Some catching up to do!

'Hot Right Now' is great and the only redeeming thing Rita did that year, although the fact it's not even her own song doesn't reflect well on her either!

'Beneath Your Beautiful' is absolutely wonderful, it's held up so well.

'Spectrum' really seemed to come from nowhere at the time, but it's a nice rousing anthem. I prefer it to their other collaboration.

Properly catching up on the comments of the past few days. Nice to see everyone's thoughts and stories and glad the order seems to be relatively popular with songs typically being more liked as we go on!

Enjoyed the following typo/autocorrect...

15 hours ago, Julian_ said:

“Gangban Style” has a brilliant driving energy and the words are wonderfully woven into the rhythm.

A very different song, and video/dance to go with it!

08. Calvin Harris feat. Florence Welch – Sweet Nothing
1 week at #1 (entered 21^st October) 01-03-06-11-14-18-20-23-26-27-25{-18-24-37-45-46-59-64-71} (19 weeks)
Kept off #1: N/A
Sales: 94,154
EOY: #48

That brings us nicely to Sweet Nothing, the second Calvin/Florence #1 of the year. Calvin had wanted to work with Florence on a song for some time, and after remixing Spectrum managed to find a slot in her tour where she could record some vocals to go on a track he’d made for her. It would be the 6^th track to be released from his album 18 Months, following four #2s from 2011 and 2012, but would go one better and become the second to reach #1, along with his collaboration with Rihanna, We Found Love. Three further releases from it would all reach the top 10 in 2013 making it the first album to be home to nine top 10 singles. Its first week sale was one which Spectrum couldn't reach but it didn't have longevity and ended the year 29 places lower.

Both of these songs sound very much like the early 2010s Calvin Harris that they are, but that’s not a bad thing as it was definitely when he was often at his creative best. Sweet Nothing is both the perfect accompaniment to and follow-on from Spectrum, where it definitely sounds like the more dancier of the two and that it is the original song, it’s lyrically superb and the break over the chorus is exceptional and for that I nudge it ahead as the better of the two.

A great combination of artists that worked so incredibly well, twice. I’d probably place the two songs at #4 & #5 in both my “favourite Florence songs” and “favourite Calvin songs” lists, behind: 1. Rabbit Heart 2. Dog Days Are Over 3. Everybody Scream and 1. I’m Not Alone 2. Feel So Close 3. We Found Love

Sweet Nothing was better than Spectrum I think, the production is more pure dance.

I slightly prefer Spectrum but Sweet Nothing is good too. Both great collaborations!

'Hot Right Now' is quite good but not one I've taken too much notice of.

'Beneath Your Beautiful' is lovely. Really hits in the feels that opening verse and the piano.

Not a fan of Florence generally as her voice goes through me oops but I didn't mind 'Sweet Nothing' tbf so that being the higher of the two is good to see.

Double excellent Calvin/Flo there!

"Sweet Nothing" is OK, but not that remarkable than "Spectrum". A solid 19th place.

01. Rihanna - Diamonds (18)

04. Jessie J - Domino (28)

07. Florence + The Machine – Spectrum (Say My Name) (Calvin Harris Remix) (9)

08. Psy - Gangnam Style (12)

10. Sam and the Womp – Bom Bom (13)

11. DJ Fresh feat. Rita Ora – Hot Right Now (11)

12. Flo Rida - Good Feeling (16)

13. Katy Perry - Part Of Me (14)

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

15. Cheryl Cole - Call My Name (15)

16. Little Mix - Wings (20)

17. Tulisa - Young (29)

18. The Script, Will.I.Am - Hall Of Fame (19)

19. Calvin Harris feat. Florence Welch – Sweet Nothing (8)

20. Cover Drive - Twilight (24)

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

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

24. The Justice Collective – He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother (23)

25. Rita Ora - How We Do (Party) (26)

26. Labrinth Featuring Emeli Sande - Beneath Your Beautiful (10)

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

28. Olly Murs; Flo Rida - Troublemaker (17)

29. Gabrielle Aplin - The Power Of Love (21)

30. Wiley, Djo Feat. Ms. D - Heatwave (22)

31. One Direction - Little Things (25)

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

34. James Arthur - Impossible (33)

35. Robbie Williams - Candy (36)

36. Gary Barlow & The CommonwealthBand - Sing (35)

Agree that 'Sweet Nothing' sounds better than 'Spectrum'.

I think Florence's vocals compliment the Calvin Harris production pretty well. If anything, it elevates it.

Edited 12 hours ago12 hr by Charlielargepotatoes

I've shockingly never listened to Ceremonials before, so I can't remember if I've even heard the original 'Spectrum', but this remix is great. I can see why the vocals might not be for everyone but they soar effectively and match up well to Calvin's production for me. That watered down Morgan Seatree version that made the top 40 last year doesn't hold a candle to this!

...however, I'd say I also prefer 'Sweet Nothing'! Perhaps it's the darker execution that hooks me in even more. What a great team Calvin and Florence were.

sweet nothing I dont recall as well as t'other one oddly, but I like it, I was still just able to shuffle about on a dance floor a bit at the time, so it prob popped up on holidays. Sounding good, still, and in 2012 I rated it as a number 34 - good but not a top fave. Maybe just short of the top 10 for me.

A couple of songs that I like but don't love in Hot Right Now and Sweet Nothing.

I did really enjoy the Spectrum remix though (really loved the Ceremonials album too and the original on there). Beneath Your Beautiful is lovely, Emeli's part especially, I wasn't too much of a fan of some of Labrinth's vocal straining in parts. However overall I enjoyed it, and that chart soar makes me think back to how far a great X Factor performance could take a song if people actually liked what they saw and heard (as some performances barely moved the needle).

Interlude #1

In other threads in this series posters have also used it to talk about other notable things within the year, such as ranking the #2 singles. I thought about doing this, however I simply don't care for any of them enough to bother, the best runners up from this year are on par with the likes of Part of Me and Call My Name so had no real desire to do anything other than note them as I have done. I thought about doing something with the #1 albums but in truth I didn't buy or listen to that many of them and didn't have the inclination to listen to them.

For those who have been paying attention to the End of Year positions, you’ll have noticed that the highest placed song to appear so far was #5. Whilst it had become common for the top spots in the end of year chart to be taken by songs that didn’t reach number one (Love The Way You Lie #1 in 2010, Moves Like Jagger #2 in 2011) the top 6 in 2012 did all hit the top. The first song from the top 4 will appear next, so it certainly feels like 2012 must be a contender to be the year whose top 4 selling songs I’d like the most, and I nearly considered going through historical end of year charts to see if anything could match these four but decided not to. Either way, shame about James Arthur preventing a nicer round number of best top 5.

There was something about 2012s charts which stick out, which is...

2012 - The year of the old(er) song peaking at #4

If you wanted to really stretch this you could technically include Avicii's Levels in this, which had charted at the end of 2011 at #4 and climbed back there in the new year, however that's a bit of a stretch as it was a current song and I've already written about it anyway. But there were three others:

John Legend - Ordinary People

As a 16 year old in 2005 the majority of my listening was to the UK indie bands of the time - albums from the likes of Maximo Park, The Futureheads, Bloc Party, Stereophonics, Kaiser Cheifs, and the emergence of Arctic Monkeys. But occasionally there would be an album from another genre I'd really get into and one of those was Get Lifted by John Legend, very much helped by the single Ordinary People, a #27 hit in the UK, his highest peaking. At the time I thought he had a brilliant voice and wrote great songs and I’ve never got bored of Ordinary People, I still love giving it an occasional listen.

In 2012 it gained a new lease of life, as many songs had done in recent years, after it was performed on a TV talent show. This time it was the turn of The Voice, by Jaz Ellington in the semi-final. It was a relatively short-lived return to the charts with a chart run of 27-04-12-25-33, but was a popular enough performance to find a new audience. It would be another couple of years before John got any more significant success, when All of Me reached #2 and spent 18 consecutive weeks in the top 10.

Elbow - One Day Like This

Elbow had generally been a band I was aware of, liked a few of their songs but never fully got into. That changed in 2008 with the release of The Seldom Seen Kid album after the lead single Grounds for Divorce. It remains one of my favourite and most listened to albums of all time, the standout moment of course being One Day Like This.

I have always considered it to be one of the best songs ever written, everything about it is phenomenal. The way that it builds, the beautiful lyrics, Guy Garvey's voice being at its most gorgeous, the stunning orchestra playing on it. It has never not made me smile and it is incredible to watch live and be part of an audience singing along. It remains the song that has spent the most time on my personal chart, with 31 weeks from its release.

One Day Like This had always been a relatively popular song that had never 'gone away' if you like. There were multiple re-entries to the chart each year, and by the end of 2011 it had spent more than 50 weeks inside the top 100, but only six in the top 40 and even then only just inside, as it only had a peak of #35. But in 2012 Elbow performed it at the closing ceremony of the Olympics, a typically great performance of it that captured more people than it had done before, re-entering the chart at #4 the following week. It wasn't the only beneficiary of a closing ceremony inclusion, Emeli Sande's Read All About It entered at #3 and Kate Bush's Running Up That Hill at #6. Lower down, British staples of Imagine, Wonderwall and Waterloo Sunset also re-entered.

Public Enemy - Harder Than You Think

US hip-hop group Public Enemy had 16 top 75 hits in the UK between 1987 and 1999, the highest peak they reached was #16 with He Hot Game. I was completely unfamiliar with them, being from a genre I don’t listen to much and their peak being before my time. In 2007 they released their 10^th studio album to mark the 20^th anniversary of their career, the lead single from it was Harder Than You Think.

It was a song that was essentially completely unknown in the UK but it was used in the summer by Channel 4 as the theme song on the trailer to their coverage of the London Paralympic games beginning at the end of August, causing it to have a short chart run of 71-23-63. When the games got closer and then started, the song was all over Channel 4 and it quickly regained popularity, climbing 56-11-04 to become their highest charting song. It has remained part of the channel since as it’s stayed as the theme tune to The Last Leg, originally launched to bring comedy and disability together as part of the Paralympics and continued to be broadcast for 14 years turning into more of a topical news show.

Unlike the other two songs here which I already loved, Harder Than You Think was very much a discovery. The song is based around a sample of Shirley Bassey’s 1972 track Jezahel, as they take the brass section from it and beef it up to become the excellent instrumentation of the song, whilst Chuck D raps some glorious lyrics, “thank you for letting us be ourselves” to those who had supported a 20 year career, and easy to see why it was seen appropriate for Paralympics coverage. In the last 14 years, it’s definitely a song which has gone on to become one of my all-time favourites of the genre.

I’d thought maybe “Fast Car” might be in the old #4s as well but it was the year before. Those 3 are all great, especially “One Day Like This” which I agree is one of the best songs ever written, this century at any rate.

“Sweet Nothing” is good but I considerably prefer “Spectrum” which has incredible power.

Indeed, One Day Like This is one of the best singles of the decade and Seldom Seen Kid probably the best album this century. Incredibly it’s not my favourite on the album though, that would be Some Riot, especially the live version at Abbey Road with the BBC Concert Orchestra and choir. Powerful and utterly gorgeous, it reduces me to tears every time!

Public Enemy are my all time favourite rap act, it was great to see them get a proper hit single later in their career

Edited 9 hours ago9 hr by Jaz13music

'Harder than You Think' is great.

'One Day Like This' is a very nice song too.

Kate Bush RUTH first revival too I remember.

From the top 10 so far, I couldn't really get into 'Beneath Your Beautiful' - I know it's not a misspelling of "You're" but I still find "Beautiful" as a noun a bit jarring, and the song trundles in comparison to Labrinth's best productions.

'Spectrum' is great though in both the album version and Calvin's remix - the former has a wonderful atmosphere but the chorus really soars in the latter. 'Sweet Nothing' is very good too, and even if it's closer to what we'd already heard from Calvin, it still goes off.

Great choice to spotlight those #4s - I hadn't realised multiple older songs had managed the feat in 2012. 'Ordinary People' is very good (although I actually like 'All Of Me' even more), but 'Harder Than You Think' and especially 'One Day Like This' are fantastic, and both groups finally achieving a Top 10 hit was just one of many legacies of the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics, probably the last great major cultural experience in the UK.

2 hours ago, Jaz13music said:

Indeed, One Day Like This is one of the best singles of the decade and Seldom Seen Kid probably the best album this century. Incredibly it’s not my favourite on the album though, that would be Some Riot, especially the live version at Abbey Road with the BBC Concert Orchestra and choir. Powerful and utterly gorgeous, it reduces me to tears every time!

Public Enemy are my all time favourite rap act, it was great to see them get a proper hit single later in their career

It's hard to pick favourites off The Seldom Seen Kid, pretty much the whole album is so wonderful. Some Riot is great, I adore Friend of Ours with the story behind it, and Weather to Fly and Mirrorball are both gorgeous too.

Apologies I've been away and not able to post for most of this, so catching up a bit x

I don't care much for anything below the top 20, but I do have a real soft spot for Gabriella's Power of Love. I think it works as a stripped down less grandiose complement to the original which It was weird how for a brief moment the John Lewis Christmas advert was a real moment after that with an anticipated release date, fairly big artists like Lily Allenjoining in and in some cases, number 1s. For my own tastes, I could only tolerate Gabriella, the rest were all way to saccharine, there's only so many times you can tell the same emotional Christmas story encouraging you to buy from this store before it becomes cynical, though I have no doubts they'll still try it!

Most of 11-20 is mainly decent or I at least liked them at the time, though I have a particular dislike for Hall of Fame, the lyrics are extremely faux-inspirational and it gives such an arrogant, smarmy vibe with something so genetic, I didn't mind some Script songs, but this would be right down the bottom for me.

Hot Right Now was a bit of a uni anthem and definitely suited Rita the best of her three number 1s this year. Part of Me I find quite overhated, I liked the follow-up Wide Awake more, but this was solid too and better than some of her other hits. Call My Name I think's held up the best of Cheryl's number 1s.

Bom Bom was quite a unique novelty, not one I listen too now, but fun enough when it turns up. Gangnam Style is still pretty iconic and I love that that was the UK's first taste of South Korean pop, I'm still quite surprised there hasn't been a K-Pop number 1 since what with BTS and Blackpink and their solo members going stratospheric, maybe in time.

Spectrum is my favourite to come in the top 10, I liked the original but the dance reworking I think has taken over it and the song lends itself really well to it, I was shocked it got as high as number 1 but so glad Florence managed one. Though I don't get much from Sweet Nothing even if that's a very hot take, Florence's parts are still good, but the production and breakdown is very dull. Overplay didn't admittedly help it much.

Lastly, great to see One Day Like This repeaking highlighted, that song had felt like a timeless classic with an unjustly low peak for some time and I was so glad the Olympics changed that. I did enjoy The Seldom Seen Kid a lot, but I did kind of lose interest in them as a band after that. I volunteered at the Paralympics so have a lot of memories of hearing Harder Than You Think, I'm not too familiar with their depth of work but I enjoy what I know and this was a fantastic choice to use for background music.

3 minutes ago, Chez Wombat said:

I'm still quite surprised there hasn't been a K-Pop number 1 since what with BTS and Blackpink and their solo members going stratospheric, maybe in time.

‘Golden’ from K-Pop Demon Hunters was a long running number 1! But yeah, I get what you mean aside from that. BTS hoovering up #1s in the U.S. instead