24. Wamdue Project - King Of My Castle

Rank: 6.5/10

Reason: Going two for two today with the list of fun dance songs that I like up to a point but also find mildly annoying, American producer Chris Brann, aka Wamdue Project, hit the top towards the end of the year with King Of My Castle, debuting at No.1 (after a few weeks charting low on import) ahead of Cliff Richard's The Millennium Prayer although as we saw earlier, Cliff overtook the following week. For me I will best remember this song for the lyrics I always misheard at the time 'free in my trestle' (is this about art?) and 'baking examples of you' (or cakes?).

I really like the music and production, it's not a dissimilar backing track really to 2 Times by Ann Lee which had been No.2 a few weeks earlier. But I wasn't overkeen on the vocal and, again, it's not a song I particularly go back to. I actually saw the act perform this live at the same concert I saw Westlife headlining in March 2000 and I thought they were fine but the near identical follow up single You're The Reason, which only got to No.39, was pointless. King Of My Castle also went top three in Germany, Norway, Denmark, The Netherlands and Italy and top 30 in Australia.

I’d never heard Flatbeat before. It’s not great , but it’s not terrible either. I’d probably have it in my bottom 5 though.

Edited December 14Dec 14 by Paddington James

I don’t mind King of my Castle. Like the previous song, not great, not terrible.

I do think the vocals sound like Moloko though.

Now I must protest at the low ranking of King of my Castle. Easy top 10 for me. Though why was she free of her trassle?

Flat Beat I bought at the time due to Flat Eric and the advert. It’s ok, fair placing imo.

10 minutes ago, Jester said:

Now I must protest at the low ranking of King of my Castle. Easy top 10 for me. Though why was she free of her trassle?

Flat Beat I bought at the time due to Flat Eric and the advert. It’s ok, fair placing imo.

I think the weird vocal and pronunciation really stuck with me over the years! It's a good track though musically and production wise 😄

I compiled Euro Top 30 chart (points based on 11 official charts) for small period of time and Flat Beat spent 1 week at # 1.

9th May 1999

01. (02) Mr.Oizo - Flat Beat (F-15, N-17, A-18, NL-12, S-17, B-20, G-20, SW-16, DK-18, IRL-7, UK-2) = 162 pts

02. (01) Britney Spears - Baby One More Time (F-17, N-15, A-20, NL-14, S-20, B-18, G-17, SW-4, DK-14, IRL-13, UK-4) = 156 pts

03. (04) Vengaboys - Boom Boom Boom Boom (N-19, A-12, S-7, G-11, SW-20, DK-17) = 86 pts

04. (06) TLC - No Scrubs (N-9, G-14, UK-18, IRL-20, NL-18, DK-2) = 81 pts

05. (03) 2Pac - Changes (N-18, A-10, S-15, B-2, G-8, SW-15, IRL-2, DK-10) = 80 pts

06. (05) Blondie - Maria (A-17, B-12, S-12, G-16, NL-1, SW-11) = 69 pts

07. (15) Offspring - Why Don't You Get A Job? (N-12, SW-19, UK-19, IRL-10, NL-5) = 65 pts

08. (NE) Backstreet Boys - I Want It That Way (N-20, F-12, NL-16, IRL-17) = 65 pts

09. (07) Die Fantastischen Vier - Mit Freundlichen Grussen (A-19, S-19, G-18) = 56 pts

10. (09) Xavier Naidoo - Sie Sieht Mich Nicht (A-9, S-16, G-19) = 44 pts

Countries list :

Austria (A), Belgium (B), Denmark (DK), Ireland (IRL), Germany (G), Finland (F), Norway (N), Netherlands (NL), Switzerland (S), Sweden (SW), United Kingdom (UK)

Not mad on either of those last two but I guess Mr Oizo does have the iconic video that will forever be etched in the mind.

The first number one I actually like has now featured, "Flatbeat" by Mr Oizo. Flat Eric may have given the impression it was a novelty record but just listening to the music it's a decent tune.

Was never keen on "King Of My Castle" and hearing it multiple times down the pub on a Friday night at the time made me hate it more.

I loved 'King of My Castle' at the time but it doesn't really do it for me these days.

'Flat Beat' is epic!

Must be the reason I put beef in my casserole

'King of My Castle' is easily the biggest loss for me so far! Love that groovy, squelchy house production and have no qualms with the vocals. I also appreciate the Freud inspiration behind the lyrics. I can understand why 'Flat Beat' polarises, as a repetitive instrumental, but I really enjoy that too (and Flat Eric) - what a unique #1 hit *.*

Less gutted about Ronan dropping out x

Oh I love Flat Beat, much as I love seeing Flat Eric bouncing along with it, I do think it's a great song in it's own right, was great to see a song of that genre reach number 1 even if it was just Levi's jeans.

I really like "When You Said Nothing All" -it is a very good vocal performance and a good production and I rate this higher than almost all Boyzone singles. Given the big amount of great #1's in 1999 this would be not in my top 10 but between places 11 and 15. "Flat Beat" is very close to to it positionwise. It is somewhat an iconic track representing the zeitgeiust of the late 1990's and a good bassline track. Somehow, at least for me it hasn't aged that well. If you would have asked e in 2000 for alist like this, it would have been in my top 5 I guess, because I was mainly into dance music at that time. "Kong Of My Castle", however, was never a big favourite of mine and I agree with this position. A bit too basic for me and too overplayed.

23. Geri Halliwell - Mi Chico Latino

Rank: 7/10

Reason: I think I can reasonably say I do enjoy all of my top 23, which is a decent strike rate for a year with so many No.1s. After Look At Me failed to reach the top, Geri appeared to be hopping onto the Latin bandwagon that was all the rage in summer 1999 (see also Enrique Iglesias, Jennifer Lopez and Ricky Martin alongside many dance and novelty hits) for second solo single Mi Chico Latino (My Latin Boy). But Geri is half-Spanish through her mother, Ana María Hidalgo, and had written the song in 1998 in tribute to her mother, so we can forgive her for releasing the single during this particular wave of popularity, and some Spice Girls tracks had a Latin feel to them before it was popular again anyway.

A nice breezy, summery song, Geri's breathy vocal actually suited it pretty well, and the chorus is very nice, with a catchy melody, while she carries the spoken middle eight with gusto. The song went where Look At Me had failed to go – to No.1, although this wasn't a given. The Woolworths chart for this week had Better Off Alone at the top and Geri at No.2, but it wasn't to be for the Dutch dance outfit I'm so fond of mentioning, as Geri outsold them comprehensively. The track was a hit in several European countries, the highest success outside the UK being No.3 in Italy while No.7 in Spain was quite admirable considering they weren't exactly short on music like this that was more authentic.

22. Vengaboys - We're Going To Ibiza

Rank: 7/10

Reason: 'Woah, we're going to eat pizza' is what the streets were singing in September 1999 when Dutch-based pop and dance band Vengaboys unleashed their fourth single onto the UK market. 1999 wasn't short of Europop, to put it midly, but this track may have been one of the most ubiquitous.

As naff as it is charming, the song was based on Typically Tropical's 1975 No.1 UK hit Barbados, more or less just changing the lyrics (including Barbados to Ee-beetz-uh, apparently a common pronunciation of Ibiza in The Netherlands) and updating the production for the 90s, so not the most original of tracks, but it worked well.

Captain Kim was in charge of the group's second and final No.1 which boasted a now rather dated looking CGI video that kind of...exaggerated some of her physical features, but that's the late 90s for you. The song wasn't quite as big as its predecessor saleswise, but tbf, how many other bands managed four top three hits in 1999? They must have been up there as one of the biggest selling singles acts of the year and for about 18 months were really hot property. Like its predecessor, We're Going To Ibiza also reached No.1 in The Netherlands and top 10 all over Europe.

I think I’d have Mi Chico Latino top 15, great smash back after Look at Me failed to get to number 1.

4 hours ago, Jester said:

I think I’d have Mi Chico Latino top 15, great smash back after Look at Me failed to get to number 1.

True, it was certainly more accessible than Look At Me. I read earlier that Geri's label pushed for Bag It Up to be the summer 1999 single (with Lift Me Up still planned for winter), but she pushed for this as it's summery, which makes perfect sense. I can't see how it would have been as big a hit released in February/March 2000.

You getting 'Mi Chico Latino' to post about in this countdown thread and me having actual Chico in mine 😆

it was my favourite Geri single for the longest time but 'Look At Me' has overtaken in recent years. I guess I'm a bit of a sucker for Latin pop and I think it takes some cues from 'La Isla Bonita', one of my favourite '80s Madonna songs. I have a soft spot for her breaking into Spanish both on this and 'If U Can't Dance' by the Spice Girls!

Not huge on 'We're Going to Ibiza' but that and 'Barbados' both getting to #1 is a fun fact. I was about to say I wonder if the latter will ever get added to Spotify but just checked and it's finally there, must have been added at some point this year, oh my *.*

Yes Spice Girls definitely had their moments of Latin influence so it wasn't a huge swerve really. It is curious that Latin music was such a trend in summer 1999 overall though, but then again it happened again in 2017, so maybe it's something that just comes back around some summers!

That's good news about Barbados because I was surprised it was left off Now Yearbook 1975 and its Extra album. I wondered if that was due to licensing.

Love both of those and would have them higher up. 'Mi Chico Latino' is a fun breeze yet also sassy pop tune. 'We're Going To Ibiza' exhilarates fun too. Was a major Vengaboys fan growing up and this fit in nicely in the middle of their popularity. A fun song to sing along to.

'Mi Chico Latino' is definitely better than 'Lift Me Up', actually pretty decent. Was it seen as a surprise #1 at the time after 'Look At Me' rather famously missed?

'We're Going to Eat Pizza' = happy memories of Now 44!