Wednesday 9 September 2020

50 years of song: 2010-2019

I am 50 (and, through careful planning, this is my 1,000th blog post). I can scarcely believe it. To mark the passing of time, and all of its sickening crimes, I've been counting down (or, rather, up, I suppose) the tracks that were number 1 in the charts on my birthday, starting from the day I was born and working up to the present.

What is #1 today, for 2020? I don't care really, the charts are irrelevant to me now. Anyway, here goes - part five:

  1. Please Don't Let Me Go - Olly Murs: I couldn't even hum you the chorus of this...
  2. Stay Awake - Example: ...or this
  3. Let Me Love You (Until You Learn To Love) - Ne-Yo: ...or this
  4. Roar - Katy Perry: ...I know this one though!
  5. Prayer in C - Lilly Wood & Robin Schulz: Sorry, back to not having a clue on this one...
  6. What Do You Mean - Justin Bieber: ...or this (2.1bn YouTube views or not)
  7. Closer - Chainsmokers featuring Halsey: ...or this
  8. Look What You Made Me Do - Taylor Swift: ...but I know this one - well done me!
  9. Promises - Calvin Harris and Sam Smith: ...and this one, sort of
  10. Take Me Back To London - Ed Sheeran featuring Stormzy: ...but I have no recollection of this. Two of the biggest stars of the decade and I had no clue about this song until now.

I shouldn't be too hard on myself, I guess. I'm 50, the singles chart should have very little to do with me, or me with it. Such is the way of the world. If I'm honest I don't really want to embed any of the tracks this week but, for the sake of completeness, I can include this on the basis that I grudgingly have a bit of a soft spot for Taylor Swift, I suppose.

If I live to 100 and blogs are still a thing (both unlikely), I'll do this again...

Source: officialcharts.com

10 comments:

  1. I am happy to say that I have never knowingly heard any of these songs

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    1. The Katy Perry one you'd recognise the chorus of, I'm sure. Until this, I didn't know it was called Roar though... As for most of the rest... dire.

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  2. A very happy birthday and happy 1000th post! Both are to be celebrated warmly. The songs on here today, less so....
    That bloody Katy Perry song gets on my nerves, and has done ever since I was put on hold on an official phone call around that time and it was piped into my ear on repeat while I waited, funny how you remember these things!

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    1. Thank you, C. And Katy Perry as hold music? There's a special place in hell for whoever decided that, surely...?

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  3. Congratulations on your 1000th post!
    I'm in the same boat as Charity Chic as regards all of the above songs, but I've just turned 70, so old age is my excuse too.

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    1. With regard to these songs, I really don't think we're missing too much.

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  4. Congratulations on the 1000th post and as for the birthday you're a mere whippersnapper still but hope you had a good one.

    Only recognised two of these and one of them was the Calvin Harris/ Sam Smith song which I really liked at the time. Until he popped up on 2019 Brit Awards show I wouldn't have recognised Calvin Harris in a line-up which is pretty bad as a) like me he is Scottish and b) he is the highest earning DJ in the world. Anyway, the Brit awards usually offer up really memorable collaborations but that year he performed (well twiddled lots of knobs) Promises with Sam Smith, One Kiss with Dua Lipa and Giant with Rag 'n' Bone Man and I was mighty impressed.

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  5. Having perused your frankly shambolic set of offerings I thought I'd do likewise for my birthday number ones. Without being immodest what a difference a few months makes,some of mine up to mid 2000s when I gave up due to being way too far out of the loop-
    Ernie-Benny Hill
    My Ding a ling-Chuck Berry
    Merry Xmas Everyone-Slade
    Bohemian Rhapsody-Queen
    Another Brick in THe Wall-Pink F.
    Dont you want me-Human League
    Beat Surrender-The Jam
    Caravan of Love-Housemartins
    China in your hand-T'Pau
    Ice Ice Baby-Vanilla Ice

    Couple of aberrations with Cliff and The Teletubbies and I missed 2 Lityle Boys by Rolph by a few days but all in all a decent lot I though. Can't believe it was same yeard...

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    1. I wonder if the quality of the chart in general, and the top ten and number one in particular, gets better in the run-up to Christmas, which might explain the difference, partly at least. Amazing the difference a couple of months can make!

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