Much like the Dalai Lama, when one boyband dies another is born…
Too Close, by Blue (their 1st of three #1s)
1 week, from 2nd – 9th September 2001
And it’s fitting that Blue depose Five’s final number one, because in many ways they were their true successors. A bit street, a bit cool, not too heavy on the ballads… They were the Westlife, perhaps, to Five’s Boyzone; or the N*Sync to Five’s Backstreet Boys.
And their number one debut – their second single – is a fun track. Like ‘Let’s Dance’, it’s a slice of disco-revival pop, but a slinkier, sexier, slower jam. ‘Too Close’ had been a US #1 just three years earlier, recorded by R&B trio Next. Their original wasn’t completely unknown in the UK, making #24, but there was plenty of room for a bigger version of what is a fun song. What’s interesting is that covering such a recent hit probably delayed any chance of Blue making it in the US (Lee Ryan’s comments on 9/11 probably didn’t help either…)
While the Next version is a much purer, more minimal ‘90s R&B record, I enjoy the quicker tempo and the poppier touches used in Blue’s cover. They retain the somewhat risqué lyrics, though, and I can’t ever imagine a Westlife #1 opening with the line: All the slow songs you requested, You’re dancing like you’re naked… Ooh it’s almost like we’re sexin’… Despite my general revulsion for the term ‘sexing’, I can enjoy this record, and its tale of trying to hide an erection while slow dancing.
An unnamed female singer, listed only as Awsa in the credits, feels a little bump coming through… The Blue boys protest that you’re making it hard for me! It’s all fairly childish, but I do appreciate any attempt at double entendre in chart-topping singles. Again though, it’s interesting that straight off the bat Blue weren’t cultivating a particularly kid-friendly image. Rewind ten years and it’s impossible to imagine Take That trying something similarly saucy. Is it indicative of deep societal change across the turn of the millennium? Or did Blue’s management just assume the kids wouldn’t pick up on the innuendo?
It’s also interesting, to return to the Five vs Blue comparison, to hear a late-nineties boyband next to a noughties boyband. Five, for all their pierced eyebrows and swagger, were still very goofy, and very pop-leaning on songs like ‘Slam Dunk da Funk’. Blue were a more grown-up proposition from the off, with this record’s slick, very Americanised R&B. Not that Blue were the first boyband to discover sex – think ‘Deep’ by East 17, or Another Level’s ‘Freak Me’ – but that it’s still interesting to note how pop music is slowly settling into its 21st century sound.
The UK Number Ones Blog 
Never even heard of them. How did it take until 2001 for a band named “Blue” to come along? Although come to think of it, I can’t think of any bands called Red, Yellow, Green, Orange, etc. Or even Black, which would surely be a gift to any Black Metal band. There is Pink, I suppose. And Simply Red, a name that is ironically less simply red than Red would be.
Have you written/thought about writing any posts about band names and song titles?
I can’t listen to the song today as my chosen penance for Fridays is not listening to music.(All Catholics are supposed to undergo some penance on Fridays; the bishops of England and Wales brought back not eating meat as the required Friday penance in 2011, but in Ireland it’s at your discretion.)
As for the sexual innuendoes, I think it was all downhill after “I Want Your Sex”, though I see that only ever reached number three in the UK.
Maolsheachlann
Well, I’m not convinced it will be worth the day’s wait, but as a throwaway pop song it’s decent enough.
I’d never heard of Friday penance, though I knew some Catholics don’t meat – hence why school dinners to this day tend to be fish and chips on Friday! How does it work if you hear music in a shop, or restaurant? Does it only count if you intentionally choose to hear it?
Yeah, it’s not bad. A catchy chorus.
It’s just actively listening to music that I’ve given up on Fridays. If a song I like comes on the radio in a shop or whatever I have no qualms about listening to it.
Blue were utter gash, five office workers going on the razz on a Friday hoping to ‘pull’. ALL their so-called ‘songs’ were interchangeable, apart from the one that goes ‘if you come back in my liiiiiiife’, because it was a change of tempo ballad, but it was still utter sewage. If any of their tripe starts up on the radio in the car I almost cause a pile-up in the scramble to change the channel, that one that goes ‘flaaah baaah’ and ESPECIALLY that one that goes on about ‘mother’s pride’, that’s BREAD for fuck’s sake.
All Rise was the classic Blue, and Fly By II, a more mature popsoul groove with an awareness of the 21st Century, this one got the top spot with that usual “great debut doesnt hit the top spot but the follow-up does with condensed sales”. Have to say I never really listened to the lyrics of this one! It’s pleasant, and reminds me of a slow dancing very young Tony Curtis anecdote from his autobiography…oops!
I generally liked Blue and thought they had an older appeal than Five – more like David Cassidy/David Essex vs Donny Osmond in an earlier teen idol era. Plus they could sing and were easy on the eye. I caught Simon in concert when he stuck out his solo career with a few hits – he really obviously wanted to be Lenny Kravitz, and was surprisingly good! I’m watching Antony winning on Richard Osman’s House Of Games at the moment – still engaging and fun, and looking good.
They certainly have an older appeal than Five. A very 21st century boyband, for your cooler older sister, rather than your ] baby sister. All Rise is great, I can’t remember Fly By, and I never liked One Love (pretty naff). The other Blue song I liked but that you never hear now was Bubblin’, one of their last releases. It’s a lot of fun.
Fun fact: The original by Next was the US No. 1 single of 1998 according to Billboard. Yes, a song about a boner was the No. 1 single of the year in the US. Granted, this was before Billboard changed their rules about what was eligible to chart (the tracking period for 1998 was the last before non-physical singles were allowed to chart) and granted 1998 is not a good year for music – luckily I was born the next year so I avoided being born in one of the worst years for music – but the fact remains, a song about having a boner was the No. 1 song of the year. I actually like the Next song. I find it interesting there have been two British No. 1s which are covers of American R&B No. 1 pop hits. And both of these covers are near carbon copies of the original.
As for Blue, I do kinda know this group. Interesting they’re technically a multi-race boy band. That’s very rare. To me, they’re all kinda average-looking, but they do look a bit edgier than the average British boy band of this time. Their version of “Too Close” is very very similiar to the Next version, to the point that it’s kinda pointless, but it’s perfectly decent. Cover songs like this basiclaly became pointless in the streaming era. Our version of hit cover songs is songs that prominently sample or interpolate other songs into a brand new song now. I’d even say the vocals on the Blue version are very slightly better than the Next version, though the two versions are so close in sound that either one you can have and be content with. Production is around the same, though the Blue version is slightly brighter and warmer than the Next version.
See, I think there’s quite a big difference between the two versions. The original is a very of its time, slow US R&B jam, while Blue’s is a lot poppier, and with a faster tempo. And it’s interesting that the biggest song for 1998 in the US only made #24 in the UK…
I like this one. Five reuniting was headline news in NZ last week.
Was it! Thought they were a strictly British phenomenon.