Biology really was Girls Aloud sit up and take notice moment for the public. Luckily for them even with awful choice for the following single (some would say the next two singles, I'd disagree) after that they could do no wrong with the public. It's a shame that the next girl group to have the longevity of the Aloud (The Saturdays if you don't get it gang), would go on to almost have this moment a few times, but by the time they really got it right in the eye of the public, it go on to collapse within 18 months.

"Biology" = An awesome track and loved it back in the day and still love it now, it's definitely one of their strongest and best singles. The album was fantastic with so many potential singles = Models, Watch Me Go & Wild Horses. Such a shame that the 2 singles that followed this were damp squids.

 

Also Pensmith love your write ups, are you gonna do the same for the boyband thread any time soon.

'Biology' was a return to form there for Girls Aloud probably one of my favourite songs from them. 'Long Hot Summer' had sort of lad-mag tones the music video did possibly.

Afternoon all, thanks for all your lovely comments as always - I'll try to reply to some of you all today if I can! Just three more entries left from 2005 before we finally get up to the 10 year point on Wednesday with 2006 - and onwards we go with another chart topper...

 

4TH DECEMBER 2005

 

Pussycat Dolls - "Stickwitu"

Official UK Chart peak: #1

 

http://a2.mzstatic.com/eu/r30/Music/v4/7d/4d/f1/7d4df12c-9323-1dee-f070-d2f6812da756/cover600x600.jpeg

 

With 'Don't Cha' still hanging around in the top 20 after three months, and the 'PCD' album racing up to similar success, the Pussycat Dolls' second single duly arrived in late November and was a marked change in sound from their debut. Most girl groups we've met in this thread don't generally release a slower or ballad number until their third or fourth single - and indeed, their originally planned follow up is the next entry of theirs we'll meet in 2006 - but 'Stickwitu' was their second offering.

 

It'd be incredibly easy, with hindsight, to say that this single was a default second UK chart topper coming so soon off the back of such a massive debut, but the fact it spent a fortnight at the summit before the Christmas chart kicked in - and then stayed in the top 10 for a further month thereafter - suggests that it had some sort of crossover audience and that they were fast establishing a fanbase.

 

 

I will be honest though, and say that I didn't even realise it was their second single until I saw them perform it on Top of the Pops Reloaded. Nicole delivers a sweet and soulful enough lead on the song - but Melody's vocal chops are greatly underused here which is a real shame as it would have lifted the song and given it another element. Alas, being a group entirely formed around its lead vocalist was, as we'll see with future PCD entries, always going to eliminate any chance of formulas being broken.

 

It was a pleasant enough if not atypical single from them - it sounds like the sort of song Mariah Carey would have dazzled on had she released it - and the combined strength of this and 'Don't Cha' meant that I went and got the 'PCD' album with one of several HMV gift cards I got for Christmas that year the following January. Little did anyone know, as 2006 dawned, that it wouldn't be the last single we got off it either...

11TH DECEMBER 2005

 

Sugababes - "Ugly"

Official UK Chart peak: #3

 

http://a1.mzstatic.com/eu/r30/Music/v4/84/3e/07/843e07c5-2a1d-456c-328b-9380b5298073/cover600x600.jpeg

 

Time to blow your hankies, fans of v2.0 of the 'Babes - it's our last entry with this lineup. Before we touch on the emotional side of things though, let's focus on this, the second of the 'Taller in More Ways' singles, and another Dallas Austin production. Six years before this, his work with TLC had seen them release 'Unpretty', an empowering, guitar led ballad about self esteem and body image that struck a chord with millions of teenage girls.

 

With the Babes themselves having encountered their fair share of image criticisms in the press over the years, it was only natural that a song with a similar theme would be forthcoming from them. Along with a simplistic video shot in New York, where they auditioned a whole parade of 'unique' or 'different' people for a talent show, it's sweet whilst still maintaining their raw, soulful vibes and 'Ugly' duly became another top 3 hit.

 

 

However, it was as December dawned that Mutya started to be absent from the promotional duties for this single and the album. Her no-show passed off as 'she's ill' unconvincingly by Heidi and Keisha (

), few were surprised when, just a few days before Christmas, Universal Island formally announced that after eight years, and, as with Tash Kitten before her, the pressures of being a mum not being compatible with worldwide girl group domination, Mutya had left the band.

 

And so as Christopher Eccleston morphed into David Tennant, the Sugababes' ever revolving door spun round round (pardon the pun) once again as the new year dawned and the first single from the v3.0 lineup was readied, which is when we'll meet their then all new lineup with the lady who replaced Ms Buena...

25TH DECEMBER 2005

 

Girls Aloud - "See the Day"

Official UK Chart peak: #9

 

http://a1.mzstatic.com/eu/r30/Music/v4/1b/c2/e2/1bc2e2e9-8546-a58e-c38c-af1c6fac20b0/cover600x600.jpeg

 

December 2005. A very odd time to be a fan of Girls Aloud indeed. Though they had just released the album that had won them the best reviews of their career, 'Chemistry' had failed to dent the top 10 by a whisker despite selling in good quantities. But pop is a beast driven by sales and chart positions, and when a group such as they are in a position where the album's missing the top 10, particularly at this time for UK music where the singer songwriter and indie band was selling in plentiful bounty, alarm bells are naturally going to go off.

 

With hindsight, I just think it was a bit of a busier market than ever that particular Christmas. The two entries from Pussycat Dolls and Sugababes we just met were coming off the back of two of 2005's biggest number ones, and given that only one of the girls' singles from this album thus far had gone top 5, it was hard for many to not overlook the girls somewhat. Which probably explains why, just four weeks after 'Biology', Polydor pushed the girls to release a cover of Dee C Lee's 1985 hit 'See the Day' as its third single.

 

 

With a suitably Christmas-y video to match (which Cheryl hated, apparently), it was touted as a Christmas number one contender - and indeed, probably would have made them the second girl group after the Spice Girls to score more than one festive chart topper had it come out a year earlier - but when that year's X Factor winner Shayne Ward literally swept aside all the competition with the fastest selling single of the year, the girls weren't even near the finish line, let alone in the running as they had been three years previously.

 

The trouble is 'See the Day' is all too obviously trying to copy the formula that had worked for 'I'll Stand by You' and 'Jump' and is just unnecessary a release and inclusion on the album, and whilst it did give them the airplay (in fact it won a Silver Clef award from Heart radio the following June) their other singles were still somewhat lacking, it was their worst chart showing to date at #9, and once Christmas came and went it swiftly exited the top 40. We'll go a bit more in depth on this 'odd' period of their career with the next GA entry because their situation was still the same there, but all around were now asking the two questions every fan of theirs had been dreading: was the greatest hits next? And what did this mean for their future?

That Sugababes interview on Popworld was so awkward. They were so unconvincing with saying she was ill. Although whatshisface presenting didn't help with asking about it in every single link.

 

See The Day, well it really put me off Girls Aloud. If this was the best they had to offer, I was not interested. The early to mid 2000's were a strange time for pop releases. Atomic Kitten did something similar with releasing Ladies Night very quickly after the lead single for the album If U Come To Me a few years earlier, both around Christmas time.

Stickwitu was a great R&B ballad from PCD there.

 

'Ugly' forgotten about this shame this isn't played on the radio nowadays. This is one of the best they did until a couple of years later and sends an message.

 

'See The Day' thought this peaked lower than #9. This probably peaked at #9 because it was released four weeks after 'Biology'. Still gets played on Xmas countdowns on music TV channels. Not the best from them.

 

 

2006

 

5TH MARCH 2006

 

Pussycat Dolls feat. will.I.am - "Beep"

Official UK Chart peak: #2

 

http://a1.mzstatic.com/eu/r30/Music/v4/2c/15/45/2c1545de-8da5-ce6c-507e-6ef20ecbfc46/cover600x600.jpeg

 

And so we now arrive at the 'exactly 10 years ago' point of this thread, and the year which was to change the way singles charted and how we bought them for the first time in a very long while. Whilst 2005 was undoubtedly the year that some of these changes slowly started to have an effect, the four years to come in this thread, perhaps somewhat mirrors the economic climate that we were about to take a swift descent into and how the music industry was to now exist and evolve in order to survive.

 

By the end of this year, traditionally hallowed institutions for breaking any new pop act, let alone a girl group, were descending into a black hole - 'Top of the Pops' on the telly and 'Smash Hits' magazine both saw publication and transmission of their final shows and issues. Come the end of two years later in this thread, traditional outlets for selling physical CD singles - if any were still selling all - also went the same way with the folding of both Woolworths and Zavvi. Naturally, any remaining pop acts, in amongst the wealth of indie bands and blinged up rappers that depended on these outlets either shifted to evolve with the times or struggled.

 

But at the start of 2006, despite its ever increasingly small occupancy of your local HMV, you could still walk in there and buy the latest single releases over the counter as well downloaded onto an iPod. Such was the case with the next three PCD entries to come, starting with this one.

 

 

Originally, as we touched on at their last entry, lined up as their second single, 'Beep' was their collaboration with their labelmate will.I.am, lead rapper and founder of the Black Eyed Peas, whose own similarly themed ditty 'My Humps' was hanging around the top 10 for much of the same time that 'Stickwitu' was, hence their decision to put this single back to the new year. Lifting a string sample from ELO's 'Evil Woman', it saw Will and the girls trade off numerous flirt lines over a funky, 80s themed beat, each censored by the 'Beep' the song was referring to.

 

Some thought it borderline irritating. Others thought it tremendous fun. I had, by this point, had the 'PCD' album on my MP3 player (note, not iPod, as I was studying for my A Levels at the time and was broke as anything, thus settling with Argos' finest that Alba could buy. The shame) for well over two months and I was firmly in the latter camp where their music was concerned.

 

'Beep' is not a record meant to be taken seriously by any shot, but neither is it a 'naff' record and I actually think this is probably one of the strongest singles they released. Indeed, had it not run into X Factor cringe-fest Chico (who beat them to the top with 'It's Chico Time') then they would have become the first girl group since B*Witched to debut at the top of the UK charts with a hattrick of releases. Still, it did reach #2 and bought their total singles sales here well past the 1.5 million mark, so small mercies etc...

12TH MARCH 2006

 

Sugababes - "Red Dress"

Official UK Chart peak: #4

 

http://a3.mzstatic.com/eu/r30/Music/v4/9b/4c/77/9b4c7752-9393-f855-432c-b31da6a6d947/cover600x600.jpeg

 

So as we left the Sugababes at their last entry, an exhausted and depressed Mutya had left, and all around were waiting to see what their ever evolving door was about to bring us next. v3.0 of the 'Babes were finally revealed in all their glory in January, as the then 21 year old, similarly husky voiced former session singer, Amelle Berrabah, was announced as her replacement.

 

In her solo career that followed about a year later, Mutya went on record several times to say that she had told the group's management to get in a replacement that would make her feel like she'd actually been part of the band, even if she logistically couldn't stay with them anymore. And I do remember the natural reaction at the time from several commentators upon seeing Amelle was, to quote the line of Mutya's Groove Armada collaboration 'Song 4 Mutya (Out of Control)' - 'Is that who has replaced me, what a diss!'

 

Still, even if it was going to be some time before Amelle could shake off the "new girl" tag in other's eyes like Heidi before her, she did slip incredibly effortlessly into the fold, as the new formation of the Babes embarked upon another UK tour, attended the BRITs (where the non-Amelle featuring 'Push the Button' was nominated for 'Best British Single'), and re-released the 'Taller in More Ways' album with some re-recorded numbers, one of which, 'Red Dress', became its third single.

 

 

When it glided into the top 5, it did seem as if it was business as usual, but, and as we'll come to discuss many times over the remaining entries from the 'Babes to come, many were now beginning, or at least feeling, like it was a well oiled brand rather than the band that had made its non-chalant mark perched on stools for that first 'Top of the Pops' appearance all those years ago.

 

'Red Dress' is absolutely not without faults though. Brian Higgins and Xenomania worked their magic on a frenetic but coolly sassy four-to-the-floor dance pop number that boasted two choruses and delightfully tongue in cheek lyrics about not needing to fall in line with the 'If you got it, flaunt it' adage to get male attention. Even now, it holds up incredibly well.

 

And, as touched on with the last PCD entry, how pop acts were now having to evolve to cope with an industry free of the traditional outlets that broke them, v3.0 of the 'Babes did so similarly easily, as they recorded a cover of the then huge 'I Bet You Look Good on the Dance Floor' by Arctic Monkeys as a B-side, a subsequent performance of which in front of Alex Turner and co at that year's NME Awards was met with a raputurous reception.

 

That Sugababes interview on Popworld was so awkward. They were so unconvincing with saying she was ill. Although whatshisface presenting didn't help with asking about it in every single link.

 

See The Day, well it really put me off Girls Aloud. If this was the best they had to offer, I was not interested. The early to mid 2000's were a strange time for pop releases. Atomic Kitten did something similar with releasing Ladies Night very quickly after the lead single for the album If U Come To Me a few years earlier, both around Christmas time.

 

Whatshisface = Simon Amstell. 'Popworld' was good telly though, probably the best of its kind. Was never the same once he and Miquita left!

 

The trouble was with 'See the Day', everyone, Polydor included, were panicking. Here they had an out and out, poptastic girl group with one of the most critically acclaimed albums of the year, packed with potential hits, and they chose a cover of a song even I didn't remember as its third single as a kneejerk reaction to the album it was from missing the top 10. The next GA entry we'll meet on Wednesday is - spoiler alert - a ballad also, but was well picked for different reasons.

"Biology" = An awesome track and loved it back in the day and still love it now, it's definitely one of their strongest and best singles. The album was fantastic with so many potential singles = Models, Watch Me Go & Wild Horses. Such a shame that the 2 singles that followed this were damp squids.

 

Also Pensmith love your write ups, are you gonna do the same for the boyband thread any time soon.

 

Thanks :) I haven't forgotten about the boyband thread, I've just had quite a manic couple of weeks at work! Rest assured I'll be posting on that again from Friday!

Pussycat Dolls - Stickwitu = Amazing song, I even bought the PCD album and expected "Beep" as the next single, but this was a welcomed surprise and a well deserved chart topper.

 

Sugababes - Ugly = Almost forgot about this, until now, again brilliant and completely underrated, this definitely ranks as one of their best, and loved the "Taller In More Ways" album, which ranks as my personal fave from them. There's a certain sadness to this, as this was the final "Mutya" single, although they would go on to have more decent stuff throughout the next couple of years, they would never be this special again, (to me anyway).

 

Girls Aloud - See The Day = I know the various reasons why this was released, but come on, this just sucks, especially coming off the back of "Biology" and a fantastic album, I do think that "Whole Lotta History" would made a better X-Mas single choice, and "Watch Me Go/Models" could have been the 4th single. But as for this, I just never really connected to it, the boring cheesy video and the boring vocals, as well as the bored looks on their faces, I just never knew why they released so many covers as singles, they should have stopped after "I'll Stand By You", instead their covers just got worse and worse.

Pussycat Dolls - Beep = At the time, really loved this and still can't believe that awful Chico Time, robbed them off another #1 hit for them. This was just so fun and great, as the whole PCD album was, loved all the singles and even the cover of "Sway" was a joy.

 

Sugababes - Red Dress = Again another one of my faves from them, I wasn't sure about Amelle replacing Mutya at first, but I do like her vocals on this, she really brings the song alive, and of course Mutya's version was just as good and either one of them, would have been awesome. But like I said after Mutya leaving, things wouldn't be the same again, despite having some great forthcoming singles. I think this was a good first step for the new member, but things got cocked up with what was chosen as the final single from this album, which was a big mistake, and should have went with "Ace Reject" as the 4th single. As for this, still a decent introduction to Amelle and loved the video, despite her awful wig.

'Beep' for me more memorable now than tacky 'It's Chico Time'

 

'Red Dress' another strong showing from the Sugababes this was.

 

 

A minor quibble: See The Day was planned as a single quite a while before Chemistry missed the Top 10. They filmed the video for it on 5th October 2005!

 

As a matter of interest, I looked back on old release schedules. See The Day first appeared as a "Release date TBC" as early as 10th October. From 17th October to 7th November it was scheduled for a 12th December release, and then pushed back to 19th December after that. Further research indicates that it received its radio premiere on 13th November, the day before Biology was released. How messy...! The video started airing three days later. Kind of weird how they had the singles overlap like that, although I do remember that they essentially abandoned Biology straight after it charted - a shame! See The Day promo began in late November, in the run up to the album's release date.

 

Anyway, therefore it was definitely in their plans at the very start of the campaign for it to be a December/Christmas single, so not really a kneejerk reaction or a panic stations scenario in terms of the album's performance. Personally I wouldn't be surprised if the label had high hopes and a certain level of confidence with choosing See The Day. I guess they looked at how I'll Stand By You did and thought going with that formula again would ensure a safe and easy hit. (Evidently forgetting that ISBY had CIN charity exposure on its side)!

 

See The Day served its purpose to an extent, I suppose. Although it didn't do too well in its own right in the singles chart, its airplay was strong on radio and TV, and it could be said it drove album sales. Even though Chemistry only opened at #11, its first week of 82,000~ was very strong. They had their Christmas version selling for £16.99; incidentally both the Sugababes & PCD album prices were slashed to £7.99 that week (a bargain for relatively new albums in 2005. Both were lower in the midweeks but ended up overtaking GA in time for the chart, grr). Chemistry sold just short of 100,000 copies in the week See The Day was released. It placed at #17, and it's impossible to say whether another choice would have helped the album out more than that, but personally I lean towards STD's airplay exposure being very beneficial for the album. (STD has always been an unfortunate acronym!!).

 

Although I look like I'm defending See The Day, I wouldn't miss it being a single of theirs if it had never happened. If I had handled that era, I'd have released Biology & Chemistry earlier (October for Bio, November for Chem). I'm pretty sure Chemistry would have made the Top 10 had it been released earlier, and having a longer amount of time on sale pre-Christmas could potentially have made it build up even more sales. Like AcidBurn says, Whole Lotta History could have been quite a nice single choice for Christmas. (Or even Count the Days. *.* :kink: )

 

*Really didn't intend on writing this much* :drama:

 

~

 

Red Dress is so so good. :wub: One of my absolute faves of 2006. Love Beep too... the PCD era was great all round!

Loving this thread.

 

Red Dress was awesome.

 

Beep was okay. I loved PCD around this time and already bought their album but for me their next entry really helped summer '06 be a great time for music and was the stand-out track from their debut album.

19TH MARCH 2006

 

Girls Aloud - "Whole Lotta History"

Official UK Chart peak: #6

 

http://a1.mzstatic.com/eu/r30/Music/v4/8b/b7/ec/8bb7ec16-0d35-807e-c3bb-2c1aae1b51ad/cover600x600.jpeg

 

About the same time that Sugababes were covering Arctic Monkeys to critical acclaim, and Pussycat Dolls were being...well, the Pussycat Dolls, all in Camp Girls Aloud were, for the first time since their last dark period that we encountered earlier in the thread shortly before 'Jump' was released, descending into crisis mode. A year ago, they were seeing off the most successful album campaign they'd done to date with four back to back top 5 hits, double platinum sales and a BRIT nomination.

 

A year later, they were cruelly snubbed at the BRITs (how anyone thought James Blunt, with the best will in the world, was 'Best Pop Act' was a mystery even back then), 'Chemistry' had only produced one top 5 hit, and whilst the album had gone platinum, it had only just. Salt was then rubbed into the wounds in a major way when Q Magazine, ran a less than favourable piece that month comparing, side by side, the cool 'indie cred' Sugababes with their glossier, supposedly trashier counterparts in the Aloud and how the latter was on the way out.

 

And with not just Q pointing to both the disappointing chart positions of 'Chemistry' and 'See the Day', and the fact that the usual shelf life of pop groups meant that this surely had to be their last album before the inevitable greatest hits, both Peter Loraine at Polydor and Hilary Shaw at their management were scratching their heads wondering how to arrest any further decline in fortunes. Whilst the relative disappointments weren't disasters, true, they had potential danger to do so were some damage control not exercised.

 

The trouble is, is that the girls were still thought of as being more of a 'tabloid-y' kind of band, and you couldn't go two weeks at a time without seeing them - but usually Sarah - falling out of a nightclub looking especially merry. Not only that, but Cheryl was of course by now engaged to then Chelsea and England footballing ace Ashley Cole, with their wedding sold to OK magazine, and Nadine was similarly smitten with Jesse Metcalfe, who played the hunky gardener in US drama 'Desperate Housewives'.

 

And whilst all this going on, an unusual calvary arrived in the shape of Channel 4's sister channel, E4, just before Christmas that year, who pitched the idea of following the girls in a fly on the wall documentary series, warts and all to show their fans, and Joe Public, what it was really like at the heart of British girl group pop stardom. Though it wasn't something any of the girls were initially swayed by the idea of - Nadine in particular, vocalised her displeasure at having to do it - the resulting show, titled 'Girls Aloud: Off the Record', arrived on screens that April for six weeks.

 

 

The first two episodes (which you can find, along with the whole series, on YouTube, or on DVD if you're so inclined) focussed entirely on their promotional campaign for 'Whole Lotta History', the fourth and final single from the 'Chemistry' album, from the photoshoot and videoshoot, through to the round of performances and interviews that followed, right up until the single charted.

 

It's fascinating viewing now (I sat and watched my DVD of the series last night for research purposes), not least because suddenly, here were five girls, discovered and put together on a TV show, now back being followed by the same cameras four years on, a bit more hardened perhaps, but showing their true light, their graft and determination to still be the best they could, even with their many detractors and critics. Reality TV shows were everywhere you looked in the mid 00s, from the Osbournes to Paris Hilton in 'The Simple Life'.

 

By jumping on the bandwagon and cannily acknowledging their TV to pop roots, subsequent repeats of the series on T4 that summer - and hangover TV on a Sunday morning was that most glorious of opportunities for crossover - warmed the girls to a bigger and more varied audience. They then embarked on their biggest tour to date - and first to hit the arenas - and followed it up with an appearance at the traditionally more rock aligned V Festival, where their performance on the JJB stage had to be closed off due to unprecedented crowd demand.

 

So what of 'Whole Lotta History'? Well, it's undeniable that on paper, it was a risky move to have another ballad coming A) so soon off the back of one that didn't perform well itself and B) was off an album full of high octane stomping singles in waiting ('Models' was lined up as a potential fifth single, having been used as the theme music for 'Off the Record', but would later turn up in single edit form for the B-side of their next entry).

 

But it was a risk that pulled off. Coupled with a lush, sepia toned, nay cinematic video shot in Paris, of the girls individually lamenting and reeling from the wistful heartbreak of the song's lyrics (Nicola's forlorn cry of 'Hello? Did you call me? / I thought it didn't matter that you're gone' still brings a tear to my eye to this day), and a classy but haunting acoustic production calling to mind the Spice Girls' 'Viva Forever', it shot to a respectable #6, and thus gave the girls their 12th consecutive top 10 hit - a new UK chart record for a girl group.

 

By the time they'd rocked the V stage that August, the much anticipated - in some cases for fans, dreaded - greatest hits was on the horizon in the autumn release schedules, as was a new single. But little did they, or any of their team know that if anything, it wasn't the beginning of the end. It was the start of a fabulous new chapter...

A minor quibble: See The Day was planned as a single quite a while before Chemistry missed the Top 10. They filmed the video for it on 5th October 2005!

 

As a matter of interest, I looked back on old release schedules. See The Day first appeared as a "Release date TBC" as early as 10th October. From 17th October to 7th November it was scheduled for a 12th December release, and then pushed back to 19th December after that. Further research indicates that it received its radio premiere on 13th November, the day before Biology was released. How messy...! The video started airing three days later. Kind of weird how they had the singles overlap like that, although I do remember that they essentially abandoned Biology straight after it charted - a shame! See The Day promo began in late November, in the run up to the album's release date.

 

Anyway, therefore it was definitely in their plans at the very start of the campaign for it to be a December/Christmas single, so not really a kneejerk reaction or a panic stations scenario in terms of the album's performance. Personally I wouldn't be surprised if the label had high hopes and a certain level of confidence with choosing See The Day. I guess they looked at how I'll Stand By You did and thought going with that formula again would ensure a safe and easy hit. (Evidently forgetting that ISBY had CIN charity exposure on its side)!

 

See The Day served its purpose to an extent, I suppose. Although it didn't do too well in its own right in the singles chart, its airplay was strong on radio and TV, and it could be said it drove album sales. Even though Chemistry only opened at #11, its first week of 82,000~ was very strong. They had their Christmas version selling for £16.99; incidentally both the Sugababes & PCD album prices were slashed to £7.99 that week (a bargain for relatively new albums in 2005. Both were lower in the midweeks but ended up overtaking GA in time for the chart, grr). Chemistry sold just short of 100,000 copies in the week See The Day was released. It placed at #17, and it's impossible to say whether another choice would have helped the album out more than that, but personally I lean towards STD's airplay exposure being very beneficial for the album. (STD has always been an unfortunate acronym!!).

 

Although I look like I'm defending See The Day, I wouldn't miss it being a single of theirs if it had never happened. If I had handled that era, I'd have released Biology & Chemistry earlier (October for Bio, November for Chem). I'm pretty sure Chemistry would have made the Top 10 had it been released earlier, and having a longer amount of time on sale pre-Christmas could potentially have made it build up even more sales. Like AcidBurn says, Whole Lotta History could have been quite a nice single choice for Christmas. (Or even Count the Days. *.* :kink: )

 

*Really didn't intend on writing this much* :drama:

 

~

 

Red Dress is so so good. :wub: One of my absolute faves of 2006. Love Beep too... the PCD era was great all round!

 

Now you mention the above Jay, it has come back to me now re: 'See the Day' being scheduled that far in advance. It was a bit of a mess with release schedules, wasn't it? If I remember now both the videos for that and 'Biology' were shot back to back across several days (and by the same director, Harvey and Carolyn, hence the opening and closing shots on the white curtains?). As I've discussed in more detail with 'Whole Lotta History' just now, I think for a while Polydor and the management were struggling to pinpoint who to pitch the girls to and how to grow their audience - lest we forget, this was the year when both Top of the Pops and CD:UK, natural territory for them to promote singles on, went kaput, as well as Saturday morning kid's TV generally (the second episode of 'Off the Record' saw them on 'Ministry of Mayhem' or a similar show I remember? Something hosted by Holly Willoughby pre- This Morning, anyway, cause that was axed as well that year). It was the same for every straight ahead pop act at that time (I mean to be fair, it was just them, Sugababes and McFly flying the flag for the next two years onwards at least), the old tried and tested methods of releasing and promoting music had gone out the window with the advent of downloads and social networking with MySpace.

 

I also neglected to mention, whilst it occurs to me, that 'Whole Lotta History' wasn't technically their first single to debut at its peak position. The rules on downloads counting towards the chart had twisted again slightly, in that a single could now chart (and I got sick of hearing this phrase by the years' end) 'on downloads alone' the week before the physical copies hit the shops. We'll see it in more prominent effect with their next entry, but this actually debuted at #80 on sales of the download from the 'Chemistry' album alone the week before it ascended to #6. As only the top 75 was still published at that time, however, it was technically a new entry - the highest of the week in fact.

I really don't rate 'Whole Lotta History' tbh. I actually think GA are a great pop band but since the brilliance of 'Biology', they seemed to have lost "it". Their next couple of entries this year wouldn't have changed my thoughts on their decline in quality but it's nice to know they returned to their best before they called it a day. :D