Catching up on things post Christnmas, and that means commenting on last Saturday's excellent POTP chart from 1985.

December 21 1985

19 DON'T YOU JUST KNOW IT - AMAZULU - My least fave of their hits. Okay to hear once in a while but could become quite irritating. Definitely not too good to be forgotten!
17 HIT THAT PERFECT BEAT - BRONSKI BEAT - Well Bronski Beat got off to a great start post Jimmy Somerville with this catchy, hi nrg track though the seemed to go the dumper quite quickly. I don't recall any of their singles after this to comment on whether that was deserved or not.
14 WALKING IN THE AIR - ALED JONES - I remember being absolutely shocked when I discovered that it is Peter Auty and not Aled who sings this in The Snowman, but,. Peter Auty does. Well Aled's certainly made a career out of this song and, to be fair, it sounds so magical and Christmassy and will always be heard every Christmas, if not this version.
12 WE BUILT THIS CITY - STARSHIP - Well the readers of Rolling Stone magazine voted it the worst song of the decade but I wouldn't say its the worst song even in this chart! It's quite fun although I'll never love it as much as Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now.
09 SANTA CLAUS IS COMIN' TO TOWN/MY HOMETOWN - BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN - I've only heard Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town and that's enough. Truly awful and completely out of tune all the way through. Should have been skipped.
07 SEPARATE LIVES - PHIL COLLINS AND MARILYN MARTIN - Oh this is one of those mature, bitter-sweet love songs that I absolutely love. I was surprised that Phil Collins didn't write this I can see why it appealed to him. I've never seen the film White Nights and, seeing the clips in the video, I'm not sure exactly how this fits. I think the song stands on its own.
06 SEE THE DAY - DEE C. LEE - A really lovely ballad. I'm not sure why she didn't have more hits in fact I can't recall any other of her singles.
05 WEST END GIRLS - PET SHOP BOYS - I'd probably say this is the best song in this chart as far as I'm concerned. It just sounded so different at the time and it was no surprise the long-lasting career they have gone on to have.
04 I'M YOUR MAN - WHAM! - Fitting there should be three Wham! tracks in this chart with George Michael's sad passing over Christmas. I'm sure I've made it more than clear that I'm a big Wham!/George Michael fan. With this song it has to be said there's not much to get your teeth into lyrically, but its great to just turn up load and sing along to.
02 MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE - SHAKIN' STEVENS - Can listen to this any day of the year. An absolute classic that never fails to get me in a Christmassy mood. Well done to whoever decided to hold back on releasing this as a single in 1984 as it's a deserved Christmas no. 1
01 SAVING ALL MY LOVE FOR YOU - WHITNEY HOUSTON - This will always be my fave Whitney track. I always think how brave it was to release as a debut a single that has her as the other woman in relationship. It didn't seem to make her unpopular with female music buyers.

Top 20 tracks skipped -
18 THE SHOW - DOUG E. FRESH AND THE GET FRESH CREW - I probably wouldn't remember this if wasn't for the sample of the Inspector Gadget theme and when the "Michelle My Belle" bit I think they got into trouble with Mccartney for that.
16 SPIES LIKE US - PAUL MCCARTNEY - On to the man himself! Well this is never going to go down as one of his best songs but quite like it. It is a bit silly but that's in keeping with the film it's from..
15 DON'T LOOK DOWN - THE SEQUEL - GO WEST - Would've liked to have heard this. It reminds me of being in a school play at the time because of the line "first night, stage fright, always hypnotizes.
11 SAY YOU, SAY ME - LIONEL RICHIE - Another song from the film White Nights. Nice enough, though I don't think it would stick in my mind if it wasn't for the unexpected tempo change towards the end.
08 DRESS YOU UP - MADONNA - No doubt that 1985 was the year of Madonna but I'd say that this is my least favourite of my hits from this year.

Looking forward to a proper POTP next week, and the 1987 chart.

1975 or 1977?

Paul said '77 last week but all listings including the BBC Radio 2 one have the show doing '75.

Either way, this week Pick Of The Pops will be "comparing" the hits from both the British and American charts of today back in one of those years.

Pick Of The Pops needs a bit of a freshen up and this sounds like a good start.

Incidentally, we are currently undergoing the longest Christmas No1 single since both 1975 and 1977's nine week reigns, with Clean Bandit now 8 weeks and maybe 2016 equalling 1975 and 1977 next week.

Ignore the bit in italics above. I left it too late to edit.

How could I forget 1992, the 10 week longest festive No1 by Whitney Houston with I Will Always Love You.


Another really great résumé of 1985 last week Clare, but whoever said We Built This City is the worst song of the 80's needs their ears cleaning out. It's a brilliant song. What makes it a bad song for some people exactly?

Wham! went from No16 to No7 in the charts last night, in the top ten for the first time since the week I left school!

I'm not keen on Hello Goodbye either.

Unfortunately it wasn't. The days when a death leads to a resurgence of hits seem over. I guess it's due to streaming.

oh no, horrible idea. I'm not interested in old American charts. I want to hear 2 UK charts. I sure hope this is just a one off. I won't be listening today if this is what we're getting

Some comments on your comments:
19 Didn't remember this at all but thought it was rather good.
17 Agree
12 The readers of Rolling Stone must have been on some pretty hard stuff to come to that conclusion! Very good song.
09 Love Bruce but Santa Claus not one of his best, although excellent sax break. The other A side far better.
07 and 11. Simply adore Separate Lives, Marilyn Martin's vocal is fantastic. In the same way I simply loathe Say You Say Me. I was a big Lionel fan at the time but this is just tosh. It changes tempo long before the end. One of the greatest songs of all time and one of the worst songs of all time, and which one won the Oscar - you've guessed it!
06 and 01. There was a time when Dee C looked like she'd get the Number 1 but Whitney overtook her. Then their careers went in very opposite directions! Love both singles, although One Moment in Time will always be my favourite Whitney one.
05 I went on to love PSB but for me, though I can see the appeal, their debut hit is one of their weaker singles.
04 OK for what it is, and I like it but not one of Wham!'s best by far
02 Completely disagree! Dreadful song. One of Shaky's worst singles and one of the worst Christmas singles in one. Blue Christmas, as featured on TOTP 1982 yesterday, much better.

who on earth bought the goodies make a daft noise for xmas...load of tosh..mind you father Christmas do not touch me is great, b side of their first single.

Wow!, Art for Art Sake by 10CC, I remember listening to football coverage on BBC Radio Kent around the late 80s/early 90s.

The scores were given out and the presenter spoke on the phone live to the Welling United manager, I am not sure who the presenter was but either just before or just after the interview he played this very song of which I am sure I still have on audio tape somewhere.

I liked the song and bought a Very Best Of CD of 10CC in 2001 which has this hit on after having heard the song on Pick of the Pops hosted then by Dale Winton, before then I did not know who the song was by but it is one of my favourite hits.

Funny, you never hear it these days for some reason!

The question for today is, why on Earth did Gambo play it and then skip The Drifters hit. Could only have been for a bet.

I've not heard this Mud record for years. They weren't the same after they left RAK and lost their songwriters but this isn't a bad song.

And now, one of my favourite David Bowie records. In fact this may be the first one I liked at the time, before this I was too young to appreciate his music.

Agree but we will sadly never hear Father Christmas.. on the radio again. We should really have heard Chris Hill, a clever novelty record. Anyway my favourite Christmas top three of all coming up, just shading '84 and '87. However, this chart would have sounded even better on Christmas Eve.

Well I have to say I am really liking Pick of the Pops again today, great music.

For the poster who commented about The Drifters being missed, keep listening as we still have the US chart of 1975 so maybe it will be played in the next hour.

As I type another good song being played by the great late Greg Lake, I believe in Father Christmas. One of the all time great Christmas classics.

Actually it's a double A side but even in 1974 it was seldom played.

And there's a very unlikely group that appear in both charts with different hits.

Why shouldn't it have been played? It went up 7 places in the chart. Should have played The Drifters also but maybe not Bowie as going down.

Isn't bad? It's flipping brilliant!

I wonder which chart Gambo will play for the US chart, the one ending 27/12/75 or 03/01/76? The latter one was the then current chart at this time back then. And it has a brilliant record at number 1 - but then so does the one from 27/12/75.

I'll give no clues to what either record could be in case anyone is listening and doesn't know what was at the top then. But the one from 03/01/76 may come as a surprise to some people!

It's the US chart dated 03/01/76...

True, but it's no 'Tiger Feet'!

Unbelievable to think 'You Sexy Thing' was first released as a B side to a flop Hot Chocolate single earlier in 1975, one that failed to make the top 50. The producer Mickie Most remixed the track and decided to release it as an A side... and they had their biggest selling single both in the UK and the US as a result.

Hi all.

1 year - 1975 - Billboard then UK

Hour 1 - looks like Billboard chart - http://www.billboard.com/charts/hot-100/1976-01-03

Possible hit for Bandstand - http://www.tv.com/shows/american-ban...ywoods-177898/

Was great to hear Dana, my fave Xmas song that is criminally ignored by radio now.