Had I been born in early January, I would have been faced with a string of X Factor winner’s singles to rank. It’s fair to say that they would probably all have appeared in this list by now. A strong contender for last place (at least among the X Factor singles) would have been Alexandra Burke’s version of Hallelujah from 2008/9. It was a classic example of what I dislike so much about X Factor winners - she may have been able to sing all the notes, but she couldn’t sing the words. Her version was completely lacking in any emotion, unlike the Jeff Buckley version which was at number two in the week Burke went to number one.

 

In September 2010 Burke had her third number one single when Start Without You knocked Please Don’t Let Me Go by Olly Murs (an X Factor contestant in 2009) from the top. It stayed at number one the following week which meant it was top of the chart on my fiftieth birthday and it is at number 37 in this list. Its run was ended the following week when Bruno Mars’ Just The Way You Are (Amazing) took over.

 

The top forty also included Eminem’s best single (the only one I actually like) Love The Way You Lie, (It’s Not War) Just The End Of Love by Manic Street Preachers and Hurts’ Wonderful Life. Ash were releasing one single per fortnight that year; one of them, Sky Burial, was in the lower reaches of the chart as I marked my half-century. One Day Like This was making another one of its pre-2012 chart appearances. Talking of Sky, they had a talent show running at that time. Songs from the show performed by Missing Andy and Emma’s Imagination were in the top forty that week.

 

Start Without You isn't very good. However considering Alexandra basically disowned her entire chart discography recently in that video she made, there is a sadness now to Alexandra's whole chart career :(

 

Love The Way You Lie though by Eminem and Rihanna is a good song,

 

I don't remember Emma's Imagination or Missing Andy but I do remember Pepper and Piano - You took my heaaar--aarrt which I didn't like much at the time.

 

OK so I listened to Missing Andy they are quite good and remind me of Frank Turner. And Emma's Imagination's music is a bit like Taylor Swift's new Folklore era.

 

That Bruno Mars song Just The Way You Are (Amazing) was a big victim of overplaying and I think if it had of been #1 on your birthday Suedehead you would have ranked it lower than Start Without You because of that.

Edited August 18, 20204 yr by Flopiday

I am really surprised that's as high as it is for you actually! That song is utter trash, stunning to think it got to number 1 listening to it now!

I am really surprised that's as high as it is for you actually! That song is utter trash, stunning to think it got to number 1 listening to it now!

 

Yes its not a very good #1 single, the melody is like a nursery rhyme in my opinion. I like the bit from 0:39 to 0:46, its a bit Eurovision and if they would have continued with that melody through more of the song it would have been good.

Another one I'd forgotten and had to play to remind myself of. I'd place it in the bottom ten to date, though it did hit 24 in my personal chart. I may have been influenced by the video, the latin rhythms and the catchy bit :lol:

 

As someone born in early January, I agree a potential run-down from me would be far worse than yours! Not only is there X Factor trash, but also Xmas songs and endless novelty songs. Quality-wise yours is way better :D

We stay in the 21st century for the song at number 36. Six years before Start Without You was number one, in 2004, Eric Prydz topped the chart with Call On Me. The song was based on Steve Winwood’s Valerie which was, of course, a different song from the one of the same name by Zutons (and, later, Mark Ronson and Amy Winehouse). Steve Winwood’s bank balance was given a further boost this year with the success of Kygo’s reworking of Whitney Houston’s version of Higher Love. Eric Prydz had a number two hit with Proper Education, based on Pink Floyd’s chart-topping Another Brick In The Wall Part II, and was earlier associated with other Swedish DJs who became Swedish House Mafia.

 

Call On Me entered at number one in my birthday chart ahead of two contrasting further new entries - Girls Aloud’s Love Machine at number two and Green Day’s American Idiot at three. It did the world a great favour by replacing Brian McFadden’s Real To Me. It wasn’t exactly a vintage chart with Embrace’s Gravity (going down, obviously), Interpol’s Slow Hands and Keane’s Bedshaped about as good as it got. Outside the top forty we had Streets’ Dry Your Eyes, Thrills’ Whatever Happened To Corey Haim and All These Things That I;ve Done by The Killers.

 

Call On Me stayed at number one for three weeks before Robbie Williams’ Radio replaced it for a week. After that week it climbed back to the top and stayed there for another fortnight. Its time at the top was finally brought to an end by Ja Rule, R Kelly and Ashanti’s Wonderful which wasn’t.

 

The video is horribly sexist.

 

I think Call On Me is dire. I never got the fuss even at the time, it's just too repetitive and has very little to it imo. There were some decent dance tracks around that year and I never understood why this one ended up being the most popular, video aside :rolleyes:

I can't say the video does anything for me :lol:

Bottom five for me to date, this one. It's not only not as good as Steve Winwood's version (which wasnt that great a record to begin with), it takes the most annoying parts of the original and repeats them endlessly. Call On Me peaked at 75 for 1 week on my own personal charts. I think I was FAR too generous.....

If you can name Survivor’s other chart hit, you might want to consider applying to be on Ken Bruce’s Popmaster quiz one day. It was Burning Heart which reached number five in 1986.

 

I did know that one, although I have been on Popmaster twice. Didn't win either time though - apparently Ultravox didn't have a hit with "Reap the Wild Oats".

 

I liked Call On Me and still do, although I knew it before I knew the Steve Winwood song it sampled. The video used to make me wince, although I put that down to my prudish nature rather than anything else.

I did know that one, although I have been on Popmaster twice. Didn't win either time though - apparently Ultravox didn't have a hit with "Reap the Wild Oats".

 

Ken was being entirely unreasonable - Reap The Wild Oats is easily worthy of 3 points for the lols :lol: If you think about, it makes more sense than Reap The Wild Wind ("pardon me for being rude, it was not me it was my food")

Bottom five for me to date, this one. It's not only not as good as Steve Winwood's version (which wasnt that great a record to begin with), it takes the most annoying parts of the original and repeats them endlessly. Call On Me peaked at 75 for 1 week on my own personal charts. I think I was FAR too generous.....

 

Given the lack of quality in the actaul chart that week, I can only assume your personal chart had a lot of album tracks and oldies :lol:

 

 

I did know that one, although I have been on Popmaster twice. Didn't win either time though - apparently Ultravox didn't have a hit with "Reap the Wild Oats".

 

I liked Call On Me and still do, although I knew it before I knew the Steve Winwood song it sampled. The video used to make me wince, although I put that down to my prudish nature rather than anything else.

Three In Ten is always a bit of a lottery. Ultravox would have been easy for me but I suspect many would have struggled to get more than Vienna. There was someone on a couple years or so ago who came across as a really nice bloke until it came to Three In Ten when he gave the impression he had never heard of Suede :drama: I went off him after that.

 

Ken Bruce can be a real stickler though. He only gave one of this morning's contestants two points (out of six for a bonus) when she said Pretty In Pink was by The Psychedelics. Of course, had she read a very recent commentary, she would have known it was The Psychedelic Furs :P

Three In Ten is bloody difficult unless it's an act you love to bits, the mind just goes blank! :lol:

 

Suede: I just failed to name 3 in 10 seconds. She's In Fashion, something about pigs, and I'm struggling with the hook for (looks it up) Trash. Its way easier with discography in front of me, Metal Mickey, of course! Stay Together, tch. Beautiful Ones, tut tut know that one...

 

Call On Me my personal chart? hang on a mo, checking, yup you are spot on! My number one was Ghost In My House, 2 was It's Over, both 60's classics, and my top current track was Leave (Get Out) by Jojo at 3, Martha Reeves 60's double A was 4 and Brian Wilson's new single Soul Searching was 5. There had been a massive Motown oldies double A side singles campaign and my chart was stuffed with them, so Eric was prob robbed of a chart peak of 55 or so :lol:

 

Top rated chart hits of the time that were a zillion times better than Call On Me, and in my top 20:

 

Radio (Robbie), Jesus Walks (Kanye), All These Things Ive Done (Killers), First Of The Gang To Die (Morrissey), Sand In My Shoes (Dido), Lola's Theme (Shapeshifters), Help Yourself (Amy Winehouse)...

 

Non-hits that were just higher than Call On Me? New singles by The Finn Brothers, Donny Osmond, Ashlee Simpson & Marilyn Mansun. Yup I was SO over-generous to Call On Me..! :lol:

I actually really like 'Call On Me' as a song but do agree with your sentiments on the video. 00s dance videos for the most part were trash :drama:

Non-hits that were just higher than Call On Me? New singles by The Finn Brothers, Donny Osmond, Ashlee Simpson & Marilyn Mansun. Yup I was SO over-generous to Call On Me..! :lol:

 

I trust you didn't like any of the 80s remixes that followed it either such as Out Of Touch or Falling Stars?! :lol:

 

I did like some of the 80s remixes that followed it, Groove Cutters remix of Go West's We Close Our Eyes especially (as it was a bit cooler sounding that the rest of them) and Falling Stars and Out Of Touch are is a decent enough remixes. Call On Me itself is a bit different to anything else at the time and I like it for that, I mean before it in chart dance music was the 'Clubland' sound which was getting a bit overused by that stage.

 

Yes Suedehead and Jade the video is tacky and awful but a lot of videos now are like D Block Europe We Won in the charts this week.

 

Call On Me entered at number one in my birthday chart ahead of two contrasting further new entries - Girls Aloud’s Love Machine at number two and Green Day’s American Idiot at three. It did the world a great favour by replacing Brian McFadden’s Real To Me.

 

Oh no, I thought Real To Me was a good enough #1 - I prefer it to anything Westlife did.

Edited August 20, 20204 yr by Flopiday

"Better than Westlife" definitely counts as damning with faint praise :lol:

Up next it’s the first entry from the 1960s and a second posthumous number one. Jim Reeves died in a plane crash in 1964. He was already in the top ten at the time with I Won’t Forget You although it had just started to drop down the chart. After news of his death, it climbed to a new peak of number three within a few weeks. It ended up spending fifteen weeks in the top ten.

 

Further posthumous hits followed but it wasn’t until September 1966 that he got his first, and only, number one with Distant Drums. It climbed to the top just in time for my sixth birthday but I can safely say that I was blissfully unaware of it. The song it replaced, All Or Nothing by The Small Faces, would have finished rather higher than Distant Drums’ number 35.

 

As well as All Or Nothing, the top ten that week also included The Beatles with Yellow Submarine / Eleanor Rigby, The Who’s I’m A Boy and God Only Know by The Beach Boys. How classy is that? Elsewhere in the top forty, we had Bend It by Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich, Chris Montez’s version of The More I See You and Summer In The City by the Lovin’ Spoonful.

 

Distant Drums stayed at number one for five weeks before The Four Tops scored their only number one with Reach Out I’ll Be There. I think it’s fair to say that Distant Drums was representative of the past (even allowing for the fact that Jim Reeves had been dead for two years by then) while Reach Out I’ll Be There was an example of the songs that would make the chart regularly for the rest of the decade and beyond,

 

Yes Distant Drums does sound more like the sort of songs than made #1 at the start of the chart in 1954. Just listened to I Won’t Forget You and I prefer it to the rather boring Distant Drums.

 

Yes Reach Out (I'll Be There) is great.

 

Bend It by Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich is preferable to Tich's solo singles in the 2010s! I like the Greek sounding music in it. Along with Eleanor Rigby and God Only Knows, some good songs in the chart at this time then.

Edited August 20, 20204 yr by Flopiday

Another one I'd forgotten and had to play to remind myself of. I'd place it in the bottom ten to date, though it did hit 24 in my personal chart. I may have been influenced by the video, the latin rhythms and the catchy bit :lol:

 

As someone born in early January, I agree a potential run-down from me would be far worse than yours! Not only is there X Factor trash, but also Xmas songs and endless novelty songs. Quality-wise yours is way better :D

 

You should still do it just for fun though!

 

I am considering doing a birthday #1s rundown too but given I have an early February birthday you will all be fearing the 2008 entry will be top of mine!

Edited August 20, 20204 yr by Flopiday

I trust you didn't like any of the 80s remixes that followed it either such as Out Of Touch or Falling Stars?! :lol:

 

I did like some of the 80s remixes that followed it, Groove Cutters remix of Go West's We Close Our Eyes especially (as it was a bit cooler sounding that the rest of them) and Falling Stars and Out Of Touch are is a decent enough remixes. Call On Me itself is a bit different to anything else at the time and I like it for that, I mean before it in chart dance music was the 'Clubland' sound which was getting a bit overused by that stage.

 

It depends on the treatment, I'm not against cover versions as such, just banal ones :lol: (I'm afraid I don;t recall the covers of Out Of Touch or Falling Stars, I'll just look up in my A to Z... :lol: Out Of Touch Hall & Oates peaked at 2, Uniting nations peaked at 73, oops! :D Falling Stars, the original was top 10, the cover hit 60. At least I'm consistent! :lol: