Inspired by a post at openbrackets this weekend I put together the following poem/song/nonsense. It's the first lyric from the number one pop song for each year since I was born.

Determining the number one song in a year wasn't as straightforward as I thought it would be. I ended up using a couple of sources on the internet. Still, is it my imagination or did song lyrics start dumbing down in the last decade?

    Put your sweet lips a little closer to the phone
    Here’s my story, sad but true
    (It’s the latest, it’s the greatest)
    Love him, I love him, I love him
    
    Hello Dolly, this is Louis, Dolly
    I can’t get no satisfaction, I can’t get no satisfaction
    Fighting soldiers from the sky
    Those schoolgirl days of telling tales and biting nails are gone
    
    Hey Jude don’t make it bad
    When the moon is in the Seventh House
    Raindrops keep fallin’ on my head
    Jeremiah was a bullfrog
    
    In a little while from now
    I’m comin’ home, I’ve done my time
    Mem’ries light the corners of my mind
    Love, Love will keep us together
    
    You’d think that people would have had enough of silly love songs
    Stay away from my window
    You got me looking at that heaven in your eyes
    Ooh, my little pretty one, pretty one
     
    Let's go
    I'm saying all the things 
    Risin' up, back on the street
    Every breath you take
    
    Dig if you will the picture
    Time can never mend the careless whispers of a good friend
    And I never thought I'd feel this way
    All the old paintings on the tomb 
    
    Well I guess it would be nice
    When you called me up this morning
    I know this pain
    Look into my eyes - you will see 
    
    Girl you know we belong together
    If I should stay
    Shock!
    Ba da ba da da da ah ya ya
    
    Oh yeah heay
    You and me
    I’ll be your dream
    No matter how hard I try
    
    I can feel the magic floating in the air
    Headbanger.. hit me, hit me, hit me, hit me
    Uh huh, life’s like this
    Yes!

Maybe a more interesting compilation would be using the first lyric of your own personal favorite from each year. Here's a good resource for the fifties through mid-eighties.

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