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:
This was Top 40 hit number 17 of the 90s for Gloria Estefan. Not bad when you consider all her well known hits came in the 80s. It's a dance record, very generic and bland. There was still more of that to come before the decade was over.
Verdict - Rubbish
Speed garage continued to have a presence in the Top 40 as we approached the halfway point of 1998, though we are approaching the end of the speed garage era now. I'm trying to think of any speed garage hits I didn't like and I honestly can't think of any. This one was amongst the best of them in my opinion.
Verdict - Good
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
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
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
When I was reviewing "Uh La La La", the Top 40 debut for Alexia I was initially listening to the wrong version but found the right version at the second attempt. It took a lot more digging to find the correct version of this which was the Pump Friction vs Precious Paul mix. Again it's incredibly cheesy and the singing is extra irritating.
Verdict - Rubbish
The posthumous hits kept coming for 2Pac with this being his 6th posthumous Top 40 hit and 8th Top 40 hit overall. This one has an animated video and I remember it appearing quite frequently on the music channels. It was one I would stay on the channel to listen to.
Verdict - Good
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
22. Pulp - A Little Soul (New)
The penultimate Top 40 hit of the 90s for Pulp who would appear to have been past their commercial peak by this point. This is a soul influenced record or more specifically a "Tracks of My Tears" by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles inspired record. Don't let that fool you though, it's a rather boring record.
Verdict - Rubbish
21. Ian Brown - Can't See Me (New)
The 3rd solo Top 40 hit for Ian Brown which was basically a Stone Roses record without John Squire as it featured both Mani and Reni. IT was apparently written about a time when Ian Brown waved to John Squire when walking down the street but John Squire hid behind a newspaper. I like the sentiment, but musically it's pretty poor.
Verdict - Rubbish
This was the highest charting Top 40 hit for Silver Sun. Who are they? I hear you ask. I was wondering the same myself. This is a cover of the Johnny Mathis & Deniece Williams done indie style, so they're basically one of those obscure indie bands who quickly came and went around this time.
Verdict - Rubbish
Geri Halliwell had left the Spice Girls but this song had already been recorded with her on it. England United were a supergroup consisting of the Spice Girls and a few indie musicians and this was the official England song for the World Cup and was universally hated and was overshadowed by "3 Lions" and "Vindaloo". I agree with popular opinion on this.
Verdict - Rubbish
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
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 official Scotland record for the World Cup. Scotland did end up coming home as soon as they possibly could from the World Cup and haven't been in the World Cup since. It's a pretty dull song, but what sort of irritated me was them referring to the "stupid plane", first of all why is the plane stupid and also they could have also got the Eurostar home.
Verdict - Rubbish
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
Bus Stop were Daz Sampson, the person who represented the UK at Eurovision a few years later and Flip & Fill. This is a cheesy eurodance remake of the Carl Douglas record which featured the man himself. I already knew the originally and remember wondering why people were singing it all of a sudden, then heard this and thought oh dear.
Verdict - Rubbish
The 2nd Top 40 hit for Sweden based American singer Lutricia McNeal which was also her highest charting Top 40 hit. It was also the first Top 40 hit as songwriter for Rami Yacoub, one of Max Martins sidekicks. I did find it a little irritating at the time but I'm not minding it now.
Verdict - OK
When I was reviewing her previous hit "Butterfly" I mentioned how I recalled Mariah Carey promoting it on The Big Breakfast. I'm now thinking it may have been this single she was promoting. Put it this way they are pretty similar to each other and people must have felt cheated with her transformation to R&B singer on "Honey".
Verdict - Rubbish
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
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
One of the big songwriting teams in the R&B world is Rodney Jerkins, Fred Jerkins and LaShawn Daniels. This was their first Top 40 hit as songwriters. Both Brandy and Monica had only been in the lower reaches of the Top 40 prior to this. I remember hearing how great Brandy's "Never Say Never" album was supposed to be and given I liked this song I decided to buy it. This song aside it really wasn't that great and I ended up selling it.
Verdict - Good
8. Des'ree - Life (New)
The highest charting Top 40 hit for Des'ree which was her penultimate Top 40 hit to date. It had also been 4 years since she'd last been in the Top 40. This record has been widely ridiculed for it's stupid lyrics and I'm inclined to agree.
Verdict - Rubbish
This brings back memories of the god awful TV show "Man O Man" that was hosted by Chris Tarrant. This was the theme music to that as I recall. The TV show and record suited each other though given how dreadful they both were.
Verdict - Rubbish
When I first heard this record, I liked it. Then I started to hate it from hearing it all the time but started to like it again when the hype around Fatboy Slim started to die down. It was his 2nd Top 40 hit but the first that really made people notice,
Verdict - Good
More football music for the World Cup. No lyrics this time, instead it was taking a sample of music used in football and making a dance version of it. As you've probably gathered by now I'm not a fan of football music, but I actually don't mind this.
Verdict - OK
On May 31st 1998 we had the news that Geri Halliwell had left the Spice Girls. The same day B*witched topped the charts with this their debut single. They really couldn't have timed it any better. I immediately thought come back the Spice Girls all is forgiven. Actually I didn't because the Spice Girls weren't finished yet, but this is every bit as bad as your average Spice Girls record.
Verdict - Rubbish
3. Five - Got The Feelin' (New)
I remember watching the video to this and thinking what the fuck? It's a boy band trying to be gangsta rappers and is absolutely ridiculous. I stand by that, but at the same time I couldn't help but like it. I would say this is one of my guilty pleasures.
Verdict - Good
2. Fat Les - Vindaloo (New)
This was the alternative of alternative England songs for the World Cup. It's a very non musical song that was nothing more than something for the fans to sing from the terraces. That's the very reason this record appealed to a number of people, but it didn't appeal to me.
Verdict - Rubbish
After topping the charts with "3 Lions" during Euro 96, Baddiel, Skinner and the Lightning Seeds were back for the World Cup in 1998 with a remixed version which was basically the same as the original but with different lyrics. I never liked the original.
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 9/30, or 30%. Any improvement but still a poor score.
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