Our friends from Worthing came up for the day today. As usual, for a Saturday, we had “Pick of the Pops” playing live on the radio (1-3pm, BBC Radio 2). I have noted elsewhere that I can usually work out what was #1 before the chart rundown at the end of each hour. The second hour, featuring the top 20 from this date in 1982, was easy enough: “Come on Eileen” by Dexy’s Midnight Runners, halfway through its 4-week run at the top (to be replaced by Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger”).

“Come on Eileen” prompted me to mention a quiz question that will keep most people of my generation occupied for up to an hour: name as many UK #1s as possible that contain a girl’s name. There have been more of these than UK #1s that contain a boy’s name, though that question can occupy plenty of time too.

When I have tried this question out, with willing participants, the phrase that I have to repeat most often is, “It didn’t get to number one”.

Sweet Caroline? “It didn’t get to number one.” Delilah? “It didn’t get to number one.” Penny Lane? “I would allow it (even though the title doesn’t come from a girl’s name), but it didn’t get to number one.” Wake up little Susie? “Didn’t get to number one.” And so on.

If you’re at a loose end you can try it yourself but you’ll need something (or someone) authoritative nearby to confirm whether your song choices got to #1 in the UK. I recommend everyhit.com, though unfortunately it only goes up to January 2011.

At the end of this piece there are tables showing the songs in date order and alphabetically according to the girls’ names used in the song titles. I have included a few questionable titles. “Oopsy Daisy” by Chipmunk from 2009 might not be about someone called Daisy and “Hey Jude” might be about a boy rather than a girl (Julian Lennon, if the legends are true), but Jude is a girl’s name too.

There are 41 song titles in all.

In year order

Alphabetically by girl’s name