Hits 21 - 1997 (3): R Kelly, Michael Jackson, Gary Barlow, Olive

Episode Date: December 19, 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

Hello, everyone. It's Andy here. Before the episode proper start, I just wanted to talk to you about something special that I'm doing for Christmas, that I would like to get as many people involved as I possibly can. So on Sunday the 21st of December, I'm going to be sat at my piano all day with a few other instruments as well, and I'm going to be performing and live streaming the performance of a 12-hour non-stop marathon of Christmas songs. Everything from the Pogues to Slade, to the Wombles, to Kermit the Frog, to everything in between. I'm going to be playing 12 continuous hours of Christmas songs. And I'm doing that for the Trussel Trust.

I'm raising money for the Trussle Trust this Christmas, who are a wonderful charity, who I'm sure you may well have heard of, who run food banks across the country and really go the extra mile at Christmas to make sure that those who are really less fortunate and really struggling are able to have a Merry Christmas anyway by supplying them with some extra food. or some extra support at a time when it's most needed.

So if you would like to make a donation, the link to the event is in the description for this episode. The link to the GoFundMe page is there. And you'll be able to find the link to the Twitch stream where I'm going to be hosting the live stream. And that's at It's Andy Bob. You can just Google Twitch at It Andy Bob. That's me and you'll be able to watch the stream.

No need to donate. If you don't feel able to, you can just come along and watch the stream. Rob is going to be appearing at some point to do a few songs with me you'll see my husband who's been much talked about on the show he's going to be appearing to do a few songs with me as well and some other special guests turning up to help me out as well should be a lot of fun

hopefully you should raise a lot of money for a really well well really worthwhile cause hope you can take part or join me in some way and let's make sure as many people as possible have a very Merry Christmas Thank you. Hi there everyone and welcome back to Hits 21 the 90s where me Rob, me and looking back at every single UK number one, UK number one, of the 1990s.

Email us at Hits21 Podcast at gmail.com, Twitter us at Hits21 UK. Thank you over so much for joining us again. You're probably wondering why there wasn't a top of the pops coverage

episode in the middle of the last episode and this one. That's because we were fully intending to do it but then I got struck down with something that made podcasting

it didn't make it seem like an attractive option but I'm over it now. good old flu, good old winter viruses. I thought we were going to speculate about what it was. Lupus. It's never lupus if you've watched House. Even people who have lupus don't have lupus according to House.

We are currently looking back at the year 1997, and this week we'll be covering the period between the 6th of April and the 24th of May. So it is time to press on with this week's episode and Andy the UK album charts as spring turns to summer in 97. How are things looking? yes, we finished last week with Dig Your Own Hole by the Chemical Brothers

which I just have to constantly repeat as Dig your own grave and save because it just will never leave my head but yes we've this week got Depeche Mode kicking off this period with Ultra which only went gold number one for one week and my dad has that

my dad's a huge Depeche Mode fan so yeah he has all of them the charlatans follow next with telling stories. And I say it that way because it's got an apostrophe after the N in that way

there's just like tell them stories like we used to tell them on the old far around tell them stories. I've really got to hand it to the Charlottons because they are,

they still pack a big crowd in, they still have successful albums and yet I can only ever think of one fucking song by them, I'm sorry to say. And it is. The only one you know. The only one I know.

You might say that if they were claiming to have more than one big song, they were a bunch of charlatans. Anyway, that went number one for two weeks and went platinum with telling stories. Then it's another week at the top for Spice by the Spice Girls, which just to remind you went ten times platinum, and that finishes off this period with another week at the top, we're still not done with Spice by Spice Girls.

that's its third visit to number one and we'll be hearing from it. Again, it just won't go away and nor should it. In politics news, Tony Blair's Labour Party wins a landslide majority in the 1997 UK general election,

sealing an all-time record number of 418 seats in the House of Commons. A record number of female MPs enter Parliament as well and among the many Conservative MPs to lose their seat is Michael Portillo. In sports, news, golfer Tiger Woods wins the Masters, age just 21. In football, Manchester United

win the Premier League title for the 1996-97 season. Chelsea win the FA Cup, beating Middlesbrough 2-0 in the final at Wembley and Borussia Dortmund win the European Cup after beating Juventus 3-1 in the final in Munich. At Eurovision, the United Kingdom wins the competition for the first time in 16 years. Katrina and the Wave song Love Shiner Light secures victory in Dublin in the last song contest to take place before the widespread usage of televoting. I wonder if that result and all subsequent results for the UK have something to do with that. The films to hit the top of the UK box office during this period were as follows. The Empire Strikes Back, Special Edition. Return of the Jedi, Special Edition. And Liar Liar. And on TV,

Jeremy Paxman asks the same question 12 times to former Home Secretary Michael Howard, did you threaten to overrule Derek Lewis? Ed, in America, how are things there? Let's look at the US Billboard No. 1 albums first. Sean Diddycome, for that's what I'm going to call him from now, has a very good April with both a crap single and the notorious BIG's profitable corpse topping the singles and albums charts, respectively. Some say this is the beginning of the worst era of hip-hop ever,

where cartoony capitalist excess overtook ability, urgency and individuality, where a select few moguls made millions off the bones of far more talented artists, where the new product sounded like a Harvard business student in an Amdram production of Scarface, where the most interesting hardcore rappers felt obliged to get on the bandwagon with a lamentable commercially disappointing party record, and where the most vile, insecure signifiers of conventional masculinity were blown up to such a degree of cognitive dissonance that the yardstick of credibility became how many times you had been shot.

But I just think these people are being mean. In spite of Diddy Comes Interference, Life After Death by Notorious BIG is at number one for four weeks. I'm much obliged then to have some Mary blige Though not much of blige As Share My World steals the top For just a single week Before we have a week

Of George Strait George Strait Wow The Strait man Daddy G, fire straits That's George Strait there But fuck that shit It's the Spice Girls

they arrive on North American shores like those people in that Chuck Norris film setting up stall with their greasy rainbow money and their infectious hits which doesn't actually happen in the Chuck Norris film they just blow up houses and laugh a lot as I recall but spice is quickly entrenched onto singles now

can't nobody hold Puffy down except to the American legal system hopefully as he and monotone mouth mover Mace complete six galling weeks at number one with a single no fucker seems to be able to remember however that may be some relief

to Didicum as he realizes he can make just as much money with no effort at all hypnotise by the notorious BIG is a quite deserving top placer for three weeks

great single what a shame but talk about era defining it's a transatlantic smash more catch than a Tom Cannon bout. Someone will get that joke.

Mbop by Hanson hits number one and is fairly likely to stick around for a while. Back to you, Rob. All right. Thank you, Andy, for your album report. Thank you, Ed, for your US report. And we are going to get on

with the first of four songs this week. And the first of them is... Yeah, so this is I Believe I Can Fly by R. Kelly. I believe I Can Fly was released as a single from the Space Jam soundtrack. It was R. Kelly's first number one in the UK. He had one more number one in 2003, Ignition. This stayed at number one for three weeks. The number two singles it beat to number one were Richard the third by Supergrass,

song two by Blur, and All Before I Die by Robbie Williams. The song has spent 18 weeks inside the top 100. Certified Platinum in the UK as of this year. Ed, do we have anything for I believe I can fly? Not much. Not much, but I will say something. I'm sure I've said this about other artists on the show. I'm not really torn about this one.

It isn't a case of separating the art from the artist, because I hated this when it came out. I thought it was disingenuous and cynical and treacle, even when I was 11. And, yeah, it seems to very much. match the general vibe of the man himself. I only ever did like one R. Kelly song. And this ain't it.

It was actually remix to ignition. Yeah. Which I'm not going to die on a hill over, to be quite honest. I'm happy to just let that one go. But at the time, I'll be honest, I did think that was a bit of a bob. I've got to say, I think on balance, the best thing that has come as a result of R. Kelly existing was a throwaway Matt Lucas gag on Shooting Stars. You know, when they'd go to, what are the scores? George Dawes.

And he would just say something, you know, I'd say a non sequitur before he gave the scores for the round. And it made me gut myself, and I can't find the clip of it. But he just pops up and says, our favourite singers, our Kelly, we're dead, proud of her. I'm like, if R. Kelly has done nothing else, I'm thankful at least. for that. Yeah, so, yeah, I believe I can fly. Not much on this. Like a lot of our Kelly songs,

I've become more and more annoyed by it over the years, even before all the shit went down. Because when I was in school, especially later primary school and early years of high school, there were always those kids in my year and in slightly older years who thought they were really sophisticated and mature because they had, I believe I can fly,

turned back the hands of time, and the world's greatest on their little Walkman phones. And they'd play them out loud and make those faces that people make when they're specifically listening to real vocalists, specifically from the 90s as well. That fucking face. You've seen people make it.

When they're listening to R. Kelly or Celine Dion or Whitney Houston or Mariah Carey or sometimes Luther Vandross or Michael Bolton or Boys to Men, the kind of singers who's like some of their material I do enjoy, but people listen to them because they've been told by radio presenters and TV host that like, oh, this is what a real singer sounds like. Us pop kids all liked Ignition, but, oh, we were troglodytes for, like, in his naughty stuff, according to these people. Those kids always thought they were something, you know?

And then I got a bit older, and I left school, and I watched the mad TV trapped in the cupboard thing with Key & Peel about a million times. And I thought, okay, fine, let's see what all the foot is about with R. Kelly? And then this comes on, and I'm just like, God, fucking God, what was the, what were we on? And what were the Americans on in the 90s with this? Like, this is, you are not alone again, but with all this heavy-handed. over religious imagery that only Americans really, really seem to go for. You can imagine them all going like, oh yes, oh, I believe I can fly, I believe, you know. Occasionally we fall under the same spell.

They like to imagine R. Kelly in this mode as some kind of evangelist, some kind of saint, some kind of prophet. There's this feeling that's constantly present like that this is real R&B, this is respectable R&B, R&B, the kind of R&B that on YouTube is always fucking accompanied by those comments that are like, no sex, no dancers, no drugs, no swearing, 100% talent. And 100% child sex offences, don't forget everyone. Turns out that when someone is this keen to look like a saint in public, they may have something going on behind closed doors. It's so fucking stupid as well this that I can't forgive the spiritual metaphor.

I believe I can fly. You literally can't. Belief does not change the fact that humans are not capable of flight and are not aerodynamic. No amount of belief or faith can switch that up. It's so dumb. It's funny. If I could turn back the hands of time gets away with it for me because he's admitting like, I wish I could do this thing, but I can't. Whereas with this, it's like, no, I actually can. I believe that it's, oh, no, I don't even go along with the metaphor or no, I've never, never really got on board with this to be honest it's yeah and everyone will have noticed as well that i played the instrument the karaoke instrumental rather than the real thing good because yeah um yeah i didn't i didn't listen to this uh to prep i did it from memory because i was like

fuck it i had this enough at the time and i'm not going to bloody patronize this shit again no exactly so yeah we'll shift on to someone who's you know track record personally may only be one level up on the ladder. It's this. She taught your number, uh, you know your game, uh, the picture under, uh, it's always saying, uh, such a seduced, uh, I never feel, uh, to know that boom, uh, is all to kill. I don't want to get it to make it to go out. One, two, I'll get it to get it. I mean I'm thinking that you're easiest. I want to get it to go on, that,

one. To escape the world like I do with that simple dance and seeing that everything was on my side. Just in something like it was a love and true romance and I desire to get me like your life. Okay, but I just got the number, and Susie Lerickin' Okay, this is Blood on the Dance album, and Susie Lerick on the Dance album, Title of History in the Mix, Blood on the Mix, Blood on the Mix, Blood on the Dance Floor,

dance floor is Michael Jackson's 52nd single to be released in the UK and his seventh to reach number one. As of 2025, though, it is his last. Blood on the dance floor went straight in at number one as a brand new entry, stayed at number one for one week. In its first and only week atop the chart, it sold 85,000 copies beating competition from body shaking by 9-1-1, loveful by cardigans, drop dead gorgeous by Republica and hypnotised by the notorious BIG. For fuck so, no. When it was not. off the top of the charts, Blood on the Dance Floor fell seven places to number eight. The song originally left the charts in August 1997 but re-entered the Top 100 in 2006.

By the time it was done on the charts, it had been inside the Top 100 for 13 weeks. The song is currently officially certified silver in the UK as of 2025. Jesus Christ, from one questionable 90 star to another, Andy, Blood on the Dance Floor. Yes, I mean I will talk about this one even though the separation between the two is dubious at best but I'm not going to spend half the episode silent so it's a weird fucking week this really

really weird yeah I've spoken on Michael Jackson several times before and to be fair I think I've you know put across a fairly you know fair enough kind of opinion which is that you know he's had his highs and his lows at number ones in the 90s where

we've had black or white which I really really quite loved to be honest like the more I listened to that that was really I really enjoyed that. The Earth song, I think, is kind of special and kind of magical just for how, like, utterly unique it is and how earnest it is and how over the top it is. I think it's kind of special in that way. Then we had You Are Not Alone, which is just garbage, just really, really, really, you know, complete lowest common denominator. And I completely agree about, I believe I can find that that's a total copy of it.

So that was like a sort of horrible cancer on the charts that. this is something completely different which is like he's not going for the earnest languid balladry of you are not alone and arguably that song as well and he's not going particularly for the kind of on the button statement kind of thing of black or white that's put to a funky tune this is just kind of a Michael Jackson song

it's like one that's sort of been done by AI to be honest like it's just sort of if you were imitating Michael Jackson If you were, like, you know, making a film where you had to have someone who's essentially Michael Jackson, but you can't say it's him, and he had to give him an original song, it would basically be this, I think, and that's not a good thing, because it's not 1883 anymore. It's not even 1986 anymore. This is 1997. What's this doing at number one? It's basically competent. It's basically fine, but like, come on. Someone who's been as innovative as him and been as interesting as him should have more ideas than this. I think once he actually starts singing, and once he actually gets into it, I think he gives a fairly decent vocal performance. He always gives a decent vocal performance. So I'm not going to come down too hard on this.

Like, it's fine. But, man, those verses, I thought it might be called Blood on the Dance Floor because someone may have slits his throat. Because what's that whisper thing that he's doing at the start? It's really unusual. It is actually indecipherable. I remember the first time I listened to this,

I had to sort of check that my headphones were working properly I thought so that it was up so it was like what is that about? Not only could I not understand I defy anyone to understand what he was saying

in those lyrics where I said yeah I just really uncanny and horrible to listen to like it's not musical so that was the one big idea he seemed to have for this

and didn't work for me at all but yeah this is just another Michael Jackson song and he has such inherent talent and inherent charisma and style that's always going to be fine if he's doing something up tempo I should say

it will basically never miss there's down tempo stuff less less so but like yeah this is just another one in his pantheon not a memorable one not the very worst he's done but oh

his career is drying out here it really is Hmm, that's the only noise I keep making while thinking about this one, just, yeah, hmm. Because it's all here, ostensibly, you know, Jackson going back to the early 90s for a bit of new Jack swing that he first came up with during the dangerous sessions, apparently. You know, it fits as a sort of continuation of something like, remember the time or who is it, but with more of a mind on the dance floor or nightclubs, I suppose. But I think that's where it kind of stops working that much for me.

You know, for a dance track that seems to be about the pursuit and play of all. one night's stand. I think, you know, this is awfully paranoid and fraught. It feels like he's trying to go back to a style that he was previously associated with, maybe after realizing that a lot of the political grandstanding was maybe turning people off. But carrying a lot of that anger with him sort of unintentionally, he seems really frustrated by this game of cat and mouse and not in a way that sounds like he wants to like, you know, get the foreplay out the way, get straight to it, but more that he's mostly forgotten how to enjoy himself. Because this is designed as a floor filler, but then it feels like it's absent of the euphoria that you're meant

to feel in that kind of moment and then it ends with him being killed by the sounds of things. I will also say this reminds me of that bit in the, this, this will make sense, that bit in the Simpsons, specifically in Marge be not proud, where Bart lies to Marge and says he didn't steal bone storm, but behind him, there's the CCTV footage of him literally stealing Bonestorm over and over and over again. And Bart's like, I really don't want you to see this mom. And all he can do is stand there once he realizes that, his defense has been obliterated. So imagine Bart in this moment

is a really committed Michael Jackson fan trying to convince you that these days, he's way more than just his vocal tics and he doesn't just go, da, he he, da! You know, in every single song. And the CCTV footage behind Bart is blood on the dance floor, playing over and over.

And all you can hear is him going, da, she don't get bass, da. But like, what the fuck is he saying? at any point in this. It is actually indecipherable, isn't it? It's not legible. I don't think anybody would be able to tell what he's saying. Like, I was actually reading the lyrics and thinking,

no, I'm still not hearing those lyrics in this. Like, these are breaths. These are not words. These are breaths. Yeah. Yeah. But kind of despite that, there are parts of this that feel weirdly hypnotic,

that baseline-ish pattern that... it kind of keeps revolving around, slowly pulling you in. Trying to work out what the hell is going on about means you do spend a lot of time squinting at the song, which means the interesting textures do bleed out occasionally. You hear things like the harmony backing vocals in the chorus, and you notice that it finishes in a strange place with that kind of extended outro,

mirror in the extended intro. There's something off-putting in this about how fidgety and goblinish it is, but there's also something enticing about how fidgety and goblin finish it is. So, I don't know, I'm kind of on the fence with this, but just the, God, the, you know, you've been ta. It's almost like it's been played backwards. You know, like when you reverse someone's audience, like, it's like, it's like an incantation. Yeah, it is like a bloody incantation. It's so strange. But yeah, Ed. How did you find so much to say? I had 22 words on this originally.

and I realised that one of them was a repeated note. So, yeah, I've not really got much more to add. It is MJ by numbers. That's one of them. A lot of it just sounds a bit like Billy Jean, again. There are some slightly more modern textures, but it does just feel like it's Michael Jackson with a 90s producer now,

and the rest of it is like a series of ticks. you know, like vocal tropes, not the blood-sucking insects, but some might argue that that is part and parcel. But yeah, it does sound like he's drunk in the night trying to wake someone up. He keeps treading on things. Like, yeah, that's it.

It's just very hard, far fast. I think this is crap. It's just, it's just, it sounds like they needed something to prop up the you know to put out with the compilation and he just fucking knocked it out in five seconds again it might be from an older session or something but i don't think it was ever going to appear on a studio album at least i fucking hope not i think this is law when it's someone whose general standards for singles are so high i think you've got to come down hard when they're not trying and this is fucking autopilot isn't it really that's it that's all i've got to say i was not really remotely enamored with this one. Yeah, moving swiftly on to the third song this week, which is this. I went on and I waited for you I didn't know what else I could do

I should do I thought that we'd always be together you said hold on it just gets better home and I'll live you I'm going to live you I kept tolling on you think that I can never leave you you think I'm not that's right

You're wrong Love will wave Forever and a day Love must live in the here and now Don't ask me how I know So here I am with my heart on my sleeve You said baby

But you're trust in me But I have come to the end of the line Finally, what I can talk about normally. This is Love Won't Wait by Gary Barlow, released as the second single from his debut studio album titled Open Road. Love Won't Wait is Gary Barlow's second single to be released in the UK and his second to reach number one? It's not Gary's last number one, but it is his last number one of the 1990s.

Love Won't Wait went straight in at number one as a brand new entry and stayed at number one for one week. In its first and only week atop the charts, it sold 92,000 copies beating competition from Star People 97 by George Michael, Love is the Law by Seahorses and All Right by Jamiriqui. When it was knocked off the top of the charts, Love Won't Wait fell five places to number six. By the time it was done on the charts, it had been inside the top 104, 11 week, week, The song is currently officially certified silver in the UK. As of 2025, Andy, Gary Barlow.

Oh, yes. I was originally going to be more cool on this because I was like, this is very average, this is very average, but then I thought, you know what? It's not. This is kind of weird, to be honest, because although I don't think it's anywhere near the worst thing that we've covered, I do think this is probably the most out-of-its-time thing that we've ever had on its 21.

Like, and obviously there's loads of stuff that's just, like, been re-releases, so it's literally out of its time. But this is like, I mean, late 90s, I think early 90s is pushing it for this, to be honest. Like, it sounds more like sort of turn of the 80s into the 90s. It sounds a lot like stockache and watermen. It sounds very similar to stuff like Jimmy Nail that we had near the start of this decade. And I can't believe.

believe that something that has as little street cred as this that is so out of the zeitgeist as this in its sound got to number one in 1997. I mean, you only have to look at, I know the listener won't know, but when you hear what's coming up next, it's like these two songs being right next to each other that came out at the same time. Like, I actually kind of struggle to believe it, to be honest. Like, I really can't quite accept that that could be true, that these two songs were contemporaneous with each other. I know Gary Vall has always been, you know, at his heart a little bit of a, you know, sit at the piano, do a bit of songwriting to keep

the mums and nana's happy, and there's never really the shoes of the supposed boy band cool guy that he's been cast in. But this is a bit extreme, really. Once you take him out of that boy band's set up, where, you know, there's all sorts of marketing

to make you appealing to young people and make you hip and make you cool and make you trendy, when you're like Gary just go on his own, goodness me. This is pretty much sits alongside Robson and Jerome for me this and I don't think it's as bad as that, it's not as tacky as that

but it sounds so so old, it sounds really, really deeply uncool and I just felt kind of embarrassed from listen, when I was listening to this this is a man who's still in his 20s, what's going on here? And

you know, especially bear in mind that Robbie Williams's big rise is just round the corner where he will kind of become the UK sound of the late 90s, where he'll be the absolutely peak of cool and will ride the cool Britannia wave pretty much. Then you thought Gary you're doing stuff like this and something about it really ticked me off because I just think the late 90s is such an exciting time for music, especially last year where you know virtually everything was really, really for new ground for pop music and this year's, you know, pretty solid as well.

And I think all the whole of the late 90s is just a really exciting time. Something like this taking up airtime at number one just because he's got some obsessive fans who are going to buy this and that's obviously the only reason why it's got number one. Nah, not willing to tolerate this. This absolutely stinks, and I feel vaguely embarrassed for Gary about this. Love won't wait, but I won't wait in pressing the skip button.

This is shit next. Oh, Gary, you used to be so cool. What happened? I mean, he didn't. He didn't. Let's be honest, he's never been cool. The bar was already starting at, you know, about one centimetre high.

You know, he was never, he was never cool, really, that's the thing. So you're saying the bar was low? Yeah, it was just like, oh, that's very good. Oh, that's really good. He'd been commodified to such an extent that, you know, anyone who's in a boy band, like, there's other people who've been in boy bands, it's like, you're not cool. Like, four out of five members of Westlife, about three or four members of Boy's Own, a couple of members of JLS, like, a lot of these people aren't cool.

They're just part of this commodity. that is bigger than them, really. But Gary, oh, goodness me. Yeah. Like, I think he's gone from being not particularly cool to now actively uncool, where this kind of sounds like he's sort of the James Blunt of his day here, to be honest.

Yeah. I don't think that this is too bad. It feels like something take that may have tried around the time of, actually, it sounds just like, could it be magic? But Gary doesn't have to be, weighed down on this occasion by early 90s Mark and Robbie

trying to sing with him he takes a Madonna demo from a few years ago which I think she correctly left on the cutting room floor kind of turns it into the acceptable face of British pop not much character or life to it I don't think it's particularly

sticky but I do think this is leeks above forever love I wish I had more to say Ed are you positive on this Do you know what? I actually found that this something of a breath of fresh air

which kind of just goes to show how badly this week has gone for me so far. I mean, I was just thinking like, Jesus Christ, come on, come on, MJ. Gary Barlow is somehow, somehow outperforming you here. Solo Gary Barlow. You've got problems, Michael.

But yes, it's Gary Barlow. and his body that transports his brain and his larynx that vibrates to create sounds. Not always successfully. He struggles with that middle eight a bit. I don't think he can really do a falsetto. It is tricky if you've got to turn a register. Just a little, you know,

pointless bit of vocal tuition there. But look, this is tinsely. It's not very imaginative, but I found it perky and pleasant enough. Pecky and pleasant are my two favourite fictional pigs. It's fine. I was honestly scared that this would be another dirgy kind of tempo-free ballad, and it wasn't that. However, it's produced and performed with as little life as possible.

But I find that there is sufficient sort of well-timed, well-crafted melodicism to it, that it actually works as a solid single. It's just, you know, if it was actually rendered with any vigour, I might actually like it and not just think, this is fine, this is ample, it's okay. But also, Jesus Christ, radio edit, it's like four minutes ten. And I was just one who's like, I'm not going to listen to the album version. but what exactly would be in an extended version of this

is the more of that fucking weird intro which sounds like it's been beamed back in time from like a hyper pop song and then it just turns into fucking Gary Barlow in some bizarre twist but yeah I'll never listen to this again but it was fine

and not as problematic. So, okay. God, I can't believe we are three songs into this week and we've just cracked half an hour. We're going to really have to talk slowly about the next one, aren't we? I feel like a lot of our late 90s episodes are going to be like this, to be honest,

because this is when the charts are at their fastest, like way too fast, I think. Singles going in and out really, really quickly falling quite away when they do get knocked off number one like they really do plummet this dropping all the way down

I'll try and pad this one out a bit I just found another stray note if I may go ahead I'm almost suspicious by how kind of soft I go on Gary Barlow and his sort of sexless you know old school

quasi-religious middle-aged vibe I mean even when I was back at uni I remember some of the kids as it turned out behind my back

used to call me Hermione Blair Hermione Blair Yes because they felt that I wouldn't shut up in lectures first of all and they just wanted to go home

but they said it was like a combination of Hermione Granger and Tony Blair and I'm like that is the kind of concoction that honestly would probably listen to Gary Barlow. So I'm just wondering if there is, you know, I am that.

I am just that blandly, easily pleased by this kind of thing, because I honestly thought this was a okay. That was a random, possibly cuttable left turn, but as we seemed to be running short this time, I thought I'd had added it. I very much enjoyed learning those things about you. Yeah. People are cruel, though, aren't they? It was funny. I was a few years older than the other students because I came in as a sort of mature student. And I sort of leaned into it and I did my Facebook profile picture. I actually photoshopped Tony Blair's face onto Hermione Granger. It didn't tell anybody anything. And just that was my, that was my Facebook picture for a while. I think that won me some cred with the young folk.

Were these the same people that referred to me as Caesar? Coffish? Oh, yeah. We were talking deep. Oh, um, I wish. Yes, these hilarious people. Is it the same people? I don't know.

It was just something that seemed to come around. I seem to come to it third hand. Was it on P. Was it those years? Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it was the P. Yeah, it seems these are the same people who, within about a week of knowing,

me, I'm obviously not going to put this on the air, but fucking calling me, he hadn't known me for two weeks, and he said, I'm going to start calling you Caesar, and I went, why? And he said, CSR, coffee shop rapist, that's what you are. What? And I said, okay, what does that mean? And he said, you're the kind of person that if you saw somebody reading a book in a coffee shop, you would just jump into their space and start.

talking about the book that they're reading. And in an effort to fit in, I adopted the nickname Caesar for a little while. What is it about these kinds of people, actually? That, like, when they say something that's mean to you, you go along with it because you think, oh, these people seem cool. I'm just trying to fit in.

What is it about those people? What is it that makes you just agree with the stupid shit that they say? Well, because he was one of those, he giveth with one hand, he taketh away with the other. So he never quite sure where you stand, with him and he can say something completely

fucking horrible one minute and then instantly nice again the next I got off lightly with most people didn't I mean you know he would just stand there and talk to just like really disparagingly for no particular reason just belittle him in front of people

which is like yeah yeah but what an odd chap he was yeah lots of people didn't get on with him yeah just so just like my memory is like did you ever stand close to him He was the smelliest man I've ever met And I'm like, oh well

No, I didn't notice But anyway, this may get chopped Yes, it may Or I may just bleep out names that were mentioned And leave it all in, that's fun But yes, the fourth and final song This week is this In a way it's all

A matter of time I will not worry for you'll be just fine take my thoughts with you and when you look behind you will surely see a face that you recognize you're not alone I'll wait till the end of time open your mind Surely it's plain to see if you're not alone. Wait till the end of time for you. Open your mind. Surely there's time to be with me.

It is the distance that makes life a little hard. Two minds that once work. Okay, this is you're not alone by Olive, released as the second single from the group's debut studio album titled Extra Virgin Funny. You're Not Alone is Olive's second single to be released in the UK and their first to reach number one. However, as of 2025, it is their last. You're Not Alone first first entered the UK charts at number 42 in 1996, reaching number one during its fifth week on the chart. It stayed at number one for two weeks. In its first week atop the charts, it sold

75,000 copies beating competition from Wonderful Tonight by Damage. I'm a man not a boy by North and South, Kowalski by Primal Scream and Susan's House by Eels, and in week two it sold 74,000 copies, beating competition from Time to Say Goodbye by Sarah Brightman and Andrea Bichelli, Love Shiner Light by Katrina and the Waves, Please Don't Go by No Mercy and I Don't Want to by Tony Braxton. When it was knocked off the top of the charts, You're Not Alone, fell two places to number three by the time it was done on the chart. it had been inside the top 100 for 17 weeks. The song is currently officially certified platinum in the UK.

As of 2025, Andy, Olive. I've never been called in Olive before, but that's lovely. Thank you for that. Thank you, Peach Pit. Oh, thank God for this. Thank God for this, because I don't know if I've maybe been too kind to it in our scores, to be honest, just because it's such a blessed relief from... a beast, a unconfirmed beast, a man from the past who's fallen through time, and now finally we have this.

Oh, it just, right, so when I compare this to Love Won't Wait, as I said, I cannot believe that these came out at not just the same year, but the same actual time, but they're touching each other in the charts. Because this, what was interesting about this is when I saw this coming up on the list, I thought, I don't know that but I did know it I knew that you're not alone but I assumed it wasn't there because I thought that came out in like 2009 or something didn't it? I assumed that was way, way later than this

and so it was to my absolute shock when I put this on and discovered it was this which I've never sat and listened to before but loads to love about this I love that tone of voice from all of that kind of deep sort of resonant bassy voice that she has

the production on this is gorgeous really light touch, really minimal. It never feels like it needs to rush. It's very confident in its ability to take its time and to build up gradually, particularly how it waits so long to introduce the percussion. I think it's a really kind of impressive thing about it. It creates a sense of atmosphere to it where it's very kind of like pulls your attention in to sort of like, right, listen to me, I have a thing to say here, this is my piece of music

because that confidence kind of just shines out of it. And that's something that is to sort of line in in a bottle, really. That I can't put my thing on exactly what it is. I think it's something to do with how much time it takes and how there's no effort to kind of spruce up that really bassy voice and there's no effort to kind of distract you with other things, which other songs have been guilty of in the past. You know, there's other songs that have had really interesting voices,

but they've kind of done all the stuff that kind of detracts from it or distracts from it. You know, I'm thinking stuff like Show Me Heaven by Maria McKay, things like that, you know, where you have a really interesting vocalist here. you have a really interesting sound just let it be that I think the fact that it does that

and lets it sit for so long really really pulls me in and yeah I think I think the sound of it the feel of it the vocal performance and the sense of kind of futurism in this that this sounds just like

you know something that came out of the early naughties and I'm sure I'm sure many of the same people were involved you don't have them that much research into it I'm sure many of the same people were involved but this sounds like we're starting to touch the 21st century here whereas the previous song we covered started like we were starting to touch the 1980s

so I could not be more refreshed and happy to hear something like this like this is like yeah this is why we do this show for something like this for a discovery of so it's way ahead of its time like this I mean it was a discovery for me it was probably more famous to plenty of other people but yeah I've never sat and spent

any time with this I always assumed that this was one of those I don't know what the name is for this genre, but that kind of like example, Professor Green, roll deep, that kind of late, naughty's kind of light dance

with a female vocalist over the top of it. I always thought this was one of those, and I don't know why. So it was incredibly shocking to me that this came out in 97. But I can see why I made that mistake because it sounds way ahead of its time. It's really cool and striking

to enough that it probably was hanging around student bars right up to the time that I was at uni, which is probably why I made that mistake. And yeah, just a really refreshing thing. Love this. Loved it, yeah. Ed, what about you? It's, yeah, it's got a nice, spacey sort of vibe to it.

I mean, it is, you know, the sound design is incredibly striking. I totally agree. It does sound like it's been beamed back from the future. But what I like about as well, it's quite intimate, but it has this stadium-sized ambience to it, which kind of is not that common in the 90s. I think it's one thing or the other. Whereas I think in modern times, we are more used to people fucking around with the sound space and the acoustic space.

So you'd have something that sounds enormous like abethe size, you know, a dance riff. But have it be a piece of rock songwriting accompanying it. I mean, I don't know why, but taking this to an extreme, you can see things like, oh god what's the name of the um bring me the horizon track with grimes nihilis blues which has a similar sort of mush two genres and two different spaces of interaction together the dance floor and something very kind of intimate and locked in and it has a completely different vibe to it and i got that from this really um i did remember this one when i saw the name because um it was you know a popular track but i think because it had such

an unusual wispy subdued presence. I don't think it quite had the dance floor presence that a lot of other things that had been touched by trance in the same way kind of had, so I perhaps didn't have that longevity to it. I do really like this. However, after the bit where the breakbeat comes in on the second verse, which is great,

and I love the subwoofer bass going on there, it kind of doesn't really do anything else I don't think at the end it feels like the vocalist is trying to mix things up with some quote unquote improvisations and they sound a little bit awkward and forced like they're just trying to fill up the space with something different I do like this I don't love it if it did move somewhere after that first you know minute minute and a half, I think it would be a definite Volta for me, but it just, I don't know, it doesn't quite establish any more presence for me after that. But a good one, though. This was easily my favorite song of the week. I recently did a blog entry about Heaven, the DJ Sammy song, just about it being one of the best number ones of the 2000s. And in that, I mentioned that the UK had kind of been heading towards that kind of sound for a little while. If you pick, say, Robin S as the origin point and then move through Baby D, Living Joy,

everything but the girl, Ian Vandal, Alice DJ, all the way through to like Sonique, Tom Craft, and eventually DJ Sammy, the UK developed a real taste for like trans-inspired stuff with female vocals, whether those vocals were moody or euphoric, it didn't seem to matter. You could get yourself a big hit with the right combination of those sorts of features. And I think You're Not Alone is part of that. lineage that eventually goes from A to B. This is moody and enigmatic, but it's still youthful and futuristic. This actually sounds like the new millennium in a way that like maybe Big Beat

ended up sounding quite 90s. There's a level of surface sophistication with this that feels like it carries through not just to Sonique, but also to like dancey attracts on things like David Gray's White Ladder. Like if you listen to Please Forgive Me Off White Ladder, then I don't think you're a million miles away from this. I don't mean this as a criticism at all, but you can also tell that Tom Kellett, from Olive, had had a bit of success with the Lighthouse family. He'd written songs for them. With this, I think, you know, that there is a specific image that comes to mind in my head, or rather a really specific piece of furniture that comes to mind. It's one of those tall, seedy rack tower

things that everybody had in their living rooms in the 2000s. The top and bottom would be these thin slabs of beige wood and all the little shelves would be those silver metal hoop things kind of placed horizontally so it kind of looked like someone that stuck a draining board on its end it was a very very popular design and i think if you watch a film like love actually or about a boy or bridget jones you'll probably see that exact cd rack in the meison sen just in the back somewhere and in that cd rack no matter whose it was you would always find white ladder by David Gray, X and Y by Coldplay, Daniel Beddingfield's first album, No Angel by Dido, the greatest hits album by Texas and The Man Who by Travis. Albums and artists who were sort of shaping the sound

of those nervous years of transitioning away from Britpop towards post-Brit Pop or, you know, Web 1.0 to Web 2.0 of open plan apartments with laminate flooring and those fancy cocktail bars we mentioned in the coverage that we did of Fast Love by George Michael. I think you're not alone fits in that group aesthetically, where, you know, downtempo approach, downtemper approaches to songwriting and fashionable new century aesthetics meet like adult contemporary delivery and Terry Wogan. You also probably wouldn't be a million miles away in that CD collection from things like Rise by Gabrielle and Nora Jones and Songbird by Eva Cassidy, you know, like the kind of music

you could have on as background music when you invited your friends around for wine and you would sit in the front room with your little hi-fi tape deck CD player record player kind of Panasonic high-fi A bit of Jack Johnson in there maybe A little bit of Jack Johnson a little bit later on

Exactly that kind of music And I don't mean that as a criticism Radio friendly songs created by moody loaners That sort of thing But the presence of break beats in this I think is what caters it to a younger audience and keeps it sounding futuristic. I think it maybe lacks some resonance in the verses, ever so slightly, but the chorus

is strong. I think you can go away with that. You're not alone. Wait till the end of time for you. You know, I'd remember that for weeks. The rest, I'm a little and short, but I really dig the atmosphere of this so much, those soft kind of backmasked pads that underpin the whole thing. It still sounds futuristic and somewhere that we've not been yet.

You know, it's recently been used on an advert for EE, like about how you have these SIM cards that control the web access of kids, safe sims they call the advert campaign, and it's been used in that campaign. And every time I hear it, I'm like, oh, we're covering that on Hits 21 soon. That'll be fun to mention that it's being used in an advert at the moment. The other thing is that I keep coming back, you were saying Nihilis Blues Ed,

I keep coming back to KTB when I listen to, to this, songs of hers like broken record or perfect stranger, and very, very, very early Emily Sanday, that song Heaven that she did, which I think was her first single, and her best by Miles, because it was the only song she did that sounded like that, as opposed to the songs that she did, that sounded like all of the other songs that she did. It also reminds me of early K Tempest as well, around the time of everybody down. Specifically, that brilliant song that he did, Marshall Law, under the name Kate Tempest, before the transition and the change in his career and the change in his image and name and everything. There is also little

early 2010's post-dub step kind of down tempo, pop soul adjacent flavor to this that's kept drawing me back in. Lots of references to things from my musical past that are this song's future. There is a lot to be thought about, I think, for me while I'm listening to this. And I always appreciate things that make me think beyond the text that I'm consuming at that given moment. I've forgiven this slight compositional deficiencies because I think its atmosphere is so resonant and so strong from those first like, ding-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-that is unlike a lot of anything we've come across on the 90s

on the 90s path that we're on so yeah I'm a big fan so Andy I take it you're not voting for our Kelly either way no I will refrain from comment I believe he can stand that's what I'm going to say you believe he can die

so so Michael Jackson Gary Barlow and Olive well I'm trying to come up with a good pun for all of them and I don't think well Gary will have to wait even if Love won't because they can't come up with a good pun for him but yes blood on the dance floor

more like blood neither in the pie hole nor the vault because that's staying where it is love won't wait but apparently Gary has a lead weight attached to his ankle that's drowning him in the pie hole a weight made of pastry and beef that takes him into the pie hole. Yes.

A really easy pie hole for me that. I hated it. Yeah. And as for Olive with You're Not Alone, well, she's not alone because she's surrounded by the likes of tattoo and all saints in the vault. So Ed, I believe I can fly,

blood on the dance floor, love won't wait, and you're not alone. Toilet, barnfire, forced evacuation of inner with a vacuum cleaner chucked in the well with a rolled up carpet R. Kelly

finds the door whore-hor to the pie hole with considerable ease. MJ, when you know someone can do better, as I

mentioned, you've got to be a little bit firmer with them. For the lorded king of pop, this is a shit, really.

I'm actually putting this in the pie hole. I thought it was so unimaginative and weak. um what a great week so far i um can i borrow a feeling uh no i don't want to buy it um it's it's cheap fun really that's that's my it's the highest i can go it's fine it's going nowhere um how can i'll live without it i i want to know not easily but i think i can fully agree that atmosphere is to be savored.

But yeah, it just doesn't go anywhere after about a minute and a half. It nearly squeaks in, but it isn't quite oiled up enough to slip firmly into the vault, unfortunately. All right, so for me, I believe I can fly, that flies straight into the pie hole.

With blood on the dance floor, yeah, it's that in the... pie hole it's not in the vault it's in the middle yeah that's going nowhere love won't wait is also going nowhere but it's maybe a little

closer to the pie hole than the vault and you're not alone oh I'm happily placing that in the vault that's yeah I'm happy I'm so relieved that we've had something this week worth talking about fucking hell because for reasons different reasons the first three, I struggled.

Really, really struggled. Blood on the dance floor. It was like more like blood out of a stone. It is tough this week. This was a measure of our metal that we could produce notes on these songs, really, apart from Olive, which was great. But yeah. So, next week, we won't be releasing an episode because it's Christmas Day.

And then the week after that is New Year's Day. so we also won't be doing anything then. So the next time that we'll be back will likely be the 8th of January when we return in the new year. See you all in 2026. See if I can make sure that I don't catch myself out

at the start of next year like I did at the start of this year where for about the first five or six episodes of 2025, I kept saying 2024 in odd places by accident. So I've got to invest in a shock collar If I ever say 2025 during the intros for each song, you know, currently certified platinum in the UK as of 2025,

if I say that in any future episodes, I need to invest in a little button that Ed can press. I won't pick it up. I won't pick it up. I'll just be nodding it long. I'll only specifically said Ed because I can't be trusted with something like that. Yeah, I can't handle that kind of power. I should never be put anywhere near a button after last time.

so we will see you in the new year thank you very much for listening throughout 2025 bye bye bye bye But you're holding every breath of faith, feeling this is more faith.

So please don't let me go my baby. I try my best to get away from you so.