5 hours ago, Jade said:

Elsewhere in the top 20, 'Buddy X '99' is one of those songs I recognised but didn't know the name of until recently, after listening to an old garage compilation from 2000. What a banging Neneh Cherry remix!

LOVED "Buddy X '99"! I was a big UK garage head / fan of the Dreem Team (I used to listen to their show they had on Radio 1 on Sundays back in the day, I still listen to Spoony on Radio 2 now) and I still love that tune. An underrated anthem but a corker.

I discovered on one of the recent shows Dope Smugglaz with Double Double Dutch, it didn't really work and the original by Malcolm McLaren (which appeared quite recently on the 1983 listenback on Buzzjack) is way better.

Keep On Movin’ is an absolute banger. Great to see Five finally get a #1.

20TH NOVEMBER

With the furore of last week over and no more Chris Evans updates, Geri Halliwell tumbles 1-4 (62,000) and in the process sees three new entries sail past by her. The highest of which comes from Robbie Williams who scores his second solo No 1, it’s a double A-Side “She’s The One/ It’s Only Us” the former track taken from his year old album “I’ve Been Expecting You” and comes with an Ice-Skating promo. It’s actually a cover of a World Party track from 1997 which turned into a concert favourite for Williams and on which much of the publicity has been focused. Meanwhile “It’s Only Us” is an original track which Williams has written for the video game “FIFA 2000” and is apparently its “Official” theme. The song outstripped all rivals by almost 2:1 romping in with sales of 122,600 by the end of the week.

Will Smith’s impressive chart run continues, his new single “Will 2K” is an advance celebration of the forthcoming new Millennium and enters at No 2 (69,000) to become his 6th top 3 single on the trot. Smith’s second solo album “Willennium” is released this week and contains his last two singles, as per usual the single is based around a sample and this time it’s the Clash’s “Rock The Casbah”, Prince’s “1999” and Grandmaster Flash’s “Superrappin” along with some vocals courtesy of K-Ci.

1999 has been quite the year for boybands and for A1, the quartet have put together a string of three top 10 singles peaking at No 6, 5, and now No 3 (65,500) with another double A-Side “Everytime/ Read Or Not”. The former is a ballad typical of the winter market whilst the more uptempo “Ready Or Not” is getting most of the airplay. All four tracks are on their debut album “Here We Are” due in a fortnight.

Another band who can reflect on a happy 1999 are Travis who finally converted columns of critical appreciation into sales, their second album “The Man Who” has so far sold 600,000 and is the 7th biggest album of the year, it now generates a fourth top 20 single and the biggest yet in “Turn”. The song comes with a promo featuring actress Julie Smith and a cover of Britney Spears “Baby One More Time” on the CD all helping to drive them to new heights with 39,000 buyers.

R Kelly proves he has broad appeal gently drifting 4-5 (53,000) whilst the song that held it off the top drops 3-6 (51,000) for Five although their album does debut at No 4 providing an explanation. Macy Gray spends a 7th week in the top 10 and sticks at No 7 (42,000), total sales of “I Try” now stand at 282,000, Tin Tin Out Featuring Emma Bunton cool 2-9 (39,000) and Jennifer Lopez hangs on in there 5-10 (38,000).

1- IT’S ONLY US/ SHE’S THE ONE- Robbie Williams (122,600)
2- WILL 2K- Will Smith (69,000)
3- EVERYTIME/ READY OR NOT- A1 (65,500)
4- LIFT ME UP- Geri Halliwell (62,000)
5- IF I COULD TURN BACK THE HANDS OF TIME- R Kelly (53,000)
6- KEEP ON MOVIN- Five (51,000)
7- I TRY- Macy Gray (42,000)
8- TURN- Travis (39,000)
9- WHAT I AM- Tin Tin Out Ft Emma Bunton (39,000)
10- WAITING FOR TONIGHT- Jennifer Lopez (38,000)

27TH NOVEMBER



Dance music again rules the chart this week as Wamdue Project’s “King Of My Castle” arrives fresh from the dancefloor to the No 1 spot after shifting 148,000 copies. Wamdue Project is really a pseudonym for US producer Chris Brann who asked singer Gaelle Adisson to provide vocals to this track and released it first in the summer of 1998 when it could only make No 121, it got a new lease of life this summer when Italian producer Roy Malone remixed it into a big European chart hit. Making No 61 last week on imports meant that the splash this week was always going to be big and so it turns out.

Where to start with the track which is new at No 2……Cliff Richard had been with EMI for over 40 years but their decision not to release “The Millennium Prayer” on the grounds of not being commercial enough resulted in Richards effectively leaving the label. The single itself is a relatively simple idea, marry the lyrics of the Lord’s Prayer to the music of “Auld Lang Syne” and Cliff previewed it on his “Audience with…” earlier this month and helped the song to a first week sale of 87,718. Already it is his biggest hit since “Saviour’s Day” way back in 1990, it’s also his 122nd hit and 64th top 10 single (a record), on top of all that the proceeds go to the charity Children’s Promise.

Glamma Kid has turned his sampling skills from Sade to Carly Simon for his new single “Why” which, yes, samples the Simon single from 1982 which made No 10. It seems like history repeats itself with this track also smashing into the charts at No 10 (31,000) and equals the peak of his last single “Taboo” even without the help of Shola Ama.

Robbie Williams falls 1-3 (74,000) still just ahead of Will Smith 2-4 (44,000)- Smith’s album is new at No 11 rather frustratingly for the singer. Two tracks showing remarkable tenacity are R Kelly and Macy Gray, Kelly holds at No 5 (39,000) and has sold 323,000 in the last 5 weeks of top 5 action while Gray has amazingly managed to reach a new peak 7-6 (37,100) 8 weeks into a chart career and all of those weeks in the top 10, and all that despite it falling at retail week on week for the last fortnight!

Geri Halliwell falls 4-7 (35,000), Five ebb 6-8 (35,000) and A1 retreat 3-9 (32,000). Next week sees Boyzone return to the charts and face a new Melanie C single! Could there be some Spice revenge?



1- KING OF MY CASTLE- Wamdue Project (148,000)
2- THE MILLENNIUM PRAYER- Cliff Richard (87,718)
3- IT’S ONLY US/ SHE’S THE ONE- Robbie Williams (74,000)
4- WILL 2K- Will Smith (44,000)
5- IF I COULD TURN BACK THE HANDS OF TIME- R Kelly (39,000)
6- I TRY- Macy Gray (37,100)
7- LIFT ME UP- Geri Halliwell (35,000)
8- KEEP ON MOVIN- Five (35,000)
9- EVERYTIME/ READY OR NOT- A1 (32,000)
10- WHY?- Glamma Kid (31,000)

Christmas is a month away so time to take our annual look at the potential victors…..

KISS WHEN THE SUN DON’T SHINE- The Vengaboys

Their last two singles both topped the charts- how can this fail?

BETTER THE DEVIL YOU KNOW/ SAY YOU’LL BE MINE- Steps

Steps covering Kylie- surely a firm dancefloor favourite for millennium night?

TWO IN A MILLION/ YOU’RE MY NUMBER ONE- S Club 7

Third single from this bunch and has to be there or thereabouts

I HAVE A DREAM/ SEASONS IN THE SUN- Westlife

A faultless record of three No 1 songs from 3 releases and now the Irish boyband go for the big one- only a history of low opening tallies goes against this

I GOT A GIRL- Lou Bega

Following a massive no 1 can Bega make it two on the trot?

I SHALL BE THERE- B*Witched Featuring Ladysmith Black Mambaza

Not the big deal they once were maybe but their festive single last year was No 1 the week before the big day!

A CHRISTMAS KISS- Daniel O’Donnell

Something more traditional for the big day? O’Donnell delivers this- could it surprise us all?

BABY IT’S COLD OUTSIDE- Tom Jones & Cerys Matthews

Bound to be big for the renewed Jones in this all Welsh affair

COGNOSCENTI VS INTELLIGENSIA- Cuban Boys

The novelty track for Christmas?- another thing to thank the Internet for…

IT’S ONLY ROCK N ROLL- Various Artists

Cliff’s current single is for Children’s Promise charity and so is this superstar collaboration which includes Spice Girls, Corrs, S Club 7 and Ronan Keating among others

THE CHRISTMAS POO- Mr Hanky

Who can forget Chef’s “Chocolate Salty Balls” last year- don’t discount this one either!

IMAGINE- John Lennon

Re-released as the “national anthem” for the millennium this is apparently going to be played across radio and in the dome when the day comes.

Surprised The Clash let Will use their song in this godawful pile of $hite.

It sounds like today's Beatport tech house producers were influenced by the basic production of 'King Of My Castle'. I am not a big fan, prefer the other more complex dance music around in 1999-2000.

Wamdue Project the sole highlight for me.

Travis is ok, though Fran sounded very strained.

Mylene Klass bagging that TOTP debut *.*

But seriously the Millennium Prayer is absolute dirge, one of the worst songs ever created.

Ultravox already used the Lord's Prayer for their hit Hymn in 1982!

Five's pop gem standing well above everything top 10 wise for me, still fresh 😎

I quite like Ready Or Not by A1. So,I’m happy to see it was a top 3 hit for them.

A slightly odd time in the charts. Half of the industry were wheeling out the usual 3rd/4th singles from albums dirges/ballads/strained numbers (hardly the best from Travis, Blur, Stereophonics, although I do like that Texas song When We Are Together, it's very uplifting and Sharleen is such an electric frontwoman). Whitney's I Learned From The Best deserved better though, that is a power ballad, great vocal and key change.

And then lots of other people were partying and/or singing about the millennium - Will Smith, the appalling Cliff record (probably my least favourite song of all time), and a load of novelty hits scraping the charts around this time. And there were some major underperformances, as seen by those Christmas no.1 contenders, many of which came nowhere near and were wildly overhyped.

She's The One is a nice song by Robbie, albeit a note for note cover of the World Party version, but he gave a very sincere performnace. I'm not as fond of Manics ripoff It's Only Us and doubt that would have been a No.1 if not part of a double a-side. And I like the A1 single, Everytime is a lovely ballad; in Norway where Christian is from it was a much bigger hit and is regarded very highly as a bit of a pop classic.

I've never been overly fond of King Of My Castle personally, I much preferred a dance song creeping in lower down around this time from Madison Avenue, which did rather better the following year. I remember hearing that for the first time the week it charted in the low top 40 and thinking 'this is awesome, why is it this low'.

Edited May 31May 31 by gooddelta

Not a good top 2 for me. 'The Millenium Prayer' is rubbish and 'King Of My Castle' is one of the worst dance songs from that time, very boring. 'She's The One' is great though.

Don't recall that Will Smith but not missing much. Five, Macy and Geri my faves in there and the A1 track is okay.

4TH DECEMBER



There weren't many who saw this coming a few weeks ago! Cliff Richard has scored his 14th chart topper with “Millennium Prayer”, it becomes the first song to climb to the top since Steps almost 12 months ago and is now his 14th No 1 single moving him within three of the Beatles and Elvis Presley. It’s also been over 40 years since his first chart topper giving him the record for longest span of number ones, it’s fair to say it has divided public opinion with radio largely ignoring the song but it has generated enough publicity in the press to raise the song in public consciousness. Its sales swell to 147,947 which would indicate a genuine public warming to the song and one that must give Richard some satisfaction that he chose wisely and EMI were wrong.

The new Boyzone record was running a close second at the beginning of the week but faded badly into the weekend and “Everyday I Love You” ends up entering at No 3 (96,000) after being eclipsed too by Wamdue Project 1-2 (122,000). This is the group’s 16th single and 16th top 5 hit- the best start to any chart career in history but incredibly this is the first single since 1996’s “Coming Home Now” to fail to make the top 2. With the group now on “hiatus” it may very well mean the end for one of the most successful boybands.

Whilst the biggest girl group of the 90s are undoubtedly The Spice Girls who have already gone off on their solo careers with four of the five already having extra—curricular hits. Melanie C’s debut album “Northern Star” debuted at No 10 after her first solo hit “Goin’ Down” peaked at No 4 in October, now the second single from it and title track also debuts at No 4 (74,000)- well up on the 49,000 that her previous solo release managed. The album has remained in the top 40 and bounces 40-38 this week with sales rapidly approaching 100,000.

DJ Jurgen has been dropped and now we get Alice Deejay all alone for the project’s next single “Back In My Life”, not that that affects the outcome with the song new at No 5 (71,000). It has some way to go to match the platinum selling “Better Off Alone” but we are apparently going to get an album from them which they are recording at present.

“Children In Need” has obviously cottoned onto the Comic Relief idea of getting a high profile act to release a single to support the event, over the last few years “Perfect Day” and “Especially For You” have been the covers chosen and generated top 3 hits in both cases. This year the charity has collaborated with Martine McCutcheon who has provided two cover versions for the double A-Side “Talking In Your Sleep/ Love Me” the former a cover of the Crystal Gayle 1978 #11 hit, the other a #6 hit for Yvonne Elliman in 1976 though written by the Bee Gees. They become McCutcheon’s third top 10 hit in 8 months debuting at No 6 (68,000) this week, a marked comedown for songs in aid of the charity, and with the big event itself now past it may struggle to go any higher.

The first hint that Christmas is round the corner comes in the form of Lolly’s third single “Big Boys Don’t Cry/ Rockin Robin”. BBDC is a new song but of course the promo is in the main focusing on “Rockin Robin” which now charts in its third version having previously made No 29 (Bobby Day, 1958) and No 3 (Michael Jackson, 1972) and gives Lolly a third top 10 sliding in at anchor position on a sale of 40,000.

Robbie Williams collapses 3-7 (64,000) but below him again R Kelly and Macy Gray survive the cull to remain in the top tier. “If I Could Turn Back The Hands Of Time” does fall 5-8 but increases its sales to 54,000, whilst “I Try” is forced 6-9 but increases to 41,000 in the process. The festive rush must have started.



Next week sees new releases from Celine Dion, Whitney Houston and The Corrs!

1- MILLENNIUM PRAYER- Cliff Richard (147,947)
2- KING OF MY CASTLE- Wamdue Project (122,000)
3- EVERYDAY I LOVE YOU- Boyzone (96,000)
4- NORTHERN STAR- Mel C (74,000)
5- BACK IN MY LIFE- Alice Deejay (71,000)
6- TALKING IN YOUR SLEEP/ LOVE ME- Martine McCutcheon (68,000)
7- IT’S ONLY US/ SHE’S THE ONE- Robbie Williams (64,000)
8- IF I COULD TURN BACK THE HANDS OF TIME- R Kelly (54,000)
9- I TRY- Macy Gray (41,000)
10- BIG BOYS DON’T CRY/ ROCKIN ROBIN- Lolly (40,000)

11TH DECEMBER



It was Cliff all the way this week, “Millennium Prayer” is going from strength to strength selling another 158,328 copies last week and lifting its 21 day total to 393,993, whilst it may be dividing opinion it certainly seems a hit at retail. It’s now Richard’s biggest seller of the decade and biggest personal seller since “Mistletoe & Wine” 11 years ago, questions are now being asked- COULD this be Christmas No 1? Only a fortnight to go.

Highest new entry of the week comes from Southampton duo The Artful Dodger and a garage tune which has been picking up considerable airplay and features vocals by teenager Craig David. The duo’s name comes from the Dicken’s character from “Oliver Twist” and reflects the fact that the pair have released many bootlegs on the underground scene (this is their 5th release though the first through a major label), the basis of this song appears to be a rift lifted from a demo by David called “Last Night”. After selling 107,000 the song arrives at No 2.

It’s almost Christmas so it must be time for those novelty hit, and combining novelty with dance music brings us to Italian DJ Mario Piú, he’s had the genius idea of turning the sound a mobile phone makes when placed near a speaker and a call is made into a tune. “Communication (Somebody Answer The Phone)” is new at No 5 (59,000).

Three feisty girls from Liverpool are up next with their debut single “Right Now”, they’re called Atomic Kitten and the single is written by none other than Stewart Kershaw and Andy McClusky who are of course otherwise known as OMD. They had 7 top 10 singles between 1980 and 1991 and were last in the top 20 three years ago with “Walking On The Milky Way” but are now the brains behind the Kittens. The girls meanwhile are working on that first album- expect more from these lot in 2000.

Wamdue Project slip 2-3 (88,000) but Alice Deejay climb 5-4 (63,000) and again confound expectations. Big hits on their way out include Boyzone 3-6 (58,000), Martine McCutcheon 6-8 (48,000) and Melanie C 4-9 (46,000), meanwhile R Kelly continues to find favour rebounding 8-7 (53,000) and has now sold over 400,000 since its release.



A whole host of Christmas contenders are out this week including Vengaboys, Tom Jones & Cerys Matthews, Lou Bega, Daniel O’Donnell, and B*Witched.

1- MILLENNIUM PRAYER- Cliff Richard (158,328)
2- RE-REWIND THE CROWD SAY BO SELECTA- Artful Dodger Ft Craig David (107,000)
3- KING OF MY CASTLE- Wamdue Project (88,000)
4- BACK IN MY LIFE- Alice Deejay (63,000)
5- COMMUNICATION (SOMEBODY ANSWER THE PHONE)- Mario Piu (59,000)
6- EVERYDAY I LOVE YOU- Boyzone (58,000)
7- IF I COULD TURN BACK THE HANDS OF TIME –R Kelly (53,000)
8- TALKING IN YOUR SLEEP/ LOVE ME- Martine McCutcheon (48,000)
9- NORTHERN STAR- Mel C (46,000)
10- RIGHT NOW- Atomic Kitten (44,000)

Looking forward to tonight’s TOTP episodes - lots of songs I adore!

As I can’t really remember the original airings, I’m wondering what R Martine and Lolly choose to sing 😂 (praying for Love Me for Martine!)

Well the links I posted will tell you that!

22 minutes ago, Gezza said:

Well the links I posted will tell you that!

Haha ffs totally didn’t click 😂

Anyways, disgusting choices from both (though Lollys RR still slaps to be fair)

Looking ahead, the 2000 episodes will start at 8pm on the 26th June