Hits 21 - 2004 (8): Nelly, Brian McFadden, Eric Prydz

Episode Date: August 13, 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]

Hi there everyone, welcome back to Hits21, 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. That is at Hits21UK. You can email us too. Just send it on over to Hits21Podcast at gmail.com.

Thank you so much for joining us once again. We are currently looking back at the year 2004. This time we'll be covering the period between the 5th of September and the 9th of October in 2004. Looking back to last week, I thought the poll was going to be a bit tighter than it was, but these words walked away with it in the end. So well done to Natasha Benningfield on that.

Commiserations to the others. I think that was the first week maybe ever where honestly anything could have won it. I really was not sure which one was going to win last week so well done Natasha you picked a tough week there I feel like this week might be quite similar yeah I agree

and of course we can't start this week's episode without mentioning the fact that DJ Casper sadly died this week at the age of 58 it's such a sad coincidence that all The fact that DJ Casper sadly died this week at the age of 58. It's such a sad coincidence that all of this would happen just as we finished talking about him.

Yeah, it's always sad to lose a PIT21 alumni because we obviously lost Paul Catamal a few months ago. And it's a weird feeling, isn't it, when someone from this era goes that it's like, gosh, I grew up with this person. Time is passing. And Faster Than It Should, he was only 58. Very, very sad to hear. But, yeah, I mean, I know we weren't the kindest of our Cha-Cha Slide.

We didn't, to be fair, we didn't, like, tear it a new one either. But it did bring a lot of people a lot of joy. You know, we've all got memories of that song. It's so ubiquitous. Like, it's so, so ubiquitous like it's so so famous that you have to give that credit and um his legacy is assured because of that so yeah i was very very sad to hear this yeah yeah you're absolutely right his legacy is assured like when um when your article came up on radio one, Rob, everyone was collectively, oh, it's like, oh, it's this song.

Yes. Yeah, everyone, as much as it's kind of a one-hit wonder and he never really impacted the charts in any other way, everyone remembers this. Everybody has some form of experience with this, be it as a chart listener or if you've been to a party at any point in the last 20 years, you know as a chart listener or if you've been to a party at any point in the last 20 years you know this song and it will live on in that way yeah yeah definitely so yeah bye-bye to uh dj

casper and yeah rest easy yeah 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 that we're looking at in this episode were a number one in the uk a fathers for justice campaigner dressed as batman breaches security at buckingham palace and scales the outside of the building jason hatch a 33 year old man from gloucestershire is said to have, quote, legged it past armed guards before climbing up to a balcony. No members of the royal family were in attendance at the time.

Meanwhile, British hostage Ken Bigley is beheaded by militants in Iraq. At the House of Commons, a brawl breaks out after pro-hunting protesters break into the chamber to stop a vote that eventually saw MPs ban fox hunting in the UK in July 2006. Although Prime Minister Tony Blair did later admit in 2010 that he regretted the outcome of the vote. I didn't, don't overthink it Tony. And in America, Hurricane Ivan produces land wind speeds of 165 mph, resulting in 124 deaths and $26 billion worth of damage.

The worst of the storms severely affected the West Indies, Central America and several southern US states. Meanwhile in Russia, 335 people are killed when a school in the southern town of Beslan is attacked by 32 militants. The films to hit the top of the UK box office during this period were as follows. The Terminal for one week, Open Water for one week, Collateral for one week and Wimbledon for two weeks and Harry Hill becomes the narrator of You've Been Framed. You ready for this?

You ready for this? Big moment. ITV launches The X Factor with judges Simon Cowell Louis Walsh and Sharon Osbourne. Nine acts including G4, Tabby Callaghan, Two to Go

I remember Two to Go, and Steve Brookstein make it to live shows, which run from late October until the middle of December. Something tells me we'll be mentioning The X Factor in the future. And also, the pilot episode of Lost airs

in America. It is the most expensive pilot episode in TV history up to that point and remains the best pilot episode in tv history it's way up there i think it's way up there with the likes of my favorite pilot episode is breaking bad i think that the pilot episode of breaking bad is just like the ultimate like yeah i want to know more about this series but lost is way up there for me i really really, really love that pilot. Absolutely no competition. And this surely will be my only opportunity ever

to plug Flashback, a Lost podcast, which myself and my friend did, where we reviewed every single episode of Lost because it's one of my favourite shows ever. If you've never watched it, Lizzie, it's amazing. Go watch it. Okay, fine.

Meanwhile, the 59th Emmy Awards take place, with The Sopranos winning Outstanding Drama and Arrested Development winning Outstanding Comedy. Kelsey Grammer and James Spader win the Lead Actor Awards, while Sarah Jessica Parker and Alison Jenny win in the Best Actress categories. Okay, Andy, how are the UK album charts doing? Oh, well, it is busy this week. I've got no less than six albums to tell you about because nothing stuck around at number one.

We've got six consecutive weeks with a new album at number one, which I'm not sure has ever happened before. So get ready for this. First of all, we've got The Libertines with The Libertines, which was at number one, just as we finished last week, seeing us in. And then we've got Natasha Bedingfield, last week's winner with Unwritten. Her debut album there obviously had a title track of the same name, which is much better than these words, but never mind.

We'll never get to discuss that. That was number one for one week and went three times platinum. That was then replaced at the top, again for one week, by Out of Nothing, by Embrace, which went two times platinum. I've never heard that album in my life.

Has anyone listened to that? Yes. Is it good? I think that, I'm just going to refresh my memory, but I'm pretty sure that Ashes comes off that album. And Ashes was a song that was prominently featured on a soundtrack to, I want to say, FIFA 05 or 06 or something like that.

But yeah, Ashes is nice. Ashes is off the album. And Gravity, I know, because that was very prominently featured in an emotional moment on Gavin and Stacey. But that's all I know, really. Yeah. Ashes is off the album, and Gravity, I know, because that was very prominently featured in an emotional moment on Gavin and Stacey, but that's all I know, really, yeah. But enough about Embrace, because the one week later at number one,

it's American Idiot by Green Day arriving on the scene. I've got lost in American Idiot in the same week. Oh, my God. It got to number one four days after Lost started. This is the best week of my life. Yes. Despite going eight times platinum, being the third biggest album of the year in the

UK and probably one of the most influential albums we've ever covered so far, it actually only had one week at number one. It never returned to number one. But yes, American Idiot, which I'm sure we'll mention again at some point. After that, it's one week at number one for yes american idiot uh which i'm sure we'll mention again at some point after that it's one week at number one for joss stone with mind body and soul one week at number one again and went three times platinum and then finally we've got ram with around the sun

which uh only went gold actually uh it's during that dubious club it went gold so a really busy period to be fair, none of them particularly classics, apart from American Idiot and I do wish that we got a number one out of American Idiot, but we don't but yeah that's it this week I think Around the Sun

from REM is not, it's kind of they're on the outs a little bit by that point, you know they've had their last like big hit which I think was Bad Day which I think was a couple of years before this, oh of course

which I think got into the top 10 but yeah they have kind of hit the wall a little bit and are thinking about calling it a day because I think they only do two albums after this point uh which are both okay and i seem to remember one of them uh they wrote the opposite way around in the sense that throughout their career they'd written music first and applied lyrics to them and then they decided to write the lyrics first for their last

album i think which was collapsed now and then write the music afterwards. Yeah. When you said writing the opposite way around, I thought you meant like... That would have been interesting to hear. Lizzie, how are things on the US charts? Well, there are only three more number one singles in America for the remainder of 2004,

unlike us, where we've got about seven or eight left. But yeah, the first of which is Goodies by Ciara, which got to number one in the second week of September, and stayed there for seven weeks. It also

performed well in the UK, but that is a there for seven weeks. It also performed well in the UK but that is a discussion for another time. The album's chart is much busier at this time. Like first up this week we have Tim McGraw whose album Live Like You Were Dying got to number one for two weeks and was eventually certified four times platinum in the US, despite failing to chart over here in the UK. Continuing on the country theme is Alan Jackson, whose album What I Do got to number one for one week. It was certified platinum in the US, but again, failed to chart in the UK,

because it's a country album, and we don't like country over here. I do. Oh, well, you're on your own there, kid. And finally this week, Nelly scored his third consecutive number one album with Suit, which got to number one for one week

and which was released simultaneously with a contrasting album called Sweat, which peaked at number two the same week. With that, Nelly became the first artist ever to score the number one and number two album in the US simultaneously, selling a combined 737,000 copies in its first week. Suits went three times platinum in the US,

but only got to number eight on the UK albums chart, despite the lead-off single hitting number eight on the UK albums chart, despite the lead-off single hitting number one on the UK charts. Rob, why don't you tell us a little bit more about that single? Oh, slick. Yes, nice. I will do just that, because the first song that we are going to be discussing this week, thank you both for those reports reports but we're moving on to this i used to pride myself on being the other man but now it's flipped and i don't want you in no other man why can't you understand that anything i'm offering, I gave you the world, but you just want to argue.

From the time I picked you up until the time I dropped you off again. Even the flip that owe me at the mall again. It's all his fault again. That's what you tell him on your friends. I ain't pointing fingers, ma. I just want to call again. See how you're day going. I know you're stressing on you. I know them times get hard. That's why I'm checking on you. It's yours truly, ma, I just wanna call again See how your day going I know they're stressing on you

I know them times get hard That's why I'm checking on you It's yours truly, ma I got another message for you Anything you can do, girl I can do it better for you Cause when we laugh and we cry It's together

Through the rain and the stormy It's weather We gon' still be as one It's forever It's forever Won't you come on and go with me, girl Come on over to my place Won't you sit yourself down and take a seat

And let me ease your mind, girl Our way, our way And let me eat you, my girl Always Always Okay, this is My Place, double A-side with Flap Your Wings by Nelly. Released as the two lead singles from his jointly released third and fourth studio albums titled Sweat and Suit, My Place, Flap Your Wings is Nelly's tenth single overall to be released in the UK and is second to reach number one. And this is not the last time that we'll be coming to Nelly on this podcast. My Place, Flap Your Wings first entered the chart at number 88,

reaching number one during its third week on the charts, knocking Natasha Bedingfield off the top spot It stayed at number one for one week in its first and only week atop the charts. It sold 55,000 copies beating competition from leave get out by Jojo which got to number two Sunshine by Twister which got to number three which got to number two. Sunshine by Twister, which got to number three.

Gravity by Embrace, which got to number seven. And You Should Really Know by Pirates, which got to number nine. Which we mentioned a few episodes back. Yes, yes, we did. When it was knocked off the top of the charts, My Place slash Flap Your Wings dropped one place to number two.

By the time it was done on the charts, it had been inside the top 100 for 13 weeks. The song is currently officially certified silver in the UK as of 2023. So, Andy, my place and flap your wings. You can go at them in any order you like. Oh, can I? Yeah. So I'm going to caveat this with two things first.

First of all, just to say, I really don't like having to start the episode with immediate negativity about the first song. I feel like it kills the vibe, but I have to be true to myself. Well, I can take over if you want. I feel like I'm slightly more positive on this song than you are. I'll say my piece and then I'm going to vacate the floor

because I don't have that much to say. But the other thing I want to caveat with it as well is that I'm not the audience for this obviously. Like I'm a British white teenage gay boy at this time. This is not my vibe. But all those things

are still true now actually except I'm not teenage. But anyway. So with that said, every time I've listened to this, I've disliked it more and more, I really wanted to give it a chance, and I did give it a chance, but no, don't like this at all, there's a few reasons for that, first of all, I think I've mentioned in the past that there's a few songs that are just like, this early noughties R&B genre that like just typify it in every way. One of them is Dilemma by Nellie and Kelly and this song is so similar to Dilemma and not in a positive way. It's just it seems ridden with every early noughties R&B cliche with those

hand claps and with the kind of general sense of like ooh yeah behind it you know just just sort of needless swagger about things that don't need swagger it goes on for an absolute eon it just never ends

has about like five different sections which are kind of freeform from each other and also the lyrics are a total mismatch for the music that you know it's got the the musical content of of like dilemma where it's like oh yeah come be with me and don't we love each other but the lyrical content is like something out of the room where you know he's like spying on his girl because he's so obsessed with the idea that she's with someone else um it's just unpleasant i don't like this at all um i will say that like again it's not for me and also it's clearly had a lot of work put into it i don't think it's just a low effort bang it out as a single like it does have quite a nice sound to it if you're into that sort of

thing but i'm not really into this sort of thing um and i do feel like it's getting an unfair crack of the whip from me because as soon as i heard how this song sounded i was just like oh not this and so that's you know that's just my personal opinion but you know my personal opinions what here people are here to listen to, along with you two. So that's mine, which is that, to sum it up basically, if I did go over to someone's place and they put this on, I'd probably leave. But just to briefly touch on Flap Your Wings as well, I've got less than nothing to say about that. That just does absolutely nothing for me. That is filler. I don't really see why that's why it's a double A side to be honest. If you compare

it against Thunderbirds 3AM last week where it's like two very different songs both I think very very successful like yeah I can see why this is a double A side but this like huh why is Flap Your Wings a single? Like does anyone have any real love for that song? So maybe convince me otherwise. I'm going to flap my wings and fly away from this failure. So, yes, sorry. Lizzy, how about you? I thought it was quite obvious as to why this is a double A site

because he has two albums to promote. That is true, and I'm so stupid. That is true, isn't it? Thanks for that. So now you know. Yes. Yeah, just to preface this, I'm so gutted that

Leave, Get Out by Jojo didn't get to number one. Same. I love that song so much. It's a good song. But anyway, I do agree with a lot of your points, Andy, but I would say that I do like this better than you seem to. That would be difficult. I mean, I know you say you don't like this sort of thing.

I'm kind of a sucker for it, even though I can admit when there are obvious flaws with it, like there are in this song. To start with the positives, I really like the instrumental with the Patti LaBelle sample. I think the production of it is kind of, you can't really fault it, as usual. Patti LaBelle again, by the way. Yeah, Patti LaBelle again. I mean, I'll come to that a little bit more later, but yeah, I think the production is great.

I think there's some bits I kind of really like, sort of Nelly's vocal style where he does that, and we laugh and we cry together. It's kind of... I do like that stuff, but the obvious problem is that the lyrics are awful. And it's kind of amazing that the lyrics can be so bad, but still not be the worst that we encounter this week.

But that's a discussion for later, I'm sure. The lyrics are unromantic in quite an adolescent way the one that stands out like a sore thumb is you make my life so convenient for me what does that mean? like you go down to the

budge and buy me a scratch card without me even having to ask oh girl it's a good job I hired you as my PA yeah you live near the oh girl it's a good job i hired you as me you as my pa yeah you you live near the bus stop it's great i don't have to walk very far again it's just like and well as that and there's also like i know i said some fucked up things to you before but girl you know i didn't mean it so kind of two ways you can view that do you mean that you you didn't mean it

because if you do that it's kind of the thought must have been swimming around in your head before it fell out of your mouth so you part of you must have meant it or do you mean that you didn't mean to say it but you were obviously thinking it because either either way, it's not great. You don't sound like you're entirely committed to this. It sounds more like a late night boothy call. And maybe that's what it is. Maybe that is just him on his phone at two in the morning. Like, oh man, I really kind of miss her

because you're just doing nothing else. And you start to get a bit rosy tinted glasses about things and reflecting on the past like that but yeah again I think just that paired with like Jaheim's backing vocals as well it's like I'm sorry are you though are you really or is this just a way for you to pass the time? And I think aside from that, just going back to the Patti LaBelle sample, I feel like Nelly's formula here is becoming a bit too obvious. Oh yeah, for sure.

I mean, it clearly worked because it got to number one here, but it feels like, like you say, Andy, it's a lesser version of Dilemma in more ways than one. That at least had, you know, the Kelly Rowland parts, which were probably the best part. And that one seems to be a lot more fondly remembered, given that I've just heard it on an advert this week. Me too, yes. Whereas with My Place, I don't think I've heard it since,

well, I've not heard it before we started doing this run for the podcast. It seems to have kind of been lost to time. And I wonder if in 2004, like, sure, he has another number one, but at this time it feels like southern hip hip hop is becoming a very crowded field. And a lot of people are doing what Nelly does and kind of improving on it or taking it and giving it a bit more of a raw edge. So while he never completely went away, but I feel at this point he's maybe become a bit too commercial and ubiquitous for his own good. And the next time we see him will be his most commercial and ubiquitous song yet.

Just a quick note on Flap Your Wings. It's very bad. It's shaking hot in here. Just don't listen to it. It's really awful, yeah. It's really bad. It's interesting what you say about it becoming a crowded market because the thing about this sort of thing, when I say it's really awful, yeah. It's really bad. It's interesting what you say about becoming a crowded market, because the thing about this sort of thing,

when I say it's the cliché, is that, yeah, because so many other people did it, Nelly may be good at this sort of thing, but there's no barrier to entry. It's very easily replicable. With other big breakout stars of the time, you kind of get the sense that no one else couldn't quite do it as good as them with certain genres. But this it's like uh anyone can kind of do this and it it

almost feels a bit like a parody of the genre like it's that much of a cliche it feels like someone on youtube having a mess about like recreating early noughties r&b rather than an actual artifact of the time and that's it's not a good feeling when you're getting that vibe off a song so yeah yeah and you you give it a year and you'll have like acorn and t-pain showing up the whole landscape just kind of shifts like we've said it before but 2007 is very different to 2004 oh yeah miles away yeah um i'll get my comments on flappy wings out of the way um like you were saying liz Lizzie, imagine Hot In Here, but without any redeeming features or memorable features or... Yeah, it's just, it's crap.

And it brings the quality of the whole single down. I think the only thing that I seem to have absorbed from the song and consider valuable is that one line that Drake says in Fucking Problems by A$AP Rocky now has context, the song and consider valuable is that one line that drake says in problems by asap rocky now has context which is just get your eagle on like that's it that's the only thing i can think of it's like oh that's where you got that from yeah pointless um my place though um sounds lovely like lovely vibe i feel like it picks up from dilemma progresses from that slightly you can tell it's still in love with a lot of like 70s soul like you were saying the patty labelle thing

the sample you can feel the romance and the evocations of courtship the lovely vocals from jaheim the come on over to my place and it's all very heavenly and smooth but like just this should be a song about a guy reaching out to a girl who's upset and saying listen i can make it all better like i'll take care of you come on over to my place but that isn't really what the song is about um and it's a shame that there's no real substance to anything that nelly's saying or at least the substance doesn't match the atmosphere it feels like that bit in you know like that i think it's like the end of season two of peep show when jez's uncle is dying and he turns to christianity in his final days in that hospice and they go and visit him and they

talk to him about how he's feeling and his new faith and all that and then it cuts to jez's internal monologue and he says yeah that's nice ray's such a nice guy what a shame everything he believes is total rubbish and it feels a bit this way with my place where it's like yeah this is nice nelly's such a nice guy what a shame that everything he's saying is like complete bollocks. Because the lyrics are from a different song. Like, I think it creates a problem when it comes to settling into an atmosphere with this. And I'm distracted.

I really want to swim in the instrumental, but I find myself getting... Just increasingly annoyed by the content of the song. The kind of, like you were saying, the kind of petulant adolescent content content of it that isn't petulant and adolescent in an endearing way to me because it isn't over in three and a half minutes like even the radio edit of this is four and a half minutes long and i'm just like i have spent too long with you to have any more patience and so i think this is fine as a double a side it gets like a really mild thumbs up overall if it were just my place um i would have a more positive reading of it overall you know like a decent thumbs up but i think that with flappy wings it drags it down to like a mild to light thumbs up to be honest uh maybe just a quick you know like uh come see come saw kind of

like shake of the hand sort of thing it's fine overall i get the idea behind the two albums but you know i think if you actually look at people's opinions of those albums as opposed to the the sales and the fact that nobody really remembers that he released them conjointly I think that it's just another one of those cases where it's like could this not have just been a single album with the best of both on it? I don't know if both albums

go for a different vibe or whatever because Sweat and Suit Suit is like, yeah, classy Nelly, whereas Sweat is like it's getting hard in here part two but not as good that's exactly yeah yeah so i don't know maybe they could have made that work a bit better maybe nobody would have noticed maybe they would have made half the amount of money that they made but i mean that's your answer yeah yes it is that is that is exactly it. But yeah, it's unfortunately, I think, a symptom of the CD age

that a lot of people with a lot of money and not a lot of ideas think, oh, fuck it, yeah, we've got like two hours to play with. Let's just do it. Let's just fill every corner of it. And we'll put a hidden track on as well, just for people who are like, I mean, I don't know if these albums did this, but it was an annoying habit of the CD age to put a hidden track at the start of the album where you'd have to put it in and then immediately press rewind and just, ugh, yeah. But yeah, anything more to say about My Place slash Flap Your Wings?

No. No, I don't think so. Me neither. So we'll move swiftly on to the next single this week, which is this. dinners and a free champagne Men in suits who think they know it all No one knows me but they know my name That's not real to me Hotel lobby to the aeroplane Another country but they start to look the same

Watch the world behind the window pane That's not real to me When I see my own babies run When all the madness has been in go I'll raise my family and live in peace Now that's what's real to me real to me okay this is

Real To Me by Brian McFadden released as the lead single from his debut studio album titled Irish Son, Real To Me is the first single to be released by Brian McFadden in the UK and his first to reach number one. However, this is the last time that we'll be discussing Brian on this podcast. Reel To Me went straight in at number one as a brand new entry, knocking Nelly off the top of the charts. It stayed at number one for one week.

knocking Nelly 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 34,000 copies and beat competition from That Girl by McFly which got to number three. When it was knocked off the top of the charts Reel to me fell five places to number six. By the time it was done on the charts though it had been inside the top 100 for 19 weeks and yet the song has never been given any official certification by the British phonographic industry this is mad to me so it was

it dropped 5 places to number 6 but somehow stayed in the chart for 19 weeks but somehow wasn't it didn't sell 200,000 copies despite being in the charts for nearly half a year like how is how any of those individual things possible I just I have absolutely no idea and it's gonna hurt my head if I

sit and think about it too much so Lizzie real to me Brian McFadden go yeah I mean I can't help but wonder if you know those early weeks of january where nobody's released anything and so you can you can basically sell a couple of tons of copies and get in the at least at this point maybe it's that kind of thing yeah but one new entry says it wasn't a particularly busy week. Yeah, like that one week. Yeah. But yes, this song is very clearly an attempt to relaunch Brian as the new Robbie Williams, especially as this, and I think most of the album is co-written by Guy Chambers, but it begs the question, why do we need a new Robbie Williams when we still have the real Robbie Williams releasing singles? Like, the production, you know what I mean?

We've got Robbie Williams at home. Exactly, Robbie Williams at home, and it's like, this is just the chock-ice version of Robbie Williams. But, yeah, the production just sounds like another Westlife single it could be any of them and the lyrics are a pretty embarrassing take on what robbie williams had been doing for a couple of years before this point like robbie himself would often sing about the pressures of fame and being surrounded by artifice and decadence. It was kind of his specialty. But I'm struggling to think of a song of his from before this time which was as

on the nose as this one. Like there's no subtext here. It's all text, like big capital letters, billboard 20 meters high, just text. That's all this is. And I can't for the life of me imagine that this sort of thing is why Brian was so desperate to break out of Westlife. Like, don't get me wrong. Leaving one of the biggest groups in the country at the height of their popularity to pursue your own musical interests is admirable, to say the least. I'd extend that to

Charlie Simpson, Paul Gatimor, Jerry Halliwell, countless others throughout the years. It's not a betrayal of your fans to want more creative freedom to express yourself but if you have nothing worthwhile to say like in the case of this song, those same fans aren't necessarily going to follow you on your journey. Like, Brian's debut solo album came out only two months after this, in the run-ups to Christmas, no less, and it got as high as number 24 in the uk yikes his next album in 2008 failed to even chart in the uk or ireland like he's not completely done as a chart concern he has a couple of top 10 hits and top 40 hits here and there but it's a far cry from the days where a single he featured on was almost guaranteed to reach number one

and those days were only like a year before this but still if this song is to go by he's probably not all that bothered he'd rather invite the family round and drink some English tea and raise up his finger and watch football

on TV on TV Jesus Christ and raise up his finger and watch football on TV. Oh, TV! Oh, Jesus Christ. Oh, dear. Yes, Andy, how are we feeling about this one? Well, I'm actually really pleasantly surprised that after the awfulness of my place, that it's actually really improved this week,

is what I would be saying if that girl by McFly got to number one. But that's not the case Had it in the first half, not gonna lie This is not an improvement It's a bit rubbish isn't it There is the additional context to this which I think explains

somewhat why he managed to somehow pull a number one out of nowhere that yes he'd left Westlife which were a big thing but there is also the Kerry and Brian element to all this as well that Kerry, then McFadden Kerry Katona who had been on I'm a Celebrity

at the start of this year and won it, she was married to Brian McFadden at the time and then right at the peak of both of their fame as a power couple, they got divorced. And that was the big sort of tabloid undercurrent that propelled this solo career of his.

And I have no memory of this song whatsoever, and I'm going to come to that, because I think that's worth talking about. I have no memory of this song whatsoever, but I do have a memory of sitting down to watch a chat show, I think it would have been like Graham Norton or something, past my bedtime, because I was a huge fan at the time of Franz Ferdinand's, they were one of the first bands I was really into, and my mum said, oh, Franz Ferdinand's are on this show, do you want to come

down and watch it? And they went on for ages, I had to sit through the whole show, most of which was taken up by Brian McFadden, sat there on the couch sullenly talking about his breakup from Kerry and then presumably, but I can't remember, presumably plugging this single, so I think that's kind of what was going on, I think it's a bit of a Peter Andre mysterious girl

slash Insania thing happening here, and it's sort of best written off as a pop culture thing that was happening rather than the song being any good but the song is what we've got song is what we're left with I completely agree with you Lizzie that you know it's kind of faux Robbie Williams that it's just kind of pointless I think I'm really glad you mentioned Jerry Halliwell because I was going to mention Jerry as well because it's interesting that she left probably the biggest pop group in the world at the time and

actually was vindicated for a few years she was really successful she had like three number one singles most of which is still remembered to this day fair enough she did really well and we got bagged up out of it which i'll always be grateful for but of course but i think it kind of might have been a bad thing for the world in general that she did that and got a lot of success because it gave everyone the idea of doing it um and brian mcfadden is one of many and i'm not saying that it's a bad thing to do so because there are plenty of artists who go with it and do well you know there always have been going right back to like diana ross and michael Michael Jackson and in more recent times, you know,

Harry Styles has made such a success of it and made some really good pop music and there's nothing wrong with that but, like you said, Lizzie, you know, if you've got nothing to offer, then don't do it just because that's the thing that people do. You know, did the world really need to hear what was going on

in Brian McFadden's head? No offence to the guy, but, you know, from the excerpts we've heard of Westlife's autobiography, they're not the most interesting bunch of people. They've not really got a sense of voice or artistry, to be honest. They're some nice-looking, nice-voiced guys from Ireland who, you know, make you feel like you're loved and like you're going to be swept off to heaven.

If it's just one of them and they're being a bit moodier and going on about the personal pressures on their shoulders am I interested? No I am not interested I think the comparison I would make with Robbie is that when Robbie does songs about this kind of subject

like Strong for example I know that Robbie's a showman and a bit of a faker and all that and that's fine that is what it is but you do get the sense that there is at least some sincerity to that that like he there is some actual genuine feeling from him there about you know his spectacular rise to fame and how it's not the most healthy thing in the world to deal with yeah i just don't really get that authenticity here, to me this feels more like edgy you know, oh I don't care

about the fame, I don't care about the money you know, like sort of hipster quality almost of like, oh, you know I wish this song wouldn't get to number one because I really want to be underground it's got that kind of vibe you know,

which I just really hate. Like, I don't like it when people kind of pretend to not be what they are, because I'm all for people reinventing themselves. But, Brian, you come from Westlife. You are not some, you know, songster who is travelling around in his car, entertaining bars. You are one of westlife you know it's like matt cardle tried to do this when he won the x factor where he gave this

interview which other was really funny where he said he was really upset that after he won the x factory he's at an awards show and tried to sit with corn at an awards show and like get on with them and they weren't talking to him and he didn't understand why it's like because you're an x-factor winner and they're corn like this is not this is not rocket science and i'm not saying people need to stay in their lane like that but i do think recognize what you are recognize what your fan base is what your target audience is recognize the reason you're famous and don't reject that purely because you're not interested it It just feels petulant and silly. So I'm glad that this is the only number one that he has. And I've really gone in on him here in a way that I didn't mean to because he's probably a perfectly nice guy. But I think this is just a real example of

something that is propelled by celebrity and is propelled by ego rather than being propelled by any kind of musical quality so it's kind of everything i dislike and the song itself is just like completely generic unmemorable you know nothing to say about it really so it's a big old thumbs down from me do better next time brian if well there won't be a next time but you know i hope that you did and And we just never heard of it. I don't think anyone's ever made this comparison before or ever will again. But it's kind of like imagined by John Lennon in the way of like, you've been given this unimaginable privilege and luxury and you're sort of turning your nose up at it.

It is a bit like I don't know just maybe read the room a bit who do you think put you there if you don't want that we'll just stop buying your records it's fine we've talked about Robbie Williams and we've talked about

John Lennon there as well but it's like Brian McFadden he's not in that league he was never individually that famous yes he had a bit of a moment in the sun with the whole Brian and Kerry thing but like it was a moment in the sun it was 15 minutes of

fame and he seems to have not recognised that here like I don't know I think I'm being a bit mean and I think it's probably a little bit of retrospect as well because maybe you know he thought that it could have been a really big solo career. Because, again, with Harry Styles, I really doubted that that was ever going to work out, and it did. So maybe this is hindsight here, but it just looks silly.

It all looks a bit cringe, to be honest. I think with a couple of small tweaks, it could have been OK. I don't think the song would have been amazing or anything, but if it had been framed as more like i'm just like really tired from years of doing that because i've i've not been able to see my family or my friends and i miss those home comforts but instead it's more like that's not real to me one of the what's real to me is football. A few of the things I wanted to mention. First of all, it really made me laugh when I thought of this. You know who would really like this song?

Michael Owen. Oh, yeah, yes. I don't know if I've ever mentioned this on the show before. He has this thing, doesn't he, where he can't tolerate fiction. He can't watch films because they're not real and he doesn't understand the point of anything if it's not real. So he would't tolerate fiction. He can't watch films because they're not real and he doesn't understand the point of anything if it's not real.

So he would love this song. He doesn't like films because they're not real to me. And the other thing, I don't know if you do notice this as well, but randomly, like completely stealing the melody of Complicated by Avril Lavigne at the very end, just for two lines. He has two lines at the very end.

There's a little outro. They go like, da-da, da-da-da-da-da. Like, what the hell,, just for two lines. He has two lines at the very end as a little outro. They go like da-da, da-da-da-da-da. Like, what the hell, Brian? That was random. Yeah, I agree with you two. I think this is a very naked attempt to create Brian McFadden in this image of Robbie Williams.

But it just makes Brian sound like the most boring man in the world, because the thing with Robbie Williams but it just makes Brian sound like the most boring man in the world because the thing with Robbie Williams is that when you dig into his soul slightly it's clear that it's been affected by years of interesting things whereas like

you know because Robbie was like a wild card in a pop group whereas Brian McFadden was just in Westlife as well groomed as the rest of them until the tabloids got involved but that was only after he left westlife you know it's like over the years i've heard stories about what robbie williams was like while he was in take that and it was like he needed to go it alone otherwise he would have broken take that apart you're like they would have probably split up sooner if he'd stayed because he was causing a lot of havoc for a lot

of people um and it was often not always guaranteed that they would get to the next city they were supposed to be playing in and have robbie turn up on time and things like this um but with brian mcfadden don't really remember any of that being the case like he just kind of went solo and then they tried to make him a bit of a bad boy and a bit of like oh he's got a beard now and that sort of thing like they all bought a car once yeah like yeah and like the single cover is him looking in a mirror at a reflection of his former self from 1999, and it's like, we're only five years on from this, and, like, the only difference is that you don't have bleached blonde hair anymore. That's about it.

And so they try and rough it up with this, like, you know, oh, he's a rock musician now, and it's like he's making music that's real to him. And what we get is, we'll invite the family round, drink some English tea. Then I raise up my finger and watch football on TV. None of this really seems to vibe together either. Like why would you sing a song about how you want things to stay quiet and, you know,

authentic and, and simple. Rock and roll. Yeah. But then put images of rebellion in there like raising your middle finger up and i don't know it feels kind of mixed up to me like i definitely appreciate the idea where brian's saying that like his form of rebellion is authenticity and taking care of what's mine and that sort of thing home life you know that kind of thing you know

he's sick of the false nature of fame, but I'm just not convinced that he really believes any of this. It all just feels very curated within an inch of his life and not in a way that feels like Brian McFadden is up to the task of playing the character that they've designed for him in this song. And the arrangement as well, it's kind of so-so. It's kind of like

it's kind of like a below par version of what take that came back with like two years after this you know that kind of post brit pop soft rock thing but obviously this doesn't have gary barlow's gorgeous ear for melody um and working his way around a piano because we'll get to patience and we'll get to shine and I will extol the virtues of those at the time. But this just feels a bit, it just gets awfully close to Ernest Manpain's coffee pop classics. And I can't really look beyond that, to be honest. I don't know if it's pie hole worthy i'll think about it over the course of the next song but i i think it's probably while i've been talking about it i've realized i've had very little to say about it that's particularly positive because like you andy

this this space where this song was number one is a void in my memory it's like my place is number one and then nothing is number one and then we have what's coming next and like i i mean obviously that's on me but like i look back and i'm like oh when i was putting the list together for this show like four years ago you know first putting the playlist together when we first had the idea i was sort of like what this i don't remember this at all like it makes sense that brian mcfadden would have a number one right now but like it only makes sense it doesn't like actually there's no actual place in my memory where like oh yes brian mcfadden had the number one single like i just do not remember it i just feel like i was totally out of the loop

maybe that's part of it which is just that I am like the opposite of the demographic or was the opposite of the demographic. My mom wasn't really into Westlife. She didn't really like him that much. And so she didn't buy any, she was in to take that and Robbie, she was the generation before. And so she stuck with Robbie and maybe like, because I didn't really hear it on the radio as much and because it didn't stick around at the top of the charts for very long um you know it stayed around in the top 100 but it could have for all i know languished between like number 70 and number 100 for like 10 weeks like i do you know it just it did yes so it feels like maybe i've just missed it but also there are tons of songs that we've done so far that I completely missed and then I'm looking back and I'm like oh no wait I do sort of remember this or

at least if I don't remember it then it brings something and I'm like wow yeah you know this is you know first time I've heard this ever and it's yeah great but this is totally new to me um and yeah uh left less of an impression of a song that i feel we should mention um from seven years afterwards uh that brian mcfadden did which was like his big jump into like you know when everybody was writing their version of like um a club banger where everybody was giving it a go uh brian mcfadden kind of gave his a go and it ended up a disaster in more ways than one. I'll just read the Wikipedia page and some lyrics from the song title, which is just the way you are in brackets drunk at the bar. It's a song by the Irish singer Brian McFadden.

The song was written and produced by McFadden and a guy called Robert Conley. The single was released on the 24th of February 2011, peaking at number 49 in Australia. A video for the song was not released as it was cancelled. The song has been criticised as a glorification of date rape. McFadden cancelled the shooting of a proposed video for the song. He asked that the song not be played on the radio and pledged via his Twitter account to donate all proceeds from the song to asked that the song not be played on the radio and pledged via his twitter account to donate all proceeds from the song to rape victims now that's very good of you brian uh because i think it's one of those where you work on a song you show it to the public and then the

public go what are you doing so normally i would sort of forgive him for sort of going yeah okay i can see how that's implied i didn't realise it when I was writing it but I get it now but it's clear that the donating the proceeds etc etc to rape charities and apologising on Twitter and stuff is definitely a label decision because I don't know how you could write

and perform these lyrics a million times and not see what's going on here and that what's going on might not be the best thing. So this is the chorus. I like you just the way you are, drunk as shit, dancing at the bar. I like it. And, oh God, it gets worse.

And I can't wait to get you home so I can do some damage. Jesus. I like you just the way you are. Jump in the back seat of my car cause I like it and I can't wait to get you home so I can take advantage oh christ like it's one of those

where it's like this isn't even playing with metaphors like you're just saying oh god it's yeah it's difficult to listen to, but it's the only chance we're going to get to talk about Brian McFadden on this show, and I don't

want to cast too many aspersions on Brian McFadden's character or anything like that, but that is not a good idea for a song. At least, like... It's not like... I mean, at least he didn't come out and say, oh, I was playing a character. I wasn't endorsing it.

Like, at least he, you know, because it does seem a bit like, you know, I hope he's playing a character. But I don't think that he was. It just seems a bit a fantasy, maybe. Like, you know, because when you write in pop songs, you don't always write about your experiences. You try and imagine your own experiences and, you know, go from there. But, yes, not great. Still, did you say he got to number 49 in Australia?

Number 49 in Australia, yeah. What? Why? Apparently he has a bit of a fanbase in Australia. If you notice on his Wikipedia page, I think people honestly just bought it without thinking. Because if you look on his Wikipedia page, That's fine, but... I think people honestly just bought it without thinking because if you look on his Wikipedia page, he stops having

chingles chart singles chart He stops having singles chart in the UK pretty soon after this. Like, he has number 3, number 6, and then, like, number 28, and that's it. But he continues to have songs reach the charts in Australia

and so maybe that's where that came from. It was like, Oh, the new Brian McFadden single. I'll check this out. And then it turns out it's dicey and doesn't reach the top 40 over there. And I think the fact that like he went out and asked like, Oh,

don't play this on the radio is like probably one of those where it's like, Oh shit. Like, God, like, you know, it is just all in his head and you can't you know it's not a crime to have thoughts but like it's a bit skeevy i think uh well a bit skeevy it's very skeevy um i just don't know how you can write the lyric so i can do some damage and not think hmm, should probably workshop this a bit more before we show it to the public, if only to save myself

the bother of having to explain what I just really, really badly judged Do we have anything more to say on Real To Me by Brian McFadden? Yeah, one thing so just picking up on your point Rob about how this just bypassed it entirely

and me too and i think all three of us and is it fair to say would you agree that this is the most obscure number one that we've yet covered on the show i can't think of anything else as random as this like you see the trouble with me was pretty obscure and the weight of your love by hearsay but I can't really think of anything that all three of us have no memory of just I think this might be the most obscure thing I would have said never gonna leave your side I can't remember never gonna leave your side

but I would say this is up there with was it Black Legend who did you see the trouble with me I think that is up there with this where it's like this was number one I don't remember, I think that is up there with this, where it's like, this was number one? I don't remember this. Like, you know, I think it just comes as a consequence of like, it's clearly being bought by a group of people

that we have no contact with in our lives. Yeah. And have had no contact with since. I think this is the most this song has ever been discussed. Ever. Probably. We're the world's foremost experts on Real To Me by Brian McFadden yay

gotta be number one at something so our last song this week is this place. On me, on me, on me On me, on me, on me On me, on me, on me On me, on me, on me On me, on me, on me

On me, on me, on me On me, on me, on me Bye. Okay, this is Call On Me by Eric Pritz. Released as a non-album single, Call On Me is Eric Pritz's fourth single to be released in the UK and his first to reach number one. However, this is the last time that we'll be discussing him on this podcast. Call On Me went straight in at number one as a brand new entry, knocking Brian McFadden off the top of the charts. It stayed at number one for three weeks.

In its first week at number one, it sold 68,000 copies, beating competition from Love Machine by Girls Aloud, which got to number two, American Idiot by Green Day, which got to number three, and You Had Me by Joss Stone, which got to number three and you had me by joss stone which got to number nine in its second week on top it sold 46 000 copies beating competition from big shout out to my mom here breeze on by by donny osmond which got to number eight in its third week at the summit it sold 34 000 copies beating competition from i hope You Dance by Ronan Keating, which got to number 2, Flashdance by Deep Dish, which got to number 3, Pieces of Me by Ashley Simpson, which got to number 4,

Leave in New York by R.E.M., which got to number 5, and Blinded by the Lights by The Streets, which got to number 10. When it was knocked off the top of the charts, Call on Me dropped one place to number 2, When it was knocked off the top of the charts, Call On Me dropped one place to number two. But it is not the end of Call On Me's UK chart journey. And not to give it away, but we will come back to it another time. Andy, Call On Me by Eric Pridz. This is like, I cannot believe that it beat Love Machine and American Idiot. Oh my god, I was going to do another one of those jokes there this is the best song we've had so far

is what I would be saying but I don't even have the energy in me to do that because this beat, American Idiot and Love Machine I need to go away and cry that we got deprived of those two songs yeah so I mean

to be fair though, this is an improvement on the other two songs, but that's about as low a bar as a bloody mouse can jump over that. It's fine. It's fine. I think, should we address the elephant in the room straight off, which is the music video. The music video is why this got so big

and I re-watched it, having not seen it since I was a kid. And boy howdydy it really is quite titillating and it's funny I remember at the time that this was kind of it really unlocked a memory that this was a small like gay awakening moment for me this because everyone

all of my friends every lad in the school was like oh I've seen that Call On Me video and I was just like yeah what's so interesting? It's fine. Did you see Corey the other week? Todd kissed a boy.

And I was just a bit like, yeah, don't get this. And I started to realise, hmm, might be a thing in that somewhere. So yes, thank you for helping me on that journey. But yeah, it kind of seems like the main reason, not the only reason, but the main reason this really took off was because of that video, which is something I don't know what my feelings are about, because I mean, everyone in it is willing to perform, and I've got no problem with, you know, adult content or anything like

that. I'm not any kind of prude, and so I don't think know, adult content or anything like that. I'm not any kind of prude. And so I don't think it's exploitative or anything like that. But I do think it's a bit kind of gross that the video is just literally, look at these hot women. You know, it's kind of like FHM culture a little bit. So it makes me feel a bit gross. But again, this is me, like, as a, you know, 30-something gay man. So definitely not the target

audience once again none of the songs this week were made for me let me tell you that um so yes it it's a good enough remix slash reimagining of um valerie which is fine but i don't really think it's got that much more to it than that and I really cannot see a world in which this gets this big without that video and I have to knock a point off for that because it just doesn't stand on its own two feet. I also want to call back a point that I made a few weeks ago about Lola's Theme by The Shapes of the Sisters where I really was thinking about Sisters where I really like was a thinking about you know why is that song like better than a lot of other dance tracks of the era and of a lot of the dance tracks in general and I kind of settled on this thing which I said of

like you could forgive that song for not bothering with a verse at all we're not bothering with having any kind of back-and-forth structure at all and just having that one thing pretty much repeat all the way through because in Lola's theme that main hook or that main bit in the chorus is so infectious that you could really forgive it for just running with that all the way through but it's a better song for not doing that for actually making a song out of this little thing that you've made Call On Me really needs that it needs some rise and fall it needs a bit more to it than just that refrain over and over again. And I know it kind of pulls back and then goes back in a few times, but it's not anything noteworthy, really. And considering it's only less than three minutes long, it really does not fill its time at all.

So, yeah. I mean, I can see the appeal of it as a song like it's really good like gym exercise music you know there's no coincidence why that's the purpose of the music video and it's definitely something that wakes you up and is energetic and I do like that sound of it but is this actually particularly remarkable beyond that fairly wild music video no I don't think so so it kind of gets a meh for me to be honest yeah I I don't think so so it kind of gets a meh from me to be honest I don't think I'll ever settle my feelings

on it to be honest so yeah I don't know I don't really like it to be honest but it's somewhere in the middle Lizzy how about you? Yeah well I've been delving back into 2004 culture this week I've been watching a show called booze britain yes i have watched a few episodes of that as well lizzie thank you very

much for that link yeah i've been really indulging in the the grim end of bid north he's nightlife in the uk which is like the series kind of focuses on like groups of pissed up punters all piling into the only nightclub in town in places like red car derby and peterborough like whereas heaven sounded to us like the platonic ideal of what a nightclub should sound like the reality is a lot more like call on me which incidentally does show up in booze britain at once. I think it's in the first episode when there's a man who drank a pint of Guinness in 10 seconds. I think it was just after we met Burger Barry, who proudly told us about the time that he slung a hot dog in someone's face because he wanted it sticking out of her sight.

It's wonderful stuff. It's only the third Grimmist documentary on alcohol. But in terms of this song, like, it's almost clinical in its approach. Like, you take a recognisable AC sample, you pair it with a thumping beat, you play it over and over again for three and a half minutes and then you pair that with a kind of softcore music video and you watch the money roll in. And we've talked a little bit about the ringtonification of pop music around this time and I'm sure we'd all agree that that isn't necessarily a bad thing but I think with that in mind you

take that consideration it's that the hook becomes the most crucial part of a song and I don't think anybody can deny that Call On Me has a killer hook yeah the one big complaint about the song for me is that it's pretty much all the song has to offer admittedly that's more than I can say about real to me but at the same time it pales in comparison to something like Heaven or Loneliness or Lola's Theme, all of which I just find more engaging and evocative. So I think while people will maybe remember this one more from the period than those other ones i just find actually sitting down and listening to it is not what i remember i remember it being a lot more exciting and engaging and i don't i haven't had that experience this week i feel like

maybe if i heard this in one of those big super clubs if I heard this at Printworks in London or one of those big festivals in Ibiza or Barcelona or something, it would make sense but just as a listener on headphones in my bedroom in rainy Manchester it's okay but I need

a little bit more than this I've been waiting for this moment to talk about Call On Me by Eric Pritz ever since we started the podcast this is one of the ones I've been looking forward to the most like more than 99% of the songs

I think that we've done so far not for the reasons I thought though, I thought it would be about one thing but it turns out the more I thought, though. I thought it would be about one thing, but it turns out, the more I've listened to this, literally yesterday, I'm like, oh, I love this. I thought I didn't. But then I realised I've listened to this, like, 20 times this week. And I'm like, and I've listened to it, like, 18 times, and I'm like, yeah, it's fine. I don't really love this. And then suddenly, on, like, the 19th and 20th listens I was like oh I think this is awesome so hang on

um so I think first off it has a fantastic relationship with the music video I almost feel like the song cannot be discussed independently of the music video which I don't know whether weakens the song or strengthens its ability to evoke a particular time and place. You know, its synergy between audio and visual is so strong that maybe that's a credit to the song. Like you, Andy, still haven't quite worked my mind out totally on a few things. But I think what the video and the song do together is that they capture the essence of that entire mid-2000s, or at least as I remember it anyway, this sense of like, this fairly vague sense of liberation and hedonism and, inverted commas, sexual freedom that people imagined would spring into life in the beginning of the 21st century. You know, a new millennium, new century, let's all go wild, etc, etc. But I think it also precisely captures a micro-genre that seemed to live and die between 2002 and 2007.

I think for years, you know, pop music and especially pop videos have always been about pushing back the boundaries of what will make people go oh when they're watching at home and cover their eye like you just said no don't can't look that sort of thing um but it between i would say like from satisfaction benny benassi up to i don't know i can't think of the last one that would try and push this kind of stuff really but it's all your hands up for detroit by freddie legrand that was yeah that's a fairly high you know that's a fairly high watermark in that kind of like you know in that sort of like that little micro genre but there's probably a couple afterwards i'm forgetting about but it's like this really specific thing it's so specific and i'm fascinated

by it where it's like big name djs remix old pop songs blast them out 100 miles an hour fill the music video with sexy women who are like gyrating and thrusting and whatnot and then they just include one guy who can't believe his look like and it this wasn't the first to do it but i think it's the definitive example because you have um you know obviously you have call me but you also have the video for somebody to love by boogie pimps which in that case it's not one guy who can't believe his luck. It's several skydiving babies. You have Falling Stars by Sunset Strippers,

which is the one in the laundrette where that one guy is watching these three women do the laundry while the camera gets loads of upskirt shots. Out of Touch by United Nations, which features one das samson which is where he plays strip poker there's one guy playing strip poker with a bunch of women um you also have your body by tom novi which is that guy being treated to a dance class at a night club um say say say by ty tack which is the guy who's using the technology to see women in underwear

dancing in front of him all of them feel wrapped up like he was saying andy in this like fhm sexiest music videos ever you know those countdowns that would be on music channels like in the middle of the day uh and like that was sort of referencing in the last episode like the whole nuts magazine like women etc etc you know, women can't do any manual labour, and they don't expect, they shouldn't expect any help with it on a Tuesday or a Thursday, depending on which era of Nuts magazine you're discussing, it's all very kind of like, oh, look at that, you know, all right, you know, that sort of like booze Britain,

like you were saying, Lizzie, and i think that call on me is probably the first example of this that you would show to future historians or aliens or historians of the future who are aliens when we've been invaded um but i think the crucial thing about this song and video together as a cultural moment is that it's the sound of brit waking up after Cool Britannia, shaking off the hangover, and deciding to go to the fucking gym. Let's get fit again. Let's go to the gym as a nation. And not only that, but it feels like a big cultural shift towards the idea that gyms are places where you can meet women and meet like-minded people who want to get fit

and date and do all of these things at the same time it's like you know the modern urban human being has a gym membership and dates people who they meet at the gym like that sort of thing you know you're a young urbanite with hormones and an insatiable need to thrust and move and fidget and so you must you know you must exercise your right to dance and run on a treadmill at the same time if it's possible because the video is basically a three minute orgy without any nudity you know like it's okay there's a bit of it's not partial nudity exactly but you know it gets as close to simulating sex and showing as much skin as possible while still getting away with it on daytime tv because that moment that that first proper wallop of bass hits and it matches up with

the female the gym leader the woman pulsing her groin into the camera and it feels like something intangible and magical happens in that moment where it's like the the future of pop at least for the next five years just kind of thrusts you in the face and i think that it's the base hits in these songs in this song matching up with the male because it's not just female genitalia i should say that's heavily you know like shoved up into the camera and titillated as much as you can because you do get a fair few male groin shots of a bulge flopping about in those tiny shorts of the the guy is uh wearing obviously it's more geared towards the male gaze but you do or at least the straight male gaze but you do at least get some you know you get they get a very nice attractive muscly guy in to also thrust into the camera every now and again and it's the

bass hits matching up with the thrusting of the hips that made me realize oh I love this because those bass hits are so compressed and so loud that they basically obliterate Steve Wynwood's voice to the point where you know they get the call on me but they make it sound like he's going because it's hammering his voice to the floor or it's all broken and screwed up it's like the it's like the image of the future thrusting into the face of the past i feel like this picks up also from stuff like make love by my room by room five and you see the trouble with me that we mentioned earlier and it makes the decision to go shorter but it goes faster and harder and it means that it gets a bit overbearing but i think it's a great slice of

slightly futuristic sugar and it's really evocative of a very specific time and place i feel like it manages to make itself short enough so that the repetition doesn't bother me that much um it it does become slightly overbearing but i think it knows the main weapon in its arsenal and it just fires it at you for two and a half minutes with occasional breaks so that you go oh well i hope that bit comes back you know and so yeah i think it's sort of great um i didn't think i would be saying anything like this to be perfectly honest um but i have to admit um the reason on top of all of that that i've just said that i've been anxious to get to this one is because this is the song that was number one

when i first knew or first became aware of what the charts really were and started listening on a sunday because as a kid i always knew there was a number one song but i you know i'm a 10 year old kid or like i'm eight nine year old kid like i just thought some unknown entity or music business person just made that decision like oh this song is going to be number one for a bit because it's on the tv and on the radio a lot so that makes sense you know some guy in an office in a building you know in a suit at a desk is like um this one is going to be number one this week i didn't know that the charts were a thing where like it was like there was a competitive element to it if you know what i mean but on a friday afternoon um in primary school i'm in year five at this point

uh we were taken to the brand new ict suite uh as as they called it at the time and we were asked to go on the BBC website as like you know like the school's got like all these new computers and it's like let's go on the BBC website because that's a safe place to start it was all new to me and I just found myself clicking buttons and I stumbled on the Radio 1 website and it was all white and red and you could look at something called the top 40 and I was like what's that and in that moment I realized that the charts weren't just this thing that gets put together it was actually made up of all different songs that people were buying and listening to and that there was this competitive element to all these statistics which I've now realized as i've grown

up statistics are just like a thing i like looking at so like there was no hope for me or for my future sunday afternoons really in terms of going outside and i noticed that there was a little play button next to each song where you could listen to like 20 seconds or 30 seconds of the song that was in the list and so i clicked on the little play button and this played and i remember it being branded onto my brain in an instant and just immediately wanting to go home and listen to this and listen to the chart on sunday to find out if it was still number one and from this point on in my life from whatever day in September October 2004 onwards um I listen to the charts every Sunday afternoon for the next six

years and this is where my relationship and obsession with the charts really begins like really begins like pop music is a thing i'm interested in when i'm like you know six seven years old it's kind of like a passing thing you know you have memories of it you don't really know whether you like songs or not you just hear them and think oh yes that's on the radio right now but call on me is the beginning of me like wanting songs to be number one and like wanting to wanting one song to beat another wanting to listen all sunday afternoon for three hours as they count down the top 40 realizing that there were other songs out there that didn't get on the radio but still

got into the charts and that was like my only chance to hear them and stuff like that and so definitely um nostalgia kind of like giving giving me, you know, giving this song a bit of an upwards, you know, an upwards shift in my estimation, but yeah, I've been very excited to get to this one, because from this point on, I feel like my memories of all of the songs are really, really clear now, call on me is is the beginning point um for that i think that despite all despite all of this it was literally up until like last night i only realized last night how much i actually like it and i don't like it for reasons that i normally like other songs but i realized that this is just so when

we've been doing our research i've been enjoying the fact that this is just so easy to just yeah i'll listen to that like you know if i'm walking to the shop i like i'll just get a quick bit of call on me i'll just get that hit you know that sugar rush that it kind of gives you um i totally understand that like it does not develop much um it does not do it has a slight grasp of dynamics you know it understands the loud and quiet um it doesn't really do much with the rest of valerie either um and so it just kind of picks the best bit and plays it the most often um i obviously wasn't going to nightclubs and stuff like this um and stuff like that and so I don't really have any memories of it in a live setting, like you Lizzie it's all

been in my bedroom or just through headphones but yeah I sort of love this which has really been unexpected so yeah I mean if this podcast ever gets given like a social

network style film, I think that's the first scene. I'm sort of picturing the alternate universe where you go into that ICT room two weeks earlier and you hear Real To Me. It's like, oh God, I actually hate pop music. You never pay attention to the chart. Yeah, who knows?

I mean, it's a shame that it's not love machine or american idiot that i have this relationship with because i like those songs so much more than this one but i think i love this more than i like it which is the first time i've said this on the show on the show i think um i think the nation did kind of in the same way it did with low esteem it felt like the nation kind of stopped for a second and was sort of like oh yeah like this is you know i can get on board with this but i do think it's the the sound of let's say people beginning to accept that the 90s are gone um and they have to become a new person in the new millennium etc etc but do we have anything more to say about well any of the songs that we've covered this week but especially call on me no but i really liked your um piece on that

rob that was lovely oh thank you yeah i feel like burger barry would be very proud of us shout out burger barry if he's probably may still be doing that job who Who knows? I think he's passed on. Yes, I also wonder that as well, but here's hoping. Who knows Burger Barry? Can we get in touch with him? Before we go, we're just going to check. My place, Flap Your Wings. That's not going in the vault or the pie hole

for me. What about you, Andy? It's going in the pie hole. Really? Oh yeah, yeah. Yeah, hated it. Okay. Lizzie, you're not going to put it in the pie hole cool really yeah oh yeah yeah yeah hated it okay um lizzie you're not going to put it in the pie hole i presume judging by that reaction but what about the vault if they were individual signals um flatbrew wings would be going in the pie hole but together it's just kind of yeah not going in either yeah yeah um real to me um i think I'm going to put that in the pie hole actually, what about you Lizzie?

I'm definitely putting it in the pie hole Andy that sounded like a yes from you yeah cool, and Call On Me by Eric Pridz is that going in the pie hole or the vault for you Lizzie? not for me

and Andy? not for me I think I'm just gonna sneak it in to the vault only slightly fair enough um and it's not a decision i had settled on 24 hours ago um but hey we need some you know we need some more entries from me for the vault and the pie hole so you know i need to be slightly harsher on some songs and slightly slightly nicer to others um that is it for this week's episode thank you very much for listening when we come back um we're gonna slightly change the format we'll not change the format but just extend the next episode because we realized we were so close to christmas and we thought why not get us there so next week

we are going to be covering the period between the 10th of October and the 4th of December so we're getting right up to Christmas we're going to be out of 2004 in a couple of weeks and we'll be full speed ahead for 2005, thank you very much for listening again this week and we will

see you soon, goodbye bye bye