So we all know the number 1 singles, Gezza's done a great review of the number 2 singles from this timeframe, as can be found here...so why the number 3s? Looking at the list it's as interesting, nostalgic and varied as the other two positions are, ranging from absolute forgettable dross to some of my all-time favourite songs of the entire decade. In fact I'm quite amazed how many of my faves charted at #3, you'll know as I get to them!

 

As with Gezza I'll post when I can and please feel free to contribute your thoughts too. Musical tastes can vary a lot depending on your age at the time, so let me say first that I was eleven years old when 2000 dawned and sixteen as 2004 ended, meaning certain songs that those older/younger than me might adore/hate I may have a different opinion of ;)

 

Where was I at the millennium? Standing right by the new London Eye in the crammed Jubilee Gardens at Waterloo, watching the capital's fireworks ring in the new century. The first chart of 2000 had a non-mover for John Lennon's 'Imagine' at the #3 spot, but soon enough we were about to start the decade proper...

29th January 2000: BECAUSE OF YOU - Scanty Sandwich

 

Fans of dance music at the beginning of 2000 possibly had one of the greatest Januarys ever, as the charts were absolutely rammed with new releases - possibly all wanting to associate themselves as the "new sound" of the new year, decade, millennium etc. Many were trance-influenced after how huge that sound had been through 1999, plus we had the beginnings of the 2-step garage revolution helped with the Artful Dodger's 'Rewind' continuing to sell well.

 

This is neither of those, and comes from the brain of London DJ Richard Marshall, nicknamed 'Richard Scanty'. Using a sample of a youthful Michael Jackson (indeed the original white label was called 'Jacko on Acid') it cashed in on the big beat craze that Fatboy Slim had been doing so well with during the last couple of years. A simple case of taking a few seconds and looping it almost to death for three minutes, it's catchy enough to work without becoming irritating and became a somewhat odd if fun first #3 of the 21st century. Almost forgotten now but good to hear again!

 

Billy, I love you! I think I'm going to enjoy every song in here. :w00t:

 

When are you going to continue doing your Now reviews? :kink:

5th February: THE GREAT BEYOND - REM

 

Can you believe that REM had never got this high in the charts before, and indeed never would again? For years it seemed, of all things, 'Shiny Happy People' was forever going to remain their biggest hit, peaking at #6 above more well-known (and renowned) tracks like Losing My Religion, Man on the Moon, Sidewinder Sleeps Tonight, What's the Frequency Kenneth, even Everybody Hurts. When they finally did outchart it, it was with 'E-Bow the Letter' in 1996, which although did well here was a comparative flop in their native America peaking at #49.

 

Here in 2000 they finally broke the top 3 barrier with what's basically REM by numbers, lyrics like "I'm pushing an elephant up the stairs" adding to the pile. Made for the movie 'Man on the Moon' (named after the REM song), the CD release included two live versions of older classics which would have helped the chart position further. It's a pleasant listen if not offering anything particularly new to the dozens of songs they'd already released up to now.

 

12th February: SWEET LOVE 2K - Fierce

 

Ah, the days when putting '2K' or '2000' at the end of everything was cool! This is the first #3 I definitely remember well from when it came out, a cover of the 80s Anita Baker song. Fierce were a short lived girl group from the UK, who had a few hits through 1999 but only went top 10 with this one, using a very of-its-time Britney-esque backing. And that's it really, I thought it was ok at the time but then I didn't know of the original, which is infinitely better. Maybe we'll see Fierce on a future series of The Big Reunion if they really run out of acts :P

 

19th February: MOVE YOUR BODY - Eiffel 65

 

They actually had another hit!! 'Blue (Da Ba Dee)' had absolutely owned the autumn of 1999 and passed the million mark soon in the new year, but incredibly they would avoid one-hit wonder status when enough people wanted to hear more for this to go top 3.

 

And indeed why change a winning formula, as this is just 'Blue' again in all but name to the point of being a little pointless. A repeated chorus of 'Move your body, come on everybody' replaces the da-ba-dee of the first hit, and you really have kinda heard the whole thing after the first minute or so. Note also, as with Blue, the autotune sound before it took over the world about a decade later!

 

Billy, I love you! I think I'm going to enjoy every song in here. :w00t:

 

When are you going to continue doing your Now reviews? :kink:

 

I have a half-written one for Now 34 which I hope to finish sometime, then perhaps Now 39 :)

 

More #3s from 2000 coming later!

I bloody love "The Great Beyond", it's one of their most underrated for me. Oddly given that it's their highest peaker.

 

They must be the only band to have one of their songs give its name to a film about the person who was the subject of the song, and to be then asked to record a new song for the soundtrack.

26th February: WHAT A GIRL WANTS - Christina Aguilera

 

Finishing off an entire month of one-week #3ers that February, I'm not ashamed to say it - I loved Christina. I dunno why but almost every song she released in her imperial phase I enjoyed, save for 'Dirrty' which I always thought was trying a bit too hard. This is the first of two Christina tracks to hit #3 during the first half of the noughties, and her second ever hit in this country following on from 1999's #1 'Genie In A Bottle' which I'd loved so much I invented a whole dance routine for it at the time :unsure: (hey, I was eleven)

 

For some reason my memories of this track kept getting intertangled with Gabrielle's brilliant 'Rise' from around the same time, Christina's "What a girl wants, what a girl needs" turning into Gabrielle's "Look at my hopes, look at my dreams" and becoming a weird mashup of the two. Showing a couple of signs of brilliance but not *quite* getting there, this isn't one of her greatest or most memorable (follow-up 'Come On Over' possibly more so but it only peaked at #8) and probably needed a more uptempo remix, but gets a couple of points on nostalgia factor alone. Not an anthem but an ok three minutes.

 

(actual song starts at 0:33 in for those with short attention spans)

 

4th March: SHOW ME THE MEANING OF BEING LONELY - Backstreet Boys

 

Even back in 2000 for these guys to have lasted as long as they did (their first hit here was back in 1996) was kinda incredible given your average boyband lifespan. Another act it wasn't entirely cool to like, they were another group I secretly enjoyed. 1997's 'Everybody (Backstreet's Back)', today a club floorfiller (they played it a few months ago at a place in Clapham and the dancefloor went nuts!) is an absolute 90s classic, and then came As Long As You Love Me, I Want It That Way, even the slightly less-known Larger Than Life I all liked.

 

This was the last top 3 hit they had although remained regulars in the top 10 until, amazingly, 2005. The title didn't ring a bell but watching the youtube video it's what I expected, a downtempo - and kinda depressing - ballad, dedicated to songwriter Denniz Pop who'd written a huge amount of 90s tracks before his death from stomach cancer age 35. I think this is one you're only going to like based on your musical tastes, if you can't stand any of this late 90s-early 00s manufactured pop then this is probably the audio equivalent of projectile vomit...but I really am a sucker for that Max Martin-produced sound, and I'm kinda enjoying it. Like Christina they've made better but this isn't completely terrible.

 

11th March: BYE BYE BYE - N'Sync

 

Featuring a pre-solo Justin Timberlake, N'Sync spent years trying to break through and indeed had some minor hits here before they ever did in America, but by 1999 the time was right. Both 'I Want You Back' and especially 'Tearing Up My Heart' were perfect examples of the turn-of-the-millennium boyband sound, and here we have a song that, unbelievably, was intended for 5ive here in the UK. They turned it down, N'Sync got it instead and a worldwide smash ensued. Whoops.

 

Featuring its "puppet mistress" video so memorable that The Wanted are spoofing it thirteen years later, it's not my fave N'Sync track (that would be Tearin' Up My Heart) but it's still lovely nostalgic fun, surely proved one night when I was out clubbing last year, the DJ played this and everyone sang along with glee, 12 years after release :D And the piano break at about 2:47 is glorious. Apologies to anyone hoping I'd rip this sort of manufactured nonsense to shreds, but for the most part I genuinely do love it! You try ripping on the musical stars of your youth :P

 

1st April: SMOOTH - Santana feat. Rob Thomas

 

...and now HERE we go. We've had some ok-if-not-spectacular tracks so far here in early 2000, but here's one of the first to genuinely be one of my favourites of the entire noughties decade, let alone this year.

 

The backstory before this song's creation is almost unbelievable. Latin rock group Santana, who'd had a grand total of one top 20 hit here before (and that was back in 1977) collaborate with Rob Thomas of Matchbox Twenty who's previous highest hit had only reached #38, and, erm, kinda take over the world together. Released in America almost a whole year earlier in June 1999, it deserved to do well but for it to peak at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and stay there for TWELVE weeks, and thirty(!!) weeks in the top 10 was surely far and beyond what anyone was expecting. The UK had to wait until the following Spring for its full release, possibly as releasing such a summery track in the middle of winter wasn't seen as a good idea. And you thought Icona Pop were bad :P

 

Thankfully the tactic worked, not quite the success here as it had in the States but #3 is good going. It is, simply, glorious. From the moment that guitar riff starts about a second into the track you are in heatwave heaven. A glorious summer anthem that appeals from young to old (indeed look at the youtube comments and you'll find people amazed how recent the song is, and had spent years thinking it was from decades earlier). As I write this we're in the middle of a lovely run of 20-degree sunshine-filled days and this has been a firm iPod favourite all week. Make sure to listen to the full 4:55 album version which has about a minute of extra Santana awesomeness at the end. Listen and enjoy :D

 

More to hopefully follow tomorrow - lots more great tracks to come, particularly in 2000!

Bye Bye Bye is my favourite by far so far, it's one of the strongest boyband songs ever in my opinion.

Bye Bye Bye and Smooth are both amazing

8th April: SAY MY NAME - Destiny's Child

 

Bit of a hit & miss group for me, here we see the DCs as they slowly mutate from fairly popular to the top 3 stalwarts they'll be by the end of 2000, every release from 'Independent Women' later this year to 'Lose My Breath' in 2004 hitting one of those spots. This was their first, and sees them at a bit of a messy time for the group with four of them in the video but all six then-members actually singing the song, which came as somewhat of a surprise for the two not in the video who only then learned that they'd been dropped from the group. Eventually the four would become three and the famous Beyonce/Rowland/Williams lineup would rule R&B stardom.

 

It's not my favourite type of musical genre and for a song to work for me it needs to be catchy enough to stand out, and while it comes close with the famous "Say my name, say my name" hook and speed-up in the chorus, it's not quite enough to really stick out for me. Huge hit both sides of the atlantic though, and I loved 'Bills Bills Bills' from the previous year, its similarity to my name completely coincidental :P

 

15th April: A SONG FOR THE LOVERS - Richard Ashcroft

 

...and now for something completely different! Pure pop takes a brief break from the #3 spot as a Britpop king returns for some solo fun. Ashcroft, of course, was huge with his old band The Verve who by now had split for a second time, this was his first go as a soloist and was duly rewarded a #3 spot for it. As much as I've been loving the pop this is a very refreshing sound to hear, and does a wonderful job of being pretty upbeat yet also melancholic at the same time. Wonderfully hypnotic and very much in the downtempo 'post-Britpop' phase we'd been in since about 1997-8, before indie arrived and brought a bit more of a party sound to things again. Notable also for its bizarre video that hardly features the song at all and instead has Ashcroft mumbling/singing over the top of it...

 

22nd April: THONG SONG - Sisqo

 

I must have been watching SM:TV Live that week as my first memories of hearing this song was on that show. And wasn't quite sure what he was singing..."Let me see that bomb" was my guess until a bit later on when I eventually realised what he was talking about, not entirely familiar what a thong was at the age of 11 (ah, the innocent days).

 

What could have been a fairly terrible novelty track is saved by being really genuinely catchy, and the reference of the then recent 'Livin' Da Vida Loca' in the lyrics slightly blew my mind at the time - wasn't used to hit songs referencing other hit songs! And there's a slightly brilliant moment at around 2:40 where the strings get higher and higher, culminating in Sisqo totally losing it and screaming "YEAAHHHHHH!" at the top of his lungs which is all kinds of awesome. A guilty pleasure but definitely well above average for the year, particularly for this kind of genre. Sisqo managed a few more top 10s into 2001 before appearing on Celebrity Big Brother a few years back. Wonder if that's what he meant by the "finer things in life"...

 

13th May: HEART OF ASIA - Watergate

 

Poppy trance simply could do no wrong at this time. 'Watergate' was, in fact, DJ Quicksilver, whose simple but catchy style gave us a brilliant track with 'Bellissima' in early 1997. This takes the song 'Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence' and gives it a rework, the result is one of my fave songs of the year at a time when dance was king.

 

Somewhat annoyingly when I bought the single, my favourite bit of the song - the breakdown heard in this video at 0:51 - is missing from the slightly shorter radio edit, even so I've adored this from the moment I heard it and it's never left my head. Today it sounds somewhat dated and if released now would have a pounding dance beat over the top drowning out most of the song, but here it's the melody that's allowed to rule the roost and is all the more better for it. Sadly not remembered or played anywhere near as much as it should be but I still love it!

 

20th May: SEX BOMB - Tom Jones & Mousse T

 

Some songs will always remind you of a certain point in your life, simply by being around at the time. This along with several others always brings back my final year of primary school which finished this summer - other tunes of Year 6 include S Club's 'Reach', Shania Twain's 'Man, I Feel Like A Woman' and both of Daphne & Celeste's first two singles, all hugely popular in the playground when we weren't having Pokémon battles. Intertwined with the music of early to mid 2000 are memories of frantic studying for SATS exams, countless games on the Nintendo 64 and a new fangled thing called The Internet we'd just got, and the half-excitement, half-fear of what this new world called secondary school would bring come September.

 

No matter the age this was never off TV and the radio through 2000, continuing the remarkable career resurgence of Tom Jones who even then had spent decades on and off the charts. Fairly easy to see why as it's somewhat of a perfect pop single, every second as catchy as the last and including a bit of spice by including the - gasp - word "sex" at every opportunity. Plus the simple novelty of Mr Jones on a song like this was enough to make it a huge seller and a soundtrack of cheesy wedding parties until the end of time, indeed I'm surprised it wasn't even bigger. Back then it was overplayed to the point where I'd be surprised if anyone by the end of the year ever wanted to hear it again, but time's been kind to it, Mousse T providing a satisfyingly strong enough beat to make it sound a bit less dated than Watergate above. The disco-sounding backing is very of its time but I could still easily see this being a hit here in 2013. And then of course came the Howard Brown Halifax version which I remember as well as the original! "Extra, extra, I know you want more..."

 

Some of the youtube videos for this are the original album version before Mousse T remixed it for single release, the below is the proper Mousse T mix as heard on the CD single, radio, Now 46 etc.