Just for fun, I decided to create a list of songs that entered the UK charts on every September that I have lived through. I did the same for June, July, and August on other posts. I limited it to one song 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: Telstar – Tornados
- 1963: I Who Have Nothing – Shirley Bassey
- 1964: When You Walk In The Room – The Searchers
- 1965: Eve Of Destruction – Barry McGuire
- 1966: You Can’t Hurry Love – The Supremes
- 1967: Black Velvet Band – The Dubliners – (An Irish group made the British charts! 😀)
- 1968: Those Were the Days – Mary Hopkin (This might be the first pop song that I remember well from the period – I was only six – the kids on my road used to sing it)
- 1969: Space Oddity – David Bowie (I only heard this in 1975 when it was re-released)
- 1970: (They Long To Be) Close To You – Carpenters
- 1971: Freedom Come, Freedom Go – Fortunes
- 1972: Children Of The Revolution – T-Rex
- 1973: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road – Elton John
- 1974: You Little Trust Maker – Tymes
- 1975: SOS – Abba
- 1976: Breakaway – Gallagher & Lyle
- 1977: Wonderous Stories – Yes
- 1978: Blame It On The Boogie – The Jacksons
- 1979: Message In A Bottle – Police
- 1980: Masterblaster (Jammin’) – Stevie Wonder
- 1981: Shut Up – Madness
- 1982: Pass The Dutchie – Musical Youth
- 1983: Modern Love – David Bowie
- 1984: Shout To The Top – Style Council
- 1985: The Boy With The Thorn In His Side – The Smiths
- 1986: Rain Or Shine – Five Star
- 1987: You Win Again – Bee Gees
- 1988: Desire – U2
- 1989: We Didn’t Start The Fire – Billy Joel
- 1990: Show Me Heaven – Maria McKee
- 1991: The One I Love – REM
- 1992: Sleeping Satellite – Tasmin Archer
- 1993: Rubberband Girl – Kate Bush
- 1994: Zombie – Cranberries
- 1995: Fairground – Simply Red
- 1996: Me And You Versus The World – Space
- 1997: The Drugs Don’t Work – The Verve
- 1998: Generation Sex – Divine Comedy
- 1999: Moving – Supergrass
- 2000: On a Night Like This – Kylie Minoque
- 2001: Side – Travis
- 2002: It’s Written In The Stars – Paul Weller
- 2003: Where Is The Love – Black Eyed Peas
- 2004: Jesus Walks – Kanye West
- 2005: Fix You – Coldplay
- 2006: When You Were Young – The Killers
- 2007: Valerie – Amy Winehouse
- 2008: Use Somebody – Kings of Leon
- 2009: Let There Be Music – Prefab Sprout
- 2010: It’s Not War – Manic Street Preachers
- 2011: Someone Like You – Adele
- 2012: Candy – Robbie Williams
- 2013: Counting Stars – One Republic
- 2014: Blame – Calvin Harris
- 2015: Can’t Feel My Face – The Weeknd
- 2016: Still Falling For You – Ellie Goulding
- 2017: Look What You Made Me Do – Taylor Swift
- 2018: Promises – Calvin Harris
- 2019: Circles – Post Malone
- 2020: Diamonds – Sam Smith
- 2021: Wildest Dreams – Taylor Swift
- 2022: Hold Me Closer – Elton John & Britney Spears
- 2023: Greedy – Tate McRae
- 2024: Burning Down – Alex Warren
- 2025: Where is My Husband – Raye
- 2026: Hootie Fruitti – Katsye
So, I’ll end by embedding YouTube videos of six of the songs on my list – I quickly chose a September favourite from each decade – just off the top of my head:
Looking at the larger 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. It’s interesting that many early 20th century songs, and even 19th century songs, are still known and loved. Perhaps I’ll do something with these too at some stage.
When I commited my life to Christ back in 1980, I almost idolized pop music. Maybe I prayed that pop music would become so bad that I’d lose interest in it. If I did – my prayer has been answered! 😀 It was become worse, and contemporary Christian music has improved. But I do need to make an effort to like anything new. For both spiritual and secular songs, I like the old stuff best. But who knows? Maybe it’ll get better again at some stage.
I didn’t see any Christian songs hitting the charts on the Septembers of my life. There are a couple that direct me towards God. Shout to the Top from 1984 reminds me of prayer – eventhough Paul Weller just used it as an analogy in a song about the British minor’s strike, and Let There Be Music, from 2009, makes me thankful to God that He included music in creation. The writer and singer, Paddy McAloon from Prefab Sprout, felt the same.
Hibernia Gospel 