29TH OCTOBER 2006

 

Girls Aloud - "Something Kinda Ooooh"

Official UK Chart peak: #3

 

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I mentioned at the top of the last GA entry we met that, despite all the shortcomings of the 'Chemistry' album campaign - only one major top 5 hit of note, the actual album missing the top 10 by a whisker despite critical adoration etc - that by the time we got to the autumn of 2006, a change in fortunes for the ladies was afoot, thanks to the combined force over the summer of 'Off the Record', their ascent to tabloid darlings and THAT V Festival performance which won them a lot more fans.

 

Polydor could see and feel this change too, and in a time of guitars and blinged up rappers, they suddenly realised they needed to make their only girl group matter again - so much so, their then head of marketing and long suffering champion of the girls, Peter Loraine, was promoted to run their brand new pop offshoot, Fascination Records, with the girls (and Sophie Ellis-Bextor) as his first charges on it.

 

When their first greatest hits release, 'The Sound of Girls Aloud' was announced that September, fans and public alike held their breath expecting, as they had been after they were formed on 'Popstars: The Rivals', a soppy ballad of the 'we're splitting up' type followed by the inevitable press conference and helplines for distraught fans. And, as usual, no one expected what actually came next.

 

 

It's fair to say I noticed the change as well. I was in sixth form doing my A Levels by this point, and remember sitting in the common room listening to Chris Moyles' Radio 1 show on the morning when 'Something Kinda Ooooh' got played for the first time. The reaction of quite a few of my peers, most of which had mocked my love of 'What Will the Neighbours Say?' a year before, seemed to be 'this is really bloody good'.

 

It was mine too as well, naturally, but this pumpin', thumpin' all out Euro-disco stomper, delivered with enough knowing sass and sauciness did for them what a 'Can't Get You Out of My Head' did for Kylie. It seemed to be the point where people finally 'got' what Girls Aloud were all about and appreciated them for what they did. And best of all - suddenly any idea of them splitting up was ludicrous.

 

Not to mention that their now record breaking run of consecutive top 10 hits extended to 13, but 'Something Kinda Ooooh' also saw the girls hit the record books as the first ever British girl group to storm the UK top 5 on downloads alone the week before it peaked inside the top 3 - their first single to land there since 'I'll Stand By You'. And little did they know things were about to get even better...

Something Kinda Oooh, came across as a make or break moment for the Aloud. The obviously budget video, which I do believe had to get re edited, as in the first edit released you could see green screen errors, and the wheels on the cars weren't moving.

 

Something Kinda Oooh was my sit up and take notice moment for the girls, and made me appreciate what had come before it, when I eventually got the greatest hits around the Tangled Up era.

 

I do think it wasn't until Sexy! No No No and Call The Shots came out that the public really fell in love with the girls.

12TH NOVEMBER 2006

 

All Saints - "Rock Steady"

Official UK Chart peak: #3

 

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Sugababes - "Easy"

Official UK Chart peak: #8

 

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Well, this is a bit of a turn up for the books, if ever there was one. Never ever (pun-tastic) would I have guessed I'd be writing about one of the two girl groups on this entry, just as they've made a second return in 2016. Hindsight, etc. But more on that in a second - let's zoom back 10 years first to assess the first All Saints reunion in all it's mid 00s, mumsy glory.

 

Four years on from the jacket shredding histronics that resulted in their demise, in the summer of 2005, Nicole and Melanie were both on holiday in the south of France, when the latter called Ms. Appleton and asked to meet up. Old wounds healed over fairly quickly, and when they got back to London, they met up with Natalie and Shaznay (in a burger bar in Hampstead, according to Shaz. How very urban of them). Now all mums, the four instantly became friends again.

 

Not long after that, Shaznay (who'd been writing for other artists in the time immediately following her solo career) was at a meeting with Parlophone, the famous home of acts like Coldplay, Kylie and Gorrilaz amongst others, when their head A&R guy, Jamie Nelson, approached her and asked what her and the girls were up to. Advising them of their recent rekindling of friendship, a deal was offered there and then.

 

A wise move perhaps, given they'd now buried their hatchets, but one that proved to be extremely shaky in practice. It is one thing offering a new record deal to a previously successful artist - girl group or otherwise - but it is quite another to offer them that deal without any kind of testing practice ground, especially when they've been out of the public gaze and charts for some time. Nonetheless, 'Studio 1', the girls' third album and first in six years, was launched with a blaze of publicity in the autumn of 2006.

 

On paper, little had changed from before. 'Rock Steady', all harum scarum but brilliantly quirky ska funk shot into the top 3, thus bringing their total top 10 hit count to nine - and came backed with a much talked about video of them as PVC clad, glamorous all girl bank robbers (styled by TV fashion guru Gok Wan, no less). Even a press fuelled feud with the girl group of the moment - swap Spice Girls with Girls Aloud in this instance, Cheryl from the latter accusing them of copying the Aloud's sound. A bit like the girl group equivalent of saying the chicken came before the egg - got them the column inches again.

 

 

But then the 'Studio 1' album came out, and that's where it all went tits up. Conking out at #40 in the pre-Christmas rush, it seemed that Parlophone had thrown every bit of money at the single, but in doing so had failed to throw the same weight behind the parent album, which, as brilliant and underrated as it was, was an embarassing flop. The second single, 'Chick Fit' was pencilled in for a February 2007 release but was cancelled when Parlophone lost faith, and pulled the plug. I think a couple of factors were at play here, which I'll digress into.

 

With hindsight, as I said, whilst 'Studio 1' was a brilliant album and lovely that they'd become friends again (Nicole and Melanie were to continue working together, as hosts for ITV2's 'The Hot Desk' in the years following), musically it wasn't the right time for them to come back. Mel herself has said how she didn't feel it was right with them being offered a deal before any music had come to fruition and I agree. The press were still haranguing the Appletons about their every move at this time, more so following Natalie's disastrous, shriektastic appearance in the jungle for ITV1's "I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here!"

 

Lest we forget, 2006 was the year when, after a 10 year break, Take That (minus Robbie), reconvened following a well received ITV documentary and greatest hits collection that went triple platinum, then followed by a sold out summer tour, and then the release of their biggest and best album to date in 'Beautiful World' and one of their biggest singles in 'Patience'. After that, every other pop comeback was being measured against theirs. They were the gold standard, and it wasn't allowing All Saints the space they needed to just get on.

 

I feel the more sensible way in would have been to test the waters with this single, then if the second did well, release the album in 2007, or at least attempt some sort of greatest hits package first before foisting new material upon a public that hadn't had any new material from them in six years. The same public that sent 'Pure Shores' and 'Black Coffee' up to the top of the charts in 2000 weren't the same public in 2006.

 

Still, 10 years on and things have ended on a much happier note. Although their singles chart bothering days are behind them, their fourth studio album 'Red Flag' has been met with universal praise and adoration from the same audience that loved them in 1998, hitting the top 3 - something that seemed unlikely 10 years ago, but with the sufficient breathing distance this time, has made this second reunion of theirs much more successful.

 

Further down the top 10 that week, and v3.0 of Sugababes were back in the top 10 again following the 'Follow Me Home' blip over the summer. Even before Mutya had broken ranks at the end of 2005, Universal Island had been planning the album following 'Taller in More Ways' to be a greatest hits package. A wise move for all concerned - Amelle had been in the lineup for barely a year, and it seemed right to close the chapter on the previous six years of the group, in all the various formations, so they could go forth into the first, full album campaign with this new lineup.

 

'Overloaded: The Singles Collection' stormed the top 3, however, interestingly only went double platinum, maybe because the studio albums before had sold so well. Co-written by Jason Pebworth and George Astasio of one hit wonder indie pop kids Orson, who'd topped the chart this year with 'No Tomorrow' - thus taking a leaf out of the 'New Radicals have one hit and split up your band to spend time co-writing for other artists' book - its lead single 'Easy' was a slinky beast, and very different to any Sugababes record that had come before or after it.

 

 

Packed with double entendres galore - 'Engine's runnin' hot, baby can you come and check it? / Got such a pretty kitty boy, I know you want to pet it' - and a kinky, PVC clad video and campaign wardrobe that left little to the imagination, it was a million miles from the subdued cool of 'Overload' or even 'Round Round', and you can't help but wonder how Mutya would have put up with it under the circumstances. I'd imagine she wouldn't have, but we never got to find out.

 

It wasn't the most imaginative of records from the girls, and seemed to be adding fuel to the fire of commentators saying that they were now a brand rather than a band. It served it's purpose for the time, but I wouldn't really listen to it out of choice again. It was with this single however, and release of 'Overloaded', that they became record breakers, beating Kylie, Britney and Destiny's Child to the Guinness World Records' title of the 'Most Successful Female Chart Act of the Century'.

Edited April 24, 20169 yr by ThePensmith

Evening all! Last two entries from '06 now - we get into 2007 this coming Wednesday :)

 

10TH DECEMBER 2006

 

Booty Luv - "Boogie 2Nite"

Official UK Chart peak: #2

 

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So. Thus far in this thread we've already encountered one girl group forming another for a brief run of success - hello, the Appleton sisters - but what about a girl group formed entirely from members of a well, not girl group? Here for the first of five entries to this thread we say hello to Cherisse and Nadia, aka Booty Luv - although of course, prior to this, they were in an entirely different band altogether.

 

As one third of UK urban pop collective Big Brovaz, they stormed the charts in the early part of the 00s with huge top 10 hits like 'Nu Flow', 'Favourite Things' and 'Baby Boy', released a platinum selling album, were nominated for BRITs and MOBOs and even found themselves on the soundtrack to the Scooby Doo movie.

 

Then, in 2004, it all went spectacularly tits up when their lead male rapper Flawless was arrested for possessing class A drugs at an airport check in whilst they were en route to shoot a music video, resulting in his being fired, and by the end of that year, with another female 'Brova' Dionne having done a bunk, they had been dropped before a second album even saw the light of day.

 

 

Still, their untimely demise was to bring about a new partnership altogether, as whilst the remaining quartet of Big Brovaz reconvened to patch together another album with no label backing, the world renowned Hed Kandi dance label approached Cherisse and Nadia to record an album of their own as a duo.

 

But, keeping one foot firmly in their urban roots, it was to be a duo album with a twist, which would see them re-record lesser known R&B hits of the last 10 years, reimagined as full out club/disco bangers. The first of these was 'Boogie 2Nite' from US R&B songstress Tweet, which had originally been released as the follow up to her huge hit 'Oops! (Oh My)' - a top 5 smash here in the UK - in 2002, to little interest.

 

Originally released on white label promo that autumn, with no mention of either of the ladies' Big Brovaz past, it quickly picked up airplay, and two weeks' before it's peak week had zoomed into the top 20 on downloads alone before rising to #2, being unable to dislodge Take That's glorious phoenix from the pop flames antics at #1, but staying inside the top 10 well into the following year. We'll meet them thrice more as we get into 2007, but it's fair to say the 'little sistas' of Big Brovaz had been reborn...

24TH DECEMBER 2006

 

Girls Aloud - "I Think We're Alone Now"

Official UK Chart peak: #4

 

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You know it's nearly the end of another year documented in this thread when it closes with a Girls Aloud cover version. The difference being of course, that compared to the year before, they were ending it on a much stronger note and attention around them was the greatest it had been since they'd won Popstars.

 

As 'Something Kinda Ooooh' continued its chart run further down that year's festive rankings, 'The Sound of Girls Aloud' greatest hits album - and newly announced tour for the following spring - were selling like hot cakes in the run up to Christmas. The former had crowned the girls with their first ever number one album, and would go onto sell a million copies here in the UK alone.

 

Not just that, but everyone, it seemed, suddenly wanted a piece of them. NME interviewed them for their bumper Christmas issue (I had the accompanying poster of them dressed as punks stuck to my A Level English folder), Jo Whiley invited them onto her Radio 1 show for a performance in the Live Lounge, and Jonathan Ross had them on his then BBC One chat show (as interview, not performance, guests). They'd even gone ghost hunting with former Blue Peter presenter and paranormal shrieker Yvette Fielding.

 

 

To think that all of this could be happening a year on from 'See the Day' limping pathetically to a #9 peak was bizarre, but proof that you can never knock a set of girls with everything against them when they're down. Leading out their most successful year to date was - their next entry aside - their fourth and final cover version as a group.

 

Originally scheduled to have been a cover of the 'Flashdance' theme song 'What a Feeling' that they'd performed on the 'Chemistry' arena tour that summer, at the very last minute the girls (and Sarah in particular, who bought the original as her first single when she was a child) lobbied Polydor to record the Shondells, and later Tiffany smash 'I Think We're Alone Now' for the greatest hits.

 

Executed in the same manner as 'Jump' was three years previously, but without the same oomph as before, it did however come backed with a brilliant jewel heist casino video that received heavy airplay, and as a result, it shot straight into the Christmas top 5 - behind McFly, Take That and newly crowned X Factor champ Leona Lewis - and extended their run of consecutive top 10 hits to fourteen - a number that was to grow slowly evermore as 2007 dawned...

I read somewhere that Girls Aloud covered 'I Think We're Alone Now' as a returned favour for Tiffany covering 'Love Machine' on the ITV show Hit Me Baby One More Time the year before. That could've been completely nonsense though. :lol:

2007

 

18TH MARCH 2007

 

Sugababes vs. Girls Aloud - "Walk This Way"

Official UK Chart peak: #1

 

 

The start of another year in this thread - or, as aptly named by Jay a bit earlier on, the start of this becoming, for the most part, a Sugababes and Girls Aloud thread. So it's pretty apt then, that our first 2007 entry is from both these sets of ladies. A few pointers first before I forget though - the rules on downloads counting towards the chart were dragged clear of the mud by this point, as from 1st January onwards ANY song that was available to download, regardless of if a physical equivalent existed, could make an appearance inside the top 40 if sold in enough quantities.

 

It thus meant the unlikely chart return (thanks largely to Chris Moyles) of Billie Piper, as 'Honey to the Bee' raced back into the top 20 eight years after its original release, and also meant the annoying start, with the advent of Facebook, of mass organised groups to throw some ancient rock track or novelty tracks - c.f. Jonny Trunk & Wisbey - 'The Ladies' Bras' that Scott Mills helped climb to a top 30 position that September - up the charts once in a while to prove those young 'uns downloading Akon and the like that the charts were for the old people too, y'know.

 

Still, old habits refused to die even with this new age dawning - some still kept the download and CD release held back for maximum chart impact. And ten years on from the Spice Girls' love in with Jennifer Saunders, Lulu, Dawn French et al on 'Who Do You Think You Are', girl power was ruling the roost again for that year's official Comic Relief single. Or at least, on paper it was. The idea of the UK's two biggest girl groups working together on a single had been bandied around for a while. Only once Richard Curtis approached Universal - the home of both Sugababes' Island and Girls Aloud's Polydor/Fascination - to suggest the collaboration did it come to fruition.

 

 

A couple of suggestions from the two camps as to what song to cover for the single came about - amongst them, Blur's 'Girls & Boys', The Source & Candi Staton's 'You Got the Love' (Nicola's suggestion apparently, a whole two years before Florence and the Machine covered it and everyone else promptly did it to death). And also amongst the suggestions, and eventually getting the Sugas vs GA treatment, was Run DMC and Aerosmith's 'Walk This Way'.

 

Recreated right down to the infamous 'dressing room wall smash' section of the original video, on paper, all seemed present and correct. Two wildly popular girl groups? Check. Cover of a well known song? Check. Raising money for a good cause? Check. The cover being actually good in practice? Aaah...now there's the clincher! Taken for what it is, it's fine. But it's by no means anywhere a classic single from either the 'Babes or the Aloud, and is a bit of an odd anamoly. The fact it showed up on neither of their studio albums that followed it says an awful lot.

 

And whilst it did smash straight in at the top of the charts, bringing Sugababes' total UK number ones to five, and Girls Aloud to their third, it was, as was the case with every Comic Relief single after 2005, overshadowed immensely in week two by the 'unofficial' release, more often than not curated by the notoriously unfunny 'fart in a lift' one gag man Peter Kay. Just as 'Amarillo' had slayed all before it two years previously, so too, alongside Matt Lucas in his 'Andy' get up from 'Little Britain' and Scot rockers The Proclaimers covering 'I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)', did he ensure that 'Walk This Way' was quickly forgotten as it leapfrogged it to the top after just one week, hence it's less than impressive 1-2-14-24 chart run. Thankfully, later on in this year things will be back to normal in both camps...

Edited May 22, 20169 yr by ThePensmith

20TH MAY 2007

 

Booty Luv - "Shine"

Official UK Chart peak: #10

 

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My main memories of 2007? Well...I turned 18 this year, so that was one thing itself (I had a barbecue with friends and family, and got slightly merry). What I mainly remember was that, during the summer especially, as I slogged through a resat first year of A Level exams, is that it was long, and very wet. And music wise, it was a quiet time - Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Mutya Buena's then new albums were the only thing I was really getting excited by. It wasn't a golden year for me as a music lover, put it that way.

 

This year and next were really the zenith of that 'landfill indie' phase the chart was going through, and songs seemed to be staying at number one a lot longer than I'd ever known or remembered to the point of annoyance for me. Why, it was in fact this very week when Rihanna began her 10 week run at the top with 'Umbrella' as the UK experienced its worst and wettest summer on record.

 

 

So really, you took your comfort where you could find it. Booty Luv's second single was one such record I found comfort in that summer. 'Boogie 2Nite' had been such a success that the ladies were now recording a full scale debut album for release later that year, and ahead of it came their next entry and this, a cover of a Luther Vandross single that had only been released some eight months previously, hitting the top 50 here in the UK.

 

It'd got a huge club following however, thanks to a remix from then producers of the moment Freemasons, hence Hed Kandi's decision to get Nadia and Cherisse to record it. A wise move for all concerned, as they scored their second straight top 10 hit in a little under six months. It's a pleasant reworking indeed - all spangly, shiny (pardon the pun) filter disco that La Bextor or Moloko's Roisin Murphy wouldn't have sounded out of place recording at the start of the decade. A pleasure to hear this one again, for sure.

Edited May 22, 20169 yr by ThePensmith

I read somewhere that Girls Aloud covered 'I Think We're Alone Now' as a returned favour for Tiffany covering 'Love Machine' on the ITV show Hit Me Baby One More Time the year before. That could've been completely nonsense though. :lol:

 

I read that too. 'Hit Me Baby One More Time' was a dreadful show. Bizarrely as well both Cleopatra and Honeyz that we met much earlier on in did that show as well!

I read that too. 'Hit Me Baby One More Time' was a dreadful show. Bizarrely as well both Cleopatra and Honeyz that we met much earlier on in did that show as well!

 

It was. It was also pretty condescending for past pop stars to use a TV platform to perform other artists' material. :lol:

 

-x-

 

My 13 year old self quite liked the 'Walk This Way' cover and I think it was the best song for two girl-groups to cover since it has that showdown theme. But, yeah, definitely not either of their best.

 

I had a soft spot for Booty Luv but their best song in my opinion was their next entry.

9TH SEPTEMBER 2007

 

Girls Aloud - "Sexy! No No No..."

Official UK Chart peak: #5

 

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Girls Aloud did a lot of things over the summer of 2007. They put on their biggest arena tour to date in support of their chart topping greatest hits from the previous year. They signed multi million pound sponsorship deals with Sunsilk shampoos and Samsung mobile phones. They even found time to film their big screen debut in a reactivated series of the popular "St Trinian's" films starring Rupert Everett and Colin Firth, singing its title theme for the soundtrack into the bargain as well.

 

One thing they hadn't done, however, was release a new single. Come the end of what had been an otherwise damp squib of a summer, all that was about to change. Filled with a burst of new confidence following the warm reception that 'The Sound of Girls Aloud' had received, Polydor & Fascination saw it only right that a brand new studio album was in the works, and after their tour wrapped, they headed back to Xenomania towers to begin work on their fourth LP, "Tangled Up".

 

Flushed with a grander marketing budget than previous campaigns before it, this was to mark a new chapter, wherein they showcased a maturer, racier but still fun side to the girls' glamorous, spiked heel and skin tight jean wearing brand of electro pop - starting with the album's first single, "Sexy! No No No". The feverish build up and anticipation to its release was the most around a new Girls Aloud single I could remember in a long while.

 

 

But even I don't think I was prepared for what they delivered. Even now, it's a bold choice for a lead single, but then, one thing we've learnt is that GA always treaded where others feared to fly. Starting with an eerie Gregorian chant, cut through by Cheryl's razor sharp, vocodered part sung, part rapped intro, it suddenly smashes into this aggressive and devestatingly catchy techno rave punk anthem with a guitar riff lifted from Nazareth's "Hair of the Dog" and has everything including the k!tchen sink thrown at it.

 

It was accompanied by a suitably bonkers and avant garde video, directed by Trudy Bellinger (who'd also done the videos for 'The Show' and 'I'll Stand by You' ), with the girls, all sporting high ponytails and mad eyelashes in oversized, billowing red dresses, torn away by pins to reveal them in slinky rubber catsuits by the video's end - sporting many a tabloid headline on its premiere along the laboured lines of "Sexy! Yes yes yes girls". There was no denying however, that it was one of their best videos to date, as well as providing

, when they arrived dramatically from the roof wearing Supergirl capes and futuristic Madonna-esque basques.

 

Despite a premature debut at #64 the week before it hit the shops - owing to an accidental pre-August Bank Holiday release of the download packages - they needn't have worried when "Sexy..." raced up into the top 5 that September, bringing their total run of consecutive top 10 hits to sixteen, as the Guinness World Records certified them the most successful girl group in UK chart history.

Edited May 29, 20169 yr by ThePensmith

I loved SNNN. It's certainly one of GA's most chaotic and crazy songs in terms of structure. The likes of this and 'Biology' really made GA stand out from the rest of other pop groups.

16TH SEPTEMBER 2007

 

Booty Luv - "Don't Mess With My Man"

Official UK Chart peak: #11

 

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If 2007 has taught us anything, it's that waiting for new girl group top 40 hits was like waiting for buses. You were waiting for one, and then several came along at once. Booty Luv duly returned to the fold with their third outing of clever but not quite big soul from the early 00s reimagined as shiny handbag Saturday night disco pop.

 

This time, it was the turn of Lucy Pearl's "Don't Mess With My Man". A just about average performer in the Billboard chart, it had stormed the top 20 here in October 2000 and made its way inconspicuously onto a few compilation albums that were out around that time. It was also on the soundtrack to the grungy and sarcastic animated MTV teen drama Daria.

 

 

Seven years later, it had kind of become embedded in the public conscience without anyone really paying attention to the band behind this one hit R&B wonder. Under the hands of Booty Luv, it provided them with their third top 20 hit, just missing out on the top 10, and out of the three entries of theirs we've met thus far I will hold my hands up and say this is the weakest.

 

Props however, have to be given Nadia, who goes absolutely ballistic just before the last chorus on the line 'I won't be your lady, no no', which is really quite special. The rest just feels a bit 'standard remix done by random DJ chucked onto CD2 that none of the fans buy except for the free postcards'. Thankfully, their next entry at the end of the year really is something quite special...

30TH SEPTEMBER 2007

 

Sugababes - "About You Now"

Official UK Chart peak: #1

 

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Aaah. A bittersweet entry in many ways, this next one. It's the sixth and thus final chart topping entry we'll encounter from the 'Babes in any of their mutations we've met thus far. It is at once, as Popjustice described it on its first play, a 'barnstorming electro pop rock masterpiece', and yet, with hindsight, it is also oddly something of a swansong. I'll explain myself a bit better as we progress with this entry.

 

'Change', their fifth studio album but first with Amelle in the lineup, saw the girls working with, amongst others, a lot of familar compatriots, like Xenomania, Craigie Dodds and The Invisible Men, as well as a few new collaborators, one of which being former 90s pop legend turned songwriter for hire Cathy Dennis.

 

Having thrown in the towel with her pop venturings after the flop of her brilliant third album 'Am I The Kinda Girl?' in 1997, when the original lineup of the 'Babes had barely still formed, over the next few years that were to follow, she was to pen some monster worldwide hits, including, but not limited to, S Club 7's "Never Had a Dream Come True", Kylie's "Can't Get You Out of My Head" and Britney Spears' "Toxic".

 

As I've mentioned before, this era of their career was the start of the general public viewing Sugababes as a brand more than a band, something that - spoiler alert - would manifest even further in the next two years to follow, and that anything they put out post-Mutya wasn't worth investigation. "About You Now" dispelled that school of thought, albeit briefly.

 

 

It is, by some distance, one of the most sonically sound and brilliantly delivered singles they put out in their whole career. Its shoes shod to the dancefloor with a galacial, hooky Dr Luke produced backing, with vocals delivering just the right amount of lamenting loss and feverent hope for the return of a failed relationship, it crosses into that - and I do love this word - wistful territory that was always at the heart of a really great Sugababes single.

 

And the public seemed to think so too. Debuting just inside the top 40 on its first week, on its second week it scored not only the biggest leap to number one at that time, but also became the first ever single by a British girl group to top the chart on downloads alone, and then went onto stay there for a whole month. Cathy Dennis' magic songwriting touch gave v3.0 of the 'Babes true chart paydirt.

 

Meanwhile, the 'Change' album received rave reviews and also zoomed to the top of the album charts, thus repeating the same feat 'Push the Button' and 'Taller in More Ways' had done two years previously. Sustained download sales well into the new year meant it also became the biggest selling and longest runner of their career, even returning for a brief spell the following summer when it was used in Channel 4 soap 'Hollyoaks', following the departure of long running fan favourite Max Cunningham.

 

The fact this is the last chart topper from the 'Babes says an awful lot, because it did seem like they'd gained a second wind following the good to average performing post-Mutya releases in 2006. But, really, if all around were honest, this was likely to be as good as they got or gave from this point onwards. As someone once said about "Can't Get You Out of My Head" following its mammoth success, 'Kylie will struggle to ever top this. Cathy might though.'

I feel like About You Now helped the Babes to somekind of record. Weren't they number 1 on Singles, Albums and something else all at the same time. Maybe it was downloads I can't remember now.

 

I feel like Change was quite a week album, especially by Sugababes standards. Although the awfully titled Catfights and Spotlights was worse.

I didn't realise Cathy Dennis wrote 'About You Now'. :o It's a very average song by her high standards then :P

I feel like About You Now helped the Babes to somekind of record. Weren't they number 1 on Singles, Albums and something else all at the same time. Maybe it was downloads I can't remember now.

 

I feel like Change was quite a week album, especially by Sugababes standards. Although the awfully titled Catfights and Spotlights was worse.

 

I believe, if memory serves me correctly, they were (and still are) the only girl group to top single, album and download charts simultaneously on two occasions (first with "Push..." and "Taller...", then again with "About You Now" and "Change").

 

Ah. We'll get to the "Catfights" era in due course but I think it was poor single choices that marred it!

Sugababes - About You Now, I really liked this one and in my opinion their last great single and the best during the Amelle era of their lineup. They started so great, then struck gold with the addition of Heidi, then Mutya left and things started to dwindle, then when Keisha left everything went tits up and their material just got worse and worse. The 'Change' album wasn't bad and did have some decent songs such as 'Never Gonna Dance Again', 'My Love Is Pink' 'Denial', only the later got released as a single which was a shame. But the follow up was worse and do agree it did have some shocking poor single choices and can't wait to hear what you say about that era.

14TH OCTOBER 2007

 

Aly & AJ - "Potential Break Up Song"

Official UK Chart peak: #22

 

http://chartarchive.org/artwork/22057-raw.jpg

 

Samanda - "Barbie Girl"

Official UK Chart peak: #26

 

http://a2.mzstatic.com/eu/r30/Music/v4/2b/6f/dd/2b6fddab-b422-41f5-2623-99aed7a3400a/cover600x600.jpeg

 

Now for the first time in a very long while, a double entry - and from two duos, no less (although the latter is dubiously so). First up, it's the only UK chart appearance from American sisters Aly & AJ. More of a success Stateside than they ever were over here, they first burst onto the scene in 2004 following appearances on several Disney Channel soundtracks, right at the peak of Hilary Duff, Ashlee Simpson et al's success (they were signed to the former's record label Hollywood), and their 2005 debut album 'Into the Rush' sold nearly a million copies over there.

 

Their second album, 'Insomniatic' followed in 2007, and saw the release of their biggest international hit in the shape of the spiky electro rock offering 'Potential Break Up Song'. Following a support slot for McFly on their greatest hits tour and a round of UK promo including 'This Morning' and 'TMi', the single went zooming up the top 30, as well as becoming a top 20 in the States, Ireland and Norway.

 

 

It's a dazzlingly good record even 9 years on - it's feisty, catchy and utterly charming, riffing between aggressive verses and sweet choruses (yes, there are two in there). A shame really this never went better than top 30, and in the years that followed, they left their label to release their music independently, taking a more back to basics, country and folk approach in their sound. But their brief flirtation with spangly superstardom was, nonetheless, utterly delicious.

 

Four places down from that this week was another (thankfully) one entry wonder. Pop reality shows were producing records left right and centre in the 00s, but so too, were the 'normal' (in the loosest sense possible of that word) reality shows. See "I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here", see "Strictly Come Dancing", and also see the annual non entity fest that is "Big Brother". The best it'd done chart wise before now was the show's own theme tune, a #4 hit for Paul Oakenfold in September 2000 just as that much talked about first series drew to a close.

 

 

Former housemates - in both civilian and celebrity versions of the show - had attempted to have chart success following their time whining over shopping budgets and chickens in the diary room. Amongst them were Mark Owen (pre-Take That's second wind of success), Preston from the Ordinary Boys, Dead or Alive's Pete Burns, and first and fifth series winners Craig Phillips and Nadia Almada who released top 30 singles to very little fanfare.

 

Sam and Amanda - or Samanda as they became known during their time on the 8th series of the show, where they were runners up - joined that list with a totally unnecessary cover version of Aqua's chart slaying debut hit "Barbie Girl". It not only manages the unthinkable of making Aqua's original look good, but also makes me wish I didn't have ears. Thankfully, it too tanked inside the top 30, ensuring their 15 minutes of fame after leaving the house wasn't extended for longer than it should have been.

Edited June 15, 20169 yr by ThePensmith

Totally forgot about these ones, I watched BB that year and do remember Samanda, but don't remember them covering this song, I mean WTF... why, why, why, now personally 'Barbie Girl' is one of my alltime guilty pleasures and it's one of the most remembered songs ever. So who in the hell thought that it would be a good idea for 2 reality stars to cover such a well known song, it couldn't possibly match the success or even quality for that matter.

 

This sounds like some terrible karaoke cd from the 90's, and no effort was put into that music video (if you could call it that). Now it would have been something if they could sing, but NO, they have no talent between them. The fact that this even got to #26 in the UK charts was something short of a miracle, well 2007 sales must have been low, as something like this now would chart around #256.