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:
Prefab Sprout in 1997? Amazingly they had more Top 40 hits in the 90s than the 80s. This was their final Top 40 hit to date. It was actually written in 1989 but despite this it's not as good as their 80s material, but it isn't bad.
Verdict - OK
Oasis were back...oh no it's another band making an Oasis record. This was the Top 40 debut for Hurricane #1 and one of their members, Andy Bell, would go on to join Oasis a few years later. The guitar bit was used on Match of the Day shortly after and at the time I thought it was "D'You Know What I Mean?" that was being used, such is the similarity.
Verdict - Rubbish
28. 3 Colours Red - Pure (New)
I feel like this is an Arctic Monkeys record from long before the Arctic Monkeys existed. Obviously I can't hold that against 3 Colours Red as they came first. That said, you can't get around the fact this sounds like the music I really hated in 2005.
Verdict - Rubbish
This was always the big Daft Punk record before they did "One More Time" which left this in the shadows. As a result though at hasn't suffered from being overplayed as much. It's such a simple tune but very effective.
Verdict - Good
The 2nd Top 40 hit for Nuyorican Soul who were one of several aliases of Masters at Work. As you could probably tell this is a soulful house record and few if any make soulful house records than Masters at Work and this is no exception.
Verdict - Good
I have no memory of this record and I was wondering whether this was from Tall Paul and Darren Stokes, but turns out they were Goodfellos. Goodfellaz were a short lived American R&B group who don't even have a Wikipedia page. That's a shame as this record is actually quite good.
Verdict - Good
I first heard this record on the radio on one of the daytime shows and to be honest I was quite surprised to be hearing it. It really wasn't the sort of record I'd expect to be charting, it just sounded so different to anything else I'd heard before. It then started getting a bit overplayed but listening now it sounds as good as it did back then.
Verdict - Good
No Doubt seemed to just come out of nowhere with this record. I remember thinking who the fuck are No Doubt and suddenly they were number one. Turns out they'd had a number 38 prior to this. I think they did their best stuff later on in their career, but this ones not bad.
Verdict - OK
The 7th Top 40 hit from the most prolific 3rd rate Britpop band of the 90s. It's just as memorable as the previous 6 hits. The comments to this video refer to Gene being an underrated band, I'd just say they were for a niche taste which wasn't mine.
Verdict - Rubbish
The Lightning Seeds have a bit of a strange Top 40 record. They have a few well known hits but their only Top 10 hit that wasn't "3 Lions" was this which I would call one of their best known ones. It's also their only Top 40 that was a cover, originally being by The Byrds. It's not great if I'm honest.
Verdict - Rubbish
It hadn't even been a year since the Fugees took this record to the top of the charts but here we are with a dance cover in the charts. To be fair there were already hardcore and drum & bass versions being played at raves before this. Which leads to the problem, this one isn't as good. Plus what was the point in getting someone else to sing it.
Verdict - Rubbish
Paul McCartney started the decade with 3 Top 40 hits in 1990. This was just his 2nd Top 40 hit since with a solitary hit in 1993 coming in between. I recall the comeback of Paul McCartney being a big thing at the time when he appeared on TFI Friday. As for the song itself, not bad but hardly a classic.
Verdict - OK
The other Top 40 hit for Republica, though they did have one further Top 40 hit after this and this was also a higher charting hit than "Ready To Go". It follows the same sort of formula as it's predecessor but by no means sounds like an exact replica, so that's a good thing.
Verdict - Good
It had been a year since Oasis were last in the charts with the chart topper "Don't Look Back In Anger" but now they were back....oh hang on this isn't Oasis, it's Robbie Williams. I do remember the first time I heard it was mid song on the radio and I genuinely thought it was an Oasis song. I guess its the most convincing Oasis impersonation then, but that's not a good thing.
Verdict - Rubbish
16. Dru Hill - In My Bed (New)
Although this wasn't their highest charting hit, I would say this is the record Dru Hill are best known for. It was the only Top 40 hit that Daryl Simmons wrote which wasn't co-written by Babyface. I do think you can still tell this is a man who worked with Babyface a lot though and in a good way.
Verdict - Good
You can tell which single number each Mansun record is thanks to the way they titled the singles. At the same time the only single I really remember was "Wide Open Space". I have to say this one is ringing a vague bell but I can't say I'm enjoying it.
Verdict - Rubbish
14. Ant And Dec - Falling (New)
When PJ and Duncan were singing "Tonight I'm Free" on Byker Grove and then failed to reach the Top 40 when releasing it as a single, I bet nobody thought they'd reach 13 Top 40 hits. Well they did and this was the 13th. It was written by Steve Mac and Wayne Hector who would go on to write a number of Westlife hits. You can sort of tell, as a result if their pop career was still supposed to be a joke it was no longer funny.
Verdict - Rubbish
Blackstreet may be best known for "No Diggity" but this was their highest charting Top 40 hit. It uses the same samples as "I Ain't Mad At Cha" by 2Pac. Both records are good in their own way and I own both albums each record appears on.
Verdict - Good
After just over a year away from the Top 40, the Foo Fighters were back with a second album and this was the lead single. Dave Grohl had cut his hair short and grown a beard. What I do recall about this record though was how it was much heavier than your typical music on TFI Friday when they appeared. At the same time though I found it rather irritating.
Verdict - Rubbish
With both Sash! and DJ Quiksilver having a big impact on the UK charts with their brand of commercial dance with their debut hits it was time for fellow German Thomas Kukula aka Red 5 to make his mark. He never quite had the same impact, but it's very commercial but very listenable dance music
Verdict - Good
With East 17 now out of the picture, 911 were the biggest active UK boy band at this point. They were perhaps overshadowed by Irelands Boyzone and Americas Backstreet Boys though. The solution for taking on the latter was to basically make a Backstreet Boys record. It worked though as this is the record they're best known for. It's shit though.
Verdict - Rubbish
I had a friend who was also a raver who I used to think just made up things about the rave scene safe in the knowledge nobody had anyway of proving otherwise. One day he had written quite a sizeable list of DJ names, some were ones I was very familiar with and others I thought he'd just made up. One such DJ was DJ Quicksilver. I questioned whether a DJ would really name himself after a brand of clothing. Then it turned out there was such a DJ. When I first heard this record it wasn't what I was expecting. I expected something of the hardcore or drum & bass variety, but this was club music. I still liked it though.
Verdict - Good
This was the 7th and final number one to date for Michael Jackson. Naming all 7 of his number ones would be pretty difficult to do, whilst many would guess "Billie Jean" how many would guess "One Day In Your Life"? More to the point who would name this record? No doubt this is the most obscure number one of his but it was a time where it seemed the artist was more important than the record when it came to succeeding in the charts. He's teamed back up with Teddy Riley here, but it's a pretty poor record.
Verdict - Rubbish
As the story goes, Shola Ama was singing on the tube one day and was heard by someone in the business which eventually led to this her Top 40 debut. It's a cover of a Turley Richards record made famous by Randy Crawford. I do quite like this record.
Verdict - Good
6. Jamiroquai - Alright (New)
Jamiroquai were always a band that could do no wrong. I addition to the stereotypical Jamiroquai records, they managed to pull off both a ballad and a drum & bass record. Then came this record. It's always irritated me for some reason. I acknowledge it has a funky bassline, but it's no help to the record this time.
Verdict - Rubbish
This was the main song from Space Jam and I asked the question why do they always have ballads for cartoon films. That said, I did think this ballad was much better than your average ballad so not a bad choice really.
Verdict - Good
When it came to the soundtrack for "Romeo + Juliet" this was seen as the big record from it as opposed to the much better "You and Me Song" by The Wannadies. A very poor choice of record in my opinion, there's nothing to like about this record, it's irritating.
Verdict - Rubbish
The Seahorses are a band who completely passed me by in 1997. It's the band that John Squire formed after the Stone Roses split up and this was their Top 40 debut. That fact alone would have generated record sales. Maybe I had heard this at the time and quickly forgot it, that's the sort of record it is. I am familiar with it retrospectively.
Verdict - Rubbish
The 97 part of this title refers to the fact it was rerecorded for the single release having been a track on his "Older" album the previous year. This meant the die hard George Michael fans who would have already owned the album for sometime by this point would go out and buy this single to help it reach number 2. Once again it's not to my liking.
Verdict - Rubbish
It had been nearly a year since Gary Barlow topped the charts with his solo debut "Forever Love" and it took that long for him to release his follow up single which also topped the charts. It was originally a Madonna song that didn't make the cut for her "Bedtime Stories" album. That's how shit it is.
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 12.5/30, or 42%. A whopping 16 new songs this week.
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