21 hours ago, Julian_ said:

I also think “Heart Skips A Beat” is the better of the Olly songs, and Rizzle Kicks were always good fun. “Dance With Me Tonight” isn’t bad though and I quite like the retro feel of it.

Same for me - "Heart Skips A Beat" stands out and is my favourite song from Olly.

I am listening a lot to Kesha at the moment and just recently bought the Animal/Cannibal album on CD - so at my current ranking "We R Who We R" is Top 3.

Interesting facts about the 120BPM thing @Highway Unicorn ! And nice to hear about your associated memories with the songs @Paddington James .

I'm realising that I liked but don't love the majority of 2011 No.1s. The Kesha and Olly songs are both decent but I wouldn't have ranked them any higher. Grenade, again, good, but I preferred Just The Way You Are by quite a distance.

Edited July 6Jul 6 by gooddelta

I remember rooting for 'Grenade' to get to #1 at the time but long-term I much prefer 'Rolling In The Deep', in fact it's probably my favourite Adele song these days now the overplay has died down (well, that or 'Hometown Glory'), so retrospectively I wish it hadn't missed out after all. Not that Adele was short of success that era! At least she got there in the U.S.

I can vividly remember a preview of 'Dance With Me Tonight' being released and feeling worried that it would be the first Olly single I wouldn't get into this was a few years before The Beatles opened up the floodgates for my interest in retro music, so the tease of this throwback sound felt a bit alien to me. But it came together more in full and was a slow burner in my affections, much like its rise to #1. I don't really go back to it long-term though and much prefer 'Heart Skips A Beat' from his chart-toppers this year

I loved Ke$ha's Animal era but am not really a fan of 'We R Who We R', a touch too generic. Nice to read your NYE memories regarding the song, though! That was 'Timber' for me a few years later, a house party anthem of the time. The PlentyOfFish product placement in the 'We R Who We R' video feels gloriously early 2010s.

So many number ones from this year that are half-forgotten 15 years on! Tik Tok I remember but this one not so much. Benny Blanco's Sunset Blvd with Selena is epic, way more subtle than the annoying repeat sampled vocal bits on this one. The rest of it is not bad, but the gimmick wears out it's welcome very quickly and autotune as a thing eventually become Public Enemy Number One to me, as publicised by the Kesha headlines about vocals vs autotuned vocals. Peaked at 64 for me, that'll be why I dont remember it much then....

17 hours ago, Highway Unicorn said:

Benny Blanco (the song’s producer, and the future Mr. Selena Gomez) shared some bts on the song in a podcast interview recently, as he was the main producer behind Kesha’s debut album and EP (surprise surprise Dr. Luke was credited in name only).

Every track on Animal/Cannibal was exactly 120 BPM because he was that much of a novice he didn’t know you could change the BPM settings on the tech.

The bridge consisting purely "DJ Turn It Up-Up-Up" repeated with more autotuned vocals every time was because of a deadline crunch. Kesha’s was touring and didn’t have time to record the actual bridge and the label needed a finished product by midnight to send to the CD press. So Benny took the very first line she sings in the song "DJ Turn It Up" and made that the bridge instead.

The very first line is "hot and dangerous..." (Also it's a middle-8, not a bridge!)

It's a solid generic banger, I still get enjoyment from it. I was pleased to see her get an entirely solo #1.

8 – Read All About It – Professor Green ft Emeli Sande

2 Weeks at #1 / Weekly Sales – 153,007 / 85,302

#37 in EOY 2011 – Total Sales of 410,600

Up next at #8 is the Professor Green and Emeli Sande collaboration Read All About It. Released in late October Read All About It would go on to debut at #1 with sales of 153,007 copies, the second highest first week sales for the year at that stage behind One Direction. It would also spend a second consecutive week at #1 selling 85,302 copies, it would also become the first #1 single for both Professor Green and Emelie Sande.

A kind of autobiographical song Read All About It touches on the passing of the rappers father just four years prior and his life/relationship growing up. It’s a song I really connected with and enjoyed at the time having just lost my five months earlier, although the circumstances were different it’s one that I felt partially reflected how I was feeling at the time. There was a time for a while after that where I could no longer listen to the song and I went about 10 years without listening to it, but listening to it again recently for this brought back all those memories of the latter stages of 2011.

Elsewhere on the charts one it’s first week at #1 Labrinth and Tiny Temper debuted at #2 with Earthquake, Coldplay debuted at #14 with Paradise and Bruno Mars scored a fifth top 20 hit from his debut album with Runaway Baby debuting at #19. In it’s second week at #1 Cher Lloyd debuted at $4 with her follow up to Swagger Jagger, With UR Love ft Mike Posner, Ed Sheeran made it three to 10 hits in a row with his third single from + titled Lego House and Nicole Scherzinger debuted at #18 with Try With Me, the new singles from her re-release for the album Killer Love.

Very Love The Way You Lie vibes with the rap/sung chorus here, although I guess that was a hallmark of the turn of the decade charts.

Again, it's a track I like but don't love. Emeli's solo version was absolutely inescapable the following year.

1 hour ago, gooddelta said:

Again, it's a track I like but don't love. Emeli's solo version was absolutely inescapable the following year.

That it was, and it truly did my head in!

Emeli's vocals are obviously good here, but the Professor Green parts are not so much my thing. I guess this would be between places 16-20 for me.

She was literally everywhere for a while. I’m still

Not ready to revisit tbh.

7 hours ago, Jade said:

I remember rooting for 'Grenade' to get to #1 at the time but long-term I much prefer 'Rolling In The Deep', in fact it's probably my favourite Adele song these days now the overplay has died down (well, that or 'Hometown Glory')

Oh Hometown Glory is my favourite Adele single too! Great minds and all that.

I quite like Kesha, she had her sound with the autotune and the energy, but this wouldn’t be a favourite of hers.

Read All About It is a bit Eminem/Rihanna lite, though I do like Emeli’s vocals on this.

'We R Who We R' is fine but probably one of the lesser go to's from the singles especially up to that point. I preferred the follow up 'Blow'.

'Read All About It' is okay though I did prefer the Emeli only version the next year much more despite it's vast overplay!

I didn't really like 'We R Who We R'. It's preferable to 'Die Young' though.

'Take It Off' and to a slightly lesser extent 'Blow' and 'My First Kiss' were the only Kesha songs I really liked.

Professor Green's 'Read All About It' rap is quite personal and heartfelt so I prefer it to Part 3 with just Emeli on her own.

6 hours ago, Jester said:

She was literally everywhere for a while. I’m still

Not ready to revisit tbh.

Yeah he she was too much everywhere, especially her ballads. I prefer her more upbeat stuff - 'Lifted' was fab with Naughty Boy.

Edited July 6Jul 6 by TheSnake

I’ve revisited Emelie Sande’s Heaven and it’s still her best song by miles.

Lifted is also great of course.

Agree with the comments on Lifted, one of my favourites from here.

I also really like the unreleased track from here Call Me What You Like.

Oh no, I’ve just read that Party Rock Anthem’s vocalist Lauren Bennett has died aged only 37. So sad. RIP 😢.

7 – Give Me Everything - Pitbull ft Ne-Yo, Afrojack and Nayer

3 Weeks at #1 / Weekly Sales – 71,309 / 95,848 / 82,210

#6 in EOY 2011 – Total Sales of 865,900

American rapper Pitbull has been around since 2004 which is when he scored his first US top 40 hit, but it wouldn’t be until 2009 until he broke through internationally with I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho) which reached #6 in Australia and #4 in the UK. Jump forward another two years to 2011 and Pitbull had his true global smash with a little help from Ne-Yo, Afrojack and Nayer when Giver Me Everything reached #1 in Canada, Ireland, the US and of course the UK. It also reached #2 in Australia, France, Germany, New Zealand and Spain. After debuting at #35 Give Me Everything reached #1 in it’s fifth week on the charts and stayed there for three consecutive weeks, it would also spend a total of 12 weeks in the top 10.

Although this didn’t reach #1 in Australia I can still remember how big it was and the impact it dominance it had on tv and radio in the early months of 2011. I have a real soft spot for songs from mid 2010 to mid 2011 as looking back on it now that period was probably on of the best times of my life. I was 22 years old, working full time, planning my first overseas holiday, catching up regularly with many friends and my football team was absolutely flying. So the music from this time holds a special place in my heart. On the song itself though I was impartial to it at the time but over the years it has grown on me quite a bit and I think that’s partly due to the nostalgia. Pitbull, Ne-Yo, Afrojack and Nayer all make solid contributions to the track and each of them add to its appeal.

I can’t talk about this song without bringing up some of its most quotable or remembered lyrics, such as. “Yeah right, picture that with a Kodak. Or better yet go to Time Square, take a picture of me with a Kodak”, or “Grab somebody sexy, tell’em hey” or “I got it locked up, like Lindsay Lohan”. It’s funny to think that younger people listening to this song now will probably have no idea what Kodak is/was.

Elsewhere on the charts this week Lady Gaga’s Hair debuted at #13 as she was preparing to release her album Born This Way. Wynter Gordon would re-peak at #25 with Dity Talk and Jedward climbed into the top 40 with Lipstick.

It's enjoyable but not something I'd actively choose to listen to. Fortunately it's played on radio still a lot anyway. Would have this about 10 places lower. The other appearance for Pitbull being the highest one is the correct one for sure.

Also minus Bruno who would be 2 for me, everything else there is still in mine like yours!

6 minutes ago, Roba. said:

It's enjoyable but not something I'd actively choose to listen to. Fortunately it's played on radio still a lot anyway. Would have this about 10 places lower. The other appearance for Pitbull being the highest one is the correct one for sure.

Also minus Bruno who would be 2 for me, everything else there is still in mine like yours!

Thanks @Roba.

I must say I've been really happy with the comments so far. I know it's my list and it's all subject to taste but aside from a few of the obvious it's nice to see it being so well received so far. ❤️