All fair enough so far - certainly nothing more than a 3/10 and all drab covers apart from Westlife which might as well be a cover at it sounds exactly several others of theirs.

27

Back to Will we go with his cover of The Doors 'Light My Fire. This was his second chart topper in early June on a week where Football songs were coming in their droves. It's fine and Will did do a decent job of this but once again it's never been special much to me.

The interesting thing about “Light My Fire” is that it was based on a cover by José Feliciano rather than the original by The Doors. Will’s is much closer to that version. I think he does a pretty good job and I’d put that a fair bit higher.

26

The 6th number one for Oasis who are on a reunion tour as we speak. 'The Hindu Times' topped the chart in April knocking off Gareth Gates. I wouldn't class this as classic or essential Oasis hence the low placement here. If 'Little By Little' or 'Stop Crying Your Heart Out' had gotten to #1 we'd be looking at a much higher position for the guys.

2002 was way too dominated by reality shows to have many favourites from, but there are a few highlights and I have a soft spot for some of the reality stuff just as I remember Pop Idol so clearly (even at just 10!)

Pretty much all boring covers so far, and The Hindu Times was really inessential from Oasis as were most of their 2000s number 1s, Stop Crying Your Heart Out and Little by Little were leagues ahead and a real shame they both stalled at 2.

25

and speaking of Gareth here he is with his debut single, the cover of 'Unchained Melody' released by a dozen of acts but most famously done by The Righteous Brothers. It spent 4 weeks at 1. Normally this would be even lower as it's a technically nothing to write home about but Pop Idol feeling very fresh it has some fond feelings for me.

Still nothing to argue with here for me really. More boring Pop Idol covers - I agree Will sounds vocally great on Light My Fire but the production has that very particular beige sheen to it that a lot of 2002 British pop did.

The Oasis song is fine but definitely nowhere near as good as the next two singles. They always seemed to lead each era with a Liam fronted rock track that was a bit subpar compared to later singles that would often become classics.

24

An 1968 song from Elvis Presley in 'A Little Less Conversation' appears next and 25 years since his passing this one got remixed up by dutch DJ JXL and spent 4 weeks atop (across my birthday). Not quite a major fave or anything but it's still fun enough when I do hear it.

“Unchained Melody” would be right near the bottom for me - Gareth’s voice is far too weedy for it I’m afraid.

“Hindu Times” was definitely eclipsed by the follow up singles.

“A Little Less Conversation” I’d have a bit higher: it did a good job of bringing Elvis into the modern era.

Elvis is decent, I'd only have it a few places higher though probably. Nice remix and cool to see such a big 'new' Elvis hit for the first time in ages.

Oh I really dislike that JXL vs Elvis track, great to see it this low down!

23

Ronan Keating's sole chart topper for the year arrives at 23 in the form of 'If Tomorrow Never Comes'. This is where the Irishman begun churning over covers more frequently. The original is from Garth Brook's, a country song from 1989. Probably a unpopular opinion perhaps but I do quite like this and I've listened to the original which is ok too.

That's just ok for me. I can't really think of a Ronan single I particularly enjoyed after his debut album, I think the only one was All Over Again with Kate Rusby.

Agree with the majority of these low placers. The only one I'd personally rank higher is Blue & Elton.

Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word was one of Elton's starker, sombre ballads that wasn't a cheerful listen, and this one is even less cheerful as it's a bit dreary despite the added beats - the original was sad and sincere and well sung at least. Not heard this in 20 years I reckon, as I play it, and Elton's singing voice is just a shadow of his 70's heyday soulful range. I know he had a vocal op, not his fault and all that, but Elton's career is split into 2 for me as a result: when he was one of the best emotive singers on the planet (1969 through 1989) and then when he had to adopt a forced deeper style of singing since then. He still has his moments, but in terms of recordings this is just rubbish in comparison to the original.

'The Hindu Times' would actually top the list for me, oops

No complaints about anything else so far. The Elvis vs. JXL one lost its shine pretty quickly for me.

22

Not my number one, way off in fact is Atomic Kitten with 'The Tide Is High (Get The Feeling)' which the brackets part aspect is a new bridge they added into the cover. It was famously released by Blondie (originally by a band called The Paragons) and also topped the singles chart in 1980. This became the Kittens third and final number one. It's a fun cover but doesn't hold a candle to Blondie's for me.

1 hour ago, jimwatts said:

'The Hindu Times' would actually top the list for me, oops

No complaints about anything else so far. The Elvis vs. JXL one lost its shine pretty quickly for me.

I don't know what is left to come but it would definitely be my favourite to fall out so far

There have already been some eyebrow raising moments in this countdown, but at least many of the cheap covers are being eliminated early.

The Pop in 2002 was quite good overall, and that was the most dominant genre to top the charts at the time, but some of the hits of the time are rarely revisited this far later for me.

I wonder if we will be seeing Gareth pop up again next, or will Rob have to admit he's made a stupid mistake keeping him in this long! 😮

I really enjoyed the Atomic Kitten cover of The Tide Is High, they dragged it into the 00s with the new middle eight and somewhat amazingly it is their most played song on Spotify with 240 million streams, which is a quite astonishing figure for a song probably not that fondly remembered on the whole by a British pop band.