I recently called Usher’s ‘Yeah!’ the song of 2004. Maybe I should rethink that. Is there a song more of its time and place than this next number one…
F**k It (I Don’t Want You Back), by Eamon (his 1st and only #1)
4 weeks, 18th April – 16th May 2004
And can we lock it in a lead-lined vault, bury it in quicklime, and make sure it stays in 2004? Do we have to revisit these seven weeks in which the British record-buying public lost their collective minds, and made ho-wop a thing? Sadly yes. I can’t very well start skipping chart-toppers this far in.
Let’s start by grasping for positives. There is a grain of a retro doo-wop/soul melody here, and had the vocals, the lyrics, and the production, been handled differently then this might have been a nice song. Unfortunately, the vocals are thin and whiny, and the production a cheap, pre-set hip-hop beat.
And then there are the lyrics. I took Busted to task for their toxicity in ‘Who’s David’, but this is next level. Eamon’s ex-girlfriend is, at various points during the song, a whore, a burnt bitch, and a hag. Fuck all those kisses, They didn’t mean jack, Fuck you you ho, I don’t want you back… In total, I make it twenty uses of the F-bomb, alongside various other profanities, making this the sweariest number one ever at this point.
Now, I’m not a prude (the asterisks in the post title are me being a stickler for accuracy, as that is how the record was published); but this record is just relentlessly nasty. Couldn’t Eamon have been a little more inventive in his revenge, than bleating about how he had to throw all the presents she gave him out? I’m not against making a song about a break-up, if you really must – though I’ll always think it a bit self-indulgent – but did recording this make Eamon feel better? Really?
Of course, analysing this record on any level is essentially pointless. We all now know that it was a cynical marketing gimmick. Our very next post, involving Eamon’s ‘girlfriend’ Frankee and her answer song, will make that very clear. And to an extent it worked, as previously unheard of Eamon scored the year’s second-highest selling single. But it didn’t lead to any sustained success whatsoever, as his charmingly titled follow-up ‘I Love Them Ho’s’ stalled at #27, and was his only other Top 40 appearance.
Swear-less:
Swear-full:
The UK Number Ones Blog 
Never heard this! I think you’re right that there’s a good tune here, just a cheap production.
NZ sadly never succumbed to the charms of ho-wop?
Looks like it went to #1 here too – I wasn’t really listening to the radio then, so I missed a lot of the #1s. Much more up with it now, with tween daughters.
If anything it sounds even worse than it did at the time, and it was clinically created to appeal to dumped teen boys who are also maybe into rap, of which there seems to be an inexhaustible ongoing supply with all the cliches and macho attitudes and treating women as good for sex and not much more, and of course the bad language which has become so ingrained. This is more wimp bitter self-pitying soul than rap, of course, using the terms loosely. On balance I’m not a fan then! 🙂 On my recent review of number ones for this year I placed this one firmly in last place!
#1 song here in Australia, and #5 for the year-end 2004. I don’t think I ever heard it until now though.
I actually kinda like this song. I don’t love it, but I get the appeal. I’m a straight guy in my mid-twenties and let’s be honest, there are relationships like this where the pain is so raw and deep and there’s a lot of bitterness and resentment and anger towards your ex, you just want to demean them and you’re so blinded by the anger and resentment and hurt that you say and think very nasty and bitter and toxic things. We’d love to be mature about the end of a relationship, but a lot of times, you can’t. You’ve invested so much into it and now it just ends, and you’re left with nothing but the memories and the pain and hurt and that sense of longing and what you had being gone. You doubt everything that happened in the relationship and wonder if it was real and if it was worth it. This song nails that the denial and anger part of the stages of grief. The lyrics and music has this weird kinda mismatch that I find kinda funny as well, him saying hoe do this solemn sounding music and with his squeaky little voice is funny.