Sunday, 17 July 2016

Top 75 of 1991

All of the previous charts were looking back in a way.  Even though the last one covering 1990 had some songs in it that I liked at the time it was still mostly looking back, even if in some cases it was just a year or two.

1991 was a full year's worth of immersing myself in music that I was finding myself.  Me and my brother were listening to the Evening Session on Radio 1, I think I used to listen on a Tuesday evening and he would probably listen to it every other night as well as some other radio stations.  Being the older brother he was into it more and listened to a wide range of indie from baggy to shoegazing and all points in between.  And of course I'd listen to some of those bands too from simply being there when he was playing songs, stuff like the Stone Roses, Charlatans, Inspiral Carpets to others like Lush, Slowdive and Chapterhouse were bands I was hearing second hand.  Some of it I liked, others I didn't (*cough*, Slowdive) and I was on the lookout for bands that I could claim as my own.

Albums number 10, 11 and 13 in my collection would become those bands - namely The Farm's Spartacus, EMF's Schubert Dip and Flowered Up's A Life With Brian, all on vinyl (if you're wondering what album number 12 was it was covered in the 1990 chart - Extreme's Pornograffiti).  Singles by all three of those bands were also added to my collection along with Nine Inch Nails' Sin and The Black Crowes' Seeing Things to bring my collection up to 29 singles and 13 albums by the end of the year.  So while I was listening to a lot of new music, I wasn't particularly prolific in my record-buying during that year (probably because I was still only 13).

There were a lot of bands that missed out due to a huge shortlist this time around and I'll take the unusual step of listing them all this time.  So here we go: The Prodigy, Primal Scream, Ride, Inspiral Carpets, Top, Anthrax/Public Enemy, The Wendys, Curve, Lawnmower Deth, 2 Unlimited, The Waterboys, Chapterhouse, Carter USM, Skid Row, Five Thirty, Napalm Death, Scorpions, Northside, Mock Turtles, Wonder Stuff, Teenage Fanclub, Cicero, KLF and The Shamen.  Many of the songs concerned would have got into the top 50s of previous years and in fact for some bands they did have inferior songs which had been in those charts.  It was just their luck to hit an overcrowded year full of great albums and songs.  One good example of this is in the Senseless Things top 50 I did previously - When You Let Me Down made only no. 48 in the Senseless Things top 50 but was as high as 15 in the 1988 top 50.  However, Ex-Teenager was 25 places higher at no. 23 in their own chart but didn't even get in the 75 here.

Of the bands that did make it, it tended to be the indie ones that I was actually listening to in 1991 itself.  The chart that I compiled at the end of 1991 can be found here and its noticeable that bands like Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Red Hot Chili Peppers etc. that take up a decent chunk of this chart are absent.  The rock and metal bands mostly caught up in 1992, in some cases because they took that long to become hits over here, but also because I started to search further afield than just what my brother was listening to and find my own tastes.

So 1991 was the year music blew apart for me, but 1992 would end up being the year where I really started finding my pieces in the resulting wreckage.....

1. Manic Street Preachers - Motown Junk
2. Senseless Things - Easy to Smile
3. Pearl Jam - Alive
4. Pearl Jam - Black
5. Mega City Four - Words That Say
6. Metallica - Wherever I May Roam
7. Pearl Jam - Jeremy
8. Senseless Things - Got it at the Delmar
9. Metallica - Sad But True
10. Metallica - Nothing Else Matters
11. Metallica - Enter Sandman
12. Senseless Things - Should I Feel It
13. Manic Street Preachers - You Love Us
14. The Farm - Love See No Colour
15. Ned's Atomic Dustbin - Happy
16. Pearl Jam - Even Flow
17. Soundgarden - Jesus Christ Pose
18. Senseless Things - Everybody's Gone
19. James - Sit Down
20. Sepultura - Arise
21. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Under the Bridge
22. Pearl Jam - Porch
23. Pearl Jam - Once
24. Soundgarden - Rusty Cage
25. The Farm - All Together Now
26. Chesney Hawkes - The One and Only
27. Senseless Things - Can't Remember
28. New Fast Automatic Daffodils - Man Without Qualities One
29. EMF - Children
30. Nirvana - In Bloom
31. Sepultura - Desperate Cry
32. Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit
33. Pearl Jam - Why Go
34. Flowered Up - Take It
35. Metallica - Through the Never
36. Metallica - The Unforgiven
37. Temple of the Dog - Hunger Strike
38. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Give It Away
39. Rollins Band - Tearing
40. Smashing Pumpkins - I Am One
41. Smashing Pumpkins - Siva
42. Rollins Band - Low Self Opinion
43. Swervedriver - Sandblasted
44. Smashing Pumpkins - Rhinoceros
45. Carcass - Corporal Jigsore Quandary
46. Paradise Lost - Gothic
47. Nirvana - Lithium
48. Metallica - Of Wolf And Man
49. Paris Angels - Perfume
50. Blur - Bang
51. Manic Street Preachers - Sorrow 16
52. Jesus Jones - Real, Real, Real
53. Catherine Wheel - Shallow
54. Ugly Kid Joe - Everything About You
55. Guns N' Roses - You Could Be Mine
56. Nirvana - Territorial Pissings
57. Nirvana - Breed
58. The Farm - Groovy Train
59. EMF - I Believe
60. Nirvana - Come As You Are
61. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Breaking the Girl
62. Soundgarden - Outshined
63. Pearl Jam - Garden
64. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Suck My Kiss
65. REM - The One I Love
66. Senseless Things - Wrong Number
67. EMF - Unbelievable
68. Charlatans - Over Rising
69. REM - Losing My Religion
70. Red Hot Chili Peppers - If You Have to Ask
71. Red Hot Chili Peppers - I Could Have Lied
72. Ugly Kid Joe - Sweet Leaf/Funky Fresh Country Club
73. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Blood Sugar Sex Magik
74. EMF - Lies
75. Sepultura - Dead Embryonic Cells

Sunday, 5 June 2016

Top 50 of 1990

1990 was a turning point of sorts for me.  Previously I had watched Top of the Pops and heard music generally and I had a record collection made up of about 10-15 singles and around 8 albums, but in terms of genre and identity they were all over the place, something I heard and liked - musical innocence in its purest form if you like.

In 1990 I turned 12 and started taping things from the top 40 with the intention of keeping it, I think I had already been doing this before but I don't think anything stuck around for very long.  I still have some of the recordings from 1990.  Me and my older brother also started making charts, our favourite 20 songs from this week's top 40, we would disappear off separately on Sunday night then come together and share them number by number.  You can find my top 40 for the year that I compiled at the time here.

If you look at that chart, it has some of the singles I bought that year (Gazza, Aztec Camera, FAB featuring MC Parker), it has plenty of pop that I couldn't necessarily recall today, but it also has the seeds of where I was about to go with my musical tastes.  My brother was starting to listen to indie music, in particular those associated with Manchester, baggy and associated hangers on for starters, hence the presence in that chart of the likes of The Charlatans and the Soup Dragons.  Within a year The Farm and EMF would release albums that would kick off my record collection proper, they would become "my" bands, but that's for the next blog.  As an aside the EMF and Farm songs featured there are eligible for the 1991 chart I'll be doing next as the albums were released then, rather than being separated out because the singles were released in 1990.

After a while I started to separate the tapes I had into Rock, Indie and Dance.  I had by far the most indie tapes, rock and dance were fairly equal for a time.  As you'll see below dance didn't stand the test of time with me, although my first rock tapes contained some entries in here like Holy Smoke, Thunderstruck and Hangar 18 as well as other songs that didn't quite make it (Poison's Unskinny Bop anyone?).

As with 1989, in particular with the American bands, some of the songs in this chart didn't become known over here until the following year as the world caught up.  So albums like Extreme's Pornograffiti and The Black Crowes' Shake Your Money Maker were two of the first rock albums I ever bought, just not actually in 1990.  Mix in some of the aforementioned indie and rock, throw in some Senseless Things, Pantera and Manics that I caught up with after discovering them in the next year or two and you have a very solid year of songs.  No really classic albums I don't think, but 1991 was poised and ready to change all that in a big way.........

1. Senseless Things - Tangled Lines
2. Megadeth - Holy Wars....The Punishment Due
3. Pantera - Cemetery Gates
4. Pantera - Domination
5. Inspiral Carpets - This is How it Feels
6. Senseless Things - Is It Too Late?
7. Iron Maiden - Bring Your Daughter....to the Slaughter
8. Charlatans - The Only One I Know
9. Megadeth - Hangar 18
10. Extreme - Decadence Dance
11. Black Crowes - Jealous Again
12. Black Crowes - Hard to Handle
13. The La's - There She Goes
14. AC/DC - Thunderstruck
15. Charlatans - Then
16. Manic Street Preachers - New Art Riot
17. Extreme - More Than Words
18. Black Crowes - She Talks to Angels
19. Pantera - Cowboys From Hell
20. Stone Roses - One Love
21. Manic Street Preachers - Strip it Down
22. Pop Will Eat Itself - 92°F
23. Extreme - Hole Hearted
24. Extreme - Get the Funk Out
25. Senseless Things - Leo
26. Carter USM - Rubbish
27. Happy Mondays - Step On
28. Extreme - It('s a Monster)
29. 1000 Homo DJs - Supernaut
30. Black Crowes - Stare it Cold
31. Slayer - War Ensemble
32. Black Crowes - Twice as Hard
33. Extreme - Song For Love
34. Napalm Death - Suffer the Children
35. Napalm Death - Vision Conquest
36. Extreme - He-Man Woman Hater
37. Black Crowes - Sister Luck
38. Inspiral Carpets - She Comes in the Fall
39. Happy Mondays - Loose Fit
40. Extreme - Pornograffiti
41. Megadeth - Rust in Peace....Polaris
42. Helmet - Repetition
43. Iron Maiden - Holy Smoke
44. Pantera - Heresy
45. New Order - World in Motion
46. James - Come Home
47. Aztec Camera - Good Morning Britain
48. Megadeth - Tornado of Souls
49. Megadeth - Lucretia
50. Slayer - Seasons in the Abyss


Sunday, 8 May 2016

Top 50 of 1989

All of the preceding charts were a mixture of childhood pop reminiscence and time-travelling discovery at a later date, but by 1989 the pop had dried up.....or maybe it hasn't stood the test of time particularly well. Perhaps I was also growing out of it as the likes of Stock/Aitken/Waterman were taking over the charts.  All the songs that made it onto my pop shortlist ended up losing out including Technotronic's Pump Up the Jam, Bobby Brown's My Prerogative and On Our Own and the one that came closest, Jason Donovan's Too Many Broken Hearts (perhaps assisted by my later cover), the latter two expanding my ever growing 7" collection.

In 1989 I turned 11, so I don't think I was aware of most of the songs here in that year but I certainly became aware of most of them over the next 2 or 3 years.  Many of these songs and albums were part of my grounding in music even if it didn't necessarily take place in that year, in fact a few of the albums featured here didn't actually break over here until subsequent years, with an accompanying breakthrough single.

So with pop gone and the two bands that dominated the 80s charts, Iron Maiden and Metallica, between albums it allowed other bands to shine.  Bands like Faith No More, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nine Inch Nails, Sepultura and Soundgarden produced very good albums in 1989, in all cases they would follow it up with one even better that would further shape my tastes in years to come.  The Senseless Things' Postcard CV in particular was a huge influence on my own songwriting and was another that was to be followed up by even greater songs.

The musical landscape, as well as what would become my musical taste, was starting to change, definitely for the better with a new rock/alternative slant and a healthy dose of indie pushing its way in.  My musical awakening was beginning.....

1. Senseless Things - Too Much Kissing
2. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Higher Ground
3. Faith No More - Epic
4. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Knock Me Down
5. Nine Inch Nails - Head Like A Hole
6. Faith No More - From Out of Nowhere
7. Senseless Things - Teenage
8. Stone Roses - I Am the Resurrection
9. Senseless Things - Standing in the Rain
10. Nine Inch Nails - Sin
11. Carcass - Reek of Putrefaction
12. Nine Inch Nails- Terrible Lie
13. Faith No More - Falling to Pieces
14. Extreme - Mutha (Don't Wanna Go To School Today)
15. Faith No More - The Real Thing
16. Stone Roses - Waterfall
17. Manic Street Preachers - Suicide Alley
18. Sepultura - Inner Self
19. Sepultura - Beneath the Remains
20. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Taste the Pain
21. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Nobody Weird Like Me
22. Faith No More - Woodpecker From Mars
23. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Stone Cold Bush
24. Soundgarden - Loud Love
25. Senseless Things - Girlfriend
26. Senseless Things - Back to Nowhere
27. Carter USM - Sheriff Fatman
28. Stone Roses - I Wanna Be Adored
29. Senseless Things - Trevor
30. Stone Roses - Made of Stone
31. Nirvana - About a Girl
32. Soundgarden - Hands All Over
33. Extreme - Play With Me
34. Senseless Things - Someone in You
35. Stone Roses - She Bangs the Drums
36. Extreme - Flesh 'N' Blood
37. Nine Inch Nails - Sanctified
38. Faith No More - Zombie Eaters
39. Inspiral Carpets - Find Out Why
40. Pop Will Eat Itself - Def.Con.One
41. Wonder Stuff  - Don't Let Me Down, Gently
42. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Johnny, Kick a Hole in the Sky
43. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Subway to Venus
44. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Good Time Boys
45. Nine Inch Nails - Down In It
46. Bolt Thrower - World Eater
47. Sepultura - Mass Hypnosis
48. Extreme - Kid Ego
49. Extreme - Little Girls
50. Nine Inch Nails - Ringfinger

Sunday, 17 April 2016

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

Sunday, 13 March 2016

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.

Sunday, 29 November 2015

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.

Sunday, 25 October 2015

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.