Two years ago, I had an email come to me from someone who ran their own music site where they selected their top singles of the year. In their email, they said:
"Nice site and cool idea, although personally I wouldn't leave deciding the year's top 50 singles to such a democratic and open vote!"
I'm sure quite a few of you may echo that sentiment. Let me be honest here, it's not as if there aren't plenty of media vehicles where you'll get a "critics choice" of the best singles / albums. I have no problem with that, but it's a closed shop. Right from the outset, my aim has been to set up a poll, allowing anyone to cast their vote. This year it turns out that the song that had the most number of votes was Westlife, with 38 votes. Franz Ferdinand came second with 33 votes. This was from a total of 148 individual voters, each voter having a choice of 10 songs to pick. This wasn't some massive vote-rigging effort going on here to get Westlife to win - (aside from the eejit who attempted to vote for Westlife not only as their number one choice but also in positions 4 through 10 - only the one vote counted.....) it simply transpires that there was not a song this year that came across with universal mass appeal outside of Westlife to challenge it. Let me illustrate the percentage of the total vote that the top songs got in the past 5 years.
2000: Spiller - Groovejet (If This Ain't Love): 27 votes out of 52 - 52%
2001: Kylie - Can't Get You Out Of My Head: 27 votes out of 65 - 42%
2002: Liberty X - Just A Little: 22 votes out of 92 - 24%
2003: The White Stripes - Seven Nation Army: 35 votes out of 116 - 30%
2004: Westlife - Obvious: 38 votes out of 148 - 26%
As you can see, there have been songs in the past that have got more consistent voting across the board. Anyhoo, I think that's enough statistics for now.
My critical overview of the Top 50 - dealing with the whole top 50 here - I am in agreement that most of the songs that have ended up in the top 50 are in my opinion worthy of their place. I'll deal with omissions in a mo'. As for my opinion of what came out top, this is the first year where I have to say that I don't agree with what came out top. But there we have it, as the phrase goes, "Don't shoot me, I'm just the piano player".
Now, let's see about other aspects of the poll. My sense of musical optimism increased for 2004, but what about the rest of you?
Glad to see us all in agreement again. Let's not make a habit of it though.....
Quite a few, I have to say. Probably the most significant from my perspective was Kasabian, a band who none other than Mani, ex of the Stone Roses proclaimed great things are gonna come. The poll said something else though, with "Processed Beats" hitting number 71. I also expected there to be an appearance from The Delays, who have certainly had a well received clutch of singles, but "Long Time Coming" left it a bit too late and it hit number 61. On the pop front, things were certainly a trifle odd. Busted only got as far as number 81 with "Who's David?", whilst "Thunderbirds" which won ITV's record of the year was way at number 86. McFly fared only marginally better, with Westlife inspired (I'm guessing) "Obviously" gasping its last at number 77. What about last years winners? The White Stripes haven't really been releasing a great deal in 2004, just one live single, "Jolene", which hit number 116. And last years runners up The Darkness have also faded from the limelight, with their only single "Love Is Only A Feeling" failing to beat The White Stripes again and hitting 148.
Naturally, there is always a bit of natural wastage, and this year was no exception. 25 songs were about as popular as John McCririck is with the ladies and got 0 votes. Somewhat surprisingly, this included the long awaited return by The Prodigy - "Girls" and The Kaiser Chiefs, who I suspect we won't have heard the last of in 2005. But then again, Peter Andre was one of them, so I'm glad some sense of justice was maintained.
This year caused me something of a panic, as people have been actually making use of the Internet and Googling some of the songs just to satisfy their curiosity. They weren't having any success, so I thought our made-up song may actually be in existence. Until this page went up, it was still a Googlewhack, but here's the full list of songs.
Clearly, the majority of you were indeed correct - my theory is that those that missed Banana Canasta did so as it sat in between Badly Drawn Boy and Band Aid 20 in our aide memoire - the first one you were unlikely to vote for and the other, frankly you shouldn't (even though 7 of you did and got it to number 76). As for some of the others: quite a few of you haven't heard old Captain Kirk slaughtering Pulp's classic, and you're the better person for it. If Johnny Boy had hit the top 50, someone would have been spared a write-up as the title in itself would have filled the box nicely. Just so's you know, "!!!" is pronounced "Chick Chick Chick". Who says this site isn't educational?
Well, it's been a funny old year. If you wish to comment on the results, drop me an email at the address at the bottom of the page. I'd be interested to read your feedback, and I may even add some of it to the site. As to whether this poll will return at the end of the year, I'm not certain, but thanks to one and all for your involvement. Otherwise, I think it's time to look forward to 2005 - remember, no Glastonbury in 2006...
Other results: Top 50 of 2009 Top 50 of 2008 Top 50 of 2007 Top 50 of 2006 Top 50 of 2005 Top 50 of 2003 Top 50 of 2002 Top 50 of 2001 Top 50 of 2000
Site designed by Jason Mansfield, 2004
Thanks go to the following people for assisting with getting together our comprehensive aide-memoire: Danny G, Paul M, Kat H, Greg B, Jon B, Caz T
Any thoughts, comments on the site are welcomed, just mail me.