8. David Guetta feat. Kelly Rowland “When Love Takes Over”

UK #1 (USA #76)

So, I’d never heard of David Guetta before this song, but I couldn’t have asked for a better introduction! ‘When Love Takes Over’ seems to have its haters but I always lose it whenever it’s played. It captures an emotion so perfectly. It was a shame to see the song underperform in America, but ‘Sexy Chick’ would give Guetta his first US hit months later. I’d definitely rate this, along with ‘Titanium’, as being melodically, lyrically, and vocally superior to the rest of Guetta’s singles.

7. Leona Lewis “Bleeding Love”

#1 in USA and UK

Wow. We’re now in the realms of ultimate pop perfection. Not only was this a massive-selling song by 2007 standards, but ‘Bleeding Love’ gave Leona a Billboard #1 at a time when very few international stars were having success in America. And its quick climb to the top suggests that she made it look easy. I was at an all-guys camp in the summer of ’08 and whenever we had music to listen to, this song always got the biggest reaction, with even the football-player types singing it as loud as possible. Really just about everyone loved it, and hopefully they still do.

6. Kings Of Leon “Sex On Fire”

UK #1 (USA #56)

2008 has done very well on this countdown with incredible #1s from a variety of genres. But none of them felt more triumphant than this soaring rock anthem, an instant festival classic to win the world over just as the summer was winding down. ‘Sex On Fire’ is yet another song that suffered a criminally low peak on Billboard, but it was actually the first song to get them any attention there, and #56 is a pretty good peak for the minimal airplay it had. ‘Use Somebody’ would finish the job of turning the Kings into, well, royalty, in 2009.

5. La Roux “Bulletproof”

UK #1 (USA #8)

For a short while this was my favorite song of all time! As you can see it’s dropped in my affections but remains absolutely stunning, enough to be top five here. Not even sure what it was about the song (probably everything about it duh), but the video was wonderfully reminiscent of playing old Sega games as a kid. Thankfully ‘Bulletproof’ did not fall short of American success, and yet it had to be one of the least likely songs to make it big there! That was for sure one of my happiest moments as a chart follower.

Love all four of the above, especially Bulletproof! :wub:

Edited October 1, 201410 yr by jafetsigfinns

I got my internet blocked while reading this thread in IT lesson, oops :kink:

 

I can't stand Sex On Fire anymore, the overplay is just out of this world :( The rest are all pretty lovely though :heart:

WHAT a strong section, all have such huge choruses :wub:

4. Nelly Furtado “Say It Right”

USA #1 (UK #10)

Sensational. I regret not fully appreciating this at the time. ‘Say It Right’ was released after smash hits ‘Maneater’ and ‘Promiscuous’ and was kind of stuck in their shadow as a result. But now that time has passed we know this song has aged better than the other two, like the masterpiece it is. Despite its beauty I just can’t believe it managed to be a #1, even on the Hot 100 where airplay worked in Nelly’s favor. But here it is, ‘Say It Right,’ my favorite of America’s #1 songs in the 2000s. It’s incredibly worthy of that honor.

 

3. Robyn feat. Kleerup “With Every Heartbeat”

UK #1

Another 2007 gem, another quite unexpected #1. This one even more so because Nelly Furtado was already having a massive era, whereas Robyn was claiming her first hit in several years! I actually didn’t know ‘With Every Heartbeat’ existed until late 2009, but it hit me right away, from the atypical song structure to the rawness of emotion from Robyn. I was captured even further by the video, all the colorful building blocks and other shapes were fascinating to watch probably due to my field of study. Such a sad but powerful song.

 

2. t.A.T.u. “All The Things She Said”

UK #1 (USA #20)

I loved this despite being too young to have any idea what it was about, so any novelty aspect it had was lost on me. If anything, I’ve only fallen even more in love with it since then. Was amazed to find out it had spent a full month at #1 in the UK. Well done! 200 km/hr in the Wrong Lane sits somewhere in my top three albums of all time. The most amazing thing about ‘All The Things She Said’ is that it wasn’t even originally in English! It’s such perfection that you’d never ever guess that it was translated or anything. And, I always love a pop duo!

4. Nelly Furtado “Say It Right”

USA #1 (UK #10)

Sensational. I regret not fully appreciating this at the time.

Same!

 

This was only recently brought to my attention by high praise in ROTD. I'd definitely heard it years ago around the time of release but had forgotten about it and never re-listened. I really think its title didn't do it any favours in that regard - maybe 'Nothing At All To Me' or something in parentheses would have helped, messy as that would be! Anyway, I really love it :heart:. It strikes me as being ahead of its time and has indeed aged very well, as you say.

 

As for the other two, excellent choices once again! Particularly love 'All The Things She Said', which is another recent re-discovery for me thanks to ROTD.

 

Looking forward to the #1 reveal :P!

Edited October 12, 201410 yr by Noahspike

I adore 5-8

Bleeding love is still a classic and WLTO is Guetta's best song :wub:

Thanks Noah and UV! Here’s a recap of everything since the previous recap, followed by my #1 :o

 

36. Matchbox Twenty “Bent”

35. Eminem “Without Me”

34. The Corrs “Breathless”

33. Rihanna “SOS”

32. Shaggy feat. RikRok “It Wasn’t Me”

31. DJ Sammy & Yanou feat. Do “Heaven”

30. Sugababes “About You Now”

29. Nelly Furtado feat. Timbaland “Promiscuous”

28. Carrie Underwood “Inside Your Heaven”

27. Santana feat. Rob Thomas “Smooth”

26. Lady Gaga “Bad Romance”

25. Daniel Bedingfield “Gotta Get Thru This”

24. Estelle feat. Kanye West “American Boy”

23. Beyonce feat. Jay-Z “Déjà Vu”

22. All Saints “Pure Shores”

21. Madonna feat. Justin Timberlake “4 Minutes”

20. Beyonce feat. Jay-Z “Crazy In Love”

19. Coldplay “Viva La Vida”

18. Outkast feat. Sleepy Brown “The Way You Move”

17. Outkast “Hey Ya!”

16. Nelly “Hot In Herre”

15. Christina Aguilera feat. Redman “Dirrty”

14. Janet Jackson “Doesn’t Really Matter”

13. Fantasia “I Believe”

12. Ne-Yo “Closer”

11. P!nk “Just Like A Pill”

10. Duffy “Mercy”

9. Jay-Z feat. Alicia Keys “Empire State Of Mind”

8. David Guetta feat. Kelly Rowland “When Love Takes Over”

7. Leona Lewis “Bleeding Love”

6. Kings Of Leon “Sex On Fire”

5. La Roux “Bulletproof”

4. Nelly Furtado “Say It Right”

3. Robyn feat. Kleerup “With Every Heartbeat”

2. t.A.T.u. “All The Things She Said”

1. Stereophonics “Dakota”

UK #1

:cry:

STUNNING.

I must admit I’m terribly unfamiliar with the Stereophonics’ discography, only knowing four songs of theirs and having no idea who they were pre-‘Dakota’. Even upon first hearing this I didn’t know the name of the artist or the song until another chance encounter years later. But even after all that time it was instantly recognizable and it’s all down to THAT chorus. It’s very similar to the chorus of ‘Sex On Fire’ really, just one phrase, loud and vivid, perfect. To me ‘Dakota’ is a song about looking back (“you made me feel like the one”) and being left with mixed emotions. It works as a happy song and a sad song, which is perhaps part of its appeal. Even in the poor sales climate of 2005, I’m just amazed it reached #1! And the nine years since have helped justify that achievement as this seems to become a timeless classic. And we all lived happily ever after.

 

 

 

 

Thanks to all who commented and followed along! This took much longer than I wanted it to but it’s good to be done!