Crazy Frog / Akon - The worst Top two ever??

Mike Flowers Pops were GREAT! That song desperately needed all the pomposity stripped from it. And I'll take "what about elephants" over either of the current top 2 as well.

Funnily enough i was thinking the same thing about you.

The horror.

Dude, it's also HIS voice - he just sounds pathetic. But I've NEVER liked pitched up Pinky & Perky style voices, not even when I was a kid myself (possible exception being the fading outro of 'Star Trekkin'), a lot of happy hardcore I couldn't bear because of it. Maybe it qualifies as a phobia?

i have only heard it on the tv adverts but it has mystified me why people buy it when it is on the tv practically incessantly? please note, i am not flaming your choice of single purchase but genuinely interested as buying patterns of top 40 singles fascinate me.

Also, how are Jamster managing the block advertising thing? Is it really making them THAT much money? What is the actual point of advertising THAT much? Seems like a waste of money in spite of the success rate. One assumes that it works a bit like the way big record shops purchase new singles in large quantities in order to do the 99p first week of release thing.

People don't hate them THAT much. There's a weird thing in the UK in that the bands that sell the most albums here never seem to end up notching up #1 singles alongside. U2 and Oasis the exceptions to this unwritten rule. It seemed fairly obvious that Crazy Frog would go to #1 so I don't know why COldplay didn't fancy taking Oasis on instead.

apparently the advertising standards authority has been inundated with complaints about the frequency of the ads but there is nothing they can do about it.

Worst non-Christmas top 2 ever definitely

i'd say this, from Nov '79, was infinitely worse than anything mentioned so far:
1. Dr. Hook - When You're In Love With A Beautiful Woman
2. Lena Martell - One Day At A Time

I like the Coldplay song too. I amuse myself by calling them 'Cold Porridge'. Oh, I do have fun.

I am disappointed that Tom didn't buy it for himself. I thought he was on a mission. Crazy Frog may be ubiquitous now, but it won't be in thirty years' time. I was hoping that Grandpa Tom would be able to listen to it on his gram-o-phone while everyone else has to listen to the new Coldplay album. But actually it will be Mark S.

This makes it sound like the chart is picked by a committee!!! No-one who goes out and buys a single (apart from Tom, maybe) really thinks 'I'm buying this because it ought to be no. 1', surely: they're thinking 'I like this', or 'I want to be able to hear the majesty of the crazy frog even though I have not tv or mobile phone', or 'this is really annoying, it'll drive my brother / sister / parents etc. crazy', or 'I will be the coolest kid at school with this', or 'wow aren't I cool for buying such authentic kitsch', or 'this will be worth a bob or two on ebay in ten years time', or 'my broadband is busted but I must have this song', or etc. etc. The chart is not a reflection of any kind of social consciousness or decision making process, it is purely a statistical indicator of how many people made certain kind of choices. So I suppose you're saddened that more people didn't make the choice you would have made, i.e. buy 1 thing (but did you buy it? perhaps more 1 thing fans are dodgy downloaders?). The chart doesn't even tell us anything about the popularity of a song! I don't understand why people romanticise it: the idea that 'Britain officially likes this song more than that one' is the ideology peddled by the chart itself, and goes along with all sorts of other stuff 'Britain is a 'nation'', 'nations exist and it is sensible to align political and ethnic boundaries' (personally I think it may be sensible, but it is not just), and all sorts of stuff about the relationship between culture (in any sense of the word) and personal worth, the list could go on.

(Not having a go, WBS, I just think it's an interesting point).

I don't know what 1 Thing is, which might explain its absence from 'the coveted top spot' (not me personally, obv, I'm not on the committee).

What I was talking about was this peculiar idea that was getting peddled in the media (admittedly, I've been listening to Radio 2 a heckuvalot lately) that Crazy Frog denying poor ickle Coldplay their first number one single was in some way was one of the greatest miscarriages of justice ever, splitting it into some kind of 'either/or' whereby people who like music buy Coldplay and people who buy the Crazy Frog single are chavs who should be hunted down and placed in a gigantic net that will be ceremonially dumped off the coast of Essex by TV's Dermot O'Leary RAH. Which I suppose is a kind of committee thinking, yes.

alls I was saying was that the number one spot on the chart is meant to be an accolade reserved for particularly special records, and 'Speed Of Sound', whichever way you slice it, is not special, it is A.N. Other Coldplay single that as we speak is probably being used to soundtrack David Dimbleby doing a piece to camera near some cliffs. It's not the horror it's being painted as here (raise you 'Alcoholic' by Starsailor), but, sociological relevance or no, #1 singles are generally seen as being in some way a bit special or exalted or apart and so on. The number one spot in the charts is still reported with great excitement. 'Speed Of Sound' is not exciting. '1 Thing' is.

alls I was saying was that the number one spot on the chart is meant to be an accolade reserved for particularly special records

This idea was pretty much dead by the time "How Much Is That Doggy In The Window?" got to No.1, no?

I think part of the charm of the charts is how a collection of statistical oddities can be 'read' to reflect all sorts of different things.

I like that programme too, but the paintings are awful!

This idea was pretty much dead by the time "How Much Is That Doggy In The Window?" got to No.1, no?

It's funny you should mention that, because I'm quite keen on my recent purchase of the Pinky and Perky version of that song, which strikes me as anticipating George Clinton with its off-the-beat barking.

Perhaps we are all being decided by a committee.

I've not seen it, but I've heard the adverts for it on Radio 2. I've got a feeling that's more or less the same thing.

Anyway, back on topic - 'Spirit In The Sky' (Gareth Gates & The Kumars version) and 'All I Have'.

This seems rather wise. I suppose what WBS was commenting on, and I (misreading his comments) was actually agreeing with was the poverty of the most dominant ways of 'reading' the charts. I like the idea of the chart as competition, and love the idea of the (random? arbitrary?) statistical juxtaposition of different products. I guess the kinds of reading of the chart I like are those which involve dissensus rather than consensus, so I like the polemic view (crazy frog (kitsch) vs coldplay (triumph of the banal) vs Amerie (beloved of taste-makers), rather than the social organism view.

I heard the grime-sounding rmx of this on the train a few days ago.

I tried to rationalise my contempt for 'Lonely' and it's really just down to what amounts to a phobia of squeaky/high-pitched voice combined with phobia of slushy, twee/trite sentiments.

Chris Martin and Akon both seem like awful self-pitying chumps on their records, seemingly unaware of how trite they sound (perhaps not caring and that means they're REAL...only without real power behind the voice or music it's just not convincing or arresting in a way that would make me like the tracks, think they're good and want to listen to them).

Tried to imagine Coldplay doing a fun track last night...I would actually like to see an attempt. The odd thing is that Martin 'trivialises' the sentiment of his songs further by making Crazy Frog noises or even Michale Jackson (via Timberlake) style yelps when performing. This is good, but if he wants to have fun why not actually write fun songs about having fun in the first place??

What makes you think that?

The Hard-Fi single rapidly sours, don't worry about it.

Hmmm, somehow it's loveable dross (as Akon and TCF is to others).

01. Crazy Frog - "Axel F"
02. R. Kelly - "Trapped In The Closet Pt. 2"
03. R. Kelly - "Trapped In The Closet Pt. 1"
04. Crazy Frog - "Axel F (Dancehall Remix)"
05. R. Kelly - "Trapped In The Closet Pt. 3"
06. Crazy Frog - "Axel F (Reggaeton Remix)"
07. Bonecrusher - "The Real Gilligans Island Theme"
08. R. Kelly - "Trapped In The Closet Pt. 4"
09. Crazy Frog - "Axel F (Baille Funk Remix)"
10. Coldplay - the one wot nicks "Computer Love"

YOKO 2?!?

are you FUCKING INSANE?

Gwyneth Paltrow is a decent enough actress. Yoko, on the other hand, is a genius.

No one complained when Kanye did it!

Haha alex you must not have read many of the kanye threads!

I think I've said this before, but "Lonely" gets better the more you've had to drink. Drunken singing with the chipmunk.

-- zebedee (zebede...), June 7th, 2005.

This is a GREAT top two!

I think Eamonn and Frankie have it, so far.

1. Seven Tears - Goombay Dance Band
2. The Lion Sleeps Tonight - Tight Fit

2) Hollaback Girl - Mizzzzz Stefani
1) We Belong Together - Mizzzzzzz Mariah

USA! USA! USA!

They're not. They are all as offensivley mediocre as each other.

Anyway, Isn't Crazy Frog a European rather than an exclusively UK thing?

I heart Lauren.

I didn't see it but I imagine they just projected the video on a big screen whilst a quintet of anodyne starlets did some standard choreobics.

How come I have never heard this coming out of anyone's mobile telephone? I think the ringtone is a myth.

No one will tell me what was number 2 when Wuthering Heights was number 1. 12 weeks from 11 feb 1978. Probably some post-punk then. I need the Guiness Book of Number 2 Singles.

PJM - you're not saying that Wuthering Heights is crap are you?

I think you're right. Or maybe I don't hang around school playgrounds enough. And maybe that is a good thing.

It is still odd though how you can exposed to the icon and everything about the icon other than the original product it was designed for. I have never heard it as an actual ringtone either.

I am that co-worker. I think PJM is being controversial. I think it's a stance. I can see it from here.

I thought 'Denis' was number 1.

What was Feb 4th 1978.

I frogot my question mark.

Did you see what I did there?

#23 in February 1965.

As it was the day I was born, I feel compelled to agree.