with commentary from Entertainment Weekly.




http://www.ew.com/ew/arti...0_,00.html


Chart Flashback


How do 8-year-old songs by Sarah McLachlan, Madonna, and Puff Daddy hold up today? Whitney Pastorek gives 'em another listen




The top 10 singles from the Billboard Hot 100 for the week of July 25, 1998:


10. ''Say It,'' Voices of Theory
I have literally no recollection of this song, and I can't find it on iTunes, but my brilliant coworker Jason Adams turned to his BFF YouTube and pulled up the video — which is totally freaking me out, because now I know for a fact that I've never heard this song before in my life. And I have heard all of the songs, kids. In fact, I have a hard time remembering my family's birthdays, because I am too busy calling up every word to ''Heart of the Matter'' or some crap. Anyway. According to Billboard.com, Voices of Theory was a ''Latin Boyz II Men,'' and this was their only real hit, peaking at No. 10. Does it help if I say it's basically ''On Bended Knee,'' but sucky? C-



9. ''My All,'' Mariah Carey
Confession time: I've never been the biggest Mariah Carey fan... but if I had to choose, this is the Mariah I'd want to hang with. She kept the vocal histrionics to a minimum on this ballad — the one that broke Diana Ross' record for most No. 1 hits by a female artist, FYI — just grazing the surface of the accompanying Spanish-tinged guitar as she quietly, desperately begs her lover to come back. Even when she lets it out ('''Cause I can't go oh-OH-oh-aw-ohn / Living in the memory of your song''), she reins it right back in. For a woman whose strong suit has rarely been self-control, this is a major accomplishment. B+



8. ''Ray of Light,'' Madonna
Hot damn, do I ever love this song. Do you guys remember when it came out? Do you remember the first time you heard it, and the resulting shock that Madge could come up with anything this fresh and relevant and frickin' great to dance to after the shmoopy nonsense of Bedtime Stories and tragic, tragic hubris of Evita? With its irresistable club beat and the sound of actual joy in the vocals, this is quite possibly my favorite of Ms. Ciccione's many reinventions. A



7. ''Make It Hot,'' Nicole Feat. Missy ''Misdemeanor'' Elliott & Mocha
Ooh, neat, she can sing really low. Whatevs. I never really got this song. It's too dark for summer, I'll tell you that much: all in a minor key, no good for driving, and no good for dancing because it's just kind of creepy. Now, to be fair, it's way more interesting than I remember — there are some kind of hooky major-key harmonies laid over all the flats, and the constant sense that it's building to something bigger. Too bad the build just leads us to a weird Missy rap break about smoking pot. Actually, the whole song feels kinda stoned, now that I think about it. B-



6. ''Too Close,'' Next
Another group aspiring to be Boyz II Men; another generic slow jam — although at least this one has a little swing in its step, and a sort of seductive female backup track. Man, did we ever have gloopy music taste in the late '90s. And while I shouldn't punish this song for being of its time, I refuse to give a good grade to any song that contains any variant of the line ''Baby, you know what I wanna do.'' Because I don't. What? What is it that you want to do? I want a sandwich. Can we make a sandwich? C



5. ''Adia,'' Sarah McLachlan
Looking back, 1998 was a big summer for S.Mac, with Surfacing onto its third single (after ''Building a Mystery'' and ''Sweet Surrender'') and another song off that album, ''Angel,'' crawling up the charts courtesy of the City of Angels soundtrack. This tune makes me happy, even though it's sad. Don't you just love that little flip her voice does when it goes from her mix to her head? Don't you just love that there was a time when we all loved Sarah McLachlan? I know she's sort of a laughingstock now, post-Lilith Fair, and many, many people will deny ever owning one of her albums, but you know you did. Bottom line: You do not want to be in a car with me when this sucker comes on, 'cause I'm singing. B+



4. ''Come With Me,'' Puff Daddy featuring Jimmy Page
Oh, Lord. So this is another one that's not for sale in the iTunes store but available on YouTube, and as much as I remembered the combination of Led Zeppelin's ''Kashmir'' and Puff Daddy's ''rapping'' to be interminable, the over-six-minute train wreck is even worse if you're watching the video. Amid a ridiculous number of Puffy's uh-huhs and yeahs, Page himself plays guitar, which somehow makes it sadder; I never liked ''Kashmir'' much until I heard this version and realized how much worse it could have been. We have the Godzilla soundtrack to thank for this monstrosity (as well as the Wallflowers' bland-erization of ''Heroes''), and my research shows that EW gave that movie a C+. I'm knocking a full grade point off that for the moment when Diddy explodes into a cloud of doves. D+



3. ''My Way,'' Usher
Either I'm going crazy, or ''Say It,'' ''Too Close,'' and ''Make It Hot,'' when played at the same time, actually result in this song. Not Usher's best. C



2. ''You're Still the One,'' Shania Twain
Man, she feels like a woman, and somehow that makes it okay for her to pound us over the head with treacle like this. This song from country's first crossover queen (before Faith Hill made her look like a Canadian hick) is all slick and shiny, but I don't believe a word of it, especially not when the simplistic background singers kick in like a chorus of really optimistic robots. There's just no soul here, no emotion, nothing but Lange-ian polish and the confidence that comes from knowing your deeply repetitive song is going to clog the wedding halls of America for the next two decades. Contrasting this karaoke special with Mariah's ''My All,'' for example, is a really bad idea. C-



1. ''The Boy Is Mine,'' Brandy & Monica
I always wanted this song to pack a little more punch, didn't you? Brandy and Monica, fighting over a man, with nothing but microphones and some reverb as weapons? Sadly, the two divas-in-training do little more than poke at each other with their nasally little voices, and I cry for what could have been. Like, imagine this sucker with, say, Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson on vocals, fighting over a girl. Now that would be something. B

And things have only gotten worse as the years move on.

lastdecember said:

I was reading through the Billboard #1 hits of 1990 to present-day 2006 on wikipedia and boy, what the hell happened? 75% of the songs were pure shit.

I think one particular sign that we've fallen way off the wagon is Mariah Carey's "We Belong Together"'s success last year. Yes, it was one of the more melodic, well-performed ditties to hit the Top 40 and deserved to be a hit, but 14 freaking weeks at #1?! Just goes to show how badly we are in need of melody (amongst other things) again.

It is widely known that music just died when the 80's ended, at least the diversity did. Then in came the "Producers" with wack artists and what else can be said. All in all i would that 75% is generous, i would go 85 -90 %, especially since the later 90's till now

lastdecember said:

I think there was crappy music in all the decades before the '90s, but there was also groundbreaking genius (and, like you said, diversity) everywhere, and I'd much rather listen to the "crap" of the '60s and '70s over the crap of the '90s and '00s. At least THAT crap had talent and real musical instrumentation/composition to back it up.
[Edited 7/25/06 12:52pm]

I remember everybody @ my high school was tripping out @ the time because Brandy & Monica were on a track together. I recall chatting about the collab with one kid at the time and he was like, "BRANDY and MONICA... TOGETHER?! " People were definitely taking sides. At my school, it seemed like mostly all the girls sided with Monica while the gay boys were with Brandy. The choir boys/and all the kids with church backgrounds sided with Monica, too.

I bought the "Make It Hot" CD single in the now outdated cardboard 'n' black plastic slip cases. lol

So 1, 2 and 6 through 9 take me back to H.S. "Too Close" was our Homecoming song.

NOW, if we had some KP & Envyi on this list with some "Shorty Swing My Way" we can REALLY, REALLY go back to the era of the Discman and bad Versace knockoff linens. *dead*

Going back a little bit further to early in the decade , this week in 1991 ... Thing werent all that bad yet . ..Alternative, Dance and Cheesy Pop ruled the charts but at least there was some variety



http://www.billboard.com/...ngles&y=15


1. Everything I Do, I Do It for You - Bryan Adams
2. Right Here , Right Now - Jesus Jones
3. Unbelievable - EMF
4. P.A.S.S.I.O.N - Rhythm Syndicate
5. Summertime - D.J. Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince
6. Rush Rush - Paula Abdul
7. Piece of My Heart - Tara Kemp
8. Every Heartbeat - Amy Grant
9. It Aint Over Til Its Over - Lenny Kravitz
10. Temptation - Cornia

newpower99 said:

This song is, for lack of a better word, hot! I've loved it since the first time I heart. Every Missy/Timbaland playlist I ever make will have this song on it.

newpower99 said:

I remember these like it was yesterday. I guess it's interesting that my favorite songs by DJ JJ & TFP, Amy Grant, and Lenny Kravitz are all on the same chart. Never liked that Corrina song.

It was a total mindfuck for me to hear a Christmas rap song (Kurtis Blow's "Christmas Rappin') turned into a record about getting an erection while dancing (Next's "Too Close")..

i remember the summer of '98 like it was yesterday. boy did my 19 year old ass have fun that summer?!

That summer I was also listening to:

20 years ago today in the UK...

1 Papa don't preach - Madonna
2 My favourite waste of time - Owen Paul
3 The edge of heaven/Where did your heart go - Wham!
4 Happy hour - Housemartins
5 Let's go all the way - Sly Fox
6 Venus - Bananarama
7 The lady in red - Chris De Burgh
8 Bang Zoom(Let's go go) Real Roxanne With Hitman Howie Tee
9 Hunting high and low - A-HA
10 Higher love - Steve Winwood

And Prince Pop life failed to make the top 40!

SquirrelMeat said:

Those ones always remind me of that summer. Ohh yeah... riding my bike to the outdoor pool, eating Popeye candy sticks

SquirrelMeat said:

I didn't know this song ever charted that well!

CinisterCee said:

I remember slowing down the video of Papa Don't Preach so you got the "nipple" shot on video! How sad is that!?!?! I was 15. Thats my excuse. It was a wank fest.

SquirrelMeat said:

I've actually never seen that nipple slip.

I should mention I was 5 and thought Papa Don't Preach was Madonna defending her choice of boyfriend (affectionately called "baby")

CinisterCee said:

It was as she danced and flipped her head back on the second chorus! (strapless top).

I remember it like I did page 98 of my biology text book. That was the sex page. My book always fell open on that page.....hmmm.

SquirrelMeat said:

Dang didn't y'all get Superchannel?

CinisterCee said:

In London in 1985, I never got to surf channels (all 4 of them). I was already blind!

CinisterCee said:

at least the soundtrack was better than that shitty movie. That was back when No Limit would put out a cd every tuesday.

November said:

Hell yeah baby!

November said:

I know this is the internet, but I still wouldn't admit I saw that movie. Damn!

1998 was the last year of great rnb and hip hop!

AlexdeParis said:

it was the bootleg....

CinisterCee said:

i thought it was her defending her decision not to have an abortion...no?

oh...and i dont know any of the songs on the 98 top ten list...

ehhh.

CinisterCee said:

I bet you has THAT album in the basement or attic.