Gwen Stefani 'Wind It Up'

Chart Peak: 3
YouTube

The sassy lady from Orange County took her original version of 'Wind It Up' and mashed it together with a sample from the Sound Of Music to score a No. 3 hit in December 2006... It was the first release from Gwen's album The Sweet Escape, which is dedicated to her "best project", her son Kingston.

Having successfully established herself as a solo artist with her first album, Stefani might have been expected to go back to No Doubt. At least, I'm pretty sure that's what the rest of the band expected, but in the event she made a second album, apparently because she wanted to use up some of the unreleased tracks from the first one. You might not expect a masterpiece from that rather desultory premise, but even then few would have guessed that how clumsy the lead single was going to be. Even the original track - recorded for a fashion show, hence the references to her own clothing line - can't have been up to much, with its half-baked rapping and the odd way she gulps the title (if the song wasn't called that, I don't think I'd ever have guessed what she was saying). So what better way to top it off than by sampling, er 'The Lonely Goatheard' for no apparent reason. The finished item is so bizarre that the first time I heard it on the radio, I couldn't tell whether it was a joke or not. Possibly it was, but if so it seems to have been at the record-buying public's expense. It's a testament to star power that something as weirdly dreadful of this reached the UK and US Top 10.

Also appearing on: Now 50 [with Eve], 60, 61 [with Eve], 62, 67
Available on: The Sweet Escape