Top 100 No1 singles of all time

[Guest Darth_codhead]

Did some one see the program what a load of carp

No one had more than one single in Elvis was 70+

Spiller No 9

verver No 8

Kylie I shoud be so lucky got in

NO ultravox

NO druan druan

NO bob nudd

NO spice girls (GOOD)

NO phill collins

One beatles,stones & clif richard ( at 99)

 

What did you think

 

DJ Tim

[Guest Elton]

And no Spizz Energi, Stiff Little Fingers or The Exploited.

 

You wait 'til Gray hears about this! Mind you, he was probably watching "Last Of The Mohicans" on BBC 2

 

Elton

 

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Elton Murphy

North East Sea Angling

[Guest waterman1013]

I got the No1 at the beginning but why oh why do we have to put up with all thatchat over the music? That could have been the intro or outro but I wanted to hear the music. And what happened to Green Onions?

 

Mike

[Guest davidP]

Looks to me like the voting was a bit of a farce. The 900+ No 1's were whittled down to 105 by 'a panel of experts' and then people were allowed to vote from that list. Obviously the 'panel of experts' had a lot of music journalists who as we know are all completely in touch with the musical taste of the nation. Well at least some of them are on the odd occaisions when they take their heads out of their nether regions long enough to notice there is an outside world.

 

Anyway, these 105 were put to the vote but judging by the number of votes cast I've got to say that it's hardly an extensive poll :

 

1. Imagine - John Lennon 3,628

2. Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen 3,626

3. Hey Jude - The Beatles 2,643

4. Dancing Queen - ABBA 2,600

5. Every Breath You Take - The Police 2,344

6. Stand By Me - Ben E.King 2,118

7. The Drugs Don't Work - The Verve 2,116

8. Don't Look Back in Anger - Oasis 1,997

9. Groovejet - Spiller 1,905

10.(Everything I Do) I Do It For You - Bryan Adams 1,905

:

:

100. Mull Of Kintyre - Wings 254

 

The top 4 would probably be well up there in any poll, but The Verve & Spiller?? I think not! Trendy music journos picking what they think is trendy and then kids picking the only ones they know! (like Millenium by Robbie Wiliams at number 12!). And a voting base of maybe 30,000 Guardian/Observer readers is hardly representative either

 

And it looks like the 5 most hated songs were the 5 out of the 105 that didn't make it into the top 100. Hardly a scientific choice when there's candidates like St Winifreds School Choir, Joe Dolce, Jive Bunny, Brian & Michael & Mr Blobby lurking out there!

 

Another anomaly is that they obviously only allowed 1 record by any artist or band into the list. I would suspect that The Beatles, Elvis, Abba and a few others would quite easily have a few more entries in the top 100 if it was a free vote.

 

So all-in-all IMHO it was a diverting way of spending 4 hours with a few interesting interviews and snippets of film, but ultimately the choices were of no meaning and the result shouldn't be taken as meaning anything. Certainly not worthy of the level of promotion given too it by Channel 4.

 

Link to the full list :

http://www.observer.co.uk/review/story/0,6...,418773,00.html

 

 

PS Darth - Ultravox didn't qualify because the aforementioned horror that is Joe Dolce kept Vienna off Number 1 (which perhaps goes to show that public voting of this kind is never a good pointer anyway!).

 

[This message has been edited by davidP (edited 07 January 2001).]

 

[This message has been edited by davidP (edited 07 January 2001).]

[Guest gray-catchpole]

i didnt even see this post till elton pointed it out.

 

the whole thing was a farse, it should have been based on sales, this is the only way to devise a list like this, the "in my opinion" voting system never works musical taste is so diverse, if it was based on sales it would have been a totaly different story, i will try and find the list of top 100 record sales then we can compare.

 

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gray-catchpole

 

 

 

http://catchpole.cjb.net

mailto:catchpole@go-fishing.co.ukcatchpole@go-fishing.co.uk

[Guest Paul H]

Even sales is no indication of how good a single is/was, I think you just have to take each poll as it comes, I mean let's be honest Bohemian Rhapsody is the most over-rated song of all time, it is a complete piece of ...............and Freddie Mercury the most...no I can't go on......but the song always get's mentioned in 'mainstream' polls, but never in more specialised ones....

[Guest davidP]

Paul is right - sales is no great indication. According to the Guiness Book Of Hit Singles, up to the end of 1998 only 72 singles had ever sold over 1 million. The two biggest sellers are almost certainly Candle In The Wind by Elton John and Do They Know It's Christmas by Band Aid. Amongst the other million sellars are however such luminaries as Aqua, Babylon Zoo, Boyzone, Brotherhood Of Man, Robson & Jerome (twice), Spice Girls (twice), Steps, Teletubbies & Whigfield!

 

Even number of weeks on the chart is not representative now because of the power of TV adverts to resurect old singles and the fact that single sales are so low now you can get a number one on sales that 20 years ago wouldn't have even got you in the top 20 and you can be in at number 1 and out of the charts in 3 or 4 weeks!

Top ten by longevity are :

My Way - Frank Sinatra (124 weeks)

Amazing Grace - Judy Collins (67)

Relax - Frankie Goes To Hollywood (67)

Rock Around The Clock - Bill Haley & His Comets (57)

Release Me - Englebert Humberdinck (56)

Stranger On The Shore - Mr Acker Bilk (55)

Blue Monday - New Order (53)

I Love You Because - Jim Reeves (47)

Whatever - Oasis (47)

White Lines (Don't Do It) - Grandmaster Flash & Melle Mel (46)

 

No Elvis, no Beatles, no Cliff, in fact only 3 of the top 50 chart acts of all time (Sinatra, Reeves & Oasis). There's only 2 off Top 100 singles list that started this thread (and only 2 more in the next 10, Soft Cell & Boney M).

 

Nope, the only way to do these kinds of thing is an open vote and a big cross section of public voting. Even then though it can throw up some funnies because people have short memories and kids especially have little or no musical history to work with. Remember the number of modern hits in that big Millenium poll they did in 99 (and Queen & Lennon were the other way round). http://www.motm.co.uk/best_song.html

 

At the end of the day though all you really need to know are that the 2 greatest recordings of all time are Song To The Siren by This Mortal Coil and Teenage Kicks by The Undertones. Trust me on this, I'm an anorak

 

[This message has been edited by davidP (edited 08 January 2001).]

[Guest loonyl]

Originally posted by davidP:

At the end of the day though all you really need to know are that the 2 greatest recordings of all time are Song To The Siren by This Mortal Coil and Teenage Kicks by The Undertones. Trust me on this, I'm an anorak

[This message has been edited by davidP (edited 08 January 2001).]

 

LOL Dave,

I reckon the songs you like the best,

is when you were doing something special

at the time *blush*,

oh, give over , you know what I mean !

 

"99 red balloons"

"Something inside so strong" Labi Siffre

Toyah OF course

 

Cheque please !

Cheers

Liam

[Guest paul mc]

I agree what a load off crap, Jean Michel jarre wasnt even there(class).It reminded me of the fifa football club off the century list which had Liverpool fc as No 14 , how they work that out when we are one of the most sucsesful clubs in the world i don't know. How short memories the so called experts have.

regards paul mc

[Guest Peb]

The wonderful thing about music is the variety on offer to the listening public.

Don't denounce the ones you do not like for their right to be included because others will only do the same to your favourites.

I personally believe "The drugs don't work" and "Groovejet" will be around for years to come.

I sometimes think we forget that 'Queen' were on the slippery slope for about 2 years as the tried to turn disco with "Body Language" & "Las Palabras De Amor" and John Lennon managed just one top ten in eight years until his death reignited his career.

I think it is a shame that a song must be more than ten or twenty years old to be recognised as a classic by the general public. Nostalgia plays tricks on fading memories and when we are gone the main link our children will have to their fathers generation will be music. Don't right off todays music as sure as eggs is eggs some of it will be our childrens' childrens link.

 

Anyway my fave is "Going Underground".