4 minutes ago, Julian_ said:

Modjo and Ronan about right (easily Ronan’s best song). S Club would be quite a bit lower in mine - “Reach” and “Don’t Stop Moving” are their only 2 great contributions to music for me!

Agreed on Ronan, although he tried to pull the same trick again with Lovin' Each Day which I'd happily give 7 to. Other than that his solo career really was not great.

That's fair. I did like them, before Paul left and it all went a bit autopilot, and I would definitely include this in their pantheon of pop classics but definitely get why it's not for everyone.

13. LeAnn Rimes - Can't Fight The Moonlight

Rate: 8.5/10

Reason: Still leaving the door open for potential doube top tens from Eminem, All Saints and Melanie C, at unlucky No.13 we give a big Coyote Ugly welcome to LeAnn Rimes, who recorded this Diane Warren track for the soundtrack to that film. I definitely switched off from the pre-release hype of this song, I expected it to chart at No.3/4 behind a big No.1 for Daft Punk's seminal One More Time (which I bought that week), but in fact it was LeAnn who prevailed over the French duo with an unexpectedly straight pop song that was quite a surprise for me after her usual country releases. But I can't deny the brilliant Trevor Horn production and Diane Warren songwriting combo, it's an effortless single that's still heard today that gave LeAnn a big popstar moment and only No.1, and I loved the chart run in the top 10: 1-2-3-5-6-7-8 although another song to come has an even funnier run than that.

Edited yesterday at 10:091 day by gooddelta

Modjo is my favourite to drop out today so far ❤️ it's overplayed for sure yet the charms of its French house grooves and warm lyrics still haven't waned for me. It's one of those dance songs like 'Lola's Theme' that particularly shines on a hot summer day. Better get it on the barbecue playlist in a couple of hours!

'Can't Fight The Moonlight' is a strong pop moment also. It was interesting to read your insight on how you expected the chart to pan out that week!

15 hours ago, Last Dreamer said:

Your rating scores are so high, I gave 7/10 for Against All Odds and it's enough for 7th place.

7/10 is way too low if we're talking about a scale of torture.

“7 Days” is still Craig’s best and I bought the single. The chorus is slightly gimmicky yet works, but it’s the verses I really love.

“Can’t Fight The Moonlight” is great and has grown on me over time: that dramatic intro is really special.

Modjo's is one of those I bought - I had hoped it to be higher, but it is of a similar template to Stardust's #2 of 1998, while the best French house song of the year for me is the Daft Punk one that was held off #1 by LeAnn Rimes!

'Rise' and 'Music' I'd also take over some of the 12 which are left - the latter is probably my favourite post-1980s Madonna #1, though that's pretty much sacrilege on this site (as is my general indifference to the song which may or may not top this list, but we'll see...) though there is one left I'm particularly pleased is still here.

12. Eminem - The Real Slim Shady

Rate: 8.5/10

Reason: Following his huge debut album, Eminem was in prime position to open at No.1 with almost anything with the hype generated for The Marshall Mathers LP, but the US rapper decided lived up to the mass hype with a run of instant classic singles on this album. Like My Name Is before it and the likes of Without Me, Just Lose It, Crack A Bottle, and Houdini after, this was one of Eminem's tongue-in-cheek/funny lead singles, many of which went 'viral', in as much as you could in the days of dial-up internet, due to the lyrics, an earworm of a chorus, typically brilliant rap flow and a memorable music video. This single in particular saw Eminem on blistering form, letting us all know that while everyone wanted to be like him, there was only one Slim Shady. While being a product of its time with namechecks for the likes of Christina Aguilera and Fred Durst, it is still a hugely popular single with over 2 billion Spotify streams, and featured the brilliant top 10 chart run: 1-2-3-4-5-7-8-10. Yet, he still had better to come in 2000.

11. Sonique - It Feels So Good

Rate: 8.5/10

Reason: Sonia Clarke, aged 35 when she topped the chart with It Feels So Good and with a decade in the music industry behind her, had waited a long time for her glory days. It Feels So Good's own success was not overnight either, it was first released in 1998 where it peaked at No.24, in a slightly different version with production more similar to her take on I Put A Spell On You, you can hear it charting the first time around about five minutes into this.

I'm a big fan of strings in dance music, but actually, I prefer this 2000 version of It Feels So Good with the strings over the chorus removed, it brings the great production of the bassline, Sonique's effortless vocal, and the wonderful melody to the fore, rather than being drowned under strings, which could still be heard in all the right moments in the hit mix. This was a really refreshing dance record to hit No.1, and was so popular that it spent three weeks at the top - a record for 2000 - seeing off S Club 7's mammoth pop classic Reach for every one of those three weeks no less, and going top ten in the US. It ended up in the top three sellers of the year and Sonique followed it up with another decent record in Sky, which went to No.2.

So here are my top 10 No.1s of 2000, there is probably a questionable choice or three in here for some people but it's not based on anything other than my personal taste, so any attempt at objectivity has gone out the window here I'm afraid. I will say that all ten of these songs I love, I would score 9/10 or higher, were among my favourite songs of the year, hold various memories for me, and I still play them a lot to this day.

All Saints - Black Coffee

All Saints - Pure Shores

Britney Spears - Oops! I Did It Again

Eminem - Stan

Fragma - Toca's Miracle

Madison Avenue - Don't Call Me Baby

Melanie C - I Turn To You

Melanie C feat Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes - Never Be The Same Again

Spiller feat Sophie Ellis-Bextor - Groovejet (If This Ain't Love)

The Corrs - Breathless

“The Real Slim Shady” I bought and still love: the flow of it is fantastic.

Poor Sonique: I reckon she deserves Top 5. That’s a truly magical dance pop record.

It’s a stellar Top 10 though - “Breathless” is the weakest but I am fond of even that.

Poor Sonique but still it's hard to rank these left. Madison probably the weakest remaining for me.

I think that Corrs will be number one here.

My top 3 : both Britney songs and "Bag It Up".

It Feels So Good is my least favourite single from 2000 year.

I find 'Life Is a Rollercoaster' really annoying and his voice extremely unpleasant, pretty much unbearable.

Predicting a landslide win for All Saints to come, in the form of a soundtrack single from this movie;

10. Britney Spears - Oops!... I Did It Again

Rank: 9/10

Reason: I think I first saw the title of Oops!... I Did It Again written down before hearing it and thought it might be a bit of a jumping the shark moment for Britney as it looked so random on paper, but of course it wasn't. Max Martin, Rami Yacoub and Britney read the room perfectly with the first single from her second album - of the same name - which really took the sound heard on her debut album and elevated it in every way, becoming an instant classic and proving that she would not be a one album wonder and definitely was here to stay.

Oops! has that classic Cheiron piano style, was very knowing lyrically - as a lot of that album was, like Lucky and Stronger too - in the way that you could relate certain lyrics and song titles to Britney's awareness of her huge position and stardom at this moment. This, along with *NSYNC's Bye Bye Bye were maybe the point Cheiron (that's the last mention for them in this thread!) couldn't possibly outdo themselves any further with this particular sound, and after 2000 they started going their separate ways and/or moving into more beat-driven R&B styles. But 1997-2000 really was such a golden era for this style of pop music and Britney lead the way with her first two albums, including this song which is very nearly a Spotify billionaire! Further kudos for that great Titanic reference in the middle eight, and the fantastic music video.

9. Melanie C - I Turn To You

Rate: 9/10

Reason: Melanie C was always my favourite member of the Spice Girls personally, purely because she BROUGHT the vocals each and every time, even on the limp Headlines she delivered her vocal like her life depended on it. But her infectious personality and cool Sporty Spice persona didn't hurt either. When she went solo from Spice Girls she launched her career (Bryan Adams collaboration When You're Gone aside) with the very unusual choice of Goin' Down, a brash marmite single with punk influences that almost derailed the album campaign before it started. Luckily she had several aces up her sleeve on the brilliant album, starting with ballad Northern Star, and then R&B/pop duet Never Be The Same Again with Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes (which will come later).

Following up that wouldn't be easy but she pulled it off by genre hopping once more (seriously, how many other pop singers called on so many different genres for their first four solo releases? The versatility!). What was a beautiful etheral ballad on the album, I Turn To You was remixed by American producer Hex Hector into a storming trance/pop monster. Both versions are great, but this completely makes sense as a single remix, Mel's vocal is excellent of course, but the production is a real star, with sweeping strings and a great dance breakdown in the middle eight before it slams back to Mel to conclude her unexpected Ibiza club anthem and second No.1 single of the year.

Fun story: when Mel was promoting this single, she came to Brighton for our 'Party In The Park' concert in summer 2000. Her driver must have got lost on the way and asked Mel to phone somebody for directions, presumably a local taxi company? Our house phone number back then was one digit away from the local taxi firm so we got 3 or 4 calls a week asking for a taxi when somebody misdialled. Anyway, the phone rang on this Sunday afternoon and somebody was asking for directions to the park the concert was happening at as they couldn't find it (this was a pre SatNav and smartphone era). As I often did when somebody had been on the phone, I said to my Mum who had answered, 'who was that?' and she said 'it was Melanie C, I know that accent anywhere!'. Which is a story she likes to still trot out constantly.

What a gem of a song that Melanie C song is! Such a beaut! It was probably the highlight of Now 47 for me at the time.

“Oops…” is one of only a handful of Britney songs that I still really love. The structure is nothing inventive but it manages to be dramatic and playful.

Surprised at the Mel C order but that’s a fair position.

8. Melanie C feat Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes - Never Be The Same Again

Rate: 9/10

Reason: After two singles landing at No.4, the second considerably more successful than the first, Melanie C's upward trajectory continued when she released the inspired single Never Be The Same Again. A collaboration with the late rapper Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes from TLC, who had very recently appeared on No.2 hit U Know What's Up by Donnell Jones, getting Lisa was quite a coup but then Melanie C was one fifth of the mighty Spice Girls, who were a very big deal indeed, including in the US.

Given a slight remix from the album version to make the production feel even tighter and cooler, this was an R&B tinged pop song about two friends acknowledging their chemistry and is just effortlessly good, with calm but assured vocals from Mel and her ability to really sing the story in the verses complementing Left Eye's timeless rap style perfectly, and the chorus has such great singalong appeal. The track doesn't reinvent the wheel, it is just two artists in their prime fusing their unique individual musical and vocal styles together to deliver a brilliant package. It was Mel C's first solo No.1, selling nearly 150k on its week of release, and very nearly got a second week at the top but Westlife just got past her with Fool Again in the end.

7. All Saints - Black Coffee

Rate: 9/10

Reason: Where Spice Girls were the biggest girlband of the 90s, All Saints were the coolest. Arriving on the charts in 1997 with the fun I Know Where It's At, they quickly released the sublime Never Ever before putting out a couple of other No.1 hits in 1998. Come 2000 it was time for the return of Shaznay, Mel, Nicole and Natalie, and Pure Shores (still to come) couldn't really have given them any better a comeback. Such was the dominance of that single on the airwaves, we had to wait no fewer than eight months for the follow-up, Black Coffee. A cool fusion of pop, R&B and acid techno (?) according to Wikipedia (which must be due to the squelching synthesizer), Black Coffee was for once not written by Shaznay or other band members, but three other songwriters. It was, though, again produced by William Orbit and you could hear his trademark production style all over this sublime song, which is so chilled that it makes me want to reach for a black coffee.

The track employs that technique I love of the intro being repeated later in the song (in this case it is also the outro) while the rest of the song gives the gorgeous instrumental plenty of time to breathe, but also allows the band to show off their beautiful harmonies throughout. Sadly, the end was near (until 2006's Rock Steady return), due to fractions within the band, but what a legacy they left with these first two albums and their singles alone. Believe it or not, this wasn't even my favourite single released that week. It went in at No.1 ahead of the trance classic Silence by Delerium and Sarah McLachlan, which debuted and peaked at No.3. So that was a good week for music.