Sing is sycophantic rubbish!

Gary ‘ooh give me a knighthood’ Barlow 😤

I'm not quite sure what I'd have rock bottom yet but I'm not a fan of 'Candy' either so am not mad about that pick. I grew up with two Robbie loving parents and some of that did rub off on me, but didn't extend to 'Candy'. In the 2010 thread I said I disliked 'Start Without You' due to its nursery rhyme style chorus and I think this song suffers the same fate in my affections too. Pretty annoying. I do admire Robbie for overcoming the Radio 1 snub and still managing a chart-topper at that point in his career though, even if I wasn't so keen on the material.

Wow 'Sing' and 'Whistle' are two very different songs lol *_* no thanks at that top 2. The mention of the latter has suddenly reminded me of when those fake versions would chart and we had 'Whistle' by Can You Blow My in the top 40 anyway, my main Diamond Jubilee memory was a gap in our timetable at school where we sat on the field eating food and listening to British classics, though more Beatles and Oasis, rather than that aforementioned line-up on the Gary track list. 'Sing' is more dull than rousing for me too so no loss here. I see the Sing album a fair amount in charity shops unsurprisingly!

Now that really is shite!

2012 was quite a special year for me, my first full year at university and living away from home and definitely felt like my full 'growing up' year - my main memory is of course the London Olympics, I worked as a food service assistant at the Olympics and as a volunteer Games Maker in the Paralympics and I had a wonderful time with both, as stressful as it got at times! I agree that it honestly felt like the only moment of true unity we've had as a country which feels so, so long ago today. I was still following the charts and I was getting out a lot more so do associate a lot of them with memories. Certainly a bit overstuffed overall in terms of number 1s though, some of them classics but not all have aged well.

Funnily enough you should say that commercial radio drove you mad at work and made you hate some songs as that's true for me next year but we'll get to that!

I certainly wouldn't rank Candy last here, but I can't really come to it's defence either, I don't really have any strong feelings towards it one way or the other and wouldn't really come back to it at all these days, though I imagine hearing it so much would make me hate it. It was probably at it's best from a chart stats perspective seeing Robbie getting a number 1 as late as 2012, especially when his return to Take That couldn't do it, it was quite unexpected.

Sing on the other hand I would certainly rank at the bottom or thereabouts - it's sweet to the point of sickening and Gary Barlow's smarm is all over this (I think he was quite desperate for a knighthood at the time), I've never been a royalist and can't say I really cared much for the Diamond Jubilee either, in fact I have pretty bad memories of a bad day working at an event there which doesn't help the song!

I'm sure they'll be a lot more I agree with you on, looking forward to it x

Sing is rubbish - against that Candy sounds like gold.

Not a fan of this mawkish rubbish. I would have put it last.

However, it does remind me of a time when Britain was less divided. It was an eventful year with the Diamond Jubilee, Olympics and Paralympics. I also graduated from college, got my first job and went to a few house parties so 2012 is my personal highlight. It all went downhill after that.

Edited Wednesday at 17:231 day by Charlielargepotatoes

Two No.1s for Military Wives, forgot they were on this! Joining Bob The Builder in their only two charting singles both being No.1 hits.

But where I love Wherever You Are, Sing is a very naff and pompous number, something that in this day and age would never get to the top as nobody would ever stream it. Weird that it's Gary Barlow's only No.1 this century away from Take That.

Edited Wednesday at 22:341 day by gooddelta

Yeah Sing is dreadful, not something I’ll choose to hear again after this I’m afraid. Barlow’s solo output has been generally terrible really.

34. Chris Brown – Turn Up The Music
1 week at #1 (entered 1^st April) 01-05-09-20-23-19-19-36-52-67-61R(5) (11 weeks)
Kept off #1: Sean Paul – She Doesn’t Mind
Sales: 83,777
EOY: #79

Occasionally, there are events that happen that make me weep for humanity. The continued successful career of Chris Brown following his pleading guilty to assaulting his then girlfriend Rihanna, and we’d all seen the pictures, is one of those events. To still have such significant promotion, and such a large fanbase, predominantly of younger women, is wholly disappointing. He’s not someone who’s music and career I’d have likely followed much anyway, as his style of music at its best is what I find ok or passable, but given who he is it’s a career I’ve actively avoided. As such, it’s quite frustrating to see he has 74 separate UK chart entries and has charted in 19 of the last 20 years.

As for the Turn Up The Music itself, I think even if it had been performed by one of Brown’s contemporaries, a Ne-Yo or Usher for example, it’s hard to imagine that it wouldn’t still be taking a place in the bottom 5 here. It is typical of the trend which had been so prominent in the previous couple of years, a highly generic electronic-dance-pop-r&b club song, a David Guetta-fication of popular music mashing various genres together. A couple of years earlier this type of sound was everywhere and still sounded relatively fresh, even the most generic were still ok (jealous of Iz getting to be so positive so early in his 2010 countdown), whereas by 2012 it felt like performers and producers were phoning it in (“If you’re sexy and you know it, put your hands up in the air” – that’s quality there, Chris and the nine other men it took to write this). Sadly, plenty of this was still hitting the top of the chart.

If Chris Brown had to get a number one single then it’s a shame it had to be with this dross (or maybe it’s not and it’s fitting?!), his biggest hits tended to be a lot better, and much more popular songs and I could at least understand their popularity. Even within 2012 follow-up Don’t Wake Me Up was much less objectionable as a song and finished the year 42 places higher in the best sellers of the year list. Of the 36 songs to reach number one in 2012, Turn Up The Music was the one that sold the least come the end of the year, which is something positive to share at least.

The song it held off was another unlucky number two single, She Doesn’t Mind by Sean Paul spent three weeks at #2, behind three different songs, this was the second of those weeks. Sean Paul had a string of successful hits almost a decade earlier, seven consecutive singles from Gimme The Light in 2003 peaking at #5, #4, #1, #3, #2, #6, #2 over the next couple of years, but hadn’t managed to hit those highs since, #11 being the highest he reached in both 2006 & 2011, so She Doesn’t Mind became his biggest hit in a few years. It’s a good effort to bring the standard Sean Paul reggae to the early 2010s club banger sound – a decent mish-mash of the 2 – certainly preferable to the first 2 of the three songs that held it off the top spot, but nothing amazing, probably landing just shy of the top half here if it had snuck a week at the top.

That Chris Brown song lacks originality and depth and has aged badly.

I think 'Fine China' was his best song and even that sounds like a ripoff of Michael Jackson.

I've never rated him highly as an artist and lost respect for him for assaulting his ex-girlfriend, Rihanna.

Edited yesterday at 12:041 day by Charlielargepotatoes

I actually liked Don't Wake Me Up and the production on that, although I don't listen to his music at all anymore (I bought and liked the Exclusive album in 2008 before it became apparent what sort of character he was).

Turn Up The Music is pure crap, super generic and probably the worst example of this kind of music in 2012. Would be bottom three for me for sure too, maybe even last tbh.

Not a fan of Chris Brown for the Rihanna incident but as a song Turn Up The Music I quite liked at the time. Chris Brown was big in the EDM sound for a while in the early 10s, He never goes back to the EDM sound which is a shame as I do prefer it to his mid tempo boring ballads.

Vile man and song.

A Gary Barlow bottom 2! Not sure it's well known he co-wrote 'Candy'. I found 'Sing' slightly less grating but still nothing I'd have any desire to go back to.

On 15/07/2026 at 00:38, jimwatts said:

Intrigued by what's to come - when I first read "the most non-number one number one single of all time" my mind turned to the same song as when I then read "a disgrace of a human being that shouldn’t have been anywhere near the top of the chart", so now I'm wondering what else one or both of these songs could be!

...and 'Turn Up The Music' is that song! A poor effort indeed, would certainly be bottom 3 for me too and possibly last. I've now thought of another "most non-number one" contender, and it's an act that's much easier to forget even existed, let alone had a #1 hit.

Think I know what 'the most non-number one number one single of all time' will end up being, although it's still one I play a lot if it's what I assume! Sure it was a surprise No.1 though, both at the time and looking back. It would be in my top ten of the year for the bridge alone.

Absolute garbage, I was pretty mortified at the time when this got to #1. I don't think 'Don't Wake Me Up' is that much better either, or it might have been without the extreme vocoder.

Brown is a despicable character and Turn Up The Music does nothing to redeem him. A very poor song.

Very glad to see 'Turn Up The Music' out swiftly, for a long time that was my least favourite song to sit atop the charts and may still be down in the depths. Obviously part of that is because of how much of a despicable person he is and yes it does affect the quality of the (very poor) song, but I completely agree with you also if you just take it as a face value song, it's an already very tired sound that did not need to be released, much less have a domestic abuser be the face of it.

As with 'Wherever You Are', the Military Wives are a decent choir and do make 'Sing' kinda nice, but it's a lot less memorable as a song and I don't feel there's any connection between it and the event it was supposedly commemorating, just a very identity-free choir-y song, and like with you, I can't recall it being around much if at all at the time.

Hopefully this will get good soon for you! Though I suspect I may be outrageously defending a few of the ones that appear in the next 10 x

“Turn Up The Music” is very meh if not offensive musically. Agree with the consensus that “Sing” lacks all the charm of “Wherever You Are”.

ahh if only I'd read this post an hour earlier I would have gotten one for Gary Barlow 3-in-1 on Popmaster instead of zero. I'd totally forgotten this record existed. I actually dont mind this one either, I'd go so far as to say it's probably one of his better solo records, maybe due to Lloyd Webber adding to the melody which is quite nice. In his heyday the man knew how to write a tune! It's not something I would necessarily expect to enjoy on paper, but playing it now it's quite charming as a record, and I really do have nothing negative against the Commonwealth of nations as a former RAF brat who came into contact with people from across the world in the forces who the UK owed a lot to, so I see it as a thank you to them as much as the figure-head. My rating at the time? His first solo top 10 without Robbie Williams involved!

So that'll be two good 'uns in a row then for me 😇 I was starting to think maybe 2012 is a great year for number ones so I had a peak. Phew! There's some coming that I think I could describe as "really got on my tits" so I can stop sounding so positive at some stage hooray 😄