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:
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
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
The penultimate Top 40 hit to date for Sinead O'Connor and final one of the 90s. The lead track from this EP is "This Is To Mother You". Whilst I don't want to go through the pain of listening to "Thank You For Hearing Me" again I swear this is just the same record with different lyrics.
Verdict - Rubbish
27. My Life Story - Strumpet (New)
You're probably thinking who the fuck are My Life Story? They're another Britpop band who had a few hits in the era and are now long forgotten. They had 6 Top 40 hits in total but this was the only one to make the Top 30. What I'm thinking is thank god I don't have to listen to the other 5.
Verdict - Rubbish
It's that time of year again where we have a football team in the Top 40 with a song about their football team. They've got Suggs on the record, perhaps to give it a bit of credibility. Put it this way, I have a friend who is a massive Chelsea fan and he things this record is shit.
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
24. OTT - Forever Girl (New)
The 2nd Top 40 hit for poundland Boyzone. This was an original composition which was written by the same people who wrote the UK Eurovision entry the following year. The record is just as bad as all of that sounds.
Verdict - Rubbish
The Top 40 debut for The Space Brothers which was the most prolific alias of Rick Simmonds and Stephen Jones from a Top 40 perspective. I would call this the sort of record that give trance music a bad name. The music is too obvious and it has silly singing on it.
Verdict - Rubbish
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
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
20. Delirious? - Deeper (New)
The Top 40 debut for Delirious? who were a Christian rock band. Yes that's right a Christian rock band in the Top 40 and they had more than one hit. It is good to see the most unlikely genres of music to chart reaching the Top 40, but at the same time it's not my thing.
Verdict - Rubbish
19. CJ Bolland - The Prophet (New)
Most of the music from Belgium that made the UK Top 40 in the late 90s/early 00s was trance music. This was the first of those trance records from Belgium. I can't help but think there's a missing ingredient with this record, you sense a lot of potential for it to be great but never quite gets there.
Verdict - OK
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
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
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
One thing I make a conscious effort to do when doing these reviews is to listen to the record and don't let the artist, songwriter or any other external factors influence my decision. This is a Mary J Blige record, so in theory I should like it. The songwriters were Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, another reason I should like it. There is also a rap by Nas on there, again sounds great on paper. The reality though is I don't like the record because musically it's not to my liking.
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
I remember there big a big fuss and performance in selecting the UK Eurovision entry of 1996. In 1997 though all I remember was hearing the news that this was going to be the UK Eurovision entry of 1997. I thought it was a step backwards as Gina G the year before had a far better song than any of the other countries, but to me this record was just as shit as what the other countries came up with. It worked though because it won.
Verdict - Rubbish
This was the lead single from their 2nd and final album. It's that familiar story of a group not being able to follow up their first album with anything decent. It's like they've become a poundland version of their old selves.
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
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
9. Eels - Susan's House (New)
This was the 2nd and highest charting Top 40 hit for the Eels. It's quite a haunting record that documents the grim side of everyday life of a run down area where "Susan" lives. I've previously tried to think of anyone else who's like the Eels and I can't. It's pretty unique and in a good way.
Verdict - Good
8. Primal Scream - Kowalski (New)
Primal Scream were back and once again they were making music that wasn't like the music they'd made before. Mani had joined the band following the Stone Roses splitting up. I admire the way they like to change their sound, but I just can't get into this.
Verdict - Rubbish
North and South were a band from a children's TV show called No Sweat. This was their Top 40 debut and there's something quite amusing about a boy band singing "I'm A Man Not A Boy". It's just as shit as it sounds on paper.
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
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
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
3. Damage - Wonderful Tonight (New)
This was the 4th Top 40 hit for Damage and their highest charting. It's a cover of the Eric Clapton record. One of the YouTube comments sums up this record nicely which is "they seriously damaged this song". What else can I say.
Verdict - Rubbish
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
1. Olive - You're Not Alone (New)
The only member of Simply Red that most people know is Mick Hucknall. In a way that was a win win situation for former Simply Red member Tim Kellett when he formed Olive. The music is nothing like Simply Red, but people would buy it without being put off it being by a former Simply Red member because they wouldn't know. At the same time Simply Red fans may have bought it because he used to be in Simply Red. Either way this is an undeniably good record.
Verdict - Good
If we give the records which were good 1 point each and those which were OK half a point, the final score is 8.5/30, or 28%. The way the new entries keep coming it could be anything next week.
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