AcerBen

45% globally.

The 7" version was 5.19

Good one. There's a single version that is 7:52 and a radio edit of 5:25. I seem to have the one that is 7:52. There are some versions of the single that have the edit but not clear from Discogs whether they were available in the UK or just mainland Europe.

Oh! I just remembered another one that was the over way round - Baz Luhrmann's Everybody's Free (To Wear Suncreen) was 5 minutes something on the CD single, but radio tended to play the full-length 7:10 version. They wanted to force people to buy the (rubbish) album for the full thing.

Yes, there was a 4:50 edit but only on the promo CD.. and turned up on one of the Hits compilations too. Maybe songs that had a commercially unavailable radio edit should be asterisked with a "yeah but", because most people would've probably bought the single on the basis of hearing the radio edit, and wouldn't necessarily realise it wasn't on the CD at the time of buying :huh: The 7" of We Are The World had a 6:22 edit. You could argue therefore the winner is Hey Jude, which according to Discogs is 6:56 on the 7".

Could well be Olivia Rodrigo! But there's a long way to go yet

Yes that was a weird trend! I remember when I interned for Universal years ago, a guy came in to the office to present his radio edit for a track, and it was under 2 minutes 20.. it was really badly done and felt brutal. The MD said it was terrible and to start again. :lol: My least favourite one was what they did to DJ Sammy's Heaven, with the extra chorus badly sellotaped at the end for no reason. Though that was still about 3.5 mins.

As for Better Off Alone - the "UK Short Cut" was actually track 1 on the cassette :)

6:53 Steve "Silk" Hurley - Jack Your Body (1987) 6:46 Michael Jackson - Earth Song (1995) 6:25 Take That - Never Forget (1995) 5:50 Boyz II Men - End Of The Road (1992) These were the ones I picked up on - all had radio edits as track 1 on the main format, so have no real reason to be on the list

Some of those are a bit controversial.. a few of those definitely had shorter single versions available. Perhaps not on every single format but..

Except.. "The Sound Of list started in 2003 with the aim to showcase the most exciting rising stars in music. 18 years later, and the aim is the same - to continue predicting some of the biggest and most exciting global superstars" :P

What I meant was the tastemakers are always tipping the next big thing as someone with a bit of an edge or boring authenticity about them. Like the year when they put gave Tom Garratt the prize and snubbed Dua Lipa and Mabel. So it's funny that within days of 2021 starting, a girl from the Disney Channel has shot straight to number 1. Not that they should've necessarily seen her coming.

Also great to see Kid LAROI doing well as predicted

Drivers License reminds me of Birdy a bit. I love it already. And always exciting for someone to suddenly smash from seemingly nowhere, though looks like her profile has actually been building for some time.

Ooh I've never heard of this Olivia but this is excellent on first listen. Excited to have a new pop girl on the scene and looking to smash so instantly. Two fingers up to all the tastemakers and "sound of" pollsters who just prove once again that they know NOTHING.

We're already in June on BBC Four :)

I think it has the best playlist in the UK! They're playing less 60s & 70s in daytime than they used to too. I love it.

I think that it's a cover of a Chic disco song from 1978 probably helps...! And they love anything with Nile Rodgers on it. But yes they have been more dance friendly of late. Head & Heart did very well. Jubel's Dancing In The Moonlight I think as well? They played that 220 Kid follow-up recently which actually did sound a little out of place I thought.

Asked James Masterton "Can't say where its streams are originating, but it resurfaced about three months ago and has been posting around 2.5K sales each week since late September. Over Christmas it has been growing and break 4K this week, hence the chart appearance." So I guess TikTok + Remix + not on ACR = sounds legit?

Aracade being there has GOT to be a mistake surely? It's number 375 on Apple Music today, which is higher than you would expect, but nowhere anywhere else? Good to see Hope and My Head & My Heart charting

better songs

That new version of Everybody Dance sounds like a monster to me

Radio 2 are hammering Ava at the moment, that must be what's driving downloads. Shame R2 support rarely translates into streams.

It is annoying how every year we see these articles on vinyl and cassettes breaking records and focusing on the decline of CDs - even though they still outsell both. In fact there were 100x CDs bought than cassettes last year, but they're acting like nobody buys them and everyone is switching back to tapes.

It was heavily played on Radio 2 too, sounded great on the radio. (I know that usually has little effect anyway!)