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| ThePensmith Reviews Every Girl Group Top 40 hit (2000 - now), Updated every Sunday |
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 Jul 13 2017, 10:23 PM
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#321
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 BuzzJack Platinum Member
Joined: 7 March 2006
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QUOTE(ThePensmith @ Jul 12 2017, 05:47 PM)  As touched on, I think it was merely just a free pass of sorts to get access to working with RedOne and Sean Kingston instead of whoever was behind 'No Can Do'. But you're right though. I'm of the firm belief that even if Keisha hadn't left they would've been in trouble anyway. Their label and management really were throwing them to the lowest common denominator now. The label really didn't care. The fact they were going to film the video with three girls who looked like the Babes incase no one got on the plane shows that. About A Girl was going to get released no matter what 3 girls were singing it. |
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Jul 16 2017, 12:42 PM
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#322
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They've had the very Tunnocks, Mary
Joined: 13 March 2011
Posts: 5,505 User: 13,208
 
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5TH OCTOBER 2009
The Veronicas - "4Ever" Official UK Chart peak: #17  The second entry in this thread for The Veronicas is a curious one. By the time it came to hit UK shores as the follow up to the huge success of 'Untouched' in the summer, it was pretty much old news to their existing fanbase in Aussie and the States. For it was, in fact, their debut single in those territories way back in 2005 - hence why it sounded curiously far removed from what the UK audience had been introduced to. Written and produced by Max Martin with Dr Luke - then at a peak of working together, following smash hits for the likes of P!nk, Kelly Clarkson and Britney Spears, '4Ever' was a feisty, come hither pop rock temptress belter, and had an anthemic chorus to match. Not quite as dark and spiky as 'Untouched' was, true, but it had a fun, and as the girls themselves put it, 'bratty edge, which we liked'. With their label perhaps not accounting for the fact that they may have had a tiny but existing fanbase who'd taken the trouble to import copies of their debut album 'The Secret Life Of...' from whence this came three or four years previous to their UK debut, that whatever existing audience there was for this track that wasn't already aware of it or obtained it was comparatively small, hence its #17 entry point and peak before falling swiftly off. What then happened in the five years that followed was a release of several one off singles in Aussie and The States - none of which got a release here - and a particularly messy legal battle between them and their label to get new material out, meaning our next meeting with them isn't until the 2014 entries... |
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Jul 16 2017, 01:07 PM
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#323
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They've had the very Tunnocks, Mary
Joined: 13 March 2011
Posts: 5,505 User: 13,208
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11TH OCTOBER 2009
The Saturdays - "Forever is Over" Official UK Chart peak: #2  Before we get down to the next chapter of The Saturdays' story, I am going to take this opportunity to get a bit nostalgic here. This particular single of theirs came out just as I headed off to start my first year of university, and in fact got released at the end of my fresher's week, and along with Shakira's 'She Wolf', JLS' 'Everybody in Love' and Taio Cruz's 'Break Your Heart' was on my iTunes relentlessly through much of that first semester, so for pure sentimental reasons, I feel nothing but fondly towards both this single and the album that followed it. Gushing over, let's crack on. Following a busy summer - where they'd toured Malaysia, played at several big name festivals including V Festival, Oxegen and iTunes Festival, The Saturdays had also spent the majority of that time working on their second album. Although Fascination, their label, had Cheryl Cole's debut solo album on their autumn release schedule, and some solo tracks from Sarah Harding on the second St Trinian's soundtrack, they were keen to ensure the girls had their second album ready as a backup plan in case reaction was so adverse to no new Girls Aloud album that year. Although two of the new tracks 'One Shot' and 'Wordshaker' (the latter of which went onto become the title of the second album) had been given a live premiere on their theatre tour and at festivals that year, neither of them were picked as the first single from 'Wordshaker'. Step forward then, a track that very nearly didn't end up with them. Whilst in a meeting with the label to discuss the album, they got wind of a track that'd been co-written by former Busted star, then songwriter for hire James Bourne, that if rumour is to be believed was meant for Kelly Clarkson. Why 'Forever is Over' never ended up being recorded by her is anyone's guess - powers of persuasion maybe. Starting off with a softly sung, almost ambient opening verse from Una and Rochelle, Vanessa's holler of 'Forever is ooooooover' announces a chorus that was undeniably one of the catchiest they'd done to date, against a girly but feisty pop rock backing. A new sound for The Saturdays then, but one that sneakily worked. Despite not being in contention at any stage that week to overhaul Chipmunk's 'Oopsy Daisy' (ironically, they were meant to be the vocalists on that particular song, but he couldn't get clearance with Fascination), it debuted straight in at #2 to restore them to the top 10 following their minor blip with 'Work' in the summer - but it didn't hang around for very long after that. It was pretty much the same story for the 'Wordshaker' album. It debuted at #9 a week later - not bad going, considering 'Chasing Lights' ended up peaking at that position too. But it then swiftly plunged to #40 in its second week, and even with the release of its second single failed to make any dramatic recovery. All the while, Cheryl Cole's solo album '3 Words' and her mammoth first single 'Fight for This Love' surpassed even Fascination's expectations, when, coupled with her unforgettable X Factor performance, both went straight to number one with some of the biggest sales figures of that year - even bigger than Girls Aloud had managed in the past. I'll touch on this brief dip in fortunes for The Saturdays with their next entry, because the story was still the same as here, but suddenly, a year removed from their debut, all around were beginning to question whether they were a viable enough replacement for Girls Aloud as had been previously pegged... |
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Jul 26 2017, 02:03 PM
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#324
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BuzzJack Platinum Member
Joined: 3 September 2009
Posts: 7,814 User: 9,543
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Aww man, this just shows me how much I miss The Saturdays! I wish that these girls were back!
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Aug 20 2017, 11:04 AM
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#325
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They've had the very Tunnocks, Mary
Joined: 13 March 2011
Posts: 5,505 User: 13,208
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Our final entry of 2009 - and thus of the noughties now readers. We'll get going with the first year of the 2010s in our next post. And now, to your regularly scheduled dose of girl group action:
15TH NOVEMBER 2009 Sugababes - "About a Girl" Official UK Chart peak: #8  Buckle in, Sugababes fans, we are in for a bumpy end to their ride over their remaining two entries to this thread. Even if it's not really entirely true that we should be calling them Sugababes from this point onwards. Yes, as we left them at their last entry, Keisha had been given the shunt, meaning that not a single original member was left. In her place came Jade Ewen, familiar to the UK public already that year as she'd represented the UK for the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest, where she finished fifth with Andrew Lloyd Webber penned ballad 'It's My Time', and had only just entered the top 40 that same week Ms Buchanan had left with her first single proper 'My Man' - promotion of which was all but aborted when she became the latest part of the ever regenerating 'Babes. It's not unfair to say however, that unlike when Heidi joined in 2001, or even when Amelle joined in 2006, that Jade had a serious baptism of fire into girl group life, particularly one with such a notorious history where personnel was concerned. The backlash was something that even Heidi and Amelle were probably unprepared for - or at least the scale of it - to the point they were getting abuse in the streets and on the then burdgeoning Twitter. As the record buying public and commentators the land over, from Popjustice to The Guardian turned their back on what to them, was one incarnation of Sugababes too far, the girls' label and management made two decisions - one, to halt promotion of the then upcoming second single by a couple of weeks, and two, to push back the release of the 'Sweet 7' album until the new year to let the storm die down a little (and also crucially, to re-record the album with Jade's vocals, rather than Keisha's). Things had to inevitably carry on though, like cockroaches and taxes, and the second single from the album, but first from the new lineup, 'About a Girl', finally plodded into chart view in mid-November. Produced by then man of the moment RedOne - famous of course for his work with Lady Gaga, and also on Alexandra Burke's then recent chart topper 'Bad Boys' - even the original version with Keisha's vocals that had premiered a mere two days before her departure suggested the sound of a band running on empty creatively. As Martyn quite rightly pointed out above, even the video, set in Vasquez Rocks in the Californian desert, with three random actresses playing stunt doubles in a face off with a bunch of mafia crooks, was the public representation of a band that was now to all intents and purposes, no better than a shoddy tribute band at a holiday camp. The fact this opened to a #8 debut is remarkable considering the level of unfeeling to what remained of one of Britain's best girl group legacies, but if they thought the Christmas break would wipe away any remaining bad feeling, Heidi, Amelle and Jade were in for a nasty shock... |
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Sep 10 2017, 02:59 PM
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#326
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They've had the very Tunnocks, Mary
Joined: 13 March 2011
Posts: 5,505 User: 13,208
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2010
10TH JANUARY 2010 The Saturdays - "Ego" Official UK Chart peak: #9  A new year, and the start of a new decade in this thread (who actually are the people that said the 2010s didn't start until 2011? Cause they are wrong. Anyway). And it's just like old times in a sense. Pop music was officially back in vogue, just as it was with the dawn of a new millennium. It was also absolutely bloody freezing for much of that month as heavy snow swept the nation. But whilst Lady GaGa, JLS, Cheryl Cole - and some then emerging teenage brat from Canada answering to the name of Justin Bieber - were the hot favourites of the moment, curiously, compared to a year previously, girl groups suddenly remained barely on the public radar. Such was the case with The Saturdays. As we left them at their last entry, they were very much treading a thin line between continued success and well, the dumper, following the short and sweet chart run of 'Forever Is Over' and their second album 'Wordshaker' to try and regain any kind of form following it's even shorter chart run. Thank goodness then, that they decided to arrest some of their commercial misfortunes and go with one of the standout tracks on that album as its second single. Written by their long time collaborator Ina Wroldsen, and produced by the legendary Steve Mac - then in the throes of a purple patch following his chart topping, BRIT winning work for JLS on their debut single 'Beat Again' - 'Ego' has unquestionably remained one of their finest singles. A spiky, electro tinged slab of pop, with a catchy killer chorus - 'And now you wanna pretend that you're a superstar / And now you want us to end, what's taken you this far? / Don't tell me that you're done as far as we go / You need to have a sit down with your ego' - this feisty put down to a boyfriend that's got too big for his boots was the perfect lead on to the material from their debut for those who thought 'Forever Is Over' was a step in an odd direction, with a brilliant 'super hero' themed video to match. Charting as an album cut over the Christmas period of 2009, it's physical release proper in the new year saw it soar upwards to become their sixth top 10 hit - albeit their smallest to that point with it's number 9 peak. Interestingly though, it actually went onto sell more and stay on the chart for longer than some of their higher charting hits, perhaps due to the sustained airplay it had well into the spring months. But if one of the objectives of the exercise was to get more pundits flocking to the 'Wordshaker' album and boost the sales of that up, it was a relative failure - it returned to the top 40 album chart for only a very brief stay of one more week that same month, before sinking again thereafter. As with Girls Aloud before them, a drastic rethink was needed to ensure they returned to the top of their game - and quickly. Plans for the album's key ballad 'Here Standing' to be the third single were scrapped. Their long time manager from the beginning, Jayne Collins was also shown the door (although she had a new prospect in a decidedly more boyband shape ready to go whilst all this was happening - you can probably guess who). And by the time we came to meet them on their next entry, The Saturdays were - pardon the pun - ready to rise once more... |
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Sep 24 2017, 04:48 PM
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#327
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They've had the very Tunnocks, Mary
Joined: 13 March 2011
Posts: 5,505 User: 13,208
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24TH JANUARY 2010
Girls Can't Catch - "Echo" Official UK Chart peak: #19  However shaky things might have been looking for The Saturdays, they still had it a lot better than their fellow Fascination label mates Girls Can't Catch, who were fast looking like they should've been renamed Girls Can't Get Arrested in Their Own Country. Following the relatively nothing performance of 'Keep Your Head Up', five months later and a support slot on the UK arena tour of Jonas Brothers later, they were ready to try again. With a far stronger and broader appeal than their debut, 'Echo' was an epic, stirring electro ballad from the pen of Swedish songwriter Viktoria Hansen - who was also to have a hand in songs for Boyzone, Eurovision victor Lena and Aggro Santos' top 10 hit with 'Candy' later in this year - and at a typically quieter time of year to release, and with far stronger airplay, they seemed to be in a good position to consolidate on their modest start. But whilst 'Echo' did at the very least improve on their debut by seven places, it still wasn't the top 10 slot that you suspect both the girls and Fascination would've preferred. A third single, the really quite brilliant 'Happy Alone' meandered around in 'Coming Soon' hell in the release schedules for the following three months, before it was put out of its misery, when it was finally announced in June that the Girls Can't Catch dream was over. I actually managed to catch (pardon the pun) the girls live a month shy of their announcement to part ways, on Easter Monday 2010, when they played my student's union in a gig supporting Mr Hudson. By this time, I'd acquired most of the tracks that would've gone on to be part of their debut, only (and unreleased) album via a music industry friend, and was mightily impressed with what I'd been hearing on the QT. 'Keep Your Head Up', and to some extent 'Echo' was nowhere near indicative of what we could have expected from them had things worked out differently. On tracks like 'Another Day' and 'Turn Me Up' (both co-written by All Saints' Shaznay Lewis) and even on a left of centre cover version of Santigold's 'L.E.S Artistes', they sounded like a slightly more cutting edge alternative to their coloured tight wearing labelmates, and dare I say, on reflection, rather like a blueprint for the sort of thing another multiple entrant band we'll meet from 2011 onwards would've flown to number one with. Either way, a combination of poor market timing, and also having a band name that made one think of clumsy teenage girls with tennis balls in PE lessons rather than sassy girl group legends in making, made Girls Can't Catch one of the less deserving additions to the 'close but no cigar' file. |
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Jun 16 2018, 02:58 PM
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#328
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 This is where you end and I begin
Joined: 9 March 2008
Posts: 13,209 User: 5,567
 
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Bump.
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