TVV IN 800 SONGS : CELEBRATING 20 YEARS OF BLOGGING (Part Three)

Everything is wonderful, being here is heavenly????

#720 : Danny Wilson – Mary’s Prayer

When your debut single goes Top 3, as this did back in April 1988 (albeit at the third time of asking) you’ve got to believe the upper echelons of the sky will be your limit.  Sadly, for the Dundee-based trio, only one further Top 20 hit was achieved before the split in 1993.  Lead singer and chief songwriter Gary Clark has forged a decent career out of penning tunes for others.

#719: Cats On Fire – Draw In The Reins

I have tried soooooo hard over the years on TVV to drum up interest in this rather wonderful indie-band from Finland. There’s even been two separate ICAs – #314 in May 2022 and #374 in July 2024.  Most of my efforts have been met with great indifference.  Oh well…….

#718: Fountains of Wayne – Radiation Vibe

American indie-rock can be a bit hit’n’miss, but Marc Goldstein’s guest ICA (#393 in August 2025) highlighted just how Fountains of Wayne, from New York City, write songs which lean on many British traits, and in particular how they specialise in 3 or 4 minute vignettes about the real lives of recognizable types of people, with humour and catchy melodies.  I’ve long been very fond of this, their debut single from back in March 1997 which peaked at #32 in the UK charts.

#717: Grant Lee Buffalo – America Snoring

Grant Lee Buffalo come from the other side of the states, being a Los Angeles band.  Their sound leans more towards the Americana side of things, with 12-string acoustic guitars often to the fore, while the lyrics often look quite critically at life in their home country.  ‘America Snoring’ dates from 1993 and is something of a politically motivated protest song, with references also to the band’s dismay with the LA riots of 1992.

#716: Jilted John – Jilted John

Time for a handbrake turn.  Back in 1978, the then 18-year-old drama student Graham Fellows wrote and recorded a memorable tale of teen angst, rejection and confrontation. It became an instant classic….and went on to sell more than half a million copies.  The bona-fide punk bands who were trying so hard to get any sort of chart success must have looked on in frustration.

#715: Graham Fellows – Love At The Hacienda

In 1985, Graham Fellows recorded ‘Love At The Hacienda’, an LP of songs that were mostly about mid-20s angst, rejection and confrontation.   It should have become an instant classic, but despite great reviews, it sold poorly.  It was out of print for decades until Firestation Records over in Hamburg repressed it in 2020.  I made sure I grabbed myself a copy.

#714: Missy Elliot – Get Ur Freak On

This is probably Missy Elliot’s best-known tune, and to quote wiki “It is based on heavy bhangra elements, and  features a six-note base that is a Punjabi melody played on a tumbi, and rhythm and bassline played on tabla” It also has a memorable promo video. It reached #4 in April 2001 – I’m stunned that it was quarter-of-a-century ago.

#713: Pretenders – Kid

This will always be my favourite 45 of all those that Chrissie & co ever put down on vinyl. It spent seven weeks on the chart in July and August 1979, but never got higher than #33. Should have got to #1. It’s a far better song than ‘Brass In Pocket’

#712: Bluetones – Slight Return

When I was scrolling through the songs on the laptop looking to select the final 800, there were a few instances of me thinking ‘Oh, I forgot about that one – haven’t heard it in ages’.  ‘Slight Return’ suffers from me having it as a CD single as I rarely play them in contrast to those i have on vinyl.   Britpop did deliver more than it’s share of monstrosities, but this isn’t one of them.  Reached #2 in January 1996.

#711: The Spook School – I Only Dance When I Want To

From Edinburgh, The Spook School were a band much championed by good friend Aldo. He must have seen them dozens of times when they were around between 2012 and 2019.  They have been perfectly described as playing a brand of indie pop that combines the hookiness of C-86 bands like Shop Assistants with the punky energy of  Buzzcocks, then adding lyrics that deal passionately with sexuality and gender. This one can be found on their third and final LP ‘Could It Be Different?’ (2018).

#710: The Ukranians – Batyar

They grew from being a side project of The Wedding Present to form their own clear and distinct identity primarily under the stewardship of Peter Solowka and Len Wiggins.  In 1993, the band went into the studio to record an EP of Smiths covers as imagined in the style of Ukrainian folk music.  The results were marvellous.

#709: Young Marble Giants – Eating Noddemix

Minimalist but very effective post-punk music from Cardiff, the capital city of Wales.  For a band whose entire output was one album and two EPs between February 1980 and March 1981, they have influenced many who have followed over the decades.  I finally got to see them in 2014 when they reformed for a bro+ief time and played a handful of gigs, including one in Glasgow.

#708: S’Express – Theme From S’Express

At the other end of the scale, a tune that has everything on it, including the kitchen sink.  A #1 hit in May 1988, made up entirely of samples.  Fourteen of them all told.

#707: Nas – N.Y. State of Mind

This one has just the five samples, but it also has an astonishing lyric highlighting and celebrating parts of New York City the tourists never see or experience.  It is one of many very fine tracks on Nas’s debut album Illmatic, released in 1994 but bizarrely was never officially released as a single

#7o6: Daft Punk – Da Funk

Kind of staying in NYC given that the unforgettable promo video, directed by the genius we know as Spike Jonze, was set in the city and also kind of reflects on the side that the tourists never see or experience.  Daft Punk would later record bigger-selling singles, but I don’t think they ever bettered this from 1995.

#705: The Beta Band – She’s The One

It was so difficult to settle on just one song from The Beta Band.  In the end, SWC, in effect, chose this one, From his ICA, #60, in February 2016:-

“She’s the One is the sweetest, most smile inducing and best song the Beta Band ever made. After all this is a simple song, that chant…which gains more power with each repetition, that takes your focus so much that the climax almost burst out of nowhere. A brilliant way to spend eight and a half minutes.”

#704: Miaow – When It All Come Down

From February 1987.  It’s on Factory Records with the catalogue number FAC 179.  Pure indie-pop with a tip of the hat to 60s girl/harmony groups.  An absolute joy of a 45.

#703: Elastica – Waking Up

If it wasn’t for the fact that so many of their best songs, including this single from February 1995, were total rip-offs, then Elastica would have certainly made the Top 120.

#702: The Stranglers – No More Heroes

If it wasn’t for the fact that a different band took this 1977 hit and then turned the tune into something even more special (and danceable!), then The Stranglers would certainly have made the Top 120.

The truth is that both missed out by narrow margins.

#701: The Suede Crocodiles – Stop The Rain

Glasgow in 1983 was a great place and time to be a music fan.  The city was awash with young musicians making fabulous jangly-guitar based music, much of which has been greatly celebrated on TVV over the decades and much of which will appear in this rundown, including a few in the Top 120.  This was named as ‘Single of The Week’ in both the NME and Melody Maker.  But it didn’t get much airplay outside of Glasgow and failed to chart.

#700: Depeche Mode – Personal Jesus

There’s not been too much on Depeche Mode on TVV over the past 20 years, and that’s down to me not really liking that much of their output.  But it would be churlish to leave them out of this rundown, and so I’ve gone for the one I probably know best of all, and that’s largely down to Johnny Cash covering it many years later.

#699: Album Club – Make No Bets

Album Club are a loose collective of creative people assembled from other bands, along with novelists, actors, journalists and various artsy Glasgow types. Thus far, there’s been one eponymous album, released on Last Night From Glasgow back in 2022, full of low-key narratives that knit together in a rather lovely way.

#698: Dee-Lite – Groove Is In The Heart

A song title that could, as a phrase, be applied to the Album Club record.  This is another that might seem out of kilter with your typical TVV offerings, but is an undoubted pop/dance classic. I’d have placed good money on it having been a #1 hit back in the day, but it was denied the top spot in September 1990 by a truly awful offering from The Steve Miller Band.

#697: Vulture Party – New Humans

I think it would be fair to say TVV has tried to shine a light on singers and bands from Scotland, especially those whose records maybe don’t sell too much beyond their immediate environs. Vulture Party, from Falkirk,  have made two very interesting albums of ‘disquieting alt-pop for the socially conscious’. This was the song with which they introduced themselves to the world back in 2020.

#696: The Thrills – One Horse Town

If you’re feeling a bit low, then perhaps a chirpy upbeat pop song is what’s needed to put a smile on your face.  This one always works for me. A #18 hit in March 2003.

#695: Siouxsie & The Banshees – Spellbound (12″)

So many Banshee songs to consider.  In the end, I went for one of those on which John McGeoch weaved his magic. This distinctive and unworldly sounding single should have been much more successful than a #22 hit in June 1981.

#694: Goldfrapp – Strict Machine

Just the one major specific appearance for Goldfrapp on the blog over the past 20 years, courtesy of Swedish Herring Accident’s guest ICA (#203 in January 2019).  The previously mentioned Alexis Petridis, writing in the Guardian in April 2003, described ‘Strict Machine’ as ‘not only fantastic, but quiveringly sexy to boot’  And he’s right.

#693: Monaco – What Do You Want From Me?

This is, by a long way, the finest solo outing from Peter Hook.  It was a real and pleasant surprise that he chose to make music sounding more like a New Order record than anything else he had ever done before via his other side-projects, and it went all the way to #11 back in February 1997.

#692: Jane Wiedlen – Rush Hour

Placed here deliberately as I reckon it would sit perfectly on a mix tape immediately after the above song by Monaco.  Can’t deny the production very much places it in the late 80s, but that is very much all part of its poptastic charm and magnificence.

#691: Kid Creole & The Coconuts – Annie, I’m Not Your Daddy

I’m still in mixtape mode.  Shut Up and Dance.

#690: Breakfast Muff – R U A Feminist

Breakfast Muff were a hugely entertaining pop-punk trio from Glasgow who left us with just one album, released in 2017.  It contained 13 bouncing and boisterous tracks across just 25 minutes. As the band said, this one’s about sexuality, feminism and feelings, delivered with an all-round giant dose of fun.

#689: Cameo – Word Up

This one is all about the testosterone. And codpieces.  Top of The Pops, September 1986.  The complaints came flying in afterwards.

#688: Baz Luhrmann – Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen)

With every passing day, my body more and more reminds me that I am not the indestructible force I once believed I was.  For example, I can no longer dance like the Cameo boys.

#687: It’s Immaterial – Driving Away From Home (Jim’s Tune)

It’s Immaterial joined the ranks of one-hit wonders in 1986, when this spent 8 weeks in the UK chart, attaining the dizzy heights of #18.  There was so much more to them than that, as evidenced by ICA #299, penned by Khayem back in October 2021.

#686: Eurythmics – Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)

Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart made some of the best-selling pop music of the 80s, but that’s not to say it was always essential listening.  But before they hit payola, there were a couple of albums, the first of which sold dismally, while the second was eventually rescued by this, its fourth single, becoming an unexpected #2 hit in March 1982, kept off the top spot by one of Bonnie Tyler’s insufferable power ballads.

#685: Meat Whiplash – Don’t Slip Up

I think this might be the only entry in the 800 songs featuring the only single a band ever recorded before breaking up.  Meat Whiplash, from East Kilbride (a town with multiple entries in this rundown), were one of the first to sign to Creation Records.  Their sole single was released on September 1985 and spent five months in the UK indie singles chart.

#684: Richard Hawley – Something Is….

I really have tried. but Richard Hawley just doesn’t do it for me…..other than this one song from his 2001 album ‘Late Night Final’.  Brings back memories of the one time I saw him, as the support for Tindersticks, at a London gig back in October 2003. He opened his set with this which got me sitting up and paying attention, but he quickly lost me again.

#683: Aberfeldy – Love Is An Arrow

I don’t think too many folk will recall Aberfeldy, an indie-pop/folk combo from Edinburgh who were initially on Rough Trade Records back in the early 00s, before later signing to 17 Seconds Records, a label established by blogger and all-round good guy, Ed Jupp.  I don’t listen to them all that much these days, but I’ll always make time for this single, which actually reached #60 in February 2005.

#682: Railcard – Disco Loadout

Railcard formed in 2025 and could, with some justification, be described as an indie-pop supergroup. All four members have been in previous much-loved bands, particularly of the twee-pop genre.  Three of them are now 64 years of age!!!  Indeed, it was the realisation that they all qualified for the Senior Citizen’s Discount Card for train travel that led them to come up with the band name.

#681: T.Rex – Children Of The Revolution

Another band where I found it tough to home in on one particular song. In the end, I went for a heavier offering – a more rock than glam number.  I was nine years old when this was all over the radio stations in 1972.  I can still, just about, sing along to every word.

 

 

 

JC