Well, I must say, I’d totally forgotten we’d done this for Proper Mag but just came across the magazine it featured in whilst having a tidy up of my desk.

Back in the day when we were still part of Cosmic Disco we did a ‘Top 10 Emotional Pop Songs’ list. So, here you go.

You can pretty much guarantee all of these are going to make it onto the blog at some stage.

Niles & Baggy’s Top Ten Emotional Pop Songs

There is a period in every night out when it’s all got a bit much. We stand, swaying, behind the decks, bloodied and battered from the inane requests from the punters.
“Have you got owt funky”, “play some old skool” & “can I plug my iPod in?”.
It’s usually with about 20 minutes to go, we steel ourselves and dust off the ‘Emotional Pop Songs’.
These are tracks that can reduce a grown man to tears, induce frantic fingering sessions in murky corners of dancefloors or, in extreme cases, elicit the termination of our DJing employment.
They are power ballads, Italo rousers and Pop Reggae.

1. The Creatures – Inspiration
   “OR WE COULD FLY, DOWWWWNNNNNNN TO AMERRRRRICAAAAA”. This track is a pretty obscure Italo synth pop monster. It’s 5.30 mins of strained vocals, filmscore keyboards and a saxaphone solo to rival any other. This track is important. You need it. You need it more than any other in this list.
2. Michael Jackson – Liberian Girl
   This track will stop Baggy in his tracks. It makes him pine for Michael. He always wanted to be a dancer like MJ. On the day of his death, as we walked around Glastonbury he located and captured a dove and released in honour of the big man & this track.
3. Alphaville – Forever Young
   Big In Japan makes us stand tall but for sheer slow dance, dry frigging you cannot beat Forever Young. I dare you not to pull when this on.
4. Tina Turner – We Don’t Need Another Hero
   It was a toss up between this and ‘What’s Love Got To Do With It’. In terms of drunken mums belting out at karaoke this slightly pips WLGTDWI to the post. Tina likes a good emotional pop song and this film score epic is her finest moment.
5. Mike Francis – Features of Love
   You’re on the beach getting sand in the crack of your arse, you’ve been at it for hours. This is the song that’s going through your head. It’s basically sex music.
6. Shabba Ranks – Mr Loverman
   Such is Shabba’s potency as a ‘Champion Lover’ he is actually brough to tears in the final verse of this track. We lost a gig through playing this. Any venue that doesn’t accept Shabba Ranks does not accept us. This is, Peter Kay aside, a magnificent slice of 90′s Soul.
7. Key Of Dreams – Africa
   Men will stand with their arms aloft. Women will look confused and we will know that there are about 10 minutes of our gig left. Massive.
8. Bappi Lahiri – Come Closer
   Taken from the Bollywood film Kasam Paida Karnewale Ki and featuring some beautiful female vocals from someone who shamefully, I can’t identify, this is a track with it all. Curry house vocals, Killer Bassline and a hands in the air chorus.
9. RAF – Self Control
   Whilst the Laura Branigan version is more famous the writer of the tracks version is much more emotionally charged. Cod English lyrics, John Hughes school dance scene instrumentation and a big chuggy chorus.
10. Michael MacDonald – I Keep Forgettin’
    People think it’s Warren G and get disappointed for about 2 seconds then it kicks in and it’s all silky and they get swept along by MM and his magnificent beard and audible manliness. To quote the sticker on my 12″ ‘Top Pop – Almost Soul’. Quite

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