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:
This was the 2nd posthumous Top 40 hit for The Notorious BIG and became his biggest hit to this point. It samples "I'm Coming Out" by Diana Ross and I love the way it has been sampled. You could have literally any rapper rapping on this and it would still be a decent record.
Verdict - Good
Dannii Minogue had last been in the Top 40 in 1994. In the time in between she was presenting The Bigger Breakfast which was an extension of The Big Breakfast in the school holidays. That made me think she'd given up her singing career, but then came this which was her biggest Top 40 hit to date. I would call this an example of how sex sells.
Verdict - Rubbish
The 2nd Top 40 hit for Marilyn Manson. Unlike it's predecessor there is nothing really distinctive about this record. It would appear that the shock value of Marilyn Manson was enough the sell the records and as long as there's enough noise in the record why do anything else.
Verdict - Rubbish
As the title might suggest, this was a comeback single for the Backstreet Boys even though it had been just 5 months since they'd last been in the Top 40. It was however the lead single from their 2nd album. I was written by Denniz Pop and Max Martin and the way the Backstreet Boys were marketing themselves in this record tells you what this was all about.
Verdict - Rubbish
This was the 2nd Top 40 hit for Finley Quaye and his highest charting to date. I would say its one of those records I can appreciate and it doesn't sound as bad as I remembered it, but it's just not to my liking.
Verdict - Rubbish
This was the 2nd Top 40 hit for Shola Ama and her highest charting single to date. I thought that when S Club 7 did "Natural" it was a blatant rip off of this. Don't let that put you off though, the S club 7 record is just a really poor imitation of a decent record.
Verdict - Good
Cast really were living the dream with this being their 6th Top 10 hit in a row out of 8 Top 40 hits overall. Once again though it's a record that I don't remember being particularly big at the time. Their luck did run out with their next record.
Verdict - Rubbish
This was the lesser known follow up single from DJ Quicksilver but I was paying attention because I liked his first hit and he was a name that had been brought to my attention prior to that. I must admit it hasn't aged well, still acceptable but I'm not sure I'd think much of it if I heard it for the first time now.
Verdict - OK
Kylie Minogue had been away from the Top 40 for 2 years. Previously her comeback had been initially successful and then the wheels started to come off. For this comeback she had The Manic Street Preachers behind this record. The result was the lowest charting Top 40 hit for Kylie Minogue to that point.
Verdict - Rubbish
This was the penultimate Top 40 hit of the 90s for Snoop Dogg and the last time he'll feature because his last one didn't make the Top 30. The JD featured in this record is Jermaine Dupri and this was taken from the soundtrack to Men in Black. I'm a big fan of Snoop Dogg, but nobody gets it right all of the time and this is one of those where he hasn't got it right.
Verdict - Rubbish
My biggest memory of this record was watching a TV show that I think was called "Holidays From Hell". It documented the holiday of 2 old ladies taking a holiday to Ibiza and their hotel was right in the middle of San Antonio amongst the Club 18-30 crowd and this was being blasted out repeatedly to the point that one of them was pointing out it was that song again. To be fair as a youngster at the time I would have hated hearing this all the time as well as I've never liked it.
Verdict - Rubbish
The 2nd Top 40 hit for N-Tyce who were the first British girl group in the Top 40 to rival the Spice Girls and this was their biggest hit which is the same sort of nonsense as their debut hit. With the All Saints now a thing, the days were numbered for N-Tyce, but they would be back.
Verdict - Rubbish
18. Jaydee - Plastic Dreams (New)
This record originally failed to make the Top 40 when first released in 1993 but succeeded with this David Morales remix in 1997. If you're going to get someone to remix your record then David Morales is one of the best people to do it.
Verdict - Good
After 2 chart toppers in a row, The Chemical Brothers only managed to make number 17 with this record. The Chemical Brothers music is a bit hit or miss, their first number one was good, their second number one was rubbish and this ones OK.
Verdict - OK
It had been 7 years since Mariah Carey made her Top 40 debut. She had built a reputation for doing dreary ballads so now it seemed was time for a transformation. With Puff Daddy, Q-Tip and Stevie J on board this was a world away from the sort of music one might expect from her. If I was forced to listen to one of Mariah Careys 18 Top 40 hits to this point then this one would probably be it. More to do with how shit her other records were though.
Verdict - Rubbish
15. The Sundays - Summertime (New)
Releasing a song about the summer when summer has just ended is quite a clever move really. I do however recall the summer of 1997 was pretty miserable, it was my last summer of riding a bike and remember getting drenched a lot from the rain. That makes releasing this just after the summer of 1997 an even better move to bring back nostalgic memories of the summer of 1996. It did the trick with me anyway.
Verdict - Good
After collaborating with The Fugees on their last single, Simply Red were collaborating with Sly & Robbie on this cover of a Gregory Isaacs song. Not sure what to make of this if I'm honest, not a bad record but does seem to lack a little something.
Verdict - OK
When Mark Morrison is 3 in 10 on Popmaster the contestant usually only gets "Return of the Mack" and Ken points out he had other hits with "Mack" in the title. Here's one of them, and it strikes me he's just living off the glory of his chart topper and is squeezing out what's left of his Top 40 career.
Verdict - Rubbish
This started off as and R&B record in 1995, but it was a Tuff Jam garage remix that got it into the UK Top 40. Now considered to be one of the garage classics and rightfully so. It may have inspired some other big garage remixes of R&B records.
Verdict - Good
We've had the first posthumous hit for The Notorious BIG. Now we have the tribute record by his label boss and his widow. It interpolates "Every Breath You Take" by The Police. I would say this topped the charts because of what it was rather than how it sounds, it's a pretty poor record.
Verdict - Rubbish
Boyz II Men had 4 Top 10 hits in total. The other 3 were the obvious ones and this is the obscure one. Being the lead single off a new album in 1997 almost guaranteed them a Top 10 though even if most of us were fed up with their dreary nonsense.
Verdict - Rubbish
There was never any doubt that the All Saints were a girl group when they made their Top 40 debut with this single. As a result I really didn't want to like this song. I couldn't help but like it though and eventually bought their album which was the first album I'd bought in a long time that wasn't rave.
Verdict - Good
8. Portishead - All Mine (New)
It had been 3 years since Portishead released the legendary "Dummy" album and this was the lead single to the follow up album. It also gave them their only Top 10 single to date. They hadn't done a "Dummy" part 2 and but still kept the spirit of Portishead alive.
Verdict - Good
The 2nd Top 40 hit for Hanson and follow up to their big hit. I don't think this one is well remembered but my memory of it was the discovery that Hanson had a band member whose voice had broke. The contradiction between that and the squeaky voice of the lead singer made me laugh.
Verdict - Rubbish
The Top 40 debut for Ricky Martin. It strikes me as one of those records everybody dances to on their holiday in Spain in the summer and then makes it's way into the UK Top 40 in time for Autumn. Except it's only any good when you've had a few beers and are getting in the holiday spirit.
Verdict - Rubbish
Chumbawamba first formed back in 1982 but this was the first time they hit the Top 40. It sounds like the sort of record that would make the charts because of a major football tournament happening, but there wasn't. Maybe it was just compensating for the lack of major football tournament.
Verdict - Rubbish
With Will Smith an established actor by this point and Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince now split up you would think Will Smith would have given up on the rapping. Unfortunately he was only just getting started as a solo artist with this being his Top 40 debut.
Verdict - Rubbish
If you were to ask the question what was the only number one single for The Verve? I would guess most people would say "Bitter Sweet Symphony" but it was actually this record. There always seemed to be someone playing this at open mike night at university which is one of the reasons I wouldn't have gone to it myself if I wasn't playing songs there myself.
Verdict - Rubbish
Not only was George Michael getting older but his album was too and the singles kept coming. This was the 6th single off the album, 5 of which made the Top 2 with the other making number 3. I would have this down as one of the most obscure number 2 records of the 90s and it's strange to think this would have almost certainly topped the charts had Princess Diana not died.
Verdict - Rubbish
The biggest selling single of all time thanks to it being a charity record and a tribute to Princess Diana. I can picture the video clip of loads of people piling into the record shops as soon as it opened with one woman going and picking up a massive pile of CDs to buy. This blog is all about the music though and not the sentiment and musically it's not to my liking.
Verdict - Rubbish / Rubbish
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%. Another slight drop.
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