Hits 21 - 1994 (4): Wet Wet Wet, Whigfield, Take That

Episode Date: June 6, 2025

Hello everyone! Welcome back to Hits 21: The 90s.At the roundtable this week it's Rob, Ed, and Andy!This week - The Wets are all around and they're not going away, Whigfield give us the best Saturday night of our lives, and Take That are UNSURE (ha!)Email: [e-mail]: https://bsky.app/profile/hits21uk.bsky.social

Hits 21 It's 20. Hi there everyone and welcome back to Hits21, the 90s where me, Rob, me, Andy and me, Ed are looking back at every single UK number 1 of the 1990s. If you want to get in touch with us, please do email us, Hits21podcast at gmail.com. Thank you so much for joining us again. We are currently looking back at the year 1994. Last week, our episode covered 27 days and this episode will be covering the period between the 29th of May and the 22nd of October! We are skipping over the entire summer in the space of a single episode this week. Last week the poll winner, I think there's a couple of people out there trolling us, come on you Reds by the Manchester United football squad won last week.

I've got no words. Yeah nicely summed up there. I thought, I really thought I knew our listeners and that we could trust them and that things were safe between us and our listeners. But now I'm less, I feel less sure in life now. Hey, that's an appropriate word to use for this week's episode.

Speaking of which, we should get along with it. And these are some news headlines from well the summer of 1994. So in Stockport, Einborn, which is the main headline there, after three months without one the Labour Party elects Tony Blair as its new leader. The Queen opens the SIS building, which is to be the new headquarters of MI6. 29 people are killed when a helicopter crashes at Mull of Kintyre in western Scotland, and in European news, more than 800 people are killed when a cruise ferry sinks in the Baltic Sea.

A major fire destroys the Central Library in Nor Norwich along with most of its historical records. 15 year old Richard Everett is killed in a stabbing in London. Labour score a 33 point lead in the polls after the election of Tony Blair as leader and the Sunday Trading Act comes into force enabling some shops to open on Sundays with restricted hours. Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman are murdered outside their home in Los Angeles. Five days later, Chiefs suspect OJ Simpson and his friend Al Cowlings flee from police and engage in a low-speed chase. Brazil win the 1994 World Cup after beating Italy on penalties. And Pizza Hut becomes the first restaurant to allow customers to order food over the

internet. What? It's 1994? That's crazy. Yep. The films to hit the top of the UK box office during this period were as follows. After Four Weddings and a Funeral is finally knocked off the top after nine weeks we have Maverick for one week, the Flintstones

for 3 weeks, True Lies for 1 week, the Mask for 4 weeks, Clear and Present Danger for 2 weeks, Speed for 1 week, Forrest Gump for 1 week before the Lion King begins a run of 3 weeks at the top. Ian Hislop records an episode of Have I Got News For You while knowingly suffering from appendicitis. After the IRA declares a ceasefire, some radio and TV programmes lift the ban on broadcasting voices of its members. Chris Evans presents his last ever big breakfast, by which I mean he hosted the last episode of that show, not that he made a cooked breakfast for the last time. And for the first time in three years new episodes

of Brom are broadcast on the BBC and all was well. In America, considerable TV coverage is dedicated to developments in the OJ Simpson case, proving to be a key moment in the development of the 24 hour news cycle. The World Series is cancelled for the first time in almost 100 years after players in Major League Baseball go on strike And on NBC brand new comedy series Friends as its very first episode That'll never go anywhere Andy the UK album charts. How are they doing during the summer of? 94 I've actually got the longest ever for the highest volume ever of albums to talk to you about in all 15 odd Seasons of this show Wow

I've got 15 albums at number one to talk to you about so I'm gonna try and keep the pace up But we'll get through this together. We'll do it. So erasure I say I say I say that was in for I can't I can't not hear it as our Ashley No, I say I say I say I can't not hear it as I actually know I say I say I say One week and went gold that was toppled by seal by seal an album by seal That went number one for two weeks and went double platinum and then to unlimited at number one with real things Which went number one for one week and certified gold

Then we've got an album. I love the cranberries with everybody else is doing It So Why Can't We which went number one for one week and went double platinum. Ace of Base are then in at number one with Happy Nation which went number one for two weeks and went double platinum. The Prodigy next with Music for the Jilted Generation, number one for just one week and single platinum and then The Rolling Stones have their latest in what I'm sure is a long line of number ones having books up how many with Voodoo Lounge in for one week and certified gold. Then we've got Wet Wet Wet with the optimistically titled End of Part One their greatest hits which went number one for the longest amount of time anything

manages in this period it's four weeks at number one for Wet Wet Wet, which went four times platinum as well, which may sound impressive, but you know, they've got other bigger fish to fry this week, Wet Wet Wet actually, so it's actually pretty unremarkable. After that, we've got Prince with Cum, which went number one for one week and was certified gold. And then Wet Wet Wet are back in for another week at number one before a little band known as Oasis get their first number one album with their debut definitely maybe it's one and only week at number one it did go seven times platinum so it was definitely the definition of a sleeper hit definitely maybe but um it was only on for one week before the even more zeitgeisty,

cool, happening thing took over at number one which was Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras with the three tenors in concert 1994. Ban this filth. Which went number one for one week and went double platinum. The three tenors Avanette net large in Heaton Park. Yes, then we've got Eric Clapton from The Craylord. That went number one for one week and went gold. Then we've got Luther Von Dross with songs. The imaginatively titled entry from The Crooner there, which went number one for one week and single platinum. Then we've got R.E.M. with Monster,

which went number one for two weeks and went triple platinum. And the final album I've got to talk to you about this week, it's actually pretty noticeable because it's the highest selling album of 1994. Of course, as always, I mean, within the year itself, there may be something that eventually outclassed it, but within the year of 1994 itself, the highest selling album of the year, which went to number one mid October, it's Bon Jovi with with Crossroad which went number one for three weeks and went six times platinum and you may have noticed that definitely maybe did actually outsell it but within 94 yeah it was Bon Jovi which really surprises

me to be honest it doesn't sound like it was a particularly big period for him but obviously had to be there so yes we're done with that mammoth album chart. Thank you for bearing with me. So, Ed, America, how did they spend the summer of 94? Remember when movie soundtrack albums used to top the charts, as in non-musical movies? Well, maybe what modern OSTs are missing are Joy Division covers, Rage Against the Machine B-sides and household favourites like My Life

with the Thrill Kill cult. That's cult with a K I thank you very much. That's so cool. I know with a K also. That's one week at the top for the soundtrack to The Crow before, well, Baced My Apes That's one week at the top for the soundtrack to The Crow Before well based my apes its ace of base with another week at number one Now did someone say we don't have enough anachronistic white Buddhist b-boys adenoid Lee shout rapping about the freak freak I'm always saying that yeah, I know it's getting quite tired to be quite honest. But you're in luck this week Andy, because ill communication by the Beastie Boys is better than it sounds on paper. Not good enough, however, to stave off three weeks of the Stone Temple pilots with purple. Well, it's the circle of life, isn't it?

Speaking of which, Elton John skins the opposition alive and feeds off their gourd useless carrion for nine straight weeks. Classic Elton with his soundtrack to The Lion King, a movie that borrowed liberally from popular lions of the time, and it made them a lot of cash very quickly. But speaking of Disneyfication, they're back! More polite and even further besuited than before, it's Boy's Two Men with Two for Two Weeks, before they are undercut in the titular youthfulness stakes

by Eric Babyface Clapton, who's from the cradle brings tasteful Roots Blues standards to the top of the pops for one week. But from the cradle, inevitably, comes the boy, and then the man, or the men, yes the Philly Cheese Legends, return for one week of two. Yes, the Philly Cheese Legends return for one week of two. Alt Rock appears to be at its most bankable right now, as flabby mid-card R.E.M. album Monster takes the lead for two bombastic weeks. Right, singles. Erm, far less complicated.

Thank God for America's contemporary massive appetite for Schmaltzy R&B ballads. It's making my job a lot easier here. All four one are still swearing away at number one at the end of July. That's a total of 11 straight weeks they had at the top. Giving Ed more than enough opportunity to recall that the remote control

manufacturer he made that shitty joke about last week was in fact called one for all but speaking of remote all for one are sworn off by Lisa Loeb who wants you to stay because she misses you I hope you like a tepid fucking though because boys two men are offering to make love to you for 14 straight weeks at number one you know there's tantric then there's a war of attrition with a soggy noodle i just think that no one could possibly possibly want that i mean no matter how endearing and heartfelt and earnest they are,

14 weeks? I've got to go to work! I'd have to take unpaid leave! But they really, really want to make love to you, really, really though! So thank you both very much for those reports, and we are going to crack on with the first of three songs this week, and that first one is... Oh, it's this. I feel it in my toes The love is all around me And so the feeling grows

It's written on the wind It's written on the wind, it's everywhere I go, oh yeah So if you really love me, come on and let it show, oh Oh, oh, oh, oh You know I love you, I always will My mind's made up by the way that I feel There's no beginning, there'll be no end Okay, this is Love Is All Around by Wet Wet Wet. Released as the lead single from the soundtrack album to Four Weddings and a Funeral and as the lead single from the band's fourth studio album titled Picture This, Love Is All Around is Wet Wet Wet's 19th single

overall to be released in the UK and their third to reach number 1, however as of 2024 it is their last. The single is a cover of the song originally recorded by The Trogs which reached number 4 in the UK in 1967. Love is all around, first to enter the UK charts at number 4, reaching number 1 during its third week. It stayed at number 1 for 15 WEEKS! Across its 15 weeks atop the charts, it sold 1,368,000 copies, beating competition from the following songs. Baby I Love Your Way by Big Mountain and Carry Me Home by Glow Worm. Absolutely Fabulous by Pet Shop Boys, You Don't Love Me by Dawn Penn, and Since I Don't Have You by Guns N' Roses, Don't Turn Around by Ace of Base, Swamp Thing by Grid, and Anytime

You Need A Friend by Mariah Carey I Swear by All For One Go On Move by Reel2Reel Shine by Aswad and You and Me by Compella Love Ain't Here Anymore by Take That Meet the Flintstones by The B-52s and Word Up by Gun Everybody Config On by The Two Cowboys and Crazy For You by Let Loose. Regulate by Warren G and Nate Dogg and Everything Is Alright by CJ Lewis. Run to the Sun by Erasure and Searching by China Black. Let's Get Ready to Rumble by PJ and Duncan and No More by Max.

Compliments on Your Kiss by Red Dragon and What's Up by DJ Mikko. Seven Seconds by Yusu and Dora and Nenacheri and Live Forever by Oasis, 18 strings by Tin Man, I'll Make Love to You by Boys2Men and Parklife by Blur and Confide in Me by Kylie Minogue and The Rhythm of the Night by Corona. When it was knocked off the top of the charts, Love Is All Around dropped one place to number two. By the time it was done on the charts it had been inside the top 104, 43 weeks. The song is currently officially certified three times platinum it is triple platinum in the UK as of 2025 Andy you can kick us off with The Wets. Well I'm gonna start by just mentioning Born to Runner Up because although we all really enjoy doing Born to Runner Up

it's something we all look forward to there is quite a lot of work involved in that we have to listen to quite a lot of songs sometimes I'd have got number two in that year you know I think it involved in that we have to listen to quite a lot of songs sometimes that have got number two in that year You know I think it was 1992 where we had to listen to about 30 songs that piece of number two that year And I would just like to Sarcastically thank WET WET WET for the amount of extra number twos that have been launched at us for Born to Runner Up That's extra work for us in the future so thanks for that boys and I will say as well I mean I would have been far kinder perhaps if this were genuinely a really

quiet summer some of the songs you skipped over there I mean I love Rhythm of the Night I really like Live Forever I really like Confide in Me I quite like like shine as well. You know, it's just that's a real shame The amount of stuff we can also interject because there was a flurry of memories from that huge Litany of singles you mentioned Rob and the first single I ever bought on cassette is among them Swamp thing by by the grid was the first single I ever bought Oh lovely if it were a genuinely quiet period and suddenly just dominated, which is so often the case in the modern day charts,

I wouldn't really be that fussed about the length of stay here, but it's difficult for me to judge this and not be quite harsh on it because this is one of those things that I have to accept is a big deal. But to me, it's not at all because I'm too young to remember this being number one. I've never seen Four Weddings in a funeral and I don't really hear this song about that much. Like I know it and I know it's one of the things that just factually I know it's a big deal,

but it's never been for me at all. Not to the extent that other big long stayers have been a big deal in popular culture. It just never felt that way to me to be honest. Maybe it's because I've never seen Four Weddings. And ironically enough, the first thing I would think of with this, well, one of the first things I would think of with this is it's used in another Richard Curtis movie where Bill Nighy sings this in Love Actually as his Christmas single, The Christmas All Around Me. That's what I know this from. The other thing that I chiefly remember this for is the version of it that we used to sing as kids. I'm sure it's not just my circle of kid friends that

used to do this, which is, I feel it in my finger, I feel it in my nose. You pick it and you flick it and see how far it goes. Probably add other verses, but I don't know. We've not got that much time. But anyway, so I have to kind of try and engage with the mood of the time, a time that I wasn't there for and that I've never really felt the legacy of, to be honest. And I'm kind of struggling. Like this is fine, but I think this is one of those songs where its greatest strength is also its greatest weakness

where like the scales just balance and result in something that's kind of a true neutral to me to be honest which is its simplicity and its repetitiveness which is that there's just no surprises to this at all it's quite a catchy refrain that feeling in my fingers and then you go into a chorus that's quite gives you a little bit of a lift you can sort of sway your arms to get a little bit of firework rain and then it's the exact same verse and chorus again like each of the three sections you know the verse chorus, verse chorus and then bridge chorus they all last like exactly a third of the song like it's just completely by rote there's no

surprises in this at all and that in some senses is great as strength because it means it's straight down the line solid pop bombshell that's gone off in the charts really that people instantly connect to that everybody knows really easy you can hear it once and remember it you know but that's also its greatest weakness because it means when you're trying to analyze it and get some grist from the mill it's just there's nothing really there's nothing to this and it doesn't help that Marty Pello's voice continues to be just, there's no expression in it at all.

I've been thinking a lot about Goodnight Girl recently because that's one of those ones that stuck around and percolated after we did that. And I actually quite like that. I think I would maybe notch up a couple of points if we went back to it now, because I actually really like that. I think I would maybe not shut up a couple of points if we went back to it now because I actually really quite liked Good Night Girl that that's sort of stuck around in my memory but I've always suspected that I maybe might really love that if it had a singer with

more expression that it's kind of kneecapped by that voice to be honest and I think with this as well I can't help but think about other acts that are around right now that I'm not the biggest fan of 90s take that as we will get to in a bit, spoilers, but I do think they would have done a better job with this to be honest and I think there's plenty of faces around in the 90s who I would have liked to have here sing this more than... to be honest so it doesn't get me excited. I'm not that enlightened as to why it was such a big hit except that it's really really catchy like to an annoying degree obviously had big pop cultural osmosis going on but to me this

is just like fine this is fine I'm kind of mystified to be honest this feels like a completely different era to the one I grew up in which is weird because I was alive at this time and I have really strong memories of five six years after this point but this this is a mystery to me to be honest no not for me that's interesting I thought I was going to be the least positive about this but apparently not um I felt like coming into this I couldn't lay into it too hard because I know my mum will be listening and she's always held very deep affection for this song. She's a fan of the Wets, she's a fan of Four Weddings at a Funeral,

I was born when this song was number one. I think if somebody could craft a perfect scenario for her where a song by a band she liked in a film she loved was number one when her son was born, then yeah, okay yeah okay like you know this would be pretty much the perfect thing you know she's another person like me who can't help but I mean obviously everybody associates pop songs with stuff from the past but it kind of goes deeper than that for both of us I think it goes deeper than association it's like they get welded and the two cannot be separated in our minds.

She's not a big fan of Kanye West, the Pussycat Dolls, the White Stripes or Rihanna, but she absolutely adores Gold Digger, Don't Ya, My Doorbell and Ponder Replay because they were all on the radio constantly during a particularly memorable holiday. It's like the two things are like fused, not just like, oh, I associate this song with this time. It's like they've become unable to be separated at all. They are totally conjoined. Every tendril is tied to every tendril of the other, such as the extremity of her relationship with certain songs. So with all that said, I was worried that if I didn't like it, I'd have to slag off something that's so close to my mum's heart that, like, she'd have to sever an artery to separate

it. Like, it's, you know, it really is that, like, that kind of close to her heart. What a relief, though, that I actually think this is sort of okay. I think it's slightly dreary, and I prefer the kind of confused and slightly aloof mannerisms of the Troggs version, as opposed to the slightly too literal and slightly too sweet sincerity of this, but much like Good Night Girl I think this slowly worked its way under my skin just by virtue of it being sort of sort of understated. It's a slightly understated version I think of what it is in terms of delivery and execution. It's big but it's not massive. It's slightly dreary but it's not dull.

It fills the mix without overpowering me too much. I think there are a handful of neat-ish compositional terms as well, bits of foreshadowing here and there, certain parts are rephrased. They sort of do that Max Martin thing as well, of repeating the same lyrics but with a slightly different rhythm and emphasis. This version has a tiny bit of early 80s to mid 80s Bee Gees flavor about it as well. I know that's not exactly a peak phase of theirs, but I've always been a bigger fan of You Win Again than most people. It feels like something that was written

during the same sessions as something like Islands in the Stream though, or Someone Belonging to Someone, which I think was on the soundtrack to the film that nobody remembers was the sequel-ish to Saturday Night Fever, which was staying alive in 1983. There was a whole film, but it feels like something from that era of their career, where it's kind of decorative and ornate in ways that are quite deceptive. Its wider arrangement has little bits to be interested in. Like I said, I think it's kind of decorative and ornate in ways that are quite deceptive. Its wider arrangement has little bits to be interested in.

Like I said, I think it's a bit dreary and drippy in spots. I'm never going to be bowled over by a cover that's kind of like this, but I think it's sweet, tender enough. I'm glad I don't have much negative to say for my mum's sake. And as much as I don't really understand the 15 weeks thing, I don't think it's possible because, yes, I was alive, but I would have to be like, you know, compasmentous, I would have to be aware that the context for me is kind of gone.

It just kind of feels like, you know, a film was really massive and a song was really massive and they were both basically part of the same product. And so for about three to four months, people were obsessed with it. And there was a fair bit to challenge it. Like you were saying, Andy, this wasn't a quiet period for the charts, lots of behemoths going past there, lots of big sales, presumably going past as well. But if the Wets are doing over a hundred thousand a week for like six weeks, seven weeks on the trot, it's going to be pretty hard to unseat it. And so yeah, I think, you know, back in those days, 30 years ago, I think you had to, you know, like nowadays,

you can just get songs stuck at number one for 10 weeks because there's nothing else happening. Whereas in the nineties, it was like, if you were number one for 15 weeks, you got to earn it. You got to get people out there. You got to get people leaving their houses to pick up CDs and exchange physical cash to do it. It's not like you can get to number one by making sure that every single shop in the country adds you to their Saturday chill playlist or whatever and kind of get to number one by entirely by passive streams. So yeah, not really my thing, but much like Good Night Girl, although I like Good Night Girl a lot more than this

Yeah, kind of a tentative thumbs up over this. So Ed, what about you? I should hate this really shouldn't I? Should you? Well, it's just it was it was everywhere for a very long time In a very Costner ish Brian Adams II kind of way if you get my drift. I remember the video distinctly, even though it wasn't an interesting video, which probably shows how much I was watching Top of the Pops and The Chart Show on ITV at the time. Do you remember The Chart Show with the little fake computer icons? Anybody? There'll be a few people listening going, yes, yes. It did, and it was like, oh, look at it, it's like on a Mac.

And it would have the music video, and it would have like little folders and recycle bin at the bottom. And there would be a little like pixelated logo of a mouth. And if the Phantom presenter slash mouse user clicked on the mouth, it would put lyrics up or facts about the song.

So basically it's a bit like what Top of the Pops 2 became, but with modern music. Anyway, a completely pointless diversion. But if any song is going to bring out the sad nostalgic in me, it's this. There wasn't a thing special about the video, as I mentioned, it was just one of those things where, you know, it's clips of the band shot very tastefully with clips of the film being, you know, carried around by people on big sort of projector

boards and things. That's about it. But I remember being riveted. I think that's unusual in itself for a song as big as this to not have a video that's Memorable or iconic in any way that's blasted that I think that's unusual in itself You would think that you would go hand-in-hand because almost everything that's massive from the 80s 90s 70s even you know You remember the video. It's unusual. Yeah, but it was a tie-in with a film though I think and at the time it was just far more common to have

Music videos that just show clips of the film with clips of the band like really badly composited onto them or something It was things that get more interesting later on but But yeah, I do remember really really really liking this song and remember really really really liking this song. Obviously didn't like it enough not to buy Swamp Thing by The Grid instead when I went to Smith's or whatever but then I don't recall Wet Wet Wet appearing on top of the pops playing a banjo under a hairdryer unless I'm not much mistaken which was very much a plus point to my eight year old brain in the grid's favour. But I think it's a very solid song. I mean, that's the troggs credit

more than Wet Wet Wet. Not that Wet Wet Wet haven't written solid songs. The lyrics are kind of poop, but they are memorable and bit of the double-edged sword with what you were saying Andy about Marty Pello having no real palpable struggle in his voice it's just there and on the other hand it's like he can just sing anything I think and he's not ashamed even if he just sang that poopidy scoop thing that bloody Kanye West did when he bought that Drake beat and yeah did that over it so Drake couldn't use it, yeah. I could still imagine, you know, Marty Pello just grinning away kind of anonymously, you know, tunefully bashing that one out in front of a crowd, not having any idea what he's saying.

Bit like Ella Fitzgerald. While I get where you're coming from, Andy, with the repetitive first chorus, first chorus things, it does feel very simple. I mean, do bear in mind this was like a mid-60s ballad by a guitar group. It wasn't going to be hyper-complicated. They were the same group that did fucking wild things. But I do think just enough is introduced here to stop it getting stale or being too repetitive. Harmonies are introduced in later parts of the first verse

and later on to actually thicken up the sound a little bit. I think Marty Pellow himself actually, well, I'm not a fan of his over singing always. It just seems to be, you know, a thing that he does rather than anything that means anything. It does help mix things up. So like the, if you really love me, love me, come on and let it show.

It does at least vary things. So it's not just one note. And also I really like the way strings are incorporated into this. They're quite graceful. They're not overly ornamented and they're doing clever little things in the background again, to mix things up. Like in the second verse I noticed that they go pizzicato, and they're accompanying the lead guitar line The big blink blink blink blink blink blink blink and like that's a neat little touch. There's little things

Going on that just stopped me getting a getting weary of it of course There's this big cloud of nostalgia hanging over the whole thing for me, although I'm not the most nostalgia driven person in the world. I mean, are they honest? I don't think I've heard this song since about the mid 90s and I expected it to have lost a lot in many, many, many successive it washes, but I still really like this for my sins. It is a little bombastic, the guitars are a bit OTT, and at the end it kind of wanders off into a bit of, you know, a pointless pan-padder solo, but it just fades out very quickly,

so you're not left with that sort of pseudo Guns N' Roses wankery for very long. And one thing I will say, and this is a comparison not everyone might agree with, I think this is a song that doesn't undermine... none of this big production undermines the meaning of the song. It still sounds like a bright, fresh, innocent love song, which is what effectively it is. It doesn't sound, in spite of what I may have indicated there by some of the instrumentation, completely over the top and cock-rockish and, you know, melodramatic. It isn't.

As you say, Robert, it's surprisingly understated, even with those elements in play. And I will compare it to another cover version of a 60s song and That I think completely obliterates the meaning of the track for me at least which is Joe Cocker's version of a little help from My friends which some people adore and I will give it credit for trying something different with the song But I think it fucking destroys it for the sake of virtuosity and nothing else. It's a song of immense vulnerability, if you look at it, and that's for me what I think makes it so perfect that they got Ringo to sing it.

It was like, if they only wheeled him out for one song, unfortunately they wheeled him out for more than that, I think that was the one to do, you know, because it is weak, it is a shy vocal, but that's what the song is about. And he's kind of almost being prompted on to actually, you know, go out of the door and into the wider world. And instead you get this big hairy white bloke going, do you need anybody? Where are you? No! hairy white bloke going

It's like shut up what is the point of this you loud prick anyway what we're talking about? Oh, yes wet wet wet Yeah, I like this. I like this and I don't know whether I should be suspicious of You know the fact that I do because it is so embedded for me in my youth and whether I just can't question it, whether it was fed to me over consistent weeks of, of tele-goggling to such an extent that I no longer have access to rationality, I don't know. But I like this song. I think it's tasteful, I think it's not over the top, and I think it's well performed, and it's a good song. That's, yeah, that's where I stand on it. I do think there's a large amount of had to be there with it, to be honest. I think that's

coming across from what we're all saying really, because like, I do agree with you that despite how massive it must have been at the time, it does feel like, well, no one, no disrespect to Rob's mom, perish the thought, love Rob's mom, but I just feel like no one really listens to this anymore. Like you don't hear it around. Like it's sort of gone, this song. And it's not been that long, it's only been 30 years, you know, and yeah, it does feel like it's entered that had to

be there kind of space now, which songs that were as massive as this don't usually have that kind of factor to them. So yeah, it's a bit strange just once me comparing it to the one that we've actually got coming up next. I feel like love is all around hasn't been passed down the generations in the way that the next one has. If you know what I mean? Yeah, oh definitely, I agree, yeah.

So that second song is this. I'll make you mine, you know I'll take you to the top I'll drive you crazy Saturday night dance, I like the way you move Pretty baby It's party time and not one minute we can lose Be my baby Be my baby Da ba da dum dee dee da dee da da da Pretty baby This is Saturday Night by Wigfield. Released as the lead single from their debut studio album titled Wigfield, Saturday Night is Wigfield's first single to be released in the UK and

their first to reach number one, however as of 2025 it is their last. Saturday Night first entered the UK charts at number 95, reaching number 1 during its sixth week. It stayed at number 1 for...FOUR WEEKS! Across its four weeks atop the charts, it sold 685,000 copies, beating competition from the following songs. Endless Love by Luther Vandrossa Mariah Carey, What's the Frequency Kenneth by R.E.M., An Incredible by M-Beat, Always by Bon Jovi, Hey Now by Cyndi Lauper, Stay by Lisa Lerner Nine Stories and Steam by E17, and Secret by Madonna, Baby Come Back by Pat O'Banton and Sweetness by Michelle Gayle. When it was knocked off the top of the charts, Saturday Night dropped 1 place

to number 2. By the time it was done on the charts it had been inside the top 100 for 19 weeks. The song is currently officially certified 2x platinum in the UK it is double platinum as of 2025 Ed Wigfield how we feeling on Saturday night well this is one that made it home unlike wet wet wet because I don't know how he would feel about this now I'm not sure where his tastes lie my brother bought this one on cassette and we loved it. I don't know what else to say. I think of all of the Euro pop hits, of which there were many, a lot of which I didn't even realise at the time were Euro pop hits, this is probably the one that had the biggest lasting impact for me. And it's still really good.

It's, I've not got a huge amount to say about it. It's very simple. It's arranged in a kind of dance fashion where it's the same sort of elements but they're built up and then reduced and little, little tweaks, you know, little vocal hooks here and there to mix things up, but it's very simple elements.

But I think what actually makes this lasting and not just, you know, cheerful and disposable is that piano. I think it's the piano that makes the track that unresolved suspended chord almost that it just refuses to land. Solved suspended chord almost that it just refuses to land it creates this sort of sense of Sense of tension and a lack of resolution to the song as a whole and so it has this sense of excitement To it. It's it's full of Anticipation and it doesn't blow its load

If you'll forgive the expression, that's, that's what you'll find on Prince's Come instead literally. Yes, literally the last track. Yes. Yeah but Yeah, I I don't know what else to say This really does feel like it's It's in my blood somewhere, but time has not dulled it and going back to it, it is a pleasure to listen to. It's fun, but it's not mindless. There is something else there. There is something to temper it and make it feel a little bit more nuanced than you might expect, but you know, everybody knows it and everybody has fun from the opening duck to the yiddie-yiddie-yiddie

to all of the little interjections throughout it. People have this mapped in their head, I think, whether they were there or not. Good stuff. Yeah. For me, before I start my thoughts on the song, I have a little story that about 12 months ago, maybe a little less than 12 months ago, at Metro where I work, we had this idea to interview Sani from Wigfield, the singer, because it was 30 years since Wigfield was at number one. And so we were going to do this whole thing, like, you know, like, oh, we talked to the artist that ended the longest run on the number one for like,

you know, forever or whatever. And so I got chatting to her agent. We got as far as speaking to her agent and her agent was like trying to have a conversation with me on the, on the car phone while she was stuck in traffic somewhere in London. And then it was about half five, six o'clock in the evening. And then she said, yeah, yeah, yeah. She said, this all sounds great. She said, yeah, we'll get back to you. We'll get back to you.

Got an email on like a couple of days later and she said, Oh, Sania said she'll do the interview if you pay her 250 pounds. We were like, yeah, we don't do that. So we got we got 250 pounds away from interviewing Wigfield. Oh, that's a shame. Yeah. I think Saturday Night is great. It's probably the first 90 song we've done

where I recall basically every inch of it. Like you were saying, Ed, you know, everybody has this mapped out in one way or another. And I feel like it's been with me for my entire life, which it technically has, it's the first of those in the 90s that I can say that for but it's inclusion on disco party playlists, wedding playlists means I've had all sorts of time to love this, hate this, get to know this, understand this in a way I haven't really understood most of the songs that we've covered in the 90s thus far. I have to be honest, I have already reviewed this in text form on RateYourMusic.com, so I'm just gonna kind of lift my transcript from there

and hope that it does it justice in this kind of podcast slash radio format. More than anything, this reminds me of being 11 years old at my last ever school disco in 2005. And I realized basically for the first time in my life that I actually like, oh, this is what it's like to have a crush on someone. This is what it's like to fancy someone. Because I was like, you know, you hear about all this stuff about loving films and like, you don't really understand it.

And then it's like, if this feeling comes over you where you just want to be nearer all the time and you don't really know why. She was in my class at school, didn't really know what it felt like at the time, as I said, didn't have the language to describe my feelings to myself. I just knew that I wanted to be around her all the time

and that she made me feel warm in my shoulders very specifically. And at the school disco, she was dancing to this song with her friends and they were doing the dance moves. You know, you used to put your hand under your elbow, didn't you? And then twist your finger around or something.

And you'd go, while going from one hand to the other or something. I forget all of the routine. They didn't. They were really committing to it. I just stood watching them for a few seconds. I was like, by the end of primary school, I was kind of one of those people who, in the words of Fall Out Boy, sat dances out on the wall.

I just stood watching them for a few seconds, knowing that we were going to different schools and that I would never see her again. And I don't know, would she care? I don't know. And I thought about, for a good while, I thought about going up and doing this thing I'd seen people do on TV and films and stuff where like, in an innocent way, just kind of going up to her and kissing her on the cheek,

but the size of the potential for like embarrassment scared me too much and I just let it slip away. I just didn't bother. And so like, you know, with Saturday Night, I think like, you know, it's silly, it's friendly, it's at least superficially unsophisticated in a way that a lot of 90s pure dance pop of this type is. Another one I'm kind of thinking that's similar to this is Gina G. Very, very like open about the

fact that it's not necessarily like all surface level, but you know what I mean. But Ed, like you, that piano is the thing that really gets me. When that piano comes in with the mix just after the minute mark, it transitions from being this giddy song about getting ready for a Saturday night and I think it transforms into something quite wistful full of yearning like this perspective Saturday night is the last one that you're ever going to have. I think it acknowledges that time is fleeting in a way and that youth is short. It really reminds me of ABBA's Dancing Queen. This sound of happiness and innocence kind of slipping away. Somebody with hindsight knowing that this is the end of something and so let's make the most of it sort of thing.

You know, I have loads of happy memories associated with this song and I think we all understood the message in the end that it is best to you know seize the moment while you can instead of letting it slip away if you know what I mean. I think there's something really in it in this. I think like it's not a 10 out of 10 for me I still yeah the duck noises the little things but there's just something so melancholic about this. There's something now I think it just you know know, it reminds you of a, I think because it's so simple ostensibly on the surface, it makes you think of simple things. It makes you think of nights with simple dynamics and easy dynamics that,

you know, like everybody knows what to do at a school disco. Everybody knows the feelings that are associated with it. Everybody knows how to, you know, what to do when what to do at a school disco, everybody knows the feelings that are associated with it, everybody knows how to, you know, what to do when it comes on at a wedding party sort of thing. It's like a call. It's like a call to dance in a way, and it's very primal in that way. But yeah, I've really fallen for this over the years.

I love this slice of bubblegum that suddenly appeared. It's very plasticky, it's very synthetic. I love this slice of bubblegum that suddenly appeared. It's very plasticky. It's very synthetic. All like the song that Wigfield did after Saturday night, the the first single they released afterwards, then another day. If anybody listens to that, it does exactly the same thing. Like literally right down to the piano coming in just after the minute mark. It does exactly the same thing. And all it really does is kind of prove how kind of uniquely special

I think Saturday night was and remains. So Andy, do you feel similarly? Yes I do, I do and I think that would be any surprise to anyone really because I think this is one of those songs where maybe not everybody, well certainly not everybody loves it or adores it or has any particularly strong feelings about it but it is one of those songs where I kind of struggle to think surely nobody like dislikes this like you think it's like the definition of a crowd pleaser really where it's like surely almost everybody would give this like at least a five or a six out of ten like it's it's very hard to dislike this because it it treads that line really well between simplicity minimalism and like inoffensiveness where it's not inoffensive

it's not like bland but it's very light of touch so light light of touch, like it never really like blasts your ears off it's all nice classy stately kind of sounds that are in there, this is very pleasant and I think it's really hard to not go with this to at least some extent, I mean you both said most of what I was gonna say to be honest and I find myself in the unusual position which has happened a few times before where we've had a song that's like yeah this is just like kind of really good in an uncomplex way and actually have very little to say like wave it through you know like this is really good I remember we were all like that about Lola's theme by the Shape Shifters it's like yeah this is just

really good in a way that doesn't require much analysis some songs are just like that and I sort of feel like that about this I also funnily enoughily enough, agree about Gina G that I've always felt, I have to think about why this is, but they've always felt like they occupy a really similar space and like people do sort of get them confused, Gina G and Wigfield, the two songs. So I have to think about why that is. I actually quite like the duck noises. I think that's like a little bit of playfulness in a song that otherwise could be a little bit too restrained and a little bit too minimal. Having a little bit of a sense of fun in there

right from the start where it's like a little bit of a silliness, a bit of a kind of blowing a raspberry with your tongue, you know, it kind of feels like it needs that just to kind of get those party vibes going the diddy da da da thing as well like gives it that stamp of uniqueness that something like this needs that gives it again a little bit of a quirk that you're like what's that about everybody has their own kind of joke and their own like memory to do that diddy da da da mine is me and my sister uh we always used to because my mom and dad watched ITV news and there was a reporter

Presenter on ITV news. Don't know if she still does it called Nina Nana Yeah, ours was Nivea Visage because there were ads for that at the time. Nivea Visage But everyone's kind of got their own thing with that So I think it's got a really nice balance of it keeps a quirk into just the right level where it's got the quack noise, it's got the dee da da da. It's got like enough surprises in there to keep you interested, but there's not like a whole lot on there. You know, it's not a whole lot of meat on the bones really.

I think it's interesting that it front loads everything into the first minute. Like it comes straight out the gate with right here's the funny little quirky sounds here's the verse here's the chorus here's the piano bit and here's the does it all in about a minute and 10 or something which is great for a song like this because it's like yep i'm gonna throw hook after hook after hook at you and yeah you've got me great like that's that's what a party song needs to do, really, whether it's the Macarena or the YMCA, whatever you need to front load everything. But it does have the downside to it, which is the main thing I would mark it down on, which is that it runs out of steam so quickly. Like this is only like a couple of minutes long, but I really feel like it could have stopped at about two minutes because like this is nothing else happening here.

about two minutes because like this is nothing else happening here and there's a episode of Inside Number Nine, I can't remember the name of the episode actually but it's the one that's set in a karaoke bar all the way through and they have this really funny scene where Sarah Hadland's character, they're all singing karaoke on a work night out like they've hired the karaoke bar and Sarah Hadland's character is just like in this northern plain voice singing her way through this and they just let her do the whole last minute where she's going like saturday saturday saturday night saturday night about about four times like uninterrupted and then she just goes gosh that song is quite repetitive isn't it so yeah i've always thought you, there's not like that much to keep me interested really, but just need to keep your interest very long because the nature of a song like this is that it is fun, it's frothy, it's ephemeral, you know, it's meant to be

like putting your makeup on, sing along to it, don't think about it for the rest of the night. So it does its job very, very well with that. And I've got nothing else bad to say about it. It's just nice to hear this, yeah. And I think it's... I think there are... There's just enough memorable stuff just, like, put in, like, little... little raisins towards the end. It's party time, oh! That really helps. That really helps. Yeah, that really helps.

Ah, ah, ah! I don't know whether it's just I've heard it so often, but these things stick out from, yeah, admittedly, like like you say what becomes quite Horizontal after a while as something Rather striking but again that might just be because of exposure more than anything else I will say though as an as an early kind of shot to fire I genuinely don't know whether this is gonna stay the case because I've not listened to it for the future year But if we're talking about Gina and a G versus Wigfield,

I think I prefer G and a G to this. So we'll see whether that remains the case when we get there. I think that might be a bit of a hot take, but I think I prefer just a little bit to this. Okay, yeah, well, okay, yeah. We've got future episodes for you to explain that. I mean, I said, you know, that I preferred flat beat to dupe. So, you know, we're flat beat to dupe so you know

we're both gonna have to state our cases in the future. So okay the third and final song this week is this. I'm so sorry. Feel it movin', feel it movin' Thank you so much Yeah, yeah Sure, sure, sure, sure And it's real love afoul I'm sitting here blind into my lover Lover Last time we met I wasn't so sure

Not so sure Now I'm hoping, maybe dreaming When we met I wasn't so sure That's so sure Now I'm hoping, baby dreaming For a life as one When she reads this I'm hoping she'll call Call me baby I need more, much more than before I need positive reactions

Whenever I'm down But I'm sure, so sure Okay, this is Shaw by Take That. Released as the lead single from the group's third studio album titled Nobody Else, Shaw is Take That's 13th single to be released in the UK and their 5th to reach number 1, and it's not the last time we'll be coming to take that on this podcast. Shaw went straight in at number one as a brand new entry and it stayed at number one for two weeks. In its first week atop the charts it sold 115,000 copies in a week where there were no new entries in the top 10 and in week 2 it sold 81,000 copies, beating competition from Cigarettes and Alcohol by Oasis, which got to number 7, Welcome to Tomorrow by Snap,

which climbed to number 9, and She's Got That Vive by Robert Silvesta Kelly, which climbed to number 10. When it was knocked off the top of the charts Shaw fell three places to number four. By the time it was done on the charts it had been inside the top 100 for 15 weeks. The song is currently officially certified silver in the UK as of 2025. Andy you can kick us off with sure sure sure sure sure though he said that it was like Sean Connery playing tennis at Turner's and I'm getting a bit fed up to be honest at this point I mean take that they've established themselves as the Westlife essentially of the 90s in the sense that everything they release, not only in a child's sense, not necessarily musical sense, but in the sense that everything they release, everything,

is going in at number one. They really could just release a sneeze or a yawn or a fart and it would get to number one. No one's ever tested that theory, but I feel like we would have been top 10 at least if they just released bodily sounds. Like it means that they don't have to try particularly hard in the way that actually you both talked about earlier with Lovers All Around that you have to kind of hit something in the zeitgeist a lot of the time in the 90s, you have to get people to go out and buy it. Different story would take that where you know you've got such a built-in fan base that you don't have to try very hard at least if you want to get one week at number one, you know, you don't have to try very hard at all and

I'm just kind of starting to get quite irritated with how I Don't even know if low efforts the phrase but basically just kind of low quality and so cheap and nasty A lot of these early take that song seemed to be to be honest I know that we've got really good stuff right around the corner off this same album. I already found that today actually. I couldn't believe that the songs that we've got coming up in 95 from the same album as this. Yeah, the album's a piece.

And in 2005 onwards, well not onwards, but that brief period in the noughties, I think they do some absolutely excellent music. You know, they have a very clear place in pop culture they found their niche that no one quite does what they do in the noughties and I think they're absolutely welcome and in the mid 90s at least you know in 95 I guess for a brief period they do become quite interested and have some really genuinely good ballads at this point though they're barely even recognisable as the same group, like they just seem like musack to me at this point and this is not the very worst one that we've had from Tic Tac so far. That is definitely Babe which was like excruciatingly awful actually, I thought that

was but Gary Barlow just has not got his knack for ballads yet, it's just not there or at least it's on this album but it isn't here because this is like we once again have got this problem of choruses in early Take That songs where this one is barely a chorus at all it's just that one little line there so so so and it's like it just sort of goes and then repeats the sure, so sure thing again. It's like, that's not a chorus. It's just like a sound. And I just think there's a lot of easy points to this where they're just using kind of relevant

sounds from the time, which in retrospect sound really tacky and really dated. I can imagine the video has a lot of kind of gyrating and moving and going, sure, and like flexing your abs at the same time and stuff but I just I'm just really ahead of not here for this and the more I've listened to it especially today actually I've just kind of gone off it. It's not bad it's just like we're in a period of music right now that's really genuinely exciting you know we've not yet not yet had a Britpop number one, but Britpop is happening in the album charts and it's happening below the surface of number one. Alternative Rock, as Ed mentioned earlier, is really exploding right now.

We've had other really good songs recently and like have nearly got number one or have got number one in the case of Saturday Night. You know, 95 is just around the corner, which is more interesting than this. And you know, once we get into 96, 97 just explodes with fantastic songs. We're in quite an exciting time for music and take that. I've just taken so many slots at number one and not justifying them. So it's I'm hoping this is the last time I'll have to have a rant about it. Hoping that. But no, this is not for me at all.

And in fact, the more I'm talking about it I can feel my opinion of it sliding as I talk so I'm gonna let them off the hook and stop here yeah Oh Ed can you interject before they slide right into the pie hole for Andy? Erm I might help him out actually I might grease the wheels of its ultimate damnation. But the sad thing is, Andy, I really think Gary Barlow is trying here. I think this is him trying hard.

It is Muzak, though, it is. And I think in his head, he's like Jodeci or fucking Cameo or something. But he's like jodesy or fucking cameo or something but he's not he's he's Gary Barlow that is his crime it is also his punishment I'm actually into this kind of slouchy jazzy 90s kind of loungy R&B, but it really really really hinges on charisma. It really does. It does. Vibe. There's something wonderfully sultry about it when it's done right. It can be really appealing and all consuming and warming. It's good. This is incredibly competent. He knows

what this stuff sounds like. He knows how to write it, I can hear all the wheels turning in the right way, but this is more or less a complete failure. They should have been having nothing to do with, you know, the new Jack Swing and derivative sound at all, because Gary Barlow has not an ounce of sexuality in the way he presents himself at all. People might find him pretty, but, and they might find something sexy in his vulnerability and his, you know, his nice, his nice abs.

But, you know, I honestly, there's one person, another big chart hitter, who he reminds me of. And I had an image in my head when I was listening to this for like the third time for my sins of him just sitting next to Cliff Richard basically just asking in turn technical questions about sex to nobody like that red like that red letter media review of Prometheus Yes So it just be Gary saying like if the Lord meant for us to procreate in that way Why did he feel the experience with such inherent shame?

And then cliff is like if the Virgin Mary could get away with skipping it, why can't we? And then Gary would be like, does the penis have to be involved? Or could you use some sort of long slim delivery tube like the feeding catheters they use in hospital? Oh, I'm really, really feeling the urge to do my Gary Barlow impression here because I just Love the imagery that you're presenting here With our cliff the point the point you've made that cliff is absolutely fantastic You see it's very taxing which is ironic really You see it's very taxing, which is ironic really

Do you know the thing is that I do resent this song because it is such a mismatch and a misfire But I know full well that if this was performed by Earth Wind and Fire in the early 80s I wouldn't be complaining if it was off fucking power light or something. I'll be probably having a great old time, but I'm sorry Gary Barlow is deathly here. It's just, it's so hollow. It's fine in the most bland way possible. And I was trying to think, like, who, he sounds like somebody. Somebody from, you know,

doing something a little bit spoofy. And I was like, is it Frankie Avalon in Grease doing the beauty school dropout thing? And then I saw it and I was like, no, it's... It's harsh on him, yeah. It wasn't that, it wasn't that. No, he's got too much charisma and I'm like, well, I know what it is, but it's another one of my foggy references no one's going to get. And it's not only its age, it's the fact that I think only 12 people saw this movie. But it got to such a point where I was anticipating

this completely falling on dead air. So I actually posted a clip from this movie in the chat earlier on and said, look, I'm going to make a grand reference please I'm not gonna give you the context but but you know give give give me this But I realized who he sounds like and the effect it has is it's weird Al Yankovic singing the the theme from spy hard now

spy hard while it predated Austin Powers, it wasn't as good and it was truly buried in history by Austin Powers. However, Weird Al does a very good job of being a NAF, pretty much sexless crooner singing this song about women and death at the beginning. being a naff, pretty much sexless crooner singing this song about women and death at the beginning. And I like to think that when Gary Barlow

is maneuvering around his huge house of imbordge wasmen tat, I like to think that he plays the theme from Spy Hard in his head, sort of ducking behind doorways and doing little fumbly rolls behind sofas. And he doesn't even know that this was a spoof and he doesn't even know what it was spoofing because to him, they might as well be the same thing. You know, Weird Al singing in like a fucking cravat or something about guns is equally sexy on paper as, I don't know, think of somebody sexy from the 60s.

Somebody, you know, crooner singer from the 60s, somebody help me out here. Well there wasn't a lot of sex in pop in the 60s really, so slim pickings there. Yeah, no, okay, in his mind it's... I'm gonna say George Harrison. I'm just gonna say it, George Harrison. Yeah. He's the sexiest Beatle. It's a fact. Alright, yeah, but I think it's all very textual for Gary. He doesn't really read into the delivery side of it other than it's delivered correctly, it's delivered correctly in terms of pitch and in terms of rhythm and he doesn't get that he has made a sex song that sounds like an analytical diagram and

This is I mean I I like take that even of this era, but this is crap But I can't hate it, because it is well written. It's just so misguided. It's so misguided. And as I say, it's just super disappointing that the album it's off, which has, I should say, album versions, which aren't as good, of two singles we will be covering that I like considerably more than this one is full of stuff like this which is just sort of stuff that they should never have touched it is not them it is not their world maybe Robbie could pull it off with a bit of a cheeky bastardization but fucking hell Gary Barlow he could write this for someone else but he

should not be performing this. So how many people in the audience expected Spy Hard to come up this week? That's... You guys ready for my awesome joke? Oh yeah. More like unsure. It's weird for this to be a lead single. Oh, so funny.

Oh my god, thank you. It's weird for this to be a lead single, isn't it? Because I'm not sure how confident they were with this. I'm not getting confidence from the material like you had. They seemed like they're just dipping their toes in to New Jack's swing, but sound a bit frightened of fully committing to the bit. It kind of starts off like a Lionel Richie thing with that weird kind of baseball organ, you know, bring ding ding like electric piano thing. Then it goes a bit American. And I'm not entirely certain that they're certain that this is the best path for the song to take. I feel like

whenever Gary's singing, he's trying to pull it back into familiar territory where we've been before, where he's usually been singing before while the producers and maybe Gary with ideas above his station, they're trying to drag it drag take that into a more hip future. I don't know Gary's always been very comfortable as a balladeer like that's his thing and I feel as though this is a few BPM too fast for him and he's trying to resist. So it makes for something that is curious to hear but kind of empty and it seems like, lyrically, it's a bit of a sequel to Everything Changes because it's about communicating through a long-distance relationship it seems, like it's about a letter or a phone call or whatever, but none of this is particularly engaging as a pop thing. It's more curious,

like, it's like watching something in a museum where it's like, or it's like watching two things try to combine themselves and it's not working. But yeah, I'm surprised that this is the lead single and I'm surprised that it's the same album as Never Forget and Back 4 Good, which are both much, much stronger than this and also tonally completely different, but still very much with intake that's remit so yeah i will finish what i said by saying what i said at the start which is that this being the this being the thing to launch nobody else always been a bit of a surprise to me but hey commercially it made sense they sold a shit ton but i don't know i think if they'd have gone with

something like never forget as like the big lead single, I think we could have been pushing 200,000 sales. I really think, I mean, obviously over 100,000, yeah, definitely, but take that as the relaunch. Maybe it's because Howard sings that rather than Gary and they wanted Gary to bring them back, but maybe Back 4 Good might have been better, but yeah, I don't know. But I think it's very telling. It's very telling that we have to get into the maybes and think about why, because it is so unusual that this is the lead single when you've got

Back For Good and Never Forget sat right there on the shelf waiting to be released. That I think it's probably closer to what Ed said, where it's like they actually have no idea what's good for them and what isn't. Like, they actually don't know what they're doing right and what they're doing wrong. They're just throwing stuff out there and have no real game plan of where they're going as artists because they don't seem to know that they've got two absolute bulls eyes waiting here and they put this out as the lead single. I think they're just flying by the seat of their pants, I think is what's happening here. Ed, love is all around Saturday Saturday night and sure, how are we feeling?

Well in terms of wet, wet, wet, the feeling may not have grown, but it hasn't shrunk either, which surprised me. I might dive on any credibility I may possibly have accrued at this point, citation needed, by vaulting. Yes! needed by vaulting Yeah Yeah, I surprised myself with this one, but I do like it and I can't pretend otherwise I have a feeling though that to paraphrase an early blues standard. It ain't nobody's vault but mine now for Wigfield Why did the scarecrow win an award for their toupee?

Because they were outstanding in their Wigfield. Just like the song itself, which gets another bloody vault. It's like buses this. And then the Combo Breaker. It's soulless, conventional, asexual, unremarkable, but it is also quite solid. How very, very arousing. It just misses the vault. So it just misses the pie hole, sorry. But stick in your fucking lane bar load next time.

You're not Bobby Brown. You're not even Bob Saget. You make Mary Whitehouse seem sultry and salacious by comparison. So Andy, the Wets, Wigfield and take that. Well I think Wet Wet Wet have given the game away for where they are here because they're saying that love is all around and if they're standing in this sort of cosmic snow globe that represents the vault on one side, the pie hole on the other, and them in the middle,

then they do have a 360 degree of everything because they're right bang in the middle and can see that love is all around them, but they're not in the pulse of the pie hole, they're just stood right in the middle. As for Wigfield, it is party time, yeah, it is party time, yeah, because they're going into the vault. And that is my first vaulting since Sleeping Satellite in 1992, which is quite a long time.

I'm glad to have finally vaulted something. And as for Take That, I've decided tentatively that I'm going to put it in the pie hole, unfortunately. And no, I'm not tentative about it. What you could say is that I'm certain. Nice one. one. So for me love is all around that's going nowhere but it does have a polite thumbs up helped along by my mom who doesn't currently have a gun at my back she doesn't listen to us she absolutely doesn't everybody's smiling everybody's happy everybody will be happy though here because Saturday night, that's going in the vault, which makes it our first triple Volta since Bohemian Rhapsody in 1991.

And it's our first triple Volta of the 90s for a song that was released in the 90s. And on this show, it's the first triple Volta of a song released in its decade since Bad Romance with me, Andy and Lizzie all putting that in the vault at the end of 2009. Well done, Wiggy. Well done, Wiggy. Yes. So I'm not putting Shaw in the pie hole but but it's sitting ever so close, but it is just teetering above. It's very much on the precipice. But it's like they've driven the bus halfway over the cliff, and the five members of TAKE.DOT are walking to the back end of the bus to drag the weight back and keep it on level ground.

So that's it for this week. Next week, we've just got the two songs next week because that'll take us right up to the race for Christmas. Number one in 1994, the first Christmas that all three of your hosts, me, Ed and Andy experienced, uh, we will see you for it. Thank you very much for listening this week. Bye bye now. Bye.