Although this year's chart lacked the blandness of the previous year, it could hardly be said to be teeming with surprises. There were eighteen new acts, exactly the same as last year, and only twenty-eight different acts featured overall, slightly down on last year...Still, (Peel) did broadcast the chart, suggesting that despite his misgivings, he's as fond of it as we are. His disappointment at the chart's conservatism, moreover, is a sign of this fondness: even he must start off with some mildly idealistic expectation of what the chart ought to look like and , as it hardly ever bears much resemblance to this, he's a bit like an artist who hands the job over to somebody else, then find(s) the finished product turns out nothing like he'd wished. (Whitby, M., The Festive Fifty, Nevin Publishing, 2005, p. 36.)
Top act was the Wedding Present, who virtually guaranteed a high showing by releasing a single every month of the year, with seven entries. Significantly, Datblygu had the first Welsh-language entry (although during the show on 15 January 1993 Peel reads a letter from a listener saying that they had organised 5 people to send in 40 postcards voting for this as a protest to see some Welsh language music included, to which Peel expresses disgust and disappointment at both the vote rigging and the letter writer's spelling), and seven of the tracks in the chart had never previously been played on the programme (including all the entries by Sugar, whose LP Copper Blue failed to excite John's interest to the degree that it did his listeners). Mark Whitby also notes in passing that the failure of the Fall's 'Kimble' to place higher than 34 despite John's ceaseless promotion of it was evidence of "the most obvious display of voter independence since the Stone Roses rebellion of 1989".
There are two long-standing anomalies to note. The track at number 43 is by Big Stick from the CD titled 'Drag Racing Underground', not vice versa: and the number 25 entry is by VR (aka Guru Josh) remixed by Dr. Devious.
Had John played the 40-minute version of number 20, it would have been the longest track ever to appear on the chart: as it is, he restricts himself to the A-side of the 12-inch.
