I give every entry a mark out of 10. Here’s your opportunity to tick the ones you’d have given 6 or more to.
My highest score of 1997 turns out to have been a solitary 8, for Hanson’s “MMMBop”. U2 and Elton both got 2s. Use the comments box to talk about the year in general!
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I'm writing about every UK number one single, in order. It's taken a while, it'll take a while longer. Wander around in the archives, or join in with the marvellous bunch of commenters we've managed to attract - new voices always very welcome!
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I think part of why I like Torn so much is that I had no idea that it was even a song in existence until I was much older and it wasn’t being played incessantly. I’d have been like 7 when it came out and I was a kid in New York who went to bed to whatever the people across the street were blasting out of their windows. Good times, really. Anyway, I don’t even know how I chanced into hearing it, but it did take a space in my life, sentimentally. Even then it seems like everything is immaculately played to me, even in a route one pop ballad. Imbruglia is on a tear vocally, everything sounds refreshing, especially the end when she’s like “Oh…” and then the guitar line soars into the fade out. One of the better times a fade out’s been used in my opinion.
Now that I look back though, and look at the context of the time I see that it’s had company, Loeb and Fiona, as was said earlier, and I can see why they were favored heavily, especially Fiona.
Re: 23 I’m guessing Unique II *aren’t* Sheffield bleep pioneers Unique 3 minus a member.
@32, GlueFact. You guess correctly. They’re from Austria apparently. The track’s an undistinguished euro-disco cover of the odious Matthew Wilder more-advertizing-jingle-than-pop-song original.
John Peel’s 1997 Festive 31*
1. C*******p – B****** O* A*** (bunny)
2. Mogwai – New Paths To Helicon
3. Helen Love – Does Your Heart Go Boom?
4. Period Pains – Spice Girls (Who Do You Think You Are?)
5. Belle & Sebastian – Lazy Line Painted Jane
6. Novac – Rapunzel
7. The Fall – 4 1/2 Inch
8. Daft Punk – Rollin’ & Scratchin’
9. Clinic – IPC Sub-editors Dictate Our Youth
10. David Holmes – Don’t Die Yet (Arab Strap Mix)
11. Blur – Song 2
12. Belle & Sebastian – Dog On Wheels
13. Hydroplane – Cross The Atlantic
14. Stereolab & Nurse With Wound – Simple Headphone Mind
15. Betty Davies & The Balconettes – Shergar
16. Arab Strap – Hey! Fever
17. The Fall – I’m A Mummy
18. Spiritualized – Ladies & Gentlemen You Are Floating In Space
19. AC Acoustics – I Messiah Am Jailer
20. Stereolab – Fluorescences
21. Hitchers – Strachan
22. bis – Sweetshop Avenger
23. Synchro Goldfish – Dandelion Milk Summer
24. Prolapse – Autocade
25. Dream City Film Club – If I Die I Die
26. Stereolab – Mismodular
27. The Delgados- Pull The Wires From The Wall
28. Propellerheads – Velvet Pants
29. Highbirds – Seventeen
30. Prolapse – Slash/Oblique
31. Angelica – Teenage Girl Crush
* I have no idea exactly why the full 50 wasn’t available on the BBC’s Peel site. Bad BBC. Looking at the music on display here, chimes pretty well with the other EOY polls. As has been mentioned before, the significance of the F50 was in decline, compared to say, The Wire. Only die-hard Peelites would have said this list was where it’s at.
May I be the first atrocious pedant to dive in and point out that the Festive 50 that year was, indeed, a Festive 31, because apparently John didn’t have enough time to play fifteen records.
The full (lack of a) story is here – http://peel.wikia.com/wiki/1997_Festive_Fifty
Incidentally I think this is one of the strongest festive fifty lists – though of course it’s out of step with what was in the charts or the critic lists, that doesn’t reflect badly on it at all.
32. NO MERCY
Re 31: Maybe not the best place to mention it, but the art of the fade-out was rapidly becoming a lost art in the late 90s. Introducing a new element on the fade hadn’t been common since the 60s but still persisted (Pet Shop Boys knew how to deploy a good fade); this is a good indicator of how crafted a record Torn was, like the song or not.
A bunnied Swedish producer seemed (to me) to really kill off the art of the fade – but maybe there’s an earlier clunky Popular example I can’t think of.
The most infuriating fade-out of the 80 has to be Oran Juice Jones ‘The Rain’. And not even a longer 12″ mix (that I’m aware of) to compensate.
Worst example I’ve encountered recently is on ‘Rooting For My Baby’ by Miley Cyrus where it seems like she is really not done singing the (actually v good) song yet but it just ends anyway.
A good example of a clunky fade souring a decent song is coming up very soon indeed. (exit pursued by bunny)
Re: 10 etc – for me, OK Computer was when Radiohead went from ‘I don’t like this, but I understand why people do’ to ‘this is actively unpleasant.’ Obviously, people loved it, though, not least the readers of Q, where I had fetched up in the autumn of 1997. That, almost but not quite, marked the point at which I stopped offering opinions on music for print. Although I wrote for Q on and off up until 2010, I did exactly one music review in all that time. My initial role at Q, the best-paid job pro-rata I have ever had, was putting together the gig listings pages. It was a lovely arrangement designed to leave me free to write for Neon the rest of the time, an unofficial bit of cross-subsidisation between two Emap Metro magazines.
After five years clinging on at Select, it was a huge relief. I felt I had written all I had to say about the music of the ’90s. That’s why I’m surprised at how much I like on those end of the year lists.
Turned out I had a lot more to say about films… Still do.
The fade on ‘Whiter Shade of Pale’ is pretty dire too, as if they didn’t really know how to end it. Brooker launches into a new chorus, but barely makes it to the end of the first line.
I voted for ten here, and as ever there were a few near-misses. I appear to be one of only four who liked the Gary Barlow record. And it’s amusing to see the Tubbies outscoring Elt by eight to one. The thing is, I really like ‘Something About …’ – I reckon it’s a stronger song than his two other solo number ones (one of which is a bunny) – if it hadn’t played second fiddle to CITW97 I’d have voted for that too.
Re: 41. Radiohead fandom seems like an aspect of Tom’s teenage Smiths fandom he mentioned in an old FT essay (correct me if I’m wrong here because I searched for the piece to quote when I wrote my Oasis essay for Louder Than War but couldn’t find it) where he said a part of the reason he loved The Smiths was empaphising with the sadness and awkwardness but he’d never admit that to his friends so he’d use critic-speak when saying why he liked them: The Smiths were witty, literate, innovative etc. Same seems to go with Radiohead: friends who into them will always down play the melancholia “I don’t think of them as miserable” etc and talk about innovation and creative momentum.
I think they’re a gateway to the avant garde for a generation of (mostly) boys raised on the pomp rock of Oasis, Welsh Bunnies etc: spiky and nonlinear enough to sound new and different but loud brash and grandiose enough to sit comfortably alongside those sort of bands on the indie side of a Now album. Also grunge for wimps or at least post Brit pop heads put off by US Rawk vocals.
I should have said ‘an aspect of Radiohead fandom’ – I’m not suggesting that’s the only reason people are listening to them but I think it does go some way to explain the protectiveness a lot of fans seem to display toward the band’s critical reputation.
@2 That is a pretty dismal albums list, I think.
We really were into the dog days of the post-Britpop comedown here, weren’t we? The hangover after the Last Party.
I started counting the acts whose best days were behind them: Spiritualized, Primal Scream, Teenage Fanclub, Stereolab, (The) Prodigy, the Wu-Tang, Gravediggaz, Portishead, Stereolab, Nick Cave, Pavement, and – of course – Oasis. And actually – even more of course – Echo and the Bunnymen.
There are some saving graces. Dig Your Own Hole is a belter, as is Homework, and I like Homogenic even if it is a bit, er, homogenous. But you have to look all the way down to #38 for the real portent of better days ahead: Supa Dupa Fly.
And sure enough, for albums at least, 1998 turned out to be a vastly superior year.
#45 – I’d say those are the best albums Spiritualized, Stereolab and Portishead ever made, and I don’t think that’s a controversial opinion at all.
#45 and #46 I agree that is the best album Spiritualized released. I first heard it a year or two after release. It was given to me with great reverence by the new radio station manager and it blew my mind. To me it has always felt like it’s core idea was stronger than the other albums – the downest of downer break-up albums.
On OK Computer – in the early-to-mid 90s I listened to a lot of 70s progressive rock: Oldfield, King Crimson etc. (We had limited media. My school never got Nirvana as in we barely heard of it. The other kids prefered Guns N Roses, who to this day I detest from over–exposure.)
I’ve always heard OK Computer as doing to prog rock as Amnesiac did to the Warp record back catalogue – selectively mining these sources and intricately piecing together new music. Here was a Fripp guitar, there a certain proggy organ sound or whatever. It’s been too long since I’ve heard it to remember all the sources I could identify.
This isn’t to knock the album – I like it – but at the time I never understood the esteem in which it was held. That said I also kept forgetting I was the only kid I knew who heard a lot of progressive rock.
On a final note – my favourite album from that year is Prolapse’s The Italian Flag. It’s a pretty fierce album. I’ve always loved the interlocking but seperate vocal lines from Linda Steelyard and Mick Dennis. They are one of th few bands I’ve heard who have made this kind of things work. And while Mick is the angrier singer, Linda’s lyrics are darker even when she sings in a child-like coo.
I heard of the band from a compilation from a Leicester-based record label I got sent the old University Radio Network which provided overnight (or day time my time) programming to a lot of UK Uni Radio stations. I then found The Italian Flag in a pawnbrokers in Casino, NSW.
Re 48 – part of what Radiohead were doing was a very 90s thing: pilfering sounds from the past and recontextualising them for an indie-rock audience: Most 90s indie fans would probably find 70s prog too ponderous and nonlinear but dug some of the ideas when slotted into a more guitar and shortish song centred format.
@46, @47 I wonder if maybe it depends on how you encountered Spiritualized first.
I first heard Lazer Guided Melodies, and love it still. And I saw them in concert around that time and they blew me away. After that, Ladies and Gentlemen felt like an over-inflated retread of the same ideas, with diminishing returns.
@46 Not trying to argue with your taste, but I would have guessed the consensus canonical albums from the other two were Emperor Tomato Ketchup and Dummy.
Third is also far better than Portishead, which has some interesting ideas but feels too much like a stumbling retread of Dummy. Also: Helen Love! Wonderful, in a sort of shit way. They then of course go on to have one of their frequent collaborators top the 1999 Festive 50, sadly unbunniedly (with first single I ever bought, I believe, and which an enthusiastic write-up of utterly failed to get me a job at the Official Charts Company earlier this year).
#51 – definitely, Ladies and Gentlemen was my introduction. And having heard a lot of prog this album never felt over-inflated to me.
#50 I agree. In the 90s the artists had the structures of Indie-Rock and tracks were built around these. What to hand no these structures – soaring strings or prog guitars or Farfisa organs gives the differentiations between the bands. In the 70s it feels like a new music for a new audience using new structures – though in reality the new structures were often pilfered from classical or folk genres.
another highlight for me (and probably only a few others) in 1997 was the release of Rickie Lee Jones’ Ghostyhead – her response to/take on trip hop.
1997 number 1s seem to represent a more diverse range of styles than we’ve seen for a while. No one type of music seems particularly dominant and there’s little sense of anything dramatically new. The visual arts in recent years have seen the rise of the ‘Curator’ to a more visible and powerful status – framing and reframing work in new constellations – and perhaps something similar has happened (and may very well have happened before) with producers and artists in the musical sphere. One such example that was compelling for me was the 1996 release of David Toop’s compilations ‘Ocean of Sound’ and ‘Crooning on Venus’ that drew connections between the music of Debussy, Aphex Twin, Beach Boys and Amazonian natives amongst others.
12 out of 24. Of the 6 or above awarded by Tom I left out R Kelly and SG ‘Too Much’ but included Blur, Olive, and Will Smith of the records that received below 6.
Not as good (or interesting in a lot of cases) as 1996 and the year as a whole had a 5 to 6 feel in a way!
#Myself It’s Mick Derrick – co-lead singer/shouter of Prolapse. Not Mick Dennis the entirely readable Norwich fan.
Here are the year poll winners to date (and the current % they’ve got)
1997. White Town – “Your Woman (73%)
1996: The Prodigy – “Firestarter” (71%)
1995: Coolio – “Gangsta’s Paradise” (62%)
1994: Baby D – “Let Me Be Your Fantasy” (48%)
1993: Ace Of Base – “All That She Wants” (53%)
1992: Shakespear’s Sister – “Stay” (58%)
1991: The KLF – “3AM Eternal” (68%)
1990: Sinead O’Connor – “Nothing Compares 2 U” (78%)
1989: Madonna – “Like A Prayer” (79%)
1988: S’Express – “Theme From S’Express” (57%)
1987: Pet Shop Boys – “Always On My Mind” (72%)
1986: Pet Shop Boys – “West End Girls” (82%)
1985: Madonna – “Into The Groove” (72%)
1984: Frankie Goes To Hollywood – “Relax” (74%)
1983: Michael Jackson – “Billie Jean” (79%)
1982: Dexys Midnight Runners – “Come On Eileen” (74%)
1981: The Human League – “Don’t You Want Me” (81%)
1980: David Bowie – “Ashes To Ashes” (78%)
1979: Blondie – “Heart Of Glass” (85%)
1978: Kate Bush – “Wuthering Heights” (80%)
1977: Donna Summer – “I Feel Love” (76%)
1976: ABBA – “Dancing Queen” (77%)
1975: David Bowie – “Space Oddity” (82%)
1974: ABBA – “Waterloo” (76%)
1973: Slade – “Cum On Feel The Noize” (78%)
1972: Alice Cooper – “School’s Out” (72%)
1971: T Rex – “Get It On” (83%)
1970: Smokey Robinson And The Miracles – “Tears Of A Clown” (81%)
1969: Marvin Gaye – “I Heard It Through The Grapevine” (84%)
1968: The Rolling Stones – “Jumping Jack Flash” (78%)
1967: The Monkees – “I’m A Believer” (84%)
1966: The Beach Boys – “Good Vibrations” (89%)
1965: The Rolling Stones – “Satisfaction” (84%)
1964: The Kinks – “You Really Got Me” (84%)
1963: The Beatles – “She Loves You” (86%)
1962: The Tornados – “Telstar” (78%)
1961: Del Shannon – “Runaway” (79%)
1960: NO POLL YET
1959: NO POLL YET
1958: Jerry Lee Lewis – “Great Balls Of Fire” (87%)
1957 and earlier: NO POLL YET
And the worst (by vote):
1997. Elton John – “Candle In The Wind 97” (2%)
1996: Peter Andre – “I Feel You” (0%)
1995: Robson And Jerome – “Unchained Melody” (0%)
1994: Manchester United Football Squad – “Come On You Reds” (5%)
1993: Mr Blobby – “Mr Blobby” (3%)
1992: KWS – “Please Don’t Go”/”Game Boy” (7%)
1991: Hale And Pace – “The Stonk” (1%)
1990: Bombalurina – “Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini” (2%)
1989: Jive Bunny – “Let’s Party” (1%)
1988: Glenn Medeiros – “Nothing’s Gonna Change My Love For You” (4%)
1987: Ferry Aid – “Let It Be” (1%)
1986: Nick Berry – “Every Loser Wins” (1%)
1985: The Crowd – “You’ll Never Walk Alone” (2%)
1984: Jim Diamond – “I Should Have Known Better” (6%)
1983: Rod Stewart – “Baby Jane” (10%)
1982: Renee And Renato – “Save Your Love” (2%)
1981: Joe Dolce Music Theatre – “Shaddup Your Face” (7%)
1980: St Winifreds School Choir – “There’s No One Quite Like Grandma” (1%)
1979: Lena Martell – “One Day At A Time” (1%)
1978: Brotherhood Of Man – “Figaro” (2%)
1977: Brotherhood Of Man – “Angelo” (3%)
1976: JJ Barrie – “No Charge” (1%)
1975: Telly Savalas – “If” (2%)
1974: Gary Glitter – “Always Yours” (6%)
1973: Donny Osmond – “Young Love” (2%)
1972: Little Jimmy Osmond – “Long Haired Lover From Liverpool” (2%)
1971: Clive Dunn – “Grandad” (3%)
1970: Dana – “All Kinds Of Everything” (7%)
1969: Marmalade – “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” (8%)
1968: Des O’Connor – “I Pretend” (1%)
1967: Engelbert Humperdinck – “The Last Waltz” (5%)
1966: Jim Reeves – “Distant Drums” (5%)
1965: Ken Dodd – “Tears” (2%)
1964: The Bachelors – “Diane” (4%)
1963: Frank Ifield – “I’m Confessin” (4%)
1962: Frank Ifield – “Lovesick Blues” (3%)
1961: Eden Kane – “Well I Ask You” (3%)
1960: NO POLL YET
1959: NO POLL YET
1958: Marvin Rainwater – “Whole Lotta Woman” (8%)
1957 and earlier: NO POLL YET
Very interesting indeed. As I was reading the Poll Winners from bottom up, my sense that “these are all classics” only went awry when I reached S’Express in 1988, then recovered in 1989-91, then went off again 1992-94, and then recovered from 1995 onwards. Sure enough, those off years are the only ones where under 60% of voters thought the winner was a 6 or more. A 70% threshold would add 1991 and 1995 to the off years. Helps explain why the early ’90s were a slow patch for Popular.
It Was The Best Of Times (Highest Poll Winner Percentages—Above 75%)
89%: 1966
87%: 1958
86%: 1963
85%: 1979
84%: 1964, 1965, 1967, 1969
83%: 1971
82%: 1975, 1986
81%: 1970, 1981
80%: 1978
79%: 1961, 1989, 1983
78%: 1962, 1968, 1973, 1980, 1990
77%: 1976
76%: 1974, 1977
It Was The Worst Of Times (Lowest Poll Percentages)
0%: 1995, 1996
1%: 1968, 1976, 1979, 1980, 1986, 1987, 1989, 1991
2%: 1965, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1978, 1982, 1985, 1990, 1997
3%: 1961, 1962, 1977, 1993
4%: 1963, 1964, 1988
5%: 1966, 1967, 1994
6%: 1974, 1984
7%: 1970, 1981, 1992
8%: 1958, 1969
9%: —
10%: 1983
It Was The Best Of Times, It Wasn’t The Worst Of Times: mean of poll winner percentages and lowest percentages to give rough ranking of years
1. 1958 (47.5%)
2. 1966 (47%)
3. 1969 (46%)
4. 1963 (45%)
5. 1967 (44.5%)
6. 1983 (44.5%)
7. 1964 (44%)
8. 1970 (44%)
9. 1981 (44%)
10. 1979 (43%)
11. 1965 (43%)
12. 1971 (43%)
13. 1975 (42%)
14. 1986 (41.5%)
15. 1978 (41%)
16. 1961 (41%)
17. 1974 (41%)
18. 1962 (40.5%)
19. 1989 (40%)
20. 1973 (40%)
21. 1990 (40%)
22. 1984 (40%)
23. 1968 (39.5%)
24. 1980 (39.5%)
25. 1977 (39.5%)
26. 1976 (39%)
27. 1982 (38%)
28. 1997 (37.5%)
29. 1972 (37%)
30. 1985 (37%)
31. 1987 (36.5%)
32. 1996 (35.5%)
33. 1991 (34.5%)
34. 1992 (32.5%)
35. 1995 (31%)
36. 1988 (30.5%)
37. 1993 (28%)
38. 1994 (26.5%)
A bit of extra number-crunching per year could give a more precise ranking (i.e. finding the mean of all user vote percentages in each year).
Sorry, I wasn’t paying close enough attention to how Excel was sorting that last list. Revised version to show years sharing a ranking:
It Was The Best Of Times, It Wasn’t The Worst Of Times: mean of poll winner percentages and lowest percentages to give rough ranking of years
1. 1958 (47.5%)
2. 1966 (47%)
3. 1969 (46%)
4. 1963 (45%)
=5. 1967, 1983 (44.5%)
=7. 1964, 1970, 1981 (44%)
=10. 1965, 1971, 1979 (43%)
13. 1975 (42%)
14. 1986 (41.5%)
=15. 1961, 1974,1978 (41%)
18. 1962 (40.5%)
=19. 1973, 1984, 1989, 1990 (40%)
=23. 1968, 1977, 1980 (39.5%)
26. 1976 (39%)
27. 1982 (38%)
28. 1997 (37.5%)
=29. 1972, 1985 (37%)
31. 1987 (36.5%)
32. 1996 (35.5%)
33. 1991 (34.5%)
34. 1992 (32.5%)
35. 1995 (31%)
36. 1988 (30.5%)
37. 1993 (28%)
38. 1994 (26.5%)
Re: worst #1s @ 58: Please Don’t Go seems the only mildly controversial choice: all the others are either widely acknowledged ‘bad records’ or flotsam. I don’t see PDG as a record of the year but I’m surprised only 7% thought it worth a 6. (That said I can’t swear I voted for it either so maybe it’s an ignored record rather than a hated one.)
This seems like the best place to post the NME’s list of the “Top 100 Most Influential Artists”, which I started off harrumphing at like a retired colonel reading the Daily Telegraph, and ended up rather enjoying.
Numbers 100-51 here:
http://www.nme.com/photos/nme-s-100-most-influential-artists-100-51/346044/1/1
And the top 50 here:
http://www.nme.com/photos/nme-s-100-most-influential-artists-50-1/346061/1/1
Topping the table, it’s the ‘Idioteque’ hitmakers, who had their biggest success so far this year, with ‘Paranoid Android’.
Scottish/UK chart no 1 differences
No 1 in Scotland but not UK :
1) QFX – Freedom 2
2) Texas – Say What You Want
3) No Mercy – Where Do You Go
4) Charlatans – North Country Boy
5) DJ Quicksilver – Bellissimma
6) Blur – Song 2
7) Robbie Williams – Old Before I Die
8) 911 – Bodyshakin’
9) Seahorses – Love Is The Law
10) Cardigans – Lovefool
11) Verve – Bitter Sweet Symphony
12) Sash! ft Rodriguez – Ecuador
13) Boyzone – Picture Of You
14) Chumbawamba – Tubthumping
No 1 in UK but not Scotland
1) Tori Amos – Professional Widow
2) White Town – Your Woman
3) LL Cool J – Ain’t Nobody
4) Chemical Brothers – Block Rockin’ Beats
5) R Kelly – I Believe I Can Fly
6) Michael Jackson – Blood On The Dancefloor
7) Gary Barlow – Love Won’t Wait
QFX notable for only making no 21 UK-wide: bouncy house from the borders with a Braveheart mix to go…. Otherwise, the enduring popularity of Britpop in Scotland (or at any rate that it is less rivalled by other genres) is evident. Texas feel like a group who “deserve” a number 1, so it is fitting they have one, at least in their native land, while the inclusion of another single by 911 on the list leaves me cold….
No Mercy is a nice addition to the Scottish list, but White Town (kept off the top in Scotland by Texas) are a sad loss…. The relatively lesser degree of chart success enjoyed by Michael Jackson in Scotland, compared with UK-wide, which has been evident over the previous couple of years, continues.
Love Is The Law by Seahorses?!
Scotland also demonstrating the much-rumoured stronger commitment to social justice by giving Sash! a number one.
Well either that or it’s the less-welcome legacy of sectarianism.
#64: A UK number 3 in May 1997, says Everyhit. Not the only triumphant return to be followed by disillusionment that month.