Dutch Top 40 1995: Week 2

These were the new entries in the Dutch Top 40 that never made the UK Top 40:

Irene Moors & De Smurfen - No Limit

The Smurfs first hit the UK Top 40 in the late 70s and then returned in the mid-90s most notably with their cover of "I Want To Be A Hippy" retitled "I've Got A Little Puppy". What perhaps isn't so well know is that The Smurfs music comes from Holland. Here they are doing a cover of "No Limit" by fellow Dutch act 2 Unlimited. Both versions topped the Dutch charts. Collaborating with The Smurfs is Irene Moors who is a Dutch comedian.

E-Rotic - Max Don't Have Sex With Your Ex

It's expected that the majority of records featured here will be Dutch records, but if it's not Dutch then there's a good chance it will be German. This is the case with E-Rotic, a German Eurodance act whose records tended to go with the theme of their name. They will return later on in the year with a record which picks up where this left off.

Arie Passchier - Kleine Vogel

Age certainly seemed no barrier to entering the Dutch Top 40. Arie Passchier had his one and only Dutch Top 40 hit at either aged 58 or 59, only his birth year of 1936 is known. It was a re-issue of a 1988 record that failed to chart at the time.

Live - I Alone

Yes that's right, "I Alone" by Live never made the UK Top 40. Despite it being pretty well known at the time it only managed to make number 48 in the UK charts and they were yet to have their first UK Top 40 hit. It made number 22 in Holland. It seemed almost inevitable an American act would appear at some point, well here they are.

Marc Daniels - Deveny

Marc Daniels isn't a very Dutch sounding name, but he is Dutch and this record is sung in Dutch. As such I needed Google Search and Google Translate to find out what it's all about. Turns out to be about the now King of the Netherlands Willem Alexander who had gone public with his then girlfriend Emily Bremers.

Frans Bauer - Het Leven Is Te Mooi

I've just come across a new genre of music, Levenslied. It's described as being a sentimental Dutch language sub-genre of popular music. A genre I suspect would only work in Holland. As you've probably guessed Frans Bauer is Dutch and he falls under this genre. It sounds a bit like someone pressing the demo button on a keyboard and singing over the top of it.

Gordon - Let It Be Me 

You wait all these years to come across the Levenslied genre and then 2 records come along at once. Except this one is sung in English so contradicts the genre description really. It's a cover of the Everly Brothers record and Gordon sounds a bit like a Dutch Gary Barlow. Yes that's right, he's Dutch and he's not really called Gordon. His real name is Cornelis Willem Heuckeroth.

2003: The Good Old Days? - May

In May 2003 if you asked me what my music taste was I would have said dance, rap and R&B. I count almost half of the new entries for May to come under those genres so on paper this should be a great month. Is it though?

Lets start with dance and we have full marks for Groove Armada with "Easy". Also getting full marks are Kid Creme with "Hypnotising" and Saffron Hill with "My Love Is Always". There's also a couple of UK Garage records a year or so after it's presence in the charts more or less died. We have a decent record in "Everybody Come On (Can U Feel It)" by Mr Redz vs DJ Skribble which is a Stanton Warriors remix. Not keen on "You Didn't Expect That" by Billy Crawford though, it's more like a modern pop singers take on a garage record.

The latter is an example of why lots of dance music in the charts isn't always a good thing. In addition to this we have vocal trance records which are cheesy commercial crap. Most notable of these was "Loneliness" by Tomcraft which really irritated me at the time.

Onto rap and overall it's looking pretty good. We have an unlikely collaboration between Bone Thugs-N-Harmony and Phil Collins with "Home" which is excellent. DMX had his biggest hit with "X Gon' Give It To Ya", I had all his albums at this point and loved this record straight away. Then we have "ADIDAS" by Killer Mike which reminds me of Channel U in a good way. The only rap record to get no marks is "The Jump Off" by Lil Kim.

Onto R&B and it's more of a mixed bag but it does give us the best record which is "Ignition Remix" by R Kelly. I remember some saying why Mr I Believe I Can Fly being a bad boy all of a sudden, I would point out he was always like that. We also have "Rise & Fall" by Craig David & Sting which is perhaps the best thing he did after the garage era.

However R&B also gives us the worst record which is "Can't Nobody" by Kelly Rowland. I always hated Destiny's Child and was surprised to find myself liking her debut "Dilemma". Next record "Stole" wasn't great but nowhere near as bad as Destiny's Child. However "Can't Nobody" was as bad.

Outside dance, rap and R&B we have full marks for Sean Paul with "Get Busy" and for Less Than Jake with "She's Gonna Break Soon" plus there's half marks for a few other records.

Here's a list of the records with the best on top, worst at the bottom and the good ones in green, OK ones in amber and rubbish ones in red (and in no particular order):

Score: 30%

Here's a look at the chart:

The best month of 2003 so far and second best month we've looked at so far. Is this a one off though?

UK Number 40s: Paul Weller - Early Morning Rain (2005)

 

The Top 40 career of Paul Weller is known to be The Jam in the late 70s/early 80s, The Style Council for the remainder of the 80s and then as a solo artists as part of the Britpop movement of the 90s.

What perhaps isn't as well known is that he had just as many solo Top 40 hits in the 21st century as he did in the 90s and also the same number of solo hits in the 21st century as he had with The Style Council. That number of Top 40 hits is 15.

In 2004 he released the album "Studio 150" which was an album full of covers. This was the fourth and final Top 40 hit from that album. It was a cover of a record by Gordon Lightfoot. 

By this point in his career Paul Weller had enough of a following that he didn't really bother to promote his music. This approach worked for him from a Top 40 perspective until 2010 when he charted with his 30th and final solo Top 40 hit to date "No Tears To Cry / Wake Up The Nation" which was also the last double a-side to make the Top 40. 

20 Years Since....Q4 2004

Here's the tunes I was enjoying 20 years ago:

Twista - Sunshine

One thing I remember about this record when it came out is that it was just about the only thing in the Top 40 at the time that I actually liked. It's based on "Lovely Day" by Bill Withers which is a record I've always liked. I bought Twistas album not long after this record came out.

Lil Flip - Sunshine

There's quite a few rappers called Lil something and normally it's to do with them being short. That wasn't the case with Lil Flip who is possible the tallest rapper with Lil in his name. This was his only Top 40 hit.

Ja Rule ft R Kelly & Ashanti - Wonderful

After releasing his more underground sounding "Blood in my Eye" album Ja Rule was back to doing the rap/R&B crossover music he was best known for. It also gave him his only number one to date but came at the end of his commercial peak.

Usher - My Boo

Usher was really the big surprise of 2004. I'd never really been a fan of his music and was quite reluctant to like this record at first until I had to concede that it's a great record. It features Alicia Keys but what really makes this record is the backing track.

3rd Wish - Obsession (Si Es Amor)

I remember this record doing the rounds on the music channels but don't remember it coming out as a single or getting into the Top 40. I did however buy their follow up single "I Am" which failed to make the Top 40 and was the last CD single I ever bought. This is the b-side of said single.

UK Number 40s: UNKLE featuring Ian Brown - Reign (2004)

 

UNKLE made their Top 40 debut in 1999 with the record "Be There". It made the Top 10 and featured Ian Brown on vocals. Back then DJ Shadow was a member of UNKLE and was the writer of that record.

In 2003 they were back minus DJ Shadow with a second album "Never, Never Land". Lead single "Eye For An Eye" made number 31 and then came this record which saw them reunited with Ian Brown. There was also a contribution to the record from Ian Browns former Stone Roses band mate Mani.

It failed to reach the success of "Be There" from a chart perspective. They do continue to release music though with James Lavelle the only constant member, but this was it for them in terms of Top 40 hits.

Top 30 in 1999 Reviewed: Week 1

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 Sunday.

Here is the Top 40 in full.

I've decided against repetition from previous weeks moving forward so will only feature the records I'm reviewing for the first time.

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 records new to the top 30 from this week in 1999 with my verdict on each record:

Well that was a good start, there were no new records in this Top 30.

If we give the records which were good 1 point each and those which were OK half a point, the final score is 6.5/30, or 22%. Very poor start to the year.

Dutch Top 40 1995: Week 1

These were the new entries in the Dutch Top 40 that never made the UK Top 40:

Charly Lownoise & Mental Theo - Wonderfull Days

Week 1 and record 1 is more or less where my love for Dutch music began. I'd only just converted to being a raver and was very much learning what it was all about. A mate did me a happy hardcore mix and this was one of the stand out records on there. I had no idea what it was at the time, once I discovered it was Charly Lownoise & Mental Theo I knew of other tunes of theirs and knew they were Dutch. What I didn't know until many years later was the it was a Dutch number 2. It's had numerous remixes over the years, the one I'm posting here is the one which appeared on that tape which is labelled on YouTube as being the "Good Version". 

Talk of the Town - The La-La Song

It's called "The La-La Song" because La-La are pretty much the only lyrics to it. At least you don't need to speak Dutch to understand it. Very much a novelty record and one that becomes irritating once you get past that novelty.

Rene Froger - For A Date With You

Out of all the records featured so far I think this is the one you're most likely to hear on Eurotrash. It's a 34 year old Dutch singer doing a Eurodance record. 

Definition Of Joy - Stay With Me 4 Ever

This is essentially a project of 2 Brothers on the 4th Floor who had already had a Dutch number one. This was the only thing they appeared to do as Definition Of Joy.

2003: The Good Old Days? - June

One of the questions I start each month with is what is the most prolific genre? In the mid-00s it's often been indie, sometimes it's been rap/R&B and as we go further back it can be dance music too. This month however is the turn of rock and metal. I'm using this definition to cover the heavier side of guitar music and am therefore including punk as part of it.

The 2 punk records provide the bulk of those points. We have "All You Ever Do" by Violent Delight, a record I enjoyed on P-Rock TV back in the day. I also think "Girls Not Grey" by AFI is OK. Also getting half marks are Dave Gahan with his solo debut "Dirty Sticky Floors" and Red Hot Chili Peppers with "Universally Speaking".

It was the era when commercial drum & bass was quite good and the 2 drum & bass records "Twist Em Out" by Dillinja & Skibadee and "Feelin' U" by Shy FX & T Power both get full marks. Another decent dance record was "How Did You Know" by Kurtis Mantronik and although really cheesy I do like "Fly On The Wings Of Love" by XTM & DJ Chucky presents Annia. No points for the rest of the dance records which are of the cheesy vocal variety.

The only American rap record comes from Busta Rhymes with "I Know What You Want" which is a record I like. From the UK we have the Top 40 debut from Dizzee Rascal with "I Luv U" which was just about the worst record doing the rounds on Channel U at the time.

Most of the R&B is decent this month. We have "Hell Yeah" by Ginuwine which sounded better than I remembered, "Girlfriend" by B2k which was the first record of theirs I liked and "Rock Wit U (Awww Baby)" by Ashanti which again is decent. No points for Jamelia or Jennifer Lopez with their pop records disguised as R&B.

We turn to dancehall to find the best record this month which goes to Wayne Wonder with "No Letting Go". It was good enough for me to buy the album which I played a lot at the time.

What remains is the worst record which goes to Jennifer Ellison with "Baby I Don't Care". She was a Brookside actress but nobody was watching Brookside anymore and it got cancelled the same month. It's a cover of the Transvision Vamp record which is shit itself.

Here's a list of the records with the best on top, worst at the bottom and the good ones in green, OK ones in amber and rubbish ones in red (and in no particular order):

Score: 23%

Here's a look at the chart:

The story of 2003 so far is that it's marginally worse than 2004.

2025

Happy New Year! It's now 2025, before this year is over this blog would have reached it's 10th birthday. I started this blog for 2 reasons really, as an excuse to properly research the history of how the UK Singles Chart has evolved and the fact I like talking about music, so why not put something I want to say on a blog where people who are interested can read it. The latter inspired the name because I didn't want it to be restricted by any particular theme.

Since then I've come up with a number of things to write about. The longest running of these is my weekly look at each record that peaked at number 40 in the UK charts. This began in 2019 and is still going now with quite a few more number 40s to do.

Another significant one is the weekly Top 30 review of years in the 90s. I decided to fast track these a couple of years ago because 10 years felt too long to be doing them for. There's now just 1999 to do which will be up every Sunday throughout the year.

I've now decided to fast track the Number 40s because this feels like it's taking too long to get through now. It will now feature twice a week, every Monday and Tuesday.

My journey into when the quality of music in the charts declined continues each Thursday.

New for this year, each Friday I will be taking a look at the new entries in the Dutch Top 40 that week in 1995 that never made the UK Top 40.

As it's still a random music blog I may come up with something else to write about as the year goes on, but I'm going to make sure it's something that doesn't take several years to get through.

Dutch Top 40 1995

We've already established that the best year for the UK Top 40 that I've lived through is 1995. As we know though, there's more to music than the UK Top 40 and if anything I was more likely to be found listening to tunes at the time that didn't make the Top 40.

Being a raver opened me up to music from another country, Holland. There were loads of great rave tunes from there which were underground records in the UK, but I later found many were big hits in Holland. That in turn led me to seek out other charting records in the Dutch Top 40 from that period.

It's about to be 30 years since the start of 1995, so to mark this I'm going to be looking at the Dutch Top 40 that week. 

This won't be like my Top 30 from 30 years ago posts where I review all records in the Top 30. Instead I'll be looking at records that made the Top 40 that didn't make the UK Top 40. I aim to make this more fact rather than opinion, though I may still give my opinion from time to time.

To kick start this I'm going look at the records that were already in the Top 40 at the start of the year which didn't make the UK Top 40:

Hermes House Band - I Will Survive

It was around Christmas 2001 when Hermes House Band had their only UK Top 40 hit with their cover of "Country Roads". 7 years earlier they had the Dutch Christmas number one with their cover of "I Will Survive". They group date back even further having first formed in 1982. This record also became a number one in France in 1998 when it became the anthem of the French football team during the World Cup, despite the fact Hermes House Band are Dutch.

Marco Borsato - Waarom Nou Jij

Marco Borsato is a name you're probably not familiar with if you're not from Holland. If you're from Holland though I suspect you've almost inevitably heard of him. He's scored an impressive 15 number ones in the Dutch chart, only The Beatles can claim to have had more. This was the 2nd of those 15 number ones and his most recent came in 2019. It is however unlikely he'll add to his total though, I would suggest you Google it if you want to find out why.

Marco Borsato - Dromen Zijn Bedrog

This was the first Dutch number one for Marco Borsato which was now on it's way down the charts. It had been number one for 12 weeks in late 1994 but fell short of being the Christmas number one. This is the record I think of when I hear his name, no idea what he's singing about because it's in Dutch but it's an uplifting and a little cheesy piece of pop.

Andre Rieu - The Second Waltz

Despite his lack of UK Top 40 success, you probably have heard of Andre Rieu. You may not have realised he was Dutch though, I didn't. He's a famous violinist/composer and this was his biggest hit in Holland. He has been in the UK Top 40 though in 2020 with "Ode To Joy". 

Ice MC - It's A Rainy Day

Here's something you probably weren't expecting, a British artist having a hit in Holland but not in the UK. This failed to make the UK Top 40, only making number 73. His music career began in Italy in 1989 and he became part of the Eurodance movement in the early 90s. The female vocalist on this track is Alexia who had a handful of UK Top 40 hits in the late 90s. Ice MC had one UK Top 40 hit in 1996 with "Bom Digi Bom (Think About The Way)", a 1994 record that appeared on the Trainspotting soundtrack.

U96 - Love Religion

When it came to techno in the 90s the first country you'd think of was Germany. The first German techno record to make the UK Top 40 was "Das Boot" by U96 in 1992. It made number 18, but was a chart topper in Germany. They never troubled the UK Top 40 again but were still going strong in Holland 1995 with this effort.

Mark Oh - Love Song

Mark Oh had a UK Top 40 hit in the UK in 1995 with "Tears Don't Lie". It's been described as a German Techno version of "When A Child Is Born". He had a more prolific chart career in his native Germany and this was his 2nd biggest hit in Holland.

Scooter - Hyper Hyper

Scooter never really became a household name in the UK until "The Logical Song" in 2002. They'd actually made their UK Top 40 debut in 1995 with "Move Your Ass" but before that they'd made their chart debut in several European countries with this record.

Paul De Leeuw - Wacht Nog Wat

As much as I'd like to think Holland is a country that you only hear banging beats there is inevitably going to be ballads. Paul De Leeuw is a Dutch comedian who made a record. Again I have no idea what he's singing, sounds like it's a sad song but could be funny if I could speak Dutch.

Joel - Een Doodgewone Kat

Another example of Holland being more than banging beats. This is a kid whose voice is yet to break with an acoustic guitar. Again it's in Dutch, but what I do know is that it's essentially a love song about a cat. Not much is known about what Joel did next.

Doop - Huckleberry Jam

Doop had a self titled number one in the UK in 1994 with a self titled hit. This only made number 11 in their native Holland but they did managed a 2nd Top 40 hit there. They managed a 3rd too but that came in 1996 so won't feature.

Glennis Grace - I'm Gonna Be Strong

This is where I will state my opinion. It's a cover of the Gene Pitney song, in the same year Cyndi Lauper charted with her cover in the UK charts. This is a terrible record from a young a then 16 year old Dutch singer who seemed to go the same way as a typical child star. 

Marusha - Trip To Raveland

In the UK in 1995 it was the Germans who were leading the way in the Top 40 rave wise and it seems they have a case in Holland too. Marusha is German producer whose time in the Top 40 was coming to an end with this record being her last Dutch Top 40 hit to date.

Rob De Nijs - Iets Van Een Wonder

It had been 5 years since a 43 year old Elton John scored his first solo number one in the UK charts with "Sacrifice". In Holland in 1995 it was the turn of then 52 year old Rob De Nijs to have a hit in Holland with the same record but sung in Dutch. At least I know what he's singing about here.

Normaal - Half Um Half

So far we've had dance music acts, pop singers, novelty acts but what about rock bands? Well here we have one, a band who made their Dutch Top 40 debut in the 70s and were in the latter stages of their career. It doesn't sound very rock though, but we don't really expect that of the Dutch.

Huub Hangop - Lelijk Van Dichtbij

A Dutch novelty singer with his only Dutch Top 40.

Andre Hazes - Leef Je Uit

One thing that struck me at the time of writing is that all the artists that have featured so far are still alive. That's until I get to this, the number 40 record in the first weeks of the Dutch Top 40 in 1995. Andre Hazes was 43 by the time of this record and had made his Dutch chart debut in the 70s. He passed away in 2004.