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:
It must have been intentional for Monaco to enter the charts the same week as Geneva, funny coincidence if not. This was the 2nd and final Top 40 hit to date for Monaco who were the side project of Peter Hook from New Order. This ones very much a dance record and is much better than their bigger hit.
Verdict - Good
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
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
This record meant that Daniel O'Donnell had a Top 40 hit every year from 1992-1997. Just 19 acts can claim that and I'd say Daniel O'Donnell was the least likely of these. Once again I'm asking the question how the fuck did this get in the charts.
Verdict - Rubbish
This was originally a Top 40 hit for Elvis Presley in 1972 but it returned to the charts in 1997 after being featured in the BT advert. I can't say I remember the advert in question, perhaps I'd learned to ignore adverts by that point. Anyway the Pet Shop Boys cover of this is so good it's difficult to listen to another version. I'll give it half marks though.
Verdict - OK
25. Korn - Good God (New)
I was wondering what this record was exactly, but now I play it I can confirm it's the "get the fuck out of my face one". It's exactly the sort of thing you'd expect from Korn except this time I actually don't mind it. No idea why, the get the fuck out of my face just appeals somehow.
Verdict - OK
Yes this is the same Strike who did "U Sure Do" a couple of years earlier. It was their final hit and a change in direction compared to their previous effort. It's also really a bridge to the next phase of it's members careers with Freestylers and Plump DJs.
Verdict - Good
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
22. Bush - Greedy Fly (New)
The 2nd and final Top 40 hit to date for the British Nirvana clones Bush. As you have probably guessed then, this sounds like it could easily be a Nirvana song. I would say sounds more like a Nirvana b-side than a Nirvana single though, not that I actually know any Nirvana b-sides it just sounds too crap for the albums.
Verdict - Rubbish
I don't think I've heard this since 1997 and the main reason for that aside from the fact you don't really hear it anymore is that it always irritated me at the time. Listening now it's not irritating me like it used to, but I can see why it would have irritated me so I don't think I'll be listening again.
Verdict - Rubbish
That's right, No Mercy had another hit which doesn't sound all that different to their big hit "Where Do You Go". They make it obvious that it's going to sound the same with having a similar title as well. As their big hit was shit, so it this.
Verdict - Rubbish
After scoring her joint highest charting Top 40 hit with a ballad, Toni Braxton followed up with another ballad. This time it's written by R Kelly and is much better made. It's definitely an improvement over it's predecessor, but I'm not as tolerant with ballads as I once was so this gets half a mark.
Verdict - OK
This was the Top 40 debut for Marilyn Manson. My biggest memory of this record was there being a TV show about models that had a song that repeatedly said "beautiful freak" and it kept going round my head at the time so I'd start singing it. I had a friend at the time who liked Marilyn Manson and he'd always counter that by singing this. Not my thing at all.
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
It had been nearly a year since New Edition came back with "Hit Me Off". The album had already been out some time as well, but this was the next Top 40 which was their final one to date. I would say this is the best known of the more modern era of New Edition and it's good.
Verdict - Good
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
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 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
11. Gina G - Ti Amo (New)
This was Top 40 hit number 4 for Gina G, not bad for someone remembered for being a one hit wonder. She just missed out on the Top 10 this time, but I personally remember it. When I learned that "I Love You" in Italian is "Ti Amo" I though ah that's the name of a Gina G song. It sounds like she's doing her own version of "La Isla Bonita" here, a bit crap.
Verdict - Rubbish
George Michael had made the Top 4 with all of his Top 40 hits since 1991 up to this point. This broke that run but continued his run of Top 10s at least. That said Toby Bourke is the lead artist here so it was probably the George Michael presence that helped it to the Top 10. That was surely more of a pull that the music itself.
Verdict - Rubbish
My main complaint about music like this at the time was that it was too slow. I did however find myself drawn towards this record though. The backing vocals of "what's up" grabbed my attention. The word "underground" in the title also helped, after all I was a fan of underground music. It was the debut hit and biggest hit for The Sneaker Pimps.
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
This of course was the theme song for the TV show Friends. I used to watch Friends back in the 90s and I liked it but I have to say it's not aged very well. The theme music though was always shit, but it was probably intended to be that way.
Verdict - Rubbish
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
When I was on Champions League Popmaster I'd say the easiest question I had was to give the surname of Rosie who had a hit in 1997 with "Closer Than Close". I remember this very well at the time and it was one of those records I was supposed to like but wasn't convinced by. It's aged really well though and has become a bit of a classic.
Verdict - Good
This record appeared in the Top 40 I reviewed for my best year search. I found it to be better than I remember it being. At the time I wrote it off, but it's actually not bad. Not sure I like it enough to give it full marks, but it's definitely worthy of half marks.
Verdict - OK
Radiohead were back with this being the lead single from their "OK Computer" album. It also gave them their highest charting single to date. There's an interesting video to this which distracts from how boring the song is. Not sure if the single had the CD-Rom video but would have no doubt helped boost sales if it did.
Verdict - Rubbish
It had been nearly 4 years since Eternal had made their Top 40 debut but it took until this, their 13th Top 40 hit to top the charts. It did sound like they'd finally cheered up in this record have had a string of rather miserable hits. All was not well behind the scenes though as this would be the penultimate Top 40 hit with Kelle Bryan in the group. Still a rubbish song though.
Verdict - Rubbish
1. Hanson - MMMBop (New)
I believe Hanson were the first band younger than me to top the charts. The fact the lead singers voice was yet to break gave that one away. It was the only song most people remember from them, but unfortunately they did have others.
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 12/30, or 40%. Less new entries again and we've slipped.
No comments:
Post a Comment