Never heard any other Babybird songs before, you'd never think The F-Word was by the same band as You're Gorgeous!

 

Macy Gray put way too much inflection in her voice, not a great singer imo.

 

Never heard Voices before! Chilled but not essential, one for the melancholic playlist.

 

Rewind is a great discovery, super pop song and better than Say It Again.

 

No huge favourites here but I think “Say My Name” is a classic and really grown up record from Destiny’s Child, as the seeds for Beyoncé’s superstardom are sown.

 

8 Destiny's Child Say My Name Their biggest hit to date and a US #1: an excellent unrelenting RnB track where the emotion of the lyrics really comes across

7 Montell Jordan Get It On... Tonite Another very strong RnB track that was big in the US; the minimalist production and his smooth voice create a sensual mood

7 Ralph Fridge Angel Only Top 40 for this German DJ: I love the "ah ah ah" vocal hook which builds to make a very nice ethereal trance track

6 Beck Mixed Bizness One of the later hits for the experimental singer sampling "Honky Tonk Woman": fun and quirky but doesn't blow me away

5 Idlewild Actually It's Darkness From the Scottish indie band's 2nd album: it's a very pleasant track in their usual style, but I don't find it particularly exciting

4 Atomic Kitten See Ya Their 2nd hit: while B*Witched want to sound grown up this is unashamedly young, but quite a cute and catchy little tune

3 Westlife Fool Again 854th #1 making 5 out of 5 for them: the usual Westlife formula but at least has a bit of energy and is not too saccharine

3 Celine Dion The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face Originally a 50s folk song most famously done by Roberta Flack: this version isn't needed but Celine sings it quite nicely

2 B*Witched Jump Down Their last hit: this was said to be them showing a maturer sound, which I think was an excuse for the song being very boring

2 Soulsearcher Do It To Me Again 2nd and final hit for this DJ: parts sounds suspiciously like "Boogie Wonderland" and I find the rest a fairly dull disco track

 

 

2000 Week 15:

 

#146 15/04/2000 Craig David Fill Me In 1 {1}-2-2-3-7-13-16-20-27-36-45-47-56-72->14

#147 15/04/2000 Sweet Female Attitude Flowers 2 {2}-4-8-9-10-17-21-27-39-49-68-72-62R(407)->13

#148 15/04/2000 Richard Ashcroft A Song For The Lovers 3 {3}-11-20-27-30-38-47-55-66-75-61R(2)->11

#149 15/04/2000 Steps Deeper Shade Of Blue 4 {4}-10-12-18-23-32-38-48-60->9

#150 15/04/2000 The Bloodhound Gang The Bad Touch 4 5-5-7-{4}-5-8-6-9-15-24-28-28-36-52->14

#151 15/04/2000 Lock 'N' Load Blow Ya Mind 6 {6}-6-10-13-14-22-26-35-46-58-69R(2)->11

#152 15/04/2000 Rank 1 Airwave 10 {10}-15-33-45-61->5

#153 15/04/2000 Basement Jaxx Bingo Bango 13 {13}-30-44-64->4

#154 15/04/2000 Angie Stone Life Story 22 {22}-41-57->3

#155 15/04/2000 Daniel O'Donnell Light A Candle 23 {23}-39-54-72->4

#156 15/04/2000 Lonestar Amazed 21 24-23-30-36-32-30-28-26-{21}-23-22-22-21-26-30-35-37-42-51-57-64-73->22

#157 15/04/2000 Cherie Amore I Don't Want Nobody 33 {33}-59->2

#158 15/04/2000 The Wamdue Project You're The Reason 39 {39}-68->2

 

Say My Name is good but not my favourite Destiny's Child song.

 

Ralph Fridge - Angel is one of my trance favourites.

Batch 5 Rank:

 

Great:

#60 26/02/2000 All Saints Pure Shores 1 {1}-1-2-3-7-9-12-18-26-32-40-41-50-66-74-69->16 [pop classic for a reason, lush production too of course]

#66 26/02/2000 CRW I Feel Love 15 {15}-32-48-71->4 [although the radio version on your playlist is the inferior mix to the full length original]

 

Good:

#70 26/02/2000 Starparty I'm In Love 26 {26}-57->2 [good bit of standard trance but Ferry Corsten has done better]

#72 26/02/2000 Jean-Michel Jarre Featuring Natacha Atlas C'est La Vie 40 {40}->1 [first listen; interesting soundscape here]

#65 26/02/2000 Eels Mr E's Beautiful Blues 11 {11}-30-49-70->4 [quite nice]

#71 26/02/2000 Fiona Apple Fast As You Can 33 {33}-65->2 [first listen; interesting, I can hear how she's got critical acclaim from this I guess although I see it's not actually one of her more popular songs even if it's her sole "hit"]

 

Okay:

#62 26/02/2000 Shania Twain Don't Be Stupid (You Know I Love You) 5 {5}-14-25-32-41-44-48-67-74-67R(3)-60->11

#69 26/02/2000 Air Playground Love 25 {25}-54->2 [starts off nice with potential but I wish this actually went somewhere]

#68 26/02/2000 Baby Bumps I Got This Feeling 22 {22}-46->2 [never heard this before unsurprisingly, not a dance classic for a reason I suppose just a bit bog standard and I could be listening to MJ instead..]

#61 26/02/2000 Christina Aguilera What A Girl Wants 3 {3}-8-19-21-27-34-38-41-53-55-58-52-43->13 [gets a bit annoying as it goes on]

 

Crap:

#67 26/02/2000 Jay-Z Anything 18 {18}-31-46-65->4 [why sample Oliver agh]

#64 26/02/2000 Rebecca Wheatley Stay With Me (Baby) 10 {10}-20-32-47-54-59-58-71R(5)->8 [boring]

 

Unlistenable:

#63 26/02/2000 Aqua Cartoon Heroes 7 {7}-10-17-20-32-42-55-63-64-75R(3)-73->11

Batch 6 Rank:

 

Great:

#73 04/03/2000 Artful Dodger And Romina Johnson Movin' Too Fast 2 {2}-4-7-12-19-25-32-36-43-60-68-64R(4)->12 [lush!]

#81 04/03/2000 Toploader Dancing In The Moonlight 19 {19}-26-29-34-43-62-71->7 [overplayed but it's great anyway]

 

Good:

#84 04/03/2000 Ann Lee Voices 27 {27}-51-66->3 [it's a blatant copy of 2 Times sure but actually quite a good one]

#75 04/03/2000 Kelis Caught Out There 4 {4}-11-15-22-31-40-53-52-61-67-75R(2)-64->12 [AGGGGGGGHHHHHH]

#78 04/03/2000 Flickman The Sound Of Bamboo 11 {11}-23-33-45-66->5 [this took a few listens but kinda get the appeal of it, though it won't be going up with the big dance classics of the era]

#82 04/03/2000 Muse Sunburn 22 {22}-47->2 [not too familiar with early Muse but quite enjoyed this]

#85 04/03/2000 Lenny Fontana And DJ Shorty Chocolate Sensation 39 {39}-73->2 [well hasn't this sample been done to death, at least the chords are a bit unexpected]

 

Okay:

#79 04/03/2000 The Bluetones Keep The Home Fires Burning 13 {13}-39-62->3

#80 04/03/2000 Delirious? It's OK 18 {18}-63->2 [as per the title Lol]

#83 04/03/2000 The Smashing Pumpkins Stand Inside Your Love 23 {23}-59->2

 

Crap:

#76 04/03/2000 Jamelia Money 5 {5}-13-16-24-27-36-47-61-70->9 [who decided this needed to be SIX minutes long and Beenie Man can get in the bin]

#74 04/03/2000 Backstreet Boys Show Me The Meaning Of Being Lonely 3 {3}-9-13-20-28-35-46-49-72-64R(5)-51->11 [boyband ballad snooze fest #1]

#77 04/03/2000 A1 Like A Rose 6 {6}-20-28-39-47-50-52-62-67-70-58-47->12 [boyband ballad snooze fest #2]

Aww even Dan doesn’t love Flickman - looks like I’m alone on that one haha!

Scott Mills plays 'Can't Get Enough' by Soulsearcher on his show sometimes and this 'Do It To Me Again' song sounds extremely similar to that :lol: formula detected.

 

Decent top two there, I recognise the Montell Jordan song from Kisstory and enjoy the 'Love For The Sake Of Love' sample. 'Say My Name' has grown on me quite a bit over the years!

Get It On Tonite is super ploddy, I'll stick with his best known song I think.

 

Angel is a super forgotten gem :wub:

 

Fool Again is their best #1 single although my fave Westlife song is probably Amazing overall.

I spy about five songs I listen to regularly in the next batch, including a trance song that deserved more than a fleeting chart run.

 

But for this batch, I agree again on the top pick. Say My Name is a very strong single that is still heard a lot now and is comfortably Destiny's Child's most popular song on Spotify.

 

I thought Get It On... Tonite was pretty good, interesting that it had an incredibly similar chart run to his single Somethin' 4 Da Honeyz from years earlier.

 

See Ya is catchy and fun but Follow Me was the first single from them that I really enjoyed.

 

Jump Down is ok but B*Witched really faded out quickly there after such a perfect first era, I guess the bubble had burst, those singles certainly weren't up to the same standard as their first few.

 

I don't mind Fool Again, in fact the single remix was pretty good, with a nice intro on the 2000 Remix, but this isn't on Spotify for some reason, nor was it featured on their Greatest Hits, the album version was.

Love Moloko and love The Time Is Now, a 9/10 for sure, as is the Mel C/Lisa Lopez track, added pathos to it after Lisa died so tragically. Santana was a 1999 chart-topper for me before it took off in the UK, another US Florida holiday track and a great comeback with the under-rated Rob Thomas/Matchbox 20 (in the UK) on vocals. I bought the album, and saw Santana way back in 1980 at Knebworth Festival, where they were so laid back hippies were falling asleep while shuffling dancing to the latin rhythms :teresa:

 

Also caught Semisonic back in the day, around about this time or a bit earlier, they were good but this track was 3 based on one play. Primal Scream another great band of the 90's but Kill All Hippies didn't really fit with my sentiments (see Santana comment), 2.

 

Right Before My Eyes is one I've forgotten about and not heard in 24 years, but a strong 9 for me at the time. Need to hear it again! Rewind was better than the Eurovision entry for Precious, a 7/10 I thought. Doves fluttered by without notice but I would come to be appreciative in 2 years time. Feelin' So Good an 8 for J-Lo, and ditto Savage Garden. Good to see me being largely positive about the tracks this time! :cheer:

 

 

 

Say My Name oddly not a fave of mine, a 6, though I was by this time seriously regretting I did a theme park day instead of going to see Destiny's Child do a Mall PA in the Florida Mall, Orlando. I just felt a bit embarrassed that it might be me and 300 teenage girls and didn't want to take the chance... Montell Jordan a strong 6, but Ralph Fridge left me cold. I'm not going to apologise for that quip, deserves a round of applause :teresa:

 

Mixed Business a 6 for Beck, one of his more hits in a long career of hits and misses, Idlewild tickled my fancy only a couple of times, and this wasn't one of them, and Atomic Kitten? See Ya said me too, didnt chart it. Fool Again was in the better tier of Westlife tracks and I give it a firm 7, oooerr!

 

Celine's Roberta cover was lucky to get a 6 from me, but nobody can do it like Roberta sang it in that fab Clint Eastwood stalker film, Play Misty For Me. B*Witched never much of a fan, but this was so dull I didnt bother to chart it, so even worse than To You I Belong. Soulsearcher really didn't do it to me again after their first track grabbed a 5 rating.

This has to be up there with my most fondly remembered groups of chart hits ever: the first ever complete top 6 of new entries, including “The Bad Touch” which wouldn’t peak until several weeks later, and “Amazed” which would go on to spend 17 weeks in the top 40 (very rare in itself) but without ever making the top 20. Even now that would be an impressive run for a hit of its size.

 

It’s also a very strong group of songs: my usual spreading out of scores isn’t quite possible as there’s only one sub par track. At the top it’s “The Bad Touch” which I absolutely love: possibly my favourite ever novelty song if you can call it that. I almost gave it an 10 but realised that would mean giving two 10s in a row (spoiler). And “Flowers” is obviously a huge garage classic, as evidenced by the number of samplings it’s had in chart hits recently.

 

9 The Bloodhound Gang The Bad Touch A unique hit with a brilliant hook and utterly addictive rapped verses, and with delightfully naughty and unrestrained lyrics

9 Sweet Female Attitude Flowers Only Top 40 for this UK garage duo with a chord sequence based on Satie's "Gymnopédies"; a fantastic captivating song

8 Steps Deeper Shade Of Blue Sometimes I don't find that Steps songs convey much emotion but this one absolutely does, and it's also a first rate tune

8 Rank 1 Airwave Only hit for this Dutch trance group: the "I feel you…" part gives it a sensuality and it's a feel good track with a great tune

7 Craig David Fill Me In 855th #1: his solo debut and a really strong and well sung RnB pop song with clever lyrics; just slightly lacking replay value

7 Basement Jaxx Bingo Bango Their 5th Top 20 hit sampling a 1980s Latin track called "Merengue" and successfully combining it with dance elements

6 The Wamdue Project You're The Reason The only follow up to their #1 and this deserved much more as it's just as good with an interesting beat and tempo changes

6 Lonestar Amazed An incredible chart run and I do still enjoy it and think it's very good for its genre, but there's nothing really exciting about it

6 Angie Stone Life Story Debut hit for this US soul singer: her voice is beautifully clear and it's shown off well with this expressive and intimate song

5 Richard Ashcroft A Song For The Lovers His 1st solo hit: I really like how the track builds with the soaring dramatic violins, but the actual song I find a little ordinary

5 Lock 'N' Load Blow Ya Mind Only hit for this dance duo based around a frenetic repeated rapped verse: I love the rap but the track could develop more

4 Cherie Amore I Don't Want Nobody Only hit for this singer and can't find much information about her: her accent is very strong but it's quite a dynamic track

1 Daniel O'Donnell Light A Candle More cheese here than on the pizza I just ate; complete with an unnecessary children's choir and a soppy and stilted melody

 

 

 

2000 Week 16:

 

#170 29/04/2000 Oasis Who Feels Love? 4 {4}-17-28-53-63-53-73-70R(3)->8

#171 29/04/2000 Toni Braxton He Wasn't Man Enough 5 {5}-8-9-14-18-21-30-42-51-48-57->11

#172 29/04/2000 True Steppers Featuring Dane Bowers Buggin' 6 {6}-7-11-21-27-37-48-64->8

#173 29/04/2000 Ricky Martin Featuring Meja Private Emotion 9 {9}-15-16-24-24-29-40-53-72->9

#174 29/04/2000 Cypress Hill Rap Superstar/Rock Superstar 13 {13}-23-27-41-73->5

#175 29/04/2000 TQ Daily 14 {14}-25-33-51-71->5

#176 29/04/2000 Hanson If Only 15 {15}-37-49-72->4

#177 29/04/2000 Mary J. Blige Give Me You 19 {19}-29-35-49->4

#178 29/04/2000 Eagle-Eye Cherry Are You Still Having Fun? 21 {21}-32-40-48->4

#179 29/04/2000 Shola Ama Imagine 24 {24}-43-47-65->4

#180 29/04/2000 Hurley And Todd Sunstorm 38 {38}-51->2

(My Rank from best to least fave)

 

Week 11 Solid bunch overall.

 

Five Don't Wanna Let You Go - one of their best for me.

Moby Natural Blues

Kraftwerk Expo 2000 - some really cool stuff going on in this.

Barbara Tucker Stop Playing With My Mind - quite a funky catchy track.

Coldplay Shiver

Filter Take A Picture - this sounds very Incubus or something like them which is a positive. Does sound familiar tbh.

Tom Jones And Stereophonics Mama Told Me Not To Come

Lulu Where The Poor Boys Dance - was expecting something boring but actually quite decent from Lulu!

Chicane Featuring Bryan Adams Don't Give Up - it's fine but was never crazy on this.

Big Time Charlie Featuring Soozy Q - Mr Devil - average but good vocals and instrumental which is reminds of Armand Van Helden 'You Don't Know Me'.

Chili Hi Fly Is It Love? - too monotonous.

 

Week 12

 

Blink-182 All The Small Things

Dr Dre Featuring Snoop Dogg Still D.R.E. - spoiler, this is popping up in the next survivor ;)

Dario G Voices - this is a gorgeous discovery!

No Doubt Ex-Girlfriend - another great from No Doubt. Deserved a top 10 placing tbh.

Geri Halliwell Bag It Up - This is such a bop despite how naff and corny it is which is an completely justified reason lmao.

Embrace You're Not Alone - their better stuff came in 06 and 2014, not that familiar with Embrace's other songs outside of those two years!

Babybird The F-Word

Will Smith Freakin' It

Mero It Must Be Love

Macy Gray Still - found this rather dull

ATB Killer - pointless remake

 

Week 13

 

Melanie C Featuring Lisa 'Left Eye' Lopes Never Be The Same Again - this and 'Northern Star' are my faves from Mel!

Moloko The Time Is Now - great track, better than 'Sing it Back' for me which I never liked that much!

Precious Rewind

Savage Garden Crash And Burn - I've heard this a lot along with their other tracks as my mum has their album. It's nothing groundbreaking but still nice for me.

M2M Don't Say You Love Me

Semisonic Singing In My Sleep - thought I wouldn't recognise this but I do and it's another good track from them!

Santana Featuring Rob Thomas Smooth - good but overrated for me

Primal Scream Kill All Hippies

N+G Featuring Kallaghan Right Before My Eyes

Jennifer Lopez Featuring Big Pun And Fat Joe Feelin' So Good

Doves The Cedar Room - found this droned on for how long it was.

 

Week 14

 

Atomic Kitten See Ya

Celine Dion The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face - obviously not the best version but still a pretty well done cover from Celine.

Destiny's Child Say My Name

Westlife Fool Again

Ralph Fridge Angel

Montell Jordan Get It On... Tonite - hmm verses and chorus are quite boring to me but some good rhythmic beats and musical stuff going on in there which saves it completely from being ranked lower than here even

B*Witched Jump Down - like most of their stuff but this isn't anything to write home about hence the peak I guess lol.

Beck Mixed Bizness

Soulsearcher Do It To Me Again

Idlewild Actually It's Darkness - boring

 

 

 

'The Bad Touch' production is very Erasure I think!

 

Of the two big garage hits, 'Fill Me In' is good but I prefer 'Flowers', a very nostalgic sounding song now I think.

 

'Bingo Bango' is good fun and summery

 

'Airwave' is great, was covered/sampled in Flip and Fill 'True Love Never Dies' in 2002 so it makes me think of that song.

 

'Blow Ya Mind' could build more I agree.

'

'Amazed' is a nice enough song.

Edited April 10, 20241 yr by TheSnake

Scott Mills plays 'Can't Get Enough' by Soulsearcher on his show sometimes

 

I prefer the Eye to Eye ft Taka Boom cover of the song, a low top 40 chart hit in 2001

A whole host of songs I like since I last commented, although no more from my top 10 of 2000 - these ones made it onto my iPod:

 

'Dancing In The Moonlight' - even in this initial chart run, when it wasn't playlisted by Radio 1, I thought it had potential to be a big favourite

'Shiver' - one of my favourites from Coldplay even now, there's a charming hopefulness about it

'Actually It's Darkness' - Idlewild seemed more interesting than most of their peers at the time and had some great songs, albeit this was their only earlier hit they left out of their set when I saw them at V2001

'Amazed' - that chart run was something else, but a unique sound for those charts and it's held up well

 

I was trying to work out what's bound for a 10 in the next batch as it appeared a bit underwhelming, then realised the ones you posted are for the week after - it should be 22/04/2000 next, and I think I know the one...

'A Song For The Lovers' is ever-so-slightly tainted for me by the weekly SyncTube chart sessions, upon the discovery that the music video has some musical breaks in it where he is having a wee lmao, but a good song discovered on Now 46, love the strings.

 

'Bingo Bango' is great fun with its Latin grooves and carnival feel :wub: I ran a Basement Jaxx singles rate about five years ago and was pleasantly surprised that it did really well in that, finishing 2nd only to 'Red Alert'! Not bad for a single that missed the top 10.

 

My brother really wanted to see Craig David live a while ago and I ended up going with him and had a good time. 'Fill Me In' is one of his best, agree that the lyrics are well-written and the 2-step garage style really suited him. 'Flowers' is another great garage tune! Last year I finally got around to Sarah Harding's autobiography and found out that she was originally supposed to be a member of Sweet Female Attitude but it didn't end up happening, due to having her tonsils out.

 

'Airwave' is a pretty lush trance song. I remember 'True Love Never Dies' thanks to the Now series but somehow never made the sample connection, as per Snake's post, so I'll need to revisit that song as well.

 

I didn't really get 'The Bad Touch' when I was younger but it's grown on me sooooo much over the years and I fully appreciate its madness now :lol: :wub:

Oh my I had just remembered that about the 'A Song For Lovers' video when relistening :lol: it's coming up in the #3 sessions too!

 

Agree that 'Fill Me In' is lyrically great, although "you left all your money on the TV" is an interesting line to have aged with technology :D

My favourite of that bunch by far is Airwave, one of my favourite songs ever and such a refreshing song to see make the top 10, as it's largely an instrumental. I very well remember buying it in Woolies on the week of release, and was somewhat surprised they were even stocking it as it felt quite underground. True Love Never Dies I don't think ever officially acknowledged a sample, and the songwriters of both are different, but it was very clearly based on it as there was an unofficial bootleg going around for ages in 2001

(it wasn't Kylie, sounds nothing like her) and Flip & Fill I guess decided to capitalise.

 

The Bad Touch is legendary, they had quite a few more hits in Europe, and this Eiffel 65 remix was also popular on the continent,

.

 

Deeper Shade of Blue isn't my favourite Steps song but is definitely their most respected hit and I can see why, it's icy cool for them, and obviously a timeless melody (our Eurovision entry this year sounds similar, for example).

 

Flowers is a classic, had never made the link to the chord sequence based on the Satie piece, but definitely hear it now :o

 

Amazed on paper isn't my thing (it's like a country Westlife song, essentially and I think they eventually covered it), but I think I was so in awe of that chart run, and how it ended up doing really well in the end of year chart that year despite never going top 20. It's funny how some country songs like this and How Do I Live used to have quite odd and protracted chart runs, I suppose because airplay was often limited so the public would discover them over a longer stretch of time than was normal at the time.

 

Blow Ya Mind I used to find very annoying, one of the few top 10 dance hits of 2000 that I had no time for.

 

Never heard the Daniel O'Donnell song and a bit scared to listen, but for the sake of wanting to hear everything Julian is reviewing, I will check it out...

Edited April 11, 20241 yr by gooddelta

The Bad Touch is another Florida-hol US radio track I rate, great fun, 9/10 too. Flowers OTOH just annoyed me right off the bat, I couldnt get used to the garage treatment of the classical piece. Deeper Shade Of Blue, though, is Steps' best non-cover until 2012. I give it 7 or 8.

 

Rank-1 means nowt to me, Fill Me In is OK, a 7, but I got fed up hearing it at the time and still haven't gotten over that. Bingo bango a decent 8, but their classic was still 4 years in th future. Wamdue Project, nah, never got them. Lonestar another 8 for me at the time, but again another that hung around for ages and I got fed up hearing - especially given it was huge in the USA as well - so one I still have no desire to hear and would rate it lower these days.

 

Angie Stone is fab, Life Story a strong 8, and Richard Ashcroft a 9 and top 3 for me, picking up where The Verve left off on Song For The Lovers. Lock 'n' Load whoosh, over my head, Cherie Amour a good 7 (but I've forgotten it!), and Daniel O'Donnell for future reference always gets a zero from me for everything he ever did, except for his cover of Singing The Blues in 1994 which got a 2/10 for one week at 75 on my personal charts. Amazingly consistent I must say...!