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:
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
29. Joe - Good Girls (New)
The final Top 40 hit of the 90s for Joe and the final Top 40 hit from his "All That I Am" album. It's one of those records one could relate to when they are single and looking for love. Had I ever seen the album at a reasonable price I would have bought it.
Verdict - Good
I try not to use the expression ahead of it's time too much because in reality only a small number of records can be. This however was ahead of it's time because it appears on the Kiss in Ibiza 99 compilation and sounds well at home with the genuine 1999 trance records in there.
Verdict - Good
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
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
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
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
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
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
The posthumous hits kept coming for 2Pac. Whilst his posthumous hits prior to this were all known to be recorded before his death but yet to be released, this one is the lead single from his "R U Still Down? (Remember Me)" album which was his first album of previously unreleased material. This record includes lines from a yet to be released "Changes". I can picture myself driving down a country road listen to it in my car.
Verdict - Good
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
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
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
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
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 whole rap/rock crossover concept had perhaps been done to death by this point so here was a new concept, rap and classical crossover. It's an odd concept I have to say because they're chalk and cheese really, but it does work pretty well once you get used to it. The penultimate Top 40 hit of the 90s for Warren G with his final one just around the corner.
Verdict - Good
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
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
12. Allure - All Cried Out (New)
The 2nd and final Top 40 hit to date for Allure, the R&B group signed to Mariah Careys label. It's a cover of the Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam record and features fellow R&B group 112. I do like the original of this, but the cover has all the goodness taken out of it and just sounds like a karaoke version.
Verdict - 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 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
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
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
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
6. Space - Avenging Angels (New)
Space were back with a second album and this was the lead single from it which gave them their highest charting hit to this point. It's got that same quirkiness we'd become used to with Space records which makes for a decent tune.
Verdict - Good
5. Lighthouse Family - High (New)
When it comes to Lighthouse Family singles they don't get any better than this. I always found it a really soothing record. I once worked somewhere that had music playing that didn't have the original singers on the tracks. This was one of those tracks on there and the different singer made it not as good. Then I bought a compilation that had this on it and was such a relief to hear it with the proper singer again.
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
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
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
If we give the records which were good 1 point each and those which were OK half a point, the final score is 9/30, or 30%. Allure the only new entry I don't like this week.
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