A (hopefully) concise explanation of my reasons for choosing these records out of the thousands i love.
45: Tiffany - I Think We're Alone Now.
Aside from being a catchy song - a Tommy James & The Shondells hit from the sixties that's been covered many times - this came out when i was 11, just beginning my record collection and i had a huge crush on her. The song reminds me of more innocent times....
44: Sonia - You'll Never Stop Me From Loving You.
....as is this. One of Pete Waterman and the S/A/W production stables' acts, a cheeky bubbly 18 year old Scouser with a great pop voice imho. Her first and biggest hit, and another crush (i have a thing for redheads), and still a great little pop song.
43:
Killing Joke - Empire Song.
I was aware of KJ from around the time of the Pandemonium album, specifically the "Millennium" single with which they delivered a much-needed jolt to an otherwise boring TOTP one Thursday evening. I discovered this track much later, an apocalyptic racket that foretold doom. Around the same time we were led into the illegal second Iraq invasion. When it was first released in 1982 the Falklands War followed soon after. Make of that what you will.
42: Furniture - Brilliant Mind. I first heard this on my Dad's copy of Now That's What I Call Music 7, and i've heard little like them since. Jazzy, literate, pop mastery that deserved to be a much bigger hit. Singer Jim Irvin is a now a respected music journalist.
41: The Wedding Present - My Favourite Dress. I was of these in my early teens but, like much alternative music from back then, i didn't appreciate them until much later. I first heard this on a free John Peel themed covermount CD, and David Gedges' tales of romantic disappointment, infatuation and jealousy fitted my own intermittent love life.
40: MC Tunes VS 808 State - The Only Rhyme That Bites. I first heard this at my schoolmate Matthew Langleys' house. The bass punches, the beat kicks, the orchestral sample (from 1958 Western The Big Country) soars, and the man born Nicky Lockett delivers a scattershot lyric that i have spent most of my life since trying to learn.
39: Blur - Chemical World. Damon and co. have made at least half a dozen true classic singles but this one i keep coming back to. Very XTC inspired - Andy Partridge was initially in the producer's chair for this song's parent album Modern Life Is Rubbish - with its stop-start rhythm, fluid guitar lines, and contrasting low/high vocals. Reminds me of being sixteen and endless possibilities.
38: Inspiral Carpets - This Is How It Feels. Another band who really should have been huge. The choppy chords, scattergun drum fills, and that melancholy Farfisa organ underpin an everyday tale of sadness, loneliness, and loss. This song feels like the times in my home growing up when unspoken arguments between my parents left a lingering mood, and my general teenage loneliness when i didn't fit in anywhere and had yet to know who i was.
37: Wire - Map Ref. 41°N 93° W. Art-pop at its finest and most bloody-minded: i maintain the belief that this would have got into the charts if they hadn't saddled it with such an unwieldy title. Clever but catchy.
36: Weezer - Buddy Holly. An outsider love song that turns the accepted idea of the "knight in shining armour/macho boyfriend" on its head. Which fitted me as i was definitely never a fighter. An insanely catchy power pop tune which, alongside Green Day and Offspring, introduced me to Punk and New Wave old and new.
35: Robert Wyatt - Shipbuilding. The eighties seemed to be the era of protest songs in popular music, and this is one of the best because it isn't hectoring or sloganeering, it just paints a picture and leaves you to make up your own mind. Written by Clive Langer and Elvis Costello about the impact at home of the Falklands War; communities in decline due to the Thatcher government suddenly find themselves back in work, as the shipyards reopen and bring prosperity, as their sons are sent off to fight and die on those very ships. "Diving for dear life/when we should be diving for pearls", those lines given more gravitas by Robert Wyatt's plaintive barrow boy tones. I first heard Costello's version on a best of around 1996, but this beats it.
34: Echo & The Bunnymen - Never Stop. I could have picked "The Cutter", or "The Killing Moon", but this... this is the sound of the Bunnymen getting their groove on. Cellos, congas, a synthesizer judder, Mac's holler (a veiled critique of Thatcher), the unstoppable rhythm section of De Frietas and Pattinson.... oh and Will Sergeant's mercurial guitar playing, spare but electrifying, a chime here, a whammy bar there, and a divebombing middle eight that sends shivers up my spine. The midpoint between the angular post-punk of Porcupine and the majesty of Ocean Rain that was to come.
33: Dexys' Midnight Runners - Geno. This was in my parents record collection (my mother's, i think) so i've been listening to it since a young age. One of the most impassioned tribute songs ever recorded.
32: The Beat - Tears Of A Clown. A frenetic ska reworking of the Smokey Robinson & The Miracles classic that i first heard on an old Top Of The Pops rerun in the early nineties. At the time i was still discovering 2-Tone Records and the punk-infused Ska revival that included Madness, The Specials, and this Brummie six pie who included amongst their ranks one Lionel Martin aka Saxa, a Jamaican born musician who had played on some original ska cuts back in the sixties. The Beat left 2-Tone after this debut single to make several classic 45's and three great albums, but this was the first i heard by them and it still makes me want to dance.
31: Magazine - A Song From Under The Floorboards. I first heard this on a "21 Years of Virgin Records" cassette that came free with Select/ Vox/Q or one of the many music magazines available in the nineties. Howard Devoto's sneering vocal, John Mcgeoch's metallic guitar, the rubbery bass of Barry Adamson, the ethereal keyboards that seem to be screaming at point, i'd never quite heard anything like it. The lyrics, seemingly a comment on the invisible underclass of society, the lonely, who somehow just keep going through sheer contrariness. It's how i felt living alone in a bedsit, working nights alone in a petrol station, feeling undervalued and ignored but that somehow i was destined for better things.
30: Madness - The Prince. I first heard this on one of my Dad's K-Tel compilation albums (Night Flights, i memory serves) but only after the Nutty Boys reformed in 1992, being too young first time around. A jaunty, skanky, tribute to Ska legend Prince Buster, it introduced the fairground pop "nutty sound" to the nation and hinted that they were more than just a ska revival band. And it went top twenty. Not bad for what was essentially a demo recording.
29: XTC - Respectable Street. Fusing angular power pop rhythms, sawing guitars, and a thunderous drum beat with a sarcastic Ray Davies-style commentary on suburban snobbery and double standards (let's face it, we've all lived next door to a Margot Ledbetter) that got little radio play due to the "Sony entertainment centres" line and failed to chart. Hugely influential on Britpop - just listen to " Stereotypes" by Blur - it's one of Andy Partridges' key songs.
28: Squeeze - Another Nail In My Heart. Another band i was introduced to through my Dad. A short piece of propulsive pop, what i love about this is 1) the slight subversion of the pop formula by introducing the middle eight after the first verse and chorus, which still trips me up, and 2) the solitary piano run at the end (in the video the band are seen playing the song whilst Jools Holland pushes a piano through the streets of London, only to arrive right at the end of the song: he once quipped that they cut out the ending whenever it was shown on tv, so his antics seemed pointless), and 3) the fantastic Gilson Lavis' drum fills.
27: Catatonia - Road Rage. After being introduced to this band through a support slot with the then more successful Space, i saw them playing the the tiny Rig at Nottingham Rock City the week before "Mulder & Scully" entered the singles chart at No.3 (beating their previous best of 35.) They played this and it went down a storm, Cerys clinging onto the low ceiling as she roared out the chorus with that angel soaked in whiskey voice. I loved this band (so much so i wanted to be Welsh) and especially Cerys and her mellifluous Welsh voice. I still do, although it's mainly as a presenter on 6music. "Road Rage" followed "Mulder & Scully" into the top five, although i feel this song has endured more.
26: Madness - (Waiting For The) Ghost Train. I remember hearing this at my junior school friend James Hatfields' house and liking it. But i was 10 years old and Madness were just another pop group amongst the distractions of other pop music, eighties films like The Goonies, cartoons and toys. I was blissfully unaware that this was their farewell single after 7 years of hits, with the band older, exhausted, and falling out of favour with the record buying public. They were more wordly, most of them married with kids, and they had long ceased wanting to be "the Nutty Boys". Musical director and keyboardist Mike Barson had left in 1983, leaving the remaining six trying to make grown-up pop in a music scene that they were falling out of fashion with. Top ten hits were no longer a given (their previous single had struggled to No.35) and they were no longer enjoying it. So this sparkling pop confection, written by Suggs about apartheid in South Africa - in a typically opaque fashion - and with Barson returning to tinkle the ivories, Madness took their final bow in a typically funny video whilst wearing newspaper suits bearing headlines such as "Soweto Bloodbath". As with a lot of their songs, the social commentary went right over pop fan's heads, and what would have been a top five hit just 3 years earlier peaked at No.18. Anyway, i heard this song again 8 years later on the chart-topping Divine Madness greatest hits album, fell in love with it and the band, they reformed and i've never looked back. The whispered scat in intro, the sparse piano line, and the final rousing chorus still make my neck hairs stand on end.
25: The Specials - Do Nothing. In 1992, following Madness' return, an interest in 2-Tone began, with a couple of compilations released. My late Mum had been into "all that music" , and encouraged my interest by borrowing The Specials Singles CD from the local library (our version of streaming), which i played constantly. This song, released late in 1980, has always been a favourite. The haunting "Ice Rink String Sounds" credited on the record (actually Jerry playing a string synthesizer, his recent obsession being easy listening music) add otherworldly quality to the track, which was re-recorded from the album version on More Specials. Lynval Goldings' tale of social frustration, with a shared vocal from Terry Hall and Neville Staple, was written about the lack of prospects for British youths at a time of high unemployment and social inequality. Years later not much has changed. That it spoke to me in the nineties says a lot.
24: British Sea Power - Carrion. One of the most singular acts to appear from the early noughties indie/garage rock explosion, this haunting, ragged, ode to the seas that surround our isles had me sat bolt upright when i first heard it on the Top 40 countdown one Sunday in Summer 2003. A very eccentric English band, with references to nature, ornithology, history, geographical features and so on. I've seen them described as being influenced by everyone from The Cure and Joy Division to The Smiths and The Pixies, and the truth is they sound only like themselves. I saw them live back in 2004/5 at Nottingham Rescue Rooms, where the stage was decorated with foliage and stuffed animals, and former member Eamon walked through the audience hitting a marching bands bass drum. The 7" version of this is a different mix than the video and album version, being rougher sounding with a different fade out, but it's still great.
23: Pulp - Do You Remember The First Time? I was aware of Jarvis and co. around the time this was released in Spring '94 - their first Top 40 entry - but it wasn't until Common People came out just over a year later that i took notice. After it was a huge hit i began to investigate their previous records, snapping up the His 'n' Hers album, and this became a firm favourite. The tale of teenage awkwardness, frustration and losing one's virginity is a universal theme, and my experience (or lack of!) isn't unique. The aching chords and chiming guitar riff lend a nostalgic air of regret to Jarvis' crooning.
22: Arctic Monkeys - When The Sun Goes Down. This band are one of the most celebrated acts of the last twenty years, famed for their down to earth attitude and their detailed stories of everyday working class life in their home city of Sheffield. Beginning as a folksy strum, this tale of a sex worker, her pimp, and her customers jolts into a indie boogie of crunching guitars, whilst wondering what happened to force her into that life, looking scathingly at her "scumbag" pimp. And they sing in their own accents which is one of my favourite things.
21: Ultrasound - Stay Young. I'm a tall, overweight man and have always been an outsider. So when an outsider band fronted by a tall, overweight man appeared they were always going to pique my interest. Even better when said band make epic glam/prog/indie songs of unrequited love, loneliness, frustration and the power of rock 'n' roll to overcome these things. Stay Young is a towering hymn to rock 'n' roll, to youth, and to never getting old (in spirit not in body, as with My Generation.) Andrew "Tiny" Woods' bruised mammoth bawl, Vanessa Bests' operatic wail, thundering glam guitars, proggy keyboards, and an epic finish involving fireworks. They split after delivering a hugely ambitious double album debut, but reunited in 2010 (thank God) but this is still their crowning moment.
20: The Jam - Beat Surrender. Going out on top and going out in style. The propulsive r'n'b of The Jam combined with the soulful ambition of Wellers' next band, The Style Council.
19: Madness - Grey Day. I first heard this as a kid and it, along with the sleeve artwork, scared me a bit. Doom-laden, dub-indebted, one of the best opening drum breaks ever, and yet still poppy. Sounds even better live when they up the dub quotient. And the dark lyrics of depression, we've all been there.
18: The Clash - (White Man) In Hammersmith Palais. I first heard this back in '94 after American punk bands like Green Day and Offspring opened the door for me, and i bought their Singles album. Strummer, Jones, Simonon and Headon take their reggae influences and effortlessly insert them into a tale of Strummer going to a reggae night at the titular Palais only to be disappointed by the lack of rebel attitude on display and feeling the odd one out. And a snipe at "plastic punks" in Burton suits, " turning rebellion into money". Great bass playing too.
17: Joy Division - Transmission. Watching a Sounds Of The Seventies show on BBC Two one Friday night in '93, i was transfixed by the sight and sound of this band. A human drum machine anchored the song whilst a repetitious two-note bassline and spindly guitar played over the top, as the singer worked himself into a trance-like frenzy. "Dance dance dance to the radio" seeming more like an ominous order than something joyful, an unavoidable fate rather than a choice. "Is he on drugs?" my Mum quipped sarcastically. I knew nothing of the band or the demons that haunted their frontman and later drove him to suicide. I just knew i had to hear it again. And again.
16: XTC - Making Plans For Nigel. I first heard this on The Best Punk Album In The World....... Ever!!! in tbe mid-nineties. The twitchy, angular guitars, the cavernous but backwards drum pattern, the sheer POP! catchiness of Colin Mouldings' tale of controlling parents and band leader Andy Partridges' sparse but effective backing vocals. Very eccentric, very English, very pop-art. Introduced me to an exceptional band who should have been much more successful.
15: Green Day - Basket Case. My parents finally got satellite tv in 1994, and the channel i went for first was MTV. One of the first videos i saw was for this frantic slice of punk rock, which introduced me to a world of music i had previously never heard. My teenage punk epiphany.
14: Manic Street Preachers - Faster. I'd given the Manics scant attention since they first appeared in the early nineties until i saw them perform this barrelling frantic post-punk influenced song on Top Of The Pops in 1994. You've probably seen the one i mean: the four of them in military garb on a stage decorated like a scene from Apocalypse Now, that caused a record number of complaints because James Dean Bradfield wore a paramilitary balaclava. I bought it the next day and i've been listening to them ever since. The song owes a debt to the Public Image Limited song "Public Image"
13: The Style Council - Speak Like A Child. A soulful yet very pop anthem from Paul Wellers' post-Jam band. It makes me feel alive.
12: Elvis Costello & The Attractions - Oliver's Army. This was one of my Dad's singles, so I've been listening to it from a young age. Pure pop with a serious lyric about unemployed young working-class men being targeted for conscription by the British Armed Forces, the situation in Northern Ireland, and the wind down of the Empire. Steve Nieves' piano licks were inspired by ABBA.
11: Pet Shop Boys - It's A Sin. I was given two singles for my 11th birthday; Star Trekkin' by novelty act The Firm, and this epic, hair-raising slice of pop noir by arguably one of the best British synth pop duo's of all time. I pestered my parents for a keyboard after hearing this, convinced i would be the next Chris Lowe. Needless to say, i wasn't, and the aforementioned keyboard - a Casio - ended up trashed when i attempted to copy the stage trashing of EMF a few years later.
10: The Smiths - Bigmouth Strikes Again. Witty, self-deprecating lyrics as Morrissey takes aim at himself for his notoriously scandalous comments in the music press whilst the boy wonder Johnny Marr whips up a storm, particularly in the spine-tingling middle eight.
9: Marillion - Lavender. Fish and his cohorts take a children's nursery rhyme and turn it into a beautiful ballad about the inspiring power of love. One of our wedding songs, one of my wife's nicknames being Dilly Daydream.
8: Guru Josh - Infinity (1990's... Time For The Guru). Spacey, slightly psychedelic trancey house classic with a possibly out of tune sax. Heralded a new decade, and always makes me think of New Year's Eve.
7: David Bowie - "Heroes". Because.
6: The Stone Roses - Made Of Stone. The Roses passed me by at the time - they seemed more like a sixth formers band - but when i eventually got around to listening to that first album it was this song that won me over. Melancholic but danceable, John Squires' guitar chimes like tears in the flames.
5: Super Furry Animals - Ice Hockey Hair. A bit of a cheat this one, as the length of the song means it actually plays at 33 1/3rpm. No matter though. A glorious, psychedelic space rock indie pop tune that gave the Furries' their biggest hit. A chorus that launches into the stratosphere.
4: The Special AKA - Gangsters. "Bernie Rhodes knows, don't argue!" heralds a relatively low key slice of ska with twanging rockabilly guitar licks ,deftly played organ, and the deadpan vocals of Terry Hall. The first 2-Tone single. Impossible not to dance when this comes on.
3: Ian Dury - What A Waste! Backed by the as yet uncredited Blockheads, the thirty-something Dury finally scores a hit. One of his list songs as he recounts a litany of possible career choices over funky, jazzy pop, only to concede that he "chose to play the fool in a six piece band". Hugely infectious, i dare you to not smile whilst listening to this.
2: The Jam - Down In The Tube Station At Midnight. The song that announced Paul Weller as a songwriter of true genius, one influenced by the detailed play for today style of Ray Davies. Over the staccato rhythms of the verses we hear a first person account of being mugged late at night on the London underground, the attention to detail taking in the sights, sounds and smells as a man travelling home to his wife is attacked by right-wing thugs. As the song reaches a climax he lays on the floor on the verge of losing consciousness, spotting "Jesus Saves" graffiti and a British Rail poster, he realises that his wife is in peril as "they took the keys and she'll think it's me". One of Wellers' finest.
1: Madness - My Girl. One of the first songs i can remember hearing as a nipper. On paper this song shouldn't work: the verses don't have a tune the milkman could whistle, the jerky rhythm makes it difficult to dance to, and there's no chorus. Plus the song ends as it begins, musically and in the story. But we've all been there: an argument on the phone with a girlfriend that goes nowhere and ends - as for the character in My Girl - unresolved. Keyboardist, chief songwriter and musical director Mike Barson wrote it after a row with his then girlfriend. It has that perfect mix of upbeat and melancholy that Madness excel at.
