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Birthday Show Charts

For seven years, the Friday Rock Show had a Birthday Show in which Tommy Vance presented the all time top rock songs, as voted on by the audience.

Background

As the first Friday Rock Show was broadcast on 17th November, 1978, the first Birthday Show was broadcast on the closest Friday to a year later on 16th November, 1979 and was branded "Now We are One". In each year, Tommy broadcast the top ten, but clearly had a larger list that he didn't detail.

This birthday show continued for seven years but was discounted after the 1985 show.

On the 12th anniversary, the show collated a top forty and Tommy broadcast the top twenty. While each year's top ten was relatively consistent, the top twenty, coming five further years on, was notably different.

However, Led Zeppelin's Stairway to Heaven was always number one. Other mainstays were Lynyrd Skynyrd's Free Bird and Rainbow's Stargazer.

The Charts

1979

  1. Led Zeppelin - Stairway to Heaven
  2. Deep Purple - Child in Time
  3. Lynyrd Skynyrd - Free Bird
  4. Derek & The Dominos - Layla
  5. Rush - Xanadu
  6. Deep Purple - Smoke on the Water
  7. Rainbow - Stargazer
  8. Genesis - Supper's Ready
  9. Yes - Starship Trooper
  10. Pink Floyd - Shine On You Crazy Diamond

1980

  1. Led Zeppelin - Stairway to Heaven
  2. Genesis - Supper's Ready
  3. Lynyrd Skynyrd - Free Bird
  4. Deep Purple - Child in Time
  5. Pink Floyd - Shine On You Crazy Diamond
  6. Rainbow - Stargazer
  7. Rush - Xanadu
  8. Deep Purple - Smoke on the Water
  9. Rush - 2112
  10. Yes - Awaken

The 1980 list was mostly the 1979 list shuffled. The only new songs were 2112 and Awaken, replacing Layla and Starship Trooper.

1981

  1. Led Zeppelin - Stairway to Heaven
  2. Genesis - Supper's Ready
  3. Lynyrd Skynyrd - Free Bird
  4. Rainbow - Stargazer
  5. Rush - Xanadu
  6. Rush - 2112
  7. Deep Purple - Child in Time
  8. Yes - Awaken
  9. Deep Purple - Smoke on the Water
  10. Pink Floyd - Shine On You Crazy Diamond

1982

  1. Led Zeppelin - Stairway to Heaven
  2. Genesis - Supper's Ready
  3. Lynyrd Skynyrd - Free Bird
  4. Rainbow - Stargazer
  5. Deep Purple - Child in Time
  6. Rush - 2112
  7. Rush - Xanadu
  8. Pink Floyd - Shine On You Crazy Diamond
  9. AC/DC - Whole Lotta Rosie
  10. Yes - Awaken

The 1981 list is the 1980 list partly shuffled and the 1982 isn't far different either. The only new song was Whole Lotta Rosie, replacing Smoke on the Water. Also of note, Stargazer continues to rise, the only song in all the lists to do so on a consistent basis; it climbed to number two by 1984, only dropping one place the year after.

1983

  1. Led Zeppelin - Stairway to Heaven
  2. Genesis - Supper's Ready
  3. Rainbow - Stargazer
  4. Lynyrd Skynyrd - Free Bird
  5. Deep Purple - Child in Time
  6. Rush - 2112
  7. AC/DC - Whole Lotta Rosie
  8. Meat Loaf - Bat Out of Hell
  9. Yes - Awaken
  10. Deep Purple - Smoke on the Water

1984

  1. Led Zeppelin - Stairway to Heaven
  2. Rainbow - Stargazer
  3. Deep Purple - Child in Time
  4. Genesis - Supper's Ready
  5. Lynyrd Skynyrd - Free Bird
  6. Rush - 2112
  7. Meat Loaf - Bat Out of Hell
  8. Yes - Awaken
  9. Marillion - Grendel
  10. Deep Purple - Smoke on the Water

The 1983 list isn't much different to what went before. Shine On You Crazy Diamond and Xanadu dropped out and Smoke on the Water snuck back in. The other new entry was Bat Out of Hell. 1984's list only swapped Whole Lotta Rosie for debutante Grendel.

1985

  1. Led Zeppelin - Stairway to Heaven
  2. Rush - 2112
  3. Rainbow - Stargazer
  4. Genesis - Supper's Ready
  5. Deep Purple - Child in Time
  6. Marillion - Grendel
  7. Iron Maiden - Rime of the Ancient Mariner
  8. Lynyrd Skynyrd - Free Bird
  9. Iron Maiden - Running Free
  10. AC/DC - Whole Lotta Rosie
    Marillion - Forgotten Sons

1990

  1. Led Zeppelin - Stairway to Heaven
  2. Metallica - One
  3. Lynyrd Skynyrd - Free Bird
  4. Guns n' Roses - Sweet Child o' Mine
  5. Deep Purple - Smoke on the Water
  6. AC/DC - Whole Lotta Rosie
  7. Iron Maiden - Hallowed Be Thy Name
  8. Bon Jovi - Livin' on a Prayer
  9. Rainbow - Stargazer
  10. Iron Maiden - The Trooper
  11. Def Leppard - Animal
  12. Iron Maiden - The Number of the Beast
  13. Iron Maiden - Run to the Hills
  14. Pink Floyd - Comfortably Numb
  15. Rush - 2112
  16. Iron Maiden - Phantom of the Opera
  17. AC/DC - For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)
  18. Bon Jovi - Wanted Dead or Alive
  19. Motörhead - Ace of Spades
  20. Skid Row - 18 and Life

Some notable changes in the 1985 list. Smoke Out of the Water vanished again, as did Bat Out of Hell and Awaken. Four songs replaced them because there was a tie for tenth place between new entry Forgotten Sons and re-entry Whole Lotta Rosie. The other two new songs marked Iron Maiden's first appearance in these lists, with two songs, Running Free and Rime of the Ancient Mariner.

The 1990 list was completely different. Only four songs from the 1985 list survived, with Smoke on the Water returning again. In fact, only one further song from any previous list, 2112, made the rest of the top twenty. Those second ten songs included three more Iron Maiden songs, for a total of five (twenty per cent of the whole list).


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Last update: 27th October, 2020