Here's my weekly look at the Top 30 from 28 years ago. The plan is for these posts to go out at 17:30 on a Wednesday.
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 1995 with my verdict on each record:
This originally made number 38 in 1994 but did better when it returned to the charts in 1995 and gave Bobby Brown his highest charting Top 40 hit to date. It was also the last of his big hits. The single version was a K-Klass remix and is a dance record. A great uplifting record.
Verdict - Good
The only Top 40 hit for Blessid Union Of Souls. It's a ballad and one thing I've often said is that if a ballad is done well it can be a great record. This record fits that category, it's got a lot of soul to it and one you can feel.
Verdict - Good
Curtis Stigers in 1995? All his other Top 40 hits had come in 1992 but here he was in 1995 and he'd had his hair cut. The music is still very much the same though perhaps not as catchy as his big hits. I would put this in the guilty pleasures category.
Verdict - Good
The issue I used to have with the Eurovision Song Contest when I was younger was that it sounded like most of the music was stuck in the dark ages. Then in 1995 this record was selected to represent the UK and I thought wow a song that actually sounds modern at Eurovision. I also watched the Eurovision Song Contest that year and it really should have won as it was the best record by far.
Verdict - Good
This was the 6th Top 40 hit for Oasis and it gave them their first number one. I recall on The O-Zone after this topped the charts Liam Gallagher said he wasn't surprised this got to number one because it's a good record. I too wasn't surprised given how big Oasis were becoming, but I can't say I agree about the good record bit.
Verdict - Rubbish
1995 was the year of The Outhere Brothers and this is where it all began. They were massive in 1995 and then afterwards they were nowhere to be seen really. I was a fan of their music, it was great fun to listen to.
Verdict - Good
One of the reasons I have 1995 down as being a good year for music is because I'd videotaped the Christmas edition of Top of the Pops and found myself liking many of the records they used to round up the year. There were however exceptions to that and this record stands out as one of those that wasn't so good.
Verdict - Rubbish
I'm surprised this record got no higher than number 18 because this got played a lot at the time. I remember several young kids taking a liking to it at the time for some reason. My teenage self also thought it was decent if I'm honest. Definitely one of the better Elton John records.
Verdict - Good
At the time me and a couple of others were given lunchtime detention at school for a few days by the science teacher in the science lab. He would listen to his tape which began with this song. We would therefore laugh at this possibly 50 something bloke listening to Take That. I always hated Take That and still think most of their music is crap, but I have to concede that this one is actually quite good.
Verdict - Good
The Top 40 debut for Happy Clappers which is also the record they're best known for. It's members included Mark Topham who wrote several of Steps hits. I won't hold that against him though, this is very much a commercial record but an enjoyable one at the same time.
Verdict - Good
Guitar music was getting softer in the mid-90s but Radiohead really took it to the extreme with this record. It's a far cry from the heavy guitars of "Creep" but I guess that was the point. They were doing their own thing and I respect that, but I just find this unlistenable.
Verdict - Rubbish
I've always seen Michelle Gayle as a prime example of British R&B being inferior to its American counterpart. I remember this record as was ready to say that, but instead I'm quite surprised to find myself enjoying it after all these years. With an American songwriter and a video where she's wearing a Michigan dress and it looks like it was recorded in America I guess it's more of an American record with a Brit providing vocals.
Verdict - Good
Here's a turn up for the books, an Australian pop singer who wasn't on an Aussie soap. This was the Top 40 debut for Tina Arena and the record she's best known for. This is how you make a pop ballad, once it gets going it's quite something.
Verdict - Good
It's rumoured that this record was written about Sarah Jessica Parker who Joshua Kadison was said to be dating at the time. It's not unusual for a musician to be dating a film actress, but doing so before the musicians had his first hit seems pretty unusual. Anyway this was played at lot at the time and I quite liked it, still do.
Verdict - Good
I've never liked rugby as a sport and have never watched the rugby world cup in my life. The way to know it was happening was a version of this song being in the charts. It do find it somewhat baffling that rugby prides itself on being a hardcore sport yet it gets represented musically by such a namby pamby song.
Verdict - Rubbish
The 6th and final solo Top 40 hit for Jimmy Somerville which meant he had one more Top 40 hit as a solo artists than he did with Bronski Beat. It also meant that he'd had more covers than original Top 40 hits as a solo artist. This was the lowest charting of those covers. I quite like it.
Verdict - Good
14. Therapy? - Stories (New)
Therapy? were back following the success from their "Troublegum" album. It remains the only Therapy? album I've ever listened to, all I know outside that album is the singles. This was the first post-Troublegum single and I like it, but not enough to listen to the album.
Verdict - Good
When this record first came out I thought that Montell Jordan may have been a basketball player who made a record. The fact he was so tall and had the surname Jordan would have been logical reasons why. That said, the fact is too good to be by a sportsman really.
Verdict - Good
After Celine Dion had been at the top of the charts for what seemed like an eternity with a dreary ballad, here she was back with another dreary ballad. My opinion of this song is therefore much the same as my opinion of its predecessor.
Verdict - Rubbish
11. Reef - Naked (New)
Reef were a band the rock crowd were getting into at the time and was one of the reasons I stopped listening to rock and got into rave instead. I thought their music was too soft but in the case of this record it's a complete non-entity.
Verdict - Rubbish
The Top 40 debut and only chart topper for Livin Joy which is also the hit they're most famous for. It's a commercial dance record no doubt and I've perhaps heard this too many times in my life by now. It does however push the right buttons to make it great fun to listen to.
Verdict - Good
The solo Top 40 debut for Billie Ray Martin who had previously been in the Top 40 as the singer for Electribe 101. Initially reaction to hearing that there was a singer called Billie Ray Martin was not that achy breaky heart bloke again. It was a different Billie Ray though, a German female as opposed to an American male. It couldn't be any more different, but it's almost as annoying as "Achy Breaky Heart".
Verdict - Rubbish
Bernard Butler left Suede in 1994 and then formed a duo with David McAlmont. This was their Top 40 debut and the record they're best known for. Whilst this also falls under the britpop banner it's very different to Suede. That's a good thing.
Verdict - Good
After the eventual success of "Push The Feeling On" courtesy of a MK remix, The Nightcrawlers reunited with MK for this follow up which very much follows the same formula. The main difference is that it's nowhere near as catchy, but then that's what makes it good in its own way.
Verdict - Good
The debut solo Top 40 hit for Ali Campbell which was also his biggest. It features uncredited vocals from Pamela Starks. The only resemblance it has to a UB40 record is Ali Campbell's singing, it's very much a pop record otherwise. It's also how a pop record should be done.
Verdict - Good
The follow up to the chart topping "Let Me Be Your Fantasy" which is a rave version of the Korgis record. There were other rave versions of the same record also going round at the same time. It lends itself well to it though I have to say.
Verdict - Good
I don't think anyone saw this one coming. A eurodance record that's rapped by a 53 year old bloke with a stutter. This record is about as 1995 as they come even though it was originally recorded in 1994. What a tune though.
Verdict - Good
A record from 1958 that finally entered the charts after appearing on the Guinness advert. Perez 'Prez' Prado sadly didn't live to see this records success as he died in 1989. I'm not sure I was aware of just how old this record was at the time and when I hear it I very much think 1995.
Verdict - Good
2. Pulp - Common People (New)
Pulp formed in the 70s but it took until 1994 for them to get their first Top 40 hit. It was this record though that made them a household name. I wasn't keen on this record at first, then it grew on me a bit but it's taken quite a few years for me to concede that I do quite like it.
Verdict - Good
Whilst I generally have a favourable opinion of music from 1995 I'm also conscious that there was also rubbish in the charts that year with Robson & Jerome in particular that springs to mind. This was their Top 40 debut which came about after their Soldier Soldier characters sang it on the show.
Verdict - Rubbish / Rubbish
If we give the records which were good 1 point each and those which were OK half a point, the final score is 22/30, or 70%. It's proving to be a good year.
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