623. COMMON PEOPLE - Pulp (1995) 1,063,100

 

 

Britpop classic, one of the greatest tracks of the 90's and Jarvis Cocker's perfect moment with Pulp, followed by many other goodies, but this is in a class of it's own. Fabulous lyrics, terrific video, great vocals, frantic, lively, energetic and exciting poprock of the sort that is utterly absent from the 2016 music scene. Time Rock had that much-delayed revival, say I, or more to the point, Poprock - cos Rock these days means shouty and moody and subtlety-and-melody-lite. This also cemented Jarvis as a star in his own personality right, being articulate and all, as a future broadcasting career beckoned. Fab.

622. THE WAY YOU MAKE ME FEEL - Michael Jackson (1987) 1,063,800

 

 

Following Thriller Michael was very Bad, and that meant a record-breaking number of singles from the one album, still Quincy Jones immaculately-produced, and a throbbing rhythm backdrop to a whooping catchy little rnb pop toon, the third off the album. Written by Michael, it did the chart biz for me in a way that I Just Can't Stop Loving You fell a bit short, perhaps a bit too sentimental at the time, but these days I prefer the first single off the album. The album was the soundtrack (along with Pet Shop Boys Actually) to my Big West Coast USA holiday in August/September of 1987 - which meant by the time the singles all came out they were like old faves with holiday nostalgia attached. so they did well in my charts! The 4th of 15 for Jacko in his various guises.

621. WILD WOOD - Paul Weller (1993) 1,064,650

 

 

The only track on the listing for Paul Weller, and that includes close calls for great chart-toppers for me from the Style Council (You're The Best Thing) and The Jam (Going Underground), which is a bit of a shame, but this gorgeous, gentle acoustic and melancholic song is affectingly lovely and melodic. While I enjoy Weller when he's fired up and angry (Funeral Pyre, Eton Rifles) I tend to lean more towards his melodic songs (Speak Like A Child, Long Hot Summer) or the more soulful. I saw The Jam in concert at Bingley Hall, Stafford back in the day, and more recently when he was heavily plugging his latest album. He is still an award-winning relevant veteran, but I tend to buy single tracks rather than albums for all but a special few acts, and he falls into the occasional single bracket these days for me.

620. I AM...I SAID - Neil Diamond (1971) 1,064,800

 

 

Neil was in his Prime with this evocative ballad - for me it conjures up images of tropical Singapore where it was big on my reel-to-reel tape recorder, I loved it. Neil had already written hits for other acts in the 60's, like The Monkees and Lulu, but his own solo stuff had never really caught on in the UK until 1970's Cracklin' Rosie. This was his last huge hit in my chart, though the album Stones and Song Sung Blue kept up the quality into 1972. Thereafter he drifted into pleasant MOR, and I grew less interested until he returned to his singer-songwriter roots in the 2000's. I always go back to 66-72 for my Diamond Life though. 3rd of 3 on the list, with only his songs still to come.

 

 

619. WIG WAM BAM - The Sweet (1972) 1,067,200

 

 

Thank heavens for European TV Shows importing British clips from Top Of The Pops! As my classic pop period of the late 60's and early 70's have been cruelly wiped by the BBC, a few bits survive to remind us how much fun Glam Rock was, and specifically The Sweet and Chinn-Chapman, the writer-producers of many a teen glam pop idol. Wig Wam Bam was total glamrock cheese, and a move away from the calypso-pop of their early singles like the fab Co Co, Funny Funny and Poppa Joe, and expanding on the glam innuendo naughtiness of Little Willy. Wig Wam Bam, though signalled what was to come, more rocky, a bit of camp, and a lot of hook. You couldn't get away with the stage getup and lyrics nowadays of course, but it's good-natured and clearly Chinnichap had come up with a great song-title and then wrote a naughty song around that. Second of 6 for The Sweet.

618. RIDING INTO BLUE (COWBOY SONG) - Inga (Humpe) (1990) 1,067,650

 

 

I swear this is totally co-incidental! Cowboys follow Indians in my list, courtesy of a gorgeous flop record from 1990 produced by Trevor Horn for Inga, one of the Humpe sisters who were better known as Swimming With Sharks, and who had a good minor UK hit with Careless Love. Sis Annette has the bigger online profile, but I just adore this smooth synth pop track with cowboy theme and amusing, arty video. I even revived it in 2016 for the Buzzjack Song Contest as I felt it deserved to be known. Inga later covered a great Pet Shop Boys album track Do I Have To?, so I kinda would like her! Trevor Horn, I should say, will pop up even more times in my chart than he already has.

 

 

amazing

Thanks Drakeviews (I think! after all the Drake comments from me... :lol: )

 

Before I restart the countdown after a break and more new entries shoving everything down a few notches, here's one that entered and has hit...

 

759. SIGN O' THE TIMES - Prince (1987) 982,450

 

 

The late lamented Prince, who left us thanks to stupid over-medication, now features a few times in my rundown, first off with this classic, stark, percussive comment on Life, The Universe, and Everything. It's as relevant now as in 1987, and it will continue to remain so until the end of human history. One of his great singles, from one of his great (double) albums, of the same name. It peaked at 2 twice in my charts - as a huge supporter of the space industry (the only chance Mankind and fellow terrestrial beings has of avoiding going extinct is to go to the stars) I couldn't quite get over the inclusion of it as being a bad thing when he might as well have said hairspray is a bad thing cos we spend money on that when it's needed for helping people. Brilliant track though, even if I couldn't gift it a chart-topper.

620. HE LOVES U NOT - Dream (2001) 1,069,250

 

 

3 more new entries to the chart since I last did a batch pushes this down 3 places (and all others so far). Dream were an American girl group in the mode of N'Sync and Destiny's Child pop of the time (2000), and this one I took a shine to more than the UK record-buying public (it peaked at 17, but 2 in the USA in 2000). I've nothing much to say about it other than it's a good rnb-flavoured pop track, well-produced, and Dream's only moment in the sun to speak of. It's not one remembered that well these days, not even by me - I think I've heard it 3 times in the last 14 years (two of them just now)!

619. SKY - Sonique (2000) 1,070,100

 

 

This, on the other hand, is still a classic dance track for me, following up the monster It Feels So Good, and peaking at 2 in the UK charts. DJ Sonique had been involved in Bass-o-matic and S'Xpress tracks and singles prior to her solo career starting with minor success in 1998, before reissued number one It Feels So Good made 2000 a rather good year for her. Sky, is an insistent, fab, classy song and Sonique is a great singer, quite why she she fizzed out it a mystery to me, though having Rick Nowels as co-songwriter on Sky didn't hurt the chances of it being great - Rick features several times in this chart, and has hit big in my chart with songs by Belinda Carlisle, Santana, Melanie C, Texas, Ronan Keating, Stevie Nicks, Dido, Lana Del Ray, and the New Radicals. To be honest, most people would be shocked to know that he had co-written so many great songs by so many acts over such a long period of time. First of 3 for Sonique, and many more for Rick Nowels.

618. I WANT YOU BACK - *NSync (1998) 1,070,200

 

 

Doesn't Justin Timberlake look young! Years ahead of his movie and monster solo career, he was lead singer in a Florida-based boy band pop-hit-factory along with the likes of Britney Spears and The Backstreet Boys, all churning singles of mixed quality, some great, some not-so-great. The great ones tended to be written by Swedish songwriters Max Martin and the late Denniz Pop, Max Martin has been unstoppable as a monster Songwriter/producer-of-choice for pop acts ever since, and his list of credits is astonishing and current: he trails only The Beatles/George Martin in terms of US Number Ones, most recently with Taylor Swift, Katy Perry and Pink, and in terms of top 10 hit songs he trails no-one, he rules. Justin, of course jumped ship early on, always a wise move for boyband members, and at least that meant he no longer had to listen to UK radio DJ's and the entire UK population habitually mis-pronounce IN-Sync (a musical pun) as EN-Sync (which meant nothing). That drove me crazy for several years, as I regularly holidayed in Florida in the late 90's and had no problem with saying it right. In fact I bought this CD single in Florida, as they were still making CD singles at the time for pop acts, though not for much longer. Justin will feature again, solo and in duet.

617. TICKET TO RIDE - The Beatles (1965) 1,070,550

 

 

Sadly the influential jangly guitar genius of this tuneful Beatles single, and it's inspiring "frollicking in the snow" Help! movie video is not available on youtube, and nor is any audio version, so the best on offer is a live version of the fabs in concert during a period when they ruled the pop world, literally, and in every sense, sales, critically, and influentially. I lived in Liverpool around this time, went to school, was a street urchin "mind your car mistah" on Liverpool match days (down the road from my grandma's) - cash for making sure it didn't get nicked or damaged, a sort of kiddie protection racket! The Beatles were at the very core of my childhood, everyone knew them, they were properly famous. Watching John introduce the band, I still can't believe he's been dead 36 years, cos he was so ingrained in pop culture, lively and vital and media savvy. Third of many Beatles songs on the list, courtesy of a 1976 and 1985 re-issue.

616. THE RETURN TO INNOCENCE - Enigma (1994) 1,071,000

 

 

It's that Enigma man again, this time with his second biggest hit, the 1994 World Music smash, incorporating an album of songs with ethnic music samples set to New Age beats. That combo was irresistible to me (again), and led to a hat trick of million-sellers in John's musical world from the fab album The Cross Of Changes. Michael Cretu, the writer/producer of the album had his 80's disco diva wife on the track, the breathy vocal bits are her as she ends with The Return To Innocence, narey any singing at all from her. The main singing is a Taiwanese drinking song sample, which (in the end) made the singers a few undisclosed banknotes following a court case. Cretu wasn't aware he wasn't using non-public-domain material. Don't we all....

616. BLACK VELVET - Alannah Myles (1990) 1,072,000

 

 

After a break, and another classic oldie leapfrogging the rundown so far, all tracks drop one place, and at 616 it's the frankly brilliant Alannah Myles track, Black Velvet. The lyrics say it all, it's the sultry blues, bringing back the Deep South, channeled through any classic blues acts, drop the names...John Lee Hooker, Tony Joe White, Joe South and zillions more. A great title, a great image, and the slow southern rocking is just fab, refreshing at the time and opening up chart success for veteran blues-based acts in the early 90's once again. Sadly, Alannah never managed to follow it up, but for me it will always conjure up cruising the highways around Orlando's theme parks with my parents and my little niece and nephew as it got blanket play on local radio stations ahead of it's UK success. Florida is fairly close to Mississippi, good enough for me, even if Alannah comes from Canada....

615. E=MC2 - Big Audio Dynamite (1986) 1,072,100

 

 

Once in a while a record comes along that makes you go "OMG that sounds like nothing I've heard before!" in a very, very good, exciting way. This was one of those moments for me, Mick Jones had left the Clash, took up with Don Letts, musician and stylish video/film director, and for a while they made me think this would be hugely influential. Sadly not, but it was utterly marvellous anyway, I loved the odd lyrics, all very Nicholas Roeg homages and imagery, right down to samples of dialogue from his movies and references to Don't Look Now, Jagger's Performance, and other cult movies, including Bowie's The Man Who fell To Earth. Musically, there's that insistent backbone of throbbing synth chords, a hint of Clash punk, and semi-rapping semi-singing semi-chanting from Mick's unusual vocal style, then there's the fab music video, the Einstein-referencing title and lyrics, and yes I sang along to every word, I made sure I was able to sing along to every odd phrase and image perfectly. Well. Worth. It.

SO under-rated.....

614. WHEN WE ARE TOGETHER - Texas (1999) 1,074,450

 

 

From the period when Texas were in their most-commercial soulrockpop phase, and in this case very fabulously 60‘s Motown in sound and feeling. Frankly, Sharleen Spiteri can do no wrong for me, but when she and the boys were on fire they were just brilliant, both live in concert and on record. 3rd single from the terrific album The Hush, and written by both Sharleen and fellow-bandmember and producer Johnny McElhone - giving away the Scottish/Italian heritage of the band - The Hush is home to some great non-singles, like the absolutely gorgeous falsetto Prince-influenced Tell Me The Answer, criminally ignored as a single. Johnny McElhone also had success in the 80’s with bands Altered Images (and co-wrote Happy Birthday and other hits) and Hipsway, while Sharleen has had solo success in the noughties and Ally McErlaine has released country albums as Red Sky July with his wife Shelly Poole (of Alisha’s Attic and Ex-Tremeloes Brian Poole’s daughter fame). All quality from 1989 debut through to now. First of 7 tracks on the list.

613. NO DOUBT ABOUT IT - Hot Chocolate (1980) 1,074,800

 

 

When this track came out in the late spring of 1980 it was a sure-fire fave for me: I’d loved the band for a decade already, and their ever-changing sound and mixing-up of genres. Hot Chocolate, having been picked up by The Beatles on Apple Records, switched immediately to Mickie Most's RAK Records (my other fave record label), and Errol set about writing hits for Mary Hopkin and the band themselves, a multi-cultural group (not that common in 1970) which had a string of hit singles for 15 years in a row. Given they never sold albums (until the Greatest Hits) and not all their releases were hits, each single became a hit on merit alone as they were never guaranteed a hit, they didn’t have that sort of loyal teen following, either in the UK or USA where they were covered and also had hits themselves. With this fab moody single they moved into synths up-front to match the UFO subject-matter (another sure-fire appeal to Close Encounters-worshipping me), and grabbed a UK number 2 hit. First of 6 in the list.

612. RHYTHM IS A DANCER - Snap! (1992) 1,074,850

 

 

 

Snap! hit the charts with a classic rap pop stormer in 1990, the wonderful The Power, which fell short of the list, sadly, despite being fantastic and a UK chart-topper. From my point of view the follow-up’s had been lack-lustre in comparison to the sheer vitality of the debut hit, although they did well in the singles charts. Snap! Despite American rapper Turbo B and American singer Penny Ford being the initial centrepiece of the band (they were essentially a German-production dance project) they never had control - that went to producers Anzilotti and Munzing - and which inevitably led to a split following this 1992 worldwide monster dance hit. The sound had changed, very much more techno/house than rap by now, but it was just as good as The Power, and was far and away their biggest hit. I caught Snap! in concert just as they split, sadly, as Turbo B and Penny Ford never made it solo, and Snap became an ever-changing vehicle for guest female vocalists, notably Summer and Niki Harris for the next few years of decent hits.

632 407 MONKEY George Michael 1988 1054750

My fave single from Faith, I bought the 7", and loved the remix too!

 

635 NEW DOMINO DANCING Pet Shop Boys 1988 1050900

636 408 OPPORTUNITIES (LET'S MAKE LOTS OF MONEY) Pet Shop Boys 1986 1046200

My favourite period for the Pet Shop Boys, I started to go off them from about the mid 90's onwards, but their late 80's early 90's singles are great.

 

648 415 (YOUR LOVE KEEPS LIFTING ME) HIGHER AND HIGHER Jackie Wilson 1967 1039750

Classic Jackie Wilson

655 NEW HUNG UP Madonna 2005 1036850

Love This

668 428 BABY NOW THAT I'VE FOUND YOU Foundations 1967 1027400

Never get bored of this song, one of Tony McCaulay's best.

672 NEW DARE Gorillaz/ Shaun Ryder 2005 1024850

I thought Feel Good Inc was good then this came out, even better!

674 431 COME UNDONE Duran Duran 1993 1024300

One Duran Duran's most underrated songs, follow up to Ordinary World which stole all the limelight

682 436 PRAYING FOR TIME George Michael 1990 1021000

I have a Live unplugged version of this song by George and it is absolutley stunning, better than the original

 

713 454 YOU DON'T KNOW ME Armand Van Helden/ Duane Harden 1999 1003800

Love This

714 NEW NO MILK TODAY Herman's Hermits 1967 1003800

Graham Gould man is such a good songwriter, 10cc one of my fave bands

722 NEW I SAW HER AGAIN The Mamas & The Papas 1967 1001800

Just heard this for the first time at the weekend on POTP's cant beat some Mamas and papas

732 468 END OF THE ROAD Boyz II Men 1992 998250

:wub:

738 467 HOLD ON TIGHT E.L.O. 1981 994000

Love anything by ELO

753 477 THE SIGN Ace Of Base 1994 985800

:wub:

757 NEW GHOSTTOWN Madonna 2015 981800

One of madonna's best songs and it failed it chart :huh:

 

761 NEW LOVE RUNS OUT OneRepublic 2014 978650

love this

766 NEW RADIOACTIVE Imagine Dragons 2012 975000

Been listening to their new album and Shot and I'm So Sorry are brilliant tracks, as is this

773 NEW STAY Shakespears Sister 1992 972250

I Don't Care and Hello are also brilliant songs

780 NEW SWEET CHILD 'O MINE Guns 'N' Roses 1988 967350

Classic

793 NEW THIS TIME I KNOW IT'S FOR REAL Donna Summer 1989 961450

One of the best SAW songs

796 499 MY OH MY Slade 1983 960700

Love this slade song, massively overlooked

797 NEW HEARTACHE AVENUE The Maisonettes 1982 959950

I got into this when it was sampled by some grime rapper about 10 years ago!

800 NEW BAD ROMANCE Lady Gaga 2009 959350

:wub:

Edited September 8, 20168 yr by fiesta

Thanks for the list Fiesta, it's good of you to comment on loads and fab that you love so many too! It's great when other people share the love for a brilliant record :yahoo: