Thursday 20 April 2023

Christmas Charts Rated: 1997

Top 40

Best Song: Propellerheads And Shirley Bassey - History Repeating

One of my favourite albums of all time is "Decksdrumsandrockandroll" by Propellerheads so it seems a no brainer to pick a record that's on that album. The Propellerheads only had the one album and disappeared off the face of the earth afterwards, but this means they'll always be fondly remembered.

Worst Song: Steps - 5, 6, 7, 8

Line dancing is one of those things that appears to be popular in America but we've always ripped the piss out of it here. I therefore found it baffling why this line dancing record ever got released. It was fortunately a one off in that respect, but unfortunately Steps hung around for the following few years hurting our ears.

Top 40 Review

At the beginning of the year it seemed obvious that the Spice Girls would get Christmas number one at the end of the year even if they did "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star". In fact that may have been better than the rubbish they did get to Christmas number one with which was "Too Much" literally. They were also yet to leave the Top 40 with "Spice Up Your Life".

There was a much better girl group establishing themselves in the Top 40 in All Saints with "Never Ever". A good record which would knock the Spice Girls off the top of the charts in the new year. At the other end of the scale was the god awful girl group Vanilla with "No Way No Way".

A former boy band member was about to see his solo career change for the better as this was the time Robbie Williams was in the charts with "Angels". It was the first Robbie Williams single that I liked personally.

Just the one Christmas record which was "I Want An Alien For Christmas" by Fountains Of Wayne which came long before "Stacey's Mom" and is now long forgotten.

The old guard were making a significant contribution to the points. We've already mentioned Shirley Bassey, but we also have Hot Chocolate back in the Top 40 with a reissue of "You Sexy Thing". We also had Paul McCartney in the Top 40 with "Beautiful Night".

You could also stretch that definition to Rakim who was around in the 80s with Eric B and had his only solo Top 40 hit "Guess Who's Back". Then there was Janet Jackson, also around in the 80s, who had a surprisingly good record with "Together Again".

Paul McCartney was also the songwriter on one of the records getting full marks with Blackstreet doing a cover of "(Money Can't) Buy Me Love" by The Beatles.

1997 was the year that gave us more Top 40 hits than any other year. That also increases the likelihood of throwaway rubbish and there was no shortage of that. We had the BBC advert song with lots of different artists singing "Perfect Day". The latest big kids TV show "Teletubbies" were in there with a novelty record. There was also a Man Utd record in the charts.

It certainly feels like people have waited until Christmas to release crap which results in a single figure score.

Score: 9

Table

1997 gets into the Top 5 but it's the worst year of the 90s so far Christmas charts wise and falls short of it's best year score:



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