I can, because the press convinced people to buy one OR the other and attacked her relentlessly.

Kylie was always gonna beat Posh badly just on the fact that CGYOOMH is such an amazing song and screamed massive no.1 single. I thought VB would get to no.2 but the track definitely wasn't a no.1. I don't think too many people would have changed their minds based on what the Sun said about anything.

20. GOIN DOWN- MEL C (97,400)

 

http://i.imgur.com/7LsPaUj.jpg

 

PEAK POSITION: 4

WKS ON CHART: 6

YEAR: 1999

 

So onto the best selling solo Spice then and Mel C has always been (let’s be honest) the most credible of the band in terms of critical appreciation. A duet with Bryan Adams opened her account and remains her best seller despite getting chart toppers later on in her career, this first release from “Northern Star” didn’t hang around too long but better was to follow.

 

19. LAY YOUR HANDS- SIMON WEBBE (102,000)

 

 

PEAK POSITION: 4

WKS ON CHART: 16

YEAR: 2005

 

The best start to any solo career by any of the Blue boys, Webbe may not have outpeaked Lee Ryan but he certainly got more sales and convinced more to invest into his album. When this song debuted at No 4 it marked only the second time that 3 former boyband members from the same band and each scored a separate top 5 single (though of course Duncan James had done it in a duet) with Take That the first.

 

18. REAL TO ME- BRIAN MCFADDEN (108,000)

 

 

PEAK POSITION: 1

WKS ON CHART: 12

YEAR: 2004

 

Having helped to helm Robbie William’s solo career to superstardom in the late 90s, Guy Chambers had, by 2004, moved onto assisting a newly solo Brian McFadden. Six months previously McFadden had stunned fans when he left the ‘Loife in a slew of publicity in part thanks to a public split with Kerry Katona and an affair with Delta Goodrem.

 

Goin' Down is an awful song, thank god Mel had better to follow as I was worried it would derail her solo fortunes completely.

 

Lay Your Hands is gorgeous on the other hands, shame it's only sold just over 100k despite its decent chart run, but that's 2005 for you. I expected Simon Webbe's solo material to be a little more edgy, judging by a lot of his contributions to Blue's singles, so was surprised that he went down the one-man Lighthouse Family route. But he tapped into a niche that existed at that time and it worked well. Good on Blue for getting sizeable solo hits out of three members too!

 

Odd that Brian McFadden is the only Westlifer with a solo top 10 to their name, let alone a #1, but the others left it all way way too late to establish solo career. Shane Filan could have easily bagged a few solo #1s in 2001, Mark probably could have managed one too. Real To Me is ok, but Irish Son and Almost Here (naturally) were way better for me.

Edited August 29, 20177 yr by gooddelta

Rooting for Cheryl

Cheryl is quite the shout for the winner actually. I'm not sure there's anyone else but I could be missing someone...

Goin Down is so amazing live !!! The single version really does not do it justice .

 

Nearly any song could have been a single on the amazing Northern Star album .

Jesus, Brian McFadden. I forgot how much of a scruff he looked when he went solo. Truly one of the worst number ones of the mid 00s.

 

Quite liked Simon Webbe's stuff, particularly 'Lay Your Hands' and 'No Worries'. Even if it was to all intents and purposes just Lighthouse Family stuff with different lyrics. But hey it worked!

 

Dane Bowers/Abs. I bought both those singles. Dane has some pipes on him - one of the best male R&B vocalists this country has had in fact - but extenuating circumstances (questionable girlfriend choices, brushes with the law) seem to make that a forgotten thing. I still regularly listen to Another Level, they had some wicked singles. Abs had some great singles but with the way pop was going at that time if you weren't hitting the top 10 first week out or sustaining it beyond that you were pretty much heading for the dumper as he did.

 

Now. The Spice Girls we've met in those last three entries. I don't personally know how anyone can put Mel B over Victoria where their solo careers are concerned. Victoria's was the most short lived, true - it was always going to be the way given that her marriage to David and the media frenzy around it at the time was always going to overshadow anything she did in the profession that made her well known.

 

But in my view she had the better material. Mel B was striving too hard to be a credible R&B singer which she never was. Releasing 'Tell Me' as her first single, a song that couldn't air her dirty laundry in public about her ex husband more if it tried was just plain scally. Not to mention another track on her album 'Feel Me Now' where her attempt to be all sultry and sexy just sounded like a randy Vera Duckworth.

 

'Innocent Girl' wasn't groundbreaking, true, but it was a fine pop single for what it was and the video was great too with the whole 'Good Girl/Bad Girl' concept. Any record regardless of who it was by would come off worse against Kylie, because that was a classic from the word go. But I loved 'A Mind of Its Own' the second single, I loved 'Let Your Head Go' as well, and of course 'Out of Your Mind'. She always got the rough ride - the Louis Tomlinson of the Spice Girls if you will - where the solo careers were concerned but it was an inevitable circumstance.

 

Which leads us to Melanie C. She kind of shot herself in the foot in the long run when she had that punky short hair and tried to go all rock, spending much of her first three albums being visibly frustrated with being a Spice Girl or acknowledging her pop roots in any way shape or form. I've talked before on my girl group review thread about David Sinclair's book 'Spice Girls Revisited' and it is fascinating forensic reading, particularly about this period of their careers.

 

I remember her playing at V Festival in 1999 and getting ridiculed and bottled (this being the days when pop acts at rock festivals wasn't the norm remember) for singing 'Goin' Down' and Sex Pistols' 'Anarchy in the UK'. I wasn't surprised therefore with the chart run it had, or the backlash she received in the pop press at that time - Smash Hits and NME alike.

 

Still, 'Northern Star' was a great album, and it had some better singles thereafter - the title track and 'Never Be The Same Again' in particular - but though I also liked 'Reason', it never quite hit the same heights. In the time since only 'The Sea' and 'Version of Me' have come close to the brilliance of her debut.

Edited August 29, 20177 yr by ThePensmith

17. WORK IT OUT- BEYONCE (108,000)

 

 

PEAK POSITION: 7

WKS ON CHART: 11

YEAR: 2002

 

Meanwhile here’s The Neptunes co-writing and producing the debut solo single for a certain Beyoncé who would of course go on to eclipse the achievements of her group. Use in the film “Austin Powers: Goldmember” helped though in terms of Destiny’c Child solo debuts she was actually outsold….

 

16. REAL GIRL- MUTYA BUENA (137,000)

 

 

PEAK POSITION: 2

WKS ON CHART: 13

YEAR: 2007

 

If only “Out Of Control” had been her first solo release but it wasn’t instead Mutya went with this Lenny Kravitz sampling track which spent a fortnight at No 2 behind Rihanna’s “Umbrella”. Buena had left the Sugababes in December 05 and duetted with George Michael in late 06 prior to the release of this track.

 

15. GIVE IT TO YOU- JORDAN KNIGHT (152,000)

 

 

PEAK POSITION: 5

WKS ON CHART: 9

YEAR: 1999

 

A fair period of time had elapsed since the demise of New Kids On The Block (roughly 5 years) so there was a collective eyebrow raising when this became a hit. With Jam & Lewis on production it certainly had credentials and gave an early hit writing credit to co-author Robin Thicke, it also charted simultaneously (Stateside at least) with former bandmate Joey McIntyre’s “Stay The Same” which missed over here.

 

Jordan Knight's one was positively filthy lyrically. None the worse for all that though, and it's on Now 44 so for that reason I still rather like it.

 

Still really like the 'Real Girl' album. Common consensus is that 'Song 4 Mutya (Out of Control)' with Groove Armada is the only decent song on it but I loved 'Real Girl', 'Just a Little Bit', 'It's Not Easy' and 'Strung Out'. She has always had a truly awesome voice has Mutya.

 

I completely forgot about 'Work It Out'. It kind of goes without saying I'd take that or 'Crazy in Love' over a lot of what Beyonce's released in the time since.

took me years to realise 'Crazy In Love' wasn't Beyoncé's solo debut, 'Work It Out' just doesn't sound like the debut of a megastar like her but I suppose it was only a soundtrack single.

Beyoncé was going for an album full of tracks in the same vain as work it out until it underperformed.

 

Wonder where 'stole' is from Kelly .

It's gonna take forever for Work It Out to get certified. It's not among my favorite Bey tunes, but it deserves more recognition.

 

It's higher than I thought it'd be, though. Glad to see it at number 17!

Edited August 31, 20177 yr by Haribo

Really like "Work It Out", although not her best. Sold a lot less than I thought!

14. NEW BEGINNING/ BRIGHT EYES- STEPHEN GATELY (156,000)

 

 

UK CHART POSITION: 3

WKS ON CHART: 11

YEAR: 2000

 

Released head to head with the debut solo single from Mikey Graham (No 27) this arrived in the charts ten places higher thanks to his higher profile during the Boyzone years. Former pop star Simon Climie co-wrote “New Beginning” which was paired with his version of “Bright Eyes” as used in the new cartoon version and in which Gately voiced a minor character.

 

 

13. LIGHT OF MY LIFE- LOUISE (158,000)

 

http://i.imgur.com/FHLpiEU.jpg

 

PEAK POSITION: 8

WJS ON CHART: 8

YEAR: 1995

 

July 1995 was a bad time in girl group/ boy band land, not only did Robbie leave Take That but Louise also quit Eternal. She ventured out relatively quickly following her departure scoring the first of 9 top 10 solo hits, again this is co-penned by Simon Climie (of Climie Fisher fame)