Just for fun, I decided to create a list of songs that entered the UK charts on every June that I have lived through. I limited it to one per year. It wasn’t until about 1971 that I was familiar with them at time, but I did get to know the 1960s songs in later years.
- 1962: Stranger On The Shore – Mr Acker Bilk with The Leon Young String Chorale
- 1963: Da Doo Ron Ron – The Crystals
- 1964: House Of The Rising Sun – The Animals
- 1965: Mr. Tambourine Man – The Byrds
- 1966: Paperback Writer – The Beatles
- 1967: Don’t Sleep In The Subway – Petula Clarke
- 1968: My Name Is Jack – Manfred Mann
- 1969: Happy Heart – Andy Williams
- 1970: Goodbye Sam Hello Samantha – Cliff Richard
- 1971: Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep – Middle of the Road
- 1972: Circles – New Seekers
- 1973: Live And Let Die – Paul McCartney and Wings
- 1974: One Man Band – Leo Sayer
- 1975: I’m Not In Love – 10cc
- 1976: The Boys Are Back In Town – Thin Lizzy
- 1977: Sam – Olivia Newton John
- 1978: Airport – The Motors
- 1979: Lady Lynda – Beach Boys
- 1980: Xanadu – Olivia Newton John
- 1981: Is That Love – Squeeze
- 1982: Do I Do – Stevie Wonder
- 1983: Baby Jane – Rod Stewart
- 1984: One Better Day – Madness
- 1985: Come To Milton Keynes – The Style Council
- 1986: Invisible Touch – Genesis
- 1987: Star Trekkin – The Firm
- 1988: Every Day Is Like Sunday – Morrisey
- 1989: Have I Told You Lately – Van Morrison
- 1990: Nessun Dorma – Luciano Pavarotti
- 1991: There’s Nothing Like This – Omar
- 1992: Motorcycle Emptiness – Manic Street Preachers
- 1993: One Night In Heaven – M People
- 1994: Anytime You Need A Friend – Mariah Carey
- 1995: Hold me Thrill Me Kiss Me – U2
- 1996: Oh Yeah – Ash
- 1997: Bitter Sweet Symphony – The Verve
- 1998: Vindaloo – Fat Les
- 1999: Beautiful Stranger – Madonna
- 2000: Shackles (Praise You) – Mary Mary
- 2001: Sing – Travis
- 2002: Love At First Sight – Kylie Minoque
- 2003: Bring Me To Life – Evanescence
- 2004: Everytime – Britney Spears
- 2005: City Of Blinding Lights – U2
- 2006: Valerie – Zutons
- 2007: Do You Know (The Ping Pong Song) – Enrique Iglesias
- 2008: Viva la Vida – Coldplay
- 2009: Paparazzi – Lady Gaga
- 2010: California Gurls – Katy Perry
- 2011: Every Tear Drop – Coldplay
- 2012: Princess of China – Coldplay
- 2013: Blurred Lines – Robin Thicke
- 2014: Sing – Ed Sheeran
- 2015: Shut Up & Dance – Walk the Moon
- 2016: Tears – Clean Bandit with Louisa Johnson
- 2017: Your Song – Rita Ora
- 2018: Shotgun – George Ezra
- 2019: Senorita – Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello
- 2020: Watermelon Sugar – Harry Styles
- 2021: Lost Cause – Billie Eilish
- 2022: Break My Soul – Beyonce
- 2023: Dance the Night – Dua Lupa
- 2024: Birds of the Feather – Billie Eilish
- 2025: Manchild – Sabrina Carpenter
- 2026: I Knew It I Knew You – Taylor Swift
So, I’ll end by embedding YouTube videos of two of the songs on my list – one is perhaps my favourite and the other is the only worship song on the list. I hope it makes up for all the worldly songs that I included 😀.
Looking at the list, I think that my interest in pop music peaked in the late 1970s, but I do like my life having a bit of a soundtrack to it. I might not approve of all the songs, but because they would have played on the radio at the time, they help me to remember each year. I recently started going backwards and logging all the songs that I’m familiar with from 1900, and even before, to 1962. Perhaps I’ll do something with these too at some stage.
Hibernia Gospel 