Great top 2 in the most recent chart. Amazing sales for ATB, I know it had been building up momentum for some time by the point this release came out but I was so surprised that the sales were just so much higher than any other trance track had even vaguely managed. Plus Whitney with the second of three brilliant singles that year, her best run of singles of her career for me.

Was about to say European dance was becoming way more sensible by this stage with ATB but then I noticed Vengaboys also made #1!

Whitney and J Lo songs are very good and summery!

Re: the 1999 episodes being skipped over. Turns out they've been uploaded to YouTube so you can still see them, if not next Friday!

How that Gouryella video didn't get past any one questioning it at the time in 1999 I don't know(!)

1999 really was that year, wasn't it? Especially loved ATB and Whitney Houston. Adam Rickitt casually releasing the most homoerotic sounding pop song in the 90s with barely six months of the decade left 🤣

Did always have a soft spot for Lolly though (who is on the first of the skipped episodes above) she was really fun. Funny to think that it was nearly Rachel Stevens who was her and not Anna Kumble!

'I Breathe Again' is such an anthem.

Funnily enough, I'll be seeing him perform it at a local gay bar on Easter Sunday

I'll post the missing weeks early next week.

Boomx4 really is a great track by the vengaboys their whole discography were bops tbh

31 minutes ago, Jessie Where said:

'I Breathe Again' is such an anthem.

Funnily enough, I'll be seeing him perform it at a local gay bar on Easter Sunday

Because, much like Jesus, he too, breathes again 🤣

Love Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom from the Vengaboys. It's probably my favourite song from them.

I don't mind Sometimes from Britney Spears but it does feel like a bit of a 'come down' after the mega smash Baby One More Time. Saying that though, it was always going to be hard to follow that up with single #2.

My picks of the last two posted are Boom (x4) - what a great cheesy tune. I only realised the cheeky ABBA sample years later!

I Breathe Again, a gay anthem indeed. Still love it.

Whitney's My Love Is Your Love is her best 90s song imo, so chill and her voice is fantastic.

Obviously ATB is a trance classic and huge number 1, I do prefer the UK mix of Don’t Stop however.

And A1's Be The First To Believe - sounds utterly immense still. What a great debut.

Outside the top 10 is the wonderful She's In Fashion from Suede, shame it only peaked at 13.

9PM (Till I Come) ❤️

It's a tale as old as time but I'd gone into Virgin Megastores with £3 that week to buy either S Club 7 or Jewel's Down So Long, went over to check the new singles on the listening post first, heard 9PM and without any hesitation spent my money on that instead. It was the first time I'd ever heard it and I was blown away. Genius trance, the bendy synths were otherworldly, it's amazing and fully deserved that it sold so high.

Vengaboys is of course a great No.1 too, I didn't expect it to get to No.1 at the time - pretty sure I assumed Britney would with Sometimes as she was so huge (even though the track is nowhere near as good), or that failing that S Club 7 would get a second week. I remember the day before on CD:UK, once they got past No.2, I couldn't even think what was left as I hadn't remembered the Vengaboys song was even out that week, let alone that it would be a No.1 contender. Anyway, it was a super fun one to sing and imitate the robotic 'Vengaboys are back in town' part to at school, and of course it has become an all-time classic, which I'd have not expected at the time. We were truly spoilt with a a raft of future classic No.1s in summer 1999.

It was fun to see *N Sync on the same show as Britney, and really nice that both gave live vocal performances. I Breathe Again by Adam Rickitt and Be The First To Believe by A1 were both really good, hi-NRG camp pop songs, backing up my point that 1999 was maybe the most fun, carefree year in pop.

Shame we didn't get to see Eurovision winner Charlotte Nilsson doing Take Me To Your Heaven at No.20, the first Melodifestivalen winner/Swedish Eurovision entry to reach the chart here since Waterloo 25 years earlier, although many have done so since. It's a great schlager song in the mould of ABBA (and imo I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday by Wizzard), and really rode the ABBA revival/Mamma Mia musical launch hype of 1999.

Some superstar performances too from Jennifer Lopez and Whitney Houston, I still love both of these singles, a superstar debut from the former while the latter was on top form. I loved in 1999 how so many types of genres and artists colluded each week. US superstars, Europop, trance, cheesy British pop, indie (Suede), rock from Lit, fantastic R&B, garage, we had it all and didn't realise.

Edited Sunday at 09:482 days by gooddelta

I too recall being surprised to see Vengaboys at no.1 on CD UK! I thought Britney or Adam Rickitt would get there and hadn’t even properly heard Boom Boom Boom Boom before then. I’d heard the instrumental on a CBBC advert and obviously could tell it was a Vengaboys track but hadn’t properly heard it until it charted. Then it kind of blew up at school after that week.

I wonder if the sales report of 9 July will be for the actual chart or the one aired? It’s been republished since it’s some songs losing their peaks (Lolly, Savage Garden) and others gaining peaks that weren’t aired (Semisonic, Melanie G and Sporty Thievez)

Secret Smile did so well for a non top 10 hit in the sales era, I imagine if streaming had been a thing in 1999 it would have been in the chart for a year, peaking in the top five on its 30th week or something 🤣 As radio would not stop rinsing it.

I remember at the time thinking it was odd that Sporty Thievz had debuted outside the top 20 and then was a non-mover the following week – as this was so highly unusual in the frontloaded era. It makes so much more sense now we know that it was actually heading down from No.16.

I guess they could have just edited the countdown to show the top 10, but I understand. Interesting to see Gary Barlow about to head into retirement!

Given today's news there's a very realistic possibility we're about to have pretty much all of the August episodes skipped over...

Gahhhh, the Alice Deejay episodes I bet.

Edited yesterday at 17:391 day by gooddelta

Let’s hope not. Or hope someone uploads them to YouTube.

At this rate, we will be in 2000 in a fortnight!

let’s hope they’ve got the “Story of 2000” documentary ready to go….

10TH JULY



(Please note for the sake of consistency and since the revised chart was never revealed until 2015 I have gone with the original chart this week. Some liberties have been taken with the narrative).

It’s been a rather controversial week this week with the chart being produced as per normal only then to be immediately challenged by Blur’s record label to say that it didn’t include all sales and that “Coffee + TV” should have been a top 10 single. As it transpires sales from Our Price and Virgin were missing but the re-run chart isn’t to be published so we have what we have.

ATB remain the nation’s favourite selling a respectable 109,000 and lifting their 14 day tally to 379,000 enough for the top 20 YTD. There’s an overall reduction in the market of 31% explained by the lack of major releases and that missing data but the suggestion is that ATB will struggle to make it three weeks regardless.

Highest new entry of the week comes from Will Smith whose own hot streak continues with a fifth top 3 hit from 6 releases and once gain ties in with his big screen career. “Wild Wild West” is the name of the single and the film (released next month) and is heavily based on the Stevie Wonder track “I Wish” (#5, 1977), it features Dru Hill who get a credit but not Kool Moe Dee (whose original track forms the Chorus and recreates the track for the single). It comes with a flash and expensive promo (runoured to be about $5million) helping the song to a sale of 65,000 last week.

With massively reduced sales The Vengaboys hold at No 3 (49,000), S Club 7 are locked at No 5 (46,000) and Britney Spears is static at No 7 (33,000).

Three woman who have a bad week are Whitney Houston 2-4 (47,000), Jennifer Lopez 4-9 (28,000) and Madonna 8-10 (28,000) but better news for Shania Twain who is back up 9-8 (30,000) despite a 37% sales slash. “That Don’t Impress Me Much” has now sold over half a million and exactly where that places her in the YTD is below:

1- BABY ONE MORE TIME- Britney Spears 1,437,000
2- FLAT BEAT- Mr Oizo 668,000
3- WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH- Boyzone 662,000
4- SWEET LIKE CHOCOLATE- Shanks & Bigfoot 661,000
5- PERFECT MOMENT- Martine McCutcheon 565,000
6- NO SCRUBS- TLC 532,000
7- THAT DON’T IMPRESS ME MUCH- Shania Twain 523,000
8- HEARTBEAT/ TRAGEDY- Steps 522,000
9- IT’S NOT RIGHT BUT ITS OKAY- Whitney Houston 482,000
10- TURN AROUND- Phats & Small 479,000



The only other song we’ve left to discuss is the new entry at No 6 (39,000) from Lolly (real name Anna Kumble). “Viva La Radio” is her first single and is clearly marketed at the pre-teen audience with success. She’s busy recording that first album in time for the little nippers to be begging parents for it as a Christmas present!

Next week sees former boybanders Gary Barlow and Ricky Martin go head to head!

1- 9PM (TIL I COME)- ATB (109,000)
2- WILD WILD WEST- Will Smith (65,000)
3- BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM- Vengaboys (49,000)
4- MY LOVE IS YOUR LOVE- Whitney Houston (47,000)
5- BRING IT ALL BACK- S Club 7 (46,200)
6- VIVA LA RADIO- Lolly (39,000)
7- SOMETIMES- Britney Spears (33,000)
8- THAT DON’T IMPRESS ME MUCH- Shania Twain (30,000)
9- IF YOU HAD MY LOVE- Jennifer Lopez (28,000)
10- BEAUTIFUL STRANGER- Madonna (28,000)

17TH JULY




Summer is officially here and to celebrate Britain has a new chart topper (it’s 22nd of the year) in the form of Ricky Martin, a man that until now has only scored one top 20 hit (the #6 hit “(Un Dos Tres) Maria” in 1997) but he now sits at the top of the charts. The track in question is “Livin’ La Vida Loca” a track which sat No 1 stateside for 5 weeks earlier this year and has led something of a Latin invasion in the US, here it sold 131,000 copies last week to take pole position helped no doubt by his good looks. The Latin invasion continues here with Jennifer Lopez rebounding 9-7 (36,000) but she loses the US No 1 spot.

Ricky Martin’s self titled album has been improving week on week since its release so far driving 94-60-52-43-37-16-7 on the strength of the track. Lopez’s debut LP “On The 6” meanwhile enters at No 14.

Otherwise there’s nothing new to report in the top 10, seems like the release of the Martin record scared off opposition, ATB slip 1-2 (97,000) and Will Smith is similarly off slightly 2-3 (49,000).

Former No 1 singles from Vengaboys and S Club 7 still linger 3-5 (39,000) and 5-6 (37,000) while Whitney Houston holds up well at No 4 (41,000).

Further down Britney trips 7-8 (34,000), Shania Twain goes into reverse 8-9 (29,000) and Madonna holds at anchor spot (27,000). Twain’s album is currently at No 2 behind Boyzone- the highest place it is ever achieved.

Gary Barlow’s new single?- A disappointing No 16 entry- watch the press reach for those knives!

1- LIVIN LA VIDA LOCA- Ricky Martin (131,000)
2- 9PM (TIL I COME)- ATB (97,000)
3- WILD WILD WEST- Will Smith (49,000)
4- MY LOVE IS YOUR LOVE- Whitney Houston (41,000)
5- BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM- Vengaboys (39,000)
6- BRING IT ALL BACK- S Club 7 (37,000)
7- IF YOU HAD MY LOVE- Jennifer Lopez (36,000)
8- SOMETIMES- Britney Spears (34,000)
9- THAT DON’T IMPRESS ME MUCH- Shania Twain (29,000)
10- BEAUTIFUL STRANGER- Madonna (27,000)