I love Evacuate The Dancefloor but can certainly see how tacky it is, with the rent-a-rapper and Gaga copycat production, but I respect the hustle, it kept them relevant for another album and it's still a very catchy song. However, MJ certainly should have had a posthumous No.1 and it's unlucky for Cascada that blocking him is this song's legacy.

Beat Again is very mid but somehow became a radio classic, I still hear it all the time. Mama Do is pretty good but I prefer every other Pixie single from that debut album.

I really still like Fight For This Love a lot, sure Cheryl could have released anything and got to No.1 at this point but the song is such an earworm and the X Factor performance was a moment. It did very well internationally too in territories she's not known in (top five in Spain, Sweden, Germany, Italy etc - and who can forget that Covid meme) which proves the strength of the song above the artist. I quite love the bridge (and love the idea that Gaga could have been influenced by it for Shallow, I can actually see the melodic similarity now you mention it!). 3 Words and Parachute were very well chosen singles too, but the wider album was a bit more forgettable.

Not got much of an opinion on Run This Town, I never really listen to it but it's a well produced record, I just get nothing from it but it being a bit of a plod unfortunately. I still love Empire State of Mind though.

I love When Love Takes Over, strong production and Kelly sounds great on it. Maybe this was THE song that really got the club banger era fully underway? Guetta was one of the figureheads of the movement and this was his first hit in that 2009-2012 era. I feel like a lot of music sounded like this for the next three years.

I liked My Life... a lot more at the time than I do now, having read about how much Kelly didn't want to record the song/work with Dr Luke as detailed in the write-up. It's also a touch on the throwaway side for me compared to the awesome and underrated My December album. At the time it did peak at No.4 in my personal chart though, but Love Story was No.1 for two weeks, the first song by Taylor Swift I really loved although she'd gone to No.8 for me over a year earlier with Teardrops On My Guitar. So at the time I wanted Taylor at No.1 but she's not exactly short of success now and it's good that Kelly got a chart topper to her name in the end. Maybe in a decade Underneath The Tree will be her second!

Edited Friday at 09:252 days by gooddelta

I’m not really a fan of “My Life Would Suck…”. I think it’s too similar to “Since U Been Gone” and the others in that week’s Top 3 (“Poker Face” and “Love Story”) are much more iconic for me.

“When Love Takes Over” has a euphoric quality but I think you’ve placed it about right and the other Guetta track is better.

“Run This Town” is good - thanks for drawing attention to the battle clap which is definitely one of its best features. “Empire State Of Mind” is absolutely far superior though.

“Fight For This Love” is really strong though quite straightforward. I wouldn’t say it bears huge numbers of repeat listens.

So nothing that I’m really sad to see out.

I think My Life… is a good song, and I’m glad she got a number 1, but I prefer many of her other hits.

I liked My Life Would Suck Without You quite a bit at the time but it’s not one I’d choose to back to now from all her other songs. I purchased the album on the day it was released to and whilst I loved it at the time I find the album a little disappointing now. It has a few good songs on it but for me it feels like an inferior version of Breakaway.

1 hour ago, Paddington James said:

I liked My Life Would Suck Without You quite a bit at the time but it’s not one I’d choose to back to now from all her other songs. I purchased the album on the day it was released to and whilst I loved it at the time I find the album a little disappointing now. It has a few good songs on it but for me it feels like an inferior version of Breakaway.

I think it has much stronger album tracks than Breakaway, but Breakaway has much stronger singles.

I guess it was her giving in to label compromise, to claw back some commercial success after My December.

When love takes over is such a bop should be higher

My life would suck without you, a great song and finally gave Kelly a number 1 here , (she really should have many more) but I do agree All I ever wanted does have better songs, Cry is such an underrated gen for starters

I remember stanning Pixie back in 2009 and she did pretty well getting two #1s pretty close together. I think Cry Me Out is probably her best track overall these days (this is kinda. 2009 #1s theme with artists getting #1s with tracks not quite up to what they’re capable of.

Kelly Clarkson sole UK #1 is nowhere near what she’s capable of but I was at the time pretty happy that she finally managed to get a chart topper to her name. Cascada being the artist who stopped the king of pop getting posthumous #1 too is genuinely so camp and one of my favourite things only real chart stans would know but again I don’t think Evacuate the Dancefloor is amongst their best!

When Love Takes Over is top tier Guetta though and Fight for This Love is genius what a song for when Cheryl’s princess diana era over here was in full force crazy it did so much sales for a non charity track too but she really was our sweetheart then and that performance too!

I’m laughing looking at how dominant X Factor was at this list with many tracks either being X Factor acts or tracks performed on the live shows (or both!) how times have changed. My main shock here so far was where Bad Boys was rated I expected alexandra to do pretty well on this site.

Many tracks here at the time as a teen I loved but I can’t remember the last time I ever played the Tinchy or Dizzee tracks but the JLS tracks are kind of a guilty pleasure and they definitely produced some worse #1s with future eras too.

Godga to dominate the top end please.

Edited Friday at 14:211 day by Jordanlee1402

12 The Black Eyed Peas - Boom Boom Pow

2 weeks in May / June 2009: {1}-2-2-1-2-3-3-6-7-11-13-13-16-18-21-24-33-37-44-47-54-58-64-65-66-67-51-61-71-73R(4)-45-63->32

Kept off #1: none

#7 in EOY 2009

Some of you may have realised that 50% of the final 12 in this countdown is made up of just two acts (as leads anyway) with three songs each, well let's get it started for one of them! The Black Eyed Peas made their chart debut in 1998, but got their big breakthrough in 2003 when 'Where Is The Love?' with an uncredited Justin Timberlake spent 6 weeks at UK #1 on the way to topping the EOY for that year. By that time, Fergie had joined as their regular lead singer, and a run of hits ensued over the next 3 years. After some solo projects, with particular success for Fergie, their next era was launched with a bang when this became a second UK #1 for them with 74k sales in its first week, and it held up well enough to return 3 weeks later while doing 55k. The song displayed a marked change up in sound from the R&B of their previous eras to a harder edged electronic production, masterminded by founder member will.i.am, with a drop in the middle where the techno synths are ramped up to assert the group's new direction.

This was one of the most initially surprising, but convincing sonic shifts to have been pulled off by an act in the midst of big commercial success around this time. There's a cold minimalism to the production and lots of auto-tune to depict their futuristic vision as illustrated by the video. There are some confrontational vocal turns too, exemplified by Fergie's iconic "I'm so 3008, you're so two-thousand-and-late" - perhaps in part a response to Nelly Furtado's verse on 2007's 'Give It to Me' which was thought to be aimed at Fergie. By the time it gets back to will.i.am, no one is safe from the all-conquering Peas and their rockin' beats, and we've even had to put our hands in the air. It might not have quite the same impact now as it did in 2009, but it's still a lot of fun and brought the group renewed relevance with a new EDM-tuned audience.

Guilty pleasure bop, still an absolute banger.

I was quite obsessed with this at the time to the point where I got sick of it for a while. I'm back to liking it again, though I'm not as obsessed with it as I once was. I do prefer it to one of their other hits which is yet to appear to.

Boom Boom Power is my favourite of the BEPs number ones in 2009. Loved the pivot to harsher EDM .

When Love Takes Over I might have put somewhere similar, it's certainly good but not the most original song ever, as you say, very 'Clocks'-like. It's good for Guetta, based largely on the strength of his vocalist as ever with him.

Do love Kelly's #1 here, it has a really fun instrumental and progression in the song that make it just very likeable, plus this is her at the peak of my liking her vibe, energetic power-pop with a hint of the rock backing still. Still one of her best. Compares very well to her hits on Breakaway.

Boom Boom Pow I used to hate I'm sure, but I've come around to it as one of the BEP's more technical and interesting electronic hits. That sonic shift you note that is sort of going on throughout these years from 2008-2010 is one that's sorta hard to appreciate when you're at the epicenter at its time, now it's one clear way to signify something is from this era. That being this creative use of autotune - which may have been a bit of following T-Pain and 808s-era Kanye but this one was an absolute domination of the EDM sound for a few years from here and very interesting from that point of view.

I don’t care how new and different Boom Boom Pow was, it’s a terrible piece of ‘music’

This was such a change in sound and image for Black Eyed Peas but they pulled it off.

'Boom Boom Pow' hasn't aged well though. You don't hear it on the radio as much as 'I Gotta Feeling' which I think has stood the test of time.

Edited yesterday at 10:391 day by Charlielargepotatoes

11 The Black Eyed Peas - Meet Me Halfway

1 week in November 2009: 67-26-11-6-3-{1}-2-4-4-4-10-6-3-10-17-24-22-25-31-37-46-51-54-52-54-47-48-66-75-72-74->31

Kept off #1: Leona Lewis - Happy

#10 in EOY 2009

Straight away, The Black Eyed Peas lose another song, leaving just one of theirs in the top 10. This is the first song to appear which had a lengthy climb to the top, being the third single from their album The E.N.D. (short for The Energy Never Dies) which sold over 1 million in the UK in 2009 alone despite its #3 peak (where it spent 7 weeks during the year, and 8 in total!) The song continued the album's 100% strike rate of UK #1 singles with a peak sale of 100k which immediately followed its performance by the group on a live show of The X Factor, on which, in something of an own goal for the franchise, the 2006 winner Leona Lewis had been given a spot to promote her new single the same weekend, surely with the aim for her to take the #1 in between the releases of the JLS and X Factor Finalists singles which the show had promoted the weeks either side, but fell 15k short of her fellow guests in the end. They would have a fifth UK #1 the following year, but I wouldn't rank that one nearly as high.

This got edged out of my top 10 while I was compiling this list, but it's held up very well and I've still heard it on commercial radio in recent years too. Having established their dance credentials, this is more of a pop song with rapped verses over a minimal synth production, but where Fergie is the main star with the sultry extended chorus. There's a neat "let's walk the bridge" from Taboo in the middle eight section, and the stringy synths swells nicely as it approaches the end. One of its unexpected points of interest for me however is, buried in the mix, a sample of the ringing guitar intro to Yeah Yeah Yeah's 2003 #26 hit 'Maps' - one of my favourite songs of the decade, which had already provided some inspiration for a major worldwide hit by a US artist (the final pre-chorus guitar riff for Kelly Clarkson's aforementioned 'Since U Been Gone') and would do so again in 2016 for Beyoncé's 'Hold Up'. It all made for a much more distinct #1 than the insipid comeback song for Leona might have been, so kudos to the British buying public for that one.

Ten songs remain then - I won't give away the full list, though I've already made some reference to all of them in these commentaries somewhere, so ~pledge your allegiance~ if you wish!

I wasn't mad on this when it was out, but I think time has been really kind to it! It's aged well.

Poor BEPs looking like they were heading for 3 in the Top 10, only to end up with only 1. Beyond 2009 they became very hit and miss, if not miss and miss, but I do really like this trio of #1s and especially how different from each other they are.

I hadn’t realised “Meet Me Halfway” sampled “Maps”; I really like the futuristic feel to it and it’s a great vocal performance from Fergie. It was an amazing chart moment not only that it beat Leona but managed a 6 figure sale that week after having climbed up the chart which is very rare.

“Boom Boom Pow” was my least favourite of the 3 at the time, though I still liked it. Now I think it’s right up there and would definitely be well inside my Top 10. It was pretty bold to go with something so sparse and hard edged, and the lyrics are fun.

Speaking of 2000-and-late we’re definitely going to be extending this series of threads into the next decade! More on that to come.

Great bit of double BEPs there. The better song is higher.

I’d put Meet Me Halfway… halfway in the list of the 3 BEPs number ones. A bit more straightforward pop than Boom Boom Pow but I still like to hear it ‘in the real world’.

"When Love Takes Over" is clearly top 10 for me - such a great BOP. I like David's stuff from his peak time. Not to keen on the Black Eyed Peas stuff.