Hits 21 - 2001 (6): Blue, Bob the Builder, DJ Otzi, Kylie Minogue

Episode Date: December 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] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KioF1sTQFtE

Another plane has crashed into the World Trade Center building. This is unbelievable. You can't tell me what to do. You ain't my mother. Yes, I am. Arguably the most recognizable footballer in the world. Yes. Yes, I know.

David Picker has done it. Big time. David Picker has done it, big time Hits 21 Alright there everyone and welcome back to Hits 21 Where me, Rob Me, Andy And me, Lizzy All look back at every single UK number one of the 21st century

from January 2000 right through to the present day 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 on over to

Hits21Podcasts at gmail.com Thank you so much for joining us once again, just like our previous episodes, we'll be looking back at four UK number ones from the year 2001. This time

we'll be covering the period between the 2nd of September And the 20th of October 2001 Casting our eyes back to Last week And it's a bit of a hits 21 first There was no winner

On the poll It's a tie Yeah it was a tie 50% of the vote each For Eternal Flame and 21 Seconds. Wow. Two kinds of listener there. Yeah, definitely.

I'm kind of glad that they both shared it because I would have felt a bit bad just with everything that you two both said about Eternal Flame last week if that didn't have more of a mark in Hits 21 history, and so at least it does now. And I would have felt bad if 21 Seconds didn't win because that was my favourite of last week.

So, yeah, no, very, very pleased about that. To quote The Simpsons, Hooray! Everyone's a winner! Now take out a circle of paper Andy got a message for us apparently yes I have two things I want to say first of all just to let you know

for anyone who thinks I may sound a little bit different I have about two three hours ago had some emergency dental work done which I'm fine no need to fret but I did have a fairly heavy dose of local anesthetic so if i sound a little bit like i'm chewing a rug that's probably because of that so please bear with me if my voice sounds a little bit different this week it will get better

throughout the episode because time heals um but yeah um the other thing i just wanted to say was we we i think on behalf of all of us we kind of got quite a noticeable amount of feedback last week. Some really, really lovely stuff from a lot of people. So thank you very much. It really meant a lot. Thank you very much for your feedback. It's always lovely to hear that. Yeah.

Makes recording the episodes much easier to do as well. Just knowing there's people out there who bother. Absolutely. Of course. I wouldn't worry, Andy, about talking like you're chewing on a rug by the way uh the wonderful holly hunter has made a career um so she has one of my favorite voices in the whole wide world so oh i'd love to be in the incredibles that's great okay uh as always we are going to take you back, not just through the songs of 2001, but the news headlines as well.

On September the 11th, in the United States of America, 2,996 people are killed in four coordinated terrorist attacks carried out by Al-Qaeda and their leader, Osama bin Laden. out by al-qaeda and their leader osama bin laden 19 terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners crashing two of them into the world trade center in new york city a third plane into the pentagon in virginia while a fourth plane crash landed in a field after a passenger revolt the next day u.s president george bush declared a war terror, which began in earnest a month later. Yeah, I think this is the biggest event that we'll ever discuss on the podcast, really. This is by far the biggest. I mean, to sort of take us back to 2001, I mean, I was nine years old and it was certainly the biggest single world event that happened in my childhood.

My approach to it, because I was so overwhelmed by the scale of it, my approach to it was to kind of tackle it head on and learn as much about it as I could. So I've always kind of had a sort of weird curiosity about it just because it's so horrendously awful. That's sort of my way of dealing with it. I think everyone has their own approach to something as unimaginable as this really, don't they?

Yeah, absolutely. everyone has their own approach to something as unimaginable as this really don't they yeah absolutely um your memories your respective memories you two of this will be i imagine a lot stronger because i was only six seven when this happened i remember being taken into the hall in school and being told that something serious had happened in america but i didn't really fully understand it until years later um but i think it's probably clearer in films than in pop music but you were saying andy about this being like the biggest event of our childhood i do think apart from World War II, I think this is probably the, well I'd say if you're including World War II it's probably the second biggest event in modern history I think it's defined

everything that's touched it since and even things that haven't Absolutely I'm not really sure how much we can say other than how horrendously awful it was and how everything changed yeah I mean just speaking of my own experience

it's funny how much I don't really remember of it and I was older than both of you and I think all I remember is kind of getting home from school and it being all over the news and I don't remember what I did with the rest of my day but I did find something

on YouTube which I showed both of you which was like a video scrapbook of that day yeah and it was on it was from pretty much every channel like just showing what happened over and over again and I you know you wonder how that didn't traumatize more people because it is just endless yeah i have an interesting side story about that actually um that you know the um the channel of food network which is bigger in america but it's it's i think it is on uk tv as well so yeah basically they were a very minor unknown channel at the time and they were one of the only channels that decided not to cut to coverage that they decided people need counter programming they need some something light and yeah inoffensive so let's just carry on as normal which people really responded

to and so the food network took off and that's kind of the success story behind the food network is that it kept going during 9-11 yeah well that's the thing like it did change the schedules but i think like eventually i know itv showed emmerdale that day and you know uh the bbc had blue planet the next day so they were clearly like okay we we will cover this but we also have our own priorities luckily they did cancel the scheduled film for that night which was called fire in the sky good lord oh my gosh it's about unfortunate timing but but yeah it's like i think it must be worse for america because as from what i can tell it was just wall to wall all day all night everything's cancelled shut everything down whereas in the uk while it did kind of give birth to the rise of like rolling news coverage which wasn't

really a thing in the UK then I think yeah it's a surprising how it's like it was it was covered strongly but also it it did fade away after a while compare that to the coverage of the Queen from earlier in 2022. Yeah. It really did feel endless. Not to compare the two because they're completely entirely different events, but I think in terms of the media response, the Queen's death was very much the UK media's

own modern day 9-11 really in terms of how they approached it, in terms of that national shutdown that we had. I think that was more extreme for us than 9-11 was for us in the uk um and yeah that gave me a window into what that much of it must have been like in america back in the day yeah yeah probably this is the only chance i'm probably going to get to uh mention it she's not a favorite youtuber of mine in fact she's not really a youtuber anymore because she left the channel over various things but um lindsey ellis she did a good uh good youtube video about um how 9-11

impacted disaster movies by comparing independence day and uh spielberg's war of the worlds um it's just a really really it's a really really good video she's not my favorite youtuber for a lot of reasons but i think that's a particularly good video. I'll leave a link to that in the description for people if they want to go and watch it. And I think I did also have a kind of theory about this. Just going back to what we cover on this podcast, do you think it had a knock-on effect on the UK charts

in that we get far fewer American number ones in the next year or so. Yes. I think if you look at the list of names, not so much the ones we're covering this week because it kind of has a delayed effect doesn't it? But if you look at the sort of weeks to come, the months to come,

there's a lot of very random names in there that just you wouldn't expect to be able to have that kind of success and i think things did go off the boil i seem to remember that happening at the time in 2001 i i remember that a lot of there was a lot of unnecessary censorship happening there was a lot of unease about whether anything that's not light and airy should be on the tv so i think that had an impact on music um and and yeah it's it's it's a weird one to the TV. So I think that had an impact on music. And yeah, it's a weird one to think about.

But I do think you can see it in terms of the list of songs that we're going to be talking about. You can see a change, a very subtle change. Definitely. So meanwhile, in the UK, Ian Duncan Smith is named as the new leader of the Conservative Party, winning 61% of the ballot vote over competitor Ken Clarke. The previous leader William Hague stepped down in July after the party's big landslide defeat at the 2001 general election. The notable thing about Ian Duncan...well, one of the many notable things about Ian Duncan

Smith of course is that he never actually got through to an election. He's the only Tory leader of the last 50 years, maybe more, that's not forced general election, so he has that dubious honour, yeah strange to remember a time when it seemed like the Tories really were doomed I've just realised, I'm

so wrong about that, Liz Truss Liz Truss didn't fight an election either shows how brief that was I'm already forgetting about her. Meanwhile, in football, David Beckham's goal against Greece sends England to the 2002 World Cup. The game against Greece, hosted at Manchester United's Old Trafford, finished 2-2 with Beckham's goal enough to see England qualify

for the tournament in Japan and South Korea. I have very, very vivid memories of that goal in association with a song that's coming up this week for many many reasons for many many reasons I have been waiting for this episode for quite a while because I feel like this is the episode

where the 2000s actually begin in many ways Beckham's buzz cut 9-11 and a song that happens later this week is sport politics and popular culture all being pushed into the 21st century probably against their will more willingly in other ways but still i've been looking forward to it for quite a while i get interested by those moments where it feels like one decade tips over to another because it doesn't just happen at midnight on the 1st of January 2000. There's always like, I don't know, you could say the Beatles on Ed Sullivan

or JFK for the 60s. Like you just mentioned for the 2000s. 2020s, obviously, obviously covid you know but yeah well they're thinking yeah i think 20 the 2020s are basically the only year where the decade started in the actual year that they started i was kicking and screaming into this yeah pretty much yeah because covid started in like december 2019 yeah yeah and first case in the uk was march or february 2020 but yeah lizzie i kind of agree with you that like the 60s start in 1963 with the beatles on ed sullivan and kennedy getting shot you know the 70s start in 1969 with the moon landing you know the it's t-rex on top of the

pops you know uh yeah or something like that maybe um yeah the 80s start in 1979 with Thatcher getting elected the 90s start in 89 with the Berlin Wall coming down and for me the 2000s start here more than midway through 2001 well to be fair the Berlin Wall was like

the last few days of December 1989 so that was pretty bob on for the start of the 90s. So, yeah. Although there's some people who would argue like Nirvana was the start of the 90s because 1990 is a real weird time for music. It's like a very in-between period.

The films to hit the top of the UK box office during this period were as follows. Moulin Rouge for two weeks, Artificial Intelligence AI for two weeks, Moulin Rouge for a third week, and American Pie 2 for three weeks. In the United States, medical sitcom Scrubs airs its very first episode, while after a prolonged absence, general programming eventually returns to its normal schedules following the changes made in response to the September 11th attacks. Back in the UK, EastEnders broadcasts the famous episode that ends with Zoe and Kat Slater's

You ain't my mother! Yes I am! confrontation. I don't remember that episode, but I remember kids screaming at each other across the playground. I do remember it. That's probably one of my earliest Descenders memories. The Independent Television Commission orders Channel 4 to apologise over a special edition of Brass Eye. The controversial pedo-geddon special, which featured celebrities such as Gary Lineker and Phil Collins giving their backing to nonsenseonsense, a spoof anti-pedophilia campaign, attracted many complaints from viewers.

The ICC ruled that Channel 4 breached guidelines by failing to give sufficient warning about the programme's nature. What an episode of television that is. Oh yeah, that's monumental. It's incredible, and I honestly think the only reason there was such media outrage was because the media and celebrities had been made such fools of.

I think largely the public were well on board with this. Like, I've never met anyone who doesn't think that that episode is really funny. And I think just people didn't like how much they'd been made fools of. Yeah, I do remember a lot of politicians at the time were like, I'm outraged by this show. It's like, have you seen it? No, but I've heard about it. It's like you have to grit your teeth.

Like, come on. I think everyone has their favourite quote from this episode, but mine has to be Kate Thornton, who's given a line that she somehow doesn't question, where she says, this game will leave your child with the jaded sexual appetite of a 60-year-old colonel. game will leave your child with the jaded sexual appetite of a 60 year old

colonel I think mine is the one where Dr. Fox is given the stat that paedophiles have brains that are more similar to crabs now there's no scientific evidence for this but it is a fact also notable for that

two page spread in I think it was the Daily Star where there was like a little corner article about this sick filth should be banned and then on the page next to it is a picture of Charlotte Church who's 16 years old saying something like she's a big girl now

oh god it's like yeah shot chaser Andy how are the album charts looking at this point in 2001 well it's quite packed because the singles charts i mean the period we are looking at because um one of the songs we're covering this week stays at number one for a while so the singles chart is quite expansive whereas nothing really hangs around on the albums charts. We've got quite a few to cover this week. First of all, after the randomness of

Stained at the end of last week, we now have the sort of equal randomness somewhat of Iowa by Slipknot getting to number one. Oh my god! I never knew that Slipknot managed to number one. I mean, I know they were big, but I didn't know they were that big. Yeah, good for them. That's followed by odyssey by jamiroquai um which manages two weeks

at number one in september and that's the one at number one while 9-11 is happening funnily enough that jamiroquai manages two weeks at number one throughout that period um right okay then then we get a very interesting one which is macy gray with the id um and the reason that a very interesting one, which is Macy Gray with The Id. And the reason that's very interesting is because this is the first number one album in the UK of the whole millennium so far that didn't get platinum status. It only got registered gold. And I've looked through the charts, and as the years go by, the number of albums that only get gold steadily increases, which I think is a clear indicator of how much easier in terms of sales it is to get number one for an album because sales in general decline consistently throughout the next few decades.

So that's like the first pin there of something that's definitely a growing trend and that it's getting slightly easier to get number one no offense to macy gray um but yeah we've then got a re-entry from dido with no angel and taking another week at number one unsurprisingly considering how big that album was yeah and then miss kylie min with Fever for two weeks at number one, an artist who we surely will discuss at some point there. And to see us out, we have two weeks at number one for Gold, Greatest Hits by Steps, which is one of those Greatest Hits albums

that manages to be chart eligible because it puts one random new song on there, which is a trend I absolutely hate. I hate it when they do that. But I did own a pirate copy of that album, and I was absolutely overjoyed with it. I got it for Christmas. So the world is falling apart in America,

but people are still buying music. So Lizzie, how are the US charts looking at this point? Well, now i'm just wondering like what if every household that owned a copy of abba gold instead owned a copy of steps gold be a much gayer country i feel yeah but yeah in the u.s charts it's an understandably quiet period for the singles chart at least um there's only two number ones to mention which traded the number one spot four times between mid-august and the first week of november so one of those fallen by alicia keys which i mentioned last week was number one for three weeks until the second

week of september before being replaced by i'm real parentheses murder remix by jennifer lopez and jarul which finished at number five on the year end list number 30 on the decade end list by I'm Real's, parentheses, murder remix by Jennifer Lopez and Ja Rule, which finished at number five on the year-end list, number 30 on the decade-end list, and number 176 on the all-time list. Wow. But only got to number four in the UK chart in November 2001. Hmm.

So that stayed at number one for three weeks, then Falling by Alicia Keys would reclaim the top spot for another three weeks, then back to I'm Real for another three weeks then back to I'm Real for another two weeks to finish off October so yeah a bit of a fallow period for the singles charts I mean in terms of albums now that's what I call Music 7 was overtaken by Maxwell's confusingly titled Now for one week at the beginning of September. What? That's so random. Wow. Which eventually went platinum in the US, but did bugger all over here,

only getting to number 46. And I'd like to apologise to our listeners, because I actually made a mistake in the last episode, and I said that Celebrity by Nthink knocked Alicia Keys off the top spot. It was actually Aaliyah's self-titled album that hit the top spot on August 4th for one week. And after her death just three weeks after the album release, it returned to the number one spot in mid-September for five weeks.

And it eventually went double platinum, finishing at number 51 on the year-end list, but it only reached number five in the UK in February 2002 and then to finish us off for this period, Ja Rule's album Pain Is Love went triple platinum and finished at number 20 on the 2002 year end list but it only got to number 3

in the UK, also in February 2002 Ah, Ja Rule that's very much older cousin music in my life I've had my older cousins into Ja Rule. That's very much older cousin music in my life. I've had my older cousins into Ja Rule. You're a long way off from Fyre Fest, my boy. It's coming. Alright then, let's get into the singles for this week, and the first one is this. Bye. I get so excited Oh, how I like it I try but I can't find it

Oh, you're dancing real close But still real slow You're making it hard for me All the show songs you requested You're dancing like an AK Oh, it's almost like we're sexing Oh, yeah Yeah, boo, I like it. Before you know, I can't help it.

You know what I want to do. Baby, when we're crying, I get so excited. Feeling so good, so weird. I travel, I can't fight it. Oh, you're dancing real close. Let's feel real slow. This is Too Close by Blue. Released as the second single from the group's debut album All Rise, Too Close is Blue's second single overall to be released in the UK and their first

to reach number one. The song is a cover of the single originally released by American R&B group Next which only reached number 24 in the UK in 1998 but did reach the top of the US charts. This is not the last time that we'll be discussing Blue on this podcast. Too Close went straight in at number one as a new entry, knocking five off the top of the charts, and it stayed at number one for one week. It sold 84,000 copies in its only week at number one, beating competition from Follow Me by Uncle Cracker,

which got to number three. That's a classic. Jesus Christ. Stuck in the Middle by Louise, which got to number four, and Take My Breath Away by Emma Bunton, which got to number five, which I looked up and it's not a cover. It's not a cover. No, I mean, I know that song very well.

I taped that off the TV on one of my box music videotapes that I used to tape. I used to like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh. When Too Close was knocked off the top of the charts, it fell two places to number three, and by the time it was done on the charts, it had been inside the top 100 for 16 weeks.

Andy, how are we on Too Close by Blue? Well, first of all, I'm rather surprised that All Rise didn't make it to number one, and this one did. Yeah, me too. Because All Rise is, I think, probably the biggest hit in retrospect. I think most people, would you agree?

I don't think anything else is as big as All Rise, really. Maybe this or If You Come Back. Maybe. No. Sorry seems to be the hardest word but that's not their song. Yeah, that's true. But let me pitch you something, right? So Blue, this is the, but that's not their song. Yeah, that's true. Let me pitch you something. So Blue, this is the first time that we've discussed Blue.

To me, they sort of feel like the male Atomic Kitten at this time. Not in every sense, but in the sense that there is a kind of palpable uncertainty and nervousness about them I find that they seem to be very aware of the concept of 15 minutes of fame you know that they know that their hold on the top of the charts is going to be very hard

to maintain in a very crowded market and they just sort of seem palpably like we're big how do we hang on to it and I think the first sign of that is why do they have to name check all rise at the very start it's like yeah where the band did all rise just it's us this is the sequel yeah it's just like the most the most like unashamed plug that you could possibly do it's awful like i've heard of plenty of artists obviously name checking the artist like jason

drulo but i've never heard of an artist name-checking their previous song at the start of the next song that's a bit pathetic really um all again but atomic and i think i'm much better than blue because i think they're better singers and i think that's what blue lacks there's the other kind of sense of uncertainty that i get from this is there's some bits of a that are a bit out of tune, really, which is kind of unforgivable, I think, to be honest, considering it's got fairly decent production otherwise.

I say fairly decent, it's okay. It doesn't feel like it was thrown together as quickly as something like Eternal Flame was, but every single iteration of I tried but I can't find it just sounds a little bit out of tune. Every single iteration of it, it sounds like someone's a bit out. I don't know who it is.

It sounds like it might be Simon Webb, but I don't know their voices all that well. There's just this sense that they don't really hang together as a group yet, that they're all just a bit sort of rabbit in the headlights. But much like Atomic Kitten, that is slightly endearing, and there's something a bit kind of, no, aren't they fun about blue that you know they're never going to be the next westlife they're never going to be the next

i don't know boyzone even really um but you know they're fun for what they are and this is a fairly decent song um i didn't know it was a cover at all until um until one of you a comment who it was one of you told me that the other day. I didn't know it was a cover. And it does kind of suit blues style. I think this sort of mid-tempo R&B thing, they're far better at than they are at ballads, which we'll come to at a later date. I'm grateful for the fact that we don't really get

many of Lee Ryan's horrendous long notes that he seems to think are what everybody wants that we get at the end of most Blue songs. It's relatively light on that. As you can tell, I'm not the biggest fan of Blue, to be honest. But this is okay. I think it definitely needs a bit more oomph to it

and it definitely needs something more resembling a USP rather than just, oh, we're the current boy band. We did All Rise. Here's another one. See you if you come back. Please come back. Yeah, I think it needs a bit more oomph to it. But this is okay. All Rise is better.

Let's just say that. All Rise is better. Yeah, I mean, for such an uncertain band, they've done all right for themselves given that they're currently performing in Qatar as part of the World Cup. Getting lost, really? Yeah, they played at the Manchester Arena the other night as well. There's a few people on my Instagram that went and saw them. So, fair play to them, I guess, you know? Yeah, because I've always had that same vibe that there's a slight shitness about them.

Yeah. almost had that same vibe that there's a slight shitness about them yeah yeah i've never like hated them like in the same way that i find westlife pretty unlistenable at this period but yeah i think we might have the first song here which has been ruined by a vine which one yes yeah you know what i'm talking about right yeah i Yeah, I do. So there was Vine in, I want to say 2015. Around that time. By a guy called Nicholas Fraser, who turned it into Why the Fuck You Lying? Why you always lying?

Oh my God, oh my God. Stop fucking lying. Oh yeah, I do remember that now. God, that was a deep memory. When he's dancing outside in front of the toilet. You know, because of the toilet outside. And he turned it into a full song and everything. And that's when I first heard this song.

I don't remember this at all. And I also don't remember, something I learned this week, that Lee Ryan and Anthony Costa actually met on ITV's This Morning in May 1999. What? When auditioning for a boy band

to be put together by one Simon Cowell. And Anthony Costa narrowly missed out on a spot, but Lee Ryan was successful, as was a pre-pop idol, Will Young. Wow. That's a hell of a fact. Wow. I know.

I know. And, like, the group never took off, but, like, Costa would later form a group with his friend Duncan James and Lee Ryan would join them not long after with auditions for a final member, resulting in Lee Ryan's flatmate, Simon Webb, joining the group. Wow. See, the general reputation is that Lee Ryan

is the bad egg of the group. Like, I don't mean to slander the guy, but that's just kind of how it's perceived in the media, really. I've got a story. I've got a story. Rob, I can't wait. I know what this is. The story that always annoyed me

was when Duncan James came out. Lee Ryan hijacked it by saying, oh yeah, we used to sleep together all the time. And Duncan James was like, no, we didn't. Get off my coming out. No, we didn't. Which is just shameful, really.

Oh, I didn't know that. Jesus. Yeah, horrible. Yeah. But Lizzie, yes. Carry on. I'll let didn't know that. Jesus. Yeah, horrible. Yeah. Yeah. But Lizzie, yes, carry on. I'll let you get to your story in a minute, Rob, because it was a bobby dazzler.

But, yeah, with this song, there's a common theme in this episode, except for one song coming up later on. All of these tracks seem a bit out of date. Like, this is a cover of a Billboard number one from 1998, and we've got two more covers to get through until we get to the one that genuinely points the way forward for pop music and doesn't sound like something which could have been recorded in 1998 and like you andy i'm really

surprised that this got to number one and all rise didn't i wonder if it's like a delayed reaction in terms of like promotion like maybe they they threw All Rise out there but people weren't really aware of them just yet and so by the time you get to this it's like yep they're an established act and this is the big hit but I don't know I always feel like they've released this in the wrong order. Like, because this is okay, but it's not great. And Andy totally agreed that some of it sounds a bit out of tune. But granted, their album wasn't released until November of 2001. So at least their management was smarter than hearsays in that regard. You promote the songs before you release the album not afterwards

but yeah with regards to this, not great I prefer the Vine at least the Vine is shorter exactly I loved Blue when I was 7 I had All Rise on CD

I used to make my parents play it in the car, I have a very specific memory of us leaving a Haven site after the 2002 World Cup, so about six, seven months after the album came out. We were driving out and I asked my mum and dad, we had it on cassette, and I asked my mum and dad to put it on in the car. That's a memory memory i have i don't know i can't really remember the beginning or the end of that car journey but i remember that specific part of it um with regards to too close i just want to preface this by saying i'm not a massive fan of the original but i do enjoy it i like the vocal performances on the original it's very smooth atmosphere it's decent yeah i think the performances of next are more convincing than the performances of Blue.

Oh, yeah, definitely. Especially on the slightly pitchy... Yeah, there's a couple of those, like the You're Making It Hard For Me and a couple of others, where it's like they never seem to nail it, no matter how many times they repeat it, you know? It feels like they're shouting it, and I'm not sure that's the mood that they're supposed to be going for. Compared to the original, I sort of understand what they've done by speeding it up. It means it gets to the point a little bit faster. I don't know what the maths and science is behind this,

but it seems like there's this acceptance that a faster cover version just means that it's more updated and modern than the original. It's like, oh, we've made it faster, so that means that it's more current, surely. Well, it worked for Jerry with It's Rain and Men, didn't it? Yes, and there's a couple more this week where they've just sped the song up and have been like, Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah, we're in the 21st century, so that just means that we must go faster and louder. We're in the fast era century so that just means that we must go faster and louder that's what we're in the fast era yeah exactly so however um the speed in the song up removes the funk and the groove

from it um i think it also exposes blue this is where blue get exposed as weaker vocalists like this version of the song removes any room for them to flex, so they get kind of, sort of, like, squeezed into a box, and, like, they can't really perform in that box as well as Next did. Another thing is that Next's original version, it's not exactly a slow jam, but that's where the history is, you know, something soft to play in between the harder records in the nightclubs in the 90s to get the ladies on the dance floor get everybody's hips a little bit closer you know increase a bit of friction bit of gyration on the dance floor that sort of thing whereas blues tries to recreate that effect but it feels kind of stiff and sort of quaint and dare i say it, British compared to... Because there is something... I don't know what it is, but, like,

there's something about Blue that makes me think... If you think about the tonal shift between something like All Rise and then to Too Close and then to If You Come Back, and it feels a little bit like they're trying to ape the american groups of a really similar style that next arrived to the to the 90s within the context of that kind of r&b slash pop soul slash new jack swing stuff like boys to men new edition uh Jodeci, Tony, Tony, Tony, to a lesser extent, acts like Bone Thugs-N-Harmony,

solo acts like Usher, and at the time, Robert Sylvester Kelly, as I'll refer to him as his full name. Blue have very obviously been put together to respond to those kinds of groups. And it feels like that's where the uncertainty that you two were talking about i feel like that's where it comes in because they've all rise is quite you know it uses like a hip-hop beat and there's a bit of rapping there's a bit of a you know a bit of a rhythmic chorus like one for the money get that rewrite it it feels a bit more not gangsterish but you know what i mean they're trying to put off put across like some kind of braggadocio bravado whereas this is more like but they do

have a sexy side and then if you come back is like but they do have a soft side you know um it feels a little bit as well like um the the bass line it reminds me a little bit of Another One Bites The Dust it does the same, I forget what the word is for it where you can recognise a melody entirely by rhythm, like if I was to go you would know that was the Harry Potter

theme and it's the same with this where the bass line goes... And it's like, okay, so we're kind of doing hip-hop sampling here, aren't we, a little bit. And so, I don't know, it feels a bit mixed up between the two things. I think it's pleasant. It's not offensive. But I guess it kind of has a special place in my heart, but not really. Blue were one of those groups that I loved as a kid

that I just kind of moved on from. You know, like the Spice Girls and things like that. You come back to the Spice Girls and maybe Steps for me to an extent, but Bewitched and Blue, they're just phases, you know? Yeah, I agree on that they feel like they're being pitched as like a more grown up A1 yeah

that sounds alright yeah that's a good insight yeah like an evolution of that yeah I wouldn't disagree there but crucially while this song was number one they were over in the states trying to get a record deal but they fucked it up when they were over there because i have been

waiting for this i think i mentioned this while we were in the year 2000 i do remember you hyping the story yeah yes okay so this is from an article that I found from around the time from NME. This is from the 26th of October, 2001. So it's a little bit, it's a little bit after the actual event itself. This is responding to something. So I'm just going to read it. Lee Ryan from Boy Band Blue has made a sniveling apology for remarks he made in the sun newspaper this morning 26th of october claiming that the terrorist

strikes against new york have been blown all out of proportion jeez oh my god it gets better andy um in the newspaper article ryan also asked who Who gives a fuck about New York when elephants are being killed? To the consternation of his three bandmates, Ryan went on to say, They are ignoring animals that are more important. Animals need saving, and that's more important. This New York thing is being blown out of all proportion. Wow. In a statement issued this afternoon to the band's website, Ryan said

he cried his eyes out as he watched the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center collapse. The band were in New York on September the 11th and that I'm no good with words and I get mixed up. He has promised to donate royalties from Blue's next single to the Twin Towers Fund for victims

of the attack. Lee Ryan at this time I feel a little bit bad for him because he was 17 when he met when he gave that interview um and we're all young and we all make mistakes but it's very very funny to read that entry on the band's wikipedia page because there's this line in Blue's Wikipedia page that says the other members of the group tried to silence him but Ryan continued on

he's decided to get on his soapbox about this this is the thing, he's seen his 15 minutes just around the corner and he's like right I'm going to make a point and it's this saying that one of the most important g that even felt that way that even felt that way at the time this isn't even hindsight that one of

the most important geopolitical events in modern history was being blown out of all proportion oh god me bless him he sort of apologized for it bless him. I have to push back on that. The stories about him are very consistent. There's a lot of stories about him. So I'm not going to say, oh, bless him, he was young. There's a pattern here. There's a personality type here. And I do think that needs to be gently called out. Quite a lot of stories about him over the years.

Again, maybe slightly slanderous. I don't know if they're all true. But if I could have told you which one of Blue said that, I would undoubtedly have said it's Lee Ryan. I mentioned their debut album, All Rise, before. It was released in November in the UK. Do you want to guess when it was released

in the US? Never. The 27th of April 2004. They were almost done by that point well as the formerly named Dixie Chicks now named the Chicks will tell you Americans do not forget about things related to 9-11 and the war on terror

so the North Americans remember yeah Jesus alright then moving on The North Americans remember. Yeah, Jesus. All right, then. Moving on. Our next up, our song that's next up is this. Are you ready, Bob?

Yes. What about you, lovely? I'm a bit scared. Okay, team, let's go. One, two, three, four, five. Everybody's outside, so come on, let's go. One, two, three, four, five. Everybody's outside, so come on, let's ride. To the builder's yard around the corner. The gang's all here and it's time for us to do what we wanna.

There's a house with a roof that leaks. It's an urgent job and it could take us weeks. There's Dizzy, Lofty and Roly too. Wendy always knows just what to do. There's no job too big or small With Scoop and Mutt we can do it all Metal, brick or wood It's all good and we can always send in the tractor A little bit of timber and a saw

A little bit of fixing, that's for sure A little bit of digging up the roads A little bit of moving heavy loads A little bit of digging up the roads A little bit of moving heavy loads A little bit of tiling on the roof A little bit of making waterproof A little bit of concrete mixed with sand A little bit of rock, the deal with me They're all being careful, Dizzy

Mamba, mamba, are you ready? Okay, this is Mambo No. 5 by Bob the Builder. Released as the second single from his debut album, Bob the Builder The Album, Mambo No. 5 is Bob the Builder's second single to be released in the UK overall and his second to reach number one after Can We Fix It was the Christmas number one for the year 2000. We all remember that. This song is a cover of Lou Vega's version of Mambo No. 5 which reached number one in 1999 and was itself a reinterpretation of Damaso Perez Prado's instrumental jazz Mambo from 1949.

Mambo No. 5 went straight in at No. 1 as a new entry knocking Blue off the top of the charts. It stayed at No. 1 for one week. It sold 102,000 copies in its first and only week at No. 1, beating competition from Starlight by Superman Lovers, which got to number 2 for god sake and 24-7

by the Artful Dodger which got to number 6. When it was knocked off the top of the charts, Mambo number 5 dropped one place to number 2 and by the time it was done on the charts it had been inside the top 100 for 22 long weeks.

22? Oh my god. Yeah. Lizzie, Mambo No. 5 as done by Bob the Builder. Yeah, I mean I was really ready to hate this

because I definitely didn't need yet another glimpse into Bob the Builder's dead shark-like eyes. And there's at least some relatively okay construction-related lyrics. Sometimes you don't read into them too much. But again, this would have been out of date in late 1999, let alone 2001. And you wonder if Lou Bega regrets not turning this song into a dance craze

like the Macarena to really milk that cow dry and that's what this tries to do but doesn't fully commit to and the steps are a bit too disjointed even for an adult so like I'm happy to see the back of this but alas

it's not the last time we encounter Bob on a number one single. Oh, God. It's not, is it? Oh, my God. No, it's not, I remember, yeah. I mean, I'll give you a hint. I don't need to give you a hint.

You know what I'm talking about. Is it the BBC Children's Christmas Medley from, like, 2012? It sure is. Yeah, OK. Thank you, Peter Kay. I also just want to pull up one lyric because there's a bit in the song where he kind of breaks it down

and he says, Mambo number six and seven eighth. And like, yeah, I could do the obvious joke where I say do I need to listen to Mambo's one through four before listening to five or can I just pick it up from there but there is a

so a couple of years ago there was a Twitter thread by Adrian Gray and Archie Henderson about the best-selling single of every decade from the 2010s to 14,000 BC and as you know it's a very factual very serious affair. And one of those singles was Mambo No. 5.

But also mentioned in that video were Mambos 1 through 4. And I also have a little comment here from someone called Ben Buckley Productions, who says, quote, about 10,000 years passed between the first and second Mambos, only a few thousand years

passed between the second and third Mambos. Then, only 510 years until the fourth Mambo. Then, oh, fucking hell. Only... Jesus Christ, come on

pull each other together only 170 years until the fifth mambo on average each mambo comes out after about a third the weight

of the previous mambo if we extrapolate there's really scientific stuff here pay attention it's really serious we can estimate the following timeline so would you have It's really serious. We can estimate the following timeline.

So, would you have... Fuck's sake. Would you have Mambo No. 6 in 2056? Right, followed by Mambo No. 7 in 2075. Followed by Mambo No. 8 in 2082. Mambo No. 9 in 2084. And Mambo No. 10 in 2085. From that point, the Mambos keep accelerating. Sometime between 2085 and 2086,

we'll reach an asymptome known as the Mambolarity, during which the Mambos will proliferate towards infinity. So if you're alive that long, that's what you have to look forward to, I guess. Sorry, I couldn't get through that in one go. That was wonderful. But yeah, it's one of my favourite YouTube comments ever. I thought it deserved its due on this podcast.

Oh, just amazing. Thank you for that. Definitely got it. As for me, it's a Bob the Builder-themed cover of Mambo No. 5. What else is there to say? I'll be honest, every time I've kind of, well, to be honest, I haven't actually listened to the Bob the Builder version that much. I've listened to it a couple of times,

but the version I've been listening to the most is a cover of this by a children's music band called Hokey Cokey. Same! Who have the version on Spotify. Yeah, because this is not on Spotify. Not sure why. But every time I've listened to it,

I feel like my brain's lost a few creases. I'm like, however, in lieu of a review of the song, I've decided to write a review of the job that Bob and the gang do in the song. So... All right. Here is is dear fellow checker trade users beware of bob the builder a few weeks ago i noticed water dripping in from the roof above my bedroom it wasn't a serious leak but i knew that if i let it if i left it the problem would only get worse so i rang the nearest builder i could find who was able to work at short notice.

That builder turned out to be Bob and his so-called gang. As part of his online advert, he'd listed got the Christmas number one single in the year 2000 under his list of achievements. If only I'd known then what was about to come.

The next day, Bob and his so-called gang turned up in my driveway when i walked out to greet them i noticed he'd brought many many heavy duty vehicles and machinery along with him i thought that's a bit excessive why does he need a cement mixer and a steam roller to fix a leak in the roof i told him there was a loft i told him there was loft access from the inside over the phone like Nevertheless, I trusted him. He's a professional. He surely must know what he's doing.

When I went to greet them, I was stunned and actually a bit frightened to discover that not only had he brought more of these massive machines than I'd initially realised, but that he was referring to them all by names. Scoop, Muck, Dizzy, Roly, Lofty. Tried not to judge. He clearly has his methods for getting the job done, as he kept saying. And he was very polite throughout the entire ordeal. But that was when things really started to turn sour.

As they set off working, I realized that there might have been a bit of miscommunication regarding the task at hand. Bob insisted on using a little bit of timber and a saw. And then he partially dug up the road outside my house I protested asked him what on earth he was doing but all he did say was that Wendy was coming soon and that she'd know what to do um when he finally went up to the roof I thought oh at last he'll have that leak sorted but he proceeded to do a little bit of tiling and shouted down to me that it was he was making it a little bit waterproof by this point i realized that the mission to get my roof fixed was out of control i was already arranging to have another builder come around that afternoon i was happy enough to let bob and

his gang continue their work even if it had nothing to do with what i'd been asked them but they never seemed to ask for any money so i was fine to kind of let them carry on uh i wonder how his business keeps going though um but then when i heard him say something about sending in the tractor um i knew that it was time to get him off my property they left with minimal fuss and the second builder arrived soon after uh to my relief the second builder just fixed the leak in my roof and went about their day um i thought this was the end of the matter until i was in a local starbucks this morning and i heard the familiar rhythms and melodies of lou beggar's mambo number five but i soon realized that it wasn't lou beggar singing it was bob the builder who'd come to fix my roof and done

nothing of the sort really and it slowly dawned on me that the lyrics to the song were recounting the incident involving bob on my leaky roof but in a manner that painted bob in a much better light than his so-called handiwork ever had i don't know what's wrong with him i never met the wendy woman that he mentioned but i don't know how she puts up with him or any of the gang for that matter maybe she's the real brains behind the business but regardless the mystery remains unsolved so please save yourself the time and don't put the future condition of your house in bob the builder's hands one star out of five would not recommend oh brilliant wow that was my creative writing exercise for the day that was wonderful rob well done thank you very very very much. Thank you.

And you've said everything that I could possibly say. Well, Andy, that's a shame because I'm coming to you, so surely you must have something. Well, the two of you have just knocked it out of the park with two of the funniest segments we've ever had, so thank you for that. You've really killed me in the running order there. But yes, what else is there to say really

except that, like you Rob, I think the details of this song, which digs a little bit more, no pun intended, digs a little bit more deeply into the actual nature of Bob's work, really gives you some pause for thought about his competence

and the fact that actually he's not a great builder, is he really? Maybe I'm mildly triggered by this song because a few months ago funnily enough we noticed a leak in our roof a real a real one and um a builder came and supposedly fixed it and did sod all it didn't work and we need to get someone else to fix it so really that man in my mind is bob the builder and if someone had turned up and said well that looks like an urgent leak oh that's pretty urgent work it's gonna take us a couple of weeks couple of weeks a couple of weeks to fix the leak in my roof

really that's if i order them today which i won't yeah maybe if you spent less time releasing mambos and more time getting on the roof and doing some work, he might get it done faster. Jesus, goddammit, Bob, fix my roof. Anyway, yes, what else is there to say, really? Other than that, he's more of a showman than he is a builder. For all his talk about getting the job done, he seems to do everything except getting the job done, really. And I think if I had hired him as a builder, you know, I understand the concept of the show now, because if I had hired Bob as a builder, and so I was spending ages talking to sentient machines,

releasing number one singles, all the while the leak in my roof getting significantly worse, I'd probably just sit there, have a moment of quiet, and the question would occur in my head, can he fix it? Ha ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha ha! moment of quiet and the question would occur in my head can he fix it?

and that's all I have to say I was so struck by the fact that they open up the concept of the song which is that they've got a roof to go and fix because it's leaking and then they're talking about doing a little bit of timber and a saw a little bit of doing this, a little bit of doing that and I'm like a little bit fucking timber and a saw, a little bit of doing this, a little bit of doing that. And I'm like, a little bit? Fucking jobs worth.

So, like, yeah. Making waterproof? Making waterproof? What does that even mean? That's not a phrase. Making waterproof. I imagine it's the material that makes things waterproof. You don't physically make it.

You're not a chemist. You just buy it from a wholesaler and put it on. That why it's taken weeks because he's making things out of the raw elements maybe that's how they get you back out again to give you like twice the pay because you've done half a job the first time i mean you'd think that all these sentient machines would make the job of any building work like unbelievably faster you know a leak on the roof you've got eight basically transformers with you you know that's like a five minute job you know you could do 10 at once you know why not why not send them on the way why does every member of the gang have to accompany him like fagin's kids you know to every single job why can't they all

just spread out a bit and set up a bit more of an operation? But, you know, this is why Bob's only a singular builder and isn't the leader of a building enterprise. That's why Bob's never going to own B&Q, and that's the real lesson here. It's kind of like a curse, isn't it? It's like, yes, you can have

sentient machines, but they're all kind of incompetent in their own way. And inevitably you will just have to call out your i take it it's his long-suffering wife to figure out the problem no we've established that wendy is not his wife but i i do think there's an origin story yeah i think there is a potential origin story like a twilight zone episode of like this really frustrated builder whose machines never work and he needs to communicate with it and tell it what it needs to do and he thinks

if only my machines could talk and it turns into this be careful what you wish for story where they do nothing but talk and they natter away and don't get the job done oh dear in order to save our blood pressure we're going to move swiftly on

I didn't talk about the song at all number five is okay let's move on yeah yeah next up is this is Okay, put your hands up in the air Put your hands in the air And everybody sing now Hey, hey, baby I wanna know If you'll be my girl Hey, hey, 7, 8 Hey, hey baby I wanna know

If you'll be my girl When I saw you walking down the street I thought that's the kind of girl I'd like to meet She's so pretty, looks just fine I'm gonna make her mine, all mine Hey, hey baby I wanna know If you'll be my girl

Come on, everybody in the house Yeah Hey, hey baby Okay, this is Hey Baby by DJ Otsi. Uh Ah by DJ Otsi. Released as the lead single from DJ Otsi's second album, Peace, Love and Volgas, Hey Baby, Uh Ah is DJ Otsi's debut single to be released in the UK and his first to reach number one. The song is a cover of Bruce Chanel or Channel's single from 1961. And I've been waiting for this moment Because every time I've done one of these segments

The second section Has started in exactly the same way Every single time Until now Hey baby First entered the UK charts In August 2001 At number 94

It didn't go to number 1 as a new entry It was in the charts first when atomic kittens eternal flame was still number one so hey baby uh ah slowly climbed up the chart and hit number one in its eighth week on the chart and staying at number one for one week it sold 91 000 copies in its first and only week at number one, beating competition from Set You Free by Entrance, which for some reason re-entered the chart at number four. Baby Come On Over... Ah, remix, okay.

Baby Come On Over by Samantha Mumba, which got to number five, and It Began In Africa by Chemical Brothers, which got to number eight. When it was knocked off the top of the charts, Hey Baby dropped one place to number two, and by the time it was done on the top of the charts hey baby uh ah dropped one place to number two and by the time it was done on the charts it had been inside the top 100 for 32 weeks 32. um i have next to nothing to say about this which is a surprise because this song is like i remember like having the now CD with this on and wanting to play it all the time as a kid and over time the words that I have said or thought about this song have just kind of faded into nothing a la the end of infinity war

this is another one for the it's faster so it means it's new category of covers that we seem to have stumbled upon in the early 2000s i find this very very very annoying but i sort of admire how much the entire second half of the song seems precision engineered just to upset me like the last two minutes of the song are just the chorus over and over and over again and just when you think it's going to stop they do a key change and then when you think it's going to stop, they do a key change. And then when you think it's going to stop a second time, they bring the chorus back over those hand claps

and nothing else. It's just, I just can't believe that, like, it has turned into, like, this big football chant and whatever. But, I mean, it's kind of died out a little bit now because nobody wants to do the, uh, ah, thing thing i feel like we've moved on from that kind of novelty and opening ourselves a bit up to cringe a little bit just collectively so yeah those are my thoughts on it it's very very annoying um the original song is fine um this is a very irritating version of it just even even the title there you

wonder with with england's current success in the world cup you wonder if neil diamond might suddenly decide to cash in and release sweet caroline parentheses dun dun duh well this is um christ you know um living next door to alice yeah where that was a song that like for years it was just 24 years i've been living next door to alice and then no vocals but at some point along the way we got the ad lib who the fuck is alice and no one knows where that came from or when it started obviously after the song was released but it's another one of those things where like the oh ah is just one of those ad libs that just now people think is just the song where it's it's not it's just an ad lib but never mind andy yeah how about

it uh well i have a it's not a story really more just a kind of anecdote. But bizarrely, Rob, mine also involves a haven park. Like, what are the odds of that? That's strange. So you know how you said this entered in at 94 and gradually crawled its way up the chart to the point where it then became the mainstream and became a big hit, like it reached a sort of critical mass? I was actually, I remember that happening

because at the haven camp I was at, there used to be this sort of kids dance routines thing every night where you do the same songs every night and the kids who were there for the week would keep on learning the songs and you'd do them with the blue coats or whatever they were called every night. And one of them was Hey Baby by DJ Otzi, which I didn't know at the time. And I don't know, I can't remember what moves you did. I think you did some highly regrettable pelvic thrusts to the uh, ah. But there was also Follow the Leader by, I can't even remember who sang that. You know, that follow the leader, leader, leader. That was one of them as well.

Yeah. And basically then it just, I left that holiday and it just sort of went off the boil. And about a month or two later, this started getting big. And I was like, wait, this is new? Like, I assume this has already been a song because that was at Haven. And then like, it came around again. And I was like, huh, so people are only just hearing about this.

And I felt vaguely cool. And really being able to feel vaguely cool about your knowledge of Hey Baby, Ah, by DJ Otzi is quite a feat. So I'm quite proud of that, to be honest. Can I suggest that if we don't like this song, we can call it Hey Baby, Ah! Yes, absolutely. Because that's actually closer to what it sounds like in the song. They sound horrified by themselves.

I kind of think it sounds a bit like throwing up. Like, hey, baby! Ah! It's like you've just been attacked in Resident Evil. Twice. Yeah. Or like you sort of caught yourself on like, you know, when the pan spits some oil.

It's like, ugh! Ah! But anyway, I kind of mostly agree with Rob that although I danced to it in that Haven camp as a kid, it doesn't have any kind of nostalgia factor for me at all. Like, it's the most basic novelty song ever. You can barely describe it as a novelty song because it's not really got any kind of fun USP to it at all.

It's just kind of a thing that exists it's a bit like itsy bitsy um teeny weeny yellow polka dot bikini it's like what can you say about it it's just a thing that exists for fun and some people find it fun but for those who don't there's just literally nothing you can say about it um it did kind of evolve that dance routine didn't it that I don't know if that's in the video, but at family parties, there's always been a dance routine that goes with it, in my experience, which I think people have just made up, to be honest. Is that official? Is that like in the video, the dance routine that people do to it? Or is that just made

up? Does anyone know? I don't recall it. Well, there is one. I think it's a bit like the Saturday night one, where I think the one for Saturday night, I don't know if that's an official thing, but I might be wrong about that. But yeah, it just sort of evolved. I can kind of see why it got number one, because it's catchy enough.

I think it's only catchy because, like Rob says, it repeats that chorus 10 billion times at you, so it's kind of hard for it not to get in your head. And it's simplicity itself. But it not to get in your head and it's simplicity itself but it's really really rubbish it's just so rubbish I mean to follow Pop the Builder

at number one as well it's like god can you imagine what music critics were going through at this time or like the presenters of Top of the Pops just like oh come on can we have something decent for once I actually remember the record of the year show from this year where it's just

the way record of the year, it was quite fair the way they did record of the year where it was just the 20 top selling UK songs of the year got nominated for record of the year and then they'd all get played on the show and Anton Dirk presenting it actually made a point of saying you can vote for whoever you like but please don't vote for DJ Otzi

it's like really? it was that hated that they were just openly asking people not to vote for it and it didn't win it would have been Westlife probably but yeah I've said everything that I can possibly say about

this it's fine no it's not fine it's rubbish it No, it's not fine. It's rubbish. It's rubbish. It's inoffensively rubbish. It's rubbish in a way that I've got nothing out of it at all. It doesn't make me angry in terms of what's in it. It makes me angry that there's

nothing in it. It's just bland. Lizzie, what do you think? Yeah, well, I will thank you, Andy, for unlocking a memory for me. That was Tiger Club at Haven. With Rory the Tiger. Rory the Tiger, of course. Rory the Tiger.

Jesus, the thorn in the side of every parent ever. God. So many summer holidays in Wales spent drinking, you know those blue slushy drinks that they tasted great for the first two sips and they tasted horrible and you dance on a carpet that looks

like a bus seat yeah I'm sort of like, well it's those carpets I was talking about last week at the bowling alleys but yeah I'm just getting flashbacks to those children's play areas that look fucking massive when you're seven years old and then you look at one when you're like 18 and you're like oh they're pretty small

and fruit shoots and slushy machines oh memory unlocked Jesus memory unlocked sorry Lizzie before you get going I've just realised actually that that holiday I was reminiscing about

do you remember last year I talked about when I saw A1 at the Blue Peter Road show in Scarborough this is the same holiday I've just realised that's the same holiday I was staying at the Haven camp so yeah I've managed to reference that same one week holiday twice so let's see if we can

do it for a song every year yeah for sure right okay this song like well as recurring listeners will know we secretly keep individual scores of each song and this very nearly got my lowest score yet but much like in our last episode with atomic kittens eternal flame sometimes a song that clearly isn't very good in the grand scheme of things can move you in unexpected ways. Like, don't get me wrong, this is still a very bad song. The production is dirt cheap, the synths sound very farty and DJ Otzi himself sounds like a

singer at a karaoke bar when you've stayed for slightly too long and everyone's a bit too used to the taste of cheap wine. But there's something at least endearing about this song. While I still have to mark it down for its obvious shitness and the fact that it clearly runs out of ideas very quickly and the presence of a very ugly key change with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer despite all of that there is something quite charming about watching top of the pops after a life-altering tragedy and seeing this paul hollywood of the austrian alps pumping his fist and having the time of his life after he's just turned 30 yes really and being up there like he's singing we are the champions at wembley stadium and treating it like it's the biggest thing ever because it is he's a

fucking number one singer from austria like you never would have dreamed that this would ever happen with a song that sounds like this it's remarkable isn't it how he can yeah he can like go at it with such energy and have such little personality like there is absolutely no like substance to his voice at all you don't get anything from it it's almost scientifically impossible to give such energy but still be so completely vacant yeah and he's like he's you know nearing 55 and he looked 55 when he was 30 in 2001 but again like there's just this unlikely thing that's happened again i think going back to what i said before that maybe 9-11 kind of broke the charts for a bit

which means like it's a bit like in 1968 and 69 when all the big bands like the Beatles and the Rolling Stones they were all releasing albums rather than singles which means you got like Desmond Decker at number one which would have been unheard of a couple of years ago but it's a kind of similar thing but it's just a shame that the song isn't very good but saying that i would much rather have a bad song which is unintentionally funny than a song that tries to be funny and fails miserably but you'll have to wait until next week for more on that one. Oh, I wonder. Yes. Yeah.

Gee, what could that be? All right, then. Our final song this week, our fourth and final song, is this one. Finally a good one. Yeah. I'm just a little too busy La la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la La la la, la la la la la I just can't get you out of my head Boy, your love is all I think about I just can't get you out of my head

Boy, it's more than I dare to think about every night every day just to be there in your arms

won't you just stay won't you This is Can't Get You Out of My Head by Kylie. Or Kylie Minogue, whichever one. She was Kylie Minogue, but she went by Kylie for this album. Who knows why? Released as the lead single from her eighth solo album, Fever,

Can't Get You Out of My Head is Kylie Minogue's 33rd single overall to be released in the UK. It is her sixth number one in the UK after I Should Be So Lucky, Especially For You, Hand On Your Heart, Tears On My Pillow and Spinning Around all reached the summit between 1988 and the year 2000. It is not the last time we'll be discussing Kylie on this podcast. Can't Get You Out of My Head went straight in at number one as a new entry, knocking DJ Otzi off the top of the charts. It stayed at number one for four weeks. I think that's our longest run so far on the show. In its first week at number one, it sold 307,000 copies, beating competition from Smooth Criminal by Alien Ant Farm, which got to number three in its second week at number one it sold 181 000 copies beating competition from chain reaction by steps which got to number two in

its third week at number one it sold 122 000 copies beating competition from sven sven sven by bell and spurling which got to number seven and fat lip by some 41 which got to number eight in its fourth and final week at number one it sold 96 000 copies beating competition from you rock my world by michael jackson which got to number two when it was knocked off the top of the charts can't get you out of my head dropped one place to number two and by the time it was done on the charts it had been inside the top 100 for 30 weeks but it was in our hearts for the rest of our lives. Andy, can't get you out of my head. Oh, well, thank you, Rob. I never knew you cared.

Oh, well, you know. Go ahead. How do you feel about this? First of all, it's a bit of a shame that having just come from the dentist you didn't ask me to discuss a song called fat lip that was a you know that's a shame that didn't happen stand by that one yeah yeah it is a good song yeah so this oh blimey i am honored to have been to given the first segment on this one so you know we give our secret scores which we for some reason i don't know why we decided to keep that secret from you dear listeners

this is one of only two songs that I will be giving a 10 so far this is pop perfection this is like, I mean especially following up after the two garbage songs that we've had before this

oh my lord, talk about a ball from the blue I think this is one of those songs where it's not dependent two garbage songs that we've had before this. Oh my lord, talk about a bolt from the blue. I think this is one of those songs where it's not dependent on any one particular element. It's not dependent on the actual lyrics, it's not dependent on the music, it's not dependent on the production, or the artist, or the music video, or anything like that. Because it's everything. Like, everything comes together. And it's... every single time you

listen to this i kind of feel like you are in that kind of unique space that this song occupies where it's like back in 2001 this is just like nothing else out there it's the coolest song in the world and you just want to be kylie or maybe that's just me realising I was gay as I was growing up sort of wanting to be Kylie but anyway the thing about this as well is that you have to sort of, I said this last time when we discussed spinning around but I think it's important to put in context where we are in Kylie's career that we look at her now as essentially

sort of like the UK, well not UK she's Australian but we treat her as sort of like our Madonna where she's just kind of one of those icons that's always been there, always will be and you know at this point Kylie's been around for about 14, 15 years it's not that long

really and it's at that awkward stage where it's long enough that she absolutely could have disappeared she's comparable to someone like where Lady Gaga is now or Katy Perry is now in terms of that time frame and you know, she's comparable to someone like where Lady Gaga is now, or Katy Perry is now in terms of that timeframe. And, you know, Katy Perry's doing Just Eat adverts, so she's probably finished now.

And Lady Gaga, she's, well, transitioning into films, and she's still got a very successful pop career, but, you know, she's sort of in a transition phase as well. And Kylie absolutely could have disappeared at this time, and she would have been one of those stars of the 80s and 90s that we look back on as someone like cindy lauper or belinda carlisle or anyone like that who is just kind of another star this is the moment where it's like she's an icon for me um because i really cannot i cannot like adequately emphasize enough at the time how cool she seemed, that it sort of seemed like she was just on another planet as opposed to everyone else.

This was sort of my first, not my first exposure to Kylie Minogue, but the first time I kind of paid attention and was like, who's this? And in that music video with that white hooded outfit like Princess Leia and with the car and the sci-fi scene she just seems like this otherworldly person she just seems like she's on some sort of different plane combine that with a song that just got oh this song in terms of the writing right so first of all you get that hook that is so like deliberately an earworm to an almost offensive extent that if it was in a different song it might not work it would just be like you know that song by um sam smith

and naughty boy that la la la la la la la la that one which is really annoying but it's sort of like the same idea in terms of the la la la thing But you put it in a song that's got really modern, really different kind of production, and that kind of juxtaposition makes it cool. And you have it sung by Kylie Minogue, who does it in that sultry way. So it's not just like la-la-la-la-la-la. It's like la-la-la-la.

Like, you know, it's beckoning you in. It's got this sultry sense to it. I can't think of a better word than sultry, so I'm just going to keep this sultry sense to it i can't think of a better word than sultry so i'm just going to keep saying sultry um and then you've got like about 10 different hooks built into the rest of the song you know i think every single part of this song is like sort of uniquely memorable in its own way it's one of those songs that i think almost everybody could sing all the way through because every single part of it stands in its own right. You know, the chorus is brilliant.

The verses have that... Well, the verse kind of is a second chorus with the... Can't get you out of my head. You could argue what is the verse and what is the chorus because both of them are so strong. And then you've got the la-la-la's, which is sort of its, again, its own main melody in its own right. Like, they've packed this song with so much

giving it stylization in the video that really sort of elevates it and giving it to a singer that just could not be a better match for it right at the point in her career where she really needs to pull a rabbit out of the hat um and you get lightning in a bottle everything comes together you have the perfect song with the perfect production for the perfect singer to sing it. And I just think you could not possibly have done better with this song. I have no criticisms of it.

It's not quite the best song we've ever covered on this podcast, I don't think. For me, that's still a dear beloved song from last year, which I'm sure everyone will know what I'm referring to. But this is up there. I've always kind of thought that of the whole century so far, this is one of the great pop songs, just in terms of this is how you do pop music

and make it unforgettable. It's perfect. It's brilliant. Yeah. Lizzie, don't know how you can follow that. Don't know how I can either. Well,

we'll give it a go, but you first. Getting you back for all that fantastic comedy before. Follow me this time. Yeah. Well, I mean, I'll give it a try.

Cause like, Andy, I'm really glad you said all of that and you summed it up so well. I think you I'll give it a try. Because, Andy, I'm really glad you said all of that and you summed it up so well. I think you did brilliantly. Thank you. And I'm also glad you did because as much as I love this and I think it's brilliant,

I don't have that much to say about it. I feel like I'm almost a bit too familiar with this in that I remember this from the time and that it was everywhere it was endless it was on the like on the music video stations it would be on like every hour once maybe twice on the radio it'd be the same affair and it just like i think this might be my first exposure to overplay and yes i actually agree with you on that yeah yeah no i agree yeah yeah and it's like as much as i did try really hard to listen to this in isolation and i do appreciate it and i

do think it's brilliant it is it's one of those cases where i wish i could kind of experience this for the first time over again and i don't think I ever will be able to because well obviously not but I feel like I struggled to view this in isolation in a way that I didn't with um Groove Jet for example which I which I also love um but yeah I think that's kind of a side note to this. But because this is fantastic, and this is, as I've been saying throughout the whole episode, this is the only song in this that points the way forward. I can see acts like, I don't know,

I'm trying to think, just like Goldfrapp or The Gossip, you know, in this. I can see stuff from the late 2000s coming through in this. I can see stuff from like the late 2000s coming through in this. And it feels sort of so far ahead of its, well, not really totally ahead of its time even. It's very of its time, but it's kind of, it's aged really well. And, sorry, go on.

No, it's just, I think that's true. And especially the time that we're in at the moment where i think we've in well maybe not so much now but a couple of years ago we were going through a bit of a trend of stripping things back to basic principles really and i think this song actually does that where although like i said there is a lot packed into it in terms of hooks and memorable bits that's actually all that it really is. And it's deceptively simple as a song. Exactly, yeah. And there's been some massive hits

in the latter part of the 2010s that, again, the key to their success is that they are so simple but so effective. And I think that's one of the legacies of this song. Yeah. Yeah, like this takes the kind of disco stuff that we've already discussed a couple of times and it just, like this takes the kind of disco stuff that we've already discussed a couple of times and it just, like you say, pairs it right down

to quite a minimal instrumental, but that gives Kylie's vocal like space to breathe. And yeah, it's all the better for it because yeah, this is great. I don't think I'll ever be able to top what Andy said about this. It is fantastic. And it's up there with being the best of 2001 easily.

I just wish I could hear it for the first time again and kind of regret that I can't. My story comes here about a vivid memory I have of one of our news headlines from before linking up with one of the songs. Which is watching, in my grandma's front room, watching David Beckham score that free kick for England against Greece on my own because my mum, my gran and my mum's sisters, my aunties, they were all in the other room and I remember the game finishing and England qualifying for the World Cup and then switching over the channel and the music video for Can't Get You Out of head was was playing at the same time and i remember singing it to myself as i skipped through happily to the dining room in my grandma's

house to tell my mum that england were in gonna be in the world cup in 2002 and it's a really really vivid memory i even remember wearing that white shirt with the red pinstripe down the left hand side yeah yeah on that day I found out later that my dad had actually gone to the game and not told me because he'd been given tickets and he didn't want me to

be upset so I found out years later that he'd been to that game because he couldn't get tickets for me. He was offered tickets by a work friend or something like that, and so he couldn't get tickets for me, so he just didn't say that he'd gone, and then I found out years later that he'd gone.

The song itself, listening to this in context again rather than in isolation, like you were saying, Andy and Lizzie, it makes you realise how much this completely changed, and Fever as a whole, how much they both completely changed the face of pop and how much pop really needed a push into the 21st century because you don't really realise it on its own.

But then when you listen to all the songs that we've gone through over the past sort of like you know 18 months um from january 2000 up to you know the summer of 2001 we've literally just had three covers back to back preceded by a load of other covers and like where the year 2000 felt like a year of transition like a hint towards something some kind of future there were things in there that sounded pretty fresh and i think 2001 has had a handful of those too but where 2000 felt like that year of transition 2001 feels like it's been a bit of a year of stagnation in other areas lots of cover versions lots of looking back for ideas lots of groups coming to the end of their shelf life from the 90s and to be fair this is written by

one of the guys from mud and a singer who was briefly successful in the 80s but it feels like the first song we've had in a while maybe the first on the show to really look forward and not just where can i take this but more where should we be going 10 years from now? Where should we be aiming to go? Because when you were talking before about Kylie and how this, I feel like this whole video single album, the marketing, the connection and the synergy between the aesthetics and the video and the front cover and the remodeling of Kylie is like this.

I think this is, maybe just based on her album covers this feels like the first time she was marketed as a sex symbol principally she was you know she was looking really hot and cool and like you know the opening shot of the video for spinning around is the gold hot pants that like hug her ass really tightly the gold hot pants that like hug her ass really tightly but this video this the that white kind of cloak outfit that's kind of like a little bit titillated but not quite and it's the same sort of outfit that she wears on the front cover of the album as well and the mood of that album like you were saying andy that's very sensual and sexual and the way that they've like double tracked her vocals and stuck them both in the left and right ear so that like she's kind of smothering your head in this lovely balm like the way she's it feels like she's kind of stroking

your ears with her hands and it just feels like this all connected in a way that i don't think a solo pop artist would do again until about Lady Gaga, where that first album, the fame, everything just kind of aesthetically, sonically, visually, melodically, everything connected in a way that it did with Fever around the time. And like, I think as well, the time that songs are spending at number one at the moment,

it's kind of like a, I'd say history looks false, which is weird because this is the longest run at number one we've had for nearly two years. And when you consider that this was only number one for four weeks, when we have songs that are number one for five weeks in future years that people don't remember anywhere near as much. The singles charts are moving so fast at the moment in this particular period of history.

So to hold on to four weeks is some achievement around this time. The music video, that's even like looking about it's not even thinking about the next 10 years it's jumped forward 200 years in that video it's gone for it's got it that's what it's aiming for it feels like it's trying to go at light speed um i've said before on this podcast that my favorite kinds of kylie songs are her more mysterious and seductive ones rather than her bright and shiny optimistic ones, contradicted slightly by the fact that my favourite Kylie song is Love at First Sight which is also from this album, Fever is full of those kinds of songs like Coming to My World and even things like More More

More where the way that she's doing, this is where she really masters that kind of whisper singing that she really leans into on body language and x and where and we even get it years later with slow and things like that and i love slow slow and it's the first time that she does that kind of like i mean to be fair like at the start of impossible princess i forget the name of the song, but she does all that fast whispering where it feels like she's trying to be her own Bjork in a way. But it's kind of like with this, it feels like she's kind of standing at a distance. I think Kylie embodies the song in the video by wearing that outfit I mentioned, that low-cut dressing gown shawl thing where it's like constantly teasing and enticing and sort of like oh did i just get a glimpse no and it's like it's always reminding you to look but don't touch and i love that about the video

where it's like i am in my own space and you can watch and admire me but like if you think you're getting near me no way and it's like she's using the carrot and stick approach to kind of drag pop music and mainstream depictions of sex into the 21st century and with hindsight it's clear that it really achieved both of those things in fact i think it achieved them so formidably that for a long time people under a certain age you know we were talking about kylie's history and who she actually was as a pop artist i think people under a certain age probably forgot that she'd already been around for over a decade at this point this is the work of someone bursting onto the scene like well over a decade yeah not someone who had a number one as

recently as last year this is a total remodeling and remarketing of someone who this is where as you said andy she goes from being pop artist to pop icon and as soon as that first bass thump comes in at the beginning you're sort of like oh at the time you must have been like i haven't heard anything like this before and since then i don't think a song has managed to capture the very specific qualities that this one has it's the sort of thing that comes along that makes everybody else want to copy it and i don't think we're going to get moments like that on our run very often i can think of maybe two more there's one in 2002 and there's another in 2009 and they're rare and exclusive pop songs that i really really love and this is one of them i think that the way that it rephrases the chorus every now and again is really really genius just because it changes up the texture every now and again um

just with kylie's vocals alone because like you say the arrangement is minimal and repetitive but it's mesmeric and it's hypnotic and kylie's vocals really really really contribute to that and i think that it has that same quality that i mentioned about the original version of uptown girl where it doesn't feel like it has a particular obvious structure but the dynamics and the sonics are constantly shifting and enveloping each other to the point where everything just sounds like a very long suspended bridge section and there are certain moments where you're like ah that sounds a bit clearer than the what i think was the verse but the verse being i just can't get you out of my head

boy that's the catchiest bit of the song and that's the bit that when you ask people sing a bit of can't get you out of my head by kylie that's the bit they'll go to first and that's the verse and yeah so that says everything to me that this is based this could be all choruses and it could be all bridges but either way it works so well um this uh yeah this is really really really fantastic um this is another one of my tens actually i was kind of holding off until i spoke about it um but this is something this is like and like when people think of kylie they think of this kylie this video this song for me and that's a hell of an achievement on all levels song music video marketing everything it is

perfect synergy and perfect pop it really is it's amazing i love it brilliant yeah okay so we've reached the end of the episode got a little job to take care of though first it's our pie hole and our vault inductions so do you think we might be putting a song in the vault this week maybe maybe. Possibly. So, Too Close by Blue. Is that going one way or the other? Oh God, I'd forgotten we even talked about that.

No, no. No, it's going in purgatory where it belongs. Mama No. 5. Nah, it's not that bad. No, no. Hey Baby by DJ Otzi. I'm not going to put it I was really thinking about it just then that it's just a I'm going to be kind enough to it that no it's not going in

it's not that bad it's inoffensive and I think the pie hole should be for things that are truly heinous so no, that's not going in the pie hole for be for things that are truly heinous so no that's not going in the pie hole for me I do think it's heinous enough to put it in but I will say

there's worse coming I'm not going to put it in the pie hole or the vault and the final one can't get you out of my head by Kylie Minogue vault vault for me yeah it's a triple slammer uh first uh since roger sanchez um a couple of episodes ago and before that uh stan by eminem so yeah it's in it's in great company. It really, really is. Poor Hey Baby is our first piehole induction

since Uptown Girl by Westlife at the start of the year. So, sorry, Otzi. Yeah. Nah. Apologies, Mr DJ. Don't worry, you'll have plenty of company soon enough. That's it for this week's episode. Thank you very much for listening everyone

next time we will be covering the period between the 21st of October 2001 and the 24th of November just because Christmas is coming up and I think we've got a few work parties and stuff like that, there may be a few unexpected and unscheduled

delays but just go to our Twitter feed we will let you know if anything gets in the way of us recording one week or another over the next bit of time so thank you very much for listening thank you very much for your lovely feedback over the past few weeks and we'll see you next time

thank you everyone, bye bye