I'm hoping my readers are smart enough to be either ROTFL at their ineptness (I just typed "ineptmess" by mistake but that newly-invented term equally fits the situation) or having their jaws hitting the floor at how this ever passed a proofreader and/or fact-checker. I'm sure that all of you are smart enough to know that "Unchained Melody" charted in the Top 20 twice FOR THE RIGHTEOUS BROTHERS and that "ENDLESS LOVE" was a #1 hit for 9 weeks of 1981 for Lionel Richie and Diana Ross. Seeing that both songs sold 1 million copies, evidently some editor had been living in an underground shelter without a radio. I even Googled to see if Richie & Ross had ever performed a cover of "Unchained Melody" I didn't know about (they hadn't) or to try to trace the origins of this list to see if it was locally produced or nationally syndicated, but got no hits, so I can't tell who's to blame.
#2 on the list was a tune called "Evergreen" by Will Young that I had never heard before, so I just checked it out to find that it wasn't bad at all. However, another error worthy of ridicule is the #7 position posted as " 'Careless Whisper' by George Michael." First, the song wasn't a solo effort as it was credited to "Wham! featuring George Michael" (a fact you would know if you read my "Today in '80s-Ness" feature on this website for this week) and second, it's about infidelity, which isn't the most romantic topic.
They also incorrectly spelled "Debbie Boone" - big whoop - but I will give somebody credit for not including the wretchedly overexposed Whitney Houston cover of "I Will Always Love You" anywhere on this list. However, that praise is almost negated by the inclusion of Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On" at #9. By the way, as I type this from the newspaper copy I just noted that they didn't even include a #8, simply jumping from #7 to #9.
Snicker, snort, sneer.