Bruno would have been quite high up for me. I was obsessed with it at the time especially after Matt Cardle performed it on X Factor.

Katy would have been top 10 for me too. It’s a fun Summer bop. She may have had better on the album but CG did the job and I still like listening to it.

Just The Way You Are was a classy song, and if I have any appreciation of Bruno's impact on 21st century music, much like Scissor Sisters heyday, it was for re-vamping the 70's sounds: think Billy Joel/Elton John for both (Elton co-wrote and sang on I Dont Feel Like Dancing, and Billy's Just The Way You Are same sentiment) and Stevie Wonder, albeit more of a soul vibe with Bruno. This one peaked at 2 for me, it was the next two that were the monster classics, and Just The Way You Are did suffer from overplay that I still havent gotten over, unlike Marry You which is still fabulous and fresh and should have been a number one.

Just the way you are is such a cheesy track but good cheese 🙌🙌

"Just The Way You Are" is fantastic - you can throw it always in and it works nicely. Top 5 material for me.

Just The Way You Are that got annoying quite quickly from it being overplayed. Not an Bruno Mars song that I would go out of my way to listen to.

Of the most recent few, Dynamite is definitely the best song to have appeared so far, a simple and incredibly effective example of this type of party song. Just The Way You Are is a great song for the huge radio friendly hit that it is, though it's not something I've chosen to listen to for a long while now, think Promise This is probably the one we'd have furthest apart so far, definitely right towards the bottom for me, scraping into the top 30.

13. Lady Gaga & Beyoncé – Telephone

2 weeks at #1 (entered 29^th November 2009, #1 on week beginning 21^st March): 30-41-62-82-74-67-55-48-49-42-39-39-34-37-31-12-01-01-02-04-06-11-11-15-16-19-24-22-33-38-40-43-46-45-55-61-59-63-75-86-91-89-83-95-89-91-x-66-88

Kept off #1: none

EOY #15

My relationship with Gaga’s music as I started to pay more attention to who was making the music I was listening to was a little complicated. She was inescapable throughout 2009-2010, all her music raved about, and just as many column inches displayed to her weird music videos and occasional publicity stunts – barely a month after the infamous meat dress incident I saw an impersonator at a lounge bar in the retirement-home/respectable part of Tenerife, Los Gigantes. Point is, everyone knew who she was, what she represented and it was very much the weird, cutting edge of pop. Vaguely appreciated by society but also comes with some mild pearl-clutching here and there. Sabrina Carpenter now is perhaps in a similar position.

This largely applies to her music videos, as much as The Fame Monster has gone down in history and in my estimations as her tightest and highest quality piece of work as a follow-up EP to The Fame, this era, especially at the time, was all about what weird stuff Gaga would get up to in her music videos – interestingly I remember seeing the videos for the yet-to-appear ‘Bad Romance’ and follow-up single ‘Alejandro’ a lot more at the time. Though the latter drew the ire of various Christian groups so that may have been why. Perhaps because they had a lot more transgressive and auteur-creative imagery than this one. ‘Telephone’s music video is very Tarantino-inspired, and the length and many lines of dialogue allow for a number of fun lines and snapbacks that helped cement Gaga as an icon of self-confident feminism, alongside one of the other modern music legends who could lay claim to that title, Beyoncé.

It's a really interesting song on the charts in that it does reflect the ongoing appreciation for Gaga, never far from people's minds, inspiring a huge fanbase that is still very active to this day and of course working with one of the biggest OTHER fanbases - its climb to #1 accompanies the music video's release and a huge single push that cemented it firmly into the charts as a strong seller, this is such an easy sell for anyone who had experienced the music market of the year before, and holding on as a #1 as a far more pernicious monster, Justin Bieber's 'Baby', was in its greatest ascendancy was very welcome. Even if 'Baby' would only peak at #3, it was closest to #1 on this second week (narrowly).

‘Telephone’ is not my favourite Gaga song from this era or the associated Fame era by any means, I mainly consider it notable for a good collaboration with Beyoncé. The song is catchy enough and certainly fun on its own but doesn’t have quite the same euphoria or highs that so many of her other works around this time do. Part of that might be how the song was originally written by Gaga for Britney Spears’ Circus, the song, production wise has more in common with a lot of Britney's more airy electropop-esque singing than most of the rest of Gaga's work, though the glitches are definitely more a Gaga trademark. Most of the oomph here, and it's really good oomph, comes from either Gaga's dance breakdowns or the points where Bey enters the song with a bit of fire, I think while the song suits Beyoncé possibly even less, she really keeps it from going stale and is a great addition. The lyrical theme is excellent as an expression of Gaga's insecurity at being in constant demand and subsequently her expression of power in taking back the telephone. When it calls everyone to the dancefloor, it can be really euphoric and does that very well, it has the potential to be a damn good club track under the right circumstances. Considering that Beyoncé's parts were recorded in Japan and Gaga recorded hers at Darkchild's studios in California, it flows well. As it should, this is quite literally a superstar collaboration and quite possibly up there with the biggest in history.

There really is a lot of energy in this song, it's great to listen through and I feel this might be one that some would put up very high - my criticism is that while a good song, it doesn't quite feel as suited to Gaga as most of her songs and repeated exposure makes it a little annoying. But that's why I'm not a monster, for me Gaga is a good entertainer and certainly talented popstar and creative, but that's it. I've always enjoyed and respected Gaga when she's good, and I don't criticise her lightly, but she isn't perfect, and this is one of her good, but less than perfect, songs.

I enjoy 'Telephone' on a night out or something, and it's not bad but it's so incredibly basic for her. Like the type of song that could be by anyone, unlike most of her other singles.

Iconic video though!

'Telephone' would be higher up for me too. Fun duet that and yes iconic video it was.

I do like Telephone but it’s not near to my favourite Gaga songs. Don’t think the duet with Beyoncé completely works for me either

I quiet enjoy Telephone, I went off it for a while but I’m back on board with it.

I don’t love it like I use to but it’s still a good song.

Telephone would be top 10 for me, it’s an amazing song and has an iconic video.

As always I can do without time-wasting wannabe movie-star extended intros to songs, but the record and the just-music parts of the video is fab. Topped my charts at the time, her 4th, but Alejandro was better, and Fame Monster her peak. The rest of the family at a garden barbecue all moaned when I put the album on, preferring Nickelback. I think that says it all, and they remain totally wrong about both acts. 😇Oh and Beyonce, best thing she'd done since Crazy in Love.

12. Flo Rida – Club Can’t Handle Me (feat. David Guetta)

1 week at #1 (entered 1^st August, #1 on week beginning 15^th August): 05-02-01-03-03-05-09-09-14-20-25-30-38-44-52-59-59-49-66-77-77-66-52-63-85-62

Kept off #1: Eminem – Love The Way You Lie (feat. Rihanna)

EOY #20

‘Club Can’t Handle Me’ by Flo Rida, featuring the talents of David Guetta and a singer, Carmen Key, known for nothing else but the background vocals on this song’s chorus, is not a typical club banger. If that sentence looks silly to you, perhaps let’s expand a bit. It’s not typical because despite a lineup that would have anyone with more than 5 minutes knowledge of critiquing music running for cover, and tackling a lyrical subject that was done to death before the club existed, it’s a pretty damn great song.

Tramer Lacel Dillard, aka Florida Man, was at this point not quite the joke in popular music that he would be when he made a surprise appearance on the Eurovision stage to prop up San Marino, capping off a flagging career that had been in terminal decline for years. I don’t recall thinking in 2010 that he was anything particularly special, but with ‘Low’ still relatively inescapable and beloved and ‘Right Round’ decently known, and with many of his sacriligous sample-based hits and unasked for rented rapper motor mouth features still in the future, he still had a modicum of credibility as an artist. His Only One Flo (Part 1) album (sequel renamed from Only One Rida, forever making this album look horrible in his discography) may have been the point where the downturn began, particularly as this was about the same time as ‘unavanessaroshell whatcha doing Saturday girl?’. However ‘Club Can’t Handle Me’, the lead single from OOF(P1), was one of those few songs in Flo Rida's charting career in the 10s that remained pretty gloriously untouched by his declining ability to hang onto the wheel of quality control.

It actually sounds a lot more like David Guetta at his best, a sequel to ‘When Love Takes Over’ in some ways, as it should, the production is most of what wins here. The whole song works because of the tightness of the chorus and how well it builds into one of those reflective moments intended for the dancefloor to sing along to. Not something you’d normally associate with Flo Rida, but the club is his home, and here, his typical nonsense that he fills the verses with give off a really great momentum balance between the verses and the chorus and the whole thing ends up sounding pretty glorious. That was the real secret of Flo Rida, whatever he was wittering on about on whatever song he's on, he did it with such rhythm and energy that it was normally hard to hate even if objectively trashy and on 'Club...' you barely have to pretend it's not trashy, because it isn't, he fits with Guetta's production so well here. The song sounds so nostalgic as well, I am sure this was played so commonly in clubs over the next few years, proving the desire for uplifting dance interspersed with fast-paced hip-hop. Or something. It sounded good then, it sounds good now, just for different reasons.

It’s a simple summer party tune produced by two kings of the club at the peak of their powers and I’m always surprised by how much I like this. Made it one of the few highlights of that crazy August on the charts where #1s just wouldn’t last, this climbed to #1 on its own powers, and yes, blocked Eminem in the process, but that one had other opportunities. Top 20 at the end of the year isn't bad either, relatively decent legs.

The ‘club banger’ era of the late 00s and early 10s may be derided and quite fairly in a lot of areas (I remember mildly liking the follow up to this song, 'Turn Around' at the time, but without many memories attached to it and it was barely a hit, that one sounds awful now), but I have to recognise when even the most prominent recipients of that derision really outdid themselves and made a song that could last the test of time, this slaps.   

Club Can’t Handle Me is nothing groundbreaking but it’s a good fun summer anthem.

'Turn Around (5,4,3,2,1)' the music video from Flo Rida got him to an spot of bother from Ofcom.

That's one of Flo Rida's better hits but it also isn't something I'd eagerly choose to listen to either. Shame for The Saturdays dropping from 1 on the Wednesday to 3 by Sunday that same week, on course to get their first #1 a few years earlier before they eventually did!

Flo Rida tried to return the compliment for The Saturdays after he pipped them twice for the #1 spot but it was an #10 hit for 'Higher'.

Telephone is a bop , still waiting on that long rumoured sequel though, both artists have had better too

Club cant handle me is so underrated these days one of flos best

A marked upturn in how long some of the chart runs were for the last few:

'Dynamite' is silly but fun (I thought "Galileo" was the actual lyric for a long time) - never knew about Bonnie McKee's involvement in the writing though, I only knew her from appearing in BJSC many times over.

As mentioned, it seemed like everything had been teed up for Bruno to have a big debut, and 'Just The Way You Are (Amazing)' was that - I did like the song and its music video at the time, although he would go on to have more interesting productions.

I actually agree with 'Telephone' being outside the top 10, it felt by far the weakest of Gaga's Top 10 hits up to that point, the tune (what there is of one) is so basic, and it seemed to do well on name power and not much else - I was astounded when it finished 5th in the #1s of the 2010s (decade) rate that was run in 2021.

Of course there was mileage in songs about the "clurrrb" at this time - the production's not bad in a knockoff 'I Gotta Feeling' sort of way, and Flo Rida does what he does. I'd agree that the best of the four 'Love The Way You Lie' blockers is still to come though.