Populist
I’m marking each of the singles out of 10. Marks will vary according to my mood and circumstances as well as by the quality of the record. No consistency is intended and none should be assumed – take them as seriously as you like. If you’re registered and logged in, you can give your OWN mark out of 10 to each record, and the aggregate shows up on the FT Readers Top 100 view.
- 1952
- 14th November 1952 4 AL MARTINO – "Here In My Heart"
- 1953
- 16th January 1953 6 JO STAFFORD - "You Belong To Me"
- 23rd January 1953 7 KAY STARR – 'Comes A-Long A-Love'
- 30th January 1953 5 EDDIE FISHER – 'Outside Of Heaven'
- 6th February 1953 3 PERRY COMO - "Don't Let The Stars Get In Your Eyes"
- 13th March 1953 2 GUY MITCHELL – 'She Wears Red Feathers'
- 10th April 1953 4 THE STARGAZERS - "Broken Wings"
- 17th April 1953 4 LITA ROZA - "How Much Is That Doggie In The Window?"
- 24th April 1953 3 FRANKIE LAINE - "I Believe"
- 26th June 1953 5 EDDIE FISHER – 'I'm Walking Behind You'
- 15th August 1953 5 MANTOVANI - "Moulin Rouge Theme"
- 11th September 1953 3 GUY MITCHELL - "Look At That Girl"
- 23rd October 1953 5 FRANKIE LAINE - "Hey Joe"
- 6th November 1953 2 DAVID WHITFIELD - 'Answer Me'
- 13th November 1953 4 FRANKIE LAINE - "Answer Me"
- 1954
- 8th January 1954 4 EDDIE CALVERT- "Oh Mein Papa"
- 12th March 1954 1 THE STARGAZERS - "I See The Moon"
- 16th April 1954 8 DORIS DAY - "Secret Love"
- 30th April 1954 7 JOHNNIE RAY - "Such A Night"
- 2nd July 1954 2 DAVID WHITFIELD - "Cara Mia"
- 10th September 1954 5 KITTY KALLEN - "Little Things Mean A Lot"
- 17th September 1954 5 FRANK SINATRA - "Three Coins In A Fountain"
- 10th October 1954 3 DON CORNELL - "Hold My Hand"
- 5th November 1954 2 VERA LYNN - "My Son My Son"
- 26th November 1954 4 ROSEMARY CLOONEY - "This Ole House"
- 3rd December 1954 6 WINIFRED ATWELL - "Let's Have Another Party"
- 1955
- 7th January 1955 5 DICKIE VALENTINE - "Finger Of Suspicion"
- 14th January 1955 5 ROSEMARY CLOONEY - "Mambo Italiano"
- 18th February 1955 4 RUBY MURRAY - "Softly, Softly"
- 11th March 1955 3 TENNESSEE ERNIE FORD - "Give Me Your Word"
- 29th April 1955 6 PEREZ 'PREZ' PRADO AND HIS ORCHESTRA - "Cherry Pink And Apple Blossom White"
- 13th May 1955 4 TONY BENNETT - "Stranger In Paradise"
- 27th May 1955 5 EDDIE CALVERT - "Cherry Pink And Apple Blossom White"
- 24th June 1955 2 JIMMY YOUNG - "Unchained Melody"
- 15th July 1955 5 ALMA COGAN - "Dreamboat"
- 29th July 1955 8 SLIM WHITMAN - "Rose Marie"
- 14th October 1955 4 JIMMY YOUNG - "The Man From Laramie"
- 11th November 1955 5 THE JOHNSTON BROTHERS - "Hernando's Hideaway"
- 25th November 1955 7 BILL HALEY AND THE COMETS - "Rock Around The Clock"
- 16th December 1955 4 DICKIE VALENTINE - "Christmas Alphabet"
- 1956
- 20th January 1956 9 TENNESSEE ERNIE FORD - "Sixteen Tons"
- 17th February 1956 4 DEAN MARTIN - "Memories Are Made Of This"
- 16th March 1956 7 DREAMWEAVERS - "It's Almost Tomorrow"
- 30th March 1956 5 KAY STARR - 'Rock And Roll Waltz'
- 13th April 1956 5 WINIFRED ATTWELL - "The Poor People Of Paris"
- 4th May 1956 3 RONNIE HILTON - "No Other Love"
- 15th June 1956 2 PAT BOONE - "I'll Be Home"
- 20th July 1956 6 FRANKIE LYMON AND THE TEENAGERS - "Why Do Fools Fall In Love?"
- 10th August 1956 7 DORIS DAY - "Que Sera, Sera"
- 21st September 1956 3 ANNE SHELTON - "Lay Down Your Arms"
- 19th October 1956 2 FRANKIE LAINE - "A Woman In Love"
- 16th November 1956 6 JOHNNIE RAY - "Just Walking In The Rain"
- 1957
- 4th January 1957 & 11th January 1957 5 & 5 GUY MITCHELL - "Singing The Blues" TOMMY STEELE - "Singing The Blues"
- 25th January 1957 4 FRANKIE VAUGHAN - "The Garden Of Eden"
- 22nd February 1957 5 TAB HUNTER - "Young Love"
- 12th April 1957 8 LONNIE DONEGAN - "Cumberland Gap"
- 12th May 1957 5 GUY MITCHELL - "Rock-A-Billy"
- 25th May 1957 3 ANDY WILLIAMS - "Butterfly"
- 7th June 1957 6 JOHNNIE RAY - "Yes Tonight Josephine"
- 28th June 1957 8 LONNIE DONEGAN - "Putting On The Style"/"Gamblin Man"
- 12th July 1957 7 ELVIS PRESLEY - "All Shook Up"
- 30th August 1957 4 PAUL ANKA - "Diana"
- 1st November 1957 5 BUDDY HOLLY AND THE CRICKETS - "That'll Be The Day"
- 22nd November 1957 3 HARRY BELAFONTE - "Mary's Boy Child"
- 1958
- 10th January 1958 8 JERRY LEE LEWIS - "Great Balls Of Fire"
- 24th January 1958 7 ELVIS PRESLEY - "Jailhouse Rock"
- 14th February 1958 5 MICHAEL HOLLIDAY - "The Story Of My Life"
- 28th February 1958 6 PERRY COMO - "Magic Moments"
- 25th April 1958 4 MARVIN RAINWATER - "Whole Lotta Woman"
- 16th May 1958 7 CONNIE FRANCIS - "Who's Sorry Now?"
- 27th June 1958 5 VIC DAMONE – "On The Street Where You Live"
- 4th July 1958 8 THE EVERLY BROTHERS - "All I Have To Do Is Dream"/"Claudette"
- 22nd August 1958 5 THE KALIN TWINS - "When"
- 26th September 1958 7 CONNIE FRANCIS - "Carolina Moon"/"Stupid Cupid"
- 7th November 1958 6 TOMMY EDWARDS – 'All In The Game'
- 28th November 1958 9 LORD ROCKINGHAM'S XI – 'Hoots Mon'
- 19th December 1958 7 CONWAY TWITTY – 'It's Only Make Believe'
- 1959
- 23rd January 1959 3 JANE MORGAN – 'The Day The Rains Came'
- 30th January 1959 6 ELVIS PRESLEY – 'I Got Stung' / 'One Night'
- 20th February 1959 2 SHIRLEY BASSEY – 'As I Love You'
- 20th March 1959 7 THE PLATTERS - Smoke Gets In Your Eyes
- 27th March 1959 4 RUSS CONWAY – 'Side Saddle'
- 24th April 1959 7 BUDDY HOLLY – 'It Doesn't Matter Anymore'
- 15th May 1959 6 ELVIS PRESLEY – 'A Fool Such As I'
- 19th June 1959 4 RUSS CONWAY – 'Roulette'
- 3rd July 1959 4 BOBBY DARIN – 'Dream Lover'
- 31st July 1959 3 CLIFF RICHARD – 'Living Doll'
- 11th September 1959 2 CRAIG DOUGLAS – 'Only Sixteen'
- 9th October 1959 6 JERRY KELLER - "Here Comes Summer"
- 16th October 1959 7 BOBBY DARIN - "Mack The Knife"
- 30th October 1959 6 CLIFF RICHARD - "Travellin' Light"
- 4th December 1959 5 ADAM FAITH - "What Do You Want"
- 18th December 1959 7 EMILE FORD AND THE CHECKMATES - "What Do You Want To Make Those Eyes At Me For?"
- 1960
- 29th January 1960 5 MICHAEL HOLLIDAY - "Starry Eyed"
- 5th February 1960 2 ANTHONY NEWLEY - "Why?"
- 10th March 1960 6 ADAM FAITH - "Poor Me"
- 17th March 1960 5 JOHNNY PRESTON - "Running Bear"
- 2nd April 1960 1 LONNIE DONEGAN - "My Old Man's A Dustman"
- 30th April 1960 4 ANTHONY NEWLEY - "Do You Mind?"
- 7th May 1960 7 THE EVERLY BROTHERS - "Cathy's Clown"
- 25 June 1960 5 EDDIE COCHRAN - "Three Steps To Heaven"
- 9th July 1960 6 JIMMY JONES - "Good Timin'"
- 30th July 1960 3 CLIFF RICHARD - "Please Don't Tease"
- 6th August 1960 8 JOHNNY KIDD AND THE PIRATES - "Shaking All Over"
- 27th August 1960 7 THE SHADOWS - "Apache"
- 1st October 1960 4 RICKY VALANCE - "Tell Laura I Love Her"
- 22nd October 1960 6 ROY ORBISON - "Only The Lonely"
- 5th November 1960 4 ELVIS PRESLEY - "It's Now Or Never"
- 31st December 1960 2 CLIFF RICHARD - "I Love You"
- 1961
- 14th January 1961 6 JOHNNY TILLOTSON - "Poetry In Motion"
- 28 January 1961 8 ELVIS PRESLEY - "Are You Lonesome Tonight?"
- 25th February 1961 4 PETULA CLARK - "Sailor"
- 4th March 1961 5 EVERLY BROTHERS - "Walk Right Back"
- 25 March 1961 2 ELVIS PRESLEY - "Wooden Heart"
- 6th May 1961 9 THE MARCELS - "Blue Moon"
- 20th May 1961 5 FLOYD CRAMER - "On The Rebound"
- 27th May 1961 5 THE TEMPERANCE SEVEN - "You're Driving Me Crazy"
- 3rd June 1961 4 ELVIS PRESLEY - "Surrender"
- 1st July 1961 7 DEL SHANNON - "Runaway"
- 22nd July 1961 7 THE EVERLY BROTHERS - "Temptation"
- 5th August 1961 5 EDEN KANE - "Well I Ask You"
- 12th August 1961 4 HELEN SHAPIRO - "You Don't Know"
- 2nd September 1961 9 JOHN LEYTON - "Johnny Remember Me"
- 23rd September 1961 2 SHIRLEY BASSEY - "I Reach For The Stars"
- 7th October 1961 6 THE SHADOWS - "Kon-Tiki"
- 14th October 1961 6 THE HIGHWAYMEN - "Michael"
- 21st October 1961 3 HELEN SHAPIRO - "Walking Back To Happiness"
- 11th November 1961 7 ELVIS PRESLEY - "His Latest Flame"
- 9th December 1961 8 FRANKIE VAUGHAN - "Tower Of Strength"
- 30th December 1961 9 DANNY WILLIAMS - "Moon River"
- 1962
- 13th January 1962 3 CLIFF RICHARD AND THE SHADOWS - "The Young Ones"
- 24th February 1962 5 ELVIS PRESLEY - "Can't Help Falling In Love"
- 24th March 1962 8 THE SHADOWS - "Wonderful Land"
- 19th May 1962 6 B.BUMBLE AND THE STINGERS - "Nut Rocker"
- 26th May 1962 5 ELVIS PRESLEY - "Good Luck Charm"
- 30th June 1962 2 MIKE SARNE WITH WENDY RICHARD - "Come Outside"
- 14th July 1962 7 RAY CHARLES - "I Can't Stop Loving You"
- 28th July 1962 7 FRANK IFIELD - "I Remember You"
- 15th September 1962 4 ELVIS PRESLEY - "She's Not You"
- 6th October 1962 9 THE TORNADOS - "Telstar"
- 10th November 1962 4 FRANK IFIELD - "Lovesick Blues"
- 15th December 1962 6 ELVIS PRESLEY - "Return To Sender"
- 1963
- 15th January 1963 5 CLIFF RICHARD - "The Next Time"
- 26th January 1963 5 THE SHADOWS - "Dance On!"
- 2nd February 1963 6 JET HARRIS AND TONY MEEHAN - "Diamonds"
- 23rd February 1963 6 FRANK IFIELD - "The Wayward Wind"
- 16th March 1963 6 CLIFF RICHARD AND THE SHADOWS - "Summer Holiday"
- 30th March 1963 4 THE SHADOWS - "Foot Tapper"
- 13th April 1963 4 GERRY AND THE PACEMAKERS - "How Do You Do It?"
- 4th May 1963 7 THE BEATLES - "From Me To You"
- 22nd June 1963 3 GERRY AND THE PACEMAKERS - "I Like It"
- 20th July 1963 5 FRANK IFIELD - "I'm Confessin'"
- 3rd August 1963 6 ELVIS PRESLEY - "(You're The) Devil In Disguise"
- 10th August 1963 4 THE SEARCHERS - "Sweets For My Sweet"
- 24th August 1963 7 BILLY J KRAMER AND THE DAKOTAS - "Bad To Me"
- 14th September 1963 8 THE BEATLES - "She Loves You"
- 12th October 1963 6 BRIAN POOLE AND THE TREMELOES - "Do You Love Me?"
- 2nd November 1963 3 GERRY AND THE PACEMAKERS - "You'll Never Walk Alone"
- 14th December 1963 7 THE BEATLES - "I Want To Hold Your Hand"
- 1964
- 18th January 1964 7 THE DAVE CLARK FIVE - "Glad All Over"
- 1st February 1964 6 THE SEARCHERS - "Needles And Pins"
- 22nd February 1964 4 THE BACHELORS - "Diane"
- 29th February 1964 4 CILLA BLACK - "Anyone Who Had A Heart"
- 21st March 1964 2 BILLY J KRAMER AND THE DAKOTAS - "Little Children"
- 4th April 1964 6 THE BEATLES - "Can't Buy Me Love"
- 25th April 1964 5 PETER AND GORDON - "A World Without Love"
- 9th May 1964 5 THE SEARCHERS - "Don't Throw Your Love Away"
- 23rd May 1964 6 THE FOUR PENNIES - "Juliet"
- 30th May 1964 3 CILLA BLACK - "You're My World"
- 27th June 1964 9 ROY ORBISON - "It's Over"
- 11th July 1964 6 THE ANIMALS - "House Of The Rising Sun"
- 18th July 1964 7 THE ROLLING STONES - "It's All Over Now"
- 25th July 1964 8 THE BEATLES - "A Hard Day's Night"
- 15th August 1964 2 MANFRED MANN - "Do Wah Diddy Diddy"
- 29th August 1964 8 THE HONEYCOMBS - "Have I The Right?"
- 12th September 1964 7 THE KINKS - "You Really Got Me"
- 26th September 1964 6 HERMAN'S HERMITS - "I'm Into Something Good"
- 10th October 1964 8 ROY ORBISON - "Oh, Pretty Woman"
- 24th October 1964 6 SANDIE SHAW - "Always Something There To Remind Me"
- 21st November 1964 8 THE SUPREMES - "Baby Love"
- 5th December 1964 6 THE ROLLING STONES - "Little Red Rooster"
- 12th December 1964 6 THE BEATLES - "I Feel Fine"
- 1965
- 16th January 1965 5 GEORGIE FAME AND THE BLUE FLAMES - "Yeh Yeh"
- 30th January 1965 7 THE MOODY BLUES - "Go Now"
- 6th February 1965 8 THE RIGHTEOUS BROTHERS - "You've Lost That Loving Feeling"
- 20th February 1965 6 THE KINKS - "Tired Of Waiting For You"
- 25th February 1965 4 THE SEEKERS - "I'll Never Find Another You"
- 13th March 1965 4 TOM JONES - "It's Not Unusual"
- 20th March 1965 6 THE ROLLING STONES - "The Last Time"
- 10th April 1965 6 UNIT FOUR PLUS TWO - "Concrete And Clay"
- 17th April 1965 4 CLIFF RICHARD - "The Minute You're Gone"
- 24th April 1965 8 THE BEATLES - "Ticket To Ride"
- 15th May 1965 7 ROGER MILLER - "King Of The Road"
- 22nd May 1965 3 JACKIE TRENT - "Where Are You Now (My Love)?"
- 29th May 1965 4 SANDIE SHAW - "Long Live Love"
- 19th June 1965 2 ELVIS PRESLEY - "Crying In The Chapel"
- 26th June 1965 5 THE HOLLIES - "I'm Alive"
- 24th July 1965 8 THE BYRDS - "Mr. Tambourine Man"
- 7th August 1965 7 THE BEATLES - "Help!"
- 28th August 1965 7 SONNY AND CHER - "I Got You Babe"
- 11th September 1965 9 THE ROLLING STONES - "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction"
- 25th September 1965 6 THE WALKER BROTHERS - "Make It Easy On Yourself"
- 2nd October 1965 & 6th November 1965 2 & 9 KEN DODD - "Tears" / THE ROLLING STONES - "Get Off Of My Cloud"
- 27th November 1965 4 THE SEEKERS - "The Carnival Is Over"
- 18th December 1965 7 THE BEATLES - "Day Tripper"/"We Can Work It Out"
- 1966
- 22nd January 1966 8 SPENCER DAVIS GROUP - "Keep On Running"
- 29th January 1966 3 THE OVERLANDERS - "Michelle"
- 19th February 1966 10 NANCY SINATRA - "These Boots Were Made For Walking"
- 19th March 1966 8 THE WALKER BROTHERS - "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore"
- 16th April 1966 5 SPENCER DAVIS GROUP - "Somebody Help Me"
- 30th April 1966 6 DUSTY SPRINGFIELD - "You Don't Have To Say You Love Me"
- 7th May 1966 5 MANFRED MANN - "Pretty Flamingo"
- 28 May 1966 9 THE ROLLING STONES - "Paint It, Black"
- 4th June 1966 5 FRANK SINATRA - "Strangers In The Night"
- 25th June 1966 9 THE BEATLES - "Paperback Writer"
- 9th July 1966 8 THE KINKS - "Sunny Afternoon"
- 23rd July 1966 3 GEORGIE FAME AND THE BLUE FLAMES - "Get Away"
- 30th July 1966 9 CHRIS FARLOWE - "Out Of Time"
- 6th August 1966 4 THE TROGGS - "With A Girl Like You"
- 20th August 1966 10 THE BEATLES - "Eleanor Rigby"/"Yellow Submarine"
- 17th September 1966 4 THE SMALL FACES - "All Or Nothing"
- 24th September 1966 2 JIM REEVES - "Distant Drums"
- 29th October 1966 9 THE FOUR TOPS - "Reach Out I'll Be There"
- 19th November 1966 9 THE BEACH BOYS - "Good Vibrations"
- 3rd December 1966 3 TOM JONES - "Green Green Grass Of Home"
- 1967
- 21st January 1967 7 THE MONKEES - "I'm A Believer"
- 18th February 1967 1 PETULA CLARK - "This Is My Song"
- 4th March 1967 4 ENGELBERT HUMPERDINCK - "Release Me"
- 15th April 1967 5 FRANK AND NANCY SINATRA - "Something Stupid"
- 29th April 1967 5 SANDIE SHAW - "Puppet On A String"
- 20th May 1967 4 THE TREMELOES - "Silence Is Golden"
- 10th June 1967 5 PROCOL HARUM - "A Whiter Shade Of Pale"
- 22nd July 1967 5 THE BEATLES - "All You Need Is Love"
- 12th August 1967 6 SCOTT MCKENZIE - "San Francisco (Be Sure To Wear Some Flowers In Your Hair)"
- 9th September 1967 1 ENGELBERT HUMPERDINCK - "The Last Waltz"
- 14th October 1967 6 THE BEE GEES - "Massachusetts"
- 11th November 1967 7 THE FOUNDATIONS - "Baby Now That I've Found You"
- 25th November 1967 5 LONG JOHN BALDRY - "Let The Heartaches Begin"
- 9th December 1967 6 THE BEATLES - "Hello Goodbye"
- 1968
- 27th January 1968 3 GEORGIE FAME - "The Ballad Of Bonnie And Clyde"
- 3rd February 1968 8 THE LOVE AFFAIR - "Everlasting Love"
- 17th February 1968 7 MANFRED MANN - "Quinn The Eskimo (The Mighty Quinn)"
- 2nd March 1968 2 ESTHER AND ABI OFARIM - "Cinderella Rockefeller"
- 23rd March 1968 8 DAVE DEE, DOZY BEAKY MICK AND TICH - "The Legend Of Xanadu"
- 30th March 1968 8 THE BEATLES - "Lady Madonna"
- 13th April 1968 3 CLIFF RICHARD - "Congratulations"
- 27th April 1968 4 LOUIS ARMSTRONG - "What A Wonderful World"
- 25th May 1968 5 GARY PUCKETT AND THE UNION GAP - "Young Girl"
- 22nd June 1968 9 THE ROLLING STONES - "Jumpin' Jack Flash"
- 6th July 1968 7 THE EQUALS - "Baby Come Back"
- 27th July 1968 3 DES O'CONNOR - "I Pretend"
- 3rd August 1968 6 TOMMY JAMES AND THE SHONDELLS - "Mony Mony"
- 17th August 1968 6 THE CRAZY WORLD OF ARTHUR BROWN - "Fire"
- 31st August 1968 6 THE BEACH BOYS - "Do It Again"
- 7th September 1968 4 THE BEE GEES - "I Gotta Get A Message To You"
- 14th September 1968 4 THE BEATLES - "Hey Jude"
- 28th September 1968 6 MARY HOPKIN - "Those Were The Days"
- 9th November 1968 3 JOE COCKER - "With A Little Help From My Friends"
- 16th November 1968 6 HUGO MONTENEGRO AND HIS ORCHESTRA - "The Good, The Bad And The Ugly"
- 14th December 1968 3 SCAFFOLD - "Lily The Pink"
- 1969
- 4th January 1969 3 MARMALADE - "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da"
- 1st February 1969 8 FLEETWOOD MAC - "Albatross"
- 8th February 1969 6 THE MOVE - "Blackberry Way"
- 15th February 1969 4 AMEN CORNER - "(If Paradise Is) Half As Nice"
- 1st March 1969 3 PETER SARSTEDT - "Where Do You Go To My Lovely?"
- 29th March 1969 9 MARVIN GAYE - "I Heard It Through The Grapevine"
- 19th April 1969 10 DESMOND DEKKER AND THE ACES - "Israelites"
- 26th April 1969 5 THE BEATLES WITH BILLY PRESTON - "Get Back"
- 7th June 1969 4 TOMMY ROE - "Dizzy"
- 14th June 1969 4 THE BEATLES - "The Ballad Of John And Yoko"
- 5th July 1969 5 THUNDERCLAP NEWMAN - "Something In The Air"
- 26th July 1969 6 THE ROLLING STONES - "Honky Tonk Women"
- 30th August 1969 5 ZAGER AND EVANS - "In The Year 2525 (Exordium And Terminus)"
- 20th September 1969 7 CREEDENCE CLEARWATER REVIVAL - "Bad Moon Rising"
- 11th October 1969 5 SERGE GAINSBOURG AND JANE BIRKIN - "Je T'Aime...Moi Non Plus"
- 18th October 1969 6 BOBBIE GENTRY - "I'll Never Fall In Love Again"
- 25th October 1969 8 THE ARCHIES - "Sugar, Sugar"
- 20th December 1969 3 ROLF HARRIS - "Two Little Boys"
- 1970
- 31st January 1970 6 EDISON LIGHTHOUSE - "Love Grows Where My Rosemary Goes"
- 7th March 1970 5 LEE MARVIN - "Wand'rin Star"
- 28th March 1970 5 SIMON AND GARFUNKEL - "Bridge Over Troubled Water"
- 18th April 1970 2 DANA - "All Kinds Of Everything"
- 2nd May 1970 7 NORMAN GREENBAUM - "Spirit In The Sky"
- 16th May 1970 4 ENGLAND WORLD CUP SQUAD 1970 - "Back Home"
- 6th June 1970 6 CHRISTIE - "Yellow River"
- 13th June 1970 7 MUNGO JERRY - "In The Summertime"
- 1st August 1970 3 ELVIS PRESLEY - "The Wonder Of You"
- 12th September 1970 8 SMOKEY ROBINSON AND THE MIRACLES - "Tears Of A Clown"
- 19th September 1970 8 FREDA PAYNE - "Band Of Gold"
- 31st October 1970 7 MATTHEWS SOUTHERN COMFORT - "Woodstock"
- 21 November 1970 6 THE JIMI HENDRIX EXPERIENCE - "Voodoo Chile"
- 28th November 1970 5 DAVE EDMUNDS - "I Hear You Knocking"
- 1971
- 9th January 1971 2 CLIVE DUNN - "Grandad"
- 30th January 1971 7 GEORGE HARRISON - "My Sweet Lord"
- 6th March 1971 4 MUNGO JERRY - "Baby Jump"
- 20th March 1971 10 T REX - "Hot Love"
- 1st May 1971 8 DAVE AND ANSEL COLLINS - "Double Barrel"
- 15th May 1971 4 TONY ORLANDO AND DAWN - "Knock Three Times"
- 19th June 1971 4 MIDDLE OF THE ROAD - "Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep"
- 24th July 1971 8 T REX - "Get It On"
- 21st August 1971 6 DIANA ROSS - "I'm Still Waiting"
- 18th September 1971 5 THE TAMS - "Hey Girl, Don't Bother Me"
- 9th October 1971 8 ROD STEWART - "Maggie May"
- 13th November 1971 5 SLADE - "Coz I Luv You"
- 11th December 1971 6 BENNY HILL - "Ernie, The Fastest Milkman In The West"
- 1972
- 8th January 1972 2 THE NEW SEEKERS - "I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing"
- 5th February 1972 6 T REX - "Telegram Sam"
- 19th February 1972 8 CHICORY TIP - "Son Of My Father"
- 11th March 1972 6 NILSSON - "Without You"
- 15th April 1972 5 THE PIPES AND DRUMS AND MILITARY BAND OF THE ROYAL SCOTS DRAGOON GUARDS - "Amazing Grace"
- 20th May 1972 8 T REX - "Metal Guru"
- 17th June 1972 1 DON McLEAN - "Vincent"
- 1st July 1972 5 SLADE - "Take Me Bak 'Ome"
- 8th July 1972 3 DONNY OSMOND - "Puppy Love"
- 12th August 1972 8 ALICE COOPER - "School's Out"
- 2nd September 1972 7 ROD STEWART - "You Wear It Well"
- 9th September 1972 6 SLADE - "Mama Weer All Crazee Now"
- 30th September 1972 6 DAVID CASSIDY - "How Can I Be Sure?"
- 14th October 1972 9 LIEUTENANT PIGEON - "Mouldy Old Dough"
- 11th November 1972 3 GILBERT O'SULLIVAN - "Clair"
- 4th November 1972 2 CHUCK BERRY - "My Ding-A-Ling"
- 23rd December 1972 1 LITTLE JIMMY OSMOND - "Long Haired Lover From Liverpool"
- 1973
- 27th January 1973 9 THE SWEET - "Block Buster"
- 4th March 1973 8 SLADE - "Cvm On Feel The Noize"
- 31st March 1973 4 DONNY OSMOND - "The Twelfth Of Never"
- 7th April 1973 5 GILBERT O'SULLIVAN - "Get Down"
- 21 April 1973 3 TONY ORLANDO AND DAWN - "Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round The Old Oak Tree"
- 19th May 1973 6 WIZZARD - "See My Baby Jive"
- 16th June 1973 7 SUZI QUATRO - "Can The Can"
- 23rd June 1973 5 10CC - "Rubber Bullets"
- 30th June 1973 6 SLADE - "Skweeze Me Pleeze Me"
- 21st July 1973 4 PETERS AND LEE - "Welcome Home"
- 28 July 1973 4 GARY GLITTER - "I'm The Leader Of The Gang (I Am)"
- 25th August 1973 4 DONNY OSMOND - Young Love
- 22nd September 1973 7 WIZZARD - "Angel Fingers"
- 29th September 1973 4 THE SIMON PARK ORCHESTRA - "Eye Level"
- 27th October 1973 6 DAVID CASSIDY - "Daydreamer"/"The Puppy Song"
- 17th November 1973 4 GARY GLITTER - "I Love You Love Me Love"
- 15th December 1973 9 SLADE - "Merry Xmas Everybody"
- 1974
- 19th January 1974 5 THE NEW SEEKERS - "You Won't Find Another Fool Like Me"
- 26th January 1974 6 MUD - "Tiger Feet"
- 23rd February 1974 7 SUZI QUATRO - "Devil Gate Drive"
- 9th March 1974 4 ALVIN STARDUST - "Jealous Mind"
- 16th March 1974 4 PAPER LACE - "Billy, Don't Be A Hero"
- 6th April 1974 6 TERRY JACKS - "Seasons In The Sun"
- 4th May 1974 9 ABBA - "Waterloo"
- 18th May 1974 8 THE RUBETTES - "Sugar Baby Love"
- 15th June 1974 3 RAY STEVENS - "The Streak"
- 22nd June 1974 5 GARY GLITTER - "Always Yours"
- 29th June 1974 3 CHARLES AZNAVOUR - "She"
- 27th July 1974 8 GEORGE McCRAE - "Rock Your Baby"
- 12th August 1974 9 THE THREE DEGREES - "When Will I See You Again?"
- 31st August 1974 6 THE OSMONDS - "Love Me For A Reason"
- 21st September 1974 7 CARL DOUGLAS - "Kung Fu Fighting"
- 12th October 1974 4 JOHN DENVER - "Annie's Song"
- 19th October 1974 5 SWEET SENSATION - "Sad Sweet Dreamer"
- 26th October 1974 6 KEN BOOTHE - "Everything I Own"
- 16th November 1974 4 DAVID ESSEX - "Gonna Make You A Star"
- 7th December 1974 7 BARRY WHITE - "You're The First, The Last, My Everything"
- 21st December 1974 7 MUD - "Lonely This Christmas"
- 1975
- 18th January 1975 6 STATUS QUO - "Down Down"
- 25th January 1975 6 THE TYMES - "Ms. Grace"
- 1st February 1975 5 PILOT - "January"
- 22nd February 1975 9 STEVE HARLEY AND COCKNEY REBEL - "Make Me Smile (Come Up And See Me)"
- 8th March 1975 3 TELLY SAVALAS - "If"
- 22nd March 1975 5 BAY CITY ROLLERS - "Bye Bye Baby"
- 3rd May 1975 4 MUD - "Oh Boy"
- 3rd May 1975 6 TAMMY WYNETTE - "Stand By Your Man"
- 7th June 1975 2 WINDSOR DAVIES AND DON ESTELLE - "Whispering Grass"
- 28th June 1975 8 10cc - "I'm Not In Love"
- 12th July 1975 5 JOHNNY NASH - "Tears On My Pillow"
- 19th July 1975 3 BAY CITY ROLLERS - "Give A Little Love"
- 9th August 1975 2 TYPICALLY TROPICAL - "Barbados"
- 16th August 1975 7 THE STYLISTICS - "I Can't Give You Anything But My Love"
- 6th September 1975 3 ROD STEWART - "Sailing"
- 4th October 1975 2 DAVID ESSEX - "Hold Me Close"
- 25th October 1975 6 ART GARFUNKEL - "I Only Have Eyes For You"
- 8th November 1975 8 DAVID BOWIE - "Space Oddity"
- 22nd November 1975 5 BILLY CONNOLLY - "D.I.V.O.R.C.E."
- 29th November 1975 8 QUEEN - "Bohemian Rhapsody"
- 1976
- 31st January 1976 7 ABBA - "Mamma Mia"
- 14th February 1976 6 SLIK - "Forever And Ever"
- 21st February 1976 6 FOUR SEASONS - "December 1963 (Oh What A Night)"
- 6th March 1976 6 TINA CHARLES - "I Love To Love"
- 27th March 1976 2 BROTHERHOOD OF MAN - "Save Your Kisses For Me"
- 8th May 1976 7 ABBA - "Fernando"
- 2nd June 1976 2 JJ BARRIE - "No Charge"
- 12th June 1976 5 THE WURZELS - "Combine Harvester (Brand New Key)"
- 26th June 1976 6 THE REAL THING - "You To Me Are Everything"
- 17th July 1976 3 DEMIS ROUSSOS - The Roussos Phenomenon (EP)
- 24th July 1976 5 ELTON JOHN AND KIKI DEE - "Don't Go Breaking My Heart"
- 4th September 1976 10 ABBA - "Dancing Queen"
- 11th October 1976 4 PUSSYCAT - "Mississippi"
- 13th November 1976 5 CHICAGO - "If You Leave Me Now"
- 4th December 1976 3 SHOWADDYWADDY - "Under The Moon Of Love"
- 25th December 1976 3 JOHNNY MATHIS - "When A Child Is Born (Soleado)"
- 1977
- 15th January 1977 4 DAVID SOUL - "Don't Give Up On Us"
- 12th February 1977 8 JULIE COVINGTON - "Don't Cry For Me Argentina"
- 19th February 1977 5 LEO SAYER - "When I Need You"
- 12th March 1977 4 MANHATTAN TRANSFER - "Chanson D'Amour"
- 2nd April 1977 8 ABBA - "Knowing Me Knowing You"
- 7th May 1977 7 DENIECE WILLIAMS - "Free"
- 21st May 1977 5 ROD STEWART - "I Don't Want To Talk About It"/"The First Cut Is The Deepest"
- 7th June 1977 X THE SEX PISTOLS - "God Save The Queen"
- 18th June 1977 4 KENNY ROGERS - "Lucille"
- 25th June 1977 6 THE JACKSONS - "Show You The Way To Go"
- 2 July 1977 6 HOT CHOCOLATE - "So You Win Again"
- 23rd July 1977 9 DONNA SUMMER - "I Feel Love"
- 20th August 1977 5 BROTHERHOOD OF MAN - "Angelo"
- 27th August 1977 4 THE FLOATERS - "Float On"
- 3rd September 1977 5 ELVIS PRESLEY - "Way Down"
- 8th October 1977 6 DAVID SOUL - "Silver Lady"
- 29th October 1977 7 BACCARA - "Yes Sir, I Can Boogie"
- 5th November 1977 7 ABBA - "The Name Of The Game"
- 4th December 1977 2 WINGS - "Mull Of Kintyre"/"Girls School"
- 1978
- 4th February 1978 9 ALTHEA AND DONNA - "Uptown Top Ranking"
- 11th February 1978 2 BROTHERHOOD OF MAN - "Figaro"
- 18th February 1978 8 ABBA - "Take A Chance On Me"
- 11th March 1978 10 KATE BUSH - "Wuthering Heights"
- 8th April 1978 3 BRIAN AND MICHAEL - "Matchstalk Men And Matchstalk Cats And Dogs"
- 29th April 1978 7 THE BEE GEES - "Night Fever"
- 13th May 1978 5 BONEY M - "Rivers Of Babylon"
- 17th June 1978 6 OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN AND JOHN TRAVOLTA - "You're The One That I Want"
- 19th August 1978 3 THE COMMODORES - "Three Times A Lady"
- 23rd September 1978 4 10cc - "Dreadlock Holiday"
- 30th September 1978 6 JOHN TRAVOLTA AND OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN - "Summer Nights"
- 18th November 1978 6 THE BOOMTOWN RATS - "Rat Trap"
- 2nd December 1978 4 ROD STEWART - "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?"
- 9th December 1978 3 BONEY M - "Mary's Boy Child/Oh My Lord"
- 1979
- 6th January 1979 8 VILLAGE PEOPLE - "Y.M.C.A."
- 27th January 1979 9 IAN DURY AND THE BLOCKHEADS - "Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick"
- 3rd February 1979 9 BLONDIE - "Heart Of Glass"
- 3rd March 1979 7 THE BEE GEES - "Tragedy"
- 17th March 1979 7 GLORIA GAYNOR - "I Will Survive"
- 14th April 1979 6 ART GARFUNKEL - "Bright Eyes"
- 26th May 1979 6 BLONDIE - "Sunday Girl"
- 16th June 1979 8 ANITA WARD - "Ring My Bell"
- 30th June 1979 7 TUBEWAY ARMY - "Are 'Friends' Electric?"
- 28th July 1979 2 THE BOOMTOWN RATS - "I Don't Like Mondays"
- 25th August 1979 6 CLIFF RICHARD - "We Don't Talk Anymore"
- 22nd September 1979 8 GARY NUMAN - "Cars"
- 29th September 1979 5 THE POLICE - "Message In A Bottle"
- 29th October 1979 9 BUGGLES - "Video Killed The Radio Star"
- 27th October 1979 2 LENA MARTELL - "One Day At A Time"
- 17th November 1979 5 DR HOOK - "When You're In Love With A Beautiful Woman"
- 8th December 1979 7 THE POLICE - "Walking On The Moon"
- 15th December 1979 5 PINK FLOYD - "Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2)"
- 1980
- 19th January 1980 5 THE PRETENDERS - "Brass In Pocket"
- 2nd February 1980 8 THE SPECIALS - The Special AKA Live! (EP)
- 16th February 1980 2 KENNY ROGERS - "Coward Of The County"
- 1st March 1980 10 BLONDIE - "Atomic"
- 15th March 1980 5 FERN KINNEY - "Together We Are Beautiful"
- 22nd March 1980 9 THE JAM - "Going Underground"/"Dreams Of Children"
- 12th April 1980 6 THE DETROIT SPINNERS - "Working My Way Back To You"
- 26th April 1980 7 BLONDIE - "Call Me"
- 2nd May 1980 6 DEXY'S MIDNIGHT RUNNERS - "Geno"
- 17th May 1980 3 JOHNNY LOGAN - "What's Another Year?"
- 30th May 1980 4 MASH - "Theme From M*A*S*H (Suicide Is Painless)"
- 21st June 1980 2 DON MCLEAN - "Crying"
- 12th July 1980 6 OLIVIA NEWTON JOHN AND ELO - "Xanadu"
- 26th July 1980 7 ODYSSEY - "Use It Up And Wear It Out"
- 9th August 1980 10 ABBA - "The Winner Takes It All"
- 23rd August 1980 9 DAVID BOWIE - "Ashes To Ashes"
- 6th September 1980 7 THE JAM - "Start!"
- 13th September 1980 6 KELLY MARIE - "Feels Like I'm In Love"
- 27th September 1980 5 THE POLICE - "Don't Stand So Close To Me"
- 25th October 1980 5 BARBRA STREISAND - "Woman In Love"
- 15th November 1980 6 BLONDIE - "The Tide Is High"
- 29th November 1980 7 ABBA - "Super Trouper"
- 20th December 1980 6 JOHN LENNON - "(Just Like) Starting Over"
- 27th December 1980 1 ST WINIFRED'S SCHOOL CHOIR - "There's No One Quite Like Grandma"
- 1981
- 10th January 1981 2 JOHN LENNON - "Imagine"
- 7th February 1981 2 JOHN LENNON - "Woman"
- 21st February 1981 3 JOE DOLCE MUSIC THEATRE - "Shaddap You Face"
- 14th March 1981 7 ROXY MUSIC - "Jealous Guy"
- 28th March 1981 4 SHAKIN' STEVENS - "This Ole House"
- 18th April 1981 5 BUCKS FIZZ - "Making Your Mind Up"
- 9th May 1981 9 ADAM AND THE ANTS - "Stand And Deliver"
- 13th June 1981 5 SMOKEY ROBINSON - "Being With You"
- 27th June 1981 5 MICHAEL JACKSON - "One Day In Your Life"
- 11th July 1981 10 THE SPECIALS - "Ghost Town"
- 1st August 1981 4 SHAKIN' STEVENS - "Green Door"
- 29th August 1981 4 ANEKA - "Japanese Boy"
- 5th September 1981 9 SOFT CELL - "Tainted Love"
- 19th September 1981 8 ADAM AND THE ANTS - "Prince Charming"
- 17th October 1981 4 DAVE STEWART AND BARBARA GASKIN - "It's My Party"
- 14th November 1981 6 THE POLICE - "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic"
- 21st November 1981 8 QUEEN AND DAVID BOWIE - "Under Pressure"
- 5th December 1981 5 JULIO IGLESIAS - "Begin The Beguine"
- 12th December 1981 9 THE HUMAN LEAGUE - "Don't You Want Me"
- 1982
- 16th January 1982 7 BUCKS FIZZ - "The Land Of Make Believe"
- 30th January 1982 2 SHAKIN' STEVENS - "Oh Julie"
- 6th February 1982 8 KRAFTWERK - "The Model"/"Computer Love"
- 13th February 1982 6 THE JAM - "A Town Called Malice"/"Precious"
- 6th March 1982 4 TIGHT FIT - "The Lion Sleeps Tonight"
- 27th March 1982 3 GOOMBAY DANCE BAND - "Seven Tears"
- 17th April 1982 5 BUCKS FIZZ - "My Camera Never Lies"
- 24th April 1982 1 PAUL MCCARTNEY AND STEVIE WONDER - "Ebony And Ivory"
- 15th May 1982 2 NICOLE - "A Little Peace"
- 29th May 1982 7 MADNESS - "House Of Fun"
- 12th June 1982 7 ADAM ANT - "Goody Two Shoes"
- 26th June 1982 7 CHARLENE - "I've Never Been To Me"
- 3rd July 1982 3 CAPTAIN SENSIBLE - "Happy Talk"
- 17th July 1982 5 IRENE CARA - "Fame"
- 7th August 1982 10 DEXYS MIDNIGHT RUNNERS - "Come On Eileen"
- 4th September 1982 6 SURVIVOR - "Eye Of The Tiger"
- 2nd October 1982 7 MUSICAL YOUTH - "Pass The Dutchie"
- 23rd October 1982 7 CULTURE CLUB - "Do You Really Want To Hurt Me?"
- 13th November 1982 4 EDDY GRANT - "I Don't Wanna Dance"
- 4th December 1982 6 THE JAM - "Beat Surrender"
- 18th December 1982 1 RENEE AND RENATO - "Save Your Love"
- 1983
- 15th January 1983 4 PHIL COLLINS - "You Can't Hurry Love"
- 29th January 1983 5 MEN AT WORK - "Down Under"
- 19th February 1983 5 KAJAGOOGOO - "Too Shy"
- 5th March 1983 9 MICHAEL JACKSON - "Billie Jean"
- 12th March 1983 8 BONNIE TYLER - "Total Eclipse Of The Heart"
- 26th March 1983 6 DURAN DURAN - "Is There Something I Should Know"
- 9th April 1983 7 DAVID BOWIE - "Let's Dance"
- 30th April 1983 7 SPANDAU BALLET - "True"
- 28th May 1983 6 NEW EDITION - "Candy Girl"
- 4th June 1983 4 THE POLICE - "Every Breath You Take"
- 2nd July 1983 3 ROD STEWART - "Baby Jane"
- 23rd July 1983 6 PAUL YOUNG - "Wherever I Lay My Hat (That's My Home)"
- 13th August 1983 6 KC AND THE SUNSHINE BAND - "Give It Up"
- 3rd September 1983 3 UB40 - "Red Red Wine"
- 24th September 1983 8 CULTURE CLUB - "Karma Chameleon"
- 5th November 1983 6 BILLY JOEL - "Uptown Girl"
- 10th December 1983 5 THE FLYING PICKETS - "Only You"
- 1984
- 14th January 1984 5 PAUL MCCARTNEY - "Pipes Of Peace"
- 28th January 1984 8 FRANKIE GOES TO HOLLYWOOD - "Relax"
- 3rd March 1984 8 NENA - "99 Red Balloons"
- 24th March 1984 5 LIONEL RICHIE - "Hello"
- 5th May 1984 7 DURAN DURAN - "The Reflex"
- 2nd June 1984 6 WHAM! - "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go"
- 16th June 1984 10 FRANKIE GOES TO HOLLYWOOD - "Two Tribes"
- 18th August 1984 7 GEORGE MICHAEL - "Careless Whisper"
- 8th September 1984 3 STEVIE WONDER - "I Just Called To Say I Love You"
- 20th October 1984 6 WHAM! - "Freedom"
- 10th November 1984 9 CHAKA KHAN - "I Feel For You"
- 1st December 1984 4 JIM DIAMOND - "I Should Have Known Better"
- 8th December 1984 7 FRANKIE GOES TO HOLLYWOOD - "The Power Of Love"
- 15th December 1984 6 BAND AID - "Do They Know It's Christmas"
- 1985
- 19th January 1985 5 FOREIGNER - "I Want To Know What Love Is"
- 9th February 1985 5 ELAINE PAIGE AND BARBARA DICKSON - "I Know Him So Well"
- 9th March 1985 9 DEAD OR ALIVE - "You Spin Me Round (Like A Record)"
- 23rd March 1985 6 PHILIP BAILEY (DUET WITH PHIL COLLINS) - "Easy Lover"
- 20th April 1985 3 USA FOR AFRICA - "We Are The World"
- 4th May 1985 6 PHYLLIS NELSON - "Move Closer"
- 11th May 1985 6 PAUL HARDCASTLE - "19"
- 15th June 1985 3 THE CROWD - "You'll Never Walk Alone"
- 29th June 1985 4 SISTER SLEDGE - "Frankie"
- 27th July 1985 7 EURYTHMICS - "There Must Be An Angel (Playing With My Heart)"
- 3rd August 1985 9 MADONNA - "Into The Groove"
- 31st August 1985 2 UB40 and CHRISSIE HYNDE - "I Got You Babe"
- 7th September 1985 3 DAVID BOWIE AND MICK JAGGER - "Dancing In The Street"
- 5th October 1985 2 MIDGE URE - "If I Was"
- 12th October 1985 4 JENNIFER RUSH - "The Power Of Love"
- 16th November 1985 3 FEARGAL SHARKEY - "A Good Heart"
- 30th November 1985 6 WHAM! - "I'm Your Man"
- 14th December 1985 7 WHITNEY HOUSTON - "Saving All My Love For You"
- 28th December 1985 2 SHAKIN' STEVENS - "Merry Christmas Everyone"
- 1986
- 11th January 1986 9 PET SHOP BOYS - "West End Girls"
- 25th January 1986 8 A-HA - "The Sun Always Shines On TV"
- 8th February 1986 5 BILLY OCEAN - "When The Going Gets Tough, The Tough Get Going"
- 8th March 1986 6 DIANA ROSS - "Chain Reaction"
- 29th March 1986 4 CLIFF RICHARD AND THE YOUNG ONES ft HANK MARVIN - "Living Doll"
- 19th April 1986 8 GEORGE MICHAEL - "A Different Corner"
- 10th May 1986 6 FALCO - "Rock Me Amadeus"
- 17th May 1986 2 SPITTING IMAGE - "The Chicken Song"
- 7th June 1986 3 DOCTOR AND THE MEDICS - "Spirit In The Sky"
- 28th June 1986 4 WHAM! - "Edge Of Heaven"
- 12th July 1986 9 MADONNA - "Papa Don't Preach"
- 2nd August 1986 1 CHRIS DE BURGH - "The Lady In Red"
- 23rd August 1986 4 BORIS GARDINER - "I Want To Wake Up With You"
- 13th September 1986 5 THE COMMUNARDS - "Don't Leave Me This Way"
- 11th October 1986 6 MADONNA - "True Blue"
- 18th October 1986 1 NICK BERRY - "Every Loser Wins"
- 8th November 1986 5 BERLIN - "Take My Breath Away"
- 6th December 1986 7 EUROPE - "The Final Countdown"
- 20th December 1986 5 THE HOUSEMARTINS - "Caravan Of Love"
- 27th December 1986 7 JACKIE WILSON - "Reet Petite"
- 1987
- 24th January 1987 8 STEVE "SILK" HURLEY - "Jack Your Body"
- 7th February 1987 4 GEORGE MICHAEL AND ARETHA FRANKLIN - "I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)"
- 21st February 1987 7 BEN E KING - "Stand By Me"
- 14th March 1987 3 BOY GEORGE - "Everything I Own"
- 28th March 1987 7 MEL AND KIM - "Respectable"
- 4th April 1987 2 FERRY AID - "Let It Be"
- 25th April 1987 7 MADONNA - "La Isla Bonita"
- 9th May 1987 4 STARSHIP - "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now"
- 6th June 1987 8 WHITNEY HOUSTON - "I Wanna Dance With Somebody"
- 20th June 1987 1 THE FIRM - "Star Trekkin"
- 4th July 1987 8 PET SHOP BOYS - "It's A Sin"
- 25th July 1987 5 MADONNA - "Who's That Girl"
- 1st August 1987 8 LOS LOBOS - "La Bamba"
- 15th August 1987 5 MICHAEL JACKSON - "I Just Can't Stop Loving You"
- 29th August 1987 7 RICK ASTLEY - "Never Gonna Give You Up"
- 3rd October 1987 10 M/A/R/R/S - "Pump Up The Volume"/"Anitina (The First Time I See She Dance)"
- 17th October 1987 4 BEE GEES - "You Win Again"
- 14th November 1987 4 T'PAU - "China In Your Hand"
- 19th December 1987 10 PET SHOP BOYS - "Always On My Mind"
- 1988
- 16th January 1988 6 BELINDA CARLISLE - "Heaven Is A Place On Earth"
- 30th January 1988 5 TIFFANY - "I Think We're Alone Now"
- 20th February 1988 6 KYLIE MINOGUE - "I Should Be So Lucky"
- 26th March 1988 4 ASWAD - "Don't Turn Around"
- 9th April 1988 7 PET SHOP BOYS - "Heart"
- 30th April 1988 9 S'EXPRESS - "Theme From S'Express"
- 14th May 1988 3 FAIRGROUND ATTRACTION - "Perfect"
- 21st May 1988 4 WET WET WET - "With A Little Help From My Friends" / BILLY BRAGG ft CARA TIVEY - "She's Leaving Home"
- 18th June 1988 9 THE TIMELORDS - "Doctorin The Tardis"
- 25th June 1988 4 BROS - "I Owe You Nothing"
- 9th July 1988 2 GLENN MEDEIROS - "Nothing's Gonna Change My Love For You"
- 6th August 1988 7 YAZZ AND THE PLASTIC POPULATION - "The Only Way Is Up"
- 10th September 1988 4 PHIL COLLINS - "A Groovy Kind Of Love"
- 24th September 1988 3 THE HOLLIES - "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother"
- 8th October 1988 4 U2 - "Desire"
- 15th October 1988 2 WHITNEY HOUSTON - "One Moment In Time"
- 29th October 1988 6 ENYA - "Orinoco Flow"
- 19th November 1988 3 ROBIN BECK - "First Time"
- 10th December 1988 3 CLIFF RICHARD - "Mistletoe And Wine"
- 1989
- 7th January 1989 3 KYLIE MINOGUE AND JASON DONOVAN - "Especially For You"
- 28th January 1989 7 MARC ALMOND WITH GENE PITNEY - "Something's Gotten Hold Of My Heart"
- 25th February 1989 1 SIMPLE MINDS - "Belfast Child"
- 11th March 1989 4 JASON DONOVAN - "Too Many Broken Hearts"
- 25th March 1989 10 MADONNA - "Like A Prayer"
- 15th April 1989 5 BANGLES - "Eternal Flame"
- 13th May 1989 7 KYLIE MINOGUE - "Hand On Your Heart"
- 20th May 1989 4 THE CHRISTIANS, HOLLY JOHNSON, PAUL MCCARTNEY, GERRY MARSDEN, STOCK AITKEN AND WATERMAN - "Ferry Cross The Mersey"
- 10th June 1989 3 JASON DONOVAN - "Sealed With A Kiss"
- 24th June 1989 8 SOUL II SOUL ft CARON WHEELER - "Back To Life (How Ever Do You Want Me)"
- 22nd July 1989 3 SONIA - "You'll Never Stop Me Loving You"
- 5th August 1989 2 JIVE BUNNY AND THE MASTERMIXERS - "Swing The Mood"
- 9th September 1989 7 BLACK BOX - "Ride On Time"
- 21st October 1989 3 JIVE BUNNY AND THE MASTERMIXERS - "That's What I Like"
- 11th November 1989 5 LISA STANSFIELD - "All Around The World"
- 25th November 1989 4 NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK - "You Got It (The Right Stuff)"
- 16th December 1989 1 JIVE BUNNY AND THE MASTERMIXERS - "Let's Party"
- 23rd December 1989 2 BAND AID II - "Do They Know It's Christmas?"
- 1990
- 13th January 1990 3 NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK - "Hangin' Tough"
- 27th January 1990 4 KYLIE MINOGUE - "Tears On My Pillow"
- 3rd February 1990 10 SINEAD O'CONNOR - "Nothing Compares 2 U"
- 3rd March 1990 9 BEATS INTERNATIONAL ft LINDY LAYTON - "Dub Be Good To Me"
- 31st March 1990 6 SNAP! - "The Power"
- 14th April 1990 9 MADONNA - "Vogue"
- 12th May 1990 8 ADAMSKI - "Killer"
- 9th June 1990 8 ENGLANDNEWORDER - "World In Motion"
- 23rd June 1990 3 ELTON JOHN - "Sacrifice"/"Healing Hands"
- 28th July 1990 4 PARTNERS IN KRYME - "Turtle Power"
- 25th August 1990 1 BOMBALURINA - "Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini"
- 15th September 1990 5 STEVE MILLER BAND - "The Joker"
- 25th September 1990 4 MARIA McKEE - "Show Me Heaven"
- 27th October 1990 4 THE BEAUTIFUL SOUTH - "A Little Time"
- 3rd November 1990 8 THE RIGHTEOUS BROTHERS - "Unchained Melody"
- 1st December 1990 3 VANILLA ICE - "Ice Ice Baby"
- 29th December 1990 4 CLIFF RICHARD - "Saviour's Day"
- 1991
- 5th January 1991 6 IRON MAIDEN - "Bring Your Daughter... To The Slaughter"
- 19th January 1991 4 ENIGMA - "Sadness Part 1"
- 26th January 1991 5 QUEEN - "Innuendo"
- 2nd February 1991 8 THE KLF ft THE CHILDREN OF THE REVOLUTION - "3AM Eternal"
- 16th February 1991 4 THE SIMPSONS - "Do The Bartman"
- 9th March 1991 3 THE CLASH - "Should I Stay Or Should I Go"
- 23rd March 1991 1 HALE AND PACE - "The Stonk"
- 30th March 1991 4 CHESNEY HAWKES - "The One And Only"
- 4th May 1991 6 CHER - "The Shoop Shoop Song (It's In His Kiss)"
- 8th June 1991 6 COLOR ME BADD - "I Wanna Sex You Up"
- 29th June 1991 2 JASON DONOVAN - "Any Dream Will Do"
- 13th July 1991 4 BRYAN ADAMS - "(Everything I Do) I Do It For You"
- 2nd November 1991 7 U2 - "The Fly"
- 9th November 1991 4 VIC REEVES AND THE WONDER STUFF - "Dizzy"
- 23rd November 1991 7 MICHAEL JACKSON - "Black Or White"
- 7th December 1991 3 GEORGE MICHAEL AND ELTON JOHN - "Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me"
- 21st December 1991 6 QUEEN - "Bohemian Rhapsody"/"These Are The Days Of Our Lives"
- 1992
- 25th January 1992 2 WET WET WET - "Goodnight Girl"
- 22nd February 1992 8 SHAKESPEARS SISTER - "Stay"
- 18th April 1992 4 RIGHT SAID FRED - "Deeply Dippy"
- 9th May 1992 3 KWS - "Please Don't Go"/"Game Boy"
- 13th June 1992 5 ERASURE - ABBA-Esque EP
- 18th July 1992 4 JIMMY NAIL - "Ain't No Doubt"
- 8th August 1992 5 SNAP - "Rhythm Is A Dancer"
- 19th September 1992 6 THE SHAMEN - "Ebeneezer Goode"
- 17th October 1992 7 TASMIN ARCHER - "Sleeping Satellite"
- 31st October 1992 4 BOYZ II MEN - "End Of The Road"
- 21st November 1992 8 CHARLES AND EDDIE - "Would I Lie To You?"
- 5th December 1992 5 WHITNEY HOUSTON - "I Will Always Love You"
- 1993
- 13th February 1993 7 2 UNLIMITED - "No Limit"
- 20th March 1993 7 SHAGGY - "Oh Carolina"
- 3rd April 1993 3 THE BLUEBELLS - "Young At Heart"
- 1st May 1993 4 GEORGE MICHAEL AND QUEEN - Five Live EP
- 22nd May 1993 8 ACE OF BASE - "All That She Wants"
- 12th June 1993 3 UB40 - "I Can't Help Falling In Love With You"
- 26th June 1993 4 GABRIELLE - "Dreams"
- 17th July 1993 6 TAKE THAT - "Pray"
- 14th August 1993 7 FREDDIE MERCURY - "Living On My Own"
- 28th August 1993 7 CULTURE BEAT - "Mr Vain"
- 25th September 1993 7 JAZZYJEFF AND THE FRESH PRINCE - "Boom! Shake The Room"
- 9th October 1993 5 TAKE THAT ft LULU - "Relight My Fire"
- 23rd October 1993 7 MEAT LOAF - "I Would Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That)"
- 11th December 1993 2 MR BLOBBY - "Mr Blobby"
- 18th December 1993 6 TAKE THAT - "Babe"
- 1994
- 8th January 1994 6 CHAKA DEMUS AND PLIERS - "Twist And Shout"
- 22nd January 1994 4 D:REAM - "Things Can Only Get Better"
- 19th February 1994 5 MARIAH CAREY - "Without You"
- 19th March 1994 7 DOOP - "Doop"
- 9th April 1994 4 TAKE THAT - "Everything Changes"
- 23rd April 1994 6 THE ARTIST FORMERLY KNOWN AS PRINCE - "The Most Beautiful Girl In The World"
- 7th May 1994 4 TONY DI BART - "The Real Thing"
- 14th May 1994 3 STILTSKIN - "Inside"
- 21st May 1994 2 MANCHESTER UNITED FOOTBALL SQUAD - "Come On You Reds"
- 4th June 1994 2 WET WET WET - "Love Is All Around"
- 17th September 1994 7 WHIGFIELD - "Saturday Night"
- 15th October 1994 4 TAKE THAT - "Sure"
- 29th October 1994 5 PATO BANTON - "Baby Come Back"
- 26th November 1994 8 BABY D - "Let Me Be Your Fantasy"
- 10th December 1994 7 EAST 17 - "Stay Another Day"
- 1995
- 14th January 1995 4 REDNEX - "Cotton Eye Joe"
- 4th February 1995 6 CELINE DION - "Think Twice"
- 25th March 1995 3 CHER, CHRISSIE HYNDE AND NENEH CHERRY WITH ERIC CLAPTON - "Love Can Build A Bridge"
- 1st April 1995 4 THE OUTHERE BROTHERS - "Don't Stop (Wiggle Wiggle)"
- 8th April 1995 7 TAKE THAT - "Back For Good"
- 6th May 1995 6 OASIS - "Some Might Say"
- 13th May 1995 9 LIVIN' JOY - "Dreamer"
- 20th May 1995 2 ROBSON AND JEROME - "Unchained Melody"/"The White Cliffs Of Dover"
- 8th July 1995 4 THE OUTHERE BROTHERS - "Boom Boom Boom"
- 5th August 1995 6 TAKE THAT - "Never Forget"
- 26th August 1995 6 BLUR - "Country House"
- 9th September 1995 4 MICHAEL JACKSON - "You Are Not Alone"
- 23rd September 1995 8 SHAGGY - "Boombastic"
- 30th September 1995 4 SIMPLY RED - "Fairground"
- 28th October 1995 9 COOLIO ft LV - "Gangsta's Paradise"
- 11th November 1995 2 ROBSON AND JEROME - "I Believe"/"Up On The Roof"
- 9th December 1995 7 MICHAEL JACKSON - "Earth Song"
- 1996
- 20th January 1996 9 GEORGE MICHAEL - "Jesus To A Child"
- 27th January 1996 4 BABYLON ZOO - "Spaceman"
- 2nd March 1996 4 OASIS - "Don't Look Back In Anger"
- 9th March 1996 4 TAKE THAT - "How Deep Is Your Love?"
- 30th March 1996 9 THE PRODIGY - "Firestarter"
- 30th March 1996 8 MARK MORRISON - "Return Of The Mack"
- 4th May 1996 6 GEORGE MICHAEL - "Fastlove"
- 25th May 1996 6 GINA G - "Ooh Aah... Just A Little Bit"
- 1st June 1996 6 BADDIEL AND SKINNER AND THE LIGHTNING SEEDS - "Three Lions"
- 8th June 1996 6 FUGEES - "Killing Me Softly"
- 20th July 1996 1 GARY BARLOW - "Forever Love"
- 27th July 1996 9 SPICE GIRLS - "Wannabe"
- 14th September 1996 3 PETER ANDRE - "Flava"
- 21st September 1996 8 FUGEES - "Ready Or Not"
- 5th October 1996 3 DEEP BLUE SOMETHING - "Breakfast At Tiffany's"
- 12th October 1996 9 THE CHEMICAL BROTHERS - "Setting Sun"
- 19th October 1996 2 BOYZONE - "Words"
- 26th October 1996 8 SPICE GIRLS - "Say You'll Be There"
- 9th November 1996 2 ROBSON AND JEROME - "What Becomes Of The Brokenhearted?" / "Saturday Night At The Movies" / "You'll Never Walk Alone"
- 23rd November 1996 7 PRODIGY - "Breathe"
- 7th December 1996 3 PETER ANDRE - "I Feel You"
- 14th December 1996 2 BOYZONE - "A Different Beat"
- 21st December 1996 6 DUNBLANE - "Throw These Guns Away" / "Knockin' On Heaven's Door"
- 28th December 1996 7 SPICE GIRLS - "2 Become 1”
- 1997
- 18th January 1997 7 TORI AMOS - "Professional Widow (It's Got To Be Big)"
- 25th January 1997 7 WHITE TOWN - "Your Woman"
- 1st February 1997 5 BLUR - "Beetlebum"
- 8th February 1997 4 LL COOL J - "Ain't Nobody"
- 15th February 1997 2 U2 - "Discotheque"
- 22nd February 1997 7 NO DOUBT - "Don't Speak"
- 15th March 1997 6 SPICE GIRLS - "Who Do You Think You Are?" / "Mama"
- 5th April 1997 7 THE CHEMICAL BROTHERS - "Block Rockin' Beats"
- 12th April 1997 6 R. KELLY - "I Believe I Can Fly"
- 3rd May 1997 7 MICHAEL JACKSON - "Blood On The Dancefloor"
- 10th May 1997 4 GARY BARLOW - "Love Won't Wait"
- 17th May 1997 5 OLIVE - "You're Not Alone"
- 31st May 1997 6 ETERNAL ft BEBE WINANS - "I Wanna Be The Only One"
- 7th June 1997 8 HANSON - "MMMBop"
- 28th June 1997 3 PUFF DADDY, FAITH EVANS AND 112 - "I'll Be Missing You"
- 19th July 1997 4 OASIS - "D'You Know What I Mean?"
- 16th August 1997 5 WILL SMITH - "Men In Black"
- 13th September 1997 4 THE VERVE - "The Drugs Don't Work"
- 20th September 1997 2 ELTON JOHN - "Candle In The Wind '97" / "Something About The Way You Look Tonight"
- 25th October 1997 4 SPICE GIRLS - "Spice Up Your Life"
- 1st November 1997 6 AQUA - "Barbie Girl"
- 29th November 1997 6 VARIOUS ARTISTS - "Perfect Day"
- 13th December 1997 5 TELETUBBIES - "Teletubbies Say Eh-Oh!"
- 27th December 1997 6 SPICE GIRLS - "Too Much"
- 1998
- 17th January 1998 6 ALL SAINTS - "Never Ever"
- 24th January 1998 3 OASIS - "All Around The World"
- 31st January 1998 6 USHER - "You Make Me Wanna..."
- 7th February 1998 7 AQUA - "Doctor Jones"
- 21st February 1998 3 CELINE DION - "My Heart Will Go On"
- 28th February 1998 9 CORNERSHOP - "Brimful Of Asha (Norman Cook Remix)"
- 7th March 1998 8 MADONNA - "Frozen"
- 21st March 1998 5 RUN DMC vs JASON NEVINS - "It's Like That"
- 2nd May 1998 2 BOYZONE - "All That I Need"
- 9th May 1998 5 ALL SAINTS - "Lady Marmalade" / "Under The Bridge"
- 16th May 1998 6 AQUA - "Turn Back Time"
- 30th May 1998 6 THE TAMPERER featuring MAYA - "Feel It"
- 6th June 1998 7 B*WITCHED - "C'Est La Vie"
- 20th June 1998 5 BADDIEL, SKINNER AND THE LIGHTNING SEEDS - "Three Lions '98"
- 11th July 1998 6 BILLIE - "Because We Want To"
- 18th July 1998 4 ANOTHER LEVEL - "Freak Me"
- 25th July 1998 7 JAMIROQUAI - "Deeper Underground"
- 1st August 1998 6 SPICE GIRLS - "Viva Forever"
- 15th August 1998 1 BOYZONE - "No Matter What"
- 5th September 1998 7 THE MANIC STREET PREACHERS - "If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next"
- 12th September 1998 4 ALL SAINTS - "Bootie Call"
- 19th September 1998 6 ROBBIE WILLIAMS - "Millennium"
- 26th September 1998 3 MELANIE B ft MISSY ELLIOTT - "I Want You Back"
- 3rd October 1998 8 B*WITCHED - "Rollercoaster"
- 17th October 1998 4 BILLIE - "Girlfriend"
- 24th October 1998 5 SPACEDUST - "Gym And Tonic"
- 31st October 1998 8 CHER - "Believe"
- 19th December 1998 6 B*WITCHED - "To You I Belong"
- 26th December 1998 6 SPICE GIRLS - "Goodbye"
- 1999
- 2nd January 1999 6 CHEF - "Chocolate Salty Balls"
- 9th January 1999 6 STEPS - "Heartbeat" / "Tragedy"
- 16th January 1999 9 FATBOY SLIM - "Praise You"
- 23 January 1999 2 911 - "A Little Bit More"
- 30th January 1999 5 THE OFFSPRING - "Pretty Fly (For A White Guy)"
- 6th February 1999 7 ARMAND VAN HELDEN - "You Don't Know Me"
- 13th February 1999 5 BLONDIE - "Maria"
- 20th February 1999 3 LENNY KRAVITZ - "Fly Away"
- 21st February 1999 9 BRITNEY SPEARS - "...Baby One More Time"
- 13th March 1999 2 BOYZONE - "When The Going Gets Tough"
- 27th March 1999 8 B*WITCHED - "Blame It On The Weatherman"
- 3rd April 1999 7 MR OIZO - "Flat Beat"
- 17th April 1999 3 MARTINE McCUTCHEON - "Perfect Moment"
- 1st May 1999 4 WESTLIFE - "Swear It Again"
- 15th May 1999 8 THE BACKSTREET BOYS - "I Want It That Way"
- 22nd May 1999 3 BOYZONE - "You Needed Me"
- 29th May 1999 7 SHANKS AND BIGFOOT - "Sweet Like Chocolate"
- 12th June 1999 1 BAZ LUHRMANN - "Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen)"
- 19th June 1999 4 S CLUB 7 - "Bring It All Back"
- 26th June 1999 4 THE VENGABOYS - "Boom Boom Boom Boom"
- 3rd July 1999 5 ATB - "9PM (Til I Come)"
- 17th July 1999 7 RICKY MARTIN - "Livin' La Vida Loca"
- 7th August 1999 2 RONAN KEATING - "When You Say Nothing At All"
- 21st August 1999 5 WESTLIFE - "If I Let You Go"
- 28th August 1999 5 GERI HALLIWELL - "Mi Chico Latino"
- 4th September 1999 4 LOU BEGA - "Mambo No.5 (A Little Bit Of...)"
- 18th September 1999 3 THE VENGABOYS - "We're Going To Ibiza!"
- 25th September 1999 6 EIFFEL 65 - "Blue (Da Ba Dee)"
- 16th October 1999 8 CHRISTINA AGUILERA - "Genie In A Bottle"
- 30th October 1999 3 WESTLIFE - "Flying Without Wings"
- 6th November 1999 7 FIVE - "Keep On Movin'"
- 13th November 1999 2 GERI HALLIWELL - "Lift Me Up"
- 20th November 1999 4 ROBBIE WILLIAMS - "She's The One" / "It's Only Us"
- 27th November 1999 4 WAMDUE PROJECT - "King Of My Castle"
- 4th December 1999 1 CLIFF RICHARD - "The Millennium Prayer"
- 25th December 1999 3 WESTLIFE - "I Have A Dream"/"Seasons In The Sun"
- 2000
- 22nd January 2000 4 MANIC STREET PREACHERS - "The Masses Against The Classes"
- 29th January 2000 7 BRITNEY SPEARS - "Born To Make You Happy"
- 5th February 2000 5 GABRIELLE - "Rise"
- 19th February 2000 4 OASIS - "Go Let It Out"
- 26th February 2000 8 ALL SAINTS - "Pure Shores"
- 11th March 2000 4 MADONNA - "American Pie"
- 18th March 2000 3 CHICANE ft BRYAN ADAMS - "Don't Give Up"
- 25th March 2000 4 GERI HALLIWELL - "Bag It Up"
- 1st April 2000 7 MELANIE C ft LISA "LEFT-EYE" LOPES - "Never Be The Same Again"
- 8th April 2000 3 WESTLIFE - "Fool Again"
- 15th April 2000 8 CRAIG DAVID - "Fill Me In"
- 22nd April 2000 6 FRAGMA - "Toca's Miracle"
- 6th May 2000 8 OXIDE AND NEUTRINO - "Bound 4 Da Reload (Casualty)"
- 13th May 2000 10 BRITNEY SPEARS - "Oops!... I Did It Again"
- 20th May 2000 6 MADISON AVENUE - "Don't Call Me Baby"
- 27th May 2000 5 BILLIE PIPER - "Day And Night"
- 3rd June 2000 4 SONIQUE - "It Feels So Good"
- 24th June 2000 6 BLACK LEGEND - "You See The Trouble With Me"
- 1st July 2000 5 KYLIE MINOGUE - "Spinning Around"
- 8th July 2000 7 EMINEM - "The Real Slim Shady"
- 15th July 2000 5 THE CORRS - "Breathless"
- 22nd July 2000 6 RONAN KEATING - "Life Is A Rollercoaster"
- 29th July 2000 2 FIVE + QUEEN - "We Will Rock You"
- 5th August 2000 4 CRAIG DAVID - "7 Days"
- 12th August 2000 6 ROBBIE WILLIAMS - "Rock DJ"
- 19th August 2000 5 MELANIE C - "I Turn To You"
- 26th August 2000 9 SPILLER - "Groovejet (If This Ain't Love)"
- 2nd September 2000 6 MADONNA - "Music"
- 9th September 2000 5 A1 - "Take On Me"
- 16th September 2000 7 MODJO - "Lady (Hear Me Tonight)"
- 30th September 2000 2 MARIAH CAREY AND WESTLIFE - "Against All Odds"
- 14th October 2000 9 ALL SAINTS - "Black Coffee"
- 21st October 2000 8 U2 - "Beautiful Day"
- 28th October 2000 4 STEPS - "Stomp"
- 4th November 2000 3 SPICE GIRLS - "Holler"/"Let Love Lead The Way"
- 11th November 2000 3 WESTLIFE - "My Love"
- 18th November 2000 8 A1 - "Same Old Brand New You"
- 24th November 2000 5 LEANN RIMES - "Can't Fight The Moonlight"
- 2nd December 2000 8 DESTINY'S CHILD - "Independent Women, Part 1"
- 9th December 2000 4 S CLUB 7 - "Never Had A Dream Come True"
- 16th December 2000 8 EMINEM - "Stan"
- 23rd December 2000 6 BOB THE BUILDER - "Can We Fix It?"
- 2001
- 13th January 2001 4 RUI DA SILVA ft CASSANDRA - "Touch Me"
- 20th January 2001 6 JENNIFER LOPEZ - "Love Don't Cost A Thing"
- 27th January 2001 2 LIMP BIZKIT - "Rollin' (Air Raid Vehicle)"
- 10th February 2001 6 ATOMIC KITTEN - "Whole Again"
- 10th March 2001 6 SHAGGY feat. RIKROK - "It Wasn't Me"
- 17th March 2001 4 WESTLIFE - "Uptown Girl"
- 24th March 2001 4 HEAR'SAY - "Pure And Simple"
- 14th April 2001 5 EMMA BUNTON - "What Took You So Long?"
- 28th April 2001 9 DESTINYS CHILD - "Survivor"
- 5th May 2001 6 S CLUB 7 - "Don't Stop Movin'"
- 12th May 2001 4 GERI HALLIWELL - "It's Raining Men"
- 2nd June 2001 7 DJ PIED PIPER AND THE MASTER OF CEREMONY - "Do You Really Like It?"
- 9th June 2001 4 SHAGGY ft RAYVON - "Angel"
- 30th June 2001 5 CHRISTINA AGUILERA, LIL KIM, MYA AND PINK - "Lady Marmalade"
- 7th July 2001 3 HEAR'SAY - "The Way To Your Love"
- 14th July 2001 6 ROGER SANCHEZ - "Another Chance"
- 22nd July 2001 5 ROBBIE WILLIAMS - "Eternity" / "The Road To Mandalay"
- 4th August 2001 2 ATOMIC KITTEN - "Eternal Flame"
- 18th August 2001 9 SO SOLID CREW - "21 Seconds"
- 25th August 2001 5 FIVE - "Let's Dance"
- 8th September 2001 4 BLUE - "Too Close"
- 15th September 2001 4 BOB THE BUILDER - "Mambo No. 5"
- 22nd September 2001 1 DJ OTZI - "Hey Baby (Uhh, Ahh)"
- 29th September 2001 9 KYLIE MINOGUE - "Can't Get You Out Of My Head"
- 27th October 2001 4 AFROMAN - "Because I Got High"
- 17th November 2001 2 WESTLIFE - "Queen Of My Heart"
- 24th November 2001 4 BLUE - "If You Come Back"
- 1st December 2001 5 S CLUB 7 - "Have You Ever"
- 8th December 2001 6 DANIEL BEDINGFIELD - "Gotta Get Thru This"
- 22nd December 2001 4 ROBBIE WILLIAMS AND NICOLE KIDMAN - "Somethin' Stupid"
- 2002
- 19th January 2002 9 AALIYAH - "More Than A Woman"
- 26th January 2002 6 GEORGE HARRISON - "My Sweet Lord" (2002 re-issue)
- 2nd February 2002 5 ENRIQUE IGLESIAS - "Hero"
- 2nd March 2002 3 WESTLIFE - "World Of Our Own"
- 9th March 2002 3 WILL YOUNG - "Anything Is Possible" / "Evergreen"
- 30th March 2002 3 GARETH GATES - "Unchained Melody"
- 27th April 2002 4 OASIS - "The Hindu Times"
- 4th May 2002 10 SUGABABES - "Freak Like Me"
- 11th May 2002 6 HOLLY VALANCE - "Kiss Kiss"
- 18th May 2002 2 RONAN KEATING - "If Tomorrow Never Comes"
- 25th May 2002 6 LIBERTY X - "Just A Little"
- 1st June 2002 4 EMINEM - "Without Me"
- 8th June 2002 6 WILL YOUNG - "Light My Fire"
- 22nd June 2002 3 ELVIS VS JXL - "A Little Less Conversation"
- 20th July 2002 6 GARETH GATES - "Anyone Of Us (Stupid Mistake)"
- 10th August 2002 4 DARIUS - “Colourblind”
- 24th August 2002 8 SUGABABES - "Round Round"
- 31st August 2002 4 BLAZIN' SQUAD - "Crossroads"
- 7th September 2002 2 ATOMIC KITTEN - "The Tide Is High (Get The Feeling)"
- 28th September 2002 6 PINK - "Just Like A Pill"
- 5th October 2002 2 GARETH GATES AND WILL YOUNG - "The Long And Winding Road"
- 19th October 2002 5 LAS KETCHUP - "Asereje (The Ketchup Song)"
- 26th October 2002 7 NELLY ft KELLY ROWLAND - “Dilemma”
- 9th November 2002 5 DJ SAMMY & YANOU ft DO - "Heaven"
- 16th November 2002 2 WESTLIFE - "Unbreakable"
- 23rd November 2002 8 CHRISTINA AGUILERA ft REDMAN - "Dirrty"
- 7th December 2002 4 DANIEL BEDINGFIELD - "If You're Not The One"
- 14th December 2002 8 EMINEM - “Lose Yourself”
- 21st December 2002 3 BLUE ft ELTON JOHN - "Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word"
- 28th December 2002 9 GIRLS ALOUD - "Sound Of The Underground"
- 2003
- 25th January 2003 1 DAVID SNEDDON - "Stop Living The Lie"
- 8th February 2003 7 T.A.T.U. - "All The Things She Said"
- 8th March 2003 6 CHRISTINA AGUILERA - "Beautiful"
I haven’t counted, but by eye you seem to mark on a sort of flattened, short-tailed bell curve.
Yes – there’s a kind of rough attempt at normal distribution being made (i.e. 10s should be rarer than 9s should be rarer than 8s – 5s and 6s should be the most common).
The average mark so far is 5.36.
The stats suggest that I should have made a couple more things 10 so far.
Is ‘Everlasting Love’ missing from this list? Can’t see it.
It’s not been updated since “The Ballad Of Bonnie And Clyde”. I’m going to update end of every month I think.
update please!
End of every Plutonian Space Month.
Tom, I’ve put in place the automatic index scheme i outlined to you. Let me know how you like it – and what you want to do with the ongoing Popular ‘meta data’. (I’ve got a copy of your old manual text, just in case)
Alan – sorry I didn’t reply – I wuv it!
I will try and conform to the meta data – of course I need to write moar entries first.
OK, clearly I will have to work out how to do the meta data
Don’t worry – yr golden. You were fooled by the aggressive caching we do on FT. I’ll see if I can work out a way to ‘expire’ this page when you do a new popular post.
(However, next time you want to do a ‘twofer’ – like dodd/stones – i might need to tweak the presentation of the post. though if you look at that post you can see how the metadata works for that.)
Introducing: the FT Readers’ top 100
Howe often is this updated as there are some with 5 votes or more and a higher than 5.8 average score and there not listed in this Top 100.
It was updating twice a day, but i just changed it to 4 times a day, which is still a bit stingy as the calculation isn’t all that resource greedy. still the data won’t change that often, so seems not too bad.
Highest ranked 10: “Israelites” (#2) – I’m amazed at this! Tho not displeased.
Highest ranked 9: “Good Vibration” (#1) – Fair enough
Highest ranked 8: “Space Oddity” (#9) – Hmmm
Highest ranked 7: “The Name Of The Game” (#17) – I can see why it’s loved so much.
Highest ranked 6: “Geno” (#23) – still wildly overrated I reckon.
Highest ranked 5: “A Whiter Shade Of Pale” (#34) – Hands up, I was wrong about this.
Not sure what the highest rated 4-3-2-1 are (not counting K Dodd obv!). I’m guessing “Imagine” and “Vincent” for the 2 and 1.
Highest ranked 4:”What A Wonderful World” (#100) – still too corny for me.
Highest ranked 3:”She” (#190) – was wrong about this one too.
Highest ranked 2:”Hold Me Close” (#305) – a bit harsh possibly.
Highest ranked 1:”Vincent” (#224) – bah!
And going the other way:
Lowest ranked 10:”Atomic” (#41) – would probably be my lowest too
Lowest ranked 9: “Out Of Time” (#152) – OK, I’m not sure why I gave it 9 either
Lowest ranked 8: “Lady Madonna” (#185) – surprised how relatively disliked this is
Lowest ranked 7: “I’ve Never Been To Me” (#329) – nor have you lot
Lowest ranked 6: “Summer Nights” (#342) – this is total fun hating
Lowest ranked 5: “Amazing Grace” (#374) – only I appreciate its dronelike qualities
Lowest ranked 4: “Billy, Don’t Be A Hero” (#368) – not as bad as all that
Lowest ranked 3: “Seven Tears” (#383) – harsh!
Lowest ranked 2: “Figaro” (#384) – there are worse things
Lowest ranked 1: “Long Haired Lover” and “No-One Quite Like Grandma” (equal #385 – after 385 we’re in the land of <5 votes)
It’s not letting me vote on any songs at the moment or showing me what other people have averaged
Problem solved – now I’ve gone back to “pink”
oopsy. i will update the css with the new additions used by the voting feature
(We changed it so that you can’t see averages until you have voted)
Jacko into the Top 20 I see!
should the simple chronological list be reversed, so recent entries are at the top?
Let’s give it a go!
From the point of view of somebody trying to make a comment on the very first entry, this is inconvenient to say the least. Recent entries I can find easily, but I did think one of the points of this index was to be able to find older entries quickly…
Duly noted! Once we’ve had it this way for a month or so I’ll do some analytics fu and I can work out which is more effective for getting people to entries that have dropped off the front page.
Ooh – how about a “random entry” function?
The ‘?’ random link on the banner goes to a random FT post
it could be tied to a random popular post if clicked from a popular post or the /popular page.
No strong feelings either way, but I would have thought people were more likely to want to comment on fairly recent entries than on the very earliest entries, and if they want to comment on something from the 60s or 70s it doesn’t take long to scroll down whichever way the chronological list is ordered, once you get used to it.
#26 – it could be but I’d prefer keeping the “?” as is and having a separate random entry link I could put in the text box.
[…] If you’d like to read about these records (and everything else that topped the UK charts from 1952 forward), prepare to kill hours and hours reading Popular. The complete list of records Tom has covered so far is here. […]
OMG go Doris Day!
hope you don’t mind me disclosing the current votes for the 2 exact ‘9’s currently on populist
secret love: 10 10 9 8 8
dancing queen: 10 10 10 10 9 9 9 9 9 8 6
they love to love, but our readers just equally love to dance
Hi Tom.
Fun idea you have here with just one little criticism of the scoring methods. Ideally you would have just asked everyone to ONLY score those songs they would give a 10 to, and no other score.
There are people out there who will truly love a great song and give it 10.
Other people however will absolutely HATE the same song and score 1 just to try and get it off the top 100 list.
An example will surely be “Bohemian Rhapsody” which, over the last 34 years has been shown to be loved and hated in equal measues! You will end up with a kind of tug-of-war going on over quite a few of the songs! Or maybe that was part of your intention – if so – tee hee.
there are strengths and weaknesses in any scoring system, but
“Ideally you would have just asked everyone to ONLY score those songs they would give a 10 to, and no other score”
would give an average of 10 for everything! we could only count the number of votes
Fair point, but you would still have a top 100, with the record scoring most 10’s being top of the list.
Ottersteve – we kind of do have this, in that we do polls at the end of each (chart) year which are binary yes/no ones (though based on 6 or above, not 10). I’ve not actually bothered running a comparison yet though (rubs hands in statistical glee…)
Hello everyone, we’re in The Times today. http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/article6847964.ece
Very exciting, though the interview happened 2 weeks post-new-baby and I’m left wondering what I meant sometimes!
A few notes on comments – from the shiny new features Alan has installed:
The most-commented Popular post is “No Charge” by JJ Barrie, with 272.
Two other posts have got more than 200 comments – “Dancing Queen” and “Night Fever”.
25 more posts are comment centurions – most recently The Crowd – so that’s 28 in all that have got into triple figures.
At the other end of the scale, 8 posts have 0 comments, and 30 only have one (in some cases I know this to be a spambot that slipped through the net)
Tom.
Re your comment at 35. Your end of each year chart is a great idea, but not all of the years seem to have this feature. I’d love to see all years accounted for as I enjoy putting my ten pen’th in.
On the subject of the readers poll. I suspect that many of the voters have been swayed by your wise words on a few of the songs. It’s my guess that’s because many readers were simply too young or not even born when certain (high-ranked, on the above chart) tracks were at No.1
I was fortunate to be around to fully enjoy the 60’s “pop boom” and I believe most Beatles fans would not put down Yellow Submarine/Eleanor Rigby as the best of the Beatles No.1’s. For me, personally, “She Loves you” was the true trigger of the wave of musical euphoria that swept the country at that time (I was 9 years old). Hey Jude comes a close 2nd for me. If you had given a high score of your own to these tracks – I’m convinced they would have been in the readers top 10 too.
Just an observation – not taking it all TOO seriously.
Steve
i’ve just tagged up the 14 ‘year-poll’ posts with ‘popular year poll’ so they appear here:
http://freakytrigger.co.uk/tag/popular-year-poll/
So, are we ever going to be able to vote in the outstanding year polls?
it won’t take a lot to set them up – but it’s Tom’s call. He was setting up the old ones as a way to take up comment crew slack when he’s busy.
Today would be a good day to put one up – though I’m too busy even to do a poll at the moment!
i’ll put up ’74 later on then if you like? it’s also a matter of bringing it to the attention of the crew. i guess by a comment on that (back in time) post and on the most recent popular post?
Cool, thanks Alan!
What I think I’ll do is frontpage it for a day or two so the regulars all see it, then it can be plunged back into the Mud.
I was doing a little playing around w/my scores today, having set up a better excel file for them (NON-NERDS LOOK AWAY). I wanted to answer the qn: what is the best run of #1 hits?
My answer (so far at least), if you take a 10-song average, is the stretch which starts inauspiciously with Boney M’s “Mary’s Boy Child” and runs until “Are ‘Friends’ Electric” (#430-439).
But, if you look at my best ERA for pop – defined as a 50-song average – it’s #171-#220 – starting with Roy Orbison’s “It’s Over” and ending with Chris Farlowe’s “Out Of Time” – so mid-64 to mid-66.
I want to do this with the reader marks and will pester the relevant ppl for a .csv file :)
Tom, i’ve sent a 40K tab file to freakytrigger gmail. it’s pop_no, post_title and scores.
the scores column has individual scores comma separated. if i get you right, you’re just after the average score, so i could have just given you the ave score, but i figured you might want to go wild on the stats, so you could get #of10 scores, #of9 scores, etc, and all manner of statpr0n.
if you can’t parse the data and you’d rather just have the ave, let me know.
quick fact: Come On Eileen has the highest number of votes by some distance.
(i have deleted all user ID info, so the scoring given in the file is anonymous BTW.)
I have been parsing away for about an hour. Lovely stuff.
Can we have an Unpopulist as well? On the readers’ scores? The bottom 20 or 50 would satisfy curiosity…
i spoil you i really do.
i wasn’t sure what to do about the numbering, but the 100th is the worst (as you can see from the score).
It will take quite a bad record to shift that one I think. Or a sudden surge in wuv for St Wins.
Wow, that was quick! Ta very much. What an entertaining roll call of drivel.
Donna still has quite a substantial lead on the competition at the top. Be interesting to see what, if anything, will overtake it.
I am this close ][ to doing little google graph charts of the vote distribution for each title.
Procul Harum’s ‘A Whiter Shade of Pale’ has vanished for me on this list, for some reason…
There is no reason and the truth is plain to see.
So, seriously, what’s going on with the Whiter Shade entry? Its comment thread had some Doors discussion in it IIRC…
By my reckoning the greatest difference in FT reader scores for number ones by any one artist is 7.4 for Kate Bush – 9.00 for Wuthering Heights and 1.6 for Let It Be (Ferry Aid).
If appearances in charity conglomerations don’t count, it’s Mick Jagger with 6.07 – Paint It, Black (8.6) minus Dancing in the Street (2.53).
If you discount all charity records it’s Paul McCartney with 6.01 – Eleanor Rigby/Yellow Submarine (8.92) minus Ebony and Ivory (2.91).
Does this tell us anything other than that charity records aren’t much cop and that McCartney’s quality control isn’t great, which we knew anyway?
Re 56: It’s disappeared from the list, but the piece is still there – http://freakytrigger.co.uk/popular/2006/05/procul-harum-a-whiter-shade-of-pale/
@mark m, 58. Thanks for that.
!! the procol article has lost its score is what’s happened.
(there are many popular posts that aren’t actual #1 entries, so the list only shows those with valid score and dates)
unless Tom can remember the score he gave (!) i will have to dig through the database archives to see what it was before whichever accidental data trickery lost us that :-(
It was a 5 (and it had lost it’s date and order number too, weird.
(possibly it never had them from the time I got Tom to put the data into special fields instead of in the article)
[…] Everyone already knows that Tom Ewing’s Popular, his rundown of the complete history of the UK #1 singles, is a must-read, but his latest post (the […]
I’m new here and I’ve been trying to find Populist so I can add my vote but can’t find it.
@63 Hi Brendan – welcome aboard – someone else may be able to confirm but I suspect that you may need to be registered and logged on to the site first. Then when you select any of the Popular entries you should see a range of scores for you to award that song. You can sort the list above by score as I’m sure you’ve worked out.
Things are a bit quiet here at the moment but I remain optimistic that Popular will be revived at some stage. Do feel free to add your comments to existing entries, as that is often the cue for revived discussion on a forgotten gem.
Don’t I have to be registered and logged in in order to be able to have my name with my comment? In which case I still can’t see where the scores are when I look at the entries.
Never mind. Sorry for being dumb. I found the login and hopefully when the password is sent I should be all set. Thank you for help lonepilgrim.
Date of God Save The Queen should be 11th June.
The Outhere Brothers achieving the dreaded double here. That is quite a feat, though, as are Elvis, Wonder and McCartney playing the Rangers of last year/Leeds United of 2007/pre-sheikhs Man City of 1998 role.
In the ave v std dev graphs, I’m intrigued by the outside edge in the top left and top right.
top left is widely disliked, not-insignificant love
both star trekkin and the chicken song here (quite close) which is perhaps about the appeal of comedy in general, not just comedy songs. (Slightly further in TWO stevie wonder tracks)
top right is widely loved, not-insignificant dislike
Wizzard “see my baby jive”, Hendrix “voodoo chile” dexy’s “come on eileen”, S&G “bridge over troubled water” and pistols “god save the queen”. The latter is a special case, the others is it too easy to ascribe overplayed/overfamilar? How about ‘can’t stop paying attention’ which is to say they have that quality you get when you love something so much you play it to yourself on repeat until you resent your own compulsion. (Slightly further inside is Total Eclipse of the Heart, which if I ruled the world would be clustered around the Donna Summer)
How long does it take for votes on these polls to be recorded in the above statistics?
Curious as I just marked 100th “best” entry so far, Beats International 1/10 (nothing personal, I’ll move it back to its natural 8, just an experiment!) but pushing the average mark down from 7.51 to 7.3 hasn’t made anything else emerge in its place yet.
Thanks for this marvelous invention anyway – after all, I’m Daniel Sullivan, and standard deviation was my idea!
Ah, it works. No worries. Just saved Dub Be Good To Me from being pushed off a cliff (though its author really should be for Slash Dot Dash Dot Dash Dot Com.)
Apologies if this has been discussed already, but I haven’t seen it, so here goes:
At this writing, the highest ranked song from the 90’s is “Ready or Not” at the relatively modest position of #42. In contrast, I counted a whopping 14 records from the 90’s in the bottom 40. This seems rather….interesting.
Possible theories:
1) The number ones of the 90’s just collectively aren’t very good.
2) The increasing number of participants in this forum, and increasing variety of opinions, means a regression to the mean of high-ranked songs. Of course, there should then be a corresponding regression to the mean of low-ranked songs, which clearly hasn’t happened.
3) There is a greater agreement on what constitutes the pantheon of “great” songs the further back in time one goes, whereas one’s opinion of newer songs, which are more likely to be remembered as they were released in real time, is more likely to be affected by personal biases (ie: a song in a more recent genre I don’t care for is not likely to get a high score from me even if I can’t find any objective flaws in it).
Thoughts?
I personally think it is theory 1). I made the point that Baby D was the best #1 since 1990 so I’m in full agreement that there were very few classic #1s in the time that’s been covered in that decade thus far. That said Sinead O’Connor would have been close to, if not in my all-time top 10 #1s and I’m amazed that it’s so low in the readers’ all-time list.
Looking for trends over time, i notice that clicking on 60s 70s 80s 90s on http://freakytrigger.co.uk/populist/8/ there does appear to be a shift in scoring. in the 60s nothing averages under 2.5, by the 80s the centre of gravity has shifted over and by the 90s little is over 7.5.
I detect some consensus in the comments that there was a saggy bit of the 90s, post Sinead O’Connor (technically the highest scoring 90s), but we’re not out of it yet. [edit – ok sinead is TOM’s highest 90s, yr right fugees are higher with readers at the mo)
re 3) looking at the distribution of std dev on the same graph – it looks to me like it spreads out and reaches higher in the 70s than in the 80s or 90s,
#72. I’ll bite. I like theories 1 and 3 a lot. Delicious truisms. Mmmmm. Truisms.
Theory 2 – I think you’re onto something, but don’t like the use of regression (it’s not that). I think you’ve highlighted that the communality and commonality of emotion towards old stuff tends towards fondness; in new stuff, we converge only in disapproval. Why? Dunno. Your thoughts?
http://freakytrigger.co.uk/populist/9/ looks like it shows (at the extremes at least) that the less a song a liked, the fewer the votes, and the more it’s liked the more votes it picks up. which might counter (though not neutralise) some mean-regression
A fourth theory – we are not attracting enough new commenters for whom the 90s was “their” era to counteract the consensus effect seen in theory 3. And at the other end, we have commenters sticking around because of the writing and the company – excellent and flattering reasons! – not because of any particular sympathy with the material being discussed.
Or – more optimistically! – we are getting new 90s lovers but they can’t be bothered to work their way back through 700 entries to mark down 60s and 70s hits they don’t care about.
A sixth theory: there are quite a few new-ish arrivals (eg me) who don’t understand how it works.
If you put two and two together…
I find theory 3 most persuasive, in general. Although I suspect as we get further on, with a sharp increase in the quantity of no 1s per year each to come (and the concomitant increase in the proportion of no 1s that were essentially “fanbase buys” that didn’t really cross over to a wider audience), there will be an even greater proportion of low scoring votes yet to come…
Ironically, despite my starting this latest conversation, I’ve generally been too lazy to officially register my own vote, even though I’ve commented on every entry since the beginning of 1995. So my own behavior supports the theories of #78-79. FWIW, I consider myself an 80s-90s-10s (but not 00s) guy when it comes to music.
How about we consider yet another theory, that the hypothesis that Tom put forward early on that music gets better with each succeeding decade has been demonstrated not to hold true? Not necessarily a bit of sixties jingoism I think; much of what the sixties threw up was very different from what came before but by the nineties the product was very much rooted in that earlier decade. Some may argue, and no doubt will, that developments in recording technologies constitute an “improvement” artistically, but I would argue that that was separate from artistic radicalism. 90s R&B for all its technological gimmickry was still the R&B of the Stax studios and house music, though it had a whole battery of computer technology to play with by the 90s, what still essentially the same thing that John Lennon and George Martin produced with buttons and string, and probably goes back even further to the decidedly un-pop work of Messiaen and Varèse.
#82: yes, much as I enjoy reading Tom’s writing, I have to disagree with him there. Of course it depends what you mean by “better” – better made/recorded/produced, perhaps, but I’d have great difficulty in accepting “better” in any artistic or aesthetic sense.
How about better beats?
Just a brief note for admin: time to add a “baby jump” anchor for 1995, too, up at the top, please!
Also, the makeover has made the charts based on reader votes….very confused….
@34 What about “better beats”? In what way better?
The lovely FT Reader Top 100 and Bottom 100 are broken at the moment with the new design. Or to put it another way: “I Feel Love” suddenly ousted from the top by “Stand and Deliver”! “There’s No One Quite Like Grandma” beaten to the very bottom by “Say You’ll Be There!”
is fix. a lot of fixes are coming on line bit by bit…
By golly, that was quick. Nice work.
Now that we have this new design that puts a prominent grey square next to our comments, I’m wondering how to replace it with a custom icon as many of you have done. Something in our WP profile? I can’t tell where.
Those images are ‘gravatar’s that you can setup at http://gravatar.com
As not many people set them up, we’ll try to hide the block when you don’t have one.
I added the grey circle (tho will look square on older browsers) thinking it might subtly encourage more avatar usage ha. I don’t mind if we have them or don’t personally although they can be quite useful for poster ID and I am always happy to see little DJ Alan and Sukrat’s Joan of Arc party face).
SOONER IS BETTER THAN LATER!
we should add a link to gravatar.com in the ‘add your comment’ bit when people are logged in (and show the current one too obv)
Regarding the low rating of the most of the 1990s hits, this for me has always been fairly worrying as it feels like the closer we get to my musical golden era the further away most regular commentators are getting from theirs. While I can see Tom’s ratings remaining fair, the Popular in a few years time when every song is getting a 1 or 2 at most from most readers doesn’t sound very pleasant to me.
Looking at the last couple of years I can see two easy 10s for me in the year 2012, and some strong 8 or 9s at least in 2013. But I fear, for the most part, I might be alone there.
#94 If it makes you feel better, I’m 41 years old and think some of the best music ever to grace the top of the UK or US charts has been in the past three years. There will probably be a 10 from me in 2012, and would be a strong 10 in 2011 except that I keep forgetting it only peaked at UK#2 (its close cousin was a UK#1 and will probably get a 9 from me).
And I don’t think I’m alone as said songs may not be loved by everyone, but I have yet to meet anyone who actively hates them….of course, these may not correspond to your 9’s and 10’s!
Better for rapping over, for a start.
Enitharmon @82: I don’t think “music gets better with each succeeding decade” is exactly what the progressive view of pop means.
It’s more that music changes with each succeeding decade (year, month…), and the changes are a big part of what makes pop exciting and fun.
So The Beatles were fantastic in the 60s, but sounding like The Beatles in the 80s or 90s wasn’t. Were M.A.R.R.S. and The Prodigy better than The Beatles and the Stones? I am not sure. But I think it’s possible to endorse progress as a state of continual change without necessarily seeing it as a process of continual improvement.
Also the ‘progressive’ view Ed outlines means that the vocabulary of pop is continuously expanding. This is one important part of the discussion we started on the “Wannabe” thread. The progressive view says “pop is constantly changing, hurrah”, but implicit in that turns out to be a sense that pop has to shed its skin and move on – its previous versions become obsolete (i.e. pop works according to the same logic as technology, not surprising since technology changes are a massive, massive part of pop change). The ‘post-progressive’ view – also enabled by technological change – says hold on, WHY does this old stuff have to become obsolete? Why can’t it all still be in play?
(That said the initial comment that Rosie brings up from time to time was part hype, part hope and part trolling. I doubt, at this late stage, that any year is going to top ’79 in terms of the average Number One scores. That being the metric for “better” I implicitly set with the structure of this project, I need to honour my own judgements.)
I can see that the post-progressive view is one possible approach to pop.
I would feel happier about it, though, if the new music that is apparently consistent with that view didn’t sound like the sort of thing I would crawl over broken glass to avoid: http://www.tinymixtapes.com/features/the-trouble-with-contemporary-music-criticism?page=show
(HT to Tom for that post, which he discusses at Blue Lines Revisited.)
Yes, I like the analysis of the problem in that post – the solution (let’s listen to vaporwave!) rather less, though I do enjoy that James Ferraro album that got talked up in the Wire a couple of years ago, and a lot of the Ghost Box stuff.
I think the current charts – including the critical lists – are firmly in the post-progressive mode, though: the bad stuff as well as the good. We’ll get there eventually, I hope! The Retromania argument is right in that the big shift has been a disruption in the technology of distribution rather than (as in previous shifts) changes in the technology of production – but I think (obviously) the analysis of the resulting landscape is too pessimistic.
Back to site glitches: aren’t the recent comments all showing in the wrong labelled spaces at the moment?
Update: oops no they aren’t, but I think the leading should be tweaked above and below the labels, so that they more obviously adhere to above than below.
(It’s kind of obvious which goes where once you read them but it still threw me at a quick glance)
we’ve moved the post title underneath the comment, and steve will be styling it to make that more obvious in due course
I think it may still prove confusing.
Cornershop clinging onto the Top 50 here, but comfortably (AFAICS) the favourite 90s single so far.
Killer “only” 0.11 (or 8 places) behind. That could be quite close or it could be quite far away dependent on the number of people who have voted on either/both. How many 10s would Killer need to move past Cornershop? Or how many 1s would Cornershop need to slip behind?
#101: When you say the current charts seem to hold to a post-progressive view: surely ANY chart could be described by “some of it sounds like new stuff, some of it sounds like old stuff”? I can’t see much distinction b/w “why can’t this old stuff still be in play?”, “retro”, “revivalism”, and plain old “influence” (except perhaps as judgements of quality).
(I read the linked article – always nice to be reminded that merely not being S**** R******* is no defence against writing like S**** R*******)
I’m expecting the number 1 position to be seriously troubled when we get to the summer of 2003 but not before
I’m not expecting anything to trouble the number 1 position unless a bunch of people go into the I Feel Love thread and start marking a load of 1s next to it to bring it down to earth. I also think that the closer we get to the present, the less consensus around what is good we’re going to get, which is why I don’t think anything is going to trouble IFL unless there is some down-weighting going on.
Woe be with the man who underestimates Tomcraft…
As of 19th Oct 2014, Tom has just posted the May 99 Backstreet Boys “I Want It That Way”. The reader top 100 songs per year are…
1956 1
1957 0
1958 3
1959 0
1960 3
1961 3
1962 2
1963 2
1964 7
1965 6
1966 8
1967 1
1968 1
1969 3
1970 1
1971 5
1972 1
1973 2
1974 1
1975 4
1976 1
1977 4
1978 3
1979 4
1980 4
1981 5
1982 2
1983 1
1984 2
1985 1
1986 3
1987 3
1988 2
1989 3
1990 2
1991 1
1992 1
1993 0
1994 0
1995 1
1996 0
1997 1
1998 1
1999 1
which ranks the top 10 (or so because of ties) years as
rank/year/count of reader top 100 singles
1 1966 8
2 1964 7
3 1965 6
4 1971 5
4 1981 5
6 1975 4
6 1977 4
6 1979 4
6 1980 4
10 1958 3
10 1960 3
10 1961 3
10 1969 3
10 1978 3
10 1986 3
10 1987 3
10 1989 3
The “Ave v Std Dev*” graphs now look identical to a map of the West Country.
My sympathies are with those who live on Lizard Point.
* My sympathies are with those who watched that episode of Corrie.
We are now out of the 90s enough that the Popular readers 90s ‘canon’ feels fairly fixed, viz: “Nothing Compares 2 U”, “Brimful Of Asha”, “Killer”, “Baby One More Time”, “Gangsta’s Paradise”, “3AM Eternal”, “Your Woman”… and “Dub Be Good To Me” is just propping up the bottom at the moment. Any changes likely to be slow.
Though speaking of slow changes, the gap between “I Feel Love” and what’s below it – which used not to be “Grapevine” – is gradually narrowing.
At last! The Spotify 8+ playlist – those tracks that I gave 8+ to – has been updated. http://open.spotify.com/user/freakytrigger/playlist/2vyeAG3bflk5omhE7cQWoA – with the 80s, 90s and 00s (so far) tracks, and the 50s and 60s stragglers that weren’t on Spotify when we first did it.
The only things it’s now lacking are The Beatles (inevitably) and “3AM Eternal”
Spiller inside the reader Top 20 (after 1 day) – 14 and a half years between it and the next most recent Top 20 song.
Fixed now – thanks for the heads-up.
I’ve been putting together playlists of the hits of 1990 and subsequent years on Spotify of late (don’t judge me) and how I miss the following labels: Champion, Ten, KLF Communications, Circa, Debut.
Spotify hasn’t everything.
How generous are you being with the definition of ‘hit’ Beryl? I put together playlists for the 80s last December covering anything available (and making a note of all the songs that weren’t) that made the top 75 – linked at http://freakytrigger.co.uk/popular/2010/10/popular-the-80s/#1520588
Have been trying to find the time to do the same for the 90s but please link yours either here or perhaps on http://freakytrigger.co.uk/popular/2015/01/popular-the-90s/
Presentation: 8.5
Instrumentation: 4.0
Vocals: 5.0
Originality: 9.0
Lasting appeal: 10.0
Overall: 7.3
#119 WEEJ, I’m surprised you liked my rating system, but I didn’t say you could use it for yourself.
By the way, what song did you rate? Personally, I only give very high scores under strict criteria.
I forgive you now. You can use my rating system as much as you like, but take care with ratings. Read what I said at the “Here In My Heart” entry.
Hello all – I’ve been reading Popular for the last 3 years (came in around the time of Earth Song) and it has fast become my favourite music site, particularly after reading Mr Lineman’s wonderful hostory of pop, Yeah Yeah Yeah.
I was really taken aback by my own anticipation levels for an upcoming bunny this Easter (one that I Find Hard To Expunge From My Mind), and it got me thinking about the whole Popular enterprise, and how much it’s enriched my appreciation of music.
Over the years I’ve generally relied on my memory of these songs while reading Popular, playing them back in my mind rather than actually listening to them. Thar changed recently when I discovered the option to list the entries by score – I put all the 9s and 10s on a playlist, LOVED it, added the 8s and 7s, in quick succession, and suddenly I had 10 hours of wonderful pop music spanning 50 years!
As someone who listens mainly to albums, hearing these hits back-to-back has been a revelation. No filler tracks to grimly push through – every song sparkles with vitality, and the range of styles is astonishing, even in a single year. I’ve rediscovered many songs I thought my Uni disco had ruined forever (ABBA, The Buggles) and songs that my teenage indie self would have dismissed out of hand (Backstreet Boys and, unbelievably, Livin’ Joy), as well as digging some old favourites out for the first time in far too long.
I’ve now cut the list down even further to my own selection of the 100 best, and it’s just terrific. I’m going to get so much fun out of these songs – soundtracks to exercise, making my siblings mix CDs that they’ll actually play, and (most importantly) introducing my baby daughter to the wonder of pop music.
So thankyou Tom and all you marvellous comments people – you’ve reminded me how amazing pop music can be!
Thankyou Neil! I missed this comment when you posted it!
Early days of course but we currently have a new 00s number one. I can see it holding that position too.
Very cool toy here – http://polygraph.cool/history/ – which lets you play through a visualised rundown of the US top 5 from 1956-2016, not sure where to put it but sure a lot of people on here might spend an evening playing with it. Hope we can get one for the UK top 5 too.
is so good
[…] by Tom Ewing’s “Popular” (which traces the history of UK #1 singles) and Tom Breihan’s “The Number Ones” (which […]
[…] by Tom Ewing’s “Popular” (which traces the history of UK #1 singles) and Tom Breihan’s “The Number Ones” (which […]
[…] by Tom Ewing’s “Popular” (which traces the history of UK #1 singles) and Tom Breihan’s “The Number Ones” (which […]
[…] by Tom Ewing’s “Popular” (which traces the history of UK #1 singles) and Tom Breihan’s “The Number Ones” (which […]
[…] by Tom Ewing’s “Popular” (which traces the history of UK #1 singles) and Tom Breihan’s “The Number Ones” (which […]