Ah, the classic British Christmas. Pigs in blankets, a half-pissed Granny, more rain than snow outside, and some novelty tripe at number one in the charts…
Can We Fix It?, by Bob the Builder (his 1st of two #1s)
3 weeks, from 17th December 2000 – 7th January 2001
Bob the Builder joins Mr Blobby, Benny Hill, the kids of St. Winifred’s, Little Jimmy Osmond, and several more, in the festive hall of shame. But I will say that, while ‘Can We Fix It?’ is not a song I’m desperate to ever revisit after this; it’s far from the most heinous example of festive excess.
It’s an expansion on the theme to the popular kids’ TV show, with lots of fun musical references. It opens with a version of the escalating ‘Twist and Shout’ intro, also heard in more respectable chart-toppers from David Bowie and the Manic Street Preachers (which means that the year 2000’s first and last #1s are connected in the most unlikely way). Elsewhere there’s a pretty current 2-step garage beat, and lots of record scratches. For a song based on a children’s TV show theme it actually sounds like it could, in a not too distant parallel universe, be a real pop song.
In the video, by which novelties like this often live and die, Bob the Builder puts on various pop star guises, the most memorable of which is Liam Gallagher, complete with a parka and a sneering microphone stance. It also helps that Neil Morrissey, AKA Bob, has a Jarvis Cocker-esque drawl to his voice, sounding almost like a real rock star, but also like he’s very much not taking this seriously at all.
So, like I said, far worse musical crimes have been committed in the name of a Christmas number one. (And that’s before we mention the many God-awful, non-festive novelty chart-toppers…) But quite how this managed to become 2000’s best-selling single – in a year not short of generational classics – and the entire decade’s 10th best seller (!), I’m not quite sure. But hey, at least it kept Westlife’s ‘What Makes a Man’ off top spot, denying them a second Christmas #1 in a row.
Interestingly too, it was the only one of the year 2000’s forty-two chart-toppers that climbed to the top, entering at #2 behind ‘Stan’ the week before. It then peaked in sales in its third week, taking the coveted Christmas prize.
We finally, then, reach the end of 2000: the longest year we’ll ever cover. I published the first number one of this year on 23rd January, real-time, and we’re now well into June. I’m not sure I can sum up a year with so many different number one singles, but I’ve enjoyed more of them than I expected to (while it’s also been a self-indulgent trawl through my fifteenth year on this planet). Back then I was frustrated at the high turnover, feeling that it devalued the charts (which it does), but I’m coming round to the feeling that variety is indeed the spice of life. Meanwhile, at the time of writing in 2025, the current UK #1 has just entered its twelfth week on top…
The UK Number Ones Blog 
At the lofty age of 42 I’d suffered through some terrible audio crimes courtesy of small children, but I have to say Bob The Builder is nicely old-fashioned in the sense that I could imagine it coming out in the 60’s by Bernard Cribbins to go along with his still-fabulous Right Said Fred and Hole In The Ground, though they were plotted with start, middle, end in a way that more modern kiddie songs weren’t. I really don’t mind it in comparison to Teletubbies, Blobby, Chicken Song and the like.
I hadnt noticed that Twist & Shout intro, but yes that probably helps my overall disposition towards it, plus Neil Morrissey is pretty likeable by and large. Pigs In Blankets? Or as Gary Delaney quips, relatives in the spare bedroom for Christmas. I will take the rapid turnover of number ones after a decade of long-running “staying beyond their welcome” streamers, though that said the wonderfully romantic Ordinary deserves to break a few records that it won’t due to ACR – or as I see it, a random halving of “sales” for some records where others hang around the top 10 for a year without going on ACR just because they dont manage 3 weeks decline in a row. Benson Boone anyone? Mystical Magical is way better…..
See, I think Ordinary is the most aptly named record ever… I really don’t see why it’s been so popular. Or actually, I do, because it’s so darned inoffensive, and the perfect encapsulation of the post-Ed Sheeran pop world. Male pop world, anyway. Thank God our current female pop stars are a bit more interesting. But then, I also think the Bryan Adams record-holder is pretty rubbish too, and if the record is going to be broken it will eventually be by something very safe and bland.
You’re not the only one to say that about ordinary! My take on it is it appeals (probably mostly) to women and girls because it’s romantic, positive and uplifting in an era when hit song lyrics seem to be mostly about slagging off the Ex (which obv is also some people’s life experience) and self-obsessed Me Me sentiment. It’s about loving someone, no strings (except those in the video holding them up!), and has that gospel-ish ending. I recently met up with Uni friends and it’s been heartwarming how they have all stayed living out the Ordinary vibe with their partners, sweet to see it is some people’s lived lives. It’s also nowhere near as drippy as a Sheeran ballad! 🙂
I never thought of it that way… Sort of an old-fashioned love song. Anyway, I hope it gets knocked off this week and doesn’t manage to return, as I don’t think there’s ever been a 12-week chart-topper before.
As an aside, why is it I (late 50’s) wasn’t even aware that a song has been number one for three months currently, whereas even my grandmother, who was in her 80’s at the time, knew of Bryan Adams and Wet Wet Wet’s record breaking runs?
Yeah that’s the big question… The internet, basically. It’s given us unlimited choice and made pop culture all fragmented. And downloading, then streaming, has divorced most of us from the physical act of buying music, which could feel more like casting your vote for the singles that you bought in a particular week. Plus, no Top of the Pops. Plus… Ordinary is already the fifth or sixth song to spend 10 or more weeks at number one this decade. It’s not news anymore!
I’ve listened to Ordinary now on YouTube. Think I actually prefer Bob the Builder 😂
Neither of them are songs I’m desperate to ever hear again, for wildly different reasons…
Wow I didn’t know this. LOL.
Well, after being aware of it for 25 years, I’ve finally listened to Can We Fix It? by Bob the Builder. It’s quite catchy, and you could hardly find fault with its values. Hard work, manual labour, positivity… And it clearly inspired Barack Obama’s “Yes, We Can” slogan eight years later, thus changing the course of history.
I think the singer in the sunglasses and parka is supposed to be Ian Broudie, though. (Not really, but I’d like to think so.)
Maolsheachlann
I hadn’t thought of that! Such an influential pop song…….
I think there is an Ian Broudie in there – maybe the loud shirt and sunnies – but there’s definitely a Liam Gallagher sneering at the mic moment too.
Here in Australia (it was also #1 here too), as a kid during the 2000s, I grew up watching Bob the Builder so my nostalgic rose-tinted glasses prevent me from being critical. I don’t remember this 2 step garagey version – I know the intro version which is more of a conventional pop/rock arrangement. It’s catchy.
It’s basically a remix of the theme song, right? (I was well past my kids TV watching days in 2000) Hence the 2-step beat.
My son was really into Bob the Builder when he was little and I always found it charming. But I live in the US so I didn’t have Bob the Builder on the pop charts as well.
Haha yes, anything can be charming in small doses. When it’s number one for three weeks, though…
Looks like his second album, Never Mind the Breeze Blocks, was far less successful.
The fact that he made it to a second album is amazing, and it deserved to be big thanks to that title alone! Equally amazingly, Bob will be back at number one soon…
My son grew up on Bob The Builder and Postman Pat…told ya I loved the UK lol. He was born in 2000 so it was perfect timing. Brings back a lot of good memories.
I was way too old for Bob the Builder, but Postman Pat (and his black and white cat) was one of my favourites. That and Thomas the Tank Engine (the Ringo Starr original, that is). And did you get Fireman Sam over there?
No we didn’t get Fireman Sam! Damn…he loved Thomas The Tank though…but it was after Ringo.
There is an older British show….help me think of it…I saw it on Life On Mars…the intro was something like “here is a box a….” dang it! It was stop motion maybe?
Got it!!! Camberwick Green
Oh right yeah. So, I’m a bit too young for that… 😄 But I know what it was. The really famous kids show from that era was the Magic Roundabout, which people claim was inspired by LSD
They said the same thing about HR Pufnstuff over here lol. I just watched some of Magic Roundabout…it has Dougal the Dog on it.
Yes that’s the one