superbossanova

True, some of the opening sales tallies in 1999 are :o Usually selling 200,000+ in your first week is/was reserved for huge acts with comeback hits or charity singles, but in 1999 you had acts with no chart history at all like Shanks & Bigfoot and ATB easily clearing it based entirely on the fact that people just loved the songs, nothing more than that. And even the filler #1 hits usually had no trouble clearing 100k. Impressive stuff!

1997 was a funny year for charts I think... the first half was kinda quiet, lacking in many big hits, a lot of flash-in-the-pan "fanbase" #1s. Then the second half was mad - mega-hyped comebacks, a handful of huge charity singles, and a sea of future classics. Strange year chart-wise, I think, I can't think of many years with such a contrast like that; if you look at the end of year-chart for 1997 the first half is sorely under-represented in the top 40/50 or so. Looked like a fun year though, too bad I was one or two years too late to follow it. Plus it should also be noted that it had the fastest overall chart turnover ever, with an average of 22 new entries top 75 per week! I know a lot of older chart watchers hated that kind of thing but I've always been of the opinion the more new entries the better, though I can see how it was a mess for people with a more casual interest. But yes, that period at the end of 1997 was just crazy! There was something kind of similar (on a lesser scale, at least sales wise) in March 2001 too. Hear'Say, Shaggy, Atomic Kitten and Westlife were in the weekly top 4 together for two straight weeks and ended up #1, #2, #4 and #6 on the year-end chart. Also Wheatus and Gorillaz were lower down the weekly top 10 at the same time and were #9 and #11 on the year-end chart. Only two of them made a million though, but 6 of the Y/E top 11 in the weekly top 10 together is still pretty impressive... Anyway, to actually answer the question rather than rambling; from a chart fan perspective I don't think the charts have ever not been somewhat fascinating, even in slug-paced 2008. I loved the turnover in the late 90s/early 00s (when I started following the charts) and in a different way I like the nature of the charts now - in fact, if record companies would only let go of the past with holding back releases I think the charts could truly be the most fascinating they've ever been with more songs veering unpredictably alá Coldplay - Paradise.

For me, a signature hit is a song that is so huge in terms of popularity, cultural impact, influence, etc, that it basically takes a life of its own, that becomes bigger than just "a hit by whoever", that transcends generations. It's a song that, if you simply mention the song title to someone in conversation (without mentioning the act), they would immediately know what you were talking about without even a moment's thought. Thus, in a way, it's not even associated with the artist anymore in that it can stand on its own and be remembered apart from that. Not every act has a signature hit (some will never get one), and others could have multiple. Acts like Madonna, Michael Jackson, The Beatles, etc, are indeed good examples of people who have several. But this is mostly reserved for such huge acts. I don't think most of the acts mentioned here really have a signature hit personally. I mean, someone like Usher is big but does he really have a song that essentially transcends him? To me, Usher will be remembered as a hitmaker in the sense that when people think of him 20 years or whatever from now it'll be like "oh yeah, he had so many hits back then", but I think those same people would be struggling to think of one exactly (or one would be thinking of Yeah!, someone else You Make Me Wanna, someone else U Got It Bad, someone else OMG, and so on and so forth).

Jaimeson is surely the most forgotten act to have TWO top 5 hits in the 2000s. Actually I remember True was a bit of a shock hit that kind of came a bit from the leftfield, especially since it had more than a whiff of 2000/2001 in terms of sound about it, though obviously Complete doing well was less shocking (plus as gooddelta said, it was a much better song). This was also the week of the slightly hyped on selected internet forums only Pop Idol chart battle between Zoe Birkett and Rosie Ribbons, with them going in at an amazing #12 and #19 respectively :lol: The top 10 is okay-ish, but the last half of 2003 was miles better than the first half anyway so doubt it's as good as later ones that year. January, and to a lesser extent February too, used to always be a bit more diverse than the rest of the year in those days though as it was much quieter and sales were lower, which allowed for lesser (and occasionally more interesting) hits to squeeze through when normally they would have been lower top 20. Doubt Layo & Bushwacka! or Feeder would have made it in any other time of year... in fact, weren't all of Feeder's top 10 hits in January now that I think about it?

And I can't believe people are in here naming early examples of rappers featuring on songs, etc, yet are completely forgetting about this little legend from way back in 1984 (especially since it was a #1 UK hit!): ecAg_34Rtws

You can't pinpoint it to one exact time or particular song as it's not a musical trend or anything - it's just a sign that urban music is essentially fully a part of popular culture now that something that was exclusive to the genre at one point has seeped through to the entire music industry in general. R&B and hip-hop had already been merging together since the new jack swing era of the late 1980s and early 1990s (somebody already mentioned Michael Jackson - Dangerous was entirely new jack swing apart from a few songs, so it's not surprising it had rapping on it), therefore it was only natural for R&B artists to get a rapper on their single to add a bit more edge. But it wasn't done outside of those genre circles too much at that point, bar a few exceptions/one-offs. By the early-to-mid 2000s, it had got to the point where it became almost de rigueur for pop acts to get an urban makeover - mainly because the genre itself had got so popular by that time, and I suppose it was somewhat an age thing too of acts who had grown up since rap-influenced R&B music was popular, so were therefore more aware of the culture and all, unlike those who came before them - so this is when it started to be used more by pop acts, too. This has just eventually snowballed to the point it's considered something perfectly normal and a nice change-up of the track to have a rap in the middle-8 or whatever, just like someone might want to have an instrumental breakdown there instead. Depends on what the artist feels suits the song ultimately but it's surely a good thing they have more options these days (as much as it can make a mess of chart records with the crediting).

Ha! Of all the people I expected to reply to that post, Alex Day himself certainly wasn't one of them! Welcome to the forum anyway :D I certainly don't begrudge you your success as such and it definitely is an interesting story. Out of all the YouTube stars and whatnot that have tried to get themselves into the chart, your campaign proved to be arguably the most successful yet so you clearly had the smarts and the "business sense" that others didn't possess, to exploit the rules in your favour, so if anything you deserve kudos for that at least (although I'm sure you learnt a bit from your previous brushes with chart success - Chartjackers, etc.) However, I do worry about the integrity of the chart if the rest of them manage to realise this method is legal according to the rules. Out of interest, are you planning any more of these chart campaigns through 2012 or was this just a one-off thing to try and get some attention from record labels and the like? I guess ultimately a lot of it depends how much of a profit you actually made from the sales of Forever Yours, if you're going to continue to stay unsigned like you're suggesting. I don't have much idea about the exact money involved in these kind of things or obviously your own circumstances. You mentioned that you phoned the Official Charts Company to check the rules regarding multiple versions. I'm wondering what did they actually specifically say about the number of versions that were allowed? (i.e. did they literally say an unlimited amount would count towards the position, or maybe a certain number within reason as long as it wasn't something ridiculous like 50). I still think that releasing too many remixes would/should put someone under suspicion of the OCC's own rule of "any activity intended unfairly to influence chart positions" but that's just my personal interpretation of it, so I'm curious to see what they said as there's nothing too specific in their rules about this as far as I can tell.

I just worry that it's going to set a dangerous precedent more than anything. How long before other so called YouTube stars look at Alex Day's success, want a piece of it themselves, realise that putting umpteen versions of your song on iTunes is an easy way to go about this and makes the chart a complete and utter mess. Ultimately the line has to be drawn somewhere and I don't see why the OCC don't simply have a rule of only the most downloaded x amount of versions of a song can count in a single week. It wouldn't even make a jot of difference in 99.9999999% (you get the idea) of cases. I don't know how many versions Alex Day had but I do think it was TOO many and inflated his chart position by at least several places. And I put manipulating in inverted commas because it was just an easy word to describe it and I couldn't be arsed to think of another; it's not necessarily manipulation but it IS influencing the charts, which IS actually against chart rules - though, of course, there's no set definition of this rule and it's largely looked at on a case-by-case basis. Perhaps the OCC did look at Alex Day's sales though and verified them as within order, in which case it's whatever and I'll have to accept even if I think it was ridiculous, but I still hope to God the above scenario doesn't manifest itself - something like this happening more than once would be enough to drive me away from the charts for good if they start becoming more and more about how loony your online fanbase is.

That Alex Day song shouldn't have even been allowed to chart full stop IMO. Remember The Modern - Industry was made disqualified from the chart in 2006 because of a few overzealous fans apparently buying too many copies online? Don't understand how this far more blatant, obvious attempt of 'manipulation' (EVERYONE could see it) was considered perfectly above board. I mean, god, how many versions did he even have on iTunes? :wacko: The OCC really need to make some kind of rule about how many download versions are allowed to count. They have one for physical copies and digital bundles so why not individual downloads?

+15 Jeff Buckley - Hallelujah +12 Leona Lewis - Bleeding Love +10 Rage Against The Machine - Killing In The Name +8 Daniel Bedingfield - Gotta Get Thru This +6 Nizlopi - JCB Song +5 Take That - Patience +4 Girls Aloud - Sound Of The Underground +3 Michael Andrews feat. Gary Jules - Mad World +2 Rihanna feat. Drake - What's My Name? +1 The Trashmen - Surfin' Bird -2 One True Voice - After You're Gone - Ultimate boyband dross, jesus christ at least Sacred Trust had some life in it!!

150 Wretch 32 feat. Josh Kumra - Don't Go 140 Example - Changed The Way You Kiss Me 130 Pitbull feat. Ne-Yo, Afrojack & Nayer - Give Me Everything 120 Rihanna feat. Drake - What's My Name? 110 Jennifer Lopez feat. Pitbull - On The Floor 100 Bruno Mars - Grenade 90 Ke$ha - We R Who We R 80 Nero - Promises 70 Pixie Lott - All About Tonight 60 Example - Stay Awake 50 Bruno Mars - The Lazy Song 40 Little Mix - Cannonball 30 Dappy - No Regrets 20 Jessie J feat. B.o.B - Price Tag 10 Olly Murs feat. Rizzle Kicks - Heart Skips A Beat -10 Cher Lloyd - Swagger Jagger

R. Kelly - R. 16 - Half On A Baby [sep. 1998] 17 - Home Alone [Nov. 1998] 03 - I'm Your Angel (w/Celine Dion) [Nov. 1998] 20 - Did You Ever Think [Jul. 1999] 02 - If I Could Turn Back The Hands Of Time [Oct. 1999] 20 - Only The Loot Can Make Me Happy/When A Woman's Fed Up/I Can't Sleep Baby (If I) [Apr. 2000] (Although some would argue I Believe I Can Fly was a single on this album but it was on the Space Jam soundtrack and later tacked on the end here :P) Moby - Play 33 - Honey [Aug. 1998] 33 - Run On [Apr. 1999] 38 - Bodyrock [Jul. 1999] 16 - Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad? [Oct. 1999] 11 - Natural Blues [Mar. 2000] 05 - Porcelain [Jun. 2000] 17 - Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad (Re-release) [Oct. 2000] Sad that these kind of things are pretty much impossible nowadays :(

Honestly, I don't even care. This has got to be the worst Xmas chart battle in my lifetime. We all know that the X Factor has stopped any half-notable pop act from competing in the last few years but at least it still felt vaguely like there was some genuinely interesting names and contenders before - this year is just a load of awful novelty shite, also-rans and pointless cash-ins that nobody will even remember come the new year... absolutely awful. Voted for Coldplay by default.

Hmm, pretty predictable results there - only one of my top 5 made the top 5 here though. This round is largely awful outside of a few songs. I was expecting better from the 80s game to be honest but ah well. +15 Culture Club - Victims +12 Jackie Wilson - Reet Petite (The Sweetest Girl In Town) +10 Wham! - Last Christmas +8 The Human League - Don't You Want Me +6 The Pogues feat. Kirsty MacColl - Fairytale Of New York +5 Whitney Houston - Saving All My Love For You +4 Paul McCartney and The Frog Chorus - We All Stand Together +3 David Bowie and Bing Crosby - Peace On Earth / Little Drummer Boy +2 ABBA - One Of Us +1 Erasure - Stop! -2 Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan - Especially For You

Yep, including the Tweenies and Bob The Builder. I was still young enough to enjoy that kind of 'kiddy pop' back then, though I guess those were my last purchases of that kind that I remember. Looking back, my music taste was quite bizarre at this point in general considering I bought The Tweenies and Bob The Builder, and then also bought something like Wu-Tang Clan. I guess I liked anything that had a catchy enough hook in it. Hmm, it was very rare I bought a single that missed the top 40 at this point for two main reasons: 1) I was very much into pop music, which with a few exceptions, never usually flopped that badly; and 2) I used to buy my singles at the local ASDA store and they only ever stocked the main singles that were out. To get some of the lesser known stuff, I would have had to hop on a bus to town and go to HMV or something which I didn't particularly want to do at that age. Judging by your list there you were a big fan of dance music - looks like we were in different musical worlds at that time :P Less remembered than Don't Let Me Be The Last To Know? The follow-up to Who Let The Dogs Out?, by the way, was actually called You All Dat.

I can't even remember the last time I heard it outside of my own listening pleasure. Apart from Overload their early Siobhan hits in general have been FAR too forgotten - New Year and Soul Sound weren't even included on the Greatest Hits set they released in 2006 if I recall correctly :rolleyes: Idiots. Just counted by the way and I bought 18/40 of this chart at the time, including every song in the top 10 except Westlife and Robbie Williams. I was far more into buying singles by this point in 2000 compared to 1999 with my weekly £5 pocket money :whistle:

Some random spiel from me again (though like the 1999 one, nobody will read this but I like doing it anyway :D): 03. Eminem - Stan - Brilliant at the time, don't really listen to it much anymore but still enjoy it when I do. I guess it's not the type of song you should play that much anyway. 04. S Club 7 - Never Had A Dream Come True - Quite dull again though I liked it at the time - they finally managed to nail a decent Christmas/winter ballad the following year, thankfully. 05. Baha Men - Who Let The Dogs Out - I didn't hate it... and I loved it during the summer before it got a bit too overexposed 06. Oxide And Neutrino - No Good 4 Me ft Megaman - Loved it back then (in fact, it was probably my favourite in the chart on this very week) but take away the sample and it's pretty crap. I didn't even know the Prodigy song at the time and it was pretty easy to be fooled by these things before I started using the internet. 09. Destiny's Child - Independent Women Part 1 - Obsessed with this at the time, still like it a lot now but I don't hear it/play it as much as I should. They quickly went to pot after this though. Great BRITs award performance of this the following year too (I actually only watched the entire 2001 show, which is on YouTube in full if anyone cares, last week so that's fresh in my mind right now :D) 12. Sugababes - New Year - Very good, should get far more airplay at this time of year than it does. I'm proud to say I was a fan of the Sugababes from the very start (bought Overload the week it came out!), largely because of my love of any random girlband who came along back then - and god knows there was a lot of them!! 13. Wyclef - 911 ft Mary J Blige - Amazing raw R&B ballad with spades of soul. It's fair to say Wyclef didn't quite hit the spot most of the time post-Fugees - and the fact before this incredible song he was doing an awful duet with The Rock sums him up perfectly :drama: 14. Britney Spears - Stronger - Had already been loving this for 6 months by the time it came out! Still her best song and she knocks it out of the park vocally for a change - great production too, if a little dated these days *sounds foghorn* 15. Craig David - Walking Away - Very good song, probably my favourite of his actually. 19. Wu-Tang Clan - Gravel Pit - Brilliant! Hard to believe this is their ONLY top 40 single given what an influental rap group they are, and the fact they even had a #1 album in 1997 (even if it is one of the lowest-selling ever surely). Anyway, fantastic song, I do recall this was all over the music channels at the time - did Radio 1 playlist it? "As we go... Back, back and forth & forth..." 20. Toploader - Dancing In The Moonlight {2000 Re-Release} - One of the worst songs ever made. Hadn't that advert already started by this point? :( 22. Wombles With Roy Wood - I Wish It Could Be A Wombling Christmas - Awful - as gooddelta says the songs just did not go together at all... 24. Sisqo - Incomplete - A US #1 I believe - of course Thong Song was the big hit here but America loved random R&B ballads back then. This was okay but nothing special, I never liked Sisqo's voice much to enjoy him as a solo act - he was better as a member of Dru Hill really. 26. Whitney Houston - Heartbreak Hotel ft Faith Evans And Kelly Price - Brilliantly slick R&B song that flows effortlessly thanks to three gorgeous voices and a perfect melody. Thankfully I do not remember the remix that was apparently played on radio at the time so I can retain my memory of the flawless album version... 29. Daft Punk - One More Time - Far too overplayed that it loses any joy it once had, I'm afraid. But still I was a big fan of it at one point. 33. Artful Dodger - Please Don't Turn Me On ft Lifford - Very good again. Artful Dodger were always the best garage act for me so not surprising they arguably had the most success (at least in terms of pulling off consistent hits). 36. Kandi - Don't Think I'm Not - Great song again. She had already written the trio of man-hating anthems No Scrubs, Bills Bills Bills and There You Go in 1999/2000 so it was only fitting she got her own hit with a similar theme! Shame she was a one-hit wonder, don't know why she never released a follow-up here (or at least I don't remember one being pushed)... 37. Billie Piper - Walk Of Life - Hated that this flopped. Gorgeous guitar-driven song and I've always loved listening to Billie's voice. This was of course her last single and she retired from music and went back to acting a few months after this having been through the brunt of the music industry... 38. A1 - Same Old Brand New You - Another one I loved at the time! Bit of an 'N Sync rip-off in places (along with the follow-up, No More, which was surely even more so) but at least it has an interesting structure compared to other pop songs of the time.

+15 The Beatles - Day Tripper/We Can Work It Out +12 Boney M. - Mary's Boy Child / Oh My Lord +10 Dave Edmunds - I Hear You Knocking +8 Benny Hill - Ernie (The Fastest Milkman In The West) +6 The Beatles - Hello, Goodbye +5 Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody +4 Emile Ford & The Checkmates - What Do You Want To Make Those Eyes At Me For? +3 Pink Floyd - Another Brick In The Wall, Part 2 +2 Conway Twitty - It's Only Make Believe +1 The Beatles - I Feel Fine -2 St. Winifred's School Choir - There's No One Quite Like Grandma That was actually kind of difficult. Maybe I enjoy 60s/70s music more than I often think I do - then again, this is a list of (seasonal) number one hits we're talking about I suppose. I really like all of the top 8 especially. The 1950s is just boring dross of course, though.

Thanks! I knew you'd have something :D I was kind of hoping for more sales than that though to gauge the general sales level for the top 10/20 but I guess Music Week were stingy bast*rds back then. Nevermind. Have to say those top 4 sales are a bit lower than I was expecting but I guess the fact that the Christmas chart fell on the earliest date it possibly could have that year was a factor. I'm sure if the chart week was moved a couple of days then Cliff could have easily passed 200k as well and John Lennon would probably have pushed towards it, but I guess it's all relative as they probably didn't drop as much in sales the following week as a result? Yeah, that would make sense. I remember it entering ridiculously high on Boxtops (which to be fair, wasn't THAT uncommon for acts that had some momentum, or big acts like Steps) so that must have been in September and then it seemed to teeter around in the top 10 most requested for what felt like ages. Then it finally gets released and then hangs around the proper chart for ages as well, so needless to say I was fed up of it by early 2000 for a song I didn't like much in the first place. Funnily enough, I seemed to hear it FAR more than Better Off Alone which I don't even remember hearing that much in comparison outside of the chart show to justify its huge popularity, but then I didn't really listen to the radio much at all really in 1999, and even when I did it was only a local radio station usually... I kind of wish I had done a personal chart back then - would have been quite handy for seeing when songs roughly debuted and how I felt about records over time instead of relying on my rusty old memory for these kind of things :lol:

Some random spiel from me: 05. S Club 7 - Two In A Million/You're My Number One - Sorry, both crap - I loved their first two singles back then (and Bring It All Back especially I still love now) but even at the time this was 'ehh' for me - though I do remember liking YMNO at least a little bit. Two In A Million though - just no. I'm sure this was a blatant attempt to do "do a Steps" too, which to be fair almost worked as it did climb to #2 a couple of weeks later as already mentioned, but still. 06. Artful Dodger - Re-Rewind The Crowd Say Bo Selecta ft Craig David - Was never madly in love with it but you certainly can't deny its long-term impact (more than any song in this chart by miles, that's for sure) and I do remember it being the soundbed for what felt like everything for the turn of the millennium so there's certainly some misty-eyed nostalgia in it for me. 08. Mr Hankey - Mr Hankey The Christmas Poo - Have the entire South Park Christmas album - kinda lame on the whole but it has its genius moments and I still dig it out on the odd Christmas. Also worth noting this actually climbed to #4 the following week, largely due to the way the dates fell: this chart covered 12-18th, so there was still almost a full week of sales before Christmas Day... anyhow, great song - one of my top 20 Xmas faves easily! (yes, I'm being serious) 10. The Vengaboys - Kiss (When The Sun Don't Shine) - I remember we used to make rude playground chants around this song back then. Unfortunately in reality the song is actually extremely boring but at least it had some purpose, which is more than can be said for a lot of their other hits... 11. Alice Deejay - Back In My Life - Didn't really do much for me to be honest. And I'm sure it was around on The Box and the like for about three or four MONTHS before this unless I'm getting my passage of time mixed up?! 14. The Wamdue Project - King Of My Castle - Now I certainly do not like this at ALL. What a bad song to get the last dance #1 of the decade. 15. Macy Gray - I Try - Great track of course but in the perspective of the time it was getting VERY annoying by this point having been all over the radio for the last four months. Her follow-up single Still was already getting rotation by this point too but had to be put back constantly because this one wouldn't go away. 16. Len - Steal My Sunshine - Adore this song. Inspired sample and great feel good melody. Could have been a massive hit if released in the summer - whoever handled the release here was a clueless moron! And it was still a pretty decent-sized hit despite that (especially on radio) which says it all. 17. Progress Presents The Boy Wunda - Everybody - This was the track that used the strings from Papa Don't Preach if I'm thinking of the right one? Average, if yes. There were quite a lot of faceless dance songs back then so I often got confused between them unless they hung around long enough for me to tell which artist was which. 18. DJ Luck And MC Neat - A Little Bit Of Luck - This song and entire duo passed me by to be honest. I can't even distinguish their hits from each other off hand - I just remember all of them were really boring garage, especially when put next to some of the more exciting aspects of the genre that were also around at the time. 19. Various Artists - It's Only Rock 'N' Roll - One of the few songs in this chart I actually bought. I was a Spice Girls loon - that's my excuse! Whether it's a good one is entirely debatable, of course. 22. Melanie C - Northern Star - Gorgeous song but kind of got lost in the race a bit unfortunately... :( 23. Mario Piu - Communication (Somebody Answer The Phone) - Loved it! Now this is the kind of gimmicky dance I could get on board with back then... mind you, haven't heard this in literally years so it'd probably irritate me now. 24. Five - Keep On Movin' - Their one 'cool' song but I do prefer Got The Feelin' which is a regular on any summer-related playlists for me. But I love Five in general. 25. B*Witched - I Shall Be There ft Ladysmith Black Mambazo - Meh, they had long since lost any interest by this point - and dragging in the bloomin' soup advert gang was just bizarre and not even a funny enough hook-up to be a passing curiosity. 27. Lolly - Big Boys Don't Cry/Rockin' Robin - The former is her best song by miles but her attempt at emotive singing is truly hilarious. 28. Westlife - Flying Without Wings - Hate it. Why do so many people put this above the rest of Westlife's output? IMO it's one of their worst! 34. Charlotte Church - Just Wave Hello - I actually liked this at the time for some strange reason. Think this was expected to do better actually as she was quite a big album shifter in her day - a bit like Jane McDonald (though not in terms of musical style) who managed to get top 10 the previous year - mind you that was a Christmas song so I'm talking rubbish really. 35. Atomic Kitten - Right Now - Loved this and them at the time. They had the same in-your-face attitude as the Spice Girls at this point until Whole Again became an unexpected smash and they spent the rest of their career with tepid ballads and mid-tempos trying to recreate that formula... 40. Christina Aguilera - Genie In A Bottle - Classic track - pretty much defined the last few months of 1999 for me...

I think Imagine was re-released more to try to become the first #1 of the new millennium, wasn't it? I seem to recall there being some minor interest in it (though not as much as the Xmas #1, obviously, given it often is a carry-over of that anyway) and Imagine was considered to be a fitting contender with the message of the song, etc. I could be wrong but that seems to stick in my head from somewhere. Does anyone have sales for this week (Gezza? :D)... I imagine it must have been a high sales week all around because of the pretty fierce competition. I thought the Cliff campaign worked the other way and there was a massive effort in religious communities to try and get the single as the Christmas #1 (a bit like that Delirious? thing last year, I suppose) but maybe there were two campaigns running against each other. Have to say the hate the song inspired was a little ridiculous and over-the-top - I don't like it but I found it pretty inoffensive and easy enough to ignore at the time. I've always been fond of this Christmas chart for various reasons but the quality of it certainly isn't one - filled with faceless dance records and crap songs from acts that were normally quite good - in fact, this is probably the worst chart of 1999 full stop which was a very good year in general. I only bought four records from this top 40 and only one from the top 10 though my favourite in the chart is Len - Steal My Sunshine which I didn't buy...

You're forgetting it's been re-released about 700 times. Add all of them up and it probably comes to 55 weeks total - can't be arsed to check though. Although many sources (including the Polyhex site; Chartstats is inconsistent on this kind of thing though) wouldn't count all of those physical re-releases (the last one was in 2006, since 2007 it's been re-charting on download only) into one week count so I guess it depends on your perspective there. On the thread: Amy Winehouse - Rehab has spent 59 weeks in the top 75 but only the first 34 of those were consecutive.

Honestly, there are about ten I can't stand here; I voted for Only Girl (In The World) because, looking down the list, it's the first listed that I really don't like.

I agree. Stomp is just a bad disco pastiche. Although Steps were the Queens (+Lee) of bad pastiches in general. Plus Who Let The Dogs Out? reminds me of Rugrats In Paris which is hardly a bad thing to the 9-year old still inside of me somewhere. If you're a high-profile act with a big fanbase - which essentially refers to most of the big pop acts of the 1990s and beyond - then comparatively there would be a LOT of easy weeks for you to choose from. You'd only have to avoid releasing against the other big pop acts of the time (like The Wanted would never release against JLS, to use a current example) and dodge any expected big hits, instead targeting at their second week where they'd probably drop down to a very beatable total. The odd time it might backfire is if a song does significantly better than expected, or gets some huge boost from somewhere therefore thrawthing you (this pretty much happened with The Wanted last year and that awful Heart Vacancy song...) It's very easy for record labels to predict the charts when everything is front-loaded... the 43 #1s in 2000 especially was hardly coincidental for example, more like record labels being clever and not pitting certain acts against each other and lining them up to knock each other off. It's not AS bad these days but it still exists... The week of the 1000th #1 was such a joke week in terms of sales/competition they hardly had to 'fix' anything. The #2 that week was the Manic Street Preachers which sold something truly pathetic like 12k I think? There was nothing else out, sales were dire, the top 5 was filled with fanbase acts like Iron Maiden and Erasure that disappeared to nowhere the following week... easy pickings for a strong fanbase act like Elvis. Once sales increased he only ever sniffed the #1 spot on the odd occasions in the opening midweeks anyway.

I kind of think of both as lucky #1s, depending on the circumstances. Something like Ja Rule is definitely a lucky #1 to me as it was a perfect case of the circumstances all falling into place perfectly as I outlined in my post at the top of the last page, with other new releases faltering and not selling as much as expected. Nobody could have really predicted things would play out as they did, I think. But Bray is right that some record labels deliberately released their songs knowing it would be a comparatively dead week - which, if so, would go against the entire meaning of it being a lucky #1 if it actually happened - after all, luck is defined as an unexpected fluke-like occurence that you had no part in. If you're deliberately picking dead weeks then you're making your own "luck", really. Then again, maybe it was the same with something like Steve Brookstein - with Simon Cowell knowing Band Aid 20 would fall like a rock being a Christmas single and there would be nothing else to challenge him. Gosh, I'm confusing myself now :D