I'm looking like class and he's looking like trash

Continuing my trip up the list of the most streamed songs for each year.  

1999 : No Scrubs - TLC

I like this track but I'm somewhat surprised it's (allegedly) the most streamed track of the year - I'm not expecting too many cover versions though.  The video is a lot more spaceshippy than I remembered and features a giant swing for no obvious reason and some pretty dodgy costumes - it all looks impressive, but there's surprisingly little content.

Wikipedia tells me the song was written by Kandi Burruss and Tameka "Tiny" Cottle (two former members of Xscape, who were big in the US but did nothing here) and TLC member Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes (wow, she died 21 years ago now).  Kandi and Tiny thought they might record it themselves but Dallas Austin (no idea who he is but his parents were obviously fans of Texas) had other ideas and gave it to TLC.

The critics were big fans with NME declaring it to be "the best song ever about not wanting to sleep with someone you're not attracted to in the first place" which is probably a pretty small category.  It obviously did well commercially - #1 for four weeks in the US (and #2 in the year-end list) and seven weeks in Australia, but only #3 here.  It was amusing how many people (men, of course) complained about the song painting us poor guys in a dim light - because obviously women are never portrayed negatively in any musical genre, are they? 

Wikipedia actually lists quite a few covers - even if some of them are done by people I've never heard of.  We've got Avi Wisnia (quite nicely jazzy), Karmin (I can't help but feel that Karmin must have edited Wikipedia to add this), Glee (murdered, as expected), Scout Niblett (nicely different), Kacey Musgraves (only a live version, but not bad at all) and Weezer (I quite like this).  It also tells us that the writers were given a writing credit on Ed Sheeran's "Shape Of You" because it contained a similar lyrical rhythm, which I can see being true but I'm less convinced it really earned them any particular recognition.  But, I hasten to add, it's not my area of legal specialism and I suspect others who know more than me have been involved in the decision...

I quite like this song but I still find it hard to believe it won the year - what was the competition like?  Actually, this was one of the better years at the top of the year end chart (with one notable exception) - the best selling track of 1999 was Britney Spears' "Baby One More Time" which is, indeed, a "proper banger".  The rest of the top five were Eiffel 65's "Blue (Da Ba Dee)", Cliff Richard's "Millenium Prayer" (THIRD?!?), Lou Bega's "Mambo No. 5" and ATB's "9pm (Till I Come)".  #6 and #7 are worth mentioning as well because they're Ricky Martin's "Livin' La Vida Loca" and Shania Twain's "That Don't Impress Me Much" - and after that things go downhill very quickly because Martine McCutcheon, Westlife, R Kelly, Phats & Small, Five and Vengaboys (THREE times!!!) are all featured.  However, Christina Aguilera's "Genie In A Bottle" and Blur's "Tender" are pretty bearable.

Looking further down the chart, I'm expecting some pretty decent tracks so let's see what we've got.  Not bad at all - Fatboy Slim's "Praise You" and "Right Here, Right Now", Lauryn Hill's "Ex-Factor", The Cardigans' "Erase/Rewind" (I love this), R.E.M.'s "At My Most Beautiful" (and this!), Eminem's "My Name Is", The Divine Comedy's "National Express", Basement Jaxx's "Rendez-Vu", Travis's "Why Does It Always Rain On Me?", Bran Van 3000's "Drinking In LA" and Melanie C's "Northern Star".  Not a massive selection, but some decent quality even if none of them are obviously going to take the year - believe me, there was a load of dross in there as well.

Looking over the pond, the top selling track there was Cher's "Believe" (released in '98) followed by, as previously mentioned, TLC.  Most of the chart is rubbish R&B, but I was somewhat surprised to see Sixpence None The Richer's "Kiss Me" made it as high as #6 - the only other track that jumped out at me was Tal Bachman's "She's So High" which isn't often heard these days but I really like it.

This is a good track which I enjoyed catching up having not heard it in years and there were some decent tracks around in the year amongst a load of old dross.  Did TLC deserve to win?  Who knows eh, but they did - well done, girls!

1998 - One I didn't recognise from the title
2000 - I can't believe people listen to this that often