In the mid 90s Lots of Britpop artists but for Britsoul less and Gabrielle the leader really.

As an aside, anyone know why TOTP didn’t say or show the title of Children in their top 10 rundowns?

 

Was it something to do with Dunblane maybe?

Was it something to do with Dunblane maybe?

Ahh could be!

I was obsessed wirh Garbage at this point and loved stupid girl

Their debut is a fantastic album

 

Loved the Gabrielle song too

Great comeback so nor sure why the slow chart run

Also the album didnt do crazy well I think*

Missed Garbage, one of my absolute faves :wub:

 

I saw Gabrielle perform at an event in January, and with regards to that song she introduced it by saying "your grandparents may remember this one"... I was really dismayed by that <_< but she was fab nonetheless!

Edited June 8, 20241 yr by Jessie Where

Similar story with Madison Avenue, right?

 

Yes true, although I remember the first time hearing that when it charted in 1999 and thinking 'this should be a bigger hit, I bet it's re-released'. And it was just six months later in the end. So I suppose it got caught up in the late 1999 release schedule rush first time around and didn't get paid much attention by radio.

 

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Some good songs this week, the second show felt very Britpop heavy.

 

Interesting that Return of the Mack opened with a brace of weeks at No.6 before climbing. There were quite a few songs in early 1996 still that were climbing gradually to their peak.

 

Can't believe the How Deep Is Your Love cover sold that well for three weeks, Children really deserved at least a week at No.1 on the sales it was amassing.

 

The Gabrielle song is class, sometimes a great song is enough to rescue an artist slipping out of relevance. I wonder if we'd have ever got as far as Rise if this song hadn't reactivated her career the first time around.

 

I always have liked Real Love a lot too, and the video was quite poignant.

Madonna-One More Chance at #11 :/

Oasis and Garbage are my highlights from the past couple of weeks :wub:

 

A real shame that Take That blocked Robert Miles from #1, one of their worst singles for me.

I Don't mind the song actually and the video makes sense in terms of the group "dying" but it doesn't marry up with the song and what it's about at all. Unless you read it in such a way that they are trying to fool the kidnapper into thinking that they do like her to prevent her from killing them? Or is that too sophisticated for a Take That video?

On the second of these weeks, I'd been out so only joined the chart show for the Top 8, and it was quite a surprise to find out that 'Give Me A Little More Time' had jumped to #5 after a few weeks just outside the Top 10, but a pleasant one - that and 'Rise' are her best songs I think.

 

I hadn't realised 'Children' was a midweek #1 that week (and for the second time). The following Saturday it was #1 on The Chart Show (the music video programme on ITV) and I really thought the next day would be its moment...

FYI - on Glastonbury weekend, the 28th June, there will only be 1 episode from 1996 ( and no retro shows ) as there will be Glastonbury coverage all night on BBC4 from 7.30pm.

30TH MARCH

 

 

Sometimes the charts still throw up a surprise, a song that comes from nowhere and sweeps all opposition aside, this week that happened for a group who most had thought were past their sell by date. The Prodigy emerged from the rave scene of the early 90s with a string of hits which saw them score 5 top 10 hits between 1991 and 1994 but their last two singles both missed the top 10 becoming their smallest hits to date. “Firestarter” is therefore a reversal of fortune and instantly becomes their biggest hit as it debuts at No 1 (119,000)- the tenth chart topper in a row to arrive straight at the top. It samples The Breeders “SOS”, “Devotion” by 10 city and Art Of Noise’s “Close (To The Edit)”.

 

 

 

 

Indeed the top 2 are both new for just the 6th time in chart history and the runner up spot belongs to Mark Snow, the US composer has written themes to “TJ Hooker” and “Heart To Heart” as well as the show whose theme is now at No 2 (58,000). “X Files” has become a hit show on both sides of the Atlantic since its inception in 1993 and along with Robert Miles’ “Children” at No 3 (57,000) it marks the first time in 19 years that two instrumentals have been in the top 5 simultaneously. Snow’s sister in law is actress Tyne Daley by way of trivia.

 

 

 

Ken Doh are a duo who have one of the hottest dance tracks around “I Need A Lover Tonight” which is a track included in the “Nagasaki EP” and it’s new at No 7 (36,000).

 

 

 

Cast continue to produce the hits with fourth single “Walkaway” giving them a second top 10 as it debuts at No 9 (30,000). They’re all found on their debut album “All Change” which rises 34-22 this week and is approaching sales of 200,000.

 

 

Take That fall 1-4 (54,000) as total sales of their farewell single cross the half million mark, the greatest hits album is in shops this week! And Gabrielle holds at No 5 (53,000) only narrowly missing out on a climb. Mark Morrison spends a third week at No 6 (48,000) which belies the fact that his sales have increased week on week, meanwhile Oasis dip 3-8 (36,000) and Garbage are down 4-10 (27,000) but their album soars 30-7 to reach a new high.

 

 

1- FIRESTARTER- The Prodigy (119,000)

2- THE X FILES- Mark Snow (58,000)

3- CHILDREN- Robert Miles (57,000)

4- HOW DEEP IS YOUR LOVE- Take That (54,000)

5- GIVE ME A LITTLE MORE TIME- Gabrielle (53,000)

6- RETURN OF THE MACK- Mark Morrison (48,000)

7- NAGASAKI EP (I NEED A LOVER TONIGHT)- Ken Doh (36,000)

8- DON’T LOOK BACK IN ANGER- Oasis (36,000)

9- WALKAWAY- Cast (30,000)

10- STUPID GIRL- Garbage (27,000)

 

6TH APRIL

 

 

 

An incredibly static top 5 this week but it’s far from uncompetitive! The only mover is Mark Morrison who climbs 6-4 (50,000) and is finally rewarded for increasing his sales in every week of his month long tenure thus far.

 

The Prodigy remain the headline though, “Firestarter” blistering away to a sale of 80,000 (-32% week on week) bolstered by the press story that the TOTP showing of the promo generated complaints from the public who found it too frightening for pre-watershed viewing. Mark Snow is runner up once again with his sales up slightly at 64,000 and does pose an outside risk to the chart topper next week, and Robert Miles remains No 3. “Children”s sales are now 50,000 bringing his total to 484,000, the track hasn’t been out of the top 3 since it was released 7 weeks ago, enough to make it No 4 on the YTD chart which stands like this with the first quarter of the year gone:

 

 

1- SPACEMAN- Babylon Zoo 1,086,000

2- DON’T LOOK BACK IN ANGER- Oasis 554,000

3- HOW DEEP IS YOUR LOVE- Take That 547,000

4- CHILDREN- Robert Miles 484,000

5- ANYTHING- 3T 465,000

6- JESUS TO A CHILD- George Michael 326,000

7- EARTHSONG- Michael Jackson 275,000

8- I WANT TO BE A HIPPY- Technohead 263,000

9- I GOT 5 ON IT- Luniz 236,000

10- WONDERWALL- Oasis 233,000

 

 

Take That are the only other song in the Top 10 both for YTD and this week, “How Deep Is Your Love” tumbles 4-9 (26,000) but the band’s “Greatest Hits” goes straight into the No 1 position as expected selling 275,000 copies in the process!

 

Gabrielle also holds at No 5 (47,000) but has peaked sales wise.

 

 

Eurovision is looming on the horizon (18th May) and for the second year on the trot the UK entry is also a top 10 hit. The song is sung by an Australian Gina G (real name Gina Gardiner) who now lives in the UK, her entry “Ooh Aah Just A Little Bit” beat off all competition to earn the right to represent the country and it starts off brightly by opening at No 6 (42,000) at a stroke becoming the highest peaking UK Eurovision track since Bardo in 1982.

 

 

 

Formed in 1989 Ocean Colour Scene had a shaky start to their career with a solitary hit “Yesterday Today” (No 49, 1991) before a series of flops saw them dropped from their label. Gigs supporting Paul Weller and Oasis thrust them back into the limelight and secured them a new deal and first fruits “Riverboat Song” made No 15 and is currently in use as the theme to Channel 4’s “TFI Friday”. Follow up “You Got It Bad” makes an even bigger impression at No 7 (33,000) and is the second single from that second album “Moseley Shoals” out in a fortnight.

 

 

 

So what do you get if you cross the current No 2 (Mark Snow) and No 3 (Robert Miles)? The answer is DJ Dado’s take on “X Files”, one of the reasons why Mark Snow’s version was issued as a single was to combat a wide variety of alternative versions doing the rounds and this is a prime example of that, the Italian DJ has already been a hit throughout Europe and now enters at No 8 (27,000).

 

 

 

 

Last month’s BRITS is of course most remembered now for Jarvis Cocker’s stage invasion of Michael Jackson’s performance of “Earth Song”, an incident which only profited Cocker in terms of profile and press coverage and benefited his band Pulp by generating an upsurge in album sales and saw even a compilation of pre fame songs make the top 10 in the charts. A fourth cut from their current album “A Different Class” is finally in shops and debuts at No 10 called “Something Changed” on a sale of 25,000. It comes in 2 CD versions, both with the same track listing but alternative covers, a “boy” and a “girl” version, whichever is tickling the public is hard to say but it is now their 4th straight top 10 on the trot, the album is incidentally over a million already and back in the top flight 15-10.

 

 

 

1- FIRESTARTER- The Prodigy (80,000)

2- THE X FILES- Mark Snow (64,000)

3- CHILDREN- Robert Miles (50,000)

4- RETURN OF THE MACK- Mark Morrison (50,000)

5- GIVE ME A LITTLE MORE TIME- Gabrielle (47,000)

6- OOH AHH JUST A LITTLE BIT- Gina G (42,000)

7- YOU’VE GOT IT BAD- Ocean Colour Scene (33,000)

8- X FILES- DJ Dado (27,000)

9- HOW DEEP IS YOUR LOVE- Take That (26,000)

10- SOMETHING CHANGED- Pulp (25,000)

 

I was definitely expecting Firestarter to be #1, I’m more surprised that it didn’t sell more in week one. The surprise that week for me was the X-Files theme debuting at #2, I bought it as I loved the show but I never expected it to chart… so when we got to the top 3 I really couldn’t think what on earth was left aside from Children and Firestarter

I love Cast - Walkaway, to me its a sad song though.

 

The most iconic Prodigy track at #1 is great, so much energy in it, remember it and its video from the time.

 

The Gina G track is very good, it and the Bardo track that was mentioned are my favourite UK Eurovision entries.

Edited June 14, 20241 yr by TheSnake

Walkaway and Something Changed are the pick of the pops here.

“Firestarter” is the worst UK # 1 from 90s.

You mention that the 30th March was the 6th time in chart history that the top 2 have both been new entries.

 

The first two times were in 1984 and 1989 - The last 4 times were all in the past 7 months !

'Firestarter' is an electrifying chart topper and the visuals are one of the first to come to mind when I think of iconic 90s music videos :wub:

 

the Dubstar track 'Stars' on tonight's TOTP was a great discovery for me lower down ^_^

Stars is indeed fabulous. I was gutted when it missed top 10 as I thought it was going to be much bigger than it was