Pop Shots – A Look At The Charts … From 25 Years Ago

Welcome to your weekly dose of pop world musings. Covering all things pop culture, it’s hard to imagine that 25 years ago people thought the world might come to an end due to Y2K. Thankfully, when we turned the calendar to the year 2000 everything turned out to be just fine … except for the people who had dozens of years worth of canned goods in a freshly created Y2K bunker, none of which would be of use to anyone.

So the world didn’t end, but what was the soundtrack to our survival that week?

Well, it’s safe to assume that the first thing your favorite doomsday prepper heard as he emerged from his Y2K bunker was the sound of Carlos Santana’s guitar, and Rob Thomas letting everyone know “Man, it’s a hot one,” because “Smooth” was in the midst of its epic 12-week run at the top of the chart.

Some of the other songs he heard may have felt like they had slightly different meanings for him than the artists intended. So let’s get into this exploration in chart history! Of course, since this is Pop Shots, you know everything is seasoned with a little bit of attitude.

1. Carlos Santana feat. Rob Thomas – Smooth

 

A song that has been stuck in everyone’s head for 25 years, if you click play on the video I guarantee you it will be suck in your head for 25 more. Heck, just thinking about it probably added another half decade to it being in there!

11. Christina Aguilera – What a Girl Wants

 

It was the dawning of a new millennium, but that doesn’t mean everything was about to change. Case in point – what a girl wants. Christina told us what she wanted, and needed, and the advice still rings true today (even if many of us still get it so remarkably wrong).

16. Smash Mouth – Then The Morning Comes

 

The doomsday prepper who imagined the world was going to end probably wondered if the morning was actually going to come on January 1st, making this Smash Mouth hit an even more appropriate song for the first week of the year 2000.

27. Len – Steal My Sunshine

 

One of the great feel-good songs of this, or any other era, if you find a person who doesn’t like “Steal My Sunshine” run away from them as fast as possible. You don’t need their negative vibes in your life!

Fun Fact – Len were also the subject of my very first One Hit Wondering column!

29. Juvenile – Back That Azz Up 

 

When Juvenile told us “Cash Money Records taking over for the 9-9 into 2000,” in the intro to this song, he wasn’t kidding! Not only was “Back That Azz Up” at #29 as we entered the year 2000, B.G. was at #68 with his lexicon changing single “Bling Bling,” and Lil’ Wayne was at #72 letting everyone know “The Block is Hot.”

Consider their takeover complete!

35. Lou Bega – Mambo No. 5 (A Little Bit Of…)

 

When you mix mindless pop fun with an interpolation of a classic mambo from half a century ago, you get Lou Bega’s “Mambo No. 5 (A Little Bit Of…).”

The fact that this song, and Carlos Santana’s “Smooth” were out at the same time was like a heavyweight fight for earworm supremacy.

38. Ol’ Dirty Bastard w/ Kelis – Got Your Money

 

“I don’t have no trouble with you fucking me / But I have a little problem with you not fucking me.”

Has there ever been a more honest lyric in the history of music?

God bless ODB. With his combination of lyrical skill, raw emotion, comedic wit, and total wildness, there will never be another like him.

Side Note – Kelis, who sings the chorus on “Got Your Money,” was also at #54 on the chart with her debut single, “Caught Out There.” A few years later she would find a way to bring all the boys to the yard.

44. Destiny’s Child – Say My Name

 

Word is a few members of Destiny’s Child went on to do some solo stuff after this. I wonder if any of them made a name for themselves.

51. blink-182 – All The Small Things

 

Combine a fun pop punk song, with a video that lampoons the pop princess, and boy band videos of the late ‘90s, and you have the absolute perfection that is “All The Small Things.”

Who cares about Y2K, when there’s blink-182!

62. Backstreet Boys – Show Me The Meaning of Being Lonely

 

One of two BSB songs on the chart this week (they were also at #96 with “Larger Than Life”), “Show Me The Meaning of Being Lonely” is a heck of a pop ballad.

Depending on how long our aforementioned doomsday prepper stayed in his bunker, he may have had his own version of this song in his head.

Emerge, good sir, and see the world has survived!

79. Bush – The Chemicals Between Us

 

I’ll admit it, I’m a sucker for a good Bush song, and they had a plethora of good songs!

Now considered a nostalgia act, in their prime they were underrated – because pretty much everyone that came immediately after grunge was underrated, as that’s what happens when your predecessors changed the entire landscape of music – and they’re still underrated today.

89. Britney Spears – (You Drive Me) Crazy

 

Who among us hasn’t wanted to dance in a diner / cafeteria while hanging out with Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and Vincent Chase?

Incidentally, if you try this in an actual diner you may be asked to leave.

Don’t ask how I know this.

That’s all for this edition of Pop Shots, but come back next Monday for more shots on all things pop.