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 John's Top 947 (!!!), chart points 1968 to 2023 |
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 Feb 4 2019, 04:35 PM
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#261
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 BuzzJack Legend
Joined: 18 July 2012
Posts: 22,798 User: 17,376 
  
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615. MERCY MERCY ME/I WANT YOU Robert Palmer (1991) 1,085,100
Robert Palmer's only listed track is also a cover of a fab track off Marvin Gaye's timeless classic album What's Going On, mixed with a cover of Gaye's I Want You, neither of them UK hits in the original versions, criminally. Robert did a fab tasteful mash-up, though, still sounds good, and the message is even more desperately relevant than it was in 1971, and 1991. |
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Feb 4 2019, 04:45 PM
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#262
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BuzzJack Legend
Joined: 18 July 2012
Posts: 22,798 User: 17,376
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614. WHERE THE STREETS HAVE NO NAME/CAN'T TAKE MY EYES OFF YOU Pet Shop Boys (1991) 1,085,100
By pure coincidence, another cover version mash-up from 1991 on the exact same points, this time from the Pet Shop Boys, back in pop mode after the relative chart underperfomances of the Behaviour album tracks. This one is hilarious from start to end: the boys decided to take the piss out of U2 who were getting very Oh-so-serious with their own mythological rock images and work after the brilliant The Joshua Tree, and covered the rattling rock Where The Streets Have No Name from the album to great effect by mashing it up with one of the campest gay dance covers of a Frankie Valli classic from The Boystown Gang as the inspiration. Cue cowboy suits, a romping dance pop track, a big hit, and U2 changing creative direction into a more experimental phase, and no bombast. |
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Feb 4 2019, 04:52 PM
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#263
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BuzzJack Legend
Joined: 18 July 2012
Posts: 22,798 User: 17,376
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613. TRUE FAITH New Order (1987) 1,086,000
New Order's masterpiece - sorry Blue Order is also in the list but this is my fave, and here by virtue of the Quincy Jones 90's remix which took it to the top of my charts after it had merely gone top 5 first time round. Shockingly it's not the top-rated New Order track, and neither is Blue Monday, there's one more yet to come and a gold star to anyone who can guess what it is. No chance! This rhythm is just gorgeously insistent, the video is quirky and fab, and just an all-round perfect record in it's original form, though the remix is pretty damn fine too, tweeked but not ruined. No it's not a clue, it's not Ruined In A Day.... |
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Feb 7 2019, 09:48 AM
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#264
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BuzzJack Legend
Joined: 18 July 2012
Posts: 22,798 User: 17,376
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612. DANGEROUS - Roxette (1990) 1,086,150
Here by virtue of having a good run as an American hit while I was on holiday in Florida for the first time in spring 1990, followed by double A-side UK success along with a reissued Look Into Your Heart, they got listed together by which time my affections had switched to Look Into Your Heart, so it's position here is extremely flattered because in those days I listed double A sides together - these days they would be split away from one another and this wouldn't have made the top 600. Indeed it's not even one of their 10 best records, yet here it is the highest of 3 entries on the list. That's the problem with chart sales and double A sides  611. THERE MUST BE AN ANGEL (PLAYING WITH MY HEART) Eurythmics (1985) 1,086,650 An OTT tongue-in-cheek entry from Annie & Dave gives them the second of 3 entries on the list, plus one more for Annie to come. Normally they go for dark lyrics on uptempo synth beats, or later, stadium rock, this one was a bit of fun, wailing angels & harps incorporated, and they nabbed Stevie Wonder for the harmonica solo to boot. There aren't enough harmonica solo's in pop anymore! Even the video is a right ol' laugh. |
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Feb 7 2019, 01:43 PM
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#265
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BuzzJack Platinum Member
Joined: 3 January 2017
Posts: 10,130 User: 23,961
   
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Good to see this back again. Once you can get beyond number 600,it will all be downhill from there.
I'll have a guess at Fine Time to be the New Order song still to come. |
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Feb 8 2019, 10:23 AM
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#266
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BuzzJack Legend
Joined: 18 July 2012
Posts: 22,798 User: 17,376
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QUOTE(King Rollo @ Feb 7 2019, 01:43 PM)  Good to see this back again. Once you can get beyond number 600,it will all be downhill from there. I'll have a guess at Fine Time to be the New Order song still to come. Thanks Rollo, 600 is the magic number! The New Order track is not Fine Time sadly (though I liked that one)
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Feb 8 2019, 10:35 AM
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#267
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BuzzJack Legend
Joined: 18 July 2012
Posts: 22,798 User: 17,376
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610. ONE LAST NIGHT Vaults (2015) 1,087,250
From the Fifty Shades Of Grey soundtrack, and not a hit, which is so unfair as it's sensitive, classy and fab. Vaults has never really had a commercial breakthrough which is a great shame. Introduced to me by our own HarryEzra as a rare (for me) after-plug session of new tracks to comment on and I fell in love with it immediately. Fab! |
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Feb 11 2019, 07:25 PM
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#268
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BuzzJack Legend
Joined: 18 July 2012
Posts: 22,798 User: 17,376
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609. PUT YOURSELF IN MY PLACE - Kylie Minogue (1994) 1,087,400
The one that turned me into a bonafide Kylie fan, her early stuff had a few good poppy disposable hits among the more mundane, then she changed her image with Better The Devil You Know and started a great run of singles before going indie away from stock Aitken & Waterman. I loved the hook and the video to this one. Anything with outer space, and throw in Barbarella influences, and I'm convinced. In retrospect it's not quite up Better The Devil, Step Back In Time, and Confide In Me, but it's still pretty fab, and the first and earliest of 6 Kylie tracks on the list. |
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Feb 11 2019, 07:32 PM
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#269
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BuzzJack Legend
Joined: 18 July 2012
Posts: 22,798 User: 17,376
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608. TELL IT TO MY HEART - Taylor Dayne (1988) 1,087,450
a triffic 1987 synth dance track with a biiiig diva sensibility and sung with passion by Taylor, I adored this one in January 1988, not long after I'd returned from California and the South-West, so I was well up for US dance tracks that had a bit of Pet Shop Boys feel to them. Covered to much lesser effect a decade on, the original is the best, and the video is also a goodie, wiping the floor with rivals in the days of teen girl idols like Tiffany and Debbie Gibson. |
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Feb 11 2019, 07:46 PM
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#270
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BuzzJack Legend
Joined: 18 July 2012
Posts: 22,798 User: 17,376
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607. ROCK & ROLL PART 2 - Gary Glitter (1972) 1,088,550
His entire record career now tarnished beyond redemption, let's just instead focus on Mike Leander who was the brains and production driving force behind Gary Glitter records and the Glitter Band's similarly blokey tribal chanting side career, who have also suffered from the fall-out This former stadium anthem was a tribal-drum worldwide hit, and huge in the USA too, unlike all of Glitter's follow-up's in the UK where he went from strength to strength and inspired acts like Joan Jett. Part 1 had the ego-on-legs-who-killed-off-the-name-Gary singing, but it was the instrumental (bar the hey hey's) flip that was the big hit and the best Mike Leander-produced record. |
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Feb 11 2019, 07:55 PM
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#271
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BuzzJack Legend
Joined: 18 July 2012
Posts: 22,798 User: 17,376
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606. YOU SPIN ME ROUND (LIKE A RECORD) - Dead Or Alive (1984) 1,090,200
This Hi-NRG groundbreaker took ages from debuting in 1984 to top both the UK and my charts in 1985, a real grower and much-loved classic now, I had to argue how fab it was to an older work-colleague who headed the team of 3 as we surveyed half of the roads in Dorset in the mid-80's - we had a radio in the van switched to radio 1. I was right and he was wrong, let's leave it at that. It was the start of a great run of similar-sounding singles, and made the late Pete Burns quite famous, what with his androgyny and all things Scouse being top of the hit parade in those days. Oh, yes, it also started that SAW-sound in a good way before they took over the charts entirely and became a minor nuisance circa 1988/89. |
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Mar 19 2019, 07:35 PM
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#272
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BuzzJack Legend
Joined: 18 July 2012
Posts: 22,798 User: 17,376
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Hey Ho, been another track go up into the 600, so everything gets shifted down one place again - I really should have thought this through and frozen it at one point or other!
606. THAT LOOK IN YOUR EYE - Ali Campbell featuring Pamela Starks (1995) 1,090,750 I literally haven't heard this in 23 years, it's never played on radio or anywhere else, and I've never reviewed 1995 charts, so first impression is - it's sweet, but what's it doing in my list?! I think I liked the melody, and Ali's voice is so under-rated and unique, Pamela (who?) does a good job too and I'm a sucker for duets. He was taking a break from UB40 at the time, these days he's taking a much longer break, but has turned 2 of his former mates to record & tour as their own version of UB40 away from his brother's name-holding version. Outrageously there are no UB40 tracks on my list, not Food For Thought, Kingston Town or Don't Break My Heart (all much better) and not Red Red Wine or Can't Help falling In Love, their actual chart-toppers. |
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Mar 19 2019, 07:44 PM
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#273
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BuzzJack Legend
Joined: 18 July 2012
Posts: 22,798 User: 17,376
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605. SWEET DREAMS (ARE MADE OF THIS) - Eurythmics (1983) 1,091,900
Talking of duo's (rather than duets) here's Dave n Annie's breakthrough synth classic, still fresh, menacing, exciting, passionately cold, and a genuinely brilliant record from a consistently great 80's act. The video was groundbreaking too, Annie going all gender-bending from the woman's point of view, and let's not forget her powerfully immaculate vocals. Sadly this is the highest of Eurythmics' 3 great singles on my list, no room for near-misses like Sex Crime (1984), nor fab tracks like Here Comes The Rain Again and Love Is A Stranger. Annie will be back though..... |
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Mar 19 2019, 07:52 PM
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#274
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BuzzJack Legend
Joined: 18 July 2012
Posts: 22,798 User: 17,376
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604. IMITATION OF LIFE - REM (2001) 1,095,250
First off, this later-career track from REM hooked me with the fabulous video - I actually bought the DVD single (yes they used to have such a thing!) cos I couldn't get enough of all the fascinating people in and composition of the video, and the record was beautifully jangly REM, far away from dirge-REM who tended to get on my nerves (bar the brilliant Find The River). It's their only listing, so is it their best record? No. That's clearly Losing My Religion, which I chart-under-appreciated at the time, and it needs a big movie moment to give it a boost again. Their biggest chart-song otherwise for me, though, was Crush With Eyeliner (see Captain Marvel for more), though I also was partial to a cover of Tommy James' Draggin' The Line.... |
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Mar 22 2019, 05:18 PM
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#275
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BuzzJack Legend
Joined: 18 July 2012
Posts: 22,798 User: 17,376
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603. THE CRUNCH - The Rah Band (1977) 1,095,350
It was the summer of '77, Punk Rock & Disco ruled, and electronic music was stirring, I had left school and was waiting to go to Uni, and Elvis died suddenly. This topped my charts, a sort of semi-synth/semi-funky quirky instrumental with random noises, and Richard Hewson gathered some folk together for a TOTP appearance that was striking, but ruined by having to do a pre-record with the generally-bored TOTP orchestra. So one of those are here, followed by the original better record. The Rah Band went on to jazz-funk smooth 80's dance with Clouds Across The Moon, and Hewson, well he'd already had a career as an arranger for The Beatles, The Bee Gees, Diana Ross, Cliff, Fleetwood Mac, and the arrangement for the band Jigsaw (Sky High) who were to be my very first live gig a few months later at Uni, so having some Rah Band time to himself for a decade or so was only fair. |
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Mar 22 2019, 05:34 PM
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#276
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BuzzJack Legend
Joined: 18 July 2012
Posts: 22,798 User: 17,376
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602. FOOTSEE - Wigans Chosen Few (1968/1975) 1,095,600
The Wigan Casino Northern Soul nights were legendary in the early 70's among teens, and the reason so many obscure 60's tracks cluttered up the UK charts of the late 60's and early 70's, as kids travelled far and wide to get their Oxford Bags trousers flapping around the dancefloor, especially lads showing off their fitness, and tight tops, tight crotch and baggy 30's-retro-styled baggy trouser-legs (see clip) Footsie wasn't the greatest-ever Northern Soul track (plenty more of those to come) but it went top 5 for me in 1975 ahead of a 12" reissue in 1977 at a time I was doing an oldies chart to exclude all the hordes of 12" and picture-disc and singles sets that were out in 1976/78. Dating from 1968, and an obscure Canadian Band The Chosen Few, Footsee became one of the first remixes - essentially overdubbed with car noises and stuff, speeded up, and crowd chanting thrown in - for a bit of a laugh. Should this be in the chart? NO! It wouldn't be if not for the reissue, and when I see awesome classics like John Lennon's #9 Dream (in the charts of 1975 at that time) not in the list, I feel like rewriting my own chart history Yet there it is, warts and all. The dancing's great though.
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Mar 22 2019, 05:42 PM
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#277
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BuzzJack Legend
Joined: 18 July 2012
Posts: 22,798 User: 17,376
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601. FLY BY II - Blue (2002) 1,096,850
This was a great pop track for a boyband that got a lot of stick. Always a bit more adult than your average group of 4 lads singing someone else's songs and productions, and at least they weren't all whiter than bland white pretty-boy 17-year-olds. They could sing, they had personality. Fly By II was their best record, though others, like debut Rise Up, or even their quite successful comeback via Eurovision, I Can, were pretty good too. Yes those were the days when the UK entered tracks that got top 5 of the Eurovision popular vote, aaahh good times.....! |
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Mar 22 2019, 05:45 PM
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#278
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BuzzJack Legend
Joined: 18 July 2012
Posts: 22,798 User: 17,376
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and with that I'm freezing the top 600, no more new entries! The rest of the countdown will stay consistent and I may move the top 500 to the personal charts thread, see how it goes!
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Mar 22 2019, 06:31 PM
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#279
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 Mansonette
Joined: 7 March 2006
Posts: 35,255 User: 54
            
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That REM track is great, it's definitely one of their best so nice to see it appear in here
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Mar 23 2019, 12:02 AM
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#280
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BuzzJack Platinum Member
Joined: 3 January 2017
Posts: 10,130 User: 23,961
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I remember The Crunch was in the chart around the same time as Oxygene by Jean Michel Jarre and Magic Fly by Space. All of them were synth based instrumentals which were a big contrast to the ballads,disco and pop songs that I was used to seeing performed on Top Of The Pops.
I remember that Footsee song as well,great choice. |
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