21 Peter Kay's Animated All Star Band - The Official BBC Children In Need Medley

2 weeks in November / December 2009: 18-{1}-1-2-4-11-35-61->8

Kept off #1: Rihanna - Russian Roulette

#27 in EOY 2009

Well I couldn't really keep this one from appearing any longer - a lot to unpack on this one! We've already covered the Comic Relief singles, and the BBC's other flagship fundraising event that ran in 2009 was the annual Children In Need. An official tie-in single has been part of the activity most years, including every year from 1995 to 2021 - often these had been regular releases from a current act, however this one was different. British comedian Peter Kay, as mentioned credited on a #1 already from the 2005 unofficial Comic Relief single, worked with animation director Tim Harper to carry out this project in top secret. He enlisted the celebrities and voice artists who had voiced a vast number of characters from children's programmes, ranging in time over the previous 40 years or so, to perform sections of a medley of songs in a Band Aid style. To accompany this, the original or reconstructed character models, in some cases retrieved from archives and transported from around the world, were brought together to perform the song in a new animation. The project reportedly took 8 months to animate, and was aired for the first time on Children In Need evening in 2009. The single was then released, and sold enough the next day to enter the chart at #18, before it jumped to #1 the following week with sales of 138k, and held there with 111k the week after.

The medley begins with 'Can You Feel It' (The Jacksons), sung first by Neil Morrissey as Bob The Builder (thereby extending his 100% #1 hit appearance rate to 3 releases after his two 'solo' #1s), with lines from Peter Kay (actually performing on his credited #1 on this occasion) as his character from Roary The Racing Car, as well as characters representing Postman Pat, Fireman Sam, and The Teletubbies (more former #1 makers) amongst others. As we're focusing on the music in this countdown, I'll run through the other songs: 'Don't Stop' (Fleetwood Mac), 'Jai Ho! (You Are My Destiny)' (AR Rahman & Pussycat Dolls "featuring Nicole Scherzinger" as they were then - interestingly, it pipped this single to #26 on the EOY 2009 by only 25 sales!), 'Tubthumping' (Chumbawamba), 'Never Forget' (Take That), 'Hey Jude' (The Beatles), and finally, displaying some prescience, 'One Day Like This' (Elbow, at that point a mere #35 peaking hit released the year before, albeit it had already visited the Top 40 four times and racked up 43 weeks in the Top 100 by the time this was released, and 'Don't Stop' had only peaked three places higher).

I know we're reviewing the songs and not the videos, but this is one that only really makes sense as a song if you've seen the video, even if only to see which character is voicing each part. Without that, I could tell how it might come across as something of a cacophonous run through classic and less-than-classic songs, and I note it has yet to cross a million Spotify streams. However while there are many little animated jokes within the video, the recordings of the songs themselves are left free of 'gags' as such - there's a fun interplay between "Jai Ho!" (pronounced correctly unlike Nicole's "jay-hoe") and "don't you look back" from 'Don't Stop', and the claps on the chorus of 'Never Forget' are accentuated, but in the main it remains a homage to the original songs, and most of all to the characters whose actors voice them. It may not lend itself to repeated listens, but it's such a heartwarming concept and performance that I can't help but be uplifted by it all. By way of contrast, the song at a distant #2 during its second week at the top, the lead track from Rihanna's Rated R, is one of the bleakest of her major hits in sound and subject matter, but further evidence she was becoming one of the best vocalists in pop.

Yes, the video is great and without it the song isn’t much, but it’s still a lot of fun

'Russian Roulette deserved is all I'll say.

I suppose Cheryl releasing 'Break Your Heart' just a year after 'Heartbreaker' with will.i.am might have been a bit much! Can't say this song does a lot for me, pretty generic, while I do love 'Empire State of Mind' - so a shame that was blocked. At least they both got a turn in the U.S.

I'm another who didn't realise Taio Cruz was British for a while! Same with Jay Sean, a fellow British R&B act who was having a very similar 2009/10, hitting the top of the Billboard Hot 100 with more of a dance-pop sound.

Peter Kay's Animated All-Star Band *.* I bought the CD single at the time as a kid, the DVD version which also contained the music video, so was very familiar with that. Some of the transitions are so ingrained that my brain starts thinking of them even when listening to the original songs. Great fun as a whole package and I of course approve of the Beatles references with 'Hey Jude', the Sgt. Pepper's style artwork and Ringo voicing Thomas the Tank Engine.

I don’t think I’ve ever heard that Peter Kay song, I’m not a fan sadly.

Russian Roulette deserved to go to #1. Such a brilliant song.

Re all the Taio Cruz talk. I always knew he was British, but I think that’s only because the Sugababes featured on his 2008 song She’s Like A Star and I can remember looking him up on Wikipedia at the time to see who he was as I’d never heard of him.

I also bought the CD for that at the time. It is a fun harmless mashup as far as novelty goes but not one I went back to since it was released until it was posted in this thread lol.

Wouldn't have minded 'Russian Roulette' to have got there mind. I didn't care for it much until Rihanna's performance on X Factor helped it grow on me and have remained liking to today!

I couldn't have told you in which year the medley was going to appear, but it's a brilliant overall piece of work, just really clever and full of wonderful nostalgia, whilst using good songs without being too annoying on them - would probably rank as my favourite charity number one single, though it's hardly a high bar. Without remembering everything to come I think it'd be a top 10 contender for me, and Holiday would likely be a couple of places ahead - fine but easily the weakest of his trio of big hits of this time. Nothing else has appeared that I care for at all.

Edited April 16Apr 16 by RabbitFurCoat

The allstar animated band was fun for its time and I agree it doesnt work without the visuals so actually suprised its as high as it is even if it is fun

Interesting note that even the newest characters in the video are now old 😮

20 Tinchy Stryder feat. N-Dubz - Number 1

3 weeks in April / May 2009: {1}-1-1-2-3-4-8-11-13-17-30-34-25-26-28-32-38-37-42-47-59-61-66-65-65-70R(5)-66-63R(6)->28

Kept off #1: La Roux - In For The Kill

#11 in EOY 2009

After many similarly titled songs previously, including Top 10 hits for Tweenies and Goldfrapp, this was the first with "Number 1" or "Number One" in the title to actually get there. It was also a first #1 for both Tinchy and guests N-Dubz, of whom only Dappy appears on the track for the latter, although another version exists with Tulisa and Fazer adding vocals. The trio hailed from Camden Town in London's NW1 postcode, hence their name, and had broken through with four Top 40 hits of increasing longevity, before this landed them a bigger audience. Closer to dance pop than grime, Tinchy mostly raps the verses and Dappy provides the bridge and chorus with Tinchy backing up the title phrase. It crashed in at that position with sales of 72k and stayed there for 3 weeks, with a minimal sales increase in its second week and 57k in its third. The N-Dubz brand wouldn't hit these heights again - their next release 'I Need You' went no higher than #5 despite giving us the immortal line "I've been searching all over Facebook" - however both Dappy and Tulisa would return to the top as solo artists. I've ~no regrets~ about leaving the story there.

I suppose putting this in the top 20 would have to be explained as some sort of nostalgic guilty pleasure, because so much about it has aged like milk, but it's still a fun sounding bop, and the interchangeable vocals and memorable strings hook make up for the more dated sounds in the production. I didn't even like it at the time until I heard it performed at Radio 1's Big Weekend in Swindon (I couldn't get tickets but saw lots of it on TV) during its stint at the top, and it started to click. The downside to all this, aside from having to bear the many inferior releases from all concerned afterwards, was that it held the song which had been #2 the week before its release in the same position through each of these 3 weeks as well - that being La Roux's marvellous debut hit, which would end the year the bigger seller at #6 in EOY 2009. I know the Skream remix gets most of the praise, but for me the original is best and for that alone it would be very high in this countdown - fortunately, there would be some redemption for them later on.

Was 2009 full of trash, number 1 really wasnt as great as its run suggests , both artists have considerably better tracks

Not much to disagree with in the last few, I broadly agree with the comments and positions for Holiday (would put a bit lower) and Break Your Heart. I did have a soft spot for Oopsy Daisy though, nice melody in the verses and a good chorus.

I bought the Peter Kay DVD single as the video is so wonderful and nostalgic (the Fat Controller part being my favourite <3) but the song really just slapped random stuff together that didn't work at all e.g. the Jai Ho dance break? But agreed, it's hard not to be charmed by it all somehow, as the concept is so lovely.

Number 1 is another one I really like from Tinchy and it felt like it represented N-Dubz at their peak too - an act I never expected to see anywhere near No.1 (or the top 40) when Better Not Waste My Time first surfaced on Channel U in the mid 00s. I really respect how they fought their way from the underground to the top! Agreed about La Roux, the original deserved the praise that the remix gets.

Edited April 17Apr 17 by gooddelta

'Number 1' has very good production.

I thought the Peter Kay medley was awesome. I actually enjoyed it even without the video as I first heard it on the chart show and didn't even recognize a lot of the characters! A really impressive amount of work went into that whole production, and I loved the mix of songs too, especially 'One Day Like This' which at the time seemed much bigger than its original peak suggested.

I much prefer the original 'In For The Kill' too, but did enjoy how the remix took on a life of its own!

'Number 1' is alright I suppose. Think I did find it rather annoying at the time though.

I thoroughly despise 'Number 1' with every fibre of my being.

‘From my homie, to my only’!

For some reason I have a little soft spot for ‘Number 1’. It’s catchy but a bit daft and certainly of its time but it still makes me smile when I hear it🤷‍♂️.

Agreed regarding In For The Kill, the original version is best, but the very best from them is yet to come I believe?

“Number 1” is quite a fun 2009 time capsule I suppose. But it was criminal that “In For The Kill” missed out, and Peter Kay deserved that Top 20 spot here frankly with that gloriously silly medley. “Break Your Heart” is so middling I couldn’t think of anything to say.

Hallelujah is fairly pedestrian, but aims to be epic. I'd put it lower than bad Boys. oopsy Daisy singing bits are good, the Chipmunk bits a bit like treading water waiting for the good bit. I don't dislike it though, but would be marginally lower so far. Holiday and Break Your Heart are both good tracks, no complaints from me about either of 'em. As to whether they are too low depends what left! My gut says too low though...

Ah, Paddington. Yes everything below this is too low, oops. Worshipped Can You Feel It when that came out in 1981, it seemed like a monster classic. This isn't. Ive heard worse, but this degenerates to a poor singalong pretty quickly. Tinchy Stryder used to appear on panel shows, was pretty engaging, and even nDubz being on it didnt ruin this track, but it would a few slots lower down for me.

I’m starting to think I might not have been that familiar with the #1’s of 2009 as I thought I was.

Am I the only one that thinks ‘Break Your Heart’ and ‘Number 1’ sound similar? Close to identical in the chorus.