Hits 21 - 2005 (1): Steve Brookstein, Elvis Presley

Episode Date: September 10, 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] Vault: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5O5MHJUIQIUuf0Jv0Peb3C?si=e4057fb450f648b0 Piehole: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2FmWkwasjtq5UkjKqZLcl4

Hi there everyone and 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. 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 2005. It's our first 2005 episode. And this week, we are going to be covering the period between the 1st of January and the 22nd of January. Before we get going, I just want to go around the table. How old were we or how old were we going to be in 2005? And where were we in our lives? Andy, how old are you in 2005? What year do you become on your birthday in that year

i was i was 12 going on 13 i was uh in year eight going into year nine um i remember this year very well it's a big year for me um i kind of like some of my like most lifelong friendships formed during this year some of like my big teenage fun times happened during this year um yeah i remember 2005 very well it's lovely to revisit this yeah uh lizzie how about you in 2005 it's really bad that i can't remember isn't it how old i was in 2005 um well how old are you now i think you're one year older than me aren't you? How old am I now? I don't know actually, how old am I? Right

I just turned 32 like two weeks ago Whey, happy birthday So you would have been 14-ish Turning 14 in 2005 So you would have been in year 9 Going on year 10 So I graduated high school in 2007 So yeah Year nine checks out cool i uh

yeah well i was uh 10 going on 11 i was just finishing primary school and entering high school um there's a particular run of number ones in 2005 that might give away my uh fondness for that particular little bit um just the the summer of 2005 having a really long summer before high school and then starting uh big school as it was called um so we've given a little bit a bit of a rundown as to how we were doing in that year, so we're going to go ahead and get into 2005. Now obviously because last week was a Christmas episode, there is no poll, so we're going to rush ahead and give you some news from 2005, from January 2005.

61,000 people attend a benefit concert in Cardiff to raise money for those affected by the Boxing Day tsunami in the Indian Ocean. At the time it was the largest concert in Britain since Live Aid. Acts on the bill included Craig David, Charlotte Church, Badly Drawn Boy, Manic Street Preachers, Goldie Looking Chain, Sting, Eric Clapton and Lulu and at the end of the day over 1 £1.2 million was raised. Pictures of Prince Harry wearing a Nazi swastika armband at a fancy dress party appear on the front page of The Sun. Harry, who was 21 years old at the time, immediately apologised for his actions after significant backlash from the media and from the general public. Naughty

boy, Harry. And Britain's tallest self-supporting structure, the B of the Bang, is unveiled at the City of Manchester Stadium by athlete Linford Christie. However, shortly after being unveiled, bits of the sculpture started to fall off. After four years and 1.7 million pounds worth of repairs, Manchester City Council eventually took it down in 2009.

What a mess. As someone who only moved to Manchester in 2013, I've never heard of this. Never heard of it. Yeah, a lot of people like to forget about it. It was a pretty impressive thing, but it wasn't impressive

enough to stay together. It was one of those sculptures that's dangerous in high winds, and so they just gave up in 2009 and were just like nope we're decommissioning it like it's done. The films to hit the top of the UK box office during this period were as follows. The Incredibles for one more week, White Noise for one week, Closer for one week and then Meet the Fockers begins a four week run at the top of the UK box office. Meanwhile, Dick

and Dom in Dabungalo is criticised in Parliament for its lavatorial content by Conservative MP Peter Luff. Lavatorial is just, I'm using that word, that's a fantastic word Mark Berry the dancer and percussionist from the Happy It's just, I'm using that word. That's a fantastic word.

Yeah. Mark Berry, the dancer and percussionist from the Happy Mondays, who you and I know as Bez, wins the third edition of Celebrity Big Brother. Meanwhile, Jerry Springer, the opera featuring characters Jesus, Mary and God, airs on BBC Two, despite objections from Christian Voice and other religious advocacy groups. Can I give you a quick story about Bears?

Go on, go ahead. I mean, this is really weird, but you know I said 2005 was the year that I formed some of my strongest friendships and one of my very best, it's not Bears, one of my very best friends I kind of became very close friends with in 2005 and a few years ago him and

his wife um had their first baby and when we found out myself and my husband were in the pub at the time um in salford which is where we lived at the time and we were just eating our tea and suddenly on the table next to us bears came and sat down just on his own we were like what the hell that's bears but this is weird we don't know how to react and then seconds later I got a video call off my friend saying

we're having a baby and it's like a big core memory of like oh my god they're having a baby I'm so happy for them and I always remember that Bez was there

with us to celebrate that moment it was so hot amazing yeah and in wrestling Triple H alongside Ric Flair, defeats Edge, Chris Benoit, Chris Jericho, Batista and Randy Orton in an Elimination Chamber match to win the vacant World Heavyweight Championship. Shawn Michaels appeared as a special guest referee. OK, Andy, the album charts,

how are they looking right now? Yeah, we have a bit of a kind of gradual run-up into the year because we start the year with a few things returning to number one. It's kind of a greatest hits revisit of 2004 for the first few weeks of the year because, first of all, we have American Idiot returning to number one for one week in the first week of the year which i suspect will be because a lot of people got it for christmas or bought it in the christmas sales um i definitely got it that christmas so i will be

amongst those people who got that back to number one in the first week of january 2005 um and then that is toppled by scissor sisters their their self-titled debut, which was number one last year was the biggest selling album of 2004 that's back at number one for one week, before it is toppled by the first new album of the year, it's another debut it's another kind of big indie

line in the sand where the genres start to get going now it's Hot Fuss by by the killers is at number one now for two weeks and it would go eight times platinum spawn all manner of very well-known indie classics so yeah that feels like a bit of a moment hot force getting to number one there so yeah that's all i've got for you this week so quite a good collection of albums there american idiot scissor sisters and hot force. January 2005 was solid on the charts. Yeah.

If only I could say the same for the singles. Lizzie, how are things looking in America in 2005, in the opening few weeks? Yeah, and if only you could say the same for America as well. So in terms of singles, it's a new year and a new US number one which is Let Me Love You by Mario it stayed at number one for nine weeks in the US

but narrowly missed out on number one in the UK when it got to number two in March of this year so we'll have to wait to see what kept that off the top spot over on the albums chart there's only one new number one album to mention followed by two re-entries. First up is Loyal to the Game by 2Pac, his ninth studio album and his fifth posthumous album. It was produced by Eminem and it stayed at number one for one week in the US but it only got to number 20 in the UK and speaking of Eminem just to

round us off this week and Encore returned to number one for two more weeks after that followed by two more weeks for Andy's favorite album American Idiot by Green Day. I'm not sure it's my favorite album ever. Your favorite album of this period? Yeah it's probably in my top five ever to be fair so fair enough yeah I've not been slandered there that's fair enough. Your favorite album of this period? Yeah, it's probably in my top five ever, to be fair. So, fair enough. Yeah, I've not been slandered there. That's fair enough. Your favourite album of January 2005? That's fair.

That's fair. I can live with that. Yeah. Right, okay. Thank you both very much. We are going to come back over to the UK now, and back to the singles chart. Just before we get going with the songs this week of course

it's probably worth reminding you that band a20 were the first number one single of 2005 that was the fourth week that it spent at number one so the first new number one of 2005 is this this You're the only one who really knew me at all How can you just walk away from me When all I can do is watch you leave Cause we shared the laughter and the pain And even shed the tears You're the only one who really knew me at all So take a look at me now

When there's just an empty space And there's nothing left here to remind me Just the memory of your face I'll take a look at me now There's just an empty space And you're coming back to me It's against the odds And that's what i gotta face okay then this is against all odds by steve brookstein released as the lead single from

his debut studio album titled heart and soul against all odds is steve brookstein's first single to be released in the uk and his first to reach number one. However, it is his last. The song is a cover of the original song by Phil Collins, which reached number two in 1984. The song was also covered by Mariah Carey and Westlife in the year 2000 and reached number one. You can go back and listen to all of our very positive thoughts on that one.

Against All Odds first entered the UK charts at number two, getting to number one in its second week on the chart. It stayed at number one for one week. In its first and only week atop the charts, it sold 26,000 copies in a week where there were no new entries to the top ten, but did see Out of Touch by uniting nations get to number seven and took your head back by nelly and christina aguilera get to number nine when it was knocked off the top of the charts against all odds dropped one place to number two by the time

it was done on the charts it had been inside the top 100 for 10 weeks the song has never received any official certification from the British phonographic industry. Not a proud record for the first ever X Factor winner. So Andy, kick off 2005 against all odds by Steve. Lovely Steve, apparently

from X Factor. How do you feel? Sigh. Sigh. And another sigh. That's how I feel. how do you feel? sigh sigh and another sigh that's how I feel yeah I mean this is a first as far as I'm aware not just the first song of the year

but I believe this is the first time that a song has come up twice on the show that we've had two different versions of the same song, am I correct in that? I think so. Yeah. I mean, we just missed the boat on Bob the Builder doing Mambo No. 5 because that was No. 1 in 1999.

But yeah, this is the first time a song has come up twice, and honestly, of all the songs that this could have happened to, it's bloody against all odds. I mean, that's probably... I do think that is quite possibly the worst song I think we've ever covered up to this point,

the Mariah Carey and Westlife version. I really, truly hate that. It's awful. And I don't like the Phil Collins original either. There's something in the bones of this song that I just find deeply, powerfully tedious. Just really, really dull in an almost profound way in its

dullness. Kind of like Lady in Red or True by Spandau Ballet where it's just like there's nothing I can get from this at all. I was kind of surprised by Steve Brookstein. Brookstein? Brookstein? I don't know. By Steve Brookstein.

I was kind of surprised by his voice in that it is actually quite soulful. I can see why that caught on with the viewers who were kind of voting for the nicest voice, presumably, and the nicest young man, because that's how these votes tend to go. I can see why he won, but

that voice very quickly becomes quite obvious in its limitations. This song is hard enough to get anything out of in terms of emotion, but Steve really doesn't squeeze any juice from the orange here at all. He just does it karaoke style.

Not to mention there's some vocal tics that you'd think really should have been ironed out in production, that someone really should have told him, no, no, don't do it that way. Most notably, take a look at me, nah. He keeps keeps on saying that and it's really weird like he notably doesn't say now he says take a look at me now and it's very hard very very hard so i don't like this at all and it's got that cheesy x-factor production to it of course it does but then kind of every version of

this song has that anyway so that doesn't stand out too much. The problem I have with this is that it's just so damn lazy. So lazy. And I completely agree with your observation there, Rob, that this is not a proud note for X Factor to start on. Because, yes, it's a first series and no one would have known how big it would get and how influential it would get. But we're not at the start of history here. We've just had Pop Idol that produced Will Young, who had an absolutely nuclear hit with Evergreen and has since made a pretty good, authentic career for himself.

We've had Girls Aloud, who have been smash hits, who have really taken off. There is actually some credibility to these shows. You can actually make stars out of them at this time. And the snobbishness and the sense of inauthenticity that would come with later years of The X Factor, that's not a given at this stage because Will Young

well, not so much Gareth Gates but Will Young and Girls Aloud in particular and kind of Hearsay as well they made it, they did do well you can do well out of these shows and what does Steve Rukstein get? He gets this cheap naff cover of a

really bad Phil Collins song that's been done by everyone in the world already just really? Have they got nothing more than this? The kind of litmus test I would often use for X Factor winners singles, which I'll probably use going forward is, is this worth it for them? As the outcome, as the prize

is this worth it? Because you know you're, as the prize, is this worth it? Because you're making a public spectacle of yourself for months, having to go through big band week and then love week and then, I don't know, perform a song on stilts week and declare your love to Simon week and Sharon calls you a dickhead week. There's all kinds of stuff that you have to go through on The X Factor and then you win and you get a single and that single is your one and only lifeline

because you have got nine months you have nine months before the next series of x factor starts in which that is your moment and that window of opportunity will be firmly closed if you haven't done something good by then and it's caught out much better winners than steve brookstein um and it certainly caught him out and yes he couldn't have known how ruthless that machine would be but it's kind of obvious in retrospect when they're giving him something as naff as this like they're just not even trying at all i kind of get the feeling that they didn't want him to win because i mean there is definitely a pattern that emerges over the years that you get these really cool, interesting runners up like JLS, Olly Murs, Rebecca Ferguson, One Direction as well, to some extent. You know, you get these very viable runners up who could have big careers who are beaten to their post by a very nice, bland, white ballad singer, young man.

And that is a trope that just keeps on recurring. You get Matt Carville, Leon Jackson, Shane Ward. It's just a thing that happens all the time, because as much as X Factor tries to present itself as a cool, relevant, happening thing, it kind of seems obvious that the voter base is mostly older people who are looking for someone kind and friendly who you might see singing to them on Blackpool Pier. And Steve Brookstone is the inevitable result of that, is that you get a NAF winner who's got no kind of future in the business, so you just farm him out with a Phil Collins

cover, make a few bucks off it, and there we go. That's the end of the story. And so I kind of understand his bitterness about the whole experience, because boy is he bitter. He really, really is not happy about how things went with him on the X Factor, and afterwards, it feels like he was kind of shafted by the whole experience. And I get it, you know, sometimes he lays it on a bit thick, and maybe he could move on after 20 years. But I get it.

I do get it. It's a ruthless machine. And this is the first kind of very obvious representation of that. Because at least they kind of had a go with Gareth Gates, even though his music was awful. But they're just not trying at all with Steve Brooks in here. They're just clearly making a little cash grab to put a bow on the first series.

And it's like, yeah, come back next year and you'll get another one of these and we'll all forget about him. And we did. Unfortunately. So I feel bad for him, but this song is rubbish. Rubbish. And it doesn't really deserve the length of time that I talked about it, so I'll clear the floor. Yeah.

Yeah, fair enough. Lizzie, how about you? Yeah. Agree with pretty much everything you have to say there, Andy. Like you, I just, I mean, I don't really have much to say about the song in general. Like when we discussed the Westlife version, I mainly had a problem with the execution of the cover, but admitted that I wasn't a huge fan of the original because it's melodramatic and self-pitying in a way that I find extremely hard to get on with. Like, it's divorce pop taken to its kind of logical extreme,

and I don't really have a reference point for that. It's not something I can identify with. And for Brookstein himself, he's not a bad singer, but he's not a very distinct one either the inclusion of the gospel choir is fine but it just makes Brookstein sound like a karaoke act who believes his own hype it's just it's really sort of jarring and it doesn't fit and and I know the x-factor the whole thing is like it's not just a singing competition it's like sort of jarring and it doesn't fit and and I know the x factor the whole thing is like it's not just a singing competition it's like who has the best star appeal and ultimately that fails

because like you say Andy the voter base is largely people who vote for people they like as a personality on a television show and that doesn't always translate to chart success or anything else like other than you know you were good in a tv series once um i mean i feel like there's a separate discussion to be had about brooksteen himself and his treatment on the show anyway but that's all i have on the song and so i'm just gonna hand you back it's not very good yeah i feel like we could talk for hours about the various things that steve bruckstein has done or said or allegedly done or said um but like yeah his treatment on the x factor and afterwards it sounds like he was under the impression that once he won he would have a bit more control and then simon

cowell was like no no no no like you know you do our bidding basically you know we'll throw you a bone every now and again um but yeah like he ended up doing one album after this, I think, which was called like 40,000 Things, I think, or something like that. And it's a lot of original singer-songwriter-y material. He wasn't happy that more than half of the album, his debut album, was going to be made up by covers. than half of the album his debut album was going to be made up by covers um and it seems like he

fell foul of simon um and he definitely paid the price in terms of where his career went um i have tried to ignore everything that kind of happened with his career to just you know focus on the song happened with his career to just you know focus on the song paint a picture of how i feel about the song itself rather than him and all of the things that he's apparently said to people on twitter and all the arguments he's apparently been involved with because i actually think that he's the best thing about this version he isn't the best vocalist in the world um and i do think he's a bit boring which isn't a crime but it probably i think in a way explains why he likes to really put himself across as like outspoken and controversial it's like he puts his opinions where his personality should be um but while he's not the best vocalist in the world he does provide a sense of vulnerability and desperation to this. He actually does sound a bit divorced and pathetic and sad,

which means that he's really suitable for this material, like way more suitable than Mariah Carey and Westlife were. And it means his performance is believable because of how ordinary it feels. I'm not saying that it's charming in the way that atomic kitten or michelle mcmanus were but you can see what i'm getting at um but i'm not really keen on the original anyway i mean i think we've discussed this before i don't dislike it but it's just you know it's all right like i'm mixed on collins solo material generally i am i think i'm mixed on everything he touches after 1978 to be honest

um with a couple of exceptions so like any interpretation of this is going to leave me feeling unmoved um but to be honest what i found most remarkable about this this week is that it's not on spotify and the actual single version of the song isn't even on youtube the only version of the song is the music video which means that there is no version out there on the internet right now that doesn't have kate thornton shouting steve and so the only version i've been able to find for the show is one where just before the final chorus and they do the and it's just they're going steve and oh and then and everybody cheers over the final chorus because the music video mix is the only version of it that exists on youtube

i've looked everywhere and just to try and find the single version of it that may have been played on radios and stuff but no because when we were originally reading out the stats about this song and it said that it had sold 26,000 copies in its first week I thought surely that's a hundred and twenty six thousand and I've just missed the one-off but no um it turns out it's just 26,000 and I think that this week more than any other week um explains that something needed to change in the way that they compiled the charts I would just say bear in mind that the single had been out before this week yeah that's true and it didn't get to number one thanks to Band-Aid. So it probably did shift a lot.

Of course. Yes, you're right. Yeah. Yes. Hmm. Yeah, it's a very good point. Yeah, so that'd be 26,000 second week sales, which based on what we've seen so far on the show,

I would say that its first week sales were probably about, I don't know, 100,000 maybe? It sold 127,701 copies in its first week in the UK. Oh, that's a bit of a... See, I feel like that's a bit of a shame because that's more than Michelle McManus, I think. Yeah. And now it feels like it maybe just...

It was just unlucky that it went up against Band-Aid 20. And so then the treatment that he had from simon cowell perhaps feels less justified i get the feeling that simon just didn't like steve i just you know like after it was all over i just don't think simon cowell enjoyed having artists that kicked up a fuss you know i think he just preferred having ones that did what he wanted to do yeah he doesn't like artists who give as good as they get and i think i'm not saying steve brooks there was a match for him in terms of power or anything because he's clearly not but he's you know he's not that much younger than simon and he's definitely got an ability to stand up to him and he kind of knows how the world works a bit and stuff yeah far too much of a match for Simon for him to be comfortable

with I think I've definitely always got that impression and Sharon Osbourne had this thing about him I don't know if you remember on the final where after he just performed this I think as his you know pitch for the winner's song she really read him to filth for no obvious

reason where she was like oh i think you're cocky and i think you don't deserve this and it's kind of inexplicable why she did that and i don't know if maybe he just rubbed people up the wrong way and i'm not sure whether that was necessarily his fault i don't know so but something obviously went on there yeah yeah i feel like maybe one of those moments that footwell i mean it is from the start but i think a lot of people eventually come to see the x factor for the kind of pantomime that it is and maybe that's just one of those moments where it generates a bit of controversy and that's that was the i think in the end i think that was the the ultimate aim of x factor which

was more of a shock thing than pop, it felt like way more of a product than Pop Idol ever did. Pop Idol feels positively novel compared to the X Factor. But do we have anything more to say about Steve, Steve Brookstein? Not about Steve, but I just want to put a pin in this

because I think quite rare that this happens. This is obviously the first song we'll cover in 2005 and it's a pretty high quality year I think we've got coming up. I think there is a real chance that this could end up as our loser of the year, as our worst rated song of the year. I'm just going to say, I think we will be revisiting this at Christmas 2005. It's got a real shot at getting that dubious title.

So we're in early with that one, yeah. All right then. Well, next up and second up on our show this week is this. ¶¶ ¶¶ Everybody knows Hellbound We're dancing to the Jailhouse Rock Number 47 said to number 3 You're the cutest jailbird I ever did see I sure would be delighted with your company

Come on and do the Jailhouse Rock It'll be loud Okay, this is Jailhouse Rock by Elvis Presley. Released as a standalone single, Jailhouse Rock is Elvis Presley. Released as a standalone single, Jailhouse Rock is Elvis Presley's 24th single to be reissued in the UK, his 135th single to be released overall in the UK, and his 19th single to reach number one in the UK. And this is not the last time that we'll be discussing Elvis on this podcast either. The song is a reissue of the single which originally got to number one in 1958. Jailhouse Rock went straight in at number one as a brand new entry,

knocking Steve Brookstein 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 21,000 copies beating competition from The Number of the Beast by Iron Maiden, Breathe by Erasure , Filthy Gorgeous by Scissor Sisters, Object of My Desire by Dana Raine and Cut Off by Kasabian, which got to number eight. When it was knocked off the top of the charts,

Jailhouse Rock dropped nine places to number 10. By the time it was done on the charts, Jailhouse Rock had spent a total of 27 weeks inside the top 100. The song is currently officially certified platinum in the UK as of 2023. So Lizzy, take it away. Oh wow, you're just going to drop me in just like that? You just throw me straight into the frying pan, why don't you?

Straight into the jailhouse, as it were. Yeah, like, oh thanks for making me talk about one of the most legendary songs in rock and roll history, one that kick-started a million other pop acts and pretty much opened the floodgates even though he wasn't the first and he undoubtedly copped the styles of others yeah this is where it started for a lot of music and so yeah thank you for dropping me in straight like that making me take that mantle appreciate it no it's um it's good this is really good um i think you know when we last covered

elvis we had that chat i think rob you raised a point about how if you ask someone to kind of picture elvis or like get a sort of snippet of elvis's voice in their head chances are they will picture 70s Elvis in a big spangly jumpsuit going oh and thank you very much like that's the sort of the the kind of the symbol of Elvis that has endured throughout the decades whereas here what you get is that very young like like, sort of blazing a trail Elvis that I think a lot of, maybe, particularly me as a kid, wouldn't necessarily have known about. Because, again, like, even myself, I think I mentioned when we did A Little Less Conversation,

I was familiar with Elvis, but I was more familiar with old Elvis. And I knew about the hits. I would have known about this. But yeah, it is still quite sort of striking 20 years on to hear that young voice and the kind of punchy, you know, percussion and kind of the upbeat tempo rather than what you get later on, which is the gospel choirs and the the big Vegas show pieces and whatnot um yeah it's it's kind of like I say it's really hard to talk about because it is such an important milestone for rock and roll music in general

and there is definitely that sense that a lot of music wouldn't exist if not for this, or at least this sort of thing. So yeah, I can imagine, I feel like in early 2005, how would I have felt about this? Especially if I was a big pop fan, which I kind of was, but I was sort of on the periphery. I think I maybe would have seen this as a bit of an oddity, but I'd be on board with it. I think later on, when we get to Elvis's other number ones, I'd be maybe thinking, OK, maybe time to let this lie a bit. It's kind of run its course.

But yeah, it's nice to be reminded of the song. Really like it. OK, Andy, how about you? Yeah, I agree with pretty be reminded of the song. Really like it. Okay, Andy, how about you? Yeah, I agree with pretty much all of that, really. I definitely share that sense of, even if it's not anyone's, well, it will be someone's, but even if it's not my absolute favourite Elvis song,

you can certainly appreciate its significance. To be honest, it probably wouldn't even be in my top 20 Elvis songs, to be honest, but it is era-defining and era-beginning, really. I mean, what do you want me to say? It's jailhouse rock. It's kind of like asking me to talk about rock around the clock or asking me to talk about I Want to Hold Your Hand, where these aren't big, great monoliths

in how the canon of popular music was constructed and so on their own they they sort of you know don't have much to them because everything that has come since has improved upon them to some extent or has developed them to some extent whereas the context of wow this is how it all started and this is how the like i say that canon of popular music was put together the sense of significance of these this is how it all started, and this is how the, like I say, that canon of popular music was put together. The sense of significance of these songs is so great that you really can't sum it up in a couple of minutes. So it's quite a hard task that we have to deal with here.

I mean, with this song, I think, from what I know about Elvis, which, you know, I do know about Elvis. I'm not by any means an expert, though. I do like Elvis. But from what I know about this, this is kind of the point to me where the labels and the agents and everyone who is behind elvis really hooked on to the fact that he wasn't just a very popular musician and popular musicians were one thing but also artists could be sold as commodities that you know movements started around artists or they had the potential

to do so you know the whole kind of discovery of teenagers as a concept was obviously very closely paired with elvis and james dean and a lot of other kind of figures in the mid-50s and that's not a coincidence really that those two things are tied together because the audience for elvis was kind of waiting to be seized upon really that he that he's very, very suave and cool and very sexual and very kind of liberated and kind of seems like he'll do whatever the hell he wants. And in this song, you know, he's still having fun, even though he's in jail. Like, this man just can't be tamed. And that is revolutionary.

And there is an audience of people who aren't as prudish as their forebears who are waiting to get into this kind of stuff and so that just opens the floodgates really of popular music as liberation popular music as a form of expression and rebellion and this crystallizes that as like i say as a commodity as a product as an idea that can be sold that elvis is now a popular culture figure of like elvis means something to a group of people and that idea has taken a run with how the beatles mean something to people and how all sorts of artists have gone and run with that from there and so that's that's what i think this song and elvis as a whole really contributes to popular music history. The idea that, you know, you can really centre a pop culture movement and centre an audience around a central figure and make an absolute crap tonne of money out of it as well.

Just to comment on, you know, the kind of, oh, thank you very much, Elvis, that, you know, you were talking about there, Lizzie. I like to refer to that Elvis as the one who went to Paradise Hotel to see Howard and Marvin. And that's a very, very different Elvis. And that Elvis is absolutely naff. And I like to forget that he ever exists because this version of Elvis, as much as I'm fully aware that he was not the nicest person in the world, to say the very least, he is one hell of a talented singer and musician and artist really um he absolutely

cribbed off so many people um it has to be acknowledged that he really took music that was being made by black people and converted it for a white audience it's as simple as that um but i mean you do have to give him some credit quite a lot of credit for the talent and the style and the charisma that he poured into these songs and so I really appreciate Elvis and I'm really glad that we get a chance to discuss him again after we did with Little Less Conversation

but yeah I really like this, like I say it's not one of my favourite Elvis tracks ever but I'm really glad that it's here and it really is quite a big moment in history, really. So, yeah, I've tried to do that justice there, but it's kind of impossible. Yeah, I think I agree with the two of you.

Like, you know, it's 50s Elvis. It's rock and roll. It's Libra and Stola. It's jailhouse rock. Like, what more can you sort of say? It just feels like it's a song and stoller it's jailhouse rock like what more can you sort of say it just feels like it's a song that explains itself um it's so infectious and it's steeped in so much history and has been spoken about so much over the years that there's almost nothing new that i feel i could say about it um just very interesting to have it dropped into the charts now because it

feels like a little snapshot of like how much pop has changed in the 45 years that passed between this day and elvis's day um although i will say it getting to number one having sold just 20 000 copies or there and thereabouts is a sign i think that the downloads chart now needs to be incorporated yeah because the number one on the downloads chart right now is what You Waiting For by Gwen Stefani. And I feel like that would be, yeah. Which only got to number four in the actual charts itself. And so I think that, yeah, that's maybe a little sign that what will happen in two or three months' time,

that the download charts are going to start being incorporated into the singles charts and going to start being incorporated into the the singles charts and classified as legal tender um that it yeah i think that this is you know like it's not a problem exactly because jailhouse rock is great you know it's a classic track but i think it's sales are a sign that new formats need to be considered and I think the charts need to update themselves a little bit. I understand that this was part of a little bit of a campaign because loads of

Elvis singles got reproduced around this time and there was a little bit of a push for him to get the 1000th number one as well because he'd had the most I think up to that point or he was next, he was joint with the Beatles and they wanted him to overtake them, or something like that,

but 20,000 sales for a number one is pretty poor. You know, I think it's pretty low. I think that it's a sign that the download charts need to be considered now, because there's thousands and thousands. I would say more than 50 of some songs sales are just not being counted on the singles chart um at the moment yeah i didn't know whether to mention this but do you know about the idea that jailhouse rock is a queer song

yes no i didn't know about this yeah really, apparently, I mean, there is kind of some theories that there are kind of homoerotic things in it, like number 47 tells number three, you're the cutest jailbird I ever did see. I just thought it's an interesting thing to know. It might be true, it might not, but if it is a queer song, then yeah, it's quite ahead of its time i suppose

i mean i would never want to speculate about you know elvis's sexuality but you know he was very sexually liberated person especially for his day and there was so much nudge nudge wink wink um in such an obscure way at this time like the the levels of obfuscation you had to put around it was so so big that almost anything could be interpreted as a queer song but it does have some basis i think because i mean i mean we all know about james dean and all the stuff around that and there is that kind of vibe here that you know rebellion does that just mean social rebellion or does it also mean like you know there is something different about you and i could definitely see like how if there was some form of modern day elvis which is kind of an impossible thing to imagine but i could definitely see how a modern

day elvis would be like a queer icon because of that sense of liberation so i i get it i do get it i don't really think i don't know if I buy into it as like a queer coded song but I definitely get it, I really do I think it's one of those things where you can observe something without taking part in it yeah, definitely okay

last up this week it is this That we two could plan Would make my dreams come true Just call my name And I'll be right by your side I want your sweet helping hand My love's too strong, too high Always lived a very quiet life I never did no wrong Okay, this is One Night Double A Side with I Got Stung by Elvis Presley.

One Night, Double A Side with I Got Stung by Elvis Presley. Released as a standalone single, One Night, Double A Side with I Got Stung is Elvis Presley's 25th single to be reissued in the UK, his 136th single to be released overall in the UK, and his 20th single to reach number one. This is not the last time that we'll be discussing Elvis on this podcast either. The Double A Side single is a reissue of the same single which got to number one in 1959, which itself was a cover of a song by Smiley Lewis, originally recorded in 1956. One Night I Got Stung went straight in at number one,

as a brand new entry knocking Elvis Presley off the top of the charts, and it stayed at number 1 for one week. In its first and only week at number 1 it sold 20,000 copies beating competition from Empty Souls by Manic Street Preachers which got to number 2, Somebody Told Me by The Killers which got to number 3, Staring at the Sun by Rooster which got to number 5, Strings of Life by Soul Central which got to number 6 and Live Twice by Darius which got to number 7. When it was knocked off the top of the chart, One Night I Got Stung dropped 19 places to

number 20. By the time it was done on the charts, One Night I Got Stung had spent a total of 18 weeks inside the top 100. The song has never received any official certification from the British phonographic industry, but the song still holds the distinction of being the 1,000th number one single in UK chart history and used to hold the distinctions of being the lowest selling number one single which it will have that record broken next year and having the biggest drop from number one in uk chart history until it is matched and then beaten in the future so andy one night and i got stung you can give a little mention to i got Stung if you like.

I feel like there's less to say about that, but I don't know if you agree. Yeah, I mean, all I would really say about I Got Stung is, first of all, every time someone says it, it just makes me visualise, like, a kid running up to their mum at a beach, saying, Mum, I got stung! And that is, like, actually what the song kind of uses as its metaphor.

I like that it has that kind of Flight of the Bumblebee thing where the vocals kind of sound a bit frenetic, like a buzzing bee. I don't know if that's intentional but it sort of seems like a reference there. Yeah, I mean, I Got Stung kind of represents the side of Elvis and his writing and the people

around him writing that is not so magnificent which is that sometimes some of the metaphors are really strained and can't propel a whole song. I've always thought Return to Sender really plays on the postal delivery metaphor way longer than it has any right to. And there's quite a lot of Elvis songs. It's like, yeah, so you've got an idea of you're going to compare love to this,

and that's the whole song, folks. And I Got Stung is one of those. But One Night is better. So you've got an idea of you're going to compare love to this. And that's the whole song, folks. And I Got Stung is one of those. But One Night is better. One Night is one of those Elvis songs that I kind of struggle to recall a lot of the time because I get it confused with It's Now or Never. It really sounds quite a lot like It's Now or Never. And it's definitely in that style of kind of crooning, if you will. And he's very good at that, you know.

What else is there to say, really? It's another two Elvis songs. We've just gone on about it for ages and kind of paid as much tribute as we can. Yeah, I mean, One Night is decent. I have no idea why this was chosen, of all Elvis songs, to take that prestigious 1,000th number one.

That is a mystery to me. But it's nice enough. I've got some facts for you though if you like yes we always like facts so obviously everything has been either Elvis or Steve Brookstein this week and so we are in the midst of a run here

of every song since Vertigo by U2, Vertigo by U2 was the last one that doesn't count here, every song since Vertigo by U2. Vertigo by U2 was the last one that doesn't count here. Every song since then has been either a cover or a re-release. We have had no original songs since Vertigo by U2. We've had I'll Stand By You by Girls Aloud, we've had Band Aid 20 and we've had the three songs this week which are of course a cover and three re-releases. So that is quite the run we've had here. We thankfully do get some original songs next week but even two songs next week don't

fully count. There's quite a lot of wheel spinning at the moment. Also I Got Stung is the shortest song that we've ever covered up to this point. It's one minute and 49 seconds long. Very, very brief. The previous shortest song, as far as I can tell, was Gotta Get Through This by Daniel Bedingfield, which was like two minutes and twenty. Yeah, so yeah, the shortest song we've ever covered as well. Can you tell I've not got much to say about this? One night is decent, it's very much like it's now or never, it's fine. I got Stung is forgettable, silly simile Elvis. But both get a solid thumbs in the middle from me. Yeah.

I'm glad you don't have much to say about it because neither do I. Let's not say I think it's bad or anything. I don't think it's bad. I think it's quite good. Obviously not as good as Jailhouse Rock, but there's that kind of, you can see the DNA of early Beatles in there,

more than you can Jailhouse Rock, I think. Lizzie, you're going to love my notes in a second. Oh, am I? Really? But yeah, again, I'm sorry, I don't have much to say about it. Like, two number ones on the trot isn't bad going. I reckon this Elvis chap will go far is that the first time this has happened by the way um but someone has knocked themselves off the top spot surely not the first time ever but the first time in the for all of them yeah i think

it might be the first time for us yeah um yeah i'll start with i got stung because i have much less to say uh about that um it's a little bit hit and miss for me. I like it generally. I think it has the tempo and the general demeanor of a 50s Elvis number, but I think it lacks a bit of energy and a bit of emotional urgency. Like you, Andy, I'm sort of bored of the metaphor quite quickly. I struggle to think about it when it's over. Whereas One Night, I am quite surprised by One Night. I think it's an Elvis song I've not previously encountered. I think a potentially very dreary ballad

is giving quite a lot of pep and emotional impact by the performance. It sounds slightly drunk, like it's the end of a long night and Elvis is leaning on this shoulder like, One night with you that might not be an act to be fair uh yeah he might be method acting there yeah yeah but it's rambunctious and it's sort of slurred uh you know at least for like a waltzing ballad i feel like this is a much better representation of what elvis meant for popular culture in the late 50s like compared to i got stung but he was a rebel

of the rock and roll scene and he made girls scream and he made boys want to be like him and he made parents quake in their boots you know like i feel like this has more of the jailhouse rock spirit than i got stung which feels like a quick kind of you know i mean it's a double a side but like it was originally a b-side to the one night single in the 50s um this is angsty and i think that's something i love most about 50s rock and roll which is that there's gen i just love that feeling of like angst for the first time in popular culture in music anyway where it's like you know it's like there's a gurning and a grunting face and what it actually reminded me of lizzie when you said that this reminded you more of the early beatles i'm actually surprised that they never covered this at one point during their live sets because it

reminds me of i saw her standing there if you get what i mean there's a particular point in this song where like there's a particular chord change and in my head all i can sing is well my heart went boom when i crossed that right and like it i don't know what the particular i think it's the move into the bridge but i'm trying to imagine now i saw her standing there was like a waltz now i feel like it's you know i feel like that's got to be out there somewhere, or with, you know, AI or whatever, like, you know, what would I saw her stand in there sound like if it was in a waltz time, um, so yeah, I was keen on this, um, not enough to vault it, but I think that, yeah, this, for an Elvis song I've not really come come across before i was really nicely surprised by this it's a weird period for the charts this um i feel like you know our or my era for the charts has

kind of been briefly put on hold while people who remember the past want to get involved and have a go and buy some singles and then the download charts take over and it's like yep okay it's on its way like this pop pop charts are on their way to like just being a thing for under 25s as opposed to like you know adults as well um but yeah this is this is pretty cool i like it you know the original version that you mentioned by smiley lewis um and you mentioned that there's a kind of sleazy air to this. And you look at the original lyrics and it's kind of easy to see why. Because the original lyrics is, one night of sin is what I'm now paying for.

Ah. The things I did and I saw would make the earth stand still. It kind of implies, I don't know, like an affair or something. Or something unspoken. Whereas this Elvis version kind of turns into a kind of longing song. It's more cleaned up. But yeah, very interesting. Yeah, so he's retained that spirit with some different lyrics.

Cool. Yeah. Right. Okay, so we're going to run back down the order um we're just gonna go back to against all odds by steve brookstein that's that just misses the vault for me only just though very very close um sorry not the vault the pie hole no no the pie hole i definitely definitely mean the pie hole just about missed the pie hole um Andy what about you yeah um it was never gonna get in the vault um it is in the pie hole for me

yeah um I I feel a bit bad about it because it's really like beyond his control in the same way that F.U.R.B by Frankie was kind of beyond her control but I've set the precedent I've been mean to Frankie so I'm gonna be mean to Steve as well. Pie hole. Sorry. Lizzie, what about you? I am going to put it in the pie hole alongside the other against all odds. Yes.

Is that the first time that the same song has been pie holed twice? Must be double pieing. We should call it the Collins hole. The Phil hole? No, not that. The Phil Hole? Oh, no. No, not that. The Faye Bentos Zone.

Jailhouse Rock. I'm putting that in the vault. What about you, Andy? It feels weird for me to put something like that in the vault that is popping up the best part of 50 years after its release. But then there are songs that are wildly out of their time later on that I'm probably going to put in the vault. So I guess I will put this in, but it feels really weird.

I mean, you've done it anyway, so it makes no odds, but yeah, I will put it in, I guess, yeah. Lizzie, how about you? Well, I wasn't going to put it in for this same reason that it feels like we should have another not another tier but it's like when you know like when you have a review site

that will give something a 10 out of 10 but it's almost obligatory because it has just influenced so much that it feels like giving it anything else would be a crime I'm not going to vault it much that it feels like giving it anything else would be a crime. I'm not going to vault it but like you say, it's already in

so what difference does it make? I know what you mean though, that it does feel a bit like cheating almost on Jailhouse Rock's behalf. And one night I got stung. I think if it was just one night I would put it in but because it's a double A side,

it misses out on the vault. So, Lizzie, how about you? Yeah, not for me, I'm afraid. And Andy? Yeah, solid middle tier for me, that one. Yeah. Cool. Alright then. So, that's it for this week's episode. Thank you very much for listening. When we come back, we'll be

continuing our journey through 2005. So, it was lovely to see you all again. Thank you for bearing with us while we had a little rest after 2004. And we'll see you next time. So goodbye.

Bye-bye. See ya.