Tuesday, February 22, 2011

My Birthday Number Ones (2002 - 2011)

This is the final post in this series looking at songs which made number one in the charts on my birthday. It been an interesting exercise, because I think it disproves the old chestnut "Pop is not as good as it used to be": every decade has thrown up classic songs as well as horrors. And the last 10 years has certainly seen some great songs that I'm pretty happy are in my birthday chart. So here is the final run down:

2002: Enrique Iglesias - Hero

Enrique comes across here as the male version of those power divas from the 90s, singing very much a power ballad. He looks good though.

2003: Christina Aguilera - Beautiful
Disabled by request A gorgeous ballad by Christina - will this be a clasic? She succeeded Tatu as number one in 2003; they were the official on my birthday number one:

2003: Tatu - All The Things She Said

Hard to believe now this manufactured girl band were number one for a whole month. Great fun pop song though.

2004: Busted - Who's David

Huge in the mid-00s. Why? Oh wait. This trio completely passed me by; I have no recall of this song.

2005: Jennifer Lopez - Get Right

Stunning sounds and moves from Jenny from the block

2006: Meck ft Leo Sayer - Thunder In My Heart Again

"It wasn't just because it was a hot tune, it was all because "Oh my God, it's Leo Sayer" - Leo Sayer
And Leo becomes the third artist to have two number ones on my birthday chart! - this time, almost three decades apart. Stunning achievement, Leo ( and great assistance from Meck)

2007: Mika - Grace Kelly

The next three hits are amongst my favourites of the last few years; amazing to think they all made number one around my birthday. Mika's video was another one directed by Sophie Muller (who did Shakespears Sister's Stay)

2008: Duffy - Mercy

Duffy's amazing voice and debut single livened up the beginning of 2008.

2009: Lily Allen - The Fear
Embedding disabled by request
How can anyone say Pop has dumbed down faced by this brilliance?

2010: Helping Haiti (Various Artists) - Everybody Hurts

I prefer R.E.M.'s original version, to be honest, but still this was in aid of a very worthy cause and it's great having something by R.E.M. in my birthday chart - they are one of my favourite bands.

And the final, most recent song, is:

Adele - Someone Like You

Words cannot express how thrilled I am Adele made it to number one with this astonishingly affecting song. She blew me away when she sang it on Later With Jools Holland last November - I pre-ordered her album on the strength of this performance - but I never imagined she would get to number one with it, even less so against Lady GaGa's hugely hyped Born This Way (which I have also bought!) Big congrats to Adele.

from viagogo:

"Adele tickets are likely to become even more in demand as she has made history this week with her latest chart positions.

The singer has become the first artist since the Beatles to have two top five singles and two top five albums in the charts simultaneously.

Fans of the soulful singer appear to have been inspired to buy her latest single 'Someone Like You' after her Brit Award performance last week as her single jumped nearly 50 places to land the number one spot."


And that's all folks - thanks for coming with me on the journey :-)

2 comments:

gingergirl said...

OK - I got a fright with Enrique Inglesias. And a couple of the others to be honest ... but then I head the Adele song "Someone Like You". I thought it would be Reason to Believe by Rod Stewart which I love. But this is fantastic. Will look for her albums now. Thanks for the gift. xx

Jan said...

Woah hold on Ed, have you been rifling through my playlist?
Most (but not all) of these tracks are on it.
:)
Totally understand the denial
(ahem ... having already been there)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to you !!!