Suddenly It's Tuesday

  I hope you all had a great Christmas, or at least as good a one as was possible under the circumstances. This period between Christmas and New Year is always a strange time, a bit dead and in limbo. However, you can perk things up with a journey through the (almost) top echelons of the Wedding Present's back catalogue. So grab a turkey sandwich and settle into the 40s and 50s of the 'Suddenly it's Tuesday' list... YouTube Playlist (223 - 41) Spotify Playlist (41 - 100) 60 Mystery Date (Valentina, 2012) Valentina 's final track is another of David's 'romantic underdog' songs, the  narrator  being  astonished  by a woman giving him her number, which leads him to exclaim repeatedly that 't hings like this do not not happen to me'. A touchingly hesitant opening builds into a strident chorus, regroups briefly then bursts into a clattering, abandoned thrash. The final section is loose and down-tempo, almost jazzy, and features an enigmatic piece of J...

  As we head into the height of the festive season, what greater excuse could there be to take a break from all the Christmas preparations than to consider the TWP tracks that reside in the 60s and 70s of the 'Suddenly it's Tuesday' list? So grab a mince pie and a large sherry and settle down in your favourite armchair for Gedge and co's excellent-but-not- quite -at-the-top songs... YouTube Playlist (223 - 61) Spotify Playlist (61 - 100) 80 Make Me Smile (Come Up And See Me) (3 Songs, 1990) TWP's cover of Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel's  1975 hit  wasn't quite in the same league as the two originals on the  3 Songs EP , but inevitably attracted most of the airplay and led to a rare appearance   on  Top of the Pops . This featured the unlikely sight of Peter Solowka on a prog-rock-style double-necked guitar; amusingly, he plays the solo with his right hand on the bottom half and his left on the top, something that the  TOTP  producer seems...

  And so we find ourselves in the top 100. As well as the YouTube playlist, I'm also now including a Spotify one, which I'll also build up over the last few posts. YouTube Playlist (223 - 81) Spotify Playlist (81 - 100) 100 Once More (Single, 1985) TWP's second single isn't exactly subtle, but bubbles with frantic energy. The vocal is urgent, passionate and melodramatic ('does your heart begin to fail when the moment gets closer?'); t he 100 mph guitar work is dizzyingly impressive. Gedge wears a very stylish jumper in the video. 99 Gazebo (Watusi, 1994) One of those 'you walked back into my life' songs that sees Gedge reflect on an old relationship with mixed feelings. A bit heavy on the obvious rhymes ('amused me / confused me / used me'; 'forget you / upset you / let you') but the opening line is a pleasingly striking one: 'I knew it was you from the minute you strolled into the gazebo like you’d never been gone'.  Many prefer ...

  It was suggested to me (thanks again to Gav from Scopitones) that it might be helpful to create one page that pulled together all the post links and contained a full song ranking list, so I have done so (link at the bottom of this post). It also contains various other links, including a downloadable spreadsheet of all 223 songs so you can have a go at creating your own full list / top 100 / top 50, etc. should you be so inclined.  Thanks as usual to all who liked / shared / commented on the last post . Once again, there were many 'can't argue with most of that' replies; the main bone of contention was 'No', which several would have liked to see higher. Just a reminder that the "Suddenly it's Tuesday" YouTube playlist is here . From next week, I will also be starting a Spotify playlist of the top 100 songs. 120 Crushed (Bizarro, 1989) The first side of  Bizarro  feels a little uncertain and directionless in places. 'Crushed' is a case in poin...

 This page contains the complete set of links to the blog posts, plus an ongoing ranking list. Playlists and other links at the bottom of the page. Posts Introduction Post #1 (211-223) Post #2 (201-210) Post #3 (191-200) Post #4 (181-190) Post #5 (161-180) Post #6 (141-160) Post #7 (121-140) Post #8 (101-120) Post #9 (81-100) Post #10 (61-80) Post #11 (41-60) Post #12 (21-40) Post #13 (11-20) Post #14 (1-10) Songs 1 Crawl 2 Perfect Blue 3 Take Me! 4 Anyone Can Make A Mistake 5 Flying Saucer 6 Suck 7 Blonde 8 Bewitched 9 Dalliance 10 Interstate 5 11 Come Play with Me 12 Heather 13 My Favourite Dress 14 Click Click 15 Dare 16 Santa Monica 17 You Should Always Keep in Touch With Your Friends 18 Boo Boo 19 Deer Caught in the Headlights 20 Blue Eyes 21 Carolyn 22 Don't Touch That Dial 23 Everyone Thinks He Looks Daft 24 Granadaland 25 No Christmas 26 Octopussy 27 Corduroy 28 Sports Car 29 Brassneck 30 Kennedy 31 Rachel 32 2...