SheriffFatman
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Post by SheriffFatman on Oct 30, 2020 12:25:35 GMT 1
647 - Blame by Calvin Harris featuring John Newman No. 1 in 2014
When this song starts the tune in the first verse reminds me of Boys That Sing by Viola Beach, I was looking forward to accusing Calvin Harris of plagerism, so I was disappointed to find it predates that track by 2 years. The main instrumental hook reminds me of something too, but I can't work out what, which is quite annoying.
This track, and indeed Calvin Harris' entire career, hit right in the middle of a blind spot I have where music appreciation is concerned. Since approximately 1993, about 95% of dance music has sounded dull to me, just like a wall of soulless sound lacking anything to draw me in. The appeal of the likes of Calvin Harris and David Guetta have always been a mystery, they just seem to be relentlessly uninteresting. I have a very wide ranging taste, from a love of hip hop through a lifetime of listening to pop and indie to an ever growing obsession with folk music, I even really like a lot of early dance music from the late 80s and early 90s, but I just never got this uber bland super club stuff. Maybe the source of my dislike lies there in the word 'club', a good night out to me has always involved conversation with fun and interesting people, preferably a few games of pool, beer in pint glasses and great music in the background. If I've ever been in a situation where the only thing I can hear is music I don't like my instinct has always been to run away. I'm saying that aged 43, but I was exactly the same aged 18.
Blame entered the charts at number 1, but only stayed there for 1 week. There's no denying it was a big hit though, it managed 12 weeks in the top 20. It was Calvin Harris' 7th of 10 number ones so far, putting him in the upper echelons of all time chart success I guess. It was John Newman's third of three chart toppers, and he hasn't had a new hit since 2016, which makes you wonder if he'll ever manage any more.
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SheriffFatman
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Post by SheriffFatman on Oct 30, 2020 16:53:59 GMT 1
Update: After having "de dur de du de dur de dur dur" suck in my head for half of the day, I realised I needed to start listening to crap boyband songs to work out where I'd heard that hook from Blame by Calvin Harris before.
Now I've got it - it's World Of Our Own by Westlife! The chorus is the exact same tune, you can sing the words over Calvin's version. Did he have to pay Louis Walsh any money?
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SheriffFatman
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Post by SheriffFatman on Oct 31, 2020 9:54:37 GMT 1
647 - Dance With Me Tonight by Olly Murs No. 1 in 2011
This one starts with one of those spoken word, jazz club style artist introductions, exactly like Senorita by Justin Timberlake. In fact the whole track is very derivative, all trumpets with a consciously white soul sound. That said, it’s not bad I suppose, certainly a song that doesn’t take itself too seriously, and we all need a bit of fun sometimes.
This is, therefore, one of those shock moments when someone who’s in some way associated with the X-Factor made a record that’s not terrible. From a chart perspective this track arguably came at peak X-Factor, the pinnacle of Simon Cowell’s reign of terror. It entered at number 2 and spent a fortnight there before knocking off one of those awful finalists’ ensemble records, Wishing On A Star by X-Factor Finalists 2011. It managed one week at the top before being deposed by that year’s winners, Little Mix with their pointless rendition of Damien Rice’s Cannonball. I remember wishing they’d done The Breeders’ Cannonball instead.
Dance With Me Tonight was Olly Murs’ third of four number ones. Ant & Dec style, his TV presenting career seems to have taken priority over being a pop star, I expect it pays better.
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Post by masenz on Nov 1, 2020 18:47:14 GMT 1
Not my favourite Olly song, but a decent one.
As manipulated as it all is, I actually think the X Factor has resulted in some pretty good pop records being released, if that's your thing. Little Mix certainly have a strong catalogue for reality-TV stars, and there's tracks by the likes of Alexandra, Leona and the One Direction lads that are pretty good.
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Post by Whitneyfan on Nov 1, 2020 19:57:12 GMT 1
I like Olly Murs. I like his style of pop music, which is always catchy and easy to listen to. I also think he's got a really great, fun personality.
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Post by Earl Purple on Nov 1, 2020 21:00:07 GMT 1
Elvis Presley and the Beatles have a similar battle in my chart. Once I started doing 50s it made a huge difference to Elvis's total. He had 7 number ones in the 50s, 7 in the 60s, 1 in the 70s and one in 2005. The Beatles had 15 number ones in the 1960s and another one in 1996. So 16-16 in my chart!
I think "A Little Less Conversation" was written by Mac Davis, who also wrote "In The Ghetto", and had one hit of his own in the UK with "It's Hard To Be Humble", a novelty song in 1981, but a lot more hits in the USA in the 1970s including a number one with "Baby Don't Get Hooked On Me".
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SheriffFatman
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Post by SheriffFatman on Nov 1, 2020 21:32:29 GMT 1
645 - Ghost Town by The Specials No. 1 in 1981
Seems like it would have made more sense to be discussing a song with the word Ghost in the title yesterday, but I don’t make the rules. Well, I kind of do, but in an unplanned, haphazard way which means no one is really in control.
There are few songs on this list that have generated as much debate and analysis as this one, about the way it was recorded, the resulting sound, the timing of the release, and its impact. It’s one of those tracks that is universally acclaimed, and deservedly so, so it’s a pleasure to find enough people are appreciating it in the digital age for it to have been bumped onto this list.
Ghost Town was recorded as The Specials acrimoniously fell apart, it wasn’t the cause of the upset but it was arguably a product of it. The track’s inescapable gloom seems like the perfect soundtrack to good things coming to an end, and so it came to pass. The Specials apparently finally agreed to split up back stage at Top of the Pops, where they’d gone to perform this song.
The subject matter, inner city crime, industrial decay and economic decline, was inspired by the band’s vision of England while touring in 1980, and particularly by riots that year in Bristol and London. The timing of its release, in summer 1981, coincided with more riots, but this time on a much bigger scale and far more widespread throughout the country, and its 3 weeks at number one in July made it the accidental soundtrack to massive social unrest. The band obvouly never capitalised on what became their commercial peak, but the song became absolutely iconic.
I wonder if the uniqueness of this song lies partly in the fact that ska was almost always positive sounding. It was certainly not a genre which had shied away from topical subjects, as in The Specials’ previous chart topper Too Much Too Young, but it was always music you could bop around to. Ghost Town is resolutely not aimed at the dance floor, and as such it immediately grabs your attention. There is something different happening here.
The track has never re-charted, so must be selling well under the radar, especially at Halloween I imagine. Wikipedia claims it also found new life online during the first Coronavirus lockdown. As we head into the second one it does still seem strangely appropriate.
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Post by Jordan on Nov 1, 2020 21:51:39 GMT 1
Olly Murs is one of the less awful from the X Factor Alumni. Rebecca Ferguson and Harry Styles will always be the strongest for me though.
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Post by Whitneyfan on Nov 1, 2020 22:05:56 GMT 1
OMG I absolutely adore 'Ghost Town' at any time, but it seems really relevant lately, in more ways than one... It's one song that I've never even felt even slightly bored of hearing.
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SheriffFatman
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Post by SheriffFatman on Nov 2, 2020 17:10:05 GMT 1
644 - Song 2 by Blur No. 2 in 1997
This is track 2 from the album Blur, the second single to be released from the album, and it's two minutes and two seconds long, so it seems wonderfully appropriate, even deliberate if such a thing were possible, that it reached number 2 in the charts. The song which denied it the top spot was R. Kelly's abominable I Believe I Can Fly. Rarely has there been a greater contrast in styles in the top 2 singles, or in quality for that matter.
Song 2 is an absolute blast of raw energy. Blur trod a path through the 90s of wonderfully varied music. Tagging them with the Britpop brand was fair enough, but somewhat belied their ability to weave different styles into their output that was quite unlike many of the most popular bands of the time. This track veers upon heavy metal, to the point where Damon actually shouts those very words at the start of the chorus. Well I guess it's more grunge if you want to be picky, but "When I feel grunge" wouldn't have scanned as well. I wonder if the track was ever so slightly conceived as a joke, in structure and style it's certainly unlike anything else Blur or anyone else was doing at the time, somehow though it works very well. It sounds almost like it could be the one massive moment in the spotlight for an American one hit wonder college rock band.
Although Song 2 has undeniably had a lasting impact, its original chart run showed no signs of this at all. Entering at number 2 but only managing 1 week in the top 10 and 3 in the top 40, it appeared at first to be the very definition of a fanbase buy which failed to catch on with the general public. A hint that it might be having a longer term impact came nearly a year later when it appeared at number 98 in the charts, maybe it was consistently selling a few thousand as a CD single. It must have sold bucketloads in the digital era to have made it onto this list though, and for some reason it did manage a further week at no. 64 in 2012. Sadly, for what I consider to be one of the best and most consistent bands of my adult life, it is Blur's only millionaire.
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Post by onehitwonder on Nov 2, 2020 18:30:24 GMT 1
Olly Murs' Dear darlin' and You don't know love are brilliant.
Song 2 is pure perfection!
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Post by Whitneyfan on Nov 2, 2020 19:06:20 GMT 1
Song 2 is one of the few Blur hits that I love.
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SheriffFatman
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Post by SheriffFatman on Nov 3, 2020 11:04:33 GMT 1
643 - Three Little Birds by Bob Marley & the Wailers No. 17 in 1980
The success of Legend, Bob Marley & the Wailers' greatest hits album, is unprecedented and to some extend behind the appearance of this track on the millionaires list. To date Legend, released in 1984, has spent 894 weeks on the UK album charts, which my calculator and a bit of rounding up tells me is 17.2 years. In other words it's virtually a permanent feature, this very week it is at number 35. It has only spent 6 weeks outside the charts in the last 6 years, and as recently as this August it was in the top 10. It is, of course, part of the vagueries of how the chart is compiled these days that when someone streams an album all of the tracks they listen to also contribute to the singles charts, a fact which will have dramatically bumped up sales of a lot of Marley's back catalogue.
There must be something extra about this track though, because despite being a much smaller hit than many of his singles in its physical chart run, it is his only millionaire. I guess the secret lies in the very simple, life affirming advice in the chorus - "don't worry about a thing, 'cos every little thing's gonna be alright". That often needed nudge of positivity has seen the song become an absolute staple of radio ever since it was released, and it's been a favourite with advertisers over the years too. It is a tribute to the enduring nature of the song that so many listeners have been able to seek it out despite the title not matching the part that everyone remembers.
Personally, I absolutely love Bob Marley. There are many of his songs that I like better than this one, but this one is still brilliant. The genius in his song writing was the ability to distill meaningful and deeply held personal beliefs into a message that people can easily relate to. In that sense Three Little Birds is on a par with The Beatles' All You Need Is Love, maybe even better. My go-to Marley tracks tend to be the slightly more complex ones, like Exodus or Redemption Songs, but hearing this one is never, ever a bad thing.
Its original chart in October 1980 came oddly 3 years after the release of its parent album Exodus, and it somewhat unusually spent 3 weeks at number 17. Just seven months later Marley tragically died aged only 36. He was already a superstar, and his reputation has only grown in death.
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Post by Jordan on Nov 3, 2020 11:19:03 GMT 1
Redemption Song will probably always be my favourite Marley song, but I can't deny that Three Little Birds is deservedly his biggest track.
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Post by Whitneyfan on Nov 3, 2020 19:55:24 GMT 1
Bob Marley made some truly outstanding songs, of which 'Three Little Birds' is one of the best!
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SheriffFatman
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Post by SheriffFatman on Nov 5, 2020 16:26:09 GMT 1
642 - Sexy Chick by David Guetta featuring Akon No. 1 in 2009
I was really surprised (and I must confess relieved) to find David Guetta has only 2 tracks on this list. He seemed to be uiquitous for several years, maybe my irritation at him was in excess to his actual success.
That said, my criticism of his music is that it usually seems so bland and wallpaper like, you know it's there but have no idea why. This one is not bland, in fact it really grabs your attention. Sadly though it's so awful it leaves me pining for his usual background guff.
The primary reason this one is so crap is unsurprisingly the featured artist. Akon is more frequently to be found whining testosterone fuelled drivel over his own r&b records, but here he lends his pipes to Mr Guetta by takling the weighty subject of a lady he finds attractive in the medium of dance music. For the occasion he's decided to switch his usual high pitched whine to a flat, tone deaf bellow. Sexy Chick is actually the radio version, in the clubs of 2009 you may have been lucky enough to have been treated to the other one, Sexy b****. After referring to a woman as that multiple times he then announces "I'm trying to find the words to describe this girl without being disrespectful". A commendable aim, but really, you need to try an awful lot harder.
Sexy Chick knocked the Black Eyed Peas' actually quite similar I Gotta Feeling off number one. It stayed there for only 1 week before giving way to Holiday by Dizzee Rascall, but it managed a total of 4 weeks at number 2. It will be well over a year before we encounter David Guetta again in this thread, and this is Akon's only appearance, both facts which help give me the will to carry on posting.
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Post by Whitneyfan on Nov 5, 2020 16:33:10 GMT 1
I frickin' love 'Sexy Chick/b****'. I actually think it's Guetta's best tune.
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SheriffFatman
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Post by SheriffFatman on Nov 6, 2020 17:28:17 GMT 1
641 - Everlong by Foo Fighters No. 18 in 1997
Track 2 of 2 on this list by Foo Fighters, and I find the presence of this one a bit strange. We all know what to expect from a Foo Fighters single really, they are competent metallers, frequently very good but never surprising. Their style barely varies at all, and their quality doesn't much either, but it does just vary enough for a small number of their songs - This Is A Call, Times Like These, Best Of You - to stand out from the others.
Everlong doesn't stand out at all. It's OK, but there's no catchy chorus, nothing particularly great that makes me think it would be the kind of long standing success it would need to be to make this list. It's on it though, so I must be missing something. I don't dislike it, I'm just not massively enthusiastic about it either. It's just Foo Fighters doing what they do, so why's it here? I dunno.
After a three week chart run in August 1997 which just saw it shoot south from it's entry position, it has renetered the charts 3 more times, each for one week. No. 100 in November 1997 suggests there were a few CD singles left over, but no. 95 in 2007 and 81 in 2009 tell us far more about the possibility it has been a regular seller in the digital age.
I think the Foo Fighters are amazing for having success with music like this in an era when virtually no one else could, they're a fantastic band, they have much better songs than this one though.
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Post by greendemon on Nov 6, 2020 23:23:45 GMT 1
I completely disagree about 'Everlong'. It might be my favourite Foo Fighters track!
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Roo.
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Post by Roo. on Nov 7, 2020 0:42:42 GMT 1
I'm with GD, Everlong is probably my favourite Foos song.
The thing I disagree with the most is "no catchy chorus" because it has one of the best there is!
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