A+ 'Enjoy Yourself'

Chart Peak: 5

YouTube

Teenage rapper A+ (AKA Andre Lewis) hails from Hempstead, Long Island... Since his mother first entered him for talent shows at the age nine, his career has been on the up, and he became the first act to be signed to Kedar entertainment alongside Chico Debarge and Erykah Badu.

We're still in disco-era sample territory here, since the track is based on Walter Murphy's 'A Fifth Of Beethoven', which of course wasn't composed in the twentieth century but it's Murphy who gets the writing credit here. Still, it's estimated that Ludwig Van Beethoven has sold over a million singles in the UK as a songwriter. The chorus is not entirely unlike the Jacksons hit with which it shares its title (Michael Jackson's first ever music video, apparently), though there's no writing credit for Gamble and Huff here. Neither is there one for Lewis himself, suggesting that he's not entirely to blame for the lyric, which is constructed entirely from cliche. In fact, this song is so lacking in any distinctive features that it's hard to remember now why it did so well - especially as it wasn't much of a hit in America, peaking at 50 on the RnB chart. Presumably for this reason, the label pulled the plug and no further singles were issued, making him a true one-hit wonder. Unsurprisingly, there are various references online to Lewis attempting to restart his career as an adult though none has yet really taken hold.

I've tried to resist doing this, but I can't. I give this song a C-.

Available on: Hempstead High [JP-Import]

Blockster 'You Should Be...'

Chart Peak: 3

YouTube

Brandon Block and friends A.K.A. Blockster, had a huge No. 3 hit in January '99 with 'You Should Be...' In keeping with the current disco revival, the track is based on the Bee Gees massive hit 'You Should Be Dancing' first released in 1976.

Nowadays, Brandon Block is probably most remembered for walking on stage unexpectedly during the 2000 Brit Awards, one clip which helpfully is still online. Before then he apparently began his career as a DJ in the John Lyon Pub here in Harrow, just down the road from Northwick Park Hospital - it later became a Berni Inn, a Beefeater, a Hungry Horse (?) and is now an Indian Restaurant called Mumbai Junction. Sorry, you probably didn't need to know that but I don't often get to use my local knowledge on here.

Anyway, he went on from this to become a superstar DJ and, with some inevitability, took to making his own records. His biggest hit is, effectively, a cover of the Bee Gees hit, with the falsetto vocals duplicated by unnamed session singers and some more contemporary dance production. I can see that it was probably cheaper than getting the rights to remix the original if he wanted to play it in a club, but it's not really very interesting to hear anywhere else. I found it deeply annoying in 1999, and still would if I heard it with any regularity.

Available on: 100% Driving

Ace Of Base 'Always Have, Always Will'

Chart Peak: 12

YouTube

Swedish pop sensations Ace Of Base are fast following in the footsteps of fellow Swede legends Abba - their debut album Happy Nation sold 21 million copies worldwide and they have already won four World Music Awards.

Another Abba reference? It's a slightly odd note they've written there; odd to talk up the the sales of their first album when this track was from their third, and seems a bit desperate to claim the entirely sales-based World Music Awards (all four of which were won for "Biggest-Selling Scandinavian Recording Artists Of The Year") when they had won at the more respectable Billboard awards. The analogy also falls down in that this was the group's penultimate hit in the UK, and their last to bother the Top 20. They did continue to record in the new century (though, unlike Abba, they've changed the lineup) but the British public seem to have lost interest rather abruptly.

It's a bit unfortunate because 'Always Have, Always Will' is one of their more likable singles. Though it's obviously intended to be the Motown pastiche that non long-running act can resist,  it was in fact co-written by Mike Chapman. Younger readers might need reminding that he was part of the Chinnichap writing team who supplied many a seventies hit to Mud, Sweet and Suzi Quatro, and you can hear some traces of his glam stompers in there too. The inane but passable lyric was apparently a replacement for an original text about a murderer; that was thought insufficiently commercial.

Also appearing on: Now 25, 27, 28, 33, 41
Available on: Singles of the 90s

Cartoons 'Witchdoctor'

Chart Peak: 2

YouTube

'Witchdoctor' is the debut UK single from Danish exports the Cartoons... Taking a break from Toonland, Toonie, Buzz, Sponge, Shooter, Puddy and Boop are scheduled to hit the charts at Easter 1999.

Unsurprisingly, the success of Aqua prompted the record industry to seek out similar acts who could appeal to the tween market. And so it is that we end up with a bunch of Danes in enormous wigs and two female Elvis impersonators covering David Seville's 1958 US chart-topper (yes, he of Chipmunks fame). In contrast to the original, they give the witch doctor a low voice instead of a high one, although it's hard to say they've greatly improved upon the track. Indeed it could be argued that forty years later, they should have known better than the crude ethnic stereotyping and the slightly disturbing stalkerish tone of the lyric. Then again, it could be argued that they should have known how to pronounce the word "Cartoons" as well, and as you can see from the end of the video, they didn't quite.

I admit that my naturally contrarian side has some desire to like this, but it's easy enough to keep in check. The one thing I will say for this is that one of them has a bass shaped like a giant carrot.

Also appearing on: Now 43
Available on: Toonage

Vengaboys 'We Like To Party (The Vengabus)'

Chart Peak: 3

YouTube

'We Like To Party' was the second smash hit single from Vengaboys - Kim, Denice, Robin and Roy... The band have had massive success all over Europe with the track and it has started a new dance craze in Luxembourg, Belgium and Holland, where the single has already gone gold.

With all due respect to the Benelux countries, I do have to wonder how difficult it really is to earn a gold disc in Luembourg, or how one starts a dance craze with such generic dancing. Nonetheless, I do see 'We Like To Party' as the start of the Vengaboys as a pop act, rather than the one-off purveyors of 'Up & Down'. It's the start of them portraying the dancers as the faces of the act and even introduces the gimmick of the Vengabus, and thus spawned a lot of jokes about Arsene Wenger. It's a song that's kind of fun to hear once every few years, but quickly infuriating.

Also appearing on: Now 41, 43, 44, 45, 46
Available on: Ultimate Pop Jr

Tina Cousins 'Killin' Time '99'

Chart Peak: 15 [86 in 1997]

YouTube

24 year-old diva Tina Cousins was first spotted in the UK charts with her featured vocal on the Sash! No2 hit 'Mysterious Times'... Now a star in her own right, Tina follows top-20 debut 'Pray' with dancefloor friendly 'Killin' Time', due for release March 15th '99.

'Mysterious Times' is one of the Sash! hits not to have made a Now album so this is the first album to feature Cousins - and she turns up twice, making a total of four appearances in there series. Perhaps with hindsight that's a bit disproportionate for a little-remembered act, particularly since - spoiler alert - her other two appearances were both with singles that fell short of the Top 40. But such is the whole joy of this project.

There's not so much joy in listening to the song itself, a 1997 flop revived after the Sash! hit. It's the work of the same songwriters and producers as the Steps song, but they're trying to make a dance track this time with underwhelming results. Cousins herself is hardly a compelling or distinctive presence, but she's also absent for much of the running time. Despite this, the track sounds more contemporary than I expected, thanks to the persistent keyboard stabs. If somebody told you it was a recent Calvin Harris production you'd think he was having a bit of an off day but you'd believe them. And if they said it was competing in Eurovision tomorrow, you'd probably buy that too.


Also appearing on: Now 43, 44
Available on: Killing Time

Emilia 'Big Big World'

Chart Peak: 5

YouTube

Emilia was born twenty years ago to a Swedish mother and an Ethiopian father and was educated at the esteemed Adolf Fredniks music school in Stockholm... As well as having a massive No.5 UK hit with 'Big Big World', she is busy studying economic history at university!

It's not exactly record-breaking, but it's still remarkable that after charting with this single over Christmas 1998, she had to wait until early 2013 to enter the UK album chart (as Emilia Mitiku - she's also sometimes credited as Emilia Ryberg). By now she seems to have developed into a decent jazz-pop singer, but in the late 90s she was, as I think David Quantick called her in scathing Q review, "A big, big girl with a stupid, stupid voice". He also went on to call it an insult to the memory of Abba that this track was recorded at their Polar Studios; the connection being apparently that she was discovered by the son of their manager.

After all these years, I don't hate this track as much as I did at the time, and in fact I can't fully understand why I did then. I still dislike it though, it has every hallmark of a record trying too hard to be winsome and cutesy. That's not a style that ever appealed to me and I don't think it's even done especially well here, it seems a bit too half-baked somehow. I don't know why she turns into a dog at the end of the video either.

Available on: I Am Relaxed