gooddelta

Kylie, the best single from her pop comeback album Light Years for me.

The banner Intrigued by my semi as think I've only heard two songs in it before. Hopefully ripe for great discoveries. Semi 1 I've heard half of before 😀 Although Sugar High is the only song I was actually anticipating to be in (well apart from Colm's entry, seeing as it won his national final).

Agreed with the placing for MJ - a beat driven single that sounds a bit like a parody of his great 80s material, pass. Mama I would place higher, I know it's seen as a weak link in the Spice Girls catalogue by most but I have always liked it. But quite honestly, give me any ballad in the late 90s and I was probably a fan, as you'll see when I do the 1998 countdown. It's obviously very schmaltzy and twee, but obviously being not quite even 10 at the time, the naff factor didn't bother me and there aren't really many big pop songs about mothers, which is weird when for a lot of people their parents shape their entire life.

Interesting write-ups indeed Chez. I definitely wasn't keen on the Elvis reissues series stopping some decent songs getting to No.1 but at least only three got there in the end. It's Now Or Never is at least a classic of his, albeit I find it very cheesy, probably no thanks to the ice cream ad.

She Bangs! Not much a fan of Madonna's American Pie cover.

This weekend certainly doesn't feel Christmassy in any way to me, it's still got a Halloween vibe and there are lots of fireworks. I will probably start putting Christmas songs into rotation in about 3-4 weeks or so but have been surprised in recent years that a lot of people listen to them in early November. Completely get why it happened in 2020, as we were all trying to hurry the rest of that terrible year away, but I thought it would be a one off.

This is my favourite Florence album on first listen for some time, very atmospheric. A big fan of Sympathy Magic, Buckle, Kraken and Music by Men, as well as the first two singles.

Great couple of shows for me, high nostalgia value. Friday 4th September the first one was screened - that may well be the actual day I started secondary school, as the date sticks in my head. It's one of the rare occasions where I really like every song in the top ten. The Manics single is, of course, brilliant, but I wish there had been a chance at the top for Steps too - that is still one of their very best singles, and they were growing so much. Impressive to have the top three all on 129k+. Finally Found is a beauty, such a lovely ballad, God Is A DJ has a great riff and unlucky not to make the top five with those sales, and Drowned World (Substitute For Love) is gorgeous. Indeed, a brave third single choice when The Power Of Goodbye and Nothing Really Matters (and Sky Fits Heaven, which never got its moment) were sitting on the album. The second week wasn't quite as strong - not really fond of Bootie Call at all (making it two poor singles in a row from an otherwise great group), and Everybody Get Up was a bit shouty for me, although a good use of sample. I love how I never really noticed at the time about how pretty much all of their singles are about getting up and/or getting down, was it an in joke to feature up/down in nearly every song 🤣 Crush is a classic <3 Deserved better than No.4 and Jennifer Paige deserved more than to be a one hit wonder, I love the lyrics, the guy falling for her and she's like 'whatever, it's not deep'. Also outside the top ten two strong classics emerging in the form of Hole and Aerosmith, interesting that the latter debuted outside the top ten and grew in popularity, I guess it does feel like the sort of track by an older/classic act that would benefit from the double whammy of airplay exposure and people seeing the film. I know several people who call the track their all-time favourite song. It's extremely overwrought, especially some of the vocals towards the end, but it is a classic track, and Aerosmith are one of so many rock bands whose biggest hit was a ballad.

Even more bizarre then that they were essentially a one hit wonder there! Walking On Water was pretty good, I can't remember the other song without checking it.

One of my favourite international chart facts is that Madasun had such a big hit in Australia with that, it was a fleeting girlband top 20 single here and completely forgotten. Not even sure it's one that has a cult fanbase here like Supersister, Girls@play, Solid Harmonie, Made in London and loads of others that failed to crack the top ten here. So I've always been curious as to why it took off that much in Australia, did they do a lot of promotion there? It's quite a nice song, with good production, but other acts were peddling the same sound with more personality. Anyway, I'm voting for The Bad Touch. I listened to it earlier today in fact before this thread was posted.

Well this post has told me all I needed to jog my memory about why I started following the charts religiously in this exact week - the first week of September 1998. I assumed it was because I started secondary school and was somehow related to that, but no, of course, it was because of CD:UK starting. Because I was a loyal viewer of SM:TV so must have left it running to watch CD:UK and got addicted that way. I remember I used to wait to go out with my friends in the afternoon until 12.30, because I wanted to watch CD:UK first every Saturday. I will comment more after watching the two episodes, but I so wish One For Sorrow had been held back a week, bah!

It's funny, I was 10 when Teletubbies came out and was kind of in the middle ground in between the younger kids who enjoyed it and older teens/young adults who enjoyed it ironically (my older brother watched it and he was 20 at the time, while my 6 year old sister at the time also watched it and loved it). Therefore I don't particularly have fond nostalgia for the show - I remember how big a deal it was, and it was certainly trippy, but I just remember finding it overly twee, while this single seems to be the theme tune repeated with Baa Baa Black Sheep in the middle for some reason, at least Bob the Builder introduced some verses and a middle eight. So, unfortunately, it might be in my bottom three for 1997. Was it the first UK No.1 aimed primarily at infants, I wonder? Also, I'm not sure why, but I didn't watch a lot of CBBC anyway as a kid, I was more into CITV (Sooty, Rainbow, Tots TV, Rosie and Jim, Wizadora - all had great theme tunes too).

Weirdly she was mentioned in EastEnders the other day (Lexi expressing a desire to go to her concert) so she must be more known than that pre-playlist zero points suggests.

'This tune's gonna punish you' Going for Truesteppers, which has only got better to me over time, while Rock DJ is one I've heard 5,000 times too many to still get any kind of enjoyment out of.

Reddit may have the answers (and entries) we need. It's been a little while since we heard from Chappell Roan here in BJSC. Although she did win PFSC earlier this year with the little known Good Luck, Babe!

Wow, and didn't Cazzi Opeia co-write her winning song, so I wouldn't be surprised if she has a hand in this too as she usually writes something every year or participates? The only artist to write winners for both Eurovision and the American Song Contest.

And the highest addition to OBSESSED is only in the 16th slot on the playlist, so even they cba with the new music out this week.

Did Anita Ward not ring her bell?

Returning to McFly, I honestly still listen to the other five, as naff as I'm sure some are regarded.

After some thought, Scissor Sisters. I think I'd rather listen to Flawless, it was a very unique sounding single at the time.

Embrace. A poor World Cup song, and a damp squib follow up to the great Nature's Law (the first single of theirs I ever bought). I was so disappointed when I heard it because I was expecting something really anthemic.

Good point, I wonder if it's because the album has a strong narrative, like a film, so people are more likely to keep coming back to it (in full) to understand more about the story and where each song fits the narrative. It's the first album I've listened to front to back multiple times in the first week for a while. I wonder if we will start to see more linear story/narrative type albums in the wake of Lily's success. In fact, I don't wonder, I know we will, because that's how the music industry works. I just hope we don't see a load of forced and underwhelming/shoehorned in story albums from artists who weren't originally going to go down that path.

I don't see singles in many charity shops anymore although I've seen Candle In The Wind in a few over the years, I even bought one of them myself once because I like Something About The Way You Look Tonight (and it was about 10p).

Also, the hype must have been quite low by 2008 around her comeback for her to upload the album's best tracks nearly a year in advance to MySpace and just let them live on there - this included The Fear, which was called I Don't Know when it was on MySpace. I really think the strength of that song helped her overcome the second album slump that most British female artists have, because nobody was really talking about her by 2008 or particularly anticipating her second album, the general public had moved over to Amy/Duffy/Adele - much more soulful and 60s inspired stuff, and I thought Lily's eventual second era would turn out like Natasha Bedingfield's ended up being. Unleashing such a killer single into a quiet January/February market was a great move.

Hard Out Here was huge in Germany/Austria/Switzerland curiously, what with it being such a fleeting hit here. Love that Knock 'Em Out is here <3 One of my all-time favourite album tracks, alongside Everything's Just Wonderful from the same album. F*ck You definitely should have been a single, it won BJSC just from it being a MySpace leak over six months before the album release.