Here's my weekly look at the Top 30 from 30 years ago. The plan is for these posts to go out at 17:30 on a Sunday.
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 1994 with my verdict on each record:
The 2nd and final Top 40 hit to date for short lived boy band 2wo Third3 who's members included Richard Stannard, the writer of many Spice Girls hits. This is absolutely dreadful, possibly worse than at least some Spice Girls hits.
Verdict - Rubbish
After calming down and scoring their highest charting single to date, EYC went full on ballad with this follow up. This time they didn't get out of the 20s. It was their penultimate Top 40 hit to date and last to feature as their final hit never made the Top 30. Thank god for that.
Verdict - Rubbish
This was the follow up to her biggest hit "Sweetness" that I'm not sure I actually remember. It's going with that pop music tradition of releasing your depressing song for Christmas. Not sure who exactly they were trying to appeal to here, but certainly not me.
Verdict - Rubbish
The 2nd Top 40 hit of the post-Stock Aitken & Waterman era for Kylie Minogue. This missed out on the Top 10 and she would have a Top 10 for the rest of the 90s. I'd say this record was better known for Kylie Minogue getting naked in the video than the song itself. It does sound more like proper music than her previous efforts, but still not to my liking.
Verdict - Rubbish
M People were back with a new album called "Bizarre Fruit" which this was the lead single from. There's nothing bizarre about this record though, just sticking to the tried and tested dance pop formula that proved to be successful for them. Not for me though.
Verdict - Rubbish
The Tidy Boys are one of the big names from the hard house scene and behind the Tidy record label. It's quite common knowledge that member Andy Pickles had previous been part of Jive Bunny & the Mastermixers which doesn't do much for their credibility. However both members had previously done this novelty record as 2 In A Tent which was made in collaboration with Stock & Aitken. Not sure which is worse.
Verdict - Rubbish
The Top 40 debut for Sheryl Crow which did have quite an impact, though some seemed to be more into Sheryl Crow herself rather than her music. When these conversations were going on I knew the song but didn't know what Sheryl Crow looked like. Not a bad record and certainly better than the shite she did in years to come.
Verdict - OK
When I was a Honeyz fan I was asked by a few people whether I liked Eternal. I know where they were coming from with that question, but the answer was no. I've always lumped them in with the naff things of the 90s such as Andi Peters. I don't think I've heard this one since the 90s, but it's more boring than I remember it being. I guess it hasn't aged well.
Verdict - Rubbish
I hated this record at the time. Bon Jovi had become the rock band for people not into rock music and releasing this ballad which became their biggest hit didn't do them any favours in that respect. A few years later though I realised that I actually like this song. I knew someone who had their greatest hits and I borrowed it just to tape this song which then got regularly played in my car.
Verdict - Good
I first came across this record via someone singing it at school. I heard her singing the "be my baby" part initially thinking she was trying to sing "I'll Be Your Baby Tonight", but it wasn't long before I was hearing this everywhere. Once the hype had died down I remember hearing it on holiday a couple of years later for the first time in while and was thinking how badly it had aged already, it was sounding far too slow.
Verdict - Rubbish
I remember playing a name the tune game where it wasn't the original artists singing on the clips. One of the clips was "All I Have To Do Is Dream" which I identified and gave the artist as the Everly Brothers. Turns out I was wrong, the artist was Cliff Richard With Phil Everly. Quite why you were supposed to identify the cover when it's some random singing it I don't know. Anyway that's a good enough reason for me to hate this record, but I can't say I've ever liked anything I've heard by Cliff Richard.
Verdict - Rubbish / Rubbish
The majority of eurodance music that I've heard is shit. That's not to say I'm anti-eurodance, if a eurodance record is made well then it can be a really good record. This is an example of one of those records. No idea what exactly makes this so much better than your average eurodance record. I own the album and I remember it helping me through a stressful journey down the A1 one time.
Verdict - Good
1994 goes down in dance music history as being the year of jungle. This however translated into just 3 Top 40 hits with this being the 3rd. It's clearly more of a commercial jungle record, but served as a good access point to the more underground music that I was trying to discover at the time.
Verdict - Good
I remember at the time learning that this was a cover of a 60s number one by The Equals. When I asked my mum if the original was a reggae tune she said no, there was no such thing back then. Well actually there was. I also remember people singing the "CD collection of Bob Marley" part thinking that was just a piss take not realising that was actually part of the lyrics. I think it's also worth pointing out that this also features Ali and Robin Campbell from UB40 who I think do more singing in it that Pato Banton. Anyway its a good bit of reggae pop.
Verdict - Good
Babyface was on songwriting duties for this record and I think you can tell that Babyface has something to do with it. I like Babyface, he's a writer and producer I really rate. Part of his talent though is to write both decent records and crap records for pop singers. This one very much fits the latter category.
Verdict - Rubbish
15. Eternal - Crazy (New)
This was the final Eternal hit before Louise left the group. With the exception of their final hit when they were just a duo and their popularity had dwindled, this was the lowest charting Eternal single. As a trio they never failed to reach the Top 10. It's probably the most obscure Eternal record and probably the worst one too which is really saying something.
Verdict - Rubbish
This was the 4th Top 40 hit for PJ & Duncan. Their music career began on Byker Grove but their debut single "Tonight I'm Free" which they did on the TV show failed to make the Top 40. Their music career soon picked up though. Around this time though PJ & Duncan had left Byker Grove and it was all about Frew and Barney DJing. Onto this record and I never liked it at the time, but listening to it again after all these years I'm realising how awful it was.
Verdict - Rubbish
When I first became a raver I had to educate myself about it. Most of that in the early days came from a friend who was into it and remember him telling me it was a proper rave tune. It originally came out in 1992 but didn't enjoy commercial success until 1994. I liked it at the time, but I truly appreciated how good it was when I heard it for the first time in a while on Dave Pearce's Dance Anthems around 98/99 time.
Verdict - Good
The follow up to "Saturday Night" which sounds just like "Saturday Night". Unsurprisingly the 2 writers of "Saturday Night", Larry Pignagnoli and Davide Riva also wrote this along with Annerley Gordon though quite what the latter added to it I don't know. Anyway I never liked "Saturday Night" so therefore I don't like this.
Verdict - Rubbish
At the time I remember thinking that whilst Mariah Carey had a surprisingly uplifting record at Christmas, Gloria Estefan was the counter to that with this record. Not sure why exactly I was making the comparison of Gloria Estefan and Mariah Carey. It is however a rarity in that it's a Gloria Estefan hit of the 90s that I actually remember, for the wrong reasons though.
Verdict - Rubbish
This failed to reach the Top 40 when first released in 1969, but it succeeded the second time around thanks to it featuring on the Guinness advert. It gave Louis Armstrong his first Top 40 hit since 1968 and had he still been alive he would have been 93. It meant at this point in time he had the longest UK Top 40 career having first charted in its first year in 1952. It was just about the only record that regularly appeared on Radio 2 at the time that I actually liked.
Verdict - Good
I hated this song at the time but also bought the CD single. The latter came a few years later when I saw it going cheap in Cash Converters and I'd come to realise that I actually like Bon Jovi and sod the fact they're not exactly cool. I no longer own said CD single and probably just listened to it once. That tells you all you need to know. Probably more famous for having Cindy Crawford in the video than the actual song.
Verdict - Rubbish
Zig and Zag were puppets on The Big Breakfast. I remember them singing the chorus to this acapella on an episode. I never though in a million years it would get turned into an actual song. We have Simon Cowell to thank for that. I'll concede it's better than all that nonsense the X Factor winners would sing, but that's not too difficult. Produced by Erick Morillo, though he'd already been known to do cheesy music too by this point.
Verdict - Rubbish
I used to regularly go to a pub quiz where the first round was always music clips where we had to give the artist title and year. There would be a common theme between the clips and one time it was number one hits of the 90s in which this appeared. Obviously the artist and title wasn't a problem, but the year wasn't so straightforward. On one hand it entered the charts in 1994 but it topped the charts in 1995, so which year was he wanting? I can't remember which one it was now, but it was different to the one I gave. That association makes me hate the song even more than I did previously.
Verdict - Rubbish
We were almost a decade into Jimmy Nails Top 40 career but this was just his 3rd Top 40 hit. At this point all his Top 40 hits had made the Top 5 but he hasn't made the Top 5 since. It's taken from the TV series of the same name which starred Jimmy Nail. It's a pleasant enough record without being something I'd go out of my way to listen to.
Verdict - OK
I remember going on holiday in 1995 and going to a restaurant the first night which was almost empty. As I dined it became apparent why nobody went there. The restaurant manager seemed to love this song, playing it multiple times that evening and encouraging diners to get up and dance to it with him. Needless to say I never went back. A boring depressing record.
Verdict - Rubbish
Power Rangers was a huge kids TV show at the time, but I was too old for it. This is the theme music to the TV show. Matt Aitken had come out of retirement and reunited with Mike Stock, but not Pete Waterman. From this description there can only really be one verdict for this record.
Verdict - Rubbish
The Top 40 debut for Boyzone, the Irish version of Take That. After they had a few hits it became apparent that Ronan Keating has quite a deep singing voice but he's pretty high pitched here and you can kind of sense he's struggling to sing like that. Like many Boyzone hits it's a cover that just sounds like a karaoke version of the original.
Verdict - Rubbish
Every Christmas time these days you'll find this back in the Top 40. It tends to be the first Christmas record to reappear in the charts and is often the highest charting of the Christmas records too. This is its original run in the charts where it was denied the top spot by East 17. It's a surprisingly upbeat record for Mariah Carey but that doesn't mean its any good.
Verdict - Rubbish
I once sang this at karaoke one summer and the DJ questioned why I was singing a Christmas song at that time of the year. The answer is simple, it's not a Christmas song. Yes it was Christmas number one and year the bells at the end may give a hint of Christmas, but the song was about Tony Mortimer's brother after he'd taken his own life. Anyway like with pretty much all the East 17 hits, I like it and it's one of my favourite ever Christmas number ones.
Verdict - Good
If we give the records which were good 1 point each and those which were OK half a point, the final score is 8/30, or 27%. 2 rubbish records in and 2 out.
No comments:
Post a Comment