In my previous post, I looked at the Top 15 of my Spotify Top Songs of 2018. In this post rather than going numerically through the remaining 85 I have picked out a selection.

I thought I would top and tail this post with extremes.

In my Top 20 is, what my daughter refers to as my ode to Eurotrash – Loreen’s Euphoria, winner of the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest. Only to be listened to at the gym with the volume at the max!

David Bowie is also in my Top 20 with Life on Mars. I can’t say Bowie is a go-to in my music listening, but there are some of his albums that I adore and Hunky Dory of which Life on Mars is the fourth track on side one is definitely one. I can’t remember when I bought the album, it’s an import so it must have been around 1975 when a school friend of mine and I took advantage of the huge difference in exchange rates between the UK and Australia and started importing records.  Whether its Life on Mars, Changes, Kooks, Andy Warhol, this is a classic album and seeing it in My Top Songs gave me an excuse to fire up the turntable and give it a spin.

America’s Ventura Highway. The simplicity and harmonies make America’s music and Ventura Highway, in particular, a regular on my Spotify Playlists.

Good Morning Starshine. Oh, I remember buying this as a 45 a very long time ago. How could you not love a song with lyrics that include

Gliddy glub gloopy, nibby nabby noopy la, la, la, lo, lo
Sabba sibby sabba, nooby abba nabba, le, le, lo, lo
Tooby ooby walla, nooby abba naba

and, finishes each verse with

Our early morning singing song ?

Gordon Lightfoot’s If You Could Read My Mind was a music credibility song. It proved that I was serious about music! And after songs like Dizzy (rounded out my Top 15) and Good Morning Starshine, I certainly need to show it even now! Canada has produced some great artists and Lightfoot’s is one of many and I love this song.

I had a couple of periods during the year where I seemed to have 10CC on a continuous loop. A great fun band and The Things We Do For Love is one of many of my 10CC favourites. I saw 10CC only once, in 1977 at the now demolished Apollo Stadium, and it was one of the first concerts I went to with My Favourite Person. Brings back some pretty special memories!

There was more Lindisfarne, with Meet me on the Corner in the top half of the list. Along with Lady Eleanor that featured in My Top 15, it only serves to confirm how much I enjoy this era of English Folk music.  We rarely saw these bands in Australia, so in the 70s I had to rely on vinyl.  That didn’t stop me loving the music of Lindisfarne, Steele Span and Maddy Prior, whose Infighting, from the Silly Sisters (Maddy Prior and June Tambor) is a forgotten classic.

Annie Lennox’s Walking on Broken Glass was welcome proof that I listened to more than just 70s music in 2018.

Rick Wakeman’s Six Wives of Henry The Eighth provided two contributions, with Catherine Parr and Catherine Howard.  From his time in the band Yes and then throughout his solo career Rick Wakeman has produced numerous albums. I particularly enjoy his earlier music. Six Wives, Journey to the Centre of the Earth, and Myths and Legends (Sir Galahad is also on the list) are definitely my favourites. I also found myself listening to his piano albums when concentration on my research was required. On the subject of Yes, Roundabout from the amazing Fragile also features in my Top Songs of 2018.

Peter Sarstedt’s Where do You go to (My Lovely) was on the list. I have a post devoted to this song, and I reiterate, how can this song be written about some fictitious women?

Neil Diamond features heavily in the list. Great songwriter and performer. Cracklin Rosie was in my Top 15, but elsewhere in the Top 100 were Kentucky Woman and a song that typifies the live power of Hot August Night, Brother Love’s Traveling Salvation Show.

As this is a time warp, it wasn’t at all surprising that Sherbert’s Howzat featured. One of Australia’s most famous bands, Sherbert along with Skyhooks, propelled Australian music in the 1970s. They were fantastic live. Howzat brings back memories of hot summers studying for school final exams.

A band largely overlooked in Australia, was Steve Harley & the Cockney Rebels. I was introduced to this band by the same person who introduced me to Bruce Springsteen, my High School PE teacher. My former PE teacher featured in much of my early music development. It was at his house that I also got engaged to My Favourite Person, a few short years after leaving school. Oh, the song – Make Me Smile (Come up And See Me)!

Break up songs are a common feature in music and Kellie Pickler’s Best Days of Your Life is right up there. It’s not as sneering as Sarstedt’s Where Do You Go To (My Lovely), but just as cutting

 I’ve been told that a cheater
Is always a cheater
I’ve got my pride, and she’s got you.

It was a year where Country didn’t feature that heavily, with only Kerry Pickler and Kacey Musgrave in my Top 100 in 2018. Kacey Musgrave was on the list with a cover of Elton John’s Roy Rogers. I loved Roy Rogers as a child. Doubt he would be popular today but I guess fifty plus years ago the world was different?

One last song, Kate Bush’s Wuthering Heights. In my list of all time favourite albums, her Kick Inside album rates in my Top 5.  It’s an album brimmed full of truly amazing songs of an era. Rich production and a haunting voice. As someone who would have loved to written just one hit song,  I’m truly envious. The Kick Inside was released when Kate was just 19, with some songs written when she was 13.

So that’s a wrap on my 2018 list. Some songs that are true classics, a bias to the past and some that are guilty pleasures.

I wonder where my listening will take me in 2019?