5 June 1971 Anyone who writes 'I'm A Believer' can't be all bad. Therefore, to say that every Neil Diamond song is knuckle-gnawingly dreadful would be incorrect. It's the other 99.9 percent of them that's the problem: his gauche, self-satisfied lyrics that amount to the wrong-headed knowingness of a parish priest telling a class of … Continue reading Neil Diamond – ‘I Am… I Said’ →

10 July 2015 Country-core fashion and country-adjacent pop have been huge in 2024-25. The countrifyin' of chart pop goes back a lot further, though. In particular, the colossal success of Avicii's 'Wake Me Up' in 2013 helped make country vocal-hook choruses a cheap, easy and popular option for shoehorning a bit of basic-bait sentimentality into … Continue reading Lost Frequencies – ‘Are You With Me’ →

10 April 1971 Knocking Marc Bolan briefly off the Irish number one spot: a welder from Cork, an actual metal guru. Some more chopping and changing saw Lynn Anderson's 'Rose Garden' and T. Rex's 'Hot Love' each reclaim the top bunk, before 'When We Were Young' by Pat Lynch and The Airchords vanquished both again … Continue reading Pat Lynch and The Airchords – ‘When We Were Young’ →

12 June 2015 Diplo, one part of Major Lazer, has most recently been in the news due to various sexual assault allegations, which he denies and which in one instance has been settled out of court. The video for 'Lean On' is someone doing their big shop in the Bollywood aisle of Cultural Appropriation. Singer … Continue reading Major Lazer and DJ Snake ft. MØ – ‘Lean On’ →

3 April 1971 It happened on 24 March 1971, according to biographer Lesley-Ann Jones in her book Ride A White Swan. T. Rex were at the BBC to record 'Hot Love' for that week's Top Of The Pops as the new UK number one. They had performed the track on the show before, but this … Continue reading T. Rex – ‘Hot Love’ →

17 April 2015 Paul Walker's death in a car crash in November 2013 was the motivator for this rap-pop ballad from the movie he was making at the time, the seventh instalment of the Fast & Furious series. From its use on the film's elegiac coda, the sentiment behind it was clearly heartfelt, plus I … Continue reading Wiz Khalifa ft. Charlie Puth – ‘See You Again’ →

27 March 1971 Lynn Anderson is not Canadian. This information is for any other '80s kids like me who first encountered her singing 'Rose Garden' as a sample on 'I Beg Your Pardon' by dour Canuck electro act Kon Kan, a sort of New-foundland Order. Their name comes from the regulation that music radio stations … Continue reading Lynn Anderson – ‘Rose Garden’ →

10 April 2015 Even if you don't recognise the artist's name—and Omi won't be gracing the Irish charts again—or the song title, you'll surely remember the distinctive trumpet hook that heralds this global one-hit wonder. What we get here at the top of planet Earth's 2015 charts is actually a deep house remix by a … Continue reading Omi – ‘Cheerleader’ →

20 March 1971 Surprisingly, Paul McCartney won't have a post-Beatles UK number one single until 'Mull Of Kintyre' in 1977 - and that's his only UK chart-topping single of the entire '70s. It's surprising not only because he was a Beatle and was still having loads of hits, but also because Paul's sentimental, whimsical old-fashioned … Continue reading Paul McCartney – ‘Another Day’ →

3 April 2015 Here's our final number one from an Irish boyband. I'd never have envisaged it back in the '90s and '00s when Boyzone and Westlife roamed the top of our charts like buffalo, and sounded like buffalo too. But it's true: as I write this in 2025 Ireland's number one spot has been … Continue reading HomeTown – ‘Cry For Help’ →