If you were here twelve months ago, then you’ll know exactly what this is all about. If you weren’t here twelve months ago, then you’ll soon figure out what’s going on; just watch, absorb and imitate, and you should be fine.
But if you do need a quick summary: over the next two or three weeks, we’ll be collectively appraising the Top 10 UK singles charts from this week in 1961, 1971, 1981, 1991, 2001 and 2011. Today, we’ll be looking at the records at Number Ten in each chart; in the next post, we’ll look at the Number Nines, and so on until we reach the top. There will be voting, there will be scoring, and there will be cumulative, decade-against-decade ranking, all of which will be explained in due course.
OK. Ready? Let’s do it!
1961: Where The Boys Are – Connie Francis (video) (lyrics)
1971: Bridget The Midget (The Queen Of The Blues) – Ray Stevens (video) (lyrics)
1981: Lately – Stevie Wonder (video) (lyrics)
1991: Ring Ring Ring (Ha Ha Hey) – De La Soul (video) (lyrics)
2001: Star 69 – Fatboy Slim (video) (lyrics)
2011: Buzzin (Remix) – Mann ft 50 Cent (video) (lyrics)
Spotify playlist (minus De La Soul)
Three years on from her chart-topping debut (“Who’s Sorry Now“), Connie Francis was still knocking the hits out at regular intervals. “Where The Boys Are” (officially a double A-side with “Baby Roo”) was her sixteenth chart entry, and the Neil Sedaka/Howard Greenfield composition is sometimes said to be her signature tune. It was also the theme tune from a beach movie of the same name, set in Fort Lauderdale in Florida, in which La Francis made her acting debut as one of a gang of four girls with contrasting personalities and attitudes, on the hunt for boys in proto-Sex And The City style. (The trailer’s quite a hoot: you can see it here.)
Considering that the film advertised itself as a holiday-themed comedy romp, I’m surprised that its theme tune strove to strike such a lovelorn, wistful tone. If its lyrics had cut a little deeper, or if its singer had sold it a little more soulfully, or if its melody and arrangment didn’t mark it so clearly as a poor cousin of “Blue Velvet”, then perhaps I’d be more sold – but as it is, I can’t suppress a retrospective snigger at Connie’s delusions. (Really, honey? You think you’ll find true love “where the boys are”? In Fort Lauderdale? Hmm, well, good luck with that.)
Having just spent a dispiriting fifteen minutes acquainting myself with his recent renaissance as court jester to the tea party movement, I’m loathe to cut much slack to Ray “Osama (Yo’ Mama)” Stevens and this still-more-mirthless predecessor to “The Streak“. The two tracks shared a couple of common features – the “announcer” format (compere/news reporter), the recurring doofus-with-a-catchphrase (“I dig it, I really dig it!”/”Don’t look, Ethel!”) – but where “The Streak” at least had topicality on its side, “Bridget The Midget” centred its gimmick around that well-worn old trick, the speeded-up vocal (as pioneered by The Goons and Pinky & Perky in the UK, and by Alvin & the Chipmunks in the US). I have a dim memory of a diminutive “Bridget” character gracing the Top of the Pops studio at the time – shoulder length black hair, china-doll face, cherry red mini-dress – but Google’s got nowt, so maybe I just dreamt her up.
Widely regarded as Stevie Wonder‘s last good – if perhaps not great – album, Hotter Than July yielded four British hit singles, of which “Lately” – an excursion into more traditional romantic balladry, which cast Wonder as a newly suspicious cuckold on the brink of heartbreak – was the third. Although its songcraft is hard to quibble at, and Wonder does an able interpretive job, I do question certain eccentricities of the bassline that his musical director Nathan Watts supplies (albeit mixed so low behind Wonder’s solo keyboard that it’s taken me thirty years to fully register its presence). Sure, the jazzily note-bending twangs work fine – but at other times, the notes simply plod falteringly behind the beat, occasionally fracturing into semi-fluffed mini-flurries. But hey, I’m quibbling for quibbling’s sake, and “Lately” deserves a good ranking.
In the corners of the Internet which I tend to inhabit, the continued affection for De La Soul‘s awkward, cranky, spiky, self-consciously expectation-busting follow-up to their classic 1989 debut album Three Feet High And Rising has been a source of some bafflement – although in fairness, I’ve not given De La Soul Is Dead an airing since the year it came out. So, yes, I could well be missing the point – but dammit, I was one of those people who wanted another cheerfully absurdist Daisy Age romp, and dammit, I felt let down! (With this in mind, PM Dawn timed their emergence just right, hoovering us all up by the sackload.)
As the taster single from De La Soul Is Dead, the Curiosity Killed The Cat-quoting sunniness of “Ring Ring Ring” does set something of a false trail – but then again, its narrative (depicting the newly successful trio being besieged by endless demo tapes from pushy hopefuls) is broadly in keeping with the more embittered elements of its parent album. So perhaps we had been warned.
Now then. Is it just me, or is Fatboy Slim‘s back catalogue wearing better than we might have expected? Last month, I found myself enjoying “Demons” all over again (even in the teeth of a guest vocal from Macy Gray), and recent chance exposures to “Right Here Right Now” and “Praise You” mesaurably improved my lunchtime sandwich breaks. And so too with “Star 69”, which shifts its creator away from the strictures of Big Beat, depositing him nearer the Underworld/Chemical Brothers end of the spectrum. Its flipside (“Weapon Of Choice”) might have ended up stealing the limelight, thanks to its award-winning Christopher Walken video, but “Star 69” generated the initial interest and sales, and to my mind it’s the track which still sounds freshest.
In marked contrast to De La Soul’s prematurely jaded take on the pressures of success, the 19-year old Mann seems prematurely in thrall to the bounties which it bestows (I say “prematurely”, as “Buzzin'” is his debut hit, which has performed much better in the UK than in his homeland). As I understand it, the remix’s prime function is to pre-load the track with a typically indifferent (but presumably sales-boosting) guest appearance from 50 Cent – but when you consider that a) Fiddy hasn’t had a major hit under his own steam, in either the UK or the US, since “Ayo Technology” in 2007 and b) that the tiredness of his preamble is instantly annihilated by the freshness of Mann’s delivery, you’re left wondering just who needs whom. I like this a lot, in a transitory, sounds-good-on-the-radio kind of way – but then again, I might be unduly swayed by the copious sampling of the 1986 Nu Shooz hit “I Can’t Wait”, which I hadn’t heard in years.
Blurbs dispensed with, let us proceed to THE VOTING! As ever, you are invited to listen to all six tracks (via the YouTube and Spotify links supplied upthread), before ranking them in descending order of preference and leaving your votes in the comments box. Please also feel free to append your own opinions and observations – although equally, please don’t feel obliged to do so. And when you’re voting, please remember these golden rules:
1) No omissions!
2) No tied places!
3) So far as you are able, please avoid being unduly swayed by nostalgic generational bias!
Let the voting commence! And let the best decade win!
My votes:
6 points – De La Soul
5 points – Fatboy Slim
4 points – Stevie Wonder
3 points – Mann ft 50 Cent
2 points – Connie Francis
1 point – Ray Stevens
THE SCORES SO FAR:
1991: Ring Ring Ring (Ha Ha Hey) – De La Soul – 201 points
1981: Lately – Stevie Wonder – 190 points
1961: Where The Boys Are – Connie Francis – 146 points
2011: Buzzin (Remix) – Mann ft 50 Cent – 129 points
2001: Star 69 – Fatboy Slim – 96 points
1971: Bridget The Midget (The Queen Of The Blues) – Ray Stevens – 57 points
A couple of admin points:
1) For the first time ever, I’ve ditched the customary MP3 medleys. Far too much faff, when YouTube clips are available for all 60 songs (and Spotify has all but 6 of them).
2) I’ll be sticking with last year’s revised scoring system, which calculates and accumulates average (mean) scores for each track. (I toyed with full AV, but baulked at the attendant donkey work. Won’t stop me from voting YES on Thursday, though!)
I’d don’t like any of them that much (Comments below)
Best to worst:
6 points – De La Soul
5 points – Mann ft 50 Cent
4 points – Stevie Wonder
3 points – Connie Francis
2 points – Fatboy Slim
1 point – Ray Stevens
Comments: Enjoyed the last few bars of Where the boys are, but before that it’s a plod/snooze. Francis makes Lesley Gore (whom I love) from the period sound punk rock by comparison.
Ray Stevens. Jesus H. Christ. We have a loser.
Stevie W. Pretty good, but not great.
De La Soul. OK – *sounds* great but somehow doesn’t work/connect for me
Fat Boy Slim. No thank you – like listening to a washing-machine. It’s obvious why Weapon of choice made the impact/had the good vid. made for it: the A-side stinks.
Mann. Not bad. Like the nu shooz, like the nuthin’ but a g thing early ’90s keyboards, like *some* of its overloaded/cluttered vibe. This can’t be the best thing here can it?
6 – 1981 Stevie Wonder – Lately – Pretty. Sweet. Understated for Stevie. A song I can hear repeatedly and not tire of.
5- 1991 De La Soul – Ring Ring Ring. I’ve always loved the De la Soul groove. Not a rap/hip hop/ trip hop fan in the least, but some Salt & Pepa, a tincture of Biz Markee and some De la Soul can make me pretty 90’s retro happy.
4 – 1961 Connie Francis Where the Boy Are: This will always be my mother singing and swaying along. Gidget films on Saturday afternoons. Pure nostalgia. But not ALL nostalgia I love her voice and the chorus, rare for this period, is mostly chained to the deep recesses instead of plastered out front. A la Ray Charles.
3 – 2011 Mann – Buzzin And I mean REALLY…when on earth did a Chevy BLOODY Caprice become hip and gangsta?? Oddly catchy though
2 – 1971 Bridget the Midget The Queen of the Blues – Ray Stevens – Not a huge fan of novelty songs, but at least it wasn’t Jeremiah Peabody’s Polyunsaturated Quick-Dissolving, Fast-Acting Pleasant-Tasting Green and Purple Pills. That midget voice was enough to make husband wince over his crossword and give a rather scornful look.
1 – 2001 Fat Boy Slim – Star 69 – No. PERIOD.
6 Ring Ring Ring (Ha Ha Hey) – De La Soul – Yeah!
5 Lately – Stevie Wonder
4 Bridget The Midget – Ray Stevens
3 Where The Boys Are – Connie Francis
2 Star 69 – Fatboy Slim – Meh
1 Buzzin (Remix) – Mann ft 50 Cent – Ewwergh
6 – DE LA SOUL
5 – FAT BOY SLIM
4 – MANN
3 – CONNIE FRANCIS
2 – STEVIE WONDER
1 – RAY STEVENS – how much of the planet’s precious helium did he waste on that song?
Strong opening round all in all.
6 pts
De La Soul
Thought this was quite a curveball from them at the time, distancing themselves increasingly from the Daisy Age albatross and with its moodier monochrome video this seemed to work. ARJN Saturday was even better but this still works for me.
5 pts
Stevie Wonder
New to me and very fine for what it is. Amazing singer, cool chord changes with an impressive staged ascent (he doesn’t have to keep going higher but does because he can?) and as with so much SW I was hooked in very quickly.
4 pts
Connie Francis
Sweet enough but this stuff is always a deaf spot for me, so it does sound rather generic.
3 pts
Ray Stevens
It didn’t take long for me to realise that I have heard this before albeit only once, many many years ago on a Pick Of The Pops rundown in my Dad’s car. Long enough ago for me to have initially judged it great but I never knew who or what it was until now. Hearing it for only the second time then…yes it’s undeniably annoying often but at other times still seems fun.
2 pts
Fatboy Slim
I liked the third album a lot but this is not really one of its highlights for me where it just seems overly monotonous filler and I was surprised it was apparently the A-side to ‘Weapon Of Choice’ tho I’m sure it was one of the more club-friendly tracks from HBTGATS. Minor thrillpower only, bit too formulaic even for Cook at this point.
1 pt
Mann & 50 Cent
Too late in the day for this Nu-Shooz sample (tho I did love it cropping up in that 2nd Girl Talk album under Missy’s ‘Work It’) really and there’s nothing else more interesting going on that I can hear from either MC. Not horrible just pretty dull although it would probably grow on me.
Very happy to see this feature returning, though the fact that Spotify and Youtube are both blocked in China will mean that I’ll have to rely on good old SoulSeek for mp3s.
6 points – De La Soul – Oh, THIS one! Great stuff. How many people used this as their answering machine message in the early 90s?
5 points – Stevie Wonder – Not quite vintage Stevie, but close enough
4 points – Connie Francis – Inoffensive. Great voice of course.
3 points – Mann ft 50 Cent – Mann = not bad, 50 = bad. Doesn’t sound like much else that’s around.
2 points – Fatboy Slim – Not one of his best.
1 point – Ray Stevens – Didn’t mind it *that* much until the midget voice came in, then, well…
6pts – De La Soul – If only the rest of the second album had worked as well as this does! ‘A Rollerskating Jam Named Saturday’ might well be their greatest moment, though.
5pts – Stevie Wonder – This is one of those songs that always sounds better in my memory than when I actually listen to it, when it always seems… soggy, somehow.
4pts – Connie Francis – I admire just how morose this record is. Connie sounds a lot older than 22 here.
3pts – Fatboy Slim – A bit uninspired. Bring back the big beat!
2pts – Mann & 50 Cent – Remove that weary guest star, and it would do better with me, although it then wouldn’t have got into the top ten in the first place. Not a patch on ‘I Can’t Wait’
1pt – Ray Stevens – The only thing that I can find to say in this single’s favour is that I’m always astonished at just how loud it sounds.
6 pts – Connie Francis.
5 pts – De La Soul.
4 pts – Mann & 50 Cent
3 pts – Stevie Wonder
2 pts – Fatboy Slim
1 pts – Ray Stevens
Ok inadvertent side-effect of participation = I have now been listening to Nu Shooz over and over for fifteen minutes. One of my favourite 80s tracks. 1986 is my year zero for pop and this sound is pretty much definitive. There’s a cover on an old Force Inc album I like too – Sylk 130 ft Twyla, from the Digital Disco comp
@byebyepride. It’s sent me on a Nu shooz bender too. In retrospect, that slamming Girl Unit track Wut from late last year (which Lex turned a lot of us on to here at Popular) seems quite influenced by I can’t wait.
6 points – De La Soul ‘Ring Ring Ring (Ha Ha Hey)’
Love the lyrical flow and the contrast between the sweet sample and sour sentiment
5 points – Mann ft 50 Cent ‘Buzzin (Remix)’
So this is ‘where the boys are’ – an alternative fantasy, from across the decades and gender boundary. Love the sample, and the bounce of this – although it becomes a bit unrelenting towards the end
4 points – Connie Francis ‘Where the boys are’
Communicates a great sense of longing – I can imagine girls playing this on a dansette and sighing
3 points – Stevie Wonder ‘Lately’
A pleasant tune, but this sounds more of an album track than a single. A fantastic key change though. The song sounds more urgent in the higher register, suggesting the whole thing might have sounded better like that
2 points – Fatboy Slim ‘Star 69’
Some interesting things going on in the background with shifting tones and rhythms but I find the vocal too monotonous
1 point – Ray Stevens ‘Bridget the Midget’
There was a girl named Bridget at my school when this was a hit and my friends and I undoubtedly made her life hell for a while, so I can never listen to this without a twinge of guilt.
6 points De La Soul Ring Ring This was the early days (for me) of ansaphones, and this formed part of a home made message, natch
5 Connie Francis Though I prefer the version by The Czars (John Grant of Queen Of Denmark fame) which turns it into a melancholy gay ballad. Both can be downloaded here, for comparison http://bit.ly/lTKH7M
4 Stevie Wonder Love Stevie but indifferent to this
3 Mann, 50 Cent So so
2 Fatboy Doesn’t do anything for me
1 Ray I refuse to listen to this again. My musical memory of 1971 remains very strong – a seminal year for me – and I look forward to the rest of the top ten. Welcome back!
6 points – Fatboy Slim
5 points – Stevie Wonder
4 points – De La Soul
3 points – Connie Francis
2 points – Mann ft 50 Cent
1 point – Ray Stevens – If unhilarity isn’t yet a word then I offer this as a potential definition.
I will wait until I’m stuck in a hotel room tonight before listening/voting but for those of you on a Nu Shooz trip thanks to Mann, now seems a good time to recommend Mike’s fellow Nottinghamite RONIKA, who has a tasty EP out now/soon which leans heavily on the 80s bubblegum funk “tip”.
I had never heard any of these before! Well, I might have heard the Fatboy Slim but had no recollection whatsoever even of its existence.
6pts – De La Soul. Love the combination of ominous guitar twang/party horns in the beat. I really should get into their back catalogue at some point.
5pts – Stevie Wonder. Talking of old back catalogues I’m just getting into, I’ve only heard Songs In The Key Of Life for the first time in the past fortnight (already knew and loved Innervisions). It’s brilliant! Whenever checking out canon artists, it seems to be a toss-up as to whether I really connect with it or just end up appreciating their music rationally – with Stevie W, it’s the former, happily. This is a lovely sweeping ballad.
4pts – Mann. Kind of a random US R&B song to be a big hit here, though I’m happy to hear a new pop song that actually acknowledges the importance of a bassline rather than overdriven treble everything. Never heard the source sample though. I seem to have an mp3 of this in my itunes, it’s not boring enough to delete but it’s hardly a shining example of R&B in 2011.
3pts – Connie Francis. Not especially moved one way or the other.
2pts – Fatboy Slim. I guess he was well past his prime, such as it was, at this point? So uninteresting and undynamic. I feel like I want to leave the dancefloor for a drink of water.
1pt – Ray Stevens. The midget voice oh good god :o :o :o
#16 – Ronika tip emphatically seconded! “Forget Yourself” is now officially on YouTube, with the equally good (if not better) “Wiyoo” on its way.
So good to have this back, Mike!
6pts – Stevie Wonder – I’m not sure which key change it is here but yep, it’s awesome – this is the song that sticks in my mind the strongest and loveliest. Lyrically this is not too far away from “Love Will Tear Us Apart.” Also, hello George Michael!
5pts – De La Soul – Like Lex I have to get back into this album and hear it fresh; excellent as always and another reason to love 1991 (sorry, trying to leave generational stuff out…) and ah for the days of answering machines!
4pts – Mann feat. 50 Cent – I like songs where guys talk about how they have it all when in fact they don’t, then the song is a hit and they do, or at least they have more; but they have to be done well or it just doesn’t work. The innate good nature of Nu Shooz’ hit works very well here, because it just sounds so inherently goofy in a way that works against any possible smugness.
3pts – Connie Francis – The rock-solid longing in her voice matches the lyrics perfectly, and it always makes me feel sorry for the generation of women for which this song stands as an anthem; esp. since they are looking for *boys*, not men.
2pts – Fatboy Slim – Wanted to like this more but nothing in it really engaged me; R.E.M.’s song by the same name is better.
1pts – Ray freakin’ Stevens – And that’s the sound of me turning to M and saying “Can we do a swap here? You get to write about this and I’ll write about something for Then Play Long.” (I’m not letting the cat out of the bag here, but it’s from 2003!)
6pts – De La Soul
5pts – Stevie Wonder
4pts – Connie Francis
3pts – Mann & Fiddy
2pts – Fatboy Slim
1pts – Ray Stevens
Let’s start off with Ray. Not the best of his oeuvre by any stretch of the imagination. Always a disappointment when Stewpot spun this on Junior Choice.
Fatboy’s Star 69 suffers from being in the shadow of Weapon Of Choice, not least because of the video, but also Bootsy’s laid back drawl. Nothing at all memorable here.
Mann & Fiddy come across as a mismatch as so many debut artists given the “feat. so and so” tend to do. I’d like to hear more from this young scamp though.
Connie Francis…I never really expected to like “Where The Boys Are”, but hey, guess what! The voice fits the sentiment so well, so a well crafted song as a result. I’m tempted to check out more of her stuff.
Stevie Wonder’s “Lately”, didn’t he do well blurring the line between complexity and simplicity?
Full marks to De La Soul for “Hey, how ya doin’/sorry ya couldn’t get through/why doncha leave yo’ name and yo’ number/and I’ll get back to u!”…goddamit! I’m gonna be singing that all day!
@Mike, tom. Am digging that Ronika track on youtube. Thanks. It reminds me a bit of an early Madonna fan fave ‘Think of me’ from her first album, some tom tom club in the vocal, some evelyn king (‘Love come down’) feel overall. My alley, she’s up it.
YAY! WDITFP is Baaack.
6pts- De La Soul
Listening via the video link I was struck by the notion that this wasn’t how I remembered the tune. Where did that saxophone come from? Aha. Here’s the track I remember-
http://youtu.be/PeAXCNzLPpU
So much better.
5pts- Mann ft 50 Cent
There’s no need for Fiddy in this, in fact he’s bringing it down. Mann alone is fun, fresh and full of adolescent swagger.
4pts- Connie Francis
This brings me back to my aunt’s sweltering kitchen. Looking like a zaftig Francis herself, in her bouffant and girdled dress, she’s swaying and singing to the radio as she peels,chops, stirs and seasons suppers for whoever arrives.
As an aside, I’ve seen the original Where the Boys Are (although not when it was released– I’m not that old). It was considered pretty risque in its day, and poor Yvette Mimieux was forced to carry the ridiculous moral message.
I couldn’t understand the casting of Francis. How could anyone that pretty be cast as the girl who couldn’t get a date? Turns out Francis was pressured into the role. She couldn’t act, but she could sing. And the whole story of how good girls were expected to behave? That was real.
3pts- Stevie Wonder
Not one of my favourites by him. Whenever I hear “cause they always start to cry” I think that’s where he started this song and I wish he’d rewrite everything around it again.
2pts- Fatboy Slim
I’d like this better without any lyrics and about 45 seconds shorter.
1pt- Ray Stevens
He is responsible for my loathing of novelty songs.
…and that makes 10 consecutive last placings for Ray Stevens, whose position at the bottom of this round already looks unassailable.
#22 – Re. the sax/non-sax versions of “Ring Ring Ring”, a raid on the attic has just confirmed that the “Party Line mix” sax version (linked at the top of the post) was the lead track on the UK 12″, whereas the non-sax version (linked by Asta) was the version on the LP. The sax version is the one I remember, as I bought the 12″ a few weeks ahead of the LP – so I’m sticking with it for “Which Decade” on the basis that it was the version that most Brit listeners knew at the time it charted…
6pts – De La Soul (takes me right back to a time that I was rediscovering my love of music you can dance – rather than shuffle – to)
5pts – Stevie Wonder (must be in a soppy mood this afternoon)
4pts – Mann ft 50 Cent ( I suspect I’ve put this up here purely due to the Nu Shooz sample)
3pts – Connie Francis (My first thought when I heard this was soundtrack to a David Lynch film…then I read your notes. Blue Velvet. Of course)
2pts – Fatboy Slim (meh)
1pt – Ray Stevens (novelty, nuff said)
I did this last year, and I’m back for more. Here are my results.
6 – Stevie Wonder (Always liked the melancholy piano and lyrics)
5 – Connie Francis (Has a sense of longing which appeals to me)
Not much to say on the rest
4 – De La Soul
3 – Ray Stevens
2 – Fatboy Slim
1 – Mann ft 50 Cent
RobMiles
Not crazy about any of these, to be honest
6 – Stevie Wonder
5 – Connie Francis
4 – Mann ft 50 Cent
3- Fatboy Slim
2- De La Soul
1- Ray Stevens
6 – mann ft 50 cent
5 – de la soul
4 – connie francis
3 – stevie wonder
2 – fatboy slim
1 – ray stevens
blount
huge gulf between those first four and bottom two for me
*rubs hands* – welcome back, and good to be back.
The votes from the Norfolk jury:
6 – De La Soul – oddly, the song that I’d have least to say about. It just grabs me.
5 – Stevie. Haven’t heard this for ages, and I think my memory had it filed under ‘late period shit material’ rather than ‘mid period great material’ so it was a bit of a discovery. It certainly teeters between those eras, and is in danger of the dreaded ‘lush’ adjective. But it’s a great song, sung well.
4 – Connie. Not great by any means, but the chorus/’A’ section hit me nicely; let down by the mundane verse and personal dislike of the ‘people’/’highest steeple’ rhyme staple.
3 – Mann. We’re getting into ‘much of a muchness’ territory in the bottom three, but I didn’t actively dislike it. Um – a competent record, Mike. Competent.
2 – Ray Stevens. Not just to be awkward, but I think with a track like this you have to ask ‘is it the worst of its ilk?’ and the answer is a definite no. Clearly, it’s not ‘A Boy Named Sue’ but it’s not Timmy Mallett, either.
1 – Fatboy. I thought this had no interesting features at all.