The Hit Parade

They tweeted that they're going to "Turn the final into a House Of Fun" (cringe) which might be a hint as to which song they're doing.

Don't forget that bookies are trying to make money, so their odds aren't always a pure reflection of how likely something is. And yes, I do feel old when people don't know who the Inspiral Carpets were. Believe it or not, I remember that song being played on Capital.

Is there any apparent logic to which songs go in which show? I presume you can tell by the set/costumes but if they were split arbitrarily presumably they could do one show at a time.

Surely anyone who knows anything about today's music knows it's virtually impossible for a post-album single to be Christmas Number One in the download era? The only time it's happened was Rage Against The Machine, which hardly counts. Whether James Arthur knows anything is a question for the reader.

Chuck Berry is already 90, isn't he?

Jive Bunny were just phenomenally successful for a few months in 1989-90. Most of their hits were based on songs from 50s and 60s, but there presumably weren't enough well-known Christmas records from that era so they went with two from the Seventies and one from the Eighties. Last time I heard the GG song was in the Christmas market at the Royal Maritime Museum a couple of years ago, maybe 2013. It was obviously being played off come old compilation CD and I don't think many of the people there knew what it was.

I presume that's a vinyl version of Rumours that you feel lucky to have only paid £11 for? I downloaded the Prince best-of.

No, 'Goodbye'. 'Too Much' was in 1997. Is "not a choir" really a thing though?

I can very much assure you that M&S and Girl Next Door was very much not shunned by Radio 1. They played it to effing death, and I still associate that song with waiting for the H10 bus to work outside the HSS Hire Shop. I remember the Soul Central song too so they must have been playing that.

Actually it's a bit pointless because you can't really pre-order to actually stream something, only to have it in your library. But anyway, they're going to offer something like that with the next Laura Marling album: http://www.musicweek.com/digital/read/koba...-spotify/066732

Well, presuming that the people who bought the physical wouldn't have downloaded it. I agree most of them probably wouldn't. I'm not sure it really matters though - the winner's single only going in at 9 is already a big flop, maybe going in at 11 wouldn't have been much worse.

Yeah, it wouldn't be great for her reputation to pull out of a concert people had already paid for just so she could be on the telly.

Obviously, BA Robertson's finest moment is 'Carrie' by Cliff Richard. His solo stuff is mostly as bad as 'The Living Years' though.

I don't mind the Maroon 5 song that much because Adam Levine's voice is much less grating than usual.

Somebody is fortunate enough to have forgotten 'Shout (For England)' then?

Daniel Powter

15/15. Not that I'm boasting or anything.

If people only bought 'Driving Home For Christmas' by Chris Rea because it had the word "Christmas" in the title, wouldn't they be buying 'Joys Of Christmas' was well?

If you didn't see it already, the Now 95 tracklisting has come out and it includes the Children In Need single. Which isn't Olly Murs.

:blink: :unsure:

My nearest proper Sainsburys is in Pinner, so they could do both by getting some old Elton John albums in.

Most of those are awful too, except 'Amarillo', which doesn't really count because it wasn't recorded as a charity song.

Maybe they're using Little Mix to promote X-Factor, not using X-Factor to promote Little Mix.

I agree that 'Block Rockin' Beats' wasn't on cassette (they did 2 CDs and 12" instead) but it was preceded by 'Beetlebum' (on 2CDs and 7") a few months earlier.

Unless you know something I don't about Bruno Mars, doesn't that just mean she might have to wait a bit longer?