Dutch Top 40 1995: Week 3

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

Gijp - Geef Me Hoop Jomanda

Gijp is Rene van der Gijp, a Dutch former football player who retired from playing in 1992. I don't speak Dutch, but the title looks suspciously like "Gimme Hope Jo'Anna". That's because it basically is, but Jo'Anna has been replaced with Jomanda who is a Dutch healing medium. 

Vanessa & David McWilliams - Candlelight

Let's start with David McWilliams. He came from Northern Ireland and is best known as the original singer of "The Days Of Pearly Spencer" which never made the UK Top 40. In fact he never had a UK Top 40 hit. Vanessa is a Dutch singer who isn't really called Vanessa, her real name is Connie Witteman. This was a record that kept going round my head when I went to Holland. It's half Dutch I suppose.

De Dijk - Laaiend Vuur

De Dijk were a Dutch rock band who were active from 1981 - 2022. They had a dozen Top 40 hits in Holland, but most charted in the lower reaches. As all their records were in Dutch they never troubled the UK charts. We've now reached the first record that doesn't really ring a bell to me.

2003: The Good Old Days? - April

2003 has yet to be convincing as the good old days for the charts but there is one thing of note. When I see the list of new entries I know what the majority of them are. This certainly wasn't the case in the later years I've looked at.

Aside from pop the music prominent genre in April is dance music so that's where we'll start. I feel like Scooter had a new entry ever other month around this time and they can often be relied on for a point. This month is no exception with "Weekend". We also have the Top 40 debut from Goldfrapp with "Train" which is also a reliable full marks. 

The only other points from the dance music world is half a mark for Planet Funk with "Who Said (Stuck In The UK)". The rest is cheesy vocal trance and Eurodance , a far cry from 1999 when a lot of the charting trance records were decent.

This is perhaps why I was more into rap and R&B at the time. From the rap world we have solid efforts from Snoop Dogg with "Beautiful" and Nas with "I Can". The Roots have an interesting record with "The Seed (2.0)" that's rap with instruments and a funky groove and is good. There's a remix of "It's Tricky" by Run DMC which is alright, not as good as the original. No points for Eve with "Satisfaction" or Jay-Z with "Excuse Me Miss".

R&B is a bit more thin on the ground. Just a couple of alright records from Mario with "Just A Friend" and Aaliyah with "Don't Know What To Tell Ya". Then there's another abysmal attempt from Mariah Carey at doing R&B with "Boy (I Need You)".

The best record though is a mix of punk, rap and drum & bass. It's "Diamonds & Guns" which was the Top 40 debut for Transplants whose members included Tim Armstrong from Rancid and Travis Barker from Blink 182. 

In 2001 we had the group Hear'Say formed on the TV show Popstars. In 2002 they were finished but then in 2003 we had the solo careers. OK make that solo career as only Kym Marsh managed one. Her debut "Cry" came out this month and is the worst record. 

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: 23%

Here's a look at the chart:

It's back to the original story of 2003 i.e. not quite as good as 2004. Still 3 months to change that story though.

UK Number 40s: Bullet For My Valentine - 4 Words (To Choke Upon) (2005)

 

With a band name like Bullet For My Valentine you would expect their music to not exactly be radio friendly. A song title like "4 Words (To Choke Upon)" more of less confirms their music to not really be radio friendly.

Bullet For My Valentine are a heavy metal band who formed in 1998 but this was their Top 40 debut which came from their debut album "The Poison" which came out the same year.

Heavy metal has had a big following for a number of years now, but there has never really been a great deal of heavy metal records in the Top 40, particularly in the 21st century.

Bullet For My Valentine were really the last heavy metal band to have a handful of Top 40 hits. They've had a total of 5 and the highest they've ever reached is number 27.

UK Number 40s: Tears For Fears - Closest Thing To Heaven (2005)

 

2005 was a year that saw a number of older acts return to the charts after quite a lengthy gap. One of these acts was Tears For Fears who were back in the Top 40 after a decade long gap.

Tears For Fears in the 90s effectively became a Roland Orzabal solo act after Curt Smith left the group. This comeback single saw Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith reunited and was taken from their comeback album "Everybody Loves a Happy Ending".

It would be the last time we'd see Tears For Fears in the Top 40, but to have a Top 40 hit at this stage of their career would have no doubt been seen as an achievement.

Top 30 in 1999 Reviewed: Week 2

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.

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:

29. Alisha's Attic - Wish I Were You

I remember thinking the chart position of 29 was rather low given how big this record appeared to be at the time. The wheels were now starting to fall off for Alisha's Attic but there wasn't a better song from their "Illumina" album that they could have used as the 2nd single from it. Not bad, but not the best either.

Verdict - OK

25. Fierce - Right Here Right Now

The Top 40 debut for female R&B group Fierce. It was a low key start for them and they actually reached their commercial peak at the end of their Top 40 career. It's not a very strong record to start their career with, a bit of a non-entity really.

Verdict - Rubbish

24. Lighthouse Family - Postcard From Heaven

The Lighthouse Family formula was getting a bit tired by this record. This was their 9th Top 40 hit and it sounds like a poundland version of their Top 40 debut "Ocean Drive" and they had really reached the end of their shelf life.

Verdict - Rubbish

10. Prince - 1999

This record made the Top 40 twice in the 80s but given it's title it made perfect sense for this return to the charts in 1999. In reality it was the record label cashing in, I remember hearing that Prince himself had nothing to do with this re-issue. His Top 40 career was already finished in terms of original releases.

Verdict - Good

If we give the records which were good 1 point each and those which were OK half a point, the final score is 7/30, or 23%. A slight improvement.

Dutch Top 40 1995: Week 2

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

Irene Moors & De Smurfen - No Limit

The Smurfs first hit the UK Top 40 in the late 70s and then returned in the mid-90s most notably with their cover of "I Want To Be A Hippy" retitled "I've Got A Little Puppy". What perhaps isn't so well know is that The Smurfs music comes from Holland. Here they are doing a cover of "No Limit" by fellow Dutch act 2 Unlimited. Both versions topped the Dutch charts. Collaborating with The Smurfs is Irene Moors who is a Dutch comedian.

E-Rotic - Max Don't Have Sex With Your Ex

It's expected that the majority of records featured here will be Dutch records, but if it's not Dutch then there's a good chance it will be German. This is the case with E-Rotic, a German Eurodance act whose records tended to go with the theme of their name. They will return later on in the year with a record which picks up where this left off.

Arie Passchier - Kleine Vogel

Age certainly seemed no barrier to entering the Dutch Top 40. Arie Passchier had his one and only Dutch Top 40 hit at either aged 58 or 59, only his birth year of 1936 is known. It was a re-issue of a 1988 record that failed to chart at the time.

Live - I Alone

Yes that's right, "I Alone" by Live never made the UK Top 40. Despite it being pretty well known at the time it only managed to make number 48 in the UK charts and they were yet to have their first UK Top 40 hit. It made number 22 in Holland. It seemed almost inevitable an American act would appear at some point, well here they are.

Marc Daniels - Deveny

Marc Daniels isn't a very Dutch sounding name, but he is Dutch and this record is sung in Dutch. As such I needed Google Search and Google Translate to find out what it's all about. Turns out to be about the now King of the Netherlands Willem Alexander who had gone public with his then girlfriend Emily Bremers.

Frans Bauer - Het Leven Is Te Mooi

I've just come across a new genre of music, Levenslied. It's described as being a sentimental Dutch language sub-genre of popular music. A genre I suspect would only work in Holland. As you've probably guessed Frans Bauer is Dutch and he falls under this genre. It sounds a bit like someone pressing the demo button on a keyboard and singing over the top of it.

Gordon - Let It Be Me 

You wait all these years to come across the Levenslied genre and then 2 records come along at once. Except this one is sung in English so contradicts the genre description really. It's a cover of the Everly Brothers record and Gordon sounds a bit like a Dutch Gary Barlow. Yes that's right, he's Dutch and he's not really called Gordon. His real name is Cornelis Willem Heuckeroth.

2003: The Good Old Days? - May

In May 2003 if you asked me what my music taste was I would have said dance, rap and R&B. I count almost half of the new entries for May to come under those genres so on paper this should be a great month. Is it though?

Lets start with dance and we have full marks for Groove Armada with "Easy". Also getting full marks are Kid Creme with "Hypnotising" and Saffron Hill with "My Love Is Always". There's also a couple of UK Garage records a year or so after it's presence in the charts more or less died. We have a decent record in "Everybody Come On (Can U Feel It)" by Mr Redz vs DJ Skribble which is a Stanton Warriors remix. Not keen on "You Didn't Expect That" by Billy Crawford though, it's more like a modern pop singers take on a garage record.

The latter is an example of why lots of dance music in the charts isn't always a good thing. In addition to this we have vocal trance records which are cheesy commercial crap. Most notable of these was "Loneliness" by Tomcraft which really irritated me at the time.

Onto rap and overall it's looking pretty good. We have an unlikely collaboration between Bone Thugs-N-Harmony and Phil Collins with "Home" which is excellent. DMX had his biggest hit with "X Gon' Give It To Ya", I had all his albums at this point and loved this record straight away. Then we have "ADIDAS" by Killer Mike which reminds me of Channel U in a good way. The only rap record to get no marks is "The Jump Off" by Lil Kim.

Onto R&B and it's more of a mixed bag but it does give us the best record which is "Ignition Remix" by R Kelly. I remember some saying why Mr I Believe I Can Fly being a bad boy all of a sudden, I would point out he was always like that. We also have "Rise & Fall" by Craig David & Sting which is perhaps the best thing he did after the garage era.

However R&B also gives us the worst record which is "Can't Nobody" by Kelly Rowland. I always hated Destiny's Child and was surprised to find myself liking her debut "Dilemma". Next record "Stole" wasn't great but nowhere near as bad as Destiny's Child. However "Can't Nobody" was as bad.

Outside dance, rap and R&B we have full marks for Sean Paul with "Get Busy" and for Less Than Jake with "She's Gonna Break Soon" plus there's half marks for a few other records.

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: 30%

Here's a look at the chart:

The best month of 2003 so far and second best month we've looked at so far. Is this a one off though?