I have to POLL you like I shouuuu - Now That's What I Cal Music! 42 (UK)

Absent UK No. 1s:

Dec '98: B*Witched - To You I Belong
Dec '98: Chef - Chocolate Salty Balls
Jan '99: Steps - Tragedy (saved for Now 44)
Jan '99: The Offspring - Pretty Fly (For a White Guy)
Feb '99: Blondie - Maria
Feb '99: Britney Spears - Baby One More Time (saved for Now 44)
Mar '99: B*Witched - Blame It on the Weatherman

Most notable UK No. 2s missing are Jay-Z's Hard Knock Life and the Corrs' Runaway, plus the Another Level/Ghostface Killah thing and a lesser remembered Five song.

Voted for Dusty on the assumption that the original re-charted for some reason in the late 90s, and this isn't some horrible remix. Otherwise would have gone with Cher, though I don't recognize a lot of these from the titles alone.

It didn't rechart, it was included as a tribute following her death - the only time that's ever happened afaict

There were a few other 60s songs in the charts (Born to Be Wild and Music to Watch Girls By) that could have appeared

1999/2000 was a really rough time for me, so I associate the pop music of that era with bad vibes in general. It all felt very fake and plasticky.

Or maybe it's just that I was coming into adulthood and whereas in the early-mid-90s I'd been lapping up the mainstream zeitgeist with gusto, I was starting to become jaded and highly alert to corniness, commerciality and what I perceived as inauthenticity.

So there's very little I enjoy here. The stuff I do recognise makes me think of SU bars sticky with spilled Red Square; me feeling like a charmless loser with no social skills and also worrying to death about my parents' new and ongoing separation back home.

I was happier in my uni cell chatting away on the Internet (ours was the first to have a T-line directly into each student room). I would spend hours on the Warp Records messageboard and this new thing I'd found called I Love Music where everyone seemed so much older and cooler and more knowledgeable than me. I spent all my money on a stereo with a 3-CD changer and a Minidisc and ended up broke.

I liked Blur, but Tender was a drag. Damon's endless "Come on come on come on, get through it" felt like a taunt that never stopped. Perhaps my least favourite single. Coffee + TV fit my mood a lot better.

I liked Terrorvision, especially the rock stuff like Pretend Best Friend but Tequila felt like a betrayal - a lousy student anthem that wasn't even thst catchy or easy to sing along to. Better as background music for TFI Friday than anything else.

Mister Oizo was good, but I didn't know what to make of it at the time. I was yet to really "get" dance music, and this was totally minimal and strange. I like it a lot now.

I hate Fly Away - a song that sounds expressly like it was written as sync music for a travel agent.

But there was one thing here that I really liked at the time and still do: Erase/Rewind by the Cardigans. A girl I met (and fancied) on one of the first days at uni lent me Gran Turismo and it really pleased me. If i want to drive myself back to those days and look at them with bittersweet melancholy I'll put that album on. A truly good song that couldn't be mired by a bad and awkward time.

"Fly Away" is the laziest garbage imaginable.

Absolute dross

Vengaboys all the way.

Steps, Tina Cousins, Cleopatra, B*Witched & Billie - Thank Abba for the Music

What the good god fuck is this?

That Vengaboys song seems to have had a big revival among the student raver crowd on recent years. I hear it everywhere now. More art to one second of that than in the whole of Fly Away

The ABBA thing was for an ITV tribute programme, which was followed by a tie-in album. It coincided with Mamma Mia debuting in the West End. ABBA Gold returned to the no. 1 spot for five on-off weeks, better than it had done in '92.

Other than the non-featuring Andy Williams and Steppenwolf songs I mentioned, this is probably the peak of 'advert hits' as a thing. Fly Away, Flat Beat and The Star & The Wiseman are all examples.

I’ve heard 7 of these, which is more than I expected. Probably voting for Mr Oizo, because that video amused me and my coworkers greatly.

Cher - Believe
Spice Girls - Goodbye
Ace of Base - Always Have, Always Will
A+ - Enjoy Yourself
Mister Oizo - Flat Beat
The All Seeing I feat. Tony Christie - Walk Like A Panther
The Divine Comedy - National Express
Armand Van Helden feat. Duane Harden - You Don't Know Me
Dusty Springfield - You Don't Have To Say You Love Me
All Saints - War Or Nerves

These are all great. I would enjoy Tender more if it was about two minutes shorter.

I'm tempted to go for the most underrated All Saints single, but it has to be The Cardigans. That is still an incredible song by one of the best bands of that era.

It’s definitely a bias in the way I listen to music (I could never gaf about lyrics or even most hooks, but a good bassline will get me every time) - as I went through this list, I kept trying to remember the tune and figure out which one resonated the most in my memory, and as soon as I saw fucking Mr Oizo I knew without even bothering to read any further what my vote had to be.

cher easy

Duh wuwump duh wump, duh wuwump duh wump, duh wuwump duh wump, etc.

Praise You is one of FB Slim's better tunes imo

There's a whole stretch in this from Blockster to Justin where I literally couldn't tell you what that is.

Fuck right off

Boyzone - When the Going Gets Tough
Steps, Tina Cousins, Cleopatra, B*Witched & Billie - Thank Abba for the Music
Emilia - Big Big World
Cartoons - Witchdoctor
Sash! - Colour the World
Justin - Over You
Robbie Williams - Strong
Lenny Kravitz - Fly Away
Stereophonics - Just Looking
911 - A Little Bit More

Not for me

Steps - Better Best Forgotten
Cher - Believe
Spice Girls - Goodbye
Honeyz - End of the Line
The Corrs - What Can I Do (Tin Tin Out Remix)
Ace of Base - Always Have, Always Will
Deetah - El Paraiso Rico
The Divine Comedy - National Express
Terrorvision - Tequila (Mint Royale Shot)
The Beautiful South - How Long's A Tear Take To Dry?
Roxette - Wish I Could Fly
Dru Hill - These Are The Times

Acceptable

Billie - Honey to the Bee
Tina Cousins - Killin' Time '99
Blockster - You Should Be...
A+ - Enjoy Yourself
Emmie - More Than This
DJ Sakin & Friends - Protect Your Mind (For the Love of a Princess)
Fool Boona - Popped
Kele Le Roc - My Love
Blur - Tender

Good

Vengaboys - We Like to Party! (The Vengabus)
Fatboy Slim - Praise You
Armand Van Helden feat. Duane Harden - You Don't Know Me
Cardigans - Erase / Rewind
All Saints - War of Nerves

Absolute classics

Mister Oizo - Flat Beat
The All Seeing I feat. Tony Christie - Walk Like A Panther

WTF is this doing here, was it on an advert?

Ladysmith Black Mambazo - Inkanyezi Nezazi (The Star & The Wiseman)
Dusty Springfield - You Don't Have To Say You Love Me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8HO6hba9ZE

start of disc 2 is cursed. even the good artists here not bringing their strongest....

the two standout great ones are Flat Beat and Erase/Rewind, then i'll be kind and add, betraying the tastes of my 15 year old idiot self - Walk Like A Panther and We Like to Party

Tender is shite

was Tender the 1999 equivalent of 'West End Girl' ? - "famous person split up with me and made me sad, they are a bad person for causing me (a wonderful artist and person) so much pain - the world must know about it"

I remember hearing Tender for the first time at an indie night - instant dancefloor killer.

massive wet fart to basically end what was a very fun live show and pretty good setlist the other year with both Tender and then a new song, The Universal after couldn't save it.

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/blur/2023/parque-da-cidade-do-porto-porto-portugal-ba6f5be.html

I owned this! I think I remember playing the Armand van Helden the most and in retrospect that probably still feels right.

The ABBA thing was for an ITV tribute programme, which was followed by a tie-in album. It coincided with _Mamma Mia_ debuting in the West End. _ABBA Gold_ returned to the no. 1 spot for five on-off weeks, better than it had done in '92.

I feel like they performed this at the Brit awards too

Aw yeah they did, yuck

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rE7uMsDD050

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnFT2eQy_Cw

voted cartoons

Actually that Honeyz song is very good too

It's between We Like to Party and You Don't Know Me. My two moods

Walk Like A Panther or War Of Nerves

Was very suprised to see Emilia on the totp reruns, felt like the kind of cheese that could only really play on the continent.

Track I would have included (but only got to no. 20) (but Fool Boona flopped so so what): Loop da Loop's Hazel, which sorta sounds like Tequila actually, sans indie-disco/'new Tubthumping' facade. But standard issue big beat is a good thing in my world and I'll be nice about Ooh La La when I/if I do the Now 43 poll.

My experience mirrors dog latin’s. I don’t like this era at all and most of this list I don’t care for with two exceptions: Cardigans and Armand Van Helden.

I think mr oizo would also have been something I enjoyed but I didn’t listen to that one at the time.

Tender is awesome. All time melody in the verse, instant classic chorus, almost even more catchy post-chorus, and then they drag it out until it becomes miserable again.

Voted Armand Van Helden - heard it out last weekend and it had the place absolutely heaving

^ In the video for that I recognize the old APT club in the Meatpacking District. Those were the days.

Only recently became aware of the video for 'How Long's A Tear Take To Dry?' being a dedicated (and admittedly quite charming) trad animated affair that I feel flatters The Beautiful South's status at the turn of the millennium. Feels more like something the SFA could've pulled out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXBsaOFEWEQ

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

erase/rewind

that beautiful south video (which i also find endearing) is a sign of a band in rude health when in reality it was their last top 20 hit.

defend the indefensible? i feel like "just looking" would take on a new dynamic if it was neil young singing it and the instrument mics were a bit further away (i'm not exactly in love with neil young's music beyond a few albums so i'm fine being flippant)

I always thought Stereophonics would have had better critical reputation if they were from America and not south Wales, and maybe a bit less commercially successful - they could have been a critics darling post-Replacements 90s US indie band signed to Matador

that beautiful south video (which i also find endearing) is a sign of a band in rude health when in reality it was their last top 20 hit.

― you can see me from westbury white horse, Sunday, 1 February 2026 14:16 (forty-six minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

it's weird that they seemed to fall off so fast commercially - Quench went triple platinum and seemed omnipresent at the time (particularly Perfect Ten), Painting It Red only went gold and I remember seeing the premier of the video for the lead single on tv and then never again and barely hearing it on the radio

Xp I always thought Stereophonics would have had a better critical reputation if they hadn't been incredibly shite

Boy, pop culture was really overcorrecting grunge with Chihuahua in a handbag music for a few years.

Genuine lol at that because it's so accurate

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Good top 4.

Good taste ilm

these are the correct results