gooddelta

Not a bad take on Always, but I always loved that Wheatus cover (I know it's not generally loved), so I'm voting for them.

They surely can't dodge it again. Artful for me.

Girls Aloud

I'm rejecting the rejects again.

True although I would imagine the 1985-89 Final Chapter is imminent as they love to rinse the 80s and the main Yearbooks and Extras are done.

I was about to rant about Suzanne Vega but then listened to the song as I didn't know it and it's great, ha. Still, a No.40 one week hit is scraping a bit, it makes me wonder if they will even do The Vault series for the 90s or if it's just an 80s concern.

Agreed, I was thinking earlier how much I thoroughly enjoyed both the main and Extra for 98 despite many missing hits. I could live without a lot of this 97 Extra. My biggest gripe though is why has dance been wiped out of the equation apart from Roise Gaines and a few of the more famous critcially acclaimed dance acts on Disc 2 - it was a big year for it. Sash, Bellini, Smoke City, BBE, The Course, Todd Terry, PF Project, Mr President? I can't believe these were all unlicensable.

I went with Debbii, although can't say I'll be rushing to give any of the songs here a second play in a hurry. Dove, Kesha and Reneé were decent though.

Oh yes, Angel Of Mine is a surprising one to miss, although I did love all three of Eternal's '97 singles so I'm happy to see Don't You Love Me. In my opinion Closer than Close and As Long As You Love Me should have been on the main album (I appreciate BSB had another song but this is a classic too). Stand By Me is a surprising miss, maybe Oasis are only going to give songs to the main albums and not 'Extra'. Lots of big hits missing overall from the '97 albums - Candle In The Wind '97, Teletubbies Say Eh-Oh!, Men In Black, Tubthumping, I'll Be Missing You and I Believe I Can Fly (both fair though), Freed From Desire, Don't Speak, Time To Say Goodbye, the other Sash! No.2s Ecuador and Stay, the two big Verve singles Bittersweet Symphony and The Drugs Don't Work. It all makes for one of the most poorly compiled years in terms of the big hitters, even if it's nice to have access to some overlooked gems and smaller hits.

Quite an interesting round, I like both. But going for Paloma.

Congrats Jim! Great mod choice.

I think for me they sounded so fresh in 2016 because they essentially were doing what others were doing, but with more melody and emotion, and the orchestral additions. The 2016 charts and dominant sound were, however AWFUL so they were kind of the best of a bad bunch, and this is the sound they have chosen to stick to. Thankfully everyone else has moved on from that tired tropical/high pitched synths genre but they are still peddling stuff that could have fit in those years, and it's a musical era I'd rather forget. Plus somewhere along the line they lost the X Factor that they had and just became generic - if the songs were as good as Rockabye and Symphony then I'm not sure I'd mind as much, but the melodies and emotion have just gone. It's such a shame, as I dearly loved them.

Thanks Adam! A couple of edits weren't available (Wiseguys, DJ Luck & MC Neat) but yes, I went back through chart show recordings and compilations from the time to check the correct edits and mixes are all there where possible! Just a note that ATFC's In And Out Of My Life would have appeared too but is no longer available to stream (apart from an acapella version and some mixes that don't feature the Fatboy Slim sample).

(Click on image to enlarge) Disc 1 Disc 2 Disc 3 Disc 4 Full album We are proud to present a very special one-off companion album to an annual we have released previously. 1999 was an amazing year for dance music - perhaps the best ever commercially, with genres like trance and garage at their peak and delivering chart hits week after week, many of which have become classics over time. So we took all of the circa-30 dance songs on our main 1999 album and then added 60 more from that great 12-month period. Disc 1 kicks off with two of the defining anthems and biggest selling dance hits of the year, ATB’s No.1 summer trance hit 9PM (Till I Come) and our introduction to Dutch act Alice Deejay, presented initially by DJ Jurgen, with the incredible Better Off Alone, which peaked at No.2 for three weeks and missed No.1 by under 500 sales at its closest. It was a great year for Eurodance and that is quickly represented by more No.1s from Eiffel 65 and Vengaboys before more big hits DJs Jean and Sakin. The trance classics get underway with Ayla’s self titled gem and a classic of a similar stature, Carte Blanche by Veracocha, this one of Ferry Corsten’s many aliases at the time and marking the first of six in our run of involvement from the Dutch superstar DJ. His involvement in either the production of or remixes for Binary Finary, System F, Gouryella, William Orbit and Art Of Trance are all sequenced together here. Then it’s across to Germany for Fragma’s No.11 hit Toca Me - which would become a lot more famous in mash-up form the following year, and York’s first hit The Awakening, also a No.11. More timeless trance anthems from Mauro Picotto, Paul Van Dyk and Agnelli & Nelson follow before a hit remix of Alena’s Turn It Around, and this trance heavy disc concludes with Blank & Jones, Lost Tribe, Matt Darey, The Space Brothers, Three Drives on a Vinyl, and Solarstone. Dance music was having just as good a time at home as it was in Europe and a couple of vintage productions, and top three hits, from Fatboy Slim and The Chemical Brothers, kick off Disc 2. Mr Oizo’s infamous French house hit Flat Beat - helped to No.1. by a Levi’s ad - is then followed by the classic Windowlicker from the legendary Aphex Twin, another French house hit from Cassius and then back to the UK for hits from Basement Jaxx with the brilliant Red Alert, Faithless, Leftfield, Apollo 440, The Wiseguys with a No.2 hit propelled by a Budweiser ad and then Orbital and Underworld. The disc starts to chill out at this point as we hear the beauty of Hybrid, Chicane, Moby, Groove Armada and the atmospheric soundscape of Brother Brown. There is still room for more trance at the end though, as we hear top 40 hits from Lustral, Lost Witness, Airscape, Three ‘n’ One and Liquid Child - notable as being the final track on the UK’s biggest selling Now album, Now 44, so only fair it repeats its closing disc status here. French house wasn’t the only house doing well just before the new millennium, and the US scored an early year chart topper with You Don’t Know Me, which opens Disc 3 for Armand Van Helden and Duane Harden. British house from Phats & Small and Moloko follow before another American sourced No.1 by the quirky Wamdue Project, and big hits from Bob Marley in remix form, Jamiroquai and Soulsearcher. Pete Heller then provides another house classic in Big Love before we hear once more from Cassius, and Duane Harden (this time with Powerhouse) and then hear more top five hits, from Paul Johnson, Blockster and Mario Più with his ode to the growing mobile phone movement of the late 90s. A summer top ten smash from Yomanda and a top 15 hit from Dope Smugglaz - both using 80s samples - precede a Planet Perfecto remix of 1995 top ten hit Not Over Yet by Grace, and then a top five Roxy Music cover from Emmie. The blissed summer sounds continue with Ruff Driverz and a remix of Inner City’s iconic Good Life before we round this disc out with second appearances in a great year for Basement Jaxx, The Chemical Brothers (with uncredited vocals from Noel Gallagher), Groove Armada (with remix help from Fatboy Slim), and then the Brighton star himself with his No.1 smash Praise You. Finally, we can’t wave off 1999 without a nod to the quickly growing genre of garage, which peaked the following year commercially but was hugely successful for the first time in ’99, with Artful Dodger’s seminal December No.2 hit Re-Rewind, which launched the career of Craig David, kicking off Disc 4. Shanks & Bigfoot follow with their No.1 hit Sweet Like Chocolate, the UK’s first garage No.1 with a memorable confectionary themed video, and then Doolally (a Shanks & Bigfoot alias) follow with re-released 1998 No.20 hit, Straight From The Heart, which went to No.9 on second release in 1999. The year’s other big garage hit was A Little Bit Of Luck, which unusually for the time entered in the low top 20 in December before climbing to No.9 in the new year on its sixth week on the chart for DJ Luck and MC Neat. A garage remix from Neneh Cherry, by Dreem Teem, follows this and then it’s back to house with hits from Phats & Small, Eclipse, Big Time Charlie, Supercar, The 3 Jays and Mirrorball before a Madonna sampling top 10 hit at the end of the year from Progress and The Boy Wunda. A hardstyle top 10 from early in the year from Porn Kings and then hits from Perfect Phase and Sash! (with an uncredited Dr. Alban) follow prior to Sash’s old friend Tina Cousins, and then a run of mostly second appearances from Eurodance acts to close the disc. DJ Sakin covered Irish/German cult band The Kelly Family for second hit Nomansland, ATB scored a second top three hit with the thumping Don’t Stop, Shaft rode the short-lived mambo craze to deliver No.2 smash (Mucho Mambo) Sway, and Vengaboys had such a huge year that we had to exclude two other top three hits - including a No.1, but plumped for the classic We Like To Party! (The Vengabus), which gave Denise a turn on vocals rather than lead singer Kim for once. Rounding out the disc we have the second top five hit from Alice Deejay, who shared the same producers as Vengaboys, Bryan Adams’ with the Chicane remixed Cloud Number Nine (Bryan would return the favour on Don’t Give Up in 2000), Ann Lee’s twee No.2 smash 2 Times, and finally, the iconic hamster dance song turned top five Christmas smash from Cuban Boys. With my thanks to Colm for creating the artwork!

I actually have that Hermes House Band song on cassette single, albeit because it was one of Asda's bargain bin 1p specials (it's from 2002, not 2015, and charted at No.53). The schlager fan in me would be disgusted if I didn't vote for it.

1 Louise - Arms Around the World 2 The Saturdays - Disco Love 3 Ellie Goulding - Army 4 Pet Shop Boys - Go West 5 CHVRCHES - Bitter End 6 Lady Gaga feat. Christina Aguilera - Do What U Want 7 A-ha - You Are the One 8 Mary J. Blige & U2 - One 9 Avril Lavigne - Don’t Tell Me The Louise song is brilliant, the other eight are making up the numbers for me.

I thought this sounded great, very catchy and commercial but also classy when I heard it open her set. Hopefully a proper hit when it's released. Her song on the Drive soundtrack is good too, Grandma Calls The Boys Bad News. She is definitely channelling Amy Winehouse more than ever recently, I suppose the Mark Ronson production helps.

It's a great track but imo has some strong competition, I listened through today for the first time and - as is customary with Bop Idol - was impressed with the high quality mostly across the board. So hopefully it's not a big walkover for Agnes, even if I would expect her to win nevertheless (I can't argue with the quality of the song).

Corinne dominates this.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0FFRKWLF5/ref=cm_sw_r_as_gl_api_gl_i_5SBWMCH5VCFMHRZBF6YY Now Yearbook Extra 1997 announcement imminent as Amazon have it up already but no tracklist yet, release date 8 August. Excited to see the 59 tracks that follow Star People '97.

Something Pride themed is on its way courtesy of @SuperWooper! Albeit probably later in the summer as there are a few projects on the go.

I can't bring myself to go for Country Roads, it was a delightfully ridiculous cover straight from a Bavarian bar with a large beer in hand. Going for Artful Dodger as the song is boring.

Girls Aloud... Never was one of my favourites from them. And the other three are great.

Returning to All American Rejects, not one I enjoy really.