The Friday Canon: YOU DECIDE

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

In 2008 the canon polls shall be taking an extended break (almost certainly to be revived at a later date), and will be temporarily replaced by All New Top Secret Friday Orgafun Action! Calm yourselves - there are still 5 Fridays left in the year (not counting today), and we need to decide how best to fill them. Who would you like to see join these illustrious pop stars in the poptimists Hall Of Fame?

As there are five weeks to fill, you get five picks! However in a fit of generosity (and fear that I've missed someone obvious) you may nominate one further artist in the text box below - they must have had at least ten UK Top 40 Hits in some shape or form (you can check this here), e.g. Annie Lennox has only had 9 solo hits but combined with Eurythmics she has charted like a billion times, so both would need to be covered in the same poll.

It's gonna be tough but don't fret - the runners-up will almost certainly be revisited in the future. Artists with an asterisk by their name are still actively recording new material (as far as I know). Whether this affects your vote or not is up to you! Would you rather wait until Avril has a few more singles under her belt? Or does she demand immediate tickery?

[Poll #1093510]

Edit: Though the Spice Girls have not officially been subject to canon, they featured in an early Poptimist poll here. Feel free to go back and tick it!

Comments

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I went for artists who don't have very obvious winners...

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Good call on the trip-hop battle!

[boyofbadgers.livejournal.com]

Did Tricky have more than one hit?

[boyofbadgers.livejournal.com]

I just checked on Everyhit and the dude had EIGHT! Crikey!

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

He did release like six singles off Maxinquaye - I think we should do it off polyhex so we include the ones which didn't make the top 40 too...

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Polyhex?

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

<a href="http://www.polyhex.com/music/chartruns/chartruns.php>Polyhex</a>!

WVS, html

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Polyhex! (http://www.polyhex.com/music/chartruns/chartruns.php)

[datura800.livejournal.com]

I didn’t even know about this canon thing. Can’t believe the Spice Girls aren’t in it, or included in this!

Spice Girls explanation

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

We have done a poll on the Spicers, but it wasn't an official canon and I can't remember where it is :( They shall undoubtedly have their own Spice Mega-poll in the near future - hence their omission from this poll.

Re: Spice Girls explanation

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Hurrah I found it!

http://community.livejournal.com/poptimists/79237.html (http://community.livejournal.com/poptimists/79237.html)

[bengraham.livejournal.com]

Jebus, have we not done a Spice Girls plus solo material canon? This must be rectified.

Gwen Stefani vs No Doubt would be an interesting one. Would Poptimists go for the pop-punk of 'Don't Speak' / 'Hella Good', or the hip-pop of 'What You Waiting For' / 'Hollaback Girl'?

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

See above re: Spice Girls - we have done them, just not officially canon-wise.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Also they're likely to bung out another couple of new singles surely.

We should do a Spice solo one - I thought of this several times then got bored before I did it.

[martinv.livejournal.com]

REM are also actively recording new material.

What a boring comment.

Sorry.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

But useful!

[sbp.livejournal.com]

As is Annie Lennox - I mean, a #7 album in the last month or so has to count for something....

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

But singles is where it counts for this poll, and she hasn't charted in the top 40 since 1995...

[bengraham.livejournal.com]

But in that case, surely there's an argument for re-doing canons by artists who have subsequently released new material that has charted? The words 'Britney', 'Girls' and 'Aloud' spring to mind ;-)

[bengraham.livejournal.com]

"re-doing canons"? I think we need a verb.

"How did you spend your Friday afternoon?"
"Oh, canonifying the Simply Red back catalogue of course."

sabbaf!

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

you are all warpigs

Re: sabbaf!

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

DA DA DADADA
DADA DADA DADA DA DADADA

[MAKES HORNS, BANGS HEAD]

[giddyoldgoat.livejournal.com]

Beastie Boys but no Beach Boys?

[bengraham.livejournal.com]

Though the Spice Girls have not officially been subject to canon, they featured in an early Poptimist poll here. Feel free to go back and tick it!

Done! Friday afternoon is just whizzing by!

If my Carpenters suggestion doesn't find favour then...

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

15 Thin Lizzy hits + 3 Phil Lynott solo hits + 1 Gary Moore & Phil Lynott hit + 'Parisienne Walkways' = 20 = hurrah!

Re: If my Carpenters suggestion doesn't find favour then...

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

'Parisienne Walkways' b/w 'Fanatical Facists' ? <-- note korrekt sp!!

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Blimey the Manics are doing better than I thought they would!

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

They are quite a good canon band really- I nearly ticked them just because there's an interesting array of stuff re: 'massive hits' (ie: 'If you tolerate this,' which I actually like but 99.9% of the population seems to take offense to) vs 'songs which are still good' or whatever.

I probably ought to sleep before attempting to make such wild theorisings.

[miss-newham.livejournal.com]

I second the nominations for the Carpenters and Shakin' Stevens.

[justfanoe.livejournal.com]

Pointlessly late comments:

There should be more producer/songwriter canons. Something like Max Martin canon would be epic; Nile Rodgers, Neptunes, Barry Gibb, The Matrix, Shanks, stuff like that would be great. My guess is the only reason there hasn't been, e.g., a Max Martin canon is that there is no easy place to get info on all of his top 40 hits.

Justifications for my picks:

Beastie Boys - Lots of pretty much equally good stuff spread out over 15 years. No really great songs, but I suspect that paring down would be very difficult.

Bon Jovi - I suspect that they've had enough mediocre late period stuff that all of their big 80's hits can be ticked. Still, I'm curious to see which of "Living on a Prayer", "You Give Love a Bad Name" and "Wanted Dead or Alive" emerges victorious, and I'm curious to see if any of their late period material gets any support at all. Gives me an excuse to check out their more obscure 80s hits.

Fleetwood Mac - Would be very difficult if they have few enough top 40s that we actually have to pare down among the Fleetwood Mac/Rumours/Tusk hits. I suspect that's the case, but who knows. Would be interesting anyways. I hope that "Edge of Seventeen" counts here.

Stefani/No Doubt - Amazed this hasn't been done yet. Very interested to see how the No Doubt songs do vs. the Stefani songs and which No Doubt songs, if any, will generate significant support.

Sheryl Crow - Lots of equally good songs, for me paring down would be extremely difficult and fun. A selfish choice.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

My guess is the only reason there hasn't been, e.g., a Max Martin canon is that there is no easy place to get info on all of his top 40 hits.

This is exactly the reason! Also because recently the planning time for picking & typing out & finding pictures for weekly canons is usually between 12 and 12.30 on my Friday lunchtimes and even less if I have a meeting or something. Next year I hope to actually put some level of thought into the forthcoming Orgafun Extravaganza :)

Stefani/No Doubt - Amazed this hasn't been done yet.

Same reason we haven't done Xtina yet - I was giving priority to artists who weren't putting out new stuff in 2007. I'm still not sure if Gwen's going to release 'Early Winter' or not this year (she has a couple of weeks before it is 'Actual Winter' or 'Sick Of Winter Already'), obv that would be a good canon inclusion if we could get it. I was a big No Doubt fan circa Tragic Kingdom & would also like to give them all a good ticking :)