Although I would consider "Alice's Restaurant" a novelty song, it's one that has enjoyed some ongoing success as a folk tune. There were World Cup songs hogging the airwaves at the drop of a Mexican sombrero in 1970, a German tirolerhut in 1974 and an Argentinian gaucho hat in 1978. The song appeared on Cheech and Chong’s fourth comedy album, Cheech and Chong’s Wedding Album (1974) and later appeared in their first movie, Up in Smoke (1978).

I was also aware of Squeeze and the lyrics of Chris Difford who shares a love of the minutia and detail and rhyme. Strangely a cash-in single by Julie and Gordon sold moderately well, as did lapel badges bearing the legends “Gordon is a moron” and “Gordon is not a moron”. Lots of name-dropping within the tremendously-upbeat lyrics, the song also used Archie MacPherson’s TV commentary from the game Scotland qualified for the tournament. Fine, yes, a lot of it stems from the protagonist wanting to farm on the woman's land (not a euphemism this time), but there is some real warmth in there, like when he insists "you know I'll love you darlin'", or when he talks about how this mysterious lady smelled nice at the last "wurzel dance".The Streak, written by Ray Stevens was released in March 1974, the first single from his 16th album Boogity Boogity. It is regarded by both music scholars and Sinatra enthusiasts to be perhaps the worst song he ever recorded. In 1997, the Teletubbies who reached number one the previous week failed to gain it with their single " Say Eh-oh!

And later who could forget (try though we did) Benny Hill’s 1971 chart topping Ernie (The Fastest Milkman In the West) which at least was much better than 1961’s forgettable Gather In the Mushrooms. In fact, if you were in the right mood, the moment where the horns come in could be downright jubilant. Anyway, in this moment ‘The Simpsons’ was on the verge of becoming the biggest TV programme in the world. It was a perennial at my school discos, but I didn’t like it aged nine and haven’t chosen to hear it for the better part of thirty years. Largely instrumental (apart from the words “Mouldy Old Dough” and “Dirty Old Man” being growled occasionally) was written by Rob Woodward and Nigel Fletcher and recorded by Lieutenant Pigeon.

I notice that as part of the current ‘the nineties were the best decade ever’ movement, there are attempts to cast this as a ‘90s dance classic, up there with ‘Rhythm Is a Dancer’ and ‘Ebeneezer Goode’. Unfortunately, The Buggles failed to dent the Top 10 again and they split in 1982 shortly after their second album ‘Adventures in Modern Recording’ flopped. As with all novelty singles, I approach this next number one with trepidation, my finger hovering reluctantly over the play button.