rio309

Looking at how low the #10 sale was this week - could a good showing on iTunes from Liam Gallagher make a bigger difference than usual and actually nudge him into top 10? He always seems to stall between 30 and 15.

I'm surprised there's not been more love for ABBA so far. Thought SOS was considered one of their best songs. Also surprised St Elmo's Fire isn't doing anything, especially considering the current Virgin advert. Though I wonder if some people don't know that's what song it is? When I first saw the advert I was like - love that song, haven't heard it in ages... but then had to Google what it was called and who sang it!

Was expecting CMAT and Last Dinner Party to make the top 2. Finding it all a bit less interesting now it's mainly known acts, preferred when you'd barely heard of anyone on the list

These don't get any easier as we move down the numbers... my initial list was 101! A couple I'd have included / placed higher but I see are already through as other people's wildcards. +30 Käärijä - Cha Cha Cha +29 Chicane feat. Maire Brennan – Saltwater +28 David Bowie – Where Are We Now? +27 Bon Jovi – This Ain't a Love Song +26 Depeche Mode – Enjoy the Silence +25 Little Boots – Remedy +24 John Parr - St Elmo's Fire (Man In Motion) +23 Men Without Hats - The Safety Dance +22 R.E.M. – Imitation of Life +21 The Cure – Friday I'm In Love +20 Sia – Chandelier +19 U2 - The Unforgettable Fire +18 Queen - It's A Hard Life +17 Simon & Garfunkel - The Boxer +16 Madonna – The Power of Good-Bye +15 Daniel Bedingfield – I Can't Read You +14 Faithless feat. Dido – One Step Too Far +13 Blackstreet – Don't Leave Me +12 Prince and The Revolution – Purple Rain +11 Little Mix feat. Jason Derulo – Secret Love Song +10 John Farnham - You're The Voice +9 Grace – Not Over Yet +8 Hot Chip – Ready for the Floor +7 Robin S. – Show Me Love +6 U2 - I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For +5 Duran Duran – Ordinary World +4 Guns n' Roses - Sweet Child O' Mine +3 Doves – Black and White Town +2 Tove Lo feat. Hippie Sabotage – Stay High +1 Special D – Come with Me

I spotted U2's Discotheque in the list in 1997 but did it not reach #1?

+5 Miracle +4 Escapism +3 Anti Hero +2 Calm Down +1 People -1 Flowers -2 Sprinter -3 Kill Bill -4 Boys A Liar -5 As It Was

Oh and also yes RATM beating XFactor is probably my favourite chart moment of the century! Glad it made top 10.

Thanks for running this! Generally can't complain about the results (except Hallelujah almost getting top 20 when it's the most objectionable cover version of anything I've ever heard). I was wondering whether Bohemian Rhapsody suffered from having two versions in the rate... but while it did score enough to be #1 "combined", it wasn't by much. And I imagine at least a few of the 1991 votes were for These Were The Days...

Agree with this. People chose to listen to that specific song, it was a big event release like we used to get a few times each year. Whereas this Christmas playlist stuff is, from a chart perspective if nothing else, boring beyond description.

Dropping out of this for a couple of weeks, cba rating largely the same 10 Christmas songs as every year, but will rejoin after the Jan clear out!

Thanks Mango and well done Jim and the top 3. Big gap to what would have been me in 4th but for the recalculation!

+18 QUEEN – BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY +15 RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE – KILLING IN THE NAME +13 PINK FLOYD – ANOTHER BRICK IN THE WALL (PART 2) +12 EAST 17 – STAY ANOTHER DAY +11 BAND AID – DO THEY KNOW IT'S CHRISTMAS? +10 MICHAEL ANDREWS & GARY JULES – MAD WORLD +9 JOHNNY MATHIS – WHEN A CHILD IS BORN (SOLEADO) +8 THE BEATLES – I WANT TO HOLD YOUR HAND +7 SPICE GIRLS – 2 BECOME 1 +6 THE HUMAN LEAGUE – DON'T YOU WANT ME +5 MICHAEL JACKSON – EARTH SONG +4 SHAKIN' STEVENS – MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE +3 HARRY BELAFONTE – MARY'S BOY CHILD +2 LEON JACKSON – WHEN YOU BELIEVE +1 DANNY WILLIAMS – MOON RIVER If I could assign a -100 it would go to Hallelujah, and if I got a second it would go to When We Collide

#5-#3 are absolutely diabolical, all definitely deserved to be top 5

Sunchyme (also stuck behind Candle In The Wind) and Set You Free are great shouts, would probably both be in my top ten in this category

I loved Peaches, great light relief among the morass of brainless sample-heavy dance and r&b tracks. On the other hand, if you'd told me someone would spew out an even more offensive abuse of Children so soon after React, I'd have found it hard to believe... cue Bou...

Overall there's millions... But taking this question to mean songs that got close to #1 but didn't quite make it, my winner would be Tender by Blur which is a masterpiece but narrowly missed out to Baby One More Time on its second week at the top if I remember correctly.

I'm Just Ken is probably my favourite pure pop song of the year! One of the best scenes in any movie I've seen for ages. I also enjoy listening to the song stand alone (though not sure if I'd be saying the same if it had just come into existence without the movie)

The fact that some of these atrocities (e.g. Whistle, Barbie World, Paint The Town Red!!) have fared better than instant classic I'm Just Ken makes me despair for Buzzjack 🤣

I think (joint) 3rd might be the highest I've ever finished in a BJ quiz! Annoyingly for Q19, I thought the Brownlee brothers was the key to the answer but didn't latch on to what clearly was the best and correct song to fit the clue about them! Very enjoyable quiz, thank you!

Some of the recent quizzes, I've felt they were tough but most other entrants have done really well. At least with this one everyone seems to have found it tough! All the answers make sense now you've said them, I guess there was just such a big pool to choose from in the first place that it was easy to miss the best answer.

+5 Is It Over Now +4 Baddadan +3 Stick Season +2 Prada +1 Houdini -1 Lovin On Me -2 Cruel Summer -3 My Love Mine All Mine -4 Greedy -5 Water ‐-------- +5 Is It Over Now +4 Stick Season +3 Prada +2 Houdini +1 Lovin On Me -1 Cruel Summer -2 Last Christmas -3 All I Want For Christmas Is You -4 Greedy -5 Water

I've just seen the list for this... The extent to which they've loosened the criteria 😮🤯🤣 Kenya Grace? Peggy Gou? Tyla? They've had 3 of the most prominent songs of 2023!

Surprising amount of good stuff on that list! I voted for boygenius, Miracle and Labrinth. Would have added Nothing But Thieves and Vampire if we'd got 5 votes.

Well done to the top few in that - it was definitely on the difficult side for my level of knowledge, but a lot of fun, thank you for hosting Julian

14-1 so pretty tempting! (But yes also strange that he wasn't on their list in the first place