Hits 21 - 1999 (3): Britney Spears, Boyzone, B*Witched, Mr. Oizo

Episode Date: May 7, 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 Hitz 21, the 90s, where me, Rob, May, Andy, and are looking back at every single UK number one of the 1990s. Email us, it hits 21 podcast at gmail.com. Yep, that's it. Don't go to Twitter anymore. It's scary. Thank you ever so much for joining us again. We are currently looking back at the year, 1999, and this week we'll be covering the period between the 21st of February and the 10th of April. So nearly two months in one episode there, Andy, the album charts.

We start with The Cause with Talk on Corners, which I feel like I mentioned so many times, but it is only a second time at number one, as we mentioned last week, which went nine times platinum, and was at number one for three weeks throughout most of March. Then, taking the reins is two of my favourite. things, performance and cocktails by stereophonics, which went number one for one week, and went triple platinum. I just think, that's not true now that I've said that. Performance and cocktails, I enjoy them both, but if I was ranking all life activities,

they'd both probably be somewhere like A or B tier, to be honest. Neither than S tier. But performance and cocktails, I prefer more than architecture and morality, as OMD put forward. I think both are better. I don't know where I'm going with this. This is very part of it. Very partridge. But anyway... Wonder got the Power Pack.

And we finished with a Britpop classic. The Britpop fans, Death Leopard and UB40. I'll stop with Partridge now. It's 13 by Blair, which went number one for two weeks and went single platinum. It was outsold by nine times by the quarters. That's where we are at the end of the 90s. Remember where we were just a few years ago? Time is remorseless. It comes for us all.

just those three albums this week. All right. In UK news, the Met Police are branded as institutionally racist following an investigation into the mishandling of the Stephen Lawrence murder case in 1993. And the minimum wage is introduced, starting at £3.60 an hour for workers over 21. That's around £7 an hour today. In world news, 31 people are killed in an avalanche in Austria, while 61 people are killed in a plane crash in China. elsewhere, the Melissa virus infects Microsoft Office and Outlook programs, causing $80 million worth of damage,

and Bertrand Picard and Brian Jones become the first people to travel around the earth in a hot air balloon. In celebrity news, legendary singer Dusty Springfield and influential film director Stanley Kubrick die within days of each other in late March at their homes in London and St. Albans, while later that month, beloved TV comedians Rod Hull and Ernie Wise also did. die just days apart at their homes in Sussex and Buckinghamshire. The number one films in the UK were Patch Adams, Waking Ned, and the Rugrats movie. Ed, the US charts. How are they doing?

In terms of albums, Andy, you had three albums, which seems a very small number for this period of time. I have two. But they are big, big hitters. Well, it's not always the size of the hit It's what you do with the hit, Ed. That's true. That's true. And these are sizable objects.

What? Anyway. Brittany begins to take hold of the zeitgeist As baby one more time stays at the top for two more weeks Before a full month of TLC's fan mail, Which is like chain mail, but it keeps you cool. It's non-stick, but as a result, it's also no scrub

Thank you please Oh dear me Brittany again Two more weeks And she isn't done yet Singles Angel of Mine by Monica Sees us all the way through

To mid-March It is in many ways The archetypal Mid to late 90s R&B ballad Complete with hushed vocals That boom-mo-o-o-baste thing We still keep hearing

And that Is it a guitar Is it a harpsichu middy sound they like to build songs around at this point but no matter how hard monica tries share is pushing her aside and she can break three because it's four weeks for me are you making fun of me head come on man i thought i thought i was paying you great homage there apparently not uh believe however is finally knocked off on the 10th of april by tlc with No Scrubs, which to be fair, if any song of this era was probably going to knock that off the top,

no Scrubs is a fair one to do so. That song was ginormous on both sides of the Atlantic. All right then, so the first of four songs up this week is this. Okay, this is Baby One More Time by Brittany Spears. Released as the lead single from her debut studio album titled Baby One More Time, Baby One More Time is Brittany Spears' first song to chart in the UK and her first ever number one. It's not her last number one overall, but it is her last number one of the 1990s. Baby One More Time went straight in at number one as a brand new entry. It stayed at number one for two weeks.

In its first week atop the charts, it sold 464,000 copies beating competition from Runaway by the Cause, X Factor by Lauren Hill, and I Want You Back by N-Sync. In week two, it sold 231,000 copies beating competition from Tender by Blur. It's not right, but it's okay by Whitney Houston, just looking by stereophonics, strong enough by share, erased by the cardigans, lullaby by Sean Mullins, and written in the stars by Elton John and Leanne Rhymes. After two weeks at the top, baby one more time dropped one place to number two. It remained inside the top 104, 23 weeks.

The single is currently officially certified four times platinum in the UK. As of 20 to 26, Andy. Brittany Spears, it's Britney bitch. She's here. What do you think? First of all, just a few shoutouts about the ones that got skipped over. Shame about the runaway. It's shame about runaway by the cause.

That's a nice one, and I was such a big fan of breathless, so it's a shame about that. But I am relieved about just looking where the stereophonics not getting number one, because Jesus Christ, I hate that. And I always find that in the syllable king in just looking, he manages to say all five vowels as part of that. I'm just looking. God, that voice. Jesus Christ, it's like an oil slick.

Anyway, this. So, growing up in the 1990s, in the late 1990s, is when I first started becoming, like, aware of things in general, right around this time. And I was a huge fan of the movie, Greece. A big, big fan of it. You know, it was an early sign that I was growing up to be a noted homosexual. But also, my parents were able to use that to discover that I was going to be a total dweep, a total nerd. Because it's the first time I've managed to spot a movie location that's been used somewhere. else. Because right at the time I was into my peak of Greece and was watching it like once a week

at least, this video came out to baby one more time. And I was like, that looks like the school from Greece. Turns out it is the school from Greece. They are the same location. The corridor where she does her famous dance, like in the middle of the song, surrounded by men and in the skimpy outfit, is the same corridor where at the beginning of Greece, the head teacher speaks to sunny and calls him Mr. La Acheheri. It's the same corridor. And the whole school. It shows loads and loads of locations, which is really cool. I only mention this because not only is it a fun bit of trivia, but in 2019, I was on a holiday in Los Angeles and we were staying in Venice Beach, and there was this building around the corner, which we went past a few times.

And I was like, where do I know that building? I've seen that building before. Like, that's, obviously, it was in LA, so when you recognize something, you're like, oh, that's been in a movie. What is that? And I looked it up and it was Venice Beach High School, which is the school from both Greece and this video. And I remember just going past her thinking, oh my God, that is probably the most famous school in the world

that's got two incredible claims to fame. And I've been there. I walked right past it and it looks exactly the same as it did in the 70s slash 90s. Isn't that lovely? Anyway, this song itself, I mean, I remember it landed in like a nuclear bomb. It was just absolutely a non-year-old.

And I do think that at least some of it, we have to acknowledge that it was just kind of male gaze kind of stuff, that she was, you know, this very just barely legal age girl who was wearing these incredibly skimpy outfits, you know, doing a kind of popular role play fantasy with the schoolgirl thing. And I think that is a little bit of a gimmick, unfortunately. But it's an added extra for something that was always going to be a hit, I think, because it's got so many brilliant hooks, right from the very first second. seconds with their, oh, baby, baby, that they manage to disconnect that from the rest of the verse, where she actually says that as lyrics, you know, over and over again, but they just take away that little bit, so that's the bit that sticks with you. And by putting it right at the start, it makes all of the verses sing-alongs,

because you already know how to start the verses go. It's just a fun little trick. And it's just got this rhythm to it where all the lines really, really land in the right beats. They all really kind of land on the twos and fours really hard and have these kind of orchestral hits that go behind them.

So it just, everything has a massive impact to it. Put against the voice of Britney Spears, which is always, you know, it's kind of a thin voice and very kind of, yeah, yeah, it's kind of the best way you can describe it, if that's a word, which it isn't. It creates this really interesting kind of sonic texture, which would become such a sound of the early Nauties, you know, NSYNC would ape it hilariously with it, it's going to be my. And then we've talked about Billy Piper, who did it with day and night. and Backstreet Boys and all sorts. You know, so many songs would kind of cover this vocal style with this production style of really big, loud, boom, boom, kind of pop production,

but with a very kind of sensual voice at the heart of it. It's also just a really, really catchy song. Like, that's not, apart from the Oh, Baby, Baby, it's also got a really great single on chorus. It does that brilliant thing, which is obviously a hallmark of this kind of music that we've said before, where the chorus is slightly different,

and that's the best bit of the song, I think, is the last chorus where they change the melody of it and it changes the lyrics as well does it change the lyrics? No it's the same lyrics but it just changes the melody and the video despite being a little bit kind of gross and titillating it is extremely iconic like every

scene in that video is just burnt into my brain there's something about it about the way it's shot that it's kind of instantly iconic really it's one of those songs that we've had a few times now where I don't have a huge amount else to say because this is just really good. This is just a slam dunk. It does everything great. I don't think it's

perfect. I do think that Britney's vocals could be a little bit stronger on this, and I do think the overall package is just a little bit kind of leaning into the sex a bit too hard for me, but it's a brilliant pop song. It's iconic for the right reasons

despite the fact that all the sexiness is attached. Like it would have got there anyway. and as debut singles go there really are not many that hit the spot as well as this we've had wannabe and I think those are the big two really certainly of this decade

but like as debut singles go this is pretty much the best you can do so well done Brittany and it's a bit of a shame that I don't think we're ever going to talk about her again are we because all of her other hits are in the noughties feels a bit weird

we do have one we do have one in 2013 but it's... How do I put this? There is a debate over how much of Brittany is on the song. I know the one. Yes, yes, I know the one.

But yeah, really, really love this. I just can't give it an absolute perfect end, but I do really love this. This is great, yeah. Yes, hello, Brittany. Glad you could join usher in the new millennium just a few months before it occurs on the calendar. Oh, God, this is so many things clashing at once.

Several waves all cresting at the same. same time, you know, to do with music trends and the music industry, you know, the money being spent on pop music in the late 90s, I think it's higher than at any point in history up to the new millennium. Even in the UK, you know, songs are traveling around at the top of the charts, like The Speed of Light, all selling hundreds of thousands of copies. Things like Bubblegum and Team Pop have bounced back, but in a sort of urbanized way with a bit of hip-hop and New Jack Swing. the American music industry is operating at like a conglomerate level never really seen before. And the rise of somebody like Brittany through several auditions, a Disney Channel thing, you know,

it feels like it's setting the template for where a lot of prominent teen pop stars are going to emerge from in the near future and sort of for the rest of time up until now. Like if you think of Olivia Rodrigo as like a distant descendant of Britney Spears, you know, she came up in the same way just kind of 20 years later, did some Disney stuff. some auditions, emerged out of a Disney show, became a solo artist, and there you go. Just in Tim Blake and Ryan Gosling, they both came up alongside Brittany on the same TV shows, that Mickey Mouse Club reunion, Reunion, revival, sort of in the mid to late 90s, on the same path. And I'm not saying that, like, Brittany was like the first to come up this way.

I mean, we've just had the peak of Billy Piper go past in the UK. So it's weird to think, like, you know, if you looked at it in a vacuum, you'd sort of think, oh yeah, I guess Billy Piper was a bit of a Britney copy. It's like, nope, she was around a whole year before Britney, but you can tell that that kind of thing is going on on both sides of the Atlantic now, where, like, Brittany's kind of like the shining example in the industry of how to construct, like, basically a fictional teenager in the public eye in order to sell millions and millions and millions of singles.

And I think it's worth mentioning as well that while it takes another three years, three or four years to be a constant thing. Brittany arriving really feels like in a 21st century context, like she ushers in this era of the American and British charts, kind of a lining in terms of taste. I think it takes until like crazy in love for the doors to really be blown open. But that is only four years away. I feel like, you know,

we've gone past a lot of things, Ed, on this podcast where you've covered them in terms of like, you know, being massive in America at the start of each show. and then there's no presence over here whatsoever. There's been a few things. Yes, exactly, Garth Brooks. But there's been a few things like, you know, the boy is mine and things like that. But Britney Spears, she feels like the,

in, you know, in a 21st century kind of context and in my lifetime, there's a sort of like, oh, both sides of the Atlantic agreed that we were obsessed with this in exactly the same way as each other. But I don't think that any of the above happens, what I've just said, if this isn't fantastic, because the whole experiment probably doesn't work in the same way for Brittany if this isn't outrageously infectious pop. You know, maybe it does all happen to Brittany, but maybe years later.

Maybe it happens to another team pop star. Maybe they push Justin Timberlake as a solo artist about three years earlier than they did. Maybe this all happens to one of Brandeer Monaco instead. But like, this is fantastic. So it happens to Brittany. That three-note piano sample hammers its way in and in. introduces Brittany in a way that sounds thoroughly teenage. It just,

that's great. I remember, like, she became, with this song on its own, as I remember it, one of the most instantly recognisable voices and faces in all of pop and popular culture,

basically straight away. And it all comes, Andy, from that bit that you immediately went in on, that everybody immediately goes in on just the, oh, baby, baby. That is exactly how you announce yourself.

And it's very, nasal and very heavily on vocal fry. And it's weird to think again that like that kind of pop vocal wasn't as it's nowhere near as prominent before and after Brittany. There is a before and after I think. Even just later this year, something like Jeannie in a bottle by Christina Aguilera, if you think about Christina Aguilera's voice in about three or four years from now and compare it to Jeannie in a bottle, you can see that like there is a particular vein of vocal

that they were going for and then changed. and moved away from as Brittany became the shining example of that kind of voice as well that is exactly how you announce yourself as a pop artist and from there this it stays strutting it stays moving it displays the kind of brash confidence that only really Americans can deliver at this point in time because the British equivalent of this at the moment

is Billy Piper with because we want to which came first but seems very tame in comparison to this where that song has this kind of dramatic ironic irony to it where like, you know, she's just a kid and, you know, she's playing around and trying to act rebellious, but she's not really. And, you know, it feels very first year of secondary school, Billy Piper. But baby one more time is racier and more mature and more, it's brash, you know, it feels slightly more last year of high school. It's more streetwise. The whole song is full of massive events that are usually signalled by a sudden, you know, rush of synth

strings, all that thudding shot of the this genuine melodrama, allusions to real emotional turmoil. I don't think the hit me is meant to be taken literally, but Max Martin will have been aware of the connotations, I'm sure, and Britney too, when they were working on this together and putting everything

together for the video and all that. There's a real sense with this, I think, that it's trying to push back on the narrative, that teenage feelings are valid, but still ultimately teenage feelings. Sort of by saying, I think, with this song. You still feel these teenage feelings, even when you're 35, we've just been conditioned not to admit this to ourselves. And yeah, when you construct and execute something like

this, it is very hard to deny that argument while you're listening to it. But even beyond the symbolic and cultural connotations of this song, landing and impacting like a meteor into everyone's lives, the writing in this has always pert my ears up as it moves from the original setting into that pre-chorus, you know, the chords underpinning the composition. You know, the chords underpinning the composition. They never change, but the atmosphere shifts completely with that, show me how you want it to be. And then, you know, into the chorus, you don't really feel the main chord sequence shift, but the mood shifts. And you sort of realize that Max Martin and Brittany, they're finding new ways for the melody to harmonically interact with what's going on

around it. The only time it really changes in terms of like, you know, the chords and the that it's going for there is when it goes into that bridge section and it goes up a bit and it does the um it sort of lands on a g which it hasn't done at any point before in the song i think and for you know and it does that little bit of variation as well with the with the lyrics where it takes the most memorable portions of the song and writes them with a slightly different melody or a slightly different rhythm and you know this song is not this song without the bit that goes i must confess that my loneliness, it just suddenly jumps into a different atmosphere. And in the same way, actually, Max Martin, 17 years after this,

when he writes into you by Ariana Grande, that Coda section, it does the same thing, where it does the, So come light me up, so come light me up, my baby, where we have a little sing-song section, a little sing-along section. And that's all here too. The only aspect of this to me that maybe hasn't ever, age so well are those little shots of like slap bass in the verse, which is something that got left behind in the Y2K era and maybe robs it a little bit of some timelessness.

Just the, b'p-b-bow. It just, I understand that they're going for the kind of sexy, racy thing, but it just sounds a bit, it sounds a bit like video nasty kind of pawned. Here's, hmm, you've ordered three pizzas, but there's only one of you here. Beb-b-b-b-b-you-now, you know, but this, like, I agree, Andy. I remember Brittany becoming like the most famous person on the planet almost overnight with this. She became a music icon, a fashion icon, a teenage icon.

She kind of crystallized and then became the representative of the young kind of Y2K female adolescent. Because, you know, through a lot of the mid to late 90s, she had loads of big pop culture figures like Sharon Michelle Geller, Melissa Joan Hart, Alicia Silverstone, Christina Richie, or Drew Barry. and Drew Barrymore. And then Britney Spears just kind of looked, sounded, behaved, and dressed like all of them put together, but also like none of them at the same time.

And then carried that style into the mid-2000s. There is an incredible video on YouTube. The title is 1970 to 2020 every year of high school medley. And it's just camcorder footage and video footage, year by year, of 50 years of high schools in America. And the song that plays is this huge mashup by a guy called DJ Earworm.

that the mashup is called Time of Our Lives. And it's this huge seven-minute audio collage of dozens of major hits, arranged chronologically from 1970 to 2020. And let me tell you, there's a moment in that video that will explain to anyone born after the year 2000, just how famous Brittany was as the 20th century moved into the 21st, where the caption on the video changes from 99 to 2000. The song that immediately starts is oops I did it.

it again and the camera immediately cuts to a girl who is the absolute spitting image of Brittany. And in the comment, somebody has identified this moment as a particularly noteworthy one in the video as well. And then someone else describes it as everyone going from looking like Adam Sandler in Billy Madison to everyone looking like Britney Spears. And I think if anyone's listening to this that's like 16 or maybe under the age of 20, if you want an idea of how big Britney was off the back of this and the first run of singles, imagine Taylor. Swift but somehow bigger and you only have five TV channels and Taylor Swift is on all of them. You listen to about five different pop radio stations and Taylor Swift is on all of them all

of the time. And when you get Freeview TV with more channels, the music video channels are all Britney and also every girl at your school dresses like Taylor Swift and your parents all know who she is and know all the words to her hit songs, despite you not even really being a fan, which means they're also hearing her and seeing her everywhere. This is an event. Definitely an event. Ed, Brittany.

And also, modern kids, if you want an idea of what it was like Batman, imagine Taylor Swift, but with better songs. So, yeah, it's nice that behind the era-defining sexy schoolgirls schick here, there is, as both of you have indicated, a really, really, really good song. It wouldn't be her last great song, but it may possibly still be her greatest. Now, that's contentious deliberately, because I'm kind of covering for the fact that I have nothing more to add to what you two have already said, because I agree wholeheartedly. This was huge, it remains huge, and there is a reason for that beyond her just dressing up in a skimpy schoolgirl outfit. I, yeah, I'm not sure, to be honest, whether this is my favourite of.

hers. I know that when we did the 2000s, Andy and Lizzie, they both loved toxic. Just that little bit more than me. I think toxic and baby one more time, I think if somebody came to me and said, those are her two best singles, I wouldn't

necessarily argue with them, but I would say, I think that every time belongs in that top three. I think that those three together, I think they do kind of tell the story, actually, of Brittany's beginning her second peak and then kind of where it all went so badly wrong and how poorly she was handled and how

mentally unwell she became and but then you know she's had you know big comebacks as well with things like give me more and obviously we will cover her again in 2013 with scream and shout obviously with well i am but again there is a little bit of a debate about that as to whether it's all brittany on that but there has been a bit of um i think at one point it was meant There's some rumour that it was meant to be written for Talisa, she of N-dubs, which is why a fair portion of the female vocals in that song are, at least in a British accent. It could be Brittany doing that British accent. But the British accent is still there.

Yeah, but the British accent is still there. It's not like a high watermark anyway, though. No, it is shit. Yeah, it really is. It's fucking rubbish. I mean, I remember in a previous podcast, having a iron amudoma on my show on five to talk about Britney Spears. And so, you know, he got me and I was like, well, you know, I like the singles of hers I've heard and I did a bit of a deep dive.

And I've got to say, on the whole, I enjoyed her output. But there was a real, there was a real dip at one point. And I think we both honed in on that as being a real shallow sellout moment from a very difficult. era. She did kind of claw it back. And beyond the musical output, it does seem like she's been doing a lot better recently, which is pleasing. But yeah, the variety of her singles is quite extraordinary, because I was just trying to think of the ones that I

would place in competition with this as her best. Obviously, well, it's a kind of, you know, rewrite. It is very good. Oops, I did it again. It's a good song. Yeah. But toxic, as you mentioned, is great, completely different. but I'm very fond of that circus era, really like circus, and I really, really like womanizer. I think that's a great song that's quite underrated.

It's got a real buzz and energy to it. And just the cheek of making your chorus basically, womanizer, womanizer, womanizer. It should be terrible, but I am really digging it, and she really leans into the sassiness with it. It's superb. Got a nice bit of electropon. buzz to it. All right then, so the second song up this week is this. Okay, this is When the Going Gets Tough by Boyzone.

Released as the official single for Comic Relief in 1999 and as the lead single from the group's first greatest hits album titled By Request, When the Going Gets Tough is Boyzone's 50th single to chart in the UK and their fifth number one. And it's not the last time we'll be coming to Boyzone in the 90s. The single is a cover of the song originally recorded by Billy Ocean, which reached number one in the UK in 1986. When the going gets tough went straight in at number one as a brand new entry. It stayed at number one for two weeks.

In its first week atop the charts, it sold 213,000 copies, beating competition from We Like to Party by the Venger Boys, as by George Michael and Mary J. Blige, nothing really matters by Madonna and what's so different by Genuine. And in week two, it sold 197,000 copies, beating competition from Better Best Forgotten by Steps, You stole the sun from my heart by Manic Street Preachers, and At My Most Beautiful by REM.

After two weeks at the top, when the going gets tough, dropped one place to number, Number two. It remained inside the top 100 for 17 weeks. The single is currently officially certified platinum in the UK. As of 2026, Ed, when the going gets tough, how are we feeling on this? Well, I noticed you said, greatest hits, part one. I really, it brings a cold, metallic feeling to my heart and soul.

when I try and consider what might be on a part two, which I trust the was, but fucking hell that's going to be meagre. Anyway, right, on that charming note, I do quite like the Billy Ocean original. I don't love it. I quite like it. It's got energy.

It's got an abrasive maximalist 80s charm to it. So this has a chance. Bitternly, beyond raising money for charity, this does have no independent value. It doesn't really differentiate. itself from the original, except for removing the bonkers 80s sampling intro. Have you heard the original recently? Semi recently.

Yeah, it opens with a bizarre discordant sound collage and then goes into this bouncy, very 80s pop song. Not sure what the logic was there. I guess it was the early to mid-80s. This isn't as punchy nor crass as that, and I think it's unfortunate on both counts. I don't think Boyzone ever will have sharp edges which is amazing considering how much they needle me with everything they do

and none of them can sing as well as Billy Ocean Billy Ocean was a really good vocalist very versatile a lot of charm lot of energy yeah however they don't embarrass themselves which is it's a lot for Boyzone

and that matters a lot. I mean, this is, it's fine. It serves its purpose, and it doesn't, for once, seem to be preying on vulnerable mills and boon readers. Because they have turned into this hideous, sort of treacle machine

that creeps into the houses of the lonely and promises them shite and pretends that it knows them. Fucking boy's own. But anyway, yes. Well done, boys. I will kill you last. Oh, my thoughts on this can be summed up by my reaction to first listening back to this after many, many years. My mum had that Boyzone buy request, greatest hits album for a bit, and she had it on tape in the car.

I think now she would say, oh, well, you know, I didn't mind Boyzone. And then she'd say, but I was a new mum. I'll chalk it up to that, I think. And so as soon as this started playing, I remember the broadshed. shape of it and I remember there was going to be a bit where all the five boys would go, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, but I'd sort of forgotten how the song starts. So in it comes mid-80s, Billy Ocean, so not even good Billy Ocean, really, and it's that sound world via comic relief. So I'm like, okay, I do at least remember this being better than the stonk.

And I'm like, you know, humming along to him ahead, you know, do, do, do, do do. And then Rona just comes in with that, I got something to tell you. I just burst out laughing. Immediately just say, I got shot and da. Fucking hell. My reaction to it was completely instinctive. The whole thing is just wretched.

I've listened to this a few times now, hoping that may be going on with the whole song and reaching the end. Something else from this song might replace Ronan's introduction in my memory, but nope, I cannot get past Ronan's inches. Every time I'm listening to bits of the song, and whenever he comes back in, just with his annoyingly rounded, rolled voice that just sounds like his tongue has turned into a yule log.

Just the, how come in him? Oh, God. He calling this river. I didn't hate Ronan Keating's voice before we started the 90s, but I just, it is distractingly bad in this. And that, oh God, that introduction, Jesus Christ, it's a good job I wasn't driving. I might have crashed, and I don't know if I'd have crashed on purpose. Andy, when the going gets tough? Well, yes.

I'm not as bad on it as that, purely because I honestly think that the things about boys' own that I hate at this point are baked in. So it's Ronan's voice. The general languidity, is the word I'm going to use, of them, and the general crumbiness of them overall.

And just the fact that they're just a bit shit in general. Like, there's just nothing they can do to discuss. gave that really and like I dislike them as a, not as people obviously, I dislike them as a band so much at this point. That's like, yeah, yeah, whatever, that's already baked in.

Like, you know, like, what type of punch in the face do you want to give me this week? You know, whereas this at least has some bounce to it, has some energy to it. It's not nothing. You know, it's like, it's got a little bit of bounce. Well done. It isn't nothing. Well, it's like, you know, you can sort of maybe

think about beginning to tap your foot to it a little bit, you know, and it's like, there's some vague sense of they might do this on a stage at some point, and it might not be a funeral when they do that. You know, like, there's something to it. But it's a NAF cover. There's nothing to it other than, you know, the NAF cover of it. It's certainly got no individual style to it.

It sounds like it was done about five minutes. I am ashamed to say that I had the single of this as a child, but I think it was because of the comic relief side of it, that I was like, yeah, you know, I want to support Red Nose Day. because there's really, you know, I really don't have much else to say other than that. It's, you know, it's, it's, it's all right. And I don't think it's going too far

to say, like this may be a hot take, but really, of all the songs that we've covered ever on this show, in many ways, this is one of them. That's a perfect summation. One of these songs to be released in the year 1999. Definitely. All right then, so the third song up this week is this. Okay, this is Blame It on the Weatherman by Bewitched.

Released as the fourth single from their debut studio album titled Bewitched. Blame It on the Weatherman is Bewitched fourth single to be released in the UK and their fourth to reach number one. However, as of 2026, it is their last. Blame It on the Weatherman 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 98,000 copies beating competition from Strong by Robbie Williams, My Love by Kelle the Rock,

and music to watch Girls Go By by by Andy Williams. After one week at the top, Blame It on the Weatherman, fell eight places to number nine. It remained inside the top 104, 12 weeks. The single is currently officially certified, silver in the UK. As of 20, 26, oh, it feels like the beginning of the end of the road for Bewitched,

which is a shame, because you know what? I have had a much better time with Bewitched these four singles than I ever thought I would. Ed, you can go first with this one. Yeah, I had forgotten about this, and I was pleasantly surprised. I did remember it when I got around to hearing it again for the first time, since it was probably played on the radio back in the late 90s.

Yeah, it wasn't what I was expecting either. If I could describe this as anything, it would be REM adjacent. Because listening to this, I'm like, this sounds a bit like the slightly janglier moments on maybe up or reveal the late 90s, early naughties period where they kind of moved away from the rockier side. after the drummer left and got a little bit more pensive and poppy and some of that stuff's great and I think this would have tucked onto something like Reveal very nicely

just had some horse sound effects and Michael Stipe and you're laughing and added bonus there's no costume shop Irishisms that I'm aware of this is just a nice song that isn't like it's a nice song by young girls from Ireland let's do an island and let's do a island and let's do with young girls.

It is very pleasant throughout. It's very well written. All of the sections are good. Therein lies my slight issue that means I can't quite vault this. The sections kind of wash into each other and there's not really that peak point, that chorus crux point that this needs.

It's kind of roller coaster had a similar problem where the chorus was like, it's fine, but it doesn't have that decisive. We swung through a nice bridge section and now, boof, the uppercut. And this is obviously the high point of the song. And then it has a nice flow back into the verse and then back up again, as a roller coaster, should do in many ways. But yeah, I feel the same here. I don't think it's pendulous chorus. As lovely and meditative it is as it is, is quite as big.

as it should be. And that's a shame, because I really like this. It's charming. The vocals have improved. I mean, I might just be pure projection, because this is off the first album, after all. It might have been the bloody first one recorded for all I know. But yeah, on the whole, I find this very charming,

very melodic, and a nice change of pace for Bewitched. Yeah, I think, you know, that this has really grown on me as well, to the point where this might be my joint favourite, Bewitch single now and might have been my joint favorite cause single if they'd written and released it instead. As it is, based on what I said about Brittany before, Tracy Ackerman and Ray Hedges, who wrote this,

it seems they'd been bouncing around as well, a bit like Max Martin, but of the British, you know, pop industry, penning stuff for, like, PJ and Duncan, boy's own, later era Kim Wilde. Do you know, Ed, what song they did for PJ and Duncan? You crazy cats. Oh, me and my brother used to gut ourselves at that. But then Bewitch brought them together as a duo.

And I guess when you're basically writing under working conditions like every single day, you know, like the old Brill Building lot or the old Motown lot, you know, but for kids, actually, you know, occasionally, sometimes I think they must just get the urge to make something a bit more mature and cater to a slightly older audience, you know, maybe try and sneak a few things past your bosses and focus groups and see if you can Trojan Horse more of a passion project of yours into the charts And so, you know, you pick the fourth single, you know, that way there's low expectations.

The label might give you a bit of leeway. You can pick an ostensible, just an album track, you know, and run it up the flagpole and see what happens. And how lovely it is, I think, that the UK responded to this potential new direction for Bewitch by sending it to number one. Yes, it's a fan base, number one, and it plummeted as soon as it left, number one. But I can forgive everybody this on this occasion, because, hey, at least it got there. And I think I saw another stat as well This made Bewitched The first girl group in UK chart history

To have their first four singles All to go straight in at number one As a brand new entry Because wannabe didn't debut at number one It debuted at number three And then climbed So Bewitched had their first four singles All went in as new entries at number one

Hey there have been far less deserving bands Yeah I think it's probably happened since I feel like it It must be something that's been broken since maybe not. It's a shame, though, after this. I think that Bewitch kind of just repeated the obvious beats and was sort of done by 2001. But we have this, don't we?

And it feels a bit like the cause or a little bit of an influence on this. Hedges and Ackerman kind of sounding like Bewitch's own, you know, like very own tinting out, because it was obviously the tinting out remixes that sent the cause over the top. And, you know, it still has that sort of sweet, wide-eyed naivety of their first three singles. but it feels like there's more detail here. You know, maybe like with the cause having such success, they've maybe thought, okay, well, this one's on the album, but it's kind of most like something the cause would do.

So let's see, you know, let's see. You know, the cause is having a lot of success. Let's see if we can go on further. And yeah, you know, it still has that slightly wintry feel of two UI belong as well, but there's more ebb and flow to this. There's a real sense of momentum and change with each new section. I'm not a huge fan of the timpani blasts

that introduced the chorus, which feels like it's over-egging the pudding a little bit. But hey, you know, it does contribute to a shifting atmosphere that feels really important for pop singles around this time, because never, never have we been in an era before where bass feels so inessential to how a lot of factory line pop acts like this actually sound. You know, groups like Bewitched and Steps and S Club and 911 and Backstreet Boys, you know, their songs were designed to sound as lightweight as the CDs they came on. So if you're not going to use the low end for much of a frequency base, basic dynamic push, you've got to bring that presence of an undercurrent from elsewhere.

And, you know, this manages to do that with sharp shifts in atmosphere. The vocal launch into that, you know, the rain goes on. It was quite striking, I think, because it arrives at that point where on to you, I belong, I just wanted a change in direction, but didn't get one. But then this one does it. It's not a Volta, but it is close. And it's a shame they never really go back to this particular well again. Like, Jesse Hold on, which is the song they come back with, sort of a

rerun of the roller coaster sound and that's their last top 10 hit in the UK, remarkably. They've still got one more top 10 hit because they were part of that various artists lot who did thank Abba for the music. But as Bewitched, that's kind of it. They do a song with Lady Smith, Blackmon Basso of all acts and that gets to number 13. And that's kind of it over. But I'm glad we've gone past Bewitched again because they have always, in my head, I've always kind of written them off a bit as a bit frothy. And we are in. a very frothy era of pop, and I'm not saying bewitched weren't frothy,

but they were good froth. I was happy with their froth, and I'm glad we've re-experienced them. Andy, blame it on the weatherman. I will, bloody weatherman. Anyway, yeah, I wonder how personally a text, Weatherman felt by this song, is an interesting thought.

Anyway, yes, with this, I completely agree with what Ed said about how this is, like, unusually good songwriting for an act like this. I actually see what you mean, Ed, with the R-A-M thing. I do see what you mean with that. That it's quite tonal in a way that you don't often hear

from boy bands and girl bands or, you know, really mainstream pop artists like this. I think the thing that's really interesting to me is that, what I mean by tonal, what it really kind of commits to, is that you almost don't know which is the verse and which is the chorus, because it's got these two very distinct bits where, like, what you would normally call the verses have that main hook of the song

they're blaming on yourself and they're blaming on the weatherman but then the chorus is something kind of different and not quite as striking and it kind of makes you wonder like which is witcher like this is a thing that sort of has stanzas to it like it's unusually sophisticated pop writing this

for someone not in general but for someone like bewitch who are you know looking on their other three so far we've had Say-Lavi which is gimmicky but you know fun for all the family roller coaster which is music for actual children let's be honest and to i belong which was just kind of you know whatever it's kind of generic pop ballad for them really this is like genuinely

quite interesting and i've always really quite like this i think it had some kind of breakthrough to them as well i think it did give them some credibility like using that cause influence but probably not just the cause i think maybe that kind of more um a kind of more credible irish folky sound of the 90s, I think they were sort of thinking about to happen into a bit as well. And I think for the most part it works. I wish that they'd had some more success of the more serious act, because this would have been

and, you know, should have been really their turning point where they became more interested, like I say, more credible artists. I think once you take away, they're, oh, what am I like? Smack me on the bonds, daddy. Once they take all that away, you know, they do seem to

completely lose their USP and it seems like as soon as they had a song like this, despite of being successful, we all got bored of them and the ground fell from underneath them entirely once they stopped doing the whole, you know, did-d-de-de-de-de, hello, what am I like? It's the kind of thing. And I think that's a real shame because this feels more like kind of proper pop music than the others did, to be honest. And yeah, it makes me kind of a bit sad, really. You know, sometimes democracy doesn't always work, does it? But, yeah, like I say, I think this had some real kind of crossover appeal.

I don't know if either of you two are very familiar with Charmed, which is one of my husband's favourite shows ever because he grew up on Charmed. Alas, no, I was only vaguely aware of it. It's kind of so bad it's good. Funnily enough, this is the second time I mentioned that trip to L.A. this week, because we went to the house where it's set in Charmed,

we sat outside, which, trivia for you, is next door to the house in the Thriller video where his girlfriend is, so we saw two locations right next to each other. Anyway, one of the funny things they do in Chalmers is that one of the characters, Piper owns a bar, and to make it look like a really successful cool bar, they often have quite big acts playing, and it's not just like playing the song.

They're there. They come and do guest spots on the show, and they treat it like it's just this totally normal thing, despite the fact they've got big guest stars. And there was one episode where, like, Piper's just like chopping lemons or something, and her sister talks, and she goes, do you mind, I'm trying to listen to the flaming lips,

and you cut to the stage, and there are the flaming lips on stage doing do you realize and there's like some one episode there's the cranberries doing just your imagination and then i think i think gwen stephanie's there at one point like these big names who were just like yeah whatever like anyway should we talk about this this potion that i'm making you know and it's quite silly um but it became a kind of feature of charm is that you'd have the song to play us out sometimes they weren't always you know there in person but you'd have this song to play us out and in the season five premiere, I was astonished when I watched this a few years ago.

And bearing in mind that premieres in those days, in 90s American television were much, much, much bigger deals than finale. Premiers were your big ones. And that episode is played out with a huge montage, not in person, but the whole, basically the whole song of Play It on the Weatherman, plays out the episode. And this is in 2003. So way after Bewitches High Point was their big exposure moment in America with this song and the series premiere of charm.

The whole thing played over the top of it. I don't even think it... I don't even think it charted originally in America. No, it was a big, big break for them to get that appearance. And it's used to quite lovely effect. But yeah, I'm glad this is the one that, you know, has a little bit more kind of mainstream thumbs up to it. Because for me, it's definitely their most interesting of their four hits.

I don't know if I would say it's the best because it's really apples and oranges. Like, Say Levy is just so much fun. So much fun. Despite how silly it is. much fun. But this is a completely different flavor. And, you know, depending on what mood I'm in, this was maybe their best one for me. Yeah, really like this. Yeah, Sela V got to number nine in America and roller coaster got to number 67 and then that's it for them. So yeah, blame it on the weather man. Never really charted in America. It's a shame this one missed them because actually it fits

quite well into the sort of slightly forlorn pop-adjacent female singer-songwriter space of the 90s. So I don't, it's a shame. Obviously, it did find its appropriate home, though. All right, so the fourth and final song this week is this. Oh yeah, I used to now point him. He's a real jerky. Okay, this is Flatbeat by Mr. Wazzo. Released as the second single from his debut studio album titled Analog Worms Attack.

Flatbeat is Mr. Wazzo's first single to chart in the UK and his first to reach number one. However, as of 2026, it is his last. Flatbeat went straight in at number one as a brand new entry. It stayed at number one for two weeks. In its first week atop the charts, it sold 283,000 copies beating competition from Witch Doctor by cartoons, Honey to the Bee by Billy Piper, you get what you give by the new radicals, no scrubs by TLC, and you've got a B by Desiree. And in week two, it sold 184,000 copies, beating competition from My Name is by Eminem,

Turnaround by Fats and Small, thank Abba for the music by various artists, and Dead from the Ways Down by Catatonia. Jesus, did the whole of the late 90s just happen in that two-week period? What the fuck? Which doctor? Get what you give? No scrubs, M&Ms there? After two weeks at the top, flat beat dropped one place to number two.

It remained inside the top 104. 20 weeks. The single is currently officially certified platinum in the UK. As of 20 to 26, good God. I feel like, yeah, that top 10 that went by just then in the two weeks. I felt like that was like every single mobile DJ's collection summed up there for the next three or four years. Busy with memorable hit this period, isn't it? Very, very.

Andy, Mr. Wazzo. I think I'm going to say something right out of the gate, which you may disagree with, but I think you just will not change my mind on this. The only reason this had any success at all is because of that music video with the nodding Flat Eric, he was called. Yeah, it was Levi's as well. It was part of an extension of a Levi's campaign, so we have another one of those. Yeah, but it's just like, it's just because of that video. And I remember the video very well, and I also remember the summer of 99 when I was in Blackpool that summer. with all of these songs like big the ones that you just mentioned

I remember this period of time very very vividly it's the first like big summer I remember and the flat Eric puppets were everywhere everywhere it was that it was Spice Girls stuff it was step stuff but those puppets you could get everywhere

I think I probably had one and I never thought much about the music itself I used to just imitate his like aggressive nod that he does in that video and I've heard it again when I was like a teenager and to be fair I was a very grumpy discerning, oh, mainstream stuff's terrible teenager at that time.

Believe it or not, I did go through that period. And I really, really hated it. I found it incredibly abrasive. And I was like, oh, my God, how did that ever have any success? Are we all just, like, idiots? And so I approached this kind of rubber my hands, thinking, oh, I've got to have a bit of a hot take on this one. And unfortunately, I don't.

Like, as a kind of silly little dance track, it's fine, but there is absolutely nothing of interest to this, I think. It's just a fun little demo tape as far as I'm concerned. All of its ideas are in the first minute and a half. Nothing else after that. I think, you know, there is some amount of nostalgia that I have for it, and I think a lot of people probably do, and the combination of this with the video is a good overall piece of product.

But just listening to this on Spotify with, like, nothing else, nah, this is just like the most average thing ever. as far as I'm concerned. And I wish I had something more to say, but it's like, it's just instrumental, EDM demo material as far as I'm concerned, yeah. Ed, flat beat. This is an awesome two minutes of music. Oh, you've got to have more than that. Come on. Look, you've got to read between the lines. It was concise. It was economical, but I thought

it was quite clever. Indicating the fact that I love the abrasiveness, the judge. juxtaposition, the throbbing brutality of it. Yes, I love the video. Yes, it's all I can think about with him doing the head nodding, as you say, Andy. But I do dig this as a as a flavor, as a texture. But yeah, every time after the two minute mark, I'm like, this is just, why is this here now? The advert wasn't two minutes long, so this is just indulgence now. So yeah, that literally is all I have to say.

I do really like it, but my God, it just, it takes the pee-p with how long it stretches itself out. Yeah, something I found that was quite interested about this is that the music video for this is three minutes at about five seconds long, and the first 30 seconds don't actually have any of the song in it. It's introducing the video, and then the video mix of the song is about two and a half minutes, which I think would have been perfect. the radio edit extends it out to nearly four minutes, but I don't think it loses that much. I think if this was a quick two and a half minutes,

I'd be looking at a nine or a ten for this, because I fucking love this. I realised listening to it that I'd already mentioned it when we covered Dup, which I think was the last, like, relentlessly repetitive number one that we covered and how I really struggled with Dup, but loved this. And so really these notes are just going to be me explaining why I think flatbeat really works for me while Duke doesn't, despite mostly superficially

kind of being the same thing. And I think that regardless of this being an incredibly repetitive hit, you know, I think there is enough variation on a micro and just about on a macro level to sustain this for far longer than it has any right to go on for, for me. It's nowhere near the level of like boards of canadas like Roygie Bibb when it comes to ostensible repetition, disguising constant microvariation, but it shoots for something similar, because you have that prominent bass line that features barely any melodic up and down,

but does use effects to make it wobble and bounce in all the right places. But it wouldn't work anywhere near as well if it wasn't for the at the end of each phrase. That's the elastic band effect that keeps making me want to hear it again. I wonder if next time it'll be slightly different, you know, like each time I hear that, will it sound just a little different? And no, it never, it never does, but it keeps teasing me with the possibility that it could. And before you know it, the song's three quarters through.

It feels like the drum track is always shifting slightly as well, where there's new samples and effects being added in in the background. There's that record wipe slash scratch effect that appears after a while. It relies a little on like quite bouncy syncopation as well, just to keep pushing it along. And I'll be honest, though, I totally agree. with both of you, the music video leaves such an indelible mark on me that I do giggle every time that because every time it comes in, I just imagine flat Eric's head violently

it is such a funny image. Puppetry is just, oh, it's masterwork, good puppetry is just masterful to watch. With Dup, I felt like I was trapped in a giant panic alarm, but with this I feel like I'm trapped in a car that's driving at a very slow speed, just slowly turning corners on my estate. And I'm nodding my head despite the situation. I think there's also a level of irony present with this that means it suits the kind of dispassionate, slightly edgy, postmodern comedy world we're heading into as the decade reaches the end, you know, was removed slightly away from 100%, you know, silly British prime time variety

stuff and just invite some of stuff in like South Park or Mike Scullier as sim. or family guy, you know, or we, you know, we move into a world where those two strands of comedy kind of have to coexist. Even novelty stuff like this does kind of have to be cool now. So you get it on a jeans advert and you get a French guy dripping in irony to do a song for a Levi's campaign. And the Levi's advert campaign that doesn't really even feature much denim as a prominent thing anymore. It's like, you know, hey, we're that postmodern, we're advertising the brand without even really picturing the products that we sell. It's just, you know our logo, you know our name, you know this flat Eric guy,

just put the two together and there you go. It's kind of like years later after this, kind of what Kanye West was talking about in that 2013 interview with Zane Lowe, where he's like, you know, you have product here and then you have the celebrity, the star power there, and then you just put the two together and people just buy the thing, you know, I like some of the Gaga songs, but what the fuck does she know about cameras? And it's kind of like that. It's like, I like some of the Levi jeans. But what does Flerick know about denim?

Turns out it doesn't really matter. As long as you can just, whenever you hear that, as long as you just hear the and you think Levi's jeans, then it's worked, hasn't it? Here I am, gullible consumer. But yeah, no, I'm fine. I don't mind being hoodwinked by this, it turns out. So if we don't have anything more to say, Andy, I'm going to ask you for your pie hole and vaulties. Volties?

Yes. Yeah, so we've got Baby one more time. When the going gets tough. Blame it on the weatherman and flat beat. Brittany, more like Voltney. Oh, shit. Am I right? Yeah.

Yeah. Only baby one more time. When they go and gets tough. Well, it is getting tough for them. I'm not putting them in the vault or the pie hole. They have to stay where they are, the naughty boys of the zone, the titular zone. As for blaming on the weatherman, oh, do you know, there's something in the air, maybe there's a chill, sweeping over me or a nice ray of sunlight that's making me think, yeah, I'm going to vault it.

Don't blame that on me. Blaming on the meteorological forecast. And finally, Flat beat, well it's aptly named. It's flat. It registers a total neutral five out of ten for me. Mr. Wazzo? Mr. More like,

Wah, keep me interested next time, please. Ed, Britney Spears, Boyzone, Bewitched, and Mr. Wazzo. Oh, we nearly had four Bs there. There you go, that's the fourth. Oh dear. The titular zone, first of all, Andy, do you think there would be any copyright? implications if you called a gay bar van.

The titillism. The titular zone. Yes. It's like the Macinty joke about Man United and Man City. Yes. Two gay clubs on Canal Street. Not to mention old traffic being called Theatre of Dreams, which sounds like a musical-themed gay bar.

Yeah, that's where all the theatre kids are. Such a gay sport. It really is. Most sports are gay. That's what they don't tell you. It's an agenda. The Volties. Falcon. Easy vault for Brittany. I've not really got much more to say than that. It's a foregone conclusion for me there, really. Boys owned, you lucky boys, you've managed to make yourself so unassuming and unchallenging this time. You have faded into the background with your camouflage,

and I can't actually find you to put you anywhere, so you live to rue another day. Bewitched, it isn't quite ideal conditions for flying. Not quite. Blame the weatherman, that was where that was going. Flatbeat, well, they said it. I like it, a fair bit, for a time. But it is kind of going nowhere, unfortunately. So for me, baby one more time.

Huh, yeah, Vol, just don't even have to think about it. When the going gets tough, that's a pie hole. Don't even have to think about that. Blame it on the weatherman. I did think about it. It's not quite making it in the vault. And flat beat, yep, I'm going to sneak it in. I'm going to sneak it into the vault just at the end of the episode there.

When we come back, we'll be continuing our journey through 1999, and we will see you for it. Bye-bye now. Turrah. Bye-bye.