It’s the week before Christmas in 1998 and all eyes are on the race to be that year’s festive No 1. Well, mine were as I was working in the Our Price store in Altrincham so focussing on the late December dash up the charts was kind of part of the job. Now, the Top 20 countdown featured in this episode wasn’t the Christmas chart. That would be announced in the TOTP Christmas show* that aired on BBC2 on the big day itself so whoever was No 1 in this particular episode knew that they only had to hang on for seven days to take the title.

*I’m not reviewing the Christmas show as that was basically a rundown of the biggest selling singles of the year which no doubt I will have already reviewed potentially multiple times. The only ‘new’ songs were Denise van Outen and Johnny Vaughan doing a cover of “Especially For You” and a Christmas song from Jane McDonald – yeah, I think I’m doing us all a favour by skipping those two.

So who were the contenders? Let’s take a look…

Our host is Jayne Middlemiss who seems to have chopped some locks off although in the Christmas show she has longer hair so either they were extensions or they filmed that before this show? Anyway, with the greatest respect, I don’t think the opening act were in the running for the festive No 1 spot although one of their number had come very close to one 12 years prior*. In fact, The Beautiful South had a chart topper to their name – 1990’s “A Little Time” – and actually had come very close to another with their last single “Perfect 10” but I stand by my stance that they were never really in the running for the big Christmas prize. “Dumb”, the follow up to “Perfect 10”, was such a downbeat tune that it seemed an odd choice for a single at any time of the year but at Christmas time? Very strange. I’m a bit of a fan of Paul Heaton and his various musical incarnations but this is not one of my favourites of his. It seems quite repetitive and more concerned with its musicality than a tune. It’s still knocks spots off most of the crud in the charts this year though. “Dumb” peaked at No 16.

*The Housemartins were bumped off the No 1 spot at the death when the rerelease of Jackie Wilson’s “Reet Petite” claimed the festive chart topper over “Caravan Of Love” in 1986.

Oh blimey! This has come around quicker than I was expecting. Time to bring out the *SPOILER ALERT!* sign. The 1998 Christmas No 1 is suddenly upon us. Tear up those betting slips anybody who doubted the continuing pull of the Spice Girls as “Goodbye” beats off all competition to give the group three consecutive festive winners, the first time this has been achieved since The Beatles did it between 1963 and 1965. Despite the trauma of losing Geri Halliwell from their line up and the fall out of that, they ended the year as they began it at No 1. Obviously given its title, conclusions were leapt to that it was about Halliwell and it turned out that was true but that wasn’t the whole story. It was originally written whilst Geri was still in the group about the ending of a non-specific relationship but was rewritten following her departure to be specifically about her. A genuine outpouring of emotion or cynical manipulation of a situation to enrich the organisation? You decide. There was, of course, another reading of that title – that it was valedictory and heralded the end of the Spice Girls. That wasn’t quite true, there was another album and one last No 1 single but what was undeniable was that it drew a line under the first phase* of the group. They would not release any more material in the 90s. For me personally, this was the end of the Spice Girls story. However, they will be back for one more TOTP appearance in the next BBC4 repeat so their 90s story is not quite done yet.

*I’m not splitting hairs about first and second phases of the group pre and post Geri. I’m referring to the different phases when they were a recording artist and just a nostalgia reunion touring entity.

Another all girl group now as the Honeyz follow up their debut hit “Finally Found” with another Top 5 smash in “End Of The Line”. Another smooth soul sound, this was also an accomplished ballad that ebbed and flowed, swooped and soared – I could imagine Whitney Houston singing it, especially the “I deserve some damn respect” line. Did it ever gave a shot at being the Christmas No 1? No, I don’t think so – Honeyz weren’t established enough to take on the likes of the Spice Girls what with “End Of The Line” being only their second single. Curiously, despite racking up five Top 10 singles straight off the bat, I’m not sure they ever did fully establish themselves. Parent album to all those hits – “Wonder No 8” – never really achieved massive sales peaking at No 33. To this day, it remains the group’s only album release.

To a group now who did have a UK No 1 to their name but that was five years prior and their latest offering in 1998 was surely destined never to be enshrined in the annals of festive chart toppers. “Always Have, Always Will” was undoubtedly prime Christmas party playlist fodder with its blatant Motown rip off sound but Ace Of Base were never more than big outsiders at the bookies. Indeed, back in 1993 despite “All That She Wants” riding high in the charts, I think you would have got long odds on them being consistent hitmakers throughout the rest of the 90s but here they were with their eleventh UK Top 40 single. Obviously, the Motown samples are to the fore but it also sounds like that Eurovision song Sonia did also in 1993 or even this from the first Nativity…

One of the band appears to be missing from this performance – the blonde singer who I believe is the sister of the Anni-Frid lookalike on vocals here. Where was she then? Maybe this Motown pastiche was too shameful even for her? Certainly some of the 60s style dancing in the studio audience – were they planted dancers like in the good old days? – was embarrassing.

Having had three Top 10 hits to this point, Lutricia McNeal, not surprisingly, threw her hat into the ring for a tilt at the Christmas No 1 by releasing a ballad. Well, it was traditional. “The Greatest Love You’ll Never Know” certainly had the title of something that the aforementioned Whitney Houston might have recorded but its sound was very nondescript. It wasn’t in with a sniff of being the season’s best seller. Maybe Lutricia (or her record label) knew this and so, to increase its chances of success, made it a double A-side with a cover of classic Christmas hit – “When A Child Is Born” made famous by Johnny Mathis. After having heard that version dozens of times in the run up to Christmas 2025, I wasn’t likely to seek out Lutricia’s take on it but I did wonder if she did the cringey spoken word bit towards the end? And talking of the end, this would be McNeal’s final ever hit (and presumably TOTP appearance). Sadly, her legacy remains that although I remember her name, it’s because of the unusual nature of that moniker rather than her music.

Here’s another female solo artist with their eyes on the Christmas prize but, unlike Lutricia McNeal, she didn’t go with a smoochy ballad but instead stuck rigidly to the dance/pop formula that had already brought her two No 1 singles from her first two releases. I speak of Billie who, like another act we will see tonight, had ambitions of making it three chart toppers out of three. “She Wants You” didn’t break any new ground other than that of not sticking to the tried and tested strategy of releasing two fast tracks and one slow one at the outset of your pop career. Perversely, Billie would release a slower number with her fourth single “Honey To The Bee”.

However, just as Lutricia did, Billie backed up her song with a cover of a previous festive hit (Wham!’s “Last Christmas” in this case) as one of the extra tracks on the CD single. Again, I haven’t sought out Billie’s version and have no intention of doing so but I do wonder if she would have been better off releasing “Honey To The Bee” for Christmas instead. Finally, why are there eight (EIGHT!) male dancers behind her all dressed in their own casual clothes? Not very professional looking is it?

Right, this next one had zero chance of being No 1 for Christmas. Despite all their album sales, the fact is that REM were not prolific when it came to huge hit singles. Of their 22 UK chart entries to this point, only six made the Top 10 and within those, only one breached the Top 5. Added to that, I don’t think they were still in their imperial phase by 1998 so they were unlikely to suddenly release a universal festive tune that would capture the mainstream market and catapult them to the top of the charts. The last time they’d had such a transformative hit was…”Shiny Happy People”? Anyway, the band’s December 1998 hit was “Lotus” the chief lyric of which – “I ate the lotus” – was never going to be a Christmas classic. As with The Beautiful South, it really isn’t their best work but it’s still a decent tune. A big Christmas hit though? No. Actually, and I’m probably in a minority of one with this, but I believe there is an REM Christmas song though I don’t really understand why I think this. I refer to “Find The River” which was the sixth and final single from “Automatic For The People” and the least successful of those six. So why am I banging in about it? Well, it was released two days before December kicked in so there’s that and it somehow channels a Wintery theme which clearly anchors it as a Christmas song. In my head anyway.

And so we arrive at this week’s No 1. The occupants of said position would surely have fancied themselves as front runners to be the Christmas chart topper no? Erm…no. Not this year. I think that the opposition in the form of the Spice Girls was always going to be too strong and so a choice had to be made for/by B*Witched. Did they chance their arm(s) by going head to head with Sporty, Posh, Scary and Baby or did they, to use a golfing term, ‘lay up’ by releasing their single “To You I Belong” a week earlier thus avoiding a confrontation with “Goodbye” and simultaneously bagging their third consecutive No 1? It was a simple decision in the end. Lead singer Edele Lynch’s intro to this appearance of “This is our third No 1 on Top of the Pops. Thanks a million to everyone out there” seems to confirm that everyone involved was happy with the decision and its outcome.

As for the song itself, unlike Billie, B*Witched did follow the ‘two fast then a slow one’ template as “To You I Belong” was nothing like its predecessors. A ballad with a definite Irish feel to it (is that a flute in the mix?), it actually sounds like it was written to hopefully duplicate the success of Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On” title which it has more than a passing resemblance. I always found it quite weak and so adjusting its release date to ensure a record breaking* No 1 was a sensible choice.

*With this hit, B*Witched became the first Irish band to have three consecutive No 1 singles.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	The Beautiful South	Dumb	Not for me
2	Spice Girls	Goodbye	No
3	Honeyz	End Of The Line	Nah
4	Ace Of Base	Always Have, Always Will	Never have, never will
5	Lutricia McNeal	The Greatest Love You’ll Never Know	Never
6	Billie	She Wants You	I did not
7	REM	Lotus	Nope
8	B*Witched	To You I Belong	No you didn’t

Disclaimer

I make no claim to the rights of this show and all ownership and contents including logos and graphics belongs totally to the BBC or copyright holder(s).

All opinions on the music and artists featured are my own. Sorry if you don’t agree

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002np2s/top-of-the-pops-18121998