25 Years Since....September 1993

Time to go back 25 years once again. I found it difficult finding 5 songs from the charts that I was enjoying at the time because as I was now anti-Pop Music, but I just about managed it:

Pet Shop Boys - Go West

We begin with a song that's as far away from Rock and Heavy Metal as you can get. I didn't exactly keep it a secret that I liked this song, but I wasn't exactly vocal about it either. I remember people at school saying this song was shit, but I'd just keep quiet rather than stick up for it.

I've gone through a lot of phases in music throughout my life but the Pet Shop Boys have been one constant so you can pretty much guarantee they will always feature in these posts.

This is obviously one of their better known songs but it never made number one, it was kept off the top by Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince and spent two weeks at number two.

Rage Against the Machine - Bombtrack

The third and final single from the self titled debut album of Rage Against the Machine. This didn't have much swearing in it but still had the same aggression that appealed about the band.

I went on an activity holiday with the school around the time and one of the instructors there wore a Rage Against the Machine t-shirt. When we discovered he was the one DJing at the disco we had on the trip we had to request a Rage Against the Machine song and this was the one he played.

It would be another three years until we'd see Rage Against the Machine back in the charts, by which point I'd moved onto Rave.

Belinda Carlisle - Big Scary Animal

It was hard to tell at the time whether it was considered acceptable to listen to with the Rock and Metal crowds. It is a guitar based song, but it wasn't exactly comparable to the music we'd listen to generally speaking

I wasn't aware at the time that Belinda Carlisle was once a member of the Go-Gos which would have made her more credible in that respect. Maybe others did know that, I do remember one of the anti-pop people at school singing this and maybe that was his justification.

Whatever the rights and wrongs were, this is a good song which I enjoyed at the time and still like it now.

Radiohead - Creep

I wasn't sure whether or not to include this song. I did quite like it but do remember thinking it wasn't heavy enough. That was partly to do with someone saying that Radiohead were a Heavy Metal band who had been around since the 70s and their music was considered to be very heavy.

Of course that was nonsense, it turned out he was thinking of Motorhead. This was a relatively new band who debuted with "Anyone Can Play Guitar" earlier on in the year and singles wise at least this is probably their heaviest song.

Generally speaking I find Radiohead's music rather boring but this is different to pretty much everything I've heard them do since and is a lot better.

Stone Temple Pilots - Plush

One thing me and the other Rock & Heavy Metal fans genuinely thought at the time was that we were listening to music that wasn't popular, it was music just for people like us. That is despite the fact some of the bands we were listening to are bands that pretty much everyone has heard of.

Amongst my peers at school, in terms of the major Grunge bands, everyone knew Nirvana, most people knew Pearl Jam, everyone who considered themselves a Grunger knew Alice in Chains and probably half of those knew Soundgarden (this was before "Black Hole Sun"). Then there was Stone Temple Pilots, a band that I knew of and talked about without hearing any of their music.

Then this song appeared on Top of the Pops and I was happy to have finally heard a song of theirs. Obviously being on Top of the Pops meant millions of other people had now heard them, but I'd talk about how I was the first to discover them. Obviously the reality is that anyone who knows a thing or two about music has heard of them. Despite that though, this was their on UK Top 40 hit.

Top of the Pops: Q3 2018 Review

For the majority of the weeks since the beginning of July we have had enough eligible records to fill a show. There were only two weeks where their wasn't enough eligible records.

However this isn't because we have more records entering the charts, it's mainly because we are having more records slowly climb the charts. Once a record plummets down the charts after 9 weeks it allows the records immediately below it to climb a place and therefore become eligible for Top of the Pops after staying in the same position for weeks.

One example of a record slowly climbing is "Panic Room" by Au/Ra ft Camelphat. It entered the Top 40 in early July, two months later it had climbed to number 30.

The rule of capping the number of songs per album eligible for the charts to 3 has stopped artists flooding the charts when they release a new album, but it is becoming more common to see 3 new entries from the same artist when their new album comes out.

Top of the Pops: 27/09/2018

What's this all about?

Top 40 Countdown

Number of eligible records: 8
New (37) Sigala ft Ella Eyre, Meghan Trainor & French Montana - Just Got Paid
New (33) Jason Derulo ft David Guetta, Nicki Minaj & Willy William - Goodbye
⬆ (26) Freya Ridings - Lost Without You
⬆ (22) Dean Lewis - Be Alright
⬆ (20) Panic At the Disco - High Hopes
⬆ (18) David Guetta ft Anne Marie - Don't Leave Me Alone
⬆ (5) Marshmello ft Bastille - Happier
(1) Calvin Harris ft Sam Smith - Promises

Missing Out
None

Record of the Year 2005: Mylo - In My Arms

I've already picked a record that Mylo sampled for a previous record of the year and now for 2005 I'm picking a record by Mylo himself.

Of the singles from his excellent "Destroy Rock & Roll" my personal favourite is "In My Arms". It samples "Waiting For A Star To Fall" by Boy Meets Girl and "Bette Davis Eyes" by Kim Carnes. Unlike many of the other Dance records sampling old records at the time, this was more of an instrumental sample than a vocal sample, with just the "In My Arms Baby" line being sampled from the Boy Meets Girl record. The result is fantastic, it sounds like a proper tune in its own right rather than a blatant rip off or a blatant mash up.

If you haven't heard the album I seriously recommend you take a listen, it is definitely one of the best albums ever released in my opinion. I would say the other three singles to be taken from the album, "Destroy Rock & Roll", "Drop the Pressure" and "Muscle Car" are probably my three least favourite tracks on the album, that's how good the album is.

Unfortunately he is yet to release a follow up album but still remains active in the DJing world. He also posted some new music through social media a year or 2 ago which is also worth checking out.

UK Singles Chart: 2005

This year we'd see the final Top 40 hits for Diana Ross, Rolling Stones, Stevie Wonder and UB40. Shakin Stevens returned after 13 years away with his final hit. Joining the 30+ club were REM and Duran Duran with their final hits, and Manic Street Preachers and Simply Red. We also had Elvis Presley reclaim top spot for most hits:

	Artist	No of Hits	New Hits
1	Elvis Presley	123	Jailhouse Rock, One Night / I Got Stung, A Fool Such As I / I Need Your Love Tonight, It's Now Or Never, Are You Lonesome Tonight?, Wooden Heart , Surrender (Torna Surriento), (Marie's The Name) His Latest Flame / Little Sister, Rock A Hula Baby / Can't Help Falling In Love, Good Luck Charm, She's Not You, Return To Sender, (You're The) Devil In Disguise, Crying In The Chapel, The Wonder Of You, Way Down, A Little Less Conversation
2	Cliff Richard	120	What Car
3	Elton John	68	Turn The Lights Out When You Leave, Ghetto Gospel, Electricity
4	Madonna	59	Hung Up
5	David Bowie	57
6	Status Quo	55	The Party Ain't Over Yet, All That Counts Is Love
7	Queen	50
8	Michael Jackson	48
9	Paul McCartney	46	Fine Line, Jenny Wren
10	Rod Stewart	45
11	Diana Ross	43	When You Tell Me That You Love Me
=	Rolling Stones	43	Streets Of Love / Rough Justice, Rain Fall Down
13	Stevie Wonder	41	So What The Fuss
14	UB40	40	Kiss And Say Goodbye
15	Kylie Minogue	39	Giving You Up
=	Depeche Mode	39	Precious, A Pain That I'm Used To
17	Prince	38
18	Pet Shop Boys	37
19	Janet Jackson	36
=	U2	36	Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own, City Of Blinding Lights, All Because Of You
21	Tom Jones	34
=	Mariah Carey	34	It's Like That, We Belong Together, Get Your Number / Shake It Off, Don't Forget About Us
23	Frank Sinatra	33
=	Shakin Stevens	33	Trouble / This Ole House
25	Bon Jovi	32	Have A Nice Day
=	R Kelly	32	Playa's Only
=	Erasure	32	Breathe, Don't Say You Love Me, Here I Go Impossible Again
28	Roy Orbison	31
=	Bee Gees	31
=	Whitney Houston	31
=	Iron Maiden	31
=	George Michael	31
=	REM	31	Electron Blue, Wanderlust
34	Lonnie Donegan	30
=	Beatles	30
=	Tina Turner	30
=	Duran Duran	30	What Happens Tomorrow
=	Manic Street Preachers	30	Empty Souls
=	Simply Red	30	Perfect Love

Three of those Elvis hits got to number one and joining the 6+ number ones club is Eminem:

	Artist	No of #1s	New #1s
1	Elvis Presley	21	Jailhouse Rock, One Night / I Got Stung, It's Now Or Never
2	Beatles	17
3	Cliff Richard	14
4	Westlife	13	You Raise Me Up
5	Madonna	11	Hung Up
6	Abba	9
=	Spice Girls	9
8	Rolling Stones	8
=	Take That	8
=	Oasis	8	Lyla, The Importance Of Being Idle
11	George Michael	7
=	Michael Jackson	7
=	Kylie Minogue	7
=	U2	7	Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own
=	Elton John	7	Ghetto Gospel
16	Slade	6
=	Rod Stewart	6
=	Boyzone	6
=	Blondie	6
=	Queen	6
=	Robbie Williams	6
=	Eminem	6	Like Toy Soldiers

R Kelly keeps his run of a hit every year since 1994 going:

	Artist	Hits Every Year Since
1	R Kelly	1994
2	Robbie Williams	1996
3	Missy Elliott	1997
=	Stereophonics	1997
5	Nas	1999
=	Basement Jaxx	1999
=	Atomic Kitten	1999
=	Britney Spears	1999
=	Jennifer Lopez	1999
=	Westlife	1999

The big change to the charts this year came in March when downloads were included for the first time. However under the rules a download would only count if a physical format of that single was released.

The most successful act from a chart perspective this year was Elvis Presley. All his previous number ones were reissued as limited editions. The first of these, "All Shook Up" was ineligible for the charts, but of the remaining 17 we had three number ones and the rest all reached the top five. The second of these number ones, "One Night/I Got Stung" became the 1000th number one.

In terms of number ones, the year started and ended in a similar fashion courtesy of the latest TV show, the X Factor. The first number one of the year came from the first series winner Steve Brookstein with "Against All Odds" which would be his only hit. The Christmas number one and final number one of the year came from second series winner Shayne Ward with "That's My Goal". The runners up of the first series, G4, had their only hit this year with a cover of "Bohemian Rhapsody".

From the original Popstars it was the end of the chart career of Liberty X who scored a quite respectable number six with their final hit "A Night To Remember". From Pop Idol it was the end for Darius who reached number seven at the start of the year with his final hit "Live Twice". From Pop Stars: The Rivals we had the final hits from Phixx with "Strange Love", Javine with the Eurovision entry "Touch My Fire" and Clea with "We Don't Have To Take Our Clothes Off".

Girls Aloud failed to reach the top three for the first time this year, but still managed the top ten with all four of their singles with the highest being the number four singles "Wake Me Up" and "Biology". Although they split up the previous year, Atomic Kitten had one final single this year with "Cradle".

Sugababes scored their fourth number one with "Push the Button" and followed up with the number three "Ugly". The most successful girl group of the year though were American newcomers the Pussycat Dolls who had two hits and two number ones with "Don't Cha" and "Stickwitu".

Other Girl Groups debuting this year were the Faders who had their only two hits with "No Sleep Tonight" and "Jump", and Love Bites who had their only hit with "You Broke My Heart". After 12 years away, Bananarama returned to the charts with their final two hits "Move In My Direction" and "Look On The Floor (Hypnotic Tango)".

We had the return of a couple of Boybands too with Backstreet Boys returning with "Incomplete" and "Just Want You To Know" and Hanson returning with their final hits "Penny And Me" and "Lost Without Each Other".

Following the breakup of Busted, band member Charlie Simpson returned to the charts with his Metal band Fightstar with the hits "Paint Your Target" and "Grand Unification". James Bourne also returned to the charts with his new Busted sound-alike band Son of Dork with "Ticket Outta Loserville".

They weren't the only former boyband members with new bands though. Three of the Blazin Squad members were back in the charts as Friday Hill with the single "Baby Goodbye". Then there was David "Ollie" Oliver from Point Break with his Busted sound-alike band Freefaller who had their only three hits this year including their top ten debut "Do This Do That".

Noise Next Door had their biggest hit with the number eleven "Calendar Girl" but the following single "She Might" would prove to be their final Top 40 single.

Former Blue members Lee Ryan and Simon Webbe began their solo careers this year. Lee Ryan scored a number three with his debut "Army Of Lover" but this would be his only top ten with follow up "Turn Your Car Around" reaching number 12. Simon Webbe had a pair of number fours with "Lay Your Hands" and "No Worries", but these would prove to be his only top tens. We also had the only hit for former A1 member Ben Adams with "Sorry".

The solo career of former Westlife member Brian McFadden ended this year before Westlife had released their first single without him. His final hit came in June with the number 28 "Demons". His departure from Westlife didn't seem to cause them too much harm with their first hit without him becoming their 13th number one "You Raise Me Up" and they also had a number two in collaboration with Diana Ross with "When You Tell Me That You Love Me".

McFly had two number ones this year brining their total to four. Their first number one was the Comic Relief single "All About You / You've Got A Friend". However on Comic Relief night itself a video of "(Is This the Way to) Amarillo" by Tony Christie was mimed by Peter Kay alongside other celebrities and ended up being at number one for 7 weeks. It was credited to Tony Christie featuring Peter Kay despite the fact Peter Kay never appeared on the record itself. There was also a Christmas version of the song later on in the year called "(Is This the Way to) Santa's Grotto" which was credited to Santa.

Geri Halliwell became the third Spice Girl after Mel B and Victoria to come to the end of their solo career with her final hit being "Desire" which made number 22 and was the only one of her solo hits not to make the top ten. Mel C had her final top ten hit this year with "Next Best Superstar".

The biggest novelty record of the year came from Crazy Frog with "Axel F". Despite the fact it seemed to be at number one all summer, it was only there for four weeks. It didn't stop there with Crazy Frog also having hits with "Popcorn" and "Jingle Bells / U Can't Touch This" and would return in 2006.

The biggest genre of the year at least in terms of quantity was Indie music. This year though it was also reaching the top of the charts, but none of the previous years many debutants managed a number one. Instead it was old timers Oasis with two number ones and the Stereophonics scored their only number one with "Dakota". We did however have a number one from chart debutants the Arctic Monkeys with "I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor".

Other notable debutants from the Indie world this year included Maximo Park with "Apply Some Pressues", Cribs with "Hey Scenesters!", Editors with "Munich", Hard-Fi with "Tied Up Too Tight", Rakes with "Retreat", Magic Numbers with "Forever Lost", Kooks with "Eddie's Gun" and Mystery Jets with "Alas Agnes". Also quite surprisingly this would be the only year we'd see Arcade Fire in the charts, they had four singles in total, the biggest being "Rebellion (Lies)" which reached number 19.

The previous years comeback of Green Day seemed to help boost the number of Punk records in the charts this year. In addition to hits by Green Day themselves, we had the final hit from Blink 182 with "Not Now". There would also be the debut of future Blink 182 member Matt Skiba's original band Alkaline Trio with "Time To Waste". My Chemical Romance made their debut with "I'm Not Okay (I Promise)" and Towers of London debuted with "On A Noose".

The Gothic, Glam and Grunge genres were kept going by Him, Darkness and Nickelback respectively with each act having one hit this year.

Guitars were very much still in and the quantity of Dance Music in the charts had shrunk considerably prior to 2005, so quite appropriately a notable amount of Dance records this year were guitar orientated.

We had the debut of LCD Soundsystem with "Daft Punk Is Playing At My House". Daft Punk returned to the charts themselves with the guitar driven "Robot Rock" and also had a hit with "Technologic".

Perhaps the biggest guitar driven Dance record of the year was "I Like The Way" by the Bodyrockers. We also had the debut of Drum & Bass act Pendulum with "Slam / Out Here" which was also quite guitar driven.

There was still no shortage of Dance versions of old records though. There were notably two Roxette records given that treatment, "Fading Like A Flower" by Dancing DJs v Roxette and "Listen To Your Heart" by DHT featuring Edmee.

There were also two records that were Dance versions of "Waiting For A Star To Fall" by Boy Meets Girl that were in the charts at the same time, "Falling Stars" by Sunset Strippers and "Star To Fall" by Cabin Crew which reached 3 and 4 respectively. There was also "In My Arms" by Mylo a couple of months later which sampled the same record.

With a lot of these records though, there were a lot more House versions than Trance version which had been the case in previous years. In fact the quantity of Trance records in the charts had dropped considerably to just a handful this year.

Another notable debutant this year that perhaps didn't seem that notable at the time was Swedish House Mafia member Axwell who debuted with "Feel The Vibe (Til The Morning Comes)".

There were two Rap number ones this year, the first being "Like Toy Soldiers" by Eminem. The second was produced by Eminem and was the first number one for 2Pac around 9 years after his death with "Ghetto Gospel" which was in collaboration with Elton John courtesy of a sample of his song "Indian Sunset".

There was the debut of The Game with "How We Do" which featured 50 Cent. He followed this up with another 50 Cent collaboration "Hate It Or Love It" before his first solo effort "Dreams" and also had a hit as featured artist on "Playas Only" by R Kelly.

Grime was brining us more new artists which included Lethal Bizzle with "Pow! (Forward)", Kano with "Typical Me", SLK with "Hype Hype" and Roll Deep with "The Avenue".

The "Crunk" style of Rap was also making an impact on the charts with Lil Jon & The East Side Boyz having their only two hits this year with "Roll Call / What U Gon' Do" and "Get Low / Lovers And Friends".

Crunk was also a part of R&B music and we had a "crunk&B" number one from debutant Ciara in January with "Goodies". She followed this up with the hits "1-2 Step" and "Oh".

Nelly scored a number one with "Over and Over" which featured American Country singer Tim McGraw which would be the only appearance of Tim McGraw in the UK Top 40.

Akon debuted this year with "Locked Up" and followed up with the number one "Lonely" which knocked Tony Christie off number one. We also had the debut of Rihanna with "Pon De Replay" and she followed this up with "If It's Lovin' That You Want".

It's been said that downloads changed the charts forever, but in 2005 when they first became included the changes weren't really evident. The main shift towards Indie music dominating the charts had already been coming. Clearly the impact would be felt in later years, would it be in 2006?

Top of the Pops: 20/09/2018

What's this all about?

Top 40 Countdown

Number of eligible records: 10
New (31) Machine Gunn Kelly - Rap Devil
⬆ (14) Dynoro ft Gigi D'Agostino - In My Mind
⬆ (11) Jess Glynne - All That I Am
⬆ (8) Eminem - Fall
New (15) Silk City ft Dua Lipa - Electricity
⬆ (5) Tyga ft Offset - Taste
⬆ (4) Loud Luxury ft Brando - Body
New (3) Kanye West ft Lil Pump - I Love It
(1) Calvin Harris ft Sam Smith - Promises

Missing Out
⬆ (26) Freya Ridings - Lost Without You

Before My Time

If you listen to Popmaster on Radio 2 then you may notice from time to time that a contestant will get asked a question about a 60s record for example, have no idea of the answer and say "that's before my time" and Ken Bruce will say "that's not an excuse". I'm going to be hosting a quiz myself next week and know there will be participants who are probably too young to remember the 20th century, but my questions go as far back as 1958.

The first time I hosted a quiz I did have somebody complain that I asked questions to do with music from before they were born. I made no apologies, it's not like I'm going to get everybody's date of birth and ensure all questions are about music that was made after the youngest contestant was born.

What I will concede though is that nothing beats living through the era of music you've been asked questions about. For example, despite having no interest in the Spice Girls I could quite effortlessly tell you all their singles in chronological order. I was there, they couldn't be avoided at the time and I could tell you what else I was doing in my life when each Spice Girls single was in the charts. In fact recently I was looking through a list of 90s number ones and could remember most of them actually being number one and could almost give you my life story via these songs.

That said, I have lived through the entire career of Little Mix but whilst I could tell you what their first hit was, I couldn't tell you their second or third, or their latest hit for that matter. Even though I check the charts each week and do my Top of the Pops features on this blog, the truth is I know pretty much sod all about the music in the charts at the moment. When you have the Popmaster questions "who's recently been singing..." it's almost inevitable I'll get it wrong bar the odd lucky guess.

One thing I've been discovering though when researching for my yearly chart reviews are songs which never made the charts. A recent example that I discovered that never charted was "Who's the Better Man?" by Robbie Craig. This was one of the big UK Garage anthems from when UK Garage was everywhere. I remember it being on a UK Garage compilation advert and appearing on the music channels all the time, but it wasn't a hit. There was also "Oh No (Sentimental Things)" by the So Solid Crew which I assumed to be their debut hit, it was even on Top of the Pops, but turns out that wasn't a hit either. Even with actual Pop music, back in 2001/2002 every cheesy bar or nightclub you'd go to would have "When You're Looking Like That" by Westlife playing there, Westlife who were getting to number one with pretty much every single, but turns out this particular song wasn't a hit.

It's songs like these that could be tricky to know if you weren't there at the time, but if you were then you probably won't have too much trouble with them. When you get the Popmaster question "Here's an American top ten from 1967 that failed to chart in the UK......" I often have no idea and sometimes the song in question is by someone who's never had a hit in this country.

But whilst I might struggle with that, someone who was around in 1967 may be able to identify that song as easily as I can identify Robbie Craig, but ask them the Robbie Craig question then they may struggle in the same way I'd struggle with a Little Mix question.

A number of years ago there was a music quiz on TV, I think it was "Test the Nation", where the idea was everybody played along at home. At the end of the quiz you were given a category based on your final score, but it was also based on your age. My category was "Music Genius" which was the best category you could get, but if I was 50 I wouldn't have been in that category. I had a conversation recently with someone who was talking about putting on a quiz that had a similar criteria so if a young person had the same score as an old person, the young person would win.

At the end of the day though nobody is going to know everything about music, there is far too much of it for that to be possible. Everybody will have their era that they know more about than any other time, but if a quiz spans the history of pop music then everybody is in the same boat really.

On a final note, when I've been to see an older music act in concert such as the Temptations I've had people say "Aren't you too young to listen to them?", but last time I checked a Temptations album wasn't age restricted. Then I would be asked whether I got into them from my parents listening to them, which I didn't, so they would ask how I knew their music. Ironically in the case of the Temptations that question came from someone who himself was born after their 60s heyday. The thing is though, thousands of people will go and watch a Mozart symphony in concert but none of them were born when Mozart was around, but would these people who question why I listen to the Temptations also question why anybody would listen to Mozart for the same reason?