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Post by Earl Purple on Jul 24, 2020 10:42:03 GMT 1
Just looked at mine..... When I was 2.... I'm The Leader Of The Gang (I Am) - Gary Glitter.....Nice.....Not.... Well it was a great glam rock song, just not by a very nice person. And Earl Purple never told me what his chart was on my birthday! (feels left out) You even hae a retro-combi-chart for yours and a list of everyone's charts for the following week (so the previous week's position in this topic would have been everyone's chart on your birthday) fatherandy2.proboards.com/thread/98066/haven-retro-combined-chart-1970
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Post by suedehead on Jul 24, 2020 17:55:32 GMT 1
What, then, is the song judged to be not quite as awful as Ride On Time? I suspect there won’t be quite so many people horrified by the lowly position of the next piece of rubbish.
Remember what I said about songs that are almost designed to be irritating to millions? Well, following on from Jive Bunny’s piece of chart history, there is another at number 59. On 11 September 1994, Radio 1 were able to announce a new number one for the first time since May. Yes, Wet Wet Wet’s fifteen-week run at the top finally came to an end. The bad news is that it was replaced by Whigfield’s Saturday Night making the Dane the first solo female artist to go straight to number one with her first single. After all that time thinking anything had to be better than yet another week of Love Is All Around, Whigfield actually left some of us wishing Wet Wet Wet’s run could have continued. The song had been in the lower reaches of the chart based on import copies but it only got to number 79 so the official release is still generally regarded as a new entry.
Saturday Night is the sort of tripe that usually gets short shrift but, just occasionally, one of them breaks through and becomes a big hit. Unfortunately, this one happened just in time for my 34th birthday. By then it was in its second of four weeks at the top, a run ended by Take That’s fifth number one Sure. Within the next year Whigfield had two further top ten hits but they have both been deservedly forgotten. If only the same could be said of Saturday Night.
It should, of course, be mentioned that the Suede song Saturday Night shares only a title with Whigfield’s execrable racket. By a happy coincidence, Suede had a new entry at number eighteen in my birthday chart with We Are The Pigs. Also in the chart that week were Blur’s Parklife and a re-issue of Blondie’s Atomic. On its original release Atomic was one of Blondie’s six number ones. Unfortunately, none of their thirteen weeks at the top of the singles chart coincided with my birthday.
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Post by rubcale on Jul 24, 2020 18:49:42 GMT 1
And it turned out to be the best 34th Birthday you ever had.
I'm not fussed on it but I've heard a lot worse, have to see what the other 58 are but I'm sure I'd have Ride On Time a lot higher.
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Post by greendemon on Jul 24, 2020 19:08:58 GMT 1
I have a soft spot for 'Saturday Night' It's the sort of charmingly terrible music that will forever remind me of student nights and good times and so I actually kind of love it.
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SheriffFatman
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Been spending most our lives living in the Cheshire countryside
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Post by SheriffFatman on Jul 24, 2020 23:04:29 GMT 1
I love Ride On Time, it harks back to a time when dance music had a hopeful, home made feel to it, before it was commoditised by superstar DJs.
I completely agree with the description of Saturday Night as “charmingly terrible”. You kind of have to admire how bad it is.
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Post by suedehead on Jul 25, 2020 17:41:22 GMT 1
I said at the start that some songs have been placed higher than they might have been for nostalgic reasons. Others, by contrast, have been placed lower than they might have been because they have been over-played. They are still awful, but their over-exposure has made them appear even worse.
So, at number 58 it’s time to be Rick-rolled. Yes, Never Gonna Give You Up went to number one in August 1987 and stayed there for five weeks, the last of which was my birthday week. The song was, of course, produced by the infamous trio Stock, Aitken and Waterman. They had their first number one a couple years earlier with Dead Or Alive’s You Spin Me Round (Like A Record). Sadly, none of their subsequent number ones - this was their fourth chart-topper - were anywhere near as good. Never Gonna Give You Up probably wasn’t the worst of them but it was the only one to top the chart on my birthday and almost the only one still played regularly today.
The song that was at number two that week - and which climbed to the top the following week was the subject of a legal dispute with Stock, Aitken and Waterman. They sued M/A/R/R/S claiming that Pump Up The Volume took part of its melody from an earlier SAW song. M/A/R/R/S countered that Never Gonna Give You Up took its bassline from another song. The writers of that song stayed quiet, possibly because they didn’t want to take any blame.
Among the highlights in that week’s chart were U2’s Where The Streets Have No Name, What Have I Done To Deserve This by Pet Shop Boys and Dusty Springfield and Black’s wonderful Wonderful Life. Pet Shop Boys later recorded their own version of Where The Streets Have No Name as part of a mash-up with Can’t Take My Eyes Off You.
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Post by Whitneyfan on Jul 25, 2020 17:47:41 GMT 1
I love 'Never gonna give you up'.
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Post by suedehead on Jul 25, 2020 17:52:12 GMT 1
I love 'Never gonna give you up'. Lots of people still do but, to me, it will always be pap at its worst!
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Post by suedehead on Jul 26, 2020 19:00:45 GMT 1
For number 57 we go back 25 years to 1995 and Simply Red’s Fairground. If anyone wants an example of someone who epitomises a bloke with a whiney voice, Mick Hucknall is your man. Simply Red (short for Simply Dreadful) is the vehicle he chose to inflict his whining on the British public. Fairground was their fifteenth top forty hit and, on my 35th birthday, entered the chart as their first (and only) number one, replacing Shaggy’s equally atrocious Boombastic. It brought an end to a marvellous spell of nearly three years when the charts had been blissfully free of the irritating Mancunian. It stayed at the top for four weeks before it was replaced by the far superior Gangsta’s Paradise by Coolio featuring LV.
Among the other songs in the chart that week were The Rembrandts’ I’ll Be There For You (before it was a hit again when it was used as the theme tune for one of the least funny sitcoms of all time), Cast’s Alright and Blur’s Country House.
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Post by Earl Purple on Jul 26, 2020 20:32:44 GMT 1
Both you and Andy, I can't believe you'd be thinking the most recent few years have had better number ones than the past when even the ones we didn't like that much at least had some merit on the whole.
My 34th birthday UK number one was "Flat Beat".
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Roo.
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Post by Roo. on Jul 26, 2020 20:35:02 GMT 1
Of the four so far, Fairground is by far the worst - I don't think all of Simply Red's output is terrible, but that one most definitely is.
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Post by greendemon on Jul 26, 2020 20:41:15 GMT 1
I don't actually mind 'Never Gonna Give You Up' either - plenty worse #1s out there.
As for my 34th birthday #1, I'll know what it is in a few weeks' time!
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Post by suedehead on Jul 26, 2020 21:18:44 GMT 1
Of the four so far, Fairground is by far the worst - I don't think all of Simply Red's output is terrible, but that one most definitely is. I must have missed the one that wasn't terrible
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Post by Whitneyfan on Jul 27, 2020 9:52:04 GMT 1
So far, out of 10 I would rate these:
10 Black Box - Ride On Time 08 Whigfield - Saturday Night 09 Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up 08 Simply Red - Fairground
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Post by suedehead on Jul 27, 2020 18:22:29 GMT 1
As noted above, I just missed having a birthday number one whose title started with Boom in 1995. If Boombastic had held on to the top spot, it would have been the second Boom-related birthday number one out of three. Just two years earlier, DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince were at number one with the appalling Boom Shake The Room, the alleged song at number 56 in this list.
Boom Shake The Room climbed to the top for the first week of a two-week run in time for my birthday chart, becoming the first number one by an artist with DJ at the start of his name. It replaced Culture Beat’s Mr Vain. Unforgivably, those two songs kept the Pet Shop Boys’ version of Go West off the top. Otherwise, I would have been describing how my birthday number one was an example of Tennant and Lowe somehow making a very camp song sound even more camp. It would, of course, have featured a lot higher than number 56.
Boom Shake The Room was the eighth top 100 hit for DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince, the third to reach the top forty and the only number one. The Fresh Prince was a television character played by Will Smith who later had ten top ten hits (including a number one) in his own right. I shall gloss over his daughter’s chart history.
M People, definitely with Heather Small, had the highest new entry of the week with their biggest hit Moving On Up. Rather better new entries included EPs from Depeche Mode and The Wonder Stuff while other highlights in that chart included Radiohead’s Creep and a reissue of Freddie Mercury’s Living On My Own.
Boom Shake The Room’s two weeks at the top were brought to an end by the arrival of Take That and Lulu’s Relight My Fire, possibly the best of Take That’s pre-hiatus number ones.
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Post by suedehead on Jul 28, 2020 18:41:14 GMT 1
At number 55 we have the kings of the insipid cover version, Westlife, albeit this time as featured artist alongside Mariah Carey. They have the honour of having the lowest-placed number one on a “significant” birthday as their version of Phil Collins’ Against All Odds was at the top of the chart on the day I turned forty. It escapes being the lowest-placed entry from the 21st century because I am a pedant who insists that the century began on 1 January 2001.
The song was originally a number two hit for its writer in 1984 when it was used in the soundtrack of the film of the same name. Phil Collins has received a lot of criticism over the years, particularly from Peter Gabriel-era Genesis fans who didn’t like the direction he took the band in after Gabriel left. However, some of us who disliked later Genesis material still accept that a fair bit of Collins’ early solo material was good; Against All Odds is one of those songs. Sadly, the Westlife version was down to their usual standard. The addition of Mariah Carey made no difference to the quality of this effort.
Phil Collins had three number one singles of his own, the first with a cover of You Can’t Hurry Love. Against All Odds topped the chart again in 2005 for Steve Brookstein after he won X Factor. The Westlife version was the sixth of their record-breaking run of seven number ones from their first seven singles. It entered the chart at number one, knocking Modjo’s Lady (Hear You Tonight) off the top. Two weeks later it was replaced by All Saints’ second best single Black Coffee.
The whole of the top ten that week was pretty poor so I have to go outside that to find some decent songs. These include the theme tune to Channel 4’s big new hit of the year Big Brother, Robbie Willimas’ Rock DJ and Spiller’s Groovejet (If This Ain’t Love). There were better pickings outside the top forty where we find Darude’s Sandstorm, Radiohead’s Fake Plastic Trees and Street Spirit (Fade Out), and a re-issued Theme From Shaft by Isaac Hayes.
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Post by onehitwonder on Jul 28, 2020 18:46:35 GMT 1
OK, here goes. There are some songs which I have absolutely loathed from the first time I heard them. I’m referring specifically to songs where my hatred of them can be considered almost irrational rather than songs which seem to have been designed to irritate millions while appealing to enough people to make them a hit. One of these is Lady Marmalade (all versions) while another was number one on my birthday in 1989. Viewers of the Top of the Pops repeats on BBC4 will just have endured the period when Italian outfit Black Box topped the chart with the diabolical Ride On Time, screeches and all. It managed the remarkable feat of making the song it replaced, Jive Bunny’s Swing The Mood, seem positively brilliant. The chart was announced on my birthday that year so I was left hoping that it might be replaced only to see my hopes dashed when it got its fifth week (of an eventual six) at the top. There were at least 35 (if not 39) better songs in the top forty that week. Among the best were Depeche Mode’s Personal Jesus, Kate Bush’s The Sensual World and The Wonder Stuff’s Don’t Let Me Down Gently. Black Box’s reign of terror was ended by the immediate return of Jive Bunny. That’s What I Like was the second of Jive Bunny’s three successive number ones in the second half of 1989 meaning the cartoon rabbit became only the third act (and the first not from Liverpool) to hit number one with their first three singles. The song title was, apparently, a mistake. According to Black Box’s keyboard player they misheard the words used in the sample (originally sung by Loletta Holloway) as RIde On Time rather than Right On Time. By the time they realised their mistake, they decided to stick with their version. Because of a dispute over the rights, the Holloway vocal was re-recorded by a session musician. Rumours that it was Heather Small have never been confirmed or denied. Sometimes I feel so so sad that I have missed the early 90's dance music (I was too young, I would not get it!), lucky for me, gay clubs keep on playing these classics. One of my favorites from the 1990!
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Post by Whitneyfan on Jul 28, 2020 18:53:29 GMT 1
It's a bit of a shame that 2 dismal versions of 'Against All Odds' made #1, but Phil Collins' version didn't.
Mariah's solo version, which was featured on her 'Rainbow' album is actually quite good, but I'll never know why she felt the need to enlist the help of Westlife when she released it as a single.
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Post by suedehead on Jul 28, 2020 19:03:07 GMT 1
It's a bit of a shame that 2 dismal versions of 'Against All Odds' made #1, but Phil Collins' version didn't. Mariah's solo version, which was featured on her 'Rainbow' album is actually quite good, but I'll never know why she felt the need to enlist the help of Westlife when she released it as a single. On a similar theme, A1's version of Take On Me was also in the chart that week.
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Post by Whitneyfan on Jul 28, 2020 19:04:34 GMT 1
It's a bit of a shame that 2 dismal versions of 'Against All Odds' made #1, but Phil Collins' version didn't. Mariah's solo version, which was featured on her 'Rainbow' album is actually quite good, but I'll never know why she felt the need to enlist the help of Westlife when she released it as a single. On a similar theme, A1's version of Take On Me was also in the chart that week. Oh dear. That must be a particular low point for inferior covers doing better than the originals!
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