Hits 21 - 1998 (7): Billie Piper, Spacedust, Cher, B*Witched

Episode Date: April 10, 2026

Hello, everyone! Welcome back to Hits 21, the show that's taking a look back at every single UK #1 hit..You can follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Hits21UKYou can email us: [e-mail] 21 DOES NOT OWN THE RIGHTS TO ANY MUSIC USED IN THE EPISODES. USAGE OF ALL MUSIC USED IN THIS PODCAST FALLS UNDER SECTION 30(1) OF THE COPYRIGHT ACT 1988

Hi there everyone and welcome back to Hits21, the 90s, where me, Rob, me, share bitch. And me, more or less. Are looking back at every single UK number one of the 1990s. Email us at Hits21 podcast at gmail.com, Twitter us at Hits21 UK. Thank you ever so much for joining us again. We are currently looking back at the year 1998 and this is our penultimate episode of 1998. This week we'll be covering the period between the 11th of October and the 19th of December, taking you right up to but not quite all the way to Christmas.

It's time to press on with this week's episode. Andy, as we get towards Christmas, how are the album charts doing? They're doing very well, thank you for asking. Well, this is my truth. Tell me yours is what it's off the end of last week by the Manix Street Preachers, but now we go into hits by Phil Collins. I've made this joke before, but I'm going to make it again that you could make an anagram out of that album title

to more accurately describe it. And that went number one for one week and went six times platinum. Sorry, that's hits by Phil Collins. And there's only one other albums to talk to you about this week, which is Quench by The Beautiful South, which went number one for two weeks and went three times platinum. hits and quench, which is better. There's only one way to find out.

There will be no fights. In the news, Ford launches its new family hatchback car, the focus. Augusto Pinnashe, the former Chilean dictator, is indicted and placed under house arrest in London. Actress Joan Hicks dies age 92 after playing Miss Marple for eight years, and the Human Rights Act receives Royal Ascent. 77-year-old American Senator John Glenn becomes the world's oldest astronaut

after orbiting the Earth in the space shuttle discovery. The Turkish government collapses following a vote of no confidence and Tony Blair becomes the first British Prime Minister to address the Irish Parliament. The films to hit the top of the UK box office during this period were as follows. The Truman Show,

Small Soldiers, The Exorcist, Ants, rush hour before enemy of the state closes out the year. So in America, the holidays are getting close. So, Ed, how are they doing over there? Well, mixed bag, as usual it would seem. First off, on the albums front, it's primordial Jay-Z with five whole weeks of one of those shitty albums he did before he decided to bother. Volume two, Hard Not Life fills time while GZ. searches for the hero inside himself. Then, from Canada, supposed former infatuation junkie, with its 72 minutes, its sex and the city title, and a cover plastered with words from the eight precepts of Buddhism must surely be a work of underrated brilliance. I mean, I've never heard

it, but it got two weeks at US number one, so it must be. But then why do we? We're not. Why do we I want to punch it so. Of course, of course, we can't have a year go by without him. Garth Brooks sells more than a million copies of double live in its first week, which is actually the highest single week US album sales of any record since the Pissing Bodyguard soundtrack in 1993. So Garth carries us gleefully through to Christmas on the singles front in these last few months of 98. One week by the bare naked ladies is at number one for, oh, oh, loll of lulls,

you'll never get how long it's. It's at number one for. Before more Monica, she's back for another three weeks off the first night, like some sort of mediocre R&B groundhog day. Then it's insert joke here, as Lauren Hill can't even be bothered to name her own song. Do-wop, brackets, that thing, square brackets, you know the one, is top for two weeks. Before, lately, by Divine, which I'm very sad to report isn't a Stevie Wonder cover by a provocative drag artist, though it does eat shit after a single week. Ooh, changes are afoot as we reach a bit. As we reached a bit, December 1998, Billboard makes a decision in its metrics that foreshadows changes to popular music consumption in the present day. They update their metrics to include airplay only singles without

a physical release. And here we are in 2006, where a war veteran picking up six seconds of Taylor Swift in his legplate constitutes one-fifth of a sale, 1.6 algorithm pulses, or a third. third of a meow meow bean. Whatever it is, it's got to be worth more than three weeks of Celine Dion and R. Kelly. Now, how does that even work? To be quite honest, I'm not even curious enough to play the intro. Rob. All right, so, the first of four songs this week is this. Okay, this is Girlfriend by Billy Piper, released as the second. The second. Released as the single from her debut studio album titled Honey to the Bee, Girlfriend is Billy Piper's second single to be released in the UK and her second to reach number one. It's not her last number one

overall, but it is her last number one of the 1990s. Girlfriend went straight in at number one as a brand new entry. It stayed at number one for one week. In its first and only week Atop the charts, it sold 119. A thousand copies beating competition from Gangster Tripping by Fat Boy Slim, Smoke by Natalie and Bruglia, and The First Night by Monica. When it was knocked off the top of the charts, Girlfriend Fell Two Places to Number Three. By the time it was done on the charts,

it had been inside the top 100 for 13 weeks. The song is currently officially certified Silver in the UK as of 20 to 26, Andy. Do you have some thoughts on this? I really want to hear them. Thank you. It's nice to be wanted, isn't it? I do have some thoughts on this,

but I'm going to be honest, there's not that many, because I don't think it's a song that inspires much thought. And I think that's the whole point, to be honest, that this is just cheap, candy floss, you know, just sort of vending machine music, to be honest.

And I don't mean that as a huge, insult. I just think it's not something that's designed to really inspire much critical thought, it's not really something that's designed to linger in the way that we're discussing it 27, 28 years on, I should say. I think it's bubble gum pop and that's the issue that we're going to run into very much over the next year or so is that a lot of these songs are not built to stand the test of time. They're made for instant gratification, which is not a bad thing. I repeat it's not a bad thing. However, it does mean that there's very little meat on the bones.

And this is my problem with Billy Piper as an artist in general. I should say as a musician, not an actress. Very talented actress. But as a musician, the issue I have with her is that she's just anonymous. We never really get to know her because she jumps from idea to idea from sound to sound. This week, we're in kind of cheek, going to get your number or me cute kind of thing. Which is a slightly different vibe to when she was in rowdy teenager. you know, Asbo mode with because you want to.

And obviously, Honey to the Bee is, it's never ever, basically. It's very sultry sweet. It's just, it's very hard to pin it down to anything, and it doesn't help that this song itself is quite anonymous. Like, not just her, the song itself doesn't really have much to it really. Like I say, it's just funny, silly pop. And so it's just fine, really. It is interested in how it cribs from multiple things.

First of all, it bizarrely, well, I mean, I know it's going, for the na-na-na-na-na thing, which probably both these things are joined by. But if anyone remembers the TV show Little Monsters, which was like the Mr. Men, but a little bit more kind of naughty, right, on CITV in the very late 90s, early naughties. It sounded, the theme tune sounded exactly like this. We are little monsters. All we want to do is have some fun. And it's out at exactly the same time, so one of them inspired the other.

I don't know. I'll have to check the dates on that. And there's also that start that sounds oddly like No More I Love You's by Annie Lennox, which is a really strange reference point, but it sounds just like that to me as well. It just all feels a bit cobbled together, all a bit, not really much of a whole. It's just all right. It's all right. I'm never going to listen to it again. Not because I don't like it, but because why would I do that? Why would I bother? Yeah, before I start talking about the song, I want to give a special mention to the video, which might be, might be, might be. be, at least in the 90s, the most egregious example I've come across for a song on this show,

just in terms of the first 10 seconds or so, not matching the song at all. Like, it fades in from black and you're greeted with an air raid siren, corrugated iron like air hangers, there's army print everywhere, there are older teenagers on skateboards, there are searchlights flashing all around the place, and then shubidoo-d-d-boop-boot-bo. And it's like, what? Like, I don't know if this has something to do with this being released before the album. The album comes out in about two weeks. And this being her second single means her team can kind of treat the music video like,

this is the moment you've all been waiting for is Billy Piper's second single. But those first 10 or 15 seconds cut into the song pretty hilarious. Because this immediately goes for like a soft kind of 60s girl group vibe, I suppose. shoo-be-doo-d-d-d-d, you know, backing vocals, twinkly sort of instrumentation, only it's obviously much lesser than that. This has that kind of bubble gum teen pop slant to it, as you were saying, Andy,

but the sense of it having a slightly sighing quality to borrow a term from you, Ed, isn't there quite enough for me. Like, it kind of is there, and I can see it if I squint, but it's trying to ape that sound that's, I don't know, in its attempts to ape,

that sound are falling slightly short for me. I think like, because we want to, it's kind of like that song, any emotional hook that this might be searching for, is mostly lost somewhere between the MIDI and that chorus that does essentially the same thing as because we want to, because you get the call and response

like the, in the backing vocals, the, because we want to, because we want to. Or it's, you know, do you have a good friend? Do you have a good friend?

You don't get the sense of much living and breathing here, let alone sighing. They've even removed the in-breaths that Billy was taking during the recordings, but not in the way that like a PC music or like hyperpop record would ramp up the artificiality to sound alien, more on that later, or to really bring out the emotions in the text, more on that later as well. They've just kind of used the studio to hide the imperfections that may have been revealed and in their eyes maybe may have revealed a bit too much humanity.

but despite this, I am just about positive. You know, the late 90s are perhaps the biggest commercial peak of bubblegum and team pop since the 50s and 60s. And this continues a kind of new tradition, I guess, a new British tradition that eventually incorporates acts like 5 and S Club 7 and blue and stuff like that. You know, there seems to be a concerted attempt going on to really reclaim bubblegum and team pop for people under 16. And ironically, people under 13 consider in its team pop. But, you know, this is filled with a dozen signifiers that adults aren't allowed. The telephone voicemail adlibs that appear in the background after every line, even the first line, I saw you jump up, as though that slang adults won't understand.

It's still got the language of the 60s and, you know, maybe dating rituals of the 20th century that predate this. But there is an overriding sense, mostly through Bill. Billy's voice, I think, that parents are meant to be on the outside of this one. And that pot might be about to kick parents out for good, actually, with, you know, with Britney just around the corner. Even if Billy's voice here isn't always able to bend itself around them, material. She's a bit drama school throughout this.

And I think that bit at the end of the chorus, the, we against Bill some time is kind of awful. But, you know, this isn't that bad. I think it's twinkly and it's cute. and I'm always going to be forgiving of pop songs that are four kids. I never really like it when music for adults dominates the pop charts too much because I do think the pop charts are meant to be four kids. And yeah, this isn't the bold statement that Britney's arrival will be

in a few months' time, nor is it really the bold introduction for Billy either. But it is a teaser, I think, for what's kind of coming over the landscape in the distance. Ed, girlfriend. Well, girlfriend. It's funny, you should say hyperpop. I also mentioned this in my admittedly very brief notes on this song. Yeah, what is weird is that auto tune on a song later this episode that you might have hinted at Rob will become a big feature and kind of both innovative in its aesthetics and, well, influential really.

but this song is transparently sweetened throughout, which kind of gives it an accidental hyperpop flavour. I mean, the vocals were very much cleaned up, not only in comparison to the songs around it, but I mean, even on a debut number one, it did sound like they didn't have tremendous confidence in her ability to carry the melody cleanly. but this

this song is it doesn't help that it's kind of 90s early 90s as fuck it's got a kind of new jack swing flavor to it even though it's got those Timberland phone line interjections on it

and the kind of squeaky clean brill-creamed vocal line and those sort of buzzing low bass frequencies they don't really glue together as a convincing product. It literally sounds like a placeholder vocal take has been put on top of an out-of-time backing track. There's not that much more to say. I mean, I'm glad I went last here because you pretty much have both said what I was going to say anyway. It is fine,

you know, to echo your sentiments. It is catchy, but it's also, you know, it's also. It's completely dead. It's been cleaned within an inch of its life. And it's almost accidentally weird and synthetic. But it's not meant to be, unlike something we might be talking about later. So, yeah, a thoroughly middling oral experience. That's A-U-R-A-L.

Anyway, moving on. All right, so, yeah, the second song up this week is this. Your stomach pulled in, your weight slightly forward. Keeping that posture. Okay, this is Jim and Tonic by Space Dust. Released as the lead single from the duo's first studio album titled Hits and Pieces. Jim and Tonic is Space Dust's first single to be released in the UK and their first to reach number one. However, as of 2026, it is their last.

The single is a reworking of the song originally recorded by Bob Sinclair and Thomas Bangor. Delta. Jim and Tonick went straight in at number one as a brand new entry. It stayed at number one for one week. In its first and only week atop the charts, it sold 66,000 copies beating competition from More Than a Woman by 9-1-1, Day Sleeper by REM, How Deep Is Your Love by Drew Hill, and Can't Keep This Feeling In by Cliff Richard. When it was knocked off the top of the charts, Jim and Tonic fell five places to number six. By the time it was done on the charts, it had been inside the top 100 for 12 weeks. The song is currently officially certified silver in the UK as of 2026.

What the fuck is going on, man? Jesus Christ, the late 90s are chaos. Just total chaos. Songs are just in and out of the charts in less than like four months. Crazy. Andy, Space Dust. What do we think of this? Not much. This leaves a very sour taste for multiple reasons. The first of which is that this is just...

I mean, I know you two certainly will have more to say on this than me, so I'm deliberately not going into it, but... Oh, I don't know about that. Oh, no, no, please. Go into it, Andy, just make... Talk slowly. We need to pad this out. Just on this specific point about how it is blatantly stolen. Like, to say it's, you know, based on the Thomas Bangalta song, is understating it to a magnificent... It is just straight up stealing the song of someone else and putting a little bit of a sheen on it, calling it your work and cashing in on it. I think that's just really gross.

I think it's like... Because it's one thing when that happens where it's sort of gone through an organic process and it's kind of the same artist. Like, you know, like when Avichy did levels and then it got redone again as good feeling with Flowrider and Avichy was still involved with that and was still credited and it's like,

that's all right, that's okay. And it was different enough but similar enough that you could sort of see the evolution there. This is just like you're just taking a song of someone else. Listen to it, thought, I'm going to do that. And that's just horrible. That's just gross. And there may be more to it than that,

but it doesn't really look like it to me. And then we've got the song itself, which is just that horrible kind. It's sort of in that Benny Benassi, Eric Prid's kind of space of like, you know, sexy gym songs. But it's not really that either. It's just like exercise

Yeah To a funky beat Like there's just no Kind of irony to it at all There's no wink wink at the audience Like it's just It's just like For sort of people who are on protein shakes

And don't smile Like it's just There's no humour to it It's just very toxic and horrible And it's also just musically very shit Nothing happens In this song Nothing happens

It's just a student vocal sample with a really tacky backing, and that's it. I've got nothing else to say. This is fucking shit. Sorry. Yeah, what is there to say beyond that? Like, Bob Sinclair and one of the guys from Daff Punk work on a pretty nifty, but kind of boring, I guess, dance mix involving a sample from a Jane Fonda fitness video. They try to release it as a single, but Jane Fonda says, no, you can't use my voice, so it gets left alone for a bit. Then two DJ guys from this group called Space Dust, basically Nick the whole thing. Don't credit Bob or the guy from Daft Punk. Take all the funk and fun out of it. Turn it into an early example of FHM core.

Get another person in to re-record in Jane Fonda's voice. And then they put it out. Like, no, I think this is rubbish. One of those where I'm like, nope, minimal effort has been put into the song, so minimal effort's gone into my notes. Ed. I'm going to see if I can beat you. there for for for brevity um i've got three notes here you can pick which one you feel fits um

most aptly um pointless plosive postmodernism uh an advert for itself and a waste of time or d all of the above thank you yeah two three four five six seven eight and onward to song number three this week which is this. Okay, this is Believe by Cher. Released as the lead single from her 22nd studio album titled Believe, Believe is Cher's 39th single

to be released in the UK and her fourth to reach number one. However, as of 2026, it is her last. Believe went straight in at number one as a brand new entry. It stayed at number one for, what's this? seven weeks.

Across its seven weeks atop the charts it sold 1.1 million copies beating competition from the following songs and my God there are a lot of them Outside by George Michael the sweetest thing by you too

I just want to be loved by a culture club thank you by Alanis Morissette Little bit of loving by Kelly LaRock Would You by Touch and Go Guess I was a fool by another level Blue Angels by Praz. Each time by East 17. If you buy this record by the tampera and Maya.

Another one bites the dust by Queen and Wycliffe John. Daydreaming by Tatiana. Falling in love again by Eagle Eye Cherry. Tragedy by Steps. Bartender and the Thief by Stereophonics. Until the Time is Through by Five. I'm Your Angel by Celine Dion. Up and down by Venger Boys.

So Young by the Cause. Move Mania by. Sash, from this moment on by Shania Twain, I love the way you love me by Boyzone, Miami by Will Smith, The Power of Goodbye by Madonna, War of Nerves by All Saints, Searching My Soul by Vonda Shepard, Hard Knocked Life by Jay-Z, When You're Gone by Melsie and Brian Adams, no regrets by Robbie Williams, Big Big World by Amelia, and Take Me There by Black Street. When it was knocked off the top of the charts, Believe, dropped one place, to number two. By the time it was done on the charts, it had been inside the top 100 for 31 weeks.

The song is currently officially certified five times platinum in the UK. As of 2026, Ed, do you have some notes on this song? Oh, that was beautiful. I'm very touched. Yeah. I've got to say, for all of what I'm about to say, I think this is as deserving of a good long stay at the number one spot, as the last song was deserving of its short shrift in that regard. Yeah, I've probably indicated this previously, such as on that fairly wretched charity single she did with Chrissy Hind

and someone else earlier in the decade. not always the biggest fan of Shear's voice, but thank God for it here, not just because of the sort of relatively simpering weak vocals we're getting surrounding it. But her voice really works here. It really sounds commanding. Even with all the effects going on, she sounds like a very big personality, which you can't exactly say for Billy. and you can't say maybe for the next one either. Skirting around the obvious, the most memorable aspect aside from the fact that it is just plain catchy, it's really nicely produced. It has this kind of ethereal, warm dance glow.

It's sort of bassy, but also quite spacey and swooshy as well. And it's not pummeling with the rhythm. It's got a lot of middle to it, which suits a big, her big kind of thick, phlegmatic delivery. That's probably not the right word, but I'm grasping here. But yes, the vocal effects. It's kind of might be the first time since artists like Zapp in the early 80s. The artifice in the vocals has been an actual selling point.

And as I mentioned before with Billy, it's interesting that there's one where they were almost trying to pretend it wasn't there. And here they're like, let's just push it up. I don't know if it was a mistake. I don't actually know much of the story behind this song. But it really bloody works. It adds to the catchiness of the song.

It makes the verses catchier than otherwise they would be. And yeah, it starts this slow snowball that turns into a cascade that I think has very much influenced the way vocals are handled aesthetically in modern pop music. where it's like, yeah, this is artificial. We know it's artificial. And that's part of the coolness of it. That's part of the pop of it. We're not embarrassed about it.

So we're just going to pump it up to 15. That all said, because it is a very well-crafted song. It's a very catchy song. It's very effective and it's lasting and influential. It's never meant much to me in the grand scheme of big dance, bangers. It's just kind of there, and I know it, and it's friendly enough, and it's well-made enough, but it's never really resonated to me. Maybe because it's so deliberate in its punch-you-in-the-face effects in many ways, that it's almost like it sounds like a series of events. But that's,

again, I think I'm just talking around it. That's not really any reason why it shouldn't resonate, because there's all sorts of great pop singles that are basically just a contrivance of production and set pieces. I mean, you could say that about bloody please please me, which is like a series of cool little bits stuck together more or less. And I fucking love that song. It is really good, though, at the end of the day, just analysing it. And it is amazing.

It is amazing how resonant this almost novelty-sounding song is in terms of impact. I don't know whether they had any idea at the time quite how much people would tune into this sound as an option and almost as a style and an aesthetic in itself going forward. So, yeah, this casts quite a shadow, especially on an episode like this. Yeah, I totally agree with you, Ed. I think if anything was going to break the run of short-lived number ones,

I'm glad it's this. This is the longest number one since wannabe wannabe was the last one to do seven weeks. This is one I clearly and vividly remember from the time. Like even being just, you know, four and five years old, this was a phenomenon basically right off the bat. You know, a huge comeback for Cher, a genuine redesigning of her image,

a floor filler basically from the word go. Share doesn't just adapt to 90s trend and catch up with them here by doing a dance number. She also adds in the usage of AutoTune, like we were saying, you know, that nudges the future. interview through the very, very late 90s and early 2000s, if the opening strands of this were heard at like a wedding or a birthday party or anything that required a function room, really,

a large crowd of people would just descend onto the dance floor and belt this out. I think it struck very, very quickly, stuck very quickly and it's never really gone away. Of course, yeah, I do have to properly talk about the auto tune, which is a big deal, not just because it's something new in the case of the pop charts, but because of the impact, the usage of it here has later on. You know, Autotune's only been around for about a year at this point in terms of the technology.

And it's not really had much of a huge lift yet. You know, it's been used in other songs, but either trying to pretend it's not there or on something like AFX twins, like, you know, come to daddy, like the EP, you know, there are a couple of songs on there that kind of use a little bit of it. But non with the platform that this had,

you know, to the point where for a long time, autotune is just referred to as like the share effect, the share vocal effect, until maybe, you know, T-Pain or Kanye West, you know, in the sort of mid to late 2000s start using it. Share was who you were compared to if you used autotune and not as like a subtle vocal corrector, but as an added and deliberate effect like distortion or reverb or overdrive, you know, autotune as such an artificial sound, I think, that once you plan to use it, I think in this moment they thought, right, we have no choice but to lean into it.

I think if they tried to pretend it wasn't there, this would have maybe gone over a bit differently or at least wouldn't have resonated in the same way. But they introduce it, you know, at the beginning where you sort of hear it bubbling away and it gives shares voice an unnatural vibrato and then they pull it back and you think, wait, am I ears playing tricks on me a bit? You know, it's just enough to kind of pique your curiosity. So you listen a little harder and then it's audible again, in spots of the second verse and chorus.

And then they seem to draw it back for the bridge when Cher does the octave leap. That seems to just be Cher. I don't know if that's right. Or at least they turn the effect down. But then they throw it in at 150% on the final chorus when everything needs to come together. And this thing they've been building over the course of three minutes hits this massive cathartic release. And you can really hear Cher's voice being manipulated as it comes out of her mouth.

You know, that's when everything clicks for me. You know, this futuristic mixing. the subtle trance and house influences that aren't overbearing, the real commitment by Cher and her team to turn this into something that will survive into the new millennium. There are all sorts of instrumental cues here from the Abitha sound, especially the kind of spacey, syncopated synths that kind of hover in the back of the verses in the periods where shares may be silent for a period.

Yeah, as a bit of pop production, I think this is marvelous, to be honest, a genuinely iconic sound. And I never use that word. I don't really like using that word. I think it gets used a bit too much, but I think it's fair enough, seven weeks at number one, over a million sold, changed the face of pop music in the 2000s. Yeah, iconic is fair enough. And I think on an emotional level as well, the story in the song does resonate.

In 2023, Cher did an interview with The Guardian where she revealed that while she didn't ask for any songwriting credits, she does regret that decision because, you know, she did make some changes, crucial, I think, that influenced how the story in the song managed to really cross over to us, you know, the public. She said that when she was listening to the takes they were doing, she realized the song was too sad. And she apparently said in the studio, like, a girl can be sad in one verse, but a girl can't be said in two verses. And that's what progresses the story. As I was listening this week, I realized that the progression and melody in the pre-chorus of Believe is really, really similar to the verses in Without You.

You know, I can't forget the feeling All your faces you were leaving You know, it's very, very similar My research says they're both in F sharp major as well Could be wrong on that But anyway, where without you stays in the kind of dismal aftermath of the breakup throughout Share was like, no, I'm not going to do that

So you start in a place of pain and feeling despondent Before moving into a place of optimism But the crucial thing for me Is that the pain still kind of underscored scores, shares storytelling, even with the more defiant and declarative lyrics towards the end, the final chorus is still centered on that question, that uncertainty, that instead of changing the words to, yes, I believe in life after love, it stays on that, do you believe, leaving it on this kind of like, well, you still have to take that step. You know, you're feeling

like that maybe there might be life after love, but you still have to put the work in. We still have to recover, we still have to take that step. And yeah, I do. I do think this is great. I don't think it's perfect. I couldn't really pick anything specific. It's just never really become a total sentimental monolith in my life. But whenever it's on, I'm always like, yeah, great idea, executed well. Andy, believe. I do believe. And what I believe is that this is an absolute cracker. it's a total complete knockout there's just nothing that I can criticise with this

and so so so much that I can praise I just I want to start by talking about Cher really because I unfortunately missed the episode where we covered the Shoup Shoup song so I've never had a chance to talk about Cher on this show and she's a very interesting figure you know but first of all how many artists have they ever been

in all of music history that have had their big like not just their biggest hit but like Like, this is so far beyond everything else she's ever done. This is stratospheric compared to everything else. To have that happen at the age of 50, that's just incredible that that happened. And I can't think of anyone else.

And, like, to put it into context, it's like, it's like, say, if Kylie Minogue had had a hit of this size in 2020, you know? Or if, I guess it's something like, say if Gwen Stefani had a hit like this now. You know, that, someone from that long ago who's been in the business that long, who's been around 30 years,

and who has already become like, not even just someone who your parents like, but maybe someone who your grandparents like. And 50's not old, but it's older than anyone else in the charts, for sure. And it's absolutely remarkable that she manages to be as fresh, as current as this. Because, you know, we've talked about other people who've made unlikely comebacks. Talked about George Michael,

only in his late 30s, well, mid-30s in the late 90s, actually. And Callie Mononk, you know, when she comes back with, Can't Get You Out of my head and spinning around and has that big come back, she's only in her mid-30s as well. Like, in music industry terms, 50 is like, you know, that's like far the time.

Like, nobody has hits at that age. And I think that in itself is just amazing that she managed to sound so current that she's so on the zeitgeist. She's setting the zeitgeist with this. And it's particularly interesting because she's such an unlikely person for that to happen to.

Like, it's just so odd, because Cher has always been this really kind of odd, campy figure who's got this somewhat amusing voice, to be honest, who has this personality about her that's just, like, intrinsically very funny. And I'm a huge fan of her social media presence where she just puts out these absolutely mad tweets, and with reckless use of emojis, just goes nuts on them. My favourite tweet of all time by her was when she was unhappy about the Confederate flag being allowed under the First Amendment and was speculating about whether Seaworld might adopt them and attach Confederate flags to Wales and put loads of Confederate flags in the emoji.

And it was just very, very funny. And another tweet of hers that I loved is when she just put in all caps, what is happening to my career, which I'd like to get as a T-shirt. That would be great. And she's just a very funny presence. think it's surprising at all that she's often spoken of in the same sort of breath as RuPaul because she is sort of like a female RuPaul really where like she's got this extremely tacky quality to her this sort of always on you never see the real hair kind of thing to her and this

extremely cynical business minded mindset with very little sentiment attached to it and also just really super camp as well um yeah it she's a very very unusual presence um But that makes this really land even harder because it's like, where did this come from? From her? That it's extremely sincere, extremely cool, amazingly well produced. She's like up there among the absolute biggest superstars of the era. Like she's really pushing things forward here.

She's really like got other people looking at her thinking, whoa, what is she doing? And suddenly that kind of shoop-s-soup, I got you, babe, snap out of it, bitch, thing is just gone. And you've got this share with a sparkly hair in her auto tune and a really very quite moving breakup song. And the context of it, I think, makes it even more powerful that she came out with this and it gives you hope for everyone.

Like maybe we'll have the next, you know, song of this century by Jedward or something. Who can rule it out? Because Cher did this. You know, it gives you hope for everyone, really, doesn't it? As to the actual song, I mean, the autotune, I've always said, you know, that it proves that autotune can be very artistic, that it doesn't have to be, just as Rob said, it doesn't have to be the kind of X-factory, you know, just taking all the edge off of your vocals. It can be used for genuine artistic effect, to give you a robotic kind of unhinged sound. And also, being honest, autotune isn't inherently a bad thing. Like, I've used it when I've produced vocals, and there's just one little note that just needs a little tiny, half a semicone move. you know, if you just do it once in a song,

there's nothing wrong with that, really. Technology exists for a reason. Whereas, you know, when it tends to get done to, like I say, X Factor Winners or God knows, you know, Captain Tom or something, then it's not great. But here, like it's used as, always like a weapon, really, where it's used as several points in the song, usually in the choruses, or on there,

I can't break through, the Kaleighlet Breakthrough, is probably the most noticeable place where it's used up to the ending. it has that big, big showcase moment where just as she hits the big leap to believe in life, that's when you get the biggest use of autotune. And it does land so, so hard. And I think most of the songs that really successfully use autotune, like Sher did, took that note and have similar moments where that's like the bit where it really lands. Probably the most notable I can think of is Shackles, praise you,

where it has the, take this normal which is like a really notable use of autotune there as well but it's not just the issue I think the song itself has a wonderful atmosphere to it like I say it's a breakup song that really looks at okay

you've had your breakup now what happens next which is a nice angle to take and it does go a little bit of a journey I think Cher absolutely had the right idea by saying she can't just be sad for the whole song

she can't just be sad for the whole like I can totally admit imagined her saying that, she can't be sad for two songs, man. She needs to snap out of it. I can just totally imagine that. And it's right, because at some point this needs to turn too right, police have to get there. Yes, you can believe in life after love.

You don't have to believe it right now. You don't have to really, like, answer the question right now. But you've got to tell yourself things like, I don't need you anymore because you're not going to have them anymore. And I think the video goes with that really well, where you get that woman looking really full on. And it's like, yeah, she's not over him at all. but she's just believing that she can one day be over him,

and that's enough. It's a nice journey to go on. The whole production in general is gorgeous. You know, Rob's spoken loads about it. I'm not going to, you know, I'm not going to go on about it too much. But the vocal itself, even without the autotune, I think she does a really, really good vocal job.

Because, like I say, she's not someone who's known for her subtlety. She's not known for soft, tender vocals. But she managed to get real character into this. And the fact that she has quite an unusual sort of, of almost like a counter, not a counter-tenor, but almost like a female tenor sort of voice. It's very unusual voice she has. I think that lends it an air of detachment and an air of solemnity that this needs, really, that she can access this kind of sincere tone pretty easily.

And I think she gives a really good emotive performance in this. And like I say, in that bridge, we'll get through this when you really need that, come on, we can do this, girls. That's when it hits really hard. So I think overall, this is just the perfect pop package. When this came out and I was six years old, this was one of the very first songs that I was truly utterly obsessed with. I basically ordered my dads to buy me the CD single, which you did. I used to sing this multiple times every day.

I just absolutely adored this. And I still do. It's never left my life. I also agree with Rob that iconic is the word to use for this. That's not used lightly. This is truly genuinely a landmark in pop music. it come from the most unlikely of places. It's so, so well done, and it's so unforgettable.

And I think every part of the song verse, bridge, chorus, works independently and comes together as a truly magnificent whole. This is one of my favorite number ones of the whole decade. And I think it's probably one of my favorite songs of the whole decade. Certainly pop songs of the whole decade. Yeah, this is the absolute peak for the 90s, I think. Love it. A special mention has to go before we move on

the final song this week, to Adam Lambert, he of American Idol fame and now the lead singer of the current iteration of Queen. So he's done two versions of this song, one of them as like a devastating slow piano ballad that Cher apparently loved. And another as a comedy routine where it goes on this like American game show and is tasked with singing the tune of this song but with the lyrics to do you know the muffin man. And whenever Believe plays on the radio something my wife always waits till the chorus and then bursts into do you know the muffin man do you know the muffin man the muffin man who lives on drory lane yeah um but yeah i've always i've always been a fan of that adam lambert obviously does it like at least 94 times better than i

just did there they should get share herself to do it do you know the muffin man i think she'd give it a go these days she'd give any Did you hear that DJ player Christmas song once she released? Like it's so bad, but I admire the hustle. Like I say, she's a female group all. She'll just do anything if she gets paid enough. All right, so we're up to our fourth and final song this week, which is this. Okay, this is To You I Belong by Bewitched.

Released as the third single from the group's debut studio album titled Bewitched. To You I Belong is Bewitched Third. single to be released in the UK and their third to reach number one, and it's not the last time we'll be coming to bewitched during our 90s coverage. To you I belong went straight in at number one as a brand new entry. It stayed at number one for one week. We're back to that again. In its first and only week atop the charts, it sold 150,000 copies beating competition from She Wants You by Billy Piper, When You Believe by Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston, and end of the line by honies.

When it was knocked off the top of the charts, to you I belong, fell four places to number five. By the time it was done on the charts, it had been inside the top 104, 15 weeks. The song is currently officially certified gold. In the UK as a 2026. Ed, you can finish, well, you can begin the end with Bewitched. That's ominous.

but needlessly so because this is nice and I was expecting to be honest you know the obligatory ballad on the the girl band album I did not think that bewitched were going to be one of the ones that would pull it off I did not remember that this was bewitched and it's a little more harmonically interesting than I was expecting I love that little hook at the end of the chorus. It reminds me a lot of R-E-N, actually, that in a strange way. It's got that sort of forlorn bittersweet feel to it

with a touch of innocent wonder, you know? But yeah, I quite like this. I do love the bit where it turns around at the end from the end of the chorus, back into the chorus again, which just happens to work as a lovely, like, dramatic crux point, almost, you know, by accident. So it's a little more peak and trophy in a nice way than a sort of cookie cutter. This album needs a ballad by law offering that one might expect. I'm not a huge fan of the sort of squeaky, nasally delivery much, nor, and they can't

fucking get away from it, kind of like the OTT sort of Celtic. short-hand instrumentation. And also, I realise the ending is basically half-inched off left on my own devices by Pet Shop Boys. But hey, you know, stealing from the best. But yeah, yeah, this isn't, this is, yeah. Andy, Andy, to you I belong. Aw, lovely, oh, you're making me blot.

We'll have to tell your husband first, of course. Yeah. And my wife. We'll do that later. Anyway, yeah, so... It settles on about average, but there's things I really like, things really don't like.

I like that they're doing about it, for sure. They needed to do that, really, because they were just becoming very twee. They were becoming, like, the TV show, High Five, if anyone remembers that. They would just be coming, like, you know,

basically the wiggles, if they were all Irish women, you know, and it's good that they're doing something different here. I think Blaming on the Weatherman is, from memory is a much superior song to this, but I like that they're doing ballads. And I also

like the theme. I think it has some nice... I'm not sure I'd go as far as calling them hooks, because none of them really landed with me that hard. But just some nice little tens of melody, just some nice little phrases that occur throughout the song. And the production is surprisingly

nice as well, except for... And now we pivot into things I don't like at the start, where they really just have no subtlety with this Irish thing where it's it really just but clenchingly forced where it comes straight in with that mournful Irish instrumentation and I realize it's not just that it's but someone's also put together in the head like oh this is the kind of sounding had in Titanic because that's got the Irish instrumentation to it and that seems to be an inspiration to that opening as well

my heart will go on and it's just like I say it's really forced and like we seem to be in an era right now, like looking at both the obvious bits that Billy Piper's nicked for girlfriend and also for Honey to the Bee, which she said, she said openly, it's just a complete steel of never ever. And then also Jim and Tonic, where their whole song's just been nicked. We seem to be in a little era where people just really openly just take stuff and don't particularly attempt to disguise it. And it's really unusual. Maybe it's because there's so many covers around these days that people see it at all kind of fair game, really. But yeah, I didn't like that forced Irishness to it.

That's becoming a bit of a running problem for Bewitched. I also didn't particularly love the vocals. I don't know which one of them is singing. I actually don't know any of their names right now. I can't recall any of them. I just not sure that any of them really have the pipes for ballads. I'm not sure that was what was conceived for them. They're not that kind of band.

They're here for dancing and for... wearing denim and for being pop princesses. I'm not sure they're particularly made for standing at the mic doing ballads, to be honest. And, you know, that's fine. Not everybody has to be able to do everything, but I think vocally they're out of the comfort zone here. And it's all just a little bit slight, it's a little bit brief, you know, for all of the extremely unsubtle, extremely kid-friendly hoo-ha from the last few songs, it was entertaining. You know, it was really fun.

I wouldn't describe this as particularly engaging, to be honest. So they're out of their wheelhouse here, and it sort of shows. But it's a nice enough effort. It's okay. Yeah, I'm kind of in the middle on this as well. I think, you know, there haven't been many times on this show where we've encountered a song that is so nakedly trying to be another song that we've covered. But this is one of them because, oh my God, when I first listened to this, my first thought, well, re-listened to this, obviously,

been a bewitched super fan when I was four years old. How desperate this is to be to become one. A non-Christmas song being given a Christmas billing, a Christmas video, all those wintry outfits, the girls are even superimposed onto holiday package footage. There's part of me also wondering if the drum track hasn't just been lifted straight from To Become One wholesale. But all this really does for me, with 30 years of hindsight, is exposed that this is a bit weaker than to become one. You know, given the... Yes, just a bit.

Being generous. Given the bewitch girls slower material, I think exposes a little bit that they are weaker vocally than the spice girls, not just individually, but as a collective. How far behind they are in terms of storytelling and generating atmosphere in a slower song, how they maybe don't have that same

level of chemistry. There was also a moment when I first listened to this. That bit where the chorus starts, when she says, whenever day turns to now. And I was like, oh, that's a nice transition into a pre-chorus. Nope, that's the chorus. But I think without the ghost of two become one hanging over here, this isn't too bad. You know, it's understated and it's cozy.

I don't mind the Irish folk influences. I think they're tasteful enough. They're embedded into the song itself rather than just being thrown in for a section or a dance breakdown. The song allows you to work out if they're Irish or not, just if you're a first-time listener. It's not like, they're Irish, it's more, well, they could be Irish.

They have Irish folk influences. Why don't you listen and find out? They are weaker as vocalists than the Spice Girls, but that doesn't necessarily mean their weak, full stop, you know, just weaker as a, you know, a strong example. But I do think, though, we're seeing the. consequences here of the era that we're in where a lot of weaker second and third singles are getting to number one for a week or maybe two when they ordinarily maybe wouldn't you know we've

had turn back time by aqua we've had girlfriend by billy we've had this from bewitched booty call from all saints they all go silver or gold rather than platinum ordinarily these songs would not be getting number one if we weren't in this era i think they're just you know these are the kinds of songs that are meant to tied fans over, but we're getting fan base number ones, and the top song changes every week, except if you share. Things like this get exposure that maybe they don't deserve

and shouldn't have to deal with. This should be track seven on the album. Nobody really should be listening to it except like big bewitched fans who already love it, but it's given this huge status because like pop feels like it's the center of the universe right now and everybody's buying singles every single week the lowest selling number one this week has done 66,000 copies which if you plonk that into the mid 2000s or even now that's just like average 66,000.

That's like, you know, the upper end in the mid 2000s before downloads come in. It was 40s and 50,000 or even 30,000 or in the case of Orson, 17,000 that got their number one. less than 10 years from now. But here we are, and we're in this age. And, okay, if songs like this are getting more exposure than they deserve or maybe know how to deal with, it's still okay. It is still okay.

So before we leave, Ed, I'm just going to check with you. Girlfriend, Jim and Tonic, believe, and to you, I belong. How are we feeling on those four? Well, to insert the obligatory Doctor Who reference, Girlfriend is a void sphere of a song. Time and relative distraction in space. It's not really going anywhere. It's not really composed of anything.

And as far as I know, there's not a big explosion of Daleks that comes out of it at any point. So it's just sitting there in the middle of nowhere. Jim and Tonic is air, pretty much. not in kind of the cool contemporary French house group way, or even in the kind of easy expertise and flow of a Mozart piano concerto kind of way, or even a nice place to stop for a shit in a cup of tea on a French motorway kind of way. It's the dry recycled draft that comes out of a dehumidifier after it's done its job.

It's nothing. But as a result, I don't hate it. I don't, I just, it just fills time in a way that it doesn't even resemble a song in its resolve, strangely. So that's not going anywhere either. Share is quite clearly the pick here. I almost, almost didn't vault this. Almost. But you know what?

Listening to both of you, talk about the song, it's lyrics, it's cautious optimism, which so easily could have been more. Maudlin, you're right. I think it elevates this beyond being just a sing-along favourite. And do you know what? The spirit of it has probably helped boy some people up

in and out of a dance floor environment over the years. So yeah, do you know what? I am going to vault this one because it is really good. It's a really solid package. And yeah, Bewitched.

Putting some analog synth wibblies and samples of horses wickering or something and you could put it on Reveal by REM. Take that, as you will. I rather like Reveal. I gather that some people don't. But it's pretty enough and it's nicely short. It's not going anywhere though.

You know, it's not that good. Andy, Billy Piper, space dust, share and bewitched. Yeah, I'm also going to do the obligatory Doctor Who reference with me on this one. So me and Billy were standing on a beach. It's called Darlig Ulf Stranden.

Translates as Bad Wolf Bay. And it's after... Just to confirm this is the last time that Billy Piper gets number one

because we've covered day and night. I mean, anything can happen. She has shown us that. But this is the last time Billy gets number one. So she looks me in the

eyes. We meet for the last time. And she goes, Doctor! Not doctor, Andy, I vault you, and I say, well, quite right too. And Billy, if it's my last chance to say it, Billy Piper, and I fade away. Sorry, not getting vaulted, no. You just pop back in to say that.

Yeah, and then Catherine Tate turns up with the number one, and I vault that instead. Like Mr. Burns in that episode of The Simpsons when he's a vampire and he dies, and then he wakes up a second just to go, you're fired! You're fired! Or that great, great intro to David Lynch's Dune. Oh, I just remembered. Oh, yeah, sorry, just in case you hadn't had enough dry exposition. As for Jim and Tonic, well, I'm going to need a tonic from that really bad song.

That's some satire for you there, gentlemen. So that is getting pie holed. It's a tonic-flavored pie, and it's as disgusting as that sounds. As for Believe, I really don't think the vaults enough. Oh, like we need some sort of super vaults for that. That's getting vaulted so damn hard. Well done, Cher. Thanks, Andy.

You're welcome, Cher. And to you, I belong. Me, same way it is. Yeah, for me, girlfriend, that's going nowhere. Space dust is space shit. That's going in the pie hole quite firmly. Believe is going in the vault. That's finding its way in.

And to you, I belong, is just going to hang about in between, but a slightly higher standing than girlfriend, I think. So when we come back, it will be the race for Christmas number one in 1998. And then we're on to the last year of the 90s. I cannot believe the era, this era of the show is almost over. It's a year from being over. But we will see you for the last leg of the 90s. Bye-bye.

Bye.