Welcome to the rate! We hope you will enjoy joining us in our search for the worst ever number 1.

This thread explains the background to what we are doing and the format. There will be separate threads solely for voting - you can use this one for any questions or comments.

The aim
14 November 2022 will be the 70th anniversary of the publication of the first ever UK singles chart, and on that day the worst ever number 1 according to Buzzjack will be crowned!

The background
At the beginning of this year a group of us started a weekly listening group covering all the 1,400 or so number 1 singles since the beginning of the charts in November 1952.
It has been a big undertaking lasting most of the year, but we are now up to 2013 so the end is in sight!
During the sessions some of us were thinking that it would be nice to have a poll on the back of it, and we came up with the idea of a worst number 1 rate based on a shortlist to be determined during the sessions.

Why worst number 1?
So why a worst number 1 poll rather than something positive?
First of all this is very much not about being negative about any particular artists, and in the shortlisting we have set a limit of one song per artist. This is more about celebrating the eccentricities of British taste and reminiscing on some of the more inexplicable displays of it over the years, with a view to establishing chart history’s ultimate “what on Earth?” moment.
A best number 1 poll has already done by King Rollo a few years ago, as well as other polls to find the best of each decade and so on. As far as we know this has never been done. Also, to establish the best number 1 you probably don’t need to listen to every song - it’s very likely to be something that is still played and talked about. The worst number 1, on the other hand, could be something justly forgotten.

The shortlist
We have spent many months coming up with a list of 100 Number Ones that we collectively consider to be the worst, and have been asking for comments on what we have chosen in the rewind sub-forums. Clearly this is a subjective exercise and everybody’s choices would be different, but we have tried to ensure that the final shortlist reflects the wealth of knowledge and critical powers on Buzzjack as far as possible.

The format
There will be 4 heats, period by period, each including 25 songs.
Heat 1: 1952-1979 - results complete: http://www.buzzjack.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=256960
Heat 2: 1980-1995 - results complete: http://www.buzzjack.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=256980
Heat 3: 1996-2006 - results complete: http://www.buzzjack.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=257015
Heat 4: 2007-2022 - now closed and results coming: http://www.buzzjack.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=257536

10 songs from each heat have qualified for a 40 song final.

The voting
For the heats, please rank the songs from +25 (worst) to +1 (least bad).
In the final, please rank them from +40 (worst) to +1 (least bad).

We will be asking you to rank all the songs in each round. This is to ensure both that all the songs have been considered and that each voter is given equal weighting. Please therefore listen to any songs you do not know before voting. There will be a Youtube link for each song in the voting threads and there is one Spotify playlist covering the entire rate (though note a few songs are missing and some only have “fake” versions).



Thanks for reading and please do post below if you have any questions!

Edited October 11, 20222 yr by Ghoul Jules

Here we go everyone - it’s the rate from hell we’ve all been waiting for hahah

 

May the best worst #1 win!

Ah I guess I'm going to need to relisten to a few of these if we have to rank all of them - joy :kink:

Ah I guess I'm going to need to relisten to a few of these if we have to rank all of them - joy :kink:

Do you think we should do a listen through for the nominations? Happy to do it in all seriousness. Maybe just for the pre 80s round?

 

I’m not sure I understand your comment about the YouTube links - you mean I should make a playlist using my account and point people to that? But why is it a bad idea - does it upset the forum gods? :unsure: ;)

I think it's cos a post with 30 videos takes ages to load, at least it did to me on the phone

 

You can make a Youtube playlist same way you do it on Spotify

Are you allowed to skip the first two heats and potentially vote in the last 2 heats? I’m way too young to have any sort of idea of any of the songs in the first heat at least lol

Are you allowed to skip the first two heats and potentially vote in the last 2 heats? I’m way too young to have any sort of idea of any of the songs in the first heat at least lol

Yeah sure no worries! You have time to listen to them though and would be interesting to get the perspective of some young members on the old songs. Not the most enjoyable listen you’ll ever have but some of them are really quite amusing. :)

 

Very few members were around in 1952 so if that was the pre-requisite there wouldn’t be much of a rate. :lol:

Edited August 30, 20222 yr by JulianT

Yeah people often complain about threads with a ton of YouTube embeds taking a long time to load. (And even aside from that it just makes for an unnecessary amount of scrolling but that's a minor complaint of course x)

OK now amended to a YouTube playlist for Heat 1.

 

Let me know if there is any interest in me running a listen-through. :)