ChezGPT at its best! Lots of interesting facts there to learn about this time period which I wasn't aware of!

I'm only passingly familiar with each individual Elvis song that made it #1 at the beginning of the year here, though it has certainly always annoyed me in a perfectionist sense to see these showing up in such an artificial manner, intrigued to see just how cynical it was with that commentary.

He's decent on song quality for a certain mood but that mood wears thin rather quick and I'm sure it would if I were following the charts here - I wouldn't have been until later in the year when I entered secondary school; and even then that would be a very generous definition of 'following', that being hearing radio enough to take notice that certain songs they played a lot were sometimes followed with commentary about being a #1, so quick departees like Elvis songs would have escaped my notice even then.

Interesting write-ups indeed Chez.

I definitely wasn't keen on the Elvis reissues series stopping some decent songs getting to No.1 but at least only three got there in the end. It's Now Or Never is at least a classic of his, albeit I find it very cheesy, probably no thanks to the ice cream ad.

It's Now or Never one of the tolerable Elvis songs for me.

Phew was worried this thread would be completed by the time I returned from holiday so happy to see I haven't missed too much. No real losses so far. Stickwitu is indeed a bore of a song. Kind of mad it managed to hit #1 given it's so dull and has none of the ingredients that made PCD unique (uptempo and sass basically).

Poor Shayne. That's My Goal is better than most XF winner singles but dated as hell. He really deserved a better pop career than Cowell gave him. Sadly as soon as Leona emerged he was sidelined. I remember him coming back in 2007 with If That's Ok With You, a truly clumsy attempt at imitating Justin Timberlake. They were at least smart in making it a double A-side in the end.

I pretty much can't stand Elvis and those reissues were such a blight on the year.

22 hours ago, gooddelta said:

Interesting write-ups indeed Chez.

I definitely wasn't keen on the Elvis reissues series stopping some decent songs getting to No.1 but at least only three got there in the end. It's Now Or Never is at least a classic of his, albeit I find it very cheesy, probably no thanks to the ice cream ad.

@gooddelta would happen to know the songs Elvis stopped from getting to #1 please?

^ The only songs they blocked from #1 were Manic Street Preachers - Empty Souls, and Ashanti - Only U, plus a second week for Steve Brookstein. None of those were a huge loss if you ask me.

Yes, I should have said it stopped some decent songs from early 2005 getting to slightly higher and more deserving peaks than the one-week wonder Elvis singles.

Only U was a bit robbed imo - it was a contemporary song and it would have been nice for Ashanti to have a solo No.1, and a No.1 of any kind not associated with R Kelly.

But the Manics song had extremely low sales at No.2 on their week and I think might have set the all-time record low for No.1 (by some distance) if it had got there. When it also dived to No.26 the following week it at least gave us the strange quirk of firstly, both of the top two collapsing out of the top 10 (and Elvis one place away from them both dropping out of the top 20), and also the fact that the following Manics single - Your Love Alone Is Not Enough in 2007 - acted in the exact opposite way, going 26-2 in its first two weeks.

The charts were an absolute state anyway in early 2005 and it was crazy how long they waited to introduce downloads. The Elvis saga was a by product of that. I think the re-issues pretty consistently sold just over 20k each week, so it seem quite hard to argue that anything that couldn’t even beat that week’s Elvis track deserved #1.

True, in hindsight the reissues propped the chart up at the time!

Indeed, the reason I decided not to do an extra rank of the number 2s of this year is that so many of them were Elvis reissues I barely remembered 😅I wouldn't say anything truly worthy missed number 1, however cynical an exercise it was, I'd have been wary to see the sales if they didn't.

Anyway, here's a non-Elvis track...

22. James Blunt - You're Beautiful

#1 for 5 weeks W/E 23rd July-W/E 20th August

#4 in EOY

Before he became the king of self-deprecation, Blunt had a fairly unique past. Far from starting from nothing or gigging at pubs, Blunt, born into a family with a long history of military service, served as a captain of the British Army. His most notable involvement being in the Russian occupation of Pristina Airport in the aftermath of the Kosovo War in 1999 which had it gone differently, could well have started World War III. The Russian Army had occupied the airport ahead of a planned NATO deployment, after some delay, NATO commander at the time, Wesley Clark ordered British troops to block the airport and attack. Allegedly being questioned by Blunt, his commander, Mike Jackson refused the order. The situation was eventually resolved peacefully before escalation. It’s not known exactly how much Blunt was involved in the decision, although he has said he would’ve also refused had Jackson obeyed (credit to CocoMango at RateYourMusic as well as wiki for that factoid x).

 

Probably yearning for something a bit more peaceful, Blunt left the army in 2002 after six years serving in the force to focus on his music career. While he was posted in Kosovo, he took his guitar to hang on the tanks and would write many songs as well as perform for the troops. He was signed by EMI and gradually, adopting that acoustic David Gray/Damien Rice-esque sound that was (and continues to be I guess) quite in vogue, You’re Beautiful was eaten up by commercial radio and stayed at number 1 for five weeks all throughout the summer and enchanting (I guess?) and repulsing everyone in the process. It got to number 1 in nine countries, including the United States, a rarity for that genre. He would never have a hit of this magnitude again but had a fairly solid career over the next decade and is still releasing albums as of 2023, as well as spending his time in Ibiza and the Swiss Alps, nice x

Blunt knows exactly how people feel about this song and pretty much shares the feeling and is very open to mocking himself on Twitter (but I’m sure he appreciates it ensuring his bills are paid for his life x). He has always been surprised by the song’s success and features in weddings and easy listening as it probably wasn’t written with that in mind. Allegedly about an ex, the song is certainly deceptive in its appearance, sounding like the most MOR thing to have ever MOR’d, it’s actually a rather creepy story of an unreliable narrator seemingly unable to live with himself after seeing his previous lover with someone else, ‘’I’ve got a plan’ and 'I'll never be with you' are sung charmingly but read very differently when taken in context of someone totally hopeless, and especially when taken in tandem with the calm yet sinister video which culminates with Blunt jumping off a cliff in the snowy mountains. There are a few other quirks to the song – the false start which was a genuine mistake and left in the final track and the rather stunningly out of the blue swearing on the line ‘She could see from my face I was f***ing high’ (changed to ‘Flying high’ for the radio edit), I was shocked when I first heard this but does make sense and add to the creepy feel of the whole song.

Overall, certainly a song I can appreciate more now it’s not omnipresent and I liked it a lot more than I did at the time, but I still can’t call it good. It's clever lyrically but also smarmy, and taken just musically, the chorus is supremely irritating and it’s just dull acoustic radio fodder and while Blunt certainly wasn’t the first to try this, the British public’s love of these emotional male singer-songwriter acoustic songs would only continue over the next decade and I just find this type of sappy, unadventurous music so difficult to enjoy. I enjoyed a few more of his songs more, justice for Carry You Home and Stay the Night x

Ooh I never noticed the creepy undertones of YB. also never knew the false start was an accident!

Bonfire Heart remains my fave of his, alongside 1973!

I know it's widely maligned, but I actually quite like it

I actually bought this on the first week, when it debuted at No.12 and before it was everywhere, I always loved it! Obviously the overplay and ubiquity became tedious but it's a still a good song for me.

Agreed that considering the undertone of the lyrics, it's strange that it became a big love standard and wedding song. I guess people just hear what they want to hear but the verses suggest a different tale indeed.

7 minutes ago, gooddelta said:

I actually bought this on the first week, when it debuted at No.12 and before it was everywhere, I always loved it! Obviously the overplay and ubiquity became tedious but it's a still a good song for me.

Agreed that considering the undertone of the lyrics, it's strange that it became a big love standard and wedding song. I guess people just hear what they want to hear but the verses suggest a different tale indeed.

It's the same with Follow Me by Uncle Kracker. That's been popular as a wedding song, despite the actual meaning and story of the song.

I don't mind You're Beautiful, though it was everywhere in the back half of 2005. I much prefer 1973, Heart to Heart and Stay The Night.

I like 'You're Beautiful' as well and never found myself tired of it unlike other songs that were omnipresent and was used for as the Big Brother montage that year which I'll associate it to as well being in the same month as that, was a great and memorable series (the Makosi thing tho 😬 ). 'Carry You Home' is however one of my main faves from Blunty though so nice to see it get a mention Chez!

I actually never realized that was a false start, just assumed it was written with "My life is brilliant" sung twice!