Prince famously wanted to party like it's 1999, but did the year really live up to the hype? Today we go back in time to the last year of the 20th century, reviewing the chart music of the day, as performed on Top of the Pops at the time (re-runs of these old shows are broadcast every Friday evening on BBC4 and can be found on the iPlayer).
In this episode, we'll be talking boy bands (Boyzone, Westlife, Five...) and pop divas Britney and Madonna, as well as pop groups like Steps, Atomic Kitten, S Club 7, the Vengaboys and B*Witched. We also talk about some of the year's most iconic film soundtracks, like Austin Powers and Notting Hill, and dance music from the likes of the Chemical Brothers, Fatboy Slim and Alice Deejay. We chat about the Spice Girls' flourishing solo careers, Eminem's outrageous debut performance of 'My Name Is', Macy Gray's chart dominance with ballad 'I Try', and Tom Jones's emerging persona as the tongue-in-cheek, swaggering elder statesman of pop.
And to finish the episode, we reveal our top five favourite songs of the year 1999, and our least favourite song (shockingly described by James as almost as bad as Brexit). Who will the winners be? Join us to find out.
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