Elvis Aaron Presley, also known mononymously as Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Known as the "King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Presley's energized interpretations of songs and sexually provocative performance style, combined with a singularly potent mix of influences across color lines during a transformative era in race relations, brought both great success and initial controversy.
The Spice Girls are an English girl group formed in 1994, consisting of Mel B ; Melanie C ; Emma Bunton ; Geri Halliwell ; and Victoria Beckham. With their "girl power" mantra, they redefined the girl-group concept by targeting a young female fanbase. They led the teen pop resurgence of the 1990s, were a major part of the Cool Britannia era, and became pop culture icons of the decade.
Natalie Jane Imbruglia is an Australian-British singer-songwriter and actress. In the early 1990s, she played Beth Brennan in Neighbours. Having left the soap opera, she moved to the UK and began a singing career. Her debut single, a cover of Ednaswap's song "Torn" (1997), quickly became a worldwide hit, topped the US Billboard Radio Songs Chart for eleven weeks in 1998, and was listed on 50 Best Songs of 1990s by Rolling Stone. Her debut album, Left of the Middle (1997) was a commercial success, certified multi-platinum in the US, the UK and Australia and eventually sold seven million copies worldwide. Subsequent albums, including White Lilies Island (2001) and Counting Down the Days (2005) did not match commercial success of her debut, but both albums still gained Gold certification in the UK. As of 2021, Imbruglia has released six studio albums and has sold more than ten million copies worldwide. Imbruglia has received various accolades, including eight ARIA Awards, two Brit Awards, one Billboard Music Award, one Silver Clef Award and three Grammy nominations.
In the music industry, the Top 40 is the current, 40 most-popular songs in a particular genre. It is the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music. Record charts have traditionally consisted of a total of 40 songs. "Top 40" or "contemporary hit radio" is also a radio format. Frequent variants of the Top 40 are the Top 10, Top 20, Top 30, Top 50, Top 75, Top 100 and Top 200.
The Billboard Hot 100 is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales, online streaming, and radio airplay in the U.S.
"Stand by Me" is a song originally performed in 1961 by American singer-songwriter Ben E. King and written by him, along with Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, who together used the pseudonym Elmo Glick. According to King, the title is derived from, and was inspired by, a spiritual written by Sam Cooke and J. W. Alexander called "Stand by Me Father," recorded by the Soul Stirrers with Johnnie Taylor singing lead.
"My Heart Will Go On" is a song recorded by the Canadian singer Celine Dion as the theme for the 1997 film Titanic. It was composed by James Horner, with lyrics by Will Jennings, and produced by Horner, Walter Afanasieff and Simon Franglen. "My Heart Will Go On" was released as a single internationally by Columbia and Epic on November 24, 1997, and was included on Dion's fifth English-language album, Let's Talk About Love (1997), and the Titanic soundtrack.
Ray of Light is the seventh studio album by American singer-songwriter Madonna, released in early 1998 by Maverick Records. A major stylistic and aesthetic departure from her previous work, Bedtime Stories, Ray of Light is an electronica and techno-pop record which incorporates multiple genres, including ambient, trip hop, psychedelic music and Middle Eastern music, while also seeing Madonna singing with greater breadth and a fuller tone. Mystical themes are also strongly present in both the music and lyrics, as a result of Madonna embracing Kabbalah, her study of Hinduism and Buddhism, and her daily practice of Ashtanga yoga.
"Iris" is a song by American alternative rock band Goo Goo Dolls. Originally written for the soundtrack of the 1998 film City of Angels, the song was later included on the band's sixth album, Dizzy Up the Girl, and released as a single on April 1, 1998.
"Lady Marmalade" is a song written by Bob Crewe and Kenny Nolan, originally for Nolan's disco group the Eleventh Hour. The song is famous for the repeated refrain of "Voulez-vous coucher avec moi?" in French as part of the chorus, a sexually suggestive line that translates into English as: "Do you want to sleep with me?" The song first became a popular hit when it was recorded in 1974 by the American funk rock group Labelle and held the number-one spot on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for one week, and also topped the Canadian RPM national singles chart. In 2021, the Library of Congress selected Labelle's version for preservation in the National Recording Registry for being "culturally, historically, or artistically significant".
"My All" is a song by American singer-songwriter Mariah Carey from her sixth studio album, Butterfly (1997). It was released as the album's fifth single overall and second commercial single on April 21, 1998, by Columbia Records. The song was written and produced by Carey and Walter Afanasieff. "My All" is built around Latin guitar chord melodies, and makes subtle use of Latin percussion throughout the first chorus, before taking on a more conventional R&B-style beat. Carey was inspired to write the song and use Latin inspired melodies after a trip to Puerto Rico, where she was influenced by the culture. The song's lyrics tell of a lonely woman declaring she would give "her all" to have just one more night with her estranged lover. It is the first song Carey wrote for the Butterfly album.
"Bitter Sweet Symphony" is a song by the English rock band the Verve, from their third studio album, Urban Hymns (1997). It was produced by Youth and released on 16 June 1997 by Hut Recordings and Virgin Records as the album's lead single.
"Fuel" is a song by American heavy metal band Metallica. It was written by James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, and Kirk Hammett, and was released as the third single from their seventh album, Reload (1997). The song was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance in 1999 but lost to Jimmy Page and Robert Plant for the song "Most High". It was moderately successful on the music charts, peaking at number two in Australia, number three in Hungary, number five in Finland and number six on the US Billboard Mainstream Rock chart.
Titanic: Music from the Motion Picture is the soundtrack to the film of the same name composed, orchestrated, and conducted by James Horner. The soundtrack was released by Sony Classical/Sony Music Soundtrax on November 18, 1997.
"I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" is a song recorded by American hard rock band Aerosmith as the theme song for the 1998 science fiction disaster film Armageddon, in which lead singer Steven Tyler's daughter Liv starred. It is one of four songs performed by the band for the film, the other three being "What Kind of Love Are You On", "Come Together", and "Sweet Emotion". The power ballad was written by Diane Warren, who originally envisioned it would be performed by "Celine Dion or somebody like that". The song received its airplay premiere on May 12, 1998, and was officially added to radio a week later.
"Music Sounds Better with You" is the only song by the French house trio Stardust, released on 20 July 1998. Stardust comprised the producer Thomas Bangalter, the DJ Alan Braxe and the vocalist Benjamin Diamond. They wrote "Music Sounds Better With You", a dance track, using a guitar riff sampled from the 1981 Chaka Khan song "Fate".
"Believe" is a song by American singer Cher from her 22nd studio album, Believe (1998). It was released as the album's lead single on October 19, 1998, by Warner Bros. Records. After circulating for months, a demo written by Brian Higgins, Matthew Gray, Stuart McLennen and Timothy Powell, was submitted to Warner's chairman Rob Dickins, while he was scouting for songs to include on Cher's new album. Aside from the chorus, Dickins was not impressed by the track so he enlisted two more writers, Steve Torch and Paul Barry in order to complete it. Cher also later did some adjustments herself to the lyrics but did not get a songwriting credit. Recording took place at Dreamhouse Studio in West London, while production was handled by Mark Taylor and Brian Rawling.
"Torn" is a song written by Scott Cutler, Anne Preven, and Phil Thornalley. It was first recorded in 1993 in Danish by Danish singer Lis Sørensen, then in 1995 by Cutler and Preven's American rock band Ednaswap, and in 1996 by American-Norwegian singer Trine Rein.
Colin Larkin is a British music writer. He founded and was the editor-in-chief of the Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Along with the ten-volume encyclopedia, Larkin also wrote the book All Time Top 1000 Albums, and edited the Guinness Who's Who of Jazz, the Guinness Who's Who of Blues, and the Virgin Encyclopedia of Heavy Rock. He has over 650,000 copies in print.
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music is an encyclopedia created in 1989 by Colin Larkin. It is the "modern man's" equivalent of the Grove Dictionary of Music, which Larkin describes in less than flattering terms. It was described by The Times as "the standard against which all others must be judged".