25 Years Since....April 1992

It's the end of the month so its time to look at a few tunes I was enjoying this time 25 years ago:

Mr Big - To Be With You

We were still in the era when I genuinely cared how records I liked performed in the charts. This record entered the charts in March and was at it's peak of number 3 at the beginning of April. Shakespear's Sister had been number one for several weeks, people were starting to get sick of it and it looked like this was ready to take it's place at the top of the charts.

Unfortunately that honour went to Right Said Fred with "Deeply Dippy" whilst this dropped down a place to number 4. I was angry and had a real grudge against Right Said Fred at the time and was glad to see their next single only reached 29 a few months later.

As for Mr Big, well just one more hit for them in May that year with "Just Take My Heart" which reached 26 and was nowhere near as good.

Still, this was the sort of music that Nirvana had apparently killed off in 1991...

SL2 - On A Ragga Tip

What I loved about this record at the time was that I had absolutely no idea what was being sung. Were they words or just noises? doesn't matter, it's something you can sing along to whether you know the words or not.

SL2 were Slipmatt and Lime and after becoming a raver I would acquire many Slipmatt tapes. It was remixed in 1997 and I bought the single. Included on it was a hardcore mix which also appeared in many sets on the tape packs I was buying at the time. It also included this original version and was probably the first time I'd heard it since 1992. Because rave music had gotten much faster I was amazed how slow this sounded, but nowadays its more a case of 1997 rave music sounding fast.

Kym Sims - Take My Advice

Kym Sims followed up her best known tune "Too Blind To See It" with this, which sounds very similar. Still, it's a great tune to sound similar too and as such I like this too.


Altern-8 - Evapor-8

If you asked back in April 1992 which rave act would go on to have number one hits, sell out arenas across the world and still have a huge following 25 years later, I would have said Altern-8.

What I didn't realise at the time was this wasn't the follow up to the hugely successful "Activ-8", they had released a single in between called "Frequency" which didn't make the top 40.

They had just one more single and just the one album and were finished by 1993. At the same time the Prodigy were enjoying the huge success from the debut album which came out at the end of 1992.

Marc Almond - The Days of Pearly Spencer

This was the third Marc Almond tune to have an impact on me, the others being "Something's Gotten Hold of My Heart" and "Jacky". What I didn't realise at the time was that all three were covers.

I've since heard the original of this, and I do think this cover is better. A tip though, just listen to the first 3 minutes of this, it's just a very lengthy outro that's a bit pointless and something they would miss out when on Top of the Pops etc as I recall.

Top of the Pops: 27/04/2017

Here is the Top 40 Countdown

Bryan Adams record may be safe for now, but Frankie Laines record of collective weeks at number one with 18 is. Ed Sheeran has returned to the top for the 14th week so therefore features again.

There were 12 eligible records this week, but this is down to Kendrick Lemar having 5 of them. Therefore I have left out his three lowest charting ones, leaving him to feature twice, one with a climber and one with a new entry.

We have two non Kendrick Lemar new entries this week coming from Lady Gaga and J Hus. After an absence of a few weeks, Rag n Bone Man's "Skin" is back on the show having climbed one position higher than its previous peak. The remaining three climbers appeared two weeks ago.

New (23) Lady Gaga - The Cure
⬆ (17) Rag n Bone Man - Skin
⬆ (34) Jason Derulo ft Nicki Minaj & Ty - Swalla
New (34) J Hus - Did You See
⬆ (33) Future - Mask Off
New (18) Kendrick Lemar - DNA
⬆ (6) Kendrick Lemar - Humble
⬆ (2) Clean Bandit ft Zara Larsson - Symphony
⬆ (1) Ed Sheeran - Shape Of You

Nothing Lasts Forever - Steps

After the news this week that Steps are set to knock Ed Sheeran off number one in the album charts, the Bananarama reunion and the realisation that Steps have now been reunited longer than they were together for in the first place, it seemed a good time to do a nothing lasts forever post for Steps.

I remember the first time I heard Steps. It was during Children in Need 1997 when they performed "5,6,7,8" and I thought it was absolutely dreadful. The so called "rapping" by the member nobody has heard of was particularly bad, maybe that's why he disappeared to the background afterwards. It was around the same time the equally dreadful "No Way No Way" by Vanilla came out and I couldn't decide which was worse. Incidentally both records peaked at number 14, quite poor for a commercial pop group. Whilst Vanilla had one further single (yes they really did) before disappearing, Steps would be torturing us for another 4 years.

The next single was their cover of Bananarama flop "Last Thing On My Mind". They wouldn't have had too much trouble getting permission as the man behind the group was Pete Waterman, the same man who was responsible for the said flop. He wasn't trying to make them the new Bananarama though, he was trying to make them the new Abba.

This became evident on the third single "One For Sorrow" which was basically "The Winner Takes It All" with different lyrics. As much as I find Abbas music awful, and I do, I appreciate there is a certain skill to writing rubbish songs so can appreciate Abba as musicians. On that basis I can't really see a manufactured pop group as being the new Abba, maybe a poor mans Abba.

Next up they hit the top spot with their karaoke version of "Tragedy" at the end of 1998 which is said to be their signature song. That kind of says it all really.

In 1999, all part of the whole marketing campaign no doubt, they collaborated with a few other pop singers on "Thank Abba for the Music" which was basically a karaoke version of Abba songs.

In 2000 I saw an interview with them on the TV where they were talking about their new album in which they had all written tracks on the album themselves. Quite often this is the kiss of death for pop groups, but fortunately for them none of these tracks were released as singles. Lead track "Stomp" reached number one all their remaining singles, including a karaoke version of another Gibb composition "Chain Reaction" made the top 5.

They finally called it a day at the end of 2001. I had learned by this point that this was not a cause for celebration because of the inevitable solo careers that would follow.

The following year gave us the duo H & Claire which was basically Steps without the others. Fortunately this didn't even last a year. Faye did some dreary crap with Russell Watson and that was it. Lisa unleashed her brothers 3SL to the world, but this was also short lived. Then she launched her own solo career which ended in 2005 when she had a reality show "Totally Scott-Lee" where she vowed to quit music if her single "Electric" didn't reach the top 10, which it didn't. To be fair though, at least she tried to do something a bit different from Steps without pretending to be a credible musician. As for the other member? well nobody knows who he is so he was never going to have a solo career.

Sadly though, Lisa's vow to quit music only lasted until 2011 when Steps reunited with a TV documentary accompanying it. Quite laughably their comeback song was a karaoke version of "Dancing Queen".

The reunion has somehow worked though and I can't put my finger on why. The successful comeback of Take That was down to the fact their new material actually had some credibility. The new Steps material is the same crap they always did, basically glorified karaoke.

This may have inspired the comeback of Bananarama, if a group that made it's name doing a karaoke version of one of their flops can make a successful comeback then anyone can.

Record of the Year 1975: Crispy and Company - Brazil

It was a close one this year, but I have gone with another funk track for my record of the year.

For many years this tune was nothing more than an entry in my British Hit Singles book. There was something about the name "Crispy and Company" that made me intrigued as to what it actually was. When YouTube first came around it was one of several tracks I attempted to listen after years of wondering how it went.

What stands out about this amongst other track though is I couldn't find it on YouTube for years, nor could I find their follow up "Get It Together". The first time I did hear it was on a different site.

The stand out thing about this tune is the part that kicks in at 0:39. After that you wonder whether that part will appear later in the tune, and when it does and sounds so good.

Crispy and Company are an alias of Lafayette Afro Rock Band who are an American band who were based in France, but they only achieved chart success with the two tunes mentioned with this reaching 26 and "Get It Together" fairing slightly better at 21.

UK Singles Chart: 1975

It would seem the music critics for various TV shows began their love affair with the charts in November 1975. Why? well in pretty much every best song countdown you get on these TV shows the top two positions are occupied by "Imagine" by John Lennon and "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen. Both records were released within a week of each other in November 1975 and both reached their initial peak positions the final week of that month, "Bohemian Rhapsody" reaching number one and "Imagine" number six. We would be seeing plenty more of Queen this decade but for John Lennon that was it from him until 1980.

Elvis continues his run of a hit every year since 1956 with three hits this year brining his total to
91. However for the first year since 1958 there is no Cliff Richard in the top 40, but he remains comfortably in second with 64. Frank Sinatra returns to the top 40 this year with "I Believe I'm Gonna Love You" meaning his is now third outright with 31 hits, but nobody else has caught Lonnie Donegan yet so he's in fourth with 30, it's now been 13 years since his last top 40 hit.

Aside from Elvis, the act to now have the longest current run of hits every year is Stevie Wonder who had a hit at the start of the year with "Boogie On Reggae Woman" which means he's had a hit every year since 1966. We have a Motown debutant, Stevie Wonder's ex wife Syreeta who had hits with "Your Kiss Is Sweet" and "Harmour Love". The only other Motown act to chart this year is Diana Ross who had just the one hit with "Sorry Doesn't Always Make It Right".

Mud followed up their good run in 1974 with 6 top 40 hits this year including their third and final number one with a cover of "Oh Boy". The band who were arguably the most successful one this year though was the Bay City Rollers who scored two number ones with "Bye Bye Baby" and "Give A Little Love", and a number three with "Money Honey".

The disco sound was very much making its presence in the charts. For the first time we have two singles with disco in the title, "Disco Queen" by Hot Chocolate and "Disco Stomp" by Hamilton Bohannon.

This was also the year the two "Wigan" groups charted, Wigan's Chosen Few with "Footsee" and Wigan's Ovation with "Skiing in the Snow" and "Per-So-Nal-Ly".

Meanwhile from Germany we had arguably the most influential group on future electronic music, Kraftwerk, debut with "Autobahn". This was their only top 40 hit of the 70s, the electro sound was very much established when they would next return to the charts in 1981.

The end of the previous year had saw reggae music return to the charts after a bit of a break. The earlier part of the year saw the occasional reggae tune in the charts, but in September there was another burst of reggae music which included the debut of Bob Marley with "No Woman No Cry".

We had the first Indian act to chart this year, Biddu debuting with "Summer of 42", his first of two hits, the other being "Rain Forrest" the following year.

This was the year The Impressions scored their one and only top 40 hit with "First Impressions". We also had Steely Dan debut with the first of their two top 40 hits with "Do It Again".

The top of the charts was a bit of a mixture of old, new and novelty acts. The first number one of the year was the only chart topper for Status Quo, "Down Down". Although they are a group one would probably associate with the 70s the most, this had been 7 years since they debuted in 1968. We also had David Bowie top the charts for the first time with his rerelease of Space Oddity which originally charted in 1969.

We had Tammy Wynette chart with her debut "Stand By Your Man" which had charted in America in 1968. Her follow up "D.I.V.O.R.C.E", also from 1968, didn't reach number one, but a comedy cover of it by Billy Conolly did reach number one.

We also had Telly Savalas reach the top with his spoken cover of "If" and actors Windsor Davies & Don Estelle scored a number one with "Whispering Grass".

There were three acts who returned to the charts this year after being absent for more than a decade. After making his debut in 1959 it took Dee Clark 16 years until he followed it up with "Ride a Wild Horse" which would be his final hit. After a 15 year absence we have the return of Johnny Mathis with "I'm Stone In Love With You". Finally we have Duane Eddy return after 12 years away with his final hit "Play Me Like You Play Your Guitar".

After 8 years away, The Shadows retuned to the charts with their Eurovision song "Let Me Be the One", a song that doesn't actually sound anything like The Shadows.

After Donny Osmond had his final solo hit of the 70s the previous year, this year was the turn of David Cassidy to have his final 70s hit with "Darlin".

After a surprisingly long chart career of 15 years, this was the year Ken Dodd had his final hit with "Think of Me (Wherever You Are)".

Overall this is a year where no particular music dominates. There is a lot of disco music in the charts, but you cannot say it dominated the charts when there were no disco number ones. Glam Rock seemed on its way out by now, the teen idols of America were also on there way out, presumably because of the Bay City Rollers. The top of the charts had a bit of a mixture. You sense that this is a year of transition, but not obvious where it is going.

So next up is 1976, the year they began the reruns of Top of the Pops so hopefully I will know more hits than I have known in the years to date.

Popmaster Live

Last night, the Radio 2 quiz Popmaster had a live quiz in London which was hosted by Ken Bruce himself and organised by Classic Pop Magazine. Unlike the radio quiz which covers anything from the 50s until today, this quiz just covered the 80s.

It was quite difficult to know what to expect, whether it would be like your regular Popmaster quiz or more like champions league (the end of year ones which the highest scoring contestants take part in which are much harder).

I play along on the radio each day and I tend to do quite well. My average score is just under 34 and I have scored the maximum 39 points more than I've scored any other score. It's also very rare for the contestant on the radio to score higher than me. I do have gaps in my knowledge though, I tend to do badly at lyrics questions, albums that I don't own questions and "what movie is this song from?" questions.

Pre quiz entertainment came from Owen Paul, who played a few covers before ending with his hit. He also played at the interval too and again finished the set with his hit.

So the quiz itself. Well the questions were all multiple choice which came up on a big screen and were accompanied by a clip of music. Each team had a remote control to select our choice from, the answers were revealed straight after the time was up to answer each question.

My team got a quite respectable 9/10 on round one which was on intros and outros. We were however on the back foot already though as the leading team took till something like the fifth round to drop their first point. Unfortunately for me we did have rounds on "which movie is this song from?" and "which album is this on?". There was also a TV themes round, not something you tend to get on actual Popmaster, but to make things more difficult the options were anagrams of TV show names. Other rounds included records which didn't make the top 40 and one on rare and collectable records. Needless to say, this was definitely much more Champions League standard than regular Popmaster.

Two of the rounds had prizes for the winners of that particular round, both of which resulted in tie breaks because of several teams getting maximum points. I knew the answer to the first tie break question, who had hits in 1981 with "I Shot the Sheriff" and "I'm So Happy" (I won't reveal the answer in case you want to attempt it), but I didn't know the answer to the second one which was the double a side to "You're All I Need" by Motley Crue. Both times it was the same team that won these rounds.

Going into the final round it was now mathematically impossible for us to win as we were 110 points behind the two leading teams (each question was worth 10 points). We did get the maximum score on the final round and finished 11th out of 32 having got just 16 questions out of 110 wrong. The two leading teams also scored maximum points on the final round, both getting just 5 questions wrong. The tie break question which won it for the winning team was asking who the uncredited vocalist on a number 39 from 1980 was (apologies I cannot remember what it was now, wasn't anything I'd ever heard though). The overall winners were the same team that won the two bonus rounds.

Despite the high scores, it was not an easy quiz, the participants were just ridiculously knowledgeable about 80s music. I have written my own music quizzes before and have often been told they are very difficult, the last one I did the winner got just under 50%. Compared to last nights quiz though, my ones are a piece of cake.

Still, given the calibre of people there last night, if it was more regular Popmaster standard then you'd have probably had all 32 teams score 100%. Would I go again? absolutely, but I would have to do a lot of swatting up to stand a chance of winning.

Top of the Pops: 20/04/2017

Here is the Top 40 Countdown

So Bryan Adams record remains intact for at least another 15 weeks. Ed Sheeran is no longer number one, that honour goes to Harry Styles with his first solo effort. Before we get carried away about a potential chart dominance from Harry Styles though, remember Gary Barlow and Bryan McFadden both reached number one with their first solo hits, Robbie Williams and Justin Timberlake didn't.

There are two more new entries this week including "Places" by Martin Solveig ft Ina Wroldsen, which was one of the tracks on Now 96 which hadn't made the charts.

A total of 7 eligible records this week including 4 climbers which have all featured before.

⬆ (9) Zedd ft Alessia Cara - Stay
New (27) Martin Solveig ft Ina Wroldsen - Places
⬆ (13) Bruno Mars - That's What I Like
New (34) Disciples - On My Mind
⬆ (20) Lorde - Green Light
⬆ (7) Martin Jensen - Solo Dance
New (1) Harry Styles - Sign Of The Times

Easter Number Ones

The Christmas number one is a big thing in the UK charts, but the Easter number one is a bit of a non entity. Likewise, we don't really get Easter songs, the only UK top 40 hit ever to have the word Easter in the title was "Easter" by Marillion which reached number 34 in 1990.

I thought it would be interesting to find out what has been Easter number one each year. Seems like many years ago the people at everyhit.com had the same idea. The list can be found here. However, it only goes up to 2004 so I thought I'd list the Easter number ones we've had since.

2005: Tony Christie ft Peter Kay - Is This the Way to Amarillo
2006: Gnarls Barkley - Crazy
2007: Beyoncé ft Shakira - Beautiful Liar
2008: Duffy - Mercy
2009: Lady Gaga - Pokerface
2010: Scouting for Girls - This Ain't a Love Song
2011: LMFAO - Party Rock Anthem
2012: Carly Rae Jepsen - Call Me Maybe
2013: PJ & Duncan - Let's Get Ready to Rumble
2014: Mr Probz - Waves
2015: Jess Glynne - Hold My Hand
2016: Mike Posner - I Took a Pill in Ibiza
2017: Harry Styles - Sign of the Times

Top of the Pops: 13/04/2017

Here is the Top 40 Countdown

I think now is the time to say that Bryan Adams record of 16 consecutive weeks at number one is under threat with Ed Sheeran spending his 13th week at number one with "Shape Of You". Also Right Said Fred and The Smurfs equal record of 6 weeks at number two is under threat with Ed Sheeran spending his fifth week at number two with "Galway Girl". The latter won't appear again until it reaches number one.

The highest climber is at number three from the group Ed Sheeran knocked off number one, Clean Bandit.

There is a re entry from Little Mix having previously peaked at number 39 several weeks ago. We have four new entries, the highest being by Kendrick Lemar at number 21. So that's 7 eligible records this week.


New (21) Kendrick Lemar - Humble
⬆ (3) Clean Bandit ft Zara Larsson - Symphony
New (25) Calvin Harris ft Young Thug, Pharrell Williams & Ariana Grande - Heatstroke
Re (17) Little Mix - No More Sad Songs
New (33) Future - Mask Off
New (34) Jason Derulo ft Nicki Minaj & Ty - Swalla
(1) Ed Sheeran - Shape Of You

New Number One?

According to the official charts midweek update we may have a new number one on Friday, the debut solo single from One Directions Harry Styles.

I'll be honest, it's all a bit of a mystery to me as to what will succeed in the charts these days and what won't. Initially I stopped following the charts many years ago, but I started following them again at the start of the year if anything to see just how ridiculous they had become.

These days you get the likes of Little Mix reaching positions in the charts which would have got them dropped from their label if they were around 10 years ago, but as far as I can tell they are the biggest girl group around at the moment. Last year we had Drake at number one for 15 weeks, but whilst he flooded the charts with several tunes a few weeks ago, he seemed to pose no threat to Ed Sheeran. This is also despite most his tunes not being on YouTube, presumably because YouTube views don't count towards the charts.

I was aware Harry Styles had a new single but didn't know if it would pose a threat or not. Yes he was a member of the most popular boyband of this decade, but aside from Robbie Williams who would try and distance himself from his Take That days, what other British boyband members have had a solo career of any significance.

The latest news today is that it's very close between Ed Sheeran and Harry Styles so could go either way, presumably the Ed Sheeran fans heard the mid week chart update and have put him on repeat on Spotify.

I did discover an advantage Harry Styles has though. Yesterday I was searching for some music completely unrelated and found something from Deezer in the search results. I clicked on it and the new Harry Styles song automatically started playing. I'm not sure how much of the track you need to listen to for it to count, I stopped it as soon as I could but I may have unwillingly contributed to Harry Styles chart position.

Record of the Year 1974: Act One - Tom the Peeper

Each year between 1961, the first full year we had a top 40, and 1974 there have been somewhere between 200-300 records per year in the top 40. Obviously I haven't listened to every record for every year, there simply isn't enough time to do that. I do listen to the number ones I don't know, or records by artists I know that I'm not familiar with and than in itself takes enough time.

My record of the year for 1974 is a record which reached number 40 and was the only hit for a group that doesn't even have a Wikipedia page, so given this and the fact I wasn't even born in 1974 you may wonder how I even know this record in the first place.

There is one man I have to thank for this, the late great John Peel who featured this track on his Fabriclive mix.

It's a funk track in the roots of disco music and was played in the Northern Soul clubs at the time. It just has one of those funky grooves you can listen to again and again, when I saw it listed on everyhit.com I pretty much knew that would be my choice.

UK Singles Chart: 1974

Although they wouldn't add to their number ones this year, it was a solid year for Slade with all three of their hits reaching the top 3. The year though was the turn of Mud to enjoy their greatest success. They were the only act to have two number ones with "Tiger Feet" and the Christmas number one "Lonely This Christmas". They also had a number two with "The Cat Crept In" and a number six with "Rocket".

Elvis and Cliff continue their streaks of hits every year since 1956 and 1958 respectively with Elvis having three more hits bringing his total to 88 and Cliff adding one more to his total bringing it to 64. Lonnie Donegan and Frank Sinatra still both remain in third place for most top 40 hits.

From the 50s we have Slim Whitman returning to the charts for his final hit with "Happy Anniversary" and Paul Anka returning with his final hit "You're Having My Baby". Meanwhile, the comeback from Perry Como would end this year with his final hit "I Want to Give".

The Hollies had a number two hit with "The Air That I Breathe" keeping up their run of hit every year since 1963. This would however be the end of this run, the only future top 40 hits they would have are a medley of their hits called "Holliedaze" and a re issue of "He Ain't Heavy He's My Brother" both in the 80s. Their total number of hits would stand at 27.

The Rolling Stones had a top ten hit with "It's Only Rock n Roll" this year. Despite having top 40 hits every year except 1970 since 1963, their total hits only stood at 20.

Also from the class of 1963 saw Cilla Black return to the charts with her final hit "Baby We Can't Go Wrong". Their was also a return for The Tymes with "You Little Trustmaker". At this point it was just the third hit from The Tymes, their second being in 1969, and all three had failed to reach the top 10. They would fair better on their fourth and final hit this year with "Ms Grace" which was a number one.

The year also marked the end of a run of a hit every year since 1965 for Tom Jones with the hit "Something Bout You Baby I Like". He would return 3 years later before having a 10 year absence from the charts.

After enjoying hits for most years since 1961, this would be the end of Gene Pitneys solo chart career with "Blue Angel". He would return 15 years later as part of a duet with Marc Almond on "Something's Gotten Hold Of My Heart".

The year saw the beginning of Donny Osmonds chart career as part of a duo with his sister Marie with the number two hit "I'm Leaving It (All) Up To You", and the end of his 70s solo career with "Where Did All the Good Times Go".

It was the turn of the British teen idols to enjoy chart success though with David Essex scoring his first number one with "Gonna Make You A Star". We also saw a return to the charts for the Bay City Rollers with the number six hit "Remember (Sha-La-La)" followed by a further three top 10 hits.

Despite the chart careers of some Motown acts now being over and other acts now gone from the label, they would still be present on the charts via Stevie Wonder and Diana Ross, who would have a couple of duets with Marvin Gaye. Their were also a couple of new acts for Motown in the charts this year. There was the solo career of Smokey Robinson who had now left The Miracles with "Just My Soul Responding". Then there was the debut of The Commodores with "Machine Gun".

There was a new style of music making its way into the charts this year, disco music. There were several tunes which you could say were disco or funk/soul, but the first record to hit the top 40 which could only be really described as disco was "Loves Theme" by Love Unlimited Orchestra.

The first disco number one came this year from George McCrae with "Rock Your Baby". Other disco number ones included "Kung Fu Fighting" by Carl Douglas and "You're the First, the Last, My Everything" by Barry White.

We saw the chart debut this year of Queen with number ten hit "Seven Seas of Rhye" followed by the number two hit "Killer Queen".

Another chart heavyweight making their debut was Abba with the number one "Waterloo". Quite surprisingly their follow up hit "Ring Ring" only made number 32. They were the first act from Sweden to top the charts.

There was a rare chart appearance from the Peter Gabriel era Genesis who got to number 21 with "I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)". The next time we would see them in the top 40, Phil Collins would have taken over as lead singer.

After being absent from the charts since early 1973, the latter part of the year saw reggae music return to the charts with Ken Boothe scoring a number one with "Everything I Own". We would also have reggae top 10s from Rupie Edwards with "Ire Feelings (Skanga)" and from John Holt with his reggae cover of "Help Me Make It Through the Night" which had been a hit for Gladys Knight & the Pips a couple of years earlier.

Despite the fact there were still 50s acts in the charts, the rock n roll revival in the charts began this year with Showaddywaddy making their debut with the number two hit "Hey Rock n Roll".

The year saw the first act from the Bahamas on the charts with Beginning Of The End having their only hit with "Funky Nassau".

So although glam rock and the teen idols were still very much present in the charts, there was plenty of other music having its say. Would it still be around in 1975 and would we continue to see the rise of disco? and will there be any more chart heavyweights making their debut?

Top of the Pops: 06/04/2017

Here is the Top 40 Countdown

Now 12 weeks at number one for Ed Sheeran, but this is the only eligible song from him this week.

After last weeks show was dominated by Drake we have no appearances from him this week. He had one record eligible but no YouTube video therefore he won't feature.

So just 6 records on this week, 4 of which (including Ed Sheeran) were on two weeks ago and another three weeks ago. This leaves just one new entry coming from Zayn ft Partynextdoor.

⬆ (11) Zedd ft Alessia Cara - Stay
⬆ (13) Julia Michaels - Issues
⬆ (15) Bruno Mars - That's What I Like
New (24) Zayn ft Partynextdoor - Still Got Time
⬆ (26) Lorde - Green Light
(1) Ed Sheeran - Shape Of You

Now 96

Back in 1988 I received my first Now album, Now 11. A lot has changed in the world of music since then, not just in terms of the actual music itself.

Things that were popular in the music world back in 1988 included Top of the Pops, The Chart Show, Smash Hits, Cassette Tapes, Walkman, Our Price, Andy's Records, all of which are no more. But one thing which has managed to survive all these years still going is the Now compilations.

The latest in the series, Now 96, comes out this Friday. The question is how has it managed to survive?

When I got Now 11, it was quite obvious what purpose it served. I was a kid who clearly enjoyed my pop music and this was a compilation of the latest popular songs which I could listen to at my leisure. Buying each song as a single would have been expensive business. Taping the top 40 on new tapes each week wouldn't have exactly been cheap either as it would require lots of blank tapes, and obviously there would be a lot of repetition. The Now compilations had the latest hits which cost no more than the average album and the whole thing could be listened to between 2-3 hours.

These days there are endless possibilities to listen to the latest hits at our leisure for free. Not only that, but when we go to YouTube we see the latest videos on their homepage. On streaming services we have playlists of the latest tunes. Not content with ready made playlists, we can create our own. Which raises the question, what purpose does any compilation, Now or otherwise, actually serve these days? Lets be honest, I don't think too many people, if anyone, can honestly say there is a Now compilation where they like every single track.

Aside from the possibilities we get from the internet now, another question is what exactly goes on the Now compilations these days given the lack of new material we get in the top 40?

Well to answer this I needed to look at the track list. There are 43 tracks in total and this can be broken down as follows:

• 24 tracks can be listened through YouTube links on this blog courtesy of my Top of the Pops posts
• 8 tracks were featured in the post on this blog about why Top of the Pops shouldn't come back
• 4 tracks reached their chart peak before the Top of the Pops post
• 1 track is an old George Michael one included as a tribute
• 6 tracks failed to make the top 40

Looking at it from a different angle, there are 25 records featured in my Top of the Pops posts that don't feature on the compilation at the time of writing. Sounds a lot, but 15 of them are by either Ed Sheeran, Drake or Stormzy. As we have some tracks on Now 96 which charted before Now 95 was released we may yet see some of the remaining 10 on Now 97.

The answer to the question of what do Now compilations contribute nowadays may lie in the 6 tracks which failed to reach the top 40. If you read my Top of the Pops posts you will know that most weeks I fail to find enough records in the top 40 to fill the show. In fact the only times I have had a full shows worth was the weeks Ed Sheeran, Drake or Stormzy had multiple new entries from their new albums in the top 40.

So basically, if you want to know what is happening in the world of pop nowadays, listen to the new albums from Ed Sheeran, Drake and Stormzy plus the latest Now album and you've got pretty much everything that's reached the top 40 plus a little bit more. So this is why Now compilations still have their place in the modern pop world and another reason why there's no need to bring back Top of the Pops.