Hits 21 - 1995 (1): Rednex, Celine Dion, Comic Relief, The Outhere Brothers

Episode Date: July 4, 2025

Hello everyone! Welcome back to Hits 21: The 90s.At the roundtable this week it's Rob, Ed, and Andy!This week - Rednex bring the Deep South to Sweden, Celine Dion hopes you donsaywatchabaatooshay, there's a Comic Relief single, and Rob has an awful driving experience thanks to Wiggle Wiggle.Email: [e-mail]: @Hits21UK

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 one of the 1990s. If you want to get in touch with us you can, email us at hits21podcast at gmail.com, we're also back over on twitter at Hits21UK. Thank you ever so much for joining us again, we are currently looking back and taking our first steps into 1995 and this week we'll be covering the period between the 1st of January and the 1st of April! So a big first step into 95, mentioned in the previous episode that there may be some

slight changes to Hits 21 and that I was going to explain them, but to be honest they will explain themselves as we go through the episode, so it is time to press on with our first episode of 95. Andy, the UK album charts, how are they looking in this first little quarter of the year? Well considering it's a full quarter of the year, you might think I have an absolutely mammoth amount to talk to you about, because I often do. I certainly did when Brian Adams had his stranglehold over the charts. But actually, I've only got four to talk to you you about because one of them is a really long stayer. The first number one album of 1995 is actually, well the first one was actually The Beautiful South with Carry On Up The Charts which stayed in place for most of January, but the first new one of 1995 is The Color of My Love by Celine Dion which

went number one for six weeks and went five times platinum. That's replaced at the top for one week by Bruce Springsteen's Greatest Hits, which went double platinum and I'm sure has been selling a few recently to be fair. And that's then toppled by Annie Lennox with Medusa, which went number one for one week and went double platinum. And then in the final week of this period something much more off the beaten track we've had three absolutely massive names there with Celine Dion, Bruce Springsteen and Annie Lennox and then we've got one week at the top and a gold album for Elastica with their debut

Elastica. Amazing. Yeah isn't that nice so we finish on a slightly more offbeat note there yeah but only four albums and number one during this whole period Yeah, okay So in the news in the UK at this point football Eric Cantona is fined 20,000 pounds and banned for eight months after jumping into the crowd to assault a spectator Meanwhile Arsenal manager George Graham is sacked over illegal payments claims in In more serious news, Fred West, who was on trial for the Gloster Murders, is found dead in prison, and gangland killer Ronnie Cray also dies at the age of 61, he was 17 years into a life sentence. In America, the San Francisco 49ers win the Super Bowl. Mississippi ratifies the 13th Amendment amendment becoming the final US state to abolish slavery in law, yes you

heard that right, rapper Eazy-E dies from AIDS complications and in Japan more than 6,000 people die in the Great Hanshin earthquake. The films to hit the top of the UK box office during this period were as follows, The Specialist, Timecop, Stargate, Interview with the Vampire, Star Trek Generations, Natural Born Killers and Disclosure. And on British TV, Marty McCutcheon makes her debut on EastEnders and the first episode of the Mrs Merton show goes out on the BBC. So Ed, the US album charts, how are they doing in the first quarter of 95? Well Rob you did mention some changes and I've got to say are they doing in the first quarter of 95? Well, Rob, you did mention some changes, and I've got to say, before we start, the first noticeable change that will be in every episode going forward is the fact that I will now

be sounding like Parker from the Thunderbirds. Because, yeah, it's just, it's just hay fever. Apologies. It's not me having a lark. Yeah, so America, the first three or so months of 1995, US Billboard number one albums. You know, I never actually got around to listening to that Garth Brooks album, like I said I would, in part because none of them are actually on Spotify

and in my brainwashed rot by proxyby-proxy mind that's as good as them not existing. But that's not my only problem because which of his albums should I listen to first? What if I listen to the wrong one and get completely put off? I mean which Garth Brooks album has open bracket insert song title here close bracket on it? Is it on the same one as open bracket insert other song title here close bracket on it is it on the same one as open bracket insert other song title here close bracket what if I didn't get the right one well it's as if he's listening to me and me alone directly because here is the hits by Garth Brooks which cruises at the top spot for five straight weeks never to

be heard again that's a lie and we all know it. Already in February now it's time for another one of those surprisingly huge albums by a quote unquote legacy rock act that even the fans of said groups don't mention. Yes, it's Van Halen with Balance. Balance. Now doesn't that sound exciting? I'll just pop it at the bottom of my wish list right next to Moderation by Sticks. Oh my god, it's Garth Brooks again. Three more weeks of music that doesn't exist before Jesus Christ are we stuck in some sort of time loop because they're back bless their bland preppy colors boys to men with two again for one week did someone say legacy act because powered by low-key soundtrack hit streets Philadelphia, which I recall we all quite liked, Bruce Springsteen spends two weeks at number one with his own greatest hits.

Ah, but in our last covered week this time, a bit of a change of pace. Did someone call for a sainted hip-hop legend rapping well over thoroughly mid-be Yes it's two-part Shakur in a mellifluous cloud of defensiveness on me against the world. Singles. We have three. Three singles to take us all the way through to mid-April and two of them have been out for ages actually, relatively speaking. I mean what is this? 2025? Boys to Men? Fuck sake. With three weeks of crouching down Christianly with on bended knee first of all before three lovely choristers, I assume that's what the acronym stands for return to the charts with creep not Creed my handwriting is terrible for a month a whole month and finally on the subject of fresh it's Madonna also doing bent

over stuff with take a bow which takes us all the way into April. So also I should add and Eva Elastica Elastica was the first album I ever bought with my own pocket money. That's lovely. So back to you Rob. Well before we get going with the songs this week I just thought I should mention that I was kindly reminded that today three years ago, so this day in 2022 3rd of July was when the Hits 21 trailer was first posted So we are technically three years old today on the day of recording How nice is that? Well to start a new year off and speaking of starting the new year off Here is the first of four number ones that we are going to be covering this week Where did you come from? Where did you go? Where did you come from, Katten-Ajo?

Where did I swim for Katten-Ajo? I've been married long time ago Where did you come from? Where did you go? Where did you come from, Katten-Ajo? Where did I swim for Katten-Ajo? I've been married long time ago Where did you come from? Where did you go? Where did you come from, Katnado? He came to town back and made me just around He rolled through the fields, so I fell strong He's a rockstar, a sunny-fellowed-boy girl But all he has trouble with, and it's all a fun Okay, this is Cotton Eye Joe by Rednecks. Released as the lead single from the group's debut studio album titled Sex and Violins,

Cotton Eye Joe is Rednecks' first single to be released in the UK and their first to reach number one. However, as of 2025 it is their last. The single is a cover of the song originally written either in or just before the 19th century. Cotton Eye Joe first entered the UK charts at number 11, reaching number one during its fifth week and it stayed at number one for 5th week and it stayed at number 1 for 3 weeks. In its first week atop the charts it sold 60,000 copies, beating competition from Set You Free by Entrance which got to number 6, Tell Me When by The Human League which climbed to number 7 and Sympathy for the Devil by Guns N' Roses which climbed to number 9. In week 2 it sold 85,000 copies, beating competition from Total Eclipse of the Heart by Nikki French,

which climbed to number 7, and Bump and Grind by R. Kelly, which got to number 10. And in week 3 it sold 70,000 copies, beating competition from Basket Case by Green Day, which got to number 7, and She's a River by Simple Minds, which got to number 7 and She's a River by Simple Minds which got to number 9. When it was knocked off the top of the charts, Cotton Eye Joe dropped 1 place to number 2. By the time it was done on the charts it had been inside the top 100 for 16 weeks! The song is currently officially certified 2x platinum. It is double platinum in the UK as of 2025! Andy, rednecks, go! First of all a huge shout out to that album

title Sex and Violins which is just great that's a really funny album title really like that. I think we might have hit upon the act that is least likely to have a number one again in 2025 or the future beyond this. I mean, really, like maybe a remix of Cotton Eye Joe, but a new song. I just feel like it's not in the cards for Rednecks, is it really? But then again, you might say that this is like the least likely song to have ever got number one. This cover of a thing that it's, I mean, it really, no one knows how old it is. But then perversely, that makes it maybe the most likely thing to have ever gotten number one.

Maybe like it's just guaranteed to keep on happening forever and ever because this song has lasted for hundreds of years with different lyrics, with not much in common from the first time it was around, but it just keeps evolving. And here it is at number one in the late 1990s. And who knows, maybe there'll be a number one again in the future.

So it's just a weird combination of super obscurity, but it's such an old thing that you think, actually, this is recurring throughout the centuries. Who are we to say whether its story is done? So it feels like this is just one instance in the life of the song of Cotton Eye Joe here, and it's a weird thing to remark upon. The main thing I know of it is that dance which I'm sure everybody's done at some point which is that sort of arms in arms keep taking a different arm as you go a sort of dozy-doe thing

Why everybody does that I'm not sure because it's not something the band themselves do it's not in the video as far as I'm aware, so I'm unsure about that. Has anyone shed any light on why we all do that dance to this? Probably just something that struck up on dance floors and then spread. Yeah but it was always fun I used to like the thrill of like oh who am I going to next and who am I going to next and yeah it's still quite fun you make your way as far across the dance floor as you possibly can through Lincoln Arms, it's quite fun. But yeah, I think this is actually quite good. I think it's very gimmicky, of course, like it's full of, you know, young at heart style fiddle sounds and it's laced with a

really, really over the top Gina G style beat at the back. But you know what? They kind of make a weirdly happy couple, those two things. And then you've got the very cheery vocals at the top of it and a genuinely very catchy song and a dance move to go along with it. You've kind of got the whole package and it's quite hard to say no to this really. I don't know if there's any specific aspect of it that is like trashy.

It just, it kind of has that feeling because this is a classic example of like 90s party dance school disco pop. So we just kind of file it under that category. But actually this isn't bad. This isn't bad at all. I don't think it's vault-worthy but I think I can see why this caught on and I can see why the song in general has stuck around for a long long time because it's so easily replicable, it's got that like campfire vibe to it as in you can just keep on adding new lyrics to it

and I think there's a weird sense of just kind of fun and community that comes with this and it's very hard to not find it just very very pleasant. I don't think there's anything particularly special about it, I don't think it's the most amazing thing ever, but I did get taken with this. I felt a lot of nostalgia for it and I felt a lot of pleasure from listening to this. I also have a memory of an episode of Nevermind the Buzzcocks years ago where they did a Christmas special where Rednecks came on to work with Bill Bailey's team. And the other band, it was like some sort of, I think it was like a Norwegian choir or something, or a Norwegian folk group came on to work with Phil Jupiter's team.

And this being the year that was, this dates the story, Phil Jupiter's team with that band, they had to perform Some Girls by Rachel Stevens. And then the other team, led by Bill Bailey, had to perform Cotton Eye Joe with rednecks. And they won, they did really good. They won one point. That was the punchline. They won one point for doing that, for doing a full performance of Cotton Eye Joe. And it was judged by a panel of a priest, a rabbi and an imam. So it was a very funny episode, the Dead Man of the Pluscocks and that's what I always think of with this.

So yeah, nice happy memories with this one and I'm happy to hear this. I knew I was pleasantly surprised by it, yeah. It's so hard for me to know where to start talking about this, so I'll begin with a story and then hopefully that will lead me to some kind of conclusion about the song itself. The story kind of takes place around

2011, 2012 when I was in college. I took music technology as a BTEC and there was a guy in my year called Matt who was one of those kind of class clown, joker, wind-up types. He wasn't a bully or anything like that but he just knew how to get a rise out of teachers once he broke their barriers down and kind of became friends with them because you know like when you're in sick form in college and you have a different kind of became friends with them. Because you know, like when you're in sixth form in college and you have a different kind of relationship with your teachers, if you swear in front of them, they won't mind kind of thing. And our teacher was Mr. Cooper and he was quite young at the time.

He was only 25, 26 years old for being a teacher, you know, barely older than us. And during our music tech classes, we used to go, like there was this new music suite which had all these fancy computers and MIDI keyboards and whatever you kind of dotted around the edge of this classroom. And this big interactive whiteboard was at the top of the classroom with an interconnected PC system.

And it meant there was this little, remember this little black digital box thing on the teacher's desk. And it meant that that could, the teacher's desk, it could be used to access all computers in the room and that every computer in the classroom could talk back to this little box and even take control of the interactive whiteboard. And Matt, being the god of mischief and electricals that he was, figured out a way to connect the black box to his computer, lock his own computer and shut Mr Cooper's computer out of the black box all

within about five seconds. And if a lesson was going particularly slowly, he used to load up YouTube on his PC, Matt, get Cotton Eye Joe going, connect the black box to the white board, connect his computer to the white board, which sent Cotton Eye Joe playing around the room at full volume, lock his own PC and shut Mr. Cooper's PC out and would refuse to do anything until the song I think it's always made me smile because of that ever since then. I find the song itself, I guess I find it a little grating. I don't think it's many steps away from something like five, six, seven, eight by steps, but I don't know, throw this on at a party, watch people go mad for it, you know, it has value in community, Andy, I totally agree.

You see it accused every now and again of cultural appropriation sometimes because, you know, these were essentially a bunch of Swedish musicians making fun of hillbillies and whatnot, but I don't know where the lines are meant to be drawn on cultural appropriation and like cultural appreciation. It's very fluid, depending on what mood the kind of person is in that's calling for the appreciation or appropriation. And you get Americans from the deep South saying that they learned to line dance to this song and they all love it. So I don't know. I don't know if that's really something, a point that you can really strongly

legitimately criticize it for. You could have a discussion about it, you know, definitely, but I don't really know what conclusion you would really come to. I just, I find this, yeah, I find it grating in the moment. I'm not mystified as to how it was number one. It seems very obvious to me, really. You know, if a song can survive 200 years, then yeah, why not have a remix of it? Go to the top.

The only thing that makes me think it wouldn't get number one anymore is because the novelty aspect of it feels like something that was very 90s in a way that novelty songs don't really get to number one anymore. I feel like you have to be kind of cool to get to number one unless you're Ladd Baby around Christmas and even then that's kind of a separate campaign of its own. I feel like in the charts up to about 2005 there were lots of different campaigns all going for number one whereas campaigns don't really exist anymore in the charts it's kind of like just songs that people happen to be listening

to and the charts is just recording them because no one's pressed the button to turn it off yet but yeah it's fine maybe give it another hundred years maybe things will swing around again maybe Cotton Eye Joe will be back at number one. Ed, would you be happy if that happened a hundred years from now? I wouldn't be too bothered. I mean, if it hadn't have been for Cotton Eye Joe, I think Panda Pops would have gone out of business in about 1993, to be honest. Because Andy, I think you've both hit on a lot of the same points, but you mentioned the school disco factor

And that is that is a super important one because I think even more than something like Wigfield This just takes me back to This you know a big old Wooden hall with a little tuck shop at the back where the girls would stay on one side and the guys would stay on The other and never the twain shall meet to be quite honest but in a fun way I think it is a little bit tacky the drums are like proper off the rack you know let's make this into a dance tune tat, really, but they buy into the gimmick so much they go for it like a hundred and twenty percent so it doesn't matter. It's... Europop was really

good at doing this no matter how daft its idea was it would take itself like full bore serious like isn't this the greatest thing ever it wouldn't have to disarm itself or you with some sort of disclaimer of of irony or anything like that and it is just amazingly catchy I mean it's not their tune but rather like Moby would do on play he would find something very you know anciently contagious and just put it in a daughter dance setting I mean this isn't exactly like Moby's play but has that similar sort of bouncy vibe to something like run-on yeah you mentioned the cultural appropriation thing Rob,

that does, you know, watching Todd in the Shadows do a very good video on this song. It is interesting hearing from an American perspective. I think part of the reason why it doesn't really strike folk immediately as being an example of that is that so many of the examples of American television, which are, I'll be honest, produced in the North and a lot of them on the North East coast of America, tend to have exactly the same sort of stereotyped idea of the American South. Even The Simpsons got away, you know, with that for the years and years, this kind of idea of the inbred, gun-toting Confederate representing, you know, a good

half of the country. And as pompous as it is for me to say, I mean, I've happened to have either come across in person, you know, worked with, or otherwise Or otherwise just you know enjoyed listening to or reading works by people from the deep south and my god these are amongst the most You know erudite and progressive people you can imagine I mean, obviously these are just a few examples but it's you know American media has not done a tremendous job itself of giving you know

painting the South in a fair light because you'd be amazed you go down to somewhere like Texas which has a phenomenally active and lively LGBTQ plus community very loudly so and you just wouldn't expect it but then you realize well actually you know there's pockets of the South are more progressive than pockets of the North but the stereotypes types still abide but anyway I'm really kind of stalling for time here because you've already said all of my points. In terms of the song itself, for two minutes and ten seconds, I think this is great. I still really enjoy it. It's bubbly. There is just enough going on, just enough variation, just enough sections

to keep it interesting for two minutes and ten seconds. But the other one minute and twenty seconds can fuck off. Doesn't need to exist. It's the other one minute and 20 seconds can fuck off doesn't need to exist it's the same shit over and over again it makes sense from an immediate you know pop perspective but I think wisely you know when a fan artists like Pink Pantherous was doing something like this now she would say two minutes and ten seconds in my in my mind that's the that's the prog magnum opus of the album at that length. But yeah, that's the same complaint. We've had about a million and one pop tracks down.

Not even just Euro dance stuff, just tracks in general that they'll just copy paste the fucking chorus a million times for a pointless additional minute at the end. So it's a bit of a minor complaint and yeah I'm with you on this Andy, it's not quite, it's not quite in the vault but I do still enjoy this to a surprising degree. I thought it'd be more annoying, I thought it would be more cringe-making but it's it's just it's a lot of fun really isn't it it's it's abiding fun so what you're both saying is that initially you found it annoying but when

you listen to it you realize that you had to uh oh what's the name of the next song guys ah nice one here it is I can't feel that there's something wrong You've been the sweetest part of my life for so long I look in your eyes, there's a distant light And you and I know there'll be a storm tonight This is getting serious Are you thinking about you or us? Don't say what you're about to say Look back before you leave my life

Be sure before you close that door Before you roll those dice Baby think twice Okay, this is Think Twice by Celine Dion released as the third single from her 12th studio album titled The Colour of My Love. Think Twice is Celine Dion's 7th single overall to be released in the UK and her first. To reach number 1, it's not the last time we'll be coming to Ms Dion during our 90s coverage though. Think Twice first entered the UK charts at number 53, reaching number 1 during its 16th week. It stayed at number 1 for 7 weeks. Across

its 7 weeks atop the charts it sold 705,000 copies beating competition from the following top 10 entries. Run Away by TheRealMcCoy Got a Little Something for You by Emanate River Dance by Bill Whelan Reach Up by Perfecto All Stars Open Your Heart by M People No More I Love Yous by Annie Lennox Don't Give Me Your Life by Alex Partey Bedtime Story by Madonna Someday It'll Be Saturday Night by Bon Jovi Push The Feeling On by Nightcrawlers

The Bomb by Bucketheads, Wake Up Boo by the Boo Radleys, Axel F by Clock, Tune On Tune In Cop Out by Freak Power, Love Can Build a Bridge by a Bunch of Folks, Don't Stop by the Out Here Brothers and Whoops Now by Janet Jackson. When it was knocked off the top of the charts, Think Twice fell two places to number three. By the time it was done on the charts it had been inside the top 104. 31 weeks. The song is currently officially certified platinum in the UK.

As of 2025. So Ed, Celine Dion, how are we feeling? Whoops now, or forever hold your whoops. Yeah, okay I'm just gonna read my notes in full here, okay. Think twice. Nice enough, chintzy production. Back to you, Rob.

Yeah, do you literally have no more than that? I mean, she's got a good voice and it sounds like a lot of off the rack ballads of this era. It's yeah, it's nice enough and the production is jimsy. I could switch the word order around a few more times to kill time, but I've not got much more to say. No, it's fine. Going into this, I thought we'd be getting another entry from the collection of expensive sounding Hollywood style ballads we've had more than enough of over the years of doing this podcast, even through to the end of the noughties. And it is mostly that, yeah, for the most part. I struggle with the verses actually.

The verses are the thing I struggle with the most in this. I think they move so slowly that they kind of, they stop feeling physical. They stop feeling real. I can't find the rhythm. I can't remember much of the melody. It's a pleasant noise until the chorus comes back again But the chorus is pretty strong I think and leaning on the chorus is a good idea because you know

This has ended up being fairly new to me seven weeks at number one nearly a million copies sold You know all that stuff like and yet I don't really think I really knew this until about a month ago You know I don't really think I really knew this until about a month ago, you know? But I remember basically every movement the song makes during the louder moments in the chorus especially. I feel like if you're going to have a song like this, you've also got to give it to someone who really bellows and Celine Dion can definitely do that. I've always had slight issues with the way that Celine bends her words sometimes and especially in this song with the Don Shea watch about Trouche in the chorus has always made me giggle since I first heard that but she's an expressive singer which is fine you know she gives everything here she leaves everything out there especially with the no no no no bit before the final chorus I think it lifts a couple of bits of inspiration from something like Nothing Compares to You, you know, with the slightly ambient soundscapes, which I appreciate.

Feels weirdly like an actual Prince Ballad in more places than one, but maybe that's just the rock influences coming through from Peter Sinfield. That was the most fascinating thing about this for me, actually. The fact that Peter Sinfield wrote it. That was very weird. That, like, the guy who wrote 21st century schizoid man wrote this. But you know, trying to square the circle in my head was a bit of an exercise to be honest.

But yeah, I do like this. I think, you know, when I'm in the verses with it, I'm sort of like, yeah, whatever. And then it comes in with quite a resonant, you know, don't say what you're about to say. You know, it's very 90s, very much of its era, very much of its time, I can, you know, feel the American mind virus kind of sweeping over the, kind of creeping over the Irish sea into England and up through Cornwall. That definitely has a big impact, that American mind virus next week. But yeah, I'm totally fine with Think Twice. Don't find myself thinking twice about it, but hey,

you know, it's fine, I think. So Andy, could you shed any further light? No, no, I couldn't actually. This is one of those had to be there things really, isn't it? Because I mean I often feel existential worry about time going too fast and that years go by very very quickly but this reassures me that 1995 was actually quite a long time ago because this is just gone. It's just gone. Like I didn't know this at all. And I've got vanishingly little to say about it. And I think, you know, if we look at the ratio of number of weeks at number one

versus number of seconds that I've spoken about it, this is gonna break an all time record for the lowest ratio here. You know, this is seven weeks at number one. I'm gonna have like a minute or two worth of conversation here. The other end of the spectrum, we had Bohemian Rhapsody that was in for a week or two and I spoke for about nine years about that one.

And with this, I just, I mean, first of all, I have to acknowledge straight away that although I love My Heart Will Go On and I've got a lot to say about that when we get there, I'm not a Celine fan. Not at all. I don't dislike her, but I get nothing from her at all. I get nothing from these kind of voices in general, where it's all technical. And, you know, the song is laid out in a fashion for the vocals to walk all over. I don't get that at all. You know, your Mariah Carey's sort of your late era Whitney Houston's of the world.

Not for me, not for me at all. And sometimes this shocks people, you know, I'm not the type of gay who loves Celine Dion and thinks she's a queen, but there are certain types of gays who think it's just an accepted thing that she is a queen and we must all respect her. And Rob and I have a mutual friend who will feel exactly that way. You'll know exactly who I'm talking about with that, but I'm not that type of gay at all. And I really want to like this kind of stuff because when this, well not sorry, not this, but when something like It's All Coming Back to Me Now or something like that comes on in Canal Street, I'm like, I really want to get into this, but I'm so bored. These songs are so long and they have no events none um and so yeah I I just sort

of shrug at this this does have some technically very impressive vocal moments she can really kind of reach a level of scratch at the top that gives it some authenticity that gives it some genuine feeling that I do quite appreciate that like she's technically fantastic of course she is and there's no problem with the song but no problem to me you know can go on such an extent that it becomes a problem you know that I have no issue with this where as well you know should be getting some kind of reaction out of me even if it's dislike then that's something but this is no this is very very plain and I am mystified about this one I wasn't about going on a joke but I am mystified about how this got number one for seven weeks

people of 1995 come and talk to me explain please explain yeah so from song to get from song two to song three normally it would be a little step but there's a river between the songs what do we need guys what do we need I'd gladly walk across the desert with no shoes upon my feet To share with you the last bite of bread I had to eat I would swim out to save you In your sea of broken dreams When all your hopes are sinking Let me show you what love means Love can build a bridge Between your heart and mine Love can build a bridge Don't you think it's time? Don't you think it's time?

It's time I would whisper love so loudly every heart would understand That love and only love can join the tribes in life I would give my heart's desire So that you might see Okay, this is Love Can Build a Bridge by Cher, Chrissie Hynde, Nenachery and Eric Clapton. Released as a standalone single for Comet Relief, Love Can Build A Bridge is Cher's 34th single to be released in the UK, Chrissie Hines' 4th single, Nenecherry's 8th single and Eric Clapton's 27th single. It's Cher's 3rd number 1 in the UK, Chrissie Hines' 2nd number 1, Nenecherry's 1st number 1 and

Eric Clapton's first number one. The single is a cover of the song originally recorded by The Judds in 1990. Love Can Build A Bridge first entered the UK charts at number five, reaching number one during its second week. It stayed at number one for...one week! In its first and only week atop the charts, it sold 125,000 copies, beating competition from Julius Sez by Wet, Wet, Wet, which got to number six. When it was knocked off the top of the charts,

Love Can Build a Bridge dropped one place to number two. 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, them lot, what make? Yeah, I mean, this is a shame, isn't it? This is unusual, to say the least, because this is just so tedious and so, so bland. I will say right from the start

that I don't think this is like un-listenable. I don't think it's like absolutely execrable, just garbage. But I do think it's extraordinary how bland and how tedious this is to like, it's actually quite impressive how they've managed that. You know, because the people in the room, you know, none of them are like my absolute favourite, but you've got Cher who, it's how you like about it, but she's got bags of personality and she's one of the campest people to have ever walked this earth. You've got Chrissie Hynde who certainly I think is

one of the more kind of sonically present people in this song. This sounds a bit like I'll Stand By You to say the very least. And you've got Neneh Cherry who I quite like outside of this to be honest. You know, a couple of other very very pleasant songs of hers from the 90s. This is just like... it's like an absence of anything. Talk about building a bridge, this is more like kind of removing all furniture and all features from a landscape.

There's just nothing to it at all. And I think this is a weird effect that happens sometimes with big duets or big quartets or quintets or whatever you wanna do with it, where you get these big artists in a room together and it doesn't create lightning, it just sort of cancels itself out where you know Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush is one that I always come back to. But you know Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder, two of probably my two favourite songwriters that have ever lived producing the absolutely

shit stain that was Ebony and Ivory and I just think there's this weird effect sometimes where the more talented people you get in a room the less likely you are to produce anything worthwhile at all. Even Freddie Mercury and David Bowie with Under Pressure, you know that's that's good great song but it's Freddie Mercury and David Bow. It should really have been the greatest song that ever existed by the probability of maths really. And so I just don't know what goes on in these studios and what goes on during the process that turns these things into just total non-descript goop. Because that's what this is. This is non-descript goop, not the Gwyneth Paltrow vagina-flavoured goop, it's non-descript Cher, Chrissie, Nene, and everybody else flavoured goop.

So I'm thunderously disappointed by this, but I know from our secret scoring system that I don't dislike it anywhere near as much as you two do, so I'm gonna cede the floor at this point because I need to hear more from you two. Yeah, Ed Ed take it away Well first off Cher is flat throughout and but the song itself actually outdoes her on that front

Because this is a real fucking trudge. I mean it makes bank twice look positively You know a roller coaster experience Which is interesting as you say that because I think when you did your little Celine Dion impression Rob I was reminded of Ronan Keating and I thought ah Is Ronan Keating the the male Celine Dion and I thought that was a bit of a discredit to miss Dion So oh, we did it is she's not that bad. Yeah, but yeah God, it's almost like I have less theoretically to say about this than I did about the bloody last one because it is fucking nothing wafer this track, isn't it? I saw the video because I kind of had to.

So it's, you know, the interesting thing is that it is the three of them walking on the faces of the starving and dispossessed, which is an interesting gesture in their business suits, probably not the intended one. But yeah, I'm just going to use this opportunity to err grievances about the mistreatment of Chrissie Hynde in popular music arguments. I fucking love Chrissie Hynde. The Pretenders were bloody excellent. She's a really good songwriter with tremendous tone and range and distinctive character and a real sense of forthrightness and individuality from the first time she started releasing music with the Pretenders in 1980. Yeah, she was a bit older because she'd already been a journalist

than a lot of her, you know, her punk new wave peers. But actually I think that was in her favor. But the thing that always gets me is this, right? And I hate even having to do this, but right, Blondie had some great singles. I'm not gonna deny that for a second but I don't think I ever heard a conversation about the pretenders that's not being done in relation to fucking Blondie because

they were new wave bands with a female singer and that's about where the similarity ends to be quite honest. I don't know and if we are going to go into this endless cycle here I've just got to say this. I mean you listen to that first Pretender's album, the stuff that Chrissie Hines singing about, if we're gonna reduce this down to you know new female voices of the era, then she covers all sorts of things quite boldly, like, you know, really positive ideas about motherhood, while at the same time dealing with, you know,

very rawly about things like sexual assault, but also self-possession of the body, self-possession of sexual enjoyment, sex positivity, you know, all of that sort of stuff. It's a lot more nuanced and the songs are great and, you know, fucking James Honeyman Scott is there in the background inventing jangle pop while all this shit's going on. You know, even Johnny Ma credits that. And to be quite honest, as much as I like Blondie's singles, well, some of them, it's like Blondie is a band. It's basically, you know, it's like a

bunch of lollipop ladies just with, with, with Debbie Harry in front, who as cool as she was, and she was, as they say, quote unquote, iconic. Basically, she's made an entire career out of looking like a like a bored teapot. Just with you know what I mean. Like, if you say it's like, imagine if you know 1980 Blondie did a cover version of this song, you know what it would sound like and you know what she would look like while she was singing it. I'm a little tea pot shunning stout. Fuck me. Yeah except that was the worst impression ever. Yeah this is this is me stalling by the way because Jesus Christ might this aside from the main hook my brain refuses to acknowledge that this song exists and I am to be honest just indignant that Chrissie Hynde has the fewest lines in this song where she has

arguably the most characterful voice okay that's a lie Cher's got a pretty fucking characterful voice but the character in this song for Cher is the character of fucking awful in my opinion in this song, for Cher, is the character of fucking awful. In my opinion. She sort of flatly flanges her way through this piece, like some sort of chainsaw cutting through a beloved tree between two hillocks. Told to waste some more time. Do you remember when that incident

that happened a couple of months ago, that minor news story? The Sycamore Gap. Yeah, please people, fill in time, I've got nothing to say. So I've already had my little fucking pointless, pointless ramble about, pretenders, this song sucks ass. Chrissie Hines underrated. We get it, you fancy Debbie Harry.

Don't try and back it up with all your fucking critical flips and flaps and flops. What we're talking about? On to you. It's funny you should say that really because as much as love can build a bridge in many cartoons when characters come to a river and they don't have a bridge what do they do? Chop a tree down. This is... oh my god this is a waste. This is a waste of talent, a waste of time, a waste of a gesture. I feel like we've covered this exact song about a dozen times over the 100 odd episodes of this show and I'm bored of saying the same things about them. These

dreary charity singles that double as vanity projects. It's nice that Nenacheri got a number one, I suppose. And proof, I suppose, that even in the 90s, before the days of social media, the American Mind Virus could still creep onto our shores and spread. I'm not keen on the original Judd's version, but you can at least feel the delicate guitar playing and the sense of the thing building. Whereas this, the thing that really bothered me mostly about this is that it was loud even when it was quiet, you know? It's not the worst thing we've

ever encountered, it's largely saved because I like the three vocalists as people. I can't really tell you what Clapton properly contributed to this, I presume some guitar work at some stage, but I just like them all from other stuff, really. Yeah, this loud when it's quiet thing are just like it's unsubtle and it is it's just very American it is very American it has very little place in memory really. I've been recently putting together a list of songs on Spotify that reached the top 20 in the UK but have as of July 2025 fewer than a million streams on Spotify. Now this is from much further back I find that you know if you were to go back further in time that you know songs from the top 10 in the UK maybe wouldn't have more than a million maybe even some

entries into the top five. This got to number one in 95 has just over a hundred thousand plays on Spotify. So I don't know if that's because it's only recently been added, but it's another one of those where I'm coming to this and I'm like trying to find the spot in history that it probably filled in. Can't really find it. Do not remember this ever being passed down to me by any family member or friend who was around at the time. Struggling, really, to place this anywhere. And I thought that listening to it would illuminate me, but I guess not.

I think, Robert, I think you just petering out there is absolutely perfect for this song, which is a fucking wasteland isn't it? Don't stop moving baby, only moving driving crazy Hey, hey Don't stop moving baby, only moving driving crazy Hey, hey Don't stop moving baby, only moving driving crazy Hey, hey Don't stop moving baby, only moving driving crazy Hey, hey Don't stop moving baby, only moving driving crazy

Hey, hey Don't stop moving baby, only moving driving crazy Hey, hey Don't stop moving baby, all I'm doing is driving crazy Hey, hey Don't stop moving baby, all I'm doing is driving crazy Hey, hey Don't stop moving baby, all I'm doing is driving crazy Hey, hey Okay, so this is Don't Stop Wiggle Wiggle by the Out There, Out Here Brothers, Out There,

Out Here, who knows? Released as the third single from the group's debut studio album titled One Polish, Two Biscuits and a Fish Sandwich, Don't Stop is the Out There, Out Here Brothers first single to be released in the UK and their first to reach number one. And it's not the last time we'll be coming to the Out Here Brothers during our 90s coverage, I'm going to settle on Out Here. Don't stop, first entered the UK charts at number 9, reaching number 1 during its third week, it stayed at number 1 for… one week! In its first and only week atop the charts it sold 86,000 copies, beating competition from

2 Can Play at That Game by Bobby Brown, which got to number 5, You Sure Do by Strike, which got to number 6, Baby It's You by The Beatles, which got to number 7 and Let It Rain by E17, which climbed to number 10. When it was knocked off the top of the charts, Don't Stop dropped one place to number 10. When it was knocked off the top of the charts, Don't Stop dropped one place to number 2. By the time it was done on the charts it had been inside the top 104, 18 weeks. The song is currently officially certified gold in the UK. As of 2025, Ed, you can start us off with, don't stop. Do I have to? Erm... Look.

Yeah, not a great week. I remember this super distinctly. I remember that hook, because what else is there? My brother bought this on tape. It was another one of his sound investments. Don't know what it'd make of me saying that, but Dan, you brought this into our home, and you brought the follow-up into our home which we will come to I'll reserve my judgments of that until we are there this is a cheap idea with someone else's idea cheaply laid over

it I'm talking specifically about the UK radio mix here which is like let's basically get some no limit and bung it on the top of this constipated prick just yelling in your face for three minutes that's it this is so low effort on both the original version and the remix it is it is landfill this is landfill pop This is landfill pop and yeah, do you know what? I'm gonna leave this with the only comment on this song's entry on Rate Your Music, the music website is from a user called r136a1, catchy from the 9th of October, 2021.

And they simply say, make all the mixes you want, it's still shite. Yes, again, because there are a lot of mixes of this. Andy, did you find any of the dozen or so mixes tolerable? It's a spectrum, some of them more tolerable than others. The mix of this that got to number one, which I very much thank you for sending to us Rob it saves some grace from this because the the original version of it or I think I think the I think it's the original the version of

it that is suggested on Spotify if that had been the version that got to number one I think that could possibly be the worst thing that we've ever had on hits 21. It's possible. It's fucking wretched. It is right down there with some of the very worst stuff I have ever heard in pop music, the version of this that's on Spotify, that utter, just constant shrillness that just feels like someone's screaming down your ear, but not in a kind of, not in a sort of vaguely artistic,

you know, kind of falsetto kind of way, not in a deliberately intrusive screamo kind of way, just in a kind of, just unpalatable sense where you just want the person to just shut up and they just won't. And you feel like shouting at them back and they'll never hear you because it's just a song. And so you get all weird and oppressive

and just, oh, you just want it to stop. You just want it to stop. And adding that little hook synth underneath it makes it vaguely tolerable because you can just focus on something else. But that original, I think think is just absolutely pants. And the version of it that we've got is not much better. I limited myself to just those two.

I didn't bother to listen to any other mixes of this because I just, no, no, I'm not spending my time on that. It made me angry to be honest. I think this is, you know, so much worse than Love Can Build a Bridge that actually so much worse than Love Can Build a Bridge that actually it really benefited but Love Can Build a Bridge and that got a few extra points off me this week and I've been kinder to it than perhaps I would have because the difference between them is so stark that I had to find a level like this is so bad

and I've hated it more and more as we've been waiting to do this episode. It's not quite the very worst thing we've ever covered because it does still have that catchy synth going for it. But if not for that, there would not be one single thing going for it. And it would, I think it probably would be my least favorite thing that we've ever had on Hits 21. So the Out Here Brothers, Out There Brothers, or perhaps the Italian name the Utheray brothers should

thank me for not going in harder because I honestly don't think it deserves the attention all the time that going hard on it would give it this is shit yeah god what a bad end to the week fuck me like I was familiar with the the brothers because of boom boom boom which we get to later this year I was familiar with the brothers because of Boom Boom Boom, which we get to later this year. I was looking forward to seeing what else they'd done after finding out they weren't a one-hit-wonder after all. But oh, God. Oh, my God. The most interesting thing about this is that there were seemingly two different versions released at once.

There was the Townhouse radio edit, which is the one we played on this show. And then you've got the original radio mix, which is one of the worst experiences I've ever had with pop music in my life. I was driving the other week, just listening ahead to the songs from 1995. And this came on and oh, my God, this found a spot in the center of my head in somewhere in my brain and just started digging indiscriminately. Just did not care where it was or where it was going to end up. It was just pickaxe after pickaxe after pickaxe and there was nothing I could do

because I was driving I couldn't change the song and I just had to endure this tuneless cacophony and then breathe a massive sigh of relief when it was over oh my god the kidney stone being passed kind of shouting the total lack of anything outside the drum track, the constant kids party repetition, the energy, just all of it. Then I found the townhouse version, which at least has that synth bass line to occupy your ears a bit and distract from the shouting. And it's a good 10 seconds shorter as well. But both versions of this are incessant and sort of terrifying. The only noise I can really emit while this is on or when it's over is just this

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh to this. I could, I have a four month old niece, if I left her alone with a Fisher Price keyboard for two hours, I'd only have to teach her the word biatch for her to come up with something better than this. This, oh my god, this is terrible. This, oh no, this is, I can't, maybe I didn't rate this low enough. I really, I'm giving it a little more credit because I'm judging the synth bassline version. I think the version without the synth bassline, it would be down there with teeny weeny yellow polka dot bikini. It's just like, it's really, really the absolute pits. Maybe as close as we probably got in the nineties to something like in terms of

how I feel, in terms of something like Sexy Chick, the David Guetta icon thing which I had as my least favorite number one of the whole 2000s and this would have come in very close if the other version with the nice synth nice-ish synth bass line hadn't appeared in my you know in my collection a little bit afterwards because the version that's available on Spotify is not that version. I had to kind of go to YouTube for that version and do a bit of additional research. But God, yeah, the sacrifices we make to do this show, man. Jesus. These last two songs are really, I think they really are just like, nah, total diddy squat really in terms of what I'm getting out of them.

So, Andy, Rednecks, Celine Dion, those people and them brothers, where are they going? Well, if it hadn't been for Cotton Eye Joe, I wouldn't have actively liked anything this week. So, do they go to the vault? Do they go to the pie hole? No. You stay where you came from, Cotton Eye Joe. As for Celine, I don't have to think twice about this. It's staying exactly where it is. For all of those lot, yeah it's going in the pie hole. I can't even conjure up the materials to build upon, let alone a bridge. And as for the Altair brothers, if there was something below the pie hole,

it would potentially be reaching those depths, like the underworld of pop. In many ways you might say it's the troll below the bridge that love has built. Yeah, yeah. But I think that's a song just best forgotten so that slams into the pie hole. As for me, Cotton Eye Joe, that's going nowhere, it's kind of on the fence. Think twice, yep that's gonna stay in the middle too but Love Can Build a Bridge and Don't Stop Wiggle Wiggle, they are both getting slammed into the pie hole for me. I think The don't stop wiggle wiggle one without that baseline. I think it's disgraceful. So Ed Cotton I Joe think twice love can build them bridges there and the wiggle guys. What do we think the wiggles?

Yes, this will look Much like Andy. It's it's disquieting how close Much like Andy, it's it's disquieting how close Cotton I chose to a vault not quite though. It is it's party fun And it is as naff and as truly charming and timeless as that sounds right think twice It doesn't exactly turn me D on but I don't want it to fuck D off either So now it's not coming anywhere. It doesn't really have any effect on me, positive or negative. It's fine. As for three shills and the Utheray brothers,

I think Andy we should insist on calling them that now. The Utheray brothers, just disambiguate. Yeah, again, I agree. No jokes. I couldn't be fucking bothered. They didn't put in the effort. Why should I bother? And I'm- I am pie-holing them both for very distinct, but very equally odious crimes. Yeah, that's two songs that are triple pie-holed there. Don't Stop and Love Can Build a Bridge. Hopefully that can be remedied next week, maybe something could be triple-volted, who knows.

But we will see you for that next episode. Thank you very much for listening this week and waiting while we had a little bit of a break in between years. And we will see you next time. Bye bye now. Bye bye. Bye my lady.