I agree people are getting away from the intentions of the threads starter - he means songs like Someone Like You that weren't even planned as a release but outfoxed the plans of the record companies!

 

As for Atomic Kitten - I remember there being a campaign at the time to get Whole Again to #1 help Kerry McFadden (as she was then) by Westlife fans.

I'm not sure, although I do get the impression that some artists simply choose the most cherry-picked song to be their next single. It's a bit different, since the song doesn't become a "big hit" without the record company planning to. In those cases, it's more like, it becomes a "small hit", but the fact that it became a "small hit" convinces the record company to make it a "big hit".

 

It could be coincidence though. It's reasonable to expect that the most commercial songs will be made a single, and will also be cherry-picked more.

 

I don't know if an artist has ever outright said they chose a song as a single because it got the most downloads from the album before? It does seem like the logical thing to do to be honest. But for the artists that do do it that way, the public are sort of choosing the hit. They're choosing the song for the record company to promote. Although I guess it's not so "unexpected" when they do well later on.

I agree people are getting away from the intentions of the threads starter - he means songs like Someone Like You that weren't even planned as a release but outfoxed the plans of the record companies!

 

As for Atomic Kitten - I remember there being a campaign at the time to get Whole Again to #2 help Kerry McFadden (as she was then) by Westlife fans.

But why limit threads? Frankly I think the main purpose of this thread was somewhat boring and way too limited to the download era, which is very recent - and thus everyone knows about stuff like Someone Like You, Make You Feel My Love, Love The Way You Lie etc. That isn't really interesting.

 

I remember this happened with a thread about midweek #1s the other week, too, and then the thread starter came in saying about how it was only supposed to be about #1s that had switched since Radio 1 started their midweek countdown. But the other meaning of the thread that people took to (which was just listing any songs that they remember were midweek #1s but fell off) was far more interesting and led to people finding stuff they might not have known before rather than regurgitating the same boring info.

 

And I'm really not sure what happened with Atomic Kitten - I remember reading once that even the record company were absolutely flabbergasted at its success, because it had been almost totally snubbed by radio :lol: Surely Westlife fans weren't wholly responsible?! And why would the campaign be only get it to #2 anyway? :o

Edited February 19, 201114 yr by superbossanova

But why limit threads? Frankly I think the main purpose of this thread was somewhat boring and way too limited to the download era, which is very recent - and thus everyone knows about stuff like Someone Like You, Make You Feel My Love, Love The Way You Lie etc. That isn't really interesting.

 

I remember this happened with a thread about midweek #1s the other week, too, and then the thread starter came in saying about how it was only supposed to be about #1s that had switched since Radio 1 started their midweek countdown. But the other meaning of the thread that people took to (which was just listing any songs that they remember were midweek #1s but fell off) was far more interesting and led to people finding stuff they might not have known before rather than regurgitating the same boring info.

 

And I'm really not sure what happened with Atomic Kitten - I remember reading once that even the record company were absolutely flabbergasted at its success, because it had been almost totally snubbed by radio :lol: Surely Westlife fans weren't wholly responsible?! And why would the campaign be only get it to #2 anyway? :o

 

I agree, more interesting discussions have stemmed from what was a topic that would otherwise have an incredibly limited shelf life, as only about 5 or 6 songs fall under the category. Same in that midweek #1's thread, the 'off on a tangent' replies were more interesting for me to read personally than those sticking to the topic in hand.

 

I was about 13 at the time Whole Again came out, and at school on a Wednesday (god knows why I remember this so well - but I was really into the charts back then and remember being flabbergasted) and a friend told me that Atomic Kitten were midweek #1. I didn't believe them until I got home and read it on teletext! I don't recall being so shocked at a song getting to #1, well maybe until the Katie Melua/Eva Cassidy song in 2007, but I didn't even know that that existed until seeing the mids that week!

But why limit threads? Frankly I think the main purpose of this thread was somewhat boring and way too limited to the download era, which is very recent - and thus everyone knows about stuff like Someone Like You, Make You Feel My Love, Love The Way You Lie etc. That isn't really interesting.

 

Sorry. Just something I noticed. Carry on. :)

But why limit threads? Frankly I think the main purpose of this thread was somewhat boring and way too limited to the download era, which is very recent - and thus everyone knows about stuff like Someone Like You, Make You Feel My Love, Love The Way You Lie etc. That isn't really interesting.

 

I remember this happened with a thread about midweek #1s the other week, too, and then the thread starter came in saying about how it was only supposed to be about #1s that had switched since Radio 1 started their midweek countdown. But the other meaning of the thread that people took to (which was just listing any songs that they remember were midweek #1s but fell off) was far more interesting and led to people finding stuff they might not have known before rather than regurgitating the same boring info.

 

And I'm really not sure what happened with Atomic Kitten - I remember reading once that even the record company were absolutely flabbergasted at its success, because it had been almost totally snubbed by radio :lol: Surely Westlife fans weren't wholly responsible?! And why would the campaign be only get it to #2 anyway? :o

Ooops, meant #1 :blush:

 

I wasn't suggesting limiting threads, but you suddenly get to the point here where people miss the point of the original thread and it goes off kilter. I agree though the discussion was limited, perhaps a thread on totally unexpected hits would be more relevent.

The point about the relatively narrow initial purpose of the thread is that it is about songs where, effectively, the fans picked the single. Before downloads that wasn't really possible. The only vague equivalent would be picking a song which went down particularly well when played live.

 

However, examples of songs which were expected to be fairly low key but went on to be successful are also interesting and fit in with the spirit of the thread.

 

As for the mids thread, the main point about restricting it to the R1 run-down is that the programme was the first time the full top 40 mids had been broadcast. Before that, even most people who followed the charts probably had no idea what was ahead or even that midweek charts existed. After all, look at the number of people involved with the Surfin' Bird campaign last year who weren't aware of the fact that mids are published four times a week.

As for the mids thread, the main point about restricting it to the R1 run-down is that the programme was the first time the full top 40 mids had been broadcast. Before that, even most people who followed the charts probably had no idea what was ahead or even that midweek charts existed. After all, look at the number of people involved with the Surfin' Bird campaign last year who weren't aware of the fact that mids are published four times a week.

To be fair, that was exactly what I meant when I said that people might have actually learnt some information from that thread. I know that I did, anyway, and I know that from some of the replies to the stuff I posted in that particular thread suggested people might not have known the information before. So that was very much a bizarre restriction IMO, as most people here don't have goldfish memory and remember about Missing You leading in all the midweeks and still missing #1, etc, so I don't see what the point was of starting a thread just to name those examples. It's tiresome.

 

I see your point about THIS thread, though, but for me personally when I went into this thread I was hoping to see some older examples, only to find it was supposedly "limited" to only the download era which I already know perfectly well having followed the charts and media throughout. I'm a bit of a fact freak myself so love to find out about things like this... and did indeed find out something new from one of the "off-the-kilter" replies in regards to the Westlife fans campaign re:Atomic Kitten!

Edited February 19, 201114 yr by superbossanova