All My November’s

Just for fun, I decided to create a list of songs that entered the UK charts on every November that I have lived through. I did the same for June to October 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: The James Bond Theme​
• 1963: I Wanna Be Your Man​ – The Rolling Stones
• 1964: Downtown​ – Petula Clarke ( I prefer I Feel Fine by the Beatles, but I actually remember this one from my childhood )
• 1965: Turn! Turn! Turn!​ – The Byrds
• 1966: Mursheen Durkin​ – Johnny McEvoy (We tended to be more familiar with Irish songs, like this one, as kids)
• 1967: Whiskey on a Sunday – Danny Doyle
• 1968: Lily The Pink​ – Scaffold (I remember kids singing that in my area)
• 1969: Two Little Boys – Rolf Harris
  
  
• 1970: Cracklin’ Rosie​ – Neil Diamond
• 1971: I’d Like To Teach The World To Sing – The New Seekers
  1972: Whiskey in the Jar – Thin Lizzy (I bought the single – secondhand though)
• 1973: Mind Games​ – John Lennon
• 1974: Gonna Make You A Star​​ – David Essex
• 1975: Sky High​ – Jigsaw
• 1976: Lowdown​ – Boz Scaggs
• 1977: Watchin’ The Detectives​​ – Elvis Costello
• 1978: Don’t Cry Out Loud​​ – Elkie Brooks
• 1979: Living On An Island – Status Quo
  
  
• 1980: (Just Like) Starting Over​​ – John Lennon
• 1981: Wedding Bells​ – Godley and Creme
• 1982: Beat Surrender – The Jam
• 1983: The Sun and The Rain – Madness
• 1984: Louise​​​ – The Human League
• 1985: When Love Breaks Down​​ – Prefab Sprout
• 1986: Caravan of Love – The Housemartins
• 1987: Letter from America​​ – The Proclaimers
• 1988: Two Hearts – Phil Collins
• 1989: Another Day in Paradise​​ – Phil Collins
  
  
• 1990: Unbelievable – EMF​
• 1991: Stars​ – Simply Red
• 1992: Out of Space – Prodigy
• 1993: Stay (Faraway, So Close)​ – U2
• 1994: Crocodile Shoes​ – Jimmy Nail
• 1995: Wonderwall​ – Oasis
• 1996: Everyday Is A Winding Road​ – Sheryl Crowe
• 1997: Perfect Day​ – Various Artists
• 1998: So Young – Corrs
• 1999: The World Is Not Enough – Garbage
  
  
• 2000: Can’t Fight The Moonlight​​ – Leann Rimmes
• 2001: The Music’s No Good Without You​ – Cher
• 2002: The Scientist​ – Coldplay
• 2003: Swing Low​​ – UB40
• 2004: Vertigo​ – U2
• 2005: Biology – Girlz Aloud​
• 2006: Patience – Take That
• 2007: Call the Shots​ – Girls Aloud
• 2008: Make You Feel my Love​​ – Adele
• 2009: Cornerstone – Artic Monkeys
  
  
• 2010: The Flood​​ – Take That
• 2011: Princes of China – Coldplay ft Rihanna​
• 2012: Troublemaker​ – Olly Murs​
• 2013: Somewhere Only We Know​ – Lily Allen​
• 2014: Hold Back the River – James Bay
• 2015: Adventure Of A Lifetime – Coldplay​
• 2016: So Good- Louisa Johnson
• 2017: Walk On Water​ – Eminem ft. Beyoncé
• 2018: Rewrite The Stars – James Arthur & Anne-Marie
• 2019: Closed on Sunday – Kanye West
  
  
• 2020: Therefore I Am- Billie Eilish
• 2021: All Too Well​ – Taylor Swift
• 2022: Made You Look – Meghan Trainor
• 2023: Now and Then – The Beatles
• 2024: All the Young Dudes- Pet Shop Boys
• 2025: A Couple Minutes- Olivia Dean
• 2026: Babydoll – Jamie Miller

So, I’ll end by embedding YouTube videos of seven of the songs on my list – I quickly chose a November favourite from each decade – just off the top of my head. These don’t all necessarly reflect my normal tastes in music, but they strongly remind me of each decade 😀 :

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 has 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’m always curious about songs that touch on spiritual issues. Do any in my list do that? Here are a few:

I already included Turn Turn Turn by the Byrds as my favourite November 1960s song. That’s based on the Book of Ecclesiastes – a very unusual Old Testament book that reflects on life without God in this world.