Here's my weekly look at the Top 30 from 26 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 1998 with my verdict on each record:
Yes that's right, Gala had another Top 40 hit. In fact she had 2 other Top 40 hits but the other one never made the Top 30. I do recall hearing the record about silver and gold, but it was a blink and you'll miss it moment unlike it's predecessor that hung around forever.
Verdict - Rubbish
At the time I remember somebody saying that they actually like the new Spice Girls single even though they felt they shouldn't. I told him he was on his own there. It was the lead single from their 2nd album and given the whole Spicemania nonsense going on it was always going to top the charts.
Verdict - Rubbish
The Propellerheads were big in 1997 and then just disappeared off the face of the earth afterwards. With it came the excellent "Decksanddrumsandrockandroll" album which I own and is one of my all time favourites. It gave Shirley Bassey her first Top 40 hit for nearly 25 years and she wasn't done yet.
Verdict - Good
The 4th and final Top 40 hit to date for The Seahorses and just as a reminder, they were a band who completely passed me by. It came just 7 months after their debut, so a very brief Top 40 career. I do question whether I was living under a rock in late 1997 as there's so many records that passed me by, or did the sheer quantity of Top 40 hits mean some would inevitably slip through the net.
Verdict - Rubbish
I was aware this record was from the "Trainspotting" film and that said film was out in 1996. I was therefore wondering why this wasn't released until the end of 1997. Turns out the film and soundtrack were so popular they released a second soundtrack of records that failed to make the first. I'd say there's a good reason this didn't make the first.
Verdict - Rubbish
When I saw Hot Chocolate performing this on Top of the Pops in 1997 I thought there must have been renewed interest in this record due to the Clock cover. Turns out that wasn't the case. Instead it was because it was used in the film "The Full Monty". It's overplayed and a bit cheesy but I do quite like it. That's the song, never seen the film and unlikely to ever watch it.
Verdict - Good
The 2nd half of 1997 was a good one for The Verve. They had 3 Top 10 hits including a number one having never been in the Top 10 before. That was pretty much it for them though, no hits in 1998 and then they split up in 1999. They did reunite and have a final comeback single in 2008 though. This ones as boring as the others.
Verdict - Rubbish
Sheryl Crow makes it into double figures with this being her 10th Top 40 hit. It was the theme tune to the James Bond film of the same name and was the first since 1983 not to make the Top 10. It's generally no better or worse than those that did make the Top 10 in between.
Verdict - Rubbish
The post-Louise era of Eternal was more or less finished by this point, but the solo career of Louise carried on. It was probably helped by the fact that by this point she was the girlfriend and soon to be wife of footballer Jamie Redknapp. The is a karaoke version of the Average White Band record.
Verdict - Rubbish
This was the 3rd number 3 for the Backstreet Boys. They'd also had a number 2 prior to this and all 4 of these record were the ones that had been written by Max Martin. An early sign that by the time I'm writing this post only Paul McCartney would have more Top 40 hits to his name as songwriter.
Verdict - Rubbish
I remember this record being played for what I think was the first time on Children in Need. It's a novelty line dancing mixed with eurodance record. Of course this turned out to be many hits for Steps. It goes without saying this song is shit. As a side note I have no problem with the cheesy holiday rep type image they're portraying here, it serves a purpose I suppose. The issue is them now being stuck up celebrities complaining about it but are happy to still milk it with their nostalgia tours.
Verdict - Rubbish
When New Kids On The Block made their 2008 comeback with "Summertime" they were completely slated by a friend of mine for being a group of middle aged men trying to be a modern R&B group. As a result I decided to buy him that single for Christmas as a laugh. I can only imagine other people had that same train of thought when buying their Christmas presents in 1997 by buying their friends this record. Even at the time it was universally accepted that it was shit.
Verdict - Rubbish
Another football song for Man Utd and it wasn't even around the FA Cup final when that normally happens. Instead they release a record in the middle of a season when they weren't the champions.
Verdict - Rubbish
Mase had already had a couple of Top 40 hits as featured artists on Puff Daddy records, but this was his first Top 40 hit in his own right. It's also his best known hit. The chorus samples "Bad Boy" by Miami Sound Machine which was also they name of the record label he was on. Lots of crap came from that record label.
Verdict - Rubbish
Elton John wasn't the only one to chart with a tribute song to Princess Diana. Chicken Shed which is a theatre group in London had this record. It was sung by the children of the theatre group. It never reached the heights it was expected to.
Verdict - Rubbish
Watch out 911 there's a new British boy band in town and their name is also a number. This was their Top 40 debut and they had the Swedish songwriters Denniz Pop and Max Martin behind this. There was certainly a gap in the market for them, the bad boys from the south to counter the clean cut boy band from the north like East 17 were to Take That. They were no East 17 though.
Verdict - Rubbish
This record was written by Carole King and apparently she originally wrote it for Aerosmith. I could almost imagine that now I'm listening to it, Aerosmith had their fair share of ballads after all. As Celine Dion recorded it though the guitars are pretty quiet aside from the solo and it just sounds very contained.
Verdict - Rubbish
Lutricia McNeal is from America but she relocated to Sweden and launched her music career. Then the Swedish songwriters started taking over the pop world and this, her debut Top 40 hit became a worldwide success. It's always irritated me for some reason.
Verdict - Rubbish
When it comes to dreary ballads, few can claim to be as prolific as Barbra Streisand and Celine Dion so it only seemed logical that they would do a collaboration. To top it off they did a song written by Walter Afanasieff, the man who wrote many of Mariah Careys records and Linda Thompson and David Foster who wrote "I Have Nothing" by Whitney Houston. I'm really struggling to think of anything that can sound worse.
Verdict - Rubbish
In 1996 we saw the beginning and end of the Top 40 career of singing actor John Alford. Then at the end of 1997 we had this, the Top 40 debut for another London's Burning actor Steven Houghton. A poor cover of a poor record.
Verdict - Rubbish
The biggest selling single of all time thanks to it being a charity record and a tribute to Princess Diana. I can picture the video clip of loads of people piling into the record shops as soon as it opened with one woman going and picking up a massive pile of CDs to buy. This blog is all about the music though and not the sentiment and musically it's not to my liking.
Verdict - Rubbish / Rubbish
When I went to Helter Skelter for the millennium, I was looking forward to the Vibes and Live Lee set which was the last of the night. It was a bit of an anti climax though when the first record he played was a happy hardcore version of "Baby Can I Hold You". "Shooting Star" is one I never knew until I started listening to Popmaster where they like asking questions about it.
Verdict - Rubbish
I was watching Live & Kicking in 1994 and Natalie Imbruglia was a guest on the show having just left Neighbours. She was asked if she was planning to launch a music career to which she said no which shocked Andi Peters. 3 years later here she is launching a music career and I was shocked. I wasn't shocked to find it was shit though.
Verdict - Rubbish
I remember someone telling me there was a song about Barbie that had just come out which had some sexual references between Barbie and Ken. I thought he was taking the piss, but then I heard this. When I heard they were from Denmark, the same country as Whigfield, it made more sense. Remember the lyrics "I need you inside me tonight"?
Verdict - Rubbish
This was the turn around point of Robbie Williams solo career which went from strength to strength after this. I was dismissive of him as a solo artist least of all because I didn't like Oasis who he was trying to imitate. This record though is completely different and I had to concede it's actually quite good.
Verdict - Good
When this record came out I was shocked. It was a Janet Jackson song that I actually liked. Remember I was listening to nothing but rave at the time so I really didn't want to like this record even though it is a dance record. Then a friend of mine who was into rap and drum & bass bought this single which made me feel a bit better about liking it.
Verdict - Good
When the All Saints first came about I was amazed to find that I liked their debut Top 40 hit. I was even more amazed to find I also liked this, their follow up. It's one of those records I'd felt I'd heard before but hadn't. As a result of me liking these first 2 singles I went on to do something I'd not done in a long time, bought an album that wasn't rave which was their debut album.
Verdict - Good
If you were watching the BBC in late 1997 then you would have heard this record many times. It seemed to be on between every TV show. It's a long list of singers who would sing a line each and I got absolutely sick of it.
Verdict - Rubbish
1997 brought us what was the latest hugely popular kids TV show, Teletubbies. I've never watched an episode myself, I was far too old for it. Obviously with Christmas just around the corner this record made a ideal Christmas present for parents to buy their young children and hence it topped the charts.
Verdict - Rubbish
The 6th Top 40 hit for the Spice Girls and their 6th number one. Even at the start of 1997 you would have put money on the Spice Girls getting the Christmas number one that year no matter what the record was.
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 5/30, or 17%. A very poor start to the year.
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