Posted January 22Jan 22 Hello all and welcome to my official ranking of the 2008 number ones!This is my first one of these - thanks for having me! But also be nice!I am a pop ho at heart, but there may be some surprises along the way. There's a decent chunk of number ones from this year that I adore. To take it down a completely self-centred route, I may also add the odd personal story here or there. 2008 was quite a messy year for me. I started my first teaching job, finished my first teaching job, went down to my last £5 (whilst heavily in an overdraft) and also met someone who had quite a large (not necessarily positive) impact on my lifet the time. But I was also living in Manchester - one of my fave places in the whole world.In world news 2008 was all over the place. The collapse of the Lehman Brothers contributed to the financial crash (years later I would work in finance and see the repercussions of this with some of the buildings I went to/some of the clients I worked on behalf of - fun times!). The impact was real. Spending went down, house prices died and pension pots were at risk. The world hated the people in power for a long time. There was also a catastrophic earthquake in China that claimed the lives of almost 100 thousand people (RIP)In politics 2008 saw the White House entrance of Barack Obama. The Democratic leader was the newest President of the USA, taking over from the bell end that was George Bush.....Barack would go on to be a very popular President and for a time the relationship between the UK & US was actually decent. It goes without saying that Barack was a leader for all and not just for some.Music wise, we had a massive album from Coldplay (more on that later), the Mamma Mia soundtrack blew up and then wouldn't go away and X Factor contestants still dominated the charts. There were also debuts from the likes of Duffy & Katy Perry. Pop music was certainly having a bit of a resurgence.The box office was dominated by superheroes, with The Dark Knight and Iron Man dominating. That leads me to the sad celebrity death of the year, as Heath Ledger, start of the first film and of blockbuster such as 10 Things I Hate About You & Brokeback Mountain died at the age of 28. He would go on to win a posthumous Oscar for his role as The Joker.Let me know what you remember from 2008 :)I'll start the countdown shortly. I will be including the last number one of 2007/first number one of 2008 and (spoiler) it won't be in last place. That position is reserved for a song I truly dislike..... Edited January 22Jan 22 by Herbs
January 22Jan 22 Looking forward to this!The first thing that springs to mind about 2008 is my obsession with X Factor that year. I was backing Alexandra from the off so to see her go from favourite to win pre-live shows to becoming the dark horse of her category (shared by Diana Vickers and Laura White) until that Listen performance in the quarter-final. Then there was of course JLS and Ruth Lorenzo, the original song-off assassin - eliminating favourite Laura in that week 5 sing-off. An incredible series to witness in real time. It was a pretty great year for music, especially in the latter half. The market was actually saturated in Q4 with the Diva Day battle and all!
January 22Jan 22 2008 was a big year for me too. I finished uni in May and took a break from my job for the first time since 2003 to write my dissertations (for some reason I had two). And then in the summer I passed my driving test (on the first attempt but I'd been doing lessons for a year). I started working full-time come the summer in the supermarket job I had been in part-time since 2003 - I wouldn't do anything with my degree until 2010...I don't remember it being a great year for music overall, with quite slow charts, but there was a lot of soul and Motown inspired pop around in the wake of Amy Winehouse's success. And Clubland style Eurodance had a weird mini revival with big albums from names like Scooter and Darren Styles. Anyway, I look forward to following the thread and seeing what you made of the chart toppers.
January 22Jan 22 Looking forward to this! 2008 was my first full year of tuning into the chart show *.*On a personal level I finished primary school in July and then moved up to secondary school in September, so a pretty transformative time.
January 22Jan 22 Really looking forward to this, 2008 was my last year of study (I choose to forget those six months in 2009 ever happened). This year had some great #1's but also some really great songs that peaked in the #2-#5 region of the chart.
January 22Jan 22 @Herbs, of course we'll all be nice. You might say we'll all show you 'Mercy'.....Ok I'll see myself out.
January 22Jan 22 Author Just now, Paddington James said:@Herbs, of course we'll all be nice. You might say we'll all show you 'Mercy'.....Ok I'll see myself out.It would be too easy to ‘Run’ away from that joke! But ‘The Promise’ I’ll make is not to!
January 22Jan 22 1 minute ago, Herbs said:It would be too easy to ‘Run’ away from that joke!But ‘The Promise’ I’ll make is not to!'Take A Bow' that was a brilliant response!
January 23Jan 23 Looking forward to it. Another great ranking show. The year before Lady Gaga took over.
January 23Jan 23 Author 21 Kid Rock All Summer Long#2s held off #1: None (The Script's 'The Man Who Can't Be Moved' was #3 and would climb to #2 a few weeks later) I'm not going to waste much time on this one. I hate this song. I HATE the artist a lot more. Kid Rock is pretty much the antithesis of everything I stand for. He has a history of homophobia and misogyny, as well as many other controversies. He's also a staunch supporter of Trump/The Republican culture. This song interpolates 'Sweet Home Alabama' and 'Werewolves of London'. I remember at the time that people were raving about it. I think now it'd be considered a largely forgotten number one. He has never charted since and for me that is a good thing......So yeah, I ranked something lower than Leon Jackson. But is there another song below Leon?!
January 23Jan 23 “All Summer Long” might be a couple of places higher than last for me but no real complaints - at best it’s bland country pop.
January 23Jan 23 I always thought it was awful too personally, quite an unexpected No.1 too to say he never had any other notable success and it doesn't sound like anything else released in 2008 but it really owes a lot to its sample.
January 23Jan 23 The Script were robbed in my opinion.I agree that "All Summer Long" was an unexpected Number 1. I had never heard of Kid Rock until then, the same as millions of others in the UK.The less said about his love for Donald Trump, the better. Edited January 23Jan 23 by montyj
January 23Jan 23 Author Let's get the next one out of the way as well....20 Leon Jackson When You Believe #2s held off #1: Soulja Boy Tellem - Crank That (Soulja Boy)Shouldn't be any surprises here.Should Leon Jackson have won X Factor? (especially after Shayne & Leona paved the way for credible winners). No. Do I blame Leon Jackson? No. I blame the British public? 100%. The public have a knack for keeping in mediocre male singers. Arguably it wasn't a stellar year for X Factor talent. At the time I took time to listen to performances from all of the finalists and I wasn't massively enthusiastic about the result. In saying that, I had a few favourites. Kimberley - I do subscribe to the idea that she was screwed over by a change to TV scheduling, meaning a number of people missed her one and only performance. She went out week one and we all saw the tantrum that Sharon O threw, having to be persuaded to come back a week later. Rhydian - would he have been a single's artist. No chance. But he could sing and had stage presenceSame Difference - excusing the dodginess of a brother/sister combo singing certain songs together,, they were both way more fun and marketable. Hope - this band was actually my favourite act of the year. They leaned too much on having a 'lead' singer, who would go onto to form 1/3 of 'Girls Can't Catch', responsible for one of my fave pop songs of the era in Echo. I'd go as far as to say that Leon was in my bottom 3 of the final 12. I don't hate the song choice. I don't hate his voice on it, even though it does sound very 'karaoke'. I'm amazed it made 3 weeks at number one.
January 23Jan 23 Oh wow I had no idea about Kid Rock being problematic. Have to admit I do enjoy All Summer Long but the sample definitely makes it.Also love your XF commentary. Totally missed the Sharon walk out drama in mine! The whole Graham Norton drama on top of that was a wild time for the show. Nice to see another Hope fan. 😎 The whole lead singer route was so detrimental to them.
January 24Jan 24 Kid Rock is a yee-haw wannabe but I didnt mind the stealing of two good tracks for a new generation and opening them up to new audiences. Not one I would choose to play though. When You Believe had slipped my mind, so playing it now, ah yes, sounds like Christmas dirge via X-Factor Computer-a-like. I didnt hate it, the tune's quite good, underneath it all.
January 24Jan 24 Author Yeah it 100% was with Hope. Think if they’d gone down a joint vocal route they could have got something more out of the show
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