Hits 21 - 2006 (2): Madonna, Chico, Orson

Episode Date: December 3, 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 Now That's What I Call Musings: https://open.spotify.com/show/2BiY89dz9uRlj6nJSI7ucb In Five: https://open.spotify.com/show/0IOBwf2KiHAVEtmbH9DiTw The Longest Night: https://open.spotify.com/show/5NuUhJFtC7xqCq9iJGNhqE Budgens & Dragons: https://open.spotify.com/show/3GHRMJ5PmPVux55QVzXg05 Sorry It's Chico Time No Tomorrow

🎵 Hi there everyone, welcome back to Hits 21, where me, Rob, me, Andy, and me, Lizzie All look back at every single UK number one of the 21st century From January 2000 right through to the present day If you want to get in touch with us You can find us 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. And thank you so much this week for everybody who has been listening to us this year and sharing that fact with us. Thanks to Spotify Wrapped this week. A lot of people getting in touch with us saying that they listen to us a lot, which was very humbling. Very, very humbling. And yeah, thank you very much for sticking with us saying that they listened to us a lot which was very humbling um very very humbling and yeah thank you very much for sticking with us we are currently looking back at the year 2006 this week we'll be covering the period between the 26th of february and the 25th of march so a

little bit of a shorter period than the last episode covered uh Before we get going this week, I like to think we had something to do with this. Miami 7 is on iPlayer. Yes. Officially. It's the first, I think Lizzie you were saying before, or Andy, that it is the first official release of Miami 7 since the VHS. Yeah.

It has never been on DVD or anything like that. And bear in mind that VHS came out right after broadcast. The VHS came out in 2000. So this is the first release of any kind it's had in 23 years. Yeah. I do like to think we had something to do with that. I knew there was some reason why we had that call with the director general of the BBC last week. I mean, we came up on a Spotify wrapped and I thought that was why.

So, yeah. last week. I mean, we came up on a Spotify wraps and I thought that was why. So, yeah. Well, you can check out our episode on Miami 7 if you like. You just have to scroll a little bit further back in your feed to the end of 2003.

Last week's poll winner for our first episode of 2006 was Arctic Monkeys, When the Sun Goes Down. It won by quite a length, actually um from the other two uh that were up for consideration so well done to them uh and it's on to this week's episode and as always it's time for some news headlines uh from the sort of february march period of 2006 in vietnam paul gad better as Gary Glitter, is sentenced to three years in prison

after being convicted of sexually abusing two minors. After serving his sentence, he was deported back to the UK, where he was made to sign the sex offenders register. British peace activist Norman Kemba is released by his captors after being held hostage in Iraq for several months. Kemba, along with three Canadian activists, were rescued by the SAS, and Kemba later said he was surprised by how moderately he was treated by his captors. And six men taking part in a clinical trial for a new anti-inflammatory drug are placed in intensive care after suffering adverse side effects. The drug known as TGN1412 remains in clinical trials to this day despite having resulted in the deaths of five people. The films to hit the top of the UK box office during this

period were as follows. Date Movie for two weeks. The Hills Have Eyes for one week. The Pink Panther for one week. And in tragic news, Dick and Dom in Dumungalo comes to an end and broadcasts its last ever episode on CBBC. No! No! We're growing up. We're growing up. On BBC One, Tony Blair becomes the first serving Prime Minister to be interviewed by Michael Parkinson on his chat show.

During the interview, Blair admits that his tenure as Prime Minister is likely to be remembered for the still ongoing Iraq war. Do you reckon, Tony? Yeah, I think he might have somewhat had his finger on the pulse there. And in America, another end of an era, the final episode of Soul Train is broadcast. The long-running musical performance series aired its first episode in 1971. Its final episode featured performances from Guapele and Lorenzo Owens, having showcased performances from TI and D4L in its last weeks on the air.

Andy, the UK album charts, how are they looking? It's looking pretty indicative of 2006, to be honest, is what I would say. Other than one outlier, I think if I could tell you the artists that have number one on the albums chart this week, you would definitely guess that it's somewhere around 2006. And I would have said the same for last week, to be honest, given that we had The Strokes, Hard Fire and Arctic Monkeys. But it's even more noughties nostalgia here with Jack Johnson with In Between Dreams at number one. For one week, that went five times platinum. And I'm not surprised because that album was kind of everywhere.

It really got quite insipid, that Jack Johnson stuff, didn't it? With the, no combination of what's I could feel on the back of a postcard. Yeah. But that was number one for just one week before it was toppled by Corinne Bailey Ray with her debut album, Corinne Bailey Ray. Aptly titled that. That went number one for just one week again

and went three times platinum. Before it was toppled by a bit of a random inclusion here, which is On an Island by David Gilmour, which went single platinum and was again only number one for one week. It was David Gilmour's first solo album for 22 years, so a relatively big deal there, which is probably why it got to number one. And then it was toppled by Corinne Bailey Ray

with Corinne Bailey Ray for one more week. yes other than david gilmore it's a decidedly solid 2006 week on the chart this week with jack johnson and corinne bailey ray yeah two things um better together by jack johnson is still the hold music for transunion formerly call credit um i work for a company who work in association with Call Credit slash TransUnion and their whole music is still better together after all this time and on an island, David Gilmour

that album was a massive deal for my parents, absolutely massive, I remember all through the summer of 2006 they would sit out on our back step with their friends with that playing from the record from the stereo player in the kitchen or they'd have it leaning out the window while they sat in the back garden yeah huge deal for them really huge lizzie the us how are

things well beyonce held the number one single for the whole of february with check on it which i mentioned last week but moving into, we have a debut number one for James Blunt, who got to number one with You're Beautiful. Oh, wow. Oh, yeah. Despite only one week at number one, it went four times platinum in the US, and we covered it on this podcast during our 2005 run,

if you wanted to go and check that out, if you've not already heard it. After that, Nia scored his first number one with So Sick which got to number one for two weeks in the US and was eventually certified gold. It also got to number one over here and it'll be the first song on our next episode. So over two albums I will quickly go through each with their time spent at number one as well as their UK chart placing. So first up is Ghetto Classics by Jaheim, which spent one week at number one,

but failed to make the chart in the UK. Next up is a big one. I'm sure you'll know this one. High School Musical by the High School Musical cast. Oh, yeah. It spent two non-consecutive weeks at number one but was ineligible for the main uk albums chart but got to number one on our compilations chart then we have in my own words by neo which spent one week at number one and also got to number 14 in the uk and finally this week

we have reality check by juvenile which also spent one week at number one, but failed to make the chart in the UK. Yeah, oh God, that High School Musical one. Oh, that is like peak end of year seven, beginning of year eight shit for me. Yeah, peak school disco sort of. Massively, massively high school disco. Absolutely.

Okay, so thank you both for those reports and we'll move swiftly on to our first song up this week which is this Ich bin drofik. Sono spiacente. Perdona me. I've heard it all before I don't wanna hear, I don't wanna know Please don't say you're sorry I've heard it all before And I can take care of myself I don't wanna hear, I don't wanna know Please don't say forgive me, I've seen it all before

And I can't take it anymore You're not half the man you think you are Save your words because you've gone too far Okay, this is Sorry by Madonna. Released as the second single from her tenth studio album, titled Confessions on a Dance Floor, Sorry is Madonna's 60th single overall to be released in the UK, and her 12th single to reach number one. And it's not the last time that we'll be discussing madonna on this podcast

at least as a solo artist sorry went straight in at number one as a brand new entry knocking mech and leo sayer 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 37 000 copies000 copies, beating competition from Put Your Records On by Corinne Bailey Ray, which got to number two, Amazing by Westlife, which got to number four, and Is It Just Me by The Darkness, which got to number eight. When it was knocked off the top of the charts, Sorry fell three places to number four. By the time it was done on the charts, it had been inside the top 100 for 19 weeks. The song is currently officially certified silver in the UK as of 2023, which came as a little bit of a surprise. To me, I expected more. Andy, sorry, Madonna.

Yeah, in many ways, sorry, Madonna is the exact phrase that I would have said to her after Hung Up, because at the start of this podcast, I was a little bit harsh on her, I think. I mean, it's funny, because she entered into the noughties in an era that was not particularly to my taste.

And then I loved Hung Up so much more that I was like yeah this is a good era for Madonna I'm into this and so I kind of I find it very difficult to not view this through that frame to be honest of you know as the follow-up to hung up and it means I'm being a little bit meaner about it than I should do really because I've got to admit I was slightly underwhelmed by this only slightly and I want to be clear that I am still positive about this but I just think Hung Up was a real kind of injection of life that there was something so exciting about it

that it was a simple idea that was very well executed with kind of maximum vigour and this is not quite that to be honest I think it rides on the coattails of things that were good about hung up and things that are good about this era for madonna um and i've said before about madonna that she really is very very defined by clearly marked eras with her albums like far more than most artists are really that you can listen to basically any madonna song from most of her albums and be able to clearly identify which album it's from. And this is no different, that this sounds like a Confessions on the Dancefloor song.

And that's not a criticism. You know, it's definitely got that dancey feel to it. It's definitely got that kind of sense of it's pretty catchy, but not in a way that's insipid or annoying. And I think Madonna definitely seems full of life in this, in a way that she sort of hasn't done in some previous eras. But it just doesn't really have the same sense of ingenuity to it that Hung Up did for me.

I think it's just a little bit bordering on generic, slightly. I really, really like that chorus. I just wish it kind of went further from there, that it relies very heavily on that chorus, that for each kind of minute to minute and a half period that the chorus isn't there, I just need it to come back. I just want it back, really. And it sort of failed to kind of capture my attention

as much as I would have liked. But again, I'm being harsh on it, I think, because I really like Tom Gough, and I thought we were on a real upward swing there. But this is still good. This is still good. I'm not sure that I would really ever sort of include it in my best of Madonna playlist or anything like that,

which I do have, obviously. But I think it's fine. Just sort of fine, to be honest. I think if I was looking for a follow-up to Hung Up, I would have expected more than this, to be honest. But again, I really, really can't separate the song from the artist here. But yeah, this is decent. Like I say, there's a lot that is good about it.

I really, really like that sort of disco percussive feel that there is to this. Really like the music video, actually. Very, very interesting video. That's definitely worth a watch. But it's not hung up and i wish it was hung up let's just listen to that again yeah yeah feel kind of similar actually um because just like hung up i am a big fan of this as well you know i think this era of madonna kind of redefining herself as a 21st century kind of dance floor specialist and a bit of a you know

a bit of a dance floor diva sort of of a you know a bit of a dance floor diva sort of thing really you know it paid off i think you know there's a there's a sinister edge to this and hung up there's like a there's like a shade of darkness you know of someone kind of dancing their troubles away but not like in the free-spirited optimistic sense of things like holiday or lucky star or true blue but in a more moody manner of things like hung up and even things like uh well basically most the most of the stuff off bedtime stories and erotica and um ray of light and stuff like that you can see the image of dancing out her demons but you get the very real sense that like the demons will still be there when she's done um like i listened to sorry

and it's madonna on the dance floor in that kind of pink leotard bodysuit thing dancing furiously but like the furiousness isn't waning like it's still sticking in her mind um she's not looking at anyone you know eyes down um and with this you get the real strong sense that she's so kind of just tired of the relationship that she's in beyond the point of even like wanting to talk about it she's like nah heard it all before not interested moving on bye you know and it's great and what keeps the song on edge i think is the tension that the person she's dismissing the things that she's trying to expunge that she is unable to do it you know I think that that's an interesting dynamic that I think that this works with but I am not vaulting this just because comparing it immediately to hung up I feel

the same as you Andy it isn't quite as striking to me despite being roughly as good you know like with hung up it was like whoa this is what madonna's doing now this is great you know that sort of thing and whereas with sorry it's more like ah yeah this is what madonna's doing now it's more high appreciation than excitement uh if if you know what i mean and i think that also the sections in the other languages i feel like they're a little bit of a missed opportunity to hide like a secret message in the song I thought the same

you feel like it would be like some kind of secret message but or something that Madonna fans could do a bit of myth making you know like turn me on dead man and stuff like that but it's just sorry in different languages and i wanted it to be a little bit more illuminating than that um i do think this is great

overall it's just not quite vault material for me um i think i said this last time but i do think that it's a shame that get together didn't get to number one because that is one of the few kind of like major key you know like sort of like more optimistic uh love-filled songs from the album and it's also the kind of like madonna at her best in terms of the bit crushed um sort of like harsh electronics and electro clash and stuff of that era i feel like that's her best go at stuff that wouldn't really become popular for another sort of three or four years, actually, at least in terms of the charts.

But yeah, this is great, just not quite hung up and just not quite vault material. But Lizzie, are you going to argue differently? I mean, yes, because I personally like this one better than Hung Up. Oh, cool. Okay, yes, because I personally like this one better than Hung Up. Oh, cool. Okay, yes, go ahead. Not for any particular groundbreaking reason.

I think that one is more well-remembered, but I find the drama in this one is a lot more relatable with Madonna sort of chastising someone for their empty apologies rather than succumbing to insatiable lust like on Hung Up. Also Hung Up for me maybe leans a bit too hard on the ABBA sample but on Sorry I think Madonna and Stuart Price put together a solid disco groove with some genuine tension involved. This does also have a disco reference of its own, with the bass line bearing a bit of a resemblance

to Can You Feel It by the Jacksons. Mm-hmm, yeah. Not sure if they got a credit for that, but probably should have done. I mean, I'm also a fan of the syncopated vocals in the verses, like, don't explain yourself, because talk is cheap. I think it's a really interesting way of delivering

that i've showed you the demo version where that does come into it but the verses are kind of more conventional as well i think this combined with the repeated like synthesized backing vocals that swirl in and out at various points like i've heard it all before i've heard it all before and like you said the multiple languages it suggests that madonna is responding to these like repetitive meaningless apologies that even come in different languages but it's all the same she responds with like cold almost robotic responses of her own. Like, don't explain yourself, cause talk is cheap. To emphasise the lack of emotion that they elicit from her at this point. So, yeah, like she's heard it all before, but to me, it's the freshest Madonna has sounded in years.

And I'm a really big fan of it. Ooh, yeah, very well argued. Very glad we gave you the floor there. Cheers. Took you long enough i might have something i might have something to think about over the next period of time let's see let's see that was a very very convincing argument yeah and i do i do think maybe i need to give this a few more goes because i mean just kind of elaborate a bit more on what i meant before about you know treating this through a certain lens that i think part of the problem for me is that my relationship with madonna who i absolutely do love by the way but part of what i love about her is that i'm able to kind of come

at her from a sort of macro level and you know you haven't heard a particular song by her for a couple of years and then it hits you and you're just like oh wow god i wish i could just listen to this every day like it's so good like the other week out of just our coincidence ray of light came on out of nowhere which i haven't listened to for about a year and um i just was just like god ray of light is so good and it's happened to me with express yourself and with vogue and kind of with hung up to be honest and i just kind of look for that instant lightning bolt of like whoa she's had an idea and she's executed it to the absolute maximum

throwing the kitchen sink at it. I think she does that in a way that's you know just so effective and I don't get that from this one but I really do acknowledge that that's perhaps not the best most fair way to treat a song really that I perhaps need to give it a little bit more time. So who knows what I might think about it by the end of the year

but for now for me it's just sort of okay but i don't know i'm gonna come back to you on this one lizzie yeah okay well the thing is i always say that an opinion about a piece of art is never held in stone it's it's an ongoing conversation isn't it with the with the work itself and for whatever reason in three or five years time or even three or five weeks time or days, you could feel completely different and look back and go, like I kind of did with Loneliness by Tom Craft where I initially

was hesitant to put it in the vault and then like a week later I was like, that was stupid. I should have just committed at the time. But yeah, never mind. Yeah, you should. What are you thinking? It's Loneliness by Tom Craft. Corrected it at the end of the year. And we'll have chances to go back and correct things that we feel need that kind of treatment.

But we will press on to the second song this week. And it's this. Hey! What time is it? Chica Chico! What time is it? What time is it? Sometimes it feels so good I can't remember that My inner clock is ticking And the back bit drives me mad It's erotic, exotic, hypnotic

That's for sure I put a smile on your face And take you to a place you've never been before. Let it all hang out. Go scream and shout. Don't you want to get out of line? Everybody say, what time is it? It's Chico Time. Well, you can get delirious.

You take life just serious. It's Chico Time. You can get delirious if you take life just serious. It's Chico Time. It's It's Chico Time by Chico. Released as the lead single from his still unreleased debut studio album titled Light Camera Action, It's Chico Time is Chico's first single to be released in the UK and his first to reach number one. However, it is his last, and this is the last time that we'll be discussing

Mr. Chico Slimani on this podcast. Its Chico time went straight in at number one as a brand new entry knocking Madonna off the top of the charts. It stayed at number one for two weeks. In its first week atop the charts, sold 51,000 copies beating competition from Beep by Pussycat Dolls and Will.i.am which got to number 2, No Tomorrow by Orson which got to number 5, Sewn by The Feeling which got to number 7 and Don't Bother by Shakira which got to number 9. In week 2 it sold 29,000 copies beating competition from Red Dress by Sugar Babes which got to number 9. In week 2 it sold 29,000 copies beating competition from Red Dress by Sugar Babes which got to number 4 and Touch The Sky by Kanye West and Lupe Fiasco which got to

number 6. When it was knocked off the top of the charts its Chico Time dropped one place to number 2. By the time it was done on the charts it had been inside the top 100 for 12 weeks. The song has never received any official certification from the British phonographic industry. A true I didn't do it moment in 2006 UK music. Lizzie, Chico, how do you feel? Well, I put it to you this week. Is 2006 the peak of reality TV star acceptance?

Well, we've just had Chantel Horton walking into the Big Brother house as the only non-celebrity and winning celebrity Big Brother. Yeah. We have this when he didn't even finish in the top four of the X Factor. He didn't even make it to the final. So, hmm, it could be that for a very short period in 2006, that was like the peak. Yeah, could be.

The way you framed that question is, that's what I'm thinking about now, because it's not the peak of reality TV itself. That's probably a few years ahead. But in terms of it being you know something that generally was not frowned upon that there was really proper mass appeal and figures like chico were not receiving anywhere near the same kind of condemnation as the likes of jedward or wagner um i think maybe yes maybe sometime around this time yeah because chantelle and preston yeah they again they would have got so much more hate a few years after this.

And no, I think you might be right about that, yeah. You mentioned Preston and just the mere appearance of him on Celebrity Big Brother was enough to catapult the Ordinary Boys to the top ten or even the top five. And like Dead or Alive alive they popped up again because pete burns was in the house it's just i'm thinking at this time it is enough to just appear on a reality tv show in order to garner enough support to get a hit which i don't think ever really happens again other than the odd x factor appearance and it all kind of changes in my

opinion after celebrity big brother 2007 for fairly obvious reasons yeah agreed yeah i think this could be the height of reality tv creating viable career paths for those involved it's just a shame that this song isn't very good so not really surprising that this is Chico's last hit. The problem with novelty is that it wears off quickly and this is no exception. This song is halfway between like a disco-lite remake of Long Train Runnin' by the Doobie Brothers and the theme tune for like a forgotten CBBC sitcom maybe like Chico sharing a flat with Basil Baroche and this is the theme I'm still non-wiser about what Chico time is but after hearing this a few times I think I'm better off not knowing

all right then uh Andy what about you yeah I I think there's a few things about this to unpack. First of all, this is not the first time the public would have heard it's Chico Time. Obviously, it was performed on the X Factor. It was, yes. One of the very few times, certainly the first time and one of the very few times ever, as far as I know, that an original song was performed on the X Factor factor written by chico himself on the fly as well um which i think you can really tell to be honest because one of my major problems with this is that i have no idea what what it is what it's about what it means because you have these two kind of central hooks of the song which

is that what time is it it's chico time and the what is it you can get delirious when you take life too serious and it's like first of all what does that sentence even mean and what's that got to do with it being chico time like is chico time the time where you don't take life too seriously like if so what does that mean is chico time like party time how is it different to party time i'm thinking too much about this obviously but that's that's kind of what i think generally i don't really know what chico time is or what these lyrics are about and it really reeks of like touch my bum this is life kind of energy to be honest um that's kind of what's making me think

well um i'm just looking up actually actually and, but actually Lucy Spraggan was the only other contestant to do an original song on X Factor some years later and she's kind of made a career off of that. So it kind of is viable, actually. Maybe they should have done a bit more of that on X Factor of doing an original song. But anyway, I digress.

I think Chico is one of the many reality TV contestants, some of which we've discussed before, such as Gareth Gates, who they know they've got something here, but they don't know quite what to do with him. The same way they did with Gareth Gates was like, people love this kid.

Let's make a big career out of him. And with Chico, I think they knew that, you know, he's very entertaining. He's genuinely very likable. He's quite easy on the eye. He can sort of carry a tune and people know who very likeable. He's quite easy on the eye. He can sort of carry a tune and people know who he is already. So, like, come on, he's a license to print money, surely.

And they just don't quite know what to give him. I think it's very odd that given he's got that kind of braggadocio about him and, like I say, he's quite a sort of hunk, really, that this music video is full of kids and the song is aimed squarely at kids. That seems really strange to me that they went down that route with him.

I don't know whether maybe that was his idea, maybe Chico's a bit of a family man, I don't know. But that to me just reeks of really bad marketing that they just didn't know what to do with him at all. But then that's kind of a little bit endearing in a way that like he's just a guy having a bit of fun who wants to entertain the kids like he's sort of mr butland's really and there's nothing wrong with that there's nothing wrong with it except it is a little bit shameful that it made it to number one to be honest because as a song it's it's pretty

crap to be honest like i always think that that note that he holds on the You take life too serious it just seems to go on forever. And it's kind of a little, not quite out of tune, but it just doesn't really work with the chord sequence. Like I say, you can really tell that someone who's new to the industry has sat and written this at home and they've just gone with it. It just doesn't sound very nice melodically or harmonically, to be honest. So as a song, I think it's really, really bad. But I just kind of like Chico. I think he's just a nice

guy. You don't really get people like him anymore who go on reality TV, not particularly for fame and fortune, but kind of to have a good time. And if fame and fortune comes with it, then that's great. And it's one of the things I really liked about Wagner, who, you know, on X Factor a couple of years later, that he wasn't trying to get famous. He just got famous as being on it and went with it and was very gracious about it and enjoyed his 15 minutes. And

that is the kind of joke contestant, the kind of comedy contestant that I really like on reality shows that, ironically, are the ones that don't take themselves too serious, as chico would say um so i'm not going to completely condemn this i mean as a piece of music if this was someone i'd never heard of and it was just a random number one this would be absolutely the pits for me it would be getting a one or two out of ten for me but i think chico carries it with enough

just about enough likeability and charisma that it's okay. Just okay. But like I say, I think they could have carved out a better career for him if they'd taken a little bit of time to think about it. This is like three weeks after X Factor is finished that this got released. Calm down. Think of something for Chico

to do and then release a single. Or don't release a single. Because they didn't release the album which I've never, I don't think I've ever heard of that before where an album is completely finished, the track list has been released to the public and the album, they just don't bother with it

that's absolutely crazy I can't think of another example like that for a big pop star who just straight up hasn't released the album when it's right at the point of release, so yeah, they really had no idea what to do with chico but i like him anyway so yeah not too bad not too bad as for me um because i was 11 years old i obviously loved chico on the x factor and i wanted him to win because to an 11 year old he's very fun and very exciting like what if a children's tv presenter just got

dropped into a singing competition and decided to become a singer like you know i mean looking back like i was watching all of his performances again this week and the thing with his audition where simon gets up and walks out like obviously the whole thing is for show and it's part of creating the character of chico but the whole thing ends up working because I think Chico is exactly why the X Factor ended up lasting longer than Pop Idol did and why, until they started messing with it too much, the X Factor was more fun for a while because Pop Idol was all about the singing,

but the X Factor, with its suitablyably vague name it meant that it had more room for outsiders and wild cards who were never going to win but the likes of chico and wagner but also jedward you know the kind of contestants they're the ones that people really remember like outside of the winners and the ones who've actually had pop careers you know like the sort of the well put together ones who maybe made it a bit further you know i would imagine that more people remember chico and jedward than remember like you know journey south or you know that those you leave journey south out of this the conway sisters that's the ones who were very well put together and yeah very professional but yeah exactly but the thing with chico is that like he couldn't sing but he could perform and i do think

that there was a big cult of personality around chico at the time because he had his own like it's chico time was a catchphrase that he made for himself on the show and eventually gets it turned into a number one single like there were people turning up to live x factor recordings with signs that said what time is it on the sign and they would wave it about and he would look at them and go ah it's chico time etc etc because it was a big deal i think as well that chico was going to have a go at the charts because he finished about sixth or fifth but he was clearly more popular than that finishing position suggested and so the bones of this are all right i think that the absolute bare bones of it are fine you know it's a corny disco track about having a good

time being emotionally freed by music you know chico is a limited vocalist but he does have personality in his voice and he carries himself fairly well through the majority of this i think until at least like the last act where there's not much to say other than go chico go chico go much to say other than go chico go chico go over and over until they have to go back to the chorus and but like it is shit but like it's not as shit as i remember it being you know i think but still you know the brass sounds terrible there's this inescapable feeling that like if you heard this outside of a kid's school disco or a butlin's entertainment hall then you would briefly think that you were at a school disco or a butlin's entertainment like you know the hall on the butlin's camp yeah i mean he did end up doing a butlin's tour chico

not long after this i think i think on that point it has to be said that i don't know about youtube but i have since 2006 i have literally never heard this again like this was my first time hearing this in a good 15 16 years like when we put this on like i i really have not heard this at all since well yeah well i haven't you're right that it's chico time um i can't believe this happened like um, with It's Chico Time. I haven't heard that for a long time. But in 2010, Chico briefly returned to do It's England Time ahead of the 2010 World Cup,

where he just debased himself on GMTV and performed this It's England Time song, like, all over TV, on breakfast TV shows, and like, oh, it's Chland time song like all over tv on breakfast tv shows and like oh it's chico he's back oh look at him do you remember him well he's doing an england song now and i think it's somehow worse than all of those ones from the mid to late 2000s where whenever england were in a major tournament hits from around the time artists went back into the studio to just kind of like pretend that like oh we care about this like this song of ours there's a really big hit can be easily transposed into a football song a la football's coming home again from uh atomic kitten

because they are damn in is it infernal who did from paris to berlin they did from london to berlin um he has um tony christie going back into um do is this the way to win the world cup you had this do one dj otsi did an england one as well um i mean thank god england didn't qualify for euro 2008 and it spared us this nonsense for like four years between the two World Cups. Because, Jesus. And then it's England time. He just debases himself and makes an idiot of himself, basically.

And it doesn't even chart. The song doesn't even chart. It's a World Cup single and people didn't even buy it. Like, World Cup singles get into the top 20 automatically just because, oh, it's England, yeah, all this, all this. Because he's Welsh. Yes, it's also part of it as well. It's not your place.

Yeah. But I think with this, and with the England version, but definitely with this, there's this kind of, like, shitty comic relief style production all over this, where, like, if this was shitty comic relief style production all over this where like if this was the comic relief single for the year you'd be like yeah that makes sense like there is something so tacky about you know the spirit in the sky by gareth gates and uptown girl that the westlife um the version of uptown girl that they did just like just these crappy farty horns all over it and

it all sounds so plasticky and false like if you touched it you wouldn't be able to wash it off your hands for weeks no matter how much you tried you know like when you accidentally stick your hand in butter or vaseline and you try and wash it off at the tap and then like you can't get it off it's just little water droplets over like a little layer of jelly on the end of your finger that's what it would be like i think if you accidentally stuck your hand in this um it really wants to be like play that funky music white boy or oops upside your head but it ends up more like sub living la vida loca like that i think i do think there was a lot of post-Ricky Martin syndrome about

Chico. The way that he was posited on the X Factor. I wouldn't be surprised if they made him do Live in La Vida DeLoca twice. I'm sure I remember him doing it. It wasn't a time where he took his clothes off and danced

in a fountain during judges' houses or something. And I'm sure he was doing Live in La V was doing livida loca then he jumped in the pool with a live mic like yeah well done yeah electrocute yourself before the the live shows the plan yeah god yeah i just i do find this actually frustrating more than anything because i do think there's a fun song in here but it's just swallowed by all the crappy tacky mastering and production and the kind of writing that just spoils the experience like you were saying andy all these like if you you could get delirious if you take life too serious you know i just yeah not sure what's going on with that to be honest but yeah not terrible not gonna pie hole it just saying

that now but ah i i think it's just one of those where like you know like you were saying they put all the kids in the music video and they put all the kids on this stage performance of it on the x factor about three months before it was released and i think yeah once you when you're 11 this is like the best thing in the world and then when you're 13 it's like hmm yeah I was going to say this that like there's obviously been plenty of novelty songs that we've covered over the past six years

that we've done but I think out of everything we've ever had on the show this is the one that I would be most embarrassed to be caught listening to and it's not like the worst thing ever because like stuff like Crazy Frog or Cha Cha Slide or whatever you can sort of be like

it's a bit of nostalgia there but if someone saw you listening to Chico Time you'd be like oh god it's a mistake sorry I only listen to this at home because like nobody listens to Chico Time the streams for this

per year must be in the tens like nobody listens to Chico. It's not what it looks like. The streams for this per year must be in the tens. Like, nobody listens to this anymore, do they? The only other thing I wanted to say on this as well, and I'm sure, Rob, you'll illuminate me on this one, that the whole What Time Is It thing, High School Musical, right? Is that song in the first or second High School Musical? I think it might be in the second one because it's

uncanny how much that what time is it refrain is a lot like the high school musical one and it is in two yeah so so did they it's a vacation yes yes did they borrow that from this because it really is very very reminiscent of of what time is it from is that not just an old hip-hop thing yeah what time is it yeah yeah yeah it's summertime it's our vacation what time is it summertime i mean chico time you know what time is it time of our lives is it oh great movie the second high school musical the first one's okay with a pretty killer soundtrack for teenagers, but I genuinely think the second film is the one where they really lean into how silly it all is.

Like where they get Ryan, Sharpay's brother, to be in two places at once, but never acknowledge it during the fabulous music routine. Where he's playing piano in the pool, but also on the deck chairs at the same time in different outfits and they never address the fact that he's in two places at once. They just totally lean into this, like, just the ridiculousness of the whole thing. Yeah, I mean, there's other things that Ryan obviously is

that they don't address as well, but, you know. Yeah, definitely. But, like, Troy doing, like, running and spinning routines on a golf course during bet on it and staring at himself in the water like i don't even think these are things that they that have been that have been memed later and have become ridiculous because there's even like his involvement in um gotta go my own way which is like you don't even know that Troy's gonna be in it until the end of the second chorus, and he just appears. What about us?

But yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if there's like, if they're not copying each other or whatever, it's just that it's come from the same point of inspiration for sure. But, we will move on to our final song this week and leave

Chico behind, see you later Chico bye Chico, say hi to David Icke for me yeah of course because he's been appearing in anti-vax anti-lockdown protests that's a shame isn't it and stuff like that

of all the people on this podcast, he was the least likely, I think. But yeah, there he was. So we will move on to our third and final number one this week, and it is this. Let's go to a rave and behave like we're tripping Simply cause we're so in love

Funny hat, shiny pants All we need for some romance and behave like we're tripping simply cause we're so in love. Funny hat, shiny pants, all we need for some romance. Go get dialed up and I'll pick you up. Oh, oh, oh, oh. There's no line for you and me Cause tonight we're VIP I know somebody at the door I see that twinkle in your eye You shake that ass and I just die

Let's check our coats and move out to the floor Oh, oh When I need to eat it tomorrow Does it matter? Turn that music up Till the the windows start to shatter Cause you're the only one who can get me on my feet And I can't even dance Ooh, ooh, ooh

Okay, this is No Tomorrow by Orson. Released as the lead single from the band's debut studio album titled Bright Idea, No Tomorrow is Orson's first single to be released in the UK and their first to reach number one. However, it is their last and this is the last time that we'll be discussing Orson on this podcast. No Tomorrow first entered the UK chart at number five, reaching number one in its third week, knocking Chico off the top spot. It stayed at number one for one week. In its first and only week at the summit, it sold 17,694 copies, which makes it the lowest selling number one single in the entire history of the uk chart it went to number one during a week when there were no new entries in the top 10

when it was knocked off the top of the chart no tomorrow fell two places to number three by the time it was done on the charts it had been inside the top 100 for 18 weeks the song is currently officially certified gold in the UK as of 2023 what a curious, curious chart record For No Tomorrow by Orson Andy, how do you feel about it? I feel great about it Rob

I mean, I've been dying to get to this one because it's one of those songs that I think, maybe this is to do with the low chart sales. Maybe it was to do with the fact that it never really blew up in the sense that a lot of number ones do. And that this is weird effect about this, that I found quite a few people seem to have thought they were the only people who liked this at the time. Because remember feeling like that i'm like god this song is so good like

who is it like i don't know anyone else who's like been singing this song i just heard it on the radio quite a bit and i loved it and then my husband was the same he was like have you ever heard this song called no tomorrow by orson which like i was like yes yes we love this and then i know that like rob and robin are you're a big fan of it as well, and there's a few other friends as well who have been like, oh, yeah, I used to love that song. And I think maybe because it didn't get that big, it sort of had this slightly underground feel,

which it wasn't underground at all, not by any sense. But the fact that Orson never really took off, and this song was a very, very much kind of a sleeper hit, I think has created this kind of cool effect around it that people look back on it as like something that doesn't get talked about very much.

But at the time, I absolutely loved this and I still love it. I think it's absolutely brilliant because it's so short and packs so much into those few minutes that it kind of plays with verse and chorus and bridge and chorus and bridge and intro and outro structure in this way.

That's really like, you really don't know where the song is going a lot of the time, but in a good way, it doesn't just completely get chaotic. But it's just made of so many brilliant little bits with the, and then really catchy choruses, really catchy verses. It has that one bit in this song obviously

in the long tradition of stuff like compliment for me the one bit in this song is a girl who thinks i rock i mentioned that too yeah yeah and then i think that last chorus really elevates it as well that it's a slightly different well it's the same chord structure of the chorus but it's not the chorus that when we're together when we're together and i love that it ends on a build-up that like it kind of drops you into the end of the song with you and me oh you and me like it's getting bigger and bigger and bigger and then the end and it just leaves you wanting more but it's almost like you've watched a trailer for a bigger song like you've kind of been given the tease of something else that will never come it's just like you've watched a trailer for a bigger song like you've kind of been given the tease of something else that will never come it's just a couple of minutes of real excitement

that doesn't really sound like anything else around at the moment because it's got this lovely mix of synths in there so it's not just standard landfill indie it's really kind of poppy and accessible but not to the extent of something like McFly. I think this is just something quite unique and really, really easy to fall in love with. And yeah, I just absolutely adore this, and I'm so glad that we've got to cover it. And it's so undeserved for this to be the lowest-selling number one ever, because this is probably going to be in my top five of the year, this one.

Yeah, I think it's fantastic, yeah. Yeah, I also feel like the title that it has is a bit harsh as well. Lizzie, what about you? How do you feel? Yeah, I've also made a note of that. Like, poor Orson, rather than simply being remembered for having a fluke hit, they have to lug around that dubious honour as, like, a permanent asterisk. Especially given that I do like this this i don't think i like it as much as you mandy but i think it's pretty decent overall um it's a bit like you get what

you give by the new radicals in the full of addictive like power pop hooks but it's been passed through a sort of indie sleaze filter, which was the style at the time. I listened to the Bright Idea album this week. To me, it kind of sounds like The Strokes, if they'd replaced Julian Casablancas with Adam Levine doing an impression of Jack White. I think the album's kind of so-so, but this is the best track on it

because it's short, it's punchy, and it's full of hooks that a lot of other pop rock bands would kill for. But yeah, I don't love it. The vocals do great on me a bit. I know you pointed out that girl thing, so I don't like that. I don't know that I don't know

it's a bit too knowing and for this being your first hit I don't think you're at that point where you can really do that you've got to earn that it's a minor complaint though I think generally it's pretty good With No Tomorrow this is one of the few songs we've covered

because we're entering that period of my life now where i remember exactly where i was and exactly how i felt when i first heard it i was in the car with my dad and a friend of mine from school uh this guy called alex it was february half term i think in 2006 and we went for a day out to the football museum when it used to be in Preston at Deepdale before they moved it to the centre of Manchester. And I remember hearing the intro to this and thinking that Kylie had come back with a new song.

Like, you know, because you hear it, you know, that kind of trebly bass line, the... Oh, yeah. And then I thought thought oh kylie must be back but then jason pebworth started singing so i was like oh okay no it's not kylie and that was my first experience with this um i just also want to mention that this being the lowest selling number one of all time is it's very harsh because it entered the chart at number five during a week when Chico sold 50,000 copies or so.

And this actually ends up being the 12th biggest selling song of 2006. So I think it probably shifted about, I don't know, 30,000 copies, maybe 25,000 copies in its first week at the top, which isn't amazing, but you can see why this has already been on the chart for three weeks at this point. It's clearly not going to be selling at its highest point, I don't think. No, no. And this has gone gold in the UK, so I don't know. It's weird how Chico feels like a bigger craze that people remember,

but this has ended up selling more. Numbers are funny. When we were talking about Chico, I did mean to ask about this. When you said it's never received any certification. I can't remember. Is that the first time that that's happened? That we've had a song that hasn't made

any certification at all? We've had a few. We've had a few. Yeah. Although I guess also with Chico and orson is that at least orson got an album you know like serving the tea but i mean the thing with chico's album was really strange like they did his first single and then they did a follow-up single which was d-i-s-c-o but it was like it was changed to C-H-I-C-O

fucking hell of course it was wasn't it in places and it only got to like number 23 and they were like right yeah

we've recorded the album and it's finished but we can't be arsed paying for manufacturing costs because you know you're not doing well enough and then he did another song

which was called Curvy Cola Bottle Body Curvy Cola Bottle Body baby or something like that and that just bombed and then that was the end of it he is c conspiracist he is h hysterical he is i introverted he is c covid conspiracy he is oh but with No Tomorrow I loved this at the time and I still just about love it now thankfully love all like the fidgety

syncopated guitar work in the verses it's got a real driving chorus as well that properly soars and is memorable and open hearted like you Andy and Lizzie both point out it's got lots of little licks and riffs in this and that it never becomes the main riff or the lead part it's just lots of lovely little

decorations that kind of pepper the instrumental because you get the and then in the verse you get the little synth bubbles the thing over the top as well. That really adds to the texture of it. It really does. And this Jason Penworth guy, I think he has a pretty decent voice. I know what you mean about the Jack White impression, though, Lizzie. I think he does have a decent voice, but he leans too hard into those rock rhythms. You know what I mean?

Yes. Well, I'm in too easy tomorrow. He's doing that kind of big mouth thing, which is like once you notice it, you can't unnotice it. And it's not his natural voice. That was the style at the time, though. I don't think you can quite lay that at his door.

It was, but you've got to push against that to stand out in a way that, I don't know, Alex Turner did. I remember this as one of the things I really didn't like about Reverend and the Makers, if you remember them, the heavyweight champion of the world, that the guy's over-rocky voice, or his clearly affected voice. I used to really not like that.

I've got a bit of a history with him and Reverend and the Makers from years in the future, which we'll discuss I'm sure when we get around that time but this I feel like this is the kind of thing that Weezer were trying and sort of failing to do

shortly after this time with albums like Ratitude and all of Rivers Cuomo's work for acts like All Time Low and Bob and um adam lambert you know like my because he wrote magic for bob the bob thing and he wrote i feel like dancing for all time low as well just that kind of like in a really polished pop rock uh very sort of like late 2000s style that kind of aesthetic um but this gets, you know, this has all the super synthetic,

polished, power pop stuff, but, like, it has some seriously solid and interesting writing behind it, I think, because you get that amazing final chorus, which does the thing that I always love from final choruses, where it's actually just a totally new section masquerading as as a chorus you know that teenage dirtbag does the same thing um with the oh yeah dirtbag oh she does it and you think this sounds exactly like the first two choruses and then you're like oh but it isn't is it and into you by ariana grande kind of does a similar thing. I think with time and age, the kind of party boy posturing in the verses

maybe doesn't suit the rest of the song or the rest of the band's material, which was always a little more innocent and suited them better lyrically. I do like the bit, though, where he does the, I got a girl who thinks I rock not necessarily because of his pronunciation but because he just leaves that little gap he just he just delays the word rock because he could easily go I got a girl who thinks I rock but he goes I got a girl who thinks I space rock and that's nice little bits of writing that kind of remind me a little bit of things that Hayley Williams might do a few years later um with uh with some paramour records um there are other songs as well like Brat Idea, Happiness, Already Over there's something a

bit kind of post Britpop about those songs too uh which this doesn't really have, but they just weren't quite as strong or memorable as this. I also think that Jason Pemworth, a bit like Rivers Cuomo, funnily enough, but also Ryan Tedder from around this time, is that they were writing so many songs for other artists that their own work sometimes didn't quite have as tight an identity as it possibly should or could because bright idea was the follow-up and it doesn't have that same it's a nice song it's fine but it just nothing else on their album sounds like this i feel like this is one that they were maybe pushing towards another band and then they decided to keep it themselves because they knew it was a big potential to be quite a big hit um but it's not really a major complaint and you know while we're on this it definitely needs mentioning that

this is not the last time that we'll be coming to jason pebworth on this podcast um because he had already written for girls allowed by this point which is, his song was the show, he went on to write for Gabriela Chilme, Sugar Babes, Olly Murs, Pixie Lott, Jessie J, David Guetta, Connor Maynard, DJ Fresh, Iggy Azalea, Zayn Malik, Charlie XCX, like, he clearly has a knack for this kind of stuff, and I think it just takes other artists to sell his material and really get him like the big books uh if you know what i mean but yeah i'm glad that we've been able to come back to know tomorrow um i do think it's kind of great i do think it's kind of great and i will be i will be vaulting this um sorry i don't know i'll come back to it later

I'll listen to it a bit more maybe I'll re-decide at the end of the year Chico time is not going anywhere for me Andy, are any going in the pie hole or the vault for you? No Tomorrow is sailing into the vault definitely

I think this is the kind of song that the vault was made for to be honest of stuff that perhaps didn't get quite the fanfare that it deserved at the time even though people really liked it and now deserves to be celebrated by us as obviously the court-appointed arbiters of taste which I realise is how I made that sound then

but anyway no definitely definitely vaulting no tomorrow sorry is going nowhere that's that's sort of above average, but fine. As for Chico Time, I'm not pie-hauling it, but I really have to say, I think that's the closest a song has ever got to being pie-hauled

without falling in there. It's the only reason I haven't is because of that sort of childlike, innocent like ability. Lizzie, are any songs going into the pie hole or the vault for you? Well, sorry, Rob and Andy, but I'm putting it in the vault. Hey.

It may well be Chico time, but it's not time for the vault or the pie hole. And no tomorrow, and also no pie hole or vault for Orson. I'm not going to put Chico in the Piehole just purely because I know there's worse coming, which definitely deserves to be in there. If you had Piehole No Tomorrow, then there would have been No Tomorrow for our friendship, Lizzie. So I'm glad that that was fine. Hey!

Well, that is it for this week's episode. Thank you very much for listening when we come back we'll be continuing our journey through 2006 we'll see you then see you soon

bye bye now see ya bye bye And I stepped into your arms On a rainy night in Soho The wind was whistling all its charm I sang you all my sorrows You told me all your joys Whatever happened to that old song To all those little girls and boys