UK Top 20 Singles Chart Week Ending 7 November 1987

but who was "that man" in question?

It would be good if that was how he referred to himself, in a weird, abstract third-person kind of way. Unless it was one of the Ghostbusters.

i think i decided he was talking about Venkman at the time

Rent was the first song I was every truly, intensely obsessed with, to the extent that it changed my whole relationship with pop music

do tell!

as did "God Gave Rock 'N' Roll To You" five years later.

That'd be Bill & Ted-related, wouldn't it? Can't remember if it's Excellent Adventure or Bogus Journey, tho.

Went BAA-SELL-OHHHHHHHH-NAHHHHHHHHHH

Bogus Journey

xpost. Before Rent I was into the general swirl of pop music. I had preferences but not passions because every week brought something new. But something about Rent - the synthesizers, the lyrics, the melancholy - made it a real thunderbolt moment. I listened to it obsessively, got a Casio synth mainly so that I could learn to play that song, read all the interviews (which gave me a pop ideology for the first time), collected all the 12"s (which primed me for dance music) and transcribed all the lyrics (I even learned to recite the Latin mass at the end of It's a Sin). I suppose every music fan has a similar experience where pop changes from being a fun soundtrack to your life to being a central obsession but sometimes it happens more gradually whereas with me I can trace it all back to this one song. The Francois Kevorkian dub mix is pretty wonderful too - it intensifies the rainy, streetlight atmosphere.

The thing that struck me about "Whenever You Need Somebody" is how complex a song it is; lots of unexpected chord changes and harmonic shifts and further proof that there's a lot more to SAW's songs than most people still assume.

"You Win Again" is still a befuddling (if great) number one with that Neubauten/M25 clanking and the Gibbs' characteristic way with syntax and scansion ("Nobody stops this body from taking you" - ???).

"Little Lies" - brilliant production from Lindsey who'd clearly been brushing up on his Prefab Sprout (and Bucks Fizz? Check the chorus!). Tango In The Night: one of the very belated last great New Pop albums.

Yeah, but when faced with a machine that generates chord changes at the touch of a button, it's not so difficult to write complicated songs. They always used to say (at least, Elton did one), it's very hard to write simple songs on piano/keyboards...

elton did, once

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

'Tell Me Lies' give me massive Prosutian nostalgia, but I can't quite remember what for...

Little Lies over Rent.

Also, I had no idea that Was (Not Was) charted...

"Rent", of course.

What, so everybody is going to ignore "Here I Go Again" and gush over "Rent?" It's like the opposite of high school. Count me in, boys.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Jan Hammer - Crockett's Theme 5

haha waht

Oh, I've always liked it - holds some nice personal memories of the time for me.

Also love Tiga's vocal version.