RabbitFurCoat Revisits Personal Chart #1 Singles - 2006 STARTED

89 - 25/09/2006 Lily Allen - LDN

Chart Run: 01-01-02-02-02-11-23-28-32-34 (10 weeks)

Getting to a song which spent more than a solitary week at the top again, and it's Lily Allen with her second hit, LDN. Her first two singles were the reverse for me in as in the UK as it was following up #6 hit Smile, which was always nice enough but even at the time I loved LDN a lot more - it had been hanging around for a while as one of the new wave of MySpace acts, and was great fun and well written, a good tale of noughties London. I was certainly pleased she got the UK success she did in 2006, it was great to see her at the top of the UK chart. LDN had a quite bizarre chart run for me, with five weeks in the top 2 before dropping straight out of the top 10 and lasting just five further weeks in total! There were some very busy weeks for releases coming up which contributed to big falls, and as I'd been listening to it long before its actual release it wouldn't have had the longevity it perhaps deserved.

I've gone through phases with Lily Allen - I liked her first couple of albums but went off them both relatively quickly, only going back to certain songs now, but have definitely enjoyed some of her latter work too, though that's No Shame much more than last years album. LDN is still a pretty good song that I enjoy, but it does feel very 2006! Looking at Lily's chart history, I do think she has been under-charted with her best songs generally - Alfie (#12) and The Fear (#14) seem criminally low peaks, and they'd be the two of hers I'd go back to most, with Back To The Start probably rounding off a top 3.

2026 Rating: 7/10
Songs kept from #1: McAlmont & Butler - Speed, Jet - Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is

Both of these songs rose to the #2 spot, in their fifth and third charting week respectively, after entering lower down which was becoming a bit more common but still quite rare by this stage. McAlmont & Butler were an occasional project between Suede's Bernard Butler and singer David McAlmont, whose 90s hit Yes I was a big fan of. I enjoyed Speed for a while but not something I've returned to often. After loving Jet's debut album I had high hopes for a return, but it's widely regarded as an awful album, and whilst I wouldn't go as far as some criticism I definitely consider it to be a huge comedown in quality, which wasn't unusual for bands of this era releasing a second album. Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is is fine, but got nothing on earlier singles - I certainly don't rate either of these tracks anywhere near as high now.

Two other highlights released within this fortnight were The Pipettes follow-up Judy (#4) and a hidden gem amongst the indie landfill for a band who had some minor success (3 top 40s all in the 30s), Happy As Annie by Larrikin Love (#15), a song of that era I've gone on to enjoy a lot over the years and still play regularly.