-Jay-

The titbit about The Fame Monster having 93,510 sales in its own right has thrown me! It's not certified Silver 🤔

Radio Airplay - 'Reason' era: Here It Comes Again 26/01/03: 67-45-22-22-11-12-09-17-32-61-x On the Horizon 18/05/03: 49-27-08-09-13-31-47-78-x 20/07/03: 83-82-93-x Melt 26/10/03: 77-58-34-38-44-88-x Underlined positions = the week that the single entered the official singles chart, i.e. when On the Horizon was at #9 in the radio chart, it entered at #14 in the singles chart. As mentioned by vibe, On the Horizon had pretty strong radio support going into its release. Other factors (such as music video airplay, and the number of promotional appearances) may have been weaker by comparison? I suppose it could have been the case that despite the radio support, the public and the fans just weren't feeling it... 🥺 On the Horizon actually had better radio support than any of these Spice related singles, released prior to it: Mama, (How Does It Feel to Be) On Top of the World, I Want You Back, Look at Me, Word Up, Goin' Down, It's Only Rock N Roll, Bag It Up, Tell Me, If That Were Me, Feels So Good, It's Raining Men, Lullaby, Scream If You Wanna Go Faster, Take My Breath Away, Not Such an Innocent Girl, Calling, We're Not Gonna Sleep Tonight, A Mind of Its Own, Here It Comes Again and Free Me. ...yet On the Horizon sold considerably less than all of them! At the time of its release, it became the worst selling Spice related single to date, by quite a margin. It sold around 22k physically. Whereas the previous worst seller, Emma - We're Not Gonna Sleep Tonight, sold 35k physically. I imagine the label probably felt quite reassured by radio embracing On the Horizon, so how it performed - and how little it did for the album off the back of it - I can imagine it came as shock. Sorry, this post is huge, but one more thing! There used to be a chart published by ChartsPlus, which compiled singles that hadn't been commercially released yet - pretty much their prediction of how well they were expected to do (and radio play definitely factored into their predictions). Prior to its release, they had On the Horizon at #1 in that chart! Yes, its radio play was stronger than Bring Me to Life to begin with. In brackets, is the position they'd actually go on to peak at in the official singles chart... #1 Melanie C - On the Horizon (#14) #2 Evanescence - Bring Me to Life (#1) #3 Electric Six - Gay Bar (#5) #4 Kings of Leon - What I Saw (#22) #5 Shania Twain - Forever and For Always (#6) #6 One True Voice - Shakespeare's Way With Words (#10) #7 Ashley Hamilton - Wimmin (#27) #8 iiO - At the End (#20) Even Marilyn Manson's Mobscene managed to outchart On the Horizon - it went to #13, despite not being in the Radio Top 100 in the week before release. On the Horizon is pretty fascinating to me, it definitely represents the moment that the wheels truly started to fall off for her career, sadly. Personally I think it deserved better than it got. I can also understand why it was chosen as a single, at least to me it seemed like the obvious choice for a second single when the album was new, so I wasn't surprised that it was picked. Sometimes I wonder how it would have done if it had been the first single, and got the glossy video treatment that Here It Comes Again had.

Some estimates for future certifications! Too Lost in You - Platinum - 600,000 - March 2026 Push the Button - 2xPlatinum - 1,200,000 - July 2026 Round Round - Platinum - 600,000 - September 2027 About You Now - 3xPlatinum - 1,800,000 - September 2028 Freak Like Me - Platinum - 600,000 - December 2030 I wonder when Hole in the Head is due for Gold? It was on 304,000 in February 2023. It's more popular on Spotify than Freak Like Me, but the stats are worldwide and it's just one platform, so it's hard to say how these two do in comparison to each other in the UK alone. If it increased by the same amount as Freak Like Me (which has sold 48,000 since Feb 23) then Hole in the Head would be on 352,000 at the moment. I'll predict no later than 2027 for Hole in the Head going Gold! Walk This Way is the next in line to go Silver for Sugababes... it's taking its sweet time though! Last we knew officially was 156,200 sales in August 2019, 152,422 in October 2018. At that pace it's due to crawl its way over 200k in September 2028. Whether it does a little better recently than back then though, who knows.

Oh I'm obsessed, what a tune! It's short for sure but I enjoy the pacing of it, there's an urgency to it, it doesn't feel like a single second's wasted.

I wonder what happened with BMG? Sugababes now being fully independent is a brave/confident step - I hope everything goes smoothly for them from here on out!

so ready!

H said once again in a recent interview that Steps "could get back together for something big to mark their 30th anniversary in 2027". It's going to be a dry couple of years! I get it though, the musical is going on into 2026 so they want attention going that way. I'm curious about what a 2027 reunion would look like. Focusing on an anniversary as the reason to get back together, kind of sounds like it would be treated mostly as a nostalgia trip... but they surely can't do another Greatest Hits! 😆 I'd like the idea of new music, new album... but by then it'll be 6 years on from What the Future Holds Pt. 2. They're all going to be 50+ in 2027, I wonder if they'll still want to be an active group to the extent of recording an album and promoting it. Time will tell!

1 Abracadabra 2 Disease 3 Die with a Smile 4 How Bad Do U Want Me 5 Killah 6 Shadow of a Man 7 Garden of Eden 8 Zombieboy 9 Vanish Into You 10 Perfect Celebrity 11 LoveDrug 12 Don't Call Tonight 13 Blade of Grass 14 The Beast Familiarity with the singles probably benefits them at this point. It will be interesting to do this again in a few weeks/months when the dust has settled. I can't see Abracadabra ever not being my #1, but there's potential for Disease and Die with a Smile to be overtaken. It hasn't escaped my attention just how divisive How Bad Do U Want Me has proven to be with the fanbase. Clearly I'm in the team that loves it! It just hits the spot for me, glorious pop. Perfect Celebrity ended up in 10th place, yet I'd give it a score of 9 out of 10, love it. I almost put it above Vanish Into You but that's really been growing on me as the week progresses. The Beast may be last, but it's still a 7 for me. It's an incredibly strong album! I'm not familiar enough with Can't Stop the High and Kill for Love to include them in my rank yet.

The label's lack of care to be bothered to spend out on the photoshoot, makes me feel at least a bit reluctant to support it... but I know the collector in me just won't be able to pass on it, sigh!

Released 22 years ago on 10th March 2003!

Unexpected! Cool to finally hear this one.

I can't decide which artwork I'd prefer on vinyl and which I'd prefer on CD! Really like both covers.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DG9VYIlqby9/ https://www.instagram.com/reel/DG9IAlqMmVo/ Emma at Sabrina Carpenter’s show!

Stop was released as a single 27 years ago - 9th March 1998!

Downloaded it Great to see it at #1 on iTunes!