25 Years Since....December 1992

It's new years eve and I'm reminiscing on how great music was 25 years ago, here is what I was enjoying in December 1992:

Freddie Mercury - In My Defence

Although I was very much enjoying this record, at the same time I was starting to feel quite regretful on spending the past year being a big Queen fan when there was much better music out there, such as my new favourite band Guns n Roses.

People still did understandably associate me with Queen and I do recall whenever this came on the radio they would point it out to me and I would point out that I'm no longer a Queen fan, I'm a Guns n Roses fan.

In hindsight though I should have pointed out that this was a Freddie Mercury record, not a Queen one. However this is probably the most Queen sounding Freddie Mercury song that I've heard and I'd say it's easily his best one.

Stereo MC's - Step It Up

This was a record I always found quite odd but liked it at the same time. I guess it's because the backing track sounds like it's made for someone with a soulful voice, but the actual singer isn't really singing properly.

I always found the band image quite baffling too. To me it sounds like the sort of music to be suited and booted for, but the singer looks like someone from a caravan park. I guess the singing style made that fact less of a surprise.

Years later this record or the Stereo MC's in general seemed to me a perfect representation of the early 90s and I bought the album some point in the 00s. I do remember it being advertised a lot on the TV at the time, to be honest though the singles are far better than the rest of the album tracks in my opinion.

The Shamen - Phorever People

After loving "Ebeneezer Goode" back in the summer, I found the Shamen's follow up "Boss Drum" to be pretty average but I thought this next hit was possibly even better than "Ebeneezer Goode".

I heard this before I knew what it was called and therefore I misheard the lyrics to the chorus as being "we are the burger people". Admittedly I'm probably the only person in the world to ever think that.

On reading the title I still didn't really know the words due to the misspelling of "forever" but once I figured this out I realised the error of my ways.

Lemonheads - Mrs Robinson

I knew the original of this record at the time and it's one that I've honestly never liked. But I loved this more modern take on it, to me it seemed an almost perfect record to give the middle finger to the older generation. Bear in mind that at the time I was regretting being a fan of an old band like Queen and was only interested in the music of now.

Like the Stereo MC's, this is also a record I see as a perfect representation of the early 90s, maybe it's because it's a time when I was very much living in the moment music wise. Ironically, this record is now older that the record it covered was at the time.

REM - Man on the Moon

This takes me back to the last day of term before Christmas at school. It was a day with no lessons, more a day of fun and games. We were aloud to bring in our own tapes and play them in the classroom. I remember someone asking me whether I'd brought any Queen tapes with me, I said no, he said good.

Unfortunately for me I hadn't finished my homework which was due in that day, so I had to sit at the desk outside the classroom to finish it off. Obviously several songs were played in the classroom whilst I was doing my homework, but this one stands out as one which was playing and I remember hearing my classmates singing along to it and was jealous of them in there enjoying the music whilst I was doing homework.

I did eventually join in with the fun once I'd finished my homework but still this is the only song I specifically remember being played that day, I guess it was 25 years ago after all.

Top of the Pops 2017

Every Thursday this year I've been doing a Top of the Pops post of what would be on the show if it still existed. The reason for this is that I don't think Top of the Pops should come back because of a lack of records in the Top 40 these days, which can make finding enough records which meet the Top of the Pops criteria a difficult enough task in itself.

Further to that, because you have far more nationalities in the charts these days and more collaborations too, it would be a logistical nightmare, the likelihood is that you'll have to play the videos for many records anyway which are available on YouTube.

Now the last Top of the Pops has happened, here is a summary of the number of times you had the given number of eligible records. It is assumed you need 9 to fill a show.

No. of eligible records	No. of weeks
5	3
6	6
7	14
8	8
9	3
10	5
11	7
12	2
13	1
14	0
15	1
16	1
17	1

So we had 31 weeks where there weren't enough records, 3 weeks with just about enough and 18 weeks where some records had to be eliminated.

Of those weeks that have lots of eligible records, the 17 one was when Ed Sheeran flooded the charts, 16 was Drake doing the same, 15 was the return of many old Christmas hits,13 was the new rules coming into effect and one of the 12 was Kendrick Lemar flooding the charts with the other being a week with an unusually high 8 new entries.

Whether you agree with them or not, the new rules have increased the number of weeks we can fill a show. Aside from the weeks a single artist flooded the charts, there were only two weeks we could fill a show prior to the new rules taking effect. Despite this though, there were still several weeks where the shows could not be filled which is a reason in itself why it shouldn't come back.

They did introduce a Top of the Pops equivalent show "Sound Like Friday Night" this year which I found terrible. Saying that, I'm someone who grew up with Top of the Pops, a 16 year old now won't have ever known a life of Top of the Pops existing so if they like it maybe that's what they should do.

My plan was to do my Top of the Pops features for this year only, but I've kind of become addicted to it now and do find it interesting to see what would have featured. It's also my opportunity to keep up with what's left of the charts, something I hadn't done for quite a few years now. So I've decided to keep the feature going but I'll cut out the waffle, it will simply be the charts, the records and I'll specify what's been left out if anything has.

Top of the Pops: 28/12/2017

Here is the Top 40 Countdown

It's the final Top of the Pops in 2017 and Ed Sheeran remains at number one this week ending the year in a similar fashion to how it begun, with him also being a new entry at number two collaborating with Eminem with "River".

Just 7 eligible records this week which includes two Christmas numbers which failed to make the cut last week.

There is one more new entry this week which also comes from Eminem with "In Your Head". However this is not on YouTube therefore just 6 records feature.

⬆ Paul McCartney - Wonderful Christmastime
⬆ Slade - Merry Christmas Everybody
⬆ (27) Pink - Beautiful Trauma
⬆ (10) NF - Let You Down
New (2) Eminem ft Ed Sheeran - River
(1) Ed Sheeran - Perfect

Record of the Year 1994: N Trance - Set You Free

I was quite reluctant to make this my record of the year as I've heard it so many times in my life and there are other records from 1994 that I probably enjoy more nowadays. However this did have a massive impact on me at the time and is still a great record.

At the beginning of 1994 amongst my peers you were either a Grunger or a Raver. I was a Grunger and therefore was not supposed to like Rave music at all, which I was ok with because there was very little of it in the charts at the time so didn't know much of it. I think this record passed me by when it reached number 39 in May too.

By the end of the year this record had gained in popularity and was rereleased early 1995 and made number two. I heard it and thought it was a fantastic record, despite the fact my Grunger status dictated that I shouldn't like that sort of music. At the same time though I hadn't listened to Grunge for a while, I was mostly listening to the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and came to realise that I never really thought much of Grunge in the first place.

I bought this single along with the Prodigy's "Music for the Jilted Generation" album and then started to identify myself as a raver and continued to be one for the rest of the decade.

The following hit for N Trance was a cover of "Stayin Alive" which I hated. A fellow raver at school owned their "Electronic Pleasure" album which I listened to, but I thought "Set You Free" was the only track that was any good. It was a similar story for the rest of the N Trance records of the decade which consisted mostly of cheesy covers.

In 2001 there was a remix of this which charted, but it was rarely heard in the pubs and clubs with the original being played instead. This was the beginning of it being played to death. They followed up with "Forever" with the same vocalist, Kelly Llorenna which I also liked, but wasn't too keen on their final Top 40 hit "Destiny".

Many acts are remembered by most for having just one record, even if they've had many more and this is very much the record N Trance are remembered for. Sometimes the record in question doesn't do that act justice, but in the case of N Trance it's probably just as well people only remember this record and not the others.

UK Singles Chart: 1994

Cliff Richard keeps his run of hits every year since 1978 going. There were no hits from Bananarama this year so the next longest streak comes from Prince who's streak goes back to 1983. He also scored his only number one hit to date this year with "The Most Beautiful Girl In the World".

Elton John reclaims third from David Bowie with four hits this year, whilst the Rolling Stones had three Top 40 hits this year, the last time they had three in a single year was in 1966.

	Artist	No of Hits	New Hits
1	Cliff Richard	108	All I Have To Do Is Dream/Miss You Nights
2	Elvis Presley	101
3	Elton John	50	Don't Go Breaking My Heart, Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing, Can You Feel the Love Tonight, Circle of Life
4	David Bowie	48
5	Status Quo	46	I Didn't Mean It, Sherri Don't Fail Me Now, Restless
6	Queen	41
7	Paul McCartney	40
=	Rod Stewart	40	All For Love
9	Stevie Wonder	37
=	Michael Jackson	37
=	Diana Ross	37	The Best Years of My Life
12	Rolling Stones	35	Love Is Strong, You Got Me Rocking, Out of Tears
=	Madonna	35	I'll Remember, Secret, Take A Bow
14	Frank Sinatra	33
=	Prince	33	The Most Beautiful Girl In the World, Letitgo
16	Shakin Stevens	32
=	UB40	32	C'est La Vie, Reggae Music
18	Roy Orbison	31
19	Lonnie Donegan	30

Still no changes in terms of most number ones:

	Artist	No of #1s	New #1s
1	Elvis Presley	17
=	Beatles	17
3	Cliff Richard	13
4	Abba	9
5	Rolling Stones	8
6	Madonna	7
7	Slade	6
=	Rod Stewart	6

The big talking point of the UK Top 40 in 1994 is the 15 weeks spent at number one for Wet Wet Wet with "Love Is All Around", just one short of Bryan Adams record. Much like Bryan Adams, this was an act you would associate more with the 80s than 90s. They had Top 40 hits every year since 1987, but this was only their second of ten Top 40 hits of the 90s to make the Top Ten, the other being "Goodnight Girl" which was also a number one.

Given the only other hit for Wet Wet Wet this year made number 20, they probably weren't the success story of the year as it's based on one song. It would once again be Take That who had two number ones with "Everything Changes" and "Sure", and a number three with "Love Ain't Here Anymore". They were also the only act to have more than one number ones this year.

East 17 though had the Christmas number one with "Stay Another Day". They also had a number three with "Around the World" and a number seven with "Steam".

The other three boybands that had debuted the previous year all hit their peaks this year, Bad Boys Inc with "More To This World" which was their only Top 10 at number 8, EYC with "Black Book" at number 14 and Worlds Apart with "Could It Be I'm Falling In Love" at number 15. It also marked the end of the chart careers of Bad Boys Inc and Worlds Apart, but EYC had one more hit the following year.

There were new boybands in the charts this year, including the Simon Cowell created Ultimate Kaos. They scored what proved to be their only Top 10 hit with "Some Girls". The band featured Ryan Elliott who's the son of Maxi Priest.

Ultimate Kaos wasn't Simon Cowells only contribution to the charts this year though. He was also behind "Power Rangers" by Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and "Them Girls Them Girls" by Zig & Zag.

The most successful boyband debut of the decade so far came from Let Loose who reached number two with "Crazy For You". They narrowly missed out on the Top Ten with their follow up "Seventeen" reaching 11, but they would return the following year.

The most notable boyband debut came in December with Boyzone debuting with "Love Me For A Reason" which became the Christmas number three, behind "All I Want For Christmas Is You" by Mariah Carey at number two.

In the dance music world, 1994 is often remembered as being the year of Jungle. We did have Jungle in the charts for the first time too, but there were only three record to make the Top 40. The first was "Incredible" by M-Beat featuring General Levy, the second was "Original Nuttah" by UK Apachi with Shy FX and finally we had "Sweet Love" by M-Beat featuring Nazlyn.

The nearest we got to Jungle outside these records was "Voodoo People" by the Prodigy which was the second hit of the year after "No Good (Start The Dance)". There were also a couple of Breakbeat tunes which were a couple of years old but making the Top 40 for the first time. These were "Set You Free" by N Trance which only just made the Top 40 reaching number 39, but would reach number two when rereleased at the beginning of the next year. The other one was "Let Me Be Your Fantasy" by Baby D which made number one.

In the Acid Jazz scene we continued to have hits from Jamiroquai whilst Incognito and the Brand New Heavies returned to the charts. We also had the only two hits from Urban Species with "Spiritual Love" and "Brother", and Galliano with "Long Time Gone" and "Twyford Down". We also had the solo debut of Young Disciples singer Carleen Anderson with "Nervous Breakdown".

We had the final hits from Oui 3 with "Fact Of Life" and One Dove with "Why Don't You Take Me". Shara Nelson had hits with "Uptight" and "Inside Out", and Massive Attack returned to the charts with "Sly". Bomb the Bass returned for his final two hits which were both Trip Hop records with "Bug Powder Dust" and "Darkheart".

After Felix got the ball rolling with Hardbag music in 1992, we had some further Hardbag records this year with "Hold That Sucker Down" by OT Quartet, "Girls + Boys" by Hed Boys, "Cantgetaman Cantgetajob (Life's A Bitch)" by Sister Bliss with Colette and "Short Dick Man" by 20 Fingers featuring Gillette.

Future Sound of London had their third hit in three years with "Lifeforms". Joining them in the Electronic/World crossover music was the return of Enigma with "Return To Innocence". They followed this up with "The Eyes of Truth" and "The Age of Loneliness". We also had the debut of Deep Forest with "Sweet Lullaby" which they followed up with "Deep Forest" and "Savanna Dance".

The bulk of the Dance music in the charts this year though was House. Several of the now well established chart acts such as Alison Limerick, Ce Ce Peniston, D Mob, Rozalla, M People, Crystal Waters and KWS had hits this year plus we had a second hit from 2 In A Room with "El Trago (The Drink)".

Perhaps the most significant debutant from a House perspective this years was Sasha who debuted with "Higher Ground" which he followed up with "Magic". Norman Cook was back in the charts, this time under the alias of Pizzaman with the record "Trippin' On Sunshine".

It was Eurodance that was more prominent at the top end of the charts with number ones coming from Doop with "Doop", Tony Di Bart with "The Real Thing" and Whigfield with "Saturday Night".

Other notable debutants included Jam & Spoon with "Right In The Night (Fall In Love With Music)", Reel 2 Real featuring The Mad Stuntman  with "I Like To Move It" and MC Sar & The Real McCoy with "Another Night".

We were also seeing Eurodance covers of rock tunes, most notably "Whats Up" by DJ Miko, a cover of the 4 Non Blondes record from the previous year. We also had Abigail do a cover of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana. There was also "Eighteen Strings" by Tinman which sampled the "Smells Like Teen Spirit" riff.

We established that 1993 was the last we'd see of Nirvana in the charts, but what about the other Grunge bands?

We had the first and only Grunge number one from British newcomers Stiltskin with "Inside". They followed up with "Footsteps" and that's the last we'd see of them. Pearl Jam, Soundgarden and L7 returned to the charts, it was the last we'd see of L7 but Pearl Jam and Soundgarden would be back. There was also "Disarm" by Smashing Pumpkins, whilst Soul Asylum had a more grungy sound with the hits "Black Gold" and "Somebody to Shove".

There was no Goth Rock or Thrash, but Glam Metal band Motley Crue had their final Top 40 hit with "Hooligan's Holiday". Metal was kept going by Therapy? and the Almighty, and we also had the only hit from Kerbdog with "Dummy Crusher". Groove Metal band Pantera had their final two hits with "I'm Broken" and "Planet Caravan".

There were still plenty of 70s/80s Hard Rock bands in the charts with Def Leppard, Alice Cooper, Guns n Roses, Aerosmith, Gun and Whitesnake all having hits. Probably more surprising though was this year saw the debut of Wildhearts with "Caffeine Bomb" and Skin with "Money/Unbelievable". Whilst Grunge was said to have killed of Glam Metal more than anything else, its was supposed to have killed off bands like these too. We also saw the first example of the music credited with killing off Grunge, Pop Punk, with Green Day making their debut with "Welcome to Paradise".

It is however true that the harder side of Rock music seemed to be in decline by this point which can be put down to the rise in Brit Pop. Blur had a surge in popularity with songs from their "ParkLife" album, the first hit being "Girls And Boys" and the others being the title track, "To the End" and "End of the Century".

We had the debuts of Elastica with "Line Up", Oasis with "Supersonic", Pulp with "Do You Remember The First Time", Echobelly with "I Can't Imagine The World Without Me", Shed Seven with "Speakeasy", Dodgy with "Staying Out For The Summer" and Gene with "Sleep Well Tonight". Suede and Paul Weller continued to have hits this year too.

It was also a good year for R&B music with some more notable debutants this year. These included Toni Braxton with "Breathe Again", Joe with "I'm In Luv", R Kelly with "Your Body's Callin'", Aaliyah with "Back and Forth" and Jodeci with "Feenin'". Also despite having several hits as a songwriter going back to the 80s, this year marked the debut of Babyface as an artist with "When Can I See You".

We also had the Rap/R&B crossover hit "Whatta Man" by Salt-N-Pepa with En Vogue. Rap/Hip Hop music was now proving to be a mainstay of the charts. The start of the year saw the debut of Dr Dre with "Nuthin But A G Thang / Let Me Ride". We also had the first example of Miami Bass in the UK charts with "Whoomp! (There It Is)" by Tag Team. There was also the only UK hit for Domino with "Getto Jam".

Some British Rap acts had their only Top 40 hits this year too including "Teenage Sensation" by Credit To The Nation, "Switch" by Senser and "Yabba Dabba Doo" by Darkman. There was also the only hit for Danish rapper Lucas with "Lucas With The Lid Off".

 Warren G & Nate Dogg made their debuts with "Regulate" and we also had hits this year from Snoop Doggy Dogg, Ice-T, Arrested Development, Cypress Hill, Beastie Boys, House Of Pain, Public Enemy and Ice Cube.

The reggae revival showed no signs of fading with number ones from Chaka Demus & Pliers with "Twist & Shout" and Pato Banton with "Baby Come Back". Other big hits of the year included "Shine" by Aswad, "Baby I Love Your Way" by Big Mountain, "You Don't Love Me (No No No)" by Dawn Penn, "Compliments On Your Kiss" by Red Dragon with Brian & Tony Gold and "The Sign" by Ace of Base.

Cyndi Lauper released "Hey Now (Girls Just Want To Have Fun)" which was a reggae inspired remake of "Girls Just Want To Have Fun". We also had a return to the charts after a 24 year absence for Jimmy Cliff with his final hit "I Can See Clearly Now".

The returnee this year after the longest absence though was Louis Armstrong who returned after a 26 year absence with his final "We Have All the Time in the World". There was also a final hit for fellow 1952 debutant Nat 'King' Cole "Let's Face the Music and Dance". This would be the last time a 1952 debutant would have a Top 40 hit at the time of writing. All the 1953 and 1954 debutants chart careers had already finished by this point too, but a 1955 debutant would have a hit the following year.

With the charts being in their 43rd year now, many countries have had acts who have had UK Top 40 hits so it's become a rarity to see a new country in the charts. However this year saw the first act from Senegal with Youssou N'Dour scoring his only Top 40 hit with "7 Seconds" with Neneh Cherry.

Now we've reached the mid point of the 90s we are seeing that many genres are coming and going from the charts quite quickly. At the same time though there are examples of music in the charts that has been around for some time. In the case of this year, records like "Set You Free" and "Let Me Be Your Fantasy" that had been around the underground since 1992, or from the R&B scene we get records like "She's Got That Vibe" by R Kelly which was actually from 1991.

So we go into the late 90s next, what of the early 90s will survive? and who was the 1955 debutant to have a hit that year?

The Christmas Charts - 2017

More often than not in recent years the Christmas number one has been pretty conclusive. For years it was pretty much guaranteed to be the X factor winner, but this no longer seems to be the case. We've had charity records nobody wants to battle with and the Spice Girls didn't have much competition in the late 90s.

However this year we genuinely did have a battle between two records for the top spot. In true 2017 style though it was between Ed Sheeran and Ed Sheeran. Ok it was actually Ed Sheeran vs Eminem featuring Ed Sheeran, but it does seem rather odd that Ed Sheeran was battling against another record he was on.

The winner was Ed Sheeran with "Perfect", a record which first charted in March and inevitably has nothing to do with Christmas. The number two record by Eminem featuring Ed Sheeran is "River" which is a new entry but still had nothing to do with Christmas.

As for actual Christmas records, we have 16 in the Top 40 this year but none of them are new, although "Santa Tell Me" by Ariana Grande has made the Top 40 for the first time. Here's the full list:

Wham	Last Christmas
Mariah Carey	All I Want For Christmas Is You
Pogues	Fairytale Of New York
Band Aid	Do They Know It's Christmas?
Brenda Lee	Rockin Around the Christmas Tree
Shakin Stevens	Merry Xmas Everyone
Elton John	Step Into Christmas
Chris Rea	Driving Home For Christmas
Michael Buble	It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like
Wizzard	I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day
Slade	Merry Xmas Everybody
Ariana Grande	Santa Tell Me
John And Yoko And The Plastic Ono Band	Happy Xmas (War Is Over)
Leona Lewis	One More Sleep
Andy Williams	It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year
Paul McCartney	Wonderful Christmastime

The Christmas Charts - 2007

In 2007 we had the inevitable X Factor winner getting the Christmas number one. It came from Leon Jackson with "When You Believe". Another inevitability was that it was a cover, it was originally a hit in 1998 for Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey.

As for actual Christmas music, well there was loads. It was the first year that downloads counted towards the singles chart without being released in physical format. So this was the start of the annual return to the charts for several records. These are the ones returning:

Mariah Carey	All I Want For Christmas Is You
Pogues	Fairytale Of New York
Wham	Last Christmas
Wizzard	I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day
Slade	Merry Xmas Everybody
Shakin Stevens	Merry Xmas Everyone
Band Aid	Do They Know It's Christmas?
John And Yoko And The Plastic Ono Band	Happy Xmas (War Is Over)

It also meant old Christmas records that had never been in the UK Top 40 now had the opportunity to do so. There were two of them this year, "It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year" by Andy Williams and "Driving Home For Christmas" by Chris Rea.

We also had a new Christmas song which came from the Killers with "Don't Shoot Me Santa" which reached number 34. Despite being only 10 years old, I'd guess it's forgotten by most, if they ever heard it in the first place. Today is the first time I've ever heard it.

The Christmas Charts - 1997

There wasn't much in the way of Christmas music in the charts in 1997 with just the one Christmas song.

Christmas number one came from the Spice Girls with "Too Much". This was their second of three Christmas number ones in a row and to date none of their singles had failed to reach number one so when they released this Christmas week there was only going to be one outcome.

Fountains of Wayne are seen by many as a one hit wonder with "Stacey's Mom" in 2004. However, they had the only Christmas hit of 1997 with "I Want An Alien For Christmas" which was their second Top 40 hit. It was released Christmas week and only managed to reach number 36 before dropping out the Top 40 the following week. Not a very well known Christmas song, I only know it myself from discovering it existed and playing it on YouTube.

Top of the Pops: 21/12/2017

Here is the Top 40 Countdown

Ed Sheeran remains at number one this week ending the year in a similar fashion to how it begun, his nearest completion being a Christmas number 2 from 23 years ago and a Christmas number 2 from 33 years ago

We have 15 eligible records this week, don't we've had so many to pick from. However that is due to the flood of Christmas re-entries and therefore the lowest charting of these are the ones to miss out.

There are two new entries, one of which is a Christmas record which failed to chart in 2014. The rest of the show is made up of old Christmas records and 17 of the Top 40 are too.

New (29) Ariana Grande - Santa Tell Me
New (27) Ramz - Barking
Re (23) Chris Rea - Driving Home For Christmas
Re (19) Elton John - Step Into Christmas
Re (18) Michael Buble - Its Beginning to Look a Lot Like
⬆ (22) Wizzard - I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday
⬆ (16) Shakin Stevens - Merry Christmas Everyone
Re (15) Brenda Lee - Rockin Around the Christmas Tree
(1) Ed Sheeran - Perfect

The Christmas Charts - 1987

In 1987 we had what is in my opinion the best Christmas number one ever, "Always On My Mind" by the Pet Shop Boys. Obviously it's not a Christmas song, but this was the moment that the Pet Shop Boys were perhaps the biggest act in the country from a singles chart perspective. This was their eighth single and third number one.

Such was the popularity of the Pet Shop Boys, they managed to keep one of the best known Christmas songs ever of the top spot. The Christmas number two was "Fairytale of New York" by the Pogues featuring Kirsty MacColl. My parents used to play "Now - The Christmas Album" at Christmas time which had all the usual suspects on there, but it didn't have this on it and I used to wonder why given its status. It seems obvious now, the album came out in 1985 therefore this record didn't exist at the time.

We had a Christmas song at number three from Mel & Kim. Not the Appleby sisters though, it was Mel Smith and Kim Wilde with "Rockin Around the Christmas Tree". Although I do remember 1987 in music, this record completely passed me by, or given it did appear on Top of the Pops I most probably forgot it. The first time it came to my attention was around ten years ago when I saw it on a music channel.

Ever wondered why we hear "When I Fall in Love" by Rick Astley at Christmas time? Well it was because it was Christmas number four in 1987. May sound silly to play a non Christmas record that was only number four, but at the time this was considered by many to be the strongest contender for Christmas number one. Rick Astley had burst onto the scene that August and was very much at his peak. However, the Nat 'King' Cole version was on the same label as the Pet Shop Boys and they rereleased it to deter people from buying the Rick Astley version to give the Pet Shop Boys a better chance of the Christmas number one. It did peak at number two the week before Christmas and on Christmas week the Nat 'King' Cole version was at seven, so the labels tactics worked.

Pete Tong @ The O2

Just over a year after going to see Pete Tong with an orchestra I was back at the O2 last night to see him again.

After a week of lots of drinking I decided to have a break from the alcohol last night, but thought I'd check the current price of beer in the O2. Depending on what beer you choose you're looking at either £6.50 or £6.80 which is absolutely ridiculous.

Pete Tong and the orchestra arrived on stage pretty much bang on 21:00 as scheduled and began with "Right Here Right Now" by Fatboy Slim. Great tune of course, but I was getting deja vu. Next up was "Pjanoo" by Eric Prydz and then out came a vocalist to sing "Lola's Theme" by Shapeshifters. These were the same 3 tunes that opened up last year. I feared we'd be getting exactly the same set as last year, as much as I enjoyed last year I didn't like the thought of spending over £50 to see the same thing again.

Fortunately it wasn't the same set. Around half the tunes were done last year and half were new. Another good thing is they didn't include Rudimental tunes and Ella Eyre was nowhere to be seen. We weren't exempt from rubbish vocalists though, amongst them was another Rudimental collaborator Becky Hill, whilst she wasn't as bad as Ella Eyre she was still pretty dreadful.

Amongst the new tracks for this year were "Killer" by Adamski, "Galvanize" by Chemical Brothers and "Unfinished Sympathy" by Massive Attack, something Massive Attack member 3D isn't too happy about. They were perhaps a bit more ambitious with the new tunes this year as they seemed more difficult to transform into orchestral music, but all in all they did a good job.

We also had a tune which charted this year featured, "You Don't Know Me" by Jax Jones. The actual singer Raye also appeared on stage to sing it. However, many dance music fans will know this tune is essential "Body Language" by M.A.N.D.Y vs Booka Shade with vocals so needless to say I'd rather that be the tune that featured.

We did however have "One" by Swedish House Mafia minus the vocals which was a big improvement on the original. There were no vocals to "Insomnia" by Faithless either, but if I had to pick one tune to preserve the vocals on then that one would probably be it.

Towards the end we had "Café Del Mar" by Energy 52 which was probably the most appropriate tune to keep in the set given it's named after a bar in Ibiza. It was the one that seemed to get the best reaction from the crowd too.

For me though the highlight was "Man With the Red Face" by Laurent Garnier. It was new for this year and it works so well being played by an orchestra.

The final track of the night was "Out of Space" by the Prodigy which was certainly a good choice to end the show with.

Overall it was a good gig, the orchestra does a very good job of playing these tunes and sometimes it sounds so similar to the original that you forget the orchestra is there. I would however love it if they could do a performance without any vocals.

The Christmas Charts - 1977

With Punk now in full swing, there was little room for Christmas hits in 1977, in fact there was just one.

The Christmas number one was a double a side, neither of which are Christmas records but one is still heard at Christmas time today. The record is "Mull of Kintyre/Girls School" by Wings. At the time this was the biggest selling single of all time, and today it's the fourth biggest selling single ever. Of course it's "Mull of Kintyre" that gets played now, there's probably few people outside of those that know there is such a song as "Girls School". When Paul McCartney did release an actual Christmas record 2 years later, the chart career of the Wings was over although they didn't actually split until 1981.

The only Christmas record of the year was "White Christmas" by Bing Crosby. Originally recorded in 1942, it never charted in the UK the first time around as the UK Singles Chart didn't exist then. It finally charted a couple of months after the death of Bing Crosby and was the third version to chart in the UK after versions by Mantovani and Pat Boone.

Top of the Pops: 14/12/2017

Here is the Top 40 Countdown

Who would have thought that when "Perfect" by Ed Sheeran entered the charts back in March it would get to number one in December. That's exactly what has happened.

We have 11 eligible records this week, but that is mostly due a bunch of Christmas records making their annual return to the charts. Therefore the two records I'm eliminating are the lowest charting of these at number 21 and 24.

Not only has Ed Sheeran managed to get a 9 month old record to number one, but he's managed to stop the X Factor winner from topping the charts with Rak-Su having to settle for number two.

Elsewhere we have a further two new entries plus the non Christmas climber I eliminated last week.

New (39) Louis Tomlinson - Miss You
New (29) Pink - Beautiful Trauma
Re (16) Band Aid - Do They Know It's Christmas
⬆ (13) NF - Let You Down
Re (10) Pogues ft Kirsty MacColl - Fairytale of New York
⬆ (6) Wham! - Last Christmas
⬆ (5) Mariah Carey - All I Want For Christmas Is You
New (2) Rak-Su ft Wyclef Jean & Naughty Boy
⬆ (1) Ed Sheeran - Perfect

The Christmas Charts - 1967

This is going to be quite brief because 1967 was the first year in chart history that no Christmas records charted. But we can take a look at what was actually at the top end of the Christmas charts that year.

The Christmas number one was the final Christmas number one from the Beatles with "Hello Goodbye". It was a good end to the year for the Beatles who began the year ending their streak of every official single release reaching number one since 1963. The had a second record not reach number one this year, but this was the Christmas number two, "Magical Mystery Tour EP", so its failure to reach the top spot was probably seen as no bad thing given it was prevented by one of their own records.

The Christmas number three came from the holder of the previous years Christmas number one, Tom Jones with "I'm Coming Home", seemingly he was unable to compete with the Beatles at Christmas when the actually released a record.

The Christmas Charts - 1957

Last December in the run up to Christmas I took a look at the Christmas charts every ten years from 1956-2016 and I thought I'd do the same this year beginning with 1957.

1957 brought us the second Christmas number one which was actually a Christmas song. This was "Mary's Boy Child" by Harry Belafonte. It rounded off the debut year in the UK charts for Harry Belafonte which proved to be his most successful with him also scoring a number 2, a number 3 and a number 18 with his other three hits of the year. It's still a well known Christmas record but it's perhaps the Boney M cover that is better known. He would reach number ten with this the following year as well as having a less successful Christmas record with "The Song Of Mary".

Elvis Presley had his first Christmas hit in the UK in 1957 with "Santa Bring My Baby Back To Me". Despite this being just his second year in the UK charts, this was his 19th UK single and 12th of the year. It would be his highest charting Christmas record reaching number seven.

We had the second charting of "White Christmas" this year coming from Pat Boone. It was however the first vocal version to chart as it's first appearance in the charts was an instrumental by Mantovani in 1952. It would be his least successful UK single to date, the charts were a Top 30 at the time and this reached number 29.

There was one more Christmas record in the charts this year, "Snowbound for Christmas" by Dickie Valentine. This was the third year in a row Dickie Valentine had a Christmas hit, he had the first Christmas number one which was a Christmas song in 1955 with "Christmas Alphabet" and in 1956 had had a number 8 with "Christmas Island". This one however only made number 28.

Top of the Pops: 07/12/2017

Here is the Top 40 Countdown

Once again Camila Cabello ft Young Thug is at number one. We have 11 eligible records this week, so two need to be eliminated.

First to be eliminated is number 29, "Last Christmas" by Wham! which no doubt will feature before the end of the year. I've also eliminated number 16 because it's the lowest climber.

Amongst the four new entries this week are two people who appeared on actual Top of the Pops, Noel Gallagher and Craig David. There has seemed to be quite a few of these lately.

The highest climber comes from Ed Sheeran. After he flooded the charts with every track from his album back in March, once the records started going down it seemed that we wouldn't see Ed Sheeran again until the next album, but one of those records "Perfect" has only just reached it's peak of number 3 this week.

New (31) Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds - Holy Mountain
New (11) James Arthur - Naked
⬆ (10) MK - 17
New (25) Craig David ft Bastille - I Know You
⬆ (6) Clean Bandit ft Julia Michaels - I Miss You
⬆ (5) Big Shaq - Mans Not Hot
New (34) Raye ft Mr Eazi - Decline
⬆ (3) Ed Sheeran - Perfect
(1) Camila Cabello ft Young Thug - Havana

Record of the Year 1993: Saint Etienne - Hobart Paving

If I decide to carry on my 25 years since feature next year then my choice for Record of the Year won't feature for the simple fact I don't actually remember this in 1993. In fact I don't think I'd heard of Saint Etienne in 1993 despite the fact they had six Top 40 hits to their name by the end of the year.

It actually took until Top 40 hit number nine, "He's on the Phone" in 1995 for them to register on my radar, a record I very much liked. The following year singer Sarah Cracknell appeared on the Big Breakfast to play her first solo record "Anymore" and I assumed Saint Etienne were no more. A couple of years later I saw their greatest hits album "Too Young to Die" in Our Price which said "Singles 1990-1995" on it which confirmed to me they must have called it a day in 1995. Remembering how much I liked "He's on the Phone" though I bought the album.

It took me a while to get into most of the other tunes, it wasn't as dancey as I expected it to be and this one in particular wasn't dancey at all but despite that it was one I liked straight away.

It's one of those records that oddly gives me a rose tinted view of good music in the early 90s despite the fact it wasn't music I was listening to at the time and it doesn't really fit in with any genre which was big at the time. It made me reminisce even more at the early 90s when I saw the video which has East 17 graffiti on the wall.

At the time this came out East 17 had four Top 40 hits to their name with a fifth about to be released. Of those only two reached the Top 10, but after that they had a run of five Top 10 hits including a Christmas number one, so that East 17 advertising may have done the trick!

As it turned out, Saint Etienne hadn't called it a day, they have released plenty of music since and are still going today. I've since acquired all their albums and have seen them in concert a few times.

UK Singles Chart: 1993

Cliff Richard adds more hits to his total and keeps his streak of hits every year since 1979. Shakin Stevens didn't have any hits this year so the next longest streak comes from Bananarama who had hits every year since 1982.

David Bowie reclaims third place from Elton John with his return to the charts after 6 years away. There is also a return for Frank Sinatra with his 33rd and final hit which was a double a side with "Stay" by U2 and becomes the third 50s debutant to have a hit this decade along with Cliff Richard and Nat 'King' Cole.

Madonna, Prince and UB40 join the 30+ club in terms of number of hits:

	Artist	No of Hits	New Hits
1	Cliff Richard	107	Peace In Our Time, Human Work of Art, Never Let Go, Healing Love
2	Elvis Presley	101
3	David Bowie	48	Jump They Say, Black Tie White Noise, Miracle Goodnight, Buddha of Suburbia
4	Elton John	46	True Love
5	Status Quo	43
6	Queen	41	Five Live EP
7	Paul McCartney	40	Hope of Deliverance
8	Rod Stewart	39	Ruby Tuesday, Shotgun Wedding, Have I Told You Lately
9	Stevie Wonder	37
=	Michael Jackson	37	Give In To Me, Will You Be There, Gone Too Soon
11	Diana Ross	36	Heart (Don’t Change My Mind), Your Love
12	Frank Sinatra	33	I've Got You Under My Skin
13	Rolling Stones	32
=	Shakin Stevens	32
=	Madonna	32	Bad Girl, Fever, Rain
16	Roy Orbison	31
=	Prince	31	Peach, Controversy
18	Lonnie Donegan	30
=	UB40	30	(I Can't Help) Falling In Love With You, Higher Ground, Bring Me Your Cup

No change in most number ones:

	Artist	No of #1s	New #1s
1	Elvis Presley	17
=	Beatles	17
3	Cliff Richard	13
4	Abba	9
5	Rolling Stones	8
6	Madonna	7
7	Slade	6
=	Rod Stewart	6

The Banamarama hit was "More More More" which was one of the final Stock/Waterman produced singles to reach the Top 40. Also from Stock/Waterman was "The Love I Lost" and "When I'm Good and Ready" by Sybil and the final two which were released in the same week were "Wrestlemania" by WWF Superstars and "One Voice" by Bill Tarmey aka Jack Duckworth.

The success story of the year was Take That who scored 3 number ones and a number two. They narrowly missed out on the Christmas number one with "Babe", with Mr Blobby knocking them off the top. Another one of their number ones, "Relight My Fire" featured 60s singer Lulu, but she wasn't the only act of yesteryear to reach the top this year.

It was knocked off the top by Meat Loaf who returned to the charts after a seven year absence with "I' Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That)".

The Bluebells reached number one with a reissue of "Young at Heart" having originally reached number 8 in 1984. This was knocked off the top by the "Five Live EP" by George Michael with Queen & Lisa Stansfield with the lead track being the performance of "Somebody to Love" from the Freddie Mercury tribute concert.

Freddie Mercury himself scored a posthumous number one with a Euro Dance remake of "Living on my Own". This was one of three Euro Dance number ones of the year, the others being "No Limit" by 2 Unlimited and "Mr Vain" by Culturebeat. Other big Euro Dance records this year included "Exterminate" by Snap featuring Niki Harris, "What Is Love" by Haddaway and "U Got 2 Let The Music" by Cappella.

Another act from yesteryear to score a number one was UB40 with "(I Can't Help) Falling In Love With You". It was one of three reggae pop number ones this year, the other two coming from debutants Shaggy with "Oh Carolina" and Ace of Base with "All That She Wants".

Reggae had been present in the charts since the 60s but there hadn't been much of it in the years prior to 1993 where it had somewhat some of a resurgence. The year brought the debuts of Chaka Demus & Pliers with "Tease Me", Bitty McLean with "It Keep Rainin' (Tears From Eyes)" and Louchie Lou & Michie One with "Shout". We also had the only hits from Snow with "Informer", Shinehead with "Jamaican In New York" and Ali & Frazier with "Uptown Top Ranking". Inner Circle returned after a 14 year absence with "Sweat (A La La La La Long)". There were also hits for Maxi Priest, Shabba Ranks and Apache Indian.

Seven years after their chart debut, Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince score a number one with "Boom! Shake The Room" which was the third Rap/Hip Hop number one after "Turtle Power" and "Ice Ice Baby".

It was the strongest year to date in the UK Top 40 with several notable acts making their debuts. This included Ice Cube with "It Was A Good Day", Cypress Hill with "Insane In The Brain", Guru with "Trust Me", Snoop Doggy Dogg with "What's My Name" and Ice-T with "That's How I'm Livin'".

There were also some lesser known names making their debuts such as Onyx with "Slam", Sagat with "Funk Dat", K7 with "Come Baby Come" and Funkdoobiest with "Wopbabalubop". Other acts charting this year included Arrested Development, Naughty by Nature, Monie Love, PM Dawn, LL Cool J, House Of Pain, De La Soul and Salt-N-Pepa.

It was also a strong year for R&B this year. It was more of the contemporary sound and more pop sounding R&B than the New Jack Swing sound which had been big in recent years. The most notable was the number one debut of Gabrielle with "Dreams".

Other British acts make their debuts were Eternal with "Stay" and Michelle Gayle with "Looking Up" plus the only hit from Lena Fiagbe with "Gotta Get It Right".


From America we had the debuts of Mary J Blige with "Reminisce", Jade with "Don't Walk Away", SWV with "I'm So Into You", Blackstreet with "Baby Be Mine" and Zhané with "Hey Mr DJ".

The Hardcore Rave sound that had a strong presence in the charts the previous year was virtually non existent chart wise this year. The Prodigy had their final hit from album 1, "Wind It Up", and first hit from album 2, "One Love". N-Joi had their final hit with "The Drumstruck EP". The only other hits you could put in this genre were a couple from Moby, "I Feel It / Thousand" and "Move", though this is quite borderline.

The only Trip Hop act prior to this year to have a Top 40 hit was Massive Attack. They had none this year but Shara Nelson who sang for them had hits with "Down That Road" and "One Goodbye In Ten". We also had hits from Marxman with "All About Eve", One Dove with "Breakdown" and Bjork & David Arnold with "Play Dead".

Straddling the Trip Hop and Acid Jazz genres we had Oui 3 with "For What It's Worth" and "Break From The Old Routine" and Stakka Bo with "Here We Go".

The year saw the debut of perhaps the best known Acid Jazz act of all time, Jamiroquai. They had four hits, the first being "Too Young To Die". Another act making their debut was US3 with "Riddim" followed by "Cantaloop". Freak Power, a Norman Cook project, made their debut with their best known hit "Turn On Tune In Cop Out". There was also the only hit for JTQ with "Love The Life" which featured Noel McKoy.

The big question from the rock world though was did Grunge finally kill of Glam? Well I guess it finally did this year, the only Glam hits being the final Extreme hit "Tragic Comic" and the final two Poison hits "Stand" and "Until You Suffer Some (Fire And Ice)". It seemed to be the end for Gothic Rock too with the only hit from that genre this year being the final Sisters of Mercy hit "Under The Gun". Thrash also seemed to be on its way out with Anthrax having their final hit with "Only" and Megadeth having their penultimate hit with "Sweating Bullets".

It was still Hard Rock going strongest though with hits from Little Angels, Def Leppard, Thunder, Quireboys, Ugly Kid Joe, Aerosmith, Guns n Roses and AC/DC. From the Heavy Metal scene we had the final hit for WASP with "Sunset And Babylon". There were also hits from Metallica, Iron Maiden, Therapy? and Almighty.

From the Grunge scene itself we had the debut of Alice In Chains with "Would". There was also the only hit for Stone Temple Pilots with "Plush". The Smashing Pumpkins made their debut with "Cherub Rock" and Radiohead made their debut with "Anyone Can Play Guitar" followed by "Creep" which was also considered to be Grunge.

There were no hits from Pearl Jam or Soundgarden this year. We did however have three hits from Nirvana, "Oh the Guilt" which was a double a side with "Puss" by Jesus Lizard, "Heart Shaped Box" and "All Apologies / Rape Me" which was Nirvanas final UK Top 40 hit.

We saw the beginnings of Groove Metal in the charts this year with Pantera debuting with "Walk". There was also the debut of Rap Metal act Rage Against the Machine with "Killing in the Name".

It was a transitional year for Indie music with both Baggy and Shoegazing no longer having much presence in the charts and Brit Pop still in it's infancy. The only Top 10 Brit Pop record was "Animal Nitrate" by Suede but we also had Top 40 hits from Blur and Paul Weller.

Having mentioned Take That near the beginning of the post it's only right I mention how East 17 fared this year. They had four hits, the highest charting being "It's Alright" which reached number 3. They also had a number 5 with "Deep" whilst "Slow It Down" and "West End Girls" were outside the Top 10.

With the boyband rivalry in full swing, there were three more boybands we said hello to this year. First came Worlds Apart with "Heaven Must Be Missing An Angel". Then came Bad Boys Inc with "Don't Talk About Love". Finally at the end of the year came EYC with "Feelin Alright". None of them managed any Top Tens though, but they'd all be back the next year.

Despite several old timers having number ones this year, it does seem like an out with the old in with the new sort of year. The early 90s is remembered for Take That/East 17, Grunge, Rave and Baggy amongst other things but in reality the heyday for the last two was over before the heyday for the first two began, the shelf life of each phase seemingly getting shorter from a chart perspective.

For 1994 the questions are will Grunge survive beyond Nirvana? will there be a new Rock/Metal genre? a new Dance genre? how will Rap/Hip Hop fare? will the Reggae revival continue? and who will win the 1994 battle of the boybands?