The following "top 40 chart" is based on customer requests monitored over the last nine years or so! Now that we have a Wurlitzer Jukebox in each of our major outlets....we are going to keep regular track of what The Hot Spot's customers like to listen to while they eat their goodies!

We notice sadly that many of our own personal favourites have not made the list by a long shot.

Anyway this is the updated list of what Hot Spotters are listening to on a regular basis. (updated August 1, 2004)

In a huge turn up for the books the Guyanese Reggae Dancehall singer Raghav has hit the summit even though his song "Can't Get Enough" was inserted into the Jukebox as late as Feb of this year...so, he has hit the top in just 5 months beating out songs that have been tabulated for years! Raghav's success has been powered by a craze at the Lahore Hot Spot where it is the most played song by quite a distance.

In Islamabad the most played song was Bitter Sweet Symphony which made quite a leap last month but Peter Gabriel's Darkness remix has come out of nowhere. Kelis's Milkshake seems to be gathering some airplay in the recent month after a lull previously.

Creed continue to make inroads with a number of their songs proving very popular with Hot Spot listeners. Coldplay make their first appearance in the top echelons and its good to see My Sharona still managing to get a play or two a quarter of a century on. Dido makes a debut appearance and is one of only 6 songs by female artists in the listed 40.

The Hot Spot Juke Box

At the Hot Spot, our music policy is quite straight forward…….there is no music policy! However, those who have been regular customers over the years would have come to realize that The Hot Spot definitely does have its own preferences and dislikes– and here is where we would like to identify those musicians who “Lord it over” The Hot Spot’s CD jukeboxes and explain a little bit about how and why!

In no particular order: KRAFTWERK – from West Germany as it was then, these four avowed weirdoes came together in the mid 70’s to assemble some of the most pioneering and influential electro tracks that were to serve as the blue print for the electro-hip hop explosion that was just around the corner. The media shy foursome produced a totally automated, robotic, industrial sound and featured no “real” instruments at all and relied heavily on interweaving and overlapping rhythms merged with some very catchy tunes and some understated lyrics (to say the least!). Kraftwerk fired their colossal Trans Europe Express in 1981 and followed it up with one of the most influential albums ever especially when it comes to discussing the origins of the Hip Hop movement. Few tracks can have been as essential and as influential as the simple yet stunning Numbers upon which successors such as Arthur Baker’s Planet Rock and countless others were built. The same brilliant, groundbreaking Computerworld record included the mesmerizing title track which to date remains the groups biggest commercial single success and the wonderful Home Computer. Computerworld ranks as one of the Hot Spots most worshipped records of all time! Hail to the Kings…………Kraftwerk the Godfathers of modern day Hip Hop.

At another side of the spectrum is the much celebrated, and deservedly so, Peter Gabriel – an undoubted genius and blessed with a maybe imperfect yet beautifully soulful voice. Perhaps no other artist is as well represented in The Hot Spot Jukebox as PG – but even though you will find all the old favourites and classics such as Biko, Shock the Monkey, San Jacinto, Games Without Frontiers, In Your Eyes, Red Rain etc etc etc…you will also find some true rarities such as the wonderful Soft Dog, the essential Curtains and a very rare duet with Kate Bush and tracks such as brilliant Party Man and his collaboration with Deep Forrest and the Afro Celt musicians. A great musician, one of the best of our times - and can there possibly anything more rousing than the LIVE version of In Your Eyes from the Secret World Tour?

Marvin Gaye – taken away from the world far, far too soon but his legacy lives on with such all time greats as What’s Goin On, Lets Get it on, Piece of Clay and THAT memorable groove and the smoulderingly delivered Sexual Healing. Marvin’s daughter Nona turns in a turn her dad would’ve been proud of with the Great Purple One called Love Sign – check it out!

Prince is arguably the artist with the largest share of songs in the Hot Spot Jukebox – sadly his undoubted genius has been on the wane in recent times and now its by chance rather than by rule that he might churn out a true classic. However, there have been few if any that can match up to the sheer innovative brilliance of the Purple One who from 1977 to 1990 provided some of the great pop music of modern times. At The Hot Spot you will find loads of early Prince to listen to but hardly any beyond his Artist/Symbol days. He may be very, very strange and he may be a total sex-dwarf and a Purple Wonder and what not – he may be all of those and more, yet he is a huge musical genius the likes of which aren’t born everyday! Hail the Purple One!!

The Supremes – cynics would claim that this all girl supergroup from the 60’s were no more than the Spice Girls of their times – maybe – but they nonetheless provided the world of pop with music a string of chartbusting yet highly infectious and cleverly arranged little ditties that made them second only to the mighty Beatles when it came to popularity in the screaming 60’s. Berry Gordy and his team of musical arrangers and tinkerers at Motown churned out hit after hit and Gordy played up the charisma of frontwoman Diana Ross and the hits just kept on rolling. The Supremes defined the classic Motown sound of the mid 60’s and unlike the songs of the Spice Girls, their songs retain much of their popularity and freshness 40 years on.

Rick James – What can one say about Slick Rick other than mention that he had the most cringeworthy album covers ever seen! However once the grooves start kicking up, you know that the King of Punk Funk with his distinctive arrangements has well and truly arrived. Things were going great guns until his creativity and his career were virtually destroyed by his cocaine addiction and some sordid related affairs that landed Rick in the slammer. However, when he was hot he turned out his distinctive style of “Punk Funk” to brilliant effect. Check out any of the following to sample what Slick Rick was and his Punk Funk was all about: Give it to me Baby, Big Time, Love Gun, I’m Just a Sucker for Your Love, Dance Wit Me, Cold Blooded and his biggest hit Super Freak.

The Time – Prince’s brilliance spawned a band The Time that consisted of some unknown characters who would in times to come carve out stunningly successful careers as producers. Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis who were in the driving seat behind most of Janet Jackson’s hits emerged from The Time as did other notable artists. The Time was fronted by the charismatic Morris Day and they turned out some deliciously funky jams in the early to mid 80’s. They never really made it huge and had to break up due to the overload of sheer talent yet while they were together they provided some memorable stuff such as Jungle Love from the film Purple Rain and Get it up, Cool, The Stick, 777-9311 just to name a few. This sound was the unique sound of Minneapolis funk of the early 80’s and here it is tinged with more than a touch of humour. Great stuff, if not for all tastes.

Cameo – One of the top funk bands of the late 70’s and early 80’s…….in fact, arguably the best of the lot! Word up is now an anthem, but these guys are no one hit wonders.

Stevie Wonder – has turned out a lot of dross over his career and huge amounts in the last decade or so…and his duets with various people have been sickly, however for each pile of mediocrity that he has turned out the man has a gem to balance it out with! His great creative stretch seemed to have virtually ended with the Hotter Than July effort but once in a while the man is capable of reminding us of what a genius he once was. Check out Uptight or Signed Sealed Delivered or Boogie On Reggae Woman to hear Stevie at his funky best.

Roberta Flack – a Ph.D and blessed with one hell of a soulful voice she leant to some truly memorable songs of the 70’s such as The First Time Ever I Saw, Killing Me Softly, Where is the Love, You’ve Got a Friend etc. One sure sign of the quality of her work is that the best stuff never sounds out of date. Killing Me Softly must surely rank as one of the truly great pop tunes ever.

Michael MacDonald – of the Doobie Brothers – one of the few white men on the planet who have the soul of a black man’s voice! Not quite a trailblazer or ever anywhere near a cutting edge but then who cares because a great voice is a great voice and better yet when belting out cover versions of Motown classics among others!

Slave – More “heavy” RnB jams from this Dayton based band who had a little crossover success as the excellent Watching You, Snap Shot, Wait For Me and I Feel So Real managed to break into the pop charts from the “soul” charts on both sides of the Atlantic. Steve Arrington’s unique, almost tuneless style of singing might hit some weird notes yet there can be no doubting the man’s “soulfulness” which proves seriously addictive if a bit of an acquired taste. Vintage 80’s funk – before the machines took over completely.

These are the performers who feature most prominently on The Hot Spot jukebox: The Supremes, Sheryl Crow, Prince, Talking Heads, Slave, Cameo, Rick James, David Byrne & Brian Eno, Gary Glitter, T Rex, Sly & Robbie, Grease, Old Skool Electro, Arthur Baker, Blondie, Kraftwerk, Ananda Shankar, Sam Cooke, Marvin Gaye, Nona Hendryx, Oasis, David Bowie, Giorgio Moroder, Paul Weller, Eagle Eye Cherry, Nahid Akhtar, Madame Noor Jehan, Raghav, Creed, Peter Gabriel, Rolling Stones, Nina Simone, Rufus & Chaka, The Jacksons, Michael Jackson, Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, The Police, Chic, Loop Guru, Beenie Man, Bob Marley, Ike & Tina, U2, Jimmy Cliff, Little Richard, Otis Redding, Lauryn Hill, Simon & Garfunkel, Grace Jones, Tracy Chapman, Mighty Sparrow, Blur, Cornershop, Natalie Merchant, Khaled, Beatles, The Verve, The Time, Etta James, Donna Summer, The Sparks, Yazoo, New Order, Bee Gee’s,