Richard X vs Liberty X 'Being Nobody'

Chart Peak: 3
YouTube

Richard X was the brains behind the Sugababes chart-topping 'Freak Like Me' last year... On his new project Liberty X perform Chaka Khan's 'Ain't Nobody' over Richard's faithful instrumental version of the Human League's 'Being Boiled' - the result: the Top 3 smash 'Being Nobody'.

People have been doing them for decades, but in the early years of the 21st century there was a particular fad for mash-ups, the ancient art of combining two previously separate songs. Perhaps the Internet made it easier to spread the word, though Richard X first made his name (under his previous alias Girls On Top) with a few bootleg vinyl singles. One of these was 'Being Scrubbed' which put the vocals from 'No Scrubs' over the riff from 'Being Boiled' so it wasn't wholly surprising that when he got a major-label contract in his own right, he'd return to part of the same source material. I'm not sure whether the change in lyrics was voluntary or whether it was just too hard to get permission for the TLC song, but either way the combination isn't a bad fit.

In fact it's rather too good a fit. Possibly because the parts are being replayed rather than sampled from the original recordings, the similarities are emphasised to the extent that it ends up effectively just a cover version of 'Ain't Nobody'. Which is something that's always marketable here in the UK, and indeed there's a version of the song in the Top 40 right now, but it seems to lose the original point somewhat.

Richard X also appears on: Now 56 [with Kelis]
Liberty X also appear on: Now 50 [as Liberty], 52, 53, 56, 62, 63
Available on: The Big Reunion

Liberty 'Thinking It Over'

Chart Peak: 5

YouTube

After finding fame as runners-up on TV's "Popstars" programme, Kevin, Tony, Michelle, Jessica and Kelli decided to form their own band - and their debut single 'Thinking It Over' gave them an impressive No. 5 chart debut... Reflecting on their decision to stay together, Kelli says "we decided to be positive about the whole Popstars experience and just thought 'Let's go for it' because we were so strong together."

Popstars, for those struggling to remember now, was the first in the modern era of pop reality shows, the one which assembled the then-record-breaking quintet Hear'Say. Liberty were the five finalists who fell at the final hurdle, and unsurprisingly at the time were able to get a record deal and a big debut hit produced by one of the Artful Dodger. In fact I'd forgotten how 2-step this single actually sounded, not that I listened to it much at the time, and I've scarcely heard it since.

As they inevitably had the same two boys/three girls set up as the winners you might have expected them to sound the same, but the vocal style they marked out is closer to Steps with little deliniation between the voices and not much for the male singers to do. Indeed they're about as prominent here as on any of the group's hits because the lyrical conceit seems to demand it. Of course they did manage to outlast Hear'Say, but it didn't come without its price - they soon attracted the attention of another act already using the name Liberty and evidently didn't have such good lawyers as Blue, because they were compelled to append an X to the end of their name. I've tagged this entry with the name they used for the bulk of their career.

A decade later several of them seem to have ended up back on reality TV.

Also appearing on: Now 52, 53, 54 [with Richard X], 56, 62, 63
Available on: Thinking It Over