Official Charts Flashback: 1998 – B*Witched’s C’est La Vie

It’s 15 years since the top of the Official Singles Chart was awash with double denim.

It’s June 1998 and pop music has never been healthier. Boyzone and All Saints are big news; the Spice Girls are still reeling from Geri’s departure, and Steps have followed up their novelty hit 5-6-7-8 with a Top 10 single Last Thing On My Mind.

Time for a refreshing change at the top, then, and along comes bouncy, smiley Irish girl group B*Witched – Keavy, Edele, Lindsay and Sinead – with their first hit, the huge seller C’est La Vie. Going straight in at Number 1 and beating radio favourites Brandy & Monica’s The Boy Is Mine and Horny from Mousse T and Hot & Juicy into the Number 2 and Number 3 spot respectively, the cheery, chirpy track went on to sell over 895,000 copies. The Dublin girls had a pretty impressive pop pedigree – Keavy and Edele’s brother Shane Lynch was part of five-headed pop juggernaut Boyzone.

OfficialCharts.com caught up with lovely Edele to find out what it felt like when B*Witched hit that all-important top spot with C'est La Vie. Here's what she recalls:

“I remember not believing what they were telling us, we were hoping just for a Top 20 and all these people kept talking about a Number 1 and we were saying ‘don't be crazy!’ ”.

“When our producer confirmed the news we were freaked out it was the most amazing surreal feeling ever!”.

In a year that four singles surpassed the hallowed one million sales milestone in the UK, C’est La Vie ended up as the fifth bestselling single of 1998 and would be the first of four consecutive residencies at the top for B*Witched, with the two follow-ups Rollercoaster and To You I Belong racking up almost 1 million sales combined. Their final Number 1, Blame It On The Weatherman, came just nine months after their first, and while they managed three more Top 10 hits, they never again reached the dizzy heights of their early fame.

Remind yourself of the B*Witched magic before we continue our time travelling look at the rest of the Top 5 in 1998

B*Witched - C'est La Vie on MUZU.TV.

Elsewhere in the Top 5 this week, Brandy & Monica had to make do with Number 2 for their first duet together The Boy Is Mine. Despite never hitting the top spot, the single was a huge hit, going on to sell over half a million copies. Last year, they teamed up for a follow-up It All Belongs To Me, which sadly didn’t match The Boy Is Mine’s success and missed the Official Top 100.

Mousse T and Hot & Juicy’s Horny eventually peaked at Number 2 and spent six sizzling weeks in the Top 10, selling almost 500,000 copies. Slipping from Number 1 to Number 4 was The Tamperer’s Feel It, the group’s first hit and another big seller: almost 530,000 copies sold.

Rounding off our retro Top 5 is All Saints’ double-A side Lady Marmalade/Under The Bridge, a former Number 1 which had spent two non-consecutive weeks at the top spot and was the group’s second chart-topper, the first being million-seller Never Ever. They would go on to have three more number ones, Booty Call, Pure Shores, and Black Coffee before having a huge falling out (over who got to wear a jacket in a photoshoot, according to Shaznay) and splitting up. They would put all their jacket-based differences behind them and patch things up in 2006 to hit the Top 3 again with Rock Steady.

And what of B*Witched? They recently reformed as part of ITV’s The Big Reunion and toured with other classic acts like Atomic Kitten, Blue, Liberty X and Five. The girls are said to be recording new material, and revealed a new song Love and Money in May 2013, fuelling rumours that a chart return is imminent.

Take a look at B*Witched’s appearances on the Official Singles and Albums Charts on their Artist Archive.

See the full rundown for this week’s chart back in 1998.

Will they have their fifth Official Singles Chart Number 1 a whole 15 years after their first? If it happens, you’ll hear it from OfficialCharts.com first.

But in the meantime, you can check out their new track Love and Money here...have they huffed and puffed and blown you away? Do tell us below.