158. Wild West Hero - Electric Light Orchestra (1977)

 

 

Ride the range all the day

Till the first fading light

Be with my western girl

Round the fire oh so bright

 

The third single from the 'Out Of The Blue' album. Like the first two,it reached number 6. I like the western saloon type piano sound on this which was played by cellist Melvyn Gale rather than the regular keyboard player Richard Tandy. Jeff Lynne's vocals are some of his best here. Also,the strings,choir and the drums towards the end all combine to make this one of ELO's most popular songs.

 

157. Airwaves - Thomas Dolby (1982)

 

 

No it was nothing,some car backfiring

Please don't ask questions

I itch all over

Let me sleep

 

One of Thomas Dolby's early single releases that failed to chart. It's a wonderful synth pop ballad with some piano and radio sound effects thrown in.

 

156. 2112 - Rush (1976)

 

 

What can this strange device be?

When I touch it,it gives forth a sound

It's got wires that vibrate and give music

What can this thing be that I found?

 

A twenty minute sci-fi epic,occupying the whole of side 1 of the album of the same name. Tommy Vance on the Friday Rock Show on Radio 1 would play a top 10 all time song list voted by his listeners once every year and this would usually be in the top 10 somewhere which is where I first heard it. I've never seen this video before so it's good to see the song illustrated in cartoon form for the first time. I understand the plot of the story much better now.

 

The video won't embed,so I'm doing a link instead for those who want to watch it

 

 

 

Edited September 29, 20186 yr by King Rollo

155. Watching And Waiting - The Moody Blues (1969)

 

 

Cos here there's a lot of room for doing

The thing you've always been denied

Look and gather all you want to

There's no one here to stop you trying

 

This has done well to finish above both 'Question' and 'Nights In White Satin' but it's a stunning song with a great vocal from Justin Hayward and that gorgeous mellotron sound. It was released as a single but didn't chart.

 

 

154. All In One Day - Ultravox (1986)

 

 

When the people came

And stood together

Everywhere

 

A song Ultravox wrote about the Live Aid concert the previous year which Midge Ure helped to organise. Someone has used a film showing the crucifixion to illustrate it and some of the lyrics actually fit in with that as well. It has a dramatic orchestral sound to it with the arrangement done by George Martin. This was the first Ultravox single since Passing Strangers in 1980 to fail to reach the top 40.

 

153. Ethnicolor - Jean Michel Jarre (1984)

 

 

This is my favourite Jean Michel Jarre track and the last of the 14 songs by him on my countdown. It's the opening track from his 'Zoolook' album and uses fragmented samples of people speaking in different languages in addition to the electronic sounds. At 12 minutes,it's one of his longest tracks. It builds up gradually and it's eight minutes before the drums come in. This hasn't aged at all and sounds as if it was recorded yesterday.

 

 

152. Visions - Haken (2011)

 

 

Now the moment's finally here

And it feels like just before

Only now I face the truth

I will have to wait no more

 

And here is the song that caused a bit of a stir when I entered it into the last Nuggets edition as it is 23 minutes long. There's nothing wrong in that when it's a prog metal masterpiece like this which never gets tedious. I discovered it from of a list that I found of the 50 best prog rock songs from 1990 onwards. It's taken from London band Haken's second album.

 

 

Got a lot of love for Sowing the Seeds of Love and Enjoy the Silence :wub: the former is really quite underrated these days, I'd easily put it amongst their best tracks, it's like a long lost Beatles track!

151. Excerpt From 'A Teenage Opera' - Keith West (1967)

 

 

Little children dressed in black

Don't know what happened to old Jack

"Grocer Jack,grocer Jack,is it true what mummy says?

You won't come back? Oh no,oh no"

 

This is the highest placed song on my chart from the 1960s and it represents the music from that decade very well with lyrics that tell a story and a big Abbey Road orchestral production. It reached number 2 and was kept off the top of the chart by Engelbert Humperdinck's 'Last Waltz'. The song was originally called 'Grocer Jack' but the title was changed to fuel demand for the Teenage Opera which was supposed to follow but further singles from it failed to do well and the project was shelved. It was finally released as a CD in 1996.

 

 

 

150. Duchess - Genesis (1980)

 

 

But she dreamed of the times when she sang all her songs

And everybody cried for more

When all she had to do was step into the light

For everyone to start to roar

 

A song about the rise and fall of a female singer from the 'Duke' album. The intro,which lasts almost two and a half minutes,is beautiful. It was reduced to 20 seconds for the single release so the album version is the only one worth listening to.

 

 

149. Shine - Space Brothers (1997) / Love Stimulation - Humate (1998)

 

 

The soul of an angel

Touched from above

Your spirit is shining

Surrounded by love

 

This is not a tie for 149th place,these two songs go so well together that I think of them as one piece of music. They are tracks 15 and 16 on CD2 of the first 'Euphoria' trance album where each track segues into the next and there is an overlap of about a minute between the two songs. Space Brothers are British duo Ricky Simmonds and Stephen Jones while Humate is German Gerret Frerichs.

 

148. Kriss Kross - Guillemots (2008)

 

 

So go and dance with your thunder and lightning

Where the paradise birds are fighting

 

The opening track from Guillemots' second album 'Red' and it's very different to anything from their debut album. I like the glam rock/middle eastern string sound at the start and the last couple of minutes are glorious. It was released as a double A side single with 'Clarion'.

 

147. Paradise - Black (1987)

 

 

Just like a forming rainbow

Just like the stars in the sky

Life should never feel small

 

The highest placed of the seven songs on my chart by Black and it was also the last of his three top 40 singles. It's a great ballad with a simple arrangement which he sings very well.

 

146. Las Palabras De Amor - Queen (1982)

 

 

Let me hear the words of love

 

The 'Hot Space' album was the low point in Queen's discography with the band dabbling with disco and funk music. However,this ballad written by Brian May for their South American fans was closer to the familiar Queen sound and reached the top 20. This performance in the Top Of The Pops studio was their first since 1977 and also their final appearance.

 

Edited October 3, 20186 yr by KingOfRolloween

145. How Does It Make You Feel? - Air (2001)

 

 

I wish you could exist to live on my planet

Well,it's very hard for me to say these things in your presence

So how does it make you feel?

 

Another track from my favourite Air album '10,000 Hz Legend'. This one is sung by an alien from another planet. I love the multi-layered backing vocals and the dreamy sound of the song as a whole.

 

 

 

 

144. Accelerate - Susanne Sundfor (2015)

 

 

Many people will get hurt

Take your time and I'll finish your dessert

 

The third and final song on my chart by Susanne Sundfor,or fourth if you include the one with Royksopp. This is from her fourth album 'Ten Love Songs'. I still haven't got round to listening to the first three. I'm sure there will some gems in there. I like the synths and organ on this one and the moment they come together is the highlight of the track.

 

143. Careless Love - Swimming With Sharks (1988)

 

 

All the songs are sounding out of tune

Soon starts raining in my room

 

And from Norway to Germany with the second song by the Humpe sisters,their only top 75 single. This is 80s pop at its finest with the sweet,harmonised vocals and a great chorus.

 

 

142. It Couldn't Happen Here - Pet Shop Boys (1987)

 

 

I don't expect to talk in terms of sense

Our dignity and injured innocence

 

From the Pet Shop Boys' second album 'Actually',the song's title was used again for their feature film which used music from their first two albums and starred Barbara Windsor and Joss Ackland amongst others. I love the orchestral arrangement on this one.

 

141. Man Of A Thousand Faces - Marillion (1997)

 

 

You see my face in the stones of the Parthenon

You hear my song in the babble of Babylon

 

The first half of this song is fine enough but it's this high because of the amazing coda from 3.55 onwards. Backing vocals here come from the Charlton & Newbottle School Choir.

 

140. Downside Up - Peter Gabriel (2000)

 

 

All the strangers look like family

All the family looks so strange

The only constant I am sure of

Is this accelerating rate of change

 

Another track from the OVO album of songs written for the Millennium Dome show. It shares some of the same melody as 'Low Light' but has a bigger sound to it. Once again,Peter Gabriel doesn't sing on it. The vocals here are by Paul Buchanan from The Blue Nile and Elizabeth Fraser who has already appeared on my chart with Massive Attack.