Songs of the Charts, Charts of the Songs

Posted in: Musicouching by R J Evans on October 21, 2008 | 32 Comments

Would you be able to recognize some of the world’s most famous and popular songs if they were represented by a chart instead of by their tune? Take a few minutes to look through these and see if you can guess the songs of the charts by, well, by the charts of the songs.

This one may take you back a few years – and it has been covered by many people over the years.  Yet, who did the original version?  It was released on a 1971 album (back when they had them!) and reached number three in the US charts.  When the artist recorded it he was actually working in a factory.  Not so strange in itself until you learn that the factory made toilet seats for jumbo jets!  The song comes in at number two hundred and eighty in the Rolling Stone magazines “500 Greatest Songs of All Time”.  Now got it yet?

Moving forward to 1981, this band took the world by storm with their electro-pop grooviness, a lead singer with an incredibly floppy fringe and two girl singers who couldn’t really sing! In fact they made your average cat on a tin roof sound hot! This song is comfortably in the top thirty best selling singles of all time in the UK and was a global hit.  A “Star Is Born” theme runs through this tune, and despite its success the band initially did not want it released viewing it as very much a second rate filler track for their album “Dare”.  They insisted that a large poster be released with the song which then gracefully adorned bedsit walls for years to come.  Has the “aaah” moment come?

From the album, Combat Rock, this single was recorded in the same year as second entry here but wasn’t for ten years that the song made it to number one, after numerous re-releases.  What the song is about (specifically) remains a mystery, but the best bet is on that it concerns a relationship between a band member and a lady by the name of Ellen Folley, which was soon to go the way of so many relationships!  Come on, this one is easy!

This gentleman has had numerous hits but this one remains a firm favorite of people around the globe.  Reputedly, this track still gets played in clubs over a quarter of a million times a week, despite the fact that it was released in 1983.  The song is still regarded as the signature for this artist, for several reasons.  Firstly, the video was hugely successful, he performed a particularly famous dance routine of his while performing the song on live TV and there might also be something to do with a fedora and a single white, sequined glove as well.

This was released in the States in 1965 and is looked upon by many as the greatest rock and roll song ever put on to vinyl.  Its lyrics were considered extremely risqué for time and for quite a while it was only played on pirate radio stations.  The band is still going and the lead singer is known for his strutting stage performance and lips that were way out there before collagen implants had ever been heard of!  Another band member has recently hit the tabloids for his supposed philandering with a young Russian lady.  His song has been covered by artists as diverse as Otis Redding and Britney Spears.  Got it yet?

Recorded in 1985 and a huge global hit in 1986, this song featured on the soundtrack of a popular action adventure film of the period.  The video of the song was “helped out” by the presence of three Hollywood stars, De Vito, Douglas and Turner getting down with the kids.  If failed by a whisker to get to the number one spot in the US but was there twice in the UK, the second time for Irish heart-throb boy-band not-at-all-manufactured pop-sensation Boyzone.  Not got it, despite the overindulgent and wasteful use of hyphens?  Shame on you!

The lead singer of this band went on to be far better known for his charitable works and his wayward daughters than for his career as new wave front man.  Written after a particularly nasty incident at an American High School, this song pounded its way to the top of the charts in many countries in 1979.  Not so much in the US where it only reached number seventy three on the Billboard charts (due to the lead singer’s antagonism towards the American media).  It penetrated deeply in to the American psyche despite this. No, take a look at the end of the article for the answers!

Soul music would never been the same again after this song.  It was released in 1959 and is still well known today due to its (some say over) use in numerous TV and film productions.  This song is an affirmation of affection that is loved the world over for its honest simplicity; it has been covered by the world, its wife and several schools of dolphins in to the bargain.   Most recently the song has become a parody of its former self, being used in a campaign for Barack Obama.  The lyrics were altered to make John McCain look foolish – “Don’t know much about industry”.  Shame on you Barack!

Taken from the eponymously title film this track was a breakthrough for reggae in the United States.  The film tells the story of a young Jamaican man in America, trying to make it big.  The film itself bombed until it became popularized by late night showings and then went mainstream.  Released in 1971 the song itself has titillated a number of generations of schoolboys who, for some strange reason, seem to find the title of the song the source of constant and upmost hilarity.

Read more in Musicouching
« A Weekend in Amsterdam: Koorddansen 2008 Concert
Power of Music »

Really, if you can’t get this one you have no right to call yourself a music fan.  And, OK, it’s not strictly speaking a chart but this was irresistible.  This song has supposedly the greatest number of cover versions of any song ever recorded.  Ever.  Well, to paraphrase Many Rice-Davis, it would have, wouldn’t it?  A sublime tune from 1965, it was recently voted the best song of the twentieth century in a recent poll of BBC radio listeners.

If you were stuck on any, here are the answers!

  • Ain’t No Sunshine by Bill Withers
  • Don’t You Want Me? by the Human League
  • Should I Stay or Should I Go? by The Clash
  • Billy Jean by Michael Jackson
  • (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction by The Rolling Stones
  • When The Going Gets Tough The Tough Get Going by Bill Ocean
  • I Don’t Like Mondays by The Boomtown Rats
  • Wonderful World by Sam Cooke
  • The Harder They Come by Jimmy Cliff
  • Yesterday by The Beatles
28
Liked it
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

32 Responses to “Songs of the Charts, Charts of the Songs”

Leave a Reply


 
 
Powered by Powered by Triond
© 2008 Copyright Musicouch. All Rights Reserved.   Terms of Use   Privacy Policy