Jaz13music

The greatest take down in the history of music, I wouldn’t fancy being the person Bob wrote this about! Fantastic lyrics, may be my favourite Dylan song, and that’s very high praise indeed.

Sorry to impose this 50s song on you guys but I’m gonna get a bit evangelical about it! There’s a justification for saying this is the most important song in modern British popular music history, in that it all effectively started here! That may seem an exaggeration but Lonnie’s influence has passed down through so many great artists. Paul McCartney, Brian May, Roger Daltrey, and Mark Knopfler are just a few who have all gone on record saying Lonnie was their first and biggest British musical inspiration. In his acceptance speech at the Brit Awards Jack White reminded the audience “Remember, Lonnie Donegan started it for you." Later in his career he did become more famous as a writer of comic records, like ‘Dustman’ and ‘Chewing Gum’ but this was him at his peak. It’s also one of my dad’s all time favourite songs, so that helps! He has a wonderful 10 inch 78rpm version on shellac! I met Lonnie’s son, Peter, a couple of years ago, a lovely guy who is still playing his dad’s songs live and keeping his legacy going.

That’s a shame, would have been a great ‘wild card’!

Some of my ‘older’ favourites going out so far- Talk of the Town, I Need Love, ABC and also Hippychick, with its excellent Smiths ‘How Soon Is Now’ sample!

Voted for A$AP, but my ultimate fav of the week was Wesley Joseph & Danny Brown ‘Piece Of Mind’. Fantastic song if anyone fancies a listen.

Damn, sorry Rollo, that was me. I saw it on the playlist and forgot about the reissue! Apart from that, the only song I’ve lost so far is LL Cool Js brilliant rap ballad ‘I Need Love’

Fantastic work @Julian_ & @gasman449, really enjoyed this rate, thanks so much. Looking forward to #4s already! And the right song won too! Not only one of my favourite rap songs ever but, as others have mentioned, a one of a kind. Not many popular songs have led to an entry into the English dictionary!

Really loving the countdown. I like all the top 4 so very happy!

Yes, ‘Je ne sais pas pourquoi’!

18 of my votes still left. Going better than I could have hoped

Julian_ and gasman449, I’m really enjoying the countdown so far but I’m going to be out of the country for a while now. So, I’m afraid that I’m likely to miss the rest of it and won’t be able to comment as you work through it. I’ll certainly catch up on it all when I’m back but wanted to thank you for all your hard work in advance! Number 4s for next year maybe??🤔

Can I suggest you try lead singer Cameron Winter’s solo album ‘Heavy Metal’ (if you’ve not heard it yet) if you liked ‘Au Pays…’? It’s full of his really lovely but quirky slower songs.

Ah, just lost my first vote with T Rex. That top 40 looks great though!

Thanks for putting ‘Yes’ at #1 so I didn’t have to!

Brill, thanks! I’ve corrected for the total SLY (I should have realised that couldn’t be right). Would you say 1.5m (a figure I’ve seen quoted) is a better estimate for She Loves You? Or even higher??

I’ve been working on this list so I thought I’d share in case anyone else might be interested? It’s the best I can do with info I’ve brought together from the brilliant threads on BJ (thanks to all) plus some sources elsewhere. Obviously the earliest data is either absent, very vague or likely to be potentially inaccurate. Apologies in advance for (likely) errors, any help with the missing years data or corrections is very welcome. Happy New Year to you all! UK’s best-selling singles for every year since 1952, with approximate sales. 1950s 1952: Al Martino – "Here in My Heart" (Sales not available) 1953: Frankie Laine – "I Believe" (Sales not available) 1954: Doris Day – "Secret Love" (Sales not available) 1955: Slim Whitman – "Rose Marie" (Sales not available) 1956: Pat Boone – "I'll Be Home" (Sales not available) 1957: Paul Anka – "Diana" (~1,000,000) 1958: Elvis Presley – "Jailhouse Rock" (~750,000) 1959: Cliff Richard – "Living Doll" (~800,000) 1960s 1960: Elvis Presley – "It's Now or Never" (~1,000,000+) 1961: Elvis Presley – "Are You Lonesome Tonight" (~820,000) 1962: Frank Ifield – "I Remember You" (~1,100,000) 1963: The Beatles – "She Loves You" (~1,300,000) 1964: The Beatles – "Can't Buy Me Love" (~1,200,000) 1965: Ken Dodd – "Tears" (~1,268,000) 1966: Tom Jones – "Green, Green Grass of Home" (~850,000) 1967: Engelbert Humperdinck – "Release Me" (~1,000,000+) 1968: The Beatles – "Hey Jude" (~900,000) 1969: The Archies – "Sugar, Sugar" (~950,000) 1970s 1970: Mungo Jerry – "In the Summertime" (~800,000) 1971: George Harrison – "My Sweet Lord" (~700,000) 1972: The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards – "Amazing Grace" (~850,000) 1973: Dawn feat. Tony Orlando – "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree" (~800,000) 1974: Mud – "Tiger Feet" (~730,000) 1975: Bay City Rollers – "Bye Bye Baby" (~900,000) 1976: Brotherhood of Man – "Save Your Kisses for Me" (~1,006,000) 1977: Wings – "Mull of Kintyre" (~2,000,000) 1978: Boney M. – "Rivers of Babylon" (~1,995,000) 1979: Art Garfunkel – "Bright Eyes" (~1,155,000) 1980s 1980: The Police – "Don't Stand So Close to Me" (~808,000) 1981: The Human League – "Don't You Want Me" (~1,150,000) 1982: Dexys Midnight Runners – "Come On Eileen" (~1,200,000) 1983: Culture Club – "Karma Chameleon" (~1,390,000) 1984: Band Aid – "Do They Know It's Christmas?" (~3,000,000) 1985: Jennifer Rush – "The Power of Love" (~1,280,000) 1986: The Communards – "Don't Leave Me This Way" (~745,000) 1987: Rick Astley – "Never Gonna Give You Up" (~759,000) 1988: Cliff Richard – "Mistletoe and Wine" (~750,000) 1989: Black Box – "Ride On Time" (~960,000) 1990s 1990: The Righteous Brothers – "Unchained Melody" (~840,000) 1991: Bryan Adams – "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You" (~1,850,000) 1992: Whitney Houston – "I Will Always Love You" (~1,500,000) 1993: Meat Loaf – "I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)" (~720,000) 1994: Wet Wet Wet – "Love Is All Around" (~1,783,000) 1995: Robson & Jerome – "Unchained Melody" (~1,840,000) 1996: Fugees – "Killing Me Softly" (~1,360,000) 1997: Elton John – "Candle in the Wind 1997" (~4,770,000) 1998: Cher – "Believe" (~1,830,000) 1999: Britney Spears – "...Baby One More Time" (~1,445,000) 2000s 2000: Bob the Builder – "Can We Fix It?" (~853,000) 2001: Shaggy – "It Wasn't Me" (~1,151,000) 2002: Will Young – "Anything Is Possible / Evergreen" (~1,783,919) 2003: The Black Eyed Peas – "Where Is the Love?" (~625,000) 2004: Band Aid 20 – "Do They Know It's Christmas?" (~1,065,000) 2005: Tony Christie feat. Peter Kay – "Is This the Way to Amarillo" (~1,100,000) 2006: Gnarls Barkley – "Crazy" (~820,000) 2007: Leona Lewis – "Bleeding Love" (~788,000) 2008: Alexandra Burke – "Hallelujah" (~888,000) 2009: Lady Gaga – "Poker Face" (~882,000) 2010s (Streaming data incorporated from 2014) 2010: Eminem feat. Rihanna – "Love the Way You Lie" (~854,000) 2011: Adele – "Someone Like You" (~1,242,000) 2012: Gotye feat. Kimbra – "Somebody That I Used to Know" (~1,318,000) 2013: Robin Thicke feat. T.I. & Pharrell – "Blurred Lines" (~1,470,000) 2014: Pharrell Williams – "Happy" (~1,620,000 units) 2015: Mark Ronson feat. Bruno Mars – "Uptown Funk" (~1,760,000 units) 2016: Drake feat. Wizkid & Kyla – "One Dance" (~1,950,000 units) 2017: Ed Sheeran – "Shape of You" (~3,200,000 units) 2018: Calvin Harris & Dua Lipa – "One Kiss" (~1,570,000 units) 2019: Lewis Capaldi – "Someone You Loved" (~2,300,000 units) 2020s 2020: The Weeknd – "Blinding Lights" (~2,200,000 units) 2021: Ed Sheeran – "Bad Habits" (~1,700,000 units) 2022: Harry Styles – "As It Was" (~1,550,000 units) 2023: Miley Cyrus – "Flowers" (~1,700,000 units) 2024: Noah Kahan – "Stick Season" (~1,990,000 units) 2025: Alex Warren - Ordinary (~2,179,000 units)

+30 Rip It Up – Orange Juice +29 Yes – McAlmont & Butler +28 Holidays in the Sun – Sex Pistols +27 Fools Gold – The Stone Roses +26 This Charming Man – The Smiths +25 Karma Police – Radiohead +24 Rock Island Line – Lonnie Donegan +23 Positively 4th Street – Bob Dylan +22 Big Fun – Inner City +21 Walk This Way – Run-DMC +20 Smack My Bitch Up – The Prodigy +19 Live Forever – Oasis +18 Venus – Shocking Blue +17 On My Radio – The Selector +16 No More Heroes – The Stranglers +15 Jump Around – House of Pain +14 Bat Out of Hell – Meat Loaf +13 Yesterday – The Beatles +12 Close (To the Edit) – Art of Noise +11 Stuck in the Middle With You – Stealers Wheel +10 The Message – The Furious Five & Grandmaster Flash +9 Talk of the Town – Pretenders +8 Crossfire – Brandon Flowers +7 Barcelona – Freddie Mercury & Montserrat Caballé +6 Going for Gold – Shed Seven +5 Hippychick – Soho +4 Do You Know the Way to San Jose – Dionne Warwick +3 Remember Me – Blue Boy +2 Time Is Running Out – Muse +1 Why’d You Only Call Me When You’re High? – Arctic Monkeys For me, this is one of the strongest rates so far. Had to leave out so many great songs across all the decades, hopefully others will vote for them!

Yeah it’s crazy that a great brand new single from 2 brilliant and well established artists should be ignored in preference to stacks of songs that were released months ago!

Yes and it’s great. Hopefully it will have some success.

That’s great, thanks.

Oh no! Too. Many. Great. Songs! I have a shortlist of over 150 songs so far…..can’t I just choose 100😆? Just to give a heads up though Rollo, because I’m not sure of what your timescale will be for the SFs and final, but I’m out of the country in January. I’ll definitely try to my best to jump in and vote where I can (I don’t want to miss out). Thanks for organising this, it’s great fun!

Oh wow is it that time of year already?! I’ve been looking forward to this, the #7s was my first real participation in a rate and I really enjoyed it. So many great songs though, this is going to be hard!

Yes I agree, a lovely little song, just missed out on points from me.

Thanks Julian for all your hard work through the year on these threads. Great and very interesting stuff!

That’s brilliant, thanks Julian! Now I can enjoy Twixmas getting lost among all those threads/stats😆!