Thanks very much to @Jester for three wonderful threads covering the highs and lows of 1995-1997.

I'm honoured to be asked to cover my favourite years of music, 1998 and 1999. I will try to cover them in a similar way to my 2000 thread that I did over the summer in the 21st Century Throwback forum, do take a look at that if you haven't seen it already.

I often think of 1998 as my favourite year for music. 1999 actually probably has more of my favourites to be fair, but 1998 had huge depth and variety, with so many different genres doing well, a big spread of popular artists, from new pop acts like Steps, B*Witched and Billie to legends like Cher, Madonna and Aerosmith, and acts like The Corrs, All Saints and Robbie Williams becoming household names. There was something for everyone.

On a personal level, it was the year I both left primary school and started secondary school. And my parents divorced and we moved out of my childhood home, so on a personal level there was a lot of upheaval. But I guess you could say music kept me grounded, it was the year I got into following the charts properly and I will share how that happened along the way in this thread along with my opinions and some other info about the 32 songs. The only double a-side will be combined (Hearbeat/Tragedy by Steps didn't hit No.1 until early in 1999 so won't feature).

Instead of trying to look up what 1998 was known for, I found my old school yearbook, which summed up some of the key highlights, although they got the wrong year for Barbie Girl and The Full Monty! I certainly remember the yo-yos, what a strange thing to come back into fashion for one year only! And the dancing baby - early internet memes were here, we had stepped into a new, modern world...

👍Music is great for helping get through rough times ❤️

Oh wow that photo is a brilliant snapshot in time!

Looking forward to this, the TOTP 1998 repeats have been a good refresher of the music in recent months.

32. Spacedust - Gym and Tonic

Score: 3/10

Reason: There's really nothing among the 1998 No.1s that I truly dislike, so it was quite hard to pick what to put last. But the one that stood out most to me was Gym and Tonic by British dance act Spacedust. It is, for all intents and purposes, a cheeky cash in that ripped off an idea of Bob Sinclar's - he couldn't clear a vocal sample from Jane Fonda so presumably they left it there and it wasn't released as a single.

Spacedust saw the opportunity and got a session vocalist in to do the spoken part but it's otherwise pretty identical. It just comes across as cheap and opportunistic to me; it's not the best track in the first place and the story behind it doesn't make me want to listen to it.

It had a very short UK chart run after its surprise appearance at No.1, seeing off 911's More Than A Woman cover. Just four weeks in the top 40, going 1-6-16-34. And I think it is probably long since unlicensable for compilations as I haven't seen it on anything since the 90s. A very forgotten, curious No.1, but with good reason.

7 minutes ago, Jade said:

Oh wow that photo is a brilliant snapshot in time!

Looking forward to this, the TOTP 1998 repeats have been a good refresher of the music in recent months,

Also, @awardinary has prepared a 1998 Buzzjack Presents album, which will be along soon as a companion! Before the thread is done anyway.

My least favourites #1s : Feel It, Brimful of Asha, If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next, It's Like That, Viva Forever

What were your favourites?

I think the majority of these will be quite high for me although there are some wildcards in the mix that others probably wouldn’t rank anywhere near as high.

Spacedust is probably a justified last place. I don't mind the original (and consequently don't exactly hate this either) but it definitely is a cheap way of cashing in on someone else's work and that just seemed so off at the time.

The Bob Sinclar track was huge in the clubs at the time though, in a way that only things like Stardust had been, so I wasn't too surprised to see the rip off do so well

3 minutes ago, gooddelta said:

What were your favourites?

Only two from them became top 10 hits in my chart : "To You I Belong" and "Doctor Jones".

Edited November 17, 2025Nov 17 by Last Dreamer

This track had the ignominy of failing to chart for me. Had it been an instrumental it would have done much better. So last place is about right...so far! Otherwise I'm guessing my response to hearing it debit at 1 was WTAF was that all about (though I was aware of club charts via Music Week in those days). Still have all my Music Weeks of the late 90's and 2000s waiting to get recycled - or at least what's left of them after I got rid of the boring bits that weren't chart and commentary and new releases and interviews....

36 minutes ago, Last Dreamer said:

Only two from them became top 10 hits in my chart : "To You I Belong" and "Doctor Jones".

One of these is high for me.

10 minutes ago, Popchartfreak said:

This track had the ignominy of failing to chart for me. Had it been an instrumental it would have done much better. So last place is about right...so far! Otherwise I'm guessing my response to hearing it debit at 1 was WTAF was that all about (though I was aware of club charts via Music Week in those days). Still have all my Music Weeks of the late 90's and 2000s waiting to get recycled - or at least what's left of them after I got rid of the boring bits that weren't chart and commentary and new releases and interviews....

Yes the tacky session vocalist doesn't add to it whatsoever. It must have been a slow week although we await the sales from that week to come up this week in Gezza's thread, so we get the joy of seeing it on the TOTP reruns Jade mentioned this Friday. How about that for timing!

I have a few Music Weeks from a free trial in 2008, but otherwise I just used to stand in WH Smith and look at the charts and Alan Jones' sales report, then put it back down!

Edited November 17, 2025Nov 17 by gooddelta

I agree on the last place, such a cheap rip off of a song idea that would have been fantastic if pulled off correctly.

2 hours ago, dandy* said:

Spacedust is probably a justified last place. I don't mind the original (and consequently don't exactly hate this either) but it definitely is a cheap way of cashing in on someone else's work and that just seemed so off at the time.

The Bob Sinclar track was huge in the clubs at the time though, in a way that only things like Stardust had been, so I wasn't too surprised to see the rip off do so well

I suppose it was an early kind of example of what we saw in the download era, with lots of cash-ins of unreleased songs (Turn My Swag On) and then of course all of the fake versions of stuff that hit the top 40 and even the top 10 in the case of Payphone. But yes, it left a bad taste in my mouth. The original idea and track by Bob Sinclar was a solid one and no doubt if they had cleared the sample it would have been huge. At least he eventually managed hits of his own.

Also it's insulting that this got to No.1 only a couple of months after Stardust topped out at No.2 ☹️

Edited November 17, 2025Nov 17 by gooddelta

31. Melanie B feat Missy Elliott - I Want You Back

Score: 4/10

Reason: The first solo Spice single came little over two years after the band made their chart debut (somehow their two years of chart domination felt more like five), and it was Scary Spice Melanie B striking out on her own first, albeit alongside Missy Elliott on rap and production duties, with Missy also co-writing the track. For me this is an ok R&B/rap song that misses the mark in terms of going anywhere particularly special.

The production is nice, but it's quite a one-note bassline and the melody doesn't really do much outside of the repeated chorus line. It's a mid to low tier Missy production when you think about some of her classic 00s hits, although it was nice to see her at No.1, and also cool to hear Melanie B on a genre that isn't pop. Ultimately, though, I feel this one got there thanks to Mel's star power and not due to the strength of the song. And the fleeting chart run of 1-4-15-28-33-40 does support the 'fan purchase' assumption.

For you, this song 'didn't make a deep impact'!

The green video is defintely the most iconic part of this song.

Edited November 17, 2025Nov 17 by TheSnake

Def a fanbase hit, there's nothing special about any of it, basic melody, sparse arrangement, the best bit is the "you got me losing my mind" bit, the rest is perfunctory and not one i was too fussed about at the time. I didnt hate it, it just sort of existed for a few weeks and slipped off quietly.

Yep, a non-number 1.

Totally don't recall either of those bottom 2 placers at the time and even now they aren't noteworthy so would agree with your placings so far Rich!

30. All Saints - Bootie Call

Score: 5/10

Reason: All Saints' No.1 singles fell into two categories - amazing and ...not great. Never Ever, Pure Shores, and Black Coffee are of course sublime, the other two not so much. Bootie Call was their third No.1 single on the trot but does nothing for me whatsoever. The chorus is one phrase repeated over and over, the production and pacing is very stop and start and it's all very mid album track sounding to me. They were fortunate to get a No.1 out of it as it fell to No.7 the week after, and spent just five weeks in the top 40. Meanwhile, beautiful follow up War Of Nerves stalled at No.7 - robbed.