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Post by suedehead on Aug 16, 2020 9:48:51 GMT 1
Into the top forty then, and it’s time for something a bit silly. Eiffel 65’s Blue (Da Ba Dee), from 1999, ought to be a song I really disliked. It’s rather repetitive, not exactly a musical masterpiece and the lyrics are largely banal. Somehow, though, those factors combine to give it a certain charm. While it finishes in the bottom half, it can (just) claim to have managed a mid-table placing.
So, an Italian band finished bottom of the bottom third and another one is bottom of the middle third. The act at the bottom of the top third will not be from Italy. There had already been a hint that the song would be big when it entered the top forty as an import. When it got an official UK release, almost a year after it had been released in some parts of Europe, it went straight to number one.
Perhaps I am judging Blue (Da Ba Dee) more kindly because of the song that topped the chart the week before. That was Vengaboys with We’re Going To Ibiza! That song was a supposedly updated version of Typically Tropical’s Barbados which topped the chart in 1975. The original song was a bit naff but fun. The Vengaboys effort was diabolical. Eiffel 65 spent three weeks at number one before Christian Aguilera’s debut hit Genie In A Bottle took over, also having charted as an import before its official release.
The top forty in the week Eiffel 65 secured my last birthday number one as a thirty-something also included Tom Jones and The Cardigans’ Burning Down The House, Supergrass’s Moving and Bob Marley’s Sun Is Shining. There are now just two more number ones from the 1990s unaccounted for.
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Post by suedehead on Aug 16, 2020 20:20:46 GMT 1
At number 39 we have the first appearance by an act with two songs in this list. With a total of 21 number ones (including re-issues) and 80 weeks at the summit, it is hardly surprising that Elvis Presley topped the chart on my birthday twice. Unfortunately, neither of the songs are exactly his finest work. Its initial chart run suggests that the record-buying public (as it then was) agreed in the case of the first song.
By the time Moody Blue was released in March 1977, Elvis’s career was a long way past its peak. He was still able to get top ten singles - indeed, Moody Blue reached number six - but he hadn’t had a number one in the UK since The Wonder Of You in 1970. The follow-up to Moody Blue, Way Down, was released in August and spent the first two weeks of its chart run outside the top forty. It looked like being the first Elvis single since a version of You’ll Never Walk Alone in 1968 not to make the top forty.
Then, on 16 August, Elvis died. Had he been able to put off his death for thirty years, it would have led to a rush to download some of his classic songs such as Jailhouse Rock, Return To Sender or Hound Dog. However, this was a time when you could only buy what was in the record shops on the day. Most old singles were not obtainable at all. So, people went out and bought Way Down instead even though it wasn’t very good. By the time of my birthday chart over a month later, Way Down, in its fourth of five weeks at number one, was still the only Elvis song in the chart although a tribute, I Remember Elvis Presley by Danny Mirror, was in the chart.
In the first chart after Elvis’s death, Way Down climbed all the way to number four. The following week it replaced the slightly odd Float On by The Floaters at the top. It was eventually replaced at the beginning of October by David Soul’s slushy Silver Lady.
Unusually for the time, there were two instrumentals in the top five in my birthday week and, even more strangely, they were both by French acts.. Magic Fly by Space (not to be confused with the 1990s Liverpool band of the same name) were in their third week at number two with the delightfully strange Magic Fly and Jean-Michel Jarre’s Oxygene Part IV was at number four.
Jean-Michel Jarre is the son of film composer Maurice Jarre and, in a further link with the film industry, was once married to actor Charlotte Rampling. The top ten that week had two songs from film soundtracks - Bond Theme Nobody Does It Better by Carly Simon and Down Deep Inside by Donna Summer. Summer had a second song, I Remember Yesterday, lower down the chart.
Twenty-two years before Sun Is Shining entered the chart (see above), Bob Marley was in the top forty with Waiting In Vain. Other highlights were Gary Gilmore’s Eyes by The Adverts, Looking After Number One by the Boomtown Rats and Mink Deville’s Spanish Stroll.
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Post by paulgilb on Aug 16, 2020 23:24:40 GMT 1
Ironically Hound Dog did return to the chart in September 2007, albeit mainly on physical sales (it was part of the second box-set of re-issues in the mid 2000s). 22 years Interesting stuff BTW!
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Post by suedehead on Aug 17, 2020 18:44:14 GMT 1
On to number 38 and another song that suffers from being massively over-played. Survivor’s Eye Of The Tiger, number one in 1982, was the theme tune from the third Rocky film and not a tribute to a curry house in Bournemouth (which may, or may not, still be there). The original intention was to use Queen’s Another One Bites The Dust but the producers were unable to get the necessary permission. If they had succeeded, Queen might have appeared in this list (and higher than number 39). As it is, none of their 21 weeks at number one happened at the right time for them to qualify.
Eye Of The Tiger went to number one in August, replacing Dexy’s Midnight Runners’ Come On Eileen. Come On Eileen is another song that has been somewhat over-played, but I think it still sounds pretty damned good. By the time of my birthday, Eye Of The Tiger was in its fourth and final week at the summit before it was toppled by Musical Youth’s Pass The Dutchie. If you can name Survivor’s other chart hit, you might want to consider applying to be on Ken Bruce’s Popmaster quiz one day. It was Burning Heart which reached number five in 1986.
The top three that week was completed by The Bitterest Pill (I Ever Had To Swallow) by The Jam at number two with Dire Straits’ epic Private Investigations at three. Lower down the chart we had Depeche Mode with Leave In Silence, What by Soft Cell, a new entry for Culture Club’s Do You Really Want To Hurt Me and a reissue of The Animals’ House Of The Rising Sun. A new version of the latter song co-ordinated by Arthur Brown (of Crazy World fame) has recently been released to raise funds for the Help Musicians charity. Culture Club’s Top Of The Pops debut was hosted by John Peel who memorably described Boy George as a Brian Clough lookalike.
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Aug 18, 2020 13:17:32 GMT 1
In the first chart after Elvis’s death, Way Down climbed all the way to number four. The following week it replaced the slightly odd Float On by The Floaters at the top. It was eventually replaced at the beginning of October by David Soul’s slushy Silver Lady. "Way Down" is a great single. The very final note is reputed to be the lowest vocal ever on a record - provided by gospel singer JD Sumner.
"Eye Of The Tiger" is gash.
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Post by Earl Purple on Aug 18, 2020 13:31:25 GMT 1
I don't get this list or Andy's. Almost every number prior to 2010 was better than almost every number one after it.
Fairground wasn't that bad, albeit Pulp's song was so much better.
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Roo.
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Post by Roo. on Aug 18, 2020 14:30:23 GMT 1
It's called personal opinion.
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Post by o on Aug 18, 2020 16:56:01 GMT 1
Love Way Down and remember seeing it on TOTP after he died
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Post by Robin on Aug 18, 2020 17:30:12 GMT 1
Love Way Down and remember seeing it on TOTP after he died Surely you're not THAT old!
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Post by suedehead on Aug 18, 2020 18:33:01 GMT 1
Had I been born in early January, I would have been faced with a string of X Factor winner’s singles to rank. It’s fair to say that they would probably all have appeared in this list by now. A strong contender for last place (at least among the X Factor singles) would have been Alexandra Burke’s version of Hallelujah from 2008/9. It was a classic example of what I dislike so much about X Factor winners - she may have been able to sing all the notes, but she couldn’t sing the words. Her version was completely lacking in any emotion, unlike the Jeff Buckley version which was at number two in the week Burke went to number one.
In September 2010 Burke had her third number one single when Start Without You knocked Please Don’t Let Me Go by Olly Murs (an X Factor contestant in 2009) from the top. It stayed at number one the following week which meant it was top of the chart on my fiftieth birthday and it is at number 37 in this list. Its run was ended the following week when Bruno Mars’ Just The Way You Are (Amazing) took over.
The top forty also included Eminem’s best single (the only one I actually like) Love The Way You Lie, (It’s Not War) Just The End Of Love by Manic Street Preachers and Hurts’ Wonderful Life. Ash were releasing one single per fortnight that year; one of them, Sky Burial, was in the lower reaches of the chart as I marked my half-century. One Day Like This was making another one of its pre-2012 chart appearances. Talking of Sky, they had a talent show running at that time. Songs from the show performed by Missing Andy and Emma’s Imagination were in the top forty that week.
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Roo.
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Post by Roo. on Aug 18, 2020 18:40:45 GMT 1
She was very hit and miss (with Hallelujah being a big miss) but I like Start Without You a lot. It's no Bad Boys, but it's still very good.
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Post by suedehead on Aug 18, 2020 18:48:43 GMT 1
She was very hit and miss (with Hallelujah being a big miss) but I like Start Without You a lot. It's no Bad Boys, but it's still very good. I'd rank Bad Boys as her best number one.
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Post by Whitneyfan on Aug 18, 2020 21:23:50 GMT 1
I know it's an unpopular opinion, but Alexandra's is by far my favourite version of 'Hallelujah'.
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Post by suedehead on Aug 19, 2020 17:31:23 GMT 1
We stay in the 21st century for the song at number 36. Six years before Start Without You was number one, in 2004, Eric Prydz topped the chart with Call On Me. The song was based on Steve Winwood’s Valerie which was, of course, a different song from the one of the same name by Zutons (and, later, Mark Ronson and Amy Winehouse). Steve Winwood’s bank balance was given a further boost this year with the success of Kygo’s reworking of Whitney Houston’s version of Higher Love. Eric Prydz had a number two hit with Proper Education, based on Pink Floyd’s chart-topping Another Brick In The Wall Part II, and was earlier associated with other Swedish DJs who became Swedish House Mafia.
Call On Me entered at number one in my birthday chart ahead of two contrasting further new entries - Girls Aloud’s Love Machine at number two and Green Day’s American Idiot at three. It did the world a great favour by replacing Brian McFadden’s Real To Me. It wasn’t exactly a vintage chart with Embrace’s Gravity (going down, obviously), Interpol’s Slow Hands and Keane’s Bedshaped about as good as it got. Outside the top forty we had Streets’ Dry Your Eyes, Thrills’ Whatever Happened To Corey Haim and All These Things That I;ve Done by The Killers.
Call On Me stayed at number one for three weeks before Robbie Williams’ Radio replaced it for a week. After that week it climbed back to the top and stayed there for another fortnight. Its time at the top was finally brought to an end by Ja Rule, R Kelly and Ashanti’s Wonderful which wasn’t.
The video is horribly sexist.
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Post by greendemon on Aug 19, 2020 17:46:04 GMT 1
I have 'Call On Me' to thank for introducing me to 'Valerie' which I had never heard (beyond the bit that gets sampled, of course) - now one of my favourite 80s songs!
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Post by suedehead on Aug 19, 2020 17:53:46 GMT 1
I have 'Call On Me' to thank for introducing me to 'Valerie' which I had never heard (beyond the bit that gets sampled, of course) - now one of my favourite 80s songs! Youngster! I'm afraid I am easily old enough to remember the original version.
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Post by Whitneyfan on Aug 19, 2020 18:41:01 GMT 1
Yeah, I can remember the original of 'Valerie' too - classic song!
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Post by suedehead on Aug 20, 2020 18:00:27 GMT 1
Up next it’s the first entry from the 1960s and a second posthumous number one. Jim Reeves died in a plane crash in 1964. He was already in the top ten at the time with I Won’t Forget You although it had just started to drop down the chart. After news of his death, it climbed to a new peak of number three within a few weeks. It ended up spending fifteen weeks in the top ten.
Further posthumous hits followed but it wasn’t until September 1966 that he got his first, and only, number one with Distant Drums. It climbed to the top just in time for my sixth birthday but I can safely say that I was blissfully unaware of it. The song it replaced, All Or Nothing by The Small Faces, would have finished rather higher than Distant Drums’ number 35.
As well as All Or Nothing, the top ten that week also included The Beatles with Yellow Submarine / Eleanor Rigby, The Who’s I’m A Boy and God Only Know by The Beach Boys. How classy is that? Elsewhere in the top forty, we had Bend It by Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich, Chris Montez’s version of The More I See You and Summer In The City by the Lovin’ Spoonful.
Distant Drums stayed at number one for five weeks before The Four Tops scored their only number one with Reach Out I’ll Be There. I think it’s fair to say that Distant Drums was representative of the past (even allowing for the fact that Jim Reeves had been dead for two years by then) while Reach Out I’ll Be There was an example of the songs that would make the chart regularly for the rest of the decade and beyond,
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Post by onehitwonder on Aug 20, 2020 18:36:02 GMT 1
I know it's an unpopular opinion, but Alexandra's is by far my favourite version of 'Hallelujah'. I know it's an unpopular opinion, but Let it go is her best song
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Aug 20, 2020 19:00:52 GMT 1
Mary Reeves did the same thing as Buddy Holly's widow Maria Elena. Kept bringing out old tracks and pairing them up with unreleased ones, or making up albums with a mix of old and unreleased tracks. Resulted in him having a long posthumous chart career.
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