dandy*

Thanks for running Dan, totally get why that would have been a lot. Wishing you a lovely Christmas

Five had a clutch of pretty decent pop songs without ever releasing anything I thought was better than just good. Keep On Movin' is one of those ones, I do like it and think it's a good example of a 90s boyband track. I think it would be top half for me. The Armand Van Helden track is my new favourite to depart <3 I bought it at the time but I think I like even more these days than I did back then, it's such a strong house track and totally deserved to get to number 1.

That's a very fair placing, it's awful but not quite as bad as the others you've already featured. It's just so lifeless isn't it? The original has so much energy and attitude to it (even though I don't love it, I can see why others do) where as this cover was so tame, taking the principle of the video battle and removing any sense of battle from it. Considering both groups have some decent cover versions, this was very below par.

I briefly changed it last night to ‘Pink’s Number One Fan’ but sadly I think Michael logged off before he noticed

I can definitely remember The Awakening before I can recall 9PM, the ATB track didn't feel particularly innovative to me at the time as there had been those sorts of guitar trance tracks on those chill out beach compilations, like the Cafe Del Mar ones etc.

Sorry I'm also having issues with it, won't let me change you to Christmas Wrapping! and not sure why?

YES! To the Feist part anyway, I recently entered that to whichever song contest is in the 00s retro forum and it didn't even finish top 10 - I mean make it make sense!!! Also I am intending to watch this so it is most definitely find for someone in their 30s. In fact let's just say that it's the ideal so that I'm only slightly too old to watch it

Beautiful Girls is atrocious, I'd be tempted to even rank it last tbh. Leon is bland but inoffensive, 500 Miles is not supposed to be good really, where as Beautiful Girls is just painful - I don't think he can sing, the lyrics are awful and in general it's just really corny - I'm not at all convinced that it's intentionally trying to deal with anything around men's mental health either, I think it just clumsily uses the word suicidal in a throwaway manner.

I think that's almost certain to happen given gooddelta has often said how much he likes it

I’d have that one a bit lower I think. I was never a fan and only really care for Reach and Don’t Stop Movin’ - which are both great! Oh and the S Club Party one was kinda okay too. This one was a bit too childish sounding for me, which is fine as they were near enough kids themselves, but I definitely wasn’t the target market for it

What is it about them that makes you dislike them so much? I don't love them all by any means, but it's difficult not to see objectively that they are well constructed songs within their styles.

First thing I was looking for too - makes me doubt the list

I have no idea whether Cher made it to another week over 100K or not, will be interested to find out. This is the time when I can recall Tragedy really taking off as it was getting played at christmas and new year parties etc so not surprised to see it jump to a best weekly sale.

This is all so good to see. Have to say that Mayhem hasn't grown old yet at all for me, if anything it has cemented itself as one of my favourite pop albums <3

Nice choice of #1. I can see why people like it so much and actually I like it a lot more now than I did back when it was released, I never really gelled with the whole emo vibe of a lot of these types of bands so I didn't give them much attention. These days I can definitely appreciate it as a good #1 though, I like the structure and ambition of it and it is good that they got a #1 so that the genre had its moment. Personally I think I'd have ranked them something like this: Gnarls Barkley - Crazy Scissor Sisters - I Don’t Feel Like Dancin’ Nelly Furtado - Maneater Madonna - Sorry Take That - Patience Justin Timberlake - Sexyback My Chemical Romance - Welcome to the Black Parade Arctic Monkeys - When The Sun Goes Down Shakira - Hips Don’t Lie (feat. Wyclef Jean) Fedde Le Granfe - Put Your Hands Up For Detroit Lily Allen - Smile Orson - No Tomorrow Razorlight - America Notorious B.I.G. - Nasty Girl (feat. Diddy, Nelly, Jagged Edge & Avery Storm) Akon - Smack That (feat. Eminem) Beyoncé - Déjà Vu (feat. Jay-Z) Meck - Thunder In My Heart Again (feat. Leo Sayer) Sandi Thom - I Wish I Was A Punk Rocker (With Flowers In My Hair) McFly - Star Girl Ne-Yo - So Sick Leona Lewis - A Moment Like This Chico - It’s Chico Time McFly - Don’t Stop Me Now / Please, Please Westlife - The Rose Really enjoyed following this Jade so thank you for undertaking it <3

I bought Sweet Like Chocolate at the time but I really don't like it much at all, I don't even think I did back in 1999 to be honest. It's fine but there were much better garage tracks around that I'd rather have seen have that level of success. I'd probably say it's a 6/10 maybe. Praise You is up there with Lenny Kravitz as my favourite to fall so far. At the time I can remember being really surprised it made #1 as it seemed to me like a weaker single than either The Rockafeller Skank or Gangster Trippin had been, plus it was after the album release too... but I think it's aged well and I definitely prefer it to Gangster now, and maybe even Rockafeller on some days. I revisited the album last year and I think it's held up really well as one of the defining dance albums of the 90s, Soul Surfing in particular has always been a summer fave for me. Lou Bega and Ricky Martin both have tracks that I hold in similar regard, they're tipping over into novelty but in a way that is just really fun and quite infectious. I'd never have dreamed of buying either but I did secretly quite like them, and that's still where I'm at with them today. Mambo no.5 is just a great example of the type of song that would periodically smash in the 90s - something I quite miss from the charts these days as those type of songs often end up being really memorable and help to almost anchor an era, albeit 1999 had more than its fair share of them with a few still to come in here. I'm possibly being a bit harsh calling Livin' La Vida Loca a novelty track as to be fair it is more of a decent pop track with quite a lot of hooks, I'd probably say this and Mambo are about 7.5-8/10s for me.

I do actually agree with this - I don't mind Spotify in general but I'm not a fan of the way it is painting almost a fake picture in chart facts in terms of what the most popular songs from years gone by are in the UK. I get that songs can be popular that weren't hits here at the time but it does sometimes feel like the US bias in playlists strays in to territory of rewriting UK history... ...admittedly it only happens if you actually pay attention to what it does to the best "sellers" lists of all time etc, which of course most people here really don't pay attention to, but for fans of the charts from the 80s and 90s etc it does just feel a bit off

Fly Away is easily the best track to have fallen so far. Lyrically it isn't great, just churning out a few basic metaphors about Mars and the Milky Way etc but it has such a groove to the production that I'm more than willing to forgive any shortfalls in its lyrics.

Personally I'm not a big fan of the Kylie track - BUT I am really impressed that she looks like getting another #1 in 2025, yes you can argue that it's all Amazon fixing stuff but tbh I'm with gooddelta's earlier post that there's so much equivalent fixing that happens with christmas playlists that I'm happy to ignore the amazon element - and tbh I'm just glad that something is capable of breaking through the Wham domination that I'd otherwise assumed was likely to happen for years to come

20 Ain't Got No (I Got Life) / Do What You Gotta Do - Nina Simone (1968) 19 Whatever - Oasis (1994) 18 Crackers International EP - Erasure (1988) 17 I Believe In You - Kylie Minogue (2004) 16 One More Sleep - Leona Lewis (2013) 15 Stan - Eminem (2000) 14 Bad Romance - Lady Gaga (2009) 13 Would I Lie To You - Charles & Eddie (1992) 12 Solid Gold Easy Action - T. Rex (1972) 11 Surfin' Bird - The Trashmen (2010) 10 You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling / Ebb Tide - The Righteous Brothers (1990) 09 Stop The Cavalry - Jona Lewie (1980) 08 Perfect Day - Various Artists (1997) 07 We All Stand Together - Paul McCartney & The Frog Chorus (1984) 06 Fairytale Of New York - The Pogues ft. Kirsty MacColl (2005) 05 Coz I Luv You - Slade (1971) 04 When You Come Back To Me - Jason Donovan (1989) 03 One Of Us - ABBA (1981) 02 Imagine - John Lennon (1999) 01 Juke Box Jive - The Rubettes (1974)

On a similar note, what is the most streamed BJSC entry? I’d guess either Take Me To Church or Video Games unless I’m forgetting something bigger than those

It took me way longer that it should to realise that you did not in fact score between 171 and 180 points in each contest. I was literally like OMG that is an insane level of consistency

Ha ha ha, bless your soul

Ah so the top two is what I would probably have guessed at the beginning, I had a feeling the #1 was going to be your choice! Strong top 3. I like that Nelly Furtado track a lot, although would agree that Say It Right is the best single from the era. And Crazy is a classic for good reason, it's pretty timeless and holds up well in cover versions of all styles of music - something that is usually a sign that the underlying song is a strong one.

The aesthetics! Lovely to see a few FLJ entries make it in to your chart, especially pleased to see Destroyer in there as I can't imagine many people would include that one - and Delaporte too which remains one of my fave songs of the year... and we share the same #1 from another country, Deal really was that song! Congratulations on such an amazing year in the contest <3 Sorry to hear that you're thinking of taking a break, although if that's what you need then so be it. I don't know if you've found this to be the case but doing particularly well kinda brings a weird sense of self pressure that can kind of suck the fun out of it - the stats are great and add some geeky fun to proceedings but also that weird pressure. I nearly always self sabotage after a good run by sending something that I know won't do well just to take the pressure off, ridiculous but true! I don't know how Rob coped with it although maybe you become immune to the pressure after 84 years of qualifying and doing well. Just like I don't know how Cody copes with it after always doing so well.