A Playlist Of My Birthday Number Ones

Introduction

I was born in 1957 and the number one single at the time was the awful "Diana" by Paul Anka. Either side of that was "All Shook Up" by Elvis Presley and "That'll Be The Day" by Buddy Holly and the Crickets, both brilliant records but we have to start with that awful dirge.

This playlist is based on number ones in the United Kingdom. Annoyingly the number one in the USA on the day I was born was "Wak Up Little Susie" by The Everly Brothers, which I would have been more than OK with.

This is also related to this six part playlist where I actually chose a song for each year of my life, and it runs up to this year.

1957 - Paul Anka - "Diana"

1960 - Ricky Valance - "Tell Laura I Love Her"

Another awful death record, I am sure I will find a good birthday record, but this wasn't one. Flanked by "Apache" by The Shadows and "Only The Lonely" by Roy Orbison. 1960 had a lot of excellent music that hit number one, but not on my birthday.

1962 - Elvis Presley - "She's Not You"

While not The King's finest moment, at last, I have a decent number on my fifth birthday. Having said that on the second of October, the number one was the Joe Meek produced "Telstar" by The Tornados which I like even better.

1968 - Mary Hopkin - "Those Were The Days"

Between 1962 and 1968 the number ones on my birthday were not impressive at all. While this song is fine it was sandwiched between Joe Cocker's "With A Little Help From My Friends"(a cover of a Beatles song from "Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band") and "Hey Jude" by The Beatles.

1970 - Freda Payne - "Band Of Gold"

This is a bona fide great record. I loved this when I first heard it and have done ever since. I never associated it with my birthday but can do now. I was thirteen at the time.

Almost every number one that year was excellent, but you can check them all out on the link here (which has supplied the initial information for all of these posts,

1974 - Carl Douglas - Kung Fu Fighting

Even the 1970s hit my birthday with some less than shareable songs and in 1974 I dodged a couple of bullets with this fun piece by Carl Douglas. The bullets dodged were John Denver and The Osmonds who actually made some decent records, but they didn't hit number one in 1974.

1975 - David Essex - "Hold Me Close"

Not his most groundbreaking song but is nice enough to include here. I actually did a piece on his more interesting stuff here, and his first two singles still sound amazing in my opinion.

1976- ABBA - "Dancing Queen"

They say that your musical tastes are defined between the ages of fourteen and sixteen, so it's not surprising there are a few entries from the seventies, and anything by ABBA is more than acceptable.

The thing is there is always good music being produced and it is up to us to seek it out.

1979 - The Police - "Message In A Bottle"

Though 1977 was the year of teh UK Punk explosion, the number ones of the years 1978 and 1979 were fairly bland so I can close the seventies with this excellent song by the Police.

1996 - Deep Blue Something - "Breakfast At Tiffany's"

So that is ten songs that were number one on my birthday over the years. This was another that I still love and I know it's a favourite of some close friends.

I hope you have enjoyed this. I listen and enjoy a lot of contemporary music, but don't want to bore you with an overlong playlist.