Hits 21 - 2009 (7): Dizzee Rascal, Jay Z feat. Rihanna & Kanye West, Pixie Lott

Episode Date: July 19, 2024

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

It's 21, ooo, ooo, ooo, ooo Hi there everyone, welcome back to Hits21 where me, Rob, me, Andy and me, Lizzy are looking back at every single UK number one of the 2000s. If you want to get in touch with us you can find us over on Twitter, we are at Hits21UK that is at Hits21UK and you can email us too, please send it on over to Hits21Podcast at gmail.com. Thank you ever so much for joining us again and for waiting while we had a little break. We are currently looking back at the year 2009 and this week we'll be covering the period between the 30th of August and the 19th of September after flying through the first sort of third of the year. People's pockets are very fidgety. They're spending money on lots of different

songs at the moment and we're currently in a very kind of slow run where it's just one week here, one week there. Last week, the pole winner, Black Eyed Peas, walked away with it. I got a feeling, took it pretty clearly from David Guetta and Akon and Tinty Strider. So well done to them and it is time to move on and press on with this week's episode and as always stand for some news headlines from around the time of August and September 2009. At the MTV VMAs, Kanye West interrupts Taylor Swift's acceptance speech for the award for best video. After taking the microphone out of Taylor's hand, West insisted Beyonce should have won the award instead.

West was jeered by the audience and described as a jackass by President Barack Obama. Obama was correct. Meanwhile, Radio 2 DJ and broadcasting veteran Sir Terry Wogan announces that he will be stepping down from his role as host on the Radio 2 breakfast show. Despite widespread surprise, Terry's slot was soon taken over by Chris Evans. When Evans took over, listening figures actually increased from just under 8 million per week to almost 10 million. And Sugar Babe singer Keisha Buchanan confirmed her departure from the group, despite starting work on their next studio album.

Keisha later revealed that the decision was not hers, citing a breakdown in communication and a lack of trust in the other members. Her exit came after an alleged riff with Amel Beraba. Around the same time, Noel Gallagher announced his departure from Oasis, effectively splitting up the band. He claimed on the Oasis website that he simply could no longer go on working with Liam a day longer. The films to hit the top of the UK box office during this period were as follows. The final destination for one week, District 9 for two weeks and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs for one week. Avril Lavigne and Sum 41's Derek Wibley announced their split after being married for three years, eventually completing their divorce in 2010.

Avril soon began dating Nickelback's Chad Kroger, with the pair getting married in 2013, before they themselves divorced in 2015. Meanwhile, Hollywood actor Patrick Swayze dies aged 57 after battling pancreatic cancer for two years. And celebrity chef Keith Floyd also dies following a heart attack aged 65. Floyd had been the star of food-related TV shows in the 1980s and 1990s. Andy, the album charts, how are they doing?

Well once again we're covering basically a second of time in the episode this week. This surely is one of the shortest periods we've ever covered of like 19 days, something like that, and so I've only got two albums to tell you about. However, we do have a pretty historic event on the albums chart this week. I'll start with the one that's not historic, not to do it any kind of injustice, but the first one we've got this week is Humbug by Arctic Monkeys, their third album. Went to number one for two weeks and went platinum and then that's replaced at the top by Vera Lin of all people with We'll Meet Again, the very best of Vera Lin, which went to number one for just one week and went platinum.

And what's historic about that is that Vera Lin with that became the first person over 90 to achieve a UK number one album and still the only person I believe over 90 to achieve a number one album in the UK. She's pretty amazing and she would go on to be the first over 100 year old to achieve a top 10 album in 2017. So pretty amazing from her. I also in a related record I've looked into this and I'm pretty sure this is correct that between the Arctic Monkeys and Vera Lynn it is the largest age gap from one number one album to another that we've ever had on the charts with nearly 70 years gap between them so yes all hail Vera Lynn yeah

Lizzy the States I take it they're not as interested in Vera Lynn as we are no it's nice that we're doing something for the oldens because America definitely isn't. There's nothing new on the singles chart this week as the Black Eyed Peas continue their 14 week run at number one with I Got a Feeling. So moving straight on to albums where we have Keep On Loving You by Reba McIntyre, One Week, Failed to Chart in the UK. Then we have Breakthrough by Colby Caillet. One week got to number 108 in the UK. Wow. And finally I Look to You by Whitney Houston. One week got to number three in the UK. And that's it for me this week.

We're a bit detached from the states at the moment. Yeah Whitney lined it up a little bit but there's a real discrepancy, a lot of contrary around this time. All right then, thank you both very much and we will come back to the UK to look at our first number one of the same old scenery And I can change all that so easily Don't worry bout a thing, you don't take a chance I'll take you to the south from France, Lacan If anybody can, I can We could go shopping in Milan, I just hope you understand I hope you see clear, it really don't matter how far or near

Cos there's no distance that could stop my persistence It's just a few days in the year, cross a rock-clad So let's ride out We ain't gonna fly, we could just drive out We could have a rain-bubble, we could hide out A road so long, where they let them find out If you ain't doing nothing, let's fly away Drive away, get away

We could go to the club or hide away We could do what you want to, baby If you ain't doing nothing, let's fly away Drive away, take a holiday We could go to the club or hide away You can do what you want to, baby Don't watch my passport photo I know I look a bit loco

And I know that my Spanish is so-so But let's try and keep that on the low-low Cause we're going out deeper I've got friends that really wanna meet ya With champagne and a whole lot of rum It's all good darling, the blue man and the plesure And I never let your belly get empty Even when your belly full, you're still sexy Okay, this is Holiday by Dizzy Rascal. Released as the third single from his fourth studio album titled Tongue & Cheek, Holiday

is Dizzy Rascal's 13th single overall to be released in the UK and his third to reach number one and it isn't the last time we'll be coming to Mr Rascal on this podcast. Holiday went straight in at number one as a brand new entry knocking David Guetta and Akon off the top of the charts. It stayed at number 1 for 1 week. In its first and only week atop the charts it sold 80,000 copies, beating competition from That Golden Rule by Biffy Clyro, which got to number 10. When it was knocked off the top of the charts, Holiday fell three places to number 4. By the time it was done on the charts, it had been inside the top 100 for 17 weeks.

The song is currently officially certified platinum in the UK as of 2024 I have noticed and it is apparent this week more than any other that when downloads suddenly started getting counted as you know like it counted towards a songs chart position the number as legal tender yes and the number of weeks that songs were spending in the charts suddenly ballooned like massively. But recently, in 2009, it feels like we've gone back to early 2000s numbers where like 20 weeks is pretty solid. I don't know why that's happened. It's very, very curious. But again, I think it's again about people having very fidgety pockets because the number one is changing over just as quickly as it did in 2000 actually because it's like it's a there's over

40 number one singles in the year 2000. Do you know the side of that coin is that there's there's like no new entries this week like I assume that's the highest new entry. That's something else that slowed down too actually, yeah. I have noticed that there have been a few weeks in 2009 where there's been no new entries and no movers in the top. I think the charts are just generally quiet. It's just quiet at the moment, isn't it? Generally. I don't know what it is. But yeah, there's no real movement and there's also no real sales. So it's a bit strange, yeah. There's, I guess there's less disposable income maybe and also people discovering piracy as well. Yeah, might be slowing things down a little bit.

Yeah, because that feels like peak piracy years actually, late 2000s. Yeah, because now you've got YouTube, people are just ripping it from there, so. Hmm, and the LineWire RIP. Yeah, definitely. Lizzy, how do you feel about Dizzy? I mean, I've got...

Sorry. Well, thank you. I've got very little on this, I'm afraid. I think it's easily the weakest of the Dizzy Rascal number ones we've encountered so far. I don't think it's terrible or anything, but think the tune itself for the most part is a bit of a lifeless rehash of Dance With Me and the holiday motifs from Dizzy are a little bit laboured. I'm sure he's kicking myself that Jess Glynn had that one song otherwise he'd be raking it in from residuals for the rest of his life I'm

sure. On the plus side though Dizzy has an engaging flow like always and I do like the end part where the beat switches up I think that's a really nice unexpected touch. Kind of wish that had been a little bit longer if anything it comes in sort of too late and it's like well well that was interesting but it was only sort of 20 seconds could have done with more of that, but for what it's worth, yeah, it's a nice little slice of holiday pop. It is what it is. Yeah, I feel pretty similar to you for the first sort of 80% of this.

I have a good enough time. It's all a bit, you know, all inclusive pop. I'm glad that we're all kind of, you know, touching on the same things here. But Dizzy has enough personality behind the microphone and he's still infectious and singular enough that he carries pretty standard material i think you could argue that this is the point where it feels like he kind of it doesn't feel like he's trying as hard as he could on this this is definitely the third single from an album. Yes, it's the one Dizzy we've done where it leans a bit too hard into his cheeky chappy persona which means that that which surrounds

him doesn't feel as developed or as carefully assembled. It feels like the sound world of the song isn't as effective or as well rounded as Dance With Me or Bonkers, you get some decent, like, Ibiza synths and a chorus that sounds like the first shot on a lad's holiday, but it doesn't get into the detail of Sunny Club Holidays and stuff. Like you say, it's just kind of laboured references to various things, like passport photos and what have you until you reach that amazing outro which is like the best thing the sudden rush of exhilaration is fantastic you're immediately in there in Magaluf or Malia or wherever people go for those kinds of holidays now yeah the sun's gone down and it's midnight you're in a

dizzying swirl of drinking down and it's midnight, you're in a dizzying swirl of drinking drugs and it feels fantastic. I think above most things pop needs to drip with emotion and holiday doesn't really do that until the last minute or so when the atmosphere suddenly changes and then all sorts of images and feelings come flying towards me and I want to leap into whatever world that this song is living in. I hate clubs but hey, this song makes them feel appealing if only for a second. That sense of euphoria is quite strong. I'm pretty sure this inspires a similar thing that happens next year in 2010 which we will come to one day with Pass Out by Tiny Temper. The last minute of that

where it jumps into quite fast drum and bass. Yeah, that's true. Moves out. It puts, that puts this song much closer to the vault than it would have been otherwise. It isn't going to go in the vault but that last minute is a great switch up and I wish that it would just just I wish that it was a switch up from something a bit better. Andy, how about you? I completely agree with what both of you said for the most part really I am glad you've picked up on this point about the tone kind of changing compared to the other Dizzy Rascal songs

that we've had so far. I think it's weird really, because I'm not at all a grime listener. Like I'm very, very basic on that score, but I am missing the grime here. Like I think with Bonkers, that really sounded just so exciting and so interesting and so fresh that, you know, it was grime bursted onto the scene with nothing else around it, really. And, you know, in the pop charts at least and that was so interesting to me and Dance With Me, you know, less so, but it still had DNA of it, of where Disney wrestles come from really.

With this, I'm not really seeing that anymore to be honest and I think this is this sounds a lot like a lot of stuff we will get in the early tens that is like you know pitbull kind of stuff and things like that where it's just like a guy rapping over a soft synth beat that reminds you of sunshine and pretty formulaic really and this is a good version of that like it's catchy it's good you know I'm not got any particular problem with it, but it's definitely heaps more generic than we've had so far. And it is a little bit of a taster

of a lot of stuff like this that we're gonna get in the early tens. And that's a little bit depressing really, because Dizzy Rascal used to be something very different. I also completely agree that it's heavily inspired to say the least by Dance With Me. It's got that same rhythm there You could mash the two together, I'm sure someone probably has mashed the two together quite easily and that's a little bit of disappointment as well. I will

say as well I'm just a little bit automatically averse to this because of another thing that you said Rob which I completely agree with which is that this has got a real tone of lads lads lads about it. I was just gonna say that's interesting because this was originally written for the Saturdays. That is interesting because I can't hear them singing it but it would be very different I kind of imagine that it would be very very different. It's just, maybe it's because at this time I was in college, I was 17 going on 18, so a lot of people around me, not people I was friends with but a lot of people around me were going on those types of holidays to Magaluf or Mali or Zante or whatever.

I can't think of anything worse, like that would be my worst nightmare, you'd have to drag me to the airport to go on one of those holidays. Like in between those holidays, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, I just can't think of anything worse. And I just think, yeah, this is probably the kind of stuff they were listening to at that time because it's just about a holiday and nothing else. And I tend to frown at songs that are just about having a holiday because it's like,

you know, let's talk about some of the stuff that happens on a holiday, let's dig into it a bit more. you know, and so yeah There's just there's just a sort of inherent aversion. I have stuff like this, but I still like it I think dizzy does a perfectly good job with it I do think that production is quite nice and nice and easy to listen to which is why it sounds so summary I think and I have no real problem with it. It's just um Definitely not hooking me in the way that previous Dizzy Rascal entries have. And that's disappointing.

I'm not going to say he sells out here because I don't really think selling out is a thing, like I always push back on that. But it's disappointing that he's gone so straight down the line with this one. Yeah, yeah, but we'll always have bonkers and we'll always have dance with me. Yeah. Andy, I just want to mention as well, you've maybe realized something about, like, because you were talking about like holiday pop

and I think what I've realized is that it doesn't sound foreign or exotic. So it automatically gets taken over by something like we know speak Americano, which you sort of mentally think of because it sounds like somewhere else. It doesn't sound like Britain, whereas this just it sounds summery, but it doesn't sound foreign. Yeah, that's probably why one of my ultimate go-to sunshine summer songs is Sunshine by Dario G. Yeah, great song. Because that's like, it's got steel drums, it's got chanting in a different language, it's got like sounds that you don't usually hear. It really does conjure up an idea of

going into the sunshine in a distant place and that's the kind of stuff I love about holidays. Like there's no real lyrics in that song but it still conjures up an idea of going on holiday. And then you've got stuff like this, and like Boney M and Madonna who just sing about, let's go and go on a holiday. And it's just, eh, you can do better than that, come on. Conjure up a time and place for me. I think with We Speak No Americano, that sounds like a song you would hear on a resort in Spain. And then once you got back to the UK,

you would be like, oh, I need to find out what this is. Whereas, yeah, holiday sounds like going to the airport. Yeah, it's something that the Brits would take with them to those resorts. The clubs would be playing it there because the Brits are asking for it rather than it coming out organically there. Yeah, and like exactly 10 years to the date before this, there was a song released, which I think is more typical of that kind of thing Do you remember? Sway by Shaft. Oh, yeah, love that song so much. Yeah, yeah dance dance revolution All right, then second song this week is this. I'm on my mind, so go round this town tonight

So go round this town tonight We go round this town We are, yeah I said it, we are This is Rob Nation, pledge of allegiance Bitch I'm a T-Song, all black everything Black cards, black cars, all black everything And our girls are black birds Riding what they telling just I kid more in depth If you boys really ripped enough This is la familia

I'll explain later But for now let me get back To this paper I'm a couple bands down And I'm tryna get back I gave another grip I lost a flip for five stacks Yeah I'm talking five comma six Zero shots, zero hitiddas Back to running circles Round niggas, now we squid up Hold up Life's a game but it's not fair

I break the rules so I don't care So I keep doing my own thing Walking tall against the rain Victories within the mile Almost there, don't give a fowl Only thing that's on my mind Okay, this is Run This Town by Jay-Z featuring Rihanna and Kanye West. Released as the second single from his 11th studio album titled The Blueprint 3, Run This Town is Jay-Z's 31st single overall to be released in the UK and his first to reach number one as a lead artist, but as of 2024 it is his last. It's

also the last time we'll be coming to Mr West, but it isn't the last time we'll be coming to Rihanna. Run This Town went straight in at number one as a brand new entry knocking Dizzy Rascal 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 63,000 copies, beating competition from Get Sexy by Sugar Babes, which got to number two, and Sex on Fire by Kings of Leon, which climbed to number six. It's back in the charts. When it was knocked off the top of the charts, Run This Town fell 2 places to number 3. By the time it was done on the charts it had been inside the top 100 for 15 weeks. The song is currently officially certified 2 times platinum, so it is double platinum

in the UK as of 2024. 15 weeks in the charts and double platinum what's going on what is going on in the charts at the moment Andy you can kick us off with run this town I'm gonna vacate the floor very quickly on this one because as I always say the songs like this this is not made for me I'm not educated enough to really pass much of a coherent opinion on this with any credibility but I do have a few things to say about it first of all we are in a little bit of a week of not quite first but definitely things that are appearing that feel like they're starting to

become more prominent as we head into the future. One thing I forgot to say about Holiday was that it's one of the first songs, maybe the very first song, that's featured a drop, like a proper dubstep drop in it, which is gonna be coming up a lot over the next few years. But with this, again it's not the very first example because we had Never Leave You last week and we've had a few others, but this is, it's sort of like, how do I describe it, there's no actual word for this, but like a female singer doing a chorus over and over again with rapper behind it and there is a lot of those to come. Love the Way You Lie, there's Read All About It, Oofsy Daisy, which comes in 2010.

Oh no, Oopsy Daisy's this year, isn't it? Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah. There's like all sorts of them. And this is not quite the very first one we've had. But I keep listening to all these three songs from this week and I'm like, God, it doesn't feel like we're in the noughties here. It feels like we're in the tens. For this, like, it's fine.

I can see why they got Rihanna and Jay-Z back together again, because clearly they were match made in musical heaven on Umbrella. This does not hold a candle to Umbrella at all but Rihanna does a perfectly good job on it so does Jay-Z. I won't be speaking about he who must not be named because I will not feed the beast but yeah this is not for me and it kind of bored me a little bit to be honest. I felt a little bit self-indulgent. But it was fine. I've really not got all too much to say about it other than that.

The only thing I will add is that I said it was quite rare last week with Emberley I'd Never Leave You. It was really rare at this point to have a song that I'd never heard before. This one I'd never heard before either. I had no idea about this. I'm starting to wonder if I was not quite as on the ball in 2009 as I thought I was. But yeah, this is completely new to me, this. So I've not got much context for it. So I'd be very interested to hear from you both if you've got a little bit more context around this.

Because I feel like there is something here. But yeah, this is fine. It's just not for me really, yeah. Hmm. Yeah, I think I was sort of aware of this but I think I don't know you're a couple of years older than me so you're about 17 by this point and there are certain songs from when I'm 17 in the charts that I'm like I just don't remember this and it maybe has something to do with like you're that little bit older and so you're like you're listening on your own like you're curating your library as opposed to like just listening to the radio and I think we all have a cut-off point.

I definitely was, I definitely was starting to protect my listening more, I would phrase it that way, I was definitely starting to do that around this time and I was starting to focus more on the past than the present as well at this time so yeah a few things will have passed me by, particularly those that are not in my, that I'm not the target audience for anyway, stuff like this. With Run This Town, I made a comment a few weeks ago, a few episodes ago, when the Blueprint 2 was on the chart, saying that it's rare for sequel albums in rap to really live up to the billing. Quite often it's more of a marketing thing than anything like genuinely conceptual and a lot of the material on those albums kind of exposes that

the rappers in question are kind of living off those past glories like Marshall Mathers LP2, Culture 2, The Carter 4. But the Blueprint 3 is, I think it's basically better than the Blueprint 2, brings Jay-Z back in as a mainstream concern, it gets Kanye West back in behind the desk and drafts no ID in as well, it gives him a fresh sound, it's ready for the radio, he sounds invigorated. Again, this is a part of a bit of a Jay-Z renaissance, I think,

with American Gangster, Blueprint 3 and Watch the Throne, all making sure that everyone knows not to write him off. And even though he dropped a smelly turd in 2013 with that Magna Carta Holy Grail, he brought it back around again with 444. And so he's someone who didn't come out of the gates super fast with like, you know, three albums worth of material that was all gold. It's like he has a classic, a few middling ones, a couple of classics, a few middling ones, a few great albums, a middling one. You know, so he's kind of paced himself over the course of his career. And I think that that strength is contributed to by getting Kanye and Rihanna in, who are both big mainstream successes at this time,

and they bring a lot of character to this. Rihanna also brings a lot of class, I think. She's a bit nasal, but that's just her. Sure is this really? Yeah, exactly. I've stopped expecting anything else now. She's perfect for this though. And the way that her sections kind of keep blending in new lyrics, you know, it means that in her moments they never get that dull. Jay has fun bouncing off her, and his verses have loads of catchy moments like the,

We are, yeah I say that we are, and the, Peace, God, ah, ah, and little moments that kind of arrest your ears for a second. As for Kanye's involvement, behind the desk this beat sounds like a dry run for power. Off my beautiful dark twisted fantasy with the big tribal drums and the guitar and the dramatic piano and then it's verse. It's an acquired taste. I would hard cut the everybody on your dick no homo thing, but like it's 2009 so whatever like but after a few bars he settles in and allows himself to descend into Different personalities until the point where like he's bringing the comedy with the is that a mate?

Bit all things like that that kind of jump out of his verse He's not that nimble behind the mic ever since kind of like late registration, but he knows how to bring conviction and personality so okay. I don't think that this is legendary life changing shit or anything like that, but it's a pretty decisive victory for Jay-Z who hadn't really been a massive chart concern in the UK with his solo work. Because he's had three number ones but two of them prior to this have been feature spots on Rihanna and Beyonce songs

sorry the three prior to this have been feature spots on Rihanna and two Beyonce songs but the blueprint three it was his first album in the top 10 that Jay-Z had ever had in the UK this is a big peak for him he headlined Glastonbury next year. Oh no, it's around this time isn't it? Is it 2008, 2009? So it's 2008, he's coming off the back of that and I saw him actually around this time. I saw him support Coldplay in Manchester. What? Yes! Because Coldplay and Jay-Z had a little bit of a thing going on at this time.

There's about three versions of the song called Lost on Viva La Vida. Just because I'm losing doesn't mean I've lost that song if anybody remembers it. There's like three different versions. There was Lost! and Lost! and I think that Lost! is the one that Jay-Z is on and so based on that relationship Jay-Z and Coldplay toured together, Jay-Z supported Coldplay and so I saw him at Old Trafford Cricket Ground and Beyonce was in the house. We got to wave at Beyonce and because I'm pleased that we got to talk about him because over his whole career he's had a few mixed moments but his best work is incredible and there is a good chunk of it.

At least five of his records are definitely worth your time. Reasonable Doubt, The Blueprint, The Black Album, American Gangster, 444, even The Blueprint 3. Lizzy, how about you? In a weird way, this feels like the wrong number one. Yeah, Empire State of Mind should be number one, I think. And it was in America. Like, so in America, this was the number two, and Empire State of Mind was number one.

Whereas in the UK, it's the other way around. And I think this is probably the lesser of the two long term. I think the big problem here is that as much as Kanye does have some clangers in this and this is part of like Kanye Mark 2 where I sort of part ways with him a bit, I think he kind of shows Jay-Z up a little bit. And this is his production as well, I'll get to that in a minute, but I think, you know, say what you want about Kanye, whatever, but like his flow is so much more engaging on this track. And he has the better lines as well, like he

has that one about the RAV4, that's a great line. Yes, he does the the better lines as well like he has that one about the rav4 that's a great line um yes he does have the no homo thing yes he does have that weird bit about g strings but like i do think he's better than jay-z on this as much as i'm not a huge fan of this period of Kanye and everything afterwards but yeah um for the beat i think it's fantastic. It's got some real heft to it and it's got a great sense of momentum. You've got that sample from a Greek prog band called The Four Levels of Existence. That's a great torch. And like, combined with the thudding beat, it provides a sense of scale that Jay-Z and Kanye have both pulled off so well around the turn of the decade as much as it wasn't really my thing by then. Rihanna's chorus is good, I'm less keen

on the herrrrrr, it feels like she's spinning her wheels a bit, maybe could have done it once but just I don't know, you've got to do something I guess. But she does manage to stand out amidst two of the biggest rappers of all time which is No Small Feet and also this is kind of her comeback single because in February of 2009 was the Chris Brown incident. This was her first appearance since then. She had Russian Roulette a few weeks later, didn't she? She did, yeah, yeah. But yeah, this whole era was sort of marked by no one really knowing how to talk about Rihanna

and she didn't really know how to deal with it either, so there's just a lot of kind of bleakness. And that does sort of come through a little bit here, but yeah, I was thinking about that because it's horrible to phrase it as a comeback single I'm not saying it's horrible for you to phrase it that way because it was but it's it's like she feels so bad that she had to make a comeback really and then it was kind of put on her to see how was she going to deal with this and it's horrible isn't it? Yeah exactly but I mean like for this track in general as much as Jay-Z's verse is kinda... and Kanye has some iffy moments and even Rihanna does a bit of vocalizing

which doesn't leave much of a lasting impression, this track feels like... it feels bigger than just a brag track which there are plenty of in hip-hop. This is a track that makes it feel like the three of them have conquered the entire world. This to me is like the sign of a new era, for better or worse, one where there's an upper echelon of artists who have ascended above music as a whole. So you fast forward 15 years and all three of them have or have had, in Kanye's case,

a net worth of over a billion dollars. This is more than just a brag, it's an acknowledgement of power. Yeah, it's a real victory lap for this track. Yeah, as Jay-Z has said, he's not a businessman, he's a business...man. Yeah, to think this is such like a big moment and it's only the second biggest track from this album like yeah yeah he's sorted all right we will move on to our third track and final track of the week which is this I'm looking in the mirror and I think I'm liking what I see Big gang light shining bright like on modern TV

My heart pounds since the bass come thump You gotta move when the floorboard jumps Something's going on and I think it's going on right now All the boys and the girls they got they going on And when the beat kicks in you feel it in your bones And when the bassman cracks and the needle drops You can't come back and you're just getting spanked All the boys and the girls, all the boys and the girls I can see the silhouette standing up against the wall Alright, this is Boys & Girls by Pixie Lott. Released as the second single from her debut studio album titled Turn It Up,

Boys and Girls is Pixie Lott's third single overall to be released in the UK and her second to reach number one. And it's not the last time we'll be coming to Pixie Lott on this contest. Boys and Girls first entered the UK chart at number 73, reaching number 1 during its second week on the chart knocking Jay-Z off top spot. It stayed at number 1 for 1 week. In its first and only week atop the charts it sold 50,000 copies, beating competition from We Are Golden by Mika which got to number 4, Left My Heart in Tokyo by Mini Viva which got to number 4, Left My Heart in Tokyo by Miniviva, which got to number 7 and Uprising by Muse, which got to number 9. When it was knocked off the top of the charts, Boys and Girls fell 5 places to number 6.

By the time it was done on the charts, it had been inside the top 104, 25 weeks. The song is currently officially certified silver in the UK as of 2024. Lizzy, Pixie Long, is this better than Mamadou? Yes, yes it is, categorically. I think the postmodern retro vibe is done much better here, whereas Mamadou had a plodding piano and a BPM that was barely discernible. This one ups the energy considerably and the retro elements complement the production rather than being the entire focus. This actually reminds me quite a lot of something that Girls Aloud might have done a few years prior with the mix of 60s inspired elements in the verses with more modern synth-led production in the choruses.

Something like biology springs to mind, although that's in an entirely different league to this obviously. I just think the problem, again I'm sorry, is Pixie. I don't think she has enough of a presence to really carry off a song like this. She's not a bad singer or a bad performer by any means, but she's quite anonymous in terms of her delivery and I just can't help but wonder could a more charismatic performer have made this song pop? I think yes, but in any case this is better than Mamadou, so I will take it. Andy, how about you?

I very much agree, very much agree. I am going to first of all sum up my main feeling about this in one rather piffy sentence but it is what it is which is we've got shut up and drive at home yes oh my god oh yeah I'm going mad for 15 years thinking this is just shut up and drive there we go I was listening to this and I just kept on in my head thinking the next line was gonna be like da da da da da da da like I just kept thinking that was where it was going and even now going through in my head each line I'm like is that Shred Up and Drive or is that Boys and Girls?

Like it's just and also it's very very similar to that song she did a few years later all about tonight like in the chorus I keep expecting it to go to grab someone if you're single grab someone if you're not just a little bit samey really and it's kind of a weird paradox Pixie Lop is that she is a bit samey but she's also a bit too different all the time where they have like four big hits Mamadou, This, Cry Me Out and All About Tonight they're all pretty different really like they lean into that retro vibe to different extents, but they're all in quite different sound worlds.

And there is such things being too versatile as being too diverse and losing any sense of character and becoming anonymous, as Lizzie says. This is always a problem I had with Pixie a lot in that I didn't really pay her any attention when I was younger, partly because I didn't know who she was and there was nothing in the music or in the performance that was giving me a reason to want to get to know who she was. You know, there was just no branding hook there and there was nothing unique about her voice really. And this is, none of this

is a personal insult to Pixie a lot at all, it's just that like, I wasn't seeing, dare I say it, like an X factor there, to be honest, and I think that comes through in retrospect as well, that now we're, you know, so far on from this, we look back and think, oh, what was the big deal about Pixie Loth? Like, there isn't really anything, to be honest. I mean, this song is fine, but I think it's a really clear rip-off of Show Up and Drive. It's even in the same key. There's just so much that has to do with it. It's the same everything. Yeah.

And I don't like that at all. With the trumpets, which is basically the main aspect of it, I should say the very artificial Dun & It synthesizer trumpets that are the main kind of retro aspects of this. It still comes across as a gimmick, to be honest. It still feels like it's just kind of very half-assed with that. It's got none of the authenticity of Amy Winehouse or even of Duffy.

And I get what you're saying, Lizzie, about how there is a similarity to the kind of stuff that girls might have done, but yeah, we're not in the same quality world No, this is girls permitted Girls tolerated. Yeah But yeah, it doesn't really grab me But it's certainly certainly better than Mamadou which is it's not you know, not hard to do to be honest

Definitely has more energy about it. I it's better than I remember this being actually it definitely has more energy about it I do think those trumpets artificial though They may be do add a little bit of fizz and a little bit of something to this, you know Something's better than nothing But it does kind of feel like trying to get blood from a stone with this and trying to pull out You know, what exactly is it that meant Pixie Lock had two number ones, a couple of other near misses. I'm a little bit non-plussed by that to be honest but hey she had a big area of success,

I'm happy for her but this is solidly fine. Another one that's just fine for me I think yeah. Because we're looking for things to pad out the episode, let's spend a really long time on a Pixie Lock quiz that I have put together literally in my head right now. So, if anybody was paying attention, they will have noticed that I said that this was the second single from her debut studio album, but her third single to be released in the UK overall, which means that a non-album single was released in between Mamadou and Boys and Girls. Without Googling, can anybody guess what that song was? It's a cover, the single is a cover,

was it's a cover the single is a cover I will say that much can we guess it from from the song is from recent years on hits 21 can we narrow it down let's have some fun Andy I've got a fair feeling I might know what it is because I used to collect the radio ones live lounge CDs and I remember one of them from around this time but would be because it's Pixie Lotera she did a cover of When Love Takes Over was it that? No Lizzie you ask your question. Um was it Cha Cha's side? I don't know. I don't want you to be that specific yet. No it's not Darius either um it was I will give you a little bit more information so So it reached the peak of number 41. And it reached that peak in September 2010. So around this time, it charted at number 52,

then number 72 and dropped out, then 93 and 94 then dropped out. Then it reaches its peak of 41 in 2010. So a little bit of a clue, the song has been performed by an artist we have mentioned in passing this week on this week's episode. Oh. Oh. The opposite. Nope.

Mentioned in passing? Oasis? Yes. No, no. Sugar Beeps? As part of the, no, as part of the rundown, you were closest with Oasis in terms of style of music. Okay.

Oh, Biffy Clyro? No, you've gone a little bit further away now. Muse? There's one band left that we've not mentioned. Kings of Leon? Is it Use Somebody? Yes. Oh no.

Yes, it was a cover of You Somebody by Kings of Leon She should have done Chacha Sliding instead It was released on the same day as Mamadou I would have preferred Chacha Sliding as well It was released on the same day as Mamadou but got nowhere near it got to number 52 and it managed seven weeks on the chart

It was last in the chart in October 2010. Same day! That is such weird marketing. That's really strange. Yeah. That's so odd. Have you got any more questions? I want to do better than that. Um, no, sadly not. It was a quiz and we had one question. Yeah, well, yeah, yeah, yeah, that was it. That was the quiz.

I do have a follow-up question, I suppose,, the other, yeah, that was it. That was the quiz. I do have a follow-up question, I suppose, just to test, like, have you been paying attention? In the audition video for Britannia High, who was standing behind Pixie Lott, who was front and centre? Ed Sheeran, they go. Oh, you told us about this. Ed Sheeran, yeah. I showed that to my partner, who is not a massive Ed Sheeran fan, but likes him and

has seen him live and stuff, and she was amazed that, like, the cameras are sort of focusing so much on Pixie Lott. And there's Ed Sheeran. And I think that kind of... How do I put this? It kind of sums up Pixie Lott a little bit, actually, which is that, like, we were kind of told to like her, and so we sort of did for as long as we needed to. It just felt a bit like in 2009 in the summer, it was like, this is the new ice

that you have to care about now. Even though Little Boots is in the charts doing stuff like Remedy at the moment, which is a much kind of, it's a much better kind of, shall we say, faux Gaga from a Brit perspective kind of thing. It just felt like Pixie Lott was like they'd secured so many spots on so many radio stations and TV adverts, lots of things like that,

that it was like she basically just her label just bought their way to number one. They just kind of put her in front of it even though she's not that charismatic a singer. I think that there is a bit of a, how do I put this, there is an emotional hole at the center of quite a lot of Pixie Lott's music from around this time, especially in these two number ones, where I can't, with this, she's better served on this than she is on Mamadou, because the mix is pretty dense and there's a bit going on,

and it means she can have a bit of fun and relax a bit in front of the microphone but I can't shake off the feeling that like Brits are sort of playing catch up to America more and more with stuff like this which is going to be a defining feature of the 2010s going forward where a lot of innovation in pop stops coming from these shores because we're so focused on hey what are the Yanks doing we'll just do that and with this it's definitely the case of like, shut up and drive, but what if a British girl did it? Is that a good idea? And it seems like for a week, for 50,000 copies,

we sort of thought, yeah, okay, fair enough. But from the first second I heard this, I was like, this is just shut up and drive. You, not just in the same key, it uses the same progression in the chorus. I just couldn't believe it. I really, really couldn't believe it. It just felt like the joke was being had on me and nobody else was willing to sort of point this out.

So I'm glad Andy that like I'm not alone in this and sort of thinking that it's actually a point to criticize. Hold on. Wikipedia claims that it samples Shut Up and Drive. What? Apparently. Is that cited or is that just something somebody's put in? I don't know.

I'd have to check. Yeah, because sometimes Wikipedia says these things but it's not actually confirmed. Like, we had that one the other week, didn't we, with Tainted Love. Wait, what was the song that sounded unbelievably like Tainted Love? Oh, Sexy Chick, yeah. Sexy Chick, oh of course, yeah. And Ed Sheeran, to mention Ed Sheeran again, Bad Habits, which very clearly referenced A Small Town Boy by Bronze Keepie. That's not official. That's not an official sample. Yeah.

Yeah, Wikipedia sometimes makes assumptions but they're doing it dodgy sometimes. But as much as I think this is comfortably better than Mamadou, I still think it lacks any kind of emotional rush or sense of sex or danger. Yeah, yeah. This stuff is meant to pacify this and I'm just not taking to Pixie Lott. I think when an instrumental calls for something with loads of character, you don't call for her. this making it a clearly fine with like less. It's fine, it'll do, put it out there. It's just, it's better than Mamadou, but it's just sort of all right. And the only actual little specific note I have from this,

which is that in the song, Pixie Lot says, a good beat never hurt no one. And yet just weeks ago, Cascada, she was saying that the beat was killing her. So which one is it? That's what I want to know. Has a beat never hurt no one or has it killed somebody? The beat is not a current threat. JLS will be asking for it to beat again in a few weeks as well. God, we just can't get away from people having completely different perspectives on this beat. Do you remember when Pixie Lott did Strictly? I've just looked it up when it was 2014 when

Pixie Lott did Strictly so it was very much after the bubble had burst for her and I remember her on it that she was like an absurd Ringer, like one of the most ridiculous ones I've ever had really. By Ringer I mean someone who's got dance experience, you know, she was a stage girl kid, Britannia High. So she was absurdly good like so clearly the best one that it was stupid really and she got eliminated quite early she came like sixth or seventh and that does kind of jump out to me now as like the British public maybe didn't actually like her as much as the mass media assumed that they like her.

Like even when she's clearly the best by a long way, she got knocked out relatively early on, strictly. I also saw Pixie Lot at Pride in, I think it was 2021 actually, so pretty recent. She did four songs, I bet you'll be able to say which four it was. She did four songs, I bet you'll be able to say which four it was. Mamadou, Boys and Girls, what was that number one she did? All About Tonight. All About Tonight. Ah, tell me, tell me, tell me. Cry Me Out. Cry Me Out, that's it.

You like to cry me out. Didn't even make the top ten, Cry Me Out. Didn't even make the top ten. That's weird, because that felt bigger. That felt like it was a bigger hit there. I do really think there was something to this about how she was just being pushed and the public weren't biting, but they were just pushing her. I've always felt this about Rita Ora as well.

That they're just pushed around. You never meet anyone who actually likes Rita Ora. Not as a person, but you never meet anyone who's a fan. You're like, can't wait for a new album. You never meet anyone, but she's so big. Yeah. I have one final bit of trivia on this. This song features in two absolutely terrible movies. It features in Fred of the movie, which Big C Lot also stars in. Oh my god. And Horrid Henry the movie. There's a movie of Horrid Henry? It's not good. Have you seen it? Well I have nephews so.

Good excuse. Yeah right Lucy blame the nephews. I mean it was just on in the background and nothing to do I wasn't watching it. Yeah although I sort of have nothing to say about that really because Weezer have done a sketch with Fred which is... Well, it was the style at the time. Who's Fred? Fred is the squeaky voice. Yeah. Fred Fegelhorn.

Youtuber with a very very freaky squeaky voice. You'd know him if you saw him. Ah, alright. I'm just gonna imagine you mean Fred Elliott. That she did a sketch with Fred Elliott. Ah, see it's our pixie! Okay, so Andy, holiday, run this town, boys and girls, how are we feeling? As you can probably tell I've been relatively unenthused by the offerings we've had this week.

Holiday is not taking a holiday to the vault, neither is it taking a holiday to the pie hole. As for run this town, it's certainly not running this vault, but it's not pying this town either. So that's going nowhere as well. And as for boys and girls, they may have it going on, but they don't have it going in the vault on the pie hole. Sorry about that. Torturous pun there. So no, nothing's going anywhere this week. It's a solid middle week for everything. Lizzy. Dizzy Rascal, Jay-Z, Pixie Lot. Holiday's doing nothing, so it should fly away, drive away and get away from the vault and the pie hole because it belongs in either.

It may run this town but it's not going to run either the vault or the pie hole. I realize that might have just been what Andy just said, I'm sorry if it is. It's fine, there isn't really much else we can do with that is there? Good luck with boys and girls, looking forward to hearing what you've got for that one. All the boys and the girls may have it going on, but they don't have either Vault or Pie Hall credentials because it's going nowhere. Yeah, fair. Okay, yeah, for holiday, Dizzy Rascal, that's going nowhere for me. Staying at the airport

isn't going on holiday. Run this town. I am going to squeeze it in to the vault. I think just about. I am just going to squeeze it in. Just going to hang it over the edge. See if the vault takes it. Yeah, see if the vault takes it. Boys and girls, it's going nowhere. Yeah, I Small mercies really it's um, you know, it's a better offering than Mamadou I will say that much so 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 2009 and we have a song next week Which is at number one for more than a week. Yes Can't wait to get there all of them a new number one for more than a week. Yes. Can't wait to get there. All of them. A new number one for seven consecutive weeks. I think that's the first time that's happened since 2000.

Could be. Yeah. Interesting way to sort of bookend the North, I guess. But we will see you. We will see you soon. Thank you for waiting and we'll see you soon. Bye bye. See ya. Bye bye. Bye! Make me sweat Like the lazy ocean So sure, hold me close Sway me more I need you