25 Years Since....January 1997

Although I was predominantly listening to underground rave music in 1997 there were still enough records in the Top 40 I was enjoying. Here's the ones from January:

Tori Amos - Professional Widow (It's Got To Be Big)

Tori Amos had been round for a few years by this point so I had an idea of what the typical Tori Amos record would sound like which was nothing like this. 

It turned out the original was like a typical Tori Amos record that was remixed by Armand Van Helden to produce something that sounds nothing like the original. It became her only number one to date but she's only had one further Top 40 hit since.

En Vogue - Don't Let Go (Love)

I never really got into R&B until the end of the decade. That said, I did occasionally listen to the Trevor Nelson show on Radio 1 and I've always liked this record.

Maybe this was the beginning of me getting into R&B. Once I made the conscious decision to start acquiring more R&B records En Vogue were top of the list.

This is probably my favourite of all their hits which is saying something for a group who made their debut 7 years prior. Unfortunately this was the beginning of the end for the group with Dawn Robinson leaving shortly after and whilst they've kept on going it's not been the same really.

East 17 - Hey Child

This was the 2nd new single from their greatest hits album which was subtitled "the journey so far" which was presumably to imply they weren't going away anytime soon.

However Brian Harvey made his ecstasy comments whilst the record was in the charts and was sacked shortly after. Whilst reunions in various shapes and forms have happened since, this was really the last of East 17 as we knew them.

Lisa Stansfield/Dirty Rotten Scoundrels - People Hold On (Bootleg Mixes)

This is basically the "Professional Widow" remix with the vocals to "People Hold On" on the record instead. It's a big improvement over the original in my opinion.

White Town - Your Woman

Although there are many resources on the internet these days about White Town, at the time it was a bit of a mystery who White Town actually was.

It was also an unlikely number one. It's an experimental tune made by someone who was anonymous but at the same time it was a tune that could be liked by fans of various genres.