I give every record on Popular a mark out of 10. This poll is your chance to tick any singles YOU would have given 6 or more to. In 1998 my top score was a 9 for Cornershop, my lowest a 1 for Boyzone’s “No Matter What”. Use the comments to discuss the year in general, present other lists, etc etc.
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Hmm, I have a feeling this has been raised before then, but for any given week of the charts, is the date listed on the post (and so the year they’re counted for) based on the Saturday rather than the Sunday?
It’s the date listed on everyhit, which is based on week-ending-Saturday – so yes, there are cases (and the next #1 is one of them), where Everyhit carries a year-ending #1 over to the following year. But I’m sticking with the Everyhit listings for consistency’s sake. (Annoyingly, they’ve stopped updating now.)
From an authorial POV the next #1 fits with 1999 better, in any case!
It’s the same one as Official Charts! as well – just curious. And yes, I can definitely see a case for the next as the first trump of the year that was in it.
Popular (Not Popular) Top 10 – records that spent most weeks inside the Top 10 without reaching #1 (a decent proxy for being a big hit)
1 – Robbie Williams – “Angels” (12 weeks)
2 – Savage Garden – “Truly Madly Deeply” (11)
3 – Pras Michel – “Ghetto Supastar (That Is What You Are)” (10, peak #2)
4 – Bryan Adams ft Mel C – “When You’re Gone” (10, peak #3)
5 – Aerosmith – “I Don’t Wanna Miss A Thing” (9)
6 – The Mavericks – “Dance The Night Away” (8)
7 – Lighthouse Family – “High” (7, peak #4)
8 – Leann Rimes – “How Do I Live” (7, peak #7)
9 – Brandy And Monica – “The Boy Is Mine” (6, peak #2)
9 – Mousse T – “Horny” (6, peak #2)
The only one of those I really wish I’d written about is Brandy & Monica. It’s interesting how many monster ballads lurked below the year’s quite frothy and fun #1s.
OK, a ludicrous quantity of chart-toppers (ah! how we thought at the time) – but, well, a lot of quality among them. I voted for 22, and thoroughly endorse the current situation whereby Another Level, Oasis and Boyzone (ATIN) are bringing up the rear in most unceremonious fashion. Would have gone for six of the 10 that hung about the top 10 without topping it too. (Yeah, I prefer Trisha Yearwood’s version to LeAnn Rimes’s – but still: great.) Best pop year since 1990, perhaps?
Not long until we reach the 21st century, makes me kinda sad tbh, I’ve enjoyed discussing the hits of my childhood. The early 2000’s was a really awkward time for me personally and musically, coincidentally that’s when I was in my early teenage years.
Was expecting one more entry before this. Anyhow, the Billboard Hot 100 number ones of 1998:
“Candle In The Wind 1997” Elton John
– Two final weeks at #1 for Sir Elton. Actually managed to be Billboard’s 10th biggest hit of 1998
“Truly Madly Deeply” Savage Garden
– And finally the epic run ends with an unexpected #1. Had previously hit #4 with “I Want You”. Wouldn’t be their last US number one either.
“Together Again” Janet Jackson
– Don’t remember it well. Wasn’t a big fan of her during this time.
“Nice & Slow” Usher
– After UMMW was blocked by CITW97, the still teenager gets his #1. Wonder if we’ll be hearing from him again?
“My Heart Will Go On” Celine Dion
– Only #1 for two weeks due to a belated release date. Billboard dedicated an entire column at year end about why it wasn’t the year-end number one (it was #13). Perhaps one of the final straws in allowing non-singles to chart.
“Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It” Will Smith
– Finally, his first US #1.
“All My Life” K-Ci & Jo Jo
– Rap ballad. No, not that JoJo.
“Too Close” Next
– Surprisingly, Billboard’s official year-end #1. I say surprisingly because while it did get a fair amount of airplay and such, it seemed to have a low profile compared to other year-end #1’s of the 90’s. Not as unexpected as some others though (e.g. “Look Away” in 1989).
“My All” Mariah Carey
– Token week at #1. A year in the 90’s wouldn’t be the same without her.
“The Boy Is Mine” Brandy & Monica
– 13 weeks at #1 and the song I assumed would be the year-end #1 (it was #2). It’s easy to forget how popular these two were at the time.
“I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing” Aerosmith
– Good: Aerosmith finally hits #1 after nearly 30 years. Bad: It was with this POS.
“The First Night” Monica
– After TBIM, Monica and Brandy seemed to trade off hits to point I forget who recorded which song.
“One Week” Barenaked Ladies
– Guilty pleasure time! I loved this song and still do. Proof that alt-rock could still hit #1 if given a proper single release. It was #1 for exactly one week…go figure.
“Doo Wop” Lauryn Hill
– First former Fugee to hit #1. Last song to debut at #1 in the “singles only” era. Too bad she would later implode rather spectacularly.
“Lately” Divine
– This slipped into and out of #1 with no notice from me at all. A harbinger of things to come.
“I’m Your Angel” Celine Dion & R. Kelly
– The #1 in the week that the Hot 100 finally started allowing non-singles. Although it was released that week so it would’ve been #1 anyway. Despite it technically being Celine’s longest running #1 (6 weeks), I hardly heard it at all and it never gets played today. Bet squeaky-clean Celine would rather forget she ever teamed up with you know who.
So that’s that. The end of 1998 kind of marks a watershed of sorts. First, no longer requiring singles to be commercially released to appear on the Hot 100 shook things up a bit obviously. I expected this would help the kind of music I most enjoyed and it did somewhat initially, but as time went on, popular music and my personal tastes would diverge significantly. Which leads to the second thing: From the 80’s until now, I would recognize almost every #1 on the Hot 100. But now unfamiliar #1’s, like the final two of 1998, would become increasingly common until by the mid-00’s I recognize very little. This would gradually reverse itself by around 2010, but for now we’re starting to enter less charted waters for me.
1998 Festive Fifty – bit of a decline in quality from 1997 (in my opinion), still lots of good stuff there (in my opinion), and a few stinkers (in my opinion):
Delgados: “Pull The Wires From The Wall”
Mogwai: “Xmas Steps”
Belle & Sebastian: “The Boy With The Arab Strap”
Ten Benson: “The Claw”
Pop Off Tuesday: “Unworldly”
Cuban Boys: “Oh My God They Killed Kenny”
bis: “Eurodisco”
Pulp: “This Is Hardcore”
Delgados: “Everything Goes Around The Water”
Helen Love: “Long Live The UK Music Scene”
Jesus And Mary Chain: “Cracking Up”
Daniel Johnston: “Dream Scream”
Clinic: “Cement Mixer”
Badly Drawn Boy: “I Need A Sign”
Cinerama: “Kerry Kerry”
Plone: “Plock”
L’ Augmentation: “Soleil”
Boards Of Canada: “Aquarius”
Solex: “Solex All Lickety Spit”
Evolution Control Committee: “Copyright Violation For The Nation”
Massive Attack: “Teardrop”
Spiritualized: “Oh Happy Day”
Solex: “One Louder Solex”
Melys: “Lemming, Chameleon Of Feelings”
Half Man, Half Biscuit: “Turn A Blind Eye”
Belle & Sebastian: “Sleep The Clock Around”
Clinic: “Monkey On Your Back”
Fatboy Slim: “Rockafeller Skank”
Super Furry Animals: “Ice Hockey Hair”
Billy Bragg: “Way Over Yonder In The Minor Key”
Freed Unit: “Widdershins”
Male Nurse: “My Own Private Patrick Swayze”
Mercury Rev: “Goddess On A Highway”
Elbow: “Powder Blue” (EP – Noisebox)
Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci: “Sweet Johnny” (LP – Gorky 5)
Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci: “Hush The Warmth” (LP – Gorky 5)
Melt Banana: “Stimulus For Revolting Virus” (LP – Charley)
Delgados: “The Actress” (LP – Peloton)
Quickspace: “If I Were A Carpenter” (Peel Session)
60ft Dolls: “Alison’s Room” (LP – Joya Magica)
Boards Of Canada: “Roygbiv” (LP – Music Has The Right To Children)
Derrero: “Radar Intruder” (CD Single)
Hefner: “Pull Yourself Together” (7″)
Rooney: “Went To Town” (EP – Got Up Late)
Sodastream: “Turnstyle” (EP – Enjoy)
Sportique: “The Kids Are Solid Gold” (7″)
Ten Benson: “Evil Heat” (LP – 6 Fingers Of Benson)
Autechre: “fold four wrap five” (LP – LP5)
Fall: “Shake Off” (Peel Session)
PJ Harvey: “Is This Desire?” (LP – Is This Desire)
Cornershop and MSP at the top? ROCKIST BIAS SHOCKER
Yeah I’m a bit surprised by the Manics placing given the roughish ride it seemed to get in the comments. (Though by volume of comments it’s the year’s big winner – but this was the year the comments system broke, too)
People really have it in for I Don’t Wanna Miss A Thing, don’t they?
Eleven for me: Cornershop, Manics, Madge, Cher, 2 x Aqua, 2 x Spice Girls, “Never Ever”, “It’s Like That”, and (because I voted for them last time, and it’s fundamentally the same song) the Lightning Seeds. Quite a few fives as well, so it wasn’t a bad year.
Here are the Australian number one singles of the year:
Aqua, “Doctor Jones”, 7 weeks
Celine Dion, “My Heart Will Go On”, 4 weeks
Run–D.M.C. vs. Jason Nevins, “It’s Like That”, 1 week
All Saints, “Never Ever”, 7 weeks
Shania Twain, “You’re Still the One”, 4 weeks
Steps, “5,6,7,8”, 1 week
K-Ci & JoJo, “All My Life”, 1 week
Ricky Martin, “The Cup of Life”/”María”, 6 weeks*
Goo Goo Dolls, “Iris”, 5 weeks
Lighthouse Family, “High”, 1 week
Aerosmith, “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing”, 9 weeks
B*Witched, “Rollercoaster”, 2 weeks
Jennifer Paige, “Crush”, 2 weeks
The Offspring, “Pretty Fly (for a White Guy)”, 6 weeks
Ricky Martin was the highest seller of the year. No Australian artists hit number one in 1998 – not even Natalie Imbruglia (“Torn” peaked at number 2).
Maybe, at some point, I will come back and attempt to score the latter half of this year and fill in this poll. For personal reasons that I won’t go into, I am just so massively disengaged with music that I can’t even listen to stuff that I supposedly like*, never mind trying to be fair to a bunch of records I haven’t listened to in over a decade.
That said, the Festive Fifty list raised a smile – I loved Ten Benson’s ridiculous heavy rock (though neither The Claw nor Evil Heat really fit into that – it was more stuff like Rock Cottage or Robot Tourist that I loved) and seeing Ice Hockey Hair in there was pretty great too.
Assume describing Cornershop as rockist is some heavy irony.
*Exception being Neil Young’s Ditch Trilogy – about the only non-spoken word stuff I am listening to at the moment.
I assume the Manics are to an extent getting their Lifetime Recognition Award…
Cornershop probably benefiting from a bit of that + successfully merging two demographics.
Still not sure what they’re doing above Believe, mind you.
It’s odd how things which seem genuinely liked on the comments end up doing poorly in these polls. B*witched suffer while the Manics prosper! Pfffft. Fanbases.
Having said THAT, Never Ever had a pretty rough ride and is currently neck-and-neck with Believe.
I reckon there are a lot of 6’s for the Manics, mine certainly was, and with B*Witched the vote is split, and some like one single but not another. Accidental rockism. The low votes for Doctor Jones are another matter though.
From the Peel list, a personal favourite I very much doubt anyone else remembers – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyE-lM6KT6Y
1998 is my first ‘full’ Popular year in the sense that I discovered the site around the time of Tom’s review of ‘Perfect Day’, and with 1998 being my first year of getting into ‘pop’ I think I voted for most of these for nostalgia’s sake…but I was still pleasantly surprised when looking at that list…
Tom at #4, agree with Brandy and Monica, but would also have loved to hear your take on Ghetto Supastar!
“All I Need” appears stuck on zero.
All I Need was an intro question on Popmaster the other day. “Right Here Waiting” said the contestant, confidently.
Don’t you just love Radio 2’s Popmaster, wherein they ask questions on artists and records they never play? Me neither. We listen to Radio 3 now #itcomestousall
12: Jennifer Paige, “Crush”, 2 weeks
Ah, now there’s a tune. It seems to have been the bridesmaid nearly everywhere, Australia being one of the few countries where it reached the top.
Only two ticks from me (‘Because We Want To’ and ‘Feel It’) which is harsh (quite a few 4’s and 5’s) but I would so much rather have had things like ‘Doo Wop’, ‘The Boy Is Mine’ and ‘Ghetto Superstar’ on top. And ‘Eurodisco’ yes. I’ll stick my top 25 tracks of the year As Compiled That Yule up later why not (can’t remember the #1 right now – probably and boringly ‘Intergalactic’?). Here’s The Face’s correctly drunken lunchtime collation:
1) Stardust ‘Music Sounds Better With You’
2) Brandy And Monica ‘The Boy Is Mine’
3) Lauryn Hill ‘Doo Wop (That Thing)’
4) Air ‘Sexy Boy’
5) Beastie Boys ‘Intergalactic’
6) Manic Street Preachers ‘If You Tolerate This, Your Children Will Be Next’
7) Jay-Z ‘Hard Knock Life’
8) Run DMC Vs Jason Nevins ‘It’s Like That’
9) Fatboy Slim ‘The Rockerfeller Skank’
10) Madonna ‘Ray Of Light’
11) Missy Elliott ‘Beep Me 911’
12) Massive Attack ‘Teardrop’
13) Usher ‘You Make Me Wanna’
14) Air ‘Kelly Watch The Stars’
15) All Seeing I ‘The Beat Goes On’
16) Pras ‘Ghetto Superstar’
17) Air ‘All I Need’
18) The Tamperer ‘Feel It’
19) Gomez ’78 Stone Wobble’
20) The Beta Band ‘Patty Patty Sound’
21) Mousse T Vs Hot ‘N’ Juicy ‘Horny’
22) Jurassic 5 ‘Concrete Schoolyard’
23) Puff Daddy ‘Come With Me’
24) Danny Tenaglia ‘Music Is The Answer’
25) Wamdue Project ‘King Of My Castle’
26) Beenie Man ‘Who Am I?’
27) Sparkle ‘Be Careful’
28) Mr Vegas ‘Heads High’
29) Terry Callier ‘Love Theme From Spartacus’
30) 187 Lockdown ‘Kung-Fu’
Re: 22 That feels like one of the weaker Face lists, although there’s some good stuff in it. I can’t remember whether I voted that year – I know I did the year after. Blimey, they loved that Air album – it was inescapable for months.
Anyway, here, meanwhile, for a bit of pop cultural context, is the first and only Neon magazine films of the year (the magazine’s brief existence took in three Januarys, but there was only one poll). I mentioned it in the Popular ’97 comments, because people were talking about films that actually came out here in ’98, but here’s the list itself:
1) Boogie Nights
2) Buffalo 66
3) Starship Troopers
4) There’s Something About Mary
5) Velvet Goldmine
6) Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels
7) Saving Private Ryan
8) Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas
9) The Wedding Singer
10) Hana-bi (Fireworks)
11) The Truman Show
12) The Daytrippers
13) The Big Lebowski
14) The Last Days Of Disco
15) Carne Trémula (Live Flesh)
16) In The Company Of Men
17) The Castle
18) U-Turn
19) Out Of Sight
20) Jackie Brown
I reckon the Manics are getting a load of ‘lifetime achievement’ votes rather than for the song per se, which I could not bring myself to vote for – my least favourite of all their famous songs.
I am enormously relieved that Don’t Wanna Fall Asleep wasn’t a UK #1. It seemed to be on TV and Radio for years despite sounding like Bon Jovi pinching out a particularly stubborn turd. It was from the Armageddon soundtrack, right? I’ve never seen the film. Actually, there are loads of (well, three – IDWFA, Pink and Jaded) big Aerosmith singles I dislike from this era, they were mounting a big comeback and, clearly gunning for the megabucks rock-ballad market without ever, for me, shaking off their Morrisons of cock rock status.
1998’s chart bothering contributions to my 200 Fave Songs Of All Time List (compiled 2001 – see Popular ’96):
Fatboy Slim – The Rockafeller Skank
The Bluetones – If…
Spice Girls – Viva Forever
B*Witched – To You I Belong
The Divine Comedy – The Certainty Of Chance
The Honeyz – Finally Found
Aerosmith – I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing (I REGRET NOTHING)
Air – All I Need (#23: there’s a reason everybody went nuts over Moon Safari)
Rialto – Monday Morning 5:19
Placebo – Pure Morning (sacrilege in some quarters)
Pulp – This Is Hardcore
Fatboy Slim – The World Went Down (B-side to Gangster Trippin’)
Space – Begin Again
Mansun – Legacy (oh how I laughed when this appeared on Now! 40)
Said 200 was compiled for the benefit of a Buffy forum (oh, how 1998 can you get?!); the soundtrack for that included Bif Naked, whose I Bificus album contributes a further four songs (none of which would have even made a dent this side of The Pond).
While I was still vaguely aware of what was current in the singles charts via radio, TV and the pupils I was teaching I’m not entirely sure what I was listening to that was current in 1998 apart from Mezzanine by Massive Attack and OK by Talvin Singh. At some point, either this year or the next, as a reward for starting a subscription to The Wire I got a copy of Fabrication Defect by Tom Ze that kicked off a continuing interest in contemporary Brazilian music. I don’t know whether Fopp began to become more ubiquitous at this time but they were responsible for much of my music spending going towards replacing music I already owned on vinyl and tape with CDs.
This feels like the year I started to not give two tosses about what was number one; which given I was The Bloke In The Town’s Record Shop, this was quite an achievement. At this point I was far more interested in Oakenfold than Oasis, and as the lifeblood of the Spice Girls ebbed away I must admit I laughed. What a twat I was.
Still not a bad year, though. I’m dreading 2004. What? What… who are you, big teethed monster? Ow….
Whereas I’m about to start the first of two personal imperial ages in chart music – one for my childhood covering April 1999 to, ooh, let’s say Boxing Day 2001 as a suitable endpoint, and the other my hedonistic late teens/early twenties, starting from the first #1 of 2008 and running mostly uninterrupted until September 2011, since when a slow, gradual fizzling out has lasted ever since.
About three years ago, back in my earlier days of Popular I read a comment quoting Danny Baker saying “something wrong happens to music when you turn 26”. That’s next month. At the time I assumed that the music of 2014 would have mutated into some weird, alien sound impossible for my older ears to comprehend, like some mad speed dubstep/D&B noisecore running at 200mph. I’m a bit disheartened to instead just find it all similar to what it was, just blander and more repetitive instead.
#28, I was 26 in 1992, kind of not feeling grunge and The KLF disintegrated. Maybe Danny Baker had a point.
Cornershop not only have a clear lead in this year’s poll, theirs is the highest-rated number one of the 1990s so far in the FT Reader Top 100:
53. 8.15 CORNERSHOP – “Brimful Of Asha (Norman Cook Remix)” 9
54. 8.12 SINEAD O’CONNOR – “Nothing Compares 2 U” 10
70. 7.92 THE KLF ft THE CHILDREN OF THE REVOLUTION – “3AM Eternal” 8
80. 7.75 WHITE TOWN – “Your Woman” 7
82. 7.73 COOLIO ft LV – “Gangsta’s Paradise” 9
98. 7.6 BEATS INTERNATIONAL ft LINDY LAYTON – “Dub Be Good To Me” 9
Killer should be in there somewhere – certainly was last I looked.
At 83%, it’s probably in the top 10 across these yearly consensus polls too – I checked when it was at 87% and only Good Vibrations and Paint It, Black were higher.
#28 I turned 26 in November 1998. So…yeah.
#27 2004 seemed like a pop music nadir on both sides of the Atlantic, although for slightly different reasons. Not sure whether I’m dreading it, or perversely looking forward to everyone’s reactions….
#30 Notable that the collective performance of the 90’s has actually gotten worse since I made the observation that they weren’t doing well several months ago. Among other things, the top-rated song at the time, “Ready Or Not”, has fallen out of the top 100 entirely. Good to see White Town and Beats International hanging in there though.
#31: Whoops, right you are:
49. 8.18 ADAMSKI – “Killer” 8
I must have missed it, or momentarily misremembered it as late ’80s, when I was going down the list. Cornershop are only second-highest of the ’90s, then.
#33: Agreed, it’s not a good showing by the ’90s, only managing one entry in the readers’ top 50 and seven in the top 100. I can only see one or two songs in 1999 that might have a chance of getting there, but they may displace Beats International in the process so the overall numbers won’t get much higher than that.
A little unjust on the 90s, these scores, I think. I remember some concern from commenters past that The Modern Era would be overscored compared to some perceived Halycon Era: that really hasn’t happened.
Well #35 serves you right for being an OLD SQUARE because as any ASPIRING NON-DADDY-O would know that Modern Era still hasn’t arrived yet because G**** A**** are still merely SLOUCHING TOWARD US instead of HERE
30th December 1998 saw the first broadcast of Buffy the Vampire Slayer on BBC2, as noted here: http://www-users.cs.york.ac.uk/susan/sf/tv/buffy/1.htm
Of Toms 6 or more I would have marked Dr Jones, Deeper Underground, and RollerCoaster lower than him but Three Lions and It’s Like That above 6.
Cant argue with the other ones that received 5 or less.
A reasonably good year. Some terrible efforts also.
Cornershop well ahead of everything else unsurprisingly. Also the highest rated 90s song in the top 100 now.
The 90s is getting a raw deal I reckon. Only 5 or 6 in the top 100 but prominent in the bottom 100 with 30 or more from the decade.
Scottish/UK chart no 1 differences
No 1 in Scotland but not UK :
1) Madonna – Ray Of Light
2) Del Amitri – Don’t Come Home Too Soon
3) Dario G – Carnaval de Paris
4) 911 – More Than A Woman
No 1 in UK but not Scotland
1) Usher – You Make Me Wanna…
2) All Saints – Under The Bridge/Lady Marmalade
3) Baddiel, Skinner, Lightning Seeds – 3 Lions 98
4) Billie – Because We Want To
5) Another Level – Freak Me
6) Manic Street Preachers – If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next
7) All Saints – Bootie Call
8) Melanie B ft Missy Elliott – I Want You Back
9) Spacedust – Gym & Tonic
World Cup allegiances at play for half of the Scotland-only number 1s. (Can this really be the last time Scotland qualified for the world cup finals?). Otherwise, urban dance music misses out north of the border, along with Billie’s better single of the year. And 911 reach the top with a crap cover version in Scotland before they do so UK-wide… And how would popular cope without a chance to discuss the Manics? (Kept off the top by Boyzone, to boot)
Re: Danny Baker’s “You stop liking pop when you’re 26” thing (which was discussed in more depth elsewhere, but can’t find it for some reason), some in-depth research which I don’t completely agree with, but interesting nonetheless – http://skynetandebert.com/2015/04/22/music-was-better-back-then-when-do-we-stop-keeping-up-with-popular-music/ – for some reason 23 or 24 looks like a better age to give.
NINETEEN. “Chocolate Salty Balls” would make 20.
Though mostly sixes. I’ve been suffering from burnout.