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 last solo Top 40 hit from Gary Barlow that anyone remembers. He seemed to have the edge over Robbie Williams at this point, but then Robbie Williams did "Angels" and Gary Barlow's solo career nosedived. On reflection people were probably noticing how bad his solo records were.
Verdict - Rubbish
The 3rd Top 40 hit for Finley Quaye and we're into obscure territory. I would say his music is an acquired taste, it's pretty unique and he has a funny way of singing. It's not something I could really take to though.
Verdict - Rubbish
Just when you thought N-Trance were back to making good music they come up with this crap. After Rod Stewart released so many singles that were covers, here's somebody else covering Rod Stewart for a change. It kept Rod Stewarts run of a Top 40 hit in every year of the 90s to this point going.
Verdict - Rubbish
I don't think I've heard the whole song since 1997. What I have listened to many time though is Jarvis Cockers appearance on Da Ali G Show where Ali G makes it sound less crap. Therefore I can't get the Ali G rapping "help the motherfuckin aged" out of my head when I hear it. I'm inclined to agree it makes it sound less crap.
Verdict - Rubbish
Moby's career had taken a bit of a nose dive by this point. He'd released the album "Animal Rights" which was a move away from dance music and making guitar based music instead. I once assumed this to be on "Animal Rights" as it fits that story to me, but it wasn't.
Verdict - Rubbish
A year after some Emmerdale actors charted with their novelty line dancing record, they were back again. With Steps in the charts doing the same thing I guess it sort of made sense, but they'd already had their time and it wasn't funny anymore.
Verdict - Rubbish
24. Salt-N-Pepa - R U Ready (New)
The penultimate Top 40 hit to date for Salt-N-Pepa who still had more Top 40 hits to this point than any other rap act with this being number 13. They were now joined by LL Cool J in double figures whilst other rappers were starting to get more prolific with their Top 40 hits. They were starting to lose their grip.
Verdict - Rubbish
The wheels had fallen of for Cast in terms of Top 10 hits, but Ocean Colour Scene were still going strong with this being their 6th Top 10 hit in a row with only their debut "The Riverboat Song" failing to reach the Top 10. The difference though is that Ocean Colour Scene had some decent hits, I like this one.
Verdict - Good
I remember this record being played for what I think was the first time on Children in Need. It's a novelty line dancing mixed with eurodance record. Of course this turned out to be many hits for Steps. It goes without saying this song is shit. As a side note I have no problem with the cheesy holiday rep type image they're portraying here, it serves a purpose I suppose. The issue is them now being stuck up celebrities complaining about it but are happy to still milk it with their nostalgia tours.
Verdict - Rubbish
I remember the intesting fact that "Encore Une Fois" was in French, "Ecuador" was in Spanish and "Stay" was in English but Sash! was German. Those first 2 hits were very commercial sounding and whilst I didn't mind them they weren't really my cup of tea. I'm not going to pretend this is anything other than commercial dance, but its found the formula to appeal to me.
Verdict - Good
At the time I remember somebody saying that they actually like the new Spice Girls single even though they felt they shouldn't. I told him he was on his own there. It was the lead single from their 2nd album and given the whole Spicemania nonsense going on it was always going to top the charts.
Verdict - Rubbish
Yet another Babyface composition in the Top 40. This was Top 40 hit number 42 for Babyface as a songwriter. To put that into perspective, there were only 9 acts to have more than 42 Top 40 hits as artists at that point. Inevitably some would be good and some not so good. This is the latter.
Verdict - Rubbish
This is what Dawn Robinson did next after leaving En Vogue. She wasn't collaborating with the novelty act who did "Star Trekkin" though, it was a rap supergroup whose members included Foxy Brown. You'd think people would have had enough of Foxy Brown by this point.
Verdict - Rubbish
I was aware this record was from the "Trainspotting" film and that said film was out in 1996. I was therefore wondering why this wasn't released until the end of 1997. Turns out the film and soundtrack were so popular they released a second soundtrack of records that failed to make the first. I'd say there's a good reason this didn't make the first.
Verdict - Rubbish
This was the 3rd number 3 for the Backstreet Boys. They'd also had a number 2 prior to this and all 4 of these record were the ones that had been written by Max Martin. An early sign that by the time I'm writing this post only Paul McCartney would have more Top 40 hits to his name as songwriter.
Verdict - Rubbish
After a year away from the Top 40 Robert Miles was back with his final Top 40 hit to date. He'd decided to stick with the vocal record with Kathy Sledge. This record is nothing special, but I will say that Kathy Sledge is a better vocalist than Maria Nayler.
Verdict - OK
The 3rd Top 40 hit and that means almost inevitably it's a ballad. It was also the last of their big hits, though they did manage a Top 10 comeback single in 2005. I'm sure this record wouldn't have made the Top 10 had it not been 1997 though.
Verdict - Rubbish
The 3rd Top 40 hit for Shola Ama. Guess what? yes that's right, this is a ballad. I did buy the "Much Love" album on which this appeared based her 2 big hits and the fact it was only 50p. I've not really listened to the album much though.
Verdict - Rubbish
When I saw Hot Chocolate performing this on Top of the Pops in 1997 I thought there must have been renewed interest in this record due to the Clock cover. Turns out that wasn't the case. Instead it was because it was used in the film "The Full Monty". It's overplayed and a bit cheesy but I do quite like it. That's the song, never seen the film and unlikely to ever watch it.
Verdict - Good
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
The post-Louise era of Eternal was more or less finished by this point, but the solo career of Louise carried on. It was probably helped by the fact that by this point she was the girlfriend and soon to be wife of footballer Jamie Redknapp. The is a karaoke version of the Average White Band record.
Verdict - Rubbish
With the Backstreet Boys now established as the biggest American boy band, it was time to unleash the pop career of Backstreet Boys Nick Carters 9 year old brother Aaron Carter. It's a cover of the record by The Jets and is basically music by a kid for kids.
Verdict - Rubbish
It had been a year since The Prodigy topped the charts with "Breathe" in the time that had passed since, the "Fat Of The Land" album had come out. Then came this single which was famous for it's notorious video. It distracts from the fact this record isn't very good.
Verdict - Rubbish
When it comes to dreary ballads, few can claim to be as prolific as Barbra Streisand and Celine Dion so it only seemed logical that they would do a collaboration. To top it off they did a song written by Walter Afanasieff, the man who wrote many of Mariah Careys records and Linda Thompson and David Foster who wrote "I Have Nothing" by Whitney Houston. I'm really struggling to think of anything that can sound worse.
Verdict - Rubbish
Lutricia McNeal is from America but she relocated to Sweden and launched her music career. Then the Swedish songwriters started taking over the pop world and this, her debut Top 40 hit became a worldwide success. It's always irritated me for some reason.
Verdict - Rubbish
When the All Saints first came about I was amazed to find that I liked their debut Top 40 hit. I was even more amazed to find I also liked this, their follow up. It's one of those records I'd felt I'd heard before but hadn't. As a result of me liking these first 2 singles I went on to do something I'd not done in a long time, bought an album that wasn't rave which was their debut album.
Verdict - Good
I was watching Live & Kicking in 1994 and Natalie Imbruglia was a guest on the show having just left Neighbours. She was asked if she was planning to launch a music career to which she said no which shocked Andi Peters. 3 years later here she is launching a music career and I was shocked. I wasn't shocked to find it was shit though.
Verdict - Rubbish
In 1996 we saw the beginning and end of the Top 40 career of singing actor John Alford. Then at the end of 1997 we had this, the Top 40 debut for another London's Burning actor Steven Houghton. A poor cover of a poor record.
Verdict - Rubbish
I remember someone telling me there was a song about Barbie that had just come out which had some sexual references between Barbie and Ken. I thought he was taking the piss, but then I heard this. When I heard they were from Denmark, the same country as Whigfield, it made more sense. Remember the lyrics "I need you inside me tonight"?
Verdict - Rubbish
If you were watching the BBC in late 1997 then you would have heard this record many times. It seemed to be on between every TV show. It's a long list of singers who would sing a line each and I got absolutely sick of it.
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 4.5/30, or 15%. Back down to being the joint worst week of the 90s so far.
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