Hits 21 - 2002 (8): Las Ketchup, Nelly & Kelly Rowland, DJ Sammy

Episode Date: March 12, 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] IN FIVE: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3QBz41uiaYDzyTlGQP1kxV?si=4OKtWga9S6eNj1zBR6ps3w&app_destination=copy-link

LA to UK, Billy, Ray Ruff, oh nah, come on The tide is high but I'm holding on I'm gonna be your number one The tide is high but I'm holding on I'm gonna be your mama It's not the things you do that tears and hurt me bad But it's the way you do the things you do to me I'm not that kind of girl

Who gives up just like that No, no, no, no, no That's hide it 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 Hits21Podcast at gmail.com. Thank you so much for joining us again. Just like our previous episodes, we'll be looking back at some number one singles from the year 2002. This time, we'll be covering the period from the 13th of October through to the 9th of November, 2002. Just going to cast our eyes back to last week. First of all, want to give a shout out to the fact that me and Andy both appeared on the most recent episode of In 5, which is a podcast run by a friend of our podcast, Edward Thomas, where normally just one guest, but on our occasion, it was three guests attempted to sum up the entire career of a particular artist in five songs.

And the episode that me and Andyy appeared on was the beatles and everybody knows the beatles so i will leave a link to that in the show notes and everybody can go and check that out um lizzie you've guessed it on there before right you talked about the beach boys yeah yeah i had a really good time on there yeah it's a really great show to do um i think we're going to be on future episodes as well but for, you can all make do with the 15 episodes that are currently there, plus a whole episode where Ed talks about Tchaikovsky on his own for like 90 minutes,

and it's just fascinating. It's so good. Sticking with last week, just want to take a quick mention, take a moment to make a quick mention that the music that brought us in today was the Billy Piper version of the tide is high, which I,

it's so annoying that when we first covered Billy Piper with day and night, I made a mental note to mention her version of the tide is high when we came to atomic kitten. And I bloody forgot about it. Didn't I? And then I remembered after we finished recording. And so as a little tribute to my forgetfulness from last week uh we were brought in by um billy piper's version of the tide is high which was actually the main inspiration for the atomic kitten version uh last week's poll winner

it was a pretty much a clean sweep it was just like a pill by pink just flew away with the votes, just over the hill and far away as far as the long and winding road was concerned just didn't get close unfortunately Comic Kitten sort of went out with a bit of a whimper in our weekly vote as well so all of the

housekeeping's been taken care of and it's on to this week's episode where as always we're going to give you some news headlines from around the time that these songs were all number one paul burrell the former butler to diana princess of wales is cleared of stealing from the late princess after it was revealed he told the queen that he was keeping hold of some of her possessions and last week i did mention that the 9th of November 2002 was a particularly special date in my footballing education and history, and it's because Manchester City beat United 3-1

in the last ever Manchester derby at Main Road that day. And Sean Goat got his 99th and 100th goals for City in the process. A very legendary game. And it was basically all City fans had to go off for another six years after that. Hooray! Just on Paul Burrell, by the way, who is not someone I'm very fond of. He's a bit of a tragic figure, really. But I was talking about him last week funnily enough because i was

talking to my sister about how in school because like we were at the time where msn and mobile phones and stuff were taken off and people weren't as protective about it as they should be and like people somehow had like contact details of famous people sometimes i was talking about how i to this day for some reason even though it's probably changed numbers now, I had Owen Quigg's phone number in my phone and my sister said, well funnily enough, all me and my friends, somehow we had Paul Burrell's phone number

I don't know Oh, that's interesting They used to kind of prank call him so I apologise Paul if you're listening but not really, because you're just as much of a leech as them but never mind. Yeah. Meanwhile

Estelle Morris resigns from her position of Secretary of State for Education saying that she does not feel up to the job. Morris was replaced by Charles Clarke. And also in football once again 16 year old Wayne Rooney becomes the youngest goalscorer in the Premier League's history

after scoring a last-minute goal for Everton against Arsenal. The goal helped Everton to a 2-1 win over Arsene Wenger's Arsenal, who had enjoyed an over-one-year unbeaten run up to that point. Yes, it was one of two unbeaten runs that they had around that time. And you've heard us mention this before because I was there. I was at that match. I was right behind the goal. Yeah, it was wonderful. Yeah.

What a day. Yeah, and I was at this match in America where the Iraq resolution is being authorising authorising use of military force against Saddam Hussein's Iraq government. The military campaign which formed part of George W. Bush's war on terror, despite Iraq having no connection to the September 11th attacks in New York,

began in March 2003 and continued for eight years, eventually spreading into Afghanistan as well. That's one thing that I think we're going to be talking about in a couple of weeks when we do our year review, which is not only the news but it feels like not just in the music but in the news as well it just feels like the rest of the 2000s feels like it's stretching out in front of us now in many ways absolutely in many ways um the films to hit the top of the UK box office during this period were as follows. Red Dragon for one week, Triple X for two weeks, and 28 Days Later for two weeks. Meanwhile, Top Gear is relaunched with a new format and three new presenters. Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and Jason Daw,

who was replaced eventually by James May. Everybody forgets that Jason Daw was a Dowie? Dow? Dow? He's a good quiz question, isn't he? I never would have known that. That's a hell of a good quiz question. Nobody seems to remember him and neither did I, so yeah.

In other news, Angus Dayton is sacked from Have I Got News For you after allegations about his personal life appear in the media despite three quarters of the show's audience wanting him to stay on as host the allegations were that he had taken cocaine and procured the business of sex workers dayton remained as host for two episodes after the allegations surfaced and was never fully replaced with the bbc choosing to make their rotating guest presenters a permanent fixture i think the thing that really pushed him

out the door was the fact that when he did those two episodes the panelists particularly the permanent panelists seeing his love and paul merton they just relentlessly took the piss out of him to the point where the show kind of became unmanageable while he was still there the thing is at the time I didn't know what he had done because my mum wouldn't tell me because it was very adult stuff I just knew he'd done something a bit seedy and I think that was the first time

I've ever read what it was he actually did because I've never known up until now yeah and I'm sorry but like I feel like these days I think the example with rylan last year is that it just feels like drugs and prostitutes and stuff i think i feel like these days it'd just be like oh right so what's none of our business like it just felt a bit like that where the sun tried to stitch up rylan with that cocaine thing and then everyone was just like yeah okay

so he does cocaine on weekends like you know he's a nice guy and a good radio host leave him the fuck alone and I just I don't know I feel like it would have more there would be more of a defence of him I think I mean to be fair three quarters of viewers were fine with him

at the time but I just feel like it wouldn't become such a scandal these days I don't know, maybe we're more enlightened in that regard I think he'd probably still get suspended but no, it probably wouldn't be the end of someone's career where realistically

it kind of was the end of Angus Dayton's career he did a couple of seasons of Would I Lie to You after that and then got replaced but other than that I've never really seen him again, it kind of was the end of his career. He did a couple of seasons of Would I Lie To You after that and then got replaced but other than that I've never really seen him again. It kind of was the end of his career and yeah I don't think that would be the case these days. It'd probably be a bit of a blip if anything.

And Rob you mentioned like history unfurling in front of us. I feel like this move indirectly led to the election of Boris Johnson as Prime Minister. So thanks for that. Thanks, Angus. That's on you, that. Yeah, it's your fault.

And in other news, Rockstar Games releases the latest edition of its Grand Theft Auto video game series, Vice City. To this day, Vice City is considered to be one of the greatest video games of all time, winning numerous accolades and awards in the 21 years since its release but just don't play the what was the version they released a couple of years ago? Remastered versions

Yeah, avoid it like the plague It's bad It's bad Andy, how are the album charts looking? Yeah It's another very short period for us that we're covering this week. So once again, it's quite brief. But there's not many albums left for me to cover in the whole year

because there's quite a big sort of monolith coming up. But more on that in a few weeks' time. For now, first of all, we've got the Foo Fighters with One By One taking the top spot for one week and going double platinum. One By One produced a couple of very famous singles for the Foo Fighters with One By One, taking the top spot for one week and going double platinum. One By One produced a couple of very famous singles for the Foo Fighters, All My Lifetimes Like These, amongst a few others. Yeah, that was a big hit. That was a big, big album for my best friend Mackie at school, so I know that album very, very well. That was unseated at the top spot by David Gray, once again, with A New Day At Midnight. I say once again because we talked about this a few times last year,

of what is the big deal with David Gray? Like, he is so popular as an album artist, and I just, I don't get it. He went four times platinum with that album. I don't recognise a single song off it. I just remain mystified by the success of David Gray. I recognise Be Mine. Be mine, be mine. But that's all, really.

Only two singles from that album. Yeah, yeah. Odd one. And anyway, that's it. Only at number one for one week as well. And then in the week commencing the 10th of November, we have a revisit to the top spot from Blue with their second album, One Love,

which unsurprisingly contains the song One Love as its lead single. But also, I was looking at this album and it has, I'm laughing at it already, it has a song titled Super Sexual, which was released as a single only in Spain and South America and was one of their biggest songs ever in that market it was really popular but was never released in the UK I'm going to have to listen to it after this, it sounds fun

super sexual but that's it for this week Lizzie how are things over there in America? So after a two week run at number one for Kelly Clarkson Nelly returned to number one with Dilemma for three more weeks. And then on the 9th of November,

Eminem scored his first ever Billboard number one single with Lose Yourself. It stayed at number one for 12 consecutive weeks, eventually selling over 30 million copies in the US alone. And it even returned to the Billboard Hot 100 in 2022 after Eminem performed the song with Anderson Paak at Super Bowl 56. Ah yeah, I remember that. Yeah, that's all

I've got for the US singles chart for 2002, but what about albums? Well, after a three week run at number one for Elvonus, which we mentioned last time, Faith Hill took the top spot for one week with her album Cry. It appeared on both the 2002 and 2003 year-end lists and was eventually certified double platinum in the US.

It's even landed at number one on the UK country albums chart, but only got as high as number 29 on the main albums chart. And finally this week, Santana took the top spot for one week with his 19th studio album Shaman. It also appeared on both the 2002 and 2003 year-end lists and was also certified double platinum in the US. However it only managed to get as high as number 15 on the UK albums chart. Okay well thank you both for those reports. Time to get knuckled in to the singles from this week, and the first one up is this. Friday night it's party time, feeling ready, looking fine Viene Diego rumbeando

With the magic in his eyes, checking every girl inside Grooving like he does the mambo And he's the man, I yell, I disco, play him sexy, feeling hotter He's the king, bailando, ritmo, ragga tanga And the DJ that he knows well on the spot Always around to raise the mix, he comes back for the salsa. Y la baila, and heetchup Song by Lass Ketchup. Released as the lead single from the group's debut studio album entitled Gias Del Tomate,

which translates to Daughters of the Tomato, Acerahe, The Ketchup Song is also Lass Ketchup's debut single in the UK. It is the group's first single to reach number one, of course, and it is their only number one single and the only song by the group to chart in the UK. Proper one-hit wonder. A set of hay first entered the UK charts at number 89 and reached number one in its sixth week,

knocking Will Young and Gareth Gates off the top spot. It stayed at number one for one week. In its first and only week atop the charts, it sold 105,000 copies and beat competition from New Direction by S Club Juniors, which got to number two. I think that's three consecutive number twos for them. And All My Life by Foo Fighters, which got to number five. Oh, there we go.

Yeah. When it was knocked off the top of the charts, Acedehay dropped one place to number two. By the time it was done on the charts, it had been inside the top 100 for 27 weeks. The song was certified platinum in the UK in January 2003. Wow. This was a big hit.

This was a huge hit in Europe. You look on this song's Wikipedia page and you go to the charts and certification section and it's just a list of countries on the left hand side and a list of number ones down the right hand side. This is even number one in Australia. Really? Yeah, just a huge, huge hit. Andy, do you agree that it should have been such a massive hit? Oh, that's a loaded question I'll unpack that one But yeah, just on the subject of one-hit wonders We've had a few one-hit wonders up till now

In the sense that they've been massive And then we've never heard a thing about them ever again But I think this is arguably the biggest sort of genuine one-hit wonder that we've ever had on the show so far, that everybody still could instantly tell you, Last Ketchup did the Ketchup song 20 years on. And I've been thinking about, why is that? Why was it such a big hit?

And I think, actually, I'm going to whisper it very quietly, because this is probably a bit of an uncool opinion, but it's quite a good song, actually. I actually quite like this. The one thing I was really reflecting on is that, you know, this is positioned as a novelty party dance song. You know, the kind of stuff you put on on the dance floor at family parties at a wedding. Everybody does the dance that goes to the catch-up song.

It's in the music video with karaoke lyrics to go alongside it. That's very clearly the position, and that's what we all remember it as but if you compare it to others like the macarena or cha-cha slide or gangnam style or whatever or oops upside your head that awful thing then you would you would never sit and listen to those songs you never just have it on spotify and just sit there doing your work listening to the macarena that would be mental no one would do that well to be fair if anyone does do that, I don't mean any offence, but that is just alien to me, the idea that you would sit and listen to the Macarena for fun. But I actually can see people sitting and listening to this for fun. Like, it's got far more to it than that kind

of novelty dance party genre tends to have. It's actually very nicely produced, it's very catchy, and I think if you listen to it out of context and didn't know what it was, I don't think you would immediately think of it as, oh yeah, this is just one of those silly kind of songs for kids to do a dance to at school discos. I really don't think you would get that from it at all, it's just kind of been chosen that they would do it that way. Maybe it's something to do with ketchup as the theme. It's kind of a bit of a gimmick. But I kind of wondered how it went down that alley of becoming a novelty song because I don't think it sounds like one.

I think it's far better than that. I really like that interpolation of Rapper's Delight. I think that's very clever. Oh, yeah. The way that that's kind of done with lyrics that are different but kind of sound the same in terms of their kind of structure as words you know, instead of I said a hip

hop, it's like a sir a hey, ha it's quite clever I really think it's got quite a lot to it and I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this and I was quite sort of ashamed, I was like I kind of want to listen to that again and again, like it's really fun I really enjoyed this song yeah, quite sort of ashamed. I was like, I kind of want to listen to that again and again. Like, it's really fun. I really enjoyed this song. Yeah, I think it's very good.

And I think they were kind of done a disservice by being put into that novelty song category with this. I don't want to go too far. You know, it's not the greatest song ever written. It's just kind of a bit of fluff, really. But it's very, very fun fluff. And I wouldn't say it's anything special. But again, I don't think it deserves to

be kind of looked on with the kind of disdain that people treat things like the Macarena with. I think this is a much, much better song than that. So yeah, it gets a thumbs up from me. I'm kind of intrigued about Let's Catch Up as a band because I feel like they had far more interesting things to offer than this route that they were carried down with this song. And I really hope they're doing well these days. I'm going to do a bit of a deeper dive on Last Ketchup. But yeah, it gets a thumbs up from me. I'm pleasantly surprised by this.

Oh, cool. Lizzie, where do you stand? Well, Andy, did you know they were in Eurovision? No! Yeah, they were in the 2006 edition of Eurovision, which was won by Lordi, and they came 21st. Oh! Ouch.

Oh, dear. I mean, I've forgotten that completely. No, still nothing. I don't remember that at all. Oh, is that the Bloody Mary song? Yeah, it's the Bloody Mary song. Yes! Another one about... Tomatoes.

Red-themed liquid food items. Tomatoes, yeah. Yeah. God. They only do songs named after food and drink. And only based around tomatoes. And they have to be red. So like bruschetta.

Oh yeah, tomatoes. Yeah. I don't know. I think everything I've kind of found out about this group suggests that they rode on the success of this a little bit. And that's fine. You know, it's kind of like how you had Kung Fu fighting followed by Dancer Kung Fu. It's like, if you know you're just a one hit wonder, then you may as well milk it for all it's worth.

And yeah, it seems like they got a pretty good kind of run out of it. worth and yeah it seems like they got a pretty good kind of run out of it i would just ask did you both always know about the rapper's delight connection i found out a few years ago um okay i haven't always known though no not always because i don't think i knew rapper's delight at the time that this was out but it was something that i don't know probably about four or five years ago like the ketchupetchup song was on somewhere and I was like this is the same as Rapper's Delight like I just sort of noticed it. I haven't always known though, no. It's not that obvious

really. Well no and I only found out this week and that's not just me. Yeah it's not just me, it's like a close friend of mine because like I stumbled upon this article by someone called Robert Oliver I don't know if you know him. But yeah, just kind of explaining that it's like a phonetic version of Rapper's Delight.

And yeah, like you say, it's not clever as such, but it's a fun little thing to discover. And I agree with you, Andy, that it is much better than something like Macarena is the obvious comparison I think I don't want to conflate Spanish and Portuguese music but in the verses especially it kind of reminds me a bit of something like Masquinada by Sergio Mendes yeah it's got a really good like solid groove to. And there's even a sense of, it's almost quite melancholy. You know the way, especially like the chorus is constructed, it kind of goes in and out of these minor keys

and it ends on quite a dour, sad note. It's almost like, I don't know, a package holiday version of Dancing Queen about this guy who's just lost in music and this is his moment but yeah I completely agree with you Andy that it is much better than just to be lumped in with a lot of those novelty songs and I wonder if that's why you don't really hear it anymore in that setting like I feel like if you go to a kid's party, there's a good chance that you'll hear Macarena,

Cha-Cha Slide, maybe the Birdie song, Gangnam Style, Agadoo, that sort of thing. I don't think you'd hear this. And it's almost, I wonder if it's just because it's too good for that. It's a legitimately quite good song. Yeah, well, I hope that's's a legitimately quite good song. Yeah. Well, I hope that's the reason. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah. I also think as well is that I don't know if this was necessarily written to be a novelty thing. I think it leans on a gimmick, but I don't think it leans on novelty. It just kind of is because it was a one-hit wonder. You know how, like, I don't think it leans on novelty. It just kind of is because it was a one hit wonder. And you know how, like,

I don't know. I'm trying to think of, you know, groups that emerge and then their first single has the group name in the song title. And it's like, you know, like I always think of fast food,

fast food rockers, or I mean, they were slightly more serious, but like living in a Box and it's like Living in a Box had like one more major single after this they had a few, they had a go at it

they had a decent career but like everybody knows Living in a Box for living in a box, they don't know them for Blow the House Down or stuff like that I was just trying to think of like other you know acts that have been known for like one song that has their name in the title and then like they live on after that and everyone sort of goes oh yeah that was

their first single i can't nothing's really coming to mind i may need to look this up or someone who listens could help um well i think one that, it's not their name in the title, but I think they thematically penned themselves in dramatically very quickly was the Weather Girls with It's Rainin' Men. Kind of positioned them

as only ever being able to do songs about weather, which probably wasn't the case. But like, it's like, right. So you are actual weather girls and the forecast is that it's rainin' men. They were very on brand. So that's kind of an example, yeah.

They did a Christmas song, didn't they? Did they? Yes. Yeah, I think they did. This feels like that a little bit, where, because the, you know, last catch-up is, and then, you know, the daughters of the catch-up was, I think it's because, like, are they all sisters or cousins or something and like one of their dads was like known as the tomato like that was his stage

name or something and so that's where they get their group name from and then it's like but a Sarah Hay but the ketchup song thing is in brackets as well so I think they know Lizzie you saying this about it being like package holiday like that those two words

stick in my mind with this as well where it's like i think this is why it was so successful in the uk which is that it plays into like plays into like stereotypes of spaniards yes specifically like it like it becoming a big hit in, what was it, October? Having risen in September? It's kind of... Yeah. It's one of those things, it's like, is this an example of a song that spread because people heard it on holiday

and it kind of just found its way over here. I've heard this really weird song in Spain. Yes! That's how it just spreads. If I can just piggyback on that that specific point about these kind of songs spreading there is a kind of minor sub-genre

in the early noughties in particular of oh look at this funny foreign song that everyone kind of gets onto for a few weeks and it does really well and everyone just kind of points and laughs at the funny foreign language stuff and it's really horrible looking back and i think this isn't quite that but it is sort of in that genre you know

there was maya he was a really big example of that yeah yeah so i think that was kind of a thing at the time that people might have come back off holiday like look at this silly spanish song that i heard which i don't like but if it it got Last Ketchup's success then, you know, all power to them. There was also, what do you think about Saturday Night by Wigfield? Oh, I love that song. I do too. I don't.

I'd also kind of put it in the same sort of, haha, look at these foreign, it's kind of a bit like Euro trash aspect of it, which, not great. I guess that's why you don't really get this sort of thing anymore. And if you do get, like, songs with Spanish vocals, it does be, like, more serious affairs.

Like Despacito, for example, is an established artist. And, yeah, it just happens to be in Spanish. I don't know, though, because, like, the other two songs that we're covering this week as a mild teaser you know are really of their time like they are so 2002 they really are but this song I kind of

you know if I just had never heard this song in my life and someone put it on I think I might struggle to put a year on it like I think that this could sort of this could do well today potentially like it could do well i'm not saying that it would and the novelty factor wouldn't be the same it'd have to be marketed in a very different way but i don't think that this is dated anywhere near as much

as either of the other two songs this week which you would expect a random one hit wonder to be very dated but i don't actually think that it is is that because with it being like a latino pop song that you don't really have a reference point for it and all you can go off is like the production that's a really good point it probably is that yeah yeah i'm kind of like you andy i didn't think i was going to end up liking this as much as i ended up doing um like like it's not going in the vault or anything but like I think like we've discussed history kind of writes this off as a novelty song it's not good for much

beyond being played at like family parties and discos and stuff something for the family to enjoy and enjoy momentarily before we get back to the serious stuff you know and it does have that quality and I don't think it's quite as sexy as it could be and it's not as fluid as it could be it feels a little stiff in places and it is incredibly

repetitive to the point where you just sort of start to go a bit numb towards the end but like yeah i will be damned if this isn't just like warm approachable and fun like sure why not get a female vocal trio together have them write a song in spanglish about a guy going to a nightclub and getting trashed and then asking the dj to play rapper's delight and then call it the ketchup song for no discernible reason except that the group is just called last ketchup and they've committed to the bit and they've committed to that this may be only being their only hit um i love the little licks of flamenco guitar i've always got a soft spot for anything that feels fondly towards like disco or parties and stuff and like you know given how long disco took to feel cool again

apparently uh i'm really as well just as a little like a little songwriting quirk i'm really into that little moment in the final bridge section the yeah yeah that bit where the drums go into half time in in in the last half of it and they basically resemble new metal for a second because it like because the drums are sort of with the but then it decides to hit it goes like i've recently this uh this week actually been um there's a clip of the top of the pops episode from 1995 that's resurfaced of bjork and skunk and anzi playing um army of me and you know the drums for that moment don't tell don't sound too dissimilar um to that um i also think as well that i have a soft spot for this because it isn't necessarily trying to be cool either i think they know that

this is dorky and like a bit corny and that this would be maybe a flash in the pan but it's a brief and serious commitment to like i don't know if camp is the right word but like you know there is that quality to it and like like you were saying andy like they still get asked about this song like 20 years later so like clearly they did something right and i mean as we found out afterwards they didn't have much else but they didn't really need anything else i think i always appreciate celebrities that are sort of like yeah i'm known for one thing i'll ride it forever you know like you get a lot of celebrities who are sort of like oh i'm only known for that one thing i don't want to be defined i don't want to be typecast like that sort of thing and they And they get all precious about it. And then there's other celebrities like

Last Ketchup who are like, yeah, we did a song like 20 years ago. It's the only song I think we'll ever perform ever again. But it made me loads of money. And I'm happy. And it made lots of other people happy as well. So isn't that good? And so, yeah. I'm feeling good about this. Not enough to put it in a vault, but I am feeling good.

I am feeling good about it. I've just got a couple more things on this, by the way, if that's okay. if that's okay yeah yeah yeah so first of all um this like you say rob the song reached number one in pretty much every country it was released in except for america where it got to number 54 do you know what though 54 we could have had a clean sweep. We could have had a clean sweep, but 54 in America is not too bad. You have to sell a lot to get in the top 60 in America. But yeah, it wasn't exactly near number one either. And also, do you know about the conspiracy theories about this song? Oh my God.

Oh, I want to. I really want to. So there were a couple of conspiracy theories that mainly spread through email, particularly in Latin America. And this was a theory that the gibberish lyrics included hidden demonic references that would lead the listener to Satanism and heresy.

Yes! That does sound like us. Yeah. So, for example, hacer aje, which can be broken down into the Spanish phrase hacer a hey meaning let's be heretical I mean that's my motto in life

let's be heretical absolutely let's be heretical yeah to be honest Lizzie now you're saying this this does explain actually why I've been so heavily into Satanism for about 20 years Well there you go, since we're all started

Really, I thought it was just one of those things, but thanks for providing an explanation And ketchup read Satan, it all makes sense Oh my god. Satan did love ketchup that's mentioned a lot in the Bible Of course

Actually, a Dominican TV station actually banned the song because they were so convinced about this. Jesus Christ. People need to get a life. God. I have to say, I just have no tolerance of that at all. It's stupid. God.

I've got to say, Lizzie, I think that reflects very well on that Dominican TV station. I must say. It doesn't. Yeah. okay right okay i think we should move on um we've aired those silly conspiracies and now we're going to move on um to our second song this week which is this I love you. I need you. I love you. I do.

No matter what I do. All I think about is you Even when I'm with my boo You know I'm crazy over you No matter what I do All I think about is you Even when I'm with my boo You know I'm crazy over you

I met this chick and she just moved right up the block from me And she got the hunts for me, the finest thing my hood has seen But oh no, she got a man and a son though But not so clear cause I wait for my cue and just listen Play my position like a show star Pick up everything, mind me hitting and in no time I better make this with her in mind And that's for sure cause I, I never been the type to Okay, this is Dilemma by Nelly featuring Kelly Rowland. Released as the second single from his second studio album

entitled Nellyville, Dilemma is Nelly's sixth single overall to be released in the UK and his first song to reach number one. But it's not the last time we'll be discussing Nelly on this podcast. The song was also included on Kelly Rowland's debut studio album entitled Simply Deep, and it's not the last time we'll be discussing Kelly on this podcast either. Dilemma went straight in at number one as a brand new entry, knocking Last Ketchup off the top of the charts.

I think he was also a believer in these conspiracies and wanted to get rid of them. It stayed at number one for two weeks in its first week atop the charts it sold 200 000 copies beating competition from new flow by big brothers which got to number three i'm right here by samantha mumba which got to number five thereby the grace of god by manic street preachers which got to number six love you better by ll cool j which got to number 6, Love You Better by LL Cool J which got to number 7, and You Were Right by Badly Drawn Boy which got to number 9. In its second week at number 1 it sold 129,000 copies beating competition from Like I Love You by Justin Timberlake which got to number 2, One Love by Blue which got to number three and Electrical Storm by U2

which got to number five. When it was knocked off the top of the charts Dilemma dropped one place to number two and initially left the charts in March 2003. However the song re-entered the charts in 2013 where it peaked at number 51. As of today Dilemma has spent a total of 24 weeks in the top 100 and the song was certified as 3 times platinum in the UK in May 2018. Lizzy, Dilemma, go. Yeah, I do like this. I think the instrumental especially is what kind of always brings me back into this. The interpolation of, what was it, Love You Need You by Patti LaBelle, who's actually in the video, as much as you know Nelly's got a really nice sort of tone when

it comes to that that sing rapping which I don't think he was a pioneer of necessarily but he did I would say he probably popularized it. I would say one of the weaker points of this track though is that lyrically he's not the best and also I feel like Kelly Rowland doesn't have enough to do here. Given that this is supposed to be about, you know, a relationship between two people which is clearly not meant to be but they can't sort of let go of this idea. It feels like all Kelly's really there to do is just to sort of fawn over Nellie. And like, she does a good job of it.

And she does sell that kind of hopeless attraction. But I kind of, it's one of those things where you want to hear the other side of the story a little bit more. I do think it's a better example of a song about infidelity than what we had with Gareth Gates a couple of weeks ago just because I think it doesn't present it as this like aberration, this horrible nasty thing that didn't mean anything. It does present it as something that can

realistically happen with some like you know one party that's attached or two parties that are attached and fall in love with each other. And it's quite a real problem that a lot of relationships face. But yeah, as much as I do really like it and I found myself listening to it quite a lot, I just wish there was a bit more weight to it. I feel like that really could have tipped it over the top and made it into like an all-timer. But yeah, on the whole, I really like it. Oh. Andy, how about you?

I kind of disagree, to be honest. Okay, that's fine. Not that much, don't worry. I'm not going to absolutely tear this apart but I'm just gonna say outright I kind of hate this. Because so basically the genre like ever that I hate the most probably is early noughties like Mabu kind of R&B with you know that exact phrase boo appears a lot of this it's like yeah that specific little and it's quite a small genre you know that you kind of got other people

involved in like christina milian and that kind of thing who kind of propagated the genre and it kind of went on probably until about 2006 ish probably the last one i could think of is some early rihanna stuff but I really don't like the genre I just find it really kind of vacuous and empty where there's a lot of kind of style over substance in these songs a lot of kind of relying on empty statements and kind of sex appeal over anything of value particularly from a female perspective where it's like you know oh i just need i'm the affection of a man in my life and i'm going to express that through the medium of

mid-tempo music with hand claps you know it's it's just i just really like all these songs are basically the same but the the emblem of that genre kind of track one on a cd of all songs like that would be dilemma like that is the one um and it just bugs me in a way that it's probably quite irrational and probably not very fair because i'm putting a lot of feelings about that genre like onto this song like projecting onto it which is probably not very fair but i can tell you some specific things that i really don't like there's just there's so many kind of buzz phrases that are just so cringy looking back.

Like, all the stuff, even when I'm with my boo and the baby girl is in there quite a lot. And the, right at the start with the,

check it out, check it out, which kind of reminded me of Supermarket Sweep with the, check it out, check it out. And the,

like, it really made me laugh at the beginning when Nelly's doing this kind of undefined sexual grunting for no reason. As he's waiting to come in, he's just going like,

ugh, ugh. What? You don't need to do anything, Nellie. Just calm down. And it's just really cringe, I think. I don't like this whole, I'm going to say love story, but it's not a love story because, like Lizzie says, there's nothing really of value

in terms of what the woman is getting from this. She's just kind of forlorn. She's like Juliet singing out the window to her Romeo. I just, no, it just doesn't work for me at all. Like I say, it's not like the worst song ever, but there are some kind of more, well, I'm not going to use the phrase objective, but there are some kind of more material things about it

that I don't like either i hate the production i um i think those hand claps are so high in the mix it's kind of like hurts my ear a little bit if it's too loud and the ow it's so annoying it's really really annoying it just doesn't work for me i feel like that's one of those things that either works for you or it doesn't and it doesn't work for me. I feel like that's one of those things that either works for you or it doesn't, and it doesn't work for me. And the really kind of high sort of synthy electronic keys sound doing the melody there, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, that's not necessary either. So I don't like the production of it. It's just a big thumbs down for me, to be honest.

Yeah, I don't like this. Like I say, it's obviously good in some sense, you know, they must be doing something right, because it was a very, very popular song, it's still very fondly looked back on today, but just to posit something, I do think that part of the reason it's looked back on so fondly today is just because it is so representative of 2002, it has big nostalgia appeal to it, because this is a real time capsule of the kind of music you got at this time that was, you know, of that genre of early noughties R&B. I don't think its value is, you know, worthy of the kind of fond memories that this gets,

but that's just me, you know, I'm a little bit down on it so sorry nelly sorry kelly you might actually say that nelly i don't love you nelly i don't need you oh less than you'll ever know it's for sure you can never count on my love never more never more never more yeah i before I go into my analysis I just want to have a quick shout out to the bit from the music video that everybody remembers

which is when she texts him on Microsoft Excel that's great oh yeah oh it's wonderful no wonder he never replies yeah never got through

I often think that I would have forgotten about this song completely if that hadn't if that hadn't been picked up in 2013 as like, look at this stupid thing from 11 years ago. But anyway, I think that's it, actually. In the tooth, there are so many music videos in the 2000s where it's like, here's the latest phone. That kind of product placement doesn't seem to happen in the same way anymore especially in the mid 2000s

when there were those stupid as fuck phones that Nokia did or something where there was the one that looked like lipstick and it had two rows of numbers instead of three and you had to take the end out to get the screen oh god awful I don't remember that it sounds like trash

there was also the Nokia N-Gage, which you could play games on, but you had to turn the whole phone off, take out the cartridge, put another cartridge in, then turn it back on, and it was shaped like a taco as well, so you'd have to hold it really awkwardly.

Yeah. And the screen was vertical. It's got keys on the side. it's fucking awful i feel like i do feel like the 2000s were just a strange era for phones i feel like until the smartphone came in and kind of established the uniform design for what a mobile is supposed to look like before that it was just open season on like yeah whatever like you know we'll get some six-year-old kids to just come in and draw we'll just say the word phone to him and say just draw something on a piece of paper and that'll just be our next design like that's what we're gonna do it just that feels like how

phones were and this is how you end up with things like kelly roland texting somebody on excel um i land in the middle of you two and i don't know who I'm leaning more towards. I really thought I liked this more than I actually do. Like, my memories of this are that it's like, you know, it's a smooth, slow jam. The story's kind of effective, about, you know, two people who want to be together but sort of have to move around their respective partners

or accept that it's one of those things in another lifetime you know maybe um it's got a quite a memorable chorus which i agree with you lizzie it's a lovely interpolation of that patty labelle song um the vibe is lovely with all those jazzy chords on the electric piano and the kind of glockenspiels and and um i think that the lens that they go to in order to sell this idea of nelly and kelly because this was like the big thing wasn't it where like kelly even like references him by name they're not playing other characters in this it's like they're playing fictionalized versions of themselves i don't like i don't like that.

The way she keeps name-checking Nelly, like, Nelly, I love you. That's a bit weird. I can't think of another example of when that's done. Yeah, I don't like that. Yeah, I'm going to get into that because I like this, but only just. The thumbs up for me is really mild on this occasion because i think as much as it is a smooth slow jam after that first chorus i'm just a bit like yeah i what else have you got like you're gonna do literally anything else you're gonna change gear you're gonna introduce something new

i don't know like i think yeah you either get lost in this or you don't. And if you don't, you begin to notice things like Kelly Rowland trying her best with this, but I think they've kind of flattened her out. She sounds a bit robotic and I don't think it's helped by the fact that as you picked up on Andy and as lots of people have picked up on down the years, to be honest,

she's just kind of simping for Nellie throughout. Like this character that they've played played it doesn't have much dimension it's just like i love nelly i need to be with nelly even when i'm with my other even with them with my actual boyfriend i'm thinking about nelly and it kind of shows you the power that nelly had at this time that he could just get one of the biggest female singers on the planet and just make her do this like we'll bring you into nellyville we'll make you play a role where all you do is sing about me and whenever nelly's not on screen everyone should be asking where's nelly but yeah i i feel like you could skip to any moment in this song be it like 30 seconds or two minutes and 47 seconds or the four minute mark of the album version or something and it

would just be the same thing like it's less of a problem on the radio edit which honestly i have been skipping to this week because the full album version of this is like four minutes nearly touching five minutes whereas like the radio edits three minutes touching four minutes the album version starts to drag so I go back to the radio edit which to be fair is the version that everybody would have heard and went out and bought instead and it's the one that gets put on compilation albums and it's the one that's in the video and that sort of thing so i think the single version is is an improvement on um the album version i the thing i think what maybe helps me forgive this song slightly is that i do have kind of fun memories of it and like a lot of r&b and rap crossovers from around this time like nelly or

jar rule etc they just kind of remind me of being at my grandma's house on a saturday uh my older cousins listening to the cds that they brought to my grandma's that saturday because nelly jar rule ashanti to be honest basically just black american artists to be honest, basically just black American artists, to be honest, like they were older cousin music. You know, my older cousins were into like American R&B and hip hop and stuff where like when you're a kid and when you're a white kid from like, you know, the suburbs of Manchester or something, there aren't many avenues for you to find in the early 2000s anyway, many avenues for you to find in the in the early 2000s anyway there weren't many avenues for you to be able to discover american r&b it was it was just something that your cousins is either your cousins were into it or you never really heard it so or at least that's in my experience anyway and

so when i listen back to this it's always like these are the CDs that my cousins owned and I never did yeah this is like older sister music to me because she was really into this sort of thing and like Usher and that took me a long time to really catch up with yeah same I feel like I'm only really appreciating that now

whereas at the time it would have been grumpy and like skulking off somewhere to listen to Nickelback I don't know yeah yeah whereas at the time it would have been grumpy and like skulking off somewhere in my room to listen to Nickelback, I don't know Yeah, yeah No, it is, it's true and I think for that reason this song is

always, like you were saying Andy it is just a moment in time for me I do have problems with it's second half but I do still kind of feel sort of fondly towards it so yeah I'm cool with it

I'm alright with it I think and my old kind of thumbs up despite its deficiencies I've got to say you've missed a bit of a trick in that you say you're really caught between the two of us not knowing which way to lean you might say you haven't told Emma

oh dear yeah I can't believe I didn't actually spot that I'm usually ripe for spotting things like that but never mind the pressures of podcasting our last song this week

is this ស្រូវាប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ Oh, thinking about our younger years There was only you and me We were young and wild and free Now nothing can take you away from me We've been down that road before But that's over now You keep me coming back for more Baby you're all that I want

When you're lying here in my arms I'm finding it hard to believe We're in heaven And loving's all that I need And I found it there in your heart It isn't too hard to see We're in heaven We're in heaven

This is Heaven by DJ Sammy featuring Yannou and Doe. Released as the lead single from his second studio album entitled Heaven. Heaven is DJ Sammy's first single to be released in the UK, it is therefore his first number one. It is also his last, it's also the case for Yanu and Do, for whom Heaven is the only charting single in the UK. Heaven is a cover of Bryan Adams' original song which reached number 38 on the UK singles chart in 1985. Heaven first entered the UK singles chart at number 92 and dropped out of the top 100 on two occasions. It then re-entered the chart and went straight to number one, knocking Nelly and Kelly Rowland off the top spot. It stayed at number one for one week. In its first and only week at number one, it sold 119,000 copies

beating competition from Die Another Day by Madonna, which got to number three. What's Your Flavour by Craig David, which got to number eight. It's All Gravy by our mate Romeo, featuring Christina Milian, which got to number nine. And Hey Sexy Lady

by Shaggy, which got to number ten. I don't remember that. When it was knocked off the top of the charts, Heaven dropped one place to number two and initially left the charts in March 2003. It then re-entered the charts in 2004, 2007, 2008 and 2009. As of today, Heaven has spent a total of 37 weeks inside the top 100

and it was certified as two times platinum in the UK three months ago in December 2022. So, hooray. Well done. Glad it wasn't, you know, if we'd have started this podcast like 12 weeks earlier, it would have only been one times platinum.

So, nice serendipity so nice what a shame that would have been a yes massive um andy heaven go yeah well i think this song is an apt description of what it is it is heaven it's just oh this is for me i don't know why i really don't know why maybe it's just a kind of my personal experience thing, but for me, when you say 2002, it's this song, this is the one, this is like the sound of 2002 for me, probably because it was on at all my kind of school discos and things, and it was sort of out near Christmas, so it was, would have been on a kind of a lot of kind of CDs, I got that Christmas and things like that, but this is the one. And honestly, I just love it. I absolutely adore it. I always have. And I really have struggled over the last couple of weeks that I've been listening to the song to articulate why.

Why is this so good? And the thing is, there isn't any one thing about it. There's been other songs that I've absolutely gushed over, really r about in the past where i feel like i've been able to articulate better what it is with this i kind of struggle because there's just so many little things there's so much work that's gone into this and i think in general this kind of dance music where it's kind of like club music i think kind of gets a bit of a bad rap sometimes, especially from, you know, certain kind of artsy types, you know, who are very much focused on real instruments, as it were, and think we should all just sit there listening to Wish You Were Here all day.

You know, I think that this kind of music gets a bad rap and gets kind of looked at on kind of stuff for the masses. And there is so much complexity. Like when you do this kind of music really well, it's exceptional. It's so well put together. And that is what it is. It's just so well put together, this song.

I mean, first of all, the choice of song to cover, that the original is, you know, it's, wow. It's not worthy of being described as the same song because it's just, it's really dull, the original. But what it does have that's really good about it is that it has really interesting chord changes that it's quite musically complex as a song as a piece of writing and so you put something kind of juicy into a club song like this and it's kind of more interesting to listen to than kind of just sort of solid two or three chords that you might expect from a usual dance track. They've got the singer Doe, who is a really good singer.

Like, it's not just, oh, get any old lady in to sing this song and just kind of do a couple of lines. She really kind of has to own the song and does a really great job with it. And I think the testament to that is that, do you remember the candlelight version of this song that was equally kind of massive? Well, it felt like amongst people our age, it was equally massive.

And people kind of treated it as like a really serious, you know, melancholy song, the candlelight version. And that had no involvement from DJ Sammy, really. There's no DJ aspect to that. That's piano. So that's testament to her and how strong her performance is in this song. I also think they just throw in so many little elements to the mix into the production that they don't need to do that help just kind of make it this more cohesive, more rich song. Like there's kind of little bits of we're in heaven, heaven, heaven in the background.

The kind of choice of synths, like these really fat, warm synths that make you just kind of want to dance to it. There's just so many little things in there and I think the fact that the song has substance as well, that you know there are emotions involved, it's not just a song that you dance to, that it's you know you can project meaning onto this. I think it just has everything that you need to make a really really great pop song and I've been really trying to think is there anything at all that I don't like about this and there isn't. I think it's absolutely flawless and easily my favourite song of 2002 so far.

I'll never stop listening to it. It will be on playlists in my life forever. It's just fantastic. I absolutely adore this song. Yeah. Oh, do you know, actually, I'd forgotten about that Candlelight remix until you mentioned it,

but I have a feeling that that was only made because the song was so popular that adult contemporary, you know, like Radio 2 or something, they wanted the song on their station, but they knew they couldn't play, like, you know, dum-dum-dum kind of music. And so I think the same thing ended up happening with Alicia Keys' own version of Empire State of Mind, where they didn't the same thing ended up happening with um alicia key's own

version of empire state of mind where they didn't have jay-z in it yeah um so yeah wow it just shows you how big it was at the time um lizzie uh heaven by dj sammy i really like this as well it's like you say andy it's a rare case of a cover song on this podcast being miles better than the original like this adds energy and a sense of urgency that's missing from the Brian Adams version which is kind of sludgy and plodding and a bit overproduced like this version strikes a good balance between Doe's like sweet nostalgic vocals and the pulsating, throbbing instrumental. It's not a million miles away from something like Toka's Miracle by Phragma. Yeah, yeah.

And there's also a really nice juxtaposition between the more natural elements in the verses, the sort of piano trills and the acoustic guitar strumming, and the bigger, more abrasive elements in the chorus, like the synth pads and the beat getting much heavier and fuller. I think my only real complaint about this version is that I feel like they give you the moment of release up front. The intro does the quiet vocal part which then kicks into the build for the pounding instrumental chorus drop. I can't help

but wonder what this track might have been like if they'd been patient enough to build up to that moment of release towards the end instead of giving away the climax a bit too soon but still when it does return towards the end of the track it still sounds just as good as it does in the opening minute I just kind of find myself thinking oh god what if they'd held off what if they'd like got you to the sort of breaking point and then they give you that moment of release and yeah but again that's a minor complaint. Like, we were sort of talking this week about tracks that are evocative of a certain place and time and liken this to Another Chance by Roger Sanchez,

which we covered during our 2001 run. Yeah. It's not really a certain time and place I experienced myself, but I'd say that if Another Chance is playing at the Grand Central bowling alley, then Heaven is what's playing at the nightclub a few doors down, physically named Heaven and Hell. Yeah. So for those who don't live in Stockport,

this particular nightclub has been closed for a number of years now, but it was the stuff of legend as a kid. From what I can gather it was divided into two floors, the upstairs floor, heaven, playing commercial pop, and the floor below, hell, being more focused on like straightforward dance music. And in that sense, heaven, the song, you'd think it would be on the heaven floor but it could fit in comfortably on either of them. it would be on the heaven floor but it could fit in comfortably on either of them and to me it sounds like an echo of a bygone age you listen to this and you can almost smell the blue wicked the shockwaves wet look hair gel noxious clouds of lynx africa and gucci rush worn by people who are

definitely over 18 i promise and. And in that sense, Heaven is like a Proust's Madeleine served in a shot glass. It's the sound of youth in full bloom, like slipping through your fingers without you even noticing it. If I could just mention one point you mentioned, Lizzie, about your kind of one main criticism of it,

that it sort of releases too early and hits the drop too early. I actually like that. I think that just goes to show that I really do think it's flawless because even that I actually really like about it. I like that it has a lot of rise and fall, a lot of ebb and flow, in that it kind of has five or six different moments of release throughout where it kind of pulls it back and then rises again.

It works well on the dance floor as well but you can kind of jump and rave at the choruses and then you can calm down a bit for the verses which I actually did last week at a wedding. Well in that sense I kind of get that they drop that bit in early so that everyone rushes to the dance floor and then you've got

it kind of makes sense in that way so yeah, like I say it's not a major issue at all it's just something that I kind of makes sense in that way so yeah like I say it's not a major issue at all it's just something that I kind of wondered that's fair though I've got to echo both of your sentiments and especially

Andy's I love this I still, this is one of the ones that we're covering at the moment where I still play this regularly um file this in like covers i prefer to the original next to like james blake's version of limit to your love or the communards version of don't leave me this way um i don't really want to waste words on the original which is like fine but like i'm gonna anyway like you

know brian adams have been supporting journey for a year when he wrote this and god you can tell um but i will at least thank him for writing the original so that dj sammy's could exist yeah it's just that the original is just like lizzie as you kind of dubbed it uh when we did when we talked about um when we briefly mentioned summer of 69 this this reagan core it's a great term for that kind of music where you know but you know like the brian adams version i i don't know it just it feels like it's more the lyrics feel more suited to what dj sammy's version is something that's euphoric and romantic and cathartic and elated and whereas brian adams version is more suited to like a love scene out of one of those like late 80s early 90s hollywood movies or like a michael bolton music video like you know how can

we be lovers or how am i supposed to live without you and that kind of weird amorphous period that all just kind of blobs together in my mind between like 88 and 94 where everything that could everything that's released in 88 could have feasibly been released in 93 and vice versa um whereas dj sammy kind of lifts the lyrics out and plants it somewhere else and that somewhere else as we were saying if another chance is the bowling alley at grand central then heaven is the branigan's heaven and hell next door and like you lizzie I never went in the place by the time I was old enough it was shut even when I was

at the age where I, not that I ever did but if I would have been one of those people who tries to try their hand with a fake ID it was deserted even by the time I was 15 and 16 it just lay empty for like four years with all the furniture still inside.

Like all the chairs and all the tables were still there, but the building was completely deserted and nobody owned it anymore. I just remember looking through, I used to look through that window so much. Like I used to walk. Yeah, because you used to to to get home to my house you have to when you're moving um between like stockport town center and like the surrounding

housing estates to get to my house from stockport town center you had to go through stockport station you had to walk underneath um and in order to get to stockport station you had to go past grand central and you had to go past Branigans, and there was that blue, they had a really distinctive design, you can find pictures of it online, if you just do Heaven and Hell Stockport, or something like that,

and the front of the building was like this blue tubular, like, it sort of looked like, if you untwisted the weird, hell to skelter in testing thing, outside the Olympic Stadium in London, and just kind of straightened it out and then filled it with glass, that's kind of how it looked. And so you used to be able to look in through those windows. And whenever I looked in, I always started developing like a really strong connection with the inside of

the building even though i never stepped foot in there like even from being a kid i had weird feelings of nostalgia and longing for the place even though i never went in um like i lost count of how many times i used to just stare through the windows between like 2005 and 2008 and then they knocked the place down in like the early 2010s and now it's just a hotel and my friend works there and it's just you know i get the feeling when i think about this is like oh everything ends and this idea that everything ends i think that's why i've fallen so hard for this song over the years because i think it really captures this heaven like it captures a moment in time in terms of the scene that it emerged from but it also captures a moment in time between the two people in the song

like not that you hear from the other person but you don't really need to because i think it so perfectly freezes that moment in the very very very very very early days of a relationship where there's a break in the tension that's been building up between two people like i imagine two people coming to heaven and hell and stockport they've probably been coming down on fridays and saturday nights for like a month and they've been seeing each other across the bar and like their mates have been going like oh go on go on go on and then no on. And then, no, shut up. No, leave it, leave it. Like that sort of thing. But every night they would go home thinking about each other.

And then after about a month, they finally decide that like it's a Saturday night or something. And this is the night they're finally convinced by their mates to stop flirting and just go for it. And just for that little second, probably when they first like i don't know they probably kiss each other on the dance floor or something and like their entire future just kind of happens in a second like a weird you know the mirrors that face each other and then they multiply and multiply and multiply forever and it's like all that image of um ray in neon gen in an episode of neon genesis evangelion um where all the um the faces in bohemian rhapsody where they go oh and like multiple versions of it just kind of fly out from the side and head off into

the distance but imagine if it's like them racing through time and it feels like their whole future happens in a second with this song and heaven is one of those ultimate like the only thing that matters is tonight the only thing that matters is this moment kind of song it's like one of the ultimate versions of that and i think this has a string of expertly executed rushes of anticipation um to really hammer that effect home and i don't think there's a bigger one than right towards the end when everything cuts out and it's just dough and that acoustic guitar and then the electronics and the drums kind of rush back in for that one last thing and then there's another build up and with a voice going and then it it's such a rush this song it really is such a massive massive rush um it's not quite a perfect score for me just because

the final chorus i wish it did a complete final chorus and because it kind of it kind of splits it in half and comes at it from a strange angle but you know i appreciate the variation on that but yeah i love this almost as much as andy this is high on my list of like favorite number ones of the 2000s yeah it's really something it really does capture it speaks to me from like some period that i can't really remember and yet through the fog whenever i kind of see it it's always this song i imagine that so many first kisses have been had to this song like yeah and you can just imagine the scene of like two people just kind of like finally taking that step to make themselves official and i imagine that more than enough people have probably had this as like a wedding song of theirs because they remember it from the first time.

You know, lots of 2010 weddings would have probably had this song on the playlist because a lot of people probably met in 2002 with this song because it was huge. Like 37 weeks in the top 100 over a course of like 10 years is, that's like numbers that only like Stan has achieved so far. And the show that we've been, you know, like so far where Eminem songs just keep coming back into the charts. And it's just this one time Euro dance DJ who did admittedly nearly get a number one in the future with a cover of, um, boys of summer by don henley um because they get it's a similar version of this but it's boys of summer and actually a lot

of people prefer boys of summer um but yeah just there's something magical about this and i can't quite put my finger on it but it's there there is this tangibly magical quality to it. It feels kind of weirdly shrouded in myth. It's so strange how it's almost in my head. I almost mythologize it to such a degree. It's quite powerful, actually. Yeah, so I don't know if you have anything to say just based on what I've said.

No, just I can't really add anything more other than that. It's just it is just wonderful. And there really isn't anything else quite like it. I don't think I think there are other things that have imitated it and have, you know, very much tried to be heaven. But there is only one heaven. I don't mean that in the religious sense. I'm not expressing any view there, but there is only one heaven, there really isn't anything else that captures that mood as well as this and I think of the other two or three songs that I've really

raved about on the show so far that's the same thing that I felt about them, is that there really is nothing else that could substitute for this song I felt the same about Pure Shores and about Can't Get You Out of My Head, and I feel that way about this that there's no other substitute for this song um the world would be a poorer place without this song yeah yeah is it um this is kind of a half-baked thought i'm having but is it so evocative

because it's like it's kind of representative of a certain time in like dance and nightclub culture where nightclubs were still kind of dingy and yeah a bit, you know Not somewhere you'd you'd want to be seen dead in but you don't really have a choice. Whereas now it's all It's all like a very slick operation and super DJs are all you know yachting about on Private islands and stuff and if you if you're in that sort of environment it's not going to be in like a sweaty tiny nightclub it's going to be in sort of big festivals and huge stadiums because that's the level they're at yeah i also think as well that when you hit the age where you're old enough to go to clubs and stuff like that

especially in the early 2000s you get this a lot i think in the third episode of the first season of the office which is the quiz which is the one with tim's birthday and the one where they actually go to the nightclub as well uh with like ch Finch. And the episode ends with Gareth riding away in the sidecar of that motorbike, looking at the camera, not knowing that he's kind of invited himself into a weird threesome. And there is this, and I think that's also the episode that ends with David Brent, Ricky Gervais, reading that poem, Come Bombs and Rain on Slough. Ricky Gervais reading that poem uh come bombs and rain on slough but I do think that when you reach your early 20s and like it's not quite something that maybe exists anymore I think it taps into like what we were talking about basically at the start of the show with them human traffic and films like that and train spotting I think taps into this as well where it's like the the highlight of your year is like a nightclub where i remember used to look in i remember used to look in through the windows

um yeah and like seeing that the chairs were like purple metal with like novelty cushions on them and stuff and it all just felt like velvet and yeah and it it just it also makes me think of um that episode of peep show which is my favorite episode of peep show funnily enough i think that's also the third episode of the first yeah i was just gonna mention that as well pulling that's a lot like the kind of great british night out at that time you really get a feeling of what it was like then. You see the kind of tail end of it in The Inbetweeners when they go out on the night out in London. Yeah.

That does feel like the beginning and the end of an era there, really. Yeah. This general feeling of this is it. Yes. This is life. It's just, this is it. This is the is life. Like it's just, this is the, like,

this is the highlight. You know, as Tony says in that peep show episode, this is not the rehearsal. I love that quote so much. Yeah. Oh my God. We're living this.

Like, you know, it's like Mark is, I think Mark's full quote is something like I'm smoking pot with a teenager in the laser ball toilets. Like this is it. I think for a lot of of especially if you work in class and you're denied a lot of things and like you find your way if your main source of enjoyment

is this i imagine that heaven it represents like a peak of that like that you look at the pictures of heaven and hell from even as late as 2005 and there is just this sort of sense of like aww it's sort of adorable in a way but yeah it just heaven just it is very very emblematic of an era of a moment and I would highly highly

recommend if people haven't seen the episodes of Peep Show and The Office that we've been discussing I think the the um the peep show one is called pulling i think and um the office one is called the quiz the peep show one is on the pull on the pull that's it yes pulling is the tv show isn't it it is um sharon yes um but yeah i think the well they also go to a bowling alley yes yeah yeah it's new girl yeah it is new girl season one episode five of the office so i mean the first the first season

of the office is like in the uk is just like one of the greatest things to ever come out of this country's tv i just i think to in that and the first season of The Peep Show, if you want, like, how does it feel to live in the UK and around sort of, like, not quite London, you know, Croydon and Slough, in the early days of, like, the second Blair term, when the hangover of Cool Britannia is really kicking in i feel like the quiz new girl of the office and um on the paul of peep show are like they are really really spectacular documents actually they may as well be documentaries they're so so true to how it feels and how it felt, I think, to be of working age and sort of realizing that dreams just kind of die

and they normally just die in routine because routine is comfortable. And yeah, heaven, they're all I think about with heaven. So many things rush into my brain with Heaven from between 2002 up until about 2005, so many things I think, like you say, by the time you get to that Inbetweeners episode, which I think was 2009

a night out in London clubbing and clubs' relationship with pop and the wider culture is different Yeah, it's become a very slick operation by that point yeah um but i would highly highly recommend seeking those episodes out um okay so time for pie hole and vault inductions so is a set of hay the ketchup song going in the vault or the pie hole for any of us? No. Not for me.

No, sadly not. Close, but no tomato. A Dilemma by Nelly featuring Kelly Rowland. Is that going up or down for anyone? I'm afraid I'm going to put it in the pie hole. I really don't like it. I'm sorry.

Is it at the upper tier of the pie hole, do you think, that sound in your voice? Yeah, it's in the crust of the pie, yeah. It's not like a Fray Bentos, it's sort of a pie minister pie. Yeah, yeah, it's a tall pie and this is, yeah, yeah. But I have to be true to myself that there are songs that I've, you know, liked just as little as this and I've put them in the pie hole. I need to be true to myself that there are songs that I've, you know, liked just as little as this and I've put them in the pie hole. I need to be true to myself.

Yeah, this belongs in the pie hole for me. Yeah. Neither for me, though. All right, then. And Heaven by DJ Sammy and Yanu and Do. Oh, God, putting that in the vault. Hell yes. Yeah.

Yeah. Vault for me, too. I was on the fence, but you've convinced me. the vault. Hell yes. Yeah. Yeah. Vault for me too. I was on the fence, but you've convinced me. I will also go vault. Yeah! Ooh! Triple vaulter. Can't remember the last one of those that we had. Was it Freak Like Me? Freak Like Me, yeah.

There's only ever been five or six that we've ever done triple vault, so it's a rare thing. So well done, DJ Sammy. Ah, excellent excellent when we come back we will be uh looking at the uh the period between the 10th of november and the 7th of december 2002 um we will see you all really soon stay safe see you then bye