3 November 1995 Stevie Wonder spent the '80s trying to turn '80s kids like me off his music for life, so in 1995 I didn't know the track of his that's used so heavily in 'Gangsta's Paradise'. Even now, Coolio's track exists separately in my head to Stevie's 'Pastime Paradise'; I don't feel the need … Continue reading Coolio ft. L.V. – ‘Gangsta’s Paradise’ →

27 October 1995 The '90s presented a real existential crisis to '80s hair metal bands and cheery three-chord rockers. Nirvana and the power divas had changed the market demand to authenticity: out with the perms and spandex, out also with the densely-layered studio-bound sound, and out with the kitschy OTT fun. For Bon Jovi and … Continue reading Def Leppard – ‘When Love And Hate Collide’ →

6 October 1995 Hearing, or overhearing, 'Fairground' by Simply Red on the radio back in 1995, our first reaction would have been to recognise the pounding drum sample from 'Give It Up' by The Good Men, which itself had been an airplay-bossing hit a couple of years before that. We may not have known that … Continue reading Simply Red – ‘Fairground’ →

29 September 1995 There were a few mid-'90s number ones from jeans commercials which, instead of classic rock and possibly as a flex of Big Trousers' marketing muscle, used new tracks by new artists. Trouble was, the snippets used in the ads were often unrepresentative of the whole track: the thundering rock riff of Stiltskin's … Continue reading Shaggy – ‘Boombastic’ →

18 August 1995 Neutrality or a notional Irish Sea border couldn't keep the Battle of Britpop from reaching our shores. Even at the time, the most notable feature of this skirmish was the combatants' choice of weapons: each with a remarkably poor single, as if there were some gentleman's agreement not to draw blood. If … Continue reading Blur – ‘Country House’ →

4 August 1995 If Take That and East 17 were the Beatles and the Stones of '90s boyband pop, Boyzone were its Herman's Hermits. All five of them are co-writers on 'So Good' and it's almost unfair to point out that, on the evidence of this, none of them had a 'Back For Good' or … Continue reading Boyzone – ‘So Good’ →

28 July 1995 This isn't the final Take That single, but it feels like it. There's a valedictory air to the lyrics, from the clunky "We've had success / We've had good times" to the better and more evocative "Soon this will all be someone else's dream", the latter being an excellent subtext to the … Continue reading Take That – ‘Never Forget’ →

30 June 1995 "Boom boom boom / Everybody say way-oh! (way-oh!)" That was the sound of summer 1995, with the occasional burst from Hill 16 of a Jayo version. I hadn't realised the source of that ambient noise was the house of the moronically sexist 'Don't Stop (Wiggle Wiggle)'. Since I couldn't remember anything of … Continue reading The Outhere Brothers – ‘Boom Boom Boom’ →