Oh...yeah 😅 I think the fact they're fictional and the song's mainly in English sometimes makes me forget that x

07. Carly Rae Jepsen – Call Me Maybe
4 weeks at #1 (entered 8^th April) 01-01-01-01-02-03-03-03-05-07-10-08-11-11-12-13-13-15-16-20-27-28-30-35-33{-40-38-39-46-51-50-60-54-52-67-67-70-56-33-25-41-53-59-73-62R(2)-62-70-75} (48 weeks)
Kept off #1: Sean Paul – She Doesn’t Mind, Justin Bieber – Boyfriend, Conor Maynard – Can’t Say No, Calvin Harris feat. Ne-Yo – Let’s Go
Sales: 106,657, 110,024, 114,993 & 99,569
EOY: #2 (1,142,995)

Onto the one song in the top 10 I wasn’t overly enamoured with at the time but have grown to love over the years, Call Me Maybe by Carly Rae Jepsen, the biggest worldwide selling song of the year and #2 in the UK.

Carly first came to prominence in her native Canada on Canadian Idol in 2007 and released a debut album with a folk influence the following year, but failed to chart, whilst a couple of its singles were minor top 40 hits there and nowhere else. She didn’t exactly have the profile of a singer who would return three years later to have the biggest worldwide hit of the year. Originally released in 2011 in Canada, it entered the chart at #97 and would gradually climb its way to the top 17 weeks later, helped along by support by Canada’s then-biggest star, Justin Bieber.   

It came to the UK in April, it had been promoted but not massively so its success wasn’t completely obvious, it climbed 48-24 on the airplay chart in the week it was released before shooting up to #6, although it was another that had demand to have a fake version chart, as Carly Rae Jepsen Tribute Team charted at #49 the week prior. Being so immediately successful from relatively little promotion, it was perhaps likely it’d grow in popularity and its sales increased in its 2^nd and 3^rd weeks at the top, before being a few hundred copies short of four consecutive weeks selling over 100k. Its chart run doesn’t look anything unusual in the present day, but 8 weeks top 3, 20 weeks top 20, and 44 weeks top 75 was phenomenal in 2012.

Call Me Maybe is just a great pop song, exceptionally catchy, a great melody and decent lyrically too, a tale of describing someone you fancy is as old as pop music itself but the perspective felt modern and up-to-date for a 2012 audience and it’s no surprise it was able to appeal so widely to audiences of different ages. Great pop songs continued for Carly, though her relative lack of success I’ve found quite surprising – Cut To The Feeling and Run Away With Me make for a superb trio of pop songs as good as much bigger acts have.

I suspect that my reasoning for taking a while to truly appreciate Carly’s Call Me Maybe is that I’d spent most of the 2010s listening to a different version of the song. As it was knocked off the top of the chart by Tulisa, my favourite act of the first half of the 2010s covered the song in Radio 1’s Live Lounge, and it’s Ben Howard’s version I’ve played endlessly, and I still can’t help but feel it’s the definitive version of it.

In Carly’s four weeks at the top, there were four separate songs hitting #2, it was the third song Sean Paul got stuck behind before three new entries could only peak at #2, though in none of the four weeks was it a particularly close battle, 77k being the highest sale of any of them. No strong favourites here, Can’t Say No is boring and I’d forgotten about Connor Maynard’s existence entirely, Let’s Go amongst the more generic of Calvin’s offerings, making Bieber my preferred of the four. Still trying to find his way after the initial success being so young, definitely a decent song with a maturing sound.

Yeah Call Me Maybe is a little slice of pop perfection!

Elbow's is a masterpiece of orchestral indierockpop, and Carly Rae's is a great pop record, that may well be the best so far to drop out, it's all so delighfully infectious, and she continues to make good records, though as you say hits elude her. Current-ish single On Wires is an interesting one, nothing like Call Me Maybe!

Kind of unbelievable that Call Me Maybe was sent to BJSC a fair bit before release and only came 6th, in a contest that favours pop a lot, especially back then. It just felt for a long time like another 'blog pop' internet popular kind of song that would never have any commercial success. Because how many pop songs by Canadian Idol contestants from years back get a major global push and become mega No.1s?

But sometimes a great song speaks for itself so I'm glad it broke through the way it did, the punctuating strings work so well on it as as well as everything described above by RFC. Carly really became a pop giant of the 2010s, from unexpected beginnings.

A pop gem for sure though Carly would go on to better it with 'Run Away With Me' for me. That to someday do a 'Go' by Chemical Brothers would be great.

Looks like the 6 left are almost the same for me too.

"Call Me Maybe" comes to early - pure pop brilliance. My contender for #1 just falling short to "Diamonds". Have not thought that anyone would rank my #32 ahead of this.

01. Rihanna - Diamonds (18)

02. Carly Rae Jepsen – Call Me Maybe (7)

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)

@DaTilt I’d rank all of the last 6 above Carly Rae. The remaining songs would easily be my top 6 too.

A bit curious what banger you would have at 32!

11 minutes ago, Jester said:

@DaTilt I’d rank all of the last 6 above Carly Rae. The remaining songs would easily be my top 6 too.

A bit curious what banger you would have at 32!

A generic pop-rock song from a band who had their best time in the early 2000's and became the definition of boredom from 2010 and beyond (a bit like the Wet Wet Wet of their time).

Just now, DaTilt said:

A generic pop-rock song from a band who had their best time in the early 2000's and became the definition of boredom from 2010 and beyond (a bit like the Wet Wet Wet of their time).

The song happens to be my favourite of theirs and is rightly a classic! It would also be my number 1 of the year.

Consider me clutching my pearls!

Just an utter classic and I have such memories attached to it. She's gone on to better it for me since though, but it's still a tremendous pop song in its own right.