Hello! And welcome to my latest excuse to ramble on about music with this, We’re Number Two. It’s a series of articles spanning four decades, from 1960 to 1999, covering a song which made it to Number Two in the charts. Hence, you know, the name. Plenty gets written about the chart toppers but sometimes it’s nice to spend a bit of time discussing the songs that almost – but never quite – made it.
The only criteria for entry is that the song in question must have hit the number two position on the charts in either the UK or the US – it doesn’t matter if it went in at Number Two, if Number Two was the song’s highest charting position, or if the song went in at number one and sank back to Number Two. As long as it’s held that slightly coveted position and that’s the song’s most meaningful position, it’s eligible. And I’ll be talking about songs that mostly interest me for whatever reason rather than necessarily that year’s best known songs, so anyone desperate to find out my stance on the Bay City Rollers will just have to be disappointed, I fear. There shall be no repetition of artists – solo artists who were in a band are eligible – so for example I could talk about The Beatles and John Lennon, but not two Beatles singles nor two John Lennon singles, and let’s not have the Plastic Ono Band making life any more difficult for us than it needs to be. As ever, I shall be dispensing with the twin straightjackets of objectivity and fan consensus.
Song List:
1960 – Eddie Cochrane, Three Steps To Heaven
1961 – Jimmy Dean, Big Bad John
1962 – Chubby Checker, Let’s Twist Again
1963 – Billy J Kramer And The Dakotas, Do You Want To Know A Secret
1964 – Petula Clark, Downtown
1965 – The Animals, We Gotta Get Out Of This Place
1966 – The Troggs, Wild Thing
1967 – The Beatles, Strawberry Fields Forever / Penny Lane
1968 – Tom Jones, Delilah
1969 – Sly And The Family Stone, Everyday People
The 60’s
1970 – The Kinks, Lola
1971 – Jean Knight, Mr Big Stuff
1972 – Elton John, Rocket Man
1973 – The Sweet, Ballroom Blitz
1974 – Queen, Killer Queen
1975 – Gloria Gaynor, Never Can Say Goodbye
1976 – Wings, Let ‘Em In
1977 – Stevie Wonder, Sir Duke
1978 – Blondie, Denis
1979 – Elvis Costello, Oliver’s Army
The 70’s
1980 – Adam And The Ants, Antmusic
1981 – Ultravox, Vienna
1982 – Dire Straits, Private Investigations
1983 – Eurythmics, Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)
1984 – Cyndi Lauper, Girls Just Want To Have Fun
1985 – Bonnie Tyler, Holding Out For A Hero
1986 – The Bangles, Manic Monday
1987 – Pet Shop Boys With Dusty Springfield, What Have I Done To Deserve This?
1988 – Terence Trent D’Arby, Sign You Name
1989 – The Beautiful South, Song For Whoever
1990 – Suzanne Vega-DNA, Tom’s Diner / The B-52s – Love Shack
1991 – James, Sit Down
1992 – The KLF with Tammy Wynette – Justified And Ancient
1993 – 4 Non Blondes,What’s Up?
1994 – Kylie Minogue, Confide In Me
1995 – Pulp, Common People
1996 – Manic Street Preachers, A Design For Life
1997 – Natalie Imbruglia, Torn
1998 – Madonna – Ray Of Light
1999 – Fatboy Slim – Right Here, Right Now
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