It's 15 years since Usher's 'Burn' and Girls Aloud's 'The Show' entered the UK chart.

 

'Burn' was Usher's follow-up to his massive #1 single 'Yeah!' and second single to be released from Confessions, although original plans were for 'Burn' to lead the album,only changed when 'Yeah!' leaked and received great acclaim.

 

'The Show' was Girls Aloud's lead single to their second album and saw a change in sound and image; the birth of their cheeky, poppy-synth sound the girls are recognised for.

 

Both were hot contenders to reach #1 but, in the end, Usher finished with a 20k lead over Girls Aloud, debuting with 49,334 sales compared to their 28,572. 'Burn' has since been certified Gold for sales of over 400k, way ahead of 'The Show' which has just over 100k.

 

15 years on, which is your favourite?

Top 10

01 (NE) Usher - Burn

02 (NE) Girls Aloud - The Show

03 (02) Britney Spears - Everytime

04 (01) McFly - Obviously

05 (03) Mario Winans feat. Enya & P Diddy - I Don't Wanna Know

06 (NE) Kylie Minogue - Chocolate

07 (04) Outkast - Roses

08 (NE) George Michael - Flawless (Go to the City)

09 (NE) Blue - Blubbin'

10 (05) O-Zone - Dragostea Din Tei

 

Top 40 New Entries

11 (NE) Black Eyed Peas - Let's Get It Started

14 (NE) Basement Jaxx feat. Lisa Kekaula - Good Luck

17 (NE) The Ordinary Boys - Talk Talk Talk

27 (NE) Ryan Adams - Wonderwall

30 (NE) 20-20s - Shoot Your Gun

35 (NE) Eighties Matchbox B-Line - I Could Be An Angle

38 (NE) Longview - In a Dream

 

Previous Chart Replays

S Club 7 - 'Bring It All Back' vs. Madonna - 'Beautiful Stranger' (1999)

ATB - '9 PM (Till I Come)' vs. Whitney Houston - 'My Love is Your Love' (1999)

This is tougher than the previous two of these for me as I like both of them about the same amount but they're both not exactly songs I would ever randomly feel like listening to. Think I'll go with GA here solely because no one needs 'Burn' when the same era gave us the miiiiles better 'Yeah!'

Definitely Girls Aloud!

 

"Burn" was never a fave of mine, he has SO many better songs!

I've grown to appreciate 'The Show' a lot more. I've always liked it but I've never rated it as one of their best and it always annoyed me seeing it tend do so well in Girls Aloud rates and things, especially at the expense of songs I would rate among their best. The past year it's been one I've found myself returning to a fair bit so I think I rate it a lot higher now.

 

'Burn' is nice but that style of R&B slow jam isn't really my thing. 'Yeah!' remains Usher's best and I don't think it'll be beaten.

 

(Great new entries in the shape of Kylie and BEP that week. 'Everytime' is one of Britney's very best ballads and 'Obviously' is probably my favourite McFly song.)

'The Show' by absolute miles! I've always found 'Burn' really boring... but as others said, at least that era gave us the fantastic 'Yeah!'. I love everything about 'The Show' - super catchy, quintessentially quirky Girls Aloud lyrics, well-produced and a fun video. How has it been 15 years though :drama:

'The Show' kinda passed me by as a kid which is strange as I distinctly remember 'Jump' and 'Love Machine' from the time.

both are pretty meh but The Show is the least forgettable

 

my fav from Usher is My Boo with Alicia Kerys which was released later that year

'The Show' isn't one of my absolute faves of theirs but it easily beats 'Burn' for me.

 

'Yeah' is miles better than both of these though.

 

It should've been 'Let's Get It Started' and 'Good Luck' in the top 2 instead, both missing the top 10 is a big injustice.

It should've been 'Let's Get It Started' and 'Good Luck' in the top 2 instead, both missing the top 10 is a big injustice.

They were unlucky to release in a competitive week as they had both sold enough to be Top 10 the previous week.

Burn by far

Usher literally has two good singles in my opinion: 'Pop Ya Collar' and 'U Make Me Wanna'. This is neither of them, this only got to #1 because it was in that weird time when people stopped buying CD singles in the same quantities they did and gravitated like sheep by default to US R&B and hip hop because it was the in thing (see virtually 25% of the number ones from 2004, with particular gaze on that dreadful Eamon/Frankee whiny dirge we had almost nigh on two months of).

 

'The Show' is the far better of the two fifteen years on and back then. Girls Aloud meant something huge to fans of out and out pop music like myself back in 2004 and this was why. They were the only ones daring to be different and not go with whatever the flavour of the day was - a lot of it down to Peter Loraine at Polydor/Fascination who believed in them when so many didn't simply because of where they came from, pushing so hard for them, but also Brian Higgins and Xenomania producing all their music and taking the biggest risks with them sound wise and music wise.

 

You would certainly be hard pushed to find anyone else back then recording 'The Show' or 'Love Machine', or even the likes of 'Biology' a year later and making it their own. At this point in their career, they may not have got the radio play or the commercial acceptance that they would get in later years, but they were on the way to it for sure.

One of the biggest names in music for the best part of 2 decades only got a #1 at the peak of his relevance because 'US R&B was the in thing'. Okay then. I guess that explains why he never had any other hits after 2004, and why we never hear his 2004 hits any more... oh wait. You might not like Usher but what a bizarre argument.

I don't think I've heard 'Burn' since it was out, so although I couldn't tell you how it goes I do remember it was boring as f***.

'The Show' is the far better of the two fifteen years on and back then. Girls Aloud meant something huge to fans of out and out pop music like myself back in 2004 and this was why. They were the only ones daring to be different and not go with whatever the flavour of the day was - a lot of it down to Peter Loraine at Polydor/Fascination who believed in them when so many didn't simply because of where they came from, pushing so hard for them, but also Brian Higgins and Xenomania producing all their music and taking the biggest risks with them sound wise and music wise.

 

You would certainly be hard pushed to find anyone else back then recording 'The Show' or 'Love Machine', or even the likes of 'Biology' a year later and making it their own. At this point in their career, they may not have got the radio play or the commercial acceptance that they would get in later years, but they were on the way to it for sure.

Yeah Xenomania did a fantastic job of creating interesting sounds and structures within the compounds of commercial pop music. It was the same with their work outside of Girls Aloud - I know they worked with Kylie in 2004 and they came up with something really fresh and different for her.

One of the biggest names in music for the best part of 2 decades only got a #1 at the peak of his relevance because 'US R&B was the in thing'. Okay then. I guess that explains why he never had any other hits after 2004, and why we never hear his 2004 hits any more... oh wait. You might not like Usher but what a bizarre argument.

 

Sorry but where did I suggest that he wasn't relevant beyond 2004? I was just stating what one of the trends was that year, which he was part of with two number ones. Don't start putting words in my mouth please.

Yeah Xenomania did a fantastic job of creating interesting sounds and structures within the compounds of commercial pop music. It was the same with their work outside of Girls Aloud - I know they worked with Kylie in 2004 and they came up with something really fresh and different for her.

 

They were at the peak of their powers definitely. Also I loved the Kylie single that was new that week. I seem to be one of the few fans who loved 'Body Language' when that came out!

 

Burn is definitely the better song but both are average.

Sorry but where did I suggest that he wasn't relevant beyond 2004? I was just stating what one of the trends was that year, which he was part of with two number ones. Don't start putting words in my mouth please.

 

this only got to #1 because it was in that weird time when people stopped buying CD singles in the same quantities they did and gravitated like sheep by default to US R&B and hip hop because it was the in thing

 

My point is the fact that he was still having huge hits for a full decade after this is probably a pretty good indication that this isn't true.

The Show is decent but Burn is one of Usher's bests and up there with the best of 2004.

 

Yeah! is so overrated and ridiculously overplayed - can't hit the skip button quickly enough...

Edited July 4, 20196 yr by dobbo