HIT AND MISS

Whilst compiling my 45 favourite 45s i've returned to an oft recurring question: why are some songs hits and some aren't? Obviously not every single ever released can be a Top 40 smash, or the singles chart would have had a faster turnover than the band members of The Fall. Even in the late nineties and early noughties when cheap prices on new releases meant that singles would chart high before plummeting the following week, many a promising new act tagged "the next big thing" would fail to chart, or be given false hopes after encouraging midweek placings. And it has always been this way: songs that were hugely popular on pirate radio in the sixties would still become flops. Airplay doesn't always translate into sales, as The Days Of Pearly Spencer singer David McWilliams found out. Even successful acts can, even after a run of hits, find themselves going "down the dumper", to use Smash Hits terminology. In my exploration of older music i've often come across songs that sound like they were huge hits, only to discover that this wasn't the case. Why? Obviously the public make or break artists by buying their music, and promotion plays a big part, but a song can receive a lot of airplay and advertising in all the important places and STILL not get anywhere. Radio 1 had a lot of clout in the pre-internet days: their playlist was decided by a committee of show producers and the head of music programming, who would play all the singles they'd been sent by record company pluggers and give their verdict. Inevitably, alternative music would get short shrift, leaving late night specialist shows such as the late legendary John Peel as the only place you were likely to hear the latest punk or indie bands. But this didn't mean these songs had no chance of charting. It baffles me that something as defiantly non-commercial as Public Image Limited's "Death Disco", a howling, dub flavoured dirge written about John Lydons mother dying of cancer, was a Top 20 hit, yet more commercial sounding fare might not chart at all. I suppose you have to factor in what else was released that week - third wave punk band The Exploited appearing on TOTP after creeping into the lower reaches of the Top 40 with the decidedly listener-unfriendly "Dead Cities" was likely down to a dearth of competition - plus current trends, the time of year, world events. Soundtracks to films can influence record buyers: Bryan Adams had appeared in the UK Top 40 a few times in the eighties but was hardly a major artist here until he was asked to write a song for the 1991 film Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves. The film was a huge success, as was Adams's execrable "Everything I Do (I Do It For You), which spent a gruelling (for music fans) 16 weeks at number one. Adams's chart career was assured after that. Funnily enough, that song provided the sole Top 40 hit (no.7) for Irish alternative act Fatima Mansions when they covered it the following year, as part of a charity double A-side with Manic Street Preachers cover of "Theme From M*A*S*H (Suicide Is Painless), although the latter got the lions share of the attention. Some artists effectively torpedo any chances of a hit by refusing to promote it with tv appearances or by insisting on playing it live rather than miming. Playing your latest single in a way that bears little to no resemblance to the record is a sure fire way to make it go down the charts, although it didn't harm Nirvana! Expletives, corporate name references, singing about controversial topics, these can all get you a daytime radio ban. DJs are also unlikely to play records with unwieldy or unpronounceable titles: arty post-punk band Wire wrote one of their most commercial and catchy songs, with a great chorus, and named it (deep breath)..... Map Ref 41° N 93° W. Wire's only other chance of a hit was scuppered by their record labels EMI, who were accused of that time honoured practice: chart rigging. This involved a record label sending staff out to chart return record stores to buy multiple copies of whichever single they wanted to "hype"up the charts: a higher position meant more airplay, more publicity, and a possible slot on Top Of The Pops. The single in question, "Outdoor Miner" , was at no.51 when EMI were informed that, if the single continued to go up, Wire would be considered for TOTP slot. But then they were accused of sales rigging by BRMB, the chart compilers, that weeks' sales weren't included, the single went down, bang went the chance of a hit.

Publicity and airplay can be a double edged blade. Too little and a new release can sink without trace; too much can result in the public tiring of a song before it's even available. Until the mid-nineties new records were given no airplay until a week or two before the release date, and sometimes not until they charted. But during the Britpop era you would hear a new single played anything up to two months before you could actually buy it. Record companies stopped using the tried and tested method of letting an artist slowly build a fan base, gradually increasing sales and higher chart positions over two or three years and therefore a longer career: now it was all about instant success, maximum sales and profit, and when the public got bored they'd just move on to the next big thing. The amount of bands who were signed during Britpop and touted as the next Oasis or Blur, only for them to swiftly disappear was huge (remember Northern Uproar? 60ft Dolls? Menswear?) as the music industry tried to cash in. The now defunct music weekly Melody Maker was forever promoting new indie bands, most of whom lasted about the time it took to print next weeks issue. But that doesn't explain my initial question: what makes a song popular enough with the public to make it a hit? I guess it comes down to sheer luck: you could put out a song that ticks all the boxes: memorable lyrics, whistleable melodies, plenty of hooks, anthemic chorus. But if you don't capture the imagination of the people who might buy your record, then no amount of good reviews or publicity will help.