I admitted to a nostalgic appreciation of the cheap and cheerful production on Atomic Kitten’s first number one, ‘Whole Again’. It worked fine on an original composition…
Eternal Flame, by Atomic Kitten (their 2nd of three #1s)
2 weeks, from 29th July – 12th August 2001
But to replace the iconic, tingling intro to ‘Eternal Flame’ with the exact same pre-set drumbeat is sacrilege. And all three Kittens combined cannot compare to Susanna Hoffs tremulous vocals. We’ve heard a lot of inessential covers cropping up at number one in recent years, many of them re-dos of eighties classics, and I’d say that this rivals A1’s ‘Take on Me’ for cheapening banality.
Ironically for a song widely believed to have brought about the end of the Bangles, this version of ‘Eternal Flame’ was the official relaunch of Atomic Kitten, Kerry Katona having been replaced by Jenny Frost during the promotion of their previous number one. It set the tone for several more years of mid-level balladry and cheap covers, none of which were a patch on the catchy, playful singles from their first album. We can once again conclude that Kerry ‘That’s why mum’s go to Iceland’ Katona was the genuine creative force in the group…
What’s interesting-slash-alarming to realise is that there were only twelve years between the two versions of ‘Eternal Flame’ making number one. Yet to my ears, considering I was aged three for one and fifteen for the other, they sound as if they’re from completely different millennia. Which they technically are, but that’s not what I mean… Whatever is beyond your living memory is automatically ‘ancient’, and anything you can remember is ‘modern’, even if there’s but a year between them. It’s the same as how I can watch ‘Top Gun’, or footage from the 1986 World Cup, and struggle to believe that I was alive at the same time…
Apologies for that tangent, but is there a better place to get lost in contemplation of the perception of time than in a post on Atomic Kitten’s butchering of ‘Eternal Flame’? And luckily for us, this isn’t the last eighties chart-topper that the Kittens are going to get their claws stuck into. Their final chart-topper awaits…
The UK Number Ones Blog 
Well said sir! The cut-price, compacted Spice Girls are not fit to wait upon Susanna Hoffs at table, let alone turn one of her finest moments into X-Factor karaoke. End of story.
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There have been so many subpar covers of 70s and 80s classics recently, I’m tempted to do a poll and let the readers decide their least favourite. This would be high on the list for me!
I wouldn’t say butchering, just totally redundant.
it was pretty rubbish, much better if the original had become a hit again via an advert a la Hollies, Ben E King and the others and become part of the pop culture of later decades too. Covers are fine if they do something very different, or step up/keep the quality, but otherwise it just throws shade on the song for no good reason. I offer up my fave Kitten (again) the sampling of The Big Country movie theme and ELO’s Last Train To London on I Want Your Love which borrowed a bit of the sparkle of both without ruining them. So they could do it if they tried 🙂 Not forgiven!
Young people always see everything from outside their living memory as ancient and therefore less relevant, there’s that old gem on quiz shows “but I wasnt born then!” as if knowing anything about something predating your 5th birthday is abnormal, I know I did that too as a teen, but one gets over that and finds interest in stuff from before you were born as one gets older. Outrageous!! 🙂 The reverse is also true – I didnt recognise Ed Sheeran’s South Of The Border in a quiz last night in the pub – I’m on holiday in Gran Canaria – because I dont listen to Radio 1 and habitually shun Sheeran ballads, but that’s no excuse for me not knowing it!
Yeah ‘I Want Your Love’ is my favourite from the Kitten. From the 2nd album on though they lost Katona and the OMD songwriting duo, and settled for mediocrity.
You are very good at keeping up with modern music – better than me even. My parents are (I think) around your age and the last ‘new’ act they discovered was Oasis… when they were both in their early forties.
Ha, thanks! I’m always interested in the new. I’m 67, but ageing/dying braincells and new music are odd – I find I love new tracks for a year or so then they start to fade from memory and it’s like having to re-learn them all over again 6 years later or more. The further back in time you go the more familiar they are to the extent that I can recognise tracks I only heard a few times as a teen where I struggle to remember chart-toppers in my own charts from the 2010’s until I re-learn them again. Beloved songs from long ago never fade. I think that’s why older folk stick with what they know and is familiar and brings all the flush of youth back. It’s hard to get nostalgic about things from when you were in your 50’s and 40’s. 🙂