25 Years Since....July 2000

In July 2000 I was probably more likely to be writing and playing music than listening to it, but still plenty of tunes I was enjoying listening to:

Lonyo - Summer Of Love

In the summer of 1999 Ibiza really looked like the place to be, but in the summer of 2000 it wasn't. One factor would have been that the dance music of the moment was UK garage and that was more likely to be found in Ayia Napa. Here's a record that was no doubt being played over there and one of many great garage records coming out around this time. 

Detroit Gand Pubahs - Sandwiches

It's obviously difficult to take a record about sandwiches seriously. Let's face it though, dance music has never been known for having decent lyrics and nor should it. The lyrics to this are a load of nonsense but draws attention and from there you can appreciate the actual music.

Artful Dodger ft Craig David & Robbie Craig - Woman Trouble

After the success of their chart debut and respective follow ups, Artful Dodger and Craig David are reunited on this record. This time though Craig David doesn't really do much on this record with the lions share of the vocals going to Robbie Craig. In my mind this is the best tune Craig David has been involved with, but not the best Artful Dodger record. That's more to do with how good other Artful Dodger tunes are and it is up there with the best. 

Alice Deejay - Will I Ever

In some ways I wished that Alice Deejay were a one hit wonder with "Better Off Alone". Whilst clearly commercial I like to think the minimal vocals give it a degree of credibility. The music that followed was cheesy as fuck, but a lot of fun to listen to at the same time. This is probably the best of those cheesy records, but I can't help but think it inspired some genuinely dreadful vocal trance such as Lasgo.

Zed Bias - Neighbourhood

Since we entered the 21st century these posts have been very garage heavy. The point is to reflect the music I was enjoying at the time though and its true to say I was listening to garage way more than any other genre of music around this time. 

2000: The Good Old Days? - December

One thing we can now do in the year 2000 is compare how much guitar music there was compared to the so called year of rock that was 2001. In December the answer was there wasn't a lot, just "Warning" by Green Day and "Thank You For Loving Me" by Bon Jovi and neither record is any good.

2000 was a year dance music was big and December may have given me an incline that 2001 would be the year of hard house because we have 3 of those records this month.

None of them are bad records, we have "Operation Blade (Bass In The Place)" by Public Domain which seemed to be to hard house what "Re-Rewind" was to garage a year earlier. There's "Storm Animal" by Storm and "Phatt Bass" by Warp Brothers vs Aquagen but this one is only good enough for half marks.

UK garage wasn't looking as good. MJ Cole could be relied on for a decent record in "Hold On To Me". However, we had Oxide & Neutrino with their garage take on "No Good" by The Prodigy which was rubbish and True Steppers continuing with the boy band/girl group vocalists with Brian Harvey on vocals to "True Step Tonight" which was just commercial nonsense.

The best record though is "My Feeling" by Junior Jack. I'm surprised it charted this late because it was definitely doing the rounds in 1999.

Rap wise we have "Stan" by Eminem and whilst there was no doubting how popular Eminem was, I did consider it to be odd how such a dark record could be so popular. Maybe it was the depression of the 21st century setting in. There was also a decent rap record from Mystikal with "Shake Ya Ass".

You could feel the pain of Wyclef Jean in "911" which is a great record. Craig David had completely moved away from garage into R&B with "Walking Away". Not a great move in the long run, but this record was decent at least.

The worst record was something me and my friends with differing music tastes could agree was the worst record at that moment which was "Independent Women Part 1" by Destiny's Child. We agreed that they made the worst music ever. Fortunately Apollo 440 were on hand to provide a decent record for the "Charlie's Angels" soundtrack which was appropriately titled "Charlie's Angels 2000".

Here's a list of the records with the best on top, worst at the bottom and the good ones in green, OK ones in amber and rubbish ones in red (and in no particular order):

Score: 27%

Here's a look at the chart:

A promising start given this is December, but it's now safe to say December 1999 was better than any December in the 21st century.

January Charts: 1969

Here are the new entries ranked from best to worst:

1. Cream - White Room

2. The Isley Brothers - I Guess I'll Always Love You

3. Marv Johnson - I'll Pick A Rose For My Rose

4. Tymes - People

5. Canned Heat - Going Up The Country

6. Johnny Nash - You Got Soul

7. Wilson Pickett - Hey Jude

8. Marvin Gaye And Tammi Terrell - You Ain't Livin' Till You're Lovin'

9. Jethro Tull - Love Story

10. Simon And Garfunkel - Mrs Robinson

11. Eric Burdon And The Animals - Ring Of Fire

12. Nina Simone - To Love Somebody

In my original search for the best year of the charts 1969 came first. It also had the best Christmas charts too. How about January charts then?

Well under the old scoring criteria this batch would score 100%. There isn't a bad record in there, not even an OK record, I like them all.

The best record is "White Room" by Cream who had already broken up by this point. It was their penultimate Top 40 hit and one of their better known despite only reaching number 28.

There's a couple of Motown records next. The Isley Brothers failed to reach the Top 40 when they first released "I Guess I'll Always Love You" in 1966. Marv Johnson was back in the Top 40 for the first time since 1960 with "I'll Pick A Rose For My Rose".

More soul music next with the Tymes back in the charts for the first time since 1963 with "People". Canned Heart were a band of the moment with their 2nd hit "Going Up The Country. Then we have "You Got Soul" by Johnny Nash which despite its title wasn't a soul record, it was a rocksteady record.

A decent cover of "Hey Jude" by Wilson Pickett which was his final Top 40 hit. Then more Motown from Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell with their 3rd duet to hit the Top 40. There's the debut of Jethro Tull with "Love Story" which was before they were considered a progressive rock band.

"Mrs Robinson" by Simon & Garfunkel had charted the previous year but was back as an EP hence its inclusion and a decent record despite being 3rd from bottom. "Ring Of Fire" was the final hit for The Animals, it was a cover of the Johnny Cash song and is better than you'd expect it to be.

Finally Nina Simone covers "To Love Somebody" by The Bee Gees. It's a decent cover and finds itself bottom due to the competition.

I get the feeling 1969 is going to win this again.

Score: 68

UK Number 40s: Kelly Clarkson - Darkside (2012)

 

With each series of the X Factor you would typically have contestants who will at least go on to have some sort of chart career in the UK. With American Idol it's the opposite, look at the list of winners and you'll struggle to find too many who have had a UK Top 40 hit. 

Bucking that trend is the first American Idol winner Kelly Clarkson. Some may understandably think she only had hit's in America. Indeed her winners song was never a UK hit. But she's had an unbelievable 18 Top 40 hits at the time of writing. That's even more than original UK Pop Idol winner Will Young achieved and he was one of the success stories from the TV competitions.

By the time this record came out it had been a decade since she won American Idol. Earlier that year she'd topped the American charts with "Stronger" and probably didn't even notice this only making number 40 over here.

Her next move was to do a Christmas album which in turn has led to her returning to the Christmas charts on an annual basis.

UK Number 40s: Nadia Ali - Rapture (2012)

 

This record came close to claiming both a number 1 and a number 40 for it's 2 different versions. Instead it just fell short of topping the charts when first released by iiO in 2001 making number 2.

Nadia Ali was the singer of iiO but left the duo in 2005. Fellow iiO member Markus Moser continued on his own up until 2011 when he retired the name. Nadia Ali meantime had become a solo artist but had no Top 40 hits until this.

It had been a decade since the original had been released. In that time the popularity of dance music had declined but then rose from the ashes to appeal to a younger crowd and alienate the older dance music fans. This was therefore given an EDM makeover by Avicii who was one of the big DJs of the modern era. He was however still in the infancy of his Top 40 career, so this was no doubt big in the clubs but not so big in the charts.

Top 30 in 1999 Reviewed: Week 30

Here's my weekly look at the Top 30 from 26 years ago. The plan is for these posts to go out at 17:30 on a Sunday.

Here is the Top 40 in full.

I've decided against repetition from previous weeks moving forward so will only feature the records I'm reviewing for the first time. I also won't repeat the reviews from the Top 20 in 1999 Reviewed posts.

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 records new to the top 30 from this week in 1999 with my verdict on each record:

26. Daniel O'Donnell - Uno Mas

Now I've listened to this song I hope to never hear a Daniel O'Donnell record ever again. How he managed to have so many hits in the 90s is beyond me. He had one more but I've already covered that in my Top 20 from 1999 posts.

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 12.5/30, or 42%. Drawn the short straw with the only record I've had to listen to this week.

Dutch Top 40 1995: Week 30

These were the new entries in the Dutch Top 40 that never made the UK Top 40:

Guus Meeuwis & Vagant - Het Is Een Nacht

We began with a Dutch act singing in Dutch. This was the Dutch Top 40 debut for Guue Meeuwis & Vagant and it was a chart topper. They also managed to top the Dutch Top 40 with their 2nd hit but that didn't come until 1996. Guus Meeuwis has had a Dutch Top 40 hit as recent as 2020. He's never had a UK Top 40 hit though he is popular enough in London at least to play the Royal Albert Hall.

Flair - Oh Middernacht

Flair are described on Discogs as a Dutch party group. It sounds like the sort of record you'd hear on Eurotrash. Despite the Dutch title they start singing in English but then start singing in Dutch part way through the song. As most Dutch people can speak English I guess that works.

Soeur Plus - Dominique

This was originally a hit in the 60s for the Singing Nun who was Belgian. This is a Dutch Eurodance cover with with some rapping added in. It's a cheesy as you'd expect it to be.

Sin with Sebastian - Shut Up (And Sleep With Me)

E Rotic weren't the only German Eurodance act making explicit record in 1995. Sin with Sebastian was one man who also did a bit of rapping on the record. This was his only Dutch Top 40 hit. 

Jordan Hill - Remember Me This Way

If you've seen Caspar then you'll probably be familiar with this record. I say probably because I've never seen the film myself but this is in it. That said the record does ring a vague bell. It was the only Dutch Top 40 hit for American singer Jordan Hill and she never had a UK Top 40 hit.

Lois Lane - Tonight

This record has nothing to do with Superman. Lois Lane were a Dutch duo consisting of sisters Monique and Suzanne Klemann. They had their first Dutch Top 40 hit in 1988 and this was their penultimate Dutch Top 40 hit.