Twenty four No 1 singles (1)

Christchurch - Dubai. Emirates Flight  EK419, 23/2/15

The entertainment menu has a wide selection of 'essential albums' (which include, incredibly, Forever Changes by Love) and also selected playlists by specific artists. But what I stumbled upon was the UK No 1 singles, year-by-year, since the first publication of the top 10 in 1952.

I decided to go through each year and listen to the songs that appealed. I didn't count songs where I took in  just a few bars to remind me or to see if I remembered something. Predictably for some years there was nothing I wanted to hear, but I still ended up with 24 songs which easily passed the time between Christchurch and Sydney and beyond. One made me loudly, resulting in a telling off by C (surely everyone on the plane has earphones in?), and three made me cry. 

1962 Nut Rocker - B Bumble and the Stingers
Heard countless times in the common room of School House but never since. This single was a souped up version of something in Tshaikovski's Nutcracker.

1965 I'm Alive - The Hollies
At the time (I was 14) I didn't hear the sheer joy of love in this song. I did this time!

1966 Keep on Running - Spencer Davis Group
An instantly catchy base line and strident distorted chords I always liked this (WAY before the Grateful Dead covered it!) for something beyond the standard pop single (see next). Winwood's voice was always something special.

1966 With a Girl Like You - Troggs
Not my best choice; harmless enough

1967 I'm a Believer - The Monkees
I liked the Monkees! They were young, fun, and zanie in the way the the Rowan and Martin Laugh-In was later in the 60s. The music was pop rather than rock, with the flimsily plotted episodes acting as early music videos, but I always liked this one and 'Stepping Stone', covered by the Sex Pistols ten years later.

1968 The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde - Georgie Fame
Story-telling via song. The film, with Warren Beaty and Faye Dunnaway was released the previous year and contained the most explicit violence I'd seen to date. The final scene, where the ambushed Clyde, riddled with bullets, tries to get to Bonnie before they both die, was burned in my memory.

1968 Mighty Quinn - Manfred Mann
Needless to say we always used to sing, very loudly, "You'll not see nothing like the mighty QUIM!" (Which reminds me of the closing credits of Tom and Jerry and the cheer that 'Fred Quimby' got in the TV room every time.)

1969 Je T'Aime - Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg
Earnshaw Hall, a male student hall-of-residence in Sheffield was built on 3 sides of a square. In the spring of 1970 a male mallard was persistently following a female wherever she went. Presumably wishing to give encouragement, some wag played this at top volume through his window. (Jane's heavy breathing at the end is very convincing.)

Some comedian, I don't know who, changed the names to Jane Jerk-in and Surge Forward.

1970 Woodstock - Matthew's Southern Comfort
Summed up the optimism and newness of the 60s. Still does.

1970 Voodoo Chile - Jimi Hendrix Experience
You can fairly see the vinyl curling under the heat of Jimi's guitar

1971 Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep - Middle of the Road
Just to see if it was as bad as I remember. Famously I went with a friend, Dorothy Waterhouse, (it wasn't a date; I was just being nice!), whilst revising for finals in 1972, to see Middle of the Road at the Fiesta nightclub in Sheffield. C still reminds me of this. She has still never been to a nightclub with me.

1972 My Ding-a-Ling - Chuck Berry
Pure filth at No 1! Were people more broad-minded then? Or did they just have a bigger sense of humour?