vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Sept 5, 2017 21:05:49 GMT 1
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Post by raliverpool on Sept 5, 2017 21:49:13 GMT 1
Much, much better than Rolf Harris .....
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Post by Deleted on Sept 5, 2017 23:57:02 GMT 1
Charley by The Prodidgy has to be one of those singles; its just some public advice message mixed to a dance track.
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Sept 11, 2017 17:09:44 GMT 1
Who needs Sugarhill Gang when you've got John Cooper Clarke? The Salford punk poet (and quondam straight man to the Honey Monster) astonishingly had a top 40 hit single with "Gimmix!" in 1979 - perhaps you could put this down as genuinely the first rap hit single. If one discounts Benny Hill. Clarke's last chart appearance came in 2016, after a 32 year absence.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 11, 2017 22:18:24 GMT 1
No Limit parody produced by Nigel Wright
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Sept 21, 2017 22:56:36 GMT 1
Not a single, but a free flexi you could get from teen-aimed Loving magazine...
...nobody got the clues that it was sung by Joy de Vivre. And a production of Creative Recording And Sound Services. Basically a Situationist prank by anarcho-syndicalists Crass...
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Sept 24, 2017 22:20:47 GMT 1
The story of this single is in the TOTP2 chyrons. Not many singles have featured someone duetting with himself - even less when one of them is with what is perhaps meant to be a Brummie accent but sounds more like Tipton/Dudley. Driver 67 could have had a much bigger hit with this had there not been problems pressing the record, which lost all momentum; it explains in part its odd chart run of 10-11-7-9. There was an attempt at a follow-up, but " Headlights", with its tale of stalking lorry drivers, proved too controversial for airplay. Came in luminous vinyl.
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Sept 28, 2017 22:11:07 GMT 1
On the basis that Ken Burns' Vietnam docu is on BBC4, seems fitting to raise these...
...was amazed to find that this was a hit in the UK, albeit not of the monstrous size it was in the US. S/Sgt Barry Sadler's tale of heroism was not something he was able to live up to in private life; murdering an ex of his girlfriend and serving 28 days for it, and then in turn being murdered in Guatemala.
And then there's this.
An early viral hit from a DJ; it reached the US top ten in its third week on the chart, an almost unprecedented rise, and then it stopped dead.
And I love you too, son. But I also love our country and the principles for which we stand.
And if you decide to burn your draft card, then burn your birth certificate at the same time.
From that moment on, I have no son.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 3, 2017 23:32:58 GMT 1
The 2nd single from Laurie Lingo and the Dipsticks (Dave Lee Travis & Paul Burnett) who had a hit with Convoy GB. Live At The Blue Boar was a Christmas single released in December 1976.
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Oct 5, 2017 21:15:32 GMT 1
A tale found in a commonplace book from 1762 was the basis of this "song", first emerging chartwise in the 1940s in the country listings, but it broke through when performed by disc jockey Wink Martindale. Went top 10 in the US and top 5 in Britain. Difficult to see why; especially as its British peak came four years after its American. Even more incomprehensibly, it had another decent chart run in Britain in 1973.
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Post by Mic1812 on Oct 7, 2017 21:18:58 GMT 1
Deck Of Cards. A very poignant song. many people have indeed covered this song and quite a few hahve charted over the years.
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SheriffFatman
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Post by SheriffFatman on Oct 9, 2017 11:59:30 GMT 1
I was whiling the time away in Ed's American Diner at Euston Station a few weeks ago when Deck Of Cards came on. I hadn't heard it for years, and wondered what compilation they were playing which had that on. For some godforsaken reason my Dad had the 7" single when I was a kid, I think it's in my loft now. Those American spoken word singles with tales morality involving simple folk just like you and me were universally dreadful, probably the worst of all being JJ Barrie's UK number one No Charge. Their appeal baffles me, they seem to be for people who like being patronised. I suppose the modern day equivalent is those "My Mom means everything to me, share if you agree" style Facebook memes. How would I know? I've never even met your "Mom".
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Oct 12, 2017 21:43:41 GMT 1
Perhaps to show that anyone could make the charts, Richard Branson supposedly recorded the sheep on his auntie Claire's farm. Branson at least had the decency to keep the ovines off the Virgin roster, creating the Sheep imprint for this release.
And the b-side? "Flock Around The Clock".
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Post by thehitparade on Oct 15, 2017 12:19:59 GMT 1
I was whiling the time away in Ed's American Diner at Euston Station a few weeks ago when Deck Of Cards came on. I hadn't heard it for years, and wondered what compilation they were playing which had that on. For some godforsaken reason my Dad had the 7" single when I was a kid, I think it's in my loft now. Those American spoken word singles with tales morality involving simple folk just like you and me were universally dreadful, probably the worst of all being JJ Barrie's UK number one No Charge. Their appeal baffles me, they seem to be for people who like being patronised. I suppose the modern day equivalent is those "My Mom means everything to me, share if you agree" style Facebook memes. How would I know? I've never even met your "Mom". Yeah, say what you like about Facebook it's reduced the number of hits that sound like that. And of course there was the interim when it was all on forwarded e-mails instead. I do have a version of 'Deck Of Cards' on a compilation, it's an album of records banned from BBC radio 1931-57. It's T. Texas Tyler's version in that case, but the sleeve notes do record that Wink Martindale's rendition appeared only on chart broadcasts; so whatever the reason was for it charting in the UK, it wasn't airplay. They also point out that the maths isn't completely accurate.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 15, 2017 20:51:05 GMT 1
Perhaps to show that anyone could make the charts, Richard Branson supposedly recorded the sheep on his auntie Claire's farm. Branson at least had the decency to keep the ovines off the Virgin roster, creating the Sheep imprint for this release. And the b-side? "Flock Around The Clock". Speaking of records with animal noises on there was also "Moo" or "Muh" by the Matterhorn Project.
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Oct 27, 2017 23:46:53 GMT 1
I yield to nobody in adoration of Stump. Mix of Beefheart, Zappa, HMHB, the absurdist humour of Flann O'Brian and John Lennon, all in one bizarre Cork fashion. The lyrics for this single were basically cribbed from remarks of American tourists overheard around the streets and buses.
It is one of the joys of the chart that on my 16th birthday Stump were actually in it. But not with this one. "Charlton Heston" just snuck into the 75 after three weeks of bubbling under.
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Post by andrew07 on Nov 2, 2017 20:31:05 GMT 1
Love that Stump song, always was a great highlight of the C86 compilation. Glad you mentioned HMHB too, I remember hearing this very short track by them in Avalanche Records, must have been around 2001, and right after it ended the guy behind the desk said to the manager, "that's one for the metalheads then".
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Nov 13, 2017 0:49:08 GMT 1
I've posted this before, just not here...
Bizarre for not being bizarre. It has been said of Mr Oddie that he was not a wannabe rock star, he actually was one, by being one of the best-selling songwriters of 1975, with two top tens and three other top forties.
But whereas his work with The Goodies was via the novelty single, this is a straight-up Northern Soul-inspired utter stormer. The greatest sleb single ever?
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Post by raliverpool on Nov 13, 2017 19:57:51 GMT 1
Quite probably the most bizarre track to top my Retro Rewind chart ... from 1982 employing his 14 year old daughter, and some Toni Basil choreography:
Of course the musical satirist had a lot of previous form:
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Nov 18, 2017 0:25:23 GMT 1
I once tried to write a record. I decided it should be credited to Sheik Yerbouti & His Harem. I showed the lyrics to a girl at work. She said they were pornographic. So that ended that.
When one talks about top 10 hits not in English, it would be remiss to overlook this one, which was mostly in a nonsense fake African. Concept albums? Dave Dee and the lads did concept singles. Each one with a different story to tell. This one didn't have a story as such, other than one can go beyond language to create something stunning; I wonder how much this influenced Cocteau Twins...
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