The rather crazy Guardian Top 100 UK Number 1 singles

[Sits]

Time to listen to PSB’s Best Of over the weekend I feel.

[Logan Mountstuart]

I once did a February driving trip around Scotland and Ireland with the future and now ex Mevrouw Mountstuart. One of the few cassettes we had was The PSB's greatest hits. Some of those songs were and still are wonderful. Personal favourites are Being Boring and What Have I Done To Deserve This. I can think of about 10 I like better than West End Girls, even though it's a great song.

Not sure about greatest No. I ever though. Did Adam And The Ants even get a song in the 100?

I can think of a certain OTFer who is probably storming Guardian Towers as I speak.

[Fussbudget]

The list is nonsense, but then again the current roster of Guardian music writers is pretty unimpressive and have never seemed that knowledgeable to me. Three writers is also far too few to compile a list of this kind, you end up with weird idiosyncratic selections masquerading as a consensus; if each of them had given us their personal top 100 it would still have been something to discuss but at least would have avoided all the 'but is it really the greatest??' gnashing of teeth in the comments. Though props to them for willingly subjecting themselves to all those angry rants from middle-aged white blokes who like guitar bands, I guess.

Anyway, great song, not the greatest Pet Shop Boys number 1 let alone greatest number 1 of all time but not a horrifying choice (unlike some of the earlier entries). I can't really take seriously a top 100 that doesn't have M/A/R/R/S in it though.

[Fussbudget]

Number 1 should have been I Feel Love, I think.

[3 Colours Red]

Compare and contrast Channel 4's list from 2001.

[Fussbudget]

Fucking hell, that's even worse. You really can't trust the public to vote for anything, can you.

[Aitch]

In Holland the public get to vote for the Top 2,000 every year. The number one spot is almost always Queen with Bohemian Rhapsody. Number two is usually the Eagles and Hotel California. The entire list is mawkishly depressing. The entire 2,000 songs are played in the run-up to New Year to make one of the longest, suicide-inducing radio programmes ever.

[wingco]

I think if that list had one redeeming value, it was as one big Oasis-trolling device/ I figured it'd be West End Girls but for me that's a slightly depressing choice; from the year when pop started to go wrong, post-ABC/Associates/Simple Minds When Good, etc, etc. And while I can understand them not including Jimi Hendrix's "Voodoo Child", which was rush-released in the wake of his death, "Pump Up The Volume" is a poor omission and the lack of Adam & The Ants mystifying. I mean, if you can find room for Rick Astley . . .
I'd have gone for Donna Summer or The Beach Boys myself.

[Benjm]

The top end of that C4 list is gruesome.

Having only skimmed The Guardian's, the main positive I took from it was that Bohemian Rhapsody didn't make the top 50.

[Wouter D]

In Holland the public get to vote for the Top 2,000 every year. The number one spot is almost always Queen with Bohemian Rhapsody. Number two is usually the Eagles and Hotel California. The entire list is mawkishly depressingly. The entire 2,000 songs are played in the run-up to New Year to make one of the longest, suicide-inducing radio programmes ever.

The one (and quite possibly only) thing that is good about this, is that for six days and sixteen hours, you are guaranteed that this one radio station does not play the same song twice. No repetitions whatsoever, for almost a week. That should be a rule at more radio stations. Played the current big hit already this week? Forbidden to play it again until next week!

I'm not listening to this list, mind. But the no-repetitions concept has something.

[Jah Womble]

So it was West End Girls? Who makes these ludicrous decisions?

I mean, it's pretty much the only PSBs song that I like, but even so - 'better' than Ghost Town, She Loves You, Relax (or Two Tribes), Space Oddity, I Feel Love, Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick, Bridge Over Troubled Water, several glam classics..? Have a fughing word with yourselves...

(Seems that C4 also had that stupid 'one-song-per-act' nonsense ruling, as well.)

[3 Colours Red]

It's such a stupid, arbitrary rule to try and make things "interesting" but also completely breaks any attempt to be properly comprehensive and quantifiable.

It'd be like a 100 greatest footballers list but you can't have two players who played for the same club, or for films that don't share any actors.

[Bored Of Education]

Number 1 should have been I Feel Love, I think.

Yes!

There are another 5 in that list (and 2 that aren't) that I would take over West End Girls - great song that it is/

[Felicity, I guess so]

In Holland the public get to vote for the Top 2,000 every year. The number one spot is almost always Queen with Bohemian Rhapsody. Number two is usually the Eagles and Hotel California. The entire list is mawkishly depressing. The entire 2,000 songs are played in the run-up to New Year to make one of the longest, suicide-inducing radio programmes ever.

Eminently preferable to Xmas songs though

[Jah Womble]

Not sure I’d agree with that.

With the exception of Coldplay (like, how rad, dude), that list doesn’t look as if it’s changed in at least twenty-five years.

[MsD]

Did Adam And The Ants even get a song in the 100?

I can think of a certain OTFer who is probably storming Guardian Towers as I speak.

Heh, you've not been paying attention, then.

I've never made a secret of my dislike for Goody Two Shoes, even while I was contemplating marrying one of its writers. He defended it as a sort of joke, "how many key changes can I get away with?". Regardless, I fucking hated it, find it slightly more bearable live now, as Adam's current band play it with meaty guitars instead of horns, and it sounds less like a kiddie song. Still hate the record, it makes me feel physically sick.

I love punk era Antz, Dirk is my favourite album, then the Peel bootleg, then the remastered punk-era songs. I love two songs from Kings: Kings of the Wild Frontier, and Dog Eat Dog, but Zerox is my favourite Antz song. And, I love a few songs off the last album, which was 2012 or so?

I'd have picked West End Girls, if I had to, I absolutely love it and it's my favourite PSB track.

Other than that, another vote for Rui da Silva.

Love a lot of these songs, Ghost Town, of course, but these lists are sort of obvious.

[Billy Casper]

Nice to see you back MsD.

Just what exactly does West End Girls bring to the table? I don't like it I admit, but even bearing that in mind, it doesn't change anything or seem revolutionary in any way whatsoever.

Another vote for I Feel Love from me.

[MsD]

Thank you!
I can’t explain what’s good about WE Girls. The lyrics are above-average but it’s the keyboard that really makes it, I think. Very simple, but a lot of the best pop compositions are.

[Billy Casper]

If it's keyboards you want then it's Kraftwerk. Keyboards with decent lyrics? Human League. Both better* singles and both seemed like something new when they appeared.

*In my opinion, like.

[MsD]

I’m as big a Kraftwerk / early HL fan as you’ll find, but still like West End Girls more than their biggest hits, and more than any other PSB tracks.

I dislike these sort of lists anyway but have just had another look. There are so many great songs there, but how can you begin to measure Double Barrel against, say, Can the Can? DB was the first record I bought for myself; my sisters had sorted me out with a good few before that but it’s the first I went to Woolworth’s counter and asked for.

[Billy Casper]

My first single was Angelo by Abb... Brotherhood of Man, So you can tell I'm quite the authority when it comes to musical taste.

[Bored Of Education]

Heh, you've not been paying attention, then.

I've never made a secret of my dislike for Goody Two Shoes, even while I was contemplating marrying one of its writers. He defended it as a sort of joke, "how many key changes can I get away with?". Regardless, I fucking hated it, find it slightly more bearable live now, as Adam's current band play it with meaty guitars instead of horns, and it sounds less like a kiddie song. Still hate the record, it makes me feel physically sick.

I love punk era Antz, Dirk is my favourite album, then the Peel bootleg, then the remastered punk-era songs. I love two songs from Kings: Kings of the Wild Frontier, and Dog Eat Dog, but Zerox is my favourite Antz song. And, I love a few songs off the last album, which was 2012 or so?

Perhaps he means me then as I absolutely love KOTWF, was slightly obsessed by Adam and the Ants in their pop era and, indeed, the two number ones mentioned in the Guardian 100 that I referred to in my post upthread, were Stand and Deliver and Prince Charming. As I did with many artists, of course, I dug back to Adam And The Ants earlier work but was underwhelmed. However, when I saw him recently, the Dirk/Zerox stuff that he did sounded great - Red Scab especially as I remember. Actually, I say recently, it was 7 years ago! How old am I! I have to say that I agree with you about "Goody Two Shoes" somewhat as I can take it or leave it. It's not knowing pop in the way the rest - indeed, pretty much the six singles after - are.

[Sits]

Yes, KOTWF and DED were the best Ants’ singles.

[MsD]

Best after Zerox.

[MsD]

Perhaps he means me then as I absolutely love KOTWF, was slightly obsessed by Adam and the Ants in their pop era and, indeed, the two number ones mentioned in the Guardian 100 that I referred to in my post upthread, were Stand and Deliver and Prince Charming. As I did with many artists, of course, I dug back to Adam And The Ants earlier work but was underwhelmed. However, when I saw him recently, the Dirk/Zerox stuff that he did sounded great - Red Scab especially as I remember. Actually, I say recently, it was 7 years ago! How old am I! I have to say that I agree with you about "Goody Two Shoes" somewhat as I can take it or leave it. It's not knowing pop in the way the rest - indeed, pretty much the six singles after - are.

Ah. OK, I thought I was cast as the great AATA fan as I’ve been banging on about his gigs over the last few years. And if you saw him 7 years ago, you’d be amazed how much better he’s got in that time. I hope they don’t lose momentum from having a year off due to Covid.

Will look at your posts re. S&D and PC. I think they’re both witty, funny and interesting records in retrospect. PC sounded like nothing else (apart from War Canoe) and I have made the case for it being “post-modern” although I’m not sure about that. Knowing about the creative process has made me like them more. The intro guitars on S&D are supposed to sound like galloping horses. At the time, though, I thought they were a bit naff, having been used to the avant garde / underground punk Ants. It was like Throbbing Gristle doing Strictly, and not entirely ironically.