superbossanova

I wonder if LL Cool J going to #1 could be partially explained by his profile from his TV show In The House? I don't even know where it was shown here but I know that The Fresh Prince of Bel Air used to be on BBC2 and it was "connected" to that show in many ways as the Wikipedia article explains, so maybe it was shown on there as well at some time? Surely it must have raised his profile a little bit around that time at least, and that combined with a movie promotion and a low sales climate aligned to make one of the more random #1s (in terms of the song in relation to the artist's career).

I guess luck, both good and bad, plays its part in any chart system anyway, but it does seem weird some perfectly respectable, if unspectacular, selling chart toppers might end up getting lumped in with the likes of LL Cool J purely because of their timing. But it's just a thread, etc, and it will be interesting regardless. As for what I was expecting from your next thread... well, I didn't have anything specific in mind as such, but in the boy band/girl group thread we were discussing the week Jesse Hold On by B*Witched was released when someone asked what the sales of the top 4 were on that week, and you made some comment about how that's all to do with your next thread. I'm just a bit confused now how that was relevant here unless you were just being cryptic for the sake of it? :D

Oh, this wasn't what I was expecting from your next thread at all. :lol: Ah well, I'll still read I guess. The problem with this system is of course a song can potentially be dubbed a "non-#1" if it keeps a more consistent record, off, even if it had a perfectly respectable "normal" run itself. Annoyingly I think there might be even an example of this later in 1997 with a certain fivesome who kept a famous novelty record off in their first week before the positions flipped, but we'll see. Plus songs that have the misfortune of being #1 a week before a huge selling record took over could also be unlucky here... Still, it's hard to disagree with the examples thus far (even if Beetlebum is amazing and one of the most gloriously weird chart-toppers ever).

Putting aside the singles, it's easily Last Time Lover for me. Just a good groovy number. Though I remember my favourite as a kid was If U Can't Dance but it sounds so tacky and... cringey now, lol. I can take or leave Spice on the whole really. It's a good pop album but Spiceworld knocked it out of the park so much it's not even funny.

What a brilliant top 3 indeed! I could hardly have picked it any better myself. :heart: I have to take a minute to post my thoughts on each one as ALL were such significant tracks in my childhood, so feel free to skip this boring rambling commentary if you want, there's nothing useful or interesting said here anyway. Well, Wannabe first... undoubtedly it's such an important track for my generation (early 20s) and I, without doubt, credit this as the song that REALLY got me into pop music. I'm not sure without it what would have been the case, especially as, as a song, it almost single-handedly changed the landscape of the 90s and every pop act that emerged in the next 5 or so years owed a HUGE debt to the Spice Girls. And its success couldn't have really come at many other times, when Britpop had made it COOL to be British again and Take That had split up just months before leaving a huge gaping hole in the pop world. And as their claim, there are few other songs that are so proficient at capturing your attention from the very first line and keeping it right to the end with all its hooks and turns as Wannabe - at the end of the day, what MORE could you want from an introductory/debut single than that? An absolute pop classic. 2 Become 1 - there's not as much to say here as with Wannabe, but that doesn't make it any less of a track. A gorgeous ballad sung with sincerity and emotion, and the instrumentation and production is absolutely beyond STUNNING. Just listen to the purely instrumental section in the middle when the vocals drop out before they lead back in to the last chorus for evidence of that - how gorgeous is that? Again, flawless pop in a completely different way. And finally, Never Ever... again, it's just really good at capturing your attention right from the off with that spoken word intro, and lyrics with lines that seem to flow the next effortlessly as if they were written without over-thought if you know what I mean, that is great songwriting from Shaznay there. But undoubtedly the shining moment is obviously the chorus which TOWERS above the rest of the song in such a glorious way, but the whole song is just amazing. And yes, I remember in your Closest Races to Number One thread it barely beating Bamboogie the week it got to #1 - what a disaster that would have been!! Fantastic work as usual Gezza. :D As I said yesterday this has been a hugely enjoyable thread for me probably more than any thread on BuzzJack, mainly because it's almost a laid out list of songs that soundtracked my childhood. Not sure how you're going to top it!! :o

Hang on, was Meat Loaf supposed to release it first? :o Honestly never knew that. Or am I getting confused with your comment and he just did a version of it later.

I'm genuinely going to be a bit sad when this thread ends. :cry: It's been the best EVER - even if I was one of only a few who had any real enthusiasm for it.

Say You'll Be There is really ALL about that iconic video. Trixie Firecracker pretty much confirmed my love for Geri as the #1 Spice Girl, she looked both foxy AND bad-ass. The song itself was great back in the day but sounds a bit weak now and doesn't have the gusto of some of their other offerings to cut through the dated production. Great swing beat though. As for No Matter What, well being penned by the hand of Andrew Lloyd Webber was always going to put it ahead of most of their other dreary, barely a tune in sight ballads, but it has FAR too much Stephen Gately on the vocals (who, not to speak ill of the dead, has always had an IRRITATING voice, like some kind of annoying choir boy who should be on Songs of Praise not in the charts imo) so still a bit short of being great for me. Plus it's probably the first time I felt a song was annoyingly overplayed through no choice of my own - it really was everywhere for the entirity of Autumn 1998. :angry: Whistle Down The Wind by the lovely Tina Arena was clearly the better song from that musical ANYWAY. Looking forward to the top 3. All three are AMAZING songs.

Great results for '07. Very surprised but pleased to see Amerie through to the semis. :heart: Now on to 2008. This is actually a good year, even if this list does feel like the arse-end of the 2002-2007 era on its way out, with still a lot of fanbase-led top 10 hits despite the death of physicals cutting their ability to do well. I imagine 2009 will finally give us a list of songs that at least had some wide appeal and will probably be all the better for it. +15 Goldfrapp - A&E +12 Boyzone - Love You Anyway +10 Will Young - Changes +8 Kanye West featuring Chris Martin - Homecoming +6 Oasis - The Shock Of The Lightning +5 Girls Aloud - Can't Speak French +4 Snow Patrol - Take Back The City +3 The Last Shadow Puppets - The Age Of The Understatement +2 Leon Jackson - Don't Call This Love +1 Kaiser Chiefs - Never Miss A Beat -2 McFly - One For The Radio

I think Whole Again has a very pensive feel for a love ballad which probably helped to appeal it to people who have a bit more experience in life matters, especially since it was released in January/February when people are more reflective on the past with the New Year and (in a similarly romantic sense) Valentine's Day. Plus the vocal feels very mature, particularly when you put it next to Follow Me which was their previous single and not completely dissimilar, albeit that one is more like a mid-tempo. I never really liked it though. Was rather nonplussed when it got to #1, though January was of course the time for shock chart toppers, and 2001 was especially surprising with Rui Da Silva and Limp Bizkit also unexpectedly getting to #1 that month.

Spice Up Your Life is GODLY in my eyes (or should that be ears?). Superbly bombastic and overblown production with over-the-top vocals to match (not in the Whitney/Celine sense, obv) especially on THAT middle-8 section, and of course a fantastic video. Great rhythmic undercurrent too. Just invigorating and exciting pop and I love every second of it. :heart: (Although on that note it's at least a minute too short, though that does mean I have to play it at least twice to get the full goodness out of it). And the B-side Spice Invaders is also ridiculous in a completely different way. Probably their best singles package overall. Yuck at Stay Another Day. Those GOONS robbed Mariah with her genuine Christmas song thanks to the the money-grabbing BELLS they added to sell it to the retarded public who soil their pants at anything slightly Christmassy (plus the video with the winter coats and snow to further the idea). And said public still buy it in some numbers every year even though it's not and never has been a Christmas song. :manson: Utter tosh.

Pure Shores was the 2nd best seller of 2000, not the 3rd. It only got overtaken by Bob the Builder in the final sales week but nothing else. Top Of The Pops also had to incorrectly announce it as the best seller of the year on their Christmas special.

This is a better list than I was expecting... +15 Amerie - Take Control +12 Bloc Party - Flux +10 Sophie Ellis-Bextor - Catch You +8 Editors - Smokers Outside The Hospital Doors +6 Nelly Furtado - Say It Right +5 Mika - Happy Ending +4 Bloc Party - The Prayer +3 Babyshambles - Delivery +2 Mark Ronson featuring Lily Allen - Oh My God +1 Axwell - I Found U -2 Groove Armada - Get Down

Yeah, I know THAT, but the Spice Girls comic tribute act was called the Sugar Lumps...

Huh? Take That have never done the Comic Relief single though? :unsure: You've completely lost me here.

I've grown to love poor ol' Headlines over the years, although obviously it was a completely horrendous comeback single for about ten different reasons. But the vocal layerings in the last half are so heavenly it's just about worth sitting through the non-event of a "song" that comes before that. Add Holler in place of Headlines and I would agree though. And Stop would only get a 6/10 from me but I still like it while it's playing.

Viva Forever was definitely well-timed I think. As Gezza said, they were in the headlines with the media all speculating why Geri had left for WEEKS on end and everyone's interest in them was briefly back at fever pitch in a "what are they going to do without her?" way; plus it kind of reflected the sombre mood among their fans at the time while also giving a positive message about how the Spice Girls will go on and be there forever (although that was obviously a lie, but it was enough for me to believe at the time :cry:). And it also helped that it was a genuinely amazing song that even the biggest Spice Girls hater had to admit was actually pretty good. I don't think it would have beaten Run-DMC/Jason Nevins if it had been released earlier or whatever personally, though it certainly would have put up a better fight. It's quite amazing how well Viva Forever did as they were also on tour in America throughout July and August (so promotion wasn't as good as usual), and it was also one of only two singles of theirs to be released in the summer, yet it managed to sell more in its first week than Too Much did at Christmas while that was also better promoted, plus had the benefit of the Spiceworld movie tie-in. Even though Too Much sold more after (obviously, since it's one ahead here) it's still interesting. Too Much is an odd one for me. I never get the urge to play it when I'm in the mood for some Spice Girls but I always enjoy it an awful lot when I do. And I absolutely LOVE Geri's part... plus the lovely fade-out with the alternating lyrics. As a song it never seeks to grabs you but instead sort of spins around in this not altogether unmesmerising way which makes it a bit odd as far as Spice Girls singles go, but good stuff. Who Do You Think You Are? is just a great disco number, killer hook if a bit annoying after a while, etc. Plus the alternate comic video with the "fake Spice Girls" (why do they never do things like this anymore?) was a favourite at the time and safely confirmed its status as the best Comic Relief single EVERRR. Mama, on the other hand - awful calculating tie-in to cash in on Mother's Day - and scratch what I said about Stop, THIS is the worst Spice Girls single from their 90s hey-day, though its coupling with WDYTYA? stops it from being the worst release. And I hope the future Spice Girls entries will be as full of facts as that Mama/WDYTYA? entry was, Gezza. :heart:

I forgot about that! Though at least that had adapted lyrics IIRC, the Christmas version was literally just the same song with a slightly more festive backing track. Ditto for the Las Ketchup one. Now that I mention it I think there was ALSO a Christmas remix of The Cheeky Song that was sometimes played on the music channels around the same time instead of the "original" version, but that was just an extra on one of the CD singles rather than being separate. I always just ended up singing in gobbledegook after the first line of the chorus. :D

LOL, I love that clip of Las Ketchup on TOTP with the entire audience doing the arm movements. How embarrassing... not that I'm gonna deny that I did do the "dance" once or twice back in '02 but at least I didn't get put on video for the whole world to see if they please. :drama: I think DJ Otzi also did the Xmas version thing the year before that was allowed to count as an extra format per chart rules at the time. Both so pointless though, surely there was no one actually stupid enough to buy it again? Well, you never know with the British public I guess... Anyway, LOVED that song. I've already said on here multiple times that 2002 was such a dull year for pop thanks to the reality TV explosion and tepid R&B-lite - The Ketchup Song was exactly the injection of fun the year needed at the time if you ask me. :D

That's always been the good thing about Ireland. Their charts are much less front-loaded than ours so loads of songs that were big enough to be #1 hits here but didn't get there because their sales were more spread out over a series of weeks, DID get to #1 in Ireland. It's kinda like a little consolation prize.

I think a large reason for its unusual chart run was because they didn't release the video until early April, when it had already been on sale for two weeks in the UK. Possibly the only late 1990s/early 2000s example of something resembling a video affect? Not sure why, though TLC were one of the most notoriously high budget video acts of their era so I imagine it took much time planning, filming, editing, etc, as usual. It'd be interesting to see what their sales spread was - I think the week they jumped to #3 was more because of the market crashing and them remaining consistent in spite of that so I'm not sure if it'd be their highest weekly sale? :thinking: Anyway, FANTASTIC song. Undoubtedly the song of 1999 for me (at least at the time!).

You mean you can't tell them apart simply by their music? :D

The dancing in the video is worth a LAUGH. That said, great video - looks like they had a good time and anywhere with sunshine, palm trees and beaches is enough to make me smile while I'm stuck in this shithole where the weather has been MISERABLE all day. Anyway, they are quite talentless in general but this is irresistible cheese from the golden age of europop. Oddly I seem to have acquired quite a few No Mercy songs on my iTunes without even realising, including their cover of Missing which having just put on as I type this I can confirm is truly rubbish - though like anyone can top Tracey Thorn on that.

LOL... yep, and bored out of my skull. To be fair, just going through the discography of two or three groups was enough to get half the top 30. :lol:

Just been trying to work out the 30 left... I *think* I've got them all from working on mainly memory of what hasn't been and has, and going by what has already been included for some of the more contentious groups.