676. STARS - China Black (1994) 1,021,300

 

 

I was fond of the mixed ethnicity of China Black, one of my pet peeves in pop was the lack of visible Asians, so the British Hong Kong born part of the band had my full support (Simon Fung), and they fit in nicely with the shuffle soul and reggae grooves of 1994. Debut hit Searching is the one best-remembered but this minor follow-up was just so sweet I went overboard on it for a while even more than Searching. Jamaica-origined singer Errol Reid has a sweet voice, and has guest-vocal'ed here and there, and Stars is just "nice" in the good sense of the word. Nice!

675. PAINT IT BLACK - The Rolling Stones (1966) 1,022,000

 

 

The Stones perennial classic, the one that out of their whole catalogue appeals most to new generations. It's dark, exotic, and has attitude, and that sitar hook is so obviously George-Harrison Beatles-influenced pyschedelic rock. I was big on flower power, hippie and all that as a 60's pop fan, but this Rolling Stones record I more or less missed at the time for some reason - Stones hits were usually very well known - despite it chart-topping in the UK and USA. I've come to love it since then though, and is the highest-rated Rolling Stones track in the chart (which is fair enough) of only two (which isn't fair enough). Sadly no space for Honky Tonk Women, Jumping Jack Flash, She's A Rainbow, Ruby Tuesday, Miss You, Start Me Up, Undercover Of The Night, Sympathy For The Devil...at least for now. Some reissues or re-entry's should knock some of them over the million.

674. PERFECT DAY - Various Artists (1997) 1,022,100

 

 

Lou Reed's classic 1972 non-hit done by the BBC for Charity and to promote music variety on the channels, it was surprisingly effective, and is one of the few charity multi-artist singles that isn't a complete mess. Lou Reed finally got a hit with it, starting it off appropriately enough, along with his best mate David Bowie, and other acts who will appear in these charts like Elton John, Tammy Wynette, Bono, Tom Jones along with ones who won't like Emmylou Harris, Boyzone, Lightning Seeds, Heather Small, Joan Armatrading, Brett Anderson and many others from all sorts of music genres. Classy, and it still works, which is rare for charity singles.

673. THE LEBANON - Human League (1984) 1,022,400

 

 

This was the single that almost killed their career, an abrupt change from synth (EDM) to rock, wailing guitars and worthy sentiments about the eternal middle-eastern conflicts that just seem to get worse with time. Ahead of it's time, I say! It did nothing to dampen my enthusiasm for the band who were my fave still-active act of the time, the soaring riffs and the subject matter fit in with my mood at the time. 3rd of over a handful of entries for Phil & the gals & co.

672. SOUND AND VISION - David Bowie (1977) 1,023,365

 

 

Pushed up a few dozen places by recharting following the recent loss of the great Man, thos one came out of the blue in 1977 and sounded pretty futuristic, straddling his funk period and Berlin stark-synth period. The extended instrumental intro was fab, it was such a tease making you wait for the vocals and the synth chords were a delight, Bowie ahead of the game as he always was back then. It's one of his most upbeat and jolly, all-out-dance, tracks, and I love everything about it still, from sax to vocal hooks, melody to groove. Joyous! First of half a dozen or so for dear David.

671. SLOOP JOHN B - The Beach Boys (1966) 1,023,450

 

 

First of a batch of classic 60's tracks from the greatest American poprock band of the decade. They just were. Surfing, cars and girls had by this time evolved into a real life creative rivalry with The Beatles, the biggest and greatest poprock band in the world. Brian Wilson rose to the challenge with critically acclaimed singles and the album Pet Sounds, from which this arrangement of a traditional Bahamas sailing song, the usual gorgeous vocal harmonies and the great melody did the trick and the lads were on the cusp of their great period, and Brian was on the cusp of mental illness. Much as I loved their early surfer classics like I Get Around, California Girls, Help Me Rhonda and many many others, it all came together in 1966 and the Beach Boys have never really gone away in pop culture, always having summertime revivals periodically, or touring, reforming, and solo Brian Wilson boosts. Quite right too.

670. ANNIE YOU SAVE ME - Graffiti6 (2010) 1,023,950

 

 

Neither Graffiti6, nor mainman and vocalist Brit Jamie Scott have had major success as artists (just a few mid-2000's singles), which is very disappointing, he's a great singer and good songwriter, and this record is pure magic, soulful, harmonically resplendent and oddly moodily downbeat and up on the beat at the same time. Love the vocal old-time distortion too. and those chords. There's no obvious pop-hook but it's just fabulous anyway, the melody is just so cool and laidback. Happily, Jamie has had loads of success writing songs for others since Annie popped out unnoticed - songs such as Heartbeat (Enrique), Loving You (Matt Cardle & Mel C) and oodles of songs for current pop acts like The Vamps, Ella Henderson, Olly Murs, and most of all a serious chunk of One Direction tracks. Few of them are quite as good as the solo stuff though, and he can outsing most of 'em!

669. COME UNDONE - Duran Duran (1993) 1,024,300

 

 

By 1993, Duran had been boyband huge, had a break for other projects, done a Bond theme and had declining sales for a few years. Ordinary World was their big revival as serious rock stars (not that they weren't good in the 80's) and this follow-up was even better, decidedly a more adult Duran. Simon Le Bon had learnt a bit more control in his vocals, subtlety winning over foghorn full-on bluster, and the slow Soul-II-Soul shuffle rhythm didn't hurt at all. My only disappointment is the lack of artist credit for the wonderful emotive background vocalist Kenyan-born Omani Lamya who also worked on Soul II Soul records, and toured with Duran Duran, and worked with Bowie, Macy Gray and James Brown before dying at 35 from a heart attack. 1st of 2 for Duran Duran.

668. THE EYES OF TRUTH - Enigma (1994) 1,024,450

 

 

I loved the fusion of various world music genres into chilled dance vibes, and no-one did it more consistently than, and with greater variety than, German New Age band Enigma. This was the 2nd single off the successful Cross Of Changes album, and featured samples of Mongolian folk music. Michael Cretu, the Romanian-German mastermind behind Enigma, had previously been the producer and co-writer of his then-wife Sandra's succesful European dancepop career with a string of hit albums and singles (except in the UK), including the fabulous (I'll Never Be) Maria Magdalena which just missed-out on making the run-down. Sandra helped on backing vocals in Enigma through to 2001, most notably on one of the 2 other Enigma records in the listing. All will be revealed...

667. DARE - Gorillaz featuring Shaun Ryder (2005) 1,024,850

 

 

Neither Damon Albarn's classic Blur records, nor Shaun Ryder's Happy Mondays quite managed to get into the listing, though Blur had several records even better than UK chart-topper Dare, such as the brilliant To The End. Cartoon band Gorillaz were a side-project with Manga animation artist Jamie Hewlett, and produced by Danger Mouse, who has had artist success himself with various collaborations, of which more some time later. Gorillaz had a string of good records, including the more-famous Feel Good Inc and Clint Eastwood, but this was the one I went big on, the video is fabulous, Shaun Ryder as a singing head was inspired, and the female vocals are effective (Roses Gabor as "Noodles"), and the whole dance groove is so infectious. Play it loud.

666. TELEGRAM SAM - T.Rex (1972) 1,025,008

 

 

from december 1970 through to summer 1973 Marc Bolan could do no wrong, the former hippie had a run of 10 glorious glampop singles, 9 of them in my listings for the former quirky hippie acoustic imp of Tyrannosaurus Rex. Marc took his vocal inspiration from Donovan (who also deserves to be in the listing but isn't), went electric, wore some glitter on his forehead and wore colourful fashion clothes on UK top TV show Top Of The Pops, as the nation was in the process of converting from black and white television to colour - hey presto a new music movement was born: Glam Rock. His big mate David Bowie gets the credit, being the artier, more creative end of the genre along with Roxy Music, but it was Marc who started it all. Telegram Sam was actually my least-fave single T.Rex single of the early period, but it launched his own record label in early 1972, and took on new sadness for me on reissue in 1982 following his tragic death 5 -years earlier. I still miss Marc.

665. SUPERSTAR - Jamelia (2003) 1,026,100

 

 

Jamelia has turned into a comedy-panel show regular since her music career came to an abrupt end, which has been entertainment's gain cos she's funny and engaging. When she was busy having a string of hit singles this was the best one, just a good dance track, the song is catchy without being annoying, the melody rides along, rises nicely for the minimalist chorus and flows back into the chorus without even noticing. I'm a bit surprised it's almost been forgotten these days in the UK (I don't think it was an American hit though it hit big in Europe). Sadly the official video has rubbish sound quality so I've gone with the Top Of The Pops version, which only has annoying crowd noises on it.

 

 

664. SUBURBIA - Pet Shop Boys (1986) 1,026,150

 

 

Chris and Neil's 4th gem in a row, and their third chart-topper for me, it was becoming obvious that the boyband synthpop had a good deal of substance in the songs, this one a sort of sequel to The Monkees' Pleasant Valley Sunday in subject matter, dealing with youth boredom in urban suburbia - pretty much a topic that never dates. It is, of course, also a brilliantly-produced dance record with a good video. I am, of course, biased, as the Pet Shop Boys were pretty much taking over during 1986 as my newest fave pop act. A slot they've yet to give up, actually. Yes. Very. 6th of quite a lot for PSB's.

663. BABY NOW THAT I'VE FOUND YOU - The Foundations (1967) 1,027,400

 

 

One of the first multicultural pop acts, The Foundations popped out of nowhere in late 1967 when I was a kid of 9 on the Isle Of Anglesey, and this was a fab catchy soulful British pop song. Clem Curtis has a terrific popsoul vocal, and the song was pushed by brand new Radio 1 looking for non-pirate-radio tracks that had been missed, having a quality poducer/songwriting pedigree: Tony Macauley had loads of great big pop hits in the 60's and 70's, and this was one of his best songs, later covered beautifully by Alison Krauss in gentle bluegrass style. Sadly Clem left in 1968 and missed out on an even more famous hit for the band (see much later on in the list) - he is, though, still around happily guesting here and there.

662. A THING CALLED LOVE - Johnny Cash (1972) 1,027,950

 

 

Johnny Cash was huge with my parents, they loved his working-class American brand of story-song country music as I was growing up, so great stuff like Ring Of Fire and I Walk The Line were well-known to me. Then he dropped this sentimental twangy-country song as I hit 14 and it just became an obsession for a few weeks, I loved the background gospel choir mixing it up with the great melody on this short, upbeat UK pop hit. Johnny's vocals, of course, low and increasingly gravelly as he aged - which led him to turn out a career-highlight album or two, and the heart-breakingly sad song and video to Hurt shortly before his wife and life-singing partner June Carter passed away shortly followed by a bereft Johnny. Quite rightly they made a movie about them, I Walk The Line, and Hurt is just short of my million at present but could do it yet on one of it's occasional minor chart rebirths - being a steady-seller in the real world.

661. UNINVITED - Alanis Morissette (1998) 1,028,850

 

 

I was mystified why this brilliant atmospheric movie song (City Of Angels) was not a UK hit single - it wasn't even released, which was ridiculous. Coming off the back of Jagged Little Pill, a massive-seller, it would have been a biggie. Alanis is un-typically restrained vocally on this one, but my faith in the song was at least proven by being a big radio hit in the USA (again no physical release) and later a hit dance cover by the Freemasons, who did a pretty good job on it too. Both Alanis and the Freemasons will feature later on the listings - but how many for each? (hint: one has one and one has two. I sound all posh!)

660. I WALK ALONE - Cher (2014) 1,029,200

 

 

You see Cher's life flashing before your eyes in this video, courtesy of photos, which underlines just how long she's been a fixture in my life (since age 7 1965 with Sonny) and a fave pretty much throughout from the days of Little Man, Bang Bang, Gypsies Tramps & Thieves, All I Ever Need Is You, Dark Lady and on into the 80's - many of those tracks just need a re-entry to do the million, as I love them more than I did at the time these days. Anyhoo, another iconic diva follows another here as Cher's most-recent great single, and a bonafide non-hit anywhere pretty much. Her 2013 comeback album had one good hit ballad but they failed to follow-up with the best track on the album, this country-flavoured bangin' dance toon, which strikes right at the heart of Cher's appeal, a belter who does it her way and is uncompromising even well into her 60's. I'm a fan, seen her in concert, and she will appear again (and again) in the listings, soon and much, much later.

659. GET OUTTA MY WAY - Kylie Minogue (2010) 1,029,200

 

 

From one dance diva to another, Kylie has had a substantial pop career against the odds, given she sort-of fell into via soap opera stardom and Stock Aitken Waterman's hit-making machine. I took some convincing she was here to stay, to be honest, but once I was converted I've remained faithful. By 2010 Kylie was well into her second-wind career, and was a show-stopping live draw. This great tuneful dance track came off Aphrodite, my equal-fave Kylie album (along with her comeback album Light Years - only that album has no million-sellers on it and Aphrodite has 3). It didn't hurt that I saw both tours for the respective albums, but it's a great minor Kylie hit single, big on the bpm's and a melody that never stops, frantic and tuneful.

658. LONELY THIS CHRISTMAS - Mud (1974) 1,029,270

 

 

Glamrock-tastic Mud were huge faves of mine in 1973/74 and had a string of glam tracks, some of which will pop up in the list, but this christmas perennial was their first ballad and just didn't grab me as much at the time. By the 80's though I was all nostalgic for glam rock, and on one of it's occasional christmas comebacks it went big, and still grabs sales on the odd xmas chart as it's one I don't overdose on - it's a charming, Elvis-styled sad christmas song, and Mud were just so loveable, especially fun singer Les Gray who had a real lads-appeal in the pop scene. Guitarist Rob Davis went on to write turn of the century hits for others (not least Kylie's most successful track, by co-incidence, and which just missed out on the list - Can't Get You Out Of My Head - along with Spiller's Groovejet and Fragma's Toca's Miracle), and he also had a hand in some of the band-written latter hit singles, including the brilliant Shake It Down, a rattling disco-guitar-romp that set up his later dance hit success.

657. I STILL HAVEN'T FOUND WHAT I'M LOOKING FOR - U2 (1987) 1,029,850

 

 

The best track from one of the great rock albums, The Joshua Tree, this gospel soulful widescreen ballad was stuffed with feeling and emotion, and really hit home in it's message for me in the title and theme at the time. It still does, though there is also now the bonus literal meaning as I still haven't found what I'm looking for (which is the original 1987 Las Vegas promo video on Youtube). My admiration for U2 had grown from liking Fire in 1981, through to loving the singles off the previous The Unforgettable Fire, but this was the one that won me over - along with seeing them live at Wembley Stadium, a virtual religious experience involving popping out of a giant lemon. I'll squeeze that one in later - first of 2 for U2.