Girls Aloud - Whole Lotta History, It isn't a bad song, just kinda limp and at the time, this and "STD" did put me off buying the album at first, such a shame as "Chemistry" was fantastic, but let down by limp single choices (apart from "Biology" of course). When I heard the track "Models" that was when I got round to buying the album, and it didn't disappoint at all. I predicted that "WLH" was gonna miss the top 10, gonna peak at around #13 or #15, glad it didn't and managed a respectable #6 peak. Their follow up to this, is where they got better (not the awful "Walk This Way" cover with the Sugababes), I mean the lead single from their Greatest Hits album, then after that apart from one more dodgy cover, they're later stuff would be amazing.

 

Thanks for this Pensmith, keep up the good work.

Whole Lotta History. It was all right nothing that special to be honest.

Hello all...apologies it's been a bit quiet on this thread for a while. It is incidentally nearly one whole year since I started this, and we're six years into this century already! Anyway, time for another two entries, and up next, some jangly indie girl group goodness from exactly this date 10 years ago...

 

2ND APRIL 2006

 

The Pipettes - "Your Kisses are Wasted on Me"

Official UK Chart peak: #35

 

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61tBXugcLiL.jpg

 

So as touched on at the last entry, in 2006 we had entered the age of the indie band and the obsession with 'organic' methods of discovering new talent, often found through the then social networking monster that was MySpace. NME magazine was at its highest fortnightly circulation since the halcyon Britpop days of 10 years previously, and with bands like Arctic Monkeys riding high in the charts (their first two singles went straight to #1, and their debut album 'Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not', was one of the fastest selling in UK chart history) along with Lily Allen's launch this year, it proved that the habits of yore from record companies were refusing to die hard.

 

Just as they'd all been scrambling to launch their version of the 'Spice boom' six years previously, now they were all scrabbling to find their answer to 'I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor' or 'Smile'. It was inevitable, then, we'd get a couple of entries from an act that was partially part of this wave. Step forward then, three piece Brighton based trio The Pipettes, who were one of several darlings of much of the 'serious' music press for the sum total of six months. If that sounds glib or dismissive, it was because the cool, 'alternative' crowd were, and still are, a pickier bunch than even the pure pop crowd are.

 

 

I will confess that I was a reader of NME at the time this single was out. Looking back at it now, there was a constant 'new' face on its front cover every week, and this was also the start of that ultimate barometer of cool, Radio 1, and their constant obsession with new music - see the arrival of the 'In New Music we Trust' feature on Zane Lowe's then weeknightly show. One minute, you were being hyped as the next big thing, the next minute, no one barely noticed that you were even there to have been so hyped. We were entering a new age of instant demand, instant satisfaction, and attention spans and thus sympathy towards new acts who didn't meet initial expectations was that much less.

 

Still, we'll meet Rose, Julia and Becki, formed by singer-songwriter and club promoter Monster Bobby in 2004, envisioned as a modern take on the Phil Spector helmed girl groups of the 60s - cf The Ronettes etc - twice in this thread, this being their first appearance having released five singles independently before EMI signed them up in late 2005. Whilst it does sound very 10 years ago with hindsight, 'Your Kisses...' is a short but sweet pop ditty, all handclap-tastic with supremely tough girl punch and joie de vivre, clocking in at just over 2 minutes.

Edited April 3, 20169 yr by ThePensmith

11TH JUNE 2006

 

Sugababes - "Follow Me Home"

Official UK Chart peak: #32

 

http://images.junostatic.com/full/CS1798908-02A-BIG.jpg

 

Now for a 'fourth single ballad from a Sugababes album' entry that, for once, we don't meet in the ladies' by then usual charting area of the lower rungs of the top 10 or just outside it. Instead, we meet this just outside the top 30, a chart position that was more an accustomed feature of the v1.0 entries we met in 2000/2001. I can remember myself listening to the top 40 rundown on Radio 1 with the (insufferable) JK & Joel that Sunday when it charted and being flabbergasted a Sugababes single hadn't hit the mark as it usually did.

 

'Follow Me Home' is indeed a bit of an anomaly entry. Along with 'Red Dress' that we met earlier on and 'Gotta Be You', it was one of three songs from the original version of 'Taller in More Ways' that had been re-recorded with the newly incumbent Amelle's vocals on. However, it was not a re-recording that either their fans or one of its former members in particular took lightly. The song had in fact been largely sung and written by Mutya with one of their regular producers Craigie Dodds, about her new baby daughter Tahlia: 'Like a light into my life / I never thought that it would feel so right / All I wanna do is hold you tight / And I'll be with you through troubled nights'.

 

 

I've got to confess here and say that I didn't even realise it was about her daughter when I first heard it. And indeed, to any casual listener it may have just sounded like the usual token 'Caught in a Moment'/'Stronger' type number from the album. Still, Mutya was perhaps quite rightly incensed that management had firstly replaced her with, to her mind, an identikit member looks and vocals wise, and had then re-recorded what was obviously a very personal song for release as a single - backed with a very odd and unseasonable video of the girls dressed as spies in Russian midwinter that was in no way fitting to the song.

 

Looking back now though, it's not surprising that the fans deserted them on this single. All told, and even taking the Mutya-gate issues out of the picture here, it was a bit of an unnecessary fourth single from a strong selling, chart topping album that had already produced three mammoth top 5 hits including one of the biggest number ones of the previous year, so it was hardly as if they were on the verge of being dropped over one single with their pedigree, Mutya or no Mutya in their fold. But 'Follow Me Home' is, unquestionably, one of the most frustrating ink blots on the otherwise flawless copybook of v3.0 of the Babes we've met thus far.

I wondered where you got to Pensmith. :lol: Glad you've continued with this.

 

I think 'Follow Me Home' is the one Sugababes single (until 'Get Sexy') I just didn't care for. I also never knew Mutya wrote it about her daughter. I assumed it was about the typical love interest.

2ND JULY 2006

 

Pussycat Dolls feat. Snoop Dogg - "Buttons"

Official UK Chart peak: #3

 

http://a3.mzstatic.com/eu/r30/Music/v4/74/0d/63/740d63a5-8fa2-a7f2-7eec-390cbff26498/cover600x600.jpeg

 

One thing I neglected to mention a couple of posts back, but I will now - the rules on downloads now counting towards the UK singles chart were muddied to say the least, and they got muddier still in 2006. This year saw the slightly stunted introduction of singles being released 'on downloads alone' (for anyone who suffered JK & Joel at their abombinable worst during their time hosting Radio 1's top 40, it's best said in their voices for maximum annoyance) the week before their sister physical equivalent hit the shelves, meaning we start to meet a lot more entries to this thread on their peak week rather than their entry week.

 

Such was the case with Pussycat Dolls, whose fourth single in debuted at #11 the week before it zoomed up eight places to become their fourth straight top 3 hit - a career best start for a girl group that only Girls Aloud bettered as we've already seen (they had seven top 3s between 2002 - 2004). By this point, it had been a little over a year since 'Don't Cha' had stormed the Billboard chart, but already they'd shifted over 8m records worldwide that enabled them, unlike a lot of other pop acts of the time, to head straight to arenas rather than small theatres for their first live shows.

 

 

Anyone in attendance who was unaware of their Johnny Depp approved burlesque past was in for a shock - they were even slapped with a fine by Indonesian authorities when they took their show to the highly Conservative Far East later that year for public indecency. And the videos and singles? Well, they kept upping the raunch factor too, as was the case when 'Buttons' hit the music channels and airwaves that summer.

 

Remixed from the album version with a guest rap - and a fairly nondescript one at that - from Snoop Dogg for the single, it came backed with a sepia toned video that saw the PCDs undress, grind and twerk like they were working overtime shifts at Spearmint Rhino. It's fair to say with a decade's distance that 'Buttons' is the song of theirs that has dated the most - it's just all a bit desperate and unsubtle in its execution, and only left us wondering why 'Wait a Minute' was continuing to be ignored as a single. It's not so much 'loosen up my buttons' as 'A Little Less Sex PCDs, we're British'.

Edited April 10, 20169 yr by ThePensmith

9TH JULY 2006

 

The Pipettes - "Pull Shapes"

Official UK Chart peak: #26

 

http://a3.mzstatic.com/eu/r30/Music/v4/eb/6f/17/eb6f1713-041c-9d73-d87c-59e10d7cb638/cover600x600.jpeg

 

Our second and final Pipettes entry now, and one which did better chart position wise then 'Your Kisses...' zooming into the top 30 the week before their debut album 'We are the Pipettes' landed to critical acclaim. Once again, keeping up the Phil Spector-esque 60's style production and vocals, the release of 'Pull Shapes' came backed with that least indie of features on its single release - hand jive dance moves for the song.

 

 

Why, in fact I had a bit of a hand jive session like I was a dancer on 'Ready! Steady! Go!' (a 60s music show a bit like Top of the Pops. Ask your mum and dad etc) whilst writing this entry. It's a pleasant, boppy little song, however, it was, like a lot of entries we've already met, just too knowing to be troubling the top 10 - and a crying shame. A few more singles from the album landed just outside the top 40 - and a second album emerged to very little fanfare in 2010, by which point all of their original members had left. And as we'll see, they weren't the only ones doing it in that year...

Edited April 10, 20169 yr by ThePensmith

16TH JULY 2006

 

Nylon - "Losing a Friend"

Official UK Chart peak: #29

 

http://s23.postimg.org/6tt70b1y3/R_3200903_1320232855_jpeg.jpg

 

Time for two entries that are connected by Girls Aloud. Our first is from this lot, and sadly our only meeting with them. If you saw GA on their Chemistry arena tour that spring, or on McFly and Westlife's arena tours that year, there's a high chance you'll have seen this Icelandic quartet open for them.

 

Much like the Aloud's route to stardom, Nylon - consisting of Alma, Camilla, Klara and Emilia, first shot to fame in their homeland in 2004 when they were the subject of a Popstars style TV show about their formation and route to the top of the charts. In fact, they're still Iceland's biggest girl group with ten number one singles and four number one albums to their name, and they even had an autobiography published.

 

 

Of course, what is stratospheric in Iceland is but a drop in the ocean in the UK, and by the time they were recording and releasing their third album, the opportunity to break new territories came-a-calling. After their stint supporting the Aloud, 'Losing a Friend' was released as their debut UK single, but could only just quietly enter the top 30 before falling away.

 

Listening to it again today, it wasn't right for the time, this being the era of landfill indie and MySpace backed 'discoveries'. But that doesn't mean it's not an absolutely gorgeous, melancholic country pop number, delivered with seamless wistful emotion to boot. In fact you could close your eyes and imagine it being released by LeAnn Rimes or Shania Twain.

 

Just one more single on these shores came from the ladies that October - a double-a-side of their own song 'Closer' backed with a so-so cover of Eurythmics' "Sweet Dreams" - but could only peak at #64. Back in Iceland the following year, Emilia left the group to be a full time mum as the band went on hiatus, returning in 2010 as 'The Charlies'.

 

I honestly have never even heard of Nylon. And I disagree with you on 'Buttons' - it's actually my second favourite PCD song!

6TH AUGUST 2006

 

Frank - "I'm Not Shy"

Official UK Chart peak: #40

 

http://a3.mzstatic.com/eu/r30/Music/v4/a5/24/25/a52425a0-3e9a-1f28-2ee3-0b15c9f3756e/cover600x600.jpeg

 

And for the second of our '2006 girl groups connected by Girls Aloud' entries, it's time for a double whammy - a girl group that played instruments AND starred in a TV show. This is going to be interesting! Firstly though, a bit of history. Cast your minds back if you will, to the 2004 entries, when we met Xenomania's vanity project Mania. When their debut album was cancelled for release that autumn, and they were dropped by their label, that album's songs were lying dormant in a cupboard at Brian Higgins and Miranda Cooper's Westerham headquarters. But not for long.

 

Although reality TV was very much alive and well for launching new popstars in the 21st century, the idea of new popstars being stars of a fictionalised TV show was well, pretty old hat. Girls Aloud's former labelmates S Club 7, had of course, been the most recent and successful example of this - pop band stars in fictionalised TV comedy drama and performs their songs on it, band releases those songs in real life, life imitates art, millions of records are sold and pop history is made etc.

 

So considering that S Club's America based TV shows - 'Miami 7' and then 'L.A. 7' - were screening to some 120 countries worldwide at their peak, when the Clubbers finally went their seperate ways in 2003, Initial, the production company who'd made the series were only right to be chasing for its natural replacement to fill the now vacant gap in the market. Auditions duly began to find young singers and actors to be the stars of this new project at the end of 2004.

 

Among the chosen four were lead singer and bubbly Liverpudlian former model Lauren Blake (who also had the legs of a goddess, as you can see on the above single cover), former EastEnders actress and drummer, Hayley Angel Wardle, guitarist and E16 acting school graduate Bryony Afferson, and completing the lineup was former dancer with Kylie and Rachel Stevens, now keyboardist Helena Dowling, and collectively became known as Frank.

 

VIDEO

 

The reason? Their accompanying TV series that they starred in was called 'Totally Frank'. Running for two 13 part series on Channel 4's T4 strand on Sunday mornings from September 2005 - aka the 'hangover TV' slot that had sent S Club's popularity through the roof - it proved a wise scheduling decision, as it quickly overtook the likes of US imports like 'The OC' and 'One Tree Hill' in the ratings. But if it's all sounding too good to be true thus far, then it is.

 

The premise of the series (both of which I've taped on VHS) was that the girls, under fictional names - Tash, Charlie, Flo and Neve - were the losers on a Pop Idol type contest called 'Fame Maker', who formed their own band and moved into a dingy studio flat above a rock club in North London as they struggled to make a name for themselves. It was all very Miami 7 as if reimagined by another T4 staple, 'As If'. It was rather more grittier in tone, even right down to the music.

 

Xenomania were spearheaded to provide the music for the band, and much of Mania's unreleased album tracks were quickly re-recorded and released as Frank's - including their debut and only single. 'I'm Not Shy' does, on paper, scream 'this needs to be a hit'. It's got that delightful earworm of a chorus that only Brian and Miranda know how to do best, but with rather more sophistication to it. After the series concluded, Frank also opened for Girls Aloud on the 'Chemistry' arena tour, and an audience seemed guaranteed, what with a hit TV show to boot, to send them chartbound.

 

So why, at risk of sounding like my then 17 year old self, in the name of pop justice did this only scrape in at #40 for a solitary 7 days? Feet of blame lay at several doors here. Firstly - the video for the song. I can't embed it on here as the MTV website is the only place that seems to have it for viewing (the link's above) but whilst it is beautiful, it looks rather more like the sort of thing Sugababes would be doing.

 

Secondly - the TV show. Using fictional names, and also the location and tone of the show killed them off from the get go. S Club succeeded by keeping their real life names in tact - perhaps to the point of caricature, yes, but it worked - and by having a show that was wide appealing from the get go, being set in glamorous and exotic locations like Miami and Hollywood. Little old Frank in dingy North London could only dream of going so far.

 

And thirdly - the critics and radios and TV shows already loved the otherwise instrument free Girls Aloud, also the productive offspring of Xenomania. Frank were, to all intents and purposes, just GA but with instruments. Unsurprisingly, both Radio 1 and Capital snubbed it - except for a solitary play on the syndicated Hit40UK show the weekend before the single was released - and their fate was sealed. Polydor dropped them following the dismal performance of their lost gem of an album 'Devil's Got Your Gold' (my review of which I did for AMAZEPOP magazine is here, for further reading), and Frank went their seperate ways that autumn...

I adored 'I'm Not Shy'. It definitely deserved a top 10 placing. I doubt many people remember it though. :(

[...]to become their fourth straight top 3 hit - a career best start for a girl group that only Girls Aloud bettered as we've already seen (they had seven top 3s between 2002 - 2004).

Is this just in terms of girl groups from the 2000s? I probably should assume so given the subject matter of this thread, but if not... Spice Girls' 10 consecutive Top 2 hits though! ;o :heehee:

 

Frank, Nylon & The Pipettes all passed me by a bit... none of them seemed worth investing any interest in, ha. Along with the likes of Clea & Cookie, girl groups of 2006 really weren't able to compete with the mighty Girls Aloud, Sugababes & PCD.

 

Random: One of the members of Frank went to my school (not at the same time though) #amazingfact ( :kink: )

Is this just in terms of girl groups from the 2000s? I probably should assume so given the subject matter of this thread, but if not... Spice Girls' 10 consecutive Top 2 hits though! ;o :heehee:

 

Frank, Nylon & The Pipettes all passed me by a bit... none of them seemed worth investing any interest in, ha. Along with the likes of Clea & Cookie, girl groups of 2006 really weren't able to compete with the mighty Girls Aloud, Sugababes & PCD.

 

Random: One of the members of Frank went to my school (not at the same time though) #amazingfact ( :kink: )

 

I did indeed mean in the 00s, otherwise yes, the Spices would indeed hold that overall record re: top 3 debuts.

 

And you went to school with one of Frank? Which one?! (I'm not fanboying at all, I swear).

Helena! But she left before I even started there, so it's a bit of a tenuous link. :lol:

I never understood why Sugababes chose to release 'Follow Me Home', especially as it's a very personal song to former member Mutya, and I do remember reading that somewhere at the time and even hearing it on the album it never screamed single. Looking back I'm surprised it didn't kill their careers there and then and that awful music video was just WTF. I still don't get why they chose to re-record it even, just seemed so pointless and even the re-release of the album to feature Amelle was also totally pointless as she was only on about 3 songs.

 

Now I truly loved the first 3 Taller In More Ways singles, they're Sugababes classics and even liked Amelle's vocal on 'Red Dress' which did make the song better and brought more life to it. But this is just a damp squid through and through. If they were gonna go with a 4th single then why not 'Ace Reject' which was definitely one of the best tracks on that album, or even 'Gotta Be You' which was one of the tracks that were actually re-recorded with Amelle, even that would have been a better choice and had a better chance instead of this, which killed all momentum and ended the era on a sour note.

Buffalo G - "We're Really Saying Something"

Official UK Chart peak: #17

 

http://s21.postimg.org/azhs4i8s7/Buffalo_G_We_re_Really_Saying_Something_CD2.jpg

 

 

Twelve places further down from that, the UK charts were about to have its final gatecrashing by the Lynch family from Dublin - or at least, the female side of it anyway. Having watched and waited two years whilst Edele and Keavy had had their moment in the sun with B*Witched (and of course, Shane in Boyzone), their little sister Naomi teamed up with close friend Olive Tucker and duly went through the same route to success her denim clad siblings had in 1998.

 

 

Major support slot on a top pop act's arena tour (Steps)? Check. Schools tour? Check. Crazy wardrobe choices? Check (their name apparently derived from 'Buffalo Girl', a girl's hip hop inspired clothing brand popular with the pre-teen market in the States and Ireland at the turn of the millennium). All that was needed now was a zany debut single with video to match (with a cameo from their brother and, in a reference only Irish readers of this thread will get, Dustin the turkey?) to guarantee them a rocket to the top of the charts.

 

But where their cover of the Velvettes - and then most famously Bananarama - hit fell flat was that, unlike the playful, melodic charm that made 'C'est La Vie' such a delight in 1998, Ray 'Madman' Hedges (who both bands shared a producer in) had literally thrown everything including the bathroom sink at it. Of course, as we'll see with the productions of the then nascent Brian Higgins on his work for two of the acts still to feature in this thread, this is fine if they work as a cohesive structure. 'Really Saying Something' was anything but cohesive and was an ugly, messy listen, devoid of any redeeming features. The Lynch luck of the Irish had well and truly run out.

I absolutely LOVE this song. Still. It's genius.

 

17TH SEPTEMBER 2000

 

Sugababes - "Overload"

Official UK Chart peak: #6

 

http://eil.com/images/main/Sugababes-Overload-505771.jpg

 

Time to say hello to another act we'll be meeting a lot. In fact we'll be meeting them - wait for it - 26 times over the course of this thread, by which point (spoiler alert) they'll no longer look anything like what you see above. So where to start with this, the single that started it all for the girls certified the most successful female chart act of the 21st century? Maybe my own memories would be a good place to start. I can remember very clearly where I was the first time I heard 'Overload'. I was on holiday at the end of August in Scotland with my family, just two weeks away from starting high school in Year 7, and on my 11th birthday, as we drove into Edinburgh for a day trip to the castle, I heard this shuffly, tightly knit harmony led slice of breakbeat pop on Jo Whiley's Radio 1 show and was instantly intrigued.

 

And, perhaps unusually for the time, so too were my elder sisters. So when they discovered that it wasn't one of those cool, one off dance tracks they were so fond of from their Kiss Clublife compilations, they were shocked to say the least. A quick peek at the rest of the top 10 from the same week v1.0 of Sugababes made their unassuming debut is a revelation. Also entering that week were Kylie and S Club 7 ('On a Night Like This' and 'Natural' respectively) and Vanessa Amorosi ('Absolutely Everybody').

 

 

The smiley smiley pop (perhaps less so in S Club's case, as Rachel took lead on 'Natural' and it was a sultry little beast compared to 'Reach') of those other new entries made 'Overload' stand out straight away. In amongst the wealth of new girl groups 2000 had offered thus far, most of whom had burned bright and faded quickly, suddenly here were three girls (Mutya Buena, Keisha Buchanan and Siobhan Donaghy) who represented a new kind of girl power for the noughties, a bit more grit, a bit more streetwise sass that belied their teen years.

 

As debuts go, 'Overload' wasn't heralded with anywhere near the same levels of publicity as a 'Last One Standing' or 'Dirty Water' had been - or at least it seemed like it at the time. What it lacked in publicity, it made up for in long standing radio play, and - unusually for a new girl group at the turn of the millennium - universal critical praise from the off. And for a record as sneakily fine as this, it was well deserved - and little did we know that even better was still to come.

Ah yes. To say i was a fan of these three would be somewhat understating things! Although given by now 82.38% of the UK's population has been a Sugababe I think it's fair to say a spoiler alert there wasn't even slightly necessary :P

 

Overload still sounds so good after all this time. 15.5 years old is insane. I cannot believe how long it has been since they broke through.

 

 

15TH APRIL 2001

 

Sugababes - "Run for Cover"

Official UK Chart peak: #13

 

http://a3.mzstatic.com/us/r30/Music/v4/66/47/5f/66475fbe-959b-5475-f076-d256727e3930/cover600x600.jpeg

 

You'll remember when we last met Sugababes v1.0, how I said that 'New Year' was strangely omitted over some of their better peaking but lesser remembered singles from later incarnations of the ladies on their 2006 best of 'Overloaded'. Apart from their debut hit, this was the only other single from the first lineup that made its way onto said best of album.

 

'Run for Cover' finds the ladies on fine form once again, and exactly one year ahead of the single that was to finally break them, showcased their raw, gritty urban credentials off to great further potential - with a lushly orchestrated backdrop to boot. So I guess the question begs - what was it that failed to catch on to scoring them a second top 10 hit here that some of their later singles did manage?

 

 

A quick look at the video above might give us some of our answers. This single was released at about the same time the equally critically acclaimed cult teen drama 'As If' started on Channel 4's youth strand T4, and this single's accompanying visuals are like a micro version of an episode of that show - dark, moody and not easily approachable (also, eagle eyed amongst you, watch out for a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo from a young, future 'When the Beat Drops Out' hitmaker Marlon Roudette).

 

Even taking the simmering teen tensions in the lineup at that point out of the equation (we'll go into this in more depth with the next single of theirs we'll meet), Sugababes as a band were still not quite malleable or accessible enough for the British record buying public. Public perception is a powerful thing and sadly, no matter how good the record, how accessible you make yourself is what can cost the difference between a top 10 or pop oblivion - something that, as we'll see, Sugababes were teetering on the brink of later that summer.

This is probably, more so than Overload, the song that came to define that Sugababes sound the most. The harmonies, the soaring ad-libs... it just had everything. A complete and utter MOMENT. Their standout ballads from here on remain the ones that can trace lineage to this and Stronger.

 

Seeing this live at their comeback gig at Scala was just so ridiculously incredible. I never thought I'd get to see this performed live by the original line up, never. The girls passed me by during their first era but this has since become such a firmly rooted fave.

 

(Resisting the Urge to comment on Sugababes track. We'll see how long it lasts)

 

28TH APRIL 2002

 

Sugababes - "Freak Like Me"

Official UK Chart peak: #1

 

http://nme.assets.ipccdn.co.uk/themes/default/static_images/years/tracks/2002/07.jpg

 

Not for the first time in this thread, in late 2001 Sugababes were regenerating themselves like new pop time lords. Albeit without the Tardis and in a wardrobe that owed more to Topshop and Miss Selfridge's more 'urban' threads and less to Tom Baker in a very long scarf. With Siobhan having exited stage left via the ladies' room in Japan, and with London Records having just dropped them like a stone following the underperformance of the 'One Touch' album and 'Soul Sound', Keisha, Mutya and their management began auditioning on the QT for a new member.

 

They eventually found salvation in smilier-than-thou Scouse songbird Heidi Range, who'd previously been an original member of Atomic Kitten with Kerry Katona and Tash Hamilton before they got their deal with Innocent (she recorded their entire first album before leaving, wanting, she cited, to go in a more R&B direction). Having been scouted down by Island Records' main MD Darcus Breese (who'd also discover and ultimately breakthrough a little known jazz singer called Amy Winehouse) for a new deal, and with a new lineup in place, all that was needed now was a killer single to relaunch them.

 

2001 had seen the rise - then peak - of the bootlegging craze, where computer whizzkids bolted up in their bedroom studios spliced together two bits of different records to create something new. Some were terrible (see Stuntmasterz' top 10 mashup of Brandy and Monica's 'The Boy is Mine' and Modjo's 'Lady' into 'The Ladyboy is Mine'), some were not that bad (see The Strokes and Christina Aguilera mashup 'A Stroke of Genius' that was a music channel favourite, and would ultimately become a top 10 hit for Scottish rockers Speedway in September the following year).

 

 

And some were absolutely brilliant. Having created a buzz with 'I Wanna Dance with Numbers', a mashup of Kraftwerk and Whitney Houston under the performing alias Girls on Top, a man called Richard X was causing a storm with a white label only splicing of Gary Numan's 1981 chart topper 'Are 'Friends' Electric?' and Adina Howard's 1989 new jack swing effort 'Freak Like Me'. Titled 'We Don't Give a Damn About our Friends', it was even getting airplay on more traditionally rock based stations like XFM.

 

But legal disputes over the right to use the Adina Howard sample thus meant it was impossible for the track to get a full release. That is, until Darcus Breese happened upon the bootleg in January 2002, and mooted it as a potential first single for Sugababes v2.0. Even though the girls liked it, they were said to be concerned about relaunching themselves with a cover. In the end, however, they needn't have worried.

 

'Freak Like Me' shot straight in at number one, and was winning plaudits not just from Smash Hits and Top of the Pops, but saw their more 'serious' champions like NME and The Guardian welcome their resurrection with open arms. It even surprised everybody by becoming one of the first pop led efforts to win a Q Award for Best Single that autumn, presented to them by the very man whose track they'd sampled - Gary Numan. Sugababes were back on the map - and pop had begun to get exciting again.

Freak is just so bloody amazing and timeless too! No doubt helped by the fact the backing track was already 21 years old when it was released!!!

 

Slight correction. The original Freak was released in 1995. Also the 'legal trouble' was simply that Howard refused permission for her vocals to be used but everything else got the green light. So, very late in the day - pretty much when the girls thought the album that was to become AWDF was wrapped and they had a lead single planned out and ready to go, Richard X approached the Girls (and only they were ever offered this track). They recorded it and everyone knew from that second it was to be their comeback single - no record anywhere of hesitation, in fact the records suggest that the opposite is true. This song was so good they had to release it. - The previous lead single didn't even make the final cut of Angels!

 

Also the video mix isn't the same as the radio/single/album mix and is instead known as the "We Don't Give A Damn Mix" as it is much closer to the original remix than the radio edit.

 

18TH AUGUST 2002

 

Sugababes - "Round Round"

Official UK Chart peak: #1

 

http://s23.postimg.org/xd78hjywr/Round_Round_Sugababes_single_cover_art.jpg

 

July was a girl group free month in 2002. Gareth Gates' spiky bonce was occupying the top of the chart for all that time with his second (and brilliant) single 'Anyone of Us', but there wasn't much movement apart from that. Come mid-August though, things were getting busy again as, still basking in the glory of the career resurrecting 'Freak Like Me', v2.0 of Sugababes strutted sassily up to the number 1 spot for the second time that summer.

 

And it's also here that we say hello for the first time in this thread to one Mr Brian Higgins, who's productions will come to define the sound of this thread between his work for the Babes and another set of 2002 debutantes who were only just auditioning for that new band as this hit the top of the charts (naturally, more on them later). This Cumbrian born whizz kid had started his career as a session keyboardist for the 90's dance production outfit Motiv8, alias of Steve Rodway.

 

Brian's keyboarding skills were in full effect on the likes of Saint Etienne's 'He's on the Phone', remixes of Pulp's 'Common People' and Spice Girls' career launching 'Wannabe', and also on the UK's Eurovision entry and chart topping 'Ooh, Aah...Just a Little Bit' by Aussie pop princess Gina G in 1996. A canny link, as one of her backup dancers at the time was a well spoken blonde beauty by the name of Miranda Cooper.

 

Production was where he really wanted to be at though, having spent so long under an apprenticeship of sorts with Steve Rodway, and so in 1997 he set about producing records himself under the alias of Xenomania. The initial results were encouraging - his 'All I Wanna Do' gave Dannii Minogue her first top 5 hit and biggest chart result in 6 years upon release that August. The following year in 1998, Rob Dickins, managing director of Warner Music approached him, asking if he had anything that could launch Cher's comeback album.

 

 

Along with Matt Gray and Tim Powell, who he'd come to work with a lot over the years, he wrote and produced the vocoder heavy club showstopper 'Believe', which went on to spend just short of two months atop the UK singles chart and was that year's biggest seller. But Brian's attempts at getting something off the ground that was all his own making and not for another artist proved tricky. Exactly two years prior to this single's release, a chance meeting with that backup dancer for Gina G via Saint Etienne's Bob Stanley (Miranda Cooper), resulted in the formation of Moonbaby.

 

They were, much like the first incarnation of Sugababes, a clever and street smart pop propostion, but one that didn't fit in with the vibe or sound of the charts at the time. A Radio 1 executive, upon being told that Cooper had written Moonbaby's flop debut single 'Here We Go' after seeing a promotional picture of her with a bottle of champagne in a jacuzzi, scoffed and said that it was impossible some 'dolly bird' had written the music. Given their marching orders from Warner with their tails between their legs, Brian and Miranda were nonetheless determined and weren't going to give up that easily.

 

Setting up base in the sprawling former home of Alice Liddell (cited to be the inspiration for Lewis Carroll's 'Alice in Wonderland' novel) in the quiet, chocolate box Kent village of Westerham, they set about looking to revitalise pop music at the precise moment when it was on life support post-Steps and 5ive. Darcus Breese, MD of Island Records where Sugababes were now signed, matched them up to Xenomania as they started recording sessions for their second album.

 

A backing track used for another song Brian had been working on and a melody and chorus that had been saved for a different track Miranda had been writing were married together prior to the ladies coming in, and 'Round Round' was in the can by the following spring, just as 'Freak Like Me' was topping the charts. Even now, it still sounds fresh to the ear, it's a dizzying, ice cool pop nugget that whilst nodding to the sound of their debut 'Overload' is structurally more complex and interesting, from Mutya's furtive, imposing first verse right down to Heidi's weird, manic and slightly choral middle 8 before the final chorus. The girl group, and pop music generally, was going in a positive direction again.

Seeing as this is more of a history of Xenomania than Round Round (no dig meant there, that bit was actually really interesting to read) I have a couple of tidbits of info on RR.

 

When writing this track, the girls were presented with a chorus and then multiple bits of backing track. The girls wrote their own sections by each going off into a corner and writing to the backing tracks. When they came back with the finished verses, infamously they had all written them to different backing tracks!! So the melody and backing for the verses and middle 8 are each different which ended up being a significant chunk of why this song remains so well regarded 14 years later. On paper this song should be a complete mess but the fact that it works so SPECTACULARLY well (and I won't hear a bad word against Round Round as the song that got me into the Babes) is a credit to the Babes and to Xenomania and a large part of what made them both the big success stories of the 00's Pop scene.

 

17TH NOVEMBER 2002

 

Sugababes - "Stronger / Angels with Dirty Faces"

Official UK Chart peak: #7

 

http://s17.postimg.org/44cpof8f3/R_2722089_1298095320_jpeg.jpg

 

http://eil.com/images/main/Sugababes-StrongerAngels-Wi-513572.jpg

 

The concept of the double-a-side single seems a bit anachronistic now in the age of digital heavy formats like downloads and streaming dominating our chart landscape. Back before they were the creditable force they are now - and when they were still largely illegal - however, it was a release move that was very much alive and kicking (every second single along from Steps, for instance, seemed to be a double fronted release), and it's something we'll see now with v2.0 of Sugababes' final release of 2002.

 

The Xenomania helmed title track of their by now double platinum second album 'Angels with Dirty Faces' was coupled with the first Sugaballad from v2.0, the soulful, and genuinely moving 'Stronger', which had been cited as a highlight in several reviews of the album by broadsheets and teen mags alike. Both showed different sides to the album, so it was a perfect set of choices for release.

 

 

Whilst 'Angels...' was initially the more pushed of the two songs, owing in part to its use as the theme song for the big screen debut of Cartoon Network show 'The Powerpuff Girls' (it came coupled with a hilarious video which saw a fully animated Keisha, Mutya and Heidi take the place of a defeated Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup to fight off an evil robot invasion in the show's fictional city of Townsville), 'Stronger' was both the girls' and the public's preferred favourite and ultimately ended up gaining more TV performances and radio airplay well into the following year.

 

Pun fully intended here, but it is indeed the 'stronger' of the two halves of this release. It showed off their vocals brilliantly - nowhere more so than on this acoustic performance of the single for Top of the Pops - and was the first ballad by a girl group in a long time which wasn't some gushing syrupy effort that made you want to switch off the radio after a second play. It was sung with such raw emotion and vulnerability which made it so endearing and captivating.

 

 

Not to say that 'Angels...' was without its charms. That video for a start, but when you listen back to it properly it's quite a cheeky, sassy effort that showed off the girls' (then perceived lack of a) sense of humour compared to their smilier contemporaries - including an unexpected rap slash lineup roll call midway through that is just ten shades of awesome. Compare this with the moodier first incarnation who'd released 'Run for Cover' 18 months before.

 

This release showed that renewed success had made Sugababes much more malleable and approachable an entity without losing any of their street or critical cred. It's perhaps this approach that was taken by their label which has kept this lineup of the girls the most loved after the original incarnation. I'd even go so far as to say that this is in my all time top 5 singles of theirs now.

Never cared much for Angels as a single to be honest. One of the weakest tracks on AWDF, and easily in my bottom 5 2.0 tracks.

 

However, Stronger is a complete 15/10 certified MOMENT. I cannot adequately describe the impact this song has had on my life. Round Round may have made me a fan but this cemented it and turned me into a person that is sitting here 14 years later writing essays on this brand. Stronger has gotten me through some very tough times in my life, so much so that if i was to ever be one of those people who gets song lyrics tattoo'd on them, it'd be a stronger lyric.

 

I legit cried when they sang this at Scala. I was an absolute MESS that gig. It not even funny how much Siobhan suits this track. She's turned the middle 8 in to a sultry soaring epic that she's completely made her own in ways the replacements never could on their predecessors sections.

 

 

 

 

OK, 4 pages down. I need to go get food shopping before the stores shut (sunday trading laws are going to be the bane of my existence) but I'll be back to catch up. Especially as I can see from the preview as I'm writing this that you've reached the utter mess that is the final TIMW single - Follow Me Home. (Now You're Gone would be my shout)

I never understood why Sugababes chose to release 'Follow Me Home', especially as it's a very personal song to former member Mutya, and I do remember reading that somewhere at the time and even hearing it on the album it never screamed single. Looking back I'm surprised it didn't kill their careers there and then and that awful music video was just WTF. I still don't get why they chose to re-record it even, just seemed so pointless and even the re-release of the album to feature Amelle was also totally pointless as she was only on about 3 songs.

 

Now I truly loved the first 3 Taller In More Ways singles, they're Sugababes classics and even liked Amelle's vocal on 'Red Dress' which did make the song better and brought more life to it. But this is just a damp squid through and through. If they were gonna go with a 4th single then why not 'Ace Reject' which was definitely one of the best tracks on that album, or even 'Gotta Be You' which was one of the tracks that were actually re-recorded with Amelle, even that would have been a better choice and had a better chance instead of this, which killed all momentum and ended the era on a sour note.

The girls never wanted Ace Reject on the album, it missed the first cut. The record label objected as they loved it (a rare time that I can actually praise Island for a decision here) and allegedly the untitled track was called Ace Reject because it was literally an ace reject. Plus Amelle would have absolutely murdered it. Not talking as a Mutya loon here, but because she'd have disrupted the harmonies. (See also 2 Hearts)

 

My personal pick for the last single was Now You're Gone, probably my favourite Sugababes song. It would have been the perfect way to close the era and given that it was the only real new track on TIMW it would have charted very well given that most of the sales came from the Mutya version.

 

Gotta Be You is such a missed opportunity. If the Crown/Island had gone with that instead of Red Dress for single three Mutya wouldn't have walked. It was quite literally the straw that broke the camels back as it's an open secret that both Mutya and Keisha utterly despise Red Dress.

Thanks for your feedback on the Suga entries Silas - much appreciated :)

 

Everyone else - time for two more US entries, and first - a one hit wonder...

 

17TH SEPTEMBER 2006

 

Cherish feat. Sean Paul - "Do It To It"

Official UK Chart peak: #30

 

http://a3.mzstatic.com/nz/r30/Music/v4/92/bc/93/92bc93aa-e814-29a5-6747-b07f77d21cf1/cover600x600.jpeg

 

It's fair to say the early-mid 00's was a chock-a-block with US R&B acts, most of whom crossed successfully over the Atlantic to the upper reaches of our charts. In fact last year and this year was when a lot of the big names like Ne-Yo and Ciara started to make waves on both sides of the pond. Also hoping to join them were four piece sister act Farrah, Fallon, Felisha and Neosha King, otherwise known as Cherish.

 

They'd originally released a single in 2003, titled 'In Love With Chu', which wasn't very successful and led to them being dropped. However, it was only when they came back with this track, 'Do It To It', featuring Sean Paul, and their debut album 'Unappreciated' that they really struck gold Stateside, releasing a #4 album and hitting the top 20 with this.

 

 

That success wasn't replicated here, mind, as this just scraped into the top 30 before swiftly exiting. To be honest, I can just about remember this from the first time round. There was a lot of records around with this sound and if you were just watching this with the video off it could easily be interchangeable with any Ciara or Keri Hilson type hit from that time.

 

Just one more single from them peaked in the top 60 here in 2007, but it seemed their success was fleeting in America also, as their second album hit shelves in 2008 but failed to produce another hit of the same degree as this one, and subsequent spin off duo projects failed to materialise any hits either.

1ST OCTOBER 2006

 

Pussycat Dolls - "I Don't Need a Man"

Official UK Chart peak: #7

 

http://a4.mzstatic.com/eu/r30/Music/v4/c9/25/08/c92508d6-420f-c441-abee-559e6843543d/cover600x600.jpeg

 

Crikey, we're halfway through the entries from this lot now. A year on from 'Don't Cha' hitting the top of the UK charts, and whilst their run of top 3 debuts was broken, the Pussycat Dolls kept their overall top 10 run with immaculate precision when their fifth release from the PCD album stormed in at #7.

 

I genuinely loved this at the time and loved hearing it again today - I dare say along with 'Beep' and THAT debut that this in their top 3 singles for me. The harmonies, the production and the whole vibe of the song is a deliciously 80s throwback that sounds like the sort of thing 'I Wanna Dance with Somebody' era Whitney Houston would have released, but with a modern twist.

 

 

'Wait a Minute' featuring then man of the moment Timbaland (who'd topped the charts on both sides of the pond with his work for Nelly Furtado and Justin Timberlake this year) finally became the album's 6th single that December, but was a download only release here in the UK, thus rendering it ineligible to chart whilst the muddied rules on downloads waged further on, so this is the last entry we'll have for a while from the PCDs.

 

Just a week later, de facto lead singer Nicole Scherzinger would turn up on Diddy/P Diddy/Puff Daddy's comeback single 'Come to Me' which stormed the top 5, and she was to spend much of 2007 - with little success - trying to release her debut solo album 'Her Name is Nicole', from which just one single, 'Baby Love' featuring Black Eyed Peas' will.I.am, would chart in the top 20 here. And her pursuit of solo success and dominance of the group was starting to cause frictions that would run deep into their second album - but more on that in 2008...

Cherish were underrated. It's a shame 'Do It To It' was their biggest hit since 'Unappreciated' and 'Killa' are far superior.