#910

because I have nothing better to do I trawled through this list and managed to come up with 40 I like.

Caveats - included multiple for artists (Blondie basically) and honestly can’t say I know a lot of the later stuff and just cba to put in the effort.

#911

I had a listen recently and really quite liked it still.
I remember buying both cd singles of the follow-up, Undressed, which I liked also. And then was so surprised when it didn’t appear in the charts.

I miss those days of buying the various cd singles to get all of the b-sides and hope they would get in the charts. Or even just happy with the bonus songs that I would listen to repeatedly.

#912

I remember the first time I heard it played on the radio and I thought what is this, it sounds like an antique record, fragile, yet it has that bouncy Mr. Soft feel also. I did think straight away, if that’s a new record, it’s a Number 1 for sure.

#913

Fwiw these are the UK no.1s I picked out as actually liking. Just in order of release date. Sure I’ve missed a few I do like or kinda like.


The Crickets “That’ll Be the Day”

Roy Orbison “It’s Over”

The Kinks “You Really Got Me”

Unit 4 + 2 “Concrete and Clay”

The Byrds “Mr. Tambourine Man”

The Beach Boys “Good Vibrations”

Marvin Gaye “I Heard It Through the Grapevine”

Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg “Je t’aime… moi non plus”

Smokey Robinson and The Miracles “The Tears of a Clown”

George Harrison “My Sweet Lord” †

T. Rex “Get It On”

Nilsson “Without You”

Suzi Quatro “Devil Gate Drive”

Charles Aznavour “She”

Donna Summer “I Feel Love”

Kate Bush “Wuthering Heights”

Village People “Y.M.C.A.”

Blondie “Heart of Glass”

The Special A.K.A. feat. Rico " Too Much Too Young "[n

Blondie “Atomic”

Blondie “Call Me”

Dexys Midnight Runners “Geno”

The Mash “Theme from MAS*H (Suicide is Painless)”

Blondie “The Tide Is High”

John Lennon “Woman”

Smokey Robinson “Being with You”

The Specials “Ghost Town”

The Human League “Don’t You Want Me”

Kraftwerk “Computer Love” / “The Model”

Nena “99 Red Balloons”

Pet Shop Boys “West End Girls”

Ben E. King “Stand by Me”

Pet Shop Boys “It’s a Sin”

MARRS “Pump Up the Volume”

The KLF ft. The Children of The Revolution “3 a.m. Eternal”

White Town “Your Woman”

Cornershop "Brimful of Asha

Mr. Oizo “Flat Beat”

Kylie Minogue “Can’t Get You Out of My Head”

Stormzy “Vossi Bop”

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#914

You mean the cynical practice of record companies gaming the system by ripping off fans by forcing them to buy essentially the same product twice? I was never a fan.

#915

Yep, I remember being frustrated that they couldn’t all be on the same EP cd single, as then there would be too many tracks and so wouldn’t be eligible.
But as a teenager I was still happy to be able to add to my collection of Divine Comedy/Eels/Grandaddy CDs. I just got an extra buzz from it, as cynical as it would have been. Sucked in, hook, line and sinker.
I think the main thing I was annoyed about was when the singles were £2.99 or £3.99 instead of £1.99. although I think there were no doubt a bunch of politics/deals as to which singles were set at the various prices back then.

#916

If you, as a fan got extra tracks, new songs then it’s all good.

Record companies would sell in records (mainly CD singles then) before release and depending on their financial clout would off deals like 1 for 1, essentially buy one get one free to record shops. So if you buy say Bjork - It’s Oh So Quiet for a cost price of £2:50 you can then sell it for £1:99 because the free copy will see the profit - £2:50 outlay, £3:98 return when both copies are sold.

So the key here is the record shop worker (buyer from the record companies) having and eye / ear for a Hit and buying what they predict they will sell in advance for the records whole Chart duration. So on a big hit single, before it is released buy say 100, get 100 free of that Bjork song. The reason for this is when the record is established, say after 1 week and it’s in the Top 10 the deal is removed by the record company. So one copy is now £2:50 to the record shop so they can’t sell it at £1:99 anymore.

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#917

Ha, yep, there’s a rant in a Babybird song (King Bing) which sings about the free singles given to shops, them charging £1.99, then “get the fucker in the chart, charge £3.99”. All on the same album that had You’re Gorgeous on it! :smiley:

#918

There’s a great playlist on Spotify of all the number 2s. Easily as good as a number 1s playlist, if not better.

#919

I would actually love it if Baz Luhrmann was Number 1…

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#920

They did give free stuff away but that was largely stuff you couldn’t sell. Customers would rightly complain that a CD single was £3:99 when it was £1:99 last week and they wanted to buy it now “why is it more expensive now”. Difficult one really and you can’t always predict what people will buy. A record shop selling singles at £1:99 is a kind of indicator the shops buyer knew their stuff.

#921

Well, I’ve wasted too much time this week obsessing with number 1 lists, I may as well ruin next week as well on number 2s.

Number 2s -snigger-

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#922

Nice, that’s another 64 hours of music for me to listen to.

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#923

Yes and I’ve always in the past loved a really good underdog No. 2, rooting for it to get to No. 1 but knowing it probably wouldn’t happen.

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#924

Ooh good idea for the intro round for my next Zoom quiz

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#925

Born Slippy is the first that springs to my mind.

#926

One thing that stood out when listening to this playlist is that Elvis had much better Number 2s than Number 1s (toilet pun definitely not intended!)

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#927

Yes that’s a great choice. It was released before Trainspotting and we had 1 copy of the 12" and CD Single and a really clued up customer (that always bought really good music) I can remember seeing him literally grab the 12" from the rack and hold it. I saw this and thought, I should listen to this. Stuck the CD single on later and it was fantastic. No one else asked about it or anything and it didn’t chart. Then Trainspotting happened and the track was deleted and re-released via a bigger label (they distributed it) and loads of people enquired about it. There was a gap between this happening and when people are asking for a song they cannot currently buy in droves you know you’ve got a Hit on your hands.

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#928

Haha, I made this!

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#929

Many thanks for that, was quite the adrenaline rush!

I haven’t felt that good since Jesse Lingard scored against Panama in 2018.