By a strange coincidence, Jon Udell demonstrated a web service by posting a List of US Number 1 songs for December 3, for every year since 1955. December 3 is, as I mentioned a few days ago, my birthday. His comment on the list was “not a very encouraging trend”, but looking through it, I'd only rate one song (The Beatles Come Together) higher than three out of five. I'd say that's pretty damning proof that the number one song has always been rubbish, with rare moments of greatness. The only difference is that as time passes, some of them become nostalgic rubbish.