If there’s one thing we love, it’s a comeback. And the very best comebacks are the ones that seemingly come from nowhere, with a new look, new attitude and a new sound. Shiny! New!

 

And comebacks didn’t much newer and fresher and generally "is that really her?!" out there than Nelly Furtado’s attack on the charts in summer 2006. Well-known for her folky style, thanks to huge hit I’m Like A Bird, Nelly surprised everyone when she hooked up in the studio with R&B master producer Timbaland for her album Loose. Its lead single in the UK, Maneater, was an industrial, synthy, confident banger and quite rightly stormed to Number 1 on release.

 

Charting at Number 8 on downloads alone – chart rules at the time meant songs could only chart a week before physical release – Maneater then knocked Sandi Thom off the top.

 

Maneater kicked off a run of four Top 10 hits from Loose – Promiscuous feat. Timbaland himself (3), All Good Things (4) and Say It Right (10). She then followed up that cracking quartet with another chart-topper, featuring on Timbaland’s Give It To Me in April 2007.

 

Two Number 1s in 10 months? She’s a charteater! (Sorry.) Maneater has sold over 450,000 copies in the UK and is one of eight Top 10s Nelly’s notched up. Nelly’s biggest selling single was actually never a Number 1 – her 2008 collaboration with James Morrison, Broken Strings, is the big one – it’s sold over 770,000 copies.

 

So Nelly was ruling the roost but what about the rest of the Top 10?

 

01 08 NELLY FURTADO MANEATER

02 01 SANDI THOM I WISH I WAS A PUNK ROCKER (WITH FLOWERS IN MY HAIR)

03 38 EMBRACE WORLD AT YOUR FEET

04 23 AUTOMATIC MONSTER

05 02 GNARLS BARKLEY CRAZY

06 04 INFERNAL FROM PARIS TO BERLIN

07 05 P!NK WHO KNEW

08 11 TONY CHRISTIE (IS THIS THE WAY TO) THE WORLD CUP

09 03 KEANE IS IT ANY WONDER

10 48 DAVID BADDIEL, FRANK SKINNER AND THE LIGHTNING SEEDS 3 LIONS

 

The country was caught up in World Cup fever, so three footie songs made the Top 10. Embrace's official England anthem World At Your Feet (3), a soccered-up version of Tony Christie's (Is This The Way To) Amarillo (yeah, seriously) and, back for its 10th anniversary, 3 Lions, from Baddiel, Skinner and Lightning Seeds.

 

Infernal's Euro banger From Paris To Berlin was sticking around in the Top 10 at 6, and The Automatic were zooming up the chart – thanks to being chased by a Monster, no doubt – at Number 4.

 

But today belongs to Nelly, just out for a quiet walk with her pooch when all hell breaks loose:

 

What an incredible album Loose was. The singles were just perfect. Really miss Nelly :(

Look how many new entries there were compared to todays top 40. Nine new entries!

 

The Paul Oakenfold track with Brittany Murphy (at number 7) was great too. RIP Brittany.

 

Edited June 16, 20169 yr by TheSnake

and Nelly was amazing in all eras, her first 3 albums are all very different but all equally great