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 last Phil Collins single before he released his greatest hits album yet it never made it onto his greatest hits album. Being his 21st Top 40 hit though some would have needed tp be culled and he has done much better than this. Not bad though.
Verdict - OK
29. REM - Electrolite (New)
This was the 20th Top 40 hit for REM and the final one with Bill Berry in the band. It sounds a bit like a "Man on the Moon" part 2, it has it's similarities anyway in that he sings "electrolite" in a similar style to "yeah yeah yeah yeah". No bad, but I can't help but think "Man on the Moon" is much better.
Verdict - OK
This was the 16 Top 40 hit of the 90s for Gloria Estefan and yet another one that I don't remember. It's a ballad that sounds like several other dreary ballads. I feel that Gloria Estefan had reached the stage where she didn't really need to sell records anymore so made music for herself, it sounds that sort of record.
Verdict - OK
I mentioned previously that Mansun's hits of the 90s were number EPs in chronological order but there's only one actual song I remember. This was the song. I remember it mostly for how much I hated it so I guess I learned to avoid them after that.
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
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
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
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
This isn't the first Top 40 hit to have the work "fuck" in the title, that was the Dead Kennedys back in 1981 with "Too Drunk To Fuck". It is however claimed to be Top 40 hit that uses the word "fuck" the most number of times helped by the same line being repeated over and over again. As a song though I don't think it's any good.
Verdict - Rubbish
Louise may have left Eternal, but it was Eternal who had the last laugh when they knocked her off number 9. You do sense they were upset about Louise leaving though because their songs from this period were so fuckin miserable.
Verdict - Rubbish
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
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
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
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
At the time this sounded so futuristic when he sang the opening line about a Saturday in 1999. Obviously that's well in the past now, but if someone sang about a Saturday in 2026 now I'd almost question whether I blinked and we were in 2026 already. If only music remaining as good as this into the future.
Verdict - Good
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
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
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 the lead single from Snoop Dogg's 2nd album "Tha Doggfather". It samples "Oops Upside Your Head" by the Gap Band and features Charlie Wilson from the Gap Band himself. It also became his highest charting Top 40 hit to that point. You can't go wrong with a bit of classic Snoop Dogg.
Verdict - Good
This was the 40th Top 40 hit for Prince and his penultimate one to date. It was also the only one he did that was a cover, originally by Connie Stevens and made famous by The Stylistics. It doesn't sound that different to The Stylistics version and I can't fault it really as Prince had the talent to replicate it like that.
Verdict - Good
A lot of boy band songs are crap and many of them are supposed to be. At the same time though, several boy bands have one decent song in their back catalogue and this is the one for 3T. It's a cover of an Eric Carmen song, but is produced by Denniz Pop and Max Martin so would have been carefully crafted to be easy on the ears.
Verdict - Good
On paper this should be a strange record as it's an odd collaboration. In reality though it just sounds like your typical Elton John record the the odd bit of singing from Pavarotti. It's pretty forgettable too, bit of a non-entity music wise.
Verdict - Rubbish
Swearing in music was nothing unusual in the 90s but this record became most famous for its swearing. I guess it's because it wasn't the style of music you'd expect swearing in. The whole appeal of The Beautiful South is the lyrics but the lyrics were generally easy to ignore so they probably put the swearing in to grab peoples attention. It probably worked, but I can't say I think much to this record.
Verdict - Rubbish
To this point I haven't really though much of the post-Richey Edwards output from the Manic Street Preachers single wise. That changes with this record though. They've suddenly found a bit of energy from somewhere. That said, I still only consider it good enough to get half marks.
Verdict - OK
6. Damage - Forever (New)
This was the 2nd Top 40 hit for Damage who opted not to wait for their 3rd hit to release a ballad. More significantly though this was the first Top 40 hit penned by the partnership of Steve Mac and Wayne Hector, the songwriting duo behind many of Westlife's hits. It sounds like it could have been a Westlife hit as well.
Verdict - Rubbish
A second chart topper for Peter Andre that wasn't "Mysterious Girl". This is quite possibly the most obscure number one of the 90s. I do remember it and remember thinking it was depressing. A blatant rip off of every other dreary ballad.
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
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
1. Boyzone - A Different Beat (New)
Boyzone waited for nearly 2 years to get their first number one, then two come along at once. They've gone for an African style pop song this time and it's every bit as awful as that sounds. It's up there amongst the obscure number ones of the 90s.
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 11.5/30, or 35%. An improvement over last week which wasn't difficult really.
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