Music: Near Misses 61-65

Failure list number 5 of 7...

Rio - Duran Duran: Very strong chorus but the verse sections don't have quite enough and the instrumental break/bridge isn't sufficiently interesting to carry it through to the top 40. Better than 'Hungry Like The Wolf' in my view though.

12 Days of Christmas - Bill Barclay: One of the funniest songs you'll ever hear - provided you can decipher the accent - a favourite but not as good as those above it musically, lyrically, emotionally or anything else-ally. Perfect for what it does, though.

Something Good - Bic Runga: Very personal choice - Bic Runga herself has done technically better songs - but will always take me back to working in the mandarin orchards of New Zealand, and that is a very happy place to be taken to.

Kingston Town - UB40: Overall not strong enough to break into the top 40 but will always be a favourite.

Obsession - Delirious: Guitar solo that builds and builds is the clear strongest point, although the lyrics and interesting bass-based verses are also very strong. Could easily have made the list but didn't seem to have the beating of others from 30-40 and missed out in the end.

Music: Near Misses 56-60

And on with the next set of songs that didn't have what it takes to crack the final 40...

Wolf Creek Pass - C.W. McCall: Just listen to the lyrics and how he puts it together with the music. Not one of the top 40 ever but perfect for what it sets out to achieve... "well I looked at Earl and his eyes was wide, his lip was curled and his leg was fried" or "Well the sign said clearance to the twelve-foot line, but the chickens were stacked to thirteen-nine". Genius.

Awake O Sleeper - Kelanie Gloeckler: More a personal choice having heard her perform it live back in 2002. Album versions - even live ones - don't capture the moment. (The version in this video is by Karren Wheaton rather than Kelanie, couldn't find a YouTube version of Kelanie singing it)

Hosanna - Kirk Franklin: Closest choir harmonies you might ever hear and a song to lift your spirit. Ending drags on too long, however.

Stairway to Heaven - Led Zepplin: A timeless classic - unquestionably - but somehow failed to age as well as others in my experience. I just don't ever listen to it any more.

Angels and Eskimos - Kate Moody: Not quite enough to break the top 40, but wonderful piano composition, both the slow sections at either end and the main theme. Almost enough to make me want to play the piano.

Music: Near Misses 51-55

Moving on with the next batch of failures...

Don't Dream It's Over - Crowded House: Can't think of any ways to improve this one, but you have to be ruthless and there really were fifty other songs ahead of it.

Tunnel of Love - Dire Straits: Especially the live version from Alchemy. The guitar solo - particularly at the end - sets it apart from Sultans of Swing which made the initial list but not the 75.

Anthem (Tarka) - Anthony Phillips: Why does nobody else know about this album? Aside from the slightly annoying 80s synth sound and the fact it's just a little too repetitive, this would have made the final list.

Porcelain - Moby: So much going on here musically. Love the piano being out of step with the main beat. Didn't have enough musical variety to get in ahead of 'Night Birds' and 'Piano in the Dark'.

Nimrod (Enigma Variations) - Elgar: No real clue how this one missed the cut. I think it may have missed out due to the fact that I don't know it well enough, every time I've heard it it seems packed with emotion and meaning. Maybe I need to listen to it again.

Music: Near Misses 46-50

Continuing the countdown of those that didn't quite make it...

I wish it could be christmas every day - Wizzard: Failed due to lyrical problem brought up by four-year-old Hannah: 'But the snowman DOESN'T bring snow, you make snowmen FROM snow'. Sorry, Roy Wood.

Voice of Truth - Casting Crowns: Inspirational song, not quite enough going on musically, although the lift into the chorus made it a very close run thing.

Flowers in the Rain - The Move: Still not quite sure how this failed to make the list, probably it was too short. Sorry again, Roy Wood.

Walking On Sunshine - Katrina and the Waves: one of most unrelentingly upbeat songs, didn't quite have enough to challenge The Eurythmics, the Bee Gees or Beethoven however.

Rocking All Over The World - Status Quo: See above. Still if you're feeling down, any of these will lift you remarkably quickly.

Music: Near Misses 41-45

As I mentioned several times in the Top 40 music, there were numerous songs and tunes that came close but didn't make the final list. Initially I put together a 'long list' of any song I could think of that was vaguely possible. From that I cut out some that I knew wouldn't make the final 40 and ended up with a 'Short List' of about 75. And from there it was a case of ranking them all, and simply cutting the line off after 40.

Meaning there are 35 other items that failed to make the final list, each with their own pros, cons and particular reasons for missing out. For the next few days I'll list these through quickly  - beginning with the ones that just missed out and ended up at numbers 41-45.

High Hopes - Pink Floyd: Just missed out due to plodding vocal section. Slide guitar solo immense and amazing, and frankly could go on another ten minutes without anyone minding.

Christmas Eve/Sarajevo - Trans-Siberian Orchestra: Driving, energetic, musically interesting, mildly let down by quieter section in the middle.

Cavatina - John Williams: Probably would have been in except for the fact the ending somehow seems forced to me. Maybe I'm totally wrong.

Gaudete - Steeleye Span: Lost its spot to 'Fairytale of New York' very late on when I realised there would probably only be room for one Christmas song.

Find the River - REM: Wonderful harmonies, particularly in the chorus. Just not quite gripping enough and lost out to 'Bad Day' and 'Let Mercy Lead'.

1: Walking in Memphis - Marc Cohn

And we reach number one with a song that has probably been at the top of my list since I first heard it as a pop chart hit in the summer of 1991. I remember very clearly listening to an obscure Top 40 station called "Atlantic 252" on Long Wave radio (and that is something that doesn't even exist in North America) and hearing this regular, happy piano-driven pop song that would stop halfway through, have a beat of silence after saying something about when you haven't got a prayer... pause... but boy you've got a prayer in Memphis.

Then I listened carefully, heard it was by a guy called Marc Cohn, bought the album and over the years after that his other albums (which are very few in number), got to really enjoy his music - a kind of rootsy bluesy singer-songwriter thing - and hear various live performances, both official and bootleg, courtesy mainly of his small but devoted fan-base. But always 'Memphis' was the central theme, the focus of every show, the strongest song in the set and the one that tied it together, always my favourite.

And finally, after twenty-four years, I got to see him perform live about three weeks ago.

In that Arkansas concert he told the story of the song, which I sort of half-knew, but suddenly hearing it made it all make a little more sense. Essentially autobiographical, he really did take a plane trip to Memphis in the mid-1980s, he really did walk from Union Avenue up to Graceland to look round the Jungle Room and all the Elvis stuff, he really did go to Al Green's church and be deeply moved by the music and atmosphere of the place, and the chorus is about him actually walking between all these places, the cadence and rhythm of the song designed to feel like a brisk walk.

And he really did meet Muriel Davis Wilkins, the old school teacher who would play three or four hour sets of old hymns at the Hollywood Café in Robinsonville (which is technically in Mississippi, not Tennessee) on Friday nights. She really did invite him on the stage to sing 'Amazing Grace' with her (since it was the only song they knew in common). And given the proximity of Little Rock, Arkansas where the concert took place to Memphis itself, he said "Did anyone here know Muriel?"

The lady in the row in front of us, four seats to the right, shouted and raised her hand. Cohn stopped for a moment, acknowledged the hand, and just paused, then said "she really was something, wasn't she?"

And suddenly, from being a song on an obscure AM radio station, here I was in a small room with the songwriter and an older lady who had personally known Muriel who played the piano, feeling like I was right at the heart of this song I'd loved for almost a quarter of a century. You can read more about the story of the song here - including Muriel's frankly prophetic message to him that he was now ready to go an be a songwriter, and his return visit to see her after writing what turned into most of his first album, all the way up to the sad fact of her passing away just weeks before the album's eventual release, which of course led to Cohn winning a Grammy Award in 1992.

But for that show, and for those few minutes, I felt like someone had just opened up a secret door and let me inside the inner workings of a seriously great piece of music. I need to point out: 'Memphis' would be at number one on my list with or without that Arkansas concert, but it opened up a brand new dimension of this song for me, even beyond hearing live recordings such as the one offered below where he tells the story in another way. That brief silence, that nodded acknowledgement between Marc Cohn and the lady in the row in front of us, was somehow a momentary glimpse back to the instant of the conception of this song and indeed Cohn's whole career. And that isn't something you see every day.

So there are two videos offered here - the one above the original video release for the single, the one below a section of a recent concert with the story - and I make no apologies for saying that this, more than ever, is the number one on my Top 40 At 40.

At least as far as music is concerned... there's more to come, of course...

2: Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1 - Elgar

Known in the UK as "Land of Hope and Glory" or "That one from the Proms" and known in the US as "The Graduation March" or (most memorably) "That thing they play sometimes", Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance is either the very height of overblown, pretentious bourgeois nonsense or the pinnacle of orchestral music accessible to everyone who hears it. I'd side with the latter.

The thing is, it IS accessible - not just to the Brits and the now somewhat-embarrassing chorus about setting the national bounds wider still and wider- but to everyone who hears it in the background, at a graduation ceremony, at a marching band event, at a sports meet - it ingrains itself into your mind and once it's there, it's there for life. It means triumph, it means completion, it means all the things we as humans need to express in a way that we can share with everyone. It's truly accessible and carries you with it, whoever you are, whatever the circumstance, and is FOR everyone, not just the Brits. Not that I'm attempting to speak for Elgar, but now that it's out of copyright it does truly belong to everyone and, as with all the best tunes (see Ode to Joy at number 4 or the Wild Theme at number 5) the melody itself, unaccompanied, is enough to show its strength. With full orchestra and choir it's even better.

To me this is pretty much music at its finest, not just performed for us by the orchestra, but including us in it, as the Proms and all those American graduation ceremonies show.