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 1997 with my verdict on each record:
Runrig were finished in the 90s from a Top 40 perspective in terms of original hits, but this record returned to the Top 40 having previously made number 36 in 1993. Runrig didn't really fit in with music trends so this sounds no more out of place in 1997 than it does in 1993. Not really my thing though.
Verdict - Rubbish
The 4th Top 40 hit for the Lighthouse Family. This is a lot less soothing that their previous 3 hits. In fact it's not very soothing at all and as a result isn't as good. It may have worked with a different backing track but the combination doesn't work here.
Verdict - Rubbish
28. Tricky - Tricky Kid (New)
Tricky made quite an impact with his debut album "Maxinquaye". Now he was onto the difficult follow up album "Pre-Millennium Tension". I was a fan myself and own his debut album, but not his second. It's not a bad record but I can't say I'm blown away by it.
Verdict - OK
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
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
The intro to this record features vocals by a then unknown Dido who is the sister of Faithless member Rollo. After the release of "Insomnia" a couple of months prior I was ready for the Maxi Jazz rapping this time. Again the way it breaks down for the Maxi Jazz vocals is fantastic and then the complete change in sound when the beat kicks in following the vocals just makes the tune. I bought this single as well.
Verdict - Good
24. Kenickie - In Your Car (New)
Lauren Laverne is a famous TV presenter/Radio DJ these days, but this is what she was doing before that. Being a British band with guitars they came under the Britpop banner. I'm not sure your average Britpop fan would have like this though, it's cheesy crap.
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
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
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
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
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
Eric Carmen only had one Top 40 hit in the UK which was with this record, but he had covers of 2 of his records in the Top 40 at the same time in 1996 with the other being "I Need You" by 3T. It's Celine Dion doing what she does best, dreary ballads.
Verdict - Rubbish
This was a charity record in the aftermath of the Dunblane school massacre that happened earlier on that year. "Knockin' On Heaven's Door" is a cover of the Bob Dylan song with a new verse added and "Throw These Guns Away" was an originally composition written by Ted Christopher who sang on both songs. Like with most charity records, musically it's not very good.
Verdict - Rubbish / Rubbish
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
Here's Whitney Houston with yet another song taken from a movie. This time it's "The Preachers Wife" which Whitney Houston was also in herself. It's a cover of an Annie Lennox record. There was also a happy hardcore version of this which I thought was dreadful, much like what I think of this.
Verdict - Rubbish
12. Terrorvision - Easy (New)
I've previously mentioned that I initially thought that Terrorvision were American because their sound was to hard for me to think they were a British band. I don't think I'd have that same thought if I'd heard this record first, they're following the trend by getting softer. This in turn makes this record boring.
Verdict - Rubbish
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
Another hit from the musical film "Evita" which is the most painfully boring film I've ever seen. Part of the painfully boring watching of the film was sitting through this painfully boring song.
Verdict - Rubbish
This was one of those records that I didn't really want to like but I couldn't help but like it. Mark Morrison may only be remembered for one song now, but this was pretty big at the time. Another thing I remember around this time was Mark Morrison being the Wanker of the Week on The Girlie Show, the only feature worth watching on that show truth be told.
Verdict - Good
The 3rd Top 40 hit for Kavana and the first one that anyone really noticed. It's a cover of the Shalamar record which is his joint highest charting single and the one he's most famous for. He probably didn't like that fact given he writes songs as well. I always thought this was a bit naff and haven't changed my mind.
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
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
It had been 3 years since En Vogue had last been in the Top 40 and they came back here with what I consider to be their best record. It was also the beginning of the end for En Vogue as we knew them with lead singer Dawn Robinson leaving the group shortly after. They still carry on today but nothing they've done since has been as good as this.
Verdict - Good
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
3. Orbital - Satan (Live) (New)
This was first released in 1991 and made number 31. This live version was then released and gave Orbital their biggest hit to that point and joint highest charting record to date. I've seen Orbital live and would definitely recommend it.
Verdict - Good
My initial thought when first hearing this was wow Tori Amos has made a pretty decent record. In reality the original of this was abysmal and Armand Van Helden has done a remix which is basically a completely new record that samples vocals from the Tori Amos record. It gave Tori Amos her only number one and would be her penultimate Top 40 record to date.
Verdict - Good
What had become apparent by this point was that not only were the Spice Girls here to stay, but they were almost inevitably going to top the charts with everything they release. I knew someone who bought this single because you could see Geri's legs on the cover, that's how effective their marketing seemed to be. It even made its was onto the Christmas episode of "Only Fools And Horses". Musically though it's really poor.
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 12/30, or 40%. Slight drop now we have actual new entries.
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