One of the best weeks for releases for the whole decade - as you said Out of the Blue and Windowlicker entered the charts, and also TLC's No Scrubs too.

 

New Radicals - You Get What You Give was also released that week - interesting that out of the 5 new entries in the top 7 that week, the 2 lowest of them (New Radicals and TLC) went on to become the biggest overall and by far the most remembered.

New Radicals - You Get What You Give was also released that week - interesting that out of the 5 new entries in the top 7 that week, the 2 lowest of them (New Radicals and TLC) went on to become the biggest overall and by far the most remembered.

 

 

How are you measuring biggest over all?

 

Didn't Flat Beat outsell them by the end of the year?

Phats & Small - Turn Around

 

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm82/TheMagicPosition86/rsz_2turn_around_zpspssofick.png

 

Date 18th April 1999

3 Weeks (2 consecutive)

Official Chart Run 3-4-2-8-7-8-7-12-17-19-23-32-42-55-62-69 (16 weeks)

*Positions in red are the weeks when the track would be number 1 if just dance music was chart eligible.

 

Continuing the French house theme were Brighton duo, Jason ‘Phats’ Hayward, and Russell Small with the disco revivalist sound that their bright, catchy and incredibly irresistible debut “Turn Around” brought to the chart.

 

The project was initially started by Jason back in 1996 as DJ Phats, with Russell joining in 1998 along with Nigerian singer Ben Ofoedu who was a guest vocalist at first but later become a firm part of the group. Both Jason and Russell had grown up attending warehouse parties like Sunrise, Energy and Raindance during the late 80’s where acts like Carl Cox and Liam Howlett (of the Prodigy) made their debuts. This had fuelled their passion for dance music and they soon took up DJing, both experimenting with the versatility of electronic music.

 

Following hot on the heels of Daft Punk, Stardust and (ahem) Spacedust.. the duo borrowed a catchy guitar lick from Change’s disco fused “The Glow of Love” (which was later used more liberally on Janet Jackson’s “All For You” in 2001) and looped it across a sample of Toney Lee’s little-known 1983 hit “Reach Up” to create an upbeat, positive club anthem and guaranteed dance floor filler. It was initially released as a white label in December 98 and through heavy club play, Pete Tong and Radio 1 support gave the group a huge hit the following April. Although Ben sings the track live, the studio version for the single release was a straight direct sample of Lee, meaning the group only earned around £5000 from the single’s success despite it peaking at #2 and selling nearly half a million.

 

Not ones to mess with a winning formula follow-up “Feel Good” sampled B.T. Express’ “Does It Feel Good (To You)” which got to #7 in August, with the craze extending to their remix of the Earth, Wind & Fire classic - titled “September ’99” - which hit the Top 40 in August. “Tonite” (#11 in December) sampled Delegation’s “Heartache No. 9” but their debut LP, the amusingly titled Now Phats What I Small Music could only limp to #102 in a busy Christmas market. After a few more singles Russell left with James Wiltshire to form the Freemasons, although Phats & Small recently reunited with a 2016 remix of this single.

 

Edited June 5, 20169 yr by Doctor Blind

How are you measuring biggest over all?

 

Didn't Flat Beat outsell them by the end of the year?

 

In terms of total sales, New Radicals and TLC would be much bigger (as Flat Beat would have done hardly anything on downloads).

Date 18th April 1999

4 Weeks (3 consecutive)

Official Chart Run 3-4-2-8-7-8-7-12-17-19-23-32-42-55-62-69 (16 weeks)

*Positions in red are the weeks when the track would be number 1 if just dance music was chart eligible.

 

Not sure about the week at #12 - there was definitely a bigger track that week that topped the UK dance chart (amongst others!).

In terms of total sales, New Radicals and TLC would be much bigger (as Flat Beat would have done hardly anything on downloads).

 

Do we have totals for these?

Not sure about the week at #12 - there was definitely a bigger track that week that topped the UK dance chart (amongst others!).

 

Oops! Yes, you are correct.

Thanks for pointing that out. Have correct the number of weeks/chart run, a slight oversight on my part - apologies.

I thought I liked Turn Around. I really don't. :(

I never cared for Turn Around but it was good to see another Brighton-based dance act doing so well in 1999, even featuring it in the video!

 

The #2 peak three weeks in was rare in 1999 too.

 

On another note I'd be gobsmacked if You Get What You Give had overtaken Flat Beat's total sales by now, it doesn't pop back up on iTunes that often and it was quite far adrift of Mr Oizo in the 1999 EOY chart. No Scrubs has probably long overtaken it though.

The #2 peak three weeks in was rare in 1999 too.

 

 

Totally surprised at this remark considering the chart run of your preference for another number 2 hit from 1999. :D

Of course! But then I hadn't heard the song in question in April!

 

No Scrubs of course had a similarly odd early '99 chart run...

As did Macy Gray’s “I Try” in the autumn, whose chart run I would describe as a bit like trying to go up a down escalator. The ruthless nature of the charts at that time, in particular in 2000 meant that songs were not allowed to grow - if you didn't make it in Week 1 then that was it!

That's true, it would be interesting to work out how many songs climbed to their peak in each year between 1997 and 2004 (the chart's most volatile years).

Nothing wrong with Flat Beat at all - if anything, it's a real shame that it's forever linked to a pretty lacklustre advert. Almost certainly the best dance no.1 of 1999 I'll bet :)

Fatboy Slim - Right Here, Right Now

 

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm82/TheMagicPosition86/rsz_47839220_zpseh3afkby.png

 

Date 25th April 1999

2 Weeks

Official Chart Run 2-4-9-18-31-37-43-52-55-65 (10 weeks)

*Positions in red are the weeks when the track would be number 1 if just dance music was chart eligible.

 

“Right Here, Right Now” is in itself a defiant statement; one of immense urgency and apocalyptic tones matched only by the earth-shattering bass that enters around a minute in. This was echoed by the fantastic video directed by British production team Garth Jennings and Nick Goldsmith which depicted evolution on earth in a heavily edited 3-and-a-half minute radio edit, ending in a depiction of the unknown album cover star (who dons the T-shirt ‘I'm No. 1 so why try harder’). Album opener and standout single choice “Right Here, Right Now” served as the fourth single proper from You've Come a Long Way, Baby and marked the commercial and sales peak of Fatboy Slim.

 

In the ascendant since 1997 from where each of his singles after “Going Out Of My Head” (#57) had charted higher than the previous - that is of course until “Right Here, Right Now” - which mathematically could not improve on number 1, and was in the end blocked by a quartet of serenading Irish lads on stools who would be paying depressingly regular visits to the top of the chart over the next few years. “Right Here, Right Now” is an instantly recognisable and typically massive sounding anthem which opens with an ominous sounding distorted synth that harmonises and slowly introduces the gorgeous string melody that envelopes and makes the track, sampled from James Gang’s “Ashes, the Rain and I”. The string sample regrettably was not properly cleared and therefore Norman had to concede royalties to James Gang.

 

There are but two vocal samples used here, both adding to the allure of the track whilst stating its intentions. The first repeated refrain from which the track is titled, are the uncredited frenzied cries of Angela Bassett from the 1995 film Strange Days - incidentally set in 1999 - which chant out as if some sort of a ritual mantra, the other: a highly diluted and cut-up vocal that muffles out some gargled nonsense, simply adds to the mix whilst the strings, synth and bass temporarily crash out.

 

This track marks Norman Cook’s final entry in this countdown (it is apparently his proudest moment) - though in the next millennium he continued to have moderate success with a further 3 Top 10 hits, the most recent (and highest charting) being a collaboration with Riva Starr and Beardyman on the hectic “Eat Sleep Rave Repeat” (#3 in November 2013).

 

"Right Here Right Now" & "Turn Around" are both certified house bops. :wub:

I was obsessed with Right Here Right Now in 1999 but I killed it off from over playing it :(

Shanks & Bigfoot - Sweet Like Chocolate

 

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm82/TheMagicPosition86/rsz_51d6jiq13rl_zpsrmlijbcm.png

 

Date 23rd May 1999

4 Weeks

Official Chart Run 1-1-2-5-8-11-18-22-26-33-37-38-44-55-73-XX-XX-77-66 (16 weeks)

*Positions in red are the weeks when the track would be number 1 if just dance music was chart eligible.

 

This moment had been coming for some time - in 1996 Tina Moore’s “Never Gonna Let You Go” was transformed into a club classic by US house producer Kelly G and entered the UK Top 10 the following year - it became the first bonafide hit of the nascent 2-step movement of the UK Garage scene: an equal parts mix of House and Jungle with a beat-skipping kick drum on each first and third beat, with each missed beat filled with a variety of snares, hi-hats and all juxtaposed against an urgent, speaker-shaking bassline. Further Top 20 hits were soon to follow with Double 99’s “RIPGroove” making 14 in the autumn of 97 and Street Fighter 2 sampling “Kung-Fu” by 187 Lockdown entering the Top 10 in the spring of 1998.

 

In that brief period of the late 1990s when the genre exploded into the charts it seemed inevitable that a #1 was on the cards. It duly arrived in the form of “Sweet Like Chocolate” in May 1999 - a 2-step UK garage underground anthem which combined Sharon Woolf’s saccharine vocals, and lovesick lyrics with a repetitive beat and addictive bassline which opens the track and quickly wormed its way, first into the clubs and 6 months later into the mainstream. Shanks & Bigfoot were UK production duo Stephen Meade and Daniel Langsman, re-branded due to a legal dispute after they had previously had Top 20 success with the bouncy and hard-to-resist trombone hook in “Straight From The Heart”, released 7 months earlier under their initial alias Doolally.

 

Whilst with hindsight it is often looked back upon as a bit of a novelty hit and is largely forgotten as an early ubiquitous 2-step success, “Sweet Like Chocolate” was at the time seen as anything but, and for many months in late 1998 was a hugely sought-after club hit available on limited edition vinyl. A hotly contested record by the majors meant that its release was delayed somewhat, and with huge airplay and a long lead-in, the pent-up demand generated first-day sales of over 74,000 and end of week sales of over a quarter of a million. It ended the year as the 8th biggest of 1999. Following this success, a re-release of “Straight From The Heart” returned the group to the Top 10 in August but it was a further 14 months before a proper follow-up, by which time the scene had largely moved on and Shanks & Bigfoot were unable to capitalise on this hugely successful record.

 

Edited June 7, 20169 yr by Doctor Blind

I really want someone to do a mash up of that and this

 

Right Here Right Now is AMAZING, one of my favourites of the year and one of the most gorgeous string sections and openings of a song ever :heart: (never knew that was a sample ;o).

 

I always thought Sweet Like Chocolate was a Kylie Minogue song until I could put a name to it. I still think it sounds a bit like her!