pussycat dolls

1023. ‘Stickwitu’, by Pussycat Dolls

/ UK #1s blog / 3 Comments

For their second number one, credit has to be given to the Pussycat Dolls for not giving us more of the same (apart from the weird spelling). After the boyfriend-stealing sass of ‘Don’t Cha’, they are now celebrating faithfulness and monogamy.

Stickwitu, by Pussycat Dolls (their 2nd and final #1) 

2 weeks, from 4th – 18th December 2005

Having said that, I wouldn’t have turned my nose up at more of the same, if the alternative had to be this sappy ballad. Nobody gonna love me better, I must stick wit’ you… ‘Stickwitu’ isn’t terrible, it isn’t even bad. The slightly off-kilter drumbeat, and the toy box riff are vaguely interesting. It grows into a bit of a power ballad in the middle eight, with impressive enough vocals from leading lady Nicole Scherzinger. But on the whole this is the sort of syrupy R&B that was more at home on the Billboard charts of the time, but which had started to crop up more often at #1 in the UK by the middle of the ‘00s.

It’s also a real shadow number one, a term I first used waaaay back in 1953, when the zany ‘Hey Joe!’ provided a chart-topping footnote to Frankie Laine’s humongously successful ballad ‘I Believe’. The concept remains unchanged, despite the years and the differences in music consumption: a song that wouldn’t have been a hit without the success of an artist’s previous single. Would ‘Stickwitu’ have been anywhere near the top of the charts had ‘Don’t Cha’ not existed? I’ll stick my neck out and say no.

Another bit of credit has to go to the producers of this track for not sticking a rent-a-rapper verse on it. I’m actually surprised they didn’t and, who knows, it might even have livened things up. A remix featuring someone called Avant was released, but not recognised by the OCC. The third and fourth singles from the Dolls’ debut album did return to the usual formula, with features for Will.I.Am (‘Beep’) and Snoop Dogg (‘Buttons’). Both those songs were Top 3 hits, and were returns to the group’s bawdy, Burlesque roots.

Beyond that, there was one more album and a few more Top 10 hits, but for the fourth highest selling Western girl group of all time, and ‘the heirs to the Spice Girls bedazzled throne’ (MTV), they never quite fulfilled their potential. Nicole Scherzinger was all too keen to start a solo career (she has one solo #1 to come), and there were ‘tensions’ between her and the other Dolls. However, they have reformed twice since their split in 2010, and are currently touring as a three-piece, with Scherzinger back in the fold. 

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1018. ‘Don’t Cha’, by Pussycat Dolls ft. Busta Rhymes

/ UK #1s blog / 3 Comments

The 2000s were, I have already somewhere claimed, the decade of the girl group. All Saints, Atomic Kitten, Sugababes, Girls Aloud… All big, all girls, all British.

Don’t Cha, by The Pussycat Dolls (their 1st of two #1s) ft. Busta Rhymes (his 1st and only #1)

3 weeks, from 11th September – 2nd October 2005

Here though come the Yanks. Not to suggest that the States have no girl group pedigree, of course. The Supremes, Ronettes, Shangri Las all say hello. But even the sassy Shangri Las would have blushed at something as strident as ‘Don’t Cha’. The Pussycat Dolls are very much a new, 21st century version of the all-American girl group.

Don’t cha wish your girlfriend was hot like me, Don’t cha wish your girlfriend was a freak like me…? I mean, British girls would never be so brazenly forward (cough cough). But it was definitely a chat-up line that embedded itself in the zeitgeist for a while. The rest of the song is similarly sultry, with raunchy horns, an X-rated rap from Busta Rhymes, and lines about black and blue balls, and sharing partners. It was released in three versions: a kid friendly edit (without Busta), the original, and a ‘more booty’ mix.

In fact, the entire song is slower and more seductive than I remembered. I thought it was faster, poppier; but in reality it has a swing beat, and a Latin-inflected guitar line. This is much more in keeping with the Dolls’ pre-chart history. At the time, the one thing everyone had to say about PCD is that they were strippers. They themselves liked to call it ‘neo-burlesque’, but you can definitely imagine someone slowly removing their clothing to the rhythm and tempo of ‘Don’t Cha’.

They had been around since the mid-‘90s, but it wasn’t until 2004 that they tried to move into pop music. And they were a near instant success. ‘Don’t Cha’ was huge, unavoidable that autumn. But, at the same time, though they had a few years of decent success, and one more #1, PCD never turned into the chart force that their debut hinted at.

Their lead singer, Nicole Scherzinger, on the other hand did become a household name. Even at this early moment it was a bit of a Diana Ross situation, and they might as well have been named Nicole & The Pussycat Dolls. She has the chops for it, and sells every line in a manner so extravagantly sexy that it actually sounds quite funny. Burlesque, even. Listen to the way she rolls her tongue around every syllable of the Your secret is safe with me… line, for example.

For rapper Busta Rhymes meanwhile, this would be the only chart-topper of a career that was surprisingly more successful in the UK than in the States. This was his 9th Top 10 hit since debuting in 1996, and he would continue to have British chart success well into the 2010s.

Anyway, as enjoyable as this track is, though it is a little try-hard, up next we have some British ladies showing these American upstarts how to do a proper girl group banger. 

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