12 minutes ago, Gezza said:

@Spiceboy back on the naughty step with you

1ST APRIL

For the first time in chart history two former members of a group replace each other at the top with solo efforts, those in question are Geri Halliwell and Melanie Chisholm both of the Spice Girls. It should be noted that there is a similar situation in chart history, way back in early 1963, when former Shadows members Jet Harris and Tony Meehan knocked the aforementioned Shadows off the top, but this is the first instance where both tracks have been solo efforts from band members, Mel C also debuted with Bryan Adams further linking her to the last two chart toppers. Naturally it also means that The Spice Girls join the Beatles in so much as three members of the band then went on to have solo chart toppers, Mel C following both Halliwell and Mel G to the top in this case.

She did it in some style too, “Never Be The Same Again” sold 144,936 last week more than any Halliwell single sold in any week and not bad for a third single from an album, it receives help from TLC member Lisa “Left-eye” Lopes and makes her album climb 12-10 to equal its best position ever..

Moloko stormed into the top 20 for the first time last September with the No 4 hit “Sing It Back”, they prove that that was no fluke by getting an even bigger hit with the follow up “The Time Is Now”. Lead single from their third album “Things To Make And Do”, the song sold 71,000 copies last week to land at No 2.

Next up is a song that must count as one of the biggest comebacks in music history. Santana rose to fame in 1969 on the back of an appearance at Woodstock and spent most of the 70s as a high selling albums act certainly in the US if not here before declining in the 80s and the 90s, the highest peaking single during that time here was a cover of the Zombies “She’s Not There” (#11, 1977). That wilderness was ended last summer with the popularity of Latin music which put them back in fashion and their first studio album in six years “Supernatural” exploded stateside going to No 1 and lead single “Smooth” topped the US chart for 12 weeks over the new year. The UK by and large ignored it all with the song peaking at No 75 in October and the album making No 33 before bowing out after 3 weeks, but once everything went into overdrive in the US we started to take notice with the album re-appearing and improving every week this year sales wise crowning its success with moving to No 1 this week. Meanwhile “Smooth” gets a re-issue and becomes their biggest hit to date at No 3 (57,000), it features vocal from Matchbox 20 frontman Rob Thomas.

Geri Halliwell drops 1-4 (51,000), we also have other former chart toppers dropping, namely Chicane Featuring Bryan Adams 2-5 (47,000), Madonna 5-8 (31,000) and All Saints 7-9 (27,000). Also registering another week in the top flight are Blink 182 2-6 (34,000), Dr Dre Featuring Snoop Dogg 6-7 (32,000) and ATB 4-10 (26,000).

1- NEVER BE THE SAME AGAIN- Mel C Ft Lisa Left Eye Lopes (144,936)
2- THE TIME IS NOW- Moloko (71,000)
3- SMOOTH- Santana Ft Rob Thomas (57,000)
4- BAG IT UP- Geri Halliwell (51,000)
5- DON’T GIVE UP- Chicane Ft Bryan Adams (47,000)
6- ALL THE SMALL THINGS- Blink 182 (34,000)
7- STILL D.R.E- Dr Dre Ft Snoop Dogg (32,000)
8- AMERICAN PIE- Madonna (31,000)
9- PURE SHORES- All Saints (27,000)
10- KILLER- ATB (26,000)

I remember being quite surprised that the Mel C single sold that well as it was quite rare that a 3rd single from an album sell significantly more than the previous ones. I have no evidence to back this up but in retrospect I do think that Northern Star had gained her a lot more good will and brought fans back who were potentially put off by Goin' Down.

8TH APRIL



Well it turned into one hell of a tussle in the end, for the second time in the year the difference between the top two records was under 1,500 with Mel C putting up a brave defence of her crown against Westlife’s new single “Fool Again”. Westlife took an early lead but Mel C managed to claw the lead back to be 3,000 ahead by the end of Thursday cue a mad rush of promotion by the boys over the weekend including an unscheduled drop in at CD:UK and record signings with the end result that they manage a fifth chart topper from 5 releases! In debuting at No 1 it means the boys go into the record books- no act has previously debuted at the top with their first five singles- let alone that they take them all from the same studio album and they do it in under a year- another record. Only The Spice Girls have had a better start to a career when they placed their first 6 hits at the top though of course one of those (“Wannabe”) didn’t debut there.

Sales wise “Fool Again” is Westlife’s worst opening tally, perhaps understandably, with just 82,776 copies to Mel C’s “Never Be The Same Again” total of 81,353, the latter track has sold 226,000 in a fortnight placing it in the top 10 YTD which looks like this with Q1 now at the end:


1- PURE SHORES- All Saints 619,000
2- RISE- Gabrielle 423,000
3- AMERICAN PIE- Madonna 315,000
4- BORN TO MAKE YOU HAPPY- Britney Spears 295,000
5- MOVIN TOO FAST- Artful Dodger Featuring Romina Johnson 280,000
6- GO LET IT OUT- Oasis 262,000
7- NEVER BE THE SAME AGAIN- Melanie C Featuring Lisa “Left-Eye” Lopes 226,000
8- U KNOW WHAT’S UP- Donell Jones 220,000
9- DON’T GIVE UP- Chicane Featuring Bryan Adams 201,000
10- BAG IT UP- Geri Halliwell 185,000

Chicane & Bryan Adams also sneak in as they fall 5-7 (29,000) meanwhile Geri Halliwell who herself sinks 4-8 (28,000) at least makes the YTD top 10 for now.



Scoring their biggest hit to date Destiny’s Child score a 4th top 10 this week with “Say My Name”. Between releases you’ll probably be aware that the group has had a big line-up change to rival the Honeyz, with LeToya Luckett and LaTavia Roberson leaving and Farah Franklin and Michelle Williams joining, the singing talents of Luckett and Roberson are still present on the song though the girls have been replaced on the promo. The song shifted 48,000 copies to finish a distant third, but has just finished a run of three weeks atop the US charts so won’t be disappointed.

It’s the week for girl groups it seems with Destiny’s Child and now Atomic Kitten getting their biggest hits. The Kitten’s first release “Right Now” nipped in at No 10 before Christmas and now second release “See Ya” gives us more infectious pop pushing even higher at No 6 (39,000) suggesting the future is bright, spare a thought for the other girl group B”Witched who can only enter at No 16 suggesting their smallest hit ever!

Elsewhere Moloko fade 2-4 (47,000), Santana remain atop the album charts but “Smooth” ebbs 3-5 (43,000), Blink 182 drop 6-9 (26,000) and Dr Dre dips 7-10 (23,000).

1- FOOL AGAIN- Westlife (82,776)
2- NEVER BE THE SAME AGAIN- Mel C Ft Lisa Left Eye Lopes (81,353)
3- SAY MY NAME- Destiny’s Child (48,000)
4- THE TIME IS NOW- Moloko (47,000)
5- SMOOTH- Santana Ft Rob Thomas (43,000)
6- SEE YA- Atomic Kitten (39,000)
7- DON’T GIVE UP- Chicane Ft Bryan Adams (29,000)
8- BAG IT UP- Geri Halliwell (28,000)
9- ALL THE SMALL THINGS- Blink 182 (26,000)
10- STILL D.R.E- Dr Dre Ft Snoop Dogg (23,000)

I’m still annoyed at Westlife beating Mel C to a second week at number 1 with such a dull awful song.

Never Be The Same Again was everywhere before it got to number 1, I wasn’t shocked when it got there. Fantastic song, easily one of the best of 2000.

The back to back Never Be The Same Again performances

2 minutes ago, lewistgreen said:

The back to back Never Be The Same Again performances

They do that a lot with all these 1 week number 1s

Hearing that B*Witched song again brought back some great memories. I loved that second album and it was a shame that was the end of the road for them initially.

Atomic Kitten then pretty much took over as my favourite girl band, who end up performing one of my favourite tracks of theirs on this very show too.

Scott Mills jumpscare doing the Top 20 rundown

Does anyone know who was "Rob Thomas" with Santana.

I recognised Tony Livesey from the Santana Band but did not recognise the man in the green top.

On 19/08/2026 at 14:30, Jade said:

I'm obsessed with Lulu's Playboy Bunny shirt on the TOTP re-run:

^ omg I swear Gail Porter was wearing this exact same Playboy Bunny shirt tonight as well??

Melanie C had my favourite solo Spice career and 'Never Be The Same Again' is one of her best moments, so I approve of that chart-topper!

I quite like 'The Time Is Now' and 'Smooth' from that top 5 as well. The return of Santana is a great chart story but not quite sure where Rob Thomas was in tonight's TOTP episode...!

Wow I didn't realise how close that Westlife vs. Melanie C battle was. Shame the latter didn't hang on again as 'Fool Again' is pretty dull. On the subject of Westlife, I see both Brian McFadden and Kerry Katona performed on tonight's episode!

Michelle now arriving in the Destiny's Child line-up *.* 'Say My Name' has really grown on me over the years so I approve of it being their most streamed nowadays.

I must be in the minority then as Fool Again is one of my fave Westlife singles probably refer it to Mel/Lisa actually so I’m glad they scraped it!

Edited September 4Sep 4 by Lee_J11

2 hours ago, mrpopquiz said:

Does anyone know who was "Rob Thomas" with Santana.

I recognised Tony Livesey from the Santana Band but did not recognise the man in the green top.

He's on the pic I posted but he wasn't in that TOTP performance, he is in the one I posted.

8 hours ago, dandy* said:

I remember being quite surprised that the Mel C single sold that well as it was quite rare that a 3rd single from an album sell significantly more than the previous ones. I have no evidence to back this up but in retrospect I do think that Northern Star had gained her a lot more good will and brought fans back who were potentially put off by Goin' Down.

Honestly, to this day, I will never understand how "Goin' Down" was chosen for the lead single from that album when "Never Be The Same Again" and "I Turn To You" were right there. Even Northern Star was a way better single choice. But to launch her solo career with just herself and not featuring with another artist, it just seemed like a really odd starting point to represent the album that sounds nothing like that.

5 hours ago, Lee_J11 said:

I must be in the minority then as Fool Again is one of my fave Westlife singles probably refer it to Mel/Lisa actually so I’m glad they scraped it!

Whilst "Never Be The Same Again" is MUCH better, like they are not even remotely on the same level... I will say "Fool Again" is one of Westlife's VERY few bright moments so I don't actually begrudge it taking the top spot.

The 2000 Mix of Fool Again is passable and has a bit more life to it than the album version that was used on all the compilations, as well as many of Westlife’s own hits albums (the 2000 Mix still isn’t on Spotify). The first ever concert I saw they were headlining as a last minute addition at a multi-artist show in Brighton called Music Jam. It was in March 2000 and they performed Fool Again there so it was one of the first songs I ever saw an act perform live so there is a touch of nostalgia there.

But Never Be The Same Again is far superior, such a great song and collaboration and a very deserved No.1. Mel obviously knew what she was doing to keep the album selling as each single was getting better than the last! Glad she had the opportunity to execute that campaign and wasn’t swiftly dropped after Goin’ Down tanked after the first week.

Some great records here, many of which became classics - Say My Name, Smooth, The Time Is Now.

And so much girlband action! See Ya was always good fun and nice to see performances from Precious and B*Witched. The former was robbed of a place in the top ten with their Britney rip-off. The latter is catchy but I guess B*Witched’s 15 minutes were up.

Also M2M’s Don’t Say You Love Me, what a song! Joining Lene Marlin to be two Norwegian radio strummers in the top 20 at the same time. Marion Raven and Marit Larsen both had fairly decent solo careers too, Marion guesting on a Meat Loaf top ten in 2006 and Marit having a wonderful European hit in 2009 with If A Song Could Get Me You.

Savage Garden and N’n’G were both decent too, the latter a garage classic.

Fool Again is a nice enough ballad I suppose. Better than their previous two #1s, which were an inferior cover of Abba I Gave A Dream and Flying Without Wings.

Smooth by Santana and Rob Thomas then - my parents had the album it was on so I knew it well at the time.

Moloko Time Is Now is good orchestral and jazz influenced dance.

Say My Name by Destiny's Child has some good harmonies and is a good song.

Edited September 5Sep 5 by TheSnake

Some undeniable classics on this week's episodes - namely Mel C and Left Eye, Moloko, Destiny's Child and also Santana (although I didn't appreciate those two random session singers standing in for Rob Thomas, who made it sound like a Strictly Come Dancing version of the song before that was even a thing).

Westlife were incredibly lucky to get that fifth number one. I remember them on CD:UK the Saturday before it charted and they all looked panic stricken at potentially missing out. That said, "Fool Again" is one of their better chart toppers, although I do wish Sony would throw the 2000 Mix on streaming already. I had hoped they finally would with the recent 25 Ultimate Collection release, alas they didn't.

Poor B*Witched going out with a whimper a year on after their own record breaking shenanigans. Sony really didn't have a clue what they were doing with them by this point throwing them in the direction of the FHM market and hoping that would work. I hope some day the third album they recorded before they were dropped will see the light of day.

i have heard NBTSA a lot !! It never gets boring.

Deserved #1 for Mel, when you think about it the way that campaign unfolded was really quite unique in the way it started off with a whimper and every release just kept getting bigger and bigger!

Also 'Fool Again' is absolute garbage like 98% of their output.