All My July’s

Just for fun, I decided to create a list of songs that entered the UK charts on every July 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 the time, but I did get to know the 1960s songs in later years.

When I say I remember or like a song, I’m not endorsing the lyrics or the artist. I don’t really take much notice of the lyrics. But some songs transport me back in time because I’d have heard them on the radio at the time. And in some ways, the ones that are most successful at doing that are ones that I hardly listened to in the intervening years.

It’s a bit of a struggle to find 21st Century songs that I like, but I hope that some of them will transport me back to the early decades of the 21st Century if I live another 20 or 30 years.

• 1962: I Remember You​ –  Frank Ifield
• 1963: Devil In Disguise​ – Elvis Presley.
• 1964: A Hard Day’s Night​ – The Beatles
• 1965: Help! – The Beatles
• 1966: I Want You – Bob Dylan
• 1967: All You Need Is Love​ – The Beatles
• 1968: Mrs Robinson​ – Simon and Garfunkel
• 1969: My Cherie Amour​ – Stevie Wonder
  
• 1970: My Way​ – Frank Sinatra
• 1971: Banner Man​ – Blue Mink
• 1972: Run to Me – The Bee Gees
• 1973: Life On Mars​ – David Bowie
• 1974: Band On The Run​​ – Paul McCartney and Wings
• 1975: I Do I Do I Do I Do I Do​​ – Abba
• 1976: Don’t Go Breaking My Heart​​ – Elton John and Kiki Dee
• 1977: We’re All Alone​ – Rita Coolidge
• 1978: Northern Lights​ – Renaissance
• 1979: Girls Talk​ – Dave Edmunds
  
• 1980: Babooshka​ – Kate Bush
• 1981: Happy Birthday​ – Stevie Wonder
• 1982: The Only Way Out​ – Cliff Richard
• 1983: Everyday I Write The Book – Elvis Costello
• 1984: Eyes Without A Face​​ – Billy Idol
• 1985: Money For Nothing​​ – Dire Straits
• 1986: Panic​ – The Smiths
• 1987: The Living Daylights​ – AHA
• 1988: How She Threw It All Away – The Style Council
• 1989: Wouldn’t Change A Thing​​ – Kylie Minogue
  
• 1990: Turtle Power​
• 1991: Love And Understanding​ – Cher
• 1992: This Used To Be My Playground​ – Madonna
• 1993: Glastonbury Song​ – The Waterboys
• 1994: Can You Feel The Love Tonight​ – Elton John
• 1995: Waterfalls​ – TLC
• 1996: Everything Must Go​ – Manic Street Preachers
• 1997: D’You Know What I Mean?​ – Oasis
• 1998: Viva Forever – Spice Girls
• 1999: She – Elvis Costello
  
• 2000: Yellow​​ – Coldplay
• 2001: Sometimes – Ash
• 2002: By The Way​​ – Red Hot Chilli Peppers
• 2003: Crazy In Love​​ – Beyonce
• 2004: Let’s Get It Started​ – Black Eyed Pees
• 2005: Diamonds From Sierra Leone​
• 2006: You Give Me Something​ – James Morrison
• 2007: Autumnsong​ – Manic Street Preachers
• 2008: Warwick Avenue​ – Duffy
• 2009: When Love Takes Over​ – David Guetta, ft. Kelly Rowland
  
• 2010: Te Amo​ – Rihanna 
• 2011: Set Fire to the Rain​​ – Adele
• 2012: Princess of China – Coldplay
• 2013: Spectrum – Florence on the Machine 
• 2013: Summertime Sadness – Lana Del Ray 
• 2014: Thinking Out Loud- Ed Sheeran
• 2015: Can’t Feel My Face – The Weeknd
• 2016: You Don’t Know Love – Olly Murs
• 2017: New Rules​ – Dua Lupa
• 2018: Come Alive –  Jess Glynne The Greatest Showman
• 2019: Beautiful People – Ed Sheeran
  
• 2020: Head & Heart – Joel Corry and MNEK
• 2021: Seventeen Going Under – Sam Fender
• 2022: B.O.T.A – Ella Rose
• 2023: What Was I Made For​ – Billie Eilish
• 2024: feelslikeimfallinginlove​ – Coldplay
• 2025: Daisies – Justin Bieber
• 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 from 1991 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.