I absolutely adore Turn Back Time, it’s such a beautiful ballad and a total switch up from Aqua. As an added bonus the music video was filmed on the London Underground. I’m not embarrassed to admit that I may have re-enacted parts of the music video each time I’ve visited Holborn and Bank stations, the two stations used for the music video.

8 minutes ago, Paddington James said:

I absolutely adore Turn Back Time, it’s such a beautiful ballad and a total switch up from Aqua. As an added bonus the music video was filmed on the London Underground. I’m not embarrassed to admit that I may have re-enacted parts of the music video each time I’ve visited Holborn and Bank stations, the two stations used for the music video.

ooh I must do that next time I'm at Bank 😄

I've never seen Sliding Doors before (maybe one day) but also have a bit of a soft spot for 'Turn Back Time' nevertheless. I was surprised by the unexpected versatility after boxing them in as a cheesy, uptempo, bubblegum pop act based on the first two chart-toppers. The vulnerable vocal performance, reflective lyrics and switch-up all drew me in. Good stuff.

'Brimful of Asha' is a major favourite though I appreciate the cultural references in the lyrics but hearing the original on TOTP repeats has made me realise how good the Norman Cook remix is - love that uplifting, big beat makeover.

Both of those would be high up for me too. Fantastic pair of songs there.

I really like that Aqua did some completely differnet after their first 2 singles. "Turn Back Time" is a beautiful Euro-ballad. The Fatboy Slim Remix of "Brimful Of Asha" is brilliant and higher in my ranking :).

My places 10 to 8:

10. Chef - Chocolate Salty Balls

Isaac Hayes is a brilliant vocalist and even though the text is a bit silly Isaac takes this to another level.

9. All Saints - Never Ever

One of my favourite All Saints song with good Garage Mixes from Booker T.

8. Celine Dion - My Heart Will Go On

I already commented on this above 😉

Argh my favourite has gone! 😭 Brimful of Asha is such a unique #1 and I think it's absolutely brilliant, the remix adding so much to the original that it really should have a proper credit for Norman Cook imo. It's only marginally ahead of my second favourite though so glad to see that's still in the running.

Turn Back Time is okay enough, it was a pleasant surprise from them after the opening 1-2 of Barbie Girl/Doctor Jones.

Turn back time certainly was a change up, what I find interesting was that it was the third single in the UK after Barbie Girl and Doctor Jones. In Australia it was the fourth single, behind Barbie Girl (#1), Doctor Jones (#1) and Lollypop (Candyman) (#3). And finally it was the fifth single in Scandinavia (I believe). Roses Are Red (#1), My Oh My (#1), Barbie Girl (#2), Doctor Jones (#1) and Lollypop (Candyman) (DNC). (Denmark peaks).

3 hours ago, dandy* said:

Argh my favourite has gone! 😭 Brimful of Asha is such a unique #1 and I think it's absolutely brilliant, the remix adding so much to the original that it really should have a proper credit for Norman Cook imo. It's only marginally ahead of my second favourite though so glad to see that's still in the running.

Turn Back Time is okay enough, it was a pleasant surprise from them after the opening 1-2 of Barbie Girl/Doctor Jones.

I don't really care for the original at all, so yes it was a real transformation. Sure the Top of the Pops crowd loved it when they performed the original.

I would say the top ten are all songs I love and listen to regularly so there's very little between some of them. Having said that, the top four when I get there are miles ahead.

11 minutes ago, Paddington James said:

Turn back time certainly was a change up, what I find interesting was that it was the third single in the UK after Barbie Girl and Doctor Jones. In Australia it was the fourth single, behind Barbie Girl (#1), Doctor Jones (#1) and Lollypop (Candyman) (#3). And finally it was the fifth single in Scandinavia (I believe). Roses Are Red (#1), My Oh My (#1), Barbie Girl (#2), Doctor Jones (#1) and Lollypop (Candyman) (DNC). (Denmark peaks).

I'm quite glad they left Lollipop as third here as I don't see that it would have been a No.1 for them. And diminishing returns would probably have stopped Turn Back Time from getting there too. It is definitely interesting that Barbie Girl wasn't their debut single in some countries though, as it felt so impactful here as a debut.

6 minutes ago, gooddelta said:

I'm quite glad they left Lollipop as third here as I don't see that it would have been a No.1 for them. And diminishing returns would probably have stopped Turn Back Time from getting there too. It is definitely interesting that Barbie Girl wasn't their debut single in some countries though, as it felt so impactful here as a debut.

I agree, I think Lollypop (Candyman) hindered Turn Back Time here in Australia as Barbie Girl, Doctor Jones and Lollypop (Candyman) are all very similar sounding. So I feel like people either started to get sick of them or they were written off as a novelty pop act. They did have some decent album tracks on Aquarium though.

I love Lollypop (Candyman), I always thought they should have pushed that for fourth single here rather than My Oh My, I actually think it would have done better though obviously not #1.

6 minutes ago, simonf said:

I love Lollypop (Candyman), I always thought they should have pushed that for fourth single here rather than My Oh My, I actually think it would have done better though obviously not #1.

Continuing the Aqua chat, I always wanted Roses Are Red to get an international release. I prefer it to My Oh My.

My Oh My completely bombed in Australia, it didn’t even chart. We also didn’t get Good Morning Sunshine as a single here.

10 hours ago, simonf said:

I love Lollypop (Candyman), I always thought they should have pushed that for fourth single here rather than My Oh My, I actually think it would have done better though obviously not #1.

Yes it would have been a better choice of fourth single (although glad it wasn't third), My Oh My wasn't as strong although I liked the intro with the galloping horse.

6. B*Witched - To You I Belong

Rank: 9.5/10

Reason: The Lynch family strike again with a song unexpectedly high up the ranking. But is it really that big a surprise? 1998 was my introduction to the charts and owning/buying my own music, and the first album I was given (by my sister who got it on release but then bought herself the newer version with Dreams on it) was Talk On Corners by The Corrs, which massively shaped my future musical tastes and meant that I essentially loved almost anything Celtic sounding or with a trad Irish influence from that point onwards. Obviously I did really enjoy B*Witched's C'est La Vie, as evidenced by it being in my top 10 earlier, but wasn't that fussed on Rollercoaster. But they massively won me back with their bid for the Christmas charts, To You I Belong.

This largely forgotten ballad would have been a lovely song anyway but throws a fiddle, tin whistle, and bodhrán into the mix and ends up sounding like The Corrs Juniors, via a prominent Enya influence. It absolutely appealed to me and I still thoroughly love it. The song finally ended the 7-week run at No.1 of Cher's Believe, shifting an impressive 150,000 copies in its first week, and seeing off Billie's She Wants You as both acts bid for their third consecutive chart topper. Lightly touched up from the album version with a dusting of pop magic on the single mix, the track was wisely released the week before Christmas so it didn't run into the Spice Girls/Chef battle, and while it was forgotten about in fairly short order, it would not be their last No.1 (that will be covered in my 1999 thread).

To You I Belong also reached the top five in Ireland and New Zealand although only No.25 in Australia, quite a comedown from the No.1 peak of Rollercoaster there, although would it have been released in the height of summer perhaps? Maybe not quite the right vibe. But for me this song brings back such lovely memories of the end of a very eventful year in my life - that Christmas period stirs up thoughts of amazing music and rinsing Hits '99, getting excited about watching the Christmas chart unfold, watching Christmas films in school in the final few days of term and receiving a Nintendo 64 and Banjo-Kazoooie for Christmas, which I absolutely rinsed and that was me done for the remaining week of the year.

19 minutes ago, gooddelta said:

Yes it would have been a better choice of fourth single (although glad it wasn't third), My Oh My wasn't as strong although I liked the intro with the galloping horse.

Looking back their music videos were certainly something. They’d be considered so tacky today and probably get torn to shreds, but they were kind of entertaining in a weird way.

I absolutely love To You I Belong, I think it’s my favourite B*Witched song. The oak of #25 here in Australia was a surprise to me at the time considering C’est La Vie got to #6 and as you mentioned Rollercoaster spent two weeks at #1. That was in November so the end of our spring, though I’m sure they were in Australia on promo at the time, which would explain it.

I’m actually planning on doing an Australian Singles 1998 rank after Christmas on here, so I’ll be going into some more details and memories when I do that.

Side note: How good a game was/is Banjo-Kazooie!

'Turn Back Time' is utterly incredible, I feel like it would be regarded as more of a classic if it wasn't by Aqua.

5. Manic Street Preachers - If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next

Rank: 9.5/10

Reason: Even as a kid when I was more into pop and dance and less into indie and rock like I am moreso now, there is one act I always made an exception for, and that was Manic Street Preachers. There was something about their music that I just absolutely loved, from Motorcycle Emptiness and A Design For Life to Australia (which I knew very well as it was the theme tune to a TV show I watched on Nickelodeon called Renford Rejects), or their production on Kylie's underrated Some Kind Of Bliss, I just really enjoyed their music. Come 1998 and the Welsh group were still in search of a No.1 after A Design For Life (which was their first release after the sad disappearance of guitarist and lyricist Richey Edwards the previous year) criminally missed the top.

The first time I heard If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next I thought 'ok, this is their No.1'. It's as anthemic as they always are, but somehow had slightly more accessible production for cross coverage on all types of radio playlists, I pretty much heard it everywhere from August through to the end of that year.

The lyrics amazed me at the time, and do so even more these days for how they stood out in the poppy 1998 landscape. According to Wikipedia, "the song was inspired by the Spanish Civil War, and the idealism of Welsh volunteers who joined the left-wing International Brigades fighting for the Spanish Republic against Francisco Franco's military rebels". The song takes its name from a Republican propaganda poster of the time written in English and displaying a photograph of a child killed by the Nationalists, under a sky filled with bomber aircraft, with the song's warning written at the bottom.

Hearing kids everywhere and teens on TOTP belting out 'and if you tolerate this, then your children will be next' was actually very powerful and arresting, because it's hardly your usual singalong pop chorus is it. But it hits far harder as an adult - how good is that opening line: 'the future teaches you to be alone, the present to be afraid and cold'.

The song sold over 150,000 copies to reach No.1 but very nearly didn't get there as the quickly rising Steps unleashed one of their best ever singles, One For Sorrow, on the same week. That fell short by only a few thousand copies in the end and would become one of their many No.2 peaking hits, quickly outselling this track within weeks, but really both songs deserved their time at the top, and I'd have ranked One For Sorrow in my top five of the year too had it made it.

Meanwhile, the Manics released more singles I loved from this song's parent album, This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours: The Everlasting (which criminally missed the top 10 in a crowded December market) and the blistering You Stole The Sun From My Heart, which returned them to the top five in March 1999. They continued to go strong commercially for many years after this, with a second No.1 single, Masses Against The Classes, in early 2000, and very nearly making a play for the top again as late as 2007 with the excellent Your Love Alone Is Not Enough with Nina Persson from The Cardigans.

3 minutes ago, Jessie Where said:

'Turn Back Time' is utterly incredible, I feel like it would be regarded as more of a classic if it wasn't by Aqua.

This is where we need the 100% emoji. Because I've always thought this too.

One of the most astonishing deviations from form I've ever seen from a 'cheesy pop' band (see also Vengaboys' Forever As One but that sadly tanked).