Trollheart

Another ten years back in time, to one of my favourite years, and forty years ago in 1982 the end of October saw this at number 33


Title: “Do it to the Music”
Artist: Raw Silk
Nationality: American
Genre: Dance, Funk
Written by: Bert Reid, Ron Dean Miller
Original release date: All I can find is that it came out in 1982
Highest chart position: 18 (5 on the US Dance Chart)
Progress, if any, at that time: Descending
From the album: N/A
What do I know about this artist? Absolutely nothing; think I may have heard the name somewhere but not sure.
What do I think of this single? It’s a pleasant dance number which reminds me a little of the late seventies funk and soul from the likes of Earth Wind & Fire and Imagination. Funky.
What have I learned about this single? Not a single (sorry) thing
My rating: A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-LLxuKz0k4

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Trollheart

And finally, completing our first fifty-year journey back through the charts, what was at number 33 half a century ago (feel really old now!) on this week in 1972?


Title: “Mama Weer All Crazee Now”
Artist: Slade
Nationality: English
Genre: Rock
Written by: Noddy Holder, Jim Lea
Original release date: August 25 1972
Highest chart position: 1
Progress, if any, at that time: Descending
From the album: Slayed?
What do I know about this artist? Ah, Slade! They may not have been the greatest band but they sure were honest, and who doesn’t know “Merry Christmas Everybody”, by which the band have attained immortality and everyone knows Noddy’s joyous yell “It’s CHRISSSSSSST-MAAAAASSS!” But back in the day Slade were the original “bovver boys” (bovver being a phonetic way to write bother, meaning they were trouble) and did in fact attract the feared skinhead crowd. They certainly had a mass of hits, six of which went to the top and seventeen of which were top twenty singles, and are fondly remembered by many rock artists as an influence.
What do I think of this single? Ah it’s Slade, it’s mad, it’s basic, it’s honest, it’s fun. How can you not like it! Good old seventies. As was said of probably many bands, we shall not see their like again.
What have I learned about this single? It was Slade’s first number one, quickly followed by the classic “Cum On Feel the Noize” (no I don’t know why they wrote everything phonetically like that; maybe they were afraid their fans couldn’t spell? Probably a marketing ploy though) and started their idea of writing the audience into the songs by providing lines they could sing along with at the concerts. Originally supposed to have been titled “My, My, Weer All Crazee Now”, it was changed when, at a listening session, the producer thought he heard “Mama” and Noddy and the lads thought, much better. And so a legend was born.
My rating: A+++

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rubber soul

Of course it was a marketing ploy, you twit!

Great band though.

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Trollheart

Okay, before we go any further let’s do this. What is at the very top of the chart now, (when this was written; could be different now, if so, suck it) and what was it like going back fifty years?


Right now, we have this, spending its second and possibly moving into its third week at the top.

Title: “Anti-hero”
Artist: Taylor Swift
Nationality: American
Genre: Pop Rock/Synth-pop
Written by: Taylor Swift, Jack Antonoff
Original release date: October 21 2022
Progress to the top: Straight in
Weeks spent at number one: to date: 2
From the album: Midnights
What do I know about this artist? I’ve heard about her of course; the one song I did hear surprised me as I quite liked it, but I am probably the last person on Earth unfamiliar with her song catalogue, and that surely includes as-yet-undiscovered tribes in the Peruvian rain forests.
What do I think of this single? It’s a lot better than I had expected it to be, to be fair. This is the second Taylor Swift song I’ve listened to and I’ve been pretty impressed both times. Not saying I’d become a fan but this is not bad and I can see why it did so well.
What have I learned about this single? I’ve learned it smashed all records, becoming the biggest download debut on Spotify. I’ve learned both her album and single debuted at number one on both sides of the water, and that she surpassed Miley Cyrus as being previously the only female artist to achieve this. The song seems to be less the vacuous pop song about how great the singer is, or about her fans (disclaimer: I have no idea if Taylor Swift sings about these things or if her lyrics are deeper and more meaningful - I’m thinking Ariana Grande’s “Break Up With Your Boyfriend - I’m Bored” as an example, but I don’t know if she’s like that) and more about examining her own life and the things she doesn’t like about it, or that she has had to struggle with. On the face of it, just reading about it, it seems to be a pretty brave and personal song.
My rating: A+

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rubber soul

Does she still have the ten top songs?

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Trollheart

Not on the official chart website, which gives the current top ten as
10. "Calm Down" by Rema
9. "Rocket Science" by Clavish ft. D-Block Europe
8. "Hide and Seek" by Stormzy
7. "Rich Flex" by Drake and 21 Savage
6. "Psycho" by Anne Marie and Aitch
5. "Messy in Heaven" by Venbee and Goddard
4. "Miss You" by Oliver Tree and Robin Schultz
3. "Made You Look" by Meghan Trainor
2. "Unholy" by Sam Smith and Kim Petras

and yes, she's still there, for the sixth week running it would seem.

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But what was number one ten years ago, you say? Well, I say. Maybe you say, I don’t know. But I do. Say, that is. And at the top spot at the end of October 2012 was

Title: “Beneath Your Beautiful”
Artist: Labrinth featuring Emeli Sande
Nationality: British (English and Scottish)
Genre: R&B
Written by: Timothy McKenzie (Labrinth), Adele, Emeli Sande, Mike Posner
Original release date: October 18 2012
Progress to the top: Hmm, very confusing. Says it was released in 2011 and only got to no. 200, but then contradicts that, saying it was released in 2012 and seems to have made a very quick rise to the top. Well, looking at the chart I can see it was 85 the previous week, so it actually barrelled up the chart leaping an enormous 84 places in one week! And then it only stayed there one week, already dropping to number 2 the very next week. Ah, the fickle chart single buyers!
Weeks spent at number one: 1
From the album: Electronic Earth by Labrinth and also Our Version of Events (as a bonus track) by Sande
What do I know about this artist? Nuffin
What do I think of this single? A gorgeous soft love ballad with a kind of bittersweet feel and some really nice orchestration. Very nice indeed.
What have I learned about this single? Like a proper grammar Nazi, I wondered if there was an apostrophe missing, or if this was somehow a sort of “beneath your beauty” idea. Seems it’s the former, and it’s done on purpose to annoy people like me, so **** that guy. I wonder if he actually knew he was making a mistake, deliberate or not, and whether he just then used this “I don’t care/I did it on purpose” to cover his lack of knowledge of English grammar? Either way, he’s a prick. No, scratch that: he’s having a laugh now that I’ve listened to the song. It is “let me see beneath your beautiful/beneath your mask”. It’s the possessive, so he’s writing it correctly, but just ****ing people around. All right then, he’s not a prick, I take that back.
My rating: A++

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Keeping in the twenty-first century - just - what were the sheep buying and sending to number one in 2002? You wot mate?

Title: “Heaven”
Artist: DJ Sammy and Yanou featuring Do
Nationality: Spanish/German/Dutch
Genre: Dance
Written by: Bryan Adams, Jim Vallance
Original release date: November 21 2001
Progress to the top: Seems to have been a re-entry in November, having originally charted at the end of August. Barely though: it got to 92 and fell to 96 the next week. Then it began a slow climb in October, though again nothing much. 76 dropping to 91 where it held for two weeks and then clawed its way up to 84 the next week and then for some reason rocketed to number 1 the week after that. Weird. And again, after all that hard slog, spent one week at number one.
Weeks spent at number one: 1, I just told you!
From the album: Heaven
What do I know about this artist? Nada
What do I think of this single? Well it’s a dance cover of Bryan Adams’s ballad off his classic smash album Reckless, and I guess it’s interesting to see how he danced it up. It’s not too bad to be honest; didn’t change that much of the song but just put a eurodance/trance beat behind it. The vocalist (called Do, apparently) does a very good job, and yeah, it’s not bad. Is it number one material? ****ed if I know, but someone thought so, and so it is.
What have I learned about this single? Not too much, though I see Adams performed it live with Do, so he must have been happy with the result. Jim Vallance was not available for comment.
My rating: A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-aPT0IEfT0

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Going back into the previous century (oh yeah I sure do feel old duh) to check out what was perched at the top of the charts in 1992:

Title: “End of the Road”
Artist: Boys II Men
Nationality: American
Genre: R&B
Written by: Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds, Antonio “LA” Reid, Daryl Simmons
Original release date: June 30 1992
Progress to the top: Entered chart at 36, took eight weeks to slowly climb until it got to number 2 on October 17 and spent two weeks there before moving onto the top spot, which it held for three weeks. Its progress back down the chart was slow, showing the song remained very popular even after it had dropped from the top spot. It took three weeks to drop out of the top ten, and five to drop out of the top forty.
Weeks spent at number one: 3
From the album: Boomerang soundtrack (also on reissue of their Cooleyhighharmony album)
What do I know about this artist? Another boyband, what’s to know?
What do I think of this single?It’s a decent ballad, with a lot of soul and the kind of 60s/70s doo-wop sound that you might get from the likes of Smokey and his ilk. It’s a really nice song, and I guess that’s one thing you can say about boybands, that they write - or at least record - good ballads. To their credit, this is written by members of the band. I could do without the formulaic spoken part though, these seldom work unless you’re the great Barry White, and then he only ever used that as an introduction.
What have I learned about this single? I’ve learned it was even more successful in the USA (not surprisingly) where it spent a massive 13 weeks at number one, the record at the time for a chart-topping single. It was released as part of the soundtrack to the movie Boomerang (no, I never heard of it and don’t know what it is about, nor do I care) but due to its phenomenal success, having not been on the album Cooleyhighharmony, it was included on the reissue of that album later that year.
My rating: A+

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDKO6XYXioc

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And forty years back, in 1982, this was on top.

Title: “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?”
Artist: Culture Club
Nationality: English
Genre: New Wave/Blue-Eyed Soul/Reggae
Written by: Roy Hay, Boy George, Mikey Craig, Jon Moss
Original release date: September 6 1982
Progress to the top: Entering the chart at 66 on September 18, it moved a massive chunk the next week, hanging just outside the top 30 and the next week another huge jump to 15. After an appearance on Top of the Pops it leaped into the top three, getting to number two the next week and then number one, where it spent three weeks before slowly falling back down the chart.
Weeks spent at number one: 3
From the album: Kissing to Be Clever
What do I know about this artist? I don’t know all that much about Culture Club, other than what I saw on the telly (and sneered at, and kind of still do to some extent) but I watched Boy George on the TV show The Apprentice and he was very engaging.
What do I think of this single? Never really liked it, or them. It’s a sort of bump’n’grind ballad with a somewhat annoying sense of reggae in it.
What have I learned about this single? Not much. It was their third single, the first two having failed to chart, and said to have been their last chance to get a record deal. Of course, after this it was all roses for the band as they took the eighties by storm.
My rating: B+

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