Tonight I'm gonna have myself a real good time

Continuing my trip up the list of the most streamed songs for each year.  

1979 : Don't Stop Me Now - Queen

Well, I wouldn't have expected this to take the year - it's a good enough track, but how many people sit down and think "you know what I need to listen to now?  Yup - some shouty Queen!".  I'm hoping Wikipedia will give me some information, but before that let's consider what it tells us about the single - all 3:29 of it.  Or 3:34.  Or 3:38, apparently - I could explain it but believe me when I tell you it's not that interesting.

It was their second single off Jazz (their seventh album), with the first one being the double A-side of "Bicycle Race/Fat Bottomed Girls" - and, along with this one, that's all I know about the album, having never listened to it.  The song did OK over here at the time (#9) but not so great in the US (#86).  There was also one person who didn't like it at all - Old Miseryguts Brian thought it was "celebrating the hedonistic and risky lifestyle of Mercury, which he thought was threatening" (he's got over it now he's had a chance to check his bank account).

However over the years it's somewhat grown in popularity.  Bobby Olivier (you know Bobby, right!?!) suggests the kicking off point for its resurgence was its appearance in Shaun Of The Dead and you'd have to say it's used really well in that film (which I really like). Since then it's been used pretty much everywhere - and, you know how I said I didn't imagine anyone would stream it?  Well, it appears I was a bit off - "on Sunday, March 3 (2019), it eclipsed 500 million plays on Spotify—nearly double that of any Rolling Stones, U2 or Led Zeppelin song on the service".  Wow.

There's also a cover version of note - which I'd completely forgotten about.   Yes, in 2006, McFly released it as a double A-side with "Please Please Me" for Sport Relief - so obviously it got to #1.  And I have no memory of it in the slightest! (it's exactly like you'd expect it to be - but, at the same time, not quite as bad as you'd expect it to be). It was also sung in a Doctor Who episode by Foxes (who I also don't remember - but at least she does something different with it).  secondhandsongs.com also offers up part of Queen medley by Frank Sidebottom (which is a bit of a cheat, but still worth a watch - especially if you've no idea who Frank is) - and that's it in terms of people I know.  Disappointing!

So what was the competition like in 1979 then?  The top five selling singles of the year were a particularly odd bunch - Art Garfunkel's "Bright Eyes" (six weeks at #1), Blondie's "Heart Of Glass", Cliff Richard's "We Don't Talk Anymore", The Boomtown Rats' "I Don't Like Mondays"  and Dr Hook's "When You're in Love with a Beautiful Woman".  Of those, I imagine Blondie or The Boomtown Rats' offerings are probably the ones that get most attention these days, but none of them feel like they'd take the year.  

Other tracks that jump out of the charts for me are Elvis Costello's "Oliver's Army", Bee Gees' "Tragedy", Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive", The Village People's "In The Navy", Squeeze's "Cool For Cats" and "Up The Junction" (both of which I play quite a lot), Dire Strait's "Sultans Of Swings" (oh yes!), M's "Pop Musik", ABBA's "Does Your Mother Know", "Gimme Gimme Gimme" and "Voulez Vous:, Anita Ward's "Ring My Bell", Gary Numan's "Are Friends Electric?", The Police's "Can't Stand Losing You", "Walking On The Moon" and "Message In A Bottle", Ian Dury's "Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick" and "Reasons To Be Cheerful, Part 3", The Buggles' "Video Killed The Radio Star", The Jam's "Eton Rifles", Madness' "One Step Beyond", Pink Floyd's "Another Brick In The Wall", The Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight" and The Pretender's "Brass In Pocket".  And who can forget "If I Said You Have a Beautiful Body Would You Hold It Against Me" by The Bellamy Brothers.  As you can probably tell, we're getting into my era here.

From across the Atlantic, we have The Knack's "My Sharona" (the best selling track of the year, apparently), Donna Summer's "Hot Stuff" (used very effectively in The Full Monty), Neil Diamond and Barbra Streisand's "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" and Kenny Roger's "The Gambler" - but there's a load of overlap with the UK charts.  Knowing what I know now about how popular this track has been over the years, I'm not surprised it beat the competition but beforehand I'd have been guessing a long time before I got there - it's a fine track though and always fun to listen to (but maybe not too often).

1978 - An unexpected win with an interesting selection of reasons for winning
1980 - A hat-trick of wins for the lads