King Rollo

Congratulations AllStarBySmashMouth, 'Unarchiver' was 2nd in my vote so it's great to see it win. Thanks to all who voted for 'Acolyte', it seems it either got a big score or nothing at all from most voters. 4th place is a good placing for it. And thanks to Lewis for doing an excellent job hosting this edition.

Thanks uhsting for that score of 10.

Thanks Julian for the 10, that will push my song a bit further up.

Thanks to all who have given points to Delphic so far, especially AllStarBySmashMouth and matto for the 12s. I bought the album when it came out so it's been an instrumental I've liked for many years and it fitted this theme nicely. I'm pleased to see my top 2, The Knife and Blood Cultures, at the top of the scoreboard.

7. The Beatles - Yesterday 1306pts Writers - John Lennon, Paul McCartney Top scores - ...ready for it 49, Jade 48, Julian 47 Low scores - Jason 2, detonate 2, ElectroBoy 11 Average score - 30.4 Yesterday is the oldest song in the final, first appearing on the Beatles 1965 album 'Help!'. It was not released as a single in the UK as it was a solo recording by Paul McCartney and too different from what they were doing at the time. It was released in the US, topping their singles chart for four weeks. After the expiry of the Beatles contract with EMI in 1976, it was finally released as a single in the UK.

I'm posting my poll results at the moment so will comment later on.

8. Rufus and Chaka Khan - Ain't Nobody 1244pts Writer - David 'Hawk' Wolinski Top scores - Yog1963 48, AaronTM 48, vibe 47 Low scores - CowTzy 3, Chez Wombat 8, Jester 10 Average score - 28.9 Chaka Khan had joined the funk group Rufus in 1973 before launching her solo career five years later. She continued to contribute to some of their recordings, including this one from 1983. A remix of the song got to number 6 in 1989 while a cover version by LL Cool J topped the chart in 1997. Richard X vs Liberty X and Felix Jaehn featuring Jasmine Thompson have also had top 3 hits with covers.

I mentioned on the listenthrough that I recognised the noise at the start of song 2 (Feed The Addiction) but couldn't recall where from. I have now remembered it's from Queen's soundtrack to Flash Gordon. They included some of the sounds from the film and it can be found in the last few seconds of track 2, 'In The Space Capsule'.

9. Mary J. Blige - Family Affair 1237pts Writers - Mary J. Blige, Bruce Miller, Andre Young, Camara Kambon, Michael Elizondo Top scores - vibe 50, detonate 49, Alex! 46, Julian 46 Low scores - AH Gold 1, King Rollo 2, Scone1 9 Average score - 28.8 Another song that started as an instrumental, written by Dr. Dre and offered to Rakim to add some rapping to but he turned it down. It was then given to Mary J. Blige with the finished song spending six weeks at number 1 in the US. It was her fifth UK top 10 hit.

10. Visage - Fade To Grey 1230pts Writers - Billie Currie, Chris Payne, Midge Ure Top scores - Yog1963 50, Jade 50, Scone1 50 Low scores - Jason 1, gasman449 5, vibe 7 Average score - 28.6 Fade To Grey started as an instrumental called 'Toot City' which was worked on by Billie Currie and Chris Payne while they were touring as part of Gary Numan's backing band. It then ended up as a Visage song with Midge Ure adding lyrics and some of the melody. Fade To Grey was in the top 10 at the same time as 'Vienna' by Ultravox, the other group that Midge Ure and Billie Currie were part of. It was Visage's only top 10 hit, other singles from them peaked at 11, 12 and 13. Three scores of 50 mean it wins a tie-break over 'Suburbia'.

11. Pet Shop Boys - Suburbia 1230pts Writers - Neil Tennant, Chris Lowe Top scores - King Rollo 50, DarrenJ77 49, Uls2000 48, deepinside 48 Low scores - danG 1, Cymro87 4, jszmiles 7, musicfan97 7 Average score - 28.6 Suburbia first appeared on Pet Shop Boys' debut album 'Please' and was then remixed by Julian Mendelsohn for its release as the fourth single from the album, giving the duo their second top 10 hit. The best version is the nine minute one which can be found on their 1986 'Disco' album.

Round 1: 36 U2, I knew one of them was Adam but couldn't think of his surname Round 2: 39 💥 3 in 10: 3 What Is Love, Look Mama, New Song

12. Oasis - Live Forever 1227pts Writer - Noel Gallagher Top scores - Cymro87 50, Jester 50, jimwatts 49 Low scores - jszmiles 1, AaronTM 1, detonate 1 Average score - 28.5 Live Forever was Oasis' third single and the first to reach the top 10, peaking at number 10 in 1994 just before the release of their debut album 'Definitely Maybe'. It slipped out of the top 40 after four weeks but ended up spending 79 weeks in the top 100 and reaching a new peak of number 8 in September 2024 after the group announced that they were reuniting for a tour.

13. Avril Lavigne - Sk8er Boi 1209pts Writers - Avril Lavigne, Lauren Christy, Scott Spock, Graham Edwards Top scores - Scene 48, Alex! 47, vibe 46, Mango 46, Mack 46, Leonardo 46 Low scores - Julian 1, marcinjaro 1, dandy* 5 Average score - 28.1 The Pet Shop Boys' nemesis from last year's final of the Pop Factor finishes just ahead of them here with the second of her seven top 10 hits. In 2003, Paramount acquired an option to make a film based on the lyrics. The option has expired and Avril has said she might now produce it herself.

14. Pet Shop Boys - Rent 1173pts Writers - Neil Tennant, Chris Lowe Top scores - ElectroBoy 50, Mango 49, deepinside 49 Low scores - gasman449 3, danG 4, jszmiles 5, CowTzy 5 Average score - 27.3 The Pet Shop Boys have managed to get both of their songs into the top 14 with Rent dropping out first. It was the third single to be taken from their second album 'Actually'. The first two, 'It's A Sin' and 'What Have I Done To Deserve This?', had peaked at number 1 and number 2 respectively.

Yes, it's coming in April.

Abba also had Fernando, One Of Us and The Day Before You Came at their disposal for this round, so many riches. For David Bowie, Life On Mars maybe could have been saved up until now and another song used in round 1.

This would have been Nik Kershaw's ballad:

I'm not a big fan of La Bamba or Who's That Girl but would certainly put La Bamba above the latter.

I think gooddelta might be The Corrs and Paddington might be Delta.

15. P!nk - Try 1169pts Writers - Michael Busbee, Ben West Top scores - Alex! 50, rio309 48, CowTzy 47, Mango 47 Low scores - Grandwicky 1, danG 6, Uls2000 6 Average score - 27.2 From 2012, this was Pink's seventeenth top 10 single. The songwriters had Kelly Clarkson and then Daughtry in mind before eventually giving it to Adam Lambert but they weren't happy with his recording so it ended up with Pink. The single peaked in its fifth week in the top 40 and spent just one week in the top 10.

16. Eurythmics - Here Comes The Rain Again 1168pts Writers - Annie Lennox, David A. Stewart Top scores - marcinjaro 50, LKF 47, Jade 46, Jester 46 Low scores - Mack 1, Grandwicky 2, Mango 3, detonate 3 Average score - 27.2 Here Comes The Rain Again was the third single to be taken from Eurythmics' third album 'Touch' and was their fifth consecutive top 10 hit. One 50 point score means it wins a tie-break over 'Just Can't Get Enough'.

17. Depeche Mode - Just Can't Get Enough 1168pts Writer - Vince Clark Top scores - jimwatts 48, ElectroBoy 44, rio309 44 Low scores - Chez Wombat 6, Bror 6, Liamski689 7 Average score - 27.2 Just Can't Get Enough was Depeche Mode's third single and the last before Vince Clark left the group. It's now often played at football grounds, most notably Celtic FC, and is the first single so far not to appear in any voter's bottom five.

Jack, I think you need to put Abba somewhere as well instead of Florence.

Thanks, and well done John for the double 39. Round 1: 33 Luciano Pavarotti Round 2: 33 Reel 2 Real 3 in 10: 3 China In Your Hand, Valentine, Heart & Soul