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:
Yes that's right, Gala had another Top 40 hit. In fact she had 2 other Top 40 hits but the other one never made the Top 30. I do recall hearing the record about silver and gold, but it was a blink and you'll miss it moment unlike it's predecessor that hung around forever.
Verdict - Rubbish
The 2nd half of 1997 was a good one for The Verve. They had 3 Top 10 hits including a number one having never been in the Top 10 before. That was pretty much it for them though, no hits in 1998 and then they split up in 1999. They did reunite and have a final comeback single in 2008 though. This ones as boring as the others.
Verdict - Rubbish
The 4th and final Top 40 hit to date for The Seahorses and just as a reminder, they were a band who completely passed me by. It came just 7 months after their debut, so a very brief Top 40 career. I do question whether I was living under a rock in late 1997 as there's so many records that passed me by, or did the sheer quantity of Top 40 hits mean some would inevitably slip through the net.
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
26. Red 5 - Lift Me Up (New)
I think this record could have only been made in 1997 to truly appeal to me. It was really the last time I was young enough to have a idealistic view of the world, reality started to hit me thick and fast after that. It's a well polished eurodance record from Germany complete with glamourous singers and dancers, an alternate reality that doesn't really exist.
Verdict - Good
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
24. Levellers - Dogtrain (New)
The penultimate Top 40 hit of the 90s for the Levellers and the last time they'll feature as their final Top 40 hit of the 90s which was the excellent "One Way" finally getting into the Top 40 never made the Top 30. I have no memory of this record, but it's actually not bad.
Verdict - OK
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
Sheryl Crow makes it into double figures with this being her 10th Top 40 hit. It was the theme tune to the James Bond film of the same name and was the first since 1983 not to make the Top 10. It's generally no better or worse than those that did make the Top 10 in between.
Verdict - Rubbish
21. Bjork - Bachelorette (New)
The days of Bjork making the Top 20 were now over but she still had a few Top 40 hits left in the lower reaches. Some of her music has grown on me over the years and some has remained incredibly boring. This one fits the latter category.
Verdict - Rubbish
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
The Propellerheads were big in 1997 and then just disappeared off the face of the earth afterwards. With it came the excellent "Decksanddrumsandrockandroll" album which I own and is one of my all time favourites. It gave Shirley Bassey her first Top 40 hit for nearly 25 years and she wasn't done yet.
Verdict - Good
18. Bryan Adams - Back To You (New)
Ever thought that Bryan Adams and Mel C was a bit of an odd collaboration when it happened? Well this is where it probably all began. His usual songwriting sidekick Robert John "Mutt" Lange had been replaced by Eliot Kennedy for this record, the man who composed "Say You'll Be There" by the Spice Girls. He was also co-writer on said collaboration. It's pretty dull.
Verdict - Rubbish
After Puff Daddy had sample "Every Breath You Take" for his chart topper he's back remixing this Police record and feature rapping from Pras. I'm not precious about the original version at all, but this is fuckin dreadful.
Verdict - Rubbish
Another football song for Man Utd and it wasn't even around the FA Cup final when that normally happens. Instead they release a record in the middle of a season when they weren't the champions.
Verdict - Rubbish
Watch out 911 there's a new British boy band in town and their name is also a number. This was their Top 40 debut and they had the Swedish songwriters Denniz Pop and Max Martin behind this. There was certainly a gap in the market for them, the bad boys from the south to counter the clean cut boy band from the north like East 17 were to Take That. They were no East 17 though.
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 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
We're reaching the end of the so called dodgy era for U2 with this being the 5th and final single for 1997 and from their "Pop" album. I have better memories of this record, but listening again it's nowhere near as good as I remember so I'll give it half marks.
Verdict - OK
11. Celine Dion - The Reason (New)
This record was written by Carole King and apparently she originally wrote it for Aerosmith. I could almost imagine that now I'm listening to it, Aerosmith had their fair share of ballads after all. As Celine Dion recorded it though the guitars are pretty quiet aside from the solo and it just sounds very contained.
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
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 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
When I went to Helter Skelter for the millennium, I was looking forward to the Vibes and Live Lee set which was the last of the night. It was a bit of an anti climax though when the first record he played was a happy hardcore version of "Baby Can I Hold You". "Shooting Star" is one I never knew until I started listening to Popmaster where they like asking questions about it.
Verdict - Rubbish
When this record came out I was shocked. It was a Janet Jackson song that I actually liked. Remember I was listening to nothing but rave at the time so I really didn't want to like this record even though it is a dance record. Then a friend of mine who was into rap and drum & bass bought this single which made me feel a bit better about liking it.
Verdict - Good
This was the turn around point of Robbie Williams solo career which went from strength to strength after this. I was dismissive of him as a solo artist least of all because I didn't like Oasis who he was trying to imitate. This record though is completely different and I had to concede it's actually quite good.
Verdict - Good
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 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
1997 brought us what was the latest hugely popular kids TV show, Teletubbies. I've never watched an episode myself, I was far too old for it. Obviously with Christmas just around the corner this record made a ideal Christmas present for parents to buy their young children and hence it topped the charts.
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 7/30, or 23%. Falling just short of that familiar score.
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