1001 Greatest Pop Songs Of All Time - #37 - 10,000 Nights of Thunder by Alphabeat

Jessica: My first contribution to this chart is by a band who I discovered almost exactly a year ago. It was one of those experiences where I knew instantly that this band were soon to become one of my absolute favourites. At the time they'd only released Fascination, which is an almightily ace song itself, but the follow-up was even better. 10,000 Nights of Thunder is a song which proves that to make magnificent pop music you do not need a hi-tech studio or a world-renowned producer. A bunch of ordinary (yet extraordinarily jolly) young Danes can make a song like this simply with a good ear for poptasticness and the enthusiasm and energy which makes their music completely infectious.

Alphabeat has 6 members, including a male and a female singer, and these two are both taking the lead on 10,000 Nights of Thunder. The sentiment in the song is lovely: "I was not looking for arty farty love, I wanted someone to love completely". They also seem to slip in a reference to The Safety Dance! It is impossible to listen to this song without smiling ridiculously, and how can you not sing along to those dododos and whoahohohs? This is pure pop magic exactly how it should sound in any era.

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Alyson: It's a different era to my childhood, spoon fed down the throat by chart shows and radio programmes. Anyone with a computer and some foresight (like the lovely Jessica) can hunt out amazing, joyous pop and bring it to the masses. At a time when the charts are full of awful sub tunes, ballads and Eagles albums, the joys of the Internet open up a fantastic world of possibilites.

Alphabeat, of course, are wonderful, shining and radiating within a joyous and magical pop blur of happiness, and the best thing about it is the sheer pulsating almost casually generated energy that makes the song throb wonderfully. Another band who in another age might have snuck through the cracks are now easily accesible to the wider world to make us all smile, laugh and dance. Especially in this week where the Eagles top the album charts. We need all the joy from music we can get....