It was remiss of me to not make reference in my last post to the mention host Kate Thornton made to the fact that the BRITS had just taken place that week back in 1999. I’ll make up for it now by having a look into what went down on the night. Well, not that much really by which I mean nothing explosively controversial compared to 1996 (the Jarvis Cocker / Michael Jackson incident), 1997 (Geri Halliwell’s Union Jack dress) and 1998 (Chumbawamba’s Danbert Nobacon pouring a jug of water over John Prescott). However, there were rumblings about one of the winners. Belle And Sebastian picked up the award for the Best British Breakthrough Act triumphing over the likes of Five, Steps, Billie Piper and Another Level. The award was sponsored by Radio 1 and voted for online by their listeners. The Glasgow indie pop outfit were surprise winners, so much of a surprise that a story ran in the papers the following weekend that the vote had been rigged with students of two specific universities encouraged by the band to vote for them. Steps impresario Pete Waterman was so incensed (presumably that his red hot charges had lost) that he called for an investigation but nothing came of the conspiracy story and Belle And Sebastian kept their award. Robbie Williams was the big winner on the night though with three awards whilst Natalie Imbruglia also took home two. I wonder if anybody on this TOTP also benefitted from the BRITS…

First up are The Corrs who were big winners at the BRITS picking up the Best International Group gong ahead of the likes of REM no less. Hoping to cash in on that award were their record label Atlantic with a new single and when I say new I actually mean old. “Runaway” was the group’s debut single in 1995 which missed the Top 40 by nine places when first released and was from their first album “Forgiven, Not Forgotten”. Having already completely plundered sophomore collection “Talk On Corners”, Atlantic turned their attention to that debut album and single. As with their No 3 hit “What Can I Do”, “Runaway” was given the Tin Tin Out remix treatment resulting in the group’s then biggest hit single as it debuted at No 2. Just to ensure they were adhering to the completely cynical record label image, they included it in a special edition version of “Talk On Corners”.

Having listened to both the original and the remixed version, I can’t hear that much difference between the two or maybe my ears just aren’t sufficiently highly tuned for that level of discernment? The group performed “Runaway” at the BRITS so it was always clear that the intention was to strike whilst they were hot (as it were) with a flurry of releases to kept their profile high and momentum going.

I should say that our host this week is Jayne Middlemiss who makes a comment about “your Dad’s and your brother’s blood pressure calming back down to normal” after watching The Corrs implying that they’d maybe got over-excited a tad. Now isn’t that putting filth into their minds Jayne and didn’t somebody else say a similar thing about The Corrs?*

*It’s not the inappropriateness of David Brent’s comments which are awful that makes this scene but actually Tim’s look to camera that gets me every time

Another rereleased single making it big second time around now as NSYNC make their UK bow. Well, they had visited our Top 40 once before 18 months prior but in the most fleeting of ways (one week at No 40) so I’m not counting that. When originally released, “I Want You Back” only made No 62 but it crashed straight into the Top 5 in 1999. Now, there two inescapable talking points that have to be mentioned when discussing NSYNC:

1. The comparisons to Backstreet Boys
2. Justin Timberlake

Let’s address them head-on then. Firstly, maybe if they hadn’t been from America, maybe if there hadn’t been five of them and maybe if, you know, they hadn’t sounded exactly the same as the Backstreet Boys, then maybe those comparisons wouldn’t have been made. Secondly, is it just me or has Justin Timberlake always had problem hair?

Their performance here is nauseating. They don’t so much dance as walk around a bit and then perform backflips. And did they really need shirts with the number 5 on them telling us there were indeed five of them perhaps or that they are at No 5 in the charts? If they’d been called, I don’t know, Five maybe then it might have been justified. Timberlake would of course go on to solo superstardom after starting out on Disney’s The All New Mickey Mouse Club show. Improbably, another ex-Mickey Mouser would do exactly the same and will be along in this same show a bit later…

Although she wasn’t a winner the next artist was nominated for a BRIT award in the category of International Female Solo Artist losing out on the night to Natalie Imbruglia. I think I might have been a tad surprised at the time that Lauryn Hill didn’t walk off with that particular gong based on the sales of her solo album “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill” which we sold loads of in the record shop in the Our Price store in Altrincham where I was working – clearly she spoke to the white, middle class teenagers of that particular market town that lies within the historic country boundaries of Cheshire. Anyway, “Ex-Factor” (see what she did there?) was the second single from that album following “Doo Wop (That Thing)” which had been an American No 1 as was the album – Hill was the first female rapper in history to debut atop both charts. I couldn’t recall how “Ex-Factor” went and wasn’t particularly expecting to like it but I was pleasantly surprised as it’s a very melodic, soul ballad with enough edge to it to make it stand out. It would peak at No 4 in the UK charts.

Now, what’s the connection between Lauryn Hill and the last act NSYNC? Yes, it’s Justin Timberlake of course. According to Wikipedia, a stripped down rendition of the song was featured in a medley performed by his backing singers during his 2018 The Man In The Woods Tour. Just a word of congratulations to Jayne Middlemiss on her intro for his one (or to whoever wrote the script) – “It’s not Cypress, it’s not Dru, it’s not even Katy…it’s Lauryn Hill”. Nice work.

As much as Belle And Sebastian winning the British Breakthrough Act award was a bit of a surprise, if the next artist had even been nominated in the category it would have been a seismic shock. Lucid had clocked up one Top 10 hit with 1998’s “I Can’t Help Myself” but even allowing for that, them winning a BRIT gong was as likely as Robbie Williams not winning one. Still, their No 14 follow up hit “Crazy” did earn them a place on the TOTP running order and a chance to perform for the watching TV audience at home. I’m not sure how big said audience was at this point in the show’s history nor how many viewers the BRITS pulled in but those of us working in record shops still took note of who was on TOTP when it came to predicting singles sales and how much stock to order.

There’s not much info on Lucid online but what little I did find described them as being of an electronic /dance / trance persuasion which I guess I can hear although there does seem to be an almost heavy rock element to it as well which is further highlighted by the presence of real instruments in this performance. It also does sound very derivative and unoriginal at the same time. Not a very satisfying nor lucid definition really. They would have one more hit – a version of Judy Tzuke’s “Stay With Me Till Dawn” before Lucid made like a loose lid and fell off the music industry jar of hits.

“Now we’ve had loads of letters to see this next performance again” Jayne Middlemiss tells us in her next intro. Letters?! It’s easy for those of us of a certain age to forget and hard to imagine for the Generation Z-ers but we didn’t all used to have the internet and digital methods of communication available to us at our fingertips (or thumb tips maybe). Even so, I’m not convinced that loads of viewers were writing into the BBC begging for a particular TOTP performance to be shown again, even if said performance was by Lenny Kravitz who was “sex on legs” according to Jayne. In fairness, he does look pretty cool though not as cool as his drummer and her magnificent, towering Afro. As for featuring the clip again, chances are, as last week’s No 1, executive producer Chris Cowey would have shown “Fly Away” again anyway.

When it comes to Whitney Houston, a bit like Kylie, there’s lots of different versions of her depending upon which era of her career you’re talking about. There’s the smooth love song chanteuse of “Saving All My Love For You”, the perfect pop singer of “I Wanna Dance With Somebody”, the power balladeer of The Bodyguard but by the late 90s she had turned to R&B and hip-hop for the sound of her fourth studio album “My Love Is Your Love”. Given that she’d spent most of the 90s being a film star with her name also all over the associated soundtrack albums, was this an attempt to realign herself as a singer first and foremost by making an album that tapped into the dominant sound of the latter part of the decade? Maybe. Maybe not. Whitney had already strayed down that road with her last studio album completely under her own name, 1990’s “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight” which had garnered mix reviews. “My Love Is Your Love” would be much better received and with the sales to back up its praise and yet its chart life started out in quite a minimal way. Released quietly (and perhaps unwisely) over the 1998 Christmas period, it didn’t really have a lead single to promote it. Yes, there had been that duet with Mariah Carey but that was from the soundtrack to the DreamWorks animated film The Prince Of Egypt and was seemingly just tacked onto “My Love Is Your Love”. As a result the album initially made only a minor splash in the UK charts, debuting at No 27 and then spending a couple of months hopping around the lower ends going as low as No 71. Then came what many saw as the first official single for the album – “It’s Not Right But It’s OK” which would provide Whitney with her highest charting single in the UK since “I Have Nothing” made the Top 3 six years earlier. And this is where the BRITS connection comes in as Whitney performed the track at the awards show to a rapturous reception. Ah, is that why it was released so much later than the album? So that she could promote with a headlining performance at a high profile, televised event? Maybe. Anyway, off the back of the single’s success, the album would ultimately go Top 5 and achieving three times platinum sales.

As for the song itself, it’s not really my thing/thang but I can appreciate that it’s a well executed R&B dance track with lyrics about defiantly telling an unfaithful lover to pack their bags. Given their tumultuous relationship many in the press speculated on whether it was about Whitney’s husband Bobby Brown. I’m pretty sure much more of a fuss would have been made about an in person appearance by Whitney Houston on the show back in the day but I guess things change quickly in the world of popular music and maybe her light wasn’t shining as brightly as it once had but the “My Love Is Your Love” album would see Whitney stake a claim as one of its biggest names again.

An absolutely iconic song next (yes it is, whether you like it or not) and a chart munching, sales crunching commercial juggernaut to boot. Once in a while, a single would come along that could never be anything but huge such was the buzz about it. I’m thinking “Killing Me Softly” by the Fugees, “MMMBop” by Hanson and “Don’t Speak” by No Doubt. That sort of thing. The buying department at the Our Price chain for whom I worked would send round a memo for these titles saying how the predicted sales of them were so massive that they’d had to order in extra quantities for every store to meet initial demand but also warning that we would have to monitor the single very closely for fear of selling out. “…Baby One More Time” by Britney Spears was definitely one that also needed watching closely.

Originally offered to the Backstreet Boys, TLC and Five (really?), they all turned down the opportunity to record the song leaving the path open for that other young star of Disney’s The All New Mickey Mouse Club show I referred to earlier to prove them all wrong by taking it to No 1 just about everywhere in the world. Why was it so successful? Well, it’s an extremely accessible pop song with hooks a plenty and some very convincing vocal styling from Spears for one so young. It’s also got that creeping backbeat that made it stand out from any other pop/dance tunes of the time. It also had that element of controversy with that chorus “Hit me baby one more” which label Jive were so concerned about that they changed the track’s original title to omit the first two words.

Then of course there’s that video which we get to see here and which is trailed by Britney doing a video message explaining that she can’t be in the TOTP studio because she’s hurt her knee. Apparently, a lot of the elements that made it so daring and controversial were down to Spears herself. She pitched the concept of the school setting to video director Nigel Dick after rejecting his original space themed idea and it was also Britney who had the idea of the knotted shirt look that sparked so much outrage. I once attended a guitar class and one of the songs we were learning was “..Baby One More Time”. Our teacher asked us to listen to the track before the next lesson to which one of my fellow students said “Well, the blokes here can’t watch the video, we’re not allowed” meaning that he believed that society had decreed that any man watching the video would be judged and not in a good way. Living in the times that we currently do, I can’t decide whether it would still be considered that way or not. Would it be seen as small fry in an Epstein files world or is it part of the problem? I don’t really want to pursue that line of enquiry any further than that. What I will say is that it’s a very impactful video which earned three nominations in the MTV Video Music Awards. Although, she didn’t feature in the 1999 BRITS, the following year she was nominated in the categories of Best International Female Solo Artist and Best International Breakthrough losing in both categories to Macy Gray. As for “…One More Time”, it would sell 463,000 copies in its first week of release easily dwarfing the commercial performance of any other No 1 single of 1999 so far. The bods in that buying department at Our Price knew what they were talking about.

We still haven’t yet finished with this Great British Song Contest malarkey to find the UK entrant for Eurovision so here’s the third of the four finalists Alberta with a song called “So Strange”. This one at least try to do something different from the safe pop/soul song template delivered by eventual winners Precious by offering us a reggae-lite tune. It puts me in mind of the 1985 hit “Girlie Girlie” by Sophia George which is no bad thing. I also quite like the way the songwriters tried to cover all cases by having part of the track sung in French. Cynical? Maybe but again at least they were trying to do something different. Alberta would come second to Precious which Wikipedia informs me was the second time she failed to be the UK Eurovision entry at the final hurdle having come second in 1998. Oh well. As Johnny Logan once sang, “What’s Another Year”.

Disclaimer

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

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

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002q94h/top-of-the-pops-26021999