'Horny 98' was a very cringe and embarrassing song to hear as a 6 year old child at the time as I was in 1998. The brass riff and verses are good though.

'C'est la vie' I preferred back then though!

If memory serves "Viva Forever" was originally intended for a mid June release but Geri leaving put the whole thing back so the screening wasn't, at the time, particularly far ahead of the intended release for the single. it was definitely put back that I recall.

Yes I seem to recall Viva Forever was going to be out in May-in a double A side with Never Give Up On The Good Times (the best Spice Girls single that never was) and I remember the lyrics for Viva Forever appearing in the TOTP magazine for May. It was definitely pushed back. They clearly didn’t want to waste that performance.

I remember singing the chorus for Horny in the playground of my Catholic primary school aged 9 having no idea what the lyrics meant. I bet the teacher found it amusing.

34 minutes ago, T Boy said:

Yes I seem to recall Viva Forever was going to be out in May-in a double A side with Never Give Up On The Good Times (the best Spice Girls single that never was) and I remember the lyrics for Viva Forever appearing in the TOTP magazine for May. It was definitely pushed back. They clearly didn’t want to waste that performance.

I remember singing the chorus for Horny in the playground of my Catholic primary school aged 9 having no idea what the lyrics meant. I bet the teacher found it amusing.

I don't think it could have been May as Geri left on 31/5 (although it was a week or so before in reality) which would have meant that a May release would have seen the promo filmed for the single before she left?!

Horny is kind of clever - double meaning with all the horned instruments in the song.

C’est La Vie is such fun pure pop, so joyous!

The Boy is Mine is superb, shame no TOTP performance.

Glad Feel It eventually got to number 1 - loved it at the time!

My ratings on the top 10:

1- C’EST LA VIE- B*Witched (153,000) (6/10)

Quite OK, but B*Witched never really catched me.

2- THE BOY IS MINE- Brandy & Monica (83,000) (9/10)

One of the trademark songs of 1998 - very good collab.

3- HORNY- Mousse T Vs Hot N Juicy (72,000) (9/10)

Catchy house tune. Always liked it.

4- FEEL IT- The Tamperer Featuring Maya (68,000) (9/10)

Banging house tune - one of the biggest summer tunes in 98.

5- UNDER THE BRIDGE/ LADY MARMALADE- All Saints (38,000) (5/10)

My least favourite All Saints release. Just two boring cover versions and can't stand Lady Marmalade in any version.

6- COME BACK TO WHAT YOU KNOW- Embrace (36,000) (7/10)

Embrace were quite OK, but I prefer their later stuff such as "Gravity".
7- DANCE THE NIGHT AWAY- Mavericks (32,000) (8/10)

Very catchy, even though I am not a big country fan.

8- STRANDED- Lutricia McNeal (31,000) (10/10)

Brilliant. Original is already great but the Baffled Remix is my favourite version.

9- LAST THING ON MY MIND- Steps (29,000) (8/10)

One of the most catchy Steps song.

10- HOW DO I LIVE- LeAnn Rimes (25,000) (9/10)

Another trademark song of 98.

6 hours ago, Jester said:

Horny is kind of clever - double meaning with all the horned instruments in the song.

C’est La Vie is such fun pure pop, so joyous!

The Boy is Mine is superb, shame no TOTP performance.

You say shame no TOTP performance of The Boy Is Mine

I know they don't like spoilers on this thread but I will say that we will see the video to The Boy Is Mine on a future show ( 7 Aug ) when Brandy turns up in the studio for a chat with Jo Whiley.

I make it that C'Est La Vie by B*Witched is the 99th song to go straight in at number 1.

Not much into any of the song in the top 10 right now, only a little bit Embrace

but for me at the time the charts were becoming too decided by teens, which I never felt like that before

too much Aqua, Steps, Bwitched, Spice Girls, Vengaboys, Boyzone etc

Viva Forever is by far my favorite Spice Girls single. I love Mel C's vocals in it.

The Boy is Mine is 'all time' great and up there for my favorite single of 1998. Come Back to What You Know is also top 5 of the year for me.

Caught Top Of The Pops on Friday. Geri facing away from all the girls on Viva Forever, oops! Nice song though.

On 12/09/2025 at 12:54, Jessie Where said:

It's even more of a shame that All Saints denied Madonna, knowing they returned there eventually anyway!

That B*Witched song was truly everywhere at the time, even as a kid who wasn't following music and the charts yet.

I’m the same, it always reminds me of going to my uncles wedding in Cork with my American cousins.

Love that I’ve found this thread. I started getting into music in mid-late 1997, so 1998 was my first full year as a complete music chart nuffy.

On 12/09/2025 at 21:50, TheSnake said:

'Horny 98' was a very cringe and embarrassing song to hear as a 6 year old child at the time as I was in 1998. The brass riff and verses are good though.

'C'est la vie' I preferred back then though!

On 13/09/2025 at 09:32, T Boy said:

I remember singing the chorus for Horny in the playground of my Catholic primary school aged 9 having no idea what the lyrics meant. I bet the teacher found it amusing.

I remember taking my little nephew to the cinema and beforehand we went to Woolworths(!) to get pick n mix, and he was wandering round singing it as he also had no idea what it meant... I was mortified though as everyone was laughing at us!

@TheSnake I definitely don't think I'd have known what it all meant when I was 6 - you must have been very ahead of your years!

I think at the age I was I had a vague idea (or at the very least knew it was something naughty), but obviously still had a lot to learn

I would have had no idea what Horny meant until I was at least 14, and song lyrics often went over my head. 😮

13TH JUNE

After the furore of last week’s new releases the charts settle slightly this week allowing B*Witched to consolidate their position at the top in the face of a 39% sales decrease to 93,000. A slight increase to 76,000 sees Mousse T Vs Hot N Juicy rise 3-2 and Brandy & Monica get squeezed out 2-3 (61,000).

Mariah Carey’s last single “Butterfly” disappointed at No 22 breaking her run of 12 consecutive top 10 hits and caused the plug to be pulled on the “Butterfly” album here which has underperformed with just 220,000 copies sold. Subsequent singles weren’t released here but a strong club reaction to the David Morales remix of the song has convinced the record label to give “My All” a UK release and bang- a new entry at No 4 (49,000). The song has already been a US chart topper- her 13th there where the original version and the so-so def remix being the prominent mixes there. It’s a 14th top 10 hit here and all of them in the 90s, only Michael Jackson (15) and Madonna (23) are ahead of her in that respect.

Proving that N-trance and Clock don’t have the monopoly over taking 70s tracks adding a dance beat and some rap lyrics, British quartet Bus Stop have sampled Carl Douglas’ “Kung Fu Fighting” and got themselves a top ten debut hit. The original made No 1 in 1974 but don’t discount this version progressing, it has so far moved 13-12-11-8 selling 28,000 in its latest frame.

The World Cup starts in a few days and that of course means an influx of football related singles, Chumbawamba at #21, Del Amitri at #15 and the biggest of them all England United at No 9 (26,000). The collective are comprised of members of Space, Spice Girls, Ocean Colour Scene and Echo & The Bunnymen, the latter being significant as the song was written by Ian McCulloch.  The track, which went unreleased by The Bunnymen,  won the backing of the FA as the “Official” song of the England team this time around. As to whether it will be the biggest hit generated by the event we’ll see very shortly, but it does give you an interesting quiz question- the last promo shot by the Spice Girls that included Geri?

The Tamperer fall 4-5 (45,000) as it moves over the 400,000 mark after 8 weeks in the top 5. Both The Mavericks and Lutricia McNeal lose sales but improve in chart placings the former 7-6 (31,000) and the latter 8-7 (29,000), and All Saints finish us off 5-10 (24,000).

Next week we go football crazy!

1- C’EST LA VIE- B”Witched (93,000)
2- HORNY- Mousse T Vs Hot N Juicy (76,000)
3- THE BOY IS MINE- Brandy & Monica (61,000)
4- MY ALL- Mariah Carey (49,000)
5- FEEL IT- Tamperer Featuring Maya (45,000)
6- DANCE THE NIGHT AWAY- Mavericks (31,000)
7- STRANDED- Lutricia McNeal (29,000)
8- KUNG FU FIGHTING- Bus Stop Featuring Carl Douglas (28,000)
9- (HOW DOES IT FEEL TO BE) ON TOP OF THE WORLD- England United (26,000)
10- UNDER THE BRIDGE/ LADY MARMALADE- All Saints (24,000)

Bus Stop is a bit of a guilty pleasure for me and better than the N-Trance and Clock covers.

The Brandy and Monica song is a nice song!

20TH JUNE

As predicted the country goes football mad this week. When the FA asked for song submissions for the official England World Cup theme a proposal to remake “Three Lions” with new lyrics was rejected by them and they instead went for the England United track which falls 9-19 this week. Not to be outdone Baddiel, Skinner and The Lightning Seeds re-recorded the track anyway and “Three Lions 98” debuts atop of the charts this week after selling a mighty 232,075. The lyrics have been updated to include references to the Euro 96 tournament along with samples of the crowd chanting the song and clearly enough of the British public love the song enough to resend it to No 1, the 18th song to top the charts in multiple versions.

Another unofficial World Cup anthem for the England Team comes from Fat Les, a conglomeration of famous faces including Alex James from Blur, the artist Damian Hurst and spearheaded by actor Keith Allen. Allen was of course co-writer of “World In Motion” by Englandneworder (#1, 1990) and “England’s Irie” (#6, 1996) and so has flair for the genre and his current title “Vindaloo” lodges in at No 2 (186,537). The promo (which is a parody of the Verve’s “Bittersweet Symphony”) features comedians Matt Lucas, David Walliams, Rowland Rivron, and Paul Kaye.

If it wasn’t for the World Cup then who would be No 1? Well that would be Five, their third single beats the peak of “Slam Dunk” (#10) and “When The Lights Go Out” (#4) to debut at No 3 (114,000). That strong sale should indicate that the group have quickly amassed a considerable following, they’ve turned to Swedish production house Cheiron to give them their sound, they also help out Backstreet Boys and Robyn and it certainly worked. The lads will release their debut album in a fortnight- expect a chart topper!

Getting in on the World Cup action too are Dario G who finally follow up “Sunchyme” with new single “Carnival De Paris”. The song is inspired by a football chant which started in Holland and was bought back by fans of Sheffield Wednesday then quickly spread, it’s an appropriation of the song “Oh My Darling Clementine” and is deemed good enough to arrive at No 5 (80,000).  It debuts at No 1 north of the boarder by a margin of 3:1 by way of trivia.

Norman Cook is certainly something of a musical chameleon having scored hits as part of The Housemartins, Beats International, Freak Power, Pizzaman, Mighty Dub Katz, and has now gone solo under the name Fatboy Slim. In addition to this work he’s remixed Wildchild and Cornershop this year giving them both top 3 hits and finally finds himself in the top 10 as a solo act for the first time. Comprised of several samples with the vocal hook lifted from Lord Finesse’s “Vinyl Dog Vibe” the single “Rockerfella Skank” is new at No 6 (67,000) and will feature on the second album from Slim due before Christmas.

Des’ree has always been one of those artists whose hits have always been more popular at radio than in shops. In part it explains why many of her hits have been bigger chart events the second time around as radio refuses to let them die. First single “Feel So High” (#51, 1991) made No 13 in early 1992 and then “You Gotta Be” (#20, 1994) made No 14 a year later after becoming a hit in the US. Third album “Supernatural” is out in a few weeks and first single is called “Life” which instantly becomes her biggest single at No 8 (44,000), the single has drawn fire from some over its rather banal lyrics and rhyming ghost and toast together rather pointlessly- but any publicity is good publicity it seems.

B*Witched increase sales as they fall 1-4 (102,000) and mark the first time in over 16 years that the top four records in any week each sold six digits outside of the Christmas period, we’re in a golden period for sales it would appear. Mousse T Vs Hot N Juicy hurtle 2-7 (53,000) but stay ahead of Brandy & Monica who fall 3-9 (41,000) and the Mavericks who are down 6-10 (31,000). A reminder that the Tamperer made No 1 just 3 weeks ago on a sale which would have placed them just 8th this week!


1- 3 LIONS 98- Baddiel/ Skinner/ Lightning Seeds (232,075)
2- VINDALOO- Fat Les (186,537)
3- GOT THE FEELING- Five (114,000)
4- C’EST LA VIE- B*Witched (102,300)
5- CARNIVAL DE PARIS- Dario G (80,000)
6- THE ROCKAFELLA SKANK- Fatboy Slim (67,000)
7- HORNY- Mousse T vs Hot N Juicy (53,000)
8- LIFE- Des’ree (44,000)
9- THE BOY IS MINE- Brandy & Monica (41,000)
10- DANCE THE NIGHT AWAY- Mavericks (31,000)

The song that started my obsession with Jay from Five.......................