Charting 1997: 18th October

01. (1) Elton John - Something About The Way You Look/Candle In The Wind
02.(NE) Sash! - Stay ft La Trec
It's another Number 2 for Sash! - if you're taking notes it's his third in a row to enter and peak at this position. It's also his third consecutive hit in a different language; English in this case.
03. (2) Dario G - Sunchyme
04. (3) Backstreet Boys - As Long As You Love Me
05. (4) Eternal - Angel Of Mine
06. (7) Chumbawamba - Tubthumping
07.(NE) Propellerheads With David Arnold - On Her Majesty's Secret Service

I don't normally think of 35th anniversaries as being a cause for big celebrations, but there seem to have been a lot of tie-ins for the anniversary of the James Bond films in the final quarter of 1997, probably because there was a new film out that year. We'll come to that in due course, but our first taste comes with this cover version of the instrumental theme from the 1968 Bond film: the original was not a hit, and coincidentally the other big song from that movie hadn't been a hit until the 1990s either ('We Have All The Time In The World' by Louis Armstrong finally charted in 1994). 
This track was taken from Arnold's Shaken And Stirred Bond covers album, although by the time of release he had become an offical Bond composer himself. It proved to be the first Top 10 single for both Arnold and Propellorheads, and remains the only one to credit either of them directly. It's a rather good update of the original too, respectful but of its time. Some classic London Underground architecture in the video too, and there's a poster for fellow 1997 chart act Ginuwine at 3:17.
08. (9) Janet Jackson - Got 'Til It's Gone ft Q-Tip And Joni Mitchell
09. (6) Lighthouse Family - Raincloud
10.(NE) Mansun - Seven (EP) - Closed For Business
After only five hit singles from the first album they rounded off the year with four entirely new songs (plus a selection of acoustic and live offcuts for the second CD and limited 7" - it was the 1990s after all!). For completists, the other tracks were 'K.I.Double.S.I.N.G.'; 'Everyone Must Win' (co-written by Howard Devoto from Magazine) and 'The World's Still Open'
11.(NE) The Brand New Heavies - You've Got A Friend
A cover of the slushy Carole King song, and it sounds like they were desperate for a hit.
12.(NE) Clock - U Sexy Thing
Another cover. And not the last version of this song we'll hear this year, either. At least it's less slushy than the BNH record, and it's Clock doing what you'd expect. 
13. (5) Oasis - Stand By Me
14. (8) Will Smith - Men In Black
15.(10) Louise - Arms Around The World
16.(NE) Busta Rhymes - Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Could See
One of those songs where the elaborate Hype Williams promo video is really more memorable than the track itself, but to give Busta his due he's still having hits in this decade so he must be doing something right. 
17.(11) Tina Moore - Never Gonna Let You Go
18.(NE) Supergrass - Late In The Day
Their first "serious" single, so they did a video where they're jumping about on pogo sticks but it's in black and white. I like this song and bought it on 7" (it's on gold vinyl and all) but it's not an obvious hit. That fade-in was not what you'd call radio-friendly.
19.(13) M People - Just For You
20.(15) The Verve - The Drugs Don't Work
21.(14) Coolio - Ooh La La
22.(18) 2 Eivissa - Oh La La La
23.(17) Bellini - Samba De Janeiro
24.(NE) Feeder - High
Already their fourth hit of the year, this was their first of many Top 40 appearances. I was never keen on it though, a rather washed-out grunge ballad that sounds a bit too much like a conscious attempt at a hit.
25.(NE) Sheryl Crow - Home
And here's a fifth single from the self-titled album, another song that I quite liked as an album track but  it didn't work so well of context. I didn't buy any of the three CD single formats.
26.(NE) The Wildhearts - Urge
By this point they were consciously burying any traces of a song under waves of noise, but could still rely on the fans to snap it up in droves.
27.(20) Roachford - The Way I Feel
28.(NE) Levellers - Celebrate
Features Eddi Reader on backing vocals. What's she doing on this piece of shhhhhhhhhh...surely very high-quality folk-rock?
29.(19) DJ Flavours - Your Caress (All I Need)
30.(12) Foxy Brown - Big Bad Mamma ft Dru Hill
31.(24) Sly And Robbie - Night Nurse ft Simply Red
32.(16) The Seahorses - Love Me And Leave Me
33.(NE) Universal - Make It With You
Still with the Seventies covers. You can see how much the grannies in that studio audience loved seeing them dry humping the set.
34.(27) Puff Daddy And Faith Evans - I'll Be Missing You
35.(NE) Silver Sun - Lava {1997 re-issue}
I'd bought this the first time it came out and here I was buying it again, although I have to admit that I never liked it quite as much once I found out what the words were. I still ended up buying all three formats of this re-release, the coloured 7" and two CDs: one of them was a newfangled enhanced CD with the video. Ironically, that video isn't on YouTube.
36.(NE) The Aphex Twin - Come To Daddy
This video is on YouTube of course, but far too creepy to embed. Click at your own risk.
It's fair to say that this sounded rather out of place on the Top 40 countdown, even in this fairly oddball week. I'm not sure how much sense it makes in sound only anyway.
37.(NE) Omar - Golden Brown
Well, an eighties cover for a change. Although quite why he thought covering this song made any sense at all is not really clear. 
38.(23) Catch - Bingo
39.(31) Hanson - Where's The Love
40.(NE) Catatonia - I Am The Mob

The first single from their second album, which was originally supposed to come out a few weeks later but was postponed into 1998, presumably because this single wasn't going to do much. Fortunately for the band's short-term future at least, they pulled off some massive hits in the new year and Cerys Matthews was briefly one of the biggest pop stars in Britain. It's debatable whether there was ever a better showcase for her than this lowly Number 40 hit, assertive but silly. Is this the only hit single with the word "kecks" in it? 

42.(NE) Morrissey - Roy's Keen
See what he's done there? "We've never seen a keener window cleaner" indeed.
49.(NE) Malandra Burrows - Carnival In Heaven
52.(NE) Sharada House Gang - Gypsy Boy, Gypsy Girl
58.(NE) Rampage - Take It To The Streets ft Billy Lawrence
60.(NE) Lustral - Everytime
62.(NE) Howie B - Switch

66.(NE) Apache Indian - Real People
67.(NE) Scarfo - Cosmonaut No 7
One of them is now more famous for being married to Kate Moss.
71.(NE) Edwyn Collins - Adidas World
Still his last charting single to date (not counting the recent re-entry of 'A Girl Like You') this is Collins at his splenetic best. Not one that was ever likely to go down well with radio programmers, alas.