Check out my updated top 250 of 1983 on the Beyond Radio 250 page. The Struts are dominating the top of my current chart.

Check out my updated top 250 of 1983 on the Beyond Radio 250 page. The Struts are dominating the top of my current chart.

It has been quite some time since I updated anything on the site. The Beyond Radio 250 has been suspended as I just do not have the time to process the information. My focus has gone to other things. The podcast and having fun looking back at past years and re-assessing the music from those years. I've been working on early '74, '84, '94 and so on. I have uploaded my new version of the top 200 of 1973 on the Beyond Radio 250 page. Elton John, The Partridge Family and Godspell dominate the chart. I will periodically upload other charts there as well.

 

I also have posted my current personal chart for the first time since last May! In a nostalgic turn Billy Joel's latest has struck a nerve with me.

In addition, I've posted 2 new episodes of the podcast over the last couple of weeks. The focus of these episodes involves my assessment of music from '73, '83' and '93.

If you know where that lyric is from, I love you!

This episode starts with another artist that we talk about their evolution. This band went on to be one of the premiere alt/dance acts of the last 40 years.

The transition to the next song was a jarring one for Jeff (of course that was on purpose) and he didn't get the connection between the songs :( but that is OK. This song is a very important song in my history and absoutely stunning in its execution. And of course it led to a revelation I wasn't expecting.

Hilarity ensues with the next transition and this song has inadvertently become the pinnacle of my love for pop/rock.

From there 3 songs from 1973 round out the episode bringing joy and a beat.

 

I am dedicating this episode to my high school classmate Thomas Campbell who recently passed away. He was a huge music enthusiast and musician plus an occasional listener to the podcast who has corrected me on occasion (which I appreciated). We were not close in high school though if we had been my music knowledge and diversity would probably have come sooner than it did. I also think he would have appreciated this particular episode as it features artists from the '70s and '80s who were on the cutting edge of music that I imagine he followed at the time.

The conversation in this episode builds off my annual look back at previous years. I had been re-evaluating music from the years 1973, 1983, and 1993 during 2023 and the first 2 episodes of Castlist 12 feature songs from those years. In this episode the songs chosen are the catalyst to a discussion of how artists evolve over time. The 4 primary songs of this episode are "The Paris Match" by The Style Council, "Strange Town" by The Jam, "Rising' by Midge Ure and "Hoover Dam" by Sugar. Maybe all are new to you but they are all important to me.

There's a lot of history in this episode. Influences range from Jazz to Glam Rock, Punk to Soul, 60's Brit Pop to Sythn Pop to Grunge.

Which song sounds like a movie montage to Jeff? What is a Glass Pinecone? How to do ruin a song with an updated version? (IMO). How did we land on The Daily Show at the end of the episode?

The opening song is the latest track from Sheryl Crow, the song "Evolution", a solid offering and preview to her upcoming twelfth studio album, coming out at the end of March.

 

And if you missed Part 3 of the "What I Did Last Summer" trilogy here it is.

Wow this episode has a lot of stuff going on in it. We first explore the world of the song of the summer and an emerging trend associated with it. It is certainly adding an interesting wrinkle to the Pop universe. A viral video becomes part of that conversation, as does a wee bit of political commentary.

Next up, an artist up for Best New Artist at next year's Grammys who has been plugging away for over 2 decades. I then offer up contenders for my song of the summer and Jeff is really digging the winner.

From there it's the "IT" guy of the summer based on my Uber experiences, and one who Jeff's daughter Eva was in on at (or near) the beginning.

The real fun starts with 3 consecutive days and 3 chance meetings in my life as an Uber driver. Meeting 2 was not nearly as impactful as 1 and 3 but fits into an artsy pattern. It all leads to a 70's music scene that started in northern England and an unexpected concert. The Grammys come up again and there is an appearance by Santa (well not really) and a tornado (really).

 

This episode is nostalgia-centric though it does stem from a fun summer story. There are lots of movie and television references in the episode as well.

From the title, the Maureen McGovern song The Morning After leads us down a movie path and towards one of my favorite shows of all-time. Plus a group with a cheesy '70s instrumental has ties to the early days of hip hop.

We move to the Carpenters where more TV is discussed and we end with my sister on stage at the Garden State Arts Center.

After that, we return to a major fav artist of mine and re-visit the idea of song bridges where connections between The Knack, The Flaming Lips, The The, and Prince are made.

You can find the corresponding playlist on Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube.

Email me at tim@beyondradio.com with comments

This is the first of 3 episodes focusing on a few music-oriented stories from this past summer. The first episode talks about things from my 40th annual music party (the Castlist 002 episodes from the fall of 2018 talk about the #1's at the parties). It was a great party, the weather cooperated and there were a few key moments that I talked about in the episode. Here I am posting the top 50 songs from the party game and the top 50 artists of the last 40 years.

We mentioned and/or used 43 songs in this episode. And I brought up the Peanuts cartoon and the TV Kids Incorporated.

The top 50 for the party game.

1 PINK Never Gonna Not Dance Again 2 KELLY CLARKSON Happier Than Ever 3 HARRY STYLES Music For A Sushi Restaurant 4 SAM SMITH & KIM PETRAS Unholy 5 PINK Trustfall 6 LIZZO About Damn Time 7 MILEY CYRUS Flowers 8 MANESKIN The Loneliest 9 HARRY STYLES As It Was 10 HARRY STYLES Late Night Talking 11 GHOST Jesus He Knows Me 11 THE WOMBATS This Car Drives All By Itself 13 MAMMOTH WVH Mr. Ed 14 JVKE Golden Hour 15 TAYLOR SWIFT Anti-Hero 16 SHINEDOWN A Symptom Of Being Human 17 GUSTER Emily Ivory 18 LEWIS CAPALDI Forget Me 19 PALAYE ROYALE f/ LP Line It Up 20 CARLY RAE JEPSEN Beach House 21 KEITH URBAN Brown Eyes Baby 22 PANIC! AT THE DISCO Don't Let The Light Go Out 23 GHOST Spillways 24 KELLY CLARKSON Mine 25 DOLLY PARTON World On Fire 26 LUKE COMBS The Kind Of Love We Make 27 KATE BUSH Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) 28 ELTON JOHN & BRITNEY SPEARS Hold Me Closer 29 ED SHEERAN Eyes Closed 30 SZA Kill Bill 31 LIZZO f/ SZA Special 32 WE ARE SCIENTISTS Handshake Agreement 33 JESSIE WARE Free Yourself 34 MAMMOTH WVH Epiphany 35 SON MIEUX Multicolor 36 WE ARE SCIENTISTS Turn It Up 37 DOJA CAT Vegas 38 DNCE Move 39 BEYONCE Summer Renaissance 40 IMAGINE DRAGONS Bones 41 FALL OUT BOY Love From The Other Side 42 BEYONCE Break My Soul 43 LIVE Operation Spirit 44 MANESKIN Gossip 45 BEYONCE Cuff It 46 RUFUS DU SOL On My Knees 47 TEGAN & SARA Smoking Weed Alone 48 ARCADE FIRE Unconditional (Lookout Kid) 49 COIN Brad Pitt 50 CARLY RAE JEPSEN Talking To Yourself

Top Music Party Artists 1983-2023

pos/# of songs/Points 1. 27 1421.4 MADONNA 2. 25 1342.4 U2 3. 26 1292.5 PINK 4. 16 958.5 LADY GAGA 5. 19 830 KELLY CLARKSON 6. 19 818.9 BRUNO MARS 7. 14 738.2 DUA LIPA 8. 13 716.9 ELTON JOHN 9. 11 690.4 ADELE 10. 13 619.8 R.E.M./MICHAEL STIPE 11. 18 617.6 EURYTHMICS/ANNIE LENNOX 12. 11 576.6 INXS 13. 12 546.4 MATCHBOX 20/ROB THOMAS 14. 10 544 JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE/N-SYNC 15. 8 542.5 ED SHEERAN 16. 11 540.6 CHRISTINA AGUILERA 17. 12 525.2 KYLIE MINOGUE 18. 8 524.3 ALANIS MORRISSETTE 19. 15 523.9 BEYONCE/DESTINY'S CHILD 20. 13 522.9 BRITNEY SPEARS 21. 9 502.4 HARRY STYLES/ONE DIRECTION 22. 10 492.4 THE KILLERS 23. 11 474.5 MAROON 5/ADAM LEVINE 24. 9 459.9 CELINE DION 25. 10 454.2 BACKSTREET BOYS 26. 11 451.2 GEORGE MICHAEL 27. 9 439.8 BLACK EYED PEAS/FERGIE 28. 9 422.4 IMAGINE DRAGONS 29. 10 419.1 SHINEDOWN 30. 11 415.9 FOO FIGHTERS 31. 8 413.3 SAM SMITH 32. 9 411.2 ARIANA GRANDE 33. 8 407.7 KEANE 34. 11 404.8 RIHANNA 35. 11 398.3 JANET JACKSON 36. 9 375.2 BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN 37. 9 368.3 PRINCE 38. 9 361.7 TAYLOR SWIFT 39. 10 361.6 MARIAH CAREY 40. 6 358 LINKIN PARK 41. 10 356.7 KATY PERRY 42. 9 353.5 STING/THE POLICE 43. 8 352 COLDPLAY 44. 8 350.9 THE WEEKND 45. 7 345.8 DAVID BOWIE 46. 6 344.4 LIZZO 47. 8 342.6 JONAS BROTHERS/DNCE/NICK JONAS 48. 5 336.3 MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE 49. 7 336.2 RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS 50. 5 330.3 TRAIN

Three recent episodes, the first is an update of an episode from April 2020 featuring Guuster and some of my all-time favorite songs. I'm going to see Guster tomorrow evening with the Boston Pops Orchestra.

As the title suggests we start to explore the bridges in songs and this leads to a '70s band popping up again, a ghost singer (?), a '90s music magazine trend, and 2 of my favorite albums of all-time. I test Jeff's memory (some things click, others don't) and we end with an intense vocalist whose legacy is tragic on more than one level. Oh and a guest appearance by a couple of members of Manic Bloom.

This is the full conversation with the members of Manic Bloom about "Army".

You can get the direct downloads of the episodes at the link above or find the episodes on Spotify.

The Party #13’s starts with the iconic “Safety Dance” from Men Without Hats. It was written by the lead singer in response to being kicked out of a club for pogo dancing, a form of dancing that was becoming popular with new wavers. The following year “Owner Of A Lonely Heart” by Yes landed at #13 and was their only Hot 100 #1 song. 1985 saw another Hot 100 #1, “Broken Wings” by Mr. Mister take the unlucky number.

In the ‘90s the ladies dominated the #13 position. Bonnie Raitt’s Something To Talk About” in 1991. The fabulous “Sleeping Satellite” by Tasmin Archer in 1994 followed by Sheryl Crow’s debut hit “All I Wanna Do” in ’94, and then by Natalie Merchant’s solo debut “Carnival in ’95. The unbroken heart of Toni Braxton was at the position in 1996 and the end of the decade saw back-to-back Madonna songs, “The Power Of Goodbye” and “Beautiful Stranger” in 98/99. Overall I really lost interest in her as the decade progressed.

In 2003 the Russian duo T.A.T.U. scored with “All The Things She Said”, their only hit in the States. In 2005 it was “Take Me Out” by Scottish band Franz Ferdinand. A #3 UK and alternative hit, it was chosen as the #1 song of the year on the Village Voice’s Pazz and Jop poll and also on the Australian influential alt station Triple J. The Welsh singer Duffy came in at 13 in 2009 with the very Amy Winehouse-ish “Mercy”.

Shinedown’s “If You Only Knew” is one of 4 songs that made the party top 50 from the album “The Sound of Madness”. This one was a pop and rock hit and still sounds great. The other entries from the album were “Sound of Madness (#26), “The Crown and The Butterfly (#20 and talked about on the next episode of the Beyond Radio presents podcast), and their biggest pop hit “Second Chance (#4).

More rock showed up at #13 in 2012 (“Gold On The Ceiling” by the Black Keys), Fall Out Boy’s “Centuries” in 2015, the cover of the Cranberries “Zombie” by Bad Wolves in 2018, and the unlikely combo of Ed Sheeran, Chris Stapleton, and Bruno Mars on the blistering “Blow” in 2020. If you haven’t heard that one, I highly recommend.

The first #17 was one of my sister's favorites of 1983 (possibly her #1), Adam Ant's "Goody Two Shoes". His debut solo single, it only reached #12 on the Hot 100 but I think it would have possibly made the top if MTV airplay was included in that chart.

I was listening to the playlist the other day in Uber when this next song came on. My passenger was so excited to be hearing a Backstreet Boys song (her favorite artist). We had a lively discussion about music and she shared that she has had a number of bad Uber rides and it became a thing she often shared with her friends and co-workers. She said this was her best Uber ride ever and a positive way to start the day. I love when those things happen. Other than my connection to music and the joy that the podcast brings me, Uber is the most gratifying job I have ever had. One-on-one connections that lift the spirit.

Imagine Dragons had back-to-back #17's and Pink had 2 with Bandi Carlile's "The Joke" separating them.

My least favorite #17 came in 2021 and perhaps is in my top 5 worst songs of all-time is "WAP" by Cardi B & Megan Thee Stallion. Nuff said about that. It sits between 2 cool entries, Lizzo's "Boys" in 2020 (and should have been a hit) and last year's "How Not To Drown" by Chvrches & Robert Smith of the Cure. This is by far my favorite Chvrches song, spending 2 weeks at #1 on my weekly chart and a welcome return to the airwaves for Smith.

The most interesting song to grace the #17's is Just Jack's "Starz In Their Eyes" in 2008. It was a #2 hit in the UK in 2007. It only reached #63 on my weekly chart and I know it clicked with a small circle of participants.

Just listened to the "Music Party #19's" playlist. Starts with "Synchronicity II" by The Police and features some big songs like "I Will Always Love You", "One Sweet Day", and "Hey Ya".

But my 2 favorites are from back-to-back years 2001 and 2002. In 2001 "Rockin' The Suburbs" by Ben Folds is a tongue-in-cheek parody of angsty young rock artists "y'all don't know what it's like, being male, middle-class and white". And the album is one of my all-time favorites. In 2002 it was Raul Malo's Spanish-influenced "I Said I Love You" which clicked with our inner circle. From another superior album, "Today".

Another highlight is "Breathe Me" by Sia which was featured in the closing sequence of the series "Six Feet Under", a brilliant piece of art.

This was the most gorgeous conversation with one of my favorite bands. If you haven't listened to the 2 part episode featuring the band ( episodes 5 and 6 of Castlist 009) this is a great introduction. It is a wonderful music therapy session filled with talk of the struggles bands go through, the triumph of brotherhood, and how spirituality and humanity bond us together. A truly special Moment and perfect for release when Easter, Passover, and Ramadan intersect. And it won't be the last time you hear from the band.

 

In these episodes an overarching theme about searching for a higher plane/higher power became an unexpected narrative. The conversation revolves around one of my favorite little-known bands and connections are made to Queen, Live, Muse, U2 and Radiohead.

We start with a brand-new song from the lead singer of a long running Adult Alternative leaning band and segueing to a huge '90s song from a one-hit wonder. That band becomes the catalyst for the narrative, and it goes to wonderful places.

The central figure band deserves to be heard by the masses. Hailing from Nashville, a music city where anything goes, they describe themselves, Epic Melodic Rock. I hope you'll listen, give feedback, and delve deeper into their music.

The next episode after these 2 will be an interview with the band, which will lead to a new podcast project in the Beyond Radio presents universe.

This is a long episode but has 3 sections so easy to take a break between sections. The first section is a followup to our Hopeful Boy Pop episode where we re-visit previous artists and songs discussed while bringing in some new stuff as well. Through it we stumble upon a new trend, the sped up or slowed down versions of songs.

 

Section 2 highlights a number of songs from 1972 that have had greater impact on me now, 50 years later. This is part of a yearly project that I prompted myself to do a bit after the podcast started in 2018. This leads into a look at, IMO, some of the worst songs of the '70s and a couple of bands from the era that I want to dive deeper into.

 

Section 3 jumps to 1992, which saw a mix up in my top 6 songs of the year, with the new #1 of 1992 now possibly in my top 10 of all-time.

   

The Beyond Radio 250 comes back this week but in an entirely different form. It is currently my weekly personal chart. It may morph into somewhat of a mix with some other factors. I had stopped compiling the chart back in December 2021 as it was just too time consuming to process even monthly. My focus for a long time now has been the podcast, which is the true joy of my music life. It is a unique bridge between music nostalgia and music discovery and a great vehicle for learning background information and connections of artists from the past, while connecting them to current music. It has also led to the discovery of more music from the past for me. All the songs that Jeff and I discuss can be found on the Spotify playlists that correspond to each season of the podcast (lovingly called the Pod-Castlist). Here are the playlists for the current season and my personal chart, which I update every 2 months.

 

If you Follow me on Spotify you will also find playlists associated with my annual music party, the 40th annual will be held this June. I am making playlists for each chart position in the top 50 of the year. A chronological playlist starting with the songs of 1983. I have completed the playlists for positions 31-50 and playlists for positions 21-30 will appear during March. In Spotify type beyondradio (as one word) in the search box, click on profiles and you'll see my face and name (Tim Harris). Or go directly to it here: https://open.spotify.com/user/beyondradio?si=ce9ccfc845914f32Or

 

You can follow all the podcasts on Spotify and you can also access them through the podcast tab above. In this episode, I compare 2 versions of the same song, one that did not excite me and the other spent 8 weeks atop my personal chart. With that 2 month stay at the top in mind, I talk about potential #1 contenders, songs that missed the mark because of it, and some of its predecessors this year.

 

This has happened in the past with the song "Meet On The Ledge" by Fairport Convention. I was no fan of that song, easily on a hated list but when Counting Crows covered it, the song spent 4 weeks at #1 on my personal chart.

The original #49 was ironically the song that topped the 1982 list that was compiled for this past summer’s party.”1999” by Prince was released in September 82 and peaked at #44 on the Hot 100 but saw the bulk of its success in 1983 after “Little Red Corvette” became a top 5 hit in the spring.

 

 

Over the course of the parties the 49’s saw food (Edamame, candy and cherries), along with “Something In Your Mouth” and “Something Just Like This”. There were also songs about sunshine, lightning and the night.

 

In back-to-back years (2015-16) there was “Same Damn Life” and Déjà Vu”. In 20011 & 2012 “S&M” led to a “Good Feeling” (oh there are Pornographers in the mix too, well new ones). 2 remakes of 70’s tunes also made the grade in 2001 and 2003.

 

In 2017 Chris Cornell pondered “Our Time In The Universe” from the 2015 album “Higher Truth”, the same year he left our planet. In 2006 the title tune from the movie version of “Rent” showed up on the list. Its creator Jonathan Larson lost his life the day of the first Off-Broadway preview of the musical in 1996. The 2021 film “Tick Tick…Boom” was based on events in Larson’s life as a struggling composer and playwright. Andrew Garfield won a Golden Globe for his portrayal of Larson.

 

By far my favorite song at #49 through the years is the Jellyfish tune “Joining A Fan Club” from the 1993 album “Spilt Milk”. This song was a favorite among our circle of friends at the time and is an important part of our personal soundtrack and probably in my top 100 songs of all time. It is an epic, satirical look at Fanclub-dom, from the traditional

(“Joining a fan club with my friends Filling our bathtubs with T-shirts and 8 x 10's.”)

to the holy

(“Mom's writing checks to the minister in the corner singing "dig down deep" Cause if you wanna go to heaven all you gotta do is pay to pray.”)

This is Power-Pop at its finest. The instrumental bridge from 2:08 to 3:08 is blistering yet melodic with many layers. The short-lived band (only 2 early ‘90s albums) certainly maintains a cult following and a few of the members are now the Lickerish Quartet. In the past 2 years they have released 3 EP’s (Threesome Vol.1, 2, and 3) and have reached my top 10 4 times with 2 #1’s.

   

Before the beyondradio.com website debuted in 1995 I had a newsletter called Musicscape. In it I compiled a chart based on friends doing their own weekly personal chart along with information on new releases. It was a small group of people and it started before I discovered hundreds of people on the internet who posted their own personal charts. During the life of the newsletter (mid-1993 to early spring 1994) “Joining A Fan Club” reached #11 and spent over half a year on the chart. I still have some of the newsletters I produced and looking back it seems so quaint. This was still a time when personal computers were a relatively new thing, and I was still putting the countdown for the party on cassette tapes. I still have most of those as well. Oh, the olden days.

   

Speaking of the olden days, this time of year has me reflecting on past decades and assessing how I feel about the music in current day. This year I look back at 1972, 82, etc. The new1972 list saw some major differences from the past. I did not do a personal chart in 1972. It was 1974 when I commenced my weekly list. Going back a little over 20 years ago I compiled my first top 25 of 72 but clearly, I did not give it a lot of thought.

 

The current top 25 is completely reflective of how I feel about these songs now. “Conquistador” has always been a potent entry for me but “American Pie” took a big dip, going from #1 to #21. The biggest drop was “Layla” which fell from #16 to #122. “Conquistador” transports me right back to my 11-year-old self and was an early indicator of my love for a rock/orchestra mix. The Electric Light Orchestra was a favorite band of the late ‘70s and show up for the first time here at #11 with “10538 Overture”.

 

 

The big winners in my top 250 of 1972 were the Partridge Family (23 entries-4 in the top 25) and Elton John (12 entries-2 in the top 25). It was an absolute pleasure to re-discover “Never Been To Spain” by Three Dog Night. I feel like I’ve listened to this song like it’s a new one this year, though I have vivid memories of this from childhood. A great build on this song, it’s my favorite by the band now. They were a solid band for me in the early ‘70s.

 

 

Unfortunately, The Honey Cone’s “One Monkey Don’t Stop No Show” is not available on Spotify. The Motown-esque girl group is best known for their #1 song “Want Ads” from 1971. This single reached #15 on the Hot 100. It was a bright spot in R&B at time as so much of that genre had a heaviness over it. Even many of the love songs had a gloom over them (i.e. Al Green, “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face”-one of the creepiest songs I know).

 

 

The Carpenters manage 3 songs in the top 25, one of those being the album cut “Road Ode” (#25), a great song showing the dynamic between quiet verses and lush and expansive chorus. A song I had completely forgotten about shows up at #13. Chi Coltrane’s “Thunder And Lightning”, a rollicking blues-pop jam. The song hit #17 on the Hot 100 and according to Wikipedia it was a #1 record in New York City. That makes sense since I grew up in North Jersey. I can see how this song would lead to my appreciation of Bonnie Raitt. Sadly Coltrane ended up as a one-hit-wonder.

 

 

 

 

2        1        PROCOL HARUM        Conquistador

x        2        THREE DOG NIGHT    Never Been To Spain

8        3        THE HONEY CONE     One Monkey Don't Stop No Show

x        4        PARTRIDGE FAMILY If You Ever Go

x        5        THE OSMONDS  Down By The Lazy River

x        6        PARTRIDGE FAMILY Maybe Someday

x        7        BOZ SCAGGS     Dinah Flo

12      8        RASPBERRIES    Go All The Way

13      9        THE CARPENTERS     Goodbye To Love

10      10      CLIMAX    Precious And Few

x        11      ELECTRIC LIGHT ORCHESTRA  10538 Overture

6        12      BEE GEES Run To Me

x        13      CHI COLTRANE Thunder And Lightning

x        14      PARTRIDGE FAMILY Last Night

11      15      THE CARPENTERS     Hurting Each Other

14      16      ELTON JOHN     Tiny Dancer

x        17      PARTRIDGE FAMILY Love Must Be The Answer

22      18      THREE DOG NIGHT    Black & White

5        19      AMERICA  I Need You

24      20      ELTON JOHN     Rocket Man (I Think It's Gonna Be A Long, Long Time)

1        21      DON MCLEAN    American Pie

x        22      JOHN LENNON  Happy Xmas (The War Is Over)

x        23      DANIEL BOONE Beautiful Sunday

20      24      NILSSON   Without You

x        25      THE CARPENTERS     Road Ode

This coming June with be my 40th annual music party. We go in-depth about the music party on the 5 episodes from Castlist 002 of the Beyond Radio Presents podcast. For those not in the know, the first party was in January 1984 and counted down the top 125 of the year based on a group of my friends' top 50's of 1983 (David Bowie's "Modern Love" was the first #1). By the mid-90's the party had morphed into a summer party and soon became a weekend event and really an annual reunion of friends and family. I did not know when I had the initial idea that it would go on for this long but I am blessed that it has. 

My life has been one immersed in music, starting with The Partridge Family (the bulk of episodes from Castlist 001 relate PFam songs to some of the genres that I have gravitated towards), leading into my weekly personal chart, the music party, and then this website. During the first 20 years of the website it was mainly focused on the charts I compiled from personal charts from across the globe. All of these things fueled my insatiable search for new music.

Once I started the podcast in 2018 that has become my main focus and it has been a true joy to produce. The premise of the podcast, where music nostalgia and music discovery collide, made me look backward as well as forwards. What a gift it is to sift through my history with music and create a way for people to discover music through my lens (and of course my podcast partner Jeff Morris' as well). It was his suggestion that I do a podcast so the gift really came from him.

The 40th annual music party is scheduled for June 24, 2023. In leading up to that I decided to make a series of playlists that feature the songs that attained each position in the top 50 each year. The first playlist is all the #50's from the last 39 years. The playlists won't always have 39 songs as some songs ended up performing better the following year they hit a certain position.

The songs are in chronological order and are a mix of well-known and obscure songs. Typically the participation of submissions would be anywhere from 20 to 50 people so in the years where there were fewer it was easier for songs that were not big hits to reach the top 50. This past summer there was substantially less participation which allowed "Coconuts" by Kim Petras reach #4 and the remake of Reba McEntire's "Does He Love Me" with Dolly Parton come in at #6. I personally love the eclectic mix that the party countdown provides.

The first #50 was the Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Have You Seen The Rain" as done by Bonnie Tyler (maybe a travesty to some but it turned the song into a grandiose upbeat anthem). The signature production by Jim Steinman is evident. Ironically Steinman's muse Meat Loaf showed up at #50 11 years later  with "I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That)". In 2020 the song "Die To Live" by the Danish metal band Volbeat was #50 and with it's mix of metal and boogie-woogie horns it is very reminiscent of Meat Loaf's addition to the Rocky Horror movie "Hot Patootie-Bless My Soul". We discussed this in an episode of the podcast but with 65 episodes I'm not sure which one (we've easily discussed over 1000 songs thus far).

To show the diversity of the countdown, #50 in the last 4 years has been by Barbra Streisand, Volbeat, Blake Shelton, and Jack White. Shelton shows up another time with a largely overlooked duet that went to #4 in Iceland in 2013. There's also a punk band with a transgender lead singer, a poignant song about a father and son by a British singer-songwriter, a Canadian 2-hit wonder from 1993, and a lip-syncing duo.

Oh My! I've updated my personal chart on the right. It's the first time since February. I will be making a concerted effort add more content here.

Below are the 2 latest episodes of the podcast and some current playlists I have. At the end of the year I look back 10, 20 years etc. and reassess my favorites. I have 2 of those playlists ready, 1972 and 1992. I will be posting my year end chart and playlist soon, along with the 1982, 2002 and 2012 playlists. You can follow me on Spotify by typing beyondradio in the search box and going down to profiles. You'll see Tim Harris, that's me.

Episode 1 - Super Quirky Cordiale

Artists discussed:

Superorganism

Ghost

The Go! Team

10cc

Lime Cordiale

Icehouse

Blood Cultures

Henry Gross

Bright Light Bright Light

 

Episode 2 - New For Jeff 2022

Artists discussed:

Editors

Echo and the Bunnymen

Kraftwerk

Cabaret Voltaire

Nimmo

Rui Da Silva

LCD Soundsystem

July Talk

Nine Inch Nails

 

The latest Beyond Radio Presents episode is available for your listening pleasure.

In this episode, we look back at my 39th Annual Music Party that happened at the end of June. It had been a long time since Jeff & his wife Jen were both at the party. We look back at the best songs of 21/22 and 1982 according to the participants. They did choose songs for the 1982 list but not the current year so I let Jeff know how the songs I know he liked from the past year might have affected the outcome if he submitted a list.

We end the episode with a fun band that Jeff and Jen were going to see live. In the end that band figures in nicely with the time of year.

EP 10 - HOPEFUL BOY POP

This was such a fun episode. It was supposed to be the beginning of an episode that recaps this summer's music party but it became an entity unto itself.

I present a number of songs that have impacted Pop radio in the States in recent months to Jeff, exploring a trend that I am seeing develop. Inadvertently, as is often the case, I am led to an artist that I did not know would fit the narrative, and in the end, I interview him and his production partner; the first artist interview since beginning the podcast in 2018.

There is a magical moment that happens with his music, perhaps one of my favorite moments ever (certainly in the top 10). Snippets of the interview are included and the full interview is its own episode.

Towards the end of the episode, I bring up an episode of Switched On Pop (a great podcast) and explore a number of spoken word songs over music. Jeff's comments often can lead to the opening or closing song to the episode and this time both.

Opening Song - "Empty Nesters" by Toro Y Moi

Closing Song - "Find My Way" by Gabe Dixon

On Spotify Through the website

EP 11 - Daniel Blair Interview

This episode is the full interview I had with Daniel Blair and his production partner Jackson Harbour. We had a blast.

On Spotify Through the Website