Originally conceived by William Orbit with Madonna in mind, Pure Shores made its way to All Saints. As the lead off track from The Beach soundtrack [That sentence could not be more 2000 if it tried], it quickly became the biggest song of All Saints' career - and the second biggest single of 2000. Shame it never crossed overseas.
When you've struck gold (or platinum), why not keep striking? Another Orbit production, Black Coffee, was their firth and final number one.
As I said before, a heated argument over who got to wear a specifically ugly green cargo jacket led to the group's demise. A year later, London Records (which had just dropped a group we will see tomorrow) released their Greatest Hits.
They got the band back together in 2006, and things seemed promising. Their comeback single, Rock Steady, borrowed a bit from what was going on in UK pop - a little bit Girls Aloud, a lot of Lily Allen - but was blazing, hook filled, and most of all relevant. It went it straight at #3.
The album barely cracked the top forty (although it's their best!) and they split up again.
They're back together now, and currently planning a tour.
The next two groups were heavily featured on last year's edition of the ITV program The Big Reunion. I strongly recommend that you all YouTube it, as it does a much better job of describing their history than I could do.
UK music executives, always looking for a different spin on the Spice Girls Aesthetic (hello Vanilla! hello and goodbye Girl Thing!), took to the land of Milk and Potatoes in the late 90s and formed B'Witched. The Lynch sisters - Keavy and Edele - (the names - I cannot), brunette Lindsay and slightly older Sinead all came together to provide the world with Celtic influenced, cavity inducing pop. And that they did.
Their first single, C'Est La Vie, was an instant smash, rocketing to the top of the British and Irish charts. Surprisingly, it also went top ten in America!
The lyrics are shockingly stupid, even for bubblegum pop - but it works? Especially the spoken word asides.
The hits continued - in the UK, at least - with a consecutive string of number ones:Rollercoaster, To You I Belong, and Blame it on the Weatherman.
Underneath the cheery smiles and double denim, however, stood girls at their breaking points. Frustrated by management's choice to make Edele the definitive lead [I concur, it's not like she's an Easther - clearly better than the others; her tone also really grates. Sounds like Dolores O'Riordan after a concussion], and frustrated by their relationships with each other (there was clearly some lesbianism going on here], B'Witched were at their wits end. When the lead single from the second album, Jesse Hold On, only went in at number four, the record label panicked. It was a bellwether for things to come, and a few years later B'Witched split up.
C'Est La Vie
To You I Belong
Blame it on the Weatherman
Jesse Hold On
You all will be rating these four songs.
Up next: Perhaps the cheapest girl group in British history. Primark's finest!
Lemme just get these chip shop employees out of the way.
In the late 90s, a A&R guy spotted Kerry Katona dancing in a nightclub. Doing her awkward drunk 'slaggy' dancing, Katona was hungry for success and took him up on his offer to join a girl group.
They needed singers, though. Enter Natasha Hamilton and Liz McClarnon (I guess on that second one ...), and they were signed! They would be called Atomic Kitten.
Their first single was a disco-influenced number that is still probably the best thing they ever released. (Although it rips off Geri's Bag It Up mightily. But do you girls!) Right Now became their first song to go top ten.
Subsequent singles did not do so well, and the group was in danger of being dropped. Kerry, at this point, was dating Westlife's Brian McFadden (who would later LEAVE HER for Delta Goodrem!), and found out she was pregnant. This upset Natasha and Liz, as it put the group's career in jeopardy (although one girl group featured later keeps going, three kids later), and they got into a series of blazing rows, and in one such row, Kerry (or was it Liz? I forget?) tearfully stormed out of a cab. All this while a new single was about to be released!
Kerry put in her notice, and management went scouring for a replacement. Less than a week later, Whole Again was number one. Not just in the UK, but in five other countries as well. Kerry had already shot the video, but a new one was very quickly done with new member Jenny Frost.
The album was re-released with Jenny's 'vocals,' and they quickly added a cover of The Bangles' Eternal Flame.
It was their second number one, and, truth be told, it kind of fits them better than The Bangles.