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:
Uncle Sam was an American R&B singer who was signed to Boyz II Mens record label. A lot of the success of Boyz II Men was down to established songwriters such as Babyface writing their big hits. Uncle Sam seemed more of a project to showcase their own songwriting with this one being written by Boyz II Men member Nathan Morris. It's a sort of poundland Boyz II Men then.
Verdict - Rubbish
Here was another reminded that there was good music out there which wasn't rave. It had been nearly 2 years since Garbage had last been in the Top 40 and this was the lead single from their 2nd album. I love the way the chorus comes in on this record.
Verdict - Good
The Jungle Brothers are a rap group who were around long before jungle music. It does however seem appropriate for them to have a drum & bass hit. No only because of their name, but also because they were crossing over with dance music back in the 80s.
Verdict - Good
Phunky Phantom was Laurence Nelson from Rest Assured who had a hit earlier on in the year with "Treat Infamy". The sample this time comes from the disco hit "Strut Your Funky Stuff" by Frantique. Another decent 90s makeover.
Verdict - Good
Queen Pen was the female rapper on "No Diggity" by Blackstreet and here she is with her highest charting single as artist which features Eric Williams from Blackstreet. I heavily samples "Never Too Much" by Luther Vandross. It's produced by Teddy Riley who was having one of his off days. Also was written by Jay-Z. I'll say no more.
Verdict - Rubbish
The wheels had fallen off the Top 40 career of The Bluetones with this failing to reach the Top 10 having achieved that with their previous 4 hits. The Top 40 hits would continue until 2003 though, but this was the last of the 90s to make the Top 30. I would say this would have worked better as a lead single than "Solomon Bites The Worm" but it's still not great.
Verdict - Rubbish
I've always considered Massive Attacks best known record to be "Unfinished Sympathy". However I have a friend who once told me this record was the only Massive Attack record he knew. Further to that it's their only Top 10. It is pretty iconic I have to say.
Verdict - Good
The follow up to the chart topper "Brimful of Asha". What made their chart topper so good was the Norman Cook remix. The reality was the original was dull as ditchwater. Without Norman Cook on hand to transform this record too, this ones dull as well.
Verdict - Rubbish
The biggest hit for K-Ci and JoJo. I was still purely listening to rave at the time but did find myself drawn towards this for some reason. I did eventually get into K-Ci And JoJo via the garage scene which then lead to me buying all their albums. The "Love Always" album is one of my all time favourites.
Verdict - Good
21. 808 State - Pacific / Cubik (New)
"Pacific" was the Top 40 debut for 808 State back in 1989 and "Cubik" was a Top 40 hit for them in 1990. Both records were remixed and released as a double a-side in 1998 which was their final Top 40 hit to date. Both remixes are decent and that fact a lot of their records don't have a definitive mix as such helps.
Verdict - Good / Good
The 7th Top 40 hit for Busta Rhymes which became his highest charting single to this point. It samples the Knight Rider theme which works really well. The verses are rapped quite calmly but then it gets more aggressive in the chorus. Absolutely love this record.
Verdict - Good
The 2nd Top 40 hit for Hinda Hicks. I mentioned when reviewing he debut hit that British R&B had finally found it's feet. This time there's a bit of funk thrown in with a bit of Stevie Wonder inspiration. Unfortunately it doesn't reach the same heights, but it isn't bad.
Verdict - OK
Air made quite an impact when they made their Top 40 debut with "Sexy Boy" which you still hear a lot today. I liked that record, but for me it was all about their follow up "Kelly Watch The Stars". This was the record that made me buy the "Moon Safari" album which led me to buy other Air albums.
Verdict - Good
The 2nd and final chart topper to date for Celine Dion which was take from "The Titanic" movie. I remember how big that film was so it was almost inevitable that this would get to number one. It's also a depressing film given that people die at the end so I guess it's appropriate to have a depressing song for it. Musically though its just another Celine Dion record.
Verdict - Rubbish
We're now reaching the time when I started opening myself up to music that wasn't rave. There was always non-rave music that I liked, but when my friend who taught me all I needed to know about rave in the beginning played this song on the jukebox in the pub it started to seem more acceptable. I also realised that I liked this record whilst listening to it in the pub.
Verdict - Good
15. Adam Garcia - Night Fever (New)
Saturday Night Fever was one of the biggest films of the 70s and in 1998 it turned into a West End musical. The star of that musical was Adam Garcia so therefore he did a cover of the Bee Gees record to promote it. Very much a karaoke version.
Verdict - Rubbish
The 11th Top 40 hit for Boyzone and their 3rd number one after scoring 3 number twos in a row. It was penned by the same songwriters who revived Donny Osmonds career in the 80s and who would pen the debut hit of Rihanna in years to come. I think that tells you all you need to know.
Verdict - Rubbish
It had been 10 years since Run DMC had last been in the Top 40. This Jason Nevins remix of their 1983 record took them to the top of the charts and ended the Spice Girls run of number ones. It also made its way onto several dance compilations which validated me liking this record.
Verdict - Good
The Top 40 debut for Leann Rimes. I once took part in a quiz where a question was who charted in 1997 with "How Do I Live" to which I confidently answered Leann Rimes. The answer was Trisha Yearwood who reached number 66 with it. Leann Rimes was in 1998 and is the better known version. Although not the first person younger than me to chart, I do recall a younger Leann Rimes charting making me start to think have I missed the boat already in my music career.
Verdict - Rubbish
At the time I remember this being this opening song of Top of the Pops for a few weeks in a row. At least that's what it felt. There also seemed to be a lot of people on the stage so I assumed they were a band with many members, but it turned out there were only 2 of them in Savage Garden. Never before have I seen a song contradict a band name so much. I do like some of their music, but not the soppy ballads.
Verdict - Rubbish
There was a pub near where I grew up that had live music at the weekend. When I say live music I mean a singer, ocassionally one with a guitar and a karaoke machine. They'd sing the classics, but this song immediately slotted into the sets and I recall one particular night I swear the singer did this song around 5 or 6 times. Needless to say I got sick of it very quickly.
Verdict - Rubbish
In the early 90s Stock & Waterman tried transforming Bananarama into the new Abba with this being one of their records but it failed to reach the Top 40. Now Pete Waterman tried the same with Steps and was more successful in doing so. Each female was given a verse each whilst you wouldn't even know the males were on the record from listening to it. Unfortunately we'd get more of these over the next few years.
Verdict - Rubbish
This was the 23rd Top 40 hit of the 90s which meant Madonna had more Top 40 hits in the 90s than in the 80s. Mariah Carey would be the only other act to reach 23 Top 40 hits in the 90s. The total score I've given for all of the previous 22 Madonna hits of the 90s is a big fat zero. However she finally had a decent hit with this. The credit of course has to go to William Orbit who was the main man behind this record.
Verdict - Good
We're in an era of Simply Red that was quite cover heavy from a Top 40 perspective, but this was the original composition in the middle of that. They might not have ever been the coolest group to like, but more often than not the music was pretty solid.
Verdict - Good
6. The Corrs - Dreams (New)
Todd Terry may have now been finished in the Top 40 as an artist but he was still around. It was his remix of this Fleetwood Mac cover by The Corrs which gave The Corrs their Top 40 debut. At the time I recall someone asking me if I liked The Corrs, I thought about it and then said actually yes they are pretty good.
Verdict - Good
When I first heard this record with it's sample of "Can You Feel It" by The Jacksons it caught my attention because I like what it is sampling. Then I listened to the record the whole way through and realised that was the only redeeming feature, the rest was cheesy nonsense.
Verdict - Rubbish
The 2nd Top 40 hit for Cleopatra which confirmed they were no novelty one hit wonder singing about themselves. My memory about this record was the line "don't just listen" and thinking I'd rather not even listen let alone do whatever else you want me to do.
Verdict - Rubbish
Although this wasn't the beginning of the solo career of Wyclef Jean it's the record that kickstarted it. What a record it is and you can apply it to a lot of situations. It has all the right ingredients, it's both a record for the busker on the street and for the radio and above all it's got soul.
Verdict - Good
After being pleasantly surprised by who much I liked the first two hits for All Saints I decided to buy their album. On it was 2 covers and these were released as a double a-side for their next single. Maybe having 3 decent singles in a row was a step too far, the cover of "Under The Bridge" is particularly poor given how good the original is.
Verdict - Rubbish / Rubbish
1. Aqua - Turn Back Time (New)
What the fuck happened here? The first 2 Top 40 hits for Aqua were complete piss takes but then came this which was a proper song. I just could not get my head round the fact that Aqua could make a record like this. It take my hat off to Soren Rasted and Claus Norreen, the Aqua members in the background on stage but writers of all their hits. They clearly knew what they were doing.
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 15.5/30, or 52%. We've remained above 50%.
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