Hot 100 #20

Welcome back to the Hot 100. And please be upstanding for Brian...

I will count on seeing American power-pop band 20/20 as the art on the top of the next post in this series... preferably from their first single or their first album. Don't let me down, Rol!

Now, I have to admit I'd never heard of this lot before, but I knew Brian wouldn't let me down.

20/20 - Yellow Pills

Thank you, Brian. Because otherwise, I would surely have irked all the musos by choosing this image instead...

(To be fair, Jim in Dubai suggested this lot. He went with...

Matchbox 20 - How Far We've Come

...whereas I would have chosen...

Matchbox 20 - Unwell

Still. What do we know?)


Anyway, enough of that. This is going to be a long one, so let's just get straight to your suggestions, starting with Martin...

Elvis Costello - 20% Amnesia 

Very good start.

The Steve Miller Band - Living in the 20th Century

80 weeks in, and you're an expert.

The Kinks - 20th Century Man 

Elvis Presley - Twenty Days and Twenty Nights

Pet Shop Boys - Twenty-Something 

Muddy Waters - 32-20 Blues 

Rory Gallagher - 20:20 Vision 

Chubby Checker - Twenty Miles

No barrel-scraping there at all, Martin. A fine selection.

Next up, The Swede, with some rather middle of the road suggestions this week... and by that, I mean I've heard of most of them.

T-Rex - 20th Century Baby

Father John Misty - In Twenty Years Or So

Magazine - Twenty Years Ago

Sneaker Pimps - Ten To Twenty

Menomena - Twenty Cell Revolt

And then, just when he was starting to lose me...

Hang on...what about Eddie Cochran's 'Twenty Flight Rock'?

Excellent choice. Has featured on this blog before, but I can't remember where.

Over to Lynchie...

Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks - 20/20 Vision

Never heard that before, but I approve.

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - 4 + 20

And I love those early CSNY tracks.

Barenaked Ladies – 20/20 Hindsight

Erykah Badu - 20 Feet Tall

Can't say no to any of those, Lynchie.

And now, let's welcome Alyson back to the Countdown...

It's not for everyone, in fact most of you will feel quite ill if you listen to it, but several people recorded the song Twenty Tiny Fingers back in the day - Alma Cogan, The Stargazers and the Coronets.

Here's the thing, Alyson... nothing is for everyone, and the stuff that is (or is supposed to be) is usually rubbish. I liked all those, but I think I preferred the version by The Stargazers.

Status Quo had a song called Twenty Wild Horses (one for Jez)... 

...and Placebo had one called Twenty Years.

There we go, Alyson is suggesting Placebo songs. I feel like my work here is done. All genre barriers have been broken down.

Next up, it's over to Dubai. Here's Jim...

Edwyn Collins - 20 Years Too Late

The Undertones - Top Twenty

The Phenomenal Hand Clap Band - 15-20

That's new to me. Cool.

George Benson - 20/20 Vision

(I was waiting for someone to suggest that - surely the most obvious of the 20/20 songs?)

Thermometers - 20th Century Girl

Time for Rigid Digit...

The Vaccines - 20/20

Joss Stone - 4 And 20

Kenny Rogers - 20 Years Ago

Can I just interrupt here to throw this in...

Montgomery Gentry - 20 Years Ago

Thank you. Back to Rigid Digit's suggestions...

Regina Spektor - 20 Years of Snow

Rufus Wainwright - Sonnet 20

By this point, I'm starting to wonder if some of you have just made a list of artists who are frequently featured on this blog and then gone looking for appropriately numbered songs. Oh, wait, here's someone who has blatantly done just that. It's Douglas McLaren...

So the consensus above seems to put T-Rex in as front-runners and obvious favourites. And I admit I too, had I not been late to the game, would have suggested the same, with perhaps Elvis Costello as an outside chance and Pet Shop Boys as a dark horse.

T-Rex? Has someone suggested a T-Rex song? Not that one The Swede mentioned, surely? Sorry, Douglas, I interrupted your monologue...

But as I am late to the game, I am going to put forward not just another choice, but one which I am sure you will see has the power of research, reason, and persuasive logic behind it.

For starters, I have observed a long running tendency for our esteemed blogger to shy away from obvious front runners to surprise with some surprise underdogs. Consider, for example, a couple weeks ago when all were putting heavy money on Gene Pitney for #24, and up came Half Man Half Biscuit. I argue that T-Rex supporters going all in for a dead cert face possible extinction if there is a meteoric rise of some new kid on the Cretaceous block.

So who might that be? If you were thinking Elvis, the King (and who better than a King to dethrone the Tyrant-Lizard?) you are wrong. I have just the candidate for you: George Jones. Before you scoff, consider this:

Research shows that George has been undergoing a slow and steady upsurge in popularity within the pages of this fine blog. The "Search" box at the top reveals that his first appearance ever here was as an 8th place finish on April 15th, 2013, with "The World Worst Loser", in a Top Ten about "Losers". Before you chortle indeed and mutter something about the title being prophetic, or get off a wry comment that losing in a contest of Losers doesn't really make you a winner, wait for what comes next.

George had a comeback the following year by teaming up with Tammy Wynette, always a wise strategy. That time, on January 6th, 2014, it was a 7th place finish with "I've Seen Better"...marginal improvement, you say? Well, improvement nonetheless and it gave him the confidence to try again, and this time, with all in for a placing.

It took him a few years (his age slowing him, I suppose) but it was worth it; on April 19th, 2018, it was "The Race Is On" (ironically in a Top Ten about Horse Racing) that landed him in the Winner's Circle with a strong 2nd Place showing in a Top Ten appropriately about the races.

And that was it. George could smell victory, and there was no stopping him. He spent the next year in training, eating nothing but Wheaties and working out like a man half his age. It was Stallone in Rocky XIII (am I up to date???) all over again.

Avid readers will know that the payoff came just last week. And this would be big...not just some local, "best of show" Top Ten victory. George had his sights set higher. He wanted a win in one of the big time circuits, and he had his hopes pinned on a Saturday Snapshots #1 placing, and, miracle of miracles, just a few days ago, he came through with "He Stopped Loving Her Today". You saw it with your own eyes.

But having tasted victory, George now wants more. What, he asked himself, would be better that a Saturday Snapshot win? What giddy heights could he aspire to now with a fairy tale finish to his Cinderella story in these hallowed pages? It took some thought, but then...by George, he had it!

He would take the first spot in the final 20 countdown of the Hot 100. Let the younger kids have the final weeks (by Gad, he hoped it would not be U2 with "One"!). But he would show there was life in the old boy by having #20 all to himself. It had to be. He was made for this. He shuffled through his back catalogue, his memory stirred by a half-forgotten title. He rummaged for a few moments, past the big shiny hits, under the sleeper successes, and yes, there it was!

And out he pulled... 

George Jones - I've Aged Twenty Years in Five

Take that, T-Rex.

(mike drops)

Wow. What can I say, Douglas, except that if you've spent such a (scarily) long amount of time researching this blog, there's one thing you must know for sure... Bono doesn't stand a chance.

OK, before we get on to the rather obvious winner, I have a confession to make. There were so many 20 songs in my collection (many of them mentioned above, many not), I didn't even have time to listen to them, let alone link to them. Here are the edited highlights...

Sun Kil Moon & Jesu - Twenty Something

I'm starting with that one because I have featured it here before as a Mid-Life Crisis Song. In that post I mentioned how Mark Kozelek wrote the song about Johnny Saint-Lethal, the lead singer of a little-known American guitar band called The Show. And do you know what, JSL actually left a comment in return... although for some reason, that has disappeared from the blog. Fortunately, I have it saved in my inbox, so here's what he said:

"I took Mark's writing the song about my book and I as a stunning nod. I think, however, if you had read the collection (as Mark actually did... please see "1983 MTV Era Music...") you would see the honesty in which it was written. Not at all a know-it-all. Quite the contrary. If you can find a copy (there's only 1100), you might enjoy it and view me differently. I speak to you from the "grave" though. I put JSL to death a couple years ago. RIP. Next chapter. Be well. Bless you all."

Thank you for that, Johnny, and I wish you well. I'm genuinely sorry if it seemed like I was judging you though - the post was meant to be more of a judgement of miserable, middle-aged gits like Kozelek and myself and how we secretly miss being 20-something and are jealous of anyone who still is.

I think.

Anyway, back to a few more selected 20 Songs from my hard-drive...

Simple Kid - The Twentysomething

Spector - Twenty Nothing

Travis - 20

Supergrass - 20ft Halo

The Waltones - Special 20

Bob Seger - 20 Years From Now

Death Cab For Cutie - 20th Century Towers

Low - $20

Manic Street Preachers - Teenage 20/20

The Shirelles - 20th Century Rock n Roll

Lowell George - 20 Million Things

The Civil Wars - 20 Years

Pandora's Box - Twentieth Century Fox

OK. I think I can safely say you've all stopped reading now.

So what is this week's winner?

Well, if I were to go with the non-obvious choice, it would this...

Amy Rigby - 20 Questions

...because Amy Rigby is great.

However, sometimes you just can't deny the inevitable.

And so we have to give this week's prize to Charity Chic as he was first to suggest it.

Some guitar riffs are so powerful, they blow everything else off the field...



Of course, this does mean that CC has now won two weeks in a row. Can he make it a hat-trick? I mean, next week is 19. Shall we just skip that and call it too easy a win?

Or will we all be surprised by a rank outsider?

To be honest, I haven't even started looking yet. So feel free to surprise me...

UPDATE: NO 19 SONGS WILL BE ALLOWED WHERE THE 19 IS PART OF A DATE IN THE 20TH CENTURY.