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Posted by: Napoleon Mar 27 2015, 04:41 AM

I've voted 'What Are You Waiting For?'.

I would have voted 'Forever Is Over' but I don't think it was as poor choice of a single to lead the album but there were better choices such as 'Ego' and 'One Shot'. The same applies for 'My Heart Takes Over'. I love the single but I have no idea why this was the single they promoted the album with. 'Faster' should have been the lead single as no doubt that would have went top 10 and the album could have at least managed to open with 20,000 sales (how we would kill for that now). 'Up' was obviously a fantastic lead single and I can't complain with 'Disco Love' being the single being promoted for 'Living For The Weekend'.

'What Are You Waiting For' was an absolute mess. The promotion was awful, the airplay was dreadful and the girls couldn't care less. 'What Are You Waiting For?' was not a single that should lead their best tracks and It's a miracle that the managed to go top 10 with no airplay, no promotion and a rather poor lead single (I do love the track but it's not lead single material) with half arsed routines.

Posted by: ♡ Heezus Froot ♡ Mar 27 2015, 05:33 AM

My Heart Takes Over. Why they thought it a good idea to lead a Sats album with a ballad is beyond me.

Posted by: Napoleon Mar 27 2015, 05:54 AM

It could have been really successful had their X-Factor performance not been cut in the last minute for a pre-recorded Justin Bieber performance. I guess 'My Heart Takes Over' could have at least managed top 8 which would have led to better airplay / longer chart run and better album opening sales. 'On Your Radar' really could have opened with around 30,000+ and that's the most heartbreaking thing.

Posted by: Martyn Mar 27 2015, 07:20 AM

I swear lead single means first from the album.

Posted by: Jay ジ Mar 27 2015, 07:23 AM

That's what my definition of it would be too. I'd describe these as "launch" singles (although obviously Forever Is Over, Missing You & WAYWF? are also leads).

Posted by: JosephStyles Mar 27 2015, 07:56 AM

My Heart Takes Over.

Posted by: Sean. Mar 27 2015, 09:21 AM

Torn between My Heart Takes Over and What Are You Waiting for - ridiculous to lead with a ballad but a generic dance number was a no. I do love My Heart Takes Over though

Posted by: JSG Mar 27 2015, 09:25 AM

Yeah I thought lead single meant first single too. I was wondering why If This Is Love wasn't there haha! I voted Forever Is Over. As much as I like it the sounds was way too different after only months since their last single.

Posted by: Joe. Mar 27 2015, 10:44 AM

Yeah some of these aren't lead singles, I'd replace Disco Love with What About Us (Not 30 days because I don't consider it a lead still) and MHTO for Notorious.

Posted by: ♡ Heezus Froot ♡ Mar 27 2015, 11:19 AM

Technically, every single released prior to the album is a "lead single" because they lead to the album's release (hence the name).

Posted by: mr_aly Mar 27 2015, 12:31 PM

'Missing You' by quite a large margin.

Posted by: Jay ジ Mar 27 2015, 12:45 PM

Is this poll meant to be worst as in personal taste, or what was their worst choice in terms of following success? I had taken it to mean the latter! I voted 'My Heart Takes Over' therefore because that completely killed the album's potential (although to be fair it did go silver, but at that point it became their worst selling album).

If I'd gone on taste, definitely 'Forever Is Over'.

Posted by: Napoleon Mar 27 2015, 01:12 PM

Worst choice in following success otherwise I would have voted Forever Is Over

Posted by: Jonjo Mar 27 2015, 01:19 PM

'Forever Is Over'. That whole era was DOA. It's chart performance is shocking for a single that mustered up a decent amount of airplay iirc and it was the single which followed up the 300k+ selling debut album!

WAYWF? was a crap choice in terms of leading an album (a Greatest Hits, no less!) but by that point, I don't think I had any hopes for them to do too well again. They really should have given us a pure pop anthem for the greatest hits (in the same vein as 'Up'/'Higher'/'Ego'/'Disco Love') there's a reason they're some of The Sats best ever selling singles. It's what the public wanted from them

MHTO was a great choice to lead the album with, the only thing that let it down was the lack of high profile performances!

Posted by: Jay ジ Mar 27 2015, 02:56 PM

Was it really a great choice though, personal taste aside? It didn't really represent the album very well at all! They've always been let down by not getting the highest of profile slots, but they'd usually do well with their singles regardless of that. 'MHTO' really flopped by their previous standards! Plus it only lead the album to get to #23 which was pretty dreadful.

I really think it was their worst choice / biggest disaster as a commercial decision. That was their first studio album in 2 years and they royally messed it up! Particularly when they set the tone of the album really well with 'Notorious' and 'All Fired Up', which both performed well in the charts. Leading with a ballad was a really big gamble for a group not known for their ballads, and it didn't pay off.

Posted by: mr_aly Mar 27 2015, 03:20 PM

I do think they made a pretty gargantuan error not releasing the album off the back of 'All Fired Up' and capitalising on that, at that point they'd have got enough sales to get the album top 10 and then tried to sell it off the back of a ballad at Christmas (though whether that would have done anything is questionable, but the whole era would have looked better on paper).

Pixie Lott made a similarly big mistake at exactly the same time by not releasing hers after 'All About Tonight'.

Posted by: Apricot Mar 27 2015, 09:07 PM

Easily WAYWF

Posted by: Jonjo Mar 27 2015, 09:35 PM

Maybe not a "great" choice and you're right, it didn't really represent the album very well but it was their first time at trying to launch the album off the back of a ballad (It was, wasn't it? ) I agree it should have been the other way around (ballad single AFTER the album), but after 'Issues' succeeding so well and actually selling the album, I can't blame them for thinking MHTO would have done the same, but from the get go instead/hope it'd help the album during the Christmas period due to it being the big, winter ballad. It was a completely bizarre flop, but at the same time, AFU really surprised at how well it did. I remember people thinking it'd peak then fall pretty fast and it didn't really feel like a good album seller, so they weren't to know to release the album after AFU.

People are only suggesting that not releasing the album after AFU was "a mistake" due to how successful it was in comparison to MHTO, but how were they to know that a big ballad (usually an album seller) would do the opposite and not sell the album, whilst something that's not considered as a traditional album seller could probably have sold the album better?

Posted by: mr_aly Mar 28 2015, 01:34 PM

What I meant was having 'My Heart Takes Over' post album could have been a better tool as an album seller over the festive period. I was kind of holding out for an X-Factor slot for them at that point when that single was released, I do really think it deserved better!

They'd have easily got a top 10 album in August (?) in that sort of sales climate.

Posted by: ḇreakaway Mar 28 2015, 09:13 PM

Forever Is Over, definitely. When you come off of a highly successful first album campaign (which went Platinum), you don't exactly want to take a risk by changing your sound.

What Are You Waiting For? wasn't a good or bad choice; no single was ever going to ever do that album campaign any good.

And regarding My Heart Takes Over, what single would have helped On Your Radar debut high in November? In retrospect it was doomed from the start.

Posted by: Acidburn Mar 29 2015, 01:36 AM

Honesty What Are You Waiting For is probably their worst single and just so forgettable, "808" was miles better.

As for my opinions on the others "Up" was fantastic and definitely one their greatest singles, "Forever Is Over" was just OK and wasn't the best choice but it still did well enough with it's #2 peak. "Missing You" should have been swapped with "Higher" and would have had much better results. "My Heart Takes Over" should have been pushed to 4th single instead and either just released it after "All Fired Up" or just released "Faster", "White Lies" or even "Get Ready Get Set". "Disco Love" was another great choice and one the only ones they got actually right.

My choices for each era

Chasing Lights
(Everything was perfect and done right and cannot go wrong with those choices).

Wordshaker
Forever Is Over
Ego
Lose Control
Here Standing or One Shot

Headlines
Higher
Missing You
Puppet

On Your Radar
Get Ready Get Set
All Fired Up
Faster
My Heart Takes Over

Living For The Weekend
30 Days
What About Us
Not Giving Up
Disco Love
Leave A Light On

Finest Selection
808
Walking Through The Desert

Posted by: Jonjo Mar 29 2015, 01:50 AM

I really don't get the mass adoration for '808'. I mean it's a very good song, but it doesn't strike me as a single at all, let alone one to sell a greatest hits. WAYWF actually sounded a lot more like a hit. It's just a shame radio seemed to snub them. As to whether it was the right choice to sell their greatest hits album though? I dunno. They should have got something more along the lines of 'Higher'/'Up'/'Ego'... it's what the public loved the most from them.

Posted by: Jay ジ Mar 29 2015, 05:58 AM

I agree, Jonjo! WAYWF sounded the most hit worthy to me out of the 3.

~

I think Faster may have done better than MHTO. The pace of it was slower compared to N and AFU but it still had a dancey element to it.

I wish double a sides were still a thing. F/MHTO would have been lovely!

Posted by: Apricot Mar 29 2015, 11:01 AM

But then you also dislike Freak Like Me which was a massive #1. Therefore, don't listen to Jonjo! x

808 would've been a bigger hit because it's similar to What About Us, especially if Angel Haze featured on it.

Posted by: slowdown73 Mar 29 2015, 11:43 AM

What you waiting for was an awful lead single. Walking in the desert should have been the lead instead.

Posted by: Jay ジ Mar 29 2015, 12:45 PM

I think both of those would have done about as badly! I don't believe they got snubbed purely because it was WAYWF, I reckon that was on the cards whatever they chose.

Posted by: JSG Mar 29 2015, 12:55 PM

I agree WAYF was the most hit worthy out the lot of them!

Posted by: ♡ Heezus Froot ♡ Mar 29 2015, 01:06 PM

UNPOPULAR OPINION ALERT When Love Takes Over should have been released instead.

Posted by: Robot Mar 29 2015, 01:48 PM

I don't think it would've been a good move for them to release a cover of a David Guetta song.

Posted by: Hurricane Mar 29 2015, 07:37 PM

I think 'WAYWF' sounds more like a hit single, yet '808' is a better song if that makes sense?

Posted by: Joe. Mar 29 2015, 10:40 PM

I agree with James, Jay and Jonjo here. I think WAYWF was the best single
choice of the three. But it was too far gone anyway - they were getting no support so both would have flopped regardless. (Jonjo is right that they might have gotten SOME support with a poppier track)


I also need to say, in light of the sad news of 'Only Human' not making the top 40 today as well as many similar recent unfortunate flop injustices from GRL, Nicole, Tulisa and others; That I don't think we fully appreciated it at the time because streaming was SO new and we all wanted so much better, but for a song with absolutely no support whatsoever in a post-streaming chart world, going top 40 with WAYWF was pretty good going!

Posted by: Juliano Mar 29 2015, 11:21 PM

I have to say I thought it was a silly idea to release My Heart Takes Over as the lead single, as much as I adore that song.

EDIT: Should have been released off All Fired Up... period.

Posted by: (Zach) Mar 31 2015, 04:07 PM

What Are You Waiting For? is going to have a huge disadvantage in this poll simply because it was their lowest charting single. I'd be willing to bet that had it gone Top 10 everyone would be in love with it. I don't recall reading any negative comments about it upon its premiere.