My Top Ten?

I've just been clearing out some old emails and came across this and thought I'd post it here so I could safely delete the email. Last year I sent this to SFR supremo & all-round top bloke Barnsley Sime for the regular 'listener's top ten' feature on his 4-hour Sunday Social radio show. If you haven't listened to Sime on a Sunday night then you need your legs slapped, always a cracking show and infinitely better than Downton-Sodding-Abbey or whatever other turgid pap is spewed from the telly-box on Sunday evenings at the moment. 

I said in my email to Sime that my top ten changes by the day, if not by the hour, and that's still true today. Looking back at this list, though, it's still pretty representative of my taste I suppose. I agonised for hours over this list; it seems almost sacrilegious not to have Otis Redding or Bob Marley in there, to name but two. If I was picking a top ten of what I'm listening to a lot at the moment the list would include oldies from Ernest Ranglin & Alton Ellis plus current bands like The Cundeez, Bombskare, The Simmertones, The Begbies, The Girobabies... Only time will tell whether these newer bands would be in my top ten list in, say, 10 years time; I rather suspect a couple of them will but times and tastes can change. I may even find myself re-discovering Shakin' Stevens & Showaddywaddy in ten years time, digging their LP's out of the loft and the music I'm listening to now might sit gathering dust in the under-stair cupboard.

Having said that, I don't think anything will ever topple the tracks that hold the top three places in this list, but that's enough waffle and conjecture: here's the list.
In true awards-show reverse-order style, with the comment I put with each track in my original email:

10: Madness - Mrs Hutchinson (sums up my favourite band - fun, bouncy, clever lyrics)

9: Johnny Cash - Hurt (well I am a depressive!)

8: X-Ray Spex - Oh Bondage! Up Yours! (just for the pure energy)

7: Orient Expressions - Istanbul 1:26am (almost moved to Istanbul years ago, often wish I had done. saw this band live in Istanbul - brilliant)

6: Jimmy Cliff - Many Rivers To Cross (no explanation needed)

5: Stevie Wonder - Fingertips (just pure genius)

4: The Showmen - Our Love Will Grow (an all-time fave Northern Soul track)

3: Blondie - 11:59 (Clem Burke's drumming is sublime, drives the track along)

2: Prince Buster - Time Longer Than Rope (off I Feel The Spirit - not the one off Golden Oldies. very special for personal reasons as well as being a cracking tune)

1: Phil Coulter & his Orchestra - Good Thing Going (found years ago on a Northern Soul compilation & loved it ever since)