superbossanova

9JkS9rYw_N4 #10 in 1998. Back in the days when having a big hit would often guarantee a semi-successful follow-up regardless. Although this is MILES better than Tubthumping, great riff. 2x86tostIKE Another from 1998, this is genuinely one of my favourite R&B songs ever. Sounds like a total classic, yet completely forgotten by most :(

Blimey, that's a good one! Even I had forgotten this existed (which hasn't been the case for pretty much every other song mentioned here :drama:)

Are we talking about whether the #1 still has prestige to the artists themselves or the public? There seems to be some confusion within the replies of this thread, and I think the answers to these questions are completely different depending... For the artists themselves, I would agree with this: For the public perception of it and the charts in general, I would roughly agree with Brett-Butler and RabbitFurCoat. Outside interest in the charts and the #1 position itself is very low, possibly the lowest it's ever been. A lot of the printed media don't seem to care about it anymore either, even compared to 10 years ago. Most of the activity is restricted to online and mostly only in niche places that you wouldn't have a clue about unless you had an interest in the charts in the first place. However, I do think the idea of the "#1" still has prestige to the public - it's still used prominently in advertising of albums and artists for that very reason: to IMPRESS.

About You Now is almost exhilaratingly melodic, you're right, but I got fed up of it ages ago and have been kind of refusing to give it another chance ever since. Blame radio for killing it for me once it quickly became THE Sugababes radio staple. Perhaps I should though. I adored it when it first premiered. Hole In The Head is my favourite Sugababes song (as I said a few posts above!) and Three my favourite album, and certainly the only one I listen to with any regularity these days, too. It's cool, quirky, edgy and gritty. And it's almost wall-to-wall goodness - apart from Whatever Makes You Happy and Million Different Ways which I just never quite "got".

I REALLY do not like Jumpin', Jumpin'. I know the whole thing is supposed to be relatively sparse as was the "in" thing in the R&B genre at the time (the Darkchild influence!) but it's such a DRONE-like example of that sound, not helped by the fact that Beyoncé could hardly sound less involved with the song. Love Destiny's Child in general, though. On the other hand, I like Ready Or Not a lot. It's painfully late 90s and lyrically as cheesy as it gets with its references to Robin Hood and whatnot, but the bright enthusiasm and giving-it-a-go attitude (inspite of their limitations) it displays is really what made me like A1 at the time. That kind of thing proper reminds me of being 8-years old as it was the one trait that was common in pretty much every act I liked back then.

I don't think you can compare them to the Sugababes either as (and I know it seems easy to say it now when you see their later success, but it's true) the Sugababes were VERY critically acclaimed, thought to have huge potential from the start, and also weren't even aimed at similar markets - at the beginning they were thought to be a bit of a new All Saints. Point Break, on the other hand, were just Smash Hits! fodder marketed at teenage girls, who they were already failing to sell to anyway. So I don't think it's surprising that a record label still saw potential in the Sugababes but none of them did with Point Break. Also AFAIK (correct me if I'm wrong) they got dropped after Siobhan left, which also must have helped their case, as Heidi basically bought a different look to the group and only added to their selling power. Certainly as much as I loved Sugababes 1.0 they were never going to go anywhere, and it's hard to imagine them being able to pull off the look and music they were able to explore once Heidi joined when Siobhan was in the group.

You make it sound like they had a choice to quit! Atomic Kitten were also on the verge of being dropped before Whole Again came out (or so the legend goes). You and Freakytime were both fantastic songs. They were underrated, agreed. But I never understood why they went from Five-wannabes to uber-mature pop with electronic undertones. I much preferred the latter singles anyway, so I didn't exactly mind, but it was still a very sudden change.

I feel so ANCIENT reading some of these comments that go with the votes. And I'm only 21! :(

I was bemused by this at the time too. I think it was because they didn't release their album until December 1999 though and the calendar year for the corresponding BRIT Awards show runs from the previous November to the recent November - or something around that time period, anyway. And don't forget their brief foray into *NSYNC/Backstreet Boys rip-offs for two singles before going all serious and grown-up! Some fantastic songs in the last few - the above Caught In The Middle, Hole In The Head (my favourite Sugababes song - love the bitey lyrics coupled with the nonchalant delivery) and The Last Goodbye, which is just gorgeous and proved they could still be good when they remember a bloody tune unlike many of their other (tedious) ballads. Step By Step is also enjoyable by NKOTB standards. So Good is just horrendous. Can't believe someone got money for writing such lazy crap!

Donna Summer Kate Bush Beyonce Alicia Keys Alison Moyet Katy Perry :lol: Janet Jackson Cher Bjork (I love both! But I think Amy will get more votes so I'll be tactical and go the other way) Natalie Imbruglia Christina Aguilera Belinda Carlisle Sheryl Crow (actually bought and loved some Sheryl albums recently, so I'm giving it to her despite Madonna's singles catalogue) Tori Amos Gabrielle Mary J Blige Quite straightforward bar the two I commented on. I can already tell the outcomes of some of these 'battles' are going to make me go :manson: - mainly when Rihanna and Nicki Minaj both thrash Janet and Donna Summer something ridiculous like 37-6 but c'est la vie.

I agree. My problem with Busted was that their lyrics were always so juvenile, even as someone who was in my early teens at the time I found it unbearable. Thankfully McFly distanced themselves from being any more similar by releasing some quality pop tunes by any standard from that first album (bar That Girl, which is one that did sound a bit too Busted-lite for me) and I did buy 5 Colours In Her Hair at the time, as well as their album. As for Busted, my favourite single by them was 3am. Shame it got completely ignored in favour of the poor Thunderbirds Are Go.

Oh, right! I didn't even realise that was exactly 10 years ago to the week! That's a funny coincidence. Yeah, I just saw that now. I guess that was pretty close. Will Young obviously benefitted from weekend sales to pull ahead of the pack but certainly #4-7 were within distance of each going one or two places higher.

So many people who need to go HERE and click "Add to Basket". You won't regret it, I promise :o

I do remember that same week George Michael started at #2 in the midweeks then fell to #7 by Sunday, so I guess in reality despite "only" peaking at #6, Fly By II also might not have been too far from being #2 or at least #3 that week (although George was one of those notoriously front-loaded artists, he was never usually that bad, so I'm assuming sales were tight - unfortunately I don't remember though).

Leona Lewis - easy one, Leona might be a disappointment but Pink only has about three good songs full stop. Louise - for the lolz, Louise was ace, plus Britney is again a total disappointment (she used to be my fave artist at one point). Lady Gaga - don't know Cyndi that well and I don't like her big hits much either. Lily Allen - very easy, I love Lily, don't care about Adele. Whitney Houston - again easy, J-Lo only has two great songs vs. a woman with numerous. Nelly Furtado - I hate Shakira; Nelly is good. Katie Melua - Duffy only had one good song. Barbra Streisand - legend vs. one-album wonder. Easy again. Celine Dion - Celine has too many great singles to deny. Annie Lennox - both only had one good solo era/album. Annie is just a bit better. Kylie Minogue - don't like many Kylie songs, but for my sins I don't know much Gloria Estefan full stop. Kelis - easy choice, pretty voice but dull artist vs. someone who was really unique and exciting at the turn of the last decade. Geri Halliwell - oh, how could I not? Someone has to love the desperate cow. Mariah Carey - I would have picked Mariah over any person here, but I'm not sure you could have given her an easier opponent than this. Sophie Ellis Bextor - easy, I hate the other option. Dido - same as above.

There's nothing exciting about that song though.

I don't mind Girls Aloud's version of I'll Stand By You. It feels quite warm and cosy (a nice way of saying bland, basically), and it does remind me of Xmas '04 more than most songs from that time too. Plus this is when I was most excited about them, probably partly due to age to be fair. Although I have and enjoy all of their albums, it was hard for me to be as excited as I was when I was 13 years old and got WWTNS? for Xmas that year. How did Blue sell so much of Fly By II? Surprised it sold more than a #1 (Blazin' Squad) from the same year :o Were sales that high - relative to the rest of the year, at least - when it was released? As for the song, it should have really been titled All Rise II, as it's a painfully weaker clone of their debut and best single.

This is a good one, actually. Although I remember the week this was released was COMPLETELY dead (and not even slightly, nothing major was out), and back then you just couldn't have dead weeks with no new releases coming in like you do now (bar the week after Xmas!). So all the shops like Woolworths, ASDA, etc, that did chart predictions had this release VERY high and stocked prominently which I think contributed hugely to it. A bit of luck, if you will. Kira - I'm Your Angel reached #9 the same week for similar reasons - I don't even remember how that one goes!

I was just checking the charts in early 2005 as I was thinking there might have been a few more WTF?! top 10 hits other than Dana Rayne because of the dismal sales, and was reminded of this Busted/McFly clone group managed to get to #8. Wasn't one of them in Point Break a few years before?! :lol: He's like the Jodi Albert of boybands. 4XNTGfYUgGY Speaking of Point Break, we might as well put their top 10 hit here too - Stand Tough! JxhUjrJhPyw

Clearly Stacie Orrico isn't that forgotten if the mere mention of her leads to loads of people going "OMG Stacie Orrico!111" :lol: It also has almost 7 million views on YouTube, which is very high for a song that was out before YouTube even existed. Some others off the top of my head: dnS7RswoZyc This group were AMAZING, yet disappeared after a wave of hype dissipated in early 2001. Got to #6 in January that year. A5z6k-69IYI Random indie band that were hyped by the usual suspects (NME, etc). This got to #10 also in early 1999. Z75jOaaB5BM A song that sneaked into the top 10 off the back of his #1 Be Faithful, #9 in 2004. -5qP0JxI5XU #8 in 2003, this was one of those odd rap songs that was much bigger here than in the US, and Obie Trice never got close to having another hit of this size before or after. NK-P18ot7PU One-hit wonder dance vocalist, #5 with this Roxy Music cover in early 1999. Apparently she had something to do with Lucid of I Can't Help Myself fame...

I would nominate this as a potential contender for the most forgotten top 3 (not top 10) hit EVER: JMgSG0C2ee8&ob=av2e It reached #3 in February 1999, largely due to a combination of the big acts still being asleep after Christmas, her 90s fame as an actress (notably in The Fresh Prince of Bel Air), and the fact that Will Smith was on it (at the time, he was the biggest rapper in the world in terms of selling power). The YouTube video for it has 25,000 views, which might not seem so bad, but most of the songs mentioned here have far more than that. According to Comparemyradio no radio station has played it in the last 30 days, and from Lastfm statistics it's only had a couple of dozen plays in the last week from the accounts on there. She also had a top 10 hit before this with Everytime (#6) which is probably equally forgotten.

This. Lead implies something or someone that is FRONT or AHEAD of everything else - whether it's someone taking the lead, leading someone to something, etc. - the implication is still the same in each case. So therefore the lead single would be the one that is released ahead of all the others (so the first single to be released). Seems pretty obvious to me, and I didn't realise anyone even referred to it as the second poll option :wacko:

God, the fact that 911, who were never anything more than a second-string boyband, had TEN top 10 hits really shows how boyband crazy it was in the late 1990s, doesn't it? Mind you, so does the fact they suddenly got to the point of contending for #1 positions (and even getting one) in 1998/99. More Than A Woman is a decent, if over-faithful, cover though IMO. And nothing deserved to be beaten to #1 by that frickin' Spacedust song! :puke2: The other two songs - zzzz... just about covers it, I think.

Chartstats doesn't have a complete top 100 album chart archive - the owner of the site generally puts up any data he has received/can find, rather than a specific limit (top 75) like the person who runs Polyhex does. Throughout 1999, for example, the album chart archive only has top 40 positions, then it switches to top 75 for years, then when the OCC started publishing the top 100 (in 2007) on their site it switches to that until the present. For that reason, though, you are right that the weeks count shouldn't be taken as an exact authority. Likewise the singles archive switches to top 100 in 2007 after being top 75 for years. In terms of the data that's there, I would say Chartstats is reasonably accurate. I'm sure there are some errors as you would expect with such a large amount of data collected by a person. But I would add that the album archive is probably less so because it's compiled from multiple different resources AFAIK, therefore perhaps multiplying the number of potential human errors. I know that I sent him a period of album charts a few years back now, and I do remember watching the album archive build and build slowly all the way from years back when the site was still quite new and not as well-known as it seems to be now...

They had five singles* [/geek] - so which one didn't you buy? I only have their flop 2000 comeback Come & Get Me on single. I actually first heard it on the Radio 1 chart show the week it bombed in at #29 (the media COMPLETELY ignored it, didn't they?!) and bought it the next day because I felt bad for them and I was under the impression it would be a BIG help clearly. What a tragic adolescence. My mum convinced me to give away all my tapes in a moment of weakness once, hence why I no longer have that I Want You Back cassette :nocheer: This was the same woman who also convinced me to get rid of all my old Smash Hits!, Top of the Magazines, etc, that I kept though - I HATE that I let her do that now. *Six if you count seminal 1999 collaboration Thank ABBA For The Music.