White Town
― Le Bateau Ivre, Wednesday, 8 March 2017 18:01 (seven years ago) link
Olive - You're Not Alone
^^^ underrated
― Rachel Luther Queen (DJP), Wednesday, March 8, 2017 9:03 AM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
ah crap, missed this when reading the list
― Islamic State of Mind (jim in vancouver), Wednesday, 8 March 2017 18:05 (seven years ago) link
I remember 'You're Not Alone' being inescapable at the time... the follow-up single 'Outlaw' I seem to remember feeling a bit lightweight by comparison.
― Coolio Iglesias (Turrican), Wednesday, 8 March 2017 22:03 (seven years ago) link
I hate every single thing about that misbegotten travesty of a "tribute" song
Haha... well, I can see how the song as a tribute to a close friend can seem... weird. But for me, despite always (I think) knowing it was about biggie, I never really thought of it as much other than a slightly melancholy/spiritual really groovy song - beat is just undeniable. First time i heard the 'Police version' I was like, who sucked all the fun out of this song?
I have a 12" single and remember djing one time for a big crowd, I put it on late in my set, people went pretty crazy, and once it got to the outro, I kinda felt like the song wasn't going anywhere and so I mixed in something else - and so many people in the crowd turned at me with angry eyes saying NO YOU DIDN'T STOP THIS JAM
must say it heightened my regard of the tune
― niels, Wednesday, 8 March 2017 22:30 (seven years ago) link
bizarre
― Islamic State of Mind (jim in vancouver), Wednesday, 8 March 2017 22:46 (seven years ago) link
"Who sucked all the fun out of this song about the heartbreak felt after the murder of the main rapper's best friend and the hook singer's husband?"
― Rachel Luther Queen (DJP), Thursday, 9 March 2017 00:21 (seven years ago) link
(Not getting into the issues with the tribute itself, which is incredibly half-assed and sounds bored with even having to say something about Biggie's death)
― Rachel Luther Queen (DJP), Thursday, 9 March 2017 00:22 (seven years ago) link
Bettelebum!
Although it was close with the Tori Amos remix
― LimbsKing, Thursday, 9 March 2017 06:15 (seven years ago) link
Eternal featuring BeBe Winans - I Wanna Be The Only One
No memory of this at all, although I'm surprised Eternal were still going in 97.
― Matt DC, Thursday, 9 March 2017 10:38 (seven years ago) link
It's the Eternal song I have the most memory of! Their biggest hit, no?
― chap, Thursday, 9 March 2017 10:41 (seven years ago) link
personal fav chart show back to back moment was when they followed 'elektrobank' with portishead 'all mine'
― nxd, Thursday, 9 March 2017 10:51 (seven years ago) link
x-post:
It was the second most played track on UK radio in 1997, so I'm very surprised that Matt DC doesn't have any memory of it. It was easily Eternal's biggest hit, although they'd start to disintegrate further in '98 when the sisters fired Kelle. Louise had long left the group at this point and gone solo. Eternal were notoriously one of those girl bands that had a tense relationship with each other.
― Coolio Iglesias (Turrican), Thursday, 9 March 2017 11:03 (seven years ago) link
Eternal featuring BeBe Winans - I Wanna Be The Only OneNo memory of this at all, although I'm surprised Eternal were still going in 97.― Matt DC, Thursday, March 9, 2017 10:38 AM (twenty-six minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― Matt DC, Thursday, March 9, 2017 10:38 AM (twenty-six minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
This is the song that I call 'Ah-wallywally Wally-wally Woooo woo'. I have to endure it about 20 times a week on local radio
― Lennon, Elvis, Hendrix etc (dog latin), Thursday, 9 March 2017 11:06 (seven years ago) link
Come to think of it, wasn't there another track released that year that also used the bass riff from the 'Professional Widow' remix?
― Coolio Iglesias (Turrican), Thursday, 9 March 2017 11:18 (seven years ago) link
Yes, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels mash-up of Prof Widow with Lisa Stansfield's 'People Hold On' vocal - went top 5 around the same time as Tori did.
Block Rockin' Beats had possibly the best Chems b-side (Morning Lemon).
― nashwan, Thursday, 9 March 2017 11:29 (seven years ago) link
That's the one! I couldn't remember for the life of me what it was.
― Coolio Iglesias (Turrican), Thursday, 9 March 2017 11:43 (seven years ago) link
Someone did a risible version of I Wanna Be the Only One on The Voice the other week actually.
― chap, Thursday, 9 March 2017 12:14 (seven years ago) link
I liked the Spice Girls, Teletubbies and Aqua from that list, but I was six years old and didn't speak English. It's surprising, and quite sweet, how well that list catered to my fairly unique demographic.
― Girl with Curious Hair, Thursday, 9 March 2017 15:33 (seven years ago) link
^^^^^^^^^ yes
such a simple concept too, and yet I can't think of another track quite like it
― frogbs, Thursday, 9 March 2017 18:59 (seven years ago) link
None of the Spice Girls' tracks here compare to the hits they had the previous year ('Who Do You Think You Are?' probably being the best of the bunch) ... I don't think they really had a truly killer single after '2 Become 1' until 'Stop', which strangely didn't make it to number one.
― Coolio Iglesias (Turrican), Saturday, 11 March 2017 00:16 (seven years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.
― System, Tuesday, 14 March 2017 00:01 (seven years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.
― System, Wednesday, 15 March 2017 00:01 (seven years ago) link
Whoa!
― Coolio Iglesias (Turrican), Wednesday, 15 March 2017 00:04 (seven years ago) link
Your Woman is a great little indie hit and was really refreshing for a time when the likes of The Verve, Texas, Reef, Six Colours Red and lots of other trad-rock was dominating the indie mainstream. Beetlebum was also very welcome after the bloat of The Great Escape. Never really got into the Amos remix but I see why people like it. So a good top 3 at least.
― Lennon, Elvis, Hendrix etc (dog latin), Wednesday, 15 March 2017 08:51 (seven years ago) link
The non-remix version of Professional Widow is.. strange.
― LimbsKing, Wednesday, 15 March 2017 09:34 (seven years ago) link
Beetlebum is such a clumsy-sounding record, literally everything about it.
― Matt DC, Wednesday, 15 March 2017 09:37 (seven years ago) link
I think that's what's good about it. I remember hearing it for the first time and thinking 'whoa wait what are you doing?' but it was nice to hear Blur come back with something so understated and awkward after all the bombast
― Lennon, Elvis, Hendrix etc (dog latin), Wednesday, 15 March 2017 09:41 (seven years ago) link
I remember them playing it on Top of the Pops and when the music stopped and Damon sang "and when she lets me slip away", the audience cheered as if they were expecting some kind of big Blur chorus moment, but 'Beetlebum' doesn't really have much of a chorus. The guitar riff is really the hook of the song. I thought it was an odd choice of single, but perversely one which seemed to work.
― Coolio Iglesias (Turrican), Wednesday, 15 March 2017 12:03 (seven years ago) link
yeah a bold move for a band at that stage in their career. Albarn's ego had been dialled right back and it was Coxon's guitar that was doing the (literal) grunt-work.
― Lennon, Elvis, Hendrix etc (dog latin), Wednesday, 15 March 2017 12:57 (seven years ago) link
I actually thought Blur were done by the middle of '96 - I seriously thought they were going to break up because it seemed like they were dealing with fame and the whole Oasis thing really badly, and there were always reports of tension within the band. But they then back to their more exploratory side and were as successful as ever!
The big change for me at this point was Albarn's vocal approach - from 1997 there seemed to be more feeling in his vocals and the mockney accent was dialled down a hell of a lot.
― Coolio Iglesias (Turrican), Wednesday, 15 March 2017 13:10 (seven years ago) link
Yeah I even gave sold all my Blur CDs to the secondhand shop at the time because I'd become so disenchanted by them immediately following TGE. Bought them all back again of course.
― Lennon, Elvis, Hendrix etc (dog latin), Wednesday, 15 March 2017 14:27 (seven years ago) link
I remember there being a lot of talk of Blur being their attempt to scare away their audience, but large portions of that record was actually quite melodic and even poppy in hindsight, I think, just in a different way to the two or three records before. I don't recall have any difficulty with that record at all.
13 was the real challenge, I thought. I hated that record at first.
― Coolio Iglesias (Turrican), Wednesday, 15 March 2017 14:42 (seven years ago) link
I liked it a lot and thought it was a significant improvement on the Great Escape stuff. Just dug up the Blur poll from 2011 to see where it was in my ballot (third).
Edit: 'it' = 'Beetlebum', not '13'
― Warren's Treat (Nasty, Brutish & Short), Wednesday, 15 March 2017 14:45 (seven years ago) link
It was the right thing for them to do after the 'Life' trilogy. I think it's probably their most bearable album nowadays. And yeah, things like 'Look Inside America' aren't that radically different from what came previously. 'On Your Own' is the secret gem of course. I think everyone likes that one.
― Lennon, Elvis, Hendrix etc (dog latin), Wednesday, 15 March 2017 14:54 (seven years ago) link
The three way tie of R. Kelly, Olive and Hanson is just weird
― SFTGFOP (El Tomboto), Wednesday, 15 March 2017 15:10 (seven years ago) link
'On Your Own' and, weirdly, 'Death of a Party' kinda point the way to Gorillaz.
― Coolio Iglesias (Turrican), Wednesday, 15 March 2017 15:27 (seven years ago) link
― LimbsKing, Wednesday, 15 March 2017 20:34 (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
i got the clear vinyl release of 'boys for pele' on launch and played it to death assuming i was in a tiny minority, so imagine my surprise when suddenly everyone's listening to a barely-recognisable boppy remix of this song, complete with brand new video featuring tori herself doing some jazzercise and having a bath
― Autumn Almanac, Wednesday, 15 March 2017 22:07 (seven years ago) link
Beetlebum has (probably) my favourite Blur track as its b-side, All Your Life.
― Camaraderie at Arms Length, Wednesday, 15 March 2017 22:49 (seven years ago) link
But I voted for White Town. I think.
― Camaraderie at Arms Length, Wednesday, 15 March 2017 22:50 (seven years ago) link
White Town - Your Woman 18Blur - Beetlebum 13
you people are sick
― Islamic State of Mind (jim in vancouver), Wednesday, 15 March 2017 22:52 (seven years ago) link
There aren't all that many Blur B-sides that could have been album tracks, but 'All Your Life' definitely one of 'em, even if it is yet another one of Damon's Bowie rips.
― Coolio Iglesias (Turrican), Wednesday, 15 March 2017 23:30 (seven years ago) link
There is only four years between the self-titled Blur and the self-titled Gorillaz. That somehow seems weird now.
― Frederik B, Wednesday, 15 March 2017 23:36 (seven years ago) link
"Damon Albarn: the smackhead years"
― Coolio Iglesias (Turrican), Wednesday, 15 March 2017 23:41 (seven years ago) link
Crazy.
― orientmammal, Tuesday, 21 March 2017 00:07 (seven years ago) link