Straight on from the Corrs, it’s more Irish joy at the top of the charts. In fact, 2000 might just be the best year on record for Irish number ones, with Ronan Keating becoming the year’s third, with three more yet to go…
Life Is a Rollercoaster, by Ronan Keating (his 2nd of three solo #1s)
1 week, from 16th – 23rd July 2000
And while, yes, this is already Groanin’ Ronan’s eighth appearance in less than four years, I’m not feeling too apprehensive about this record. For, finally, Ronan is going upbeat. Strap yourselves in folks, because This. Is. Not. A. Ballad!
Like the Corr’s ‘Breathless’, ‘Life Is a Rollercoaster’ was a song impossible to escape when it came out. Radios nationwide blasted Ronan’s dulcet tones from dawn to dusk, all summer long, or so it seemed. So on one hand, it’s easy to groan when you think of how over-exposed this song became. But on the other, we should admit that this is actually quite a good pop tune. Nothing amazing, nothing revolutionary; but given the singer, it’s a welcome change of direction.
Strangely, I’d always remembered it being faster-paced. I thought it was more of a rollicking pop number, much like an actual rollercoaster. Listening to it now it feels slower, with a dreamy quality in the way Keating’s voice echoes against a wall of sound in the chorus. It’s somehow otherworldly, to the extent that I had to check I wasn’t listening to a remix, and ‘otherworldly’ is not a word you often associate with Ronan Keating. (Any otherworldliness, though, is undone by the fairly trite lyrics. Life as a rollercoaster. Because of all the ups and downs. Duh.)
Also, because it’s not a ballad, he doesn’t feel the need to chew every single syllable like tough steak in an attempt to convey ‘emotion’. He just sings the words, doesn’t overthink it, and produces what is by far the best vocal performance of any of his, or Boyzone’s, number ones. He even lets loose at the end, adding a semi-saucy adlib: Life is a rollercoaster, Just gotta ride it… (All night long!) I’m sure it had grannies across the land reaching for the smelling salts.
In writing this post, I’ve just realised that this song owes a big debt to George Michael’s ‘Fastlove’, with its Hey baby! refrain, and its similar tempo. I’m sure I’m not the first to notice, but it doesn’t seem to have caused a fuss at the time. Where there was controversy was in the fact that one hundred thousand copies of ‘Life is a Rollercoaster’s enhanced CD single were deemed ineligible to chart, due to an obscure chart rule about what an ‘enhanced CD single’ had to include. This didn’t stop the song from entering at number one, but it did cost it a fortnight on top when a further fourteen thousand copies were discarded the week after. And as we’ll soon find out when we hear the next #1, this was a costly error…
The UK Number Ones Blog 
I think it would be hard to dislike this song. It’s so jaunty. I like all songs that compare life to amusement rides and festival amusements. (I’m not being ironic, I really do.)
Maolsheachlann
The other two that spring to mind would be ‘Love Rollercoaster’, and golden-oldie ‘Palisades Park’
one of the great pop singles of that year for me, totally love it, Ronan at his most approachable and the credit all goes to Gregg Alexander of New Radicals, who wrote an all-time classic in You Get What You Give and then abruptly decided he didnt like being a pop star and thank you very much he would stick to writing hit songs for others that enjoyed the pop star lifestyle. Ronan wasn’t the first beneficiary of this policy, Texas were with their greatest single the effing brilliant Inner Smile – not that they needed gifted songs, they remain one of the 90’s most-under-appreciated bands due to the morphing from Americana/countryrock pre-Britpop, to Blue-Eyed Soul during Britpop, and full-on post-Britpop pop fabness. They never did get a chart-topper, tragically, but Sharleen’s flawless vocals are hard to beat for a British (Scottish) band of the era, and their radio-friendly hits were never hip and cool so they tend to get ignore d as people gush over other bands. Back to Gregg, though, Ronan’s next single was another, and his second best record, Lovin’ Each Day, and others producing untypically good pop records of the time include Rod Stewart’s I Can’t Deny It. Ronan, though, post-Alexander, not much cop by and large.
Yeah, Texas are great, though I’m not that familiar with them on an albums level. For me, ‘Say What You Want’ was one of the first tracks on Now 36, an album that was on constant rotation on my walkman in summer 1997. It always takes me back there when I hear it. Lovin’ Each Day is pretty good too, so Gregg Alexander was definitely a good influence as far as Ronan is concerned.
This is a smash. It’s a bop. It’s awesome. It’s also way too good of a song for Groanin’ Ronan (love that nickname for Mr. Keating), so I looked up who wrote it and turns out it was Gregg Alexander of the New Radicals, who wrote one of my all-time favourite songs “You Get What You Give” as well as excellent songs like “Someday We’ll Know” and “The Game of Love”, and of course, he co-wrote the modern disco classic “Murder on the Dancefloor”, which frustatingly just missed No. 1 in the UK not once, but twice.
Of course Groanin’ Ronan was able to finally have a great song to his belt if he’s working with material from a great pop songwriter like Mr. Alexander
This one is rather good. I would listen to this one no doubt.