Popchartfreak

50 (73) SAY YOU DON'T MIND - Colin Blunstone The 60's hitmakers The Zombies lead singer had another stab at solo success in early 1972, following his 1969 chart hit under a pseudonym, and dropped this Denny Laine cover which I instantly loved. The string arrangement wasn't remotely rock or progrock, but the song seemed familiar - it was Moody Blues/Wings' Denny Laine's solo attempt at a hit in the late sixties, but which had turned up on Singapore radio in 1971 in a chunk of recording my mum had turned on for one song and then forgot to turn off, so there were quite a few interesting tidbits like Denny's original I have on tape. Colin's voice is amazing, pure and soaring, but also warm and comfortingly emotional, and this gave him a bit of a solo career for the next 2 years or so ahead of his 80's comeback with Dave Stewart. I saved up my pocket money to buy this record before it made the top 30 in the UK for a short-ish chart run, and before I plumped for even bigger faves after it had topped my personal chart for one week. Consequently it rested at a relatively lowly 73 in the Year-end, and the review has given it a more appropriate top 50 slot. I saw Colin and Rod Argent a few years back doing a Zombies/Argent/Colin solo tour a few years back, collectively they have quite the back catalogue!

Thanks klumzee and Leww for the fab hosting! Voted. 2 or 3 didnt make the top 10 but I'm hoping they qualify anyway, and I will hype a subtle goodie: Jupiterdonia!

hey yes, 30 and 36 triple action! 😆 round 1: 36 2 years out round 2: 33 gloria estefan I got but forgot I needed to name the track. I bought the album. Listening skills have always been poor....😇 3 in 10: 1 Alright and then I blanked, and they had a great run of singles too, tch.

sadly not, but I did see Bucks Fizz 3 times in the 80s and 90's.

California Dreamin' I bought in 1974 and adored, I treated that as an EP and it topped my personal charts for the longest run of all-time - it's my very own Bryan Adams which meant no other classic 1997 track got to the top spot for over 4 months. Backstreet was one of the last to top my charts before that, classic pop. Even fave band Texas were kept off the top. Will Smith men In Black whats not to love, fabulous film. Peter Andre, yes he did like Katie Price, he showed us how much in the jungle... Diddy, never liked him, I tolerated Missing You for a while, before it started to grate, ruining the stalker classic converting it into a poor tribute - Faith Evans being on it gave it some credibility and emotion at the time, but I would turn it off if it ever came on radio again these days. Coolio OTOH is fab. Bitch was a huge US radio smash before it was a UK hit, another Florida holiday track.

1 1 1 6 ORDINARY - Alex Warren 651400 2 6 2 8 CONTROL OF ME - Topic x Daecolm 352400 3 3 1 12 THE PROUD ONE - The Osmonds 865000 4 2 2 9 PINK PONY CLUB - Chappell Roan 426400 5 5 5 5 BUSY WOMAN - Sabrina Carpenter 207900 6 7 1 8 HAMMER TO THE HEART - Teddy Swims 723750 7 12 7 6 WEIGHT OF DESIRE - Tennis 139800 8 9 8 7 AS TEARS GO BY - Marianne Faithfull 183150 9 18 9 7 CRYING, LAUGHING, LOVING, LYING - Labi Siffre 133200 10 11 8 12 BEAUTIFUL THAT WAY - Miley Cyrus 299300 11 31 11 3 KEEP THE FAITH - Armin van Buuren & Bon Jovi 67000 12 25 12 4 REVOLUTION - Mans Zelmerlow 83550 13 10 10 7 BORN WITH A BROKEN HEART - Damiano David 183800 14 19 14 6 ANDY (A GUY LIKE YOU) - The Waterboys 104950 15 13 10 8 A TEAR IN SPACE (AIRLOCK) - Glass Animals 237000 16 4 2 7 WHO I AM - Alan Walker featuring Putri Ariana & Peder Elias 297800 17 8 8 10 I’M IN LOVE... - Andy Bell featuring Dot Allison and Michael Rother 222400 18 15 1 11 MORE THAN A WOMAN - Tavares 504000 19 21 11 9 NO BAD VIBES - Jazzy & KILIMANJARO 201900 20 14 5 7 CHASING PARADISE - Kygo & OneRepublic 325000 21 17 1 18 LATE NIGHT PHONE CALL - Reverend And The Makers 1425550 22 24 22 5 HALO - KEiiNO 55500 23 28 23 7 DO THINGS MY OWN WAY - Sparks 102750 24 27 24 7 FANCY - Artemas 134100 25 20 20 7 LIGHTHOUSE - Kim Wilde 108500 26 23 7 8 RIPPLE - Good Neighbours 250000 27 30 27 7 THE BALLAD OF LUCY JORDAN - Marianne Faithfull 102400 28 29 7 18 ALL YOUR FAULT - Gwen Stefani 395250 29 33 29 11 LOVE ME FOR A REASON - The Osmonds 123400 30 34 30 6 ABRADACABRA - Lady Gaga 83900 31 16 6 10 COLD DREAMING - Doves 195900 32 26 20 7 WAY OUT - Jet Trouble 118000 33 22 1 18 PEOPLE WATCHING - Sam Fender 683100 34 38 34 4 TURN AROUND - The Lottery Winners 54850 35 48 35 3 WHIRLWIND - Lainey Wilson 37000 36 36 36 5 LAST NIGHT I DREAMT I FELL IN LOVE - Alok & Kylie Minogue 65450 37 45 37 4 BUTTERFLY - Marina 47400 38 32 32 6 REVELATION - The Knocks & Dragonette 86400 39 39 18 15 BOUQUET - Gwen Stefani 218200 40 53 40 3 THE WAY I ARE - Don Diablo 38650

19th March 2025 Alex Warren makes it 3 weeks on top, chased by Topic at 2, one a big hit, t'other not. Charts are weird. Tennis make it a second top 10 lush ballad, and Labi Siffre brings his 1972 top gem back into the top 10. Highest new entry is a Mike Batt creation - Justin Hayward's first headline credit since not long after he topped my chart with Forever Autumn in 1978, so welcome back Justin, and that's a 53-year chart span including Moody Blues tracks & various other collaborations. Life In A Northern Town is the fabulous Dream Academy song, much sampled, and Mike has organised a lovely version here, his second chart entry of the year, and replied to one of my Tweets about his 1974 Pans People record to boot. I just bought 1974 album track The Orinoco Kid the other week, and Mike has been Wombling personal chart hits for 51 years now, working with artists galore. Selena Gomez is back with a great dancepop track, with Benny Blanco. I prefer it to her chart hit at the moment, and Felix Jaehn has a good go at one of Whitney's greatest records, remixing It's Not Right But It's Ok. It's much better than OK! Gaga's new album dropped, and I have cherry-picked a Taylor-Swift-alike track to give her 3 current charting tracks 16 years on from debuting. I'm not saying Ms. Swift is doing backing vocals, but if she isn't we may be in another Madonna situation, where one old Gaga hit was not entirely unlike a Madonna even-older hit to the peeve of Ms. Ciccone. Avalan Rokston are apparently happening on Tik Tok. So I'm told. It's quite good anyway, so that's a debut, while in veteran territory we have Wu-Tang Clan back with some cool 70's retro video and a 90's style rap track, which underlines how much more I used to like rap than I do now, give or take 2 or 3 acts. The Tang's topped my chart with Texas in the late 90's, and it's been at least 20 years away I reckon. Chappell Roan doesnt quite get the number one spot with her Pink Pony, but she slips The Giver in for a bit of yee-haw Country. Chesney Hawkes makes a hat-trick of good comeback singles, and announcement coming - the Disco Queen, the original one, is back with her first new track to chart here in 40 years, I think. Fida Known is pretty decent, and Gloria topped my charts twice 50 years ago and again in 1979, so that's quite a chart gap, ignoring remixes since I Yam What I Yam. Or was that Popeye? 1 1 1 6 ORDINARY - Alex Warren 651400 2 6 2 8 CONTROL OF ME - Topic x Daecolm 352400 3 3 1 12 THE PROUD ONE - The Osmonds 865000 4 2 2 9 PINK PONY CLUB - Chappell Roan 426400 5 5 5 5 BUSY WOMAN - Sabrina Carpenter 207900 6 7 1 8 HAMMER TO THE HEART - Teddy Swims 723750 7 12 7 6 WEIGHT OF DESIRE - Tennis 139800 8 9 8 7 AS TEARS GO BY - Marianne Faithfull 183150 9 18 9 7 CRYING, LAUGHING, LOVING, LYING - Labi Siffre 133200 10 11 8 12 BEAUTIFUL THAT WAY - Miley Cyrus 299300 11 31 11 3 KEEP THE FAITH - Armin van Buuren & Bon Jovi 67000 12 25 12 4 REVOLUTION - Mans Zelmerlow 83550 13 10 10 7 BORN WITH A BROKEN HEART - Damiano David 183800 14 19 14 6 ANDY (A GUY LIKE YOU) - The Waterboys 104950 15 13 10 8 A TEAR IN SPACE (AIRLOCK) - Glass Animals 237000 16 4 2 7 WHO I AM - Alan Walker featuring Putri Ariana & Peder Elias 297800 17 8 8 10 I’M IN LOVE... - Andy Bell featuring Dot Allison and Michael Rother 222400 18 15 1 11 MORE THAN A WOMAN - Tavares 504000 19 21 11 9 NO BAD VIBES - Jazzy & KILIMANJARO 201900 20 14 5 7 CHASING PARADISE - Kygo & OneRepublic 325000 21 17 1 18 LATE NIGHT PHONE CALL - Reverend And The Makers 1425550 22 24 22 5 HALO - KEiiNO 55500 23 28 23 7 DO THINGS MY OWN WAY - Sparks 102750 24 27 24 7 FANCY - Artemas 134100 25 20 20 7 LIGHTHOUSE - Kim Wilde 108500 26 23 7 8 RIPPLE - Good Neighbours 250000 27 30 27 7 THE BALLAD OF LUCY JORDAN - Marianne Faithfull 102400 28 29 7 18 ALL YOUR FAULT - Gwen Stefani 395250 29 33 29 11 LOVE ME FOR A REASON - The Osmonds 123400 30 34 30 6 ABRADACABRA - Lady Gaga 83900 31 16 6 10 COLD DREAMING - Doves 195900 32 26 20 7 WAY OUT - Jet Trouble 118000 33 22 1 18 PEOPLE WATCHING - Sam Fender 683100 34 38 34 4 TURN AROUND - The Lottery Winners 54850 35 48 35 3 WHIRLWIND - Lainey Wilson 37000 36 36 36 5 LAST NIGHT I DREAMT I FELL IN LOVE - Alok & Kylie Minogue 65450 37 45 37 4 BUTTERFLY - Marina 47400 38 32 32 6 REVELATION - The Knocks & Dragonette 86400 39 39 18 15 BOUQUET - Gwen Stefani 218200 40 53 40 3 THE WAY I ARE - Don Diablo 38650 41 35 35 6 HUNT YOU DOWN - ALT BLK ERA 104900 42 40 1 18 EXTREME WAYS - Armin van Buuren & Moby 1279200 43 52 43 6 SOMEBODY’S SON - Empire Of The Sun featuring Lindsey Buckingham 51200 44 60 44 2 LOVE IS LOVE - Kim Wilde 23250 45 47 45 3 WANT U - Hayley May 35500 46 37 2 15 THE DARK END OF THE STREET - Pet Shop Boys 560150 47 41 5 11 EUPHORIA - Armin van Buuren, Norma Jean Martine & LAWRENT with Alok 280100 48 61 48 2 TURN UP YOUR RADIO - Deacon Blue featuring Lorraine McIntosh 19800 49 65 49 3 MARIAH CAREY THROUGH DEATH VALLEY - Blossoms 25700 50 44 1 25 YOU AGAIN - The Lottery Winners featuring Reverend And The Makers 1116100 51 43 1 17 APT. - ROSE & Bruno Mars 840700 52 54 52 5 CRY FOR ME - The Weeknd 47400 53 56 53 4 KILLING ME SOFTLY WITH HIS SONG - Roberta Flack 34150 54 57 54 3 WISH I DIDN’T MISS YOU - Angie Stone 28400 55 59 55 2 BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE - David Guetta & Sia 20900 56 NEW 56 1 LIFE IN A NORTHERN TOWN - Justin Hayward & Mike Batt 10600 57 NEW 57 1 SUNSET BLVD - Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco 10400 58 55 1 28 THE GIRL THAT I CALL HOME - Tears For Fears 1069300 59 58 10 31 DIE WITH A SMILE - Lady Gaga & Bruno Mars 496950 60 51 4 47 FEEL - Pet Shop Boys 1150100 61 67 61 3 GRANITE MILLS - Alison Krauss & Union Station featuring Russell Moore 20500 62 NEW 62 1 IT’S NOT RIGHT BUT IT’S OK - Felix Jaehn & Whitney Houston 7400 63 74 63 3 TIL A MAWNIN - Shaggy featuring Sting 17400 64 50 1 28 NEVER GOING HOME TONIGHT - David Guetta & Alesso featuring Madison Love 1181600 65 68 65 4 WAKE ME UP - The Weeknd featuring Justice 24600 66 71 66 2 CAFE DEL MAR - Pete Tong & Jules Buckley & The Essential Orchestra 12600 67 72 67 2 SORROW REPLACED - Kim Wilde featuring Midge Ure 12200 68 75 68 2 LOVE COMES QUICKLY (LIVE AT THE ROYAL ARENA COPENHAGEN 2023) - Pet Shop Boys 11400 69 NEW 69 1 HOW BAD DO U WANT ME - Lady Gaga 6200 70 79 70 2 CONFESSION - Louise 10200 71 49 11 16 CAN’T SLOW DOWN - almost Monday 301950 72 73 72 5 THE ABYSS - The Weeknd & Lana Del Ray 24400 73 NEW 73 1 SOMETHING TO BELIEVE IN - Avalan Rokston 5400 74 76 74 2 HIGHER - Tom Speight 10000 75 70 70 3 LIFELINE - Jonas Blue featuring Izzy Bizu 16600 76 NEW 76 1 MANDINGO - Wu-Tang Clan & Mathematics featuring Raekwon, Inspectah Deck, Method Man & Cappadonna 4800 77 NEW 77 1 THE GIVER - Chappell Roan 4600 78 78 78 2 SCORPIO - Kim Wilde 8800 79 NEW 79 1 FIDA KNOWN - Gloria Gaynor 4200 80 NEW 80 1 LOUD! - Chesney Hawkes 4000 DROP OUTS 42 35 10 GIMME LITTLE SIGN - Brenton Wood 135100 46 20 9 KEEP ME SATISFIED - Jungle 143250 62 21 14 LIVE FOREVER - Chesney Hawkes 189150 63 53 6 GOOD NEWS - Shaboozey 48050 64 14 13 BARBARELLA - Betty Boo 192500 66 54 5 LUTHER - Kendrick Lamar featuring SZA, Luther Vandross & Cheryl Lynn 38000 69 69 3 THE ETON RIFLES - The Jam 15600 77 70 4 VICE - Rizzle Kicks 20600 80 80 2 ALONE TOGETHER - Saint Etienne 8000

Hey Sven! 🙂 doing some quote climber faves: Top 40: - LADY GAGA - ABRACADABRA -PP❤️ / - (1x🥇@) 06 07 03 - Alex Warren - Ordinary 08 08 05 - The Weeknd - Cry For Me 10 13 04 - Chappell Roan - Pink Pony Club 17 22 04 - Kygo & OneRepublic - Chasing Paradise 18 23 08 - Armin Van Buuren & Norma Jean Martine & Lawrent & Alok - Euphoria -PP❤️ 28 32 02 - Sabrina Carpenter - Busy Woman 33 NE 01 - Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco & Gracie Abrams - Call Me When You Break Up / - (tip19) 35 NE 01 - Morgan Seatree & Florence + The Machine - Say My Name (remix´24) / - (tip02) 40 NE 01 - David Guetta & Sia - Beautiful People -PP❤️ / - (tip01) ====== 🎶🎶 * POWER TIP 20 * - WEEK 11 - BUBBLING UNDER -----> ====================================================================== 03 04 - Sam Fender - Arm´s Length 04 05 - Morgan Wallen - I´m The Problem 09 NE - Benson Boone - Sorry I´m Here For Someone Else / - (Qmusic AlarmSchijf 🔔 week 11) ===================================================================== 🎶🎶 * POWER TOP 15+ * - WEEK 11 2007 🎶🎶 Do You Remember? 🎶🎶 https://www.top40.nl 🎶🎶 ===================================================================== 🎼 https://www.192radio.nl 🎼 Every Saturday 13:00-18:00 CET 🎼 - Old Dutch Top 40 And Tipparade - 🎼 ===================================================================== - GWEN STEFANI & AKON - SWEET ESCAPE -PP❤️ / - (2x🥇@) / -AS🔔 02 04 09 - Justin Timberlake - What Goes Around Comes Around -PP❤️ 03 03 05 - Robbie Williams & The Pet Shop Boys - She´s Madonna -PP❤️ / -AS🔔🥰 04 05 06 - Mika - Grace Kelly 05 02 15 - Nelly Furtado - All Good Things Come To An End / - (8x🥇@) / -AS🔔 06 11 16 - Nelly Furtado - Say It Right🥰 12 15 06 - Amy Winehouse - Rehab -PP❤️ 18 24 03 - Take That - Shine -PP❤️ 21 18 05 - Mason & Princess Superstar - Perfect, Exceeder 23 NE 01 - Timbaland & Nelly Furtado & Justin Timberlake - Give It To Me -PP❤️ / - (higest new entry) 29 NE 01 - Beyoncé Knowles & Shakira - Beautiful Liar -PP❤️ great charts!! 😎

Hey Sven! 🙂 Thanks for the picks! glad you like a lot of faves! 🥰

Hi SSP! My climbing faves: 11 13 It Feels So Good - Matt Sassari / Sonique 12 11 23 36 Late To Bloom - Gwen Stefani 4 23 41 47 Roll With The Punches - Bryan Adams 4 41 45 52 Abracadabra - Lady Gaga 5 45 46 71 Have You Ever Seen The Rain - Outliers / John Fogerty / Creedence Clearwater Revival 2 46 52 --- How Bad Do U Want Me - Lady Gaga 1 52 63 78 Fida Known - Gloria Gaynor 2 63 65 --- Still Dancing - Billy Idol 1 65 67 --- Til A Mawnin - Shaggy / Sting 1 67 69 85 Andy (A Guy Like You) - The Waterboys 2 69 75 100 Call Me When You Break Up - Selena Gomez / Benny Blanco / Gracie Abrams 2 75 76 99 Sorry I'm Here For Someone Else - Benson Boone 2 76 80 84 I'm In Love - Andy Bell 2 80 81 92 Keep The Faith - Armin Van Buuren / Bon Jovi 2 81 85 90 Who I Am - Alan Walker 2 85 91 95 All I Know Is Now - Seal 2 91 tried to buy this - seems unavailable! great chart!!😎

Hi SSP and thanks for the picks! 😎

Hi Sergej! Hopa all is good. Abracadabra top 10 and Cry For me top 20, Darin up & Selena Gomez new in are my climbing highlights! great chart!🙂

Hi Sergej! Thanks and hope all is good! 😎

doh! Missed the BJSC linked theme! Sorry, was busy helping my brother back his mobile home off the drive, and nephew (& girlfriend) on way out the house for the day so missed Ken, like Piccadilly Circus here 😄 Thanks for the congrats Tues and Two 30's is good Jade & 3 Showaddys to boot! round 1: 36 (U2) round 2: 30 (Lighthouse Family, Stevie Wonder) over-confident and not paying attention again. Serves me right. 😆 3 in 10: Hello, Truly, All Night Long, Running With The Night

No idea on Electric Soft Parade, all a blank to me! Sounds pleasant. Gomez ditto. I'm thinking I was on a Florida holiday and missed the top 40 for a couple of weeks, maybe. Ditto Platinum 45, Hundred Reasons, Mauro Picotto, Busta Rhymes, MInimalistix, Brancacchio. Creed grabbed a 6/10, but that would have been on US radio anyway. Cornershop 5/10 hooray one I vaguely remember! Smoke 2 seven hooray another one i charted, a 6/10. Rik Waller didnt watch the show, by this time hated the Whitney cover version, and this did nothing to win me over. I do remember it though, so that's one up on most of these. Record of the batch for me, and it's not even close, is one I've forgotten, a 9/10 for Sugar For The Soul, Steve Balsamo. I need to remind myself of it, playing it now. sweeping strings, a sort of Mcalmont-Butler vibe to it, of course I would like it! Those brain cells have clearly died though, I really don't remember it yet it peaked at 6 in my charts! It's not a 9/10, more of a 7/10 I'd say. City High was a 7/10, but another I dont recall. Alcazar always teetered on the edge of camp naffness, but where Crying is brilliance this merely got an 8/10 from me, probably sounded good on the dancefloor and Alcazar were regulars. I vaguely remember this one which is one up on Steve B.

Murder On The Dancefloor is a classic and I rate Bag It Up and The Way You Love Me. Some of the others have slipped from my memory but Im pretty sure I like/will like Change You and the singles from H & Clare, Kym, maybe Avril lavigne. Scooch were a laugh, I must admit 🙂

aww Cheryl is lovely, what a star! 🥰

A shame commercially she was on the decline in 1975, and odd that almost nothing from her career after she changed labels in 1974 is on Spotify, not even the big hits.

I love all varieties of Bucks Fizz, also rate Now Those Days Are Gone and You And You Heart So Blue, topped my charts that one, under-rated, as did When We Were Young, ditto, New Beginning, Amen, and proper gems like I Hear Talk, Heart Of Stone, Don't Start Without Me collectively demonstrate they were always classy and varied in their singles. I wish I'd had Sunday dinner with Cheryl that would be fun 🙂. I have been backstage as they were getting on the coach apologetically saying they had to rush off and couldnt sign autographs but she made up for it the other week liking one of my tweets on X when I said Radio 2 really should be playing The Fizz for stuff like Amen and Don't Start Without Me (and the great back catalogue) 😎. There still remains this sniffy attitude to them, annoyingly.

Loved Dave Clark and his 5, but Reelin & Rockin is a step backwards album throwaway Beatles stylee. Chuck's own live cover in 1972 is way better than this. He brings out the naughtiness. Never heard the Keely Smith track before, but it's much better than Dave Clark 5's, I like the retro singalong ballad vibe, nicely done. One could imagine Vera Lynn doing a slower duller version. King Of The Road a big fave of the time, as was Roger Miller, well-liked in our household. The proclaimers did a decent version, but the original is the best. Hey Good Lookin' is one Ive never heard, Diddley beat present and accounted for, it's OK, if nothing ground-breaking. Stranger In Town is not one of Del's better-known tracks, and seems to be trying to sound more Beat-era a tad, while staying true to the Shannon sound, and sort of falls in between losing what was great about his melodramatic sweeping pop. For Your Love, what an intro, what a teen prodigy Graham Gouldman was, and what a muso Clapton was leaving the band. Mind you, all concerned would do very well thank you very much. I will take this record over anything Clapton released in his entire largely-dull career bar Layla, and I agree record of the week.

Opposites Attract was a great video and this was Paula's best track, takes me back to my first Florida holiday with my mum and dad and niece and nephew aged 6 and 5. Off to Abba Voyage with my niece in June, having been back to Florida last year. Paula Abdul is not an act I tend to dig out much though, I don't think they have weathered well over-all, but I liked her at the time. Dirty Cash OTOH was and remains fabulous, and Better The Devil You Know was easily Kylie's best to date, SAW at their best. As I was too old to care what was cool (I never did, and prob partly explains the targeted bullying, oops) I was happy to push what I liked onto other people on the grounds that "I love it to bits so I want you to see that too". Still do 😄 Jason's best record, and peaked at 2 for me I think. That annoying NKOTB record has a lot to answer for. Jason still sounds good, the KNOB's don't and never did. Dear Jessie hit my number one, it was pure delight, and suffered from not being a single in most territories (Keep It Together was the next single in the USA - bought that one too), and the Beatles influences (yes they were there, it's the same vibes she used for Beautiful Stranger) really sounded perfect for Christmas. The video was equally top notch and it deserves to be consider one of her great records, it's not a novelty record, it's lovely.

This is a mighty batch, the music scene was bubbling, not least a 10/10 from for Shakira, huge at the clubs, love it, as was Lasgo's Something, all memories of that fun hedonistic period 9/10. The White Stripes is a great rock buzz, 7/10, and Nickelback's best moment by quite some stretch also a 9/10 at the time, though I may be less bovvered these days, and might well prefer White Stripes which I under-rated. Alanis generally got a 9 from me, and scrapes one here, A I have no memory of but it rates an 8, one I need to dig out on my minidiscs galore. Jam & Spoon I always like, thatll be a 7, and Kylie of course is a 9/10, fresh off her Light Years tour which I caught and she was fabulous. Bev is always consistently good, and occasionally great, a modest 7 for me this time, R Kelly pre-outrage scraped a 5 as I'd gone off him a tad after the death of aaliyah and things came out. Westlife a surprisingly good 7/10 from me, and poor late Angie is on 4/10, as is Misteeq's. Gorllaz, Just jack, Lighthouse Family, and Distant Soundz all passed me by which makes me think I might have missed the top 40. Love Foolosophy a decent 6 to me, Evergreen was the only side I got to hear on the whole and that was barely a 4, I wasnt impressed with the Will Young hype at all and I didnt watch the show, expectations were very low. Bubba grabbed a 5 from me, and Princess Superstar ditto, which in chart terms means 51 to 60 in my personal charts: likeable but not essential.

Its not even close. Westlife. And there are other tracks I didnt chart or barely charted at 70-something....

51 (115) THE GUITAR MAN - Bread Like John Denver, Bread had way more US success than in the UK, but also like Denver other acts jumped on the cover-version bandwagon in all sorts of genres, David Gates ballads having that quality-something that gives them the ability to not-be a gentle lush folk-ballad, even though that's when they are at their best. Bread had 4 hits, though, and this was the 3rd, and second one of 1972. Guitar Man is probably the band's darkest and most-credible-to-rock-critics due to the lyrics and guitar work, because in the early 70's what was known as Easy Listening had become unfashionable to the cool and trendy, and in their eyes deserved to be dismissed as over-produced pap. Some do undoubtedly still think that, but not me. Carpenters, Bread, Denver all proved popular because of the quality of the recordings and songs and singers, not because it was cool or uncool. David Gates, as part of that trio of linked acts, had an equally angelic vocal style. This is the 3rd of 4 1972 singles inside my top 100, and the biggest UK hit of 1972 for Bread isn't one of them as that's in my 1971 list. It almost made my year-end, but just fell short at 115. So it's fair to say Bread has risen over the years for me. Must be all that yeast in the grooves.

52 (NEW) I LIKE IT THAT WAY - The Tremeloes The Trems had had a consistent run of hits from around about 1963 through to 1970, with some great little pop gems along the way, and then the new decade caused them to re-evaluate their sound towards a less-pop more-rock basis in time with the changing sales of the time, which worked out for 2 or 3 tracks and then that was it, the End. I Like It That Way was an attempt to go back to their old likeable, catchy pop single era, and I really loved this song. Had it been a hit it would definitely have ended up in my top 20 of the year. sadly, it was very out of step with the 1972 music scene, though Alan Freeman played it a lot on his Sunday show, and I recorded it off the radio. I still say it should have been a hit, but teenagers are fickle things when it comes to pop music buying-habits (50p was a lot of money back in those days, especially when it was competing in my case with DC Comics in newsagents!) so they never did make the comeback despite a number of good attempts into the mid-70's. Chip Hawkes' son Chesney would be the one to get the next Trem-related big hit in 1991, and these days tours occasionally with them (I caught them back in the cabaret 80's) and more crucially Chesney is on his 3rd great record in a row in the current music scene, well worth digging them out.