Trollheart's Chart Fifty

[Trollheart]

So that's the number 17 done with, which means it's time to check out the top hit from each of the last six decades, and we begin with what is, or was, currently sitting at number


Title: "Sailor Song"
Artist: Gigi Perez
Nationality: American
Genre: Indie Folk
Written by: Gianna (Gigi) Perez
Original release date: July 26 2024
Progress to the top: Not an instant hit by any means, it came into the charts at 53 in August and fell right back out the next week, but the week after that rallied and made it into the top 40, where it spent two weeks, then one week at number 25 got it into the top 30, after which it climbed to number 13, staying there for two weeks, then moving to 11 for another two weeks before getting into the top ten as it made number 6, then 3, then 2 and finally hit the top on November 1st.
Weeks spent at number one: 1
From the album: N/A
What do I know about this artist? Nada
What have I learned about this artist? That she suffered bereavement and loss, and uploaded videos of her songs to TikTok to pass the time, whereby she was discovered. She has supported Coldplay on tour, and seems to have had a pretty meteoric rise to fame, only having been signed in 2021.
What do I think of this single? Lord save me, not indie folk! I haven't had the best luck with this genre, but we'll see. It's a nice simple tune, but the production is - probably intentionally - bad, which makes it sound like she's playing it in a car park or something. Better production would help. Nice enough though. Number one material? Ah, you're asking the wrong old guy there!
What have I learned about this single? That it's a lesbian love song, and that she upset fundamentalist Christians with it. For that alone, she has my vote! Also that she composed it in the shower, which is a real old-school way of writing music. It's also acoustic which is nice.
My rating:

[Trollheart]

Ten years prior, what were the kids buying, and what had they pushed to the apex of the chart? Well, this.

Title: "Hello"
Artist: Adele
Nationality: English
Genre: Soul
Written by: Adele Adkins/Greg Kurstin
Original release date: October 25 2015
Progress to the top: Straight in at number one.
Weeks spent at number one: 3
From the album: 25
What do I know about this artist? More than I want to know.
What have I learned about this artist? N/A
What do I think of this single? I've heard it before, one of the very few Adele songs I've ever heard. I guess I'll address that in yet another new thread this year. Piano ballad, which certainly highlights the strength of her voice, very emotional. I imagine a very personal song to her.
What have I learned about this single? Despite what I thought, it's not (she says) about a broken love affair, but a sort of explanation or apology to all the people she has lost contact with, including her family and friends.
My rating:

[Trollheart]

Back another ten years and we're at 2005. I wasn't particularly paying attention to the charts (have not done since the 1980s) as Karen would have been getting close to being unable to come down from her bedroom at this point. Bush had won/stolen his second term, and in another four years I'd be leaving my job of almost 30 years to look after my sister. As for the charts? Here's what was at the top.


Title: "You Raise Me Up"
Artist: Westlife
Nationality: Irish, god help me!
Genre: Ballad/Pop/Gospel
Written by: Rolf Lovland/Brendan Graham
Original release date: October 24 2005
Progress to the top: Straight in at number one.
Weeks spent at number one: 2
From the album: Face to Face
What do I know about this artist? Oh they're the scourge of Ireland, so they are! I learned more about them years ago in my "Stranger in a Strange Land" feature than I ever want to know.
What have I learned about this artist? N/A
What do I think of this single? Love it, though I prefer Josh Groban's version. Westlife "gospel it up" too much for my tastes, make it a big epic, whereas I feel it should be a more humble, understated ballad. Meh, what do I know? It got to number one, but then, it was Westlife. They could have farted and recorded it and it would have broken the top of the charts.
What have I learned about this single? Apparently the boys didn't want to record the song, feeling it was a "church song", but Louis said, "Yiz'll do what ye're told, so ye will, or I'll fight every one o' ye out in the car park, so help me god I will!" * Knows what he's talking about, that man. It was the only version of the song to hit number one, and Westlife believe it revitalised their career. God damn it.

A lot of interesting stuff here. Brendan Graham, the songwriter who put lyrics to Lovland's music (it was originally written by him as an instrumental entitled "Silent Story") is Irish, and originally Johnny Logan, our twice-winner of the Eurovision, was supposed to sing it, but in the end it fell to Brian Kennedy, our once-loser of the Eurovision to do so, and therefore in a way you could call "You Raise Me Up" an Irish song, and say it sort of came home and full circle when Westlife covered it, four years after it had been written. Also, Icelandic composer Johann Helgason claimed it was so similar to his song, "Söknuður", written in 1977, that it was obvious that Lovland had heard it and copied it. So enraged was he, and so certain of the plagiarism, that he took a court case against Lovland, which, bizarrely to me, he lost. "You Raise Me Up" has been recorded by over 100 artists since it was written, and below, if I can find it, I'll post the Icelandic song too, so you can make up your own mind as to who should get credit for it. For my money, the Icelander was done up like a kipper!
My rating: (for the song, not necessarily their version, which is all right I suppose)

* With apologies to Roy Keane

[Trollheart]

Back once more we go, ever back, another ten years, another decade, another century, to 1995, when this was sitting top of the charts.

Title: "Gangsta's Paradise"
Artist: Coolio featuring L.V.
Nationality: American
Genre: West Coast Hip-hop/Gangsta Rap/Pop Rap/G-Funk
Written by: Artis Ivey Jr./Larry Sanders/Doug Rasheed/Stevie Wonder
Original release date: August 1 1995
Progress to the top: Another straight in at number one.
Weeks spent at number one: 2
From the album: Gangsta's Paradise (also I Am L.V. and Dangerous Minds OST)
What do I know about this artist? Nothing much
What have I learned about this artist? That his real name was Artis Ivey Jr. (no wonder he changed it!) and that he is credited with bringing rap into the mainstream via this single. He also had a cooking show (no, seriously) and wrote a cookbook. He had asthma as a child and was an avid reader. He moved with his mother to Compton (so I guess you could say he came Straight Outta Compton, huh? Yeah I know: stay in your lane, TH) and he got his name by being called Coolio Iglesias, in reference to Spanish smoothie superstar Julio Iglesias. He did time for taking a weapon to school and larceny, got addicted to crack and then found God, and became a volunteer member of the fire department. He is also credited as being the first to bring a "lighter" form of gangsta rap to the genre, not being so serious and tough all the time. He died in 2022 due to an accidental overdose. Very sad, but pretty cool(io) for me, one of his very last performances was to record lines for a Futurama Christmas episode.
What do I think of this single? Love it. I've heard Stevie Wonder's version and it's a good song, but this blows it out of the water. Sorry Stevie. The sense of threat and ominous foreboding in it is perfect, and the choir-like chorus just tops it off.
What have I learned about this single? That it was the first rap single to go straight to number one, that it crossed all the genres chartwise and that it was the first rap single to sell over a million copies. It's also interesting to see that it may be one of the few songs released on three separate albums, as above - on Coolio's album, on that released by L.V., and then later on the soundtrack to the movie Dangerous Minds.
My rating:

[Trollheart]

And so back to my favourite decade, as we look to see what was top of the charts in 1985. Ah look! Tis herself!

Title: "The Power of Love"
Artist: Jennifer Rush
Nationality: American
Genre: Pop
Written by: Candy de Rouge/Gunther Mende/Mary Susan Applegate/Jennifer Rush
Original release date: December 1984
Progress to the top: By no means an instant hit, it crept inside the top 100, entering at 96 on June 16, and slowly made its way up the lower end of the charts, taking no less than thirteen weeks to get into the top 40, after which it quickly jumped to number 15 on September 22, making it into the top 10 the next week and number one after that. So in all, a total of (counting from its earliest entry) 17 weeks making it up the chart, though only three to get through the top 40 and to number one.
Weeks spent at number one: 5
From the album: Jennifer Rush
What do I know about this artist? Very little
What have I learned about this artist? That her real name is not Jennifer Rush, for a start: it's Heidi Stern, or it was, until she changed it legally. In fact, her debut album was released under her original name, then she changed it and released this one, so confusingly she actually had two debut albums! She lived for a while in Germany, which explains the slight trace of accent on this, and she's not just a pretty face, having studied economics while considering a change of career. Her most successful album was 1987's Heart Over Mind, a fantastic album, on which she duets with Elton John, showing how her profile had risen, but sadly she's only going to ever be known for this song.
What do I think of this single? You know, I loved it when I heard it first, but it's worn on me a little now. Her voice is undeniably powerful, and the song is still great, but I could live without hearing it again before I die.
What have I learned about this single? That it was released without success in 1984 in Germany, where she was living at the time, and that it wasn't the first released in the UK from her debut album, but the fifth, which shows how I guess it just caught the zeitgeist of the time. It became the biggest-selling single of 1985, and one of the biggest-selling singles of the entire decade. It also became a number one hit for Celine Dion, ten years later. It's also, of course, one of three major hit singles with that name, the other two being by Huey Lewis and The News, released the same year but getting to the top in the US a few months before Jennifer, and Frankie Goes to Hollywood, which hit number one the previous year.
My rating: (only because of the I'm-sick-of-it factor)

[Trollheart]

That leaves us back in the 1970s, our final stop along this chronological chart cruise through the centuries. And at this time, in 1975, if you switched on Top of the Pops this is what the DJ would tell you was at number one.

Title: "Space Oddity"
Artist: David Bowie
Nationality: English
Genre: Psychedelic Pop/Folk Rock
Written by: David Bowie
Original release date: September 26 1975 (re-release; one of many - original release date was July 11 1969)
Progress to the top: Again, even though it was a re-re-re-release, not an instant hit, entering at 23 on October 5 and then moving to number 11 the next week, then number 4 the week after that, number 2 the following week and finally number one.
Weeks spent at number one: 2
From the album: David Bowie (originally) and then released in 1975 as a maxi-single with "Changes" on the other side.
What do I know about this artist? You're kidding, right?
What have I learned about this artist? N/A
What do I think of this single? Again, you are kidding?
What have I learned about this single? That up to this, (talking about 1969 now) Bowie had been unsuccessful, and this was originally his first hit single, and his first number one. Interestingly, it was turned down by both George Martin and Tony Visconti, both of whom saw it as a novelty record. Don't know how. Also that it was composed on a stylophone, marketed more to children as a toy in the 1960s. It was also originally released to capitalise on the NASA moon landing. I see Gus Dudgeon, who took up the offer to produce it in 1969, later sued Bowie for royalties he said he had not received. Like, seriously? Over 35 years later? He sued in 2002, but the case never got to court as he died in a car accident.
My rating:

[Trollheart]

Time to plunder my MB thread! Obviously, the main year will be a few years out here, but hey ho!

This random spin gave me number 33, so what's there this week and what was there  this week up to fifty years ago? Well, this week (or as close to it as I can get anyway) we have this:


Title: "Super Freaky Girl"
Artist: Nicki Minaj
Nationality: Trinidadian
Genre: Hip-hop, Pop Rap
Written by: Rick James, Alonzo Miller, Lukasz Gottwald, Aaron Joseph, Lauren Miller, Vaughan Oliver (Lyrics by Onilka Maraj/Nicki Minaj and Gamal Lewis/LunchMoney Lewis)
Original release date: August 22 2022
Highest chart position (at time of writing): 5
Chart position (at time of writing): 33
Status at time of writing: Descending
Chart progress; Came in at number 15 August 22, moved to 10 the next week, then for some reason dropped to 11 the next week, moved on to 6 the week after that, and arrived at its highest placing, number 5, on September 19, where it spent two weeks before falling to number 6 again. In a three-week period after that, it fell to 7, back to 6 (?) and then to 10, then plummeted to 33 and the week after that exited the top 40.
From the album: N/A
What do I know about this artist? Very little; I know her name and that she's a rapper/pop artist and usually has pink hair, but other than that, nada.
What have I learned about this artist? Wasn't bothered enough to look honestly.
What do I think of this single? Okay, hands up anyone who thought I liked it? Huh? Oh, right. You just joined today. Well, you'll learn once you get to know me. Look, it wasn't as terrible as I had expected it to be, but let's be honest here: the main thrust (ooer) or if you prefer the meat (double ooer) of the song is in the original: that instantly recognisable keyboard riff, the beat, it's all James and then she's spouting sexual not-quite-innuendos all over it. Yeah it's okay and I can see how it was so popular, and you can't fault the video (not that that should really factor into my decision, but this is the age of MTV, sort of). But really the only thing this song showed me was that I do actually know "Super Freak", and it's a cool song. This is okay but you know, meh.
What have I learned about this single? Seems to have been very successful, taking her to number one in the US, in fact debuting at number one, though it didn't do quite as well over here, as you can see. Still made the top ten. Just. It's not from any album, as seems to be increasingly the norm these days with pop artists - probably due to the popularity of streaming sites: indeed, this was the highest-charting debut for a female solo rap singer (well, it says biggest debut, but I assume that's what it means) on Spotify. It liberally samples Rick James's 1981 hit "Super Freak" (which then proves she didn't exactly go outof her way to title it, just adding a "y" and "girl" to the song) but I'm no fan of James so could not tell you how, if at all, it compares to the original.

Some controversy apparently, if you care, about her being annoyed it was chosen as a pop rather than a rap single, which kind of seems like splitting hairs to me, but there you go. Then some sort of "Twitter battle" between her and some other rapper, Latte or Ladder or, no, Latto, that's the one. As if I care.
My rating: