My Top 500 Songs (complete!!)

8 ABBA - Lay All Your Love On Me (1981)

Oh, it’s just ABBA pre-empting virtually every major dance movement of the next twenty years in a single track. You can draw a direct line from this to 80s synthpop, 90s Europop, and even trance.

If GGG was ABBA cruising, then this is ABBA eighteen months later in full obsessional mode. Buried inside this huge, soaring disco-synth production are lyrics about possession, dependency, even surrender. By this point Björn was writing far more sophisticated lyrics — comparing desire to addiction, practically begging the object of affection not to squander their emotions.

Bringing it all together, the result is mammoth. When I first discovered it on Gold back in 1993, I was hooked. There was something melancholy about it, but that synth was overwhelmingly thrilling. It stalled at No. 7 in the UK - their biggest market - perhaps because it was only released on 12", or because ABBA’s mainstream dominance was beginning to fade.

In gay clubs, though, something else was happening entirely. An unofficial extended version emerged to satisfy dancefloors that couldn’t get enough of it. There’s something oddly sweet about the fact that, while neither ABBA nor gay club culture were fashionable at the time, they effectively found each other.

Streaming has now secured the song’s legacy. Kids discovered it through TikTok, online games, and YouTube algorithms, which hardly feels surprising - the production still sounds club-ready, and the emotional drama remains relatable.

This will be the last appearance by ABBA on this list. I think only Kylie Minogue appears more often.



 
My favourite ABBA song, although several others constantly JOSTLE for that honour. We've all been the character in the lyrics, which are a showcase for how much ABBA progressed in that area over ten years - more interesting & meaningful than many groups with English as a first language. The dark insistent fabulous disco synths only add to the sheer :disco: of the whole package.
 
7 Kate Bush - Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) (1985/2022)

The most recent no.1 hit on the list(!), it's Kate's most universally beloved track, the moment she became untouchable.

I'm really struggling to say anything of worth about this - one of the tracks on this list that speaks for itself, we all know the story of it's meaning and it's success. Of course I could go into depth about the meaning of the track - it's conceptually unusual for sure, or how it led the way in the 2020s trend for giving new legacy to old tracks, but there's nothing new there.

What does it mean to me? Perhaps the same as most people - it's just an astonishing musical masterpiece.

 
For me, not her greatest but undoubtedly the song that sent her indisputably and forever into the rare air of the rock aristocracy, and for that I respect it, and I am glad that she put that so far beyond dispute as for it to be settled utterly. Will always be a Wuthering Heights boy though. :)
 
Agneeta said:
8 ABBA - Lay All Your Love On Me (1981)

Oh, it’s just ABBA pre-empting virtually every major dance movement of the next twenty years in a single track. You can draw a direct line from this to 80s synthpop, 90s Europop, and even trance.

If GGG was ABBA cruising, then this is ABBA eighteen months later in full obsessional mode. Buried inside this huge, soaring disco-synth production are lyrics about possession, dependency, even surrender. By this point Björn was writing far more sophisticated lyrics — comparing desire to addiction, practically begging the object of affection not to squander their emotions.

Bringing it all together, the result is mammoth. When I first discovered it on Gold back in 1993, I was hooked. There was something melancholy about it, but that synth was overwhelmingly thrilling. It stalled at No. 7 in the UK - their biggest market - perhaps because it was only released on 12", or because ABBA’s mainstream dominance was beginning to fade.

In gay clubs, though, something else was happening entirely. An unofficial extended version emerged to satisfy dancefloors that couldn’t get enough of it. There’s something oddly sweet about the fact that, while neither ABBA nor gay club culture were fashionable at the time, they effectively found each other.

Streaming has now secured the song’s legacy. Kids discovered it through TikTok, online games, and YouTube algorithms, which hardly feels surprising - the production still sounds club-ready, and the emotional drama remains relatable.

This will be the last appearance by ABBA on this list. I think only Kylie Minogue appears more often.



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My favourite Abba song!
 
Agneeta said:
20 Everything But The Girl - Missing (1994/1995)

Step off the train...

What a way to start the top 20. The song which moved R Trace and R Ben from folksy sophisti-pop bores to purveyors of house and drum n' bass. A highly unlikely jump, but Missing was such a track that it seemed to link the two versions of EBTG with ease.

Of course it was Todd Terry that elevated Missing into the humble megahit that it became. Suddenly that singer-songwriter sound, was sharing the dance music space where not long prior, N-Trance and others had occupied. It was a game changer, a year later a similarly coded remix of Un-Break My Heart became a huge hit.

It is of course a personal favourite, the simple lyrics hit hard, even more when paired with the deep house beat. It's quite shocking, that it doesn't really have the same legacy in the way that say Believe does, but time will tell.

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This song is one that can really put in the feels for no real reason. I can be happy as a clam and this comes on and I’m in the corner brooding and having a menthol. LOLZ
 
Joseph said:
This song is one that can really put in the feels for no real reason. I can be happy as a clam and this comes on and I’m in the corner brooding and having a menthol. LOLZ
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(This really is the GIF that keeps on GIVING)
 
6 Robin S - Show Me Love (1993)

The absolute fucking essence of commercial house music. The ultimate diva house track. An undisputed classic of the genre.

Of course it was the Stonebridge remix of the 1990 original (which really is pretty decent, if a little less tits out - more R&B), in 1993 which saw the track explode. Robin's raw delivery absolutely elevates the whole experience, while the thrill of the minor key, the snare and the Korg synthesiser do the rest of the lifting.

The result was a genuinely happy accident. I feel I never get the full experience playing it on my phone, it needs a giant fucking speaker to experience the actual majesty of the whole thing. And the video with New York club kids is such a time and a place, it's almost ballroom.

This track holds a very special place in my heart, and apparently others, seeing how many times it's been sampled.



 
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The tropical house version in about 2016 was one of the most disgusting things ever published, that includes Serbian Film, Pretty Baby, and Shape of You.
 
I liked the DJ Tonka (2002/3) remixes, but the Stonebridge Show Me Love states her case so hard it can't be topped. And what a video! The kind of hair I had only ever seen on Ricki Lake and glamorous club anguish scenes we all love to enact out even if only for the journey of going to the toilet and back before returning to your friends with shots in hand.
 
straightorbroken said:
I liked the DJ Tonka (2002/3) remixes, but the Stonebridge Show Me Love states her case so hard it can't be topped. And what a video! The kind of hair I had only ever seen on Ricki Lake and glamorous club anguish scenes we all love to enact out even if only for the journey of going to the toilet and back before returning to your friends with shots in hand.
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I'm glad I'm not the only one. It may be filmed on a potato, but I like it that way. I'm jealous of everyone involved!
 
The Lisa Marie Experience '97 remix of Show Me Love was ok, if a little reductive. I'll still pop it on, if I'm feeling frivolous.

 
Agneeta said:
6 Robin S - Show Me Love (1993)

The absolute fucking essence of commercial house music. The ultimate diva house track. An undisputed classic of the genre.

Of course it was the Stonebridge remix of the 1990 original (which really is pretty decent, if a little less tits out - more R&B), in 1993 which saw the track explode. Robin's raw delivery absolutely elevates the whole experience, while the thrill of the minor key, the snare and the Korg synthesiser do the rest of the lifting.

The result was a genuinely happy accident. I feel I never get the full experience playing it on my phone, it needs a giant fucking speaker experience the actual majesty of the whole thing. And the video with New York club kids is such a time and a place, it's almost ballroom.

This track holds a very special place in my heart, and apparently others, seeing how many times it's been sampled.



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I first encountered this song via the Dance Mix USA infomercials that played back to back with the ABBA Gold infomercial. I worked night shift so these were pretty much all you could watch on tv on break.

 
So let's just say JX paid homage rather than lifted it in full - although it was rather he gave it a take off that certainly wasn't there before. It actually reminds me a little of a slower jam take on Pretty Baby by The Sledge.

 
straightorbroken said:
So let's just say JX paid homage rather than lifted it in full - although it was rather he gave it a take off that certainly wasn't there before. It actually reminds me a little of a slower jam take on Pretty Baby by The Sledge.

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Which begs the question, where did 12 year old Jake find all these rare grooves?
 
He probably didn’t - he was probably inspired by the 1990 version by Seduction, which I thought was the original!

The JX vocal is closer to this one

 
I assume There's Nothing I Won't Do has never been a Lip Sync track.

Not that I think Visage would be surprised, there's a girl WITH a musical education :eyes:
 
Neither did I until I recently explored the 90a billboard hits, and also that, prior to the R&B girl group explosion that started with En Vogue, the late 80s / early 90s was chock full of girl groups doing dance and pop - Seduction, Klymaxx, Expose, Cover Girls, and that’s even before you get to the Hi-NRG and freestyle acts.

Hardly any of them even skimmed the UK charts. It’s very strange.
 
funky said:
Neither did I until I recently explored the 90a billboard hits, and also that, prior to the R&B girl group explosion that started with En Vogue, the late 80s / early 90s was chock full of girl groups doing dance and pop - Seduction, Klymaxx, Expose, Cover Girls, and that’s even before you get to the Hi-NRG and freestyle acts.

Hardly any of them even skimmed the UK charts. It’s very strange.
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I’m still AGOG that Exposé wasn’t huge in the UK. They were inescapable here.
 
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