Girls Aloud 'Sound Of The Underground'

Chart Peak: 1 (4 weeks)

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Girls Aloud are Nadine, Sarah, Nicola, Cheryl and Kimberley - launched via the TV show Popstars: The Rivals... 'Sound Of The Underground', which was written and produced by pop maestro Brian Higgins, beat boy contenders One True Voice to the Xmas No. 1 and went on to sell over half a million copies

And so begins the longest consecutive run of appearances by any act in the history of the Now albums. Girls Aloud loom so large in the history of 21st-century pop that it's easy to forget they originated via reality TV, perhaps all the more so given the relative obscurity of the show itself, which for all the success of this act only ran for one series. For those who don't remember it, Popstars: The Rivals was a kind of sequel to the original Popstars, with the twist that instead of producing one mixed group, it spawned a girl group and a boy band who were supposed to battle for the Christmas Number One single in 2002. Battle they did and the show worked to the extent that they did take the two top positions, but perhaps taking the final out of the confines of the show made it too public; we could see from the sales figures just how far ahead the Girls were without having to follow the show itself and perhaps there was not enough demand for a second series.

At least we did get one good thing out of it, in the shape of what I think's probably the best Christmas Number One this century, musically. An unlikely blend of surf guitars and soft electro beats, it was originally recorded for a failed girl-group called Orchid but revived when the commission came for P:TR. Co-writer Miranda Cooper recalls recording the contestants' vocals a few weeks into the series, and then having to edit them out as they were voted out. She says she hoped every week they wouldn't lose the best singers, though she has more class than to say whether they actually did. In some ways it didn't really matter though, the song has the advantage of not needing particularly spectacular voices, though as the Xenomania writing/production team continued to work with the group they began to tailor more material to them. As an off-the-peg debut though it was good enough to do the job, and still one of the best-ever talent-show singles.

Also appearing on: Now 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 84
Available on: Sound Of The Underground

Girls Aloud 'The Promise'

Chart Peak: 1 (1 week)

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The Girls teamed up once again with super hot production team Xenomania for the No. 1 smash hit 'The Promise' - it shot to the top spot in late October 2008... Incredibly it is the girls' 19th consecutive UK Top Ten hit and their fourth chart-topper.

Officially their fourth chart-topper at least, though the previous three were the single they released as part of the original Popstars: The Rivals and two charity records, so arguably this was their only single to top the chart under its own steam. You could also quibble about how super-hot a team Xenomania really are; for all the critical acclaim their actual success is mostly tied up with a couple of acts and particularly with the Aloud themselves. I've got to admit I'm a bit skeptical about their skills or at least reluctant to buy into all the hype over what are mostly well-crafted pop songs but only that.

One criticism I've levelled at a lot of Xenomania work is that they often seem to settle for a five weak hooklines over a couple of really good ones and to be honest that's what I thought of 'The Promise' at first too; but it later dawned on me that this was one time when it did work, because it's a rare example of them using the music expressively. The multiplicity of different melodies and rhythms and the unresolved sequences mirrors the confusion of the lyric and the protagonist trying to hold back temptation. Of course the chorus melody "Promise I made/starting to fade" still sounds like the theme from Blankety Blank but that might be intentional. Also, credit for the abrupt ending on the single edit, which preserves the tension and energy of the song much better than the album version that just fades out.

Fortunately it's the single cut that appears as the opener to Now 71, which I am of course doing at this point because it was the current album when I started the blog just under five years ago, and thus at the 25th anniversary of the series.

Also appearing on: Now 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 72, 73, 84
Available on: Ten

Girls Aloud 'I Think We're Alone Now'

Chart Peak: 5

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'I Think We're Alone Now' was originally a No.1 hit for Tiffany in 1988... The Girl's {sic} rendition got to No. 4 in December 2006, making it their fourteenth consecutive Top Ten hit and 11th Top 5 - more than any other girl group in UK chart history.

I don't know who writes these sleeve notes and I'm not entirely sure I even want to, but it seems unlikely that it's been the same person all along. There are occasional variations in style and more to the point, when Tiffany's version of this song appeared on Now 12 the note correctly identified it as a cover version. Either way, though, there's no dispute that this version is a cover: weirdly, the credits in the booklet here identify all five members of the group as co-writers, but that must just be a mistake. It was the second new single from their well-received greatest hits collection and does very much have that air of an act grasping for a cover version because they were in too much of a rush to come up with anything fresh; unusually for such an act, there were plans beyond the singles compilation so new material might have been saved for the fourth album, or passed to other Xenomania acts.

That said, throughout their career they had (have?) a habit of throwing out lazy cover versions. Whilst I don't wholly subscribe to conventional wisdom about the excellence of their original singles (which often feels tinged with inverted snobbery), I will follow the common view that their covers are a weak spot, and whilst the best GA has the sound of people playing with the possibilities of pop and a mass audience, this feels like the exact opposite, heading straight for the lowest common denominator. The best that can be said for this is that it's not as bad as their next hit, the aforementioned attempt on 'Walk This Way'.

Also appearing on:Now 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 68, 70, 71, 72, 73
Available on: The Sound of Girls Aloud

Sugababes Vs. Girls Aloud 'Walk This Way'

Chart Peak: 1 (1 week)

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Two of our most successful girl groups have teamed up in the name of charidee for their very own version of the Run DMC and Aerosmith classic 'Walk This Way' - it is the official single for this year's Comic Relief and is due for release just ahead of Red Nose Day in mid-March.

There are exceptions but you'd normally expect the Easter Now album from an odd-numbered year to include the official Comic Relief single and here's 2007's addition to the catalogue, which must go down as one of the more ill-conceived entries in the series. There long seems to have been some tension between the two competing visions: do you attempt to mark the occasion with a comedy record or simply grab a currently-popular act and ask them to do a cover version. This time around they seem to have tried to do both at once by combining the two girl groups with a half-baked conceit about rivalry between them - but weren't the Sugababes more famous for arguing with each other than other bands?

Perhaps there'd be some mileage in the idea of recasting the rather leery macho lyrics of the original for female singers, but by the sounds of it either there were problems with permission or nobody actually thought about the words until the last minute; I'd tend to favour the latter theory, hearing how clumsy the rest of the arrangement is, and that odd combination of rushing to get to the famous chorus and trying to shoehorn in a fresh one. It's an impression only strengthened by the video, which ironically suggests the disagreement by making it look entirely unlike the acts have ever met each other, as well as throwing in cameos by comedians too brief to even make out who they are. Between the fanbases of the two acts and the passing trade of regular charity single buyers a Number One was inevitable but the single only lasted three more weeks in the Top 40 and was soon forgotten, one of the most obscure entries in either act's discography.

Sugababes also appear on: Now 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 62, 63, 64, 66, 68, 70, 71, 74, 75
Girls Aloud also appear on: Now 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 68, 70, 71, 72, 73

Available on: Big Night Out

Girls Aloud 'Call The Shots'

Chart Peak: 3

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Even though they started nearly 20 years into the history of the Now albums, Girls Aloud can claim the third largest number of appearances (jointly with Phil Collins if you count collaborations and his work as a member of Genesis). Despite their relatively few chart-toppers (only two if you ignore charity records) they've become one of Britain's most efficient hit factories of this century. And they've made (or, at least, been put in front of) some of the most exciting pop music of recent years.

Unfortunately, they've also done this. Second single from the fourth album (the one I never thought they'd do after the Greatest Hits, but they've certainly proved me wrong on that) it's one of their least interesting songs. Not their worst, but at least if it was one of their true misfires (ie most of the ballads, cover versions or cover versions of ballads) there's be something to say. Everything about it, except possibly the lyric, is competent but there's none of the famous Xenomania magic that people like to talk about to show how open-minded they are. If their aim was to fill three minutes and forty-three seconds, they've done it, but otherwise I'm solidly unconvinced.

Also appearing on: Now 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 68, 70, 71, 72, 73
Available on: Tangled Up