100% Hits best of 1998 was a 2 CD compilation by EMI Music Australia, 19 songs that are a mix of charters from the time to deep in the charts, a mix of genres, some people know some of these songs so well, some people have either rarely heard or have actually never heard of the songs before.

The Boy Is Mine – Brandy & Monica

Brandy & Monica teamed up with ‘The Boy Is Mine’ and it went all the way up to No. 3 on the Australian charts, bigger success awaited them in America as they topped four of Billboard’s charts including the Billboard Hot 100.

Viva Forever – Spice Girls

‘Viva Forever’ was another strong single for ‘The Spice Girls’ as it climbed all the way up to No. 2 in Australia and it hit No. 1 in the UK; the Spice Girls were co-writers of this song with Matt Rowe and Richard Stannard with the latter two also serving as producers.

High – Lighthouse Family

‘High’ is perhaps my favourite song on this compilation album, it reached No. 1 in Australia and No. 4 in the UK, the song was written by Lighthouse Family member Paul Tucker.

They released five studio albums between 1995 and 2019, all of them peaked inside the Top 10 in the UK, people in the UK are usually really loyal to artists from there once they hit popularity.

Lady Marmalade – All Saints

Labelle originally performed this song, and it hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1974, in 1998 it was All Saint’s turn to have a go at the song.

Have you ever wondered what ‘Voulez-vous coucher avec moi, ce soir‘ means? it means ‘Do you want to sleep with me, tonight?’ it peaked at No. 5 in Australia with the song ‘Under the Bridge’.

Because We Want To – Billie

Billie Piper before she was a Doctor Who star and a long list of credits, was a pop star, she was such a star that she became the youngest artist to debut at No. 1 in the UK at the age of 15, she was not the youngest overall as Helen Shapiro got to No. 1 at the age of 14 with the song ‘You Don’t Know’ in 1961.

This song got to No. 19 in Australia; Billie would record two albums and achieve three No. 1 singles in the UK before ending her career in 2001 to focus on acting.

Music Sounds Better With You – Stardust

This song reached No. 4 in Australia though I don’t remember hearing it in 1998, I definitely heard it in 2024 on MTV 90s and after a month got sick of hearing it as it was in very high rotation; to be honest I probably got sick of most of the MTV 90s playlist at the time.

While it only peaked at No. 62 on the Billboard Hot 100 in America, it hit No. 1 on Billboard’s ‘Dance Club Songs’ chart.

One Week – Barenaked Ladies

No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, No. 16 in Australia, this song can be considered a late 90s classic, some people may remember it as that really fast song that mentions Sailor Moon.

Do Ya Think I’m Sexy – N-Trance feat. Rod Stewart

Mixes of songs were back in fashion in 1998, and N-Trance had one with Rod Stewart’s ‘Do Ya Think I’m Sexy’, N-Trance’s version had most of the words, but the Rod Stewart version had the chorus.

The song peaked at No. 3 in Australia and is probably remembered for the ‘Na, na, na, nah, nah Na-na-na-na-na-na, nah‘

Crush On You – Aaron Carter

‘Crush on You’ was originally by The Jets in 1986, their music video was recorded on December 26, 1985, which happens to be the day I was born.

Aaron Carter released his version in 1998 and was a No. 9 hit in Australia and a No. 5 hit in Germany.

All My Life – K-Ci & JoJo

‘All My Life’ what a song this one was, and it was No. 1 in both Australia and America, this megahit of a song was written by Joel ‘JoJo’ Hailey and Rory Bennett.

It’s definitely one of the highlights of this compilation album, maybe my second favourite of the nineteen songs on offer.

Sunchyme – Dario G

This song was by British electronic trio ‘Dario G’ and it samples the 1985 hit ‘Life in a Northern Town’ by ‘the Dream Academy’.

‘Sunchyme’ peaked at No. 22 in Australia which was a lesser result than the song it sampled from (No. 4 in 1985).

Grease Megamix – John Travolta and Oliva Newton-John

1998 was the 20th Anniversary of Grease, this mega mix of the hit Grease songs was originally released in 1991 and hit No. 1 in Australia, it was re-released in 1998 for even more people to enjoy.

I Never Loved You Anyway – The Corrs

This song by The Corrs peaked at No. 31 in Australia, a pretty low result when thought about but the first four studio albums peaked no lower than No. 4 in the country, two of them hit No. 1.

The Corrs hit the Top 10 with their debut single ‘Runaway’ and had to wait until ‘Breathless’ in 2000 to get back into the Top 10 so it is simply a case of while their singles had lower than thought results, the studio albums were the big sellers.

Don’t You Know Who I Am? – Happyland

To be honest, I didn’t know who they were until doing research on this compilation, it turns out the Janet English, a member of Spiderbait on Bass Guitar and Vocals and Quan Yeomans, a member of Regurgitator on Guitar and Vocals combined to be Happyland as an art pop side project.

They only released the one album and two singles; this was one of them so you can say that this is a very obscure track.

Now you know who they were.

Pure Morning – Placebo

‘Pure Morning’ peaked at No. 49 in Australia, again it was a case of the studio albums were more popular than the singles.

Kung Fu Fighting – Bus Stop feat. Carl Douglas

This remixed version of Kung Fu Fighting peaked at No. 15 in Australia and did not replicate the success of the 1974 version (No. 1 in Australia) but it does feature the vocals of Carl Douglas and popular lines like ‘1, 2, Do the Kung Fu’.

I actually like this one more than the original must be the nice mix between what Bus Stop done and what Carl Douglas had done.

The Impression That I Get – The Mighty Mighty Bosstones

This song peaked at No. 11 in Australia and hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Modern Rock Charts in America, I love songs that have a Saxophone in it, it is not every day that you hear a saxophone in a song that was made past the 1980s.

I don’t think I’ve seen the music video before writing this piece today, so it is nice to see something new.

The Drugs Don’t Work – The Verve

This song was released after ‘Bittersweet Symphony’ and peaked at No. 22 in Australia; it was written by lead singer Richard Ashcroft in 1995 and related it to his drug usage at the time.

I really like this song; it is a beautifully put together song and it is definitely a world apart from their better-known song ‘Bittersweet Symphony’, a song that actually peaked at No. 2 in the UK.

No Aphrodisiac – The Whitlams

The Whitlams were named after Gough Whitlam, former Prime Minister of Australia who was infamously booted from Government by the Governor-General in 1975.

This song was written by Tim Freedman and Machine Gun Fellatio’s Matt Ford and Glen Dormand, the song peaked at No. 59 in Australia but was No. 1 in the prestigious Triple J Hottest 100 when the 1997 results were held on January 26, 1998.

The song won ‘Song of the Year’ at the 1998 ARIA Awards where the award was presented to them by none other than Gough Whitlam.