UK Number 40s: Fredo - Flowers And The Snow (2021)

 

Fredo is another artist who's had both a number 1 and a number 40. He's also one of several examples of British rappers who clocked up a large number of Top 40 hits in a short space of time. This was Top 40 hit number 16 which came 3 years after his Top 40 debut in 2018.

Of those 16 Top 40 hits only 3 of them made the Top 10, 2 of which were collaborations with Dave. He's also had a significant number of charting singles that never made the Top 40. This is therefore familiar chart territory for him.

Top 30 in 1999 Reviewed: Week 47

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:

27. Beck - Sexx Laws

My assessment of Beck's Top 40 career is that he started with "Loser" and then everything he did since all sounds the same. This undoubtedly follows the Beck formula but it's actually a bit more interesting than his other record(s) and I actually don't mind this.

Verdict - OK

24. Puff Daddy ft Mario Winans - Best Friend

With this record Puff Daddy became just the 5th rap act to reach double figures for Top 40 hits after Salt-N-Pepa, 2Pac, LL Cool J and Busta Rhymes. This was the Top 40 debut for Mario Winans with his only other Top 40 hit being the 2004 chart topper "I Don't Wanna Know" which also featured Puff Daddy. It's a rather boring record.

Verdict - Rubbish

23. Suede - Can't Get Enough

After charting high with pretty much every record they released during the heights of Britpop, Suede were charting in the lower reaches now the Britpop era was over. This record was produced by Steve Osborne, the man who worked extensively with Paul Oakenfold in the 90s. It's still a pretty dull record though.

Verdict - Rubbish

22. Primal Scream - Swastika Eyes

Primal Scream were back with another album. They made a point of changing their sound with each album, so with dance music as big as it had ever been in 1999 they made a dance record. Makes a lot of sense and they've done a pretty good job with this record.

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 11/30, or 37%. We stay the same.

Dutch Top 40 1995: Week 47

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

Linda, Roos en Jessica - Ademnood

I guess you could say this is the band Kylie Minogue could have been in if she was Dutch. In Holland there is a soap called "Goede tijden, slechte tijden" which had characters called Linda, Roos and Jessica who released as string of singles in the late 90s beginning with this. It was the Christmas number one of 1995, a fact I'm keen to point out to people. The actress who played Roos sadly passed away a few years later but the actresses who play Linda and Jessica are still on it, though they did leave and come back.

Nakatomi - Free

This is a happy hardcore version of the Deniece Williams record of the same name. It was one that I heard on many tapes back in the day. Whilst this never made the UK Top 40, Nakatomi did make the UK Top 40 in 2002 with "Children Of The Night" years after it first came out. Nakatomi have just 3 records to their name, all of which made the Dutch Top 40. However once the happy hardcore scene had died down in Holland they moved onto their next project, The Vengaboys.

January Charts: 1985

Here are the new entries ranked from best to worst:

1. Big Sound Authority - This House (Is Where Your Love Stands)

2. Prince - 1999/Little Red Corvette

3. George Benson - 20/20

4. King - Love And Pride

5. The Commodores - Nightshift

6. Chicago - You're The Inspiration

7. Phil Collins - Sussudio

8. James Ingram And Michael McDonald - Yah Mo Be There

9. Bryan Adams - Run To You

10. The Colour Field - Thinking Of You

11. Cashmere - Can I

12. Limit - Say Yeah

13. Don Henley - The Boys Of Summer

14. Billy Ocean - Loverboy

15. Big Country - Just A Shadow

16. Chaka Khan - This Is My Night

17. Kirsty MacColl - A New England

18. The Pointer Sisters - Neutron Dance

19. Pat Benatar - We Belong

The best word to describe this batch of records is solid. Whilst it was riding high in the charts this month unfortunately the record "Solid" doesn't make the cut because it was released the last week of 1984, otherwise it would have come near the top of the table.

It's probably the tightest its ever been. The truth be told I like the mid-table records all equally. We have a clear winner though with "This House (Is Where Your Love Stands)" by Big Sound Authority. It was a relatively minor hit and their only hit but is simply a great piece of 80s pop.

A clear 2nd place is the more successful return of "1999" by Prince to the charts. Ordinarily I wouldn't include it, but it was double a-side with "Little Red Corvette" which made the Top 40 for the first time and is the better tune.

Staying with the funk we have "20/20" by George Benson in 3rd place which I'm surprised to learn only got to number 29. There's the Top 40 debut and biggest hit for King with "Love & Pride". In addition to Prince and King being on this list there were also Top 40 hits for Queen and Princess later on in the year.

Motown continues to be present in the Top 40 with a comeback by The Commodores minus Lionel Richie for one final Top 40 hit with "Nightshift". Then we have something the 80s is best known for, a power ballad which comes from Chicago with "You're The Inspiration".

Is the Chicago better than the Big Country record down in 15th? Only marginally, that's how tight the table is. The Chaka Khan and Kirsty MacColl records are alright and it's the lack of rubbish records that put them this far down the table.

The Pointer Sisters are an example of 80s cheese that's just irritating. However with "Neutron Dance" it's not especially cheesy but that just means it's rubbish without being particularly catchy.

At the bottom though we have Pat Benetar with "We Belong". She was only 2nd bottom with "Love Is A Battlefield" the last year but record is even worse and it's bottom placing is well deserved.

If we had more truly great records then this might have been the best January, but it still scores well.

Score: 55

UK Number 40s: KSI ft Jay1 & Deno - Gang Gang (2021)

 

Once upon a time if you liked a record enough to have in your collection so you can listen to it anytime you want, you'd go to the record shop and pay £3.99 for a CD. If it was popular enough to chart then thousands of people would do the same which in turn would give the artist thousands of pounds for their effort in theory.

Nowadays you just need to go onto YouTube to listen and not pay a penny. The solution KSI had to this problem is to first and foremost be a YouTube star and then make music on the side. One would therefore assume he made more money for YouTube streams of this video than several higher charting singles did.

He made his Top 40 debut in 2015 with "Lamborghini" and didn't return to the Top 40 again until the end of 2019. Between then and this single he clocked up 13 Top 40 hits.

He had 2 other hits out around the same time, "Holiday" that made number 2 and "No Time" that made 24. Had this been 20 years earlier it would have more likely been an album track than a CD single.

UK Number 40s: D-Block Europe & Lil Pino - Kevin McCallister (2021)

 

D-Block Europe are one of those chart acts who have many more Top 40 hits than you'd expect. At the time of writing at least they're not exactly a household name. They may have had further Top 40 hits between me writing this and you reading it. It was the end of 2018 when they made their Top 40 debut and this was Top 40 hit number 16 for them. The only acts to score more Top 40 hits during that time period were Drake and Dave.

Perhaps one of the reasons they hadn't become household name is that none of those hits made the Top 10. The lower reaches of the Top 40 was almost where you'd expect them to be. Or even outside the Top 40, at the time of writing there's not much difference between the number of charting singles that made the Top 40 vs those that didn't.

This won't be the last time we'll be featuring D-Block Europe in these posts, more on that when the time comes.

Top 30 in 1999 Reviewed: Week 46

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:

30. Madison Avenue - Don't Call Me Baby

This was a chart topper in the year 2000 but originally charted in 1999. I remember this in 1999 and was quite baffled why it returned to the charts more successfully the following year as there were so many better dance records that could have done the same. I don't mind it though.

Verdict - OK

28. Marc Anthony - I Need To Know

Marc Anthony is best known in the UK as the musician who was once married to Jennifer Lopez. I'd guess many would struggle to name one of his records though. This was his only solo effort in the Top 40. It's a Latin pop record and based on this I don't think we've been missing out on his lack of chart success in the UK.

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 11/30, or 37%. Can we get to 50% one more time?