I give marks out of 10 to every song – based on whatever criteria you like, here’s your opportunity to say what you’d have given more than 6 to from 1974. It’s a bumper crop of 21 tracks, tick as many as you like.

Wh[…]

I was all ready to give this a pasting before seeing the video on TMF’s Ultimate 40 Christmas Songs melted my Scroogeian heart. Or perhaps froze it still further, as what the video did was make me appreciate what a marvellously cynical record this […]

One of the things I’ve realised writing Popular is that Britain tends to like – or tended to like – songs and stars with a tiny hint of the absurd, records that hook you with sincerity but sugar it with the option of reserve. Barry White’s si[…]

Checking the usual sources, David Essex’s early career seems to be a complex mesh of meta – being a star, then playing someone who wants to be a star, then singing about turning someone who wants to be a star into a star, then playing som[…]

“Give up my life, my heart my home” – Boothe sings this high-stakes plea like a man who’s already lost the bet: he wants to continue abasing himself, piling more and more onto his end of the scales, potlatch-style, but his lov[…]

Rueful soft soul comforted by great pillowing banks of Philly-style orchestration, industrial quantities of it: never mind the quality, feel the gloss (and enjoy the louche brass while you’re at it). The production on “Sad Sweet Dreamer&#[…]

Regular commenters might have noticed a certain absence from the boxes lately – mainstay Marcello seems to have gone AWOL. I’m delighted to announce that this is not, in fact, due to legal proceedings by the representatives of Clodagh Rog[…]

Versions of “Annie’s Song”, in order of preference:
1/ The “Greasy Chip Butty” song, which effortlessly out-poetries Denver in the content-meets-form sensory hit of its images and hence taps directly into the spirit of t[…]

Lightning-fast moves, uncanny tricks, kids picking up on a craze hip-first and sparking a frisson of establishment fear – no surprise that the song cashing in on the Kung Fu fad was a disco one. Of course Carl Douglas in his headband looks like[…]

One of many drunken nights ago in a University bar I got into a vicious competition over Boyzone’s version of this song. My table would put the Boyzone song on the jukebox. Another bunch of drinkers at the next table would reply with Weezer&#82[…]