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:
The Smashing Pumpkins has 2 Top 10 hits, "Tonight Tonight" which is pretty obvious and this one which isn't. It's from the "Batman & Robin" movie which helps, you can release any old rubbish if it's from a big name film and it will chart. This is what has happened here.
Verdict - Rubbish
This is exactly the sort of record that made Aerosmith get a lot of stick for their 90s music. A band who were now around 50 making music for American high school kids evidenced by the video. Yet I love this record
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
We've reached the penultimate Top 40 hit of the 90s for Wet Wet Wet before they split up. The title more or less describes the record itself. The fact it's not on album, it's by a well known band and it's 1997 but fails to reach the Top 10 suggests this wasn't well received. I'm not a fan.
Verdict - Rubbish
This was the end of the mini revival of the Top 40 career of Lisa Stansfield. It's a cover of the Barry White record and was her final Top 40 hit to date. Perhaps not the wisest thing to do if you want your Top 40 career to keep going. Not a patch on the original.
Verdict - Rubbish
En Vogue had bucked the trend at the start of the year by being an early 90s female R&B group making better music in the late 90s rather than going shit like the others. Then the unthinkable happened, Dawn Robinson left the group. This was their first post-Dawn Robinson Top 40 hit. It was a Babyface composition and whilst it's not as good as its predecessor or their early 90s material it's still decent.
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
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 2 years since Del Amitri had been in the Top 40. It sounds like they've gone American with this record. Maybe it's off the back of them scoring an American Top 10 with "Roll To Me". Either way it's not very good.
Verdict - Rubbish
This was the highest charting Top 40 to date for Skunk Anansie. As the song begins it sounds like it's going to be a ballad, but I remember it livening up when it gets to the chorus. It does in the fact the guitars get heavier but still remains a ballad. It's a bit disappointing on that basis because I remember it being much more lively. Not bad though.
Verdict - OK
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
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
The 2nd Top 40 hit for The Porn Kings who were now augmented by Kenny Hayes. They were from Liverpool and on All Around the World record which basically means they were the cheesy commercial side of dance music. I've heard worse, but this isn't exactly good.
Verdict - Rubbish
The Top 40 debut for Finley Quaye which is basically him doing a version of "Sun Is Shining" by Bob Marley. I'd not heard said record until a couple of years later but given Bob Marley had been dead for some time it was obvious he'd come up with the lyrics first. Bob Marley aside, I've never been a fan of this record.
Verdict - Rubbish
Bon Jovi were now on hiatus so here comes the inevitable Jon Bon Jovi solo record. It became his highest charting solo hit, well it was 1997 after all. It had been co-written by Dave Stewart. To me it's just Jon Bon Jovi writing a song for himself safe in the knowledge he had enough fans to buy it.
Verdict - Rubbish
Where heading towards the end of The Bee Gees Top 40 career with this being the 28th Top 40 hit out of 31. I do happen to really like their final Top 40 hit which came in the 21st century so it would be wrong to say they were past it by this point, but this isn't great.
Verdict - Rubbish
When I first got into rave I was still listening to the Red Hot Chili Peppers initially but by the time this record came out I'd definitely stopped listening to them. It's a cover of the Ohio Players song done for the Beavis & Butthead movie and became their highest charting single to that point. It was probably their worst single to that point too.
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 80s had finished 7.5 years prior to this but it seems nobody told Savage Garden who were making their Top 40 debut with this. If you're unsure which record this is, it's the "Chick A Cherry Cola" one. The 80s in the 90s formula worked pretty well for them though I must admit.
Verdict - Good
When I heard that Supergrass was going to be on the first episode of "Da Ali G Show" I found it really odd as it wasn't the sort of music you'd associate with him. On the show itself though it became clearer, he was the president of the society against indie music and it was his job to bring on indie musicians and make them less crap. On comes Gaz Coombes from Supergrass who starts playing this tune and Ali G puts drum & bass beats over the top. Even though he was a pretend piss take character, he had a good point about the crap indie music coming out around that time.
Verdict - Rubbish
The 4th Top 40 hit for Foxy Brown which was her only Top 10 hit to date. Once again Jay-Z features and it actually raises the question, who is worse, Jay-Z or Foxy Brown? I can't stand either of them and I can't stand this record.
Verdict - Rubbish
When I was doing my search for the best year this appeared in the Top 40 I looked at in 1997 and I picked this as the worst song. It's almost like The Vengaboys before The Vengaboys and even has a name that implies the members would be male but has female members too.
Verdict - Rubbish
In the mid-90s there was a pretty big happy hardcore record from Holland called "Hold Me Now" by The Highlander which samples "Hard To Say I'm Sorry" by Chicago. Then someone told me that some crappy boy band like OTT had done a version. Turns out it was Az Yet rather than OTT, but still the same sentiment, this is shit.
Verdict - Rubbish
6. The Charlatans - How High (New)
It had been 7 years since The Charlatans made the Top 40 debut and this was single number 13. They would have had a big enough fanbase evidenced by the successful comeback singles earlier on in the year. Quite why they felt the need to make a record that sounds like Oasis I do not know.
Verdict - Rubbish
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
There was absolutely no avoiding this record at the time. I remember it appearing on Club Nation and then an advert for the single appeared in the advert break. It didn't take me too long to get absolutely sick of it. Not a bad record by any means but I thought this record was just alright in the first place and that's my view of it now.
Verdict - OK
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
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
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 9.5/30, or 32%. We have dropped this week.
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