22. Usher - You Make Me Wanna

Rank: 7/10

Reason: For a star whose entire presence reminds me of the 00s, it's sometimes easy to forget that Usher had first charted in the UK in 1995 with Think Of You aged just 15. Fast forward to 1998 and You Make Me Wanna became his first No.1 single, a very slick R&B track that actually feels really fresh looking back in the context of similar sounding R&B productions to come in 1999 and 2000. I've got a lot of time for 90s R&B, there is something about it that has its own time, place, and nostalgic sound and style that will never be repeated. It reminds me of happy days watching shows like Sister, Sister, Kenan & Kel, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and Moesha in the 90s, which is where I was introduced to US R&B when I was young as the songs would often soundtrack things like school dances, or artists would pop up as guest stars. Or the lead stars would become famous chart artists in their own right (Moesha = Brandy, Fresh Prince = Will Smith).

You Make Me Wanna overperformed here, reaching No.2 in the US, No.6 in Australia, and low top ten elsewhere, but it's cool that Usher managed his first UK No.1 so far before his peak, which was probably 2004 with Yeah! and Burn, although he strung together a very strong line of singles in 2001 too with the likes of Pop Ya Collar and U Remind Me. His early star quality and great voice was evident here and while it's not an absolute favourite song of mine, I do like this and felt it wasn't deserving of the bottom ten.

I’m a little embarrassed to admit that when I first saw the music video for You Make Me Wanna I thought Usher was a group with 5 guys in it.

I’d like to think I realised how wrong I was quite quickly.

This is a nice R&B song, which would be slightly higher in my ranking. I can also recommend the Tuff Jam Remixes providing a nice UK garage adaption of the original:

https://www.discogs.com/release/184675-Usher-You-Make-Me-Wanna-The-Tuff-Jam-Mixes

It's OK, but it doesn't really do a lot for me in all honesty. He definitely had better to come.

I think I'd file B*Witched under 'not my thing' but the lack of nostalgia doesn't help, it could've well been a thing, as my taste was poptastic as a kid - see: briefly being a Same Difference stan!! I do agree that 'Rollercoaster' is the weakest of their three #1s this year though and was surprised to learn that it spent more than one week at #1 on the TOTP repeats.

'You Make Me Wanna...' doesn't do much for me either but cool to see a future mega star being... ushered in, this early on.

Not crazy on the Usher track but then that can be said for a lot of his output. He had some tunes later on too mind.

aww I like soul/r'n'b and sultry late-night vibes always is fine by me. Dane is a good singer, the ploddy production is decent enough, not quite up to US standards maybe, and lyrically there was nothing that would get them banned - one needs to compare it to graphic sex descriptions of many of today's musical artists in song/rap I feel, which fly by without a comment: it really isn't offensive in the same way even if the lyrics are par for the course. Yes they are talking about the same thing, but for younger listeners it would be over their heads in the olden days, as opposed to training them up. I'll put this ahead of most of the selections so far, but All Saints and Oasis are still the market leaders.

Unlike Rollercoaster. I think this might be their top number one for me, not quite as nursery rhyme as C'est la Vie but jolly enough, but that said I was never a fan of anything much they did, too Aldi and Lidl end of the pop market for me. I will very much go for Isaac Hayes salty balls over Rollercoaster but then I wasn't and am not a teenage girl, so not really Target Audience....

Usher is ok - nothing amazing but it’s inoffensive enough.

21. Various Artists - Perfect Day

Rank: 7/10

Reason: I've got to the point where it's already becoming hard to separate stuff and I like everything left, so I'm just going to go for a song we saw in the 1997 thread that returned to the top in the early weeks of 1998 for another week. I am ranking every song that was at No.1 on any day during 1998, so this is included again, along with another straggler later on. I won't regurgitate what others already posted about how it came to be and who was on it but yes, this is a very good charity single for a worthy cause, and easily the best ensemble record since Band Aid, a very classy and eclectic production and a good choice of cover.

Perfect Day being absent from streaming is a great shame but not something likely to be rectified what with the major licensing effort it must have taken even back then for this song to exist. The fact that it returned to No.1 after departing for a month, and long after the Children in Need broadcast, shows how huge a single this was. But for all that, you sadly don't hear it much anymore because it doesn't have a reason to continue to return each year like Band Aid does. I've always liked and admired the track but it definitely isn't one I have in very high rotation.

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 😂

Quite an OK version of "Perfect Day", but nothing beats the brilliant original from Lou Reed, which was made famous by Trainspotting and was strangely never released as single.

Nice selection of the #2's. "Mysterious Times" indeed is brilliant. I would rate "Turn It Up" much higher - one of my favourites from Busta. Also "Horny" would be in my Top 5.

My places 25 to 21 are:

25 Billie - Girlfriend

24 Aqua - Doctor Jones

23 All Saints - Bootie Call

22 Melanie B feat. Missy - I Want You Back

21 Boyzone - No Matter What

A complete mixture of styles. I started liking the songs from 23 onwards. "Girlfriend" is a bit too cheesy for me. I don't mind "Barbie Girl" - that one is really catchy and the Perky Park Club Mix of it is pure brilliance. However, "Doctor Jones" is in my opinion only a weak variation of "Barbie Girl" . I like, however, the "D-Bop's Prescription Mix" of it, which I have put in several Eurodance mixes of mine, but that mix has not much in common with the original and uses only a small vocal snippet of it. "Booty Call" I find OK, but it is nothing special, and so it is with the other two songs at 22 and 21.

Awful list of UK # 2 with one exception - Steps - One For Sorrow.

A good batch of #2 peaking songs.

My top 10 would be:

1. Steps - One For Sorrow

2. Natalie Imbruglia - Big Mistake

3. Spice Girls - Stop

4. Brandy & Monica - The Boy Is Mine

5. Sash! feat Tina Cousins - Mysterious Times

6. Five - Everybody Get Up

7. Backstreet Boys - All I Have To Give

8. Five - Until The Time Is Through

9. George Michael - Outside

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

Just missing out:

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

2. Madonna - Ray Of Light

3. Stardust - Music Sounds Better With You

I just realized the years in which Usher had #1s were 6 years apart - 1998, 2004 and 2010.

1 hour ago, Riser said:

I just realized the years in which Usher had #1s were 6 years apart - 1998, 2004 and 2010.

I always enjoy seeing little chart facts like these.

Perfect Day I love, as I've raved. Maybe it's time they re-issued it physically for charity as it's impossible to get hold of other than Youtube. Usher's is a nice r'n'b ballad, always liked it. I have no awareness of any of those TV shows except Fresh Prince - I was more into DS9, X Files, Friends, Third Rock From The Sun, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Father Ted, Simpsons around this time..so you might be forgiven for thinking I was a teenager or 20's..😄

20. Jamiroquai - Deeper Underground

Rank: 7/10

Reason: Here's the final song that didn't make my end of year charts in 1998 (or 1997 for the hangers on). It was lucky number 13 for Jay Kay and his band, as their 13th single (not including a re-release of When You Gonna Learn) became their first chart topper. I think anything they had released at this point would have been a big deal, off the back of a fantastic run of singles from the previous album (Virtual Insanity, Cosmic Girl and Alright). But Deeper Underground was further helped by the fact it was on the soundtrack to summer blockbuster Godzilla, which I remember seeing at the cinema with my friend at the time, so I was very aware of the track.

I think it's a good song - the chorus is great and lyrically suits the film while the intro and bassline is very good and sounds more U2 than Jamiroquai to me - it's more rock and less disco influenced than their other material so feels like a slight harder edged anomaly in their back catalogue, as they would be back to disco with Canned Heat the following year. I'm just not really as into the verses, and for a blockbuster film single for a film that was actually quite jumpy and felt epic in scale as an 11-year-old, the song just fades out - it deserved a better ending, but then maybe the fade out was to signify that he is going deeper underground, so we can't hear him anymore. Altogether, for me it's a slightly unsatisfying listen outside of the first 30 seconds and the chorus.

Fair placing. It’s a shame when a great bands only chart topper is a bit rubbish up to their highlights.

22 minutes ago, Jester said:

Fair placing. It’s a shame when a great bands only chart topper is a bit rubbish up to their highlights.

True, the track is not even in their top 10 most played on Spotify!

I love "Deeper Underground" - one of my favourite Jamiroquai songs.