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Boyzone - All That I Need Rank: 8/10 Reason: However...there is no trace of Boyzone in the top ten. Following three consecutive No.2 singles in 1997, Boyzone eventually added to their tally of chart toppers with their third No.1 single, All That I Need, in April 1998. I feel this placing has to be explained as it has clearly ended up above some classics - this is one of my favourite Boyzone singles, despite its status as something of a non No.1, going 1-4-14-22-31 in its five top 40 weeks, and was clearly a fanbase purchase. But for me the song is bright, breezy and joyful, even evoking shades of the Bee Gees in the chorus melody and harmonies and what is no doubt a deliberate reference to Prince with the 'diamonds and pearls' lyric and the falsetto backing vocals. This was a very mature original single for the group, perfect for radio, complete with a Spanish guitar breakdown, and Ronan delivers a strong lead vocal, while the backing vocals from the rest of the band really add to it. It all brings me huge nostalgia of my end of primary school days, where the classroom had Boyzone pencil tins galore alongside all the Spice Girls merchandise. In my opinion All That I Need is underrated and overlooked and deserved a better chart run. Objectively, for sure, No Matter What is the stronger and more impactful number, but this was my personal favourite Boyzone single of 1998.

Indeed there is one still to come. My taste around some pop band singles has been known to be peculiar.

That would be delightful to see Sabrewulf return at some point! Dalisska had some classic entries back in the day. But it's understandable that more than one contest across different forums would be quite a time investment. I know several people here do PJSC on Popjustice too. A few of us did for some time participate in a contest on another forum (definitely myself, Silas and maybe Jerick and some others, maybe around 2010, but I cannot remember anything about what the forum or contest was called). But I'm happy to keep my participation to the many Buzzjack contests. Any more returnees are very welcome here, and also a fair few nations from last month are still yet to confirm.

True. There's not been much drama this month yet to make it go more quickly (or vetoes, to prompt further discussion, but I'm not ruling those out). Sure it will all kick up a gear when the semis kick off, featuring FIVE returning nations so far and the prospect of debuting nations too!

I'm still theorising all these years later that Heartstrings was meant for Agnes but she didn't want to do it again and Janet got the song instead. It had the pimp slot in its semi but the performance and stage presence just wasn't really there.

Yes, it makes me wonder if Stop would have done better as the single in the race for Christmas No.1 in December 1997, but then again its first week sales were so much lower than they usually achieved, perhaps it was never destined for the top and would have just been stopped by Teletubbies. Yeah I do understand that, I do enjoy it quite a bit but it's very much not up there with a couple of their other ballads.

Boyzone - No Matter What Rank: 8/10 Reason: A reasonable span for a boyband (pre-reunion) tended to be three or four years, generally achieving their biggest success after one or two years. But Irish group Boyzone's signature hit impressively came nearly four years after they first debuted with Love Me For A Reason at Christmas 1994. Written by Jim Steinman and Andrew Lloyd Webber for the musical Written Down The Wind, No Matter What came during something of a purple patch for Boyzone - following the No.1 hit All That I Need and a brace of No.2 singles in 1997, including the brilliant Picture Of You. More or less anything new they would have released in summer 1998 would have gone to No.1, but with such legendary songwriters behind them this time and with a strong West End musical number, No Matter What couldn't possibly fail. Following a memorable breathy vocal effect 'chica cha ha ha' for the intro, the song is then lead by Stephen Gately, who is the star on this particular single, with Ronan Keating also joining him for joint top billing later in the song. In a year awash with ballads in the charts, No Matter What was one of the biggest, finishing the year as the 4th biggest seller, as well as being a million seller and the biggest selling single of Boyzone's career and, in 2008, formed part of the title of their comeback greatest hits collection. It was also one of the most played songs they had ever had on the radio, and was a much bigger global hit for the band than they usually achieved, reaching the top in Ireland, Denmark, Norway and The Netherlands, No.2 in Germany and No.5 in Australia. Its runaway success did, unfortunately, keep two great dance tracks off the top in Mysterious Times by Sash! feat. Tina Cousins and, more memorably, Stardust's Music Sounds Better With You, which ran it very close indeed for a fortnight.

Spice Girls - Goodbye Rank: 8/10 Reason: The Christmas No.1 now, although it was a close run thing against Chef's Chocolate Salty Balls so they got very lucky with the hat-trick of festive chart toppers. Goodbye was the first Spice Girls single to be released without Geri but, for all intents and purposes it was more of the same, with a lavish wintery video, lovely strings, a big budget, the group's tried and tested songwriters, and a mega hype campaign leading up to the single's release as they aimed for their third No.1. Although it did all feel a touch more 'grown up' and downbeat than previous singles. Lyrically the song appears to relate to Geri's departure, which is understandable considering the turmoil the band faced that year. My favourite part of this song - for probably the only time in the group's career - is from Victoria Beckham, who delivers a very nice middle eight after a sumptuous string section. But all of the band sound good on it and it was the last single I really loved by them as I was not particularly enamoured with Holler, Let Love Lead The Way or Headlines, so it felt like a solid single to end their incredible two and a half year run at the top of their game. The track also peaked at No.1 in Canada, Ireland and New Zealand, No.3 in Australia and No.11 in the US.

It was dead last in my 2000 No.1s rank, boybands need to stop touching Queen 😑 This one has a charm of sorts though.

Will be great to have you with us @DaTilt , welcome!

43 confirmations now... keep them coming! More really fantastic entries have been filtering through in the last couple of days so it's not a contest anyone will want to miss out on if you are in search of great discoveries to round off your musical year!

Ian Van Dahl, a trance classic! But All Rise was a really good debut single, albeit clearly based on this earlier Stargate production from 1999 that was a hit in Scandinavia (No.1 in Norway).

Ah yes, completely forgot to mention that it halted Spice Girls' introductory run of No.1s by getting to the top, not sure how much of a shock that was at the time really as I wasn't following closely enough then, but Stop ended up a long way behind. The Beat Goes On seems a lot more popular than its chart position suggested, it's held up very well over the years at least, I hear it more often nowadays than I hear It's Like That.

It certainly wasn't the most creative remix, when you listen to the source material. It's crazy that the original never charted anywhere apart from a US R&B chart, it's a shame it wasn't re-released later in the 80s once they had established themselves.

Fully agreed with second last too, that is not a very good cover at all unfortunately, Tom's voice doesn't really do it justice in the chorus, not sure it fully suits him and it sounds a bit grating as a result. Ditto Please Please - that is just an annoying track. Interesting and unusual that McFly were the only act with two No.1s that year! I much prefer Unfaithful, it was the first Rihanna single I bought, even despite the vocal. But if any song needed a re-record by the original artist with a more developed, older vocal, it's that one.

Run DMC vs. Jason Nevins - It's Like That Rank: 8/10 Reason: Pioneering US hip-hop act Run DMC had been around since the early 1980s, and had their previous biggest hit in 1986 with the Aerosmith collaboration Walk This Way. 12 years later and each part of that collaboration was weirdly destined to get their biggest ever hit separately. First up was Run DMC, whose 1983 debut single It's Like That was remixed by house DJ Jason Nevins into a much dancier affair with a gymnasium based video that showed breakdance crews battling each other. I remember thinking the song sounded very fresh at the time and it was certainly soundtracking discos and after school gatherings held by the cooler contingent of my year six class (other parties were heavier on Steps and LeAnn Rimes as I recall). The song built up a lot of advance hype and after charting for a month on import sales from the German and US releases, the UK release sent it straight to No.1 where it stayed for six weeks - the second longest run of the year - and sold over a million copies, ultimately becoming the third biggest seller of 1998. A Jason Nevins remix of It's Tricky appeared on the release schedule and surely would have been another top 10 hit for the band and their new remixer of choice, but it was pulled for some mysterious reason and only ended up charting at No.74 on import. A memorable crossover rap and dance single with a bassline and style that was copied both in the immediate term (see the cover of Fight For Your Right by N.Y.C.C. which charted in May) and in the slightly longer term (Black Legend and Mad'House owe a debt to this production style), It's Like That was one of the most distinct hits of the year.

Thanks for recommending the remixes, I have made a note of mixes you mentioned during the thread to listen to. Also, I bought this album in Saturn when I was in Munich in 2023 to familiarise myself with some German football hits, and did notice Three Lions '98 on there along with, I'm sure, some songs that are more familiar to you.

Kandi but I like all four songs.

Ahh that's great hahah, good choice of GA member. We definitely need that movie on streaming, I do wheel out the DVD to watch every now and then. Oh that's cool, as I often can't find many people who prefer it! Also it was on Now 40 which I used to spam so it had that recognisability factory, I don't think the original ever made it to the numbered Nows but was on Hits instead. Oh cool, that's a great tale - yes, it's quintessentially English isn't it, but in an uplifting way.

That's understandable indeed although weirdly I found out it charted in Germany and Norway, not sure why they were buying it! It's a good, anthemic track but becomes overplayed every time England go deep into a major tournament. In 2018 especially it was everywhere again.

Absolutely, a fantastic track from Dario G. Ricky Martin had a good one too, huge all over the world but a minor hit here. Too many England songs fighting for our attention for us to notice anything else.

Baddiel, Skinner and The Lightning Seeds - 3 Lions '98 Rank: 8/10 Reason: For those that like Three Lions most people have a preferred version out of the 1996 original and this 1998 re-record with updated lyrics and for me, it's this one. The ultimate football anthem, the original landed at the peak of Britpop with a very fitting indie-pop sound and lyrics about British hope and optimism, becoming a huge No.1 in the process. Fast forward two years and England were represented musically by official single On Top Of The World by England United - a strange ensemble of various B-tier indie bands and Spice Girls, saddled with a miserable song with no oomph to it whatsoever. Presumably the thought was that the presence of Spice Girls would take it to No.1, but a bad song is a bad song and it barely scraped the top ten. Luckily, we had our pick of unofficial anthems that year - everything from Fat Les' lairy terrace anthem Vindaloo to Dario G's wonderful dance track Carnaval De Paris - the UK chart must have seen about 10 football related tracks chart that summer. But we also had this second version of an anthem that was quickly becoming THE football song of England, and remains so to this day, the original going back to No.1 in 2018 and charting for basically every major football tournament since its original release. If Euros 2008 feels like a memory that doesn't exist, it's because we didn't qualify! But otherwise we tend to see a smattering of footie anthems every two years, and this is always in the mix. I'm not a huge football fan at club level, although I do always get into watching the World Cup and the Euros as it's nice to have something that unites the nation, especially as England's men have found something approaching good form in the last decade which is nice after all those years of hurt. England's women, of course, are doing far better! 3 Lions '98 gave the single another three weeks at the top ahead of Vindaloo in 1998 and it really reminds me of good times right at the end of primary school, marred by David Beckham's infamous red card, which we watched together in a special school assembly. It also reminds me of a school trip to Butlins Bognor Regis where everyone was singing this, Vindaloo, and 'Ole, Ole, Ole' for some reason. Upon just checking the charts of the time, Chumbawamba were in with No.21 smash Top Of The World (Ole Ole Ole) so it's nice they still had some relevance to us. For me, 3 Lions' 98's commentary is more relevant to my era (Southgate, Shearer etc) and I just enjoy the production a bit more than the original. It is the only version I ever listen to anyway, and even outside football tournaments I enjoy it.

Spice Girls - Too Much Rank: 8/10 Reason: Still clinging on for dear life at No.1 for the first three days of 1998, is the 1997 Christmas No.1 Too Much by Spice Girls, which spent two weeks at the top. I won't go too much into this one as Jester covered it in the 1997 thread and we've all shared our thoughts on the track there. It's more or less a mid tier Spice single for me, but still a really lovely ballad, with a gorgeous vocal from Melanie C in particular. Happy memories of late '97/early '98, particularly the Spiceworld film and of my sister throwing a Spice Girls party for her 7th birthday on 27th December 1997 while this was at the top (both of my sisters were born within days of Christmas). Despite having Geri's hair colour, she went as her favourite member, Melanie B. More from Spiceworld later...

The Enemy I think.

Pretty one sided battle - Train. Queen Of My Heart is indeed Westlife at their worst for me. A tedious dirge that is like they took an old Rod Stewart filler and made it 10 times slower.