Hits 21 - 2003 (6): Fatman Scoop, Kylie Minogue, Busted

Episode Date: May 21, 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] https://images.app.goo.gl/prhaAC4W8f8cJTMDA

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 too just send it on over to Hits21Podcast at gmail.com Thank you so much for joining us again. We are currently looking back at the year 2003

that's where you find us and this time we'll be covering the period between the 26th of October and the 22nd of November. The year is almost over and I feel like we've barely started. I just can't believe how fast we've got through this year. Looking back at last week, our poll winner. Well, rather staggeringly, Where is the Love won the Twitter poll but received no votes on the Spotify poll. What? I know, which means that the prize for last week's poll winner goes to Hole in the Head by Sugar Babes. Wow. Oh god. I mean that's a shock first of all but also this is quite topical. Does that mean the first round of votes gave us one result and then that seeming vict topical does that mean the first round of votes gave us

one result and then that seeming victor was toppled after the second half of votes i wonder what current event at time of recording that reminds me of yes congratulations to laureen um i'm shocked by that though on both counts i'm shocked by hole in the head winning i i yeah i didn't think that would happen i thought elton and black ey Peas were both more beloved songs than that. Yeah. So, before we get on to this week's episode, I just want to address something from a previous episode, about two or three episodes ago.

I was re-listening to Loneliness by Tom Craft this week, and I thought, you know what? I really like this. And so I'd like to upgrade it's status from having one vault vote to two, I'm going to put it in the vault hopefully when it comes to the end of the year that might be the difference between

it's placement on our chart, who knows but yeah I'm going to do a little bit of housekeeping as well minutes before we went on the air I was chatting with my husband about where is the love and he's convinced me to put that in the vault so i'm doing it i'm putting that in the vault as well okay yeah see this is the great thing you know relationships with songs they change over time

even over the space of a month um um one more thing before we get going um i had an email from a listener who has answered a question that we had last week. Because my question was, has there ever been two consecutive number one singles that end with the same suffix or last word? Because there was Elton John's Are You Ready For Love? And then there was the Black Eyed Peas' Where Is The Love? And so someone got in touch with us. I'll keep them anonymous, but thank you very much for emailing in. So yeah, they're addressing the point that two number ones in a row ended with the word love. And I wondered if that sort of coincidence had ever been the case before. And so this person

had a look and there were two consecutive number ones that we had on this show that shared letters. But those letters were, well, the start of the word really was ETERN, because there was ETERNITY and ETERNAL FLAME. Oh, yeah. Ah, okay. So thank you very much, that person,

whose name we will not reveal. It's a really good catch. Yeah, thank you. Yeah, so thank you very much. Okay, now we are going to get on to this week's episode and as always we're going to give you some news headlines from around the time that the songs were covering this week were at number one in the uk conservative party leader ian duncan smith resigns after narrowly failing to get the support of his mps in a vote of confidence. Michael Howard replaced him as leader. Smith would later return to the Tory backbenches as an MP for Chingford in Epping Forest and

would eventually be Chancellor in David Cameron's government. The High Court in Glasgow imposes a minimum sentence of 27 years for Ali Mohamed Al-Megrahi, the perpetrator of the Lockerbie plane bombing in 1988, which killed 259 people. Al-Megrahi would eventually be released on compassionate grounds in 2009 after being diagnosed with cancer, and he eventually died in 2012. And in sport, England wins the Rugby World Cup for the very first time. A late drop goal from Johnny Wilkinson gave them a 20-17 victory over hosts Australia. Upon their return to England after the tournament, thousands of fans greeted them at Heathrow airport in the

early hours of the morning and up to 750,000 000 people attended an open top bus parade in london i don't remember that apparently it's true uh in the dead of winter as well yeah committed people i don't remember that no crazy um the films to hit the top of the uk box office during this period were as follows the matrix Revolutions for two weeks and then Love Actually begins a four-week reign at the top. On TV, the bill marks 20 years with a special live episode

and Jonathan Ross gets in trouble for saying fuck during Red Nose Day, even though the word was used after 10.30pm. I mean, why? It's after 10.30. Why? It was deemed that children would still be watching and that well if you've got your children watching tv at half 10 then that's your problem i'm a firm believer in that you know it's your job to put your kids to bed not the telly so yeah just random tangent there that doesn't sit well with me anyway yeah um the rugby world

cup final which we've mentioned earlier, is watched by 10 million people, which becomes a new British record for a TV broadcast on a Saturday morning. That's interesting. And Andy Peters becomes the new showrunner of Top of the Pops in a bid to revitalise the long-running series. No spoilers as to whether that works out or not.

Yeah, I've looked at some episodes from around that time and I'm pretty sure there was at least two where there was only like two songs from the actual chart and all the others were new entries which hadn't charted so if you want an idea of how that went then there you go they tried

meanwhile sitcom Arrested Development broadcasts its very first episode then there you go. Yeah. They tried. Meanwhile, sitcom Arrested Development broadcasts its very first episode, as does Star Wars The Clone Wars. However, back in the UK, Brookside airs its final episode after 21 years and 2,915 episodes on Channel 4. Oh, that's quite a big moment, the end of Brookside. It is. It was Channel 4's biggest show for a good decade, if not more. Andy, those album charts, how are they doing at this moment in time? Yeah, so last week we finished with Life for Rent by Dido at the top spot for four weeks, pretty much all of October.

That will come up again, but it's toppled from the top spot by REM with In Time, The Best of REM, 1988 to 2003. Very wordy title there, which I don't like at all. But yeah, yeah, The best of REM there which went number one for one week and five times platinum that then took over at the top spot the next week by Guilty by Blue their latest studio album and that went double platinum and was number one for just one week I had a look at this and we're past the peak with Blue here to say the least. I know we've sort of mentioned them for the last time in terms of number one singles and yeah there's not

really any big ones on here. It's nice to see Blue popping up one more time but yeah it's kind of over for them now sadly. And then Life for Rent by Diodo returns to number one for one week before being replaced at the top spot by the compilation album

Number Ones by Michael Jackson. And that sees us through to the end of the month. So yeah, a couple of different things this week. I have a feeling that Life for Rent going back to number one has something to do with a rather prominent use of Here With Me in Love Actually. Oh yeah, it was in that film wasn't it yeah it gets played

during quite a prominent scene where the creep who ends up with the placards in front of Keira Knightley's house it's after he's inadvertently shown her the video of her wedding day where all he's done is record her

they're all of me. I think that's a good shout because it goes to number one over Christmas this year as well, which would make sense with Love Actually. So, yeah, I think you've got a good shout, though. Lizzie, the States, how are they doing? OK, we've got a couple of things. Nothing new to mention for singles, though,

because Beyonce and Sean Paul are still at number one continuing their nine week run with Baby Boy but the album's chart is much more active around this time with most albums only managing a week at number one so first up this week we have American Idol runner-up Clay Aiken who got to number one for two weeks with his debut album Measure of a Man which went double platinum in the US but I can't find any evidence to suggest that it was ever even released over here, so

if you're a big Clay Aiken fan let me know, because I couldn't find anything, I'm sorry after that, I'm sure we'll have some fans for this though we have a re-entry at number one for Speakerboxx slash The Love Below by Outkast

yeah that's a good one it eventually went 11 times platinum in the US but somehow it only got as high as number 8 in the UK albums chart in early 2004 stupid British public I think they were apart from Ms Jackson

Outkast were sort of a one hit wonder in the UK really weren't they far more than they were, apart from Ms Jackson, Outkast were sort of a one-hit wonder in the UK, really, weren't they? Far more than they were in the US. Well, Hey Ya gets to number three, but they just never quite got to the top. Yeah, I'm surprised with the popularity of Hey Ya and Roses that it didn't do better than that, actually. Oh, Roses, yeah. Yeah, and I like the way you move as well. Do-do-do.

Yeah. Exactly. And finally this week, we have one week at number one for, Jesus Christ, Shock and Yawl by Toby Keefe. What? Jesus. Yeah, it's the Iraq War, baby, which went four times platinum in the US but presumably

wasn't even released over here as there's no chart data for it and who would buy it anyway what is it if it's not too difficult a question sorry Lizzie but what is this Toby Keith thing he's an American country singer who was he's one of a couple of like

country singers in America who got really big around the time of 9-11 because they played on like American patriotism and exploited it to their own means shall we say see I really kind of followed the chicks on this

one so people like Toby Keith got left behind right okay thank you much thank you both very much for those reports both both of you. And we're on to our first song of the week. And the first one of this week is this. Out, out, out, out, out, out You got a hundred dollar bill, get your hands up You got a fifty dollar bill, get your hands up You got a twenty dollar bill, get your hands up

You got a ten dollar bill, get your hands up Single ladies, I can't hear y'all Single ladies, make noise Single ladies, I can't hear y'all Single ladies, make noise All the chicken heads, be quiet All the chicken heads, be quiet All the chicken heads, be quiet. All the chicken heads, be quiet.

All the chicken heads, be quiet. Yeah, baby, fat man, scoop face, let me sing along, come on. I never knew there was a love like this before. All the good looking women sing along. I can't hear y'all. I never had someone to show me your love. I can't hear y'all. Okay, this is Be Faithful by Fat Man Scoop and Crooklyn Clan. Released as a non-album single, Be Faithful is Fat Man Scoop's first single to be released in the UK and his first to reach number one. It's also his last.

Be Faithful was originally released in 1999, but it didn't chart in the UK. In November 2003, it went straight in at number one as a brand new entry, knocking Sugar Babes off the top of the charts. It stayed at number one for two weeks. In its first week at number 1, it sold 63,000 copies beating competition from Guilty by Blue, which got to number 2. Jumpin' by Liberty X, which got to number 6. Got Some Teeth by Obie Trice, which got to number 8. And So Yesterday by Hilary Duff, which got to number 9. In its second week atop the charts, it sold 51,000 copies, beating competition from If You Came to Me by Atomic Kitten, which got to number 3, Trouble by Pink, which got to

number 7, State of Mind by Holly Valance, which got to number 8, and Hold On Me by Fix, which got to number 10. That's two X's in fix. When it was knocked off the top of the charts be faithful fell two places to number three by the time it was done on the charts it had been inside the top 100 for 16 weeks the song was certified gold in the uk in november 2018 so andy be faithful fat man scoop go yeah and i will be faithful but thanks for the advice um yeah so with this one i mean you talk about not this being a non-album single and i just thought it was worth mentioning at first that it's a non-album single because fat man scoop doesn't have any albums at all to this day he only did singles and they were eventually collected

together on some compilations but he's one of those people who doesn't really follow the traditional path just kind of you know goes out and about and does duets does collaborations releases the occasional lead single um but i find that very interesting that someone like that who wasn't really getting that kind of label push that you need wasn't launching anything managed to get a number one out of nowhere and it's great to see something like this come into the top because it's very different this is really unlike virtually anything that we've heard before um my instinct at first is well i think when i was younger i used to kind of laugh at it a bit to be honest because that voice is just so so obnoxious

and loud and in your face. And this time around, I guess my instinct was to slightly turn the volume down as soon as it started, just because it is very, very upfront about what it is. But that's really good. And actually, it's very kind of foreshadowing of its time, really, that that kind of will become popular with other people. And it's kind of come back around now I remember when I heard

Break My Soul by Beyonce I wondered if the ya ya ya ya ya ya bits in the background were Fat Man's Scoop and it's not, Big Freedia but it sounded a lot like Fat Man's Scoop so he's actually been quite influential really that that kind of sound sticks around

and I actually do like this it took me a while to get into it um but i do really like it i say it took me a while just because i don't like it when things are as abrasive as this usually and i also think it's kind of it's a little bit dumb in some ways that it's just kind of you know everybody put your hands up like in different varieties of be telling people to put their hands up it's like this demographic put your hands up like in different varieties of be telling people to put their hands up it's like this demographic put your hands up this demographic put your hands up um and it has that silly lyric as well all the chicken heads be quiet which i can't quite look past um but i kind of love it because of its silliness not in spite of its silliness that it's just it's really kind of wacky and weird and you can just kind of lose your mind to it and just sing along

um as loudly as you can there's some songs that you don't have to think about as heavily as that but you know if we are thinking about it and are analyzing it one thing that was also really impressive is the use of samples like there's loads in this um and i always think the highest compliment you can ever give a song that uses samples is when you don't immediately realize. You know, there was one or two that quite obvious, like the I never knew there was a love like this before. But other than that, you know, all the other samples in the background and there are seven or eight different songs that are used for this. So like either sampled or interpolated and they're really well put together, really well disguised. It sounds like a mostly original song. So some really good production work done on this. It's something

like that we haven't really heard before on Hits 21, which is always a lovely thing to happen. And I remember this quite fondly and like it far more than I did as a kid. So yeah, it's a big thumbs up overall. Like I say, I still think it's a bit kind of silly and it's not one that I listen to particularly often. But, no, I enjoyed this. Yeah, it gets a big thumbs up from me. Lizzie, how about you? Yeah, I agree with a lot of your points. I also just wanted to mention about the sample as well.

It's a sample of a sample. Yeah, yeah. So it samples Faith Evans, the... I never knew no man was like... But then that is a sample of Chic Cher by Chic. Yeah. So, yeah, you've just got this kind of meta thing going on, which I really love.

But, yeah, I'm a big fan of this. To me, this is kind of... It's in the same realm as something like Anti-Up by M.O.P. and Jump Around by House of Pain. You know, that kind of... Yeah. I don't know what genre you'd call it because I was thinking like jock jams,

but it's not quite that. It is a sort of... It's like hip hop, but it's not something you'd categorise next to like Illmatic. Oh, is this a christening a new genre corner like we do every so often

this is the new coffee pop? Maybe. I mean, answers on a postcard, please. I was thinking maybe Hype Hop. Oh, Lizzie,

where do you come up with these things? That's fantastic. I love that. Thank you. Yeah, Hype Hop or like Party Rap or something like that

but Hype Hop is way better. I do like Party Rap as well it's kind of quite descriptive yeah but yeah it works because fat man scoop himself is an excellent hype man which is why something like this works but the other we've only really covered one other hype song on the podcast and i'm sorry it's we will rock You by Five. I would argue maybe Lose Yourself as well. I think Lose Yourself is a bit of one. Maybe, but I think that's more of a straightforward rap track

with a sort of inspirational message, I guess. And yes, it does hype you up, but it's not something you'd put on at a party to get people hyped up. No, no. In the same way that We Will Rock You is. But this works because Fat Man Scoop has this very infectious energy about him, which means this doesn't grate the same way

that We Will Rock You does, because it's just like, oh, sure, leave me alone. Just please let me sit in the corner. You know you want to get up and dance to this and join in with the the vocals because yeah like everything i've seen of fat man scoop this week i just love him i sent you that clip of him performing in a primary school in liverpool like it it makes sense it shouldn't but it's just he seems like a really lovable guy and even still like you look at recent clips he's doing like half-time gigs at NBA games and he's still breaking out this song

in like true one hit wonder fashion or like you know like a Carl Douglas where you kind of dine out on it for decades and everyone's just okay with it because it is a really good track um but yeah like you say it's not something you'd probably stick on you know if you're just sitting around at home it is very much you put this on at a party when everyone's a bit leery and then you start asking someone you've never met what a chicken head is but it works and i've i've had a lot of fun with this even so much as like just walking around the house this week doing like boring errands put the tune like sort of popping in my head so it's like doing the washing up be quiet make noise if you want to clean the oven put your hands up

but yeah it just it has that quality it is genuinely infectious and just fun and I don't think we've had many just outright fun songs on this podcast but this is one of them I'm a big fan of this I agree with all of that, yeah. Yeah, I've got to echo both of what you've been saying, actually.

Yeah, this is just three minutes of hype, but those three minutes are the best three minutes of hype that you'll ever experience, you know? I think something I was kind of hoping one of you two would mention, but you haven't, is that I think this has a really similar appeal to like Oxide and Neutrino and DJ Pied Piper. Yeah. Where it's that proper like, you know, stripped back, like someone on the wheels of steel, guy on a microphone yelling at people so that they just keep moving. I think that despite how repetitive this gets, it also finds new ways

to keep itself going and phrase itself. It's so clearly designed for like a huge audience as well, and it makes a lot of, so many like inexplicable decisions, like the black sheep sample, you know, the engine, engine number nine. And, you know, Lizzie, you were talking about meta samples and stuff. So that engine, engine number nine thing is from The Choice Is Yours, revisited by Black Sheep. Yeah. But the line itself is quoted from a song from way before um i forget the name of it um but then the double bass sample that runs underneath it the um do do do do do do do that is itself a sample of mccoy tyner's

impressions which itself is a cover of John Coltrane from 1963. And so you have like this weird recursive effect with the various samples that get used in this. But yeah, so going a little bit further into it as well, I feel like, like Elton last week, this feels like a very late 70s, early 80s throwback. like Elton last week, this feels like a very late 70s, early 80s throwback, but it's a throwback to more underground hip-hop rather than anything that made it into the charts. Around that time, like I was saying before, this image of a party, guy on the decks, guy with a microphone, that sort of thing. Fat Man Scoop has a lot of charisma as well, which helps because his lines aren't original or even that interesting, to be honest. But like they are sort of motivational and they try to reach out to as many people as possible, I guess, in the audience.

But I think the more you look into the lyrics, the more I think this becomes obvious that like it's just the guy using his status as the guy on the microphone to look for someone in the crowd to sleep with. The lyrics are basically trying to narrow down the one woman in the crowd who's still interested after he's singled out everybody else. It just feels like he's going through loads of dating preferences. Well, like, take me out. Do you know, a little bit like that. Everyone's turning the lights off and there's just one left, yeah. Because, hang on, let me get the lyrics up.

If you have a $100 bill, get your hands up. $50 bill, $20 bill, $10 bill. So that's like everybody. But then it's single ladies, I can't hear you. Single ladies, make some noise. And then if you've got long hair or short hair, if you've got a weave, you know, like that sort of thing. And then the final verse is the, and then if you've got long hair or short hair, if you've got a weave, you know, like that sort of thing.

And so, and then the final verse is the, Who fucking a knight? Who fucking a knight? Who fucking a knight? And it's very, very obviously a guy, like, basically going, Look, who's into me and who wants to come and party after the show? Kind of thing. I did look up chicken heads on Urban Dictionary. It's not a complimentary word apparently it's a derogatory term

used against women who have a reputation for handing out blowjobs that's so yeah, not great but I do want to sign off on one thing which is

well, first to say that I still think this is a great song. It was played at a wedding I was at recently, which I think says a lot about how it stood the test of time. And it was also featured in a tweet I saw literally two months ago. This is from someone I follow on twitter and it says at a i'm at a primary school disco and the dj put on the unedited version of the fat man scoop so we've just had a full verse of who fucking tonight until he realized and did the quickest mix you've ever heard and so 20 years after its release it's still being played at kids school discos and weddings so clearly that performance in a liverpool primary school paid off that it had a huge impact years down the line

but i do think it i do think it does kind of sum up what you were saying there lizzie about this like this hype hop kind of like party rap stuff where it's like house of pain jump around would probably still get played at school discos as well and even though that song is nearly 30 years old because for some reason the the squeal in the the squeal sample in the song is just it has endured i don't think anybody ever loses the urge to jump around. And I don't think anybody ever loses the urge to just kind of shout at this song and shout to the song. Exactly. Yeah.

So, yeah, I'm cool. It touches some human urges, I guess. Although if you read into the lyrics, it's more human urges than one. All right, then. next up is this. Our eyes connected Now nothing's how it used to be Don't second guess it Tracking all this feeling Pull focus close up you and me Nobody's leaving

Got me affected Spun me 180 degrees It's so electric Slow down and dance with me Yeah, slow Skip a beat and move in my body Yeah, slow Come on and dance with me

Yeah, slow Come on and dance with me Yeah Slow Skip a beat and move with the body Yeah Slow Don't wanna rush it Alright, this is Slow by Kylie Minogue. Released as the lead single from her ninth studio album titled Body Language,

Slow is Kylie Minogue's 38th single to be released in the UK overall and her seventh to reach number one. But this is the last time that Kylie Minogue will have a number one on this podcast. So last time we'll be chatting about her in depth. Slow went straight in at number one as a brand new entry knocking Fat Man Scoop off the top of the charts. It stayed at number one for one week.

In its first and only week atop the charts, it sold 43,000 copies, beating competition from Flip Reverse by Blazin' Squad, which got to number two, and Sexed Up by Blazing Squad which got to number two and Sexed Up by Robbie Williams which got to number ten. When it was knocked off the top of the charts Slow fell three places to number four. By the time it was done on the charts it had been inside the top 100 for 15 weeks. The song has never received any certification from the British phonographic industry which is a bit of a surprise actually,

because Kylie's very popular, and I thought that just by virtue of streaming, it would have crept over the line, but apparently not. Bit of a shout out to Flip Reverse, which I have distinct memories of from around this time, which is me being in a corridor outside my school hall in primary school where there was a disco being held, hearing the intro to Flip Reverse and running down the corridor to the hall to join the rest of my friends so that we could all go, Girl, I love the way you work!

And sing along to that ridiculous ridiculous song uh andy slow by kylie how are we feeling yeah it's it's a bit strange isn't it well certainly very strange and it's the last one that kylie gets as of yet at number one um but particularly so that just like it's just a random selection of Kylie songs that get to number one, very much like Girls Aloud are the other one. That's, like, they've got loads of great singles, but there's just, like, two or three random ones

that get to number one, and it doesn't really paint that big a picture of them as an artist. Like, I was so happy that Can't Get You Out of My Head, of course, got to number one, because it meant that we were able to gush over that. It is, like, one of Kylie's absolute greatest hits. But this kind of isn't really...

I think maybe the reason it hasn't sold very much is that you never, ever hear this anymore. Like, ever. Pretty much everything else from this era of Kylie you do hear all the time, and I think some of those really are classics despite the fact they never got to number one like love at first sight and in your eyes are both amazing uh your disco needs you is brilliant as well even though that slightly predates spinning around actually i

think that was the very start of 2000 and you know there's all sorts of stuff after that like wow and get out of my way and two hearts and all the lovers you know all of which you hear all the time all of which are really popular that you know are at the top of any kind of kylie playlist um but you don't hear this very often and so it's very weird to me that it got number one um and sometimes there's just no rhyme or reason to these things i guess it's very different for kylie as well which i think is why it might get excluded sometimes in people's memories, is because it doesn't really sound like her.

It's got this minimal production to it, this very kind of basic electronic, almost kind of, like, you know, Candy Stanton with You've Got the Love sort of sounds like that kind of basic, just like one line at the bottom instrumentation, which is really different for Kylie,

especially in this era where she's going for big, lush, innovative production sounds. To do something as stripped back and challenging to the listener as this, I think is very brave. And so I've really liked this the more I've listened to it more and more because it's not one I've heard in quite a while. I don't think it reaches the heights of her biggest hits and I don't think that this is a kind of Kylie that I want to see that much more of but it's a really good diversion for it. It's good to see how versatile she is. I also think like she's just so good at selling

a song and this whole anticipation thing with the slow the way she kind of waits and then delivers it in this really soft way just like to sort of visibly slow you down to try and calm your move uh calm your nerves down calm your mood down she's just so good at that like she's just so good at getting into the character of a song and i think that's what's really good about this is that she just she could really sing the phone book and put her own spin on it put her own character on it and you'd be able to feel it um she's just so expressive as a singer and so I did really like this and thought it was something like again like like Fat Man Scoop it's something very different that we don't hear stuff like this very much um you know it's the kind of thing you would expect to hear of like

Swedish pop at this time stuff like Robin, that you might expect to be coming out with something like this at the time. And not from Kylie. But yeah, it's nice to see it. I'm kind of bitter, to be honest, about the fact that Love at First Sight and In Your Eyes, Come Into My Arms and stuff like that,

not Come Into My Arms, Come Into My World and stuff like that didn't get number one. I'm seething over that, that we've got this to talk about rather than any of those. But it's nice to have Kylie here, as always. And I remain hopeful that if we, you know,

still go at this and it gets to like 2025, 2026, whatever, there may well yet be another Kylie number one for us to talk about. It may not be the last of her. We'll see. But yeah, it's good. It's good. I like this.

I don't absolutely adore it, but I do like this. Yeah. Lizzie, how about you? Yeah good I like this I don't absolutely adore it but I do like this Lizzie how about you yeah I love this and apparently so too does Kylie who named it her favourite song of her music career in 2012 so yeah but yeah I'm a really big fan of this

like I agree Andy that it is quite bold to do something as kind of minimal and stripped back as this, especially, as you say, like after Can't Get You Out of My Head, she's a big star it doesn't seem like a guaranteed hit but i'm glad it is um because yeah i think it's really special it reminds me i really liked your um shout out to you got the love i would also say um i feel love by donna summer yeah like the the swooning vocals over a fairly low-key electronic instrumental and i mean low-key because like um i noticed that um tom from freaky trigger compared this to um something from the german label compact that like micro house where it almost sounds like sort of bit crushed it almost

you know you've like especially the beat almost sounds like something from chiptune and yeah i think it's it's a really special like combination and kylie pulls it off perfectly and i'm also andy i'm gonna steal your gimmick because you know that thing you do where it's like you pick out really small moments from a track like the delirious that one bit yeah yeah that one bit for me it's where she says body language yes that just makes me think of the little mermaid it makes me think of Ursula with body

language exactly but yeah it's not an easy thing to pull off because if you're not careful like the track can overpower the artist or the artist can overpower the track i think here they're just in perfect sync throughout and yeah i i think it's incredible it's one of my favorites of this year and one of my favorites we've covered so far wow. High honor bestowed upon it there. I place myself in between the two of you.

I am very taken with this, mainly with how bravely minimal and also bass-heavy this is in an era of very trebly and maximalist pop. Lots of sub-bass bubbling away in this, stripping back individual parts you know very seductive and restrained kylie is breathing there's like there's two kylie's in the mix there's the one that's doing the melody and there's the one that's also breathing the words

so that like you can feel the melody but also you get this cool wind that kind of blows in at the same time instrumentally it reminds me a lot of minimal early 80s stuff but I don't think you get the the texture of the synth leads

if the song really has leads it feels like it's lots of component rhythm parts put together but i don't think you get anything like that without going through impossible princess and like the rest of electronic stuff from the 90s um where i think this falls slightly short of can't get you out of my head which is a high honor because can't get you out of my head is one of the greatest number ones of all time. This leans much further into the sex symbol remarketing that we were discussing when we covered Fever and Can't Get You Out of My Head, and it means that a little bit of that subtlety is lost ever so slightly, I think, with regards to just kind of like the atmosphere of the sexuality

of the song, where I feel like you kind of have to go looking for it a little bit and can't get you out of my head. This presents itself very directly as like a sexual song. And even like the video as well, where they're all on like the beach towels and they're all doing the poses and all that sort of thing. There's a lot of skin on show in that video. And I think it's, yeah, the's the criticism I guess is that the level of

mystique is diminished slightly by how forward this is with its intentions but the sensuality and the hormonal urges are very clear and very much like can't get you out of my head you can feel Kylie's voice in your

you can really feel her voice in your ear actually it's like she's right on your shoulder especially when she's doing like you were saying lizzie the uh read my body language and the um the also in that verse as well the uh take it down down you know that sort of thing and all these like little earworms that just sort of stick with you a little bit so yeah i'm i'm very taken with this i don't think this is on the level of um like say can't get you out of my head or even stuff like love at first sight or come into my world but i prefer it to things like spinning

around from this era um this is a great era for kylie and it's a shame that something like wow doesn't get to number one in the future or even something like i believe in you from around this time as well uh that only gets to number two all the lovers as well which is one i quite like but yeah so yeah i'm a fan of a really big fan of this era of kylie and i think this is one of her sort of standout moments from it and it's a shame that it's like you were saying andy it doesn't get played much anymore maybe that's why its legacy isn't as solid it's not as intact um as as other ones from around this time but yeah very much into it the fact that it hasn't been played as much in recent years is probably why I go back to this one more than can't get you out of my head, if anything.

Yeah, because you hear it less without your consent or say-so. It means that you go looking for it yourself. Exactly. Yeah. Okay, right. Well, we're up to our final song

of the week, our third and final song of the week. And it is this. This. I'm so rushed up my feet Looking for Gordon Street So much I need to say I'm sorry that it's on her wedding day Cause she's so right for me Her daddy disagrees

He's always hated me Cause I never got a J or B Cause she's mine And I'm glad I crashed the wedding It's better than regretting I can't believe I was a kid And when we did this The worst thing that I ever did

Just chilled out past the river And now we're back together As if we never met So I'm looking back I'm glad I crashed the wedding Okay, this is Crash The Wedding by Busted. Released as the lead single from the group's second studio album titled A Present For Everyone, Crash The Wedding is Busted's fifth single overall to be released in

the UK and their second to reach number one after You Said No hit the summit earlier this year. This is not the last time we'll be discussing Busted on this podcast. Crash The Wedding went straight in at number one as a brand new entry knocking Kylie Minogue off the top of the charts. It stayed at number one for one week. In its first and only week at number one, it sold a total of 55,000 copies, beating competition from Me Against the Music by Britney and Madonna, which got to number two, Hey Ya by Outkast, which got to number three, oh sorry, which got to number six, Lost for Words by Ronan Keating, which got to number nine, and Pass That Dutch by Missy Elliott, which got to number nine and pass that dutch by missy elliott which got to

number 10 when it was knocked off the top of the charts crashed the wedding fell three places to number four by the time it was done on the charts it had been inside the top 100 for 14 weeks the song was certified gold in the uk in january 2022 so a bit of a long time for that to be certified. Lizzie, Crash the Wedding, Busted, take it away. Yeah, well, as you know, I am the resident non-Busted fan

of the group, so apologies in advance. Okay, admittedly, like of all the Busted number ones, of the ones I've seen anyway, this is easily the one that I would say I like the most or maybe dislike the least in any case. Because like, I don't love it,

but I think it's got enough sort of little fun details I've included in here to fit the theme, like, you know, the wedding bells and the church organs that come in and I think if you're going to do this sort of thing then you you may as well have fun with it and not turn it into a pity parade like you said no so yeah I appreciate that um on the flip side I still really don't like Charlie's singing voice individually but i'd say they do have some quite nice harmonies in the chorus like you said rob we had a conversation sort of this week about how this

is kind of more power pop adjacent than the more sort of nasally sound of pop punk this is more akin to something like starry eyes by the records or September Girls by Big Star over Blink-182 or some 41. And I do appreciate that about it. It's just, I don't know, I'm still in the camp of finding Busted hard to love, specifically because this might be a bit of an unfair criticism, but it feels like in their songs they can never lose. They always have to be the winner, ultimately.

It always has to be, oh, well, something bad happened, but we came out on top, so it's all good. It's like that's not the reality, and it's okay to be able to talk about that and be just quite honest about it. Sometimes it doesn't work out perfect, you don't get that fairytale ending and

I don't know again, I think this is maybe a bit of an unfair criticism I'd argue that they lost in You Said No but they still go with that girl's sister though, don't they? Exactly, that's the thing they have to

they have to pull it back it's like oh well i i won in the end because i'm that i'm that kind of guy when that doesn't really happen to people and i feel like if your if your target audience is it might not be their target audience but their primary audience is young children and especially like you know young boys and they're listening to this this is a bigger problem with an upcoming number one of theirs so stay tuned for that but I guess here it's not as bad as you said no with the whole oh well I slept with you slept with your sister anyways okay this is kind of just i invaded your wedding and your personal space and um by the way you know that woman who you were going to marry she's marrying me now because you have a stupid name so deal with it i don't know maybe

it works in that sense that it is just um if you imagine it, it's like a kid's fantasy of, you know, being the superhero of the day. But I don't know, at this point, they're in their 20s. It's like, you're a bit old for this, lads. But I'm going off on a tangent. Anyway, I don't love this, but I think it's better than You Said No, and it's better than What's To Come. Cool. Okay, I will field this one next. So I love this.

I think this is busted at their very near best. I think that over the years, obviously i explained on you said no when we covered that that i was a huge huge busted head when i was like 10 or however old i was at this point eight nine you know so listening to them when i was a kid it was like they were all music that existed it was this and elliefunk it was like those were the only two cds i had um apart from a bunch of now compilations and stuff but over the years like you know reaching being about 15 and 16 and sort of looking back and thinking nah this didn't really work and then reaching your 20s and then going actually some of it does work and it's that famous um ro Ebert passage about Air Force One, which is great.

And I will leave a link to it in the show notes because it's one of my favorite pieces of writing about how your relationship with films and music and TV and stuff changes as you get older and kind of circles back on itself. But when we were coming to You Said No last week or the week before, it was a bit, you know, it was decent, I thought, but, you know, the nostalgia not quite being there was a bit of a surprise to me. You know, I thought that I would be more nostalgic for it than I was, and I was a little bit apprehensive going into Crash the Wedding, but I wouldn't feel the same, you know, the same thing would happen where the connection wouldn't quite be there. that this finds Busted at their best because I think they're at their best when they combine

that kind of hormonal teen angst, everything's at 100 miles an hour, everything's a film and you're always the protagonist, with a little wink at the audience that they're kind of leaning on these kinds of, you know, John Hughes style trope, you know, kind of movies to just kind of lift the narrative slightly and give it a bit of a pep talk and give it a bit of a lift, you know kind of movies um to just kind of lift the narrative slightly and give it a bit of a pep talk and give it a bit of a lift you know they're cheeky lads who are just being cheeky lads and will always be cheeky lads in perpetuity as preserved by these songs i think crash the wedding gets closer to what busted actually are and rather than what they were trying to be it feels like songs like you said no and sleeping with the light on to an extent when they go for like the pure angst like

you know that sort of thing it feels like they're kind of like you were saying lizzie going for like the blink for blink 182 some 41 kind of angle where it's like they're trying to be harsh and emotional and stuff. I think there's one song they get that quite right on which is something we'll kind of cover in the future because it's part of a double A side that gets the number one that they have. But this

feels like the crucial difference I think between Busted's best and Busted's kind of also ran material um because i think you know blink 182 their origins i think can be traced back to buzzcocks specifically songs like orgasm addict whereas busted like you were saying lizzie and like we were discussing earlier this week their origins are more the undertones, Teenage Kicks, or My Best Friend's Girl by The Cars, or, as you mentioned to me, Another Girl, Another Planet,

which, ironically, was given a pop-punk overhaul by Blink. And, like, you know, pop-punk is present in Busted Sound, but I always think their best material, like What I Go to School For and this, they lean more towards the open-hearted power pop kind of stuff you know they go for the size rather than the attack um i think that this uses the form of song to tell quite a you know a quick short story that's quite effective rescues his girl from a man that she doesn't want to marry, and then they run off together, who knows to where, who knows for how long, it might be like a happy ending, or it might

be the end of The Graduate, like, who knows, you know, but beyond the nostalgia that is definitely there, I think this is perfectly distilled Power Pop with kind of pop-punk busted jump as they called it leanings you know the the super melodramatic intro that sounds like an outro the police sirens um the church bells and organs as you were saying um but then when all that drops away and you just have the song underneath i think once you get to that chorus there's a real strength being shown here, which is just a really, really effective melody with some great harmonies behind it. I think the way that James Bourne writes harmonies is actually very distinctive. If you look across the whole of the songs that he did for Busted and even for Son of Dork, who I'll mention in a second, I think he has a harmony that is he has a way of writing it which I think is very recognisably

his thing his catalogue is not as extensive as say Brian Wilson or Rivers Cuomo or something like that where I can tell Brian Wilson and Rivers Cuomo harmonies I can tell it in the dark that sort of thing and I feel like it's a similar thing with James Bond. I think a really good example, again, of certain notes that he hits

and certain harmonies he chooses to lean on are also really present in the next number one of theirs that we'll cover. Not the next one, sorry, the final one of theirs that they'll cover. But I will say the mastering on this is atrocious. Like, this is like high budget, one of the biggest bands in the country. And it sounds so, the mixing and mastering, the recording, it sounds so thin and plasticky.

And there's that really bizarre fade out at the end of the first verse where they do the, and she's mine. bizarre fade out at the end of the first verse where they do the um and she's mine and then the guitar gets stabbed and then it just fades away but you can hear them literally just fade it out and it sounds really unprofessional um and it's a shame because i think with more you know more kind of like i guess it's because it was being sold to kids, and they don't, like I say, we're in a very trebly era of pop, and so I'm really searching for the bass frequencies, which are not that easy to find in this recording, but yeah, I love this, I have

a lot of nostalgia for it, and as much as I think nostalgia is like a valid thing anyway, um, I don't think I'm clouded by it. I think this is a really nicely distilled and contained and really lovely pop song, which I have great memories of. Um, I have one very annoying memory associated with it, which is that for my mum's 40th, uh was uh december 2003 um i remember as hiring a dj and he played this song and because i was a huge busted fan i was really excited and then when it got to the end of the first verse he would just keep he just started it again and i was like i can't i remember going over to my mum on the dance floor being like why does he keep starting the song again like he would get to the and she's mine and then it would

go i'm so rushed off my feet and it would he did it like four times and i remember getting dead stressed and like saying to my mom why does he keep doing this and my mom was like oh it's fine just and then eventually he played the full song but i was like oh okay very very irritated um two final notes on this um one is that there is a name in the credits of this song who will become a very big deal to this podcast in a couple of years time which is tom fletcher um and the last thing as well which which is that Crash the Wedding, I think, is the best busted song to get to number one, but I think,

I just want to mention, because I mentioned James Bourne, and Son of Dork specifically, that as good as I think that this is, I don't think, and this might be controversial, I don't know, I think What I Go to School For definitely lives up to it but i think the two best songs by a son of dork are better than everything busted did apart from crash apart from what i go to school for i think take it out of loserville

and eddie's song are the kind of songs that busted would have gone on to do had charlie not left the band and i think that that would have given busted another kick and set them up another level and maybe sustain them for a bit longer um the you know eddie's song especially which kind of starts out as what you think is like a celebration of a C-list rock star, like someone telling Brian Adams Summer of 69 from like a third person perspective, but it transitions then into being a condemnation of like, you know, Casanova style womanizer rock stars, and then it ends up being a really lovely tribute to kids who get adopted because their dads are absent, and it's very, and it has some really lovely moments in it as well with the harmonies and

it has the kind of production that I want for Busted songs and it's a shame that they never got but this Crash the Wedding is great and yeah I love it, I've loved every song this week Andy, how about you?

Yeah really interesting thoughts from both of you. Yeah, it's interesting because, like, because Busted were a big part of my childhood at the time and they're kind of ingrained, they're just sort of like a kind of musical core memory, it's quite hard for me to actually sit and think about them and sit and analyse them and think, is this actually good?

You know, is this actually worthy? You know, it's very hard for me to actually sit and think about them and sit and analyze them and think is this actually good you know is this actually worthy you know it's very hard for me to do that and i've been listening quite closely to what you both have said because it it does help me to kind of open up and think about them in a more critical way and think about them in a more analytical way um i will put my cards on the table i i do think this is really great i don't think it's busted's best song but i do think it's really really good um i want to pick's Busted's best song, but I do think it's really, really good. I want to pick up on a point that Lizzie said, which was about how their songs are basically fantasies writ large, which is true. It's true.

And that's kind of the formula that they work on. And I guess the point there is that the audience that they are targeting at, they're kind of a wish fulfillment kind of band, aren't they? That, you know, young sort of tween ages, if you like, like sort of 11 and 12 year olds would listen to Crash the Wedding and think, oh, maybe you'll come in and steal me from my boyfriend one day. You know, maybe you'll come in and be like, yeah, I love you. Run away with me, you know.

And in what I go to school for, you know, again, it's an absolutely daft fantasy of like, the teacher i fancy might actually fancy fancy me back and we'll run away together and start a new life and all of their songs kind of have a tipping point of ridiculousness where it like just slides into yeah this is just silly isn't it of course there's year 3000 as well which is just fantasy all the way through but this one like yeah it follows that formula quite well and i think the best busted songs and the most well executed tightly put together busted songs are the ones that have a really strong core theme of what that kind of fantasy idea is and what the story is behind it you said no kind of fails on that level because it's kind

of wishy-washy it's like oh i asked you to a dance you said no so there's all this other stuff and this is how it made me feel it's like no this is much much better in that sense because it's like okay so the person you like is getting married and you want to stop them so go into the wedding say no marry me instead and we'll run away together and they say yes and that's it and you get to kind of gloat over it and be like yeah really glad i did that because now i've got my girlfriend and we love each other. You know, it's just a really strong concept. I agree with I think it was yourself, Lizzie, you said that about the organ as well, that that just helps tie it together, that there's this big wedding theme to it.

And, you know, other songs do that really well, like Air Hostess and What I Go to School For, which really focus on the central kind of theme of the song, and What I Go to School For, which really focus on the central kind of theme of the song, which is like airplanes or schools, or now this time weddings, and just build the whole song around it. And because they've got that kind of economy of writing that they're like, right, simple concept, bam, hit it as hard as we can,

it means that they're able to pack a hell of a lot into some really short songs. I'm very impressed that this is two minutes, I think it's two minutes 38. And I'm very impressed that this is two minutes, I think it's two minutes 38. And I'm very impressed that they managed to do, you know, verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, slow down of the chorus, then one more, and actually a second one,

like one final encore blast of it. And like, there's a complete story told within it that there's like multiple characters within there as well. There's like the groom, the bride, the bride's dad, and the singer themselves. And this is all done in two and a half minutes. And that's very, very good writing.

That's really using every second you've got there. Really excellent. There's some things I don't quite like about it. I think because they have to straddle this line of fantasy and stupidity and like doing kind of fun kind of mad ideas of what what if this was to happen you know um they also have to balance it against well we have to be acceptable to parents you know we have to kind of we can coat these songs in a little bit of cheekiness and a little bit of filth because that's what the

audience want but we have to basically be nice guys as well and so i think sometimes whenever they kind of have to do that and acknowledge that side of it i really don't like that because that line true love lasts forever and now we're back together it's like no that's too cheesy that doesn't fit with the kind of vibe that busted have where it's like you know um they seem to be like i say very, very cheeky and they seem to be sort of winking at the camera most of the time. To say those kind of bland truisms like that, like true love lasts forever, it's like, well, it doesn't because you've literally just crashed a wedding successfully. So true love doesn't last forever, does it?

It depends on how you define what true love is, I guess. But, yeah, it's, I don't know. I think that they do sometimes struggle to get that tone right and i do agree with you rob actually that had they stayed together for longer they probably would have nailed that down in terms of like how do you balance this silly sexy slightly rude side against the fact that we are supposed to be basically for kids um i get the sense that they probably would have grown up with their audience, become more of a straight-up pop-punk band like Son of Dork were,

and become a bit more teenagers rather than 11- and 12-year-olds, which would have been interesting to see. But I think the seeds of that are here, that they know how to do these songs dead easily right now, and it's just about refinement. I wish we'd seen more from them. I know that it's not the last time we're discussing them on the podcast but yeah i think this is kind of the peak for busted that they you know they do have other songs that hit number one after this but it seemed like

if remembering the kind of this moment in time of like christmas 2003 that was like the the height of them as far as i can remember you know that they were sort of everywhere at that time like that album a present for everyone had like six or seven different songs that could have been singles and there are a couple of odd choices of singles the next one that gets number one I think is quite a strange choice of single when there's some really good stuff like she wants to be me on that album that definitely should have been a single um and now I'm doubting myself was it a b-side at any point she wants to be me because it should have been a single and now I'm doubting myself was it a B-side at any point she wants to be made because it should have been released

it got released as a single literally as Charlie left the band and so all the promo was abandoned that should have been a single yeah it was released as it was a weird like compact like 3 inch CD single

like a mini disc and then it was gonna get like radio playing stuff but it was november 2004 and so yeah that it was well jesus i mean we'll talk about it more but i remember the night my mom told me that they would split up fucking hell that was a lesson in life jesus my sister that's like the saddest I've ever seen her god, yeah but yeah, the only other kind of criticism I would have, I completely agree I'm glad you said it Lizzie about Charlie's voice

that sometimes is incredibly angsty, incredibly whiny, frankly, voice sometimes it really suits the song, it suits their ballads it doesn't suit this at all, this is like a funny silly, like you say, like power pop slash pop punk, kind of just this kind of fun, almost comedy song, really.

When you've got Charlie with like, the newest broken heart. No, it doesn't suit it at all. So yeah, I thought the same thing. I was like, yeah, Charlie is the odd one out in this band that he's trying to put a level of authenticity in but it's not required for this because it actually does have authenticity. You know, this is a band releasing a really tightly produced pop punk song that, like, I don't remember critics turning their nose apart. I don't remember parents being like

oh, that's silly stuff for kids. I feel like adults would have approached this and been like these guys are actually quite good. These are actually really solid songs that they're putting out. Like, my mum and dad really liked Busted. And I don't think they were unique in that. But yes, other than Charlie's performance and other than the fact that it doesn't really fully straddle that line very well

between the kind of fantasy wish fulfilment thing and being safe and friendly for kids. Other than that, I think it's really great. Really, really great. I think the best, actually, is still to come from Busted, for me personally, but that's just a kind of silly personal preference that I have, but we'll get more into that.

But yeah, really like this. Really, really good. Yeah. Can I just follow up a point of yours, Andy? Yeah. About how, you know, you were saying about that thing of like true love lasts forever, but not for the other guy.

It's like, I want to hear a song about that guy I want to hear that story the guy whose wedding was crashed I asked you to marry me at the altar but you said no busted for watching and laughing okay before we go

we're just going to check whether any of the songs this week are going to be going into the Hits 21 vault so Be Faithful by Fat Man Scoop Yeah, I'll stick that in the vault I will also stick it in the vault I will also put it in the vault

so it's a triple vaulter for Fat Man Scoop, well done Slow by Kylie Minogue I'm putting that in the vault Triple vaulter for a man's scoop. Well done. Slow by Kylie Minogue. I'm putting that in the vault. Definitely for me. Not for me, actually. Perhaps controversially.

I didn't love it that much, and I thought I'd be honest about that. But, I mean, it's in the vault anyway, so what does it matter what I think? In the words of Meatloaf, you know, two out of three, et cetera, et cetera. Extrapolate the rest. And Crash the Wedding by Busted. I'm putting it in the words of Meatloaf, you know, two out of three, etc, etc. Extrapolate the rest. And Crash the Wedding by Busted.

I'm putting it in the vault. Do you know, I wasn't going to, but... Go on. Yeah, I'm feeling like I will, actually. Yeah, but the more I was talking about it then, the more I was like, I'm actually really fond of this. So, yeah, what the hell. I'm going to put that in. Cool.

I'm not. I'm sorry. I'm trying not to continue with Busted trying to continue with busting that's a lot that is a lot of vaulting going on this week that's seven vault votes out of a possible nine wow yeah it's pretty impressive and the hits 21 first that i alluded to last week and now will reveal which is that is the first time on hits 21 that i have put all three or all songs on an episode in the vault um wow is that the first time that any of us have done that like i think it might be yeah wow we used to be we well i say we used to be more selective i think rightly so you know we've

had a lot of really good songs recently it's been a really strong year but yeah by far the first time that's ever happened we've never come close to that before so yeah should I just check while we're on the air? I am checking now and it is the first time it's happened quite easy to see because of the green wow

what a shame next week doesn't keep the standards as high oh no that is it for this week's episode thank you so much for tuning in What a shame next week doesn't keep the standards as high. Oh, no. Oh, dear. That is it for this week's episode. Thank you so much for tuning in. When we come back, we'll be covering the period between the 23rd of November and the 20th of December, 2003,

which means that that's the penultimate episode of the year. So in two weeks, we'll be doing our bloody Christmas episode. And we're only on the sixth one of this year. God. See, this is the thing with 2003. I think a lot of better number ones are here. So they're staying around a bit longer. Taking up more time.

That sort of thing. Well, thank you very much. And we'll see you next time. Bye, everyone. See ya. Bye-bye.