Say My Name and Thong Song are both incredible songs! *.*

Say My Name :wub:

A Song For Lovers, Smooth and Because Of You are all fab!

 

Five more for you this evening, hoping to finish off 2000 by the end of tomorrow :)

 

3rd June: IT'S MY LIFE - Bon Jovi

 

So-called "fanbase" acts found the mid-noughties sales slump much more of a blessing than a curse. Although here in 2000 we're still in the age when millions were snapping up CD singles weekly and the initials "mp3" belonged to a silly thing a minority of teenagers did, by the time we come to the end of this five-year look back we'll be in the era when the CD single was dying and the download revolution not quite at a legal level yet. For many, this was bad. For some - like Bon Jovi, Depeche Mode and other vintage acts, it gave them many more high-charting singles than they'd perhaps usually have as their fanbase of a few thousand would snap up the physical releases and watch the song soar up the top 10.

 

So having said all of that, here perhaps is the last time the above didn't apply to Bon Jovi and their high placing was well-deserved and much more wide-reaching than any of their other hits released since. Sounding like a bizarre cross between their late 80s peak and a Max Martin produced Backstreet Boys track (seriously, compare the BSB's 'Larger Than Life' to this, it's scarily similar), it's pretty simple but has a great appeal and can be enjoyed by both pop-loving kids and their older fans. In a weird way it also spelt the beginnings of the nu-metal that would dominate the charts by 2001. Not bad for an act who'd already been around for 14 years :D

 

(I also love the ahead of its time video, with the guy watching a mocked-up "webcast" of a Bon Jovi gig!)

 

 

10th June: NEW BEGINNING/BRIGHT EYES - Stephen Gately

 

Do you remember where you were when Boyzone shockingly split up in 2000? No, me neither, because it never officially happened. The papers reported it at the end of '99 but the band, perhaps worried that a repeat of the absolute despair that overwhelmed teenage girls when Take That first called it a day in 1996, instead rubbished the "rumours" and simply said they were taking some time off for a while. So what would end up being their last show for eight years occurred in Dublin during January 2000, many presuming they'd be back in a year or so. Yeah, not quite.

 

Ronan had already done well with a solo single so now Gately had a go, releasing a double-A side just to be on the safe side. 'New Beginning' was the new track, an uplifting midtempo number with a grinning Gately basically saying how awesome everything is and how everything's going to be great etc, which could be seen as a double meaning for both going solo and coming out as gay the previous year. Unfortunately I'm not quite believing it, and given Gately was suffering from depression and addicted to prescription drugs at the time I doubt he was either. Could also be seen as a secret reassurance to the fans - look, we've split up, move on! Buy our solo songs instead! It's not terrible but one of the least memorable songs we've encountered so far. 'Bright Eyes' is a cover of the Art Garfunkel song that got used on a CITV remake of 'Watership Down', and is a typical cover version really, sang well but it won't ever beat the original, particularly as it's got an annoying late-90s R&B drumbeat over the top. Both are attached here to listen.

 

Gately, sadly, passed away in October 2009 at a far too young 33 years old. A huge shame, although these two songs don't entirely do him justice he was still quite the talent.

 

 

17th June: MAMA WHO DA MAN - Richard Blackwood

 

Oh my god.

 

Does anyone remember this?! When looking at the list I couldn't believe it, never thought he ever charted this high. A somewhat infamous TV personality and rapper who seemed to be everywhere in the early noughties despite seemingly annoying everyone. This is absolutely terrible but amusingly so rather than just pissing me off like certain hits over the last couple of years. Maybe because you can at least say that Blackwood - a comedian - is slightly revelling in the ridiculous himself so you're at least re-assured that at least he realises the song's equally as terrible as what we're all thinking. If that makes sense. Er.

 

Anyway, I've listened to it once and I have absolutely no desire to ever listen to it again, so there we go. :P Here it is if you dare...

 

24th June: SANDSTORM - Darude :wub:

 

From the ridiculous to the sublime. I don't know what I can say to even attempt to describe how absolutely bonerockingly mindblowingly AMAZING this song is.

 

Let's try...one of two #3s from 2000 which deserve to be up there in the greatest dance anthems OF ALL TIME (find out tomorrow what the 2nd is!) almost never has anything so successfully lit the spark in my soul like this. Almost never has any song taken everything I like about dance music and melded and mushed it together in a glorious lump of euphoric power.

 

To non-fans of this genre it's a bloke pushing the same few buttons of a synthesizer about 387,000 times with a repetitive drumbeat over the top, and a silly buildup in the middle to something that's basically the same as how the song began in the first place. I almost feel like, to those who consider this type of music alien, I'll never be able to truly explain just what makes this so beautiful to my ears. Sadly not played as much as it should be today but oh my word when it does I'm on that dancefloor in a nanosecond. Absolutely timeless. Absolutely brilliant :)

 

15th July: TAKE A LOOK AROUND (THEME FROM MI-2) - Limp Bizkit

 

First ever hit for the Fred Durst-fronted nu metal band, who along with many of their contemporaries would go on to own the 2001 rock landscape. Still clinging onto the manfactured boy-girlband pop at the time, I couldn't stand any of this, unlike my brother who listened to the likes of this and Eminem and other acts as far removed from my then-music tastes as you could imagine. As the front of the CD single states it's taken from the sequel to Mission Impossible, and uses an interpretation of the theme heavily throughout the song. It's got an odd feeling of wanting to really break out into something huge yet slightly constrained by its attempt to remain commercial enough for people to buy, so you've got some fairly restrained verses and then an absolute explosion of guitar-screaming energy in the choruses. Seems heavily influenced by Rage Against the Machine's 'Killing In The Name' at points too. Best bit of the song? 4:44 to 5:03 in the video below, which kinda makes me wish the whole thing was like that :P

 

'Rollin' gave them a surprise #1 hit the following year and is much better a listen, instantly coming in with all guns blazing and is all the more better for it.

 

Love "Sandstorm" - went 2 places higher on my chart that I was compiling at the time and spent 1 week at the top, having knocked off Paul Van Dyk and then being replaced by Moby in what was a very dance-orientated time for me.

 

Richard Blackwood, oh dear - what an awful song! I remember him from Nickelodeon in the 90s though, him, Simon Amstell and Sarah Cawood (Tea-time tattle with Sarah). Them were the days...

Sandstorm is one of the best songs of all time :wub: I can't describe the feeling it gives me, it's just such a good song!

Sandstorm is one of the most INCREDIBLE songs of all time. :wub:

24th June: SANDSTORM - Darude :wub:

 

From the ridiculous to the sublime. I don't know what I can say to even attempt to describe how absolutely bonerockingly mindblowingly AMAZING this song is.

 

Let's try...one of two #3s from 2000 which deserve to be up there in the greatest dance anthems OF ALL TIME (find out tomorrow what the 2nd is!) almost never has anything so successfully lit the spark in my soul like this. Almost never has any song taken everything I like about dance music and melded and mushed it together in a glorious lump of euphoric power.

 

To non-fans of this genre it's a bloke pushing the same few buttons of a synthesizer about 387,000 times with a repetitive drumbeat over the top, and a silly buildup in the middle to something that's basically the same as how the song began in the first place. I almost feel like, to those who consider this type of music alien, I'll never be able to truly explain just what makes this so beautiful to my ears. Sadly not played as much as it should be today but oh my word when it does I'm on that dancefloor in a nanosecond. Absolutely timeless. Absolutely brilliant :)

 

 

 

Ahh now this brings back memories. It was everywhere and even now I associate this song with videos/ shows etc set in Ibiza. I think I prefer Silence though, the one where they're running whilst tied together and the man has weird eyes.

 

Echo the love for Sandstorm - an amazing piece of trance. I always think of it as defining 'chase music', I'm shocked its relatively low key these days and not used in practically EVERY action movie going!

 

It's My Life is great too, I like to think this stood out from their other 'fanbase driven' hits, its certainly aged a lot better than most of their stuff.

Edited June 8, 201312 yr by Chez Wombat

Good work Billy you're putting my work rate to shame! :D

Lol I'm just taking advantage of a lazy weekend, things get busy again from tomorrow! Glad to see some fellow Sandstorm love too :dance:

 

29th July: 2 FACED - Louise

 

James Masterton sums up the hit-making career of Louise pretty well on his blog:

 

"I’m sure there is a whole essay to be written one day on the concept of wallpaper pop, music that the statistics recorded was popular and sold well at the time, but was culturally speaking nothing more than part of the background. When the artist in question went away quietly, their body of work simply faded away, almost never to be considered or played again. This, you could argue, is the fate of Louise Nurding (as she was then), who began her chart career as one quarter of Eternal before stepping out of the bonds of what she herself suggested was her role as “the token white girl” and embarking on a solo career. The facts of said career are as follows – nine Top 10 hits between 1995 and 2003 (many of which are actually some immaculately made pop tracks) plus three hit albums and a Greatest Hits collection, something which I noted at the time made her pretty unique as a pop act who delivered her full contractual quota of albums without ever once being at risk of being dropped. Yet for all of that, are there actually any of her hits that you can remember off hand, or hear played on the radio these days? You would recognise most from the time if you heard them again, but for the most part they have just faded away into the background of pop history, as if they were just wallpaper that got changed when it began to get old"

 

'2 Faced' was her biggest ever hit, the only one to go top 3. I remember Louise, but as the quote above says, only as the popstar herself rather actually anything she ever released. Listening to this it's ok but it really is going straight out the other ear without anything to really grab me, the same as all her other hits.

 

Indeed this sentence was written five minutes after the last and I've now almost completely forgotten it. Nice, just, well...forgettable.

 

 

12th August: TIME TO BURN - Storm

 

Back to dance and a fine track from the really quite underrated German trance duo, much more remembered under their 'Jam & Spoon' alias. 1998's eponymous 'Storm' is wonderful, using a similar press-the-same-synth-button-lots-of-times tactic as Sandstorm but in a much subtler, quieter and more menacing fashion yet still remaining utterly hypnotic and jamming in your head. Two years on they've evolved into a sort of electro-progressive-trance fusion with this, again using a very simple melody but letting it evolve in a glorious array of buzzing synthlines and pounding drums. I remember hearing this a lot on Dave Pearce's 'Dance Anthems' show on Radio 1 which for years was a Sunday night staple, and it would normally mix seamlessly from Zombie Nation's 'Kernkraft 400' from the same time - many mix CDs use the same trick! Almost the equivalent of about three or four different songs in one, as a bonus treat the mix used in the video seen here is a minute longer than the somewhat brief 2:52 radio edit.

 

Markus Löffel, half of the duo and the 'Spoon' of Jam & Spoon, passed away from a heart attack in January 2006.

 

16th September: IT DOESN'T MATTER - Wyclef Jean

 

Ok I have no memories of this at all, so this should be interesting :P I was hoping to review 'Perfect Gentleman' at one point, but it'll just miss out by peaking at #4 next year, so this is the former Fugees members' only appearance we'll see here. Bit mystified when wrestler The Rock appeared at the start of the video, and indeed shouts a couple of things at various points through the rest of the song but presumably it helped the sales. Just about on the edge of being a comedy novelty track, it's got a unusual half-ska, half-early 90s rave vibe and the chorus consists of Mr Jean bigging himself up and continuously being interrupted by the call-and-response shouts of "IT DOESN'T MATTER!" which may have been echoed in clubs at the time, I dunno, I've never heard this in my life :P

 

I quite like it!! It's an absolutely bizarre song and the second #3 hit this year to reference Livin' Da Vida Loca, but it's got a very weird and quirky charm to it that's very appealing. If BBC1's 'Pointless' ever did a round naming top 3 singles of 2000 though, surely this would be a good answer!

 

I remember hearing this a lot on Dave Pearce's 'Dance Anthems' show on Radio 1 which for years was a Sunday night staple, and it would normally mix seamlessly from Zombie Nation's 'Kernkraft 400' from the same time - many mix CDs use the same trick!

 

It also was the next song after Kernkraft 400 on Now 47! :D

23rd September: NATURAL - S Club 7

 

S Club!! Oh but with one of their worst songs. :P

 

They're clearly trying a Britney-style sound with this one, perhaps trying to move on from the more simplistic pop that their first album had contained. Unfortunately in this case it simply doesn't work and really is one of the most unmemorable things they ever released. Although #3 seems like good going, bear in mind that this is one of only two hits of their entire career not to peak at #1 or #2, with only 2002's 'Alive' doing worse (at a still-not-too-shabby #5) when they were on the way out.

 

Thankfully they turned it around after this rare misfire. Follow-up 'Never Had A Dream Come True' was a deserved #1, and then came 'Don't Stop Movin' the next year which is almost pop perfection. I love almost everything S Club ever released but this shows that even the top of the pile have the occasional off day. Maybe I'd like it better if another, less-well known group had done it...

 

 

Last four 2000 #3s coming tonight!

S Club were my favourite ever group when I was six, so I get really sad when someone criticises them. :(