18 July 1993 Grunge: what were we thinking? Sludgy guitars, droning songs, whiny singers, lumberjack shirts - as a scene and a sound it hasn't aged well, and to be honest didn't sound all that great in the first place. Its performative angst became a tool for the US music industry to pivot away from … Continue reading 4 Non Blondes – ‘What’s Up?’ →

27 June 1993 Well, you can't say Haddaway shirks the big philosophical questions. (The B-side was called 'Where Do Odd Socks Go?') Not that he gives us an answer or anything. Also, as those of you joining us from Pedants' Corner are already shouting at your screen, the lack of punctuation in the song title … Continue reading Haddaway – ‘What Is Love’ →

2 May 1993 If ever you fear you've lost your cutting edge, go back and watch the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert, the Woodstock of '90s British soft rock. For all the funds and awareness it raised for AIDS charities, this Queen-fest really was a stinker of a musical event but also a fairly accurate bellwether … Continue reading George Michael and Queen with Lisa Stansfield – Five Live (EP) →

25 April 1993 Here we are again: a white chart-topper, wearing his whiteness as a badge of identity, peddling a watered-down and infantile facsimile of music of Black origins. Darrin O'Brien had no Caribbean cultural or family heritage, but his line was that he had immigrant neighbours from that region in his native Toronto. Also, … Continue reading Snow – ‘Informer’ →

11 April 1993 Siobhan Fahey here becomes, as far as I can see, the first Irish-born woman to write two Irish number one singles. She had already sung 'Young At Heart' as a Bananarama album track in 1983 before it was recorded the following year by Scottish band The Bluebells, whose guitarist Bobby Bluebell—not his … Continue reading The Bluebells – ‘Young At Heart’ →

4 April 1993 Call it nominative determinism, the sickly aftertaste of his more recent hits, or my lack of reggae appreciation at the time, but I was certain a re-listen to this first Shaggy number one after all these years would show it to be fairly cartoonish. I'm happy to admit I was wrong...-ish. Yes, … Continue reading Shaggy – ‘Oh Carolina’ →

28 February 1993 The original version has a rap. For the UK release that we also got in Ireland, maybe from self-consciousness about rapping in English, the producers took that whole rap out - except for one word, four times. And that is how we have one of the most ruthlessly effective pop hooks of … Continue reading 2 Unlimited – ‘No Limit’ →

24 January 1993 Chris and Leanne Moore are so far the only mother and daughter to each have an Irish number one single. (Their closest challengers, Neneh Cherry and Mabel, have both only reached number three in Ireland.) We'll see the second part of that Moore family double in around 15 chart-years from now. As … Continue reading Chris Moore – ‘This Time’ / ‘Life Without You’ →