The Year 2000, highlights and events included Y2K was a bust, the Olympics in Sydney were successful, John Howard was Prime Minister of Australia, it was Bill Clinton’s last full year as President of the United States and George W Bush and Al Gore fought an election battle that went all the way to court and more.

Also released in 2000 was 100% Hits – Best of 2000 (CD1), part of a two CD set that showcased EMI’s hit makers.

Crash and Burn – Savage Garden

This song peaked at No. 16 in Australia and No. 24 on the Billboard Hot 100, this song is high up on many Savage Garden fans list of favourite songs from their two albums.

It is still amazing to me that Savage Garden released only two studio albums and yet packed so many hits into the two.

Breathless – The Corrs

Breathless was No. 1 in the UK, No. 1 in Spain, No. 7 in Australia and No. 34 in America, it is one of just two of their singles to make it on the Billboard Hot 100.

As mentioned in the look at the Best of 1998 CDs, it appears that The Corrs were much better selling studio albums than singles.

I Turn To You – Melanie C

Out of all the Spice Girls, Mel C is considered by many to be the most talented of them all.

The song was a hit; it hit No. 1 in the UK (her second and last No. 1 single there) and three other countries and it peaked at No. 11 in Australia.

These Days – Bardot

Bardot was a pop group that was created by the Australian version of the Television show called Popstars in 2000, they released two studio albums and six singles before calling it a day in 2002.

‘These Days’ was their third single and it peaked at No. 19, their lowest charting single though only one position off 2002’s ‘Love Will Find A Way’.

Rock DJ – Robbie Williams

Rock DJ peaked at No. 4 in Australia and sold well into 2001 and peaked at No. 24 on Billboard’s Dance Club Songs chart.

This music video is well known as Robbie Williams as the song goes on is stripped down to his bones.

Robbie’s big sellers are his albums; no Robbie Williams studio album has been below No. 7 in Australia since 2000.

Rome wasn’t built in a day – Morcheeba

Somewhat surprising is the fact that this song peaked at No. 28 in Australia, its biggest success was in Poland where it hit No. 1 on the charts.

The music video is pretty cool, looks like everybody had a good time making it which is important as those shoots can last for days.

This one is a favourite; it just sounds so cheerful.

Graduation – Vitamin C

This song was a big success in Australia, it got to No. 2, amusingly when this song was suggested for the graduation song in 2004 down in Deniliquin, NSW it was instantly ruled out.

The coolest part is the classical music used in the song; it comes from ‘Pachelbel’s Canon’ it would have been funny if some kid wrote ‘Pachelbel’s Canon’ in the song suggestion list and the people listening to all the music heard the first few notes of it.

Here’s a bit of trivia for you, Vitamin C recorded the song ‘Vacation’ for Pokémon: The First Movie, a time when Pokémon only had 151 Pokémon (at the end of the movie) and there was yet more to see.

Everywhere You Go – Taxiride

Taxiride’s debut album ‘Imaginate’ peaked at No. 1, their debut single, the legendary ‘Get Set‘ peaked at No. 8, ‘Everywhere You Go’ peaked at No. 15 with the song peaking at No. 30 in New Zealand.

There are actually two versions of Taxiride now touring Australia ‘Taxiride ft. Tim Watson, Tim Wild, Sean McLeod, Andy McIvor & Ripley Smith‘ and Taxiride ft. Jason Singh.

Blow Up The Pokies – The Whitlams

”Blow Up The Pokies’ is about the destruction caused by gambling, Andy Lewis, the former bass guitarist for The Whitlams died after losing a week’s earnings to the pokies and this is song was written as what Tim Freedman had seen happen to Andy’s life before his death.

The song peaked at No. 21 and is the equal highest peaking single by The Whitlams.

Take A Picture – Filter

This song by Filter, an American rock band charted on eight charts run by Billboard including peaking at No. 3 in Canada and peaking at No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100 in Australia, it had done respectable business in Australia by peaking at No. 32.

Lead singer Richard Patrick wrote the song and said that the song was about him getting drunk on an airplane and taking off all of his clothes.

Start Making Sense – Area-7

This song peaked at No. 37 in Australia, their album ‘Bitter & Twisted’ was much more successful peaking at No. 6 in 2000.

ex-Skyhooks member Red Symons plays a judge in this music video, not surprising considering he was a judge on Hey Hey It’s Saturday’s ‘Red Faces’ segment.

Something Deep Inside – Billie Piper

‘Something Deep Inside’ peaked at No. 7 in the UK, No. 18 in New Zealand and No. 20 in Australia and charted in several other countries.

Billie would only release one more single ‘Walk of Life’ before retiring from music to go into acting, a switch that given her enduring fame, the praise of critics across genres and a long career.

Search My Heaven – Aleesha Rome

Aleesha Rome was an Australian singer who like Billie Piper had a song peak at No. 20, the song was called ‘Search My Heaven’.

She reappeared years later as Ivy York and led the band Ivy York Band and released a second album as ‘The Call of Spring’ as Ivy York before being forced into retirement in 2010 with Spasmodic dysphonia which causes a person’s voice to go into spasms.

All three of Aleesha Rome’s singles did chart in Australia.

Better Off Alone – Alice Deejay

‘Better Off Alone’ was Alice Deejay’s debut single and Australians loved it as it peaked at No. 4, the people of the UK loved it more as it peaked at No. 2 and it had done well in America with a peak of No. 27, it was their only song to chart in America.

Judith Pronk provided the vocals for the song and Alice Deejay had five songs chart in most countries from 1998 to 2001.

Toca’s Miracle – Fragma

German vocal trance group Fragma combined their instrumental song ‘Toca Me’ with Coco Star’s ‘I Need a Mircle’ from 1996 to create ‘Toca’s Miracle’, it was a great combination as it went all the way up to No. 8 on the charts in Australia.

Interesting that the song had a ‘Late Night’ music video version, after viewing I can see why they would call it the late-night version.

This song was later embroiled in legal disputes that it was actually taken down from streaming services, it has also been re-released several times.

Pray – Tina Cousins

‘Pray’ was Tina Cousins’ third single, it was written by Mark Topham and Karl Twigg and peaked at No. 8 in Australia, No. 10 in Finland and No. 12 in Belgium.

Tina would go on to have seven more songs chart in Australia between 1999 and 2006 and loved the country so much that she now spends some of her time living in the country.

Say You’ll Be Mine – Steps

‘Say You’ll Be Mine’ was Steps eighth single and it was all in the space of three years, the song peaked at No. 4 in the UK, No. 7 in Hungary and No. 21 in Australia plus it charted in several other countries, it was part of a Double A-side with ‘Better the Devil You Know’.

The music video is quite amusing as the members of Steps are playing various movie characters for example Austin Powers, the character A.J. Frost in Armageddon that was played by Ben Affleck and several other movies.

Don’t You Worry – Madasun

Madasun was a three-member girl group who arrived on the music scene in 2000 and were out of a record deal by January 2001 after poor studio album sales.

They had three singles that all charted, ‘Don’t You Worry’ peaked at No. 6 in Australia and No. 14 in the UK, their three singles all peaked in the Top 30 in the UK, and they were in the Top 100 in Australia, but their album peaked at No. 153 in the UK and that’s how they got dropped.

This is one of these songs that you may read the title and group name and not recognise and thinking about skipping but once you hear it, you’ll know it.

Show Me the Meaning of Being Lonely – Backstreet Boys

The Backstreet Boys song charted on six of Billboard’s charts, peaking at No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 but topping the Radio Airplay chart and No. 2 on Top 40 Tracks and the Adult Contemporary charts.

It was No. 1 in Canada and Romania and peaked at No. 19 in Australia, this is one of the best BSB songs that has stood the test of time.

Groovejet (If This Ain’t Love) – Spilller

This song has Spiller; the DJ working with Sophie Ellis-Bextor and peaked at No. 1 in both the UK and Australia.

Sophie Ellis-Bextor was also a co-writer of the song with Christiano Spiller and Boris Dlugosch, Sophie would go on to score another six Top 10 hits in the UK alone.

The song has gone down in history as the first song to ever be played on an iPod when it was used on a prototype unit in August 2001.