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Post by Whitneyfan on Aug 2, 2020 11:50:26 GMT 1
OK so I thought I'd go back and listen to each #1 single again starting from the year 2000, and give my thoughts on them. When I get to the present time I may go back and start on the #2s.
Please feel free to comment on the songs too.
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Post by Whitneyfan on Aug 2, 2020 11:58:23 GMT 1
Westlife - I Have A Dream/Seasons In The Sun I nearly decided to just make it the new #1s of the century so as to avoid having to listen to this pair of uninspiring covers, as this is a leftover from Christmas 1999 which stayed at the top for an unbelievable 4 weeks. 'I Have A Dream' is better than 'Seasons In The Sun' (which is actually pretty bad, even for them!), but that's not saying much. What makes it worse is that the ABBA original only made #2.
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Post by Whitneyfan on Aug 2, 2020 12:04:28 GMT 1
Manic Street Preachers - The Masses Against The Classes Well this couldn't be more different from the last #1! It's very different for them too - I'd actually forgotten this was a chart topper, but it did indeed spend a solitary week there in January 2000 before making a sharp decline down the charts. Although it's infinitely better than the Westlife single, I don't think it's one of the Manics more memorable tunes and I can see why I had forgotten it.
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Good Old Days
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Post by Good Old Days on Aug 2, 2020 12:07:39 GMT 1
I Have A Dream and Against All Odds are my favourite Westlife number ones. 7/10 from me and ABBA version got 8/10.
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Post by Whitneyfan on Aug 2, 2020 12:09:46 GMT 1
Britney Spears - Born To Make You Happy Another one week chart topper, this was Britney's fourth single to be taken from her debut album and it's one of my favourites by her. This was actually the song which made me buy the album, because I heard it playing in Woolworths when the album first came out and I remember thinking to myself 'I must have that song now!'
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Post by Whitneyfan on Aug 2, 2020 12:21:07 GMT 1
Gabrielle - Rise 2 weeks at the top for this one! This famously uses the intro from Bob Dylan's 'Knockin' On Heaven's Door', which is an absolute classic in itself. Moving onto this though and I've always really liked Gabrielle, ever since she burst onto the scene seven years earlier with 'Dreams'. This album was a much more grown up sound from her, and the song is one of hope and new beginnings. It's just a great little ballad really, and that's all I have to say on it.
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Post by Whitneyfan on Aug 2, 2020 12:30:22 GMT 1
Oasis - Go Let It Out I love quite a bit of the Gallagher brothers' output, even the solo stuff, but this isn't one of theirs that I come back to often and I had almost forgotten how it went. It was the first single from their 'Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants' album, and it certainly doesn't sound like a lead single - or a #1 in fact, which may explain it's sharp decline down the charts. To be honest it sounds like they were trying to recreate 'Rock 'N' Roll Star', but it just sounds like a pale imitation. On balance, I don't mind it but it probably wouldn't even trouble my top 40 of their songs.
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Post by Whitneyfan on Aug 2, 2020 12:39:18 GMT 1
All Saints - Pure Shores From the soundtrack to 'The Beach', this spent 2 weeks at the top in February (I can't believe Westlife are the only act to spend longer at the top so far this year!). I can see why this one reached #1 as it oozes cool for a pop record of that time. For me, they never really were as good as the critics made out - although 'Never Ever' was a great pop tune, and this one I have to admit was pretty good.
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Post by Whitneyfan on Aug 2, 2020 12:45:50 GMT 1
Madonna - American Pie A spoonful of Marmite anyone? I'm going to put my hand up here and admit that I have always loved this version! It's not as good as the original, and I'm not disputing that, but I think she puts her own spin on a classic - and I love the William Orbit production on it.
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Post by Whitneyfan on Aug 2, 2020 12:54:31 GMT 1
Chicane Featuring Bryan Adams - Don't Give Up I had completely forgotten that Bryan Adams had had another #1 - other than that one! I'll admit though, that when I saw this song was next I had to go and listen to 'Saltwater' first, as that is just amazing, even though it only reached #6 when it was released the previous year. Onto 'Don't Give Up' though, and Bryan Adams' vocals have been altered on this by vocoder, but you can still make out it's him if you listen (plus it tells you on the CD cover!). It's not as good as 'Saltwater', but it's still a great little dance tune and good to see something like this at #1.
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Post by Whitneyfan on Aug 2, 2020 13:03:10 GMT 1
Geri Halliwell - Bag It Up I can't believe we're still only in March 2000, it feels like I've been going ages! I'm sorry to any Geri fans out there, but this is just dire. The Spice Girls made some great music, but this sounds like it was written in about 5 minutes and has aged terribly! I've just looked to see what was at #2 this week and it was Blink 182's 'All The Small Things', which won't be the only chart injustice from that year I'm sure!
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Post by Whitneyfan on Aug 2, 2020 13:10:34 GMT 1
Melanie C Featuring Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes - Never Be The Same Again Well this is streets ahead of the Geri song that it replaced on top, although this also just spent a solitary week on top - Were all these single week chart toppers just down to clever marketing ploys by record companies to get records to #1 in their first week? Anyhow, it's been ages since I last heard this song, and to be honest I wasn't expecting it to have aged very well but it still sounds quite fresh actually. It helps that she has the talented Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes to aid her on it.
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Post by Whitneyfan on Aug 2, 2020 13:22:09 GMT 1
Westlife - Fool Again I'll make this the last one for now - which means I've started and ended this session with Westlife! At least it's not a cover again, and I don't actually mind some of their original songs - 'Swear it again' and 'Flying without wings' were both pretty good pop songs - but this just sounds dreary and lacking in much of a decent melody. This was their fifth release, and fifth #1, so at this point it seems that they could release any old rubbish and it was a guaranteed chart topper.
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Post by onehitwonder on Aug 2, 2020 14:44:59 GMT 1
What a great run of 9 number ones, I enjoy all of them. Never liked Westlife covers and never got into Manic Street Preachers' song, but all of the rest have charted on my chart and 5 of them were number ones.
And I love Saltwater, that song is timeless!
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Good Old Days
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Post by Good Old Days on Aug 2, 2020 14:46:24 GMT 1
Whitneyfan If don't count Born To Make You Happy (it's aged much better than Baby One More Time) that my opinion about other songs is opposite to yours.
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TheThorne
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Post by TheThorne on Aug 3, 2020 9:42:22 GMT 1
Whitneyfan If don't count Born To Make You Happy (it's aged much better than Baby One More Time) that my opinion about other songs is opposite to yours. Never put you down as an Oasis fan BTMYH is probably my favourite Britney song.
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Post by o on Aug 3, 2020 9:56:10 GMT 1
Manics, Madonna and All Saints the highlights for me so far, interesting thread, good job!
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Post by Earl Purple on Aug 3, 2020 11:46:04 GMT 1
Manics: good. Madonna: the worst of them, worse than Westlife. I was never that keen on "I Have A Dream", it was Abba's weak moment for me in their otherwise great run of hits. Not that keen on All Saints on the whole but "Pure Shores" is actually rather beautiful. Probably the best number one so far in the year. Rise is ok. I preferred many other Gabrielle hits. In the "release anything and it will get to #1 anyway" I'm afraid that appears to apply to Oasis here, that's a terrible song by their standards. Maybe if this had come out in 1994 it would have felt like a "fresh" sound but now it just seems like throwing out the known formula with no real substance. I doubt Liam, who plays many Oasis songs in his gigs, bothers with this one. The Bryan Adams one is the one I remember getting to number one but am clueless as to how it goes. Fool Again: got onto my April Fools playlist so I know that one of theirs quite well. Ordinary song, not terrible really, not great either.
"Never Be The Same Again". Not great vocals really on this. This was #1 on the Sunday chart on the date I met Carol (26 March).
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Aug 3, 2020 13:08:21 GMT 1
I can remember how all of these go, other than the W***life one, which I cannot recall ever having listened to, probably on a point of principle.
I think MATC lacked a promo when it came out, which was the first single for maybe two decades to top the charts without a video. I've lost track whether it's happened since. Plainly a fanbase buy and helped by being the new year to sneak a week at the top.
Surprising to me when looking it up is that the Manics have only had one no. 1 album. I had assumed they'd almost all gone in at the top.
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Post by greendemon on Aug 3, 2020 13:21:08 GMT 1
Manics, Madonna and All Saints the highlights for me so far, interesting thread, good job! Same here although the only album represented here I actually own is the Westlife one I was 13-14 in 2000 so I was pretty much the target audience for Westlife at the time though I was also getting into mainstream indie rock/pop around then (Stereophonics, Travis and Coldplay) so I can't say I didn't know better!
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