Lost in Music: a blog by the Old Record Shop

Human nature being what it is, Ed Sheeran will surely be brooding tonight on why people dislike his song "Save Myself" so much. It only made it to No. 29 in the new UK charts today behind 15 other songs from the same album.

Posted by Mark Lawrence on Friday, 17th March 2017 at 7.15 pm

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No Stars in Their Eyes - The 70s Hit-Makers You Were Never Allowed To See

Many of the biggest-selling vinyl albums in the 1970s were compilations of the biggest hits of the day, but unlike the Now! or Hits! LPs of the 80s and 90s many of these were recorded by session singers and musicians so that they could be released cheaply and quickly.

4th May 2022

Half of a Hit Machine: RIP Bill Martin

The names "Martin-Coulter" appeared on the labels of many vinyl singles I bought as a child - Fancy Pants by Kenny, Back Home by the England World Cup Squad in 1970, and Forever and Ever by Slik, one of Midge Ure's early bands.

30th March 2020

Quentin Tarantino: The Hits You've Never Heard Before

The huge impact of the early films of Quentin Tarantino upon modern cinema is hard to argue against, but his " jukebox " approach to selecting music for those 1990s movies gave new life to a good few forgotten hits of the 1960s and 1970s. Unlike the 60s and 70s, it is hard to move these days without pop music being played somewhere as background noise, yet the catalogue of tunes one hears in shops, cafés, restaurants, at weddings, in the background of TV and

3rd September 2019

Whatever Happened to the 12-inch Single?

It's long enough ago and we all have different memories of 1980s pop music. Was it the Cure or Bon Jovi? Kylie & Jason or New Order perhaps. Phil Collins or Mel and Kim? But one thing they all have in common, and which arguably defined the 1980s, is the 12-inch vinyl single.

18th January 2019

A Fistful of Number Ones: Theme Tunes From the Movies

It seems remarkable that instrumental film themes that have made Number One in our singles chart can be counted on one hand. The last of these was 50 years ago this week, when Ennio Morricone's theme to The Good, the Bad and the Ugly topped the chart for four weeks

3rd December 2018

Happy Birthday, War Is Over

We now frame Birthday Number One records and sheet music going back as far as 1947, when the first regular weekly music chart was published in Melody Maker newspaper and broadcast to the United Kingdom on Radio Luxembourg

17th February 2018

Bend Your Elbow...

These pop themed beer mats tickled us, particularly the Kinks Preservation Ale and the David Bowie Double Diamond spoof.

29th October 2017

All Hail the U.S. Male?

By August 1977, the great teenage revolutionaries didn't mean a lot if you were a teenager. People's dads liked Elvis Presley; people's long-haired elder brothers liked the Beatles. Cliff Richard and the Stones were still chugging along. Old Elvis and Beatles songs briefly re-appeared in the Top 20 while their films were on television a lot of the time.

16th August 2017

Rod or God?

Forty years ago last Sunday, Rod Stewart kept the Number One spot in the UK charts for a fourth week with I Don’t Want to Talk About It / First Cut Is the Deepest.

8th June 2017

It Was (Insert Number Here) Years Ago Today

Thirty years ago, the big music news was created by a great big “old media” promotional push to mark the 20th anniversary of the release of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band by you-know-who.

20th May 2017

The KLF: Back Soon

Given its sheer quantity over more than 70 years, most chart pop music rarely stays in the popular memory for long, quickly going out of date never to come back into fashion. So it was for the KLF - alias the Timelords - who had two Number Ones and four

28th April 2017

The Abbas and the Papas

Abba were top of the charts 40 years ago while in April 1967 the Mamas and the Papas were No. 2 with what we would say is their finest moment - Dedicated to the One I Love. The similarities are delightful, although the Mamas rarely had success with the sweet gloom that Abba did so well.

10th April 2017

Pick the singles chart that suits you

If you don't like the way streaming has changed the look of the national Top 40 pop charts, then you can ignore it and choose a different one instead. Think you should still have to "buy a single" for it to count? Believe the charts should just be based on vinyl single sales like they used to be?

24th March 2017

You Never Can Tell

I'm not sure Chuck Berry was the poet/genius he's made out to be, but it's true pop music doesn't often get much better than this. Cue Mrs Mia Wallace...

Baby I'm Yours by Arctic Monkeys is among the most requested "first dance" wedding songs that we have framed as gifts. Here it is with the original Barbara Lewis track from 1965. Take your pick, pop pickers.

8th March 2017

One Swedish band covers another

One Swedish band covers another Swedish band with remarkable results. Our thumbs up to the splendid First Aid Kit, who are making a habit of producing sensational cover versions.

1st March 2017

Today is Doris Day

Doris Day is back in the news. This is Secret Love from the film Calamity Jane which was her first Number One in 1954. And we can frame it for you. It's a 10-inch 78 disc; the main format for recorded music in the 1950s before the advent of vinyl.

23rd February 2017

The best Number Ones ever?

We have been talking to the Official Charts Company about the finer details of how they compile the single charts last week. For light relief we made our list of the best 12 UK Number One songs ever.

30th January 2017