13 minutes ago, Jessie Where said:

I was obsessed with 'Blue' at the time, but it hasn't really held up for me now (oddly 'Mambo No. 5' has though, I always kind of lump these two songs together). Were there ever any plans for a follow-up after 'Move Your Body'? I always found it quite odd they just stopped completely after that.

I think Too Much Of Heaven appeared on the release list for a bit then disappeared, shame really as I loved this with its rap verses and all, although I doubt they had much more chart life left in them, although ATB did manage a third top five hit with that (pointless) cover of Killer.

1 hour ago, gooddelta said:

2. Eiffel 65 - Blue (Da Ba Dee)

Rank: 10/10

Reason: 1998 had four 10/10 No.1s, but for me 1999 has two, mainly because a lot of my favourite songs of the year all stalled at No.2. But let that take nothing away from these two songs that I dearly love and by artists who I was obsessed with. In second place, where it also finished in the UK end of year chart for 1999, is Italian Europop/dance trio Eiffel 65. Singer Jeffrey Jey, keyboard player Maurizio Lobina and producer and DJ Gabry Ponte formed Eiffel 65 in 1997 and had their global breakthrough smash with a song that would go on to influence pop and dance music for years to come.

In a year full of European mainland hits, Blue (Da Ba Dee) was by far the biggest, taking its inspiration from Italo Disco, pop, 90s dance and more. The song is built around a gorgeous piano line devised by Maurizio, lyrics with more than a tinge of sadness to them if you listen properly (yet bizarre and catchy enough that the song essentially served as a novelty hit at the same time), and really great production from Maurizio, and Gabry, who is still a huge name in European dance and this year represented San Marino at Eurovision with the song Tutta L'Italia.

Complete with a CGI/real world crossover style music video with blue aliens, I found Blue (Da Ba Dee) so instantly hypnotic that the moment I heard it I rushed out to buy it on import from HMV, a good couple of months before official release, and I was in love with the various remixes on the maxi single, including the instrumental version. I later became obssessed with the album preview included as a b-side on the follow-up single Move Your Body and quickly obtained the parent album, which I still dearly love to this day and would love to get it on vinyl. They were just a two-hit wonder here, but Too Much Of Heaven and Living In A Bubble from the album joined Blue (Da Ba Dee) in topping my personal chart, while they also aided another major European smash and another of my all-tiime favourites, All I Really Want by Kim Lukas, which for all intents and purposes is turned into an Eiffel 65 song with their hit remix.

During this purple patch of popularity they also remixed songs like S Club 7's Reach and The Bloodhound Gang's The Bad Touch, each time making them sound like their own with the Cher style vocoder effects, piano lines and robotic synthesised sound effects and swishes they were so fond of.

Blue (Da Ba Dee) was played over and over on the radio at the end of summer/start of autumn 1999 and it was absolutely no surprise when it became a huge No.1 for the trio in September, having previously joined Lou Bega in reaching the top 40 on import sales alone a few weeks earlier. The song spent three weeks at the top here and, like Britney, topped the charts more or less everywhere it was released aside from a few countries including, curiously, their homeland of Italy while in the US it peaked at No.6, although for a Eurodance song this was highly impressive. But its legacy has been even larger, with the song sampled and covered by acts ranging from Flo Rida to David Guetta, the latter taking I'm Good (Blue) to No.1 in 2022 with Bebe Rexha on vocals. Eiffel 65 called their debut album Europop, and this is a masterclass in the genre that few songs have ever bettered.

Another brilliant write up Rich! I found Blue so annoying at the time and it was absolutely everywhere, it was inescapable! But my best friend from primary school was obsessed with it and I guess by stealth it crept up in my affections and I really enjoy it now.

My best friend and I also performed this at our Year 6 school camp talent show. I say 'performed' but all I did was stand on the stage waving my arms in the air. 🤣

1 hour ago, gooddelta said:

1. ATB - 9PM (Till I Come)

Rank: 10/10

Reason: Just like Sweet Like Chocolate earlier the thread, which became the first garage No.1 in the UK, we had got all the way to 1999 without having a pure trance No.1, despite the genre arguably being the biggest dance subgenre of the year and producing almost weekly multiple top 40 hits, many of which are considered classics now. Fast forward to July and German producer André Tanneberger and uncredited singer Yolanda Rivera unleashed one of the very finest trance songs ever recorded, which instantly amassed huge sales to debut at No.1 and also finished in the top five of the year.

9PM (Till I Come) was originally released in Germany a year earlier in a version that in my opinion sounds like trance that was also influenced by the Berlin techno scene of the time (it would have sounded great on the soundtrack to Run Lola Run/Lola Rennt, which was released that year). The song was a moderate No.14 hit in that version in Germany, and I'm sure would have been big here if unchanged for this market, but I really think the UK radio edit was a work of magic, trimming the fat off the track (it comes in quite short for 1999 at 2:42) and making it a more dynamic production, with a tighter and faster bassline more suited to 1999 trends, but leaving that iconic and unique pitch bending hook fully in tact, while Yolanda's repeated, breathy but effective single lyric 'change it and say, till I come' is peppered across the track in all the right places to make it really special.

I credit 9PM (Till I Come) as the reason I truly came to love dance music. I remember the week I bought it, on release week (I somehow had never heard it before then) I walked into Virgin in Brighton with £3 and had gone in to buy either Jewel's Down So Long or S Club 7's Bring It All Back. But while I was there I heard this while checking new singles on the listening post and was absolutely blown away by it. Almost hypnotised, I took it straight to the till and for more than a brief moment forgot that those other two songs I'd gone in for even existed.

I quickly tracked down ATB's album on import in HMV and paid £15 for it, which was no small sum for a 12-year-old, but I wasn't disappointed at all. Movin' Melodies remains one of my favourite dance albums of all-time and is another I would love to see on vinyl - Don't Stop and My Dream from the album also topped my chart (the former also later getting a dynamic remix for the UK market) while I was also besotted with Sunburn and especially the atmospheric Too Much Rain, which was removed from the later UK release of the album and also isn't on Spotify here, so I'm glad I imported it.

Despite being viewed as a trance classic, the UK and Ireland are the only countries 9PM (Till I Come) topped the chart in – here it stayed at No.1 for two weeks, although it also went top 10 in various European countries and Australia, although I'm not quite sure if that was in this UK mix or in its original form. ATB and this song returned to the top 10 in 2021 alongside Topic and A7S in a new vocal remix called Your Love (9PM), this time taking 9PM into the German top ten for the first time where it peaked at No.6.

9pm (Till I Come) was another one I wasn't too fond of at the time as I wasn't really into dance music but I like Blue before it in your countdown it has really crept up on me over the last 20+ years.

I think we did have a slightly different version in Australia. This one seems familiar, it's about 30 seconds longer.

What an incredible countdown Rich! Thank you for hosting it!

I think our tastes can be quite similar.

Here is my top 10:

1. Britney Spears - ...Baby One More Time

2. Steps - Heartbeat/Tragedy

3. Vengaboys - Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom!!

4. S Club 7 - Bring It All Back

5. Eiffel 65 - Blue (Da Ba Dee)

6. Five - Keep On Movin'

7. Baz Luhrmann - Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen)

8. ATB - 9PM (Till I Come)

9. Backstreet Boys - I Want It That Way

10. Christina Aguilera - Genie In A Bottle

    Just missing out would be:

11. The Offspring - Pretty Fly (For A White Guy)

12. Ricky Martin - Livin' La Vida Loca

13. Westlife - Flying Without Wings

14. B*Witched - Blame It On The Weatherman

15. Lou Bega - Mambo No.5 (A Little Bit Of)

14 minutes ago, Paddington James said:

9pm (Till I Come) was another one I wasn't too fond of at the time as I wasn't really into dance music but I like Blue before it in your countdown it has really crept up on me over the last 20+ years.

I think we did have a slightly different version in Australia. This one seems familiar, it's about 30 seconds longer.

Ah yes, that's the original version, so I suppose the UK mix was only pushed here and perhaps also in Ireland.

This would be my top 10 from the year:

1. Baz Luhrmann - Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen)

2. Fatboy Slim - Praise You

3. Shanks & Bigfoot - Sweet Like Chocolate

4. ATB - 9PM (Till I Come)

5. Armand Van Helden - You Don't Know Me

6. Steps - Heartbeat/Tragedy

7. Blondie - Maria

8. Lou Bega - Mambo No. 5 (A Little Bit of ...)

9. Lenny Kravitz - Fly Away

10. Mr. Oizo - Flat Beat

I'm putting Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen) on top based on the full seven minute version. I really only like the top two songs but the other eight are all OK to listen to.

Thanks gooddelta for taking us through 1998 and 1999.

14 minutes ago, gooddelta said:

Ah yes, that's the original version, so I suppose the UK mix was only pushed here and perhaps also in Ireland.

I do recall the UK edit being played though. I think it's probably the one that gets played nowadays.

Cant really fault any of that top 3. All memorable and great in their own ways. Britney's like others say is one of the greatest launching pads for a new artist and the video is classic too.

Eiffel 65 a major banger though I did prefer 'Move Your Body' slightly more at the time but both are really fun.

ATB is great dance anthem for a reason too. One of the best of that year for sure.

--

1 Blondie - Maria

2 Robbie Williams - She's The One / It's Only Us

3 Five - Keep On Movin

4 Britney Spears - ...Baby One More Time

5 Vengaboys - Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom

6 Backstreet Boys - I Want It That Way

7 Fatboy Slim - Praise You

8 Eiffel 65 - Blue (Da Ba Dee

9 Christina Aguilera - Genie In A Bottle

10 S Club 7 - Bring It All Back

11 Vengaboys - We're Going To Ibiza

12 Baz Luhrmann - Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen

13 Geri Halliwell - Mi Chico Latino

14 Geri Halliwell - Lift Me Up

15 Shanks & Bigfoot - Sweet Like Chocolate

16 ATB - 9PM (Till I Come)

17 Ricky Martin - Livin' La Vida Loca

18 The Offspring - Pretty Fly (For A White Guy

19 Ronan Keating - When You Say Nothing At All

20 Lenny Kravitz - Fly Away

21 B*Witched - Blame It On The Weatherman

22 Armand Van Helden feat. Duane Harden - You Don't Know Me

23 Steps - Heartbeat / Tragedy

24 Westlife - I Have A Dream / Seasons In The Sun

25 Westlife - Flying Without Wings

26 Lou Bega - Mambo No.5 (A Little Bit Of)

27 Boyzone - When The Going Gets Tough

28 Martine McCutcheon - Perfect Moment

29 Mr Oizo - Flat Beat

30 Westlife - If I Let You Go

31 911 - A Little Bit More

32 Wamdue Project - King Of My Castle

33 Westlife - Swear It Again

34 Cliff Richard - The Millennium Prayer

35 Boyzone - You Needed Me

A fantastic top 3 which as I mentioned are the same songs I'd have. '...Baby One More Time' is still Britney's best song for me - when I first heard it on the radio, I thought she was a young R&B singer, her vocals are on point as well as the dramatic, slick production with that three note piano motif, but most of all it's a great song - verses, pre-chorus, chorus, middle eight, middle eight reprised over the last chorus: all are among the best of pop.

I first heard 'Blue (Da Ba Dee)' just before going to Spain for two weeks in August 1999, and when I got there it was everywhere - so infectiously catchy with the blue theme and piano-driven riff, but with an undercurrent of sadness. It was little surprise to see it follow Lou Bega into the UK Top 40 as an import, and then storm to the top, instantly becoming my favourite #1 of the year, as it has remained to this day.

And '9PM (Till I Come)' was one of the first big songs to soundtrack that summer with that irresistible bendy guitar line. I don't think I appreciated at the time that it was the first trance #1, but what a neat song to do it, condensing many of its best elements into less than 3 minutes in what's still the best edit for me.

My top 10 possibly:

1. Eiffel 65 - Blue (Da Ba Dee)

2. Britney Spears - ...Baby One More Time

3. ATB - 9PM (Till I Come)

4. Blondie - Maria

5. Baz Luhrmann - Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen)

6. Vengaboys - Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom!!

7. Shanks & Bigfoot - Sweet Like Chocolate

8. The Offspring - Pretty Fly (For A White Guy)

9. Fatboy Slim - Praise You

10. Steps - [Heartbeat/]Tragedy

Thanks Rich for the detailed commentaries and starting off this series! Look forward to seeing where it goes next.

great rundown, incorporating why records mean so much you in your life is always enchanting and interesting, I find, and helps look at songs from a different point of view. Your top 2 are tracks I quite liked at the time, but suffered from overplay and repetition too much for me to rate them as top faves for 1999.

Forgive the indulgence, but as I've already posted my top 100 of 1999 online, here's it is again with number ones highlighted! Despite my previous comments, Britney comes out on top for me! This chart is based on replaying all tracks from 1999 a decade later, with original year-end chart positions in brackets. So Armand came out top originally, but Britney sounded better years later.

1 4 YOU GET WHAT YOU GIVE New Radicals

2 3 SUMMER SON Texas

3 7 LARGER THAN LIFE Backstreet Boys

4 18 TELL ME THE ANSWER Texas

5 157 NOT OVER YET ’99 Planet Perfecto/ Grace

6 11 WHEN WE ARE TOGETHER Texas

7 12 I DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU WANT BUT I CAN’T GIVE IT ANYMORE Pet Shop Boys

8 21 SUN IS SHINING Bob Marley vs Funkstar De Luxe

9 6 THAT DON’T IMPRESS ME MUCH Shania Twain

10 14 UNPRETTY TLC

11 NEW FOOTSTEPS Pet Shop Boys

12 19 ..BABY ONE MORE TIME Britney Spears

13 27 BEAUTIFUL STRANGER Madonna

14 24 SHE’S IN FASHION Suede

15 70 YOUR LIES Shelby Lynne

16 59 I WANT YOU BACK N’Sync

17 39 TEQUILA Terrorvision

18 13 YOU DON’T KNOW ME Armand Van Helden/ Duane Arden

19 35 PRETTY FLY (FOR A WHITE GUY) The Offspring

20 33 LIFE’S TOO SHORT The Lightning Seeds

21 9 IN A LIFETIME Texas

22 127 SHORLEY WALL Ooberman

23 34 STEAL MY SUNSHINE Len

24 15 GIVE IT TO YOU Jordan Knight

25 23 I WANT IT THAT WAY Backstreet Boys

26 37 ERASE/REWIND The Cardigans

27 38 GOIN’ DOWN Melanie C

28 25 RIGHT HERE RIGHT NOW Fatboy Slim

29 58 KEEP ON MOVIN’ Five

30 20 DRINKING IN L.A. Bran Van 3000

31 80 S CLUB PARTY S Club 7

32 56 BAILAMOS Enrique Iglesias

33 31 I KNOW WHAT I’M HERE FOR James

34 91 BURNING DOWN THE HOUSE Tom Jones/ The Cardigans

35 123 DRIFTWOOD Travis

36 NEW IN DENIAL Pet Shop Boys/ Kylie Minogue

37 121 THE MASTERPLAN Oasis

38 40 PRAISE YOU Fatboy Slim

39 45 LIVING LA VIDA LOCA Ricky Martin

40 61 SHE Elvis Costello

41 22 STRONG Robbie Williams

42 99 LOVESTRUCK Madness

43 127 SING IT BACK Moloko

44 50 THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH Garbage

45 62 NEW YORK CITY BOY Pet Shop Boys

46 71 GODDESS ON A HIWAY Mercury Rev

47 65 EVERY MORNING Sugar Ray

48 66 AT THE RIVER Groove Armada

49 36 KISS ME Sixpence None The Richer

50 75 YOUR KISSES ARE CHARITY Culture Club

51 48 PERFECT MOMENT Martine McCutcheon

52 NEW CLOSER TO HEAVEN Pet Shop Boys

53 197 GIVEN UP Mirrorball

54 54 IT’S NOT RIGHT BUT IT’S OK Whitney Houston

55 81 MARIA Blondie

56 93 BEST OF ME Bryan Adams

57 86 EVERYTHING MY HEART DESIRES Adam Ricketts

58 63 FLY AWAY Lenny Kravitz

59 165 SHE’S SO HIGH Tal Bachman

60 28 IF I COULD TURN BACK THE HANDS OF TIME R Kelly

61 88 COLD SHOULDER Culture Club

62 NEW DREAMSOME Shelby Lynne

63 30 MY LOVE IS YOUR LOVE Whitney Houston

64 68 GENIE IN A BOTTLE Christina Aguilera

65 46 CANNED HEAT Jamiroquai

66 98 IT’S ONLY US Robbie Williams

67 78 SUNSHINE Gabrielle

68 49 TONITE Supercar

69 74 WHAT IT’S LIKE Everlast

70 357 CANTO DELLA TERRA Andrea Bocelli

71 128 WALK LIKE A PANTHER All Seeing I/ Tony Christie

72 88 STARMAN Culture Club

73 238 LEARN TO FLY Foo Fighters

74 116 SECRET SMILE Semisonic

75 NEW ZERO ZERO Texas

76 122 BRAND NEW DAY Sting

77 141 MOVIN’ Supergrass

78 47 DEAD FROM THE WAIST DOWN Catatonia

79 87 AS George Michael/ Mary J Blige

80 107 DISCO DOWN Shed 7

81 119 CRAZY Lucid

82 73 WHY DON’T YOU GET A JOB The Offspring

83 44 LULLABY Shawn Mullins

84 129 ALLSTAR Smashmouth

85 110 WHAT I AM Tin Tin Out/ Emma Bunton

86 41 HUMAN The Pretenders

87 NEW LOOKIN’ UP Shelby Lynne

88 85 NATIONAL EXPRESS The Divine Comedy

89 136 MADE IT BACK ’99 Beverley Knight

90 95 THERE’S YOUR TROUBLE Dixie Chicks

91 57 EVERYBODY’S FREE (TO WEAR SUNSCREEN) Baz Luhrmann

92 163 YOU SHOULD BE DANCIN’ Blockster

93 328 WHY Glamma Kid

94 64 I TRY Macy Gray

95 77 YOU DRIVE ME CRAZY Britney Spears

96 90 THERE SHE GOES Sixpence None The Richer

97 111 WHY DOES IT ALWAYS RAIN ON ME Travis

98 300 I’VE GOT YOU Martine McCutcheon

99 214 MY BEAUTIFUL FRIEND The Charlatans

100 127 HERE COMES MY BABY The Mavericks

I make 13 number ones that I rate top 100 of 1999.

I'll post my thoughts later for this and have a think about what my order would have been...

...but for now I'm interested in finding out if there are any other volunteers to help with some of the other years in future. We've got a fair few of them covered with the mods doing 4 each and with 1995 onwards already completed by Jester and Gooddelta, but please give me a tag in here or drop me a PM if you'd like to host any of the following:

1994

1993

1991

1985

1982

1981

1978

1977

1974

1973

1972

1971

1970

You won't need to start them straight away or anything as Rollo is doing 1983 next and we only really want one running at a time but we very much think it would be good to get other people's views on some of the years rather than just us each time.

13 hours ago, dandy* said:

I'll post my thoughts later for this and have a think about what my order would have been...

...but for now I'm interested in finding out if there are any other volunteers to help with some of the other years in future. We've got a fair few of them covered with the mods doing 4 each and with 1995 onwards already completed by Jester and Gooddelta, but please give me a tag in here or drop me a PM if you'd like to host any of the following:

1994

1993

1991

1985

1982

1981

1978

1977

1974

1973

1972

1971

1970

You won't need to start them straight away or anything as Rollo is doing 1983 next and we only really want one running at a time but we very much think it would be good to get other people's views on some of the years rather than just us each time.

I can do any of them, but prefer 70's 80's as I wont need to actually play any of them I know them so well, but it would need to be after March as I'm off touring new Zealand for a month in February and will be pretty busy before and after I expect. So maybe slot me in for any leftovers after other volunteers? 👍

Thanks John - that would be great!

13 hours ago, dandy* said:

I'll post my thoughts later for this and have a think about what my order would have been...

...but for now I'm interested in finding out if there are any other volunteers to help with some of the other years in future. We've got a fair few of them covered with the mods doing 4 each and with 1995 onwards already completed by Jester and Gooddelta, but please give me a tag in here or drop me a PM if you'd like to host any of the following:

1994

1993

1991

1985

1982

1981

1978

1977

1974

1973

1972

1971

1970

You won't need to start them straight away or anything as Rollo is doing 1983 next and we only really want one running at a time but we very much think it would be good to get other people's views on some of the years rather than just us each time.

I’d be happy to take up to one from each decade.

(And thanks Rich for this one - sorry I didn’t get chance to follow closely.)

Thanks Julian! <3