20February

Ten years ago, the Daily Hell had published the names and photographs of the Stephen Lawrence murderers; the Northern Ireland secretary, Patrick Mayhew, refused to apologise for the Bloody Sunday massacre; South West Trains was criticised for cutting 200 services a week; Spanish lorry drivers were on strike; Billie-Jo Jenkins was found dead at her home. In the Five Nations, England beat Ireland 46:6, and France overpowered Wales 27:22. Chesterfield upset Nottingham Forest to reach the FA Cup quarter final, Greg Rusedski won the Sybase Open in San Jose, and a device to access the Internet via a television set was unveiled.

Missing the top 40 this week were songs from Neneh Chreey (yes, she did try to have a career after 1989), Urusei Yatsura, Dweeb (with a song called Scooby Doo), Edward Ball, Tiger, Veruca Salt, Nick Cave, Tha Kid Chris, Silver Sun, Black Box, Legend B, and Eat Static. Of those, perhaps only the Salt's Volcano girl has been accepted as a Great Lost Classic, though we still hold a candle for the Box's Native new yorker.

Last week on the top 40 for Suzanne Vega - seven years after Tom's diner had been an unexpected number 2, and almost ten years since her last solo hit, No cheap thrill crept into the list at number 40, and then slunk away again. Corona tried to recapture their hit-making potential of 1994-5 with a Megamix that featured snippets of all four hits in the first ten seconds. Ten Sad Git points for anyone who can name all four without looking them up. Newton spent his second and last week on the lists, but we did him last week.

One Week Wonders in the lower parts included Alfonzo Hunter, whose Just the way players play spent one week at 38. The Wonders was a group concocted for some dramatic production or other, and they had a real one-hit wonder (albeit one that spent two weeks in the top 40) with the exclamation-point-tastic That thing you do!. Space had their fourth hit in eight months, but does anyone remember Dark clouds to-day? Thought not.

Blueboy came down two to 10. Six new entries into the top ten began at 9 with James's She's a star, which has turned into one of their better-remembered tunes. DJ Kool's Let me clear my throat is not at all remembered; it's the one sampling Hear the drummer get wicked, if that helps anyone. Thought not. New at 8, and one of only two newies to spend five weeks on the list. Daft Punk's Da funk was new at 7, that's the video with the dog with a broken leg carrying around a ghettoblaster. Very odd. Last week's number 1 from U2 came down to 6, and En Vouge spent their third non-consecutive week at 5 with a song that sold steadily but never spectacularly.

Fourth hit for 911, the boyband of the moment. Can anyone hum This isn't the first time, a number four hit? Anyone? No Mercy dropped a place to 3, yielding to Warren G performing I shot the sherrif. He was hoping to have a hit to parallel autumn 96's What's love got to do with it?, but it was Adina Howard's vocal that the public liked, not some poor rapper. It spent as long in the 60s as it did in the top 20 - just three weeks - such was the level of over-stocking.

New number one for No Doubt, the group fronted by rock chick Gwen Stefani before she went a bit loopy. Don't speak wasn't the group's chart debut, they'd had a very minor hit with the far more typical Just a girl late in 1996. This song, though, hit a chord with the UK public, spending seven weeks in the top three, three of them as the country's biggest-seller.

There were two One Week Wonders this week, acts spending their only seven days in the UK top 40. Joining Alfonzo was Bennet, with a song that we've never quite managed to place. Is it a clever spoof on the observational lyrics of the Britpop era? Was it made by a bunch of chancers who wanted to see just how desperate a record label was for a hit? Or was it a reaction to one of the longest-running and most well-remembered advertising campaigns of the era? Here's a fansite to help you decide. Whichever way, the song is not available to buy through legal download services, nor available through illegal download services. So, dubbed from cassette tape no less, we proudly present Bennet's one and only hit, My mum has gone to Iceland.

| Permanent link

Two Songs a Week