number one singles

899. ‘Angel’, by Shaggy ft. Rayvon

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Shaggy’s three chart-toppers so far have been largely upbeat, get your ass to the dancefloor type reggae-pop songs. Here then is his final UK chart-topper, and it’s much more of a slow jam…

Angel, by Shaggy (his 4th and final #1) ft. Rayvon

3 weeks, from 3rd – 24th June 2001

‘Angel’ weaves the bass line from a seventies classic (and nineties #1) – ‘The Joker’ – together with the melody from a sixties original (and big eighties hit) – ‘Angel of the Morning’. And it would be a stretch to suggest that it improves on either. It’s cloying, it’s simplistic. It’s not quite a novelty, but it’s not far off.

Shorty you’re my angel, You’re my darling angel, Closer than my peeps you are to me… It sounds touching, if a little clumsy. Like a love letter written by a thirteen-year-old to his girlfriend. Which I’m assuming was also largely the market age for this ditty.

But listen closer, and this isn’t quite as sweet as the chorus suggests. Life is one big party when you’re still young, But who’s gonna have your back when it’s all done…? It’s all good when you’re little, You have pure fun, Can’t be a fool son, What about the long run? It turns out that Shaggy was dismissive and unfaithful towards his ‘angel’ for years, but as he got older and the fun times ended he realised he needed a steady girl… Now he wants to show the nation his appreciation.

Still, let’s hope that she had a bit of fun while she waited for her man to come to his senses. This is the flip-side of the same alpha bullshit we had on ‘It Wasn’t Me’, which I didn’t mind when it was played for laughs, but when it aims for sincerity it falls short. Plus it doesn’t help that Shaggy’s voice starts to grate the further he gets from his reggae roots. What was a playful patois on ‘Oh Carolina’ and ‘Boombastic’ now sounds a bit forced on a more straightforward pop song.

Luckily he has Rayvon on duty for the chorus, and he has a nice, slightly tender, voice for it. He had previously starred on Shaggy’s 1995 Top 10 cover of Mungo Jerry’s ‘In the Summertime’. And again, we should take a moment to appreciate the impressive spread of Shaggy’s chart-toppers. There were over eight years between ‘Oh Carolina’ and this, and there aren’t many other chart veterans from February 1993 who were still hitting it in the summer of 2001.

His hit making days were almost up, however. He managed three further Top 10s, including a comedy #2 alongside Ali G, ‘Me Julie’. He has released eleven albums since 2001, including one with none other than Sting in 2018. Shaggy continues to be very active then, as does Rayvon, who remains a dancehall/reggae voice for hire.

898. ‘Do You Really Like It?’ by DJ Pied Piper & the Masters of Ceremonies

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Our next number one poses us a couple of questions… Do you really like it? Is it, is it wicked? And if these questions refer back to said next number one then my answers are no, and NO.

Do You Really Like It?, by DJ Pied Piper & the Masters of Ceremonies (their 1st and only #1)

1 week, from 27th May – 3rd June 2001

It’s hard to underestimate how much, back in 2001, this song’s hook became engrained in the popular conscience. We’re lovin’ it, lovin’ it, lovin’ it… We’re lovin’ it like that… It’s also hard to underestimate how annoying it became. Or maybe it isn’t hard. Maybe all it will take is one listen for the uninitiated to realise how terrible this record is.

At least the Do you really like it? and the Lovin’ it, Lovin’ it sections are memorable. They’ve been living rent free in my mind since I was fifteen. They’re only ten percent of this song, though. And I never realised, or had blanked out, how bad the rest of this record is: repetitive, nonsensical, unlistenable, with ugly, lurching changes in direction and tempo that make it difficult to even call it a song.

I thought that Oxide and Neutrino’s ‘Bound 4 da Reload’ was a low-point for 2-step garage, but I think that ‘Do You Really Like It?’ is even worse. At least the former had a kind of novelty value in the ‘Casualty’ theme sample, and the sweary spoken word bit from ‘Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels’. Not a song I’d ever want to hear again, but sort of amusing at the same time. This though… Yeesh.

Though it is interesting how that 2-step beat has become a sort of early 2000’s shorthand, used by everyone from Craig David, to Bob the Builder, to this. And how garage can be incredibly hardcore, like I suppose this is, and also very poppy. DJ Pied Piper was the main driver behind this song, and was joined by four Masters of Ceremonies: MC DT, Melody, Sharky P and the Unknown MC. Maybe that explains its messiness, with all five members given their slot in which to impress. Sadly none of them do.

They got back together for one further single, ‘We R Here’, later in the year, but that failed to chart completely. And so DJ Pied Piper and the Masters of Ceremonies go down as gold star one-hit wonders. We will, however, have to grapple with further garage records in the near future. We can say with some confidence that none of them will be as bad as this.

897. ‘It’s Raining Men’, by Geri Halliwell

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Providing the meat in an S Club sandwich, Geri Halliwell returns for her fourth and final solo chart-topper. It is also, sadly, our very last Solo Spice number one.

It’s Raining Men, by Geri Halliwell (her 4th and final solo #1)

2 weeks, from 6th – 20th May

But… Is this a case of saving the worst for last? I’ve found something to enjoy in all seven of the Spice Girl’s previous solo #1s, which have spanned a variety of genres, from hip-hop to trance. But I find Geri covering ‘It’s Raining Men’ to be a step too far.

It’s not just that it’s yet another inferior cover of an eighties classic, after similar recent efforts from Westlife, A1, and Boyzone. It’s also not just that it’s another classic #2 being belatedly taken to the top, after 911, Madonna, and Westlife (again). These things don’t help, but this cover feels even more tired than many of those earlier refits.

I think it’s more of what I complained about in Geri’s previous #1, ‘Bag It Up’, in which she was so blatantly chasing the pink pound that it was becoming a bit embarrassing. And what could be more gay-baiting than covering ‘It’s Raining Men’? Like I wrote in that post, she already had gay icon status. She was a Spice Girl, for God’s sake! She didn’t need to try so hard.

Anyway. She decided (or was asked) to cover this camp classic. Very well. But it’s so half-arsed. It’s missing the original’s sassy ad-libs (how low, girl? and the like). It’s missing the thunderclaps. And she gives the song’s best line – I’m gonna go out, I’m gonna let myself get, Absolutely soaking wet – neither the gravitas nor the commitment it deserves. I don’t believe for one second that Geri is excited about this extreme weather event. Whereas, in the original, I fully believe that the Weather Girls were two thirsty bitches ready to rip off their roofs and stay in bed. The lowest point comes when Ginger finally does try her own smutty ad-lib, and it’s genuinely cringey. Go get yourself wet girl, I know you want to… No, Geri. We don’t.

Other than that, it’s a fine record… Joking aside, it was the lead from her second solo album, as well as being from the soundtrack to the second ‘Bridget Jones’ film (from memory, it soundtracks Hugh Grant and Colin Firth beating each other up in a fountain). It was probably always destined to be a huge hit, and was the only one of her four #1s to spend more than a week at the top. But it was the beginning of the end, as none of the album’s subsequent singles got higher than #7.

I feel I’ve been a bit harsh of ol’ Gezza here. She remains my favourite Spice Girl. She remains an icon. And in fact, her best record was yet to come. She had one final LP, 2005’s ‘Passion’, from which the lead single was ‘Ride It’: her truest, campest classic. She always had it in her, she just didn’t have to try so hard…

If anyone’s interested, my solo Spice Girls singles ranking goes (from worst to best): ‘It’s Raining Men’ > ‘Never Be the Same Again’ > ‘Lift Me Up’ > ‘Bag It Up’ > ‘I Want You Back’ > ‘What Took You So Long?’ > ‘Mi Chico Latino’ > ‘I Turn to You’.

The ‘Fame’ referencing video, over which a lot of fuss was made at the time about Geri’s eye-catching, yoga-based weight loss. Just the song below:

896. ‘Don’t Stop Movin”, by S Club 7

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So far, S Club 7 have teased us with their two number one singles: a cheesy TV show theme, and a festive ballad. Okay records, but no real proof of why they were the turn of the century’s finest tween-pop bubblegummers.

Don’t Stop Movin’, by S Club 7 (their 3rd of four #1s)

1 week, from 29th April – 6th May / 1 week, from 20th – 27th May 2001 (2 weeks total)

Until now. Because here is their undisputed (by me) best song: an unapologetic disco-pop banger. Uncontrollably catchy, unarguably wholesome, utterly lacking in edge. But who needs edge? Not S Club. Not anyone, really, when they have such a complete and utter floor filler. I can genuinely not imagine a party where ‘Don’t Stop Movin’’ would not get people dancing (and if there is then I don’t want invited).

Musically, this smooshes the past twenty-five years of pop music into a blender and comes up with a balance that works. The strings are disco, the beat is a ‘Billie Jean’ rip off (not a sample, as some claim), and the chorus is pure nineties bubblegum. For 2001, you could claim that it sounds old-fashioned. I’d rather go with ‘timeless’. There’s even a vocoder, for the fabulously naff Don’t stop movin’ to the S Club beat… coda, giving things that Daft Punk chic.

Bradley McIntosh is on lead vocals here, for the verses. (I have seen Bradley perform this live, and to this date he remains the only chart-topping artist whom I have touched/got an autograph off). Then regular lead Jo takes over for the bridge, which is the part of the song that seals its classic status. And which, listening to it now, owes a big debt to Madonna’s ‘Vogue’. Right here on the dance floor is where you got to let it go… Her vocals ahead of the final chorus are actually fairly spectacular.

I often claim that British pop songs lagged behind their US cousins at this time, which they did. But ‘Don’t Stop Movin’’, while completely British in its production and tone, can compete in terms of quality with almost anything that Britney was putting out at this time. And if I had to choose between this and the overly earnest Destiny’s Child record it knocked off top spot then there’s no contest.

There will be those that argue for ‘Reach’ as S Club 7’s best song, and it is a debate that causes deep divisions. ‘Reach’ is a great pop song, if a little too goody two shoes for my liking. But the real reason why ‘Don’t Stop Movin’’ is S Club’s greatest song, and not ‘Reach’, is that while both could happily be played at a primary school disco, only one could be played in a respectable nightclub. This one.

895. ‘Survivor’, by Destiny’s Child

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I’ve always thought that the intro to this next number one was based on something classical. That it isn’t in the slightest shows up my complete ignorance of classical music…

Survivor, by Destiny’s Child (their 2nd and final #1)

1 week, from 22nd – 29th April 2001

It’s a dramatic intro, though, played on some sort of synth harpsichord. And when the vocals come in, Destiny’s Child don’t let the pace and tension drop. They have a gospel, and they are here to preach.

I’m a survivor, I’m gonna make it, I’m will survive, And keep on surviving… Just in case that message was too subtle, let’s clarify. They are survivors. They are such survivors that they have incorporated every possible conjugation of the verb ‘to survive’ within this song’s lyrics. (No past tense, though. This is all about looking forward.) All this over what is by now becoming the girls’ trademark sharp, staccato beats, and tight, tight harmonies.

On one level, there’s some enjoyment to be had here, in the rapid fire couplets that Beyoncé spits out. Thought I couldn’t breathe without you, I’m inhalin’… Thought that I couldn’t see without you, Perfect vision… But looking back at this from a 2025 vantage, I’m enjoying it less than I thought I would, as it feels like the template from which a lot of joyless 21st century female pop has been formed. Taylor ‘haters gonna hate’ Swift was certainly taking notes.

To call it self-centred would be harsh, and ‘Survivor’ is far from the first girl group song to push female empowerment. And I, of course, am not against that sort of thing. But there’s a lack of humour here, a seriousness that jars with me, typified when Beyoncé announces: I’m not going to compromise my Christianity. (Though, in saying that she’s not gonna diss him on the internet, does she make the first reference to the World Wide Web in a number one single?) In the middle-eight it heads into self-help podcast territory: If I surround myself with positive things, I’ll gain prosperity… and I instinctively roll my eyes. If only ‘Bootylicious’ had made number one instead…

I was expecting to enjoy revisiting this number one, but it doesn’t hold up as well as I’d hoped. And it pales in comparison to the ultimate female-led survival anthem. Not that there isn’t a good, highly polished pop song here. Once again the Americans were going bigger and beefier than us Brits (consider this and then think of the last UK girl group to feature at number one, Atomic Kitten…)

What ‘Survivor’ really reminds me of is when it provided me with me that quintessential British childhood moment: your parents despairing at the state of what was on ‘Top of the Pops’. (At least, I clearly remember my mum worrying that they might have been cold during this performance.) Destiny’s Child have no further #1s to come, but two of them will feature as solo chart-toppers. Kelly Rowland has two, while Beyoncé has a few more. Perhaps we should end by paying tribute to Michelle Williams, then, who has never risen higher than #47 without her bandmates.

894. ‘What Took You So Long?’, by Emma Bunton

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Finally! Ten-year-old me’s OG favourite Spice Girl gets her solo number one…

What Took You So Long?, by Emma Bunton (her 1st and only solo #1)

2 weeks, from 8th – 22nd April 2001

We’ve had rapping Spices, banging trance Spices, Latina Spices… Emma meanwhile goes down a very nice, very drive-time radio, soft-rock route. This is classy, grown-up pop.

There are lots of digital swishes and swirls, especially in the dream-pop middle eight (where the producers were reaching for a ‘Pure Shores’ feel), but at its heart this is an acoustic guitar led song, accompanied by tambourines and handclaps and what a middle-class mum might think of as a hippyish atmosphere. It sounds like it was recorded on real instruments at least, and isn’t the sort of thing that we’ve heard on top of the charts recently.

Is it an exaggeration to say that I could hear Sheryl Crow releasing something not a million miles away from this? Or maybe Natalie Imbruglia. The bridge in particular is lovely, with Emma’s vocals coming through pure and clear. If Mel C was the Spice who could sing, Emma was the one who could give her a run for her money.

Compared to her bandmates, Baby was slow to launch a solo career. She’d featured on the one-off #2 hit ‘What I Am’ with Tin Tin Out in 1999, but this was her official solo launch. And it is to her – and the Spice Girls’ – credit that there was still enough interest in them as artists for her to make the top of the charts. And, impressively, to become the first Solo Spice to remain at #1 for a second week.

It is also to their credit that across their eight solo number ones (there’s still one more from Geri to come) there has been such a variety of styles. They’ve been of varying quality, but there have been no real clunkers. You can argue that they would have had the very best producers and songwriters queuing up to work with them, but I think the Girls also had some musical nous about them. They wouldn’t have become such global superstars otherwise.

Although this is her only solo number one, Emma Bunton managed seven Top 10 hits in total, one behind Geri’s eight, making her the second most successful Solo Spice. She can also claim the most recent Top 10 of any of the Girls, with her 2006 cover of ‘Downtown’ which made #3.

893. ‘Pure and Simple’, by Hear’Say

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There is an argument to be made that this next number one is the single most important pop song of the twenty first century. Had the debut single from the winners of ‘Popstars’, a docu-competition in which a brand new group was formed in front of the viewing public’s very eyes, not been a huge, million-selling success, then think what we might have been spared…

Pure and Simple, by Hear’Say (their 1st of two #1s)

3 weeks, from 18th March – 8th April 2001

It would be easy to claim that this is the moment in which pop music was irredeemably ruined, all credibility stripped from the process of making pop, and that from here on the charts were off to hell in a handcart… In fact, that would be too easy. Pop music has always been reliant on photogenic puppets singing other people’s songs. What reality TV did was to bring the tawdry process out into the open, and to give the public a say (not always a good idea…)

Though I didn’t realise, or had forgotten, that Hear’Say were not chosen by a public vote. No, the five winning ‘Popstars’ were chosen by a judging panel, and the series filmed more as a documentary than a competition. The final episode aired on the day that ‘Pure and Simple’ entered at number one, the fastest selling debut of all time, with the Radio One announcement seen as the culmination of their journey.

What of the song, then, that kicks off this brave new world? It’s… alright. I remember actually liking it at the time, aged fifteen; but it hasn’t quite stood the test of time for me. It’s got some nice touches, some soulful vocals, and an ear-catching chord progression. But it can’t escape the fact that it already sounds dated, more 1998 than 2001, and that it is in debt to at least three other recent songs.

It has the cheapness of Atomic Kitten’s ‘Whole Again’, while it is also reaching for (and missing) the sassiness of All Saints’ ‘Never Ever’. And it is a clear melodic rip-off of Oasis’ ‘All Around the World’ – a fact noted by Noel Gallagher, who wisely let it slide given the liberal amount of melody borrowing he had done in his time. It had originally been recorded, but not released, by short-lived girl group Girl Thing a couple of years earlier.

Having said all that, and with these shortcomings fully in mind, ‘Pure and Simple’ stands head and shoulders above pretty much every Pop Idol/Fame Academy/X Factor/you name it winner’s single that came after. It is a decent, upbeat pop song, with lyrics that allow it to exist beyond its talent show context, and not a maudlin ballad about overcoming obstacles, making your dreams come true, and earning Simon Cowell millions of pounds…

I was about to launch into a (short) potted history of Hear’Say’s post-‘Pure and Simple’ career before remembering that they bucked the odds and actually managed a second number one. Fair play to them. We’ll save the bio for next time. And we’ll have plenty of time to reflect on the reality TV era – perhaps the biggest pop ‘genre’ of the 21st century – over the course of the fifty-plus number ones it has generated. Not all of which are terrible (though many of course are), and a handful of which are pretty damn good!

892. ‘Uptown Girl’, by Westlife

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Stung by their first ever non-number one (‘What Makes a Man’ having been kept off top spot by Bob the Builder), Westlife return with a foolproof strategy for restoring their chart fortunes. A carbon copy of a beloved classic.

Uptown Girl, by Westlife (their 8th of fourteen #1s)

1 week, from 11th – 18th March 2001

If a note-for-note cover of Billy Joel’s 1983 chart-topper was not enough of a guarantee, then making it the official Red Nose Day single was the clincher. Guaranteed, sure-fire, bookies not even letting you place bets sort of number one. And so it was, opening with Westlife’s biggest ever sales week.

And, on a very surface level, this isn’t a terrible record. It doesn’t irk in the same way that, say, A1’s cover of ‘Take on Me’ does. Probably because Westlife’s producers sensibly kept things very un-experimental, retaining the original’s doo-wop, Four Seasons-aping energy. It adds nothing, however, and you will never need to listen to the Westlife version of ‘Uptown Girl’ as long as Billy Joel’s original is available.

Actually, it’s not strictly true that nothing is added. Because this is Westlife, ‘Uptown Girl’ now has a key change. Hey ho. Again, it doesn’t ruin the song. If you squint hard enough you can imagine you’re listening to the original. Am I being overly charitable? About this charity record? Maybe. Or maybe I’m just glad that this is a Westlife number one that ISN’T A BALLAD! Of their frankly unbelievable total of fourteen number ones, I’d say that only two are officially not ballads (while I will hear arguments for ‘If I Let You Go’ being their third non-ballad #1, if anyone cares to make them…)

Westlife were following in Boyzone’s footsteps here, Ronan and his gang having released the previous Comic Relief single two years earlier: a similarly faithful redo of another eighties classic. It’s almost as if the same evil genius was behind both bands… But I will give Westlife the credit of not being anywhere near as reliant on cheesy covers as their predecessors. Over half of Boyzone’s chart-topping records were covers, whereas this was only Westlife’s second out of nine releases.

To be fair, the video is quite fun, with Claudia Schiffer as the uptown girl, and a little dig at Bob the Builder too…

891. ‘It Wasn’t Me’, by Shaggy ft. RikRok

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In today’s instalment of Ask Shaggy, we have a letter from RikRok, in Jamaica… “Dear Shaggy: I was recently caught red-handed by my wife, creeping with the girl next door. Picture this, we were both butt-naked, banging on the bathroom floor…”

It Wasn’t Me, by Shaggy (his 3rd of four #1s) ft. RikRok

1 week, from 4th – 11th March 2001

Ricardo ‘RikRok’ Ducent is in a bit of a pickle alright. How could I forget that I had given her an extra key? he asks, hand to forehead. Shaggy is not in the mood for sympathy however, offering blunt advice: deny everything. To be a true player you have to know how to play, If she say a-night, Convince her say a-day…

Caught on camera? Heard the screams of passion? Marks on your shoulder? The evidence of her very own eyes…? It wasn’t me. It’s not hard, nearly a quarter of a century on, to read a sinister subtext to this well-remembered chart-topper. It’s pure gaslighting, and not something you’d be allowed to get away with in the year of our Lord twenty twenty five.

But. At the same time, this is such a silly song, the situation so preposterous, Shaggy at his most cartoonishly alpha (especially in the video), that you cannot take it seriously. The idea that his advice will work is never supposed to enter the listener’s head. And at the end of the day, morality wins out, with RikRok deciding to ignore the advice and apologise: Gonna tell her that I’m sorry for the pain that I’ve caused, I’ve been listening to your reason, It makes no sense at all…

Compared to his two earlier hits, this is a much more pop-infused reggae than in ‘Oh Carolina’ or ‘Boombastic’. And in comparison to those hits, Shaggy is not the main attraction. Most of the story is carried by RikRok, with Shaggy delivering his two verses as the devil on his shoulder (in his trademark deliciously thick patois). But the move into pop paid off, as this was Shaggy’s first big hit in over half a decade, and the year’s biggest seller. (As well as becoming the decade’s highest-selling song not connected to a TV talent show!)

It wasn’t even supposed to be released as a single, but Shaggy and his record label were convinced after a radio DJ obtained an illegal copy of the song from Napster – nice period detail, there – and it became his most requested song. The single had a full four-month build up period before being released, and smashed in at number one with sales well over a quarter of a million.

And you have to admire Shaggy’s limpet-like ability to weather changes in style, to go for years between hits, and to still re-appear at the top of the charts every so often. In fact, 2001 will go down as his most successful year by far, with one further massive number one hit to come soon. Maybe this just proves, once and for all, that reggae is the one genre which will never truly die.

890. ‘Whole Again’, by Atomic Kitten

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The first thing that hits your ears with our next number one is the pre-set drumbeat, and synthy organs. It sounds cheap. And ‘cheap’ sets the perfect tone for one of the new millennium’s biggest ballads, and one of its biggest girl groups.

Whole Again, by Atomic Kitten (their 1st of three #1s)

4 weeks, from 4th February – 4th March 2001

If the Spice Girls were the group you’d like to have hung out with, and All Saints were the group you were terrified of running into in the corridor; Atomic Kitten were the group that would happily nick you a packet of fags from the Spar as long as you let them keep a couple. Kerry, Liz, and Tash, three likely scouse lasses.

If that sounds a bit snobby; I don’t mean it to. I imagine it was a big part of their appeal, and their success. They genuinely looked like girls from your school. They weren’t the best singers, they weren’t glamour models, and the production on their songs was largely cheap and largely cheerful. You could argue that they were to pop music what Limp Bizkit, the act they knocked off top spot, were to rock. (Though both acts, I will argue, do have brilliant names.)

I will also contest that ‘Whole Again’ is a great pop ballad, with an almost cynically heart-tugging chord progression, and a retro feel (especially in the spoken word middle-eight). If it had had a bit more money thrown at it, if it had come within five hundred metres of an actual musical instrument, and been sung by someone like Gabrielle, it would be regarded as a true classic. But it is let down by not having all of the above, and is now just a nostalgic classic, and not a song you hear all that often anymore. (Unless of course when it’s being re-written in tribute to Gareth Southgate…)

Yet, it managed to become huge. It stayed at number one for a full month, the longest stay of the millennium so far, increasing in sales for each of those four weeks. It became the 2000’s 13th highest-selling single, and Britain’s 4th biggest girl group single of all time, behind ‘Wannabe’, ‘2 Become 1’, and ‘Never Ever’. And maybe this success was exactly because it sounds so of its time: the ballad that came along in the right place, at the right time, and will forever be rooted in the winter of 2000-2001.

I actually remember hearing ‘Whole Again’ for the first time, probably the week before it went to number one. We were snowed in from school, and I saw the video on GMTV or something. And I remember thinking that it sounded like a massive hit. (I also remember the first time I heard one other #1 from 2001, and it is one of the three songs from this year to outsell ‘Whole Again’…)

This was actually Atomic Kitten’s last roll of the dice, as they were on the verge of being dropped from their record label and consigned to the girl group dustbin had ‘Whole Again’ not been a hit. Adding to their difficulties was the fact that Kerry Katona had quit the group a couple of weeks before this was released, and her parts hastily re-recorded by replacement Jenny Frost.

Still, it mattered not. The record was huge, launching Atomic Kitten Mk II, and bringing about several years’ worth of hits, including two more number ones that we we’ll get to in due course. Without giving too much away, both those chart-toppers are fairly crap, but I would argue for the quality of their earlier Mk I hits, ‘See Ya’ and ‘I Want Your Love’: catchy and experimental, the kooky brainchildren of OMD’s Andy McCluskey and Stuart Kershaw, who had created the group.