Are you sure this is not coming in wrong order? :D I don't know what's still to come (I have a feeling I don't know lots of songs still to come) but I really like both tracks already out and I'd probably put them in my top 10 haha :P

Edited July 25, 20204 yr by Jason

I said at the start that some songs have been placed higher than they might have been for nostalgic reasons. Others, by contrast, have been placed lower than they might have been because they have been over-played. They are still awful, but their over-exposure has made them appear even worse.

 

So, at number 58 it’s time to be Rick-rolled. Yes, Never Gonna Give You Up went to number one in August 1987 and stayed there for five weeks, the last of which was my birthday week. The song was, of course, produced by the infamous trio Stock, Aitken and Waterman. They had their first number one a couple years earlier with Dead Or Alive’s You Spin Me Round (Like A Record). Sadly, none of their subsequent number ones - this was their fourth chart-topper - were anywhere near as good. Never Gonna Give You Up probably wasn’t the worst of them but it was the only one to top the chart on my birthday and almost the only one still played regularly today.

 

The song that was at number two that week - and which climbed to the top the following week was the subject of a legal dispute with Stock, Aitken and Waterman. They sued M/A/R/R/S claiming that Pump Up The Volume took part of its melody from an earlier SAW song. M/A/R/R/S countered that Never Gonna Give You Up took its bassline from another song. The writers of that song stayed quiet, possibly because they didn’t want to take any blame.

 

Among the highlights in that week’s chart were U2’s Where The Streets Have No Name, What Have I Done To Deserve This by Pet Shop Boys and Dusty Springfield and Black’s wonderful Wonderful Life. Pet Shop Boys later recorded their own version of Where The Streets Have No Name as part of a mash-up with Can’t Take My Eyes Off You.

 

well, can't argue it's not over-played and infamous, but I've never got fed up with it meself :D

 

On the basis quoted 1991 and 1997 must be next up...... :lol:

Never Gonna Give You Up is OK I think. I used to like it more before the silly Rick Rolling thing started up. Together Forever by Rick Astley is better I think, especially compared to the boring acoustic cover of it on that advert that used to be on a lot.

 

I thought the next song might have been from 1999, hopefully that song can avoid the list for a while yet.

 

 

I had a nightmare that The song topping the list would be that song from 1999.

 

I must admit it would be hilarious if it happened...

 

Go on Simon, do it! :rofl:

I had a nightmare that The song topping the list would be that song from 1999.

 

I must admit it would be hilarious if it happened...

 

Go on Simon, do it! :rofl:

Maybe it is number one :D

For number 57 we go back 25 years to 1995 and Simply Red’s Fairground. If anyone wants an example of someone who epitomises a bloke with a whiney voice, Mick Hucknall is your man. Simply Red (short for Simply Dreadful) is the vehicle he chose to inflict his whining on the British public. Fairground was their fifteenth top forty hit and, on my 35th birthday, entered the chart as their first (and only) number one, replacing Shaggy’s equally atrocious Boombastic. It brought an end to a marvellous spell of nearly three years when the charts had been blissfully free of the irritating Mancunian. It stayed at the top for four weeks before it was replaced by the far superior Gangsta’s Paradise by Coolio featuring LV.

 

Among the other songs in the chart that week were The Rembrandts’ I’ll Be There For You (before it was a hit again when it was used as the theme tune for one of the least funny sitcoms of all time), Cast’s Alright and Blur’s Country House.

 

Number one in my charts for the whole of September was... ta dah! Fairground by Simply Red. While ginger Mick had a tendency to blandness sometimes he pulled one out the hat, and his fab sample of The Goodmen's Give It Up underpinned his best record by quite some distance at that point. Currently 539 (this is an exclusive reveal as it'll take me ages to get to that point!) on my All-Time Top 800 list of "million-sellers" from my charts.

 

Now if you'd listed Holding Back The Ears (I assume someone was kneeling in front of him when he wrote that song) I could've happily joined in with some slagging off.... :lol:

 

 

Maybe it is number one :D

 

Worth it for the LOL's but I can pretty much guarantee it won't be having seen some of the other contenders :lol:

Number one in my charts for the whole of September was... ta dah! Fairground by Simply Red. While ginger Mick had a tendency to blandness sometimes he pulled one out the hat, and his fab sample of The Goodmen's Give It Up underpinned his best record by quite some distance at that point. Currently 539 (this is an exclusive reveal as it'll take me ages to get to that point!) on my All-Time Top 800 list of "million-sellers" from my charts.

 

Now if you'd listed Holding Back The Ears (I assume someone was kneeling in front of him when he wrote that song) I could've happily joined in with some slagging off.... :lol:

Holding Back The Years might have kept Ride On Time off the bottom :lol:

As noted above, I just missed having a birthday number one whose title started with Boom in 1995. If Boombastic had held on to the top spot, it would have been the second Boom-related birthday number one out of three. Just two years earlier, DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince were at number one with the appalling Boom Shake The Room, the alleged song at number 56 in this list.

 

Boom Shake The Room climbed to the top for the first week of a two-week run in time for my birthday chart, becoming the first number one by an artist with DJ at the start of his name. It replaced Culture Beat’s Mr Vain. Unforgivably, those two songs kept the Pet Shop Boys’ version of Go West off the top. Otherwise, I would have been describing how my birthday number one was an example of Tennant and Lowe somehow making a very camp song sound even more camp. It would, of course, have featured a lot higher than number 56.

 

Boom Shake The Room was the eighth top 100 hit for DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince, the third to reach the top forty and the only number one. The Fresh Prince was a television character played by Will Smith who later had ten top ten hits (including a number one) in his own right. I shall gloss over his daughter’s chart history.

 

M People, definitely with Heather Small, had the highest new entry of the week with their biggest hit Moving On Up. Rather better new entries included EPs from Depeche Mode and The Wonder Stuff while other highlights in that chart included Radiohead’s Creep and a reissue of Freddie Mercury’s Living On My Own.

 

Boom Shake The Room’s two weeks at the top were brought to an end by the arrival of Take That and Lulu’s Relight My Fire, possibly the best of Take That’s pre-hiatus number ones.

 

Awww at all these 90s number ones falling out already! Simply Red isn't a particular favourite of mine these days but I did think it was interesting that he chose to sample Give It Up.

 

 

Awww at all these 90s number ones falling out already! Simply Red isn't a particular favourite of mine these days but I did think it was interesting that he chose to sample Give It Up.

There were plenty of great songs in the 1990s (not all of them by Suede). Unfortunately, they had a habit of not being at number one at the end of September :(

I actually really like Fairground, I think its one of their best tracks and house music does work for them I think. Yes the Simply Red ballads I do find a bit whiney I would agree but Fairground, Something Got Me Started and Money's Too Tight To Mention are great.

 

I generally like old school rap tracks but Boom Shake The Room is too much of a novelty hit and I can't take it seriously whatsoever. Easily my least favourite of the tracks you posted so far. Mr Vain is a good dance track though, full of energy and good lyrics for a Eurodance song, so I don't mind that having been #1 over the also great Pet Shop Boys Go West cover.

Mr Vain is definitely better than Boom Shake The Room! I'm not a big fan of it but it would have finished higher up this list had it still been number one for my birthday.

At number 55 we have the kings of the insipid cover version, Westlife, albeit this time as featured artist alongside Mariah Carey. They have the honour of having the lowest-placed number one on a “significant” birthday as their version of Phil Collins’ Against All Odds was at the top of the chart on the day I turned forty. It escapes being the lowest-placed entry from the 21st century because I am a pedant who insists that the century began on 1 January 2001.

 

The song was originally a number two hit for its writer in 1984 when it was used in the soundtrack of the film of the same name. Phil Collins has received a lot of criticism over the years, particularly from Peter Gabriel-era Genesis fans who didn’t like the direction he took the band in after Gabriel left. However, some of us who disliked later Genesis material still accept that a fair bit of Collins’ early solo material was good; Against All Odds is one of those songs. Sadly, the Westlife version was down to their usual standard. The addition of Mariah Carey made no difference to the quality of this effort.

 

Phil Collins had three number one singles of his own, the first with a cover of You Can’t Hurry Love. Against All Odds topped the chart again in 2005 for Steve Brookstein after he won X Factor. The Westlife version was the sixth of their record-breaking run of seven number ones from their first seven singles. It entered the chart at number one, knocking Modjo’s Lady (Hear You Tonight) off the top. Two weeks later it was replaced by All Saints’ second best single Black Coffee.

 

The whole of the top ten that week was pretty poor so I have to go outside that to find some decent songs. These include the theme tune to Channel 4’s big new hit of the year Big Brother, Robbie Williams’ Rock DJ and Spiller’s Groovejet (If This Ain’t Love). There were better pickings outside the top forty where we find Darude’s Sandstorm, Radiohead’s Fake Plastic Trees and Street Spirit (Fade Out), and a re-issued Theme From Shaft by Isaac Hayes.

 

Mariah Carey's vocal I suppose adds a bit more interest than if it was just Westlife but still rather boring. Good impression of Mariah's vocal style by a member of Westlife at 1:56 in the video though!

 

Phil Collins version is a bit better but he has better solo singles I think.

awww I really rate Boom! Honest I do! :lol: Credit to young Will Smith he was a teen rap star before he was a TV character, The Fresh Prince was musing with his DJ mate about girls being nothing but trouble in 1986, long before he moved to Bel Air and worldwide stardom. OK no quibbles from me though it should have been Go West, record of the year!

 

At last we have a track I can join in slagging off! Westlife were one of those inverted success pop stars for me - the bigger the hit the more I disliked it, the lower the chart position the more I enjoyed it. They had a few pop bops and a swathe of achingly dull ballads. Mariah Carey was more hit and miss to me - sometimes she was very good indeed when she reigned in the vocal warbling histrionics and concentrated on the groove, but usually she was showing off her tonsils and range on excruciating unconvincing simpering and wailing alternately. I was never a fan of the Phil Collins version that much, but at least it had style unlike this paint-by-numbers plodding effort. Maybe I'm misremembering though, it's been 20 years....?

 

No. Playing it now. Simpering mariah start. drums. westlife wailing out of tune singing all the notes in the wrong order. Even the backing choir sounds bored. Mariah has an orgasm as all concerned wail and annoy. The best bit was the end. After it had finished I mean. I would happily place this in last place so far, by a Grand-Canyon-sized margin! :lol:

 

Not a fan.... :kink:

 

 

 

 

awww I really rate Boom! Honest I do! :lol: Credit to young Will Smith he was a teen rap star before he was a TV character, The Fresh Prince was musing with his DJ mate about girls being nothing but trouble in 1986, long before he moved to Bel Air and worldwide stardom. OK no quibbles from me though it should have been Go West, record of the year!

 

At last we have a track I can join in slagging off! Westlife were one of those inverted success pop stars for me - the bigger the hit the more I disliked it, the lower the chart position the more I enjoyed it. They had a few pop bops and a swathe of achingly dull ballads. Mariah Carey was more hit and miss to me - sometimes she was very good indeed when she reigned in the vocal warbling histrionics and concentrated on the groove, but usually she was showing off her tonsils and range on excruciating unconvincing simpering and wailing alternately. I was never a fan of the Phil Collins version that much, but at least it had style unlike this paint-by-numbers plodding effort. Maybe I'm misremembering though, it's been 20 years....?

 

No. Playing it now. Simpering mariah start. drums. westlife wailing out of tune singing all the notes in the wrong order. Even the backing choir sounds bored. Mariah has an orgasm as all concerned wail and annoy. The best bit was the end. After it had finished I mean. I would happily place this in last place so far, by a Grand-Canyon-sized margin! :lol:

 

Not a fan.... :kink:

:lol:

 

I've never been a fan of Mariah Carey and the decision to do a collab with Westlife was just bizarre. Carey has a wide vocal range - one of the reasons I don't like her is her tendency to demonstrate the whole of that range in what should be one syllable - while Westlife's vocal range is roughly half an octave.

The year 1978 saw me take my A Levels, leave school and, a week after my 18th birthday, start university. Musically, the year was dominated by one film - Grease. In common with almost a third of the population at the time, my birthday number one that year was a song from the film - John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John crashing their way through Summer Nights. I remembered Newton-John having hit singles in the early seventies, so the idea that she had suddenly gained worldwide fame playing a schoolgirl in 1978 seemed rather odd. Indeed, she turned 30 two days after my eighteenth birthday. At least Travolta was “only” in his early twenties.

 

Summer Nights (and its predecessor You’re The One That I Want) were unavoidable for most of the year and that is the main reason why I have placed it so low. I was never a fan of the song; by the time it started to get played rather less frequently, I was absolutely sick of it.

 

There was very nearly a much better song at the top for my coming of age. The week before, 10CC were at number one with Dreadlock Holiday - a cod-reggae song that sounds a bit dodgy today but was fun at the time. Indeed, on the morning of my birthday it was still number one but the new chart was announced at lunchtime. Music fans around my age will find it relatively easy to say which song ended Summer Nights’ seven weeks at the top as it led to one of Top Of The Pops’ most memorable moments. The performance of the new number one started with Bob Geldof tearing u[ a picture of Travolta and Newton-John before the Boomtown Rats mimed to Rat Trap, the first punk-related number one single.

 

Also in that chart were the wonderfully daft Jilted John by Jilted John (comic Graham Fellows), Siouxsie and the Banshees’ Hong Kong Garden and Blondie’s Picture This. You’re The One That I Want was still in the chart as was a diabolical version of the song by Arthur Mullard and Hilda Baker. Newton-John’s last hit (apart from a re-issue of You’re The One That I Want) was a duet with Cliff Richard, Had To Be in 1995, a full 24 years after her first chart appearance. Travolta never returned to the charts (again, apart from re-issues) once he had run out of songs from Grease.

 

While doing some research for this, I discovered that Olivia Newton-John’s father was an MI5 officer who had worked at Bletchley Park on the Enigma codes. Well done him.