So next Tuesday, we finally get in to the year that saw the resurrection/beginning of two of the biggest girl group successes of this century - 2002. We'll finish up 2001 first though. Thanks for all your comments/love so far etc. Much appreciated :)

 

9TH DECEMBER 2001

 

Tymes 4 - "She Got Game"

Official UK Chart peak: #40

 

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A year ago, we closed a busy first year of 21st century girl group goodness with Sugababes' 'New Year'. It really goes without saying I'd take that again in a heartbeat over the final charting girl group hit we'll meet from 2001, which in retrospect has been a rather uninteresting year. Tymes 4's second single was, like 'Bodyrock' before it, another bland attempt at American R&B - and between this, Hear'Say falling off a cliff after such immense hype for their debut effort and Steps and 5ive reduced to ground level, all around saw the new wave of pop revitalised by the Spice Girls six years earlier as on its backside once and for all.

 

 

Releasing right in the middle of the pre-Christmas rush, Tymes 4 were very lucky to scrape in and get a second top 40 hit at all. In any case, it put the writing on the wall for one member in particular - namely Holly James, who in the new year, decided to up sticks and leave, to be replaced by new member Leah Tribe, with whom they'd re-release a new version of 'Bodyrock' in Germany and the Far East to virtual disinterest. Success strangely didn't elude Holly though, who was to provide guest vocals to Jason Nevins' summer dance track 'I'm in Heaven', based around a sample of Michael Jackson's 'Human Nature' that was a surprise top 10 hit in August 2003.

Edited July 16, 20159 yr by ThePensmith

2002

 

24TH FEBRUARY 2002

 

Mis-Teeq - "B With Me"

Official UK Chart peak: #5

 

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2002. Aka the year when tremors began to be felt amongst artists and the industry alike, because of this new, and illegal activity that risked ploughing the music industry as we knew it into the scrapheap. More deadly than home taping, the MP3 and filesharing networks like Napster and P2P networks were rearing their head - and sales were beginning to take a massive hit. A case in point: just a little over 30,000 copies was all that was required for Aaliyah to take the number 1 slot with 'More Than a Woman' in January - which even by January standards, was poorer than usual.

 

However, the industry wasn't in THAT much of a dire straits yet, even though there was a lot of evidence it was heading that way. The first ever 'Pop Idol' produced Will Young and Gareth Gates, both of whom ended up with the year's biggest selling singles with sales of over 1 million each - the last million sellers the UK would have for two years. This really was the party before the pop rapture. And whilst all this was going on, Mis-Teeq, fresh from a storming BRITs performance and a critically acclaimed tour, were firing on all cylinders with our first girl group entry of 2002.

 

 

'B With Me' in its original form on the 'Lickin' on Both Sides' album was a decidedly more laidback, ragga influenced jam produced by Mushtaq. As with 'Why?', for its single version, up & coming UK garage bods Bump & Flex were enlisted to literally reswizzle it into a 128bpm speed 2-step blowout - complete with quite possibly Alesha Dixon's most memorable and explosive MC turn of all - that easily became their third top 5 hit in a little more than over a year.

 

Criminally however, said single version is nowhere to be found on iTunes or Spotify - and if you look at the comments of virtually any YouTube upload of the video you'll find at least over two dozen enquiries along the lines of why it can't be found when this is by far the more remembered version of 'B With Me', other than on second hand copies of a re-released 'Lickin' on Both Sides' that came out a few months later, just after - spoiler alert - the next Mis-Teeq entry we'll encounter.

10TH MARCH 2002

 

Smoke2Seven - "Been There, Done That"

Official UK Chart peak: #26

 

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And from one of this thread's better performers, we now encounter our first one-entry wonder of 2002. And one which is going to be brief, on two counts: firstly because finding a half decent biography on them proved to be a black art only Houdini could master. And secondly because this is another one I hated at the time and still have no love lost for now.

 

Smoke2Seven, appalling name and all, were formed in early 2001 and made their sole entry into the top 30 a year later with 'Been There, Done That' - a title that was apt in more ways than one, and possibly not how they'd intended it to. A common theme of girl groups with a more R&B slant from the earlier half of the 21st century that we've witnessed was that of being done wrong by a man, which meant that, as the groups became shoddier, the themes of their songs became more and more laboured.

 

 

Hence what we have here is a kiss off to a wrong doing boyfriend set to a cheapo backing track cast off from a J.Lo album that's just very shouty, shrieky and unpleasant. Also add in possibly the worst use ever of swearing in a pop record ('I won't take your crap' delivered by one of the Smoke2s, as they were never called, like they were saying something really clever. Eh no, say Manuel) and it's little wonder at all that this performed how it did. 'Envy', their follow up single a year later, fared even worse, failing to break the top 75, and Smoke2Seven went up in pop smoke.

7TH APRIL 2002

 

Ladies First - "I Can't Wait"

Official UK Chart peak: #19

 

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Second and last appearance from Ladies First on this thread now. Newly now a duo following Leanne's last minute decision to bugger off before the release of 'Messin', up next from Mel and Sasha was a cover of a record that had originally been a huge hit for the husband and wife partnering of Nu Shooz in the US charts in 1986, as well as a top 3 hit here in the UK, peaking at #2. However, success beyond that seemed to elude them, consigning them to one hit wonder status immediately.

 

 

Fitting then, that 'I Can't Wait' was covered by a band destined for a very similar fate. Whilst ever so slightly ripping off the Honeyz' video for 'Won't Take it Lying Down' - but with all the sass of a piece of toast - they did at least make an impressive 11 place improvement on their debut, peaking inside the top 20. But top 20 just wasn't enough for Polydor, and they were soon dropped - never to be heard of again...

28TH APRIL 2002

 

Sugababes - "Freak Like Me"

Official UK Chart peak: #1

 

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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.

Edited July 18, 20159 yr by ThePensmith

Apologies for no posts last week, was quite manic and didn't have time to do entries, services resumes as normal - onwards we go in 2002...

 

12TH MAY 2002

 

Bellefire - "All I Want is You"

Official UK Chart peak: #18

 

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Just under a year on from their debut with 'Perfect Bliss', history was repeating itself as Bellefire scored another top 3 hit in their native Ireland, but once again just scraped the top 20 here with this, their second single, which this time out was a cover of a track by band who in 2002 were riding atop the crest of a second wave of success. Fellow Emerald isle inhabitants and rock veterans U2 had, to all intents and purposes, become something of a non-event sales wise by the end of the 90's.

 

But their worldwide chart topper 'Beautiful Day' and its parent album 'All That You Can't Leave Behind', as well as their 2004 follow up 'How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb', saw them pack out arenas and smash sales records once again. 'All I Want is You', the final single from their 1988 album 'Rattle & Hum', released at the height of their imperial 80's phase, had been a #4 hit in June 1989 (just over two months shy of me being born, fact readers).

 

 

It was one of their most popular songs, so it made sense for Bellefire to give it a crack at a time when the original artists' popularity had never been better. And to be fair it is at least a small improvement on their debut, even if it managed to land at the exact same chart position. It's all sweeping, Celtic harmonies delivered with far more sincerity and less of the female Westlife keyboard preset that made 'Perfect Bliss' such a dull effort.

 

However, two #18 singles on the trot weren't cutting it for Virgin Records, who dropped them just before the UK release of their debut album 'After the Rain'. Tara also left their number having been disillusioned by the lack of success the group had achieved to go and pursure a career in fashion, whilst two of the songs they'd recorded for the album, namely 'Turnaround' and a cover of the country standard 'I Hope You Dance', found new homes on albums for Louis Walsh's more successful charges Westlife and Ronan Keating respectively. We'll meet them again in 2004 but things will be little better success wise than they were here.

26TH MAY 2002

 

Atomic Kitten - "It's OK!"

Official UK Chart peak: #3

 

http://eil.com/images/main/Atomic-Kitten-Its-OK-537956.jpg

 

One thing that's very easy to forget with Atomic Kitten is just how long it took them to get a second album recorded and released. Even taking a personnel change and a near drop from their label out the equation, they'd put out six singles (seven if you're counting the cancelled release of 'You Are' in November the previous year, which did get a release in Europe and reached the top 10 in Belgium and top 40 in Germany and Switzerland) from one album over a three year period - something that only Katy Perry has done in recent years.

 

But here we were in May 2002, with the girls - including a newly pregnant but not departing Tash - returning to start their first album proper under their second lineup, and possibly the least appropriate use of an exclamation mark in a song title to boot. Now, I did lay down my disclaimer right at the beginning of this thread that I was primarily a fan of the Kittens before they had the bulk of their success, and this was where the bulk of their success started to come so the reviews may potentially get a bit more critical as we go along now.

 

 

'It's OK' then (note I am not using the exclamation mark). It just well...it was just OK wasn't it? The production work of StarGate, who'd guided their labelmates and male equivalent Blue to the top of the charts with their 'All Rise' album, it was another shuffly, generic and fairly bland-o effort that you could have easily interchanged with their underperforming 'Follow Me' from two years previously and few would have noticed the difference. The Baroque-esque string section that the song opens on is quite interesting, but that's as far as it goes.

 

The trouble is - and the cover artwork for the single and its video illustrate this point quite neatly - Innocent decided that with Jenny Frost in their number, what the public wanted was obvious, out and out FHM-style sex appeal from the Kittens instead of the playful naughtiness of their Katona era singles that had made them a more interesting proposition. Debuting inside the top 3, it was never going to trouble Eminem (nor did it deserve to) who swept all competition aside to grab his third #1 that week. But later that summer, a song previously recorded by their now ex-labelmate and the then Mrs Chris Evans, Billie Piper, was back on their A&R's desk - and they were about to turn it into a hit...

Edited July 28, 20159 yr by ThePensmith

26TH MAY 2002

 

Atomic Kitten - "It's OK!"

Official UK Chart peak: #3

 

http://eil.com/images/main/Atomic-Kitten-Its-OK-537956.jpg

 

One thing that's very easy to forget with Atomic Kitten is just how long it took them to get a second album recorded and released. Even taking a personnel change and a near drop from their label out the equation, they'd put out six singles (seven if you're counting the cancelled release of 'You Are' in November the previous year, which did get a release in Europe and reached the top 10 in Belgium and top 40 in Germany and Switzerland) from one album over a three year period - something that only Katy Perry has done in recent years.

 

But here we were in May 2002, with the girls - including a newly pregnant but not departing Tash - returning to start their first album proper under their second lineup, and possibly the least appropriate use of an exclamation mark in a song title to boot. Now, I did lay down my disclaimer right at the beginning of this thread that I was primarily a fan of the Kittens before they had the bulk of their success, and this was where the bulk of their success started to come so the reviews may potentially get a bit more critical as we go along now.

 

 

'It's OK' then (note I am not using the exclamation mark). It just well...it was just OK wasn't it? The production work of StarGate, who'd guided their labelmates and male equivalent Blue to the top of the charts with their 'All Rise' album, it was another shuffly, generic and fairly bland-o effort that you could have easily interchanged with their underperforming 'Follow Me' from two years previously and few would have noticed the difference. The Baroque-esque string section that the song opens on is quite interesting, but that's as far as it goes.

 

The trouble is - and the cover artwork for the single and its video illustrate this point quite neatly - Innocent decided that with Jenny Frost in their number, what the public wanted was obvious, out and out FHM-style sex appeal from the Kittens instead of the playful naughtiness of their Katona era singles that had made them a more interesting proposition. Debuting inside the top 3, it was never going to trouble Eminem (nor did it deserve to) who swept all competition aside to grab his third #1 that week. But later that summer, a song previously recorded by their now ex-labelmate and the then Mrs Chris Evans, Billie Piper, was back on their A&R's desk - and they were about to turn it into a hit...

 

 

I love Atomic Kitten, It's OK! is one of my favourites of theirs. I am dreading what you have to say about If U Come To Me. I've read this whole thread today really enjoyed reading it, look forward to seeing what else you have to say.

I love Atomic Kitten, It's OK! is one of my favourites of theirs. I am dreading what you have to say about If U Come To Me. I've read this whole thread today really enjoyed reading it, look forward to seeing what else you have to say.

 

Spoiler alert: I quite liked 'If You Come to Me'. Reasons of which we'll go into when we get to that particular single!

23RD JUNE 2002

 

Mis-Teeq - "Roll On/This is How We Do It"

Official UK Chart peak: #7

 

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It's fair to say that by the time the Mis-Teeq ladies had got round to the summer of 2002, they'd released a fair amount of singles from the "Lickin' on Both Sides" album, but only the first two could be found on that album in the remixed forms that made them chart smashes. Their label were very aware of the public demand for this, and so it was thus inevitable that a repackaging of the album was needed to round up all the much lauded mixes of their previous hits.

 

Preceding it's release at the end of June 2002 was this, the fifth and final release from the newly repacked album, which saw an entirely new re-edit of their album cut 'Roll On' - this time under the productive guide of Rishi Rich, who'd also help break a little known singer called Jay Sean just over a year later - bought out as a double-a-side with a new song recorded for the soundtrack of 'Ali G Indahouse', in the form of a cover of Montell Jordan's 1995 hit 'This is How We Do it'.

 

 

'Roll On' was the more promoted of the two tracks but it's by far the weakest Mis-Teeq single we've met so far, and the Montell Jordan cover is not a patch on the original. It's fair to say they were at their best when they weren't chasing American R&B sounds and were bringing their own unique, pardon the pun 'flava'. Sadly not even Alesha's brazen holler of 'It's the UK ladies on a US vibe!' at the top of 'This is How We Do It' can detract from the fact that, repackage of a parent album or not, this was one more new single off an album too far.

 

Despite a #7 peak, one place higher than their debut 'Why', it sold significantly less than that single did and was out the top 40 in a month. Still, on the positive side it had set up a perfect run of top 10 hits - five from a debut album, only one less than Atomic Kitten - and proved that Mis-Teeq had a lot of potential still to come in the girl group stratosphere - something that we'll be seeing in abundance the next time we meet in March 2003.

18TH AUGUST 2002

 

Sugababes - "Round Round"

Official UK Chart peak: #1

 

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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.

1ST SEPTEMBER 2002

 

Atomic Kitten - "The Tide is High (Get the Feeling)"

Official UK Chart peak: #1

 

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Hugh Goldsmith, boss of the Kittens' label, Virgin pop offshoot Innocent, seemed to have become a dab hand for pulling off last minute rescues from the dumper. The card trick he'd pulled off with the girls a year previously was a prime example of this, as was, during his time at RCA in the early 90s, him being matched to Take That who with his help soared from pop's middle league to the top table. A year on from 'Whole Again', he was dealing another last minute pop ace, this time with a cover version that was, at one point, risking not seeing the light of day at all.

 

Whilst the second incarnation of the Kittens had been sailing to chart glory, their now former labelmate and future assistant to the Doctor, Billie Piper, had called time on her two year career as Innocent's very first - and globally successful - signing, where she'd taken in three UK chart toppers and sold 3 million records worldwide all before she'd turned 18. Not bad for a Swindon girl and Sylvia Young graduate. But pop, as her brilliant book 'Growing Pains' confirmed, was never where her heart really was.

 

Hate mail for dating 5ive's Richie Neville, a crippling addiction to laxatives and a terrifying stalker ordeal all put paid to her tolerance to leaping about on stage miming 'Day & Night' or 'Honey to the Bee' day after day. By the time her final release, 'Walk of Life' bombed in at #25 in December 2000, she had indeed taken a new walk of life, when a certain Mr Chris Evans, himself at a life crossroads having just been publicly sacked by Virgin Radio, began dating her, and this was soon followed by the shock, outrage and then mockery from most media outlets as they got married in a happy, drunken stupor in Las Vegas.

 

 

But as we all know now, that marriage saved Billie's life in more ways than one and even though they were to seperate in 2004 just as she won the role of the feisty Rose Tyler, assistant to Christopher Eccleston - and then most famously David Tennant - on the BBC's revived series of cult favourite Doctor Who, they remain good friends even now and she is now instilled in the public's affections as one of its brightest acting talents. So where does this entry come into the equation?

 

Well, Hugh wasn't one to give up without a fight. Long before Chris Evans arrived on the scene, Billie's cover of 'The Tide is High', a song that had been a hit for both the Paragons and then, most famously of all, Blondie, who took it to the top of the UK charts in 1980, was being lined up as her second album's fourth single. He was convinced it was the hit that could save her career. But no amount of pleading with the newly drunk and happy Mrs Evans worked, and so it sat in his A&R cupboard for the best part of a year.

 

When it was presented to the Kittens for inclusion on their second album 'Feels So Good', none of them - Tash particularly - was quite sure about it. Assured of a hit by Hugh, it was promoted heavily in a blaze of publicity - most of which focussed on the fact Ms Hamilton was heavily pregnant with her first son, Josh, and due to go on maternity leave shortly after the single's release - and the ground work paid off as it sailed easily to the top of the charts, staying there for three weeks and becoming the second biggest seller of their career. Even though it's barely a patch on the original, there's no denying the appeal of 'The Tide is High', whoever covers it, has endured throughout the years.

8TH SEPTEMBER 2002

 

Appleton - "Fantasy"

Official UK Chart peak: #2

 

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It's gone without saying over the last couple of entries certainly that pop wasn't in a good way by the time 2002 dawned. In fact with most of its key former names - some of which we've met already earlier on in this thread - either broken up or dropped, the charts between now and 2005 were suddenly littered with thousands upon thousands of these bands' former members rising from the pop scrapheap and embarking upon, or attempting, solo careers.

 

Some were destined for flawless, long lasting solo success long after the memory of their bands had faded - Beyonce and Justin Timberlake. Some were destined for a small dusting of impressive, critically acclaimed but often UK exclusive success - Emma Bunton and Rachel Stevens. And others were stacking it on the rocky road to chart domination multiple times over despite the notion of them being a veritable, creditable solo success being unrealistic even on the release of their first outing - Abs and Lisa Scott-Lee.

 

Nicole and Natalie Appleton, the Canadian sisters who were of course half of All Saints, fell in the grey area somewhere between the latter two camps, as we'll see when we get to their later entries. Let's for now focus on their chart return well over 18 months after 'All Hooked Up' had been released. And, as was commonplace in All Saints, even though music wise they had been quiet, they were still a staple of the gossip columns the land over.

 

 

In their year out, they'd signed a new deal with Polydor Records, Natalie had got married to The Prodigy's Liam Howlett, and Nicole had given birth to her first son, Gene, with Oasis' Liam Gallagher. Their post band life, whilst admittedly quieter, was for them a lot rosier looking. All the while, they'd been beavering away in the studio on a duo album - a unique proposition certainly amongst the vast of ex-band graduate solo artists - and among their collaborators were Craigie Dodds (Sugababes, Kylie), Marius de Vries (Madonna, Imogen Heap) and a little known Cornwall based songwriter and producer, Gareth Young, aka Riff Raff.

 

It was he who was behind 'Fantasy', their debut single, and it was a pretty radical departure from what had come before in their former band. A ballsy, girly pop rocker, whilst still possessing the lush ear for harmonies that had been a trademark of their time in All Saints, it was never in contention to interrupt Atomic Kitten's three week reign with 'The Tide is High' - in fact, with first week sales of 31,000 copies, it was one of the smallest selling runners up of the year - but for all concerned a #2 debut after a year away was not a shabby achievement at all.

 

Their debut album - then titled 'Aloud' - was expected to follow soon after. However, two weeks after 'Fantasy' charted, the sisters published their controversial autobiography 'Together', which arrived in a flurry of shocking Sunday paper serialisations and a subsequent backlash no one at their label had accounted for. Perhaps somewhat dramatically, one of the women's glossies at the time were calling Nat & Nic 'the most hated women in Britain'. Just as well then, that some wise owl at Polydor suggested they hold back the album - and their second single, which we'll meet on their next entry - until the start of the following year when the storm around the book had died down...

Edited December 27, 20213 yr by ThePoguesmith

Loved 'The Tide is High' at the time. Girls Aloud soon :wub: :wub: :wub:

I really enjoy Atomic Kitten's version of The Tide Is High. I think the (Get The Feeling) bridge actually adds something to the song, unlike the weird rapper Billie had on her album version. I don't know if had she released the single if she would have had this version or the one that is on her album. I don't see why Atomic Kitten are so criticised for their version, especially when most of the criticism seems to be "how dare they change Blondie's song." (spoiler alert it isn't Blondie's song).

I really enjoy Atomic Kitten's version of The Tide Is High. I think the (Get The Feeling) bridge actually adds something to the song, unlike the weird rapper Billie had on her album version. I don't know if had she released the single if she would have had this version or the one that is on her album. I don't see why Atomic Kitten are so criticised for their version, especially when most of the criticism seems to be "how dare they change Blondie's song." (spoiler alert it isn't Blondie's song).

 

Whilst I wasn't a fan of their version, I knew it was the Paragons who did it originally (my mum had the original on a free CD from a Sunday paper a few months before the Kittens' version came out) so I never subscribed to the 'they're ruining Blondie' school of thought.

 

It's marginally better than 'It's OK', I will at least give it that. The next Kittens entry in about three posts time, well. Let's just say I'd forgotten it entirely before relistening to it today and that is something very special indeed :wub:

Whilst I wasn't a fan of their version, I knew it was the Paragons who did it originally (my mum had the original on a free CD from a Sunday paper a few months before the Kittens' version came out) so I never subscribed to the 'they're ruining Blondie' school of thought.

 

It's marginally better than 'It's OK', I will at least give it that. The next Kittens entry in about three posts time, well. Let's just say I'd forgotten it entirely before relistening to it today and that is something very special indeed :wub:

 

One of the best double a-side singles ever :wub:

13TH OCTOBER 2002

 

Las Ketchup - "The Ketchup Song (Aserejé)"

Official UK Chart peak: #1

 

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It's always been a bit of an unwritten rule, that if you are at a record label and are wanting to release a single by one of your major artists and want it to go straight to number one, then you release it in a quiet week with little competition where you have more chance of maximum impact guaranteed. But there's a caveat: the unexpected comes in the least expected week - and none more so than during the early autumn.

 

I've touched briefly on this elsewhere in the thread but it's generally commonly accepted that the UK - record industry included - tends to take a bit of a sejourn over the six week summer holiday period that starts in late July and finishes a few days into September. For most Brits, this is literally taking a holiday, as large swathes of us jet off to sunnier climes for a minimum of two weeks to the likes of San Antonio, Costa del Brava or Costa del Sol.

 

All we ask of these European holiday hotspots in return is the following: sun, sand, sea, sangria - and a huge European hit with a silly dance routine. By the time we come back two or three weeks later, said hit is still buzzing around our heads and the dance routine is spreading like wildfire from person to person. Like the musical equivalent of the plague for some people - but as public demand to license it for a UK release grows, suddenly a quiet week to score chart glory is lost to a one hit wonder in the eyes of most label execs when this Euro hit craze finally gets a UK release that autumn.

 

It's a tradition that had been going back as far as the early 80s with Sylvie's 'Y Viva Espana' (and was lampooned by puppet sketch show Spitting Image on their chart topping 'The Chicken Song') but it was really in the 90s that the post-holiday Euro hit phenomenon took hold. Whigfield's chart topping 'Saturday Night' was a prime example of this (it ended Wet Wet Wet's 15 week reign with 'Love is All Around' upon release), as were Los Del Rio, T Spoon, Eiffel 65, Modjo and DJ Otzi.

 

 

Joining that motley bunch in 2002 were Spanish sisters Lucia, Lola and Pilar Muñoz, collectively known as Las Ketchup. Founded by renowned flamenco producer Manuel Ruiz, 'The Ketchup Song (Aserejé)' (so titled because it was a Spanglish pseudo-cover of Sugarhill Gang's "Rappers Delight") was their first single, released firstly in their native Spain in the summer of 2002, and then week by week to every other country on the continent, until by the time it came to be released at the start of October here in the UK, it had shot straight to the top of virtually every singles chart around the globe (bar the US, where it tanked out at #54).

 

Facing stiff competition from the might of both Will Young and Gareth Gates with their 'The Long & Winding Road' duet, which had already spent two weeks in pole position, and with the single having charted as high as #49 on import sales of the original European release, it initially looked shaky, but in the end the UK had succumbed to the tomato loving sisters' charms and it rocketed straight in at #1 - going on to spend an unbelievable 13 weeks inside the top 10 and a further five inside the top 40 - an unheard feat for any girl group record, let alone one that was by all accounts a novelty hit.

 

To cuss it for what it is though is, I feel, to miss the point entirely. No, it doesn't hold up well to repeated plays. No, it's not life changing. But this cheeky burst of jumbled Spanglish sunshine was a welcome ray of glory in the rather dull autumn of 2002, and as with most Euro hit/dance crazes of the time was a shared experience amongst the peer group of the then 13 year old me - it felt important at that time that you knew that dance to that song whilst tanked up on fizzy pop at a school disco. So for that hazed memory alone, I salute Las Ketchup.

17TH NOVEMBER 2002

 

Sugababes - "Stronger / Angels with Dirty Faces"

Official UK Chart peak: #7

 

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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.

I remember 'The Ketchup Song' well - particularly big on the British primary school playgrounds I recall. The same as another girlband novelty hit that's just around the corner.

 

'Stronger' is one of the Sugababes' best ever singles. So gorgeous. Do not recall the B-side however.