superbossanova

I liked Baha Men when I first heard it in, like, JULY, but suffice to say I was sick to death of it by the time it had finally been released and preceded to hang around the top 10 for like three months... joke wearing thin indeed. But wow, so no promotion for WLTDO? :o I guess there's more to the art of this thread than just expecting the highest selling #2 of the year to get promoted but I really would never have predicted Kids to somehow get promoted instead. Baha Men seemed such an obvious candidate when they climbed to #2 behind Steps and then stayed in the top 5 for the next month that you would surely have expected them to rack up enough sales to replace one of the weaker chart toppers.

The A-ha version of Take On Me spent all of its weeks at #2 behind the mighty The Power Of Love. I think we can safely say that there's no potential chart system (bar verging on the ridiculous like removing Jennifer Rush completely) that could have put it at #1. :D

This... would have been nice to have had the deadline extended a couple of days considering the board was down for half of the time period. I can appreciate nobody had any idea that was going to happen but we basically had 2 days of voting. :blink: Although in my case I actually saw the thread before the board went down and made a mental note to vote later, but that obviously wasn't possible. Ah well.

Hooray, Black Coffee keeps its #1 status! :dance: I guess it should be thanking its lucky stars that the market crashed so spectacularly at the end of the month to allow Steps a hilariously weak #1 but I still thought the Westlife and U2 combo would beat it, but clearly the latter were even more front-loaded than I thought. The selections from 2000 have been quite surprising in general. I suppose it was always going to happen with a lot of songs selling on a similar-ish level (hence the high turnover of the year) but it almost seems like this lot could have been picked at random. Surprised at Madison Avenue and Melanie C losing out especially. And I'm even more surprised at how some really poor-selling #1s have clung on. Have a feeling there's going to be a controversial demotion in the next group... :o And A1 are obviously going to join the Vengaboys in losing BOTH their #1s. And surely there's a rather obvious promotion coming up I would think *woofs*

Just like Teletubbies and Chef got the Xmas #1 in previous years. :no: Gezza doing his best to ruin Christmas memories!

:lol: This is probably only going to lead to everyone making the :manson: face at their computer screen as they read this but I actually I love If I Could Turn Back The Hands Of Time. It really builds quite pleasantly without you even noticing and the last half when the waltz-esque music comes in is especially lovely. Although I admittedly would have preferred the more GHETTO Home Alone being in that situation from that album. Either way it's clearly a more deserving #1 than Flying Without Wings which has always been HORRIBLE, god knows why anyone thinks it's their best song, and if any of their earlier singles set the template for their future material it was surely THAT one, just vile. :puke2: Swear It Again is obviously their only good single. Anyway, that aside, now I can see the full 1999 list, good to see Britney extend her run for three weeks to a number that more reflects its huge popularity. And also good to see Shanks & Bigfoot add two weeks as that song has always been a favourite of mine. Not much more to get excited about as I expected really. Steps only with two weeks though! Gah, how could I forget about Chef still having his huge end of 1998 sale, ruined my early 1999 prediction that would have been perfect otherwise. :( 2000 is going to be fun! Sadly two of my faves Black Coffee and Day & Night are certainly up for the chop IMO.

She has three more #1s to come (one more each in 1999, 2000 and 2001). I think Lift Me Up has a decent chance of retaining as it wasn't surrounded by any particularly strong #1, and the big-selling #2 single that was around in the last few months of 1999 had already peaked by the time Lift Me Up came out. And It's Raining Men could go either way I feel, despite spending two weeks at #1 it was very front-loaded and S Club 7 were much more consistent in comparison... Frankly I think Gezza should be ashamed of his attempts to diminish the achievements of the Queen of British pop though. :snif: Surely this qualifies as some kind of treason offence?

I don't think Armand Van Helden would have got that long. I think it's three weeks for Steps, two weeks for The Offspring, then one week for Armand Van Helden (in place of when Blondie was #1 on the real chart), and then Britney getting to #1 a week earlier because of her huge sales figure blowing away everything else.

Gah! Another case of one of the best #1s of the late 1990s being relegated by timing. :cry: Such a brilliant single, one of the best comeback tracks ever. Those bells!! "MARIIIIA! YOU GOTTA SEE HER!" *ding ding ding* :heart: And I HATE Fly Away, horrible song. Didn't the follow-up miss the chart entirely too? [/fluke] :rofl:

Also, just to ADD, while we're still technically in 1998 with this thread, I wonder where the infamous How Do I Live peaked on this chart? Just noticed upon looking at the #1 list again also that Rollercoaster spent longer at #1 than C'est La Vie with this system. That just looks WRONG. :drama: And I thought Billie would perhaps be the most unfortunate act in this thread in terms of losing ALL of her #1s but at least Girlfriend has kept on, even if its luck came with being between Rollercoaster's last week and the aforementioned ghastly Gym & Tonic. I've never really noticed how strangely dead October '98 was until now (usually you would expect that from January or August, yet October should be when the industry is building up to Xmas) before we got that first ever all-new top 5 at the end of it - though perhaps that was the reason WHY that could happen as everything else was so weak. And we also had Brandy/Ma$e with one of the most forgotten #2s ever, though I love it. God, I'm rambling now, sorry. I actually only came in here with the intention to ask about LeAnn Rimes, lol. :(

Nothing really interesting or surprising for me in 1998 to be honest. And only one song being promoted, even if it is the second best #2 of the year (only behind the godly The Boy Is Mine, of course). :( Sad to see the misunderstood Bootie Call demoted, though it was always going to happen with that 1-7 plummet. And Gym & Tonic is, as everyone who was "there" at the time knows, the WORST, most vacant and pointless #1 ever. Demotion isn't enough really, it should have been ignored from this thread and erased from history completely. Maybe the start of 1999 (pre-Britney) could be interesting with a string of one-weekers selling similar amounts. Though I imagine the reality will just be Steps getting a couple of bonus weeks, and The Offspring maybe also extending another week. Hopefully Blondie can retain their status though. But after that it looks kind of boring to me with some big sellers every few weeks that should be mopping up.

+15 Basement Jaxx - Romeo +12 Amerie - Take Control +10 Chase & Status featuring Plan B - End Credits +8 Madonna - What It Feels Like For A Girl +6 Scissor Sisters - Comfortably Numb +5 t.A.T.u. - All About Us +4 Kanye West featuring Chris Martin - Homecoming +3 Eminem - The Way I Am +2 Coldplay - Yellow +1 Sugababes - About A Girl -2 Alexander Rybak - Fairytale

Using that logic then we would have pretty much nothing interesting or new on television. Just endless reality shows as they're "guaranteed" rating winners. It's called taking a risk. However, TOTP will always have to this generation is the power of its name which will always make people curious to check out the relaunch, and if they are significantly impressed with it then who knows how it could take off from there. Obviously it wouldn't do very well if they bought it back exactly like it was before. They have to bring in a unique selling point (some of the things that Paramore could be possibilities) and put some effort in, rather than the low budget, hastily put together affair that the Xmas special comes across as. And find some presenters with good chemistry that people can connect with. Of course, all this would require both forward-thinking and money, and these are the main two reasons why I won't hold my breath for a proper return any time soon.

Right, here's my votes then. Excluded album tracks just to make it easier plus it seems pointless anyway. Still not satisfied even after a lot of fiddling but it's just so hard and I'll never be as happy with it as I want to be. Also very 90s-biased but that shouldn't be a surprise from anyone who has ever read a few of my posts. I did try to shove in some 60s/70s/80s/00s songs in though, even if some of them might seem very desperate scraping of the barrel. :D Also tried to get as many different girl groups in as possible! All Saints - Never Ever Brownstone - If You Love Me En Vogue - Don't Let Go (Love) Girls Aloud - The Show Made In London - Dirty Water The Ronettes - Sleigh Ride Scarlet - Independent Love Song Sister Sledge - Lost In Music Spice Girls - Spice Up Your Life TLC - Dear Lie Alisha's Attic - I Am, I Feel Alisha's Attic - The Incidentals All Saints - Bootie Call All Saints - War Of Nerves Appleton - Fantasy Bananarama - I Heard A Rumour Brownstone - 5 Miles To Empty B*Witched - C'est La Vie Changing Faces - G.H.E.T.T.O.U.T. Destiny's Child - No No No (Part 2) Divine - Lately En Vogue - Free Your Mind En Vogue - Give It Up, Turn It Loose Eternal - Oh Baby I... Frank - I'm Not Shy Girls Aloud - Love Machine The Go-Go's - Head Over Heels Hepburn - I Quit Honeyz - Finally Found The Marvelettes - Please Mr. Postman The Shirelles - Will You Love Me Tomorrow Sister Sledge - Thinking Of You Solid HarmoniE - I'll Be There For You Spice Girls - 2 Become 1 Sugababes - Hole In The Head Sugababes - Run For Cover The Supremes - You Keep Me Hanging On SWV - Weak t.A.T.u. - All About Us TLC - Creep

Thanks for the info anyway. :) If it was a Music Week article it's possible it might be online somewhere. I know the Music Week site allows you to search back to view articles that were posted on their website going back to the early 2000s (including loads of old sales reports if anyone is so geekily inclined). Another "alternative" system I know of that has a similar affect is used on the Everyhit retro charts - which unfortunately stopped being updated in 2008, but you can still view the old ones - page, which splits each month into three parts, while assigning some kind of points system (or at least I suspect so, considering Candle in the Wind, for example, only debuted at #4 on their chart!). I am not sure how it's done though, presumably a lot of the weeks have to be cut somehow, perhaps using % of weekly points depending on the days, as obviously it's impossible to perfectly split all of the charts compiled in a month in three like that. Having just checked, it hasn't been that different to this thread thus far either, with a few minor differences... and also might give clues to what could be relegated here. :P I've seen a similar system to DanChartFan's being posted on another forum years ago. Not sure how I feel about cutting the first week out entirely, though I can see the logic behind it and it's still interesting in its own way. Couldn't help but notice the quirk of Katrina & The Waves going to #1 because of it due to the unusual release strategy/promotion for a 1997 single though!

Sorry to focus on such a small part of your post but can you expand on this if possible? Touted by who? Merely the chart fans? Perhaps some record bosses complaining (about other labels frontloading their releases more and more)? I've certainly never heard anything about the chart compilers ever considering changing their 7-day sale system because of this issue so clearly any such suggestion was dismissed quite quickly.

What a SMASHING idea for a thread. :D I will have my nominations in here some time in the next few days. I've saved this thread in my favourites (which I look in every day) so I shan't forget. It's going to be painstaking for me to whittle down to a mere 40 songs, I could make a selection of that many songs and be incredibly happy with it just from a few groups, so I need some TIME. :drama: Especially as I didn't see this thread until now (don't look outside the chart forum much).

Not great I'm afraid. Leaving any nostalgia at the door the Now albums from 1999 do nicely reflect how the top of the charts got worse as the year went on, starting off brilliantly with 42 (which still remains one of the best ever), to this rather mediocre collection. Although you can't argue with the duo of pop classics to open up the first disc, and there are quite a few lost gems like Jordan Knight, Honeyz, Diana Ross, Supergrass, Melanie C scattered around. Plus a pleasing double appearance from the Queen of the 90s. But most of the dance stuff is not my bag, except for the Alena track which manages to be amazing in spite of its trance label thanks to a gorgeous, soulfoul vocal that reeks of dancefloor heartbreaker (I'm weeping just thinking about it :cry:).

I'm quite confident in the chances of a certain #2 in June/July getting a promotion (though I'm well aware everyone else hates it and will probably be grumbling if so).

Personally I like that this got to #1 purely for the length record which makes it another odd chart topper in an era of many of them (even if the song itself is shite and a typical Oasis track stretched out in an incredibly tedious way). Now that's a record worth making. http://imgsrv2.tennisuniverse.com/wtaworld/images/smilies/bowdown.gif

Interesting quirk that Oasis actually got an extra week under this system, considering you'd expect them to be a band who will get a lot of their #1s relegated in future years! :D And Too Much by the Spice Girls will get to to #1 a week later here, and is now considered a 1998 chart topper for this thread's purpose I think, hence not appearing on this list, and Teletubbies being the Christmas #1 instead.

+15 Chase & Status featuring Plan B - End Credits +12 Susan Boyle - Wild Horses +10 Girls Aloud - The Loving Kind +8 Daniel Merriweather - Change +6 Sugababes - About A Girl +5 Oasis - Falling Down +4 Muse - Uprising +3 Kanye West - Heartless +2 The Prodigy - Warrior's Dance +1 Young Soul Rebels - I Got Soul -2 Alexander Rybak - Fairytale

Agreed, it isn't of course, but it got in this thread because of being stuck in between two of the biggest selling songs of all-time, and the fact that Aqua increased sales for two weeks in a row when moving 2-1-1. It seems crazy that a song that sold over 300k in its first week can still end up here but I predicted it on the first page so I can't be too bothered about it, I didn't know Aqua's first week sale but I knew it would be touch-and-go either way. :lol: I think people have an issue with the terminology/title of this thread more than anything, as the term "non-#1" is usually used in a negative way on this forum to describe songs like McFly's later chart toppers. Perhaps it should be changed to something else? Not that I have any suggestions of what to but still. But really this thread is just an alternative chart system.

And the woman singing lead in that performance is Rebecca Wheatley, who I already mentioned in this thread with her #10 solo hit, Stay With Me Baby, from 2000! Not bad going for a mere television actress though. I have this on a compilation too - it's the very last track on New Hits 98.

I don't get what you're implying here? They never opened the show with the #1 single as far as I remember. Anyway, still not surprised with any inclusions here so far. Would have been lovely to see The Cardigans get a #1, and certainly it's one of the songs I most associate with 1997 (as someone who didn't follow the charts or even music that closely at the time). Appearances from 1997 should get quieter as some genuine big hits arrive at the top, and the one weekers dramatically decrease, but there's still at least one song that will definitely make this list such was the timing of its release in September.