SherriffFatman's All Time 100 Greatest Number 2 Hits

[Earl Purple]

4 Non Blondes were one-hit wonders regarding their singles success but did also have an album, and Linda Perry became a songwriter for others.

Whilst she is lesbian I don't think this song is particularly about any kind of sexuality issue. Of course there are others who would insist it is.

Linda Perry is almost exactly the same age as me. She is 15 days younger.

[SheriffFatman]

83 – Nessun Dorma by Luciano Pavarotti
3 weeks at number 2 in June 1990. Kept off the top by Sacrifice / Healing Hands by Elton John

Some hits deserve attention simply because of how different they are. You want your record to stand out, but it is quite an achievement to get a song into the charts which is entirely unlike the other songs around it. In 1990, an early 70s recording of a Puccini aria from the opera Turandot by a large and not particularly well known bearded Italian certainly fell sufficiently into that category as to make it something of a surprise hit. While it sounded pretty highbrow though, the background to this one – world cup football coverage on BBC1 – is about as popular culture as you can get. Here is the good old BBC doing what it has done many times before and since, bringing culture to the masses.

I always think that an understanding and appreciation of classical music and opera is one of the things that most clearly divides England’s different classes. I have absolutely no understanding or appreciation of either, a fact which, in my weaker moments, I've wondered if I ought to be ashamed of. It’s not obstinance though, it’s genuinely just my upbringing. I was not exposed to either in any way whatsoever as a child, and very rarely have been as an adult. Both would have been completely alien to my parents, my Mum having attended a Liverpool secondary modern and my Dad having, at 14 years old, left a school at where the main subject was gardening, and gone to work on a farm. From humble beginnings I have done all right for myself, and as a 40 year old, by many measures I would most definitely register as middle class, but at no point along the way have I gained any insight in the slightest about opera or classical music. All those people waving flags at the last night of the proms are a phenomenon which I only became aware of as an adult, and which leaves me completely mystified. The England they celebrate is an entirely foreign country to me, and yet I've lived and thrived here all my life.

Music wise I have always been prepared to try new stuff, and when this made the charts I gave it a listen and discovered it was quite magnificent. It was just an excellent, dramatic performance of a great tune, and I can appreciate that whatever genre it is. It didn’t point me towards opera as a future source of entertainment, and unless Time To Say Goodbye counts I don’t think I ever even bought any more, but it’s a great song nonetheless.

[SheriffFatman]

82 – Love Really Hurts Without You by Billy Ocean
1 week at number 2 in March 1976. Kept off the top by Save Your Kisses For Me by Brotherhood Of Man

Billy Ocean had a surprisingly enduring chart career considering the quality of most of his output. Ten years before he finally topped the charts with the weak soul boogie of When The Going Gets Tough, and 12 years before a much younger me discovered him via the so bad it’s funny Get Out Of My Dreams Get Into My Car, he actually had a really, really good hit with this disco stomper.

I say disco, it’s not really disco in the classic, Chic or Saturday Night Fever era Bee Gees sense. It was released in 1976 though, and was destined to fill dance floors at weddings for decades to follow. I guess calling it disco is just tagging it on to the popular dance genre of the time, when in fact it’s simply a timeless pop classic. You can’t keep a pop song this good down.

As is so often the case with songs that make it impossible not to feel good to be alive, the story is actually quite an unhappy one. Billy’s girl has left him, and, bereft, he’s now accusing her of “giving it to some other guy who gives you the eye”. You might think he’s be better off without her, but he’s not ready to let go. “You cheat and you lie to impress any guy that you fancy” he claims, before pleading “I’m out of my mind, so give me a sign”. I think she might be giving you a few signs there Billy, but not necessarily the ones you want.

People don’t pay attention to the lyrics on a song like this though, they just dance to it, and any song that’s made as many people dance as this one has can be seen as quite an achievement.

[Whitneyfan]

Oh I love a bit of Billy Ocean.

[SheriffFatman]

81 - Blue Velvet by Bobby Vinton
1 week at number 2 in September 1990. Kept off the top by Show Me Heaven by Maria McKee

I hate the idea of simply regurgitating a load of stuff from Wikipedia in these reviews, but Blue Velvet is a song with a fascinating if strange history full of chance happenings and unexpected success, so to some extent I'm going to anyway.

In 1963 it was decided that Bobby Vinton, a Polish-American singer from Pennsylvania, should follow up his hit single Blue On Blue with a whole album of songs which have 'Blue' in the title. Blue Velvet, written in 1950 and a hit for Tony Bennett in 1951, was one of the songs included. Vinton didn't think much of its chances though, preferring his remake of the Eddie Cochran b-side Am I Blue?. He was wrong, and in the US Blue Velvet spent 2 weeks at number 1, although in the UK it missed the charts altogether.

Fast forward 27 years and we're in 1990, when someone decided that Blue Velvet was the ideal soundtrack to a TV advertisement for Nivea hand cream. This coincided with the UK TV premier of the 1986 David Lynch film Blue Velvet, in which the song was used prominently. At a time when both films and TV advertisements (mostly for Levi jeans) had resulted in countless old songs revisiting the charts, Vinton's record company understandably recognised an opportunity to make some easy cash, and before you know it an aging recording of a song hardly anyone in the UK knew came within a hare's breadth of topping the charts. The b-side was Blue On Blue.

The track itself is fascinating. The clarity and high pitch of the vocals, twinkly music and focus on a lady's dress make the song seem incredibly dated, you get the feeling it probably sounded old fashioned in 1963. It's also an undeniably twee sound, which would be too much to bear if it wasn't such a great tune. The inherent contradiction of a song with so many bad elements ultimately ending up so good is neatly summed up by the juxtaposition of Nivea and David Lynch. The skin cream people clearly thought the pure, smooth sound reflected the experience of using their product, whereas Lynch appears to have found something far more sinister in the track's excessive tweeness. It's a bit like the use of children's wind-up musical toys in horror movies - when something sounds this pure and incorruptible there must be something more scary going on behind it, surely?

I'm always in two minds about old songs becoming big hits. On the one hand it just seems like lazy practise by the record company, reissuing old product instead of investing in new acts. Then again this is a fantastic, odd record and fully deserved the wider audience it received in 1990. I imagine that the record buying public in the early 60s would have taken the track at face value, but in the years that followed, thanks hugely to the film of the same name, it has taken on far cooler connotations. It's not just an excellent number 2, but also vastly superior to the dirge that kept it off the top spot.

[SheriffFatman]

So, 20 down, 80 to go! This looks likely to take all year! Here's what's been revealed so far...

100 Barking Ramz
99 These Days Rudimental featuring Jess Glynn, Macklemore & Dan Caplen
98 Shake It Off Taylor Swift
97 Informer Snow
96 Streets Of London Ralph McTell
95 People Everyday Arrested Development
94 Gold Digger Kanye West featuring Jamie Foxx
93 By The Way Red Hot Chilli Peppers
92 Ruby, Don't Take Your Love To Town Kenny Rogers
91 Part Of The Union The Strawbs
90 Ain't Got No (I Got Life) Nina Simone
89 Delilah Tom Jones
88 Everybody In The Place The Prodigy
87 Teenage Dirtbag Wheatus
86 Love Of The Common People Paul Young
85 The Killing Of Georgie Parts 1 & 2 Rod Stewart
84 What's Up? 4 Non Blondes
83 Nessun Dorma Luciano Pavarotti
82 Love Really Hurts Without You Billy Ocean
81 Blue Velvet Bobby Vinton

Incidentally, this seems a good moment to point out the strange tale of the track at number 99. It was on its third week at number 2 in the weekly charts when I revealed it was number 99 on here. It subsequently went on to eventually become the most successful song on this entire list, spending 7 weeks at number 2, before finally last Friday discounting itself altogether by climbing to number 1.

I have decided to leave it in place at 99, a bit odd maybe but to do otherwise would feel a bit like re-writing history. Had I have decided to remove it however I can now exclusively reveal that this would probably have been very good news for Walk Of Life by Dire Straits.

[SheriffFatman]

80 - Push It by Salt ‘N’ Pepa
3 weeks at number 2 in June 1988. Kept off the top by Nothing’s Gonna Change My Love For You by Glenn Medieros

The pop music of summer 1988, the couple of months before I started Big School, will be etched on my mind forever. For some reason the big hits from that time evoke memories of what I was doing and how I felt more than any other period in my life. It was a time of uncertainty, fear and fading innocence, when the seemingly unending misery of teenage life in a dismal comprehensive was slowly dawning on me. At my tiny rural primary school I had felt respected, I was loud and confident and people looked up to me, and I knew that was all about to change. Emotions were running high, and the radio was on all the time.

Push It was the coolest of all the hits that summer. The actual subject matter, in retrospect pure filth, was largely lost on me, but it was defiant, brash and angry, and all of that appealed to me a great deal. It was so American that to a boy from the Cheshire countryside it had a kind of otherworldliness about it, it was certainly a world away from the sick-bucket inducing slush fest which kept it off the top.

Interestingly, at a time when America was usually leading the way where hip-hop was concerned, Push It was a bigger hit almost everywhere in the world than it was there. Unlike most rap acts though Salt N Pepa were, shock horror, female. Perhaps their very forthright approach to sex was a bit much for the US to take, as a country it always seems to be more comfortable with violence as entertainment than “working up a sweat”.

Push It was fairly revolutionary in the late 80s. Women in the charts usually sang sweet nothings about wanting to dance with somebody or being lucky in love. These guys shouted “Can’t you hear the music’s pumping hard like I wish you would?”, barely concealed double meaning and all. It remains one of the key moments in the history of hip hop.

[SheriffFatman]

79 – In The Air Tonight by Phil Collins
1 week at number 2 in February 1981. Kept off the top by Woman by John Lennon

Phil Collins is a much maligned artist. I remember, back in the Angus Deayton days of Have I Got News For You, the host quipped “Phil Collins has recently revealed he has been suffering with severe deafness, making him the luckiest person at a Phil Collins concert”. For me it’s a strange one – I can clearly see that many of his biggest hits have been both sanctimonious and boring, but also, throughout his career, he’s had genuine moments of greatness. Even so, I’m not sure he ever topped this one, his debut solo single.

It’s actually been a significant hit 3 times. As well as being denied the top spot in 1981 by a posthumous John Lennon release, it also reached number 4 as a remix in 1988, and number 14 in 2007 when Cadbury’s used it as the soundtrack to an advertisement featuring a drumming gorilla. Clocking up 40 weeks on the chart, incredibly impressive for the pre-streaming era, its impact on popular culture internationally stretches far beyond what is normally achieved by a mere single, as is demonstrated by the reference to it in Stan by Eminem. It is very telling that a hip-hop artist could say to his audience “you know that song by Phil Collins, In The Air Tonight?” about a 20 year old rock record, confident that the answer is yes, they do. The quality of this track somehow spans genres and generations.

I guess its huge success must be partly down to its uniqueness. It is a genuinely unusual track, the first two thirds being incredibly sparse and entirely without rhythm. The effect is an ominous, mysterious feel which boils over into anger as the drums burst into life for the final section. The tale of the song being a true story about Phil seeing someone drowning while an onlooker who was close enough to save them chose not to, as referenced in Stan, has always been dismissed as an urban legend by Collins himself. In fact, the reference to drowning is meant as a metaphor, and the song is really about the anguish of divorce. The rage of a middle-aged man going through a marriage breakdown can often seem as pathetic as it is tragic, but here it’s put to very good use.

[SheriffFatman]

78 - Faith by George Michael
2 weeks at number 2 in October 1987. Kept off the top spot by You Win Again by The Bee Gees

Very recently, in the last few months in fact, I have developed a surprise appreciation of the music of George Michael. The catalyst was here on Haven – in order to post a properly informed opinion of Praying For Time in Gezza’s 1990 top ten thread I forced myself to sit and listen to it, it was virtually the only top 10 hit of the year I wasn’t already familiar with. Herein lies the problem I think, I’ve never taken the time to properly listen to his stuff, I just assumed it was for someone else. I am very familiar with Wham’s massive 80s pop bangers, then I had a feeling his solo career went all boring and serious, and later a bit camp disco, but never anything that appealed to me, except this one track. I was genuinely shocked to find Praying For Time is a wonderfully written song, and subsequently that he has several others too.

If I was writing this review a year ago, therefore, I’d be saying something about how everyone has one great song in them, and this is George Michael’s. Despite my general refusal to like anything else of his, it’s always been obvious that Faith is great. A classic, incredibly simple acoustic guitar riff married to an insanely catchy but nicely understated song, it is perfect for radio but also undeniably cool. I remember having a conversation years ago with a friend who felt the same way about George Michael as I did, saying that if an indie band had recorded Faith it would have been on every alternative hits compilation ever since.

Interestingly, Faith was a much bigger hit in the US than it was over here, spending 4 weeks at number one over Christmas 1987. Ironically for one of the main proponents of 80s pop, it perhaps didn’t quite sound pop enough to compete with all the synthesised sounds in the UK charts at the time, which were never as big in the US charts as they were over here. More timeless than of its time, the brilliance of this song has tragically outlived its creator, but it’s a tribute to his talent that people like me are still discovering just how good he was.

[SheriffFatman]

As with most things I do on Haven, this thread’s a great idea that I never got anywhere near finishing. Maybe I need to be a bit less ambitious, and create top 20s.

Anyway, I came back here to make the point that it looks like I’m going to have to edit the list to include Running Up That Hill. I means my number 3s list is down to 99 too.

[Earl Purple]

Jun 10, 2022 8:34:41 GMT 1 SheriffFatman said:

As with most things I do on Haven, this thread’s a great idea that I never got anywhere near finishing. Maybe I need to be a bit less ambitious, and create top 20s.

Anyway, I came back here to make the point that it looks like I’m going to have to edit the list to include Running Up That Hill. I means my number 3s list is down to 99 too.

but you can remove "All I Want For Christmas Is You" and "Last Christmas" from this list as both of them subsequently became number ones.

Oh, wait, they were probably not on this list..

Since you last posted in here on 30 May 2018, I stopped doing a current personal chart but the retro chart has advanced almost a whole decade (was in June 1971, now in April 1981) in spite of an entire year off. It means it wrapped over from the original chart so I have two retro charts which will become 3 at some point. I need to reorganise the folders.

I don't know how many post-2018 number twos would make it onto your list. "Paradise" by George Ezra was #2 in 2018 itself, probably before this list's cut-off.

It also means that since you posted it, "Part Of The Union" has been through my retro chart and there was no doubt ever it was going to be a #1. Whilst the Strawbs didn't have any more chart success, if you put it down to Hudson-Ford who left the Strawbs shortly after that hit (and wrote it) they had another top 10 hit later the same year with "Pick Up The Pieces" and then a top 20 hit in 1979 with the Monks "Nice Legs Shame About Her* Face". ("The" on some pressings). I know they were involved with another act shortly after that had a top 75 hit, can't remember which.

With what you said, getting staff more productive is an interesting subject. I am a software developer, and back in 1992 it was a fairly new industry. I wrote a program to make automated lists - it was just so much faster than it had been before. It didn't cause anyone to be made redundant, but had two aspects:
- We got a huge demand for lists to be generated
- The staff were able to do more other things that they didn't have time to do before.