BillyH

18/12/99: William Orbit - Barber's Adagio for Strings (4 weeks) VIbIHxKh9bk Bloody hell it has!! Tranceheads around the world have their official Millennium anthem and we have the most bizarre Christmas number 1 since Mr Blobby, but an absolutely fitting one for the last weeks of 1999, the 1990s and the 20th century - especially as it fuses the start of the century with the end. Samuel Barber composed 'Adagio for Strings' as a classical piece back in 1936, and in the decades since has been used in various state events and funerals as well as, memorably, the 80s war flick 'Platoon'. Up to the 1990s, and DJ William Orbit did his own version on album 'Pieces in a Modern Style' but that version sounds fairly similar to the Barber original, just with synthesised instruments. Then Ferry Corsten got a hold of it. Absolutely cementing him as the biggest-selling artist of 1999 when System F, Veracocha, Gouryella are combined - not to mention all his remixes - he finishes the year with a masterpiece, initally confusing clubbers around the world by starting with the original classical piece before BOOM, the trance beats start to come in. The result is a musical experience impossible to describe in words, a work of genius that the late Samuel Barber I like to think would be very proud - if amused - by, turning one of the most heartbreaking pieces of music into one of the most astonishing trance anthems I've ever heard. As we move through into January 2000 it continues to ride high at the chart, which makes you wonder what on earth can stop it? Happy new millennium everyone, may the forthcoming 21st century be one of peace, wealth and happiness.

11/12/99: Mario Piu - Communication (Somebody Answer The Phone) xphxPPQXJKw Oh dear. A silly song but a slightly frustratingly catchy novelty one at that, based around the technological craze of the year. While they've been around for over a decade, it's been 1999 when the mobile phone has truly made the crossover from business people in suits to something everyone has to have, with slightly scary stories of children as young as 8 or 9 now owning one. They've also increased in power while decreasing in size, to the point where the ultra-compact Nokia 3210 is the must-have model of the moment, finally dispensing the silly aerial at the top for a stylish rounded design with clever features like predictive text and even a way of composing your own ringtones. I say this like I know this stuff - I don't, I'm still someone who doesn't own one, but that may have to change soon as I'm starting to feel a bit 20th century. So it was up to Italian DJ Mario Piu to cash in on it all and base a dance track on all the weird and wonderful monophonic noises you get from these things, then given a further boost by being given a remix by Yomanda (Northern Irish DJ Paul Masterson) for its lead single release. Reports already in certain clubs around the country are of the more well-off clubbers holding up their phones in drunken joy as this song plays, so as rather ridiculous the song is it's clearly resonated with some of today's generation. File it under the guilty pleasures for me, as long as it only lasts a week at #1 I'll stand it. We're two weeks away from the festive chart but the rush really kicks off next week. There's one track from a certain chart behemoth just released that I'm secretly hoping goes all the way, but not getting my hopes up too much...

04/12/99: Alice Deejay - Back In My Life ldgwAAwj9zs Can you believe it? We're in December already, the most important December in ten centuries as we are days away from entering the third millennium. Unsurprisingly the Christmas number 1 battle is as big as ever, but - thank god! - no Spice Girls this year although a few solo split-offs are having a go. The result is a rush of entries from around the world coming over the next few weeks, and presumably one that will resume in January as everyone competes to be the first #1 of the year 2000. For now, did anyone expect Alice Deejay to follow-up Better Off Alone? They've shed the one-hit wonder tag with ease and surely bets are on now for them to carry on this luck through 2000, they've found a perfect middleground between pop and trance with their releases so far and while this doesn't quite have the killer melody of BoA, it's still a wonderful listen and sounding weirdly festive for a sound so generally summery. Can't help noticing though that the CD single features a short edit of, you guessed it, Better Off Alone though, so perhaps that was an extra incentive for people to buy it as you're essentially getting two songs in one. Otherwise if you didn't buy Better Off Alone while its single was still available in the summer, how else are you meant to hear it other than pay £15 for Now That's What I Call Music 43?

27/11/99: Wamdue Project - King of My Castle DXSyQjppqG0 Somewhat of a shock #1 although following the pattern of the last few weeks, like 'Get Get Down' it's the unlikely place of the United States where the origins of this lie, starting out as a much more downtempo track two years ago by Atlanta resident Chris Brann before being remixed by a bloke called 'Roy Malone', actually an alias for Italian Mauro Ferrucci. The result is a hit all over Europe, and, as ever, nowhere to be found in the US Hot 100 although hitting the top on their Hot Dance Club chart. Difficult to pinpoint exactly what's appealed to so many but it's probably that thudding house beat, refreshing to hear something so housey after the trancemania of the year.

Main memory of The Flood is a bizarre-as-hell performance on The X Factor, everyone being very reserved and serious except for Robbie who looked like he was being electrocuted, shaking and bouncing all over the place. Some said drugs, others just said it was his excitement/nerves at being back with Take That, I just thought it was attention-seeking, either that or they were playing a drum & bass remix in his earpiece by mistake. Then a really awkward bit afterwards when Dermot asked Gary Barlow (a year away from judging the show) who he wanted to win, Robbie immediately interrupted shouting "WAGNER! WAGNER!" only to get completely ignored by everyone as Gary properly answered the question.

13/11/99: Alena - Turn It Around (2 weeks) 0kNDKr5ofKk It's like a permanent hangover from the summer as the downtempo trend continues with this stunning pop/dance masterpiece, yet again hailing from the Netherlands with Alena Lova and Dutch producer Carlo Resoort but charting here in a remix from British DJs The Space Brothers. Synths are kept much subtly here at first before springing a bit more to life as the track goes on, and a fantastic vocal from Miss Lova pushes it into greatness. Further down the chart it's a shame to see two pretty good tracks - Planet Perfecto's 'Bullet In The Gun' and Madison Avenue's 'Don't Call Me Baby' underperform somewhat, the latter especially as it's been a major hit in its native Australia. Both surely had the potential to be huge top ten hits. Oh well, can't win them all and maybe they'll gain more recognition in the far future.

06/11/99: Solar Stone - Seven Cities m1j_aOZk-v4 And even dance music changes with the seasons, as while this could technically be called "trance" it sounds very different to the pounders released in the Spring and Summer, this keeps the beat but downplays everything else and is something of a spiritual experience, a fly through the closing few skies of the 20th century and another that can work both in the club and on a Sunday morning chilltime. Radio plays the 3:31 edit, but it's worth buying the CD for the full length 8:11 mix to truly immerse yourself. Progressive trance at its finest and another worthy #1, just beating boyband Five to the top but their 'Keep On Moving' should have some staying power of its own all the same.

16/10/99: Christina Aguilera - Genie In A Bottle (3 weeks) kIDWgqDBNXA Staying in America and watch out Britney, you've got competition. 18 year old Aguilera locks onto the #1 spot with a track that dominated the American airwaves over the summer and becomes a deserved Autumn smash here. It's actually odd to imagine it as a summer hit as its slightly melancholic sound fits the sound of falling leaves and darkening skies more, but it seems seasons can't stop this from being a hit no matter what. But how can two similar-sounding teen pop sensations co-exist in harmony? Will one fall in popularity leaving the other to rule victorious, or will it be a case of Britney Who and Christina Huh by circa 2001? As ever, time will tell.

It had a negative reputation even then - this was when people started to get really sick of Cheryl as for the last two years she'd been hyped up by everyone big time. All the Cheryl fans mostly bought it in the first week and it fell down the charts soon after, and the next year or so saw something of a downfall as 'The Flood' underperformed and then there was the whole US X Factor controversy in 2011. I'm amazed she managed to rescue things with Call My Name to be honest, but that did basically just sound like every other number 1 in 2012 so it basically just cashed in a trend.

Ah I joined in 2007 once I started collecting them all from charity shops, you're right though within a couple of years it was dead. Still visit occasionally but its past its best. My proudest achievement was perhaps posting a deliberately jokey tracklist for Now 100 (Summer 2018), which at the time was ten years away. Looking back it's not quite as amusing as I thought it was but it satrically sums up that musical era well.

Surprised to see so many zeros and -1s for Beautiful Girls, always really liked it!

This is a bit of an odd era for music as it's too long ago to be even barely current but too recent to be retro/nostalgic. To be honest I wouldn't call 2007 a classic year - the dance was bollocks (too much tuneless electro), the pop bland and the indie stale, but particularly on Disc 2 there's some fantastic tracks released near the end of the year. Good memories of being 18/19 and to me this is the soundtrack of when me and everyone I know joined Facebook! 07 Leona Lewis - Bleeding Love 09 Take That - Rule The World 01 Kylie Minogue - 2 Hearts (love Kylie but this was a real stinker) 08 Mark Ronson feat. Amy Winehouse - Valerie 09 Sugababes - About You Now 08 Kanye West - Stronger 02 Craig David - Hot Stuff (Let's Dance) 09 Sean Kingston - Beautiful Girls 02 Shayne Ward - No U Hang Up 05 Timbaland feat. D.O.E & Keri Hilson - The Way I Are 04 Britney Spears - Gimme More 03 Rihanna - Shut Up and Drive 03 Girls Aloud - Sexy! No No No 11 Robyn with Kleerup - With Every Heartbeat :wub: (what a track, still can't believe this got to #1) 04 Enrique Iglesias - Tired Of Being Sorry 07 Groove Armada - Song 4 Mutya (Out Of Control) 00 Se:Sa feat. Sharon Phillips - Like This Like That 07 Ida Corr vs Fedde Le Grand - Let Me Think About It 10 Axwell feat. Max'C - I Found You (this would be huge if released today!) -1 Freaks - The Creeps (Get On The Dancefloor) :puke2: (the absolute embodiment of the tuneless electro I really hated around this time, made even worse by a ill-fitting vocal) 04 Peter Gelderblom - Waiting 4 05 David Guetta feat. Chris Willis - Love Is Gone Disc 2 10 Plain White T's - Hey There Delilah 08 James Blunt - 1973 10 Newton Faulkner - Dream Catch Me 06 The Hoosiers - Worried About Ray 06 Scouting For Girls - She's So Lovely 08 Feist - 1234 (played constantly at the Virgin Megastore in Piccadilly Circus, just before Virgin Megastores ceased to exist) 09 Phil Collins - In The Air Tonight 06 Avril Lavigne - When You're Gone 03 McFly - The Heart Never Lies 10 Amy MacDonald - Mr Rock & Roll 03 KT Tunstall - Hold On 07 The Killers feat. Lou Reed - Tranquilize 03 Stereophonics - It Means Nothing 10 Peter, Bjorn & John feat. Victoria Bergsman - Young Folks (played it to death in '07, barely played at all since and now it sounds as brilliant as it did seven years ago again) 09 Freemasons feat. Bailey Tzuke - Uninvited 06 MIKA - Big Girl (You Are Beautiful) 02 Amy Winehouse - Tears Dry On Their Own 00 Jennifer Lopez - Do It Well 08 Fergie - Big Girls Don't Cry 04 Akon - Don't Matter 01 Nicole Scherzinger feat. Will.i.am - Baby Love 00 Westlife - Home

09/10/99: Macy Gray - I Try WEQ0l_m3Xm0 An instant classic hits the top immediately by one of the newest and most distinctive voices in pop, 30 year old Macy comes from Ohio but oddly has to wait until early next year for this track to be released in her home country. Based on its strength here already it looks like a worldwide hit is assured, wonderfully melodic and how epic is that husky voice. One of those tracks that says #1 the moment you first hear it, it's impossible to imagine a universe where it charted it, say, #10 instead - thank the British public for their sense. Best bit is when she totally loses it at the end and screams out the final couple of choruses in euphoric joy.

02/10/99: S Club 7 - S Club Party -X0EjwF8o0g Simon Fuller breathes a sigh of relief as after being narrowly beaten in the summer by a spoken-word lecture about sunscreen, his new rivals to superstar Steps get at least one #1. And what a sugary upbeat one it is, as Tina, Paul, Rachel, Jo, Hannah, Bradley and Jon (god, that many?) wanna show us how there ain't no party like a S Club party. To be honest after perhaps the most killer chorus since Britney's Baby One More Time, the verses tend to awkwardly meander around until everyone can throw their hands up in their air and shout "S CLUBBBBB!" again in the choruses. And a keychange! I love a keychange. Now they've got that important #1 they find themselves in the same situation to the Thunderbugs as the attempt to make them into a lasting pop act of the new century begins. But no matter what their fate in the near future, watch the kids of today grow up and start ironically dancing to this in student discos in ten years time, in a similar way they do to the likes of Chesney Hawkes today. You can bet on it.

25/09/99: Paul Johnson - Get Get Down dCe6e23yIT8 A dance track but for once not trance, Dutch or even German, but - gasp - American?! Yep, amongst all the rock and urban R&B over there, dance music does have a small if loyal following in the states, although the closest dance has come to #1 on their Billboard Hot 100 in recent times is 'Believe' for a month in March. Stepping over the likes of Los Del Rio's 'Macarena' (1996) and Ace of Base's 'The Sign' (1994), you've got to go way back to early 1991, and two weeks of C&C Music Factory's 'Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)' to find the previous #1 in their charts anything close to what we'd call dance music, perhaps Londonbeat and PM Dawn that year as maybes. It's a situation that is unlikely to change anytime soon as you can hardly imagine someone like R Kelly or Puff Daddy being seen dead attempting to rap or croon over pounding Eurotrance beats, but we do have at least DJ Paul Johnson from Chicago, who DJs in a wheelchair after an accidental gunshot in the 80s. Already much attention has been made from its sheer repetitiveness, consisting as it does of the word 'Get' 52 times and 'Down' a stonking 246. But bloody hell is it catchy, using just a handful of notes to carry it through and you *try* getting it out your head after the first listen. For those tiring of trance after its recent #1 domination, this'll be a much better listen, one either to bop to or chill out with a cool drink to.

I thought '2012' would be the start of a few songs all about that year given how big the Mayan apocalypse story was, but that really ended up being the only one. The last time I heard it was a few minutes into a house party on January 1st 2012 and never since!

What are your favourite and least favourite editons of the Now series? I'm gonna list five of my best and five of my worst, starting with the classics (in chronological order): 1. Now 34 (Summer '96) for its mix of class Britpop and some of the decade's best dance tracks 2. Now 42 (Early '99) for soundtracking the Spring I first massively got into chart music, so many memories of The Box music channel and primary school on there - all the Nows that year could qualify really 3. Now 55 (Summer '03) The heatwave! Play this album and I'm back to being 14 and that incredible year's summer weather, one that warms me up even on the coldest winter nights 4. Now 69 (Early '08) for having barely any duds at all, tons of late teenage anthems and forgotten classics here 5. Now 79 (Summer '11) The music of a ton of club nights I used to frequent in what was a brilliant summer for me, when dubstep was king and about the last time that EDM-heavy sound still felt comparatively fresh And five comparative letdowns: 1. Now 23 (Late '92) which is far before my time, but save for a few great songs there's way too many old ones and re-issues on here that make a bit of a mockery of the album 2. Now 60 (Early '05) for trying its best but being a bit of a crap time for the charts with falling sales and including some dinosaur acts like Geri, Robbie, Atomic Kitten and Daniel Bedingfield, all of which were once good but by now had past their peak and felt like a different era entirely 3. Now 63 (Early '06) for being a similar story to 60, featuring the likes of Chico and Friday Hill and the best track on it is a 21 year old Dead or Alive song 4. Now 75 (Early '10) just being weirdly underwhelming in an otherwise brilliant run of the 70 series, all the best tracks from that time are either on Now 74 or 76 so this one awkwardly falls in the middle 5. Now 85 (Summer '13) but perhaps just a sign I'm probably getting a bit old, for just two truly brilliant tracks - 'I Love It' and 'So Good To Me' - and a lot of bland dross, including those first five irritatingly overplayed tracks of Disc 1. Thankfully I have completely lost my taste in music as this summer's Now 88 is slightly better. Obviously not everyone's going to agree with those but as usual it's just my opinion :P

18/09/99: Thunderbugs - Friends Forever 3u_0hzDwz1Q And thank GOD for new girl group Thunderbugs who finally bring guitars back kicking and screaming to the number 1 list. With the Spice Girls on what may forever remain a hiatus, All Saints hard at work on their second album and B*Witched on the cusp of reaching theirs, they briefly have a monopoly as the only girl group this side of the Atlantic releasing new material. And they have a gimmick - they play their own instruments. All in their mid-twenties (old in today's Britney and Billie generation of teen stars) and hoping to be a modern-day Bangles for the 90s, this really isn't anything new and indeed could have been released a decade earlier, but if they're blessed with enough hit songs up their sleeves they could well emerge being one of the key acts to watch as we move into the year 2000 - just as long as groups like All Saints don't come back with any singles so killer that it relegates Thunderbugs to the almost-rans. But their early marketing push has at least paid off for now and Stef, Nicky, Brigitte and Jane start their career at least with the biggest-selling single in the country this week. Remember those names.

11/09/99: Agnelli & Nelson - Everyday Y-le1F3WwCY Even I'm starting to want something a bit different now but you can't doubt the quality of the music. Bar a one-off week for Sixpence None the Richer back in May, it has now been a extremely long time since anything remotely rock or even acoustic has hit the top of the charts - the days of Blur and a reformed Blondie reaching #1 now seem far away. But then look back at the last five years and it's Britpop, Britpop, Britpop all the way - the public are voting with their £1.99 CD purchases and saying no more rock as we end the decade that brought us Oasis, Pulp and Mike Flowers Pops, it's time to start as we began with raved-up euphoria. Both Agnelli & Nelson are not quite as exotic as they first appear and instead hail from nearby Northern Ireland, and they already made a big splash back in 1998 with one of the first 'trance' tracks as we know it today, El Nino. As the last of summer's sunshine fades this Ibiza favourite gets a September release and you can imagine even they were surprised on Sunday evening when Mark Goodier announced it as this week's #1, if on a small margin and likely to drop fast as October's chill nears. Nothing particularly new here, following the 'Carte Blanche' blueprint of slowing everything down in the middle and slowly building up to a final frenzy at the end, but again it suits the Ibizan clubbers perfectly with a vocal mix at least this time existing for radio play. The original instrumental is definitely where it's at though.

04/09/99: Ayla - Ayla BLWxdub9-2Q Rock is dead. So proclaim several newspaper and magazine articles as we move into the autumn as thousands return from Ibiza and eagerly start snapping up every club track they can at their local music store, providing them with magical if hazy memories of their Spanish party hols. The likes of Travis and other so called 'post-Britpop' acts may be gaining the most critical acclaim but single sellers they are not, causing a huge genre difference between the singles and album charts as an act on one will almost certain not top the charts on the other. You can't imagine, for example, an Ayla album reaching #1. What this track is and who made it is quite a confusing one. 'Ayla' himself is German DJ Ingo Kunzi, and dates right back in its original form to the mid-90s. The most famous and renowned version is perhaps the DJ Taucher mix which features on the CD single, but not as the lead track - that goes to a beefed-up-for-1999 Veracocha remix, meaning our friend Ferry has, ridiculously, his fourth #1 of the year if only just as a remixer this time. Which means you've got two different groups of people buying the single - those who've heard the Veracocha version in recent months and know that as "their" Ayla, and those who've been dancing to Taucher's for the best part of three years, finally seeing it for sale after perhaps not even knowing the name of the purely instrumental track before. All contribute to trance continuing to wrestle its arms around the UK Singles Chart and refuse to let go - and with many, many more post-Ibiza anthems lined up for release through September, the party's not over yet.

That was a great week as I don't think many expected Forget You to beat Shame to the top - I got mega sick of Forget You over about the next six months but it's good to listen to it again now, it majorly defined that autumn for me. Also the last ever song I bought on CD single as I couldn't decide which version I preferred and the CD had them both, before they basically became impossible to buy in stores. ...is it really bad I absolutely adored Miami 2 Ibiza? It sounded incredible in clubs and had seen Tinie Tempah go from the slightly irritating dude on 'Pass Out' to the slightly less-irritating guy on 'Written In The Stars' to being part of some SHM brilliance. Now there's about five hundred identical-sounding songs out there but it and 'One' stood out a hell of a lot more at the time.

31/07/99: Alice Deejay - Better Off Alone (5 weeks) lHjNmyzrVvM If there was any doubt before, this five-week run absolutely confirms 1999 as the year of trance. Looking ahead to the year 2000 it's difficult to know how this musical scene can progress from here - either the beats are just gonna get harder, the melodies more complex and many more trance anthems topping the charts are yet to come, or perhaps we've peaked as soon as we've began and the next big craze will have overtaken it. For now there is nothing to be worried about and again it's the Dutch - yet not, for once, Ferry Corsten - who command the #1 spot with this simple but brill trance-pop ditty. In today's chart-high-then-fall climate it's quite refreshing to see something actually increase its sales week-on-week, a few steps down the power of Gouryella but it equally screams summer in shedloads, containing minimal repeated lyrics and an almost irritatingly-catchy instrumental hook that bleeps its way through the song. It's remained at #1 for the whole of August, must *surely* not be the last we've heard of DJ Jurgen and vocalist Judith Anna Pronk and when in years to come they start having 1990s nostalgia nights you can bet this'll be up there with the likes of Rhythm is a Dancer, Children and all the other modern classics.

Ha thanks, looking ahead to 2000 I'll probably do that too - fun to rewrite history so drastically :P 10/07/99: Gouryella - Gouryella (3 weeks) briVKxMcU0c He's back! And again he is simply unstoppable as a third of Ferry's aliases hit the top this time joined by fellow rising Dutch DJ Tiesto. Put simply they've made perhaps the most summery, heat-drenched dance anthem ever made to the point where I don't think I've ever heard any song sound so *perfect* in hot temperatures. To get three number 1s in a year - totalling eleven weeks - is an astonishing achievement, although sadly it probably won't show up in the record books as he's been under a different name each time. Pity poor Steps who come a close #2 with Love's Got A Hold On My Heart.

It's kinda sad how all my late 2000s musical icons of my late teens/very early twenties have constantly flopped on their comebacks - back then I was a huge fan of Mika, Alphabeat, Sam Sparro, Hot Chip, and probably La Roux most of all, absolutely none of which made it into the next decade with a truly big-selling single. Indeed I was amazed - and delighted - when Katy B had a #5 out of nowhere earlier this year, one of my 2010-11 equivalents, but she seems to have been an exception. It's making me already feel old at 25 and wondering who in the current charts will still be relevant even in a couple of years!

03/07/99: ATB - 9pm (Til I Come) fmGQMmtXAF0 July's begun, the sun's out and trance makes a triumphant return with German DJ André Tanneberger's Europe-wide hit, charting here in its special new 'Sequential One' remix for the UK. Featuring a distinctive bendy guitar sound and not much else, the simple production sounds great in the midsummer heat. Quite a few more trance anthems are coming up over the rest of the summer, and with Ibiza proving a huge draw for a clubbing holiday this could be the start of a run to rival the eight weeks of Ferry Corsten-mania in the spring.