Our next number one feels very much of its time – the Corrs were probably playing on at least one British radio station at any given moment between 1998 and 2000 – but also a bit of an outlier among the chart toppers we’ve been working our way slowly through.
Breathless, by The Corrs (their 1st and only #1)
1 week, from 9th – 16th July 2000
‘Breathless’ isn’t dance. It’s not hip-hop. It’s not bubblegum. Instead, we’ve got some good old-fashioned MOR pop-rock. With actual guitars! And it’s a welcome sound!
At the time, as an unsufferable teen, I thought this track was a bit naff. And yes, it has lots of unfashionable touches. There are some cheesy synth fills, revving guitars, and that naggingly catchy (but also pretty annoying) Go-ooh on! Go-ooh on! hook. But the driving riff, and the sheer breeziness of the song wins me over, belatedly. I’m just disappointed that I’d written it off for a quarter of a century!
The fact that I wrote it off, and didn’t pay much attention to it, is probably tied to the fact that, despite being chart-obsessed from the age of eleven, and despite owning every ‘Now That’s What I Call Music’ album between… I think… Now 35 and Now 44; by my mid-teens I’d lost interest. I went from taping the charts from the radio and writing them out in notebooks every week to not really knowing who was who in the Top 10. I knew the big songs, from the radio and from classmates, but couldn’t have told you who was #1 on any given week. This lasted until around late-2002, when my interest in the charts suddenly burst back into life, and has never left!
Anyway, back to the song at hand. It also has some vaguely Celtic touches, which every Irish act had to have at this time, but these are dialled well back from some of the Corrs’ earlier hits. What it reminds me of is Shania Twain’s huge ‘Come On Over’ album from around the same time (now she really should have had a couple of number ones out of that…) It’s no surprise then to learn that this was produced by ‘Mutt’ Lange, producer of, and husband to, Shania. And thanks, presumably to Lange, we are treated to a guitar solo! When was the last time we heard one of those?? (Oasis, a couple of months ago, but you get my point…)
The Corrs are a family group, consisting of siblings Andrea, Sharon, Caroline, and Jim. The three women are raven-haired Irish beauties, which meant the jokes in the playground at the time were mainly at Jim’s expense… ‘Breathless’ was the lead single from the follow-up to the hugely popular ‘Talk On Corners’ album, and so was always positioned to do well. I’m glad it did this well, though, as I’ve been able to rediscover a fine slice of power pop. It represents the pinnacle of the Corrs’ chart fortunes too, as they only managed one further Top 10 hit. They split in 2005, but reformed a decade later and remain a touring and recording concern.
The UK Number Ones Blog 
I don’t really know any of their music. The only thing I’ve heard of The Corrs is their cover with Rod Stewart of “Ooh La La” by the Faces. I do know they had the best-selling album of 1998 in the UK. I thought they were a trio of sisters – I didn’t realise their brother was in the band too. Poor guy.
I really like this song. It’s nice and pleasant. This sounds very much like a 80s pop rock song, except with a slight Irish accented vocal and Irish fiddle and late-90s pop production. The guitar solo sounds like something ripped out of 80s pop rock/soft rock, which I guess is Mutt Lange’s influence.
Yeah it’s dated, but in a good way. It’s got Mutt Lange all over it. It really would have fitted on ‘Come on Over’…
It always felt like Mrs Corr must have insisted that his sisters include Jim in the band, otherwise it would have been unfair. Though I’m sure he’s a talented musician (with some interesting opinions on the world…)
Reminds me of how Dennis Wilson was only included in The Beach Boys because Audree Wilson – Brian, Carl and Dennis’ mother – insisted that he be included. It actually helped the band though since Dennis was by far the best-looking member of the band and he’s the only one who looked like a surfer and a rockstar and he gave them some sex appeal and rock and roll edge and he turned out to be a great singer and songwriter in his own right.
And I looked up Jim and uh, yes, he has some very interesting opinions.
Yeah Dennis was definitely the coolest Beach Boy. There’s something so appealing about rock stars who seem to become one by accident… Though he was a troubled soul too.
Ahhhh – once again, one of the very few No 1s from the era that I really loved. I don’t think I’d heard it for a long time, but for me it’s still got that that sparkle, those irresistible hooks, that attention-grabbing guitar solo, the same vibe that made the best Shania Twain and Belinda Carlisle singles so infectious. I got the feeling that they were starting to become mildly unfashionable after a remarkable run of hits and mega-selling albums at the end of the century, and maybe the media had had enough of them – but it was a glorious way for them to peak just as their fortunes were starting to slide.
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Belinda Carlisle is an excellent shout too, I hadn’t thought of that but I can definitely hear it!
I always felt sorry for Jim being the punchline of so many jokes. But his recent political stances have now made me wish I’d joined in on the anti-Jim jokes.
It’s not my fave Corrs record – that would be covers of Stevie Nicks’ Dreams, Phil Lynnot’s Old Town and especially their cover with Bono of Lee Hazlewood/Nancy Sinatra’s Summer Wine which should have been the number one. It’s decent enough though, and I agree about Shania too: That Dont Impress Me Much should have been a number one! I may have mentioned before, but back in ’98-ish I worked for Bournemouth Parks and our Recreation team liaised each year for the Radio One Roadshow, so I used to get to go every year, and in some years get backstage. The Corrs were the headline act in 98 or 99, I got a free copy of Talking On Corners after my colleague (and me to a lesser extent) chatted to Jim Corr while the girls were getting ready. Seemed a decent enough chap, no signs of future excursions into fantasy land. I always assumed he was involved in the production side of things for the band, and the Corrs generally were involved in charity causes so I’m assuming Jim has been a victim of You Tube/ X propaganda brainwashing, which is relentless and busy undermining democracy in the USA and elsewhere. You Tube can be great, but click accidentally on one posting which is a load of click-bait cash-generating nonsense and it suggests a million more to watch until you get so angry and brain-addled you start parroting lies and made-up stuff as if they are true facts and depart from reality. That’s how cults work, and there are some huge cults around these days.
What I notice with celebs that turn a bit extreme in their political views is that it often happens post-peak of their fame. OK, Jim Corr was hardly a houshold name, but it does feel like it’s a response to not being as famous as you once were, and that infamy is preferable to anonymity.
Ahh. The beautiful Corrs… and Jim.
First of all, I thought Jim was hot in their earliest music videos. Like watch him in the ‘Runaway’ m/v and tell me he’s not serving some Robert Patrick in Terminator 2 realness. Unfortunately he did lose a lot of those good looks rather quickly, and by the time ‘Breathless’ rolled around I no longer fancied him back then.
…and knowing the type of person he’d become in the years after – yeesh.
Anyway ‘Breathless’ is catchy, and sounded weirdly American so it was no surprise when I found out Mutt Lange was the mind behind it. I think ‘Runaway’ is still my favourite song from them though – I should be really sick of it (couldn’t seem to get away from that song every time I turned on the radio) but it’s a charming enough song to get over the line in every listen.
Hmmm… he does have a good jawline. But he looks unmistakeably Irish (not that that’s a bad thing!) in his pastiness. Still, he’ll be glad to have had one person think he was the sex object in the group!
I think Jim was involved in some of the same anti vaccine rallies as the Right Said Fred brothers. As you said, pop stars post fame
Yeah, I was thinking of them. Not just pop stars – I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Lawrence Fox turned into such a loon just as the acting jobs were drying up…
It’s not miles away from Fleetwood Mac, but with a drum machine.
By far their best, it has an infectious ‘thumpiness’ and deserves its #1 status to this day. And it also had a good gay club remix.
I don’t like the drums but I do like the song. I LOVED a song by them though…”When The Stars Go Blue”