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:
Prior to hearing this tune, "Red Alert" to me was one half of Red Alert and Mike Slammer, a Rave duo who did "In Effect" in the mid 90s and who ran Slammin Vinyl. This was the second hit for Basement Jaxx and the one that made the masses start to take notice. Perhaps a bit overplayed at the time but a good tune.
Verdict - Good
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
The Top 40 debut for Lost Witness which was remixed by Lange. I think this is better than the original too, though it probably helped that I'd heard the remix first and that I like Lange.
Verdict - Good
Just under a year before Chicane topped the charts with his collaboration with Bryan Adams he remixed "Cloud Number 9" by Bryan Adams. The result is a record that is more Dance and less guitar than your typical Bryan Adams song. It's alright, but it's nothing special.
Verdict - OK
I remember knowing quite a few people at the time who loved the Stereophonics and I just didn't get it. One man in particular who used to wear a Stereophonics hat all the time would say Pop Music has no skill because everything gets written for you, Dance Music has no skill because DJing is easy, but the music he listens to is written by the bands themselves who can play instruments and play together and that takes skill. Fair enough, but if using your skills of writing songs, playing instruments and playing together produces something that sounds like this then what's the point?
Verdict - Rubbish
Ever wondered what happened to Nomad, who did "(I Wanna Give You) Devotion" in the early 90s? Well one of it's members, Steve Mac teamed up with another songwriter, Wayne Hector, to write this the debut hit of Westlife. A complete change of direction then, but I guess it helped pay the bills.
Verdict - Rubbish
The problem with Rap is that there are rappers you like and rappers you don't like. But then inevitably you'll get collaborations between rappers you like and rappers you don't like. Here we have Nas, a rapper I like, collaborating with Puff Daddy, a rapper I don't like. Fortunately Puff Daddy doesn't really do much on this record which is probably why I like it.
Verdict - Good
Were they named after Travis Nash, the Home and Away character? or Travis Perkins, the construction company? Turns out it's neither, but how ironic a band that could be named after a construction company does a song about wood. I'd say wooden is a pretty good way to describe this song.
Verdict - Rubbish
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
Football songs are rarely any good so I didn't really expect much after just listening to it for the first time ever (I think). Let's just say I didn't make it to the end of the song.
Verdict - Rubbish
I specifically remember this record and "You Get What You Give" by the New Radicals being out at the same sort of time and like to listen to them back to back. I also own the "14:59" album which features this song as well as another Sugar Ray album. Needless to say I like it.
Verdict - Good
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
One memory I have of this song is a work colleague at the time singing this on his last day. I just find the song irritating though.
Verdict - Rubbish
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
The Eurovision entry for the UK in 1999 by a group that contained future Atomic Kitten member Jenny Frost. I think it's better than any Atomic Kitten song I've ever heard, but that doesn't make it any good.
Verdict - Rubbish
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
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
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
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
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
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 starting to slide compared to previous weeks.
