Horrible, horrible song. Deserving of its place in the bottom three.

Yeah “Beautiful Girls” is pretty dire but I also have “Fire Burning” down as a guilty pleasure.

That “500 Miles” version is very far from good and not funny at all - and yet I’d probably put it above Sean and the other charity record it knocked off #1.

I have a clear top 10 for 2007 given how few no.1s there were. Quite a few awful no.1s considering.

15 Sugababes vs. Girls Aloud Walk This Way

#2s held off #1: The Sweet Escape (Gwen Stefani, Akon)

 

 

By 2007, the sea of UK girl groups birthed from Spicemania was suffering a drought, with the vast majority of early 00s girl groups long disbanded by this time. It was up to Girls Aloud and Sugababes to represent for the latter half of the 00s, both still going strong after having collectively accumulated 6 number ones by the beginning of 2007. Both groups released their first greatest hits collections the previous Autumn, with Girls Aloud securing their first #1 album, while the newest incarnation of the Sugababes were yet to prove themselves without Mutya, but nonetheless scored a top 3 compilation album, and a #8 hit with Easy (underrated sexy bop!).

So naturally, when discussions for the Comic Relief single of 2007 emerged, it was none other than Richard Curtis who suggested the girl groups unite. Legend has it several songs were in contention, including Blur’s Girls & Boys and Candi Staton’s You Got the Love, but these were thrown out in favour of Aerosmith’s 1975 single Walk This Way.

Walk This Way was originally a top 10 US hit in the mid-70s for Aerosmith and would remain a domestic hit for the next decade, before a collaboration with Run DMC would see it become an international smash in 1986. The collaboration scored both acts top 10s across Europe, Australia and North America, with a number 8 peak in the UK (perhaps a shockingly low peak for such a classic).

Fast-forward 21 years and the two flagship UK girl groups of the time finally managed to propel the song to number one. With opening sales of 51,500, Walk This Way earned Girls Aloud and the Sugababes their third and fifth number ones respectively. The track failed to stick around, falling from 2 to 14 in its third week, before swiftly exiting the charts. I’m not even sure it’s cleared 200,000 after all these years!

This is definitely one of those cases where a dream collaboration fails to live up to hype and expectations. Similarly to Leon, the song choice does them no favours. Why they couldn’t have just asked Xenomania to cook up an original track instead? Or at least as one half of a double A-side release. I guess not a lot of thought was put into the song choice, given the small timeframe, but it could’ve been something good. Instead it falls flat, with none of the girls providing the vocal oomph the song needs and the instrumental is just noise to my ears. Way too overproduced while also somehow lacking any punch. Perhaps all involved just phoned it in?

I’d put this firmly in the “unlistenable” category with the other three songs, though ranked higher only for the iconic moment of the two biggest groups of the era uniting and scoring a number one in the process. The song also prevented the far more grating The Sweet Escape from bagging a week at #1, thus denying Gwen Stefani her first solo UK chart topper. I’m not mad about this as I much preferred LAMB-era Gwen to the singles released from her sophomore album.

OK, I'm in minority (for millionth time 😥) , who love girls version and dislike the original.

Maybe it's the best charity single of all-time with Saturdays - Just Can't Enough on the second place.

Yes it’s not their best work but it’s not awful (in my opinion)

That's a very fair placing, it's awful but not quite as bad as the others you've already featured. It's just so lifeless isn't it? The original has so much energy and attitude to it (even though I don't love it, I can see why others do) where as this cover was so tame, taking the principle of the video battle and removing any sense of battle from it. Considering both groups have some decent cover versions, this was very below par.

Agree with the last placer here, that summary of the 2007 X Factor series was spot on, with the villain edit for Rhydian clearly backfiring as the series went on. Louis also tried to villainise Same Difference in the early live shows for... not being great I guess, though it wasn't as if they had the strongest of competition. Then the final was billed to be England vs. Wales vs. Scotland which was always going to play into Leon's hands, with English viewers hardly likely to turn partisan for Same Difference and Scotland with the bigger population of the other two - also being a Bublé wannabe catered well for a casual audience, but devoid of his presence or interpretative vocal ability, this coronation song just borders on unlistenable for me.

I'd have the Comic Relief songs the other way around, but certainly near the bottom. The 'Walk This Way' cover is just a karaoke version to me, and while the '500 Miles' cover is absolutely a joke that quickly wears thin, the absurd "Bobby Davro!" ad libs and the actual Proclaimers turning up on the third verse do salvage something from it - seeing their original (which became one of the first songs I downloaded when I got an iPod later in 2007) return to the chart while this was at #1 was one of the early delights of the "anything can chart" download era. 'Beautiful Girls' is one I did sort of like putting 'Stand By Me' to that arrangement wasn't as heinous as it might seem and worked quite well I thought, at least when I didn't listen too closely to the lyrics - those charges don't really help with that now though oops. Anyway, I'd have loved it if 'Hey There Delilah' had managed a week at #1!

^ oh yes, Louis did often put Same Difference down, but changed his tune when they came back the following year to perform 'We R One'

'Beautiful Girls' is dire, I agree that the 'suicidal' lyric in particular is jarring and his vocal performance is weak. 'Stand By Me' has slowly become an all-time favourite for me so thank goodness that eventually got a turn at #1 itself, as this out-peaking that would've been tragic.

Random Sean Kingston lore drop - he used to follow me on Twitter years ago but then his account got hacked and unfollowed everyone, so I lost it

Girls Aloud and Sugababes both have really strong singles discographies for me, so I was excited for them to team up. However, the groups behind 'Sound of the Underground' and 'Round Round' were given... this? A totally basic cover version. It's a shame GA's list of #1s isn't the most glowing endorsement of their catalogue!

I'm a massive fan of the Sugababes and a casual fan of Girls Aloud, but Walk This Way is absolutely terrible. I was so hyped for this at the time and it is such a let down. Two of Britain's biggest girl bands of the 00's who gave us hits such as Round Round, Hole In The Head, Push The Button, Sound Of The Underground, The Show & Biology could only muster this? I know it was for charity but surely there were better options.

7 hours ago, Paddington James said:

I'm a massive fan of the Sugababes and a casual fan of Girls Aloud, but Walk This Way is absolutely terrible. I was so hyped for this at the time and it is such a let down. Two of Britain's biggest girl bands of the 00's who gave us hits such as Round Round, Hole In The Head, Push The Button, Sound Of The Underground, The Show & Biology could only muster this? I know it was for charity but surely there were better options.

Absolutely. I said it once and I’ll say it again, it’s total madness they didn’t use Xenomania, who produced most of each group’s biggest and best hits to come up with something exciting and fresh. It could’ve been a collaboration for the ages but no. 😭

2 hours ago, Scene said:

Absolutely. I said it once and I’ll say it again, it’s total madness they didn’t use Xenomania, who produced most of each group’s biggest and best hits to come up with something exciting and fresh. It could’ve been a collaboration for the ages but no. 😭

I agree, Xenomania was right there. I wonder could've they done a mash-up of a Sugababes and Girls Aloud song. Would've that worked?

Walk This Way is average. I don't hate it but it is among the worst singles from both bands (Sugababes I'd put Girls and Wear My Kiss below it tbh).

Putting two pop forces like this together and coming up with such an uninspired cover was a shame though, imagine how good a Xenomania penned original written to show off the best of both bands could have been. I'm not really huge on the original Walk This Way either though.

Yep, a huge wasted opportunity and such a let down. Fair placing.

14 Kanye West Stronger

#2s held off #1: none

 

Kanye West first entered the music industry in the early 00s as a regional producer across Chicago and it didn’t take him long to stumble across Jay-Z, who signed him as an in-house produce for Roc-A-Fella Records. Kanye went on to co-produce Jay’s 2001 album The Blueprint before signing as a recording artist.

He dropped his debut album The College Dropout in 2004 to critical acclaim and achieved top 10 hits Through the Wire and All Falls Down. His career reached new heights once he dropped sophomore album Late Registration a year later. The album was just as acclaimed as his debut, despite a sonic overhaul: ditching the sped-up soul samples for a more orchestral style. The album spawned the classic Gold Digger (featuring Jamie Foxx), as well as the hits Touch the Sky and Diamonds from Sierra Leone.

So by 2007, the ever-chameleonic Kanye West was switching sounds yet again for his highly anticipated third album, Graduation. This time he was experimenting with electronica, with his lead single Stronger heavily sampling Daft Punk’s 2001 #25 single Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger. Stronger was released on August 3, 2007, and debuted at #3 before climbing to #1 the following week, marking Kanye’s first ever UK number one.

Stronger centres around themes of self-empowerment and overcoming adversity, described by Kanye as an emancipation of sorts from past mistakes. Credit where it’s due, Kanye managed to shift the boundaries of what Hip-Hop could sound like with this release. The fusion of electronica and Hip-Hop back in 2007 was actually quite revolutionary, with no other mainstream rapper doing this.

Unfortunately, that’s where the positives end for me. While the sample is used really well here, it is basically what makes the song. Kanye’s bravado brand of rapping is just not for me either. Actually, I would go as far to say I don’t enjoy him as a vocalist in any form. The lyrics, even discounting the misogyny and homophobic slur, read like the ramblings of a narcissist. There's literally nothing that makes me want to listen to this over the Daft Punk original to be honest.

There was some great music released during the 2007 summer holidays – including future-classics from Amy Winehouse (Tears Dry On Their Own, peaked at 16 until post-death) and Foo Fighters (The Pretender, peaked at 8), yet the top 2 tracks In that final week of August were no other than Stronger and Beautiful Girls! Fortunately, the standard at the top would soon recover...

I wasn't a huge fan of Stronger at the time, then every year for about 12 years I went to see a comedian and this was one of his pre-show songs and now I don't mind it.

It’s not that I like Stronger, it’s more that I like Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger.

Agreed - the Daft Punk track is great and it’s sampled so directly here that it means the track is decent enough

Decent results so far - Umbrella is one of my favourites songs of all time so hope that's high!

“Walk This Way” was a poor song choice in the first place and that version is quite the mess. As I said I’d rather listen to that “500 Miles” version.

I’ve always enjoyed “Stronger”, including the rap, so I’d have that higher. Not a patch on Daft Punk though.