Official Charts

Cast your mind back 19 years to the sound of summer, that hit that was never off the radio. Having trouble remembering? Shall we refresh your Mmmemory?

Back in 1997, three wholesome looking brothers caused a global sensation with their debut single MmmBop, which smashed straight to the top of the Official Singles Chart this week in 1997.

Thanks to a particularly good start to the summer – don’t let anybody tell you Brits’ music purchases aren’t influenced by the weather – the super-catchy, sunny vibe of the song helped it stay at Number 1 for three sizzling weeks.

MmmBop is the one everyone remembers, but Hanson did go on to have more hits – eight Top 40s in all, including a couple of quick comebacks in 2000 and 2005. Their debut album Middle Of Nowhere also topped the chart for a week. We last saw them in 2007, when they just missed the Top 40 with Go.

MmmBop has a chart sales tally of 758,000, and was the 11th biggest selling single of 1997. There’s still a bit of love out there for MmmBop – over 600 of you have downloaded it so far this year.

Here’s that week’s frankly fantastic Top 10. Click on the image to see the full Top 100.

Elsewhere in the Top 10, it was 😢 for Eternal, deposed from the top spot after just a week with their one and only Number 1 I Wanna Be The Only One (feat. Bebe Winans). Radiohead’s Paranoid Android scored the Oxford band a new personal best at Number 3 – it’s their highest-charting single to date.

Further down the chart, Gina G returned with Ti Amo and Marilyn Manson was new at 18 with Beautiful People, which would one day become the theme tune to WWE SmackDown.

Let’s relive the mmmagic of MmmBop, and prommmise never to do that lammme joke with mmm ever again.

Huffington Post

The lead-in to the track “Beautiful Thing” was built for a rom com soundtrack — it’s fresh, provoking, catchy. However, then the band takes a step back into its signature sound, rather than forward to this unknown area. The ahhhs and oooohsof “Beautiful Thing” evoke the feeling that listeners got with the Hanson late release “Give A Little” — it’s definitely the defining upbeat, feel good sound of the original band. Can some faraway music producer re-release the soundtrack to “Can’t Hardly Wait”? “Beautiful Thing” would pair well with the closing credits.

DNA Info.

AVONDALE — Hearts were going “boom boom” all over Avondale — but they’re about to break, instead.

Thousands of Chicagoans expressed interest in a Facebook event for a supposedly live performance by Proto Zoa, the heartthrob superstar in “Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century.”

The “space-stay” crooner was listed as performing at Kuma’s Corner, 2900 W. Belmont Ave., at noon July 15. Fans, predictably, went super nova.

“I never knew that I needed this until now,” wrote one Facebook user. Another declared, “DON’T Y’ALL DARE PLAY WITH MY TWEENAGE HEART!!!!!!!!”

For those not in the ’90s know, “Zenon” is perhaps the greatest thing to come out of Disney Channel Original Movies.

The 1999 flick stars Kirsten Storms as Zenon Kar, a 13-year-old girl living the neon-clad life in a 2049 space station.

The crafty teen has an undying love for the band Microbe and its frontman Proto Zoa, but things get complicated when she gets herself grounded … like, on Earth.

The next generation won’t know how great Proto Zoa was #Zenonpic.twitter.com/VIOXRrpOuT

— Madyson (@madysonk13) May 28, 2016

Of course, since it’s Disney, everything turns out fine — so fine, in fact, that Proto Zoa returns to chum it up with Zenon in “Zenon: The Zequel.”

But he will forever be remembered for Microbe’s smash hit, “Zoom Zoom Zoom.”

So, safe to say Proto Zoa in Avondale would be an even bigger hit than dining at Saved By The Max.

But a quick call to Kuma’s Corner killed our megastellar pipe dream. An employee at the burger pub said the fake event was set up by someone else and “not really happening.”

Zetus lapetus!

Your Chicago Events, the organization that created the Facebook events, isn’t real. Jacob Teel, a 26-year-old Lakeview resident, said he created the pages as a joke.

The fake “LIVE” shows are part of a running gag on Facebook, starting with Rammstein live at Olive Garden.

“There was also some help from random trolls,” Teel said. “Especially some guy that was saying he was the bassist from Proto Zoa.”

Teel created two other events: Hanson at Cheesie’s Pub and Grub in Lakeview and a show by Baha Men at Montrose Beach over Memorial Day weekend.

Also not so — unless we all missed that live performance of “Who Let the Dogs Out?” on Saturday.

Cheesie’s owner Chris Johnston confirmed the Hanson show was a no-go. Cheesie’s also flagged the “misleading” event, asking Facebook to remove it.

Perhaps it was ’90s nostalgia that prompted someone to create fake shows in Chicago for Hanson and fictional “Zenon” pop star Proto Zoa.View Full Caption

Getty Images/Facebook

AVONDALE — Hearts were going “boom boom” all over Avondale — but they’re about to break, instead.

Thousands of Chicagoans expressed interest in a Facebook event for a supposedly live performance by Proto Zoa, the heartthrob superstar in “Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century.”

The “space-stay” crooner was listed as performing at Kuma’s Corner, 2900 W. Belmont Ave., at noon July 15. Fans, predictably, went super nova.

“I never knew that I needed this until now,” wrote one Facebook user. Another declared, “DON’T Y’ALL DARE PLAY WITH MY TWEENAGE HEART!!!!!!!!”

For those not in the ’90s know, “Zenon” is perhaps the greatest thing to come out of Disney Channel Original Movies.

The 1999 flick stars Kirsten Storms as Zenon Kar, a 13-year-old girl living the neon-clad life in a 2049 space station.

The crafty teen has an undying love for the band Microbe and its frontman Proto Zoa, but things get complicated when she gets herself grounded … like, on Earth.

The next generation won’t know how great Proto Zoa was #Zenonpic.twitter.com/VIOXRrpOuT

— Madyson (@madysonk13) May 28, 2016

Of course, since it’s Disney, everything turns out fine — so fine, in fact, that Proto Zoa returns to chum it up with Zenon in “Zenon: The Zequel.”

But he will forever be remembered for Microbe’s smash hit, “Zoom Zoom Zoom.”

So, safe to say Proto Zoa in Avondale would be an even bigger hit than dining at Saved By The Max.

But a quick call to Kuma’s Corner killed our megastellar pipe dream. An employee at the burger pub said the fake event was set up by someone else and “not really happening.”

Zetus lapetus!

Your Chicago Events, the organization that created the Facebook events, isn’t real. Jacob Teel, a 26-year-old Lakeview resident, said he created the pages as a joke.

The fake “LIVE” shows are part of a running gag on Facebook, starting with Rammstein live at Olive Garden.

“There was also some help from random trolls,” Teel said. “Especially some guy that was saying he was the bassist from Proto Zoa.”

Teel created two other events: Hanson at Cheesie’s Pub and Grub in Lakeview and a show by Baha Men at Montrose Beach over Memorial Day weekend.

Also not so — unless we all missed that live performance of “Who Let the Dogs Out?” on Saturday.

Cheesie’s owner Chris Johnston confirmed the Hanson show was a no-go. Cheesie’s also flagged the “misleading” event, asking Facebook to remove it.

Ariel Cheung · DNAinfo Reporter

Have you ever been fooled by a social media hoax?

VOICE YOUR OPINION ON NHSQ! 

But the cold, hard truth didn’t stop us from our full-blown ’90s nostalgia. We took a little time to catch up on what Hanson and Proto Zoa have been up to since their heydays. Turns out, they’re slaying the 2010s just like they slayed our hearts back in the day.

Phillip Rhys, who played Proto Zoa, has built up quite the resume since his Disney Channel days. After spots on “24,” “Nip/Tuck” and “Glee,” Rhys took some time to direct Sandra Oh and Darren Pettie in “The Scarecrow.”

The 43-year-old British actor also guest starred in the “Doctor Who” Christmas special last year — an honor shared in years past with Michael Gambon (Dumbledore in the “Harry Potter movies) and Kylie Minogue.

While Rhys has ditched the white, spiky hair of his interstellar alter ego, the 17 years since he zoom zoom zoomed into our hearts have treated him very kindly.

Here he is with Oh and Pettie in March:

And a few other photos, you know, for good measure:

^{Phillip Rhys [Getty Images]}

As for the tousled-hair boy band, the trio continue to release albums and tour to this day. Their latest album, “Anthem,” was released in 2013 and became their eighth to chart on the U.S. Top 40.

Isaac, Taylor and Zac also keep things light with fans. The same year “Anthem” came out, the brothers launched Mmmhops beer with Mustang Brewing.

They’ve served as judges on “Cupcake Wars” and covered “Wait and Bleed” by heavy metal band Slipknot, pledging to release an entire album of covers as an April Fools’ Day joke in 2010.

^{(L-R) Zac Hanson, Taylor Hanson and Isaac Hanson of Hanson attend the iHeartRadio Music Festival on September 21, 2013, in Las Vegas, Nevada. [Getty Images]}

So, long story short: It looks like Rhys and Hanson are too busy, anyway, to swing by Chicago this summer.

For now it seems, Proto Zoa will only be performing live in our hearts.

Okay Protozoa I see you: @PhillipRhys pic.twitter.com/NxJgUV5Ev6

— Sasha (@sashamhoward) May 28, 2016

Xo Jane

As a person of—ahem—a certain age, 90’s pop music will always hold a special place in my heart. It’s the music I first partied to in public, the music I first got drunk to, the music I sang along to in my most joyful moments, and a certain amount of Alanis Morissette’s early canon even joined my most beloved standards and showtunes as Music For Melancholy Moods.

Fast-forward to today, and everything about the way we consume music has changed, but the content is still there. To that end, I have 90’s playlists on all of my devices, and tagged as favorites on the streaming service I use. So there I was one day, bopping along to the indisputable classic “Shoop” by Salt N’ Pepa, rapping every word with the track except for the one viciouslyableist one that was still gross but not really balked at back in the day.

The next song was “MMMBop” by Hanson, the pop prettyboy brothers who captivated everyone I knew at the time except me. I never got into their music, their image, none of it. It just wasn’t my cup of tea, and I ordinarily skip this song when it comes up on a playlist, but I was walking swiftly and my phone had shifted to a relatively buried position in my bag, and I thought, “Oh well, it’s not the biggest deal in the world, I’ll just let it play.”

Not only did I let it play, but I actually listened to it, probably seriously for the first time ever, and holy shit! “MMMBop” is actually one of the most existentially bleak songs ever written.

I had never noticed because I wasn’t really paying attention, and it seems like the record-buying masses of 1997, who made Hanson’s most successful track an international hit that reached #1 in 27 countries, were too jazzed by the aggressively upbeat tune and rhythm to notice that this is some heavy stuff.

Some Wednesday Addams, Lydia Maitland kinda stuff.

I first started taking note upon hearing the lyric in the hook, “In an MMMBop you’re gone,” and I thought to myself, Wait, hang on, an MMMBop is a unit of time measurement? Even having personally dismissed the song so significantly, I couldn’t help but to have heard it several trillion times, ubiquitous as it was for so long. I thought I was at least familiar with it overall, and that the title was part of the quasi-gibberish/scatting that filled so much of it.

The revelation that “an MMMBop” is a thing was just the beginning of my edification.

What in the name of emo self-doubt is all this? Right out of the gate, after the aforementioned sorta-scatting, (sorry Hanson and Hanson fans, they technically are scatting but I’m too much of an Ella Fitzgerald fan to really give them that), we’re told, “You have so many relationships in this life / Only one or two will last.”

Let’s pause and remember that Isaac, Taylor, and Zac Hanson were only 14, 12, and 10 years old at the time.

Having established from jump that the majority of our relationships are doomed, the adorable trio grimly acknowledges: “You go through all the pain and strife/Then you turn your back and they’re gone so fast.”

I’m not doing that thing where adults question the sincerity of the “deep thoughts” of very young people just because they are very young. Rather, some filament of memory in my brain lit up with the knowledge that the Young Brothers Hanson had written it themselves, a fact that was undoubtedly spouted by some talking head back when MTV played videos and lodged itself in my subconscious to be put to use 20 years later. So my thought wasn’t that these children were parroting some approximation of “deep thoughts,” or that they were puppets for an adult songwriter, but omg this is so dark how did I never know this was so dark?

I can’t stand perky music that’s perky for perkiness’ sake. I don’t mind happy music and I appreciate joyful music, but peppy, perky, and other words that begin with P and end with Y generally make me nauseous. I do however, allow for perkiness as a melodic counterpoint to dark lyrical content, and greatly appreciate such juxtapositions, so how on Earth did I not know all this time that MMMBop was more than just mmms and bops?

After warning us that life is about bullshit relationships and loss, the telegenic trio wisely advises: “So hold on the ones who really care.” Which seems fair enough. But they immediately double down on their Debbie Downer-ness by explaining that the reason to hold on is because “In the end they’ll be the only ones there.” Excuuuuuuuse me, cutie pies?

We haven’t even reached the hook yet when the boys are pleading, “And when you get old and start losing your hair / Tell me who will still care / Can you tell me who will still care?”

Mind fully blown, I hit up my good girlfriend Google to see if I was having some sort of personal crisis that made me read waaaaay into these lyrics or if others had documented this.

It all made sense when I learned that MMMBop was originally conceived and recorded by the boys as a ballad, and the version that ruled the world for a summer or so was (re)produced by the prolific producing team The Dust Brothers, whose work with artists like Beck and the Beastie Boys is anything but ballad-heavy.

They surely did their Dusty thing on MMMBop, transforming the boys’ existential lament into an uptempo boogie that, for me, unforgivably obscured the lyrical content. To be clear, the original version is still a mid-tempo jam and not some slow, string-filled funeral dirge in a musical sense, but it’s slower enough and sung more thoughtfully enough to make so much more sense to me than the manic track that topped the charts.

Though some of their follow-up songs indeed showcased solid vocals and great harmonization, MMMBop felt so thoroughly bubblegum to me that I was always confused when I heard Hanson describe their sound as R&B, as inthis recent interview where they described their music as “Jackson 5–esque soulful songs.”

That’s a bit of a reach, until you factor in that original MMMBop, which is… exactly that. Where was  this song in 1996? Had it not been buried, I might be Hanson’s #1 fan today!

Lyrically, after that first chorus, MMMBop goes on to cast a negative pall on the unpredictability of life, which could be viewed as a beautiful sea of unbridled possibilities, or, through Hanson’s eyes, as an answerless void where you keep planting seeds without knowing what may or may not ever grow from them. The song’s final minute or so is spent in a downward spiral of repetition, with the boys answering their own desperate plea “Can you tell me who will still care?” with a terrifying “Can you tell me? / Oh / No you can’t ’cause you don’t know.”

“Can you tell me? You say you can but you don’t know.”

THAT song would have fit in just fine with my Morrisette-heavy playlists, and it’s no wonder to me that CDs of the original MMMBop, which the boys had recorded themselves and sold only at their own perfromances and at regional outlets in Oklahoma until they landed a record deal, sell for hundreds of dollars on eBay.

Perhaps you already knew that the lyrics to MMMBop are an emotional journey to the heart of existential darkness, but this was news to me, and the chart-topping version will never be the same again.