Lonely rivers flow to the sea, to the sea

Continuing my trip back in time through the album charts

17/03/96 : Robson & Jerome - Robson & Jerome

Well, I didn't expect these two fine gentlemen to be the first people I'd meet twice this year, I can tell you!  Something else I also wouldn't have expected to ever say was that I'm not expecting to hate this (and please don't tell anyone I said that).  I mean, I'm not expecting to LIKE it and I'm certain I'll find it all completely pointless - but their last effort wasn't hateful and this was the one that started it all off, so I can't imagine it's terrible.

And yeah, it's (just about) "fine" - I actually thought "Unchained Melody" was ropier than I remembered (and that really was the one that kicked it all off after they sung it on Soldier Soldier) but the rest of it was somewhat bland but not hateful (although some of the songs towards the end were extremely inessential).  I didn't "enjoy" it as much as their follow-up, but it's all much of a muchness in the grand scheme of things - they're both filled with classic songs which aren't quite murdered.  That's all I've got to say really, except that we never owned it, taking us to 12/42.

Right - you might want to sit down for this.  We're at #5 in the charts this week on their 18th week of a 28 week run - I mean, that's more than they deserve but it's nothing to get upset about, right?  Well, they only spent the first SEVEN weeks of the run at #1 (and the first ten weeks in the top 3).  Seriously?!?  What were people thinking?  The rest of the top five were Celine (a new entry about to start a NINETY EIGHT week run), Oasis, Mechanical Mike and M People.  We actually have a glut of new entries in the lower reaches of the top ten - Terrorvision (#8), Underworld (#9 - Second Toughest In The Infants, which is a fine album with an even finer title) and Pulp (#10 with a record company compilation cash-in that only hung around for 6 weeks).

Wikipedia doesn't have a lot on this album other than pointing out how phenomenally successful it was - it was the biggest selling album of 1995 and was the fastest selling album to 2 million copies in the UK before Adele came along to restore some sanity to the world with 25 (which I was surprised to see I've not written about yet!).  It does give us two great pop quiz facts though - "Their third single "What Becomes of the Brokenhearted"/"Saturday Night at the Movies"/"You'll Never Walk Alone" is also the only single released as a Triple A-side to go to number one" and "The Beatles' Anthology 1, which it kept at number two, included one of the same songs ("This Boy")".

"Customers also listened to" Michael Ball, Freddie Starr and Stephen Gately.  And quite what poor Stephen ever did to deserve being included with those two that is beyond me, although I must confess I've not heard his album.  Unlike Robson & Jerome, who I've now endured twice - and I'm no clearer to understanding what happened in 95/96 that made them so popular.  But whatever it was, they quite obviously were.

10/03/96 - Not the most interesting album ever
24/03/96 - Right up my street