#115

 

PLAN B

“Prayin’”

from the album “The Defamation Of Strickland Banks”

[July 2010]

46-36-24-17-16-22-26-29-35-48-64-83-x

 

 

~ 766 points // 12 weeks // #16 peak ~

 

Up to and including this song, the singles released from The Defamation Of Stickland Banks, the second album by British singer/rapper Plan B (real name Benjamin Ballance-Drew), told the story of Strickland Banks in order. First single Stay Too Long was track 3 on the concept album, second single She Said was track 4 and this skipped a bit ahead to track 9. However, for the fourth single they reverted to track 7, The Recluse, while the fifth single was bizarrely track 1, Love Goes Down, coming even before Stay Too Long in the Strickland Banks story. Prayin’ tells the story of when Plan B is attacked in prison by another inmate. For why he’s in prison in the first place you’ll have to wait until we get to Stay Too Long in the countdown, which is conveniently behind She Said so I can continue the story there. This is of course the last part of the story to have charted, but wasn’t the lowest charting - the first two singles got to #9 and #3 respectively, this got to #16, the fourth single got to #35 and the fifth only got to #62. Quite confusing really. In the story order: 1 Love Goes Down, 2 Stay Too Long, 3 She Said, 4 The Recluse, 5 Prayin’. In single release order: 1 Stay Too Long, 2 She Said, 3 Prayin’, 4 The Recluse, 5 Love Goes Down. Got it? Okay.

Edited January 1, 201114 yr by ★ 2011 Bray ★

#114

BRANDON FLOWERS
“Crossfire”
from the album “Flamingo”
[september 2010]
8-11-12-12-20-28-37-48-52-58-78-75-x



~ 773 points // 12 weeks // #8 peak ~

Crossfire was the first solo release by US singer Brandon Flowers, better known as ‘the guy from The Killers’. In fact, you might as well call it a song by The Killers as he’s the only vocalist in that group and Crossfire is hardly a great musical deviation from their normal output. Anyway, the song was a modest #8 hit for him, though you can’t escape the feeling it would have peaked higher if the exact same song was released and credited to The Killers. His solo album Flamingo got to #1. In the first midweeks there were rumours he had already sold over 100,000 copies and was set to have one of the fastest selling albums of the year. This turned out to be total lies as the album only sold 65,518 copies in its entire first week and only spent a week at the top spot, faring very poorly compared to The Killers’ three studio albums. At the moment this is the only singles chart representation Flowers has as a solo artist. Follow-up single Only The Young missed the top 100. He has had one more hit since then, as he returned to The Killers for their annual Christmas song (a tradition that has been going on since 2006). The song was called Boots and made #53 - not a stellar peak but a lot better then 2009’s bizarrely titled ¡Happy Birthday Guadalupe! (feat. Wild Light and Mariachi El Bronx) which only made #110. Apparently The Killers were set to release a new album in 2010, carrying on the trend of one album every 2 years (début Hot Fuss was released in 2004 and follow-ups Sam’s Town and Day & Age were released in 2006 and 2008 respectively), but the other lesser Killers were too tired from touring so Brandon went it alone. They haven’t split up and they’re apparently returning with a new album in 2011. I get the feeling this wouldn’t be due to happen had Brandon’s solo career gone better. Whatever.

Edited January 1, 201114 yr by ★ 2011 Bray ★

#113

N-DUBZ FEAT. BODYROX
“We Dance On”
from the album “Love.Live.Life”
[June 2010]
6-8-17-20-30-32-38-39-44-60-64-81-x



~ 773 points // 12 weeks // #6 peak ~

Much like Dizzee Rascal (Dance Wiv Me) and Biffy Clyro (Mountains), N-Dubz released this song with no intention of it being featured on a studio album of theirs, but later included it so they could claim it was the ‘first single’ and say the album has more hits on it. Yeah, whatever, N-Dubz/Dizzee/Biffy, I see through your clever ploy there. Anyhow, this song was originally only meant to be on the soundtrack to the film StreetDance 3D. It was the third top 10 hit for N-Dubz (second as the lead artist) and also the second top 10 hit for UK DJ duo Bodyrox (Jon Pearn, Nick Bridges), finally saving them from one-hit-wonderdom. Bodyrox’s only previous hit was 2006’s Yeah Yeah (feat. Luciana) which went as high as #2. Their attempt at a follow-up, 2008’s What Planet You On? (Bodyrox and Luciana), flopped all the way to #54 and they hadn’t been heard from since until this song. The sample used in We Dance On is a bit of an odd one, Johann Pachelbel’s Canon In D Major from 1919.

We Dance On is total gorg. :wub: Such a catchy song. It's like a faster version of Devlin's song. :lol:

 

Prayin' is nice too. Crossfire is pretty dull though (in my opinion). :(

#112

ROLL DEEP
“Green Light”
from the album “Winner Stays On”
[August 2010]
1-4-6-13-16-24-29-40-54-57-69-x



~ 798 points // 11 weeks // #1 peak ~

This is the third highest of the songs which are commonly defined as ‘non-#1s’ on this site (unless you count the single that this followed up, Good Times (feat. Jodie Connor), in which case it's the fourth highest) behind Ne-Yo's Beautiful Monster and Alexandra Burke's Start Without You (feat. Laza Morgan). Green Light was the second #1 for UK hip hop collective Roll Deep (Wiley, Flow Dan, Scratchy, Breeze, DJ Karnage, Danny Weed, Brazen, Manga, Riko, Target, J2K) of which only Wiley and Target (and J2K if you’re being generous) are somewhat well known outside the group. 2010 was quite a randomly big year for the collective. Back in 2005 they had a #11 hit with The Avenue and followed that up with #24 hit Shake A Leg but they didn’t have a single other hit until their two #1s (and #29 third single) in 2010. Their 2005 album In At The Deep End got to #50, with their 2010 album Winner Stays On beating that comfortably peaking at… oh, wait, it somehow peaked 5 places lower despite containing 2 #1s. Blame Alesha Dixon. Anyway, Green Light which features uncredited female vocals on the chorus is really just another dance-infused UK rap song about meeting a girl at a club. Nothing particularly original going on here. It was basically a carbon copy of the previous single actually. The first 2 midweeks on the week of this song’s release had missing sales data and showed the #1 as Eminem’s Love The Way You Lie (feat. Rihanna), leading Radio 1 to incorrectly label it as the ‘midweek #1’ and giving them an excuse to be surprised at this sailing to a week at #1, becoming the third different song to hold Love The Way You Lie at #2. Eminem had the last laugh though. Despite peaking at #2, Love The Way You Lie sold over 800,000 copies to claim the highest selling single of 2010. As I mentioned earlier, Radio 1 sent out the Chart of the Year a week early, but Matt Cardle is extremely unlikely to sell the ~150,000 sales he’d need to overtake Eminem, so let’s just say Eminem was the winner.

Edited January 1, 201114 yr by ★ 2011 Bray ★

Green Light is absolutely incredible. One of the best songs this year. :)

#111

THE SATURDAYS
“Missing You”
from the album “Headlines!”
[August 2010]
3-7-11-16-26-24-33-41-47-63-72-80-90-100-x



~ 801 points // 14 weeks // #3 peak ~

This was the first (or third, if you like) single from Headlines!, the third (or second, if you like) studio album by British girl group The Saturdays (Una Healy, Mollie King, Frankie Sandford, Vanessa White, Rochelle Wiseman). The reason for those first two parenthesised comments is that The Saturdays like to pretend their second studio album Wordshaker never happened. Their first album Chasing Lights peaked at #9 but had a good chart run and healthy sales. Wordshaker equalled the peak of Chasing Lights but fell all the way to #40 in its second week and its total weeks in the top 40 stand at just three after it successfully re-entered the top 40 for one week at #31. Headlines! was originally just an eight track EP, although only five of these tracks were new as it contained three songs from Wordshaker including both singles (Forever Is Over and Ego). However, it was later re-issued featuring four ‘new’ songs, three of which were just Wordshaker album tracks and the fourth being the single mix of 2nd/4th single Higher (feat. Flo Rida). That song and Ego are still to come in this countdown. Further efforts were made to erase their second album from history when it was removed from iTunes around the time of the re-release of Headlines! Anyway, Missing You is a decent enough song, if a little over-autotuned. There was a huge promo push for it including the band’s label actively encouraging multi-buying in attempts to finally get the group their first UK #1 but ultimately it was just their seventh top 10 hit, not even matching the #2 successes of Just Can’t Get Enough and Forever Is Over. The first of those two songs was denied #1 by Flo Rida’s Right Round (feat. Ke$ha), Humorously, it was Flo Rida again who stopped Missing You from #1 with his song Club Can’t Handle Me (feat. David Guetta), though Eminem was also ahead that week with Love The Way You Lie (feat. Rihanna). Apparently Radio 1 chart show host Reggie Yates was responsible for Flo Rida’s subsequent collaboration with The Saturdays - he pointed out Flo Rida’s double denial of a Saturdays #1 on the Chart Show and Flo Rida said ‘maybe [he’d] do a record with them in the future’.

Edited March 1, 201114 yr by Bray

I love The Saturdays so much. :wub: They make such good pop songs, and don't get the recognition they deserve imo. Infact, most British pop artists really don't get the success they deserve. There's been great American pop songs this year (Firework, Only Girl, etc.), but I would've liked some of the British pop songs to do better, because I think some of them are just as good (Higher, All Night Long, Hollywood, Starry Eyed, etc.).

Green Light is absolutely incredible. One of the best songs this year. :)

 

I agree, #5 in my EOY chart, love the bassline and chorus.

 

Us Roll Deep fans are few and far between. I only really know of Jonjo and Jack who also got the fuss over this song :lol: Most people can't understand why the hell I find it (sincerely) amazing.

I agree, #5 in my EOY chart, love the bassline and chorus.

 

Us Roll Deep fans are few and far between. I only really know of Jonjo and Jack who also got the fuss over this song :lol: Most people can't understand why the hell I find it (sincerely) amazing.

 

Yay! It's such a brilliant song isn't it! I agree about the bassline. Probably my favourite thing about the song, but everything about it is amazing tbh (although the tequila, lemon, salt part is a bit puke :lol:). And the Ill Blu remix and the Future Freakz remix are incredible too. :wub:

 

I think a lot of people on here were angry when it beat Eminem and Rihanna to #1 too, which didn't help. :( But regardless of chart positions, it's an amazing song.

Yay! It's such a brilliant song isn't it! I agree about the bassline. Probably my favourite thing about the song, but everything about it is amazing tbh (although the tequila, lemon, salt part is a bit puke :lol:). And the Ill Blu remix and the Future Freakz remix are incredible too. :wub:

 

I think a lot of people on here were angry when it beat Eminem and Rihanna to #1 too, which didn't help. :( But regardless of chart positions, it's an amazing song.

 

JOINING THE LOVERZ. :wub:

Bray. Did I skip passed it, or did you not include the best song of last year in the points thing you did? (Keri Hilson feat. Ne-Yo & Kanye West) I see 'Energy' and 'Return the Favor' as well as 'Superhuman', but no 'Knock You Down'! :o

Bray. Did I skip passed it, or did you not include the best song of last year in the points thing you did? (Keri Hilson feat. Ne-Yo & Kanye West) I see 'Energy' and 'Return the Favor' as well as 'Superhuman', but no 'Knock You Down'! :o

 

Ah, if you were Ctrl+F-ing 'Keri Hilson' it wouldn't have come up as I misspelled her name as 'Kari' :lol: But it is there, it's #28

 

Just edited her name.

Edited January 1, 201114 yr by ★ 2011 Bray ★

Yeah I Ctrl+F'd it haha. Thanks for editing though :)

 

Also, wow for doing this. Must have taken a $h!t load of time to prepare :mellow:

Also, wow for doing this. Must have taken a $h!t load of time to prepare :mellow:

 

The 'preparation' came mostly in inputting the chart runs of each song into a spreadsheet, which I did week by week and takes about 10 mins max. Then all I had to do was move around the columns and make some minor changes and then copy and paste the whole thing (which took about 1 and a half hours)

 

The comments do take a while to write but I do that as I go along as well, I didn't write them all before I started :P

Edited January 1, 201114 yr by ★ 2011 Bray ★

Anyway, I've utterly failed at making progress once more today, I've only posted 5 again.

No updates on this today as I was busy all day with the Top 100 Downloads of All Time and the Chart Show. Sorry :P

No updates on this today as I was busy all day with the Top 100 Downloads of All Time and the Chart Show. Sorry :P

 

That's okay!! :lol: You seem to work really hard! :o

 

All I do is chime in and say "I like this song" and "This sounds like this other song". :lol:

#110

ALEXANDRA BURKE FEAT. LAZA MORGAN
“Start Without You”
from the album “Overcome”
[september 2010]
1-1-5-10-19-27-37-47-53-60-80-76-x(1)-84-x



~ 813 points // 13 weeks // #1 peak ~

This is the lowest song on the list to have had a full chart run with 4 weeks in the top 10 (obviously excluding recent hits such as Your Song, What’s My Name? and Like A G6). Despite being one of only 15 songs to spend more than a week at #1 (or 14 which had more than 1 week at #1 in a row) in 2010 it’s firmly in the ‘non-#1’ category, spending only a further five weeks in the top 40 after it dropped off the top spot. Like The Club Is Alive, however, its success is sometimes understated. It still sold a very healthy 73,306 copies in its first week despite not being playlisted by Radio 1 and has better overall sales than many other 2010 #1s. Its second week at #1 can definitely be described as a fluke as there was nothing to stop it, the highest new entry being Shontelle’s Impossible at #10, but it still had 53,123 sales that week which was only the fifth lowest weekly sale for a #1 in the year. Anyway, moving on, the song itself is absolutely dreadful, mind-numbing rubbish, pretty much the usual for Alexandra Burke. Previous singles of hers got on board Flo Rida and Pitbull, both of whom are fairly successful in their own rights in the UK and worldwide, but for Start Without You, the lead single off the re-release of her début #1 album Overcome, she employed a total nobody in US rapper Laza Morgan whose biggest claim to fame otherwise is ‘appearing on the Step Up 3D soundtrack’. This song samples or at least closely resembles the Boney M. (RIP Bobby Farrell) track Hooray! Hooray! It’s A Holi-Holiday and indeed the Cheeky Girls cover of it, which doesn’t do great favours for the credibility of Start Without You.

#109

LABRINTH
“Let The Sun Shine”
stand-alone single
[October 2010]
3-6-8-12-19-24-29-41-45-60-76-98-78-



~ 814 points // 13 weeks // #3 peak ~

After producing and singing on Tinie Tempah’s first 2 big singles Pass Out and Frisky (getting a featured credit on the latter) it was only a matter of time before British singer/producer Labrinth (real name Timothy McKenzie) would get signed. There was supposedly a big fight between record labels to sign him. In the end he got signed to… Syco Records. I’m not going to be mean and say that makes him an X Factor artist as after all there was not even a single mention of him on the 2010 series of the X Factor, but the point is this guy is on the same record label as Alexandra Burke up there. Let The Sun Shine, his first solo release, was quite different from the two Tinie Tempah singles he produced, which is a good thing as they both sound exactly the same and it’d be boring if he put out another Pass Out clone. It’s a nice enough if hardly groundbreaking pop song. This song was oddly enough released on the same week as Tinie Tempah’s third single Written In The Stars (feat. Eric Turner), for which Tinie dumped Labrinth and got a new producer called Ishi (who would also produce fourth single Invincible (feat. Kelly Rowland)). It was expected to be a big battle especially as Radio 1 shockingly seemed to be on Labrinth’s side at first, playlisting Let The Sun Shine a week earlier than Written In The Stars, but in the end it was a conclusive victory for Tinie who sold a staggering 115,073 copies compared to Labrinth’s 67,868. Labrinth couldn’t even get the runner-up slot, being beaten into third place by Bruno Mars’ monster hit Just The Way You Are. Ah well, maybe next time? Although the single cover clearly states the song as Let The Sun Shine some sources (such as the video above and annoyingly the OCC itself) credit it as the grammatically incorrect Let The Sunshine. Grah.

Edited January 3, 201114 yr by ★ 2011 Bray ★