We’re into the second instalment of the peripatetic version of TOTP whilst the BBC’s Elstree Studios are being renovated. This episode was filmed in Event II, Brighton and to reflect the travelling nature of the show at this time, there’s an updated logo with the original one having the words “On Tour” superimposed in the middle of it where “Of The” would normally be. It’s a nice little touch. Gail Porter is our host again and she’s got a smart new angular haircut this week. Thankfully for this blogger, we’re back to the usual eight songs this week as opposed to last week’s bumper edition which had eleven. Only one of those eight have been on the show before though so I best get on with it…

In late Summer/ early Autumn of 1999, the UK went Latin pop music crazy with the likes of Jennifer Lopez and Ricky Martin riding high in our charts. Rather than peter out, the trend variegated and we saw a new strain of the genre dominating the Top 40. I say ‘new’ but it was actually very retro – mambo. No chart was more mambo-fied than this week’s with the top two positions both being of that musical persuasion. We start with the song in the runners up position from Shaft. Nothing to do with the 1971 blaxploitation crime thriller film starring Richard Roundtree nor even the people behind the 1992 Toytown techno hit “Roobarb And Custard”; no, this Shaft were the electronic production duo Alex Rizzo and Elliot Ireland who had done remixes for the likes of Björk and Alison Limerick under the moniker of Skeewiff before changing their name to Shaft and turning their attention to the 1954 hit “Sway” by Dean Martin or rather the Rosemary Clooney version of it. A remix of that recording was used to soundtrack a TV ad for London radio station Kiss FM which led to a demand for the track to be released. There was only one problem – the holders of the copyright to the Clooney version wouldn’t give permission for the release so Rizzo and Ireland drafted in a session singer to re-record it at the death and hey presto!…a massive hit was born.

“Mucho Mambo (Sway)” was a pretty nasty thing, tacky in the extreme that did nothing except destroy the legacy of “Sway”’s previous incarnations but the UK record buying public didn’t give a fig about any of that. As for the staging of this one, it was pretty straightforward I guess what with Mambo music being a high energy genre and involving distinctive dance steps. I’m not sure why they thought Richard Ayoade would be able to pull off those moves though…

The Latin vibe continues with another outing for “Mi Chico Latino” by Geri Halliwell which, despite being deposed from the top of the charts this week is, as Gail Porter points out in her intro, riding high in the charts at No 3. Sticking with the numbers game, I hadn’t picked up on this the first time this performance was broadcast but Geri had surrounded herself on stage with two drummers (Adam Ant style), three Spanish guitar players and five Sun-tanned backing dancers. That seems like a lot of people for such a slight tune – we’re all agreed that it was just a rip-off of Madonna’s “La Isla Bonita” aren’t we? – or maybe that was the point and a distraction was needed.

Geri’s next release would see her engaged in one of the more high profile chart battles of the 90s when her single “Lift Me Up” went head to head with former Spice Girl band mate Emma Bunton who duetted with Tin Tin Out on a cover of Eddie Brickell’s “What I Am” but that’s all for a future post.

One of the most prolific bands of the second half of the 90s next as Ocean Colour Scene clock up their ninth straight hit with “Profit In Peace”. Two thirds of those nine went Top 10 – I know, I was surprised as well. This track was the lead single released from fourth studio album “One From The Modern” and is an anthem for our times, no more so than literally the present day what with the state of the world and the people in charge.

I have two memories about this track neither of which relate to when it was actually in the charts at the time. Firstly, about a year after it had been released, I’m sure it turned up on a promotional CD given away free with a breakfast cereal (can’t remember which one) along with a few other recent past hits though the only one I can recall is “Disco Down” by Shed Seven. In the days before streaming platforms, I played that disc a few times on my portable CD player on my walk to work trying to convince myself that I was still on my way to spend my day in an Our Price store surrounded by music rather than the reality which was being on my way to life as a civil servant at the Land Registry surrounded by paperwork and file plans. The second recollection is seeing Ocean Colour Scene perform the song when I caught them live in an open air gig in Hull in August of 2024 when Embrace and Cast were also on the bill. It was a good gig and yes, I do feel very old.

Still with Another Level?! If I was surprised by the amount of Ocean Colour Scene hits there were, I’m flabbergasted by how many times this lot were in the charts. This was their seventh consecutive hit (including one No 1) in just over 18 months and for this one they’d teamed up with R&B artist TQ of ”Westside” fame. In truth, “Summertime” is a bit of a mess. Somehow it doesn’t seem to scan properly as if the beats can’t accommodate the lyrics. Ah yes, those lyrics – I have no idea what a lot of them mean so I had to google them. Here’s just a few of my findings which I’m not claiming are definitive and if I’ve got them wrong I apologise:

“Damn i think i gotta a hangover
Too much mo? the night before”

Songwriters: Douglas B. Rasheed / Terrance Quaites Summertime lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

‘mo’: In urban slang it stands for ‘modus operandi’ for example, to describe a person’s known style in dating, working, or socializing (e.g., “His MO is to ghost after two dates”)

“And everybody on the westside is real high off the la la (in the streets)
And we looking for the ta ta cause they pop out when it gets hot (everybody)”

Songwriters: Douglas B. Rasheed / Terrance Quaites Summertime lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

‘la la’: Urban slang for a fun-loving, carefree girl who lives in the moment and doesn’t take life too seriously. However, “Lala bop” is something different altogether.

‘ta ta’: Probably not surprising in the context of the lyrics above but apparently it means breasts (e.g. “She was wearing a low-cut top that showed off her ta-tas.”)

The staging of it doesn’t help with the initial shot of the group with four backing dancers all in a line shuffling about looks like a very loose rehearsal. Maybe that was the look they were going for to promote the vibe (hate that word!) of the song? Then there’s TQ himself bounding on stage halfway through, all over excited – if Tigger was a rapper….

Not every dance tune around this time was all about Mambo. Here’s Moloko with a huge club anthem but, as with many such hits, it took a remix and a rerelease to secure its high chart position and sales. When “Sing It Back” was originally out to buy in the shops, it was the version from the album “I Am Not A Doctor” which yielded a disappointing peak just outside the Top 40 (No 45 if you’re counting). A remix was sought out by the band and Todd Terry (the man behind Everything But The Girl’s monster anthem “Missing”) was their first choice but, unhappy with his treatment of the track, they turned to Boris Dlugosch and it was his version that became their biggest hit to date when it peaked at No 4. To paraphrase Mel Smith on his 1987 Christmas hit with Kim Wilde, it’s an almighty groove, with an almost Chic like guitar riff and Róisín Murphy’s distinctive, alluring vocals beckoning the listener/audience to join in. I always wondered why it wasn’t called “Bring It Back” as in the first line of the chorus but have since discovered that it was inspired by Róisín’s time spent frequenting the Body And Soul nightclub in New York where the resident DJ would play a lot of tracks with vocals in them and would fade down the volume so the assembled throng of clubbers could literally sing the words back to him. Fairly obvious really. “Sing It Back” would catapult Moloko into a different league of exposure (it was a UK and US Dance No 1) not least due to the track’s ubiquity – it reportedly featured on over 100 compilation albums.

Although Moloko were a duo, Róisín performs completely solo here with no sign of partner Mark Bryson but with all respect to him, nobody noticed due to Róisín’s choice of stage costume. A potentially unforgiving silver catsuit held no fear for her as she looked and sounded like a star with her image topped off with a retro yet stylish Purdey style haircut. If Joanna Lumley had been in Barbarella instead of Jane Fonda, she would surely have looked like the Moloko singer does in this performance. Failing that, if they ever remade Gerry Anderson sci-fi TV series UFO, all Róisín needed to add to her look was a purple wig.

Oh my dear God! What was this?! This was wrong on multiple levels! As well as Mambo fever, 1999 saw a resurgence in ABBA mania. As an appetiser, we’d already had the “Thank ABBA for the Music” medley by Steps, Tina Cousins, Cleopatra, B*Witched and Billie which originated from the BRIT Awards show that year and turned into a No 4 hit. This was quickly followed by the opening of the now legendary ABBA musical Mama Mia! which resulted in the seven year old compilation “ABBA Gold” returning to No 1 in the charts. Now, I have no problem with the Swedish superstars – they were part of my early childhood in our house – but that’s not what I’m referring to. No, what I have a problem with is A*Teens who were a group of Swedish 14-16 year olds put together to record late 90s versions of ABBA hits with the aim of fleecing the world with them. This was a scandalous practice it seemed to me to cash in on the renewed interest in ABBA. Why did anyone need newer versions of those classic pop hits and who thought having them sung by teenage kids was the way to go about it?! I mean, it’s not quite Minipops territory but it was distasteful and unedifying. Somehow though, this poorly thought out project was successful. Their debut single “Mamma Mia” was, rather predictably, the best selling single of 1999 in Sweden and a hit all round Europe (including in the UK where it peaked at No 12). Somewhere, Simon Fuller was sat at home thinking “Hmm. A junior version of S Club 7. That could sell…”

Their success would continue for a couple of years before petering out into the new millennium. In a case of history eating itself, A*Teens reformed this year to compete for the chance to represent Sweden at Eurovision but they finished 7th out of 12 entries in the Melodifestivalen 2026 final to find the ultimate entrant. Mamma Mia indeed! I have to admit that I didn’t get to the end of this one – it was making me feel a bit queasy.

Some proper music now courtesy of Stereophonics who are into their fourth single released from sophomore album “Performance And Cocktails”. “I Wouldn’t Believe Your Radio” was, as Gail Porter regales us in her intro, written by Kelly Jones after having had a dream in which George Harrison and Ringo Starr were singing that title in front of Jones’ parents’ house. So, a bit like John Lennon’s fabricated tale about the origin of the name The Beatles. He famously said that it came to him in a dream in which a man appeared on a flaming pie and said “From this day on you are Beatles with an ‘A’”. Could that story have been lurking around in Kelly Jones’ subconscious which triggered his dream?

Anyway, the song sounds a bit like something Noel Gallagher would have written in the latter period of Oasis and therefore lacks the punch of singles like “The Bartender And The Thief” and “Pick A Part That’s New”. Not a bad track just not one of their best. One final single from the album would follow before the band would return with their second No 1 album “Just Enough Education To Perform” in 2001.

P.S. Is it just me or does Kelly have a look of Robbie Williams about him in this performance?

We end as we began – in Mambo mood. The origins of “Mambo No.5 (A Little Bit Of…)” by Lou Bega stretched back longer than this particular chart. First of all, there’s the fact that it was based on the old Pérez Prado track originally recorded in 1949. Remarkably for an artist that had been dead for 10 years and was associated with one very distinct genre of music, this was the second time in four years that Prado’s presence had been felt in a huge hit after “Guaglione” was a No 2 record in 1995 following its use in a Guinness advert. Fast forward to 1999 and here he was again being used as the structure for Lou Bega’s worldwide No 1 but who was Lou Bega? Well, apart from being a definitive One Hit Wonder in the UK (one chart topper then nothing ever again), he was/is a German singer born to an Italian mother and Ugandan father who discovered Latin music whilst living in Miami. Returning to Munich, he would get involved with a manager and two producers, a collaboration which would lead to “Mambo No.5 (A Little Bit Of)”.

Secondly, there’s the fact that the track had been around for ages before its entry at the top of the chart. Indeed, it had been in the Top 40 for three weeks getting as high as No 31 prior to this point. How so? Well, it was the same story as we saw recently with ATB’s hit “9PM (Till I Come)” which charted on sales of import copies alone ahead of its official UK release. Once said release was made available, the import version was declared null and void for chart compilation purposes and disappeared from view altogether.

So that’s its origin story but was it any good? I don’t think you’ll be surprised to hear that I couldn’t stand it. I just found it hard to appreciate and seemed designed to appeal to the lowest common denominator. Was I being a music snob? Quite probably but I’ve always tried to be honest in my nearly 10 years of writing this blog so I’m not about to stop that with the end now only a handful of posts away. However, I did appreciate this rendition of it in the marvellous The Royle Family:

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/m002vdb6/top-of-the-pops-03091999