Welcome, welcome, to my first Retro Battle. I will do a few retro song duels back from around the time when Buzzjack was just starting up. They won't all be from 2005, but from 2004-2008.

 

First up: Gwen Stefani's Luxurious vs Fergi's Glamorous.

 

Who did it better? Fergi's song was far more successful, and many people at the time commented on how Gwen's song was just a poor imitation and rip-off of Glamorous. Both feature the same rapper (on the remix version of Luxurious at least) and were released in the same year, just months apart. Fergi's song has done better on streaming and Youtube, but neither has become a mainstay of radio.

 

 

My vote is for Glamorous. I liked Luxurious at the time, but it isn't a classic pop bop unlike Glamorous. Glamorous has the better video, although Gwen's is iconic, it is more melodic, the lyrics are better, and it is more meaningful.

many people at the time commented on how Gwen's song was just a poor imitation and rip-off of Glamorous

I think you have this backwards? Gwen's album was released almost 2 years before Fergie's.

 

However, wow, I had no idea about the connection between the 2 songs:

 

 

This unreleased remix of 'Luxurious' has the same instrumental (which is nothing like the original version of 'Luxurious') and same Ludacris verse as 'Glamorous' (and even includes the 'if you ain't got no money...'). Seemingly this remix was made as a potential single version for 'Luxurious' (and did surface online / get at least a few radio plays at the time), but they instead used the one we got, featuring a different verse from Slim Thug and the original instrumental. So then this effectively un-used instrumental and rap verse became 'Glamorous'.

 

(You probably already knew this but I figure it might be news to someone else since it was for me!)

Thanks for that nugget of info Rush I never knew that. :o

 

A difficult choice but I went with Gwen. 'Glamorous' doesn't have as good a melody or lyrics but I completely slept on 'Luxurious' at the time of its release.

 

I look forward to seeing the other pairs of songs duelling it out. :P If it follows the pattern of songs strikingly similar then I expect two songs from the end of the decade featuring. :kink:

Glamorous hands down...such a bop!!!

Glamorous.

Just checked 'Luxurious' out as hadn't heard it before and... dull oops. Easy vote for 'Glamorous' but I'm not big on that either!

Neither are really up there for me.

 

Luxurious wins it as I never clicked with Glamorous. Fergalicious did it so much better!