Absolutely horrible remix. This is so cheap - just putting a hard bassdrum under it destroying the flow of the original. 0/10

8 minutes ago, DaTilt said:

Absolutely horrible remix. This is so cheap - just putting a hard bassdrum under it destroying the flow of the original. 0/10

It certainly wasn't the most creative remix, when you listen to the source material. It's crazy that the original never charted anywhere apart from a US R&B chart, it's a shame it wasn't re-released later in the 80s once they had established themselves.

On 21/11/2025 at 14:15, gooddelta said:

I will start the top 20 at the weekend, but just to give an indication of how my taste might not necessarily play out to what is expected (so prepare yourselves), I'm posting my rank of the 1998 No.2s:

1. Sash! feat Tina Cousins - Mysterious Times

2. Steps - One For Sorrow

3. Spice Girls - Stop

4. Pras Michel feat. ODB & Mya - Ghetto Supastar

5. Brandy & Monica - The Boy Is Mine

6. E-17 - Each Time

7. Five - Until The Time Is Through

8. Madonna - Ray Of Light

9. Stardust - Music Sounds Better With You

10. Beautiful South - Perfect 10

11. Boyzone - I Love The Way You Love Me

12. Natalie Imbruglia - Big Mistake

13. Mousse T vs. Hot 'n' Juicy - Horny

14. George Michael - Outside

15. Jay-Z - Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem)

16. 911 - More Than A Woman

17. Five - Everybody Get Up

18. Fat Les - Vindaloo

19. Backstreet Boys - All I Have To Give

20. T-Spoon - Sex On The Beach

21. Bamboo - Bamboogie

22. Puff Daddy feat. Jimmy Page - Come With Us

23. Busta Rhymes - Turn It Up / Fire It Up

24. Brandy feat. Ma$e - Top Of The World

25. Will Smith - Just The Two Of Us

Each Time = one of the most underrated songs in E(ast) 17's career. And Five is a classic Cheiron/Max Martin ballad. I can probably get away with the rest of the top 10 😂

Hmmm that's a pretty rough list of #2s for this year... I literally only like these ones:

1. Stardust - Music Sounds Better With You

2. Madonna - Ray of Light

   big gap

3. Brandy & Monica - The Boy is Mine

   big gap

4. Beautiful South - Perfect 10

5. Busta Rhymes - Turn It Up / Fire It Up

6. Sash! feat Tina Cousins - Mysterious Times

7. Mousse T vs. Hot 'n' Juicy - Horny

8. Natalie Imbruglia - Big Mistake

9. Steps - One For Sorrow

10. Spice Girls - Stop

11. George Michael - Outside

12. Fat Les - Vindaloo

13. Pras Michel feat. ODB & Mya - Ghetto Supastar

As for the #1s since the last time I commented, I'm not mad on any of them really. At the time I did buy the Run DMC track and the Tamperer too. The latter I got because everyone in my group liked it, the former I did like but to be honest I bought it primarily because I heard it stood a chance of beating the Spice Girls that week. I really didn't care for the Spice Girls at the time, I was way more into dance and indie so they just weren't my thing at all - and I guess I was sick of them always making #1 in the same way that people got sick of X Factor songs making #1 and Run DMC was the equivalent of Rage Against the Machine being christmas #1. It's still okay but I definitely don't love it, at the time my favourite track was The Beat Goes On by All Seeing I and I was really gutted when that missed the top 10

4 minutes ago, dandy* said:

As for the #1s since the last time I commented, I'm not mad on any of them really. At the time I did buy the Run DMC track and the Tamperer too. The latter I got because everyone in my group liked it, the former I did like but to be honest I bought it primarily because I heard it stood a chance of beating the Spice Girls that week. I really didn't care for the Spice Girls at the time, I was way more into dance and indie so they just weren't my thing at all - and I guess I was sick of them always making #1 in the same way that people got sick of X Factor songs making #1 and Run DMC was the equivalent of Rage Against the Machine being christmas #1. It's still okay but I definitely don't love it, at the time my favourite track was The Beat Goes On by All Seeing I and I was really gutted when that missed the top 10

Ah yes, completely forgot to mention that it halted Spice Girls' introductory run of No.1s by getting to the top, not sure how much of a shock that was at the time really as I wasn't following closely enough then, but Stop ended up a long way behind. The Beat Goes On seems a lot more popular than its chart position suggested, it's held up very well over the years at least, I hear it more often nowadays than I hear It's Like That.

I forgot to mention that I probably actually prefer Stop to It's Like That now haha!

'It's Like That' would be higher for me, maybe top 5, although I haven't returned to it very often since the late 90s.

I was going to ask what Spice Girls song was It’s Like That going up against, but I can see it’s been answered. :)

13. Spice Girls - Goodbye

Rank: 8/10

Reason: The Christmas No.1 now, although it was a close run thing against Chef's Chocolate Salty Balls so they got very lucky with the hat-trick of festive chart toppers. Goodbye was the first Spice Girls single to be released without Geri but, for all intents and purposes it was more of the same, with a lavish wintery video, lovely strings, a big budget, the group's tried and tested songwriters, and a mega hype campaign leading up to the single's release as they aimed for their third No.1. Although it did all feel a touch more 'grown up' and downbeat than previous singles. Lyrically the song appears to relate to Geri's departure, which is understandable considering the turmoil the band faced that year.

My favourite part of this song - for probably the only time in the group's career - is from Victoria Beckham, who delivers a very nice middle eight after a sumptuous string section. But all of the band sound good on it and it was the last single I really loved by them as I was not particularly enamoured with Holler, Let Love Lead The Way or Headlines, so it felt like a solid single to end their incredible two and a half year run at the top of their game. The track also peaked at No.1 in Canada, Ireland and New Zealand, No.3 in Australia and No.11 in the US.

I quite like Goodbye, I can distinctly remember when it was released too. It’s such a beautiful touching ballad too.

I liked both of these at the time, the frantic beats on It's Like That were quite compelling, and the chanting Run DMC bits made a nice bonus later career success, and Goodbye was quite pleasant and a bit touching in theme. I dont ever playlist either track, the former because it still crops up enough on radio to satisfy, the latter because they had better ballads.

I appreciate the genre-blending on 'It's Like That' and indeed it did seem to influence some hip house copycats, as seen on the recent TOTP repeats. It's a shame that 'Stop' was the Spice Girls song to run into it and break their run of #1 hits though, with that becoming one of their biggest songs in the long run.

I'm usually partial to a string-laden Spice ballad, see a certain other song coming up this year or '2 Become 1', but 'Goodbye' has never done it for me for some reason. I've always found it a bit bland despite the emotive subject matter. Ah well, intrigued to see where their remaining 1998 chart topper will land for you.

12. Boyzone - No Matter What

Rank: 8/10

Reason: A reasonable span for a boyband (pre-reunion) tended to be three or four years, generally achieving their biggest success after one or two years. But Irish group Boyzone's signature hit impressively came nearly four years after they first debuted with Love Me For A Reason at Christmas 1994. Written by Jim Steinman and Andrew Lloyd Webber for the musical Written Down The Wind, No Matter What came during something of a purple patch for Boyzone - following the No.1 hit All That I Need and a brace of No.2 singles in 1997, including the brilliant Picture Of You. More or less anything new they would have released in summer 1998 would have gone to No.1, but with such legendary songwriters behind them this time and with a strong West End musical number, No Matter What couldn't possibly fail.

Following a memorable breathy vocal effect 'chica cha ha ha' for the intro, the song is then lead by Stephen Gately, who is the star on this particular single, with Ronan Keating also joining him for joint top billing later in the song. In a year awash with ballads in the charts, No Matter What was one of the biggest, finishing the year as the 4th biggest seller, as well as being a million seller and the biggest selling single of Boyzone's career and, in 2008, formed part of the title of their comeback greatest hits collection.

It was also one of the most played songs they had ever had on the radio, and was a much bigger global hit for the band than they usually achieved, reaching the top in Ireland, Denmark, Norway and The Netherlands, No.2 in Germany and No.5 in Australia. Its runaway success did, unfortunately, keep two great dance tracks off the top in Mysterious Times by Sash! feat. Tina Cousins and, more memorably, Stardust's Music Sounds Better With You, which ran it very close indeed for a fortnight.

26 minutes ago, Jade said:

I appreciate the genre-blending on 'It's Like That' and indeed it did seem to influence some hip house copycats, as seen on the recent TOTP repeats. It's a shame that 'Stop' was the Spice Girls song to run into it and break their run of #1 hits though, with that becoming one of their biggest songs in the long run.

I'm usually partial to a string-laden Spice ballad, see a certain other song coming up this year or '2 Become 1', but 'Goodbye' has never done it for me for some reason. I've always found it a bit bland despite the emotive subject matter. Ah well, intrigued to see where their remaining 1998 chart topper will land for you.

Yes, it makes me wonder if Stop would have done better as the single in the race for Christmas No.1 in December 1997, but then again its first week sales were so much lower than they usually achieved, perhaps it was never destined for the top and would have just been stopped by Teletubbies.

Yeah I do understand that, I do enjoy it quite a bit but it's very much not up there with a couple of their other ballads.

I have a huge soft spot for No Matter What, it’s my favourite Boyzone song too. Uneducated musically 10 year old me thought this was their debut single.

I do really like 'Goodbye', but unfortunately it was used at a friend's funeral in 2018 and I haven't really been able to listen to it since as it's too much to bear.

'It's Like That' is a banger though!

Goodbye is a beautiful song - agree their last great one.

No Matter What is by far Boyzone’s best, raiding my eyebrows though as I think another one by them is still to come?!

42 minutes ago, Jester said:

Goodbye is a beautiful song - agree their last great one.

No Matter What is by far Boyzone’s best, raiding my eyebrows though as I think another one by them is still to come?!

Indeed there is one still to come. My taste around some pop band singles has been known to be peculiar.

No Matter What is lovely, it's a great song for a musical, and a great recording of it, thanks to Stephen Gateley's vocals. Andrew L-W very much knows a good singer when he hears one, and wisely kept Ronan as the back-up to the main act here. It just wouldnt have had the same charm with Ronan on lead.

11. Boyzone - All That I Need

Rank: 8/10

Reason: However...there is no trace of Boyzone in the top ten. Following three consecutive No.2 singles in 1997, Boyzone eventually added to their tally of chart toppers with their third No.1 single, All That I Need, in April 1998. I feel this placing has to be explained as it has clearly ended up above some classics - this is one of my favourite Boyzone singles, despite its status as something of a non No.1, going 1-4-14-22-31 in its five top 40 weeks, and was clearly a fanbase purchase.

But for me the song is bright, breezy and joyful, even evoking shades of the Bee Gees in the chorus melody and harmonies and what is no doubt a deliberate reference to Prince with the 'diamonds and pearls' lyric and the falsetto backing vocals. This was a very mature original single for the group, perfect for radio, complete with a Spanish guitar breakdown, and Ronan delivers a strong lead vocal, while the backing vocals from the rest of the band really add to it. It all brings me huge nostalgia of my end of primary school days, where the classroom had Boyzone pencil tins galore alongside all the Spice Girls merchandise.

In my opinion All That I Need is underrated and overlooked and deserved a better chart run. Objectively, for sure, No Matter What is the stronger and more impactful number, but this was my personal favourite Boyzone single of 1998.

Edited 9 hours ago9 hr by gooddelta