26. WORDS- Boyzone (551,300)

 

http://991.com/newGallery/Boyzone-Words-231903.jpg

 

RELEASED: 1996

PEAK POSITION: 1

WKS ON CHART: 14

 

Four covers in a row, another brothers Gibb composition they wrote this for Cliff Richard in 1968 but as he was not recording an album at the time they recorded it themselves and made No 8 for their efforts. In a new brave post Take That world where the title of “kings of the boy bands” was up for grabs Boyzone went with this cover which staked their claim clearly delivering their first of 6 No 1’s. A massive 232k went over the counter in its first 6 days to thrash all opposition (selling more in its first day than any other record sold in the whole week).

 

2 decent Boyzone songs in a row. Whatever next!

25. NO SCRUBS- TLC (553,100)

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/ae/Tlc-noscubs2.jpg

 

RELEASED: 1999

PEAK POSITION: 3

WKS ON CHART: 19

 

Though it didn’t repeat its chart topping performance o this side of the pond this track spent 12 wks in the top 20 very impressive in the highly volatile charts of the late 90s. Even more unusually it took 6 wks to finally reach peak position, not that they complained, this allowed the track to rack up significant sales enough to register as the biggest girl group single on this rundown by a US act.

 

Scrubs was so over played but what a great song!

25. NO SCRUBS- TLC (553,100)

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/ae/Tlc-noscubs2.jpg

 

RELEASED: 1999

PEAK POSITION: 3

WKS ON CHART: 19

 

Though it didn’t repeat its chart topping performance o this side of the pond this track spent 12 wks in the top 20 very impressive in the highly volatile charts of the late 90s. Even more unusually it took 6 wks to finally reach peak position, not that they complained, this allowed the track to rack up significant sales enough to register as the biggest girl group single on this rundown by a US act.

I think a large reason for its unusual chart run was because they didn't release the video until early April, when it had already been on sale for two weeks in the UK. Possibly the only late 1990s/early 2000s example of something resembling a video affect? Not sure why, though TLC were one of the most notoriously high budget video acts of their era so I imagine it took much time planning, filming, editing, etc, as usual. It'd be interesting to see what their sales spread was - I think the week they jumped to #3 was more because of the market crashing and them remaining consistent in spite of that so I'm not sure if it'd be their highest weekly sale? :thinking:

 

Anyway, FANTASTIC song. Undoubtedly the song of 1999 for me (at least at the time!).

TLC 'No Scrubs' :wub:

 

Agree with superbossanova, this was my song of April 1999. The video is excellent and I guess the reason for its sudden boost in popularity must've stemmed from the music video release.

Love No Scrubs

TLC are untouchable to me. Shame they could never get a #1 single (Left Eye only has one because of Mel C) when "No Scrubs" was both an Irish and an Aussie #1.

TLC are untouchable to me. Shame they could never get a #1 single (Left Eye only has one because of Mel C) when "No Scrubs" was both an Irish and an Aussie #1.

That's always been the good thing about Ireland. Their charts are much less front-loaded than ours so loads of songs that were big enough to be #1 hits here but didn't get there because their sales were more spread out over a series of weeks, DID get to #1 in Ireland. It's kinda like a little consolation prize.

24. THE SOUND OF THE UNDERGROUND- Girls Aloud (557,000)

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/52/Soundoftheunderground1.jpg

 

RELEASED: 2002

PEAK POSITION: 1

WKS ON CHART: 21

 

The true extent of the girls victory over their “Popstars: The Rivals” opponents One True Voice can be seen here after the boys clocked in at No 85 with half the sales whilst Girls Aloud went on to become the best selling Girl Group of the decade. First recorded by long defunct girl group Orchid in 2001 it was given to Girls Aloud by the Xenomania team as their debut release selling 213k to take the Christmas crown in 2002, in between those two productions Samantha Mumba had planned to release a version of this in 2002 instead opting for “I’m Right Here” fortunately for the girls.

 

It helped to generate much publicity for the race for No 1 in the press and a hostile exchange of words between respective managers Waterman and Walsh, ultimately there was only one winner.

 

23. THE KETCHUP SONG (ASEREJE)- Las Ketchup (580,600)

 

http://chartarchive.org/artwork/19154-raw.jpg

 

RELEASED: 2002

PEAK POSITION: 1

WKS ON CHART: 26

 

Based vaguely on Sugarhill Gang’s 1979 hit “Rappers Delight” this song was EVERYWHERE in 2002 telling a tale of a lothario who walks into a club and his DJ friend who plays the song he wants to hear (apparently) it was available here at least in a “Spanglish” version. The girls are daughters of Spanish Flamenco guitarist Tomate hence their name, and sold 10k on imports before the version was actually released.

 

Come Christmas and with the song still in the top 10 a special Xmas version was released with sleigh bells which only succeeded in pushing sales even higher to push past TLC as the second biggest single by a non UK girl group in this chart.

 

22. SEASONS IN THE SUN/ I HAVE A DREAM- Westlife (622,900)

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/99/4Ihaveadream2.jpg

 

RELEASED: 1999

PEAK POSITION: 1

WKS ON CHART: 17

 

An ode to his family by a dying man doesn’t like a cheery Xmas pressie but that’s what a lot of people got in 1999 when Westlife saw out the decade and the century with this little ditty at the top of the charts. A song abandoned by the Beach boys in the studio it was picked up by Terry Jacks who was recording next door and saw his version sweep to No 1 here in 1974, here it’s teamed with Abba’s “I Have A Dream” itself a No 2 track as a decade ended (the 70s that is), and for Pete Waterman it meant he had co-produced the final chart topper of both the 80s and 90s.

 

23. THE KETCHUP SONG (ASEREJE)- Las Ketchup (580,600)

 

Based vaguely on Sugarhill Gang’s 1979 hit “Rappers Delight”

So it is! I never realised where the melody came from.

So it is! I never realised where the melody came from.

 

I was surprised by that the first time I found out about it too but it's now painfully obvious and I wonder how I never noticed it before... :lol:

LOL, I love that clip of Las Ketchup on TOTP with the entire audience doing the arm movements. How embarrassing... not that I'm gonna deny that I did do the "dance" once or twice back in '02 but at least I didn't get put on video for the whole world to see if they please. :drama:

 

I think DJ Otzi also did the Xmas version thing the year before that was allowed to count as an extra format per chart rules at the time. Both so pointless though, surely there was no one actually stupid enough to buy it again? Well, you never know with the British public I guess...

 

Anyway, LOVED that song. I've already said on here multiple times that 2002 was such a dull year for pop thanks to the reality TV explosion and tepid R&B-lite - The Ketchup Song was exactly the injection of fun the year needed at the time if you ask me. :D

Edited May 9, 201213 yr by superbossanova

I think DJ Otzi also did the Xmas version thing the year before that was allowed to count as an extra format per chart rules at the time. Both so pointless though, surely there was no one actually stupid enough to buy it again? Well, you never know with the British public I guess...

 

Well, it did re-enter the top 10 after the release of the 'unofficial World Cup remix'... :lol:

I remember making so many errors when trying to work out the lyrics to the Ketchup Song :lol: its still amusing though, annoyingly my dad still seems to sing it regularly :/

Well, it did re-enter the top 10 after the release of the 'unofficial World Cup remix'... :lol:

I forgot about that! Though at least that had adapted lyrics IIRC, the Christmas version was literally just the same song with a slightly more festive backing track. Ditto for the Las Ketchup one. Now that I mention it I think there was ALSO a Christmas remix of The Cheeky Song that was sometimes played on the music channels around the same time instead of the "original" version, but that was just an extra on one of the CD singles rather than being separate.

 

I remember making so many errors when trying to work out the lyrics to the Ketchup Song :lol: its still amusing though, annoyingly my dad still seems to sing it regularly :/

I always just ended up singing in gobbledegook after the first line of the chorus. :D

So it is! I never realised where the melody came from.

 

"Asereje ja" = "I say hip hop" > It's a bit of an inside joke of how Spanish people try to speak English.

'The Ketchup Song (Aserejé)' is a brilliant novelty track. Was actually very surprised it's massive European chart success spread to the UK. Mind you, I was also gobsmacked when DJ Otzi 'Hey Baby' made #1. The power of the "European hit" was still strong back then.