10 Pop Songs whose titles do not appear in their lyrics

1. Bob Dylan - “Subterranean Homesick Blues” (also, “Positively 4th Street,” “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues,” “My Back Pages,” etc)
2. Led Zeppelin - “Immigrant Song” “The Lemon Song” etc
3. The Beatles -" A Day in the Life" (Also "Ballad of John and Yoko", "Tomorrow never knows")
4. Nirvana — “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, etc
5. 40 - U2, etc
6. Queen — “Bohemian Rhapsody”
7. Coldplay — “Viva La Vida”
8. The Who — “Baba O’Riley”
9. David Bowie — “Space Oddity”
10. Paranoid - "Black Sabbath"

(Also - The Righteous Brothers - Unchained Melody; Chumbawumba - Tubthumping)

10 Songs with Latin lyrics

These pop songs all have Latin words

1. Gaudete (Steeleye Span)
2. Gloria (U2)
3. Benedictus (Simon & Garfunkel)
4. O Caritas (Cat Stevens)
5. Pie Jesu (Sarah Brightman)
6. Ave Maria (Leslie Garret, Amanda Thomson)
7. Round goes the gossip (Focus)
8. Pax Deorum and Tempus Vernum (Enya)
9. Afer Ventus and Cursum perficio (Enya)
10. Regina caeli, O filii et filiae (Sinéad O'Connor)

10 Popular Songs based on words of Scripture (more or less)

1. Turn Turn Turn (Ecclesiastes 3) The Byrds, etc
2. The Lord's my Shepherd (Psalm 23) Judy Collins
3. Psalm 33 (Psalm 33) Sinead O'Connor
4. "40" (Psalm 40) U2
5. Hineimatov (Psalm 133) Miami Boys Choir
6. Rivers of Babylon (Psalm 137) The Melodians, Boney M (Also Don McClean)
7. The Lord's Prayer (Matthew 6) Sister Janet Mead
8. The Millennium Prayer (Matthew 6) Cliff Richard
9. While Shepherds watched (Luke 2) Bing Crosby
10. The four horsemen (based on Revelation 6) Aphrodite's Child

(There is also Awake, awake by Steeleye Span, very much based on Song of Solomon)

10 Songs that feature a different vocalist to usual

This list was prompted by a question on University Challenge recently

1. The Kinks, "Death of a Clown" (1967) Dave Davies not brother Ray
2. Canned Heat, "Going Up the Country" (1968) Alan "Blind Owl" Wilson not Bob "The Bear" Hite
3. Marshall Tucker Band, "Can't You See" (1973) Toy Caldwell not Doug Gray
4. The Eagles, "Take It to the Limit" (1975) Bassist Randy Meisner not Glenn Frey
5. Blue Oyster Cult, "(Don't Fear) the Reaper" (1976) Buck Dharma not Eric Bloom
6. Police, "On Any Other Day" (1979) Stewart Copeland not Sting
7. ABBA Does your mother know? (1979) Björn Ulvaeus not Agnetha Fältskog or Anni-Frid Lyngstad
8. Toto, "Africa" (1983) David Paich not Bobby Kimball or Steve Lukather
9. U2 "Numb" (1993) The Edge not Bono
10. Oasis, "Don't Look Back in Anger" (1996) Noel Gallagher not brother Liam

(There are lots of Queen contenders but no obvious one. I toyed with including Ringo Starr singing With a little help from my friends. May be Happy Nightmare on the first Focus album where Martiin Dresden sings could be added but that's pretty obscure)

365 Albums 151-165

1. War U2 1983
2. The Yes Album Yes 1970 (M31)
3. Saved Bob Dylan 1980
4. The Chieftains 5 The Chieftains 1975
5. Tanx T Rex 1973
6. Peace Eurythmics 1999
7. Paradise Found Maddy Prior & the Carnival Band 2007 * (J5)
8. Focus X Focus 2012
9. Birds Trace 1975
10. Mind Wave Cyril Havermans 1974
11. Slow Train Coming Bob Dylan 1979
12. Let it Be The Beatles 1970
13. Introspection 3 Thijs van Leer 1977 (J10)
14. Underwater Sunlight Tangerine Dream 1986
15. Ekseption 5 Ekseption 1972

10 Songs that appear to be about Heroin

Not sure how I got on to this but I think it is correct. I think they are all anti- but not sure.

1. Bad U2

2. There she goes The La's

3. Golden Brown The Stranglers

4. Lust for life Iggy Pop

5. Perfect Day Lou Reed

6. Under the Bridge Red Hot Chili Peppers

7. Happiness is a warm gun The Beatles

8. Comfortably numb Pink Floyd

9. Running to stand still U2

10. Cold Turkey John Lennon**

**Rumour has it that this is actually about food poisoning after Christmas (seriously)

365 Albums 121-135

1. Jan Akkerman 3 Jan Akkerman 1979 
2. Modern Vampires of the City Vampire Weekend 2013
3. Poland Tangerine Dream 1984
4. Cosmo's Factory Creedence Clearwater Revival 1970
5. Violunar Kagermann 1992
6. Tangram Tangerine Dream 1980
7. Adrenalin Rush Gareth Pearson 2006
8. Oceanic Vangelis 1997
9. All that you can't leave behind U2 2000
10. The Memory of Trees Enya 1995
11. Noise of Art Jan Akkerman 1990
12. Hymns III Page CXVI 2010*
13. Beyond the Storm Edgar Froese 1995
14. Happy to meet - Sorry to part Horslips 1972
15. Rubber Soul The Beatles 1965

365 Albums 106-120

1. Five Bridges The Nice 1970
2. Trinity Ekseption 1973
3. It's only just begun Solution 1980
4. Hymns and sacred songs Leigh Nash 2011*
5. Unforgettable Fire U2 1984
6. Boof! Tony Remy 1994
7. Pilgrimage Wishbone Ash 1971
8. John Barleycorn must die Traffic 1970
9. Ricochet Tangerine Dream 1975
10. The Chieftains 7 The Chieftains 1977
11. Rise Gabrielle 1999
12. Instrumental Hymns Thijs van Leer et al 1996*
13. Hergest Ridge Mike Oldfield 1974
14. Trilogy Emerson Lake & Palmer 1972
15. Lonesome Road Doc & Mere Watson 1977

(* Suitable for Sunday playing IMHO)

365 Albums 31-45

1. Inside Llewyn Davies Soundtrack 2013
2. Joshua Tree U2 1987
3. Cuilidh Julie Fowlis 2007
4. 6 6 6 Aphrodite's Child 1972
5. Sing Lustily and with Good Courage Maddy Prior & The Carnival Band 1990*
6. Epsilon in Malaysian Pale Edgar Froese 1975
7. Trace Trace 1974
8. Tales from the Book of Time Catherine Lambert and the Lore Liege Ensemble 2003
9. The Chirping Crickets The Crickets 1957
10. Hamburger Concerto Focus 1974
11. Dona Nobis Pacem Pedal Point 1983*
12. Guitars Philip Catherine 1975
13. Regatta de Blanc The Police 1979
14. Long Player Late Bloomer Ron Sexsmith 2010
15. The Unfortunate Cup of Tea Horslips 1975

(* Suitable for Sunday playing IMHO)

10 Great Acts from the Eighties

The eighties was not really my era but I can think of 10 acts that cut it for me

1. U2
2. OMD
3. Big Country
4. Yazoo
5. Enya
6. Sade
7. Clannad
8. The Jam
9. Eurythmics
10. Pretenders

10 popular songs that feature violin

1. Coz I luv u Slade
2. Baba O'Riley The Who
3. Come on Eileen Dexy's Midnight Runners
4. Rather be Clean Bandit
5. Devil went down to Georgia Charlie Daniels Band
6. I am a man of constant sorrow Soggy Bottom Boys
7. Seven drunken nights The Dubliners
8. Sunday Bloody Sunday U2
9. Don't pass me The Beatles
10. Hocus Pocus Vanessa Mae

Appropriate song for today

Retro Album "of the week" 43 - All that you can't leave behind

I wanted to include a U2 album here. I like some of the early albums (War, Boy, etc) and especially The Joshua Tree which nearly got the vote. Instead I've gone for the 2000 album All That You Can't Leave Behind the tenth studio album. Produced by Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois, it gets back to what they do best afte rhaving lost themselves for a while. The critics and the fans liked this album and it sold over 12 million copies. Four successful singles were taken from the album, the superb "Beautiful Day" plus "Walk On", "Elevation" and the classic "Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of". It 2won seven Grammy Awards. It is the only album in history to have multiple tracks win the Grammy Award for Record of the Year: "Beautiful Day" in 2001 and "Walk On" in 2002.

Early versions of the cover released to the press show a departure sign that reads "F21-36", however, this was changed to J33-3 in reference to the Bible verse Jeremiah 33:3, "Call unto me and I will answer thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not." Bono referred to it as "God's phone number". Grace is an interesting song and Peace on earth a sort of alternative Christmas thing.

Stories for boys