Hits 21 - 1995 (5): Simply Red, Coolio, Robson & Jerome

Episode Date: September 18, 2025

Hello, everyone! Welcome back to Hits 21, the show that's taking a look back at every single UK #1 hit.You can follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Hits21UKYou can email us: [e-mail] 21 DOES NOT OWN THE RIGHTS TO ANY MUSIC USED IN THE EPISODES. USAGE OF ALL MUSIC USED IN THIS PODCAST FALLS UNDER SECTION 30(1) OF THE COPYRIGHT ACT 1988.

It's 21 Hi there everyone and welcome back to Hitch 21, the 90s, where me, Rob, me, Andy and me, Ed, are looking back at every single at every single. single UK number one of the 1990s. If you want to get in touch with us, you can email us at Hits21 Podcast at gmail.com. We're back over on that there, Twitter. It hits 21 UK. Thank you ever so much for joining us again. We are currently looking back at the year 1995. And this week we'll be covering the period between the 24th of September and the 2nd of December. A bit of a jump taking you as close as we can to the race for Christmas number one, which we will find

out about in our next episode, just a little reminder that hits 21 does not own the rights to any music in this episode, but usage of all the music in this podcast falls under Section 30 Clause 1 of the Copyright Act 1988 and Fair Use over there in America. So it is time to press on with this week's episode at Andy, the album charts for the autumn to winter period in 95, who's at the top? So we open this period in September 95 with Blair at number one with the Great Escape. which went triple platinum and say it at number one for two weeks. We'll come back to Brip Pop, but for now we've got Mariah Carey at number one with Daydream,

which went number one for one week and went double platinum. The less said about that the better. Before the Battle of Britpop recommences, with Oasis getting to number one, with some little album that's just been released called What's the Story, Morning Glory? Getting number one for just one week for now, newly released and getting number one just for one week but believe me it will come back in 96

in a fairly large way and the Country House versus Roll with it Battle of Brit Pop that was fairly intense in the grand scheme of things it was not intense on the album's front whereas Blair went triple platinum What's the Story Morning Glory would eventually go 14 times platinum

and is the highest selling album not only of 1995 but of the 1990s which has finally arrived here 14 times platinum, quite incredible really. That's then followed with Simply Red, with Life, which went number one for three weeks and went five times platinum. I was really tempted then to call it quintuple platinum, which I might do going forward,

but let's just stick with five times platinum. And then Bripop is back again because we've got different class by Pulp in at number one for one week, the only week it will ever spend at number one in November 95 for just one week. and we'll only ever go four times platinum which I find quite amazing to be honest because different classes just as the era defining

as what's the story Morning Glory is really but yeah only four times platinum for that then we've got Queen with Made in Heaven that posthumous well posthumous for Freddie album that was released around that time that were number one for one week and went four times platinum

but not quite outselling everything of course from this week but certainly outlasting everything from this week, because we've all been one, two, three weeks. But seeing us through to the end of 1995, our final number one album of this year is a self-titled effort by Robson and Jerome, which went number one for seven weeks and went five times platinum. And within the year of 1995 itself, it was the highest-selling album of 95.

All said and done, as the years went by, it was Oasis by a long, long way. but Robson and Jerome did finish on New Year's Eve, 1995, with the highest selling albums of the year, outselling, Blair, Oasis and pulp. In the news, in Essex, 18-year-old Leobetz dies after taking MDMA and drinking 7 litres of water in 90 minutes. On TV, Princess Diana makes headlines

for an honest and frank interview with BBC Panorama reporter Martin Beshear and in Winchester, serial killer Rose West is sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty of 10 murders. In Brixton, hundreds of people riot in the streets after the death of 26-year-old Wayne Douglas in police custody. Rogue trader Nick Leeson is jailed for six years, and in North London, school head teacher Philip Lawrence is killed while trying to defend a pupil from a local gang of teenagers. In Israel, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin is assassinated by Yagal Amir during a peace rally in Tel Aviv. Rabin had been attempting to withdraw Israeli forces from the West Bank.

In America, OJ Simpson is found not guilty of the murders of Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman, and the presidents of Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia sign a peace deal to end the war in the Balkans. A very, very busy period in the news. The films, they at the top of the UK box office during this period were as follows. Apollo 13, Pocahontas, French Kiss, Crimson Tide and Golden Eye, before Babe closes out the year. And ITV airs the Beatles anthology, a six-part documentary series

that results in the release of two new songs, Free as a Bird, and Real Love. So, Ed, America, how are things going towards the end of 95? And the blowfish! But I think that's it. I think that's it. They're now firmly in our cracked rearview

as Alanis Morissette arrived. to remind us of the mess we met when we went away staying at number one for two weeks before going down on our charts that is

scared off by the dogs suddenly going mental probably at the superhuman whistle notes of Mariah Carey who daydreams for three straight weeks then and this actually genuinely surprised me I'm fairly pleased

never knew this was the US number one take out munching grump Billy Corgan and his troop of old rock troubadours sing of melancholy and the infinite sadness for a week so well credit to them and the blowfish

of performative self-loathing that is and the pretty post-grunge moping isn't over as after a week of who gives a shit from the dog pound the wrong person is put in manacles what on earth

is Alice doing in those chains when R. Kelly is at liberty to release his schmaltzy, sociopathic R&B-licking ass noise and have it hit the top for a whole week. Seven whole days. However, in spite all those days, he's now just a pratt in a cage. Sorry, that took some workshopping that one. Singles. Singles. Less busy and very narrow in scope. Fantasy. Fantasy.

Fantasy. Fantasy. Fantasy. Is this still the chart, so there's some scope of existential thing happening. Fantasy. That's Fantasey from Mariah Carey for nine somnambulistic weeks. with a brief hiatus

while another melismatic mouth machinist Whitney Houston exhales for a week but then butter meat peanuts pen meat paper

Rick Flair meat Ricky steamboat sometimes crossovers just don't work it's Mariah Carey and boys to men which is enough to dry anyone's tackle isn't it really Rob

Oh, thank you both very much for those reports And we are going to crack on with the first of three songs that are up this week And the first of those Is this Love the Law Love Love The La Love The La

Driving down an endless road Taking friends on moving the road Pleasure at the fairground on the way it's always flames that feel so good let's make a minx like all good pleasure at the fair ground on the way walk around be free and roam there's always someone leaving alone

pleasure at the fair ground on the way And I love the thought of coming home to you Even if I know we can make it Yes I love the thought of giving hope to you Just a little ray of lights shining Okay, this is Fairground by Simply Red. Released as the lead single from the band's fifth studio album titled Life, Fairground is Simply Red's 22nd single to be released in the UK

and their first to reach number one. However, as of 2025, it is their last. Fairground went straight in at number one as a brand new entry. It stayed at number one for four weeks. In its first week atop the charts, it sold 211,000 copies, beating competition from somewhere somehow by Wet, Wet, Wet. In week two, it sold 142,000 copies, beating competition from the AA side,

miss shapes and sorted for ease and whiz by pulp, something for the pain by Bon Jovi, and Man on the Edge by Iron Maiden. In week three, it sold 129,000 copies, beating competition from When Love and Hate Collide by Death Leopard and Light of My Life by Louise, and in week four, it sold 96,000 copies, beating competition from Power of a Woman by Eternal and Higher State of Consciousness by Josh Wink. When it was knocked off the top of the charts, Fairground fell two places to number three.

By the time it was done on the charts, it had been inside the top 104, 14 weeks. The song is currently officially certified. platinum in the UK, as of 2025, I tell you Bon Jovi, I would need something for the pain when miss shapes and sorted for ease and where's only got to number two, but whatever, Fairground got to number one. Ed, you can have simply red, simply red, there you go, have that. Beautiful, beautiful. Yeah, I remember intimating. I can't remember that was on the actual show or in our outside show chat. Very early, in my time on this show that there was a song coming up somewhere down the line that I thought

might seem surprising in terms of how much I liked it. In terms of the artist particularly, who I knew was not particularly popular, and I didn't like very much. And yes, this was that song, which I absolutely loved when it came out. It was this wonderful combination of sort of strange, soupy atmosphere. sphere in the verses and a big strident chorus that I found really very appealing and just simply read songs just don't usually have this sense of scope or cinema to them now some of it may be tied up with the video with them on the big one roller coaster at Blackpool but at the same time I think there's just something nicely washy and

experimental about this and how unshoey the verses are. They don't give him Hucknell much room to kind of go into his sort of OTT soul growling. I mean, the choruses certainly do. But what's interesting about this track is that it reminds me very particularly of an artist that may surprise people. It sounds a bit like if Genesis were still around and not sucking in the mid-90s, where if you look at that era when Peter Gabriel had bugged off with his crap poetry in costumes and it was just the rest of the band kind of toying with pop elements but still wanting to do weird keyboardy shit and actually managed some pretty interesting but catchy pop hits on it things like um follow you follow me turn it on again mama things like that which were really weird and atmospheric and a bit creepy at times but were still hit. And this kind of reminds me of that. I mean, the verse has got a really staggered strange time signature, and it doesn't fully establish a mood, or when the actual sort of meter of each foot ends. But then the chorus comes in, and it's, you know, it's like a that's all kind of

thing in a good way. That said, I really, really, really. wanted to vault this song because I admire it greatly and the elements are great mostly but yes it's one of those songs that really knows that and so it's got its two elements which is the soupy verses I like that word soupy and the big chorus and basically it just switches back and forth back and forth back and forth back and forth and that's it for a song that's actually surprisingly atmospheric it's not actually very dynamic it loses something in the single version as well because it almost blows its hand and its impact straight away with that love the thought, love the thought, that thing at the beginning before going into the

mysterious merry-go-round. It's like, well, we get plenty of that later in the song. They don't really need to bludgeon us with it. What pleases me about the album version is that it just, it starts off with the sort of vague verse melody being played on like a piano in the distance with those warbling William Orbite-esque noises going on. But yeah, it's straight in the single version after he screamed at you into the and that kind of continues throughout. So it does kind of deaden after a while. Oh, but damn it, it's so close because it's a good bloody chorus.

It's an interesting verse. It's a good performance by Mick Hucknell. and it's always charmed me this and I don't think there's ever been a number one single that sounds quite like it but damn if it doesn't kind of fall apart a little bit in terms of the structure and the repetition of it the more you listen to it

but change my mind I want to put this in the bloody vault I'm not planning to put it in the vault I'm in a similar dilemma to you which is that I'm very very close with this but yeah this I guess with this you can add it to my always expanding Mick Hucknell really wishes his skin was darker collection but being slightly, you know, being more serious now.

I found myself warming up to this more and more and more as the week goes by, as the week has gone by. I think you could be forgiven for thinking that the choruses are all this has because the verses are kind of obscured. But get into that a bit more in a bit. You know, discuss the chorus for a second, which, you know, I think has that instant hook,

which I think it knows and maybe relies on a little too much and it keeps coming back to, if only to reinforce how catchy they know that it is, that leap onto the, and I love the, you know, that's, it's big, you don't really need to know the words to the next line. You can just sort of hum the broad shape of it and then bounce back to,

and I love the thong. It's a big shift away from the verses where they go quite smoky and murky and in their atmosphere. It's, you know, then I think the chorus is kind of cut through it a bit with a bit of clarity. I don't think you can really down.

the choruses of Mick Hocknell's hits collection. But the verses on this are really, really interesting. Only I'm not sure if they're interesting for the right reasons. On the one hand, I'm like, oh, okay, losing yourself in something foggy and slightly psychedelic and okay, yep, got it. I appreciate the way that it's letting the backbeat, just kind of ride, building and cultivating this atmosphere of sort of like delirium almost, like basing itself on that good men's sample.

It also reminds me a little bit of thingy that are coming a couple of years time, that Carnival de Paris, the Dario G thing for the 1998 World Cup, the very much reminds me of that, that you've had a bit, you know, a bit too much candy floss at the fairground and your blood's pumping just that little bit too much. You know, this sounds like the way my memories of childhood feel, especially the memories I can't quite place, where I remember the overall atmospheres and colors and the vague shapes

more than I do the specific details and, you know, the little, the actual things that happened but then I have to pull myself back and try not to give too much credit to a verse that just feels a little underwritten so I'm in two minds I think you know I think if the verses landed harder while retaining that atmosphere would be looking at a

vault but as it is maybe not I will say I find it slightly strange that simply read never landed another number one but that might be coloured by the fact that they may have seemed bigger to me than they actually were because the woman who lived across the road from me I was friends with her son we went to school together and so we kind of grew up you know in our houses opposite each

other and she loved mick hucknell so much she had him and freddie yunberg the arsenal player she had two calendars in the kitchen one of freddie yunberg in calvin klein underwear and one of mick hucknall mostly just with his shirt open the classic too that i think we all had yes yeah everybody of course um and so maybe maybe they just seemed bigger than they actually were because every time I went round to their house, which was literally just across the road, so I was in there fairly frequently. Maybe he was just, his presence was like, oh yeah, I kept being reminded of him. And so he always filled in my, fill the space in my brain. Of course, we should mention as well that Mick is from around these parts, born in Manchester, raised in Denton and Stockport,

recorded the earliest demo version of holding back the years in a recording studio in Stockport right next to the market hall. The studio no longer exists. But if you look on the map, on Google, maps between Stockport Market Hall and the ASDA that's right next to it there's a little row of buildings i think the oldest building in Stockport is on that same row but yeah the original post-punk version of holding back the years it was a bit more of a post-punk ballad at that time a bit weird that this is the only time we'll be disgusting in my guess annoyed that this kept sorted for reason where's off number one but yeah okay solid decent Andy how we're feeling on fairground Well, I mean, it's a really hard one for me to talk about with any kind of objectivity because this is big for me.

This is big, big, big in my history. Not really in terms of anything beyond 95, 96, if I'm honest, but it's hard for me to talk about this with any objectivity because this has been there since the start. This has kind of coloured my image of music itself to some extent because I was three when this came out. I was three in 95. that's when my earliest memories sort of sit and there were two or three songs at that time that I just wouldn't listen to anything else I insisted on finding them on the box

and flicking through all the music channels until we could find these two songs. One of them, I'm very proud to say, was Disco 2000. I was absolutely obsessed with that from the moment it came out at the age of three. Nice. I was learning to sort of say complicated words through Disco 2000.

And I remember learning phrases, like house was very small and stuff like that through Disco 2000 and imitating all the dance moves that you see in the video and I would like to say oh that was my number one favourite favourite because that is still one of my favourite songs of all time I think it's still absolutely 100 out of 100 slam dunk but it wasn't quite my favourite song at that age my favourite song was this this was like the one for me the one of only two I must admit there were others as well we started recording videos off the box

which I'm sure lots of other people my age will remember doing as well and there was this there was Disco 2000 there was um ain't what you do it's the way that you do it for some reason was on there

and mysterious girl from next year I think Wonderwall don't look back in anger the Mike Flowers version of Wonderwall was on there as well so you know very very 95-96 core but this was the one you might say this was

the big one for me, which was a pun I thought of about two seconds ago, so I'm quite proud of that. But anyway, again, I would like to say that I was mad for this, and this was, like, my favourite thing ever because of the

incredibly strange musical aspects of it, and that's really interesting to listen to and that I had a keen ear for theory straight away. That's not the case. It was just the roller coaster. That's why. It was just, like, I liked watching the footage of Blackpool and the footage of a roller coaster going by.

And Blackpool, when I was a kid, it sort of had a Disneyland quality to it. I'm always saying this to my husband, and he strongly disagrees, but I really do genuinely think that when you are that age, there is no real difference between Blackpool and roller coasters and Disney World. There's no real difference between the two things. They're both like far away, colourful, exciting theme park things that you want to go to.

One is obviously geographically much close than the other, but I saw Blackpool as this mystical, magical, happiest place on earth in the same way that I saw Disney World. So this was just like, I loved watching this. I had no idea what Mick Hocknell was saying all the way through, which is still a struggle now, but it's probably because of that, that I didn't call this Fairground,

I didn't know what the song was called. I just called it Love the Farrell, because that's how I thought it went, love the Farrell, that's what I thought it was called. So when I'd get upset for whatever reasons, Like maybe I hadn't enjoyed my tea or maybe I'd got pinched by a friend or something. I'd run inside and go,

Mom, play Love the Farrell! And she'd put the music video to Fairground on. So, yeah, this is like a totem for me because it's the very first song that I can remember pretty much at all, but also it was my favourite song at the earlier stage that I can remember. And given that music has become such an enormous aspect of my life

and that there's, you know, literally, you know, thousands and thousands of things that have sort of penetrated my consciousness, the fact that this is right there, line one, page one, of music for me, that gives us enormous importance. You know, this is like the first blast of the Star Wars Open and Kroll in musical terms for me. This is, like, massive. So I can't speak about it with any objectivity. I think, you know, having taken basically the large part of nearly 30 years, away from this song without having listened to it much.

I do think it's genuinely really good. And my favourite part of it as an adult is those verses, those very, very strange verses which are almost entirely formless and which operates on a continuous counter rhythm where the vocals are proceeding at a faster time signature than the percussion and the piano are, which is really weird for a pop song to do that.

And I like the sort of just atmosphere. very ambient sound of it as well. I think it weirdly does sound a bit like being at a fairground, but again, I don't know if that's because this is a song from my childhood that's about a fairground, so of course I would think songs about fairground sound like this, and maybe I'm describing a thing sounding like itself. So, you know, it's hard for me to know. But I do think this genuinely has that kind of quality of like, oh, you're in this mysterious, magical, colourful place. And then you get the sort of adrenaline hit of reaching the peak and going down the roller coast with the

that comes in like a blast and then you go back to ambient again as you sort of ride the roller coaster and all those little the because of bits that are really rattling away at the bottom and the piano keeps jangling away I just think it gives you a sense of like crowds and a sense of bubbling events

and lots of impetus lots of stimulus in your mind when you're at a fairground at night which is just such an evocative thing to think about so I think this is really really good I definitely agree with Ed though that the dynamics are a problem that it starts so quiet that it's too quiet

and it doesn't hit as hard as it should in the chorus really like it can go further I think if you turned everything left and right not just in terms of panning but in terms of you know just just fiddle with the knobs a bit more who I misses then you know I think this would be getting towards a real classic but I'll tell you now I'm still going to be vaulting it because it is really good and also this is just just like massive in my life that I can't not vote this. I've got to acknowledge the importance

that this hooked me on to music itself. And although Disco 2000s by far outlasted it and I think will still be one of my favorite songs for the rest of my life and this won't be, this still has that claim. This was, this was the William Hartnell or the, or the Sean Connery or the Ken Balow of music to me. So thanks. Thanks for music. Okay. I've got to say you are making this very, very difficult for me. In a good way. I'm like, because you are reminding me saying that just how important atmosphere has been to me over what is actually happening since I was very, very little. And I think like you, it's the conjuring of an atmosphere of a whirl that a child sees and experiences without actually being able to, you know,

put their finger on the individual experiences or objects. It's got that sense of wonder that you don't often get in more po-faced, straight-laced, adult pop, you know, looking at it from a child's vantage point. And I think if you can carry that with you into later life, there is still real joy to be found there. I mean, you're talking about kind of, oh, it's, you're like you're

riding the roller coaster. Interestingly, I, even when we went to the fun fair over the road from us in Leicester, there was a, um, a fun fair that was set up near the race course. And it was just a small little thing in a side field. But just going there on like a Sunday night as the sun was setting and there was the light.

in the people and roars all different stimulus coming from all sides I just like the atmosphere I don't want to go on anything I just like being slightly overwhelmed and I do think that this song like in its own way

has contributed to that feeling of oh I just like being in these kind of places I do think it's set its own like what fantastic free promotion for black people this is you know I do think that's actually played a part in that feeling of you know fairgrounds and funfers and theme parks are all kind of just weirdly nice places to be a lot of the time.

Interesting. You said, say promotional, it's just clicked on my head because I have a feeling that the big one opened literally the year before this song came out. And I'm wondering, actually, if there wasn't a bit of that going on, it's like, oh, you know, hey, I scratch you all back, you scratch mine, you go on this roller coaster and write a song about fairly, it's perfect.

I wonder if they got a bit of a, you know, from Blackpool Pleasure Beach. I mean, for God's say, don't go to Blackpool, but Blackpool Pleasure Beach. No, but in the 90s, I mean, it's obviously looking through a child's eyes, but I do think genuinely Blackpool was better in those days, and it was really popular in the 90s.

Like, Blackpool was, like, where most people seemed to go in my school, at least a day or two during the summer, if not a bit longer, during the late 90s. And I do think this song will have played a part in promoting Blackpool as a place to go, just in general. Oh, I think definitely, especially for younger kids. completely agree. I mean, it was something about the atmosphere appealed to me. I didn't know where it was. And as I say, it was sufficiently distant geographically from me, Blackpool Pleasure Beach, that I wouldn't have been able to place it. I think it was a kind of regional thing, depending on where you were placed, where you had took your trips to. If you were up north, it was Blackpool Pleasure Beach. If you were further down south, it was Alton Towers. And it was just, it was simply where you were based. Those were the two big ones. They still are, really, aren't they? I mean, you got four part.

Yeah, well, Thorpey, if you're very south, it would be Ford Park, I guess. Yeah, but those are the big too, they still are, but yeah, I think that was a bit of a golden age for both parks, actually. It's funny, actually, isn't it, how we've all kind of picked up on this loose sense of, like, a foggy childhood memory that this somehow reminds us of. Even if it's nothing specific, it's this idea of only being about three or four feet tall, and everything feeling very big, and colors melding together. in your mind that you get from the verses in particular. I think that very ambient first verse in particular really just like almost forces you to do that because it's like, okay, before the song starts,

why don't we just sit with something for a moment? It's like why don't we just sort of have some vibes before the song really starts? And I think that's why it unlocks memories because it's just like it invites you to just do nothing but feel for a moment which not many pop songs really take the time to do. do that. And I'm not sure it is an intentional thing about the song. Maybe it's just like formless in a bad way and it just worked out really well. But I definitely think that there's

something evocative about it because it gives you so much space in the song to just feel stuff, which I really like about it. Yeah. I agree the space is important. And I think I realize looking back, the thing I remembered most about it wasn't the big chorus. The bit I used to love was the pleasure at the fairground on the way bit just before where it's like a first crest before it you know it's almost like a false start that wrong foots you so the whole chorus can hit larger but it's if you think about that from a vantage point it's like from a child's vantage point there is so much going on in that line in a sense of like not only is the idea of the fairground which is this place of just you know overload of of wonder and attraction and lights and noise and people laughing and

screaming and all this sort of stuff but it's on the way I mean obviously that's a bit more figurative when you look at it in the you know through the lens of an older person but on the way to where we're going to the fairground and then we're going somewhere else that's fucking awesome

it's a great day but it has there's something so wonderfully innocent about this song and I think do you know what fuck it I'm vaulting it it's really got something it's really got some in this track just for all time's sake I'm going to read the tweet the Mick Hucknell made on the 21st of May

2020 at 1147am no doubt inspired by some lockdown induced boredom the top five coolest cultures on planet earth number one African Americans in brackets they invented cool

two working class British musicians, three, a close third, Jamaicans, four, Jewish Americans, five, flamenco gypsies, and then a tweet made less than an hour later with capitalized letters and full stops throughout from Mick, I do not care what you think. Did he do the little claps in between? No, he just used the full stops. Number one, earth-based culture of the week.

Fight! Well, judging by that, sweet, he may have been a fan of the second song this week, which is this. I take a look at my life and realize it's nothing up Because I've been blasting and laughing so long that Even my mama thinks that my mind is gone But I ain't never crossed a man that didn't deserve it Be be treated like a punk You know that's unheard of

You better watch how you're talking And where you're walking Or you and your homies might be lying and chalk I really hate the trip but I got a loaf As they croak I see myself in the pistol smoke Fool I'm the kind of cheater little homies Wanna be like on my knees in the night Saying prayers in the street light

We've been spending most of lives Living in against us paradise We've been standing most of lives Living in against us paradise We keep spending most our lives Living in the guest's paradise We keep spending most our lives Living in the guest's paradise

Look at the situation They got me faces I can't live a normal life I was raised about to shake So I gotta be damn with the hood team Too much television watching got me chasing dreams Okay, this is Gangsters Paradise By Coolio featuring LV

Released as the lead single From Culeo's second studio album titled Gangsters Paradise And the lead single from LV's studio album titled I Am LV And as the lead single from the Dangerous Minds Film soundtrack Gangsters Paradise is Culeo's third single to be released in the UK and his first to reach number one. However, as of 2025, it is his last.

Gangsters Paradise went straight in at number one as a brand new entry. It stayed at number one for two weeks. In its first week atop the charts, it sold 107,000 copies beating competition from I'd Lie for You, and that's the Truth by Meatloaf and Missing. by everything but the girl. And in week two it sold 166,000 copies beating competition from heaven for everyone by Queen and Thunder by East 17. When it was docked off the top of the charts, Gangsters Paradise fell two places to number three. It initially left the charts in March 1996, but made several re-entries in 2009, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015 and 2022.

The song is currently officially certified five times platinum. It is quintuple platinum in the UK. There you go, Andy. Quintuple platinum in the UK. As of 2025, it has spent 24 weeks inside the top 100. So Andy, lead us off with Gangsters Paradise. Oh, no pressure, no pressure. And I do feel that pressure with this, to be fair,

because although cards on the table, you know, I do really, really like this, it's great, but I don't absolutely love the bones of it, but it's definitely one of those songs that we encounter from time to time that just feels massive in context, that feels like a big thing is happening when you arrive at this point. Even if you don't love it, you have to sort of sit in awe of it for a bit, and it's always kind of one of those things where you don't really know what to say, a bit like Viva La Vida when we talked about that back in the day.

or a version I did like, which was, can't get you out of my head. And it's quite hard to put it into words a lot of the time, but I think I do have the words for it this time. But I will get to that in a moment. The first thing I have to acknowledge is that this is the first, as far as I'm aware, the first truly Stevie Wonder adjacent thing that we've ever covered on Hitz 21, unless I've forgotten something, please do you tell me if I have.

But this is, I think, the first thing that samples directly, covers directly, Stevie Wonder that we've covered. I genuinely not sure how often I've mentioned this because we never cover Stevie Wonder and it's 21 but he's like my absolute number one favourite favourite. And songs in the key of life which this is on is my favourite album ever. But

I went for years and years and years and years until I first listened to songs in the key of life about getting on 10 years ago now. I did not know about pastime Paradise and when I first listened to that album I was kind of wowed by everything I was hearing and then Past Time Paradise came on

and that was a little bit of the icing on the cake of like what? This as well but the thing that struck me the most and continues to strike me now and so it influences how much I love this really and what my feelings are on it is that it's remarkable how much

of Past Time Paradise is in this how much of, to look at it the other way how much of Gangsters Paradise is already there in the 70s in Past Time Paradise and it's most of it to be honest obviously it's been taken into a rap context and it's been given 90s production

which are huge elements of it of course that's like most of the song but in terms of the bare bones that all the way through the choruses that refrain of tell me why are we all of that

and essentially the structure of it and the way it sounds it's all in pastime paradise and I think it's first of all from a 1977 perspective it's absolutely remarkable that there's a song there in 1977 which is almost fully cooked, ready for the zeitgeist of 1995, which is amazing that, you know, talk about something being ahead of its time there.

But I think it's also just kind of wow that this has taken off again in such a completely different context 18 years later. It feels like more than 18 years, really, because this is so different. But it's had two completely different lives. And with this, I don't know, I'm tempted to kind of mark it down a bit because having realized how much of this is just a straight cover. A lot of it

is quite a straight cover of Fast Time Paradise just given a different production to it. But of course it's transformed into this very sincere, very engaging, very intense I find rap

song, which is nothing like anything we've covered so far in the 1990s for sure and we'll get a lot more of in the naughties, but that's what it feels like an event happening here. And the thing that it just makes me love hearing this is that the stupid novelty factor of rap music is gone now. It feels like it's just suddenly ended here.

We've had stuff like the stunk, you know, and do the Bartman and things that didn't get to number one, like the stutter rap and stuff like that, you know, that have plagued the genre in the late 80s, early 90s, and it feels like that's finally gone. here. And I would maybe go on further. I was going to say that, you know, rap music had been treated as a novelty for the most part by the general public up until the mid-90s or so. I would actually go one further and say we've gone through a horrible little trend in the early 90s, or basically

all the years we've covered on hits 21 in this period, but essentially a lot of black music or, you know, sort of stereotypically or traditionally black music has kind of been treated as a novelty and commodified quite a bit over the past few years. You know, we've had that whole cod reggae thing and, you know, sort of nudge, nudge, wink, wink to Afro-Caribbean music. That's, you know, a lot of novelty stuff has come out of that. And the rap stuff we've been given has been awful for the most part. And it really feels like a page is being turned on a line

is being drawn in the sand here. Not just with this. Obviously, there's a whole genre emerging and it will rapidly grow through the rest of the 90s. but it's just nice to kind of feel an authentic voice coming out of that horrible mire that we've had over the past five or six years and so it's just really refreshing it's just really refreshing like engaging thing to hear the lyrics are great you know really really good that that that opening line is famous for good reason it does hit very hard and I don't

adore this partly because yeah you know I can't really ignore the Stevie Wonder version of it and also just because it's just not like something I've ever going to really love because it's not my genre to be honest but boy does this make an impact and I definitely enjoyed this more than I thought I would and listened to it more times than I thought I would do

in the end yeah this is really really good and just I'm so happy it's here it's great to hear this yeah oh man when we were going through all those early 90s novelty cuts for rap like do the Bartman and Turtle Power and even how you

tough actually as well I was waiting for this because this is the day for me that the UK public really starts to take rap seriously I totally agree with you Andy it still has the movie tie-in but gangster paradise is maybe the first time the UK public has been presented with a rap song that's a better reflection of what rap actually is or what it can be at its best and they've accepted it and really taking it to heart it's the first right it became the first rap song to go straight in at number one and it was also the first rap song to sell a a million copies in the UK. The first serious rap number one as well. It's complex and verbose,

morally murky. It's angry, but it's still conscious. It's working class poetry somehow finding itself in the pockets and CD collections of fucking billions of people from all walks of life. I think it, you know, it realizes the power that you can yield when you take the best bit of a song from the 70s and just repeat it and repeat it and repeat it until it's almost all you can hear to the point where, and Andy, you are a very good example. of this pastime paradise kind of gets nudged out of history temporarily while you're listening to it this makes that sample its own the way it keeps going round in a circular motion almost kind of begging to stop because it sounds like it's no it knows that it's heading towards

danger and coolio straight in with that fucked up mutation of psalm 23 brilliant you know that's probably the best moment in the song but the rest of his verses are never that far below in terms of impact and quality the constant back and forth in the story that the protagonist knows he's going down the wrong path and he's fully aware of what awaits him at the end but continues down it anyway because the world and society telling him he doesn't know any better

so he gives up responsibility for himself and he starts to justify why he does what he does never cost a man that didn't deserve it 10 in my hand and a gleam in my eye got to learn but no one's here to teach me kind of makes the gangster image sound romantic and fashionable for a second but then you get that feeling intercut with the melodic vocals

from LV and the ones we hurt are you and me it's like the song is its own war between good and evil and it keeps jumping between the two I think stories where devil's on one shoulder and angel on the other you know those kind of stories never really get old

and this is another one of those they're always compelling it's about the choice it's about a choice it's about motivation and so yeah I don't have much more to say on this I just think it's pretty close to being exceptional to be honest I think yeah I've always kind of marked

it down a little bit because it feels more like a cover with rap verses to be honest than anything that kind of uses the sample but you know it's fine really it's a fine line and it's not really want to have a major issue with but hey shout out to omish paradise which was actually my first introduction to this song and so I went from ormish paradise to gangster's paradise

to pastime paradise backwards so yeah thanks to weird L for kicking me off on that one I suppose Ed Culeo how we're feeling you're forgetting one element which might have been the clincher that puts this in the vault for me. One bit of musical business going on that wasn't in Stevie's original track and it kind of crystallizes and sharpens

the dark, solemn attitude of the song. I did think of that. I personally, I'm not the hugest fan of that because I think it makes it a little bit melodramatic. but yes, that does identify it as something very different to Past Time Paradise. I do agree. I mean, that's the thing, unfortunately. I think all of us came to Past Time Paradise after we heard this.

Because Past Time Paradise was never a single. As famous as the album, it's off, is. Yeah, yeah. It wasn't. And one thing I've always thought, and I can't shake it, is that as much as I like the original, it just sounds a little bit skeletal without it. I wouldn't even notice, probably, without that.

But it just adds that extra element of doom to it. And I think it is a melodramatic song. I mean, yeah, the lyrics are great. And added points as well. I never knew this or never considered it, really. At Stevie's request, in order to use the sample, they insisted that Culeo not swear at any point or blaspheme. And he did it.

He carried off this deep, dark sort of street story. And you don't even fucking. notice, do you? It sounds really, you know, it sounds hardcore, really, and it's not in many ways. So, but then again, it's like, the one thing I will say as a demerit to this is that I'd never really realized until re-listening to it, which I've done a lot recently, because I do like it. He does, or at least did at this point, borrow a lot from Tupac in his delivery. he's got that kind of moaning kind of preacher vibe. Sounds like Shackaron.

Shikaron. Oh, do we get to do Shackaron? I know the answer to that, but please humor me for a minute. No, unfortunately, I know we don't. But, yeah, I'll be honest. Shoot me down, as it were. Poor choice of language. Sorry.

I've never been the best. biggest fan of of Tupac. I like some of his stuff, but I find this kind of, you know, self-important wo is me-ness, a bit tiresome. And when I hear it in other artists emulated, I guess I don't find it as appealing as a lot of other folks. If I must draw it down these rubbish binary lines. Yes, I'm more of a biggie fan than I am a Tupac fan. But, but, look, getting away from all of that, it's a minor quibble. Of course, Tupac was going to be influential in the mid-bloody 90s. Everybody was listening to him.

And yeah, the lyrics are great. And they carry it off with a great deal of restraint, some good imagery. And just, God, some of the most memorable opening lines to any song, rap or otherwise, you will ever bloody hear. So, yeah, on the whole, it's just really good. It has lasted. And it did, at the time, for me and for my brother as well,

it was kind of through his mates getting into rap and things at the time. It felt like a line in the same. sand like something new had arrived even though stylistically we had seen it before it felt very different it felt more serious it felt more focused and it was just an alarmingly late stage as you've you know implied rob it was us finally getting some of the good stuff in the charts the kids finally getting access to what americans have been excited about for years and for good reason. I mean, I think there are better hip-hop songs of the era, songs that are more gritty, songs that leave more lasting impact, songs that leave me thinking more. But in terms of a big

sharp hip-hop hit, this is one of the best of them, certainly of this era. So, yeah, yeah, I think this is a fairly comfy vault. All right then, so, the third and final song this week is this. I believe for every drop of rain the falls, a flower grows, I believe that somewhere in the darkest night a candle blows. I believe for everyone who goes to stay. Someone will come to show the way. I believe, I believe, above the storm the smallest bread will still be heard. Okay, this is the double A side I believe with Up on the Roof by Robson and Jerome.

Released as the second single from their debut studio album titled Robson and Jerome, I believe with Up on the Roof is Robson and Jerome's second single to be released in the UK on their second to reach number one. And it's not the last time we'll be coming to Mr's Green and Flynn during our 90s coverage. I believe is a cover of the song originally recorded by Frankie Lane, which reached number one in 1953, while Up on the Roof was originally recorded in 1962 by the Drifters and did not chart in the UK. I believe up on the roof went straight in at number one as a brand new entry. It stayed at number one for four weeks. In its first week atop the charts, it sold 258,000 copies, beating competition from Wonderwall by Oasis, and you'll see by Madonna.

In week two, it sold 224,000 copies, beating competition from I believe by Happy Clappers and Golden by Tina Turner. In week three, it sold 118,000 copies beating competition from the Universal by Blur, Anywhere is by Enya, father and son by Boyzone, it's oh so quiet by Bjork and lie to me by Bon Jovi, and in week four, it sold 80,000 copies beating competition from Miss Sarajevo by U2 and Brian Eno under the name Passengers. When it was knocked off the top of the charts, I believe up on the roof dropped one place to number two. By the time it was done on the charts, it had been inside the top 104, 20 weeks. The song is currently officially certified platinum in the UK as of 20, 25.

I believe that for every negative review we give of this, nothing else will happen. Andy, I believe, up on the roof, how are we feeling? I mean, first of all, I mean, it's a shame that this be anything, but it really is a shame that it be so quiet, because I know that that's not particularly represented of Bjork, but what a shame that we so nearly had of Bjork, number one, and we would have got to talk about hair, you know, if we had a universal, for fuck's sake. I just think if we had Oh So Quiet, Fairground, and Gangsters Paradise, that would have been one of the most striking, interesting bunch of songs that we've ever covered on the show.

not the best bunch of songs we've ever covered, but certainly the most kind of rich and engaging bunch that we've ever had. God, that's a shame. But it's more of a shame because this is diabolically awful, really so bad. The up on the roof side of this, which I gave a cursory listen, is slightly, slightly better than I believe.

And if it wasn't for that, I think I believe individually is a really strong contender for the worst song that we've ever come. covered on HITS 21, and I said that about the last Robbton and Jerome stuff, which is just I've seen them, I was sort of thinking, is there something I'm not missing, sorry, is there something I'm not getting about them? So I did a little bit of Googling and I saw something contemporaneous describe them as a sort

of British Simon and Garfunkel, and I thought, oh, jail, jail for that person. Just an outrageous thing to say, I would be so offended if I was Simon and Garfunkel by I'd comment. They remain utterly characterless and anonymous that, you know, you could have, could have fooled that this was done by AI, especially because the backing tracks to both of these songs, because they are just backing tracks. There's no real instruments in any of these. The backing tracks are just karaoke tracks.

They're really bad karaoke tracks, even for the 90s. It, you know, it's obviously unfortunate that they've ended up alongside Fairground and Gangsus Paradise. But look at the production on those two songs. Like this is not that long ago. It's only 30 years ago. And, you know, amazing production on both of these songs. And this!

Oh, it's just like, you know, cruise ship, Jane McDonald's realness that you get in here. And they just, both songs sound absolutely awful and particularly, I believe. Can you believe that when I was about 30, 40 seconds into this, my initial thought was, oh, there's not much dynamics in this. Careful what you wish for. It just, by the end, it's getting so loud and. pompous and ridiculous that it feel like it's about to take off into space and just burst through the phone and just start grabbing you by the head and shaking you because it gets so over the top

and stupid. I literally have not one good thing to say about this at all. I think it's an abomination. It's so bad. In terms of what I believe, it almost makes me hope that there is a hell so I can deposit this song there personally it's just I'm lost for words it's so bad it's so so bad shame on Robson and Jerome for this

and shame on them for the seven weeks at number one on the album's chart at the same time as this just no accounting for taste is there none just awful shocking stuff this Ed any advance on shame why are you doing this Rob I feel like I'm being waterboarded here.

It's interesting you should say hell, Andy, because I have no notes for this. I'm not being for se. I'm not making that up. But for some reason, while Rob was introducing this in the short but painful list of songs that could have got to number one,

I all of a sudden thought, Hellraiser. Have either of you seen Hellraiser? Can't say I have, no. It's an interesting movie. Is that the acupuncture guy? Yeah, pinhead. Yes.

Is it a low budget, but quite imaginative and memorable 80s British horror movie. Yeah. Directed written by Clive Barker. Anyway, that's by the by. Basically, the villains of the piece are a race called the Cenobites, who used to be human or something. I don't know. I remember what's beyond the first one.

But effectively, they live in. in this sort of sadomasochistic world where pain and pleasure are effectively the same thing. And they live for experience. But basically the whole point of life is extremes. And there's a bit at the end of the movie where a chap who they've been chasing down for the whole film has hooks put into him and he's effectively ripped apart from all angles.

But as he's slowly getting torn apart because of the placement of them, he seems like he's having an orgasm basically and yeah i i thought i was going somewhere with this no i i was really wondering where this was going yeah look basically you know that's full of very extreme imagery and there's this idea of extreme pleasure and extreme pain being effectively joined in the middle a lot of fetishes are based around that idea it's turning something potentially painful a source of you know pain maybe when you were coming up into something pleasurable it's a way of it's a coping mechanism I mean, it could actually be a positive one.

Do you know what the enemy of the Centa Bites would be? What would instantly destroy them and make them destroy themselves? It's something like this, which is an absence of all extremes. It is total purgatory, which I honestly think is worse than any kind of fucking musical hell you can show me. I think this might be the most empty thing I have ever experienced and I'll be frank I've listened to 10 seconds of it

since I was assigned this and you know I've never met Robson and Jerome I don't know Robson and Jerome but That's okay Your words say more than evidence ever could But I was like

Look we've been around this block once before I thought they were wank first time And I don't want to hate Robson and Jerome I get the impression that they've been slightly awkwardly framed by other corporate powers. I mean, they could have said no, but this might have been part of a whole fucking promotional deal for soldier, I don't know. They would sound embarrassed. They did in the first 10 seconds of this absolute wasteland that I fucking heard. But Jesus Christ, I mean, it is just, I was like, this is anti-music.

And the thing about anti-music is you suggest, you suggest that. to somebody who, then they might think that that is an extreme of something, that it is going to be something like, but it's like, no, that elicitsits a response. A lot of effort has been put into making that a craggy sound that will be abrasive. This has been, all the effort's been put into making it totally the opposite. And it sounds like no effort has been put into it. The minute I heard that fucking plinky plunky wanky fucking middy piano sample i was like i can't do this my brain just started screaming i tried it twice and my brain just went no no no i'm getting old guys i'm much older than the other two folk on this podcast and this is one of those songs that just

makes me feel it and that's not a bad thing as i say that kind of extreme experience we're all gonna go somewhere. We've all got to die at some point. But as I get older, the smaller things are precious. And that's not a sense of, oh, things are slipping away. It's a sense of, I know what value is to me. And this is like my brain just rejecting something, because it can find, it can find nothing. No experience in this. And I hold it in extreme contempt for that. I don't want to hate it. I don't want to hate the people I'm involved. It's not worth the fucking effort and Robson and Jerome seem like nice enough folk from what I know

so I don't want to hate them for something that's so utterly translucent I'm done just no I totally I mean I totally agree with all of that and especially the anti-music point because like the way that I've been thinking of it is that it's just the joke is on literally everyone here like who comes out of this well

it's certainly not the fucking listener it's not Robson and Jerome it's not music, it can only be, you know, the label who were cashing in on this, and that itself is anti-music. So, yes, just the jokes on everyone, except the people who made the money, which probably wasn't really Robson and Jerome. Yeah, I'll just be quick with mine. Robson and Jerome have done their song again. Twice. Anyway, yeah, the Frankie Lane song they should have done, and that should have been number one for 18 weeks in the 50s, was my friend, which is the kind of religious pop I can really fucking get behind and get on board with specific human related to

his own internal feelings about what his faith means to him and it has a massive emotional cathartic release at the end as opposed to I believe which I even the original I just think is him kind of cycling through metaphors in search of something that's not there and doesn't exist and isn't tangible and then Robson and Jerome do their own version of it and they've also done up on the roof which is also there and apparently they only sang 60% of the material that appears on this song and the other vocalists were brought in because they couldn't hit the notes and there was nearly a huge court case where Mike Stock tried to keep that hidden the other vocalists were used he tried to take out an injunction and also did you know that

Robson Green threatened Simon Cowell with legal action before they recorded any songs because Cowell kept pursuing them for months and tried to contact them in order to start their music career. And then did you know that Robinson Green ultimately relented and eventually this happened? Yeah, what a fucking idiot he was. Jesus. I just, yeah, I can't believe.

We have three. We have three of their songs still to do. Thankfully, it's all in one go. It's a triple A side, but we have three more songs of theirs to do. Triple. Uh-oh. It's a fucking joke. It's just... And then you see Wonder Woman.

and the universal, and it's so, so quiet, and yeah. So, Andy, fairground, gangster's paradise, and I believe, and up on the roof, where we're sending them all. Love the Farrell is going into the vault. That's Love the Farrell by Simply Red. That's going into the vault. Gangsters Paradise also going into the vault. Great week for the show, if we just ignore what happened at the end.

It's like we've had a lovely starter, a really sumptuous. main course and then someone has served you human shit for dessert that's kind of what it feels like um not only is robson and jerome going into the pie hole but it's possibly i think the worst thing we've ever had on hit's 21 yeah ed simply read coolio and robson and jerome simply red as you already know it's uh looping and dipping it's way into the vault because it really does have a fond and unique place for me.

Coolio is Gangsters Paradise I haven't ever vaulted a song that didn't deserve it and yeah I'm vaulting this as well because it is profoundly solid and it stands up.

Do you know what? Robson and Jerome it would be too much effort to put it in the pie hole I always imagine it has like a lid You know like one of those things like a vot You know You have to unscrew the top bit

Like in a submarine or something And then you know Where you pull someone out in their wet suit or whatever No no don't waste your energy This is already dead It's already stripped to the bone Before it was even released And it's just sun bleached bones

Look maybe the dirt can do something with it I want to see if this can produce anything, if it's capable, or if it is just like anti-matter as well as anti-music. Is there another option, just for this one song?

Because... Or the next one, because... Is there, like, another one called, like, the sub-club or something we could do? Or... I'm a member of that.

How about this? The worst crust is the deepest. How about that? It's a pie. Anyway, that... The Wanksters Paradise? Whankster's paradise, although that does implicate the fact that

maybe we didn't like Culeo, which we did, and I don't want them anywhere near Culeo. I don't want them anywhere near me. The hellhole. The hellhole. Do you know what? Can I put this in the hellhole, which is basically what you have to do is effectively

wait for the earth to take it. And it's more figurative because nobody ever bothers to check it. You just assume that nothing will have happened. It will have no effect on anyone and no one will have to see it again, much like this music's effect

on everyone's fucking life after that. Seven weeks, seven weeks, seven days of R. Kelly was enough, but seven, Jesus, seven weeks, seven weeks of this. Sorry, I am getting worked up. The Athel. The Athel fucking spit it back out. I wouldn't even wait for that,

to be honest. It makes you think about everything in the world. This, like, just been thinking just then, it's like, you know, we face, you know, a really terrifying future due to climate change. And it makes me think that some tiny, minuscule element of climate change has been caused by the production of this. That wasn't worth it. Like, you know, you think about, you know, people having lovely burgers or, you know, going on flights to, you know, round the world trips. Like that's, you know, nominally worth it, you know, in a sort of, you know, hedonistic sense. This isn't worth it. This wasn't worth climate change. No. No. No, but

It's interesting looking at it and putting this almost this gloomy and heavy weight of philosophy over this episode, which it probably really doesn't deserve. But it's like a journey, isn't it? From birth and the optimism of youth through midlife and the questions and the moral grayness and ethical quandaries of your midlife to the sort of pre-chewed, empty bullshit of death. I don't know But Christ Jesus I mean is there some way of just Making this evaporate

Without having anything to do with it I mean Can we ghost Is there a ghost hole Can we just ghost this song And pretend it never happened Just ether it Yeah exactly

Just you know Don't reply to any of it You can see it's ringing Just block the number You know And get rid of them Off your whatever social media account Get off social media

if there's any risk of ever seeing them pop up again. Anyway, whew. You're right, that's. You're okay. I do need to take a breath. As for me, Fairground is just missing out on the vault. Gangsters Paradise is confidently sitting in it. So that's a triple vaulter for Gangsters Paradise.

And it's a triple pie hole, hell hole, ghost hole for, I believe, and up on the roof. And it's not the end of Robson and Jerome on this podcast. Maybe it picks up a bit on the third one Maybe it's like the Cars trilogy Yeah I'm desperate Yeah I'm desperate

I'm smoking the hopium as they say So next week It will be The Race for Christmas number one In 1995 And we will see you for it Bye bye now Bye

Bye