Posted May 21, 201510 yr I know threads have been posted like these before, but I got the idea from The Saturday's forum and given that it's 2015 I just thought that it would be interesting too see if any opinions have changed. Here's mine... Up All Night Era What Makes You Beautiful Taken One Thing More Than This Not much to change of course "WMYB" was the obvious right choice to launch their careers and put them on the map. But instead of "GBY" I think that "Taken" would have been a much better choice as the 2nd single in November 2011, especially with the X-Factor performance, it would have shown them in a new light with a different edge to them and would have generated more interest and had a better run on the UK singles chart. "One Thing" yes another obvious choice and releasing that as the 2nd worldwide single was spot on, but then they could have brought out "Taken" to follow it. For the final release "More Than This" which did get released but had no promo and poor reception. If it had a proper music video and more of a push, then It could have smashed. Take Me Home era Live While We're Young Little Things Kiss You They Don't Care About Us (Promo) I know this era was pretty much perfect as it was, but in just my opinion "They Don't Care About Us" was a great song for maybe a promo release or something, or maybe it could have been double a-side to "One Way Or Another". But I think with Zayn leaving fans could look back at that song. Midnight Memories era Best Song Ever Story Of My Life Diana You & I/Little Black Dress While the first two singles were great but the title track as the third single WHY, "Diana" would have been a much better choice and performed better on the charts also, along with a kick ass music video. "You & I" yes was a great choice especially with it's award winning music video, but if they released "Little Black Dress" alongside it then that would have been unexpected and if both songs were serviced to US radio like "Y&I" for A/C charts and "LBD" for the mainstream pop radio. Four era Steal My Girl Night Changes Where Do Broken Hearts Go Stockholm Syndrome or No Control I know that Zayn leaving pretty much ended things for this album and pretty much sealed it's fate, but couldn't help wondering what how "WDBHG" would have done given that it's the greatest One Direction non single ever. Originally I would have gone with "SS" as the 4th single but with all this "NC" hype, maybe I'm starting to change my mind, but anyway they're both great songs so it doesn't matter. Edited May 21, 201510 yr by Acidburn
May 21, 201510 yr I love doing threads like this :heehee: Nice one Acidburn! Up All Night 1. What Makes You Beautiful 2. More Than This 3. One Thing WMYB is the clear choice here for single #1, it's their biggest seller by a mile and was the perfect way to introduce the world (properly) to 1D. Gotta Be You was a terrible single choice and the fact it's their only top 10 hit not to be certified at least silver says it all. More Than This is received much better overall and deserved more than the shoddy half-arsed release in Australia. One Thing worked well as it was, and I'm not sure the era really warranted a third single. Three top 10 singles in the UK out of three looks good enough to me, and One Thing only just made the top 10, so I'd imagine a fourth wouldn't quite make it. Take Me Home 1. Live While We're Young 2. Little Things 3. Kiss You 4. Rock Me The first three singles were handled perfectly. LWWY was a bit of a disappointment at first chart-wise I guess, because it was expected by many to go to #1, but it had good longevity and has sold over 300k. Little Things speaks for itself I think, and Kiss You had a fantastic chart run. I think this era actually had a bit more life in it and Rock Me could've done well if released next (although they could've picked almost anything from the album). Midnight Memories 1. Best Song Ever 2. Story of My Life 3. Happily 4. You & I Can't fault the first two singles of course, but it got incredibly messy after them :drama: Happily should've been performed on the X Factor final and had its EP released within a few weeks to ensure it went at least top 20. You & I could have then had an April release with a more successful predecessor, meaning its chances of success would be higher. FOUR 1. Steal My Girl 2. Night Changes 3. Where Do Broken Hearts Go 4. Stockholm Syndrome The album of missed opportunities :( The first two singles were perfect picks, they were both big hits and sold the album well. Such a shame the campaign got abandoned so soon :drama:
May 22, 201510 yr Up All Night 1. What Makes You Beautiful 2. More Than This 3. One Thing 4. Moments WMYB is obvious the 1st single, i would replace GBY with MTT then One Thing and add Moments as 4th single Take Me Home 1. Live While We're Young 2. Little Things 3. Kiss You 4. They Don't Know About Us I would keep the 1st 3 singles and add the fan favorite at the time They Don't Know About Us, which they didn't even perform live how stupid. Midnight Memories 1. Best Song Ever 2. Story of My Life 3. Don't Forget Where You Belong 4. You&I DFWYB could have been a huge single it always gave me Take That-Never Forget feelings it also works perfectly as a stadium song and i pictured the video as live recording from the song in a stadium. I would have give the You&I video more budget and styled the boys better. FOUR 1. Steal My Girl 2. Where Do Broken Hearts Go 3. Stockholm Syndrome 4. No Control I would replace the boring Night Changes with WDBHG and add the obvious singles Stockhom Syndrome and No Control. No Control would be the 1st 4 piece single and would be re-recorded. Edited May 22, 201510 yr by Maurice Horan
June 4, 201510 yr Author Just thought I'd give this a little bump, thanks for the opinions so far it's always interesting to see what other people think, some interesting choices here, but I still think that "Night Changes" was a perfect 2nd single choice and "Where Do Broken Hearts Go" was the best single that never was, never know it might end up on their Greatest Hits album, similar to what The Killers did with theirs by including a popular album track.
June 4, 201510 yr Up All Night 1. What Makes You Beautiful 2. Gotta Be You 3. Up All Night 4. More Than This 5. One Thing Take Me Home 1. Live While We're Young 2. Little Things 3. Kiss You 4. Back For You Midnight Memories 1. Best Song Ever 2. Story of My Life 3. Diana 4. Strong 5. You & I FOUR 1. Steal My Girl 2. Night Changes 3. Where Do Broken Hearts Go 4. 18 5. Ready to Run 6. Fireproof 'FOUR' honestly could have had hit single after hit single had certain things not happened, and even before Zayn left they had plenty time to unleash 'Where Do Broken Hearts Go'. :drama:
June 4, 201510 yr Bold represents the last pre-single/single which is released last just before the album's official release. Up All Night 01. What Makes You Beautiful 02. One Thing 03. More Than This Replace Gotta Be You with One Thing and add More Than This and it would of been an even better run of debut singles. Take Me Home 04. Live While We're Young 05. Rock Me 06. Little Things 07. Kiss You 08. I Would The fact they never released Rock Me has to be their biggest missed opportunity, it's such a stomper! With Little Things as a nice ballad once the album's released with a few more up-tempo hits to end the Take Me Home Era. I feel this would of led them greatly onto the hype for the next album...which would be even more massive! Midnight Memories 09. One Way or Another (Teenage Kicks) 10. Best Song Ever 11. Story of My Life 12. Strong 13. You and I The fact Strong (my Favourite 1D song) never got a single release is a joke, it's their best work for me and would have served as a great post-album single instead of Flopnight Memories! However I do think Story of My Life and You and I were clever releases. FOUR 14. Steal My Girl 15. Where Do Broken Hearts Go 16. Night Changes 17. Ready To Run 18. Once In A Lifetime Probably their biggest mess of an album campaign so far, they could of easily released Where Do Broken Hearts Go/Night Changes/Ready To Run with or without Zayn and Once In A Lifetime could have served as a perfect farwell single to him being in the band and how he's missed out lol. Edited June 4, 201510 yr by Mackenzie
June 5, 201510 yr Honestly, the U.S. was pretty spot-on with the single releases. Up All Night 1. What Makes You Beautiful 2. Gotta Be You or More Than This 3. Up All Night 4. One Thing (2nd US single) I really felt that "One Thing" was really overshadowed by WMYB in the U.S., so placing it as the last single would have given them an opportunity for worldwide promotion. Take Me Home 1. Live While We're Young 2. Little Things 3. Kiss You 4. maybe Rock Me I know "Little Things" is their worst single, but it was a glaringly obvious single choice (as much as it pains me to admit it), and they could have at least milked the singles a bit more with a later release date with the two other singles. The "Little Things" release seemed a bit rushed. A February release for "Kiss You" would have put it right on par with the U.S. release. They could have used "Rock Me" to promote the documentary but we all know that was "Best Song Ever"'s job. Midnight Memories 1. Best Song Ever 2. Story of My Life 3. Diana 4. You & I (3rd US single) 5. Don't Forget Where You Belong (4th US single) "Diana" was SCREAMING single release ("Midnight Memories" was too, but it suffered a bunch of backlash), and I think with a less hot mess video for "You & I" (a.k.a. FIXING LOUIS), it would have become a bigger hit. The summer of 2014 seemed to have lacked a bit of 1D, and DFWYB would be a perfect track especially with it being graduation time. What really screwed it up was "Story Of My Life" skyrocketing in popularity stateside, thus giving a pretty messy single release for "You & I". FOUR 1. Steal My Girl 2. Night Changes 3. Where Do Broken Hearts Go 4. anyone's call FOUR had rather nice single releases, and Zayn leaving kinda halted the project a little too soon. "Where Do Broken Hearts Go" should have gotten a middle of March release to match with "Night Changes" waning in popularity. After that, it's anyone's call. Though... Radio Disney had been whoring out "Girl Almighty" and that was never released... Overall: I really liked the strategy of releasing a ballad come winter time because it's relaxing and would have made for great X Factor performances.
June 5, 201510 yr To this day I still don't get the appeal of Diana, it sounds really average to me? Wouldn't have done much better than Midnight Memories at all imo.
June 5, 201510 yr It would have done marginally better I think being a far more radio friendly song, but whatever they chose as the 3rd single wouldn't have been a massive hit regardless, due to the shoddiness of the promo schedule for it. P.S. Diana is amazing bye x
