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 March 24Mar 24 by 777666jason

It has not been mentioned on here so not sure if you guys are aware - we will be skipping a couple of 1999 episodes.

Tomorrow night we will have the 25th June and the 2nd July episodes.

Next Friday night we will have the 23rd and 30th July episodes.

We will be skipping the 9th and 16th July episodes - the reason appears to be a racist cartoon caricature in the video to Gouryella by Gouryella which is in the top 20 countdown on both shows.

Kiss Me and Sweet Like Chocolate so nostalgic!

Saltwater is fab too!

Hey Boy Hey Girl epic and the Chemical Bros best song I think!

Gutted to miss two episodes due to Gouryella (which is such a great trance classic too). I do recall the animated video though and can see why it would be conisdered problematic now, shame they couldn't just edit it out.

Edited Thursday at 22:064 days by gooddelta

Thanks for the heads up as I hadn't seen that!

We were doing so well with that unbroken run of BBC4 repeats, including all 1998 ones.

I know and enjoy 'Gouryella' as a song but wasn't familiar with that video. Yeah, can see why it hasn't aged well.

A shame these things aren't just cut out of the broadcast with the rest of the episode salvaged where possible indeed.

Just read that the song itself wasn't played but part of the video could be seen in the top 20 countdown, I doubt it would be hard to just blank out the video for the 2 seconds of the countdown it appears in, particularly as we constantly have to put up with seeing R Kelly and Puff Daddy mentioned in the top 20 countdowns.

On that note, we're bound to lose at least one more episode later in the year when he turned up to perform If I Could Turn Back The Hands Of Time.

11 minutes ago, gooddelta said:

Just read that the song itself wasn't played but part of the video could be seen in the top 20 countdown, I doubt it would be hard to just blank out the video for the 2 seconds of the countdown it appears in, particularly as we constantly have to put up with seeing R Kelly and Puff Daddy mentioned in the top 20 countdowns.

On that note, we're bound to lose at least one more episode later in the year when he turned up to perform If I Could Turn Back The Hands Of Time.

Not sure we would lose episodes re R Kelly.

If I Could Turn Back The Hands Of Time appears twice on the show - the video on the 29th October and a satellite performance on the 26th November show.

Both performances were in the middle of the show so should be easy to delete each performance like they did when Puff Daddy appeared with Jimmy Page on Come With Me in August 1998.

1 minute ago, mrpopquiz said:

Not sure we would lose episodes re R Kelly.

If I Could Turn Back The Hands Of Time appears twice on the show - the video on the 29th October and a satellite performance on the 26th November show.

Both performances were in the middle of the show so should be easy to delete each performance like they did when Puff Daddy appeared with Jimmy Page on Come With Me in August 1998.

Fingers crossed then, I didn't realise they had done that. Is it generally only the problematic No.1 performances where they don't show the episode?

1 minute ago, gooddelta said:

Fingers crossed then, I didn't realise they had done that. Is it generally only the problematic No.1 performances where they don't show the episode?

Yes - you may remember we skipped 6 episodes when I'll Be Missing You by Puff Daddy and Faith Evans was number 1 in 1997.

You can skip a song in the middle of the show but not the number 1 as that affects the final piece to screen from the presenter so it does not look like a smooth edit - and of course finding out what is "Top of the Pops" is the whole point of the show.

And presumably they also won't edit anything in the chart rundown element at all (hence why we are losing the Gouryella episodes)?

1 minute ago, gooddelta said:

And presumably they also won't edit anything in the chart rundown element at all (hence why we are losing the Gouryella episodes)?

Yes that's right - they won't blur out the image or skip the number in the countdown.

Understandable that they've made this decision.

Do we still know the sales figures for those songs in the top 10 for those weeks?

I will post the charts here as usual for the missing weeks have no fear

1 hour ago, Gezza said:

I will post the charts here as usual for the missing weeks have no fear

Thank you! It’s always a weekend highlight getting to see them.

26TH JUNE



Europop triumphs this week with the third Vengaboys single “Boom Boom Boom Boom” wasting no time in making the top. They’re the first Dutch act to make the top since Doop 5 years ago and they turned a very slender midweek lead into a comprehensive victory with 134,279 copies sold compared to the outgoing chart topper from S Club 7 which sold 119,000 to slump to No 2. Hopefully the single can assist the album which has admittedly remained top 40 since its release 13 weeks ago though it has never made it past No 15. The songs features an interpolation of the ABBA track “Lay All Your Love On Me” which was also a featured track on the “Abba-Esque EP” by Erasure in 1992 and so marks the second time the track had been No 1 in the decade, ironically it only made No 7 when released in 1981 blamed on a 12” only release.

Last time out Britney Spears sold a massive 463,000 copies of a single in its first week, not unreasonably she can’t repeat the feat with her second single “Sometimes” which nevertheless arrives at a respectable No 3 (82,500). “Baby One More Time” remains top 40 and you can find out how much it has sold in a fortnight when we recap the first half of the year but it is well ensconced at the top of that survey.

Adam Rickitt recently left “Coronation Street” where he played Nick Tilsley for two years. The reason was an album deal and we now get the first single “I Breathe Again” which has been promoted with a fair amount of flesh on show by Rickett and a hectic promo schedule which has seen Rickitt show up on many kids TV shows and a fair few gay clubs up and down the land. The suggestive promo has of course helped in the teen scream stakes and sees the single debut at No 5 (76,500). A decent start!

We’ve got Britney so only fair that we get her boyfriend Justin Timberlake in the top 10 too. He’s of course a member of US boyband *NSync who broke in the UK earlier this year when “I Want You Back” made No 5 back in February, that was a re-issue of an earlier flop which is exactly what happened to “Tearin’ Up My Heart” when it only made No 40 in 1997. Now it hits at No 9 (45,000).

Madonna drifts 2-4 (80,000), Shania Twain finally fades 4-6 (56,000) and Baz Lurhmann tumbles 3-7 (54,000). Another former chart topper Shanks & Bigfoot slips 5-8 (47,000) with Chemical Brothers rounding us off 6-10 (42,000).

1- BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM- Vengaboys (134,279)
2- BRING IT ALL BACK- S Club 7 (119,000)
3- SOMETIMES- Britney Spears (82,500)
4- BEAUTIFUL STRANGER- Madonna (80,000)
5- I BREATHE AGAIN- Adam Rickitt (76,500)
6- THAT DON’T IMPRESS ME MUCH- Shania Twain (56,000)
7- EVERYBODY’S FREE (TO WEAR SUNSCREEN)- Baz Lurhman (54,000)
8- SWEET LIKE CHOCOLATE- Shanks & Bigfoot (47,000)
9- TEARIN UP MY HEART- N*Sync (45,000)
10- HEY BOY HEY GIRL- Chemical Brothers (42,000)

3RD JULY

Normally when a track charts on import alone then you know you have a sizeable hit on your hands and ATB’s “9PM (Til I Come)” became the first track to chart on import on three versions. Original charting on the Ministry Of Sound’s vinyl only label in March (#68) it was deleted in preparation for a full release and in the interim charted on German import at #47 as recently as last week and on Australian import (the first time that this has ever happened) at #63 it all meant that on full UK release it should have flown off the shelf.

Indeed it did with 270,000 copies sold last week, ATB is a front for producer Andre Tanneberger, a German DJ, and his debut single has been a considerable hit in clubland leading to pent up demand satisfied this week. Vocals, such as they are, come from a track by Ricky Rich & Julio Posadas featuring Yolanda Riviera called “The Way You Make Me Feel” and is as suggestive as the sample sounds!

In making its high selling debut it deprives none other than Whitney Houston of a chart topper! Her last two singles made No 4 and No 3 and so it is only fitting that new single, and title track to her album, “My Love Is Your Love” should debut at No 2 (129,000). Co-written and co-produced by Wyclef Jean the track becomes Houston’s biggest hit since “I Will Always Love You” topped the charts 7 years ago and helps lift the already platinum selling album 9-6 this week.

More famous for being a film star Jennifer Lopez starred in the film “Selena”, a biopic about Latin singer Selena Quintanilla-Pérez, a film which also inspired Lopez into being a singer. Apparently her first single “If You Had My Love” was offered to Michael Jackson but turned down by him and given to Lopez for her debut album. Made into her debut single it has already been No 1 in the US for the last four weeks and makes the transition across the Atlantic to debut at No 4 (77,000).

Do we need a new boyband? Well just in case you do here’s A1 who were runners up to Westlife in the Smash Hits tour last year and now follow them into the charts. The UK-Norwegian foursome’s first single is “Be The First To Believe” which they wrote themselves and co-produced with Peter Cunnan formerly a popstar himself as D:Ream, it arrives at No 6 (67,000).

Last week’s chart topper from the Vengaboys drops 1-3 (89,000) and the week before’s chart topper from S Club 7 falls 2-5 (76,000). Britney is down 3-7 (63,000), Madonna gyrates 4-8 (59,000), Shania Twain doesn’t impress 6-9 (48,000) and Adam Rickitt holds his breath 5-10 (46,000).

1- 9PM (TIL I COME)- ATB (270,000)
2- MY LOVE IS YOUR LOVE- Whitney Houston (129,000)
3- BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM- Vengaboys (89,000)
4- IF YOU HAD MY LOVE- Jennifer Lopez (77,400)
5- BRING IT ALL BACK- S Club 7 (76,000)
6- BE THE FIRST TO BELIEVE- A1 (67,000)
7- SOMETIMES- Britney Spears (63,000)
8- BEAUTIFUL STRANGER- Madonna (59,000)
9- THAT DON’T IMPRESS ME MUCH- Shania Twain (48,000)
10- I BREATHE AGAIN- Adam Rickitt (46,000)