Julian_

And we’re tied whoops!

1 Sleep Token (surprised to be their 1st voter) 2 Wet Leg 3 The Marias

I went for Tate “Sports Car” - this has really grown on me and I now think it’s probably the best pop song of the year so far though I still struggle with her voice. Also Benson and Remember Monday.

Any more votes? I feel bad knocking something out with only 7. @Chez Wombat @ChrisJK

I haven’t put a single #1 as the top pick this year yet, so time to change that. 9 Liberty X Just A Little 926th#1: the "Popstars" runners up rebooting with a remarkably catchy, intense and sensual song delivered with maturity 8 Rammstein Ich Will They'd been active since 1994 but this is the German group's 1st hit: a great track that must have inspired Baby Lasagna 8 Milk Inc In My Eyes Highest peaking hit for this Belgian dance group: a great track and another in that lovely emotion laden soaring vocal style 7 Jessica Garlick Come Back 3rd in Eurovision and one of our best results this century for this "Pop Idol" finalist: a classy old style ballad beautifully sung 7 Green Velvet La La Land Only hit for this US DJ: it's very explicitly drug themed but I enjoy the trippy vibe and it's a catchy and interesting track 6 Pink Don't Let Me Get Me Her 6th straight Top 10: the song is quite standard and there's better to come but I love the lyrics about being a misfit 6 Heartless Crew The Heartless Crew Theme Only Top 40 for this UK garage act similar to So Solid Crew: I think the style will be going out of favour but a fun number 5 KMC Featuring Dhany I Feel So Fine Only hit for this Italian dance act: it might work better as an instrumental as I enjoy the production more than the vocal part 5 Enrique Iglesias Escape An upbeat song following up his big power ballad: quite standard but more up my street than that and I like the guitar riff 4 Fat Joe Featuring Ashanti What's Luv? Biggest hit for this US rapper: it's not bad and very much in the Ja Rule style with gruffly rapped verses and a sung chorus 3 A1 Make It Good Their only Top 10 miss and last hit: a fairly uninteresting song unfortunately after they had shown so much promise lately 3 Luck And Neat Irie Their last hit without the DJ and MC in their name: it has their usual energy but I don't think the song is strong enough 2 The Reelists Freak Mode Their only hit aside from a So Solid Crew feature: bizarre as it's a soulful track but with lyrics about flashing one's bottom 2 R. Kelly And Jay-Z Honey Jay-Z's rapped parts on this aren't bad but R.Kelly's sung parts are so boring that overall it's not a very appealing track 2002 Week 22: #1310 01/06/2002 Eminem Without Me 1 {1}-2-2-5-9-8-10-13-14-17-20-28-30-41-53-64->16 #1311 01/06/2002 Atomic Kitten It's OK! 3 {3}-6-6-11-17-16-22-29-29-36-38-47-65->13 #1312 01/06/2002 Westlife Bop Bop Baby 5 {5}-14-21-32-46-42-36-35-42-72->10 #1313 01/06/2002 Ms Dynamite It Takes More 7 {7}-12-17-26-35-36-45-56-58-69->10 #1314 01/06/2002 Ian Van Dahl Reason 8 {8}-11-18-31-39-50-62-72->8 #1315 01/06/2002 Korn Here To Stay 12 {12}-23-26-46-71->5 #1316 01/06/2002 Rhianna Oh Baby 18 {18}-27-34-43-60->5 #1317 01/06/2002 A Starbucks 20 {20}-38-45->3 #1318 01/06/2002 Billy Bragg And The Blokes Take Down The Union Jack 22 {22}-46->2 #1319 01/06/2002 Lauren Waterworth Baby, Now That I've Found You 24 {24}-44-66->3 #1320 01/06/2002 Black Rebel Motorcycle Club Spread Your Love 27 {27}-53->2 #1321 01/06/2002 DJ Shadow You Can't Go Home Again 30 {30}-54->2 #1322 01/06/2002 The Saw Doctors This Is Me 31 {31}->1 #1323 01/06/2002 The Electric Soft Parade Empty At The End 39 {39}->1

Congratulations Bray - really happy for you to win one of these as I know you haven’t always had good luck in them. The Rachid Taha track was a really interesting take on a classic and I particularly enjoyed the non English parts. Thanks Severin for great hosting and a really challenging and different theme! Thanks very much all who enjoyed Nina Simone - especially those who gave it top points (Addy, WoW and Dobbo I think), and jim, dandy* and Rollo who gave 10s. Delighted to get my first medal position in this contest. It’s thanks to popchartfreak really as he always said when I was reviewing Dylan’s ‘60s hits that they’re even better when sung by someone else. I found that Nina had made a thing of doing Dylan covers and I was absolutely floored by this one. The way the lyrics that I hadn’t fully appreciated before come alive as she squeezes every drop of emotion out of them. And the ceremony of the organ solo before she comes back to deliver the climax. Thinking about how much the words must have meant to her in the context of the civil rights movement it all makes sense. x

“Creep” is a huge classic of course but when it comes to musical boundary pushing there are many Radiohead songs that do a lot more. Yay for “Smells Like Teen Spirit”! I’ve been thinking for at least a year this would be my 50 haha. It’s a genre and era defining track. Thanks very much for another brilliantly organised contest Rollo!

Don’t Start Now Levitating Come & Go

Aurora’s my favourite - I always seem to enjoy songs called “The Flood”. 2 Miley 3 Laufey “Azizam” not clicking at all so far. I generally find Ed’s “cultural” efforts a little forced.

“Disco 2000” is a great Britpop classic - Pulp did incredible storytelling. I’ve always loved ABBA but I appreciate “Lay All Your Love On Me” more the older I get: it really combines that early 80s synth magic with the best of their sound. ABBA were my 48 and REM my 49, but my 50 is still in!

Just listening to “Pass The Courvoisier” by Busta Rhymes as part of my 2002 reviews and thought of this. It was only #16 though.

Easy choice there!

“Jolene” has to be one of the most iconic country hits ever. “Everybody Hurts” ❤️ : in a way it’s amazing it wasn’t a multi week #1 and just spent a couple of weeks in the Top 10 with unremarkable sales. But I guess the album was huge and that worked against singles at the time.

4 new entries in the Top 10 this week but they’re all rather limp. Luckily the lower part of the chart comes to the rescue again, and this fabulous wall of noise from The Cooper Temple Clause tops the bunch. 9 The Cooper Temple Clause Who Needs Enemies? This is marvellous: a very energetic track but it feels like it is mixing different genres with the brass band accompaniment 8 The Hives Main Offender This originally failed to chart in 2000 and now gets a re-release: it's another really electrifying one in their punky style 7 Hundred Reasons Silver Their highest peaking hit with a really strong and punchy emo style track that's quite heavy yet has a slight waltz feel to it 6 Aaliyah Rock The Boat Another single from her eponymous final album: a subtle track without huge impact but it has lovely vocals and lyrics 5 Lost Witness Did I Dream (Song To The Siren) Last hit for the producer with a cover of "Song To The Siren" from 1970: it works pretty well as an ethereal trance track 5 Bellefire All I Want Is You Their 2nd #18 hit with a U2 cover: this actually works quite well in a girlband style and all in all is a decent effort from them 4 P.O.D. Youth Of The Nation Their 2nd and last Top 40: a good beat and rousing chorus but the lyrics to this are so dark I find it hard to really enjoy 3 H And Claire DJ The Steps duo will have a few hits: think this is trying and failing to emulate "Don't Stop Movin'" and the classic disco sound 3 Russell Watson And Faye Tozer Someone Like You Only Top 10 for the operatic crooner and the Steps star's only solo hit, but a drippy song not saved by being partly in Italian 2 Ronan Keating If Tomorrow Never Comes 925th #1 and a cover of a 1989 Garth Brooks song without the country charm and with any interesting sucked out of it 2 Nigel And Marvin Follow Da Leader Only hit for this DJ duo using the same hit as "I Wanna Be U" from last year: it's a naff DJ Otzi style summer holiday track 2002 Week 21: #1296 25/05/2002 Liberty X Just A Little 1 {1}-2-4-3-8-10-10-12-16-19-20-22-29-36-48-62->16 #1297 25/05/2002 Enrique Iglesias Escape 3 {3}-6-7-11-17-19-20-25-30-35-40-55-65-70->14 #1298 25/05/2002 Fat Joe Featuring Ashanti What's Luv? 4 {4}-9-8-13-25-43-52-64->8 #1299 25/05/2002 Pink Don't Let Me Get Me 6 {6}-11-13-14-21-26-28-33-45-57-71->11 #1300 25/05/2002 Milk Inc In My Eyes 9 {9}-15-21-27-39-58-72-71->8 #1301 25/05/2002 A1 Make It Good 11 {11}-33-48-60-47R(4)->5 #1302 25/05/2002 Jessica Garlick Come Back 13 {13}-17-19-29-48-69->6 #1303 25/05/2002 The Reelists Freak Mode 16 {16}-29-41-58-73-75R(2)->6 #1304 25/05/2002 Heartless Crew The Heartless Crew Theme 21 {21}-43-70->3 #1305 25/05/2002 Green Velvet La La Land 29 {29}-60->2 #1306 25/05/2002 Rammstein Ich Will 30 {30}-54->2 #1307 25/05/2002 Luck And Neat Irie 31 {31}-58->2 #1308 25/05/2002 KMC Featuring Dhany I Feel So Fine 33 {33}-59->2 #1309 25/05/2002 R. Kelly And Jay-Z Honey 35 {35}-63->2

Guess there’s a small chance its streaming points did drop last week if its paid for sales increased. It moved 16-18 on the sales chart but on a slightly increasing market.

“Rover” by S1mba Not Top 10 but “Starbucks” by A Not sure if we’d count something like “Life On Mars”

Livin’ it up in survivor heaven is Ja Rule. This was the lead single from his 3rd album “Pain Is Love” which went on to be a huge success. Originally it only reached #27, but following the success of “Always On Time” it had a re-release and reached #5 in July 2002. 8th: Ja Rule featuring Case - Livin’ It Up 13/33 votes (39%) 9th: Destiny’s Child featuring T.I. and Lil Wayne - Soldier 12/30 votes (40%) 10th: Sergio Mendes featuring The Black Eyed Peas - Mas Que Nada 12/32 votes (32%)

Alesha has been brushed up: the Mis-Teeq singer, Strictly winner and BGT judge had a few big solo hits in the later ‘00s. “The Boy Does Nothing” reached #5 in November 2008 before hanging on in the charts for long enough to make the 2009 year end list. 5th: Alesha Dixon - The Boy Does Nothing 13/33 votes (39%) 6th: Sean Paul - Temperature 14/31 votes (45%) 7th: Feist - 1234 10/32 votes (31%) 8th: Cascada - What Hurts The Most 12/34 votes (35%) 9th: Nickelback - Someday 10/30 votes (33%) 10th: Westlife - What Makes A Man 21/33 votes (64%)

Kelly for me - I don’t think she needed to be here for a second time.

It’s the 1st ultimate in the 101-200 series! 😃

I only just found out that “(Don’t You) Forget About Me” wasn’t written by Simple Minds. It’s wonderful though - such a warm emotive track. I’ve come to appreciate “Seven Nation Army” even more over the years: I think it’s totally timeless and transcends its genre. And even the football and political uses haven’t spoiled it for me.

Glad you enjoyed this! One of the singles from this is right up with my favourite songs of the decade. I won’t say which as I’m planning to do a Muse singles rate sometime this year!

There was also this, where “Common People” and “Born Slippy” were 1st and 2nd respectively! https://www.buzzjack.com/forums/topic/256919-buzzjacks-favourite-no-2-of-the-90s/page/56/#comment-7234697

Winners so far have been 2 from the ‘80s, 2 from the ‘90s and 2 from the ‘00s. Which decade will be getting its 3rd win? I haven’t actually checked precisely what’s left but I assume it’s all from those 3 decades. “I’m With You” is nice but not a big Avril highlight for me. I don’t think the power ballad style entirely suits her, though I do like “When You’re Gone” a lot. “Basket Case” was a brilliant breakthrough hit for Green Day; such a bundle of energy.

A really strong little group here. I love the quirkiness of “Shifter” so it’s another electronic winner. 8 Timo Maas Featuring MC Chickaboo Shifter His last Top 40 and an excellent dance track: I love the stream of consciousness urban poetry style rhythmic vocal on this 8 Moby We Are All Made Of Stars Another captivating track from Moby: the swirling guitar part against the slightly robotic vocal line really make this great 7 Shakedown At Night Only Top 40 for this group formed by some Swiss brothers: a very strong dance track with an incredibly memorable riff 7 Cosmic Gate Exploration Of Space 2nd and last Top 40 for the German DJs: this is a really electrifying trance number and I enjoy it more than "Fire Wire" 7 4 Strings (Take Me Away) Into The Night 1st Top 40 for this Dutch vocal trance group and it's lovely: one of thode euphoric tracks with a soaring female vocal 6 Mary J. Blige No More Drama The title track from her album: quite a serious track after its dancehall style predecessors, but good and well performed 6 Holly Valance Kiss Kiss 924th #1 and 1st hit for this "Neighbours" actor based on "Simarik" by Tarkan from 1997: it's a very cleverly made track 5 Tiga And Zyntherius Sunglasses At Night Only Top 40 for this Canadian teaming up with a Finnish producer to remake the 1983 Corey Hart track: it's interesting 5 Tweet Oops (Oh My) 1st and biggest hit for US RnB singer Charlene Keys: I enjoy the pulsating production on this but the song itself is lacking 4 allSTARS* Back When/Going All The Way Their last hit: both of these are perfectly pleasant songs, though a little syrupy and nothing I will feel the need to revisit 3 Lisbon Lions Featuring Martin O'Neill And The Celt The Best Day Of Our Lives A song about Celtic winning the 1967 European cup: not sure why it was a hit now but for a football song it's not too bad 2002 Week 20: #1285 18/05/2002 Ronan Keating If Tomorrow Never Comes 1 {1}-2-4-5-5-10-12-15-17-20-23-29-33-46-58->15 #1286 18/05/2002 H And Claire DJ 3 {3}-12-26-37-47-55-63-49-34-37-69->11 #1287 18/05/2002 Nigel And Marvin Follow Da Leader 5 {5}-8-14-20-24-37-55-67-58-71->10 #1288 18/05/2002 Russell Watson And Faye Tozer Someone Like You 10 {10}-23-36-51->4 #1289 18/05/2002 Aaliyah Rock The Boat 12 {12}-26-42-55-65-67-75->7 #1290 18/05/2002 Hundred Reasons Silver 15 {15}-43-73->3 #1291 18/05/2002 Bellefire All I Want Is You 18 {18}-32-45-71->4 #1292 18/05/2002 The Cooper Temple Clause Who Needs Enemies? 22 {22}-53->2 #1293 18/05/2002 The Hives Main Offender 24 {24}-48->2 #1294 18/05/2002 Lost Witness Did I Dream (Song To The Siren) 28 {28}-49-75->3 #1295 18/05/2002 P.O.D. Youth Of The Nation 36 {36}-57->2