The Chart Time Tunnel: The Beta Band

It seems like only a decade ago the hype was swirling around The Beta Band.

This '90s version of Pink Floyd had taken the music world by storm swallowing up every rock critic in its wake. The band even entered the general public's consciousness via their inclusion in the film High Fidelity from 2000.

Do you remember the scene when John Cussack's character, attempts to influence the customers in Championship Vinyl to buy the song he plays on the store's record player? The song was "Dry The Rain" from Beta Band's The Three EPs.

Well before all that hype, though, the band topped the Canadian Campus radio chart during the week of Aug. 19 to 26, 1999.

The Beta Band's self-titled debut full-length album made a gigantic leap of 10 places to grab the top spot, edging out Moby's Play, which remained stuck at #2 from the week before.

The dance groove was definitely big that month as The Chemical Brothers' Surrender moved up three places to #3 followed by indie-rock stalwarts Guided By Voices. Their major label debut, Do The Collapse, jumped four spots to land at #4 that week.

Gang Starr's Full Clip: A Decade Of Gang Starr re-entered this chart at #10 in its second week. Two weeks earlier, the hip-hop trio debuted at #42. The highest new entry was from Latino roots rockers Los Lobos. Their album This Time entered at #18 and would become their last studio album released on the original label, Slash, distributed through Warner. The quartet wouldn’t release another album of new material until 2002's Good Morning Aztlán.

Also notable is the appearance of Limp Bizkit’s Significant Other at #15. It rose nine places from the previous week's chart. The kids liked this dork back then... probably most programmers would cringe if they were reminded of Fred Durst’s brief college radio popularity.

This was, of course, around the time of the debacle of Woodstock '99…