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S Club 7 - Never Had A Dream Come True Rank: 8/10 Reason: After their debut with Bring It All Back in June 1999, S Club 7 had become a pretty big but not giant prospect, stringing together four more top three hits of varying stature before finally returning to No.1. But Reach in the summer was a pivotal moment, one of those 'should have been No.1' classic pop singles that was blocked by something even bigger, but probably big enough to convince Children In Need to look their way and offer them the opportunity to release the year's charity single. A lot of charity singles are poor covers, but Children In Need from time to time did throw up good original songs and such was the case with Never Had A Dream Come True. A song with a suitably winter-themed video, it's become almost a psuedo Christmas song like 2 Become 1 and Heartbeat, that you tend to hear around that time of year. Co-written by the brilliant Cathy Dennis (and Simon Ellis), it's really just a lovely ballad with nice backing vocals from the band but powerful lead vocals by Jo O'Meara being the star attraction. This single definitely moved them up a gear too as they followed this with probably their best ever single, yet this was their only song to make a splash in the US, charting inside the top 10 there in 2001!

Gabrielle - Rise Rank: 8/10 Reason: I think the return to No.1 of Gabrielle was one of my favourite chart stories of 2000. With such a distinct and soulful voice, Gabrielle definitely was able to stick around towards the top end of the charts after her unforgettable debut with Dreams in 1993, but never hit quite those same heights again commerically in the 90s (although songs like Give Me A Little More Time were just as deserving). She returned in 1999 with Sunshine, which I thought was a beautiful single and one I wished had done a little better, although it later became a garage classic thanks to a popular Wookie remix. Rise though was the moment she rose again to the top of the pile; built around an inspired sample of Bob Dylan's Knockin' On Heaven's Door, the song builds its own great song around that and doesn't completely rely on it to be good. It's just one of those effortless songs that still sounds good, and was one of the rare songs on this countdown to manage a second week at No.1!

Madonna - Music Rank: 8/10 Reason: Ray Of Light was such a great, seminal album that it was difficult to see how Madonna would ever follow it as she set about releasing her first album of the new decade. And while Music doesn't top that masterpiece, it's still a fascinating album where you can see the logical progression from its predecessor. She bridged the two eras with William Orbit produced tracks Beautiful Stranger and American Pie, and he turned up again as a producer on two songs on this album, but French producer Mirwais had the dominant production influence in this era. Music made a massive splash with its video featuring Ali G, who was really huge at the time, and it was just an incredibly fun song to come off the back of a sublime but mostly quite serious era of music in Ray Of Light. The 'Do you want to boogie woogie' processed vocal is so clever as a hook, as is 'Hey Mr DJ...' and it was a brilliant choice of lead single, although I do probably prefer Don't Tell Me on a personal level.

Craig David - Fill Me In Rate: 8/10 Reason: I think anybody that heard Re-Rewind, released with Artful Dodger in late 1999, could see that its soulful young singer Craig David had a lot of potential and was destined for bigger things. And it didn't take long for him to break out on his own with Fill Me In, released in April 2000 (and produced by Mark Hill from... Artful Dodger). Probably a little overshadowed these days by its follow-up, it's easy to forget that Fill Me In went in at No.1 with huge hype as his debut solo single and even made the top 15 in the US, which was very impressive for a song so British in sound, essentially a garage track albeit with more of an R&B vibe to it than Re-Rewind. A very smooth production with quite unusual lyrics really about parents trying to find out about and stymie a budding tryst, but it was a pivotal moment in Craig's career and the real arrival of a great new British star who still has relevance 25 years on.

Yeah I know what you mean, although Vertigo I think passes that test too but after that I can't think of much of note. I was thinking exactly the same about that No.2s list, so many really brilliant classics songs, especially dance, among those. On A Night Like This is an interesting case as I'm not sure it would have been a comeback No.1 for Kylie if released first, as it's more of a 'normal' pop song than a 'statement' pop song (despite being much better imo). Haha, glad it's not just me, when I was listening back to The Masses Against The Classes for the first time in a while it really made my head turn. So I have actually bought the Better Man Blu-ray based on the great reviews but not got around to watching it yet, I must do that! Maybe I'm easily pleased although 8/10 is a score I generally give to a song I enjoy that I still regularly actively seek out to listen to now. 7/10 is something I like and appreciate but don't love. 6/10 is fine, 5/10 is average (halfway point), and below that is probably getting into not keen territory. Yeah it's a good song - quite different to all of the singles from the previous album that were more radio friendly, while stil being very good, I do like the Manics and have their Forever Delayed compilation, although none of the studio albums. Everything from that 2000 album has aged quite well for U2 I think, especially when you compare it to their last top 20 single, from 2009, Get On Your Boots.

Yeah this was amazing, I was there last night and hoped for Charli but didn't expect it, a great moment. Love 360 and the stage lighting up Brat green Dua is so good live, she suits large stadiums so well. So many songs really went off in that setting in a way I didn't expect them to, like Electricity, Physical <3 They're two of my favourites but I didn't realise they were big general public favourites. And wow, the encore/final section is just stunning - great song choices to end on.

Confirmed a favourite of mine, not sure if it will be deemed too well known but will try it.

Intriguing, at least her huge fanbase should at least give us some Rest of the World votes. Doubt the BBC would really want her as our act though.

And conquering Madonna's lead single would have been really good press for Posh too. If only she'd known how big Groovejet would be.

Kylie Minogue - Spinning Around Rank: 8/10 Reason: 2000 was a great time to be a Kylie Minogue fan. I only properly got into music myself in around 1998 so obviously, while aware of Kylie's achievements and past hits, I was not a real-time fan at any point until the Light Years album came out as Kylie was between eras at this point and hadn't been in the top 10 since 1994. But with Spinning Around she made her intentions known again ('did I forget to mention that I found a new direction...and it leads back to me'). A huge pop track with a memorable video thanks to the gold hot pants, and co-written by Paula Abdul, which always makes me think 'what could have been' for her career perhaps had it received even half the attention Kylie got with it. I think with Spinning Around I have more of a fond appreciation than a deep love for it - it paved the way for greater things that could not have happened without this song being a hit - the immediate follow up On A Night Like This was one of my favourite songs of the year, and obviously in 2001 she went stratospheric again with Can't Get You Out Of My Head and the Fever album. But this is a really catchy pop/disco song that is still played, quoted and well regarded today, and it did its job of putting Kylie back on the map, helping her go from a bubblegum pop star of yesteryear turned cult indie prospect, into a proper legend. So thank goodness it all clicked and it was a hit! The top 20 will start tomorrow, and here are the 20 No.1 singles remaining: All Saints - Black Coffee All Saints - Pure Shores Britney Spears - Oops! I Did It Again Craig David - 7 Days Craig David - Fill Me In Eminem - Stan Eminem - The Real Slim Shady Fragma - Toca's Miracle Gabrielle - Rise LeAnn Rimes - Can't Fight The Moonlight Madison Avenue - Don't Call Me Baby Madonna - Music Melanie C - I Turn To You Melanie C feat Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes - Never Be The Same Again Modjo - Lady (Hear Me Tonight) Ronan Keating - Life Is A Rollercoaster S Club 7 - Never Had A Dream Come True Sonique - It Feels So Good Spiller feat Sophie Ellis-Bextor - Groovejet (If This Ain't Love) The Corrs - Breathless

A1 - Same Old Brand New You Rate: 8/10 Reason: We've reached the 8/10 mark here, and I think the songs left are a mix of undeniable classics and/or songs that I personally hold in high regard. This song falls into the latter category. Obviously A1's Take On Me cover I've documented earlier and didn't think was good, but I do appreciate the way it took the band up to the next level of popularity, meaning they had more ears on them when Same Old Brand New You was released. I'm not so sure this single would have got to No.1 had it been the lead, as I think the cover and its video gave them more press attention. Written by Ben, Christian and Mark from the band along with Eric Foster White, this is a really good boyband single that pulls the trick that I always love of using the intro part again later in the track, in this case as a middle-eight, where it is made more dramatic with different chords underneath it. The production on this song is otherwise quite Cheiron-esque and of the time, with *NSYNC vibes, but I do really like it and I'm glad they got a No.1 that wasn't a cover to their name. It did dive to No.8 the week after so is probably the most forgotten track in the top 30.

U2 - Beautiful Day Rate: 7.5/10 Reason: I've always been a bit hit and miss with U2, but there's no denying the All That You Can't Leave Behind album was a monster, a return to their rock roots and a commercial renaissance of sorts after they dabbled in more leftfield styles for a lot of the 90s. Beautiful Day was a storming lead single, a stadium-ready anthem with a mega chorus but with quite restrained verses and guitar work reminiscent of some of their big 80s classics. I actually personally preferred the two singles that followed this one, Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of and the Tomb Raider mix of Elevation, but Beautiful Day was a good song and probably the most memorable/classic rock No.1 of 2000.

Manic Street Preachers - The Masses Against The Classes Rate: 7.5/10 Reason: Like with Steps earlier, Manic Street Preachers had two No.1 singles in the UK, one which made a lot of sense and the other less so when you look at some of their classics that didn't make it. However, despite not perhaps being one of their more accessible releases (it has under 1m Spotify streams), The Masses Against The Classes is a blistering and heavy anti-establishment rock track with a big chorus that made for a refreshing change after four weeks of Westlife, and was the first new No.1 single of the millennium. It was probably partially helped out by being a limited release - it was apparently deleted after the first day on sale but must have had plenty of copies floating around as it charted for seven weeks. As an aside, I've noticed writing this that it has a very similar intro to Can We Fix It? (!), so no doubt Neil Morrissey was a fan.

Destiny's Child - Independent Women, Pt. 1 Rate: 7.5/10 Reason: From the Charlies Angels soundtrack, Independent Women, Pt. 1 was a gear change for Destiny's Child, who had gone through line-up changes but had settled on the familiar trio of Beyoncé, Kelly and Michelle by this point, their first single since Say My Name which went to No.3 earlier in the year and would actually become their biggest classic in time with over a billion streams now. Independent Women, Pt. 1 definitely did benefit from being in the film but it was also a strong female empowerment anthem with strong production and a lot of hooks that would go viral if it was released today ('Question?', 'I bought it'), an effective choral middle eight, and - weirdly - the three lead stars from the film being namechecked in the intro. They would continue on this high level with the likes of Survivor and Bootylicious and never really looked back, but for me - despite being a great song - other classics of theirs have aged better.

Kernkraft 400 was so hypnotic, I just can't imagine anything like that taking off now at all, a really pulsing nearly full instrumental like that. I was thinking about Michael when I ranked that there (this position's gonna punish you).

Robbie Williams - Rock DJ Rate: 7/10 Reason: Time to say goodbye to a big hitter and one of the biggest sellers of the year. Robbie was coming off the back of a huge era with I've Been Expecting You and quite possibly could have put anything out at this point and got a No.1. I'm not sure quite what I expected him to release at this point, but Rock DJ wasn't it; a disco tinged pop/half-rap kind of Ian Dury inspired number with an extremely memorable video with plenty of shock value. Almost a novelty song in some respects with some of the lyrics and the style of the female backing vocals, but it has a great bassline although one I recently realised (upon buying Now Yearbook '77 Extra) was sampled from Barry White's It's Ecstasy When You Lay Down Next To Me, so there was something about the soul legend that was appealing to people in 2000! Anyway, Rock DJ is clearly a clever, classic song from a superstar at the top of their game, and was absolutely inescapable at the time, a good example of a British pop song that went stratospheric (apart from in the US), but like with Kids, it is just not really my style and I'd take Supreme over it any day.

As a brief diversion, 2000 also generated a strong batch of 19 UK No.2s, a not insubstantial number really when on many weeks the No.2 slot would be filled with one of the many No.1s from the previous week departing. And here is my rank of those, in case it might give any clues on the acts still to feature in this rank with their No.1 hits: Kylie Minogue - On A Night Like This (9.5/10) Daft Punk - One More Time (9/10) Zombie Nation - Kernkraft 400 (9/10) S Club 7 - Reach (9/10) Bomfunk MC's – Freestyler (9/10) Samantha Mumba - Gotta Tell You (9/10) Sweet Female Attitude - Flowers (9/10) True Steppers & Dane Bowers Featuring Victoria Beckham - Out Of Your Mind (8/10) Moloko - The Time Is Now (8/10) S Club 7 - Two In A Million / You're My Number One (8/10) Martine McCutcheon - I'm Over You (8/10) Artful Dodger & Romina Johnson - Movin Too Fast (8/10) Donnell Jones feat Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes - U Know What's Up (8/10) Blink 182 - All The Small Things (8/10) Sonique – Sky (7.5/10) Robbie Williams & Kylie Minogue – Kids (7/10) Sash! - Adelante (7/10) Westlife - What Makes A Man (6/10) Baha Men - Who Let The Dogs Out (5/10)

Steps - Stomp Rate: 7/10 Reason: As far as I know, this was the lowest selling No.1 of 2000, certainly in weekly terms anyway with a sale little over 50k to top the chart, and when you look at all of their classics that peaked at No.2, in some ways it is weird that Stomp ended up as one of Steps' two chart-toppers, but such is the nature of the charts sometimes. It was the lead single from third album Buzz, and was certainly improved upon with the next single - It's The Way You Make Me Feel - which sold a lot more but missed out on topping the chart due to collding with Touch Me by Rui da Silva. Nevertheless, Stomp is a perky Chic sampling number which actually is brilliant when performed live and a real moment with the hand claps in the chorus. But listening to the studio version at home, paired with the very Y2K house party video, does have more than a whiff of naff to it. There are 20 Steps songs I'd listen to before this, but it's still a solid pop song and there were certainly some looks in that era weren't there.

Britney Spears - Born To Make You Happy Rate: 7/10 Reason: Like Westlife, Britney managed No.1 singles from two different studio albums/eras during 2000, and Born To Make You Happy was the final UK single to be lifted from her debut (other countries, like the US) got From The Bottom Of My Broken Heart. It's not unimpressive that this made it to the top after Sometimes and (You Drive Me) Crazy both failed to do so, maybe it was just the right time for a slower single in the run up to Valentine's Day or maybe the public just really clicked with this one. For me, it's a classic example of Cheiron pop that could also very easily have been a Backstreet Boys or 'NSync song, with that slight Scandipop feel to it and all the classic production hallmarks of theirs. Britney delivered it well, especially the middle eight, and the label did probably make the right decision not pushing the more funky 'Bonus' remix that some radio stations were apparently playing outside the UK, which uses some slightly different vocals and in my opinion does take something away from the nice melody in the process of throwing the kitchen sink at the production. Good single, but not a Britney classic for me.

Chicane feat Bryan Adams - Don't Give Up Rate: 7/10 Reason: Funnily enough, I was out of the country the week this went to No.1, having taken my first flight ever to Tenerife. I was indulging in Euro hits that weren't released here, and internet access was a bit scarce over there at the time so it's not until I got back that I found out this had gone to No.1, somewhat surprisingly in my mind because I was expecting to come back to find out that Five's Don't Wanna Let You Go at No.1 (instead that debuted and peaked at No.9, I still don't know what happened there). I mean, this is a solid dance track, with good verses and a memorable chorus, and Bryan Adams complements Chicane's classic Balearic production vibe surprisingly well (or maybe not such a surprise if you heard his hit mix of Cloud Number Nine), but I prefer basically all of Chicane's other big hits, particularly the beautiful single that immediately followed this, No Ordinary Morning, which flopped at No.28.

Would love to know what channel is spamming Baller ❤️ Did some new channels get added to the list that makes up the chart?

Definitely not one of their best was it. I wasn't really into the Usher song that much either, though it's better than Oasis. I guess 1998 improved rapidly as it was my favourite year for the charts, but not really in January. Still, kudos to Robbie and All Saints for hanging around so well, I definitely do relate both acts more to 1998 than 1997 in my head so it's fair that they started off so strongly. Nice indie and rock on this edition from Catatonia, Radiohead, Green Day. I wasn't so taken by the Chumbawamba song (a true 'halo hit' I guess, as it never would have been a hit without Tubthumping coming before it). Some crap pop in these two weeks too from OTT and Peter Andre, and so many disco covers or samples doing the rounds in the chart at this point. 1997 and 1998 definitely felt like the 70s revival. I didn't really enjoy the slower version of High either so I guess that works better with its lovely studio string production.

Yeah it's not half bad, going back to it today; the instrumental is definitely better than the vocal. In fact the drum intro I've realised is basically the same as the Roxette hit, I Wish I Could Fly, from the previous year, from seven seconds in:

Billie Piper - Day & Night Rate: 7/10 Reason: So into the top 30, and actually I like everything left to a good extent, so over two-thirds of the year's No.1s were good singles to me which is a good strike rate for such a high turnover. A bit like with Geri Halliwell earlier, Billie Piper is one of those rare British female artists who I can probably say I don't love any individual song by, Honey To The Bee coming closest to my affections. Not to say she didn't have some decent pop songs and clearly Day & Night was good enough to give her another No.1 two years after her first mid-teen debut could so easily have left her as a one-album wonder. Influenced by what Britney was doing at the time, she made a strong stab at the same Cheiron style sound herself here and did a very good job at that, but is it a song I put on out of choice? Not really. But it's a shame her pop career fizzled out so soon after this, although a great acting career beckoned.

They all had to come somewhere sadly, and at least it wasn't the top ten!