awardinary

So much to say about those last few tracks but it's all been a trip down memory lane for me. Plus @Scene pay attention to @gooddelta's descriptive of Cheiron-sounding songs and send us your best version for the next BJSC so I can award big points! 😄

Oh what a big song to lose this early on! Looking back, it definitely felt like some sort of contractual repayment for Chicane being an uncredited producer on Cloud Number Nine (a personal favourite of mine for many years). This style of music might have worked well and suited Bryan's vocals, but I don't get the sense that he wanted to be involved, despite appearing in the music video. He never returned to this type of dance music again after that. It still goes down for me as the second best #1 on Now 45 at the time, beaten only by Fragma of course.

Ok caught up... So that final Westlife song was clearly a marketing ploy to try and attract a wider American audience albeit ineffective. The collaboration didn't feel like either artist wanted it at the time but labels pushed it to happen. The result was a very unimpressive #1 from the year. Incidentally I don't think it make it onto any compilation at the time. For Oasis, I did in fact enjoy that single at the time, it felt anthemic at the time, and I didn't know too many Oasis songs by name at this point despite hearing many of them in the years before. I didn't care for the other releases from this era from them but they improved in their next era for me. The song itself was enough to appear on New Hits 2000 which I was pleased with. The Billie Piper story is a sad one for me. She had so much star potential and charisma. I ended up enjoying Something Deep Inside more than her #1 of this era even though it never made it onto a Now compilation at the time. I think I've even played Walk Of Life more times than her #1 here but I wish we had so much more from her as a pop star. She had so much energy, good looks and her music was great. I'm glad she at least made the Top 30 here, though I'd wish it was a tad higher.

Haven't you made us endure enough Westlife for one day! 😂

What was all the fuss about a Radiohead track that didn't even appear in the Top 100 then?

Fool Again is another key-changing fit using the same formula with the some kind of music video of a helicopter-shot of the band at an altitude in a place far away from home! Annoying that most compilations at the time used the wrong version of the song though.

Listening to both those Spice Girls songs again with the videos definitely shows to me they were trying to go down a pop-R&B route to try and cater to a changing audience. It just didn't work anymore for them. Madonna's hit was... ok, but not the best at all.

My personal rankings for Week 25; Kenya Grace – Mr. Cool Swedish House Mafia – Wait So Long Sub Focus x Culture Shock x Fragma – Miracle Rossi x Jazzy – High On Me Duke Dumont – I Need You Now PinkPantheress – Close to you John Summit x Gorgon City x rhys from the sticks – Is Everybody Having Fun? Fred again.. x Skepta x PlaqueBoyMax – Victory Lap

I can see why Black Legend are this low. It does make sense that it is one of the weaker #1 hits of the year. I too can see the karaoke resemblence too. Interesting hearing about the sample dibacle.

My personal rankings for Week 25; Muse – Unravelling Lorde – Hammer sombr – we never dated Miles Kane – Love Is Cruel HAIM – All over me Sydney Minsky Sargeant – I Don't Wanna Lola Young – Not Like That Anymore CMAT – The Jamie Oliver Petrol Station

Oh yes, I never noticed the similarities to Who Do You Think You Are with this single until reading your post there. It is clearly very similar indeed.

My personal rankings for Week 25; Benson Boone – Mr Electric Blue Jonas Brothers – No Time To Talk Sophie and the Giants – A Little Bit Wild Ed Sheeran – Drive [from F1® The Movie] JADE – Plastic Box sombr – we never dated Holly Humberstone – Miss You To Death Kesha, Slayyyter & Rose Gray – ATTENTION!