Gezza
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Post by Gezza on Nov 9, 2011 18:28:11 GMT 1
Yes it's back. The final (maybe) part of my review series of the no 2 hits of yesteryear is here covering 1995-1999. You are encouraged to contribute your own thoughts and comments to the songs as they come up and generate some debate. For me it was the half decade where I went to Uni and got my degree and my masters and moved to Brighton. Coming up we've got more boybands than you can shake a stick at but also the usual mix of pap and classics depending on your taste- anyway enjoy- the millennium is coming!
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Post by evansabove on Nov 9, 2011 18:54:41 GMT 1
Woo hoo can't wait
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Nov 9, 2011 20:38:04 GMT 1
I would replace "shake a stick at" with "launch a sharpened stick at their godless hearts", but otherwise woo.
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Gezza
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Post by Gezza on Nov 9, 2011 21:20:40 GMT 1
Vas- It wouldn't be the same thread without your disparaging comments!
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Post by Earl Purple on Nov 10, 2011 0:42:03 GMT 1
1995 doesn't make a great start. We meet Louis Walsh's most famous boyband covering a ballad that reached #1 in the mid-1970s by a family group that I was never particularly fond of.
However there will be some fantastic #2s later on in the year, actually two of them by the same artist and they are my favourite #2s of the year, one of them possibly of all time.
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Post by andrew07 on Nov 10, 2011 1:38:17 GMT 1
Can't wait, the golden era of Britpop and there'll be some smashing tracks coming
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borneoman
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Post by borneoman on Nov 10, 2011 7:59:09 GMT 1
Can't wait either, always looking forward to your threads 1995 has some good #2s, if only for Pulp and Oasis
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Gezza
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Post by Gezza on Nov 10, 2011 19:02:58 GMT 1
You're all too kind- now let's get started!
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Gezza
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Post by Gezza on Nov 10, 2011 19:03:56 GMT 1
7TH JANUARY 1995- LOVE ME FOR A REASON- Boyzone (1 week)Dear god- PLEASE watch the TOTP performance, it's live (unfortunately for the late Gately who is severly off key) but then that's not the point. The POINT is the screams of the girl during the instrumental break. Yes we've entered the era of the Boyband in all its choreographed hell. Over the next five years there will be over emoting worthy of an Oscar and teenage girls tears spilt over many a break up, perhaps the pop world understood by 1995 that the giant that bestrode the genre was on it's last legs and news that Robbie had left Take That in the summer saw a flurry of new boybands emerge keen to grasp the crown. There is little doubt that Boyzone were their successors, sadly for East 17 who were about to implode themselves in just 12 months time. There is a criticism often levelled at Boyzone that they were bland, the Cliff Richard's of the 90s and it's not without some merit, but then why break something when it ain't fixed, they are a symbol of why Louis Walsh is sitting on that X Factor panel (we all wondered I know). Boyzone were also Irish, a fact which in the late 90s was a positive, the connotations were all good, loveable, cheery, family orientated Irish who weren't quite as sophisticated as the English but they were such a crack that you couldn't be nasty about them, or so the stereotype went, English boybands were sullen, American ones edgy, but Irish ones were just adorable and it was on this theme that Boyzone traded. That it was held off the top by East 17's sole chart topper was indicitive of the last time that the Walthamstow boys were ahead of these Irish upstarts, but pop is often self referencing and to break the UK market Walsh chose "Love Me For A Reason" a cover of another boyband record (had boybands existed in the 70s)- the Osmonds. It's a faithful cover which even at the time was lame, its position on this thread more a fact of the sales collapse of other records around it than genuine demand for this product, I recall mocking one of my friends for buying this on cassette at Xmas 94, 5 years later I'd be the one buying "By Request" in its week of release! I had to take it back (the criticism that is- I'm NEVER handing back the album) So it was hardly an auspicious beginning as anyone who has seen that first clip of them on the Late Late Show in Ireland in 1994 will know, but in a short time only the Spice Girls would be shifting singles on a quicker scale than these boys.
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Gezza
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Post by Gezza on Nov 10, 2011 19:07:45 GMT 1
11TH FEBRUARY- SET YOU FREE- N-Trance (1 week)Now largely considered a dance "Classic", "Set You Free" was always a cut above the average song in the chart even the first time around. Recorded origionally in 1992 at S/A/W's studio and featuring the vocals of Kelly Llorena, it failed to chart first time around, having much better luck at the third time of asking. It's a song that kind of has an infectious euphoria about it- the quiet synth line at the beginning of the track lulls you into a false pretence before that slightly manic beat kicks in, that's the surprise that has you hooked. It demands endurance as it never lets up until the end, and a powerful vocal line ensures maximum Diva-esque production, there's a thin line between absurdity and profoundity and this is a song that treads that line beautifully. It was thrown into sharp relief by the likes of "Cotton Eye Joe", Nicki French & Perfecto Allstarz, who were all charting at the time, it almost defies cheesy dance music which is the genre it SHOULD be classified as, but somehow manages to escape that tag through sheer force of personality. A song I loved at the time, there have been better dance tracks since no doubt but "Set You Free" set a high standard which exceeded anything in the charts of the time. Lyrically it's quite prosaic, nothing more than being in love with somebody, but it reflects that first time love feeling so perfectly, the all consuming there will never be another relationship quite like this one, that I will feel so deeply, it's a tale that every listener could relate to, the mix of the mundane and the EPIC is played out with minimal input lyrically speaking, sometimes less is more.
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Post by evansabove on Nov 10, 2011 19:43:43 GMT 1
There have been numerous remixes of Set You Free over the years but nothing quite matches the original for me
My dont Boyzone look fresh-faced and so young in that performance.
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borneoman
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Post by borneoman on Nov 10, 2011 21:34:40 GMT 1
will never understand the appeal of Boyzone (or later Westlife)... sappy originals, unimaginative covers, can just barely sing but not amazingly... not even that good looking...
not crazy about Set Me Free, never liked it that much...
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Nov 10, 2011 22:59:53 GMT 1
When I was growing up and first getting into music, there were no boy "bands". They actually WERE bands. Duran Duran, Adam & The Ants and so on. They could play their instruments, write their own stuff, do something edgy and interesting.
How the hell did music descend to such a level that not only could those talentless tosspots get a record deal, but they could not even COVER a decent song? And had to steal from the OSMONDS?
Had they been around in 1981 I think my school would have beaten the holy hell out of anyone who liked them. A betrayal of music and everything for which music stands. The most evil, despicable, disgraceful, disgusting outfit on the planet. Until their mates came along.
Still, they provided this.
Kind of sums up their negative levels of talent. The world is poorer for them.
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Post by Earl Purple on Nov 11, 2011 0:09:30 GMT 1
There were manufactured pop groups even then, vasta, you just didn't care so much about them. Much of the 70s when I grew up in had manufactured pop with Chinn/Chapman creations.
I think it's perhaps because we liked many of the Chinn/Chapman songs though we didn't care that they were manufactured acts singing them - a bit like the Monkees, never mind many of the Motown acts who were singing Holland Dozier Holland songs, or similar.
I didn't really see the attraction of Boyzone who only had one uptempo hit that I recall (Picture Of You) and think they should have done more. Talking of the Osmonds, Donny once remarked that his favourite Osmonds song was Crazy Horses and he had wanted at the time to do more uptempo songs too.
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Gezza
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Post by Gezza on Nov 11, 2011 0:26:00 GMT 1
Looking at the 70s (as an impartial observer who was too young to remember much about them) it seemed full of 50's rehashes- the showaddywaddy kinda thing in addition to a hell of lot of novelty stuff (Wombles, Clive Dunn, Partridge Family, Bay City Rollers) I think every decade has those.
There must be a place for bands like Boyzone if only so that the truly exceptional can shine more, and to be honest I think most people cut their teeth (musically speaking) on music which later on down the line become guilty pleasures (Mine quite publicly now thanks to these threads) was S/A/W, but I think as the decades have gone on Teenagers and indeed those younger have started to have more and more to spend and therefore bands like Boyzone etc could probably have a longer more visable careers than maybe such bands had previously?
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Post by andrew07 on Nov 11, 2011 0:48:46 GMT 1
I loved Set You Free at the time, but then I went off N-Trance went they started doing those awful cover versions. Speaking of cover versions, a new version of Set You Free is on the Matalan ads at the mo, but I also heard Frightened Rabbit do a nice version from 2008:
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Nov 11, 2011 8:53:44 GMT 1
There were manufactured pop groups even then, vasta, you just didn't care so much about them. Much of the 70s when I grew up in had manufactured pop with Chinn/Chapman creations. They were a bit before my time. But the paradigm was very different then. The Chinnichap groups still had to be able to perform - they wouldn't be allowed on TOTP otherwise - and in many cases saw them take over an existing, often blistering live "normal" group and give them a makeover. Plus many of them were songwriters in their own respect. The Sweet's greatest-ever record was self-written, for example, and Rob Davies of Mud became a professional songwriter. I think it's perhaps because we liked many of the Chinn/Chapman songs though we didn't care that they were manufactured acts singing them - a bit like the Monkees, never mind many of the Motown acts who were singing Holland Dozier Holland songs, or similar. Again though the paradigm was different. The Monkees for a start entirely wrote and performed their third album, which was a US number one, same goes for their fourth; there were Monkee-written songs on all their albums, and each individual Monkee had talent - the idea they came together following an advert is an exaggeration, Davy Jones and Mickey Dolenz were talent-spotted for it and Peter Tork was recommended by Stephen Stills. Whereas the other singers from the sixties had to cope with a number of factors that don't apply today. They often had one or two takes to nail a song, in studios that did not have correcting equipment, and had to be able to take those songs on tour in an era when album sales could not be relied on to make significant monies. So groups like The Ronettes and The Shangri-Las and The Temptations were pre-existing harmonizers who needed to be able to sing to survive, let alone prosper, in that era. Compare that to W***life, about whom there are strong rumours that they don't get nearer to a recording studio than the nearest golf course. These cretins have destroyed music. And the industry thinks lower sales are down to illegal downloading. No, EMI, it's because you thrust the untalented and the detestational down everyone's throats. It's like putting up a ten foot thorn hedge around an orchard. Unless you have the stamina to get through the physically painful, you're not going to get to sample the sweetest fruits. And not many people have that stamina.
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Nov 11, 2011 8:58:29 GMT 1
Looking at the 70s (as an impartial observer who was too young to remember much about them) it seemed full of 50's rehashes- the showaddywaddy kinda thing in addition to a hell of lot of novelty stuff (Wombles, Clive Dunn, Partridge Family, Bay City Rollers) I think every decade has those. There is a sort of 25 year cycle for music as things come around again; remember even Perry Como had a seventies Indian summer. There must be a place for bands like Boyzone... Were Dante around today it would be being chewed eternally by Satan in the ninth circle of the Inferno. to be honest I think most people cut their teeth (musically speaking) on music which later on down the line become guilty pleasures (Mine quite publicly now thanks to these threads) was S/A/W, but I think as the decades have gone on Teenagers and indeed those younger have started to have more and more to spend and therefore bands like Boyzone etc could probably have a longer more visable careers than maybe such bands had previously? I cut my musical teeth on Numan and the Ants and Madness and so on. As did practically everyone at my junior school, I even remember someone telling me about The Meteors and psychobilly. Imagine an 8 year old doing that today. The boyband thing nowadays seems to be largely fuelled by nostalgia because of the utterly depressing state of modern life. By people who never discovered that there was life beyond Take T**t as it was never shown to them.
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Gezza
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Post by Gezza on Nov 16, 2011 18:06:36 GMT 1
18TH FEBRUARY- NO MORE "I LOVE YOU"S- Annie Lennox (2 weeks)Believe it or not, there were only 9 songs to debut at No 2 in the 1990's to this point, 1995 was teh tipping point with by far the greater majority of acts debuting there in the second half of the decade including this by Annie Lennox. There were multiple reasons for this, price discounting, radio playlisting songs sometimes 8 weeks prior to release, promo being focused on the first week of release etc, but now that we've dealt with that little historical chart feat what about the track? Well it's a cover of a 1986 song by The Lover Speaks, and for my money it has never been a song that I have liked. After the brilliance of the "Diva" album which I wholeheartedly bought into, I was very disappointed by Lennox Circa 1995, the previous album had been full of original pop gems that glistened like shiny new vignettes of pop, "Medusa" however was an album of covers, it seemed to surprise most of the UK record buying public to be honest reflecting in chart position and sales as it seemed curiously ill advised and ill thought out considering she could still write, sing, and deliver good quality original tracks. It's a bit of a headscratcher really, although vocally on top form and she delivers with passion it all seems rather pointless and rather derailed a very good promising solo career which would have gone who knows where if it were not for this. In conclusion the word "Why?" springs to mind.
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Gezza
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Post by Gezza on Nov 16, 2011 18:07:12 GMT 1
4TH MARCH- I'VE GOT A LITTLE SOMETHING FOR YOU- MN8 (1 week)Very short lived boyband MN8 and the only hit I'm sure most of you would remember. It's not a bad stab at R N B in a boyband mould but really it isn't much cop. Innuendo laden (and not really very subtle at that) it left me unimpressed at the time and indeed I remain so, it all sounds like a poor man's R Kelly (and that's saying something). Their "Success" was confined to 1995 & 1996 in this country and in total they accumulated just 3 top 10 hits, however what's far more interesting is that they were very much harbingers of what was to come from Boyband. Whilst Take That & Boyzone was very much focusing on the grooming of the male physique (or the pretty boy angle), the other branch of boybands were fo cusing on the masculine angle, in this tradition are MN8, East 17, Five, Blue, where the focus was much more on the 6 pack and the urbanisation of pop music. Interestingly it has almost come full circle now with the likes of JLS being an amalgamation of the two strands, but MN8 can be seen as the first mainstream success of black boys singing "black" music in its simpliest terms, by the end of the decade white boys would be singing R N B influenced tracks so the switch around is intriguing to note. Anyway never a favourite of mine and just a touch dull to my ears.
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