I'm going, I'm going. I'm going to the 24th of July 1998 edition of Top of the Pops!
Hood Friday
24-7-98: Presenter: Jayne Middlemiss
(3) PRAS MICHEL feat. O.D.B. & MYA – Ghetto Supastar (That Is What You Are)
Getting the show underway but the song had already peaked at number 2.
(14) ULTRA NATÉ – New Kind Of Medicine
In the studio but got no higher.
(9) PETER ANDRE – Kiss The Girl
Performing what will be his last hit for six years but it got no higher.
(10) ECHOBEATZ – Mas Que Nada
With their only hit and it was at its peak.
(2) ANOTHER LEVEL – Freak Me
Last week's number one.
(28) BILLIE MYERS – Tell Me
Here with her second and final top 40 hit and it got no higher.
(5) ACE OF BASE – Life Is A Flower
Performing their fourth of five top ten hits and it was at its peak.
(1) JAMIROQUAI – Deeper Underground (and credits)
With their only number one and it topped the charts for one week.
I've noticed that the new TOTP format from the summer of 1998 started to draw on singles outside the Top 20 which was not the norm in the last couple of years on TOTP which was essentially Top 20 only to get onto the show, so this week Billie Myers got on somehow at No.28. Even so, the chart rundown was still limited to the Top 20 only, instead of reverting back to a Top 30 or Top 40 rundown to echo the TOTP decades of old, to reflect the new TOTP format.
ReplyDeleteEchobeatz - best tune on the show this week, this was a familiar tune, so I imagine this was a cover, as these three lovelies did the same dance on stage as the Gibson Brothers' Cuba video which charted in 1980 in the late disco era:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5BU2VoRlME&list=RDR5BU2VoRlME&start_radio=1
Ace Of Base - first single in two and a half years, and the first of three singles for 1998, this was a good comeback, as all three singles made Top 20 comfortably, although this first one was not all that great, but it somehow got to No.5 this week as a new entry.
Chart rundown - I was initially surprised to see Travolta and Newton-John as a new entry at No.4 this week with the signature hit from Grease that was originally No.1 for 9 weeks in the summer of 1978, but then I realised it was the 20th Anniversary of the single, and looks like it was the reason for re-releasing it in the summer of 1998. Pity it dropped down to No.16 the following week to ensure no play on TOTP. You would not have seen such a drop in 1978 for a single crashing into the charts at No.4!
And we got a rare glimpse of the Grease movie clip too.
DeleteFirst time since 2008 probably, as it was the only time we got to see the grease video on a Christmas 1978 repeat in 2008 as part of the Pop on Trial season saw the You’re the One That I Want video shown after the ONJ message and in 2021 as part of the official Grease megamix video in a December 1990 episode, where all three film clips were combined together with Greased Lightning and Summer Nights.
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