Side 1 of an imaginary 90s compilation cassette, spooling out in 1998.
This selection went through several last minute changes as I discovered that several songs, whilst listed as or appearing on albums in 1998, weren't released or charted as singles until 1999. You may see some of those tomorrow, but the short list was already rather long, so maybe not...
Not the substitutes were sloppy seconds and, in what I think is a record for this series, a third of the selection all hit the UK #1 spot. Mind you, this was at a time when new releases would crash into the Top 5 in the first week and promptly disappear without trace the next. I'm not even sure that the guaranteed Top Of The Pops appearance carried all that much weight by then.
This was the first time I struggled to fill the MAW slot in this series. In 1998, Andrew Weatherall and Keith Tenniswood's cuts as Two Lone Swordsmen tended to be glitchy, queasy electro numbers, either very short or very long and with little or no vocals.
The only real contender for me was their epic remix of Come Together by Spiritualized. The only problems being that it was over fifteen and a half minutes long, with not the faintest trace of Jason Pierce to be found.
My solution - Lord Sabre forgive me - was to create my own vocal edit. I found a bootleg MP3 of the filtered vocal of Come Together and with some painstaking cutting, editing and sequencing, ended up with a version that comes in at just over four and a half minutes. The sound quality is shonky. the editing amaterish, but it's not as awful as I thought. Please feel free to disagree, I will not argue!
Cornershop were one the surprise #1s, entirely thanks to Norman Cook who was everywhere at the time as Fatboy Slim. Brimful Of Asha was a (very) modest hit in 1997, but Norman liked it, wanted to include it in his sets but needed to speed it up a bit. Cue the trademark big beats and carousel swirls and a chart topper was born. I still quite get over Tjinder Singh sounding like a member of Alvin & The Chipmunks and I will also prefer the original over the remix, but I'm happy that it gave Cornershop (and their album) a well-deserved boost.
A fair bit of rap here, from the masters Run-D.M.C. to new kids on the block Jurassic 5 and superb homegrown talent in Asian Dub Foundation.
Roni Size Reprazent, er, represented my birthplace and, fresh off of winning the 1997 Mercury Music Prize, ploughed the prize money straight back into Bristol. Not the only Bristol artist though: Massive Attack return, this time with Elizabeth Fraser for Teardrop. Even the truncated promo edit featured here is phenomenal, and seeing it performed live last year was a real 'pinch me' moment.
Madonna returned with William Orbit at the controls for Frozen, with a Chris Cunningham-created video that had Madge looking her Gothic best. A slew of remixes accompanied the single as you might expect, though Stereo MC's version was head and shoulders above the rest.
Just outside the Top 30 was Don't Die Just Yet by David Holmes, sampling Serge Gainsbourg with aplomb. David remixed Failure by Skinny, label mates with Dido who also provided backing vocals on the song.
Speaking of samples, somehow Italian duo The Tamperer aka Alex Farolfi and Mario Fargetta managed to clear a hefty sample of The Jacksons' 1981 hit Can You Feel It? for their own song.
Frankly, the sample does all the heavy lifting, but American singer and actor Maya Days gamely adapts lyrics from Urban Discharge's 1995 single Wanna Drop A House (On That Bitch), including the unforgettable line, "What's she gonna look like with a chimney on her?" They don't write 'em like that anymore...
As a counter to all of the hits, 1998 closes with a 'flop' single from what proved to be one of my favourite albums of the year, by the wonderful Solex aka Elisabeth Esselink. Solex vs. The Hitmeister featured 12 songs, every single one featuring Solex in the title. I hadn't heard any of the music, but was so taken by the review I read that I tracked it down and bought the CD. A fabulously quirky album and a perfect way to round off the year.
Amazingly, sadly (for me at least), Sunday will see the final instalment of this alternative tour of the 1990s. Pre-millennium tension? Not 'arf!
1) Black White (Brendan Lynch Mix): Asian Dub Foundation
2) Concrete Schoolyard (Clean Radio Edit): Jurassic 5
3) Failure (Radio Mix): Skinny ft. Lee Stevens, Dido & Pauline Taylor
4) Watching Windows (Roni Size Vocal Remix): Roni Size Reprazent ft. Onallee
5) Brimful Of Asha (Brighton) (Norman Cook Remix Single Version): Cornershop
6) It's Like That (Drop The Break Radio Edit): Run-D.M.C. vs. Jason Nevins
7) Feel It (Blunt Edit): The Tamperer ft. Maya
8) Frozen (Stereo MC's Remix Edit): Madonna
9) Don't Die Just Yet (Radio Edit): David Holmes
10) Teardrop (Edit): Massive Attack ft. Elizabeth Fraser
11) Come Together (Two Lone Swordsmen Meet Khayem Downtown) (Vocal Edit): Spiritualized
12) Solex All Licketysplit (Album Version): Solex
4th January 1998: Don't Die Just Yet EP (#33): 9
22nd February 1998: Brimful Of Asha EP (#1): 5
1st March 1998: Frozen EP (#1): 8
8th March 1998: Watching Windows EP (#28): 4
15th March 1998: It's Like That EP (#1): 6
5th April 1998: Failure EP (#31): 3
12th April 1998: Solex vs. The Hitmeister (#n/a): 12
3rd May 1998: Teardrop EP (#10): 10
24th May 1998: Feel It EP (#1): 7
31st May 1998: The Abbey Road EP (#39): 11
28th June 1998: Black White EP (#52): 1
18th October 1998: Concrete Schoolyard EP (#35): 2
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