Self indulgent nonsense (but it is so good to listen too) (Top 10 Singles)

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Product:	Top 10 Singles
Date:	30/09/02 (150 review reads)
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Advantages: If you share my taste in music, you'll like this

Disadvantages: If you don't, you probably won't!

All Time Top Ten


This is probably the toughest thing I could ever do. If I am to be very honest, I suspect the list would change if I were writing it on a different day. The mood of the day will always change the value I place on individual tracks!

Now, many of these will not have been top ten hits, but who cares! My list. My choice. I hope you like it.

10: Back In The High Life Again (Steve Winwood). Taken from his Grammy winning 1986 album of the same name this single was a minor hit but epitomised the achievement of getting back to the top of the tree again. Delightful instrumentation and soulful vocals. If you have ever been to clinical depression and come back strong, you will appreciate the sentiment!

9. When The Night Comes (Joe Cocker). A number one for many weeks on the other side of the Atlantic, this scraped in to the UK top 100 in the early nineties. Written by Bryan Adams, who also features on guitar, Joe belts out a fantastic and powerful lyric. If this guy were handsome, he would be bigger than Elvis!

8. The Road To Hell (Chris Rea). Although only a top twenty hit, the eerie opening of raindrops and radio signals develop in to an ungodly booming vocal. Then comes perhaps the best slide guitar performance Rea has ever given as he tells the tale of gridlock at the junction of the M4 and M25.

7. Hotel California (The Eagles). To say I was gob smacked when 3 of my work colleagues said they had never heard this was an understatement. Whatever it is about (some say it is a tale of being locked up in a lunatic asylum) the voice of Don Henley is extraordinary in its reach while again, the slide guitar features this time given the treatment by the marvellous Joe Walsh.

6. The Way It Is (Bruce Hornsby & The Range). As an anti racism song, the lyrics tell the tale of how it is all too easy to slip in to racist attitudes. Ignoring this, Hornsby displays his expert keyboard talent
to the backdrop of that same old drum machine! Great stuff.

5. I Hope That I Don't Fall In Love With You (Tom Waits). Never a single, but a truly inspirational love ballad recently played out by Jon Bon Jovi in Ally McBeal. If you have tendencies towards folk/blues, Tom is your man!

4. Jack And Diane (John Cougar Mellencamp). His biggest UK hit (top twenty) and perhaps finest moment from a large catalogue. Raw guitars, thumping drums and a decent storyline about life letting you down when it promises so much. Oh yeah, life goes on, long after the thrill of living is gone.

3. Don't Go (Hothouse Flowers). The highlight of an Irish hosted Eurovision song contest and a big hit worldwide. They were only the intermission entertainment that night in Dublin, but what a tremendous piece of music this is. While they did follow it up with some great moments, they never quite surpassed it!

2. I Think I Love You Too Much (The Jeff Healey Band). The blind Canadian bluesman, who sits his guitar on his knee to play, delivers a fabulous performance of a Mark Knopfler penned track. While Knopfler can be heard on guitar in the background, it is the extraordinary talent of Healey that dominates this fine moment.

1. Persuasion (Tim Finn). Perhaps the lesser talent of antipodean song writing brothers, he certainly produced a gem with this acoustic ballad telling a tale of temptation. Passion in the voice, quality in the instrumentation and simply a great songwriting moment.

That was a totally self-indulgent few minutes and I am now going to play every single track in order. I wonder if I should have put Hotel California higher up? Feel free to comment! If you like some but haven't heard of others, check the tracks out. You'll be impressed.

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