Sunday 6 August 2017

My Top Ten Goodbye Songs (WYCRA Tribute)




There was an excellent response to my requests for songs called Goodbye as a tribute to the late WYCRA blog. To remind you, the rules were simple... all you had to do was come up with songs called Goodbye.

Oh, by the way, I've abritrarily changed the scoring system...
1 point for every one of my songs you identify.


2 points for being the first to identify a song.

3 points if you can guess a song's position in my Top Ten.

1 bonus point if you suggest a song that's better than one in my Top Ten.
Clear? (As mud.)

Let's start with the elephant in the room, shall we? Goodbye-ee by Peter Cook & Dudley Moore. Being a little bit younger than many of you (sorry), I wasn't familiar with this at all. In fact, when it was suggested - by The Swede, Martin and C - I actually thought the Goodbye-ee in question must be this one. Anyway, I apologise for not having been born when Pete & Dud were on TV. You can all have a point for your advancing years.

Quite a few of you also thought Mary Hopkin might make the grade. I didn't have that in my collection but vaguely remembered it when I gave it a listen. A jaunty enough 60's tune... with the aloft thumbprint of Macca all over it. Can't say I preferred it to any of my Ten though. A bit too jaunty. I will give The Swede a point for suggesting Macca's demo version because - somewhat surprisingly - I found that quite nice.

Next... The Spice Girls? How many of you suggested the bleeding Spice Girls? Really? What is this, Smash Hits? I'm sorry, I know my record collection has some very bizarre corners, but there is no Spice Girls. Even I draw the line somewhere. 

The Swede also wondered if Shed Seven would be there. They came close, but it wasn't one of their most memorable efforts in my humble opinion. (Still better than anything Oasis ever did.) I'll give The Swede an extra point for The Universe though, which I was rather taken with. Couldn't find a properly recorded version of Jon Rae & The River, so I'm on the fence about that. As for Kevin Shields' instrumental Goodbye from Lost In Translation... nice and atmospheric, but instrumentals have to work very hard to get on one of my charts.

C trawled the interweb to come up with Miley Cyrus (now if it was Billy Ray, you might have been in with a chance, C: Billy Ray was a guest voice on Blaze & The Monster Machines the other day... so good to see him still getting work), Avril Lavigne (who's obviously working for Anne Summers now if the video is anything to go by), Alicia Keys and . Obviously you think I'm a 16 year old girl, C, rather than a 45 year old boy. Still, you can have a point for each of those purely because they were all better than The Spice Girls. Alyson can have a point for Avril Lavigne too because I don't want anyone to go away pointless.

Other decent-ish suggestions came thick and fast... but no points for The Pretenders (from the soundtrack of G.I. Jane!) or Northern Uproar (a Northern Uproar b-side: you don't hear those every day). Sadly, I couldn't find Walter's Tracy Chapman offering anywhere on youtube, but I'm sure it's lovely. You can have a point for suggesting something I couldn't find, Walter.

Thanks all for taking part... though you only managed to guess half my Top Ten in the end...


10. The Psychedelic Furs - Goodbye

Nobody suggested this. You must all just be Pretty In Pinkers. Even if you're only familiar with that track and nothing else by the Furs though, this is unmistakably them.

9. Drive-By Truckers - Goodbye

Another one nobody guessed. Maybe I should have awarded myself a point for every one you didn't get.

8. Frank Sinatra - Goodbye (She Quietly Says)

I'm going to give Martin a point for Frank Sinatra, even though he went for this Goodbye, a completely different song, and one that's definitely better recorded. I prefer the lyrics of this one though, with Frank enjoying a coffee and a slice of cheesecake while gets the elbow.

7. Mansun - Goodbye

No fans of Mansun's third and final album out there? Shame.

6. Elton John - Goodbye

Well done to Martin again, who wins 2 points for Elton (I'm sure he'll be so proud). Madman Across The Water is my favourite album by Reg.

A late entry from George gets him a point for this too. 

I will also give Martin a point for having the gall to suggest Def Leppard. I wasn't familiar with that one. It's hardly in the same league as Let's Get Rocked.

And I'll give him two points for Air Supply, because he'll never live that down. 

5. Steve Earle - Goodbye

Well done to Charity Chic for guessing this one. 2 points. An extra point for suggesting Mary Gauthier - I didn't know that one from Mary, but it's rather lovely.

4. The Coral - Goodbye

One of their less-ramshackle offerings; sounds nice.

The Swede gets 2 points for being first to suggest this. Martin can have a point for it too.

3. The Czars - Goodbye 

Before John Grant was John Grant, he was The Czars. Not quite as good as anything he's done as John Grant... but still pretty great.
Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye
I love to see you fade and die
I love to see you kicking, screaming
As you try to reach the sky and die
2. The Sundays - Goodbye

2 points to Chris for being the first to suggest this. Three points each to The Swede and Martin who both predicted it would be Number 2. Bloody good going, even though you were wrong about my Number One.

(Harriet Wheeler. Sigh.) 

1. Billy Bragg - Goodbye Goodbye

You may recall that the WYCRA guys would, on occasion, allow the inclusion of a song which repeated their requested word. In their honour - and because it's Billy Bragg - I had to follow their guidance.

Following the same rules, I may have found room for The Swede's suggestion of Gudbuy Gudbuy, but Noddy Holder's spelling always keeps him behind after my class.

Brian can have a point for suggesting Oingo Boingo's Goodbye Goodbye though... because it's Oingo Boingo. Brian had some other great suggestions too, but soon realised he wasn't following the rules so said Goodbye.




Points? Maths never was my strong point, but I think...

Brian - 1 point
Walter - 1 point
Alyson - 1 point
George - 1 point
Chris - 2 points
Charity Chic - 3 points
C - 5 points
The Swede - 8 points
Martin - 11 points

Congratulations to Martin then, who wins my undying admiration. I really enjoyed doing this, and thank you all for taking part. It did bring home to me just how much time such a feature takes to put together though: more credit then to WYCRA and Jez who have both done such things on a regular basis. If I ever did anything like it again... and I am rather tempted, because everyone seems to enjoy playing along at home... I'd have to make it a monthly feature. Weekly would kill me.


15 comments:

  1. This was great fun Rol, as indeed it always was at WYCRA. A monthly version hosted by your good self gets my vote. All those in favour say 'Aye'?
    I'm kicking myself around the house for neglecting Elton, The Psychedelic Furs and Billy.

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  2. Enjoyable quiz even if was under sad circumstances. Sorry to bring up The Spice Girls. I was a teenager of the 90s and not ashamed to admit I have fond memories of their music. Remember several from my school actually recreated the 'wannabe' music video, lip syncing and all!

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    Replies
    1. You're allowed to like anything that was in the charts when you were at school. I was in my 20s when The Spice Girls came along. I preferred Bananarama.

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  3. Yes, loved this - thanks for doing it. I've no idea how WYCRA, Jez and now you manage to pull these things together - I'm imagining complicated graphs, calculators, maybe a slide-rule and several sleepless nights are required. So thank you! And congrats to Martin on the impressive score.
    Sorry about the 16-year old girl thing. That's what came up when I typed "goodbye" into youtube - not surprising really then.
    As for the monthly thing: I say "Aye" too, but no pressure!

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    Replies
    1. As I don't sleep anyway, this sort of nonsense helps fill the time.

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  4. Cheers Rol. I can hang up my commenting boots now, it won't get any better than this for me. Can't believe I didn't think of the Billy double goodbye though.

    I look forward to the monthly post...!

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    Replies
    1. Impressive start, Martin... will you be able to stay at the top of the table though? The pressure is on.

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  5. Thought for a minute I was indeed going to "pointless", so thanks for being so magnanimous. I'm afraid I didn't try too hard though and just went with what was in my head, thus Spice Girls! Sorry again to have filled a lot of your comment box space with my warnings about putting pressure on ourselves to deliver regular posts - A monthly feature does seem doable though and if you mix it up a bit, not necessarily always posting on the same day, the pressure will be off. I'm sounding all mumsy here but I worry!

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    Replies
    1. Don't worry, Alyson. As with anything else here, if it gets too much, I'll just knock it on the head.

      May have to ignore one bit of your advice though... it clashes with my plans.

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  6. Well done Martin but as Hot Chocolate would have it Everyone's a Winner
    Monthly would be great Rol if it is not too onorous

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    Replies
    1. Nah, I think I can manage a monthly 10. But when should I do it? If only there was a day in the month that had a ten in it...

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  7. I didn't know someone had already suggested the Elton John song, please take my point away it is undeserved. As the others are saying, you should do this again. Weekly - you've not got much else to do have you?

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    Replies
    1. Well, not sleep, obviously.

      I did take a point away, George - you'd have got 2 points if you were the first to suggest it.

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  8. Superb!

    How about this....

    https://soundcloud.com/randolphs-leap/goodbye-marc-riley-session-15

    JC

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    Replies
    1. Like that a lot... Never heard of them, but happy to see their back catalogue is available on emusic so I'll be wading into that. (Apologies if you've featured them over at yours...I must have missed it if so.)

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