Chris & Max Pick …songs from 1998

Happy Friday and welcome to another installment of this series featuring six songs from a specific year. In case you’re new to it, Chris & Max Pick… is the continuation of a recurring feature fellow blogger Max from PowerPop initiated in June 2023, which included the years 1955 through 1995. I’m aiming to cover each of the remaining years until 2024. Max generously agreed to support the effort by supplying one song for each post. Following are our combined picks for 1998.

Dixie Chicks/Wide Open Spaces

Kicking things off are Texas pop-flavored country and bluegrass trio Dixie Chicks, who since June 2020 have been known as The Chicks. They were formed in Dallas in 1989 and since 1995 have included co-founders Emily Strayer (harmony and backing vocals, banjo, dobro, guitar) and Martie Maguire (harmony and backing vocals, fiddle, mandolin), as well as Natalie Maines (lead vocals, guitar, Omnichord). Wide Open Spaces, penned by singer-songwriter Susan Gibson, is the title track of their fourth studio album, which appeared in January 1998. It marked their major label debut, commercial breakthrough and the first release with Maines.

Bonnie Raitt/Lover’s Will

Bonnie Raitt is one of my longtime favorite music artists and slide guitarists who incorporates blues, rock, folk and country. In April 1998, she released her 13th studio album Fundamental. To me, the standout track is Lover’s Will, written by the great John Hiatt. He had first recorded the song for his 1983 album Riding with the King. Hiatt also penned what became Raitt’s biggest U.S. hit on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock chart in 1989: Thing Called Love, which reached no. 11. Hiatt had previously included it on his May 1987 studio album Bring the Family.

Lenny Kravitz/Fly Away

Lenny Kravitz first entered my radar screen in the early ’90s with his great April 1991 sophomore album Mama Said. I’ve since listened to the American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist on and off. Fly Away, written by Kravitz, is a track from his fifth full-length album 5, released in May 1998. The catchy rocker also became the fourth single and one of Kravitz’s bigger hits, especially in the UK where it topped the charts, his only no. 1 there to date.

Lucinda Williams/Right In Time

This brings me to another artist who I’ve come to love over the past few years, especially after having seen her open for Bonnie Raitt in Philly in June 2022: Lucinda Williams. The roots-oriented singer-songwriter’s 45-year-plus career almost got derailed in November 2020 when she suffered a stroke. Thanks to rehab she recovered and start touring and recording again, though she hasn’t been able to resume playing guitar. Right In Time, written by Williams, is from Car Wheels on a Gravel Road and also became the first single of her acclaimed fifth studio album from June 1998.

Barenaked Ladies/It’s All Been Done

This next pick takes us to Canada and Barenaked Ladies, who combine an eclectic mix of folk and pop rock with humorous lyrics. Founded in Toronto in 1988, they developed a following in their home country in the early ’90s before breaking through in the U.S. with their July 1998 fourth full-length album Stunt. It entered the Billboard 200 at no. 3 and became their bestseller. The album also reached no. 20 in each the UK and New Zealand. Off Stunt, here’s It’s All Been Done, penned by then-band member Steven Page – catchy and quirky!

Fatboy Slim/Right Here, Right Now

Since I mentioned Max in the intro, you may have wondered what happened to his pick. The wait is over: Right Here, Right Now by Fatboy Slim, a song I had not seen coming. Fatboy Slim is a stage name of English musician, DJ and record producer Norman Cook who helped popularize the so-called big beat genre in the ’90s. Big beat (yes, I had to look it up in Wikipedia!) is “an electronic music genre that usually uses heavy breakbeats and synthesizer-generated loops and patterns – common to acid house/techno.” Right Here, Right Now, off Fatboy Slim’s October 1998 sophomore album You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby, became one of his biggest hits. It was particularly successful in the UK where it surged to no. 2.

Sources: Wikipedia; YouTube; Spotify