I love "Ruby" - it is among my three favourite #1's of this year. "The Way I Are" is also fantastic and not far behind.

The last two are the best so far for me - I was glad 'Ruby' gave the Kaisers a #1, although it wasn't an instant favourite and unlike the singles from their previous album it didn't go straight onto my first iPod later that year, but I eventually added it a few years later after catching it on the radio. 'The Way I Are' is peak Timbaland - awesome production, earworm of a riff, and great vocal interplay with Keri (and let's not forget D.O.E., he and the similarly named Do share the feat of their only UK chart appearances being on a #1). I suppose Eminem had already taken 'The Way I Am', so a grammar cheat was needed! Still, it was incredibly bad luck for Kate Nash to miss out on #1 to 'Umbrella's 10th week by less than 150 copies, then increase sales by more than 50% the following week, only to miss out on #1 by a much smaller margin!

6 Beyoncé & Shakira Beautiful Liar

#2s kept off #1: Brianstorm (Arctic Monkeys), Your Love Alone Is Not Enough (Manic Street Preachers)

 

Beyoncé’s highly anticipated return as solo artist in 2006, while successful, didn’t seem to meet the expectations set by predecessor Dangerously in Love. While her 2003 debut spent its first five weeks at #1, on top of yielding the long-running classic Crazy in Love, second album B’Day underperformed in comparison. The first issue proved to be lead single, Déjà Vu. Although it topped the chart, it was widely criticised for being a lesser ‘Crazy’, reinforced more so by Jay-Z’s (at this point) obligatory feature on her lead single. The song failed to match Crazy’s longevity, while the album suffered its own tumble upon release. Debuting at #3, the album fell to 19-33-40, exiting the top 40 after only a month. On the other side of the pond, while the album gave B her second chart topper, the lead single debuted at #4 before sliding down the chart.

Second single Irreplaceable, helped in part by the easily imitable "to the left, to the left" hook, proved to be the hit of the album. Despite being released in October (peaking at #4), it managed to surpass Déjà Vu in the end-of-year best-sellers list, finishing at 29 to DV’s 56. The song also gave B that elusive sophomore era US #1 hit, spending 10 weeks at the top! The UK performance of the album was also salvaged, spending an additional 17 weeks in the top 40.

Despite Irreplaceable’s success during the 2006-07 winter, there seemed to be little faith in the rest of the album cutting it as singles, because as early as February, Beyoncé announced a repackaged version of B’Day, set for release the following April. Meanwhile, production team Stargate played a newly-written track to their manager, who thought it would make a perfect duet for Beyoncé and Shakira. Despite the producers thinking the idea impossible, Beyoncé liked the song upon hearing it and Shakira wasn’t difficult to convince either, having wanted to collaborate with B for a while. Once Shakira had recorded her part and added her Latin and Arabic influences on production, the scorned-lover team-up Beautiful Liar was born.

The pop diva duet of 2007 landed mid-April, entering the charts a fortnight prior to CD release at #10. The song vaulted to #5 the following week before climbing to the top and remained there for three weeks, equaling Crazy in Love’s run. The song became Beyoncé’s third #1 as a solo artist and Shakira’s second chart-topper, after the previous year’s behemoth Hips Don’t Lie. The song also managed to successfully land the deluxe at #8 in the album chart upon release, pushing the album towards double-platinum.

This song is such an underrated 00s gem and one I admittedly don’t play enough. Shakira’s influence on the record really makes it for me. Her voice just oozes the sex appeal and passion needed for this song. Not to discredit Beyoncé who more than delivers on her part. I think there could be an argument that considering the names involved this should be more explosive, but I think the song’s understated-ness is part of its charm. It has an effortless sexiness to it that doesn’t try too hard because it doesn’t need to: the fusion of Bey and Shakira’s sounds carry it, starting with that oh so sexy piping that grabs you at the start and then continuing on to that tease of a middle-8 instrumental. All in all, a brilliantly crafted duet that plays to both artists' strengths and totally authentic to each of them. I'm not sure how else I'd want a Bey/Shakira collab to sound to be honest.

Beautiful Liar’s three-week reign at the top happened to prevent two bands from securing what would turn out to be their final #1 each, as neither band would scale these heights again. The Arctic Monkeys’ Brianstorm was the first casualty: despite being only 9 copies from the top in the Monday midweek flash, it would lose steam against Beautiful Liar’s download sales. It’s never been an AM fave of mine tbh so I’m happy Beykira beat them. The second casualty was the Manic Street Preachers with Your Love Alone Is Not Enough. The song ended up becoming a third in a string of #2s for the band, despite initially showing signs of heading to the top. The MSPs were not exactly my typical taste as a 13-year-old in 2007 but there was something very instant about this song: the bluesy rock sound combined with powerful vocals and a catchy melody. It would’ve made for a fantastic UK #1 to be honest. 2007 was certainly one of the last years in which bands of the old era were still managing to gain hits, with bands such as Iron Maiden also scoring top 3 hits as late as January that year!

A trip down Buzzjack Memory Lane:

Sunday chart predictions:

For me this is a rare example of a superstar collaboration that actually works and is worthy of the hype. I love both the original version and the really excellent Freemasons remix <3 Great writeup Scene, and I agree, it didn't need to be explosive, it has a really good sensual groove that is irresistible enough without the song needing to shoot off in various directions.

I also really loved Irreplaceable and the Freemasons remix of Green Light but generally found B'Day to be a patchy body of work, although the deluxe certainly fleshed it out well.

Edited Wednesday at 22:505 days by gooddelta

Beautiful Liar is a wonderful song. Very deserving of a place in the top 6.

I preferred the Manics single to Beautiful Liar, but it's a good track. I would have it lower than The Way I Are, Ruby, and others, but it would be in the middle area of the list over-all I expect, as it just seems to take a while to get going. The last 2 minutes are pretty good though and I like the video, not sure Ive seen that before!

Hate it so much in its original version, Freemasons remix gives it a bit more life.

I always thought “Beautiful Liar” was style over substance. I do like the Eastern flavour though and it’s more interesting than “About You Now” at least.

5 Take That Shine

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

 

 

The Great Take That Comeback of 2006, as it should be known, was a true phenomenon. Somehow they ended up even bigger than they were in the 90s. Comeback single Patience, as we saw in Jade’s thread, was an instant success upon its release in November, spending 4 weeks at #1 and managing to finish as the year’s 8^th biggest-seller. Comeback album Beautiful World also exceeded expectations, going on to spend 8 weeks at #1 and finishing the year as the 2^nd biggest-selling album, selling 1.1m copies in just 4 weeks!

The newly-dubbed ‘manband’ continued their success into 2007, still atop the albums chart in January (returning there as late as April) and a performance slot at the BRITs in February. During the ceremony, they managed to scoop the public-voted Best British Single award for Patience, giving them their 4^th award in this category (after Could It Be Magic, Pray and Back For Good).

All the while, the group were in the midst of promoting single number two, sixth track from the album, Shine. Co-written by Take That and Steve Robson and produced by John Shanks, the follow-up to Patience upped the tempo and replaced Gary with Mark on lead vocal, proving another smash for the band. Upon its music video debut on Channel 4 in late January, Shine entered the chart at 83, before climbing to 30-17-11-10. On its sixth week in the chart, the single climbed from 10-1, holding the top spot for two weeks and in turn becoming the band’s 6^th consecutive chart-topper. The song would eventually finish the year as the 18^th biggest-seller, win Best Single at the following BRITs and then go on to become one of Take That’s most enduring (dare I say signature?) hits. This is probably helped in part by its overuse in the Morrisons advert, ranking as the 7^th most played song (based on TV and radio ads) in 2012! Shine was also the choice of sample for none other than Lily Allen for her 2009 song Who’d Have Known and inspired the title of the Take That-related 2017 talent show Let It Shine (a great concept it deserves to be said!). A classic!

Now it would be an understatement if I said I didn’t get caught up in Take That mania. I really didn’t care at the time. I had just missed the years in which they dominated first time round, being born in ’94, so my proper introduction to them was Patience which I didn't like one bit. Radio and the music channels HAMMERED it to the point it was unbearable. So I wasn’t exactly excited about the prospect of more Take That music.

Shine, however, was love at first listen. Perhaps helped by being the polar opposite to Patience, it switched the sombre whining to something fun and uplifting – from that prominent piano at the beginning, the energy continues to build for three-and-a-half minutes without letting up. One of my favourite parts of the song is that grand final chorus and Mark belting “shine” over and over. Mark does a brilliant job leading this song, proving he has the required pipes to be front and centre (perhaps an unpopular opinion, but I prefer his voice to Gary and Robbie’s). Definitely an underrated member of the band but I’m glad he managed to shine on such a fantastically crafted track (the Gary-led follow-up on the other hand was a big dud) and one of their biggest hits. Up there with The Flood as my favourite manband-era Take That song.

A trip down Buzzjack memory lane:

Sales thread:

I don't remember the Freemasons version of 'Beautiful Liar' at the time as the original was on Now 67 and also got the music channel airplay. I do recall their remix of Beyoncé's 'Green Light' quite well (what a banger!) so I'm not sure how I managed to avoid the other one. But I'm familiar with it now and appreciate both forms, maybe with a slight preference for the original, due to that familiarity and more of a spotlight on the Arabic instruments. They both sell the hell out of that video too!

I was really sick of 'Shine' for a while due to those Morrisons adverts but it's grown back on me more in recent years. It's a pretty uplifting moment from them indeed, where Mark takes on that showman role well both vocally and in the video, even if I do prefer 'Patience'.

Like the remix version of 'Beautiful Liar' also but not like the other version.

Good to know I'm not the only one not a fan of 'Patience' (which was lost on me if I'm honest as to seeing what's so special about it) but very much enjoys 'Shine'. There are times where it was very much overplayed but thankfully didn't take the shine off it for me either. A catchy number and their best upbeat song from their comeback.

I loved 'Shine' at the time, but I can't listen to it now. I suspect Morrisons are in no small part to blame for that.

I never really heard Shine until around the late 2010's as I don't think it did much in Australia. It is one of my favourite post reunion songs from them though.

Timbaland definitely was the man of the moment in 2007, his style is definitely of it's time but it was pretty distinctive at the time. Give It To Me was enjoyably scathing, but I was sad it beat Stop Me which was a wonderfully produced mash-up. I did like The Way I Are a lot more, the production on that still holds up, the grammar annoys me a bit and the fact I cannot find a reason why it was used, but I can look past it x

About You Now did get very overplayed and isn't in the same league as their Xenomania stuff, but is a very nice and anthemic pop song and certainly much better than what came after.

I was really happy to see the Kaisers get a number 1, but this does seem like more of a response to the hype built in their first era rather than a number 1 that reflects their best work, I don't go back to it much compared to their Employment era.

Beautiful Liar was decent, but I always thought it could've been more with the names involved, I think I prefer the Freemasons remix more. I was really sad it beat both Arctics and easily the Manic Street Preachers' best moment of the decade.

Shine will just always be the Morrisons song for me, but it's kinda charming and do always like Mark taking the reigns.

God I despise Shine even all these years later. Not even the adverts, it just exudes white bread as a song. If I were doing this thread, it might have been out, perhaps not first, but quite a long time ago x

Ruby and The Way I Are would be my pick of the top 10 so far, I think both did well at representing their respective genre causes in this year and they're both just rather fun.

Do remember 'About You Now' possibly the clearest of all of the #1s from that time, absoulutely inescapable and has remained one of their best songs, not really so for Beautiful Liar, I've always found it pretty forgettable.

I seem to remember the Freemasons Remix of 'Beautiful Liar' got a lot of airplay on the radio, probably more than the original.

Beyoncé also released another single called 'Green Light' with a Freemasons Remix that was also popular.

Edited Saturday at 17:462 days by montyj

Not a big fan of "Beautiful Liar" - this would be several places lower for me definitely behind "Ruby" and the Timbaland songs. "Shine" is a good song but would also be 2-3 places lower for me.

Shine has weathered well, it sounds better than Patience - which was really the one that had the "warm cuddly to have them back with a good single" vibe to it, Shine was the one that made it clear they could do better than Version 1, even if I was under-whelmed at the time as it wasnt as good as Mark's Four Minute Warning which remains a highlight for me. That build is amazing though, as I tend to blank out adverts or fast forward when possible that Morrisons ad passed me by completely!

4 Mika Grace Kelly

#2s kept off #1: Starz In Their Eyes (Just Jack), This Ain’t A Scene It’s An Arms Race (Fall Out Boy)

 

Mika emerged on the pop scene at the tail end of 2006, with the release of his debut single Relax, Take It Easy, giving him instant buzz from music critics and Radio 1 support straight out the gate. His debut EP Dodgy Holiday also garnered praise, enough so he was shortlisted in the BBC’s Sound of 2007 award.

The new year started off with a bang for Mika who, having just won Sound of… poll, was catapulted to the top of the charts with his second single. Grace Kelly was written by Mika as a mocking response to popstars constantly trying to reinvent themselves, inspired by his own experience with a label exec who suggested he be more like Craig David! The song features the namechecking of legends such as Kelly and Freddie Mercury, who his singing style here is especially reminiscent of. The song also intersplices dialogue sampled from Kelly’s film The Country Girl at various point of the song.

Grace Kelly was a pretty immediate smash, entering the chart at #3 on downloads alone, before spending 5 weeks at the summit and ending the year as the third biggest-seller. The song also launched Mika’s career across Europe and Australia, even cracking the notoriously tricky territory of France. Debut album Life In Cartoon Motion echoed its success: spending two weeks at #1 in the UK and finishing the year as third biggest-selling album, as well as reaching the top 30 in the US! While Mika wouldn’t have a hit of this magnitude again, he did well during his first two eras: scoring 4 more top 10 hits before the decade was out. Though his UK relevance steadily declined, he had better longevity on the continent, specifically in Italy, France and Belgium.

This is one of those tracks I’ve reevaluated over time and have come to love. I admittedly wrote this off at first as erratic nonsense as a 12-year-old, perhaps not being able to get past Mika’s theatrical delivery and hyper-falsetto chorus. It was too much. Now, however, these are the very things I love most about the song. It’s just utterly ridiculous in the best way: from those cleverly woven-in dialogue snippets to Mika’s unrestrained flamboyant, at-times satirical vocals throughout. It seems like an act of defiance against what the song is about, unsure if its intended but I dig it nonetheless. As for the chorus, surely contender for one of the most quirky of the decade? I adore it. I know it’s not technically his debut single (though it felt like it to most of us), but this is how a pop act should debut: personality-packed, innovative concept and production, vocal showcases throughout and a surefire hit of a chorus.

During its 5 weeks at the top, Grace Kelly stopped two acts from securing their first #1s: it would turn out to be the last chance either act got as close again. First runner-up was Just Jack, a Camden-based musician who rose to fame with the indie track Starz In Their Eyes. The song peaked at #2 for a fortnight and spent 13 weeks in the top 40. The song seemed destined for an obscured existence until PinkPantheress sampled it in her 2025 project Fancy That (the nicheness of it all!). I can’t say it ever left much of an impression on me – and I’m shocked it accumulated so many weeks on the chart (I thought it was a flash in the pan hit). I much prefer the second runners-up, Fall Out Boy, with their anthem This Ain’t A Scene… FOB were not my preferred genre as a teen, let’s just say, but this song with its chant-like chorus and hi-NRG throughout managed to worm its way into my affections.

A trip down Buzzjack memory lane:

Sunday Chart Show:

Sunday chart predictions:

This was used to the best effect in the channel 4 TV show Dead Set - the kachinggg lining u with Davina's 'death'.