Let's take a chance on a happy 19th of March 1999 edition of Top of the Pops!
Step ten hit
19-3-99: Presenter: Jamie Theakston
(2) STEPS – Better Best Forgotten
Getting tonight's show underway with the fifth and final single from their number two debut album, Step One, but it got no higher.
(12) THE BEAUTIFUL SOUTH – How Long’s A Tear Take To Dry?
Here tonight but the song got no higher.
(11) ROXETTE – Wish I Could Fly
Performing their nineteenth and final top 40 hit, and it was at its peak.
(14) TRAVIS – Writing To Reach You
Making their studio debut with the first single from their number one album, The Man Who, but it got no higher.
(3) BRITNEY SPEARS – Baby One More Time (video)
The former number one.
(10) REM – At My Most Beautiful
In the studio but the song got no higher.
(5) MANIC STREET PREACHERS – You Stole The Sun From My Heart
Also here tonight and the song was at its peak.
(1) BOYZONE – When The Going Gets Tough (and credits)
Second of two weeks at number one.
It's interesting how three songs all next to each other at No.11, No.12, and No.13 on this week's chart were groups that all arrived a decade earlier at the end of the 80s and beginning of the 90s, that is Roxette, Orbital, and The Beautiful South, and all were still there with new chart hits by the end of the 90s, and surviving the changing music scene through the whole decade, with Roxette now at their final Top 40 hit, while the other two groups continued into the next decade the 2000s.
ReplyDeleteThe only other thing I could find of interest was a new entry at No.39 and peak position for Status Quo with The Way It Goes, which meant that Quo were still releasing new material for the singles chart at this point, over 30 years after their first single in 1968.
I wasn't expecting much from TOTP99 but I've enjoyed every episode. Apart from Boyzone this was an absolute cracker, with Manics, REM and Beautiful South all highlights. The best for me ws obviously Roxette, very sad they won't grace the Pops stage again but a great performance to go out on with a lovely live vocal from Marie (I miss her so much).
ReplyDelete1999 has definitely been an improvement on '98 for me. I recall some really good No.1s that year and i definitely include the Martine McCutcheon No.1 in that. 'At My Most Beautiful' is the only other R.E.M single I bought along with 'Shiny Happy People' (Great fan though) and that really takes me back hearing it. Travis 'Writing To Reach You' for me is a beautiful single. They found a formula with that but never did it quite as well again imo although the very Byrds like 'Coming Around' is superb. Fran Healy looks very cherubic on this edition. He's looks about 17!
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