Hits 21 - 2000 (2): All Saints, Madonna, Chicane & Bryan Adams, Geri Halliwell, Melanie C & Lisa Lopes

Episode Date: July 10, 2022

Hello again, everyone! And welcome back to Hits 21, the show that's taking a look back at every single UK #1 hit of the 21st century - from from January 2000 right through to the present day. You can follow us on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/Hits21UK You can email us: [e-mail] Songs for this week: Pure Shores - All Saints American Pie - Madonna Don't Give Up - Chicane & Bryan Adams Bag It Up - Geri Halliwell Never Be the Same Again - Melanie C & Lisa Lopes

All right there everyone and welcome back to Hits 21 where me, Rob, everyone, and welcome back to Hits 21, where me, Rob. Me, Andy. And me, Lizzie. We'll look back at every single UK number one of the 21st century from January 2000 right through to the present day. If you want to get in touch with us, you can find us over on Twitter. We are at Hits21UK.

That is at Hits21UK That is at Hits21UK We have a nice pink avatar very easy to spot and you can email us as well You can send it over to Hits21Podcast at gmail.com Thank you so much for joining us again It is a relief to know that our first episode

didn't put you off Just like last week, we're going to be looking back at five UK number one again it is a relief to know that our first episode didn't put you off. Just like last week we're going to be looking back at five UK number one singles from the year 2000. This time we'll be covering the period from the 20th of February of that year up to April Fool's Day. Before we get going Lizzy, Andy, since we last spoke have either of you done anything cool and hip happening in the music world since we last sat down? I haven't done anything hip and happening. I've tuned my piano.

Oh, is this the one that you bought? I say bought. I got it basically for free. I just had to transport it. Facebook Marketplace is a wonderful thing. Not that we're sponsored by them or anything. I don't mean like that. But yeah, I happened to come into possession of a piano

at least 120 years old. We reckon it's around 120 years old. But it needs tuning every couple of weeks. It's an absolute baller to look after. It's my little baby. Well, my not so little baby. My rather large baby. But that's all really. Lizzie, what about baby. Well, my not-so-little baby. My rather large baby, yeah.

But that's all, really, yeah. Lizzie, what about you? Well, for this week, I was on Apple Music, and now I'm back on Spotify because, you know, for this episode, I did have to listen to American Pie by Madonna quite a lot, and it had a habit of sort of recommending me, like, similar songs, which I really didn't want to listen to. Like, I don't know if there's more 80s starlets doing covers of 70s folk rock songs.

Maybe Cyndi Lauper does Horse With No Name. I've not found that. But yeah, I'm back on the dark side now. Hello, Joe Rogan, if you're listening. I'm also on the dark side. Speaking of Spotify, you just reminded me. There is one other cool music thing that i've done this week um i don't know if you guys have done it too that this will date our episode by the way but um you can generate an automatic

stranger things style playlist to what you would escape from the monsters from what your power-up music is based on your listening right gives you aives you a playlist. My number one, my running up that hill equivalent is Rocket to the Moon by RuPaul. That's me. Okay. Oh, wouldn't that surprise Vecna, eh? It would surprise him, yeah. As for

myself, the day after we recorded the first episode, went all the way down to london and i saw amel and the sniffers support weezer support four line boy support green day no that was good fun um i was way way at the back of the london stadium but it was a good it was a good evening anyway and then the day before we recorded this episode, so last night, I went and saw Slater, Manchester Gorilla. And that was a really terrific show where I was also at the back,

but it was quite a tiny venue. It was at Gorilla. And she's a really, really terrific performer. And the crowd were with her the whole way. Loudest crowd I think I've ever been with. Nice. Just by how my ears felt afterwards um actually you know nothing to do with um the music itself my ears weren't ringing after the gig there was just this period where catherine who's slater's real name um she took a second just to kind of gather herself after a song and the cheering just went on and on and on for so long. And she couldn't, there's footage of it around, you know, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, places like that. She can't quite take it all in. I think she's quite amazed.

And yeah, so whenever she comes back to the UK after this current tour she's doing, I highly recommend going and seeing her. It's a proper good laugh, I think. I got the tickets last minute and it was really, really terrific fun. Oh, excellent. Thanks for the tip. Thanks. Yeah. All right then, on to this week's episode.

Just as we did last week, we are going to give you some news headlines that occurred during the period that we're going to be covering on this episode just to kind of put you back in that place if only temporarily so in russia vladimir putin has just been elected as the country's second president succeeding boris yeltsin while the uk has extradited augusto Pinochet back to his native Chile to face trial for human rights abuses. One of the Moors murderers, Myra Hindley, lodges a high court appeal to have her life sentence reduced but has her appeal rejected. In America, George Bush and Al Gore have emerged victorious from the Republican and Democratic primaries, meaning that they will go head-to-head

in the US presidential election in November. And in pop culture, Pixar's Toy Story 2, my favourite film of all time, is currently number one at the UK box office, where it's going to stay for seven weeks, and for seven weeks the British public were very right with that one. Former Take That star Robbie Williams ends his brief friendship with Liam Gallagher by challenging him to a televised fight at the 2000 Brit Awards, a ceremony that Liam Gallagher does not attend, unfortunately for us all. And speaking of the 2000 Brit Awards in news that's relevant to this week's episode

Geri Halliwell performs her new solo single Bag It Up and does not join the Spice Girls on stage to accept the group's

Outstanding Contribution Award drama scandal and on April 1st the kids cartoon TV channel Boomerang

hits the air for the first time in America and it broadcasts episodes of Tom and Jerry, The Smurfs, Looney Tunes and Scooby-Doo. I spent many, many Friday afternoons at my grandma's watching

Boomerang. I used to love Boomerang. Loved it. What's new Scooby-Doo with a meringue and a bowl of cream? That was my Friday afternoon treat after school. What's new Scooby-Doo with a meringue and a bowl of cream? That was my Friday afternoon treat after school. What's new Scooby-Doo with its theme song by Simple Plan? Simple Plan, yes.

Lizzie, you've got some news from across the pond. I have, yes. So we're covering the period late February 2002, April Fool's Day, I want to say. So over in America, the billboard number one singles for this period are as follows we have one week of Thank God I Found You by Mariah Carey featuring Joe and 98 Degrees

featuring Joe, just Joe hi Joe hi Joe and then we have one week of I Knew I Loved You by Savage Garden which is a re-entry after three previous weeks at number one. And then following that, we have two weeks of Amazed by Lone Star. And finally, three weeks of Say My Name by Destiny's Child.

Tune. Tune. Yeah, definite tune. Yeah. In the UK albums charts, we have Gabrielle still at number one with Rise until being knocked off by Oasis' Standing on the Shoulder of Giants for one week followed by two weeks of Travis' The Man Who

and then Santana scored a number one album with Supernatural on the week of 26th of March and over in America in their albums charts Voodoo by D'Angelo, great album, still at number one, before being overtaken by, again, Santana's Supernatural for six weeks, from the end of February to the first week of April. All right, Lizzie, thank you very much for your United States report.

That's an addition to this week's episode that I think we'll carry on with, because I always kind of like knowing, just sort of being told, being told like oh that was happening at the same time as this and oh isn't that strange history doesn't happen in a vacuum and the UK albums charts as well will be sticking around yeah yeah definitely all right then it's time to get onto this week's selection of number one singles and the first one for this week is this I've crossed the deserts for miles Swim water for time Searching places to find A piece of something to call mine

I'm coming A piece of something to call mine I'm coming Coming closer to you I've ran along many moors, walked through many doors The place where I wanna be is the place I can call mine I'm coming, I'm coming, I'm coming, coming closer I'm moving, I'm coming, Can you hear what I hear

It's calling you my dear I will reach To you I can hear it Calling you I'm coming up Drowning swimming closer to you Of course, it is Pure Shores by All Saints. This was released as the lead single from All Saints' second album, Saints and Sinners,

and as the lead single for the soundtrack to Danny Boyle's The Beach. Pure Shores is the group's fourth number one single after Never Ever, Under the Bridge, Double A Side with Lady Marmalade and Booty Call each hit the summit in the late 90s. This was number one for two weeks. It knocked Oasis, Go Let It Out off the top spot, and it beat competition from Gabrielle's Rise, which we covered last week. The Artful Dodger and Romina Johnson's Moving Too Fast, which is a bit of a shame because that's a good song.

It's a shame that they were released in the same week, I think, because I think they would have both been worthy number ones. And What A Girl Wants, Christina Aguilera's follow up to Genie In A Bottle. When Pure Shores was knocked off number one, it fell to number two. And by the time it left the charts charts it had been there for 19 weeks and not to give away how i feel about it too much but those 19 weeks must have been a wonderful 19 weeks for the for the uk so andy i'm going to come to you first on this one. Oh, I love you, Rob. Where do you stand? Where do you stand on pure shores? Well, this is a sort of, I want to say recent,

but I don't mean that recent, like about five years or so, a rediscovery of mine. Because when I was younger, I didn't listen to All Saints at all. They just sort of passed me by. They weren't really my thing. And I'm still not that huge on All Saints at all. They just sort of passed me by. They weren't really my thing. And I'm still not that huge on All Saints in general, but this song just came on about five years ago, and I was like, whoa, whoa, this is good. How did I not notice how good this is? And since then, I listen to it weekly, probably. was like the second or third time i'd listened to it this week

when this came on i absolutely adore this song and i might say it's probably one of my favorite songs from the early noughties full stop uh i really can't overstate how lovely this song is i think the real star of it is the production i think that's what really is the key ingredient, is that it manages to be mellow and sort of a banger at the same time, that it has this lovely sweet spot where it's got lovely, lovely, quiet, little bubbly synth sounds in the background, but it is also incredibly satisfying to listen to. It's just so well put together as a song. It sounds

so gorgeous. And it's just so sort of offbeat. It's so different to usual kind of girl band material. I think that's all Saints in general, really, is that they tend to do things that are a little bit more contemplative, a little bit more sort of long form ideas. And I just think this really, really stands out as something a little bit different something that sounds a bit different that has quite a lot of imagination put into it that really really rises above and is one of the stars of this moment in time for me so as you can probably tell I quite like it yeah the few specific things though that I really want to shout out um i'm going to be coming back to this a lot rob i know i've had this conversation with you before that for me one of the key things

that elevates any pop song from being a really good song to actual actual greatness is a really great bridge and i think this one is excellent one of my favorite parts of the songs is that bridge that i'm coming i'm coming, I'm drowning. That's lovely. Just when it might start to ebb away a little bit, when it might start to overstay its welcome, it does something different and it really comes to life and gives an extra burst of energy. I absolutely love it.

It's an absolutely marvellous song. And the only other thing I wanted to mention, if you're sure, well, I could talk about it all day, but I'm keeping it relatively brief. marvelous song um and the only other thing i wanted to mention if you're sure as well i could talk about it all day but i'm keeping it relatively brief one other thing i wanted to mention is that it's quite interesting that this knocked oasis off the number one spot because around this time liam gallagher and nicole appleton from all saints got together and they eventually got married the year after this so interesting they knocked Oasis off the top yeah well that I didn't know

and I reckon at least half of our listeners won't know that either well they were quite a sort of A-list couple for a while I've looked it up and they were together for about well they were oh no they didn't marry until 2008 but they had a child in 2001 so they were they were oh no they didn't marry until 2008 but they had a child in 2001

so they were together for well they got divorced in 2014 they were together for 13 years um liam gallagher and nicole appleton yeah the song songbird by oasis is about nicole appleton from yeah that i didn't wow two big factoids that i just had no idea like you know big moments in pop culture history have completely passed me by there until you seized them and gave them to me so thank you very much for that yeah um and thank you very much for your thoughts about pure shores as well lizzie i'll hand the mic to you um are you as as equally elated that we're covering pure shores and as equally in love with it as andy is yeah and that makes it very difficult to talk about it's like i don't know it's like talking

about your favorite child and why they are favorite it's like how do you put that into words but yeah it is a it's a beautiful record it's the first of two appearances from william orbit this week more on that later yeah and yeah it's it's incredible that I don't think William Orbit was a huge fan of this. I'm sure that in interviews around the time he pretty much dismissed it. He said, you know, it took months and it was, I don't know, it just didn't turn out how he wanted it. And it's only about 20 years later that he kind of reconciled that,

okay, maybe it's quite good. But it's only about 20 years later that you kind of reconciled that okay maybe it is it's quite good but it's incredible and to think that like all saints as well they were in not a great place with each other at the time like um we'll see all saints again later in the year but they split up about a year after this and i think i do remember reading I think it was Shaznay Lewis said that um one of the catalysts for them splitting up with an argument over a jacket in a photo shoot so that's where the band is at at this point it's pretty kind of tense I don't think any of them really wants to be doing it anymore but the fact that they came together to create something as gorgeous as this, just, yeah, it's incredible. And I think I was going to do that sort of wanky thing where it's like, this feels like the first true number one of the 21st century. But it's like it feels so perfectly within that, like, you know, that late 90s and specifically 2000 period where everything felt kind of

limitless if at least in the west anyway it felt like there was this period of relative calm and everything could you know all the dust had been settled and there was a sense of optimism and what you know you could look over a distant shore and you could see the world in front of you and because of that I don't think this could have come out at any other time because obviously a year after this it feels like the walls start to close in a little bit and it kind of gives it this melancholic effect to me because yeah it doesn't feel like we'll ever get that kind of time mood back i'm sorry that's a really bad way of putting it but i get it though because i also completely get this yeah yeah yeah because with the advent of the internet and the

fact that we were really learning how to you know we'd kind of spent the 90s really learning how to use the internet and now that we'd kind of you know we were experts in it so we thought and so a lot of the major kind of political stuff um that had gone through the 80s and 90s felt like it was kind of you know not over necessarily but there was a period of relative calm they were still kind of feeling the the one thing i would like to notice um i would like to look out for rather over the course of the 20-year period that we're going to cover is how many british artists are in the charts now compared to the year 2000 because yeah it does feel like there's still the little dregs of Cool Britannia

just kind of, you know, we're still in Blair's first term at this point. We've not quite hit that boy in the corner, original pirate material, first season of Peep Show kind of hangover yet. We're still kind of in that, like you say, specifically 2000, late 90s, year 2000 kind of, you know, oh, we're in a new millennium what's you know what's coming ahead of us and yeah i think with pure shores there is this kind of to me i guess to just kind of go into my thoughts about it i don't know why but it feels like something

the kind of music that they would play over footage of time lapses time lapses of traffic and clouds and vistas and things like that there's just something that it feels like an airplane that's kind of hit maximum height and speed and it's just kind of drifting cutting through the clouds it's mood isn't a video it's a ray of light oh it is the clouds. It's mood music, isn't it? Isn't that just the video to Ray of Light? Oh, it is the video to Ray of Light. Yes, I, yes. Another William Orbit jam, yeah.

Another, yes, exactly. But it does, it feels like something travelling through the air. There is, it floats really, really nicely until, Andy, you say that bridge section when it comes in and those really overproduced guitars come in to give it that pump about two thirdsthirds of the way through and this is what i meant um last week when i was talking about i think it was during the chat about the manics where you want your emotional climaxes to come late rather than early because then you spend two and a half minutes looking

forward to something you get that emotional climax then the last chorus is like the come down and it's a nice kind of you know it gives you a nice kind of soft landing as it enters that it enters its final stages um this is the my i don't know about youtube but this is my first nomination for the hits 21 vault i would also agree yep yeah So as we kind of explained last week, the vault is where we're going to put all the songs that we think are particularly special. And then when we come to the end of the year or end of the show, we'll look back and say,

okay, these were in the vault. Let's decide between them for our absolute favorites. This is the first song we've covered so far that i think i actually feel nostalgic for i actually have memories of this nothing clear but you know memory it puts me in a time it doesn't put me in a specific room or house or on a particular road or park or anything like that it just kind of puts me in the mindset of being five years old and just kind of learning about things um yeah same if i would say that if i was 28 in the year 2000 and i had the level of interest in all kinds

of music that i do now and you told me that the guy who produced ray of light for madonna and had just released like a covers album of like loads of modern classical songs and stuff was going to come and produce a couple of singles for the group who did never ever and booty call i'd be like oh yeah i'm well up for this and yeah i am well up for it it has that instant that that keeps repeating it's i think he willy morbid he also uses that in frozen doesn't he by madonna that's right yeah two or three years earlier um no idea what sound it is but all the production is so beautiful and futuristic and it's warm and it's tranquil and it's breezy um and then even away from the production i know that um he wrote this in collaboration with chasneay Lewis from All Saints, but it has that great chorus melody that you...

I think that's also something that happens with the single that All Saints come up with next, where you have all these interesting ideas going on in the production that a bit of a music nerd, a bit of an obsessive headphone listener could really get into. But then if you play it, you get in the car and you just turn the radio on and you've got i'm moving i'm coming can you hear what i hear it's just it's so instant with that um and then it builds towards that massive explosion that big bridge section like

you were saying andy it feels like the first two and a half minutes i just build up for that i'm moving I'll come in or whatever it is that they say and it's just this sudden shift of mood is this sudden shift of emotion and I think this is and I don't use this word much because I feel like it's a bit overused but I do think this is genuinely an iconic pop song I think it's representative of an entire period of pop music and it should have been number one for weeks and it feels like it was number one for weeks and weeks and weeks and

to know that it was only like a short period at number one it's really i think it's indicative of how fast the chart moves this year because there are so many number ones in the year 2000 i think there's over 40 yeah which is like nearly one a week so yeah it's somehow you know managing to stay at the top for two weeks is a big achievement i think like a modern day equivalent is probably something like the charlie xcx vroom vroom ep that she did with sophie i mean it was nowhere near as, but what I mean is like a big name from pop music working with a forward-thinking electronic producer. Funnily enough, ironically, Sophie had already worked with Madonna, just as William Orbit had worked with Madonna just before he came to All Saints. It's two worlds colliding, I think. William Orbit coming from a completely different background to All Saints and the clash is really, really beautiful.

The only markdown I have, and it's like 0.5 out of 10 markdown kind of material, is just that whenever I hear the mop, mop, mop, mop, I can't get it out of my head. It's like, you've kind of used this trick before. But I just class it as an interpolation, so it's like you've kind of used this trick before but it it's i i just class it as an interpolation so it's not a huge huge problem for me but well it's like a dub thing isn't it because he only plays that one note and it's just reverberated he doesn't like play the the keyboard note four times over does he no no i'm like i just did want to note something about

the bridge because you made me think, you know how it goes into that overdrive? It's a similar sort of thing with Coffee and TV, which William Orbit also produced and does a similar thing where it's quite smooth and gently going. But then you get into that Graham Cox and really discordant solo.

Yeah, very similar it you know it elevates the song from just good to okay this is genuinely brilliant yeah and again it's a it's a trick you've done before but you do it in a different way and yeah i think without that bridge section this song would be i don't know seven. But yeah, it just it needed that one thing to take it over the hill. And that does it. Just one more one more thing for me. Just because you were saying, Rob, that this felt like it was number one for longer than it was. It felt like it was a bigger moment than it was.

I think there is some substance to that because I'm just looking that it ended up as the second highest selling song in the UK of 2000 and it ended up remarkably as the 27th highest selling song of the whole decade in the UK. So it was very, very, very successful.

It stuck around for a long time. Sometimes the British public just gets it right. And sometimes they don't. See you in 2016. Okay. Next up is this. remember how that music used to make me smile and i knew that if i had my chance i could make those people dance and maybe they'd be happy for a while Did you write the book of love?

And do you have faith in God above? If the Bible tells you so? Now do you believe in rock and roll? And can music save your mortal soul? And can you teach me how to dance real slow?

Well, I know that you're in love with him Cause I saw you dancing in the gym You both kicked off your shoes Man I did love rhythm and blues I was a lonely teenage, drunk and locked With a pink carnation and a brick up truck Yes, this is of course Madonna's cover of Don McLean's American Pie. This was released as a standalone single in order to promote her upcoming movie The Next Best Thing.

Err, anybody? No, no. No, no, yeah. Ooh, I have a side note about that but I'll come to it in a minute. Okay, yeah, no problem. It's a 50th UK single overall and a massive 9th number one hit as well. Don McLean himself has celebrated this version and has called it a gift from a goddess. It eventually appeared on a 2016 reissue of her album Music, the original edition of which ends up being released later this year. It was number one for just a week, knocking All

Saints off the top spot and holding off competition from NSYNC's Bye Bye Bye. When it was knocked off the summit after 7 days there it dropped to number 2 and by the time it left the chart it had wrapped up 18 weeks inside the top 100 Lizzy yeah

your thoughts on American Pie Madonna's version well I did promise a little side note about The Next Best Thing. It was directed by John Schlesinger, most famous for directing Midnight Cowboy in 1969, which

went on to win multiple Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director. The Next Best Thing was his final film before his death in 2003, and it was nominated for four Razzies, of which Madonna won one for Worst Actress. Oh.

This is Madonna's acting era, isn't it? So, yeah, she was around a lot at this time. Yeah. Certainly is. Yeah, this is... Your thoughts on the song, Wizzy? Yeah. It's interesting, isn't it?

This is two number ones in a row for the same producer with two different artists I did wonder if that's ever happened before I will do some research And get back to you There's a chance that maybe Timberland In the mid 2000s may have a shout at that Maybe

I'm going to go through and have a look at that Maybe Calvin Harris as well Yeah that's a shout actually Okay yeah I'm going to go through and have a look at that. Maybe Calvin Harris as well. Yeah, that's a shout, actually. Okay, yeah. But yeah, talk about going from an apex to an Adir, or if we're talking orbits, the perihelion and aphelion in that order. Very niche, Lizzie, but very good. I know.

Yeah, more for my science pals out there. I don't like the original American Pie either. It's, you know, maybe the best thing about this cover version is that it at least had the common sense to not cover the full eight and a half minute version but yeah I feel like it's as weird in 1971 as it is in 2000 to have this song about the music of the past and how all the good times are gone and it's all over and the day the music died. And I think this period of Madonna where she's going into this,

how would you describe it? It's like country-western mixed with hip-hop, but it still feels like a bit of a cop-out somehow. Yeah, that album cover does not fit with its lead single aesthetically at all. No, it doesn't. Not one bit. Yeah, very, very strange. And I do find it a bit of a cop-out when artists go back to that kind of Americana.

We've seen it recently with Miley Cyrus, for example, where she went really deep into hip-hop and even psychedelia for a couple of years and then I think it was 2017 2018 yeah actually no I'm I'm a true American red white and blue like no this is just cheap it's pandering and it doesn't really mean anything to people outside of the US although you know this got to number one okay but yeah I think that's more the strength of Madonna's name than the strength of this single because this is not a good single Andy right so I don't dislike this as much as Lizzie does,

and I'm guessing as much as you do, Rob, although you haven't said yet, I'm guessing you don't really like this either. No, I don't. And don't get me wrong, I'm not a fan of this. It would get a thumbs down from me. But I'm not as harsh on it. I think how you feel about this

largely depends on how you feel about the original that that sort of whatever that relationship you have with the original version of this song kind of gives you a jumping off point to this because it's very different but also it's a song that is already very divisive to begin with and that some people find it extremely boring like i i just as a litmus test i asked my husband to listen to this in the car as well and he said oh i prefer this like the original is really boring this is better it gives it some life he actually liked this so if you really don't like the original you might actually prefer this because it is at least very different or if you don't like the original like you did lizzie it might mean that you're just not into this song altogether and it's not worth trying yeah for me i am not a big fan of the original but it does have some

little moments of genius i like the idea of it i like the idea of of the lyrics and what the story is that it's telling and i love the um that little chord that it lands on on the this will be the day that i die i do think that's just a lovely lovely little moment, just a nice musical idea. So I don't mind listening to the song, but why did she do this? Why did she do this? I don't really understand, of all songs, why she chose this. This era of Madonna, in general, is not one of my favourites. She, perhaps more than any other artist I can think of, has very clearly defined eras in history that you can break down quite easily. And I'm a much, much bigger fan of the Ray of Light era,

and most of what she did in the 90s I really like. And the 80s, obviously, you know, superb. But this, weirdly, this was a probably a bigger peak for her commercially than ray of light was music the single music i mean was was a really big hit even though that song i don't like at all but this era is not to my taste really um but she was just sort of doing whatever she liked she was throwing everything at the wall you know there was lots and lots of different sorts of songs and different sorts of ideas and from what i've read about this she was sort of talked into it she just sort of thought oh why the hell not let's just do this as well and i think that speaks volumes that you know there is a point at which you need to edit yourself and think should i really be releasing this cover

of american pie is there anything i can actually add to this the answer was no basically there wasn't anything she could add to it um and i think part of the reason for that part of the problem is those lyrics like you said lizzie that they are very they're telling a very personal very specific story that you really did have to be there it's not something you can recreate if you weren't there at the time it's when you're talking about the day the music died, and particularly the way that the lyrics dig into it, so much in terms of the particular emotions that it produced in Don McLean, it's something that you cannot recreate

if you're a different generation talking about it in an abstract way. It's something that Madonna just can't possibly share as a point of view, so it's inauthentic, and it's throwaway, and it's tacky. But I quite like the sound of it, quite like the production on it. I think it is a little sort of heresy to do that to a song like American Pie, but I don't mind it that much. I don't think it completely walks on its grave in the way that some people do. I think it's okay okay and i will genuinely give it a mark for not being as long as the original for cutting out i think like seven out of the 11 verses it cuts out um small mercies eh but it's

not that long so i'm down on it but i think it could have been worse and i think it's just a poor choice of song and she executes it perfectly fine i think so yeah and we definitely get worse from madonna in the years to come absolutely we do yeah this is not even in the worst five of recent years yeah no no way yeah yeah rob well yeah so one thing i'll say at the start that i quite like about the song is that it adds a new at the start that I quite like about the song is that it adds a new melody the um the synth lead at the beginning the as kind of weird as it is I just you know at least they've not just done a straight cover like you know they've tried to reinterpret it kind of you know there's a that or whatever it is like fine um hmm so william orbit coming back to produce madonna sounds great uh oh uh i think the production sounds okay it's a bit flat for me um the the the weird kind of

backing vocals that are kind of shoved into the furthest right and left parts of your ears like yeah very very unusual effect i had when i was listening to it i was just kind of i think i was sat on a i was coming back from manchester on a train when i was listening to this and i was like what on earth is going on here and i was like oh it's the backing vocalist um yeah okay i think this is really horrible um so can i suggest that we have something like that's the opposite of the vault like that represents like the worst of the songs that we listen to or our least favorite of the ones we listen to we'll call it like the pit or something we'll maybe come up with a better name but anyway i would like to put this song in it it we can argue the virtues of whether it deserves to be there or not

after, if you want to so, the original like it or lump it whether you think it's a gorgeous epic song with a great story or if it's just a boomer complaining about how much the modern world sucks a lot goes into it

and personally I'm in the former camp i actually really like um the original um i don't i'm not that affectionate towards it or defensive of it it's just that whenever it's on um i get kind of lost in the story you know i don't necessarily know if it's specifically about a guy complaining just about the music I mean they're definitely you know all the characters that turn up like um Bob Dylan and obviously the whole song is about Buddy Holly and stuff like that you know but I think it goes a little further than that it's just that it kind of tells the story of a guy who realizes you know he's reached the end of the most important and most exhausting decade in modern western history

i think and life hasn't quite turned out how he'd hoped and he considers the death of buddy holly to be the moment where everything kind of started going wrong for him uh you know it's a bitter and a sad story about a guy who realizes that he kind of blinked and then his childhood was over and his optimism was stolen and there was all this turmoil in the 60s and obviously there's a huge identity crisis uh for america after um kennedy was assassinated and then after mike luther king and then bobby kennedy getting shot and so you know it's very very panicky paranoid nation um but at the beginning of the 70s compared to where they were at the end of the 50s amazing show uh mad men tells that story beautifully it's a very exhausted and lengthy sigh taken at the end of the 60s and it's one of the most progressive and regressive decades i

think in in modern history in over eight minutes you're taken through heaps of metaphors and environments and periods of history uh the music speeds up and slows down and increases and decreases in volume and size it's imperfections are left there like how mclean kind of sounds a bit pitchy in that first verse while his voice is warming up uh like he's just started banging away on a piano and singing in the corner of a pub somewhere um and then by the time you reach the end of that song you've really i feel like i've been taken somewhere on a journey and then when he says father son and holy ghost caught the last train for the coast the way he sings it it's as if whatever story that he's been telling him whatever story they were part of has ended and they're going home now

that they're going away they've caught the last train it's gone there's no way to catch them it's all over and it earns its runtime i think to the point where removing literally any verse kind of ruins the overall effect of the song so of course madonna comes in cuts out as you say Andy seven of the 11 verses reduces the story to like bullet points and takes all the changes of tempo out of it all the character everything that makes the song feel like a story adds in a bunch of late 90s gimmicky production which I really didn't like about the Westlife stuff. Like, I don't know what makes it feel so flat to me. Like, I love Madonna. I think she's terrific.

Pop icon, string of amazing songs. Never going to question her ability as a singer. But when I was playing this out loud and taking notes and stuff, my partner, she had to ask, who's this? And I think that kind of says everything that you need to know.

It is quite nondescript i will i'll give you that um yeah yeah here's a random really really random factoid for you here uh you know when you're talking about those strange backing vocals we're talking about the male backing vocals that appear yeah the male backing vocals so far right and left of the mix bizarrely those vocals are done by rupert everett the actor who is in the next right and left of the mix. Bizarrely, those vocals are done by Rupert Everett, the actor, who is in The Next Best Thing with Madonna. You may know him as Prince Charming from Shrek 2. Oh, he does the backing vocals.

So it really was a proper vehicle for the film. Yeah. I've got to second you on the um the production feeling flat and it's like coming off what madonna had done previously where i could think of three hits from like 1998 and 99 of hers that all sound completely different you know ray of light is just that head rush of you know it's that like you said like a jet taking off yeah like just going full speed 100 miles an hour no way of stopping and then you get a calm period and then it's like back to the rush and then you've got frozen which is this sort of gothic it's almost like a dirge but it's so like frosty and yeah and

cold and beautiful I love that record and also when beautiful. I love that record. And also Beautiful Stranger, where it's got this vintage fuzz to it. I love that song. I'm always, always telling people to give that a go. I love that song so much. Yeah. Yeah, if you're hearkening back to that late 60s, early 70s period, that's how to do it,

because this, yeah, like you say, the production just sounds flat, and even go back to the original record, you know, from that same year, you've got What's Going On by Marvin Gaye, you've got Ball of Confusion by The Temptations, just better protest songs that fit into a much shorter amount of time

and yet say so much more than what American Pie does. Yeah, I have to say, Rob, I really disagree with you about the length of the song. I do think it is a genuine improvement to cut some of the verses. I really don't think any song justifies being as long as the original does. I just really disagree with you on that.

That's fair enough. I mean, to be honest, I've said my piece. If I was to argue back and say, well, hang on, I would only be repeating what I've already said. If we're talking pop songs, songs yeah the only other thing i do so are we gonna have rules about the pit about is it majority rule because i'm gonna say no i don't think it's that bad i i don't want to nominate it for the pit but if it's majority rule then we'll see yeah i think it probably

should be like the vault where it is majority rule. And also we should name it after this song and call it the pie hole. But that's just my opinion. You know, if you want to stick it in the pie hole, that's it very much. If you want to stick it in the pie hole,

then okay. Well, when we come to look at the pie hole at the end of the year 2000, it won't, it won't be bottom of the list you know it won't be like the absolute worst one in there andy because you'll i think you'll pull it back from uh from the edge and make sure that it it may be in the pie hole but maybe not at the foot of it well i didn't think this was the hill i was going to die on, to be honest. But yeah, fair enough. I'll stick up for Madge.

It would be a shame for it not to be in the thing it's named after. Yes, it would be a strange name if American Pie wasn't in there. Must have had another pie-related song. All right then, moving on. Our next number one is this The sun don't shine, you've seen it before Don't have to worry Every day that I feel calm Nothing has changed, believe me when I tell you Don't give it up

Don't give it up. Don't give it up. Don't give up. You know it's true. Thank you. Okay, this is Don't Give Up by Chikane and Bryan Adams. This was released as the second single from Chikane's album Behind The Sun. It is Chikane's first and only UK number one to date. However, Bryan Adams, it's his second chart topper. behind the sun it is she canes first and only UK number one to date however Brian Adams it's his second chart topper after everything I do I do it for you had a run of 16 weeks at number one back in 1991 this was number one for just a week knocking Madonna off the summit by selling just over a thousand copies more

than her rendition of American Pie and it also held off some competition from Tom Jones and Stereophonics. Mama told me not to come. While it was, sorry, when it was knocked off number one it dropped to number three and by the time it fell out the charts it had been there for 14 weeks. Andy? First of all that was a great Tom Jones, very much enjoyed that. Yes. Not bad. Can you sing American Pie in the style of Tom Jones? I'd enjoy that. I'll work on it for next week.

Look forward to that. So if I may submit my thoughts in writing for this one, it's just going to be a shrug emoji. I don't know. I really... This is the definition of a generic dance track for me. Well, maybe that's been a little bit harsh because it's not just purely, you know, 10 minute Cubase, you know, thing, but it is pretty generic. It's, it's the only reason I

can think of of why it would have got number one is Brianrian adams was was you know was andy is a pretty big name to get on a song like this um i don't think he's necessary at all he doesn't really have that much to do in the song um yeah i'm a bit befuddled by this to be honest i was really quite bored listening to it there's nothing wrong with it but i'm really puzzled as to why anybody would go out and buy the single for this like it's i can definitely see it but i'm really puzzled as to why anybody would go out and buy the single for this like it's i can definitely see it's the sort of thing that would come on in the club as it were that would that would come on and you dance to it but to actually buy it and to get it to number one that that seems strange to me um i i was reading about some of the critical reception just to see if there was something i was missing with this and one thing that was pointed out that

i really do agree with is that it is actually, the idea is a little bit ahead of its time of combining EDM with a famous male guest star would be quite a big thing in the 2010s. You know, sort of Avicii, Calvin Harris, that sort of thing. That would happen a lot. But it's weird to imagine that with the very noughties production that it has here, the very noughties production, very turn of the millennium.

I was sort of getting a bit of Daft Punk in the kind of, you know, the general sort of style they were going for, but very much inferior to Daft Punk. It was fine. It was just fine. It was a solidly fine piece of music. Does anyone else have anything more enlightening to say because I've said everything I could possibly say about Don't Give Up by Chican featuring Brian Adams Oh I've got a fair bit I could give it a go I'm not a big Brian Adams

fan at the best of times I was somewhat surprised to learn that this is his only second number one given that I somehow misremembered Summer of 69 being UK number one but it only somehow misremembered Summer of 69 being UK number one but it only peaked at number 42 in 1985 I also would have thought that I also would have thought that When You're Gone would have got to number one as well quite surprised that didn't make it to number one yeah after this no that was the 90s yeah definitely the 90s yeah yeah but yeah like summer of 69 it's another song about the past

you know another song about nothing masquerading as a song about something carried only by brian honking and screeching his way through that reagan core production and yeah i do hold a grudge against brian adams for holding the charts hostage for 16 weeks in the summer of 1991 with, open brackets, everything I do, close brackets, I do it for you. Yeah, say what you like about American Pie, but at least it didn't go on for 16 weeks. Yeah, Jesus Christ.

And I'll tell you what it did, though. It doomed children of my generation to all have the same number one when they were born including me yeah I'm 1994, summer 94 so I'm lovers all around I'm summer 92 and I'm

rhythm is a dancer in my case it was Brian Adams with Everything I Do or I'm Too Sexy by Right Said Fred at number two which is a real Sophie's Choice of shit singles by shit people

but yeah anyway the song okay Brian Adams has got this effect on his voice which I think is meant to tone down some of that rockiness you know the horsey

kind of yeah but it just sounds like it's been played underwater you know when you get a low bitrate MP3 from LimeWire or something it's like oh yeah it's only like 200 kilobytes that would be great and it's just yeah it's got that horrible effect and

the back end track is pleasant enough but doesn't stick in the memory it sounds like menu music from a playstation 1 racing game like colin mccray rally or le mans 24 hours and like the name chicane lends itself a bit too well to that connection maybe yeah you know i could i could bet that this is in fifa somewhere i could bet they use this in a FIFA menu. Probably, probably. It's like, it's maybe one of those tracks that makes more sense in the context of a club or a dance music festival, like you say, Andy.

But neither of those things, I can say, I have much experience with at 30 years old, let alone eight. Yeah, and can I just talk about the music video briefly as well? Because it's unintentionally very funny. It's set in some like vague dystopian future with Brian Adams appearing on a monitor that's shaped like a love egg interspersed with these ridiculous all caps statements

like uniformity is essential and happiness is an unproductive condition. And the main character, if you can call her that, she sees a vision of herself dancing in some sort of green screen utopia on a device that looks a bit like a... I think it's like a Nokia thing, but it looks like a squashed Nintendo DS.

All while, you know, Brian Adams wails at her, literally wails at her and does that reaching out with the heart thing where he looks like Alan Shearer with the haircut of young Leonardo DiCaprio. Wow. It's like, it's by far the most interesting thing about an otherwise pretty tepid dance track which paved the way for thousands of more in the edm movement a decade or so after this yeah i think this arrives in the middle of a big boom for club music at the start of the 2000s where there is a massive boom of like rave and trance getting into the charts in a big way and i mean they may not all get to number one but i'm thinking like hard

style acts like scooter and ultra beat and a few others that kind of crop up. And I think they're all kind of backed by, like, Ministry of Sound, Clubland 3, or, like, going to the gym and hearing it. And then, you know, like, it's one of those, like, I think it's one of those tunes. There's a lot of these songs up until about sort of, like, 2007, and then there's a bit of a drop-off, and they never really come back, where it's, like, I work all day. I work all week, and then I's a bit of a drop off and they never really come back where it's like

I work all day, I work all week and then I go clubbing on the weekends kind of, you know like I think the death of it was probably hard fi living for the weekend that was probably the last one where it felt geared towards like this kind of

you know, what is it in the thick of it Jeff Average because I pop a few pills and I go DJjing on the weekend because i'm a single mom and like it's it feels like the light this feels like the beginning of that wave that kind of dies out by sort of like 2006-7 um i imagine this was really big in the clubs this feels like a big friday night kind of tune to me um but not friday night while you're getting ready like um i got a feeling black eyed peas it's more like friday night it's just about midnight you've been in the club for about an hour and a half you know there's somebody's

passing something around you're all having a good time and then of course you'll go and buy this because it reminds you of those happy experiences that you have with your friends. I think that the commercial power of the club scene is probably at its height at this point, I would say, because EDM, as much as it's dance music, that's the festival scene in my head. I associate EDM with festivals, whereas I associate stuff like this with nightclubs. It has that kind of neon light amongst, you know like it's completely pitch black but you've got neon lights shining out from the djs um up near the the podium up near the djs podium and like you can sort of see your friend through some pulsing shadows and silhouettes and stuff like that um it's decent i think gets a

thumbs up from me just just about. Brian Adams is just about the last person I'd expect to appear on something like this. You know, his voice to my ears has always kind of sounded a bit Springsteen-like. Well, that's Brian Adams all over. Quite scratchy and rough, but he sounds kind of at home here. Does sound a bit underwater, but he sounds kind of at home here does sound a bit underwater um but it means that he blends in with the song okay i think what probably got this to work for casual audiences not just because it's brian adams name on it but i do think that leads synth melody when it comes in when it fades in for that first time there is a bit of a there's a teeny rush of anticipation especially when it resolves around that fourth time and it's got that

slightly different variation because it goes from going and then on that last time round it goes and it's just something to listen out for and it's just a hook but I think like you two yeah my main criticism though that means that it only gets a slight kind of thumbs up is that once you've heard the first 90 seconds

that's kind of it there's a little piano line that appears in the background like towards the end but it's not enough to make you think oh this is a new section or a new idea or something. It's very repetitive without really earning that constant repetition. I feel like Brian Adams probably was in the studio for an hour doing his vocal parts, if that. I'm just picturing, like, Krusty the Cow and, like, you know, coming in and doing all the lines. I love him as a professional kid. But yeah, it's okay, I totally agree with what you two were saying I think I just dislike it to a

I like it, I don't have as much of a problem with the issues I have with it I think if this was on I wouldn't turn it off but I don't think I'd go to it first just that makes sense just to bookend my earlier comment so when you're gone by the way because i was wondering about that when you're gone came out in 1998 made it to number three

um and the number one that week was believed by share which is absolutely fair enough. And number two was Hard Knock Life Ghetto Anthem by Jay-Z. But yeah, no shame in losing to share, as we all say. Anyway, yes! I'd say just following on from your comment, Rob, about this being the start of that culture,

it's actually, I'd say it started a little bit before because, have either of you seen the film Human Traffic? I haven't, no. With Danny Dyer and John Simm. It's like this. Danny Dyer. Yeah, honestly, I'd say go and watch that

because it's the perfect encapsulation of what I imagine this song to be within the culture, which is like you say, it's that work five days a week in a dead-end job but you party on the weekends and that gives you some sort of meaning it's like that really depressing late 90s well everything was supposed to be fixed but was still miserable before we um move on to that next number one i just want to say i don't know if this was necessarily um i just want to qualify obviously the the r if this was necessarily um i just want to qualify

obviously the the rave culture goes back much earlier than this but like of course i think this might be the then again i suppose you got the the 90s is kind of littered with big singles mostly from acts like two unlimited and alice dj and things like that so maybe I'm a little wrong on that but maybe this feels like the peak of it as a commercial force where it's like you could get like a string of really high charting singles around this point I think it's a I think it's a peak yeah there'll be others yes ap yeah for sure yeah there's definitely more of this sort of thing coming up okay all right, next up is this. I like chocolate and controversy He likes Fridays and bad company

I like midnight with almond and nude But he likes the morning, that's when he's rude Just a bad case of opposite sex. Have to look to the stars. All we need is a little respect. Cause men are from Venus and girls are from Mars. Grab your ass, don't drop the baby. Booting out no buts or maybe whining off and making crazy. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Take it back, don't drop it baby Booting out no buts or maybe Winding up and making crazy

Woah, woah, woah, woah Take it back, don't drop it baby Spitting out no buts or maybe Do your thing, come on lady Woah, woah, woah, woah Lady Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba Okay, this is Bag It Up by Jerry Halliwell,

released as the final single from Jerry's debut album as a solo artist, Schizophonic. This is Jerry's third consecutive number one after leaving the Spice Girls, after Michiko Latino and Lift Me Up reached the top of the charts at the end of the 90s. This was number one for a week, knocking Chican and Bryan Adams off the top, and it held off competition, which is a bit of a shame, from Blink-182's All the Small Things, which I would have preferred to go to number one.

When it was knocked off the top, it dropped down three places to number four and eventually left the charts after 14 weeks. Lizzie, what do we make of bag it up by jerry halliwell uh just going back to that old small thing second yeah i do like that song but i feel like this is the deserving number one um because i mean this one's really grown on me since i first listened to it about a week ago i initially really struggled with it because of just how bright and sugary it is. It's like drinking three porn star martinis in one go. But I found myself humming this in liminal moments all week,

thinking about going for one more sip of the sweet stuff. It's big and it's stupid and infectious. And I worry that listening to too much of this might turn me into a fun person, but I'm okay with that. Join us. Yes. So like, we're talking about this

just after Pride Month, about a week removed. It really dates this episode again. But I do think there's a note to be made here about not just the song but also the video and as we mentioned before that brit awards performance oh my god that brit awards performance yeah because it's such a rarity for its time like i think it's easy to forget that in 2000 this wasn't the common thing that it is today, particularly in kind of Western culture.

Like not only for its inclusion of the LGBTQ community, but also this overt celebration of kink and BDSM communities under that umbrella, something which is still part of endless discourse to this day every year, just like clockwork. But like kink and BDSM are both integral parts of queer history, which forge a connection to the history of sexual liberation that Pride was founded upon, and attempts to exclude it from Pride risk demonising consenting adults who just want to celebrate their own individual queer identities without looking to cause harm and offence, just like everybody else at Pride. So yeah, full credit to Jerry and the video director, Dawn Shadforth, neither of whom we've seen for the last

time by the way, for being this unapologetically blatant about it, no doubt opening up a world of self-discovery for a lot of young pop fans at a time when, you know, Section 28 was still in effect and mass culture wasn't particularly bothered about inclusivity. I think it might even be the best post-Spice Girls single, if we count this as post-Spice Girls because they're technically still together yeah this is a funny episode for me whether this is mid or post-Spice Girls well it's after Jerry's left this is post-Spice Girls

for her I'd say this is during the decline but it's not like a steep decline it's just a kind of maybe we're thinking of wrapping this up and we do see him later in the year though so yeah again very really gorgeously put lizzie uh andy yeah you uh you have been singing this song's praises to us ever since uh ever since the

episode came up so have at it well what can say? I've always wanted a song that continually reminds me not to drop my baby. Just what everybody needs. I mean, I really, really appreciate your comments there, Lizzie, as well. I mean, in all fairness to Geri Halliwell, she is actually a very... Geri Horner now, I should say, actually. She is a very, very in very in your face ally of the

community to the point where absolutely to the point where she's such an ally it gets a little bit cringy sometimes uh bless her but honestly she deserves the credit for that and and the people behind the video deserve the credit for that as well it is one of those songs that is a much bigger deal in the lgbt world than it is outside of it um you hear this song on canal street quite a bit um it comes up in my sort of playlists of gay parties and things like that this song does come up so i know and you already knew this song very very well um i love it i love it um it's absolutely nuts um it's it in your face. It's such a charm offensive. It's such an assault on the senses that it's absurd. It should be absolutely awful. And in some ways, it is a

little bit awful. But that to me is the definition of camp, where it's incredibly in your face without worries about quality. It's enthusiasm over substance, basically. That is the substance of camp for me, and I love that. I love it. There's something about Geri in general that she's got this very garish, very sexy voice that's very hard on the vowels, very, very sultry voice that just kind of is naturally there.

She has a natural loudness to her as well, and the mad production of the song combined with her voice it's a really perfect combination and it really helps sell it for me like i say i do acknowledge that objectively perhaps if there is such a thing it's it's not very good but i think the main aspect of that is the lyrics the lyrics are just terrible the lyrics really really are terrible what does i know that this is the lyrics the lyrics are just terrible the lyrics really really are terrible what does i know that this is the obvious point to make about this but i'm still no i'm still not the wiser of what does that main chorus line actually mean because bag it up don't drop the

baby is like the bleakest line i have ever heard in a pop song i surely can't mean what it sounds like it means it's just what does it mean anyone yeah i've got no advice it surely can't be jerry it surely can't mean oh hold the baby for a moment so i don't drop it while i'm putting together drugs in front of my newborn child i mean to be fair spice girls did this a few times they've got a song never give up on the good times that has like hilariously bleak lyrics at the start that's about this woman who's down on her luck, and it's like, oh, she's been thrown out.

Baby's on the way. She's on the dole. She'll probably die soon. You know, Spice Girls do this a little bit, so maybe it's just that. Speaking of that Spice Girls influence, I think this song is very clearly inspired by Who Do You Think You Are.

I think it's got that kind of sound to it, high on the trumpet, sort of like a modern reimagined Motown disco, almost. She's very much still leading with girl power. So many little feminist shout-outs, so to speak, in this song. They're kind of just a bad case of opposite sex and men are from Venus, girls are from Mars.

She, of all the Spice Girls, she is the one who is most obviously, at this time, the one who is most obviously attempting to carry on the Spice Girls sound, attempting to carry on that vibe, which is interesting because she's the one that left first and the Spice Girls is still existing as its own product right now. But Jerry is very much inspired by the sound that she's already come from i think where if you compare and contrast to whatever's coming up next i won't spoil that's very very different and i do think it's interesting that jerry is the sort of continuity candidate of the solo careers and she was very very successful it's easy to forget now that she was she was doing really well at first.

She trailed off a bit, but I do think she does a really good job of carrying on that Spice Girls legacy. She clearly knows her market. She knows how to pin it down. And I think this song is just really, really fun and really enjoyable. And despite the fact it's not very good, I don't really care. It's just really fun. Yeah. Sorry, I gasped in the middle of that because it's just very good i don't really care it's just really fun yeah sorry i gasped in the middle

of that because it's just clicked for me um so this might be reading too much into it but is it is you know you said about don't drop the baby is is the baby a newly out person oh it could be it could be in the trans community we have the concept of a baby tran who's you know someone who's kind of just come out or you know just exploring for the first time is that maybe a way of i don't know because i'm kind of reading the lyrics and thinking is it a way of you know bring this person into the community but also don't be afraid to show them what you're really like it could be my that that is a possible reason the only other possible reason i got from it was maybe because there's a lot of um girl power kind of material in this it might be a really weird way of like talking about women balancing their lives with their children like oh come on do stuff but keep an eye on your child

I don't know maybe something like that but your reading is much more interesting so I'm going to headcanon that now so yeah well I'm going to come in and pour a nice huge bucket of cisgender heterosexual

water all over everybody conversation I think I'd like this more if I could hear 5% more of the bass drum and 5% less of the brass the production on this is really strange produced by absolute who did a couple of Spice Girls singles including say you'll be there which has one of my favorite moments in all of 90s pop, which is that harmonica solo. Like you both said, I think the song has absolutely heaps of camp value, which I'm never going to dismiss.

It has grown on me a little bit as the days have gone on since I've listened to it. The production isn't like a nightmare for me or anything like that. It's got a bit of pep to it. It's got a bit of a push and a bit of a kick. It's just, this isn't the song's fault necessarily,

but you know when she starts and she goes like, I like chocolate and controversy or whatever it is. That's going to be my Tinder bio. I like chocolate and controversy. I think it's kind of going for Prince vibes, but it ends up, Lizzie, you'll laugh at this.

It kind of reminds me of, you know, Beach Boys, Summer of Love. Oh God. You know, the people all around the world in every nation like to get, and it just,

I mean, it's, it is leagues better than Summer of Love, but unfortunately, it does kind of remind me a little bit of Mike Love trying to be cool about 10 years before this I think, weird coincidence that you mentioned it

earlier Lizzie, but I think it's channeling I'm Too Sexy at the start I think it's that kind of yeah definitely but again it's I'm Too Sexy it's another one that's a pop song that's from that similar kind of area where there's a lot of camp value

and that takes it a long way I do want to give a massive shout out though to the ad-libs at the end of this which are hilarious my favourite one is when she gets they're trying to fade her out and so she just gets louder and louder

and she's like who's wearing the trousers now and oh yeah she goes right to the back of her nose for that one it's I do like this and I have enjoyed listening to you two talking about it and whenever I hear it in the future

I think I will always associate it with just how much you two seem to enjoy it so I'm fine with giving this a thumbs up to be honest going back to the Spice Girls connection as well it kind of scans with spice up your life

yeah I like chocolate and controversy he likes Fridays and my company bag it up don't drop up, don't drop the baby don't drop the baby wind him up and make him crazy well yeah

it's definitely one that I don't like as much as YouTube but I definitely like it more than I did when I first heard it when we were doing it for this show I'm going to make a confession in that definitely like it more than I did when I first heard it when we were doing it for this show I'm going to make a confession in that I like it so much, I like it even more than Chocolate and Controversy, I like it

so much that I was going to put it forward for the vault but I thought it's not going to happen so I decided not to embarrass myself, I mean I've said it now so never mind but I really I've calmed down on it slightly because i realize it's not that good but i was thinking about putting this forward for the vault because

i just i have so much fun listening to this i really do so if anyone else wants to i'm on board personally i wouldn't support that motion but lizzie what about what about you oh i i do love it i don't know if it's vault worthy, because I think that has to be... Go on. If we're going by numeric scores, I'm thinking like nine and above. No, it's just...

Like I say, I've warmed to this a lot. My opinion might change. Well, in that case, what we'll do is we'll put it in a special little limbo area where at the end of the year if there's any songs that were nominated for the vault by one person and didn't quite make it in because they didn't get the push from the second person to get a majority vote we'll just reconsider in a few months time and then so it may get another chance sandy i won't hold our hope i

won't hold our hope i'm just getting carried away away. We'll bag it up, so to speak. Yes. Alright then, our final number one of this week is this. Ooh, yeah I'll never be the same again I call you up whenever things go wrong You're always there, you are my shoulder to cry on I can't believe it took me quite so long

To take the forbidden step Is there something that I might regret? Nothing ventured, nothing gained A lonely heart that can't be tamed I'm hoping that you feel the same This is something that I can't forget I thought that we would just be friends Things will never be the same again

It's just the beginning, it's not the end Things will never be the same again It's not a secret anymore Now we've opened up the door starting tonight and from now on we'll never never be the same again okay this is never be the same again by melanie c and lisa left eye lopez this was released as the third single from Melanie C's debut album, Northern Star. And this is her first number one as a solo artist, with her previous two singles both reaching number four. But it wouldn't be her last number one. More on that in later episodes.

This was number one for a week, knocking Jerry off the top of the charts and holding off competition from Malo Ko's The Time Is Now, which is a little bit of a shame, I think. And also Rob Thomas and Santana Smooth. When it was knocked off the top, it dropped down one place to number two and eventually left the charts after 16 weeks, which seems to be roughly the average number of weeks that songs are spending in the charts after being number one. Andy what do we make of Mel C and Lisa Lopez? Well first of all just going back to that story then that we had in the news at the very start of this episode about how there was a bit of drama on stage where Jerry didn't perform with the Spice to that story then that we had in the news at the very start of this episode about how there was a bit of drama on stage where jerry didn't perform with the spice girls and now we

have mel c knocking jerry off number one the drama at this time oh i love it that's just something i noticed yeah um in terms of this song i i really i really quite like it. Just picking up on what I was saying earlier, that this really could not be more different to what Jerry's doing. If Jerry's going for continuity, then Mel C is going for doing something different. She's going for differentiating her sound from the Spice Girls and doing something... I hate to use the phrase serious artist, but that's clearly what she's trying to do. She's doing something more sort of sonically different so I think a little bit more alternative than she ever would have

done in the Spice Girls a lot of her solo music in general has a quite sort of mysterious mood a quite sort of thoughtful mood to it which is extremely pleasant actually i quite like a lot of mel c's solo stuff um i i will say i have a bias that will never ever leave me um i'm just gonna say it uh because there's no better opportunity for me to say this when i was a child mel c was my imaginary friend um so i just adored everything she did it was weird because I saw her not physically like face not one-on-one but I saw her on stage at pride a few years ago and it's like you know like if you'd met a fictional character like if you happen to meet Father Christmas or something I'm like

oh my god that's Mel C like I did it's weird that she's real cuz she used to live in my head. I had a gang of imaginary friends called the Sporty Kids of which Sporty Spice was the leader. So I'll always have a very special place in my heart for Mel C. She was like my idol as a kid. Were any of the gladiators part of this group? Probably. No, she was the only real person, actually. She was the only real one. The rest of us were kids and she was like our childminder

slash superhero who could solve crimes by the means of playing football and singing, basically. Is she like Sportacus from Lady Devil? Yeah, actually, pretty much. Yeah. So just to throw that in there,

I do have a huge bias towards Mel C like I just absolutely like have an affinity with her I do think that this although it's a very pleasant song

and it has a lovely main melody line to it I think it outstays its welcome very slightly I do think it is too long and to shorten it perhaps controversially

this is where I might slightly be ruffling some feathers I would actually cut Lisa Lopez's section from this entirely I think it's not necessary I think it's a good example of a

let's have a rap solo just because that's what you do I think it's only really there to add some authenticity to add some kind of street cred to the song because that's what she wants to do at this time. Obviously, she wants to kind of be in with more serious people. I don't think it's necessary. I don't think it really adds anything to the song,

but it's nice for Lisa Lopez to get number one, at least. So I don't have a huge problem with her being there. I don't think it's anywhere near as fun or as memorable as Bag It Up but it's not trying to be, it's just a very nice song that's pleasant in its own way so yeah, big thumbs up and yeah, always got a lot of time

for Mel C Lizzie, what about you? It should have been Maloko that song has aged like a fine wine it's a gorgeous song go and listen to that okay anyway this song it's perhaps not helped by the

fact that another Spice Girl has appeared on this episode with a fun provocative single but I'm sorry to say I didn't really get much from this one like I even tried looking at it as a breakup song about the Spice Girls, perhaps about how what could have been like an amicable parting of ways between the groups turned into this huge media circus when Jerry decided to go solo and

the rest of the group had to limp on while pop music was moving on from them in favor of new acts like Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera but I guess that's probably a reach and what you're left with is a pretty standard issue late 90s four chord breakup song like okay it's better than um her her lead-off single have you heard going down yeah yes I have oh it, it's better than her lead-off single. Have you heard Going Down? Yeah, yes, I have. Oh, it's horrible. It is truly horrible. But yeah, at least it's not that.

Also, I just wanted to say about Lisa Left Eye Lopez. She does her best to inject a bit of life into this one. But like you say, I don't think it really needed it and it's also a real shame that this is her only uk number one appearance and this song is one of her final uk chart appearances during a lifetime like yeah she has one minor hit in 2001 with the block party and that's pretty much it which doesn't reflect her incredible success in the late 90s with TLC. Like, Waterfalls and No Scrubs, they're two high watermarks of 90s pop,

like two of the greatest pop songs of that era, and with Digging On You and Unpretty not much farther behind. It seems a shame that this okay but not much more than that song is the only one that got over the edge, so to speak. Yeah, I was kind of thinking about that when I was listening to it. It's a bit of a shame that she didn't really get... Well, obviously it's a massive shame she didn't get to do much else after this, but I feel like she could have secured a bit of a shame that she didn't really get well obviously it's a massive shame she didn't get to do much else after this but i feel like she could have secured a bit of a solo career kind of similar to andre 3000 you know where he doesn't actually kind of do anything he just kind of pops

up on somebody's album about two or three times a year and everybody goes oh andre 3000 oh yeah there he is and then he goes away again and you're like oh what if he's ever going to release a solo album and it's like well he's already done a solo album it was he goes away again and you're like, oh, I wonder if he's ever going to release a solo album. And it's like, well, he's already done a solo album. It was called The Love Below and you can go and listen to it. It's there. But, you know,

it's kind of like this less is more kind of approach that I feel like she was probably going to take. She did a couple of solo albums, but I don't know how successful they were, but it just felt like that was going to be her career where she would just kind of pop up add a bit of cred to a particular song and then go oh yeah isn't she good

and then that would be it and she would just remain kind of popular and ever present without ever being overbearing but unfortunately you know well really tragically everything got cut short um yeah the song itself i think she brings the goods with it um she has a really good voice lisa lopez um i get what you mean like maybe cut it because it's not absolutely essential but i kind of can't imagine this song without that um i think i think the radio probably i would imagine the radio probably did cut it sometimes um probably yeah or they maybe cut

mel c's second verse or maybe they made the intro shorter or something it is just a bit it is a bit beefy isn't it it's it's close to five minutes. I'm stunned that it is as long as it is. Yeah. But yeah, second solo Spice Girls single of the week. I know that they're not far from the end, but in my mind, this all happened after Holla. In my head, this all happened afterwards. I mean, when we get to Holla later this year,

I've got a lot to say about that. But I think that Mel C always had the best voice of the Spice Girls, and I think that she had the most interesting ideas to bring to the table after they were done as a solo artist. The next number one of hers that we're going to cover, either the original version that she recorded or that dance remix thing that hit the radios really like both versions of those i think with this though suffers a little bit from a lack of momentum and i think it doesn't really do anything after it doesn't try to there's no huge dynamic shift for the chorus there's no sudden intervention of like a new instrument or a new

melody or something like that it's just when by the time it gets to the chorus it just kind of eases into it from the verse and it means that everything feels kind of fluid and nice but by the time you reach like lisa's verse it's like really need something different to happen now and it just kind of goes about itself pretty mid-tempo it's nice i think i prefer it to bag it up and i think i prefer it to chicane for this week um i definitely prefer it to madonna oh undoubtedly yeah but yeah it's it's fine for me it's okay i think it's all right um i kind of have nice memories of it um especially lisa's verse but yeah i couldn't understand lizzie like i don't disagree actually with anything that you or andy have said i just think that like

like um like it was for chicane it's just it just bothers me less i think yeah i mean this did remind me a lot of genie in a bottle i had to check it wasn't the same producer because i found it's got the same kind of yeah same tempo same sort of chord structure but yeah this this isn't genie in a bottle no no it is uh genie in a bottle it isn't yes. Final note on this one. Not this song in particular, so it's not as excellent a stat as it could be, but on Mel C's album, Northern Star. Do you want to know who worked on this? William Orbit.

Of course. Ah. Yeah. So sort of three out of five for this week. Quite remarkable, really. Yeah. You cannot keep him out of the charts at the moment.

And it's not the last time we've seen him either. No. We're all just in his orbit. Yes. Exactly, Andy, exactly. Alright, so, that's the end of this week's show. We have a song in the vault, we have opened

up a pie hole, and we sort of have a song that's vault. We have opened up a pie hole. And we sort of have a song that's hanging around in limbo, whose fate will be decided when we reach the end of the year 2000. I'm sure both piles will get much larger as the show goes on. Next time, we'll be covering the 2nd of April through to the 13th of May in the year 2000. So another series of number ones that lasted about two seconds. Thank you very much for listening this week. We'll be back as soon as we can to hopefully bring you more Hits 21 goodness.

Thank you very much. Bye-bye. See ya. Love vacation. be so very cool. Girls are always ready for a summer of love. Going out and looking for love. Girls are always ready. Girls are always ready for a summer of love. Love, love, love.

Summer of love. I can't wait till summer cause it's gonna be a summer of love. Hey now. Well it's a love thing.