Official Charts Pop Gem #1: Michelle Gayle – Sweetness

Every Friday, OfficialCharts.com bring you a lost, but certifiable, pop banger to get you through to the weekend. Click here to listen to the sparkling piece of sheer pop brilliance that is this week’s Official Charts Pop Gem!

We like a pop tune. No, rephrase, we LOVE a pop tune. And throughout 2012 the Official Charts Company are celebrating 60 years of the Official Singles Chart – the home of said pop tunes.

But, ever wondered what happens to some songs when they disappear out of the charts, off radio playlists, pulled from music TV channels, never to be seen again?

They could be absolute corkers, seemingly omnipresent for a whole summer, yet they vanish. Or perhaps they were of the 'unsung hero' variety - an overlooked single that didn’t even make it into the Top 10 but made you tingle with love for pop music all the same.

And now they’re gone, into a puff of smoke they went - last year, five years ago, 12 years ago, 20 years ago, whatever year they were from… they were fantastic, then evaporated into obscurity.

Well, here’s where the injustice ends; Ladies and gentleman of pop appreciation, we present to you our glistening new feature… Official Charts Pop Gems!

We’ve raided the far flung zones of our iPods, the dustiest corners of the shoe boxes hiding under our bed (containing the likes of Now 23 on double cassette), to bring you this feel-good Friday treat. A skive-inducing afternoon fix of forgotten pop bangers.

These glorious musical nuggets have been unearthed by the Official Charts team, just for you. Harmless slices of pop brilliance, they remind us of the good times in life – growing up, making up dances in the school playground, learning lyrics from the latest issue of Smash Hits, our first snog, celebrating the end of our GCSEs, passing our driving test, our first holiday without our parents, legendary nights out on the tiles.

Kick start your weekend with an Official Charts Pop Gem - a retro-poptastic prescription for that 4pm energy dip at work/college, an extra dollop of melodic goodness in your afternoon mug of PG Tips. And remember, once your 3-4 minutes of indulgence has hit the spot, do share the love with your mates. It’s your pop duty!

So here goes, the first Pop Gem out of the blocks:

Michelle Gayle – Sweetness

The second and highest charting single of ‘Hattie from EastEnders’, Sweetness entered the Official Singles Chart at Number 15 upon its release back in September 1994, where it climbed, and climbed, and climbed a bit more before peaking at Number 4, six whole weeks later. To date, Sweetness has sold 224,000 copies here in the UK.

You can grab your own copy from any of our retailer friends here Amazon, 7Digital or iTunes *

* Other good pop retailers are available

Anyway, we hereby declare Michelle Gayle’s Sweetness as the perfect summery Friday sing-a-long, so crank it up, pop peeps, the weekend is here. Enjoy!