UK number ones of 1995

irrelevant to the poll other than w/ your introductory quip but i do get a little salty that what the hip white males were listening to at the time is often retrospectively assumed to actually have been the era's commercially dominant force (i still see books and other writing uncritically stating that grunge became the dominant sound on american radio after nirvana broke -- in reality it never was (tho yes, it did get very big))

wow, every single one of these songs is terrible!

cotton eyed joe is the worst song ever recorded

It would seem like I've missed out Oasis' 'Some Might Say' which charted in between Take That and Livin' Joy so if you wanna vote for that, just say so in the thread (ha!)

Fond memories of performing Back For Good at my school's house singing competition

irrelevant to the poll other than w/ your introductory quip but i do get a little salty that what the hip white males were listening to at the time is often retrospectively assumed to actually have been the era's commercially dominant force (i still see books and other writing uncritically stating that grunge became the dominant sound on american radio after nirvana broke -- in reality it never was (tho yes, it did get very big))

― dyl, Wednesday, March 1, 2017 6:19 PM (fifteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

While it's true that guitar/indie bands were managing to get their singles in the Top 40, and were hitting the Top 10 regularly, it would seem that guitar/indie number ones were thin on the ground. It's not like R&B, dance, hip hop and electronic music in general ever faded in popularity.

[caps lock]DREAMER[/caps lock]

Also I have a soft spot for stay another day, back for good, fairground and mr boombastic, can't lie, won't lie

dreamer for me

runners up would be stay another day, back for good, and fairground

No one gonna rep for the Outhere Brothers? :D

Back for Good is a classic, Never Forget my favorite Take That. But I almost feel I have to be honest to my 8-year old self and vote for Cotton Eye Joe...

Gangsta's Paradise vs Earth Song, but I also like these:

Rednex - Cotton Eye Joe
Outhere Brothers - Don't Stop (Wiggle Wiggle)
Livin' Joy - Dreamer
Outhere Brothers - Boom Boom Boom
Michael Jackson - You Are Not Alone
Shaggy - Boombastic

Have no recollection whatsoever of Love Can Build A Bridge. Assume it was some sort of charity thing?

comic relief

xp.

oh yeah coolio, missed him there, notable runner-up for me

this is actually a good list of songs fu flappy bird lol

Pay no attention to him, he's lost if Animal Collective aren't an option or there's nothing Pitchfork approved on there.

Before you cast that vote / think twice...

Boom Boom Boom
Lemme hear ya say way-oh
WAY OHHH!

voted coolio

Coolio vs Shaggy

i voted "you are not alone" w/ "dreamer" as runner-up :)

Oh shit I somehow missed Dreamer and voted for Coolio instead.

voting "boom boom boom", "dreamer" would be #2

can we get stet to set-up a single transferable vote system please

This has to be one of the worst years for #1s. Probably going to go for Dreamer, but not with any enthusiasm. Opinions! -

Pretty good

Livin' Joy - Dreamer
Shaggy - Boombastic
Coolio - Gangsta's Paradise

Acceptable

East 17 - Stay Another Day
Celine Dion - Think Twice
Blur - Country House
Michael Jackson - You Are Not Alone
Simply Red - Fairground

Terrible

Outhere Brothers - Don't Stop (Wiggle Wiggle)
Take That - Back For Good
Outhere Brothers - Boom Boom Boom
Take That - Never Forget
Michael Jackson - Earth Song

Unforgivable

Rednex - Cotton Eye Joe
Cher/Hynde/Cherry w.Clapton - Love Can Build a Bridge
Robson & Jerome - Unchained Melody
Robson & Jerome - I Believe

Good year for music, terrible year for number ones.

It's thanks to ILM (specifically DJP probably) that I learned that there were other Outhere Brothers singles

Cotton Eye Joe is awesome but You Are Not Alone is great

'Fairground' is in a category beyond Unforgivable iirc

"Cotton Eyed Joe" is a serious contender for the worst song I have ever heard on commercial, terrestrial radio

yeah but tbf they went in a wildly different direction for their follow-up single:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YuJZzuHDf8

have Simply Red picked up any "unexpectedly popular with millennials" type cred the way that, say, Phil Collins has? I like some Simply Red, including Fairground

There was a genuine hatred out there for Simply Red and Phil Collins, but it seems like everyone's forgotten why exactly that was. Simply Red made lots of pretty mediocre music through the years, but that is hardly a reason to single them out for ridicule.

Both good to great singles artists.

Better that than the NME trying to sell me piss weak C86 indie

there are a couple of simply red songs i genuinely like ('fairground', 'holding back the ears'), but 'stars', 'if you don't know me by now', and especially 'evry time we say goodbye' are simply red at their oily worst, and - having spent the early 90s constantly hearing him on one crappy factory radio after another - i can say with some feeling that mick hucknall swoggling his unsolicited horn like some sort of priapic agouti actively detracted from my pleasure in living, which was hardly copious in the first place

Fairground reminds me a bit of Carnival 2000 by Prefab Sprout, has a lighter touch than some other Simply Red stuff

clattering drums, that wistful burbling synth, piano house chorus, bass that sounds it's coming from a cavern deep below your feet - really good tune imo

There was a genuine hatred out there for Simply Red and Phil Collins, but it seems like everyone's forgotten why exactly that was.

Well, I'll remind everybody...

The hatred for Simply Red was really down to Mick Hucknall himself - the guy was seriously arrogant and thought incredibly highly of himself, his songwriting and his voice. Granted, his attitude was probably down to the success he had after years of having the piss taken out of him for his looks, but the way he came across in interviews... christ, it sounded like he thought he was God's gift to music (and to women, given how fond he was of talking about pulling supermodels)

Phil Collins was just overexposed in the '80s as a solo artist and a member of Genesis. People just got fucking sick of him. Also: 'Another Day In Paradise'

My initial reaction to 'Fairground' back then was "this has-been is still making music?" ... Even though Stars had sold a fuckload, Simply Red seemed like old hat stuff to me. I had a similar reaction when 'Dance Into The Light' came out the following year.

Fond memories of performing Back For Good at my school's house singing competition

― imago, Wednesday, March 1, 2017 6:38 PM (four days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Did we go to the same school?

xxp Yeah, he was admittedly an arrogant prick in interviews - fortunately for him the music is still out there on Magic FM and the interviews are not. Also I really think there was a touch of the anti-ginger prejudice in the mix there too, you may/may not agree

Would this be a good place to leave one of the greatest videos on youtube? Oh I think it would.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvSakPPkDjU

Also I really think there was a touch of the anti-ginger prejudice in the mix there too, you may/may not agree

No, I completely agree! There definitely was!

Boombastic, easy.

A lot of these made basically zero impression in the US - did any of these Billboard #1's flop or not get promoted in the UK? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Billboard_Hot_100_number-one_singles_of_1995

Funny thing about 'Boombastic' is that 'Oh Carolina' had been a huge hit a couple of years before, and it looked for a long while like Shaggy was gonna be another in a long line of one-hit wonders. Then suddenly, out of nowhere, 'Boombastic' ... it always seemed like there was these huge breaks between Shaggy's hits.

Same between Boombastic and It Wasn't Me now you mention it.

xxpost:

I can remember a fair amount of those tracks getting airplay, and some of them performing quite well.

A lot of these made basically zero impression in the US - did any of these Billboard #1's flop or not get promoted in the UK? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Billboard_Hot_100_number-one_singles_of_1995

― skip, Sunday, March 5, 2017 7:48 PM (five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

* Boyz II Men had a huge hit with "End of the Road" in 1992, but never really troubled the highest-reaches of the charts again. "On Bended Knee" only got to #20
* TLC's "Creep" was a minor hit, they weren't that big in the UK until "Waterfalls"
* Madonna's "Take A Bow" was a flop, as was basically everything she did in the mid 90s
* Montell Jordan's "This Is How We Do It" seemed pretty big at the time, but apparently didn't get into the top 10
* Bryan Adams' "Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?" was fairly big, fortunately it got no higher than #4
* "Waterfalls" was a fairly big hit
* "Kiss From A Rose" was too
* Mariah Carey's "Fantasy" apparently made #4, but I don't remember it being one of her bigger hits - her list of #1s in the UK and USA are very different
* "Exhale (Shoop Shoop)" missed the top 10
* "One Sweet Day" only got to #6 and was out of the charts fairly quickly
*

'Think Twice' had the longest and weirdest journey to #1 of all time. Positions per week on the chart: 53-42-52-30-28-22-20-9-8-5-6-4-2-2-2-1

Creep, Take a Bow and Fantasy are all better than any of the options here! The absence of Some Might Say made this an easy choice (went for Dreamer).

it's hard for me to process that all these songs came out in the same year. Cotton Eye Joe and Boom Boom Boom feel at least a couple of years older than Country House. I was going to throw Outhere Bros a vote but honestly had to go with Blur, who were a huge huge thing for me at the time. Got very specific memories of that summer as a teenager and the mix of upbeat and melancholy of that song. The lyrics are appalling in retrospect, and it was the start of Damon's steep decline into obnoxious self-aggrandisement but I was too young to mind really.

Can still perform a p flawless rap from boom boom boom but that in itself ain't a recommendation.

Coolio or shaggy I guess. At the time I'd maybe have gone for one of the take thats.

istr think twice being #1 forever over here.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Country House is one of the poorest songs ever committed to tape in the entire history of pop.

Neil Kulkarni wrote a great rant about it at the beginning of a Young Gods live review in Melody Maker, of all things. He went on about how he was in a taxi (in Belgium funnily enough) on his way to see TYG live, and the cabbie had the radio on, and Country House was playing and it just sounded like the thinnest, weediest bag of bollocks imaginable in comparison to the mighty supersonic road of The Gods.

As for the poll – Livin' Joy, or maybe Boombastic or Never Forget. Most of that list is abysmal though.

counterpoint: country house is quite good and comparing it to the young gods is a lame swansbro move

no it isnt

today I learned that Rednex released more than one single, wow

always assumed they were a studio creation who just took the money and ran

loool

https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/rednex/saturday_night_beaver/

I'm wondering now how much my dislike of Country House is down to the presence of Keith Allen in the video (which obviously foreshadowed the coming of Fat Les). It's not the worst song on TGE but it's the weakest of the singles.

Cotton Eye Joe spent 15 weeks at #1 in Norway only to be toppled by Old Pop In An Oak. The Rednex spent 21 consecutive weeks at #1. I suspect this represents a pivotal moment in Geir Hongro's origin story.

confession: i have heard the Rednex album

and yeah, agree with imago that comparing Country House with Young Gods is just daft

I'm wondering now how much my dislike of Country House is down to the presence of Keith Allen in the video (which obviously foreshadowed the coming of Fat Les). It's not the worst song on TGE but it's the weakest of the singles.

― Gavin, Leeds, Tuesday, March 7, 2017 4:43 PM (eight minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Charmless Man and Stereotypes are really lousy compared to Country House. Charmless Man has some of the cringiest lyrics on one of the most lyrically cringy albums of the 90s

just heard "Old Pop In An Oak" now and lol

from wiki:

In 2000, in the wake of Napster's rising presence in the music industry, co-founder Edenberg outlined a new strategy for Rednex. The group would become an entertainment group rather than just a band, so not to be solely dependent on record sales. As he presented this idea to the performers during the video recording of "Hold Me For A While" in Kenya, he was met by great skepticism. Nilsson replied: "We will not become a goddamn circus act!". The aftermath of this conflict resulted in the whole band, all four members, Löfgren, Olander, Nilsson and Landgren, being replaced for the first time

Rednex keeping it real

Charmless Man and Stereotypes are really lousy compared to Country House. Charmless Man has some of the cringiest lyrics on one of the most lyrically cringy albums of the 90s

Ha yeah, agreed about the lyrics but Graham just about salvages Charmless Man with the intro/bridge. Stereotypes is poor but again, there's some nice guitar playing. I know I'm clutching at straws here but basically it's The Universal plus a three-way tie for last.

Erm, in my post above it should of course read "the supersonic roar of the Gods" rather than "road". Doh!

I just had an enormous attention-attracting laughing fit in my cubicle at "Old Pop In An Oak"

Country House is one of the poorest songs ever committed to tape in the entire history of pop.

Neil Kulkarni wrote

*record scratch noise*

...aaaaaand I stop reading there.

Cotton Eye Joe spent 15 weeks at #1 in Norway only to be toppled by Old Pop In An Oak. The Rednex spent 21 consecutive weeks at #1. I suspect this represents a pivotal moment in Geir Hongro's origin story.

― Matt DC, Tuesday, March 7, 2017 4:47 PM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Hahahaha... what the fuck? I'm trying to imagine how I felt hearing those Bryan Adams and Wet Wet Wet tracks a zillion times over and trying to apply that to Rednex and just...

The Great Escape has aged better than Parklife, IMO. Not by much, mind you. Modern Life Is Rubbish and Blur have aged the best overall, I think.

Obviously discussed ad nauseam elsewhere, but I still like Country House, it has many problems (production is kind of Blur-by-numbers and way too flat for what it's trying to do) but there's a genuinely good tune behind it, and all the things they throw in to wreck it (Graham's tuneless guitar solo, "blow blow me out I am so sad I don't know why") work brilliantly. When I listen to it I hear a group torn between the fact that they are a pop band hitting the stride of their imperial phase and just despising themselves for having become something they hate. The "blow blow me out" melody is there for half of the track (!) either in the background or foreground and once focussed on completely curdles the main melody. It captures the self-denial phase of depression pretty well, and that's sort of the point of The Great Escape, isn't it?

tick

There's a b-side from the Stereotypes single called St Louis which I'd point at as the ultimate nadir of the Great Escape depression. It's not a great song but it's sort of shocking to hear them so free of all self-regard that it's a wonder they even got it together to record the thing.

Favourite song now: Dreamer

Favourite song then: maybe Mr Boombastic but I was sort of disappointed by it too because I loved Oh Carolina so much and enjoyed the mystery of him releasing that one incomprehensible (to me) and perfectly of-its-time single and then disappearing

Most nostalgic memories of: Gangsta's Paradise

Glad to see it not totally slated on this thread: Fairground (never hated SR as much as I was supposed to, tho this does p much waste the "Give It Up" sample)

Songs I hated at the time but would probably like now I have enough distance to see their cheap trashiness as an asset and not an insult to some nebulously defined concept of dance music: both Outhere Bros singles

Still not ready to forgive for cheap trashiness: Rednex

Puzzled by: how few of these 95 and 96 #1s I genuinely love given how many great 95-96 pop memories I have

a couple of good Blur posts just now. 'blow blow me out' is kind of what makes Country House good. And St Louis (along with a lot of their b-sides on that album) is slit-your-wrists depressing.

I had no idea how Country House went so I decided to play it just now and are you all serious with this?

xp in a way they mirrored their prime influences - The Specials and Madness - as a band who was perceived as chirpy and upbeat but had this soul-destroying sense of hopelessness needling away at their core.

it's a UK thing DJP. I was 14/15. It made sense at the time.

Country House is great!

This is the time period when I was graduating from college and it seemed like Blur was determined to record and release The Worst Song In The World so I stopped trying to pay attention to them, which is why I couldn't place "Country House" by title. I thought maybe time would have mellowed me to it but... nope.

I'm now listening to a playlist of The Great Escape-era b-sides and it holds together well in its own right - dare I say better than the album itself these days. The much-publicised Prozac-obsession is emphasised even more, and it really REALLY reminds me of the second Specials album. Starts off ridiculously chirpy with 'One Born Every Minute' and 'Ultranol', ends in the bleakest run of songs they ever did ('The Horrors', 'A Song', 'St Louis'). Almost makes me forget what an embarrassing band they'd become by that point.

(PS sorry for turning this into a Blur thread).

Oh god 'The Horrors' - I remember listening to that and trying to imagine playing it to literally anyone and telling them it was a song by one of the biggest groups in the country. It's like the demo tape found in the walkman of a failed film soundtrack writer after he hangs himself.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

lol @ robson & jerome

The whole Robson & Jerome thing was Simon Cowell getting his foot back in the door after Sinitta's hits dried up and Fanfare Records went tits up. I think the story goes that he saw the episode of Soldier Soldier where they sang 'Unchained Melody' and decided to capitalise on it. Anyhow, it was a huge seller and probably helped Cowell become a judge on Pop Idol, which then led to the creation of The X Factor. So yeah, thanks for that Robson & Jerome, you bastards.

https://media.giphy.com/media/QmPLxW7gNUas/giphy.gif

Correct top three.

I knew Simply Red were in trouble when my own mother described Fairground as "bland"

And she bought Stars

At the time that record had a bit of credibility and was taken seriously in a way that Simply Red hadn't been since the 80s. Pretty sure that was largely down to the Goodmen sample.

Or it could be the fact that Simply Red were at the height of their popularity. Stars was a huge selling album, and 'Fairground' was the first new Simply Red material for a long time.

I am pretty sure I never heard "Fairground" until now because "Simply Red samples The Goodmen" would have been pure aural catnip to me in 1995

That's how it would work now, back then a huge-selling album wasn't a guarantee of the music press taking your new record seriously AT ALL. Especially if you were Mick Hucknall at the height of Britpop. He might as well have been Phil Collins.

I remember pete tong enthusiastically play a remix of that simply red track quite a lot so maybe the 2xCD singles with remixes helped sales of that single.

back then a huge-selling album wasn't a guarantee of the music press taking your new record seriously AT ALL

it still isn't, though it is a guarantee of the music press slavishly covering your every move anyway (see: sheeran)

also being 14 is no fucking excuse for enjoying "country house" or blur at all

Blur has some great songs, it's just that "Country House" isn't one of them.

Never heard winning song... Weird

Cher/Hynde/Cherry w.Clapton - Love Can Build a Bridge 2

ILX neneh cherry bloc strikes again

outthere brothers were robbed

*outhere

"it still isn't, though it is a guarantee of the music press slavishly covering your every move anyway (see: sheeran)"

There's still a music press?