In reply to steve taylor:
> I think I skipped about 3-4 tracks - the rest were quite good. I was also surprised how many of them I knew (unlike when listening to John Peel's Festive 50 back in the day)
That was part of the appeal of the festive 50. Though it was quite predictable in the seventies and early eighties.
The NME list looks pretty good - I’ll give it a listen.