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