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 was the only Top 40 hit for The Aloof who were an experimental electronic group from the 90s. As such this record doesn't neatly fit into any genre. I can definitely see it's credentials and do appreciate it. I'm not exactly getting blown away by it though so it gets half a mark.
Verdict - OK
This is basically Celine Dion does Meat Loaf. It was written by Jim Steinman who wrote the bulk of Meat Loafs hits including a Meat Loaf version of this 10 years later. Therefore it's long and over the top and not to my liking, but I will concede it's better than her usual dreary ballads. Still crap though.
Verdict - Rubbish
A remix of a record that originally made the Top 40 back in 1988. The remixers in question here were the Klubbheads. Therefore its a dance record and I have to say this sounds nothing like the original at all. It's very repetitive, not always a bad thing but in this case it is and it's not fast enough to remedy that.
Verdict - Rubbish
On some of the Now albums in the mid-90s they tended to have dance records on tape 2 side 2. Now 35 was one of these, except it ended with this record which seemed really out of place. Now I'm hearing it again after all these years and it oddly sounds even more dreary than I remember it sounding.
Verdict - Rubbish
What I remember about this record was that you could feel the pain in it. As is the way though, Skunk Anansie sounded harder at the time compared now which I put down to guitar music generally being much softer. Still has enough edge to it to like it though.
Verdict - Good
Gina G was someone who I thought would be a one hit wonder and she's thought of by many as being a one hit wonder, but she wasn't. I recall hearing this on Noels House Party and thinking that it would have been better if she'd remained a one hit wonder.
Verdict - Rubbish
It had been nearly 2 years since Boyzone made their Top 40 debut and I remember when Take That were still around some said they were losing their grip on the boy band world to Boyzone. Yet it took Boyzone until this record to score their first number one. Still, it was one hit sooner than Take That scored their first number one. A cover of the Bee Gees record which could be best described as the alternative lyrics of: shits only turds and turds are all I have to take your fart away.
Verdict - Rubbish
The 3rd Top 40 hit for the Backstreet Boys which is a ballad, something that seemed almost inevitable. One of the writers of this was Eugene Wilde who had a couple of Top 40 hits in the 80s that he didn't write himself. I get the whole point of this song, but it's not something I'd want to listen to.
Verdict - Rubbish
Garbage are one of those bands who have a few decent records and a few questionable ones. Tricky is an artist I rate but due to his experimental nature some of his music can be questionable too. This collaboration is I feel is supposed to be good, but I just don't see the appeal of.
Verdict - Rubbish
This originally made the Top 40 in 1994 and I absolutely loved it, especially the time Carl Cox dropped it in one of his set. It returned to the Top 40 in 1996 as a remix. How does this remix compare? Well not as good as the original for starters, but they've kept the important bits in there so sounds good in the breakdown. Not so sure about the rest of it though so I'll give it half a mark.
Verdict - OK
The penultimate Top 40 hit to date for Belinda Carlisle and the last time she'll feature as her final one didn't make the Top 30. Ironically I remember that final hit, but not this one. Now I'm listening to it though I'm finding it's not a very memorable record. A bit of a non-entity really.
Verdict - Rubbish
A year after Michael Jackson topped the charts with "Earth Song" he's attempting it again with another ballad but he falls short this time round. Like "Earth Song" he's trying to get a message across but musically it's not to my liking. I also got irritate about the way he pronounce Moscow.
Verdict - Rubbish
After Matt Rowe and Richard Stannard topped the charts as songwriters for the first time with "Wannabe" by the Spice Girls, this was their next Top 40 hit. The music career of Ant & Dec aka PJ & Duncan was always intentionally a bit of a joke. Yet this sounds a more credible record than "Wannabe". Still a joke though.
Verdict - Rubbish
17. Queen - You Don't Fool Me (New)
The posthumous hits keep coming for Queen with this being the 7th since Freddie Mercury died. It's said to be reminiscent of their "Hot Space" era which is widely considered to be a low period for them. I'd also say there's similarities between this and some of Freddie Mercury's solo hits. I have to say this is pretty crap.
Verdict - Rubbish
I've now heard this record more times in my life than I care to remember. It's one of those records that's universally loved, even by people who generally don't like dance music. I liked this so much I bought the single and I've never bought that many singles really.
Verdict - Good
At the time I remember hearing that Babybird was a really prolific songwriter who'd written hundreds of songs. For many though, this is the only song of his they remember. It's a record I remember being out around the same time as "Breakfast At Tiffany's". It's not as crap, but is still crap.
Verdict - Rubbish
One thing I remember this record being known for at the time was the incomprehensible lyrics. I do recall someone pointing out that one of their previous hits "Tattva" had incomprehensible lyrics. With this record their basically trying to be the 90s George Harrison. It's a no from me.
Verdict - Rubbish
13. 2Pac - I Ain't Mad At Cha (New)
This was the first posthumous Top 40 hit for 2Pac who died in the September. He actually dies in the video to this, though that's probably why this was picked to be his first posthumous release. 2Pac made loads of great records and this ones amongst my favourites.
Verdict - Good
With Crowded House now split up, this is what Neil Finn did next. He provided backing vocals to this and apparently the inspiration for this song was fellow Crowded House member Paul Hester. I think this is even worse than the later stuff Crowded House did. It did used to irritate me at the time.
Verdict - Rubbish
Once again I'm going to talk about "The Noise" with Andi Peters. This was when it became apparent that The Spice Girls weren't going to be one hit wonders. They exclusively showed the video to the new Spice Girls single. It's not as bad as their debut, that's the only positive thing I can say about it.
Verdict - Rubbish
This record was released to promote East 17s greatest hits album. To show they weren't planning on splitting up any time soon they put in the reference "The Journey So Far", but we all know what happened next. As with pretty much all the East 17 singles, I like it.
Verdict - Good
This was written by the same songwriting team as her previous hit "Undivided Love" which included Simon Climie from Climie Fisher. No resemblance to any Climie Fisher record this time, more of a resemblance to the group she left, Eternal. Also clear to hear she couldn't sing as well as her former bandmates.
Verdict - Rubbish
Robson & Jerome had a total of 3 Top 40 hits and they all reached number one. This was the final one of those hits. Like it's predecessors, it's a cover and it's rubbish. To be fair they knew there time was probably up after this so called it a day.
Verdict - Rubbish
The Woolpackers were 3 actors from Emmerdale who were named after the pub that features in the soap. As you can probably predict then, this is cheesy and shit. It's a line dancing record, something myself and many others used to take the piss out of.
Verdict - Rubbish
After having 2 big hits that were both instrumentals, Robert Miles did the unthinkable and released a record with a vocalist. I remember at the time thinking what are you doing having a vocalist on your record. The vocals have always annoyed me so on that basis this gets half a mark.
Verdict - OK
After having all 5 of her previous Top 40 hits written by Babyface, Toni Braxton turned to prolific songwriter Diane Warren for her 6th. It worked as this became her joint highest charting Top 40 hit, but often in order to achieve popularity you have to compromise on quality and this is what's happened here in my opinion.
Verdict - Rubbish
The Warren G I was most familiar with in 1996 was the drum & bass MC who would regularly MC for DJ SS. There was of course an American rapper of the same name and this was his joint biggest hit. With the interpolation and the fact it was on a movie soundtrack means it was supposed to be commercial, but it's done really well. I can appreciate this a lot more now than I did at the time.
Verdict - Good
3. Mark Owen - Child (New)
Gary Barlow was the first member of Take That to have a solo hit which went to number 1. Then Robbie Williams was the second and went to number 2. Then Mark Owen was the third which went to number 3. It's possibly the most namby pamby record I've ever heard. No wonder his solo career was an overall failure.
Verdict - Rubbish
2. Fugees - No Woman No Cry (New)
The Fugees narrowly missed out on making it 3 number ones in a row. They're showing that they can do multiple genres of music with this Bob Marley cover. It's definitely up there amongst the best covers ever and even as someone exclusively listening to rave at the time I couldn't deny how much I liked this record.
Verdict - Good
When The Prodigy did "Firestarter" earlier on in the year after much excitement of a new Prodigy tune it was a big disappointment. However, despite follow up "Breathe" taking a similar direction I actually like this one and bought the single. It's the beats that really do it for me.
Verdict - Good
If we give the records which were good 1 point each and those which were OK half a point, the final score is 8.5/30, or 28%. The lowest score of the year and possibly even decade so far.
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