What was happening when Bruce Hornsby’s Spirit Trail was released? Here’s a look back at the state of the world in 1998.
Back in 1998, the average monthly rent in the USA was $619. A loaf of bread was $1.26 and a dozen eggs went for 88 cents. The average UK house price was £75,806, compared to $129,300 in the States. Average salary was $38,100, versus £17,414.80 in the UK.
Bill Clinton was president (impeachment proceedings had begun 5 days prior to Spirit Trail’s release), and Tony Blair was the UK’s Prime Minister.
The number one movie was Antz, and the most watched TV on broadcast cable was, in turn, ER, Friends and Frasier. In the UK, that was another medical drama, Casualty. The long-running series “Charmed” piloted in the US that month.
Number One songs in the week of Spirit Trail were “One Week” by Barenaked Ladies in the US, and “Rollercoaster” by B*Witched.
On the actual day of release, we also saw “Changes” by Tupac (amazingly, same day as Spirit Trail), “Thank U” by Alanis Morissette and The Bootleg Series Vol. 4: Bob Dylan Live 1966, The Royal Albert Hall Concert.
Still on October 13, New York Yankees were crowned American League Champions after beating the then Cleveland Indians 9-5, taking the series 4-2. David Wells was MVP., and they were on their way to winning the World Series.
Your boxing heavyweight champions were Evander Holyfield (WBA and IBF) and Lennox Lewis (WBC), and Floyd Mayweather had just won his first world title.
Not so much happening in the NBA – on Spirit Trail release day, they announced that the start of the season was cancelled, signalling the start of the third lockout in NBA history.
Denilson became the most expensive side player in world football with a £21.5m transfer to Real Betis. They were relegated the following year.
Best selling toys were the interactive Furby toy, talking Teletubbies and the Gameboy Color. The highest grossing video game was The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
And the most popular websites were AOL (news) by a huge margin, and then Yahoo (search engine), MSN (news), Lycos (search) and Excite (search).