16 November 2006 Westlife released a version of 'The Rose'? Of course Westlife released a version of 'The Rose'. That song has been performed at weddings, folk masses and other religious family occasions since its inception, and Westlife by the mid-'00s were pretty much specialising in singles for first dances and last rites. Their video … Continue reading Westlife – ‘The Rose’
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U2 and Green Day – ‘The Saints Are Coming’
9 November 2006 I had to double-check the dates: Hurricane Katrina was in August 2005 and the U2-Green Day collaboration tops our chart in November 2006. So, this charity single makes landfall over a year after the actual disaster (natural and man-made, or at least man-exacerbated) hit the people of New Orleans. I see, however, … Continue reading U2 and Green Day – ‘The Saints Are Coming’
Beyoncé – ‘Irreplaceable’
26 October 2006 Hot on the heels of "I'm bringing sexy back" we have another unlikely viral pop-cultural catchphrase of 2006. There's a good chance you didn't recognise Beyoncé's 'Irreplaceable' by name but know it instead as the iconic "To the left! To the left!" The rest of the song? Not so memorable. 'Irreplaceable' feels … Continue reading Beyoncé – ‘Irreplaceable’
Justin Timberlake – ‘SexyBack’
31 August 2006 In what's surely a salutary lesson to social media managers everywhere, the most viral pop-cultural catchphrase of 2006 turned out to be the unlikely "I'm bringing sexy back". Its blend of total conviction, wilful meaninglessness and the bantz trigger-word 'sexy' just seemed to hit a sweet spot, at least with radio DJs … Continue reading Justin Timberlake – ‘SexyBack’
Cascada – ‘Everytime We Touch’
17 August 2006 I Never Knew That Was A Cover Version: An Occasional Series. The chorus and title of Cascada's 'Everytime We Touch' are taken from a 1992 soft rock hit on the continent (number one in Norway!) for Maggie Reilly, who featured here a long time back as the singer of Mike Oldfield's 1983 … Continue reading Cascada – ‘Everytime We Touch’
Shakira ft. Wyclef Jean – ‘Hips Don’t Lie’
15 June 2006 My stomach doesn't lie: it sinks like a U-boat at the prospect of listening to these two dreadful individuals again. Still, I can muster some positives. The phrase "Shakira Shakira!" is the only good thing Wyclef Jean has ever done. Shakira herself has moved on from the plodding soft rock of her … Continue reading Shakira ft. Wyclef Jean – ‘Hips Don’t Lie’
Sandi Thom – ‘I Wish I Was A Punk Rocker (With Flowers In My Hair)’
8 June 2006 Paraphrasing only slightly, I remember the general mood about 'I Wish I Was A Punk Rocker (With Flowers In My Hair)' on the Internet message boards of summer 2006 being along the lines of KILL! SCREECH! BURN! HATE! I was living off foreign at the time, in a country where the song … Continue reading Sandi Thom – ‘I Wish I Was A Punk Rocker (With Flowers In My Hair)’
Shayne Ward – ‘No Promises’
13 April 2006 Here we get a week's break from Gnarls Barkley's 'Crazy' before it returns to the top of our chart for a further seven weeks. Clearly Shayne Ward wasn't the one-and-done output of later X Factor iterations. We'll even see him at number one again after this, so he obviously built a solid … Continue reading Shayne Ward – ‘No Promises’
Gnarls Barkley – ‘Crazy’
6 April 2006 For those who were aware of it in 2006, how long before the shine of 'Crazy' wore off for you? Certainly it soon outgrew its initial impact and became ubiquitous to the point of tedium. That summer I was at a wedding reception that showed a video montage of the bride and … Continue reading Gnarls Barkley – ‘Crazy’
Pat Shortt – ‘Jumbo Breakfast Roll’
23 February 2006 At what point in time did the chicken fillet roll replace the breakfast roll as Ireland's favourite meat-based deli-counter sandwich? Maybe this is something else we can pin on the late-'00s collapse of the Irish economy. Breakfast Roll Man, as immortalised in David McWilliams' pop economics primer The Pope's Children, stood for … Continue reading Pat Shortt – ‘Jumbo Breakfast Roll’
