Top of the Pops
In case you hadn’t heard, a grassroots movement put Rage Against the Machine on top of the British charts this week (over Joe McElderry from Simon Cowell’s X Factor talent show). This tickles me on numerous levels–but it’s hard for most Americans to understand how attentive Brits are to the question of who’s got the #1 single at Christmas. I thought it might be a good time to direct you to a letter I wrote on the subject of the British pop charts and year-end singles–back in 1998, when Facebook was just a twinkle in your father’s eye.
posted 23 December 2009 in Tasty Bits and tagged Christmas, England, Rage Against the Machine, TOTP. 2 comments
December 24th, 2009 at 1:14 pm
The superstar cover of “Perfect Day” that your link references can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uN90xB7DswE.
I’d never seen or heard it before. YouTube claims it was for something called the Children in Need Foundation, which I don’t know what that is. It’s supercool that Dr. John had a Number One hit, though. Poifect Day indeed.
December 27th, 2009 at 1:28 am
Thanks for the link, Tom! When I wrote that essay, YouTube wasn’t around, and I never imagined that it’d be possible to click on the video a decade later.