Official Charts Flashback 1999: Britney Spears – …Baby One More Time

Sometimes you just know when a big pop moment us happening, and most people will admit they suspected something huge was about to happen.

A former child star of Disney TV show The Mickey Mouse Club, Britney Jean Spears soon grew up in front of our very eyes, starting out with this deliciously cheeky video to a song that was to become a modern classic.

It was the first of seven consecutive Top 10s for Britney – Don’t Let Me Be The Last To Know broke the spell by peaking at Number 12 in 2001. She’s had 23 Top 10s in total, her most recent being Work Bitch in November 2013, and six of those tracks went to Number 1: …Baby One More Time, Born To Make You Happy, (2000) Oops!…I Did It Again (2000), Toxic (2004), Everytime (2004) and Scream & Shout with will.i.am in 2012. …Baby One More Time is still her biggest seller, shifting over 1.5 million copies.

Watch Toxic – possibly her greatest video – before we see who else was in the Top 5 this week in 1999.

2: The Corrs – Runaway

Just pipped to the post by Britney, the Irish band who liked to keep it in the family were enjoying their fourth Top 10 hit with this remix of a song they’d first released back in 1996. They had finally shot to fame thanks to their cover of Fleetwood Mac’s 1997 hit Dreams, which was given an extra helping hand thanks to a remix from DJ Todd Terry. Nine more Top 40 hits would follow for Andrea, Caroline, Sharon and brother Jim, including a Number 1 and their biggest seller, Breathless, in 2000. Runaway is the band’s second best selling single, shifting 330,000 copies.

3: Lenny Kravitz – Fly Away

A producer who decided to step out of the shadows and enjoy some chart success of his own, Lenny Kravitz had just been tumbled from Number 1 by Britney with this track. Made famous on a car advert, Fly Away was to be his only chart-topper and is his most recent Top 10 hit so far.

4: Lauryn Hill – Ex Factor

The follow-up to her Top 3 hit Doo Wop (That Thing) saw ex-Fugees singer Lauryn Hill get serious. Taken from her hit album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, Ex Factor was her sixth Top 10 hit, including her four with Fugees. She’s never had a solo Number 1, but has topped the Official Singles Chart twice with Fugees, consecutively in 1996 with Roberta Flack cover Killing Me Softly and Enya-sampling Ready or Not.

5: N Sync – I Want You Back

Believe it or not, Justin Timberlake’s solo career was still a good three years away, as was his style makeover. This was N Sync’s very first hit on the Official Singles Chart, peaking right here at Number 5. There’d be five further Top 10 hits to come – the biggest being the very last, Girlfriend, which hit Number 2 – before the boys decided it was time to go “on a break” and Justin ran as fast to Pharrell’s house as his legs would carry him.