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:
This song was taken to number one in the 60s by father/daughter duo Frank & Nancy Sinatra. It's one of the all time worst songs in my opinion. In December 1995 we were treated to 2 different versions, this one by Ali Campbell and his then 8 year old daughter. The other came from Mike and Alma from Coronation St which fortunately didn't make the Top 30.
Verdict - Rubbish
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
This record originally made number 40 in 1994 but was rereleased after Celine Dion had a hugely successful 1995.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
27. Faithless - Insomnia (New)
I've now heard this record more times in my life than I care to remember. It's one of those records that's universally loved, even by people who generally don't like dance music. I liked this so much I bought the single and I've never bought that many singles really.
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
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
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
23. Jodeci - Love U 4 Life (New)
This record is just as well known for its video. Jodeci member Mr Dalvin and T Boz from TLC were a couple at the time and this was a fictional wedding between the 2 being orchestrated by Reverend Run. I like it before I saw the video and I guess you could say I should love this record for life.
Verdict - Good
It's December so we have the inevitable Cliff Richard record in an attempt to get the Christmas number one. In reality this one didn't have a hope in hell but I do remember it being an outside candidate at the time.
Verdict - Rubbish
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
In a way it seems quite odd releasing a record with "summer" in the title in December but on the other hand it also has "cold" in the title so does seem appropriate. This was the joint lowest charting Top 40 hit for Erasure to this point and didn't make their greatest hits album. a solid record though.
Verdict - Good
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
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
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
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
15. Skee-Lo - I Wish (New)
I would have had this record down as being more 1993, not just it sounding more 1993 but seems to fit more in with my life around 1993. It's different to your typical 90s rap record and a lot more radio friendly, but it's good.
Verdict - Good
In the post Louise era of Eternal they came back with perhaps the most uplifting record they'd released to date in "Power of a Woman". They followed it up with this, which is perhaps their most dreary. It was composed by the writer of "Nothin At All" by Heart and the write of "In the Ones You Love" by Diana Ross.
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
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
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
This is the final Top 10 hit to date for Prince. It's nearly 6 minutes long but I can't help but think it's too short, when it finishes I just want to listen to it for longer. If you can get a record for that long to have that sort of impact on me then you must be doing something right.
Verdict - Good
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
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
It's funny how there were a number of us who spent the 90s looking forward to the year 2000, but then as the 21st century got under way we longed for the 90s again. I always liked the story of the song, but I've only just discovered that it was a true story and Deborah, the subject of the song is sadly no longer with us.
Verdict - Good
Prior to this record Mariah Carey had 2 uplifting hits in a row with "All I Want For Christmas Is You" and "Fantasy". She was never going to do 3 in a row, but teamed up with Boyz II Men to allow her to do a dreary ballad that could fall under the R&B banner.
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
I remember the race for Christmas number one and not liking the fact this record won the race instead of Mike Flowers Pops. It seems to me that the only reason this topped the charts was because it was Michael Jackson. It's hard to take the lyrical content seriously when it's being sung by a man who had a funfair in his own back garden.
Verdict - Rubbish
If we give the records which were good 1 point each and those which were OK half a point, the final score is 14/30, or 47%. The end of year slump has begun.
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