Jump to content

Featured Replies

  • Author

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

#145

 

ROBBIE WILLIAMS AND GARY BARLOW

“Shame”

from the album “In And Out Of Consciousness - The Greatest Hits 1990-2010”

[October 2010]

2-7-20-32-40-43-31-53-76-94-80-93-

 

 

~ 641 points // 12 weeks // #2 peak ~

 

When it was announced that Robbie Williams would be rejoining Take That it was widely expected the first single by the fully reunited Take That would shoot straight to #1 and be one of the biggest selling singles of the year. It was then announced that Williams was going to be releasing a second greatest hits album, In And Out Of Consciousness - The Greatest Hits 1990-2010, from which the lead single would be a collaboration with then-former bandmate Gary Barlow. It was then widely assumed the pair would appear together on 2 #1 singles this year, both among the highest selling singles of the year. This… didn’t happen, for some reason. Indeed, the Williams/Barlow duet Shame was deprived of #1 and had a less-than-impressive chart run with just six non-consecutive weeks in the top 40. (His Greatest Hits album did make #1 though, so it’s not all bad) The Take That single The Flood also missed out on the top spot, but more on that later. Humorously the song that stopped Shame being a predictable #1 was a song by Cee Lo Green titled F**k You! Robbie’s song reached #1 on the radio airplay chart for one week (before its release) but was then knocked off by the longest running airplay #1 of the year, a song which topped the airplay chart for 6 weeks. It was F**k You! again. Robbie did eventually match Cee Lo in airplay terms as the sweary track was knocked off the airplay #1 by the fully reformed Take That who held the top spot for 5 weeks. This song has recently been docked one point as a result of an OCC error posting its position one place too high.

Edited by ★ 2011 Bray ★

  • Replies 635
  • Views 51.8k
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

  • Author
#144

SCISSOR SISTERS
“Fire With Fire”
from the album “Night Work”
[July 2010]

11-12-17-22-28-32-41-49-71-85-x



~ 645 points // 10 weeks // #11 peak ~

US band Scissor Sisters (Ana Lynch/Ana Matronic, Scott Hoffman/Babydaddy, Derek Green/Del Marquis, Jason Sellards/Jake Shears, Randy Schrager/Randy Real), much like Muse, have a surprisingly low number of top 10 singles, with just three to their name - 2004 #10 hit Comfortably Numb, 2005 #5 hit Filthy / Gorgeous and huge 2006 #1 I Don’t Feel Like Dancin’. Unfortunately Fire With Fire, the slightly more mature sounding lead single from third studio album Night Work, failed to make that four when it missed out on the top 10 by just one place. Night Work also didn’t live up to expectations, peaking at #2 and thus not giving them a third straight #1 album. It seems the hype around Scissor Sisters well and truly died after I Don’t Feel Like Dancin’. Despite that song spending 4 weeks at #1 in 2006, the immediate follow-up to it, Land Of A Thousand Words, peaked at just #19 and Fire With Fire is their only top 20 hit since then, with the unfortunately less mature second single Any Which Way only making #81.

Wow, I completely forgot I Got You even existed until now! :o

 

I'll have to litsen to it again. All I remember from the song is that I couldn't understand what Leona was saying during the chorus. :lol:

  • Author
#143

ELLIE GOULDING
“Your Song”
from the album “Lights”
[November 2010]

39-3-2-2-3-5-5-



~ 648 points // 7 weeks // #2 peak ~

The TV adverts for department store John Lewis are notable for creating hits for artists ranging from the obscure to the winner of the BBC Sound of 2010 Poll. Okay, so there’s only been three of them, but they’re likely to make more hits in the future. As a result of being used on a John Lewis advert at the end of 2009 Taken By Trees had a #23 hit with her strange cover of Guns N’ Roses’ Sweet Child O’ Mine. Earlier in 2010 Guillemots lead singer Fyfe Dangerfield benefitted from the advert with his cover of Billy Joel’s She’s Always A Woman reaching #7 (more on that when we get to that song later on). But the biggest hit to date created by the advert is this. The third appearance from Ellie Goulding in this countdown, this time with her cover of the Elton John classic Your Song, which was featured in the Christmas adverts for John Lewis, allowing it to go as high as #2 in the chart. The cover was denied #1 two weeks running by the X Factor Finalists charity single Heroes, annoyingly. Your Song was tacked onto Ellie’s début album Lights along with a bunch of other new songs for the deluxe edition Bright Lights which saw the former #1 album return as high as #23 in the album chart. It also saw a small revival in sales of the Elton John original which re-charted at #61. This song had a low entry point, again as a result of being released midway through the week so it had less than 7 days of sales on its first week.
  • Author
#142

CHERYL COLE FEAT. WILL.I.AM
“3 Words”
from the album “3 Words”
[November 2009]

-5-11-18-29-34-40-52-61-67-79-88-89-92-97-x



~ 652 points // 14 weeks // #5 peak ~

3 Words was released as the second solo single from UK singer and Girls Aloud member Cheryl Cole (birth name Cheryl Tweedy) and appeared on her début album, also titled 3 Words. 2010 was a hectic and eventful year for Miss Cole. She released one last single from her first album (which is still to come), as well as releasing her second solo album Messy Little Raindrops, giving her a second #1 album and a second #1 single with the lead Promise This (also still to come). But it was also eventful outside of the charts, with Cole contracting malaria and supposedly coming close to dying and also her widely publicised divorce with footballer ex-husband Ashley Cole. To top it off at the end of the year she got not one but two acts into the grand final of the 2010 series of the X Factor (on which she is a judge), Rebecca Ferguson finishing 2nd and Cher Lloyd 4th. Anyway, 3 Words (the single) was a #4 hit in 2009 but dropped fairly quickly after its peak, something which can’t quite be said about the follow-up Parachute which has outsold this despite peaking a place lower.

Edited by Bray

  • Author
#141

DIANA VICKERS
“Once”
from the album “Songs From The Tainted Cherry Tree”
[May 2010]

1-4-8-18-31-44-48-65-77-x(4)-75-84-x



~ 656 points // 11 weeks // #1 peak ~

If you’ve been reading this countdown and thinking ‘hey, there aren’t enough X Factor artists on this list’, then here’s just the thing for you - yet another one! Diana Vickers only finished in 4th place on the 2008 series of the X Factor but she’s definitely 3rd in terms of post-series success. Winner Alexandra Burke and runners-up JLS are still the top 2, both scoring enormous success after their stint on the show, but third-placed Eoghan Quigg’s greatest claim to fame since the end of the X Factor is a #96 hit with single 28,000 Friends and a #14 album Eoghan Quigg. The album was an Irish #1, mostly down to the fact that Quigg is Irish, but an Irish #1 album is really not a huge deal. So yes, Diana Vickers. The release of her début single Once and album Songs From The Tainted Cherry Tree were greatly delayed because Vickers was mostly concerned at first with getting a career in music theatre. But anyway, despite being released near enough 18 months after Vickers was last majorly in the public eye, she still got #1 for a week in both charts. The single and album didn’t exhibit a lot of longevity, spending just three and two weeks top 10 respectively, but it was still a great achievement for her. Her other two singles both miss the top 200 in this countdown, second single The Boy Who Murdered Love only making #36 and third single My Wicked Heart (which sounds suspiciously similar to Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Under The Bridge) making a slightly healthier #13, aided by not being on the album at all and being performed on… here we go again… the X Factor.
5 weeks in the top 40 for a #1! :drama: I guess most people who wanted the song had already decided they wanted it when it was released, to be fair. She practically lived on the radio for 2 months before Once was released. :lol:
  • Author
#140

TAKE THAT
“The Flood”
from the album “Progress”
[Noember 2010]

2-2-6-12-15-6-7-



~ 657 points // 7 weeks // #2 peak ~

And here it is. I’ve mentioned it a couple of times already, it’s the first single released in the 21st century by the fully reformed five-man UK boyband Take That (Gary Barlow, Howard Donald, Jason Orange, Mark Owen, Robbie Williams). One of the most shocking #1 misses of the year. Despite all the hype, The Flood was kept off #1 two weeks running, first by Rihanna’s smash Only Girl (In The World) and then by JLS’ Love You More. It was a huge hit on airplay, spending as I previously mentioned five weeks at the top spot (before being deposed by Ellie Goulding’s Your Song) but it seemed at first it’d have to settle for just 3 weeks in the top 10. It did increase sales in its second week at #2 because, let’s put it this way, Robbie & Co. are friends of Simon Cowell and a certain reality TV show Cowell is a judge on which shows celebrity performers. At the very end of 2010 The Flood did have a resurgence back into the top 10 for 2 more weeks… because it was performed on the X Factor again. The same band, the same song, the same show, the same series. Apparently they’d wanted to perform album track Kidz from sixth studio album Progress but weren’t allowed to because the planned performance mimicked the recent student protests too closely. Anyway, while Shame and The Flood didn’t do as well as expected, the reformed Take That have lived up to expectations in two other ares - the album Progress sold over 500,000 copies in week 1 to become the fastest selling album of the century and second fastest selling album of all time (behind Oasis’ Be Here Now which sold nearly 700,000 in just 3 days) and the accompanying tour crashed ticket sites everywhere and sold out at a crazy speed.
  • Author
#139

IYAZ
“Solo”
from the album “Replay”
[June 2010]

3-10-20-27-37-39-43-53-58-71-92-x



~ 658 points // 11 weeks // #3 peak ~

British Virgin Islands-born ‘island pop’ singer Iyaz (real name Keidran Jones) started off the year in a big way, getting the first new #1 hit of the year with Replay (which will feature later in the countdown). The hype train couldn’t quite remain strong enough for him to score a second #1 with this track, Solo. By the time he actually put his album out so few people cared it only got to #26. Or maybe he’s just not an album artist. Either way it probably would have done a little better if released off the back of Replay. Solo samples the Janet Jackson song Again’s melody in its chorus. At the beginning of the week it looked likely to make the #1 spot but it was ultimately overtaken by Dizzee Rascal’s Dirtee Disco (feat. Daniel Pearce). Some people thought the frontloaded nature of Dizzee’s songs would mean Solo would have the greater longevity of the two. This countdown says otherwise, as it’s essentially based on longevity and Dirtee Disco is still to come.
  • Author
#138

CHIPMUNK FEAT. ESMÉE DENTERS
“Until You Were Gone”
from the album “I Am Chipmunk”
[May 2010]

3-5-7-15-23-35-45-56-72-87-x



~ 662 points // 10 weeks // #3 peak ~

Here’s another song that was the second highest new entry on its release week at #3, the highest new entry being at #1. In this case the song which was #1 was Diana Vickers’ Once, so this countdown suggests that the track with greater longevity and lasting impact was this one, Until You Were Gone by British rapper Chipmunk (real name Jahmaal Fyffe) and Dutch singer Esmée Denters. This was the last single released from Chipmunk’s major label début album I Am Chipmunk, or more accurately the first and only single from the deluxe ‘Platinum Edition’ of said album. It was the fifth top 10 hit for Chipmunk after his own singles Diamond Rings (feat. Emeli Sandé, #6 in 2009), Oopsy Daisy (feat. Dayo Olatunji, #1 in 2009) and Look For Me (feat. Talay Riley, #7 in 2010), the last of which will appear later in this countdown, and the Ironik single Tiny Dancer (Hold Me Closer) (feat. Chipmunk and Elton John, #3 in 2009). It was also the second top 10 hit for Denters after her own Outta Here (#7 in 2009).
  • Author
#137

STROMAE
“Alors On Danse”
from the album “Cheese”
[August 2010]

41-46-33-30-27-25-35-40-44-58-73-97-x



~ 663 points // 12 weeks // #25 peak ~

This song, a dance track sung entirely in French by Belgian artist Stromae (real name Paul Van Haver), was absolutely huge in Europe but it was always assumed the language barrier would prevent it from crossing over to the UK. UK radio are xenophobic like that. They’ll refuse to touch anything that’s not predominantly in English (or instrumental) 99% of the time. This was one of the 1%. Early signs that Radio 1 would show support for Stromae came when the track started to be played occasionally on Floor Fillers. It became even more apparent when Scott Mills made the foreign-language track his Record of the Week. Then they went the whole way and put it onto their playlist, shocking almost everyone. As the song received a huge boost on iTunes every time it received even one play on the radio some people thought the song would have a shot at #1. Unfortunately, these boosts stopped coming when the track started to receive significant amounts of daytime airplay and it ultimately still peaked at a fairly low #25. It was one of a number of mainland European mega-smashes to peak outside the top 20 in the UK in 2010, alongside Shakira’s Waka Waka (This Time For Africa) (feat. Freshlyground) which peaked at #21 and Hurts’ Wonderful Life which also peaked at #21. Alors On Danse translates into English as ‘So we dance’ and although a few English versions existed (as well as a remix featuring Kanye West) it was surprisingly the original French recording that was released. Hopefully the relatively restricted success of this song won’t make UK radio permanently snub foreign language songs (although there is still one foreign language song to come, albeit one that’s mostly instrumental)
  • Author
#136

THE BLACK EYED PEAS
“The Time (Dirty Bit)”
from the album “The Beginning”
[November 2010]

11-7-11-6-1-4-3-



~ 664 points // 7 weeks // #1 peak ~

US hip-hop/electro-hop band The Black Eyed Peas (William Adams/will.i.am, Stacy Ferguson/Fergie, Jaime Gómez/Taboo, Allan Lindo/apl.de.ap) had very limited success with first two studio albums Behind The Front and Bridging The Gap, suddenly went stellar with third album Elephunk (#3 in 2004 but it sold over a million copies) and specifically its lead single Where Is The Love? which spent 6 weeks at #1 in 2003, remained successful with fourth album Monkey Business (#4 in 2005 but it sold over a million copies), went stellar again with fifth album The E.N.D (#3 in 2009 but it sold over a million copies) and its three #1 singles Boom Boom Pow (2 weeks at #1), I Gotta Feeling (2 weeks at #1 and appears later in this countdown) and Meet Me Halfway (1 week at #1 and it appears later in this countdown), all 2009 and then they just… went weird on us with this, The Time (Dirty Bit), lead single from sixth album The Beginning. This song samples Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes’ (I’ve Had) The Time Of My Life as its chorus and has a strange additional hook of will.i.am saying the words ‘dirty bit’ followed by a bit of instrumental. Its chart run is as weird as the song itself. It entered at #11 due to being released midway through the week, but only climbed to #7 the following week before falling back to #11. The video was then released causing it to climb back to a new peak of #6 and the following week it became the band’s fifth #1 single, thanks to (you saw it coming/already knew) the X Factor. It then dropped to #4 but climbed back to #3 for the last week of 2010 due to there not being any big enough new releases and The Trashmen’s Surfin’ Bird plummetting from #3 to #41 (a record drop out of the top 40).

Edited by ★ 2011 Bray ★

Alors on danse was slowly climbing each week while it was on Radio 1's playlist, so if they kept it playlisted for about 6 months it might've made #1 in the end. :lol:

 

That song was quite a character though. I thought there was no chance it'd even get top 200 originally, then a few months later I thought it'd be a top 10 hit. :lol:

  • Author
#135

PROFESSOR GREEN FEAT. LILY ALLEN
“Just Be Good To Green”
from the album “Alive Till I’m Dead”
[July 2010]

5-7-13-17-25-33-44-56-71-94-x(3)-78-100-x



~ 669 points // 12 weeks // #5 peak ~

After UK rapper Professor Green (real name Stephen Manderson) scored a huge #3 hit with début proper single I Need You Tonight (feat. Ed Drewett) which will appear later in the countdown, the news that he’d got British singer Lily Allen (of #1s Smile and The Fear fame) to sing the chorus on second single Just Be Good To Green made it seem like he’d get an even bigger hit the second time around. Possibly because of the big gap between the radio premiere and the release, it didn’t quite deliver, only giving Green a second top 5 hit instead of a top 3 or a #1. Like the previous single, Just Be Good To Green is largely based on a sample, in this case Beats International’s Dub Be Good To Me which was itself based on The SOS Band’s Just Be Good To Me. The first two singles are the only 2 songs on Green’s #2 début album Alive Till I’m Dead that feature major samples though, it should be noted. The single’s chart run was was extended by 2 weeks thanks to a performance on the X Factor. Not a performance by Mr. Green himself, but instead a performance of it by 4th place Cher Lloyd on ‘number ones week’. This may seem a mistake as it wasn’t, of course, a #1, but the justification was that the Beats International version reached the top spot. Whatever, Cheryl Cole (Lloyd’s mentor).

Edited by ★ 2011 Bray ★

  • Author
#134

DIZZEE RASCAL FEAT. DANIEL PEARCE
“Dirtee Disco”
from the album “Tongue N’ Cheek”
[June 2010]

1-4-12-22-35-41-47-61-62-66-82-x



~ 678 points // 11 weeks // #1 peak~

The second appearance from Dizzee Rascal on the list, this time the first of his 2 2010 #1 singles. It was the third top 10 hit to contain the word ‘Dirtee’ in the title, the other two also involving Dizzee Rascal - his own 2009 #10 hit Dirtee Cash and 2010 #2 hit You Got The Dirtee Love (Florence + The Machine and Dizzee Rascal) which will appear later on so I can tell you the story behind that then. This song is technically yet another appearance from an X Factor artist, although 2009 contestant Daniel Pearce didn’t even make the live shows so I’ll excuse him. Daniel Pearce was also a member of Popstars: The Rivals runners-up One True Voice - thanks to gooddelta for mentioning that. Shows that winning isn’t everything really. Anyway, Dirtee Disco continued the downwards trend in overall sales for Dizzee #1 hits and also continued the trend of decreasing weeks in the top 10. Dance Wiv Me had 10 weeks, Bonkers had 6, Holiday had 5 and Dirtee Disco had just two as you can see above. Shout did buck the trend in this respect though, spending three weeks in the top 10. As I mentioned on the really-far-too-long comment for Shout, this song was the lead off from Tongue N’ Cheek (Dirtee Deluxe Edition) and thus technically the fourth #1 single off that one studio album, despite the album itself only making #3. That’s not quite as extreme as Westlife’s album Westlife which contained *five* number ones but only got to #2 itself.

Edited by ★BlindFaithBray★

  • Author
#133

TIMBALAND FEAT. NELLY FURTADO AND SOSHY
“Morning After Dark”
from the album “Shock Value II”
[December 2009]

-21-17-21-28-30-28-40-48-54-62-77-x



~ 685 points // 11 weeks // #17 peak ~

This song from Shock Value II, the third studio album by US producer/rapper/singer Timbaland (real name Timothy Mosley), originally only had French singer SoShy (real name Deborah Epstein) featured, for the single release he decided to throw on a verse by more established Canadian singer and long time Timbaland collaborator Nelly Furtado as well. Despite being released before the album, it was actually the least successful of the three singles released from the album - follow-up If We Ever Meet Again (feat. Katy Perry) was a #3 hit and third single Carry Out (feat. Justin Timberlake) had the same peak as Morning After Dark (#6) but a longer and more consistent chart run. Both other singles are still to come on this countdown. The other two singles weren’t hit as hard by the post-album effect which normally restricts the peak and sales of post-album singles as the album didn’t do very well to start with, initially making just #60. It’s since reached a new peak of #25 but its chart performance is still a huge letdown after his second studio album Shock Value which reached #2 and stayed in the charts for a lot longer than Shock Value II has managed.
Let's not forget Daniel Pearce's biggest success before this single. Featuring on the incredible pop classics Sacred Trust and Shakespeare's Way With Words by his unforgettable band One True Voice.
  • Author
Let's not forget Daniel Pearce's biggest success before this single. Featuring on the incredible pop classics Sacred Trust and Shakespeare's Way With Words by his unforgettable band One True Voice.

 

He was in One True Voice? I never knew that before. (Actually I do vaguely remember reading that somewhere)

  • Author
#132

JLS
“The Club Is Alive”
from the album “Outta This World”
[July 2010]

1-7-9-16-23-32-39-53-63-81-x



~ 686 points // 10 weeks // #1 peak ~

Yet another appearance from JLS. Despite this being a new song from a new album released this year, it’s not their highest entry on the countdown - that’s One Shot from their first album. Many people would name this song if asked to name a ‘flash in the pan #1’, but its success is very underrated. It still sold over 80,000 in its first week which is by no means a shabby amount and it spent longer in the top 40 than several of the other #1s this year (Dirtee Disco and Once, for example). I’m not, however, calling it a deserved #1 as it is still most definitely a flash in the pan chart topper and largely just a fanbase buy as evidenced by that huge 1-7 drop at the start of its run. This song was pretty much universally panned and labelled as awful. It’s personally a guilty pleasure for me. The chorus ‘samples’ The Sound of Music with the line ‘the club is alive with the sound of music’. One of the main criticisms of the song is that they go a little overboard with the autotune and the song is clearly an attempt to sound American. JLS did once try to break the USA and had a very minor airplay hit with Everybody In Love but it appears they’ve given up on this. There were rumours a while ago that they were lining up collaborations with the likes of Rihanna but they haven’t come to fruition yet. But who knows?

Create an account or sign in to comment

Recently Browsing 0

  • No registered users viewing this page.