So I've gone through every top 40 of my favourite musical year ever - 1999 - and re-arranged it as how I'd ideally have wished the #1s had gone for each week, some agreeing with reality and others veering a bit more wildly into fantasy. I haven't changed any of the release dates so if two amazing songs have the misfortune to be released in the same week, one has to sadly lose out. As with my previous threads remember age and nostalgia is a great factor in some of these songs, I was ten in 1999 so don't be surprised when the occasional bit of cheese appears!

 

To add an extra bit of fun, the commentary will be written as if this genuinely was 1999 and I were commenting if these were the real number 1s the public brought that week, in a sort of faux-James Masterton style. You'll see what I mean from the first entry, I'll be carrying on as long as I decide the music's good and regular enough to worth writing about :P

 

Beginning with this universe's Xmas number 1 of 1998, which remained at #1 at the start of the next year...

Edited August 25, 201410 yr by BillyH

02/01/1999: Cher - Believe (2 weeks in 1999)

 

 

New year and a song that may well still be at the top by the millennium at this rate. First zooming straight up the charts at the end of October, it's sold well over a million copies and is comfortably one of the biggest-sellers of all time, a pre-Christmas chart battle with Bryan Adams and Mel C's 'When You're Gone' hasn't even stopped it selling in bucketloads in time to be loaded onto tape and CD players at New Year parties around the country.

 

What's astonishing for me about 'Believe' is that it is so, so rare for me to have any sort of liking for anything this big. Other big-sellers in the past I've got sick of so quickly I never want to hear them again after their millionth play on radio, but with 'Believe' Cher and co have actually managed a brilliantly likeable song that I simply can't find anything negative about. Jokes involving her odd vocoded voice have been everywhere for months, but it's a gamble that's paid off incredibly well. 'Believe' is gonna be around for years, folks, don't be surprised if you're still hearing it well into the 21st century and beyond.

 

Meanwhile the double A-side 'Heartbeat/Tragedy' by emerging pop group Steps stays resolute in the top 3 and could well join its cohort into the million-sellers club. Is there anything that can topple this song from its mountain peak?

16/01/99: Porn Kings vs DJ Supreme - Up To The Wildstyle (2 weeks)

 

 

Cher is finally dethroned by the most random of January dance hits, a mash-up of two tracks from a couple years back - 'Up To No Good' by the Kings and 'Tha Wildstyle' by Mr Supreme, with the riff of Josh Wink '95 classic 'Higher State of Consciousness' and a faintly speed-garage influenced beat thrown over the top for good measure. It should be - and sounds at times - a complete mess, but the killer acid riff, DJ Supreme's sped-up rap and the sheer energy of it all casts minds back to the Fatboy Slim remix of 'Renegade Master' this time a year ago. Sounding brilliant in clubs on these cold January nights, rarely does anything this hard-sounding hit the top and to hold on for a second week is nothing short of a miracle, but with few other tracks out during this January sales lull they've timed things perfectly.

Edited July 14, 201411 yr by BillyH

30/01/99: Terrorvision - Tequila

 

 

'BATTLE OF THE SELLOUTS' screamed the NME this week as two rock groups vied for chart success, both abandoning their heavy rock sound for something more quirky and indeed commercial. A battle spanning the Atlantic Ocean, on the left are Californian punk group The Offspring with their tale of a wannabe gangsta having become a smash worldwide hit, all bets indicating it was an easy #1 the moment it reached these shores. But recently a new contender emerged from the slightly less exotic land of West Yorkshire. Terrorvision have had a fair few significant if not massive hits in the charts going back to 1993, revered as a very credible rockband itching for their first major crossover hit. It's fair to say though that most of their fans perhaps couldn't believe what they were hearing when this first aired on Zoe Ball's Radio 1 Breakfast Show in recent weeks.

 

'Tequila', not related at all to the 1958 Champs song, has been remixed by dance act Mint Royale into a joyful pop number and sees the formerly well-respected group dressed in Spanish fancy dress in the video (also featuring, for some reason, Sean Hughes) grinning like kids and shaking their maracas, far removed from the hard rock their fans are used to. Also featuring a host of giggling children singing the chorus, don't be surprised (and try not to call police) if you see any little ones singing about how much Tequila makes them happy as they bop to the song on their Sony Walkmans down the street. It is pure, sell-out commercial pop, and Terrorvision may end up re-inventing themselves as a quirky pop group at the risk of losing their entire original fanbase in the process. Not that they'd care though - 'Tequila' is the British champion beating the expected American challenger to become by far and away their biggest hit and their first #1 single. Perhaps more are to come, for now I can't stop playing this fun little ditty.

More soon :)

Oh wow, I love this. I may not comment loads but I'll be reading everyting :wub:

06/02/99: Divine Comedy - National Express

 

 

Punched airs across the land as Neil Hannon finally gets the #1 single he's deserved for so long. The Northern Irish group are perhaps most known for composing the theme song for Channel 4's 'Father Ted' which ended after the sad death of Dermot Morgan last year, as well as Eurovision classic 'My Lovely Horse'. The closest they have ever got to the top is 1997's 'Everybody Knows (Except You)', which with the release of this is no longer their best song. This brilliant tribute to life from the back of a National Express coach has enjoyed plenty of airplay and, like Terrorvision last week, is a song you could only imagine being a hit in this country and to see it reach the top is a feeling so brilliant I can barely put it into words. It sounds like barely anything else in the charts amongst all the manufactured pop and synth-heavy dance, and I definitely never thought I'd see the day when a chart-topping single would contain lyrics about a hostess's arse being the size of a small country.

13/02/99: Blondie - Maria

 

 

Yep, the Millennium Bug hasn't hit us early and we are indeed still in 1999 and not 1979. No, it's not a re-issue. A band that defined the generation of twenty years ago have this week set a chart record, frontwoman Debbie Harry beating Cher's record to be the oldest ever woman to have a #1 single at the age of 53, and they become the first American group to have a #1 here in the 1970s, 1980s and now 1990s - indeed it's exactly twenty years ago this since 'Heart of Glass' got there. Where does the time go?

 

Even without the novelty of a legendary group reforming this is still a fantastic singalong single, the bells in the chorus perhaps the best bit and Debbie sounds amazing. It's every bit as good as their 70s and 80s classics and deserves just as much future airplay.

Edited July 15, 201411 yr by BillyH

20/02/99: DJ Sakin & Friends - Protect Your Mind

 

 

They call it "Trance" and if the rest of Europe is to be believed, a dance music revolution on its way. Songs labelled trance tracks have been around since the end of the 1980s, but only in recent years has it evolved into the powerful sound filling European - and, as is predicted this summer, Ibiza - dancefloors as we speak. The centre of it all is the Netherlands where a host of emerging DJs are combining strong 4/4 beats with intensely melodic synths pushed up to 11 on the power scale, already beginning to gain major support on late night Radio 1 and other dance radio stations.

 

Perhaps then it is a surprise to see not one of the Dutch gain the first trance #1 of 1999, but Sakin Bozkurt from Turkey, going straight for the novelty by taking the instrumental from Mel Gibson's 'Braveheart' and putting a irresistibly catchy Eurobeat over the top. #3 in Germany, #2 in Ireland and just sells enough here to make it a worthy British chart-topper. Not quite representive of the true power that some white labels from Holland are indicating, this is trance at its poppiest but then you need something like this to introduce people gently into what may well define the clubbing lives of not only the end of this century but the beginning of the next. In what has already been an astonishing decade for dance music, seeing us go from rave to Eurodance to dream house to the recent 'filtered house' of Music Sounds Better With You, the biggest gear shift is perhaps yet to come.

27/02/99: Britney Spears - Baby One More Time

 

 

Well, fair to say everyone saw this coming. In case you've been hiding in a small cave for the last few weeks, Britney Spears has been launched onto us as the new Princess of pop music. Not since Kylie Minogue - who hasn't had a #1 in years and is perhaps unlikely ever to again - has a young female star had so much hype and publicity on her arrival, go into any HMV/Virgin/Our Price/MVC/Woolworths/any other music store ever and you will have seen dozens of CDs of her debut single stacked up for all to see, tune into any radio station and you'll no doubt have heard this at least twice in the space of a few hours. Dressed as a rather provocative-looking schoolgirl in the video for extra shock and awe (she has only recently turned seventeen years old), it has effortlessly shot to #1 in pretty much every country in the world. Chances are people are buying copies as you're reading this.

 

And despite all the irritating hype and open-mouths over her skimpy clothing, the song is absolute pop brilliance. Like 'Believe', you know the moment you hear it you're listening to a song that will be stuck in both our minds - and dare I say, culture - forever. From the opening chords, her opening "Oh baby baby"s, right up to that chorus - my *god*, that chorus - I can barely even concentrate on these words I type as all I can think of is this song. Over and over again. Kids have a new role model, male teens have a new crush and most adults have someone to grumble over at the state of modern music. Britney is here, and for the next few months at least she ain't going away.

 

What, you haven't listened to it yet? Turn on the radio, now. Turn on any music channel, turn on anything. Listen and enjoy. And one more time...

06/03/99: Blur - Tender (2 weeks)

 

 

But yet as big a popstar young Britney is, when a track like this is released it is impossible to ignore.

 

These are, indeed, the same irritating lads who were shouting at us about park life in cockney accents just four or five years ago at the peak of Britpop, a phase which in today's Spice Girl/Robbie/Britney (too soon?) age already feels like a lifetime ago. Two years ago they tried a messier, lo-fi sound and got big with Beetlebum and Woo-Hoo, sorry 'Song 2' as no one calls it. Now they have changed again into a post-Britpop, Thom Yorke-influenced downtempo style with a track that has already been called a 'Hey Jude' for the 90s.

 

It would have been something of a sick joke had this been stopped by Britney - or even a returning Whitney - to #1, and to rock fans' relief it's outsold everything for two weeks running. At seven minutes, thirty-nine seconds (cut down a little for the video) it's one of the longest ever chart-toppers yet every one is a joy, a deceptively simple song featuring just a few repeated segments yet one by halfway through the song you don't ever want to end. Already thoughts go to this summer's Glastonbury, where annoyingly Blur aren't headlining this year - they did during last year's mudbath - because if they were you can honestly imagine the whole crowd singing along to every word of this as the sun sets. A beautiful vision that won't be realised this year but perhaps in the future if they survive the next century.

That commentary for Britney was a great read! I agree with everything. What a great song as well :wub:

20/03/99: Steps - Better Best Forgotten

 

 

From the sublime to the Lisa Scott-Liculous, but one in a funny way a #1 just as deserved as Blur last week. 'Heartbeat/Tragedy' not being #1 over Christmas and New Year seemed a huge shame given the track joined Wham's 'Last Christmas' as a rare million-selling #2, the behemoths of Cher, Bryan/Melanie and even Chef stopping it any time it got close. Credit then for this difficult follow-up giving them at least one presence on the list of 1999's top hits.

 

Steps have their many detractors, not least from those who remember Pete Waterman's domination on the charts in the late 80s and worried this is the start of it all happening again (thankfully in today's divided musical scene, one producer owning the chart would never happen today) but my god does he know how to write a tune, this gaining extra points by not even being a cover for once and a Waterman original. H, Lisa, Claire, Faye and the other one seem a good-natured, family-friendly lot in an increasingly sexualised pop scene, and their songs can be enjoyed by the smallest of kids to the dodderiest of pensioners as well as going down a storm in gay clubs. They deserve all their success and their close friendships are clearly genuine for all to see.

Edited July 21, 201410 yr by BillyH

27/03/99: B*Witched - Blame It On The Weatherman

 

 

B*Witched sneak in a week but I can't imagine for long, as looking at Monday's forthcoming releases the week-ending 3rd April may well be one of the most incredible charts of our lifetime. The contenders include new Scandinavian group the Cartoons, a returning Billie Piper, Sash, a pop-rock stomper from the New Radicals, R&B group TLC with perhaps a future classic in the form of 'No Scrubs', Des'Ree returning for a *third* try at 'You Gotta Be', and a yellow furry puppet who headbangs in a Levi jeans advert. And not forgetting Aphex Twin who's track 'Windowlicker' is perhaps not quite commercial enough for a #1 but still should go top 20 at least. However there's another contender that might upset everything based on its pre-orders and hype from overseas, we'll see in seven days time.

 

For now in a quiet week Pete Waterman passes the #1 to Louis Walsh, and B*Witched at least do it with surely their best track to date, a wonderfully classy number about all that bloody rain in the skies, timed neatly for the inevitable April showers we'll be getting soon. Simple, nothing groundbreaking, but a nice three-minutes of your time.

03/04/99: System F - Out of the Blue (6 weeks)

 

 

What did I tell you. But even I never anticipated this.

 

It was on the Radio 1 Breakfast Show when 'Out of the Blue' received one of its first plays, and suddenly the phone-lines were jammed with people asking what this mystery instrumental track was. Plays increased, the video started getting major airplay on The Box (always good for international hits) and what could have been a minor top 15 hit has, out of nowhere, captured the attention of the entire country. Six weeks at #1 is the longest in ages, and is such a ridiculously breathtaking track it's difficult to know what can come along and knock it off. It relegates almost every dance track before to sounding like a Steps B-side, so game-changing it is.

 

I cannot remember a time when something so above and beyond any dance track released to date has appeared out of nowhere high in the charts like this - perhaps 'Charly' in 1991 or even Pump Up The Volume four years earlier. The title tells the story - out of the blue the British public have fallen in love with it, giving the obscure DJ behind the track (Ferry Corsten, remember the name) unexpected celeb status. It blasts from every teenage car stereo, pounds from every house party, and prompted an already memorable Top of the Pops performance which threatened to turn Elstree Studios into an illegal rave on the verge of getting shut down by police, Ferry standing behind a prop set of turntables blasting out the track to a mental BBC audience to the point where even Jamie Theakston looked a bit terrified as he linked in and out of it.

 

For the first time since rave-mania overtook the country in 1991-92, we have a new musical scene that shows no signs of going away anytime soon and this for now is the world-class trance anthem. Wouldn't be surprised if Pete Waterman is hurriedly remixing the next Steps album to sound like this.

15/05/99: Veracocha - Carte Blanche (2 weeks)

 

 

After six weeks of Ferry Corsten, the only track that's been able to knock it off the top is...Ferry Corsten, in another of his guises now at least joined by Vincent de Moor this time. Not since John Lennon in 1981 has an artist knocked *himself* off number 1, and Lennon wasn't even alive to see it when he did.

 

While it doesn't have as strong a beat as Out of the Blue, the melody is perhaps even more heartbreakingly emotional, and contains a glorious breakdown in the middle where everything fades out except a single piano, only to explode back into life with synth-heavy euphoria. It's difficult to imagine what Ferry's feeling right now having basically conquered the country with his sound, DJs everywhere trying to create tracks at this level. And the trance craze of 1999 is now making the papers, most people over the age of 35 absolutely hating it and blaming it on a collapse of musical taste, indeed a couple of internet chart bloggers have stopped in disgust at recent weeks at the so-called "crap" at the top of the charts at the expense of the likes of more credible rock acts.

 

It is a mad, glorious time to be following the musical scene right now and this surely is the start of the 21st century right here. Both Out of the Blue and Carte Blanche are so complex, so multi-layered, it's difficult to imagine just how music can ever get any better than this. And we're not even in the year 2000 yet.

29/05/99: Sixpence None the Richer - Kiss Me

 

 

And relax. You could almost hear the sigh of relief as eight continuous weeks of pounding, loud Dutch madness makes way for some gentle American pop. 'Kiss Me' has been a radio monster over recent weeks and could well end up topping the yearly airplay charts at this rate, also used in various trailers and movies in recent times. A good song by itself, the fact that it's dethroned the last two dance stompers makes it sound even better and a perfect alternative to the current trance explosion. It's the first #1 for the Texan group and perhaps not the last.

05/06/99: Chicane - Saltwater

 

 

Back to dance but definitely not as heavy as the Ferry double bill of April and May, this instead is a stunning track using the wispy vocals of Maire Brennan, combining Clannad's 'Theme From Harry's Game' to a strong dance beat. The best club anthems are those that work as both chillouts in your own home and rave-ups on packed darkened dancefloors, and this combined with huge crossover appeal has guaranteed its shoot up to the top of the charts.

12/06/99: Baz Luhrmann - Everybody's Free To Wear Sunscreen (3 weeks)

 

 

A three-week run for the most wonderfully bizarre song since Aphex Twin's 'Windowlicker', barely anything more than a spoken-word lecture over a steadily intensifying Soul II Soul-style chilled dance beat, indeed this sounds so 1990 it could have easily been a hit at the very start of the decade too. It's difficult to pinpoint exactly what makes this such a great listen - the "lyrics", if cheesy, actually manage to speak to everyone and make you feel a hell of a lot better with yourself by the end of the five minutes. It's one to listen to should you ever feel down in the dumps with life.

 

Pity though the poor Chemical Brothers who miss out by a handful of copies with 'Hey Boy Hey Girl', with other close shaves for new Steps clones S Club 7 and the Vengaboys.

03/07/99: ATB - 9pm (Til I Come)

 

 

July's begun, the sun's out and trance makes a triumphant return with German DJ André Tanneberger's Europe-wide hit, charting here in its special new 'Sequential One' remix for the UK. Featuring a distinctive bendy guitar sound and not much else, the simple production sounds great in the midsummer heat. Quite a few more trance anthems are coming up over the rest of the summer, and with Ibiza proving a huge draw for a clubbing holiday this could be the start of a run to rival the eight weeks of Ferry Corsten-mania in the spring.