June 13, 20196 yr Madonna for me. Loved the charts back then. Was so fresh and had a great variety of tracks in!
June 13, 20196 yr Oooh...if this had been anybody else I'd have been saying Madge cause I did love 'Beautiful Stranger'...but 10 year old me has to say S Club 7 still take this one. 'Bring It All Back' was their first number one, a great, catchy sing along summery pop single with a nice positive message that's still good today, and I think people forget how huge Miami 7 was at the time and how pivotal it was in launching them, perhaps more so than any radio airplay that obviously Madonna had the advantage of as highlighted above. It was the highest rated kid's show on UK TV just a few weeks after it started airing on CBBC and with good reason, for the time it was really fun and fresh and had good humour, and there wasn't any other act around like them at the time. They managed everything that North and South didn't with 'No Sweat' two years previously, and did that whole Monkees thing but with a new millennium vibe.
June 13, 20196 yr No Sweat was iconic tho *.* Oh it was, wasn't it? The first four episodes are up on YouTube still. Harriet Thorpe - who was in Ab Fab and Brittas Empire - played James (the green haired one's) mum in it and was hilarious. She's such a brilliant comic actress. Actually North and South and S Club shared a producer in common because all their stuff was written and produce by Rose & Foster, who subsequently went onto do 'You're My Number One' on S Club's first album.
June 13, 20196 yr Blimey, this vote is even more split than the Tory party on brexit! Edited June 13, 20196 yr by fiesta
June 14, 20196 yr Author Oooh...if this had been anybody else I'd have been saying Madge cause I did love 'Beautiful Stranger'...but 10 year old me has to say S Club 7 still take this one. 'Bring It All Back' was their first number one, a great, catchy sing along summery pop single with a nice positive message that's still good today, and I think people forget how huge Miami 7 was at the time and how pivotal it was in launching them, perhaps more so than any radio airplay that obviously Madonna had the advantage of as highlighted above. It was the highest rated kid's show on UK TV just a few weeks after it started airing on CBBC and with good reason, for the time it was really fun and fresh and had good humour, and there wasn't any other act around like them at the time. They managed everything that North and South didn't with 'No Sweat' two years previously, and did that whole Monkees thing but with a new millennium vibe. You're right - Music Week reported at the time: "S Club 7 have had very little airplay for their single but boast a fan club of more than 100,000 members and a TV show (Miami 7) with a regular audience of 4m" Despite being replaced at the top the following week, it remained above 100k, shifting 119k copies, whilst Madonna sold about 80k. Even after going to #1, its airplay was low, spending only 4 weeks on the airplay chart: 40-20-28-42. In that time, Madonna moved 5-3-1-1
June 14, 20196 yr Does anyone remember the chart battle at the time? Who was favourite to be #1 before the chart week? I had a look at the airplay charts and Madonna was #8 the week before and S Club 7 weren't in the Top 50. From those new entries, I think I've only heard 'All or Nothing' which is fab; very overlooked by 'Believe' and 'Strong Enough' but it's another dance banger. From what I can recall about the time, I don't think there was ever any doubt over S Club 7 debuting at No.1. Despite Beautiful Stranger coming off the back of a huge era in Ray Of Light, being a great song, and having huge airplay, S Club 7 were everywhere (except radio) at the time. On Miami 7, all the music and kids' shows, in every magazine. They more than made up elsewhere for what they didn't have in airplay. I'm sure Madonna would have been a lock-in for No.2 but I don't think it was ever really talked up as a chart battle, as Bring It All Back felt like a foregone conclusion (maybe just to me :lol:), in fact her first week sale was pretty impressive looking back.
June 14, 20196 yr I don't recall this being a chart battle either, but a 100% certainty that S Club 7 were gonna be #1 back then, itunes pre-orders showed up in the pre-release weeks so we knew who was gonna do great, who wasn't...
June 14, 20196 yr I don't recall this being a chart battle either, but a 100% certainty that S Club 7 were gonna be #1 back then, itunes pre-orders showed up in the pre-release weeks so we knew who was gonna do great, who wasn't... what does this chart battle have to do with iTunes? :lol:
June 14, 20196 yr The charts were generally quite easy to predict back then, though not because of iTunes, as it was five years from existence at this point! Growing hype and buzz was pretty easy to identify from the 4-6 week build-up something was given on TV, radio, magazines etc. Still, you couldn't force onto the public something they didn't want. Numerous songs that were predicted by Woolies to go to No.1 (which was usually on the money with its chart) fell by the wayside. Some examples that spring to mind are Whitney Houston and George Michael's If I Told You That (which somehow ended up at No.9) and Tommi's Like What in 2003 (which ended up at No.12). See also, Girl Thing's Last One Standing (charted at No.8) and Best Friends by allSTARS*, which smashed at No.20. I'm sure there are countless other over-predictions, where the hype wasn't always right, and in the case of some singles maybe a bit of payola was happening, though I have nothing to verify if record labels did pay Woolies to put their singles higher in their charts.
June 14, 20196 yr Madonna definitely..... Although I like Sclub as its catchy its nothing to Reach For The Stars Sales for a number 2 were enough to be no1but she holds the record for most number 2s STILL!!!! 👠 👠 Cha cha cha 😂
June 14, 20196 yr The charts were generally quite easy to predict back then, though not because of iTunes, as it was five years from existence at this point! Growing hype and buzz was pretty easy to identify from the 4-6 week build-up something was given on TV, radio, magazines etc. Still, you couldn't force onto the public something they didn't want. Numerous songs that were predicted by Woolies to go to No.1 (which was usually on the money with its chart) fell by the wayside. Some examples that spring to mind are Whitney Houston and George Michael's If I Told You That (which somehow ended up at No.9) and Tommi's Like What in 2003 (which ended up at No.12). See also, Girl Thing's Last One Standing (charted at No.8) and Best Friends by allSTARS*, which smashed at No.20. I'm sure there are countless other over-predictions, where the hype wasn't always right, and in the case of some singles maybe a bit of payola was happening, though I have nothing to verify if record labels did pay Woolies to put their singles higher in their charts. Wasn’t Whole Again by Atomic Kitten a massive under prediction from woolies?
June 14, 20196 yr Wasn’t Whole Again by Atomic Kitten a massive under prediction from woolies? A few more from memory: I’ll Be Missing You was predicated 6, Spinning Around And Mi Chico Latino both predicted at 4.. Woolies did generally do well though.
June 14, 20196 yr 'Bring It All Back' is a bit of a guilty pleasures like a lot of S Club songs (although 'Don't Stop Movin'' is just a genuinely great song with no guilt xx) but I voted for Madonna as that's one of her best songs, I'm surprised at S Club 7 actually winning this poll!
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