The Hit Parade

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Right, the albums I own so far: Private Dancer Johnny Cash at San Quentin Tapestry Urban Hymns I like some of them more than others.

I'm guessing he's in the film too. We'll have to wait and see whether he's as good a singer as Pierce Brosnan, eh?

Blimey, I don't remember that Fierce song at all! The Five song is still a tune though.

I thought Shawn would do better on Itunes than Snow Patrol, however well they did overall. I guess his fans have moved on to streaming now.

I have to admit that the GDPR thing did remind me that the song GDFR existed too. But I hate that song so I'm not going to download it.

The other complication is that Stanley Road was released as both a normal LP and a boxed set of 7" singles.

I don't think most people care whether a record is a concept album or not TBH: American Idiot, A Grand Don't Come For Free and The Defamation Of Strictland Banks all did pretty well.

Considering how many records Quavo appears on, it's quite funny to think he's part of something called "Quality Control".

The Tiny Dancer reference is certainly deliberate, but it's not really an 80s song. There are some other 80s titles in the lyric but I'm not sure how many are intentional: Tossing And Turning Head Over Heels The Best Of Me The Way You Make Me Feel You Keep Me Hangin' On [not technically 80s but it was a hit then]

I mean, I like classical music so I don't think there's anything wrong with a piece of music being long - I just think most songs have a "right" length and that's not always the same length that the writers think it is.

I'm not a young person and I quite like this trend to shorter songs. Nothing worse in pop than a great three-minute song that's dragged out to 4:51. And of course in the early days of the chart songs used to be shorter anyway. Paloma Faith's version of Make Your Own Kind Of Music is actually longer than the 1969 Mama Cass version (which was 2:22).

This is a bit of a dirgy section.

Added both to playlist. Maybe I should rename it "big names don't guarantee a hit".

If you thought this week's releases were 1996-like, remember there was an actual Reef/Sheryl Crow collaboration last week.

Unfortunately I don't think that Alizee song is on UK iTunes.

It may be worth mentioning that part of the reason why Whatever became the longest-charting Oasis single in the physical era (though not the biggest seller) was because it was a non-album single.

That's possible. Who remembers this Number 58 smash getting onto Now 40? NajbXkvI9d0

Obviously some tracks are always going to sneak through the cracks just because of the production deadlines involved. That might even happen more now that songs climb the chart gradually than in the first-week-peak era around the turn of the century. Though I doubt anyone thought that U2 song was going to be a hit.

Just checked my copy of Now 2 - 'Hyperactive' by Thomas Dolby had already peaked at 17 and was on its way back down. Brilliant tune though. Younger readers may not be aware that the first non-Top 40 hit on a Now album was as long ago as Now 6, although obviously they did so unknowingly.

Just redone it on my phone and I can see what you mean about the letters now!

No, I could see parts of them but I don't think they were identifiable as letters unless you already recognised the cover. In which case it wouldn't matter anyway.

No, I didn't see any of the names in the screenshots. Although I wasn't particularly looking for them. I did get the because I actually have that album. And I think one of the alternative answers was and I've got their debut album too so I know it doesn't look like that.

20/21. Although as a pedant, I have to say they're not all really debut albums ()

BMG used to own RCA when they released the Westlife albums and stuff, but I presume they're only counting the more recent incarnation of the label which does specialise in "veteran" acts including Rick Astley as you said - also Morrissey, Gary Numan, Erasure etc. Edit: Lil' Dicky is on BMG too!