20. Maxine Nightingale – Right Back Where We Started From (1975)

It’s hard to imagine anyone’s heart not being lifted a little by Right Back Where We Started From: the euphoric rush of new love rendered into three minutes of cod-northern soul (performed, unexpectedly, by various ex members of ELO, the Animals and 60s soft-poppers Honeybus). Avoid the 80s cover by Sinitta at all costs.

19. CMAT – Nashville (2022)

A song about fresh starts for anyone who’s made a new year resolution with no intention of sticking to it. CMAT announces her departure for Tennessee, organises a farewell party (“We’ll cry to K-pop and tequila shots”) and gives her friends presents to remember her by. One problem: she’s made the whole story of her emigration up.

18. The Carpenters – We’ve Only Just Begun (1970)

We’ve Only Just Begun had unpromising beginnings – a jingle on a US TV advert for a bank, opportunistically picked up on by a hit-hungry Richard Carpenter. Enter his sister, Karen, whose incredible vocal – alternately joyous and tender – transformed a song intended to flog mortgages into an authentically moving hymn to new love.

17. Astrud Gilberto – Beginnings (1969)

Originally a hit for Chicago, Astrud Gilberto’s cover of Beginnings turns a fabulous song into a masterpiece: lush, funky, epic. “It’s only the beginning of what I want to feel for ever,” she coos from its tumbling drums to its exhilarating brass to her breathy, wide-eyed vocal, the whole thing sounds the way that falling in love feels.

16. Joe Smooth – Promised Land (1987)

Written for a primarily Black, gay audience in the teeth of the Aids epidemic, a lot of early house tracks were effectively songs of resistance and optimism. Promised Land might be the greatest of them all: the cosseting warmth of its sound underscoring its assurance that everything can and will change.

15. Florence + the Machine – Dog Days Are Over (2008)

A song that acknowledges new beginnings and fresh starts can be intimidating, involving dragging yourself out of your comfort zone. “You can’t carry it with you if you want to survive,” admonishes Florence Welch in what sounds like a note to self: the stridency of her tone and the thunderous power of the music seems to be pushing her on.

14. Pulp – Something Changed (1995)

“When we woke up that morning we had no way of knowing / That in a matter of hours we’d change the way we were going”: the soundtrack for the kind of new beginning that’s not planned or resolved, the sweet, soft-hued Something Changed marvels at the wonder of life-altering coincidence.

13. The The – This Is the Day (1983)

The The’s Soul Mining was an album recorded under the influence of the then-largely unknown drug MDMA, which possibly accounts for This Is the Day’s cocktail of fragile introspection (the verses) and fuzzy, hopeful elation (the chorus): life’s a mess, it compellingly argues, but from this point on it’s going to get better.

12. Otis Clay – The Only Way Is Up (1980)

Yazz’s chart-topping 1988 cover is better known, but for sheer grin-inducing punch-the-air jubilation, Mississippi vocalist Otis Clay’s original can’t be beaten. The strings are pure disco exhilaration, but the vocals are steeped in gospel: he sings like a man who’s genuinely known tough times, and can barely contain his delight that they’re over.

11. Gloria Gaynor – I Will Survive (1978)

It’s been overplayed to within an inch of its life, but I Will Survive became ubiquitous as a queer anthem and the divorcee’s karaoke belter of choice for a reason. Its lyrics perfectly fix the emotional effort involved in picking oneself up and starting again; Gloria Gaynor sings the hell out of it.

10. McAlmont and Butler – Yes (1995)

A new start is made with a triumphant up-yours – lent an extra gossipy frisson by Bernard Butler’s acrimonious split from Suede – set to what may be the most glorious, dizzyingly uplifting melody of the Britpop era, delivered with the perfect blend of pathos and panache by David McAlmont. Magic.

9. Diana Ross – I’m Coming Out (1980)

Disco-era Diana Ross was big on anthems of rebirth – see also 1979’s fantastic I Ain’t Been Licked – but I’m Coming Out is the classic: written by the Chic Organisation with her gay following in mind, the bounce in Nile Rodgers’ guitar and Bernard Edwards’ amazing bassline could make a devoted pessimist feel positive about the future.

8. Bronski Beat – Smalltown Boy (1984)

Like a queer analogue to the Beatles’ She’s Leaving Home, a song about new beginnings that concentrates on the reasons why one might be driven to make a fresh start. Its mood is sombre and haunted, but there’s a promise of something better beginning in its urgent dancefloor beat and instrumental middle eight.

7. Peter Gabriel – Solsbury Hill (1977)

In which the recently ex-frontman of Genesis reflects on his decision to quit – “my friends would think I was a nut” – and comes to the conclusion that he was absolutely right: he will, he vows “show another me”. He’s left wreathed in smiles, with a racing heart, a mood that seeps into song’s subtly, but nevertheless effortlessly uplifting music.

6. David Bowie – A New Career in a New Town (1977)

An instrumental that nevertheless perfectly fits its title: a tentative intro explodes into music that sounds fresh and optimistic, topped off with breezy harmonica heavily influenced by Mr Bloe’s 1970 hit Groovin’ With Mr Bloe. David Bowie referenced it on I Can’t Give Everything Away, the leave-taking closing track on his final album, Blackstar.

5. Public Image Limited – Public Image (1978)

A new beginning in the most literal sense. PiL sonically heralded the arrival of post-punk, furiously excoriated the band John Lydon had left behind and loudly announced things would be different from now on: “I’m not the same as when I began … it’s my entrance, my own creation.” It’s still indecently exciting.

4. Nina Simone – Feeling Good (1965)

Forget Feeling Good’s grisly 21st century fate – doomed to be gormlessly belted out by sundry X Factor contestants, Michael Bublé and, dear God, the Pussycat Dolls – head to Nina Simone’s definitive reading, and gawp at its gradual, increasingly elated build from emotive a cappella intro to show-stopping, this-is-my-moment finale.

3. The Beatles – Here Comes the Sun (1969)

Somewhere in the hereafter, one rather imagines George Harrison allowing himself a wry chuckle at the fact that Here Comes the Sun has been streamed 1bn more times than any other Beatles track. You can see why: filled with a lovely sense of gentle cyclical renewal, it’s the musical equivalent of a reassuring hug in the face of uncertainty.

2. Curtis Mayfield – Move on Up (1970)

It says something about its sheer quality that a song so familiar hasn’t lost its power: from the first insistent burst of brass through Curtis Mayfield’s constantly urging lyrics – “Take nothing less than the supreme best / Do not obey rumours people say” – to its dizzying chorus, it makes striving to change sound like a blast.

1. Fleetwood Mac – Don’t Stop (1977)

There’s a hint of well-that’s-easy-for-you-to-say about Don’t Stop: it was written by Christine McVie for her husband, John, after their marriage had broken down and she’d embarked on an affair with Fleetwood Mac’s lighting director, urging him to think of her departure as a new start. But nonetheless, it’s preposterously effective: the cantering rhythm urges you forward, the melody is buoyant, Lindsey Buckingham’s vocals and guitar alike are emphatic and persuasive, the lyrics carry no hint of the bitterness that marks Rumours’ many other songs about starting afresh, and Christine McVie’s carefree piano lines are an airy delight.