This Week In Music History

This weekend I watched VH-1 for the first time in probably a year.  I don't think I missed much.  During the Top Twenty Countdown, they had a short piece on "This Week In Music History."  The year was 1997.  It kinda bothers me that they classify just eight years ago as being history. But that didn't bother me nearly as much as finding out what the number one album at that time was "Spice" by the Spice Girls.  The news blurb got worse when they said that the number one single this week in 1997 was "MMMBop" by Hanson.  Like it or not, we remember Spice Girls and Hanson.  And we can probably sing a few lines of their songs. 

I'd never heard of the Spice Girls until I saw them on a Saturday Night Live appearance in June of 1997.  The date sticks out in my mind not because they made such an impression with their musical skills, but because I remember watching that SNL episode with my cousin's two sons who were visiting us from California.  We drove the family crazy constantly saying "So tell me what you want, what you really really want." I did some checking, and found out that during their reign as Spice Girls, Ginger, Scary, Baby, Posh and Sporty sold over 33 million albums.  Like 'em or not, that's pretty impressive to me. I also read that the Spice Girls are making a comeback, sans Ginger Spice aka Geri Halliwell, who has gone onto a quasi-successful solo career. 

In case you've forgotten over the past 8 years, Hanson is a trio of brothers who burst into the pop scene in 1997.  The story goes that the brothers started singing around the dinner table at their home in Oklahoma, and went on to have a number one song with "MMMBop." (Note: for my faithful readers who are hip to this inside joke, no, the Hanson brothers were not in the military.)  The song was catchy, and during the summer of 1997 you couldn't turn on the radio without hearing it.  It was annoying but it made its way to the number one spot on the record charts that year.  I will give the Hanson brothers, Isaac, Zach, and Taylor, props.  They played their own instruments on their albums, and they actually did their own vocals, something Milli Vanilli and a host of others can't claim.