If ever a song struck a chord with people this was it. If Pulp had never recorded anything else of significance this would still have been a magnificent contribution to popular culture.

I had been familiar with Pulp before the release of the album from which this was taken, Different Class, as my eldest son (despite being then still of a relatively tender age) had discovered them a few years earlier. I had not paid very much attention – well, children don’t want their parents muscling in on their music tastes do they? Common People really woke me up to the band. Odd to think it’s over twenty years since this burst onto the world.

This is the longer album version.

Another from 1990. Another from Inspiral Carpets.

I suppose I ought to add the warning, “This video contains flashing images.”

In 1998 it was great to hear P P Arnold’s voice again as she provided the second vocal in this duet with Ocean Coloured Scene.

Another decade ticked over and The Lightning Seeds got even better.

I remember this song as being the musical background to a montage of football clips on the BBC’s Saturday lunchtime Football Focus when it was a part of Grandstand (remember that?) but I may be confusing it with Bruce Hornby (and the Range)’s The Way It Is as Wiki has The Life of Riley as the theme set behind Match of the Day’s Goal of the Month.

Whatever, it’s another piece of joyful pop.

Yet another song from 1990.

One from the mid-90s this time. Apparently this was a much bigger hit in Europe (no 14 in the UK) than in the US.

For all Sons fans who were feeling down after last Sunday.

For some reason a lot of my posts in this category so far seem to come from 1990. This is The Farm’s first big hit. I have previously posted their biggest, All Together Now, in another context.

Another 90s song that alludes to the Apollo programme.

This was the first (the only?) song with lyrics sung in the language of Wolof to be a hit in the UK. It possibly helped that Neneh Cherry’s contribution to it was sung in English. N’Dour sings in three languages in total as he also threw French into the mix.