Popular '99

I voted for 13 as well coincidently. If the cut off had been 7 points then I’d have voted for about five or six singles – not a vintage year for number 1s.

The NME Top 50 Singles of 1999 (courtesy of http://www.rocklist.net)

1. Aphex Twin – Windowlicker
2. TLC – No Scrubs
3. Super Furry Animals – Northern Lites
4. The Flaming Lips – Race For The Prize
5. Eminem – My Name Is
6. Mogwai – EP
7. Fatboy Slim – Praise You
8. Primal Scream – Swastika Eyes
9. Beck – Sex Laws
10. Madonna – Beautiful Stranger
11. Death In Vegas – Dirge
12. Campag Velocet – To Lose La Treck
13. Sigur Ros – Svefn-G-Englar
14. Blur – Tender
15. Shack – Comedy
16. Travis – Writing To Reach You
17. Sebodoh – Flame
18. Monster Magnet – Space Lord
19. New Radicals – You Get What You Give
20. Supergrass – Pumping On Your Stereo
21. Basement Jaxx – Rendez-Vu
22. The Flaming Lips – Waiting For Superman
23. Blur – Coffee + TV
24. The Chemical Brothers – Hey Boy Hey Girl
25. Badly Drawn Boy – It Came From The Ground
26. Gay Dad – To Earth With Love
27. Mercury Rev – Goddess On A Hiway
28. Moloko – Sing It Back
29. Pavement – Carrot Rope
30. Smog – Cold Blooded Old Times
31. Underworld – King Of Snake
32. Buckcherry – Lit Up
33. Ol’ Dirty Bastard – Got Your Money
34. Shack – Natalie’s Party
35. Super Furry Animals – Fire In My Heart
36. The Fall – Touch Sensitive
37. U-Ziq – The Fear
38. Underworld – Jumbo
39. Armand Van Helden – U Don’t Know Me
40. The All Seeing I – Walk Like A Panther
41. Pavement – Major League
42. Puff Daddy – Pe2000
43. Mr Oizo – Flat Beat
44. Hole – Malibu
45. Low – Immune
46. Zan Lyons – Suicide
47. The Charlatans – Forever
48. Mercury Rev – Opus 40
49. Roots Manuva – Juggle Tings Proper
50. The Micronauts – The Jag

there are some dreary drone-y tracks from the USA mixed in there – I bought some of them on the recommendation of Mojo I think. Fool me once…

6, and I find that ‘Keep on Movin” has grown on me and I’ve mellowed on ‘Boom Boom…..’ I’m surprised that there’s no Beta Band on the NME list @#5.

#6 Interesting to note every AUS #1 that year was also either a US or UK #1, except for “Kiss Me” which was US #2. Also, after I praised the AUS chart for balanced turnover in the previous thread, it turns out to have had only have 8 number ones that year. It appears to have been an unusually low turnover year though.

#9 Yes, I was thinking of that comment of yours when I posted the list above. It was an atypical year, though – in fact, the lowest turnover of Australian number ones ever. Usually your point about it being a good middle ground is quite true; in 2000 there were 21.

The Face list (I don’t think I voted that year – I know it did in 2000):

1. Aphex Twin – Windowlicker
2. TLC – No Scrubs
3. Madonna – Beautiful Stranger
4. Eminem – My Name Is
5. Basement Jaxx – Rendez-Vu
6. Armand Van Helden – U Don’t Know Me
7. Moloko – Sing It Back
8. Britney Spears – Baby One More Time
9. The Chemical Brothers – Hey Boy Hey Girl
10. Shack – Comedy
11. Whitney Houston – It’s Not Right But It’s Ok
12. Sasha – Xpander
13. Macy Gray – I Try
14. Basement Jaxx – Red Alert
15. TLC – Unpretty
16. Pete Heller – Big Love
17. Leftfield – Afrika Shox
18. Chemical Brothers – Out Of Control
19. Shanks & Bigfoot – Sweet Like Chocolate
20. ATB – 9pm (‘Till I Come)
21. Q-Tip Feat. Raphael Saddiq – Get Involved
22. Armand Van Helden – Flowerz
23. Badly Drawn Boy – Once Around The Block
24. Blur – Coffee & TV
25. Destiny’s Child – Bills Bills Bills
26. Mr Oizo – Flat Beat
27. Isolee – Beau Not Plage
28. The Roots Feat. Erykah Badu – You Got Me
29. Chicks On Speed – Eurotrash Girl
30. Phoenix – Heatwave

#10 It occurred to me that had “Last Kiss” gone all the way in the US, it might have been the most extreme case of “famous group has their only #1 with unlikely record” in Hot 100 history.

Top 20 singles for 1999 from Rateyourmusic – as usual for recent years there’s a slight bias towards indie stuff.

1. Sigur Rós – Svefn-g-englar
2. Björk – All Is Full of Love
3. The Flaming Lips – Race for the Prize
4. Aphex Twin – Windowlicker
5. Blur – Coffee + TV
6. Blur – Tender
7. The Roots – You Got Me
8. Modest Mouse – Heart Cooks Brain / Shit Luck
9. Mercury Rev – Holes
10. Mos Def – Ms. Fat Booty / Mathematics
11. OutKast – Rosa Parks
12. XTC – Easter Theatre
13. Placebo – Without You I’m Nothing
14. Black Star – Respiration
15. Blur – No Distance Left to Run
16. Tom Waits – Hold On
17. Elliott Smith – Happiness / Son of Sam
18. Supergrass – Moving
19. Wilco – A Shot in the Arm
20. Belle and Sebastian – She’s Losing It (This was a single?!)

I’m glad it wasn’t as I’d have hated to render you homeless, Inanimate Carbon God – “B.O.B.” and “Ms.Jackson” were the peak for me. (though I’ve come to like “Hey Ya!” more than I did when it was omnipresent, and admit it’s a great pop song).

Voted for 19 of them, because now we’re solidly into what I was growing up to. Would I look on them as fondly if they were new singles today? Probably not. But in a project this long you can’t disentangle music from life.

Living Colour*
* Why would an American band use British English spelling?
@22, I dunno, because the UK spelling looks better? At any rate there’s massive precedent on exactly this orthographic point with Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Rumours’, not ‘Rumors’.

@22, isn’t “Living Colour” a by-line from an old advert? It’s either Colour TV or Paint, but I can’t remember which. It’s probably hair dye or something other.

swanstep @23 leaving aside whether Fleetwood Mac is an American band, there’s a contraindication in the oh-so-English Richard Thompson’s Rumor and Sigh.

#5 – I’d completely forgotten that the utterly magnificent ‘Space Lord’ was a 1999 single. This is probably because its parent album, Powertrip (best American album of the 90s) was a big part of the summer of ’98 for me.

That said, it’s just nice to see Monster Magnet mentioned in a Popular Comments Thread.

John Peel’s Festive Fifty comprised of 51 records in 1999. Here in all its Hamstery glory:

1. Cuban Boys: “Cognoscenti vs Intelligentsia”
2. Hefner: “Hymn For The Cigarettes”
3. Hefner: “Hymn For The Alcohol”
4. Fall: “Touch Sensitive”
5. Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci: “Spanish Dance Troupe”
6. Elastica with Mark E Smith: “How He Wrote Elastica Man”
7. Fall: “F-oldin’ Money”
8. Flaming Lips: “Race For The Prize”
9. Murry The Hump: “Thrown Like A Stone”
10. Low: “Immune”
11. Half Man, Half Biscuit: “Look Dad No Tunes”
12. Flaming Lips: “Waiting For A Superman”
13. Cinerama: “Pacific”
14. Mogwai: “Cody”
15. Orbital: “Style”
16. Sonic Subjunkies: “Do You Even Know Who You Are?”
17. Super Furry Animals: “Fire In My Heart”
18. Cinerama: “King’s Cross”
19. Salako: “Look Left”
20. Clinic: “The Second Line”
21. Godspeed You Black Emperor!: “Hungover As The Oven At Maida Vale (Peel Session)”
22. Hefner: “I Stole A Bride”
23. Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy: “I See A Darkness”
24. Super Furry Animals: “Northern Lites”
25. Mogwai: “Stanley Kubrick”
26. Kraken: “Side Effects”
27. Super Furry Animals: “Turning Tide”
28. Cuban Boys: “Flossie’s Alarming Clock”
29. Dawn Of The Replicants: “Science Fiction Freak”
30. Half Man, Half Biscuit: “24 Hour Garage People (Peel Session)”
31. Pavement: “Major Leagues”
32. Hefner: “I Took Her Love For Granted”
33. Gene: “As Good As It Gets”
34. Plone: “Be Rude To Your School”
35. Smog: “Cold Blooded Old Times”
36. Broadcast: “Echoes Answer”
37. Add N To (X): “Metal Fingers In My Body”
38. Melt Banana: “Plot In A Pot”
39. Atari Teenage Riot: “Revolution Action”
40. Blur: “Tender”
41. Badly Drawn Boy: “Once Around The Block”
42. Aphex Twin: “Windowlicker”
43. Six By Seven: “Helden”
44. Appliance: “Food Music”
45. Pavement: “Carrot Rope”
46. Stereolab: “The Free Design”
47. Marine Research: “Parallel Horizontal”
48. Miss Mend: “Living City Plan”
49. Hefner: “Hymn For The Things We Didn’t Do”
50. Wheat: “Don’t I Hold You”
51. Monkey Steals The Drum: “Injured Birds”

ICG @32 Well yes, one of them is a lass from Bouth so what’s not to like?

Scottish/UK chart no 1 differences

No 1 in Scotland but not UK :
1) DJ Sakin & Friends – Protect Your Mind (For The Love Of A Princess)
2) Texas – In Our Lifetime
3) Offspring – Why Don’t You Get A Job?
4) Shania Twain – That Don’t Impress Me Much
5) Steps – Love’s Got A Hold On My Heart
6) Five – If Ya Gettin’ Down
7) Alice Deejay – Better Off Alone
8) Ann Lee – 2 Times
9) Vengaboys – Kiss (When The Sun Don’t Shine)

No 1 in UK but not Scotland
1) Armand Van Helden – You Don’t Know Me
2) Lenny Kravitz – Fly Away
3) B*Witched – Blame It On The Weatherman
4) Westlife – Swear It Again
5) Shanks & Bigfoot – Sweet Like Chocolate
6) Ricky Martin – Livin’ La Vida Loca
7) Westlife – If I Let You Go
8) Christina Aguilera – Genie In A Bottle
9) Westlife – Flying Without Wings
(and possibly also Geri Halliwell – Lift Me Up: there is a week missing on the OCC database when that was UK no 1)

Interesting. Above all for Westlife’s first three singles not making it to the top in Scotland. And Ann Lee is no substitute for Christina Aguilera. Pity that B*Witched’s best single didn’t make it (not least as “C’est la Vie” had had a much longer run at no 1 in Scotland than throughout the UK). Shania Twain and Alice Deejay are kind of very much the sound of 1999 in my book, but do we really need another Vengasong with naff lyrics? The Braveheart ambient-house dance number is really damn good though.

I gave 26! thumbs up.

The year I was born, this was actually better than any later year except 2000 or 2006 (both good).

The not-so-good ones: 911, Offspring, You Needed Me, Bring It All Back, both Vengaboys outings, Ronan, Lift Me Up, Cliff and IHAD/SITS.