The Hit Parade

Finally heard it today. That is such a stereotypical mid-teens dance hit it's hilarious.

I think the fact that I didn't know that probably proves my point.

There's amazingly little hype about this Bon Jovi album, isn't there?

Radio 2 have been playing the Madcon track, but that hardly makes for an iTunes Top 40 placing.

The Libertines album has been postponed to the 11th so they have more time to do launch concerts, they say.

And if my maths is right, since charts were announced on Tuesday in 1985 it was 30 years ago that Whitney Houston made her Top 100 debut, with a single that peaked at 93: 1. (1) Madonna Into The Groove 2. (3) UB40 I Got You Babe ft Chrissie Hynde 3. (2) Madonna Holiday {1985 re-entry} 4. (9) Kate Bush Running Up That Hill 5. (8) The Cars Drive {1985 re-entry} 6. (5) Dire Straits Money For Nothing 7. (4) Tina Turner We Don't Need Another Hero (Thunderdome) 8. (7) Billy Idol White Wedding 9. (6) Eurythmics There Must Be An Angel (Playing With My Heart) 10. (11) Princess Say I'm Your Number One 34. (NE) Marc Almond Stories Of Johnny 40. (NE) Dan Hartman I Can Dream About You {1985 re-issue} 45. (NE) Bananarama Do Not Disturb 58. (NE) Sting Love Is The Seventh Wave 66. (NE) Maria Vidal Body Rock 71. (NE) Mötley Crüe Smokin' In The Boys Room 80. (NE) Hipsway Ask The Lord 83. (NE) Dusty Springfield Sometimes Like Butterflies 85. (NE) Mercy Mercy What Are We Gonna Do About It 91. (NE) Sharon Brown I Specialise In Love {1985 re-issue} 91. (NE) Philip Oakey And Giorgio Moroder Be My Lover Now 93. (NE) Whitney Houston You Give Good Love 95. (NE) The Stylistics Love Is Not The Answer 98. (NE) Mr Angry I'm So Angry ft Steve Wright

5Sos already have an album scheduled, so a new single from them wouldn't be a surprise. I'm hoping for Alison Moyet.

Wait, are people claiming there are some lyrics in 'Marvin Gaye' that are not utterly cringeworthy?

Dunno whether being iTunes only will mess up Dre's chances though.

Presumably a big XF-friendly ballad as well.

Unfortunately for Kobbar, 'What Are We Gonna Get For Er Indoors' by George Cole & Dennis Waterman isn't on iTunes.

At the end of the day we don't know who or what from the current chart will be remembered in 50 years time. I'm pretty sure there were people around in 1965 who didn't think Cilla would be remembered though.

He was 37 years old in February 1986, you can decide for yourself whether that counts as old. Off the top of my head, I reckon the last credited artist on a (non-charity) Number One older than me was David Guetta just under a year ago. I haven't checked all that though.

Probably Smile by the Beach Boys, if you count that one.

Aren't those Dre rumours about some soundtrack album, rather than Detox though?

Actually I'm not sure Bowie was a huge artist in 1980 - his previous few singles before 'Ashes To Ashes' had struggled to go Top 5 at all, let alone enter there and it was only his second Number One - but I take the general point. Although it had happened before, the early 80s was the point when record companies really started to aim for big entries at the top; the Jam were especially big on this and indeed 'Start' [which was Number One on one of the skipped TotPs] was the only time they climbed to the top instead of entering there. Their trick was to make sure shops had plenty of stock on the official release date and to have a fanbase who'd buy a single ASAP - but even then you'd need to be an established kind of act to get any kind of airplay before the single had started selling... which is presumably why Kelly Marie, who'd been in the chart before Bowie and the Jam, ended up topping the chart after them. That side of the equation didn't really start to change until the mid-90s but of course when it did that also had a knock-on effect on what shops chose to stock and so on, and ultimately everybody had to try and compete. That said though, of course in the days when a single was a physical object I think we all understood that there was a lead time for manufacturing and distributing them, which is much less the case with a download.

I remember when Universal did OAOS the first time and they made an exception for Jennifer Lopez, which was seemingly at her management's insistence.

Chris Evans played it a few weeks ago and it did nothing then either.

It's possible that the BBC have access to some non-public stats from YouTube. Presumably they'd have to filter out all the porn, videos made by rival radio stations etc.

I've never even heard of the other two, but with Faithless 2.0 is a misnomer for the 20th anniversary. It's at least the fourth version of 'Insomnia' to be released as a single.

My guess is that the Chemicals fancy their chances of a Number One album and would rather be competing with Y&Y's third week than their second.

X-factor never have people who've left Syco on do they?

Let's hope it's a cover of one of these: j8VWBOtOwlE Z6xgfgKIL1w

Says something for the Beatles that £8:99 is considered a bargain price for a 15-year-old compilation album. ...Says the guy who paid £175 for the boxed set of mono CDs.

Were you counting the Chemical Brothers as JBO? They were going through Virgin by the time of their hits but I think that was an exclusive deal - Underworld were on JBO and they were definitely indie throughout this period. Skint was an indie in the 90s, although 'Bentley's Going To Sort You Out' was released on Parlophone. Heavenly was distributed by majors from 1992-2009, but Beggars Banquet stayed indie and I think Beggars Group is now the biggest UK indie. Then there's the whole grey area of acts like Soup Dragons and the Bluetones who were backed entirely by major labels but deliberately set up with independent distribution deals to make them eligible for the indie chart: Hut Records was originally set up on this basis but they later reverted to in-house EMI. As a pedant, these are the ones I'd probably have to drop (though I love nearly all of them so they're on the playlist) But I don't mean that as a criticism, that's an excellent set of songs (apart from The Farm and Embrace) so I like this list as it is.