SIR Mick Jagger and North East Chamber of Commerce chief executive James Ramsbotham have more in common than being dapper, in decent nick (for their age), and on nodding terms with half of the Royal Family.

They have both suffered chart disappointment – Jagger in 1971 and Ramsbotham in 2015, more of which later.

It might be the ideal song to get middle aged blokes onto the dancefloor but Brown Sugar by The Rolling Stones is among the stone cold classics that failed to make the number one spot – robbed of glory by Dawn's Knock Three Times.

The Kinks’ Waterloo Sunset, My Generation by The Who and even the greatest double A-side of all time - Strawberry Fields Forever/Penny Lane by The Beatles - stalled at number two in the charts, beaten to number one by Engelbert Humperdinck's Release Me.

Even the sight of George and Andrew frolicking in the snow, all fur coats and no girlfriends, wasn’t enough to secure Wham the 1984 Christmas number one.

The recurring message is that whenever you compile a chart you are going to leave some people disappointed.

Reviews of the year have never been my cup of tea. I would rather look forward to the stories we are going to cover in 2016 – which for us includes significant anniversaries for Darlington Building Society and Nissan - than to dwell on the pieces we have already written. But 2015 has been the most incredible year on business and it deserves a moment of our time to reflect.

In previous years we have produced a traditional month by month review. But these are inevitably dry-as-sticks affairs and in my experience few people read any piece that opens with a line such as “The business year started with a bang in January when…...”

So this year we’ve added a bit of competition and listed the year’s key North-East business stories in order of importance from 20 to 1. There is no science behind it. The chart was decided by the Echo business desk – that means me and Steven Hugill – so if you disagree with any of our choices then give us a call, email, or in the case of Stockton South MP James Wharton, unblock me from your Twitter account and send me a personal message.

Our first ten choices are published in today’s Jobs&Business. Despite celebrating its 200th anniversary in fine style the NECC did not make the cut, but some incredible North-East businesses did.  

Follow me on Twitter @bizecho