Top 20 Pop Acts:
20= ~ Bucks Fizz: Mock all you want, but Bucks Fizz made some great songs that are still played at weddings and bar mitvahs around the country to this day. And is there a more iconic eurovision moment than the girls having their skirts whipped off during the line "and if you want to see some more!" of Making Your Mind Up?? I think emphatically not!! Plus any band that did Land Of Make Believe deserves to be on this list - and another will!!
20= ~ Bucks Fizz: Mock all you want, but Bucks Fizz made some great songs that are still played at weddings and bar mitvahs around the country to this day. And is there a more iconic eurovision moment than the girls having their skirts whipped off during the line "and if you want to see some more!" of Making Your Mind Up?? I think emphatically not!! Plus any band that did Land Of Make Believe deserves to be on this list - and another will!!
20= ~ Deuce: Deuce were really the proto-type for Steps and were either way ahead of the game, or too far behind the last bunch of boy/girl combos. Still they provided some lovely pop moments, the best being their Top Of The Pops performance in wedding outfits of On The Bible - a cassette single i found when cleaning out for moving house last year!! And that D'Luv posted on his site on my very own civil partnership wedding day :) Bless... (on the bible mp3)
19 ~ Six: Six were the Irish answer to Steps that Louis Walsh put together. I think a couple of the songs were written by one of westlife too! They never had any songs released in England, but a friend recommended them and they were good enough that all four singles off their debut (and only) album were rather good! The best tracks were Whole Lotta Lovin and This Is It... (This Is It mp3)
18 ~ Fifth Avenue: Another Irish bunch of wannabes who only lasted one album. I still think that Deborah Gibson should consider covering Infidelity as her next comeback hit as it samples Madonna years before Madonna was sampling Abba. And that was definitely their finest moment that i still play to this day, although Sometimes When We Touch is always a winner whoever records it! (spanish eyes mp3)
17 ~ Scandal'us: The second winners of Australian popstars following all girl group Bardot and came out with an amazing first single called Me Myself and I! The law of diminishing returns meant that the rest of their singles didn't do so well even the brilliant Starting Something So they are another one album wonder :( (me myself and i mp3)
16 ~ Scooch: Scooch came out in the early 2000's same as six and fifth avenue and a number of other acts on this list, which for me was the heyday of boy/girl combos because everyone was trying - and failing - to emulate the success of Sclub and Steps. Scooch probably came closest with such dance floor stompers as 4 Sure and the disco mix of Zoom! Sadly they didn't stick around long (although I'm aware other bloggers have much more info about their career than i do!) (four sure mp3)
15 ~ Pop!: Pop came out in late 2004 and really were my big hope for a steps style band to come back to the charts. Heaven and Earth did ok, but then Can't Say Goodbye and Seriously tanked and they were unceremoniously dropped before their brilliant Tragedy like Xanadu cover could launch them into pop stardom. Booo the record company execs I say. Jamie Tinkler is now in X Factor booted band, Avenue... (xanadu mp3)
14 ~ Infernal: The great Danes have been around for a while, yet I am only really aware with their Paris To Berlin album that I got about a year ago, before the title track became the ubiquitous hit in Britain it is today. Contains many great dance pop moments such as Keen On Disco and a song that would have been great for Girls Aloud, Loved Like A Maniac... Even new single (a cover of Self Control) manages to sound current and energetic, so I look forward to seeing what they do next...
13 ~ Alcazar/Army Of Lovers: Bit of a cheat putting these two together, but they were masterminded by the same genius who also put together a band much higher up on this list - clue BWO! Army of Lovers were possibly the campest band ever and Crucify is one of the finest pop dance songs of the early 90s. Alcazar made more chart accessible pop and had some brilliant tunes, but i believe sadly, they split up earlier this year They came to my attention about 4 years ago when a friend sent me a bootleg cd of their concert in Sweden where they did nothing but brillo covers of Abba songs - and they aren't the only act on this list to do so!! (crucified mp3) (someday single version mp3)
12 ~ The Party: Well of course, the party first came to my attention when smash hits magazine mentioned that Deb had written a song for their debut album so I of course rushed to order it with my paper round money!! And of course, ton of bricks done deb style proved to be much better than the partys version, but the rest of their album was pretty great - I Found Love, Thats Why and Summer Vacation were aces and their second album spawned equally marvy tracks In My Dreams and Peace Love and Understanding. It was all down hill with their third album Free, which i can't shift on ebay for love nor money, but they were the epitomy of pop to me in the early 90s... (in my dreams mp3)
11 ~ Aqua: Everybody knows aqua mainly for their novelty hits Barbie Girl and Dr Jones, but fast forward to their brilliant underrated second album and dig out such gems as Around The World, Cartoon Heroes and the gorgeous ballad We Belong To The Sea and you will see you missed out on band that knew how to create impossibly catchy pop hits (we belong to the sea mp3)
10 ~ All*stars: Sheesh! Another one album wonder! All*stars were ITVs answer to the roaring success of BBC ones S Club pop factor/tv show/movie machine. All*stars never really had a chance but their debut album is one of near perfection with great tracks like Going All The Way, Land of Make Believe, Things That Go Bump In The Night, the Cathy Dennis penned Back When and their finest moment that was cancelled as a single release when they were dropped Love Is! Plus they had the very gorgeous Sam Bloom in their midst...;) (love is mp3)
09 ~ Hear'say: original popstars winners that seemed destined to be amazingly huge and indeed their great first two singles Pure & Simple and Show Me The Way To Your Love indicated they would live up to their promise. But then bafflingly they failed to release any more singles off their debut album and rushed into a second. And the press then turned on them! I think their career needed better handling - had they released ballad Carried Away followed by a double a side of Love Never Ends with their cover of Boogie Wonderland off the first album before leaping into the second (which only got one single released off it anyway!) things might have turned out different. As it is we'll never know... (boogie wonderland mp3)
08 ~ Roxette: Although i didn't discover their first album until much later in their career, I was a huge Roxette fan from the moment i heard The Look and that never really went away. I may not be super excited about each release they have, but i end up with each one and there is always a song that i can't stop humming for days. I guess it's a comfort to know they are still going in this crazy mixed up world! Even if they are on their 4th greatest hits collection... (almost unreal mp3)
07 ~ Ace Of Base: I didn't even like All That She Wants. It wasn't til they added The Sign - a lovely three minutes of anyone's life - that i adored Ace of Base. I loved their second album and think Always Have Always Will from their third set is one of pops finest moments They are still going and their most recent album Da Capo retreads old ground but is still quite loveable... (come to me demo mp3) (happy nation remix mp3)
06 ~ Liberty X: the popstars losers who didn't make it into Hear'say turned out to be the real winners as three albums and 10 top twenty hits later they are still going. They seemed to be somewhat classier than Hear'say and although their finest moments have now passed - Just A Little & Holding On For You - there are hidden gems on their poor selling third album including a funkified cover of 90s dance classic Dirty Cash just crying out for release. Another band that has been poorly managed in my opinion... (dirty cash mp3)
05 ~ A*Teens: Aaah you can't beat a teeny group that started off doing somewhat passable covers of Abba songs can you But it wasn't til their second album that their talent for churning a catchy pop tune of their own started to shine... Halfway Round The World is a bonza pop tune with a fab video and they did nothing but release great tunes even though success eluded them outside of mainland Europe. Firefly, Sugar Rush, Around The Corner Of Your Eye, Floorfiller, One Night In Bangkok, I could go on and on...and when i'm drunk, sometimes do... (one night in bangkok mp3)
04 ~ Bodies Without Organs: From the mastermind behind Army Of Lovers and Alcazar - its entirely possible that this new group will be much higher in years to come when they have more material to their name. Their debut album Prototype has spawned 7 massive hits in mainland Europe and I remain convinced that they will be huge in England at some point too. Best moments on the debut release? Open Door, 16 Tons of Hardware. Conquering America Voodoo Magic... and so many more. Definitely one of my favourite new pop acts of recent times and Halcyon Days only reaffirms their high rating on this list...
03 ~ The S Club Groups: First there was a tv show called S Club. Which spawned S Club 7 who then became S Club when Paul tragically left, stopped being hot and got fat, and then spawned S Club Juniors who became S Club 8 when S Club split! Sheesh But between them they ruled the charts between summer 1999 and summer 2003 with great great great pop tunes like Bring It All Back, Two In A Million, Reach, Don't Stop Moving, Have You Ever, You, Alive, One Step Closer - later used for Debled American Juniors! - Sundown and Goodbye. Rachel Stevens is now a chart star in her own right (sort of) and Jon Lee has gone on to musicals including Les Mis and Love Shack. Sigh. I miss them...
02 ~ Steps/H&Claire: Let me count the ways I loved Steps. I mean truly loved them. I think i went to see them about 5 times. I know every single dance routine to every single tune they released, i have live dvds, tapes of their tv performances and so many remixes i don't know what to do with them all! They never missed the top five after their first two releases and while were quite fond of covers, they did some great originals too. Plus Tragedy is always guaranteed to get drunk people on the dance floor. But they had so many other great tunes - One For Sorrw, After The Love Has Gone, Better The Devil You Know, A Deeper Shade of Blue, Summer Of Love, Stomp, The Way You Make Me Feel, You'll Be Sorry, I Know Him So Well, Mars and Venus, Chain Reaction, baby Don't Dance. But then tragedy! H and Claire wanted the spotlight for themselves so the group split and while H and Claire had some good enough moments -DJ & All Out Of Love - the public and me couldn't forgive them for ruining Steps! I am so harsh, but H was always a twat wasn't he???
01 ~ ABBA: Who else could be number one. I could write an essay on how brilliant abba are and how they have influenced so many other acts i love and how they continue to be relevant even today and sell millions of records each year and spawn musicals and tribute bands and the like. No one did pop like Abba and its possible no one ever will again. Just amazingly brilliant! Trivia! ~ Madonna allegedly recorded Like An Angel Passing Through My Room for the Music album according to William Orbit, but felt it didn't fit in so remains an unreleased gem! Release it Esther.
Posted by Paul 1:13 PM
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My fave Steps tunes are "Say You'll Be Mine," "Better Best Forgotten," "You'll Be Sorry" and the b-side "Just Like The First Time."