Here is the Top 40 in full.
Obviously some of the records will be the same as last week so therefore the review will be the same for these. I've indicated which ones are new so you can skip the others if you read last weeks post.
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 top 20 from this week in 1999 with my verdict on each record:
20. Des'ree - You Gotta Be
You might be thinking surely this didn't come out as late as 1999 and you'd be right. This re-entered the charts after being on the Ford Focus advert. I hated this when it first came out and by 1999 my opinion still hadn't changed and remains the same now.
Verdict - Rubbish
19. Beverley Knight - Made It Back '99 (New)
A remix of a single from 1998 with this version sampling "Good Times" by Chic. It managed to peak 2 places higher than the original and is probably slightly better. However I don't like it enough to rate it as good.
Verdict - OK
18. Whitney Houston - It's Not Right But It's Okay
I think the song title sums this one up quite well. Generally speaking Whitney Houston's music to me was either cheesy pop or dreary ballads, but then in the late 90s it was more R&B which I guess doesn't seem right but it's ok.
Verdict - OK
17. Steps - Better Best Forgotten
This song title certainly sums up this song, that it's better best forgotten. I had to stop the music after writing that sentence it's that bad. Steps know they're music is shit, but they make a lot of money out of it so keep on doing it and the public keep on paying their hard earned money to subject themselves to this torture.
Verdict - Rubbish
16. Mariah Carey - I Still Believe (New)
My advice would be don't click on the link above even if you like it. Instead go and listen to the original here by Brenda K Starr. It's a proper 80s ballad that's been turned into a dreary ballad by Mariah Carey, who actually started life as backing singer for Brenda K Starr.
Verdict - Rubbish
15. Reef - I've Got Something To Say (New)
I thought Reef were finished chart wise by 1999 but turns out they weren't. This was their penultimate Top 40 single which I do remember, I just thought it was more like 96/97 time. My memory of this song is it being more lively than it really is, it's actually a pretty dull song.
Verdict - Rubbish
14. B*Witched - Blame It On The Weatherman
The fourth hit and fourth number one from B*Witched. The only logical reason I can think of for so many people buying it is that they desperately wanted to knock Boyzone off number one.
Verdict - Rubbish
13. TLC - No Scrubs
TLC were big in the mid 90s with their "Crazy Sexy Cool" album and then for me at least they just disappeared until this came out. It was a great comeback though, and the funny thing is that had Xscape not broken up the year before it could have been an Xscape single given Kandi and Tiny of the group were two of the writers.
Verdict - Good
12. Boyzone - When The Going Gets Tough
I like the original by Billy Ocean, but this is just dreadful. It just sounds like a karaoke song where the singer seems a bit bored.
Verdict - Rubbish
11. Another Level ft Jay-Z - Be Alone No More (New)
The only Another Level single not to make the top ten. This was a remix of their debut hit which features Jay-Z, presumably in an attempt to crack America. Personally I'd prefer to hear it without Jay-Z.
Verdict - OK
10. Vengaboys - We Like To Party! (The Vengabus)
Just when I thought it couldn't get any worse, well actually I'm not sure whether this is worse than Steps but it's pretty close. The Vengaboys had previously charted with "Up & Down" which I thought was ok, though I did get pretty sick of it given how overplayed it was. Then came this, which is essentially "Up & Down" with ridiculous vocals over the top of it provided by 2 females and 2 males that you don't actually hear. The Vengaboys it seems had become the Dutch Steps (yes I know there were 3 females in Steps but there could just as easily be 2).
Verdict - Rubbish
9. Billie Piper - Honey To The Bee
This made me cringe at the time and 20 years later it still does, though until now I don't think I've heard it for 20 years, I certainly wasn't listening to the Chris Moyles show when he campaigned to get this back into the charts in 2007. What was more depressing though is that at the time I had hopes of being a successful musician in the future but she was now 4 singles into her career and she's younger than me, a sign I may have missed the boat already.
Verdict - Rubbish
8. The New Radicals - You Get What You Give
One day in 1999 I was in HMV and asked to listen to a CD at the listening post. When I got to the listening post, the man who had just been listening at it told me it's the New Radicals on there, not knowing I'd gone up to the counter to ask for something else. That was the first time I'd heard that name and maybe a couple of weeks later I heard this. I thought maybe it would have been good to have listened to them at that listening post as I quite like it. I still like it today but still haven't heard any other New Radicals tunes, given that after their breakup frontman Gregg Alexander started writing rubbish for Ronan Keating and Sophie Ellis Bextor amongst others maybe it's better that way.
Verdict - Good
7. Catatonia - Dead From The Waist Down (New)
I don't think I've heard this since 1999, I remember it as being the record that isn't actually called "Make Hay Not War". I thought my verdict on this record would be ok until I listened to it just now for the first time in 20 years. It's actually a pretty good tune, much better than I remember it.
Verdict - Good
6. Britney Spears - Baby One More Time
When I first heard this I thought it was alright. Then I heard it so many times that made me hate it. 20 years later I see it as one of these songs that's a bit too American High School for my liking, even though it was written by a Swedish bloke.
Verdict - Rubbish
5. The Cartoons - Witch Doctor
First there was Whigfield, then there was Aqua, then came The Cartoons to continue the cheesy Europop from Denmark in the charts. I guess they're probably more blatant that it's supposed to be cheesy crap, but that still makes it crap.
Verdict - Rubbish
4. Steps, Tina Cousins, Cleopatra, B*Witched And Billie - Thank Abba For The Music (New)
Oh dear, this is just awful. The who's who of shit music at the time doing a medley of Abba songs. Either you like Abba, therefore you'd want to hear the actual Abba songs, or you don't like Abba and therefore you're unlikely to like these covers which are made to sound the same. You could say it was to cater for the fans of the featured artists on this record, but when Erasure, who I like, did their Abba covers a few years earlier I hated it.
Verdict - Rubbish
3. Phats And Small - Turn Around (New)
By the time this tune charted I'd heard it a lot and I remember it appearing on Dave Pearce's Dance Anthems on Radio 1 pretty much every week. I also remember Phats & Small presenting the show themselves one week when Dave Pearce was on holiday. Despite it being overplayed though I have good memories of this tune, despite the lyrical content of someone being down it's a feel good Dance record. Funnily enough "Feel Good" was the name of their next hit.
Verdict - Good
2. Eminem - My Name Is (New)
Here we have the beginning of Eminem's chart career. I could take or leave this record at the time, though I did find the line about what Spice Girl he wanted to impregnate quite amusing. The following year I got into Eminem's music when he released "The Marshall Mathers LP" and I bought "The Slim Shady LP" at the same time and that's when I really started to appreciate this tune.Verdict - Good
1. Mr Oizo - Flat Beat
Some dismissed this as being a novelty record at the time thanks to Flat Eric, the puppet who appeared on the Levi's adverts containing this tune. However, if you simply listen to the tune it's not cheesy at all. Mr Oizo is also a successful French House DJ on Ed Banger Records.
Verdict - Good
If we give the records which were good 1 point each and those which were OK half a point, the final score is 7.5/20, or 37.5%, making it the worst week I've reviewed so far.
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