In terms of following the form, that turned out more or less as I'd have expected. One thing was a surprise though. I honestly thought that this being a retrospective poll some 4 years after, that the passage of time would have dimmed the appeal of the more, ahem, unusual songs in our selection. For example, anyone still give Bomfunk MC's "Freestyler" a spin from 2000? Or find their radio constantly pumping out Liam Lynch's "United States Of Whatever" from 2002? On that basis, I thought one-hit wonders like Nizlopi's "JCB Song" would have been a dim and distant memory. Not so - happily nestled as it is between regulars like the Foo Fighters and Green Day.
And so we get to the stats. Quite a few people told me that when they looked at the list, it showed what a good year it was, I thought it was better than 2004, so what did you say?
That looks like a thumbs up from you too!
Given the occasional surprise of what got in, I suppose it makes sense that equilibrium is maintained by some hits not getting in at all. First up were the Magic Numbers, the numbers in this instance not having quite enough magic - 52 for "Love Me Like You" and 54 for "Forever Lost", the split voting did it again! The Pussycat Dolls kicked off their music career with a number 1, but "Don't Cha" certainly didn't by only reaching number 60. Early top 50 singles regulars U2 might have had a chart topper in the singles charts, but "Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own" clearly wore people out just typing it, getting to 64. As for a clutch of singles still rotated on the radio these days, Mylo's "Destroy Rock N Roll" was certainly a big album, and singles like "Drop The Pressure" (which remixed as "Doctor Pressure") and "In My Arms" couldn't improve on number 103. Everyone sick of the Currys ads?
As usual, we cast the net wide in putting together the aide-memoire. And we could have probably spent about half an hour less scratching our heads, as 27 songs in the list didn't curry favour with you at all. And for once, I have no cause for complaint in what didn't garner a vote, so from me at least, I'll give you a warm smattering of applause. Just don't go getting big-headed with it.
So buoyed from your confidence booster in the voting, did you have suffer a batting collapse on the real brain teaser? Here's what got selected:
Congratulations to the sizeable majority who got it spot on. I'm not entirely sure whether it's just wishful thinking from people about the rest - surely people have realised that unlikely pairings do happen. To reiterate what has been said before, we make up both the band name and the song title, so if you genuinely have never heard of Charlotte Church, David Gray or Westlife then I'm amazed you managed to get to the internet and vote.
Okay, so that finally has plugged the gaping hole in the decade that the Top 50 singles has been going. Just about enough time for me to warm down and have a brief hibernation before we get back to the present and polish off the decade with 2009. In the meantime, feel free to drop me a line with any cries of indignation about the outcome......
Other results:
Top 50 of 2009 Top 50 of 2008 Top 50 of 2007 Top 50 of 2006 Top 50 of 2004 Top 50 of 2003 Top 50 of 2002 Top 50 of 2001 Top 50 of 2000Site designed by Jason "He Plays Music" Mansfield, 2009 (you see, I couldn't be arsed to do it in 2005, but in 2009 we came back and did it retrospectively).
Thanks go to the following people for assisting with getting together our comprehensive aide-memoire: Greg B, Kat H, Dan Mc
Any thoughts, comments on the site are welcomed, just mail me.