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. Madness - Lovestruck
I always had this down as being a Suggs record rather than Madness, presumably because Madness hadn't had a hit since the 80s but Suggs had a few solo hits in the mid to late 90s. I quite like this, I find the concept of falling for a lamppost quite amusing.
Verdict - Good
19. Groove Armada - At The River (New)
I'm amazed this tune only reached 19 on the charts. Not just because of what a great tune it is but I remember this being very popular at the time. I would say this was probably the first tune to make me appreciate chill out music.
Verdict - Good
18. S Club 7 - Bring It All Back
The debut hit for S Club 7 and the number one question I had was does there really need to be 7 people singing it? I thought that 4 or 5 "singers" in a pop group was a bit excessive, but 7? Predictably for a manufactured pop group who had their own kids TV show it was shit.
Verdict - Rubbish
17. Shania Twain - That Don't Impress Me Much
The song title pretty much sums up how I feel about this song. This was the fourth Top 40 hit from her Country/Pop crossover album "Come On Over". The first three singles didn't really sound Country at all to me, but this sums up everything bad about Country Pop.
Verdict - Rubbish
16. Jennifer Lopez - If You Had My Love
The debut hit for Jennifer Lopez. There was a lot of talk at the time about whether she should be doing music having made her name as an actress. Given the general quality of music coming from those in the acting profession that's understandable, but this actually isn't bad. When a radio show was asking for listeners opinions on Jennifer Lopez doing music, one quoted the Whitney Houston song "It's Not Right But It's Okay". Ironically both the Whitney Houston song and this song were written by Rodney Jerkins and LaShawn Daniels.
Verdict - OK
15. Dope Smugglaz - Double Double Dutch (New)
I remember this tune being introduced as a tune which samples "Double Dutch" by Malcolm McLaren. Then on hearing it I discovered what the music they played when we did skipping in PE at school was. I like the original and think the Dope Smugglaz did a good job of bringing it into the 90s.
Verdict - Good
14. Destiny's Child - Bills, Bills, Bills
This was written by Kevin "She'kspere" Briggs and Kandi Burruss of Xscape who had both been writers on "No Scrubs" by TLC. I guess you can see the similarity lyrically, but that's where it ends. Whilst "No Scrubs" is excellent, this is shit. The members of Destiny's Child also have songwriting credits, maybe they were genuinely involved in writing this which explains the lack of quality. A better explanation though is no matter how good a song is, if you get Beyoncé and her irritating voice to sing it then it's going to sound shit.
Verdict - Rubbish
13. Britney Spears - Sometimes
A teenage love ballad sung from a teenage girls perspective, written by a 36 year old bloke from Sweden.
Verdict - OK
12. Yomanda - Synth And Strings
Yomanda is one of the many aliases of DJ Paul Masterson. I taped this off the mix selector on Dave Pearce's Radio 1 show at the time so the first few times I listened to this it had "you choose them, we mix them, the mix selector on Radio 1" over the top at the start.
Verdict - Good
11. Marvin And Tamara - Groove Machine (New)
I remember this, a couple of kids trying to be like the Jackson 5. On hearing it again 20 years later it sounds even worse than I remember it being, the rapping from Marvin is terrible. Then again, how many songs by kids are any good?
Verdict - Rubbish
10. Vengaboys - Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom!!
The night before this charted at number one, I was in a bar where I heard this for the first time and someone informed me it was the new Vengaboys song. Given the history of cheesy euro acts releasing the record every knows them for, followed by a record that sounds the same, followed by fading into obscurity, I assumed the Vengaboys would do the same. Instead they had their first number one, I felt the same as I did when I realised the Spice Girls weren't going to be a one hit wonder.
Verdict - Rubbish
9. Doolally - Straight From The Heart (New)
When I did my 1998 vs 2018 comparison last year, the original release of this was in the Top 20 and this is what I had to say:
This was a record that came after the hype about Speed Garage died down but before UK Garage exploded onto the radio. This was it's 1998 peak but managed to reach number 9 when it was rereleased in 1999. By then the people who would have talked about House and Garage were now talking about House and Trance and this appeared on the House CD of "Kiss in Ibiza 99" such was the lack of commercial Garage at the time. On that basis it was good to hear something a bit different at the time and I always enjoyed this tune.
Verdict - Good
8. Whitney Houston - My Love Is Your Love
This Wyclef Jean penned song is actually quite clever. It's impossible to listen to this without thinking about "No Woman No Cry" by Bob Marley. Yet when you try and sing "No Woman No Cry" along with this in your head you find these sudden changes that stop it from being a blatant rip off, even though it kind of is. It's hard to look past the fact it's not as good as the song that inspires it, but then if that song didn't exist I wouldn't hesitate to call it good.
Verdict - Good
7. Will Smith ft Dru Hill - Wild Wild West
I like Dru Hill, I've seen them in concert. I therefore find it a bit of a shame that their biggest UK hit was a collaboration with Will Smith. This was taken from a film of the same name that Will Smith was in. I once read an article about rappers who went on to act in films. On Will Smith, they said "he became so successful at acting in films that he stopped rapping, at least that's what we wish he did". That pretty much sums this up.
Verdict - Rubbish
6. ATB - 9PM (Till I Come)
This was so overplayed at the time I couldn't stand it. Everywhere you'd go someone would be singing that riff. However once it stopped being played all the time and I'd listen to it on occasion as the opening track on the Trance CD on "Kiss in Ibiza 99" I realised that I actually like it.
Verdict - Good
5. Steps - Love's Got A Hold On My Heart
Oh no, it's Steps. This was allegedly a song Pete Waterman wrote in 1991 but he had better songs to give to his artists at the time. By 1999 I guess he figured he could give any old crap to Steps and it would still sell a lot of records, so he did.
Verdict - Rubbish
4. Five - If Ya Gettin' Down
I remember this as being the song where Five are trying to sound like the Backstreet Boys. I was therefore surprised to learn it wasn't written by anyone in the Swedish songwriting team responsible for many of the Backstreet Boys hits and some of Fives early hits too. That said now I'm listening to it for probably the first time in 20 years I'm finding it doesn't sound as much like the Backstreet Boys as I remember. It is rather irritating though.
Verdict - Rubbish
3. DJ Jurgen Presents Alice Deejay - Better Off Alone
I can still picture where I was when I first heard this, I was sat in a car waiting for somebody whilst listening to the Pete Tong show. What a tune, I thought. A common misconception is that Alice Deejay is the female singer, but it's actually a group of Dutch producers with the singer and 2 dancers fronting it.
Verdict - Good
2. Ricky Martin - Livin' La Vida Loca
This wasn't the debut hit for Ricky Martin, but I'd say it's the song that made a name for himself. His previous 2 singles were basically that crappy Spanish song you hear on holiday in Spain that makes it's way into the UK Top 40. This ones no different in that respect, except you know it's Ricky Martin from America.
Verdict - Rubbish
1. Ronan Keating - When You Say Nothing At All (New)
Boyzone weren't quite finished yet, but this was the start of Ronan Keating's solo career. It could just as easily have been a Boyzone song as it followed the same formula of being a poor cover of an older song.
Verdict - Rubbish
If we give the records which were good 1 point each and those which were OK half a point, the final score is 9/20, or 45%. We're sliding again.
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