The Ordinary Boys 'I Luv U'

Chart Peak: 7

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'I Luv U' is officially the Ordinary Boys' first ballad - according to the boys it's about "trying to tell someone you love them without trying to sound like every other cliché"... It is the 4th Top 10 hit from the album How To Get Everything You Wanted In Ten Easy Steps, following 'Boys Will be Boys', 'Nine2Five' and 'Lonely At The Top'.

I presume they actually mean they were trying not to sound like clichés, rather than merely not trying to. And while I'm being pedantic, it does seem stretching a point somewhat to claim this as the fourth Top 10 single from the album when the first two didn't originate as part of it - 'Boys Will Be Boys' was the first single from their previous album which was repeated on the new one to milk its belated success and even 'Nine2Five' was originally a Lady Sovereign B-side. There's no dispute that this was a substantial hit in early January, though, and in the latter days of the physical single being in the chart in time for Valentine's Day helped to prolong its run. It was also to be the band's last hit, although surprisingly they didn't officially split until 2008.

Of course the reason for all this sudden interest in the band was that lead singer (Samuel) Preston had appeared on Celebrity Big Brother early the previous year and his media profile had briefly pulled the struggling mod-revivalist band into the mainstream. By the time the sarcastically-titled How To Get Everything... album hit the shelves, he was married to fellow contestant Chantelle and this is presumably why it was thought acceptable for the otherwise laddish band to release a soppy love song as a single. It might have been the final straw for some of their original fans if they hadn't stopped anyway. As a song it tried to tiptoe around the idea of a romantic ballad but unfortunately just saying you don't want to be clichéed is itself something of a cliché and the delivery isn't really charming enough to make it work, although there are some mildly interesting things going on in the production.

Either way it didn't last, and both the band and marriage were over within a year of this. Preston briefly attempted a solo career to so little success that he had to "reform the band" (ie get a bunch of session musicians and go on tour under the name) last year. He does crop up on Now 80 as a songwriter though.

Also appearing on: Now 63, 64
Available on: How To Get Everything You Ever Wanted In Ten Easy Steps