10 March 2001
This cover of Billy Joel’s 1983 Irish number one was the official single for the 2001 iteration of the UK’s Comic Relief, which once again makes me shake my head in wonder at the English sense of humour. I suppose since it’s for charity I have to follow the lead of the video’s celebrity star and extend it some measure of forbearance and good will. Suffice it to say, Westlife don’t even cut it as Backstreet Boys, let alone the backstreet guys of the song, unless this version is set in uptown and downtown Stepford.
Anyway, this thing bops along harmlessly, if antiseptically, on the strength of the song’s inbuilt ’60s-throwback doo-wop dance-pop beat. We miss out on the Frankie Valli homage of the original but also on Billy Joel’s nasally whine, so it’s swings and roundabouts. The obligatory Westlife key change arrives, the plastic keyboard sound fades out, and then we can leave.
