Here's my weekly look at the Top 30 from 28 years ago. The plan is for these posts to go out at 17:30 on a Wednesday.
Here is the Top 40 in full.
Obviously some of the records will be the same as last week so therefore the review will be the same for these. I've indicated which ones are new so you can skip the others if you read last weeks post.
Once again my opinions are inevitably going to differ from other people, but I'm not trying to convince anyone something is good or rubbish, I'm simply giving my opinion.
So this is the top 30 from this week in 1995 with my verdict on each record:
Meat Loaf had a hugely successful comeback in 1993 and here he is again in 1995 with another successful comeback. This time it's not his usual songwriter Jim Steinman writing this record, it's Diane Warren. Despite this it sounds like a typical Meat Loaf record, ridiculously long and over the top.
Verdict - Rubbish
The 3rd Top 40 hit for Tina Arena. It was a cover of the Maria McKee record and it does seem like an appropriate record for Tina Arena to cover given her other records. At the same time the original of this was pretty average and this cover does nothing to improve it.
Verdict - Rubbish
This record starts of mellow but given who it is you just know the heavy guitars are going to kick in at some point, which they do. Whilst it no doubt livens up the song it does very little to really grab my attention.
Verdict - Rubbish
Michael Bolton is back to doing his ballad covers with this record. It was originally a record from the the 80s for Roy Orbison. I must confess I've never actually heard the original, but I could imagine Roy Orbison singing this and doing a better job.
Verdict - Rubbish
It had been 3 years since we'd last seen Simply Red in the Top 40 and this comeback single gave them their only number one record to date. The not very musical verses followed by a really catchy chorus works really well.
Verdict - Good
The Top 40 debut for Happy Clappers which is also the record they're best known for. It's members included Mark Topham who wrote several of Steps hits. I won't hold that against him though, this is very much a commercial record but an enjoyable one at the same time.
Verdict - Good
I remember hearing this record quite a bit in the summer of 1995 but it took until November for it to make the Top 40. It's in fact a 1993 tune and is one of the weirdest tunes ever. Weird in a good way though, I loved it at the time.
Verdict - Good
Definition Of Sound had a couple of hits in the early 90s and were back one last time in the Top 40 with this record. They were comparable to De La Soul when they first came about, but by this point both acts had gone in different directions, both good in their own way.
Verdict - Good
This record was from the James Bond film of the same name and was written by Bono and The Edge from U2. Not my cup of tea.
Verdict - Rubbish
Wet Wet Wet failed to reach the Top 10 with this record for the first time since "Love Is All Around" revived their Top 40 career. Maybe they'd lost their power now Marti Pellow no longer had his pony tail. Again it's a record I feel I shouldn't like but do.
Verdict - Good
20. Berri - Shine Like A Star (New)
The other Top 40 hit for Berri. The title implies this is likely to be a "Sunshine After the Rain" part 2 but it isn't. It follows the same cheesy eurodance formula but more crucially it's a fun record to listen to.
Verdict - Good
Yet another Whitney Houston song from a movie. The film in question is "Waiting To Exhale". It's a movie I've seen but remember nothing about so I guess you could say it was just as boring as this song.
Verdict - Rubbish
Ethics is an alias of Dutch producer Patrick Prins who had remixed "Don't You Want Me" that year. There's something about Dutch music generally in the 90s that just appeals to me to the point where part of me wanted to live in Holland to soak it all up.
Verdict - Good
I'm sure there was some influence from the Stranglers in this record, but not enough of an influence for Black Grape to get sued. I've not heard this record for a long time and it's better than I remember it being, it's silly but great fun.
Verdict - Good
16. PJ And Duncan - Perfect (New)
You're not supposed to take the music of PJ & Duncan seriously. These were Byker Grove actors about to turn TV presenters, not musicians. The big problem with this record though is it isn't even funny.
Verdict - Rubbish
15. Celine Dion - Misled (New)
This record originally made number 40 in 1994 but was rereleased after Celine Dion had a hugely successful 1995. It still however remained her lowest charting Top 40 hit to this point. What's different about this record is that it's not a ballad. Still crap though.
Verdict - Rubbish
This was a cover of The Small Faces record done in typical M People style. The original version is a great record and the last thing it really needed was a lame generic dance version of it.
Verdict - Rubbish
13. Garbage - Queer (New)
This record fits the category of big at the time but not one you really hear anymore. I don't think I've heard this one since 1995. I did quite like it at the time and have memories of at least singing it in my head. Still sounds good.
Verdict - Good
The lead single from "Up All Night" which was the final studio album from East 17 as we knew them. I would also say that is the East 17 album I've listened to the most. This is one of my favourite East 17 singles too. I can't pin point one thing about it, the piano intro, the chorus, the verse, everything about this song is great.
Verdict - Good
When Blur won the chart battle against Oasis with "Country House" I thought it was pretty much the worst song I'd heard Blur do. The other singles from their "The Great Escape" album were pretty solid though starting with this one.
Verdict - Good
It's speculated that Bon Jovi don't really do much songwriting even though Jon Bon Jovi is a credited songwriter on all their original hits. The first 2 hits from the "These Days" album were also written by Desmond Child and it's said that in reality Desmond Child is the only writer of these songs. This record however was simply Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora. If Bon Jovi aren't really songwriters then I believe this to genuinely be written by Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora as it's not very good.
Verdict - Rubbish
I remember when this came out something that sprang to mind was that Madonna had previously made fun records like "Cherish" and "Dear Jessie" but was now making boring crap like this. Given she'd been around for over a decade and was a well established name, she could put any old crap out and people would buy it. This is what happened here.
Verdict - Rubbish
I don't think this was ever considered a true contender for Christmas number one but I guess it shouldn't have ever been ruled out considering how high it did chart. Bjork presented the Christmas Top of the Pops that year which obviously was recorded in advance of Christmas day when they wouldn't have known what was number one. Bjork announced Michael Jackson was Christmas number one, so presumably they recorded all possibilities of who could be Christmas number one and I do wonder whether they recorded Bjork saying she was Christmas number one herself. Anyway I didn't really like it at the time, but it's grown on me over the years.
Verdict - Good
I do recall at the time thinking who the fuck is buying Enya records? To me it was music for school teachers. What I really meant though was it sounded so out of place compared to the rest of the music us youngsters at the time were listening to, some of whom are now school teachers themselves. I now appreciate Enya's music for what it is and consider this to be good record.
Verdict - Good
6. Passengers - Miss Sarajevo (New)
Passengers were a side project of U2 and Brian Eno. This was their only Top 40 hit under that name and it features vocals from Luciano Pavarotti. An unlikely collaboration but it was one that worked in the case of this record.
Verdict - Good
There's a lot to say about this record, but what springs to mind personally was seeing people who once listened to rave now listening to Oasis. It was reflected on the TV on Byker Grove too. The music aspect had gone from Frew and Barney DJing to characters who's names I don't remember singing "Wonderwall". I was firmly in the rave camp by this point though and couldn't comprehend why people would listen to Oasis instead.
Verdict - Rubbish
To me this record illustrates all that was wrong with Boyzone's formula of doing lots of covers. The song is supposed to be a father singing to his son, but Ronan Keating was only 18 here and therefore more likely to be the age of the son being sang to. OK it's composer Cat Stevens was only a few years older when he wrote it, but I remember seeing Ronan Keating sing "look at me I am old" and thinking no you're not.
Verdict - Rubbish
At the time I was a big fan of "Gangsta's Paradise" and was convinced it had been in the Top 40 longer than anything else once it had been there a while. Turns out this record entered the Top 40 the same week. As both records fell to the lower reaches, I bought the "Gangsta's Paradise" single to help give it at least another week in the Top 40. Unfortunately "Gangsta's Paradise" dropped out, but this stayed another week and I wasn't happy about that. It failed to reach the Top 40 when first released but a Todd Terry remix gave it a new lease of life. Never seen the appeal myself though.
Verdict - Rubbish
I can't remember if it was the first time I'd heard it, but I can picture myself listening to this on the radio at the time and thinking this is the record I've been waiting to hear all my life. I could even tell you the name of the street I was going down when I was thinking that. There hadn't really been much of the dark side of rap music in the charts prior to this, but that's what I really wanted to hear. I even bought the single for this too which was the only thing I bought around this time that wasn't rave.
Verdict - Good
When the Christmas Top of the Pops came on, the announcer summed up 1995 as the year Take That lost Robbie and Eternal lost Louise but we gained Robson & Jerome. I once got slated for describing Robson & Jerome as a novelty act, but they were actors who sang on Soldier Soldier once which made Simon Cowell think they could be the next Zig & Zag. If that isn't a novelty act I don't know what is.
Verdict - Rubbish / Rubbish
If we give the records which were good 1 point each and those which were OK half a point, the final score is 15/30, or 50%. The closest we've got to dropping below 50% since week 2.
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