What’s a turn-of-the-century Christmas time without a downtempo ballad from one of the big pop acts of the day?
Never Had a Dream Come True, by S Club 7 (their 2nd of four #1s)
1 week, from 3rd – 10th December 2000
Ballads for Christmas are not a new phenomenon, but there has been a very specific kind of syrupy love song popping up around this time since East 17 in 1994 (none of which have come close to matching ‘Stay Another Day’). Think Peter Andre’s ‘I Feel You’, B*Witched’s ‘To You I Belong’, Steps’ ‘Heartbeat’, and Westlife’s double-A massacre for the new millennium…
So actually, ranked alongside some of those dubious hits, S Club’s addition to the canon of wintry ballads is actually fairly decent. It’s got an old-time, almost soulful, feel in the groove. And it’s helped by the fact that Jo is on lead vocals, and that she was S Club’s Mel C (i.e. the one that could properly sing). Meanwhile the video is a classic of the genre, with the group all in white, trying their best to brood amidst blasts of fake snow.
I mean, it’s nothing hugely special. But it’s a nice enough song to endure for three minutes and forty-five seconds. I imagine it soundtracking a thousand and one snogs at school discos that year, and being a conduit for teenage lust is as noble a reason for a song’s existence as I can think of. Oh, and it was also 2000’s Children in Need official single, which is almost as good a cause, and probably a big factor in it becoming a belated second #1 for S Club, as well as the year’s ninth biggest seller.
My attention, though, starts to wander sometime around the midway point. I begin to realise why this has been forgotten among S Club’s peppier hits. They acquit themselves well but really, slow songs like this aren’t what S Club were about. Interestingly, though, this was their only single to make the Billboard charts – no mean feat for a British pop act at the time – and it ascended all the way to #10.
By the time this record ends in a cascade of tinkles, I’m starting to think this might actually have tipped over into the saccharine, and might actually be a bit crap. But no! I block these thoughts because, as with Steps and the Spice Girls, I am disposed to think kindly of S Club 7, thanks to those old rose-tinted spectacles. For which I will not apologise!
The UK Number Ones Blog 
Ohhhhhh I remember this one! I heard this one on the soft rock radio station that always played at the office where I worked for a summer job during the early 2000s. This being a time before info was readily available, I didn’t realize S Club 7 were such a hugely popular group in the UK. This is the only song I knew from them for a LONG time. I’ve since heard a few of their other songs, and the more upbeat ones do work better for me. I like the stuff with more energy in it.
I do wonder why THIS one in particular hit the way it did in the US. We never were one for mixed-gender music groups either, so this one stood out for sure. To be honest, this song is all right, but it sounds like a hundred other slow “OMG I wish I hadn’t let you go” kind of ballads that I heard SO much of growing up on soft rock radio. At least the girl singing it can actually sing well (wonder what she’s up to these days?).
Yes I too wondered why this one, of all their hits, was the one that broke through in the US. I believe their TV show (a sort of Monkees type comedy) was fairly popular in the States too.
They are still together, although maybe not since Paul died suddenly a couple of years ago. The only other thing I remember about Jo (the singer) was her having a racism controversy when she was on Celebrity Big Brother in the 2000s…
YouTuber ToddintheShadows did a One Hit Wonderland video on this song and S Club 7 in general and in it, he hypothesised the reason this song became a hit in the US instead of their other songs is that unlike their other poppy upbeat hits like “Bring It All Back” which were too edgeless and sugary/bubblegum to fit into the US pop market at the time (most of their songs from what I’ve heard especially their upbeat tracks lack the edge and forcefulness of the Max Martin pop hits that were dominating US pop at the time and have more in common with 70s pop groups like The Jackson 5 and The Osmonds than the TRL pop of the time) this was a pop ballad and the ballad market in the US was still quite large and that almost every mainstream genre of music (country, R&B, pop, rock, etc) could dip into the adult contemporary/ballad market and have a hit that would crossover to the pop radio and rule the charts for a few months and be forgotten after the next big ballad came along (unlike now where it seems like ballads have mostly disappeared off the pop charts).
That’s probably the reason this song became an actual hit for them in the US. S Club 7 really did have a dream come true: to have a Top 20 hit in the US. Gotta give them props since it was really hard at this time for British pop to crossover.
I like this song. It’s a good pop ballad. Not the best, but certainly not the worst. I like the vocals by the lead vocalist. She does a good job. I like a lot of their hits better though.
I know what you mean. It took a fairly bland ballad to break through, which seems surprising – as ballads like this were ten-a-penny in the US charts at the time – and yet not that surprising either.
I like this one, good enough to avoid the Andrew Lloyd Webber saccharine.
It’s an OK ballad to me, not as good as it should have been with Cathy Dennis as a co-songwriter, and “Spice Girls/Westlife” arranger Simon Ellis on board as t’other songwriter, not as good as Don’t Stop Movin’ his previous number one with S Club.