Thursday, 23 October 2025
January Charts: 1981
Tuesday, 21 October 2025
UK Number 40s: Megan Thee Stallion & Nicki Minaj - Hot Girl Summer (2019)
Here we have 2 artists that I've both heard of and a record I was at least aware existed before getting to it on the list, yet it only made number 40. I had to double check that it did really only made number 40 to be sure.
This was the Top 40 debut for rapper Megan Thee Stallion. As you may expect, she did go on to have greater chart success. Her follow up "Savage" made number 3 and her third single "WAP" topped the charts. It was back to the lower reaches after that, like with all these modern artists there's the possibility of greater chart success to come but at the time of writing she's averaged around 1 Top 40 hit a year since this debut.
Nicki Minaj on the other hand is an artists who has had more Top 40 hits than many people would think. This was hit number 36 and at the time of writing she's had at least one Top 40 hit every year since she made her debut in 2010. Only Calvin Harris and Drake have managed the same streak.
Monday, 20 October 2025
UK Number 40s: Dave - Black (2019)
When I first came up with the idea to make this series of posts, this record was the latest one to peak at number 40 and it's got no further since. 6 years later we've inevitably had more records peaking at 40.
In the beginning I could talk about the beginning, middle and end of ones Top 40 career and in some cases the beginning, middle and end was the same thing. As we've got more current we're seeing artists who could still have a long Top 40 career ahead of them.
In the case of this artist, I would guess he still has more Top 40 hits to come. This record came barely a year after he made his Top 40 debut but this was already hit number 7 for him. He'd already had a number one and has topped the charts since. In 2019 alone he clocked up 11 Top 40 hits and has continued to clock up hits since. With that sort of quantity some will get to the lower reaches and this was one of those.
Sunday, 19 October 2025
Top 30 in 1999 Reviewed: Week 42
Here's my weekly look at the Top 30 from 26 years ago. The plan is for these posts to go out at 17:30 on a Sunday.
Here is the Top 40 in full.
I've decided against repetition from previous weeks moving forward so will only feature the records I'm reviewing for the first time. I also won't repeat the reviews from the Top 20 in 1999 Reviewed posts.
Once again my opinions are inevitably going to differ from other people, but I'm not trying to convince anyone something is good or rubbish, I'm simply giving my opinion.
So this is the records new to the top 30 from this week in 1999 with my verdict on each record:
If we give the records which were good 1 point each and those which were OK half a point, the final score is 10/30, or 33%. We stay the same.
Friday, 17 October 2025
Dutch Top 40 1995: Week 42
These were the new entries in the Dutch Top 40 that never made the UK Top 40:
This was the end of the road for Andre Rieu in the Dutch Top 40. It's a record that many people would be familiar with, I'm pretty sure this has appeared on adverts before.
Bonnie Tyler - Making Love (Out Of Nothing At All)
This is a record I'm surprised didn't make the UK Top 40 but at the same time I'm not. I remember this record very well at the time and it was played a lot on Radio 1. This was a time when Radio 1 had made a point about being a modern station and wouldn't play the likes of Status Quo. Given Bonnie Tyler was around in the 70s one might think she wouldn't make the Radio 1 playlist but she did. The fact she had been around so long and hadn't had a hit for a decade is probably why this failed to make the UK Top 40. It's a cover of a song by Air Supply and was composed by Jim Steinman whose other main artist Meat Loaf was enjoying a chart revival in the UK around this time.
Thursday, 16 October 2025
January Charts: 1980
2000: The Good Old Days? - January
January 2000 was something I'd been waiting for my whole life it seemed. I was one of many looking forward to the new millennium and had spoken about what I'd be doing to celebrate as early as the mid-90s. Once it was January 2000 the big question I had was what now?
From a music perspective one record that makes me think of the start of the 21st century in a positive way is "(Welcome) To The Dance" by Des Mitchell. To a lesser extent "In Your Arms (Rescue Me)" by Nu Generation also does but that's not as good as I remembered and therefore gets half marks.
The best record for this month is one I was definitely hearing on the Pete Tong show in the summer of 1999 which was "(Just) Me And You" by New Vision. That was possibly my favourite house record of that summer.
Dance music was the music of the moment around the turn of the century and at a stretch you could define around half the new entries as dance records, though there were only 25 new entries in total.
None of the dance records get zero points, most get full marks and some get half marks. Other dance records that deserve a mention include "Rainbow Country" by Bob Marley & Funkstar Deluxe, the lesser know follow up to "Sun Is Shining". There's also Eddie Amador with his follow up to 1998s "House Music" with "Rise". Then there's "Because Of You" by Scanty Sandwich which is strange but good.
Outside of dance music we have full marks for Nas with "Nastradamus" and Donnell Jones with "U Know What's Up". There's also half marks for Sting & Cheb Mami with "Desert Rose", a rare Sting solo record I remember liking at the time but all these years later it's not as good as I remembered.
The worst record is an R&B record which is "Hot Boyz" by Missy Elliott. To be fair it's not as bad as our usual worst records but there was a small list of zero scoring records to choose from.
Here's a list of the records with the best on top, worst at the bottom and the good ones in green, OK ones in amber and rubbish ones in red (and in no particular order):
Here's a look at the chart:
Well there we have it, the best month for chart music in the 21st century is January 2000. The story of the 21st century then is that it started well, took a dive in 2002 and then went into gradual decline from 2005 to 2007 with the odd decent month along the way. We're now only a couple of months away from completing the Top 30 reviews of the 90s so what we can do next is see how this ties back to the 90s as a whole.
Tuesday, 14 October 2025
UK Number 40s: Mumford & Sons - Guiding Light (2018)
Ask a casual music fan whether they've heard of Mumford & Sons and they'll probably say yes. Ask then if they could name a Mumford & Sons song and they'll probably say no.
They were they are talked about by the likes of the BBC you'd think they're one of the biggest bands of the modern era and maybe they are. Look at their Top 40 career and they don't look so big.
To their credit their Top 40 career has spanned 9 years, but in that time they managed just 5 Top 40 hits and never got higher than 12. This was the last of these 5 hits at the time of writing. More singles have been released but failed to reach the Top 40.
Their 4 albums on the other hand have given them a pair of number 1s and a pair of number 2s. They'd not had an album since 2018 though.
Monday, 13 October 2025
UK Number 40s: Lily James ft Jessica Keenan Wynn & Alexa Davies & Celia Imrie - When I Kissed the Teacher (2018)
If at a music quiz you were to ask the question "Who had a Top 40 hit with When I Kissed The Teacher?" the answer you're most likely to get is Abba. That answer would be wrong because the Abba song was never a Top 40 hit.
That said, one may struggle to remember exactly who was on this record. All four are actresses who appeared in the film "Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again" off which this was taken.
None of these actresses has troubled the Top 40 again at the time of writing.
Sunday, 12 October 2025
Top 30 in 1999 Reviewed: Week 41
Here's my weekly look at the Top 30 from 26 years ago. The plan is for these posts to go out at 17:30 on a Sunday.
Here is the Top 40 in full.
I've decided against repetition from previous weeks moving forward so will only feature the records I'm reviewing for the first time. I also won't repeat the reviews from the Top 20 in 1999 Reviewed posts.
Once again my opinions are inevitably going to differ from other people, but I'm not trying to convince anyone something is good or rubbish, I'm simply giving my opinion.
So this is the records new to the top 30 from this week in 1999 with my verdict on each record:
If we give the records which were good 1 point each and those which were OK half a point, the final score is 10/30, or 33%. Slight improvement on last week.
Friday, 10 October 2025
Dutch Top 40 1995: Week 41
These were the new entries in the Dutch Top 40 that never made the UK Top 40:
DJ Bobo didn't have a Top 40 hit in the UK until 2003. In Holland this record marked the end of his Dutch Top 40 career. It's a Eurodance record with DJ Bobo rapping the verses and female singers Natascha Wright and Lisa Noya singing the chorus. It's clearly the same person who did "Love Is All Around", it follows that tried and tested formula.
Club X - The Sequel (La La La)
Being a gabber record in the Dutch Top 40 one would assume this is Dutch but it's not, it's Belgian. The sample used in this is the "La La La" bit of "Self Esteem" by The Offspring. It's quite possibly the familiarity of that sample that helped this record into the Dutch Top 40.
Snap ft Summer - The World In My Hands
In terms of original hits Snap were finished in the UK Top 40 by this point. In a way it was a shame because they'd started to make records I actually liked, partly because they'd sped up. In Holland they carried on and I guess this is what could have come next in the UK. This time they've slowed down, but it's not a bad record.
The Offspring - Come Out And Play (Keep Em Separated)
I'm surprised this was never a Top 40 hit in the UK because I remember it very well at the time and it seemed to be pretty well known. It only managed to get to 98 though. Maybe by the time it was released as a single people were fed up of hearing it on MTV all the time.
Thursday, 9 October 2025
January Charts: 1979
Interesting how 1970 is so high up and 1971 is in the bottom half. It's almost like a sharp declined at some point in 1970 except 1973 finds itself sat in 3rd place.
2000: The Good Old Days? - February
In this era a record would typically get a few weeks of play on the radio and music channels before hitting the charts. Some records would get an earlier release date overseas and some were from already released albums. On that basis its safe to assume that most, if not all new entries this month were made in the 20th century.
The best record this month is "Playground Love" which was definitely made in the 20th century because it was from the 1999 film "The Virgin Suicides". I watched the film on the strength of this record, that's how much I like it.
As mentioned in March, there were no UK garage new entries in February. However a significant chunk of records this month come from what UK garage replaced as the dance genre of the moment, trance.
Sash! tended to make trance of a more commercial Eurodance variety, but this month we had "Adelante" which was more of a credible trance record which gets full marks. Armin Van Buuren made his Top 40 debut with "Communication" and this was an era when he was good.
A strong contender this month for the best record was "Must Be The Music" by Joey Negro & Taka Boom. This was a record I remember from the summer of 1999, it also sounds more of a summer record but just didn't chart until the winter. Ten City singer Byron Stingily had a solo version of the Ten City record "That's The Way Love Is" which was never going to beat the original but it's still a decent record.
Most of the dance records this month score points but we're also getting points from a wide range of genres. Rap wise we have "Simon Says" by Pharoahe Monch and R&B wise we have "Got To Get It" by Sisqo.
We generally expect rap and R&B to give us points but we also have records such as "Glorious" by Andreas Johnson and "The Great Beyond" by REM from the indie and alternative rock world giving us points. There's the funk rock of "Otherside" by Red Hot Chili Peppers and the pop record "Pure Shores" by All Saints giving us points.
However the worst record is also a pop record. It's "Ooh Stick You!" by Daphne & Celeste. I know it's supposed to be crap, but it's annoying enough to get that crown.
Here's a list of the records with the best on top, worst at the bottom and the good ones in green, OK ones in amber and rubbish ones in red (and in no particular order):
Tuesday, 7 October 2025
UK Number 40s: Camila Cabello - She Loves Control (2018)
Normally when someone attempts a solo career after leaving a girl group, they are often overshadowed by their time in a girl group even if their solo career is successful. An exception to that rule is Camila Cabello, I couldn't remember what girl group she'd previously been in and had to look it up. It was Fifth Harmony.
At the time of writing she's had 15 Top 40 hits, more than I was expecting. A lot more than the 5 she had with Fifth Harmony, again I didn't realise they had that many.
This was Top 40 hit number 6 and she topped the charts with her 4th hit "Havana" and 8th hit "Senorita". I sense a theme here, so maybe she'd have been more successful if it had a more Latin sounding name.
20 Years Since....Q3 2005
Here's the tunes I was enjoying 20 years ago:
2Pac ft Elton John - Ghetto Gospel
Transplants - Gangstas & Thugs
Monday, 6 October 2025
UK Number 40s: Cardi B ft 21 Savage - Bartier Cardi (2018)
Sunday, 5 October 2025
Top 30 in 1999 Reviewed: Week 40
Here's my weekly look at the Top 30 from 26 years ago. The plan is for these posts to go out at 17:30 on a Sunday.
Here is the Top 40 in full.
I've decided against repetition from previous weeks moving forward so will only feature the records I'm reviewing for the first time. I also won't repeat the reviews from the Top 20 in 1999 Reviewed posts.
Once again my opinions are inevitably going to differ from other people, but I'm not trying to convince anyone something is good or rubbish, I'm simply giving my opinion.
So this is the records new to the top 30 from this week in 1999 with my verdict on each record:
If we give the records which were good 1 point each and those which were OK half a point, the final score is 8.5/30, or 28%. We really are up and down.
Friday, 3 October 2025
Dutch Top 40 1995: Week 40
These were the new entries in the Dutch Top 40 that never made the UK Top 40:
In the UK in the 90s we had Eurodance acts from several European countries hit the Top 40. One notable absent country though was Spain. In Holland we had Spanish Eurodance act Double Vision top the charts with this record. The music is very much Eurodance but the vocals sound quite gothic, a strange combination. Their Dutch Top 40 career began and ended in 1995 but we have one more record of theirs to come.
Arno Kolenbrander - Why God Why
Between 1985 and 2002 Holland had a TV show called "Soundmixshow" which was essentially their version of "Stars in Their Eyes", though they came up with the idea first. Arno Kolenbrander was the 1995 winner of the show and this was his winning song. It's a cover of a song from the musical "Miss Saigon" and the song title more or less sums up what I think of it.
For the 3rd and final time this year we have a hit from Belgian band Clouseau with a song sang in Dutch. I'm listening to the song waiting for it to start and finding something to say about it, but it never happens, just plain dull.
Vaya Con Dios - Don't Break My Heart
Another Belgian band but this time one singing in English. They topped the Dutch Top 40 with their debut "What's A Woman" in 1990 but in 1991 founding member Dirk Schoufs died. The band carried on but this would be near the end for them. In 1996 singer Dani Klein quit the music business. That was until she came back and eventually reformed the band who are still going at the time of writing.
Thursday, 2 October 2025
2000: The Good Old Days? - March
This isn't a month of halves, every record either gets a 1 or 0. That might explain why I was quite surprised by the score once I added it up at the end.
The best record this month is "Is It Love?" by Chili Hi Fly. I'm pretty certain I first heard this in the summer of 1999 so it just took a while to get to the charts. It's one of those summer house records you may associate with Ibiza.
Artful Dodger returned to the charts with their 2nd Top 40 hit "Movin Too Fast". This was surprisingly the first UK garage record to make the Top 40 in 2000, over 2 months after the year began. This one gets full marks but the other garage record this month doesn't get any which is "Can't Get Used To Losing You" by Colour Girl.
Trance wise the only decent record is "Sunshine" by Yomanda. The others are ATB covering "Killer" which is in every way inferior to the Adamski version. Then there's "Don't Give Up" by Chicane & Bryan Adams. I like Chicane but this just doesn't work for me. It worked for him though because it topped the charts.
Most of the house records are decent. As well as the best record they include "Off the Wall" by Wisdome and "Mr Devil" by Big Time Charlie & Soozy Q. The only one I don't like is "Chocolate Sensation" by Lenny Fontana & DJ Shorty, yet another record sampling "Love Sensation" which was getting tired by this point.
Just the one decent rap record which is "Still Dre" by Dr Dre and Snoop Dogg. I was shocked when it was revealed it was written Jay-Z who is one of my least favourite rappers. Big rivals to Jay-Z for that crown had Top 40 hits this month who were Puff Daddy and Will Smith.
Just the one decent R&B record too which comes from the Honeyz with "Won't Take It Lying Down".
Blink 182 had their 2nd Top 40 hit with "All the Small Things" which is the one they're best known for. Whilst not as good as their pre-fame material it's a decent enough record.
Onto the worst record and that comes from Geri Halliwell with "Bag It Up". I remember the Top of the Pops performance with boxes of washing powder on stage labelled "Girl Powder" and thinking what a load of nonsense.
Here's a list of the records with the best on top, worst at the bottom and the good ones in green, OK ones in amber and rubbish ones in red (and in no particular order):