-old rule. I've never liked it, it's not music. That's not an opinion, it LITERALLY isn't music. It's a sermon set to background non-descript guitar strumming and a choir going "aaaah" randomly. I hated it then, and I hate it still, cos "I know - I WAS that soldier!" Spoiler alert!

Posted by: Popchartfreak 19th June 2021, 03:48 PM

58. DAYDREAM BELIEVER - The Monkees (1967)



From the ridiculous to the sublime, at 58 it's the first Boyband, the musicians and actors who got the roles in a music sitcom as as proto-Fab Four, with zany Marx Brothers antics, continuing where Dick Lester's A Hard Days Night movie had started stylistically. The Beatles were totally fine with The Monkees, unlike the British press then and snooty organisations like the Rock 'n' Roll Hall Of Fame who still refuse to see them for what they are - bonafide musicians and singers who seized creative control of their own musical destiny, wrote their own fab material and who also had songs from the best songwriters of the time gifted to them, from Carole King to Harry Nilsson. And this John Stewart song, that has proven itself to be an eternal anthem up to the present day, charting again in the 80's twice, been covered numerous times, and still a guaranteed pub singalong, radio staple or rock stadium anthem. Brit and heart-throb Davy Jones took lead vocal on this one, the only entry from the band on the list - not even the fab I'm A Believer chart-topper made the rundown. I'll come clean I loved The Monkees in the 60's, I adored them still in 1974, and for every year of my life since. They influenced many bands of the 70's and 80's, their back catalogue is amazing for what was essentially just 3 years and then break-up, I've seen them 3 times on tour, including the original 4 all together, and shortly after Davy's sudden death they released a great album of new material written by veteran big name fans who grew up on them. I don't begrudge this being the song on the list, much as I might love so many of their records, because it is far and away their most-popular track, and it's unthinkable that it wouldn't feature in any Top 100 of the era, popular or critical. Michael Nesmith, by the way, had a successful solo career before and after The Monkees, and errr was involved in setting up this thing called MTV in the 80's having dabbled with the format in his solo stuff. Mickey Dolenz I last saw dancing with Michael Ball in drag in Hairspray in Wimbledon Theatre, and has just released an album of Nesmith covers.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 19th June 2021, 04:07 PM

57. UNCHAINED MELODY - The Righteous Brothers (1965)



Hands-up who doesn't think of "Ghost"...? Thought not. yet back in 1974 this definitive cover of the song that had topped the UK charts twice in the 50's seemed to me to be a bit of a puzzle to be on the list. It hadn't been a huge hit in 1965, but it had "soul" (albeit blue-eyed soul) that earlier versions lacked, and clearly it was and still is a million miles better than the other chart-topping versions of the song that come along once a decade on average, most of them abysmal, just not worthy. No other versions comes close, but back then although I knew the song, I wasn't that aware of it. Certainly not like another chart-topper that will crop up much later in the list. The 1990 film Ghost changed all that of course, and it's still popular now on radio stations that don't always dip into the 60's cos it's seen as a 90's hit. Oddly, it's not really a Righteous Brothers hit - Bill Medley isn't even on it! Bobby Hatfield sings the song, Phil Spector produced it, and the combination created magic. Don;t feel sorry for Bill, though, his moment in Rock immortality is ensured, and he also did the theme to Dirty Dancing to boot. He's had the Time Of His Life, and will be back - but where on the rundown exactly...?! I've commented that a lot of the tracks on this list became hits again, or at least re-issued again, after this rundown - but Unchained melody wasn't one of them. It had to wait 16 years for it's chance to finally top the charts and become the biggest-selling record of 1990 in the UK.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 19th June 2021, 04:24 PM

56. HOUSE OF THE RISING SUN - The Animals (1964)



Hands up who's never heard a street-busker sing this? Thought so. It may not be as popular with those Ed Sheeran street-crooners nor as popular as it used to be, but it still crops up out and about, and I'd still call this song "famous" and a "rock classic". It seems like an old folk song - because it most likely has very old folk roots - but was first written in this version in 1925 and adapted by producer Mickie Most and the band in 1964, in a literal electric performance: folk turned into folk-rock-blues by the Newcastle-based band, Alan Price on keyboard, and Eric Burden's distinctive "blue-eyed-soul" vocal performance. I don't really remember not knowing this song, but it was never what I would call a fave, not even after it had been reissued in 1972 in the UK and become a hit again. I liked it well enough, and again in the 80's when it hit yet again, but my appreciation has grown with time. It is on the list because it's a great recording, and it remains a great recording, still powerful. It also did away with the 2 to 3-minute pop song. In the UK. It's an epic and it needed to be heard in it's entire 4 and a half minutes. Not in the USA though, chopping it down to 3. What?! Outrageous! It's still recognised as a keystone of the rock era, though, despite best efforts to turn it into a 3-minute quickie to squeeze in more adverts.

Posted by: common sense 19th June 2021, 06:10 PM

I absolutely love Deck Of Cards. Great song.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 21st June 2021, 02:57 PM

Hi Chris, you'd enjoy chatting to my dad about it then - mum and dad both love it If I were to put it on now mum would burst into floods of tears.

I'm a bit surprised you go for it as you were a bit on the young side in 1973, more Slade, Wizzard, T.Rex, Sweet in those days

Posted by: Popchartfreak 21st June 2021, 03:11 PM

55. SUSPICIOUS MINDS - Elvis Presley (1969)



He's back again, arguably The King's last great classic, and probably his most popular record these days. No quibbles, this would be in any Top 100 of the period - if not of All-Time. By 1968 Elvis had been reduced to crappy movies and trashy singles taken from the soundtracks, and give or take Viva Las Vegas had been purveying pap for 4 years, damaging his reputation. So, cue the TV Comeback Special, dressed in leather, and a second-coming of great soul-gospel influenced pop, notably If I Can Dream, the brilliant In The Ghetto (which should be on the rundown, but isn't - the second vinyl single I ever bought in 1969), it's great B side Any Day Now, and then this to top it off. Having established his credibility again, Elvis decided to cash-in, headline Vegas and bung out live covers of old songs for the next 2 years, en route to Fat Elvis and an early death, in hindsight a mega-successful money-spinning career-move. Anyone called "Elvis" or "Presley" would meet with fame and/or success for the rest of the century. That's not to say that EVERYTHING he did afterwards was bad (most of it was, though) as there were the odd gems, like his forgotten ballad I'm Leavin' from 1971, the rocking Burning Love in 1972, and his swan song Way Down. But they ain't no Suspicious Minds!

Posted by: Popchartfreak 21st June 2021, 03:30 PM

54. RIVER DEEP MOUNTAIN HIGH - Ike & Tina Turner (1966)



Masterpiece! No messin' around this is genius. It was genius in 1966, in 1974 when people voted for it, and in 2021 it's still genius. It's a Phil Spector epic production, as they all were, but this is taking funk/blues and taking on the challenge to turn it into an epic with sweeping strings, wall-of-sound, and one of the great Rock-era vocal performances from Tina, who lives the song and then some. This is the one that shocked Spector to the core by flopping in the US. Radio didn't like the length and ambition, but in the UK that wasn't a problem when we had pirate radio stations on ships at sea playing whatever the hell they wanted. If the government refused to give young people a radio station, the pirates stepped in nicely, until the Government gave in to the inevitable and created a more family-friendly controlled BBC Radio 1. The US was clearly mad, and Spector retired in a strop pretty much and was never as interesting again. Ike & Tina sadly weren't eligible for Tina's own song, the almost-as-brilliant Nutbush City Limits to be on the list, as it was only just out of the charts, but Tina became an 80's superstar in any case. The song became a standard, written by Spector (it says on the label) but mostly I suspect Jeff Barry & Ellie Greenwich. Jeff Barry has another 2 on the rundown, Spector has already had 3 productions, and just to note how crucial the production is, the song was succesfully covered by others, indeed The Supremes and The Four Tops had the big US hit version of it. Two of the great Motown acts together, and it just isn't close to the original. I liked the song in the 60's (it was a hit again in 1969), but certainly didn't appreciate it properly until I was well into in my 20's, and time since has just confirmed how great it is.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 21st June 2021, 03:43 PM

53. ONLY YOU - The Platters (1955)



One of the oldest recordings on the countdown, and a standard by 1974 (Ringo Starr had a hit with a cover later that year), The Platters were quietly successful and influential on the music biz, and genuinely one of the greats of the 50's - although you won't find them quoted with the same reverence as Berry, Little Richard, Elvis, Everley's, or Holly. TBH it sounded a bit dated by the time of the poll, but they still retained enough older support to feature this high, and Ringo wasn't the only one to cover their hits (Freddie Mercury did The Great Pretender, Bryan Ferry Smoke Gets In Your Eyes, Righteous Brothers Ebb Tide, and Twilight Time is still waiting for it's turn to be revived). Again, my parents were big fans, so I knew the bigger songs in the 70's, although by then I had my own pop idols to prefer, but I still quite like them. I doubt, though, that anything they did would stand a chance of making any run-down of the top tracks of the 50's and 60's as they belong more to an earlier Big-band era stylistically than Rock era, and that style of crooning went out of fashion into the 60's.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 21st June 2021, 03:59 PM

52. HALFWAY TO PARADISE - Billy Fury (1961)



Billy was a UK sensation in the early 60's and was my first fave male pop star along with Adam Faith, another TV regular of the period, or as my mum used to say (she also liked them both) I insisted on calling him Billy Floory as I couldn't quite get his name right. To be honest I remember very few of his records (I was 2, 3, 4 years old in his heyday) but I do remember being a fan, and rediscovering him as I got older. Especially this cover of the Tony Orlando US hit, his signature song. Billy's is the definitive version, which is not something you would naturally think would be a thing in the 60's - but it's surprising how well the arrangers managed to improve on the more teen pop ditties, amking them a bit more substantial. Billy was cool. He still is, He died young, after living with a heart condition, was a Merseyside star before The Beatles, and had a unique vocal style. The Smiths featured him on one of their singles covers. And he had a good-looking-rocker image, he wasn't just a crooner of pop. By 1974 the hits had stopped but Billy was starring in the hit movie That'll Be The Day with hot retro-50's glamrock star David Essex and Ringo Starr - so that wouldn't hurt his chances of being fresh in people's minds for polling. Dad had one of his singles (Colette, which Billy wrote) and I became a fan of A Wondrous Place in the 80's, but Halfway To Paradise remains the top tune. Tony Orlando got his own back - he grabbed the top slot twice by 1974 as part of Dawn, but neither of those made the list then or would now. Billy never peaked higher than 2 sadly, but at least he's on the rundown!

Posted by: Popchartfreak 21st June 2021, 04:19 PM

51. GROOVY KIND OF LOVE - The Mindbenders (1966)



I love this song. I love this record. It's very 1966, when everything was fab and groovy, and London's Carnaby Street was the centre of pop culture and fashion, and the record gives me strong, warm memories of being 8 years old and loving this song (of many songs). Music is tied to place and time for me, always has been, and we'd only just recently moved from suburban London to Liverpool rundown slums, which I think is pretty cool, sort of. At least musically, if nothing else. The Mindbenders were never huge, but they were fairly successful as Wayne Fontana And The Mindbenders before Wayne scarpered for a solo career, leaving the band to try it alone. So up popped this Carole Bayer-Sager/ Toni Wine song. Who? Only the co-writer of future biggies like When I Need You, Nobody Does It Better (Bond!) and her own hit You're Moving Out Today (Carole), and the female singer on a song coming up later (Toni) oh and yes she wrote Tony Orlando's Knock Three Times which topped the charts, as just mentioned!). Without Fontana, guitarist Eric Stewart took over lead singing, and hey presto a hit. Follow-up's were not as big, not even with teenage hit songwriter Graham Gouldman joining in 1968 - his Bus Stop for The Hollies, For Your Love (Yardbirds aka Eric Clapton) and No MIlk Today (Herman's Hermits all failed to make the list), but not to worry: Phil Collins finally took the track to the top spot in 1988, as a slow ballad taken from the Buster movie, and Eric & Graham became part of 10CC (also not on the list, as they were too recent) one of the great bands of the 70's who had 3 UK chart-toppers, one of which would be recognised as a major rock classic (I'm Not In Love). So it all worked out for them!

Posted by: steve201 26th June 2021, 02:39 PM

Love after watching the TOTP episodes from the 80s when you discover half the songs then were covers - this is another great version!

Posted by: steve201 26th June 2021, 02:40 PM

One of my greatest songs of all time!

Posted by: Popchartfreak 27th June 2021, 06:47 PM

Covers not so much the rage these days, but back in the chart day it was pretty common for singers to re-vamp their fave oldies

Posted by: Popchartfreak 27th June 2021, 06:49 PM

can't argue with that choice!

Posted by: Popchartfreak 3rd July 2021, 01:28 PM

50. DIANA - Paul Anka (1957)



One of the oldest songs in the top 50, Diana was written & sung by 15-year-old prodigy Paul Anka, and the million-selling single in the UK sounds very of it's time. It has a certain charm, but yeah lyrically it sounds like it was written by a 15-year-old. Paul improved as he went along, though, writing the lyrics to Frank Sinatra's signature song My Way and hitting the top of the US charts in 1974 again after a good 17-year run of hits with You're Having My Baby. Not to mention slots in films and TV dramas as an actor along the way, and more recently Put Your Head On My Shoulders getting sampled by Doja Cat on the terrific, if naughty, Freak. I'd never heard of this record until 1973 when it was being advertised on TV for a K-Tel or Ronco oldies Various Artists hits album, and the clip of the hook got on my nerves. I've never rated it much, but I'm guessing the TV advertising clip (and album sales) boosted its place in this list as it was fresh in some voters minds.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 3rd July 2021, 01:38 PM

49. ARE YOU LONESOME TONIGHT - Elvis Presley (1961)



He's back again. One of his ballad anthems, this one topped the UK chart in early 1961, and I can vouch that it was very popular with my parents generation. I loved a lot of Elvis records, but this one was more of a "quite like" for me, what with it's talking section, and morose pace. And then in 1982 came the posthumous "laughing version" of Elvis singing it live and cracking up at his female backing singers, which was a hit in the UK....and that was that, I've been done with the record ever since. I can enjoy a good Elvis tribute act doing it karaoke-style as an encore, but other than that I tend to avoid it these days. Listening to half of it for this exercise was enough, but people do love it, and that's why it's at 49...

Posted by: Popchartfreak 3rd July 2021, 01:53 PM

48. WOODEN HEART - Elvis Presley (1961)



As featured in his G.I. Blues movie, and another monster seller for Elvis in 1961, this is one I loved as a kid. The clip above was on TV now and again, and the song was still a jukebox staple in the mid-60's and beyond, and for everyone is was a sort of fantasy version of his stint in Germany after he got drafted. It sounds very oom-pah Germanic in genre, and if anyone has ever been to a German beer bar abroad you can expect lots of much more oom-pah-pah jolly singalongs with cardigans and jumpers nearby (OK German bars of a certain-aged clientele, then). Fine by me, my very earliest memories are of living in Germany - 2 mildly traumatic incidents but let's not get negative, they would have been around 1960/61, so around the time of Wooden Heart, more or less. Plus, it has puppets. What kid doesn't love puppets? Only 2 more Elvis tracks on the list! One's not bad. One is not not bad.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 3rd July 2021, 02:11 PM

47. THE YOUNG ONES - Cliff Richard with The Shadows (1961)



From the Prime US Heart-throb to the Prime UK version, also in one of his films, chart-topping, and out in 1961. It's still sounding good to my ears, not least due to the twangy Shadows guitars and sweeping strings, 2 things that I approve of by and large. It was nice, it was very 1961, Cliff was barely into his 20's, and he was at the top of his commercial game. It was impossible to not be aware of Cliff in 60's British pop culture, he was a cornerstone of it, and an inspiration for others to follow where he led as a pseudo-rock'n'roll-based pop star. Credit where it's due, and even 1980's The Young Ones anarchic sit-com, destroying the song over the credits, and taking pot shots at the fab Rik Mayall's wanna-be-anarchist character worshipping Cliff and destroying his own credibility in the process, haven't harmed the underlying niceness of the song. It's also the most-popular Cliff track on the countdown, but overall I'll go with Miss You Nights, Devil Woman, We Don't Talk Anymore, Wired For Sound or All I Ask Of You, all post-1974, as top-notch Cliff.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 3rd July 2021, 02:40 PM

46. SUGAR SUGAR - The Archies (1969)



OK, hands up, I bloody love this record, it was definitely one of my all-time fave records by 1974. I loved The Archies, I used to tape songs off their TV show onto reel-to-reel tape using a tinny-sounding hand-held microphone. This was in Singapore 1970/1971, I was 12, I cut the cardboard/plastic vinyl records off the back of US cereal boxes which featured Archies songs, the first EP I ever bought was Sugar Sugar (a 4-track with US hit Bang Shang A Lang and the TV show theme on it), the first album I ever bought with my own money was The Archies, also Sugar Sugar and other faves from the TV show, and I have since bought a box set of one of the series. It's bloody terrible! I didn't notice how bad it was at the time, so much, as I really loved the songs. But Archie Comics were fun, and have led to dark cult show Riverdale as well as a music-TV cartoon show. They were created after Don Kirshner got his nose put out of joint by the members of The Monkees taking control over their own music, so he opted for a band that didn't exist except as cartoons to avoid future conflict. Happily for him he also brought in top US hitmakers like Jeff Barry and 1974 Rock Me Gently hitmaker Andy Kim, who wrote Sugar Sugar, Toni Wine on backing or co-lead vocals (see A Groovy Kind Of Love) and Ron Dante on lead vocal, who also had hits as The Cufflinks. The bubblegum music was often much better than you might expect for music aimed at little kids, not least with this global smash, which has spent the last 50-odd-years infuriating serious music critics, DJ's, and people generally by refusing to go away and stop selling, eventually passing the million mark in the 21st century (I'm talking actual paid-for sales, not fake repeat-listens on Spotify). It is what it is - and what it is is simple, catchy, nicely-produced-and-sung pop, which is why it outsold The Beatles, Elvis & assorted other music legends in 1969. So in the words of kids at the time, naah, nah, na-na naaahh!

Posted by: Popchartfreak 3rd July 2021, 02:54 PM

45. RUBY, DON'T TAKE YOUR LOVE TO TOWN - Kenny Rogers & The First Edition (1969)



The late Kenny was never finer that on his big breakthrough smash, this post-Viet-Nam story-song of a wife looking for physical love as her war-injured disabled husband can no longer assist in that direction. It's short, sad, and touching, but stays the right side of taste and avoids veering in the mawkish OTT territory of some of his later story-song smashes like the laughable Lucille (his heroes always seem to marry the wrong woman) or stereotyping Coward Of The County. The follow-up Something's Burning was also pretty good though, his First Edition days are much more satisfyingly decent overall, even though he will now always be remembered for Islands In The Stream, a Bee Gees gift to him and Dolly. The Brothers Gibb have one on the rundown, too, which is only fair....

Posted by: Popchartfreak 3rd July 2021, 03:03 PM

44. OLD SHEP - Elvis Presley (1956)



His penultimate entry on the countdown, and it's a sad story of shooting dead a beloved pet dog, guaranteed to make grown, hardened men get all sentimental and tearful. I've seen it. Admittedly it was still beloved of people from the 50's, and sometimes their kids. I liked it as a kid, but happily it wasn't on the radio enough to get annoyed by it, and is these days utterly forgotten with the passing years. Quite bloody rightly. It's mawkish, turgid, and unpleasant in these times. Don't get me wrong, I love animals, always have, and can't abide cruelty or suffering, but this is so @£$%& depressing!

Posted by: Popchartfreak 3rd July 2021, 03:11 PM

43. KELLY - Del Shannon (1963)



OK, Match-fixing alert!!! Something well-dodgy here, and I think as a result of a fan-club campaign to get a fandom fave onto the list. I'd never heard of this minor non-hit from Del Shannon when this was played on the rundown, unlike his other gem mystifyingly lower down, and I've never heard it since until I played it for reviewing purposes. It's mildly pleasant but one radio play every 40 years or so doesn't ring out "classic". I'm guessing Del was touring the UK around about the time of the voting and a collective effort was made by all who'd had a good night out...but even so, it's less memorable than Woody Harrelson singing a different Kelly song on sitcom Cheers to his girlfriend. The lyrics went "kelly kelly kelly kelly kelly kelly kelly kelly...." etc.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 3rd July 2021, 03:31 PM

42. HAVE I THE RIGHT? - The Honeycombs (1964)



This Joe Meek production was jolly and is on the rundown even though I'd never heard of it until it popped up on a K-Tel various artist album I bought in 1973 (I wanted In The Year 2525 most all, a track I worshipped, and which is not on the list). It's striking a blow for women's rights to do anything they want to do (in this case be the drummer in a band) and it has an appealing stomping beat a la Dave Clark 5 (not on the list, not even Glad All Over) but, y'know, Joe Meek, the man behind ground-breaking Telstar (which I knew intimately, and adored) the global instrumental smash for The Tornadoes (also not on the list), and John Leyton's wonderful haunting chart-topper Johnny Remember Me (also not on the list), which I adored as a kid and into the 70's - and this makes the rundown. Shomething fishy methinks - or else the TV advertising for the album I bought reminded people who actually liked it 10 years earlier to vote for it. I was listening to pop music in 1964 and it just sort of passed me by entirely. Any way, The Dead End kids covered it in 1977 and brought it back into the charts, so it must have been liked more than I rate it. I DO like it, but it''s not by any stretch of the imagination one of the top 100 tracks of the 60's.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 3rd July 2021, 03:44 PM

41. (And The Lights All Went Down In) MASSACHUSSETS - The Bee Gees (1967)



Love this record, love The Bee Gees, love 60's-era Bee Gees most of all, and my mum loved this record. Dad bought 12 Big Hits in Singapore in 1969 and it had this one on it, so played it lots and lots growing up, with memories of The Summer Of Love (OK this in the autumn, but it applies) living on an RAF camp on the Isle Of Anglesey in North Wales, beaches, puffins, walks to school along country lanes and teachers who spoke Welsh to each other so you couldnt understand what they were saying out of lessons. Massachussets was an attempt by the brothers Gibb to ape the flower-power peace and love songs that were around, but flipping it to the East Coast, with Robin's plaintive lead vocal setting the right mood for a great ballad. These days? Their 70's disco-era songs would dominate any polls and the 60's stuff might turn up as cover versions, but I think they are under-rated as recordings in their own right, I'll nominate World, First Of May, I Started A Joke, Lonely Days or How Can You Mend A Broken Heart as being worthy of being on a rundown of the era, and most of their other hit singles (including Robin's solo Saved By The Bell) being only slightly-less fabulous, despite some of them being bigger hits for other acts (Only One Woman, Words, To Love Somebody).

Posted by: SL3 6th August 2021, 10:55 AM

Loving this countdown. Thanks for sharing!

Posted by: steve201 7th August 2021, 11:52 AM

Same here, love the Archies track. And ‘Massachusetts’ what a amazing song and melody, a sign of the genius to come!

Posted by: common sense 13th August 2021, 10:45 PM

Hi John. Ruby is okay but I much prefer Lucille and evwn more so Coward Of The County, Kenny's 2 UK No.1's.

Posted by: common sense 13th August 2021, 10:49 PM

My late cousin's favourite song of all time. He was a huge dog and music lover but sadly died aged 20. Old Shep should have been a big hit single but in a way it's best known as an Elvis cult classic.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 16th August 2021, 02:26 PM

Thanks muchly SL3, I'm hoping to restart the top 40 shortly

Posted by: Popchartfreak 16th August 2021, 02:27 PM

Posted by: Popchartfreak 16th August 2021, 02:32 PM

My mum, dad, uncles all loved Old Shep. I liked it as a kid, but it was just too sad to love. Re Kenny, mum and dad loved any Kenny actually too, though I think mum loved Ruby more than the others, and so do I, still.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 14th November 2021, 03:41 PM

It's been a long wait, sorry about that, life difficulties to deal with, but hoping to do some more of this rundown now.

40. WALK ON BY - Dionne Warwick (1964)



Utter classic alert! Bacharach & David's greatest song of many great songs, quite probably, and sung by their go-to artist, the eternally cool, smooth and effortless Dionne. One of the greatest records ever made, immaculate heartbreak love song with a melody to die for, this is the one I turned to the first time I got dumped, and it helps clear away the sadness and self-pity with a good old wallow. I grew up on Bacharach/David songs, and I loved them as a child and loved them as a teen, and loved them ever since, and Dionne's back-catalogue is rich thanks largely to Burt & Hal. This track peaked at 6 in the US charts and 9 in the UK charts, which is a bit of a shame as it clearly should have topped both charts - but Beatlemania/British Invasion was a thing and Easy Listening had to struggle to get a look-in at that time. Much-covered, it's a song that is hard to do badly, witness good hit versions from The Stranglers, Isaac Hayes, Sybil and many others, but none as perfect as the original. Deserves to be regarded as one of the 40 greatest recordings of all-time, so yay for it getting voted as such in 1974!

Posted by: Popchartfreak 14th November 2021, 03:53 PM

39. OUT OF TIME - Chris Farlowe (1966)



A Rolling Stones song (Jagger/Richard) from their 1966 album Aftermath, and pretty good too, an obvious single missed out on - but they instead produced and donated it to Chris Farlowe with additional strings, a sort of Blue-Eyed Soul track in the tradition of The Righteous Brothers, if more upbeat and bluesy. It's a great record, though not top of the list of 60's classics these days which is a shame as Farlowe injects passion and the arrangement is pretty fine - so fine that the year after it came 39th in this poll it was involved in a 3-way chart battle, as it re-charted in competition with Dan McCafferty's cover (Nazereth lead singer) and also with a Rolling Stones version that took the Farlowe backing track and added it onto the Stones' original. All 3 versions made the UK top 50, and none of them made the top 30. I'm sure collectively they sold enough to go top 10 though....

Posted by: Popchartfreak 14th November 2021, 04:04 PM

38. MAKE IT WITH YOU - Bread (1970)



Tagged with the same "uncool" Easy Listening bulls-eye target that the Carpenters had from Rock critics in 1970, Bread (via singer/songwriter David Gates) specialised in gorgeous romantic ballads that appealed to music fans not fussed about what was hip and cool, and this effortlessly lovely song was their first big hit. How good were Bread? I think numerous number one hit covers in the UK, in reggae, spoken-actor versions and other hit versions says a lot about the song quality: Everything I Own, If, The Guitar Man and Baby I'm A Want You among others are all fab songs and records. This is the touchstone track, though, another song it's hard to ruin (Let Loose did a terrific cover in the 90's) and no doubt the romantic teens and 20's girls were voting for this in big numbers. I'd actually missed it at the time (due to being out the country) but by 1974 I knew how good it was, and I pretty much rated it as one of the best records of 1970. Still do.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 14th November 2021, 04:48 PM

37. DEDICATED TO THE ONE I LOVE - The Mamas & The Papas (1967)



The only Mamas & Papas track on the countdown - shockingly, California Dreamin' never made the list, and amazingly that genuine 60's classic wasn't a big UK top 10 hit until 1997. In the UK it wasn't as big as Monday Monday or this one, which peaked at 2 in the charts and was the one that spurred my huge love the band and for Mama Cass. I adored this record, I loved the melodies and the way the girls and boys alternated lead and harmonised together generally, a lost art in the 21st century. I'm guessing that's why this one isn't as revered today as it was in 1974, cos it was certainly revered by me in 1974 along with their back catalogue which I'd bought on 2 budget Hits collections, and my number one record in my personal charts: Mama Cass was in the UK promoting her wonderful new (flop) single If You're Gonna Break Another Heart, and I was so enamoured of her I taped her reviewing the records on Rosko's Roundtable on Radio 1. She loved The Hues Corporation Rock The Boat, thought Mud's Elvis impression on Rocket was better than any Presley single in years, and much much more. And then she was suddenly dead from a heart attack at 32. My first brush with feeling bereft at the early death of a fave pop star. Not the last one, sadly. I still love this 1957 5 Royales record cover, and it's sad to think 3 of the 4 are now gone, just Michelle Phillips left - though her daughter with John Phillips Chynna got her own hit run in 1990 onwards with Hold On and other hits.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 14th November 2021, 05:00 PM

36. LOVE ME TENDER - Elvis Presley (1957)



It's that man again, and we finally reach peak Elvis - yes it's the most-voted-for Presley track on the countdown, an early ballad for the then-rock'n'roller. I can vouch Elvis fans still loved it in 1974. And every year since his death a mere 3 years later, the second shock pop star death in my young life, cos I was very much an Elvis fan in 1977 - albeit largely for his older recordings and the gospel comeback. Elvis was still hitting the UK top 10 with great oldies like Suspicion and Girl Of My Best Friend, setting a posthumous template ahead of the game, but his new material was distinctly dodgy by 1974, and stayed that way until his final record, Way Down, which was at least rockin' fun. Here we get to see Young Elvis, though on an adaptation of a Civil War ballad - possibly why I find it very dreary. Oddly, it peaked at 11 in the UK, though was a US chart-topper, and has been covered zillions of times by many a great, so what do I know? I'll take Way Down any day over this one, though.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 14th November 2021, 05:16 PM

35. LET IT BE ME - The Everley Brothers (1959)



The first of two soppy love songs from the vocal harmony brothers, we recently just also lost Don, and this plaintive ballad is quite sweetly sad, and the influential harmonies of Don & Phil are still great. But. I think their fan club was out in force voting for the less thrilling of their back catalogue. No Cathy's Clown. No Price Of Love. No All I Have To Do Is Dream. All a bit puzzling really, that this English-language cover of a French 1955 Gilbert Becaud song should feature at all, no matter how nice it is. Again, another track that didn't even go top 10 in the UK. Gilbert had the last laugh though, he had a UK hit the following year (1975) with his delightfully quirky Love & Understanding, and The Everley Brothers had to wait for Paul McCartney to write them a minor comeback hit in the 80's - though Phil did go top 10 with Cliff Richard in 1983, as the brothers kept on squabbling and sabotaging their own career.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 14th November 2021, 05:36 PM

34. BAND OF GOLD - Freda Payne (1970)



A soul corker here - and one I missed entirely again (out the country, living in Singapore etc) until it popped up in the countdown at 34, at which point I liked it, then liked it again in 1975 when it got some 5-years-ago radio plays and I managed to tape it and liked it even more. As the years have gone by I've recognised it more and more for the classic it is, a heartbreaking story of a woman who marries a man that isn't able to satisfy her needs. What a trusting soul ol Freda was not having a test drive before buying the car, and what a selfish hubbie for not being honest and upfront. Gay, is the implication! Ahead of it's time and then some. Band Of Gold is the gem in the post-Motown career of writer/producers Holland-Dozier-Holland, who had left after differences of opinion with Berry Gordy & the company to set up their own Invictus label. On backing vocals on this track we have the 2 ladies from Dawn - I mention them cos you ain't gonna get Tie A Yellow Ribbon on the countdown (too recent) and Knock Three Times didn't make the grade - and Ray Parker Jr on lead guitar 14 years before his Halloween immortality, Ghostbusters!Freda had some minor UK hits, and quite a few US hits some of them pretty good, but this remains her claim to fame.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 14th November 2021, 05:47 PM

33. JUST MY IMAGINATION (RUNNIN' AWAY WITH ME) - The Temptations (1971)



Talking of Motown, here's The Temptations' latter gorgeous soul ballad, after the original line-up had split up with David Ruffin leaving and Eddie Kendricks (on lead here) also about to jump ship for a solo career. Up to this point they had gone full classic funk, but personnel changes didn't impact the hits at all. The lack of songs did them in from 1974 onwards, but in 1971 they still had access to the best Motown writer-producers, in this case Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong, who wrote many a classic not eligible for the rundown. So, no Papa Was A Rolling Stone, no Can't Get Next To You or Ball Of Confusion, no classic 60's Get Ready or My Girl on the rundown, just this one. It is a goodie though, and yet another one I was aware of but not familiar with till this rundown - and one that has also grown in stature with time for me. So lovely!

Posted by: Popchartfreak 14th November 2021, 06:12 PM

32. WHERE DO YOU GO TO (MY LOVELY) - Peter Sarstedt (1969)



Eden Kane might not have made the countdown, but brother Peter Sarstedt does, with his wonderful French-inspired Jet-set lifestyle arrangement and lyrics chart-topper. I was in full nostalgia-mode for 1969 by 1974, with fond memories of watching this on Top Of The Pops and still loving the record. Nobody recalls the follow-up (but I rather loved Frozen Orange Juice too) so poor Peter is largely regarded as a one-hit wonder - but this is a great one to remembered for, out of time even in 1969, and remaining that way since. The pay-off of the song is of course that the rich girl comes from the same humble roots as the singer, but the charts would feature the Sarstedt name again - in two years when younger brother Robin got on the 40's revival bandwagon and covered My Resistance Is Low. I saw all 3 Sarstedt's on a tour in the 80's, which was nice.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 14th November 2021, 06:37 PM

31. MY SWEET LORD - George Harrison (1970)



Classic. In the absence of all but 2 Beatles records we get compensation from George getting on the list at 31 with the sublime My Sweet Lord (only slightly like that Chiffons song, so there), and which was half a Beatles song with Ringo on it, and other Apple label acts like Billy Preston and Badfinger. It's very in the Hare Krishna and Oh Happy day gospel chanting tradition, and it's simplicity and building is part of the charm of the record. It's pure Singapore-tropical-honeysweet-nostalgia for me, and I loved it in early 1971, in 1974, in 2002 when it topped the chart all over again following the sad passing of George, and now. George hit the ground running after The Beatles split, the first Ex-Fab to top the charts in the UK and US - and the only one to feature in the rundown even though John's Imagine was eligible. Spoiler alert: as it was never a single until 1975, it wasn't then well enough known to get votes. George would keep on making good records right up to his death, and unlike John, managed to survive an assassination attempt. Both those tragedies would have sounded like pure fiction in 1974, sadly they weren't. I still miss George.

Posted by: King Rollo 15th November 2021, 11:37 AM

Good to see this back. Out of the last ten, I like Dedicated To The One I Love, Band Of Gold, Where Do You Go To (My Lovely) and My Sweet Lord.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 15th November 2021, 02:52 PM

Thanks Rollo! I'm still surprised by the passage of time and how some records stay popular and some come and go, and some come back again, and how an obscure track can come from nowhere and suddenly be regarded as a classic of the time - even when it wasn't at the time!

Posted by: Popchartfreak 21st February 2022, 06:02 PM

back on the listing again. Still tons of stuff to do but I'm putting it off to do this...

30. THIS OLD HEART OF MINE (IS WEAK FOR YOU) - The Isley Brothers (1966)



A Tamla Motown classic, the 1966 US hit was a big hit in the UK in late 1968, as good as the follow-up Behind A Painted Smile, which is sadly absent from the list. The song was covered by Rod Stewart a year after the 1974 rundown (badly, as a slow ballad) and then again by Rod with Ronald Isley in the 80's (better), and was reissued again in 1976 along with a bunch of Motown classics, and it became a hit again (best) doubled with Behind A Painted Smile. Both tracks seriously hit the beats at a frantic pace, and set up The Isleys for the 70's as soul-funk guitar virtuoso hitmakers a mile away from early hits like Twist & Shout, as covered by The Beatles to greater effect, and Shout (as covered by Lulu) - both those brilliant covers are absent from the chart, so there's a certain poetic justice that the Isleys are in with this, a true great I adore. The drum section and Ronald Isleys vocals cannot be praised enough. And the song.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 26th February 2022, 03:05 PM

29. RELEASE ME - Engelbert Humperdinck (1967)



Ol' Eng was enormous in 1967 with this million-seller, the one that famously spoilt The Beatles record-breaking run of consecutive number ones when it denied Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields the number one. For that I'll never forgive it! It's a shock to see it this popular on Radio 1 - OK it was big, and only 7 years later, but even so, no Penny Lane on the list and this Jim Reeves-soundalike is 29th Fave? That certainly never happened again in listener polls that younger music fans like me took part in as time went by. MOR, is what it used to be called. Middle Of The Road. Not cool enough for Easy Listening. That's not to say I dislike the former Gerry Dorsey, I loved A Man Without Love in 1968, and still rate it highly, and singles like Les Bicyclettes De Belsize were faves of mine too. Not Release Me though.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 26th February 2022, 04:05 PM

28. TELL LAURA I LOVE HER -Ricky Valance (1960)



Back in the 50's and 60's Death-story discs were all the rage, none better than Leader Of The Pack, a hit in 1965, 1972 and 1976 for The Shangri-Las. Sadly that's not on the list so we'll have to make do for now with another vehicular-crash-lament, a lame, 1950's-country-ballad-styled song called Tell Laura I Love Her from wannabe hitster Ricky Valance who took the death-obsession to a new level by naming himself after the aircrash-killed late teen-star Ritchie Valens, who had a similar-sounding ballad hit with the way better Donna. Donna is also not on the list. Some voters clearly just had no concept of good taste in more ways than one. I'll take Ritchie's La Bamba over Ricky's dirge any day....

Posted by: Popchartfreak 5th March 2022, 04:51 PM

27. PLEASE STAY - The Cryin' Shames (1966)



Well, I expected to go runnin' to wikipedia for this one as it didn't ring a bell at all. I swear I haven't heard this record since 1974's rundown, yet it seems familiar to me, so I must have heard it as a kid. Let's put it this way, it's not been regarded as a classic oldie over the last 50 years, it's never played on the radio, oldies or otherwise, and yet....this is rather fab! So I resorted to Wikipedia and sure enough, it's an early Burt Bacharach melody from 1961, The Drifters getting the original version. Other versions include Duffy, The Love Affair, Marc Almond and Elvis Costello, but the only UK hit version was this one by The Cryin' Shames, and that only got to 26 in the charts. There's more though, the producer was Joe Meek of Telstar, Johnny Remember Me and have I The Right fame, the British Phil Spector with his own futuristic wall of sound. That accounts for the spooky, echoey sound, but the smokey vocals are also terrific. By a bizarre unlucky twist of fate, Beatles manager Brian Epstein offered to produce them, but they turned him down. Both Epstein and Meek were dead inside a year and a bit of this leaving the charts. I'm wondering if that gave this record a pathos to fans of it at the time that ultimately didn't stick beyond this music poll. If a record ever needed a Movie showpiece to get back some lost ground.....

Posted by: Popchartfreak 5th March 2022, 05:12 PM

26. EVERLASTING LOVE - The Love Affair (1968)



Golden oldie alert! Loved this one in 1968, and the cool Love Affair with Steve Ellis on vocals, and I adored the follow-up My Rainbow Valley even more, and the song is just timeless. This topped my charts for the first time in early 2022, as it predated my charts by a few months and following selling on itunes for several weeks all over again. So why is it so great that it was popular in 1968, 1974, and 2022? It's got a classic Motown vibe. It's soaring. Steve Ellis' vocals are terrific. And yet it's British, and it's even better than the original Robert Knight version which barely scraped into the UK chart in 1968. Songwriters Buzz Cason and Mac Gayden are pretty much unknown but they struck gold with Everlasting Love, a song that can be given any treatment and still sound good. Robert Knight got his hit in the UK eventually - as follow up to Northern Soul oldie B side smash Love On A Mountain Top in 1974 - but it's since been hits for Sandra, Gloria Estefan, Rachel Sweet & Rex Smith, Carl Carlton, Worlds Apart, The cast of Casualty, and has been covered by U2. Most recently, and the reason for the sales push, it features strongly in Kenneth Brannagh's film Belfast. So still a classic, then.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 26th March 2022, 05:56 PM

25. YOUR SONG - Elton John (1971)



By 1974 Elton John was huge, especially in North America - but this was the only Elton hit that was eligible to be voted for, I'd have been fairly sure that Rocket Man or Goodbye Yellow Brick Road would have been on the list too if they'd allowed 1972/3 tracks in. Still very famous, well-covered, and Elton is having his biggest singles chart 12 months in early 2022 - totally against the odds - since 1997. That's what comes with palling around with up and coming new acts and promoting them and staying enthusiastic about new music. Your Song is a lovely love ballad - but I wouldn't place it amongst my top 20 Elton faves. F'rexample, by the time of this poll Elton had topped my personal charts with Crocodile Rock and Bennie & The Jets, and had peaked at 2 with Rocket Man and Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, 4 with Daniel. Your Song was a good top 10, though!

Posted by: Roba. 27th March 2022, 12:49 AM

To think I thought 'Everlasting Love' was by a soul / motown black group whenever I heard it on the radio and then to play it on guitar a couple of years ago, looking up the video to find they are British A great song though.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 27th March 2022, 08:44 AM

I think they would take that as a great compliment, Tamla Motown (as the UK knew it back then) was highly regarded!

Posted by: Popchartfreak 7th July 2022, 01:22 PM

OK hoping to get this finished, it's been a while...

24. SPIRIT IN THE SKY - Norman Greenbaum (1970)



Late Hippie Anthem, this one, and one I missed in 1970, being out the UK and all. I came across it first on this 1974 rundown and very much liked the sound of it, all electric guitar and gospel uplifting sounds, with humorously darker lyrics. So much so, that within a few months I spied a record stall inside Gloucester's indoor market having it for sale, still new and shiny. So I bought it. It's still a classic, and hit the top spot again for Doctor & The Medics in 1986, on their hilarious camp hippie piss-take, and Gareth Gates in the Noughties for Comic Relief, and with The Kumars doing the comedy bits. The original is still the best. Ol' Norman never had another hit, but he's still going aged 79 and no doubt has the satisfaction of getting some regular royalties in the knowledge he penned a genuine pop classic.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 7th July 2022, 01:26 PM

23. FAREWELL IS A LONELY SOUND - Jimmy Ruffin (1970)



Motown soul classic in the crooning Jimmy Ruffin style of his 1966 huge hit (more soon). This one returned Jimmy to the UK charts for a hat-trick of top 10's in 1970, and remained popular enough to chart again later in 1974 - as follow-up to another top 10 return of said earlier classic Motown. Spoiler alert! That track is at number 22, supporting my suspicions that fans were voting for 2 tracks by their fave artists. I didn't know this one until 1974, but his follow-up It's Wonderful (To Be Loved By You) I did love and would have preferred to be on the countdown. Splitting hairs, though this one is still a goodie, but not as well known 52 years later as t'other one. Jimmy would still have further hits in him, notably 1980's Hold On To My Love, gifted to him by Bee Gee Robin Gibb in his classic Motown style. Oh, and Jimmy was the brother of the Temptations' David Ruffin, he of the gritty vocals on greats like My Girl or his own fab Walk Away From Love.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 7th July 2022, 01:46 PM

22. WHAT BECOMES OF THE BROKENHEARTED - Jimmy Ruffin (1966)



Stone-cold Motown soul heartbreak classic, twice a top 10 hit, in 1966 and again in 1974 following this voters poll, What Becomes Of The Brokenhearted is Jimmy Ruffin's piece of pop immortality, the song being eminently coverable. Flawlessly produced by the Motown stable, emoted by Ruffin, and the song bringing hits to acts like Colin Blunstone (of The Zombies and solo success) as guest vocalist on Dave "It's My Party" Stewart's revamp, Paul Young, and errr, Robson & Jerome taking it all the way to the top spot in 1996. None of them come close to matching the original, though. Still sounds classic.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 7th July 2022, 02:02 PM

21. TEARS OF A CLOWN - Smokey Robinson & The Miracles (1970)



Talking of timeless emotional Motown classics....here's the brilliant Smokey Robinson getting a career revival thanks to UK Motown fans. This 1967 album track was jaw-droppingly ignored by Berry Gordy at Motown - granted Smokey was knocking out classic song after classic song in the 60's, so many he donated them to many of Motown's other acts, like The Temptations (My Girl) and Mary Wells (My Guy) while also having hits of his own inside The Miracles. Regarded by wordsmiths like Bob Dylan as a poet, ol' Smokey had a gift with imagery in the context of heartbreak (see The Tracks Of My Tears) and a smooth angelic emotional voice to match this melodies. from the opening circus-styled calliope intro through to the dance-classic fade, it's a gem of record. Credit also to Stevie Wonder, then still a teenager, co-writing the instrumental with his producer Hank Crosby, with Smokey adding lyrics and the rest. By 1970 Motown oldies belatedly hitting the UK charts was quite the thing, as UK label Tamla Motown had a knack for making non-hits or minor hits into major hits in the ever-popular dance clubs ahead of The Northern Soul movement, and singles out Tears Of A Clown. Cue a UK number one, Smokey reuniting his Miracles for Phase 2 of their career and a whopping US hit subsequently too. This hit again in 1976, was a hit ska cover in 1979 for The Beat, and the inspiration for ABC's 1987 hit When Smokey Sings, among many other versions.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 5th August 2022, 10:12 AM

20. A WHITER SHADE OF PALE - Procol Harum (1967)



The Summer of Love, '67, the era of the Hippie and Progrock and this anthem based on Bach's Baroque music, and Procol Harum smashed the charts with this perennial classic. It's made the charts many times since it topped the UK charts for 6 weeks, notably in 1972 a mere 5 years after smashing. That won't have hurt it's chart position on this list as people voted in 1974 - if anything, one might have expected it to placed higher than 20. The late Gary Brooker and his band had other hits, like Homburg, Conquistador and Pandora's Box, and I'll be honest: I prefer the latter two anyday to A Whiter Shade Of Pale - for some reason I have never rated as much as the public and critics do, maybe it's the sombre mood and plodding pace. When I was 9 I thought it was OK, when I was 14 I quite liked it (but not as much as Conquistador), and I've pretty much stayed in the "I quite like it" camp ever since. I can appreciate why it's beloved, but my massive love from the summer of '67 anthems is still to come, cos back in 1974 people voting agreed with me, even if these days it's the other way round.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 5th August 2022, 10:44 AM

19. ONE BAD APPLE - The Osmonds (1971)



WTAF I suspect is the response to this being at 19, when the track in question has never been a UK hit, though it topped the US charts in 1971, and clearly Crazy Horses is their classic (with options on Going Home, Let Me In, Love Me For A Reason or The Proud One being better and bigger hits in the UK, though not in the US where they got less successful as Osmondmania increased in the UK). The reason, though, is Osmondmania was still a thing amongst teenybop girls in 1974 and they couldnt vote for anything released after 1972, so they went the theme tune to their cartoon TV show. Yes The Osmonds, like The Jackson 5, were cartoon characters trying to get some of the David Cassidy/Partridge Family popstar/TV star action. I'm going to commit heresy now by saying, cough, I love this re-write of The Jackson 5's I Want You Back more than I love the original, the song is fab, the performance is fab, and the fashions are fab. To me, this is what I was watching on American variety shows in 1971 when I lived in Singapore, and The Osmonds were trying to become less barbershop quartet for grandparents and more relevant to the pop scene. They wrote Crazy Horses, went rocking, and pulled it off. One Bad Apple was a great stepping stone to that, and it showcased what a great lead singer Merrill was with pre-pubescent Donny as co-lead. Donny's voice changed at the same time mine did (circa late 1972) what with being the same age (he's a week older) and the end result wasn't as good as Merrill's. Fortunately Osmonds records were way better than solo Donny, Jimmy or Marie's, as they conspired to invade the UK singles chart. And I still stand by this one, love it.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 5th August 2022, 11:44 AM

18. HEY JUDE - The Beatles (1968)



Talking of WTAF moments, here's one. The Beatles. The Greatest Band Of All-Time. The Most Influential Band Of All-Time. The band that remain relevant and huge 52 years after they stopped existing and 2 of them are dead, and had a recording career of only 7 years. Cultural icons who changed the face of popular music. Yes them. They only have 2 tracks on the list, and Hey Jude is the highest. Certainly my fave Beatles track at the time, the one that got me obsessed with the UK singles chart when it got to number one in 1968, and Paul McCartney's definitive singalong tune, a song for John's young son Julian Lennon that broke records in terms of how long a single could be and still get airplay, the longest record to top the charts and far and away the most-popular Beatles record well into the 21st Century - it got to 12 in the Uk charts in 1976 when all the Beatles singles were reissued at once, the highest-charting - though these days it's Here Comes The Sun and maybe Let It Be that would top polls of the best Beatles song. I still remember this video on Top Of The Pops and Paul spear-heading a one-two in number ones and my love with Mary Hopkin's Those Were The Days (also not on the list). So, what's up with The Beatles in 1974? Not popular? Not at all, the double album Red & Blue albums had just been out, Band On The Run was topping the album charts for Wings, and George, John & Ringo all had number one singles in the USA in 1973/74. My theory remains that it's the sheer number of classic tracks that did them in, fans had around 30 or 40 to pick from (not to mention solo stuff) so votes would have been spread out widely amongst many a classic, whereas Osmonds fans only had the one they could vote for....

Posted by: Popchartfreak 5th August 2022, 01:16 PM

17. YOU'LL NEVER WALK ALONE - Gerry & The Pacemakers (1963)



Five-year-old me loved Gerry & The Pacemakers and his hat-trick of number ones in 1963 as Scouse-music took over the pop world thanks to The Beatles, but oddly enough it was I Like It and How Do You Do that took most of my love, this one was just a bit too adult and slow for me at the time, but it's certainly one I was aware of and liked. By the time of this poll I still liked it but still had more fond loving nostalgia for Ferry Cross The Mersey (at 60 on this list) or the two previous chart-toppers, but the years passing have done something amazing with this anthem - and it is a timeless anthem - and it's ability to defiantly remain positive in the face of adversity. It has become ever-more potent and spine-tingling with each rebirth: as an Anfield football anthem; in the face of tragedy (Gerry had another 80's chart-topper with it for charity and celebrity friends re-recording it to lesser effect), chart-topping cover versions (step aside Robson & Jerome) and regular chart returns even in the 21st century, most recently for Covid-19 charity and also after the sad passing of loveable Gerry. And my love for it has grown with the years, I genuinely get goosebumps when I hear it loud and singalong to it, I've seen Gerry in concert back in the day do it, I lived in Liverpool in 1965/6 when Liverpool was a world-famous place but awaiting a rebirth from it's rundown former-Empire-port days, and heavily urban poverty-stricken (we certainly were) but there was and is still a buzz about the City that never gets old, and this song is still the anthem. Not bad for a 1945 Rodgers & Hammerstein Carousel musical showtune with nothing to do with the UK or Liverpool or charities. Brilliantly rousing and still the definitive version, no others come close to being as worthy, bar the movie original.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 5th August 2022, 01:30 PM

16. WHEN A MAN LOVES A WOMAN - Percy Sledge (1966)



It took a Levi jeans ad in 1987 to convert me over to the lasting charm of this passionate 60's soul classic, and not just me it hit number 2 all over again in the UK. Percy's vocal is amazing, emotional and passionate but minus the constipated histrionic vocal styles so popular these days from lesser talents who should study and learn how to emote without straining the bowels (which reminds me, Michael Bolton had a cover hit with this one). It's pretty the much the only thing he's remembered for these days, but hey, one classic is enough, some acts have careers with years of hits that aren't remembered as well as this one song. It's not one I knew at the time it first hit, I must admit, not quite sure why, and when it came at 16 on the list I thought it was over-rated, not being that familiar with it but it's organ-gospel arrangement and class eventually shone through for me. I still think of the Levi ad though.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 5th August 2022, 01:50 PM

15. I HEARD IT THROUGH THE GRAPEVINE - Marvin Gaye (1968)



Talking of 60's soul classics made famous again in the 1980's by Levi jeans adverts, here's the one that kicked it all off, and the pop career of jeans model Nick Kamen to boot. The one in the laundromat who takes his pants off to wash while sitting in underwear reading a newspaper. Not that this top-notch perfect recording needs a hot model to sell it. Marvin Gaye was a hot ticket in the 60's, but mostly as duet partner to Tammi Terrell and Kim Weston, his solo stuff wasn't quite doing the big business. Maybe that's why Berry Gordy passed on this Whitfield & Strong perfection when presented with it in 1967, and bunged it our as an album track instead. Gladys Knight & The Pips duly had the very different funky hit version and that should have been that. Except that Gladys, soul legend herself and all that, just didn't have the moody gravitas that Marvin's version has. He felt and meant every word, the arrangement was flawless and original, so much so that even though it had topped the US charts and become the biggest-selling Motown single to date (somewhat justifying Gordy's decision) it came out as a single in late 1968 - and topped both the US and UK charts and became the new biggest-selling Motown record of all-time. Deservedly. It's pure early 1969 for me, a record I loved but was never my absolute number one fave of any given week. Until 1986 when it topped my chart at last, and to be honest it's stature has grown with the years. It cemented Marvin Gaye as a serious Motown soul contender and within 2 years he'd gone ecological and civil rights on his masterpiece album and single What's Going On. Which is not on the list, by virtue of not being a hit in the UK. I didn't know it, voters didn't know it. Any list of the greatest pre-1972 songs of all-time should have both tracks if they want to be taken seriously!

Posted by: King Rollo 5th August 2022, 11:20 PM

I haven't heard that Osmonds song before. It certainly seems out of place in the top 20 but I know how popular they were at the time this poll took place. A Whiter Shade Of Pale would be my own favourite from the top 20 so far.

Posted by: Jade 5th August 2022, 11:25 PM

I'm close to agreeing with Rollo that 'A Whiter Shade Of Pale' is my favourite in the top 20 so far... but 'Hey Jude'!! So it'll have to settle for second both incredible.

I went to see The Bootleg Beatles live for a second time last week (alongside the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra) and despite being an 'Abbey Road' and 'Let It Be' themed show, they of course squeezed 'Hey Jude' in the end too, such is its power as a crowd-pleasing closer.

The Osmonds certainly stick out like a sore thumb don't know that song well but I must admit that I do have a soft spot for the also mentioned 'Crazy Horses' as it's so different for them!

Posted by: Popchartfreak 8th August 2022, 09:30 AM

Procol Harum are very much in the Progrock vibe, so I can see the appeal. I've been toying with some 50-year-old progrock for BJSC...maybe!

Posted by: Popchartfreak 8th August 2022, 09:41 AM

Ive yet to see Bootleg Beatles, to my shame, so glad you're catching them on my behalf! Hey Jude for me, of course, in almost any list of songs It's hard to follow Hey Jude, so a closer makes perfect sense I wish The Osmonds had done more Crazy Horses-type stuff, though I also was a fan of a couple of the ballads despite it being VERY uncool for boys to ever admit that publicly in those days

Posted by: Popchartfreak 18th January 2023, 07:08 PM

sorry for the delay, life gets in the way. I'm determined to finish this now!


14. I'M STILL WAITING - Diana Ross (1971)



So back in 1974, Diana Ross was still a big star, and this was her only solo number to date, and pretty much a UK-only beloved classic - it was an album track Tony Blackburn persuaded Motown UK to release after plugging it heavily on his Radio 1 breakfast show. Tony was right, it was worthy, but it was a very minor US hit when they got round to it. Too subtle, I think. Sweet, touching, emotional but not overblown, everything is beautifully understated. When we returned from Singapore and was staying with grandma and grandad in coal-mining town Clipstone in September 1971 this was topping the charts on my first Top Of The Pops in over 2 years, and it was fab - along with me overdosing instantly on everything I heard and loved in one go, from knowing nothing in the charts (except Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep) to wanting to record everything onto reel to reel tape. Sadly that was somewhere on a ship in the Indian Ocean so I had to make do with asking for this record for Xmas 1971, along with 7 others. Diana, of course, sang this in 2022 for the Queen's final jubilee. Yay!

Posted by: Popchartfreak 18th January 2023, 07:21 PM

13. TERRY - Twinkle (1964)



Cue jaws dropping. What!? How!? This was the nations 13th-fav record in 1974!? I'm afraid it was, as said already (and more to come), death discs were huge with gloomy teenage girls, and this was the British attempt to get in on the action by a 16-year-old British teenager who took the Leader Of The Pack motif, one boyfriend, one motorcycle, one tragedy, but minus the class and histrionics of The Shangri-Las classic. Just to underline how bizarre this is, Leader Of The Pack was a UK hit in 1965 and a massive hit again in 1972 (top 3) and a massive top 5 hit again in 1976. proving it's worth and staying power with record buyers and music fans - and yet it's not in the rundown! Now, this isn't a BAD record as such, but it's not one I knew much (the BBC tended not to play "bad taste" death discs in the 60's, which made them even more cool to kids), and even in 1974 I was only vaguely aware of it, and mildly liked it. But it's no Leader Of The Pack or Johnny Remember Me - the greatest British death disc by quite some distance, John Leyton and Joe Meek's masterpiece still resonates 60-odd years later. Terry not so much.

Posted by: JulianT 18th January 2023, 07:55 PM

This thread had passed me by but will definitely read through it all at some point. Fascinating to see how tastes change over time.

The Twinkle track is pleasant enough but really!? Love the Diana Ross one though; that’s a bit unjustly forgotten I think.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 19th January 2023, 09:29 AM

Thanks Julian - There was a dance remix of Im Still Waiting in the 90's (which wasnt as good) but yes 60's pastiche Chain Reaction seems to be the preferred Diana chart-topper these days, which I like a lot but not as much as her early and mid 70's classics, her Supremes actual 60's classics, or her Chic period.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 19th January 2023, 10:51 AM

12. SAN FRANCISCO (BE SURE TO WEAR SOME FLOWERS IN YOUR HAIR) - Scott McKenzie (1967)



Hippie Summer Of Love anthem which was a mere 7 years ago in 1974, this song dominated the airwaves when I lived at RAF Valley on the Isle Of Anglesey, and the glorious summer of 1967, childhood happy days for me pretty much. Mum loved this record and so did I, and still do. Basically a Mamas & Papas record gifted to Scott McKenzie by John Phillips (the songwriter and daddy of future part of Wilson Phillips), this song caught the mood of the time of a war-sickened young generation and long-haired protest against the establishment and it's motto "peace and love man". Ridiculed on TV by the older generation and nobody listened to the environmentalist anti-war messages, of course, and nothing changed. It impacted me, though, basically I'm still a hippie, but minus the lack of showers and wild-flower picking and long hair.

The song? It's fabulous, earnestly sung by a great vocalist and has all the hallmark quality Mamas & Papas production, melody and emotional build. From the acoustic guitar/chimes gentle intro it slides beautifully to the main bridge talking about the new generation and movement, and there's not really a hook at all. It's just verse all the way - or all chorus if you like, but it's so understated it's more verse. Still refreshing.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 19th January 2023, 11:09 AM

11. WITHOUT YOU - Nilsson (1971)



Just missing the top 10, and just qualifying for the list by virtue of being released at the very end of 1971 just before smashing global charts in early 1972, this one grew in popularity and stature through the 70's in Greatest Record Ever polls. It was a hit all over agin in 1976, and survived a Mariah Carey mauling in 1994 and charted for Harry Nilsson again after his sad early death. I consider it a masterpiece, a tutorial in how to take a song nobody noticed (a Badfinger album track), completely re-invent it, and inject something special. In Harry's case, he went for sadness alternating with histrionic loss. When he sings he can't live without The One, he leaves you in no doubt that he means it. It's a hammer blow! Later vocal-show-offs warbling songs and adding 2000 notes that were never written originally do not improve on the original, they just sound ridiculous. I'm looking at you Ken Lee, a hilarious unintentional parody of an unintentional parody.

Harry was pure class. Everything he did was class. He could write his own chart-toppers (David Cassidy had only just left the top spot with The Puppy Song as voters were gathering), and he knew how to interpret songs with class. A flawless singer, a man not looking for chart success he decided to follow-up a massive ballad with a calypso whimsical song called Coconut. Just because he could. His back catalogue is varied and amazing, I highly recommend his 1969 hit Everybody's Talking from the great movie Midnight Cowboy, and All I Think About Is You from 1977. Oh, and I sneaked one of his fabulous songs into the BJSC in a cover version 10 years ago now - One. Because everybody needs some Nilsson in their life.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 19th January 2023, 03:27 PM

10. GO NOW! - The Moody Blues (1964)



Moody Blues mark 1, the Beat Groups version with the terrific Go Now, all moody and post-Beatles-breakthrough, co-incidentally fronted by Denny Laine, future member of Wings with Paul & Linda McCartney (and a 2nd go on top with Mull Of Kintyre). A cover of a Blues song from the same year by Bessie Banks (and featuring Whitney's Houston mum and aunt on vocals), The Moody Blues upped the mood with a striking piano riff and got the global hit...and then nothing else much till Denny Laine left and Justin Hayward joined, and they morphed into a Progrock band, for all intents and purposes. Best remembered these days for Nights In White Satin, the surprise is that record not featuring anywhere - although a minor 1968 hit, it was top 10 in 1972 and would again in 1979, so it was clearly the lasting classic. And so it supports my ongoing theory that this chart was mostly voted for by girls and women, and not boys and men who would have gone for Nights In White Satin for sure. I love 'em both though.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 19th January 2023, 03:38 PM

9. EBONY EYES - The Everly Brothers (1962)



Death disc alert! There are plenty of well-known Everly Brothers songs these days, still, but this isn't one of them. I never heard it in the 60's (being a death disc - fiancee is in an aircrash on her way to the wedding) and this was the first time I recall hearing it, and I've barely heard it in the almost 50-years since. It's depressing, and almost laughably overly-sincere. I mean, clearly doomed romances spoke to girls at the time. maybe it was the energy crisis power cuts and 3-day weeks and TV off at 10pm and they were just feeling gloomy while the rest of us whooping it up to Merry Christmas Everybody and I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday, but I can assure you things weren't THAT miserable! Give me any of the Everly hits other than the 2 that made the top 100! Not a classic.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 19th January 2023, 03:46 PM

8. SEALED WITH A KISS - Brian Hyland (1962)



Ah, this is much better for a 1962 track! Brian already has my heart for pre-school fave Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini, and this was setting out it's stall to be a re-issued UK top 10 again within 12 months of the top 10 result. It still sounded good in 1975, and it still sounded OK when Jason Donovan topped the chart in 1989 with an inferior cover. The twangy guitar and haunting mouth organ underpin this otherwise teen-appealing "missing the girlfriend over the summer holidays" song. Of course it's old-fashioned these days, the notion of sending a letter and not texting 10 times a day or whats-apping, so it's no chance of ever getting covered again, but as period pieces go, it's still sweet and innocent.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 19th January 2023, 03:57 PM

7. SPACE ODDITY - David Bowie (1969)



Incredibly I missed this "novelty" song in late 1969 - it never made the airwaves in Singapore, which is a great shame as I'd been mind-blown by the Moon Landing in July before we left the UK, and I loved all and anything to do with space travel (still do), and Apollo 12 was on the way without so much fanfare (due to a faulty TV camera). I was cuttings pictures out of newspapers - but not of David Bowie. I didn't know who he was till I saw a sci-fi looking Glam wannabe on Lift Off With Ayshea in 1972 singing Starman. Then Bowie exploded, he was huge in 1972 and 1973, this got a US release in 1973 and I started to hear it on the radio and got to hear what I'd missed. Talk about ahead of his time! By voting-time Bowie was top pop star in the country give or take a Slade or Elton John or so and this was the only Bowie hit to qualify for the run-down - and as I will be repeating, it was a sign for a re-issue in 1975, and a UK chart-topper 6 years late. It's still a great record and still widely-known, haunting and oddly moving, with major Tom popping up in 2 more chart-toppers for David Bowie in my charts (1980's Ashes To Ashes and 1995's Hallo Spaceboy with the Pet Shop Boys) not to mention the fab non-UK-hit global smash Major Tom for Peter Schilling in 1984.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 19th January 2023, 04:09 PM

6. HEY THERE LONELY GIRL - Eddie Holman (1970)



This one was an oddity for the UK - a 1970 soul smash in the USA, sounding much older than that with its gentle falsetto ballad and strings arrangement, but it flopped in the UK. The reason for that is it was originally recorded in 1963 by Ruby And The Romantics with the gender-switch Hey There Lonely Boy. I'm assuming soul-boy Tony Blackburn was instrumental in making this popular on his Radio 1 Breakfast Show (it's usually either the Northern Soul scene or Tony, and you cant dance to this one!), but whatever the reason it got voted in at 6, demand was noted, and it was duly re-issued in 1974 and went top 5 in the UK. I've always found it sweet and charming. Still do.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 23rd January 2023, 12:13 PM

5. BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATER - Simon & Garfunkel (1970)



I've used the word already, but it's justified again: Masterpiece. This is a perfect record, a brilliant song, a stunning vocal from Art Garfunkel and the title of one of the greatest albums of all-time, no question, a monster success and then that was it. The end of Simon & Garfunkel as a recording act. They both had classic solo moments but nothing to match the majesty of this track and that album. Paul wrote and created this, Art did a solo vocal, and his range is much wider than Paul's - he can hit the sweet spot that Simon never could, which is why solo Simon never had the same emotional impact and solo Garfunkel never had quite the songwriting mastery. It needed both. This starts slow, builds, peaks and ends. Covered by Aretha Franklin and a million others, not even the greatest singers can match the original. I was living in Singapore, next to Changi Prison, when this was dominating the world airwaves, and dad borrowed the album from the next-door-neighbours to record the singles on the reel-to-reel. Bliss. This should gave been at number 2 on this rundown.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 23rd January 2023, 12:28 PM

4. YOU'VE LOST THAT LOVIN' FEELIN' - The Righteous Brothers (1965)



...and this should have been top of the listing. The greatest recorded performance by a male duet ever. Try and offer up any alternative and they won't match up, I guarantee it. Bill Medley and Bobby Hatfield are both brilliant, and very different, singers - but together they produce magic, and Phil Spector was at his top-notch best on this creation. The song is so awesome it's much-covered - Cilla, bless her, had a massive hit cover at the same time this was topping charts, but frankly nobody should even try. This record is untouchably perfect in every way, every vocal touch, the vocal dancing of the 2 singers as it reaches a histrionic crescendo, and the slow build. Never was a broken heart given voice like this. I grew up with the song, I was 7 when I first heard it. Mum adored the record (and so did dad) it was one of her all-time favourites, and I was mad on the UK charts when it hit again in 1969 - at which point I liked it a lot but it wasn't my top favourite. By 1975 it charted again, and then during the 80's it's stature just started to grow and grow even more, eventually going top 3 in 1990 following on from Ghost's Unchained Melody, and by which point I had been totally converted to my current viewpoint: it's perfection, it's timeless, it's jaw-droppingly emotional.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 23rd January 2023, 12:41 PM

3. ALBATROSS - Fleetwood Mac (1968)



Lovely gentle instrumental and Fleetwood Mac continue to sell on a weekly basis - but their classic album was still 3 years in the future and the line-up substantially different from this early Blues classic. Why is it so high, given this never makes any rundowns these days? It had topped the UK chart in early 1969, then Fleetwood Mac had 2 years of Blues/Rock-based hits guided by the troubled Peter Green, so they had a bigger fan-base to call-on - but mostly it was a big hit in 1973 all over again, hitting number 2, so it was fresh in people's minds as they voted. It's lovely, but it's no Rumours, and not even a Little Lies or Everywhere.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 23rd January 2023, 01:51 PM

2. HONEY - Bobby Goldsboro (1968)



OK, final death disc on the list - and I'm torn with this one. It's almost unbearably sad and potentially twee, telling the everyday things a young husband misses after his young wife dies, and it walks a tightrope of good taste. Whether it falls off one one side or the other is personal, I find. I was aware of the song, quite liked it, and loved Bobby Goldsboro's voice from his 1973 atmospheric gem Summer, The First Time (you won't hear it much these days) - but number 2? I doubt I saw that coming, though it had been an actual number 2 in 1968. Well, sure enough it was re-issued after the results of the poll and hit UK number 2 again in Spring 1975 when I lived near Gloucester, by which point I was dealing with the shock death of a recent classmate Martin Milliard in a motorbike accident aged 16 or 17. His best mate Davvy was in my 6th form and really cut up by it, so I tried to help a bit just with sympathy and letting him talk. One breaktime someone slagged off this record, and I stuck up for it, feeling quite sad and trying to understand loss the record hit home a bit more personally to me, and Davvy also felt empathy with the sentiment and spoke up. So, I guess it might depend on your personal circumstances - but I still find it sad emotionally, and always will.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 23rd January 2023, 02:18 PM

1. YOUNG GIRL - Gary Puckett & The Union Gap (1968)



And so the most-popular record of all-time with young girls and women was a record about a Young Girl lying about her age to a man a few years older than her. Her age is never stated, but we assume she's under-age and looks very mature. In these woke-aware days some regard this record as a bit dodgy in 2023. I just don't see it - the male singer (the fab Gary Puckett has an amazing soaring vocal) was 25 at the time and the song is clearly about his telling her to go home now he's found out she was lying about her age cos he's afraid it might go "too far". As in, as per the societal norm of the time, they hadn't yet "done it". The Union Gap had a great string of singles, Lady Willpower being one that can get airplay and is almost as good a follow-up to this 1968 UK chart-topper. As for why girls went mad on it? Did many girls at that time try and look older and and want older boyfriends? Yes, they certainly did, albeit usually just a year or 2 older to get one up on the competition. I loved this record when I was 10, dad bought a compilation album of 1968 hits in Singapore, and this record was on it, and having topped the poll it was top 10 again in 1974 either just before or just after, I can't recall the timing. I think it was more 60's generation buying it than 1974 music fans (they were more into The Osmonds, David Cassidy and Glam Rock or Northern Soul) but the principle of fancying pop stars a few years older was still alive and kicking. It was an odd one to win though, and hasn't turned up in any beyond the 70's.

Posted by: Brer 23rd January 2023, 05:28 PM

Well that's a dreadful #1 and I've not heard of #2 to my knowledge so if I pretend 3-5 are the real top 3 that's pretty good

Well done getting this finished, I think I only skim read some parts of it but have read the top end properly at least! A very intriguing snapshot.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 23rd January 2023, 06:10 PM

Thanks bre it was frustrating me i never get time to finish anything! Hooeay got it done at long last! As ive never found it on the net i thought it might be of minor historical interest if only to show that some music is not as much rated with the passage of time!

Posted by: King Rollo 23rd January 2023, 06:11 PM

I played the Everly Brothers song as I didn't know it. They have much better songs than that one. Otherwise that's a good top 10. I see I predicted Bridge Over Troubled Water to be number 1 so I was only 4 places out.

If the order of the top 5 was reversed, it would look better.

Posted by: Jade 23rd January 2023, 06:20 PM

Thanks for your persistence with this John, what a fascinating time capsule!

I'm a huge fan of 'Albatross' so it's refreshing to be taken back to a time when it was especially revered, when Rumours (understandably!) soaks up a lot of the adulation nowadays. It didn't exist yet, but still 'Space Oddity' and 'Bridge Over Troubled Water' are my other biggest highlights of the top 10, the former is my 2nd favourite Bowie song after 'Life On Mars?'

Posted by: JulianT 23rd January 2023, 07:37 PM

Thanks for sharing this! Although the more I read the more horrified I am by the taste on display haha. What’s with all the death records and the lack of Beatles in particular? I do actually quite like Young Girl though, and there are some other classics in the Top 10.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 23rd January 2023, 07:57 PM

Thanks Rollo, and I think everyone would agree with that suggestion to reverse the top 5 I agree about Ebony Eyes, so many great songs in their repertoire, but that's not one of 'em!

Posted by: Popchartfreak 23rd January 2023, 08:04 PM

Thanks Jade and good to hear you love Albatross. When I was 10 i loved the tune, but it got a bit overshadowed latterly - plus I can never get the image of John Cleese in a lady ice-cream seller get-up in a cinema, in a Monty Python sketch, shouting "Albatross! Albatross!" instead of ice-cream in his portable ice-cream tray there was a stuffed albatross. Dampens the haunting loveliness of the song a bit

Life On Mars is my top Bowie too, but Space Oddity is well up there! Topped my chart in 1975 as well as the UK's.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 23rd January 2023, 08:08 PM

Thanks Julian You're right about some of the taste on display too! Story songs about people dying is very much a 20th century thing (and earlier!) I can't imagine one making the charts these days, except as a genuine tribute to an actual partner, parent, child or something.