My Random Music Blog

One of the problems with the charts from around this time was that we'd get covers of Beatles records as opposed to the actual Beatles record. In this batch we have 2 acts covering "Michelle" and another covering "Girl". None of them are bad covers but at the same time they're not as good as the originals.

Mersey beat bands the Merseybeats and the Swinging Blue Jeans are just about hanging in there with their respective final hits. Both have left their mersey beat routes behind to make blue-eyed soul records which appears to be the popular sound from around this time.

The Beatles had released "Rubber Soul" at the end of 1965 which whilst not strictly a blue-eyed soul record itself, it drew inspiration from soul artists which in turn inspired this blue-eyed soul trend.

The best record in this batch is a blue-eyed soul record with Chris Farlow making his chart debut with the Jagger/Richards composed "Think". My number 2 record is also a blue-eyed soul and was the 2nd and final Top 40 hit for Len Barry.

We have some authentic soul in 3rd and 4th place with Fontella Bass and The Toys having their respective 2nd and final hits. Then it's back to blue-eyed soul in 5th place with the Mindbenders making their Top 40 debut without Wayne Fontana.

Down the bottom we have The Bachelors with the worst record I've heard of theirs. Not only were they old fashioned for the time but they're doing a song from a musical. Speaking of musicals we have Barbra Streisand making her debut and is the 2nd worst record.

Another notable name making their chart debut was Nancy Sinatra with "These Boots Are Made For Walkin" which is a record I've always found irritating. There's also the debut of Vince Hill with "Take Me To Your Heart Again" which would have fitted in better with the charts 10 years prior. Not irritating, just boring.

Overall I do like the bulk of the records but the problem is none of them are outstanding. None score more than 3 but we do have zeros at the bottom.

Score: 43

2001: The Good Old Days? - March

Going through this latest batch of records does make it feel like we've gone back to the good old days. I've never been much of a buyer of singles but I count 7 records this month that I did buy the single for. Then there's those I have the album on which they appear and further ones that appear on mixtapes and compilations I own.

Picking the best record was a tough choice but I've gone with Artful Dodger with "Think About Me". I already owned their "It's All About the Stragglers" album by this point. This was the opening track and stood out to me as being particularly good.

In fact every garage record this month gets full marks and theirs a few of them. Fellow garage heavyweights DJ Luck & MC Neat had "Piano Loco", BM Dubs present Mr Rumble had "Whoomp There It Is" which I had on a few tapes by this point, Blackout had "Mr DJ" and Mark Ryder had "Joy".

"Set You Free" singer Kelly Llorenna was back from the wilderness by singing on "True Love Never Dies" by Flip & Fill, a record I liked enough to buy on vinyl and came before both artists started making some of the shittest dance music ever made.

I predicted in early 2001 that this would be the year UK garage would give way to hard house as the big dance genre of the moment. In reality hard house never had a big impact on the charts and this was really the latter stages of that era. This month we had "Wack Ass MF" by Rhythmkillaz, not the last hard house record to make the Top 40 but was the last particularly good one.

At the same time I was getting more and more intro rap music which is evident by all the rap records this month getting full marks and me owning on CD one way or another. There was the D12 debut "Shit On You" which I always intended to buy the album of once release. There was "X" by Xzibit where the opening line "The first day of the rest of my life" takes me back to a time when I thought I was going to rule the world. I bought the "Ms Jackson" single by Outkast when visiting Stirling. Finally we have "Danger (Been So Long)" by Mystikal and "Between Me & You" , both records by gravelly voiced rappers featuring female singers who would have solo careers of their own and be a bit rubbish.

R&B wasn't really part of my music taste at the time but we have some decent records in "The Storm Is Over Now" by R Kelly, "Could It Be" by Jahiem and "I'm Like A Bird" by Nelly Furtado. All feature on albums that I own.

However the worst record is an R&B one that I own on and R&B compilation. It's "He Loves U Not" by Dream which is basically a pop record disguised as R&B and has no place on the compilation really. Needless to say I always skipped this track whilst listening.

A mention has to go to "Push It All Aside" which was the final Top 40 hit from Alisha's Attic. This was the latter stage of me being a big fan but I was a bit underwhelmed by this comeback single. It is however the best track on their final album by some distance. The nostalgia gives it half marks though.

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: 42%

Here's a look at the chart:

Just before I added up the score I thought this was a certainty to be the best month so far but it just falls short of May. There were however more new entries overall this month so it does beat it in terms of actual numbers.

Tuesday, 8 July 2025

UK Number 40s: Tony Bennett & Amy Winehouse - Body and Soul

One thing that I've learned over the last few years is that you never truly know when someone's Top 40 career is over. Many chart acts reach a point where they continue to make music for many years after they were last in the Top 40, but the occasional one finds themselves back in the Top 40 for some reason or another.

Tony Bennett was releasing music before the UK singles chart started in 1952. He made his chart debut in 1955 with the chart topping "Stranger in Paradise". His music would have been considered old hat by the time rock n roll came about in the late 50s and even more so when the Beatles broke through, but he still managed have a few hits in the lower reaches of the Top 40 up until 1965. By the end of the 60s one would have thought we'd never see Tony Bennett in the Top 40 again.

However in 2011 he was back in the Top 40 for the first time in 46 years. He had continued to release numerous albums in in the 21st century he started making collaborative albums. The one he released in 2011 was "Duets II" which contained this track with Amy Winehouse. It was the last recording Amy Winehouse made prior to her death in the summer of 2011 and was released as a single on what would have been her 28th birthday.

Amy Winehouse had a surprisingly brief Top 40 career in her lifetime. None of the singles from her debut album in 2003 made the Top 40 and she didn't make her Top 40 debut until 2006 with "Rehab". A year later she had her final Top 40 hit in her lifetime with "Valerie". These were the only 2 Top 10 singles she had.

Monday, 7 July 2025

UK Number 40s: Jedward - Lipstick

I've never watched an episode of The X Factor but to my knowledge it follows a simple format. First a contestant will sing to the judges who then decide if their singing is good enough to go through to the next round. After a handful of contestants make it through it's then up to the public to vote for their favourites.

One would think you would need to be a good singer to succeed, but Jedward proved that was not the case. They are amongst the best known X Factor contestants because they were supposedly a bit rubbish. They were on the 2009 series, though they didn't win it.

At the start of 2010 they hooked up with Vanilla Ice to do a cover of "Ice Ice Baby" which got to number two in the charts. Then in 2011 came this, their only other Top 40 hit.

In the 90s when Ireland were winning Eurovision regularly, the comedy show Father Ted did an episode where Ireland picked the worst song to represent them at the Eurovision Song Contest so ensure they wouldn't win and therefore wouldn't need to spend the money on hosting it.

This is presumably the mentality Ireland had in 2011 because they picked it to represent them that year. It didn't win, but finished 8th which isn't a bad result really. They were also picked for the 2012 entry with "Waterline" by that never made the UK Top 40.

The number 40 placing of this record means it's the only Ireland Eurovision entry to make the UK Top 40 in the 21st century so far.

20 Years Since....Q2 2005

Here's the tunes I was enjoying 20 years ago:

Nelly ft Tim Mcgraw - Over and Over

Tim Mcgraw was just about the biggest country singer in America around this time but was relatively unknown in the UK until this collaboration with Nelly.

This came from Nelly's "Suit" album so was more of an R&B/country crossover rather than rap/country crossover. I recall after the success of this record Tim Mcgraw tried to crack the UK market with a song about sky diving and rocky mountain climbing but it never really worked.

Twista - Hope

I owned the Twista album by the time this came out as a single. I know this because the single version had Faith Evans on it but the album version doesn't. I prefer the album version, it's one of the highlights of the album really.

Snoop Dogg ft Charlie Wilson & Justin Timberlake - Signs

One of my interests outside music is tennis and after driving to Wimbledon listening to Snoop Dogg's "Tha Last Meal" in 2001 I made it a bit of a tradition to listen to that album when driving to Wimbledon.

I therefore found it amusing that 4 years later Snoop Dogg comes out with a record that mentions Venus and Serena at the Wimbledon arena.

Lil Jon & the Eastside Boyz - Get Low / Lovers & Friends

"Get Low" was pretty much the best known Lil Jon record that was a couple of years old by this point. "Lovers & Friends" sees Lil Jon reunite with Usher and Ludacris following the success of "Yeah". As mentioned previously I was a big fan of Lil Jon around this time.

Nelly - N Dey Say

It had all been done before, PM Dawn had their biggest hit with a "True" by Spandau Ballet sampled record. It worked really well though so there's no reason why Nelly having a crack at it wouldn't work either.

It did work, though more of an R&B record really and was taken from his "Suit" album.

Sunday, 6 July 2025

Top 30 in 1999 Reviewed: Week 27

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. 2Pac - Dear Mama

This was Top 40 hit number 12 for 2Pac and his 10th posthumous Top 40 hit. It was originally on his 1995 album "Me Against The World" so had been well known for some time by the time it reached the Top 40. Like many 2Pac record, I like it.

Verdict - Good

26. Dixie Chicks - There's Your Trouble

The Dixie Chicks are one of those American country groups I'm aware of without knowing any of their music. I assumed they had no UK Top 40 hits, but they managed one. It's just as crap as I expected it to be

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 16/30, or 53%. We stay above 50%.

Friday, 4 July 2025

Dutch Top 40 1995: Week 27

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

Skibby ft King Lover - Feel My Riddim

This was the only Dutch Top 40 hit for Skibby as an artist. The 2 people behind Skibby though were 2 Brothers on the 4th Floor and this was a side project. It's a ragga influenced Eurodance record that's made to the tune of "I Will Follow Him". Vocalist King Lover would return to the Dutch Top 40 in 1997 providing vocals for a T-Spoon record.

Adiemus - Adiemus

Here we have a British record that made the Dutch Top 40 but failed to make the UK Top 40. It may however still ring a bell due to its use on an advert. It's what's known as worldbeat music which did have a degree of popularity in the UK around the mid-90s but this somehow failed to make the cut.

Bert Heerlink - Julie July

This record may also ring a bell if you're from the UK. It's essentially a cover of "Brother Louie" by Hot Chocolate but sung in Dutch. Bert Heerlink is a Dutch actor and this was his only Dutch Top 40 hit. He was however a part of Dutch rock band Vandenberg at one point.