Bad Moon Rising has followed me around over the years - I was the new boy at RAF Seletar Secondary Modern in Singapore, and when I wasn't playing British Bulldog in the mid-day equatorial heat I would be in the library taking out Just William books, or The Bobbsey twins. In one of them someone had kindly written out the lyrics to Bad Moon Rising, which I liked, at a time when I collected lyrics to pop songs. Jump almost 30 years later, I loved the song, bought a 12 inch vinyl of it, and was in the car with my parents in the Florida Keys at night, looking for some motel to stay in, the moon was out as I drove down the highway, and up popped Bad Moon Rising on oldies radio. Most appropriate.

 

I had this down as your potential number one!

 

I'm with Chris, the original version (Harold Melvin) is way better then the more-annoying Somerville shrieks. When he reigns it in a bit he's fab, but this one sucked-out all the soul and passion and replaced it with a jolly playful dance beat that I liked a lot but got fed-up with after the novelty had worn off. I never went to school with a pop star, but does sharing a room in Paris with a future West End musicals impressario while on a Uni Art course spree count for anything? My lips are sealed at what I saw, just in case I want to blackmail some day and star in a West End play :lol:

 

I've never walked past Jimmy Somerville, but Marc Almond stuck his head round the door of a bar I was sitting in in Gran Canaria, saw me and then carried on walking. I mean, how rude! It's as if he knew I would have given him a list of 60's classic torch songs to cover (some of which he did anyway some years later)! Then there was the time Neil Tenant walked right by me in London Ku Bar, no thank you for going to see him many times at all those concerts, just swanned on downstairs to the club as if he had better things to do than chat to a fanboy in a packed bar! My mate got him back though, while he was eating in a restaurant across from their current ballet, and got him to sign a programme for me. :lol:

Good stuff :lol:

 

The top five are all fantastic. They could really have finished in any order, but once I'd decided on an order, I left it unchanged. Some of the lower positions were changed at the last minute.

The song at number three is, like so many in the top ten, one written by one of the all-time great songwriting partnerships. The partnership this time is that of Burt Bacharach and Hal David. Any songwriters who could look back on a portfolio that includes Walk On By, Twenty-Four Hours From Tulsa, I Say A Little Prayer, There’s Always Something There To Remind Me, What’s New Pussycat and I’ll Never Fall In Love Again can congratulate themselves on a job well done. Bacharach And David can easily list another half-a-dozen songs just as good. And then another six.

 

Bacharach and David wrote Make It Easy On Yourself in 1962 and the song was recorded by Jerry Butler. It reached number twenty in the US but did precisely nothing here (if it was even released). Three years later, it was recorded by The Walker Brothers. The Jerry Butler version is good, but Scott Walker’s voice (as was so often the case) turns it into something special.

 

Make It Easy On Yourself, The Walker Brothers’ second hit, entered the chart in mid-August 1965 and became Scott, John and Gary’s first number one five weeks later. It ended the two-week run of The Rolling Stones’ (Can’t Get No) Satisfaction, the fourth in a run of five successive chart-toppers for Mick ‘n’ Keef and co. The chart that week was somewhat Sonny & Cher-heavy. Mr and Mrs Bono (as they then were) had both I Got You Babe (a former number one) and Baby Don’t Go in the chart while each of them had a solo hit in the top forty. As well as the actual Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan was in the top ten with Like A Rolling Stone. The top ten also contained two instrumentals - Horst Jankowski’s Walk In The Black Forest and Zorba’s Dance by Marcello Minerbi. Elsewhere in the chart we had Barry McGuire’s Eve Of Destruction, Help! by The Beatles and The Righteous Brothers’ superb version of Unchained Melody.

 

Make It Easy On Yourself spent just a week at the top before Ken Dodd crooned his way to number one with Tears, a song that would sell a million copies. The Walker Brothers had one more number one hit with The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine (Anymore), a song originally recorded by Frankie Valli and later by Cher. They split up for a time before coming back with a brilliant version of No Regrets, far better than the later Midge Ure version. After they split up again, Scott (Engel) Walker became something of a recluse before his death in March last year, but he has been cited by many singers and songwriters as a big influence. That influence can be heard in the work of people such as Jarvis Cocker, Julian Cope and Alex Turner, particularly his work with Last Shadow Puppets.

 

Brilliant record brilliant singer in Scott brilliant arrangement of a brilliant song from the brilliant bacharach david. Pure class. I am a fan! Marc almond also a fan not least his cover of the brilliant jackie. Did i mention that bar i was in...oh yes. Done that anecdote already... :lol:

brilliant chart that topped, and this is a classic top 5 candidate easily of your birthday charts. So, is it royalty or julian on top.... :o

 

Scott Walker and Marc Almond's versions of Jackie are both fabulous.

So, that’s 58 down and just two to go. Will the top spot go to the one from the 1960s or the one from the 1980s?

Both of the top two are credited to two songwriters but only one of the partnerships can be counted as having the same status as, for example, Bacharach and David. The song at number two, though, was actually written by just one person. As with most Beatles songs, Hey Jude is credited to Lennon and McCartney but this one was written solely by Paul McCartney. The song started life as Hey Jules and was McCartney’s attempt to comfort Julian Lennon after father John had left the marital home.

 

Hey Jude entered the chart at the beginning of September 1968 and climbed twenty places the following week to become The Beatles’ fifteenth number one single. It knocked The Bee Gees’ I’ve Gotta Get A Message To You off the summit. At the time, its seven minute running time made it the longest number one song in chart history. That record is now held by Oasis (big Beatles fans) with All Around The World.

 

Hey Jude remained at number one the following week, meaning it was there on my eighth birthday. Also in the top ten that week were Aretha Franklin’s version of Bacharach and David’s I Say A Little Prayer, Johnny Nash’s Hold Me Tight (the first single that was bought for me) and Canned Heat’s On The Road Again. Songs lower down the top forty included Leapy Lee’s Little Arrows (eight-year-old me loved it), Dream A Little Dream Of Me sung by Mama Cass (Anita Harris had an inferior version lower down the top forty) and The Kinks with Days, later covered by the wonderful Kirsty MacColl.

 

Hey Jude was the first release on The Beatles’ own Apple label. The second release was Those Were The Days by Welsh singer Mary Hopkin, produced by Paul McCartney. Just two weeks after Hey Jude (Apple 1) got to number one, Those Were The Days (Apple 2) replaced it. Slightly bizarrely, Those Were The Days is the first song I can actually remember being number one, at least insofar as I knew what “being number one” meant. Somehow the fact that Hey Jude was number one (although I was aware of the song) passed me by!

 

The Beatles had just two more number one singles before the tensions within the band became too much and they split for ever.

 

Hey Jude returned to the top forty in 1976 (reaching number twelve) and again in 2010 when The Beatles’ catalogue was finally made available to download. Paul McCartney performed it at the end of the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympics with the general consensus being that it was not his finest hour. He was, no doubt, hoping to do a better job at Glastonbury in the summer but that will now have to wait until next year.

 

I wish I could have found a version of the whole song without the nonsense in the first minute of this one.

 

 

Total classic. The track that marks Ground zero for my personal charts as it was the first song to register in my memory as an event when it got on top and when i discovered the sundsy chart rundown. Those were the days was record i was obsessed with though, i adored it. Like you 10 year old johnnie also loved little arrows, written by the great songwriter albert hammond him with son in a 21st century band. I also lived hold me tight, johnny nash is much under appreciated in music history, he popularised reggae first, had a sam cooke groove to his honeysweet voice, and gave bob marley his first hit record when he covered stir it up. Oh also wrote a tune called i can see clearly now...

 

I saw paul sing hey jude at wembley arena back in the 80s before his voice went and with linda still alive and at his musical side, i was having a semi religious moment of tearful nostalgia as he started the song, when a women a few seats down - we were all on our feet - found her semi religious experience overwhelming and passed out. Kind of took the edge of it as security rushed over to help, but as yet another anecdote i can claim "So good people were passing out!"

 

Not surprisingly this would be at 1 in my list of your birthday rundown! :D

Johnny Nash's rendition of Wonderful World is another great song. He turned eighty last month.

After two months, then, we come to the end. What is the song judged by me to be the best of the 60 (now 61) songs to have been number one on my birthday? First, I have impressed myself by getting to this point on target! Second, on one “special” birthday, I can reveal that the number one number one comes from another “special” birthday, my twenty-first. Yes, it is from 1981 and it is very 1980s. If you want to make derisive comments about my choice, all I can say is that ridicule is nothing to be scared of.

 

One of the great things about watching the Top Of The Pops repeats in something like “real time” has been witnessing the rise and fall (and, sometime, rise again) of various big names of the past. Sometimes it has been a bit of a surprise (even though I witnessed it at the time) to be reminded of just how short some acts’ time at the very top had been. One such act centred around the man born Stuart Goddard. Adam and the Ants had their first big hit in November 1980; Adam Ant’s last top ten hit as a solo performer came just under three years later.

 

Packed into those three years were some fantastic songs such as Antmusic, Stand And Deliver and Kings Of The Wild Frontier, a modest hit in 1980 but a number two six months later. The songs were generally enhanced by some great videos at a time when video-making was still a fairly new art form. The song that is the subject of this final piece, Prince Charming, was a perfect example with pantomime dames, Adam Ant swinging on a chandelier and a wonderful performance from Diana Dors hamming it up.

 

In the spring of 1981, Stand And Deliver became Adam And The Ants’ first number one when it went straight to the top and stayed there for five weeks. It remains the only number one song with the lyrics “Da diddly kwa kwa”. Prince Charming took slightly more time to get there, entering at number two and climbing to the top the following week. It replaced another outstanding number one, Soft Cell’s debut hit Tainted Love / Where Did Our Love Go, the latter being another Holland-Dozier-Holland composition.

 

Prince Charming’s second week at the top coincided with the day I turned 21 and Tainted Love was still holding on at number two. The presence of Ottowan at number three prevented Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark’s Souvenir completing what would have been a fabulous top three. Outside the top ten, highlights included Godley & Creme’s haunting Under Your Thumb, Depeche Mode’s Just Can’t Get Enough which was on its way to being their first top ten hit and Passionate Friend by The Teardrop Explodes (led by Julian Cope - see number three).

 

One of the new entries in the top forty in the relevant week was the song that ended Prince Charming’s four-week run at the top. It’s My Party by Dave Stewart (not the Eurythmics one) and Barbara Gaskin completed one of the best sequences of three number ones in chart history.

 

After Adam dumped the Ants, he had three top ten hits on his own including a number one with Goody Two Shoes and another one named after a pantomime character, Puss In Boots. Then, just as suddenly as he had appeared, he more or less vanished from the charts. Goody Two Shoes came with a typically flamboyant video. In one of the all-time great Top Of The Pops performances, Adam Ant used two stages to act out the video live.

 

So, that’s it! I’ve reached the end of this top 60. Many thanks to everyone who has contributed to the discussion and to those who have read it without passing comment. It’s been a great trip down memory lane for me and researching it has been great fun, uncovering some things I didn’t know along the way. Contributors have also come up with some facts that were new to me - one of the joys of internet forums. I hope others have enjoyed this piece of self-indulgence as much as I have.

The year in the first round of Popmaster this morning was incredibly easy :lol:

Happy 60th Birthday!

 

When Popchartfreak gave a clue for the top 2 as royalty/Julian,I worked out Hey Jude for one but could only think of Queen with Under Pressure for the other one but I did think that was later than September 1981. Prince Charming is a good choice for your favourite but my top 5 would be:

 

1. He Ain't Heavy,He's My Brother

2. Don't Stand So Close To Me

3. Make It Easy On Yourself

4. Hey Jude

5. Call On Me

 

 

Wasn't expecting that to be your top song on the list. 'Stop being dandy*' though being the stand out line of the track! It is a good song anyway, I like the medieval folk music influence with the song and the video! It is however only my second favourite chart hit on the subject of Princes, as I prefer Two Princes by The Spin Doctors.

 

Stand and Deliver is probably my favourite song by Adam and the Ants. I like how it goes between the fun of the vocals and the sensibility of the guitar solo.

 

Souvenir by OMD is a very nice song and the synths are atmospheric. Godley and Creme's Under Your Thumb has interesting synths too and is great and so was Cry by them.

 

Hey Jude is very good but I do prefer the Bee Gees' Got To Get A Message to You.

 

Make It Easy On Yourself is fantastic too. Yes Unchained Melody is good but I prefer the Righteous Brothers - You've Lost That Loving Feeling to Unchained Melody.

 

 

Edited September 24, 20204 yr by Garden Snake

Never liked Adam & The Ants at all. If I had to pick one that was tolerable I'd say Goody Two Shoes, also a No.1.

Edited September 24, 20204 yr by Crazy Chris

Fab rundown Simon, controversial, interesting, fun throughout! Thoroughly enjoyed it and i am not remotely surprised adam was top for you. Hit my number 2 where stand and deliver topped, loved the videos, loved adams run of singles from dog eat dog through to goody two shoes, and unlike most fans of the time i loved antrap, forget eminem and beastieboys, adam ant was rapping white boy ahead of everyone, dropping melody and bursting with exciting rhythms and chants, and he had young lulu in the vid in a castle. Been round Lincoln Castle and old student haunts today which i waved bye bye to on the year adam first hit in 1980. Living in the past!

 

I loved the charts in 1981 classic year spearheading the second british invasion as MTV changed the usa music singles chart.

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY too and its just a number. A number where you get discounts at the cinema and other things :cheer:

Thanks John! Do we get cinema discounts at 60? I must investigate :o

Great top 2, both artists have done better in my view but they are both pretty undeniable classics, thanks for this and happy birthday *.

 

Although having seen them all, I think your last placer would still be my favourite here :ph34r:

 

01. Ride on Time

02. Ebeneezer Goode

03. Blue (Da Ba Dee)

04. He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother

05. Where is the Love

06. Dancing Queen

07. Eye of the Tiger

08. Hey Jude

09. Karma Chameleon

10. Can't Get You Out of my Head

Happy birthday Suedey, hope you've had a good day! 'Hey Jude' is my favourite on the entire list so I'm glad it was so high up for you :wub:

Thanks for the birthday wishes. I would neve have guessed that Hey Jude would have been Jade's favourite :lol:

Thanks John! Do we get cinema discounts at 60?

Totally does get you a cheaper ticket, also entrance to most attractions, and if you get a seniors railcard you can transfer it to your london oystercard and get one third off :cheer: . Londoners of course get free underground and buses at 60, us plebs elsewhere have to wait till 65 to get free bus passes. Assuming they havent managed a successful logans run for the pension age population by then either by intent or incompetence!