CAIRO - Some people… Yes they are. What now? You don't believe me or what? Seriously some people… OK, it seems I forget to finish the sentence the first time I wrote it, but I know you are very smart so you must have guessed that I meant “some people are obsessed with numbers”. Now that you've got the full phrase, you have no choice but agree. This is what I was thinking about minutes ago. I even thought of some songs that include a number in their titles. I started with the number “one” and much to my surprise in maybe a few seconds I wrote down many titles – enough to write an article about. For instance the title “One” was used by several acts and of course I will start with my all time favourite band the Bee Gees. That was the name of one of the trio's very nice songs, although it wasn't as big as some of the band's other gigantic hits. An entirely different brilliant song with the same name was introduced to us by Ireland's second best rock band, U2 – second only to my band, expect mine is not Irish, but who cares? Many people love Metallica and some of them find it very strange that I don't. Anyway, I was never a heavy metal diehard fan. Regardless of my own preferences, one of Metallica's most popular tracks is called “One”. Diana Ross is a Motown, soul, R&B and disco legend. Long ago she released one of her countless masterpieces, which is titled “One Love in My Lifetime”. As much as I love the Bee Gees, I always say that the greatest stage performer ever was without a doubt Freddie Mercury of Queen. I can't believe that it's been almost 20 years since he died – yes, his 20th anniversary will be next November. I of course have the Queen greatest hits collection and on CD 2 you can find the track “One Vision”. The song has a great message in it, about a vision of a better world: “I had a dream when I was young, a dream of sweet illusion, a glimpse of hope and unity and visions of one sweet union, but a cold wind blows and a dark rain falls and in my heart it shows, look what they've done to my dream. “It might sound a little pessimistic, but Queen had high hopes and kept wishing for that dream to come true in other parts of the song. Anyway, I still don't know why this track ends with the bar “give me fried chicken”! Speaking of chicken, they are birds but they don't fly, unlike Randy Crawford who threatened “One Day I'll Fly Away”. Good to know that you are growing feathers Randy. Do you wash them with Head & Shoulders or Clear? Still with birds, but bigger ones this time like… The Eagles, who had a plan and tried to make it come true “One of These Nights”. Maybe it's one of these nights spent at “Hotel California”. That's a bad joke. I will take it back. Too late, you've already read it! “One Man Woman” is the title of an old number by crooner Paul Anka. This Lebanese-Canadian-American singer-songwriter, crooner-artist, actor-composer… Never mind me, I just like that hyphenated title thing so I could go on for a while. I've changed my mind! So this man sang about how faithful his woman is while he is not. There's no need to turn a personal issue into a scandal, Paul. “One of Us” made Sweden more money than the other. Was it Volvo or Abba? Regardless of this point, one of them is a car brand and the other is the best and most successful band ever to come from Sweden. The brilliant Swedish quartet Abba made a song called “Volvo”, except it is called “One of Us” as I mentioned before. Both the band and the car have stood the test of time and are highly recommended for family use! Although some ignorant people thought that Bob Marley was a symbol of heavy rock and Satanism, he had nothing to do with either. Bob was and still is the king of reggae. One of his songs is still heavily used as a symbol of something entirely different – love. Of course you know I'm talking about “One Love”. Whitney Houston contributed to the 1988 South Korea Olympics with a brilliant track that would motivate any athlete to win loads of medals. It is called “One Moment in Time”. Did you know that this masterpiece was co-written by Albert Hammond? Although that man was never a significantly successful singer, he is without a doubt an exceptionally talented songwriter. Many of the numbers he has written for other acts have achieved amazing success. British rock band Half Man Half Biscuit paid tribute to him in a song called “Albert Hammond Bootleg”. That's impressive. A group called Eruption was quite successful back in the old days of disco… well, on the pop side of disco music to be precise. I guess when Neil Sedaka made a song called “One Way Ticket”, he didn't know that Eruption would have its greatest hit with a cover of his song. Bryan Adams is probably Canada's biggest rock star. His album “Reckless” was certified multi-platinum and it also included the track “One Night Love Affair”. The same album featured the number one hit “Heaven”. In 1991, six years after the release of “Reckless”, Bryan shocked the world by topping the UK chart for 16 consecutive weeks with “(Everything I Do) I Do It for You”, taken from the movie “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves”. The previous record for a number one song was nine weeks and it was achieved four times – Paul McCartney's band Wings with “Mull of Kintyre”, Queen's epic “Bohemian Rhapsody”, Frankie Goes to Hollywood's “Two Tribes” and a fourth song that I can't remember! Why do I always get confused and think that “One Thing Leads to Another” is by Midnight Oil form Australia when it's by British band The Fixx? The only thing that matters is that this track includes the word “one” in its title, which qualifies it here. Back to Abba, or one half of it – after the split, the two boys Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus went on writing hit songs. One of them was co-written by Tim Rice and performed by Murray Head on the musical “Chess”. Yes, it's “One Night in Bangkok”. Speaking of night, isn't it time for me to go to bed now? Yes. Goodnight to you. Send me your calculators to: [email protected]
