"leap frogging ahead of Holly Valance"

Music Amid the Jubilee jubilations (oh BBC where art thou?) I forgot to mention the important news that as part of their celebration of sixty years of the pop charts, The Guardian selected Freak Like Me from the "Sugababes" as the best single of 2002, leap frogging ahead of Holly Valance, DJ Sammy and Las Ketchup.  Actually, that's unfair.  The slow version of Heaven is extraordinary.

Given that Paul Morley thinks it's one of the best singles of all time (or at least he did in 2008) that shouldn't come as too much of a surprise and for all my fierce loyalty to the original line-up even I acknowledge the rot hadn't completely set in by the time of the second album which contains much great work and a coherent sound even if it's a different coherent sound to One Touch.

Glancing down that list, I'm reminded that every year offers a balance of rubbish production line nonsense and genuinely great records.  2002 brought Girl's Aloud's Sounds of the Underground, Liberty X's A Little Bit and Nelly featuring Kelly Rowland's Dilemma not to mention JXL's storming remix of Elvis's A Little Less Conversation.  Sadly it also saw Daniel Beddingfield at number one, twice.  Thank goodness for the "Sugababes".

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