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:
When I was getting into R&B I would use MTV Base as a source of finding out the sort of music I should be listening to. What I remember on reflection was as well as the good stuff there was lots of crap in there too which was being praised by the likes of Trevor Nelson. This was one of those records I felt I should be getting into but couldn't. Brandy was just 16 at the time of this record so that perhaps shouldn't be surprising.
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
28. Inner City - Your Love (New)
Seems strange seeing an Inner City record in the Top 40 in 1996. The dance music scene had moved on so much since their 1988 breakthrough. This somehow manages to sound very much like an Inner City record without sounding out of place in 1996. It was their penultimate Top 40 hit to date and last completely original hit.
Verdict - Good
Donna Giles was a New York drag queen who sadly passed away before the release of this record which is a dance cover of the Dreamgirls record. It sounds exactly as you'd expect it to sound i.e. not very good.
Verdict - Rubbish
This was the 2nd Top 40 hit for Skunk Anansie and probably their best known. At a time when mainstream guitar music was getting softer it's good to hear something with a harder edge like this. I was too much into rave at the time to truly appreciate it, but looking back this is actually a decent tune.
Verdict - Good
The hardbag era was coming to an end by this point with this being one of the last hits from the genre. I did like hardbag music generally, but you could sense it was becoming a bit tired by this point. This record just sounds like jumping on the bandwagon and making any old crap.
Verdict - Rubbish
The Top 40 debut for Scottish bouncy techno act QFX. With the Top 40 career of fellow Scots TTF now finished it was QFX now flying the flag. It's a cover of the Moby record, and not the only cover happening around this time either. I liked pretty much all the versions of it I was hearing at the time including this one.
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
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
This was the final single from their "The Bends" album which became their highest charting single to that point. It was perhaps the success of this single which made them stick to making mellow depressing music as opposed to the grunge sound they started out with. It worked for them but not something I'd want to listen to.
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
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
A big beat cover of the Led Zeppelin song. I've never been that keen on the Led Zeppelin original but love this cover. Nothing unusual there really, there are several dance records that I like but don't like the original.
Verdict - Good
There was a time when you knew what you were getting with an Ace of Base record i.e. a nice bit of reggae pop. Then came this, a dance record. It's the same idea though, written for the pop charts and a joy to listen to.
Verdict - Good
It felt like The Smashing Pumpkins had been around for quite a while by this point, but this was just their 4th Top 40 hit. It was Billy Corgan being nostalgic about the year 1979 but in a way it made me slightly nostalgic about the early 90s when there were several of us who united via music like this but we'd now gone off in different directions musically. One other band that this record reminds me of is Sonic Youth who were very much and early 90s band from my perspective, but formed just a couple of years after 1979.
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
One thing I started doing once I'd got into dance music was to listen to Pete Tong on a Friday night on Radio 1. In those early days I used to hear this record a lot to the point that if I was asked to name a record I used to hear when listening to Pete Tong back in the day then this would be it.
Verdict - Good
The 90s comeback of Meat Loaf continued with this being his 5th top 40 hit of the 90s ensuring he had more Top 40 hits in the 90s than any other decade. I think the title sounds better if said in a Scottish accent. That's about as exciting as this record gets. It's not as over the top as some of his other records but that just makes it a bit bland.
Verdict - Rubbish
Upside Down were a boy band formed by Ian Levine and put together on the TV. This was their Top 40 debut which was originally intended for Bad Boys Inc, a previous Ian Levine boy band who had now split up. It's a blatant rip off of "Careless Whisper".
Verdict - Rubbish
I'd heard this record long before it hit the UK Top 40. I went from initially loving to hating it pretty quickly. Basically the only rap metal act I knew was Rage Against The Machine so when I heard this it sounded good to hearing someone else doing it. Then I started to think this was pretty poor in comparison. My view has mellowed since, but I still don't particularly like it.
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
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
In 1995 I was singing this all the time, and those not into rave had no idea what I was singing with some even thinking I was making it up. In 1996 here it was in the Top 40. Technohead were a British husband/wife duo who'd recorded under several aliases over the years. In the early 90s they relocated to Holland and topped the charts with this. By the time it charted over here though one of them had sadly passed away.
Verdict - Good
7. East 17 - Do U Still? (New)
As a general rule, an East 17 song would consist of Tony rapping and Brian singing. If you had to pick who was the lead vocalist for these songs though, more often than not you'd say Brian. With this record though it's very much Tony taking centre stage and I remember at the time noting that Brian was very much a backing vocalist on it. It's an odd one, a great karaoke number that you can't really sing too badly and overall a great tune.
Verdict - Good
6. Joan Osborne - One Of Us (New)
The Top 40 debut and biggest hit for Joan Osborne, though the only one to feature here as her follow up failed to make the Top 40. I quite like the concept of god taking a bus back to heaven and getting a phone call from the pope. The first time I realised how much I liked this song was when it came on in a pub.
Verdict - Good
The Top 40 debut for Etta James with a record she'd first recorded 36 years prior in 1960. It was given a new lease of life thanks to its inclusion in the Diet Coke advert. It's quite strange listening to it the whole way through as even all these years later I'm used to it ending at the point it ended on the advert. A good tune, but the only time I've ever bought a Diet Coke is for someone else in a pub.
Verdict - Good
4. Lighthouse Family - Lifted (New)
The 2nd Top 40 hit for the Lighthouse Family and the one which made them household names. They divide opinion but I find some of their music quite soothing and this is one of those. A great tune to listen to whilst driving on a country lane, not that I think I've ever done that.
Verdict - Good
The 3rd Top 40 hit for The Bluetones which was really their breakthrough single. It was also their first Top 40 hit not to have blue in the title. It's catchy and still often gets played today. I could take it or leave it at the time, but can now see the appeal whilst being pretty sick of it at the same time.
Verdict - OK
You have to feel sorry for Tito Jackson really, a musician in his own right yet 3T were best known as Michael Jacksons nephews as opposed to Tito Jacksons sons. What I remember about this at the time was one of them having a backpack on that he'd throw to the ground part way through the song. No idea why he did that, maybe a distraction from the fact it's not a very good song.
Verdict - Rubbish
One of the biggest disappointments of the 90s was hearing "Spaceman" in its entirety. When it appeared on the Levi's advert it sounded great. Then it appeared on Top of the Pops and I was looking forward to it. Once the intro, which appeared on the advert, was over it slowed down into a rather dreary song.
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 14.5/30, or 48%. Several decent new entries bring the score up.
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