Oldies stations are almost entirely geared to oldie charts from the olden days. I love a chart myself, but mere Top 10s can’t conjur up hits that were in the public domain. Growing up in a house that played Radio 2 in the morning, I heard dozens of songs on a regular basis that never reached the Top 10. Paul Simon’s Train In The Distance, Olivia Newton John’s Let Me Be There, Air Supply’s Lost In Love, Gordon Lightfoot’s Sundown: all of these songs were well known in hundreds of thousands of households across Britain thanks to surreal Scouser Ray Moore – on the early shift – and Terry Wogan on the breakfast show.
There was a shadow chart, partly cooked up by Wogan’s producer Paul ‘Paulie’ Walters, which obeyed no playlist. In this world, Dolly Parton ruled – anyone raised on these shows from the 70s to the 90s would have assumed Dolly’s Bargain Store, Here You Come Again (a discreet bow to the late Cynthia Weil), and Nine To Five were top three smashes when, in reality, none of them even got a sniff of the Top 40.
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Paperback Blighters - The books every record collector should read.
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