Top 50 of 1988

In 1988 I turned 10 and at the time I think I owned 4 albums and about 10 singles.  So it's kind of nice that a song from one of those albums managed to make it to number 1 this time around and break the Metallica/Iron Maiden stranglehold of the three previous charts.

This chart is the first year to break out on its own, given the previous ones were 1970-82, 1983-85 and 1986-87.  And to be honest there wasn't a massive depth of quality in my collection to choose from.  As in previous charts the golden years of Iron Maiden and Metallica had seen them dominate and with 1988 being the last year that their big hitting albums coincided in the same year, this (coupled with my expanding record collection in future years) will mean this will never happen again in future charts.

The number of bands included here seems much smaller and as an example of quality I had Senseless Things songs hitting the top 20 here that didn't even make their own top 50!  That's not to say that all the songs included here aren't very good, they are.  But compared to other charts, the pop had kind of dried up and turned into Stock/Aitken/Waterman-type stuff (which admittedly I liked at the time but most hasn't stood the test of time well) and all of the metal, rock and indie bands that I own releases by were really just getting started, dipping their toes into the water, their best work yet to come.  So watch this space for 1989 and onwards, the competition is going to get a lot tougher........

1. Aha - Stay On These Roads

2. Iron Maiden - Moonchild

3. Metallica - Blackened

4. Metallica - One

5. Bathory - A Fine Day to Die

6. Iron Maiden - The Evil That Men Do

7. Aha - You Are The One

8. Iron Maiden - The Clairvoyant

9. Iron Maiden - Seventh Son of a Seventh Son

10. Aha - Touchy!

11. Aha - The Living Daylights

12. Aha - Out of Blue Comes Green

13. Aha - This Alone is Love

14. Iron Maiden - Can I Play With Madness

15. Senseless Things - When You Let Me Down

16. Senseless Things - Passions Out of Town

17. Senseless Things - You Don't Want Me

18. Iron Maiden - Only the Good Die Young

19. Metallica - The Shortest Straw

20. Metallica - Breadfan

21. Senseless Things - I Want to Go Back

22. New Order - Blue Monday 88

23. Pet Shop Boys - Heart

24. Metallica - The Frayed Ends of Sanity

25. Metallica - Dyer's Eve

26. Metallica - To Live is to Die

27. Megadeth - In My Darkest Hour

28. Inspiral Carpets - Keep the Circle Around

29. Slayer - Mandatory Suicide

30. Pet Shop Boys - Left to my Own Devices

31. Stone Roses - Elephant Stone

32. Rollins Band - What Am I Doing Here?

33. Slayer - South of Heaven

34. Senseless Things - I've Lost My Train

35. Senseless Things - Where the Secret Lies

36. Wonder Stuff - A Wish Away

37. Carter USM - A Sheltered Life

38. Happy Mondays - W.F.L.

39. Metallica - The Prince

40. Senseless Things - The Only One

41. Metallica - Harvester of Sorrow

42. Metallica - ...And Justice For All

43. Rollins Band - Wreck-Age

44. Iron Maiden - Infinite Dreams

45. Napalm Death - Unchallenged Hate

46. Napalm Death - Mentally Murdered

47. Soundgarden - Flower

48. Megadeth - Hook in Mouth

49. Rollins Band - If You're Alive

50. Rollins Band - Burned Beyond Recognition

Top 50 of 1986 to 1987

Last time out I covered 1983 to 1985, this time it slims down to a two year period, from 1986 to 1987.  During those years I was aged 7 to 9 years old and still had a very small record collection, adding albums by Rick Astley and Wet Wet Wet as well as singles by the likes of Europe, Living in a Box and Hue and Cry.  Some of those artists made it here, others didn't.

As with the two previous charts there are still a lot of albums discovered much later, if you followed the 1970-82 and 83-85 charts the pattern of Metallica and Maiden entries will be of no surprise but there were a few more bands starting to hit their stride from slower beginnings, bands like Faith No More and Red Hot Chili Peppers.  Not to mention the usual selection of chart hits that hung around in my brain long enough to still impress.

There's a distinct feeling here of things starting to get a little more alternative, the aforementioned FNM and RHCP increasing their number, the pop songs included being a little less cheesy and more hard-hitting in places, the metal growing ever more extreme.  The number of releases to choose from in my collection is still relatively small from these years meaning repeats of bands are inevitable, but the sounds within are definitely starting to open out.

1. Metallica - Master of Puppets

2. Slayer - Angel of Death

3. New Order - True Faith

4. Iron Maiden - Caught Somewhere in Time

5. Iron Maiden - The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner

6. Metallica - Battery

7. Europe - The Final Countdown

8. Faith No More - Faster Disco

9. Iron Maiden - Heaven Can Wait

10. Iron Maiden - Alexander the Great

11. Pet Shop Boys - It's a Sin

12. Metallica - Damage Inc

13. Iron Maiden - Wasted Years

14. Guns N' Roses - Welcome to the Jungle

15. Iron Maiden - Stranger in a Strange Land

16. Megadeth - Peace Sells

17. Guns N' Roses - Sweet Child O' Mine

18. Slayer - Raining Blood

19. Metallica - Last Caress/Green Hell

20. Iron Maiden - Deja Vu

21. Guns N' Roses - Paradise City

22. Faith No More - Introduce Yourself

23. Pet Shop Boys - Always on my Mind

24. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Backwoods

25. Cutting Crew - (I Just) Died in your Arms

26. Aha - Manhattan Skyline

27. Napalm Death - Instinct of Survival

28. Faith No More - We Care a Lot

29. Sepultura - Troops of Doom

30. Europe - Rock the Night

31. Faith No More - Chinese Arithmetic

32. Faith No More - R n' R

33. Metallica - Welcome Home (Sanitarium)

34. Pet Shop Boys - Suburbia

35. Europe - On Broken Wings

36. Pet Shop Boys - Opportunities

37. Faith No More - Anne's Song

38. Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up

39. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Fight Like a Brave

40. Aha - Cry Wolf

41. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Me and My Friends

42. Starship - Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now

43. Napalm Death - Scum

44. Napalm Death - The Kill

45. Faith No More - The Crab Song

46. Faith No More - Spirit

47. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Subterranean Homesick Blues

48. Jan Hammer - Crockett's Theme

49. Julian Cope - World Shut Your Mouth

50. Megadeth - Wake Up Dead

The next chart will be the first single year, 1988.

Top 50 of 1983 to 1985

The previous blog from 1970 to 1982 was basically collecting up all of the loose ends and moulding them together to get this journey through my record collection moving.  Yes, there were some themes with three Iron Maiden albums in particular jostling for position and taking up a large share of proceedings, but it was a long time period so felt a little disjointed.

1983 to 1985 is obviously much shorter in terms of time, so may seem a little more cohesive, but still the albums and songs I own from this period are not as abundant as later years.  A lot of the entries come from two particular metal giants, Metallica starting life with Kill 'Em All and Ride the Lightning and Iron Maiden starting to come into their prime with Piece of Mind and Powerslave.  But intermingled with those songs are some classics from the worlds of pop, rock and metal alike.

1985 saw my first record purchase, Aled Jones' Walking in the Air on 7", which sadly didn't make it here.  My first album, Aha's Hunting High and Low fared better with four entries, pretty successful longevity for a first album purchase.  With me being aged between 4 and 7 for the period of this chart it doesn't take a genius to work out that I wasn't into the majority of these songs at the time, but at least I could say I was aware of around 10 or so, some leaving a last impression on my young mind.  It would take a few more years before my record collection really started growing but in the coming years there were still plenty of classic albums to rediscover.

1. Metallica- For Whom the Bell Tolls

2. Aha - The Sun Always Shines on TV

3. Iron Maiden - Aces High

4. Phil Oakey & Giorgio Moroder - Together in Electric Dreams

5. Killing Joke - Love Like Blood

6. Iron Maiden - Powerslave

7. The Cult - She Sells Sanctuary

8. Aha - Take On Me

9. Metallica - Fade to Black

10. Iron Maiden - The Trooper

11. Dead or Alive - You Spin Me Round

12. Ray Parker Jr - Ghostbusters

13. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Jungle Man

14. Huey Lewis and the News - The Power of Love

15. Iron Maiden - Rime of the Ancient Mariner

16. Metallica - Creeping Death

17. Metallica - Whiplash

18. Metallica- Metal Militia

19. Iron Maiden - 2 Minutes to Midnight

20. Dire Straits- Money for Nothing

21. Iron Maiden - Flight of Icarus

22. Metallica - The Four Horsemen

23. Europe - Seven Doors Hotel

24. Metallica - Ride the Lightning

25. Metallica - Fight Fire With Fire

26. Megadeth - Mechanix

27. Megadeth - Killing is my Business and Business is Good

28. Metallica - The Call of Ktulu

29. Faith No More - We Care a Lot

30. Kajagoogoo- Too Shy

31. Smiths - This Charming Man

32. Aha - Train of Thought

33. Metallica - Hit the Lights

34. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Nevermind

35. Smiths - How Soon is Now

36. Faith No More - Mark Bowen

37. Aha - Hunting High and Low

38. Misfits - Die, Die My Darling

39. Metallica - Motorbreath

40. Misfits - Green Hell

41. Metallica - Seek & Destroy

42. Metallica - Phantom Lord

43. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Get Up and Jump

44. Simple Minds - Don't You (Forget About Me)

45. Madness - Uncle Sam

46. Julian Cope - Reynard the Fox

47. Foreigner - I Want to Know What Love Is

48. Duran Duran - Is There Something I Should Know?

49. Spandau Ballet - Gold

50. Red Hot Chili Peppers- Catholic School Girls Rule

The next chart will be 1986 to 1987.

Top 50 of 1970 to 1982

While I was trying to think of which band should be the next to receive the top 50 treatment, I hit upon the idea of doing a top 50 per year.  Now I don't actually own a lot of albums from before I was born, so the initial part of doing that would probably prove problematic.....no bother, I'll group the first few together I thought, culminating in this first chart covering 1970 to 1982.

The 1970s are a period that I associate with my dad's record collection, the stuff that stuck in my head were some of the more rocky albums like Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and a load of prog stuff, even though I don't think he actually owns that many albums by the aforementioned bands.  No matter, I'm only counting things that I own anyway and for this time period that mainly consists of the first 3 Iron Maiden albums, a host of best ofs, the odd 80s compilation and a few random selections creeping in here and there.  Certainly where Maiden are concerned that shows and I make no apology for it, it's just the way the chart falls!

Some of the selections were difficult to rank due to some pretty different genres battling for attention.  There was also a much smaller window for knowing the songs at the time (given that I was born in 1978), although Madness and Adam and the Ants are two that stand out here where that was the case.  So most of these entries come from the "before my time" school, revisiting older classics in later years to see what all the fuss was about.  Some stand the test of time well, others can never be the same without the context of "being there".  However, this is only the start, and "being there" will play a huge part in the coming charts as my musical journey continues.....

1. Iron Maiden - Hallowed Be Thy Name

2. Iron Maiden - Phantom of the Opera

3. Jeff Wayne - The Eve of the War

4. Motorhead - Ace of Spades

5. Iron Maiden - Run to the Hills

6. Ramones - Sheena is a Punk Rocker

7. Iron Maiden - Iron Maiden

8. Misfits - Last Caress

9. Iron Maiden - Number of the Beast

10. Ramones - Blitzkrieg Bop

11. Sex Pistols - Pretty Vacant

12. Jeff Wayne - The Artilleryman & The Fighting Machine

13. Duran Duran - Rio

14. Ultravox - Vienna

15. Madness - House of Fun

16. Dexy's Midnight Runners - Come on Eileen

17. Misfits - Halloween

18. Sex Pistols - Anarchy in the UK

19. Duran Duran - Girls on Film

20. Misfits - Astro Zombies

21. Madness - Our House

22. Ramones - Rockaway Beach

23. Deep Purple - Speed King

24. Motorhead - Overkill

25. Iron Maiden - Running Free

26. Iron Maiden - Prowler

27. Iron Maiden - Sanctuary

28. The Teardop Explodes - Reward

29. Chas & Dave - The Sideboard Song

30. Iron Maiden - Wrathchild

31. Adam and the Ants - Stand and Deliver

32. Killing Joke - Follow the Leaders

33. Duran Duran - Planet Earth

34. Rainbow - Since You've Been Gone

35. Black Sabbath - Paranoid

36. Joy Division - Love Will Tear Us Apart

37. Joy Division - Transmission

38. Chas & Dave - Margate

39. Iron Maiden - Children of the Damned

40. Iron Maiden - Charlotte the Harlot

41. Sex Pistols - God Save the Queen

42. Deep Purple - Black Night

43. Duran Duran - Hungry Like the Wolf

44. Michael Jackson - Billie Jean

45. Iron Maiden - The Prisoner

46. Iron Maiden - Invaders

47. Iron Maiden - Murders in the Rue Morgue

48. Madness - Baggy Trousers

49. Motorhead - Bomber

50. Led Zeppelin - Black Dog

The next chart will be 1983 to 1985.