Drowned World is one of my favourite Madonna songs, it’s such an unlikely single but I love that she was brave enough to go with it. It may not have been a huge seller but I do think it helped sell the concept that the Ray of Light album was much more of an artistic statement that could appeal to a different audience.

I also really love that Sheryl Crow track, it’s such an underrated single of hers. The album in general is also underrated, easily my favourite of hers.

Great couple of shows for me, high nostalgia value. Friday 4th September the first one was screened - that may well be the actual day I started secondary school, as the date sticks in my head. It's one of the rare occasions where I really like every song in the top ten.

The Manics single is, of course, brilliant, but I wish there had been a chance at the top for Steps too - that is still one of their very best singles, and they were growing so much. Impressive to have the top three all on 129k+.

Finally Found is a beauty, such a lovely ballad, God Is A DJ has a great riff and unlucky not to make the top five with those sales, and Drowned World (Substitute For Love) is gorgeous. Indeed, a brave third single choice when The Power Of Goodbye and Nothing Really Matters (and Sky Fits Heaven, which never got its moment) were sitting on the album.

The second week wasn't quite as strong - not really fond of Bootie Call at all (making it two poor singles in a row from an otherwise great group), and Everybody Get Up was a bit shouty for me, although a good use of sample. I love how I never really noticed at the time about how pretty much all of their singles are about getting up and/or getting down, was it an in joke to feature up/down in nearly every song 🤣

Crush is a classic <3 Deserved better than No.4 and Jennifer Paige deserved more than to be a one hit wonder, I love the lyrics, the guy falling for her and she's like 'whatever, it's not deep'.

Also outside the top ten two strong classics emerging in the form of Hole and Aerosmith, interesting that the latter debuted outside the top ten and grew in popularity, I guess it does feel like the sort of track by an older/classic act that would benefit from the double whammy of airplay exposure and people seeing the film. I know several people who call the track their all-time favourite song. It's extremely overwrought, especially some of the vocals towards the end, but it is a classic track, and Aerosmith are one of so many rock bands whose biggest hit was a ballad.

2 minutes ago, gooddelta said:

Also outside the top ten two strong classics emerging in the form of Hole and Aerosmith

Oh yes Hole completely slipped my mind when responding to this thread, 'Celebrity Skin' is fantastic, such a burst of energy on that TOTP episode!

Feels a lot more impactful than its #19 peak would suggest and especially an #85 peak in the U.S. *_*

(now you've really made it...!)

So that All Saints single literally got to #1 because it was being sold cheaply? I did always think it was somewhat an "odd" number one!

So many great nostalgic pop hits.

One For Sorrow, Finally Found, Everybody Get Up & Crush.

3 hours ago, gooddelta said:

I know several people who call the track their all-time favourite song.

It was my favorite song for most of my childhood!

I didn't like If You Tolerate This for a long time. I thought they'd messed up their chance of a number 1. The album was ok.

For years I assumed that the Bootie Call/Everybody Get Up top 2 were down to fan base purchasing first week given both collapse straight after. I still think that and the cheap price is what gave Bootie Call the no.1. I don’t have time for Everybody Get Up yet so many view it as peak Five (Keep On Movin and Got The Feeling have that title for me)

Of course, at the time my conservative mother was outraged Mel Blatt performed with her stomach on show due to her pregnancy.

I remember the launch of CD:UK was huge. It replaced the Chart Show that we all watched on a Saturday morning after Live and Kicking but Ant and Dec launching a Saturday morning kids show with a chart show tagged on to the end? People were curious and rightly so!

The Manics ❤️ that song will never be old and unfortunately probably even more relevant today than it was in 1998.

bootie Call is an odd one for me as it only got to #59 in Australia.

Though I remember it from Hitlist UK and the Top of the Pops magazine I use to get from my newsagents. They imported it though, so it was always 2-3 months behind.

I dislike Manics song.

"One For Sorrow" was # 1 in my chart, after it Hole.

I wonder how Sheryl felt about Jamie calling her "top transatlantic totty! " On the 12th September show,

The Manics greatest single for me ❤️

19TH SEPTEMBER

Knocking your fiancée off the top spot can’t make him popular at home but that’s just what Robbie Williams does this week deposing his current Beau Nicole Appleton from the All Saints from the No 1 spot. The James Bond borrowing hit “Millennium” takes a nice chunk of the John Barry tune “You Only Live Twice” and puts it into a different key to convince 140,000 buyers to purchase the single last week and give the former Take That star his first solo chart topper. He’s been hyping the track and the album all over the summer and now it’s time to deliver and he hasn’t disappointed with the single at least, the James Bond theme is carried over into the promo and sets the album nicely for its release next month.

This year’s “Coco Jambo”? Well that could very well be T-Spoon’s “Sex On The Beach” already a major European hit has been championed by The Box channel and with those returning holiday makers now enters at No 2 (68,000). The Dutch outfit have been going since 1993 producing a string of hits in their homeland before finally scoring this international hit.

Aside from the top 2 there are no other new entries to discuss but it’s been a big week for Irish pop. On Tuesday B*Witched’s “C’est La Vie” overtook Boyzone’s “Father And Son” as the biggest selling single ever by an Irish act but one day later the boys were back on top with “No Matter What” which shifted another 62,000 and holds at No 3. That takes its tally to 876,000 and is likely to be a million seller in the near future, they don’t have it all their own way as they slip from the top in the album charts ceding top spot to fellow patriots The Corrs.

The Honeyz improve sales marginally (57,000) but drive 7-4 to reach a new peak! In the process they shove Jennifer Paige 4-5 (53,000) but Steps hold up well at #6 (48,000). Experiencing the biggest fall from the top since Michael Jackson 15 months ago, All Saints dip 1-7 (46,000), they still stay ahead of last week’s big rivals Five who are themselves sliding 2-8 (42,000). Stardust slip 8-9 (41,000) lifting their tally to 473,000, Savage Garden meanwhile cling on at No 10 (34,000) but their album continues to make great steps rising 3-2 with only The Corrs to overcome now.


1- MILLENNIUM- Robbie Williams (140,000)
2- SEX ON THE BEACH- T-Spoon (68,000)
3- NO MATTER WHAT- Boyzone (62,000)
4- FINALLY FOUND- The Honeyz (57,000)
5- CRUSH- Jennifer Paige (53,000)
6- ONE FOR SORROW- Steps (48,000)
7- BOOTIE CALL- All Saints (46,000)
8- EVERYBODY GET UP- Five (42,000)
9- MUSIC SOUNDS BETTER WITH YOU- Stardust (41,000)
10- TO THE MOON AND BACK- Savage Garden (34,000)

26TH SEPTEMBER




“Viva Forever” remains top 40 this week but it seems that the sentiment may just be a passing one as the first solo Spice Girls arrives on the market. Whilst touring the US this year Mel B was contacted by US Rapper Missy Elliott to ask if she wanted to record a track with her which Elliott had written for the Frankie Lymon biopic “Why Do Fools Fall In Love”. She jumped at the chance and we get “I Want You Back”. Recorded in just a day it’s difficult to see what Mel B could have contributed to the writing of the song but she gets a co-credit with Elliott who also produces the song which makes its debut at No 1 (86,500). It is Elliott’s first UK top 10 single and as noted a first for Mel Gulzar (as she is now having married last week). It’s also the 21st track to debut at No 1 this year equaling the record set last year and one which will undoubtedly be broke before the year end, but it does denote one record- a record 11th consecutive No 1 to debut there! (honourable mention to 1997 which did feature 11 debuting No 1's but did include a return to the top for Puff Daddy).

Diane Warren seems to be in the middle of a period of popularity at present have penned LeAnn Rimes’ “How Do I Live” (still in the top 40 after 30 weeks on release) and now Aerosmith’s “I Don’t Wanna Miss A Thing” which has had an unusual chart run so far of 12-14-8. The band have been knocking around since the early 70s scoring their first US top 40 single way back in 1975 but were absent from our chart until 1986 when the collaboration with Run DMC on “Walk This Way” gifted them a No 8 hit. The 90s have been kinder to them granting them 15 chart hits without getting into the top flight but now they break their fast in style. “I Don’t Wanna Miss A Thing” features in the blockbuster “Armageddon” which features (fortuitously) Steve Tyler’s daughter Liv and ended the 13 week run at the top of the US charts by Brandy & Monica, it remains No 1 there for a fourth week but equals their biggest UK hit now selling 35,000 copies last week.

A third top 10 single on the trot for Lutricia McNeal arrives at No 9 (32,000) in “Someone Loves You Honey”, a cover of a Johnny Rodriguez 1974 track made into a US Country No 1 by Charlie Pride in 1978. Never a hit here it finally makes the chart for McNeal whose album peaked at No 16 but is now back up 67-43 in response to this hit.

Robbie Williams put up a brave defence to his chart crown but relents 1-2 (75,000) and pushes T-Spoon 2-3 (54,000), the latter suffering seemingly from lack of exposure after TOTP decided the lyrics were too raunchy to be shown on the Friday watershed episode and instead only featured it on the late night repeat of the show.

Jennifer Page is proving big on the airplay chart and rebounds 5-4 (46,000) though she loses sales and Boyzone brush past 3-5 (41,000) as “No Matter What” glides through the 900,000 mark. Honeyz fade 4-6 (39,000) with Steps descending 6-7 (38,000) as their debut album is beaten to the top by the Manics in a repeat run of the singles battle three weeks ago. Rounding us off are Savage Garden who hold at No 10 (28,000).


1- I WANT YOU BACK- Mel B Featuring Missy Elliott (86,500)
2- MILLENNIUM- Robbie Williams (75,000)
3- SEX ON THE BEACH- T-Spoon (54,000)
4- CRUSH- Jennifer Paige (46,000)
5- NO MATTER WHAT- Boyzone (41,000)
6- FINALLY FOUND- Honeyz (39,000)
7- ONE FOR SORROW- Steps (38,000)
8- I DON’T WANNA MISS A THING- Aerosmith (35,000)
9- SOMEONE LOVES YOU HONEY- Lutricia McNeal (32,000)
10- TO THE MOON AND BACK- Savage Garden (28,000)

Honeyz really sold consistently well , still love this song.

Drowned World is one of my all time fav Madonna songs.

I didn’t realise how consistent Honeyz were with Finally Found. It’s a great song, as is End Of The Line.

Millennium was so massive at the time, especially on the radio, but I don't hear it so much anymore, clever use of sample and title (everyone was talking about the millennium at the time). Sex On The Beach I always found a bit annoying and very dated sounding, it felt like it should have been a 1996/early 97 hit, but I do remember it being everywhere at the time.

Good to see Finally Found, Crush, One For Sorrow and To The Moon and Back were all hanging around. And Aerosmith on their way up although that performance they keep playing is rough quality to watch, I always forget how bad satellite streams looked back in the 90s.

I was not much a fan of I Want You Back, a bit repetitive and flat as the first solo Spice No.1 for me, although parts of the production are good. I don't remember it being played a lot at the time so guess it had a lot of name power getting it to the top.

Love Someone Loves You Honey. I saw a lot of people on Twitter last night saying it copied I Wanna Be The Only One by Eternal - I can hear similarities but this song was a cover of a much older song anyway as mentioned, and just produced in Lutricia's usual style, so I don't think it's as cynical as people think.

The two best debuts this week for me were just outside the top ten, but both lingered around for a few weeks - The Incidentals by Alisha's Attic is such a beauty, but yet another 11-15 peaking hit for them. They were so underrated, there's no reason this shouldn't have gone top ten. You can hear the songwriting skills here that would lead Karen Poole to such success as a songwriter in the future, and Shelley has such a lovely voice.

And sequenced next to it on Now 41, Deetah's lovely Relax, which I constantly forget about as it wasn't even on Yearbook or Extra '98 to remind people of it. Such a good use of sample from Dire Straits, and a cool rap reminiscent of Betty Boo, with a nice chorus - another Swedish hit from 1998.

BBC4 showed the Saturday late night repeat of the 19th Sept show at 1am this morning which included T-Spoon singing Sex On The Beach instead of a repeat of Steps.

Kate also did a separate intro to mention T-Spoon.

It's on i-player.

Edited November 8Nov 8 by mrpopquiz

It is funny to me that Sex On The Beach was deemed to be too risque to show on the main programme back in 1998, what if it had gone one place higher? Surely it was no different to playing I Wanna Sex You Up.

I don’t think the BBC genuinely thought the Sex On The Beach lyrics were too raunchy, my memory is that after it was played on the chart, busybody parents wrote in demanding it not be shown on Top Of The Pops. But you’re right, would they have given in if it had gotten to no.1? Luckily they just had to put up with Robbie Williams in a see through dress 😂