Alex B Cann column - Thursday 10th July 2025

I’m writing this whilst watching 30 Hits Of 1988 At The BBC on iPlayer, featuring some great songs from the likes of Danny Wilson and Erasure. 

It was probably the year when I first really got into pop music, even writing the weekly Nescafé Network Chart down in a notepad and making sure I never missed an episode on commercial radio, hosted by the legendary David ‘Kid’ Jensen. I confess part of the reason I enjoy doing the Retro Countdown on Tameside Radio is that it allows me to release my inner chart geek, plus unearth some lost classics... or not in some cases!

I sometimes hear people my age declaring they have no idea what’s in the charts now, and that they have no interest in discovering new music. When the Now That’s What I Call Music compilers release their latest volume every four months or so, the comments section on their social media page is full of folk declaring things are not as good as they used to be. I don’t agree.

From Chappell Roan to Sam Fender, Benson Boone to Harry Styles, there is tons of great stuff around. Admittedly, ‘90s nostalgia has never been bigger, with this weekend’s Oasis gigs in Heaton Park about to take place (bucket hat sellers have never had it so good!), but I like to keep one foot in the present day.

The Official Charts Company this week unveiled the biggest songs of 2025 so far, based on sales and streaming (admittedly, the latter takes the lion’s share of the figures these days). I thought we’d take a little look at the top ten...we have played them all on Tameside Radio!

10 - Chappell Roan Good Luck Babe. What a year it’s been so far for her! Hot To Go is on the trailer for the new Disney film Freakier Friday, starring Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan, and so far she’s had one UK number one single, plus a further four top ten songs.

9 - Billie Eilish Birds Of A Feather. She’s just opened her UK tour in Glasgow, and provided a song for the Barbie soundtrack a couple of years ago. A real unique musical talent, and a mere 23 years old. Kate Bush-esque vibes.

8 - Benson Boone Beautiful Things. The most played song on UK radio in 2024, and the man with the coolest ‘tache in the business. His tunes are rarely off the airwaves, and rightly so! This one is a heart-on-sleeve belter.

7 - Chrystal The Days. She’s a singer songwriter from Bolton, and wrote the first version of this track way back in 2015. Her family and friends persuaded her to upload it a decade later, and the rest is history!

6 - Lady Gaga & Bruno Mars Die With A Smile. This set a record on Spotify, becoming the fastest track to reach a billion streams, only taking 96 days to achieve this milestone. It became Gaga’s sixth American chart topper, and Bruno’s ninth. The video is shot in a retro country style, and this is a brilliantly catchy song. Gaga has called Mars “an incredible human being” and “a musician for the ages”. 

5 - Chappell Roan Pink Pony Club. Released at the start of lockdown, it didn’t make much of a ripple, but re-released under a new record deal, it’s become a monster hit.

4 - Gracie Abrams That’s So True. She wrote it with her best friend Audrey on a New York roof top in just 15 minutes. The radio edit is rather heavily edited, due to saucy lyrics!

3 - Rose & Bruno Mars Apt. Cameron Kennedy from Tameside Radio’s Drivetime show can’t stand this one, so I make sure it crops up on his playlist quite frequently. It’s pronounced “apateau”, Korean for ‘apartment’.

2 - Lola Young Messy. Lyrically honest, its profile was massively boosted by a viral TikTok clip, or so I’m told by young people who are on it.

1 - Alex Warren Ordinary. It’s been number one for a quarter of this year at least, and he was living in his car when he wrote this heartfelt ballad. I imagine that’s no longer the case. The longest running chart topper of the 2020s so far, surpassing Bad Habits by Ed Sheeran by a couple of weeks.

Just outside the top ten, songs by Gigi Perez, Teddy Swims and Sabrina Carpenter. There’s some fab stuff around, and it’s just a shame there’s nothing like Top Of The Pops now to collate it all for the next generation.