On Sat, 11 Apr 2020 13:31:31 +0100, Chris Brown <
extrem...@yahoo.com>
wrote:
>Posting on Saturday for a change, because the date is Monday and it's a
>Bank Holiday weekend. I almost posted it on Good Friday because one of
>the tracks is called Passion...
>
>Anyway, this isn't a really topical chart, I just picked a year in the
>90s I hadn't done for a while. But if you're ever a contestant on
>Pointless, you'll find some potentially useful answers here, in the form
>of obscure hits by very well-known acts.
>You might also note two versions of the same song in the Top 10, two
>versions of the same song that had previously been Top 10 together, a
>track that was going to be a Top 10 hit later in 1996 and a Top 5 hit
>that was left off a best-of album in 2020.
>I promise that song title at 67 isn't a typo
>
>Playlists are here, and I've had plenty of time on my hands to look for
>the appropriate single versions.
>
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0jErxXNXDKC6d88LpZ468E?si=zg-_bGb7QVSaGdHL4Lb1-Q
>
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdiUvgvgpgNqMtkigLkBfJBCKiIDGqkIG
>
>13th April 1996
It's an interesting chart. For me, this was only a week or so after I'd
started a new job, and hence was driving to work again after a few years
of working within walking distance, so for the first time in a few years
I was listening to the radio regularly on the way to work and back. So
there's more in this chart that I recall than I would have done even a
month or so earlier. On the other hand, I had also recently moved out of
the shared house I'd been living in, into my own flat, so I was no
longer being inflicted with my housemates' musical tastes, which may
have had the effect of reducing my exposure to some acts in this chart.
Possibly a little unusually, I haven't seen any acts in this chart as
such play live, but I have seen an act play live that's in this chart
under a pseudonym.
>1. (1) The Prodigy Firestarter
Probably their best-known, and best, track. I have spent ages perfectly
one of the moves in this video. You'll find it at 0:37 on the version in
the YouTube playlist.
>2. (2) Mark Snow The X-Files
Is this the actual theme of the show? As opposed to a remix? I didn't
watch it, so I don't know. And I don't recall this charting, possibly
because it didn't get airplay.
>3. (4) Mark Morrison Return Of The Mack
Pants.
>4. (3) Robert Miles Children
Great track. From a great album, that is, still, one of my all-time
favourites.
>5. (6) Gina G Ooh Aah... Just A Little Bit
Very much of its era.
>6. (NE) 2 Pac ft Dr Dre California Love
Meh.
>7. (5) Gabrielle Give Me A Little More Time
Bland.
>8. (NE) Rage Against The Machine Bulls On The Parade
Uninteresting.
>9. (8) DJ Dado X-Files
This, I do remember. But this is a remix.
>10. (9) Take That How Deep Is Your Love
As cover versions go, this goes nowhere interesting.
>11. (11) Oasis Don't Look Back In Anger
I do quite like this. But, on the other hand, it's so much a Beatles
pastiche that it might just as well have been done by The Rutles.
>12. (16) Cast Walkaway
Nice song. I don't really remember this from the time, but it's become a
staple of gold format radio
>17. (12) Ken Doh Nakasaki EP (I Need A Lover Tonight)
I wonder how many of the people buying this had any idea where the name
came from.
>26. (13) Donna Summer State Of Independence {1996 remix}
Good song. But the remix didn't really add anything.
>27. (23) Garbage Stupid Girl
Good song. Classic of its era.
>41. (49) Simply Red & White Daydream Believer (Cheer Up Peter Reid)
That didn't age well, did it.
>47. (61) Babylon Zoo Spaceman
At the time, this seemed new, and radical, and the precursor to loads
more great stuff in the future. As it turned out, it was a one-hit
wonder and the guy behind it turned out to be an utter numptie.
>52. (80) The Mike Flowers Pops Wonderwall
As cover versions go, this goes to places you wouldn't expect.
>53. (44) The Beatles Real Love
If you played all the songs in this chart to someone who had never heard
any of them before, and asked them which one was by The Beatles, they
probably wouldn't pick this one.
>56. (70) Oasis Whatever
This is a rather Oasisisy chart. but I like this one.
>57. (57) Lighthouse Family Lifted
Classic song.
>60. (45) Joan Osborne One Of Us
A strangely compelling song. One of my favourites at the time.
The opening acapella verse is a clip from a recording made in 1937 for
the Archive of American Folk Song. You can hear the whole thing here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DZoq4ZH-SQ
>75. (82) Oasis Cigarettes & Alcohol
>78. (83) Oasis Wonderwall
>80. (92) Oasis Live Forever
>83. (91) Oasis Some Might Say
...there are too many Oasis songs in this chart :-)
They are all good songs, though. It's kind of odd, really, in that, at
the time, I was more of a Blur fan. But it's Oasis that, now, anchor the
decade for me. Particularly the tracks from What's The Story. Partly
because I was the odd one out in my group of friends in preferring Blur,
and therefore Oasis was the inevitable backdrop to almost every social
occasion. Some friends of mine were in a band, they teetered agonisingly
on the verge of actually making it - got some minor airplay, got a few
gigs in London at places that had broken big names before them - and I
helped out as a roadie, and played keyboard on a couple of their studio
tracks. And we played Oasis to death in the van on the road.
>84. (93) Passengers Miss Sarajevo
Great song. If only they'd done more than one album, eh.
>88. (RE) Blur Stereotypes
Good song. Not one of their best, though. IMO.
>89. (84) Michael Jackson Earth Song
Awful. Truly awful.
>94. (95) Oasis Shakermaker
Making a change from channelling The Beatles, in this song they channel
The New Seekers. And got sued for it.
Rather amusingly, an Oasis tribute band later did a version of "I'd Like
to Teach the World to Sing" in the style of Oasis, which makes the
similarity even more obvious.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HvSwZaquCw
Mark