Once again we have an act who's had a record peak at both 1 and 40, the same as the 3 other acts to have had a number 40 so far in 1962. Bobby Darin also joins Roy Orbison with also have a record peak at 50, a month or so after Roy Orbison hit that milestone.
It's a song known to many but maybe not this particular version. It was written in 1926 by Harry Akst and Benny Davis and has been recorded by many artists over the years.
The first version to chart in the UK was by Little Richard in 1959. At that point in time Bobby Darin had just 2 minor hits to his name, the 2nd of which (Queen of the Hop) dropping out the charts when Little Richard peaked. It would go on to be the most successful year of Bobby Darin's chart career with 2 number ones.
Most of his following records would make the Top 10 including the number 2 "Things" earlier on in 1962. This wasn't the end of his Top 40 career though, a minor hit with "Eighteen Yellow Roses" followed in 1963, then in 1966 after 3 years away he returned to the Top 10 with "If I Were A Carpenter" which would be his final top 40 hit.
Another version of "Baby Face" would chart in 1976 by Wing And A Prayer Fife & Drum Corps which would reach 12.
Time for the final journey back to the records I was enjoying in 1994:
East 17 - Stay Another Day
It was inevitable that this record would feature given that pretty much every other East 17 hit has been included in previous posts.
Believe it or not, this was the first East 17 hit not to feature any rapping.
One summer several years ago I sang this at karaoke. The DJ asked me why I was singing a Christmas song in the middle of summer. My response: It isn't a Christmas song.
Blue Bamboo - ABC And D
Sometimes I can relive my life via the music of the time, other times I think was this record really out at that particular time. This one falls into the latter. For some reason this takes me back to the school disco's in 1992 but the history books suggest otherwise.
Blue Bamboo were a Belgian duo and this was their only Top 40 hit, though both members would have further hits in different guises such as Babe Instinct and Balearic Bill.
Erasure - I Love Saturday
Another act who regular appears in this series of posts. This was the start of their decline in terms of chart popularity, it failed to reach the Top 10 which their previous 5 singles managed to do. In fact they've only had one Top 10 since which came in 2003.
This was no bad thing in my book though, it meant I could enjoy Erasure records nobody else knew.
M-Beat - Sweet Love ft Nazlyn
I'd clearly got into rave music by this point, but I may have even declared myself to be a raver by this point as well.
This was one of the records that prompted me to go out and buy a jungle compilation.
Strike - U Sure Do
I remember this record as being from 1995. I guess coming out in December 1994 I wasn't that far off.
I probably liked the Happy Hardcore version that followed more, titled "Kick Your Leg".
Strike had a further four Top 40 hits. Group member Andy Gardner would later go on to form the Plump DJs.
Top of the Pops is back once again for New Year. You can watch it on the iPlayer if you missed it, here's what happened:
Freya Ridings - Love Is Fire
We begin with a record that never made the Top 40 from someone who appeared with her only Top 40 hit of the year on the Christmas episode. The audience are clapping which is annoying. Bit of a nothing song though.
Sigma ft Jack Savoretti - You And Me As One
They were introduced as one of the biggest names in Drum & Bass collaborating with everyone and everyone else and now here's a collaboration with Jack Savoretti. Had to wait until a minute into the performance for the name to come on the screen before I could find out who it was. They really like to push Jack Savoretti don't they? Yet another non-Top 40 hit. I like Drum & Bass but this is shit.
Tom Walker - Better Half Of Me
We finally get a Top 40 hit, this made 38. It's Ed Sheeran's Jamaican cousin who isn't Jamaican. He also appeared at Christmas. Is there really nobody else they could have had on?
The biggest stories of 2019: Lewis Capaldi becomes a household name, Stormzy headlines Glastonbury, Dave and Lizzo also played, Tones & I had a hit, Coldplay become environmentalists, Taylor Swift, Harry Styles and Ariana Grande released new albums.
Lily Moore & Dan Caplen - Undo
Another record that never made the Top 40, this is their television debut apparently. Let's hope next time they're on TV it isn't to do music.
Dermot Kennedy - Power Over Me
Another Ed Sheeran clone who also appeared on the Christmas episode with a song that never made the Top 40. That's 5 performances so far, 4 feature acts who appeared at Christmas and 4 songs that never made the Top 40.
Stormzy - Blinded By Your Grace Pt.2
We now have someone who's been one of the biggest chart acts of the year with a performance from Glastonbury. Of all the hits of his they could have chosen to play, they pick a hit from 2017.
Lewis Capaldi - Before You Go
We finally get a song that's actually had a proper impact on the Top 40 this year. OK it's shit, but at least it represents the charts like Top of the Pops is supposed to.
Regard ft Jay Sean - Ride It
Jay Sean made a couple of good records back in 2004, then he started putting out crap like this, which has now been given a dance makeover by Regard.
Celeste - Strange
She keeps winning best new artist awards apparently. Proof that awards are a load of bollocks surely, this is fuckin miserable. Never made the Top 40 either.
The biggest stories of 2019: Billie Eilish makes an impact on social media , Lil Nas X collaborated with Billy Ray Cyrus, Ed Sheeran broke more records, Abbey Road 50th anniversary, Paul McCartney headlining Glastonbury, Taylor Swift also playing.
Blossoms - The Keeper
Is this what happened to Hanson? Another song that never made the Top 40.
Joel Corry ft Hailey May - Sorry
This one also appeared on Christmas day, I know we don't have the quantity of Top 40 hits we had in years gone by but having the same song on both episodes is ridiculous.
Mabel - Mad Love
Another act who appeared on Christmas Day with another shit song.
Ellie Goulding - River
The final number one of the year. Why anyone would listen to this instead of the Joni Mitchell original is beyond me.
Here's my weekly look at the Top 20 from 20 years ago. On the basis we'd reach the Top 20 in the Top 40 countdown around 17:30 on a Sunday at the time the plan is for these posts to go out at 17:30 on a Sunday.
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 20 from this week in 1999 with my verdict on each record:
"She's the One" is one of the best known Robbie Williams songs, but what isn't that well known is that this is a cover. The original was by World Party the 2 versions aren't very different at all. "It's Only Us" was written by Robbie Williams himself and I don't think is anywhere near as well known. I quite like both songs.
A charity record that is a cover of the Rolling Stones song. I don't think much of the original and this karaoke version is hardly going to improve on that.
2 weeks after Artful Dodger and Craig David taught the mainstream public what UK Garage was, DJ Luck & MC Neat also chart with a UK Garage record which would go on to make the Top 10. This time there was no confusion as to who was who with the DJ and MC in front of their names. Good tune.
This is a great example of someone I listen to that nobodies heard of that finally ends up in the Top 40 with a load of crap. Progress were also known as Pete and Russell and I had a tape of theirs from Dreamscape 20, which was a good tape. I can't say I knew anything about them apart from that, they were the only DJs in the tape pack I'd never heard of before I bought it and presumably they featured because they were hosting the House arena at the event. That said, they didn't exactly become a household name following this single, they don't even have a Wikipedia page. I suppose those who remember this are more likely to remember it as the Madonna rip off rather than it's actual title.
I was addicted to this tune at the time. I didn't buy the single though, I taped it off the radio so I'm used to "Radio 1" being said at the end. I predicted this would be a one hit wonder, and for years I thought they were but they actually had a minor hit with "Cryptik Souls Crew" the following year that completely passed me by. When streaming became a thing, I listened to their "You Can't Stop the Bum Rush" album which this appears on. My advice is not to bother, the rest of it is nowhere near as good as this tune.
When I first heard this I imagined the singer to be in her 50s. She actually is now, but at the time she was only 32. I thought it was alright initially but then it quickly got irritating. On paper it shouldn't be a bad song, it's original, it's soulful and it certainly isn't boring but for some reason it just bugs me.
My first impression of this record was that it was far too slow. Then I went down the pub one night and lost count of the number of times I heard it. After that I thought I'd happily never hear this tune again in my life. It's not one that's been played a great deal since to be fair, but I still don't like it.
The 7th Top 40 single from his "R" album, and still not the last. This is one of those records that charted much later than I remember it charting, but given it's on an album that I own and the first single from that album came out in early 1997 it's not that surprising. Good tune though.
Boyzone were arguably the biggest boyband at the start of 1999 but then we saw the start of Ronan's solo career and Westlife came along who were basically a younger Boyzone. You sensed it was only a matter of time before Boyzone would call it a day, and they did after this single. It's basically the same sort of ballad type crap they'd done throughout their career.
I loved "Better off Alone" but I found this one to be very average. A lot of the commercial Trance music in 1999 was good but then in the early part of the 21st century it was mostly cheesy vocal rubbish and this is more similar to that, though in it's defence is nowhere near as bad as DJ Sammy and co.
They sing about going to their favourite club on a Friday, sounds great. The grim reality for me and my friends though was we'd head to the shit club nobody liked but everybody went to because it was the only place to go once the pubs had closed. Then once we got there we had to put up with shite like this being played.
This record fooled a lot of Dance music fans at the time as I recall. They went out and bought William Orbit's album expecting it to be a Dance album, but it wasn't. What we have here is the Ferry Corsten remix. I can't say I'm a big fan of it myself, but it's not bad.
It's bad enough that Steps managed five Top 5 records in 1999, but even worse they finish with a double a-side so it's actually 6 songs. Both sides are crap.
I've never got the appeal of the rewind personally. For those who don't know, it's when a DJ mixes in a new record and the MC asks who wants the rewind, and then the DJ stops and starts the record again. So you hear a chunk of the record you just heard again. With that in mind, I wasn't too keen on this when I first heard it. However it started to grow on me and I ended up buying the "It's All About the Stragglers" album. It was also the first Top 40 hit for both Artful Dodger and Craig David and was probably the one that taught the masses what UK Garage was. A common misconception at the time was that Craig David was the Artful Dodger and people wondered where he was when they had their next hit "Movin Too Fast". That question was answered when he had his next hit with "Fill Me In". It reminded me of when people thought Seal was Adamski nearly a decade earlier.
A double a-side where both songs have a number in the title. "Two In A Million" somehow manages to sound both cheesy and boring whereas "You're My Number One" just sounds cheesy.
Even 20 years after this came out, I still don't know whether I should love or hate this tune. At the time I'd have probably been more inclined to hate it, but having heard other material from Cuban Boys members which is basically piss take music that's actually quite enjoyable, I can appreciate this a bit more. There's no getting round the sample being annoying though.
A re-entry into the charts, to be honest I've never really got the hype about this song. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate John Lennon as a musician a lot more than I did when I was younger but even just as a solo artist he's had much better songs than this. Not a bad song though.
The 4th single and 4th number one for Westlife. Now Boyzone have more or less called it a day it seems there needed to be a boy band to do crappy covers like Boyzone were most famous for, and Westlife were it.
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 7/20, or 35%. We got that improvement for the final week of the 90s, mainly because of the good ones from last week remaining in the Top 20.
Last week I decided to bring my Top of the Pops posts to a close after 3 years. The question is what do I do instead? I thought it should be something that isn't been done elsewhere and is reflective of the charts in the modern era.
I've asked a number of people recently if they'd heard of Tones & I. Everybody said no. For those of you who don't know, Tones & I recently spent 11 weeks at number one. Years ago that would pretty much guarantee to make you a household name, not anymore.
The Spice Girls were the most successful chart act of their era. They topped the charts with 9 of their first 10 hits. Then came Westlife who also topped the charts with 9 of their first 10 hits.
In the modern era, the 3 most successful chart acts are Ed Sheeran, Drake and Justin Bieber. Yet if you look at the first 10 Top 40 hits for each of them, only one of Drakes reached number one and none of Ed Sheeran's or Justin Bieber's did. In fact despite all 3 acts having over 40 Top 40 hits to their name, none of them have reached 9 number ones yet.
Over half of Drake and Justin Bieber's Top 40 hits haven't even made the Top 10. When Ed Sheeran was having the time of his life in 2017, one of his hits only reached 19. That would have been considered a major flop in years gone by, but when you consider that 15 other Ed Sheeran songs were preventing it from charting higher, it doesn't sound so bad.
It would seem that chart position is no longer that important. What seems to be more important is quantity. This year has been more low key for Drake with just 4 Top 40 singles. In years gone by that would be as many as you would expect for an individual artist, but not anymore. It's not unusual for one to reach double figures in terms of number of Top 40 hits in a year. The only times it happened in the Top of the Pops era were when The Wedding Present released a single every month in 1992 and when all of Elvis Presley's number one singles were re-released in 2005.
This is what the Top 40 leaderboard will be, who has had the most Top 40 hits so far in the year. I'll begin next Thursday with the final leaderboard for 2019 before starting a new one the following week.
Top of the Pops is back once again for Christmas. You can watch it on the iPlayer if you missed it, here's what happened:
Mabel - Don't Call Me Up
Her mother Neneh Cherry has just appeared on Top of the Pops 1988. You can tell this is live because her singing is dreadful. I recall her being called the queen of R&B last year but this doesn't sound very R&B to me, maybe she's the queen of whatever crap this is this year.
James Blunt - Cold
What is James Blunt doing on here? He hasn't had a Top 40 hit for years, this wasn't a Top 40 hit either. I do recall his recent music being questions nobody knew the answer to on Popmaster. Maybe they just have anyone with an acoustic guitar on thanks the Ed Sheeran factor.
Jax Jones ft Ella Henderson - This Is Real
I guess a Christmas Top of the Pops isn't complete these days without Jax Jones and of course it has to be a collaboration. Sounds like the usual generic pap he usually puts out. He keeps shouting into the microphone too, please stop.
Time for the Top 10 records of the year from 10-6:
10. Shawn Mended - Camila Cabello - Senorita
9. Meduza ft Goodboys - Piece of Your Heart
8. Mabel - Don't Call Me Up
7. Stormzy - Vossi Bop
6. Ava Max - Sweet But Psycho
Jack Savoretti - Christmas Morning
After losing many points on Popmaster by being unable to identify his recent songs, I finally actually hear a Jack Savoretti song. I would never have heard of him if it wasn't for Popmaster, the BBC are really trying to push him here given he's never had a Top 40 hit. To be honest I don't think I'd be able to identify this song in the future, its boring as fuck.
Sigala ft Becky Hill - Wish You Well
Haven't we already heard this one today? Oh no that was Jax Jones. Here we have a Jax Jones clone at his keyboard with a crappy singer. At least he isn't shouting into the microphone though.
Lewis Capaldi - Someone You Loved
They weren't wrong when he appeared on last years Top of the Pops and they predicted he would have a bright 2019. Having never had a Top 40 hit, he's now had 5 including this which topped the charts. I was expecting him to have an acoustic guitar with him, but no it's him singing with a man on the piano. We really weren't lucky to have him back, that song was depressing.
Lil Nas X ft Billy Ray Cyrus & Miley Cyrus - Old Town Road
We're at Glastonbury now with the record that topped the US charts forever. I never thought we'd see Billy Ray Cyrus on Top of the Pops again, but here he is with his annoying daughter collaborating with Lil Nas X. A country/rap crossover record, as awful as it sounds. Stick to "Achy Breaky Heart".
Labrinth - Something's Got To Give
Another one that never made the Top 40, this is the 3rd one now. Apparently if we haven't got up dancing yet then this one is guaranteed to get us dancing. Well no, I'm not dancing. This is bloody awful.
Dermot Kennedy - Outnumbered
I was wondering when Ed Sheeran would be on, oh hang on this isn't Ed Sheeran, it's another one of his clones. Who are these people that listen to crap like this? Even he was looking bored by the end of the song.
Time for the Top 10 records of the year from 5-1:
5. Calvin Harris ft Rag N Bone Man - Giant
4. Billie Eilish - Bad Guy
3. Ed Sheeran ft Justin Bieber - I Don't Care
2. Lil Nas X ft Billy Ray Cyrus - Old Town Road
1. Lewis Capaldi - Someone You Loved
Joel Corry ft Hayley May - Sorry
Take a UK Garage classic and turn it into some crap that sounds like Jax Jones and you get this. Joel Corry has a microphone too, he's lots of other things apart from a DJ apparently, I just hope he's better at doing those other things.
Script - Last Time
This year has seen a huge amount a rap music in the Top 40, but instead we seem to be alternating between cheesy dance music and depressing crap, this being the latter. This is probably the worst song we've had so far, that's really saying something.
AJ Tracey ft Jorja Smith - Ladbroke Grove
We finally get a record that's more representative of what's been in the Top 40 this year. This one isn't bad actually, definitely the best one we've had so far.
Tom Walker - Just You & I
Quite predictably we get another Ed Sheeran clone, though he seems to have developed a Jamaican accent.
Freya Ridings - Castles
The singing just never stops on this one and it's irritating.
Ladbaby - I Love Sausage Rolls
Ladbaby is Christmas number one again with his piss take version of "I Love Sausage Rolls". Once again, despite the fact it's supposed to be shit it's still better than most of what we've heard on the show.
This is the 3rd record in 1962 to peak at 40 and the 3rd in 1962 to be by an artist who's also had a number one. This time it's Helen Shapiro.
She was just 14 when she scored her first Top 40 hit, "Don't Treat Me Like A Child" which peaked at 3 the previous year. This was followed by 2 number ones with "You Don't Know" and "Walkin Back To Happiness".
She also had a good start to 1962 making 2 with "Tell Me What He Said". Her next single "Let's Talk About Love" didn't do so well peaking at 23, but she then had a top ten with "Little Miss Lonely".
At the end of September 1962 she turned 16 and a month or so later this record peaked at 40. The bulk of her singles to date had been written by John Schroeder and Mike Hawker, but this one was written by Burt Bacharach and Bob Hilliard which sounds like it should have been a recipe for success, but it wasn't.
It did collectively spend 3 weeks at 40, the first week it was keeping The Beatles out of the Top 40 with their debut "Love Me Do". It fell to 41 for a week and returned to 40 for 2 weeks in a row.
She would have a further 3 Top 40 hits which all did slightly better, but no better than 32. Being from the pre-Beatles era meant her days were numbered, despite being younger than them. By the start of 1964 aged just 17, her Top 40 career would be over.
Here's my weekly look at the Top 20 from 20 years ago. On the basis we'd reach the Top 20 in the Top 40 countdown around 17:30 on a Sunday at the time the plan is for these posts to go out at 17:30 on a Sunday.
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 20 from this week in 1999 with my verdict on each record:
Nearly a year since Tiffany died on Eastenders and I'm sure many people were hoping they'd bring her back from the dead so we didn't have to suffer her dreadful music career. This double a-side is 2 poor covers of 70s hits. It wouldn't be her last Top 40 hit either, this was her 3rd of 5 Top 40 hits and they all made the Top 10. What were people thinking.
"She's the One" is one of the best known Robbie Williams songs, but what isn't that well known is that this is a cover. The original was by World Party the 2 versions aren't very different at all. "It's Only Us" was written by Robbie Williams himself and I don't think is anywhere near as well known. I quite like both songs.
The second single from the album of the same name, this one was written by Rick Nowels who wrote several of Belinda Carlisle's hits. It does sound more of a proper song than any of the Spice Girls hits ever did but that doesn't mean it's any good.
The 3rd Top 40 hit for Lolly. I'd say the best known of this double a-side is her cover of "Rockin Robin" which is very cheesy as you'd expect. The other one "Big Boys Don't Cry" goes down the ballad route, but somehow still manages to sound cheesy.
As the "99" part of the title would suggest, this is a remix. Like with most remixes, it's nowhere near as good as the original. I thought the original was great, and obviously there's still some similarities to the original and I guess that's enough to make me think it's ok. If I ever fancy listening to "Under Pressure" though I'll pick the original every time.
After failing to make number one with their previous single, they fail to make the Top 10 with this one. The record buying public it seemed were waking up to the fact their music is shit. It took one more single to flop after this before we saw the end of them, until The Big Reunion at least.
Remember when you used to get a call on your mobile and it would interfere with your stereo making that awful sound when you're trying to listen to your music. Well then Mario Piu thought it would be a good idea to put that irritating sound into a record with a bit of ringing for good measure.
When I first heard this I imagined the singer to be in her 50s. She actually is now, but at the time she was only 32. I thought it was alright initially but then it quickly got irritating. On paper it shouldn't be a bad song, it's original, it's soulful and it certainly isn't boring but for some reason it just bugs me.
The 7th Top 40 single from his "R" album, and still not the last. This is one of those records that charted much later than I remember it charting, but given it's on an album that I own and the first single from that album came out in early 1997 it's not that surprising. Good tune though.
Boyzone were arguably the biggest boyband at the start of 1999 but then we saw the start of Ronan's solo career and Westlife came along who were basically a younger Boyzone. You sensed it was only a matter of time before Boyzone would call it a day, and they did after this single. It's basically the same sort of ballad type crap they'd done throughout their career.
I was addicted to this tune at the time. I didn't buy the single though, I taped it off the radio so I'm used to "Radio 1" being said at the end. I predicted this would be a one hit wonder, and for years I thought they were but they actually had a minor hit with "Cryptik Souls Crew" the following year that completely passed me by. When streaming became a thing, I listened to their "You Can't Stop the Bum Rush" album which this appears on. My advice is not to bother, the rest of it is nowhere near as good as this tune.
This is a great example of someone I listen to that nobodies heard of that finally ends up in the Top 40 with a load of crap. Progress were also known as Pete and Russell and I had a tape of theirs from Dreamscape 20, which was a good tape. I can't say I knew anything about them apart from that, they were the only DJs in the tape pack I'd never heard of before I bought it and presumably they featured because they were hosting the House arena at the event. That said, they didn't exactly become a household name following this single, they don't even have a Wikipedia page. I suppose those who remember this are more likely to remember it as the Madonna rip off rather than it's actual title.
My first impression of this record was that it was far too slow. Then I went down the pub one night and lost count of the number of times I heard it. After that I thought I'd happily never hear this tune again in my life. It's not one that's been played a great deal since to be fair, but I still don't like it.
I loved "Better off Alone" but I found this one to be very average. A lot of the commercial Trance music in 1999 was good but then in the early part of the 21st century it was mostly cheesy vocal rubbish and this is more similar to that, though in it's defence is nowhere near as bad as DJ Sammy and co.
This record fooled a lot of Dance music fans at the time as I recall. They went out and bought William Orbit's album expecting it to be a Dance album, but it wasn't. What we have here is the Ferry Corsten remix. I can't say I'm a big fan of it myself, but it's not bad.
They sing about going to their favourite club on a Friday, sounds great. The grim reality for me and my friends though was we'd head to the shit club nobody liked but everybody went to because it was the only place to go once the pubs had closed. Then once we got there we had to put up with shite like this being played.
I've never got the appeal of the rewind personally. For those who don't know, it's when a DJ mixes in a new record and the MC asks who wants the rewind, and then the DJ stops and starts the record again. So you hear a chunk of the record you just heard again. With that in mind, I wasn't too keen on this when I first heard it. However it started to grow on me and I ended up buying the "It's All About the Stragglers" album. It was also the first Top 40 hit for both Artful Dodger and Craig David and was probably the one that taught the masses what UK Garage was. A common misconception at the time was that Craig David was the Artful Dodger and people wondered where he was when they had their next hit "Movin Too Fast". That question was answered when he had his next hit with "Fill Me In". It reminded me of when people thought Seal was Adamski nearly a decade earlier.
The Lords Prayer sung in the style of Auld Lang Syne, sounds bloody awful and it is.
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 5.5/20, or 27.5%. Another poor week overall, will we see any improvement for the final week of the 90s?
As it's now 25 years since Green Day made a name for themselves in the UK and they were a band I particularly liked when I was younger, I thought I'd write a piece about them.
My Green Day story also begins 25 years ago. Whilst Grunge hadn't exactly gone out of fashion yet, we knew there would be no more records from Nirvana and when you're young you want to hear something new. That new music came from Green Day along with The Offspring. Whilst both bands are described as Punk, or Pop Punk, nobody I knew at the time was describing them as that. Instead the description was along the lines of "Not really Grunge".
The "Dookie" album came out and I listened to it on friends Walkman's etc but never owned it myself. Then I got into rave and more or less forgot about them for the rest of the 90s. I do recall Billie Joe Armstrong appearing on Top of the Pops by himself to do "Good Riddance" but think I mistakenly thought it was a solo record for him and that Green Day were no more.
Around the turn of the century a couple of people I knew were listening to "Dookie" on their Walkman loudly and singing along and therefore I recognised it. What struck me the most though was the drums, something I never really paid attention to the first time round. I basically realised I love that fast drum beat you get in a lot of punk records, so much so that I bought the "Dookie" album myself shortly afterwards on a day trip to York. I bought the cassette so I could listen to it in my car on my way home.
It came close to being an album where I really like every single track, but I'm not overly keen on "Coming Clean". I do really like all the other tracks though. The main difference between the Green Day brand of punk and 70s punk is that Green Day wasn't political at all. The subject matter was more to do with the problems you encounter as a young adult such as anxiety and boredom. That suited me perfectly, politically there wasn't really an awful lot to complain about at the time like there is now.
I had no idea what the current status of the band was at the time. I liked to think they appeared in 1994, made a near perfect album and then called it a day, a bit like the Sex Pistols did in the 70s.
I knew that wasn't really the case though as I'd seen other albums of theirs in the shop. I looked them up on the internet but I couldn't tell whether or not they were still going. I did however find they had 5 albums, the most recent of which came out 3 years prior.
I decided to expand my Green Day collection starting with "Nimrod", their most recent album at the time. It had some good tunes on there, but what disappointed me was the number of tunes that lacked the drum beat I love. There was the instrumental "Last Ride In" which doesn't sound very Green Day at all, it's not bad though. I liked "Walking Alone" even if it was a bit slow.
I then bought "Kerplunk", their 2nd album which came before "Dookie". This was much better than "Nimrod", though as it was from their days before being on a major record label it did sound a bit like it was recorded in their bedroom. "Welcome to Paradise" appears on this as well as "Dookie" and there is a notable difference in sound quality between the 2 versions.
Next I bought "1039 Smoothed Out Slappy Hours", their debut album. This sounded even more like it was recorded in their bedroom. I liked a lot of the tracks, but to me the sound quality meant the drumming didn't sound as effective as it should.
Finally I bought "Insomniac" which was their follow up to "Dookie". It had the good sound quality and most of the tracks had the drum beat I love. As "Nimrod" had many tracks that didn't have that drum beat, I owned "Dookie" on cassette so the sound quality wasn't as good and the first 2 albums had a poor sound quality, in theory that should make "Insomniac" my first choice to listen to. But it wasn't, it was actually my least favourite album. It followed the same formula as "Dookie" but the many of the tracks just didn't do anything for me. It made me understand why the felt the need to experiment a bit on "Nimrod".
Later on in the year 2000, Green Day were back and had a new album coming out. I looked forward to it being released and bought it the day it came out. When I heard the first track, "Warning" which was also the albums title, I thought what the fuck is this? not only did it lack the drum beat I like, it lacked any sort of oomph that some of their slower songs at least have. First track not good then, but surely some good tunes will follow.
Well, it took until track 5, "Castaway" until we reached a track to have the drum beat I like. The problem though was the guitar wasn't heavy enough so didn't think much to it. Track 7, "Deadbeat Holiday" sounded promising to begin with but when the beat came in it was too slow.
It wasn't until track 10 that I found one I actually like, appropriately titled "Waiting". It lacked the beat, like every other track except "Castaway" did, but at least it was good. Similarly with the next track "Minority" which I already knew as it was the lead single. Then came "Macys Day Parade" which is probably the worst track on the album. It ended with a bonus track, a live version of "86" from the "Insomniac" album. That was more like it, but the fact a track from my least favourite album prior to this livens up the album tells you this album was pretty poor.
A greatest hits album came the following year which was followed by "Shenanigans", a compilation of b-sides and a few other tracks. This was a sign they were calling it a day.
Then one day in 2004 having not listened to Green Day for some time, I decided to look on the internet to see if Green Day had split up. Instead I found they had a new album coming out, which was "American Idiot".
Suddenly they were massive, particularly amongst the kids who would have been too young to remember "Dookie". They've pretty much remained that big ever since. I on the other hand never bought "American Idiot", or any of the other albums they've released since. I do like one or 2 songs they've done since, but I'm not keen on most of what I've heard.
What amazed me most though is how often there is no acknowledgement of them even existing prior to "American Idiot", I've read numerous times that "American Idiot" was their breakthrough hit. When "Know Your Enemy" came out in 2009, somebody described it to me as them going back to their roots. My thought was do you even know what their roots are?
That all said, I can't really knock what Green Day have done since "Dookie" as they've been hugely successful in doing it. This is on the back of an impossible situation i.e. by sticking to the same formula as "Dookie" they had "Insomniac" which didn't work because it's basically an inferior version of "Dookie", but then being experimental doesn't work either because it's too different to "Dookie".
Except them being experimental does work because whilst it alienates fans of "Dookie" like me, they gain a whole new set of fans at the same time. How many bands can make such an impact with their 7th album, some 14 years after their debut?
I thought I should put a Green Day song on this post, obviously one I like. The one I've picked is "One Of My Lies" from the "Kerplunk" album for no other reason than I like it.
These are the only 3 acts in chart history to have consecutive Christmas number ones. Ladbaby has made Christmas number one again with "I Love Sausage Rolls" which again is a charity record. He's managed to keep Ed Sheeran of all people off the top. Now the era of the X Factor Christmas number one is over, could this be the era of the Ladbaby Christmas number one? As it's music that's not supposed to be taken seriously and for charity there should be a backlash against it in years to come.
Elsewhere we have the usual suspects making their annual return to the Christmas charts. I won't list them all as I suspect more will appear next week. The only new Christmas record in the Top 40 this year is John Legend with his version of "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)". I suspect most will have forgot about it come January.
It was 3 years ago that I gave my reasons for why Top of the Pops shouldn't come back. Aside from the usual arguments about the music being rubbish, the kids of today don't watch TV etc, the point I made was that there wasn't enough new entries in the Top 40 to have enough songs that fit the Top of the Pops eligibility criteria.
This lead to a weekly post about what would likely be on Top of the Pops if it still existed and would answer the question of whether there were enough eligible records.
After 3 years I think now is the time to bring this unofficial Top of the Pops to a close. I think I've made my point, but the point isn't as valid now. In 2016 we had the lowest number of new entries for a year in Top 40 history by quite some distance. The years that followed still do lack the quantity we've been used to in the years prior, but they are on a par with the late 60s/early 70s when Top of the Pops did exist.
The blog views also tell me there isn't much interest in these Top of the Pops posts, so I ask myself is it really worth going through the pain of listening to every new entry every week to get the YouTube links on here? Probably not.
As we have actual Top of the Pops for Christmas next week and for New Year the week after, and then we're into a new decade, now would be a good time to stop and come up with something new for the 20s. More on that when the new decade arrives.
One thing that is never known when a new Christmas record comes out is whether it will stand the test of time. The reality is since Mariah Carey's effort 25 years ago, few if any Christmas songs made since have managed to become regulars on the Christmas lists. I'm aware some modern artists have had a go in recent years, but it's still too early to tell. If you still hear it after a decade though then maybe you have a Christmas anthem.
On to 2009 then, a decade ago. We had Terry Wogan and Aled Jones collaborate on their version of "Silver Bells". I recall their collaboration the year before on "Little Drummer Boy - Peace On Earth", but do not recall this one. It made 27 and has been on YouTube ever since, with 133k views at time of writing, not really the sort of number to suggest it's on many peoples Christmas playlists.
Having been responsible for one of the biggest Christmas hits ever, George Michael had another crack at a Christmas song with "December Song (I Dreamed of Christmas)". It had been available as a free download on his website the year before but this was the first commercial release. It made 14 in the charts, but the physical copies sold out and it's said that it would have charted higher if more copies were available. At 3.4 million views on YouTube it's done better than Terry Wogan and Aled Jones. However, it's still not Christmas playlist territory. The question is though, does anyone have more than one big Christmas record? Sure there are some that have more than one, but who can name the Elton John Christmas record that isn't "Step Into Christmas"? or the Shakin Stevens ones that isn't "Merry Xmas Everyone"?
The final Christmas effort came from an act who had already previously had a Christmas number one, Pet Shop Boys. The record was "It Doesn't Often Snow At Christmas" which was a fan club single in 1997. How did it chart? Well it made the number 40, so they now have the honour of having both a Christmas number one and a Christmas number 40. I don't think I've met anyone who's heard it without me playing it to them, which tells you whether it's stood the test of time. It's a shame as I quite like it. It is also the final Top 40 hit to date for them.
The Christmas number one had been the X Factor winner for 4 years in a row, but this was the year of the anti-X Factor campaign which got Rage Against the Machine to number one with "Killing in the Name". The X Factor winner Joe McElderry had to settle for number two with "The Climb", but made number one the following week.
The next record to peak at 40 is perhaps the most surprising one so far. Roy Orbison is probably the best known artist to appear so far, but he isn't the first big name to appear. The difference is that the other big names have either been declining in popularity or were yet to hit the peak of their popularity.
In the early 60s though, Roy Orbison was at the peak of his career. It came just over 2 months after he peaked at 2 with "Dream Baby". It was his 6th Top 40 hit. Each year in the decade to date he'd had 2 Top 40 hits, the first making the Top 10 and the second missing it.
His debut "Only the Lonely" made number one, so he was yet another artist to have had both a Number 1 and a Number 40.
His next single "Working For The Man" failed to reach the Top 40, peaking at 50 which made him the first act to have had a Number 1, Number 40 and Number 50. He managed to reach the Top 10 with all 3 hits in 1963 and 3 of his 4 hits in 1964 including 2 number ones, before his chart career started to decline in the late 60s.
As I'm doing my Top 20 reviews of 1999 at the moment it almost seems a bit pointless to go into too much detail as I'd be repeating myself. What I will say then is keep an eye out for the reviews and that the Christmas songs were "Baby It's Cold Outside" by Tom Jones and Cerys Matthews, "A Christmas Kiss" by Daniel O'Donnell and "Mr Hankey The Christmas Poo" by Mr Hankey.
The Christmas hits of 1989 all have one thing in common, they're all songs that have rarely been heard since 1989. There was "December" by All About Eve which is a record I'm not sure I even heard in 1989. They are of course remembered for their appearance on Top of the Pops with "Martha's Harbour" which gave them their only Top 10. The rest of their hits didn't do so well, with 7 of their 9 Top 40 hits charting in the 30s, this being one of them at 34.
At the other end of the charts we had the biggest act of the year, Jive Bunny & the Mastermixers. Having scored number ones with their first 2 hits, they went straight in at number one with their third, "Let's Party". It's a medley of Christmas songs, I guess given the individual songs all got played regularly in the years that followed made this redundant for future Christmases, and the inclusion of "Another Rock & Roll Christmas" by Gary Glitter probably killed any chance of this being resurrected years later. It only managed one week at the top though and had to settle for Christmas number two.
What could possibly keep Jive Bunny off the top in 1989?
Well take arguably the biggest Christmas record of the 80s and get Stock Aitken & Waterman to put their stamp on it and you get "Do They Know It's Christmas?" by Band Aid II. The inclusion of Cliff Richard meant he was involved in the 2nd Christmas number on in a row, and he wasn't finished. You don't hear it anymore though because people play the original instead.
Here's my weekly look at the Top 20 from 20 years ago. On the basis we'd reach the Top 20 in the Top 40 countdown around 17:30 on a Sunday at the time the plan is for these posts to go out at 17:30 on a Sunday.
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 20 from this week in 1999 with my verdict on each record:
This doesn't sound like your typical Jamiroquai record. Whilst it's clearly Jay Kay singing on it, it doesn't have that Jamiroquai funk vibe you normally get. When you hear what this song is about though, it becomes more clear. It was written about their former bass player who had left the band during the recording of the "Synkronized" album, and after finding that out I noticed the lack of bass in there. That said, it's still a decent record.
After going more R&B with her hits in the late 90s, this one sounds more like Whitney Houstons earlier music. It was written by Diane Warren who has written many pop songs. To be honest I find this one a bit boring.
I have no recollection of this record coming out. I don't know how this passed me by though, I remember The Corrs being popular and could recall their early singles in chronological order except for this one. It's not the most memorable one though, it's not bad but nothing to write home about.
This was the 8th Top 40 hit for Will Smith (excluding his Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince hits) and his chart career to date was quite remarkable, 7 of his 8 hits had made the Top 3. This one heavily sampled "Rock the Casbah" and featured vocals from K-Ci of Jodeci but despite this it was still the usual crap you got from Will Smith.
On hearing this record for the first time I was expecting it to open with a rap from J. Instead it opens with singing from someone I'd never noticed being in the group before. It was band member Sean who'd pretty much been in the background up until now. J does still get the lions share of the vocals though, with his vocals being somewhere in between singing and rapping in this tune. It was the first Five record to get to number one and I've got to say I like it.
It seems like 1999 was the year for Bob Marley remixes. Having had a hit with "Sun is Shining" with Funkstar De Luxe in the summer, now was the turn of Lauryn Hill to feature on the reworking of this record. It was from the album "Chant Down Babylon" which was an album of modern artists doing Bob Marley songs. I don't think this one really works though, but I don't mind it.
"She's the One" is one of the best known Robbie Williams songs, but what isn't that well known is that this is a cover. The original was by World Party the 2 versions aren't very different at all. "It's Only Us" was written by Robbie Williams himself and I don't think is anywhere near as well known. I quite like both songs.
The 3rd Top 40 hit for Lolly. I'd say the best known of this double a-side is her cover of "Rockin Robin" which is very cheesy as you'd expect. The other one "Big Boys Don't Cry" goes down the ballad route, but somehow still manages to sound cheesy.
What's this, an uplifting Celine Dion song? Actually this wasn't the first, she had another uplifting one earlier in the year with "Treat Her Like A Lady" which didn't make the Top 20. It was written by Max Martin and co, the Swedish songwriters responsible for shit loads of hits in 1999. It seems the Celine Dion was now trying to be cool, I don't think it worked.
When I first heard this I imagined the singer to be in her 50s. She actually is now, but at the time she was only 32. I thought it was alright initially but then it quickly got irritating. On paper it shouldn't be a bad song, it's original, it's soulful and it certainly isn't boring but for some reason it just bugs me.
Here's where it all began for Atomic Kitten. After calling it a day with OMD, Andy McCluskey put together Atomic Kitten and wrote several of their songs including this. Music aside though, the worst thing about this record is that it gave the world Kerry Katona.
The second single from the album of the same name, this one was written by Rick Nowels who wrote several of Belinda Carlisle's hits. It does sound more of a proper song than any of the Spice Girls hits ever did but that doesn't mean it's any good.
Nearly a year since Tiffany died on Eastenders and I'm sure many people were hoping they'd bring her back from the dead so we didn't have to suffer her dreadful music career. This double a-side is 2 poor covers of 70s hits. It wouldn't be her last Top 40 hit either, this was her 3rd of 5 Top 40 hits and they all made the Top 10. What were people thinking.
The 7th Top 40 single from his "R" album, and still not the last. This is one of those records that charted much later than I remember it charting, but given it's on an album that I own and the first single from that album came out in early 1997 it's not that surprising. Good tune though.
Boyzone were arguably the biggest boyband at the start of 1999 but then we saw the start of Ronan's solo career and Westlife came along who were basically a younger Boyzone. You sensed it was only a matter of time before Boyzone would call it a day, and they did after this single. It's basically the same sort of ballad type crap they'd done throughout their career.
Remember when you used to get a call on your mobile and it would interfere with your stereo making that awful sound when you're trying to listen to your music. Well then Mario Piu thought it would be a good idea to put that irritating sound into a record with a bit of ringing for good measure.
I loved "Better off Alone" but I found this one to be very average. A lot of the commercial Trance music in 1999 was good but then in the early part of the 21st century it was mostly cheesy vocal rubbish and this is more similar to that, though in it's defence is nowhere near as bad as DJ Sammy and co.
My first impression of this record was that it was far too slow. Then I went down the pub one night and lost count of the number of times I heard it. After that I thought I'd happily never hear this tune again in my life. It's not one that's been played a great deal since to be fair, but I still don't like it.
I've never got the appeal of the rewind personally. For those who don't know, it's when a DJ mixes in a new record and the MC asks who wants the rewind, and then the DJ stops and starts the record again. So you hear a chunk of the record you just heard again. With that in mind, I wasn't too keen on this when I first heard it. However it started to grow on me and I ended up buying the "It's All About the Stragglers" album. It was also the first Top 40 hit for both Artful Dodger and Craig David and was probably the one that taught the masses what UK Garage was. A common misconception at the time was that Craig David was the Artful Dodger and people wondered where he was when they had their next hit "Movin Too Fast". That question was answered when he had his next hit with "Fill Me In". It reminded me of when people thought Seal was Adamski nearly a decade earlier.
The Lords Prayer sung in the style of Auld Lang Syne, sounds bloody awful and it is.
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 6.5/20, or 32.5%. I can't say Five are keeping the score above 5 anymore.
For whatever reason, the history books treat Paul McCartney's solo career and Wings as the same thing. The last actual Wings Top 40 hit came in 1979 and at the end of the year came Paul McCartney's first post-Wings Top 40 hit, "Wonderful Christmastime".
Elvis Presley had a posthumous Christmas hit in 1979 with "It Won't Seem Like Christmas (Without You)". It had originally been recorded in 1971 and featured on his Christmas album of that year.
It was 1979 that gave us rap music in the Top 40 for the first time. Many people know that first record was "Rappers Delight", but what about the second? It came shortly afterwards and was "Christmas Rapping" by Kurtis Blow.
Ever wondered what a collaboration between Thin Lizzy and the Sex Pistols would sound like? Wonder no more, they did collaborate in 1979 under the name The Greedies with "A Merry Jingle" which was essentially a medley of Christmas songs done in a Thin Lizzy/Sex Pistols crossover sort of style. It never made the Top 40 until the first week of 1980 though.
After 3 years of Christmas songs, or non-Christmas songs you hear at Christmas, at Christmas number one, 1979 brought us one that nobody has ever accused of being a Christmas song. That was "Another Brick In The Wall" by Pink Floyd. Surprisingly this would be the only Pink Floyd Top 40 hit of the 70s. Then again, it may be more of a surprise this was a hit at all given Pink Floyd were an albums band.
The first number 40 of 1962 is really a tale of just how short a successful pop career can be. When producer Joe Meek set up his own production company, the first hit to come out of that was the debut of John Leyton, "Johnny Remember Me" which made number one in August 1961. His follow up "Wild Wind" reached 2, but his 3rd hit "Son This Is She" didn't do as well, making 15 at the start of 1962.
All his hits to date had been written by Geoff Goddard. This record, his 4th Top 40 hit, was also a Geoff Goddard composition was originally written as an instrumental for the Flee-Rekkers but did not chart. In March 1962, barely half a year after John Leyton was top of the charts, this peaked at 40.
His chart career wasn't over though. He did better with his follow up "Lonely City" which was his final Top 40 hit penned by Geoff Goddard and made 14. He then parted company with both Geoff Goddard and Joe Meek.
He had a couple of minor hits the following year, then he quite music to become a successful actor.
Christmas songs clearly weren't big in 1969. The nearest we have to a Christmas song is "Winter World Of Love" by Englebert Humperdinck. It has winter in both the lyrics and title, plus the lyrics contain the words winter and snow. No references to Christmas itself though.
The Archie's reached number one at the end of October with "Sugar Sugar" where it remained until December. It however just fell short of being Christmas number one, being knocked off by Rolf Harris with "2 Little Boys".
Time for my annual look at the Christmas charts 60, 50, 40, 30, 20 and 10 years ago plus the Christmas chart for this year.
We begin with 1959 where we have 2 versions of "Little Donkey" in the charts at the same time. The highest charting of these came from the Beverley Sisters which made 14. It was their penultimate Top 40 hit having made their Top 40 debut in 1953 with another Christmas song "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus". The other one came from Gracie Fields which made 20 and was her second and final hit.
We also had a Christmas hit from Russ Conway with "Snow Coach" which came at the end of his most successful year in the Top 40 having had 2 number ones.
For the 3rd year in a row and final time "Mary's Boy Child" by Harry Belafonte entered the charts, but it only made 30 at a time when it was still a Top 30. There was another version of "Mary's Boy Child" in the charts coming from Nina And
Frederick. It was there first of three Top 40 hits, the second would come the following year with "Little Donkey".
Max Bygraves had a Christmas hit with his version of "Jingle Bell Rock". This was the first version of the song to make the Top 40 and highest charting reaching 7.
The Christmas number one wasn't a Christmas song, it was the very long titled "What Do You Want To Make Those Eyes At Me For? " by Emile Ford & the Checkmates. This was their debut hit and only number one.
Here's my weekly look at the Top 20 from 20 years ago. On the basis we'd reach the Top 20 in the Top 40 countdown around 17:30 on a Sunday at the time the plan is for these posts to go out at 17:30 on a Sunday.
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 20 from this week in 1999 with my verdict on each record:
It's been a while since I last heard this, it doesn't quite sound the same as I remember it. I sense some Motown influence in the song which I don't recall noticing before. However it still sounds very much like a Texas song i.e. boring.
The debut hit for Christina Aguilera. Like with many pop songs by young American artists at the time, this is very American high school sounding, but based on what we've learned about many of these songs, you'd expect it to be written by a Swedish bloke. But not this one, 2 of it's 3 writers are actually American, the other coming from New Zealand. Still, not a record I can say I like.
This is probably the best known Westlife song. It was written by the same people who wrote their first number one "Swear It Again". The funny thing was that it wasn't originally going to be a Westlife song, it was going to be the debut solo record for Boyzone member Stephen Gately. Given most people don't remember Stephen Gately even having a solo career, I wonder if he'd have been more successful if this song was given to him instead as originally intended. As far as Westlife songs go, this is probably one of the better ones but it's still shit.
The problem I have with this record now is that it sounds like it set the scene for all that cringe worthy crap she did with the likes of Pitbull later on in her career. At the time though I thought it was alright. I guess the fact you don't have anyone shouting "Mr Worldwide" in it means it still is alright.
The 3rd hit for boy band A1 which reached number 3 and was a double a-side. "Everytime" is the better known one and is a ballad. Sounds like it could just as easily be a Westlife song, but it's written by A1 themselves. "Ready or Not" isn't a cover of the Fugees but it does sound a bit like a rip off of "Stop" by the Spice Girls.
This one samples the Carly Simon song of the same title. It's perhaps not as well known as "Taboo" but still made the Top 10. It follows the same sort of formula as it's predecessor, a reggae style tune with an 80s song sampled in the chorus. But this one seems to lack the excitement that "Taboo" had.
The 3rd solo hit and 2nd number one for Geri Halliwell. Despite leaving the Spice Girls due to musical differences, all 3 of her solo hits to date had been written by Absolute, the producers who discovered the Spice Girls and produced half the tracks on their first 2 albums. In fact all the songs on Geri's debut album were written by them and predictably it's still crap.
On hearing this record for the first time I was expecting it to open with a rap from J. Instead it opens with singing from someone I'd never noticed being in the group before. It was band member Sean who'd pretty much been in the background up until now. J does still get the lions share of the vocals though, with his vocals being somewhere in between singing and rapping in this tune. It was the first Five record to get to number one and I've got to say I like it.
This was the 8th Top 40 hit for Will Smith (excluding his Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince hits) and his chart career to date was quite remarkable, 7 of his 8 hits had made the Top 3. This one heavily sampled "Rock the Casbah" and featured vocals from K-Ci of Jodeci but despite this it was still the usual crap you got from Will Smith.
The 3rd Top 40 hit for Phats & Small which follows the same sort of formula as the first 2. At the time I was starting to get tired of that formula but listening to it 20 years later it sounds much better than I remember it sounding.
The 3rd Top 40 hit for Lolly. I'd say the best known of this double a-side is her cover of "Rockin Robin" which is very cheesy as you'd expect. The other one "Big Boys Don't Cry" goes down the ballad route, but somehow still manages to sound cheesy.
When I first heard this I imagined the singer to be in her 50s. She actually is now, but at the time she was only 32. I thought it was alright initially but then it quickly got irritating. On paper it shouldn't be a bad song, it's original, it's soulful and it certainly isn't boring but for some reason it just bugs me.
The 7th Top 40 single from his "R" album, and still not the last. This is one of those records that charted much later than I remember it charting, but given it's on an album that I own and the first single from that album came out in early 1997 it's not that surprising. Good tune though.
"She's the One" is one of the best known Robbie Williams songs, but what isn't that well known is that this is a cover. The original was by World Party the 2 versions aren't very different at all. "It's Only Us" was written by Robbie Williams himself and I don't think is anywhere near as well known. I quite like both songs.
Nearly a year since Tiffany died on Eastenders and I'm sure many people were hoping they'd bring her back from the dead so we didn't have to suffer her dreadful music career. This double a-side is 2 poor covers of 70s hits. It wouldn't be her last Top 40 hit either, this was her 3rd of 5 Top 40 hits and they all made the Top 10. What were people thinking.
I loved "Better off Alone" but I found this one to be very average. A lot of the commercial Trance music in 1999 was good but then in the early part of the 21st century it was mostly cheesy vocal rubbish and this is more similar to that, though in it's defence is nowhere near as bad as DJ Sammy and co.
The second single from the album of the same name, this one was written by Rick Nowels who wrote several of Belinda Carlisle's hits. It does sound more of a proper song than any of the Spice Girls hits ever did but that doesn't mean it's any good.
Boyzone were arguably the biggest boyband at the start of 1999 but then we saw the start of Ronan's solo career and Westlife came along who were basically a younger Boyzone. You sensed it was only a matter of time before Boyzone would call it a day, and they did after this single. It's basically the same sort of ballad type crap they'd done throughout their career.
My first impression of this record was that it was far too slow. Then I went down the pub one night and lost count of the number of times I heard it. After that I thought I'd happily never hear this tune again in my life. It's not one that's been played a great deal since to be fair, but I still don't like it.
The Lords Prayer sung in the style of Auld Lang Syne, sounds bloody awful and it is.
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 5.5/20, or 27.5%. Five are still keeping the score above 5.
