11: Freiheit, “Keeping the Dream Alive” (no.14, 1988)

A song that triggers a whole wave of associations: the soundtrack to a young boy’s Christmas (charting in the December of ‘88, it was touted as a festive charttopper, losing out to, erm, “Mistletoe and Wine”); the fall of the Berlin Wall a year later (during which, I’m assured, “Keeping the Dream Alive” was as prominent as any David Hasselhoff or Scorpions track; the bandname does, after all, translate as “Freedom”); even Cameron Crowe’s Say Anything…, in which the track features just as Cusack is starting to get especially lovelorn over Ione Skye. The European one-hit wonder has taken a lot of flack over the years - no real surprise, with this pair around - but this remains more magical than naff in its naïve optimism.