Here's my weekly look at the Top 20 from 20 years ago. On the basis we'd reach the Top 20 in the Top 40 countdown around 17:30 on a Sunday at the time the plan is for these posts to go out at 17:30 on a Sunday.
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:
The third and final Top 40 hit for Ashley from "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air". With her first hit there was the novelty of Ashley singing a song. With the second there was the novelty of having the Fresh Prince himself rapping on it. By the third though nobody cared anymore and it only made number 20. Did well to get that high, just a load of generic pap.
Verdict - Rubbish
The penultimate Top 40 hit for Boyzone before going on hiatus and their final number one. In true Boyzone style it's a poor cover of an old song. I don't particularly like the original and this version is even worse.
Verdict - Rubbish
I was a big fan of the Red Hot Chili Peppers before I became a raver. Even in the early days of being I raver I still liked them. Then they just disappeared off the face of the earth until they came back with this. I loved it as soon as I heard it, I think what impressed me was how they could make a song like that with just the guitar, bass and drums.
Verdict - Good
A year after leaving the Spice Girls, Geri Halliwell released her first solo record. I can't decide if this is better or worse than your average Spice Girls record but what I do know is it's bloody awful.
Verdict - Rubbish
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
The final single from her "Never Say Never" album. This song passed me by at the time, but I did buy the "Never Say Never" album on the strength of "The Boy Is Mine" and hearing what a great album it was supposed to be. I found the album to be a big disappointment and ended up selling it on eBay. As for this particular song, it's ok but nothing special.
Verdict - OK
I was always sat on the fence with Jamiroquai in the 90s. I didn't know whether I should like them or not, but when this came out I couldn't help but like it. This is probably my favourite Jamiroquai single and since then I've bought every Jamiroquai album of the 90s.
Verdict - Good
This was about halfway through the Trance CD on "Kiss in Ibiza 99". It also brings back memories of watching a "Club@Vision" Ibiza special where Chicane was doing a live p.a. at Privilege and me wishing I was there. Probably my favourite Chicane single.
Verdict - Good
After the huge success of "Believe" the previous year Cher has another hit with a tune that sounds pretty much the same as "Believe". I thought "Believe" was a load of crap so therefore I think this is too.
Verdict - Rubbish
A House version of this record appears on "Kiss in Ibiza 99". Normally this Dance versions of Pop songs are rubbish, but this was good. I think this helped me to like the original too.
Verdict - Good
The other week I was in the pub and this song came on. Someone asked me what year it was from and I said 1999, but they weren't convinced. Well here's confirmation, although it does appear on their self titled 1997 album. It's alright, nothing special.
Verdict - OK
This first came out in 1998 and sounds like it very much belongs in 1998, the year of Big Beat. However it failed to reach the Top 40, but charted in 1999 after featuring on the Budweiser advert. I hated it at the time but I'm more tolerant towards it these days.
Verdict - OK
The only UK number one for American boy band Backstreet Boys, written by a couple of blokes from Sweden, one of whom was the writer of "Baby One More Time" by Britney Spears. I guess it's not too bad.
Verdict - OK
Here's the Cartoons with their cheesy Eurodance cover of the American folk song "Campdown Races". Again like with their previous record it's obvious they're a piss take but I can't rate this as anything other than rubbish.
Verdict - Rubbish
What came first, the phrase "Superstar DJs" or this tune? Well the Fatboy Slim vs Armand Van Helden event had already happened so maybe that phrase was already in use. However, the line is sampled from "The Roof Is On Fire" which came out in 1984. The Chemical Brothers are a mixed bag really, they have some great tunes but some tunes that are completely crap too. This is one of their great tunes.
Verdict - Good
During the mid to late 90s it was all about House and Garage, but then in 1999 it was all about House and Trance. The "Kiss in Ibiza 99" compilation had a House CD and a Trance CD, the House CD contained the Garage tune "Straight From the Heart" by Doolally. That's despite the fact Doolally, who were now known as Shanks & Bigfoot, had a number one Garage record with "Sweet Like Chocolate". I like UK Garage and a like a lot of the commercial stuff, but this ones a bit too cheesy for my liking, but I guess it's not bad.
Verdict - OK
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
What the fuck is this? Maybe it has meaningful lyrics but as a tune it's just ridiculous.
Verdict - Rubbish
As mentioned previously, I went through a period of my life where I wouldn't listen to anything that wasn't Rave but by this period I'd opened myself up to all sorts of different styles of music. Despite this there were still certain artists I'd be reluctant to like songs of, and Madonna was one of those. But even at the time I had to admit this tune is brilliant. I guess the involvement of William Orbit helped a bit. The intro sounds vaguely similar to "Light My Fire" by the Doors, a band I really got into later on that year. Maybe this tune helped with that.
Verdict - Good
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
If we give the records which were good 1 point each and those which were OK half a point, the final score is 9.5/20, or 47.5%. We've started slipping again.
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