Almost top of the pops: why the best singles hit number two

• In the autumn of 1979, my determination to absorb every detail of the first single I ever owned proved traumatic. If only I’d realised that reading the information printed on paper on the inner circle of the 7” disc while crouched in front of an open fire would cause the record itself to buckle and warp, I could have saved myself no end of grief. “Mum,” I said, tears already flowing down my nine-year old face, is it supposed to do this?” Ideally, no. So back to Woolworth’s we went, to buy the sa