A slight change in direction then, after Will Smith’s intergalactic, family friendly, summer blockbusting number one…
The Drugs Don’t Work, by The Verve (their 1st and only #1)
1 week, from 7th – 14th September 1997
This is surely one of the saddest chart-toppers in history. Not many hits have made the toppermost of the poppermost with lines such as: Like a cat in a bag, Waiting to drown… This time I’m comin’ down…
I suppose we have to class this as Britpop; but it also feels bigger, more timeless than that. And if it is Britpop (bearing in mind that the Verve formed as a shoegaze band, way back in 1990) then it is another song marking the comedown, more ‘Beetlebum’ than ‘D’You Know What I Mean?’ It’s interesting, actually, that the closing years of the decade will see (slightly) more rock chart-toppers than 1995-6, the peak years of Britpop.
As with Blur’s second #1, this one’s about drugs, and the bands’ struggles with them. I mean, it’s right there in the title. But added to that is the perhaps apocryphal story that it’s about watching a close family member die of cancer. The drugs don’t work, They just make you worse, But I know I’ll see your face again… Richard Ashcroft has never confirmed this, but has mentioned in interviews that this is now the song’s widely-accepted meaning. And he seems genuinely moved by this, the fact that he’s written a song that accompanies people through some of their darkest moments.
Despite all this, and despite me just calling it “one of the saddest chart-toppers in history”, it’s not a miserable song. The reverb, and the strings, give it a light quality, and I love the bluesy rasp to Ashcroft’s voice. The highlight is the middle-eight, the gorgeously soaring Cause baby oooh, If heaven calls… ‘The Drugs Don’t Work’ was the second release from their widely acclaimed ‘Urban Hymns’ album, and the strings in particular tie it back to the previous single, ‘Bitter Sweet Symphony’. That record is probably the Verve’s best remembered – especially as it was their only hit in the US – but it’s not a song I’ve ever loved. For me, this record, their sole number one, is their towering achievement.
So, I wouldn’t like to overly suggest that the success of ‘Bitter Sweet Symphony’, which had made #2 a couple of months earlier, was the reason for this making #1. This record deserves better than ‘shadow #1’ status. Perhaps more of a factor in this being such a big hit is the fact that it was released the day after the death of Princess Diana. Lots of sources have retrospectively claimed that her death, and the public’s need for something both maudlin and uplifting, meant it went straight to number one. Maybe that’s true, but again I’d give a song of this quality a bit more benefit of the doubt. ‘Urban Hymns’ went on to become one of the decade’s biggest albums, but its success caused the band to fracture. Ashcroft embarked on a successful solo career, and the next Verve album didn’t appear until 2008.
Anyway, if the public were desperate to mark Diana’s death by purchasing a CD single, they didn’t have to wait long for an even more appropriate song to come along…
The UK Number Ones Blog 
I’ve never heard this before but it deserved number one… you know the only song I know by them… this one is great as well…in a different way but great.
I thought you’d like this. I’d hope it would have been number one even without Bittersweet Symphony, or Diana’s death, but I guess we’ll never know.
Yea…it should have made it regardless…I really think it would have.
I’ll be brutally honest: I listened to Urban Hymns a few months ago (three times) and overall I wasn’t that impressed. I think the production was what made me cooler on the album. I wanted to like the album more than I did, especially since I do enjoy most Britpop. However, the three big singles off the album are tremendous. This song, “Bittersweet Symphony” and especially “Lucky Man”
I felt the same way about Suede’s first two albums and Pulp’s Different Class. Love the singles. Don’t really love the album as a whole. Supergrass however all their albums are great. I Should Coco should be recognised more as one of the great debut albums of all time.
Back to the song, it’s a great song. Very melancholic, beautifully orchestrated, very 90s yet also very 60s.
I’m not sure I’ve heard Urban Hymns in its entirety, at least not since the 1990s. It’s a little more polished, a little more orchestral than most Britpop tended to be. I agree with Suede’s first two albums – though their 3rd, ‘Coming Up’, is one of the 90s greatest – while I disagree with you on ‘Different Class’. For me that’s the best Britpop album full-stop, with no bad tracks. And Supergrass were/are just one of the great singles bands, well into the 2000s.
A great single but for me it was a little too sad, and I preferred the 2 singles either side of it, especially Bittersweet Symphony which is a classic of the decade, from the aggro video to the stolen Rolling Stones Orchestral strings, I loved it to bits, and still do. Richard had great solo stuff too, and 4 number ones in total in my charts – and he’s still pretty decent.