Seeing Nicole Scherzinger now on UK TV, she really has had such an interesting career path! as well as change after change in public persona to what she has now

Is it just me or does PCD's WTAT remind anyone of The Lion Sleeps Tonight? :lol:

 

Hope you continue with this Pensmith. I love your write-ups.

You'll be pleased to know I am Scene! Are we ready for the next entry?

 

8TH MARCH 2009

 

The Saturdays - "Just Can't Get Enough"

Official UK Chart peak: #2

 

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Now it's time to meet a Saturdays entry which will undoubtedly, see the start of one of the foremost underlying narratives of their career that we'll discuss - certainly for the next five years. As "Issues" was peaking inside the top 5, news broke that the girls had been given one of the biggest accolades in pop - to record that year's Comic Relief single for Red Nose Day.

 

A path already well trodden by Spice Girls - and of course the Sugababes vs. Girls Aloud entry we met in 2007 - the omens boded well after three top 10 hits and a by now platinum selling album in "Chasing Lights" which had now peaked at #9. Keeping up their early sound connections with Vince Clarke (see "If This Is Love", and also his remix of "Issues"), Depeche Mode's 1981 top 10 smash "Just Can't Get Enough" was chosen for them to record and release.

 

 

Their version was a pumping, thumping disco makeover that harked back to the late 90s remixes of Motiv8, and backed with a retro styled video evocative of the Benefit makeup packaging - and the obligatory Red Noses - the girls embarked on their biggest promo assault to date to make the single a hit, touring radio stations and TV shows the land over as well as visiting Comic Relief projects in the UK. And when the first midweeks came in, it looked as if they were heading for their first UK chart topper.

 

But it was a lead they'd all but relinquished come that weekend, as despite a big performance on the main Red Nose Day telethon that Friday night, also performing on the special edition of Top of the Pops was a man who'd come to haunt their every chart move for several of their next entries - namely, American rapper Flo Rida, whose God awful cover of Dead or Alive's 'You Spin Me Round' ('Right Round') sold a shedload the following day to take pole position come Sunday, leaving "Just Can't Get Enough" to debut at #2.

 

It was thus the first proper Comic Relief single to fail to top the charts in 14 years. Worse still, the jokey release "Islands in the Stream" from Rob Brydon and Ruth Jones in their "Gavin and Stacey" guises sailed effortlessly to the top the following week. Undefeated, the girls dusted themselves off and announced plans for their first ever theatre tour - which they were right in the middle of when we next meet in this thread...

Edited December 11, 20168 yr by ThePensmith

I think I vaguely remember the chart thread during JCGE's release. :lol:

When's the first review of the year coming?

It's coming now Scene...hello everyone. I do realise my new entries to this have become somewhat sporadic over the last few months. I shall do two posts here today to make up for lost time. Real life once again to blame here. But onwards we go...

 

5TH APRIL 2009

 

A.R Rahman and The Pussycat Dolls featuring Nicole Scherzinger - "Jai Ho! (You Are My Destiny)"

Official UK Chart peak: #3

 

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Now for a brief respite from all my previous bashing/finding new ways to be inspired by "Doll Domination" era PCDs. As that album had struggled even in the States - something having half of Nicole's binned solo tracks on it put paid to - it was announced at the start of 2009 that a re-release with some new tracks would be imminent - a move, Nicole insisted, to keep things fresh and exciting, but that you suspect was done out of necessity.

 

One of these new tracks, was thanks in part, to an absolutely huge blockbuster movie at that time. Starring Dev Patel (best known to UK readers at this time as Anwar, from Channel 4's angsty teen drama 'Skins'), 'Slumdog Millionaire' was made on a relatively small budget by Danny Boyle, the acclaimed director of 'Trainspotting', '28 Days Later' and of course, 'The Beach' which provided the All Saints chart topper with 'Pure Shores' we met at the top of this thread.

 

The uplifting story of a poor slum boy winning the Indian version of the TV quiz show 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire?', it went onto gross a whopping $377.9 million worldwide, as well winning eight Oscars, seven BAFTAs and four Golden Globes. One of its eight Oscars was for its title song, 'Jai Ho', by renowned Indian composer A.R. Rahman. He was duly contacted by Ron Fair and Jimmy Iovine at the Dolls' label, Interscope, about turning it into a pop song, whilst remaining faithful to the original melody.

 

 

He green lighted for it to go ahead, and Nicole was tasked with writing the lyrics to go on top of it. The resulting track and video were a surprisingly pleasant mix. On paper, it could have quite obviously gone down the Dolls' more tasteless route - hello to you, "Buttons" - but in practice was a sneakily fine effort that was respectful of the original composition and which was pleasant and uplifting. It returned the Dolls to the UK top 3 again, and stayed inside the top 10 for a further seven weeks.

 

But faults still remained in spite of all this. This was once again credited with Nicole as the central focus, and were it not for the remaining Dolls turning up for the dance sequences in the video, you rather get the impression that this would have been plugged as a one off solo single regardless. "Jai Ho! (You Are My Destiny)" ended up in the UK top 3 by momentum of being from a soundtrack to a well loved film, rather than a sudden reversal in public appreciation for the Pussycat Dolls.

 

The "Doll Domination" album was duly re-released - perhaps bizarrely, as a mini six-track EP with this tacked onto it in the UK, but it failed to find a fresh audience, who just cherry picked this single off it instead. And as the Dolls continued to slug away on a world tour, irreversible cracks were becoming glaringly more obvious - even more so as their next single staggered into view just a month or so later...

Edited February 19, 20178 yr by ThePensmith

3RD MAY 2009

 

Girls Aloud - "Untouchable"

Official UK Chart peak: #11

 

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So you've just released the biggest studio album of your career. You've just had a massive selling number one single that has dominated radio waves for some months. You've just won a BRIT for that single. And you've also sold out another arena tour of the UK, and Coldplay, the biggest British rock band in the world, have just asked you to support them at Wembley Stadium. It's fair to say the whole country loves you. For any other band, let alone a girl group, this would be incentive to carry on with more of the same. Alas, this was Girls Aloud, now seven years into a career that few expected to last beyond three months.

 

Things were different in more ways than one now. Gone were the days when they flogged themselves around the national TV, press and radio circuit to try and bag themselves another top 10 hit. Gone were the days when they all ventured round in the same people carrier. The Girls Aloud machine was the most well oiled it had ever been - some might say too well oiled. But with the rise to national treasure status, comes the inevitable burn out from those working the machine. It's a wonder really, that they got a third single off "Out of Control" into the ether in the first place.

 

But, following a fan vote conducted on their official website (which I have no recollection in being told about, not even from their newsletter), a third single was released, and the chosen candidate was 'Untouchable'. A worthy contender for best track on the album, and indeed one of the best things Xenomania did for the girls, it's a soaring, epic, forty storey tall dance ballad that clocked in at over six minutes. Single material, however, it was not.

 

The trouble with choosing a song as a single that clocks in at over the average length of a pop single - 3 minutes, 30 seconds, for anyone in any doubt - is that once given over to remixers to chop it up ready for radio play, it can either give it a new lease of life or go horribly wrong. In the case of 'Untouchable', it was the latter. So much of the heartbreaking simplicity at the root of the original album version was lost under a haze of dated vocoders and cheap drum loops.

 

 

It was the first time I largely ignored a new Girls Aloud release, and were it not for the appearance of two blinding B-sides - a remix of 'Love is the Key' and 'It's Your Dynamite' - I wouldn't have been bothering purchasing this single at all. Even the video, with them all hurtling towards earth as futuristic Barbarella style space queens in asteroids, felt curiously polished, but not in a good way. But there was more than just lazy radio edits and expensive videos that made it feel as if steam was running low.

 

Cheryl and Kimberley had just returned from doing their epic trek with Gary Barlow and pals up Mount Kilimanjiro for Comic Relief, just as the very limited amount of promo for this single (a sole performance on "Dancing on Ice") and rehearsals for the "Out of Control Tour" got under way. Perhaps not accounting for how much it would leave them battered and bruised, it goes some way to explaining why this became their single that broke their run of consecutive top 10 hits - by the time the single was released fully, they were on tour and thus had no time to do further promotion.

 

But even on tour, things weren't right. Both Cheryl and Kimberley's autobiographies in the years since, but mainly the latter, highlighted the fact that Nadine, who was distant enough already living in Los Angeles, had bought some random guy on the tour bus with her. Said random guy turned out to be Bruce Garfield, who was managing her as a solo entity. All this combined to bring forth the news at the end of the tour, that whilst the girls had signed a fresh new deal of three more albums with Polydor, it was to be a year before any new stuff would be forthcoming, Like the Spice Girls minus Geri, and Destiny's Child before them, they were taking a break from the band.

 

I'm toying with whether or not to talk about the solo ventures that followed now, or as we progress along the next few years in this thread. I'm going to go for the latter option, solely because with some of the 2009 entries in particular to come, there are some cross reference points which I feel will be worthy of bringing up, if for nothing else but context. Regardless, it'll be three years before we hear the next - and final notes - from GA in a group entity...

Thanks for updating! This is like a documentary, I'm really enjoying reading :)

Both entries are great. The #11 peak for GA was so annoying at the time. :lol:

I'd forgotten how late 'Jai Ho' was released compared to the movie the original song's taken from - Slumdog Millionaire came out in UK cinemas right at the start of January, but the song didn't peak until April!

31ST MAY 2009

 

The Veronicas - "Untouched"

Official UK Chart peak: #8

 

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Every so often, there is that curious breed of international act that lands on UK shores, whom for some reason or another we purport to be American straight away, but are in fact not from there at all, despite everything - styling, sound, videos etc - leaning that way. See Savage Garden, Billie Myers (make that half the soundtrack of Dawson's Creek, then), and also see identical Australian twin sisters Jessica and Lisa Origliasso - otherwise known as The Veronicas.

 

Named after the feisty character played by Winona Ryder in the 80s teen flick 'Heathers', The Veronicas had already been big business in their native Aussie and in the States for a good four years before they finally broke the UK charts. Their debut album "The Secret Life Of..." was certified 4x platinum in the former territory, whilst its 2007 followup, "Hook Me Up" was an even bigger hit, and saw them become the first Australian act to sell a million downloads in the US with this very single.

 

 

"Untouched" is a curious number in amongst all the shiny, glossy electro and R&B styled pop we've encountered in the 2009 entries thus far. It stood out back then, although it sounds very of its time now, like it should be dwelling on the soundtrack of 'Gossip Girl' or a Twilight movie. The dramatic staccato strings and furious, gritty dance punk backing work surprisingly well with one another, and add to the relentless energy of this song, even if they sound somewhat on the shrill side at times.

 

Nevertheless, other acts we've encountered on this thread of a two/three entry run had worst songs to open on, and taken as it is this was a strong start indeed - it stayed inside the top 10 for a whole month after this - and was still making its way down the lower rungs by the time their next UK release debuted - more on that when we get to October...

Edited April 9, 20178 yr by ThePensmith

6TH JULY 2009

 

The Saturdays - "Work"

Official UK Chart peak: #22

 

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So what should have been an ascent to chart glory via Comic Relief ended in anything but that - much to the delight of the press, it has to be said, who suddenly weren't seeing them as the creditable new girl group force they claimed to be in light of this setback. No matter, The Saturdays dusted themselves off and carried on. Just a year on from opening for Girls Aloud on the 'Tangled Up Tour' in a rainbow of neon, they were about to head out on the road for their very own UK tour - the name of which was taken from this, their fifth single.

 

Originally planned as the fourth single after 'Issues' before the combined might of Depeche Mode, Richard Curtis - and of course Flo Rida - threw a proverbial spanner in the works, the harder, R&B driven 'Work' had been a fan favourite since the release of the 'Chasing Lights' album, so was an obvious choice for release. In keeping with the theme of the tour, the girls went for a more grown up, saucier and industrial sort of look - heavily indebted to the 'Slave 4 U' era of Britney Spears' career.

 

 

But then several forces intervened that all but made this single the first real blot on what had been, up until that point, a flawless copy book chart wise. The promo for this single was limited, as it fell in what days off they had from the tour - including several stints supporting Take That on their mammoth stadium shows that summer for 'The Circus' album. But it also fell just as Vanessa quite literally did that, and tore a ligament in her foot on one of the opening nights of the mammoth 24 leg nationwide jaunt. Elaborate dance routines were thus quickly replaced with more modest, injury friendly mic stand numbers.

 

And then, just as this single's CD release hit the shelves, the UK chart was suddenly bombarded with a swathe of mass downloaded re-entries from the recently deceased Michael Jackson. Lost in the backwash of all of this, 'Work' peaked outside the top 20 and went no further. Admittedly, whilst we are talking about a fifth single off an already available album here, taking away the MJ re-entries it still would have just been top 20 even without this factor, so was probably one single release too many. Polydor already knew this - hence why recording of their second album was by now well under way for an autumn release. More on that, as always, with our next entry from The Sats...

The Work video definitely gave me Umbrella vibes at the time.

19TH JULY 2009

 

Pussycat Dolls featuring Nicole Scherzinger - "Hush Hush, Hush Hush"

Official UK Chart peak: #17

 

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And so the bitter finale of the unhappy second album saga of Nicole and the remaining PCDs crashes into view on this thread, and thus this is the last entry from the Dolls - for now. Once again, Ms Scherzinger took centre stage with the whole 'featuring' debacle on both single cover and video, and thus tensions built up quicker than Natalie Appleton circa 2001 could yell 'That's my jacket, Shaznay!'

 

Originally a slow and uneventful ballad on the original release of 'Doll Domination', the single release saw it beefed up by dance producer Dave Aude into a weak and lifeless pseudo disco number with unimaginative interpolation of Gloria Gaynor's 'I Will Survive'. Topped off with Nicole writhing around in a bath a la Cindy Crawford in George Michael's video for 'Freedom 90' with all the subtlely she usually imparts to such performances, it was a messy end to the PCD dream in more ways than one.

 

 

As this single stuttered into the top 20, the world tour for the album plodded on, and certain members - hello to you, Melody and Jessica - voiced their dissatisfaction more than once in public with the overt attention being given over to Nicole. It was very unsurprising, therefore, when first Jessica announced her departure in January 2010, then Ashley announced hers several days later, followed by Melody and Kimberly. Don't cha wish your personnel problems were as bad as theirs?

 

Still, Nicole did eventually get her dreams of solo stardom fulfilled, releasing her debut album proper 'Killer Love' and scoring her first and to date only UK chart topper with 'Don't Hold Your Breath' in 2011, as well as a well received turn as judge on 'The X Factor' in 2012 and 2013 (she guided James Arthur to victory in the former series). Of the remaining Dolls, only Ashley and Kimberly have had any kind of solo success with TV and judging work between them on 'I'm a Celebrity' and 'Got to Dance' respectively. Rumours of a reunion have been rife in recent years, but whether they bear any fruit? That's yet to be seen.

9TH AUGUST 2009

 

Girls Can't Catch - "Keep Your Head Up"

Official UK Chart peak: #26

 

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So as Cheryl went off to film her second series of 'The X Factor' (and record a debut solo album - more on that in later entries), Kimberley went to model for New Look and Sarah went to start filming her role in the second 'St. Trinian's' film titled 'The Legend of Fritton's Gold', Girls Aloud's label Fascination were, perhaps understandably, panicking a little at the thought of an end of year release schedule without a new album from their star players.

 

Thankfully, they had several bullets ready to fire in their absence, one of whom, like The Saturdays a year previously, came to attention on the Aloud's arena tour that spring for the 'Out of Control' album. Consisting of Daizy Agnew, Jess Stickley and Phoebe Brown (the latter of whom was formerly in X Factor 2007 finalists Hope), Girls Can't Catch were being pitched as the All Saints quotient to The Saturdays' Spice Girls (see their rubbish dump set video below).

 

 

Unusual name and all (I can count on both hands the amount of teen press interviews with them that still exist on YouTube where they are asked to catch tennis balls. How very original), the newly formed lady trio set about recording their debut album with co-writes from, amongst others, an actual All Saint (Shaznay Lewis), as well as the then ascendant Pixie Lott, who'd just had a huge debut number one with 'Mama Do' and was about to do it all over again with 'Boys and Girls'.

 

Debut single 'Keep Your Head Up' came out to general fanfare, but strangely only got as far as a top 30 entry point before falling. What then followed was a gap of six months between their next release, whilst they toured again, this time supporting Jonas Brothers. With eight years' distance, I can understand why this didn't take off. It's catchy, snappy slice of electro pop, sure, but not that dissimilar to anything you'd have found on the first Saturdays album, and is without any clear direction. If they were going to be more than mere pretenders to the throne, they needed bonafide hits of their own - and fast.

Ahh I remember GCC. They were never going to be long for the pop world. It was good at the time to see Phoebe from XF find some chart success though albeit with poor songs.

6TH SEPTEMBER 2009

 

Sugababes - "Get Sexy"

Official UK Chart peak: #2

 

 

Booty Luv - "Say It"

Official UK Chart peak: #16

 

 

And so here, to this entry, wherein it's the beginning of the end of the legacy of one of our most frequent entrants to this thread - and not in the way anyone was expecting either. Following the virtual indifference with which 'Catfights and Spotlights' as an album campaign was met, Sugababes v3.0 were musically quiet for much of the beginning of 2009 whilst their label and management had a bit of a rethink.

 

When news of new music finally did emerge in July, some rather big news indeed broke - chiefly, that Jay-Z, of all musical heavyweights, had signed them to his label Roc Nation (also home of the by now stratospheric Rihanna) to supposedly try and break them in America, although one suspects this was mere window dressing for the girls to get to work with some heavy hitting producers on his roster for their seventh studio album, aptly titled 'Sweet 7'.

 

Amongst them were an LA based team called The Smeezingtons - featuring a certain pre-fame Bruno Mars in their number - and it was they who were responsible for the newly vamped up 'Babes first single, 'Get Sexy'. Sampling and relying heavily on interpolation of the Right Said Fred hit 'I'm Too Sexy' from 1991, if ever you wanted to hear a formerly great British girl group sinking to levels of desperation lower than Lisa Scott-Lee's chart positions, than this was it.

 

 

Even sent out to radio stations in 'condom' style packaging, it was a sad and sorry indictment of what they'd now stood for and, for some, the present writer included, was the final nail in the proverbial coffin for Sugababes music wise. Still, at the very least it propelled them back into the top 3 - just missing out on the top spot to (ironically) Jay-Z himself, with Kanye West and Rihanna in tow. But if their 'brand not band' detractors thought that was bad, there was worse to come.

 

Just a week later, as 'Get Sexy' began its downwards chart trajectory, Amelle - who'd not long had a number one on her tod as guest vocalist on Tinchy Stryder's 'Never Leave You' (still to this day, and you suspect for a while yet, the only Sugababe past and present to score a solo UK chart topper), was conspicuously absent from promo duties, citing exhaustion and depression.

 

Their management ominously announced that a statement was going to be forthcoming on the matter, everyone limbering themselves up for Amelle to follow Siobhan and Mutya's footsteps out of the ever revolving door of Sugababes. When said statement came out on 21st September 2009, it was confirmed that it wasn't Amelle walking the walk. Hell, it wasn't even Heidi. After nine years, and 24 singles, Keisha, the only remaining connection to anything of the group's past, confirmed via her Twitter page that she was no longer a Sugababe. What happened next, is a matter for their next entry - as we try and dissect the backlash and downward spiral that followed...

 

With all that drama going on above, it's a wonder anyone remembered Booty Luv had a new single - certainly going on the chart position of what was supposed to be the first single off their second album. Almost 18 months after 'Some Kinda Rush' stormed the chart, 'Say It' was their fifth but ultimately final entry into this thread. In all fairness, 'Say It' wasn't a bad little number, all snappy, feisty electro pop.

 

 

In fact it sounded like the sort of thing that Girls Aloud would have made light work of from the 'Tangled Up' era of their career. But after such a pedigree of success on their first album, a lowly top 20 entry point just wasn't cutting it for their label, and Nadia and Cherisse all but put the boot into Booty Luv. Bizarrely, a Big Brovaz reunion hasn't been forthcoming in the time since.

13TH SEPTEMBER 2009

 

Mini Viva - "Left My Heart in Tokyo"

Official UK Chart peak: #7

 

 

"Radio 1's Head of Music, George Ergatoudis, calls it "one of the most exciting pop records I've heard all year." Former Spice Girls manager and American idol impresario Simon Fuller was so taken with it he now manages the group. Even the Daily Star has declared it "nuts", in a good way. The general consensus is that 'Left My Heart In Tokyo' is heading to Number 1 when it's released this month." - Q Magazine, September 2009.

 

Famous last words or what? Polydor and Fascination had been ill prepared for Girls Aloud's sudden hiatus. But Brian Higgins and Xenomania, sensing that the 'break' was coming, took action a good year and a bit beforehand. Teaming up with the recently reactivated Geffen print, and getting an A&R team on board, Xenomania branched out into the brave new world of record labels in early 2009.

 

Amongst the acts signed to this new partnership were Alex Gardner, a good looking former model from Scotland with a gutsy, gravelly voice to rival Paolo Nutini. Also on the roster were Vagabond, a funk based pop rock outfit with big haired pop rock tunes to match. And completing the lineup of fresh signees were two Northern lasses determined to follow in the footsteps of Cheryl, Nadine and co.

 

Originally released on white label, and then on a Hed Kandi compilation in late 2008, 'Left My Heart in Tokyo' was a track that had been creating a buzz for a good while before Britt Love and Frankee Connelly, aka Mini Viva, were unveiled as the two teenagers fronting this pumping, discotastic dance pop belter with a cod Oriental feel.

 

 

After supporting The Saturdays on their first theatre tour that summer, 'Left My Heart in Tokyo' began to take off at radio - and even NME were heralding them as the next big thing. And Brian and Miranda, famously publicity shy before this, but flushed with all their recent success with Girls Aloud, Alesha Dixon and Gabriella Cilmi, were all too keen to divulge the inner workings of Britain's finest pop production team to anyone who'd listen.

, and in the above Q Magazine article, along with their new charges, ahead of its release, praising them to the high heavens before a single record had been sold.

 

So all were more than a bit surprised when 'Tokyo' debuted not straight in at the top, but instead at #7, from whence it went no further. A fine entry point indeed, but for a new act with such intense hype, it was effectively Girl Thing all over again. And all were even more surprised, when its two follow ups - 'I Wish' that December, and 'One Touch' the following April - completely missed the top 40 altogether. So why did Mini Viva fail so greatly?

 

Well, the Girl Thing factor from the top of this thread comes into play again here. Many (not present company mind) thought that, as it'd just be a year and then Girls Aloud would be back and firing on all poptastic cylinders (oh how wrong they were), they didn't need a non-Girls Aloud working with their producers to fulfill their poptastic quotients (this despite what I heard of their unreleased debut album being stunning in all senses).

 

But also, this was in many ways a bit of a downfall to the fortunes of Xenomania. Mini Viva, and the other two acts on their label's roster mentioned above, had all broken up or been dropped a year later. Those who could remember Stock Aitken and Waterman's 80's heyday post Kylie and Jason will recall that they also tried to launch a duo with the same production kudos behind them, that being the Reynolds Girls with their sole hit 'I'd Rather Jack'. Mini Viva were them, but just 20 years later. In the time that has followed since, Britt would audition unsuccessfully for the 2012 series of 'The X Factor' - but Frankee would find salvation in another set of forthcoming entrants to this thread...

Edited July 9, 20178 yr by ThePensmith

Get Sexy was such a step down for the Sugababes on every level. I can't believe Roc Nation actually signed them! The video and production suggests zero confidence in them despite their existing string of top tens.

Get Sexy was such a step down for the Sugababes on every level. I can't believe Roc Nation actually signed them! The video and production suggests zero confidence in them despite their existing string of top tens.

 

As touched on, I think it was merely just a free pass of sorts to get access to working with RedOne and Sean Kingston instead of whoever was behind 'No Can Do'. But you're right though. I'm of the firm belief that even if Keisha hadn't left they would've been in trouble anyway. Their label and management really were throwing them to the lowest common denominator now.