Hits 21 - 2000 (8): Spice Girls, Westlife, A1, LeAnn Rimes

Episode Date: September 11, 2022

Hello again, everyone, and welcome back to Hits 21, the show that's taking a look back at every UK #1 hit single of the 21st century - from January 2000, right through to the present day. Twitter: @Hits21UK Email: [e-mail] Holler / Let Love Lead the Way - Spice Girls My Love - Westlife Same Old Brand New You - A1 Can't Fight the Moonlight - LeAnn Rimes

All right there everyone, welcome back to Hits 21 where me Rob, me Andy and me Lizzie look back at every single UK number one of the 21st century from January 2000 right through to the present day. Thanks for waiting a couple of weeks while we went off and did other things, and now we're back. So thank you very much. If you want to get in touch with us, you can find us over on Twitter. We are at Hits21UK. That is at Hits21UK. And you can email us as well. Just send it over to Hits21Podcast at gmail.com. Thank you so much, as I said, for joining us again.

Just like our previous episodes, we're going to be looking back at some UK number one singles from the year 2000, but the difference this week is that we're going to be looking at four UK number ones and not five. We will be covering the period between the 29th of October through to the 25th of November in the year 2000. I did say at the end of the last episode

that we would reach the 2nd of December, but we had a bit of a restructure because of what we've got planned over the next couple of episodes. Stay tuned for that one. The poll winner for the last episode was All Saints Black Coffee. I think we're all in agreement there

and the week before that it was Groovejet which again I think we're all in agreement there good to get a consensus going well done everyone before we get going though Lizzie, Andy, how have we been for a couple of weeks? Yeah we've all been off doing solo podcasts

and we've come back together for one last album one last podcast one last podcast one last go over the year 2000 I haven't been doing solo podcasts you guys have and I feel left out quite frankly, where was my invite?

no way Joke are you the scary spice of this setup? I think she was the only one who hadn't gone off and done something solo by this point wasn't she? yeah, or am I the Jerry because it was both of you and not me? Am I the Jerry because I was the first to leave? Well, you would have already left by this

point. It'd just be me and Rob like desperately trying to move in a new direction with the times. Sat there alone singing goodbye. Yeah. Alright then, as always, we are going to give you some news headlines that were occurring around the time

that the songs in this episode were at number one. The results of the United States presidential election contested by George Bush and Al Gore, George W. Bush and Al Gore, are deemed to be inconclusive. Considered to be the closest presidential election in history up to that point, the narrow margins cause an automatic recount to begin in the state of Florida. A month later, with no clear winner declared, the Supreme Court of Florida orders another manual statewide recount. However, the United

States Supreme Court overturns the manual recount ruling ruling and it's a decision that ultimately awards the state and the presidency to George W. Bush. Meanwhile, a gang of thieves attempt to break into what was then called the Millennium Dome and steal £350 pounds worth of diamonds, but were caught in the act by police who had prior knowledge that the robbery was going to take place. Over 200 officers were involved in the coordinated operation and of the seven members of the gang, six were eventually given lengthy prison sentences. The only member not to receive a sentence had died of cancer before

trial. I think the moral of the story here is if you've got 350 million pounds worth of diamonds don't put them in a really noticeable landmark all in the same place. That would be my moral there. Meanwhile in Austria, 155 people are killed in the Kapern disaster. 161 passengers were aboard a funicular train at a ski resort when the train's electric fan heater caught fire and burst pipes carrying flammable fluid from the train's brake system. With the train stuck in a tunnel, fire and toxic smoke spread rapidly. The films to reach the top of the UK box office during this period were as follows. What Lies Beneath for a second week, Bedazzled. What Lies Beneath for a third week and

Charlie's Angels In TV, Kate Husser becomes the biggest female prize winner in UK TV history after winning £500,000 on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Just a few weeks later, Judith Keppel becomes the first person to win the

top prize of a million pounds while the BBC airs the final episode of sitcom one foot in the grave. And I didn't know that apparently there was a bit of drama about this where yeah, some people accused ITV of fixing it so that like they would have their first million pound winner on the same day that the final episode of one foot in the grave aired. And then years later,

like the verdict came back and it was like, no they didn't. People were just more interested in who wants to be a millionaire than One Foot in the Grave by the year 2000. It was genuinely the highest rated show on TV that year. It was statistically the biggest show on TV. Oh yeah, it was huge.

It was massive. Did we all watch it? I watched it. Oh yeah. Yeah, I did. They really dragged it out, didn't they? I remember the question. I remember the question because my sister knew the answer. Because my sister at the time was really, really big on British history. And the question, correct me if I'm wrong, I believe the question was which monarch was married to Eleanor of Aquitaine?

Which, I can't remember the answer. I think it was one of the Henrys, Henry II or something, but my sister knew the answer, and she seemed a little bit sort of like she was entitled to a million pounds for knowing it, which was something that we couldn't satisfy. So, yeah. Charlie's Angels actresses Drew Barrymore and Lucy Liu received the royal treatment when they dine with Prince Charles at

St James' Palace in London. The special dinner followed the London opening of the film, which benefited one of the prince's charities. The other angel, Cameron Diaz, was filming an upcoming movie and was not able to attend. I think you'll find that's King

Charles, Andy. Okay. Get it right. Wait to timestamp the recording. There's a picture going around Twitter this morning of Prince Charles playing a guitar and the caption is just the artist formerly known as Prince. Hey.

Very good. Actor Robert Downey Jr. is arrested on drug charges. After being tipped off by an anonymous call, police invaded Downey Jr.'s hotel room in Palm Springs, where he was found with controlled substances. After he pleaded no contest to the charges against him, he was given a sentence of three years of probation and ordered to attend drug rehabilitation courses.

Hmm. How he turned things around eh? yeah good for him yeah I do think it's a genuinely quite uplifting story what Robert Downey Jr did with his life like I remember all the jokes at the time about Robert Downey Jr and like

you know Robert Downey Jr shooting at police there's no cameras yeah good for him, he deserves it Andy, how are the album charts looking? Well it's a pretty short story for you this week

in that there is a big behemoth about to arrive on the horizon first of all we have U2 entering in at number one with their album All That You Can't Leave Behind. You may remember that we had Beautiful Day off that album last week. After that, for one week, we have Coast to Coast by Westlife, an album that I feel like we just will never, ever see the back of.

But it's only for one week that it's at number one because it's very quickly toppled by one by the Beatles, which is, of course, one of the Beatles' many, many compilation albums. But the unique selling point of this one was that it was all their number one singles, which is one of the highest selling albums in the UK ever and went 12 times platinum and is the final UK albumsbums No. 1 of 2000 for us. It will remain at No. 1 for nine weeks

well into January 2001. Wow. And stateside, Lizzie, how are we? Yes, another busy period for the Albums Chart in November of 2000. Limp Bizkit topped the chart for two weeks with the imaginatively titled Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavoured

Water which went six times flat in the US and ranked in the year end list for both 2000 and 2001 where it finished at number 34 and number 5 respectively Jay-Z then took the top spot for one week with The Dynasty, Rock La Familia where it finished at number 34 and number 5 respectively. Jay-Z then took the top spot for one week with The Dynasty, Rock La Familia,

which went double platinum and also ranked in the year-end list for 2000 and 2001, finishing at 106 and 58 respectively. The last number one album of November 2000 was R. Kelly's fourth solo album, TP2.com, an abbreviation of 12 Play 2, I've no idea what that is. It went four times platinum in the US and also ranked in the year endless for 2000 and 2001, finishing at 168 and 19 respectively. And in the singles charts, Christina Aguilera was still at number one to start November with Come On Over Baby, All I Want Is You, before eventually giving way to With Arms Wide Open by Creed for one week. That's a fucking horrible song. It went double platinum in the US and would finish at number 36 on the 2000 year end Hot Hot 100, number 39 on the 2001 year-end Hot 100,

number 46 on the decade-end Hot 100, and number 339 on the all-time Hot 100. Wow. Just a side note, it only got to number 13 in the UK in January 2001. After that, Destiny's Child would mercifully take the top spot with Independent Women Part 1, which stayed there for the rest of 2000 and well into

2001, eventually spending 11 consecutive weeks at number 1 in the US. Wow. It would go on to be certified single platinum in the US and finish at number 97 on the 2000 year and top 100, number 10 on the 2000 year end Hot 100, number 10 on the 2001 year end Hot 100, number 18 on the decade end Hot 100 and number 131

in the all-time Hot 100. How did it fare in the UK you ask? Well you'll just have to wait and see. Oh you tease, oh you tease, that's not fair will we get to talk about it I don't know but my gut says maybe yeah that

the Dynasty Jay-Z is one of his weaker records but it does have if I remember rightly it does have This Can't Be Life

on it that's true which is worth it I think that album is not one of his best but that's a great that's a great single

I think yeah alright then on to this week's number ones I think that the album is not one of his best, but that's, that's a great record. That's a great single. I think. Yeah. All right then onto this week's number ones. And the first up is this. I wanna make you holler. Let me see you holler. Imagine us together. Let me see you holler. All together, all together.

Come on. Don't be afraid to play my game. Why don't you hesitate? I won't keep waiting for you to come and let me take you to my fantasy room. You're gonna like it there, and all the things that I do. I'll treat you right all through the night. I'll take you all the places you wanna be. I'll take you there, I'll take you there

You can see Everything you want you will find in me If you play my game, yeah I wanna make you holler And I'll hear you scream my name Scream my name I'll be furious to follow So you can play my game

Play my game Be my witness Together Together We're driving We're driving you insane You won't get into me Into me Okay, so this is Holla AA Side with Let Love Lead the Way by Spice Girls, released as the second single from Spice Girls' third and final album entitled Forever, Holla AA Side with Let Love Lead the Way is the group's tenth single overall and their ninth to reach number one.

It is also the last single to be released by the group before the beginning of their indefinite hiatus in December 2000 in order for them to focus on their solo careers. December 2000 in order for them to focus on their solo careers. Holler slash Let Love Lead the Way went straight in at number one as a new entry, knocking Steps off the top spot and selling 106,000 copies in its first week of sales. It stayed at number one for one week, beating out competition from I'm Over You by Martine McCutcheon, which got to number two, She Bangs by Ricky Martin, which got to number three, and Trouble by Coldplay, which got to number ten. Wow.

Yeah, bit of a first mention on the podcast for Coldplay there. When it was knocked off the charts, when it was knocked off the top of the charts, Holler, Let Love Lead the Way, dropped two places to number three and eventually dropped out of the top 100 after 21 weeks. I feel like, I don't know about you guys, but when I was listening to this, it started a much larger discussion in my head that had very little to do with the actual song and more to do with how the new millennium was responding to Spice Girls.

Yeah, me too. That sort of thing. So, Andy, we'll talk about... I think we're going to end up talking about both songs here at the same time. Yeah, so this is... It's a tricky one in that we can't really talk about these songs without talking, as you say, about where they are as a group in the noughties and where music is progressing in general in the noughties, because it is a little bit of both. It's not just the fact that they are struggling to

find a place in the decade. There is a lot of stuff happening personally with the Spice Girls as well. It's a very complicated set of issues, which has resulted in a wet fart of a single here. Well, I mean, to talk about both just very, very briefly, so just to give you the headlines, as it were, Holler, I think, is okay, but not in any way worthy of the Spice Girls, not in any respect whatsoever. And Let Love Lead the Way, I think, is far and away,

far and away the weakest single that they released um and just just really really generic and quite poor um it's difficult because the the standard is so high for spice girls singles i i yes i have a position of bias and that i've been a huge fan of the spice girls virtually all my life but i do think if you look at the discography of the singles, it is an incredibly high hit rate. I would say probably all of them, I think, are really, really great singles.

Every single one of them, apart from one, had made it to number one. Do you know which one didn't? Stop. Stop, correct. Well done, Rob. Got to number two. But every single other single they released had got to number one, which is incredible. And both albums had been massive hits. Spice World, of course, had had a very, very successful and, dare I say, a very, very good movie attached to it as well, which I

finally persuaded my husband to watch with me for the first time at the weekend. Sadly, he was not a bigger fan of the movie as I was. That movie is very, very dear to my heart. I think it's a genuine comedy classic and a huge time capsule of the 90s that just takes me back to that moment in time. It's wonderful. Anyway, so the Spice Girls were at their height and it kind of seemed like nothing could go wrong for them. But then, of course, it did. Cracks started to form. They all started to become media personalities in their own right, which, of course, was something that was priced in from the beginning with the Sporty Spice, Baby Spice, etc. aspect of it.

It meant that they were becoming icons individually of each other. And so, inevitably, they started to go solo, which started with Jerry, who turned away from the spice girls left the band entirely and i think it's fair to say as we've discussed so far had a pretty damn successful start had a really good first set of singles um had had real real success and seemed to have done the right thing by leaving the spice girls and with that the floodgates opened we've had mel c uh twice on the podcast so far with a very different of songs, but nonetheless, again, very successful. Emma working on her own stuff. She's still to come on the show. Mel B, not so much.

And Victoria releasing singles, but also notably, of course, was now one of the most famous power couples in the world. And really, it becomes very, very hard to envision them as a group again because they are now just five solo singers and that was like I say that was always the risk with the fact that we knew them so well as individuals it was a it was very much a kind of John Paul George and Ringo effect really in that everybody knew all of their names everybody knew what their personalities were and how they bounced off against each other so inevitably they are going to start becoming bigger than the whole um and it was very very sad to witness and at the time i was very upset even though i was six years old when jerry left it seemed extremely obvious to me that that was the end of the spice girls it just seemed

like well that's it now it's the five of them or it's none of them. It's as simple as that. And that proved absolutely right with this deflating effort that came out here. It's an attempt to update the sound of the Spice Girls into the noughties, no doubt influenced by all the futuristic sounding songs that we've covered so far in the show. Spice Girls look to make that leap as well. But what a mistake that is, because the thing about the Spice Girls that everybody always loved, well, this is what I love about them, is that they are sort of musical escapism. They are uncomplicatedly fun. They are uncomplicatedly energetic. And when they do ballads, they are sweet, they are simple, and they are exquisitely well written. To Become One is a fantastically written ballad. It's really,

really gorgeous and doesn't have any kind of deeper layer to it than that. It's just a great ballad. Too Much as well is gorgeously produced. Doesn't really, I mean, to this day, I'm not 100% sure what Too Much is about, but it's just a really, really lovely ballad. It doesn't have to be innovating. It's got that timeless quality to it, so does most of their more up-tempo songs as well. Yes, they sort of take us back to the 90s, but they're just brilliant bubblegum pop with a huge slice of personality layered in there as well. It was a formula that was very, very simple and didn't need to be changed considering we were still very, very early in the Spice Girls' career. And whether it be the fact that they were all kind of trying to turn themselves into serious artists, the fact that their

confidence perhaps had been shaken by Jerry's departure and by the fact that the sound of popular music was changing dramatically as we went into the new millennium, we get this attempt to sound fresh and up-to-date. And it quite simply isn't a Spice Girls song. Holla, I'm talking about here. It's not a Spice Girls song. It's a song for someone else that has been performed by the Spice Girls. Yeah, totally agree. It doesn't bear any relationship with anything they've ever done before.

And this is not me saying bands can't reinvent themselves this is a specific criticism of the Spice Girls is that they perfectly occupied one specific slot not just in music but in popular culture where they were for kids but also for their parents they were for everybody to enjoy

as I say in an uncomplicated way they were not doing sensual, thought-provoking R&B. That was not what the Spice Girls do. And I'm quite surprised it got to number one. I think it's telling that the album didn't get to number one. The album forever did not get to number one. And this double A side was the only single other than Goodbye, which was really tacked on. This was the only single released from the album it sort of failed straight out of

the gate um let love lead the way on the other hand considering i really am a huge spice girls fan it really surprised me that i actually couldn't remember this i couldn't remember how this song went at all um i really doubt that it's been played anywhere, really, since 2000. And if you compare this to Viva Forever or To Become One or Too Much or even Goodbye, it just pales in comparison. The thing that's so wonderful about To Become One in particular is that it has this sense of slight quirkiness to it, in that, again, it's the Spice Girls, they put their personality into it.

But it also has this kind of mystical quality, where it's got this sort of moodiness to it, where there's a lot of, you sense, genuine character being put into the song, where it's the very, very opposite of generic. I think a really good example of this, actually, is Mama, which, in other people's hands, could be a really, really cheesy, a really horrible cash-in of a record that's released for Mother's Day. But what's great about Mama is that it does actually have personality.

It takes a very specific viewpoint where that song is about, well, this is not me saying, oh, mummy, I'm a little girl and I love you. It's about me saying, actually, as, I'm a little girl and I love you. It's about me saying, actually, as a child, I didn't treat you right. And now as an adult, I look back with regret on that. And as an adult, I now want to sit down with you and say, actually, mum, thank you. I do love you. And let's have a hug. That is something that's very, very touching and very specific that people can connect to. And they were really good at that. Let Love Lead the Way is not good at that. Let Love Lead the Way, even the title is just so so generic. There is no character to this

at all and again you almost forget the Spice Girls are singing this and it's so sad to see a group that were so successful at putting their personalities across and making us connect with them on a human level where we thought like we felt like they were our friends to just be doing something that seems so distant and so cold and so hard to connect to and it really is an instant full stop on their career it's just the end of the spice girls that as soon as that character is gone as soon as that sense of fun and longing is gone that's it the spice girls are over and it's as simple as that sense of fun and longing is gone, that's it. The Spice Girls are over, and it's as simple as that. It's very, very sad for me to witness, and it's very frustrating to me that this is the only song that we get to talk about as a number one in the noughties for the

Spice Girls. I feel very, very sad that it ended this way. It shouldn't have ended this way, but we'll always have the good times. We'll always have Spice World we'll always have that amazing discography that preceded it but yes this is a hell of a bad way to go out and it's very very disappointing yeah that was really really personal and really well put

yeah I agree that was one of, I think that's been definitely one of the best segments that we've had on the episode so far. Stop it. Stop it. But I've got to say, totally agree. I think this shows that the Spice Girls struggled to adapt to what had happened between this and Spice World to pop. I think what really, for me,

what really sells the Spice Girls 90s material to me, their defining feature, is that their members contain so many distinct identities as four or five individuals, but they always had a singular identity as a collective. A good chunk of their singles are, like, properly captivating pop music, and all five of them deserve to be cultural icons.

But there was, you know, like you were saying, Andy, that kind of sweetness, that sort of innocence to their music that was, like, the cherry on top. It's like there is no edge with the Spice Girls like the closest they get is to become one and that's all about practicing the safest of safe sex and it gives the majority of the vocals or at least the big vocal moments the baby just to make it that bit more sweet and that bit more innocent but you know apart from the the songwriter I think the combination of these carefully cultivated characters I guess in the band and the identities that they were almost like a virtual band like conjured up on in a lab to

really pierce culture you know in my head I can look at the Spice Girls and see them all immediately where it's like you know baby was always baby blue with pigtails posh was black dresses and that neck length bob thing um scary was the leopard print and the frizzy afro ginger was the bright red hair with that union jack mini dress you know sporty was various colors but always in uh sport i would say the orange and blue ponytail the orange and blue is what i would say the orange and blue tracksuit yeah but she always had the tracksuit and a ponytail. The orange and blue is what I would say. The orange and blue tracksuit. But she always had the tracksuit and the ponytail and it was like a band had been lifted out of something

like Scooby-Doo and put into the real world. You look at their album covers, the first two album covers are basically identical because everybody has their own letter and their own colour. But then you look at the album cover for Forever

and I think this speaks to what you were saying there, Andy, about this sense of identity slipping away from the group. They're all wearing black, they're all in the same kind of outfit, they're all pulling basically the same pose and all of a sudden they've been streamlined without Jerry and that sense of

identity has kind of been washed out and they've tried to I think they've tried to grow up a bit too fast like you can see that they've dressed them in the video and on the front of the album where the world loves spice girls but clearly they don't love spice women and i think that's it where it's like when they start out it's like they're girls you know we, we're a girl band, girl power. And I think with this, they've tried to make them women. If you know what I mean, they've tried to force it a little bit too much. Like we're actually singing about sex now.

And not only that, but we're singing about orgasms now. And like, you've got Baby Spice saying lines like, you know, start from the bottom and work your way up. And stuff like this. And it's like they've tried to add edge to the group and i don't think they've added it that well like even just from the beginning you get that timbaland style voicemail recording like the spice girls yeah come on you know it just spice girls don't need this no do they and it just feels a little bit like andy you were saying there um victoria becoming part of one of the most famous power couples in the world and i know a lot of people always say that the 2000s kind of started with 9-11 and i definitely

agree with that politically but i think culturally the 2000s actually start with David Beckham's buzz cut I think with Posh and Becks in general I do think that is the start of a particular kind of celebrity culture that was very very prominent throughout the decade and him getting his buzz cut and them getting married like moving away from these centre party

90s flowy locks like Joey in the first episode of Friends like David Beckham getting that buzz cut is like a huge cultural moment starting 90s flowy locks you know like joey in the first episode of friends like um david beckham getting that buzz cut is like a huge cultural moment and it just feels like them being married and stuff the spy skills are coming back into a new world it's a new decade new millennium just don't think spy skills fit in it very much like i think this song is and let love lead the way is this kind of proof that they've tried to grow up.

Like, even, uh, Sporty, she dyed her hair, didn't she? She went blonde. Um, Yes.

For this little period. And, you're just like, okay. Like, I can see, I just feel like, Spice Girls were a perfect product,

and, they've tried to change the product, in order to, because it's like, you know, the year starts with a two now, and it's like, oh shit, what are we going to do the product in order to, because it's like the year starts with a two now and it's like oh shit, what are we going to do? And culture doesn't move that fast

but I think they've anticipated that it's moved faster than it actually has and the people who are managing them have made a bit of a mistake. Sorry to interrupt but you're right that there is still a place for cheesy pop. I think you can

look at this two different ways you can look at it as okay no one's doing cheesy pop anymore things have changed very very quickly does that mean we need to keep up with it or should it not mean well let's give them something different let's be nostalgic we had Stomp by Steps last week which we all really appreciated which

was a really really good song and a really big hit, there's still a place for this stuff. They got it wrong. There was still a place for cheesy pop. And I think if they'd stuck to their guns and done another album that was similar to Spice World, I think they could have continued to be popular. Yeah, no, I totally

agree. I think that the issue with it really is that they've attempted to follow a trend rather than try and set their own they've tried to blend in and I thought the whole thing with Spice Girls was that they stood out and like Let Love Lead The Way I listened to it

about half an hour ago maybe a little bit half an hour before we started recording I can't remember much about it except it kind of sounds like if time after time had never left the verse like there's nothing dynamic about it like there's nothing really to hate particularly but and it just it feels a little bit like all their solo identities like you know they've gone off

and been solo performers and stuff where first of all they were all kind of encouraged to be their own person within the Spice Girls bubble it feels a little bit like now someone trying to stop a helium balloon from getting free like you know they've not got the tie to hold it it's just a helium balloon on its own and like you're trying to squash it down so that it doesn't go and hit the ceiling um and I think it says a lot that like the promotional campaign stopped dead a few weeks after this, didn't it? They didn't try to push a third single or anything. It was just gone.

Two singles from this new album didn't do as well as they thought it would. And I think it also says a lot that six, seven years after this, which isn't a massively long time they released a big comeback single and it doesn't even reach the top 10 i think yeah i think unfortunately it kind of meant that people were sort of done with the spice girls in general like because even their solo careers didn't last that long into the 2000s i think i i think i think they may well have done themselves a bit of a um giving themselves a bit of a problem with the narrative actually in the the meta commentary of releasing goodbye after jerry left it yeah it feels like this is the end it feels like a farewell

because that's literally what the song is it's goodbye we'll always have our memories that will be it you know we we're not together anymore but we'll always be together in our hearts it's you kind of feel like well this is the last single then isn't it and anything else can only be an epilogue and i think maybe they push that narrative a little bit too hard but well not them maybe but their management, you know. I think releasing Goodbye and then doing nothing for two years, that had a big factor in all of this as well, I think. You don't release a single like that and then expect to come back from it. Yeah.

Lizzie, how about you for... Yeah, you've kind of said it all already. I totally agree with what you both said. So I wanted to introduce like a slightly different angle to this chat, which is, you know, about the Forever album. And I wish I had more time to kind of read up on this because Andy, were you aware of some demos that leaked on the internet in like 2015?

Yeah, the lost album, the lost third album, yeah. Yeah, so it was initially, it was going to be a more pop-influenced album, similar to, you know, Spice World, and it was produced by Elliot Kennedy. And then Rodney Jerkins, Darkchild as he was known, and Jammin' Lewis came on board to collaborate with the group. And I don't know whose decision that was,

but I think that is the kind of death knell for this album it's like when what's his name came on board for let it be Spectre yeah Phil Spectre yeah yeah it's just like it's an outsider and you just kind of get this it's like a clash of styles it doesn't really work and yeah some of those demos are quite good like I totally agree with both of you that I think they could have survived in this world because like it doesn't sound that far off what Britney was doing it doesn't sound that far off another song in you know this episode which we're about to cover and as much as i guess like girl groups like of all saints were going more grown up like there was still a place for what the spice girls were doing but just this i i totally agree

with you both this isn't the spice girls the fact that they have to introduce themselves as the first line on holler you know the spice girls dark child it's like you really you don't need that you're the fucking spice girls don't be so desperate to remind us of who you are because, yeah, you were the biggest thing in the world for a good two, three, four years. And, yeah, can you tell I don't really have much to say about the songs because they are boring. They are so boring.

Particularly Let Love Lead The Way is just one of the longest five minutes of a job this year. much to say about the songs because they are boring they are so boring particularly let lovely the way is just one of the longest five minutes of a job oh my god i know yeah and that that really is that really is the worst criticism really isn't it because i think i know the spice girls aren't to everybody's taste but i don't think there are any songs on either of the first two albums that you could call boring it's they are the epitome of an easy album to listen to you can just sail through both albums back to back 90 minutes every single song catches your attention they're not all brilliant but none of them are boring not one not not one yeah and so it does kind of make you wonder if there was like um an alternate forever out there where it kind of

figured out and it's the sound they were supposed to be going for rather than the sound they ended up going for but I suppose it's in the past now and I think by this point there is a sense of they'd all found that they could be successful with their solo careers and it's like this was an album that had been recorded probably about a year before and it's well, we've got all this stuff, we may as well put it out, and this is the result. And, yeah, it's a shame, but not great. Well, goodbye, Spice Girls.

I know you're gone, you said you're gone, but I can still feel you're here. All right, then. Next up is this. I know you're gone, you said you're gone, but I can still feel you're here. Alright then, next up is this. An empty house, a hole inside my heart I'm all alone, the rooms are getting smaller I wonder how, I wonder why, I wonder where they are The days we had, the songs we sang together, oh yeah And oh my love, I'm holding on forever Reaching for the love that seems so far So I say a little prayer And hope my dreams will take me there

Where the skies are blue to see you once again Okay, this is My Love. To see you once again, my love and their seventh consecutive number one. My Love went straight in at number one as a new entry, knocking Spice Girls off the top spot and shifting 112,000 copies in its first week of sales. It stayed at number one for one week, beating competition from number one by the Tweenies, which got to number six, Country Grammar by Nelly, which got to number seven, Come On Over Baby by Christina Aguilera, which got to number eight.

And Don't Think I'm Not by Candy, which got to number nine. When it was knocked off the top spot, My Love fell one place to number two. And by the time it was done on the charts, it had been inside the top 100 for just ten weeks. Which is short. It is short. Short amount of time at the top lizzy how do we feel about my love by westlife i'm guessing that maybe because the album's out and like i think the fans have all brought the album bought the album in droves and yeah you know why would they need

to buy the single it's on the album um. Yeah, this is Westlife by Numbers. I'm already really sick of talking about Westlife because they don't add anything more to their sound or to their music in subsequent releases. This is a retread of Fool Again, which I quite liked because I thought the melody and the harmonies were quite good. But this has sort of that, but the harmonies were quite good but this has sort of that but the tune isn't as good and the key change you can see coming from a mile away and

yeah this is not good. Can you tell I don't have much to say about this again because what is there to say? It's the same formula that Westlife have employed over and over again where they have the lead vocal at the start and it starts kind of quiet and then you get the drum fill to lead you in and then you get the big chorus where they all sing together then you get the key change and it's just... It's like distilled essence of Westlife

and there's nothing interesting to say about this. You could say it was the same old brand new Westlife. Yeah. Andy, how are we on My Love? Well I'm going to be a bit of a contrarian on this one so I'm gonna immediately clarify before I say anything that it's a low bar with Westlife. There hasn't been any Westlife songs that we've covered so far that I've been anything more than lukewarm on. Some of them I've absolutely hated, such as Against All Odds. Some of them have been sort of okay. This one, I actually like. I like this.

And I like it in a so- it's good fashion i can't help but sort of get taken away by it and that the production in this song is so over the top it's it's you know what we said about against all odds that it has a sort of x factor winner single quality they seem to have kind of found the gem of an idea here and have done the same thing again where, yes, we've got all the Westlife staples, we've got the key change, we've got the soaring strings, but it's so loud. I had to really turn this down when I was

listening to it because I was like, Jesus guys, calm down. The fact that they can barely reach the notes, they're really, really screaming out the lines in the last chorus. and I think certainly the performance along with the production is just so so far far far too much that I can't help but kind of enjoy it and just think of this as a wow this is an exercise in excess and I quite

enjoy listening to this happen but as a song as well I think it's a little bit more interesting than certainly against all odds bit more interesting than, certainly against all odds, and more interesting than anything else they've done so far I think, in that it does have quite an odd chord progression in the chorus, it's that second line with the when the skies are blue they do once again, and it has that uplift where it goes from the first to the second, which is a really odd interval to do at that point,

it's it's it's got some very interesting things that it does musically from a writing perspective it's still not really any good um but i do actually enjoy listening to this i think it's certainly in comparison to everything else that westlife have done so far i think this is way more enjoyable but it is a low bar i wouldn't say i love this by any stretch of the imagination but i'm definitely warmer on it than lizzie is and i suspect more than rob is as well i just kind of one of those songs i just saw get taken away by a little bit in spite of its quality which is it's not high the only other thing i wanted to say just you know how lizzie you were talking about

sales with front-loading sales from the fans do you remember the record of the year competition no they used to so on ITV every year around Christmas used to air

record of the year which was basically yeah I do remember this I think Ant & Dec hosted songs yeah Ant & Dec usually hosted it

it was usually the 10 highest selling songs of the year including international ones they would all be performed live in the studio they usually would manage to get everyone in to perform them And it was usually the 10 highest selling songs of the year, including international ones. They would all be performed live in the studio. They usually would manage to get everyone in to perform them all live. And then there'd be a public vote.

And there was a big problem in that Westlife fans would just brigade it every year. And so in 1999, bearing in mind, 1999 was an amazing year for pop music and Flying Without Wings won. Beating Out, Baby One More Time, Blue Dabba Dee, Livin' La Vida Loca,

Mambo No. 5, you know. Flying Without Wings managed to beat all of those, which was controversial. My Love won Record of the Year for 2000, beating out Rock DJ, Life is a Rollercoaster, It Feels So Good, Pure Shores,

Groove Jet, were all beaten by My Love in this public vote. Fucking hell. And then a few years, a few years that followed, Westlife were a bit quieter. It managed to calm down a little bit. But then in 2003, which was the final year, I believe, that this ran, Mandy, their cover of Mandy, managed to win, beating Crazy in Love, Where is the Love, Year 3000, Bring Me to Life.

Oh, my God. Mandy managed to win it, which had literally been released about a week earlier, and I believe the reaction to that was so, there was so much backlash to it, people were so upset over that, that it was the end of record of the year. I believe that's what happened, yeah, that they decided we can't actually continue with this because the public

vote is no longer viable. Because democracy simply does not work. Exactly. Yes, yes, it's a Kent Brockman moment, yeah. So yeah, just a little bit of backstory on this for you. If you look at every one we've had so far, would my love win my record of the year? No, it would not.

Yeah. I've just been looking this up while you've been chatting about it. So apparently the vote itself Ran until 2012 What? But it was pulled off It was pulled off TV in 2006 So like the last one ever was 2005

Which Westlife also won Was You Raise Me Up But then It got moved to an online poll because there were, as you said, problems with the voting element. Because, like you say, Westlife fans would just basically just clog it all up.

Yeah. I think it just disappeared from the public consciousness, this competition, because it lost all credibility after Mandy won. So I didn't realise it had kept going for so long but that was a big moment that this competition just ceased to be really

I think I might surprise you a little bit Andy I think this is quite I was quite taken with the fact that this is clearly a very sweet song about Ireland and how they must be feeling after being away from home after their debut album and the success that they had, you know, all the lyrics are about like, you know,

what Ireland means to them, but also it can be easily translated as a bog standard love song, you know, it's not specific to the point where it's like, oh, I remember this house on this road, it's not specific to the point where it's like, oh, I remember this house on this road. You know, it's just sort of like, you know, the skies are blue, you know, it's my lovely homeland, I love you. You know, so I get that, you know. But the, I don't know, the song itself,

same as always with Westlife, don't know what the key change actually achieves beyond like just it's just the thing they do and like you were saying andy i've made the same note in the notes i've been putting together where it's like they rise from singing to shouting and it just spoils the atmosphere a little bit because by the time they're going for the i mean i'm going to do it an octave lower but the um find the place i love the most they just can't achieve it can they it's so funny to listen to no it's not great um because you know in the original key it sounds quite sweet and quite lovely and there's a little irish folk element to it as well just so so small it's like a sprinkling of salt um but yeah it's a bit

clean and i am struggling to recall the verses right now thinking about it but it's it's okay i think it's all right i think you know i think after a year or 18 months of being on the road i think it's fair enough if they just want to be like, oh, you know, Ireland's pretty cool and we miss it because we've been on the road a lot. Yeah, it kind of feels the same way about it as I do Fool Again. Maybe don't like it. That was okay. Yeah. Yeah, it just feels the same way about it where it's like, yeah, don't mess with the

formula of what we do too much. You know, just sort of do the big sweeping ballads and get up off your chairs at the beginning, at the end rather, for the key change, and it is just the same problems again, where everything's going fine, and then the key change happens, and they just can't compete with it, it's not telegraphed, it's not signposted, it just happens, because it must happen you know we're westlife we must we must do one and like i'm not against key changes i like it when songs contain them but with westlife it's just they don't modulate towards it they just kind of do it yeah and

when they do it it's like oh jesus that was um that was uncalled for a little bit and then you listen to them all going like oh just shouting themselves horse in the recording studio just from like attempting to just from attempting to add a bit of variety but and reach those notes but they you know i really i really have to jump in on this point actually about key changes you've really just reminded me of something which is um so back in one of our early episodes lizzie made a comment that like key changes are almost always bad um which i disagree with but i didn't disagree with on the air and one of my friends who knows how much i love key changes was like what why did you not call that out why did you not stand up for key changes?

So this is me saying now, I actually love a key change. I think they're brilliant. Only if they're done correctly, though. And I think Westlife give key changes a really, really bad name. Yeah, so just want to have that on the record, that I do love a good key change. Yeah, love a good key change. Yeah, a good one. Yeah, that's the point, yeah.

The only other thing about this that I feel like something I always like to hear is when an album title drop happens in a song on the album. Yes. What is it? Season to season, coast to coast, something like that. And I'm like, ah, you did the thing.

Ah, I see you. Yeah, no no I totally agree when it's like oh so like it's not the title of a song it's a lyric from one of your songs and you've plucked it out and made it the album title well done you Lizzie do you have

a return to Andy serve RE key changes well you're wrong basically no I'm not a return to Andy's serve RE key changes? Well, you're wrong. Basically. No, I'm not. Yes, you are. No, I'm not. There is a song coming up that we will cover, which I'm going to start the

hype campaign for now, and it's literally going to be years. But I'm going to start the hype campaign now. Oh, I already know the one you're talking about, Andy. Yeah, because I've spoken to Rob about this loads of times. It has the greatest key change of all time And I plan to spend pretty much the whole episode Explaining why it's so brilliant So get ready

Okay Well without further ado We'll press on and the next one up is This I can still remember the time You were there when I needed To hold you Feel you

Every time I ask you to find a new way You lie a new way Is it gone, gone, gone, gone, gone? You change your mind You change your mind You change your mind You change your mind You change your mind Go, go, go, go, go You said you'd choose But I'm afraid It's something I won't live to see

It seems so strange That sometimes fate Can appear to be so real And yet turn out to be a fantasy Sing on, one more time Say you're gonna be there for me Say you'll change, change your ways Never gonna keep your promises

Sing on, you know it doesn't turn me on Singing that same old song You don't wanna find me gone gone gone gone gone another night another day what can i say when you're the same old brand new you? Because of you Alright then, this is Same Old Brand New You by A1. Released as the second single from A1's second album, The A-List. Same Old Brand New You is A1's sixth single overall in the UK, and their second number one after their cover of Take On Me reached the summit earlier in the year.

Same Old Brand New You went straight in at number one as a new entry, knocking Westlife off the top and selling 61,000 copies in its first week of sales. life off the top and selling 61,000 copies in its first week of sales. It stayed at number one for one week, beating competition from Shape of My Heart by Backstreet Boys, which got to number four, and Original Prankster by The Offspring, which got to number six. When it was knocked off the top spot, same old brand new You dropped a massive seven places to number eight, and by the time it was done on the charts, it had been inside the top 100 for 16 weeks. I tell you, it was 22 years ago that this happened, but I still felt the ripples of that drop.

That was huge. That was a massive drop from the top. Seven places. That's unbelievable. Andy, what do we make of A1? You're right about that. That is the kind of drop that songs tend to get in the week after Christmas. In the first week of January, whatever's Christmas number one tends to get that kind of drop, isn't it?

Wow, that is large. So, right, I'm going to bring in a really weird point of comparison, but bear with me on this, right? Just in terms of the title and in terms of how it conjures up feelings of, right, okay. So there was, in about, oh, I don't know what year it was, about 2015, I think, there was a series of Doctor Who, which was one of Peter Capaldi and Jenna Coleman's series, that had a trailer where someone like Adalek or someone said, what's happening? And then Capaldi goes, oh, you know, just same old, same old, the Doctor and Clara in the TARDIS. And that trailer got huge criticism because it was like,

you've used your trailer to advertise, oh, you know, just same old, same old. Which in context it worked, but in the trailer it was a terrible thing to do. And I would just like to echo that sentiment for this in that if you say anything like oh same old same old in your title of your product don't expect people to be particularly interested you've immediately put people on the back foot here and i just think i saw the title and i'm like all right same old a1 yeah okay and to be fair same old A1 is exactly how I feel about this this is generic to the max this like this is I think probably shares the title with Let Love Lead the Way for the most generic

song of the week in that it's desperately trying to sound like any other boy band but themselves because they have no USP themselves. This, I think you could easily give to NSYNC with no changes at all. There's definitely echoes of Bye Bye Bye in this with those big orchestral hit slams. You could give it to Backstreet Boys, minimal changes as well. A1, who knows anything about A1, really? I know I did that bit a few episodes ago where I said I saw them on the beach and it was a big thing for me, but really, there is nothing about A1 that really stares any kind of sentiment in me whatsoever.

It really is just same old, same old. And this song, I have very, very little to say about. I'm surprised at how long I've been talking about it already, to be honest, and I'm not really sure what else there is for me to say, except that it's a very dull song. It's by the numbers to the extreme, and it's fine. It really is just fine. Like, there's nothing particularly bad about it, but there's nothing good about it either, and I think, given that it's a very crowded market right now, A1 need to just go away which thankfully they do we won't see them again so there we go. Yeah Lizzie how about you?

Yeah again totally agree with your points I think I do think it has some like nice moments you know I like I don't really remember the verses which is bad but I like the pre-chorus you know that same old game you know it doesn't turn me on friend like the call and response kind of thing i think that's quite neat but yeah aside from that it's very generic there's a like this is one of two songs this week that has some weird production on it as well like yeah did you notice like the squelchy synth in the background? Like, what's that? And that doesn't sound good.

It just sounds like they've kind of got the basic formula for an NSYNC song and they kind of turned it into this, but it's a bit mushy and it doesn't really commit to the idea. And I'm sure like, I'm I was sort of curious about where the A1 phenomenon came from it's not like their Westlife where they're an established boy band and they've you know they've been huge and they're pretty much nailed on number one they've kind of just come out of nowhere like their first hit single was a cover. And now we've got this, which is, again, just kind of anonymous. And yeah, it kind of baffles me that they came and went so quickly. But when you listen to this, it's like, is it any wonder? Because this is just nothing.

Yeah. Yeah, I'm not going to disagree. yeah i i'm not gonna disagree um i think something you just said there about not fully committing to its idea i think this also touches on something that i've put in my notes which is just that this feels a bit caught in two minds like it's trying to be the whole bad boy with a good heart you know you know like it wants all the aggression and the edge of something like back street's back but it still wants to make sure that young female fan base like it's young female fan base isn't scared and so they ramp up the sweetness as well during the more melodic sections. And so you end up with this like,

you know, bad boy with a heart of gold sort of thing. And it, and then, you know, that's not like a thing that can't work. I think NSYNC are a really good example of how something like that can work in places.

And even, you know, some of the Backstreet Boys stuff too. But I think the idea with this was that they were given something that was a bit more dangerous than what they'd done thus far, but it means that the sweetness feels very forced. It kind of wants the edge, and understand that edge is relative here um but it just it doesn't it can't fully commit because it doesn't want it to and like i haven't watched the music video for this but i already know what it looks like which is them all doing like aggressive dance moves probably like 90s sci-fi inside of a cheese

grater kind of look black vest tops with baggy black trousers but every 15 seconds or so you'll get a shot of one of them looking really deep into the camera they'll do the heart grab and the Hadley fist yes it's really sensitive expression even at me

yes it is a little bit that way and all the ones that what were they called now? Party Posse, that was it. It does feel a little bit that way, where you can imagine them with the big baggy black trousers with white shoes and black vest tops, and they're all looking into the camera

doing the same dance moves and stuff. And then every now and again they'll break off, and one of the members, who called like chad or something just sort of has a moment where he takes off some sunglasses that they've all been wearing and he just looks right in and goes you know with his call center microphone yeah yeah and that's exactly the image i get. And it just, like you say, it feels very by the numbers. Like, it feels like, I don't know, their star isn't necessarily fading because they have a number one single, but it sold about half as many as Westlife needed.

And they've calculated the release quite well, I think, for the week after Westlife. We'll just avoid the issue of Westlife and release it afterwards, eh? How about that? Cowards. Fair play to where it worked. It's a little bit of a clever marketing move. But the song is fine.

I remembered the same old brand new you but I didn't, before listening to this I didn't remember this at all like I remember A1 kind of but I don't remember this yeah I did because they did this on that Blue Peter show on the beach, they did two songs

they did Take On Me and this so the only two songs we've covered are the only two A1 songs that I know I can't believe they had two number ones in a year like this two songs we've covered are the only two A1 songs that I know but I can't believe they had two number ones in a year like this where broadly we've been so you know we've given so much praise to how great music has been in this year and they had two number ones it's weird very strange yeah because like I remember my sister was a big fan of them but I also remember that like I say they came and went very quickly like their their next single after this no more and he gets to number six and then did you know about this

incident in indonesia yeah really tragic yeah yeah it's really like so that sort of thing can completely derail your career because not because it's like oh they got cancelled or something it's just you know it sort of sticks with you that that whole thing of oh god maybe this isn't for me because i don't think i can cope with this and so it wouldn't surprise me if that's why they kind of stepped away after this like i know paul left the group in about 2002 2003 and then that was pretty much it, because the band was formed off his back. He was rejected from Steps, and so he was like, OK, I'll go and form my own band then.

He did all right out of it, two number ones in a year. That's not bad going, but yeah, it's just the fact that they fizzled out so quickly. Yeah, just for clarity, I think that incident in Indonesia that you're referencing was that crowd crush, right? Yeah, it was the crowd crush, yeah. Yeah, and about, is it three or four people were killed?

Yeah, four teenage girls, apparently. Yeah. Oh, gosh. I totally know what you mean. It can be hard to kind of carry on after that. Like, as an artist mean it can be hard to kind of carry on after that like as an artist it can be quite difficult to want to

force it as much as you used to like with you know because you start I mean obviously it's not their fault but I guess you would start thinking like you know what if yeah that sticks with you it's like I think Limp Bizkit had a similar kind of incident

in the same year where someone just got crushed in a crowd and yeah it kind of has a lasting effect both on the band's image and their own psyches well it's a goodbye to A1 on this show thank you very much for

entertaining Andy at that Blue Peter Beachside concert all those years ago thanks boys sorry I was so mean about you just be more interesting that reminds me, just before we move on from A1, Andy

this is mainly one for you, have you seen the ITV2 documentary The Big Reunion oh yeah part of it were quite good. I enjoyed the five and atomic kitten aspects of it. That actually came out of the

Steps reunion, didn't it? When the Steps reunion was so successful, everybody got in on the act and did that big reunion show. Then we got a super group in big air quotes out of it with Dane Bowers, Gareth Gates, Kenzie from Blazing Squad,

and Adam Rickett from Coronation Street. Adam Rickett? Wow. Yeah. Do you know what our boy band needs to really have credibility? It needs Nick Tilsley. That's what it needs. And last up on our show this week is this. And no one's gonna be around If you think that you won't fall Well, just wait and see

Till the sun goes down Underneath the starlight, starlight There's a magical feeling so right It will steal your heart tonight You can try to resist, try to hide from my kiss But you know, but you know that you'll get back the moonlight Deep in the dark, you'll surrender your heart But you know, but you know That you can't fight the moonlight, no

You can't fight it It's gonna get to your heart Alright, this is Can't Fight the Moonlight by Leigh-Anne Rimes Released as the lead single from the Coyote Ugly soundtrack Can't Fight the Moonlight is Leigh-Anne Rimes' sixth Released as the lead single from the Coyote Ugly soundtrack, Can't Fight the Moonlight is Leigh-Anne Rhymes' sixth single overall in the UK and her first to reach number one. It was eventually added as a bonus track to a compilation of Rhymes' material up to that point which was called I Need You and was released in full in 2001. Can't Fight the Moonlight went straight in at number one as a new entry,

knocking A1 off the top spot and shifting 114,000 copies in the UK. It stayed at number one for one week beating competition from... just have a moment to brace myself for this... One More Time by Daft Punk which got to number two, for the love of God. Please Don't Turn Me On by the Artful Dodger, which got to number four. Feel That Beat by Da Root, which got to number five. And Gravel Pit by Wu-Tang Clan, which got to number six, which I had no idea charted so high. That was their only top ten single in the UK. Their only top 40 single in the UK.

Wow. When It Was Knocked Off the Top Spot, Can't Fight the Moonlight dropped one place to number two and by the time it was done on the charts, it had been inside the top 100 for 22 weeks. And I just want to say, it's not a slight against Can't Fight the Moonlight that I'm so sad about One More Time

not getting to number one. It's just that I love One More Time so much and I would have loved an opportunity to talk about it but yeah never mind eh Andy I will let you lead the way on let Andy lead the way

on Can't Fight The Moonlight because I know that you have a lot of strong feelings about this one so go ahead yeah so I absolutely love Can't Fight The Moonlight and I listen to it like once a week. I genuinely like, I absolutely love this song and to be fair I didn't until probably about whenever it was about three, four years ago that I was aware of the song obviously and I'd liked it as a kid but it wasn't anything special to me. And then it was, I think it was 2018 that I went to see Years and Years

at the Apollo in Manchester. And at the end, it was a really good show. Everybody was singing and dancing at the end. Everybody was kind of up for more. And at the end, as everybody was filing out, you know the awkward five, ten minutes where the show is over and you're just leaving and they put some PA music on. They put Can't Find the Moonlight on

and literally the entire crowd was singing along to it like it was on stage everybody was screaming along to every single line of it and it was so so much fun and i not only was just a happy memory but also i just thought wow this song is actually like a banger like i really like this song and i just started listening to it more and more i think it's got that really really straight down the line heavy assault your senses production which i like really good performance from leanne rhymes it's got a really really good key change i have to say right so slight spoiler as to what i consider the perfect key change for whatever that song may be

later down the line a really perfect key change is when it happens before the final chorus when it sneaks it in there without you noticing it so that by the time you hit the chorus the key change is expected you want it it feels like satisfaction they throw the key change in at the bridge the all i need is to start it happens there which you almost don't notice and so when it hits that final chorus in a different key with a big you could try it feels like a huge sense

of catharsis it really hits you right in the stomach and I absolutely love it it's a really great sing along song it's just I don't really have any specific analysis I can give it other than that just that i just really really enjoy it i think it's endlessly fun like i say you can sing along to it forever has a perfectly executed key change it's um got some very nice production on it all

in all and i just love it i just think it's a really, really fun song. Considering that I'm not a huge fan of Leanne Rimes in general, How Do I Live, I think, is a really dull song. And I think it's a shame that that is probably the more famous song that she released. This is just a diamond in the rough. It's a real, real gem. And it's one of those songs that the more I've listened to it over the years, the more I've loved it. And now it's right there at the very top of my rotation. Love it. really great song yeah oh well that's lovely um Lizzie how about you yeah I mean because I don't actually remember what I said about Key Changes was it that they've

never improved a song or that I just don't like them it was something like that that they don't improve any song yeah yeah because I will say like I don't mind them when they're done well. I'd say this is a good example of it, where it's one of those where you don't notice it. A bit like, I don't know, the end of Good Vibrations, where it just kind of sneaks in just before the end. But yeah, I like this song. Definitely the best of this week's crop by a country mile.

I maybe don't love it as much as you, because I think this is produced by Trevor Horn, I think, who was in the Buggles, and he's produced tons of pop. Like, if you name a big pop song, there's a good chance that Trevor Horn has produced it. There is some odd production on this, which I think I pointed out in the group chat you know at the end of like a bar where it's like you're deep in the dark remember you know you can't fight the moon that you just hear this like what was that it just is really loud and it kind of peaks the the song almost and it's it's at the end of every like bar not not bar but you know

like the section of a song yeah which i find really distracting like i know i shouldn't just nitpick on an individual production detail like that but i don't like that at all it just kind of it seems like a distraction but yeah overall i think this is this is a really good song i i wondered kind of how this was received because andy you mentioned um how do i live like you know she went from that kind of country pop sound to this you know mega britney style pop like i wonder how she was perceived by like the country community at the time like did they think she was a sellout or i mean did you get any backlash from this i don't know i really don't know enough about her to be honest um i imagine it was a similar story to

taylor swift who followed a on a larger scale but a similar trajectory and that i think the fans were for taylor swift the fans i think were happy for her but did feel a bit disappointed that she'd abandoned those roots and I imagine it's probably the same for Leigh-Anne Rimes, that there was not any sense of being personally betrayed but, you know, feeling a bit disappointed nonetheless. I think that's how people tend to feel when that happens, yeah. But yeah, it's really good It's a great vocal performance especially You know I've said that thing about if you're going to copy something

you may as well copy something good and this is very much a Britney copycat but she pulls it off I think, she's got the vocal power to be able to pull that sound off So yeah, overall, thumbs up from me It's a bit of a sound off. So, yeah, overall, thumbs up from me.

It's a bit of a big year, the year 2000, isn't it, for orchestral stabs. That's it, the orchestral stab. Yeah, that's... Funnily enough, what debuted this year, that is possibly the poster boy for orchestral stabs,

The Weakest Link. Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam. Bam, bam. this year that is possibly the poster boy for orchestral stabs the weakest link well even who wants to be a millionaire has got it as well and yeah maybe it's just the year for that um but it does those orchestral stabs kind of put this in two minds again kind of similar to a1 it doesn't know whether it wants to be sweet or have some coyote ugly attitude you know yeah but it's less bogged down i think by those issues because it feels like one of the better post baby one more time interpretations of the era. Trevor Horn probably has a lot to do with that, who we haven't seen, as I said, for the last time on this show just yet.

The one thing that always staggers me about this song, though, is how young she was. Yeah. When they did this, it always, whenever a big pop artist breaks out and they're like under 20, I'm always like, whoa. Like, you know, they were young,

but like she was 17 when she did whoa they were young but she was 17 when she did this and she was already an established pop star like she was 14 when How Do I Live was released what I did not know this what

she's just a stunningly young artist who also has a who already has a pretty commanding presence behind a microphone. So fair play to her for that. But yeah, she was so young. I think by the time this eventually came out and got marketed and stuff, she was about 18, 19. But yeah, she's born in August 82. And this was August 2000.

So she's just turned 40 this year, gosh she's so young wow, and yet this is the last time we see her yeah, it's amazing how it doesn't get carried on by this, I think she becomes so known for this song and How Do I Live that

it becomes kind of hard to live up to it without some serious reinvention and maybe she just didn't people just didn't take to whatever they did next with her yeah because I've noticed that some of her following singles have

a bit of criticism because of the move towards pop away from country it's always a bit of a hard sell unless you really commit to it then you know it can it can go one or two ways yeah with this it feels a little bit like i mean how do i live i always see that as more of a a pop ballad rather than like a like a country ballad but i guess like the other similar kind of changes from where it's a style of country and pop rock straight through to pop other than um taylor swift the other one i'm

obviously thinking of is miley cyrus and where she was she wasn't exactly known for country she was more known for pop rock and hannah montana and stuff like that but you know yeah we went from hannah montana and party in the usa you know and stuff like that through to we can't stop within about four years so it but this it must have felt like i imagine how it may have felt if taylor swift had jumped from fearless to red without speak now in the middle just to kind of bridge the gap, the transition, because obviously, I mean, to be fair, the singles from Speak Now by Taylor Swift weren't as big as the singles from Fearless. They were, you know, I think they charted well enough,

but, you know, Love story was a huge hit but then like um mine only reached like number 30 and that was about it and then when she popped up again it was we are never getting back together which was the top five so you know by the time she was at red and then by the time she was into 1989 and in this new era she'd had that you know speak now just to kind of bridge the gap a tiny bit and with this i imagine her country fans must have been well like you know proper purists anyway must have been a bit like whoa this isn't the person i recognize at all um i could be i'm fairly ignorant of

Leanne Rimes' material outside of this and How Do I Live so maybe there was something to bridge the gap but I imagine it still was a bit of a shock for her biggest fans to jump from something like How Do I Live to something like this within three years two, three years, something like that

This wasn't from an album as such, it was from the Coyote Ugly yes but then you know you went from um her 1999 album which was very much country focused to a 2002 album which is more like pop r&b and yeah i think it can it's a really difficult thing like i think particularly in the uk we're not massively cognisant of how big country music is over there it's huge we'll encounter a load of country number one

I've never heard of this song and yeah, it's huge and if you kind of turn your back on that then it's an uphill struggle I think actually the better comparison would probably be Kelly Clarkson because she started as a pop rock artist

after she came out of American Idol. And she had a couple of big singles, obviously like Since You've Been Gone was pretty big over here and Behind These Hazel Eyes and stuff like that. And then she had the big number one not to spoil it too much but with them my life would suck without you which was this kind of transition away from the rock sound into more of a pop sound but then after that once she'd done the transition she didn't have any big singles after that like it just kind of

the album cycle finished and now she just hosts a talk show and you know she still has a degree of fame but it just that maybe feels like a slightly better comparison for a sudden pivot from one sound to another and then afterwards it's just a bit, oh, okay. You know who else I'm thinking of? She didn't really do much over here, but Jewel. Do you remember Jewel? I do not remember Jewel, no. Like this big sort of, again, like a country act.

She played like, she played Woodstock in 99. She was this kind of sweet acoustic, kind of like Leanne Rimes. And then she had an album called 03 04 which is very much a pop with a capital P album and people hated it and don't think she ever really found her way back

yeah I'm just looking now at Kelly Clarkson singles and like in the UK Miss Independent number 6 break away the singles off that you've got Since You've Been Gone and singles in the UK. Miss Independent, number six. Breakaway, the singles off that. Since You've Been Gone got to number five. Behind These Haze Lies, number nine. Because of You, number seven.

First single from my December got to number nine. Never Again. And then All I Ever Wanted was the big pivot towards pop. And My Life Would Suck Without You gets to number one. I Do Not Hook Up, which is a song I remember, got number 36 which and and i remember already gone as well and that that didn't even hit the top 40 and then you have mr know-it-all gets to number four what doesn't kill you makes you stronger uh gets to number eight and then she's yeah basically gone and she had a hit in 2015 that got to number seven article called heartbeat song but that's been it ever since and it just that feels like

a similar kind of rise peak and then fall after a pivot um around this sort of time that's interesting anyway we went off on an interesting rabbit hole there. Andy, because you love the song, I don't know if you want to wrap it up before we head to the finish. It's really good. There we go. I think that's a good full stop on the episode. Alright then, just at the top of the episode,

I mentioned that we've made a little change to the structure just for these next couple of episodes so we'll we can sort of explain that now so next week thank you very much for listening to this week first of all but next week we'll be covering the period from the 26th of November through to the 16th of December in the year 2000 um which means that we're almost out and we're nearly there but finishing next week's show at the 16th of December means that we're going to be

looking at the Race for Christmas number 1 after that oh yes our first episode of that kind so we're only going to be covering 3 songs on next week's episode and then we're going to have a big full look at like what the the year has been like for us um you know we'll take a look back we may

end up voting for like a song of the year or something like that between the three of us um we'll look at the year do you say record of the year. Everyone vote for my love. And I think also we're going to be taking a look, just maybe a little look at the UK top five, top ten, on the week that the Christmas number one was announced. And then we're going to be talking about the Christmas number one in full, a proper analysis of what the Christmas number one was in the year 2000 and then we'll be pressing on to

2001 so thank you very much for listening this week hope this slight change of format has been okay for this for this first week there's been going to be a slight change of format next week and the week after as you know but stick with us we'll get back to 2000 we'll get through to 2001 and it'll be back to five songs a week and

everything will be all right again thanks rob thanks for the reassurance so we'll see you later bye bye see ya