It’s early February 1999 and England football manager Glenn Hoddle has just been sacked by the Football Association for comments he made in an interview with The Times newspaper in which he suggested that people born with disabilities were paying for sins in a previous life. A BBC survey conducted during the fall out from the interview found that 90% of those asked thought Hoddle should not remain as the national team manager. Glenn defended himself by saying his words had been taken out of context and by highlighting his work for disabled charities but his fate was sealed. Some though saw it as an overreaction and that his sacking was driven by other agendas involving a lacklustre World Cup performance, poor recent results and rumours of player discontent. Kevin Keegan would be appointed as Hoddle’s successor within a fortnight though. It was big news but can I link it into this particular TOTP? Let’s find out…
Jamie Theakston is our host and we start with…no…it can’t be…not again. It is you know. BryanAdams and MelanieC are back once more with “When You’re Gone”. Right, if I’m going to be annoyed I’m going to get my facts straight first…
*checks the TOP Of The Pops Archive website*
FIVE TIMES! Five times this has been on! I know that it had some long chart legs but seriously?! Starting the 5th February ‘99 show with a hit that was first featured on the 11th December ‘98 episode?! And no I don’t care that it had gone up from No 7 to No 5 for its highest position since debuting at No 3. And three of those appearances were repeats of the two original performances. We never even got to see the music video though having checked it out – Bry and Mel wandering around a house but constantly missing the other one because they’ve, you know, gone – that might not be a bad thing. Bry’s guy-liner look is giving me heavy JD Vance vibes and that’s terrifying frankly.
Glenn Hoddle link: “When You’re Gone”? Being sacked? That’s an easy starter for 10.
I’m really not liking this backstage area schtick especially when it’s used by Jamie Theakston to make some creepy comments about “making some new friends“ whilst leering at this week’s No 1’s backing dancers. Anyway, next up are Garbage with their single “When I Grow Up”. The fourth single from their “Version 2.0” album, it’s a much more upbeat sound than some of their other work with its “ba ba ba ba” chorus, and almost pop song like sensibilities. Having said that, its lyrics were as dark as ever – how many ‘pop’ songs contain the phrase “golden shower” for example? Incidentally, that was something the band were very proud of, sneaking said idiom into a track being played on daytime radio. According to Shirley Manson, the song is about whether adulthood brings maturity and with lines like “cut my tongue out”, “unprotected, God I’m pregnant” and “I go mental”, I think Garbage achieved their stated aim of creating a track with a dark lyrical subject matter set against a pop melody. “When I Grow Up” peaked at No 9 just as two of the previous three singles released from the album had which wasn’t quite up there with Paul Young’s “Everything Must Change” spending five consecutive weeks at No 9 but it must have been some sort of record.
Glenn Hoddle link: This is very tenuous. Shirley Manson used to be in Scottish rock band Goodbye Mr Mackenzie. Hoddle won the FA Cup in 1981 with Spurs who defeated Manchester City 3-2 in a replay. The scorer of City’s first goal in that match? Steve MacKenzie
After trying his hand at doing a segue using rhyming couplets (it’s not big nor clever Jamie), Theakston introduces “Good Life (Buena Vida)” by InnerCity. Wait…what? I don’t remember this. I mean, obviously I remember Inner City and their No 4 hit “Good Life” from 1988 but this flamenco style re-recording of it? Nope, I got nothing. Having listened to it though, I think I prefer it to the original which was never my cup of tea. And I mean ‘prefer’ not ‘like’ as even this reimagining of a Detroit house hit (with added español lyrics) was never going to be my taza de Spanish Brew. Or something.
So why did this version exist? Well, it wasn’t part of some campaign to promote a Best Of album – in fact, it wasn’t linked to any type of album, studio or compilation. However, there had been a white label copy of the new version kicking around the clubs for a year and the attention it attracted finally warranted an official release and when that happened, it turned out that the person behind it was Kevin Saunderson of, yep, Inner City. So what, he was just bored and so revisited his back catalogue for something to do? Who knows but it gave Kevin and his band their first Top 10 hit since 1989. Anyway, if you can be bothered, here’s the link to what I wrote about the original version from 1988:
Glenn Hoddle link: In an interview with The Big Issue magazine, Labour politician and Spurs fan David Lammy said this:
“Football was quite important to me growing up. It was the era of Spurs winning the FA Cup in ’81 with Ossie Ardiles and Glenn Hoddle. Spurs were huge and in a way, because we were growing up in the inner city and there were riots, the fact that we had such a great football team meant the world to us, it was something really positive.“
Jane Graham, 17 May 2020, Big Issue #1406
Hoddle and ‘inner city’ both mentioned there. Ahem.
Another hit whose chorus goes “Ba Ba Ba Ba Ba Ba Ba Ba”! Unlike Garbage’s “When I Grow Up” earlier though, “National Express” by The Divine Comedy wasn’t quite as dark lyrically though it did receive criticism in some of the music press for allegedly taking a swipe at the working classes, an allegation singer songwriter Neil Hannon denied. For him, he was literally recounting some of the sights he saw whilst travelling on a coach. However you perceived its words, “National Express” sure was catchy which might explain why it became the band’s first (and so far only) Top 10 hit. What I’ve always liked about Hannon’s lyrics is that he annunciates them so well – you can actually hear and understand what he’s giving vocal expression to which is a crucial part of the storytelling within them. Yes, some took offence at the line about the “jolly hostess” having an arse the “size of a small country” (including my wife) but at least you were engaged by the words however you perceived and received them. Later in 1999, a Greatest Hits album called “A Secret History… The Best of the Divine Comedy” would take them into the Top 3 and provide a gold disc to boot. It would also give us one of the most preposterous and yet glorious song titles of all time in “The Pop Singer’s Fear of the Pollen Count”. Ah you’ve got to love The Divine Comedy!
Glenn Hoddle link: A born-again Christian since 1986, Hoddle famously employed faith healer Eileen Drewery whilst England manager for which he was lampooned in the press. A divine comedy you might say.
Who??!! Leilani?! Wasn’t she a glamour model? Well, yes and no. There is a former glamour model called Leilani Dowding who is actually engaged to Billy Duffy, guitarist for The Cult but she isn’t this Leilani. No, this Leilani is Leilani Sen, a singer signed to ZTT from 1998 to 2000 and whom had a small hit with “Madness Thing” during that time. And what a slight, little thing it was. An inconsequential ditty about…what? Boyfriends who are too tall, boobies that are too small and eating Curly Wurlys according to the lyrics. No, really; that’s what she sings. I can’t believe she was on the same record label as Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Art Of Noise and Propaganda. Anyway, she didn’t last long – just one more No 40 hit and an unreleased album. However, she returned in 2023 as a contestant on reality series Survivor and with a single (presumably released off the back of her appearance on it) called “Wicked Knickers”. Hmm. Bizarrely, another similar looking female pop star flogging similarly cheesy pop songs would appear later in 1999 – it was as if Leilani was a prototype Lolly. As far as I can recall, Lolly never had a fleet of ironing boards on stage with her though. A thing of madness indeed.
Glenn Hoddle link: Hoddle probably did hate the madness of it all when it came to that interview in The Times.
A slushy R&B ballad next from Dru Hill who, let’s be honest, I know very little about and have even less interest in. I can’t help it – I grew up as a pop kid. For what it’s worth, they sound to me like they know what they were about with “These Are The Times” featuring some on point harmonies that Boyz II Men would willingly take to the end of the road. Why does Sisqó have a big, silver dragon motif on his microphone when none of the other members of the group do? Well, later in 1999, he would leave Dru Hill to pursue a solo career and his debut album was called “Unleash The Dragon” so maybe it was a clue as to what was going to happen? Maybe not actually as the whole group were influenced by the Dragon and Asian culture, as displayed in their band logo. Perhaps he was just a big show off then.
Glenn Hoddle link: Yes, it was The Times that did for poor old Glenn
Last week’s No 1 has dropped to No 2 but here’s that same performance repeated again as we get TheOffspring and “Pretty Fly (For A White Guy)”. The dolls’ heads being used as percussion instruments as referenced by Jamie Theakston was surely inspired by the cover of the album “Yesterday And Today” by The Beatles. Only released in America and Canada, it was an amalgam of the “Help!” and “Rubber Soul” albums but its original cover, nicknamed the “butcher cover”, depicted the band wearing white butcher smocks and covered with decapitated baby dolls and pieces of raw meat. The image caused so much controversy that it was immediately withdrawn by Capitol and replaced by John, Paul, George and Ringo gathered around a steamer trunk. Thirty years later, I’m pretty sure The Offspring’s TOTP stunt didn’t cause as much outrage despite Theakston’s talk of complaints in his intro. Maybe we’d got used to such imagery with the release of the original Toy Story film and the behaviour of Sid Phillips towards his toys…
Glenn Hoddle link: Glenn was a stylish, flair player – in fact he was pretty fly…for a white guy.
It’s a sixth different No 1 in six weeks (and that run will carry in for a while yet) as Armand van Helden is straight in at the top with “You Don’t Know Me”. Now, this guy had already been on a No 1 record but he didn’t really get the credit for it. What am I talking about? Well, he did the remix of Tori Amos’ “Professional Widow” which topped the charts in 1997 as “Professional Widow (It’s Got to Be Big)” but Tori’s management only authorised the release if she was given sole credit (even though she had nothing to do with that version). Armand finally got his official solo hit two years later which kind of seems like a case of fairs’s fair.
The guy up there doing the singing (singing on a dance anthem?!) is one Duane Harden who was allowed to go off and write the lyrics alone by van Helden while he got in with the business of putting together the samples to form a looping track which Harden’s vocals would be laid over. The result was a piece of New York house that had that all important crossover appeal. Armand would go to No 1 again 10 years later alongside Dizzee Rascal on “Bonkers”.
Glenn Hoddle link: There’s nothing except…they’ve both been on TOTP! Glenn Hoddle on TOTP? You better believe it…
Order of appearance
Artist
Title
Did I buy it?
1
Bryan Adams / Melanie C
When You’re Gone
Negative
2
Garbage
When I Grow Up
No but it’s pretty good
3
Inner City
Good Life (Buena Vida)
Nah
4
The Divine Comedy
National Express
No but I had that Best Of album
5
Leilani
Madness Thing
Nope
6
Dru Hill
These Are The Times
Not really my thing
7
The Offspring
Pretty Fly (For A White Guy)
No
8
Armand van Helden
You Don’t Know Me
I did not
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
We’re nearly through January in these 1999 TOTP repeats and the charts, with a couple of notable exceptions, have been cleansed of all those Christmas hits as those record company new release schedules kick in. For example, four of this week’s Top 5 are new entries and we’ll see three of them on this show. There no sign of any new presenters though as stalwart Jayne Middlemiss is on hosting duties again for this one. A bit of admin before we get into it. That woman stood next to Jayne with a sign saying ‘Now can I have a pay rise?’ – what was that all about? Here’s the marvellous TOTP Archive website (https://totparchive.co.uk) with the answer:
“At the beginning of the episode, Zoe Alpass, a broadcast assistant on the Radio 1 Zoe Ball breakfast show, stands next to Jayne Middlemiss holding a placard that says “Now can I have a pay rise?” Previously on Radio 1, there had been banter about her wanting a pay rise, and they challenged her to appear on TV to get one”
With that sorted, let’s get into it. We start with the No 2 song and the biggest hit of Terrorvision’s career. Said career was a model of consistency. Over a five year period up to this point, they’d had eleven Top 40 UK hit singles but only two of them made the Top 10 with eight of the other nine peaking between Nos 29 and 20. When it came to albums though, only one of their four released so far had made the Top 10 and indeed, their latest “Shaving Peaches” peaked at a lowly No 34. Their failure to command bigger commercial achievements had led to talk at record company EMI about dropping them…and then came “Tequila”. Sort of. The track that crashed into the charts at No 2 wasn’t the version on the album but a remix by Mint Royale which had been championed by Zoe Ball who had a big public profile as Radio 1’s Breakfast Show DJ and partner of Norman Cook aka Fatboy Slim who himself had just had a No 1 record with “Praise You”. Radically different from the version on the album, the single release had added children’s voices and a whistles and bells feel to it which lifted it from an average rock track into a huge party anthem. This was the aforementioned Fatboy Slim effect on Cornershop’s “Brimful Of Asha” part II. Naturally, the remixed version of the single caused consternation amongst the band’s loyal fanbase* but found a whole new mainstream audience.
*A poll on which track to release from the album distributed to fan club members had resulted in a different song being voted as the favourite.
According to singer Tony Wright, its release was delayed by a week presumably so not to clash with fellow EMI act 911’s own tilt at the No 1 spot although Wright seems to misremember it as being Geri Halliwell whom they were up against. Whatever the truth, in the end, “Tequila” would come up one place short of topping the charts themselves. As the original pressing of “Shaving Peaches” didn’t feature the Mint Royale remix (later reissues did include it), this caused the usual awkward conversations between record store staff and disappointed punters who’d bought it on the strength of the single that wasn’t on it. Despite the success of “Tequila”, the band were indeed dropped by EMI shortly after follow-up single “Ill Wishes” failed to make the Top 40 and they split in 2001 although they reformed in 2007 releasing their most recent album in 2024.
As part of her outro to Terrorvision, Jayne Middlemiss is waving a bottle of tequila about. That strikes me as a tad reckless. Granted she refers to it as a “nasty, intoxicating little substance” but still. Before the watershed! It gets you drunk from the legs up Jayne! Now, for one of those notable exceptions I referred to earlier. This was the fourth time on the show for Steps and their version of “Tragedy” with the first having been aired over two months before! That’s how long the single had been knocking around the charts including one week at the very top. It was still in the Top 3 this week so I’m guessing that’s why it’s on again as executive producer Chris Cowey continued his policy of showing hits that were still selling lots of copies as opposed to those that were moving up the charts.
According to the official charts website, “Tragedy/Heartbeat” is the group’s biggest selling hit ever with combined sales of 1.4 million units. That makes sense given it was a No 1 record and spent 15 weeks inside the Top 10. However, their other No 1 single “Stomp” is only their 11th best selling single. This anomaly is further compounded by the fact that the second best selling hit for Steps is “5,6,7,8” which never got any higher than No 14 in the charts. How do you explain that?
Now this is a real rarity. I cannot think when this has happened before on the show. Last week The All Seeing I performed “Walk Like A Panther” with Tony Christie on vocals. Seven days later and they are back minus Tony (who’s gone back to Amarillo according to Jayne Middlemiss – chortle) and in his place is the guy who co-wrote the song Jarvis Cocker! A hit sung by two different people in consecutive weeks? Was that unique? Whether it was or not, it gave us the chance to compare the two versions and work out which one we liked better. So who did you prefer, Jarvis or Tony? I think I’m leaning towards the latter but then we don’t actually get the full Cocker effect as it sounds to me as if Christie’s vocals are played during the chorus in this performance. What was that about? Couldn’t Jarvis reach those notes? It memoirs me of when Tracey Ullman couldn’t do the “Bay-bee!” line in “They Don’t Know” an they had to use Kirsty MacColl’s original recording. All very odd.
Back to the Top 5 now and another new entry for someone called TQ. Jayne Middlemiss ponders whether those initials stand for “Top Quality” or maybe “Two Quid” but it was actually TerranceQuaites, an R&B singer, songwriter and producer who, for a little while at the end of the 90s and start of the millennium had a string of hits starting with “Westside”. Now, this is far from my field of expertise but I can’t work this track out. Jayne says it’s a “smooth, soulful sound” and “gangster rap”. So which one is it? Can it be both? Maybe it can as sonically it’s definitely smooth and soulful but its words do warrant a ‘parental advisory explicit lyrics’ sticker. There’s a lot of editing and silent spaces in this performance to blank out the ‘n’ and ‘f’ words and the like. It’s all very confusing for a pop kid like me.
As for the title of the track, obviously it is culturally associated with rap artists and the East Coast-West Coast rivalry and indeed, the lyrics reference Ice Cube, Ice-T and Eazy-E and is dedicated to Tupac Shakur but did any of that mean anything to the white, middle class kids buying it to try and rebel against their parents. We used to get loads of them in the Our Price store in Altrincham where I was working, flipping through our rap section, doing the ‘pimp limp’ walk with as much swagger as they could muster and saying things like “Oh man, that’s bad!”. Just tedious. I’m betting they thought “Westside” was originated by this guy…
Whose idea was this?! Well, Chris Cowey’s I’m guessing. Sebadoh though?! A lo-fi indie rock band who’d never had a hit record before but had somehow sneaked into the Top 40 for one week never to return and they deserved a slot in the TOTP running order? Really?! Yes, “Flame” was this lot’s only chart hit and you can hear why – what a racket. This was never going to motor up the charts even with the exposure of this appearance – surely it was just a week one, fanbase thing? OK, so you could make a case that, by giving the viewers at home a glimpse of something out of left field, Cowey was providing an antidote to the wall to wall coverage of acts like Steps, Boyzone and the like which I, to be fair, have been decrying. However, I refer you to my previous question – Sebadoh though? Cowey could have had…
*checks chart for that week
…Duran Duran! In at No 23 with “Electric Barbarella”! Hmm. The video for it was a bit dodgy though so unless the band were available to be in the studio…
…Whatever! I, personally, could live without this particular distraction and having to watch a lead singer who was desperately trying to recreate looking like John Lennon when The Beatles played that famous, impromptu gig on the roof of the Apple Corps headquarters at Saville Row. Get back indeed.
Despite dropping five places to No 6, last week’s No 1 is back on the show. Now, “A Little Bit More” might seem like a sweet ballad and therefore a perfect choice for 911 to cover (I said as much in a previous post) but listening to the lyrics, I’m not so sure it is. Look at some of these lines:
“When your body’s had enough of me And I’m layin’ flat out on the floor When you think I’ve loved you all I can I’m gonna love you a little bit more”
Erm…could that not be perceived to be about the carnal act? Then there phrases like “I’ve got to be touchin’ you” and “turns me on” and “we better get it on now” – this is double entendre territory at least. To think that my Mum and Dad had the Dr Hook album with this on! Eeeewww!
This next performance couldn’t be any more current. The debut single by a fresh, new artist that the whole world was excited about if you believed what was being written about them and there were plenty of column inches. There have been a few bands down the years where the hype about them before they’d even released anything has been huge. Sadly, in nearly all of those cases, the hype has been mere hyperbole. Back in 1985, the Roaring Boys were meant to be the new aforementioned Duran Duran but it turned out that we didn’t even want the existing DD and so they sank without trace. A year later, the future of rock ‘n’ roll had arrived to save us in the form Sigue Sigue Sputnik but their publicity machine was infinitely better than their music. A decade on from them, Menswear created a buzz about themselves with their limited copies policy of their first releases and narrative as the poster boys of Britpop. They burnt brightly but briefly.
And then, as the end of the decade neared, came Gay Dad. So what was so special about them? Well, there was their headline making name but more than that, lead singer Cliff Jones was a former journalist for Mojo, TheFace and MelodyMaker so there was a whole narrative developed about how he’d gone from writing about pop stars to being one (though Neil Tennant had beaten him to that story by about 15 years). The there was the fact that due to an early test pressing of their track“To Earth With Love” getting into the hands of Radio 1’s Mark Radcliffe and getting airplay, a whole subplot about them being the saviours of rock ‘n’ roll without even having a record out evolved. Their label London had to rush release the single leading to even more clamour for the band. Predictably, when it finally came out, it wasn’t very good. It sounded like they were trying too hard to manufacture a composite of every successful rock/pop song of the last few years into one track. The pretentious performance here with Jones taking himself oh so seriously only upped the pomposity levels and what was with the matching Walker Brothers/Birdlamd haircuts?
Its peak of No 10 was a success on a superficial level but its quick descent down the charts (Nos 28 and 39 in the following two weeks) also suggested Gay Dad might be a short lived fad. Conversely, follow up single “Joy” was a much better song. Why hadn’t they opened their account with that instead? Debut album “Leisure Noise” was hardly a runaway success peaking at No 14 and sophomore effort “Transmission” couldn’t reverse their fortunes, not being helped by lead single “Now Always And Forever” peaking at that most unfortunate of chart positions No 41. Gay Dad would ultimately linger on until 2002 when they split.
We have a new No 1, the fifth in as many weeks and we’re not even out of January yet. This time around it’s from an unexpected source – The Offspring with “Pretty Fly (For A White Guy)”. Having only ever had two UK chart entries previously (neither which made the Top 30), here were the Californian pop-punk rockers going straight in at the top! I have to say that I didn’t know much about them before this moment despite:
a) the band having released their first album in 1989
b) my having worked in record shops since 1990
I knew the ‘skeleton’ cover of their 1994 album “Smash” but that was about it. “Pretty Fly (For A White Guy)” was very much of that 90s pop-punk rock sound that would make stars of the likes of Green Day, Blink-182 and Sum 41 but it was actually the aforementioned “Smash” album which broke The Offspring and precipitated a move to major label Columbia. Their first release for them “Ixnay On The Hombre” underperformed commercially but their fifth album “Americana” would sell 10 million copies worldwide and go platinum here in the UK. Did the band’s existing fanbase appreciate their new found commerciality? Maybe not but hey, deal with it.
I mentioned earlier when discussing TQ those white, middle class kids buying rap music to rebel against their parents and guess what? That’s exactly what “Pretty Fly (For A White Guy)” is about! No really. Here’s @TOTPFacts to confirm:
Offspring vocalist Dexter Gordon on “Pretty Fly (For A White Guy)”: “It’s really inspired by wannabe gangsters. Guys who go to malls and get the gangsta rap clothes. Guys on Ricki Lake who won’t listen to their moms.” #TOTP
“… [Guys] from, like, Omaha, Nebraska – regular white-bread boys, but who act like they're from Compton. It's so fake and obvious that they're trying to have an identity.” #TOTP
OK, their American counterparts but for Omaha read Altrincham. The Offspring are still together albeit with a few line up changes but front man Dexter Holland is still in the ranks and holds a PhD in molecular biology. Pretty dry for a punk guy.
Order of appearance
Artist
Title
Did I buy it?
1
Terrorvision
Tequila
No thanks
2
Steps
Tragedy
Negative
3
The All Seeing I
Walk Like A Panther
It’s a no from me
4
TQ
Westside
Nope
5
Sebadoh
Flame
Never
6
911
A Little Bit More
No
7
Gay Dad
To Earth With Love
Nah
8
The Offspring
Pretty Fly (For A White Guy)
I did not
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
Another day, another TOTP repeat to write about. I am worn out physically, mentally and creatively by this now nine year old blog. Who’s on this particular show then? Well, another dance track based on an old Bee Gees song, another showing of the Bryan Adams/Melanie C hit, another boy band at No 1 with a cover version and Another …Level. It’s also another stint as presenter for Jayne Middlemiss (at least she’s not Jamie Theakston!) who does another pointless ‘interview’ in the backstage area with one of the artists. Tedious.
We start with that Bee Gees inspired dance track by Blockster which is actually just a repeat of the performance from last week’s show. “You Should Be…” had actually dropped five places from its chart debut and peak position of seven days prior but that wasn’t enough reason for executive producer Chris Cowey not to show it again. He’d have probably argued that it was still in the Top 10 and so still a popular record with an audience. Added to that, there weren’t many new releases to showcase. Why couldn’t we have had another showing of the (award winning) Fatboy Slim video for “Praise You” though? As it was, we only got to see it once. Anyway, it was Blockster who got the Cowey nod and therefore another chance to see another guy fronting an old Bee Gees tune in a white suit. Why did they all have white suits? Yes, I know why – to approximate the look created for the character of Tony Manero played by John Trovalta in SaturdayNightFever. Plus the Bee Gees original of “You Should Be Dancing” was in the film’s soundtrack but I guess what I’m trying to say is it’s not very inventive is it?
It’s another hit for AnotherLevel. This one was called “I Want You For Myself” and it’s the usual R&B, bump ‘n’ grind ballad nonsense that we’d already come to expect from this lot despite only being four singles into their career. I could never see what their appeal was. From what I can work out, they were mainly a UK phenomenon with limited success elsewhere. Were they good looking? Sort of. Was there a gap in the market for an R&B boy band? Maybe. Wikipedia says their debut eponymous album never got higher in the charts than No 13 despite containing all those hits but that it was also certified platinum. Those two stats don’t seem synonymous with each other somehow. Their second and final album “Nexus” would only sell a third of the amount of copies as its predecessor meaning that it wasn’t able to take the band to…ahem…another level of success.
From the banal to the downright quirky. Sheffield electronic trio All Seeing I had bagged themselves a hit the previous year with their take on the Buddy Rich version of “Beat Goes On”, originally a hit for Sonny & Cher. For the follow up, they sought out two other sons of Sheffield from differing music eras. A chance meeting with Jarvis Cocker when Pulp appeared on an episode of TOTP the same week as All Seeing I led to Jarvis co-writing “Walk Like A Panther”. The track was put together specifically with legendary crooner Tony Christie in mind. The master of hits like “I Did What I Did For Maria” (which is referenced in “Walk Like A Panther”), “(Is This The Way To) Amarillo” and TheProtectors theme tune “Avenues And Alleyways”, Christie’s career was dormant by 1999 with no chart entry since 1975. Despite the potential opportunity offered to him, Christie was originally reluctant to take up the offer until his son talked him into it. The result was a slinky, prowling track that, if nothing else, provided the charts with an antidote to all the generic dance and R&B fodder they seemed to be full of.
Despite the success of “Walk Like A Panther”, Christie’s career went back into hibernation until the intervention of comedian Peter Kay whose Phoenix Nights sitcom featured “(Is This The Way To) Amarillo” heavily promoting a renewed interest in the singer. In 2005, the track was used as the Comic Relief single for that year going to No 1 for seven weeks, the longest running chart topper since Cher’s “Believe” in 1998. A retrospective Best Of album was also a No 1. As for All Seeing I, one further minor hit with Human League’s Phil Oakey followed before they called it a day in 2002. The various members still work in the music business though with one of them having a brief cameo as one of the Weird Sisters rock band in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
P.S. This is who Tony Christie has been reminding me of…(sorry Tony)
Another 70s disco track reworked for the 90s! This time it’s Donna Summer who provides the source material (at least it’s not the Bee Gees again!) as her 1979 hit “Bad Girls” is covered by Juliet Roberts. Now, I’m not sure what the reasoning behind this release was other than the classic ‘need-a-hit-do-a-cover-version’ record company tactic but if it was all about that, then it worked taking Juliet to No 17 for what would be her final hit completely under her own name*.
*She would have a No 11 and dance chart No 1 hit in 2001 alongside David Morales.
The staging in this performance seems slightly jarring with Juliet positioned at the back on her own mini stage but behind her four backing singers who are front and centre. I know this role reversal has been done before – in their debut TOTP performance Oasis had Liam singing from the back of the stage – but I’m not sure it works that well here. All eyes are drawn to the backing singers in their bright red dresses which kind of undermines Juliet I feel. Maybe she felt more comfortable not completely in the spotlight? Maybe she could have occupied that space between the back of the stage and the front and been, you know, “caught in the middle”? Ahem.
Here’s one of those bands that I knew the name of but was fairly ignorant of how they sounded – at the time anyway. Having listened to ThreeColoursRed* retrospectively, it seems to me that this single was a bit of a departure from their earlier sound. Hits like “Sixty Mile Smile” and “Nuclear Holiday” were that classic indie rock sound that we’d seen from many a skinny, white boy group down the years. However, “Beautiful Day” was entering epic, rock ballad territory akin to something Muse might have come up with. Not a bad example of the genre as these things go but somehow the band couldn’t sustain and they split in 1999 despite two Top 20 albums and being signed to Creation Records. That old chestnut ‘musical differences’ was given as the reason. A reunion in 2002 would last for three years but without any further commercial success, a second permanent split followed.
*Maybe I was aware of them due to their name also being the concluding part of the Polish film director Krzysztof Kieślowski’s Three Colours trilogy.
It’s time for that Bryan Adams/Melanie C track again now. It’s the fourth time “When You’re Gone” has been on the show with the first being way back on the 11th December 1998. In the intervening weeks, it had not been lower than No 8 in the charts following its No 3 peak on its debut. This particular week it was No 6 again in a run of three consecutive weeks in that position. What was it with Bryan Adams and massively lengthy chart hits?! Did all of the above make a secure enough case for all these repeated appearances? I’m not sure. From a blogging point of view, absolutely not. What am I supposed to keep saying about this one week after week?! Well, we’ll find out as there is still one final appearance to come in a couple of weeks. Bryan and Melanie – I can’t wait until when you’re gone.
Oh god! What’s this? A dance version of Roxy Music’s “More Than This”?! Of course it is! Just what the world needed! The woman tasked with fronting this carbuncle of a hit was Emma Sarah Morton-Smith who was restyled as Emmie for promotion purposes. We’ve seen some horrific dance takes on retro hits in the past such as Rage’s horrible treatment of “Run To You” by Bryan Adams and Nikki French’s woeful cover of Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse Of The Heart” but surely Roxy Music’s back catalogue should have been sacrosanct? Apparently not as Bryan Ferry himself gave his blessing to the project. Bryan! What were you thinking?! Despite a few near misses, Emmie would never have such a big hit again and would end up as a radio DJ on Heart Yorkshire and a presenter on QVC. Well, she did seem to know a thing or two about selling your soul…
P.S. Is that Duran Duran guitarist Dom Brown up there on stage with Emmie? I think it is you know.
Well, it had been coming. A relentless push over three years and eight consecutive Top 10 hits had led to this moment. 911 finally had their chart topper and it was a nasty cover version. Of course it was. They’d already covered Shalamar (“A Night To Remember”) and the ubiquitous Bee Gees (“More Than A. Woman”) so why not go for the hat-trick by turning to an old Dr. Hook number? “A Little Bit More” had been a No 2 hit in the UK in the sweltering Summer of 1976 and was a perfect choice of ballad for the three pop puppets of 911. They even got to sit down for once to sing it rather than pulling all their usual “Bodyshakin’” dance moves. It was also a horribly cynical move designed to give the trio the one thing their career had been missing. Once achieved, it was as if the spell had been broken or at least the project completed. Only two more hits would follow and a line was drawn on the career of 911, at least as chart stars – two reunions would follow and the group are nominally still together to this day. A little bit more? No, you’re alright thanks lads. As Public Enemy once told us, “911 Is a Joke”.
Order of appearance
Artist
Title
Did I buy it?
1
Blockster
You Should Be…
No
2
Another Level
I Want You For Myself
No thanks
3
All Seeing I
Walk Like A Panther
Interesting but no
4
Juliet Roberts
Bad Girls
Nah
5
Three Colours Red
Beautiful Day
Nope
6
Bryan Adams/Melanie C
When You’re Gone
I did not
7
Emmie
More Than This
Hell no!
8
911
A Little Bit More
Of course not
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
We’re in mid January 1999 and Christmas is long gone and well behind us. The release schedules have woken up and been reactivated so there are some ‘new’ songs on tonight alongside some of the older hits that are still knocking about the charts which executive producer Chris Cowey doesn’t seem able to let go of. To that end, two of the first artists on tonight both featured in the last show. Indeed, they were the first two songs in that episode from seven days prior. As Men At Work once sang – “it’s just overkill”. Anyway, Kate Thornton is our host and we start with “End Of The Line” by the Honeyz. This was its third appearance on the show and this performance was just a repeat showing of the previous week’s. Having said that, it was a very hardy hit spending five weeks inside the Top 10 including the busy festive period when singles can get swept away in the Christmas rush. With nothing much else to say about this one, I looked to the internet for inspiration and found a piece online that talked about the purple outfits the group are wearing here which they also donned in the video. The article says:
“…the purple overcoats, which were low-key iconic in that they never permeated popular culture but remain a recognisable visual reference point within the Honeyz’ narrative.”
Paul Begaud – cantstopthepop.com – Dec 2020
Look, I’m no expert on the Honeyz so I should defer to Paul but, on the other hand, really?! Iconic?! They were purple overcoats not Geri Halliwell’s Union Jack dress!
The mid to late 90s fascination with the disco era of the Bee Gees was quite a thing. Seriously though, look at all of these hits that were either cover versions or featured samples of the Gibb brothers’ work around that period:
“How Deep Is Your Love” – Take That – 1996
“Words” – Boyzone – 1996
“Stayin’ Alive” – N-Trance – 1995
“We Trying To Stay Alive” – Wyvlef Jean – 1997
“Night Fever” – Adam Garcia – 1998
“More Than A Woman” – 911 – 1998
“Tragedy” – Steps – 1998
The trend continued apace in early 1999 with the highest chart entry of the week – “You Should Be…” by Blockster. This was a vehicle for DJ, producer and remixer Brandon Block whose career had seen him play all the ‘super clubs’ such as Up Yer Ronson, Ministry Of Sound and Republica. In 1999, he became a chart star with this reworking of the Bee Gees classic “You Should Be Dancing”. Given the glut of Bee Gees hits at the time, it doesn’t seem a very inventive concept but I guess he executed it pretty well. He’s the guy on the turntables (obviously) who looks a bit like TheApprentice reject, StrictlyComeDancing loser and JD Vance hanger on Thomas “Bosh” Skinner. However, for some of us non-dance heads, he is best known for this incident at the BRITS 2000…
Supposedly he was off his face and was convinced by the friends he was with that he had won an award and that he should go and collect it on stage. Ah, we’ve all been there. For instance, I was once on holiday in New York and found myself in a bar called The Slaughtered Lamb, a horror-themed bar in Greenwich Village. It had props like caged skeletons and werewolves. I’d had a few (OK, a lot!) and my friend Robin convinced me that the werewolf figure had blood dripping down its face and that I should report it to the bar staff. So I did. The woman behind the bar dismissed me like the fool I was whilst Robin and the rest of our group guffawed.
Anyway, Brandon Block seemed to learn from his public embarrassment and in 2009 agreed to take part in an anti-drugs campaign for the government. He followed that up by working with Blenheim the London drug and alcohol treatment service as a project worker and has also been employed by the NHS, working with people who have multiple complex needs. He currently works as a Stress Management and Goal Mapping Coach with people suffering from mental health issues.
Here’s that other hit that was on just last week from BryanAdams and MelanieC. I’ve got nothing left to say about “When You’re Gone” so I’m going to shamelessly pinch a story from a podcast I’ve discovered called the EightiesArchivePodcast. It’s basically two fellas talking about 80s music but not the obvious stuff. They interview people from back then who may or may not have had hit records and it’s actually very engaging mainly because of their enthusiasm for the period. So you might get say, Leigh Gorman from Bow Wow Wow who was brilliant or Richard Jobson of The Skids and The Armoury Show (again brilliant) or some bloke who used to be in Roman Holliday (not so brilliant). Anyway, in their latest show, one of the presenters told a tale of how he was working in the Our Price store in the Lakeside shopping centre in 1991 at Christmas when all the punters seemed to want to buy was “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen (rereleased after Freddie Mercury’s death and that year’s festive No 1) and “(Everything I Do) I Do It For You” by Bryan Adams. So fed up was the presenter with this situation that, fuelled by the bravado of youth (him and his mates thought they owned the shop), he started shouting at people that they didn’t have any more Bryan Adams singles. One customer took offence and said “You’re meant to be a record shop” to which the presenter replied “And you’re meant to have taste!” and flicked him the V’s! Scandalous behaviour that was witnessed by an Area Manager on a store visit which led to the presenter being sacked and quite right too. The moral of the story? Don’t disrespect Bryan Adams…nor flick the V’s at a customer when working in a shop.
A classic case of a record label indulging in careful release scheduling now. Ultra had bounded into the charts the previous year with their debut hit “Say You Do” landing at No 11. However, subsequent hits had seen diminishing returns at play so another big hit was required. The best way to do that? Release a single – “Rescue Me” – when it doesn’t take as many sales to get you up the higher end of the charts of course – early to mid January. Then you double down by copying the sound of somebody else’s recent huge hit – in this case Savage Garden – and bingo! Your boy band has a Top 10 single. Beware though. The effects of a reviving January hit will wear off fairly quickly and you’ll be left with that underlying cause of discomfort which is the absolute knowledge that your charges are, in fact, worthless crud and you’ll have to accept the truth that they are going nowhere. Which is exactly what happened to Ultra who were never seen nor hear from again after this hit. Hurray!
Oh this is just taking the piss now! Why is Chris Cowey showing a performance from four months ago of “Millennium” by Robbie Williams? I suggested in a recent post that the reason behind a repeat showing of him doing “No Regrets” was because he’s Robbie Williams and I stand by that given the decision to re-show this. Just as Jamie Theakston had eulogised about him in his intro the other week, so Kate Thornton bangs on about how everyone loves Robbie including her and her Mum! Cowey justifies the clip’s inclusion in the show by tying it to the fact that his second album “I’ve Been Expecting You” is at No 1 (which was true) but it does rather feel like it was shoe-horning it into the show. Anyway, I’m not about to comment on this one again so here’s what I wrote about it in the 18 Sep 1998 show:
What the Hell is this? Why was Cowey encouraging presenter Kate Thornton to engage with the artists ‘backstage’ in some horribly cringeworthy interactions (they don’t qualify as interviews) that weren’t funny, entertaining nor worthwhile. There have been numerous attempts to spice up the format over the years by conversing with the artists or sometimes just celebrity guests and I can’t think of one that has ever worked. Moving on…
And yet another 70s disco era song revived in the late 90s. At least this one wasn’t a Bee Gees tune. After Blockster earlier comes Da Click, a UK garage group on the FFRR label, who took Chic’s anthem “Good Times”, added a load of rapping all over it, interpolated the vocals from Luther Vandross’ “Never Too Much”, called it “Good Rhymes” and had a No 14 hit with it. The words ‘Yankee Doodle’, ‘feather’ and ‘macaroni’ come to mind. It’s not big and it’s not clever. It also wasn’t any good. I always got this lot confused with Da Hool who is a German DJ and producer. I think my confusion is understandable which is more than I can say about Da Click’s decision to record this rubbish. It gets worse. Two years later, one of Da Click’s number – DJ Pied Piper – was responsible for one of the worst No 1 records ever – the execrable 2-step garage ‘anthem’ “Do You Really Like It?”.
There have been a few very famous Justins in the world of music. Justin Timberlake, Justin Bieber, Justin Hawkins of The Darkness but before all of them came simply Justin. Only 15 years old here, this kid became a name after appearing in a BBC TV show called TheFameGame which followed the hopes and aspirations of young people wanting to be stars. Off the back of it, Justin (Osuji) would have a small Top 40 hit with a cover of “This Boy” by The Beatles. The follow up was “Over You”, a nothing ballad with the most ridiculous opening lines ever given to a 15 year old boy to sing who sounds like his voice hasn’t broken yet…
“I′ve had many many setbacks, misendeavours in my life
But it’s never gotten to me, all that trouble and my strife”
Writer(s): Cody Miller, Justin Stokes, Laurel Tessa Mahoney, Miranda Leigh Berdahl, James Colter Schaffner, Zach Inmon Walker
“Many, many setbacks”? By the age of 15? Now, of course, some kids have had terrible lives by that point and witnessed some awful things but in the context of trying to sell a love song to a TV audience, it just doesn’t seem authentic. Thankfully I don’t remember “Over You” at all. The only one of his that springs to mind is a cover of “Let It Be Me” by The Everly Brothers in early 2000 which would be Justin’s last Top 40 hit. Although his original pop career would end there, Justin would reinvent himself as Sonny J Mason working as a singer-songwriter and producer, collaborating with the likes of Craig David, Sugababes and So Solid Crew whilst also releasing his own solo recordings.
Yes! Finally! A great track gets its just deserts! Although it maybe felt unexpected that Fat Boy Slim was at No 1, it probably shouldn’t have done. After all, “Praise You” wasn’t the first chart topper he’d been involved with. As part of The Housemartins, he’d just missed out on being the Christmas No 1 by a week in 1986 with “Caravan Of Love” and at the very start of the 90s, his Beats International vehicle rose to the summit with “Dub Be Good To Me”. Then, of course, his Fat Boy Slim persona had already delivered him two big hits in 1998 with “The Rockefeller Skank” and “Gangster Trippin” so the writing had been on the wall for us all to read. And yet I do recall being slightly taken aback that he’d done it again in 1999 despite the quality of the track.
I’m not going to list all the source material that Norman Cook sampled to create “Praise You” – all that information is available via a quick search of the internet and in any case, I don’t know any of the originals at all so I can’t see the point in referencing them. What I do know is that he created an almost perfect dance track that had that curious, undefinable quality of being able to cross over into the mainstream. How did he do it? Musical genius? Pure luck? Cosmic forces at work causing the stars to align? If the answer was that obvious we’d all be raiding our record collections and looking to put together a patchwork of sounds that shouldn’t go together but somehow do. Something else that shouldn’t have worked but did was the promo video. Yes, that one. Directed by and starring Spike Jonze, it had the effect upon first viewing of making the audience exclaim “What the f**k was that?” so amateurish and so bizarre looking was it. Its protagonists, the fictional Torrance Community Dance Group, essentially invented the ‘flash mob’ phenomenon when filming the chaotic dance routines unannounced at the Fox Bruin Theater in Los Angeles. Indeed so low were its production values (the whole thing only cost $800 to make) that MTV refuses to air it initially until Cook advised them that it was supposed to look like that. It would go on to win three MTV Video Music Awards making their initial stance look ludicrous.
A small gripe though, why did we only get to see it once? Yes, it only had a solitary week at the top of the charts but that didn’t stop Chris Cowey from allowing multiple repeats of previous No 1s which were now descending the charts. Was he worried about the quality of the video as well?
Order of appearance
Artist
Title
Did I buy it?
1
Honeyz
End Of The Line
Nah
2
Blockster
You Should Be…
Negative
3
Bryan Adams / Melanie C
When You’re Gone
No
4
Ultra
Rescue Me
No thanks
5
Robbie Williams
Millennium
Nope
6
Da Click
Good Rhymes
I did not
7
Justin
Over You
Never happening
8
Fatboy Slim
Praise You
No but I had the album
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
So, TOTP 1999 repeats are go! It’s my last year of doing this – please be halfway decent! As we’re in early January, the charts are very static with few new releases meaning that this show is full of songs that have been on before. Familiarity is also in evidence with our host who is Jamie Theakston who is becoming as ubiquitous as Simon ‘Smug’ Mayo used to be back in the day.
We start with Bryan Adams and MelanieC with “When You’re Gone”. This single really had legs spending ten consecutive weeks inside the Top 10 including three on the trot at No 6 which is its position this week. It’s continued to enjoy longevity in many forms long after the single finally dropped out of the charts via re-recordings and live performances. Adams returned to the song in 2005 for his compilation album “Anthology”, laying down a new version of it with Pamela Anderson of all people whilst Melanie C rejoined him in 2022 as they revisited the track for Adams’s “Classic Pt. II” album. Bryan frequently performs the song live as an acoustic number, usually plucking a member of the audience out to join him whilst Chisholm has also performed it during her concerts on a regular basis.
Theakston goes in for a bit of sexual innuendo in his intro to the next act. “If you’re one of the millions suffering from the flu then may I suggest the Theakston remedy. Stay in bed, snuggle up under your duvet and enjoy a healthy dose of the Honeyz” he chirps before doing his best Sid James impression by blowing out his cheeks. Yeah, knobhead. The Honeyz are back on the show for similar reasons as Bryan Adams/Melanie C – their hit “End Of The Line” is holding at No 9 having already peaked at No 5 in its first week in the chart. They were a bit like a prototype Sugababes weren’t they? Not that they shared a musical style but in terms of a revolving door policy when it came to their line up. Though there have only ever been four members to feature in a trio format, there is just one ever present in Célena Cherry. Of the other three, Heavenli Roberts has had five separate stints in the band, Naima Belkhiati two and Mariama Goodman three. The current lineup features Cherry, Roberts and Cherry’s sister Candace. Do you think they’ve…ahem…finally found the right combination?
Next, a third hit on the spin that has been on the charts for weeks already. Why is Robbie Williams on the show performing “No Regrets” again? Well, because he’s Robbie Williams would seen to be the main criteria. Observe the sycophantic intro from Jamie Theakston – “It’s Rob’s world, we just live in it”. Notice he calls him Rob not Robbie. I think they were possibly ‘mates’ at this point on account of Williams dating Nicole Appleton and Theakston seeing her sister Natalie though I think the former relationship ended around this time. Executive producer Chris Cowey would argue that it’s because “No Regrets” was going up the charts and with a lack of new releases to showcase, this was perfectly legitimate and justified. The truth is though that after debuting at No 4, the single had not spent another week inside the Top 10. Yes, successive drops to Nos 14 and 19 had been countered by consecutive moves back up the charts to No 18 and this week’s position of No 16 but it was hardly a big seller at this time. This was surely just a case of trying to pad the show out with a big name wasn’t it? Theakston’s intro doubles down on this. Let me entertain you? Nah, I’m good thanks.
A new song! A rare new entry into the Top 40 in the first week of January! It comes courtesy of Alisha’sAttic whose chart career to this point has been a model of consistency. Their first five hits had all peaked at either Nos 12, 13 or 14. “Wish I Were You” would end that run by going no higher than No 29. More than that though, it was portentous, ushering in the end of their pop career. None of their subsequent singles were bigger hits than No 24 and their third album “The House We Built” failed to make the Top 40. So what happened? It’s a question as old as The Rolling Stones that if I knew the answer to, I’d be a music industry mogul. If I had to guess though, I’d say that musical tastes moved on and, despite their consistency, Alisha’s Attic hadn’t established a big enough foothold in the charts to ride the changes. Ultimately, I think that’s a shame as I quite liked their quirky pop songs. However, “Wish I Were You” wasn’t their best work. It’s a bit slight and insubstantial to the point that the middle eight is essentially the sisters singing “I, I, I, I…” over and over. We didn’t need another Jim Diamond thanks! Things worked out for Shelly and Karen though as both have gone on to form successful careers as songwriters for other artists. Having been and done the pop star thing, presumably they don’t wish they were those people anymore.
Right who’s this? Oh it’s that woman with the huge hair again, Alda. She had a hit in 1998 with “Real Good Time” and she’s back with the follow up “Girls Night Out” which sounds very similar to its predecessor. No, not ‘very similar’ – exactlythesame. As such, what else can I say about Alda who is originally from Iceland but relocated to London and now lives in…oh, this is just brilliant…High Barnet! This shizzle writes itself sometimes! What about her music you say? Well, it’s out and out pure pop confectionery – fine if that’s your flavour but too much of it would make you barf. Compared to her pop contemporaries like Robyn for example, she’s the cheap supermarket own brand equivalent of an M&S best seller – Home Bargains’ Claude The Caterpillar as opposed to M&S’s Colin The Caterpillar cake. No, not Claude The Caterpillar but Cuthbert because she’s more Aldi than Alda.
*I’ll get me coat*
Another new entry now and it’s from the LighthouseFamily. Now, I’ve defended this lot in the past on the basis that musical snobbery is wrong and that ridicule is nothing to be scared of but oh dear…this one…this one is just undeniably, irredeemably dreadful. Awful. Just no good.“Postcards From Heaven” was the title track from their second album and also the fifth single to be lifted (see what I did there?!) from it. That might explain why its peak of No 24 was the duo’s lowest chart position in a run of nine hits up to that point but I’m pretty sure it was because it was horseshit. It’s so insubstantial and slight and…dull. And it sounds just like all their other hits. Abject crap. Postcards from Heaven? More like delivery from the depths of Hell. Sorry guys but it turns out Adam Ant was wrong. Ridicule is something to be scared of.
Right, that’s your new tunes done with and so we’re back to the (very) familiar starting with a former (and indeed Christmas) No 1. Yes, the Spice Girls claimed the (then) coveted festive chart topper in 1998 with “Goodbye” and thereby became the first act to have three such consecutive hits since The Beatles in 1965. However it only stated stayed at the peak for one week hence the comment from Jamie Theakston about them getting on the wrong side of Chef’s “Salty Balls” as that was the record that deposed them. It was, in fact, the first No 1 single of 1999 but was not played on TOTP as an episode did not air the week of the 27th December 1998 to 2nd January 1999. So why didn’t “Salty Balls” feature on this particular show rather than “Goodbye”? Was it an issue with the lyrics? I mean, there’s a lot of innuendo in them but no actual swear words – I don’t think the single carried a Parental Advisory sticker did it? Whatever the reason, Chris Cowey chose not to go with Chef so we get a re-showing of a previous performance of “Goodbye”. As it turned out, this would be the group’s final TOTP appearance of the 90s and, therefore, also the last time I’ll be reviewing them in this blog. So, “Goodbye” indeed Sporty, Scary, Baby, Ginger and Posh. You came, you saw, you conquered – you spiced up our lives.
Who saw this coming? Steps at No 1? Seven weeks after it debuted at No 2, “Heartbeat/Tragedy” has risen to the top of the charts. It feels a bit like All Saints’ journey to No 1 with “Never Ever” which took weeks as well. Yes, its achievement was probably enabled by a lack of big new releases in the first week of January but still. In fairness, their last single “One For Sorrow” had peaked at No 2 and all three of their releases to this point had spent at least two months inside the Top 40 so maybe the clues had been there all along? “Heartbeat/Tragedy” took it to a new level though. Fifteen consecutive weeks inside the Top 10 including a month inside the Top 3 after it had relinquished the top spot – it was a chart monster.
In recognition of this success, we get a medley of the two tracks but it’s not a new performance but two separate appearances in the show cobbled together. Is it me or does it seem a bit of a shoddy edit? It’s not like when The Jam and Oasis were afforded two songs to celebrate their respective No 1s – the former’s “Town Called Malice” / “Precious” double A-side and the latter’s “Don’t Look Back In Anger” when they also performed their cover of Slade’s “Cum On Feel The Noize” which was an extra track on the CD single. Still, it was hardly a tragedy was it? Better best forgotten.
Order of appearance
Artist
Title
Did I buy it?
1
Bryan Adams and Melanie C
When You’re Gone
Nah
2
Honeyz
End Of The Line
Negative
3
Robbie Williams
No Regrets
Didn’t happen
4
Alisha’s Attic
Wish I Were You
Nope
5
Alda
Girls Night Out
Never
6
Lighthouse Family
Postcards From Heaven
Good Lord no!
7
Spice Girls
Goodbye
No
8
Steps
Heartbeat / Tragedy
I did not
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
As Blur once sang, it’s the end of the century – well, nearly. We still have one year left of TOTP repeats to go before the new millennium and rather neatly, this will also be my final year of reviewing them. Nearly 10 years of writing this blog is is my limit and finishing in this year almost dovetails with my leaving working in record shops (again after nigh on 10 years) so it just feels like the time is right. Before I get to that point though, there are all of 1999’s shows to be watched, dissected and pronounced upon. So what can we expect from the final year of the 90s?
Well, away from music, 1999 saw the launch of the Euro currency. 27 years on, the UK is still sticking to its initial decision to remain with pound sterling. Just like in 2016, there were a spate of deaths of people from the world of showbiz. Dusty Springfield, Stanley Kubrick, Rod Hull and Ernie Wise all died within three weeks of each other in March. TV presenter Jill Dando was murdered on her doorstep the following month. On 30 December, George Harrison was stabbed by an intruder in his mansion home in Henley-on-Thames. He survived but within two years would be dead from lung cancer which had spread to his brain. In happier news, there’s a royal wedding as Prince Edward married Sophie Rhys-Jones but does anyone really remember it or care? Tracey Emin’s infamous MyBed sculpture was exhibited in the Tate Gallery. 15 years later it was sold at auction by Christie’s for £2.5 million.
In sport, Manchester United won the treble in May in dramatic fashion beating Bayern Munich in the Champions League final with two goals in injury time. A month later, they announced that they would not compete in the following season’s FA Cup competition in order to concentrate on the FIFA Club World Championship. The profile and stature of the FA Cup has been in decline ever since. As the year draws to an end, fears that the Y2K bug would bring about the end of the world surfaced but it all turnedout alright in the end as no planes fell out of the sky and traffic lights continued to function. Finally, Millennium celebrations were held across the country including the official opening of the Millennium Dome and the unveiling of the London Eye. The New Year’s Eve fireworks display were a bit of a damp squib though.
And so to musical trends. The time of the dominance of girl groups over boy bands seemed to be coming to an end with the latter reasserting their grip on the charts with American acts like Backstreet Boys and NSYNC battling it out with the UK’s Boyzone, Five and most terrifyingly of all, an emerging Westlife. By contrast, neither the Spice Girls nor All Saints even released a single in 1999. However, four of the original Spice Girls line up did have solo hits this year with Geri Halliwell having the most success with two No 1 singles closely followed by Mel C who scored a pair of No 4 hits. The new breed of instrument playing girl groups like Hepburn and Thunderbugs failed to fully gain support of the record buying public though.
Dance music was still about and this year, that ubiquity translated into some of the biggest selling singles of 1999 with the likes of Eiffel 65, ATB, Shanks And Bigfoot and Mr Oizo all securing places in the year end Top 10. Albums wise, it was all very safe yet again with Shania Twain, ABBA and The Corrs all having huge success. Only the likes of Fatboy Slim, Lauryn Hill and The Chemical Brothers seemed to put up much resistance to the tidal way of the mainstream.
As for me, I had a steady-ish year, staying put in the same record store for the whole 12 months (albeit with another change of manager) but as the new millennium approached, I was hatching plans to turn my back on all that and even Manchester which had been my home for nearly the whole decade…
There goes 1998. Not one of my favourite years neither personally nor musically. In the wider world, there were some seismic events but perhaps none more so than the Good Friday Agreement signed between the UK and Irish governments to bring about an end to the violence of The Troubles. A referendum on the agreement held in May received overwhelming support. In technology, the DVD format was released to the UK market. One of the first titles made available was Jumanji (the original version obviously) but uptake is small to begin with – only 6,000 units are sold by the end of the year. By Christmas 1999, we would have a sizeable offering of DVDs in the Our Price record store I was working in. Funny to think that it’s very much seen as an obsolete format in the streaming era. There were two stories that made headlines in the red tops and the music press. The first was the arrest of George Michael in a public toilet in LA on charges of lewd behaviour which would lead to the singer being outed for his sexuality. The second was the departure of Geri Halliwell from the Spice Girls which ultimately would usher in an end to the group’s imperial phase.
As we’ve touched on the subject, let’s get back to the music which is what this blog is about after all. As with most years, it was a right old mixed bag of styles and genres in the charts. Here’s the usual look at the Top 50 selling singles of ten year:
Pick the bones out of that. Well, the first thing I’ve noticed is that 40% of the Top 10 weren’t actually No 1s. Indeed, two of them only got as high as No 4 (Savage Garden) and No 7 (LeAnne Rimes). So how did they manage to end up in the list of the year’s end Top 10 sellers? Well, they stayed on the charts for months, selling steadily rather than spectacularly, treating their Top 40 journey as a marathon rather than a sprint and winning the race that way. They weren’t the only examples of singles with a prolonged chart life. “I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing” by Aerosmith, “Dance The Night Away” by The Mavericks and still selling from 1997, “Angels” by Robbie Williams had similar trajectories. And there was me thinking singles were in and out of the charts within two weeks at this time! In fairness to me, that perception was based on factual evidence like this – of the first ten chart toppers of the year, only one of them spent more than a solitary week at No 1. This phenomenon would occur another 13 times throughout 1998. The only singles to ascend to the chart summit for more than two weeks were Run-D.M.C. vs Jason Nevins (six weeks), “Three Lions ‘98” (three), “No Matter What” by Boyzone (three) and 1998’s best seller “Believe” by Cher. In fact, three of those were in the Top 4 best selling singles of the year. Looking at the make up of the rest of the Top 50, there are a few artists who have more than one entry:
B*Witched (three)
Spice Girls (three)
Steps (three)
All Saints (two)
Billie (two)
Savage Garden (two)
Robbie Williams (two)
That’s over a third of the Top 50 being supplied by just seven acts. What does this tell us? I have no idea other than you’d probably describe them all as being of a mainstream pop flavour. T’was ever thus? A deeper dive into the Top 10 breaks down like this I would suggest:
4 x ballads (Spice Girls, LeAnne Rimes, Boyzone, Celine Dion)
1 x novelty hit (Chef)
1 x cheesy pop song (B*Witched)
2 x rap influenced tracks (Run-D.M.C. vs Jason Nevins, Pras)
1 x dance/pop anthem (Cher)
1 x mainstream rock/pop hit (Savage Garden)
Probably nothing very left field in there except Run-D.M.C. and possibly Pras though I did once refer to the song his hit sampled as “Islands In The Mainstream” so middle of the road was it. Was this a case of the lowest common denominator striking again? What is noticeable is that despite the plethora of dance tunes in the charts this year, not many of them feature in the Top 50. I’d say…what…six are by what you would call out and out dance acts? Cornershop? “Brimful Of Asha” was a dance track but only because of the Norman Cook remix. I’m not sure they were a dance artist were they? I’d say it was a similar story for R&B/hip hop/rap artists in this year.
Looking at the Top 50 best selling albums chart of the year, it’s all very familiar with the majority of it made up of established or mainstream artists. The Corrs took the crown for selling more copies of their album “Talk On Corners” than anyone else with big hitters like George Michael, Madonna and Celine Dion all placing inside the Top 10. Special mention must go to Robbie Williams for having two albums in the mix at Nos 4 and 5. This was the point of no return for us and Robbie – he was here to stay. One of 1997’s biggest albums “Urban Hymns” maintained its strong sales for a second year to remain inside the Top 10 whilst Boyzone confounded the theory that boy bands couldn’t sell albums by coming in the bronze medal position with “Where We Belong”. Very unusually, a soundtrack album made the Top 10 and when I say ‘soundtrack’, I don’t mean a collection of pop songs that may or may not feature in a film briefly or over the credits. No, I mean a soundtrack album featuring the incidental music from the film. Said soundtrack was “Titanic: Music from the Motion Picture” by James Horner though the fact that it included Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On” probably helped to increase its commercial chances. In the final analysis, I’d have to say there is no final analysis, at least not one which you could draw hard and fast conclusions from and certainly none that I could condense into this post. Make your own minds up I guess.
And TOTP? What happened with the grand old show in 1998? Well, executive producer Chris Cowey really had his feet under the table after replacing Ric Blaxill the previous year. After axing the ‘golden mic’ slot when he initially started, he added to his roster of presenters with Jamie Theakston and Kate Thornton although they essentially replaced the departing Zoe Ball and Jo Whiley. That wasn’t all though. On 1 May, a remixed version of the classic “Whole Lotta Love” theme tune previously used in the 1970s was introduced, accompanied by a new 1960s-inspired logo and title sequence. The times they were a-changing…or at least reverting to what they once were.
Hits That Never Were
As with 1997’s epilogue post, I struggled to find many candidates for this section. The charts positions beyond Nos 1 to 40 seemed to be populated by hits on their way down, re-entries of previous big hits or dance tunes I had no idea about. For what it’s worth, here are four of the few non-hits that I was familiar with.
Gomez – “Get Myself Arrested”
Released: Jun ‘98
Chart peak: No 45
As the end of the 90s loomed, Gomez were being talked up as one of the brightest new bands around off the back of their winning the Mercury Music Prize, beating out the overwhelming favourites The Verve. Their brand of Americana roots rock struck a chord with the music press generating the common reaction of ‘how could these young, white lads from Southport be able to make a sound that sounded so mature and American?’. Although not furnished with huge hit singles (the biggest, “Whippin’ Piccadilly”, only made No 35), their debut album “Bring It On” would make it to No 11. My wife was one of those that bought it and it certainly had something intriguing about it, an ability to draw you in with its discordant arrangements and structures. It shouldn’t really have worked but it somehow did.
Two Top 10 albums followed but by 2004’s “Split The Difference”, their popularity had tailed off and when their label Hut Recordings shut down, they asked parent company Virgin to be released from their contract. They are still together though haven’t released an album since 2011. The band’s Tom Gray is involved with the Broken Record campaign which has lobbied the government to regulate music streaming.
Grandad Roberts and his Son Elvis – “Meat Pie Sausage Roll”
Released: Jun ‘98
Chart peak: No 67
What?! Have I lost my mind by including this? Maybe. Musically, it’s utter tripe but then it was a novelty football song released to cash in on the 1998 World Cup so it was maybe supposed to be? It was supposed to be funny though, a state I think it achieved due to its creator, the rather marvellous Mancunian comedian Smug Roberts. I spent nearly the whole of the 90s living in Manchester, and as such, I first became aware of Smug on a night out at the legendary comedy venue the Frog and Bucket where he was the compere one night and he was hilarious. I recall one story he told about the differences in the viewers that Blue Peter attracted as opposed to its ITV counterpart Magpie which had me in stitches.
By the late 90s, he had a radio show on Key 103 which featured the character ‘Grandad Roberts’ and a jingle that referenced Oldham Athletic FC and the chant “Meat Pie, Sausage Roll, come on Oldham, gi’s a goal”. With a slight rewording and some extra lyrics, it was released as an England World Cup song. It was never going to outsell “Three Lions ‘98” nor “Vindaloo” but it was a nice alternative all the same and certainly better than all those other hateful sausage themed novelty songs inflicted on us by Ladbaby that somehow gave them five consecutive Christmas No 1s.
Smug Roberts would go on to appear in various TV shows and films including 24 Hour Party People, ColdFeet and the magnificent Looking For Eric in which his character tells a joke about two monkeys in a bath…
Billy Bragg & Wilco: “Way Over Yonder In The Minor Key”
Released: Nov ‘98
Chart Peak: No 89
Now this was an interesting concept. A project to put to music previously unheard lyrics by the legendary folk artist Woody Guthrie organised by his daughter Nora. OK, if that doesn’t float your boat then you have to at least admire a man who had a guitar with the slogan ‘this machine kills fascists’ on it. So why were Billy Bragg and Wilco the artists asked to be involved in this project? Well, Bragg had performed at a Woody Guthrie tribute in 1995 and with his political activism, social conscience and folk sensibilities, he was a natural fit. Billy then approached alt-country act Wilco whose links to traditional American folk made them an obvious choice. The collaboration resulted in the “Mermaid Avenue” album, which gave the world a whole load of new Woody Guthrie tracks with the time elapsed between the lyrics being written and the music composed in some cases being nigh on 60 years. I guess it was a bit too niche to be a huge seller but it did shift enough copies in the UK to be certified a silver disc.
The two tracks I remember most from it are album opener “Walt Whitman’s Niece” and the single “Way Over Yonder In The Minor Key”. The latter is a great little song with Billy and Wilco giving musical expression to Guthrie’s words which reference the county he grew up in, the marvellously named, only-in-America Okfuskee. It was never going to be a hit in the UK in 1998 but the fact that it was even the tiniest footnote in the chart landscape was important in reminding us all that there was more music out there than the endless conveyor belt of generic dance tracks.
Jimmy Nail with Strange Fruit – “The Flame Still Burns”
Released: Nov ‘98
Chart peak: No 47
I do love a film about a fictional rock/pop group. Stardust, This Is Spinal Tap, The Rutles and That Thing You Do! all fall into that category. In 1998, we got Still Crazy to add to that list. The tale of reforming a 70s rock band called Strange Fruit (who were clearly modelled on Pink Floyd including their own Syd Barrett character), it starred Stephen Rea, Billy Connolly, Timothy Spall, Bill Nighy (with what surely was the prototype for his rock star role in LoveActually) and Jimmy Nail. The film builds to a climax surrounding the performance of this track “The Flame Still Burns” at the Wisbech Festival, a Strange Fruit song that, if I recall the plot correctly, had gained almost mythical status for never having been performed live before. Now, I thought that it was an OK rock ballad that worked well in the film’s narrative but reading some of the comments attached to this YouTube clip, people who like it, love it with more than one person saying it had been used as a funeral song for a loved one. Wow! It received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Original Song but lost out to “The Prayer” from Quest For Camelot. It was co-written by Squeeze’s Chris Difford who contributed numerous songs to the soundtrack.
I believe the film was well received critically but I’m not convinced that it did big numbers at the box office which may have contributed to the single failing to make the Top 40. Still, if you find yourself with time on your hands and looking for a film to watch, you could do worse than StillCrazy. It’s no ThisIsSpinalTap (what is?) and “The Flame Still Burns” is no *insert your favourite Spinal Tap song here* but it’s an enjoyable way to spend an hour and a half.
Hits We Missed
Bernard Butler – “Not Alone”
Released: Mar ‘98
Chart peak: No 27
The first of two artists who in this section whom released debut albums this year which I still play to this day. We start with Bernard Butler who had clearly been around for years up to this point as Suede’s guitarist and then part of McAlmont & Butler so I guess I should qualify my opening remark about ‘debut albums’ as in the case of Bernard, his album “People Move On” clearly wasn’t the first time he been involved in a major release. However, it had taken him four years to put something out just under his own name since departing Suede in 1994. For me, it was worth the wait.
Comprising some fine tunes from the mighty “You Just Know” (which would be used to soundtrack Match of the Day’s ‘Goal of the Month’ competition) to the superbly crafted rock/pop of third single “A Change Of Heart” to the delicate, spare “You Light The Fire”, it’s full of winners. Perhaps my favourite track though is “Not Alone”. A just superb production with that opening Phil Spector-esque wall of sound intro building to the release of an epic track with a killer chorus. I’m a sucker for an obvious reference in a song so the emphasised guitar lick when Bernard sings “And I won’t need to show you my heart, cos all I need in my hands is an electric guitar” gets me every time. My abiding association with that song though is when I came to leave working in record shops and had applied for a job in the civil service. When I got the letter saying yay or nay, I decided to soundtrack the moment and put on “Not Alone”‘ so that dramatic intro finished just as I opened the envelope and read that I’d got the job. A silly little thing but sometimes they’re the most important.
The album would do well critically with generally positive reviews and commercially going silver for sales of 60,000 units. In 2022, “People Move On” was reissued as a four CD package with Bernard re-recording his vocals. I’ve listened to both versions and although the latter is not without merit, you can’t beat the original release in my book.
Travis – “More Than Us EP”
Released: Mar ‘98
Chart peak: No 16
For many, it may have seemed that Travis experienced overnight success in 1999 with the release of their album “The Man Who” which went to No 1 and would become the third best selling album of the year in the UK. However, that would be a misrepresentation of their rise to fame, riches and glory. Firstly, “The Man Who” took a while to catch fire commercially. It spent two weeks inside the Top 10 but the following five drifting down the charts before rising again to peak at No 1 three months after it was released. Secondly, the band had been in existence since 1990 (albeit under a different name for the first three years). Thirdly, “The Man Who” wasn’t their first album. That would be “Good Feeling” which came out in the September of ‘97 and was a reasonable commercial success peaking at No 9 and furnishing the band with five Top 40 singles. The last of these was the “More Than Us” EP which included two other tracks from the album – second single “All I Want To Do Is Rock” and album closer “Funny Thing”. We had a promo album sampler sent to the Our Price store where I was working which I signed out to myself once the actual album had been released and was so impressed by it that I ended up buying the complete said album. It’s a much more rock orientated sound the the follow up that really made their name and would perhaps dispel the preconceived perceptions of the band’s sound if listened to by the uninitiated. Perhaps.
“More Than Us” though isn’t a rock song but a delicate, thoughtful and yet resilient ballad that has the ability to transport. Many comments online in support of the track talk of the listener being taken to another place, detached from reality for a few blissful minutes. That’s the power and importance of music right there. Unfairly, Travis have been dismissed as a band by many on the unwarranted grounds of being bland or inoffensive and perhaps even worse, a poor man’s Coldplay – is that the ultimate insult given their own not always favourable public perception? Music writer Wyndham Wallace even made a documentary about why he doesn’t like Travis called Almost Fashionable in which he joined the band on tour to see if they could change his mind about them. I should probably seek it out to seen if they did. I truly hope so.
Embrace – “Come Back To What You Know”
Released: May ‘98
Chart peak: No 6
Now for that second artist whose debut album I keep returning to. Embrace are probably the band I have seen live the most in my life – maybe five or six times – and yet I wasn’t in from the start with them. Despite working in a record shop, I somehow missed their first three EPs despite the fact that all three charted with “All You Good Good People” even going Top 10. I certainly hadn’t been aware of the initial release of the latter on independent label Fierce Panda in early 1997. All I knew was that people were talking them up as the next Oasis, a comparison which now seems unfair as well as inaccurate. However, I finally got on board with “Come Back To What You Know” which took them to a then career high of No 6. There’s a lot going on in this track. Yes, it’s anthemic with a huge production (apparently producer Youth tussled with the band for ages about how it should sound) but it also has an unusual rhythm to it. It almost stutters in places, unsure of where to go next before letting the chorus off the leash. Even then though, the chorus seems to undulate in an unorthodox way yet somehow resolves itself with a truly memorable hook. Like I say, there’s a lot going on there.
Parent album “The Good Will Out” debuted at No 1 going gold on its first day of release and there’s so many fine tracks on there (14 in all) but I think my absolute favourite is “That’s All Changed Forever” which gets me every time. After an eight year hiatus, they returned in 2014 with an eponymously titled album and have released two more since with rumours of album No 9 due in 2026. Come back to what you know indeed.
Drugstore featuring Thom Yorke – “El Presidente”
Released: Apr ‘98
Chart peak: No 20
Here’s a great forgotten 90s hit. Drugstore are led by Brazilian singer-songwriter and bassist Isabel Monteiro and have been together for over 30 years minus the odd hiatus and have released four albums in that time (not prolific then) but their only hit and therefore most famous song was this very cinematic track featuring Radiohead’s Thom Yorke on shared vocals. Written about former socialist Chilean president Salvador Allende, it’s a heady mix of sounds with Monteiro’s vocals almost Cerys Matthews like in places whilst the atmospheric slow building intro makes for an eerie but effective opening. I use the word ‘cinematic’ deliberately as the band’s music has featured on four movie soundtrack albums whilst also appearing in the TV series ThisLife and Teachers. As for the Thom Yorke cameo, I’m assuming that transpired from Drugstore supporting Radiohead earlier in their career. It was an inspired collaboration with Yorke’s plaintive vocals the perfect accompaniment. Supposedly, the band are still active though they haven’t released anything for 15 years and Monteiro has now returned to her home country of Brazil.
Theaudience – “A Pessimist Is Never Disappointed”
Released: May ‘98
Chart peak: No 27
Long before she assumed near national treasure status as the queen of the kitchen disco, Sophie Ellis Bextor was the lead singer of an aspiring post-Britpop band called theaudience (not sure that formatting worked) As I recall, there was quite the buzz about them which seemed, in retrospect, to be based on not much. One album and two medium sized Top 40 singles was all they managed before they were dropped by their label Mercury after they had rejected the demoes for a second album. Having said that, I quite liked this track, the first of those two hits not least because I thought its title was interesting and maybe even clever. Of course, there was a school of thought that said we didn’t need another female lead singer-led indie guitar band after a plethora of during the Britpop era like Sleeper, Echobelly and Elastica but such was the star quality surrounding Ellis Bextor that the music press couldn’t help themselves but give them column inches.
The track itself is melodic and not without charm and had the added bite of the line “and we all sing the same fucking song” although the expletive was changed for ‘stupid’ in the version released to radio. I think the song’s quality is confirmed by the fact that it could be recorded as a French language acoustic version (which was included as an extra track on the CD single) and also re-recorded with an orchestral arrangement for Ellis Bextor’s greatest hits compilation “The Song Diaries” in 2019. Sophie would embark on a further music career that took in a No 1 with Spiller in “Groovejet (If This Ain’t Love)” and the ubiquitous “Murder On The Dancefloor”. With all that success, I wonder if she would ever consider herself a pessimist?
Morcheeba – “Part Of The Process”
Released: Aug ‘98
Chart peak: No 38
Morcheeba’s Wikipedia entry lists their sound as spanning genres including trip hop, electronica, R&B and downtempo (whatever that is) so they were unlikely to be on my radar. However, fortunately for me, they were on my wife’s who bought their album “Big Calm” which went double platinum in the UK. Despite that success and a further three gold selling albums, the band have a surprisingly small amount of hit singles – just the three Top 40 entries with none of them getting higher than No 34. “Part Of The Process” was their second biggest chart hit but its peak of No 38 was unfathomable – it really should have been a bigger hit. Just like Drugstore, it’s opening is very filmic conjuring up images of spaghetti westerns before channeling Beck’s slacker anthem “Loser”. A country slide guitar ushers in the pleasantly catchy chorus, a theme which is repeated in the middle eight. It really is quite marvellous in an understated kind of way. The Jason And The Argonauts style video is fun too. The band are still together having released their most recent album in 2025, though the partnership of brothers Paul and Ross Godfrey was dissolved when the former left in 2014.
Their Season In The Sun
Aaron Carter
A tragic tale of too much fame coming to someone at too young an age. Little brother of Nick of the Backstreet Boys, Aaron had three UK Top 40 hits and a Top 20 album in 1998. Coming in like a 90s Little Jimmy Osmond (and just as annoying), his cover of “Surfin’ USA” by the Beach Boys was both excruciating and excrement. His fame and success would continue into the new Millennium in America but we’d had our fill of him by then thankfully. After filing for bankruptcy in 2013 over unpaid taxes relating to his late 90s wealth, he died in 2022 aged just 34 by accidental drowning after inhaling difluoroethane and taking alprazolam (Xanax).
Will Mellor
Before going on to roles in Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps, White Van Man and Mr Bates vs The Post Office, actor Will Mellor was Jambo in Hollyoaks. Deciding that he could do a Jason Donovan and go from soap star to pop star, he left the Chester set soap and made the move to the recording studio. Sadly, his venture was more Nick Berry than Jason. His cover of Leo Sayer’s “When I Need You” took him straight into the Top 5 emboldening him so much that he decided to saunter down to the Merseyway shopping centre in Stockport one Saturday afternoon and wonder around the Our Price store I was working in whilst all the time wearing sunglasses but clearly hoping to be recognised. Berk! A second single failed to make the Top 20 and that was it for Will the pop star. He seems to have gotten over his folly of youth and comes across as a decent bloke these days from what I’ve seen of him.
Cleopatra
Three Top 5 hits with your first three singles released and a sliver album is quite the feat, especially when you are a trio with a combined age of 47. Yes, the three Higgins sisters were all just teenagers when they were thrust into the limelight in 1998 and courted by no less a name than Madonna who signed them to her Maverick label. Support slots on the Spice Girls tour and their own TV show followed before performing at the Vatican Christmas Carol Concert by request of Pope John Paul II. It couldn’t last though and their second album was never released in the UK. The trio split in 2001 but have reformed numerous times over the years but are currently inactive.
B*Witched
Yes, they had more hits post 1998 including a fourth consecutive No 1 single but second album syndrome seemed to take hold with sophomore effort “Awake And Breathe” not selling even half the amount of copies that its predecessor did. A third album failed to appear and the band were dropped by their record label Sony in 2001 before splitting in 2002. They reformed in 2012 and are still performing live mainly on the nostalgia circuit but are scheduled for an unlikely appearance in May this year in the cathedral of my home city of Worcester.
Last Words
Goodbye 1998 and good riddance. Seriously, this was not a good year and reviewing these TOTP repeats has been a chore. A pain. A drag. A solid drag in fact. I have little hopes that 1999 will be any better sadly. Judging by my posts, I don’t seem to have bought much music in this year despite working in a record shop
Personally, I had a very difficult time in 1998 succumbing to an episode of poor mental health that laid me low with five weeks off work. The silver lining was that my return to work involved a change of store which worked out really well. In other news, my beloved Chelsea won two trophies this year. TWO! I could only have dreamt of such things as a young boy growing up supporting a club with a procession of hopelessly average and, on occasion, downright poor football teams. So not everything was awful then. Maybe 1999 will turn out to be better than I remember…
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
TOTP Rewind - the 90s 