12th May: PLAY - Jennifer Lopez

 

J-Lo has a tendency to make songs either really great or really terrible. Thankfully such atrocities as 'Get Right' are yet to come and indeed during these first couple of years she's on absolute fire, effortlessly pumping out a ton of really quite underrated songs - 'Waiting for Tonight' being one I adored at the turn of the millennium and this was her follow-up to the ace 'Love Don't Cost a Thing', her first #1 at the start of this year.

 

This is one of the best things she's ever released. Talk about a forgotten classic, latching on your brain within seconds of starting and in general just giving you three and a half minutes of poppy awesomeness, its fusion of R&B and electro-beats standing out a fair bit from the crowd, sounding pretty fresh at the time and years before everyone else started doing the same. Why it didn't feature on her Greatest Hits released last year is an utter mystery.

 

Oh, and if you love J-Lo, it's somewhat of an understatement to say you'll see her again in this thread. She really likes to release songs that peak at #3...

 

Play, Butterfly and Always Come Back to Your Love are amazing

 

2001 seems to be a great year for #3 singles

 

I remember that O-Town song. I think I even bought the single. I was 9 and buying songs about wet dreams without realising, got love the late 90s/early 00s for that

Edited June 11, 201312 yr by justinthomas92

I think out of all the years they veer a bit too heavily on the R&B side of things, but there's lots of gems I either don't remember hearing or forgot about :)

 

19th May: RIDE WIT ME - Nelly feat. City Spud

 

This one's a surprise. Didn't think we saw Nelly on these shores until 'Hot in Herre' became a huge (and annoyingly overplayed) track the following year. In fact we'd first seen him back in 2000 peaking at #7, this one unbelievably charting a place higher than Hot in Herre's #4.

 

Never a huge fan, this sees him before his irritating post-'Dilemma' crooner phase that saw him have a few terrible #1s in the mid-noughties but fits that era a bit more - it's the kind of music that put me off mainstream chart stuff by the time we get to 2004, expertly made but just incredibly bland and dull sounding. I've heard this a few times in clubs as a sort of warm up or between-anthem filler, the "Heyy! Must be the money!" shouts the equivalent of Wyclef's "IT DOESN'T MATTER!" we've already seen here. Except this one doesn't have the quirkiness (or The Rock) that Wyclef brought and instead it's just a dull bit of R&B I don't have any particular desire to listen to again.

 

Note also it's another of those music videos where the actual song starts 30 seconds in...

 

2nd June: THANK YOU - Dido

 

It's Stan by Eminem!! Oh wait :P

 

Nope, this actually first appeared way back in 1998 on the soundtrack to 'Sliding Doors', indeed when I watched it a few months back I was a bit surprised to hear it on something made so long ago. Then, of course, Eminem heard it and turned it into the best song he's ever made at the end of 2000, for years his biggest seller until the Rihanna fans bought 'Love The Way You Lie' in droves a decade later. The song turned Dido into a household name and sales of her album 'No Angel' rocketed into the millions, by the time the decade finished the second biggest seller of the 21st century behind James Blunt. It's now down a couple of places thanks to posthumous purchases of Amy Winehouse and the even bigger sales of Adele's '21', but still pretty high up there.

 

All of Dido's tracks, along with her similarly huge-selling male counterpart David Gray, are very much 'Sunday morning music', recovering from a hectic week/weekend and needing some soft chillout vibes as you recharge for tomorrow. Being so used to Stan it's always a bit of an odd feeling hearing this and not hearing Eminem's vocals break in, but it's a nice bit of inoffensive easy-listening for when you need it.

 

Given the likes of Alicia Keys and Emile Sande, anyone else think if this song were released today it'd be called 'Stan [Part II]'? ;)

 

9th June: SING - Travis

 

Even then the word "Britpop" belonged to another age entirely. Just as the hard breakbeats and optimism of the early 90s rave scene was a distant memory by 1995, we were already long removed from the days of Oasis, Blur and Pulp defining the mid-90s generation. All three bands were still around in 2001 but all three's glory days were behind them. From the end of the 1990s into the early noughties, it was instead this downbeat, retrospective 'post-Britpop' sound that ruled across the country, a huge contrast from the nu-metal being shipped over from the states.

 

Depending on your view it was either a refreshing new and more adult sound from the carefree Parklike-esque bangers of yesteryear, or a dull, bland musical scene that signalled the death of rock music as we knew it. Not all new British acts followed the formula - Muse were scoring hits just outside the top 10 through 2001 which combined downbeat lyrics about evolution and technology with uptempo metal guitars and BPMs - but when it comes to Glaswegian band Travis we have almost the epitome of the post-Britpop sound.

 

1999's 'Why Does It Always Rain On Me' was played so much it's a rare example of a non-pop song that I remember vividly from that time, particularly remarkable given it only reached number 10. This also was a huge radio staple through the year and sees them with their highest ever charting single. And it's actually a lovely if simplistic song, I can see why people hated them but their fanbase at the time was absolutely massive, particularly as one of the few really high-selling rock groups around. It hasn't been played anywhere near as much in recent times, and while I don't think it's as good as 'Rain' it's still definitely worth a listen. If you want to buy their album 'The Invisible Band' which features this song, second-hand shop CeX are selling it for, erm, 20p. Oh dear.

 

As a treat, instead of the official video, here's an absolutely ridiculous Top of the Pops performance which shows they've got a sense of humour at least :D Madness kicks off at 2:54!

 

16th June: WE COME 1 - Faithless

 

Faithless. Were. Amazing. Ok we all know Insomnia, their era-defining #3 from '96. But then there's the 10 minute epic that is 'Salva Mea', their '98 follow-up comeback 'God Is A DJ' and the equally epic 'Take The Long Way Home', and despite the rapidly changing dance music scene, this lead single from 3rd album Outrospective is right up their with their greatest ever songs. A haunting intro with Maxi Jazz's trademark spoken style sounding as brill as ever, eventually breaking down into another ridiculously simple melody which builds and builds into ultimate brilliance. I was very lucky to see them at V Festival at 2010 at what would be one of their last ever full gigs, and this was a monumental closer to their set, uniting everyone in a gloriously euphoric moment. As I made my way across the field to see The Prodigy I wondered how anything would top it and if I had any energy left!

 

2004's 'Mass Destruction' was pretty brill too but this is the last time they really truly made something up there with the gods. They officially split in 2011, but a scaled down version of the band called the Faithless Sound System continues to perform to this day.

 

30th June: THERE YOU'LL BE - Faith Hill

 

Having the unusual distinction of being a top 10 hit twice in the same decade, this made a surprise return to the charts in 2008 thanks to an X Factor performance and has re-entered the lower reaches ever since. In these pre-X Factor and even pre-Pop Idol days (just!) this was used in the film 'Pearl Harbor' and to this day remains the only top 10 hit here for the Mississippi-born country pop singer, very different to her stateside chart career where she's a regular presence in the Hot 100.

 

It's a song that seems almost made for talent shows, both in terms of acts covering it and the original playing over slow-motion black and white shots of tearful acts crying/hugging the judges/their friends/family etc having progressed to the next round, to the point where I'm surprised it hasn't been a winner's single yet. It also sounds a little outdated even for then, it could have come out in 1998 along with tracks like 'How Do I Live', 'You're Still The One' and 'My Heart Will Go On' and be just as big. But, let's be fair, despite being somewhat sugarcoated it's a fabulous track and Faith Hill sings it brilliantly, it could probably be a hit at any point in the last 25 years. Free your mind of talent shows, enjoy it as a song in its own right and file it under the guilty pleasures!

 

There You'll Be is one of my favourite songs of all time! It's so beautiful. :wub:

 

I love Travis as well, they definitely cemented my obsession with music. I remember discovering albums from them and Coldplay one day and it opened my eyes to a whole world outside of pop music.

Yeah I think we all have certain acts that opened up our ears to a new style of genre...for me it all arrived en-masse around 2003, starting the year liking pop and not much else, ending it a Darkness/White Stripes fan and then really getting into underground dance music the following year :D But that's all to come, as here's four more from 2001...

 

7th July: U REMIND ME - Usher

 

A guy who seems to have spent the last fifteen years in and out of fashion, having a couple of hits, disappearing and then returning with some more, this sees him in his first major run of successful songs after 'U Make Me Wanna' hit the top in early '98. Here in 2001 he scored three top 5 hits in a row all with the letter/word 'U' at the start, four if you count 'U Don't Have To Call' being included on a P Diddy release the following year.

 

This is the same story as 'Ride Wit Me' really, it's a formulaic and dull R&B track that I can't imagine anyone purchasing except for the fact that OMG it's Usher, surely getting this high on fanbase sales alone. Not until 2004's 'Yeah' did he release something that I thought was brilliant, and while it didn't sell a huge amount in that year's low sales climate it stuck around much longer at the top reaches of the charts.

 

In a bizarre move, this is one of the few Usher videos not available on the official Vevo channel, and the only one available has a constant hazy special effect added over the top by the uploader. To save motion sickness, here's an audio-only version with an unblinking Usher peering deep into your soul.

 

14th July: A LITTLE RESPECT - Wheatus

 

My mum was a HUGE fan of Erasure in the late 1980s, her (now binned) record collection featuring many of their early releases. But one of their biggest and best hits was curiously missing from the 7" pile. Why, I asked her? Turns out she was a bit busy that autumn as she was busy, erm, giving birth to me. Indeed she says it was all over the radio during those first few weeks of me being alive...and it also happens to be one of my fave songs of all time, which I wonder if it's because it's linked in with being one of the first songs I ever heard. She did at least have the album 'The Innocents' on 12" which featured the song as track 1, so I'd have possibly heard it in the house too.

 

Thirteen years on and on the cusp of me becoming a teenager, the band responsible for the epic that is 'Teenage Dirtbag' return for another top 3 smash. To be honest I think anyone trying to cover one of the greatest pop classics of the 20th century is somewhat misguided, with only Bjorn Again's 1992 version really working as it was done as a spoof, taking Erasure's habit of covering ABBA songs and doing a perfect ABBA-esque (ha!) version of one of theirs. So while I can't say this anywhere near improves on the original it's not quite as bad as it could have been, still keeping that melody at the forefront and the middle-8 turning from piano in the original to squealing guitars in this is inspired. Brendan B. Brown's vocal pales in comparison to Andy Bell absolutely singing his heart out, otherwise it's an ok effort that, interestingly, flopped almost everywhere else in the world in comparison to Teenage Dirtbag except here. Maybe because the original simply isn't as widely known worldwide as other Erasure tracks like Sometimes, Chorus and Always are.

 

Oh, and the original Erasure version went on to peak at #4 in 1988, one place lower than this. Some things just make you scratch your head in bemusement...that and the fact that Wheatus's Vevo, bizarrely, have made this the only video of theirs unavailable in the UK!! So here's a low-quality version uploaded by a Spanish guy...

 

21st July: CASTLES IN THE SKY - Ian Van Dahl :wub:

 

Oh hell yes. A number 1 in all but name, spending seven(!) weeks top 10 which in 2001's peak-and-then-fall chart climate was astonishing, it only got to #3 in its 4th week when it rose from #6. And no, 'Ian' isn't the name of the DJ, nor is it the name of the woman singing the track, it's a collective name for the DJs and singer.

 

Some may dismiss this as poppy commercial nonsense for teenagers in the same way Alice Deejay and later Cascada could be grouped under, but I think this is gorgeous. All the best dance tracks are both uplifting and simultaneously melancholic which this merges together beautifully. Instead of the idea of building 'castles in the sky' being this incredible grand thing, it's sung in an almost heartbreakingly sad fashion, putting an end to the ridiculous notion that electronic dance music is bland and soulless in comparison to so-called 'real music' of guys with guitars. In three years this style would be deeply uncool and unfashionable in an indie-led chart, which listening to stuff like this makes me rather sad. An opinion that may not be shared by everyone but this for me is definitely one of favourite #3s of 2001 so far.

 

For the third track in a row youtube proves frustrating, this time because the version that charted in some countries sounds completely different to the one we all know and love here, as heard on the CD single, radio, Now 49 etc. Guess which version the majority of videos are...after many pages of clicking, here's one of the few with the UK mix attached, if just the audio.

 

28th July: ELEVATION - U2

 

U2 had, at last, returned to their stadium rock roots and with 2000's 'Beautiful Day' produced one of their best known songs in years, another played so much it'll always take me back to where I was at the time. Indeed their track record through most of the noughties is remarkable, every release going top 5 right up until the terrible 'Get On Your Boots' ruined the run in 2009, although as with Bon Jovi, fanbase buys were rapidly losing the power they'd had in the CD single days.

 

By now we're onto the third single from 'All That You Can't Leave Behind' and one that may have peaked at #3 but fell out the chart fairly quickly, if not as bad as follow-up 'Walk On's 5-27-52 descent. Saying that I do remember this one quite well so it still got its fair share of airplay, perhaps helped by being included on the soundtrack to, of all things, the 'Lara Croft Tomb Raider' movie. We're in standard post-2000 U2 territory here, and aside from its 'EL-E-VA-TION!' chorus hook offers little else memorable or particularly new, although if you're a U2 fan you'll adore it. Still, they've made worse.

 

Check out the massively OTT music video too, which apparently is one of the most expensive ever filmed!

 

U Remind Me, There You'll Be, Ride Wit Me, Thank You and We Come 1 :wub: :wub: :wub:

 

 

U2 (with some minor exceptions like "Electrical Storm") have been consistently awful throughout the mid-90s until the present day. "Get On Your Boots" was probably their nadir, but the lyrics on "Elevation" are terrible, child-like rhyming and though the hook is strong it doesn't save it from being a rather bland single.

God there were a lot of #3s this year :P Here's four more and I'll try to have the last four of the year up this afternoon/evening...

 

18th August: AIN'T IT FUNNY - Jennifer Lopez

 

She's back! This is the one that notably received a 'remix' a year later that in fact was a completely different song, although we won't see it here as for once for a J-Lo song it charted a place lower.

 

This original couldn't be more 1999 if it tried, fitting in with that year's brief latino pop craze, and feels a bit like we've gone back in time a bit. But dude did she release some good stuff and this is very enjoyable and summery, perfect for a warm day. For 2001 it's very out of step and if another artist released it then it might not have done so well, but J-Lo being the megastar she was another top 3 hit was assured. Like 'Play', another underrated pop gem. The 2002 Ja Rule fronted song is, in comparison, awful unmemorable crap, if sounding a lot more up to date for the early noughties.

 

Obligatory 'Youtube so crazy' footnote - the Vevo video called 'Ain't It Funny' is, in fact, the terrible 2002 version. The original 2001 song is below, confusingly called 'Ain't It Funny (Alt Version) even though it's the original!

 

8th September: FOLLOW ME - Uncle Kracker

 

Why must so many songs come in a confusing mish mash of remixes and alternate versions? Owning the CD single, the lead version of this is the so-called 'DJ Homicide mix' that puts a contemporary pop backing over the top, but all the videos on youtube seem to feature the original, more chilled-out acoustic/country version. Although the song doesn't appear on Now 50, I'm wondering if said Homicide mix was the one heard the most here...unfortunately after several pages searching I simply can't find it online, so I've had to resort to posting the original with video. Just imagine a slow breakbeat and some record-scratches over the top and you've got what might be the version played here, though correct me if I'm wrong.

 

No matter what the mix, it's a pleasant and seemingly inoffensive chilled-out singalong love song. Some have speculated it's about drugs or sex, helped by lines such as "swim through your veins like a fish in the sea". Kracker later stated it's about "kinda both" those things, calling it "a dirty picture painted with a pretty brush". While it's nothing spectacular it's a nice listen, and although he remains a one-hit wonder here he's had more in the states and scored a surprise #3 hit with 'Smile' a few years ago in Australia. Like Faith Hill this could easily be a hit if released today, I'm surprised it's never had any X Factor performances although maybe the dubious nature of the lyrics has stopped that from happening. It recharted at #46 last year through what I think was a 59p reduction, so it's still nicely remembered to this day...that one at least was definitely the original, non-DJ Homicide version as it's the only one available on iTunes.

 

29th September: SMOOTH CRIMINAL - Alien Ant Farm

 

Hard to believe now, but by 2001 Michael Jackson seemed a bit like yesterday's news. This was around the time he released his first major new album since 1995, with 'You Rock My World' as the lead single. For most acts a #2 hit would be fine and dandy. For a star of the calibre of Michael Jackson, particularly after how long he'd been away, it was a huge shock for everyone expecting the huge #1 smash. Follow-up 'Cry' got completely lost in the Christmas charts and peaked at a ridiculous #25, falling out the top 40 after 1 week. By now his personal life and increasingly unsettling appearance was dominating over his actual music, and he spent most of the noughties as either a joke or a suspected child molester. Even will.i.am appearing on a revamped 'The Girl Is Mine' didn't chart higher than #35 in 2008. Let me repeat that, Michael Jackson and will.i.am - IN THE SAME SONG - only charted at #35. Only after his sudden death in 2009 did he really fall back into fashion, with my clubbing memories for the rest of that year being filled with Jacko tracks.

 

What does any of this have to do with Alien Ant Farm? Well, look at the song they're covering. Despite all the above they scored a big hit with the second rock #3 we've seen this year revamping a song from 1988, after Wheatus. Unlike that, this one puts the song in so much of a new light that it becomes utterly brilliant, very different to MJ's original but working very much in its own right. MJ almost whispered 'Annie are you ok?'. AAF SCREAM it. The famous riff is minimal and funky in the original, AAF take it and pound it out in a frenzy of distorted guitar. The video is full of MJ references, seemingly somewhat pisstakingly although the guitarist later said they was intended as genuine homages, if "in our own dirty little backyard way". As bad as it may sound, during that 2009 summer when MJ was posthumously reborn, I listened to this more than any of his actual songs. It's that good and I like to think that Jackson himself was amused by it.

 

AAF had another top 5 hit here with 'Movies' a few months later, before the nu metal fad wore off.

 

6th October: WHAT WOULD YOU DO - City High

 

As we move into the autumn of 2001, I'm feeling much more like in the early noughties than 2000's late-90s throwback tracks did, and this is a bit of a classic which already I couldn't imagine being a hit in the last decade. A much more commercial R&B sound than we've seen so far...although it then has an absolutely bizarre segue into a #3 from earlier this year, Dr Dre's 'The Next Episode' before returning to the original for the final minute or so, which I think is a bit of a shame as it kinda wrecks the easy-going flow of the song a little. This, though, is when it gets confusing as it's yet another song to have a ton of different versions on youtube. Some drop the Dre sample all together, some include it but have a talking "Woah, woah, stop the record!" section before it which flows a bit better (as heard on the video), the version I have on Now 50 just randomly goes straight into it. I've no idea what the proper version is.

 

Dre sample or no Dre sample, random spoken section or not, it sounds like the kind of thing the Black Eyed Peas were making a few years later, indeed the lead rapper sounds so similar to will.i.am at points I wouldn't be surprised if some people think it's an early BEP track. Save for that pointless middle bit it's a nice listen. A decade later it was covered by Bastille, although it seems to be from their pre-fame days before they hit it big with Pompeii - even so every version of the City High track on youtube is full of Bastille fans claiming their version is better. Yeah, er...no.

 

10th November: FALLIN' - Alicia Keys

 

Is it really bad that I didn't really know any Alicia Keys songs until her duet with Jay-Z on 2009's Empire State of Mind? I was quite surprised to see her here in '01 as a fresh-faced 21 year old. And now I feel a bit silly for it, as this appears to be one of the biggest worldwide and critically acclaimed hits we've encountered to date. Listening to it now I definitely remember it but I never really ever paid it much attention, and, kill me, but as a song I'm failing to see what's so special about it. As a piece of work it was entirely written and produced by Keys herself, which is highly impressive for someone so young, but looking at contemporary reviews of everyone falling over themselves praising it as the best thing ever...really? This tolerable if average bit of bland R&B? It's not even completely original, heavily influenced by 'It's a Man's Man's Man's World'...oh I dunno, if so many people love it then I can't really complain. Nicely sung but it just does nothing for me.

 

The youtube comments are either full of "She's so beautiful!" or "This reminds me of my relationship!", which might also go some way to understand why this did so well.

 

17th November: THEY DON'T KNOW - So Solid Crew

 

...saying that, it's better a listen than this.

 

The 2-step garage boom didn't entirely vanish overnight as just gradually fizzle out, slowly turning from the actually-not-too-bad stuff the likes of the Artful Dodger and DJ Luck/MC Neat were releasing back in 1999/early 2000 to just novelty pop music by now, similar also to how breakbeat rave started sampling kids TV circa 1992 and dubstep became something Taylor Swift did circa, erm, now. '21 Seconds' was the track that exploded these guys up to the top of the charts, which at the time I hated but now enjoy at least a bit of nostalgic charm from. This, though, is just dire. Four minutes thirty six seconds of dull crap from a musical scene that never appealed to me. If I can say anything good about it, I like the acid-influenced sounds that run throughout.

 

Indeed I still have two minutes of the song to listen to and I've already written everything I can say about it, so now I have to endure it until it's over just in case it explodes into some incredible trance number or something. No? Ok then.