The Verve 'The Drugs Don't Work'

Chart Peak: 1 [1 week]
YouTube

The Verve had their first Top 40 successes in 1995 with 'This Is Music', 'On Your Own' and 'History'... Their return has produced two of 1997's finest tunes - 'Bitter Sweet Symphony' (No. 2) and 'The Drugs Don't Work' (No. 1)

Three tracks in and the downbeat mood of Disc 2 continues. In fact, 'The Drugs Don't Work' seems to be a continuation of several themes from this album, including the fact that it's not an obviously ideal song for New Year's Eve. Rather like Chumbawamba (if perhaps less so) they were a surprise package, suddenly spawning two of the biggest singles of the year after being a relatively low-profile act for several years - none of their 1995 hits had made the Top 20, for example.

And of course the Diana factor comes back into play with this single having been released on the 1st of September 1997. History may record that this song was propelled to the top by her death, although I can certainly remember thinking in mid-August that they had a good chance after the success of 'Bitter Sweet Symphony' and decent initial airplay for this one. Still, it was probably helped by the fact that it was still considered suitable for radio play in the week it was released, given its sorrowful mood. At least it spared us a second return to the top by Puff Daddy's 'I'll Be Missing You', as would probably have happened were this single not out that way. Ironically, I didn't buy it myself, as I couldn't decide between the two CD formats: only one unique B-side on each and I wasn't going to pay six quid for both when I knew I'd buy the album anyway.

Although the song is part of their comeback album Urban Hymns and has Richard Ashcroft as the sole credited writer, it was in fact written and even performed live before they split in 1995. Presumably it was just too late for the A Northern Soul album, as it would otherwise have merited a place. Over the years, Ashcroft has been slightly vague as to the exact meaning of the song; note that between 1995 and 1997 the chorus lyric has changed from "They just make me worse" to "They just make you worse". The common supposition is that the later version of the chorus is about the death of his father (which would of course also fit the idea of "as you lay down on your side") and the latter perhaps about how he tried to cope with the depression afterwards. Tragic as it is, the song at least tries to sound a note of forlorn hope on "I know I'll see your face again." What really saves it as a record is that the arrangement is kept interesting with Peter Salisbury's increasingly prominent drums and Nick McCabe's ever-changing guitar parts. When Ashcroft realised that the solo tracks he was working on (with a backing group that included the other two members of the Verve) needed McCabe's input it was probably the wisest decision he ever made.

Also appearing on: Now 37, 39, 40, 71
Available on: The Drugs Don't Work

George Michael 'You Have Been Loved'

Chart Peak: 2
YouTube

The haunting 'You Have Been Loved' was George's 6th British Top 3 hit from the Older album... In the 15 years he has been making music, George has now achieved over 60 million sales worldwide.

It's slightly less dramatic than what happened to 'Sunchyme', but for the first five days of release 'You Have Been Loved' (nominally a double-A with 'Strangest Thing 97') was comfortably the nation's top-selling single yet by Sunday it was Number 2, way behind the huge first-day sales of his friend Elton John's tribute to his other friend Diana Princess of Wales. Still, six Top 3 singles from a studio album remains unique and we'll never know whether her death truly cost him a chart-topper since the literally mournful song was especially appealing to the record-buying public in early September 1997. It's unlikely he cared much about it under the circumstances.

It is of course pure coincidence that this single arrived only a week after a high-profile death, but it was always intended to pay tribute to somebody even closer to home, Michael's deceased partner Anselmo Feleppa; seemingly narrated from the perspective of his mother, which might account for the song's slightly unidiomatic title. By the time the single came out his own mother had also passed away, which is possibly why the official video is a live performance rather than anything more creative. Although the song is well-structured and clearly heartfelt it feels a bit too personal for the rest of us to get involved now.

Also appearing on: Now 22 [with Elton John], 23, 25 [with Queen], 34, 35, 36, 37, 52, 58
Available on: Ladies And Gentlemen... The Best Of George Michael

Wet Wet Wet 'Yesterday'

Chart Peak: 4
YouTube

Wet Wet Wet's cover of the Beatles' 'Yesterday' brought the group's number of Top 40 hits to a staggering twenty-five... It reached No. 4 in August '97 and was their third hit this year.

Disc 2 starts here, although the sharp-eyed and numerate may have noticed we're already more than half-way through the "41 Chart Hits" promised on the disc tray: tracks are unevenly split due to the longer average length which means there are only nine tracks on Side 3 of the cassette. 'Yesterday' is something of an exception, getting out of the way within three minutes, although this is still significantly longer than the original. It doesn't seem the most obvious way to launch into a 78-minute CD but this was actually the second Now album running (and third overall) where the Wets had occupied this placing; with three appearances at the very start of the album as well they're almost Queen.

Anyone interested enough in British pop of the 1990s to be reading this will surely be aware that the last time Wet Wet Wet recorded a song for a movie, they spent 15 weeks at Number One with 'Love Is All Around'. Since they'd also topped the chart with a cover of 'With A Little Help From My Friends', you could be forgiven for thinking that Wet Wet Wet covering a Beatles song for a movie (Bean, in this case) was a licence to print money. The record company probably did think that, but of course lightning seldom strikes twice in the same place, and as it transpired this wasn't even the lead single from the soundtrack; the more fashionable Boyzone got that. Ten years into their career, the group were approaching something of a crisis point, with the drummer about to quit in a dispute over songwriting royalties whilst Marti Pellow was struggling with his own demons: 18 months later he collapsed in a hotel and was rushed to rehab for heroin addiction. This proved to the the last single release of their initial career, though they have reunited several times since.

Perhaps a great performer could have used this turmoil to wring out a truly emotional performance. But when faced with a ballad, Pellow reverts to low-budget Mick Hucknall form, whilst the production (by bassist Graeme Clark and unofficial member Graeme Duffin), is hamstrung by the need to give all five Wets something to do and the lack of original ideas, so it simply sounds overfussy as if they're playing along with the original track, but with more repetitions. I suppose it's a pretty strong tribute to the skills of Paul McCartney and George Martin that their string arrangements are copied almost directly, but the sparse and direct nature of the original recording is otherwise lost.

Also appearing on: Now 10, 11, 12, 16, 21, 28, 31, 37
Available on: Now That's What I Call 1997

DJ Quicksilver 'Free'

Chart Peak: 7
YouTube

'Free' was DJ Quicksilver's 2nd UK Top 10 hit of 1997... It reached No. 7 in late August as the follow-up to 'Bellissima' (No.4)

And a merry Christmas to you, should you actually be reading this post on the day of publication. I'm writing this a couple of days in advance for obvious reasons, and whilst I know some bloggers like to write special festive posts, I'm lumbered by my format with this decidedly un-seasonal trance number. Mind you, thousands of people will have unwrapped a copy of Now 38 17 years ago today and most of them probably played them in their bedrooms or their cars on the day, so they'll have heard this at the end of Disc 1.

In keeping with the spirit of generosity, I'll acknowledge that 'Free' isn't really a track made to be heard in bedrooms or cars, nor on computers in another century. I don't doubt for a moment that it's well-suited to the intended venue of a club where it can be meshed in with similar tracks. Isolated though, it's clearly just a retread of his previous hit with somebody saying "Be free" over the top of it, and sounds like an idea being hammered into the ground. And that's just the radio edit, so I can't imagine sitting through the full version. Still horses for courses and all that. See you next week for Disc 2.

Also appearing on: Now 36, 39
Available on: Quicksilver

Bellini 'Samba Di Janeiro'

Chart Peak: 8
YouTube

Bellini are a multi-cultural group of singers and dancers... Their massive Euro hit 'Samba De Janeiro' was a Top 10 smash in Britain in September '97

Notwithstanding what I said in the Ricky Martin post yesterday, songs aimed directly at the dance market are a slight exception to Britain's shunning of foreign-language hits, though of course there aren't many words in this song and none that will be unfamiliar to most Anglophones. Even so, you'll notice that it didn't chart here until September which I think is quite a while after it came out elsewhere; it is of course especially late to release a song called 'Samba of January'.

Wikipedia describes this as a "football based hit" although it's hard to see any connection beyond the fact that it's Brazilian in inspiration and Brazilians are quite good at football. Still, some YouTube commenters have suggested that it would have been a better theme song for the 2014 World Cup than the Pitbull/Jennifer Lopez tie-up that got the official nod, and indeed I'd have tended to agree were the track not 17 years old by then. Inevitably the track was opportunistically re-issued this summer anyway.

Despite its Latin American sound though, the track actually originates from another successful soccer nation: the founding members were three German producers lurking behind the dancers and vocalists. Though the Bellini name never troubled the UK chart again, the same trio regrouped under the more Germanic name Paffendorf, scoring a hit here in 2002 with the rather belated Tarantino pastiche 'Be Cool'. So there's nothing "authentic" about this track, if you believe in such notions, but it's an energetic throwaway with a tactfully short radio edit (two-and-a-half minutes). Probably works better dropped among several similar tracks though, and despite the title December might not be the best time to be listening to it either.

Also appearing on: Now 52 [as Paffendorf]
Available on: Brasil!

Ricky Martin 'Maria'

Chart Peak: 6
YouTube

Latin sensation Ricky Martin made a big impact on the UK charts in September this year when 'Maria' reached No. 6

Easily forgotten now that Ricky Martin had a UK chart presence before the blockbusting success of 'Livin' La Vida Loca' in 1999. In fact, even I had forgotten that he didn't get onto Now 44 with that track (Sony were obviously reluctant to license such a big hit to the EMI/Universal series) and thus 'Maria' marks his only appearance in the main series. At this stage, one might surmise, the promotional value of getting a "new" artist onto a big selling compilation was more useful than it would have seemed a couple of years later.

Of course, he wasn't new to everyone: in fact the track was almost two years old, having been released to the Latin market in late 1995. It was from his third solo album, before which he'd done a five-year tour of duty in the Puerto Rican boyband Menudo, recording 11 albums with them. The song crossed over to Spain, the mainstream US chart and, oddly, Finland the following year, before it swept the board of mainland Europe in the summer of 1997. As usual, Britain was late to the party, being typically resistant to songs not entirely in English, although what was eventually put out here was the "Spanglish radio edit". Obviously its chances were helped by the fact that the song could be translated without changing the title (in fact the UK sleeve calls it 'Un, Dos, Tres, Maria' and the chorus remains in Spanish) and that even people who couldn't understand the language could probably spell the title and guess what the song was about. Well, unless they were British apparently.

As the song continued to chart in various places into 1998, he got the plum job of singing the official song for that year's World Cup, but the single underperformed over here and it looked like he might have to settle for one-hit-wonderhood in the the UK. It turned out that, like garage, the Latin fashion was back with a vengeance a couple of years later. All of which said, this song doesn't sound that great these days, sold more on the energy of his performance than a memorable song.

Available on: The Best Of

911 'Party People... Friday Night'

Chart Peak: 5
YouTube

Spike, Jimmy and Lee scored their 5th Top 10 smash in the last 12 months with 'Party People'... It raced onto the chart at No. 5 on 26th October '97

Since I mentioned our in-jokes in the LL Cool J post, I might as well point out that my brother claimed to have misheard the chorus lyric in this song as "Fucking Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday night," although I don't really believe him. Obviously they weren't really saying that anyway.
The first single from their second album is a tricky time for boy bands, usually about the last chance for them to get really big rather than selling to fans. In the event 911 fell into the latter category, at least so far as the UK was concerned, but they had enough of those fans to make it to the standard three-albums-and-a-Greatest-Hits lifespan for a 90s boyband.

I've long had a bit of a soft spot for 911's more upbeat songs, probably because they remind me of PJ & Duncan's similar work and whilst 'Party People' is no masterpiece it's likely their best song to appear on a Now album - as I've mentioned before, the best 911 song of all is of course 'Bodyshakin' and that never made it at all. It is of course totally soulless, careerist nonsense but we all need a bit of that in our lives and at least it never pretends to be anything else.

Also appearing on: Now 35, 36, 37, 41, 42, 43
Available on: Moving On