The best No 1 records: Thunderclap Newman – Something in the Air

Very few protest songs have reached number one and only one has called for armed insurrection, albeit in a dreamy, non-committal, Beatles-biting way. A song that cries "Hand out the arms and ammo" is a sharp reminder of just how strange things had become by the dying months of the 60s. Singer John "Speedy" Keen, a former roadie for The Who, wasn't exactly about to join the Angry Brigade but he managed to bottle the mixed emotions of that brief moment when "revolution" was the hip buzzword and hippie idealism was giving way to something wilder. You could read British Airways' subsequent co-opting of the song in an advert featuring arch-conservative PJ O'Rourke as a wry comment on the commodification of dissent but they probably just liked the tune.

See all the No 1 singles from 1969