Hits 21 - 1997 (7): The Race for Christmas Number One

Episode Date: February 9, 2026

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 and the and Buh, are looking back at every single UK number one of the 1990s. Email us at Hits21 podcast at gmail.com, Twitter us at Hits21 UK. Thank you ever so much for joining us again. We are currently looking back at the year 1997. It's our final episode of 1997 because this week we'll be coming. covering the race for Christmas number one.

Andy, nothing to report from the album charts, or is still some happenings in the final week of the year? No change from last week. We go right through the Christmas period with Celine Dion at number one with let's talk about love. So then, Ed, America. Yes, I've got a couple of pages from stateside. Yes, the year of you for 97 plus their Christmas week 97.

Yep, so first off, Billboard Top Ten albums of the Year, then Billboard Top Ten Singles of the Year, and then it's just maybe an anticlimax, I don't know, the Top Ten Singles of Christmas Week. So yes, Billboard Top Ten albums of the Year in 1997. At number 10, beating out competition from the Romeo and Juliet soundtrack, aka the album Most People Know Talk Show host by Radiohead From, and beating out and about Bush, with their almost parodically post-grunge signifying razor-blade suitcase, it's Diddycombe with no way out? Hopefully not for you, mate. And number nine, Tony Braxton hawks her secrets, which include how to proof your fax machine against the Y2K bug and how to get Laura Croft to strip naked in Tomb Raider.

At number eight, will ye know Diddy fucking go? Even the greasy, vain, glorious hands of Didicum Can't prevent Biggie's life after death Being a great record that sells accordingly. At number seven, It's the wallflowers with Bringing Down the Horse.

That is the title of the album, by the way. Number six, Leanne Rines, as well as singing and playing, on Blue, the second of two hit albums for her in 1997. And number five, Jewel belatedly sells a truckload of her 1995 debut, Pieces of You. Surely one of the all-time great concept albums about vivisection. And number four, I believe copies of the Space Jam soundtrack flew off the shelves. I just don't know why.

And number three, crashing similarly onto charity shop and thrift still. shelves alike. It's that Celine Dion album where she is dressed in white. Not to be confused with the classic Celine Dion album where she's dressed in black, or the Celine Dion album where she's dressed in white, but it's in monochrome. Number two, sitting on an alarming 16 million total worldwide sales as of 2004, the commercial power of no doubt's tragic kingdom continues to surprise. The album, after all, had already been in the chart since autumn 1995. And at number one, was it too much, America? British invaders sell seven million copies of spice. It really is hard to overstate what a worldwide mania the spice girls represented in 1997. They're British as fuck,

really, but they were tapping toes from Boston to Fort Bragg. On to the Billboard top. 10 singles of the year 1997. And number 10, inoffensive puberty orbiting popsters Hanson, lament the plight of ethnic Albanians and fierce sociopolitical turbulence ahead with mbop. Citation needed. At number nine, wow, it's Sean Colvin. John Colvin there. And number eight, Matchbox 20 pushes its way into the top 10.

and into my heart, leading as it does to lead singer Rob Thomas, playing a hallucination of himself in an episode of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. At number seven, from the days when dumb action movies used to have self-serious ballads attached to them, how do I live by Leanne Rines really underlines the curt romantic yearning at the heart of Con Air. At number six, at a brisk two minutes 54, wannabe, for the Spice Girls, didn't waste anyone's precious time, going nearly triple platinum in the US alone. And number five, it's Diddy Come and Mace? Let's put that one back in the box, shall we? And number four, if you want pop hits in 1997, forget the Brickston Academy. You want the Tony Braxton Academy.

me. Unbreak my heart went on to sell more than 10 million copies worldwide. At number three, it's Didicum, Faith Evans and One One One Two, with a song that makes me want to dial one-one one, every time I hear it. At number two, it's Jewel with You Were Me Me, Everybody Tells Me So. I presume it's just a cover of that insipidly chirpy Freddy in the Dreamers track. I didn't really have the time or inclination to check, so apologies if not. At number one, another dead woman, another dollar, I kid, that is a little bit harsh. Yeah, it's Elton and it's his amazing, re-lighting candle there. Wonderful stuff.

Right, and now the air of anti-climax hangs around it like snow spray. It's the Christmas top ten singles in the US. You already know what number one is as well, so cool. At number 10, it's Robin. What? Yes, that Robin. From her 1995 debut album, Robin is here. The Swedish electropop queen has what was not even her first hit with Show Me Love.

And number nine, some say it plagiarizes the Bridge Zone theme from specifically the Master System and Game Gear version of Sonic the Hedgehog. It's probably a coincidence, I feel. Regardless, it's lovely. It's Janet Jackson with the touching together again. And number eight, it's Didacum. Whatever, just fuck off, mate. At number seven, it has yet to be knocked down.

I'm not certain if it gets back up again. It's tub thumping by Chumbabwumba. We were really going in hard, weren't we? At number six, it's my love is the shh. Well, I'm just trying to say what the sh. Anyway, something for the people featuring Trina and Tamara. That's both Trina and Tamara in the same track. They score a sizable festive hit with a song that is the shh.

And number five. If you feel so good, Mace, could you at least try and sound like it? You lucky, tedious asshole. At number four, it's my body. Insert, fart sound effect here, please, Rob. No, it's a song called My Body by LSG. My body lies over the ocean. Anyway, that will do there.

Number three, speaking of early doors and long innings, it's Usher. It's Little Baby Usher, with You Make Me Wanna. At number two, oh, that bear, oh, that box. It's Leanne Rines with, how do I live? Sorry, I've got something in my eye. In my con eye. And at number one, candles, wind.

You gotta love it. Andy, back over to the UK, the BBC and ITVie, it out, how are the Christmas TV listings looking? Well, I'll let you be the judge of how it is. Yes, Christmas 97, our first Christmas under new labour. Our first without Diana, RIP. And the first to feature hits 21 veterans, that are Lee Toby's, who get no less than three different outings on Christmas Eve,

all of which are Christmas specials. And bearing in mind that they've only just started, that's some hefty production they've done to get three Christmas specials ready already. The plot description of one of them is that Dipsy gets to pull his cracker and I'll let you write the jokes for that one. The Spice Girls are also at their height, of course, as Ed's mentioned, that height being shorter than the Teletubbies, who are massive, but still, and they get a top of the pop special to themselves on the BBC,

and on ITV at the same time, they get a concert special from Istanbul. The BBC takes a very rare option of putting a film on in primetime with the premiere of The Mask on right in the middle of the evening. I guess it was Carey Mania in the mid-90s, really. It's mostly sitcom and panel show specials, otherwise, with one foot in the grave and men behaving badly, leading the way. And another big throwback here with they think it's all over, getting a Christmas special episode on Christmas Day as well.

Hi TV also sticks a film on with Home Alone 2 on in prime time, starring Donald Trump and the World Trade Center, warning us all what the new millennium will bring. Jeez. Yeah. They also have a show called Starting Blocks, where Chris Tarrant shows footage of famous sports stars when they were younger, and laughs about how they used to be smaller and not sports people.

They used to have high voices and didn't have pubs, and they were utterly laughable in every respect. Because they were young. Laugh at the children, everyone. I bet it was like a fucking hour and a half long as well, wasn't it? It was hefty, yeah. And they finished the evening. evening with a TV movie called The Bare Necessities, in which a group of minors, that's miners, as in

people who mine, not children, in which a group of minors make money by performing strip shows. And if you think that sounds familiar, you'd be right. Oh. But this first aired in January 1996, 18 months before the Fall Monty. And ITV were just apparently keen to point this out that this idea was nicked from them by putting this TV movie on again at Christmas, the full Monty currently entertaining millions with Northern nudity. Yeah, ITV did it first, apparently.

Did it have Donna Summer on the soundtrack, though? I fucking think. I didn't watch it aired. I'm not that dedicated to this segment. I've never heard of it. I'll be quite honest. Well, we've heard about the films in the evening, but what about the traditional daytime movie showdown? BBC One has the Flintstones, the John Goodman one, on in the afternoon, and ITV has the Muppets Christmas Carol.

I mean, I know what I think, but what do you do you think? Mine would be Muppets Christmas Carol, but for the alarming reason that everyone talks about it and I have never seen it. Oh, it's fantastic. It's fantastic. Rob, what do you think?

Michael Kane is a good sport. Another vote for Mother Christmas Carol then? I think so, yes. It's a slam dunk. Over on the soaps. We'll start with EastEnders where Cindy arrives at Ian's place on a mission to get her kids back

while Tiffany and Grant have a mighty bust up over potential infidelities. On Corey, Sally and Kevin Webster are briefly reunited when he comes and stays for Christmas, while the Battersvies have their first Christmas on Corrie. And on Emmerdale, Marlon Dingle is disowned by his family after his attempts to stitch up Eric Pollard goes awry

and get him and cousin Sam beaten up. Oh, those dingles! Yeah, those dingles, eh? Dingle bells, if you like. The Queen acknowledged quite a big year for the royal family, paying tribute to Diana, of course, once more, and also reflecting on her 50th, anniversary, as well as the handover of Hong Kong and the imminent devolution powers to Scotland

and Wales. It was the first of her speeches to be published on the internet, currently being used by three people and a cat. And finally, Channel 4 never lets us down, with not only a full 100 minutes of Pavarotti performing Verdi's Requiem, on Christmas Day, no less, and then shortly after that, also a three-hour showing of the damnation of Faust, and for some reason, four, vampire movies taking us through the night. Wow. Okay. The alternative Christmas message finally was given by 13-year-old Margaret Gibney, who asked for peace in Northern Ireland as her Christmas wish.

And in 1998, Margaret's wish would actually come true. Merry Christmas, everyone. So this next clip comes from a BBC news report from November 1997. It's all about the toys and games of Christmas, but it's four toys in particular. that are all the rage and they are creating some almighty problems for retailers and parents everywhere. It's 7am on a cold Saturday morning in the centre of London and news has broken that Amni's toy store has just received a small consignment of Telitubby dolls that are around 1,500 to sell and these people are determined to get them. There's so many people that want them, so many children that want them, it's not enough to go around. There have been scenes like this all over the country in recent weeks.

In some shops, scuffles are broken out as frustrated parents trying to get their hands on tinky winky, dipsy, la-la and poe. Other retailers have begun rationing them, allowing just one telitubby per person. It's very difficult to forecast the demand, especially with something like teletubies, which in the first instance is uniquely English. So it wasn't happened in America before it happened here.

It's happened here first. It would probably happen in America next year. Christmas toy fads come and go, but difficulty in finding the year's hot toy seems an annual event for some parents. Last year, it was Buzz Light Year. Before that, Power Ranger figures floor similar scenes inside toy shops and similar disappointment as stocks ran low. The manufacturers say a million telitubbies have been made. Last month, only 300,000 had reached the shops. A few thousand more dolls will be on sale before Christmas, but after that parents and children will have to wait until next year.

Speaking of the titular tubbies there, so my husband was one of the kids, he was three years old and he wanted those telly-tubby toys. And he got them. He was delighted. He got the original 1997 teletubbies that everyone wanted for Christmas. And then about 10 years later, his mom was having a clear out and threw them out.

And yeah, they would have been worth a decent junk and he was not happy at all. So by way of apology, about another 10 years after that, his mum bought them replacement to tallytubbies to apologise. So now we have four original teletubbies in our house. Yeah. All right. I don't know if you were slightly,

you probably slightly beyond the tubby, the tubby remit, Andy. I was a little bit out of the age bracket, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Not too far, but I was five at this time. So I was a bit out of the age bracket. I watched it semi-ironically sometimes, yeah. Did you have a favourite tubby, Rob?

Um, uh, no, la, la, maybe. But I think that was just because when I was a kid out of the four colors, yellow was my favorite? My favorite was Poe because I always liked inoffensive Worcicki characters. That's why my favorite tweenie was Jake and why my favorite one from Rainbow was George. I liked the ones who were absolutely no threat to me at all. What about your husband? What was his Dipsy? Because Dipsy's the cool one. Like we all know that. Dipsy's the cool.

Was Dipsy the cool one? Yeah, he's got a hat. Come on. Yeah. Oh, fucking hell. If that doesn't signify coolness, I don't know what does. Got sunglasses as well. I mean, I don't want to overdo it here, but Jesus. So, it is time for the 1997 Christmas Day top 10. And this is when, yeah, we run down the biggest selling singles of the week

leading up to Christmas Day before we lead you in to the 1997 Christmas number one. So here we go. Cue the music for at 10, Mace tells us that he feels so good to be in the UK top 10 this Christmas, he's the second highest new entry for this festive season. Down two places at number nine, it's Tracy Chapman via Boyzone. Baby can I hold you? AA side with Shooting Star. It's a non-mover at number eight and another cover as well.

Natalie and Bruglia is lying naked at number eight with Torn. At seven, it's down two places, but it's going to be spending a while in the top 10 yet. Robbie Williams shows us his soft side with angels. Down three places at number six, it's a former number one. Aqua's Barbie Girl isn't the number one toy this Christmas. Into the Christmas Day top five and it's up one place for Janet Jackson. She's together again just in time for the holidays. At four it's a non-mover but it's not the last we'll be hearing about it.

All Saints have never ever felt so low to which I say Four isn't that low. Into the top three and Christmas Day 1997 was almost a perfect day for the various artists assembled by the BBC, but it is down two places from the top. And at number two, just missing out on the Christmas crown, the British public said, e-oh to the telitubbies, but have now said bye-bye, which means that the Christmas number one for 1997, is this. Okay, this is Too Much by Spice Girls. Released as the second single from the group's second studio album titled Spice World, Too Much is Spice Girls' sixth single to be released in the UK and their sixth to reach number one,

and it's not the last time we'll be coming to the five of them on this podcast. Too Much went straight in at number one, as a brand new entry and it stayed at number one for two weeks. In its first week atop the charts it sold 252,000 copies beating competition from the songs you just heard about and in week two it sold 218,000 copies in a week where there were no new entries in the top 10. When it was knocked off the top of the charts, too much fell two places to number three. By the time it was done on the charts it had been inside the top 104, 18 weeks,

the song is currently officially certified platinum in the UK. As of 2026, Andy kick us off with too much. Well, I won't give you too much. Hopefully I'll give you just enough. By the way, before we start, you probably thought you were going to get away with this, Rob, because he said it as part of the chart rundown, but I am going to come back to it. The Natalie Embroggliad Lyon naked on the floor at number eight. That was some imagery.

It made me think it's like a particularly out there storyline on Corrie. Just imagine that. It's like, play the nick. That's that Natalie Ambrolia and she's sarkers. Couldn't think of a better pun. This for me is, so I'm really glad that with the format of the show, the way we do it, you'll have just been introduced to that opening sound of this song. Because I'm hoping some of you listening will have had the same effect that I always have with this.

I think most people have a sound from their childhood that is transportative. Like not even particularly a musical sound, just a sound. And for many millennials, certainly 90s millennials, a lot of people tend to say it's the PS1 start-up music. And for me, it's that first one or two seconds of too much. it's more than nostalgia, it's more than transporative, it's like I regressed childhood upon hearing it. Like, I'm in the 90s

when I hear that for a few seconds of too much. And that's for a few reasons. I think first and foremost, it's because that sound opens the film, Spice World. The opening credits play over this, and we cut to a scene of them singing this on top of the pops.

And it's just a very moody, very odd way to start the film. And a film that I've seen so, so many times that really represents my childhood for me. When I hear that sound, it's like I'm coming home. But also, I think, because that intro,

and the whole song really, is very atmospheric. It's very spooky and sort of odd and unreadable a lot of the time. I think it's quite nakedly going for To Become One. It's trying to be the next two become one. Like every kind of beta that is

sort of trying to do that. And Two Become One also has a very atmospheric intro that sets the tone very well. And it also has a fade-out sort of refrain with the It's the only way to be. That really kind of carries you through to the end and makes the song stay with you. And this song tries to do that with the too much of something, so why don't you give it a try?

And it kind of works. I think what this lacks in just pure, simple pop music magic, like everything just came together so well. to become one. I think this makes up for, just with a sheer sense of style and a sense of presence that is really kind of profound,

that it's just really, really, really striking. I don't think this is one of their better songs, and I think Mel C is kind of left out in the cold where she has to carry a lot of this song all by herself. So it's not one of their best, but I just think, like, the feel of it is very, very strong

and kind of makes up for the shortcomings, really, and just makes it another Spice Girls classic. And like I say, this is one where I will have to just say that nostalgia is just too much of a factor for me to be able to look at this with any objectivity. It's probably, I get the feel, it's probably not as good as most of the other Bicycle songs we've covered. But this is like, you know, if I'm old and senile and you need to kind of remind me of touch points in my life, if you need to kind of find me a constant, you know, for people who watch lost, they might sort of know what I mean. Then, you know, play this song at me. play this song at me when I reach 100 years old and, you know, I'm looking back on the 20th century. Play this for me and this will make me remember.

It's as transported as that for me. So, yeah, this has a very, very special place in my heart. I do think that it's way too long. Like I say, I think Mel C has too much to do and the others don't have enough to do. And it can never quite live up to two become one, which it's trying to be in every sense, including getting the Christmas number one. But there are, you know, there are worse things to imitate and it doesn't have do a decent effort on it.

It's stylish, it's slick, it's immersive, and it's the spice scales. Come on, can't go too far on, can you? Ed, what about you for too much? I do prefer this to spice up your life, if I'm honest. I think it does better.

I think I slightly disagree with you here, Andy. I think it is better at showing the band as a group of individuals rather than just a loud brand, which was kind of of what I felt about spice up your life. It was very bludgeoning in a way. Not necessarily a bad way, but it wasn't one of my favourites.

I think because this is so languid and slow, it potentially could expose weaker vocalists or less characterful vocalists. I mean, I think tracks like this make bands like Boyzone sound very kind of childish and ill-equipped. at least at this point. I'll be fair to them. But I think they really come out of this well and with a degree, as you say, of style and of confidence. I think there's greater maturity here. I don't know necessarily they would have been as comfortable doing something this slow. And I don't mean slow in a negative way. It's languid. As I say, it's not tedious. on the first album necessarily. But yeah, Mel C has a lot of the most technically demanding bits of the song to do.

However, I think in many ways Melby is something of the revelation here because she actually has to carry the weight of opening, like their slowest, most subdued slinky song yet. she's right out front and centre and although she only does like three or four lines before Emma takes it on I think she sounds great and it's almost like

oh like a slow bloody like six eight waltz really are they going to be able to pull this off and then she comes in and she's got a nice bit of tumbre a nice bit of vibrato without overdoing it she's not sounding on Julie showy she's just got a bit of attitude and character and it's a bit like oh no they've got it they've got this they can they can do this all right and then it's like right

if you need any difficult bits with the fucking octaves you can give that to melc but i think this is a really strong showing for the whole group it's not necessarily a loudly declarative showing for the whole group they're not barking their personalities in your face but it shows how accomplished they can be as vocalists when just asked to take their time uh with with material which could be tricky do, I think. I'm being to sound like a fucking X-Factor judge here. But anyway, yeah, it is incredibly stylish. I put the same thing here. The only demerit is the kind of midi guitar sound that keeps coming back in, which I know was sort of of the time. The de, do, do, do, do, it's a bit like, but it works at least. And I'm a bit like, lot. I expect this from no mercy, not from you.

the Spice Girls. But yeah, I like this a lot. I agree, I don't think it is one of their strongest songs. It's not one of their most imaginative songs. It doesn't smack you in the face, like those first three, with so many ideas and, you know, unexpected twists and turns

and, you know, a completely new coda section or anything like this. But because it's so stately, I'll put it that way, by comparison, it does feel like a little bit of a step forward. It's like they've put their foot down and said, yeah, we rule the world with the last single. But this one's like, but can we actually grow from this and carry it off? And it sounds a bit like they can. So yeah, I like this one and I, well, it isn't one of my favourites.

I still think it's just, it is a vaultable, a vaultable song. Yeah, I've gone back and forth quite a lot recently over whether this belongs in the vault or just on the outside of it. I've ended up settling on a vaulting because I feel like, I don't know, mate, I have always enjoyed this. It's never been one of my absolute favorite spice girls numbers, but I remember back to being a kid,

like asking for the Spice Girls' cassettes to be played over and over and over. And I always remember, like, even at four years old, being really drawn to the Coda section in particular. But if you were to ask me what my happiest memories were in association with the Spice Girls, about a dozen of their other songs would come up, for this in the list. Like, I think they do better ballads than this.

I think they do better love songs than this. I think they have a better Christmas number one than this, which we covered last year. I also think this represents the Spice Girls brand on the music front anyway, beginning to get very, very, very polished and professional to the extent that the kind of variety pack charm of their first album and those first three singles is kind of being streamlined into something that's almost too clean and too cohesive,

and two put together, which kind of really bottoms out with Holla in about two or three years time, where they're all dressed in black on the album cover for forever. They've changed their hairstyles, and there's no longer this, you know, we are five members or four members in a group after Jerry goes. You know, it's, we are one kind of thing. And I think that's less convincing. And I think this is kind of a little step in that direction. I think like they're slightly ramshackle

girls in the pub kind of vibe is what really sells those first three singles and you can feel that slipping away ever so slightly I think because they play it kind of straight just relatively in comparison just to make sure

they land this Christmas number one I suppose but I've always been really attracted to how unabashedly swoony this is you know it's swooning and swoon worthy you know the kind of wah-wai and phaser effects are maybe laid on a bit thick, but they contribute to this sense that your,

you know, your senses are slightly compromised. You're being invited into a room and it's all purple and red velvet all over the walls and ceilings, and there's a couple of candles, and the five girls are all looking at you, like they're about to put a bunch of tarot cards in front of you.

You know, but then the tempo suddenly switches, and the progression switches underneath that same melody that the strings are playing, and you're pushed into quite an unusual place and quite an unusual progression for a pop song. Like you're saying, It's really, really hard to get handle on what the tone of this is. I'm not going to say it's atonal, but it does feel slightly, you know, you couldn't really

pick. I mean, it's in a major key, but like you couldn't really say for sure that it's happy. You couldn't really, you know, the old kind of tenets of what you get told about keys in music, the minor keys sound sad and major keys sound happy. But this isn't a major key, but it's kind of pitch bent slightly. the image is pitch bent a little bit. You pushed into unexpected places. Like, you can both correct me on this,

but am I right in thinking that there's a few like augmented fifths and a few kind of seventh chords thrown in, a couple of minor chords just to keep things suspended in between, like, you know, where the emphasis isn't, should we say, there's just a little minor chord that kind of like just sneaks in a little bit. Well, the chorus does this rising fifth thing, like I say, along the fifth where it sort of raises the fifth. So it goes a, do-da-da-da-do, which might be why this is another one that has a very James Bond feel,

because the chord shape it's doing is the James Bond chords in the chorus, yeah. So it's got a, yeah, it raises the fifth each time further and further to land on a new chord. But it's got that kind of sort of sighing substitution at the end of the chorus, which takes you out of that space. And it is a bit more, it does make it more swoony than Bond, if you like. Yeah. Because it has got a sighing quality to it, which I rather like. Yes, I think what that actually, the sighing quality, I think, comes from that very pretty.

It only comes in every now and again, that very fast descending string pattern that goes from like one side to the next. The kind of, like that, which made me think of like, you know, just my imagination or something like that, where the strings wander away in the background. and the strings kind of sound like a fly that doesn't know where it's going. The do-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d in the back, whereas this has a similar sort of thing with that. Like you're kind of, you know, doing the Wayne's World flashbacks kind of thing. But, like, you are pushed to a lot of unexpected places

while never actually leaving the original key. You know, I also think it's very Hollywood in the way that it sounds like it's soundtracking, say, like a romance drama, where everything is lust and swimming emotions and heightened senses, but there's also like something wrong in the story that won't become clear until later. And you just kind of gently tease with this mystery. You keep wanting to keep going further

and keep digging to find out what the problem is. A weird thing it made me think of is the work that Ramin Javadi did for Game of Thrones at the beginning, specifically for Aya Stark, where she always had that kind of fast waltzed theme, you know that the melody was the focus at first you know i think it was played on like a midi dulcimer kind of thing it was like this do do do do do do do do do do do it was kind of similar to the show's main theme

but it was just played on slightly different instruments and fray's slightly differently the scene where you probably hear it best is in one of her one of i's first water dancing lessons in the first season with uh cyrio ferell where they're training with the wooden swords and Ned Stark is watching Aya learn from her new master. The melody was the focus at first the kind of dulcimer sort of thing

and you can hear it in that scene but in that scene there's also a little ostinato pattern very quietly played on strings in the background that's like a and underneath together that sounds quite sinister like there's a darkness on the road ahead.

And by the time she's slicing people's throats open and wearing the faces of dead people that she kills in season six and seven, that dark ostinato pattern has become her dominant motif. The, dun, and it's right there in the first season underneath the pretty kind of dulcimer melody.

And I get that through too much too, through this story. You know, the too much has kind of caused a relationship to lose control of itself. and that's why you're being pushed and pulled in all these slightly unexpected directions. And there's a lot of uncomfortable chords that it kind of lands on that you kind of want to resolve,

but don't resolve in that way that you expect. I think Mel C's C sections get to the answer and actually reveal the slight unease beneath it, or short-term solutions are no resolution. I need a man, not a boy who thinks he can. What part of no, don't you understand? And then the Coda section, which I think we were only saying literally last week on the show that there's nothing like a big ballad with a lovely coda section

at the end and it's there and you know during the coda section literally today just before recording i thought ah fuck it why not let's put it in the vault because like it stays swimming but that's where the slightly sinister edge comes in like you were saying andy just like two become one where the darker elements of the composition beforehand are allowed to be pushed through the darker subtext just becomes text just as it finishes you can't really afford to take your eyes off it because something more insidious might be unearthed from like underneath the story. I'm never going to complain as well like when all five girls get a little bit of a showcase. Like, you know,

even posh gets some nice moments instead of just kind of being hidden in the background. Like she has been on the previous songs. One thing I will also say at the end here as well is that sometimes covering the spice girls on here, I've been a bit like, oh, girls allowed to probably sell this a bit better. Like with spice up your life, for instance, like the slightly strange lyrics, you know.

But one thing girls allowed never. seem to get quite right with their slow ballads. Like their cover of Our Stand By You, see the day, a whole lot of history is okay, has a nice, again, a nice coda section, but they don't touch the Spice Girls in the ballad department, I don't think. I think Girls Allows more up-tempo sad songs where their better ones like Call the Shots or the Loving Kind, whenever they slowed it down, normally for Christmas, it felt like they lost something, whereas, yeah, the Spice Girls just had this in their arsenal that they

could convince hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people to buy in the week before Christmas competing with the telitubbies, no doubt. There's a slight smile and a little bit of sultriness to the slower material that I think some of the other girl groups that follow, it actually tended to go a bit more for a kind of a choral, perhaps more girlish or innocent sort of thing. And I guess, I don't know, it lost a degree of warmth and humour, perhaps, if that makes any sense. Yeah, Andy, what were you going to say? Actually, to add on the point about the coda

that obviously this and two become one have got in common and you were saying, oh, what's better than a ballad with a lovely coda? It's possible, I think, that that might be another thing that they're cribbing from Bond because nobody does it better has that lovely, lovely coda at the end that

do, do, do do do, do, do, baby, you're the best. That's really, really, really love the coda. So, yeah, I just think they're clearly trying for that. Give these girls a Bond theme. If you want to do one, obviously. Yeah, it does feel like a bit of a... It feels like it should have been a clear win, but never mind. It's quite clear that they would have done a cracking job with one.

Yeah. But it would have been really good. So a bit of a shame. But yeah, yeah. There's still time. There's still time. They could do it. One thing I will say, I will just allow myself this in the video.

I think that from a, I mean, from a purely just sort of an admiration point of view, it's not from like a lustful kind of thing. they all look fucking amazing in the video. Even Mel being, Mel B being asked to pull off that cat costume with the ears and stuff. Honestly, the makeup department and like,

they all look fucking, they all look beautiful. They all look like they all look like they know they're at the peak of their powers and popularity at the same time. And they really all look like they're oozing with confidence. And obviously they're all dressed in very different outfits in different sets in the video and all of this is being constructed while they're making

the film as well. These women are being overworked big time at this present moment, but they all look serene. Although I will say the baby seems to be having a much worse time of it than everyone else in the video because you get Jerry being able to do that lovely kind of black and white jazz singer kind of thing and falling into the arms of lovely bloke's and poshs in that kind of, you know, latex kind of catwoman outfit and, you know, Mel sees watching blokes do karate around her and stuff like that. And Emma's in a bedroom which seems to be caught in the middle of a tornado. She seems to be having a bad time of it. Emma, your film theme is the BBC TV drama Threads. Enjoy. But yeah, no, they sound and look in that video like

five people who are very much enjoying that and probably acknowledging too that this is like this is the crest of the wave so make you know make as much joy as you can out of it for yourself and I think that they definitely take that I am I am really really tempted to watch Spice World yes yes please let's do it

I'm sure I saw it when I was a kid but I don't know if I really remember it I was upset with the Spice Girls in the late 90s, like when I was old enough and when I'd become, like, aware of them. Because I'm still only three at this point. I think I only really become aware of them around like Viva Forever and Goodbye, which is ironic. But, yeah, through the late 90s and early 2000s and even a bit after they split up,

it was only really, I want to say, like, 2001, where, like, I was trying to be like a boy who was into football and didn't, like the Spice Girls and didn't like bewitched anymore and I like Blue. Yeah, Blue are a trendy group. I like them instead. You know that sort of thing? So I was very, very, very much into them. So I'm sure I must

have watched Spice Girls at least, Spice World at least once, but it's been a very, very long time. It is so worth it. Let's please do it, like all of us. It's I mean, I think you'll really well get a lot of it because it's quite bad, but also like, there are so many ideas in it. They do not take the easy

route with that film. It's such a strange, beguiling film. And I think it's just genuinely amazing. And it's such a time capsule of the 90s. It's like, it is cool Britannia, the movie. It really is. Okay. Yeah, yeah.

So worth it. So worth it. We had to watch Human Traffic afterwards. Just make it a kind of late 90s, early Nauties time capsule. We have mentioned human traffic a few times on this podcast. So, oh, that was very much of its time. It seemed very zeitgeist. grabbing in the early noughties.

Like everyone when we went to uni had seen that and we'd watch it from time to time when we were sloshed late in the evening. It was fun. I imagine it's probably dated horrendously, but it would be interesting to look back on at some point. So we move on now to the three little kind of competitions that we have running throughout the year.

So first we have, of course we have Bones Runner Up, then it'd be our bottom five for the year and then the top 10 for the year. year. So Andy, be true. What's the shape of it in 1997? Yeah, be true, everyone. Well, we have 23 songs this year that peaked at number two and never got to number one. Twenty-three of them, including three from Boysown, which I'm going to tell you right now, none of them made it out of the bottom five. They were all in our bottom five for this year. That was picture of you.

Isn't it a wonder, and baby, can I hold you? None of us liked any of them, unfortunately. Yeah, And our very worst one of the year was quit playing games with my heart by the Backstreet Boys which, yeah, we gave almost the lowest possible score, if not for Rob, who thought I shot the sheriff by Warren G

was even worse. So those are our bad ones of the year. Oh, it's splitting hairs. They're both pretty limp. Enough of the bad ones because this, I think, will probably all agree, is a historically good year for Born to Runner up. Like, it's fantastic.

in the top. It really is. And we have a bit of a nail bite of a result, but when you hear this top 10, it is stacked beyond belief that none of these songs got number one and that we have to choose between them. It's almost like a champion of champions in itself. So without further ado, in 10th place, let's say hello to this song, not time to say goodbye, because it is time to say goodbye. And yes, it is the one that you're thinking of. That made it to number two in that. You bizarrely enough by Sarah Reimann and Andrea Bacheli. It's Star People 97 by George Michael. Nice points.

Gorgeous song, man. Yeah. Lovely. In eighth place, well, it didn't get the trophy, but it's got its strong beliefs. It's freed from desire by Gala. Mother, we'll create us on fire. Your offense is terrified. Yeah.

In seventh place, well, they haven't won, but they are. in the top ten so I guess they'll feel bittersweet. It's the verve with bittersweet symphony. Do do, do, do do, do do do, do, do, do, do, do, do. And in sixth place, it's our George again, with you have been

loved. You've not been quite loved enough to make it into our top five, but you have been loved enough to get to number six. They just don't understand you, George. That's such a lovely song. Anyway, So this top five is like, wow. Like if you go on any kind of playlist of best of the 90s, if you go deep enough, these will all be on there.

So in fifth place, well, they've got this wrong because it's actually number five on our list, but it's called Song 2 by Blair. Woohoo. Woohoo, indeed. The woohoo song. Could have been written by Homer Simpson. In fourth place,

I kind of wanted to put this a bit higher. And you guys maybe wanted to put this a bit lower. I guess you could say we were torn. Yeah, it's Natalie and Bruglia, not lying naked on Coronation Street, but sitting pretty at fourth in our charts with Torn. In third place, well, if they were winning, they'd be singing. It's Jumbab Wumber with Tubthumping. They can drown their sorrows and piss the night away.

And so our top two, I'm going to reveal to you now, close it is. So the way we rate these is we rank them individually and then they get a sort of ranked points score based on how up they are in the charts, how high up they are in the charts. 23 of them, three of us. So the maximum number of points this year is 69. Nice. And these top two, one of them scored 65 out of 69 possible points. And the other one scored 66. We absolutely adored both of these songs. But which ones did we love the most? Well, in second place is the one

that I loved the most. It's probably my favourite number two of the entire decade, so I'm gutted that it hasn't made it. It is Sunshine by Dario G. Very nice. I hadn't heard this in years, and then about five years ago, I heard it in the last episode of Derry Girls,

and I thought, oh my God, that song. What startles me is there so many, deservedly memorable dance pop hits that we've covered. And a lot of them, it's like, yeah, the hook's great, but they do their thing, and then they slightly out to stay, they're welcome. This is actually, it feels more like a legit, good song. This one, do you know what I mean? And I think almost any of the year it would have won,

but we all loved the number one choice, and it was Robin Nance's favourite choice. Oh, fucking way. And I almost put it at the top as well. So it's kind of inevitable. our winner of Born to Runner Op this year is Love Thore by the Cardigan. Yes, what a tune.

Evergreen bit of wonderful, sparkly pop from a band that started out as a fucking metal group, if you can believe that. It really reminds me of like a groove jet or something like that where it's just effortlessly cool. It's dipsy. Oh, that's wonderful.

It's a perfect bit of pop. Yeah. So yeah, that's Born to Runner Up. Well done to the Cardigans. I always remember not hearing that song for a very long time and then watching Hot Fuzz for the first time in like 2008 or 2007. And at the end of the horrible production of Romeo and Juliet that's in the film, the light suddenly come up and they go,

love me, love me, say that you're... And Simon Pegg's eyes like roll back in his head because it's like so scared that he's lost... lost the run of himself completely. It's just staring with the whites of his eyes. I don't care about anything but you. Do do do do do. Hey.

Great fucking movie. What a movie. It is a good movie. So, we've celebrated the best of the number two's. Now it's time to look at the worst of the number ones. Andy, our bottom five songs of the year, please. Yes. our hall of shame, as it were.

So, in fifth place, and this does feel like a long, long time ago, but mainly because it was so forgettable, I think, put in the pie hole by me and with an average score of 4.2. Our fifth worst number one of the year was Disco Tech by You Two. I don't think it's atrocious. I don't think it's unbearable. It's just kind of nothingy. In fourth place, it's the only song that's put in the pie hole.

by all three of us this year, with an average score of 3.3, but we do think that there are ones worse. Each one of us hated something more than this, so it was a bit of a consensus choice. But in fourth place, our worst, our fourth worst song of year is Telitubbies say eto by teletubies. So that's what my thought is the obvious one, but we think there were three that were worse than the Telitubis. And one of them, with an average score of 3.2, put in the pie hole by me and had, Oasis with, do you know what I mean? Worse than the tellytubbies.

Yeah, fuck off. Yeah. Our second worst song of the year, with an average score of 2.8, it's, I believe I can fly by some Nob Ed rotten in jail, and let's move straight on from that. Yeah.

And our worst number one of 1997. Put in the pie hole by Rob and Ed with an average score of 2.3. It's I'll be missing you by Faith Evans and one. one, two, with some guy who'll hopefully be in jail soon. Is he in jail now? Is he in jail?

Oh, he's in jail. He's in jail. Another guy in jail. No, but yeah. Yeah. So, enough of that. Should we move on to our top ten of the year? Of course.

Yes, okay. So, in 10th place, we all scored it as seven, and none of us put it in the vault. But there was no doubt it deserved to be in our top 10. It's don't speak. Well, that's a fun number 10, isn't it? In 9th place, we're. Put in the vault by Ed, and with an average score of 7.2. The drugs don't work by the Verve.

Oh, I'll happen that spot in the top ten. In eighth place, put in the vault by me and Rob, with an average score of eight. When you're feeling sad and low, pop this on. It's Spice Over Your Life by the Spice Girls. Nice one. In seventh place, also put in the vault by me and Rob, with an average score. score of eight. Well, that means I guess me and Rob were not alone in liking this one. It's You're Not Alone by Olive. My favourite little discovery and surprise of this year. In sixth place,

put it in the vault by all three of us and all scored it an eight. It's your woman by White Town. Ed, I'm going to put you on the spot for a pun. It might be your woman, but it's certainly my... Number six. There we go. That'll do. Thanks. In fifth place, with an average score of 8.2, put in the vault by me and Rob. If you were to tell me that this doesn't belong in the top five, I would just say, who do you think you are? It's mama slash who do you think you are by the Spice Girls. Oh.

In fourth place, put in the vault by all three of us, again with an average score of 8.2, It's block rocking beats by the Chemical Brothers For our third place contender Which scored 8.3 on average And was put in the vault by all three of us If we'd ranked it any higher It probably would have been too much It's too much by the Spice Girls in third place

So the Spice Girls, they had three entries this year In the top ten but none of them made it Remind to that last year they had the whole top three So we still love them But it's not been as incredible a year for them As it was last year But it's been an incredible year for one song that gets a lot of beating up. Let's be nice to it.

It's a blonde bimbo song in a fantasy world. It's Barbie Girl by Aqua in second place with an average score of 8.5. And put in the vault by all three of us. And our number one, number one of 1997, put in the vault by Rob and Ed, with an average score of 8.8. I have to be slightly awkward here because they've not made it this year but I have to bring them on stage

to hand over the trophy bring on the spice girls everyone who won last year Hi yeah, Mel, Mel oh Victoria is she dancing inappropriately Angie? Should I give you a minute?

Hello everyone Too much, girls, too much. Yeah, that is too much I'll take that trophy back off you. Yes, I'll take it back! Thank you! Off! You've got a hell of a grip, Emma.

Considering you're supposed to be baby spice, goodness me! You're a stronger spice than that, more like garam masala. I could do this all day, but not really here. What the hell? Yes.

Anyway, we're handing it over to Blair, who've got this year's number one, number one, with Beetlebone. Well done, Blair. You did much better than no one. Well done.

I mean, I love Beetlebone. I am still alarmed that that was our number one. And in some ways, I'm still slightly alarmed that we're looking at this sort of very subdued, slow burner track that got to number one for a week. And it just, it feels, it feels odd that it should be in that place. Because it's not, this is not number one single material, is it? It's a great track, but this is like album closer stuff. Not very obviously commercial, is it? No, I think it's brilliant.

It's one of my favorite singles of theirs, but I don't think it's a fantastic single necessarily. I think that's it for 1997. Mm-hmm. Well, we've taken a while to get through this year. I think it's been our longest year of the 90s, and they're only going to get longer for the last two years. So we will be back next time when we'll be taking our first steps into 90s. 1998 and we will see you for it. Bye bye now. Bye bye.