Three of a Kind #98

It's the Gallup UK Top 100 Singles of the Year 1986 - and your chance to download a whopping 3% of them! Imagine that!

1986 being the zenith (or nadir, depending on your point of view) of my chart-pop-buying lifespan, I bought no less then thirty-eight of the songs listed below on either 7" or 12" vinyl (including the one at #2), and could still happily listen to most of them on a constant loop for the rest of eternity (if I happened to be immortal. Which I'm not. Or am I? We just don't know yet).

Anyway, here is that hot/tepid/cold (delete as applicable) hundred. Click on numbers 73, 68 & 39 to download these frankly wondrous snapshots of a mid-1980s Smash Hits-reading teenager's idea of pop heaven!

UK TOP 100 BESTSELLERS OF 1986

100 WHY CAN'T THIS BE LOVE - Van Halen
99 BROKEN WINGS - Mr Mister
98 SING OUR OWN SONG - UB40
97 MIDAS TOUCH - Midnight Star
96 GREATEST LOVE OF ALL - Whitney Houston
95 LOOK AWAY - Big Country
94 SET ME FREE - Jaki Graham
93 NEW BEGINNING (MAMBA SEYRA) - Bucks Fizz
92 THROUGH THE BARRICADES - Spandau Ballet
91 OPEN YOUR HEART - Madonna
90 HUMAN - Human League
89 FRENCH KISSIN' IN THE USA - Debbie Harry
88 CALLING ALL THE HEROES - It Bites
87 SHAKE YOU DOWN - Gregory Abbott
86 STUCK WITH YOU - Huey Lewis & The News
85 PETER GUNN - The Art Of Noise & Duane Eddy
84 THE POWER OF LOVE/DO YOU BELIEVE IN LOVE - Huey Lewis & The News
83 DANCING ON THE CEILING - Lionel Richie
82 LIVING IN AMERICA - James Brown
81 FOR AMERICA - Red Box
80 SUBURBIA - Pet Shop Boys
79 HUNTING HIGH AND LOW - A-ha
78 EACH TIME YOU BREAK MY HEART - Nick Kamen
77 RAGE HARD- Frankie Goes To Hollywood
76 CAN'T GET BY WITHOUT YOU - The Real Thing
75 SECRET LOVERS - Atlantic Starr
74 ANYONE CAN FALL IN LOVE - Anita Dobson
73 THE RAIN - Oran 'Juice' Jones
72 VENUS - Bananarama
71 CAN'T WAIT ANOTHER MINUTE - Five Star
70 WALK THIS WAY - Run DMC
69 BURNING HEART - Survivor
68 LOVE CAN'T TURN AROUND - Farley 'Jackmaster' Funk
67 LOVE MISSILE F1-11 - Sigue Sigue Sputnik
66 CAMOUFLAGE - Stan Ridgway
65 WEST END GIRLS - Pet Shop Boys
64 HI HO SILVER - Jim Diamond
63 SYSTEM ADDICT - Five Star
62 ELOISE - The Damned
61 ADDICTED TO LOVE - Robert Palmer
60 WHAT HAVE YOU DONE FOR ME LATELY - Janet Jackson
59 HOW WILL I KNOW - Whitney Houston
58 LIVE TO TELL - Madonna
57 EVERY BEAT OF MY HEART - Rod Stewart
56 BROTHER LOUIE - Modern Talking
55 TOO GOOD TO BE FORGOTTEN - Amazulu
54 ONLY LOVE - Nana Mouskouri
53 AIN'T NOTHIN' GOIN' ON BUT THE RENT - Gwen Guthrie
52 ABSOLUTE BEGINNERS - David Bowie
51 BREAKOUT - Swing Out Sister
50 BORDERLINE - Madonna
49 WALK OF LIFE - Dire Straits
48 THORN IN MY SIDE - Eurythmics
47 STARTING TOGETHER - Su Pollard
46 HAPPY HOUR - The Housemartins
45 YOU TO ME ARE EVERYTHING - The Real Thing
44 (I JUST) DIED IN YOUR ARMS - Cutting Crew
43 SHOWING OUT - Mel & Kim
42 SOMETIMES - Erasure
41 LIVIN' ON A PRAYER - Bon Jovi
40 YOU CAN CALL ME AL - Paul Simon
39 MY FAVOURITE WASTE OF TIME - Owen Paul
38 I CAN'T WAIT - Nu Shooz
37 MANIC MONDAY - The Bangles
36 WORD UP - Cameo
35 LET'S GO ALL THE WAY - Sly Fox
34 YOU KEEP ME HANGIN' ON - Kim Wilde
33 HOLDING BACK THE YEARS - Simply Red
32 A KIND OF MAGIC - Queen
31 WONDERFUL WORLD - Sam Cooke
30 (TOUCH ME) I WANT YOUR BODY - Samantha Fox
29 ALL I ASK OF YOU - Cliff Richard and Sarah Brightman
28 SLEDGEHAMMER - Peter Gabriel
27 THE EDGE OF HEAVEN - WHAM!
26 GLORY OF LOVE - Peter Cetera
25 LESSONS IN LOVE - Level 42
24 IN THE ARMY NOW - Status Quo
23 WALK LIKE AN EGYPTIAN - The Bangles
22 ON MY OWN - Patti Labelle & Michael McDonald
21 THE SUN ALWAYS SHINES ON TV - A-ha
20 THE CHICKEN SONG/A NICE SOUTH AFRICAN - Spitting Image
19 CARAVAN OF LOVE - The Housemartins
18 RAIN OR SHINE - Five Star
17 REET PETITE - Jackie Wilson
16 THE FINAL COUNTDOWN - Europe
15 SPIRIT IN THE SKY - Doctor and the Medics
14 WE DON'T HAVE TO... - Jermaine Stewart
13 ROCK ME AMADEUS - Falco
12 A DIFFERENT CORNER - George Michael
11 TRUE BLUE - Madonna
10 SO MACHO/CRUISING - Sinitta
9 TAKE MY BREATH AWAY - Berlin
8 PAPA DON'T PREACH - Madonna
7 WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH - Billy Ocean
6 THE LADY IN RED - Chris De Burgh
5 CHAIN REACTION - Diana Ross
4 LIVING DOLL - Cliff Richard and the Young Ones
3 I WANT TO WAKE UP WITH YOU - Boris Gardiner
2 EVERY LOSER WINS - Nick Berry
1 DON'T LEAVE ME THIS WAY - The Communards

A worthy winner there in the Communards, I'm sure you'll agree (unless you remember the Harold Melvin version, in which case probably not). I remember Don't Leave Me This Way being a big floor-filler at all the school discos and parties I attended that year anyway (especially the bit near the end with the mega-long ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! baby!).

1986 also saw the release of fantastic singles such as Brilliant Mind by Furniture, Driving Away From Home by It's Immaterial, Panic, Bigmouth Strikes Again & Ask by The Smiths, E=MC2 by Big Audio Dynamite and New Order's Shellshock but none of these songs, despite all making the charts, were ever going to rob the likes of Madonna, George Michael and, umm, Nick Kamen of their rightful places in the year end chart.

There were also many memorable and/or innovative videos doing the rounds in '86: Sledgehammer, Addicted To Love, Reet Petite, Dancing On The Ceiling and Happy Hour, to name but several. But I know which 1986 video you really want to see here: Su Pollard's Starting Together! (Just don't tell Miss Cathcart!)

Happiness Is A Worn Pun

I've taken my eye off the blog ball a bit lately (there it goes now, sailing over the crossbar. Wheeeee), largely because pretty much all the stuff I've been listening to and watching has been Beatles-related. I suppose I could write about the Fabs here but in all honesty they've probably been spoken about once or twice in other places, so I think I'll leave it, if it's all the same to you.

Here's some non-Beatles-related music, anyway, to tide us over until I can get my act together. Abnormal service will be resumed as soon as possible.

I love this song. Not only is it a fab gear fantastic bit of music, the lyrics - about how young people think they know everything in spite of all the evidence - are brilliant as well. I even loved it when I was young and thought I knew it all myself.

The Pursuit Of Happiness - She's So Young mp3

Three of a Kind #97

The weekend stops here!



Edson - Sunday, Lovely Sunday mp3

The Budgies - Lucky Sunday mp3

The Sundays - Gone mp3

Song of the Day

Absolutely gorgeous, this one.

American Music Club - Firefly mp3

Mildly Interesting Pop Fact: On his 1996 solo album 60 Watt Silver Lining, American Music Club frontman Mark Eitzel included a less than complimentary track about Southend-on-Sea (the town of my birth). Have a squiz at the lyrics here.

And with that he blew his chances of landing a presenting job on Wish You Were Here in one fell swoop. That'll learn him!

Write the feem toon, sing the feem toon...

Adam's post about the recently departed Keith Waterhouse got me reminiscing about one of the TV series the late author co-wrote with Willis Hall, the none more 1970s Budgie starring Adam Faith as Budgie, a West End ducker & diver, and Iain Cuthbertson as his equally shady employer Charlie Endell. Seeking clips of it out on YouTube I stumbled upon the opening sequence of a short-lived Budgie spin-off series I'd not been aware of before entitled Charles Endell Esq which saw Iain Cuthbertson reprise his role as the titular Glaswegian gangster. It looks dead good actually.

The reason I mention all this here on what is, after all, a music blog is because of the frankly astonishing theme song, which Cuthbertson voices - I hesitate to use the word "sings" - himself and which you can hear in all its dubious glory in the clip below. I think I can safely say you'll never have heard anything like it!

Hirsute you, sir!

My goodness but that Paddy McAloon's looking different these days, eh? I think I can safely say that I would never have recognised him in that photo above, had I not been furnished with the info beforehand. He really reminds me of someone else with that beard, anyway, but I just cannot put my finger on who for the moment. Any suggestions?

Edwyn Collins - You've Grown A Beard mp3

By the way, anyone heard the new Prefab Sprout album yet? And if so, is it much cop?

Three of a Kind #96

It's been flipping ages since I've roused myself to rip some old vinyl for use on a blog post, so it's high time I rectified this sorry state of affairs I reckon. In which case, please accept these three seemingly random yet suspiciously decent choices from my stack of early-mid-90s indie twelve-inchers.

Cud - Rich & Strange mp3

I've always had a soft spot for Cud, despite the fact that they once released a single with the cringingly awful title Purple Love Balloon (which still didn't stop me buying it on picture disc). I was so gormlessly naive at the time, though, that I didn't even make the connection between the titular balloon and its saucy connotations until years later. Take a ride in your purple love balloon indeed!

Bleach - Shotgun mp3

I've done absolutely no research for today's post (which will obviously come as a massive shock to everybody reading this), but if memory serves Bleach hailed from Ipswich and were quite a hit with John Peel. They sound a lot like the early Lush on 1991's Shotgun, too, which is never a bad thing. There's even an attempt at what I can only describe as some middle-class white girl shoegazey rapping here. Marvellous!

My Life Story - The Lady Is A Tramp mp3

My Life Story were one of the most under-rated bands of the Britpop era for me. Oh yes, you can keep your Blurs and Oasis' (Oasisis?) - give me Jake Shillingford and his hi-octane brand of orchestral pop any day of the week. This band were so good that they could even afford to consign songs as fine as the one above to obscure b-side status (this was one of the extra tracks on the Funny Ha Ha 12"). Listen to the way Jake pronounces some of the words, like he's the Queen of Sheba or something ("The Lady's always thaar, Camden Tiyn to Leicester Sqaar"). Magnificent. And how can you not love a band who christen their information service Sex & Violins? Impossible!

Three of a Kind #95

A washing powder-themed Three of a Kind today, inspired by the product pictured above. Made by the Paxan company of Iran, Barf - meaning 'snow' in Farsi - is an 100% genuine product (as opposed to a 54.68% genuine product) and is quite big in the Middle East, by all accounts. Here are some Dreft jams by way of tribute! (Thank you, I'm here all week.)

The Paragons - The Tide Is High mp3

Persil - Light Up My Life mp3

The Dazz Band - Let It All Blow mp3

Things that make you go 'Ahhh'

Just been going through a box of old CDs I'd not listened to for too long, and one of the first that jumped out at me (not literally - that would be ridiculous) was Looper's (i.e. the band fronted by former Belle & Sebastian bassist Stuart David) debut album Up A Tree.

Aside from the realisation that this album is somehow already a decade old (where the feck did those ten years go?) the other amazing thing about this CD is the following track, Impossible Things #2, which is one of the sweetest love songs I've ever heard. Basically, it's the musical equivalent of a lovely little puppy licking your face for five minutes and twenty three seconds. Or thereabouts. Don't say I didn't warn you!

Looper - Impossible Things #2 mp3