Top 30 in 1991 Reviewed - Week 7

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

Here is the Top 40 in full.

Obviously some of the records will be the same as last week so therefore the review will be the same for these. I've indicated which ones are new so you can skip the others if you read last weeks post.

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 top 30 from this week in 1991 with my verdict on each record:

30. Ralph Tresvant - Sensitivity

The only solo Top 40 hit for New Edition singer Ralph Tresvant which was written by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. This reminds my of an early 90s pure swing album I have which it's on (swing meaning new jack swing). I went through a period of listening to it in my car a lot. As you've probably guessed then, I like this tune.

Verdict - Good

29. My Bloody Valentine - To Here Knows When (New)

The only Top 40 hit for My Bloody Valentine, who were pioneers of shoegazing music. That's music you don't dance to, you stand there staring at your shoes instead. To me, it translates as music that's too boring to dance to. 

Verdict - Rubbish

28. Railway Children - Every Beat Of The Heart (New)

This has nothing to do with the books/films/TV series of the same name. Railway Children were an indie band who had previously been on factory records. It was their only Top 40 hit. All I can say is that I understand why they're long forgotten.

Verdict - Rubbish

27. Mark Summers - Summers Magic

Mixmag famously came up with the headline "Did Charly Kill Rave?", in reference to the Prodigy record and the "Toytown Techno" that followed, i.e. sample of children's programming in rave music. What they failed to acknowledge is this record, which samples The Magic Roundabout, came out some 6 months before "Charly". I'm not going to fault this record though, I like it.

Verdict - Good

26. Off-Shore - I Can't Take The Power

When I first got into rave in the mid-90s, one of the big anthems was "SMD 3" by SMD aka Slipmatt. The was based on a sample of the piano riff of this tune. It's a good riff and both tunes are good.

Verdict - Good

25. Mixmasters - The Night Fever Megamix

This is basically a bunch of songs from "Saturday Night Fever", predominantly Bee Gees ones, given a 90s make over in a megamix. Probably worked in the clubs, but not my cup of tea.

Verdict - Rubbish

24. Jimmy Barnes And INXS - Good Times (New)

One thing that annoys me is when you hear songs falling under a particular decade, whether it's radio stations, compilations, music channels etc, that don't actually come from a decade. For example, I've heard "One Step Beyond" by Madness many times falling under the 80s banner when it's from 1979. This particular record I recall hearing numerous times on an 80s radio station, and I'd get annoyed because it was from 1991. I later discovered though that this was originally recorded in 1986. INXS were one of my favourite bands in the early 90s, but the reality is every band has at least one rubbish song and in the case of INXS, this is one of theirs.

Verdict - Rubbish

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

A medley of 2 Marvin Gaye songs, neither of which were Top 40 hits for Marvin Gaye himself. Having not been born when the originals were out, this was the first version I heard. On that basis I tend to think of this as being a Robert Palmer song even though I do know the Marvin Gaye versions. I guess also because Robert Palmer made it his own rather than sounding like a karaoke singer.

Verdict - Good

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

I like A Trible Called Quest. They were more influential to the rap scene than they're really given credit for. That's perhaps to do with the fact that to most people, this was the only record they did. It's not a bad record, but it doesn't really showcase the influence they had. To me it's more of a pop record than anything innovative.

Verdict - OK

21. Chris Isaak - Blue Hotel

His first hit was all about the video. This time he has a pretty ordinary video, so the attention is now on the music itself. To be fair, it's a stronger record than "Wicked Game" in my opinion, but I still don't like it.

Verdict - Rubbish

20. Enigma - Sadeness Part 1

When it comes to 90s number ones I can tell you something that was going on in my life at the time for the vast majority of them. This one though completely passed my by and I've only recently figured out why. I spend pretty much the whole of January 1991 ill in bed so therefore wasn't able to follow what was going on in the charts. As for the tune, not really the sort of record you'd expect to get to number one, or even in the charts for that matter which is a compliment.

Verdict - Good

19. C&C Music Factory ft Freedom Williams - Gonna Make You Sweat

When it comes to dance anthems you have those which are genuine classics and those which were just cheesy commercial crap. I place this one in the latter category, I've never been a fan of C&C Music Factory. This is probably their best tune and I don't like it.

Verdict - Rubbish

18. Kenny Thomas - Outstanding

The debut from Kenny Thomas, who's had more Top 40 hits than you'd think and had a chart career beyond 1991. It's a cover of the Gap Band record and sounds inferior to the original in every way, like most British covers of American Soul & Funk records. That said, I don't mind it.

Verdict - OK

17. Free - All Right Now (New)

For people of a certain age, this will bring back memories of the Isle of Wight festival amongst other things. For people of my age, it brings back memories of the Wrigley's advert which is why it ended up in the charts again in 1991. Prior to hearing this in full on the chart show though, I do remember watching the advert and thinking good song.

Verdict - Good

16. 808 State - In Yer Face (New)

Inevitably this record will be rated as good, I'm just trying to think of a complement I can pay it. All I can really say is give it a listen, it really is a great tune.

Verdict - Good

15. Seal - Crazy

This is the song that taught many people that Seal isn't Adamski. It was the official beginning of Seals Top 40 career, whereas Adamski's had already ended. I have Seals self titled debut album on which this appears, it's a good album.

Verdict - Good

14. New Kids On The Block - Games

I had been barely over a year since the UK were introduced to American boy band New Kids On The Block. In this song though they seem to think they're gangsta rappers. It's the inevitable moment where the boy band wants to shed it's boy band image. It didn't really work though, this was their first hit not to make the Top 10. Although they had one more Top 10 hit left, they never really recovered from a chart perspective.

Verdict - Rubbish

13. Vanilla Ice - Play That Funky Music

Proof that Vanilla Ice wasn't a one hit wonder. In fact "Ice Ice Baby" was originally the b-side to this single when first released and this was a re-issue following the success of "Ice Ice Baby". I can understand why "Ice Ice Baby" was more successful, and I don't like it.

Verdict - Rubbish

12. The Source - You Got The Love

There's been lots of versions of this record over the years. This isn't the original, but was the first version to make the Top 40. My personal favourite is the 1997 version, but this ones good too.

Verdict - Good

11. Rick Astley - Cry For Help

The Top 40 career of Rick Astley during the Stock Aitken and Waterman era lasted just 18 months, from August 1987 - February 1989. Therefore the 90s began with everyone wondering what happened to Rick Astley? Then at the start of 1991 we found out, he'd been busy growing his hair. His long hair made such an impression on me that the next time I went to the hairdressers I asked for a Rick Astley haircut. To the song then, it was by Rick Astley himself along with another musician who seemed to have disappeared with the 80s, Rob Fisher of Climie Fisher fame. The voice is the same, but musically it's a world away from the Stock Aitken and Waterman material and I quite like it. His final Top 40 hit, "Hopelessly", was the best one he did but sadly it won't feature in this series as it only made 33.

Verdict - Good

10. Kim Appleby - GLAD

Mel Appleby is on the credits of this one, therefore it must have been written in the 80s and I think you can tell. Whilst "Don't Worry" was a solid solo debut for Kim Appleby, this goes back to the Stock Aitken & Waterman type crap Mel & Kim were doing. The rapping from Aswads Brinsley Forde is also dreadful.

Verdict - Rubbish

9. Soho - Hippy Chick

I'd heard of the band Soho before I'd heard of the area of London with the same name. My memory of hearing this song for the first time is them performing it on Motormouth, though when searching for said performance I find nothing to suggest such a performance existed so might be wrong, but I do remember thinking good tune. A few years ago I bought their album when HMV in Oxford St was having it's closing down sale. For those who don't know London, the shop in question was just across the road from Soho.

Verdict - Good

8. EMF - I Believe

When I got my first British Hit Singles book, one thing I discovered was that the record which spent the most weeks at number one was "I Believe" by Frankie Laine in 1953. I wondered if it was the same song as this, unaware of just how different music was in the 50s. It was the 2nd Top 40 hit for EMF, I think it's better than their first hit "Unbelievable". Has more of a bounce to it.

Verdict - Good

7. Oleta Adams - Get Here

To me it's more of a pop record than anything innovative. After featuring on "Woman In Chains" by Tears for Fears, this was the first solo Top 40 hit for Oleta Adams, a cover of a Brenda Russell song. It's surprisingly catchy for a slow number, but it's lacking in that something that's needed for it to be a good song.

Verdict - OK

6. Kylie Minogue - What Do I Have To Do

We are nearing the end of the Stock Aitken & Waterman era, but we're not quite done yet. Most Stock Aitken & Waterman compositions get rated as rubbish by me, and rightfully so. This one isn't bad though.

Verdict - OK

5. 2 In A Room - Wiggle It

This was my favourite song for about a week, quite possibly the week you're reading about now. 2 in a Room were on of the acts to play at the first ever Helter Skelter rave in 1989, with their big underground record at the time being "Somebody In the House Say Yeah!".

Verdict - Good

4. Praise - Only You

Sometimes when I think of a particular record, another one comes to mind immediately, normally it's 2 records that were out at the same time. In this case, the other record I associate this with is "Hippy Chick" by Soho. More often than not if I like one record, I like the other one too. In this case I do.

Verdict - Good

3. Nomad ft MC Mikee Freedom - (I Wanna Give You) Devotion

Here we have the first Top 40 composition for arguably the most successful British songwriter of the modern era, Steve Mac. These days he's co-writer on Ed Sheeran records amongst others. I don't blame him, he's presumably made a lot more money writing rubbish than he would have done making decent music like this. Ironically, this record reached it's peak the day Ed Sheeran was born.

Verdict - Good

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

In 2003 I was in a pub on a visit to my home town and a bloke came up to me and said "you're the one who used to sing KLF and Queen at school aren't you?. Indeed I was, and this would have been the time I'd be singing it, some 12 years prior to that visit to the pub, it obviously had a lasting effect on some people. I think you know what my verdict on this tune will be.

Verdict - Good

1. Simpsons - Do The Bartman

This was my first introduction to The Simpsons, but I had no idea what it was all about. In those day's you could only get The Simpsons on Sky One, and I never had Sky at the time, neither did a lot of people. It wasn't until I went on holiday later on that year where Sky One was the only English channel in the hotel room, that I discovered The Simpsons was a TV show. It's a novelty song, which basically means crap, but intended to be crap. Its still crap though.

Verdict - Rubbish

If we give the records which were good 1 point each and those which were OK half a point, the final score is 18/30, or 60%. Slight dip on last week, but still decent.

UK Garage

 

It was 20 years ago this month that I was having a conversation with somebody about the inevitable death of UK Garage. In some ways it was a strange conversation to be having, UK Garage was massive at that point and we'd have 3 chart topping UK Garage records before the end of the year. But if you look at what happened beyond 2001, we were pretty accurate with our prediction.

Back in the mid-90s, there were a lot of people who were into house and garage. If you were to ask them what the difference between house and garage was, many of them wouldn't know the answer. It was generally accepted that a given tune would fit the house and garage category. Back in the 80s when the 2 genres first came about, if it was from Chicago it was house and if it was from New York it was garage due to the names of the clubs to play those genres i.e. Warehouse in Chicago and Paradise Garage in New York.

Then at the beginning of 1997 an Armand Van Helden remix of "Professional Widow" by Tori Amos topped the charts and everyone was talking about speed garage. The ironic thing about speed garage was that it wasn't very fast. The term lasted until around mid-98, by which point big beat had become the big genre in the dance music world alongside house.

In the underground rave scene, the divide between happy hardcore and drum & bass had widened to the point where having both genres at the same rave wasn't making much sense. Instead you had events like Hysteria who would have drum & bass in the main arena and garage in the second room. 

Going into 1999, garage barely got a mention commercially. The term house and garage had been replaced by house and trance. In-fact on the Kiss Ibiza 99 compilation you have a house disc and a trance disc and "Straight From the Heart" by Doolally, a UK Garage tune appears on the house disc.

Meanwhile multi arena raves such as Slammin Vinyl and United Dance had UK Garage arenas with DJs such as Timmi Magic, Mikee B, Spoony, EZ, Jason Kaye, Mike 'Ruffcut' Lloyd and Pied Piper playing in them.

Commercially there was a garage number one in "Sweet Like Chocolate" which was more novelty record done in a garage style than a proper garage record in my book. Aside from this, a couple of hits from Da Click and a re-issue of "Straight From The Heart", there were no other garage records in the charts for most of the year. 

At the end of the year came "Re-Rewind" by Artful Dodger, "A Little Bit Of Luck" by DJ Luck & MC Neat and "Buddy X 99" by The Dreem Team. 

Suddenly UK Garage was massive. The Dreem Team aka Timmi Magic, Mikee B and Spoony had a show on Radio 1. The DJs who'd play at Slammin Vinyl were now on the TV. We had Posh Spice make her solo debut with a garage record. There was seemingly no underground anymore, what you'd hear in a Slammin Vinyl set was more or less the same as what you'd hear on the radio.

On a personal level I'd well and truly jumped on the bandwagon myself. I bought both the hardcore and garage tapepacks from Slammin Vinyl in September 2000. I listened to the garage tapes all the time but barely listened to the hardcore ones. I received the Artful Dodger album as a Christmas present that year.

At the beginning of 2001 there were 3 UK Garage hits which amongst other factors made me question the future of UK Garage. They were "Why" by Mis-Teeq, "Falling" by Boom! and "Boom Selection" by Genius Cru.

I like Mis-Teeq and have their debut album. But this was an R&B group using garage to launch themselves and it was almost inevitable there would come a point they would revert back to R&B, which they did. Boom! were a manufactured pop group and the record was abysmal, exactly the sort of thing to alienate those genuinely into garage. Genius Cru were a bunch of MCs and this record was indicative of the direction garage was going in.

Some of the garage DJs had been around for years long before UK Garage became a thing. Mikee B and Jason Kaye were part of early 90s rave act Top Buzz, Grant Nelson used to produce happy hardcore as Wishdokta, DJ Zinc was still a big name in drum & bass, Trick or Treat were happy hardcore DJs SY and Unknown. Furthermore, The Dreem Teams Radio 1 show wasn't just garage, 

All these factors combined led me to believe that garage maybe had another year. It became too big too quickly. At the same time, the garage arena wasn't a happy place to be. I think the last time I was in a garage room was at Slammin Vinyl in February 2001, the last time it featured the genre. It just felt like it could kick off any minute, it didn't but many garage events did attract violence.

Then we had the So Solid Crew, a group with something like 36 members and heavily associated with violence. The whole thing seemed a joke, MCs were nothing new to garage but tended to be one person MCing for a DJ not 20 MCs on a single record. 

The last proper Pure Garage compilation came out at the end of 2001. 2002 began with Daniel Bedingfield regaining the top spot with "Gotta Get Thru This" and So Solid Crew had their 3rd hit with "Haters". You could sense this was the beginning of the end though. After DJ Luck & MC Neat charted in May with "Irie" there was no garage in the Top 40 for the rest of the year.

Many of those big names in garage would continue to be successful in music. Dreem Team remained on Radio 1, some members of So Solid Crew had solo hits that weren't garage, Mis-Teeq went back to R&B.

There have been garage hits since then, even one this year. We also have the garage classical from Spoony. But the garage scene itself is long gone.

UK Charts Best Year Search: 1964

What's this all about?

Top 40

Best Song: Mary Wells - My Guy

Motown has arrived. Although it first came about in 1959, it wasn't until 1964 that it hit the UK Top 40. This was the first UK Top 40 hit from Motown and only one for Mary Wells. If anything it's a sign of great music to come as Motown produced lots of good records in the 60s and beyond.

Worst Song: Kenny Ball And His Jazzmen - Hello, Dolly!

There are 3 versions of this record in this Top 40. As well as this there were versions by Louis Armstrong and Frankie Vaughan. It's a song from a musical which is never a good thing in my book, but after hearing it for the 3rd time I was irritated by this more than any other record.

Top 40 Review

Now we're approaching the mid-60s with The Beatles and co now established, you would expect most 50s acts to be finished by now. However, 10 of the 40 records are by acts who were also present in the charts in the 50s. Furthermore we have the record "Dimples" by John Lee Hooker charting for the first time, but the record itself is from 1956. A further 5 records were by acts who debuted before The Beatles including the number one "It's Over" by Roy Orbison and 2 hits by Jim Reeves.

The Beatles themselves were in the Top 40 with "Ain't She Sweet" which was their only UK Top 40 hit of the 60s not to make the Top 10. This is because it was Polydor cashing in on the bands success rather than an official release from the band.

There were 9 records in the Top 40 by bands who fall under the beat category. In addition to The Beatles, from Liverpool we had The Swinging Blue Jeans, The Fourmost and The Mojos. From London we had Brian Poole & the Tremeloes and The Dave Clark Five. From Birmingham we have The Applejacks, from Manchester we had The Hollies and finally from Blackburn we had The Four Pennies.

Furthermore we had Cilla Black and Peter & Gordon in the charts who had both previously charted with Lennon/McCartney compositions.

The Rolling Stones were also in the charts with "It's All Over Now". It wouldn't be until the following year that they would start charting with songs they wrote themselves.

What we are most likely seeing here is the charts not truly reflecting the history books. The older acts were perhaps no longer cool but enough of the older people were buying their records to keep them having hits.

As expected the score for 1964 is higher than in 1963, but only just.

Score: 13.5

Table

1964 now tops the table but again I don't expect it to stay there too long, particularly with more Motown records on the way:

UK Number 40s: Late Show - Bristol Stomp (1979)

 

The Late Show were a band who were too obscure to have their own Wikipedia page. I couldn't find much about them on the internet, but what I found was they were a short lived British rock n roll retro group.

The title would suggest the group are trying to glamorize a British city with an American sounding tune. But it's actually a cover of a 1961 song by the Dovells who were an American group. The Bristol they are singing about is a suburb of Philadelphia as opposed to the UK city.

This would be the only Top 40 hit for the group. One of the members went on to become a teacher and it's probably safe to assume the rest of them went back to the day job too.

Top 30 in 1991 Reviewed - Week 6

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

Here is the Top 40 in full.

Obviously some of the records will be the same as last week so therefore the review will be the same for these. I've indicated which ones are new so you can skip the others if you read last weeks post.

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 top 30 from this week in 1991 with my verdict on each record:

30. Chris Isaak - Blue Hotel (New)

His first hit was all about the video. This time he has a pretty ordinary video, so the attention is now on the music itself. To be fair, it's a stronger record than "Wicked Game" in my opinion, but I still don't like it.

Verdict - Rubbish

29. The Farm - All Together Now

One could argue this is a Christmas song. It was to do with the Christmas truce during the First World War. This is one of those tunes that I like which also has a happy hardcore version that I like, "Together In Wonderland" by Charly Lownoise & Mental Theo, and I like playing them back to back.

Verdict - Good

28. Belinda Carlisle - Summer Rain

The 5th and final Top 40 hit from her "Runaway Horses" and the only one of the 5 not written by Rick Nowels and Ellen Shipley, instead it was written by Robbie Seidman and Maria Vidal. Whilst it's clearly a Belinda Carlisle song, I think you can tell the songwriters are different. It's not bad.

Verdict - OK

27. Mark Summers - Summers Magic (New)

Mixmag famously came up with the headline "Did Charly Kill Rave?", in reference to the Prodigy record and the "Toytown Techno" that followed, i.e. sample of children's programming in rave music. What they failed to acknowledge is this record, which samples The Magic Roundabout, came out some 6 months before "Charly". I'm not going to fault this record though, I like it.

Verdict - Good

26. Bill Medley And Jennifer Warnes - (I've Had) The Time Of My Life

The Righteous Brothers revival continues, sort of. This song re-entered the charts after "Dirty Dancing", this film in which this appears, was shown on British TV for the first time. Whilst I like the Righteous Brothers song, this non-Righteous Brothers effort from Bill Medley is shit. The fact it's played in every cheesy bar/club probably doesn't help, but after several beers it still sounds shit.

Verdict - Rubbish

25. Gloria Estefan - Coming Out Of The Dark

Gloria Estefan probably has the most 90s hits that I don't remember and this was the first of them. It was written following her tour bus crash the previous year and was co-written by a then unknown Jon Secada. Aside from it's low charting position, I'd say I don't remember this because it's not very memorable.

Verdict - Rubbish

24. Kenny Thomas - Outstanding (New)

The debut from Kenny Thomas, who's had more Top 40 hits than you'd think and had a chart career beyond 1991. It's a cover of the Gap Band record and sounds inferior to the original in every way, like most British covers of American Soul & Funk records. That said, I don't mind it.

Verdict - OK

23. Mixmasters - The Night Fever Megamix (New)

This is basically a bunch of songs from "Saturday Night Fever", predominantly Bee Gees ones, given a 90s make over in a megamix. Probably worked in the clubs, but not my cup of tea.

Verdict - Rubbish

22. The Source - You Got The Love (New)

There's been lots of versions of this record over the years. This isn't the original, but was the first version to make the Top 40. My personal favourite is the 1997 version, but this ones good too.

Verdict - Good

21. Kim Appleby - GLAD (New)

Mel Appleby is on the credits of this one, therefore it must have been written in the 80s and I think you can tell. Whilst "Don't Worry" was a solid solo debut for Kim Appleby, this goes back to the Stock Aitken & Waterman type crap Mel & Kim were doing. The rapping from Aswads Brinsley Forde is also dreadful.

Verdict - Rubbish

20. Ralph Tresvant - Sensitivity

The only solo Top 40 hit for New Edition singer Ralph Tresvant which was written by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. This reminds my of an early 90s pure swing album I have which it's on (swing meaning new jack swing). I went through a period of listening to it in my car a lot. As you've probably guessed then, I like this tune.

Verdict - Good

19. Off-Shore - I Can't Take The Power

When I first got into rave in the mid-90s, one of the big anthems was "SMD 3" by SMD aka Slipmatt. The was based on a sample of the piano riff of this tune. It's a good riff and both tunes are good.

Verdict - Good

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

I like A Trible Called Quest. They were more influential to the rap scene than they're really given credit for. That's perhaps to do with the fact that to most people, this was the only record they did. It's not a bad record, but it doesn't really showcase the influence they had. To me it's more of a pop record than anything innovative.

Verdict - OK

17. New Kids On The Block - Games (New)

I had been barely over a year since the UK were introduced to American boy band New Kids On The Block. In this song though they seem to think they're gangsta rappers. It's the inevitable moment where the boy band wants to shed it's boy band image. It didn't really work though, this was their first hit not to make the Top 10. Although they had one more Top 10 hit left, they never really recovered from a chart perspective.

Verdict - Rubbish

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

A medley of 2 Marvin Gaye songs, neither of which were Top 40 hits for Marvin Gaye himself. Having not been born when the originals were out, this was the first version I heard. On that basis I tend to think of this as being a Robert Palmer song even though I do know the Marvin Gaye versions. I guess also because Robert Palmer made it his own rather than sounding like a karaoke singer.

Verdict - Good

15. Oleta Adams - Get Here

To me it's more of a pop record than anything innovative. After featuring on "Woman In Chains" by Tears for Fears, this was the first solo Top 40 hit for Oleta Adams, a cover of a Brenda Russell song. It's surprisingly catchy for a slow number, but it's lacking in that something that's needed for it to be a good song.

Verdict - OK

14. C&C Music Factory ft Freedom Williams - Gonna Make You Sweat

When it comes to dance anthems you have those which are genuine classics and those which were just cheesy commercial crap. I place this one in the latter category, I've never been a fan of C&C Music Factory. This is probably their best tune and I don't like it.

Verdict - Rubbish

13. Enigma - Sadeness Part 1

When it comes to 90s number ones I can tell you something that was going on in my life at the time for the vast majority of them. This one though completely passed my by and I've only recently figured out why. I spend pretty much the whole of January 1991 ill in bed so therefore wasn't able to follow what was going on in the charts. As for the tune, not really the sort of record you'd expect to get to number one, or even in the charts for that matter which is a compliment.

Verdict - Good

12. Queen - Innuendo

A number of years ago I was hosting a music quiz. One of the rounds was 90s number ones which featured this record. Following the quiz, one of the participants said it was hard and gave including an obscure Queen song as an example of it being hard. This was one of just three Queen number ones during Freddie Mercury's lifetime, so shouldn't be that obscure. Maybe it's obscurity is a good thing though. It has the same idea as "Bohemian Rhapsody", but is miles better in my opinion. That could be in part to do with the fact it hasn't been played to death since.

Verdict - Good

11. Seal - Crazy

This is the song that taught many people that Seal isn't Adamski. It was the official beginning of Seals Top 40 career, whereas Adamski's had already ended. I have Seals self titled debut album on which this appears, it's a good album.

Verdict - Good

10. Vanilla Ice - Play That Funky Music

Proof that Vanilla Ice wasn't a one hit wonder. In fact "Ice Ice Baby" was originally the b-side to this single when first released and this was a re-issue following the success of "Ice Ice Baby". I can understand why "Ice Ice Baby" was more successful, and I don't like it.

Verdict - Rubbish

9. Rick Astley - Cry For Help

The Top 40 career of Rick Astley during the Stock Aitken and Waterman era lasted just 18 months, from August 1987 - February 1989. Therefore the 90s began with everyone wondering what happened to Rick Astley? Then at the start of 1991 we found out, he'd been busy growing his hair. His long hair made such an impression on me that the next time I went to the hairdressers I asked for a Rick Astley haircut. To the song then, it was by Rick Astley himself along with another musician who seemed to have disappeared with the 80s, Rob Fisher of Climie Fisher fame. The voice is the same, but musically it's a world away from the Stock Aitken and Waterman material and I quite like it. His final Top 40 hit, "Hopelessly", was the best one he did but sadly it won't feature in this series as it only made 33.

Verdict - Good

8. Soho - Hippy Chick

I'd heard of the band Soho before I'd heard of the area of London with the same name. My memory of hearing this song for the first time is them performing it on Motormouth, though when searching for said performance I find nothing to suggest such a performance existed so might be wrong, but I do remember thinking good tune. A few years ago I bought their album when HMV in Oxford St was having it's closing down sale. For those who don't know London, the shop in question was just across the road from Soho.

Verdict - Good

7. Kylie Minogue - What Do I Have To Do

We are nearing the end of the Stock Aitken & Waterman era, but we're not quite done yet. Most Stock Aitken & Waterman compositions get rated as rubbish by me, and rightfully so. This one isn't bad though.

Verdict - OK

6. EMF - I Believe

When I got my first British Hit Singles book, one thing I discovered was that the record which spent the most weeks at number one was "I Believe" by Frankie Laine in 1953. I wondered if it was the same song as this, unaware of just how different music was in the 50s. It was the 2nd Top 40 hit for EMF, I think it's better than their first hit "Unbelievable". Has more of a bounce to it.

Verdict - Good

5. Praise - Only You

Sometimes when I think of a particular record, another one comes to mind immediately, normally it's 2 records that were out at the same time. In this case, the other record I associate this with is "Hippy Chick" by Soho. More often than not if I like one record, I like the other one too. In this case I do.

Verdict - Good

4. Nomad ft MC Mikee Freedom - (I Wanna Give You) Devotion

Here we have the first Top 40 composition for arguably the most successful British songwriter of the modern era, Steve Mac. These days he's co-writer on Ed Sheeran records amongst others. I don't blame him, he's presumably made a lot more money writing rubbish than he would have done making decent music like this. Ironically, this record reached it's peak the day Ed Sheeran was born.

Verdict - Good

3. 2 In A Room - Wiggle It

This was my favourite song for about a week, quite possibly the week you're reading about now. 2 in a Room were on of the acts to play at the first ever Helter Skelter rave in 1989, with their big underground record at the time being "Somebody In the House Say Yeah!".

Verdict - Good

2. Simpsons - Do The Bartman

This was my first introduction to The Simpsons, but I had no idea what it was all about. In those day's you could only get The Simpsons on Sky One, and I never had Sky at the time, neither did a lot of people. It wasn't until I went on holiday later on that year where Sky One was the only English channel in the hotel room, that I discovered The Simpsons was a TV show. It's a novelty song, which basically means crap, but intended to be crap. Its still crap though.

Verdict - Rubbish

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

In 2003 I was in a pub on a visit to my home town and a bloke came up to me and said "you're the one who used to sing KLF and Queen at school aren't you?. Indeed I was, and this would have been the time I'd be singing it, some 12 years prior to that visit to the pub, it obviously had a lasting effect on some people. I think you know what my verdict on this tune will be.

Verdict - Good

If we give the records which were good 1 point each and those which were OK half a point, the final score is 18.5/30, or 62%. It keeps getting better.

UK Charts Best Year Search: 1963

What's this all about?

Top 40

Best Song: Del Shannon - Two Kinds Of Teardrops

Well Del Shannon seems to be the artist of the early 60s so far having had the best song in 2 of the 4 charts I've looked at so far. This was his 8th Top 40 hit and 7th to make the Top 10. I guess it follows that same formula as "Runaway" where he repeats a word in a high pitched voice in the chorus which again is probably why I like it.

Worst Song: Wink Martindale - Deck Of Cards

This first charted in 1959 but was back in the charts in 1963. It's a spoken song about someone having a deck of cards in church instead of a prayer book, but they associate cards with religious things. It really is as bad as it sounds.

Top 40 Review

The Beatles have now made their debut and are is this particular Top 40 with their first number one "From Me To You". We also have a Beatles cover in "Do You Want To Know A Secret?" by Billy J Kramer And The Dakotas.

The first chart topper from the beat scene, "How Do You Do It?" by Gerry & the Pacemakers is just about in this Top 40 sitting at number 40. Their follow up "I Like It" is at number one. We also have the chart debut and future number one "Sweets For My Sweet" by fellow Liverpudlians The Searchers.

From Manchester we have the debuts of Freddie And The Dreamers with "If You Gotta Make A Fool Of Somebody" and The Hollies with "Just Like Me". Collectively these seven records add up to a score of 4.5, add the Del Shannon record and we have 5.5 so we've already beaten 1962.

The Beatles and co are yet to kill off the more old fashioned music though. Before The Searchers would get to number one, Frank Ifield would top the charts with "Confessin", as would Elvis Presley with "Devil In Disguise" which are both in this particular Top 40.

Instrumental music still has quite a presence with The Shadows at number two. I'm not a fan of The Shadows sound, but "Atlantis" the record they have in this chart is actually not bad. Then there's "Ice Cream Man" by Tornados which I like.

American acts have a big presence in the Top 40 accounting for 18 of the records. At this point in time The Beatles were still unknown over there. Although there are some good ones such as "Da Doo Ron Ron" by The Crystals and "It's Been Nice" by The Everly Brothers, I think it's fair to say this music sounds more dated than the new British acts of the time.

I think we've definitely seen an improvement on what's gone before, but clearly looks like the swinging sixties is still in its infancy.

Score: 13

Table

No surprise to see 1963 at the top of the table. I fully expect it to be knocked off the top before the decade is out though:

UK Number 40s: Roxy Music - Trash (1979)

Roxy Music are a band that need no introduction. At the same time it perhaps comes as no surprise to find them charting as low as 40 as they're more of an albums band.

Despite this, they did manage a number one with "Jealous Guy" in 1981, but being a John Lennon cover shortly after his death and the fact it was a non-album track would have surely contributed to that.

This was the bands comeback single having last charted in 1975. A number of Bryan Ferry solo records hit the charts during that time period. On that basis and the fact their "Manifesto" album was yet to be released, maybe one would expect this to have charted higher.

Four of the five hits that came between this and "Jealous Guy" all made the Top 5. This included "Dance Away", the follow up which made number 2.

The best explanation for why this stalled at 40 though was that the fans simply didn't like it. If you look at the comments on the YouTube video there are many that say this wasn't their finest moment. These are from people who actually made the effort to watch the video in the first place.