Search for the secrets you hide

Continuing my trip back in time through the album charts

11/08/96 : Bizarre Fruit - M People



I think I listened to Elegant Slumming, thought it was "OK" and never investigated anything further from those M People.

And yeah, that was no great loss on my part.  It's all fine if you like that sort of thing, I guess - but it feels a bit clinical in a "let's make stuff people will love at dinner parties (or, as it turned out, The Olympics)" kinda way.  She does have a nice voice though - "Search For The Hero" is probably the high spot for me, although I don't mind their cover of "Itchycoo Park" (but I bet a load of people HATE it).  I do have a rare complaint though, about the album title - I assume it's a play on "Strange Fruit" which is a Billie Holiday song about KKK lynchings and I'm pretty certain that this kinda thing is a not what Billie was fighting for throughout her life.  And it was one we never owned - 8/21.

We're at #11 in the charts this week - our joint lowest position so far.  And this album is on (check this out) its 91st week of an 118 week run - although things aren't quite that simple, as we'll learn in a bit.  It managed ten more weeks across three more runs before disappearing in mid '98 - it was their most successful charting album, but only just beat Elegant Slumming, so they've done OK for themselves over the years.  The top five this week were Alanis, The Smurfs (their highest position thankfully), Ocean Colour Scene, Oasis and Crowded House.  There are no new entries in the top ten this week - the highest ones are from Hypnosis (#16) and Alex Reece (#19), neither of which I can tell you the slightest thing about.   Bizarrely, the next two new entries at #71 and #73 are both soundtracks to the film Independence Day.

Wikipedia has surprisingly little on such a successful album, although it does explain that this album was actually Bizarre Fruit II at this stage - the original version came out in November '94, but had the single tracks replaced by the released versions and "Itchycoo Park" added to it.  And then, at some point, the new version was renamed Bizarre Fruit.  All very odd.  It did very well over here though, selling over 1.5 million - and also got to #4 in New Zealand.

"Customers also listened to" Heather Small, Beverly Knight and Ruby Turner - there's some pipes on them there ladies.  And you have to admire Heather's voice and this album is a perfectly acceptable setting for it, but isn't really anything more than that for me.

04/08/96 - A nostalgic revisit
18/08/96 - Better than I remembered

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