single sales so high!!

6 hours ago, vibe said:

single sales so high!!

It's the golden age of the CD single, not to mention the held back single!

Since I last posted... 'Better Off Alone' was and is one of my favourites of the year, a huge dance anthem with an undercurrent of melancholy. Hadn't realised its sales for the first week at #2 were so huge and would have been enough to get past Westlife the week after, so close in the end.

Lou Bega and Eiffel 65 both going Top 40 on import and then going to #1 with >200k sales *.* I was in Mallorca in the build up to those debuts and both songs were already everywhere. 'Blue (Da Ba Dee)' is another huge favourite of mine which I bought on full release, the lyrical concept and the piano riff are so strong.

'The Launch' and 'Get Get Down' are both evocative 1999 dance hits too - I hadn't considered the latter setting a record for its repetition of "down"!

I do remember 10 year old me being salty that "S Club Party" wasn't a second consecutive number one for S Club 7 despite the fact "Blue" was miles ahead of it. It did feel eternally like my favourite acts at the time seemed to rarely have a clear run for the top spot with their new singles when others *cough*WESTLIFE*cough* did. It's still one of their best singles for me though, and I loved the "Back to the Fifties" special that accompanied it.

I actually rather liked Tom Jones in his "Reload" era, especially The Cardigans and also Stereophonics on later singles. Now that is one album that must surely be overdue a vinyl reissue of some kind!

I quite liked Everything But The Girl on the first episode tonight as well, nice continuation of their "Missing" / "Walking Wounded" era. I LOVED Kelle Bryan as well, she was my favourite in Eternal, wish we'd got her solo album in full.

Glorious charts, this is the era that the iconic Now 44 sourced a lot of its material from.

I was so obsessed with Blue (Da Ba Dee) that I was one of the import buyers, I think it was about £6 but I had to have it, and it had lots of remixes and the instrumental. I do remember thinking that was a competitive week with S Club 7, Shania and Britney all releasing, yet it easily held them all at bay.

I really liked Burning Down The House and the Reload era too, The Cardigans worked really well with Tom Jones and that was a cool choice of lead single for the project.

I bought The Launch too, which also topped my fledgling personal chart at the time. I still love that, what an era for the Eurohit!

Mambo No.5 is of course a classic too, while We're Going to Ibiza was a memorable No.1 also, although its CGI video looks absolutely primitive now.

Such an amazing era, we really were gearing up for to party for the millennium in style weren't we.

Aside from those, it was good to see Kelle Bryan doing Higher Than Heaven, such uplifting pop gospel that was covered by Australian Popstars winners Bardot on their debut album. Kelle deserved a bigger solo career than that.

Nice song from Bowie too in Thursday's Child and I didn't mind that Sting song Brand New Day. Shame there was no play for Fragma's Toca Me, although we know what legacy that ended up having.

I forgot to comment the other week but must pay my respect to Thunderbugs. I've always been absolutely obsessed with that song and it ended up in my top ten of the year, such gorgeously wistful and melancholy pop verses paired with a Belinda Carlisle style power chorus. It must be the first song that ever made me feel nostalgic, due to the lyrics, which as I was only 12 was quite a feat. They must have had a lot of hype behind them to open with that strong sale, I guess I must have heard it on The Box a lot as remember the video vividly. Also, Jane the lead singer was such a charismatic frontwoman who used to remind me of Courteney Cox. This band were absolutely robbed of a longer career. I ended up getting their album on MiniDisc, which is the only physical format it was released in!

Also, Moving by Supergrass is a song I've come to appreciate so much more over the years, the intro and verses are gorgeous, Nerina Pallot did a lovely cover of it last year.

53 minutes ago, gooddelta said:

Glorious charts, this is the era that the iconic Now 44 sourced a lot of its material from.

I was so obsessed with Blue (Da Ba Dee) that I was one of the import buyers, I think it was about £6 but I had to have it, and it had lots of remixes and the instrumental. I do remember thinking that was a competitive week with S Club 7, Shania and Britney all releasing, yet it easily held them all at bay.

I really liked Burning Down The House and the Reload era too, The Cardigans worked really well with Tom Jones and that was a cool choice of lead single for the project.

I bought The Launch too, which also topped my fledgling personal chart at the time. I still love that, what an era for the Eurohit!

Mambo No.5 is of course a classic too, while We're Going to Ibiza was a memorable No.1 also, although its CGI video looks absolutely primitive now.

Such an amazing era, we really were gearing up for to party for the millennium in style weren't we.

Aside from those, it was good to see Kelle Bryan doing Higher Than Heaven, such uplifting pop gospel that was covered by Australian Popstars winners Bardot on their debut album. Kelle deserved a bigger solo career than that.

Nice song from Bowie too in Thursday's Child and I didn't mind that Sting song Brand New Day. Shame there was no play for Fragma's Toca Me, although we know what legacy that ended up having.

I forgot to comment the other week but must pay my respect to Thunderbugs. I've always been absolutely obsessed with that song and it ended up in my top ten of the year, such gorgeously wistful and melancholy pop verses paired with a Belinda Carlisle style power chorus. It must be the first song that ever made me feel nostalgic, due to the lyrics, which as I was only 12 was quite a feat. They must have had a lot of hype behind them to open with that strong sale, I guess I must have heard it on The Box a lot as remember the video vividly. Also, Jane the lead singer was such a charismatic frontwoman who used to remind me of Courteney Cox. This band were absolutely robbed of a longer career. I ended up getting their album on MiniDisc, which is the only physical format it was released in!

Also, Moving by Supergrass is a song I've come to appreciate so much more over the years, the intro and verses are gorgeous, Nerina Pallot did a lovely cover of it last year.

You can get Thunderbugs' album on CD as well! I got a copy imported from Germany via Discogs a few years back for not very much.

And YES to Nerina Pallot's cover of "Moving"! Beautiful version she did, sort of a soft Donna Summer disco vibe.

Oh yes, I meant that the Thunderbugs album was only released on MiniDisc format in the UK (as I bought it when it was released so didn't know about the import CD then). Glad it finally surfaced on streaming a few years ago too.

I'm pleasantly surprised at how long Mickey hung around the top for.

9TH OCTOBER



Becoming only the second act this year to manage a third week at No 1, Eiffel 65’s “Blue” is still the nation’s favourite at the head of an entirely static top 3. As you might expect though all of the singles are decreasing at retail, Eiffel 65 down 14% (141,900), S Club 7 down 23% to 64,000 and Shania Twain down 26% to 59,000. “Blue”’s total sales are already over half a million after just three weeks (and still accounting for 1 in 9 sales last week) and here’s the records that it is hoping to overtake in the next few weeks:



1- BABY ONE MORE TIME- Britney Spears 1,455,000
2- 9PM (TILL I COME)- ATB 791,000
3- THAT DON’T IMPRESS ME MUCH- Shania Twain 763,000
4- LIVIN LA VIDA LOCA- Ricky Martin 752,000
5- MAMBO NO 5- Lou Bega 737,000
6- SWEET LIKE CHOCOLATE- Shanks & Bigfoot 706,000
7- FLAT BEAT- Mr Oizo 678,000
8- WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH- Boyzone 671,000
9- BRING IT ALL BACK- S Club 7 623,000
10- PERFECT MOMENT- Martine McCutcheon 592,000

The only track in both the YTD and weekly top 10 is Lou Bega’s “Mambo No 5” which slides 4-5 (46,000) this week and may quite possibly be in the top 3 for 1999 in a few weeks.

Melanie C has already branched out on her own in the Bryan Adams duet “When You’re Gone” which went Platinum, and shortly she’ll be the second Spice Girls member to produce her own album. Her lead solo single is “Goin’ Down” which was actually as high as No 2 in first sales flashes but eventually relented to end up at No 4 (49,000). You can pick up her album “Northern Star” in just 3 weeks.

Gabrielle meanwhile is back with her third album “Rise” which will go head to head with Melanie C’s album in three weeks. Round one goes to the Spice Girl but Gabrielle will be happy that new single “Sunshine” is a top ten single (her 6th) debuting at No 9 (34,000).

Macy Gray (real name Natalie McIntyre) is a lady with a very distinctive voice, and at 30 already older than your average popstar having their first hit. Her first single “Do Something” petered out at No 51 over the summer but second release “I Try” does much better entering at No 10 (30,200). Gray’s album “On How Life Is” has already been available for 13 weeks and reaches a new peak this week at No 11.

Three tracks all fall a place, Britney 5-6 (41,000), Bob Marley Vs Funkstar Deluxe 6-7 (38,000) and Vengaboys 7-8 (35,000).



Next week sees the release of another track currently charting on import alone against a new B*Witched single! Who’ll win?

1- BLUE (DA BA DEE)- Eiffel 65 (141,900)
2- S CLUB PARTY- S Club 7 (64,000)
3- MAN I FEEL LIKE A WOMAN- Shania Twain (59,000)
4- GOIN DOWN- Mel C (49,000)
5- MAMBO NO 5 – Lou Bega (46,000)
6- (YOU DRIVE ME) CRAZY- Britney Spears (41,000)
7- SUN IS SHINING- Bob Marley Vs Funkstar Deluxe (38,000)
8- WE’RE GOING TO IBIZA- Vengaboys (35,000)
9- SUNSHINE- Gabrielle (34,000)
10- I TRY- Macy Gray (30,200)

On the bright side S club party was at least a multi week number 2 so it seems it was more a victim of timing

The vengaboys tune is still a bop these days

Also catching up i might even go as far to say i prefer lolly's version of mickey than Cyndi laupers

Edited Friday at 11:292 days by 777666jason

7 minutes ago, 777666jason said:

Also catching up i might even go as far to say i prefer lolly's version of mickey than Cindy laupers

CYNDI LAUPER?!

I actually really like 'Goin' Down', a bit of a risky debut single from her but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Also 'Sunshine' is definitely one of Gabrielle's best.

16TH OCTOBER





Four new entries into the top 10 this week and all of them in the top 5. The only remainder is last week’s chart topper from Eiffel 65 but they can’t make a fourth week at the top instead sliding 1-3 (104,000) which enables it to become the 10th platinum single of the year. The crown passes to one of the most hyped singles of the last few months Christina Aguilera’s “Genie In A Bottle”, it’s already been a US No 1 for 5 weeks back in July/ August and lead to such demand here that it made No 50 on imports a few weeks ago. It sold a very healthy 172,600 last week to easily beat the opposition and give the 18yr old a dream start to her UK career, it’s also the fourth chart topper in a row to chart first on imports (by way of trivia). Aguilera is a graduate of the “The Micky Mouse Club” US TV show which also starred very young Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake from *NSync and so perhaps comparisons to Spears were inevitable with the press quick to pitch the two acts against each other as US teen pop princesses. She produced the track “Reflection” for the Disney film “Mulan” which led to a record deal and her current debut single.

Aguilera’s nearest challenger was not B*Witched but Sheffield born Ann Lee (real name Annerley Gordon) who has been in Europe for the past decade honing her writing credits to include top 10 singles by Corona (“Rhythm Of The Night”) and Whigfield (“Think Of You”, “Another Night”) among others. She’s realised a few singles herself without troubling the UK charts but “2 Times” proves too irresistible debuting at No 2 (152,000) after becoming a massive hit all over Europe this summer, and not surprisingly, being an import hit as well making No 57 last month.

Poor B*Witched then have to settle for a No 4 entry after selling a poor (by their standards) 88,000 copies of new single “Jessie Hold On” last week. Famously of course the girls placed all of their first four singles at Number one and all debuted there putting them in the record books but it looks like the run has now come to an end unless they can climb to the top which would indeed be unusual given that the last act do so were Steps back in January. Some may argue that the ABBA tribute “Thank You For The Music” stopped the run but either way it stands at four No 1’s and the new single foreshadows their second album “Awake & Breathe” which is out in a fortnight.

Here’s a comeback that no-one predicted! New Kids On The Block were the biggest selling singles act of 1990 before the bubble burst, a reunion in 1994 produced only a few minor hits before they gave up again. Now lead singer Jordan Knight gives us a solo single with “Give It To You” which he co-wrote with Jam & Lewis (among others) and became a No 10 hit Stateside in May this year. It now enters the UK chart at No 5 (73,000) over 9 years after he was last there with his fellow New Kidders. Odd world pop.

With all the action in the top 5 last week’s big hits re-arrange themselves lower down, Shania Twain falls 3-6 (52,000) but moves ahead of the faster falling S Club 7 2-7 (47,000). The two acts had another duel on the album charts this week with the SClubbers debuting at No 2 behind Twain who herself regained top billing from Tom Jones, “Come On Over” also sold its millionth copy in celebration.

Britney Spears tumbles 6-8 (43,000), Lou Bega slides 5-9 (35,000) and Macy Gray clings on valiantly at No 10 (30,400) but she’s shifting albums as “On How Life Is” continues to reach new peaks lifting 11-8. “Mambo No 5” is now the 3rd biggest seller of the year and will probably overtake ATB to climb further in the next fortnight.



Next week sees new singles by Steps and ATB challenge Aguilera!

1- GENIE IN A BOTTLE- Christina Aguilera (172,600)
2- 2 TIMES- Ann Lee (152,000)
3- BLUE (DA BA DEE)- Eiffel 65 (104,000)
4- JESSE HOLD ON- B*Witched (88,000)
5- GIVE IT TO YOU- Jordan Knight (73,000)
6- MAN I FEEL LIKE A WOMAN- Shania Twain (52,000)
7- S CLUB PARTY- S Club 7 (47,000)
8- (YOU DRIVE ME) CRAZY- Britney Spears (43,000)
9- MAMBO NO 5- Lou Bega (35,000)
10- I TRY- Macy Gray (30,400)

Goin Down was such a risk for a lead single for Mel C, nothing like anything the Spice Girls released. I kinda like it though.

2 Times is such a great song, as is Genie In A Bottle. A great top 2 that week.

20 minutes ago, Jessie Where said:

CYNDI LAUPER?!

I actually really like 'Goin' Down', a bit of a risky debut single from her but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Also 'Sunshine' is definitely one of Gabrielle's best.

I actually changed it 3 times and Auto correct still changed it back 🙄 no need to be condescending

Absolutely love 'Genie in a Bottle' so much

I think coming back with 'Jesse Hold On' was an error that really buckled B*Witched. The first album's singles were cheesy in a charming way, this is just exceedingly naff and very kids birthday party.

5 minutes ago, 777666jason said:

I actually changed it 3 times and Auto correct still changed it back 🙄 no need to be condescending

I wasn't intending to be condescending, you've got completely the wrong artist!

It made me laugh anyway

I remember being shocked when B*Witched missed #1.

In hindsight it’s not a great song.

It could probably also be considered the beginning of the end for them.

6 minutes ago, Jessie Where said:

I wasn't intending to be condescending, you've got completely the wrong artist!

It made me laugh anyway

Toni basil isnt it my apologies 🤣🤣

TONI AUTOCORRECT IS BEING A COW TODAY 🤣🤣

Edited Friday at 11:462 days by 777666jason

I was on a wet holiday in Devon when Cristina Aguilera beat B*witched and it was a big shock!

Great songs from Ann Lee, Jordan Knight, Gabrielle & Christina.

I like Goin Down is a very overlooked and forgotten Mel C top 5.