TOTP Rewind – the 90s | My memories of 90s chart music

TOTP 07 AUG 1998

It’s a monumental episode of TOTP this one as it’s the last one hosted by Jo Whiley. Well, that’s not strictly true as she returned in 2006 to do a couple more shows but it’ll be the last I review in this blog that features her. So what to make of Jo? I have to admit to having held very strong negative views about her in the past. I couldn’t get along with her over enthusiasm when it came to expressing her love of music. If that sounds miserabilist or misanthropic, let me clarify. It was her professed love of all music, whatever its genre or merits which gave the impression that she would be as comfortable introducing Go West as The Go-Betweens as long as it kept her on the airwaves. However, after her campaigning on behalf of her sister who has learning disabilities during the pandemic that she and others like her should be prioritised to receive the COVID vaccine, I gained a lot of respect for her. She also does a lot of charity work for the likes of Mencap so there’s that as well. However, I just can’t shake my distrust of her proclamations and motives when it comes to music but maybe I’m just jealous of her career. As to why she left the roster of TOTP hosts at this time, I’m not sure. To focus on her Radio 1 show The Lunchtime Social? To spend more time with her family* Whatever the reason, I think, against the odds, I might actually miss her.

*She has four children

I won’t be missing the opening act tonight though who are Ace Of Base though I can’t guarantee this will be the last we see of them in these 90s TOTP repeats. What I can say with some conviction is that their brand of reggae-lite Europop was just terrible, shockingly bad. No, I don’t accept the comparisons with ABBA whose complex, pop compositions were superbly crafted. Ace Of Base, by contrast, peddled simple, almost nursery rhyme-like ditties that were sickly sweet but of zero nutritional value. If ABBA were the Armani Casa of furniture then Ace Of Base were IKEA – flat-pack, flat track dull(y). “Life Is A Flower” was a typical example of their oeuvre. Hooky but schlocky. Their next single would be a cover of Bananarama’s “Cruel Summer”. Cruel indeed.

This is starting to worry me now as my poor brain cells seem to be misfiring again. How many times have I said in this blog lately that I don’t remember a song or an artist? Well, it’s happened once more. Who were/are Lucid? Well, I’m not entirely sure as there’s not a lot of information about them online. The ever reliable @TOTPFacts has come to my rescue though with this tweet:

Lucid were production duo Adam Carter-Ryan and Mark Hadfield, and vocalist Clare Canty. #TOTP
— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) October 17, 2025

Grateful as always but it’s pretty slim pickings. Got anything else? Oh, they have…

Adam Carter-Ryan and Mark Hadfield also produced Emmie’s cover of Roxy Music’s “More Than This”, a number five hit in January 1999. https://t.co/STESg3Fzmk #TOTP
— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) October 17, 2025

And Mark Hadfield also had a hit under the name Lovefreekz – "Shine" (which pinched its melody from “Shine A Little Love” by ELO) peaked at six in 2004. https://t.co/3vFKhTHy9E #TOTP
— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) October 17, 2025

A few years back Lucid vocalist Clare Canty was a teaching fellow at The Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, but it looks like she's moved on from that. #TOTP
— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) October 17, 2025

Excellent! Will that do for this entry? No? OK, well, they had three hits the first of which was “I Can’t Help Myself” which I assume was a big hit in the clubs judging by Jo Whiley’s intro that references Ibiza. It’s very underwhelming to my ears though. Maybe executive producer Chris Cowey was in agreement with me given the over the top staging of this performance. “A tune so dangerous we’ve been forced to restrain the lead singer” says Jo before we see singer Clare Canty in a straitjacket. It’s a daring look but surely it would have been more of an arresting image if she’d have done the whole performance under duress as it were but she releases herself from her (clearly fake) bonds halfway through which kind of undermines the whole idea. Or maybe it was, in fact, just a bad idea to have a woman restrained on stage (even if it was just for effect)? Maybe the thinking behind it wasn’t so lucid after all?

What’s this? Jo Whiley interviewing a pop star on the show? This wasn’t a regular occurrence so was Chris Cowey letting her go out with a bit of a bang? Presumably, he couldn’t get both Brandy & Monica in the TOTP studio simultaneously so the video and a brief (and cringeworthy) interview with one of them – Brandy – was deemed the next best thing. Or was it just that Cowey couldn’t ignore the hit that was “The Boy Is Mine” any longer and Jo was in the right place at the right time? This was another of those hardy hits like “How Do I Live” by LeAnne Rimes that stuck around the charts for ages having debuted at No 2 and then spent weeks hovering around the lower end of the Top 10 before it settled on a three week run at No 13. It was at this point that it was finally deemed worthy of a slot on the show which makes no sense but running orders rarely did in the Cowey era. Maybe there were some undeclared contractual issues preventing the song getting an airing until now or maybe it was just a combination of timing and Cowey’s previous stubbornness not to feature videos on the show? Whatever the truth, what was undeniable about the record is that it was a monster. If the resilience it displayed in our charts was impressive, it was nothing compared to the success it had in the US where it spent 13 weeks at No 1 and was the biggest selling single of the year. It also held a curious chart record of being the first hit to ascend to No 1 from a position outside of the Top 20 since The Beatles charged from No 27 to the top in 1964 with “Can’t Buy Me Love”.

Supposedly inspired by the Michael Jackson/Paul McCartney duet on “The Girl Is Mine” and by The Jerry Springer Show as referenced in Brandy’s chat with Whiley, it’s a mid-tempo R&B ballad that exerts a deceptive pull on the listener. Both singers’ vocals are low in the mix with a distinct lack of histrionics but rather gestate a slow but determined ear worm that burrows into your brain and sets up home there. It’s the musical equivalent of Aesop’s fable about the tortoise and the hare. Both Brandy and Monica went on to have long and successful careers in the worlds of music and acting and revisited “The Boy Is Mine” just last year featuring on a remix of the track by Ariana Grande.

Now this edition of TOTP was originally meant to be 25 minutes in length with seven songs featured which is a reduction of one from the standard eight but has been further reduced by the omission of the Puff Daddy & Jimmy Page hit “Come With Me” from the Godzilla movie for obvious reasons. However, the censors could have taken this one out for me as well on the grounds of poor quality and possibly taste as well. As with Lucid earlier, I have zero recollection of Baby Bumps and their hit “Burning” and there is precious little about them online either. Even the normally reliable @TOTPFacts can only come up with the fact that their hit sampled “Disco Inferno” by The Trammps. So who were these chumps and why were they having a hit with this awful butchering of a classic track? Well, they seem to be a female version of The Village People judging by their stage costumes and as for why they were having a hit…well, the bad taste of the record buying public strikes again. It is a dreadful treatment of “Disco Inferno” and was there something wrong with the sound as the lead woman’s singing sounded too quiet in parts. I say ‘singing’ but it was more like shouting and is it me or does she not seem able to count to four?! I’m sure she shouts “Four, two, three, four”. Twice. Apparently, they had another hit in 2000 but happily I won’t have to review it as this is a 90s blog and will finish with the 1999 repeats.

It’s yet another hit from a film soundtrack next as Apollo Four Forty launch into the upper echelons of the chart with “Lost In Space”. As it’s Apollo Four Forty, of course, it’s a dance track but then, there had been a trend for dance versions of old film/TV theme tunes around this time. Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen had given us their treatment of the Mission Impossible theme whilst Orbital took on The Saint. As for Lost In Space, I did see the film starring Matt Le Blanc of Friends fame which was a big screen adaptation of the 60s TV series and, like most people who watched it, I thought it stank the cinema out. Just hopeless and not because I was looking through nostalgic glasses at the TV series as I hardly remembered that but just because it was a bad film. It pretty much did for Le Blanc’s film star aspirations. – I think he had a small part in the Charlie’s Angels reboot after this but not much else.

As for the Apollo Four Forty song, it didn’t do an awful lot for me. Apparently, it was based (loosely) on the second John Williams theme tune that he composed for the series but it’s all at breakneck speed and features some frenetic fret work (including a precursor of the Royal Blood bass guitar style possibly?) that’s all a bit much for me. Then there’s the geezer with the peroxide blonde hair and glasses giving me a headache by shouting out random phrases like “Space is the place” and “This cold war’s just got hot”. When he shouts “Can you feel it?”, he sounds like one of those blokes on the mike at a fairground exporting people to “Scream if you want to go faster!”. Like I said, headache inducing.

The Spice Girls remain at No 1 with “Viva Forever” but this will be its last week at the top. As with last week, we don’t get the stop-motion animation video but that performance recorded whilst the group were on tour. In an earlier form, the song was titled “Obrigado” which means ‘thank you’ in Portuguese and I can imagine that as it scans similarly to “Viva Forever”. Talking of titles, Viva Forever! was the name of the Spice Girls jukebox musical written by Jennifer Saunders which opened in 2012 to a very poor reception and some of the worst reviews of that year. Thankfully for the group, the song did not receive the same response as the musical.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Ace Of Base	Life Is A Flower	Definitely not
2	Lucid	I Can’t Help Myself	I could though – no
3	Brandy & Monica	The Boy Is Mine	Nah
4	Baby Bumps	Burning	Never
5	Apollo Four Forty	Lost In Space	No
6	Spice Girls	Viva Forever	Nope

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/m002kx4v/top-of-the-pops-07081998

TOTP 31 JUL 1998

Posted on October 21 by 80stastic

We’re still stuck in the Summer of 1998 here at TOTP Rewind but we’re not the only ones who are stuck as TOTP executive producer Chris Cowey is stuck in a rut of accommodating hits that have been on at least twice before within the show’s running order. I know I keep banging on about this but it seems so extreme and unnecessary. Look at the opening act in this episode for example. This was the seventh week on the chart for “Got The Feelin’” by Five and after debuting at No 3, most had seen the single descending the chart. However, in its fifth week, it had arrested that trend by climbing one place from No 14 to No 13 and they were immediately back on the show! Its next chart position saw it fall to No 20 but a two place climb to No 18 seven days later and slam dunk! – back on the show again! Patently ridiculous. We don’t even get to see a different studio performance nor the official video as it’s always just that very first appearance with the football shirts re-shown. A regular reader to this blog sent me a message asking me if I thought that, in the scenario of TOTP still being on TV in October 2025 and Cowey still being executive producer, would he still be showing “Got The Feelin’”? That’s certainly the feelin’ I’ve got.

Here’s another hit that we’ve seen twice before already but at least this one is still selling well, holding at No 3 and having spent its entire chart life inside the Top 5 to this point. We did only see it on the previous show though and again, it’s just a repeat of the last appearance for “Ghetto Superstar (That Is What You Are)” by Pras Michel featuring Ol’ Dirty Bastard and introducing Mýa. By the way, our host is Jayne Middlemiss again who is making up for lost time by making consecutive appearances after having gone missing for a month. They’re doing that super imposing thing again that they did recently with Jamie Theakston by attempting to make Jayne look like she’s in the studio with Pras et al but which just makes the whole thing look cheap and nasty. Now, is it fair to describe “Ghetto Superstar” with those same words? Is it a bit lowest common denominator? A bit dumb-downed? A bit lowbrow? Or am I being a musical snob? I can’t decide so I suppose it’s unfair to expect anyone else to know. What I do know is that it was the 9th best selling single in the UK in 1998 which must mean something mustn’t it?

Right, who’s this? Lovestation? Don’t remember them at all. Nothing to do with the high numbers on the TV guide on your remote (a direction which I won’t be pursuing further), they are a UK garage outfit who had a couple of hits most notably with this cover of “Teardrops” by Womack And Womack. Despite its almost universally rapturous legacy, I was never that fond of the 1988 original and always found it quite dull so a housed-up version for the late 90s was never going to win me over. However, I have to say this is exceptionally drab. It sounds so tinny next to the original, almost as if it’s the demo version that was released by mistake. And what is with the two over enthusiastic dancers in this performance who movements and steps seem wildly incongruous to the actual song? Lovestation seemed to only have about three songs that they kept on releasing and re-releasing according to their discography. “Teardrops” appears three times, a track called “Love Come Rescue Me” was released thrice and “Shine On Me” had a hat-trick of releases as well. Funnily enough, they did have three Top 40 hits though two were courtesy of “Teardrops” and another wasn’t either of the other songs mentioned.

The Supernaturals are back with the lead single from their second album “A Tune A Day” called “I Wasn’t Built To Get Up”. It was also their last Top 40 entry when it peaked at No 25 meaning that all five of their hits registered between Nos 38 and 23. That sounds fairly modest but a numbers approach maybe doesn’t tell the whole story as The Supernaturals were once the darlings of the music press with their debut album “It Doesn’t Matter Anymore” receiving very positive reviews whilst their song “Smile” was nominated for an Ivor Novello Award. As is the way of the press though, it wasn’t long before they were tearing the band down describing them as ‘ordinary’, ‘unambitious’ and generally lambasting them for not realising that the Britpop sound was dead in the water. One review noted of their “A Tune A Day” album that if you:

“crossed a hint of Blur’s mid 90s upbeat output with a Scottish-flavoured twist of The Beach Boys and their sunny melodies, you’d probably end up with something a bit like The Supernaturals”

“REWIND: Revisiting the Best of July 1998 + Playlist | XS Noize | Online Music Magazine”

Hmm. Then there’s @TOTPFacts who said on X rather harshly of this TOTP performance:

When you order Tim Wheeler off Temu. #TOTP
— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) October 10, 2025

Ouch. Both of these got me thinking about my own comparisons and I came up with The Supernaturals being the missing link between Ash and Scouting For Girls and that this song title was like a mix of “Can’t Get Out Of Bed” by The Charlatans and “I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times” by Brian Wilson. Yeah, I’m not sure any of the above is helpful. Writing about music never really does anyone justice. As Frank Zappa famously said, “Writing about music is like dancing about architecture”.

Wh-wh-what?! Who was Charli Baltimore and why was she in our charts and on our TV screens? Well, she was actually Tiffany Lane, a name which sounds like one of Charlie’s Angels but was deemed not exciting enough for launching a music career so Tiffany stole the name of the character played by Geena Davis in The Long Kiss Goodnight, a film that was a big VHS rental hit back in the day as I recall. Charli was also the partner of legendary rapper the Notorious B.I.G. at the time of his death and it was he that had encouraged Charli in her rap music ambitions. I have to be honest and say I wish he hadn’t bothered because her debut single “Money” was just a horrible noise, a monotonous and relentless horrible noise. Look, I’m no rap expert so maybe her ‘flow’ was magnificent but that doesn’t make it any more enjoyable or even listenable. And why did so many rap records back in the day all feature lines about ‘waving your arms in the air like you just don’t care’ or variations of it?! Oh I can’t be arsed to linger any longer on this one. I’d rather listen to Charli XCX and I have no idea what she sounds like at all.

One of the bands of 1998 now as Catatonia release a fourth single from their No 1 album “International Velvet”. I’m not sure I remember “Strange Glue” – it certainly didn’t leave the same impression that “Mulder And Scully” or “Road Rage” did which have lasted nigh on three decades inside my brain. Not that it’s not a good song now that I’ve re-listened to it. It’s got a strong melody and ambitions to be epic sounding but it just doesn’t seem like an obvious choice for a single. It sounds like an album closing track (which it nearly was save for the solo piano accompanied and 2:22 long “My Selfish Gene”) rather than the surefire airplay hit that its predecessors were. Maybe it would have been wiser to go with a rerelease of nearly-flop single (it reached No 40) “I Am The Mob”? There was a fifth and final single taken from “International Velvet” in “Game On” but that really was stretching it as a peak chart position of No 33 demonstrated. Maybe I was on to something with that “I Am The Mob” idea?

In a very rap heavy show, we’re not done with the genre yet as here comes a special performance by Will Smith with a track inspired by the Grover Washington Jr. / Bill Withers song “Just The Two Of Us”. Instead of treating it as a love song between a couple though, Smith subverts the traditional narrative and makes it about the love between a father and his young son. It’s an intriguing idea and well executed with Will adding layers to the father character by informing us that things didn’t work out between him and the child’s mother and that they are separated. There’s some nice touches in the lyrics with lines such as :

“It’s a full-time job to get a good Dad, you got so much more stuff than I had”

Writers: William Salter, Will Smith, Ralph MacDonald & Bill Withers

However, it’s also dated by cultural references and practices with mentions of CD-ROMs, putting CDs in PCs and hitting your kids (“but I will test that butt when you cut outta line”). There’s also a lot of unnecessary grunting for want of a better word in this performance from Smith with multiple “Ha-ha”, “uh-uh-uh” and “whoo” noises forthcoming. Overall though, it’s a decent attempt to do something different within a rap context with the father trying to be a good role model for his young son. Coincidentally or perhaps intentionally, the single’s release was in sync with the fact that Smith had become a father for the first time in real life following the birth of his son Jaden.

It’s yet another new No 1 with the Spice Girls at the summit with “Viva Forever”. Given everything that had transpired within the group over the last two months, I have to say I was surprised that they’d managed to pull this latest chart topper off. There was a school of thought that said that after the departure of Geri Halliwell from the line up, the group might implode from the fracture and the end might be nigh but it seemed that the public were happy to accept a four piece Spice Girls just as they had accepted a Robbie Williams-less Take That. It was an especially impressive return given that their last single “Stop” had been their first in eight releases not to go to No 1 so the doom merchants would have jumped on “Viva Forever” falling similarly short.

We first saw the group performing the track on TOTP way back on the 5th June edition in the aftermath of Halliwell’s statement that she had left when executive producer Chris Cowey realised what he had on his hands with the footage including all five members. This performance saw the now slimmed down group on tour in America meaning that there was a definite decision by someone (be it Cowey, the label, management or the Spice Girls themselves) not to show the stop motion promo video featuring the group (including Geri) as fairies. Presumably the five months that it took to put it together weren’t wasted though as no doubt it featured on programmes like The Chart Show and other pop music platforms around the world.

Around this time, whilst I was working at the Our Price store in Stockport, a young man who I would now recognise as being neurodivergent, attached himself to me after I’d served him one day. His name was David and he was obsessed with the Spice Girls. He was a nice lad but took quite a lot of time serving when he came in as he would want to talk about the Spice Girls continuously. He would always ask for me which took me away from whatever I was doing which wasn’t necessarily convenient but I would always try and make the time for him if I could. When I transferred to the Altrincham branch in 1999, he followed me over there even though it was out of his way and involved multiple trips on public transport. The day that “Viva Forever” was released, we were playing it in the store just as David came in and he wondered around the shop in a sort of dream, lost in his own little world. I often think of that moment and wonder what happened to David and whether his Spice Girls obsession ever burnt itself out.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Five	Got The Feelin’	I did not
2	Pras Michel featuring Ol’ Dirty Bastard and introducing Mýa	Ghetto Superstar (That Is What You Are)	Negative
3	Lovestation	Teardrops	Never
4	The Supernaturals	I Wasn’t Built To Get Up	No
5	Charli Baltimore	Money	Not if you paid me
6	Catatonia	Strange Glue	Nope
7	Will Smith	Just The Two Of Us	Nah
8	Spice Girls	Viva Forever	And no

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/m002kkmz/top-of-the-pops-31071998

TOTP 24 JUL 1998

Posted on October 18 by 80stastic

I’m starting to get behind with these TOTP reviews. All it takes is one busy week in my own life and suddenly I’ve got four shows to write up in seven days to keep pace with the BBC4 schedule. I’ve tried skimping on the word count when this scenario arises but the completist in me fights hard against this strategy. Besides, nobody wants to read a couple of dozen words on each song stating whether I liked it or not do they? Our host tonight is Jayne Middlemiss who hasn’t been on the show for a month (maybe she really had been ill when they did that skit to introduce Kate Thornton the other week).

We start with Pras Michel featuring Ol’ Dirty Bastard and introducing Mýa and their hit “Ghetto Superstar (That Is What You Are)” to quote the full title which I don’t think I did in the last post (no brackets, no points!). I also failed to mention that this came from a film called Bulworth which was written and directed by and starred Warren Beatty. I was a regular cinema goer around this time but I failed to catch this movie which was a political black comedy that was well received critically but failed to put bums on seats in the cineplexes (wasn’t just me then).

The soundtrack album was popular in the US selling a million copies but that success didn’t translate across the pond in the UK. In fact, I don’t recall it being released over here at all and certainly don’t recognise the art work of the cover. The album featured some of the biggest names in hip-hop and rap including Dr. Dre, LL Cool J, Method Man, Ice Cube and Public Enemy. As for Pras, he would have two more UK hits – “Blue Angels” which was the follow up to “Ghetto Superstar” and he also featured on “Another One Bites The Dust” which was a remix of the Queen track by Fugees band mate Wyclef Jean for the soundtrack to the film Small Soldiers. Ol’ Dirty Bastard sadly passed away in 2004 from a drugs overdose whilst since 2013, Mýa has been married to herself. No, really.

Next up is the singing medical student Ultra Naté. OK, she wasn’t really but she did seem to have an obsession with medically themed song titles. After her previous hit “Found A Cure”, she was back with the follow up “New Kind Of Medicine”. It strikes me that Ultra Naté was a bit of a musical chameleon. On her biggest hit “Free” she channeled her inner Rozalla and then looked to “No More Tears” (Enough Is Enough)” by Donna Summer and Barbra Streisand for the inspiration for “Found A Cure”. Chic were her muse for “New Kind Of Medicine” and it worked well for her albeit that the single couldn’t match the chart numbers of its two predecessors.

As for that unusual name, it turns out that was her actual real name and not a stage moniker. No, really. It’s Ultra Naté Wyche. Sticking with the name theme, I note that “New Kind Of Medicine” was co-written by one Ed Baden-Powell who surely must be a relative of Lord Baden-Powell, founder of the Scouts movement. It doesn’t stop there though – “Free” and “Found A Cure” were co-written by one Lem Springsteen though he doesn’t seem to be related to ‘The Boss’.

Still with Peter Andre?! Still?! In 1998?! Panic not though as I believe this is the last time we’ll see him on TOTP; at least the last time I’ll have to write about him anyway as he didn’t have another hit after this until 2004 with a rerelease of “Mysterious Girl” and I’m packing in this blog after the 1999 episodes have finished. I have zero recollection of “Kiss The Girl” but listening back to it, I thought it sounded like it could have been from the soundtrack to something like The Lion King. Well, blow me down but, on reading up on the song, I wasn’t a million miles away as it was from The Little Mermaid. Originally, the song was a calypso number but, as part of the film’s rerelease in 1998, the soundtrack was revisited with some of its songs being re-recorded by new artists. For some unfathomable and despicable reason, Peter Andre was one of those invited to the project and he turned it into a dismal, sappy ballad, the berk. How did this guy ever become and continue to be famous? Minuscule talent but massive pecs see seems to be the answer. I swear down, has there ever been a more useless celebrity?! Away with you sir and your overly gelled hair!

There’s quite a back story to this next hit. “Mas Que Nada” is a song written by Brazilian Jorge Ben who originally recorded it with bandleader Zé Maria in 1962 and it was subsequently covered by other Brazilian acts such as the Tamba Trio in 1963 and Louis Carlos Vinhas the following year. However, the most commonly known version came in 1966 when Sérgio Mendes covered it with his band Brazil ‘66. Thirty-one years later, its profile was raised again when it was famously used in a Nike commercial featuring Brazilian footballers such as Ronaldo and Roberto Carlos. In 1998, it resurfaced again, I’m guessing as part of the plethora of football related songs released due to the World Cup of that year (I could be wrong on that). Not just once though but twice as the aforementioned Tamba Trio version was a Top 20 hit the week before this danced-up version by Echobeatz just pipped it by making the Top 10. I’ve no idea who Echobeatz were/are but clearly whoever was behind this version had one eye on the clubs judging by the Italian House flavoured mix they gave it. “Mas que nada” is a Portuguese expression that can mean “more than anything else in Spanish” but in Brazilian Portuguese it has a more colloquial meaning of “whatever” or “no big deal”. I wonder if Ariel got Peter Crouch to record an advert for the Brazilian market with him saying “Mas que nada”?

Just as with B*Witched and Billie recently, last week’s No 1 gets another airing despite the fact that it’s been deposed from its chart crown. In her intro to “Freak Me” by Another Level, did Jayne Middlemiss say one of them was called Bobak? Sounds more like a Croatian footballer…

*checks Wikipedia*

Oh that was Zvonimir Boban who played most of his career with AC Milan. I’m sure there was a footballer called Bobak though…

*checks Wikipedia again*

There was a Peter Bodak who played for Coventry City in the 80s…

*checks Wikipedia one last time*

Found him! Roman Bobak! A Polish right back. I can’t mean him though. He’s hardly had any sort of career at all. Maybe I was thinking of Stjepan Bobek, a Yugoslavian player in the 40s and 50s and manager in the 70s. As dull as all this is for you to read and for me to write, it is more interesting than anything Another Level ever did.

P.S. Remember the last post when I said I always get Dane Bowers mixed up with Blue’s Anthony Costa? Well, when Another Level appeared at the RnB Nation festival in 2024. Only Bowers and Mark Baron from the original line up signed up for the gig so they got two new blokes in to make up the numbers and one of them was called Greg Costa. No wonder I’m confused!

I seem to have developed a theme to this post as I’ve gone along which is that of names. Joining the 15 year old Billie (Piper) in the charts this week was another Billie – Billie Myers. This Billie was 27 years old at the time and that older age meant that her hit was a little more…mature than Ms Piper’s. Well, a lot more if you watch the official video for “Tell Me”. Set in what see seems to be some sort of bondage club, Myers is a participant in some erotic scenes which look like they could have been in Bram Stoker’s Dracula film starring Keane Reeves and Winona Ryder.

The song itself sizzles with passion and even, dare I say it, menace and is a definite lost classic of the 90s. It really should have been a much bigger hit than its No 28 peak. After its appearance on this BBC4 TOTP repeat, there was a lot of love for it declared online. Sadly, in 1998, the record buying public was more enamoured with Billie Piper than Billie Myers and it slipped thoroughly the net. Shame.

Billie Piper and stuff like this. If I was surprised that Peter Andre was still having hits in 1998, then colour me shocked that Ace Of Base were as well. Their No 1 “All That She Wants” had been as long ago as 1993 whilst their last visit to the Top 10 had been in 1994. Somehow though, they convinced us that this life-affirming slice of pop fluff that was “Life Is A Flower” made them still relevant deep into the 90s.

Apparently the favourite Ace Of Base song by the band member who wrote it (Jonas Berggren), “Life Is A Flower” was radio friendly but brain cell hostile. It would rot your mind if you listened to it too much. Its lyrics included:

“Please Mr. Agony, release them for a while,

Learn them the consequences of living without life”

Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: Jonas Berggren
Life Is a Flower lyrics © Megasong Publishing

“Learn them”?! Surely you mean ‘teach’ them? In an act of redemption though, after Tina Arena the other week with the title song from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Whistle Down The Wind musical, here’s another use of those words in the opening two lines to remind us of not only a great film but a great pop song too…

It’s another new No 1 and the only one of Jamiroquai’s career. “Deeper Underground” was taken from the soundtrack to the Godzilla movie of this year starring Matthew Broderick. As with the aforementioned Bulworth, I’ve never seen this film and, judging by its reviews, I’m glad I haven’t. Rated mainly as a stinker, it also underperformed commercially. Even the director never wanted to make this film apparently. However, its soundtrack album did go some good business, debuting at No 2 on the charts and achieving platinum sales in America. It mainly featured what would be defined as ‘rock’ songs, including another huge hit called “Cone With Me” by Puff Daddy and Jimmy Page which sampled the legendary Led Zeppelin track “Kashmir” but we won’t be seeing that on any BBC4 repeat due to the Puff Daddy issue. Although definitely not a rock song, “Deeper Underground” did have a harder sound than we had come to expect from Jamiroquai it seemed to me.

Despite only having one week at the chart summit, it was a pretty hardy single spending three weeks inside the Top 10 and two months on the Top 40 in total. Is it Jamiroquai’s most famous song? I don’t know. They’re a funny act. For all their 26 hits, only nine of them went Top 10. And could you name them? I might be able to pull out two or three from the recesses of my mind and I’ve probably reviewed most of them. Have they all just morphed into one because, dare I say it, they all sound the same?

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Pras Michel featuring Ol’ Dirty Bastard and introducing Mýa	Ghetto Superstar (That Is What You Are)	I did not
2	Ultra Naté	New Kind Of Medicine	Negative
3	Peter Andre	Kiss The Girl	As if
4	Echobeatz	Mas Que Nada	Nah
5	Another Level	Freak Me	Nope
6	Billie Myers	Tell Me	Great song but no
7	Ace Of Base	Life Is A Flower	Never
8	Jamiroquai	Deeper Underground	No

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/m002kkmx/top-of-the-pops-24071998

TOTP 17 JUL 1998

Posted on October 15 by 80stastic

It’s mid July 1998 and there’s two trends in evidence within the TOTP running order etiquette, one of which is possibly informing the other. The first is that, after a few records that have bucked the trend of seven days chart toppers by staying at No 1 for more than one week, we are back in a run of weekly changes to the pole position. From now until the end of the year, only four singles will manage more than one week at the top. This sequence seemed to inform the TOTP appearance policy because, as demonstrated in this show, we would get the previous week’s No 1 given another slot despite no longer being the country’s most bought single.

I’ve commented on this before making a case for both sides of the argument and my take on it remains confused. On the one hand, it was jarring that a show whose format historically was to showcase the records making the most strides in the Top 40 would be featuring singles whose sales had, if not dropped, been overtaken by other new releases. On the other, you could argue that none of this was the fault of executive producer Chris Cowey who possibly felt that he couldn’t just toss away a big hit record after just one showing because the record companies were manipulating the charts with their first week of release discount pricing. However, Cowey didn’t help himself by putting last week’s No 1 as the first act on the show the following week making a consecutive appearance segue albeit seven days apart as was the case here with Billie and her hit “Because We Want To”. Now, in my head this one stayed around the charts for ages which I suppose it did – a month inside the Top 10, two on the Top 40 altogether and yet it was constantly going down the charts. Not once did it reverse that descent as we had seen many a sustaining hit do this year. Still, a No 1 with your debut single aged just 15 was still quite the achievement. Ah yes, Billie’s age. In her first TOTP appearance, there was a lot of flesh on display what with her wearing a black singlet top. For this performance, she’s completely covered up. Do you think there had been complaints to the BBC about such a young girl wearing a top that revealed her midriff and bare shoulders? Or was it a decision made by Billie herself or her management team? Whatever the reason, it was a noticeable change of style.

And talking of changes of style…from pop song to schlock song as we get the infernal combination of Celine Dion and the Bee Gees duetting on “Immortality”. Whose idea was this?! Well, it was those dastardly Gibb brothers obviously who wrote the song for the stage musical of Saturday Night Fever and decided that Celine’s vocals were needed to complete the track. It was a terrible idea and an even worse sound though one that could easily have been predicted given the two artists involved. Don’t get me wrong, some of the Bee Gees classic catalogue is…well…classic but the 90s saw them record some desperately overwrought and whiny ballads and “Immortality” was no exception. The lyrics were vapid, rhyming ‘immortality’ with ‘eternity’ and banging on about fulfilling your destiny with the overall effect that, in keeping with its title, it seemed to go on forever. The whole thing was truly reprehensible.

Now there’s some jiggery pokery, some sleight of hand going on here as host Jamie Theakston was clearly superimposed over the Celine Dion/Bee Gees performance for his intro, as if Chris Cowey was trying to convince the watching TV audience that he was actually there but he obviously wasn’t. What was all that about? Couldn’t they have just done a voiceover or was there a clause in Theakston’s contract guaranteeing an agreed amount of screen time? Surely not.

Anyway, he’s definitely in the studio with the next artist (s) who is/are Pras Michel featuring Ol’ Dirty Bastard and introducing Mýa. Now there’s a lot to unpack here starting with who were all these people? Well, Pras Michel was, of course, a member of the Fugees who were on hiatus following the mega international success of their album “The Score” allowing its three members to pursue solo careers. Pras was the second of the three to have a hit under their own name when “Ghetto Superstar” made No 2 in the UK. Ol’ Dirty Bastard (or ODB as he was styled for pre-watershed audiences) was part of the Wu-Tang Clan whilst I had to double check who Mýa was as I mistakenly believed her initially to be the woman who had that hit with The Tamperer – I was wrong as that was someone called Maya not Mýa; Maya Days to be precise. No, Mýa, if her discography is anything to go by, is a recording artist with quite the track record – eight studio albums and sixty-three singles. So, how do I neither remember nor know of her? What I do know about her is that she was in a battle with Billie as to who had the most winning smile in pop. Wow!

Erm…anyway, as we all know (even Jamie Theakston did), “Ghetto Superstar” interpolates the 1983 hit “Islands In The Stream” by Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers that was written by the aforementioned Bee Gees. In my 80s TOTP blog, when reviewing that hit, I said it might as well have been called “Islands In The Mainstream” so middle-of-the-road was it. Turns out I was wrong about that as well as it was identified as the template for a hit by a member of one of the coolest acts of the decade and a man whose chosen professional name included an actual swear word. It shouldn’t work really but it did becoming the ninth best selling single of 1998 in the UK. Mind, we did have a track record for being susceptible to this sort of thing – “Gangsta’s Paradise” by Coolio springs to mind.

My abiding memory of this song though involves a bus driver. Stay with me. I was living in Manchester when it was a hit and one Sunday, my wife and I were heading into town to do something (can’t remember what) so we hopped on a bus to save our legs. Once onboard, we quickly realised that this wasn’t your standard bus. The driver wasn’t wearing a uniform and he didn’t have a machine to issue passengers with any kind of ticket. He also didn’t seem to know what prices he should be charging but rather was making it up as he went/drove along. Who was this guy and how had he got hold of a bus? Had he hired one for the day? Had he stolen it? The clincher though that this wasn’t a regular bus service was that he had music blaring out which he was singing along to. The song that was playing when we boarded? Yep, “Ghetto Superstar”.

It’s Eagle-Eye Cherry again but his third consecutive appearance on the show can be justified I guess as it’s three weeks on the spin at No 6 for “Save Tonight”. This was a remarkably hardy hit spending six weeks inside the Top 10 and just under three months on the Top 40. That’s the power of a very radio friendly single, I guess.

In an attempt to distinguish this performance from his previous two, Eagle-Eye does an acoustic version of the track alongside two other guitarists and two blokes on either end of the line, one adding backing vocals and the other playing the most vigorous and energetic tambourine I think I’ve ever seen. It all hangs together pretty well though and makes for a memorable performance. Maybe Chris Cowey should have looked into doing more of these kind of slots but then not every single on the show would have lent itself to such a version so well. An acoustic “Ghetto Superstar” anyone? I think this guy proves my point..

Another two songs we’ve seen on the show before already now beginning with “Got The Feelin’” by Five. Whilst I could make a case for Eagle-Eye Cherry’s repeated appearances, this was preposterous. After debuting at No 3, this single had slipped every week since to No 5 then No 8 and eventually No 14. However, a rise of a solitary place to No 13 in week five on the charts was enough reason for Chris Cowey to show their initial performance (the one with the football shirts) again. However, according to official charts.com, “Got The Feelin’” is Five’s second biggest selling single ever, shifting half a million copies and clocking up 12 million streams and counting in the UK so does that add some credibility to Cowey’s decision? Oh I don’t know anymore!

Hell’s teeth! Cowey’s done it again with the very next song only this one is worse! I know I’m banging on about this but why are we watching Mousse T featuring Hot N’ Juicy when they are at No 11 in the charts with “Horny” having dropped a place from last week’s No 10? And what on earth is going on with those face-to-face graphics on either side of the screen?! It’s the same technology used to impose Jamie Theakston’s fizzog against a backdrop of the previously shown performance clip but this time features the women from Hot N’ Juicy. Why? Why do that? It looks cheap and nasty and adds very little in terms of impact. Make it make sense somebody. Please!!

No confusion as to why this next hit is on the show – crashing into the charts at No 9 are Garbage with the second single from their sophomore album “Version 2.0” called “I Think I’m Paranoid”. Now this is a tune! A deceptively sparse intro and simplistic verse leads immediately into a crunching power chord and Shirley Manson snarling the song title before coming back with an unexpected second part to the chorus with the “bend me, break me” refrain which would get them into trouble copyright wise with music publisher Helios Music Corporation. They claimed it infringed upon significant elements of the Scott English and Larry Weiss composition “Bend Me, Shape Me” which had been a hit for The American Breed in the US and Amen Corner in the UK. Yes, the words in that phrase are the same but there’s not much else to link the two songs to my ears. As for the performance here, you can’t take your eyes off Shirley who looks fantastic throughout in that polka dot dress. Erm…(again)… time to move on I think…

It’s another new No 1 that will only spend a solitary week at the top. Another Level would never return to the chart summit but they scaled it with “Freak Me”, a cover of an American No 1 by Silk from 1993 which never even cracked the UK Top 40 so it was possible to pass it off as their own song. Maybe. Anyway, it’s pure filth with lyrics about whipped cream and licking their baby up and down! Seriously though, I’m surprised the ‘whipped cream’ line got past the BBC sensors especially as there was a toned down version that the band performed on the promo video and for TV appearances though clearly not this one. I could never see (or hear) the appeal of this lot but judging by the screams from the studio audience, they were hot property for a while. I always get Dane Bowers from the band confused with Anthony Costa from similarly unremarkable outfit Blue. Anybody else have that problem?

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Billie	Because We Want To	No
2	Celine Dion / Bee Gees	Immortality	Heavens no!
3	Pras Michel featuring Ol’ Dirty Bastard and introducing Mýa	Ghetto Superstar	Nope
4	Eagle-Eye Cherry	Save Tonight	No but my wife had his album
5	Five	Got The Feelin’	Nah
6	Mousse T featuring Hot N’ Juicy	Horny	I did not
7	Garbage	I Think I’m Paranoid	Great track but no
8	Another Level	Freak Me	NO!

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/m002k7yz/top-of-the-pops-17071998?seriesId=unsliced

TOTP 10 JUL 1998

Posted on October 13 by 80stastic

The World Cup of 1998 is reaching its climax with the final played two days after this TOTP aired. England have long since been eliminated so it’s a shoot out between hosts France and holders Brazil. History shows that it was the French who triumphed 3-0 in a game overshadowed by the Ronaldo (R9 not R7) intrigue that the BBC labelled ‘the great World Cup final mystery’. Seventy-two minutes before kick-off, Ronaldo was not on the official team sheet submitted to FIFA. Amidst chaotic scenes, half an hour later Brazil’s star striker was back in the line up and the conspiracy theories started. Stories about R9 not being fit but coming under pressure from sponsors to play was the predominant one. The accepted truth though was that R9 had suffered a convulsive fit in the night and spent three hours in hospital before deciding he was fit to play after all. His presence made little difference to the result but he would find redemption four years later scoring both goals in the 2002 final as Brazil beat Germany. I wonder if there are any such redemption arc stories on tonight’s show.

Our host is Zoe Ball and this was the last regular TOTP episode that she ever presented (she reappeared in 2001 for some special anniversary edition). I’m not sure if it was her decision or executive producer Chris Cowey’s for her to leave the roster of presenters but she wasn’t short of work still having her job on Saturday morning kids show Live & Kicking and her breakfast show gig on Radio 1. Maybe it was all getting a bit much for her especially given her reputation at the time as a ‘ladette’. Burning the candle at both ends perhaps? Anyway, her redemption arc is pretty much complete with her being so much a part of the BBC establishment that in 2024 she was named as the second highest earning presenter behind Gary Lineker.

We start with another run out for “C’est La Vie” by B*Witched. Yes, despite having already been at No 1 for two weeks and the appearances that involved, they were back on the show because they’d gone up the charts from No 4 to No 3. Now, I think it’s time that I discuss what some may think the undiscussable – that dreadful fashion faux pas that is the double denim look. Not since Shakin’ Stevens had we seen such quantities of denim adjacent to each other on TOTP. Yes, I know it’s not on display in this performance but it is undoubtedly part of the mental image ingrained in the minds of those of us who lived through the time of B*Witched. Had they already been tipped off by this point what a naff look it was? Maybe but their redemption story has come full circle with the girls back together touring and recording once more and the fans attending their concerts these days are still wearing those double denim outfits as are the band themselves. According to press interviews, everyone is very pleased about it. As for Shaky, he is surely beyond redemption.

In the long list of soap stars turned pop stars, I’m guessing that the name Matthew Marsden doesn’t spring immediately to mind. However, for an 18 month period in the late 90s, this guy was a big deal. Arriving on Coronation Street as mechanic Chris Collins in March 1997, so big was his impact that he won the National Television Award for Most Popular Newcomer that year. After having an affair with Sally Webster, Collins did a midnight flit and was never seen again. In real life, Marsden had embarked on a career as a pop star having signed to Columbia Records for £500,000. His debut single was “The Heart’s Lone Desire” and, in all honesty and knowing some of the garbage other soap actors have released (I’m looking at you Stefan Dennis!), it wasn’t completely dreadful. A decent pop track that wasn’t just about ultra catchy hooks, it would debut and peak at No 13. I’m not sure why Matthew chooses to sit down for the duration of the performance though, delivering the song as if he’s telling his mates a story down the pub whilst looking extremely chuffed with himself at the same time.

Marsden’s pop career would only last one more minor hit – a cover version of Hall & Oates’ “She’s Gone” performed as a duet with Destiny’s Child no less (more of whom later) and an album that did precisely nothing. In the face of that brutal reality, the soap star turned pop star became an acting star with roles in movies such as Black Hawk Down, Resident Evil: Extinction and Atlas Shrugged. So redemption for an aborted pop career then? Hmm. Well, the thing is that Marsden has a hankering for American right wing politics and is an anti-vaccine advocate which, in my book, are not the component parts for a happy ending.

Next an act with a track that was first a hit ten years earlier. Having returned to charts at the back end of 1997 with “Jungle Brother”, the…erm…Jungle Brothers were back again with “I’ll House You ‘98”. Despite making No 22 when originally released, it was never featured on a TOTP show back then. Consequently, I didn’t review it in the 80s version of this blog but I do make mention of it when commenting on Royal House’s “Can You Party” which was the blueprint for “I’ll House You”.

TOTP 27 OCT 1988

That track had been remixed by the legendary Todd Terry who offered the Jungle Brothers the chance to combine their hip-hop sound with house music. The result was a track with a legacy that is up there with Run-D.M.C.’s “Walk This Way”. Group member Baby-Bam has described what the trio attempted to do as to “Hip-hopitise” the original House track which sounds like some process for turning humans into rabbits but you get what he means. “I’ll House You ‘98” would peak at No 26, four places lower than the original.

Karen Ramirez is back in the studio to perform her hit “Looking For Love” and after wearing a conventional all black outfit of trousers and singlet on her previous appearance, she’s turned up this week in an old gold coloured suit and tie combination! Quite extraordinary! If Colonel Mustard had been a pop star! Of course, she wasn’t the first pop star to don a gold suit. ABC’s Martin Fry favoured a gold lame version in his band’s early days and he did famously sing about “The Look Of Love”. As for a redemption arc for Karen, there doesn’t seem to be much of one. After her 15 minutes of fame she disappeared save for releasing one download only album in 2006 and nothing since. No comeback hit. No rerelease of “Looking For Love” nor use of it on a hit film soundtrack. Maybe her withdrawal from the music industry was her redemption arc though. Maybe she didn’t like what she found during her time within it and went looking for…something else. Like somewhere to dispose of that mustard suit. Apparently, Martin Fry tried to flush his original one down a toilet in a Tokyo hotel.

A group with an average age of 16 next – that’s according to Zoe Ball and, having checked, she’s right. It’s hard to reconcile but two of the members of Destiny’s Child were 16 and two were 17 years old at the time of this performance. “With Me” was the follow up to their debut hit “No, No, No” and, although I didn’t remember the song, its sound was pretty much what I was expecting before I watched this episode back. I haven’t got a lot else to say other than it’s interesting to note that when Zoe name checks the band in her outro, Beyoncé’s is the last name to come from her lips as opposed to the first. I’m probably reading far too much into that retrospectively but it did jump out at me. “Say My Name” indeed. In terms of a redemption arc, two of the members here – LeToya Luckett and LaTavia Roberson – would be forced out of the band in early 2000 leading to them bringing lawsuits against their manager (and father of Beyoncé) Matthew Knowles as well as their two former band mates for breach of partnership. Things got heated with disparaging remarks were traded in public between the parties. However, in return for dropping the section of the lawsuit aimed at Beyoncé and Kelly Rowlands, a settlement was made with Luckett and Roberson for the pair to receive royalties for their recordings when part of the group. So they got what they were owed with the redeeming factor being that they could then pay those bills, bills, bills (sorry).

After debut album “Attack Of The Grey Lantern” had topped the charts in 1997, expectations for Mansun’s follow up were sky high. Perhaps rather inevitably, the sophomore collection “Six” didn’t quite meet them. Not that it was a failure unless you count going Top 10 as such but its run of just four weeks on the charts compared to the nearly eight months of its predecessor speaks volumes. The record shop chain I was working for at the time – Our Price – were caught up in the pre-release buzz about “Six” as I’m pretty sure the buying department decreed to the stores that we were not allowed to sell out* of it in its first week of release. Not allowed, mind. I can’t remember what the consequence would have been had a store done so but it really didn’t matter as the massive sales didn’t materialise and there was never any chance of a sell out. Also not selling out were Mansun themselves as they steadfastly refused to record “Attack Of The Grey Lantern Vol 2” but rather went for a more experimental sound with lots of guitar effects using distortion pedals called things like ‘Big Muff’ and ‘Rat fuzz’. Hmm. Jon Garrett of online magazine PopMatters described the album as:

“The sound of a band collectively snubbing its fan base and smashing expectation to spectacular effect”

Garrett, Jon (28 October 2002). “Mansun: Six”. PopMatters.

*Our Price employed a similar tactic for the second album by Ash called “Nu-Clear Sounds” which again failed to live up to the sales projections based on No 1 debut album “1977”. I think they might have dropped the edict after that.

The lead single was “Legacy” which was actually the lead track on “Eight EP” which saw the band continue with their idiosyncrasy of releasing singles as EPs. It’s instantly identifiable as Mansun, retaining their distinctive sound but it does become rather repetitive to my ears as the track progresses. That said, it would achieve the band’s highest ever chart position when it peaked at No 7. I’d loved “Attack Of The Grey Lantern” but my interest in the band waned at this point and there would be no redemption arc between me and them up to their demise in 2003.

OK, let’s be clear. Despite what our failing memories (my failing memory anyway) tells us, Eagle-Eye Cherry was not a ‘one hit wonder’. He had a further two hits in the UK after “Save Tonight” but I couldn’t have named either of them without checking. Could you? Apparently, he still gets people shouting “Save Tonight” at him in public as if it’s his name – you’d think people would remember Eagle-Eye wouldn’t you?! This got me thinking that there should be another sub category for this type of artist. The criteria would be that although your biggest hit wasn’t your only one, it’s your defining one, the only one that anyone but the super-fans remembers, the only one that continues to get radio play to this day, the one that’s your royalties pension. It could be called something like ‘big hit wonder’. Who else might be categorised like this? Kajagoogoo and “Too Shy”? The Boo Radleys and “Wake Up Boo!”? There must be loads more…

A bit of chart history next. By debuting at the very top, Billie became the youngest artist to achieve a No 1 record since Helen Shapiro in 1961. Of course, we now know her as Billie Piper, accomplished and award winning actress synonymous with shows such as Doctor Who, Secret Diary of a Call Girl and I Hate Suzie. Back in 1998 though, she was fresh-faced, 15 year old Billie (she would change to Billie Piper by the time her second album arrived in the new millennium), a fresh-out-of-the-box, immediate pop star. How did she get to such an exalted position at such a young age though? Well, if she looked familiar to pop fans back then, it was probably because she’d been the face chosen to star in a TV commercial to promote Smash Hits magazine so there was already a connection established between her and pop music before she’d even released anything. The next logical step was to rectify that and she did so with “Because We Want To”, a shout-a-long anthem for the Millennials generation. This catchy pop tune allied with Billie’s winning, toothsome smile and some hot-stepping, slick dance moves proved irresistible to the record buying public. The end of the 90s would belong to Billie with another No 1 in follow up single “Girlfriend” plus two more Top 3 hits and a platinum selling album.

Come the new millennium, I, for one, was surprised that she managed to turn up another chart topper with “Day And Night”, the lead single from sophomore album “Walk Of Life”. It was almost up there with Kylie’s triumphant comeback with “Spinning Around” that same year. Unlike Ms Minogue though, Piper’s music career did not sustain. The album sold much less than her debut and the relative failure of its title track single would signify the end of her time as a pop star. Fast forward to 2005 and she would have all the time in the universe as Rose Tyler, the first companion of a reactivated Dr Who taking the role presumably because she wanted to.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	B*Witched	C’est La Vie	I did not
2	Matthew Marsden	The Heart’s Lone Desire	Didn’t happen
3	Jungle Brothers	I’ll House You’98	Nope
4	Karen Ramirez	Looking For Love	Nah
5	Destiny’s Child	With Me	Negative
6	Mansun	Legacy	No
7	Eagle-Eye Cherry	Save Tonight	No but my wife and the album
8	Billie	Because We Want To	No – because I didn’t want to

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/m002k7yx/top-of-the-pops-10071998?seriesId=unsliced

TOTP 03 JUL 1998

Posted on October 9 by 80stastic

This list marks a true milestone for me. This is TOTP Rewind post No 700! Yes, if you combine all the 80s and 90s shows reviews together, the total is 700. How did I get here and more importantly, was it worth it? Well, I’ll leave the second part of that question to anybody who’s taken the time to read any of the previous 699 posts to answer. As for ‘how did I get here?’ (you’ve got “Once In A Lifetime” by Talking Heads running through your mind now haven’t you?), I’ll tell you. It’s taken me nearly nine years of watching, considering and writing to get me to 700. NINE YEARS! I must be either someone who’s very dedicated to a cause or a complete narcissist.

To mark the occasion, the gods of pop music nostalgia have plotted to provide me with one of the worst running orders in TOTP history but before we get to all that, we have a brand new presenter making their debut on the show in the form of Kate Thornton. A journalist initially (she was the youngest ever editor of Smash Hits magazine aged just 21), she made the transition to TV via ITV current affairs programme Straight Up and is widely credited as the person who placed “Candle In The Wind” centre stage as part of the national grieving process for the death of Princess Diana. Apparently, her bosses wanted some music to soundtrack a photo tribute piece for Diana and Thornton was tasked with sourcing something appropriate. As the news broke on a Sunday, the record library was shut and so Kate was left with whatever she had in her car. A copy of Elton John’s Greatest Hits was on the stereo and the rest is literally history. Big history. The BBC came calling and a place in the TOTP presenter roster was offered. I like that the producers made some attempt at humour by introducing her with a skit as if she’d been pulled out of the studio audience at random to replace a poorly Jayne Middlemiss. Maybe she had, though clearly not in the manner presented. She gives a very confident and assured performance on her debut and would become the host of X Factor in 2004. I never quite understood why she was replaced by Dermot O’Leary. I believe she’s to be found on Greatest Hits Radio these days along with all the other BBC presenters deemed not hip enough anymore like Ken Bruce and Simon Mayo although to be fair, I’m not sure if either of those two were ever hip.

Anyway, we start with a new face with a shiny, new hit from a famous family. Before 1998, the phrase ‘Eagle Eyes’ would have conjured up memories of Action Man toys from my childhood but Eagle-Eye Cherry (his actual real name!) came along to change all that.

The son of American jazz artist Don Cherry and Swedish designer Moki Cherry and the half brother of Neneh Cherry, he had early career intentions to be an actor and enrolled in the High School Of Performing Arts in New York (Fame and all that) being in the same class as Jennifer Aniston. However, he would ultimately choose music as his first passion and returned to his home of Stockholm to write his debut album “Desireless”. His instincts paid off when the album sold four million copies around the world, spearheaded by lead single and opening track “Save Tonight”. Irresistible for daytime radio controllers, it’s actually quite a simple song based around the well established and familiar chord progression of Am-F-C-G that is the backbone of many a huge hit including “Hey Jude”, “Wonderwall” and “Imagine”. It’s slick and smooth though with a vocal from Cherry that has enough interest in it to keep the listener’s attention. Great things were predicted for Eagle-Eye – my wife was enamoured enough to buy “Desireless” and see him live at the Manchester Academy – but the old diminishing returns and changing tastes seem to do for him and the hits had all but dried up come the new millennium. He still recording new material though with his last album released in 2023.

Sticking with the eagle theme come Hanson whose latest hit “Thinking Of You” includes the lyric “Fly with the wings of an eagle” running throughout its length. The fifth and final single taken from their “Middle Of Nowhere” album, listening back to it, you could understand why it hadn’t appeared earlier in the release schedule. The album’s lead single had been the No 1 “MMMBop” and, to paraphrase Kate Thornton in her intro, whether you found it adorable or downright irritating, you couldn’t deny it was insanely catchy. Sadly for “Thinking Of You”, it was no “MMMBop” despite its clear aspirations to be so. However, it was MMBop-lite which sounds like a diet version of a fizzy drink but you get my drift. It seems to have all the component parts but it doesn’t have that killer hook. It’s like an early demo of their most famous song before they’d worked it into shape as the pop mega-hit it became. “Thinking Of You” would be the band’s last hit of the 90s (though they’d have three more into the new decade).

As with Hanson before them, after a couple of years of hits, Space were coming to the end of their time as Top 40 stars. Conversely, this, their penultimate hit, was called “Begin Again”. Another track lifted from their Top 3 album “Tin Planet”, it would peak at No 21, their smallest ever chart hit. Now, I’ve championed Space a bit in previous posts and my wife had their first album “Spiders” but by this point, their quirky flavoured schtick was starting to grate a bit. That eerie sound that they’d cultivated which had initially charmed was becoming predictable. “Begin Again” was another track with swooping strings and a almost mariachi feel to it with singer Tommy Scott banging on about being a man who would kill for love whilst giving his usual wild-eyed stare to the camera. Give it a rest Tommy! After leaving their label Gut Records, the band released their music to the fanbase via their website until they split in 2005. However, they did ‘begin again’ in 2011 and are still a recording and touring entity to this day.

Here’s another link back to Hanson with another boy band. 911 were on to their seventh (of ten) consecutive Top 10 hits with “How Do You Want Me To Love You” which sounds impressive but was it really? Of those ten hits, they all debuted in their peak position in week one and none of them stayed inside the Top 10 for more than two weeks. Clearly their fan base were spending their pocket money to purchase the singles as soon as they were released when they would have been heavily discounted as well to create a high entry point but when the contributing factors of fanbase and discounting were taken away, there was no substance to sustain their chart lives. This one was a prime example. Week one in at No 10, week two dropped to No 35, week three out of the Top 40 altogether. Yes, they did have a No 2 and a No 1 hit but both were cover versions of well known songs so that diminishes those achievements in my book rather. They had three albums that peaked at Nos 13, 10 and 8 selling enough copies for one gold and two silver discs. Is that impressive? Mildly at a push I’d say. Away from the numbers (as Paul Weller once sang), this was a drippy, insipid pop ballad that was forgotten as soon as the last note sounded.

Oh come on! We’ve already had two boy bands and now a third?! And this one, as Kate Thornton tells us in her intro, has toured with 911. So hang on, they were the support act for a group that themselves were almost completely lacking in any discernible merit but who topped the bill ahead of them? Have I got that right? OK so what we’re saying is that Ultra were a poor man’s 911?! Dear Lord. Can you get any worse than that?! After scoring a hit with debut single “Say You Do”, these no marks were back with a follow up called “Say It Once”. Heavens! They couldn’t even come up with two song titles that didn’t crib off each other! This is really poor stuff to mark my 700th post. The bad news is that they had a further two hits after this. Say it ain’t so.

For Pete’s sake! No, for my sake and my 700th post! This is no way to mark the occasion – Hanson, 911, Ultra and now Aaron Carter?! You’ve got to be kidding me?! This guy was the little brother of Nick Carter from the Backstreet Boys and he was just ten years old at the time of this broadcast. By comparison, the youngest Hanson brother was 12. Had we seen anything like this since Little Jimmy Osmond tormented us with “Long Hair Lover From Liverpool” in 1972? I can’t think of a similar act. What on earth was this all about and why was it happening? I’m guessing it was the most cynical act by the little blighter’s record company to cash in on the popularity of the Backstreet Boys but was it really that blunt? Well, he did support his big brother’s band on tour so maybe it was.

Apparently he’d already had three UK hit singles by this point so did we mercifully miss them or have I reviewed them and completely obliterated them from my memory banks? For the record, the fourth hit was a scandalous cover of “Surfin’ USA” by The Beach Boys. Watching the performance of it here just feels wrong. Not as bad as when Channel 4 aired the Minipops series in 1983 which was not just a dodgy idea but one of the most heinous concepts ever conceived and executed but still wrong. Oh, and the intro with Jo Whiley was absolute cringe. Why?! As is sadly often the way when fame comes to someone so young, Carter would have a traumatic and tragically short life dying in 2022 aged just 34 by accidental drowning in a bath following the taking of Xanax and difluoroethane.

TOTP Executive Producer Chris Cowey has finally relented and has allowed a video to feature on the show. Apparently, this was the first promo shown since 1st May 1998 after eight weeks of studio only appearances. I’m not sure why he introduced the policy in the first place nor why he made an exception for the Beastie Boys but in the case of the latter, I’m guessing Cowey couldn’t ignore the return of one of the biggest names in rap especially as their single crashed into the Top 5. I’ve said this before but just about everyone I ever worked with in Our Price over a 10 year period loved the Beastie Boys. Not the “(You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party)” version but the more mature and achingly cool era of the band exemplified by “Paul’s Boutique”*, the eccentricity of “Check Your Head” and the eclectic nature of “Ill Communication”. Accordingly, when “Hello Nasty” came out in 1998 after a four year gap, it was a big deal for many of my colleagues.

“Intergalactic” was its lead single and it came out swinging with a big sound and a video that seemed epic at the time but maybe isn’t viewed as that through 2025 eyes. A tribute to the Japanese Kaiju genre of films (Godzilla and the like) and featuring a giant robot battling an octopus-headed creature (?), it won the 1999 Best Hip Hop Video at the MTV Video Music Awards. The battle scenes between the robot and the octopus thing remind me of the Power Rangers franchise which I had to endure watching when my son was a young boy and it was one of the oddest TV series I think I’ve ever seen. How it ran for 30 years is beyond me. Whatever the merits or drawbacks of the video, and certainly after the crime against music that was NYCC’s brutally bad cover version of “Fight For Your Right” earlier in 1998, it was good to have the real thing back.

*Here’s another link back to Hanson. “Thinking Of You” that was on the show earlier was produced by the Dust Brothers (Michael Simpson and John King) whose other credits include “Paul’s Boutique”.

Baddiel, Skinner and the Lightning Seeds are No 1 for a third week but any chance of the England football team winning the World Cup crown disappeared in dramatic fashion three days before this TOTP aired. They crashed out on penalties to Argentina in the Round of 16 after having had David Beckham sent off for petulantly lashing out at Diego Simeone whilst lay on the floor. For a while, Beckham was public enemy No 1 with even an effigy of him and a noose tied to a lamppost making headlines. With England out, there would be the inevitable drop off in sales of “3 Lions ‘98”. However, it would return to the charts eight times over the years when a football tournament has been played. The nation’s wait for a follow up to 1966 and all that continues however…

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Eagle-Eye Cherry	Save Tonight	No but my wife had his album
2	Hanson	Thinking Of You	Negative
3	Space	Begin Again	Nah
4	911	How Do You Want Me To Love You	As if
5	Ultra	Say It Once	Never
6	Aaron Carter	Surfin’ USA	Hell no!
7	Beastie Boys	Intergalactic	Nope
8	Baddiel, Skinner and the Lightning Seeds	3 Lions ’98	No

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/m002jy45/top-of-the-pops-03071998?seriesId=unsliced

TOTP 25 JUN 1998

Posted on October 2 by 80stastic

As host Jamie Theakston acknowledges in his top of the show intro, World Cup fever is still sweeping the nation as the England team remained in France. How much longer though was yet to be decided. Having comfortably overcome Tunisia in their opening game, disaster had befallen with a last minute defeat to Romania in the second match. All hope of progressing now hinged on the last group game against Colombia which was played the day after this TOTP was broadcast (presumably the show was moved to Thursday this week to avoid clashing with the BBC coverage of the game on the Friday).

As I said, Theakston talks about TOTP being the antidote to World Cup fever in his intro but then the first song in the show is a football song – “Vindaloo” by Fat Les. This was just a rerun of the performance from last week that incorporated both the EastEnders set and TOTP studio but in the intervening seven days, the ‘censored’ caption over the lady on stage who has an unfortunate wardrobe malfunction has been edited out. So what do we make of “Vindaloo” 27 years on? Was it an attempt to demonstrate the multiculturalism of England by getting the masses to sing a song that espoused Indian cuisine as an example of Englishness? Or was that message lost on/ignored by those same masses who instead adopted it as what many saw as a rallying call for the anti-social behaviour of the hooligan? Or was it both? Could it be both simultaneously? Certainly Keith Allen is on record as making the case for the former. However, I think we might have strayed into Alf Garnett territory with the infamous character created by Johnny Speight for the sitcom Till Death Do Us Part meant to be a figure of ridicule but for many of the watching TV audience, the satire of his portrayal was lost on them. In the political climate of 2025 and in the wake of flag-gate, who knows how it would be perceived? Rest assured, I’m not going there.

Now, when I saw this next song on the forthcoming new releases information sheet that we used to get on a weekly basis in the Our Price chain for whom I worked, it filled me with dread. My first thought on reading the title of this next song was “Oh god, someone’s doing a cover version of Nick Heyward – the greatest living Englishman!”. Thankfully, that wasn’t the case. “Whistle Down The Wind”, as well as being the name of Nick’s debut solo hit from 1983, was also the title of the latest Andrew Lloyd Webber musical with the title song being recorded by “Chains” hitmaker Tina Arena. Based on the rather wonderful 1961 film of the same name starring a very young Haley Mills, it was initially not a success when it opened in the US and a stint on Broadway was cancelled. However, a reworked version that ran in the West End was better received and played solidly until 2001. Subsequent productions have toured the UK and US whilst the most recent incarnation came in 2022 at the Watermill Theatre in Newbury, Berkshire. However, I would argue that it remains one of Lloyd Webber’s lesser known and celebrated musicals.

As for the show’s music, Lloyd Webber collaborated with Meatloaf’s writing partner Jim Steinman including on the title track and it’s a suitably overwrought, soaring ballad that I found almost unlistenable to be honest. It’s more like a vocal warm up exercise than a song although Tina seems pleased with her own performance visibly mouthing “Yes!” at its climax and giving herself a double fist clench salute. The single would only make No 24 on the charts but the follow up single was extraordinarily successful. “No Matter What” by Boyzone would spend three weeks at No 1, be the fourth best selling single of 1998 in the UK and was voted the winner of the inaugural Record of the Year award. Despite all of that, I’m sticking by my assertion that Whistle Down The Wind is not one of the best known Lloyd Webber shows and that the Boyzone single is not immediately associated with it, having developed its own identity separate from its source.

I know I say this a lot in this blog but…WHO?! Imajin anyone? Well, back in 1998, according to Jamie Theakston, they were the latest US R&B sensation – like we needed another one of them. Their song was called “Shorty (You Keep Playing With My Mind)” and it’s all fairly routine stuff though the female contingent in the studio audience seem highly excited by the whole thing. Talking of 1983 as I was earlier re: Nick Heyward, watching Imajin (terrible name) I was reminded of another hit from that year – “Candy Girl” by New Edition and guess what? Imajin would feature on a cover version of that hit in 1999 with then 13 year old rapper Baby DC. And that is all my imagination can muster about Imajin.

After considering the patriotism/nationalism/loyalism (choose whichever term you are most comfortable with) angle to Fat Les earlier and quickly deciding not to go there, we have another contentious artist next. There was so many headlines about the fact that Dana International was transgender that it didn’t seem to matter what her song was like. Even host Jamie Theakston can’t resist making reference to her sex reassignment surgery in his intro whilst the pause in his outro whilst describing her as “quite extraordinary” suggests that he feels he should make another comment though he doesn’t really know what that should be. I guess it was a different time back then…or is it any different now? Gender identity remains an issue that generates enormous debate to the extent that it is used as a source of party political point scoring with exhortations to ‘define a woman’ being traded across the House of Commons. Again, I’m not wading into that subject here. What I will say is that, to my ears, Dana International’s song “Diva” doesn’t seem so out there and other worldly as perhaps it was represented as back in 1998. Its peak of No 11 made it the highest charting Eurovision winning song outside of UK or Irish artists since Germany’s Nicole took “A Little Peace” to No 1 in 1982.

Whatever happened to Karen Ramirez? OK, it’s not a question that’s keeping me up at night but it’s one that’s maybe deserves an answer. Appearing from nowhere and disappearing almost as quickly, she scored a Top 10 hit with “Looking For Love”, a dance version of an Everything But The Girl song (originally titled “I Didn’t Know I Was Looking For Love”) but who was the woman singing it and where did she go? Karen was born in North London but moved to Trinidad and Tobago at the age of six before returning to the UK to go to university. With ambitions to sing, her demo tape was picked up by Manifesto Records leading to a debut single release called “Troubled Girl” which just missed the Top 40. However, the follow up was “Looking For Love” and it remained in the Top 10 for four weeks and the Top 40 for eight, totally eclipsing the 1993 Everything But The Girl original which peaked at No 72. And after that…nothing. Well no, not nothing. A minor follow up hit and an album that didn’t make much of a mark and then nothing. Karen reappeared in 2006 with a iTunes only album and then…nothing again. So, we may never know if Karen found the love she was looking for but she left us one hit that basically took an Everything But The Girl song, gave it the “Missing” remix treatment and made herself famous for 15 minutes. It was almost like an artist covering an artist’s song covering an artist. There must be a name for that but I’m not going to spend any time looking for it.

Now in the past, whilst not defending the Lighthouse Family and their music, I’ve defended the right to like them – an ‘each to their own’ approach. However, this song – “Lost In Space” – is almost unforgivable. Firstly, it is one of the most soporific, dull, boring, lifeless, soulless, banal…I could go on…and I will…leaden, anaemic, dreary, grey, insipid tracks ever recorded. It just drones on..and on…and on with no changes of pace, no attention grabbing hooks, not even a jarring breakdown section. It’s just…there. Secondly, looking at its title, I’d assumed it was something to do with the film of the same name that was in the cinemas at this time – the big screen remake of the Irwin Allen 60s TV series. However, I can’t find a single link between the film and it. Certainly, it’s not on the soundtrack album so was this just some shameless band wagon jumping going on here, some manipulative cashing-in practice? And I thought they were nice, clean living boys at least!

Now if it’s a show in the Chris Cowey era, then there must be a repeated performance with very little in the way of justifying arguments for it. Lo and behold, here are B*Witched with “C’est La Vie” who are back on the show because…? Having been at No 1 for two weeks and dropping down to No 4, they’ve stayed at No 4 this week. And that seems to be good enough reason for Cowey, the King of Recycled Performances. And guess what? He’ll have it opening the show in a couple of weeks because it went up a place to No 3 and stayed there. I’ve tried to make a case for his policy in the past but this was just lazy overkill. In the previous week’s chart, the excellent Embrace was a new entry at No 6 but did we see them? No we didn’t. Right. Who said “C’est La Vie” at the back there? Grr! I oughta…

After two references to 1983 earlier this post comes one from 1984. The Kane Gang’s summer hit of that year “Closest Thing To Heaven” was one of the best of the decade to my ears. Sadly, or maybe happily, this was not Lionel Richie doing a cover version of it in 1998. No, this was a Dianne Warren penned yawn-fest that went absolutely nowhere and then stayed there in a circling motion for the duration. How was it possible in the space of three songs on the same show to find two of the most depressing and depressant tracks ever. This was money for old rope for Lionel and, for recording it, he should have taken a long hard look at himself in the mirror. Actually, maybe that’s not the best idea*

*Sorry Lionel!

Baddiel, Skinner and the Lightning Seeds have resisted the claims and sales of Fat Les and remain at No 1 for a second week with “3 Lions ‘98”. I like the way that Frank Skinner looks so committed to the performance here like it really matters to him – indeed, maybe it did. Both Frank and David have been guests on Desert Island Discs and interestingly, the former didn’t select “Three Lions” as one of his choices as his modesty prevented him so he went with “Back Home” by the 1970 England World Cup squad instead. Baddiel on the other hand had no such issue picking “Three Lions” without compunction. Although it resurfaces at every major international tournament, has it almost been replaced by Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline”?

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Fat Les	Vindaloo	No
2	Tina Arena	Whistle Down The Wind	Nick Heyward – Yes Tina Arena – No
3	Imajin	Shorty (You Keep Playing With My Mind)	Never
4	Dana International	Diva	Negative
5	Karen Ramirez	Looking For Love	I did not
6	Lighthouse Family	Lost In Space	I wish they were – no
7	B*Witched	C’est La Vie	Nope
8	Lionel Richie	Closest Thing To Heaven	No way
9	Baddiel, Skinner and the Lightning Seeds	3 Lions ’98	Nah

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/m002jy43/top-of-the-pops-25061998?seriesId=unsliced

TOTP 19 JUN 1998

Posted on September 29 by 80stastic

We’re still in World Cup mode here at TOTP Rewind. England have started their campaign off with a straightforward 2-0 win against Tunisia but its host nation France who look like the team to beat after winning their opening two games 3-0 and 4-0. In the singles chart, there was a much tighter duel with two football songs squaring up to duke it out for the No 1 slot but we’ll get to that.

Jayne Middlemiss is our host and we begin with Five who were fast establishing themselves as not just another here-today-gone-tomorrow boy band by notching up their third hit and biggest to this point with “Got The Feelin’”. However, after attempting to bend the perceived notion of what a 90s boy band should sound like on their first two singles which displayed their confident swagger and a funky backbone, their third effort seemed to resort to a more accepted pop sound as if they’d dumb themselves down. Yes, there’s some pretty slick rapping on it courtesy of J and Abz (I know there names because they’re on the back of the football shirts they’ve donned for this performance – topical lads) but the chanted “Nah na na na ner na na” chorus is especially weak and lowest common denominator. You could wave your hands in the air to it though (presumably like you just didn’t care) so maybe that was the whole point? As much as I thought this single was not up too much, their next release – the Joan Jett sampling “Everybody Wants Get Up” – was truly magnificent.

Jayne Middlemiss makes a reference to Glastonbury in her intro to the next act as they would be appearing at the upcoming festival that year. Twenty-seven years later they would be at Glastonbury again in the surprise special guest slot. We can only be talking of Pulp. In their 1998 Glastonbury appearance, they did play the song they are performing on this TOTP which was their latest single “A Little Soul”. Sadly, it didn’t make the cut in 2025. I say ‘sadly’ as I think it was a shame they didn’t perform this almost forgotten and pcertainly overlooked Pulp song. Now you could argue that this mid-paced, unspectacular tune was symptomatic of the commercial lull the band were experiencing that had been ushered in by the underperforming “This Is Hardcore” album. It sure was no “Common People” nor “Disco 2000” but why should it have been? In theory, any artist is entitled to write and record whatever style of song they wish to. Moreover, if Pulp had spent three years recording a follow up to “Different Class” that sounded exactly the same as its illustrious predecessor, surely they’d have been criticised for that as well?

“A Little Soul” is actually a beautifully crafted, wistful and considered song. Confirmation of its quality came in the form of an Ivor Novello nomination in the category of Best Song Musically and Lyrically. Written about growing up without his father who abandoned the Cocker family for Sydney when Jarvis was seven, the singer had nothing to do with him until he reached his thirties. I like the word play of the song’s title – a ‘little’ soul as in a small sized soul not a small amount of soul in its first usage but then the reverse at the song’s climax. It deserved better than its peak of No 22. Almost unbelievably, Pulp’s chart positions would be even smaller from here on in.

A truly infamous song next and I have statistical evidence to validate that claim. Des’ree would have the biggest hit of her life with the song…erm… “Life” but it was truly a double edged sword. Continuing the run of one sizeable hit from each of her studio albums – “Feel So High” from “Mind Adventures” in 1992 and “You Gotta Be” from 1994’s “I Ain’t Movin’” – “Life” was the most high profile track from 1998’s “Supernatural” album. A jaunty, upbeat track that was perfect for daytime radio and wisely released as the Summer was underway, it would debut at No 8 but then spend the next 10 weeks knocking around the Top 40 with some steadily consistent sales figures.

However, any commercial success or sonic merits are completely overshadowed by its lyrics and in particular this one:

“I don’t want to see a ghost, it’s a sight that I fear most

I’d rather have a piece of toast and watch the evening news”

Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Des’ree Weekes / Prince Sampson
Life lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd., Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

Utterly ludicrous. What was she thinking?! Written by Des’ree alongside one Prince Sampson, did they not look at each other after writing those lines down and say “Are we sure about this?”. Maybe they did but then how did they come up with the answer “yes”? And this isn’t just my opinion. In the 2007, BBC 6 Music Taxing Lyrical poll, those lines were voted the worst pop lyrics ever. Ever. “Life” had some stiff competition as well. Second in the poll was Snap!’s “serious as cancer” line from “Rhythm Is A Dancer” whilst Duran Duran’s “you’re about as easy as a nuclear war” from “Is There Something I Should Know?” was also in the running. Despite such awful rivals, I don’t think you can look past the ‘ghost-toast’ rhyming couplet. Sheesh!

Now here’s a band whose name I recall but whose back catalogue I’m not sure I’ve ever heard. How is this possible when I worked in a record shop for pretty much the whole of the 90s? I was busy working! That’s my story and I’m sticking to it! It turns out though that I quite like Silver Sun. OK, this is based on listening to just one song and a song that isn’t even theirs but you have to start somewhere I guess. “Too Much, Too Little, Too Late” was originally a hit for Johnny Mathis and Deniece Williams in 1978 which had never made much of an impression on me but this indie rock version is much more arresting. Recorded initially as a B-side as a bit of a laugh, it became the lead song on a four track EP made up entirely of cover versions. I must have missed it back in 1998 (I was working remember!) as I am bit of a sucker for this sort of thing (see also The Carpenters’ “Yesterday Once More” as covered by Redd Kross). Sadly for Silver Sun, it would prove to be their biggest ever hit despite only just squeezing into the Top 20. That lack of chart success led to them being dropped by Polydor in 1999 though they would release a further five studio albums either on independent label Invisible Hands Music or by themselves so there’s plenty of back catalogue for me to dive into if I want to hear more of the band having now discovered them. Sadly though, Silver Sun called it quits permanently in 2020 after the death from cancer of lead singer James Broad.

Dearie me. I’m glad I’d forgotten about this one. Does anybody remember a third single from Ian Brown’s debut solo album “Unfinished Monkey Business”? Well, there was and it was called “Can’t See Me” but I wish that it had been a case of “I can’t hear you” as this was a right racket. What a miserable sound and miserable performance to match. I guess Brown had a lot in his mind what with an impending court case* over an accusation of air rage and all.

*Brown was found guilty in October 1998 of threatening behaviour towards an air stewardess and sentenced to four months in prison serving two.

Supposedly, the track was written about Brown seeing John Squire in the village of Hale, Greater Manchester and waving at him but not being acknowledged by his old Stone Roses band mate who hid behind a newspaper. A couple of things here. When I first moved to Manchester in 1990, I knew one other person who lived there – a guy called Ian who I’d been at Sunderland Polytechnic with. Ian told me a story of how he’d been for a night out in Hale and had gone into a wine bar and asked for a pint. The barman beckoned Ian to him and whispered in his ear so as not to embarrass him “Sir, we don’t sell pints here”. That’s how posh Hale is/was.

Secondly, the track’s origin story reminded me of another tale that the late, great Pete Garner once told me. Pete was the bass player for the Stone Roses from 1983 to 1987 whom I worked with at Our Price in the 90s and he relayed to me how in the band’s early days, they unexpectedly found themselves on the bill for a gig as a replacement for Adam Ant who pulled out at the last minute. It was seen as a big deal and opportunity for the band but there was one problem. They couldn’t find guitarist John Squire anywhere. Despite efforts by his band mates to locate him, he couldn’t be found and the Roses missed out on their slot for the gig. It turns out that Squire had taken himself off to sit in a field for a bit of self contemplation. Remember, this was well before the ubiquity of mobile phones and tracking devices. So when Squire avoided talking to Brown in Hale, it wasn’t the first time he hadn’t wanted to be found by his old school pal and fellow Roses member.

And so the football songs begin as we get three on the trot that all feature in the Top 5 starting with Dario G and “Carnaval De Paris”. Having appropriated the chant hook from the marvellous “Life In A Northern Town” by Dream Academy for debut hit “Sunchyme”, the dance group (yes, they were a group not an individual) turned their attention this time to a football terraces chant that originated in Holland, was adopted by Sheffield Wednesday fans and ended up as an international hit when released as a tie-in with the 1998 World Cup. And when I say ‘international’, I mean truly global as supposedly it features instruments associated with every one of the competing 32 nations in the tournament including bagpipes, accordion and steel drum. Despite that mix of influences, the track has a definite samba feel to my ears despite it being based around the old American folk ballad “Oh, My Darling Clementine”. It must have been used by broadcasters to soundtrack their football coverage at some point as well surely? The performance here with a cast of what feels like dozens but is probably no more than ten people is perhaps more suited to a stage musical than TOTP and what was the deal with the bagpipe player who’s been made up to look like a rejected extra from a Mad Max movie?

After the undercard of Dario G come the two football song heavyweights battling to be No 1 on the chart starting with Fat Les and “Vindaloo”. This was just bonkers or was it, in fact, genius? You’ll have your own opinion but the truth of the matter is that this completely unofficial single was bigger both commercially and culturally than the FA sanctioned release by England United. The product of a drinking session at the Groucho Club by Blur’s Alex James and actor, comedian and broadcaster Keith Allen, it was written to parody football chants but became, if not one sung on the terraces, a mantra for the watching millions in the pubs and bars of England. In parts absurd (“Me and me Mum and me Dad and me Gran, we’re off to Waterloo”), in parts social commentary on our national identity (“We all love vindaloo”), it’s a riot of noise, nonsense and nah nah nahs. ‘Riot’ sound like the right word to describe this performance as well which takes the “Bitter Sweet Symphony” parodying video and transports it to the set of EastEnders before winding its way into the TOTP studio with a cast of characters that seemingly redefine the meaning of the word ‘random’. What was with the Max Wall lookalike, the sumo wrestlers and the French maid? Am I missing something? Was this surreptitious irony at play? One thing I do have an answer to is that censored caption. Here’s @TOTPFacts with the explanation:

#TOTP producer Chris Cowey: “We had finished editing the show and it was about to go off for transmission, so this was probably about six o’clock… and one of my team said, ‘Chris, I think you’d better have a look at this’…”
— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) September 26, 2025

“There was a woman with a very scanty top on, and her breast fell out. For some reason, because there was a lot of people on stage, I’d missed it… So what I did was just got a strap over it saying ‘CENSORED’.” #TOTP
— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) September 26, 2025

OK then. I think the sumo wrestlers might have caused more offence. Apparently, Keith Allen earns at least £20,000 a year from his football related hits (he co-wrote the New Order 1990 No 1 “World In Motion” remember) which is not to be sniffed at and is another marker as to the impact of “Vindaloo”. I can’t imagine “(How Does It Feel To Be) On Top Of The World” turns over such a healthy return.

Emerging triumphant from the clash of the football song titans was “3 Lions ‘98” by Baddiel, Skinner and the Lightning Seeds. An update of the song from two years prior, there are a number of differences between the two versions. In its first incarnation, it had been the official song of the England football team for the Euro ‘96 tournament as endorsed by the FA. When the 1998 World Cup came round, David Baddiel and Frank Skinner suggested they be the official song again but the FA went with the England United track instead. Yeah, that decision looks ridiculous in retrospect with the FA’s choice being hammered sales wise by not just one but two unofficial songs. Secondly, as this was an update of and not just a rerelease of the original 1996 No 1, “3 Lions ‘98” included brand new lyrics which mainly focused on that Euros ‘96 tournament and England’s semi-final defeat heartache and the team’s subsequent qualification for the ‘98 World Cup. Baddiel and Skinner were clearly as caught off guard as the rest of us by the omission of Paul Gascoigne from the squad as Gazza is mentioned in the lyrics that were written before Glenn Hoddle announced his selections for the tournament. (see also Stuart ‘Psycho’ Pearce). Finally, and this is pedantic but jarring, why did they rename it “3 Lions ‘98” and not “Three Lions ‘98”?

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Five	Got The Feelin’	I did not
2	Pulp	A Little Soul	Good song but no
3	Des’ree	Life	Negative
4	Silver Sun	Too Much, Too Little, Too Late	No but I like it having discovered it
5	Ian Brown	Can’t See Me	Nor do I want to hear you Ian
6	Dario G	Carnaval De Paris	No
7	Fat Les	Vindaloo	Nah…nah ner nah
8	Baddiel, Skinner and the Lightning Seeds	3 Lions ’98	Nope

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/m002jmlp/top-of-the-pops-19061998?seriesId=unsliced

TOTP 12 JUN 1998

Posted on September 24 by 80stastic

It’s the Summer of 1998 and there’s only one game in town – the World Cup. Yes, France ‘98 is in full swing and, despite only starting two days before this TOTP aired, Scotland have lost a game already! It was hardly the embarrassment many were expecting (or hoping for if you were English maybe) going down 2-1 to the reigning champions and pre-tournament favourites Brazil to a late own goal. England are there as well for the first time since Italia ‘90 and after the hysteria and heartache of the Euros ‘96 tournament, expectations for Glenn Hoddle’s squad were high despite the omission of Gazza.

Now before you all start thinking I’ve turned this blog into a football fest (again), there’s a valid reason why I mention the World Cup which is the plethora of football themed hits that it generated in the UK Top 40. There’s two on this show but there’ll be a further three on the following week’s as well. Of course, football related songs were nothing new. Going right back to 1970 and the England World Cup Squad’s No 1 “Back Home”, there have always been attempts to merge the two worlds of football and music, some successful, some dreadful. 1972 saw my beloved Chelsea riding high in the charts with “Blue Is The Colour” whilst the 80s saw teams competing in the FA Cup final regularly releasing singles to mark the occasion. Who can forget the cringeworthy “Ossie’s Dream” from 1981 and that line from Spurs legend Ossie Ardilles “In the cup for Tottingham”? Into the 90s, we had the unspeakably awful “Come On You Reds” by Manchester United which topped the charts but at other end of the scale, we also had the sublime “World In Motion” by New Order. Then, of course, came Euro ‘96 and terrace anthem “Three Lions” – we would never see the end of that particular hit. So what are the class of ‘98 football songs like? Let’s find out with our host Jo Whiley (who is a Spurs fan – boo!)…The football songs are coming (I promise/warn you) but we start with two established Top 10 hits that have already been on the show previously beginning with “Horny ‘98” by Mousse T featuring Hot ‘N’ Juicy.

Despite just being on the previous week, I’d saved a couple of tidbits to wheel out for future appearances starting with the fact that it was included on “Chef Aid: The South Park” album. Around the end of 1998, the animated sitcom South Park became a TV ratings sensation and made household names of its four protagonists Stan, Kyle, Cartman and Kenny. Known for its profane, dark and satiric humour, it soon gained a reputation for being outrageous beyond the normal standards of broadcasting decency. It was also fabulously funny and to this day continues to push the boundaries by being a constant thorn in the side of man-baby Donald Trump. The Our Price chain for whom I worked stocked all the show’s merchandise and, of course, the album and hit single “Chocolate Salty Balls” by Chef which would appear at Christmas. We could never play the album in store because of the Parental Advisory sticker but, having found the version on the album with the conversation between show creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker and the character of Sid Greenfield (America’s Most Wanted director) bracketing it, that version is much more palatable.

However, that’s nothing compared to this almighty mashup that appeared in 2006 that blended the track with “Bohemian Like You” by The Dandy Warhols. I’d never been aware of this until now but this is truly epic…

The second song we’ve seen before comes from Lutricia McNeal who is marooned outside of the Top 5 but still in the Top 10 at No 7 this week with “Stranded”. There really isn’t that much to say about this one and indeed, Lutricia doesn’t have the biggest online presence with even her Wikipedia page’s last update on her whereabouts being as long ago as 2011. As such, I’m forced to bang on again about how unusual her first name is. According to the mynamestats.com website, only 785 people in the whole of America are called Lutricia making the name the 10,377th most popular. That means there are 0.25 people per every 100,000 Americans called Lutricia. Even the name Lucretia with all its connotations is more popular. There is a singer called Lucretia – Lucretia Death whose LinkedIn bio refers to ‘vampiric longing’, ‘eternal darkness’ and ‘unholy ascension’! Gulp! Don’t fancy being stranded with her!

Still no football songs! Perhaps I should have realised that there was another trend going on in the charts which was the amount of female artists having hits at this time. Following Lutricia McNeal here’s Shania Twain (and there are two more solo artists and an all girl group at No 1 to come). In my head, Shania’s run of hits started with “You’re Still The One”, continued with “That Don’t Impress Me Much” and culminated in “Man! I Feel Like A Woman!”. It turns out that these are just the ones I know and not a reliable account of her discography as there are other hits in that run and loads after it as well. Should I be embarrassed by my lack of Shania knowledge? I’ll live with it thanks. Anyway, one of those hits that I missed out was “When” which having heard it, does sound faintly familiar, presumably because of its catchy hooks. The lyrics however…I mean. Really? Look at these…

“I’d love to wake up smiling, full of the joys of Spring

And hear on CNN that Elvis lives again

And that John’s back with The Beatles and they’re going out on tour

I’ll be the first in line for tickets

Gotta see that show for sure

Songwriters: Robert John Lange, Shania Twain
When lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Universal Music Publishing Group

Is it me or do they seem a little bit…unsophisticated? Is that the right word? Clunky maybe? Ham-fisted? I don’t want to come across as a pseud or condescending but I think I prefer a bit more mystery in my lyrics. Maybe I’m missing the point of Shania though which, according to Jo Whiley, is that she’s gorgeous describing her as “drool-inducing” and instructing us to wipes our mouths after her performance. Really Jo?!

It’s another female solo artist now with her second hit single but that term is a complete antonym for the product she released. Nothing to do with the title of her song which was called “Gimme Love” but rather the amount of versions and mixes that were made of it. I’m talking about Alexia whose debut hit “Uh La La La” had made the Top 10 in March which itself had been the subject of multiple remixes that were commissioned by her record company Sony in an attempt to launch their artist in Europe. “Gimme Love” took it to another level with 20 different versions listed on its Wikipedia page. Single? They should have promoted it as a ‘multiple’. Now apparently “Gimme Love” is an example of Europop whereas “Uh La La La” was classified as Eurodance and the shift of genre disappointed her fan base. I can’t say I’m expert enough to be able to pinpoint the differences but what I can say is that “Gimme Love” is repetitive in the extreme which also renders it rather insubstantial – in my humble opinion of course. The initial pressings of the single contained a listing error showing the title as “Gimmi Love” which is rather appropriate as the word ‘Alexia’ can refer to an acquired reading disorder characterised by the inability to read.

We’ve finally got to a football song but this one was not a typical example of the genre. “Don’t Come Home Too Soon” was the official World Cup song of the Scotland squad and was recorded by Del Amitri providing the band with what would be their final Top 20 hit. Eschewing the traditional notion of the singalong football song, this was a slow ballad and, in truth, a rather mournful one and I say that as someone who is quite partial to a bit of Del Amitri. If it’s sound was mournful then its lyrics were positively pessimistic (if it’s possible to be such a thing) referring to the team as “long shots” and saying that the rest of the word “may not be shaking yet” and limiting Scotland’s chances to not being on “that stupid plane” and not coming home too soon. Not winning the damn thing, just staying a bit longer than usual. In fairness, that probably was the limit of their ambitions given that they’d never (and still haven’t) got past the group stage of any major tournament. Even so, the song didn’t go down that well with some of the Tartan Army. I’m sure I read something about lead singer Justin Currie saying he’d been abused in the street for writing such a negative song. As for Jo Whiley’s hope in her intro that Scotland would stuff Norway and Morocco, they drew 1-1 to the former and got hammered 0-3 by the latter leaving them bottom of Group A and on that ‘stupid plane’ home that Del Amitri feared.

Heck, we really were in the era of ‘lad culture’ back in the late 90s weren’t we? In her intro to yet another female artist on tonight’s show, Jo Whiley says “a woman who’ll always get her tassels out for the lads, this is Mariah Carey”. Or does she say “tonsils” not tassels? The subtitles say ‘tassels’. Either way, you were better than this Jo surely?! Or was she perhaps using irony to undermine the “get your t**s out for the lads” line? Nah, I think she was going along with the predominant narrative.

Anyway, Mariah is here with her new single “My All” which was taken from her “Butterfly” album the lead single from which (“Honey”) had combined hip-hop and R&B and gone Top 3. Its follow up – the album’s title track – was a pop gospel ballad which had only managed a high of No 22. As a result, Mariah edged her bets with her next release as “My All” is both a ballad and an R&B dance track. The first 2:20 of the track is in a slow paced, whispered vocals style reminiscent of Toni Braxton but with Latin guitars before the bpm winds up (the subtitles literally say ‘Beat kicks in, audience cheers’) and Mariah gets almost hysterical proclaiming she’d risk her life to feel someone’s body. Blimey! The blending of styles worked and gave Ms Carey a No 4 hit here and yet another Stateside chart topper. As with Alexia before her, there were loads of different mixes of the track to accommodate every radio station sub genre and she also recorded a Spanish version but the first line of that version was mistranslated and was grammatically incorrect. As a blogger, I can confirm that these things matter you know.

And so we get to the second football song of the night and like Del Amitri’s, it’s also the official World Cup song for a competing nation but this time England. After the terrace anthem and official song that was “Three Lions” just two years prior for Euro ‘96, the English FA wanted to go in a different direction for the ‘98 World Cup. The result was “(How Does It Feel) To Be On Top Of The World” by England United who were Echo and the Bunnymen, Ocean Colour Scene, Space and, rather inexplicably, the Spice Girls. The song was written by Ian McCulloch and Johnny Marr though the latter wasn’t officially part of England United. The reaction to it was overwhelmingly negative. ‘You can’t sing it on the terraces’ seemed to be the main complaint about it but I think, in truth, its major failing was that it wasn’t “Three Lions”, a song so durable, it still to this day gets trotted out for every international tournament. Indeed, the first reworking of it would will be along in the next repeat and would easily outsell “(How Does It Feel) To Be On Top Of The World” reaching No 1 again. According to Wikipedia, when the latter was played at Wembley in a pre-World Cup friendly, the crowd that day booed it.

Going against national taste once more, I quite liked the England United effort. Sure, it wasn’t much of a football song but it was a decent track. It’s nicely constructed and has an uplifting, soar away chorus. I wonder actually, if it was ultimately rejected as a potential Echo and the Bunnymen release for being too pop? As for the other artists on the record, I’m not entirely sure what linked them altogether. OK, you could draw a very basic line between The Bunnymen, Space and Ocean Colour Scene as being rock/pop groups whose paths might have crossed at some point or another? The first two were both Liverpool bands of course so there might be a potential association there but the Spice Girls? Mel C was another scouser so was there a link there? Talking of the Spice Girls, as with the “Viva Forever” performance the other week, this TOTP appearance was also clearly recorded some time previous to its broadcast date as the recently departed Geri Halliwell features and executive producer Chris Cowey must have thought himself doubly lucky to have another bit of film with Ginger Spice there in the ranks still. She doesn’t look too unhappy with her lot in life, bouncing around deliriously alongside Mel C and Emma Bunton. If anything you might have thought Victoria and Mel B were the ones potentially uncommitted to the cause, separated from the other three on the other side of Ian McCulloch and Simon Fowler of Ocean Colour Scene and turning in a much more reserved performance. So there you have it. England United. The forgotten English football song. I don’t see it being revived any time soon.

B*Witched remain at No 1 with “C’est La Vie”. Watching this performance back, it’s clear that they were being promoted as purveyors of bouncy, good time, care free pop music. The catchy tune, the hyper-energetic dance routine…and yet behind the image, as all too often happens, there was sadness, despair and dark times. The ridiculously long days the group would work and their relentless schedule was sometimes too much. So much that in the case of Keavy Lynch, it would cause a major mental health issue. Keavy is an interesting figure in pop being an identical twin whose sister was chosen as the focal point of an internationally successful group over her. That must mess with your head! Are there any other cases of this? The Proclaimers are identical twins but they very much come as a pair and are seen as a unit. I love The Proclaimers and I’m not sure I know which one is which! Bros? Again, I’m not sure that the screams and adulation were reserved just for singer Matt Goss. As the vocalist, I guess he commanded more profile than his drummer brother Luke but they had a ready made stooge in bassist Craig ‘Ken’ Logan. Maybe the other B*Witched members Lindsay Armaou and Sinead O’Carroll felt aggrieved as well as Keavy but they didn’t have the mind f**k that the chosen lead singer looked exactly like them. Having to sing a song called “C’est La Vie” just twisted the knife a little deeper.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Mousse T featuring Hot ‘N’ Juicy	Horny ’98	No
2	Lutricia McNeal	Stranded	Nah
3	Shania Twain	When	Absolutely not
4	Alexia	Gimme Love	Nope
5	Del Amitri	Don’t Come Home To Soon	No but I had it on a Best Of album of theirs
6	Mariah Carey	My All	Big NO
7	England United	(How Does It Feel) To Be On Top Of The World	It’s another no
8	B*Witched	C’Est La Vie	And no

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/m002jmlm/top-of-the-pops-12061998?seriesId=unsliced

TOTP 05 JUN 1998

Posted on September 20 by 80stastic

I’m nearly 30! Back in 1998 that is. I’m pushing 60 now. Where did all the time go? I’ll tell you where all the time goes these days – on writing this blog! Two TOTP repeats a week is hard work. I’m sure BBC4 only used to air one show every seven days when I first started doing this back in 2017. Much more manageable. Anyway, it’s my choice so I’ll just have to quit my bellyaching and get on with it. So, back in 1998, this particular TOTP was broadcast the day before my 30th birthday and to mark the milestone my wife and I went to Edinburgh for the weekend. Having looked at the running order for this one, I can see English, Irish and Welsh artists but nobody Scottish. As ever then, I was out of step with the musical tastes of the British record buying public!

Our host is Jo Whiley (who seems to be trying out Björk’s hairstyle for size) and we start with an Australian in the diminutive form of Natalie Imbruglia who is experiencing a form of diminishing returns as her third single “Wishing I Was There” peaks at its debut position of No 19. “Torn” and “Big Mistake” had both been No 2 hits with the former especially being a huge commercial and airplay success. This one, however, couldn’t replicate said success and watching this performance, I can see and hear why. There’s a lot of posturing, growling and attitude from Natalie but there’s not much of an actual song to hang it all onto. The overall effect is that of an overly eager Alanis Morissette wannabe. The rock guitar ending seems especially over the top. Bizarrely, a fourth single released from her “Left Of The Middle” album called “Smoke” would return her to the Top 5. You tell me.

The Irish contingent is represented next by Boyzone. Now this track. – “All That I Need” – was No 1 ages ago (the show dated 1st May to be exact) and was not even in the Top 20 at this point so what was it doing back on the show? Well, this seems to be a case of more performance recycling from executive producer Chris Cowey. He’s shoehorned this one in under the guise of the lads’ latest album “Where We Belong” being No 1 on the album chart but that’s seems like a flimsy bit of reasoning. An album chart section wasn’t a regular feature (I think it was back in the ‘year zero’ revamp era) so why bring it back now? Will we see it in every show from now on? Nah, I’m not buying it (the album chart grift not this Boyzone single though obviously I didn’t buy that either).

Here come the Welsh! Yes, it’s those alt rockers, those power poppers, those neo-psychedelics (I’ve no idea what I’m talking about!) the Super Furry Animals with the title track of an EP no less called “Ice Hockey Hair”. To quote Chris Tarrant, this is what the kids wanted! Something to make them think, to question the established norms and to fuck with their heads! Not that bland nonsense Boyzone were pedalling! And for once, maybe the kids were listening as this became The Furries highest charting single to date when it debuted at No 12 after their last five hits had all peaked between Nos 27 and 22. This was also a favourite of the inkies music press with Melody Maker naming it the tenth best single of the year and the NME proclaiming it the second. And why not? It’s a glorious mix of styles with some reviews detecting Queen, ELO, Pavement and Wings combined with what the NME termed “mad, techno squalling”. But what was “Ice Hockey Hair”? Well, it was another term for the mullet hairstyle that the band picked up from a conversation with a Swedish football player (as you do).

The EP’s opening track was a little ditty called “Smokin’” which was used to soundtrack a Channel 4 series about the Seven Deadly Sins and, in particular, the episode about ‘Sloth’ presented by Howard Marks. Yes, that Howard Marks so you can guess what the track was about. It should be of no surprise though as the Super Furry Animals weren’t afraid to push the boundaries. In fact, the band didn’t give a fuck. Ahem.

This next song represents the countries of Turkey, Germany and England – this is “Horny ‘98” by Mousse T versus Hot ‘n’ Juicy. Now depending on your point of view, this was either a cheeky, cheesy dance floor banger or utter filth which was corrupting the pure minds of the young generation. Actually, there’s a third option which was to find it, like me, just plain annoying. Mousse T is Mustafo Gündoğdu, a German-Turkish DJ and producer whose CV includes the accolade of being one of Germany’s first producers of house music and, by way of contrast, a stint as a judge on the German version of Pop Idol. Hot ‘n’ Juicy were Emma Lanford and Nadine Richardson who lived in a tower block in the former Lee Bank estate of Birmingham. There doesn’t seem an obvious connection between the two camps but at some point their paths crossed and “Horny ‘98” was the result. Listening to the track today, it seems quite repetitive (if catchy) but maybe that was requisite to be a club anthem? I don’t know. I was nearly 30 so I don’t think I was frequenting that many nightclubs at the time. I can imagine though that women up and down the country were receiving unsolicited attention from many a drunken male reveller whose opening line was “I’m horny, horny, horny, horny”. The whole thing was just awful.

What’s happening here? A performance of a song that wouldn’t be released as a single for six weeks and which host Jo Whiley says we weren’t meant to see until July? Ah but…there’s some headline-making, mitigating circumstances at play here which my last post was based around – Geri Halliwell leaving the Spice Girls. Right, so there’s a lot to unpack here starting with the insight from Whiley that some TOTP performances were filmed way ahead of release schedules. “Viva Forever” would not be in the record shops until 20th July yet here it was on TOTP on the 5th June! Was this standard practice? Certainly you can tell from some of the presenter links in these shows that the artists are not in the studio with the host at the same time. In the case of the Spice Girls though, there were some very specific circumstances peculiar to this single. The release schedule for “Viva Forever” was a mess. Originally reported as being out as a double A-side with the track “Never Give Up On The Good Times” on May 25th, it never appeared presumably because the group were on their Spiceworld tour and not available to do promotional duties. I’m guessing that this TOTP appearance was squeezed in to be kept until “Viva Forever” was in the charts before its broadcast. Then came the ‘Geri’s leaving’ bombshell but the tour had to continue and so the single’s release date was shifted three times in July before its ultimate appearance.

Given the seismic waves felt by the Halliwell departure, did Chris Cowey realise the footage that he had on his hands with the five piece performing together for possibly the last time was golden and so put it out there as almost an historical document? Then there’s the performance itself. Geri is hardly in it! She has no close ups and is it me or does she seem to be standing slightly away from the rest of the group, isolating herself? Was this how it was originally shot or had some heavy editing taken place post the news of her leaving breaking? If so, why? And if that was how it was originally recorded, also…why? Jo Whiley seems to take great delight in the splintering of the Spice Girls making wisecracks about them performing through gritted teeth. What about the song itself (and that video) though? Well look, it will be No 1 and for two weeks within a few repeats so I’ll keep my powder dry until then but for the record, I thought it was actually OK.

Widening this international array of artists on tonight’s show even further is Cuban-American superstar Gloria Estefan who has been away for a couple of years but was back with new single “Heaven’s What I Feel”. And when I say ‘widening this international array’, I mean stretching it like an elastic band as Gloria’s song was also recorded in Spanish as “Corazón Prohibdo” and French as “Amour Infini”. It received generally positive reviews with plaudits for it being a pop/dance crossover hit and for the fact that Estefan hadn’t resorted to a big ballad as she had done for so many of her hits previously. It sounds to me though like a song from a musical, moving a Romeo and Juliet style plot along but with enough beats to keep the audience tapping their feet. Actually, has there been a Gloria Estefan jukebox musical?

*checks internet*

Yes, there has. I thought there was and it’s called On Your Feet! and guess what? “Heaven’s What I Feel” is not one of the numbers featured in it. Missed a trick there Gloria.

We’re back in dear old Blighty next with “four young ladies who are widely tipped to be the next big thing” according to Jo Whiley. Wow! Who can she be talking about? No, she can’t mean N–Tyce can she?! The All Saints wannabes (check out their carbon copy cargo pants) who’d been around for a year, released three singles of which none got higher than No 12 and whose album peaked at No 44?! That N-Tyce? Couldn’t Whiley have come up with a more suitable intro? It’s almost sarcastic in its tone. “Boom Boom” was the fourth and final of those singles and it really is lowest common denominator stuff. The lyrics to the chorus are:

“Ooh it’s boom boom, hey it’s boom boom, yeah it’s boom boom, ooh it’s boom boom”

It’s not Radiohead is it? Apologies to Ario, Chantal, Donna and Michelle (yes I obviously had to look their names up) and they could, of course say “who are you to judge us and our four medium sized hits? Where’s your hits?” and that would be absolutely valid but ‘the next big thing’? No chance.

Our international tour finishes back in Ireland where we find, according to Jo Whiley in her intro, the youngest ever all girl group to have a No 1 record. Not only that but they’ve gone straight in week one at the top which not even the Spice Girls nor All Saints could lay claim to. Now surely these girls were the act that you should have been referring to as ‘the next big thing’ Jo? Two of the four piece act are the sisters of Boyzone’s Shane Lynch, a connection which actually works against my global theme rather. Three people not just from the same country but from the same family across two different acts. It’s all a bit parochial.

B*Witched appeared fully formed seemingly from nowhere and went straight to the top with their debut release “C’est La Vie”. Every year during the late 90s there seemed to be a single that would cause a selling sensation – “Don’t Speak” by No Doubt, “MMMBop” by Hanson, “Killing Me Softly” by The Fugees and now this one. The very definition of joyful, this bubbly (if cheesy) pop confection bounced around your head almost as energetically as the girls bounced around the TOTP studio stage whilst performing it. Seriously, the whole thing was just exhausting. In some ways, it was preposterous. The Irish dancing breakdown section is sonically and visually ludicrous and the “Fight like me Da as well” line cranks up the cringe factor but somehow it all hangs together and just works. Indeed, the bridge into the chorus is almost pop perfection.

“C’est La Vie” would kickstart a period of undiluted and outright commercial success for the group with their first four singles all going to No 1 whilst their debut eponymous album went double platinum. That level of popularity proved hard to maintain and, almost inevitably, there was a downturn in sales come the release of second album “Awake And Breathe” and its attendant singles. By the time it came to recording a third album, the jig was up and they were dropped by their label Sony leading to the group splitting in 2002. Their management’s decision to base the vocals and focal point around Edele Lynch probably didn’t help build career longevity with the resentment it caused amongst the other group members. Those tensions were brought out into the open again when a spot on ITV reality show The Big Reunion in 2012 reactivated the B*Witched name but they were resolved enough that they could tour again and release new material in the form of two EPs.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Natalie Imbruglia	Wishing I Was There	I did not
2	Boyzone	All That I Need	Never
3	Super Furry Animals	Ice Hockey Hair	Liked it, didn’t buy it
4	Mousse T versus Hot ‘n’ Juicy	Horny ’98	Definitely not
5	Spice Girls	Viva Forever	Nope
6	Gloria Estefan	Heaven’s What I Feel	Nah
7	N-Tyce	Boom Boom	No
8	B*Witched	C’est La Vie	No but it was a favourite of my wife’s

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/m002j9qq/top-of-the-pops-05061998?seriesId=unsliced