Hits 21 - 2002 (11): The Race for Christmas Number 1

Episode Date: April 2, 2023

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]

Sleepers ring, are you listening? In the morning, story's twisting A beautiful sight, we're happy tonight Walking in a winter wonderland Gone away is the bluebird Here to stay is a new bird He sings a love song as we go along Walking in a winter wonderland

In the middle we can build a snowman Pretend that he is ice and brown He'll say are you married, we'll say no man But you can do the job when you're in town Later on, we'll conspire As we dream by the fire To face and afraid the plans that we make Walking in a winter wonderland

Hi there everyone and welcome back to Hits 21 where me, Rob, me, Andy and me, Lizzie 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 Hits21Podcast at gmail.com. Thank you so much for joining us again. Just like our previous episodes, or our recent previous episodes we're going to be looking back at well it's one number one single from the year 2002 the christmas number

one of 2002 of course this is well it's not an annual tradition it's a sort of two monthly tradition on hits 21 where we do a christmas episode and we have a big look at the Christmas number one and the Christmas charts of the particular year we've been covering over the previous sort of nine or ten episodes so as always, you know, it's our news headlines and pop culture stuff Andy's going to go through some Christmas TV

Lizzie's going to look back at some toys and games, we're going to look back at the year we're going to run down the top ten on Christmas Day 2002, we're going to look back at the year. We're going to run down the top 10 on Christmas day, 2002. We're going to take a big look at the number one single on the big day. And then we'll finish off with the bit that I think everybody looks forward to,

which is our worst five songs of the year and our best five songs of the year that we've covered so far on the show. Last week's poll winner. I think you can all guess what it was. There was a vote in there for sorry seems to be the hardest word. Somebody not convinced by Eminem. So, you know, fair play to that

person. It's all just about opinions and we're all allowed them and that's completely fine. Just want to address a couple of things before we get on to this week's episode. You've probably worked out that i'm sound a bit croaky um it's just that i am hopefully coming out the other side of my second ever bout of covid um i've been generally okay um and well enough to do this at least but i just

might sound a bit hoarse and i'm not apologizing because it's not my fault but i'm just warning you about it um the the other thing that i just wanted to mention um as well was i was really sad this week to wake up and find out that paula grady had died um yeah i feel like you know it does time stamp this episode a little bit but yeah what uh just i uh, just, I mean, I know he's had his health issues and stuff and like the guy lived fast and, and so goes the saying that he died young, but still such a, I, I grew up with Lily Savage on TV when she was on, um, uh, blankety blank. That was, that was when I was a kid and watching primetime telly and stuff but as I've got older and I've stopped watching primetime TV I've

found out a lot about Paul O'Grady and especially this week about a lot of things that he did especially during the late 80s and early 90s and I always really loved his little story for at Cilla Black's funeral as well

that's one of my favorite clips of anything it's such a beautiful speech he does this seven eight minute story of just the time he had with um with Cilla I don't know if you if you two wanted to say anything about him just that um I was also really really big fan of him my mum absolutely loved him and i think he doesn't get enough credit for having quietly paved the way for a lot of um bringing to the mainstream of queer culture and specifically drag culture obviously through lily savage but i think it was almost equally as important that we didn't just see lily savage we saw saw Paula Grady as well and gave us that concept of gay people and drag performers are not just one

thing, that we have facets, that we are potential entertainers in different ways and that he was able to have such a varied career, express political views very eloquently, but still be a dirty drag queen at the same time, I think made him just an absolutely

fantastic role model um and a very very very sad loss and it was such a feature of my life when coming home from school in the noughties every day it'd be deal or no deal at quarter past four and then the paulo grady show at five o'clock and me and my mom and my sister would all play the intro game together um so yeah really really sad loss and yeah he'll very he'll definitely be remembered very for a very very long time yeah yeah people talk about like the fresh prince into the simpsons as their big childhood tv memory mine is paulo grady into the simpsons yeah every week night five o'clock paulo grady 6 o'clock Simpsons 100%

and even more recent things like For the Love of Dogs I love For the Love of Dogs even in more recent years, people don't really watch TV all together as a family anymore, it's just not something you do, but I've always

found that to be quite a unifying thing as like, I don't know what to put on. Let's put Paul O'Grady on and watch the dogs. It's just a really nice sort of wholesome show. And yeah, I'm going to miss his presence on television, on the radio, just in general. He's like, he's an icon and it's a huge loss. Yeah. Well, see you later paul thanks very much

um as always um we are going to now move on to our episode and as always we're going to give you some news headlines from around the time that these songs are well the song that we're covering this week, was at number one in the UK. Stuart Campbell, a 44-year-old builder from Essex, is found guilty of murdering his 15-year-old niece, Danielle Jones. It was later revealed that Campbell, who was sentenced to life in prison, already had a string of previous convictions, including keeping an underage girl at his home without lawful authority back in 1989. And to this day, Danielle's body has never been found, with the last search taking

place in 2017. Meanwhile, it's revealed that 2002 set the record for the greatest number of British car purchases within a calendar year, with over 2.5 million cars sold in the UK between January and December. The Ford Focus is named as Britain's best-selling car. Meanwhile, mobile network BT Cellnet changes its name to O2, which I think we can all agree rolls off the tongue much better than BT Cellnet. Yeah. Good decision, guys. And American fashion photographer Herb Ritz dies of pneumonia, aged 50.

As well as photographing models and celebrities for fashion magazines throughout the 80s and 90s, he was also responsible for the front covers of albums such as Physical by Olivia Newton-John, True Blue by Madonna, and Break Every Rule by Tina Turner. Hell of a resume, that. Yeah, very influential. Yeah, there's Hell of a resume there. Yeah, very influential.

Yeah, there's some really iconic covers there. Yeah. So normally at this point, we would discuss the films at the top of the UK box office or as Andy would normally do, the UK album charts or as Lizzie would do, a report from the US. But everything's basically the same as it was in the previous episode. So instead, we're going to do our tradition, our Christmas show tradition, where Andy, you're going to run through what was on TV over the festive period in 2002. And Lizzie, me and Andy are going to try and guess what games are in the top 10 before you read them out.

Okay. guess what games are in the top 10 before you read them out. Okay. So, Andy, what was on telly over the Christmas week in 2002? Yeah, so everybody put yourselves in the minds of Christmas 2002. Put yourself on the couch in front of a roaring fireplace, crack open the big box of celebrations and immediately go for the galaxy truffles. Rest in peace.

Yeah, because it's time to talk about the tv and it's a very varied christmas in the tv schedules that varied is the word i would politely use um there are also some familiar faces from hit 21 that pop up along the way um so yeah that was interesting as well over on the bbc their big feature their headline event of christmas day is somewhat unbelievably an hour-long special of ground force um beggar's belief maybe it was really big at the time but i've never watched it so yeah well i should say it's not their main feature of the day but it's the biggest thing that's on in primetime. And then later that night, their main feature is another new Only Fools and Horses Christmas special.

So the synopsis of this new Only Fools and Horses Christmas special says, With the family fortune squandered, the Trotters cook up a new rags-to-riches scheme. Which baffled me, because that's surely the synopsis of every episode of Only fools and horses it's just like an episode of the simpsons that says homer gets up to a silly but adorable scheme whereas bart skateboards you know it's like anyway um also on the bbc we've got a festive edition of alistair mc's Big Impression, another throwback there. They have the TV premiere of Chicken Run, which was released in cinemas two years earlier, which I'm sure we'll all agree is a great film.

Oh, yeah. But it was not really a vintage Christmas Day on the BBC. But they do, however, have a children's entertainment show on in the morning called Exchange Extra, both words beginning with an X, Exchange Extra, in which Atomic Kitten visit Lapland for the viewers' amusement. And Boxing Day's edition of that TV show, Exchange Extra, features H and Claire performing their hits, or should I say their hit? So that's the BBC, bit of a strange one, and ITV's schedule is equally eclectic and strange

On Christmas Day, their main offerings are two different episodes of Christmas Celebrity Blind Date funnily enough, Cilla Black coming into view again there as well as two episodes back-to-back of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire Celebrity Still at its height there, still a massive show Who Wants to be a millionaire? On Boxing Day, they launch a new adaptation

of Goodbye Mr. Chips, starring Martin Clunes. And on Christmas Eve, there is a Des O'Connor Christmas special. It's really not a vintage Christmas for TV, is it? This one. Wow. Yeah. But it is a vintage Christmas in one area, which is

the Soaps, where there are some iconic stories unfolding at this time. On EastEnders, young heartthrob Jamie Mitchell is run over accidentally by his rival, Martin Fowler. Jamie dies in hospital on Christmas Day in the arms of his girlfriend, Sonia, who would go on to marry Martin, who ran over Jamie, such is the way in Sopland. In Emmerdale, the character Louise Appleton, no relation to All Saints, she flees the village with her boyfriend to escape her stalker, but once she's in the car, she realises that her boyfriend, Ray, is the stalker

and has to make another escape. A thrilling escapade there, no doubt, but I don't watch Emmerdale, so I'm not sure. And perhaps most notably of all, on Coronation Street, Richard Hillman's Reign of Terror on the street reaches a peak as he plots Emily Bishop's death

over Christmas. He fails to kill her on this occasion, leading him to start planning his next attempt in the first week of January, which will see him instead murder Maxine Peacock. So, a big one on the soaps this year yeah and it had also been a big year for the royal family and queen elizabeth ii used her christmas day message to reflect on the deaths of princess margaret and the queen mother earlier

that year and how it had contrasted with the joy of the golden jubilee celebrations. The Queen, funnily enough, would herself die immediately following jubilee celebrations exactly 20 years later. So there's some weird echoes of the future there. And on that note about Christmas messages, one final mention to Channel 4's alternative Christmas message, which I've neglected to mention in previous years. And just to recap, so to give you some context of what the alternative Christmas messages usually look like,

in 2000, it was delivered by Helen Jeffries, the mother of a Creutzfeldt-Jacobs disease victim. In 2001, it was delivered by Janelle Guzman, a survivor of the 9-11 attacks. And in 2002, it was delivered by Sharon Osbourne. Oh, God. What if... God. I almost want to find that.

Yeah, we'll have to dig that out. I'll tell you, there is much more to discuss about that alternative Christmas message as the decade goes on. There are some great names that pop up there. But, yeah, that is your TV Christmas. Hope you enjoyed it. If not, then I don't blame you because it was a bit of an odd one.

But yeah, that was your TV Christmas. Yeah. Yeah, I'm just thinking on that alternative Christmas message. It's a shame they didn't get Ozzy in to do his rendition of Walking in the Winterland. Slim and weak, I listen. Sharon! Sharon!

Is it the one with jessica simpson yeah jessica simpson yeah that's the one yeah i i the bet the favorite moment of that clip um i've got to leave that in the description for everybody is after the key change towards the end where he goes later I work with and he just sounds like I think someone in the YouTube comments just sounded like he's like a robot that's like trapped who has like locked in syndrome and cannot move

away from this Christmas nightmare it's it is such a good experience it's so funny just to continue riding the Aussie train for a bit longer. The crazy train. Yeah. Have you seen that advert at the moment starring Aussie and Sharon for the PS5 VR2?

It's so funny. It's completely scripted, obviously. It's so bad where Sharon's like, come on, Aussie, we've got to catch a plane to England. And Aussie's sat on the couch like no Sharon I don't want to go I'm playing my PS5 VR 2 it's so fast

it's terrible oh dear so yeah Lizzie how how are the games looking well Ozzy's playing with his new toy and what about other new toys in 2002 I've got the toy retailers

association of the UK and Ireland their toy of the year 2002 awards in front of me so I'll start from the bottom and work my way up the company of the year is Mattel the best new toy of the year is Micropets tommy oh i don't remember those

yeah me neither unless it was those like no it's not the robot pet things is it that's something else no they were like the little they're sort of like the size of like i seem to remember they were like the size of wind-up toys right okay maybe they were wind-up toys. Right, okay. Maybe they were wind-up toys, I can't really remember, but you used to get them in little cylindrical colourful tub things that were plastic and see-through and they just used to sit inside

and look at you all lovingly and that sort of thing. But I don't know what they actually were, what function they had. Maybe it was the same as Funko Pops, where they don't really have a function, they just kind of are, if you know what they actually were what function they had maybe it was the same as funko pops where they don't really have a function they just kind of are if you know what i mean yeah yeah destined to end up in landfills and never never degrade over the next 500 years uh that sort of thing but yeah carry on so carrying on uh we've got the innovative toy of the year which went to vj stars which i'm sure you've

probably never heard of it's a video karaoke machine it looks very bad no i kind of want one we're in a bit of a ghetto really for that kind of stuff at the moment aren't we because we're in between the era where karaoke like at home was fine and you could just do with a cassette and a microphone and we're only about five years away from the fine and you could just do it with a cassette and a microphone. And we're only about five years away from the time where you can just do it all through YouTube. So we're in this horrible little ghetto at the moment where things like that look really dated

and are far more dated than they really should be, unfortunately. Yeah. Something promising that you can record your own music video with a VCR is going to look very outdated within i don't know about a year yeah yeah yeah not good anyway moving on um the game of the year is top trumps i used to love top trumps i had about 10 packets of them um yeah they were great i used to love them yeah never really got into it, but yeah. Moving on, we've got the preschool toy of the year,

which went to the Leap Pad. Nope. Moving on. The girls' toy of the year, I think this may have won last year as well, but it went to Bratz dolls. Okay, yep. Yep, that makes sense.

Then moving on to the Boys' Toy of the Year. It's a big year for Spider-Man. Who goes away with the Boys' Toy of the Year? And finally, the big one, Toy of the Year. Anyone want to guess? Bey Bleeds, maybe? Got it in one.

Yes! That was the big thing in the playground at this time let it rip as they used to say just as enthusiastically as that on the TV show I owned a few of them I had a little Beyblade arena that was sort of made out of really thin

plastic and then whenever I let it rip as it were with the Beyblade I was always disappointed that the dragon on the little plasticky thing in the middle of the Beyblade, it didn't come out of the Beyblade like it did on the TV show. I was always wondering why. And then I got older and realised that it was a cartoon and not real life.

I think, to be honest, Rob, it was fair for you to not expect that your toy would have the ability to real life. I think to be honest Rob it was fair for you to not expect that your toy would have the ability to create life. Yeah no wonder Watchdog didn't get back to you. Yeah I had a few of them though and I saw like when I was doing the research for I think the last episode

because I think it had it's first episode broadcast on terrestrial TV in the UK in 2002 I remember looking back at some pictures of beyblades and i tell you there was a feeling unlocked within me when i saw a beyblade that was like oh doesn't that look interesting and i remember like having to collect you get you'd collect different like beyblade spinning top toy things and then you could customize them with that like centerpiece yeah a little picture on it and

you could change them all um and you could move like one part of a beyblade off it and on to another one and that sort of thing i i think i chucked them out in like 2004 very much a craze very much a craze rather than a mainstay and it got really serious in the playground sometimes people would say oh whoever wins this one, you know, I win your Beyblade. I get to take your parts and customise it and we'll swap our parts. And, you know, people would get really upset and teachers had

to get involved and give us an assembly where Beyblades were banned because we were starting a gambling ring by accident. It was starting to turn into a bit of a black market. Oh my god. The same way it had with Pokemon cards where it was like people giving away their pocket money for the promise of a Charizard that never materialised

it was turning into one of those again so yeah so anyway video games, do you want to take any guesses about entries or the number one or whatever you want I am going to say that that Pop Idol game will be in there somewhere

because that was popular, I think. Okay. I'm going to go with FIFA 2003. That's a bit of an easy one, though. Ooh, yeah. It's a good guess, though. It's a good guess. Yeah, start running it down.

Yeah. So at number 10, we have Monsters, Inc. Scare Island. Monsters, Inc. Scare monsters in scare island yes i owned that that was great yeah no never heard of that i'm afraid uh nope nope can't recall it sorry it was good you should get it well carrying on with the movie tie-in games at number nine we have spider-man the movie the Game. See, that's okay but Spider-Man 2, obviously which will come out in 2004, that is like one of the best movie tie-in

games ever. It's so so good. But the first one is just okay. Agreed. In at number 8 we have a game that was in the top 10 last year. It's Gran Turismo 3. Still going, wow. still hanging in there in number seven we have metal gear solid 2

one of the best games ever uh so in at number six um continuing movie tie-ins actually Lord of the Rings The Two Towers had that on PS2? yeah I could never get into those games I couldn't do it I had friends who had it and I used to play

Vice City secretly at my friends houses because I wasn't allowed Grand Theft Auto games until I was about 14 and so i used to sneak around and want to play vice city all the time but with the two towers and lord of the rings games even like the the return of the king game as well the only bit i really remember is the bit where they go and get like the the ghost army you know the condemned ghost army where they're like you killed men in life and so you are not allowed to have your souls pass into wherever and that was

the only bit i really remember of that game um wasn't a great wasn't a great fan they were okay they were nothing special yeah well that game was made by ea games and continuing with ea games we have at number five medal of of Honor Frontline. Oh. Used to play that quite a lot with my best friend at school. Although it's not my type of thing, it was very much his type of thing, so I know that game very well. I think that's a favourite of Mark on Peep Show, isn't it? The memory card! I'd nearly broken through on Medal of Honor.

They've nicked 120 hours of quality me time. they've nicked 120 hours of quality me time so continuing with EA games and continuing with movie tie-ins at number 4 we have Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets classic I don't remember that game

I remember the Philosopher's Stone one but I don't remember that one it's become a bit of a cult favourite in recent years I think that one it's generally agreed to be the best Harry Potter game but that's a low bar well I guess until this year but yeah yeah maybe that one

so in at number three and this was last year's number two it's Grand Theft Auto 3 again? still hanging in there so does that mean last year's number two it's Grand Theft Auto 3 again? wow yeah still hanging in there

so does that mean Vice City and FIFA are the top two? they are but which order? oh I would say Vice City will be number one

yeah and you'd be right yeah Vice City is number one FIFA 2003 is number two but yeah I take it that Grand Theft Auto 3 is still in there because people

would have only just been getting a PS2 around this time yeah this was the year I got a PS2 right around this exact time just before Christmas 2002 so literally right at this moment is when I got one I got Smack just before Christmas. Just before Christmas 2002. So literally right at this moment is when I got one. I got Smackdown Shut Your Mouth as my Christmas game,

which came in number 19 this year. I just love the title of that game. There's no way of saying it that isn't aggressively confrontational. I know. Yeah, FIFA 2003 was the first FIFA I ever played. I remember being away with family friends we used to go away every christmas um just to somewhere else we went to wales scotland cornwall etc between um like christmas and new year we used to do christmas at home and then on boxing day or the 27th we used to drive to Devon, Cornwall, Wales

Dumfries I think was a place we went in Scotland and the two of my family friends, their sons we used to see each other basically all the time and they had a PS2 and they brought FIFA 2003 and I remember it was

on the front from memory Ryan Giggs, Edgar davids and roberto carlos yes it was yeah and they had the the ps2 version and we used to play that a lot while we were on holiday uh going out for like walks and things like that and we'd all we'd split across like two or three cottages because there were 11 of us and we used to go to the same central cottage in the morning for breakfast and whatnot and the piece the playstation 2 would always be playing i seem to remember as well that fifa 2003 had miss dynamite on the soundtrack it did yes and yeah so i've got really vivid memories of

the game menu loading while the beat to miss dynamite is playing as like bed music in the background yeah it also had a remix of complicated by ever levine which i don't remember Miss Dynamite is playing as bed music in the background. It also had a remix of Complicated by Avril Lavigne which I don't remember. Don't remember that from the soundtrack but I will seek it out after this, definitely. Yeah. Oh, also just to report back on your guest Andy of Pop Idol, I'm afraid that was

released in 2003. Oh, it was was it? Oh. Yeah, so we'll have to see next year if it makes the top ten. Oh, it was, was it? Oh. Yeah, so we'll have to see next year if it makes the top 10. Oh, that was a great unintentional teaser. Come back next year, everyone. Yeah. Yeah. Well, thank you very much, guys, Andy, for your TV section

and Lizzie for your games report. So now what we're going to do is we're going to look back at the year 2002. How do we feel about it? What do we think it, I don't know, what do we think it predicts? What do we think it spells the end of? Andy, 2002, what have you just, you know, generally you can go into as much detail as you want.

What have you made of this year? I think one of the things that's really struck me about this year is how stop and start it's been in that I think with 2000, you know, we hold that up as a very strong year, which I do think in retrospect, it really was a very strong year. But one of the reasons for that was that it seemed like there was such a fresh set of genres and sounds emerging at the time. It felt like you could capture this is what 2000 was and

similarly with 2001 but that was a bit of a weaker year with this year i feel like it's been a little bit sort of unsure of itself at times where you can't really predict what's going to be the next big thing it's hard to see trends emerging and i think the main reason for that is that the one big trend that has emerged in a really big way this year is talent shows um and i think that really creates a problem for the charts which obviously is going to get worse as the years go by but i i think that the industry is not yet really sure how to handle all these freshly made pop stars who arrived on the scene straight away with no actual music to back them up yet so they have to sort of throw something out really quickly

which means we've got these number ones that really in anyone else's hands would not have got number one stuff like unchained melody which okay that's got number one before but in 2002 would it have made it no i don't think so we've got stuff like colorblind by darius which is a decent enough song but again would it really have got number one in other people's hands i don't think so we've had you know a lot of people who have actually tried and failed behind the scenes and didn't get number one this year the cheeky girls for example you know they've done very well but really it's just a novelty song and it's sort of i can see why people at the time might have been a bit annoyed that this kind of stuff that had no real traction that was there purely to cash in on a TV show rather than stand as music in its own right, was sort of stunting the development of pop music at that time.

And like I say, that's the thing that's going to get worse as the years go on. on but there is some hope there in that one thing i've really noticed about talent show winners is that you can quite easily realize the penny is dropping that um these people have to have something to back them up they have to have some credibility or they will fade away very quickly will young for example we've had three number ones from will this year and he has shown a lot of soul he's shown that he actually has some character that he's sliding towards a genre that he will slip into quite comfortably as the years go by. We've got another artist, who I won't name, who we're covering later in this episode,

who has slid very well into a genre straight away as well. The big anomaly to that is Gareth Gates, who has been probably, you know, the biggest star of this whole year um in terms of cultural impact at the time not not the legacy but you know the kind of presence that he had at the time in the uk and the you know amount of number ones and the amount of chart presence that he had at the time gareth gates is you know the future of where Factor and Pop Idol and stuff like that is going, where his story, his narrative is so strong that it almost doesn't matter that all the singles have been total rubbish.

You know, I sort of didn't mind Unchained Melody and any one of us was problematic, but OK. But really, you know, there's nothing there. And so I think this is a kind of overriding thing that i've noticed from this year really is that there's a lot of stuff that's getting to number one not because of its musical value and so the stuff that is getting to number one for other reasons tends to be quite interesting and different um you know as much as i didn't like dilemma i do think huh that's a genre we've really not heard much from so far, that that's kind of a real totem of that genre of early noughties R&B. We've had Lose Yourself as well, which is, you know, an iconic song for Eminem, and it was great to hear that

showing up as well. We've had Freak Like Me, which again, that was the real kind of a really innovative use of a sample you know something that we don't well have two samples and two songs combined basically that you know we've not really heard much like that before most of all i think heaven by dj sammy you know the start of that clubland scene where there are so many songs that will follow after this by the likes of kelly lorena and um who's those who sing oh Cascada is who I'm thinking of you know there'll be lots of songs by them that will sort of echo heaven by DJ Sammy and so there's been a lot of stuff that's broken through that has had inklings of new genres and new ideas that

are coming to the fore but it's been constantly weighed down by this presence of reality TV stars who are really kind of muddying the waters with these old tracks that are very boring um yeah so it's been a mixed picture this year and it's not been my favorite really but i think when it's got going and there have been songs that have really stood out boy they have really really stood out and it's possibly because a lot of it has been quite sludgy otherwise and a little bit generic um yeah i'm um i'm looking forward to the next year because i think things will open up further but this year i think because it's been such a big year for talent shows we've had pop idol the back end of pop stars fame academy pop stars the rival uh pop stars the rivals as well

you know there's been a lot of focus on that and I can't ignore it but yes things will open up more next year but it's been a very kind of mixed one this year and like I say the stuff that has really stood out has been great but there's been an awful lot of sludge in the mix as well so yeah strange old year 2002

Lizzie how do you feel about the year that's just gone yeah I very much agree that it's quite a strange year and Lizzie, how do you feel about the year that's just gone? Yeah, I very much agree that it's quite a strange year and I don't think we actually get anything like it again where talent shows just dominate the entire pop landscape for an entire year I think, like I had a look before we have something like 10 cover songs that top the charts over the course of a year.

Yeah. Again. I don't know if we ever get that many again, but it just kind of solidifies the fact that this is a bit of an anomaly of a year. And as much as I do think we have some stuff that is looking forward to quite a bright pop future, you know, like the Sugar Babes and Band Who Shall Not Be Mentioned. There's also a lot of like looking back and quite sort of reflective stuff, even if it's just in the form of covers.

It's also, I think, maybe like a sort of uncertainty about what the future holds and, you know, whether we can be sure of or at least at the time whether people could be sure about what the future held because in terms of I guess this is benefit of hindsight but historically it's quite an unpredictable moment in time particularly like like after 9-11 and going into the iraq war i think there's a lot on people's minds and it's maybe is reflective in the culture a bit yeah but i could be reading too much into it and in which case i would just say yeah this is um it's an odd year and i think it

kind of says a lot that like a fair few of the acts we see this year, we'd never see again. Yeah, that's true. And for what it's worth, Lizzie, I don't think you are even too much into it with the landscape of the world at this time. I think there is really something to that, that people are seeking the familiar

and the comfortable and the unchallenging because the world around them is the opposite of those things at this time. yeah yeah i think there's something to that definitely yeah i think i just concur in this just in the sense that it is absolutely loaded with talent show acts just talent show acts are just dominating the charts i think i'm just trying to think i think there's been a talent show act in all but one of our episodes two of our episodes maybe this year i bet even in those episodes we mentioned someone at number two or number three you know it's not all about the number ones as well so yeah yeah they really have been filling up the chart but like you uh like you

both um i think there's been a lot of good this year um there's been a lot of inventive pop i think there's also been a lot of you know looking back and you know like i say lots of covers uh a re-release of a song that's 30 years old by this point obviously with my sweet lord right at the beginning um obviously that was um you know mitigating circumstances with that one really but also you know you've got things like uh elvis and jxl like that's a lot of you know that's late 60s um gareth gates is going for like you know early really early 70s pop i think with stuff like any one of us um and you know obviously his cover of unchained melody that goes back as far as 55 you know so yeah there's been a lot of looking back and a lot

of like you say the comfy and the familiar but there's also been stuff like lose yourself and heaven which are very much of a moment and then you also have things like round round and freak like me and a song that we will mention quite soon which look forwards and i think this is something i said in the year 2000 actually which is just that i think every year is going to be like a year of transition um i think this has been my favorite year so far um i've only put one song in the pie hole but i've put one two three four five six seven songs in the vault out of the ones that we've had at number one so i think it's you know it's not the strongest year for pop but i think it has you know that the strong songs have been great um really really great and ones i play regularly anyway um they've come back into my some have

come back into my rotation some have never really left it over the last 10-15 years since I was a teenager and starting to listen to my own music and stuff so yeah, it's okay definitely an improvement on last year and just about up to the standards

of 2002, but obviously 2002 was also a pretty mixed year in my opinion I think that we've got some much better years coming up I think there's little hints in 2002

that 2003 is going to be shaped by basically just American R&B artists they're just going to be we're going to really invite Americans in, in a big, big way in 2003, in a way that we've not really done so far. Or at least just international acts, actually,

not just Americans. You know, international acts and a flavor for, I'm not quite sure how to put this. Just a flavor for American styles styles and obviously the eyes of the world are on america in 2002 and 2003 in in more ways than one and i think that shows in the charts uh next year the only other thing i want to mention um really is that although obviously our podcast is about number ones and we keep our focus on that

I think this year more than either of the other years we've covered so far there is a story behind the story where there are other things happening beneath the number one spot that I think are having an influence and that's yet to manifest itself at the top

not always yet to manifest itself because one of those things is, I think, the sort of earnest man-pain balladry of Enrique Iglesias, which we've seen once this year with Hero. That is actually echoing through a lot of pop music at this time, I think. Yeah. I think I mentioned this on the episode where we covered Daniel Bedingfield with If You're Not the One.

That was straight out of Enrique's playbook. And there's also a big thing happening, a big sort of cosmic change in the lives of a generation of young kids at the moment, which is the arrival of Busted on the scene, soon to be followed by McFly in the next year or two, which I think really kind of starts something in UK chart music. And that's happening already. We just haven't seen it at the top yet.

So I think there are things beneath the top spot this year, which are worthy of mention as well. And there is a certain, I'm not going to spoil it now, but there is a certain artist in 2003 who is perhaps the most influential musician in the world who doesn't get a number one next year. So there's a lot more of that to come as well. So yeah, there's always a story beneath number one as well.

I'd also just like to respond to your point, Rob, about how in 2003 and onwards, we kind of accept more American stuff into our into our lives and into our pop charts but i think on that we're in a period or we're entering a period where british pop music still holds its own against that and it's only when we get a bit later on like 2008 onwards when that seems to kind of fall away and it's you know predominantly american or north american music that dominates the charts yeah yeah it's all got a couple of good years left yeah i think we were talking about this when we discussed lady marmalade last year where that

very much felt like an american import in a way that quite a lot of american pop music these days just feels like everything else there's a a certain cultural homogenization that's been underway throughout most of the 2010s i think where american pop just kind of becomes pop just it is the all-consuming thing yeah yeah but we will definitely get to those in future years. I feel that way about Dilemma this year, that I can imagine, not so much for kids, but for parents of kids at the time, would have heard that song and thought, what is this?

What are they on about my boo? And stuff like that. That song stands out like a sore thumb as an American import I think there's a lot more to come on that next year as well or if they were into R&B in the 80s they would have gone, hang on a minute, isn't that Patti LaBelle?

Okay so we've looked back at the full year and we've arrived at the big day and so the chart to decide Christmas number Okay, so we've looked back at the full year and we've arrived at the big day. And so the chart to decide Christmas number one was actually announced on the 22nd of December, which means that the top 10 on Christmas Day 2002 was as follows. And just like I did last year, I'm going to slip into a character of an early 2000s chart reader. So forgive me if my impression isn't very good, and forgive me if my hoarse voice doesn't quite live up to the enthusiasm of those youthful radio hosts of yesteryear.

So here we go. At 10, it's Down 3 from 7, Feel, by Robbie Williams. At 9, it's a re-entry for avril levine and her skater boy at eight it's a former number one a sarah hay the ketchup song by last ketchup at seven it's another re-entry this time for love incorporated with you're a superstar at six it's down two from four a former number one if If You're Not The One by Daniel Bedingfield. At 5, into the top 5 from the 8 Mile soundtrack, it's Lose Yourself by Eminem. Number 4, last week's number 1, Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word for Blue and Elton John, down 3 from the top spot.

At number 3, down 1 from 2, it's the cheeky song Touch My Bum by the Cheeky Girls. And at two, it's a massive new entry for One True Voice with their double A-side debut single Sacred Trust and After You're Gone. But it is not enough to claim Christmas number one. For 2002, that particular honour was claimed by this. Beats are pumping on my stereo Neighbor's banging on the bathroom wall You think right at the base I gotta get some more Water's running in the wrong direction Got a feeling it's a mixed up sign

I can see it in my own reflection Something funny's going on inside I'm running on the water, it's pushing me higher It's ecstatic on the floor below And then it drops and catches like fire It's a sound that, it's a sound that It's the a fire. The best you can. I'm going to go ahead and do that. I can see it in my own reflection. Something funny's going on inside.

I don't know what. Wish you made it higher. It's a static on the floor below. And then it drops and catches like a fire. It's a sound that. It's a sound that. Sound of the underground. The beat of the drum goes round and round

Into the overflow As the girls get down to the sound of the radio Out to the electric night Where the bassline jumps in the backseat The beat goes round and round It's the sound of the underground Sound of the underground, sound of the underground I don't know what's this, but you're way higher It's ecstatic from the floor below

And then it drops and catches like fire It's a sound I, it's a sound I, it's a sound I, it's a sound I know It's the sound of the underground The beat of the drum, the drum and the bell And into the overflow As the girls get down to the sound of the radio Out to the electric night Where the bassline jumps in the... Okay, this is Sound of the Underground by Girls Aloud.

Released as the lead single from the group's debut studio album entitled Sound of the Underground, Sound of the Underground is Girls Aloud's first single to be released in the UK. It is of course their first to reach number one but it is not the last time we'll be discussing Girls Aloud on this podcast. Sound of the Underground went straight in at number one as a brand new entry knocking Blue and Elton John off the top of the charts as you just heard. It spent a total of four weeks at the top of the UK charts. In its first week at number one which is when it became Christmas number one it sold sold 213,000 copies, beating competition from the new entries and songs that we just covered in the top 10 rundown. In its second week atop the charts, it sold 128,000 copies, beating competition from almost nobody.

The highest new entry was at number 59, Mund on to bash k by punjabi mc in its third week at number one it sold 56 000 copies beating competition from the highest new entry that week which was react by eric sermon and redman who featured on dirty by christina aguilera and that got to number 14 in In its fourth and final week at number one, it sold 34,000 copies beating competition from Danger High Voltage by Electric Six, which got to number two, what a shame, The Way by Divine Inspiration,

which got to number five and a cover of Salisbury Hill by Erasure, which got to number 10. When it was knocked off the top of the charts sound of the underground fell two places to number three by the time it was done on the charts it had been inside the top 100 for 22 weeks the song was certified platinum in the uk in march 2003 so it did not take long clearly this was a big And I should say, before we go into our comments about the song, that this, of course, staying at number one for four weeks means that it took us into the first few weeks of January 2003. So when we get to 2003 in our next episode, the first number one of that year will not be from the first day.

It won't be from New Year's Day. So, Andy, Sound of the Underground by Girls Aloud. This is a big deal. I don't really know how to quite begin talking about it, but go ahead. Yeah. First of all, I just have to pay tribute to Danger High Voltage. I'm so sad that that didn't make number one.

It's an absolute camp classic, but it gives me some consolation that it's been beaten by this because this is great. This is brilliant. It's so good to finally have a Christmas number one. That's good. I mean, Robbie and Nicole was like, fine,

and Bob was Bob. But this is really, really good. And I actually remember at the time that there was, And Bob was Bob. But this is really, really good. And I actually remember at the time that there was, although we were still in the early days of reality TV, we did already have that kind of wry, sort of doubtful approach from critics who were like, yeah, these artists, they're not going to take off. Their music is just rubbish, really. Which you can kind of understand because most of the reality tv stuff as we've said you know has been

a little bit bland that we've got this year there's been glimmers from you know just a little by liberty x um which i mean that's the main one really you know which which have sort of shown but there's not really been any artist from a reality tv show so far that has hit the scene with a big bang and has really kind of asserted this is what we're going to be about and this is our kind of music and this is what we're going to bring to the conversation that hasn't really happened yet until Girls Aloud have come along and they just sit in a space that they just perfectly occupy from now right until they split up really which is about nine ten years later which is they have this killer combination of their songs particularly this one and particularly i would say biology love machine to some extent promise to some extent no good advice where they

kind of have this slightly odd offbeat energy to them where it's like they have some lyrics that are a little bit weird um they kind of throw some inflections into their vocals which you don't really expect the instrumentation is always a little bit strange that twangy guitar that sounds like it's in from footloose that's in this song is really out of place kind of deliberately i think it's there to kind of offset the listener and that recurs in no No Good Advice as well, that same guitar that sort of is there in quite an obnoxious way. But they combine that kind of quirkiness and oddness with personalities and a media image that is like just a girl's night out.

Like they are really kind of uncomplicated, friendly, fun girls, just like everybody you know. You really want to be around them and really have fun with them but they've got credibility because their music is not just generic throwaway pop it has you know bite to it it has edge to it and that's what this song has that this this concerted effort through the music video to the production to the lyrical content of the song really that it's very sort of going for a grungy vibe it's going for yeah we're not going to come out with a

winner song like a moment like this like Leona I know they wouldn't have known about that but that sort of thing they're not going to come out with a big ballad like it has to be said like One True Voice did who came out with the most generic stuff ever we're not going to do that we're going to come out with a big pop banger who needs to know that we came

from a talent show who needs to go on about like oh i followed my heart and achieve my dream no we're not going to do that we're going to come out with a big big pop song that is the way you do it you use a talent show as a platform and you make it big by just literally just using that platform for nothing else than what it is and then you become an artist off the back of it. I don't think to this day anyone has done that as successfully in the UK and as immediately as Girls Aloud have. And I think this song really sets the template for them so immediately that it's really, really impressive that they never really diverge too much away

from the image and the sound that they project with this song it helps as well that it's just really well written that um i think every aspect the verse the bridge and the chorus are all kind of equally catchy as each other but none of them are particularly hard to sing along to none of them are you know particularly overdeveloped they're all quite simple but they're simple and catchy and particularly the chorus um which has all five of them sort of somewhat in unison but some of them harmonizing to really power those vocals through from all five of them the production is a star as well that it really hits in the right places pulls back in the right places as well and gives you several really really good drops as that guitar just that as it gets to the chorus. Just gorgeous.

I really, really love this, as you can probably tell. The best thing I can say is that as much as I love this, it's not even my favourite Girls Aloud single. It's maybe not even in my top five. I'm a really big fan of them. I think this is just so fresh. It's so

exciting. It really shows what you can do with that platform that you're given. Um, and I really wish that this had been the template that was followed forward, that people wouldn't come out with crap like a moment like this. And when you believe that they would hit the scene straight away with a big banger, that's sadly not to be,

but we'll always have girls allowed for that. Um, and this is absolutely great. I'm thoroughly deserving of christmas number one it's fantastic yeah awesome yeah really great uh lizzie how about you yeah i think you've pretty much hit the nail on the head andy so i'm glad i've got to follow that um try and find something to say about it i'm sure um yeah i've kind of alluded to it before but i think this along with um freak like me and round round earlier in the year feel like the the start of

like a renaissance of british pop which lasts until sort of the latter part of the decade and it's also the last time like you say that we see anything even remotely like this in terms of talent show winners songs like instead of the big triumphant victory lap ballad that's impossible to relate to and impossible to really follow up on in any meaningful way we get this jolt of electricity and energy you get a big statement of intent it's like here they are your new favorite pop group it's girls allowed like andy in when we were discussing lose yourself you mentioned spice up your life and i think this is kind of a sibling to that song yeah i see that yeah i can see that yeah definitely in a way that it is just big and it's loud

and it's sort of energetic and it's infectious, but it's sort of different to... I feel in general we're moving away from that Spice Girls era, kind of late 90s, where everything is about, you know, fun and colour and, you know, happiness and it's all moving towards cool like cool is the new cool and um like i say we've already seen that with the sugar babes and we see a lot more of it here where it is just like it's cool but it's approachable in a way it feels sort of relatable

like it's like someone you know it It's not, I don't know, when we get to the Pussycat Dolls in a few years where it feels like it's six billionaires singing at you. They are cool, but I don't know, you don't feel like you could bump into them at the club or anything. Girls Aloud, they all have their own identities and they all feel like people you could you know you could know in your everyday life

because that's I guess what they are that's what they've come from they've come from some like humble beginnings to this untouchable pop group almost overnight and it's only because of something like this this big statement piece that you launch yourself from. Like everything about this from, you know, the sort of drum bass intro, which was said to have been inspired by, you know, Addicted to Bass by Pure Tone. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, so that kicks in. There's, like you say, the twangy surf guitar, which I actually thought was a sample i had to check and it's not but i thought it was like mizaloo by dick dale or something it isn't it's just sound like mizaloo yeah yeah they've they've kind of i want to say they've manipulated it in such a way that it sounds like something from the that sort of 50s era but it's it's not it's just been recorded for this song apparently and it works really well it's this kind of throw everything at the wall approach and you know see what

see what works to see what comes out in the in the wash and it just sounds brilliant it's um one of my favorite quotes on this, one of the writers says, Girls Aloud explodes like a five-headed Kylie Minogue. Yeah, I can see it. And yeah, again, I don't know how to really improve upon your point because I think you've absolutely nailed it. But this is how it should have been done. This is how to launch an artist and how to make them a household name like that and not just fade away like so many of them do it's by doing something

like this something that has energy and presence and thought put into it like this you know this is all you really need to do and it's a shame we don't get any more of this but i'm glad we have this because this is fantastic it really is interesting though isn't it that we have these two launches at the same time between girls allowed and one true voice because one true voice bless them they're probably fine you know they're not that bad but the other one of these groups is girls are loud and they've got sound of the underground you know it really is david and goliath there and that's because what one true voice released was just achingly generic westlife slash backstreet boys infused kind of sort of mid-tempo balladry stuff. It was just completely throwaway. And it's weird that that was rejected completely

in favour of Girls Aloud and everyone's forgotten that song by One True Voice when actually that's the stuff that they go with in the future. It's like they changed their mind from the success they had with Girls Aloud and I really don't understand why. Because this was such a success. It's very odd to me. Maybe they just gotoud. And I really don't understand why. Because this was such a success.

It's very odd to me. Maybe they just got lazy. Well, I was sort of wondering about this before because I was thinking, like, when they were planning this series, did they have the idea that we'd have one, like, we'd have a girl group that's like the Sugar Babes and we'll have a boy band that's like Blue. But by the time the series is finished,

Blue have kind of peaked and that sort of stuff is on the out. Whereas, you know, there's something with the girl group where you've got a way forward with it. Yeah, it's... I don't know. I almost wonder if it was deliberately intended for Girls Aloud to get that Christmas number one

because it's... I'm not saying it was a fix or anything, but I just think like the gulf in quality between the two of them is so massive that it's laughable. You know, that these two songs, it's almost objective. You know, you could just listen to these two in isolation and think, which is the better one that's going to sell more records? Of course, it's going to be sound of the underground you know and i i wonder if i wonder if the producers of the show honestly thought there was going to be a real rivalry here um because it i mean if there was for christmas number one it was never going to last beyond this one song so i only

slightly doubt what you say just because look at the Westlife number ones we've had this year. They've not been good and they've sold gangbusters, you know. Yeah, no, you're right. It's about branding. It's all about branding. I think the Girls Aloud branding was way stronger, way more individual. I think Girls Aloud was sort of separated from other girl groups. I think they took things from like Sugar Babes or the moodier end of Atomic Kitten

and then made something new with it. You know, they stuck them... I just think the image of that video from Sound of the Underground is way more striking... Absolutely. ..than the soft blues and greys of the One True Voice video, where it's just a load of lads... Even the band names.

..singing very politely. Yeah. Yeah, girls aloud. I feel like it picks up from Girl Power a little bit whereas One True Voice is just nothing it could be anything actually One True Voice just sounds like the name of another talent competition whereas Girls Aloud

sounds like if you were going to have it be a tv show like one true voice girls allowed sounds like something like i don't know it like it would have the attitude of tracy beaker or something like that which means that kids get on board and then because all the adults have been watching it and following all their stories it means that more people are going to buy into them and i think that yeah there's something about this that is just to kind of move into discussing it this is i yeah i really love sound of the underground i think it's fast and exciting and most importantly i think for this little point in history is that after a year of like you were saying you know a bit of familiarity a lack of

ambition especially from talent shows you know basically talent show acts being given lots of very safe things like even like novelty stuff like the cheeky girls like it's just a 90s dance track that's all it is it's it's something that they've clearly found at the back of a drawer and they've given to the cheeky girls to make a bit of extra cash for themselves whereas with Girls Aloud it's it's so it's new, it is something new, not to

any Girls Aloud experts who know that they released a song in like 2012 called Something New, that wasn't a pun that wasn't like a deliberate thing I got your reference but much like um can't get you out of my head from last year you can sort of see where pop is going within about three minutes you know like the whole process behind it too like put pitting girls allowed to want true voice

against each other it was basically like a referendum for the british public it was like do you want dance music electronics breakbeats stuff that's loud new or do you want something that's familiar and pleasant and nicely composed you know it's done by the bgs it was briefly considered by the backstreet boys but i think you know we're at the end of the third year of the decade here, and it feels like we finally got there. You know, I think after 9-11 obviously kicks off the decade, and I feel like, you know, we're over a year from 9-11 at this point, and we're well into the decade. 2003, I think, is the big year where the 2000s, like, properly take off.

But this is, like, lighting the touch paper a little year where the 2000s like properly take off but this is like lighting the touch paper a little bit on the 2000s because the thing that really strikes me when I listen to One True Voice and Sacred Trust is that it is so 90s, so 90s

and I think it's just a little bit out of time and a bit out of date, like I kind of feel bad for the guys in One True Voice because history hasn't exactly painted them as the villains of this story, but it has painted them, like I have just done, and I think fairly, but it has painted them as regressive. I think they were suitable and contemporary for the time, but I think they just missed the boat by about a year

with this stuff it's just how fast pop moves in the 2000s i think um and like they get they still get a number two single you know i think they have a they had a bigger appeal at the time than obviously they were given credit for but you know but it's just yeah like you know sacred trust it was originally done for the backstreet boys by the Bee Gees, and then they put it as, like, an album track on one of their albums from the year before, and so, you know, there's, like, there's talent behind the song, but I think Sound of the Underground, compared to this, it sounds so, like, accelerationist, that, like, by the time One True Voice were warming up, just their second single, that like by the time One True Voice were warming up just their second single their sound was sort of on the way out like Westlife are like the last vestige of like the 80s power ballad they're the

only act left that are still getting number ones with this kind of stuff like the big kind of 80s Oscar winning kind of soundtrack stuff they're the last act who are sort of doing that you know we're about to enter into a phase in pop where there are no songs containing key changes in certain years like you know if you look ahead to like the late 2000s and stuff we're on our way there yeah we go entire years without number one singles having any key changes and how many times have you mentioned them so far in this show i'm gonna miss it shows you that we're heading into a new era and westlife are like the last act of a former of a former era their fan base was just so big that they could release like you say sing the phone book and it would get to number one um but i feel i feel a bit bad for one true voice because

like you andy i feel like they weren't given a proper shot like they weren't it just feel a bit bad for One True Voice because like you Andy I feel like they weren't given a proper shot like they weren't it just felt a bit like you compare the two songs together and it's just like okay yeah with the gift of hindsight whatever but I also don't really see how if their branding was stronger

maybe but then again like the fact that their branding isn't stronger makes me think that less effort was put into their side of it and then they didn't even get to put an album out it was just two singles and then they were dumped like that was it they had a number two and a number 10 and then that was it like it was just over and now they all thankfully they've all found work and stuff like that but i think it says a lot that maybe they weren't fancied even when they were declared as the winners the people behind the scenes were just sort of like ah okay blue have done a cover to get to number one and like it's their last time they get to number one and stuff like this so you know

maybe there's something in that but um back to sound of the underground like even with 20 years gone by like you two i still love that mixture of surf rock guitars and break beats the they both do not they just they shouldn't work and yet they're you know their contrast and the juxtaposition is what makes it so effective i think that the performances are really seductive and interesting a lot of the lyrics are like exciting and sexy and like there's lots of things said in this record that i don't think have been said in a number one single before things like crank the bass and static from the floor below and all of these images of like electricity and fire and and that lyric as well when it drops it catches like fire like oh yeah like that it's the whole

the lyrics sound like a chemical reaction is being described and i think that's what makes it sound so change it sounds like it's changing things as it's going along this idea that control is lost and whatever's underway cannot be undone the girls have gone to somewhere secret and they're inviting us along and once you're under their spell, that's it girls allowed and girls allowed

very clever trick it's this place where girls go and they have a good time and it's their secret dungeon if you will um so yeah and last year i watched uh as i later found out a 73 or 74 year old woman on my mine and andy's karaoke team performed this and she got judge's choice on that night because the way that she performed it really suited the song. But I think it's a real testament to how it's lasted that someone who was not of the generation who was supposed to enjoy this really connected with it.

And they're still performing it 20 years later. I don't think this is as revolutionary as history considers it to be. think this is as revolutionary as history considers it to be i think it's like i said accelerationist and it moves pot forward um just because of the exposure and the branding and the excitement and stuff but i said earlier in the year that round round did this sort of thing too but just a bit earlier and obviously this is written by um zenimania yeah yeah and you know they had already done stuff with sugar babes and stuff and um like yourself lizzie i was reading um you've mentioned addicted to bass by pure tone and freaky trigger mentions addicted to bass as well i think it takes a lot from big beat acts too like fat boy slim the prodigy um but channeling all of those things they've picked

where i think music from one true voice and the team who was sent who were assembled to put all that together i think they picked things from the 90s that were very much of the 90s and maybe looked back a little bit you know the bgs have been writing songs for like 40 years by the time they released i think the album they released it from is when i come in or that's when i come in or something like that but they've been around for years by that point all of the imagery is very late 90s the the way that they're put across is very 90s whereas fatboy slim and the prodigy and stuff like that if you just take right here right now by fat boy slim that whole video that accelerates the passage of time it's stuff from the this girls allowed song the sound of the

underground it feels like it's been assembled by people who have taken bits of the 90s that point forwards there's an element of i would say there's a there's a tiny element of future shock about this um just like because it's even like little bits of inspiration from things like jungle and break call and things like that and it's amazing to have these things um in a pop song i think like i say it's not entirely new and revolutionary but I think putting it in a girl group setting is what makes it feel more revolutionary and especially coming from a talent show

which up to this point has served very conservative pop to everybody I don't think this is conservative I've loved it and I've loved it for a really long time and I think it kind of points a way forward but it's not really a way forward

that anybody especially talent shows really take up I think, you know, acts take bits and pieces from it but they don't take the complete package in a way, I don't think they learn the lessons

from it, all of the lessons from it, all of the lessons from it, that they should. Yeah, agreed. This feels like a bit of a missed opportunity. This sort of feels like we're looking towards... It's like with So Solid Crew, it feels like we were looking towards a future that never really happened,

that never completely materialised. But we'll get to that a bit more in in later years but i will just finish off by saying that this is one of the greatest ever uh christmas number ones no doubt yeah absolutely it's yeah not perfect um not as revolutionary as history likes to remember it as being because it was part of a trend I think but it just gave that trend a big big public platform to do something new and exciting but it also welcomed into the world

one of the best pop groups of the 2000s even if we won't get to discuss all of their best songs on this show so yeah okay so with that section complete we are now going to move on to i think the bit of the show that everybody's sort of waiting for and it's when andy runs down the year and tells everybody

what our bottom five and top 10 songs were of 2002 so andy what's the uh what's the bottom five looking like? Yeah, so just to give some context to it, just for any new listeners who've joined us this year. So yes, I'm going to reveal our bottom five and top 10 songs of the year, which the three of us have decided. And you might be asking, but Andy, how do we know that? And it's because we secretly score these songs after every episode um and i will reveal some of the secret scores to you as we go along some of them are very surprising i think i think there's one in particular in our bottom five that i was like really that's in the bottom five um but we'll

see so just an honorable well dishonorable mention to the one that just Made it out of the bottom five Which was Any One of Us by Gareth Gates Just escaped it So our fifth lowest rated Song of the year with an average score Of 4.8 from us Was World of Our Own By Westlife Which I honestly

Forgot that we covered So yeah You reminded me now though Our fourth lowest honestly forgot that we covered. So, yeah. Same. Yeah, yeah. Hey, you reminded me now, though. Our fourth lowest... Well, it's a tie, actually. Our fourth lowest tied with fifth for Westlake with another score of 4.8 average is The Tide Is High, Get The Feeling by Atomic Kitten,

which I think that we might have been a bit harsh there. I'm quite surprised to see that quite as low as that. What do you two think? It's disappointing. Sort of, but sort of not. How about you, Lizzie? Yeah, I'd like to say it's disappointing compared to their other two. Yeah, I think that influenced us quite a lot,

that we were just disappointed. Absolutely. Our third lowest ranked song of the year, with an average score of 4.1 Was The Long and Winding Road Slash Suspicious Minds By Will Young and Gareth Gates

Yeah I think that one is more than justified Although I will say That a score of 4.1 Would have kept it out of the bottom 5 In 2001 True And just about in the year 2000 as well 4.1 would have kept it out of the bottom five in 2001. True.

And just about in the year 2000 as well. Yeah. So the scores are sort of okay, but it's just that the rest of the year has been a little better than I think we maybe expected. Well, hold that thought because there's now a big leap downwards, a big decline with an average score of 2.6 between the three of us our second lowest rated song of the year is unbreakable by Westlife which was so rubbish that we didn't even discuss it really no so yeah but there's one that's even worse than that with an average score of 2.5 which I have to say I hated so much that

I scored it with a 1. Lizzie scored it a 2 and Rob scored it 4.5 so we're slightly more kind but I do think it really is the worst song of the year probably the worst song we've covered so far to be honest it is If Tomorrow Never Comes by Rowan and Keating which is awful awful personally I would have had it as unbreakable, Tomorrow Never Comes would not be out of my bottom 5 though for the year

I would rank it alongside The Long and Windy Road Suspicious Minds stuff like that, you know, not terrible but also nothing to make me even consider getting out of my seat. So, opposite end, the better stuff. Yeah.

What are our top ten singles? Our top ten number one singles, should I say, of the year 2002, according to Hits21. So, I'm delighted to say that just making it in at number 10 with an average score of 7.5 is the simply lovely The Ketchup Song by Last Ketchup. Yay! Making it in at number 10. Honourable mention as well to the one that just missed out on number 11, which was Dirty by Christina Aguilera and Redman.

But yeah, Ketchup Song starts the list at number 10. We like fun. Also with an average score of 7.5 but the tie is broken by the fact that Lizzie put this in the vault so in at number 9 is More Than A Woman by Aaliyah okay yeah our first number

one of the year yeah and it was pretty decent I'm quite surprised it got as high as the top 10 But yeah, it was decent Number 8 With an average score of 7.6 And put in the vault by Rob It is Without Me by Eminem

Ah, good Yeah, not his best number 1 of the year But an Eminem song I very much like So glad I got that in Yeah And in at number 7 for the year um but an eminem song i very much like so glad i glad i got that in yeah yeah and in at number seven for the year put in the vault by me and with an average score of eight it's just a little by liberty x oh yeah hey good song of the week against uh without me i think at the time it was close but just a little took the title that week. Oh, you're quietly seething over that, I think, aren't you?

Oh, no. No, not seething. No, not seething. Eminem got his win back. It's fine. In at number six and put in The Vault by Rob, and with an average score of 8.1, it is Round Round by The Sugar Babes. OK, yeah. of 8.1 it is Round Round by the Sugar Babes okay yeah yeah I'm glad that it's

you know there's some respect being paid to it because I very much like that obviously put it in the vault yeah

we all liked that yeah yeah number five also with a score of 8.1 but put in the vault by both Rob

and me it is My Sweet Lord by George Harrison. Oh, all the way back to the beginning again. It's almost, you know, I wondered whether to even include it really because it's, you know, not really a song from 2002.

But then again, neither is Suspicious Minds. Neither is Unchained Melody. You know? So, yeah. And so we are into our top five now and number four

with an average score there's a big leap here with an average score of 9.1 and put in the vault by all three of us

our number four song of the year is Lose Yourself by Eminem hey wow we're only number four

yeah like you say it's been a strong year at the top yeah really strong by Eminem hey wow where have we been before yeah like you said it's been a strong year at the top yeah really strong it's been a fantastic year really really fantastic year because the top three here

are very close and any one of them could have won it I will give away our number three first but just to say all three of these songs were put in the vault

by all three of us we all raved about them on the episode so those of you who've been thinking about it can probably figure out which three songs these are but in at number three is the fabulous Heaven by DJ Sammy and Yannou featuring Do

with an average score of 9.3 oh yeah we love that not quite I mean so Heaven is the top three then so the top three is heaven so heaven made it in and two other songs have made it as well they bypassed the pearly gates and got through like any other year i feel like both that and lose yourself comes in the one but faith and strong gear yeah yeah yeah i think Yeah. I think Heaven and Lose Yourself both would have been top.

They would have completed the top three in 2001 and they would have just about entered the top three as well in 2002. In the year 2000, sorry. Yeah. Big battle for this year's title

and I think either of them would have won it in any other year. But number two is a band who in real life really did have a race to Christmas number one alongside another group and this time unfortunately they haven't made it our number two song of the year

is Sound of the Underground by Girls Aloud with an average score of 9.3. Again, another one that I feel like, especially in some future years, the top five of these would just sail to number one for our best of the year, especially for some years that are coming.

So very cool on Sound of the Underground. But never mind. You know, they have lots of money and we don't, so they win. By the way, for the benefit of listeners, we never mind. You know, they have lots of money and we don't, so they win. By the way, for the benefit of listeners, we've all vaulted that, right? Oh, yeah. Yes. Yeah.

Yeah. Vaulted it to heaven and back. Yeah. With heaven. And we've all vaulted the number one of the year with an average score of 9.5. People may well have figured out by now what it is. It's a song that we all absolutely loved and it is a worthy winner, I think,

for the 2002 crown. I'm bringing on a virtual Kylie Minogue here to present the crown to this year's winner, which is Freak Like Me by the Sugar Babes. Yes! Yeah! That is our 2002 record of the year, taking the mantle Freak Like Me by the Sugar Babes Yes Yeah

That is our 2002 record of the year Taking the mantle from Can't Get You Out of My Head by Kylie Minogue last year Fun fact on this is that our number one for the year has yet to be won by anyone who isn't female and this is the second out of three that's been won by a girl

band after Pure Shores won it in The Wall Saints in 2000. Let's see if that streak continues. Any final thoughts on Freak Like Me? Do we all still feel that it is the best song of the year that we've had? Yes. I think I might have mentioned at the time it was one of my few nailed-on tens going into this podcast,

and I stand by that. Yeah. I like it just as much as heaven and lose yourself um but i think it's one of those songs that a lot like sound of the underground actually it takes things from the past in order to make them seem more futuristic instead of just repeating them yeah it points somewhere forward with something that's from something that's gone before. So yeah, very happy with that.

And I still love the emotional release of the Good for me with that COVID rattle voice doing a wonderful rendition of it there. Okay, so that's it. Our top 10 songs of the year all out the way. Bottom 5 songs of the year out the way

The whole of 2002 Is out of the way To be honest Girls Aloud even took us into 2003 so a bit of 2003 is out of the way as well Thank you so much for listening to All of our episodes as we Have covered the year 2002

When we come back We'll be covering the period between january 1st to the 15th of march 2003 so it's a big stretch that we're covering in the next episode of course three of those weeks we won't be covering because we've already covered them now in this episode obviously with sound of the underground um the other thing as well is that we let you know a couple of weeks ago that our interview with Brian Capron, Richard Hillman, is going to be going out alongside our next episode, our first step into 2003, because he was killed off from Coronation Street

on the 14th of March, 2003. So it just crept in to the window of time that we're covering from that year and we also got his opinion about the song that was number one on the day that Richard snuffed it on Corrie when he drove into the canal

attempting to kill 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 people and only ended up killing himself so it was a lovely interview and we cannot wait to put it out. We've been holding onto it for absolutely ages. There's some great moments in it. There's some great quotes from Brian.

Really knows his stuff about music. Really likes to talk, which always makes for a great guest. And some of you will have read bits of it in my Radio Times piece. But yeah, so you can hear the full thing in just a week's time just a week's time so you don't have to wait much longer

thank you very much for listening to us throughout all of 2002 Lizzie and Andy, do either of you have anything to say before we leave? No, just roll on 2003, see you next year everyone. Yeah, see you in 2003 Okay Bye bye everyone, see you then

Bye bye