My Top 500 Songs (complete!!)

85 BBE - Seven Days and One Week (1996)

A precursor to the more melodic trance of the late 90s, likely charted in the wake of Children and the developing dance sound. Definitely best served in a nostalgic context with other late 90s melancholic trance like For An Angel.

 
84 Toni Braxton - Un-Break My Heart (1996)

More from 1996, this was a mega hit. The ballad version was of course absolutely fine, but the remix was the one you heard in the radio and certainly pumping from my stereo and it was a glamorous affair, absolutely dripping. Apparently Diane Warren wrote it that way, as a big ballad a big gay dance track.

The model in the video Tyson Beckford was an absolute revelation and saw tissue use rise when I got MTV in my bedroom.



 
83 Kylie Minogue - On A Night Like This (2000)

Spinning Around confirmed she was back. This sealed the deal. I absolutely love this, but in the way that anyone could have recorded this and I would have done. I'd say of all her singles it's the most throwaway europop track she's done and all the better for it. It was, perhaps disappointingly, an almost direct cover of the Pandora original, just polished up.

She looks sensational in the video offering her body to older men (we've all been there). A year later, the world was hers.

 
Agneeta said:
83 Kylie Minogue - On A Night Like This (2000)

Spinning Around confirmed she was back. This sealed the deal. I absolutely love this, but in the way that anyone could have recorded this and I would have done. I'd say of all her singles it's the most throwaway europop track she's done and all the better for it. It was, perhaps disappointingly, an almost direct cover of the Pandora original, just polished up.

She looks sensational in the video offering her body to older men (we've all been there). A year later, the world was hers.

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Absolute HEAVEN!!
 
The Frankie Knuckles mix of Unbreak My Heart may have been the first time I queened out.

Say that you love me
Say that you love me
Tell me you love me
Tell me you love me
 
Agneeta said:
85 BBE - Seven Days and One Week (1996)

A precursor to the more melodic trance of the late 90s, likely charted in the wake of Children and the developing dance sound. Definitely best served in a nostalgic context with other late 90s melancholic trance like For An Angel.

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Loved the MINIMALIST TRANCE vibes of both this & Flash.
 
Loufoque said:
The Frankie Knuckles mix of Unbreak My Heart may have been the first time I queened out.

Say that you love me
Say that you love me
Tell me you love me
Tell me you love me
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I must also profess my love for the Soul Hex Anthem Vocal mix of Un-break My Heart, it's a bit harder edged. I only discovered it about five years ago and revived my love for it.
 
Yeah Flash is fine. I think if I didn't pick up on it in 1997 I was never going to. It doesn't go anywhere, in a much less thrilling way than Seven Days.
 
I've found 90s dance music coverage can be PATCHY on Spotify

A lot of defunct artists long out of the industry, and no Aquaplex fighting the good fight that they do for pop music

Often the best hope is that a song happens to be on a random old compilation that goes unnoticed by a label, but it usually only comes true for the really big hits like Seven Days.
 
82 Melanie C - I Turn To You (2000)

The only appearance of a solo Spice Girl on the list, and obviously it's the trance pop, may I say THUMPER. I do not give the slightest fuck about the original. Why would I when I have this delicious Hex Hector remix to turn me around when I'm upside down? Fun memories of bopping to this in grotty University club nights. Were Uni nightclubs EVER cleaned?

 
81 Enigma - Return To Innocence (1994)

Ah new age. The forgotten trend of the 90s, recently rebranded as whimsigoth. Although that's a bit more crushed purple velvet, golden stars and crystals. Enigma were more about stealing culture, to make charmingly earnest ambient pop. The origin of the hook was apparently from the Amis people from Taiwan. The lady vocal was of course Enigma's wife, the legendary Sandra.

I love this, with absolutely no shame whatsoever.

 
Onto the top 80 next (no news on the top 20, because that's not how chart reveals work). Hold steady for Pet Shop Boys, Candi Staton, a-ha, Robert Miles and Steps AMONG OTHERS.
 
Ah the mid 90s obsession with ambient world music, packaged by labels as PURE MOODS and sold in compilations by the bucketload, thanks to appearing in nearly every ad break promoting everything from baked bread to aeroplanes.

Good times.

That Enigma song is 11/10.
 
I can only find the US version of the advert



I wonder how many copies of it ended up being thrown away by charity shops.
 
Pure Moods was possibly my most FAVOURITE GENRE for a hot minute.

It's impossible to imagine anything as ridiculous as Enigma ever got into the singles sharts. What a time. 13/10.

Posting THAT advert is a brave move mind. You're absolutely at risk of an essay diverting discussion to another ethereal Pure Moodeé.
 
80 ABBA - Take A Chance On Me (1978)

This is probably the most gloriously playful and endearingly sunny of ABBA hits. Seemingly simple, but with all the best ABBA, it's a deceptively complex series of lyrical loops, chanting and glorious middle 8s. Who needs structure when you've got three minutes of hooks.

The girls absolutely shine here, complimented by the video they were at their most knowingly camp.

I don't care for the Erasure version.

 
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79 The Source ft. Candi Staton - You Got The Love (1986/1991/1997)

I can't think of many songs that were a top 10 hit, five times over a twenty year period, certainly not in my lifetime.

The background of the song isn’t especially complicated, just a bit long. It was originally recorded by Candi Staton for a documentary, and her vocal was later lifted in the 1980s for a house track. That version was subsequently remixed with the classic “Your Love” by Frankie Knuckles, helping it reach the top 10 on its first major release.

It was reissued twice more—first in 1997 with the more widely recognised Now Voyager Mix, and again in 2006 to tie in with the demise of Sex and the City. Toward the end of the decade, it returned once more, this time featuring Florence Welch. A few months later, the rotten wife beater Dizzee Rascal was added—and it became a hit yet again.

Early 90s commercial house doesn't do as much for me as mid 90s or 80s house, that said this is an absolute belter. May Candi live to 104.







 
78 Steps - Scared of the Dark (2017)

Steps coming back properly was such a thrilling moment in pop for those aged between twenty five and forty in 2017, who felt guitars were overrated. It takes a level of self awareness to recognise that a Steps comeback didn't require ballads, and thankfully the Tears on the Dancefloor was mid-tempo at worst.

This was an absolute force of nature, with Faye leading the charge. They looked great, the song was absolutely euphoric and iTunes was conquered within 24 hours. I recall it leaking and me and girls at Uni were crowding around my phone to listen to the first play on Radio 2. By the time it finished we were stood in a puddle and that was just from me.

 
Amazing, that I'm providing top end content on a really boring morning on Moopy and no-one is here!
 
Agneeta said:
79 The Source ft. Candi Staton - You Got The Love (1986/1991/1997)

I can't think of many songs that were a top 10 hit, five times over a twenty year period, certainly not in my lifetime.

The background of the song isn’t especially complicated, just a bit long. It was originally recorded by Candi Staton for a documentary, and her vocal was later lifted in the 1980s for a house track. That version was subsequently remixed with the classic “Your Love” by Frankie Knuckles, helping it reach the top 10 on its first major release.

It was reissued twice more—first in 1997 with the more widely recognised Now Voyager Mix, and again in 2006 to tie in with the demise of Sex and the City. Toward the end of the decade, it returned once more, this time featuring Florence Welch. A few months later, the rotten wife beater Dizzee Rascal was added—and it became a hit yet again.

Early 90s commercial house doesn't do as much for me as mid 90s or 80s house, that said this is an absolute belter. May Candi live to 104.







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YES YES YES
 
My favourite YGTL version will always be the Frankie bootleg, because it came at a time when house music was so fresh and exciting and new songs that sounded so different and urgent. They were churning out piano house and rave songs by the minute and it was hard to keep up. I was only 13 at this point and wasn’t familiar with the US house classics yet, so I didn’t know this was a bootleg. I just found it so unique - so moody and dramatic, like piano house but stripped back and slowed down. It was hypnotic.
 
funky said:
My favourite YGTL version will always be the Frankie bootleg, because it came at a time when house music was so fresh and exciting and new songs that sounded so different and urgent. They were churning out piano house and rave songs by the minute and it was hard to keep up. I was only 13 at this point and wasn’t familiar with the US house classics yet, so I didn’t know this was a bootleg. I just found it so unique - so moody and dramatic, like piano house but stripped back and slowed down. It was hypnotic.
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I meant to add, that I don't have a reference. Sara Cox played the 1991 house mix yesterday evening on Radio 2 and I had an absolute moment. The 1997 mix is a bit more sweeping with strings, which tickles my fancy as well.
 
The 1991 mix is annoyingly difficult to find on Spotify

It's a rarity that I pretty much love ALL versions of it
 
I like all Candi versions, with the 1991 and 1997 remixes being either untouchably genre-defining or utterly timeless, but the Now Voyager edit has the stars and then some. That and the equally humongous Carry Me Home are 2 gospel-infused dance crossovers that can't be topped.
 
Take A Chance on Me. Definitely at the summit of ABBA. When their commercial ambition was propelled by the most dizzying of songwriting, musical and vocal talents it's hard to even say another artist in the same breath - it's a complete comedown if you've just been up in the air for 3 minutes to a song like this.
 
Shoat said:
The 1991 mix is annoyingly difficult to find on Spotify

It's a rarity that I pretty much love ALL versions of it
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I didn't realise it was on Spotify at all... please link me up!

I assumed it was licensing issues from the bootleg.

And yes it really is a rarity. I don't mind the 1997 version but it has completely replaced the 1991 version and you hardly ever hear the 1991 version now. A shame.
 
funky said:
I didn't realise it was on Spotify at all... please link me up!

I assumed it was licensing issues from the bootleg.

And yes it really is a rarity. I don't mind the 1997 version but it has completely replaced the 1991 version and you hardly ever hear the 1991 version now. A shame.
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Yes I need this now.
 
Here is the single with a ton of mixes. WHERE IS THE 1991 ONE?

I bought the 1997 mix and it had original on it. FUMING.
 
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