Best Song: Family Dogg - Way Of Life
You may have heard of the songwriting duo Albert Hammond and Mike Hazlewood, well this is them amongst others in a group with their only UK Top 40 hit. It had a lot of competition but this just about beats the rest, just has that something about it.
Worst Song: Frank Sinatra - My Way
This is the 3rd time I've picked Frank Sinatra for worst song. The first two times were almost no brainers, but this time he's been quite unlucky because there are very few rubbish records in this particular Top 40. We are talking about someone who was around long before the UK Singles Chart, it's a bit like when Cliff Richard was having hits in the 90s and after his song was played in the Top 40 countdown the DJ would have to reassure people they were listening to Radio 1.
Top 40 Review
Let's begin once again with a look at the Motown records. We have "The Tracks Of My Tears" by Smokey Robinson And The Miracles, "What Is A Man" by The Four Tops and "Good Lovin' Ain't Easy To Come By" by Marvin Gaye And Tammi Terrell. Other soul records are "(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher And Higher" by Jackie Wilson and "Time Is Tight" by Booker T & the MG's. All of them get the thumbs up from me.
We also have an anti-Motown song from former Motown artists The Isley Brothers who had left the label the previous year. That one just gets half marks.
We have the final number one hits for The Beatles both in this Top 40 which are both different styles. There's a blues record in "Get Back" and a folk record in "The Ballad Of John And Yoko".
I would say variety is the best way to sum up this Top 40. They is no particular genre that dominates, it's like the whole of the 60s is being summed up in 40 records.
It's all too easy to look back on a particular era and say the music was so much better when a certain genre was big. But if you look at the charts you often see there was a lot of crap around too that you've either forgot about or paid no attention to in the first place.
However, with this particular Top 40 there is very little crap in it. In fact the only records aside from the Frank Sinatra ones I absolutely don't like are "In The Ghetto" by Elvis Presley, "Frozen Orange Juice" by Peter Sarstedt, "Big Ship" by Cliff Richard and "When Two Worlds Collide" by Jim Reeves. It's perhaps no coincidence that 4 of the 5 records I don't like are by acts who were around before The Beatles.
It's probably no surprise to hear the score for 1969 is very good. It's so good in-fact that I may as well just declare 1969 the best year in music now. But who knows what surprises other years can bring.
Score: 26
Table
1969 is top then by some distance and I don't see it being knocked off anytime soon:
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