I knew Britney had high debut sales that week but didnt realiase they were that high. In the streaming era can you imagine how high those numbers would be.

6TH MARCH




It turned into a rather interesting week in the end with a record equaling 7 new entries in the top flight, but the headline remains that after 12 weeks of a different song at No 1 we finally get a single which holds the top spot and against the odds that’s Britney Spears’ “Baby One More Time”. With sales cut by 50% to 231,000, still an extraordinary figure by most standards, total sales of the Spears track are already at 694,000 after just a fortnight- truly phenomenal.

It didn’t make the running at the start of the week however, instead that was Blur’s new single “Tender”. Written about Albarn’s break up with Elastica singer Justine Frischmann, the song serves as the first release from their “13” album due at the end of the month and sold a very impressive 176,542 copies in the process, that’s the highest tally for a No 2 track that went no higher since “Vindaloo” last summer, and among their own hits only “Country House” has ever sold more in 7 days. They can count themselves very unlucky indeed, it is however their 11th top 10 single in the last 8 years.

We’ve got Britney at No 1 and this week we get Whitney at No 3, the US superstar certainly has her mojo back after her last single “When You Believe” made No 4 just before Christmas and now follow up “It’s Not Right, But It’s Okay” goes one better after shifting a mighty 161,000 to make this week’s top 3 one of the best selling of the decade and indeed you’d have to go back to November 1995 to find a No 3 track to sell as much. Produced by Darkchild it has reactivated Houston’s new album “My Love Is Your Love” which has thus far sold poorly peaking at No 27 on release but this week surges 37-22 to reach a new peak after 15 weeks on release. The single has also benefited from remixes by Thunderpuss which have proved popular in clubs and at radio and of course a BRITS performance a few weeks ago.

We’re also due a second Stereophonics album this month and now “Performance & Cocktails” will contain two top 5 singles as “Just Looking” makes its appearance at No 4 (77,500). Lead single “The Bartender & The Thief” made it No 3 late last year but shows that great things are expected from the Welsh boys in 1999, and their new single features on the opening credits of the film "This Year's Love" which is in cinema's now.

Whilst “Believe” still lingers in the top 40 (it’s down 5 places at 35 in its 19th week and currently US #2) Cher is already on her next single “Strong Enough” which has more than a passing resemblance to “I Will Survive”. Selling 75,000 copies last week it enters at No 5 and gives Cher the first back to back top 5 singles of her long career as well as her 10th top 10 solo hit though she has three other singles that have made the grade in various guises.

Last year’s “My Favourite Game” saw the Cardigans score a major radio hit even if it failed to make the top 10, follow up “Erase/ Rewind” does however feel the benefit as it debuts at No 7 (66,000). That’s only the band’s second top flight hit after 1997’s “Lovefool” made No 2 and it also pushes the parent album “Gran Turismo” 16-10 to make the top 10 for the first time!

A slice of US folk next with Shawn Mullins and his hit “Lullaby” which was recently a No 7 hit in the states. It arrives at No 9 (56,000) here as a slight surprise, the singer cut his teeth on the US college circuit but has finally found international fame with this track.

Our last new entries constitutes a duet with the third largest age gap between them on a top 10 single, Elton John is 51 and LeAnn Rimes is just 17 beaten only by Frank Sinatra/ Bono and David Bowie/ Bing Crosby at 44 years each. “Written In The Stars” comes from the forthcoming musical “Aida” which is itself based on the opera of the same name by Verdi and is written by Tim Rice and Elton himself which is due in the West End sometime next year. The marketing strategy of releasing hit singles to promote a musical was of course used to great effect in the mid 80s for “Phantom Of The Opera” which had three top 10 singles before it opened, this single cruises in at No 10 (44,000) to become Elton’s 25th top 10 single.

Besides Britney the only survivors from the cull this week are The Corrs who fall 2-6 (71,000) and Lenny Kravitz though he slips 3-8 (59,000) in a week of very high sales all around.



With Comic Relief approaching again all eyes are now on this year’s single from Boyzone- can it dethrone Britney?

1- BABY ONE MORE TIME- Britney Spears (231,000)
2- TENDER- Blur (176,542)
3- IT’S NOT RIGHT BUT IT’S OKAY- Whitney Houston (161,000)
4- JUST LOOKING- Stereophonics (77,500)
5- STRONG ENOUGH- Cher (75,000)
6- RUNAWAY (REMIX)- The Corrs (71,000)
7- ERASE/ REWIND- Cardigans (66,000)
8- FLY AWAY- Lenny Kravitz (59,000)
9- LULLABY- Shawn Mullins (56,000)
10- WRITTEN IN THE STARS- Elton John & LeAnn Rimes (44,000)

The 4th time there have been 7 new entries in the top 10

Edited Friday at 18:593 days by mrpopquiz

13TH MARCH



It can’t match the opening sales of either “Words” (232,000) or “No Matter What” (277,554) or the previous Comic Relief single from the Spice Girls (248,000) but Boyzone’s Charity single “When The Going Gets Tough” still does enough to depose Britney Spears with a sale of 213,000. A fifth chart topper for the Irish boys, you’ll know the song as the 1986 #1 hit for Billy Ocean which has been carefully replicated here, with the big day itself at the end of the week it would be a surprise if this only lasted 7 days but with Steps out today it isn’t a given. It is a fifth No1 for the charity too, and now only Take That and Spice Girls have more chart toppers in the 90s than Boyzone- little did we suspect back in 1994 that they would be quite as successful as they have!

Vengaboys are serving up another slice of Europop and we seem to love it as second single “We Like To Party” goes one spot higher than debut hit “Up And Down” by entering at No 3 (139,000). Their debut album “The Party Album” hits the shops in 3 weeks if you want to hear more from the Dutch quartet.

George Michael had an eventful 1998 to say the least, after the public outing in April he returned to the charts with “Outside” in October before seeing his greatest hits selection “Ladies & Gentleman” spend 8 weeks at No 1 over the festive period on its way to sales of 1.6 million so far. Second release from it is the song “As” a duet with Mary J Blige which is a Stevie Wonder track from his 1976 album “Songs In The Key Of Life” which was a never a single here but a #36 hit in the US. The Blige/ Michael version is being released globally with the exception of the US where the song has been pulled at the insistence of Blige’s record company who made the decision after the events of last April fearful that US audiences would not be keen on the association with Michael. Here at any rate it matters little as it debuts at No 4 (96,000)- that’s Blige’s third and biggest top 10 single here but Michael’s 19th top 10 solo hit and a 12th in a row, his figure of 13 in the 90s makes him the second most successful male soloist of the decade behind Michael Jackson.

While 19 top ten singles is impressive it isn’t a patch on 44 and that’s how many Madonna now has with new single “Nothing Really Matters” entering at No 7 (63,000). A fifth cut from the “Ray Of Light” album it comes with dance remixes by Club 69 which have been a hit on the dancefloor and help maintain the album’s current top 20 status despite already having sales of 1.1 million.

US rapper Ginuwine is back with his second album “100% Ginuwine” hoping he can score four top 20 hit singles again as he did with his debut era. He starts off well with “What’s So Different” equaling his best ever showing at No 10 (42,000), the track comes with a sample of The Monkees “Valleri” (#12, 1968) if you think it sounds familiar.

Britney Spears is toppled 1-2 but sells another 170,000 in the process and could reach the million as soon as next week at her current rate! Whitney Houston dips 3-5 (92,000) but her album finally makes the top 10, Blur hurtle 2-6 (77,000), Cher weakens 5-8 (47,000) and The Stereophonics trip 4-9 (43,000).

1- WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH- Boyzone (213,000)
2- BABY ONE MORE TIME- Britney Spears (170,000)
3- WE LIKE TO PARTY- Vengaboys (139,000)
4- AS- George Michael & Mary J Blige (96,000)
5- IT’S NOT RIGHT BUT IT’S OKAY- Whitney Houston (92,000)
6- TENDER- Blur (77,000)
7- NOTHING REALLY MATTERS- Madonna (63,000)
8- STRONG ENOUGH- Cher (47,000)
9- JUST LOOKING- Stereophonics (43,000)
10- WHAT’S SO DIFFERENT?- Ginuwine (42,000)

BBC4 showing the 5th March episode but the subtitles are for the 12th March episode !!

That top ten in the first episode 😮 so many classics! I pretty much like every song and love at least half of them.

Noticed the Vengaboys seemed to be missing a performer? Something I never noticed back in 99.

I could quite imagine the Vengabus as a slow ballad like Tender.

Tender is the best new entry here, I never knew it was such a big seller in the first week and that Whitney wasn’t far behind!

The Vengabus is cracking -,by far the best Vengaboys track and a pop classic. Also much love for the Cardigans.

I really like 'As', great soulful duet, my fave in that top 10, and 'It's Not Right But Its OK' and the Vengabus is good too!

Edited Saturday at 20:042 days by TheSnake

Erase/Rewind ❤️ By far my favourite new entry across the two shows. I remember buying it from Our Price on this week, it was probably the most 'indie' sounding single I'd bought up to that point (I was 11). Still obsessed with the track, it has the coolest production and vocal from Nina. I'm seeing them live for the first time in June and can't wait to see this one performed.

We Like To Party is great fun and it's the only track I think Denise has a lead vocal on? As they switched back to Kim from the next single onwards. Denise did a great job on that, she should have had more lead vocals.

For how huge a single ...Baby One More Time was, TOTP may as well have pretended it didn't exist. I know Britney couldn't perform due to injury but to only show a massively edited version of the video was a bit harsh. It feels wrong that the song only spent two weeks at No.1.

Some great new entries elsewhere - Lullaby I have always loved and 56,000 is huge sales for No.9, that week was big all round though, so high in the top three!

Strong Enough was very different to Believe but is still one I hear around a fair bit, a good disco number from Cher.

I've got no recollection of how the Elton/Leann song goes, although I remember it happened.

No plays for As or Nothing Really Matters, but I thought both of those were good tracks, As was so huge on the radio that year, it felt much bigger than No.4, but did have some high sales to get there.

When The Going Gets Tough is a bit of a standard cover that doesn't really change the original but it at least had a pulse unlike Boyzone's other covers and I remember the video with all of the guest comedians and Emmerdale stars very well.

The Jay contender for Eurovision at the end of the first show was awful, definitely the weakest of the four shown, like a boyband reject track. And the E-17 song on the second show wasn't much better. I really liked Each Time, but Betcha Can't Wait had no real redeeming features.

The Blur and Whitney tracks are both great, a shame they missed out on #1 as they could easily have made it in a different week. Tender selling so well was a surprise to me as it was really long and was quite a departure for Blur. Whitney's track marked the beginning of the best period in her career imo, all the singles from the album were great and the sass on this lead track was quite the force.

As for the rest... We Like To Party was Vengaboys' best track and one I bought, it was incredibly fun and at the time I loved the throwback to the type of dance we had in 1993ish. Nothing Really Matters was yet another strong single from Madonna's best album so great to see that give her yet another top 10... where as Cardigans got a second, although it was a step down from the nigh on perfect My Favourite Game for me - still decent though. Cher's was a decent enough follow up to Believe, but it wasn't something I was particularly mad on - I'd rather just have I Will Survive! The rest aren't that great, the Stereophonics one is particularly irritating for me.