Back in my post on All Saints’ ‘Pure Shores’, I crowned the ‘00s as the decade of the girl group. All Saints, as great as they were, were a bit of a false start (and they were technically a ‘90s group, anyway) but we’re finally off and away. Forget Destiny’s Child, forget Atomic Kitten. The two greatest girl groups of the decade (of all time?) score their first #1s in 2002, starting with…
Freak Like Me, by Sugababes (their 1st of six #1s)
1 week, from 28th April – 5th May 2002
No more covers of ‘Eternal Flame’, or songs about well you’re ‘surviving’. The Sugababes grab a sample from Tubeway Army and have their wicked way with it, whipping it into a whirlpool of echo, churn and industrial synths, while singing about how they want it every which way with a bad boy. This is what I want from my girl groups. Filth!
I wanna freak in the morning, freak in the evening… I need a roughneck brother who can satisfy me… The lyrics are nothing revolutionary, even if they are a world away from the kid-friendly Spice Girls. Though the Spiceys are there in spirit, in terms of their Girl Power message. This is girl group pop for the 21st century, in which the women are in charge, and parading their men around like dogs, apparently. Come on and I’ll take you around the hood, On a gangsta lead…
As fresh as All Saints’ hits sounded, I don’t think we’ve heard anything like this on top of the charts before. I’m going to use the word ‘original’, despite the fact that the Gary Numan sample is so front and centre. And despite the fact that the song itself is a cover of a US #2 hit from 1995, by Adina Howard, which itself samples and interpolates snatches from Sly & the Family Stone and Bootsy Collins. DJ Richard X had created a mash-up of Howard’s version and ‘Are “Friends” Electric’, but couldn’t secure Howard’s permission to use her vocals. Instead, he turned to desperate-for-a-hit Sugababes, who had been dropped by their label following an underperforming debut album, and who had lost founding member Siobhán Donaghy a few months earlier. For what it’s worth, Gary Numan claims that this song is better than his original.
So, a girl group. A DJ. A bootleg mash-up. Is this the #1 which officially announces the ‘00s as up and running? I probably claimed the same thing when Hear’Say became the first reality TV winning group, but I much prefer this version of the noughties. This reminds me of university, of the decade’s indie revival where pop and guitars collided, of the hits to come, of the days when I’d go out four nights a week… (nowadays, four nights a year is more likely…)
How much my coming-of-age influences my opinion of this record, and pretty much every #1 between now and 2008, is a good point to raise. But also, it’s a pointless question. Music is memory. The charts are one way of recording the soundtrack to our lives. Had I been born a decade earlier and I might have dismissed this as a gimmicky nothing, but I hope not. I hope the quality of this record can exist beyond my nostalgia.
Like Atomic Kitten with ‘Whole Again’, Sugababes were in danger of being consigned to the dustbin had ‘Freak Like Me’ not been a hit. Thankfully it was, and it set the MK II (and III, and IV) versions of the group up for sixteen further Top 10 hits between now and 2010, five more of which will make #1. And, as good as this record is, I think at least one of their later chart-toppers is better.
The UK Number Ones Blog 
co-incidentally this era was also my steppin’ out period, 3 or 4 nights a week until I burned out in 2003 in a big way. Clubbing it is for the young! I also bought the Tubeway Army groundbreaker when it was fresh and exciting in my Uni days, but Freak Like Me is almost as good, and certainly more frantic and danceable, a classic pop track which I also bought and topped my charts of the time. It hasnt aged, and it was even better than Overload, and set up a long run of great pop singles. I’m still buying new Original Sugababes records, cos they are still good….
Never heard of this group or song (never heard the original either). This is pretty cool. I like it. Initially I wasn’t sure but it won me over halfway through. I prefer it to the original actually (the Adina Howard original, not the Gary Newman song, let’s be very clear lol). It uses the sample very well and makes it sound sleek and cool and very danceable. I like it included the hard – almost alt-metal-sounding – guitars too. I’m liking the multi-racial boy bands and girl groups that are becoming big in the UK during this time (I guess we should thank the Spice Girls for that).
I’m surprised Sugababes weren’t known in Australia. Just checked and they had one Top 10 and a few Top 40s. Definitely worth checking out, and they’ll have plenty of more #1s to come. Music aside, they’re famous for the line-up that split in 2011 being completely different to the line-up that formed the group in 1998.
I looked ahead and checked out some of their future No. 1s and “Round Round” – their next UK No. 1 and maybe so far the No. 1 of the 2000s with the best chorus – I was extremely familiar with. Despite only peaking at #13, you heard that song all the time in the 2000s and I heard it quite working at retail. Never heard “Hole in the Head” (#25 peak) but it’s also a total banger. “Push the Button” sounds very familiar and it was their biggest here in Australia at #3 and it’s also a banger. Their collab with Girls Aloud on the Aerosmith cover “Walk This Way” – their version based on the Run DMC version – is quite good (far better than I was expecting and I was surprised they kept the rocking attitude). “About You Now” was #57 here in Australia but this song I am also extremely familiar with. Definitely heard this one growing up a lot (I’m shocked it only peaked at #57 because I think most Aussies in my age group would know this. Another banger – sounds like a late-2000s Disney Channel pop rock song that Demi Lovato would’ve done. I have a huge soft spot for this kind of electro-infused pop rock (love the One Direction songs that are like this too).
Damn this group is pretty great. Checked out some of their other hits too that didn’t hit No. 1 and they’ve got a ton of bangers. You weren’t lying when you said they’re one of the greatest girl groups. For me, from what I’ve heard, they blow Destiny’s Child, Spice girls and All Saints out the water.
They sound a lot more British vocally when you listen closely – their accents slip quite often despite them clearly trying to go for that American R&B style in their vocals. Their music is definitely British dance-pop though.
I think Push the Button is my favourite of their number ones, with Freak Like Me a close second. But it’ll be interesting to review them as they come. And we haven’t even got to the one even better girl group of the 00s… (as in Sugababes’ partners for Walk this Way)
I don’t mind this one, they’re way ahead of Atomic Kitten, B*Witched and co. You’re right about your age influencing your perception of popular culture though, if this had been released in the 80’s-early 90’s by George Michael, Whitney, Simply Red or Paul Young you’d have said it was too ‘ glossy’ and overproduced and given it the thumbs down 👎
I’d compare this more to Dead or Alive, or Yazz, or the Communards, eighties dance classics that I gave good write-ups to – that you’ve coveniently overlooked…. 😉 Not gloop like Simply Red or Paul Young. And can I at least get some brownie points for arguing for the original (80s!) version of ‘Atomic Flame’, over Atomic Kitten’s abomination?
Never heard this before, but it’s a-tier girl group for sure.