Whitney Houston, 2 Unlimited, East 17 - what was top of the charts 30 years ago this week in 1993?

Which got me thinking - what was I listening to aged 16, 30 years ago?

Topping the charts in the week of February 7-13, 1993 was 2 Unlimited’s rave earworm No Limit (”no, no, no, no, no, no, no..etc”).

This had dethroned the juggernaut that was Whitney Houston’s cover of Dolly Parton’s I Will Always Love You - before the pair had reached ‘international treasure’ status. I didn’t hate it.

At number three was Annie Lennox’s Little Bird as a double A-side with Love Song For A Vampire from the film Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Incidentally, it was an 18-rated film to which I was embarassingly denied entry by an officious cinema staff member. All of my friends got in - you don’t forget these things.

At four was The Love I Lost (feat Sybil) by West End (you do forget some things) and the sexually-charged Deep by East 17 (uuurgh).

In those tribal musical times, I wasn’t yet an indie kid, rather an uncomfortable teenager with a foot in pop rave, grunge and musicals.

The rave scene

Rave had been a fixture in the charts for a couple of years by this point but still on the ‘hit parade’ with 2 Unlimited were the likes of Exterminate! (feat Niki Harris) by Snap, and The Shamen’s Phorever People, which is largely forgotten now, but was the follow-up to the huge hit Ebeneezer Goode, famous for the repeated, barely disguised lyric “’eezer Goode” (”Es are good”) and an eye-catching video starring comedian and magician Jerry Sadowitz.

Recently departed from the charts were a remix of Heaven 17’s Temptation by Brothers in Rhythm, and We Are Raving by Slipstream - an adaptation of The Sutherland Brothers’ Sailing, made famous by Rod Stewart. These were strange times.

Out of Space was a recent hit for The Prodigy, who were heading towards an artistic high with Music For The Jilted Generation and global number ones with The Fat of The Land.

Rock music

In the world of guitar music, Nirvana had recently charted with In Bloom and had a year of real highs ahead before the tragic death of Kurt Cobain.

But for all the influence of grunge, this week’s chart featured Extreme’s Tragic Comic (16), Thunder’s A Better Man (18), Posion’s Stand (25), Bon Jovi’s Bed of Roses (26), Def Leppard’s Heavebn Is (29), The Cult’s tongue twister She Sells Sanctuary (40) and Faith No More turning their hand to the Commodores’ Easy (19).

The lovely Lemonheads are there though, with Confetti/My Drug Buddy (59), and Dinosaur Jr with Start Chopin (72).

And there is a notable appearance for Radiohead with Anyone Can Play Guitar (32). Charts-wise it would not live up to their huge debut Creep, but they would climb out of the “one-hit wonder” hole quite spectacularly over then next few decades.

Impending Britpop

Notable pop figures hanging around were Take That doing Barry Manilow’s Could It Be Magic (no question mark) (27) and now-doctor Brian Cox with D:ream doing Things Can Only Get Better (28).

Charles and Eddie’s gold-plated former number one earworm Would I Lie To You? (with question mark) (49) would not go away.

But this was 199 and for me, and millions of teenagers, Parklife and Definitely Maybe were little more than a year away.