In The Middle is a mid-lower tier Suagabaes single for me, so no complaints from me about it's placement.

Saying that it was very close to being my first Sugababes purchase back in the day.

10 hours ago, Nina West said:

Those vocals aren't entirely hers, a singer called Natasha Ramos recorded the demo version of this track and for the official Jennifer Lopez song, they kept Ramo's vocals on the chorus and ab-libs. Apparently JLO has made a career out of stealing other peoples vocals for her songs.

9 hours ago, Jessie Where said:

I've just spent a fair amount of time in a rabbit hole looking all this up

What went on with Natasha Ramos' vocals is so shady. She also contributed vocals to 5 tracks on the album it's from!

That's pretty horrible. Surely that's not common practice?

3 hours ago, Paddington James said:

That's pretty horrible. Surely that's not common practice?

You'd be surprised

Don't mind that Sugababes one, it's a fun & chaotic bop that's very much of its time. Not quite a standout moment for them, but far, far from being their worst

30 minutes ago, Nina West said:

You'd be surprised

Are there any other ‘main offenders’?

I remember hearing Beyoncé use to ad her name to writing credits on songs after changing one or two words.

In The Middle is a underrated Sugababes highlight

14 Amy Studt - Misfit

avg: 7.57

👑 Pop Royalty: 10 (gooddelta, Scene, Tafty, Nina West), 9 (leww, Viper*, Dobbo, Jack, JosephStyles)

❌ Pop Flop: 5 (Billy., vibe), 6 (Julian_, blacksquare, lewistgreen, Chez Wombat, HarryGarfield, Brer)

Amy Studt is the latest pop princess to drop out, with an average of 7.57, but baby that's okay

English singer Studt first impacted the charts with debut single 'Just a Little Girl' in 2002. This release pre-dated fellow teen pop-rocker Avril Lavigne's U.K. chart debut by just a couple of months. However, curiously, Studt's team waited almost an entire year to follow this up with a sophomore single. Thankfully follow-up 'Misfit' still managed to stick the landing despite the wait, as it became Amy's first top 10 hit and highest charting song to date, when it reached #6. Studt has a songwriting credit alongside David Eriksen (also the producer) and Karen Poole, formerly of Alisha's Attic, who has also written for fellow Pop Princesses like Kylie Minogue, Holly Valance and Sugababes over the years. The lyrics are unsurprisingly about being yourself rather than mindlessly following the 'cool' crowd. The music video takes place in a school setting and also features Danielle Panabaker, who I mostly recognise from a very forgotten Disney Channel Original Movie called Read It and Weep.

Amy was particularly flying high for gooddelta, Scene, Tafty and Nina West, who gave 'Misfit' a score of 10. Meanwhile, Billy. and vibe may have been wondering why she was still here, instead assigning 'Misfit' a 5 - the most impressive lowest score a song has received so far.

I don’t mind Misfit, it’s a little better than middle of the road for me. My sister really liked this song though, so that’s why I’m a bit more familiar with it.

I like 'Misfit' but prefer 'Just A Little Girl'.

Amy Studt's post Just A Little Girl material was clearly modelled on Avril and sounded a little like a British take on her crossed with Alisha's Attic, which makes perfect sense considering Karen Poole co-wrote it. Misfit was such a catchy song and a strong British take on what American pop was doing well at this point. The album was good too, particularly Ladder In My Tights, which should have been a single over the pointless Sheryl Crow cover.

Quite surprised at how high 'Misfit' is here (definitely would not have expected it to be ahead of the last two songs in particular) - was an ok song but I don't think it's particularly memorable!

Maybe it's just down to me not paying attention to the lyrics as per given replies about both songs but I am surprised at how (relatively) middling the reception is for both JLo and Sugababes (pun not intended for the latter x). Both got a 7 from me but I thought they'd have been more popular here.

Really like that Amy Studt track 'Misfit' it's catchy, defiant and fun & deserved to be a much bigger hit. Her album 'False Smiles' was pretty good also & had some solid tracks such as 'Just A Little Girl', 'Under The Thumb', 'Ladder In My Tights', 'If Only', 'Beautiful Lie', 'Happy Now' & 'Going Out of My Mind'.

Dunno why the label thought her cover of 'All I Wanna Do' was gonna be a hit as it really killed her momentum and led to her being dropped. They should have just went with 'Ladder In My Tights' as a single as it was already planned & it could have easily been another hit for her.

Great song! I really liked her debut single, I was surprised to see her back again with such a big hit in this a year later. Shame it all fell apart by the end of the year after having a reasonably decent 2003.

6 hours ago, Nina West said:

Dunno why the label thought her cover of 'All I Wanna Do' was gonna be a hit as it really killed her momentum and led to her being dropped. They should have just went with 'Ladder In My Tights' as a single as it was already planned & it could have easily been another hit for her.

'Ladder In My Tights' is probably my favourite of them all and really deserved a release. I can see why they felt the need to re-release the album with a new song as from their perspective it underperformed, but doing that was an absolute career killer. She apparently went on to deeply regret agreeing to it.

I watched a YouTube documentary about Amy Studt once (from a channel called Pop Underrated) and apparently Sheryl Crow personally asked her to record the cover and provided backing vocals, so can see why they went ahead with it. A career killer indeed a la Stooshe with ‘Waterfalls’ later on too.

Career sunk by Sheryl Crowbar! 😔

In the late 90s doing a cover to revive a flagging pop career was done to death and very often worked, but I do feel it was becoming a bad idea by 2003, when pop was getting cooler than it had been for the preceding years. Having said that it did work for Girls Aloud with Jump, so maybe it's about song choice (and being tied into a major film won't have hurt that).

Covering a song less than 10 years old that had already been a major top five hit and was still being played a lot on the radio, and then doing a near identical version, definitely was not a good move for Amy.

13 Stacie Orrico - (There's Gotta Be) More To Life

avg: 7.63

👑 Pop Royalty: 11 (Tafty, Jack), 10 (Paddington James, Billy., Viper*, Jessie Where)

❌ Pop Flop: 2 (lewistgreen), 4 (vibe)

Stacie Orrico may have finished in unlucky number 13th but can chase the temporary high of a 7.63 average.

Orrico is an American singer who first achieved U.K. success with her self-titled sophomore era in 2003. '(There's Gotta Be) More To Life)' was selected as the second single from the project, after previous pick 'Stuck' peaked at #9. That would remain Stacie's sole top 10 hit to date as this follow-up charted at #12. This song title is pretty self explanatory as Orrico sings about the emptiness that can come with constantly chasing impermanent highs. In the video she dons many temporary identities from a supermodel to a gang member. Sam Smith once expressed that this was their favourite ever music video. '(There's Gotta Be) More To Life' was written by a team including Kevin Kadish who also co-wrote 'All About That Bass' with Meghan Trainor.

This song was the penultimate track on Pop Princesses.

Stacie certainly goes up and comes down when examining these scores. This is the first song revealed to receive multiple 11s as both Tafty and Jack selected it as their favourite. Meanwhile, lewistgreen felt that there's gotta be more to this song, therefore scored it 2.

LOVE

Absolute diamond pop song, a key part of my late 2003.

43 minutes ago, Jade said:

13 Stacie Orrico - (There's Gotta Be) More To Life

avg: 7.63

👑 Pop Royalty: 11 (Tafty, Jack), 10 (Paddington James, Billy., Viper*, Jessie Where)

❌ Pop Flop: 2 (lewistgreen), 4 (vibe)

Stacie Orrico may have finished in unlucky number 13th but can chase the temporary high of a 7.63 average.

Orrico is an American singer who first achieved U.K. success with her self-titled sophomore era in 2003. '(There's Gotta Be) More To Life)' was selected as the second single from the project, after previous pick 'Stuck' peaked at #9. That would remain Stacie's sole top 10 hit to date as this follow-up charted at #12. This song title is pretty self explanatory as Orrico sings about the emptiness that can come with constantly chasing impermanent highs. In the video she dons many temporary identities from a supermodel to a gang member. Sam Smith once expressed that this was their favourite ever music video. '(There's Gotta Be) More To Life' was written by a team including Kevin Kadish who also co-wrote 'All About That Bass' with Meghan Trainor.

This song was the penultimate track on Pop Princesses.

Stacie certainly goes up and comes down when examining these scores. This is the first song revealed to receive multiple 11s as both Tafty and Jack selected it as their favourite. Meanwhile, lewistgreen felt that there's gotta be more to this song, therefore scored it 2.

FAR TOO LOW

Absolutely delightful pop number, sang at the top of my voice in my car way too many times to even count.