Programme Index

Discover 11,128,835 listings and 294,380 playable programmes from the BBC

Paul Gambaccini with America's Greatest Hits

22/11/2014

Duration: 1 hour, 57 minutes

First broadcast: on BBC Radio 2Latest broadcast: on BBC Radio 2

Paul Gambaccini presents tracks from this week's US charts and hits from the last six decades.

Each week, songs are played by artists who have been inducted into 'The Rock And Roll Hall of Fame'. Working alphabetically through the list, tonight Paul plays 'My Boy Lollipop' by Millie - the first pop hit for Island Records founded by Chris Blackwell, who was inducted in the 'Non-Performer' category. Otis Blackwell was also inducted in the 'Non-Performer' category and we hear one of his many hit songs - 'All Shook Up' by Elvis Presley.

In 'A Matter Of Life And Death' Paul celebrates the birthday in 1950 of Tina Weymouth - bass player with Talking Heads and Tom Tom Club by playing the latter group's disc 'Genius Of Love'. We pay tribute to Big Bank Hank, who has recently died, by playing 'Rapper's Delight' by The Sugarhill Gang. 'It's Not The Same Old Song' highlights 'Invisible' by Alison Moyet and a recent song with the same title by Hunter Hayes. In the feature called 'Beyond The Sea', Paul plays tracks from the biggest selling albums by UK artists in America. Tonight, we hear songs by Pink Floyd and Peter Gabriel. 'The Other Number Ones' highlights records that reached number one in the 'Cashbox' American chart but not in the 'Billboard' Hot 100. Tonight's examples are by The Kingsmen and The O'Jays.

Our R&B number ones are from 1969 and this week by The Originals and Sam Smith. We hear Country number ones from 1994 and now by Mary Chapin Carpenter and Carrie Underwood. This week's featured past and present Rock number ones are by The Rolling Stones and Hozier. The number one album in America for a second week is '1989' by Taylor Swift and the best selling song of the week is once again 'All About That Bass' by Meghan Trainor. Show less

About this data

This data is drawn from the data stream that informs BBC's iPlayer and Sounds. The information shows what was scheduled to be broadcast, meaning it was/is subject to change and may not be accurate. More