Gezza

Of 2025 yes- this is a decade to date list

We have 7 new entries plus a re-entry. Just 20 acts are responsible for 58% of the albums.

Will start tomorrow!

Another 12 months have gone by so let's see how it changed the top 100 best sellers of the 2020s! 33 of albums on the list are greatest hits compilations so where possible I'll try to focus on albums released in this decade..... Charts covered are 09.01.2020- 01.01.2026. The top positions will probably be well known so no spoilers please!

Yes it's back, the title says it all, a thread designed to "best guess" the sales week by week for 1999. We'll count down all the sounds of the year and hopefully generate a few "almost forgotten gems" along the way. As always thanks go to MFR, Vas tariner, Youtube, Wikipedia, MW, popscene, James Masterton, Discogs, and a few other sources who have helped over the years. The format will be the same every week with TOTP performances where available for those songs new to the top 10. So sit back and enjoy every top 10 hit of the 90s (eventually) because in this year we lived La Vida Loca

And that really is it for 1998! onwards and upwards!

9TH JANUARY It took 8 weeks to make it but this week Steps’ “Tragedy/ Heartbeat” makes the top spot whilst almost no-one predicted it! Debuting at No 2 back in November it’s been floating around the top 10 moving 2-5-5-8-8-6-4-1 so far and selling a whopping 626,000 as it makes the top spot. That includes a tally of 98,080 last week as the competition around it slumped it in the usual post Christmas manner. It is the first No 1 for the group whose profile has been increasing through the year enabling them to sell over 770,000 copies of their debut set “Step One” so far, it holds at No 3 but was a midweek No 1 before falling back- that double was oh so near! The single meanwhile is the first to climb to pole position since The Tamperer back in May, and has taken the longest time to make the top in a straight run since the All Saints almost a year ago. It’s a funny old world in pop! It also illustrates the turn around in appreciation for the brothers Gibb who in the last 3 years have seen their work taken to No 1 by Take That, Boyzone and now Steps, and No 2 hits for 911 and N-Trance all making them richer! The Spice Girls hold at No 2 shifting another 91,000 inching ahead of Chef who is toppled 1-3 (88,000) and joining them are other former chart toppers from Cher (3-4 56,745) and B*Witched (6-5, 47,000). Bryan Adams & Mel C are proving very resilient moving back up again 7-6 (37,000) and have crossed the 300,000 mark, and also getting a lift back up the charts are Will Smith 9-8 (34,000) and The Honeyz 10-9 (27,000) though obviously everything in the top 9 is losing sales including Denise & Johnny 5-7 (36,000). The only new song in the top 10 comes predictably enough from Prince who opportunely re-releases “1999”, a No 25 hit in 1983 and a much more impressive #2 in early 1985. It’s the original mix which has been re-released and proves to be his first appearance in the big league since “Gold” way back in 1995. This re-emerges at No 10 (25,000) as we say goodbye to 98! 1- TRAGEDY/ HEARTBEAT- Steps (98,080) 2- GOODBYE- Spice Girls (91,000) 3- CHOCOLATE SALTY BALLS- Chef (88,000) 4- BELIEVE- Cher (56,745) 5- TO YOU I BELONG- B*Witched (47,000) 6- WHEN YOU’RE GONE- Bryan Adams & Mel C (37,000) 7- ESPECIALLY FOR YOU- Denise & Jonny (36,000) 8- MIAMI- Will Smith (34,000) 9- END OF THE LINE- Honeyz (27,000) 10- 1999- Prince (25,000)

Final chart of 1998 tomorrow (which will be the first show shown on Jan 2nd)

2ND JANUARY With most of this week’s sales happening before Christmas we still get very healthy totals for the singles this week even though, predictably, there’s no new entries in the top 10. We do at least have a new No 1 though as Chef climbs 2-1 (220,000) which may put Isaac Hayes in the record book if you view the Chef as his work alone. It would mark a wait of 27 years between debut and a chart topper beating Jackie Wilson’s record established back in 1986, if you view it as a No 1 by the “South Park” character then it’s the third chart topper by an animated cartoon act following the Archies and The Simpsons. Naturally that means that The Spice Girls are deposed after just a week but a sale of 208,000 is hardly a bad sales figure and sees total sales almost reach platinum after a fortnight though it has fallen behind Chef’s total sales already. Both songs are already in the YTD top 15 and should make the top 10 when the final week’s sales are factored in. More record breaking from Cher. “Believe” bounces back 4-3 selling 120,292 in the process- that is a record breaking 10 weeks on the chart selling six figures in each week- it is now the 5th biggest selling of the 90s, the biggest selling single ever by a female solo act, and clearly isn’t done yet! Rounding of the 6 figure club are Steps with “Heartbeat/ Tragedy” on the climb again 6-4 (104,000), fast approaching platinum itself it is already their personal best seller. Denise & Johnny’s challenge is over as they fall 3-5 (77,000) but B”Witched hold up well 5-6 (71,000) and Bryan Adams & Mel C are clinging on there 8-7 (60,000). At the bottom of the top tier Boyzone return 15-8 (58,000) and Will Smith rebounds 11-9 (53,000) with the Honeyz completing the roundup 7-10 (49,000). 1- CHOCOLATE SALTY BALLS- Chef (220,000) 2- GOODBYE- Spice Girls (208,000) 3- BELIEVE- Cher (120,292) 4- HEARTBEAT/ TRAGEDY- Steps (104,000) 5- ESPECIALLY FOR YOU- Denise/ Johnny (77,000) 6- TO YOU I BELONG- B*Witched (71,000) 7- WHEN YOU’RE GONE- Bryan Adams/ Mel C (60,000) 8- I LOVE THE WAY YOU LOVE ME- Boyzone (58,000) 9- MIAMI- Will Smith (53,000) 10- END OF THE LINE- Honeyz (49,000)

Slight change of plan. TOTP returns on 2/1 showing the episode from 8/1/99 and 15/1/99 so it skips a chart week in essence. Therefore I'll post the missing week next weekend along with the final sales week of 1998 to conclude this thread. Then I'll open the 1999 one which will be the second show shown on the 2nd of January. If all that makes sense!

So that's it for TOTP 1998 though there are actually two more charts to post which are technically 1998 sales chart! So the thread will return in a few weeks with the final two charts in this thread before moving onto 1999 offically......

26TH DECEMBER B”Witched may have a hat-trick of chart toppers in 1998 but the daddy (should that be mummy?) of all girl groups return to claim their third Christmas chart topper- yes the Spice Girls have done it again. “Goodbye”, rumoured heavily to be about the departure of Halliwell from the group back in May, sold a very impressive 380,711 to do it, that’s the second highest opening tally of their career only bettered by the 429,000 “2 Become 1” recorded two years ago. The song actually dates back to last year and was originally intended for the “Spice World” album but didn’t get recorded due to time constraints, it got a dust down and a re-write and results in an 8th chart topper from 9 singles. They are just the second act ever to score three successive Christmas No 1 singles (The Beatles were the first in 1963, 64, and 65) and draw level with Take That as the act with the most chart toppers in the 90s, they pull themselves up to joint 5th on the all time list behind The Beatles, Elvis Presley, Cliff Richard and Abba. The video incidentally was shot at Mentmore Towers which also hosted the recent Five promo for “Until The Time Is Through”. For all of that impressive sale this was the first year that anything ran them even remotely close. That record was by the “South Park” character Chef as voiced by Issac Hayes who himself made the top 5 back in 1972 with “Theme From Shaft”, pushed by Radio 1’s Chris Moyles the track “Chocolate Salty Balls (P.S I Love You)” has just enough innuendo and fun to be a real challenger to the Spices selling a monumental 372,890 copies to enter at No 2, that’s the biggest weekly sale ever for a track which wasn’t Number One! Never in the running for No 1, but still putting in a healthy show of 141,000, was Denise Van Outen and Johnny Vaughan’s take on the Kylie Minogue & Jason Donovan classic “Especially For You”. Recorded for the Children In Need charity the duo performed the song on the night and created such positive feedback they decided to release it for Christmas. Pete Waterman is back on Production here with Steps helping out on backing vocals, all which sees it make No 3. Steps themselves climb up 8-6 (99,000) and have already sold 423,000 copies of “Tragedy/ Heartbeat” almost without anyone noticing. Bursting into the media over the course of the year after being the centre of the BBC docusoap “The Cruise” Jane McDonald has had quite a year. The singer could first be spotted in the promo for Black Lace’s 1983 #9 single “Superman” but now after 15 years she’s really hit the big time having left the show, gotten married (again shown on BBC 1) and gotten a recording contract. The latter resulted in a No 1 album in the summer and follows naturally to a stab at the festive top spot with “Cruise Into Christmas”, essentially a medley of festive favourites. It may be light entertainment but she certainly has an audience selling 68,000 copies last week which has been enough in some weeks this year for the No 1 position. Well done to Cher who despite dropping 2-4 sold another 123,699 raising her tally for the single “Believe” to 1,342,356 to see it move past Celine Dion and be crowned the biggest selling single of the year. It is also the 9th week it has recorded a sale of over 100,000 equalling the record set by “Barbie Girl” last year- can it make it a record next week? So long then to B*Witched who dive 1-5 (108,000) and The Honeyz who slip 5-7 (82,000). Bryan Adams and Mel C linger 6-8 (75,000) with a sales increase and Billie hurtles 3-9 (73,000). 1- GOODBYE- Spice Girls (380,711) 2- CHOCOLATE SALTY BALLS- Chef (372,890) 3- ESPECIALLY FOR YOU- Denise & Johnny (141,000) 4- BELIEVE- Cher (123,699) 5- TO YOU I BELONG- B*Witched (108,000) 6- HEARTBEAT/ TRAGEDY- Steps (99,000) 7- END OF THE LINE- Honeyz (82,000) 8- WHEN YOU’RE GONE- Bryan Adams/ Mel C (75,000) 9- SHE WANTS YOU- Billie (73,000) 10- CRUISE INTO CHRISTMAS- Jane McDonald (68,000)

19TH DECEMBER The week before Christmas and all those that put a bet on Cher being there for the big day must now have lost their money. She’s no longer No 1 and is bumped to No 2 (114,452) as total sales move past 1.2 million and puts her on course to topple Celine Dion at the top of the YTD chart next week. The new No 1 comes from B*Witched who finally manage to unseat her and create a few records of their own, the girls are the 7th act to make No 1 with their first three singles, the second non UK act to do so, the third Irish act to get at least 3 chart toppers but the first to do so consecutively. The success of the single stabilises the album in the top 20 with sales just moving over the 300,000 mark. Previous singles by the quartet opened at 153,000 and 157,000 and with remarkable consistency (especially given that the album is now out) “To You I Belong” opens with a sale of 150,000, will that be enough to fend off the Spice Girls next week? Another act who took both their first two singles to No 1 was Billie, going head to head with B*Witched was always going to create a loser and Billie is the loser this week. “She Wants You” ends up at No 3 (86,000) to end her run, the song was originally recorded by Slovak singer Dara Rolins on her 1996 album “What You See Is What You Get” but it takes Billie to make it a UK hit and with a bigger opening tally than chart topper "Because We Want To". Her version of both “It Takes Two” and the seasonal “Last Christmas” are also on the CD single for those so inclined. It’s billed as a dream duet the concept of bringing Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey together to perform a song has long been thought an impossible task as they presumably were deemed to be adversaries in the pop world. Recorded for the film “The Prince Of Egypt” (Disney’s new film) which is out this week, the song is actually sung by Sally Dworsky and Michelle Pfeiffer in the movie but clearly bigger names were needed to crack the top 10 and this arrives at No 4 (82,000) to become Carey’s 15th top 10 hit but only Houston’s 12th in part as she has been absent from the top flight for over 5 years. Honeyz are fast developing into the kind of group that could easily steal Eternal’s current crown as the girlgroup of choice for those with a soul/ pop/ R’N’B inclination. Second single “End Of The Line” debuts effortlessly at No 5 (71,000) and will hopefully help shift their album which is now three weeks old having crept painfully 54-52-51 so far. You’ll also notice that the entire top 5 consist of females, the highest man is Bryan Adams who slides 3-6 (64,000) with his Mel C duet “When You’re Gone”. Jay-Z plummets 2-7 (62,000) but Steps are selling steadily to hold at No 8 (60,000), Emilia falls 5-9 (57,000) and Boyzone round things off 6-10 (54,000) as the entire top 10 clear the 50,000 mark! Must be Christmas next week!- Will it be a Spicy one again? 1- TO YOU I BELONG- B*Witched (150,000) 2- BELIEVE- Cher (114,452) 3- SHE WANTS YOU- Billie (86,000) 4- WHEN YOU BELIEVE- Mariah Carey & Whitney Houston (82,000) 5- END OF THE LINE- Honeyz (71,000) 6- WHEN YOU’RE GONE- Mel C & Bryan Adams (64,000) 7- HARD KNOCK LIFE (GHETTO ANTHEM)- Jay Z (62,000) 8- HEARTBEAT/ TRAGEDY- Steps (60,000) 9- BIG BIG WORLD- Emilia (57,000) 10- I LOVE THE WAY YOU LOVE ME- Boyzone (54,000)

12TH DECEMBER It had to perform a rear guard action again but Cher overcame another midweek deficit to grab an incredible 7th week at No 1, you have to go all the way back to Wet, wet, wet in 1994 to find a longer lasting chart topper. To top all of that it sold an astonishing 114,633 to do it bringing its total sales to 1,104,205 and in doing so leaps 4-2 on the YTD chart with just Celine Dion ahead of her and 4 chart weeks to catch her, should be easy! It is also the 6th single by a female soloist to hit 7 figures. Jay-Z has become a chart regular over the last few years scoring his first UK top 10 single in 1997 as the featured rapper on Foxy Brown’s “I’ll Be” (#9) but although he’s been on 6 other hits nothing has scored big until now. His third album “Volume II…Hard Knock Life” contains the title track “Hard Knock Life” and yes it samples the track from the musical “Annie”, it took an early lead in the week but went the same way as George Michael, Steps, E-17, Five and Boyzone by entering at No 2 (107,000), it’s still his biggest hit to date so hardly a failure. When the Spice Girls were on tour in the US this year they were very busy off the stage too it appears, Mel B swanned off to record “I Want You Back” with Missy Elliott whilst Mel C jumped into the studio with Bryan Adams to record “When You’re Gone”. Adams’ recent album “On A Day Like This” only managed to make No 11 (though it has climbed 72-63-47 in recent weeks) with the title hit disappointing at No 13, looks like the release of this single has turned its fortune around. It’s Adams’ 8th top 10 single though of course the first solo release for Mel C which is real headline grabber here and probably responsible for the No 3 (81,000) debut. The expected challenge at the top from Robbie Williams failed to materialise in the end, new single “No Regrets” coming in at No 4 (76,000), an impressive sale regardless and a sure sign that Christmas is almost here. The impact of the track was doubtless influenced by the success of the album which is top 3 and has sold 500,000 in just 6 weeks. The song is allegedly about his failed romance with All Saints Nicole Appleton which has helped with promotion and features backing vocals from Divine Comedy’s Neil Hannon and Neil Tennant of the Pet Shop Boys. If you need even more of an incentive to buy it then check out Williams’ version of Adam & The Ants “Antmusic” on the CD which is taken from the forthcoming animated film “A Bug’s Life”. Already a No 1 single in Sweden, Norway and Austria, Emilia Rydberg’s “Big Big World” makes it across the North Sea to enter at No 5 (73,000). Using just her first name for popstar purposes, this is the Swedish singer’s first release, big things are expected! Christmas has officially started with the new entry at No 7 (63,000) from Blackstreet and Mya Featuring Ma$e and Blinky Bink. “Take Me There” is based the theme to “Rugrats” the Kids TV show which has been turned into a film due for UK release in the new year, and this hit was developed following Blackstreet being named as Nickelodeon’s favourite R’N’B group, it is a forth top 10 single for them and also for Ma$e, a second for Mya but a first for Blinky Blink. With four new entries in the top 5 there’s no room for Boyzone who tumble 2-6 (66,000), Steps who have a tragedy as they fall 5-8 (58,000) or the Vengaboys who are definitely just down 4-9 (55,000). Will Smith suffers the biggest fall 3-10 (53,000)- perhaps a song about Miami isn’t seasonal enough? This week sees new releases by some chart heavyweights (for 1998 anyway) Beautiful South, Billie, B*Witched, and Fat Les. Can Cher do it? 1- BELIEVE- Cher (114,633) 2- HARD KNOCK LIFE (GHETTO ANTHEM)- Jay Z (107,000) 3- WHEN YOU’RE GONE- Mel C & Bryan Adams (81,000) 4- NO REGRETS- Robbie Williams (76,000) 5- BIG BIG WORLD- Emilia (73,000) 6- I LOVE THE WAY YOU LOVE ME- Boyzone (66,000) 7- TAKE ME THERE- Blackstreet/ Mya (63,000) 8- HEARTBEAT/ TRAGEDY- Steps (58,000) 9- UP AND DOWN- Vengaboys (55,000) 10- MIAMI- Will Smith (53,000)

yes it would be but it will also affect this week as well in terms of the publicity and the title of Christmas No 1 for supporters of either tracK. (Though of course Christmas Day itself isn't this week). it would definitely be more of an issue if Christmas Day fell on a Friday!