Record of the Year Revisited: 1953

Original Record of the Year: Les Paul & Mary Ford - Vayo Con Dios

I originally picked this record due to the simple fact it had a guitar, a rarity in those days but a glimpse at the future at the same time.

I can't say I was ever a big fan of this or any other record I knew from the year. However I've since discovered a record that's pretty good.

New Record of the Year: Mills Brothers - Gloworm

Depending on what criteria you use, the Mills Brothers were both the first group to have a UK hit in their own right and the first one hit wonder. Their history predates the charts though having formed over 100 years ago in 1925.

They were a barbershop quartet and the way they sing in harmony makes the record. The song itself originated as a German song from 1902. One thing of note is they sing about a Mazda, presumably not the car but I guess we can interpret the lyrics however we want.

Record of the Year Revisited: 1952

Original Record of the Year: Jo Stafford - Jambalaya

With just 27 records to choose from I could listen to all the ones I didn't know and make my choice. I went with "Jambalaya" because of it's familiarity. 

We were in an era or mostly crooners and novelty records and none of them stand out as great records. However I've changed my mind about what should be Record of the Year.

New Record of the Year: Ray Martin and his Concert Orchestra - Blue Tango

My new choice is neither a crooner or novelty hit, it's an orchestra. Maybe it's because I've heard it a few more times since and it's grown on me. 

It was the first of 3 hits for Ray Martin and truth be told I prefer his follow up "Swedish Rhapsody" which came a year later. 

Above all though it manages to be quite uplifting without being cheesy which was a rarity in those days.

January Charts: 1991

Here are the new entries ranked from best to worst:

1. KLF - 3AM Eternal ft The Children Of The Revolution

2. Mark Summers - Summers Magic

3. Ralph Tresvant - Sensitivity

4. 2 In A Room - Wiggle It

5. Soho - Hippy Chick

6. Anthrax - Got The Time

7. Thin Lizzy - Dedication

8. Queen - Innuendo

9. Orbital - Satan

10. Jesus Jones - International Bright Young Thing

11. Jimmy Barnes And INXS - Good Times

12. Alexander O'Neal - All True Man

13. Pop Will Eat Itself - X, Y And Zee

14. Rick Astley - Cry For Help

15. Jellyfish - The King Is Half Undressed

16. Prefab Sprout - Jordan - The EP

17. A Tribe Called Quest - Can I Kick It?

18. Robert Palmer - Mercy Mercy Me/I Want You

19. Kenny Thomas - Outstanding

20. David Lee Roth - A Li'l Ain't Enough

21. Tongue 'N' Cheek - Forget Me Nots

22. Iron Maiden - Bring Your Daughter... To The Slaughter

23. Big Dish - Miss America

24. High - Box Set Go

25. Oleta Adams - Get Here

26. Simpsons - Do The Bartman

27. Sting - All This Time

28. Bananarama - Preacher Man

29. Gloria Estefan - Coming Out Of The Dark

30. Mariah Carey - Someday

A few years after I left school I went to the pub in the town I went to school and a bloke a couple years older than me came up to ma and said "You're the one who used to sing Queen and KLF at school".

It's true, that's what I was doing in 1991 and we have records from both here. KLF is a clear winner with "3AM Eternal" but Queen have to settle for 8th with "Innuendo" which is long and varied like "Bohemian Rhapsody" but much better in my opinion.

In 2nd and 3rd place we have records I got into later on in life. There's "Summers Magic" by Mark Summers which kick started the "Toytown Techno" era but putting that to one side, those beats in a chart record in January 1991 would of been quite something.

Then we have "Sensitivity" by Ralph Tresvant which I got into when I got into R&B and it was one of the stand out tracks on the "Pure Swing" album. It was the only solo Top 40 hit for the former New Edition member.

Another memory from 1991 was a vote on Children's BBC, do we prefer Andi Peters favourite song "Wiggle It" by 2 in a Room or Ed the Ducks favourite song "Do The Bartman" by the Simpsons. I didn't vote myself but you can see here that I was clearly more inclined to agree with Andi Peters choice.

Sticking with kids TV we have "Hippy Chick" by Soho which I remember then performing on Motormouth. This was more or less marking the end of the era of the Soul II Soul beat.

The 2 highest new entries in the first week were both metal tracks. Straight in at number one was Iron Maiden with "Bring Your Daughter... To The Slaughter" which isn't bad but too slow for an Iron Maiden record. Then at a more appropriate speed we have "Got The Time" by Anthrax which finds itself near the top. 

Just below is "Dedication" by Thin Lizzy which was an old record hitting the Top 40 for the first time. Likewise we had "Good Times" by Jimmy Barnes & INXS hitting the Top 40 for the first time not long after the INXS record "Disappear" had left the Top 40 which video footage from a Christmas 1990 family party confirmed was my favourite song at the time. I do like "Good Times" but it didn't have the same impact.

There was the return of Rick Astley who had moved away from Stock Aitken & Waterman for a more mature sound. What I remember most about this comeback was that he now had long hair but I do think it's a pretty decent record too.

The same can't be said of "Someday" by Mariah Carey. This was a minor hit for her and to it's credit it isn't one of her dreary ballads. Still has her screechy voice though and wasn't only a stepping stone to her being an established chart act but also inspired some cheesy Eurodance rubbish.

Not quite as bad is "Coming Out Of The Dark" by Gloria Estefan. This was a ballad and was co-written by a then unknown Jon Secada who actually went on to do more interesting ballads.

A lot of nostalgia here then which no doubt helps with the score.

Score: 56

UK Number 40s: Morgan Wallen - Love Somebody (2024)

 

Back in 1993 when Morgan Wallen was born if you were to ask the question of what's the biggest difference between the British and the Americans then many would say it's that Americans love country music and we hate it.

Fast forward to the modern era and country music appears to have gained in popularity in the UK. Nowhere near as popular as it is in America though, evident by the fact this record was a chart topper there but only made number 40 here.

The fact it made the Top 40 at all though is a sign country music is more popular here than it once was.

Top 30 in 1999 Reviewed: Week 52

Here's my weekly look at the Top 30 from 26 years ago. The plan is for these posts to go out at 17:30 on a Sunday.

Here is the Top 40 in full.

I've decided against repetition from previous weeks moving forward so will only feature the records I'm reviewing for the first time. I also won't repeat the reviews from the Top 20 in 1999 Reviewed posts.

Once again my opinions are inevitably going to differ from other people, but I'm not trying to convince anyone something is good or rubbish, I'm simply giving my opinion.

So this is the records new to the top 30 from this week in 1999 with my verdict on each record:

21. Perfect Phase - Horny Horns

If you went raving in 1999 then you would be hearing horns all night. Hearing the whistles and horns on the tapes sounded great, but at the rave they'd be so loud you could barely heard the music at times. Here we have some already recorded horns on a record. Not a great idea really, but I guess it's not bad.

Verdict - OK

If we give the records which were good 1 point each and those which were OK half a point, the final score is 8/30, or 27%. Just one more week to go.

The Top 40 Leaderboard: 2025

A few years ago I started a series of posts after concluding modern chart music was about quantity over quality. 99% of chart music I've recent times is rubbish and at the same time the number of Top 40 hits some individual artists have been having each year is at levels never seen before.

This series of posts became the Top 40 Leaderboard with the winner being the chart act with the most Top 40 hits that year. I quietly retired them because it was getting a little tedious, lots of weeks of not much happening ending with the inevitability of Drake finishing the year at the top ahead of a few British rappers.

It's been a relatively quiet year chart wise for both Drake and British rap. Drake had is 99th Top 40 hit in August but his 100th is yet to come. On this years leaderboard he would come joint 4th.

As a one off I thought I'd bring back the leaderboard. This time though instead of leaving a list of mostly meaningless names to those over 30 I'm going to countdown the 3 artists to have had more Top 40 hits than Drake this year.

3. Sabrina Carpenter (6 Top 40 hits)

Back in the summer I was in the beer garden of a pub near Hyde Park on a Saturday night. Big crowds of 12 year old girls walked past the pub and it reminded me it was that time of year where were get concerts in Hyde Park. Who was playing that night? I asked someone, their answer was Sabrina.

How did a singer with just one big hit in the 80s manage to sell so many tickets I wondered. Turns out it wasn't that Sabrina, it was one with a surname.

She's the latest in a long line of child Disney actresses who's taken up singing. She had 3 chart toppers last year but just the one this year with "Tears". Her album is called "Mans Best Friend" and amongst the singles are "Manchild" and "My Man On Willpower"

Given the proper Sabrina's big hit in the 80s was called "Boys (Summertime Love)" is this a coincidence or is she trying to make some sort of statement?

2. Tate McRae (8 Top 40 Hits)

First of all Tate McRae is no relation to the late great rally driver Colin McRae as far as I'm aware. That's the first thing that sprang to mind when I read the name but looked like it was even more of a possibility when I saw her first Top 40 hit of the year was called "Sports Car".

She's not even Scottish though, she's Canadian. That's the same country as Drake and Justin Bieber who have both churned out lots of hits in a short space of time in recent years.

1. Olivia Dean (9 Top 40 Hits)

The way I'm most likely to identify a modern record these days is if I keep hearing it on the radio and find it particularly irritating. This was the case when Olivia Dean had a song about a vampire that kept coming on.....

Oh hang on, that was a different Olivia. Who is Olivia Dean then?

Well prior to this year she had one Top 40 hit to her name with a cover of "The Christmas Song" in 2021. This year she's been all over the charts quite literally with her highest being a number 1 and lowest being a number 38.

Quite impressive given that had I not made this post I would have never heard of her.

January Charts: 1990

Here are the new entries ranked from best to worst:

1. Wreckx-N-Effect - Juicy

2. Adamski - N-R-G

3. Del Amitri - Nothing Ever Happens

4. And Why Not? - The Face

5. Deacon Blue - Queen Of The New Year

6. Quincy Jones - I'll Be Good To You ft Ray Charles And Chaka Khan

7. Mantronix - Got To Have Your Love ft Wondress

8. Public Enemy - Welcome To The Terrordome

9. Lonnie Gordon - Happenin' All Over Again

10. Cher - Just Like Jesse James

11. Quireboys - Hey You

12. Fish - Big Wedge

13. The Beloved - Hello

14. Eric Clapton - Bad Love

15. Phil Collins - I Wish It Would Rain Down

16. Sinead O'Connor - Nothing Compares 2 U

17. Kym Mazelle - Was That All It Was

18. Sybil - Walk On By

19. Gino Latino - Welcome

20. Megadeth - No More Mr. Nice Guy

21. The Mission - Butterfly On A Wheel

22. Raze - All 4 Love (Break 4 Love 1990)

23. D:Mob - Put Your Hands Together

24. Martika - More Than You Know

25. Janet Jackson - Come Back To Me

26. Jimmy Somerville - You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)

27. Lil' Louis And The World - I Called You

28. New Kids On The Block - Hangin' Tough

29. Yell! - Instant Replay

30. Rod Stewart - Downtown Train

31. Kylie Minogue - Tears On My Pillow

There was a lot going on in 1990 but if I had to pick one thing it's best remembered for I'd say it's the Soul II Soul beat. The best of these came from American producer Quincy Jones, not someone who you thing would be influenced by a collective from London but he clearly was here.

I can also see a Soul II Soul influence in "Got To Have Your Love" by Mantronix, a new sound for them having had hits with rap records previously. Further down the table we have "Walk On By" by Sybil which I do like, there are just better records.

Nellee Hooper was a member of Soul II Soul at the time and he produced "Nothing Compares 2 U" which is the only decent thing Sinead O'Connor has ever done.

For my top pick though it's in the world of new jack swing with "Juicy" by Wreckx-N-Effect. It's a cover of the record by Mtume which Notorious BIG also famously did a version of, but this is the best  version for me.

In 2nd place we have the Adamski debut hit "N-R-G". He was already an established name in the rave scene and was one of the early British producers of techno music.

Completely different sound in 3rd place with Del Amitri debuting with "Nothing Ever Happens" which has got better with age. Some Birmingham reggae in 4th that's not UB40. And Why Not? were short lived and "The Face" was their biggest hit.

In 5th we have Deacon Blue with "Queen Of The New Year" where the only bad thing I can say about it is that it's not "Real Gone Kid". Similarly with Public Enemy in 8th with "Welcome To The Terrordome" which is solid Public Enemy but they've done better.

In 9th we have "Happenin All Over Again" which I fell should go in the guilty pleasure category because it's Stock Aitken & Waterman wanting to make a Donna Summer record but getting someone else to dress up as Donna Summer and sing it.

Stock Aitken & Waterman find themselves down the bottom via "Tears On My Pillow" by Kylie Minogue which I very much remember hating at the time and still haven't changed my mind.

At 2nd from bottom we have Rod Stewart doing one of his many shit covers. At the time I remember thinking he was an old duffer who needed to retire. Little did I know he'd still be going 35 years later.

I remember the silly lyrics of "you set my lips on fire" in "Instant Replay" by Yell! and also remember New Kids on the Block being uncool to like when they did "Hangin Tough".

Perhaps a surprise one 5th from bottom with "I Called You" by Lil Louis & the World given it's a house record, but I just find it irritating.

Going into mid-table territory we have Phil Collins drumming for Eric Clapton on "Bad Love" and Eric Clapton playing the guitar for Phil Collins with "I Wish It Would Rain". Both good records, but "Bad Love" edges it because of the tempo.

A solid start to the decade with music records getting at least 3 and the Top 2 both get 5.

Score: 57