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 John's Top 947 (!!!), chart points 1968 to 2023 |
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 23rd January 2021, 04:51 PM
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#401
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 BuzzJack Legend
Joined: 18 July 2012
Posts: 23,022 User: 17,376 
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541. THE ROAD TO MANDALAY - Robbie Williams (2001) 1,144,550
This was a great track, but got overshadowed by the boring Eternity on this double-A-side, for some reason. It didn't actually top my chart, but still "outsold" most of those that did - The Robster has had 14 chart-toppers, but this is the 2nd of 6 on the rundown, not counting Take That tracks. It's a great song, and the bom-bom-bom's returned a long-forgotten pop-music tradition to the charts. It also marked the dividing line between Robbie's Imperial Phase (as the Pet Shop Boys might call it) and his more sporadic career, and his album consistency with Sing When You're Winning - much more patchy from here on. |
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23rd January 2021, 05:06 PM
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#402
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BuzzJack Legend
Joined: 18 July 2012
Posts: 23,022 User: 17,376
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540. RHINESTONE COWBOY - Glen Campbell (1975) 1,146,050
Rhinestone Cowboy was a return to UK hitmaking for the fabulous Glen, after a gap of 4 years as his run of Jimmy Webb winning tunes ran-out - Jimmy was still writing them for him, but they lost their evocative memorable edge. This was an instant fave for me, though it took a few months to chart in the UK singles chart, which is why its chart-run was extended for me. It's glossy, string-laden, and pure Americana and popcountry - though this cover of a Larry Weiss flop, was a lyric Glen related to - persevering against the odds, and coming up smelling of rhinestone roses: Glen had paid his dues as a session musician for years before hitting the big time. This, more than any other, is his personal signature song for the public - though not his absolute greatest record, it's still fab. 3rd of 10 Campbell tracks to feature. |
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23rd January 2021, 05:24 PM
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#403
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BuzzJack Legend
Joined: 18 July 2012
Posts: 23,022 User: 17,376
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539. ELENORE - The Turtles (1968) 1,146,200
I absolutely love this record. I was 10, and it inspired me to start my own personal charts in late 1968. I already knew the songs of the Turtles, Happy Together (covered by Jason Donovan years later) and She'd Rather Be With Me, both fab, but I had no idea what they looked like, being as UK TV at that time rarely had US pop stars featured until they'd got fairly big. Turns out the duo of Howard Kaylan & Mark Volman were not what you'd call photogenic popstars, but they knew how to write great pop songs. Probably their best-known hit (a cover) these days is the much-covered You Showed Me (Lightning Seeds, Salt 'n' Pepa), but their entire hits collection is pretty good, especially Elenore. As they had gotten less-commercial, and more into the art of music, the story goes the record company asked them to write another pop song like Happy Together. So, pissed off, they wrote Elenore, designed to be a parody of pop song cliches lyrically, notably featuring "you're my pride and joy etcetera" indicating they couldn't be arsed to finish the sentence. Turns out that was the most memorable bit apart from the amazing hook, both funny and effective at the same time. By 1970 they broke up the group, became studio session musicians and singers known as Flo & Eddie, and appeared on...Frank Zappa's Mothers Of Invention, T.Rex's Electric Warrior & The Slider albums and singles like Get It On, Bruce Springsteen's Hungry Heart, samples of De La Soul, and an Alice Cooper album to boot. Not bad, really, then... |
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5th February 2021, 12:02 PM
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#404
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BuzzJack Legend
Joined: 18 July 2012
Posts: 23,022 User: 17,376
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538. EVEN BETTER THAN THE REAL THING / (PERFECTO MIX) - U2 (1992) 1,146,300
These days generally slagged-off, once upon a time lauded, and everything in between, but I've always got time for Bono and the lads, I liked them from the right-off when they did Fire on Top Of The Pops, started getting good with New Year's Day and then hit the jackpot with the brilliant Pride (In The Name Of Love). Sadly, this is the second of only two on the list, despite obviously great tracks like One, Beautiful Day and quirky stuff like Lemon. They have one more song on the countdown though. Even Better Than The Real Thing came out as a more traditional rock number on Achtung Baby and they backed it up with the then-hot dance-producer Perfecto dance mix, completely different and both versions worked. My preference is for the original version, on balance, but there's not much between them, and that's why combined sales was a logical move. |
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5th February 2021, 12:23 PM
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#405
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BuzzJack Legend
Joined: 18 July 2012
Posts: 23,022 User: 17,376
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537. POPCORN - Hot Butter (1972) 1,146,800
It's 1972, I'm at the start of the 4th year at school, and one of the more bully-types kids who generally made my life a misery sat at the same table as me at dinner-time and we got to talking about pop music (as I tend to do) and I told him about this great new record called Popcorn by Hot Butter. He thought it was a gag, I assured him it wasn't and explained him what it sounded like: like nothing else that had been a hit before, possible exception of Chicory Tip's Son Of My Father which debuted proper synth sounds into number one records earlier that year - a Giorgio Moroder song, who else! Taken off the 1969 Music To Moog By album by New York composer Gershon Kingsley, it was given a re-record in 1971 under the pseudonym, and eventually became a worldwide hit, ushering a new entirely-synth-based sound that bided it's time for 5 years until I Feel Love created the "woah!" moment that hit me across the face on first listen and made it bloody obvious that music was about to change in a big way. Popcorn, is as suggested by the title, Pop, corny, bubblegum, but a) I like pop, b) I like bubblegum and c) I like records that sound like nothing else on Earth, so 14-year-old me loved it, and I also learnt a lesson: just because bullies talk to you one day doesn't mean that they suddenly turn into decent human beings, I still got punched in the face at the back of a Geography lesson for no reason whatsoever. |
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5th February 2021, 12:39 PM
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#406
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BuzzJack Legend
Joined: 18 July 2012
Posts: 23,022 User: 17,376
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As I can't be bothered to re-number my countdown as new tracks enter high, they will just feature as bonus interruptions! So here's a recent one:
FADES AWAY - Avicii featuring Mishcatt (2019) 1,148,100 The damaged Avicii was a tragic loss to music and his loved ones, and his final album was filled with obviously-now statements about his mental health, which made the touching dance songs and beats all the more sad. I always liked his records, some of them were bigger than others, but this posthumous track was the one that hit me the most. Noonie Bao did the album version guest vocal, but at the tribute concert to Tim Bergling, Puerto Rican singer MishCatt guested on an emotional performance of the track, and so she got the single release version. And it's fab. |
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10th February 2021, 06:46 PM
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#407
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BuzzJack Legend
Joined: 18 July 2012
Posts: 23,022 User: 17,376
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536. LET'S STAY TOGETHER - Al Green (1972) 1,148,950
Soul music in the early 70's was the Bees-Knees and few did it better than Al Green, and best of all his sensual ballads was this 1972 hit, Let's Stay Together. Al never did Top Of The Pops that I recall, so I had no idea he was a bit of a hot pin-up, I just loved his records, covered by the liked of Texas (Tired Of Being Alone) and Tina Turner (this song, which effectively brought her back from the wilderness and turned her into an 80's Superstar, following a key performance of it on The Tube). By the 80's Al Green had turned his back on the music biz and become a Preacher, but still dabbled here and there, for example along with Annie Lennox on Put A Little Love In Your Heart. Since then his back catalogue has only looked even better as the years go by. His Greatest Hits should be an essential in any music fan's dig into the archives. |
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10th February 2021, 06:55 PM
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#408
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BuzzJack Legend
Joined: 18 July 2012
Posts: 23,022 User: 17,376
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535. BREAKING DOWN THE WALLS OF HEARTACHE - The Bandwagon (1968) 1,149,400
Johnny Johnson later got lead credits on Bandwagon hits like Blame It On The Pony Express, but on this funky dancefloor groove with Northern Soul beats beloved in the early 70's UK, he was rockin' my delighted 10-year-old ears. Great record, and not nearly as well-known as it deserves. Sadly, Johnny died in 1979, but his sound influenced Kevin Rowland & Dexy's Midnight Runners (they did a cover of this, and the influence is clear). |
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10th February 2021, 07:08 PM
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#409
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BuzzJack Legend
Joined: 18 July 2012
Posts: 23,022 User: 17,376
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534. (THERE'S) ALWAYS SOMETHING THERE TO REMIND ME - Sandie Shaw (1964) 1,150,300
This record fills me with waves of nostalgic love for my childhood years. Aged 6 the love I had for this record was almost physical, like getting butterflies in the stomache. Absolutely loved it and loved young Sandie Shaw, loved the Bacharach/David song and in fact I usually loved anything Bacharach & David well into the 70's, right from an early age their brand of melodic, sophisticated Easy Listening never failed to hit the spot with me, whoever was singing it, Sandie, Cilla, Herb Alpert, Carpenters or most of all Dionne Warwick who did the original to this and made a career out losing out to British covers. Deservedly in this case, Sandie's voice is fab, and her follow-ups divine, like the fab Long Live Love, Girl Don't Come or her 80's Morrissey-spearheaded revival on Hand In Glove. She was second only to Dusty Springfield in 60's British female cool. Bizarrely, this wasn't well-known in the States until an 80's synth cover grabbed some fame. Not anywhere near in my affections of this one, though - this is in the chart based on a re-issue, so had I been charting in 1964, in amongst my Doctor Who TV enthralment, or cutting bits out of magazines of film and pop stars to stick in Scrap Books, or reading comics like Robin & Playhour, this would have featured WAY higher in the list! |
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13th February 2021, 06:07 PM
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#410
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BuzzJack Platinum Member
Joined: 3 January 2017
Posts: 10,238 User: 23,961
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The Naked Eyes cover is my favourite version of that song. I became aware of Hot Butter by Popcorn after it was used as background music on various 1970s TV programmes. It was years ahead of its time. Rhinestone Cowboy is another good pick here.
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13th February 2021, 08:29 PM
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#411
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BuzzJack Legend
Joined: 18 July 2012
Posts: 23,022 User: 17,376
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QUOTE(King Rollo @ Feb 13 2021, 06:07 PM)  The Naked Eyes cover is my favourite version of that song. I became aware of Hot Butter by Popcorn after it was used as background music on various 1970s TV programmes. It was years ahead of its time. Rhinestone Cowboy is another good pick here. I enjoyed the Naked Eyes version, and was happy to see get to be a US hit, even if not so much in the UK. Instrumentals like Hot Butter were regularly used back in the day for TV item backdrops, I'm still finding tunes I recognise and saying "Oh THAT'S what it was!" 55 years later. I guess Woodkid'a Run Boy Run will be the equivalent in 45 years time... 
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8th May 2021, 03:29 PM
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#412
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BuzzJack Legend
Joined: 18 July 2012
Posts: 23,022 User: 17,376
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533. YOU WEAR IT WELL - Rod Stewart (1972) 1,152,350
Rod was still with The Faces in his heyday years, and at his peak creatively, I actually preferred this UK chart-topper to Maggie May at the time, I think the fiddle helped. I will always love a fiddle. No, titter ye not! However, both tracks were reissued as a double A side single in 1976 and Maggie May got the lion's share of attention, so that did much better second time round (and third) while this one did better on its first run. Rod can be a great songwriter, when he can be arsed, but his tendency to rely on bland covers has always annoyed me. The 3 tracks on my rundown are all Rod songs, and the best track of all (probably) that is missing is also a Rod song: Baby Jane didn't quite make the rundown. I went to see the Rod/Ben Elton musical Tonight's The Night, an attempt to do another We Will Rock You. I'll never get that night of my life back! Upstart Crow is infinitely better. |
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8th May 2021, 03:42 PM
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#413
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BuzzJack Legend
Joined: 18 July 2012
Posts: 23,022 User: 17,376
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532. AIN'T GOT NO...I GOT LIFE - Nina Simone (1968) 1,152,650
Picture this: 10-year-old John getting excited for Christmas and starting to arse about compiling his own charts in a notebook with cute spaniel dogs on the cover, and he's very very mad on this record. Nina Simone's voice is like no other, hippy is cool, anti-war songs are all the rage as the Vietnam War drags on and on, and long hair is a sign of rebellion against the boring unsympathetic establishment. Cue the hit musical called "Hair" which was awash with great hit songs, and a little bit of stage nudity to stir things up a bit on a storyline set against the US draft for the War. Nina Simone was very particular about her records, she didn't sing just any old piece of tat, she was well into Civil Rights and Black Pride and songs were well-chosen, notably later on in 1969 when Young, Gifted & Black emerged. So, nobody has done a better version of this unusual song than Nina, and that includes the pumped up remix of a different version she'd done. This is the great version. I loved it then, I loved it when everyone had forgotten all about it, and I loved it when it came back in the 21st century in a catchy ditty. Still, it helped top up the total sales for this one. |
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8th May 2021, 03:57 PM
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#414
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BuzzJack Legend
Joined: 18 July 2012
Posts: 23,022 User: 17,376
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531. FEEL THE NEED IN ME - The Detroit Emeralds (1972)
A great Philly-era lush disco classic from the Emeralds, who got a mini-run of UK hits out of it in 1973, and then nothing else except re-issues or re-records (top 20 again in 1977) of this song. It's never topped my charts, but in different runs it's had a sizeable total to feature. It's great - I wouldn't say it's an absolute top 800 fave, but it still sounds pretty fine, and it's been covered by acts as diverse as Forrest (1983), teen idol Leif Garrett (1979) and ultimately even Shakin' Stevens had a go at killing off the charm of the original in 1988 (all 3 versions went top 40). The original, as I've just said for Nina Simone, is the best, and that also applies to the very similar 1977 re-record. I'm just very anal-retentive about covers by and large, unless it's done totally differently and inspirationally, or charmingly. |
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8th May 2021, 04:07 PM
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#415
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BuzzJack Legend
Joined: 18 July 2012
Posts: 23,022 User: 17,376
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530. SUPREME - Robbie Williams (2000) 1,154,200
The Robster was into his Imperial Phase around this time, and he could do no wrong for me, and the UK charts, and album sales. Taken from his Sing When You're Winning album, Rob & Guy Chambers borrow cheekily from Gloria Gaynor's disco classic I Will Survive and create a new pop goodie. Possibly a bit flattered position-wise by that nicking (I can't confirm where or if Gloria Gaynor is on the list but I was a big early fan long before I Will Survive), as generally it wasn't quite as big as his chart-topping faves of the time, but hey, Rob is never bad, and frequently he's great. The 3rd of 6 Robbie tracks on the countdown, with 3 biggies still to come, bet you can't guess which 3. OK, you will guess 2 of them, but the 3rd, no chance.... |
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8th May 2021, 04:36 PM
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#416
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BuzzJack Legend
Joined: 18 July 2012
Posts: 23,022 User: 17,376
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529. FAIRGROUND - Simply Red (1995) 1,154,700
Talking of judicious use of samples, here's something I never thought would I would see: Simply Red topping my charts! And doing it in style, helped by the rhythm track sample of The Goodmen's Give It Up, with Mick Hucknall concocting a surprisingly life-affirming, joyous monster hit after a ten-year career of mostly inoffensive and generally forgettable soul ballads or covers of soul standards, give or take the odd diversion into reggae (Night Nurse), politics (Money's Too Tight To mention) and the like and notwithstanding the CD monster-hit that the album Stars was. I still rate this, and he learnt how to appeal to me by using a bed of a great soul sample and writing a new song around it after he'd left his record company - see Hall & Oates sample and Simply Red's other previous listing). As I like Pop Links, Mick (who is a great singer) stood in for the non-show of Rod The Mod (see 533 above) on a recent Faces batch of live shows in recent years. Rod being too busy churning out kerching American Song Book production-line to join his surviving old mates, presumably. I like Mick generally more than I like his back catalogue, so would have loved to have seen him doing "Stay With Me" and the other Faces hits! |
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14th May 2021, 01:07 PM
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#417
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BuzzJack Legend
Joined: 18 July 2012
Posts: 23,022 User: 17,376
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528. I HAVE A DREAM - Abba (1979) 1,154,950
Held back for Christmas 1979 to help plug the latest Abba hits album, making it a 5th track off the Voulez Vous album to get a single release, and that's not even counting one track which was scheduled to go on, but didn't. There were at least another 2 potential big hit singles, one of which isn't in the rundown - If It wasn't For The Nights was eventually dropped due to fears it was too similar to Dancing Queen (it isn't, and it's fab). This is very singalong, features kids singing and was held off the UK top spot by another track with kids singing - the very different Another Brick In The Wall, Pink Floyd's classic. I know both these appealed to young kids cos that Xmas we spent with family friends from Birkenhead who's daughters were both around 8, 9, 10-ish and each bought one single for that Xmas. Floyd and this one. So, yes it's a bit twee and hopelessly positive, but OMG do we need that attitude in these miserable times. It's also tuneful to the nth degree. It's a shame the concert footage which was used to promote the track isn;t on the official Abba site, cos until the hologram tour gets going that's still the most recent opportunity I could have had to see them in a live setting. 42 years and still waiting... |
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14th May 2021, 01:24 PM
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#418
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BuzzJack Legend
Joined: 18 July 2012
Posts: 23,022 User: 17,376
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527. POWERLESS (SAY WHAT YOU WANT) (2003) 1,156,300
Crikey, not heard this in 17 years or so, most likely, seems like ages which is odd as the lyrics and sentiment very much apply in 2021 as much as 2003. Nelly was great, she had a good run of singles over a few years - and then AWOL for nearly a decade now (from my charts). That's a shame. Also a shame, this video isn't on her official Youtube so soon as I post it I expect it to be removed, that's what usually happens - and it's a good video too, I can't understand how pop stars don;t hold the rights to showcase videos they perform in singing their own musical product. Anyways, first of two on the rundown, and t'other one isn't the great I'm Like A Bird which topped my chart but just missed, or her kicking UK chart-topper Maneater, nor Promiscuous, but it is another chart-topper - in the USA. |
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14th May 2021, 01:38 PM
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#419
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BuzzJack Legend
Joined: 18 July 2012
Posts: 23,022 User: 17,376
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526. WHITE FLAG - Dido (2003) 1,156,550
Recently voted out early in a dodgy Buzzjack poll (sorry to those deluded souls who feel this isn't wonderful, shame (ring bell) shame (ring bell) shame (ring bell)  ), Dido's finest, lush, moving moment deserves to be in the rundown more than her other key tracks, Here With Me, Thank You, Sand In My Shoes, and Stan (credit due cos her sample is a big part of the Eminem classic's appeal). I find her albums very playable, late night mood, melancholic sweetness, and I've never disliked anything she's released albeit not necessarily always memorable, but always of a decent quality, and her recent stuff has been more interesting than one might expect. Brother of Faithless' Rollo, with who she had a pretty good 2002 single (One Step Too Far), and an act who have also been good over a long period before turning up recently with some interesting stuff. Sadly Salva Mea is also not on the list, despite topping my chart in 1997. |
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14th May 2021, 03:03 PM
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#420
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 Mansonette
Joined: 7 March 2006
Posts: 35,533 User: 54
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White Flag is such a good song, definitely Dido at her best and I really wish it had beaten the BEPs to #1 that week
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