So, if you've been following the other thread recently then you'll see this is a song many have talked about as being the most ordinary #1 in chart history. Do you agree with this?

Here is a quote from @jimwatts that outlines what exactly should be deemed as ordinary when it comes to the choice made;

12 hours ago, jimwatts said:

Here's how my Oxford dictionary & thesaurus defines 'ordinary':

"normal or usual"; "standard, conventional, typical, common, commonplace, customary, habitual, everyday, regular, routine, established, run-of-the-mill, unremarkable, unexceptional"

So does that fit the bill for this song?

20/07/1996 Gary Barlow Forever Love

Peak: 1

Chart run: {1}-3-10-15-29-40-48-67-55-49-63-73-56-64-63-67->16

Here is some added facts provided by Wikipedia;

"Forever Love" is the debut solo single released by British singer-songwriter Gary Barlow, taken from his debut solo album, Open Road(1997). Released on 8 July 1996, it debuted at number one on the UK Singles Chart six days later, becoming Barlow's first of three number-one singles away from Take That. Worldwide, "Forever Love" also topped the charts in Lithuania, Spain and Taiwan, while reaching the top five in Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Ireland and Switzerland. The song was used as the official theme for the film The Leading Man (1996).

British magazine Music Week rated the song four out of five, writing, "Barlow's undisputed writing skills are evident on this wistful ballad which builds to a dramatic climax. A surefire number one." Editor Alan Jones added, "An introspective ballad, it starts slowly and becomes increasingly urgent and compelling. Aside from Barlow's voice, which is in fine fettle, the song is dominated by piano and is a romantic tour-de-force of the kind his fans must have been hoping for. One of the year's biggest hits."

Selling 109,000 copies during its first week of release, "Forever Love" entered the UK Singles Chart at number one, where it stayed for one week, thus making Barlow the first member of Take That to top the charts with a solo record. It remained in the top 75 for a total of 16 weeks, being certified gold by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI).

So what do you think? Is it the most Ordinary UK #1 of all time?

As a song it is very ordinary. However it is the solo debut single of one of Britain's biggest stars and the first Take That solo single to hit number one so with all that baggage I can't call it an ordinary number one

Nah. I Feel You by Peter Andre is more ordinary I think. A worse chart run, a second No.1 filler hype bubble thing that I honestly can’t hum a note of. It didn’t go top ten in any other country either so I doubt a lot of people outside the UK have any recollection of it either.

Forever Love had a decent chart run in the end in the top 75, finished in the end of year top 40, and went top ten in over 10 countries, and is notable as being a debut solo single for a major star who is still successful today and was in the biggest boyband of the 90s. It definitely isn’t a great track musically and Gary thought it was way better than it actually was. But there are a few ‘more ordinary’ offenders for me than this.

Yeah, I think what we really need is a poll with a selection of the more "ordinary" suggestions from the other thread.

There’s defo a few number ones that got there out of luck/fanbase/low sales etc

I’d say ‘My Love’ by Westlife is on par with this Gary Barlow song

I Feel You is a good shout

No, nothing is beating Ariana Grande - positions for me.

I’ve never been a Take That fan but I found ‘Forever Love’ beautiful - I bought it despite never owning any TT music.

19 minutes ago, Mangø said:

Yeah, I think what we really need is a poll with a selection of the more "ordinary" suggestions from the other thread.

There's too many I think, and they are all very subjective anyway, but this song seemed to garner the majority of the comments through the thread, so it seemed logical to put a poll out.

I voted "not sure". This whole debate is very subjective, even more than what is "good" and "bad", because ordinary is more nuanced and depends on your pov.

For me, several dance tracks or "vibey r&b" like Eastside I mentioned in that thread are the most "run-of-the-mill"/ordinary type of songs. Type of songs that people don't really actively like or dislike. I also think Ordinary (by A. Warren) is very ordinary track and high in this ranking of most ordinary songs.

Then there is also the debate that does the performer make a song less/more ordinary? Is a cover song more ordinary than an original?

Edited May 13May 13 by Sour Candy

The correct answer is Yes :D but I think the problem we all have different concepts of what Ordinary means

for me it means vanilla, dull, flat, mediocre but not terrible bad ala boyzone or westlife covers

Barlow wrote amazing songs for Take That, from The Flood to Greatest Day to Patience to Back for Good

how could he release something so flat and vanilla as his debut single?

There is no correct answer 🤣 end of day it's an opinion and opinions are subjective ,

This will always be subjective of course but here is a list of songs from the other thread which I think have been suggested by multiple people and, for me at least, fit the description of ordinary, so if you want to create a poll @awardinary then these might be a good set of songs to start with. Feel free to edit the list!

Alex Warren - Ordinary

Benny Blanco, Halsey & Khalid - Eastside

David Sneddon - Stop Living The Lie

Dizzee Rascal - Dirtee Disco

Gary Barlow - Forever Love

Internet Money feat. Don Toliver, Gunna And Nav - Lemonade

Ja Rule - Wonderful

Lewis Capaldi - Forget Me

Lewis Capaldi - Wish You The Best

McFly - Please Please

Orson - No Tomorrow

Peter Andre - I Feel You

Sam Bailey - Skyscraper

Scouting For Girls - This Ain't A Love Song

Will Young & Gareth Gates -The Long and Winding Road

I voted yes but only because I was the first to mention “Forever Love” haha.

Gary Barlow - Forever Love

Peter Andre - I Feel You

Will & Gareth - The Long And Winding Road

…were all included in the shortlist of 100 chosen by a group of us for the Worst Number One Ever rate back in 2022 (eventually won by “The Stonk”). None of them finished particularly high in the rate, I guess because there’ll all more dull than bad.

Funnily enough, I was just about to mention that rate!

https://www.buzzjack.com/forums/topic/258022-worst-number-one-ever-the-grand-final/page/16/#findComment-7223127

All three songs made the top 50, 'I Feel You' highest at 16. Personally I think that precludes all of them from being ordinary - as Jay said in the other thread, describing a song as "dull and boring" skews it towards negative, whereas to be ordinary it would be more straight down the middle.

For me, the test would be: if you took the #1 song and mixed it with 4 songs from the same year which peaked lower down the Top 10 (or perhaps lower), and played them to 100 people, then asked them all to guess which one was the #1, how many of them would get it right? I suggested Cover Drive - Twilight in the other thread as literally the first thing that came into my head (a few people liked / agreed by the way, so I think it should be added if there is a bigger poll), but it struck me as the sort of song where if it had entered and peaked at #6 instead, would anyone be surprised then or now? Sure it still has its fans, and it's certainly not a bad song, but perhaps more of an inoffensively passable one than a classic of its time. Though of course these things will always be subjective!

Although I have championed Forever Love as possibly being the most ordinary #1 on the other thread, I have gone Not Sure here as there could be another that is so ordinary we haven't thought of it yet!!

What I would say, and what @awardinary has said from the beginning, is that it is very subjective and there will always be an argument for and against every contender.

The fact that any song got enough interest for it to make #1 in the first place discounts it's merits for being "ordinary".

Edited May 13May 13 by ChrisJK

I voted no but now I’ve listened to it I’ll change it to yes

No, I think it's rather lovely. Probably didn't deserve to be #1 but I still listen to it from time to time. It's better than the Alex Warren song.

4 minutes ago, AcerBen said:

No, I think it's rather lovely. Probably didn't deserve to be #1 but I still listen to it from time to time. It's better than the Alex Warren song.

But these are two different things, like discussed in this thread.

7 minutes ago, Sour Candy said:

But these are two different things, like discussed in this thread.

It's LESS ORDINARY than it too then.

Edited May 13May 13 by AcerBen

I've answered no! My reasoning is in the other thread! 🤣

38 minutes ago, Juranamo said:

Easy. The most ordinary #1 is the most common song to make number one. That is Unchained Melody, and I would say the 4th one to make number one...

So we have our winner, which is:

Gareth Gates - Unchained Melody

This topic can now be closed. 😜

20 minutes ago, Juranamo said:

I know that, I was just pointing out one way in which we could remove all subjectiveness. 🙈

Food Aid has different lyrics, so I wouldn't choose that, but "Do They Know It's Christmas?" by Band Aid 30 can fight for the crown, I guess!

And "You'll Never Walk Alone" definitely has an argument here too!

Though I will stand by Gareth Gates 'Unchained Melody' as there was no Charity ensemble version of it, making the song just that bit more ordinary (4 regular artists (or their team) chose to record it.