Hits 21 - 1996 (3): Gina G, Three Lions, Fugees, Gary Barlow

Episode Date: September 26, 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.

Hits 21 Hi there, everyone, and welcome back to HITS 21, the 90s, where me, Rob, me, Andy. And then, us. Looking back at every single UK number one of the 1990s. If you want to get in touch with us, email us. Hits21 Podcast at gmail.com. That's Hitt21Podcast at gmail.com. And he can Twitter us at Hits21 UK.

That is at Hits 21 UK. Thank you ever so much for joining us again. We are currently looking back at the year 1996. And this week we'll be covering the period between the 19th of May and the 20th of June. Lie. 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 1998. This episode, of course, will be our last regular episode for about three weeks because in the next three weeks, Andy, you're going to be away down under and then even further under in New Zealand. So me, Ed and Lizzie are going to be looking at the top of the pops episodes from the week in which each of us were born, or at least the closest to our birth dates. So it is time to press on with this week's episode and Andy, the UK album charts. How were they doing over the summer of 96?

Well, there's quite a few albums to talk to you about. It's quite a good range that we've got at this time. We start with Ash, with 1977, which went number one for one week and went platinum. Not sure what it's about, but I assume it must be either the silver jubilee, the release of Star Wars, the beginning of the sex pistols and the punk movement or the birth of Shakira. Must be one of those four. Well, I'll give you a clue.

It starts with the sound of a Thai fighter zooming past. It is about the birth of Shakira. Right, okay. That's then toppled by George Michael with Older, which we've discussed several times. It's produced both the number ones that we've talked about of his recently. That went number one for three weeks and went six times platinum. That's then interrupted for one week by Mattan.

with their album Lode, which went number one for one week and went gold. And also one week at number one for Brian Adams with 18 Till I Die, which went number one for one week and went double platinum. Don't know about you, but whenever I read that title, I just hear Alan Partridge with 18 till I die. I'm going to be 18 till I die. As he pulls out his big plate at the buffet. Then we get another week at the top for Alanis Morissette with Jagged Little Pill,

which we did mention last week. mind you, that went 10 times platinum and is the highest selling album of 1996, and there is plenty more weeks at the top for that one to come. See you in three weeks for that one. And our final album this week at number one, it's Crowded House with Recurring Dream, which went number one for two weeks and went quadruple platinum. And tell you what, I had a recurring dream that in 1996 Alanis Morris Set just kept on returning to number one. Let's see how true that dream turns out to be. Sorry, Andy, I've got a cure for those dreams. It's a jagged little pill. Nice. Thank you very much for that album report. In the news during the summer of 96,

in Manchester, more than 200 people are injured when a bomb planted by the IRA is detonated in the city centre. No fatalities were recorded, though, after 75,000 people were evacuated from the surrounding areas in the space of 90 minutes. More than 1.2 billion pounds worth of damage was inflicted on buildings nearby. In Wolverhampton, seven people are injured when a man attacks a school with a machete. In Kent, nine-year-old Josie Russell survives an attack on her family by Michael Stone, although Stone does claim the lives of Josie's mother and her six-year-old sister. In Guernsey, the island's parliament votes to legalise abortion, overturning a ban that has stood for 86 years.

Dolly the Sheep is born, becoming the first mammal to be successfully cloned, and in football, the England men's team reached the semi-finals of Euro 96 before being knocked out by eventual champions Germany. The films to hit the top of the UK box office during this period were as follows.

Spyhard, from dusk till dawn, up close and personal, The Rock, and Mission Impossible. In TV, a media, American film Doctor Who continues the story of the seventh doctor, Sylvester McCoy, and introduces the eighth Doctor Paul McGahn. That was a TV movie, guys. I'm turning to you for this.

Deeply controversial at the time to the point where it was sort of considered non-canon, but no one thinks that anymore. But yeah, it falls in a difficult place in between the classic series and the new series. But Paul McGahn was great. Paul McGahn himself is great. And everybody loves him. kept it in the canton. You know, it's just Paul McGahn.

The rest can probably swim away somewhere. I've heard just from doing a bit of reading that Paul McGahn is only on screen as the eighth doctor once, but did a lot of radio plays in between 89 and 2005. Yes, he is the shortest lived doctor on screen, but is the most prolific doctor in all media. Yeah, more than any other doctor by a long way. So while loads of Americans were presumably tuning in for that,

one-off special of Doctor Who? What music were they buying? It seems a corner has been turned, but I might be a bit prematurely optimistic with that. But for the time being, we have no Celine, we have no boys or men's, and we have no apparent Mariah. So, for the albums, the US number one albums, the score is settled for four weeks at number one, as the Fugis, Lauren Hill, Y, Jeff, Y, Chaz, and Dave, sell seven million copies in the US alone. A month is a long time. One might say it's a load of lumbering hard rock crap. Yes, it's Zondi Metallica, with the first of two jumbo portions of tedious, sweaty jockstrap bollocks. I have tried to listen to these, by the way, before Nasty Naz begins a run at the top

with the fine, pretty good, not bad at all, actually. It was written. Yeah, now singles, all two of them. Well, kinder. The crossroads, bones, slugs and carvaries to stake its claim at the number one spot. And we'll pass that by before. anyone questions my use of the word carvery there, although I hear busy bone was partial to a Sunday roast. They have nine more weeks at number one with that. Then a double A side, ostensibly,

because in my view it's really only about one of the sides. It's Tupac featuring Casey and Jojo with How Do You Want It on one side, and it's Tupac with Dr. Dre and Roger Troutman on California love for two whole weeks. All right then, so we are going to get into the first of four songs. This week, it's another bumper episode, and the first of those is this. You're my love, you're my sweetest thing. Don't shy away, don't shy away. Every night makes me hate the days.

Can't get a love of your love. Am I wrong, am I so unkind? Show me the way. Don't turn away. Okay, I can't hide all these thoughts in my mind, just a minute, I'm just a little bit more, just a minute, you know what I'm looking for, just a little bit more, just a little bit more, just a minute, I'll give you love you can't ignore. Okay, this is U.R. Just a Little Bit by Gina G. Released as the lead single from her debut studio album titled Fresh. U.R. Just a Little Bit is Gina G.'s first single to be released in the UK and her first to reach number one.

However, as of 2025, it is her last. U.R. Just a Little Bit first entered the UK charts at number six, reaching number one during its eighth week. It stayed at number one, four. One week. In its first and only week atop the charts, it sold 75,000 copies beating competition from There's Nothing I Won't Do by JX, Blue Moon by John Alford and Fat Neck by Black Grape.

When it was knocked off the top of the charts, O'R just a little bit, dropped one place to number two. By the time it was done on the charts, it had been inside the top 100 for 27 weeks. The song is currently officially certified platinum in the UK as of 2025, and yes, his name just did go past. Of course, John Alford has recently been outed as a wrong, and Ed, Gina G, how we feel it? I usually use the word dynamic a lot, probably an irritating amount.

But I'm going to replace that, I think, through a lot of today's reviews, with another D word. Not that one. Decent. Yeah, it's just decent. I cannot deny how catchy this is. Everyone remembers this song. It's a total earworm. But compared to a lot of the big synthy dance pop hits we've had,

even compared to Saturday Night, this is a bit kind of mindlessly chirpy for my liking. It's very kind of 1D in that way. It's like if a synth riff was produced by taking prose till you foamed at the mouth, that's what the opening sync riff to this song would be. It's so kind of perky

in a sort of cheerful, edgeless way that it just, this song can never really mean very much and it doesn't really have any light and shade to it. Also, it does in that way sound like something from a Sega Saturn game. which is, I think, a sort of reference point that only someone of my age might get.

But it has a kind of certain early CD-age red book audio charm. Like they've got an English woman living in Tokyo to sing a version of a Eurobeat song written in Japan. And that's the theme tune to their bizarre adventure game about a dolphin with three. feet. But that's a thing, by the way. To give some prime examples of this red book audio genre, I recommend you check out, here comes your best friend, Finn Finn, the Club Mix, the theme to Sonic R for the Sega Saturn, and an all-time classic, if you can track it down, as for Dreams from the game Cookies Bustle, which which is about a little girl

who thinks she's a bear and goes on an adventure and it has this amped up theme that is truly magnificent. Little side note, because I don't have much to say about the song, the game Cookies Bustle as part of some bizarre

trolling experiment slash undisclosed thesis is slowly being erased from the internet. As in, you know, you can find references to any old, bizarre, crappy game anyway. It is gradually disappearing. Someone is going around and deleting

any evidence that Cookies Bustle exists, which is why I'm very thankful that my favorite Twitch streamers, Retro Pals, use it and keep it for posterity as their unofficial theme tune that they play before every single one of their streams. So thank you, Retro Pals. For nothing else, if for nothing else even though you're a great channel thank you for keeping as for dreams from Cookies Bustle alive

now what the fuck was I talking about yeah oh yeah Gina G it's decent it's catchy but it's a bit brotherhood of snap if you get where I'm coming from

that might sound harsh but unfortunately that's my closing conclusion what you said there Ed about it being sort of a Europop song being written from somewhere in Japan or having you know Japanese aesthetics or something funnily enough the the Swedish group caramel or the carameler girls who were kind of like

a virtual arm of caramel they have covered this the ones who did caramel dancing so again Swedish group but using Japanese images and anime and those kinds of characters to sell the song and do like a nightcore version of it and they've they've done a version of this with an official video so yeah i don't think you were wider the mark at all uh there's something about

the introductory synth line of this though that screams 90s at me very very loudly uh mentioned a few episodes ago that whenever we've been going through songs in our 90s coverage i always imagined that they'd be part of the diagetic or non-diagetic soundtrack to dairy girls and yeah this this fits the bill, and it does get used in season three of Derry Girls, according to a few Google deep dives. Although as 90s as this is, it does have that very specific Eurovision quality, which obviously we shouldn't forget, of sounding like it's about five years behind everything else in the charts. If this had dropped in 91 or 92, I would have thought, yeah, sounds about right. Because that synth line, like you were saying, Ed, a bit brotherhood

of snap, it sounds like it has more in common with too unlimited than, say, Entrance, if you want like, you know, the leading dance sax of 91 and 96 there. But then it turns out it's actually got more in common with something like Wigfield from 94. And I think this is how people like to remember the 90s as opposed to how the 90s was. Similar thing with Brit Pop, but just with dance pop instead, where there's another song coming up next, actually, that's a bit like that. But yeah, in terms of mainstream narratives, the 90s are mostly viewed as a time of carefree optimism, a lack of everyday intensity, this sense that we were blissfully ignorant, but also that there was nothing sinister to be ignorant of. We just went to friendly dance parties and that

was it. And I think this song is perfect for building that kind of narrative, but it has that same kind of carefree spirit that a lot of 90s dance did have. It's a bit Second Summer of Love, you know, it is a bit Wakefield, as I said, a bit Eurovision, obviously. It's also a bit carry on with its Ower, misses, bits of innuendo. But I think in comparison to something like Whigfield, where that kind of unresolved piano sample comes in to add a tinge of sadness and regret and the sense of time slipping away. This wants to remain uncomplicated. This is kind of how Greta Gerwig's Barbie film would feel if it was made by all the other Barbies in the film, not the one that's Margot Robbie's Barbie, who has this, who has concepts of sadness and

melancholia and being aware of our own mortality and stuff. And that's fine, but everyone should know by now, I think that I prefer a bit more downbeat honesty in my pop, even if it's pop like this. But whenever this is on the radio, and it did get played a fair bit on Greatest its radio before I kind of gave up on that, because they play, they hide it better, but they do end up playing the same song at least two or three times every week. But whenever that came on, I'm always like, oh, yeah, maybe the 90s was all rainbows and lasers and peace and love, you know, that sort of thing. But yeah, it's cool.

Andy, I know I think that you are a bigger fan of this than me and Ed are. So we're going to give you the... I'm going to give you the four last on this one. Oh, well, I mean, I am, I think, a bigger fan of it than both of you, but I'm not going to, like, absolutely fly the flag for it. You know, it's just sort of extremely efficient at what it wants to do. And it doesn't want to do much, which makes it seem like a total slam dunk. And I do think it's a total slam dunk

What it is I just wish it was doing A bit more If you like, a little bit more Than what it does Now and again you get a song like this That is just pure sugar That is just like a sugar rush

And that's it Nothing else And the 90s Particularly the late 90s It's a great place for songs like this Because it's not necessarily a bad thing You know songs that are just not trying to say anything Or do anything except

Make you dance and make you bop and make you sing along. I think, you know, there's loads of examples of it in the 90s, basically everything that Aqua ever did, a lot of what steps did. And stuff from later on, like, even in the Nauties,

like I really am very fond of that song, cry for you by September. You know, you'll never see me again. Which is just like nothing but a bop, and that's all there is to it. And I think that sometimes is a really welcome thing. Like, that's something that you don't have to analyze, that you can just completely switch your brain off for

and just really enjoy. And that intro never fails to make me like not skip it, where I hear that intro and think, oh, I've got to stop and listen to this. I think people have an idea that maybe people who aren't as into Eurovision as I am, quite frankly, which is quite a lot, have an idea that this is what all Eurovision is like and that this is the kind of thing that wins Eurovision

and would be shocked to learn that this didn't really even come close to winning Eurovision. because it is a really good song and it's got that big like camp europe pop factor to it but stuff like this never actually wins you know people want a bit more authenticity in this i think what rob is asking for is far more in tune with what the eurovision fan base actually wants than something like this but i will lay my stake in the ground here i've really thought about it um i'm not that familiar with every single song that we've put into eurovision and particularly thinking about the mid to late noughties for some of them. But I do think that this is still yet to be bettered by anything we've entered since.

I think this is better than everything from 97 onwards that we've entered into the Eurovision Song Contest. I can't name something that I think is better. I mean, obviously, Space Man was good. Jessica Garlix won back in 2002 was all right. I quite like that blue one. I can. That was quite good. But really, I think this is kind of as good as it gets.

for the UK. I even prefer it to love shine a light, which actually won. I'm not a huge fan of that. So I'm really proud that we've got this on the roster that, you know, it doesn't all end with making your mind up for us in terms of all the great stuff that we've put into Eurovision. But it is quite insubstantial, you know. It's, it's just sugar rush and nothing else. But my God, do I love it when everything just comes together for a pure explosion of pop fun? I'm thinking one specific place where all every song is like this is on DDR machines

where you know stuff like Hey oh Captain Jack or macho Mambo sway which I absolutely adore like I love that song I really wish I got number one and that's kind of what the late 90s means to me to be honest like I worked with someone who was same age as me who I mentioned this song to him a couple years ago

and he said he'd never heard this and I was like what you don't know this and he's same age as me and he's gay as well not that that you know not a stereotype type. But I was like, how is that possible? Because to me, this song is just sort of like part of the landscape of the British 90s pop experience.

Like, how does anybody avoid this? It might not be even close to being one of the biggest songs of the 90s. But I do think that this gets the bubble gum pop like, I keep using the word sugary, but that sugary feeling down to a tea, to the point that this

has really stuck around and people really have resonated with this over the years. So I love it. I love it. I don't think it's trying to do very much at all, but it's very successful at what it is trying to do. I just wish it was giving me, oh, just a little bit,

a little bit more. What's that word you're looking for? Yeah. All right then, so we will move on to our second song this week, which is this. We're not created enough, we're not positive enough. We'll go on getting back as I'm getting back

As I'm getting back It's coming home It's coming home It's coming home It's coming up It's coming It's coming home It's coming home

It's coming home It's coming home It's coming home Everyone seems to know the score They've seen it all before They just know They're so sure The England's going to throw it away

Okay, gonna blow it away, but I know they can wait. Okay, this is Three Lions and Skinner and the Lightning Seeds. Released as the Leadle and Skinner and the Lightning Seeds. released as the lead single from the compilation album titled The Beautiful Game, the official album of Euro 96. Three Lions is Badil and Skinner and the Lightning Seeds 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 this lot during our 90s coverage.

Three Lions went straight in at number one as a brand new entry. It stayed at number one for one week. In its first week, atop the charts, it sold 110,000 copies, beating competition from Mysterious Girl by Peter Andre, until it sleeps by Metallica, the only thing that looks good on me is you, by Brian Adams, and because you loved me by Celine Dion. When it was knocked off the top of the charts, Three Lions dropped one place to number two, but it is not the end of Three Lions' Journey at the summit of Mount Pop. Andy

Badele and Skinner Three Lions How do we feel? I'm such a party poop with this I really am because I'm going to return what Rob said earlier that I'm going to hit the floor

very quickly on this one because I know how much you love this one Rob and I don't and I wish I could I really do appreciate what this is doing

I really appreciate the different angle this is coming from where this is taking the perspective of well we're a bit rubbish on the international stage and we won't actually win but God I wish we could

wouldn't it be love with if we did and I'll dream that one day we will and this extremely realistic very relatable view of how people think about football on the international stage that sort of very self-deprecating kind of quality to it I think

is really likable and I don't think there's anything kind of wrong with that toxic about it at all seeding that word here because I'll come back to it later but um i i just i don't think it's anything special on a musical level but i i really appreciate what it's doing and i really like that stirring feel with the it's coming home stuff it's like it's a total cliche now obviously and it's completely lost all meaning but it does really work that it's coming home refrain and back when this really made a comeback in 2018 i think was when this

really came back back and sort of hasn't left since and has entered you know sort of permanent language of England football I did feel quite excited at the thought of oh well if we win in the final and you know it's coming home we'll start playing you know and every time we won a match in that World Cup and every time we won one in Euro 2021 you know it would be everywhere

and at first I did feel a sense of like genuine national pride about that because this song is not supposed to be sort of demanding that we win anything it's not like come on you read and, like, demanding, you know, that we win all the trophies because we are the best. There's a sense of real achievement and, like, a dream fulfilled to this. So I do really like this.

Like I said, I don't think it's anything special musically. So it means that the spell wears off very quickly once the meaning changes. And unfortunately, the meaning has changed over the years. And I am usually one to say, no, no, no, we should divorce things of future events of the context that's happened since. But I can't do it to this extent because what has happened to this song is so horrible and represents the side of this country that makes me ashamed to be from this country a lot of the time where I just think ever since 2018, it became, it took over so much that it became a sort of like a bless you type response where like the second anyone says anything about

England's like, oh, it's coming home, it's coming home, it's coming home. and the meaning of the song has changed so much. It's changed from this wish that we might win one day and the feeling of national belonging and national pride and a sense of home that we would feel if we were to win something. It's changed from that to a demand that we win because this is our sport and we deserve to win. That's kind of what it's turned into,

and it's no one person that's responsible for that. And I think Skinner and Bidiel and the Lightning Seeds would be as appalled as anyone about that, because that's certainly not the intent that any of them went into this with. But this has become a song that was supposed to be about British self-deprecation

into a song about British imperialism, frankly, and British arrogance, and English arrogance, I should say. And as much as I don't think you have to be a racist knucklehead thug reform voter to love this song, all racist knucklehead thug reform voters

probably do love this song. And I think that the issues that are affecting our society at the moment and infecting our politics now and infecting every aspect of British culture, where everything is being put through the lens of what is British, what is not British, who is welcome here, who is not welcome here, and a kind of membership card that you have to carry in order to prove that you are sufficiently part of our culture and part of our nation. This song has become an emblem of that. And that's completely out of the original context, completely out of anyone's control, so I don't want to come down on this song too harshly for it, but it has unfortunately created a kind of instinctive kind of horrible panic response in me now

of the kind of people who sing this song every day and go to matches and get pissed and sing this until 3 a.m. are the kind of people that scare me most in our country. And the sense of right, the sense of demand and the sense of arrogance that bleeds through the use of this song every day. day now, whenever I hear it, is a, like I say, a huge totem of everything that I don't like about where the country is right now. So I would happily, very happily, never, ever hear this again and start from scratch with how we talk about football and how we talk about how we represent ourselves on the international stage. That said, it's a decent song,

and I really like the original intents of it. But now this has become, I think, one of the most toxic and one of the most abhorrent pieces of music that we've ever covered on the show. because of what it's come to represent. Ed, do you agree or disagree? It's decent. This? Yeah. No, by football song standards, it is one of the best.

I will give it that. There is effort here. It's moment. It's entirely earnest in its original incarnation and its original use. It is probably a lot more meaningful if you are into football. Um, and yeah, I, I, I, speaking of mindlessly chirpy, I'm, I'm not talking about the song, but I am talking a bit about the lightning seeds where I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I find lightning seeds are a bit like, right? And he's, right. And he's very, and he's very, you met, and he's very, polite and very affable and you sit there and you have a drink but you realize that there's a sort of awkwardness and surface level to the chat that you could never really move beyond but

he still kind of sits there just smiling a little bit you know you'll say things like oh um yeah I'm I'm coming off social media actually and he'll say oh why and you have to go like well I just you know I find it all a bit doomy and and a bit top And all of the discussions are polarised. And he's like, oh, really? Well, yeah, I mean, a bit. And he's like, oh, okay, fine. And then there's a long pause.

And then he says, the earth is flat. And then I'm just kind of like, no, I'm all right. I'm good. I'm going to go and look through the CDs over there. But that's me in the lightning seeds, because I have nothing really to say about this one either. Even though it's decent and it's fine, and I do like it. And I don't think there's anything wrong with it as a song anyway.

But I think without any palpable connection to it or residence on any, either sports or nationalistic level, it's a bit like listening to just like a, it's got a vibe of a Christmas song about it when it doesn't have that emotional charge. Where it's like, yeah, this is a decent Christmas song. It's kind of mid-packed. But beyond that, I'm like, it's, yeah, I think so much depends on the charge around it. And yeah, it's not all negative, as Andy implies.

I mean, unfortunately, it has become subverted from within and without to represent something unfortunate. But I think it was well-meaning. I think it was charming. And I think it's, um, it's decent. So there you go. Can I just quickly chip in. on the lighten seeds because i got so carried away on my soapbox that i forgot to mention about the lighten seeds so they had an album in the mid 90s that the name escapes me that has a big

strawberry on the front floating in clouds yes i remember and i just loved looking at that cover my dad had that album and he really likes that album it's one with oh lucky you on it and i i just loves the cover so i used to put it on because of that for no other reason and i was in year three in like 1999 and And it was one of the last days of term. And it was bring a CD into school day where we'd all just listen to CDs. I think my Year 3 teacher just wanted to listen to loads of music, to be honest. And everyone else brought in like Steps, S Club 7,

you know, Boys Own, West Life, everything that was big in 1999. And I brought in that album by the Lightning Seeds. A little six-year-old bringing in Jolification by the Lightning Seeds. And my Year 3 teacher couldn't stop laughing and laughed his head off and chose that album to put on first. was telling people, look, look, he's brought in the lightning seeds, and I didn't understand why it was so funny, but now I look back thinking in the late 90s,

a little six-year-old bringing in the lightning seeds to listen to at school, I was a strange little boy, wasn't I? I hope you weren't too, didn't feel ashamed by that, did you? No, not ashamed at all. Good. No, I felt quite cool because everyone was pointing out the album that I brought in and nobody else has like, no, you didn't bring the lightning seeds, do you? You don't like that, do you?

Yeah. I will try and make my analysis quick. I think this song, or at least this version of the song, has become, like you two were saying, more and more misunderstood and misinterpreted over the years, both by people who like it and sing it all the time, and by people who don't like it and think that it represents something ugly. I think that people who like it and sing it all the time

whenever England are playing at a major tournament seem to think that it's some kind of big flag-shagging, nationalistic, jingoistic anthem that should be belted out at top volume, while behaving in a hostile manner and getting very drunk in town squares and city centres of foreign countries and in our own country actually. And people who don't like it seem to think it was written

with that image in mind and that it was written to create that kind of scene in its own image. And I think that they're both wrong. Not when it comes to the 1998 version, but I'll get to that when we cover 1998. I want to talk about the 1996 version because I think the 96 version has,

or had more innocent intentions than that. I should say at the top of this that I wouldn't really, I wouldn't really call myself an England fan. I was when I was a kid, but through, I think I kind of mentioned this when we did World Emotion, through the 2010s, I kind of went through a bit of an identity crisis over the England team and how nationalists tend to co-op the England team while ignoring what it actually stands for.

And then through the Southgate years, I found myself wanting them to win a bit more than usual during the major tournaments. Not really for me, you know, I'm a fully committed Manchester City fan. They always come first to me. But if England win, then I'm pleased for them. And if they lose, then, hey, whatever, no big deal. Come back next time sort of thing. I don't have much sentimental attachment to the team, is what I'm saying.

So, like, obviously lots of people know the story behind sort of, like, this song and its context within English football in 96. But just in case some people don't. Like in 1996, English football is still in a pretty dark place after the high sole disaster in 85, in which 39 Juventus fans are killed at the European Cup final against Liverpool. English teams have been banned from all European competitions at club level by UEFA, sort of had an iron curtain placed around us for five years. So by the time 1990 came round, the English game was miles behind the European game in terms of tactics, technique, sports science. Plus, the Hillsborough disaster had just happened before the curtain was lifted. And the quality of English sports stadia was really called into question because of that in the Taylor Report.

This is partly why the Premier League was formed in the first place. It was a bid to break away from what the founding clubs deemed an old-fashioned football league organization that wasn't fit for purpose. But even by 1996, which is four years after the Premier League's been funded, six years after the Taylor report. and despite being back allowed in European competitions for six years, no English club team had made it beyond the earliest rounds of the European Cup, or as it was now named the Champions League. Nowadays, obviously, and since about 96, actually, English football has been defined by foreign influence, lots of money.

And the Premier League is the biggest league in the world, but in the early 90s, English teams were 99% made up of British players. So by the time we came back, the perception of English football on the continent was that, we played like troglodyte tactics had sort of you know an insular ignorant and exclusive attitude and that our rotting collapsing stadiums weren't fit for purpose so the bid for euro 96 which i think was accepted in 1992 was english football trying to prove to the rest of europe and the world that we could indeed welcome european football to our country that it was safe to come

here and that we could cope with the tournament from an infrastructure point of view and that backed by our fans, our brand of football could be successful on the pitch again, even against lots of cultured teams, like that brilliant Denmark team of the early 90s with Michael Loudrop in it, or the newly combined Germany team with Juergen Klinsman. And in all of this, it can't be forgotten that England is widely considered to be the home of football, the place where the modern game and the modern rules were established. Like, you know, the English football league is the oldest league system on the planet. I don't think the, it's coming home of three, Lions 96 is about England being the best team or the trophy coming home to England after the

tournament. I think the idea of football's coming home is that, you know, between 1985 and 95, football had actually left its home in the dust. England had been left behind. We were behind the times. We were shut out. We were forgotten. They might have made the World Cup semis in 1990, but they'd crashed out of Euro 88 and 92 and didn't even qualify for the 94 World Cup. But now, because England was hosting 96, the sport itself has literally come back to its home and that the rest of Europe was going to come with it. In fact, the FA made an insane decision to prove that English football was leaving the past behind by literally changing the goal nets at Wembley.

The 1996 FA Cup final was the last time Wembley Stadium had those kind of triangular shaped nets as it went backwards. Obviously, the goal frame is rectangular, but heading backwards into the goal. It was kind of like a triangular incline that steeply went down. they immediately changed them for the rectangular design that went backwards in a straight line and then dropped down in another straight line

and hey, maybe this time the team could put on a good show play some good football the song is definitely patriotic but patriotism is fine. You know, Ian Broody of the Lightning Seeds who wrote the song said he didn't want it to be Englandistic.

He said he wanted it to be about being a football fan which, quote, about 90% of the time is about losing. There was apparently a line about Terry Butcher being ready for war that was taken out of the final recording to avoid anything that could be read as potentially aggressive or militaristic. It's Three Lions 98 where the message gets muddled and it slips into a weirdly jingoistic xenophobic navel gazee smelling its own farts kind of territory, complete with that line coming back about ints being ready for war. But as I said,

I'll get to that when we cover it. Three Lines 96 itself, we discussed this a lot when we did world in motion. So I'll just do the abridged version and say that trying to mix football and pop music never works really, almost. It's always novelty. It's always about being the best team forever. It's almost afraid of moving away from marching band motifs and military aesthetics and stuff, which again, I will come back to for Three Lines 98, even though it's the same song. But Three Lines 96 is, I think it's a magnificent pop song. You get a sense of narrative and story immediately with the Alan Hanson commentary saying it's bad news for the English game or Jimmy Hill saying we'll keep getting bad results you know you immediately have like the

hero's motivation established there and then the hook comes in the it's coming it's so devilish that hook everyone fucking knows it even people who don't like football know it I also think the main chord sequence moving under it in the chorus is such a stirring choice that G into the B minor into the the e-minor for the de-dun-d-d-dun-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d. It's very, very stirring. It sounds like people walking. It doesn't sound like soldiers marching.

It sounds like a large group of people walking towards something in anticipation of something. It's all very exciting. I think in retrospect, the mix maybe lacks the punch in the higher frequencies that these days you would want. Maybe a grittier guitar track or something. And I think the bridge section with all the commentary is a little bit of a cop-out. But it's a composition that keeps moving and bustling. It sounds like people in motion, like I was saying,

you've got melody upon counter melody, a constantly evolving arrangement. It keeps adding in new features until the end, and the fade out takes you back to the start, where it's that sense of anticipation and ellipses, not knowing if they win or not. Obviously, history tells us they lost the Germany on penalties in the semifinal. But more than the composition and the musical arrangement, it's the fucking lyrics of this man.

And I think they're fundamental to the success that the song has with me. I think what football songs always get wrong is that they always end up being about winning. Like they take the cues from we are the champions and nothing else, except maybe some military songs about winning at war. We have won. We're the best. We're always going to be the best. Get out of our way or we'll crush you sort of thing. But as Ian Broody said, 99% of football fans, that isn't the case.

For 99% of football fans, your life is defined by, as it says, all those oh so nears that wear you down. through the years. This song lists off all of the things that you get, you have to endure as a football fan and that get you down as a football fan and make you wonder why the fuck we do it to ourselves every Saturday for 10 months of the year. We've seen it all before. We're going to blow it away. We're going to throw it away. The jokes and the sneers. It's ultimately a song about acknowledging that 99% of the time your football team is going to let you down and you begin to wonder like, why do I like football? Why do I put

myself through this fucking torture for no actual real world benefit. Why do billions of people pour their souls into this irrational bollocks? Because football is a lot like religion, I think, in the sense that if you weren't told about it as a child and you were only told about it at the age of like 18, you'd be like, fuck that. That sounds ridiculous. But we are introduced to it as kids and it becomes embedded in your soul. Now, I support a really successful football team these days that spent the last 15 years winning basically everything in sight. But we didn't used to be. You know, I was 16 years old before I saw City win a major trophy, and I'd been a fan since I was four, five years old. So that's 12 years of just not quite managing it, my team

not quite getting there. My entire childhood, basically, and all those experiences with my mum, who's a City fan, and my uncle, who was a City fan, watching City lose. And even worse, our local rivals United hoovering up every trophy in sight. And people who don't get football, just don't get why or how someone could give so much of themselves to something that is ultimately more often than not, something that lets you down. And then Three Lions just sums up the entire experience of being a football fan in 10 words. And it's just that, I know that was then, but it could be again. And that is it. It's just, it's hope. That's what keeps you coming back. You know, the hope that one day,

it's going to be your day, your team's day, that one day you'll have that shiny moment in the sun at the top of the mountain. It's years of history. bringing you to the point where you think that this will be the day when something good happens and you'll get to regale your children and grandchildren and little nieces and nephews about the Halcyon days, about that time when you were there for something significant, when you were part of history in your own small way. You know, like, you know, 48,000 people on the entire planet were at the Etiades Stadium for Sergio O'Guerro's goal against Queen's Park Rangers in 2012. and I was one of them

out of 7 billion people on the planet and one day when I'm older and city's success has dried up again like it does for everyone someone's going to ask me about that goal and I'm going to say oh well I was there and I'll tell them about England's women's team

winning back to back European championships and Michelle Agamang's amazing last minute goal against Italy to put them in the final and then this young person who's asking me will say like why do you keep going to city when they haven't won everything for 20 years and they're languishing in the third tier of English football by then and why I still keep hoping that England's women's team or their men's team will win again after enduring 30 years of more more 30 more years of her and

I'll just say ah see I know that was then but it could be again that that's it that is the I think it sums everything up about why we follow the sport and I understand that that on its own People see football fans as just like, kind of a scary mob, which we can be, definitely. I would say that I'm definitely not typical of most football fans, or quite a lot of football fans anyway. But I think trying to explain things that are irrational is basically impossible, but this gets as close as I think it possibly can to explain in football while being a fairly stirring composition and being a pretty solid, yeah, actually a really fucking solid pop song. I think, yeah, I think this is great. It's not a perfect 10. I've got a couple of issues with the mix,

and like I say, a couple of issues with the arrangement as it kind of gets towards the end, but I'm very much massive on this. I really, really am. I mean, Andy, you're kind of getting into football at the moment more and more, because obviously you're near Stockport County now,

but like, do you feel that sense of, you know, when you're at a game, do you feel that sense of, like, slightly losing control of yourself? Because, like, you know, I'll be watching a football game at City and I'll be sat down. and then in the time that it takes for us to get near the goal

and score the goal, I have stood up and raised my fist and cheered without really knowing that I've done it. I don't know if that feeling's come over you yet. It always did because I was lucky enough to be a very, very, very famous match. I was there when Wayne Rooney scored his first goal against Arsenal. I was behind the goal. Yeah, exactly, exactly. So, like, I've always kind of felt part of something

when you're there for a big football event. It's purely because of the fun you have while you're actually there. I've never been entirely comfortable with the crowd that I'm standing in to be honest because much of my try, I'm not one of them but I'm lucky enough to be able to go to a match where you don't have to be one of them there's quite a diverse crowd of people who go

but the thing is if it ever went bigger and it was ever like Premier League size stadium and that kind of coverage, I'd be out I'd be out, I'd never want to go to a Premier League stadium again but what I get out of it is part of the fun of being there and being amongst my local people

and not many of us and we're all just there for a laugh and that's all it is really. So I like the small nature of it really but I do totally get that feeling of wow I was there and I can tell people about it years later and maybe it'll happen again if I go to another match. Totally get that always out because of the Arsenal

Rooney goal. The other thing I just wanted to say before we finished by the way is completely coincidentally sometimes regular listeners might have noticed that sometimes you can hear my neighbours through the wall they've got young kids who play and sometimes you can hear them on the episode and one of them has apparently bought a referee whistle

who he's been blowing throughout this segment it's a complete coincidence so just to tell you we weren't doing like sort of folly effects to make this sound like a football match just completely coincidental you might have heard a referee whistle

throughout this segment so that was fun yeah all right then so we are going to move on to the third song this week which is this struming my pain with his fingers singing my life

with his words killing me softly with his song killing me softly with his song telling my whole life with his words

killing me softly with his song I heard He sang a good song. I heard he had a style. And so I came to see him and listened for a while. And there he was this young boy. Strang to do my eyes.

Strumming my pain with his face. singing my life with his words killing me softly with this song killing me softly with his song with his song telling my whole life with his words killing me softly with his song Okay, this is Killing Me Softly by Fugis, released as the second single from their second studio album titled The Score. Killing Me Softly is Fuji's second 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 Fugis on this podcast. The single is a cover of the song originally recorded by Laurie Lieberman in 1971. Killing Me Softly went straight in at number one as a brand new engine. country. It stayed at number one for four weeks. In its first week atop the charts, it sold

157,000 copies beating competition from Naked by Louise and Fable by Robert Miles. In week two, it sold 195,000 copies beating competition from the day we caught the train by ocean colour scene, don't stop moving by living joy, blurred by a piano man, and theme for Mission Impossible by Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen. In week three, it sold 173,000 copies beating competition from Always Be My Baby by Mariah Carey and Make It With You by Let Loose. And in week four, it sold 160,000 copies, beating competition from England's Irie by Black Grape, wrong by everything but the girl, and let me live by Queen. When it was knocked off the top of the charts, killing me softly dropped one place to number two. But it is not the end.

of Killing Me Softly's journey at the summit of Mount Pop. So, Ed, how are we feeling on killing me softly? Yeah, I mean, what's the point? I mean, it's decent. Don't get me wrong. This is decent. This is very decent. It has a different vibe than the original.

It does. Not the original necessarily that I thought was the original. Because I was thinking of the Roberta Flack version. I didn't know about the Laurie Lieberman original, so it wasn't the original original that I was referring to. Just thought I'd better nip that in the bud right now. It is kind of like they've just said, well, you know, let's take it the original but kind of slouch.

Do it at a bit of an angle, you know, have a bit of a laugh. It is a bit like, you know, they've taken the original. It's like, well, let's just get stoned and do this. And I don't smoke weed, and I don't even smoke tobacco anymore. And to be quite honest, of an evening, I just tend to have those, you know, those dash, fizzy mineral water drinks that I think might have been pissed in by a mango at some point down the line. And that's my evening. So I don't quite, I don't quite get it. However, in 1996, when I didn't know there was an original, I thought this was amazing.

I thought this was brilliant, and I thought all the singles of this were brilliant, and me and my brother had the album, and we listened to it all the goddamn time. But in isolation, now having become more acquainted with the not original, but other original original, I, yeah, I just, it feels like, well, it's good, but it's, they're not really doing anything. Doran Hill has a very nice voice, doesn't she? She really does. Yes. This is such a strange one for me, this, because I think this is a good cover with fantastic vocals and quite a vivid and instant atmosphere that really tries to turn the original arrangement

into, I think, at least something with a different vibe, as you were saying, Ed, modern without sacrificing the integrity or the legacy of the original, I suppose. I think it's soulful and sophisticated and resonant, and yet I've never felt particularly attached to this. I'm just impressed. Like, when I hear a song that I truly love,

it does things inside of my chest, I can feel the process sort of happening behind my collarbones, like electricity's starting, memories are flooding back, but that process never really starts here. It's like staring at a really impressive painting, because, like, I like going to art galleries. I can appreciate the work that goes into painting things,

but I have never been able to feel something just from looking at an ostensibly impressing. piece of art or something that's been told to me as like, oh, yeah, this is the one. Like, you know, if you stare at this long enough, you'll really, like, I just, I don't get it. I've never become lost in a painting. I never know where to look, to learn something. I can't tell a good painting from a bad one, really. And with this, I feel kind of similar.

The artistry and the skill and the technique are all there, and I see them, and they do a brilliant job of aesthetic synergy as well, because both the number ones were going to cover by Fuji, sound exactly like how that album cover looks and feels a bit like a continuation of gangster's paradise just in the sense that the UK seems to like smoky atmospheric rap-adjacent soul slash R&B right now where in a completely dark room a black face will emerge in a spotlight and there will be smoke and steam and sweat and like that they emerge and perform on this stage in this tiny venue but I don't feel a personal story being attached to this as it plays and that's a shame because I do think it's a good piece of,

it's a good piece of pop song writing that's been carried through from the original and it's a fairly imaginative, you know, reimagining of the atmosphere and location of the song, I think, in which it takes place in, but I prefer their next one. I think their next one's much better.

But Andy, what about you? Yeah, this is fine. Yeah. Well, sorry, just to clarify, just to clarify, what I was doing there wasn't my review of the song, that was a dramatic performance in me of the role of the British public at large deciding their opinion on the arrival of this song. Because I think what this is, essentially, is I compare it to like, you know, like when your computer does

an update and you've not asked for it, but you're not going to change it back. Like, you're just like, yeah, that's fine, okay. And this song, like this version of this song, has sort of wholesale replaced the original. Like, if you ever hear this. the original. Yeah, someone in the room, usually my husband will go, one time, one time, down the back of it. It's the point that this is sort of replaced the original now, or not the original original, the Roberta Flack version.

And I think my view of that, and I think basically everyone's view of that, it's like, we don't love this, but if someone wants to update this for the 90s and we listen to that version instead, it's fine. Yeah. Okay. And that's like as much as anyone's ever thought about it, I think. It's just not something that inspires. great thought in me to be honest

and I don't think anyone's really ever thought about this that much to be honest except that we like it, that Lauren Hill does have a lovely voice and really fits this song like a glove but that's sort of it really I really don't like that sort of

people chatting in a room start where well there's the whole first 30 seconds or so which is the very stripped down chill version of the chorus but then there's that just kind drum beats while everybody chats and says hello to each other

and just oh I just hate that really hate that and you're like this is a song this is not a play you know I want to listen to it and the rest of it like it's good a bit long but like I agree with Ed really

like it doesn't do much really so there's not all that much to say and like I say it just feels like a kind of system update has been done to the song that's not offended anyone so we're just like yeah we'll keep this version so it's like

It's good. Shrug. I've got nothing else to see. Except to say, I also used to be the same about paintings. I can never lose myself in a painting and I can do it now. What I would recommend to you, Rob, is find one artist who you really, really love, who you really like looking at them on your phone or a computer or something, and then go and see one for real.

And you'll discover how to get lost in paintings because I did that when I started looking at real Vincent Van Gogh paintings in the flesh. And now I love going to galleries and I can get lost in paintings. Okay. So, yes, let's just leave it on that. Because I'd rather do that than listen to this, to be honest. But this is fine. It's just fine.

Like I say, it's something that we were offered, we accepted, and we've never had to table an agenda point about it again as a nation. Like, we have this and it's fine. Yeah. All right then, so ordinarily, we would be strolling on to the fourth song this week, but I've got to make a little detour, because Three Lions by Badil and Skinner and the Lire, lightning seeds went back to number one during its sixth week on the chart, and it stayed at number

one for one more week. During its second week atop the charts, it sold 140,000 copies, beating competition from Tatva by Kula Shaker, Oh Yeah, by Ash, Jazz It Up by Real to Real, and Where Love Lies by Alison Limerick. When it was knocked off the top of the charts for a second time, Three Lions fell two places to number three, but it is still not the end of Three Lions' Journey at the top of Mount Pop. It's re-scaled Mount Pop, if you like. It has.

It has gone up for several climbs on a two-yearly basis. It realized it left something at the top, like it's left its flask at the top of the summit of Mount Pop has had to quickly pop back up for it. So ordinarily at this point, I would be going on to our fourth song of the week, but I have to make another little detour because

killing me softly went back to number one during its sixth week on the chart. It stayed at number one for one more week during its fifth week atop the charts. It sold 103,000 copies, beating competition from Born Slippy Nucks by Underworld In Too Deep by Belinda Carlisle. You're Making Me High by Tony Braxton.

Keep on Jumping by Todd Terry and Nice Guy Eddie by Sleeper. When it was knocked off the top of the charts for a second time, Killing Me Softly dropped one place to number two. By the time it was done on the charts, it had been inside the top 104, 23 weeks. The song is currently officially certified three times platinum in the UK. As of 2025, I think we did more than accept it by those figures. Seems we love it.

A pass skinner and a deal on the way down. You're right, fellas. You're right. A bit glowing up there, isn't it? Hey, that's my flask, David Bediel. All right then, so now we are at our fourth and final song this week, which is this. Love it has so many beautiful faces, sharing lives, and sharing days. My love it had so many empty spaces

I'm sharing a number right now I hope that's how it stays Now I'm deep inside love I'm still breathing She is holding my heart in her hand I'm the closest of being to believe in This could be love forever All throughout my life The reasons I've demanded

But how can that reason with the reason I'm mad. Okay, this is Forever Love by Gary Barlow. Released as the lead single from his debut studio album titled Open Road, Forever Love is Gary Barlow's first single to be released in the UK and his first to reach number one, and it's not the last time we'll be coming to Mr. Barlow during our 90s coverage. Forever Love went straight in at number one as a brand new entry

It stayed at number one for one week In its first and only week atop the charts it sold 109,000 copies beating competition from Sorry, can you hear that? Can you hear something coming? Across the Hills Wannaby by Spice Girls And bad actress by Terrorvision When it was knocked off the top of the charts

It's Forever Love, Bell, two places to number three. 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 gold in the UK as of 2025. You know, Andy, you made a Game of Thrones reference in the last episode. I'm going to make one. I feel like we're Bron and Jamie realizing that we can hear the Dothraki's hoofbeats on the other side of that hill in the spoils of war. in season seven, and going, listen, there's something, what is it?

Turns out Spice Girls are just around the corner. Your first ever Game of Thrones reference, I enjoyed that. All right, folks, stop having fun. You know what we have to do now. Andy, forever love, Gary Barlow. This beat Wadaby to number one. Bloody hell. Initially.

I mean, let's just be, very, very thankful. Well, I think Gary, frankly, should be thankful that wannabe did eventually get to number one. I mean, of course it did, it's wannabe. But can you imagine the vitriot we would be throwing at him if that had permanently kept Waddaupy of number one? I mean, we were like this of Robinson and Jerome over common people, and this would be that again.

But also, wannabe would have absolutely stormed Bons and runner-up, so, you know, you win some, you lose something. this is just really really plain and bland and all those adjectives that I so often use to describe Mr Barlow he really is like his brother Ken isn't he just really kind of plain and just always there and like a piece of the furniture but like it's just

is this really something that you start a solo career with is this really like your big launching pad look at Robbie Williams he doesn't immediately come out with his biggest stuff but he immediately like starts putting up some pretty solid hits I just think there's a sense of

no rush here from Gary there's a sense of oh well whatever I do it'll probably do quite well because people will be interested so let's do some kind of serious artist balladry but I just I don't know I don't get on with this really for starters I'm sure one of you said this actually I can't quite remember but I don't want to take credit for the thought

but this is really reminiscent of dance with my father by Luther Van Dross. It really borrows very heavily from it, I think, in the melody mainly, but also in the chord sequence. And I just think there's not a whole lot to it, to be honest. It's very, very Gary Barlow, and it's the kind of thing. I bet he always fights to be allowed to play as a solo bit during Take That Gigs and probably wanted to do on The X Factor at some point. I get the feeling that he really enjoys doing this, because it is very him.

It's a lot of time with him at the piano, and he does some interesting vocal work on this. But really, it seems indulgent, and it seems like it's not really being made with a pop mindset. It's being made with a, oh, you already know who I am, so listen to the music, I really want to play mindset. It's a bit sort of Charlie Simpson fight star, but nowhere near as good. So this is fine, bordering on not fine. It's just a little bit annoying that this is here, to be honest, and I regretted the five minutes that I spent on it. So I won't make you the listener spend any more than five minutes on it.

So, yeah, do better, Gary. Do better than this. You know, why didn't you write patience at this point? You could have had it all to yourself, your Wally. Ed, how are we feeling on Gary Barlow's first solo offering? Now, I've been quite generally lauded. about Gary Barlow and his songwriting and his singing ability. He's not the most charismatic chap in the world, to say the least,

but he knows what he's bloody doing. I kind of concur with Andy here. I think there's a degree of self-indulgence to this. It's like, oh, well, finally I can separate myself from the boys because I am the heartfelt meaning at the centre of that boy band, and that's what people were wanting all along. They're wanting to get to my heart. But Jesus Christ, I mean, being on his own kind of really seems to illustrate that every romantic impulse Barlow would seem to have had writing one of his songs has been felt through emulation of existing models.

Everything here seems like a calculated robotic move nicked from someone else. And I wouldn't mind if it wasn't so accursedly bland and empty. and chintzy and an impression of fucking passion. And him being on his own as well. And this bloody skeletal arrangement really does his vocal vocals no favours. I mean, it really shows up his limitations. He's quite pitchy in places here. And without a busy backdrop, you can hear where he kind of turns from one romantic

romantic vocal tick he's nicked to another romantic vocal tick he's nicked like that bloody days and stays right and that comes out of nowhere it's horrible and you see I can't even remember what the tune is because when I try to remember this I just think of fucking stock music if you are trying to take the piss out of something being sad if you know what I mean like a fucking meme it's it's a facsimile of many things and it's purely purely got to number one and I'm saying this as objectively as I possibly can

on the basis of name recognition because to be quite honest this is a big empty whining sack of shit yeah not one of his best is it forever love more like all out of love seriously this just sounds like air supply

but rephrased slightly every time though the da da comes around I'm just expecting I'm all out of love I don't know why this all feels so familiar much like the way

that Take That went out Gary starts his solo career in the safest way possible I think they clearly wanted and I agree with you Ed to show that he had matured already that he was the sensitive songwriter that you could take home

to your mum the circus of Take That he was the emotional core and they've sort of sucked out what makes Gary Barlow a resonant and experienced songwriter Maybe they secretly wanted him to have kept a million love songs for himself and were trying to recreate that feeling.

But yeah, this feels strange. Like Gary kept putting forward this song to take that only for it to be rejected. So we thought, right, I'm going to take this one for myself. And then everyone finds out why it was probably turned away from take that a few times. God, I agree with you, Andy. When you compare this to the stuff that Robbie Williams calls bursting out the gate with, it's like night and fucking day. probably the first number one we've had in 1996

where literally nothing would change if it had never been released. The only thing that would have changed is that wannabe would have had an extra week at number one. That's it. This doesn't get replayed anywhere and it hasn't been remembered. It's the first song we've had in fucking ages

that only went gold. I'm sorry, Gary, you can do better than this. I think, like, it's not the most hateful thing in the universe. I think, you know, we've definitely had songs that I would slam further in. into the pie hole, but I think this is, it's weird to think that Gary Barlow's solo stuff is so kind of nondescript, even compared to take that's comeback stuff. I just, yeah, I find this the opposite of invigorating.

I find it very dull. I have kind of, I don't know, when it's been coming up in the list, I just haven't had any thoughts about it, and then I've listened to it, and it's like, you know, it feels like something Westlife would try to do in three or four years time. from this point. Not good. Or Boyzone, maybe. Maybe that's where they're going for.

Maybe that's the kind of market they're shooting for. Very, very odd. I feel like with Robbie, they went for a totally different market and made much better music. And, yeah, disappointing. Very, very disappointing this one. I do completely agree.

It's a really good point, actually, that this is the first one from 96 that's not really, really famous. Like, everything else we've had so far is, like, it would be like your compilation album of 96. Like they're all, it's like wall-to-wall bangers. Whether you like them or not, they're all like massive legacy hits of the 90s.

And this is the first one that isn't, but it really isn't. So maybe we've looked at it a bit unkindly because of that. But I don't think so. I think history made the right decision with this, really. Yeah, I would definitely not disagree there. So we have come to the end of our last episode, our last normal episode, for about three weeks.

Andy, have a wonderful time in New Zealand. Thank you. before you go, I just want to check. Gina G. Bedele and Skinner and the lightning seeds, Fugis and Gary Barlow, where's everything going? Well, Gina G, I'm going to go ooh are just a little

vault. Yeah, it's going in the vault. I undenade about her thought, is that maybe a bit too kind? But no, it deserves to go in the vault. Yeah. So you can thank me for that later, Gina. Three lines, it's not coming home if we define the vault or the pie hole

as home. It's not going anywhere. That's staying in the middle for me. The Fuji's also just massive, massive shrug to that one essentially. It's not killing me softly, but neither is it redirecting me softly. It's just existing me softly, if you like. And finally, forever love. Oh, it's nearly forever pie, but I don't think it's quite that bad. So it's going to just stay where it is for me. All right then, Ed, who are just a little bit, Three Lions, Killing Me Softly, and Forever Love, where are they all going? Gina G. Step aerobacizes its way nowhere in particular.

Three Lions, unfortunately, again, it's decent, but it has to hurt for just a little bit longer because it's more a friendly than a championship win for me. That was a very broad football gag. And killing me softly is more friendly than a championship win. ship win for me. Hey, if they can do a lazy cover version, why can't I? And yeah, I ran out of space on the, on the note here. So it just says, Forever Lovey's stink. So, yeah, that one's, I'm putting that one in the bin. I really do

think that's fucking grope because my estimation of Gary Barlow has actually gone down as a result of that. I think it's fucking whack. But anyway, well, for me, Gina G, she's going nowhere. Three Lions taking a comfortable, comfortable stride into the vault for me. Killing me softly, not quite making the vault, but it's on the higher end of normal. And forever love, yeah, pie hole, pretty comfortable, to be honest. Not slamming it in, but I'm also not nudging it in either. It's something in the middle. I'm just placing it there.

I'm definitely determined to make sure it stays there. Yeah, mixed week, mixed week. some highs, some lows, some stuff in between. So we will be back in three weeks for the rest of our coverage of 1996. In the meantime, we're obviously going to be welcoming Lizzie back for a little while. We're going to be discussing a top of the pops episode

from 1986, a top of the pop's episode from 1991, and a top of the pop's episode from 1994. And we will see you for those three episodes. Thank you very much for listening this week, and we'll see you soon. Bye-bye now. Bye.