Mike Stock was stunned by the outcome of his new Stock Aitken Waterman fan-voted Top 40 countdown.
The songwriter/producer, one third of the legendary ’80s trio, alongside Pete Waterman and Matt Aitken, devised the ‘Ultimate Stock Aitken Waterman Top 40’ show after fans began creating the own best of lists during lockdown.
Airing Friday nights exclusively on ambo.tv, the show includes many of SAW’s biggest hits, along with “quite a few surprising” tracks, Mike tells Retro Pop.
“The fans got together [online] and said, ‘What’s your Top 10 [Stock Aitken Waterman tracks]?’ And before long, the guys working on my Twitter account and Facebook account said, ‘How about I sift them all together and create a Top 40?’,” he says.
“In the end, we analysed over 20,000 votes and put together a Top 40.”
Explaining why the chart has been an eye-opener for him, Mike adds: “The weird thing is, it’s not what you think, and it’s certainly not about which were the most successful records in the charts, because the charts were very often questionable.
“If you’re fighting against Madonna, it doesn’t really matter what you do… [But] these aren’t even the biggest selling records! I can tell you now that one of the biggest selling records we ever did is languishing in the lower 30s on this chart, which really, really surprised me.”
“There are quite a few surprising ones… that didn’t perhaps get the attention in the day,” he continues. “And all of that is to do with promotion, and the fame or popularity of any one artist at any moment in time. But the fans have just stuck with their favourites, and that seems to be the constant.
“Beyond Your Wildest Dreams [by Lonnie Gordon] is one of those songs, and there are others. Even some of the Kylie B-sides that didn’t get much of a look-in, the fans just go, ‘Oh, I really love that one.’
“So for me, it’s, it’s wonderful. I mean, some of the ones we throw away or thought we’ve thrown away, come back and they love it.”
‘Ultimate Stock Aitken Waterman Top 40’ airs for free on Friday nights on ambo.tv.
Mike, who recently returned to the studio with The Fizz to finish work on their new album, opened up to Retro Pop about his work in the ’80s, admitting fans ‘often don’t realise how few years the trio was actually active.
“Some people tend to think that we were around for donkey’s years, but once we got started in 1984, and it took us a while – about a year – to get our feet under the table, it was all over by 1991, because Matt went off to do something else,” he insisted.
“I think we had about six proper years of it. So from that point of view, the amount that we covered, I suppose is pretty amazing, really.”
