Friday, 20 January 2023

Top 30 in 1996 Reviewed: Week 3

Here's my weekly look at the Top 30 from 27 years ago. The plan is for these posts to go out at 17:30 on a Friday.

Here is the Top 40 in full.

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 30 from this week in 1996 with my verdict on each record:


This is the final Top 10 hit to date for Prince. It's nearly 6 minutes long but I can't help but think it's too short, when it finishes I just want to listen to it for longer. If you can get a record for that long to have that sort of impact on me then you must be doing something right.

Verdict - Good


Prior to this record Mariah Carey had 2 uplifting hits in a row with "All I Want For Christmas Is You" and "Fantasy". She was never going to do 3 in a row, but teamed up with Boyz II Men to allow her to do a dreary ballad that could fall under the R&B banner. 

Verdict - Rubbish


Not to be confused with The Dubster, a drum & bass artist. That's what happened to me when I heard that Dubstar were coming up on the radio but was greeted with this record instead. I wasn't disappointed though, quite the opposite in fact because I was now able to put a name to the record I'd been hearing. Also known as the one about the cup of tea.

Verdict - Good


It's funny how there were a number of us who spent the 90s looking forward to the year 2000, but then as the 21st century got under way we longed for the 90s again. I always liked the story of the song, but I've only just discovered that it was a true story and Deborah, the subject of the song is sadly no longer with us. 

Verdict - Good


I remember the Chris Evans breakfast show where this played for the first time. They said that "Wonderwall" was a song from the 60s that Oasis had covered. It soon came to light that this was in fact the cover, but made to sound like it was done in the 60s. I thought this was a big improvement and really wanted it to get the Christmas number one, but sadly that wasn't to be.

Verdict - Good


With Sunscreem being a dance music group with instruments, it meant they didn't always have to make dance music. When I first heard this it really wasn't the sort of record I was expecting. I like it though, good to hear something a bit more experimental. Looks like not too many people agree given this video has had just 1.2k views in 10 years.

Verdict - Good


One thing I remember hearing when listening to the Top 40 countdown one day in 1996 was that Tori Amos got expelled from school when she was a kid. It may have been ahead of this record, the point is I remember hearing that fact but have no memory of the actual song that was played. It sounds exactly like the sort of song I would forget.

Verdict - Rubbish


The only Nightcrawlers album is called "Let's Push It" which you may think is a reference to lead single "Push the Feeling On" but it's actually the name of one of the tracks. It wouldn't be the last time The Nightcrawlers had push in a song title either. It sounds different to their previous 3 hits which followed a similar formula, presumably because this was the first single not to have any involvement from MK. It's a bit cheesy, but not too bad.

Verdict - OK


I used to hear this on an almost daily basis at this time thanks to a bus driver who used to play Now 33 every day. I remember very well that this came after "Ladykillers" by Lush. As a result I couldn't stand it, though I don't think I've heard it since 1996 so sufficient time for me to reassess. Not a bad record, but it's no "One Way". 

Verdict - OK


The 2nd UK Top 40 hit for Lush which came 4 years after their first. Initially part of the Shoegazing scene, they were now part of the Britpop scene. This was also their joint highest charting single. I would say one of the causes of the demise of Britpop was too much throwaway rubbish like this. 

Verdict - Rubbish


Dreadzone have been around for years and are still going strong today, but this was their only Top 40 hit. This is their best known record and I recall it being different to anything else I'd heard before at the time. I liked it enough to buy the album and indeed other Dreadzone albums as well as going to see them in concert.

Verdict - Good


I don't think this was ever considered a true contender for Christmas number one but I guess it shouldn't have ever been ruled out considering how high it did chart. Bjork presented the Christmas Top of the Pops that year which obviously was recorded in advance of Christmas day when they wouldn't have known what was number one. Bjork announced Michael Jackson was Christmas number one, so presumably they recorded all possibilities of who could be Christmas number one and I do wonder whether they recorded Bjork saying she was Christmas number one herself. Anyway I didn't really like it at the time, but it's grown on me over the years. 

Verdict - Good


I can't remember if it was the first time I'd heard it, but I can picture myself listening to this on the radio at the time and thinking this is the record I've been waiting to hear all my life. I could even tell you the name of the street I was going down when I was thinking that. There hadn't really been much of the dark side of rap music in the charts prior to this, but that's what I really wanted to hear. I even bought the single for this too which was the only thing I bought around this time that wasn't rave.

Verdict - Good


LL Cool J had been around for over a decade by this point, but this was just his 5th Top 40 hit and only the 2nd to make the Top 20. This was on a compilation I owned and remember finding this quite soothing. Another thing that stood out to me was the line about waiting at the bus stop, no idea why.

Verdict - Good


The Top 40 debut for The Presidents Of The United States Of America. Looking back I can see this may have inspired 21st century bands like The Strokes and The Hives, but don't let that put you off. I'm talking the punk influenced sound performed by men in suits. Always found this a good one to bop along to and nice and snappy too.

Verdict - Good


The 4th top 40 hit for Shaggy and the first not to reach the Top 10. It's proof that he did have hits in between "Boombastic" and "It Wasn't Me" which is what people were saying he didn't have when the latter was released. I like pretty much all of the Shaggy hits of the 90s.

Verdict - Good


This was pretty much the end of the road for The Outhere Brothers after being pretty much the biggest chart act of 1995. I would call this the forgotten gem of their admittedly small back catalogue. They did have one more Top 40 hit, but they're very much a 1995 act and should remain that way.

Verdict - Good


All of Leftfields Top 40 hits had a featured artist. The featured artist on this is Earl Sixteen but the record is credited just to Leftfield. It originally came out in 1992 but was remixed in 1996 and made the Top 40 for the first time. It's a dub record, not too many of those made the Top 40 and I generally like the ones that did.

Verdict - Good


The lesser known follow up record to "The Bomb" which became the 2nd and final Top 40 hit to date by Kenny 'Dope' Presents The Bucketheads. It follows a similar formula to its predecessor, disco house with 70s disco samples and they have the same character in the video. It's what you'd expect though given that Kenny Dope uses different names for different projects.

Verdict - Good


In the post Louise era of Eternal they came back with perhaps the most uplifting record they'd released to date in "Power of a Woman". They followed it up with this, which is perhaps their most dreary. It was composed by the writer of "Nothin At All" by Heart and the write of "In the Ones You Love" by Diana Ross. 

Verdict - Rubbish


The 2nd Top 40 hit for TLC which came nearly 3 years after their first. It was the lead single from their "CrazySexyCool" album. Like their first hit, this was composed by Dallas Austin. Hearing the intro to this tells me its going to be a good tune, and the rest of the tune doesn't disappoint. 

Verdict - Good


The follow up to "Gangstas Paradise" which fell out of the Top 40 before its predecessor did. It samples the Kool & the Gang record of the same name. In January though it was anything but too hot. It's a solid follow up record.

Verdict - Good


The 3rd Top 40 hit for Cast and first to make the Top 10. I don't think I've heard this since the 90s and I have to say it hasn't aged very well. I never liked it at the time if I'm honest, always thought the lyrics were silly but I thought it was quite distinctive at least. Sounds very generic now though.

Verdict - Rubbish


This was the 7th Top 40 hit in a row by Cher that was a cover and this wouldn't be the end of the streak either. It was originally by The Real People. It's a song I remember getting annoyed at hearing all the time on Now 33. I've not heard it since and hopefully won't hear it again.

Verdict - Rubbish


There's a lot to say about this record, but what springs to mind personally was seeing people who once listened to rave now listening to Oasis. It was reflected on the TV on Byker Grove too. The music aspect had gone from Frew and Barney DJing to characters who's names I don't remember singing "Wonderwall". I was firmly in the rave camp by this point though and couldn't comprehend why people would listen to Oasis instead.

Verdict - Rubbish


At the time I was a big fan of "Gangsta's Paradise" and was convinced it had been in the Top 40 longer than anything else once it had been there a while. Turns out this record entered the Top 40 the same week. As both records fell to the lower reaches, I bought the "Gangsta's Paradise" single to help give it at least another week in the Top 40. Unfortunately "Gangsta's Paradise" dropped out, but this stayed another week and I wasn't happy about that. It failed to reach the Top 40 when first released but a Todd Terry remix gave it a new lease of life. Never seen the appeal myself though.

Verdict - Rubbish


The 3rd Top 40 hit for Baby D and the best one in my opinion. It came at a time when in the rave scene happy hardcore and drum & bass had become separated, but this record is more reflective of the time before the scene split. 

Verdict - Good


To me this record illustrates all that was wrong with Boyzone's formula of doing lots of covers. The song is supposed to be a father singing to his son, but Ronan Keating was only 18 here and therefore more likely to be the age of the son being sang to. OK it's composer Cat Stevens was only a few years older when he wrote it, but I remember seeing Ronan Keating sing "look at me I am old" and thinking no you're not.

Verdict - Rubbish


I remember the race for Christmas number one and not liking the fact this record won the race instead of Mike Flowers Pops. It seems to me that the only reason this topped the charts was because it was Michael Jackson. It's hard to take the lyrical content seriously when it's being sung by a man who had a funfair in his own back garden.

Verdict - Rubbish


This was the first Top 40 for George Michael since he topped the charts with the "Five Live EP" nearly 3 years prior. He managed to top the charts again with this. I remember the Top of the Pops exclusive of this record and thinking how boring. I still do think it's boring.

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 18/30, or 60%. Same as last week.
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