Very much liking The Coral and Muse too.

Never cared for Lostprophets thankfully so never had to do the big deletion of files. Not bothered about the Chilis either but they have a few decent tracks even if they're awful people.

Bill McCai always felt like a modern update of Excerpt From a Teenage Opera by Keith West. A very upbeat, catchy tune about someone dying.

This has just inspired my next playlist - Death Discs, as they were called in the 60s.

I love Hysteria, it's still one of my favourite Muse tracks now. There's just something really quite driving about the way it progresses and the warped guitar hook is really catchy for me.

A top Muse track there. Worthy of being a #1 definitely. Love The Darkness Christmas offering as well!

23 - 22/12/2003 Outkast - Hey Ya!

Chart Run: 10-08-05-05-03-02-01-01-02-05-07-10-12-11-13-14-16-15-16-20-24-29-35-40 (24 weeks)

A rarity in the first few years of a song which took a few weeks to peak at the top. In the UK chart it would gradually fall over the Christmas period before climbing back up and re-peaking well into 2024, but for me it was something I'd barely heard before release and I kept enjoying more and more before it hit the top. Looking back I'm surprised it overtook The Darkness before Christmas, but I did love it. I ended up buying Speakerboxx/The Love Below album, but couldn't ever really get into either of them.

It went on to become one of the biggest and well known hits of the decade and deservedly so. It's not something I've ever got bored of and can't see ever happening. It's always sounded great and still does, one of the songs of the decade. Ending 2023 on a high.

2025 Rating: 10/10

Unsurprisingly, it didn't hold anything off the top, with the three previous number one singles taking up the other spots in the top 3 across this fortnight.

2023 Rank and Review

23 songs which took in a big range of quality. A trio of my all time favourites to a few that I wouldn't be bothered if I never heard again, but that's probably to be expected given we're going back 22 years to the year I turned 14, with mostly decent stuff in between - 16/23 are good and I still enjoy which is a solid enough ratio. What I've realised is that 2003 was far from a vintage year for music, it's not like there were loads of songs that I charted in the top 10 that I was loving where I think it's a shame I wasn't talking about those instead, popular sounds of the early part of the decade were losing their way, and the wave of indie that'd take over not quite yet hitting. The list of UK number ones is as 'meh' as you can get (although it is definitely better than '04), with only Crazy in Love holding any real fondness for me now.

It strikes me as there being a lack of variety in this list, the vast majority being male-fronted indie/rock, but am not too surprised and that doesn't change anytime soon, and whilst their were excellent albums released in '03 that went on to become big favourites of mine (Elbow - Cast of Thousands, The Knife - Deep Cuts and the Ben Gibbard fronted duo of Death Cab for Cutie - Transatlanticism and The Postal Service - Give Up), that just wasn't music that a 14 year old in 2003 was ever likely to hear. Anyway, here's how I'd rank the 23 songs:

1. The Libertines - Don't Look Back Into The Sun

2. Outkast - Hey Ya!

3. Blur - Out of Time

4. Coldplay - Clocks

5. Foo Fighters - Times Like These

6. The Chemical Brothers feat. The Flaming Lips - The Golden Path

7. The Coral - Bill McCai

8. Foo Fighters - Low

9. The White Stripes - 7 Nation Army

10. Linkin Park - Numb

11. Jane's Addiction - Just Because

12. Lemon Jelly - Nice Weather For Ducks

13. Junior Senior - Move Your Feet

14. Muse - Hysteria

15. The Strokes - 12:51

16. The Darkness - Christmas Time (Don't Let The Bells End)

17. Metallica - St. Anger

18. Good Charlotte - Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous

19. The Thrills - Big Sur

20. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Fortune Faded

21. Funeral For a Friend - Juneau

22. Stereophonics - Madame Helga

23. Lostprophets - Burn Burn

Thanks to everyone who's been reading and interacting with this for the past month, I have enjoyed doing it and nice to see others thoughts. I shall start with 2004 tomorrow, which somewhat shockingly begins with a song sung by an actual woman!

24 - 05/01/2004 Basement Jaxx feat. Lisa Kekuala 'Good Luck'

Chart Run 01-02-02-04-06-07-10-10-12-14-15-18-21-26-34-39 (16 weeks)

Released in the first week of 2004, it was a fresh look at the top following the usual post-Christmas chart lull. Basement Jaxx had probably been the mainstream dance act I'd enjoyed the most in the few years previous to this, so was no particular shock their next release would enter at the top, with a vocal I loved provided by US singer Lisa Kekaula. Despite being a reasonably sized UK hit it was released again in the summer and ended up having a slightly worse peak and chart run.

I still think they have an excellent collection of singles, and this is definitely one of them. It's not my favourite Basement Jaxx song, but it still sounds great.

2025 Rating: 8/10

Hey Ya! stuck at #2, but there were a few entries towards the top, with UK top 3 hits Boogie Pimps - Somebody To Love and Kelis - Milkshake both reaching my top 10.

Edited September 22Sep 22 by RabbitFurCoat

'Hey Ya!' is my favourite top 40 hit of 2003 so I agree with the 10/10 rating love its boundless energy, quotable lines and genre-blending. Legendary video also!

2004 is off to a strong start too as a big Basement Jaxx fan 🙌 'Good Luck' might be less kooky than usual and instead more soulful but still a good sound for them.

25 - 12/01/2004 Franz Ferdinand - Take Me Out

Chart Run: 01-01-02-02-01-02-02-03-04-05-06-09-13-17-20-25-31-40 (18 weeks)

Ah, the great wave of indie begins. At the beginning of 2004 this was all over the radio, and became a big hit, reaching #3 in the UK and setting others up for similar success over the course of the rest of 2004. There was no question it was going to the top for me, and 8 weeks in the top 3 shows how much I loved it. I bought their debut album on release and loved it, full of excellent songs and incredibly varied.

Take Me Out has remained a huge favourite song of mine. The opening riff and minute long intro is still incredible, before it belts into the catchy sing-a-long hit. I still have to rank it as one of my favourite songs of this type and era, just utterly superb. Franz Ferdinand in general were great too, whilst not hitting the heights of their debut album the rest of their output has remained at least solid with some decent singles on, including this years most recent album, and Alex Kapranos is good to listen to talk, just an excellent band and entry all round. They deserve to have one of the most well regarded songs of the era.

2025 Rating: 10/10

Its three weeks at the top were ahead of previous number ones, so nothing immediately kept off. Maroon 5 - Harder To Breathe and The Strokes - Reptilia were the highest other entries over these weeks.

Edited September 22Sep 22 by RabbitFurCoat

On 21/09/2025 at 16:34, RabbitFurCoat said:

I shall start with 2004 tomorrow, which somewhat shockingly begins with a song sung by an actual woman!

The main act is still two men though!

My faves from your 2003 list:

01 Blur - Out of Time

02 Lemon Jelly - Nice Weather For Ducks

03 Junior Senior - Move Your Feet

04 The White Stripes - 7 Nation Army

05 Outkast - Hey Ya!

06 Muse - Hysteria

07 The Strokes - 12:51

08 The Chemical Brothers feat. The Flaming Lips - The Golden Path

09 The Libertines - Don't Look Back Into The Sun

10 Foo Fighters - Times Like These

All ten of those are great. Didn't comment at the time but that Strokes single is quite possibly my favourite of theirs, even though I agree it isn't as well remembered now... and Hey Ya! is a definite classic that should get irritating but never has for me either, it's one of the most joyous songs ever written imo.

Great start to your 2004 recap, both of those are great. Basement Jaxx really did have a huge amount of great pop/dance tracks and Good Luck is definitely one of them. Take Me Out is an all time classic, definitely a 10/10 track.

1 hour ago, dandy* said:

Great start to your 2004 recap, both of those are great. Basement Jaxx really did have a huge amount of great pop/dance tracks and Good Luck is definitely one of them.

The Basement Jaxx - Good Luck chorus production sounds ahead of its time, reminds me of Sigma and Paloma - Changing, also a bit Rudimental-esque.

Edited September 22Sep 22 by TheSnake

26 - 26/01/2004 Lostprophets - Last Train Home

Chart Run: 01-01-02-03-03-05-09-11-12-14-17-19-21-26-30 (15 weeks)

Not long after their previous appearance, here they are again. I can't deny I was a fan of theirs and it was a very accessible rock song with a catchy chorus.

Unlike Burn Burn, Last Train Home is something I'd still get some enjoyment out of listening to, but the majority of that has been taken away simply by who it is. It's really difficult to do a 2025 rating, it's a solid 7/10 song but that just feels wrong. Is it a cop-out to leave it unrated? Thankfully, I won't have to talk about them again, Last Summer was a #2 and is and always was much better than this.

2025 Rating:
Take Me Out remained the runner up for these two weeks, with Snow Patrol at #3 with Run after entering on the same week. I'd love the top 3 to have been the other way around as Run would definitely make my top 5 number ones of the year.

27 - 16/02/2004 Keane - Somewhere Only We Know

Chart Run: 01-01-02-06-07-11-13-16-18-23-28-33 (12 weeks)

Going where Snow Patrol couldn't manage, and entering at the top were Keane, another new band at the time who hit big in the UK that I got taken in by for a time. Now this really was everywhere, impossible to avoid and it was great for a while.

Keane aren't a band I've really listened to much since 2004 really. I still like Somewhere Only We Know, it's well written and performed and does its job well, I'd say it is their standout song, and along with Bedshaped and Everybody's Changing make a good trio of singles that are decent enough and nice to listen to.

2025 Rating: 7/10

Take Me Out spent two more weeks as runner up behind this, which was a quiet fortnight. Kings of Leon - California Waiting deserved better than #8, in hindsight.

Fell a bit behind with this, so picking up with the second half of 2003:

'Don't Look Back Into The Sun' I enjoy now, but it largely passed me by at the time. 'Numb' is great but I prefer the 'Numb / Encore' mix from the following year. 'Time Is Running Out' is the first Muse song I really liked, and moreso than 'Hysteria', although 'I Believe In A Thing Called Love' would have most likely been a chart topper for me around that time. 'Fortune Faded' sounded like a token new song for their greatest hits, although I did eventually download it. 'Hey Ya!' is a fantastic chart topper to end the year though - it may have taken a couple more weeks into 2004 for me to do so, but it's absolutely one of my top faves of 2003 now.

From 2004 so far, 'Take Me Out' and 'Somewhere Only We Know' have always been big faves of mine, and I remember buying the CD single for the latter which I very rarely did at that time. 'Run' is my favourite of anything mentioned so far, although it was a slow burner for me and I didn't fully appreciate it until their next era.

Ignoring Lostprophets, as said before, never liked them, that is pretty much an identikit list of number ones for me - Hey Ya is an ultimate dance feelgood track, party-time, that hit number one for me, as did Basement Jaxx, easily the greatest record they ever made, pounding passionate soul you can dance to, and ditto Take Me Out, quirky art-rock, I can see why they merged with Sparks in later years for an album, what an anthem it was. Which leaves Somewhere Only We Know, it went top 5 at the time in my charts (there was a lot of competition!) but topped my charts second time round later in the century, quite rightly as it's gorgeous and tuneful. All 4 are still huge classics for me ❤️

28 - 01/03/2004 blink-182 - I Miss You

01-02-02-02-02-02-05-04-06-11-14-14-17-19-22-23-26-27-31-35-38 (21 weeks)

Blink-182 had their big breakthrough a few years earlier with All The Small Things, and it was their fun, upbeat pop-punk tracks that they were most known for - that, What's My Age Again, The Rock Show being their biggest hits. But I Miss You was something different; slower, gentle, lyrically great. I loved this and a long chart run including 6 weeks in the top 2 doesn't surprise me at all.

If I were to create a top 3 blink-182 songs, this would be in it, and it would be alongside others that don't fit in their 'fun' category, this, Adam's Song and Stay Together For The Kids a top 3 songs that other bands of this type just didn't have. I've always thought I Miss You was great, and still do. A song which I can still just sit and listen to the lyrics of, and it's impossible not to sing along to it and not do it in Tom Delonge's accent.

2025 Rating: 9/10

Aside from this, it was a quiet week for new releases. Well in worldwide hit sense there was Toxic, but 29-38-OUT was all that could manage for me.

On 24/09/2025 at 09:40, Popchartfreak said:

Ignoring Lostprophets, as said before, never liked them, that is pretty much an identikit list of number ones for me - Hey Ya is an ultimate dance feelgood track, party-time, that hit number one for me, as did Basement Jaxx, easily the greatest record they ever made, pounding passionate soul you can dance to, and ditto Take Me Out, quirky art-rock, I can see why they merged with Sparks in later years for an album, what an anthem it was. Which leaves Somewhere Only We Know, it went top 5 at the time in my charts (there was a lot of competition!) but topped my charts second time round later in the century, quite rightly as it's gorgeous and tuneful. All 4 are still huge classics for me ❤️

Thanks, nice to see so many popular ones. They definitely are all hits that became classics.

On 23/09/2025 at 22:19, jimwatts said:

Fell a bit behind with this, so picking up with the second half of 2003:

'Don't Look Back Into The Sun' I enjoy now, but it largely passed me by at the time. 'Numb' is great but I prefer the 'Numb / Encore' mix from the following year. 'Time Is Running Out' is the first Muse song I really liked, and moreso than 'Hysteria', although 'I Believe In A Thing Called Love' would have most likely been a chart topper for me around that time. 'Fortune Faded' sounded like a token new song for their greatest hits, although I did eventually download it. 'Hey Ya!' is a fantastic chart topper to end the year though - it may have taken a couple more weeks into 2004 for me to do so, but it's absolutely one of my top faves of 2003 now.

From 2004 so far, 'Take Me Out' and 'Somewhere Only We Know' have always been big faves of mine, and I remember buying the CD single for the latter which I very rarely did at that time. 'Run' is my favourite of anything mentioned so far, although it was a slow burner for me and I didn't fully appreciate it until their next era.

Thanks Jim, great to see you liking so many. Numb/Encore not far from making an appearance here either, 3 great tracks there really!

On 22/09/2025 at 19:37, dandy* said:

The main act is still two men though!

My faves from your 2003 list:

01 Blur - Out of Time

02 Lemon Jelly - Nice Weather For Ducks

03 Junior Senior - Move Your Feet

04 The White Stripes - 7 Nation Army

05 Outkast - Hey Ya!

06 Muse - Hysteria

07 The Strokes - 12:51

08 The Chemical Brothers feat. The Flaming Lips - The Golden Path

09 The Libertines - Don't Look Back Into The Sun

10 Foo Fighters - Times Like These

All ten of those are great. Didn't comment at the time but that Strokes single is quite possibly my favourite of theirs, even though I agree it isn't as well remembered now... and Hey Ya! is a definite classic that should get irritating but never has for me either, it's one of the most joyous songs ever written imo.

Great start to your 2004 recap, both of those are great. Basement Jaxx really did have a huge amount of great pop/dance tracks and Good Luck is definitely one of them. Take Me Out is an all time classic, definitely a 10/10 track.

Thanks Dandy*, good to see your 10 were all ones which I still like!

Just curious, when's the next one?

I don't mind waiting, of course.

Sorry went on holiday and hadn't been bothered to re-start, nice to see there's some demand!

29 - 08/03/2004 Jet - Look What You've Done

Chart Run: 01-01-01-05-08-13-14-12-16-20-19-26-36-40 (14 weeks)

Without remembering exactly all the number ones I had 20+ years ago, but thinking about which songs and albums I enjoyed the most, Australians Jet would have felt like a safe bet to be in this list, and here they are, but it's not with the song. After the minor hits (both for me and in the UK) at the end of 2003 with Rollover DJ and Are You Gonna Be My Girl, Get Born was an early purchase from this wave of indie albums, and I thought it was great. Look What You've Done is more on the Keane/Snow Patrol sound of things compared to their more common rockier output, and the mellow side of them was one I enjoyed as much. They were one of a number of acts of this era and type who really fell away after their debut, although they did follow this up with three singles to reach #2.

It's not exactly a go-to two decades later, but it's perfectly pleasant and I still enjoy it. Get Born has stood the test of time really well for me. In my end of year chart for '04, this was ranked just outside the top 20 whilst Are You Gonna Be My Girl was #3, and I don't think I'd have that one much lower now, but this one probably would do. It's a shame Are You Gonna... is not the song of theirs I'm listening to again, but such was the way I did my chart it was stuck behind an absolute monster hit when it was re-released.

2025 Rating: 7/10
I Miss You was runner-up for the duration of its stay at the top, the pick of the other new entries in these weeks were excellent N*E*R*D - She Wants to Move, Outkast's Hey Ya! follow-up I Like The Way You Move, and the wonderfully-popular-for-15-year-olds Stacy's Mom by Fountains of Wayne, which still has a nice nostalgic feel to it.

Edited October 13Oct 13 by RabbitFurCoat

Are You Gonna Be My Girl has the edge for me, remember buying that in HMV Oxford Street way back when 🙂

30 - 29/03/2004 Basement Jaxx feat. JC Chasez - Plug It In

Chart Run: 01-01-04-05-04-09-12-12-16-15-16-18-23-25-29-34-34-36-38 (19 weeks)

It doesn't take long for the first act to appear twice in the year, as the follow-up to the years first chart topper equals its achievement, Basement Jaxx entering at #1 again with Plug It In, this time with vocals being provided by N-Sync's JC Chasez. It was a relatively minor hit in the UK (#20), but was something I enjoyed a lot at the time - JC provides a great vocal and it feels similar in style to some of Basement Jaxx's early singles.

It's not really a favourite Basement Jaxx song of mine, not something I've listened to regularly over the years, but is still decent and enjoyable to listen to.

2025 Rating: 7/10

Once again, I Miss You was the runner up for both of these weeks. Scissor Sisters - Take Your Mama and The Rasmus - In The Shadows are the pick of the top 10 new entries.