Personalise a chart

19 (24) Don't You Worry 'Bout A Thing, Incognito (WRONG WRONG WRONG WRONG WRONG WRONG CHRIST GET THIS AWAY FROM ME)

18 (37) The World Is Stone, Cyndi Lauper (her last moment in the sun, if you can call it that. based on a German ballad, was it not? it had the pathetic cod-melodrama.)

17 (NE) Motorcycle Emptiness, Manic Street Preachers - sitting on Hastings platform, the sun faded, unable to make out the words. MSP will sound vainglorious to me forever now, but at least this was the first of a select few moments when they genuinely sounded as though vainglory had a point and could be translated into victory.

16 (NE) California, The Wedding Present - they never touched the chart after their single-a-month stunt, did they? the best way they could have found to stave off their own coming irrelevance, I suppose. "They ripped it all off Josef K" (Momus, 1999)

15 (7) On A Ragga Tip, SL2 - were we on the train by this time? Maybe this was the closest I came to being one of the ravers who wormed their way into the countryside, gormless kid though I was. In context, a lovely gaping huge aerodrome hanger in a desert of quaintness and charm.

14 (8) My Lovin' (You're Never Gonna Get It), En Vogue - ditto. Has never lost its brilliance, which is rare for early 90s R&B all told. Big in Hastings? Why not. This was when reality came through.

13 (10) Midlife Crisis, Faith No More - fitted oddly in context, very much early 90s farm-raised teenagers' music, before they caught up.

12 (6) Friday I'm In Love, The Cure - when did they become pointless? I'd have to ask a fan. I suspect they'd say it was before this, though.

11 (13) The One, Elton John - glutinous bilge (now the essential grim 1975-ness-but-without-the-interesting-moments of '92 is really coming through - Tasmin Archer still waited in the wings, as earnest and well-read as Tanita Tikaram on a Charters-Ancaster scholarship, God help us). This shit is what made him an establishment figure, of course.

10 (4) Knockin' On Heaven's Door, Guns'N'Roses (oh fuck off Axl: your relevance is permanently exhausted)

9 (16) It Only Takes A Minute, Take That - oh yes yes YES!!! A disco bauble straight to the heart of Mancunia. This was the only *other* decent TOTP performance that year apart from "The Blue Room", and when TOTP2 dig it out, even Robbie still looks as though he doesn't actually have an ego.

8 (3) Everything About You, Ugly Kid Joe (WORST FUCKING YEAR EVER??? Discuss.)

7 (NE) Heartbeat, Nick Berry - one of the Heartbeat 60s compilation albums features Nick Drake's "Fruit Tree". It has supposedly sold more than the combined total of everything else ever released by Nick Drake. Draw your own conclusions (Mark S can be the smart-arse here).

6 (9) Something Good, Utah Saints - a very clever pop record without meaning, feeling, context, excitement, charm or vision. Just a rather good formal exercise. Utterly worthless.

5 (5) Hazard, Richard Marx - The train is heading up through the deep country, and the platform-in-the-marsh at Winchelsea heralds Americana (a pity it wasn't a branch line in the Norfolk Broads, really; if it was then this week's "I'm Alan Partridge" would have been EVEN BETTER if such a thing is possible). I shamelessly cribbed Tim Finney's description of this song's ubiquity, and twisted it to refer to Roxette's "Joyride". The main difference is that that has amusingly absurd lyrics; this is amusingly straight-faced coming-of-age rhetoric which nevertheless hit home to my uncertain self. Can't disassociate it from the "woh-woh-woh-woh-woh" he added to it during the "keep music live" era of TOTP; that could be RM's epitaph.

4 (NE) Toofunky, George Michael - nothing quite like ultra-Atlanticism to rouse the deep country and mock its myths. Could you possibly have heard "Shoot The Dog" coming? Nobody remembers this one-off, but it still outcharted all the Listen Without Prejudice singles in its first week. I rather like "Heal The Pain" even now, incidentally.

3 (2) Jump, Kris Kross - Jermaine Dupri's credibility gap, of course, but Malcolm Saville! Monica Edwards! British Transport Films' "Down To Sussex"! All dissipate into cultural corpses as it plays and the train ploughs on the single track; the backwards boys (back passage boys? back alley benders!?) were my own private Tinkers of Rye, the sound of the smugglers' coves today. Graham might allow himself a wry smile at the above.

2 (1) Please Don't Go, KWS (five weeks at number one for a hatchet job on a fin-de-disco masterpiece of a slow dance. worst year ever? probably.)

1 (NE) Abba-Esque (EP), Erasure - it felt like they were never going to get a number one, didn't it? turned out that the only chart-topper Vince Clarke ever wrote was a Flying Pickets cover, because this was Erasure's climax, and the last moment they caught pop's heart (although "Always" two years hence was an elegant farewell to starlight). they should have broken their duck with "Chorus" in '91, but it was good to see "Lay All Your Love On Me" as the lead track, and of course it's the Peterborough Effect again: there's the young Andy in my mind, listening to the original Abba records while facing *that* cathedral, imagining escape, maybe not to the Wye Valley like that other flatland suburban voyager of a decade before, but escape all the same.

and there it was, resounding as we headed for Ashford (soon to become the only stop 'twixt Paris and London when the Eurostar came): the very heart of Modern Endless Europe Endless Endless Europe Europe Endless. a normal life was boring, and middle England was close to post-mortem. shame it had to be played out in political public for the next five years, though ...

40) S Express 'Nothing To Lose'
a poor show from Mark Moore and Sonique, and marking pretty much the end of their 2 year reign at the height of radio-friendly sample-heavy dancefloor pop power - this track was sadly nowhere near the quality of their first 4 singles

39) New Model Army 'Get Me Out' (can't remember this at all i'm afraid)

38) Cocteau Twins 'Iceblink Luck'
my introduction to Liz Fraser and a great song to listen to even today although i never made much effort to find out what it was actually about

37) Quireboys 'There She Goes Again'
hmmm, flying the flag for glammed up Faces-influenced pub-rock at the time. think this was their biggest hit but i wasnt a fan really

36) Lindy Layton ft Janet Kay 'Silly Games'
pretty pointless cover, cant decide if its better or worse for getting Janet on it herself for that all important octave-shattering chorus. still Lindy was kinda cute at this time with her British Knights and whatnot

35) DNA 'La Serenissima'
FACT - if you ever danced to this record you are a tosser. i mean really...pretty much scraping the barrel for what was the trend of the time - appropriating classical music by adding a 909 beat and 'woo, yehs' throughout. not great.

34) Aswad 'Next To You'
i'm trying to remember this but all i get is Maxi Priest's 'Close To You' - forgettable reggae pop as only Aswad knew how it would seem.

33) MC Hammer 'U Can't Touch This'
being 12 at this time you'd have thought i'd have quite liked this but by this point i'd already seen the light...granted that light was actually Ice Cube holding a petrol bomb but still...

32) Stone Roses 'Fools Gold/What The World Is Waiting For'
a new entry for the re-release/remix, the original had alrady spent some 4 months on the chart...many tired of this classic anthem long ago but i doubt i'll ever get sick of it really - curious decision to list the excellent AA side but it seemed to pay off.

31) Jon Bon Jovi 'Blaze Of Glory'
okay i think i quite liked this one thanks mainly to peer 'pressure' of sorts...you know, your friend who hasnt really got a clue about whats going on in music comes out with praise for this kinda crap cos of the whole Young Guns/Billy The Kid schtick and you just think 'yeh its quite cool' before trying to steer the conversation onto Happy Mondays or 808 State again.

30) Partners In kryme 'Turtle Power'
i can still do most of the rap you know...

29) Faith No More 'Epic'
i've no use for it now but another winner in relation to my pre-adolescent dilletantism. at the time Faith No More seemed to be the #1 clue that there was a huge pre-grunge scene in the States bubbling under that my feeble mind couldnt really understand just yet.

28) Go West 'King Of Wishful Thinking'
worst song in the chart so far...the lead singer is now on Reborn In the USA i was surprised to discover last night (replacing Mark Shaw of Then Jericho 'fame')

27) Londonbass 'I've Been Thinkin' About You'
the slowburn sensation of the Summer, ha...ultra-radio drivetime fodder, nuff said. moving on...

26) Maria McKee 'Show Me Heaven'
i really really really (really) couldnt stand this song then and nothing's changed since of course, except this kind of song really does seem to have died out in recent years (Faith Hill flying the flag? but who else?)

25) DNA ft Suzanne Vega 'Tom's Diner'
was in two minds at the time and still today, but its certainly highly evocative for me as its one of those real memory-igniting tracks for this time generally.

24) Soup Dragons 'I'm Free'
mmmmm...naahhhh. i mean they were pretty crap at the time and looking back with fondness for fun dirges like this doesnt REALLY improve their chances.

23) Talk Talk 'Life's What You Make It'
another re-release and a brilliant song, still classic - the '87 release of which is a key track for childhood memories of saturday morning tv, and moths (as the video suggested).

22) Bass-O-Matic 'Fascinating Rhythm'
anything like this is still going to go down well with me today. William Orbit's proper foray into chart success (we'll forget 'Loadsamoney') and it had everything - funky fresh electro-skank vibe, trademark Orbit bleeps, throaty toasting and a nice sense of progression within verse/chorus/rap bit/verse/chorus structure

21) Jive Bunny 'Can Can You Party'
milking it for all it was worth - did SAW foresee the apparent death (or at least dearth) of pop that was to inset the following year thus spend 1990 cramming the charts with as much bilge as they could in a last ditch attempt to earn treble figure millions? very probably.

20) Roxette 'Listen To Your Heart/Dangerous'
i like 'The Look' but 1 out of at least 15 other top 40 hits for Sweden's legendary pop duo gets us nowhere really. still it got them on the postage stamps of their homeland apparently.

19) Cliff Richard 'Silhouettes'
predictably terrible, but one of the 'slow numbers' and not the SAW produced 'power pop' efforts, the likes of which must never be spoken of surely.

18) Sonia 'End Of The World'
another awful cover - god, things havent changed that much huh?

17) Blue Pearl 'Naked In The Rain'
fantastic pop-dance, completely of its time but no worse for it. Durga McBroom pouts and moans over the thrusting quasi-industrial beats and dramatic synths as she sinks into an abyss of pervy meterological ecstasy.

16) INXS 'Suicide Blonde'
actually quite a fun record - i think INXS are my real 'wild card' - its the jangly slap that does it, and a harmonica is never wrong. i dont think i'll bother making the 'ode to future girlfriend' joke tho.

15) Janet Jackson 'Black Cat'
back then Janet looked like how Michael did just 2 years ago, only better. still this laboured rawk effort goes nowhere really

14) Caron Wheeler 'Livin In The Light'
Soul II Soul songstress goes it alone, no better or worse than a dozen Beverley Knight tracks really...does nothing much in that respect

13) Loose Ends 'Dont Be A Fool'
sadly nowhere near the quality of 'Hangin On A String'

12) George Michael 'Praying For Time'
stupid trawling 'oh the conflict i have by being a superstar while God allows human suffering elsewhere' yarn - i listened without prejudice. but it was still shit, altho the ambitiousness of Michael's work round this era was reasonably impressive

11) The Farm 'Groovy train'
a winner at my school - effortlessly catchy geetar-pop teetering on the 'indie-dance' wave - life was so much simpler back then

10) Jason Donovan 'Rhythm Of The Rain'
the Kylie break-up song, haha

9) Mariah Carey 'Vision Of love'
truly a dark day as this debut single was to yield a barrage of cat-skinning cacophonics to follow for the next 13 years and probably beyond.

8) New Kids On The Block 'Tonight'
there's something about this thats almost charming...the apparent lameness of it all juxtaposed with a little spark here and there, with lyrical and musical references nodding to Beatles and even Beach Boys sensibilities here and there. just a very odd record for the leading boy band of the time, a quality that almost renders it worthy.

7) Adamski 'The Space Jungle'
well after 'Killer' no-one expected a barn-storming cyber-glam cover of 'All Shook Up' but thats what we got...and it wasnt that bad tho extremely silly and would sound incredulously naff today (tho no more than Scooter for sure)

6) Betty Boo 'Where Are You baby?'
Bless 'er little popsocks. comes pretty dam close to beating 'Doin The Do' for super-fun happy-slide pop charm, and the rap is quote adorable along with the whole 50s/60s sci-fi vibe.

5) KLF 'What Time Is Love'
obviously my favourite record in the chart and probably the real factor behind why this chart holds any kind of resonance. just a remarkable odyssey, as unconventional and fairly uncomprimising as you can get without losing some semblance of pop rules. titanic industrial synths, sirens, soul diva snitches, b-boy posturisms - all wrapped up in one anthemic behemoth that proved the perfect soundtrack to a hot sweaty night's crop-circling smiley faces in Wiltshire.

4) Deacon Blue 'Four Bacharach & David Songs EP'
'What Do You Get When You Fall In love' got the most airplay - adequare cover but still pretty dull

3) Bombalurina 'Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini'
how have i lasted this long? the other reason this chart is resonant is because it symbolises perfectly my perception of music at the time - charts ultimately dominated by hits highly offensive to my young ears (had left childhood behind so anything that equated appeal for kids was a total turn-off at this point) but peppered with real gems from the rising rave culture. the tide was turning but inane idiot-pop seemed to be throwing everything it had left at me before finally giving in some time the following year.

2) Deee-Lite 'Groove Is In The Heart'
like KLF something of a surprise hit in its nature. i remember seeing the video and the whole thing just reeked of 'kitsch 60s revival with nods to disco, rap and whatever makes you smile' - which of course it was, and this is the first instance of that i remember enjoying in this way altho it took a while longer to stop finding it just a little bit annoying and love it completely

1) Steve Miller Band 'The Joker'
another triumph for Levis Jeans...i'm not sure how 'The Joker' goes down on ILM and yeh i hated it at the time (partly for keeping Deee-Lite off the top spot) but space cowboys probably do deserve their place in the light too.

the week stevem dissects is the week when the Steve Miller Band and Deee-Lite achieved equal sales but "The Joker" made number one because it had shown a greater *increase* in sales (it climbed from #6, "Groove Is In The Heart" climbed from #4). curses. Gallup claimed that, if this happened again, we would have the first joint number one in The Charts According To Rice And Gambaccini since December 1959. it never happened again. presumably chart compilation techniques became more sophisticated or something.

incidentally, I don't think Jive Bunny had anything to do with SAW.

UK Top 40 w/e 15 December 1973

40 (NE) Walk Right Back, Perry Como - amazingly his last two hits were both on this chart (see #21)

39 (40) Take Me High, Cliff Richard - the man is perhaps a universal curse, seemingly feted to turn up in all such surveys. This was the theme to his last film, a bizarre musical about the "Brumburger" - Birmingham's own hamburger (I'm not making this up) - which I guess might have featured a few Martin Parr-esque shots of the Bull Ring or something.

38 (NE) Dance With The Devil, Cozy Powell - well, we know this one. The good side of the Alan Freeman Saturday Rock Show. Powell died in a car crash the same day as Tammy Wynette died, and I always remember Archetypal 70s Rock Bloke who I worked with at the time (a nice chap in the "brusque Yorkshireman" sort of way) saying "yeah, I know Tammy Wynette's died, *but* ..."

37 (NE) Radar Love, Golden Earring - Dutch institution, British one-hit wonders. Shocking Blue's original "Venus" was a better song, I think.

36 (33) Lonely Days Lonely Nights, Don Downing - erm, what?

35 (14) Photograph, Ringo Starr - as naff as "We All Stand Together", but crucially different in that there aren't even any mildly self-conscious signs that this record was made by a Beatle. Almost at the end of his lifespan as far as the UK chart was concerned; the America of the "Sgt Pepper" movie was welcome to him.

34 (29) Sweet Understanding Love, The Four Tops - no recollection, I'm afraid

33 (26) Mind Games, John Lennon - as mundane as #35, though in a different way, obviously.

32 (28) And You Smiled, Matt Monro - maybe his last hit?

31 (31) Forever, Roy Wood - his first of two entries (see #6)

30 (23) Daydreamer / The Puppy Song, David Cassidy - they had to ban teenybop stars appearing on TOTP for a while after the riot this caused, you know. I'm sure Charles Curran made the edict personally.

29 (25) Eye Level, Simon Park Orchestra - had climbed from #14 to #1 while "Ballroom Blitz" was stuck at #2. How come that never gets talked about while the Rubettes / Sparks situation of the following year does?

28 (20) Sorrow, David Bowie - an odd "back-to-basics" effort from DB's "Pin-Ups" album, as if to say this whole excitement, this whole otherness is ***too much***, the Merseys (shorn of their Beat) had that spirit in '66, let's go back there. a good stopgap, but nothing else.

27 (NE) Gaudete, Steeleye Span - you know what their only other Top 40 hit was; this was their first week on the chart and, as they gave it one of the most affectedly solemn TOTP performances ever (those candles!) they met halfway with another dream 19 places higher. Back in the late 50s the Hertfordshire in which Maddy Prior grew up had inspired all those esctatic colour Pathe Pictorials: "here, then, is the town of the future, a town planned to the last detail for 80,000 of the citizens of tomorrow!" As assuredly as she refused *that* dream, some of her contemporaries in a county one letter and a cosmiverse away were refusing theirs. They ended up aspiring pretty much to what they imagined (not entirely incorrectly) the other had grown up surrounded by. #8 is the key.

26 (38) Pool Hall Richard / I Wish It Would Rain, The Faces - don't recall, but their last Top 10 hit

25 (NE) Step Into Christmas, Elton John - still gets MOR airplay at Chrimble, but oddly only got one place higher.

24 (NE) The Show Must Go On, Leo Sayer - his first week on the chart. I've always had an indulgent fondness for it; there's a certain sort of pathetic bathos (all those false endings and whispered restarts) which was utterly lost in his later Adult Contemporary days.

23 (35) Vaya Con Dios, Millican and Nesbitt - now *there's* the sort of record that wouldn't get near the chart in a million years these days. Very Stars on Sunday.

22 (39) Vado Via, Drupi - grandiose Italian ballad. sounded like the previous 10 years had barely happened, if I recall.

21 (21) For The Good Times, Perry Como - his Top 10 swansong. in demographic terms very much "The Millennium Prayer" 26 years early.

20 (17) Top Of The World, The Carpenters - mid-tempo MOR well below their considerable par.

19 (10) Do You Wanna Dance, Barry Blue - slow-burning small-g glam stomp which just about goes beyond those Lawrence Hayward cliches. "School Love" would blow it in a very '74 fashion, though.

18 (24) Keep On Truckin', Eddie Kendricks - Temptations frontman enjoys his only sizeable UK solo hit which I cannot recall ever hearing. they say it's good slightly-played-out, California-based Motown but, answer me honestly and truly, could *you* get past that title? Bachman-Turner Overdrive would have been proud.

17 (22) Love On A Mountain Top, Robert Knight

16 (5) Let Me In, The Osmonds - don't expect me to pass comment on anything by a member of this family (a prior warning)

15 (15) Helen Wheels, Paul McCartney and Wings - VH1 Classic show the promotional film from time to time, and it ends with this fantastic shot of open countryside which is, to be honest, nothing to do with pop music and all the better for it. Nothing to say about the song.

14 (13) Truck On (Tyke), T.Rex - the moment the Bolan bandwagon crashed. Contrast with #11 ...

13 (16) Amoureuse, Kiki Dee - as removed from current charts as Millican and Nesbitt, a Yorkshire cabaret trooper who bizarrely was once rumoured as the first white British Motown signing, and whose Elton duet three years hence signalled the latter artist's return to British Establishment aspirations, as if "Philadelphia Freedom" had just been ***too good*** and he was scared to repeat it in case it blew his careerist heart. This is the old MOR radio favourite that goes "When I am far away", etc, etc. Very Two Ronnies guest star.

12 (12) When I Fall In Love, Donny Osmond - see #16

11 (6) Dyna-Mite, Mud - their first Top 10 hit. I always thought this outcharting the record at #14 was when the artist at #14 definitively realised that Glam (in the capital-g sense) was dead. Lumpen.

10 (9) Why Oh Why Oh Why, Gilbert O'Sullivan - he's never quite given up, but this was his last week in the Top 10, and maybe this relatively hollow xerox of the wonderful "(Alone Again) Naturally" was the reason.

9 (11) Street Life, Roxy Music - 1973 Roxy Music. no further recommendation needed, surely?

8 (8) Roll Away The Stone, Mott The Hoople - the exact inverse of #27 (or, more precisely, it's the exact inverse of Steeleye's "The Weaver and the Factory Maid", but we're talking singles charts and TOTP here). Watch the b&w Pathe newsreels of Hereford and Ross-on-Wye from 1959/60 and you literally can't believe they're contemporary with *that* oft-shown colour film of Stevenage. Mott The Hoople grew up around there (well, apart from Ian Hunter, but Shrewsbury in that era at least was near enough in all senses that it makes very little difference) and this was the fulfilment of their fantasies: they refused the timewarp they were born into as eloquently and as assuredly as Maddy Prior refused the accelerating south-east she'd been born into. Those in pop music who merely aspire to ***exactly what they are born into*** are still in a miniscule minority.

Of course, the TOTP performance of "Roll Away The Stone" is awesome, my favourite full-on *atmosphere* of that whole era, and for the moment it consolidated their status, even if Mick Ralphs now thought US wannabe stadium rock was where it was at (and to be fair to his second band, "Feel Like Makin' Love" anticipates the general cultural tone of the Blair era on at least two levels). Within a year of "Roll Away The Stone", though, Mott The Hoople would have ceased to exist, and maybe Stephen Franklin asked himself what it all meant. He might not have been the only one to conclude that if they'd grown up in the same streets as the bands at #6 and #1, they might have been able to survive the rush.

7 (7) Lamplight, David Essex - second Top 10 hit. don't recall.

6 (19) I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday, Wizzard - second Roy Wood song (see #31) but, really, just see #1.

5 (2) Paper Roses, Marie Osmond - see #16, obviously

4 (3) You Won't Find Another Fool Like Me, The New Seekers - eventually made #1 for a week 'twixt "Merry Xmas Everybody" and "Tiger Feet". They grinned hideously on Britgum's grave and you don't need to say anything more.

3 (4) My Coo-Ca-Choo, Alvin Stardust - Shane Fenton had hits. Paul Raven never did. Paul Raven finally has hits. Shane Fenton copies Paul Raven. "Hey kids, Jesus is cool!" shows on TV-am and, appropriately, status as the Rt Rev Bill Westwood of pop (think of who their respective sons are) awaited Fenton ...

2 (1) I Love You Love Me Love, Gary Glitter - well, you don't need me to tell you what happened to *him*. the reason why you won't hear this chart on Radio 2 on a Saturday afternoon any time soon. putting personal faults aside, this was always ultimately a boorish, boring chantalong exposing the increasing laziness of its genre this winter. Slik's "Forever and Ever" - right at the end of the cycle, and with a very similar song structure - always did deserve all the lazy Gold radio airplay GG used to get. It's the best Midge Ure record, as well.

1 (NE) Merry Xmas Everybody, Slade - a modern folk anthem that ill befits this sort of comment or discussion. If there's one thing to say building on this and "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday" it's the interrelationship between the urban West Midlands (by this time almost totally changed from Victorian heavy industrial to that same New Urban Cliche I mentioned back at #39) and the area from whence Mott The Hoople sprung. Slade and Wizzard were utterly unselfconscious, relaxed, they knew who they were and they were happy with it. Mott were uncertain, in a state of flux, unsure what their identity was - it was as if the fact that they *hadn't* grown up with the rhythm of their life "chained to the machine" made them all the more desperate to ensure the mechanisation of their existence. Maybe that's why they couldn't last, and maybe that's why David Morton never quite became what he dreamed of. Telford existed by now, after all.

Rap was OK back then. It wasn't until around "Walk This Way" and "(You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party)" that rap became really awful.

(Some of the lower tracks I don't really know, and Radio Lux would have Top 30 shows rather than Top 40 ones)

UK Top 40 Week Ending 7. May 1983:

40. Sweet Memory - The Belle Stars
Kind of a stupid Quack Quack song. They never bettered the excellent "Sign Of The Times" earlier that year, which in itself was just as great as Bangles and Go-Gos at their best.

39. Thunder And Lightning - Thin Lizzy

38. She's In Parties - Bauhaus
Goth pop. Never into them too much.

37. Twist (Round And Round) - Chill Fac-Torr

36. Creatures Of The Night - Kiss
I was among the few who did actually like "The Elder", and as such, Kiss returning to ordinary metal was a bit of a disappointment for me. Also, this was kind of the start of their worst period ever - the 80s glam/hair metal period.

35. Family Man - Hall And Oates
I really liked this at the time. Later I have discovered that it was originally a Mike Oldfield song, and that Oldfield's version is better, but still a fun Hall And Oates record with some great vocoder use.

34. Is There Something I Should Know
This Duran Duran track was an "oldie" at this stage, on its way down the charts. For some reason, it never became much of a hit in Norway (in fact, they didn't really have a hit here until "Wild Boys"). Nice song anyway, even though most of the tracks on "Rio" were better.

33. Not Now John - Pink Floyd
A rather pathetic excuse for a single from a band that should rather have broken up at this stage. Roger Waters' part in the band is exaggerated IMO. David Gilmour is considerably more important than rumour has it.

32. Power And The Glory - Saxon

31. Hey! - Julio Iglesias

30. Candy Girl - New Edition
One example of a song that I did originally like, while I don't at all like it anymore. Probably the first Maurice Starr thing I ever heard, and, well OK, they were at least better than New Kids On The Block would become.

29. Can't Get Used To Losing You - The Beat
I don't usually like cover versions much, but this is one of the better examples of the genre. The Beat - as opposed to Madness in particular - were never very good songwriters, which meant their best moments were usually the cover versions. Combining this old Easy Listening standard with a new wave/ska beat meant a great single.

28. Blind Vision - Blancmange
A bit different sounding than several other synthpop acts, Blancmange still had a lot of class. This isn't quite up there with "Don't Tell Me" (their best moment IMO), but is still a quite nice song and one of their best.

27. Ooh To Be Aah - Kajagoogoo
"Too Sky" isn't that bad, but considering their entire output, Kajagoogoo isn't exactly the best of those "boy bands" of the 80s. Like Duran Duran and Wham!, they should get credit for writing their own material, only the material didn't really hold up. Limahl made slightly better records as a solo acts around a year alter.

26. Miss The Girl - Creatures

25. Boxerbeat - JoBoxers
Really praised by the critics at the time. I wasn't that much into them, and still don't see this as more than a fun and throwaway effort. And now I don't at all hate guitar based music the same way I did back then.

24. Overkill - Men At Work
An underrated single from an underrated album. It seems the quirky novelty qualities of "Down Under" had made audiences ignore the fact that this was actually a band that was able to write some great songs, and as such, the great pop album that was "Cargo" didn't sell as much as it deserved, simply because it wasn't filled with quirky lyrics about Kangaroo people running around in the Outback and playing with the Koala bears.

23. Young Free And Single - Sunfire

22. The House That Jack Built - Tracie
For some reason, I never got to hear this hit. I do remember her followup "Give It Some Emotion", but I believe I have never heard "THe House That Jack Built", which was a bigger hit.

21. I'm Never Giving Up - Sweet Dreams
The UK song for Europe of 1983. Flopped completely. I remember it was my favourite in the finals that year - mainly because it contained a lot of synths and sounded more like the pop in the hitlists. :-)
In retrospect, a useless piece of rubbish, of course, like most Eurovision entries...

20. I Am (I'm Me) - Twisted Sister
This went unnoticed by me. A couple years later, they were huge in Norway thanks to "I Wanna Rock" and "We're Not Gonna Take It" (not to mention the videos to those songs.

19. Last Film - Kissing The Pink

18. Breakaway - Tracey Ullman
"They Don't Know" was fun (I now know credit should be given to Kirsty MacColl who wrote and performed the original). This one was just a bit too fast and exhausting however.

17. Blue Monday - New Order
A fascinating piece of music. I remember in the disco at my local youth club, they would usually just play the intro, and then, as soon as the vocals began, they would put on something else instead. But that intro was cool. (Considering melody were everywhere in the hitlists anyway at the time, I wasn't as fixated with melodies back than as I am now). However, for most of the 80s I couldn't understand why they were so popular with the critics, because the critics usually only liked music that I didn't like.

16. Our Lips Are Sealed - Fun Boy Three
Terry Hall has been involved with a lot of truly great pop ("Ghost Town" is one of my favourite singles ever), but I never really liked this particular group. This song sounded a lot better in the Go-Go's excellent original.

15. Rosanna - Toto
I don't hate Toto as much as a lot of other people do. At least now, I mean. Rosanna was not their best moment though - I was considerably more into "Africa". Btw. this was one of those rare cases of a song becoming a hit half a year earlier in Norway than int he UK.

14. Flight Of Icarus - Iron Maiden
No matter how much I try (because I see they have qualities), I just can't stand Bruce Dickinson's vocal style. I couldn't then, and I cannot now. Sorry.

13. Friday Night (Live) - Kids From Fame
"Fame" didn't show on Norwegian TV until that autumn. Used to love that series and watched it every week. This, of course, was from their live show anyway, a rather boring an repetitive thing.

12. Love Is a Stranger - Eurythmics
A beautiful song, with some truly weird and ultra-cool synth sounds. Their best single from their best album

11. True Love Ways - Cliff Richard
An awful throwaway effort this. I mean, a old guy making a sentimental cover of an even older Buddy Holly ballad.. Awful and completely unneccessary.

10. Church Of The Poison Mind - Culture Club
"Karma Chameleon" was the single that turned me into a Culture Club fan (and my favourite single for several years after that). They haven't quite held up considering how high I rated them at the time, but both that one and this one are still great Motown-influenced pop songs.

9. Let's Dance - David Bowie
Never was that much into this, and still I am not. While I have discovered a lot of gems from his 70s output, "Let's Dance" remains an ordinary album. Not his worst (and the longer album version of this one sounds considerably better than the 7 inch version), but there is nothing special about it in any way. "China Girl" was great though.

8. Temptation - Heaven 17
My least favourite Heaven 17 track of all time, at least from their first two albums (which is all that counts anyway, really). This is the band that made such wonderful songs as "Let Me Go" and "Come Live With Me", and then, this boring and repetitive soul crap becomes their biggest hit.

7. We Are Detective - Thompson Twins
Making childish music will always bring you a lot of enemies, and I think this is the main reason why they were hated among UK critics.
Personally, I love childish songs, and I think that this one - the song that really turned me into them - is one of their greatest ever. Still a classic and my favourite single from this entire Top 40.

6. Dancing Tight - Phil Fearon & Galaxy
A great single from when dance music did actually sound great. Possibly my favourite "disco" single of all time.

5. Pale Shelter - Tears For Fears
Now here is one synthpop band that I never really was into. "Mad World" was great, but they had to wait until "Sowing The Seeds Of Love" (an entirely different song) until they made something even remotely as great as that debut again. "Pale Shelter" bores me a bit

4. Beat It - Michael Jackson
I was just a bit too young to remember "Off The Wall", so I was a bit surprised when this guy suddenly stumbled into the pop world and is having big hits like he has always been there. It took some time for "Thriller" to really take off in Norway, but this was the single that caused it to do so, and also the single that caused me to go out and buy "Thriller". Still a great single from a still great album.

3. (Keep Feeling) Fascination - Human League
Back then, I loved absolutely everything that would come from Human League. In retrospect, I can see this relatively tuneless song as the start of their creative downfall, and I realise why a lot of people were disappointed.

2. Words - FR David
I bought a compilation by David about 5-6 years ago, and I discovered his music (even the other songs from that album) had held up surprisingly well. This is still a beautiful song, although it had topped Norwegian singles lists for half a year (at least it seemed so) and I was absolutely sick of it by the time it finally caught on to the UK market. I used to like it at first though, and it is that initial impression that has turned into my current attitude towards the song.

1. True - Spandau Ballet
They didn't always work out, but this is the best thing Spandau Ballet ever did. An absolutely wonderful ballad with truly impressive singing by Tony Hadley. I loved it them, and I still love it.

Hehe a use for my soulseek sadness (aka how easy would it be to get an entire top 40?). I may post to this soon.

they segued from "Gaudete" to "Roll Away The Stone", though! plagiarism! (except that Dale Winton didn't talk about "Penda's Fen", fairly obviously)

Will be interested to see any additions to this thread. August 1969; yeah... "Je T'Aime"... the Move's bracing "Curly" & much more...

If I personalised a chart, it would be good to do a summer 1996 one, as it's a strange time I quite keenly recall, and I did regularly listen to Sunday's chart every week. Late 80s and early 90s would be interesting, as I have strong but sporadic flickerings of familiarity with the pop stuff of that time.
Any earlier ones would be mere projections (and indeed I'd not know many of the records of a Top 40), and I don't think I would do the task as authoratively as Robin or Marcello. Yet, could certainly have a go at some stage...