I absolutely hate that Ne-Yo song. Thankfully I don't think I've heard it in over a decade.

Let Me Love You - and I really am just repeating myself a lot "doesn't ring a bell". I generally like Ne-Yo and in another case of "I prefer the current/recent single" I do - Up Out And Gone had Radio 2 plays this year and is more of a throwback to his early r'n'b stuff and very nice too. This one has the production but is far too monotonous on the hook, it just comes off a bit annoying by the end and I agree is the weakest of his number ones. Even the hook rings no bell with me, unlike the Mario song. So what did 2012 me think? One week at number 75 and nothing else. So basically I gave it a mention for the sake of recording it existed amongst his much-better back catalogue Beautiful Monster and Closer especially. It may even be vying with Impossible as my least-fave chart-topper of the year, oops!

26. Rita Ora – How We Do (Party)
1 week at #1 (entered 19^th August) 01-02-03-09-15-20-24-33-38-48-62-73-53{-57R(7)-66} (15 weeks)
Kept off #1: None
Sales: 100,436
EOY: #50

I’ve already discussed Rita Ora here, as R.I.P. was a few places lower than this follow-up single, How We Do (Party), but repetition of acts in this countdown is low. For a year consisting of as many as 36 number ones, there are very few acts I need to cover more than once which I do find quite remarkable, but poor Rita is the first of the acts with multiple entries to appear a second time, however all is not lost as she is the only act I’ll need to cover for a third time.

Mid-February, mid-May, and now mid-August. Entering the chart at #1 every three months is remarkable consistency and does take me back to a previous era where singles were evenly spaced out in a way which they no longer are. She went for the quad but Shine Ya Light only managed #10 in mid-November, not helped by it coming after the release of her debut album, Ora.

There are definitely positives to How We Do (Party), I think the production is great and elevates it beyond the last few songs, and I like Rita’s voice a lot more here than on R.I.P., but lyrically it’s pretty dire and completely unoriginal for the 2012 landscape, four minutes of describing getting drunk and falling for someone at the previous night’s party was incredibly tired as a concept by then. The sample of Party and Bullshit by Notorious B.I.G. for the main hook feels unnecessary too. Not the best of starts to Rita’s solo career, but she would go on to improve – her other biggest hits that came a few years later, I Will Never Let You Down and Anywhere, are much better than all I heard from her debut album Ora.

I agree about Rita's later singles being better, those you mention I very much remember, and this one I very much don't until I played it - ah yes that's familiar. It's not bad actually, I would put it nearer the top end of the picks so far and lyrics about getting drunk partying will always be relevant to young people going out clubbing and having a laugh. 2012 me was much less kind on it though (74 peak) oops!

At a festival over the weekend so two today and Monday instead... Moving on from ones where I'm more negative, we're now at the section (of two) of songs which I had no memory of, are typically fine but have no real desire to listen to again going forwards, after that we can start getting some positivity in here!

25. One Direction – Little Things
1 week at #1 (entered 18^th November) 01-03-09-06-10-16-14{-17-29-36-47-53-36-59-66-74-53R(2)-67R(3)-71R(3)-67R(21)-68R(2)} (21 weeks)
Kept off #1: Bruno Mars – Locked Out of Heaven
Sales: 85,308
EOY: #65

It had been two years since One Direction were on X-Factor, they didn’t come close to winning, finishing 3^rd and always being the 3^rd or 4^th most popular act each week, but went on to become probably the biggest act to come from it. The manufactured boyband was over two decades old at this point, and the way to success was proven – marketable, good looking young lads, a team of hit writers, releases close together… 1D hit each of them.

Little Things was released on the same day as their second album, Take Me Home, and both entered the chart at #1. It was a slightly unusual strategy to have not released the single a week or two before, and it would probably have had a better sales figure had it done so, but it worked anyway. It was their 5^th release as a group, and perhaps surprisingly just their second chart topper. The lead single for the album, Live While We’re Young, underperformed somewhat, entering at #3 and being almost out of the top 40 by week 6.

I do find Little Things to be a pleasant enough boyband ballad, but ultimately quite forgettable. It’s fine, and they sing and harmonise well, and not too bad lyrically, just that from a genre where I like few songs, but the ones I do I tend to love, it blends in with many other acts and songs. For a song which is so perfectly ‘dull but fine to listen to’, topping the bottom third of entries feels about right.

It was an all-new top 3 on the week of release, it comfortably won the X-Factor boyband vs girlband battle as Little Mix 3^rd single DNA entered at #3, split by the first single from another second album behemoth, Locked Out of Heaven by Bruno Mars. It perhaps unsurprisingly had the most longevity of the three with 10 weeks in the top 10, by which point Little Things and DNA had fallen to #36 & #65. Locked Out of Heaven is definitely my preferred track of the three, but not to the point where I’m a big fan or would still listen to it, it would only end up a few places higher here had it won out in that week.

I agree I’d have How We Do as the middle of the three Rita Ora number ones in 2012, not unpleasant but not memorable either, though having her first 3 singles reaching number one is certainly good going. As you say, some of her later singles were better (I always maintain that Anywhere would have made a great Christmas number one).

I find Little Things a bit boring I’m afraid, I much prefer 1Ds uptempo songs. I listened to it earlier today and still can’t recall how it goes now.

Hope you have a great time at your festival @RabbitFurCoat, which one are you going to?

'How We Do' was a disappointment for me after I quite liked RIP's dubstep production. The only slight interest for me was how radio stations would censor it.

'Little Things' chorus sounds like a bank advert soundtrack tbh very MOR.

'How We Do (Party)' is pretty naff lyrically indeed, not a fan. Rita's remaining #1 is my favourite of her 2012 hat trick by far so I'm glad you agree!

'Little Things' is pleasant enough sonically but it's Ed Sheeran penned and some of his cornier qualities as a writer are on display. Also, Louis' delivery of "you can't go to bed without a cup of tea" makes me wince for some reason so overall, it's a pass. I still prefer it to the aforementioned lead 'Live While We're Young' but the third single 'Kiss You' is much better than both for me.

10 hours ago, RabbitFurCoat said:

Four minutes of describing getting drunk and falling for someone at the previous night’s party was incredibly tired as a concept by then.

That just about describes every pop song released in the early 2010s. Then booze got expensive, the world became more divided and the party was over. 😆

The thing about Rita Ora is that I thought she had a great personality and voice but the singles she released did not seem to elevate that.

I think 'Radioactive' was her best song. Everything she did after was pretty forgettable.

Edited Friday at 18:163 days by Charlielargepotatoes

'How We Do (Party)' is generic as anything but I enjoyed it for what it was. The repetitive "Party" radio edit admittedly grated though. Rita did release better material later on in 2014 and 2017 for two songs in particular.

'Little Things' is nice enough imo.

2 hours ago, Charlielargepotatoes said:

I think 'Radioactive' was her best song. Everything she did after was pretty forgettable.

I loved that song 'Radioactive' at the time!

'Ritual' in 2019 with Tiesto and Jonas Blue was quite good.

Edited Friday at 20:483 days by TheSnake

No great losses from the top 30 so far. The two Rita Ora #1s feel very much of their time - 'R.I.P.' felt like a very measured coverage of bases, and 'How We Do (Party)' is bang on the lyrical clichéd trend - I believe the "party and bullshit" hook dates back to The Last Poets' 'When The Revolution Comes' from 1970, but the radio edit here is quite jarring. 'Young' has one of the better productions so far, but I can't get on board with Tulisa's strained vocals. I found 'Domino' annoying even for a couple of listens a week (how can every second be a highlight...), so can only imagine how I'd feel being subjected to it multiple times a day through radio at work. 'Let Me Love You...' felt like an unwieldy title (clearly to distinguish it from the Mario song Ne-Yo also wrote) for a fairly mundane hit, if not as objectionable for me as some of these.

'Little Things' I don't mind too much - it has clear hallmarks of Ed Sheeran's songwriting, and the "cup of tea" line is unintentionally funny, but it's a nice song, though not really in keeping with One Direction's usual sound which probably lends to its awkwardness.

“Let Me Love You…” is my favourite of the last few, although it’s no more than pleasant and doesn’t come anywhere near “Closer”.

“Little Things” is alright - beyond “Night Changes” there’s very little from 1D that I’d actively want to listen to.

“How We Do” is pretty ghastly and grating for me actually. “RIP” would be comfortably above it.

24. Cover Drive - Twilight
1 week at #1 (entered 29^th January) 01-06-07-10-19-26-25-32-42-58-70 (11 weeks)
Kept off #1: None
Sales: 76,109
EOY: #75

And now for the last song that I'd completely forgotten about, not just its existence but how it went and who the act were. If there had a been a NMTBJ style quiz running at the moment I wouldn't have identified it. Every now and again there will be a discussion on the chart forum on this site regarding ‘non’ number one hits i.e. one which was totally forgettable and people outside of chart followers would neither know it was a number one single or necessarily remember the song. Twilight will typically come up in these discussions – a song which fell out of the top 5 in its second week, by a group who had no real prior pedigree or much success afterwards, and something which is barely listened to in the years since. As discussed in the post for Young, Spotify streams aren’t a perfect metric, but Twilight is the song ahead of Tulisa, 34.7m streams ranking a comfortable 33^rd by that metric, almost 25m behind #32.

Cover Drive were a group from Barbados who came to prominence by posting themselves covering popular hits on YouTube, which led to them being offered a record deal. Their promotion and success was almost entirely limited to the UK & Ireland, Twilight charted lowly in Japan and Belgium but they were their only chart entries of any kind anywhere else in the world. They released their first single, Lick Ya Down, in the previous summer and whilst it charted at #9 in the UK it was out of the chart entirely within a month and was quite terrible.

Twilight was their second single and was promoted heavily in the UK in early 2012, peaking in the top 5 & top 10 of the radio and TV airplay charts prior to release. Its weekly #1 sales of 76k were perfectly reasonable without being massive, it was the second highest sale of the 6 weeks into the year at that point, and lower totals were recorded in a further 11 weeks, so it’s not like it got to the top by default of low sales, but it had no longevity whatsoever – it fell out of the top 5 the following week with only one new song ahead of it, falling immediately behind 3 of the previous weeks top 5, and lasted just 8 weeks in the top 40. Only one of 2012s #1 singles had a shorter run, whilst Chris Brown’s was the only one which sold fewer copies overall. They’d have three more entries in the singles chart in 2012, charting at #4, #13 & #29, and then disappear forever, a second album five years later did nothing whatsoever.

As a song Twilight is perfectly pleasant, a bit forgettable maybe and quite generic and of its time but Amanda Reifer, the most prominent singer, has a nice enough voice and it fits well with the reggae/dancehall vibe of the song. It’s the type of song you’d expect to hear in a beach bar somewhere and enjoy because of the setting, it’s just not the type of song you expect to be writing about in a series such as this. It’s not a song I’d have heard often, and not one I’m going to continue going back to, but am at least happy enough to have been temporarily reminded of its existence.

I was a big fan of Lick Ya Down their debut at the time and Explode was good too. But Twilight I wasnt a massive fan of. Its decent enough with an EDM-pop production as was common at the time. It's vocally a bit over poppy and over sweet for me though.

Edited 8 hours ago8 hr by TheSnake

I am a bit behind, so need to catch up. here are my positions of all songs revealed so far:

04.  Jessie J - Domino (28)

14. will.i.am; Eva Simons - This Is Love (31)

17. Tulisa - Young (29)

20. Cover Drive - Twilight (24)

21. Maroon 5;Wiz Khalifa - Payphone (32)

22. Rita Ora;Tinie Tempah - R.I.P. (30)

24. Rita Ora - How We Do (Party) (26)

26. Ne-Yo - Let Me Love You (Until You Learn To Love Yourself) (27)

30. One Direction - Little Things (25)

32. Chris Brown - Turn Up the Music (34)

33. James Arthur - Impossible (33)

34. Robbie Williams - Candy (36)

35. Gary Barlow & The Commonwealth Band - Sing (35)

All very close to your position Rita Ora was very similar to Pixie Lott at that time - very average same sounding music - glad that Rita improved after this era. Really can't stand that One Direction song - it is so boring and forgettable. "Twilight" quite entertaining, but nothing special too. Curious when my #31 will be revealed. 😀

I too couldn’t remember Twilight until I listened again, but it’s actually not bad if not very memorable either. I wonder why it had the big opening week sales, was it just massive promotional tactics?

I definitely knew Twilight was the forgotten song you were talking about, as objectively it was more or less forgotten as soon as it had disappeared from the chart, and was a surprise No.1 to begin with, helped along by mass airplay from the likes of Capital iirc.

But it's also by far my favourite to drop out so far and one I bought at the time, I just find it so beautiful melodically and vocally, with lovely production similar to some of Rihanna and Keri Hilson's material at the time. So it was probably already dated sounding by about three years when it surfaced, but it is just so charming. The bridge is my favourite part, the vocal is so warm there and the chords I just love where it goes 'and you know I love to be in control...'. I didn't care for any of their other singles at all, but this was a delightful surprise chart topper, I still listen to it a lot now.

No disagreements about any of the others - Ne-Yo - agreed it's autopilot and the chorus is too clunky lyrically; One Direction quite sweet musically but extremely naff lyrics throughout, some of Ed's worst; and Rita's is just '2012 generic party song #23'. Melodic and catchy but ultimately one of those uninspiring songs that wouldn't have existed any other time but that 2011-2012 period so she's like another Pixie Lott/JLS/Taio Cruz empty vessel of releasing whatever music was the 'in sound' at the time for an easy hit.

23. The Justice Collective – He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother
1 week at #1 (entered 23^rd December) 01-05{-21-47} (4 weeks)
Kept off #1: None
Sales: 269,248
EOY: #49

A charity cover that was Christmas number one being revealed a fortnight into in one of these countdowns seems like a rarity, but here we are with The Justice Collective’s take on The Hollies He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother being really rather good, certainly in comparison to the previous decade’s worth of X-Factor finalists and largely pitiful Comic/Sport Relief/Children In Need singles.

Firstly, it’s a cause I can get behind and don’t roll my eyes at being some kind of cash-in. That may seem harsh on what are fundamentally releases to raise money for good causes, but it’s easy to get the impression a lot of these were for credit and kudos rather than being genuinely passionate about the causes – the X-Factor finalists 4 number one singles felt as much about Simon Cowell’s ego as anything else.

He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother was released for various charities associated with the 1989 Hillsborough Disaster, in which 97 Liverpool fans died as a result of the crowd crush. The idea came about after The Farm (with their 1990 heyday), Mick Jones of The Clash and Pete Wylie (a well-regarded Liverpudlian musician) performed together at an anti-The Sun newspaper concert in 2011. The Sun, of course, being (in)famous in that part of the world for the headlines they produced following the disaster. As a huge football fan, and with a father who was in attendance at Hillsborough on that day in 1989 when I was just a few weeks old, The Justice Collective was a cause I enjoyed seeing a song released for.

Secondly, the list of acts involved are much more aligned to my tastes than you’d usually find in charity #1s that reach the top – many of Merseyside’s most prominent musicians and singers, and famous football fans along with the odd celebrity and ex-footballer linked to the area such as John Bishop and Alan Hansen. Non-music celebs aside, it looks like a list of singers I’d happily listen to a playlist of – Paul Heaton (The Beautiful South/Housemartins), John Power (Cast/The La’s), Jon McClure (Reverend & The Makers), Paul McCartney, Dave McCabe (The Zutons), Robbie Williams, Mel C, Holly Johnson (Franke Goes To Hollywood), Rebecca Ferguson (as listenable an X-Factor contestant as there is) all being involved amongst many others, but no one that I look at and think “urgh, not them”.

Thirdly, the choice of song is a good one. It’s of a big hit (a re-release in 1987 made it to #1, after it was a #3 hit in 1969), but not something so huge or well-known that it feels cliched, and not of something where the lyrical content becomes forced and cringe, as some of those XF ones were. If anything, it’s the complete opposite with it being entirely appropriate for people on two divides of a footballing city to come together for. It’s a song which is good and that I know, but it’s not a song that has continued to transcend the airwaves decades after its release and it’s probably common for younger people to not know it – essentially a great choice of song for this type of release.

However, there’s only so high you can rate one of these types of singles, with a different person singing each line they’re not especially easy to listen to and very easy to get wrong, therefore simply being ok makes a song like this be a great version of what it is – if the original Band Aid is the best of this type of song, and the 1997 version of Perfect Day is the essential cover, then He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother is in the next rung below, significantly ahead of most of the dross that passes for charity covers by multiple acts.

This type of release has become a thing of the past now. With the charts being so based on streaming now it’s become ever more difficult for charity releases to actually make an impact, they’d pick up so many casual buyers in shops and on iTunes fron people who’d buy it along with what they wanted to buy as they think it’s for a good cause and it’s only a quid or two, but that type of purchasing is now gone. There was a fourth Band Aid two years later, and the Times Like These monstrosity during 2020s lockdown, but that’s about it as far as big collectives go.

Glad you didn't place this rock bottom, this is another I bought on CD at the time, not just to support the worthy cause but because I enjoy the version.

Some very good vocal performances on it by some great singers, and I've always just generally loved He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother. A very warm cover of the song, it's a shame it's not on Spotify actually as every now and then it's a nice one to listen to.