but mine would probably have been something like...

Genesis - Dodo / Lurker

Yes - Close To The Edge

Led Zeppelin - Stairway To Heaven

Supertramp - Child Of Vision

Deep Purple - Strange Kind Of Woman

Bloody hell I was trendy.

I would say that none of them would make the list now, although I still have affection for all of them...

I must have been 16 in 1980 right thank you, now at that time I remember keeping a list of all the number one records so a fair few of them I think would be in my top 5 also at that time I was a big ELO fan and that great film Xanadu(joke) came out so I guess my top five would be something like this.

ELO and Olivia Newtron Bomb- Xanadu

The Jam-Going Underground

The Police-Don't Stand So Close To Me

ABBA -The Winner Takes It All

and to end on a sad note it was the year John Lennon got shot.

John Lennon- Just Like Starting Over

I think only Going Underground would get into my top 100 these days although The Winner Takes It All in mamma mia the movie is awesome.

Likely to have included:
Hyacinth House/The Doors (from L.A. Woman)
Ball Park Incident/Wizzard (single)
Beaks of Eagles/Beach Boys (from Holland)
Tarkus/ELP (from LP of same name)
Looking for someone/Genesis (from Trespass)
Without trying to buff up on my kool, this was the schizophrenic mix I was assimilating even then. Trespass and Tarkus remain my favourite LPs of those groups outputs, as is, indeed, L.A. Woman. Beaks of Eagles is a spoken word pretentious guff. I still have a soft spot for it. Wizzard? Well, they were just great, weren't they? Loads of air-sax to that, I can tell you, right thumb between lips and fiddly fingers.

George Harrison - 'Blow Away' (A devoted Fabs fan I had high hopes of some chart action - and probably a reunion and a world tour - when I picked up this picture sleeve 7")
Led Zeppelin - 'In The Evening' (They were back ... for a short while)
Bob Dylan - 'New Pony' (This came out the year before and I quickly identified this as his best work ... ever! I was 16, and it was my first Bob Dylan album)
The Doors - 'Light My Fire' (I was then a bit of an old hippy, completely out of time. Wouldn't give it house room now of course!(Ahem!))
Blondie - 'Union City Blue' (I was 16, and she was Debbie Harry)

Truth be told I was probably even then still secretly listening to my battered old copy of 'A Young Person's Guide To King Crimson' and hoping 'New Wave' would go away.

The doldrums of Disco, the fag end of Glam, the lull before the storm of Punk.

So what was keeping my delicate hearing occupied in those heady days of music and football before girlscame along and awoke the third leg of the holy trinity:

1. The Doors (with you there Retro). Can't remember why I bought that "Best of" cassette, probably due to having heard Riders on the Storm somewhere, but soom followed it up with albums such as LA Woman and Morrison Hotel. Seemed dark and mysterious, but that was before I learned what drink and drugs could do to a man's creative output, not to mention his soul (Morrisons, not mine)

2. Golden Earring - can't beat a bit of Clog Rock, and still partial to it. Radar Love got me into them but followed it up through the 70's and onward with a number of albums. Still got a soft spot for any band that can name a song "Burning Stuntman"

3. PFM - Italian Prog anyone? A song called Celebration got me into them and the album Cook was a constant back in those days. Yet to replace it on CD but its a bit pricy. Lots of synth's and a violin over a jazz funk backing - have since (comparatively recently) discovered Weather Report and Mahavishnu Orchestra along the same lines.

4. Lynyrd Skynyrd - Freebird. I blame Jesus Jacksons Progressive Rock Society on Friday lunchtimes at school for this. A great album as well, with Gimme 3 Steps a particular favourite.

5. mmmmmm....tricky......still listened to a load of glam rock and a particular favourite has to be Ballroom Blitz by the Sweet. A timeless, brainless classic.

I wouldn't turn any of them off even now....in fact the opposite. They're all on the ipod somewhere except for PFM which is only a matter of time.

Oohhh...just thought of another one.....the first album by Quantum Jump - led to this by the Lone Ranger and its another interesting elclectic mix with a bit of jazz funk in there too.

Bloody hell, I never realised I was so eclectic. Talk about hidden shadows. No wonder the laydees used to give me such a wide berth.

Not that date is likely to be reflective of what I was listening to...at a rough guestimate...

1. Genesis - Musical Box
2. Phil Collins - I Missed Again
3. Police - Demolition Man
4. Kiss - Love Gun
5. Genesis - Wot Gorilla

A couple of years later and all had been shunted for Madchester or Joy Division or NIN or Zappa...but I would possibly have maybe one in there today, depends on mood...

Very likely:
Christine - House of Love
Shine One - House of Love
Ballad of the band - Felt
World Shut Your Mouth - Julian Cope
Gigantic - Pixies
None more indie, and all of them still listened to regularly today. Indie was flipping great.

A great year for music and to be coming of age. While making the transition from wearing german army jackets and doc martens into skinny white jeans, addias tops, eye liner and chelsea boots, I was listening to:

Supersonic - Oasis
You're Not My Babylon - These Animal Men
Impact - Orbital
Dolphin - Shed Seven
Girls and Boys - Blur

Except for the Sheds, I stand by the lot wholeheartedly

EDIT: Thinking about it - can I have Poison by the Prodigy and Real Surreal by S*M*A*S*H as well?

Possibly
A Bomb in Wardour Street - The Jam
Down in the Tubestation at Midnight - The Jam
White Man in Hammersmith Palais - The Clash
Ever Fallen in Love - Buzzcocks
I'm Always Touched by Your Presence Dear - Blondie

All from 1978 too - I'm glad I'm the age I am - those are all ace songs.

This has been quite a challenge but at a guess:

My Bag - Lloyd Cole & the Commotions
Green Onions - Booker T & the MGs
Fog Town - Michelle Shocked
For Emily Wherever I May Find Her - Simon & Garfunkel
Always On My Mind - Pet Shop Boys

Hmm, all over the place. Upon turning seventeen I got my first job, bought a pair of doc martens and became cardigan-wearing indie boy for the next ten years.

I was scanning some some copies of my old fanzine recently - ah, those were the days - typewriter, tippex, staples, glue and a photocopier at the local newsagent - none of this web-site, myspace stuff back in the day!

I used to put my "soundtrack to making the fanzine" in each issue and the sad thing is that I would pretty much choose the same tracks now! Here's some of them...

Buzzcocks: "What Do I Get?"
The Jam: "To Be Someone"
The Stranglers: "Tank"
Generation X: "King Rocker"
The Ruts: "Babylon's Burning"

edit: sorry I got carried away, you only wanted 5

OK, I'll gloss over UK Subs and the Angelic Upstarts!

Roll back the years; it's hard to remember exactly what I was playing, but I'll go with:

Free - Mr Big
Roy Harper - Highway blues
Santana - Every step of the way
Neil Young - Southern man
Cream - Badge

I would guess - tracks, not albums:

Angie - Rolling Stones
Love reign over me - the Who
Moving Waves - Focus
Anne Boleyn - Rick Wakeman
You wear it well - Rod Stewart and the Faces

If memory serves, it would have gone something like this:

1 - Phantom of the Opera, Iron Maiden

2 - Transylvania, Iron Maiden

3 - Bad Boy Boogie (live version), AC/DC

4 - War Pigs, Black Sabbath

5 - All of my Life, Magnum (MAGNUM!!)

My youthful ecclecticism still impresses me.

More METAL.

The Scorpions - The Zoo
AC/DC - Whole Lotta Rosie
Rush - Tom Sawyer
Golden Earring - Twilight Zone
Aerosmith - Sweet Emotion

I turned 16 in December 1987. I try not to think of what music was around then. To paraphrase Nick Hornby, was I miserable because I was a teenager or because most music was shit?

BLACK SABBATH - "Sweet Leaf" from Master of Reality

WISHBONE ASH - "The King Will Come" from Argus

GROUNDHOGS - "The Grey Maze" from Who Will Save the World? The Mighty Groundhogs*

GENESIS - "Supper's Ready" from Foxtrot

RORY GALLAGHER - "Messin' with the Kid" from Live in Europe

(*Surely none more Word.)

...and I've just really got into Bowie (Don't choose "David Live" as your first album, though), so it would be something like:-

Sweet Thing/Candidate/Sweet Thing Reprise of Diamond Dogs
Since I've Been Loving You by Led Zeppelin
Bold as Love by The Jimi Hendrix Experience
Rock 'n' Roll Suicide by Bowie
Sound of Silence by Simon & Garfunkel

Postcard records time. These were me and my brothers faves:

We could send letters - aztec camera

Simply thrilled honey - orange juice

Also LOVED party fears 2 - associates

I loved scott walker - can't remember the song title (my 16 year old self would have been appalled) but the "when you kissed my eyes awake" was in it.

And No 5 is a toss up between the eternal by joy division - which I played over and over and could even play on the piano - or teardrop explodes song the culture bunker which I also overplayed.

1. The Overload - Talking Heads
2. Are "Friends" Electric? - Tubeway Army
3. Say Hello, Wave Goodbye - Soft Cell
4. Ashes to Ashes - David Bowie
5. Glittering Prize - Simple Minds

1 & 2 probably stay in my top 5 in 2008 but the others are still there or thereabouts.

Best of both worlds

Doors (seem to appeal greatly to the male adolescent, all that dodgy poetry and masturbatory rocking out, as it were!) - Break On Through (To The Other Side). Still enjoy the odd tune of theirs.

Rolling Stones - Gimme Shelter, from a cassette tape compilation album of the same name.

Led Zeppelin - Whole Lotta Love. Tested my Dad's hi-fi with that one, cranked up when they were out.

Talking Heads - Found A Job from More Songs About Buildings and Food. Just starting to get into the brave new world of new wave and punk.

Bowie - Sound and Vision. Remember getting the tape of Low for christmas. An introduction to possibilities of a whole new area of music.

Still pretty keen on all the above.

Fools Gold - The Stone Roses
Hallelujah - Happy Mondays
Bring The Noise- Public Enemy
For Whom The Bell Tolls - Metallica
South Of Heaven - Slayer

I loved thrash metal as a teenager, in 1990 I wouldn't have outgrown it. Public Enemy were my link band to almost everything I like now. Madchester were big in our school, everyone loved the Roses and the Mondays.

It all changed over the next two years but it was a bit heavy and a bit rocky in some with a bit of Bowie and Bob

Life on Mars? Bowie
Tangled Up in Blue Dylan
Rock and Roll Led Zep
Back in The USSR The Beatles
Can't Get Enough Bad Co.

Most of them went back to the second hand shop in 76.

But now approaching 50 i find I still listen to all these!

maybe something like this...

1. Still Ill by The Smiths
2. Help! by The Fabs
3. Licence to Kill by Dylan (80s worst decade to be into Bob of course)
4. Freedom by Wham!
5. My Back Pages by The Byrds

...I was heavily influenced by school friends at the time, but if I were to write a list of my Top 5 aged 16 it would like something like this:

Guns n' Roses - Sweet Child o' Mine
Green Day - Hitchin' a Ride
The Vines - Get Free
The Datsuns - In Love
The Coral - Dreaming of You

Anyone else willing to confess to once liking The Datsuns? They were The Darkness before The Darkness existed!

Of those, the GnR song is still great, no denying that.

My then brooding anorak wearing schizophrenic "woe is me"/mod 16 year old self would've had a top 5 comprised of...

The Smiths - There Is A Light That Never Goes Out
Joy Division - Atmosphere
The Style Council - A Solid Bond In Your Heart
Simple Minds - Someone, Somewhere in Summertime
Run DMC - My Adidas

Still love "There Is A Light" and most of those really . Certainly wouldn't skip any of them on a shuffle - well, maybe My Adidas - now think that The Jam's version of Solid Bond is better than the later, Council, version...