1999, then. Just writing it out – ‘1999’ – still feels pleasingly futuristic, despite it being twenty-five years ago. And what cutting-edge, avant-garde #1 do we have to guide us into the future…? Steps! With a Bee Gees cover…
Tragedy / Heartbeat, by Steps (their 1st of two #1s)
1 week, from 3rd – 10th January 1999
It is a cheap and cheerful (‘cheap and cheerful’ being the Steps motto) and pretty faithful cover of the Brothers Gibb’s 1979 chart-topper, the big hit of the ’98 party season. By the first week in January presumably everyone knew the hands-to-the-face-while-shouting-out-the-title-line move from the video, the record having taken seven weeks to climb to the top – a very slow burn for the late nineties.
‘Heartbeat’ is a little more inventive, and was initially the song that was pushed to radio. A wintery ballad, with lots of little retro-flourishes (I love the revving bass), sounding like something Barbara Dickson might have recorded a decade and a half earlier. Faye and Clare, the pair that usually took the lead on Steps’ singles, both have an oddly old-fashioned, stage school way of enunciating their lines which is well-demonstrated here. But they also both have a set of lungs on them, giving oomph to even the most banal of lines. As with most Steps songs, we are left to wonder what the two male members, H and Lee, are doing. At least here they contributed some nice backing vocals.
I will admit right now, loud and proud, that I like Steps. Whatever. Sue me. Yes, they’re camp. Yes, they are cheesy. Yes, they are a Poundland ABBA. And yes, occasionally they’ve made some truly awful records (‘5,6,7,8’ springs immediately to mind). But all that is forgiven thanks to the pop perfection of singles like ‘Last Thing on My Mind’, or ‘Love’s Got a Hold of My Heart’.
Sadly, they’re neither the first, nor the last, act to be poorly served by their chart-toppers. ‘Tragedy’ and ‘Heartbeat’ wouldn’t rank among their best songs (and the less said about their second #1 the better… until I have to write a post about it.) They match Sash! – see my previous post – for five #2s, at least four of which would have made better #1s than this.
1999 will take us longer to get through than any year so far, with thirty-five chart-toppers (up four from 1998’s total). But luckily we’re now hitting a typically eclectic run of January number ones, made up of genre-hopping DJs, boyband covers, punk rockers, and the shock return of a legendary new-wave band… Exciting times ahead!
The UK Number Ones Blog 
I preferred Heartbeat 🫣
I think it’s the better of the two songs
H from Steps was in a pantomime I saw in Cardiff a few years ago and sung a solo. I was quite surprised at how good his voice actually is given that, as you said, neither he or Lee really sing anything much on the Steps back catalogue. That said, he had a very Michael Ball stage musical type delivery that might not work so well on high energy pop hits
See, I also think that the girls from Steps have a very proper, Elaine Paige way of belting out their pop lyrics too. Steps are a strange group all round: slightly old-fashioned for the turn of the century, mixing some great pop tunes with some real dross, and a relentless, almost pathological, commitment to cheesy camp.
I believe they were plucked from stage school to form the group, and I’m assuming that because, unlike all but one Spice Girl, they could actually sing, they just vocalised in the way they’d been taught
Good looking group, though their music videos are giving me Brotherhood of Man vibes for some reason (maybe due to the focus on the female vocals while the guys are just glorified background extras). It’s deeply unfortunate one of the guys is named Ian Watkins. Never heard of this group or these songs (well, obviously, the Bee Gees song I know but not Steps or their version). I really like their version of “Tragedy”. It’s an extremely faithful rendition that is only slightly updated for the late-90s and you could argue why bother but the original is such a great song that this one is quite enjoyable too.
As for “Heartbeat”, it’s a very pleasant sounding song. Wouldn’t really call it a ballad. It’s a bit too perky. It’s reminding me of another song but I can’t figure out which one.
If you have a high-tolerance for energetic bubblegum, then check out some of Steps other, non-number one hits out, as they are genuinely some of the best pop songs of the late 90s.
And yes, I think Ian ‘H’ Watkins had to put out several statements clarifying that he was not the lead singer of Lost Prophets. At least he has the ‘H’ to fall back on (it stands for ‘hyperactive’, not – as we used to joke at school – ‘homosexual’…)
The Bee Gees original is top-rated excitement, a classic disco record. The Steps cover is pure cheese and a tad shrill at times. It is beloved of millions (and out-sold The Bee Gees!), but yeah I’d rather hear Heartbeat – or even better their earlier Bananarama cover, or the other early big hit One For Sorrow. Or Deeper Shade Of Blue. That said, as disposable as I thought their back catalogue was, I have remained rather enjoying their recent revival and a string of good singles that sound better than most of the early hits.
I like the melody in this….not to mention the blode haired lady!