Thankfully many stuff was also released in Germany, Sweden, Netherlands, and Denmark without restrictions. In 1999 I mainly bought vinyl, but when switching to CD's I bought a lot from Scandinavian sellers ;). I even bought some CD's from Austalia, because these were the only ones with the full mix - e.g. Da Fool - No Good.

So much Latin influenced music in top 10. Sing It Back I would say too!

Mucho Mambo

Sing It Back

Summer Son

All absolute classics of that year. Mambo No. 5 is also a real guilty pleasure.

"Sing It Back" was delayed far too long for release- it had been all over radio since about June- easily a probable chart topper if it had been released in July I suspect.

3 hours ago, DaTilt said:

It was the time when single CD's were limited to a specific duration of 15-20 minutes. I believe the dance community including me wanted to have the full version on the CD's plus 1 or 2 remixes there was no space for the radio edit on it. Mostly also two parts were released with one part including a short edit.

"Better Of Alone" is awesome and an absolutely standour track we blasted a lot back in time - unfortunately Westlife denied it the #1 spot. Apart from Westlife the top 10 is quite decent with two Mambo tracks on top. "Sing It Back" is a banger too.

Yeah Westlife song is not decent….

Quite the plethora of classics on tonight's shows and the skipped ones which are on YouTube!

LOVED Bran Van 3000, Texas, Supergrass, TLC and Travis, also Groove Armada "At The River". Like most of the songs to come between now and the end of 1999, many of them were on my first Now (Now 44) so I feel nothing but fondness for them and that time of music. My favourite year of music by far.

Having softened on Westlife since they returned in 2019 (I was very anti them to begin with, largely by dint of the fact they always got number ones on quiet release weeks), "If I Let You Go" is actually one of their better singles for me I'd say.

Good as well that Geri got her first solo number one with "Mi Chico Latino" after being denied it with "Look At Me". I know so much gets said about her these days but on the Schizophonic era at least she was huge, and deservedly so.

3 hours ago, Jessie Where said:

Summer Son

Following on with the chimes trend after Tamperer and Maya, and Steps Tragedy.

Edited April 10Apr 10 by TheSnake

Some great stuff! Love Mi Chico Latino, a much deserved number 1.

Sing It Back, Mucho Mambo and Summer Son (also an early play of Moving).

Outside the top 10, I adore Binary Finary’s 1999.

On 10/04/2026 at 17:21, gooddelta said:

That rule is another reason I used to buy imports of a lot of dance singles, which didn't have the same restrictions. On that note, how was it that these imports counted to the UK chart and weren't subject to these length rules? e.g. I bought Blue (Da Ba Dee) import which reached the top 40 here and I'm sure it had six or seven songs on it.

The length of a single was capped at 25 minutes if it had different tracks on it (b-sides etc)- it was set at 40 minutes if it just contained remixes of the same song. This naturally helped dance singles considerably.

11TH SEPTEMBER





After last week’s stellar opening Lou Bega has no trouble at all keeping the top spot warm shifting another 175,000 copies and raising his tally to almost 400,000 after just two weeks.

Bega has a new challenger however, Dutch DJ Jan Engelaar records under the name DJ Jean and scored a major hit in his native country with “The Launch”. Word spread through Europe over the summer and now those returning holiday makers have made the song a No 2 here convincing 113,000 buyers after reaching No 86 on imports.

The surname Iglesias will bring to mind the crooner Julio Iglesias to those of a certain age, well we’ve now got his son Enrique as well, the 24 year old first released material in Spanish but after 4 years of conquering the Latin market Enrique has moved into the English market (and there’s no better time than 1999!). After attending one of his concerts earlier this year Will Smith asked Iglesias to submit a song for his new film “Wild Wild West” and “Bailamos” was the result. Written by Paul Barry and Mark Taylor (the team behind Cher’s “Believe”) it has become a substantial hit for Iglesias debuting at No 4 (65,000) here to mark his debut and also remains No 1 in the US this week! His father Julio of course topped the charts in 1981 but his elder brother made No 78 just last month so Enrique can claim bragging rights at the moment.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxium3-XxKM&list=RDhxium3-XxKM&start_radio=1





A1 prove they aren’t a one hit wonder, second single “Summertime Of Our Lives” debuts at No 5 (59,000), that’s a one spot improvement on the peak of debut “Be The First To Believe”. The boys are recording that album in time for Christmas we are assured, and what do you know we even get a spot of the flamenco guitar in this track just to be “on trend”.

Martine McCutcheon also proves she has more than one hit in her, new single “I’ve Got You” will doubtless disappoint those expecting or wanting “Perfect Moment” Pt 2 but nonetheless got 56,000 sales last week. Her first album “You, Me & Us” is out this week and will be the real test of her popularity.

Shaft drop back 2-3 (74,000) and more Latin inspired fun at No 7 with Geri Halliwell falling 4 spots (52,000). DJ Jurgen dips 5-8 (43,000) reaching the golden half million mark, Moloko tumble 4-9 (42,000) and TLC hold up well 9-10 (35,000) also climbing to No 2 in the US ready to overhaul Enrique.

1- MAMBO NO 5- Lou Bega (175,000)
2- THE LAUNCH- DJ Jean (113,000)
3- (MUCH MAMBO) SWAY- Shaft (74,000)
4- BAILAMOS- Enrique Iglesias (65,000)
5- SUMMERTIME OF OUR LIVES- A1 (59,000)
6- I’VE GOT YOU- Martine McCutcheon (56,000)
7- MI CHICO LATINO- Geri Halliwell (52,000)
8- BETTER OFF ALONE- DJ Jurgen Presents Alice Deejay (43,000)
9- SING IT BACK- Moloko (42,000)
10- UNPRETTY- TLC (35,000)

18TH SEPTEMBER

Summer may be coming to an end but we can still shoehorn in a few last minute tunes. 1999 may well be remembered as the year of the Vengaboys, all four of their singles have gone top 4 with the latest “We’re Going To Ibiza” charging straight to No 1, their 2nd chart topper all told. The single was another that charted on imports (#69) pre-release (another of the year’s trends) and is essentially a slightly re-worded version of Typically Tropical’s “Barbados” (#1, 1975), it opens with a sale of 142,809, a best yet 7 day tally for them, and brings their sales to 1.2 million this year. The parent album “Party Album” leaves the top 10 after a ten week tenure peaking at No 6 disproving those that thought they couldn’t shift the medium, it has sold 250,000 copies thus far.

The remainder of the top 3 consist of Lou Bega 1-2 (126,000) and DJ Jean 2-3 (85,000) meaning that, for the first time in history, the entire top three consist of acts from Continental Europe driving home just what a great year it has been for European acts. Other fallers in the top flight are Shaft 3-6 (58,000), Enrique Iglesias 4-8 (53,000) and Martine McCutcheon 6-10 (44,000), incidentally her album is new at No 2, 48 places higher than Lou Bega’s LP arrives at!

Toni Basil’s “Mickey” is back in the charts, this time performed by Lolly who’s last single “Viva La Radio” peaked at No 6 in July. The CD comes with a karaoke version, the video and a guide to the dance routine- what have Steps started? It can’t quite match the #2 peak of the original from 1982 but does do better than her first hit making no 4 (77,000) this week. Her debut album will be called “My First Album” appropriately and is out in a fortnight.

The newest girl group on the circuit are the four piece Thunderbugs who have even co-wrote their debut single “Friends Forever” which lands at No 5 (64,000). The girls have been heavily hyped used the premise that these were girls who could actually play instruments, on this they’ve had help from Trevor Steel who helped Louise and Boyzone to some of their biggest hits.

Leftfield were originally inspired by Afrika Bambaataa (amongst others) and now get round to work with their inspiration on new single “Afrika Shox”. It serves as a first release from a much anticipated second album which has been 4 years in the making, their first album “Leftism” achieved great critical acclaim and a nomination for the Mercury Music Prize as well as five hit singles the best of which was the No 13 peak of both “Open Up” and “Release The Pressure”. That’s immediately bettered by the new single which rushes in at No 7 (55,000) helped no doubt by the CD containing a track called “Phat Planet” which has featured on the Guinness Advert for the better part of a year- yes the one with the horses!

Supergrass are bucking the trend of Britpop bands who have found the going tough of late. Their last two singles “Late In The Day” and “Pumping On Your Stereo” peaked at No’s 18 & 11 but their current singles again improves their fortune by entering at No 9 (49,000). “Moving” deals with the monotony of touring FYI.

1- WE’RE GOING TO IBIZA- Vengaboys (142,809)
2- MAMBO NO 5- Lou Bega (126,000)
3- THE LAUNCH- DJ Jean (85,000)
4- MICKEY- Lolly (77,000)
5- FRIENDS FOREVER- Thunderbugs (64,000)
6- (MUCH MAMBO) SWAY- Shaft (58,000)
7- AFRIKA SHOX- Leftfield (55,000)
8- BAILAMOS- Enrique Iglesias (53,000)
9- MOVING- Supergrass (49,000)
10- I’VE GOT YOU- Martine McCutcheon (44,000)

I remember watching the episode of TOTP where Vengaboys were #1 when I had a friend round for a sleepover, and him remarking how much he hated it! I don't think it's that bad 😅 but it's definitely no Boom X4

Love the Supergrass song, and also really quite love Lolly's version of 'Mickey'!

Last weekend was a busy one so I'm catching up on a lot of posts right now and woah I never realised how close Bran Van 3000 were to #1?! That top 3 was in the completely wrong order for me 😪 'If I Let You Go' is... a song by Westlife, already praised 'Better Off Alone' and 'Drinking In LA' is such an idiosyncratic hit single, what a trip-hop gem <3 I think I first discovered it when I was obsessed with Glee as a teen and stumbled across their unrelated accompanying album called Glee it really hit me that I'm getting older when my age started becoming higher than the "what the hell am I doing drinking in LA... at 26" lyric!!

An all-'Mambo' top 2 oh my *.* I have a soft spot for that Shaft song. 'Sing It Back' was a cool one to blow up that week too. A Clockwork Orange is one of my favourite films so I can't help but think of that connection every time I see Moloko's band name, or Heaven 17's for that matter.

Wow there was no stopping Latin fever at the moment, did notice that aforementioned shoehorned Spanish guitar for A1 on TOTP tonight haha.

'Bailamos' is one of Enrique's better songs for me. Did not know it was written by the same team as 'Believe'!

Interesting that both 'Barbados' and 'We're Going to Ibiza' made it to #1 here - the nation a sucker for that melody, eating pizza or not.

'Afrika Shox' has been on my mind recently following the death of Afrika Bambaataa the other day. Leftfield are fantastic and this was no exception!

I have a bit of a soft spot for Lolly and Mickey was my proper introduction to her. It was also the only song of hers released in Australia, charting at #66.

Another great set of episodes this week and a heady mixture of classics and forgotten gems.

Firstly I really don't remember Martine McCutcheon having blonde hair, that must have passed me by! She looked more like Janine Butcher than Tiffany 🤣 Good follow up to "Perfect Moment" though, very summery sounding, almost Corrs-esque.

A1 releasing "Summertime of our Lives" literally as the school holidays were finishing. Rookie mistake from their record label, much?

Same as Paddington James, I have a soft spot for Lolly - the lady herself follows us on Instagram as it happens. It was an inspired move to get her to cover to "Mickey", she kept the spirit of the original by Toni Basil but made it her own.

Shout out to Thunderbugs as well, of all the masses of girl groups that got launched in the Spice Girls' wake c. 1998 - 2000, they really were the ones that got away for me. Still love "Friends Forever", and their album which only got a full digital issue here about six years ago after being cancelled due to the second single ("It's About Time You Were Mine") flopping in the pre-Christmas chart. To my mind they could have been like the Bangles for the new millennium.

i have 0 memory of Thunderbugs !!

In case you were not aware, there will be no 1999 shows tomorrow night due to snooker ( same as this time last year. )

The 1999 shows resume next week.

.

25TH SEPTEMBER




As much as the coming of Lou Bega was entirely foreseeable we can also say that of Eiffel 65. The Italian trio have been hitting No 1 all over Europe in the last few months with their debut single “Blue (Da Ba Dee)” and now the UK concedes too after the track sold a mighty 226,000 copies last week, the highest opening tally since ATB in July. As per the norm (now) for a future No 1 the song charted on import before the official release but this became only the third track ever to make the top 40 on those imports, getting as high as No 39 a fortnight ago, and the second to make No 1 after being in the top 40 on imports. It’s an unprecedented third continental European act to top the charts in a row, it’s also the 6th UK chart topper to have Italian performers following Mantovani, Renee (of Renato fame), Black Box, Livin’ Joy, and The Tamperer.

Lou Bega holds at No 2 (96,000) as total sales of “Mambo No 5” now amount to 621,000 after a month on sale officially, it seems we prefer the single to the album which is already fading 50-62 in its second week.






Producer Martin Otteson is better known as Funkstar De Luxe and he’s new at No 3 (83,000) this week in tandem with Bob Marley thanks to Otteson’s work on Marley’s 1971 track “Sun Is Shining”. Marley himself rarely performed the track but it went on to become something of a classic even being used as the basis for Finlay Quaye’s “Sunday Shining” in 1997 (#16). This is, apparently, the first time Marley’s estate have officially given clearance for a remix of his music and rapidly became an Ibiza classic over the last few months, wise move- it gives Marley his biggest ever UK hit!

Whilst we’re talking about Ibiza, another song to come from the Island is DJ Paul Johnson’s “Get Get Down” which slides seamlessly into No 5 (66,000) to give the Chicago DJ his first hit. It extensively samples Hamilton Bohannon’s “Me & The Gang” and becomes his biggest associated hit beating “Disco Stomp”s peak by a slot. Apparently the words “Down” or “d-down” are repeated over 180 times- itself a record.

Tom Jones scored 13 top 10 singles between 1965 and 1972 before his career took a nosedive and Jones went off to do residency in the US in the 70s and 80s. His return to the charts in 1987 was a surprise but saw the singer grab a couple of top 10 singles before seeing a downturn in fortunes again. He’s been absent again for 5 years but now he’s back with an album of covers with some of today’s biggest acts including Robbie Williams, Stereophonics and Natalie Imbruglia. First single to be pulled from it is with the Cardigans and the song is question is Talking Heads “Burning Down The House”, it was a US #9 hit in 1983 but failed to chart here. The Album “Reload” is out in a fortnight but the single impressively debuts at No 7 (50,000)- Jones’ 16th top 10 hit and The Cardigans third.

The Vengaboys fade like the summer 1-4 (81,000) and DJ Jean also weakens 3-6 (62,000). Lolly drops 4-8 (46,000), Shaft drift 6-9 (43,000) and Enrique Iglesias slumps 8-10 (41,000).

1- BLUE (DA BA DEE)- Eiffel 65 (226,000)
2- MAMBO NO 5- Lou Bega (96,000)
3- SUN IS SHINING- Bob Marley Vs Funkstar Deluxe (83,000)
4- WE’RE GOING TO IBIZA- Vengaboys (81,000)
5- GET GET DOWN- Paul Johnson (66,000)
6- THE LAUNCH- DJ Jean (62,000)
7- BURNING DOWN THE HOUSE- Tom Jones & Cardigans (50,000)
8- MICKEY- Lolly (46,000)
9- (MUCHO MAMBO) SWAY- Shaft (43,000)
10- BAILAMOS- Enrique Iglesias (41,000)

2ND OCTOBER




None of the expected big hitters of the week managed to knock Eiffel 65 from the top. “Blue (Da Ba Dee)” sold another impressive 164,500 last week, a 27% slump week on week but a decent enough showing.

There was a much more interesting battle beneath them between new releases by S Club 7 and Shania Twain who swapped places on a day by day basis. In the end it’s those S Clubbers that won by just 4,000 copies, “S Club Party” is their second single and follow up to the platinum “Bring It All Back”, it heralds their debut album due in a fortnight and featured on their recent TV special “Back To The 50s”.

They were made to fight for it though with Shania Twain’s “Man! I Feel Like A Woman” which posts a sale of 80,000 to debut at No 3. A clever video which inverts Robert Palmer’s “Addicted To Love” promo has helped to really cement the notion that Twain has really arrived in the UK market. This is a fifth single to be taken from “Come On Over”, an album which has spent the last 18 weeks in the top 5 and is this week deposed at the top after three weeks by the new Leftfield album. It has sold almost a million copies and is currently the 4th biggest album of the year.

Britney Spears meanwhile scores her third top 5 single of the 1999 with “(You Drive Me) Crazy” which has been substantially remixed from the album version. It’s done the trick to debut at No 5 (63,000) and comes with a promo featuring actors Adrian Grenier and Melissa Joan Hart who star in the film “Drive Me Crazy” which is out in the States shortly but not due here until well into 2000.

Lou Bega falls 2-4 (70,000) but is still ahead of Bob Marley Vs Funkstar Deluxe who fall 3-6 (56,000). Vengaboys slip 4-7 (52,000), DJ Jean dips 6-8 (46,000), Paul Johnson gets down 5-9 (42,000), and Lolly slides 8-10 (35,000) as her album enters at No 21- not quite as impressive.


1- BLUE (DA BA DEE)- Eiffel 65 (164,500)
2- S CLUB PARTY- S Club 7 (84,000)
3- MAN I FEEL LIKE A WOMAN- Shania Twain (80,000)
4- MAMBO NO 5 (A LITTLE BIT OF...)- Lou Bega (70,000)
5- (YOU DRIVE ME) CRAZY- Britney Spears (63,000)
6- SUN IS SHINING- Bob Marley Vs Funkstar Deluxe (56,000)
7- WE’RE GOING TO IBIZA- Vengaboys (52,000)
8- THE LAUNCH- DJ Jean (46,000)
9- GET GET DOWN- Paul Johnson (42,000)
10- MICKEY- Lolly (35,000)

So Shania narrowly missed #2 with both of these singles in 1999!