"Mountains" is an avalanche of noise, claps and snares and shouts. As we'll find a lot of people do, Prince uses "mountain" as a shorthand for adversity, something to conquer.

The video was shot in Nice, around the time of footage for Prince's film "Under the Cherry Moon"; there's a cameo from Kristin Scott Thomas.

Second single from the 1986 album "Parade".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WmPeLOLDnA
#PeakOfThePops #Prince #MountainsFriday

Patrick Patterson, Trevor White, and Angela Wynter were the core of the band, picked up a lot of buzz and press support. They made a sophisticated sound, pioneers of Black music from London roots.

Never broke through to mainstream success, which is a desperate shame. "No conversation" is quiet and determined soul music.

Lead single from 1988 album "In Time".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfCIFKekYq0
#PeakOfThePops #ViewFromTheHill

Samu the singer is leaving town, and voices a mixture of regret and nostalgia, with confusion over his future plans. "I'm gonna come back to walk these streets again. Bye bye, Hollywood hills forever"

Sunrise Avenue were in their emo-pop phase, and at the peak of their commercial success

From 2011's album "Out of Style"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azPQZSlC2zk
#PeakOfThePops #SunriseAvenue

Bluegrass and country singer Lillie Mae was a child star as part of the Forrest Carter Band.

This song comes from her album with Jack White, his name is a great way to open doors and get people to hear your music.

From 2017's "Forever and Then Some".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvJRJb6rYgk
#PeakOfThePops #LillieMae

By summer '86, hip-hop had a massive underground following, but still needed a gimmick to crossover into the mainstream.

Lovebug Starski worked with Kurtis Blow on this top 20 seller, a mashup of samples and spooky noises around a quality rap and memorable beat.

Starski coined the name «hip-hop»; he died in 2018.

From the 1986 album "House Rocker".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHotPZDGxx8
#PeakOfThePops #LovebugStarski

Commercial success for The Shamen came in summer '91, with this industrial-house crossover. Hypnotic, shimmering, pulsing electrobeats, a gentle croon, but Mr. C's inaugral C-rap.

Success came at a nasty price; band member Will Sinnott drowned after filming the video in Tenerife.

This Beatmasters mix is from 1991's album "Progeny".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxyW3MIkqvE
#PeakOfThePops #TheShamen

Composed by Kern and Hammerstein for 1937's film "High, Wide, and Handsome", this definitive rendition came two decades later.

Peggy Lee brings a timeless mix of hope and wistfulness to this tune, setting out the plans she has to grow old with her beloved.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nu-z8mJKzs4
#PeakOfThePops #JeromeKern #OscarHammerstein #PeggyLee

"You're not scared of climbing mountains. You're scared that you can't make them move. I would move them for you."

Buxton's greatest living troubadour shot to fame in autumn 2012, performing "Mountains" on national television. In the testing decade since, Lucy's found her level of fame, and is beloved by her crowd.

From 2013's "Join the Club"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuYuuF_JyKM
#PeakOfThePops #LucySpraggan #MountainsFriday

(Mountain ranges have cliffs, right?)

Back in 1985, Cliff went off to perform in the musical "Time". He plays a rock star who goes into space to defend the world. This song is an example of what he's defending.

Perhaps a bit sickly-sweet, it brought Cliff back into the top ten after a surprisingly long commercial slump.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUhIoDZF3SA
#PeakOfThePops #CliffRichard

A cover of Patty Griffin's song, it's about Martin Luther King Jr, how he kept on going whatever was asked of him.

Standalone single from 2011.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWmud1OGkuA
#PeakOfThePops #AllisonCrowe

Kate's first release of the 21st century was exactly what we'd hoped for. Soaring vocals, pulsating rhythm and all the electronic twiddlings of the era. And a complex lyric with homages to Citizen Kane and Elvis Presley.

(Longlisted for my #FearOfMu21c Best 50 of the Century, but not in final consideration. Full list starts next month.)

From 2005's album "Aerial".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8xk_AkeP5c
#PeakOfThePops #KateBush

The group's signature song, the first with Bruce Dickinson on lead vocals.

Like all good metal songs, it's got a deep and meaningful lyric - about the European invasion of North America, told from the locals' view, the invaders', and a factual observer.

Like all good metal songs, it's got some butt-kickin' guitar riffs and pounding drums.

From 1982's "The Number of the Beast"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86URGgqONvA
#PeakOfThePops #IronMaiden

Finnish metalists cover an Irish song; "Over the hills and far away" was written by Gary Moore, a decent hit for him in 1987.

It was remembered by up-and-coming symphonic metal band Nightwish, sold a packet in their native Finland, and helped them to gain success in Europe.

Title track to a 2001 ep.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwED4C5FJuo
#PeakOfThePops #Nightwish

Yesterday, "Over the hills and far away" was sung from the view of a woman waiting for her robber lover to return.

Today, "Mountain sound" is that robber lover and her sidekick, wanting to get away from those crimes. Will they be reunited? Who can tell!

Keflavík's finest folk band broke through internationally with this hit from 2012's "My Head Is an Animal".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdepfFzqn9c
#PeakOfThePops #OfMonstersAndMen

Having been around since the turn of the century, Biffy Clyro built a loyal audience from their stage shows. "Mountains" was their biggest hit, a loud rock song about how the singer and his companion are inseparable, like the mountain and the sea.

A 2008 single.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfzwM4pdyxU
#PeakOfThePops #BiffyClyro #MountainsFriday

A really well-crafted song: spiralling lyrics and a sonorous Hammond organ build a sense of place - for me, a foggy autumn morning.

Tom Hingley's mournful vocals leave us wondering if he's celebrating a new connection or mourning a lost one.

From 1990's "Island Head" ep.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJxy78sr9bQ
#PeakOfThePops #InspiralCarpets

Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart worked together to provide topical satire songs in a 1925 Broadway revue show, updating the act with new songs as fashions change and news happens.

"Mountain greenery" appeared in the 1926 revision, showcasing Hart's knack of squeezing in unlikely words (he rhymes 'sequestering' with 'pestering').

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9sqOqWLAUo
#PeakOfThePops #RodgersAndHart

The final studio album crystallised everything that made A-ha: yearning and soaring vocals, melancholy hooks.

This title track speaks to the dissonance between nature and the big city, between open fields and busy streets.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xq890a_inBw
#PeakOfThePops #Aha #MortenHarket

A song about paradise: the paradise of someone's dreams, never quite to be reached.

George McClintock wrote the song as a sarcastic pastiche of the Roaring Twenties, Burl Ives had the hit with a bowdlerised version.

The song inspired a real-life Big Rock Candy Mountain resort, near Marysville in Utah.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7kT-4HXorg
#PeakOfThePops #BurlIves

The theme to tv series "The Heights", a one-series wonder from autumn 1992.

The series revolved around a working-class band, Jamie Walters the lead singer.

Show producer Aaron Spelling was unable to recapture the success of 90210, and it fizzled out in three months. The show's worth a watch, but just the one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqkWrgpDO-E
#PeakOfThePops #TheHeights

Gravelly-voiced rock chick Pat Benatar covered Kate Bush's first signature hit on the 1980 album "Crimes of Passion".

It takes guts and gusto to tread on these moors, Pat has the oomph to make it work.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6o96bRMJ7z4
#PeakOfThePops #PatBenatar

"Take me somewhere greener than these empty streets
Where the mountains grow
I need something deeper in the air I breathe
Where it feels like home"

You can take the gal out of the Caucasuses, but you can't take the Caucasuses out of the gal.

From 2023's "Lay Your Hands Upon My Heart".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gscZQaWKjAk
#PeakOfThePops #RosaLinn #MountainsFriday

Ten years after the massive hit "When Susannah cries", Espen came back with more heartfelt lovelorn janglerock.

This one's about the girl of his dreams, who turns out to be even better than he dared imagine.

From 2008's "Army of One", since when Espen has concentrated on writing and producing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cDJ6bkbOM4
#PeakOfThePops #EspenLind

A song about surviving whatever life throws at you.

"I am going to make it through this year
If it kills me
I am going to make it through this year
If it kills me"

From 2005's "The Sunset Tree"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ii6kJaGiRaI
#PeakOfThePops #TheMountainGoats