Hits 21 - 2006 (4): Nelly Furtado, Shakira & Wyclef Jean, Lily Allen

Episode Date: December 17, 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 Maneater, Jim Branning: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjtWkZZi-7c

🎵 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, you can find us on Twitter, we are at Hits21UK, that is

at Hits21UK and you can email us too, feel free to send it on over to Hits21Podcast at gmail.com. Thank you so much for joining us once again. We are currently looking back at the year 2006. This week, we'll be covering the period between the 11th of June and the 22nd of July. We are officially past the halfway point of 2006.

During this period, I've turned 12 as well. My birthday lands at the end of June. Last week, our poll winner was a fairly clear poll winner. It was crazy. Niles Barkley, nine weeks at number one and clear of more than nine votes on the particular poll. Although we noticed the morning that the episode was uploaded uh that a lot of people were much kinder towards sandy tom uh than we were and felt far more fondly

of it we hope that's not difficult too much no it isn't uh we hope that we didn't upset anybody too much we were listening back we weren't particularly vociferous but i will say that the song that we played out last episode with silence by sandy tom the uh the new single is very lovely very very not bad at all yeah yeah i'm i'm unlikely to write mocking lyrics of that one uh andy your version was the superior one um oh well thank you didn't win the poll though did it did it? No, no, unfortunately not. Sadly, it wasn't eligible because it didn't get to number one. Wasn't legal tender. There's still time.

All right, then, on to this week's episode. And as always, we're going to give you some news headlines from around the time the songs we're discussing in this week's episode were at number one in the UK. England reached the quarterfinals of the 2006 World Cup in Germany before being knocked out by Portugal. The tournament's eventual winners were Italy, who beat France on penalties in the final after a 1-1 draw. The game is perhaps best remembered for Zinedine Zidane being sent off for headbutting Italy's Marco

Materazzi in his last ever game as a footballer. A European heatwave affected the UK in the early weeks of July, with a peak temperature of 36.5 degrees Celsius recorded in Surrey. The high temperatures resulted in droughts and power cuts and affected travel infrastructure in the UK. The Met Office later confirmed that July 2006 was the warmest July on record at the time. I believe that has now been surpassed by July 2022, which had a temperature of fucking boiling, mate! And in Lincolnshire, three men are convicted of plotting an execution-style murder of a middle-aged couple in the town of Trustthorpe.

Meanwhile, Arsenal Football Club leave their home of Highbury after 93 years to move to the newly built Emirates Stadium, where they still play to this day. Yes, they do. The films to hit the top of the UK box office during this period were as follows. The Omen for one week. Fast and Furious 3, Tokyo Drift, for two weeks. And Over the Hedge for one week fast and furious 3 tokyo drift for two weeks and over the hedge for one week and the bbc announces that top of the pops will officially come to an end after 42 years on the air broadcasting its final episode in july the bbc also announces that billy

piper will be stepping down from her role as Rose Tyler, the Doctor's companion in Doctor Who at the end of the next season and in fact during this period that episode did air the episode in which Billy Piper left was later voted the greatest sci-fi moment of all time by

SFX magazine it's the beach scene for those who remember that Free Marajuman is announced as her replacement, Martha Jones By SFX magazine. Wow. Yeah, it's the beach scene, for those who remember that. Free Marajuman is announced as her replacement, Martha Jones, who will be with us in 2007. And in America, the first season of Hannah Montana airs on the Disney Channel. Pirates of the Caribbean 2, Dead Man's Chest, and Cars are released in US cinemas.

And a small web-based start-up company called Facebook hires its first intern. Ooh. They'll never take off. No idea who they are. Nah. Nah. and a small web-based startup company called Facebook hires its first intern. They'll never take off. No idea who they are. Nah. Nah. With a name like that, never.

Andy, the UK album charts, how are they looking at this point? Well, hmm. We start on a little bit of a sour note because I do have to acknowledge that the first album to hit number one this week was Sandy Tom with her debut smile it confuses people i'm confused i'm very confused yeah i'm always confused when people smile at me like always every time someone smiles me i'm like why are you not being angry is that not your default

mode anyway um yes that went to number one for one week and went platinum, but was quickly toppled at the top by Keen with Under the Iron Sea, their second album, which went number one for two weeks and ended up going triple platinum. And there's a big, big one in this sort of collective memory of our generation closing out this period, which is Black Holes and Revelations by Muse, which surprisingly only went three times platinum. I would have thought it was a bigger hit than that

because it's a big old slice of 2006 culture that. But that went number one for two weeks and, as I say, it went triple platinum. And that's your lot for this week. Wow. 17 years since Muse have been any good. Oh! God, if the Sandy Tom thing

didn't already make people slightly mad at us, I think that Muse comment might rub people the wrong way. That's their last good record. That's generally accepted as their last good record. It's probably accepted as their last great record. I wouldn't go so far as to say

it was their last good one. I mean, I can't talk. I hate them, but, you know. I'm just saying, i know a lot of people love them anyway america a couple of new singles to mention this week uh first up is hips don't lie by shakira featuring wycliffe john it stayed at number one for two weeks and is shakira's only u.s number one single to date it also got to number one in the UK and we'll be discussing it a little bit later on. Next up is Taylor Hicks. I don't know either.

He won the fifth season of American Idol, apparently. And his song, Do I Make You Proud. It spent one week at number one, but fell out of the Billboard chart after just eight weeks, making it the first number one single in the history of the u.s charts to leave the top 100 in less than 10 weeks get the party poppers out to date it is his only top 40 hit in the u.s and it failed to chart in the uk presumably because it wasn't released over here and finally for singles this week we have six weeks at number one for Nelly Furtado with Promiscuous featuring Timbaland. It was the first US number one single for either artist and was eventually certified seven times platinum in the US. In the UK, it got to number three in September of this year.

Nelly Furtado's follow-up single, Maneater, only got to number 16 in the US, but back here in Europe, it was the first single to be released from her album, Loose. More on that shortly, but before I move on, I will quickly run down the number one albums from this time.

So we have Taking the Long Way by The Chicks, two weeks at number one, number 10 in the UK. December Underground by AFI, one week, number 16 in the UK. The Big Bang by Busta Rhymes, one week, number 19 in the UK. Loose by Nelly Furtado, one week, number four in the UK. Testimony, volume one, by India Ari,

one week, number 103 in the UK. And American Five, 100 Highways, by Johnny Cash, one week, number nine in the UK. So actually,

fairly well aligned with the US albums chart for a change. But yeah, that Nelly Furtado, eh? What's she like? Buddy AFI. I had much stronger memories of Miss Murder

than its chart position suggests. Oh, me too. Yeah, didn't even reach the top 40. It's one of the first songs on Guitar Hero 3, so I feel like that's been around a lot from that, yeah. Well, thank you both very much for those reports, and it's time now to come back across the Atlantic and stop off at our first song this week,

which is this. Everybody look at me, me I walk in the door, you start screaming Come on everybody, what you here for? Move your body around like a nympho Everybody get your nicks a crack around All you crazy people come on, jump around I wanna see you all on your knees, knees You either wanna be with me or leave me

Come on now Manny here to make you work hard Make you spend hard Make you want all of her love She's a manny here to make you buy hard make you want all of her love she's a man eater make you buy cars make you cut cards make you fall real hard in love she's a man eater make you work hard make you spend hard make you want all of her love she's a man eater make you buy cards make you cut cards Man Eater, make your mind cause, make your cause, cause, wish you never got better at all. Okay, this is Man Eater by Nelly Furtado.

Released as the lead single from her third studio album titled Loose, Man Eater is Nelly Furtado's eighth single overall to be released in the UK and her first to reach number one. And this is not the last time that we'll be coming across nelly catardo on this podcast manny to first enter the uk chart at number eight reaching number one during its second week knocking sandy tom off the top spot it stayed at number one for three weeks in its first week at number one it sold 48 724 copies which apparently outsold sandy tom by just 186 sales wow and beat competition from world at your feet by embrace which climbed to number three and monster by the automatic which climbed to number four that's the first single I ever bought. First physical single I ever bought. Yeah. In week two, it sold 43,000 copies, beating competition from Hips Don't Lie by Shakira and Wycliffe Jean, which climbed to number three.

And Who Says You Can't Go Home by Hole by Muse, which climbed to number 4, and Mashkenada by Sergio Mendes and the Black Eyed Peas, which climbed to number 6, and was the second single I ever bought with my own money, as I bought them on the same day. When it was knocked off the top of the charts, Maneater dropped one place to number two. By the time it was done on the charts, it had been inside the top 100 for 27 weeks. The song is currently officially certified two times platinum, so double platinum in the UK as of 2023. So despite my efforts, I just brought the runners up during this little period. Lizzy, how do we feel about Maneater by Nelly Furtado Yeah, it's good this I think of the two big Timbaland productions

that we cover this year on the podcast, the two that I remember anyway, I do prefer this one simply because it's more authentically weird than the other one. Like I said to you in the group chat a couple of weeks ago, I don't think Timbaland's sound has aged particularly well. I find it very boxy and it has a tendency to like pummel your ears, which

makes it quite tiring to listen to for extended periods, but it complements Furtado's, like, snarling delivery on this song. The obvious comparison is Manny to, like, Hall & Oates, which is a song that warns about a dominant woman who uses her attractiveness to her advantage. This one could easily be about the same woman, but the sound of this suggests that she might also have a propensity for killing and eating humans.

Yeah. The overall sound of it is this sort of halfway point between enticing and unnerving. And the chorus especially has quite a hypnotic vibe to it that I love. quite a hypnotic vibe to it that I love. In terms of singles from Loose I would say I prefer Say It Right which is in my opinion the strongest combination of Timbaland's production and Furtado's singing. Her singing style on Manny to reminds me a lot of what M.I.A was doing at the time especially if you listen to something like Bucky Dung Gun from her debut album. The production is very, on this, I mean, the production is very of its time, and I find it a bit grating on repeat listens, but overall the song itself is compellingly weird,

and I wish I could say that about more number ones to be honest also somewhat related to our next track i do get a similar were creature vibe from she wolf by shakira yes that's a couple of years after this but yeah i mean that's that's also maybe more playful whereas this is a bit more dark and dingy but yeah i really like this one oh thank you yeah cards on the table i think this is great i think this is part of a really convincing remodeling and refashioning of nelly vitado from like this elf of the woodland realm who sang to birds and danced around in natural pools to someone who commands the dance floor and has a bit of an attitude you know we've gone from i'm like a bird to i'm going to bite your head off mister you know like it's that there is a sudden switch there and it's a convincing

transition i think and she's managed it very well um she's given a good push by timberland's kind of like management of the whole thing um his assistance and you know but it means that like all the combinations of everything that it is it means everything has a proper bite to it you know it's spiky and it's confrontational and it's constantly like gyrating at you and moving in mysterious ways i think that the mix is really dense you know it's full of all sorts of stuff you know timberland's always i find has always been very good at just like packing the mix with loads of stuff whether it's ad libs or onomatopoeic like drum loops and beatboxing

and weird little synth lines and drums that sound like you're trapped in a cupboard you know that he's always been very very good at like you know making it sound very tight but sort of giving it enough room to sort of breathe i actually i don't know if his production necessarily has aged badly for me i do i do think that it's of its time but only in the sense that like i think that timbaland's appreciation of like high fidelity and stereo mapping has changed over time um i actually quite like the production of this um nelly's voice um is very nasal and i can see why that would put people off but i think it suits this like slightly mean girl edge to the whole thing that this has you know it's a shame that we don't get to discuss the other singles from loose because i

think that they all have this this sort of quality only with slightly different personalities in each of them you know um all good things come to an end is something that would have been very much at home in her turn off the light i'm like a bird sort of era but then you have promiscuous which is just like this in a you know in a similar sort of way and i totally agree with you say it right is my favorite of the of the four from this album um all the all the good things come to an end pushes it really close but say it right is a really really really beautiful song to listen to is it just slightly superior to this um i actually think this is sort of the weakest of the four singles but you know i still really like it which is a measure of just how much loose by timberland

was like such a big deal for me um i didn't buy it at the time i only really came to this a couple of years later because as i will explain in later episodes of the podcast i started following timbaland's production stuff kind of regularly because it was a friend of mine a couple of years down the line from this we were both um we both ended up listening to shock value which was the album that timbaland curated after this and then we liked what timbaland was doing on that record and so we looked back and it was actually the first time as a teenager that I like started following a producer as opposed to just an artist to see what he was doing um a couple of points of criticism on this the single version is far superior to the album version that long extended down section towards the end of the album version takes all the momentum out

whereas the single version just cuts that completely all the bullshit is gone and it just gets to the point and it keeps getting to the point um a slight a slight point of criticism is that as much as i like the mix on this i do just want to expand a little bit on those drums which i i like the live sound but they're very like you say very boxy the reverb on them is very short the attack is quite instant and it can get a little like you say like you're being pummeled ever so slightly I totally appreciate Timberlands you know like the way that he mixes things and his obsession with sound in this era of sound quality and making mixes sound full but spacious but the drums being so tightly mic'd and there being

basically no echo and no nothing it's weird how it gets such an unnatural live sound out of them which is a very weird oxymoron but it's an odd thing um for me um enjoy them find them more curious than interesting just like hmm okay bit of an odd choice um but that's all really i just think this is a it's a good too great dance floor track a new era finale for tardo it's just a shame that she didn't really capitalize on this because we come back to her next year with the one that she does with timberland and justin tim blake which is you know it's fine but after that she just kind of ends up going back to her original image because she does that broken strings with james morrison which whatever um yeah but i cannot talk

about man eater without mentioning john barden who played uh jim branning on eastenders doing an absolutely phenomenal cover of this with jocelyn brown of all people on just the two of us which was a short-lived reality celebrity show where they got a celebrity in to sing with a professional singer and do a cover of something it was kind of like a christmas edition of strictly come dancing but like not it wasn't around very long um i think then they did about about a month's worth of episodes or something but that is on youtube i will leave a link to it in the show notes it's great fun a really great fun to watch um andy man eater how are you on it yeah um i mostly agree with both of you to be honest i i slightly slightly less hot on the

production to be honest i think that that's part of the song that doesn't really work for me to be honest but i do want to emphasize that that's personal taste to be honest that that kind of grimy dirty sort of um almost sleazy kind of feel which of course suits the song very well for what it's about and what it's trying to do it's just a personal taste thing i just don't really like that kind of production um it is a little bit frustrating that of you know of all the singles we've had of nelly fatado that have not got to number one this one has that's a little bit annoying to be honest because i think say it right i'm like a bird turn off the light all good things come to an end i i like all of those more than this one to be honest um which is you know it's it's not really a criticism of this one because i do still like

this i just think there's a it's a little bit lacking in soul a little bit lacking in kind of connection really because of that production it just takes something away from me but that is just a personal preference thing and there's a lot in this that i really really like i really like um what was the phrase you used just then lizzie um like profoundly weird or something like that compellingly compellingly weird weird? Compellingly weird. That's it. Compellingly weird. That's a good phrase for it because it is just so strange. I think you don't often hear

some of the tricks that this does like at the top of the charts, like particularly the way the rhythm of the lyrics in the chorus are out of step with the rhythm of the rest of the song. That the chorus is not in 4-4. It's like make you work hard,

and then it's make you spend hard, so it lands on the beat earlier, and then it's make you want all of her love. So it lands on a different beat each time, that it's kind of weaving in and out of the 4-4 structure of that chorus. It's really strange. You never hear that.

Yeah. You never hear that. If you were to just sing it without the rhythm backing you up, you'd have to emphasise those words for it even to be clear what time signature it is. And you really don't hear anything like that at the top of the charts very often. So that was very impressive.

And there's a lot of other interesting strangeness in there, like that... with the low vocals and the synth, that kind of wobbly sound yeah endearingly strange very very much so um and i also like as well the kind of point of view of this that it's obviously a little bit of a tried and tested thing for men to sing these kind of songs about a seductress who will you know eat you up and spit you out like holo notes and like stuff like live in la vida loca and things

like that you know that kind of talk about these femme fatales quite rare for a woman to sing it about another woman um you don't really hear that kind of stuff at the top of the charts as well and if it is it's usually in a well I hate her she's a bitch kind of way but this is almost like if it wasn't for the fact that she's a man eater, which obviously genders it, it would almost come across as a queer song. It would almost come across as Nelly and the woman having a thing between them, which, again, quite refreshing. It's very different for the era of this,

and I really, really like that. It's always nice to hear something different at the top of the charts. I just think it's a little bit undercooked in terms of that production, and maybe just a little bit overcooked in the strangeness as well. I completely agree about that down section in the album version.

Don't like that at all. That sucks the air out of it and is going a little bit too far, to be honest. But I do like this, and I have a lot of respect for Nelly Furtado as an artist. One of the reasons I like quite a lot of her singles is that they all feel very different to each other. That this and I'm Like a Bird are just poles apart,

but they're really only a couple of years apart. And again, All Good Things Come to an End, which is a lovely, sweet, contemplative ballad. Again, it sounds like a completely different artist. She's very versatile. She's very interesting. And she is interesting here. It just doesn't quite fly for me in the way that i was

hoping for but yeah it does get a thumbs up i do like this and i particularly like the oddness of it all yeah okay on to our second song this week and it is this No fighting No fighting No fighting Shakira, Shakira I never really knew that she could dance like this She make a man wanna speak Spanish ¿Cómo se llama? Mi Bonita

Mi casa Shakira, Shakira Oh baby when you talk my mouth You make a woman go mad So be wise and keep on Reading the signs of my body I'm on tonight You know my hopes don't lie And I'm starting to feel it's right

All the attraction, the tension Don't you see baby this is perfection Hey girl, I can see your body moving And it's driving me crazy And I didn't have the slightest idea Until I saw you dancing And when you walk up on the dance floor Nobody can not ignore

The way you move your body And everything's so unexpected The way you right and left it So you could keep on shaking it Never really knew that she could dance like this She make a man wanna speak Spanish Como se llama? Bonita

Chacara Oh baby when you talk like girl, you make a woman go mad So be wise and keep on reading the signs of my body I'm on tonight, you know my hips don't lie and I'm starting to feel you boy Come on let's go, real slow, don't you see baby see it's perfect I know I'm on tonight, my hips is perfection They know I'm on to life My hips don't lie And I'm starting to feel it's right

All the attraction, the tension Don't you see, baby, this is perfection Alright, this is Hips Don't Lie by Shakira featuring Wyclef Jean. Released as the second single from Shakira's seventh studio album titled Oral Fixation Vol. 2, Hips Don't Lie is Shakira's fifth single overall to be released in the UK and her first to reach number one. And this is not the last time that we'll be coming to Shakira on this podcast. Hips Don't Lie first entered the UK charts at number 54, reaching number one during its fourth week on the chart knocking nelly fatado off

the top spot it stayed at number one for one week in its first week at number one it sold 33 000 copies beating competition from buttons by pussycat dolls which climbed to number three and sexy love by neo which climbed to number five. When it was knocked off the top of the chart, Hips Don't Lie dropped one place to number two. However, that was not the end of its time at the top of the UK charts. We will be returning to it in the future. Andy, Hips Don't Lie, how are we doing?

Yeah, a few things. First of all, a few points of order. It's not the biggest of deals to me, but when you said Buttons was beaten to number one there, my husband will have done the biggest groan in the world because he loves that song. So just adding that in for texture there. And also just a little observation that, do you remember when we covered Don't Ya? And I said, like, in context, it feels very new and different because there's going to be a lot more of this coming. Yeah, there's a lot more of that this week.

It definitely feels very much in the aftermath of Pussycat Dolls, both these songs that we've done so far this week. But anyway, this was interesting for me, this. It's quite funny because one of the things i talk about a lot is hooks that like it's always a big take for me if you've got a really good hook and if you've got loads of them even better you know that's that's just i'm a simple man i'm easy to please in that way but this is kind of through the looking glass really because it's like someone sat down and just said well what if if the song was just nothing but hooks? Just all the way.

Like, just entirely made of little soundbites that will get in your head. Like, somewhat annoying, but mostly just very catchy. If it was entirely made of those, sometimes two or even three of them playing at once at the same moment, would that catch on? Yes, it did catch on, obviously, because it means it's an incredibly catchy song that um once it's in your head it is quite the bit to get out of your head um

which you know it it's a very successful song because of that and it's you know very very well remembered and a lot of that is down to the fact that it is written so well in such a catchy way and i have to give it huge props for that but i just think there's no substance there there's it's too much like there it's good in its own right and the shakira shakira thing is obviously quite funny and everybody kind of looks back on that and the um oh baby when you talk like that! You know, almost every line of it is like, I remember that, like nostalgic in some way. Almost every line of it, I can remember someone

at some point in my life kind of quoting it in a funny way and me getting the reference. Because it's just embedded in culture in that way, this song, because there's so many little bits of it. A little bit like Crazy last week, actually, in that way. But there's just no substance behind it at all this is just an absolute assault on the charts and like with manita i just think it comes across feeling a little bit soulless because of that that this is just like throw everything including the kitchen sink at the charts like to get people hooked on this song and um it's just

less than the sum of parts I think and I really don't like how dense it gets with that layering of different hooks at one point the Shakira Shakira the chorus Shakira's singing on the chorus I mean and the they're all playing literally

at the exact same moment and it's too much I just think that it's quite sort of corporate to come across that way to just like throw everything at it in this way you can do that with more finesse and more artistry than this but i do still like it i do think that it's got a really really nice sound to it um for what it is it's just very slight it's very slight and you know being catchy and getting in your head is not the be-all and end-all. Like, it gets you success and it means that you'll be remembered.

But is there really much to this, to be honest? Like, The Emperor kind of has no clothes, to be honest, with this. I just think there's just not much there in this. It's just a catchy song and that's it, really. But that's, you know, it's good. It's just not more than good. It's just fine. Yeah, that's all I have to say about it, really. But that's, you know, it's good. It's just not more than good. It's just fine. Yeah, that's all I have to say about it, really.

Yeah, I feel kind of similarly to you, Andy. I kind of found myself a little bit staggered by how little I felt about this, because this was huge, wasn't it? Absolutely huge. On both sides of the Atlantic. And I don't know, because gives shakira a big lift back into the public consciousness it gets to number one like twice and i mean the second run that it spends at number one is much longer and it's very much the song of

the summer for 2006 you know everybody remembers it it's got all these little hooks and catch phrases in it that are expertly executed none more so than the Shakira Shakira thing which is just like even now is still like I mean you know um there's a footballer who used to play for Stoke in Liverpool called Jadon Shakiri and whenever he played I remember this yeah whenever he played my mum was whenever he got mentioned on the tv my my mum always used to go, Shakira, Shakira. And it's like, you know, he played for Liverpool as recently as four years ago. Like, you know, it's still something

that has lasted in the public consciousness and fair play to it because, yeah, the whole thing is just so professional. And I always like it when we get international flavours in British charts because it proves that pop can cross borders and break down prejudices and stuff like that when it's given a chance

I think we've had a couple of kind of Latin influenced songs just this week, you know I think everybody's got a bit of like World Cup fever if you know what I mean, there's a lot of like, because even Mash Kanada is in the charts at the moment as well, which another kind of you know brazilian kind of south american sort of thing so everybody's kind of caught world cup fever a little bit i guess with stuff like

that but this just kind of leaves me feeling a bit like not empty but it's quite good at what it does but i was kind of hoping that i would get like a pang of nostalgia or a twinge of something because i don't know like it's from it's a very prominent single from around the time that i was 12 and i thought that something would happen but it just i don't know there's not a lot going on for me emotionally it's nowhere near the pie hole or anything like that you know it's it's definitely closer to vault territory than pie hole territory because i can see everything that's gone into this but it's also not that close to the vault because it's just too clean like maybe that's it maybe there's just no i feel like there should be more dirt and grit on this than there is it doesn't have a throbbing pulse like much you know the best kind of music of this kind normally

does it's not it's not humid enough if you know what i mean like the video is all like fire and sand and dancing and belly dancing because shakira had a very big reputation around this time for being able to make her torso do incredible things and you know there's all these like the single artwork is her fire breathing and it's all you know party and sweat and all this stuff it just doesn't come through on the recording there's just i don't know it just doesn't have much of an arse on it you know like there's just like there's just a there's like i've sounded like anton from straightly at the moment but like there's just that just there needs to be like a zhuzh that's just like it's just missing and maybe it's something andy that you were sort of mentioning that you know that there is a bit of a problem

with the equalization and mixing of the mids on some of these songs around this time and i feel like there's everything at one end and everything at the other but that bit in the middle that's just like you know something to grab it just doesn't quite find its way to me and it's a shame because everything on the surface is just like like you're saying it's it's got as many maybe not as many but it feels like it's just as packed with hooks as something like hey ya where it's basically like filled with little memes you know for itself but it just yeah when i want something greater it doesn't arrive which is a shame but sorry you were gonna say i was just picking up on the point about production um because one thing i forgot to say with this is that i mean definitely the thing about the mids is here again but yeah it's just

empty in the middle it's kind of all crust and no pie but um the particularly about the production is shakira's voice is way too high in the mix it's very loud isn't it really high yeah and it's got like it sounds almost like just a raw live vocal i could barely detect any production on it at all like there's no reverb there's nothing there's no kind of smoothing over the edges it sounds like there's a karaoke track that she's recorded right over that's just it just sounds like that and it's i really don't like it it's very harsh and abrasive don't like it yeah yeah i was in tesco before listening to it, and it was just after the lunch hour before. And, like, so there weren't many people,

and they don't play much music in the Tesco that I went in. It was a small, like, Tesco Metro thing. And I suddenly became very conscious that, like, Shakira's voice could be bleeding out of my headphones right now, so I just turned it down ever so slightly so as to not, you know, the guy who's looking at the sushi rack and the sandwiches rack next to me can't hear her going when that thing that she does at the start of the chorus with her voice but yeah i mean it's because her voice is her voice is already known for being quite sort of harsh and direct and

you know very very kind of you know kind of full of energy so to treat it with such kind of a hands-on approach it's like whoa let's turn that voice down a little bit yeah yeah not my fave yeah lizzie how about you yeah i think you've pretty much said it perfectly just going back to a voice i've i've always struggled with it. Like, I know it's very distinctive, it's quite bold, it's immediately recognisable as Shakira, but there's an odd phlegmy quality to her voice that I've never been able to ignore, and it's especially noticeable on this.

So it makes this a bit more of a difficult listen than it should be for me personally. But yeah, I totally agree that I was really expecting to feel something for this just purely because it was, like you say, a big moment. It's a big crossover moment for Latin pop pop and reggaeton um in the wake of do you remember gasolina by daddy yankee that was like the year before this and i have much fonder memories for that than than this which i think i think you've you've said it perfectly it's a it's a nice enough song but it's almost like there's too much in it and there's not enough in it. It's too full of like bitty hooks but the actual meat of it is quite

sort of limp when you take a step back and really look at it. So I do like this, but there's not enough to really keep me engaged and to keep me coming back. And yeah, I wish there was something more to say about this, but I think it's just fine, to be honest. Just before we move on, Rob, at the start of your piece piece you mentioned world cup fever at the time and i think this might be peak world cup music in britain um because around this time there was a couple of songs vying for number one there was the official one which was world at your feet by embrace yeah but there was also a couple of competitors. There was Is This the Way to the World Cup by Tony Christie. Yeah.

Hurry Up England by Sham69, which was a cover of Hurry Up Barry, but with lyrics changed to Be About England. There was a song called Who Do You Think You Are kidding jerking cleanse yeah all stars um crazy frog was back with we are the champions sort of horrible dance mix there was um that's england all right by joe fagan which was oh that's living alright. Oh, no. With lyrics about England. There was Stan Boardman put out Stan's World Cup song, the alternate title,

Aye, Aye, Yippie, The Germans Bombed Our Chippy. Oh, my God. Yes, I remember that one. Because it's in Germany, remember? Oh, I'm mortified. Oh, God. And my personal favourite from 2006, Neil and Christine Hamilton with England are Jolly D. Jolly D?

Yeah, Jolly D. Oh, God. England and Germany. England are Jolly D. What does Jolly D mean? They're Jolly D. But what does Jolly D mean? They're good at football and scoring goals.

They are Jolly D. Yeah, I think that this was a proper post-Amarillo thing. Yeah, definitely. And to be fair, something that I was thinking about before was that Shakira ends up with the official World Cup song in 2010. She does, yeah. With the, what is it? Waka waka hey hey.

You know, This Time for Africa or whatever it was called. Which has weirdly become a massive gay classic. You hear that all the time and I don't know why. Yeah. Oh, wow. Yeah, it just, I mean, the whole thing with that, the whole, I mean, the infamous commentary of the opening goal at the 2010 World Cup by Peter Drury

where he says, a goal for south africa a goal for all of africa and it's like there's lots and lots of countries in africa who could not give a stuff about what south africa do it's like some guy in egypt like yeah and also plenty of african countries who were direct competitors in that tournament does that mean nigeria have just scored does it uh yeah i think what he was trying to say was that it was the first World Cup on the African continent and it was a big moment.

But there is this kind of this time for Africa. It's like they wouldn't do this time for Europe, would they, for the 2006 World Cup in Germany. But I digress. Andy, ever since you've said all crust, no pie, I've been unable to get out of you've said all crust, no pie, I've been unable to get out of my head. All crust, no pie.

I'm all crust, no pie and I'm starting to feel it. One more thing I just wanted to say is that I think there are like three people from the North East who, if you say their name, the instant reaction you will get is singing their name back at you. One of them is Shakira, with Shakira, shakira and then also jason derulo and then red one those are the three

right okay we will move on to the third and final song this week which is this When you first left me, I was wanting more But you were fucking that girl next door What'd you do that for? When you first left me I didn't know what to say I've never been on my own that way Just sat by myself all day I was so lost back then

But with a little help from my friends I found the light in the tunnel at the end Now you're calling me up on the phone so you can have a little wine and a run It's only because you're feeling alone At first when I see you cry yeah it makes me smile, yeah it makes me smile At worst I feel bad for a while, but then I just smile, I'll go ahead and smile Okay, this is Smile by Lily Allen Released as the lead single from her debut studio album titled Alright Still.

Smile is Lily Allen's first single to be released in the UK and her first to reach number one. However, this is not the last time that we'll be coming to Lily on this podcast. Smile first entered the UK chart at number 13, reaching number 1 during its second week on the chart, knocking Shakira and Wycliffe Jean off the top spot. It stayed at number 1 for two weeks. During its first week atop the charts, it sold 40,000 copies, beating competition from In the Morning by Razorlight, which got to number 3, Last Request by Paolo Nuttini, which climbed to number 5, and World Hold On by Bob Sinclair, which got to number 9. During its second week at the summit, it sold 35,000 copies, beating competition from Voodoo Child by Rogue Traders, which got to number 3, and I Love My

Chick by Busta Rhymes, which got to number 8. When it was knocked off the top of the charts, Smile fell three places to number 4. By the time it was done on the charts, it had been inside the top 100 for 37 weeks. The song is currently officially certified two times platinum, so double platinum in the UK, as of 2023. Just something to note this week,

that none of the songs we have covered have gone in at number one as new entries this week. That is a first on this podcast. All of them charted before they got to number one. We are entering a new era of the British charts on Hits 21. Lizzie,

smile. How do we feel? It confuses people. Hey! No, it's good this. Lily Allen herself is a very complex figure. I don't know if I like her in the same way that I like a lot of her early music. But yeah, this is really good. It's the sort sort of it's got kind of like a lover's rock sort of sound like if you told me this was originally done in like the 60s by some obscure jamaican artist i would have believed you and like maybe she just twisted the lyrics around a bit to make it more current and urban. But yeah, it's not often you have a breakup song like this, which is actively spiteful and not in a moany way. You think of something like Eamon,

where it's just like, no, actually, I broke up with her. It's like, yeah, all right. Yeah, whatever. With this, it is sort of of it's being accepting of a breakup and being able to look back and just kind of laugh in a way to think that you were you ever with such thing and yeah it is quite sort of mean and spiteful but I like that about it I like that it doesn't shy away from being sort of confident and owning your sort of anger towards it like there is there's definite pettiness there but she wears it well I think it's something that a lot of people can relate to

about being in a relationship it ending badly and then the other person calling you up on the phone so they can have a little wine and a moan and she's made something that has sort of resonated with a lot of people and is stuck in in people's minds this is something I still hear fairly regularly on the radio something I still hear fairly regularly on the radio. It's a pretty much a perfect debut single really. I don't know how much I personally love it these days. I think I would have really liked it back then but I know with the benefit of hindsight that Lily Allen went on to do much better things in the coming years. But overall, yeah, I think it's really good.

Probably the strongest of this week. Easily the strongest of this week. What am I saying? Andy, how about you? Yeah, I absolutely love this. I really do. Literally all of the singles off Lilyly allen's first two albums i absolutely love i think this first album in particular is just oh a real real landmark i just think it's

absolutely tremendous that album i i mean straight away i will say straight out of the um gate that i absolutely adore this song but the best compliments i can give that album is that smile is nowhere near my favorite on it it might not even make my compliments i can give that album is that smile is nowhere near my favorite on it it might not even make my top five favorite on that album to be honest um it's it's a tremendous tremendous album but i think what's so great about her in this early era is that sort of combination of some very different things that she's got a very clear personality which is i'll get into that in a second but she's very straight down the line and uncensored then she's got production

which doesn't match with that at all and lyrics that are very different are getting into really mature topics and i think this is a good example of that this is a good microcosm of what she's all about which is why it's such a great debut single, which is that she's got that production, which is really, really light and friendly. It's like it's got that sort of scar beat. It's almost like madness. It's something really, really inoffensive and nice. And she's got a lovely, very, very clean, very presentable, if you like, kind of voice as well.

But then she has these lyrics that are basically a diss track, to be honest. It's just like, I kind of secretly get a bit of joy out of it when you're upset and, you know, what of it, basically. And it makes her very challenging because she's got various aspects to her, that she's got this very, very chart-friendly sound, but she's not exactly someone who you would bring home to your mum and i say that because my mum did not like lily allen at the time she really made a snap judgment of her when in the video to this song lily allen was wearing a dress i'm sorry it was wearing a dress

with trainers and she just took one look at him was like oh that's a bit chavvy isn't it because that was what you like then because i think there's something about where she sits in the charts at this era that I know I ragged on Sandy Tom last week, but part of that was with one eye looking ahead to this week, because you get a large sector of young female pop artists releasing their debut albums around this time. That is like Sandy Tom. That's like,

Oh, you know, wouldn't it be nice if we, you know, just all sat and had pink lemonade with buddy Holly oh you know wouldn't it be nice if we you know just all sat and had pink lemonade with buddy holly you know and and it's all just very twee and inauthentic and then you've got another group of um female artists who are very very authentic and are you know some people like katie tunstall and corinne bailey ray and who are you know very quite good actually but

quite sincere not much fun to listen to. And then you've got Lily Allen, who's something completely different, where she just, for lack of a better phrase, she just keeps it real, really. You know, she just is very, very normal and doesn't censor herself at all. And she says, in a lot of her songs, she says things that you kind of secretly want to say yourself, but you won't out of that sort of, you know,ish politeness repression thing that we all have and she just says it she's like yeah i just kind of like it when when you're upset that makes me feel quite happy um and you know there's loads of other songs

on on that album that's just like got that lovely friendly production um but then says things that like oh you're not really quite sure what you think of it. Like, Alfie is a really good example, which, again, is a proper, proper, like, total destruction of him, really. That's like, you're my annoying little brother, and you're a knobhead, and I absolutely hate you sometimes because you sit in your bedroom smoking weed, and you're pathetic.

Like, I do love you, but come on, sort it out, mate. And she, like, she doesn't do it in a polite way. She repeatedly names him and makes clear that it's her brother. So you know without a doubt that this is Alfie Allen, the person she's singing about. That must have been embarrassing for him. Should have sent him to the wall. Yeah, true.

And she's got that song Not Big on the album as well, which is another really nice, friendly production kind of track that's about how you're bad at sex and you're even worse at it because you have a small penis. It's just like, I know that all of these stuff is quite low blows, which is probably why some people at the time found it quite abrasive and kind of not very

nice, to be honest. But she just sort of has no filter and just says things that you would privately think to yourself, and she just says those things out loud. And I think it's a total breath of has no filter and just says things that like you know you would privately think to yourself and she just says those things out loud um and i think it's a total breath of fresh air and like i say that combination of like almost nursery rhyme style simpleness with the with the um with the music that permeates that whole album combined with lyrics that are very mature and i say mature in in a genuine sense not mature as in she's effing and blinding all the time,

which she does occasionally, but not that much of it. But mature in the sense that it's like, what do I think about this? Like, is she a protagonist in this song? Is she actually nice? And you think about that quite a lot, but then you realise it doesn't matter because it's just supposed to be fun.

You're just supposed to be kind of a little bit hooked and a little bit shocked by these lyrics and you just kind of go with it, really. I just really am so taken away by that. Yeah, just absolutely wonderful. And this song in particular, I think it is very catchy again, but I think it just hits upon that combination of things where it's like she doesn't really like anyone else.

And there will be a lot of imitators. I think Kate Nash is the most obvious one that kind of tries to sit in this, oh, i'm just a normal girl who says things and you might not like it but whatever you know i think i think kate nash is the most obvious follow-up to this but yeah um we've got better to come from lily allen um but this is lovely absolutely love it yeah brilliant well actually before i move on i wasn't going to tell this story but i do think But this is lovely. Absolutely lovely. Yeah, brilliant. Actually, before I move on, I wasn't going to tell this story, but I do think it's relevant from the thing I said about how she kind of says

she has mature lyrics but not in the effing and blinding kind of way. I remember this episode of Buzzcocks that her and Jamelia were both on. And Jamelia had a little bit of a beef with Lily Allen at the start because she said, oh, my daughter really likes your music, were both on and jamelia had a little bit of a beef with lily allen at the start because she said um oh my daughter really likes your music so i contacted you to ask her to ask you if you could make a bleeped out version of the album for her to listen to and you didn't and i didn't really like that which is like ridiculous because lily allen says straight away she says well first of all i'd have to go back into the studio and remaster the album which would cost like tens of thousands of pounds I'm not going to do that just

for your daughter and she said but then she said like even if I could afford it I wouldn't have done that anyway because literally the whole point of that album and of my music is that it's not censored that it's just like what I think and it's supposed to be a little bit you know make you kind of gasp a bit it's supposed to be a little bit, you know, make you kind of gasp a bit. It's supposed to be like that. And if you don't want to expose your child to it, that's kind of not my problem. And I just kind of wanted to applause when I saw that again recently,

because I'd forgotten about that clip. And I think that says it all, really. That she really, yes, she's a little bit more of a complex person outside of the music, but I really, really respect her, particularly in the early days as an artist, for being like, having such a strong sense of what she wants to do in the music but I really really respect her particularly in the early days as an artist for being like having such a strong sense of what she wants to do and having a point of view as an artist

because I think that's where a lot of artists fail in this era is they don't have a individual point of view it's a very crowded market and she really stands out so yes love this love it just before I hand I hand back to you rob i'm really glad you said that andy because that just made me think it could have been really easy for lily allen like she's a nepo baby it's been to all these expensive schools it could have been just like walk in the park just you know do whatever copy some artists make a couple of grand, you know, you're good. But no, she's sort of gone out of her way to forge an identity for herself and, you know, speak honestly. And she has done that for her entire career, for better or worse.

But yeah, she's always had a sense of herself. And a lot of those Brit school types, you the kate nash's of the world they don't have that they might write a couple of good pop songs but beyond that it's just they're they're kind of too normal yeah i think if it does feel authentic in a way that i can't put my finger on in a way that kate nash doesn't i don't mean to keep going on kate nash but that's just the main example i can think of oh no there's, there's others, like Ellie Goulding, that sort of... Eliza Doolittle.

Yeah. Janet Devlin. Janet Devlin. Yeah, it feels more authentic with Ellie Allen, especially like LDN. I know I mentioned this last week, because it's, honestly, it just is such a good point of comparison

with Sandy Tom, that like, Lily Allen has this kind of observational just kind of saying what i think kind of songs but she filters the bad with the good she puts it together and it just feels more real and i think she definitely wouldn't have been doing this intentionally i don't think because these things are happening at exactly the same time but it's yeah this this album in general and this song as well, is such a good skewering of that Sandy Tom style of thing, of like, no, no, no, this is what it means

to really put yourself out there. It's not just naming things that you like, it's digging into yourself as a person and saying what you think about other people, what you actually think in a complex way, not just, oh, weren't the 60s great? It's like, oh, you know, just something a bit more down to earth than that it's a bit more interesting than that and um it will always always be superior to me so

yeah yeah i will stop dicking on sandy tom now but um it really is like such a good point of comparison i do think there's a little element of post-Frank Amy Winehouse about this in a way that kind of like bit rebellious because there's something about Lily Allen's image that it is she's like a composite of several different things

because there's a little bit of chav in there, there's a little bit of two-tone and scar because the album cover is full of all the black and white checkered imagery there's a little bit of two-tone and scar because the album covers full of all the black and white checkered imagery um there's a little bit of ladette in there as well um obviously in the first or second line of this song there's a fuck straight away you know just to kind of make radio producers go oh you know we'll just mute that bit we'll just take care of that bit and that sort of thing and so there's there's all these little you know little things that kind of appear and i think what she is really is london i know that's easy to say because you know ldn and whatnot and you know she was born in hammersmith and i think that a lot of things

that she's made up of london is kind of similar where it's like london is made up of you know london's quite a unique capital city in the sense that it's kind of like lots of very distinct places that are kind of grouped together by larger urban sprawl you know like i mean i've spent a week in london just gone and you know we were staying around russell square which is a bit you know old london everything's on grids but then you go over when we went over to somewhere like kensington just for a day and it's like lots of windy streets and then you suddenly turn up outside of a like house of fraser looking thing with the whole foods in it that like looks like the center of manchester and then you go all the way out to like you know bow or out to places like

you know burnt oak and edgeware and And, you know, everything's just, you know, completely different, but it's all kind of connected and grouped inside the M25. And it feels a little bit like that with Lily Allen, where, like I was saying, there's all these different kinds of images, and then it kind of gets wrapped up in this, you know, it's this nice kind of cohesive image of lots of different things. And I think a lot of people bought into it, and I definitely buy into it as well.

Smile is my favorite song this week i'm usually less keen on this kind of like you know pop reggae cod reggae stuff but it kind of distances itself from that and it disguises itself with things like you know the little queasy piano line that's sort of like pitch bent and uneasy you know and the just the fact that it's like it the the scar influences just kind of decorate they're not the the thing that they are just you know additional bolt-ons if you will to to the the sound um i remember this kind of bursting onto the scene and immediately being taken with it even as a 12 year old i think she did kind of leave the scar influences behind but you know they're fairly effective on that first album and on this first single um it's a great idea i think for a proper debut launch

because it sets her up with this like kind of like this is a little bit like a girl off the estate vibe as well like if you were to walk around any of the estates in london you would see her sat on a wall with her friends laughing about something or other you know trying to you know get someone to buy him alcohol before she's 18 like that you know but there's that sort of vibe to her that's kind of like not homely but you know what i mean she's like she's of where she's from if you don't admit it it's a convincing kind of image you know I think that she got famous off myspace too she kind of uploaded some of these like demo versions of things like smile and whatnot but also a few covers and things like that and she built a bit of a profile she had about 500 000 page views by the time this was about to hit the radio um but yeah that when

for such a you know such a young person i think that she displays a lot of very kind of mature and experienced sensibilities when it just kind of comes to pop songwriting you know she's had a little bit of help um just with a couple of co-writers who have kind of maybe to pop songwriting you know she's had a little bit of help um just with a couple of co-writers who have kind of maybe reined it in um but it's just a nice kind of very very nicely constructed pop single you know the the just like the slight rise into the bridge with those little organs that come in underneath the um i was so lost back then etc um but like you andy i was also thinking and lizzie i think you mentioned this too there is something slightly like underneath like the gentle vocals and stuff you do get this feeling that there's something slightly sinister occurring there's

something like there's just something about it that's like, hmm, there is an edge to you, isn't there? Like, you have a very gentle, angelic voice. Yeah, what's the full story here? Yeah, you seem unassuming, but like, what's the full story exactly? And that's reinforced by the music video where, you know, the line is that she gets a little help from her friends, and you think, oh, they've just gone round to cheer her up, but actually they mug him and beat him up and trash his apartment.

And, you know, that sort of thing. You know, she's not getting relationship advice. She's just paying people to, like, batter him, basically. And I also love this idea in the third verse, kind of like bridge section, where she just goes, la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la. Because you get this feeling that like while all the chaos is happening around her that she's caused she's always likely to skip away whistling to herself like well i didn't have anything to do with this she's a bit head in the clouds always slightly

away with the fairies but not completely you know's, she just has this edge to her that's like quite dark and sort of like, you know, this character that she's built for herself, but there's also this sense that like, oh, well, you know, I'm kind of happy-go-lucky me, you know, it's very LDN, like the video where like she's just kind of riding through the city on my bike all day, and you think, oh, that's cute, and then it's because the filth took away my license and it's like oh right i see and like she's very good at presenting those dichotomies together and building uh like i say a cohesive image for herself i'm very interested in her surroundings and her own thoughts she's more interested in capturing the atmosphere rather than listening to what people are actually saying like if you were in a conversation with her in a coffee shop she would be observing the sound of

spoon on teacup or the sound of the kettle boiling or the sound of the traffic outside and then you'd go like Lily are you listening and she'd go uh yeah what are you talking about off you know like that's that's the kind of character that I think that she builds with this. And I also love the decision that they make to underlay the final chorus with the la-la-la-la-la-la-la. I always love it when final choruses are reinforced by earlier sections of the song. And I do think this kind of head in the sky slightly oblivious it they use that very well to disguise a song that we're going to come up to later the the fear where again like it presents itself as

this kind of like you know airy fairy slightly you know not like not like she's not paying attention but like there's this slightly you know like i say she's someone who's not always listening but she really is listening because a lot of her observations in the fear are really cutting i think yeah i'm really devastating and that song emerges at the end of i mean i'll talk about this more when we get there but that song emerges at the end of an empire and it is like the more when we get there but that song emerges at the end of an empire and it is like the last breath of a particular empire and of a particular world before the other one kind of you know as elo said creeping over now the hand is on the shoulder etc

and i think that this is kind of like the the kind of like the gentle genesis point of the the character that lily allen plays across these first two albums the less said about her work after the hiatus the better because i think yeah jesus is mostly bollocks i think jesus is is crap really really crap and then the one she did after that was all right it was fine it was you know more back to like you know kind of like you know what lily wanted to do as opposed to give me that crown bitch i want to be jesus which christ oh the the jesus thing has some of the most painful pop lyrics i have ever ever ever heard in my life i cannot believe how disappointed i was in that album maybe i need to go back to it but it just felt like all the subtlety had disappeared like uh yeah but this is a great genesis point we come back to her a couple of times one is one of my favorite songs

of all time then the other one is something i don't think i would remember if it slapped me around the face but this is one of the ones i really do remember and really do appreciate and really do love and it's my favorite song of the week um and i i would feel i i don't know actually because man eater and smile are gonna go close this week i think and i do think hips don't lie has a pretty strong following out there so it could be tight in the poll this week so if you're listening get your votes in um if you want your if you want your song to win the poll is available on twitter and on spotify andy man eater hips don't lie smile what's going in the pie hole of

alt for you this week well man eater hmm she may-eater, but certainly not a pie-eater. Or a vault-eater. Whatever those are. Just imagine a different version of that now. She's a pie-eater. That'd be fun. I bet that's been done somewhere. Anyway, nowhere for that.

And then hips don't lie. Hips don't go in the vault or the pie hole either. They remain attached to the torso and then for smile, trying to think of a good pun on smile let's just say the song makes me smile a lot, so it goes in the vault, yeah, love it

Awesome, Lizzie Manny to Hips Don't Lie and Smile how are we feeling about all of them? Well, Andy saw my bit so I'll just get through quickly Manny to Narrowly Misses Out How are we feeling about all of them? Well, Andy saw my bit, so I'll just get through quickly. Man Eater narrowly misses out on the vault. Really good, though. Hips Don't Lie, not quite either, but mostly a thumbs up.

Smile, I will put in the vault as well. Okay. As for me, Man Eater, that's going in the vault. Hips Don't Lie is going absolutely nowhereater, that's going in the vault. Hips Don't Lie is going absolutely nowhere. And Smile is going in the vault. So a good week this week. Thank you to Lily, to Shakira, and to Nelly, and Wycliffe. Of course, he also made an appearance.

Thank you very much for listening to us this week. When we come back, we'll be continuing our journey through 2006. Thank you and we'll see you soon. Bye-bye. See ya. Bye-bye. © BF-WATCH TV 2021