Retro Rewind: Billboard Hot 100 This Week in 1997 #TBT

Published: Thursday 25th Feb 2016 by Rashad

spice girls thatgrapejuice #tbt
Readers of That Grape Juice know what avid music lovers we are – especially of hits past.

So, just as our retrospective features ‘From the Vault’ and ‘TGJ Replay’ allow us the chance to re-spin the gems and jams of yesterday of one artist, our newest feature Chart Rewind – a variation of our current Retro Rewind assay – accedes salutes to an entire era of music history.

This week, we wanna take you back to ‘Wannabe’ – the debut single from history-making Brit girlband Spice Girls.  After making a splash on the U.K. side of the pond in late 1996, the single was sent to test the waters in the U.S. at the top of the following year.  History would show the girls passed the test with flying colors.

Ending the extensive reign of Toni Braxton‘s ‘Unbreak My Heart,’ the funky song shot to the Hot 100’s top spot after only 5 weeks.  Lodged there for the 4 weeks that followed, ‘Wannabe’ may have catapulted the quintet into the pop stratosphere, but interestingly it would be their first and last time occupying the chart’s top slot.

Currently touted as one of the best-selling singles of all time by any female group, the pop cult classic also remains their signature tune.  Take a listen after the jump and see what other familiar faces you remember from the top 25 this week in 1997…

Hot 100 This Week in 1997

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Hot 100 This Week

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See this week’s full chart check by clicking here.

 

Your thoughts?

Comments 12

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  1. shakira stan February 25, 2016

    Where is flopation?

    • Rosie February 25, 2016

      Did Shakira’s last album go teeth whitener with all the promo it had? It had a ton of it, The Voice, Target, etc.

  2. 2bad2bme February 25, 2016

    I can’t believe how much R&B was well received back then. Now people act as though it doesn’t/ never existed. #SMH

  3. christinastherealtalent February 25, 2016

    And when you compare the charts 19 year later, it makes you realize just how much people just don’t care if you’re not talented anymore!

  4. DEL BEY February 25, 2016

    Wow R&B used to rule, where are all the consumers now? Loved the spice girls too

    • #formlation ?☕ February 25, 2016

      The consumers of rnb are now mostly illegally downloading and only buying their favs albums.

      The fans are getting into Stan wars and segregating…

  5. Rosie February 25, 2016

    A lot of those R&B tracks from the 90s aged really well. Can’t say the same for these Drake/Weeknd ripoff ass songs from Bryson Tiller, etc. His album will sound extremely dated by next year. Even Drake himself already moved away from that sound.

  6. yesterday was Aaliyah 37birthday to the good music February 25, 2016

    Music back then probably were the best into today music how it’s

  7. MUSICHEAD February 25, 2016

    Now hopefully some of u kids understand why those of us who grew up in the 90’s consider today’s music garbage.

  8. Meteorite February 26, 2016

    Britney and the whole t*** pop explosion is what happened! (No Shade!) Every record label then after wanted a “Britney” or a boy band. And R&B acts slowly started getting back seated then by 2005ish R&B was obsolete and thus the quality of it went down. Hence why acts like Jazmine Sullivan and Ledsi and so forth can’t catch a break.

  9. JOHNVIDAL February 26, 2016

    My God what a fanatastic list the one from 1997. In fact the #1 was probably the less talented artist/group in the whole list but it was cute.
    Wow at that Jewel girl at #4 in singles charts. She was phenomenal during that time. Real songwriter and what a beautiful voice. You could never see something like that in the charts now except for Adele. And then Madonna, Whintey, U2, Toni and more… wow at the diversity and quality.

    The ones from 2016 keeps being the worst in history. With Justin Beiber several laughable hits and now one more forgettable and fake Rihanna “hit”.

  10. Ziggy Stardust February 26, 2016

    Just from the list in 1997 compared to the list now, you can actually see how much music has changed. I remember when the Spice Girls blew up back then. They were everywhere! It was like the British Invasion all over again! They were like the female version of The Beatles. But music has definitely changed. Most of the music now focuses on materialism, egotism, s**, drugs, etc. They may have touched on some of these topics back in the day. But, just about EVERY song was not about those things. People actually sung about love, love lost, family, socially conscience issues, etc. Now, everything is all about, “Look at me, I’m better than you, I have more money than you, You’re not on my level”, etc. I miss music that had “genuine” meaning behind it.

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