9 hours ago, Jessie Where said:

What a bumper week there for S Club and Madonna! Shame she didn't choose another week really.

Was it seen as a chart battle at the time, or was it more of less a foregone conclusion S Club 7 would be the #1?

It was definitely seen as a chart battle of sorts, with a chance for either to get to the top, but at the same time, I don't think anyone was hugely shocked that S Club 7 got it in the end, it had been promoted for so long (wasn't the video first shown on Top of the Pops in April?) and Miami 7 was really popular.

It's a great pop song but really was a very cheesy debut, summer 1999 was probably the cheeiest that pop music ever got, with this, Steps' Love's Got A Hold On My Heart, Cartoons, Lolly etc...

Beautiful Stranger would have been a deserving No.1 too, I absolutely adore the Austin Powers movie it came from. That was the first 12 rated film I saw in the cinema (my 12th birthday was the month before), a real riot.

These two shows were such a time capsule for me, I was probably at my most obsessive chart following period at this point, and in fact the second show was the week I started my personal chart (S Club 7 entered at No.2 in my first chart behind Down So Long by Jewel, which only just made the UK top 40).

I'm also really noticing the sheer volume of girl groups around (Precious, Fierce, Hepburn, Honeyz, TLC, 21st Century Girls and more...) 21st Century Girls was a throwback, they had so much hype around them from the music press but were pretty crap, and came across as sounding a bit like Shampoo. I'm intrigued as to why loads of girlbands with guitars (also Hepburn and Thunderbugs) were launched in 1999, record companies must have thought this would be the next trend but none of them did that well. It's also ironic that because this group completely flopped (I'm quite sure this song had been expected to go top five), they never made it to the 21st Century at all.

Great, classic singles from Red Hot Chili Peppers and Chemical Brothers, another Cher single I absolutely loved and bought on single in All Or Nothing (it's very Steps sounding looking back), and probably one of Another Level's best singles too. It's unsurprising as Diane Warren wrote it, really quite a classy track.

Doodah is completely ridiculous, even moreso than Witch Doctor. I can't believe this track went top 10 in the UK, the live performance and their instruments/props were ridiculous.

Sunscreen was No.4 in my rank of 1999 No.1s I did last year – as each year passes, I love it even more than the last, probably because every lyric makes more and more sense the older you get. One of the few No.1 singles that makes me teary. Absolute genius idea and execution, there will never be another song or moment in time like it.

18 hours ago, gooddelta said:

It was definitely seen as a chart battle of sorts, with a chance for either to get to the top, but at the same time, I don't think anyone was hugely shocked that S Club 7 got it in the end, it had been promoted for so long (wasn't the video first shown on Top of the Pops in April?) and Miami 7 was really popular.

It's a great pop song but really was a very cheesy debut, summer 1999 was probably the cheeiest that pop music ever got, with this, Steps' Love's Got A Hold On My Heart, Cartoons, Lolly etc...

Beautiful Stranger would have been a deserving No.1 too, I absolutely adore the Austin Powers movie it came from. That was the first 12 rated film I saw in the cinema (my 12th birthday was the month before), a real riot.

These two shows were such a time capsule for me, I was probably at my most obsessive chart following period at this point, and in fact the second show was the week I started my personal chart (S Club 7 entered at No.2 in my first chart behind Down So Long by Jewel, which only just made the UK top 40).

I'm also really noticing the sheer volume of girl groups around (Precious, Fierce, Hepburn, Honeyz, TLC, 21st Century Girls and more...) 21st Century Girls was a throwback, they had so much hype around them from the music press but were pretty crap, and came across as sounding a bit like Shampoo. I'm intrigued as to why loads of girlbands with guitars (also Hepburn and Thunderbugs) were launched in 1999, record companies must have thought this would be the next trend but none of them did that well. It's also ironic that because this group completely flopped (I'm quite sure this song had been expected to go top five), they never made it to the 21st Century at all.

Great, classic singles from Red Hot Chili Peppers and Chemical Brothers, another Cher single I absolutely loved and bought on single in All Or Nothing (it's very Steps sounding looking back), and probably one of Another Level's best singles too. It's unsurprising as Diane Warren wrote it, really quite a classy track.

Doodah is completely ridiculous, even moreso than Witch Doctor. I can't believe this track went top 10 in the UK, the live performance and their instruments/props were ridiculous.

Sunscreen was No.4 in my rank of 1999 No.1s I did last year – as each year passes, I love it even more than the last, probably because every lyric makes more and more sense the older you get. One of the few No.1 singles that makes me teary. Absolute genius idea and execution, there will never be another song or moment in time like it.

Now you mention it All Or Nothing from Cher does sound very ‘Steps’. It would easily fit in alongside there other songs. I wouldn’t be surprised if they release it as a cover version if they ever made a new album.

On 22/03/2026 at 01:54, Jessie Where said:

What a bumper week there for S Club and Madonna! Shame she didn't choose another week really.

Was it seen as a chart battle at the time, or was it more of less a foregone conclusion S Club 7 would be the #1?

Sort of - there's a clip from It's An S Club Thing (a video they released that Christmas) which has got footage from the day when they found out that they were number one, and Paul says they sold 90k on the Saturday the week of release - near enough what they sold throughout the rest of that week.

So really it was a foregone conclusion in hindsight - but Miami 7 being as successful as it was, 3m viewers a week, sold to 50 countries just weeks after it debuted on CBBC (and 110 in total eventually). Plus the added attention of Simon Fuller being their manager and it being his first big project after the Spice Girls (although he was also involved with 21st Century Girls as discussed above. I bought their single!) it just had all the right components to be an instant success.

There'd obviously been North and South with No Sweat a couple of years before that, and more or less the same components were in place for that, but some of them didn't work as well with hindsight which is why it didn't last as long. Their show was set in Brighton, and it lacked the kind of aspirational feel that S Club had being set in Miami and then later LA and driving along the beach front in their red Chevy convertible.

The music was a lot stronger as well and it was more a vibrant mix of people in the band, all of whom had different strengths, and together it just worked. That's why they appealed to me so much, and I dare say so many others going on that first week sale. They were just right place right time.

Madonna's single was excellent as well though, I dare say had she bought it out closer to the actual release of the Austin Powers movie she probably would have had another number one easily.

Oops I didn't realise how behind I got with this thread!

Well, the last fortnight of TOTP episodes have felt like a step up - with the likes of 'Sweet Like Chocolate', 'Kiss Me', 'Canned Heat', 'Saltwater', 'Everybody's Free (to Wear Sunscreen)', 'Hey Boy Hey Girl' and 'Beautiful Stranger' all appearing amongst others 😍

'Sweet Like Chocolate' topping the chart was a real leap forward for the commercial potential of garage music, plus a welcome change after Boyzone. I can see why it caught on so much and its cutesy sonic and visual charms hooked me in too. I saw The xx live nearly a decade ago now (where has time gone) and them sliding it in to a mash-up during their set was fun.

I love the dreamy pop meets alt-rock sounds of 'Kiss Me' and am pleased it has been so enduring, with over 1 billion streams nowadays.

'Canned Heat' is such an earworm... right up there as one of my Jamiroquai favourites, although perhaps pipped by 'Virtual Insanity'.

I'm a sucker for Chicane's production style and 'Saltwater' has a very standout vocal too. I think it's used in an ad at the moment, so another that has endured.

'Everybody's Free (to Wear Sunscreen)' is a much preferable spoken word chart-topper to Telly Savalas' 'If' and JJ Barrie's 'No Charge'...! The downbeat production and reflective lyrics always get me. It was amusing to watch the audience on TOTP move around to something like that.

Ooft 'Hey Boy Hey Girl' the classic you are <3 what a banger and wonderful top 3 in general. Downtempo, Garage and Big Beat all thriving simultaneously 😍

Nowadays 'Beautiful Stranger' feels quite underrated in the Madonna/William Orbit conversation, understandable when the Ray of Light project is so formidable, but I love it. Madonna sounds great and I particularly enjoy those wobbly verses and flutes production-wise. 'Bring It All Back' is sunshine personified, so she could've been blocked by a lot worse, even if Madge was my preference.

Also 'Doodah' was a thing x

Just flicking through , I know totally random but seeing Blondie - Maria instantly took me back to our holiday to wemyss Bay when driving up we hit a stone and had my brother convinced we had run other a haggis all week (he thought it was an animal native to scotland) 🤣🤣

Anyway its kind of ironic I actually decide to read this thread when its the week BIAB hit number 1 considering how much I have hammered that song over the last 7 days 🤣🤣🤣 also takes me back to being obsessed witb Miami 7 as a kid S Club really were my childhood obsession 🤣

Other faves are Shania, Shanks & Bigfoot and Cartoons 🙌

Edited 11 hours ago11 hr by 777666jason