They always seemed to release loud singles with swagger and attitiude as leads, but they were never the best that the eras had to offer. This is rubbish, and would be lower for me, glad they left it off the tour setlist. Agreed that the next single was better, one of their best of the 00s, and one that really should have been on the setlist.

Edited November 6, 2025Nov 6 by gooddelta

Echoing the rest here. Not crazy on 'Lyla' and the next one is in my top 3 of their noughties releases!

18. Akon - Lonely

#1 for 2 weeks W/E 7th May-W/E 14th May

#7 in EOY

Here we are with the first number 1 for Aliaune Damala Bouga Time Puru Nacka Lu Lu Lu Badara Akon Thiam...or just Akon x He arrived with two rather distinct breakout hits - two months before (a whole year after it's initial release in the States), Locked Up was his debut, marketed as a 'street record' and intended to build credibility , with some hard-hitting lyrics about the ongoing incarceration of young black people (apparently inspired by his own experience, but this was never proven), it peaked at number 5 here and the next step is to really break him commercially which is where Lonely comes in, a far more conventional love song taking a sample of Bobby Vinton's 1964 hit Mr Lonely and pitching it up to give it that Chipmunk Soul label that was popular for a while. This also made it fit in quite well with the growing ringtone landscape (more on that later x). Cynical strategy, but it worked perfectly, Lonely got to number 1 in nine countries and would pave the way for him to become one of the biggest hit makers of the next few years, getting several hits for the next four years. He would have a few hits through features in the early 2010s, but otherwise went almost completely quiet musically, focusing on philathropic works like Akon Lighting Africa, with many attempted comebacks after which did nothing and/or were postponed. His most prolific project post 2010 would be Akon City, a now abandoned crypto based project which...I don't have time to go into right now, but do look it up if you're not aware, it's a ride x

I know a lot would rank this lower and I do get why this would be supremely irritating, but it is one I have a lot of nostalgia for. Helped by being on Now 61 which I spammed repeatedly that year, I can't count how many times I heard this on TV, radio, ringtones and watching amateur online parody videos and songs (the one that sticks in my mind is this random Indian parody replacing Lonely with Curry, which I found quite funny at the time and realise is so blatantly racist now, sorry, cancel me etc. x). I'll always look back on it fondly, but likewise with JCB, it's definitely not something I'd seek out much these days, but I'd still take this over most of his discography, which is all very throwaway and rancid lyrically as well as his voice really grating on me. I think he actually sounds alright here, quite soulful and restrained and I do like the idea of the song as an modern duet with a 50s ballad, I think it could've really worked if not for the Chipmunk sound effect, I don't mind it and does make it sound fairly unique as a ballad, and again as a pre-teen hearing a high-pitched voice like that was the sort of thing that humoured me, but it definitely ruins any kind of emotional connection he was going for and gives it more of a novelty feel that it probably didn't intend for (similar thing with Ironik's Stay With Me a few years later, which had a much darker subject matter). I completely get why this one is so maligned, but it's one of those classic time capsules that defines the year, so I can't hold a lot of resentment.

Oh blimey, utterly vile song.

I use to absolutely despise Lonely at the time. If it came on the radio, id change stations. If it came on the tv, id change channels. I’ve mellowed to it slightly now. Whilst I never seek it out, I would change stations or channels if it came on.

'Lonely' is another one that would rank highly for me, I find something quite soulful about the early verses. Probably just as well I didn't have this as my year x No complaints about 'Lyla' being that low though, it's probably their weakest #1 for me.

I think that JCB Song is my favourite so far. I don't really listen to it now but I think it is sweet and really distinctive, plus the video was always cute too.

(I should add that however much of a soft spot I have for it, Lonely beating Feel Good Inc. to number 1 is one of the biggest chart injustices ever x)

I don’t mind “Lonely” either.

Also fair for “Lyla” - I think that’s much weaker than “Go Let It Out” and “The Hindu Times” which have more going on instrumentally and develop the Beatles influence.

Lyla definitely up there with the worst things Oasis ever did.

When reading these type of countdowns that you really realise just how bad so many number one singles are. Lonely is annoying but not too dreadful.

'Lyla' I don't mind as much as many others, and honestly Oasis can really annoy me at times so that itself is an achievement. It's not great but it's fine.

'Lonely' I'd be sorely tempted to rank right at the bottom just for the crime of beating 'Feel Good Inc' while being bad. Unfortunately while doing that, I'd probably have to admit that as fits with my soft spot for high pitch, I do quite like what it does with mixing the high-pitched voices with Akon's soul (certainly in comparison to a lot of his other work) and it comes together in a sort of acceptable way. To probably end up with it about how you ranked it.

17. Elvis Presley - One Night/I Got Stung

#1 for 1 week W/E 15th January

#151 in EOY

With a well timed campaign and just a bit of corporate cynicism as detailed in the last post, Elvis achieved the 1000th number 1. This was the 3rd song released in the campaign and if not for Ciara briefly breaking the gap, would've been the third in a run of four straight number 1s, succeeded a week after by It's Now or Never. One lovely bit of chart symmetry is it was the fourth double a-side to hit number 1 and was also the fourth last, and the last by an artist that wasn't McFly. One Night was originally recorded by Smiley Lewis two years earlier, it was seen as a bit racy at the time and Elvis' managers were reluctant to approach it due to the racy lyrics referring to 'One Night of Sin is what we're paying for', positively scandalous I tell thee x Elvis found a way around it though by changing the lyric to 'One Night with you is what I'm praying for' to give it a little more subtlety to its urges, it has since been covered by artists. I Got Stung is an original song and the more lesser known of the two. Clocking in at under two minutes, it's one of the shortest songs to reach number 1. It was also the last song Elvis recorded in the 50s prior to his military service.

I didn't actually hear these until recently with the Synctube sessions - One Night is pretty typical of the Bluesy rock and roll sound he had found his niche in, with its pounding guitar in the intro slowing down with his raspy, soulful voice, it's hard not to appreciate the raw talent here with just his voice and a few instruments making the song come alive, but ultimately it's one of many slower 50s songs that just aren't really for me, it's too slow and doesn't have enough variation to interest me and though I definitely appreciate his vocals, it's on the more grating side here and perhaps takes over a bit too much of the track for me to get into it, I Got Stung on the other hand is a much more upbeat, bouncy little rock and roll jam, which I imagine would've sounded quite fun on the dancefloor at the time x With goofy repeated lyrics and a few 'uh huhs' thrown in, he's having a great time and its hard not to feel that with him and it definitely doesn't outstay it's welcome, it's pretty much everything Elvis did well and think it deserves to be much better known than it is. It's something of a last hurrah as well in context he really descended into autopilot mode with his movie career. An evenly balanced A-Side overall so middle of the three Elvis entries I think works out fine x

This was announced as the 1,000th #1 at the time, which seemed more than a little anticlimactic. I also prefer the bouncier “I Got Stung”, but acrisply aside from the one to come Elvis’ 18 #1s aren’t really his best songs anyway. The #2s are where it’s at with “Hound Dog”, “Heartbreak Hotel”, “In The Ghetto” and “Suspicious Minds”.

Lonely is one I really disliked at the time, and I haven't mellowed much to it. I don't mind the verses and the production is nice in place, but the chipmunk chorus which started a whole trend off was more than a little annoying and was everywhere.

The Elvis double a is ok. My dad was obsessed with Elvis so I knew both songs, and the majority of his material, very well, and neither is among his best or deserving of such a landmark No.1. Agreed that we missed some classic singles in that reissue series because they didn't quite get to the top originally.

Thoroughly despise 'Lonely'

I liked Lonely. There I've said it again. That is also a Bobby Vinton song along with Mr Lonely - I gave Akon's track a Vinton featuring credit and treated it as another follow-up to Blue Velvet. Top 10 fer me, I have no shame. 😇

Elvis, what a shame it wasnt Heartbreak Hotel, That's Alright Mama, or some other early classic that never originally made the top spot. One Night was never a fave of mine, too plodding, and by this time I'd known it for 40 years or so so it was obviously never going to become a fave. I Got Stung, not one I knew from long ago, but turns out to be pretty good - I think I heard it a few times in the 80's and 90's and it was more a case of "oh. that's quite decent actually", so at least there's an upbeat 1000th track in part.

16. Tony Christie feat. Peter Kay - (Is This The Way to) Amarillo

#1 for 7 weeks W/E 26th March- W/E 7th May

#1 in EOY

There was certainly something in the air with regards to retro songs in early 2005 for sure. ...Amarillo was originally a minor top 20 hit in 1971 for Tony Christie, despite the Texas city it was named after, it didn't make particularly big waves in the States and was more popular in Europe, becoming a number 1 hit in Germany and Spain. He had bigger hits in the UK so one could probably not have predicted that this would be the first song people associate with him nowadays, but the song was resurrected when it was used in the Peter Kay comedy Phoenix Nights, while I never watched this, I do definitely remember him being a big name at the time and so he was perhaps the most appropriate one to turn this into something of a phenomen.

Comic Relief singles had existed for a while now, and while the official one was still released the yeat (more on that later), for the first time in 2005, they released an unofficial single with more of a comic feel than the standard charity ballad/cover usually influenced by a popular comedy at the time, in this case, on the back of it's recent exposure in Kay's series, they re-released Christie's song with the added addition of a video which features Kay miming the song while doing a jolly jog towards the camera with various green-screen backgrounds and accompanied by various light entertainment celebrities walking with him, while various stars from Phoenix Nights made cameos, there was soap stars, comedians, singers and children's entertainers and their puppets AKA a host full of 'national treasures;, it was a very retro and kitschy vibe to it that parents and grandparents could recognise and their children could enjoy the whimsy and colour of it all. It's easy to see why it was one of the last big hits of the physical era in a year like 2005, released the week after the official Comic Relief single, it stayed at the top for 7 weeks and was the only song to pass a million sales within the year. Amarillo's legacy would continue over Comic Relief and the next few additions had the release pattern of an 'official' release from a current pop group and unofficial release mainly based around a comedy show featuring comedians, it would go on until 2011 where the gradual digitalisation of both music and 'event' television caught up with it, where they stuck with an official release played as a more straight pop song for the next few additions until 2019 where they pretty much became non-existent reflecting the public's fading interest in the telethons.

Peter Kay has an official credit, but doesn't sing on the record at all, it is a straight re-release of Christie's song from 1971 with just an added new video, but tbf, that was certainly what people were buying it for which he did have some part in. It remained a charming if kitsch little watch until many years later when a certain national treasure featured turned out to be one of the biggest and prolific child sex offenders and predators who ever lived, and while his crimes weren't common knowledge in 2005, allegations and general vibes were shifting that way which those giving him power chose to look away and defend him. Even though Jimmy Saville only features in it for less than thirty seconds, it's still noticeable and the video has since been re-edited. The version linked above is the most recent 2020 version uploaded to Kay's main channel (though you can find the original on YouTube if you so wish, frustratingly it's probably the better one musically as this one cuts the intro and part of the second chorus so it doesn't flow as well). Still the video has withstanded it somewhat, it even resurrected Tony Christie's career briefly when an England World Cup version was released next year and was popular amongst key workers during the pandemic for whatever reason, so much so that it was resurrected as part of BBC's Big Night In with a new video featuring clips of key workers doing the classic walk along with original clips.

So all that said, it's a little hard to rank this personally. I have some good memories of seeing this as part of the Comic Relief telethon and at the time, thought it was quite genius even if I didn't watch Phoenix Nights, and I'd be lying if I said I still don't find it quite charming if we ignore the obvious, Sooty and Sweep, Keith and Orville and Ronnie Corbett and Mr Blobby's fall are still funny even if it does read like a who's who of the most inoffensive light entertainment you can get. It was a fun, cheesy big band number and though it's not as charming without the video, it kinda has the same appeal - dated but still charming. Even with Saville tainting the video though, it's still undeniably a dated big band 70s song and it's not really something I'd unironically come back to, but like a lot of these, it does have that nostalgia attached that I can rank it higher that some others so far. I've not much else to say so we'll just end this sparing a thought for Sally Lindsay who featured alongside Saville in the video, as if St. Winifreds wasn't bad enough...

15. McFly - All About You / You've Got a Friend

#1 for 1 week W/E 19th March

#6 in EOY

A Comic Relief double x McFly were in the prime of their career at this point and the Comic Relief telethon was still event viewing, so it made sense to make them the ambassadors for the official comic relief single, and indeed it's their biggest selling single and one of the only ones to have a stable chart run. A double a-side of an original and a cover of a classic song. All About You was written by Tom Fletcher for his then-girlfriend and now wife as a valentine gift, and with BBC backing, it felt like their biggest release yet, with a string choir and star-studded, comedic video accompanying it. If Amarillo was the more names of the past, then this video is more of a who's who of more current entertainment names of the time, including Fearne Cotton, Graham Norton, Johnny Vegas and many more. Harry Hill also plays a security guard who refuses to let Harry Judd in to the recording studio as he's a Busted fan which still raises a smile. It was released as a double a-side with their cover of Carole King's You've Got a Friend, originally recorded in 1971 as part of her Tapestry album, it was best known when a version by James Taylor was released as a single and reached number 4 here, another version was recorded by the Brand New Heavies which charted at number 9 in 1997, but it wasn't until this version where it did what James Taylor's version did in the US and topped the charts.

I always quite liked McFly, I wasn't old enough to be cynical of them and wasn't really the target audience that was head over heels for them, but they made quite likeable pop rock songs. All About You was another one weirdly enough that was resurrected in the 2020 pandemic, I guess as people were looking at older songs for comfort, with a new recorded video featuring McFly at home with their family members, and Danny with his chickens x Still it was nice hearing it and I actually think it holds up very well today, it's just hard to really fault it's sincerity and it never quite slips into sickliness, and the orchestral backing and building tempo really give it some life so that it doesn't stay the same throughout, it's still a lovely listen.

It would be a bit higher but I have to judge both songs - I didn't hear You've Got a Friend much at the time as it got far less airplay and only vaguely recall it from the Now album, it's a pleasant cover that doesn't stray too far from King's original and never really lifts off enough to be anything other than passable, it was an appropriate song to include at the time, but I can't see a reason to seek it out these days. The video is also one that hasn't aged well for different reasons to those discussed above - in contrast to the comedic video to All About You, this video sees the boys going to Uganda to help out, performing for the impoverished children there and having them sing the chorus at the end. It was the sort of well-meaning VTs that were all over the Comic Relief telethons and nowadays, poverty porn is somewhat appropriate as it reinforces steretypes of Africa being helpless without the west and the white saviour syndrome, as well as some questions in this more interconnected age of just what is being done with all this money raised by governments and why communities never see any improvement. It's uncomfortable viewing these days and especially so for me as I was really worried at looking like this when I did volunteering abroad in an impoverished school in South Africa and it made me tentative about doing it again, but like Amarillo, it's hard to hold it against the singers themselves who were only doing what they were told. Still, it's pretty dull even without that and I'll go on record to say my favourite version of this song is genuinely from the AA advert, they give it a much needed dramatic, rousing feel, a banger x

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLl67lt1yZY

Aw I have a real soft spot for 'All About You', it's cute.

I didn’t expect (Is This The Way To) Amarillo to be this high, which is silly because I'd never actually heard it.

Now that I’ve heard it I actually think it’s it too bad.

Edited November 14, 2025Nov 14 by Paddington James