Charting 1997: 1st March

And in a shocking development, we get a single staying at Number One for a second week!

01. (1) No Doubt - Don't Speak
Second-biggest weekly sales of the year so far too, though I don't think it's too much of a spoiler to say that it was beaten as the year wore on.
02.(NE) Sash! - Encore Une Fois

Little did I realise that they would have more hits. Or that everyone on this record is actually German.
03.(NE) The Source - You Got The Love {1997 remix}
Highest-charting version of this song with the original vocal, although topically enough Florence Welch and Dizzee Rascal went one place better in 2010.
04. (3) No Mercy - Where Do You Go?
05.(NE) The Bee Gees - Alone
Their third of four Top 5 singles in this decade, though they're seldom talked of as a 1990s act.
06. (5) En Vogue - Don't Let Go (Love)
07.(NE) Bush - Swallowed
The hit single we'd been waiting for after the album went Top 10 a few weeks ago. And in fairness it's not that bad a record if you can get over the awful lyrics.
08. (2) Warren G - I Shot The Sheriff
09.(10) Blueboy - Remember Me
10. (4) 911 - The Day We Find Love
11.(NE) Cathy Dennis - Waterloo Sunset
Remember when she went on a songwriting course with Ray Davies and reinvented herself as a Britpop star? No I don't think many people do either, but this was her last throw of the dice as a performer before she really started to recoup the money from the writing course.
12. (8) DJ Kool - Let Me Clear My Throat
13.(NE) Republica - Ready To Go {1997 re-issue}
A flop from the previous year revived on the claim that it had been some sort of hit in America. It was still just as annoying though.
14. (7) Daft Punk - Da Funk/Musique
15. (6) U2 - Discotheque
16.(18) OTT - Let Me In
17. (9) James - She's A Star
18.(13) Apollo 440 - Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Dub
19.(12) Mark Owen - Clementine
20.(11) LL Cool J - Ain't Nobody
21.(NE) Az Yet - Last Night
Guy bands they called these, presumably in the hope of a bonfire. A record that could have been released at any time since about 1986.
22.(20) Backstreet Boys - Quit Playing Games (With My Heart)
23.(15) White Town - Your Woman
24.(19) Spice Girls - 2 Become 1
25.(NE) Everything But The Girl - Before Today
Single Number Four off their Walking Wounded album, which consolidated their switch from dinner jazz to darker dance sounds.
26.(NE) Ben Folds Five - Battle Of Who Could Care Less

A song I was slightly obsessed with for a while back in 1997, went off for a while in the early 2000s and now like again.
27.(NE) Maxwell - Sumthin' Sumthin' The Mantra
Big-haired RnB smoothie who released a lot of immaculately-produced singles with long titles that I found hard to tell apart.
28.(16) Texas - Say What You Want
29.(21) Eels - Novocaine For The Soul
30.(NE) Jay-Z Featuring Mary J Blige - Can't Knock The Hustle
I had no particular intention of doing so anyway, thanks. Can't say this made much impression on me at the time, little would I have thought we'd hear from this guy again.
31.(NE) Belinda Carlisle - California
Her last Top 40 hit to date, perhaps surprisingly. Features the actual Brian Wilson on backing vocals, apparently.
32.(14) Space - Dark Clouds
33.(22) The Wonders - That Thing You Do!
34.(17) Barbra Streisand And Bryan Adams - I Finally Found Someone
35.(NE) My Life Story - The King Of Kissingdom
Possibly less notable for the song (which isn't really any good, to be honest) than for the 7" picture disc format which, as EMI's mailshot of the time explained, could be used as Valentine's card. Only trouble is that, as you might already have calculated from the date of this chart, it ended up being released on the 17th of February.
36.(NE) Bjork - I Miss You
It seems slightly anomalous that Björk ever got to be such a big chart star, though this wasn't one of her bigger hits. It did have the disadvantage of being the sixth single from an album released almost two years earlier.
37.(25) Whitney Houston - Step By Step
38.(NE) Us3 - Come On Everybody (Get Down)
And the award for Generic Song Title Of The Week goes to... Jazzy hip-hoppers who were offered unprecedented access to the Blue Note back catalogue for sampling.
39.(24) Michelle Gayle - Do You Know
40.(NE) Lithium And Sonya Madan - Ride A Rocket
Another of the Britpop/dance crossovers that seemed such a feature of the times.

41.(NE) Delirious? - White Ribbon Day
43.(NE) The Aloof - Wish You Were Here...
46.(NE) Van Morrison - The Healing Game
56.(NE) Jump - Funkatarium
61.(NE) ORN - Snow
64.(NE) DJ Prof-X-Or - Walkin' On Up
69.(RE) Michael Jackson - Stranger In Moscow
74.(RE) Boyzone - A Different Beat