Pop Shots – A Look At The Top 10 … From 28 Years Ago

Welcome to your weekly dose of pop world musings. Covering all things pop culture, this week I’m hopping into my time machine again, and this time I’m setting the coordinates to 28 years ago, to take a look at the Billboard Top 10 from this week back in 1998.

This Top 10 featured a trio of R&B hits, a memorable one hit wonder, and a group that needed just “One Week” to grab our attention.

So let’s get into this exploration in chart history! Of course, since this is Pop Shots, you know everything is seasoned with a little bit of attitude.

1. Barenaked Ladies – One Week

Sometimes a band with a vast catalog comes along with a wonderfully dopey pop tune that’s so irresistible it becomes what they end up being known for, at least by the masses. That’s exactly what happened to Barenaked Ladies when they gave us “One Week,” but you can’t hate on this song, because hating on this song is like hating on happiness.

Trivia Note: Do you know how long “One Week” stayed in the top spot on the Hot 100? You guessed it – one week.

2. Monica – The First Night

Hey kids, pull up a seat and let me tell you what R&B used to sound like! Actually, just click play on “The First Night,” and find out why R&B was, at one point in time, one of the coolest genres in the world, and dominated the charts.

As an aside, Monica really doesn’t get enough credit for how many great tunes she’s given us over the years. She always crushes it.

3. Aerosmith – Don’t Want to Miss a Thing

For as much as I love Aerosmith, and think their early-to-mid ‘90s work is highly underrated, “Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” was a miss for me. It was a soundtrack song, and it was gigantic, but it’s just so overly saccharine, and lacking the soul, and wit, that made the band special. It’s generic pop-rock. I get it, though, it’s a whole lotta people’s wedding song, and to them I say, enjoy.

4. Dru Hill – How Deep is Your Love

Once again, kids, R&B used to sound like this, and it was awesome!

Much like Monica, Dru Hill doesn’t get the props they deserve. They had hits on top of hits on top of hits. We really need a whole entire discussion about how many dope R&B acts were around in the ‘90s, and early ‘00s, and take some time to put them in their proper place in history. These artists were GREAT!

5. Jennifer Paige – Crush

How many words could I write about Jennifer Paige, and her pop classic “Crush”? Oh I’d say quite a few, as there’s a multiple page entry about her, and this song, in my latest book – One Hit Wondering: The Stories of 40 One Hit Wondering + Other Tales From The Crates!

Heck, I even reference this song on the back cover, so you know it’s more than just a little crush.

6. Edwin McCain – I’ll Be

The second wedding song in this Top 10, and a truly gorgeous tune, love must have been in the air in the fall of ’98. Love, however, didn’t seem to find me … of course, it didn’t stand much of a chance being that I was in various Hofstra bars, and a bevy of different record stores much of the time. Oh yeah, and class, I was in class, too!

7. Faith Hill – This Kiss

Before Taylor Swift even held a guitar, plenty of artists were finding ways to make country go pop, and Faith Hill certainly had that recipe for success with “This Kiss.” Definitely country, but with a pop hook that landed it everywhere … hey, does anyone else suddenly want to make out?

8. 98 Degrees – Because of You

98 Degrees, the boy band that, at first, we all thought was an R&B group. While they may not have had the dance moves of BSB or NSYNC, 98 Degrees had the best harmonies of all the boy bands, and that should count for something!

9. Monifah – Touch It

The third R&B song in this Top 10, once again, you can hear why it was a party when the DJ threw on these tunes. They were body moving hits, and in Monifah’s case, she gave us cause to think about some … touching.

10. Inoj – Time After Time

I must have memory holed this cover the Cyndi Lauper classic “Time After Time,” because I don’t remember it at all. That said, the beat is definitely late ‘90s dance-pop, so it had to have been playing at some mall, or bar I happened to be in. Seriously, though, no memory of it whatsoever!

That’s all for this edition of Pop Shots, but come back next Monday for more shots on all things pop.

If you liked this article, check out my latest book – One Hit Wondering: The Stories of 40 One Hit Wonders + Other Tales From The Crates. Available now!