'The Flood' deserved to get to 1. One of their best. 'Love You More' is alright I guess for their standards but nothing to go wild about.

No arguments about those last three either. We've been very generous in our amount of coverage for Joe McElderry's #1, agree that the better X Factor winner's single that year is still to come.

R.E.M.'s 'Everybody Hurts' is one my favourite songs of all time, but as with 'Heroes' these charity ensemble covers are so far removed from their originals that I don't associate them or give much thought that a Berry/Buck/Mills/Stipe composition finally made #1 - as for this version, it's not great, but that feels a moot point, as with Grenfell in 2017, since the effects of those causes continue.

'Love You More' was the Children In Need official single which may explain a few of the sales which helped it to #1, but some sloppy lyrics aside "Day 3 was the same as day 2", it's not terrible, but well below 'The Flood'.

I’m still annoyed by the dross that kept The Flood off number 1.

No comment on that JLS song, but 'The Flood' is one of my ultimate favourite Take That songs. Just epic.

That charity record is another one I’m not really fond of at all. I didn’t mind some of the charity records back in the day, but they mostly seem pretty bad now.

I didn’t realise Love You More kept The Flood off #1.

That’s a shame, I absolutely love The Flood. Love You More however is quite forgettable.

I guess it’s a testament to how big JLS were back in 2010 for that shite to have kept the long-awaited Robbie/Take That reunion record, and a fantastic one at that, off #1. A true pop injustice. 😭

Also worth mentioning, I believe this was the second time JLS prevented Robbie from a #1, although the first time was on the album chart and Robbie was a soloist.

I actually really like 'Love You More' and find a weird charm in how formulaic of a ballad it is. Songs like this were so common around 2000 with the prior wave of boy bands, that I rather enjoyed hearing the same kind of thing from the new boy band era (plus The Wanted had one around the same time with 'Heart Vacancy').

Another poor JLS song, shame because compared with many X Factor ‘alumni’ they had a decent start to their career. I have to admit I didn’t remember this at all before re listening, and I can now see why.

Should say it was the second week for 'The Flood' on 'Love You More''s first week, and 'The Flood' was #2 the week before, there were 2 number ones that kept it off #1. Though Take That did sell a lot more in their second week, again probably because of performing on X Factor and CiN as it happens, though the sales gap was similar in both weeks. I'm using the definition of 'in the week(s) this song was at #1, there was a song at #2 that never reached #1'.

17 hours ago, jimwatts said:

No arguments about those last three either. We've been very generous in our amount of coverage for Joe McElderry's #1, agree that the better X Factor winner's single that year is still to come.

R.E.M.'s 'Everybody Hurts' is one my favourite songs of all time, but as with 'Heroes' these charity ensemble covers are so far removed from their originals that I don't associate them or give much thought that a Berry/Buck/Mills/Stipe composition finally made #1 - as for this version, it's not great, but that feels a moot point, as with Grenfell in 2017, since the effects of those causes continue.

'Love You More' was the Children In Need official single which may explain a few of the sales which helped it to #1, but some sloppy lyrics aside "Day 3 was the same as day 2", it's not terrible, but well below 'The Flood'.

I agree actually on Joe, I wondered if I was just going to do a very quick commentary about it as you'd already done it and I knew it was very uninteresting as a #1 and then I started writing more than it deserves.

Forgot/didn't see that when researching for 'Love You More' being on Children In Need, that is another good explainer. It's not like it was a top-seller but it did get 118k in its first week which is better than a lot of #1s over the year.

I simply don't understand how hype alone didn't carry The Flood easily to No.1, let alone the fact it's a brilliant pop song. Baffling, especially when the album sold so much out the gate shortly after.

Either way, the JLS song is very dull and sounds like album filler from Blue's heyday. I'm realising a few of these (plus much of the 2011 countdown) are going to bring back nostalgia from when I lived in Wales for a year. As hearing the JLS song suddenly brought back memories that I didn't realise I had associated with this song at the time.

Edited 9 hours ago9 hr by gooddelta

“The Flood” might even be the best thing Take That ever did - certainly up with “Back For Good” and “Rule The World”.

I’m actually not sure which of these JLS #1s is worse you know. At least “The Club Is Alive” has something to it even if it’s ill advised and unpleasant.

The Flood: Brilliant, classic, Take That/Robbie at their best.

This: insipid, forgettable, I'll take The Club Is Alive over this.

30. The Black Eyed Peas – The Time (Dirty Bit)

1 week at #1 (entered 14th November, #1 on week beginning 12th December): 11-07-11-06-01-04-03-03-03-08-15-20-27-29-41-50-53-54-63-66-62-58-66-73-74-83-99

Kept off #1: Willow - Whip My Hair

EOY #26 & EOY #110 in 2011

 

Like I said, wouldn’t get long before songs I started enjoying. Here’s one where I do mildly enjoy it and wouldn’t rush to skip it but god, there are so many things wrong with it also.

The Time (Dirty Bit) is the first song in the countdown not associated with Simon Cowell, in that it was neither released on the label Syco, nor, in the case of the JLS songs, the act came from one of his shows despite being signed to Epic due to not winning (yes, Shout was on Syco’s label). Though the Black Eyed Peas still performed this on X-Factor as it rose up the charts, helping its cause in getting to #1. Fuck.

Speaking of, it’s also the first song here with an interesting chart run that isn’t just hitting #1, or a commercial peak, right at the start of its time on the charts and then dropping out as soon as the first week sales are done with. Might be connected to it not being Syco. But yes, it debuted well, and then as the BEP did more promotion for the song here in the UK, it became more and more popular until it was riding out the slow Christmas period in a long set of high positions. Right enough time for everyone to get sick of it, though that's still an impressive commercial performance and hold on rate, it did its job at being a solid choice for clubs around this time.

In its one week at #1 it did mercifully stop the utterly horrible 'Whip My Hair' from getting to #1, I'm only not going to lambast that song more because I understand it was performed by a literal 10-year old child - if you've wondered what Willow Smith is doing for music these days, after having a few more efforts show up in the charts sporadically (most notably as half of The Anxiety with 'Meet Me At Our Spot') she's making fairly decent jazz pop, more the sort of thing I'd actually make if I were an aspiring musician with superstar parents as opposed to... teeny bopper things.

Coming off their most commercially era so far with The E.N.D, the Black Eyed Peas were keen to follow up that success with a sequel album, entitled The Beginning. I like the theming, I wouldn’t say it was a good choice to open up that comeback with a controversial sample from the Dirty Dancing soundtrack.

You know those parodies or jokes about how EDM music just takes a beloved song or sound, records a shaky cover of it and then shoehorns in electronic bleeps, bloops and sub-bass heavy thumps? ‘The Time (Dirty Bit)’ is that played straight. Fergie soars into a passable cover of ‘(I’ve Had) (The Time Of My Life)’ on the chorus, made more upbeat for the dancefloor purposes, but then the chorus drops into some of the most basic dance beats you’ve ever heard. Cue outrage from everyone who liked Dirty Dancing, the song or the movie. I don’t have huge feelings for that either way but I can still tell this desecrates it. It doesn’t even really fit the rest of the song, and the transitions are more jarring than you’d expect from a group who’d scored 3 #1s and dancefloor and radio dominance the year before.

Add in some raps where apl.de.ap in particular feels like he’s introducing himself in a rap battle: (‘I’m the party application’ really?) rather than being one of the members of the biggest band on the planet, and it feels ridiculous. All of the raps are just a bit lyrically lacking honestly and carry the same feeling of generic 'let's give every member a verse (not Taboo though)', just apl attempts to make some plays on his name which make them stand out slightly more. In comparison to ‘I Gotta Feeling’, which has memorable lines everywhere, as did ‘Boom Boom Pow’, can you really remember any of the other non-Dirty Dancing lyrics from this?

I don’t think it’s awful, but it’s transient and not clever with its samples or rapping lyrics. For all the things you could have criticised The Black Eyed Peas with their music before this, I wouldn’t have leveled either claim at any of their big hits from previous albums. This was a successful #1, but it was so far into generic, unoriginal EDM that it killed their career fast, and after a couple more hits from this album, they split and never majorly troubled the UK charts again – sure they reformed later without Fergie but can you honestly say you knew or cared?

I use to absolutely detest The Time (Dirty Bit) but I kind of tolerate it now. At least it kept that hideous Whip My Hair from #1.

Rubbish track and coming from a fan of theirs generally too. 'Just Can't Get Enough' and 'Don't Stop The Party' were much better singles to follow up though.

'Whip My Hair' is horrific too :/

Utterly vile.

'Whip My Hair' isn't exactly a masterpiece either, but compared to this it is.

Wow, Black Eyed Peas certainly went downhill quickly. ‘Dirty Bit’ indeed! Also when does the Cowell, Syco, X Factor influence come to an end?

This is awful for sure, totally a Dirty Bit.

Not classic BEP for sure - they reached a peak with Rock Your Body a huge personal chart number one and fab in clubs of the time, and it was all downhill after that. I feel justified (since it charted again) in saying that should have been the number one not this mundane beats-no-tune effort. Still, everything is relative and its the best listed track so far, probably.