It's said that once you buy a new car, it instantly loses 25% of it's value. Well it seems to me that once you have bought a new CD nowadays (obviously not including CDs of the limited edition variety or of more obscure artists) it becomes completely worthless in a matter of months.

Just try selling standard CDs by the likes of Doves, The Dears, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Flaming Lips, etc on e-bay. You'll be lucky to sell them and you'll get next to nothing for them.

I've just been reading a list of the best selling singles in the UK, year by year, and it made for interesting, if somewhat slightly depressing, reading.

During the four periods that British bands were supposedly at the forefront of music (mid-60's, Glam era, punk/new wave era and Britpop) the best selling singles were as far from those genres as possible, with the latter period being dominated by cover versions (including Sir Elt's cover version of his own song).

1965 - Tears by Ken Dodd
1966 - The Green Green Grass of Home by Tom Jones
1967 - Release Me by Engelbert Humperdinck

1972 - Amazing Grace by The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards Band
1973 - Tie a Yellow Ribbon by Tony Orlando and Dawn

1976 - Save Your Kisses For Me by Brotherhood of Man
1977 - Mull of Kintyre/Girl's School by Wings
1978 - Rivers of Babylon/Brown Girl in the Ring by Boney M
1979 - Bright Eyes by Art Garfunkel

1994 - Love is All Around by Wet Wet Wet
1995 - Unchained Melody by Robson and Jerome
1996 - Killing Me Softly by The Fugees
1997 - Candle in the Wind 1997 by Elton John

Looking at some of the other entries, such as Cliff's mistletoe and Wine in 1988, Bob the Builder in 2000 and, unbelievably, the re-released Unchained Melody by The Righteous Brothers in 1990.

Are we guilty of looking back and trying to re-write history by concentrating on seemingly more obscure acts like The Stones, David Bowie, The Clash and Pulp, or is it just proof that the British public are fools? 1.8 million sales for Robson and Jerome's single suggests that this is so.

I've just mentioned on another thread that Trevor Peacock (the guy from the Vicar of Dibley who says yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, no!) wrote Mrs Brown You've Got a Lovely Daughter by Herman's Hermits and That's What Love Will Do by Joe Brown, so how about a few more songwriters that you wouldn't have expected?

I'll start off with Kenny Lynch, who co-wrote Sha La La La Lee by The Small Faces.

Once upon a time it was filofaxes, then braces and mobile phones the size of bricks, and I suppose cocaine habits probably came next, but now it seems that the annoying city boy type accessory of choice is an umbrella you could cross the channel in. Why? Nobody else needs to have an umbrella that size. Particularly not one with the name of an insurer or bank written across it. Or is it only me that gets annoyed just a little more than I should about this?

Just read an article on Dr Feelgood in a rival publication and the old chestnut of them being the "biggest band in England for 18 months" popped up. This is the opinion of Julien Temple anyway.

It seems to me that journalists often resort to this cliche. For example, I have read in recent times the opinion that The Jam/The Police/Adam & The Ants/The Specials/The Human League and countless more were the biggest band in the country/world in the late 70's/early 80's. Well they can't all have been!

Whilst my knowledge of Dr Feelgood is lacking (I remember buying Milk and Alcohol as a kid, but that's about it), but I'm pretty darned sure they could never have been classed as the biggest band in England at any time in their career. Which got me thinking, who were really the biggest band in the country since pop music really took off in the UK?

How about this for a timeline? I've based it on bands from the British Isles and their success/popularity in the UK only, rather than their influence or the quality of their work, and discounting bands that had split up. Please feel free to disagree. It's difficult to do, because the likes of us that read magazines like The Word tend to place bands such as The Clash, The Smiths and The Stone Roses in much higher regard than the general population would!

1963-1970 - The Beatles (The Stones pushed them on occasions though)
1970-1971 - The Rolling Stones (edging out Led Zeppelin)
1971-1972 - T.Rex
1972-1973 - Slade
1973-1975 - Pink Floyd
1975 - Bay City Rollers
1975-1976 - Queen
1977 - Sex Pistols
1977-1979 - The Bee Gees
1979-1981 - The Police (pushed closely by The Jam)
1981 - Adam & The Ants
1982 - The Jam
1983-1984 - Frankie Goes To Hollywood
1985-1986 - Wham! (or Dire Straits, I can't decide!)
1987-1992 - U2
1992-1995 - Take That
1995-1996 - Oasis
1996-1998 - The Spice Girls
1998-2000 - U2 (A bit of a black hole this period though)
2000-date - Coldplay

We can have a bit of fun with this, doing similar timelines for solo artists, including foreign acts, or making it the biggest band/act in the world. I'll leave that to someone else though.

With downloads replacing the need for the record company to hastily re-release singles, like they did in the days of Elvis and John Lennon, it's been easy for Jacko to dominate the charts (I think he has something like 37 of the Top 100).

This got me thinking, when the Beatles catalogue is released in a few weeks, how many of the Top 100 will they have? I'm not sure whether they are going to be available on itunes, which could affect the figures. I would imagine that there'll be a few planned new releases by other artists held back for a couple of weeks though.

And which of their songs do you reckon will be the highest? I certainly wouldn't have guessed at Man in the Mirror as Jacko's highest entry.

You know the guy - invented The Rutles, Frank Sinatra, Lawrence Welk and The Everley Brothers (although he is always lying).

Watching the Donovan documentary, as others seem to have done too, judging by an earlier thread, reinforced my view that Donovan is Donovan's number one fan. That got me thinking of other music folk with an overinflated sense of their own importance, like the aforementioned Ruttling Orange Peel.

Obviously Mr Bono has never been treated for an overdose of modesty, the Gallagher Brothers used to proudly proclaim they were the best band in the world (although you got the impression that only one of them actually meant it), Ian McCulloch was pretty close to the front of the queue when ego was handed out and Pete Townshend seems to think he's the most important figure in music (although he must have something, because he's the only person in the showbiz for whom a brush with kiddie porn hasn't seen him excommunicated).

But who else out there is a little overenthusiastic when it comes to blowing their own trumpet. And please don't say Miles Davis or Roy Castle!

I have a great book in my, ahem, lavatory at the moment. It gives the background of the first 1,000 songs that reached number one in the UK charts. I'm only up to 1960 at the moment, but I've learned some fascinating facts. Problem is, the wife's not interested, the daughter is only three and my friends aren't bothered with trivia from songs which came out ten years before they were born. Which means, fellow Word readers, that I am going to enlighten you!

Did you know...

- That Bobby Darin took his surname from a faulty sign in a Chinese resteraunt window, when the 'Man' part of 'Mandarin' wasn't lit up?

- That Craig Douglas was one of three sets of twins in a family of 9? (I bet Mrs Douglas eventually locked Mr Douglas out of the bedroom)

- That my favourite Buddy Holly song (It Doesn't Matter Anymore) was actually written by Paul Anka? I just presumed he'd written it himself and never looked at the credits.

And the best one...

- That the "Ucka chunka" backing vocals on Running Bear by Johnny Preston were sung by country star George Jones and the Big Bopper, who had written the song.

Now isn't your life all the richer for knowing all that!

Is it just me, or do famous people seem to be dropping like flies? Every time you turn on the news another one has shuffled off.

In the last month we have lost Jack Douglas, Eartha Kitt, Davy Graham, Delaney Bramlett, Norah Batty, David Vine, Harold Pinter, Dave Dee, Ron Asheton and now Patrick MacGoohan, not to mention numerous songwriters and directors. Heck we've even lost Deep Throat (Mark Felt, not, er, Linda Lovelace, who's already dead).

Is Andy Gill going to start getting a supplement for his obituary section?

He writes off his Ferrari by crashing it into a barrier and walks away.

Yet if a defender brushes past him he rolls around like he's been shot!

We all know about how certain UK pop stars don't "break" America. Cliff's probably the best example, along with Robbie Williams and I'd guess that Shakey hasn't had as many top ten hits in the States as he has had over here. But this got me thinking about actors.

The UK has provided countless stars to Hollywood, from Chaplin and Laurel, through Niven, Grant, Caine, Connery, right up to modern stars like Hugh Laurie and James McEvoy. Heck, even our best character actors like Timothy Spall and Bill Nighy have carved out an impressive Hollywood cv.

I realise that it's a different kettle of fish for actors, who are probably happier doing stage and TV work in the UK, but who are our actors who would be largely unrecognised in La-La-Land? And I'm not just talking comedians, who may have trouble crossing the cultural divide. Or soap stars, who tend to be a bit, er, rubbish.

The ones I'm thinking of are John Thaw, Ronnie Barker, Martin Shaw, Trevor Eve, David Jason, David Tennant and John Simm (unless Dr Who is more popular over there than I realise).

Which of our other much-loved (to use newspaper speak) TV stars wouldn't have to wear a disguise walking down Broadway? Or are you about to tell me that Home To Roost and The Professionals are our most popular exports?