Ricky Martin

TOTP 19 NOV 1999

This particular TOTP was broadcast on a very unusual date. Written as 19-11-1999, all the numbers are odd. The next all odd numbers day will be 1-1-3111 assuming quantified time still exists then. Just to even things up as it were, there was an even numbers day on 2-2-2000 which was the first one since 8-28-888! I wonder if any of the artists in the show have a connection with numbers (odd or even) apart from the obvious of chart positions and sales figures.

Our host is Gail Porter and we start with last week’s No 1 from Geri Halliwell. Yes, after all that fuss the previous week about the battle of who would top the chart between Geri and ex-band mate Emma Bunton, “Lift Me Up” is already down to No 4 after just seven days as we have a new No 1. So old hat is it after just a week that we don’t even get a new performance just a repeat of the first one. I posited the opinion in the last post that the track may not have been worthy of being a No 1 record which is, on the one hand, an asinine position to adopt as it garnered more sales than any other song that week and so was at the top of the charts by demonstrable merit. On the other though, the whole notion of judging the quality of records by how many copies they sell is ludicrous and the concept of a chart to rank them absurd. If we accept that hypothesis then we also believe in subjective musical taste which makes my original opinion of unworthiness perfectly sound and reasonable. It is based on the belief that “Lift Me Up” itself is a passable ballad but the issue with it is that Halliwell couldn’t really sing it properly. Tracks like her debut single “Look At Me” allowed her to almost speak the lyrics but there was no hiding place in a ballad with a soaring, uplifting chorus. Mind you, Mel C was always perceived as having the best singing voice of the Spice Girls and her latest song is criminally bad.

Numbers connection: During the height of her solo career, Geri notably wore a red string bracelet—a key practice in Kabbalah that assigns mystical and spiritual significance to numbers.

“I’m sure this band’s album will be filling a lot of stockings this Christmas. With their fourth hit from “The Man Who”, this is Travis” says Gail Porter in her intro to the next act and she was right on both points. I’ve told the tale before of how “The Man Who” saved the Our Price chain from going to the wall (allegedly) over the festive season of 1999. Such was its selling power that the buying department had to source copies of it from abroad which meant that the stock had some odd promotional stickers on it when it arrived in store. And yes, “Turn” was the fourth single taken from it. The FOURTH! There’s an interview where Noel and Liam Gallagher are talking about releasing “Cigarettes And Alcohol” as the fourth single from “Definitely Maybe” and Noel admits he wasn’t sure it was a good idea but then it became their then biggest hit when it charted.

I mention this as I wonder if there were similar reservations within the Travis camp about putting a fourth single into the shops. If so, they needn’t have worried as, just like Oasis, “Turn” became their highest charting single to this point when it peaked at No 8. Unlike their previous hits like “Driftwood” and “Why Does It Always Rain On Me”, this track was a heavier sound, almost anthemic you might say. In fact, it wouldn’t have sounded out of place on their rockier debut album “Good Feeling”. It’s a real slow builder but the pay off is worth it when you get there with hook of the chorus amplified by that guitar twang after the final “turn”. I don’t think I’d realised before that one of the verses is actually sung by bass player Dougie Payne and not Fran Healy or maybe they were messing around with vocal roles for the performance just like Oasis did for their TOTP run through of “Roll With It”. Travis would release their third album “The Invisible Band” in 2001 which, though it couldn’t match the commercial performance of “The Man Who”, still went a none too shabby four times platinum in the UK.

Numbers connection: Travis have released an album called “12 Memories” and one called “10 Songs”.

Here’s Riiiiicky! Yes, after a ‘new’ and indeed ‘exclusive” performance two weeks prior, Ricky Martin has banged into the charts with “Shake Your Bon-Bon” at…well…a rather underwhelming No 12 actually. It must have been a concern for Ricky, his label and his management after “Livin’ La Vida Loca” had been one of the biggest hits of 1999. Maybe it was deserved and the disappointment of the follow up had to be swallowed down as it was quite the stinker. The lyrics alone were awful, not just for the dreadful rhyming couplets but also because they were so inappropriate. If you thought ‘I’m a desperado, underneath your window, I see your silhouette, are you my Juliet?” was bad, how about rhyming ‘Himalayas’ with ‘I wanna lay ya’? Then there’s Ricky himself with his camcorder focusing in on the arses of his backing dancers. Really? Finally, surely a Bon-bon is a sweet not a backside? That would be a booty no? I guess what I’m saying is that I’m not prepared to turn the other cheek on this one.

Numbers connection: In 2012, a different Ricky Martin won Series 8 of The Apprentice, a TV show where the contestants are notoriously useless at formulating the financial predictions for their business plans and seem to have zero knowledge of the concept of profit and loss.

In early 2000, when I left my job of nearly a decade working in records shops, I struggled to adapt to my new life as a civil servant. The culture shock was seismic. However, one benefit that hadn’t figured in my decision-making but which I was grateful for was that I didn’t have to be involved in the rise and rise of A1. Yes, although “Everytime” was their third hit out of three releases and their biggest so far when it peaked at No 3, they had yet to reach their…dare I call it an ‘imperial phase’? Two consecutive No 1s and a No 2 arrived in the new millennium by which time I’d long since stopped following the charts and so could ignore their claims to be one of the biggest boybands around.

However, I couldn’t avoid this one which, inevitably, was a soppy ballad what with it being the third single as decreed by the 90s pop blueprint. Gail Porter bigs up their musicianship credentials in her intro by saying they play their own instruments but there’s only the guy on the piano as evidence of that here. There are screams aplenty for designated heartthrob Ben and his daft curtains hairstyle but it’s a lot of fuss about nothing as far as I’m concerned.

Numbers connection: A1? That’ll do won’t it? That’s more than they deserve.

After A1 have done their thing, we get an odd segue from the disembodied voice of Gail Porter which sounds like it was recorded in a BBC toilet rather than the Elstree studios and then were into the Will Smith video for “Will 2K” and, as usual, he introduces it himself with a personal message to camera. As with Ricky Martin earlier, we saw this weeks ago but it’s on again this time as it has debuted on the chart at No 2.

I checked on the excellent TOTP Archive website and it transpires that Will Smith never actually appeared in person at the BBC studio (either under his own name or The Fresh Prince persona) with all his performances either being the official promo video or from a completely separate venue via satellite. I presume he was too busy with his own filming schedules to hop over to the UK – from 1993 to 1999 he appeared in eight feature films. After all, that was one of the original purposes of the music video art form, to allow an artist to appear on promotional shows even if they couldn’t be there in person. Even so, 22 appearances over the years and not one trip to the studio does seem a bit like a smack in the mouth for the TOTP producers. Mind, he’s good at that isn’t he?

Numbers connection: In the 2015 film The Focus, Smith plays a con artist who bets millions against a billionaire. He has his partner randomly pick a football player’s jersey number from the field. If the billionaire chooses the same random player, Smith wins. If not, he loses everything. Unbeknownst to the victim, Smith spent the entire day priming him, subtly flashing the number 55 on posters, clothes and in music to guarantee that was the number he would choose.

After Scottish guitar band Travis earlier, here come some more Celtic rockers but this time from Wales. Now if Travis were pushing their luck with a fourth single released from their album, Stereophonics were possibly taking the piss by lifting “Hurry Up And Wait” as the fifth single from “Performance And Cocktails”. The FIFTH! This was approaching Michael Jackson territory!

I’m guessing this was down to their record label who surely wanted a single out as Christmas loomed to re-promote their artist’s album which had been out for nearly nine months by this point. For me though, it was easily the weakest of those five singles. A decent album track, that’s how it should have remained and I say that’s as someone who had “Performance And Cocktails”. What was more interesting though was the extra track on the CD single which was a cover of “Angie” by the Rolling Stones. They would return to cover versions in 2001 with their take on “Handbags And Gladrags”, a song which was already enjoying a high profile as the theme tune to The Office which was first broadcast that year.

Coincidentally, the aforementioned Travis also had a cover version as an extra track on their single…

Numbers connection: Their track “I Got Your Number” from their album “Scream Above the Sounds” heavily features a counting sequence (“1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. You told me lies right to my face. I’ve got your number…”)

SUPERSTAR KLAXON! Prince is in the house (well, the studio – take note Will Smith!) except he isn’t as Prince didn’t exist at this time as he was still going under the moniker of an unpronounceable symbol aka The Artist Formerly Known As Prince aka The Artist and it’s the final nomenclature that Gail Porter uses in her intro. And he is actually there within a few feet of her not thousands of miles away being beamed into our living rooms via satellite. Wow!

So why was he there? Well, to promote something obviously which in November 1999 was his 23rd studio album “Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic” from which this track “Baby Knows” was taken. But here’s the thing – that song was never released as a single in the UK. According to the princevault.com website, it was available as a promotional release in Holland only. Given that, why did he turn up in person here to give exposure to a product we couldn’t buy? Yes, the album was out but UK audiences were definitely and defiantly not interested in Prince albums at this time shown by the album’s peak of No 145 over here. His last Top 10 album had been 1995’s “The Gold Experience” which included the No 1 “The Most Beautiful Girl In The World” but there was no such big hit for this album. In fact, the only single released from it was “The Greatest Romance Ever Sold” in October which had peaked at No 65. So why was Prince here now doing promotional duties in a country that was largely ignoring him? Apparently, it was part of a strategy to focus on Europe over the US in an attempt to increase his appeal in that territory but it seems flawed given the resulting sales. I can’t really understand the logic of promoting in the UK a single that could only be bought in Holland.

As for the song itself, it’s OK. A typical Prince funk work out that reminds me of “Cream” a bit but as a hook to hang the album on, it didn’t feel like it would bear much weight. Prince, as ever, is the consummate showman in this performance. I do like Prince – who doesn’t? – but my issue with him is the amount of material he turned out. There still loads in the Paisley Park vaults they’re still discovering isn’t there? With that volume of work, it couldn’t all be ‘A’ standard surely? That said, you can’t deny his legacy and standing as a musical legend so maybe ignore my previous comment eh?

Number connection: Prince on a show with a broadcast date of 19/11/1999? C’mon – this shizzle writes itself!

There’s another new No 1 (of course there is – this was 1999) and it’s from that man again – it’s Robbie Williams with his second chart topper following “Millennium” in 1998. Now, although the song that got all the airplay and which Robbie performs here was “She’s The One”, the single itself was actually a double A-side* with the new track “It’s Only Us”.

*I failed to mention it earlier but this was actually the second double A-side release featured on this particular show as A1’s “Everytime” was buddied up with “Ready Or Not” but frankly, who cares?

“She’s The One” is, of course, a cover version. The original was by the excellent World Party though I can’t be sure if I knew that at the time. One person who certainly didn’t was my Robbie loving younger sister who was amazed when, years later, I played her the original and she discovered that the Williams version was almost exactly the same. Given that and acknowledging that Karl Wallinger’s outfit only ever had two Top 40 hits and none bigger than No 19, it feels unfair that it took the gurning Williams to make it the hit it deserved to be all along.

Yes, that’s right, gurning. His performance here employs all his mannerisms and ticks that were starting to grate by now. The knowing nod that said “Yes, worship me. It’s what I deserve” and the cocky little spin of his microphone that articulated “Look at me, I can do anything and everything”. Was there nobody around him to put him back in his box at this point? Well, yes. There was his journeyman drummer Chris Sharrock who’d played with everyone from the Icicle Works to The La’s to The Lightning Seeds and crucially World Party on the album that “She’s The One” came from! He was in a perfect position to tell him to stay humble! I wish they’d shown the video with the ice skating plot instead as it’s actually quite endearing with the Barry Davies commentary and the line “difficult for the one looking on”.

As for “It’s Only Us”, I couldn’t actually tell you what it sounded like. Hang on…

Hmm. It’s not all that is it? Apparently, it was used as the theme for the computer game FIFA 2000 (hence all the computer graphics in the video) and therefore wasn’t on the “I’ve Been Expecting You” album. It’s almost a forgotten Robbie Williams hit in retrospect and perhaps that’s for the best. To give him credit, he’s still very much a recording artist 27 years and 10 more studio albums later with the latest being released in January of this year. Maybe he was the one after all.

Numbers connection: Robbie Williams has been open about having dyscalculia and experiences real anxiety dealing with numerical concepts, struggling with simple tasks like calculating restaurant tips.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Geri Halliwell	Lift Me Up	Nah
2	Travis	Turn	No
3	Ricky Martin	Shake Your Bon-Bon	Negative
4	A1	Every time / Ready Or Not	Never
5	Will Smith	Will 2K	Nope
6	Stereophonics	Hurry Up And Wait	No but I had the album
7	Prince (or whatever)	Baby Knows	N/A
8	Robbie Williams	She’s The One / It’s Only Us	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/m002wz4c/top-of-the-pops-19111999

TOTP 05 NOV 1999

Posted on 26 Days Ago by 80stastic

What a strange beast TOTP had become by the end of the 90s. Just look at the running order for this show. It’s all over the place. A boyband, a Latin superstar, an American post-grunge band but perhaps most startlingly, two undeniably huge names yet whom, let’s be honest, it was a shock that they were still having hits. I’ll get to them in due course but our host is Jamie Theakston (yet again) and we start with an artist who is on the show for the fourth time in five weeks. The incremental rise of “I Try” by Macy Gray was remarkable not just for its longevity nor its rallying against chart tides and trends by often being the only record in the Top 40 climbing but also because, given this level of TOTP exposure (allied with, no doubt, mammoth airplay), surely it would have expected a higher chart peak than No 6? I presume it couldn’t compete with strongly promoted new releases that were aided by week one price discounting whilst it would have been selling at full price. Sometimes though the tortoise truly does beat the hare and “I Try” would become the 20th best selling single of 1999 despite having the lowest chart peak of any of the hits in that end of year Top 50 and ahead of fourteen No 1 records. Macy not only tried, she succeeded.

The first of those two massive names now that despite their incredibly successful and long careers, you were still surprised that they could achieve a chart hit in 1999. If the 80s had been a golden period for Phil Collins both as a solo artist and as a member of Genesis, then the 90s were more like that scene from Blackadder II where Lord Percy tries his had at alchemy but instead of creating gold discovers the secret of green…

OK, it maybe wasn’t that bad but the truth is that in the 80s, the four studio albums Collins released went five, three, six and nine times platinum respectively in the UK alone whilst his two albums from the 90s achieved double platinum and gold certification. To rub salt into the wound, the 1998 Best Of “…Hits” went six times platinum and there were only two of his 90s singles included in a track listing totalling 16 songs. Singles-wise, Phil had ten Top 10 hits in the 80s including three No 1s (albeit two were with cover versions). The 90s? A by pair of No 7s and a No 9. That’s it for Top 10 hits. Against that background, it’s perhaps surprising he had another chart hit in him at all but then “You’ll Be In My Heart” did have the added impetus of being from a Disney motion picture namely Tarzan, an animated feature retelling the Greystoke legend. Its soundtrack was a mixture of Collins originals and instrumental scores with the lead single released from it winning an Oscar and a Golden Globe for Best Original Song. Of course, it wasn’t the first time a huge star had been employed to write the music for a Disney film – Elton John had helped to make The Lion King a gargantuan success in 1994. Whilst not matching those sort of numbers, Tarzan was a critical and commercial hit and achieved a first that even The Lion King didn’t – it was the first Disney soundtrack to be recorded in multiple languages for different markets with Collins also recording French, German, Italian and Spanish versions. It also broke tradition by not having the lead characters perform the songs but rather had Phil do them himself via his role as the film’s narrator.

Despite all of the acclaim the film attracted, “You’ll Be In My Heart” was very much a Phil-by-numbers ballad the like of which he could turn out in his sleep and probably did. I’ve never seen the film so the song might be more affecting if listened to in the context of its scene in the movie I guess but still. It could have featured on any of his solo albums in the track listing slot named ‘insert ballad here’. Collins would renew his Disney association in 2003 by co-writing the soundtrack to Brother Bear. In 1999 though, this would be Phil’s last TOTP appearance of 47 as a solo artist.

After a decent quip in his last intro (“Jungle sounds next and I’m not talking drum ‘n’ bass. Oh no. Big up the jungle. It’s massive. It’s Phil Collins.”), Jamie Theakston breaks the golden rule when introducing the next artist by not referring to her by her official title. Surely everyone knows that Diana Ross has to be introduced as “Miss Diana Ross”? Jamie doubles down on that faux pas by saying that she has “big hair”! I mean, he did say that she’s the most successful female artist ever but not announcing her properly was like not observing royal etiquette. Fortunately, she isn’t there in the studio with Theakston as she seems to have pre-recorded her performance at an earlier time. She is, of course, that other huge name on the show that somehow was still having hits as the new millennium approached which felt like an anomaly. Said hit was “Not Over You Yet” which somehow managed to go Top 10 despite being an entirely lame attempt to make her seem credible by giving the track a laboured and hackneyed house beat underneath it. I’m with Kitty Empire of the NME who reviews it thus:

“Some grown-up housey garagey disco-y nonsense that’s really of no great consequence.”

The single was taken from Miss Diana Ross’s 22nd studio album called “Every Day Is A New Day” which was the final contractual album released during her second Motown tenure. The album didn’t pull up any trees chart wise despite a bucket load of promotional activity including an ITV special An Audience With Diana Ross* and an American TV film in ABC called Double Platinum starring Miss Diana Ross and Brandy as mother and daughter singing stars and featured four songs from each of their most recent albums. As with Phil Collins, this would be her final proper TOTP appearance excluding repeated past performances in anniversary shows.

*Somebody at ITV no doubt got fired for the omission of the word ‘Miss’ in that title

It’s the return of Ian Brown next who has resumed his career after spending two months in Strangeways Prison after being convicted of threatening behaviour towards a flight attendant in an air rage incident in 1998. Bizarrely, this links to Miss Diana Ross who had her own flight controversy in this year when, attempting to board a Concorde flight from London’s Heathrow Airport to New York, she set off a metal detector. A female security guard conducted a manual pat-down that Miss Diana Ross felt was far too intimate. Upset and feeling humiliated, she reportedly touched the guard’s breast and asked, “How do you like it?” Police removed Miss Diana Ross from the aircraft, detained her for five hours, and eventually issued a caution without filing formal charges.

Anyway, back to Ian Brown and he used that time he spent at Her Majesty’s pleasure to write songs for his second solo album “Golden Greats”. Its lead single was “Love Like A Fountain” and whilst it’s got a pretty funky backbone, it’s hard to get past Brown himself on the track and in this actual performance. His vocals have long been pilloried but the quaver displayed here suggests that they were being stretched so far they might snap. Then there’s the lyrics which are basically a simple exercise in rhyming words so we get ‘mountain-fountain’, “ocean-lotion” and ‘fiction-crucifixion’. It just doesn’t scream substance to me at all.

To try and add some interest, stop start visual effects have been added giving the whole performance a shaky, jagged look but nothing can distract from the truth that Brown is just marching on the spot. Was that just playing up to the whole pimp’s limp image? Though well received critically, “Golden Greats” would be the lowest charting solo album of Brown’s career.

Two divas on the same show! After Miss Diana Ross earlier, here’s the ‘Songbird Supreme’ herself Mariah Carey! It’s a diva duel! Now, whatever your opinion of Mariah, nobody can deny how prolific she was in the recording studio. “Rainbow” was her seventh album in nine years. After she’d gone off in a more urban direction with her last album “Butterfly”, Mariah decided there was no looking back, pushed the pedal to the floor and headed off at speed down the hip-hop highway. The lead single from “Rainbow” was “Heartbreaker” which featured Jay-Z – see, she wasn’t messing about with this urban tip – but was also, in the traditional style of her new album openers, an uptempo number based around a sample. Indeed, despite her R&B aspirations, the track received criticism for sticking to her ‘lead single formula’ with the music press comparing it unfavourably with “Fantasy” from the “Daydream” album and “Honey” from “Butterfly” on the grounds of being unoriginal. To me though, the hook of the chorus sounds like another of Mariah’s lead singles – “Dreamlover” from “Music Box”.

Another indication that she hadn’t left behind everything she’d made her name on was the presence on the album of ballads. Of course there were ballads. Where “Music Box” had “Hero” and “Without You” and “Daydream” had “One Sweet Day” (with Boyz II Men), “Rainbow” had “Thank God I Found You” (with 98 degrees) and “Against All Odds” a cover of the Phil Collins hit that was released as a single with Westlife*.

*Mariah did seem to have a thing about boybands.

The album sold well enough* but nowhere near the numbers of her imperial phase releases. Despite Jamie Theakston’s claim that Mariah was the decade’s most successful female artist (don’t tell Miss Diana Ross he said that), it seemed that as the 90s ended, that status would not continue into the new millennium.

*Certainly not 120 million copies as Theakston says in his outro. He must have meant career sales.

It’s time for that American post-grunge band now though I’m not sure that description is really correct or even relevant. Rock/pop is surely a better tag but that’s what Wikipedia describes them as. “Closing Time” is Semisonic’s calling card around the world but here in the UK, we knew the band from their hit “Secret Smile”. Though it was featured on two episodes of TOTP, we didn’t see either of them due to the Gouryella racial caricature issue which is a shame as it’s a fine track. However, for me, it is eclipsed by the more upbeat “Closing Time”. I really like this one for a number of reasons. That hook in the chorus for a start which is the guitar lick sound that puts me in mind of the crunch of the power riff on Radiohead’s “Creep” (but less intense) or that ringing, up-down-up refrain in “She Sells Sanctuary” by The Cult. Then there’s the harmonising in the second verse which fits perfectly. However, the best thing about it is that the chords are straightforward and repeated throughout meaning even I can strum along on my guitar.

Although it sounds like a musical version of “Time gentlemen please”, the lyrics are also a metaphor for child birth according to frontman Dan Wilson. Somebody who totally misunderstood what it was all about was Karoline Leavitt the White House press secretary and whoever is the admin for the official White House Twitter/X account who posted a video in March 2025 of an undocumented person getting arrested, featuring lines from the song. When questioned about its usage at a press conference, she responded like this:

Dear God! The glee in her voice as she trots out that lyric! Just vile. The band themselves shared my horror by issuing this statement to the press:

“We did not authorize or condone the White House’s use of our song in any way, and no, they didn’t ask. The song is about joy and possibilities and hope, and they have missed the point entirely.”

“‘Closing Time’: Semisonic React to their single being used as anti-immigrant propaganda.”Rolling Stone, Bernstein, Jonathan (March 17, 2025).

Quite. Anyway, I don’t know why “Closing Time” wasn’t a bigger hit in the UK. Its chart peak of No 25 seems underserved. Did it not get enough airplay? I’m not sure why that would be the case as it was a huge airplay hit in the US topping many a chart. If for nothing else, we should all have bought it for this extra track on the CD single, a cover of “Air That I Breathe” which is the missing link between The Hollies and Radiohead. I knew I was onto something with that reference to “Creep” before.

Jamie Theakston is full of superlatives tonight. After blowing smoke up the arses of Miss Diana Ross and Mariah Carey earlier, this time he’s proclaiming that Ricky Martin is the most successful pop act on the planet. Was he? Sure, he was huge with Latin audiences and had just had a global No 1 with “Livin’ La Vida Loca” but that was quite the statement for our host to make and an unsubstantiated one if the chart success of follow up “Shake Your Bon-Bon” was anything to go by. A No 12 hit in the UK after your last single was one of the biggest sellers of the year can only be seen as a disappointment.

Why did it not hit home like its predecessor? It’s just not got the same charm or should I say novelty appeal plus there was some confusion over its release date which didn’t help promotionally. It does have that sexual innuendo that Ricky traded on and indeed, I could imagine “Shake Your Bon-Bon” being sung by Tom Jones (he should have released it as a follow up to “Horny”). The recording of his backing dancers’ rears on a camcorder (Bon-Bon or not) would rightly be judged less than socially acceptable these days. Martin would return with bigger hits in 2000 but his mainstream success does seem to have dissipated though he can still rely on his Latin fanbase for a hit even today.

It’s yet another new No 1 as Five finally get their time at the top with the release of their seventh single “Keep On Movin’”. Of those six previous hits, three had debuted tantalisingly short at No 2. My God, there’s a lot of numbers in those two (there’s another!) sentences. That run of No 2s was too much temptation for Jamie Theakston to resist and he makes the resulting gag. It’s not big and it’s not clever which you could also say about “Keep On Movin’” in that it wasn’t an obvious No 1 any more so than any of their other hits with the exception of “Everybody Get Up” which was boyband magnificence. However, it was an upbeat, catchy, daytime friendly (albeit lacking in substance) pop tune that presumably the release of which had been carefully timed to ensure that Five didn’t miss out again. And miss out they did not meaning they could join the elite ranks of Take That, Boyzone and Westlife as boybands with No 1s. I’m not sure though that “Keep On Movin’” really cut through like say a “Back For Good”, a “No Matter What” or a “Flying Without Wings”. Still, a No 1 is a No 1 and Five finally had one which would soon become two when their version of “We Will Rock You” topped the charts in 2000 and then three when they did it again with “Let’s Dance” in 2001 and that really is enough numbers for one (oops!) post.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Macy Gray	I Try	Liked it, didn’t buy it
2	Phil Collins	You’ll Be In My Heart	Never
3	Miss Diana Ross	Not Over You Yet	No thanks
4	Ian Brown	Love Like A Fountain	Nah
5	Mariah Carey	Heartbreaker	Nope
6	Semisonic	Closing Time	Where’s my copy of this? Surely I bought it!
7	Ricky Martin	Shake Your Bon-Bon	No thanks
8	Five	Keep On Movin’	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/m002wnjp/top-of-the-pops-05111999

TOTP 30 JUL 1999

Posted on April 15 by 80stastic

Of the eight acts in this particular TOTP’s running order, it could be claimed that three were the equivalent of elder statesmen compared to their young upstart chart counterparts. They’d probably be described as ‘heritage’ acts today or, if they were football supporters then “legacy’ fans. Back in 1999, individually they might have been defined as ‘making a comeback’, ‘having an unexpected hit’ and ‘business as usual’. Who am I talking about? Let’s find out…

Our host is Jayne Middlemiss and we start with the artist having an unexpected hit. Up to this point in the 90s, Elvis Costello had only had one Top 40 hit throughout the whole decade – 1994’s “Sulky Girl” which made No 22. It wasn’t much of a return given that, in that period, he’d released three studio albums under his own name, one with The Attractions, a soundtrack, a collaboration with Burt Bacharach and a one off project with The Brodsky Quartet. To be fair to Costello, as far as I can tell, that album haul only resulted in ten singles being released but even so, a 90% failure rate for making the Top 40 seems like a very big number. Maybe his fanbase just weren’t that interested in buying singles – all of those albums listed above charted with two even going Top 5 so their was definitely still an appetite for his work just not the bite size versions.

Anyway, suddenly Elvis had a Top 20 single (his first for 16 years and, so far, his last) with a cover version of “She”, the 1974 No 1 from French/Armenian singer Charles Aznavour. Taken from the soundtrack to Notting Hill, both the original and Costello’s cover featured in the film. Bizarrely though, in the US release, only Elvis’s take on it was used as American test audiences didn’t react well to the Aznavour version. Maybe it wasn’t such an outlandish decision after all though as Costello’s vocal is just about perfect for the song, as if he was born to sing it. For many people, especially those not familiar with the original, his might even be considered the definitive version. In Japan for example, it is an absolute highlight of his live concerts.

The performance here was the first time Elvis has been on the show for five years and, aside from a replay showing of “Oliver’s Army” in a 2005 episode (for some reason), it remains his last. Although it’s a great version, it somehow seems a shame that Costello’s last hit and TOTP appearance were all about a cover rather than one of his original compositions.

Despite being a well established boy band with a string of hit singles and an adoring, teenage girl fanbase behind them, Five were still lacking that one thing that would put them up there with the likes of Take That and Boyzone – a No 1 single. Yes, their debut album had topped the charts but to cement them in the consciousness of the general public, they needed the profile that a cut-through-to-the-mainstream, instantly recognisable hit could bring them. Take That had, amongst others, “Back For Good” and Boyzone had “No Matter What”. Could “If Ya Gettin’ Down” do the same for Five? Not quite. It would debut and peak at No 2 meaning their last three singles had missed the top spot by a single place. They should have changed their name to Two.

As with the first of those No 2s “Everybody Get Up”, “If Ya Gettin’ Down” (make your minds up lads, up or down?) was based around a hit from the 80s. Whilst the former utilised Joan Jett And The Blackhearts’ version of “ I Love Rock ‘N’ Roll”, the latter sampled Indeep’s “Last Night A D.J. Saved My Life”. It worked pretty well to be fair but couldn’t hope to match the explosive power of “Everybody Get Up” which I’d actually rather enjoyed. That had featured Abz and J at the forefront what with all the rapping in it and it was a similar story with “If Ya Gettin’ Down”. With the slower tracks, Richie and Scott did the vocal heavy lifting. I’m not entirely sure what Sean did. Was he just there to do some dancing? If so, they clearly didn’t trust him even with just that judging by the battalion of backing dancers up there on stage with the band.

Five would finally get their No 1 with their next single release “Keep On Movin’”, the first of three chart toppers with the other two being a collaboration with Queen on a rendition of their anthem “We Will Rock You” and a track called “Let’s Dance” which thankfully wasn’t a David Bowie cover.

WHO??! The 3 Jays?! No, I’ve got nothing, zilch, zero, nada so I googled their name. Top result? A pub in Clacton. Says it all really. Or does it? After a bit more searching, I found out that the guys behind The 3 Jays (Jamie White, Jim Lee and Jeff Patterson – the three ‘J’s – geddit?) were also variously involved in the following chart hits:

Jeremy Healy & Amos – “Stamp!” – No 11 – 1996
PF Project – “Choose Life” – No 6 – 1997
Tzant – “Sounds of Wickedness” – No 11 – 1998
Mirrorball – “Given Up” – No 12 – 1999

Hmm. So maybe there was more to them than I first thought. Actually, maybe not as “Feeling It Too” sounded like it was just jumping on the sonic bandwagon that was popularised by Phats & Small and indeed, there was a remix by that pair of “Feeling It Too” available on the single.

Now, there was an 80s band called The Three Johns that my mate Robin liked who were nothing like the The 3 Jays being, as they were, a post-punk, indie rock band with politically charged, anti-Thatcher/anti far right lyrics. I’m betting they never did or would play that pub in Clacton whose MP, of course, is one Nigel Farage.

Next, that elder statesman act for whom another hit was just ‘business as usual’. How many albums do you reckon the Pet Shop Boys have released in their career? I’m just talking studio albums not Best Ofs or Remix compilations. Fifteen is the answer over a 40 year career. That’s one every two and a half years or so. That sounds, if not prolific then exceptionally consistent. A deeper dive into their discography (their actual discography and not their first ever Best Of from 1991) shows though that the first four came between 1986 and 1990 – just about one a year which is prolific I would argue. After that initial burst of youthful creativity, they settled down to a fairly regular release schedule of a studio album every three years. To this end, by 1999, “Nightlife” was released three years after their last album “Bilingual” which in turn came out three years after “Very” which was preceded by “Behaviour” three years earlier.

So what?” you may ask. It’s a valid question. Other than peaking my fascination with sequences (a run of football results has a similar effect on me), I’m not sure why I went down that route. Oh, hang on, yes I do. It was to provide some context as to my personal engagement with the output of Neil and Chris. Having been a fan throughout the 80s and early 90s, by the end of that decade I was entering “meh” territory. Sadly, “I Don’t Know What You Want But I Can’t Give It Any More” wasn’t going to reactivate my interest. It’s not that it’s a terrible song (though its title does nearly enter terrible territory) it’s just that it was…well…yes, a bit “meh” really. It had all the components we’d come to expect from a Pet Shop Boys release but it doesn’t have enough about it to take its place aside some of the duo’s classic singles. As such, I would argue that it really isn’t one of them.

My affection for the Pet Shop Boys was reignited when I saw them live on their Dreamworld: The Greatest Hits Live tour a couple of years ago. I still can’t remember if they performed “I Don’t Know What You Want But I Can’t Give It Any More” though. Oh and I can’t not mention the backing dancers here. As with Five earlier, there’s loads of them but their number isn’t what requires comment. What was with all the juddering, arms-by-their-sides moves that made them look like fish literally out of water gaping for breath? Was it somehow linked to Chris and Neil’s onstage garb? The punk styled hair and shades look would also be used in the artwork for the album but what really grabs the attention is that they somehow invented the ‘slugs’ eyebrow phenomenon a good 20 years before it actually became a thing.

The 90s saw the UK record buying public display an insatiable appetite for Eurodance music. The charts were absolutely full of it meaning that yours truly has spent hours writing about a style of music I couldn’t really be doing with. At all. Throughout the decade artists such as Snap!, 2 Unlimited, Culture Beat, Haddaway, Corona, Ace Of Base and Dr. Alban had huge hits including No 1s (four of those names scored a chart topper!). And those were acts were just off the top of my head. I bet a deep dive of the internet would reveal many more…

*does a deep dive of the internet for Eurodance artists*

…Cappella, N-Trance, Real McCoy, Rednex, Sash!, T-Spoon, Vengaboys, Whigfield…oh God, I feel nauseous knowing how much of my life I’ve wasted commenting on all the above.

Yes! It’s a blogger epiphany! I’m not going to spend any more time in this blog on anymore Eurodance nonsense! Away with you….

…..oh, I just can’t can I? Bloody hell!! Right, D.J. Jurgen Presents Alice Deejay…so, this was a Dutch Eurodance project which, despite Jayne Middlemiss’s protestations, did have some DJs in it and was fronted by one Judith Anna Pronk. Their biggest hit of five was this one – “Better Off Alone” – which has accrued quite the retrospective legacy. For example, in March 2025, Billboard magazine ranked it as No 48 in their list of ‘The 100 Best Dance Songs of All Time’. At the risk of sounding like my Dad when I myself was a teenager, it sounds like all those other Eurodance acts to my ears. And yes, I know Eurodance is a generic term and that there must have been loads of sub genres within it so to lump them all together is probably lazy but I really couldn’t care less.

As for this performance, there really was only two things that I noted about it. Firstly, and this is going to sound awful for which I apologise in advance but the lady at the back on the raised stage behind a keyboard (it actually looks a bit like an ironing board on first view), is it me or does she look a bit old to be a part of this nonsense? Secondly, and I’m certainly not complaining, but why did we only get 1:40 of the track which Wikipedia tells me the radio edit was 2:56 in length?

Definitely on the comeback trail are Madness who are making a second consecutive appearance to perform “Lovestruck”, their first new material single for thirteen years. I’m guessing this might be another of those double recording montages like we saw by Cher recently where the artist did two performances in the same one visit to the TOTP studio which are differentiated by a change of outfits just to convince the TV audience that they were recorded at least seven days apart. We know this as in last week’s performance Lee Thompson had a Bernie Clifton style jockey outfit on but this week he’s donned a…well…Jayne Middlemiss says it’s a worm costume but is it? It’s a bit green looking for a worm? A caterpillar maybe? Anyway, the abrupt cut away from our host to the performance is the conclusive piece of evidence for me that this was a second performance recorded in one sitting.

Suggs, of course, is a well known fellow fan of my beloved Chelsea even singing on the club’s 1997 FA Cup final song “Blue Day”. He nearly got sacked from the group in their early days for constantly missing Saturday afternoon band practice to go to Stamford Bridge to watch his team. I mention all of this because of the use of the word “Tottenham” in the lyrics. With Spurs being one of our fiercest rivals, I wonder how Suggs felt about singing those lines all these years? In fact, I wonder if he feels similar to another celebrity Chelsea fan who even refused to say the name ‘Tottenham’ in a recent Graham Norton interview? His reply to Graham’s question clearly riled another Graham…

Prick. pic.twitter.com/rAmbLkWBtE
— Graham Kingsbury (@grayjam68) February 13, 2026

Next up is one of the most pointless personal messages recorded by an artist for TOTP. The Chemical Brothers appear on screen to say this:

“Hi, we’re The Chemical Brothers…Sorry we can’t be there. Here’s some footage of us playing live in Red Rocks…Denver”

What was the point of that?! We then get said footage of them performing “Hey Boy Hey Girl” live in Red Rocks, Denver mixed in with shots of the TOTP audience dancing to it as it’s relayed on a big screen back in the studio. Again I say, “What was the point of that?!” Whatever you thought you were doing as executive producer Chris Cowey, it wasn’t working.

Despite the attempts by Five to put her off, Jayne Middlemiss just about gets through her intro to the No 1 which is Ricky Martin with “Livin’ la Vida Loca” for the third week which was quite the achievement in 1999 which saw many a one week chart topper. Perhaps even more impressive though was the fact that Martin became the first Puerto Rican artist in history to hit No 1 in the UK. It would go double platinum over here making it our sixth best selling single of the year. Also “Livin’ the Crazy Life” is another Ricky Martin who was the winner of the eighth series of The Apprentice in 2012. The show’s BBC website says of Ricky:

“By day Ricky is a successful recruitment manager operating across the UK science industries, and by night and weekend a heavy hitting professional wrestler”

Wow! If he doesn’t use “Livin’ la Vida Loca” as his entrance music he isn’t doing it right.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Elvis Costello	She	Yes I did for my wife who’s a big Elvis Costello fan
2	Five	If Ya Gettin’ Down	No thanks
3	The 3 Jays	Feeling It Too	Negative
4	Pet Shop Boys	I Don’t Know What You Want But I Can’t Give It Any More	Nah
5	D.J. Jurgen Presents Alice Deejay	Better Off Alone	Certainly not
6	Madness	Lovestruck	No
7	The Chemical Brothers	Hey Boy Hey Girl	Nope
8	Ricky Martin	Livin’ la Vida Loca	I did not

Disclaimer

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

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

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002tl5r/top-of-the-pops-30071999

TOTP 23 JUL 1999

Posted on April 10 by 80stastic

What’s going on here then. Why have we missed two episodes? This hasn’t happened since the Summer of 1997 repeats and that whole Puff Daddy/ P Diddy business. The ever reliable @TOTPFacts has the answer:

BBC Four are skipping the 9 and 16 July 1999 editions of #TOTP due to a racial caricature. Selected highlights follow.
What that’s all about? it’s included in this video for a track by Dutch trance act Gouryella, featured in the chart rundowns: https://t.co/dHLYEk44yr
— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) April 3, 2026

Well, there you go. Some in the online TOTP community were disgruntled at the decision by the BBC with the usual “couldn’t they have blurred it out?” comments and I understand their opinion especially as the Gouryella track was only featured during the chart rundown and not as a standalone showing of the video. Looking at the running order for these two missed episodes though, I can’t say I’m that disappointed not to have watched (and reviewed) some of the hits we missed. Look at this line up from the 9th July episode:

*The unofficial home of TOTP website: https://totparchive.co.uk/episode.php?id=1842*

I would say that there’s only Blur’s “Coffee & TV” and “Secret Smile” by Semisonic that piqued my interest and I certainly had no desire to review S Club 7 and Shania Twain again and I could live without Lolly as well. As for the 16th July episode…

*The unofficial home of TOTP website: https://totparchive.co.uk/episode.php?id=1843*

Manic Street Preachers? I can’t see much else. Well, I haven’t got it in me to dig out those shows on YouTube and review them I’m afraid (especially after seeing the running orders) so it’s full steam ahead with the 23rd July episode which is hosted by Jayne Middlemiss and we start with a new one from Steps called “Love’s Got A Hold On My Heart”. After the almost novelty record debut of “5,6,7,8” and the faux ABBA schtick of their next two releases, their cover of “Tragedy” drew a line in the sand where the group had to taken seriously as a genuine chart entity when it finally made it to No 1 after an ascent that took weeks. The follow up “Better Best Forgotten” leapt to No 2 and so when “Love’s Got A Hold On My Heart” was released as the lead track from second album “Steptacular”, its peak of No 2 was maybe the least that was expected of it. However…talk about playing it safe. Co-produced and co-written by Pete Waterman, this was just a retread of his PWL pomp. You could imagine Sonia (definitely not Kylie though) having recorded this tripe. Everything from its title to its sound was telegraphed. There was nothing new nor original here but maybe it was expecting too much for it to have been anything else.

As for the performance we see here, there’s something curious going on. At the end of the 2nd July show, as Gail Porter introduces the No 1 surrounded by the studio audience, front and centre in the crowd are Steps in the yellow outfits they wore in this, the 23rd July episode. Claire even has the same cowboy hat on. Yet more evidence that there was clearly a time delay between when performances were recorded and when they were broadcast. I assume that the artists had busy schedules and so everything had to be carefully timetabled to accommodate a TOTP studio appearance rather than just show the single’s promo video which executive producer Chris Cowey was very determined not to if he could help it.

Look at this! Madness were back! Had they actually been away though? OK, some clarification is required here. After initially disbanding in 1986, there had already been a number of returns by the nutty boys before this point. In 1988, four members of the original band reunited as The Madness and released one album and two singles none of which troubled the chart compilers. Two years on and now down to two original members, The Nutty Boys were formed before changing their name to Crunch! but there really was no appetite for just the pips of the band and they were soon compost. Everything changed though in 1992 when all seven members came back together to promote the Best Of compilation “Divine Madness” and to play the Madstock! festival in Finsbury Park to 75,000 people over two days. Legend has it that some nearby tower blocks perceptibly shook so loud was the music. Madness were officially a smash again with “Divine Madness” going to No 1 and triple platinum in the UK. Four singles were released from it three of which charted Meanwhile, Madstock was repeated three times as a biannual event.

So, why would I say that Madness were suddenly back in 1999? Ah well, this was the first time that they had released new material since that break up in 1986 when “(Waiting For) The Ghost Train” made No 18. “Lovestruck” was the lead single from “Wonderful”, their first studio album since 1985’s “Mad Not Mad” and listening back to it now, it could easily have been released in the 80s. It was trademark Madness with Mike Barson’s tinkling keyboards back in the fold for the first time since his departure in 1984. Despite sticking out in a 1999 Top 40 like a pork pie hat at Royal Ascot, “Lovestruck” returned Madness to the Top 10 for the first time since “The Sun And The Rain” in 1983. There were a lot of ‘first since’ milestones going on in this comeback!

I’m (love) struck by the unique singing style of Suggs on this track. It’s verges on non-singing which I guess you would almost describe as ‘speaking’ and yet it has served him and his band well for nearly 50 years now. Is it heresy to say that secondary vocalist Chas Smash had the better voice? Certainly, I can hear his harmonies to good effect in this one. “Wonderful” sold reasonably rather than exceptionally well but enough for the band to remain a part of our lives ever since releasing a further five studio albums since and being an almost ever present touring outfit. Embrace the madness!

Some anti-London sentiment now according to Jayne Middlemiss who plays up to her North East roots in her intro to “Londinium” by Catatonia by saying “I dirrn’t knaa wot she’s on aboot like” – they could almost be the words in a speech bubble coming from the mouth of Viz’s Sid The Sexist. Anyway, it’s another regional accent that takes over proceedings next as Cerys Matthews leads us through the second single from “Equally Cursed And Blessed” and although it’s not as immediate as their biggest hits like “Mulder And Scully” and “Road Rage”, it does have some ear worm like qualities that are apparent after a couple of listens. It’s Cerys who you can’t take your eyes off in this performance though as she twists and turns both vocally and physically, bewitching us as she playfully rolls those ‘R’s’ again. Apparently, the band didn’t want “Londinium” released as it could be perceived as negative and wanted “Karaoke Queen” issues instead. That track would become the third single and peaked at No 36 whilst “Londinium” debuted at No 20. Bizarrely though “Karaoke Queen” was not included in the band’s five CD box set “Make Hay Not War – The Blanco Y Negro Years” which brought together their four studio albums when it was released in 2023. Strange glue indeed.

Right, what’s this nonsense? Well, it’s dance nonsense, of course it is and this time it’s delivered to us courtesy of Yolanda (aka DJ Paul Masterson) who took a sample from Liquid Gold’s disco hit “Dance Yourself Dizzy” and turned it into the horrendous mess called “Synths And Strings”. I mean, you can just about hear that No 5 hit from 1980 buried in the mix somewhere but the noise surrounding it is like being slapped across the face constantly. And what was with the staging of this performance with the dancers dressed as toy soldiers? It’s like Trumpton meets Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and to paraphrase Neil Tennant, literally set to a disco beat. Then there there’s a wobbly screen effect laid over the top of it all presumably to replicate the feeling of being off your head in a club. If I could paraphrase again, channelling my inner Queen of Hearts, “Off with their heads!”

There was a third single off the “Gran Turismo” album? That’s what Jayne Middlemiss says in her intro to The Cardigans and she’s right as they are in the studio to perform “Hanging Around”. I remember “My Favourite Game” and “Erase/Rewind” but this one has escaped my memory banks. As with Catatonia earlier, it wasn’t as striking as those two songs or indeed “Lovefool” but unlike Catatonia, it didn’t stay with me for that long after I’d listened to it. Possibly more of a serviceable album track than a single? I mean, next to Yolanda it was like ambrosia from the gods but compared to their own work, it was more semolina than a rich, rice pudding. Erm…not sure where I’m going with this…so I think I’ll move on. No hanging around for me.

Wait, Dina Carroll was still having hits in 1999? In my head she was all about 1992/93 but here she was at the end of the decade at No 13 with “Without Love”. I have written loads about Dina in past posts on account of all those hits back then so I’m not going to retread her entire career story now but suffice to say that at this point, she was undertaking something of a relaunch some three years after her second album “Only Human”. Dina had suffered health problems in the form of a hereditary bone disease that affected her ears – not good if you’re a singer – which had disrupted the recording of that sophomore collection and also the promotion of it. Despite only releasing two singles from it, her record label Mercury decided that work should begin on her third album. It would never be released and we were left with just two singles that would end up as stand alone tracks – mid tempo ballad “One, Two, Three” which never made it into TOTP despite its chart peak of No 16 and this one, “Without Love”.

A definite throwback to her early dance hits, it could have easily been released in 1993 although it came with lots of different mixes to appeal to the various dance markets. Despite its success, the confident performance by Dina here (her final TOTP appearance) and her new image, it would not be enough to convince Mercury to release that third album. One minor hit single would follow in 2001 (a cover of Van Morrison’s “Someone Like You”) and that was that for Dina’s discography and, unless something changes in the future, her whole musical career.

There was no denying it, Destiny’s Child were fulfilling what many had predicted was their (ahem) destiny by starting to rack up some seriously big hits by this point in their career. After “No, No, No” had been an American No 3 hit and gone Top 5 over here, “Bills, Bills, Bills” (they had a thing for repeated three word titles early on) would give them their first US chart topper and a consolidating No 6 hit in the UK. It wouldn’t be long before we were on exactly the same page as our American counterparts with consecutive No 1 singles in “Independent Women” and “Survivor”. I’m getting ahead of myself though. Back to “Bills, Bills, Bills” and many comparisons were made at the time between it and the recent TLC hit “No Scrubs” both lyrically and sonically. There was a solid reason for this which was that both tracks were co-written and produced by Kevin “She’kspere” Briggs and his then girlfriend and former Xscape singer Kandi Burruss. Both songs took the subject matter of denigrating men that were seen as wasters and ran with it and both even used the same slang insult of a ‘scrub’ in their lyrics. Whilst it’s true both employed a sort of skittering backbeat and distinctive synthesised intros, for me, “Bills, Bills, Bills” had more of an En Vogue feel to it than a TLC one. Still, what do I know? I’m hardly an authority on R&B, all female groups of the 90s. I’m a pop kid from the 80s at heart.

What I do know from watching this performance back though is that the TOTP studio audience didn’t seem to know how to dance to this one at all. There’s some collective shuffling about with one poor girl just stood there at the front of the throng, perhaps paralysed by the thought that any dance moves she attempted would be seen on national TV. Just a few people down the line however, one single girl took the exact opposite approach, seized the moment and went for it with arms and hips swaying in unison. Again, I didn’t know anything much about being a young woman in the late 90s but if I’d been in that audience, I’m pretty sure I’d have been the girl stood motionless.

Ah, who could forget “Livin’ La Vida Loca” by Ricky Martin? What’s that? You wish you could forget it? Ouch! Although this No 1 felt like it was a new pop sensation the type of which we hadn’t seen before, we actually had. Gloria Estefan (with and without the Miami Sound Machine) had been having upbeat, Latin flavoured pop hits since 1984. However, it is true that there was a whole legion of super successful Latin artists who had never broken through in the UK like Ricky Martin had managed to do. Sure, he’s had a couple of hits a few years earlier over here but a No 1 record took him to another level (no, not them!). What was it then about “Livin’ La Vida Loca” that enraptured the British record buying public so? Well, the track fair galloped along with a cracking pace which you couldn’t ignore and also had a bit of surf guitar thrown in there which always makes for an engaging sound. Then there was Ricky himself – with his smouldering good looks and gyrating hips he was the perfect vehicle to sell it. And sell it he did with over three quarter of a million physical copies sold in 1999 in the UK alone. It would be the sixth best selling single of the year here.

Ricky Martin’s success could be seen as paving the way for a wave of Latin artists as the new millennium dawned with the likes of Enriquez Iglesias, Shakira, and Christina Aguilera joining him in attaining mainstream chart success without forgetting Jennifer Lopez who was also riding high in the charts at this time*.

*Indeed, it was Lopez’s “If You Had My Love” that replaced “Livin’ La Vida Loca” at the top of the US Billboard chart.

One thing though, Ricky dancing on a podium is giving me strong vibes of Xanadu nightclub in Rochdale that I found myself in one memorable evening out (it’s a long story) which I’m not especially keen to recall.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Steps	Love’s Got A Hold On My Heart	Certainly not
2	Madness	Lovestruck	Nope
3	Catatonia	Londinium	Decent tune but no
4	Yolanda	Synths And Strings	Never
5	The Cardigans	Hanging Around	Negative
6	Dina Carroll	Without Love	I did not
7	Destiny’s Child	Bills, Bills, Bills	Nah
8	Ricky Martin	Livin’ La Vida Loca	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/m002tl5p/top-of-the-pops-23071999

TOTP 19 SEP 1997

Posted on April 10, 2025 by 80stastic

I haven’t done this for a while but I should probably check in with what I was doing back in 1997. I know, I know but I’ve spent loads of posts banging on about TOTP and the changes under Chris Cowey and then the whole Princess Diana funeral (which won’t be going away anytime soon thanks to the Elton John single) so I’m giving myself some time off to talk about what I know best – myself. This year was turning out to be pretty eventful – I’d been to China, my beloved Chelsea had finally won something and there were big changes at work. Our manager, the legendary Pete Garner, had left and, as assistant manager, I’d been left in temporary charge of the Our Price store in Stockport. Not only that but I had to oversee its conversion to a ‘live’ stock inventory system and it had all started to take a toll on me. I’d applied for the manager’s position because the staff wanted me to but I was glad not to have got it in the end as I was feeling pretty stressed anyway. The person who got the job was a lovely woman called Lisa who wound have been in post by now. I got on great with Lisa but she only stayed for one Christmas before moving on and then things really went downhill but that’s all for another time. For now, things were starting to stabilise after a few rocky months so let’s see what songs I would have been selling to the punters back then. *SPOILER ALERT* – it was mainly just one specific song!

It’s from ‘rocky’ to ‘Ricky’ as we get our first glimpse of the Puerto Rican hip swiveller Ricky Martin. Now, most of us (me at least) just know him for his No 1 song “Livin’ La Vida Loca” but that wasn’t his only hit. No, before that came “(Un Dos Tres) Maria”. I don’t remember this at all but then I hadn’t been holidaying in the Balearic Islands that Summer and so hadn’t heard it being played constantly in the clubs and bars there. Conforming to the tradition of British holidaymakers wanting to buy that song* that had soundtracked their time away, the British public duly sent it to No 6 in the UK charts.

*A tradition which stretched back as far as 1974 and “Y Viva Espana” and took in Ryan Paris, Baltimora, Sabrina and the execrable MC Miker and DJ Sven.

The track is widely recognised as igniting the whole Latin / dance crossover craze of the 90s (personally, I thought it was Gloria Estefan who did that…or was it the “Macarena”?) it seems to consist of a lot of counting to three in Spanish and that backbeat that was popularised by The Goodmen’s hit “Give It Up” and pinched by Simply Red for “Fairground”. Despite its success – it topped the chart in most South American countries as well as Australia and much of Europe – his record company weren’t keen on it initially as he’d made his name recording ballads. It would become the biggest selling Latin pop song of all time when it was remixed by the aforementioned Gloria Estefan producer Pablo Flores. Didn’t those record company executives know that any song called “Maria” was a guaranteed winner? Just ask Blondie, P. J. Proby, Santana, Tony Christie….

After witnessing her little sister Dannii return to the charts recently after a gap of three years, big sister Kylie Minogue was ready to make her own comeback. In truth, she’d been chomping at the bit for a while. Her own three years absence had only been punctuated by her unlikely murder ballad hit with Nick Cave (my own guitar class version of “Where The Wild Roses Grow” remains pretty special!) so by 1997 she was set to deliver her new sound to the world. Sadly for Kylie, there were a number of impediments stopping her from doing that. Firstly, her record label Deconstruction postponed her album’s planned release from the January to May. It was postponed again with a new date of September scheduled. With the death of Princess Diana in late August, the album’s proposed title of “Impossible Princess” caused Deconstruction to panic that it might be seen as in bad taste and so it was delayed for a further three months. Kylie herself agreed for it to be retitled eponymously to enable its release in Europe eventually in March 1998. Once finally out, it divided fans and press alike. Whilst some appreciated her attempt to reinvent herself with an album of diverse musical styles ranging from electronica to trip hop to rock, others weren’t able to accept Kylie as musical chameleon and even accused her of being a fraud. Seemingly, this was the preserve of the likes of David Bowie.

As host Jayne Middlemiss states, lead single “Some Kind Of Bliss” was written with James Dean Bradfield and Sean Moore of the Manic Street Preachers which led the music press to dub this latest incarnation of her career ‘Indie Kylie’. It was a lazy term given the disparate nature of the album but it stuck which fed the belief that Kylie was jumping (albeit belatedly) on the Britpop bandwagon – well, it had worked (sort of) for Robbie Williams after all. As for me, I liked it, certainly more than her SAW produced bubblegum pop hits of the late 80s. However, it didn’t cut much ice nor indeed through with the record buying public with its chart peak of No 22 meaning it was the first time she’d missed making the UK Top 20. There were mitigating circumstances though. It was released at the same time as Elton John’s “Candle In The Wind ‘97” which accounted for 75% of all sales that week so it was hard for any new release to make an impression. Retrospectively, this era of Kylie and its associated album has been more favourably recognised and is a favourite for a niche part of her fanbase despite its poor commercial performance. She would storm back to the top of the charts come the new millennium with No 1 hit “Spinning Around” and those hot pants but back in 1997, her future was more pants than hot.

The No 1 that never was next. In any other week in pop history, “You Have Been Loved” by George Michael would surely have topped the charts but the events in Paris on 31st August and the subsequent outpouring of grief by the nation and the release of the aforementioned Elton John single meant it was never to be. Don’t take my word for it, even Jayne Middlemiss says so in her intro. This week’s chart would break all sorts of sales records but it also provided an unusual chart quirk with the top two positions occupied in week one of sales by two artists who had also duetted on a No 1 record of their own – 1991’s “Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me”.

Now this is quite strange. A band making their debut TOTP appearance nine years after they formed and seven since their debut album went Top 5. Like Garbage and Skunk Anansie, I should really know more about The Sundays and make an effort to explore their back catalogue further. I know some people who swear by them (including comedian David Baddiel who is best friends with guitarist David Gavurin) but somehow, once again, I didn’t get the memo. Formed in 1988 after Gavurin met vocalist Harriet Wheeler at Bristol University, the couple initially started writing songs for their own enjoyment rather than as a route to a career in music. However, augmented by bassist Paul Brindley and drummer Patrick Hannan, they sent out some demo tapes and became the subject of a record label bidding war, finally signing to Rough Trade. Their debut single “Can’t Be Sure” topped the indie charts and, in direct contrast to the title of their single, were assured acclaim from the music press inkies. The album “Reading, Writing And Arithmetic” followed in 1990 peaking at an impressive No 4. However, no other singles were released from it due to the collapse of Rough Trade though “Here’s Where The Story Ends” topped the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart in America. Tin Tin Out would take a dance cover of it to No 7 in 1998. The album’s jangly guitar pop sound and Wheeler’s distinctive, quirky vocals and the fact that it was unavailable following Rough Trade’s demise for years helped create a myth around the band. That and their devotion to musical perfection and a low public profile. They eventually reappeared in 1992 with sophomore album “Blind” (having signed to Parlophone Records) and were rewarded with a No 15 chart peak and more sold out shows though it wasn’t received as well as their debut in the music press. Yet again, singles weren’t forthcoming – only minor hit “Goodbye” appeared in the UK. I’m beginning to understand why they’d never been on TOTP before now.

Gavurin and Wheeler stepped back from music following “Blind” to start a family before resurfacing in 1997 with their third and so far final album “Static & Silence”. It would continue their run of success by going Top 10. I had a promo copy of it but I’m not sure I ever played it (call myself a music fan?!). The album supplied “Summertime”, their highest ever charting single which finally secured them a place on the running order of the BBC’s prime time music show. The perfect soundtrack to the last moments of Summer and the beginning of Autumn, it was written about Gavurin and Wheeler’s perception of some of their friends joining dating services. I’m not sure that something like today’s Tinder could inspire such a whimsical piece of music.

The band have been on hiatus for nigh on 30 years since though apparently they have continued to write songs throughout though whether anyone will ever get to hear them is anybody’s guess. Still, I’ve got at least three albums to check out in the meantime. Now, where’s that promo copy of “Static & Silence”?

All I knew of Sly & Robbie before this point was their reputation as reggae and dub producers and their 1987 hit single “Boops (Here To Go)”. Of their collaborators here Simply Red, I (regretfully) knew much more. Finally, despite a discography of nearly 80 studio albums, I pretty much was only familiar with one Gregory Isaacs song, that being this one, “Night Nurse”. Supposedly, this was an updated take on the reggae classic but I can’t understand why you wouldn’t just seek out the original. However, back in 1997, that wouldn’t have been an easy ask. You couldn’t just say “Alexa, play “Night Nurse” by Gregory Isaacs” – no, you’d have had to do some research and possibly order a whole album from your local record store just to get that one song so maybe it was easier just to buy the single that was available. Indeed, maybe some punters weren’t aware of the original and its creator – I barely knew Gregory Isaacs and I worked in a record shop! Whatever the truth behind its success, this version of “Night Nurse” made No 13 on the UK charts.

Boyz II Men had 12 UK Top 40 hits according to officialcharts.com but could anyone name more than three? A superfan maybe? Or their Mums perhaps? I thought I was doing well with two – “End Of The Road” and “I’ll Make Love To You” (though they’re basically the same song so is that only one really?). “4 Seasons Of Loneliness” was their tenth and guess what? It was a ballad. Or was it? It sounds more like a voice exercise than a song. Their sweet harmonies prowess is all very well but you still need a proper tune to wrap them around. I work in a theatre these days and often witness the actors in pre-show mode and I can honestly say I’ve heard vocal warmups that are more tuneful than “4 Seasons Of Loneliness”. I’m also willing to bet that there was a floor manager out of shot holding up ‘scream now’ signs to the studio audience when each of the four band members gets to their solo parts. Not many people seemed to agree with my assessment though – it went to No 10 over here and No 1 in America.

Oh gawd! Guess who’s back? Yes, it’s Mark Morrison and, rather predictably, he’s still going on about the bloody ‘Mack’! His recent three month spell at Her Majesty’s pleasure for attempting to take a firearm on a plane (daringly hinted at in her intro by Jayne Middlemiss) doesn’t seem to have made him reflect on his life choices much. He’s just reliving the past glories of his previous hits and most obviously “Return Of The Mack” by calling this track “Who’s The Mack!”. Morrison clearly didn’t take any educational programmes in prison otherwise he would have known to put a question mark and not an exclamation mark at the end of that song title. His track is more of the same nonsense as before so I was more interested in the staging of the performance and the backdrop of words behind him which resembled the set of Have I Got News For You. Were they the song’s lyrics? I don’t know but apparently a few people wanted to know about this ‘Mack’ bloke – there are at least two other songs called “Who’s The Mack” by Ralph Tresvant and Ice Cube.

And so we’re finally at the chart moment not just of the year but of all time – maybe. Depending on how you want to look at it, “Candle In The Wind 1997” is either the best selling or the second best selling single worldwide of all time. What?! Yes, it’s a sentence that needs explanation. The only other contender for that title is “White Christmas” by Bing Crosby but it was released in 1942 before the advent of formalised UK and US charts so it’s harder to confirm its sales. In 2007, Guinness World Records adjudged that “White Christmas” had sold 50 million copies whereas “Candle In The Wind 1997” had shifted 33 million making the former the biggest seller. However, in 2009, a further clarification said that Elton’s single was the best-selling single since UK and US singles charts began in the 1950s. What’s not in doubt is that the tribute to Princess Diana is the fastest selling single of all time in the UK with 650,000 copies snapped up within 24 hours. At its peak, it sold six copies per second. Needless to say, it was No 1 in just about every country in the world.

In my ten years of working in record shops, the only other event that came anywhere near to the profile (though not sales) that “Candle In The Wind 1997” held was the Oasis v Blur chart battle in 1995. The difference was that I enjoyed being a part of that, literally on the shop floor. I felt almost privileged to be working within the record industry when that happened. Its a clumsy and perhaps even insensitive comparison but with the Elton John phenomenon, it felt like record shop staff were somehow aid workers trying to support the public through their outpouring of grief by supplying the medication of that single. The difference I guess is that we hadn’t volunteered for the role, we were just caught up in the frenzy. I have definite memories of punters grabbing the single out of our hands as we tried to refill the shelves. For some people, conventions of social niceties went out of the front door as fast as the single. I know it was our job but it really felt like hard work at that time. If this all sounds like offensive hyperbole then I apologise – I’m just trying to describe the unique nature of what happened back then as I experienced it. I’m sure everyone has their own story to tell /perspective on this moment in time.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Ricky Martin	(Un Dos Tres) Maria	No
2	Kylie Minogue	Some Kind Of Bliss	Liked it, didn’t buy it
3	George Michael	You Have Been Loved	Nah
4	The Sundays	Summertime	No but I had that promo copy of the album
5	Sly & Robbie / Simply Red	Night Nurse	Negative
6	Boyz II Men	4 Seasons Of Loneliness	Nope
7	Mark Morrison	Who’s The Mack!	Never
8	Elton John	Candle In The Wind 1997	No, I was not part of the madness

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/m0029lyr/top-of-the-pops-19091997?seriesId=unsliced

TOTP Rewind – the 90s

My memories of 90s chart music

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TOTP 19 SEP 1997

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