Hits 21 - 1999 (4): Martine McCutcheon, Westlife, Backstreet Boys, Boyzone

Episode Date: May 22, 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, Andy, and me, Ed, are looking back at every single UK number one of the 1990s. Email us at Hits21 Podcast at gmail.com. Yep. Thank you ever so much for joining us again. Thank you for waiting a couple of weeks while we had a week off. We are currently looking back at the year 1999 and this week will be covering the period between the 11th of April. and the 22nd of May. So, not as big of a step as last week, but bigger than the previous ones before that. Andy, over this five to six week period, a spring blossoms into life.

How are the album charts doing in the UK at this time? A little album you might have heard of called ABA Gold released around this time and went just a small 18 times platinum. But not to be beaten, it was toppled by Catatonia, of all people, with equally cursed and blessed, which went number one for one week and went single platinum before Abba. Another two weeks at number one. And then it's Swade with head music,

which went number one for one week and just went gold. Swade, head music. Nothing to tell you about that. Head music. And that's it for this week. Yeah. Should clarify actually there that the Aber Gold is a re-release of a remastered. So it is an official re-release in 1999.

Oh, I didn't know that. The original was 1992, and this one was released to coincide with the 25th anniversary of Waterloo, hence it dropping in May. Because this was also around the time of thank Abba for the music and all of that. That was just a little touch before this album for the music. But yeah, I hadn't put that together. I always thought Abigold just come out for the first time here. But yes, I'm sure it adorns almost every shelf of the horror listeners.

And yes, 18 times platinum. God, you can't sniffed that, can you? And deserved to... That's just the last time it's been updated. I'm sure it's probably gone four or five more since then, because it never slows down. Makes you wonder if they wish that they'd held onto some of those step singles till after this big boom. I don't know. What else is it to say?

Rob, you said it's thoroughly deserved, and I completely agree with you. Greatest compilation out of all time, simple as that. Yeah, definitely. In UK news, three London bomb attacks in the space of two weeks in April claimed the lives of two people and injure almost 100 others. The perpetrator is eventually discovered to be Hampshire. man David Copeland. Days later, TV presenter Jill Dando is shot dead outside of her home in London, age just 37. In America, two students kill 14 people at Columbine High School in Colorado before turning their weapons on themselves. At the time, it was the deadliest school shooting

in US history. And in other world news, the president of Niger, Ibrahim Barre Manasara, is assassinated in an apparent coup attempt, although he had seized power in a coup attempt as well. In celebrity news, Tara Palmer Tompkinson enters rehab after a troubling appearance on the Frank Skinner show on TV. SpongeBob SquarePants debuts on Nickelodeon and the films to hit the top of the UK box office during this period were as follows. The faculty, 8mm, The Waterboy, I still know what you did last summer, and forces of nature. Ed, the US charts, how are they doing? Baby one more time, albeit one more time on the album charts, before Nuz proclaims, I am.

You're not, I am. Well, you were for two weeks. Then another brief return for fan mail by TLC. I didn't even know they knew me. Then at number one for one week, it's Rough Riders, Ride or Die. Volume 1, suggesting they are anticipating who riding rather than dying, at least this time. There was in 2000 a part 2, actually, which reached number 2.

I can only assume most listeners chose to die after that one, though, as volume 3 only reached number 34. And finally, Tim McGraw finds a place in the sun for a week. So, good for Tim McGraw. not a good year for Naz. I am followed by Nastradamus. It's like the Simpsons bit of Chief Wiggin being sucked into the hot dog machine, just the, oh, God, this is going to get worse before it gets better.

Because then in 2001, Stillmatic comes out, and it's like, oh, there you are. There you are, Naz. Nice to see you again. He really tried to bury himself, though, didn't he? Oh, I know. Singles now. Mix signals from TLC, who even after all that, fan mail, claim they don't want none of our time while taking a whole month of it. No scrubs

reigns well into May with one of those period music videos that gave the director top billing over the group. The Go team were furiously scribbling notes. Blimey low, the era-defining bangers are fast on each other's heels as Ricky Martin's living Lovida Loca crosses over into the top spot and refuses to budge for quite some time. All right then. So, Thank you both for those reports and we are gonna crack on with our first song of four this week, which is This is my mom This is my perfect Okay, this is Perfect Moment by Martin McCutcheon

Released as the lead single from her debut studio album titled You, Me and Us Perfect Moment is Martin McCutcheon's second single to chart in the UK and her first number one However, as of 2026, it is her last. The single is a cover of the song originally recorded by Edita Gorniak in 1997, which did not chart in the UK. Perfect Moment 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 200,000 copies, beating competition from Taboo by Glamour. And in week two, it sold 140,000 copies, beating competition from electricity by Swade and Love of a Lifetime by Honeys.

After two weeks at number one, perfect moment fell two places to number three. It remained inside the top 104, 24 weeks. The single is currently officially certified platinum in the UK. As of 2026, so Andy, Martin McCutcheon has left EastEnders. she has joined the pop charts How are we feeling about that? Yeah, she's been yeated out of EastEnders by a distracted Frank Butcher.

It's quite a good episode, actually. I quite enjoyed it when I watched that one. Anyway, not that I watch old episodes of EastEnders. It's got much more to do with my life than that. Anyway, this one. So, I have a very specific memory with this, quite a special

thing that doesn't apply to any other song that we've covered on this show. So the year was 1919. Picture it! Liverpool, 1999. Anyway. And I had bought Now 42 earlier this year. And that was my first Now album. And it was mainly because of, I reckon it's probably because of Believe, better, best forgotten by Steps. And thank Haber for the music. We're all on it. And it would have been those three that convinced me I wanted it. But that was my first Now album. And I'd been sort of educated on what the Now albums were and what that was all about because of that. So I thought, oh, this is quite cool, quite like this. I like collecting things. I've always liked collecting things. So I'm going to get the next one when that comes out.

Hence, Now 43. And track one on Now 43 is this. It's a perfect moment by Martin McCutcheon. My granddad had one of like that old boombox, like a portable tape player. And I had Now 43 on tape. So I went upstairs to my room at his and he brought me that cassette player. And he said, now listen, I don't want any of that really row-routy music. You know, you have to keep the noise.

down with it. He was very much the kind of broom on the ceiling, turned down that record, kind of old person. He filled that archetype pretty well. And then this came on as track one. And he said to me, oh, this is quite nice, actually. And that was only a few years before my granddad died. He died in the early noughties. And so I think it's the only song we've ever covered that I have a review from my granddad who was born in 1926 and would have turned 100 just a few weeks ago. Here he is still now contributing to hits 21 in a medium but didn't even exist in 2002. So yeah, it's quite nice actually with his review. And yeah, that's pretty much the size of it, I think. Yeah, it's quite nice actually. It's actually quite nice. It's, you know, actually,

it's quite nice, actually. Yeah, yeah. I've really not got much else to say. It is just quite nice, actually. Nothing special at all. It's just like, it's one of the songs of all time, really. It's quite nice, actually. Oh, is it? Quite nice. Yeah. I'll be honest, I've listened to several of the songs this week on several occasions, like expecting words to just kind of form by default. You know, if I listen to this five times, surely I'll have five times the amount of notes in my head than I did when I listen to them for the first time. But I think it's a real condemnation of the three songs this week

that I've not managed to get that much out of them. It really is the, week of the juice loosener where all that noise and whirring and cranking produces about a finger width worth of orange juice despite the clamouring and excitement of Troy McCourt and Dr. Nick Riviera. But I think that's kind of the problem really, that three of these four songs this week, I don't think they're designed to have lasting impacts. No, I agree. And to be fair, you know, I think because we're still kind of pre-internet here in terms of its

wide usage, there is that element where it's like, well, nothing lasts forever anyway, so let's just kind of make things even faster. Let's have things go in and out of the chart like that, you know, like in a flash. I think two are meant to kind of like launch bigger products and act as a kind of trailer for the main event, while the other song this week that I've taken against is a kind of listless cover intended to simply continue the imperial phase of an already established act. And I mean, hey, you know, the Martin McCutcheon one, you know, even emphasizes that it's about a moment and nothing else. And I guess that's kind of appropriate. With this, I watched Martin's first Top of the Pops appearance in preparation for this

in order to try and get some more than hopes out of it. And they really try to sell Martine as being the big voice. The host that brings her in says, and now it's time for the big voice of Martin McCutcheon. Like they're trying to build her up as a British response to Whitney or Celine or Kylie or something like, okay. She has a kind of grown-up choir girl voice where it's comfortable and restrained and polite and, you know, that's fine.

But the issue with the recording is that I think they've buried her a bit too much under vocal smooth in. With Cher, it was like, no, turn all the effects up to 11, really go with the fact that she's meant to sound alien and like she's warbling. But with this, it feels more like they've turned. it up to about a four so that we won't hear it initially. But because they're launching her, the next big soap star to pop star thing,

they kind of need to sell the authenticity a bit. So they can't lean on it too heavy, but they've also got to use it because she's a little, she'd be a little pitchy otherwise, I think. So they smooth it out and pitch correct the imperfections, but you can still hear it. So you're a bit like, oh, but her voice is really exposed. And ah, which, okay, but it's,

kind of flattens her dynamically, like her range does an artificial ceiling onto which the higher notes keep bumping into and can't really get any higher, which kind of prevents her from having a big voice. In full hindsight, this feels a bit like a test run for winner singles that we would get through most of the 2000s. You know, songs that try to equate winning a competition with a night of passionate romance, and, you know, they tried to sell things like destiny and try to prove that all destiny feels the same, regardless of how it's achieved. A moment like this evergreen all this time that's my goal you know all those ones and I didn't like any of those really I also kind of dislike how this makes martin seen much older than she is which is

another thing that put me off all this time when Michelle McManus sang it because martin McCutcheon's 23 here seven years younger than selene 12 years younger than whitney but she's sort of being asked to play their game a bit like she's not really allowed to act her age until we get to genuinely fun stuff like I'm Over You or that cover of on the radio from like two years from now. You know, I don't know, maybe artists like Bewitched and Brittany and Billy Piper have worsened prejudices a bit in the industry against pop stars who are women rather than girls, so the women are kind of told to age themselves up even more. Or maybe it's because her name doesn't begin with B. Maybe she should have called herself Bartine Mabluchin and she wouldn't have had that problem.

I also thought maybe that, you know, the other East Ender star that obviously had a massive hit was Anita Dobson, and she was 37 when anyone can fall in love was in the charts. There was Michelle Gale. She had that song's sweetness, but that was a very slow, tempo, relaxed kind of summer jam rather than anything racy or dangerous. So I don't know, maybe coming from Albert Square, there's this idea still present that, you know, like, they are BBC artists. you know, they are artists that the BBC are ultimately kind of responsible for, so there has to be an air of respectability or something, I don't know, like, you know, Tiffany Mitchell, from my memories of her, and I've watched a few clips of her on IceEnders this week,

she was kind of scrappy and fun, and she had a lot of emotional trouble, obviously, with Grant Mitchell mistreating her, and, you know, her personality was diminished by that. But so I thought maybe they would lean into that side of her a bit more, but maybe they're keen to sort of say, that was Tiffany Mitchell, this is Martin McCutcheon, and so they try and separate her from the character a bit.

But I think they go a bit wide of the mark on this, which is a bit of a shame, because I don't mind Martin at all. I think she has a nice voice. I think that even if she had been a bit pitchy and a bit exposed, I may have appreciated that a little bit more. I like the sort of, I guess you would, I guess it is a kind of bridge section.

It kind of feels like an extended chorus after the second chorus. not pie hole in this. I don't hate this. I did flirt with the idea during the week but no, I've pulled back. I don't mind this, but I don't necessarily like it much either. I think it has

problems. Ed? Perfect moment. Yeah, it is obviously sweetened as a voice, but that doesn't mean that it's not a sweet voice in itself. I think she can very clearly and she's got nice phrasing. It's a very clean voice.

sound like a deer in the headlights, although she is quite reserved. It suits the atmosphere of the song, which was always a little bit sort of new wavy in its flavour. And oddly, that's something that I think this version captures a bit better than the Editor Gurneyac version, if that's how you pronounce it. Gerniac or Gorniak clearly has the superior set of technical pipes on her. Honestly, that comment you made, the big voice, that's false advertising, isn't it? That's worth off a mark off on its own, because that seems to be completely missing the value of her voice. No, she's got, you know, I don't know how much note sweetening there was at the end when she sort of starts spiraling up through the octaves.

But, you know, she evidently can handle herself more than most people who get into music that way. Probably more so the other way round than Billy, who was probably a... an okay singer, but was a very good actor, if that makes sense. But yeah, the original version, it's rather too showy, I think, in a way. It's got a kind of new agey sound bed to it, but the vocalist is doing all of these very kind of 90s melodramatic hiccups and sort of yodel sounds, like somewhere between Alanis Morissette and Celine Dion. And it's, and it's, It's, you know, maybe it's because I knew the Martin McCutcheon version first, but it sounds like this is a song that's supposed to capture a moment of peace,

a moment of perfect symmetry. And I just do not get, admittedly, I trust the editor is singing it in her, in a second language, so I'll give her some credit. But it just doesn't seem like her grandstanding performance really matches the song. And Martins does, but bizarrely, as you say, it seems to have been an advertisement. as some sort of grandiose performance, which it isn't. I really like this song, actually, in itself. I think it's very well structured.

It doesn't veer dramatically away from the arrangement of the original. But I do think it works slightly better because, again, the vocals are better suited to the tone of the track. I was surprised by how much I liked this. And in many ways, that chorus had stuck with me over the years, and I couldn't remember the rest of the song. So this was something of a pleasant surprise. So yeah, I, I, I, it's quite, actually, it's, it's quite nice. I just, I just want to come back to Rob's point about like the East Enders factor in all this, because it is interesting because it, I guess the men, I don't know whether I'd say they've fared better, but they've had a different experience, really,

because like Anita Dobson, that was literally the East Enders theme tune, and that was just novelty really. And this, you know, it just is what it is but like Nick Berry did all right after he left EastEnders he had a few number ones I think obviously I know Martin's had this one but he did all right

and who can forget Shane Richie of course who had his number two I think Sid Owen and S Club 7's John Lee before he was famous was a regular in EastEnders and he returned to it bizarrely yesterday

which is strange and Melby Rizini Sanders as well before she got big. So they've had a few success stories but the bigger ones do tend to be men and I don't know what it is. I think there is potentially

a female factor in it that there still seems to come under anti-bebe with this whereas the men seem more able to do their own thing. But it's odd because it's not something I've ever thought about before

and I'm not sure if it's an intentional thing I think maybe it's just a way that we as listeners compartmentalize people and it's a really strange effect. yeah sorry I just I just realised

you mentioning Nick Berry because I have always known so little about soaps all of these years where people

mention that Nick Berry had a pop career I don't know why I mixed these up I always thought

Nick Berry was Bill Maynard who's Bill Maynard he's the hairy old man from heartbeat I'm like

really you're a pop career Simon Wicks Patsop yeah oh Wixie Wixie man, Mr. W.

And arguably, I see, arguably he became more famous as a musician than being in his enders. Not in my mind when it was the hairy old man from heartbeat having all the hits. But anyway. All right then, so the second of four songs up this week is this. If I told you I was letting go, the only joy that I did try, yeah. Okay, this is Swear It Again by Westlife. Released as the lead single from the group's debut studio album titled Westlife,

Swear It Again is Westlife's first single to chart in the UK and their first number one, and it's not the last time we'll be coming to Westlif's during the 1990s. Swear It Again 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 102,000 copies beating competition from Right here, right now My Fat Boy Slim

In Our Lifetime by Texas Red Alert by Basement Jacks What's it gonna be by Buster Rhymes And Bye Bye Bye Baby by TQ And in week two, it sold 80,000 copies Beating Competition from Why Don't You Get a Job by the offspring and beat Mama by cast.

After two weeks at the top, Swear it again dropped one place to number two. It remained inside the top 104, 17 weeks. The single is currently officially certified platinum in the UK. As of 2026, Andy, Westlife. Here they are again. Run from them, hide from them. It always ends the same. Westlife are here again.

It's been what? The equivalent of like 12 years, but here they are. But actually, I'm going to shock you. I suspect I like this quite a bit more than either of you two. Yes, it's the typical West Life, stand off the chairs, firework, rain, balladry with too much strings. Yes, of course it is. But it is the first one.

So I kind of have to give it something for that, that you know, it's not, it's maybe not reinventing the wheel, but at least it's doing something here and it's not as lazy as there are others. I also think this is just musically a little bit nicer than a lot of the fath they come out with in the future. I really like that chord they hit on the third line

of the chorus that, I'm never gonna do, do, do, do. It's just a nice little moving it up slightly. I think it's just musically a bit more pleasant. I remember quite liking this at the time. It was only when they got into flying without wings and Mandy and I have a dream, etc., etc.

That I started getting very tired of them. but this was fine as a potential one hit wonder territory I think it's better than anything well not anything but better than almost anything Bois Zone have done they seem to have a little bit more sincerity and a little bit more

kind of power to their voices than Boise Zone do like I think Boise Zone often register an absolute zero in terms of emotion and they West Life managed like a two you know something and like I say I think I think this has a bit more

of a swing to it has a little bit more of a feeling of putting your arms in the air and actually singing along to this it has a hook which so many bully zones don't have and you know small mercies with west life that like i think this is basically fine as a poppet and i don't want to be consumed by the fact that we've heard almost all of their other number ones already when this is actually the start of their journey and as the start i think this is fine i just wish they would have done something else other than this and wouldn't have used this as the template for their entire career But this is okay This is okay

Like I say I think it's relatively catchy in the choruses Not at all catchy in the verses The verses are just empty space Really while they're just waiting to get to those big notes But there's been much worse Westlife than this So if we're on a slide and scale I do think this is probably one of the better ones And I think my love is probably the other one

That are quite like, world of our own Quite like as well And this is okay It's just okay It's another tentative this is is fine one for me this week, yeah. So you do like it less. I'll feel you.

How's about, in lieu of a proper review, I'll rewrite a bit of the chorus, shall I? Do it. I'm never going to treat you bad, because the last word in this line is sad. And that's that bit done. At least this doesn't stop time in the way that some of Westlife's later slow hits would do, like Unbreakable or Queen of My Heart, where you are actually slightly worried that your heart may hear the rhythm of the song

and go, oh, I'll match that, and then you'll die. One can help. It's been announced this week that the Gareth Southgate play, Dear England, is being adapted for TV, and they've released a trailer for it, and the trailer makes it look utter shite, a total rust job with barely any redeeming

features and I saw someone online describe it as a TV show made by executives who seem to think that ordinary people are always on the verge of crying about something. And that's this, I think, this presumption that upon contact with it, you will be unable to contain yourself. Not their worst. Not their worst. I will say that, you know, as basic as it is lyrically and, hey, you could argue maybe as basic as it is melodically.

The chorus does resonate. It has left a mark. It's when it came round. I was like, oh, it's this one. It's not the other one I thought it might be, which I don't even know which song I was thinking that it might be. But hey, you know, I'm not slamming it into the pie hole, but it's definitely there.

I can't believe, yeah, Andy, yeah, just, yeah, run from it, run towards it, run away from it. It doesn't matter. Westlife are just there. I will say that like basically all, but definitely most of the songs that you mentioned in that lineup that it beat, I would much rather have talked about. Like, right here, right now, and Red Alert, both of them kill.

Like, I would, I'm sad that this beat them. So don't get me wrong, this ain't all that. But, you know, there's been worse crimes of beating things to number one on this show. Ed, swear it again. At the risk of giving away our top secret scores, I will say that I found this technically twice as good as the boy's own song that we cover later. And I'm still putting it in the pie hole. Yeah, this isn't the worst than they ever did.

Yeah, it probably is better than Boyzone. But that's so meagre. I mean, and I think my main problem is this. It says a great deal. All right, I use colour note, which is a nice, it's a good app. It's probably been superseded now, but I rely on it. It's a nice, it's a nice app. But I just put a few little high points, you know, keynotes for the show on.

So about three or four for each song. But obviously, because it's a bit of a wall of text, I have to divide it, obviously, by using the title or the artist, so I know where I am on the page. And for this one, I put, uh, I put, uh, And I only realized that now. And I think that basically says it all. Um, swear it again. Sure. I sure fucking will. Boyzone were shit throughout the 90s. And now shite life are here shiting it up again. I'll swear it again, if you like. Shite fish and pissy shit chips. Um, it's basically Boyzone 2. And it's kind of like a calculated smoothie made from every recognizable chintzy U.S. ballad from 97 up until about 1994, even though it's 1999.

It isn't as bad as boys. It isn't. I'll just say that. I'm not sure why it isn't, but I don't hate it as much. And it's all robbed. All of this stuff has been taken. Now the verse melody is basically just now that I've found you. baby, now that I found you, I won't let you go.

And the chorus at the end of it's like, oh, it's just the time of my life. Again, with the, oh, it all to you. And that stolen hook is basically the most memorable bit of this song. So that's good. And it's basically, look, if we break it down, it's more or less, every song, Boys to Men released after the first one. and it's yeah it's

it's not as offensive as boy's own it doesn't have that treacley edge it's not got that sinister I'm going to encase you in honey so you can't move and then brutalize you and steal your wallet that I get from Boyzone

it feels a bit more faceless than that and in this case faceless is a big plus because I might not have mentioned before I fucking hate Boysone. I might, that might have slipped you by. I'm sure I don't say this every single fucking episode. Is this the last time we cover them?

Today, yes. Yes. But it's not the last time we cover one of their members. Oh, that's all right. I'll take one of them. I can't take them all. That wall of cynical, fucking pallid chutney coming at me.

Thank you. I love how the anger has started two songs before. It's like you can see them coming over the horizon and you are preparing your blood pressure so that it's at the right point for when they come along. I'm just going to turn the tap off and then it'll basically just open it again when it comes to Boise Zone because it's exactly the fucking, I can't tell the difference between them. I hate it. And the fact that Westlife aren't as painful to me is no excuse for the fact that they're basically

doing the same thing again with less distinctive vocalists. And okay, the distinctive vocalist thing in Boyzone's case is not necessarily a plus. But still, I can recognize Boyzone. It's like when you, you know, animals see red and they think, danger, death. That's what I see when I see one of their fucking syrupy album covers. Speaking of which, their best of, it's called their greatest love songs. I thought, well, what other songs did they do? What songs are there about,

you know, the fucking Crimean War or something? What were they? I mean, I say love songs, but, you know, it's not really love, is it? It's kind of what a sociopath thinks love is so they can

sell a mail-order brides to somebody. I've got nothing to say. You could probably tell. This is just fucking vapour wave. Even a different beat was technically a love song to the planet, wasn't it? It was on, it was all fucking hearts joining together. They never wanted to move too far away from,

hey, lonely person, we could be your husbands. So, anyway, I've ruffled on too long. I'm tired and I'm sorry. Carry on. Song three is this. Okay, this is I Want It That Way by Backstreet Boys. Released as the lead single from the group's third studio album titled Millennium. I Want It That Way is Backstreet Boys' 11th single to chart in the UK

and their first to reach number one. However, as of 26, it is their last. I Want It That Way 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 93,000 copies, beating competition from Private Number by 911, which is very much not a private number, pick a part that's new by Stereophonics,

and Cloud Number 9 by Brian Adams. After one week at the top, I Want It That Way, fell three places to number four. It remained inside the top 1004, 14 weeks. The single is currently officially certified four times platinum in the UK. As of 2026, its chart journey and the duration of time it's spent on the chart do not add up to the eventual sales, do they? shows how much it's endured after the fact. Andy, Backstreet Boys, how do we feel? Oh, well, now you're asking a question. Because I am, um, going to put forward this as a litmus test of a song because I studied music at uni,

which I think both of you for at least some time did as well. And I often find that people think that people who study music at uni are really kind of snobby about it, that they become territorial about music and turn their nose up at things. Where actually my experience of it is that you are taught not to be that way. You were taught not to be pretentious. you were taught not to look down on any music at all. And an example of that, which was always one of my favorite things that happened at uni, was that we were in a lecture about, you know, is it anything objectively good,

anything objectively good or better than anything else? And someone put the hand up and suggested that the music of Radiohead is objectively good. And then the lecturer simply said, anyone in this room put your hands up if you don't like Radiohead, which a fairly sizable portion did. It got a laugh across the room, and that person was embarrassed, went pink in the face and walked out. And that was a very, very funny moment and that happened.

But anyway, my point is that I think people who are snobs about music don't like this. Where people who are not snobs about music love this, because this is great. And I don't see any reason to actively dislike this other than thinking, well, it's Max Street Boys, it's silly pop, it's throwaway chart music. Musically, and also just ideologically what they're doing, this is brilliant. Like this is so well done I think they make the right decision as boy bands They see the writing on the wall Which is that if you are a boy band

Or if you are you know a pop group of any sense In 1999 what you want to do is lean into it You want to be as cheesy and as oh yeah baby As you possibly can be Like that is what works at the moment And I think that's what always works for boy bands A Girl bands to be honest like the worst boy bands I think are the ones that try and be edgy and cool

and try and look a bit dangerous. You know, like E-17 or 5, you know, I just think that's really tragic and silly. Like, that's not the genre that they're in, whereas the ones are totally lean into it and will always be like, you know, choreographed dance moves and going, bye-bye. And, you know, like, staring into the camera,

expressing love and doing ballads and stuff. Those are the ones that do really, really well. And I think it's notable that in 2010, when we've all completely moved on from this era and we're listening to, you know, Lady Gaga and Nikki Minaj and stuff, One Direction, a very old style, old-fashioned, cheesy boy band come in and storm the charts and become extremely successful. It's not rocket science.

Lean into the cheese. There's nothing wrong with that, not literally. That would injure you and cover you in cheese. But I think it's really not that difficult to do. And this is a great example of that where it's like, right, okay, we've got a really, really catchy chorus. We're going to cover it in dance moves. We're going to really sing the hell out of it and do loads of runs.

over it for basically no reason. We're going to do a really big key change on it. We're going to make sure that the verses land just as hard as the choruses and we're going to do a call and response in the chorus as well. Tell me why. And we're going to make sure that the title of the song is the bit that's the most catchy of all that I want it that way. And you're going to put all the vocal inflections in so it's not that way. It's that away. And fire. You're going to really, really stretch out those phonics as much as you can so that the people listening at home can sing along so easily because you're basically like giving them sounds rather than words and you're going to look extremely kind of young and attractive and sexy in an airport when you do this video

and it's just going to be a whole heap of fun that gets in everybody's head yes more of that brilliant and I have always always flown the flag for this song and say yes okay I'm not a complete idiot you know I do understand that a lot of boy band stuff is totally throwaway and totally silly and has no merit, looking ahead to the rest of the show this week. But this is how you do it right. You go big, you go bold, you go cheesy, you don't give a shit about how that looks.

And forget sincerity, have fun. Have fun while you do in it. That's what really shines through in this. It's hung around for a reason. This is how you do boy band music. And it's brilliant. It's great. What you sort of said there, Andy,

is kind of made me think about something and Ed said about Boyzone in the Westlife section about this idea of like, we could be your boyfriend. I feel like Boysone and Westlife were sort of like, you know, we could be your husband's kind of thing, which makes it feel a bit more,

I don't know, maybe they feel like they have to put themselves across a bit more seriously and a bit more like, I am an emotional man and I will cater to your emotional needs. A bit more sexless, isn't it? Sexless. It's more, yeah, it's romance rather than sex, if you know what I mean. Whereas with the backstreet boys, I feel like there is an element of frivolity in that sense of we could be your boyfriend.

What they actually seem to come across us is there's five of us and there's five of you in your group of friends and we could take you out on a nice date. We could take you out on a nice date and, you know, like they're speaking more to teenagers. You know, we could take you out to the movies. We could take you for food. we could take you for a nice walk I have a picnic blanket you know and then you may see them you may not see them again

and I do think that they lean into that they lean into the fact that what you have as a teenager is crushes you know that's what you want you know you want crushes and you don't want it to be you don't really understand all the implications of marriage and being together forever and stuff you say it but you don't really understand it

you want the quick thing that makes your heart race and then you just kind of want to move on and forget about it and I think that's what they kind of lean into with the way they present themselves. I watched the top of the pop's performance of this as well, and they have them all sat there on the stools, and they're all dressed the same, and they're all so beautiful,

and they all isolate each other to have, like, big moments in the song and things like that, and the girls behind them are just, like, they can barely contain themselves, and it's so adorable. They can honestly, they're sort of looking at them, and, like, they're nearly on the edge of tears, but, like, it's supposed to be, like, this fast thing,

and that in a year's time half of those girls in the audience they won't like the backstreet boys anymore they'll be into blink 182 who are going to be taking the piss out of the backstreet boys in about six or seven months time you know like that's and it's about how you know things change quickly

thank goodness for this this week Jesus a properly shit week for me with the songs has been saved I think this is one of those songs that like you almost can't believe that it hasn't existed forever such as the strength and potency of its chorus melody. But I say the strength and potency of its chorus melody. Every single bit of this song, I think, works really hard to be memorable and enduring.

Someone like Max Martin has been so badly needed in this run of number ones, and thank goodness is here. The boy brand, oh God, it's grown so stale, so quickly, especially with the British and Irish offerings. I don't know why that is. This even carries on into the 2000s, where it seems like girl groups are allowed the pop bangers to do some experimentation, to kind of have the Trojan horse hits full of interesting ideas that are kind of hidden behind the sheen,

and they're allowed to be racy and sexy and fun and feminine and all this stuff, whereas the boy groups are just kind of told, like, act like boys to men, or act like you want to be a rap group, and that's about all they're allowed to do. Or you get groups like Blue that try to do both and produce mixed results. The three biggest hits, I think, from the Backstreet Boys, which I'd say were probably this, everybody, and maybe larger than life,

maybe as long as you love me. But, like, you know, I think there are much better representation of what's possible with a boy group, you know, because this is sold as an extension of kind of what I was talking about before, the non-threatening boys trope that The Simpsons picked up and it's ready for parody, not just by Blink 182, but by Weird Al Yankovic as well. But this always feels like it has much more going on. The songs like, as long as you love me and playing games with my heart, you know, it feels like it has a bit more going on than those two.

Max Martin plays lots of games with the harmonies on this. The lyrics feel a bit stream of consciousness, so you're interpreting them as kind of based on feeling more than anything else, which means a lot is required of the vocal performances and mannerisms to communicate those feelings, there are a curve balls thrown in, my favourite of which comes at the end of the second chorus, because every verse, and obviously every chorus, so the first chorus and the first two verses end in the same way,

which is, you know, the repeat of the title and every repetition lands on that same cadence, just a nice, easy, I wanted that away. But at the end of the second chorus, it leans on that really uncertain chord, just prepare you for the bridge. and I like how each little section starts on a little anacruces as well, which rarely jump out at me and pop, but they do hear,

very, very resonant when it happens as well. But I think before I go too deep into the weeds on this, I think I just have to come back to what everybody knows this song for, which is that excellent call and response in the chorus, which forces two indelible hooks to kind of face off against each other, and then Max Martin pulls that same trick again that he did in Baby One More Time, where he gives you sort of like, you know, kind of gives you the illusion of something new starting

about two-thirds of the way through, and you get the, don't want to hear you, ain't nothing but a heartache, you know, where a familiar melody and rhythm start together in a new place, but with a slightly different me to reply to those lyrics, it's the same as the,

I must confess, then my loneliness, it does it so much and I never get tired of it. And I'm just left thinking, like, why don't more songwriters as pop songwriters do things like this. The other one I was sort of thinking of a superstar by Jamelia. I know that was a cover, but that song originally,

because it jumps into that final chorus where it's like, I don't know what it is, then makes me feel like this. You know, that, why don't more songs do this? Why don't more writers do this? Because it's just a great bit of variation towards the end. I will add, actually, that the original song, for Superstar was done by Christine Milton, who was Danish, not Swedish like Max Martin,

but still Scandinavian and may have been influenced in that way. It wasn't written by him. It was written by a guy called Mick Hansen, who was Danish. I don't know. I just, yeah, there's loads of little bits of invention in this. I think it loses some timeless qualities because I think I have a real problem with late 90s, early noughties mixing. It's very middle and high, heavy. Like, it's very top heavy, I think. There's not a lot of bass, not a lot of bass presence, not a lot of low frequency presence.

And it's just, it's just a, unfortunately, it's just a condition of the time because everyone's got little crappy CD players and little warpmans and things like that, which don't have great bass response and little early headphones that don't have great bass response either and things like that. So I get it, I get it. But yeah, I think this is great. Ed, back Shoot, boys. That is a great chorus. It's pretty undeniable. And I will say that this is, I think,

quite safely the best boy band single we've covered since that sort of dropped off at the end of their run. Which admittedly isn't saying a lot, because as you mentioned, Rob, most of the boy band stuff has been appalling, especially in the last couple of years we've been covering. But this is very good. I don't like it quite as much as, say,

Hit Me Baby one more time. I think in part because all of the elements are there. He's got all of the great hooks. Even the verse is effective. But I can hear the tricks and the, oh, this bit will do this more than I could with the, with hit me baby one more time. For instance, I mean, that key change, by this point, it does just feel like an inevitability in this kind of song. and the key change doesn't really do anything to elevate my enjoyment of the song. It just feels like, oh, it's probably got to stop now, but you've got to do this bit.

And it is, it's, it feels a little bit crowbar in. That said, though, it is a song, as you say, Robert, it tries very hard. It wants to avoid becoming too, you know, repetitive, but keeping the same kind of mativic, rhythmic bass to it. So it does mix things around, which is quite unusual for, you know, songs like this aimed at the audience it is. And so, yeah, a lot of work's been put into this. It's a bit kind of like teen magazine frowny for no particular reason. As you say, it's a bit stream of consciousness.

So why they're all kind of like, oh, I'm so, I'm so complex and tormented. It's like, okay, you know, I'm not buying it. But it's, you know, compared to fucking Boys Own Westline, it's something. That's a feeling. And they feel like they actually resonate. There's got a hum of youthful energy and musky risk around them. But then again, everything has that vibe after listening to Boys Own. I think bloody Jane McDonald hums with that kind of intensity after this.

But, yeah, it's good. I mean, I may be I'm not as bold over it by you guys, but it's obviously just so much better than that. the book-ending offerings, isn't it? What this is, where Boys Own and where, actually, where Backstreet Boys are a little, you know, they are non-threatening boys kind of thing, it does feel a little, there are parts of this that you can just feel them appealing not just to the tween audience, but the teen audience, where, you know, Lisa in The Simpsons, she kind of upgrades her taste a little bit,

where she goes from non-threatening boys magazine to being a fan of Corey. Corey Masterson, who's just that little bit more dangerous, the Corey hotline, you know, and it's just that voice at the other end of the phone just, here's a few words that rhyme with Corey. Glory, story.

But it's just got that little bit of gruffness in the voice and there may be a motorbike present or a leather jacket or something. and it just maybe feels like it's trying to bridge that gap with the pain. Oh, the pain. But, oh, God, they were perfect for, like, TRL and top of the pops and things like that. You know, they were absolutely ideal to sort of, like, stare into the camera and convince a 13-year-old girl several states and several miles away to pick up the phone and call and help in some way. The guys running this business.

They know exactly what they're doing. It is very cynical, but like I've always said, you know, pop is a lie. Pop is a game. Like, if you could just give me good stuff while you're playing that game, fine. I'll just accept the rules and I'm happy for you to make lots and lots and lots of money out of the kind of burgeoning hormones and teenage feelings of like 13 and 14 year old girls, if you must.

They have to have something to live for, so it may as well be the Backstreet Boys. So, all right then, the fourth song up this week. And the last song up this week is this. Okay, this is You Needed Me by Boyzone. Released as the second single from the group's compilation album by request, You Needed Me is Boyzone's 16th single to chart in the UK and their sixth to reach number one. However, as of 2026, it is their last. The single is a cover of the song, originally recorded by Anne Murray, which reached number 22 in the UK in 1976.

You Needed Me, 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 143,000 copies, beaten competition from Look at Me, me by Jerry Halliwell, and that don't impress me much by Shania Twain. After one week at the top, You Needed Me dropped one place to number two. It remained inside the top 104, 15 weeks. The single is currently officially certified gold in the UK. As of 2026, Andy, you can start the end of the show with You Needed Me.

Ah, thanks, if I must. Yes, I mean it's... Quite a funny title, quite an unapt title. What's the opposite of apt? Inapt. Because I don't need it. I don't. I don't need this in my life.

And all I can do is offer an instalment of everyone's favourite show. Everyone's favourite spin-off. Yes! Yes! Oh, last instalment. Here we go. So we've got some true or false, essentially. So, we're going to do it one by one, five questions each.

So, Rob, you're going to go first. Oh, God. Did Rowan and Keating once say, when I'm home, I'm home. Oh, that sounds like something he would say. Correct, he did say it. Yeah. And that was a whole quote. No more context to that.

Was he talking about the one show sofa? I don't know what are you talking about. Because he belongs there spiritually. Ed, did Keith Duffy once say that he was a big fan of motorsports. Yeah, that sounds dull. He did indeed. Yeah, he's a big fan of motorsports.

Loves them, yeah. Rob, did Stephen Gately take the role in the band of making tea for everyone? Cups of tea, I mean. I'm going to say, no, he didn't. It was one of the others. You're right, it was also Rowan. Oh, well done.

Did Mikey Graham, Ed, look back on the Boysone documentary and said, There's Joy in there. Ah. What's the joy in there? I don't know. Yes. He didn't.

It was Shane Lynch, who said that. Oh, Shaney. The Lynch, the L-Man. Yeah. Lynchy dog. Rob. Did Shane Lynch say that you needed me was his favourite Boysone single?

Yes. No. He doesn't listen to Boysome. No. No one has ever seen. said that. Even he doesn't listen to Boys own. Ed, did Stephen Gately once say

out of all the albums we did? My favourite was the first one. They did albums? Oh dear. Yes, I think he said that. He didn't. He just said, they're all all right, really. Oh, I like him. No, that's quite funny.

Rob, did Mikey Graham once say that Louis Walsh, He was a bit of a knob. Oh, God, yeah. He didn't, but he should have. I'm saying it if he weren't. He said it in as many words, but no, he didn't say that exact quote, so no. That's too edgy.

They automatically vomit honey out of their mouths whenever they try to swear. Ed, you need this to equalize, okay? You need this. Did Shane Lynch once say, when asked about how they coped with the fame? we just went with it. Yeah. Correct. If it sounds a bit depressing and kind of just straight down the line and something that, you know,

looks like an advert, then yeah, that's probably right. Rob, did Ronan Keating once give away his used quilt as a prize? Yes. Yes, he did. Yes. The incident was featured on, would I like to you? Ed, you need this to stay in the game. Like, there's real attention to this.

Did Mikey Graham express an interest in doing some rockier stuff? Yes. Yes, he did express an interest in doing some rockier stuff back in the late 90s, around this time. I mean, yeah. So it's a draw. It's a draw. You are both equally knowledgeable about the minutiae of bozoin.

Of bozoin. So I'm going to congratulate you both. Bozoin's brilliant. On your shared trophy on this week's install. of and that's the end of my segment. Oh God. Thank you for saving the segment.

Do you know, when Boyzone were last on, Ed, you asked if one of the members of Boyzone was in a Kung Fu film. Yes. Turns out that was true. Yes, I know. He was in a film called Mikey Graham was in fatal deviation.

Yes. A 1998 Irish low-budget cult film produced and set in Trim County Meath Island. It serves the distinction of being Ireland's first full-length martial arts film. The film stars and was conceived by real-life martial arts enthusiast James Bennett. The film was panned by critics and many have considered this to be one of the worst films ever made. The film went straight to video without a theatrical release. It tells the story of Jimmy Bennett, very, very creative of the character

names there, a disenfranchised young man trying to rebuild his life. When returning home after a 10-year stay in St. Claude's Reform School. He aims to discover who he is, what it is he should do, and what happened to his father. And one of my favorite notes on the whole Wikipedia page is that the film seems to have been directed by three people. To the Simon Lindsched, Shea Kassely, and James Bennett, the martial arts expert, one of those three people has a Wikipedia page, which is Simon Limshed. And his Wikipedia page says, Simon Lynchid, born 12th of June 1967, is an Irish bobsledder.

So it seems he's a bobsledder and a film director. Well, when you work with Boyzone, it's a slippery slope. Hey. Ed. It's not for me. Oh, yeah, the ending sounds a bit like your mother should know. Yeah. Oh yes. Oh, yes. May 1999, totally relevant, this is, totally,

was when the wrestler Owen Hart died in a tragic accident, when his harness broke 100 feet above the stage and he fell to his death. He landed on the ring rope and severed his aorta and died very, very quickly. It was a genuine tragedy because by all accounts he was actually one of the wrestlers

who was a nice bloke who hadn't been completely destroyed by the industry. Speaking of being completely destroyed by something, bozoid. It's just so good. It's not fun as a name, isn't it?

Yeah. Bozoin. Honestly, God. I mean, one more do you want to say? This is fucking terrible. Everything they did was terrible and I'm so so pleased that they're dispersing and reducing their combined power

their anti-matter strength Yeah I think it says a lot That four of Boyzone's number ones are covers That their last three number ones were all covers That one of them was for charity And that Ronan Keating's first number one Will also be a cover involved with a film Actually two of Ronan's three solo number ones are covers as well

So you know which is to say that as a collective and as a product of committee thinking, Bozoin and the people around them clearly stopped trying once they realized what people really wanted out of them. They wanted things they already knew, either very well or only sort of well, served up by Ronan and Stephen Gately,

and Louis Walsh and everyone around them were just keen to make money, which is why you get no matter what, which I didn't think was too bad, the going gets tough and then this. And yeah, Tom Ewing at Freaky Trigger, sums it up best for me, to be honest, by saying that Bozoin never had their never forget

and didn't even have their goodbye. No artistic statement to put a capstone on the group, just another cover that kind of dribbles into existence out of a sewage pipe, slaps on a load of strings, and removes all the restraint and the emotional pain of the original song. And again brings to mind things like the X Factor and Pop Idol

and all the winners' songs from down the years, and again brings to mind this idea that certain money men behind pop seem to presume that people are always waiting on the edge of tears somewhere. A special mention must go, though, at the end, to Ronan's voice again, which gets increasingly growly as the song goes on, to the point where he almost shouts on that last go-round, and I always laugh at the way he goes,

So high that I could almost see eternity. And it's like, you are not a preacher in a modern evangelical church. You are just a guy. Please just sing like a... Just a guy. guy, just sing like the guy you are, not the guy that stands at the front of a massive congregation in one of those modern churches, big churches in America, these mega churches, yeah, that have absolutely no hint that maybe Catholics built them 600 years ago. It's, yeah, shit, really. I will say

the ending, the Coda section, it dares to do something and it leaves the song on a bit of a funny place. I'm so glad it's done. I'm so glad it's done. I will admit to saying that when you're saying, you know, when you say nothing at all, I don't have as much of a problem with it as I do some of Boyzone's material. But God, Ronan's voice, I can't, before we started, we did two of his songs in the 2000s. I had no problem with his voice. I grew up listening to him because my mom liked him around this point that he was out and, you know, doing stuff and, you know, then listening to him through the 90s, I'm just like, oh, every time Ronan starts up, I'm just twitching in my seat and this one, so I there, ah, could almost see. Oh dear. It's that, ah, it's, yeah, sounded like it's some kind of cartoon character advertising a serial. It sounds as morcish as the music, because it's got that nasally quality. Do you know what I mean? I keep making these allusions to being, like, drowned and encased in honey. There is something unpleasantly, kind of sickly and gloopy about them. Whereas Westlife just feel like they're just like a, you know,

a perfectly fine duvet that's just been left to dry. I'm in Rhone again, the solder. So, Ed, perfect moment, swear it again, I want it that way, and you needed me. Where are they all going? This is a desperate one. They say a muckwoman's place is in the mccutcheon. I'm Mac don't concur. I can say for sure, though, that McCutcheon's place isn't in the Mac Vault or muck pie hole.

I have to stop writing these late in the evening. Speaking of muck, Westlife, or as I mistakenly labeled them, Bozoin, can eat shit. Thank God for the Backstreet Boys, said no one ever, actually, but in this context they really do deserve it. I don't think it's quite worth a vault, but I want it that way more than the Westlife way for sure. Speaking of otter bullshit bollocks, boys own can eat diuretic cow squirts. Their catalogue is officially the pie hole's designated latrine as far as I'm concerned. They've got their own special room there that's full of shut out honey. So Andy, Martin McCutcheon, Westlife, Backstreet Boys and Boys.

and bosoyne, how we're feeling? Well, McOachin, you know, I was, I was, I would say, I would say I was, I was enjoying it, I was liking it, but I, but I wasn't McLevin. So that's taking away it is. As for Westlife, I'm never going to bolt that song, but I'm never going to pie that. song I'm gonna do nothing with that song and that's the it for this song. As for I want it that way well the way I want it is in the vault boys get in there yes all five of you now go there right and as for Bozoin is yeah Bozoid it's actually

harder to say than Bozo and I keep on to trick my mind and to say it well yes I mean what else can I say except the nothing that I said so you know I will be pie, but maybe I say it best when I say very little. As for me, perfect moment. Definitely not perfect, but it's not a pie-holler either. Swear it again, though, that is a pie-huller for me. Not slamming it in, but it definitely

belongs in there. I want it that way. That's a volta. It is a volta. I do love it. I do love it. You needed me, again, same as swear it again, but maybe slightly worse actually but that's that's definitely a hmm yeah definitely a pie holer so that means that next week we will be back and we'll be continuing our journey through 1999 the final year

of the 90s still quite a lot of episodes to go though because of how fast the charts are moving and how many songs get to number one but we will get there we will reach the end of the decade and we'll see you for all the weeks in between bye bye bye bye