Yes it's back, the title says it all, a thread designed to "best guess" the sales week by week for 1997. We'll count down all the sounds of the year and hopefully generate a few "almost forgotten gems" along the way. As always thanks go to MFR, Vas tariner, Youtube, Wikipedia, MW, popscene, James Masterton, Discogs, and a few other sources who have helped over the years.

The format will be the same every week with TOTP performances where available for those songs new to the top 10. So sit back and enjoy every top 10 hit of the 90s (eventually) because we weren't torn over our love for.....

Commencing on January 3rd

97 is amazing, cannot wait <3

Easily one of the best years for music! Looking forward to it.

Lots of great dance music. I wasn't really into a lot of the indie stuff that came out.

A true vintage year :wub:

 

So excited for this!

Yay we've reached my birth year :cheer: looking forward to following this thread and the TOTP repeats.

Over the past couple of years we have seen a marked increase the number of songs going straight into the top 10 - largely due to HMV selling CD singles for 1.99 on the week of release before increasing to 3.99 from week 2 onwards.

 

Why wait until week 2 to buy a single at double the price ?

 

Straight into the Top 10 by Year

 

1985 – 11

1986 – 9

1987 – 19

1988 – 20

1989 – 30

1990 – 24

1991 – 43

1992 – 60

1993 – 71

1994 – 74

1995 – 110

1996 – 176

 

How many songs will go straight into the top 10 in 1997 ?

11TH JANUARY

 

 

1997 commences with the Spice Girls still ruling the roost though sales are now a mere 113,000 and may be beatable next week, not that they care as they sell their 3 millionth single in the process. The song has shifted an incredible 863,000 copies in 3 weeks and should become their second million seller within weeks. “Spice” remains the nation’s favourite album selling just 6,000 copies more than the single but both tallies are amazing given that we are now post Christmas.

 

 

 

Starting out as a remix on the US release of her single “Professional Widow” Armand Van Helden substantially remixed Tori Amos’s single so as to only use a few lines of the original song you can hear on her “Boys From Pele” album. It was featured as the double A-Side to “Hey Jupiter” when it got a UK release last summer peaking at No 20 but the remix has gone on to be a club favourite if only because of the fact that it pushes the more risqué lyrics of the original. Taking advantage of the lull in the new year sees Tori Amos enter at No 2 (66,000) a fact that makes the song already her biggest hit eclipsing the No 4 peak of “Cornflake Girl” in 1994 although how much is down to her and how much to Van Helden is debatable.

 

 

 

After some clever marketing? You could do worse than the new Orbital single called “Satan (Live)” which enters at No 3 (57,000), the original studio version couldn’t get any higher than No 31 back in 1991. It now comes in a live version and on three CD’s which combine to form the “Evil Santa” CD boxset (an anagram of Satan Live) each with a 6 on the spine. About as un-festive as you can get, at any rate it is their first top 10 single for the group who take their name from the M25 (the ring round being pivotal to the early rave scene from which they sprung).

 

 

 

The new entries continue with En Vogue at No 5 (31,000) who are also top 3 in the US with “Don’t Let Go (Love)” thanks in part to featuring on the forthcoming film “Set It Off” due here on the 24th. It is the second single from the soundtrack to become a hit following Simply Red’s “Angel” last year, for the group themselves this is their 4th top 10 hit and throws them slightly out of sequence given that previous top flight hits made their appearance in 1990, 1992, and 1994.

 

 

 

After being touted as the next big thing last year and promoted in the teen magazines and a support slot with Boyzone, Kavana finally gets a hit to justify the investment. His first two singles peaked at No 35, and No 26 but all the 19 yr old needed was apparently the right cover, step forward Shalamar’s 1982 #7 hit “I Can Make You Feel Good” and hey presto he’s in the top 10 and only one place lower than the original peaked with sales of 24,000 last week. The promo features model Melanie Sykes who features in the Boddingtons advert.

 

 

Toni Braxton continues to bounce up and down the top 5, she falls 2-4 (53,000) this week in her 11th week in the charts. Her near constant companion “One & One” also drops 4-6 (29,000) for Robert Miles & Maria Naylor, the Prodigy reverse 6-7 (28,000), Mark Morrison slips 8-9 (23,000) and Madonna falls 5-10 (21,000) but should be helped by the film being on general release this week and the release of dance remixes!

 

 

1- 2 BECOME 1- The Spice Girls (113,000)

2- PROFESSIONAL WIDOW (IT’S GOT TO BE BIG)- Tori Amos (66,000)

3- SATAN- Orbital (57,000)

4- UN-BREAK MY HEART- Toni Braxton (53,000)

5- DON’T LET GO (LOVE)- En Vogue ( 31,000)

6- ONE AND ONE- Robert Miles/ Maria Naylor (29,000)

7- BREATHE- The Prodigy (28,000)

8- I CAN MAKE YOU FEEL GOOD- Kavana (24,000)

9- HORNY- Mark Morrison (23,000)

10- DON’T CRY FOR ME ARGENTINA- Madonna (21,000)

 

I'd say the success of Professional Widow was pretty much 50/50 between Tori and Armand Van Helden... the remixer definitely provided the production and that was a massive part of the success but, as you allude to in your comments, it was the lyrics that got the track the publicity and that most definitely was down to Tori, I don't think it would have been

a #1

without the contributions from either. It also seemed to be a huge hit from the Ministry of Sound Annual II, I remember nearly everyone at my school talking about it from that compilation before christmas and that was the first compilation I can remember that was really successful as a 'continuous mix' album.

 

Even as a big Tori fan, I must concede that the remix is infinitely better than the original. I find the original to be a very difficult listen.

 

 

 

Satan Live is even better still, was so chuffed when it finally gave Orbital a really high charting single. I prefer the live remix to the original.

 

Also it's brilliant to see that Breathe held on this well, it really was a sustained hit for the Prodigy.

18TH JANUARY

 

 

The Spice girls retain the top spot on the album charts but they hurtle 1-6 (53,000) on the singles front, the biggest fall in 6 years! It created such a vacuum at the top of the charts that a royal battle ensured to replace it with the top 4 being separated by just 13,000 copies.

 

TOTP may have lost its ability to guarantee a big hit or even a climber in the charts post performance but on occasion it can make the difference in a tight race and so it proved this week. Tori Amos’s “Professional Widow (It’s Gotta Be Big)” is the new UK No 1 by under 1,000 copies after a late surge took it to 80,000 copies.

 

 

 

Bad luck then for the band who were leading right up until Friday night and that was the Backstreet Boys. “Quit Playing Games (With My Heart)” was released on the continent late last year and topped charts in Switzerland, Germany and Austria and almost did the same here with 79,000 sales. Regardless it does become their biggest hit to date and a third top 10 single on the trot for the boys who are rapidly gaining a following in the country.

 

 

 

Talking of boybands East 17 must now be considered the daddy of them all certainly in terms of longitude having been going over 4 years. With a greatest hits out now and Brian Harvey announcing his departure from the band after this single it seems that the end is near. “Hey Child” is the only single on that compilation which was waiting to be released as a single and here it is at No 3 (72,000) to give them an 11th top 10 hit (just 2 behind Take That)- not a bad record for a band in this day and age!

 

 

 

 

The third track to top the midweek charts (albeit only the initial flash) was “People Hold On” an old Coldcut record from 1989 which made No 11 and introduced us to Lisa Stansfield. Six top 10 singles later and it gets reworked by Dan Bewick and Matt Frost who call themselves Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and to illustrate just how successful Armand Van Helden’s remix of Tori Amos has been, it has been used as the base of this remix. The bootleg white labels made a splash in the clubs and Arista snapped up the rights to what was going to be available for one week only but that’s now been dropped and it looked like it was going to steal a march on the Tori Amos track at the off but it eventually relaxed to sell 67,000 and enter at No 4. That’s seven places than the original and the first top flight for Stansfield in 4 years.

 

 

 

What do you get when sample Martika’s “Love…Thy Will Be Done” and Marvin Gaye’s “Sexual Healing”?- the answer is the new Texas single “Say What You Want” which uses the tracks essentially as its backing. The single has had extensive support from radio and strong promotion coupled with a quiet spot in the year charts wise has provided the perfect opportunity for the band to have a comeback of sorts. Their debut “I Don’t Want A Lover” made No 8 back in 1989 but nothing since has even gone close to replicating its feat until now but at a stroke “Say What You Want” becomes their biggest hit entering at No 7 (48,000).

 

 

 

Having “masterminded” (if that’s the phrase) Boney M and Milli Vanilli, Frank Faron has now taken Marty Cintron and brothers Ariel and Gabriel Hernandez from obscurity to the charts. The group all loved Everything But The Girl’s “Missing”, or technically speaking the Todd Terry Remix of it, and released a cover last year which made the charts in Germany and Switzerland (No 83 here) and laid the ground work for “Where Do You Go”. A performance on the “National Lottery” helped create demand for the track which is also a cover (this time the original was done by La Bouche) which is again married to the drum arrangement from the Everything But The Girl single (they must really love it!). It’s new at No 10 (29,000) for the brothers who used to be waiters in Gloria Estefan’s restaurant in Miami apparently!

 

 

 

With the film out the “Evita” album lifts 10-2 and Madonna’s “You Must Love Me” re-enters at No 71, but more importantly her other single “Don’t Cry For Me Argentina” is revived 10-5 (54,000) helped by a second CD of dance mixes which was out this week and is driving sales. Can this climb further?

 

 

Toni Braxton falls 4-8 (36,000) and looks finally spent as it nears the 700,000 mark, and En Vogue dip 5-9 (32,000).

 

 

1- PROFESSIONAL WIDOW (IT’S GOT TO BE BIG)- Tori Amos (80,000)

2- QUIT PLAYING GAMES (WITH MY HEART)- Backstreet Boys (79,000)

3- HEY CHILD- East 17 (72,000)

4- PEOPLE HOLD ON- Dirty Rotten Scoundrels Vs Lisa Stansfield (67,000)

5- DON’T CRY FOR ME ARGENTINA- Madonna (54,000)

6- 2 BECOME 1- The Spice Girls (53,000)

7- SAY WHAT YOU WANT- Texas (48,000)

8- UN-BREAK MY HEART- Toni Braxton (36,000)

9- DON’T LET GO (LOVE)- En Vogue ( 32,000)

10- WHERE DO YOU GO- No Mercy (29,000)

 

'Professional Widow' I didn't like at first, I first heard it on a Tori Amos compilation CD and it was a bit jarring hearing it after Tori's usual styled songs but I really like it now.

 

'Where Do You Go' I re-discovered a few years ago, and remembered from the time, what a nostalgic track! It sounds far too summery for January though!

 

That Texas song is such a MOR radio fave!

I adore these 1997 charts already! :wub:

 

Professional Widow is a banger of a number 1!

 

Quit Playing Games is my fave Backstreet Boys song, mainly for the video :kink:

 

Say What You Want is superb - I still remember my surprise at their comeback (please can I get White on Blonde on vinyl this year?!)

 

En Vogue is super classy as well, a great comeback.

 

No Mercy is Europop at its best - though I always thought of it as a summer song.

I wasn't expecting Professional Widow to increase in sales this week so that's a surprise!

 

I was so glad when it beat People Hold On. I don't mind the Lisa Stansfield track but it was a blatant rip off and I'll always side with the original, plus it does work much better on the Tori track.

 

En Vogue is my favourite of the new ones, I quite liked it at the time but it has aged really well imo. The Texas track is okay but I've always found it to be overrated, my favourite single from the album was probably Black Eyed Boy. Wasn't a fan of No Mercy, I was firmly into dance and indie by this point so pop music wasn't cool enough for a teenage me - oddly at the time I never noticed the similarity to Missing, I think it was Colm who pointed it out to me fairly recently and it seemed so obvious that I can't believe I never noticed it at the time.

For me it was the Armand Van Heiden remix which totally made the Tori Amos song a hit, made it so much better!

 

Also didn’t realise East 17 and En Vogue went on so long!

as a big Tori fan the original Professional Widow is on of Tori's worse songs. Tori is characterized by always having great opening lines

so the opening "Slag Piit/Stag shit" line in PW is very weak by her standards. The song is supposed to be about Courtney Love :)

only reedeming factor of the original is the harpsichord, which sounds amazing.

So compared to the original, I kinda like what Van Helden did. Not a fav of mine but at least it gave T a #1.

 

Also great this week is the En Vogue one.

 

Also Texas' reinvention when I thought we'd never hear from them again after their 2nd and 3rd albums flopping in 91/93.

oh and that new remix of People Hold On copying PW :/ hw much did I hate that

 

the original from the 80s was incredible too bad it peaked at #11

really deserved top 10

but not in the shape of a copycat useless remix

In terms of remixes of People Hold On I really liked 'Lil Love - Little Love' a UK top 40 hit in 2005

. I heard the original Coldcut + Lisa Stansfield song much later

25TH JANUARY

 

 

Well no doubt about the No 1 single this week, one man band Jyoti Mishra hails from Derby (where most of the promo is shot) and records under the name White Town. His Ep “Abort, Retry, Fail?” was first released last year when it flopped but was picked up by Chrysalis and promoted properly it caught the ear of Radio 1 who have helped the EP’s lead track “Your Woman” sell its way to 119,000 copies last week. The single contains a sampled trumpet section from Al Bowlly’s “My Woman” recorded way back in the 30s to give the track that authentic feel- the title of the EP refers to the fact that Mishra encountered the same message on his computer so often it became a symbol his struggle to produce the tracks.

 

 

 

Delivering up top 10 singles with regularity now, Suede see their third single from “Coming Up” arrive at No 6 (45,000). The promo for “Saturday Night” features actress Keeley Hawes and was filmed on the Piccadilly line at Holborn Station.

 

 

 

Reef’s second album “Glow” is out in a fortnight and they can now boast two top 10 hits from it with “Come Back Brighter” crashing in at No 8 (41,000).

 

 

Last week’s chart topper by Tori Amos falls 1-2 (84,000) despite a small increase in sales and Texas leap 7-3 (57,000). The battle of the boybands continue with Backstreet Boys drifting 2-4 (52,000) whilst No Mercy fly 10-5 (48,000), Madonna falls back 5-7 (44,000) as consumers choose the “Evita” album instead as it holds at No 2.

 

En Vogue hold at No 9 (36,000) and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels Vs Lisa Stansfield plummet 4-10 (33,000). Incidentally the Brian Harvey incident has sent “Hey Child” hurtling 3-15 this week which should ensure that he is definitely leaving the band now, it was already falling out of the top 10 when news broke through the week though!

 

 

1- YOUR WOMAN- White Town (119,500)

2- PROFESSIONAL WIDOW (IT’S GOT TO BE BIG)- Tori Amos (84,800)

3- SAY WHAT YOU WANT- Texas (57,000)

4- QUIT PLAYING GAMES (WITH MY HEART)- Backstreet Boys (52,000)

5- WHERE DO YOU GO- No Mercy (48,000)

6-SATURDAY NIGHT- Suede (45,000)

7- DON’T CRY FOR ME ARGENTINA- Madonna (44,000)

8- COME BACK BRIGHTER- Reef (41,000)

9- DON’T LET GO (LOVE)- En Vogue ( 36,000)

10- PEOPLE HOLD ON- Dirty Rotten Scoundrels Vs Lisa Stansfield (33,800)

 

The vocal effect and style of 'Your Woman' reminds me so much of Space's 'Female of the Species'! Both are very good tracks.

Edited January 10Jan 10 by TheSnake