Gotta Get Thru This I echo what I said in the last thread - very strong debut from a promising new talent!

Sound of the Underground would possibly be second or third for me, I thought it was a stormer of a debut single and a kick up the backside for British pop (or certainly reality show pop as Sugababes delivered on that front too in 2002). Louis Walsh of all people helping with such a credible and fresh debut, when the easy option would have been to go with the Stay Another Day cover!

I fondly remember buying this on release week (along with Love Inc's You're A Superstar) and thinking 'this is such a brilliant track, surely One True Voice can't beat this' but I expected the latter to win even so with the teenage girl boyband adoration advantage. If they had had a decent song they still might have done but Sacred Trust was fortunately as naff as they come. It's rare that a winner's/coronation single can stand proud in an artist's back catalogue years down the line but this is still definitely up there with Girls Aloud's very best.

“Gotta Get Thru This” and “Sound Of The Underground” are both brilliant debuts and would be in my Top 10, though neither right near the top.

10

Into the top 10 and for the second time today we hear from Daniel Bedingfield with his love song ballad 'If You're Not The One' which spent 1 week at the summit. He had a habit up till this point of genre hopping and Daniel even openly says himself it's cheesy even for him but Natasha loved it. I think this is a very raw, sincere and is like having a warm hug from someone. Admittedly the only negative thing I could say about it is that it was played to death which you'd tire of at the time but it's hard not to see why!

Please say me that "Freak Like Me" is not your # 1 in this countdown.

SOTY (peaked at # 6 in my chart) is even not in my top 20 GA songs, but was the best # 1 in this year.

12 minutes ago, Last Dreamer said:

Please say me that "Freak Like Me" is not your # 1 in this countdown.

SOTY (peaked at # 6 in my chart) is even not in my top 20 GA songs, but was the best # 1 in this year.

Well we'll see.

Gareths best single possibly but it would be lower down for me. Las Ketchup what a gem just so enthusiastically cheesy and fun alwsys love hearing it in pubs. Girls aloud is classicpop love the guitar twangy bits and quite the career debut. My sweet lord is a record i loved when i was 12 years old and teen loves tend to loom larger than those in ones 40s so pretty sure that would top my 2002 list - but i wouldnt count it as a 2002 fave its 1970 or 1971 depending on US or UK release date. Gotta Get Thru This is one of the dance hits of the year pretty exciting and highest rated of the newies to date prob for me.

Fantastic to see two Sugababes songs in the 10.

9

The late Aaliyah is ninth with 'More Than A Woman'. She went to number one here a near 5 months after she was tragically killed in a plane crash aged only 22 years old. It's a fantastic track which back then and even now sounds so current and ahead of it's time.

Both 'My Sweet Lord' and 'More Than A Woman' are excellent posthumous #1s. I can see why the former was tough to rank amongst more modern sounds though.

'Sound of the Underground' was such a fresh stroke of genius as a coronation single. It would've ranked higher for me but pleased to see Sugababes x2 still to come!

Dirrty - what a song. what a moment. It gave Xtina so much stick at the time and almost derailed her Stripped era in the US but nobody can deny the cultural impact of this release.

The Ketchup Song - so many nostalgic summer memories linked to this one. Obviously a bit of a novelty song but one of the rare few that actually stand the test of time imo (like The Cheeky Song ).

Anyone Of Us (Stupid Mistake) - I'll always have a fondness for this one and the Venice-set video is so good imo.

Gotta Get Thru This - always a fun listen. Surprisingly loved it at the time despite my CD collection being almost exclusively female.

Sound Of The Underground - what a debut!! Perhaps the one and only time Louis Walsh made a good decision. It's scary to think what could have been had Girls Aloud not had SOTU on the table. P.s. criminally low in this ranking!

If You're Not The One - a bit cheesy and overplayed but it's always a joy to sing in the shower!

8

At 8 is the 5 members who failed to make it into Hear'say in the show Popstars in 2001, Liberty X with their smash 'Just A Little'. Ngl I keep forgetting this wasn't their debut lol. It's a massive pop bop oozing with sassiness and they look incredible in the video with the latex catsuits and being presented as burglars.

Suffered from overplay at the time so I never listened to it out of choice but now I can appreciate it.

7

Number 7 sees Holly Valance aka Felicity Scully from Neighbours, a character I didn't care for that much when watching her in that.. anyway she forged a music career in 2002 and first came 'Kiss Kiss' or 'Șimarik' as it's known as in Turkey which was a cover by an Turkish act called Tarkan in 1997. A Bollywood fused pop song it is and a pop anthem at that which I was very much addicted to as a kid and it still pops off now justifying itself a respectable top 10 placement for me.

This song reminded me a lot of Eurovision at the time, which was a good thing, but also seemed in comparison a bit cheap and less authentic to me!

Edited Saturday at 23:524 days by TheSnake

Yeah I've always seen it as sounding like a Eurovision style track too and it only being released a couple of weeks before the contest as well!

“Just A Little” is my favourite in the Top 10 so far: just a fabulous song. “More Then A Woman” would be in my Top 10 too: quite a simple RnB track but beautifully done and poignant. “If You’re Not The One” is a cut above most slushy ballads and has a real sincerity to it. “Kiss Kiss” is my least favourite of the 4 and wouldn’t be anywhere near my Top 10, but it was an incredibly clever bit of sampling.

I've mentioned this before but there was really nothing in Eurovision prior to the release of Kiss Kiss that sounded like this song. Sertab Erener's winner in 2003, Everyway That I Can, certainly did sound like it, but that came a full year afterwards (so was maybe even influenced itself by Holly/Tarkan's success?). And that winning kickstarted this style of music doing well in the contest. Either way, I was never super into Kiss Kiss (or Down Boy) myself although it's super catchy with the 'mwah' - clever track but probably about 10 places lower for me.

More Than A Woman was so fresh and sharp for that period and Aaliyah's passing was such a big loss to the music industry, she had always been good but was becoming really superb musically.

Just A Little is great pop, the kind of song you hear on first listen and think 'oh, this is a No.1 single' - which was a little surprising considering how their prior single fared - the X rebrand clearly rejuvenated them. Catchy, superb hook, great video and imagery, strong vocals.

If You're Not The One is possibly my personal favourite of the top ten so far, one of my favourite singalong songs due to the mix of lower register and falsetto. It's also just a brilliantly written ballad.

6

Landing at 6 is the much missed Darius. He might have ended up 3rd in Pop Idol behind Will and Gareth that year but does manage to get the highest ranked of the reality tv star hits here. 'Colourblind' is a fun and breezy pop record which I enjoyed lots and his accompanying album was pretty solid also. What's not to like about it really.

'Just A Little' is fantastic, I did like their initial garage direction but this catchy blend of pop and R&B was an even smarter move.

There were some cracking moments from reality show stars at the top of the chart this year with Liberty X rising above the 'flop stars' tag, Girls Aloud debuting with an exciting direction and now Darius completely turning around his initial laughing stock image too.

Agree that Just a Little is a really strong single, quite far ahead of everything else so far for me <3