gooddelta

You're A Superstar, such good memories, and a hugely uplifting dance track. Interestingly it was released in Canada in 1998, while Steal My Sunshine was released in 1999 in most places including the UK, so neither of the finalists was recorded in the 21st century.

Keeping it short (2.32) and returning to the pop bloc for the first time in a while with a charming song that interpolates Gymnopédie No.1. If it's a DNQ hat-trick then I may as well pack my stuff and go home.

Aww I really liked Perfection, the backing track is really good in that trying to recreate Lola's Theme vibe she was going for in the mid-00s. Over was a good track too, I bought both of these on single. The Louise track is ok, didn't really feel as big as the other songs that debuted in the top ten that week so it did well to get to No.5, partly boosted by that Don't Give Up song for Asda and the Tickled Pink charity (although new lyrics sung to the tune of the Asda Price song was such a corny idea).

Bravo Hits 134 tracklist is also out to compare. This is out 7th August in Germany. Strangely no DARA on here either despite it going to No.1 in Germany, so might have been a licensing thing. I've bolded the stuff they could have used, some might appear on Now 125 instead. Disc 1Calvin Harris, Jazzy – Satisfy Zara Larsson & Shakira – Eurosummer (Girls Trip) Justin Bieber Feat. Nicki Minaj – Beauty and A Beat Kitschkrieg, Blumengarten, Shirin David – Gut Genug Ellie Goulding – Black Prada Dress ClockClock – Out Of The Dark Alle Farben – Heroes Of The Night Gentleman – Unity Dardan & Azet – Vermisse LYZA – Keiner hat gesagt Kygo, Khalid, Gryffin – Save My Love Myles Smith – Hold Me In The Dark Lost Frequencies – Live It All Muse - Nightshift Superstar Cave, Amo – CASA CUBA Montez – Wie es ist Robin Schulz feat. BARBZ – Better Times JJ – Unknown Johannes Oerding – Popkorn Nico Santos – Optimist Sarah Connor – Atzensong Alex Warren – FINE PLACE TO DIE Olivia Rodrigo – drop dead Jennifer Lopez & David Guetta – Save Me Tonight Disc 2Bruno Mars – Risk It All Teddy Swims – Mr. Know It All Ariana Grande – hate that i made you love me Katy Perry – Watch It Burn SIENNA SPIRO – Material Lover Justé, Jaxstyle, Jon – Turn The Lights Off The Bausa – Magnetic Shania Twain – Dirty Rosie Die Toten Hosen – Schlechte Nachbarn Noah Kahan – The Great Divide Maisie Peters, Julia Michaels – Kingmaker Giant Rooks – Want It Back anaïs ciao – bb Timmy Trumpet (feat. OAKS) – Not A Place Armin van Buuren & Alle Farben feat. ROSY – Lost in Time LEA – Chemie Esther Graf – dafür war es echt Tom Gregory – How It Was Before SDP, Clueso, JazzDP Featuring The Capital Dance Orchestra– Die schönsten Tage - JazzDP ÁSDÍS – The Art of Letting Go Tiffany – Aris Vertigo Sam Smith – My Guy Pink Pantheress, Zara Larsson – Stateside Helene Fischer – Heute Nacht

It looks better than the last one at least. Expected Bangaranga but never mind. At least it has some No.1s and also Bruno/Alex after they missed the last edition. I do like that they have included the retro songs not previously on a Now (Justin, Chemicals), rather than ignoring retro completely.

Just catching up - glad Dappy is out now, would probably be in my bottom five! Not a fan of his or the track. Three other good to really good songs since I last commented, I especially like Heart Skips A Beat, Olly and Rizzle Kicks worked really well together on this track and it's definitely up there with his best. Louder and Promises are both good but not exceptional for me, guess I'd rank them around the same area. Me & You by Nero was amazing though, and also Gold Dust by DJ Fresh brings back good memories of the time, crazy that neither of those were top ten hits.

Yeah not a great decision. Focus on sorting your issues to get longstanding countries back that mean something to Eurovision, don't look everywhere else to plug gaps in finances and country numbers made by your own terrible decisions. The contest is unrecognisable to me lately from the one I loved for over 20 years.

At least both examples prove it's still possible I suppose.

Going for Sugababes but love all three.

Debelah. Dancing In The Dark is a clubland classic, for shame!

I bought this new release football compilation in Berlin yesterday (seeing as the latest Bravo Hits isn't out yet and I wanted something new). Usually Europe stick to the Queen Disc 1 track 1 arrangement like the UK, but they are opening disc 2 here unusually, because the Queen of FIFA is opening instead.

Not really keen enough on any of these entries to get too excited about them but Efendi's entries were definitely catchy and Mata Hari deserved higher than 20th. On balance though seeing the rest of the rank is confirmation that Drip Drop and Always are the only two entries of theirs I ever play these days.

I'm more interested in seeing the tracklist for Yearbook Extra 99 than Now 124. I can't imagine what on earth they're going to put on the latter, it's been not two months since the last dreadful volume and nothing much has happened in the charts while a song from Now 122 is still No.1! If they can't find a space for Delta amongst the alsorans then I'm done.

2011... a contest to forget with a scoreboard to forget. Quite a lot of great songs, but Popular aside they all tanked. Running Scared is - at best - a 15 point DNQ. I have no idea how it won with such ropey vocals and with nothing going for it. Miracle would have made my top 10 over Hold Me (and I still don't love that) but other than that I agree.

I really like that track, I think it's still possibly my favourite One Direction single and probably in my top ten No.1s of the year. Big pop that's held up well for the era. I'm glad they went the pure pop route with their first album rather than with club banger type songs like JLS and The Wanted, as I think it has helped it to date less badly.

Had to try and stay awake to get through the Example number. Moves Like Jagger completely robbed there, moreso than on most other weeks. Also Ed's You Need Me, I Don't Need You was released that week and 'only' got to No.4. Always funny how that kind of quickly came and went in the UK chart when it's such a big fan favourite and still a main staple in his live shows. Not sure they got the studio version for the single mix quite right though, I prefer the rawness of the live version and earlier studio/demo recordings, possibly a little overproduced.

MGMT, even though it's great. The other three are big favourites of mine.

Dance With Me. It was all over the music channels back in the day, but can't say I go back to it that much.

Not a country I am fond of particularly but agree that Always was a deserved hit and I did like Drip Drop, I actually feel that underperformed and deserved a place or two higher. Hold Me is the true baffling hit for me, second place??????! But then it will have been due to antics anyway. The 2013 full results remain unpublished to this day.

Pretty sure the version of Heartbroken by T2 on streaming is a re-recorded vocal too, certainly doesn’t sound quite right to me.

Yeah it's mainly the intro vocals on Saltwater that changed, if you compare it to the Now 43 version. It got replaced on streaming by that other version years ago but isn't the hit version. This was the hit version in 1999, I recently replaced it on BuzzJack Presents 1999 as the version Now used was only available at the time we compiled that. Weird, because the version on Now 43 of Hey Boy Hey Girl was definitely on the radio at the time with that intro, strange they were playing an album version if this radio edit was available.

This is the worst one, surely! Jenny wasn't even in the band until 2001. But yeah, you're right on Steps, Westlife and 911 too (oops at the album versions that don't have as much oomph). Thank goodness they used the hit versions of ATB and The Corrs <3 The latter deserved a spot on the vinyl.

Saltwater, King Of My Castle and Hey Boy Hey Girl all aren't quite right either. I think the former is a 2008 vocal re-record (Chicane finally added the original 1999 version to streaming last week), Wamdue Project and Chemical Brothers just aren't the versions on now 44/Now 43. Sometimes and Secret Smile also aren't the single versions. Interesting that Shania is the correct UK mix though after being listed as the album version.

I always order bang on midnight of release day from Amazon, and 90% of the time they will deliver between 5pm and 10pm on the Friday, even if beforehand they have shown a later delivery date. I did that last night and it's coming later today. I would prefer to use HMV but I can't get there on a Friday, and I find their online service very patchy. When I've ordered with them I either get stuff a day early or several days late. I know it's down to Royal Mail and isn't necessarily their fault when it's late though.

Pixie is like a female JLS conundrum. Riding high by copying whatever the in sound was at the time to grab a hit. Her first album was really great pop, one of my favourites, and while it aped that soul pop vibe, a lot of the album tracks and later singles were more pure pop, but I didn't care much for the second album. I'd probably rank this track in about the same area, quite fun and nice to see her get another No.1, but did feel a bit like a box ticking exercise to get another hit, and it does sound dated indeed now. Kudos to her for serving a brave follow-up in What Do You Take Me For? though, which didn't sound like it was chasing trends. Looking at that release week, All Fired Up is by far the better pop song for me.