For the 4th time this year we're at United Dance at Stevenage Arts & Leisure Centre. No album launch this time though, the next United Dance album wouldn't be out until 1996.
The set I've posted for this event is the one from Scott Brown. He was seemingly making the vast majority of hardcore tunes coming out of Scotland but rarely ventured south of the border back then. As far as I remember this the first event featured this year to feature him aside from Rezerection which was in Scotland and where there wasn't a Scott Brown tape.
The burning question is does he stick to the Scottish and Dutch records or is he playing English records too? Well on the tape at least it's 100% Scottish tunes. Further to that, there's only one tune in he set that he had no involvement in making.
On the other side of the Scott Brown tape is Clarkee who's set is predominantly Dutch.
Elsewhere on the flyer but not on the tapes we have Jason Jay & Mikey B (formerly Top Buzz). Both had moved onto the garage scene by this point whilst Top Buzz quietly disappeared, but this was confirmation they were no more.
There are more hardcore sets than drum & bass sets, but we have an equal number of new for 1995 tunes for each genre, though the number for each was a bit thin on the ground.
These are the new for 1995 hardcore tunes:
Force & Styles - Dancing Through The Night
Edit V - 2 1/2 Hours
DJ Ham - It Would Be
Cytronix - On Your Knees
Terrible Twins - Just Like That
GSI - Let's Rock
The Beatsquad - Miles Of Smiles
Lockjaw - Not Tonight
With no new album to promote there was perhaps less incentive to play newer tunes at this event. The tune that appears most on the tapes is "Harmony" by Force & Styles which was played 3 times, helped by the fact Slipmatt played it twice.
These are the new for 1995 drum & bass tunes:
B-Jam - Show Me
Dead Dred - Come On Baby
Gang Related - Big Time
Mental Power - Red
Shogun - Wind Dancer
Firefox - Buck Rogers
Skool Of Hard Knocks - The Stush
Daz - Identity
For one we don't have "The Lighter" or "Hearing Is Believing" as the most played tune. That honour goes to "This Style" by Shy FX which appears in 3 of the 4 sets.
There would be a further 2 United Dance events in 1995, but neither will feature due to clashes with other events. More on that when the time comes.
Crystal Waters is best know for her 1991 debut "Gypsy Woman (La Da Dee)". For many that was all she did, but her Top 40 career actually lasted until 2007 and gave her 9 hits.
This was hit number 5 so we're at the half way stage. In between her debut and this came the lesser known follow up "Makin Happy", the megamix which did one better than this at 39 and "100% Pure Love" which was the lead single of her 2nd album "Storyteller".
The fact this was the 2nd single from the 2nd album is a recipe for a single to flop. Generally the lead single from the 2nd album rides on the success of the 1st album, but by the 2nd single there's the perception the 2nd album isn't as good as the first.
Another factor that may have cause this record to only make number 40 is the fact that unlike its predecessors, it's not a dance record. This one is done more hip hop style which may have alienated those who liked "Gypsy Woman".
She fared slightly better with the single "Relax" the following year which came from the same album and made number 37.
Her singles career after this became as featured singer on dance record, a trend which has continued to this very day. Her final Top 40 hit to date is "Destination Calabria" with Alex Gaudino. That said you can't rule out a return for her to the Top 40 should she decide to sing for someone like David Guetta.
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 1992 with my verdict on each record:
I guess you could say this was the calm before the storm as far as M People were concerned. It was their 4th Top 40 hit but so far they hadn't got any higher than 29. They would mostly have Top 10s after this. Yet this early period of M People produced better music than what followed. Don't get me wrong, it's still essentially pop music but it isn't the full on cheese we'd come to know them for.
There's something quite amusing about the fact this was recorded at Radio 1 in the park given by the mid-90s Radio 1 refused to play their music. I saw them do something similar at Radio 2 in the park a couple of years ago. It works well even, though the fact their songs are known to sound the same helps.
This was the 2nd solo Top 40 hit for Dina Carroll which peaked at the same position as the first. This time the songwriting duties went to Robert Clivilles and David Cole. The result is something that doesn't sound all that different to her previous effort.
My memory of Neneh Cherry was she did "Buffalo Stance" etc. at the end of the 80s and then disappeared until she came back with "7 Seconds" in 1994. Turns out she did have Top 40 hits in between such as this one. I can understand why I don't remember it, I've forgotten how it goes already.
There seemed to be a lot of 80s acts making a brief comeback in 1992. We can add Sade to that list, though this was the penultimate Sade Top 40 hit to date. It's also the 2nd highest charting. Doesn't really have enough about it for me to truly like it, but it's not bad.
A collaboration between John McEnroe's wife and the drummer from the Eagles. There was a place I once worked at that would have the same tape on repeat for a period of time and this was on that tape. I'm not sure I'd heard it prior to that, but I don't think I've heard it since said job and have no desire to hear it ever again.
Yes that's right, Billy Ray Cyrus had another song. Whilst the one we all know is a bit of a joke song that nobody can really take seriously, he's trying to be more serious on this record. It doesn't work. On a more positive note, it's better than anything his daughter has ever done.
I think we're reaching the point here where the rules were getting established in that if you were female you liked Take That and if you were male you didn't. I should point out I no longer subscribe to that way of thinking, I like what I like. What I will say about this song is that it showcases Gary Barlow's credentials as a songwriter. It's a proper song, nothing particularly cheesy about it unlike their previous efforts. That doesn't mean I like it though.
This is where it all began for East 17s Top 40 career. I could openly admit to liking this record at the time as this was before the unwritten rule amongst my peers that you're not supposed to like boy bands. I openly admit to still liking it today.
Back in 1992 I was watching "Sounds of the 60s" with my parents and Crazy World of Arthur Brown appeared on it. I heard the words "I am the god of hellfire" at the beginning and then my parents changed the channel. Next thing I'm hearing this tune quite regularly thinking wow that really sounded ahead of its time for the 60s. This was of course because it was The Prodigy sampling a 60s record. It was my favourite tune for a period of time. "Jericho" is also a decent tune.
The debut for Jon Secada and the only hit of his that many people would remember. I love the contrast between the vocals and backing track in this. You hear the intro and it sounds quite happy and upbeat, then you hear the pain in his voice.
This is the last time we'll be featuring Ned's Atomic Dustbin as their final 2 Top 40 hits to date didn't get into the Top 30. It's the lead single from their 2nd album "Are You Normal?". It's a slight change in direction which means it lacks the excitement of their previous singles. That said, ignoring the comparisons it's got a decent groove to it and as an individual song it's pretty good.
We were at the beginning of the school year at this point and I can tell you that we were studying electricity in science. My reason for remembering that is because in our experiments we used connectors and at the same time this record was out. It's their Top 40 debut and lead track off their 3rd album of the same name. It also played it's part in my decision to buy the album.
Like many, I first heard this at the Freddie Mercury tribute concert. I thought the song itself was a tribute to Freddie Mercury but then 3 years later came a Queen version with Freddie Mercury actually singing it. I liked this along with "Driven By You" enough to get the "Back To The Light" album on which they appear.
This is a double a-side with a different band either side. It was taken from the "Ruby Trax" compilation that celebrated 40 years on NME magazine and featured indie bands covering previous number one hits. It gave the Manic Street Preachers their first Top 10 hit and Fatima Mansions their only Top 40 hit to date. The Manic Street Preachers cover is basically a heavier recording of the original but the Fatima Mansions cover sounds nothing like the original. Both are good in their own way.
When I saw the video to this I thought Luther Vandross and Janet Jackson looked different to how I remember them. That is of course because it's not Luther Vandross or Janet Jackson in the video, it's Damon Wayans and Stacey Dash from the film "Mo Money" which this record is from.
In my college days I bought an old rave compilation from Cash Converters and put it on in the common room. Several people in the common room weren't into rave and weren't familiar with most of the tunes. I was there saying they were missing out, this was good stuff. Then this tune came on which everyone did know, but I had to concede that this one was shit. Think that was the only one we all agreed on.
To promote their greatest hits album Simple Minds released this double a-side of older songs. "Love Song" was first released in 1981 but failed to make the Top 40 the first time round. "Alive and Kicking" made number 7 when released in 1985 but goes one place better here. Given that their 1991 efforts were nowhere near as good as their earlier efforts, this re-issue is very much welcome. "Alive and Kicking" is amongst my favourite Simple Minds record.
The era of toytown techno in the Top 40 was now over and rave was giving way to eurodance. The theme for the novelty side of eurodance was versions of computer game music with this being the first. Quite surprisingly the man behind this record was Andrew Lloyd Webber. I prefer this to pretty much everything else he's done but that's because I really don't like his music.
This was the lead single from the "Automatic for the People" album which is arguably the album they're best known for. It was quite a low key introduction to the album though, I don't remember too many people acknowledging "Drive" at the time and the other singles are much better remembered. That means it hasn't been played to death so I still like it.
This is the opening track to his "Tubular Bells II" album which is is the sequel to his "Tubular Bells" album in the 70s. I listened to that album years ago after hearing about what a masterpiece it was. I can't say I was a big fan if I'm honest, but I didn't mind it. I can say the same about this record too.
It's funny that Prince wrote a record called "My Name Is Prince" and then the following year he would change his name to a symbol. This is the closest I've heard Prince come to making a rap record. He seems pretty angry in it too. Somehow it works.
This record seems a bit out of place in 1992. It's one of those I feel I've always known but it's most likely that when I first heard it in 1992 I just assumed it was an old record. It was the 2nd single released for his greatest hits album, the first not making the Top 40 and prior to that he hadn't been in the Top 40 since 1986. Quite surprisingly he was still having Top 40 hits as late as 2004 but this is the last one I actually remember. It's your typical naff Lionel Richie record.
Having very much heard of Bob Marley and seeing he had quite a few hits from looking in my British Hit Singles book, I'd not knowingly heard a Bob Marley record until this song came out. There was something oddly familiar about it. Obviously it was recorded long before it came out but this was the first time it had seen light of day.
This is a tune which reminds me of the beginning of a school year. I loved this tune at the time and still do. It was the 3rd Top 40 hit for Bizarre Inc but it was a change in direction compared to it's predecessors. The story is that the record label wanted them to make more of a pop record and this was the result.
Being a London resident, I pass though Baker Street a lot and still to this very day I get this record going through my head more often than not when I do so. It was the Top 40 debut for Undercover and their best known. I'd not heard the Gerry Rafferty original at the time so this is my default version.
When it comes to Boyz II Men I can't look past the comparison that's often made between them and Jodeci which is basically Jodeci were the bad boys of R&B whereas Boyz II Men were the clean cut group. Behind the scenes though Babyface was one of the writers and he has also written for K-Ci & Jojo of Jodeci. That doesn't mean this song is good though.
I recall a few years ago watching a "Forgotten Gems of the 90s" show on one of the music channels. It was a welcome change to the usual anthem bashing you get on retro channels. If memory serves me correctly this was number one. My initial thought was is this really forgotten, but then I guess I've not heard it much since the 90s. That may be a reason why I still like it.
This was the beginning of Sweden taking over the music world. Dr Alban was a Nigerian based in Sweden and wrote this with Denniz Pop who founded Cherion Studios. There were a number of songwriters who have since been very prolific with their songwriting including Max Martin who at the time of writing only has Paul McCartney ahead of him in terms of most Top 40 hits as songwriter. Given how much dreadful music has been created as a result of this I should hate it. However it probably would have still happened with or without this record and I do like it in a 90s nostalgia sort of way.
One memory I have of this record is that someone who I would regularly get lifts from would turn the radio off when this would come on. At the time I thought they simply could stand it but it's more likely they knew what the lyrics meant and didn't want kids listening to it. I still managed to hear it a lot though not knowing what the lyrics really were. I liked it because it's a good tune.
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 19.5/30, or 65%. We remain in the same ball park.
With this weeks news that Tom DeLonge is set to rejoin Blink-182 I thought now would be a good to to write a post about them as it's been at the back of my mind for some time.
Like many, I first came across them around the turn of the century when they did "All the Small Things" which I thought was a good catchy record. Around the same time I was getting back into Green Day mainly because of the fast drumming.
Blink-182 were being referred to as the new Green Day by some, but I initially argued the one song I knew of theirs was too slow for them to be considered similar to Green Day.
A mate of mine got into Blink-182 in a big way and bought pretty much their entire back catalogue. Amongst this was their debut album "Buddha" which he lent me. This was from long before they were famous and isn't even considered an official album release and sounds like it was recorded in their bedroom.
I liked the album enough to make a copy of it. I was also convinced the comparisons with Green Day were valid, if anything the drumming on this album generally speaking was faster than Green Day. Interestingly the song I liked on the album the most was "The Girl Next Door" which was a cover of a Screeching Weasel song.
There were plenty of other decent songs on the album though. The opening track "Carousel" was a particularly fast one and the rawness along with Toms complete inability to sing really made it for me.
As their first official album "Cheshire Cat" had quite a big overlap with "Buddha" song wise, he then lent me their second album "Dude Ranch". I couldn't really get into that one though.
I'd started to hear more of their music on the music channels including what was their latest single "Man Overboard" which actually never charted. At the same time they released the live album "The Mark, Tom and Travis Show" which my mate bought straight away and insisted on playing it in my car.
I enjoyed it enough to get my own copy. What I liked most about it was the drumming being extra fast, they played all the songs faster than the studio versions.
A consequence of this was when I finally heard their "Enema of the State" album it was unlistenable because many of the songs were also on the live album so sounded far too slow.
At this point Blink-182 were everywhere. You would get Blink-182 night on MTV2 for example. They were being portrayed as basically overgrown high school kids that the high school kids themselves could relate to. They talked about how Mark and Tom met at school and have been inseparable best friends since.
I personally found all this a bit cringeworthy. Maybe the fact I'd already finished school had something to do with it, that I was older than their target audience.
I remember the big MTV premiere of their new single "The Rock Show" and thinking this is crap. My fanatical friend bought the new album "Take Off Your Pants and Jacket" which he copied onto tape for the car and left behind in my car so I basically inherited that tape.
The album was a mixed bag, some great tunes but plenty of filler material too. The best track on the album though was a hidden one "What Went Wrong" which is what I've posted.
It's an acoustic song and probably the best acoustic song I've ever heard. Again the fact Tom can't sing is part of what makes it so good.
It wouldn't be long before I was losing interest though. What didn't help was that I had a punk band of my own and others would tell me there's no way we could be as good as Blink-182 because they're all over TV and radio whereas we're not, despite the fact they'd heard none of my music. Whether we were better or not is down to personal taste, but I will say Blink-182 would probably tell you themselves they didn't get to where they got on pure talent.
One of my housemates at the time had heard my music and said he liked it. I wrote an acoustic song which I thought was better than "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)" by Green Day and he agreed, but said it's not as good as "What Went Wrong" by Blink-182 which I agree with. All of my songs that I consider half decent are better than "The Rock Show" though.
My friend who was a big Blink-182 fan also went off them. He'd moved onto what he considered to be proper punk music. Soon Blink-182 went on hiatus themselves with Tom and Travis doing the side project Boxcar Racer.
They've come and gone over the years since. What's become apparent since then is inseparable best friends Mark and Tom don't seem to like each other much at all. Then quieter member Travis has been doing the whole celebrity thing with his reality TV show and these days he's known for being the husband of a Kardashian.
Tom quit Blink-182 in 2014. Whilst he didn't sing on all their songs, part of their appeal was his inability to sing so taking that away seems wrong.
I hadn't heard a new Blink-182 song for many years so decided to give what was their newest song at the time "I Really Wish I Hated You" a listen. My reaction to it was oh dear. It's everything I hate about modern music and sounds like it could almost be a David Guetta record.
In summary they have a great first album, a not so great second album, a third album that's unlistenable if you heard the live album first, a mixed bag fourth album and a bunch of music since that I don't know much about but what I've heard is rubbish.
For the 3rd time this year we go to Helter Skelter at The Sanctuary in Milton Keynes.
As mentioned previously Helter Skelter made up the bulk of my tape pack collection in the 90s. At some point in 1996 I made my way onto their mailing list where I could order tape packs directly from them. There came a point maybe a year or so later that I decided to start backfilling my collection as opposed to just ordering the latest one.
Not all of them were available though and this particular event was one of those. Some time later Helter Skelter put on their newsletter they had some older tape packs back in stock so I tried again. This time I succeeded in getting all of the tape packs I order except this one, so I'm in new territory here.
It was the main area tape pack I tried to get as opposed to the Technodrome one, yet the set I've decided to post comes from the Technodrome one.
The Music Maker was a DJ who pretty much only played at Helter Skelter in the Technodrome. His sets were basically anything goes as long as it was hard and fast. You would also hear the words "The Music Maker" frequently throughout his set. I found this typically crazy Music Maker set very enjoyable so decided this should be the one I post, particularly as we're unlikely to find him at other raves.
Also in the Technodrome was Brisk and I remember seeing that and questioning whether he played a techno set for the occasion. The answer is no, it's a typical Brisk set that starts with the Dutch and Scottish records and ends with the English ones and starts in typical Brisk style with "Jiiieehaaaa" by Diss Reaction. The music was more closely aligned in 1995, but what you'd hear in the main arena vs Technodrome in later years would be completely different.
The main arena was mainly happy hardcore with 8 sets vs 4 drum & bass sets. A notable thing about the previous 2 Helter Skelters was the lack of new for 1995 tunes. This time however there are many more.
These are the hardcore ones, many of which appeared in the Ramos set:
Happy Tunes - Fantasy
Juicy Cuts - Vol.1
Terrible Twins - Cained & Able
Love Nation & Justin Time - Music Is Ecstacy
Happy Tunes & Billy Daniel Bunter - Raging Desire
Suburban Delay - Regenerator
GBT Inc. - Burn Mother Fukka
Supreme, Sunset Regime & Mr. Hyde - Breakout
D-Zyne & Fury - Sing It
Ramos, Supreme & Sunset Regime - In The Place To Be
Ramos, Sunset Regime & Jammin - Nothing But Living
Hixxy & Bananaman - Forever
Highlife - Is This Happiness?
Alk-E-D - Home
Sonicdriver - Died In Your Arms
Eruption - Don’t Stop
Ultimate S.T. - Momentum
Genaside - Mutations
Suburban Delay - Alpha Buzz
The Beatsquad - Roll The Drum
DJ Waxweazle vs. Guitar Rob - Spread Your Wings
Jee-Beat Squad - Rythum
Genaside - Nuclear
DJ Hixxy & Lady Trixxy - One Spliff
Hixxy & Lady Trixxy - Attitude
One of note here is "Juicy Cuts Vol.1" which is a reworking of "Love You More" by Paul Elstak. I would speculate this will be what we're hearing from now on as opposed to the Paul Elstak record in sets.
The most played record is "On Top" by A Sense Of Summer which appears in 4 of the 8 sets.
These are the new for 1995 drum & bass tunes:
Shy FX - This Style Relick
The Dream Team - Watch Out
The Ganja Kru - Bring The Horns
Missing - Rewound Riddim
Basic Influence - Still Waters
Souljah - Down With The Lites
Renegade - Eastern Promise
Lemon D - Wu Tang
Pascal - True Grit
Timebase - Funky
Ed Rush - What’s Up
Roz - U Can Be My Lover
Daz - Liquidizer
Tango - Understanding
Dr S Gachet - Remember The Roller
Although we are seeing hardcore and drum & bass in the same arena, you do sense a bit of friction between the 2 scenes when Magika says they play drum & bass on Radio 1 but not hardcore and they should do because hardcore is just as big.
He had a point at the time, but I don't find it amusing in a way because I recall at a Helter Skelter in 1999 he said during a hardcore set that it isn't just about hardcore, it's also about drum & bass now. He's basically been a drum & bass MC ever since and has also since stated how he didn't like the direction hardcore had taken by the time he left. Again though he had a point.
One more Helter Skelter to go this year and I'm sure it will feature.
When an act has a solitary Top 40 hit to their name which made number 40, no albums and no Wikipedia page then getting any information can be quite a challenge.
Hysterix started off as Coloursound who had a solitary record to their name with "Talk to Me". This was remixed by Sasha and appeared as a b-side to "Pressure" which was the first release by Hysterix. Neither of these charted.
It then appeared again as the b-side to this record. The mention of Sasha gives an indication of what sort of music this is, progressive house. Further non-charting singles followed in 1994 and they reached number 65 in 1995 with the record "Everything" which appeared on The Word.
The singer on this record was Maxine Harvey who had enjoyed earlier chart success singing for The KLF. Also in the group were Darren Black and Richard Belgrave who would then join forces with Nick Carmen under the names Sniper, AD 2000 and Spank 5.0 but none of the records released under those names charted.
The remaining member was Nigel Butler who would go on to be a member of indie band Theaudience in the late 90s. He's also a prolific songwriter which his biggest hit as songwriter being "Checkin It Out" by Lil Chris in 2006.
According to Darren Black's discogs page he released a folk album in 2020. Whether they are referring to the right Darren Black I don't know.
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 1992 with my verdict on each record:
Hardbag has arrived with this being credited as the breakthrough record for that genre. Felix was the only one flying the flag for the genre commercially in the early days as it wasn't until 1994 when we started to get the flood of hardbag Top 40 hits. You could say this was ahead of its time then.
There are some records where I can pin point exactly when they came out and this is one of them. I associate this with starting a new year at school. There is also no doubt that this is the best Annie Lennox solo record I've heard.
By 1992 Boy George was more of a DJ than a singer, but he recorded this record for the film of the same name. I've seen the film and I don't think I've ever been so shocked when watching a film but I'll say no more as I don't want to spoil it for you if you haven't seen it. I prefer the film to the song though.
The Sundays are best known for "Here's Where the Story Ends" but that was never a single. This was their Top 40 debut. The one complaint I have about this record is that it's not as good as the excellent "Summertime" which was their 2nd and final Top 40 hit to date 5 years later. I guess you could say this is the warm up to that.
On one hand this sounds a bit poundland "When Love and Hate Collide" even though that tune was yet to come out. On the other hand it sounds like its from the 80s rather than 1992. Digging deeper it turns out that "When Love and Hate Collide" had already been written by this point, just not released on anything. That more or less makes it the similar sounding but nowhere near as good follow up.
The Top 40 debut for Suede which is a sign that the Brit Pop era is just around the corner. I recall "Animal Nitrate" being the first Suede song I heard even though I definitely heard this one in the 90s. That said, it's not the most memorable song. I doesn't really go anywhere.
After have 2 singles in a row that were weather related they charted with this single which opens with the line "ice will melt". It was the final Top 40 hit from their "Woodface" album and their next Top 40 hit would be another weather related one in "Distant Sun". I don't think I've heard this one in 30 years and it sounds a bit better than I remember it and I was inclined to think it's at least OK, but it's better than that.
My memory of Neneh Cherry was she did "Buffalo Stance" etc. at the end of the 80s and then disappeared until she came back with "7 Seconds" in 1994. Turns out she did have Top 40 hits in between such as this one. I can understand why I don't remember it, I've forgotten how it goes already.
The era of toytown techno in the Top 40 was now over and rave was giving way to eurodance. The theme for the novelty side of eurodance was versions of computer game music with this being the first. Quite surprisingly the man behind this record was Andrew Lloyd Webber. I prefer this to pretty much everything else he's done but that's because I really don't like his music.
This was the 3rd UK Top 40 hit for Pearl Jam and arguably the song they are best known for. It's good in parts but there's too much filler in it for my liking and it goes on a bit too long too.
There are a number of candidates for having the most 90s Top 40 hits that I don't remember, but I think Daniel O'Donnell is the strongest contender so far. He had 12 Top 40 hits in the 90s and although I remember his existence I honestly couldn't name you one of his song off the top of my head. This was the first and there's a good chance I'll have forgotten it by the time you read this.
This is a cover of the Donna Summer record. It's done techno style and if techno existed in the 70s then this is probably what it would have sounded like. Messiah are best remembered for "Temple of Dreams" but this was their highest charting single.
We were at the beginning of the school year at this point and I can tell you that we were studying electricity in science. My reason for remembering that is because in our experiments we used connectors and at the same time this record was out. It's their Top 40 debut and lead track off their 3rd album of the same name. It also played it's part in my decision to buy the album.
This is a tune which reminds me of the beginning of a school year. I loved this tune at the time and still do. It was the 3rd Top 40 hit for Bizarre Inc but it was a change in direction compared to it's predecessors. The story is that the record label wanted them to make more of a pop record and this was the result.
This is the opening track to his "Tubular Bells II" album which is is the sequel to his "Tubular Bells" album in the 70s. I listened to that album years ago after hearing about what a masterpiece it was. I can't say I was a big fan if I'm honest, but I didn't mind it. I can say the same about this record too.
The debut for Jon Secada and the only hit of his that many people would remember. I love the contrast between the vocals and backing track in this. You hear the intro and it sounds quite happy and upbeat, then you hear the pain in his voice.
This was the lead single from the "Automatic for the People" album which is arguably the album they're best known for. It was quite a low key introduction to the album though, I don't remember too many people acknowledging "Drive" at the time and the other singles are much better remembered. That means it hasn't been played to death so I still like it.
This is where it all began for East 17s Top 40 career. I could openly admit to liking this record at the time as this was before the unwritten rule amongst my peers that you're not supposed to like boy bands. I openly admit to still liking it today.
When I saw the video to this I thought Luther Vandross and Janet Jackson looked different to how I remember them. That is of course because it's not Luther Vandross or Janet Jackson in the video, it's Damon Wayans and Stacey Dash from the film "Mo Money" which this record is from.
Back in 1992 I was watching "Sounds of the 60s" with my parents and Crazy World of Arthur Brown appeared on it. I heard the words "I am the god of hellfire" at the beginning and then my parents changed the channel. Next thing I'm hearing this tune quite regularly thinking wow that really sounded ahead of its time for the 60s. This was of course because it was The Prodigy sampling a 60s record. It was my favourite tune for a period of time. "Jericho" is also a decent tune.
In my college days I bought an old rave compilation from Cash Converters and put it on in the common room. Several people in the common room weren't into rave and weren't familiar with most of the tunes. I was there saying they were missing out, this was good stuff. Then this tune came on which everyone did know, but I had to concede that this one was shit. Think that was the only one we all agreed on.
This is a double a-side with a different band either side. It was taken from the "Ruby Trax" compilation that celebrated 40 years on NME magazine and featured indie bands covering previous number one hits. It gave the Manic Street Preachers their first Top 10 hit and Fatima Mansions their only Top 40 hit to date. The Manic Street Preachers cover is basically a heavier recording of the original but the Fatima Mansions cover sounds nothing like the original. Both are good in their own way.
Like many, I first heard this at the Freddie Mercury tribute concert. I thought the song itself was a tribute to Freddie Mercury but then 3 years later came a Queen version with Freddie Mercury actually singing it. I liked this along with "Driven By You" enough to get the "Back To The Light" album on which they appear.
This record seems a bit out of place in 1992. It's one of those I feel I've always known but it's most likely that when I first heard it in 1992 I just assumed it was an old record. It was the 2nd single released for his greatest hits album, the first not making the Top 40 and prior to that he hadn't been in the Top 40 since 1986. Quite surprisingly he was still having Top 40 hits as late as 2004 but this is the last one I actually remember. It's your typical naff Lionel Richie record.
When it comes to Boyz II Men I can't look past the comparison that's often made between them and Jodeci which is basically Jodeci were the bad boys of R&B whereas Boyz II Men were the clean cut group. Behind the scenes though Babyface was one of the writers and he has also written for K-Ci & Jojo of Jodeci. That doesn't mean this song is good though.
Having very much heard of Bob Marley and seeing he had quite a few hits from looking in my British Hit Singles book, I'd not knowingly heard a Bob Marley record until this song came out. There was something oddly familiar about it. Obviously it was recorded long before it came out but this was the first time it had seen light of day.
I recall a few years ago watching a "Forgotten Gems of the 90s" show on one of the music channels. It was a welcome change to the usual anthem bashing you get on retro channels. If memory serves me correctly this was number one. My initial thought was is this really forgotten, but then I guess I've not heard it much since the 90s. That may be a reason why I still like it.
Being a London resident, I pass though Baker Street a lot and still to this very day I get this record going through my head more often than not when I do so. It was the Top 40 debut for Undercover and their best known. I'd not heard the Gerry Rafferty original at the time so this is my default version.
This was the beginning of Sweden taking over the music world. Dr Alban was a Nigerian based in Sweden and wrote this with Denniz Pop who founded Cherion Studios. There were a number of songwriters who have since been very prolific with their songwriting including Max Martin who at the time of writing only has Paul McCartney ahead of him in terms of most Top 40 hits as songwriter. Given how much dreadful music has been created as a result of this I should hate it. However it probably would have still happened with or without this record and I do like it in a 90s nostalgia sort of way.
One memory I have of this record is that someone who I would regularly get lifts from would turn the radio off when this would come on. At the time I thought they simply could stand it but it's more likely they knew what the lyrics meant and didn't want kids listening to it. I still managed to hear it a lot though not knowing what the lyrics really were. I liked it because it's a good tune.
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 20/30, or 67%. Slight improvement over last week.
