From pop heaven, it’s back down to earth with a hefty bump…
When the Going Gets Tough, by Boyzone (their 5th of six #1s)
2 weeks, from 7th – 21st March 1999
Boyzone return with their penultimate chart-topper. Yes, we’re almost done with them. And, hey, at least this isn’t a ballad! Instead it’s that other modern pop group staple: the charity cover. From the late nineties onwards, charities desperate for your money made a clear shift away from novelty singles over to classic covers by the day’s big acts. There are similar crimes against pop to come from the likes of Westlife, Girls Aloud, and One Direction.
The synths are cheap and the production tacky on this version of Billy Ocean’s 1986 #1, while I think this might be Ronan Keating’s most grating vocal performance yet (a category with some very strong competition). In fact, this is pretty poor all round. I just don’t think Boyzone had the personality to do anything other than bland balladry. The fun and frivolity here sounds much too forced.
The best bit by far is that they keep the original’s saxophone solo almost note for note, which means we get a blast of sweet mid-80s sax – a sound I never realised I’d missed. And yes, the Billy Ocean version is a decent enough song (though not one I was overly hot on in my original post), and it’s hard to completely ruin decent source material. That original feels like a lifetime ago (in some ways it was, as I was born a few weeks before Ocean made #1), but the thirteen year gap between these versions means it’s the same as an artist in 2024 covering a song from 2011, which sounds like the blink of an eye…
This was the 1999 Comic Relief single, raising money for any number of good causes. So yes, yes, yes we shouldn’t be too harsh on it. (Though I would donate far more money than the price of a CD single to never hear Boyzone again). The video features the requisite plethora of celebs goofing around in the name of charidee. In fact, watching this was the most enjoyable part of this whole exercise, seeing people that hadn’t crossed my mind for many years: Will Mellor, John McCririck, Mystic Meg (RIP) and Saracen from Gladiators (as well as a very young Graham Norton).
The UK Number Ones Blog 
Leave it to me…but I don’t mind this one at all. Again it’s better than the mindless dance tracks..it’s a real song anyway. I agree with you…I like the sax in it.
This might be the best Boyzone song I’ve heard. It’s much worse than the original though.
Damning with faint praise… : )
You bet.
It sounds a lot less like they’re saying “go and get stuffed”, which means it’s definitely worse than the original.
When the going gets tough, Boyzone is here to ensure that it remains tough.
It’s actually not horrible. It’s actually kinda listenable. Ronan Keating sounds like he’s trying to do a gruff blue-eyed soul impression. Trying is the operative word.
I do wonder if he could have been more succesful as a rock singer…
I could see him as a white-soul singer. You know, listening to some Boyzone songs and his solo stuff, he does have some talent as a singer, but he enucinates his words in such an unpleasant, jarring way, with an almost post-grungey hunger dunger yarl kind of inflection that was common of American alt-rock singers of the 90s and early 2000s, while trying to sing like a soul-pop singer.
Pedestrian by-the-numbers cover of an 80’s good original. I’ve seen Billy live, performing literally a 5-minute walk from my rural/suburban house and he can still sing. I think I left early to avoid the crowd with this gliding through the air as I walked out of Upton Country Park. It’s not my fave Billy track and Boyzone actually had a few tracks that were way better than their tacky covers.