We're approaching the end of the year which can mean only thing...GREATEST HITS collections clogging up ya Cd rack! Its nearly a year since this place came to be & we've had a ball doing it. Over the time, we've had requests from those who simply missed out hearing the selections so this post is about going through our archives and slipping into them once more. These tracks define the reason why this place exists.....
Follow You Follow Me by Sonny featuring Tara
We covered this lovely bunch in March 2006. That seems such a decade ago! Anyway, this is the only time Phil Collins has ever seemed cool. Tara is now scientist or geologist. Pretty cool dontcha think? Buy here
Loves Gone Mad by Optimystic
Much has been said of Deuce, Steps and Scooch but it was Optimystic that was the mixed-gender band with cheesy tunes of the 1990's. This band bombed harder than all the aforementioned acts but they did release an ultra rare and poptastic album through an Florida-based record company despite only ever releasing singles in the UK. The men were rather cute too. I think they were from Manchester too. Buy here
Don't Place Nice by Verbalicious
Keeping the spirits of Wannabe and nearly everything by Betty Boo, Verbalicious and her Don't Place Nice made us all very excited. Despite a pretty good chart placing with this and recording an album called Verbal Issues she found herself on one of the worst record labels ever... AATW....Buy here
Life is So Strong by Sharon Williams
This was the very FIRST song ever uploaded on DontStopthePop. It completely gives Kylie's Your Disco Needs You a run for its money. The gayest thing since bumming was invented. Buy here
I Love Your Sushi by Daphne & Celeste
These girl's are still marauding the internet with their myspace flirtations and off-off Broadway productions. Which is nice. Buy here
Let's Get It Started by All Saints 1.9.7.5
This was requested by one of our readers and seeing All Saints are back in the charts we thought it would be prescient to revisit the 11 year old band with one of their first singles. Buy here
Play Boy Play by Ann Winsborn
We adore everything Swedish here at DontStopthePop. And we love Ann Winsborn whose albums always sound like the poptastical offsprings of Kylie's Fever. We loaded Play Boy Play in March 2006. Sounds a bit like a Cascada/Infernal track. Europop at its finest. Buy here
Underground Disco by Duke
Much has been made of gay electrorock duos but the first out there was Duke who are quite big in Japan. Forget Switch22, Duke taught those boyz everything they knew. Buy here
Speechless by Mish Mash
When Ella loaded this during our Danskepop season, it recieved loads of positive feedback. Now that Kylie is working with Kasper of MishMash we thought we should go back to this dancepop classic. Buy here
My Island Home by Christina Anu
Requested by many of our readers during our OzPop season. Christina Anu you might remember was one of the whores in the movie Moulin Rouge. This is one of my favourite songs ever to come out of Australia. Buy here
That Woman Is Me by Robyn
This song was considered lost. Now its found. It has never ever been released on a Robyn cd of any format. Consider it an unreleased gem from the period in-between Robyn is Here and her second album My Truth. Also posted in prep for Robyns return to UK shores! DontStopthepop adores Robyn. Throughout our tenure as bloggers we've done a number of Robyn specials where you can get all your, mostly unreleased, Robyn gems here and here. Buy here
Boobs by Ruth Wallis
Doris Day on ACID. Her lyrics caused so much controversary the FBI begun to build a case against her that would eventually lead to her being portrayed as a Communist spy. These plans never came forward but it just goes to show that Eminem and his ilk really are nothing new. Or rather, in the geneology of pop music, Ruth stands over Madonna and that aforementioned rapper as the true original fire starter. Buy here
Radio Star by Tara Blaise
Anthemic soul muzak with traces of electro and guitar pop. Tara is the best thing out of the Irish music scene since Six...Buy here
Let Me Be The One by Six
This band originally included Nadine of Girls Aloud but she was too smelly so they kicked her out. Produced by Waterman, Six promised to take over from Steps as the camp-as-christmas pop group but after producing just one album they bowed out in true TV-reality pop band style. If you have Marie's new single OxyGen you will hear very similar backing vocals...Buy here
Struggle by Ringside
Wins best ever lyric written: "milk the milk boy you just might get some insight". Yes the boys are holding hands. Yes they are American. One of them used to design clothes for Gwen Stefani. Mega-Kudos. Buy here
PopStar-Single mix by Jon 
We love this tune. It was part of Danksepop celebration. Written by Robyn and originally by Sita. This one includes some great lyrical changes so just pips the Dutch version. Also Jon is rather cute. Buy here
Hot Gossip:
-The return of Kylie!!!! These two pics are from Decs issue of Vogue-which Kylie appears in next month-are rather sublime! Kylie is back. I totally feel the fever. Pass me lem-sip!
-If you check out your CD sleeve of the recent Scissor Sisters album Ta-Dah just examine the man on the right. He's a very famous gay porn star. His name is Lukas Ridgeston(google him, this is a clean site!). I find it interesting no one has realised this yet?
-See Kylie dance to the Scissor Sisters on their official website Here.
-Ella's Danish parents have given her away to a Malawian superstar called Veronica Sully. Heat has already bought the exclusive rights to the first interview. Still, it beats getting a face-lift or being kidnapped by a strange Austrian for 8 years.
Blog Overview
-Pinkie of PopEatsPop stripped off which led J'ason of excellent ChartRigger to recall the back pages of Attitude. I sadly missed the cutest blogger of all whore himself. Oh well. He gave us a brilliant review and has now gone on to feature three excellent updates which, well quite frankly, puts us all to shame. He's making some blog-gold. Not to be missed.
-Paul at Zappin' is branching out like a Ivy all over your garden wall. The Zapping is not to be missed. He also attended a function where the waiters wore next to nothing. Its nice to see trends filter up to the midlands. Some time ago I attended a dress-up party in East London that had hired the original 'bare-butlers' on their very first job. It was a night of shocking revelations and dirty giggles. Here are some pics of the said event.
Note how we've all cornered the butler...I'm in both pics so you'll have to guess which one is moi! Although, only in one can you see all of me...It was an amazing night. I ended up in a hospital bed the next day though.
-Those naughty mints at OxygenChunks have the very fab Cd2 of the new Greatest Hits by Girls Aloud.
-Grab the brilliant Melissa Lefton LP(unreleased!) over at Tip Top Pop. So good it hurts. I just wish it was updated more though.
Coming up: more great pop and DontStopThePops very first Christmas special!
THE GREATEST HITS OF DONTSTOPTHEPOP
THE LONG OVERDUE MADE IN LONDON SPECIAL
Despite the album cover to the left...Perfect Storm has never EVER been released in any format in ANY country so enjoy:
I'm Not-The lead-off track from Perfect Storm. Uses tons of instruments. Sounds a bit like the lively moments from Will Young/Christina Aguilera most recent records and a bit Kelly Clarkson at times. NEVER RELEASED or AVAILABLE ONLINE UNTIL NOW! Click this
Believe-Beautiful song that has a melody/beat that would shockingly reappear on Madonna's Don't Tell Me! From Perfect Storm, NEVER RELEASED or AVAILABLE ONLINE UNTIL NOW! Click This
Shut Your Mouth(Album version)-"Soaring&rocking" song that was picked to be the second single from Perfect Storm. Far better than the single version. I can see Beverley Knight covering this sublime track with brilliant results. NEVER RELEASED or AVAILABLE ONLINE UNTIL NOW! Click This
Pull Up To The Bumper-Yes its really a cover of the Grace Jones classic. The girls do quite good. This was also made available as a b-side to their single Dirty Water. Click This
Satisfaction-Another rare track but not on UK "release" of Perfect Storm but on my Japanese promo. A storming rock track that has a killer chorus. Also available as a b-side to their second single Shut Your Mouth. Click this
So I'm back from my holidays. Its 2007 already! Well nearly. Who'd have thought it? Which means Christmas is about to rear its ugly head and we'll do a Christmas special soon in true camp style. So now to todays artists. Infront of my love of Robyn is Made In London which I think were sadly robbed of fame despite having some great music, lungs and production around them. Now their gentle mix between rnb, pop and rock is nothing special but in 2000 it was unheard of. Spice Girls were Hollering-Hollering while All Saints didnt know where to go. Sugababes, also a threesome like Made In London, were just sending out promo's for their rnb-lite debut One Touch which despite getting great feedback looked like it would flop. There was another 3 girl group called Kick Angel in 2000-which we will feature soon-but they were a bit too softcore to even get past their debut single. Made In London looked to be next big thing. Their sound was unique, they wrote their album and they looked every much the logical 3rd way to All Saints and Spice Girls.
After the chilling first single Dirty Water, came the second Shut Your Mouth. Both of which have all been featured here. But now to their ultra rare unreleased album Perfect Storm. I have a Japanese promo copy that came with 5 bonus tracks. Much of it sounds like a cross between Mania, the second album from All Saints and the sensitive moments on Girls Aloud records. Its such a shame that this album will never get to see the light of day cos its one of my favourites. If you like what you hear and want more I'd monitor this website. Sadly you want find Perfect Storm at places like Amazon....
So today I wanna say thanks to Made In London. They produced some great music and were just way before their time. Now most pop bands/acts have dropped the discopop(for Atomic Kitten) possibility for the poprock route(see P!nk, McFly, Frank, Kelly Clarkson Girls Aloud, Busted). Raise your glass for Made Of London. Now they'd be huge. Girls you were great and recorded the soundtrack of my mid-teens. Thanks!
Words: fierce, 3 girlbands, rock, pop, soul, withdrawn, unreleased, dontstopthepopspecials
ROBYN With Every Heartbeat-song of the year
Whilst this blogs' main players are off galivanting around the globe I thought it was my duty to come by on the account of the excitement surrounding the return of Robyn outside her domestic market. She's back with an EP, tour, collaborations with Basement Jaxx and a new studio album all for us UK pop sluts. For months Robyns return has been in the works and now it seems with places like Popjustice recieving goodies in the post its actually happening. Hopefully DontStopthepop will be able to be the place to bring you all the hot news, promo details, album news and tour dates.
DontStopThePop has a very special place in its huge heart for Robyn. It was here where many a new or unreleased Robyn track was premiered. You heard the sublime Christian Falk collaboration Dream On first here. The album from which that single was taken from, People Say, was finally released in Sweden & has got the blog SoundsofSweden in a fluster. Check out yet another People Say Robyn/Christian collab, C.C.C, over at SOS now(check the links to the right).
While there hasnt been an Robyn album this year her fans have been kept busy with new material in the form of collaborations. We've had the aforementioned Christian Falk stuff, girliestyle/cobrastyle with Teddybears and of course Basement Jaxx who plan to release the Robyn track, Hey You, next year. All of which is very good...
...But alas, With Every Heartbeat is the best thing shes done this year. Yes better than Dream On, Girliestyle, Hey You and CCC. Rob might disagree but i think it might be the best thing shes ever recorded. And we, I, hope you like it too.
Alas, DontStopthePop has had this track for some time but with the immanent return to the UK its time to celebrate and crack open the fine wine. When Rob is back he'll answer any questions you might have regarding it as I have no idea when it was recorded, what its for and who it was produced by. All I know is that theres a Teddybears connection, it was recorded this year and I don't think it was ever meant to be an Robyn release. Like with the Clea track this will be available for a very limited time so act quick.
Words: Robyn, stars, glimmer, dreams, electro hopes, cyber cotton cand, Moroder, Light Years
THE REVELATION THAT IS DANA GLOVER
Sing To Me
Testimony
Almost Had It All
River Of Love
And now for something completely different. DSTP has very rarely veered away from poptastic acts despite seeking out music from Ghana to Finland and beyond. However today we're venturing somewhere we've never really gone before. I do hope you like this little deviation.
There are times when an act fails to set the chart alight and your heart cries on their behalf especially when so many get away with so little and go so far. Today's act is one of those artists that makes you weep a thousands tears, move mountains, sends your nervous system into shock and taps into anger ever so deep when you find out she's without representation. Her name is Dana Glover. I feel quite strange sharing her with others as her music is so special and so few appear to have heard of her but to me but she;s the reason why I started this blog so here goes...
She comes from 'down-south' America and started as a model. But with the lungs of Aretha and the sax talents of the greats she was soon snapped up by DreamWorks who locked her into a contract without doing anything with her. Her first few baby steps into the world of music saw her doing backing vocals and adding a song to the Shrek soundtrack however in reality the record company had no idea what to do with her. She couldnt be dropped on the country market nor could she get played on the urban radio stations. Apparently, her demographic was "gone with the twinkle of the eye".
Talk about sitting on a oil mine...it wasnt before long other record companies brought out their Katie Melua's, Norah Joneses, Anastacias, Kelly Clarksons and Joss Stones and in a panic DreamWorks rushed out Dana's Testimony LP. However the cd was lost amongst those other girls and it wasnt long before she was dumped. Yet, Dana Glover's talent soars way above those aforementioned acts. Not only does she write all the songs, play every instrument you hear on the record but her vocals have to heard to be believed. Please please please if you like what hear support this wonderful, amazing and struggling act by purchasing her stunning debut Testimony here.
Also check out her rather cute brother who is just as talented as his sister at his myspace. He has the kinda voice that makes you dream of cotton candy and wedding days.
Small description of the songs up I suggest you download today:
The Way(The Radio Song): This song is about the total crap on the radio. This includes shout-outs to Stevie Wonder, James Brown, Al Green, Chaka and Aretha. Includes absolutely brilliant vocals from Dana Glover. If the world was perfect this song would be a radio hit.
Sing To Me: This is not on some versions of Testimony so its quite rare. It was originally written for Madonna's sequel to Ray Of Light but she wanted a different kinda sound and Music happened. Dana Glover hooks up with Patrick Leonard on this chilling and electronic aria.
Testimony: The title track from her first and, so far only, album. Recalls early Dolly Parton and is quite honkytonk pop. Takes ya to a church somewhere in Alabama even if you live in Liverpool or London. Contains a climax that I've never heard put to music. Its like Dana's vocals and the instruments are having a huge orgy. Check out the wild piano solo & clap ya hands sista's!
River Of Love: Talk about cheesy lyrics yet this song is a revelation. You think its a typical country/western/spit/in/the/bucket track when it starts but then it evolves into a grin-a-second epic love song.
Almost Had It All: Slowing it down now but this is a ballad of epic proportions. Yes it doesnt start off so huge but it builds and builds just as the woman recalls the broken promises and insults of an man who as she says almost had it all...
CLEA Hey You![previously unreleased demo]
Seeing as DontStopthepop is going on holiday for a month we thought we'd do something a bit special. So special in fact its split between two posts. The firsts consists of Britains only bubblegum pop act Clea, a girlband which drew their membership from the girls that didnt make the cut for Girls Aloud and minus TheJav.
For their second album Clea worked on a number of key comeback tracks namely Don't Go, Hey You and Kick Back Relax which all screamed hits!!! Sadly Don't Go was pulled due to a sample which wasnt given clearance and Kick Back Relax was given over to Agnes Carlsson who has had a huge hit with her version in Sweden this week. Hey You, despite being ever so catchy, didnt make the final cut for reasons unknown. The song includes brilliant choral chants in the introduction and bridge that reminds me Madonna's JellyBean records. Enjoy!
Oh and seeing as the girls are still signed & ready to reattempt U.K success with another single(which might be Hey You) the song up for grabs today is of lo-quality and slightly edited. DontStopthePop does this when acts are indie, breaking out and need all the help they can get. We don't wanna stop the pop and in fact we want it to go on and on and on. So the download uploaded tonight has been changed as we don't want to damage its potential if its ever released. You shouldnt notice that much of a difference but please, if you like what you hear, buy their Trinity album at all the usual places. Because DontStopthePop is so damn good to you we're gonna tell you where to buy the best+cheapest version of Trinity. Amazon? For sure you could buy it there but why not get the edition released in Hong Kong. It comes with a poptastic bonus disc AND a completely different, and I might add, a far better sleeve. Also as this unreleased it will only be up for a very short time so grab it while ya can!
Words: Demo's, exclusives, Madonna, Clea, Girls Aloud, Don't Stop the pop, bubblegum
Tomorrow expect a completely different type of performer whose vocals are so amazing your hairs on ya back will faint in sheer shock.
Other news:
Remember the boyband Ultra? They've released their second album totally out of the blue. Check it out here: http://www.indiestore.com/ultra/tracks Whatever next? A Code-Red release?
Postergirl's blog is so good it makes us all ashamed. Check out the brilliant recent Abs Breen post which includes a brilliant Japanese bonus track.
Check out hits you'd never guess were already recorded by other acts on Pinkiedusts brilliant blog. Notible threads include Waiting For Tonight, Come into My world, Torn, He's On The Phone and Too Lost In You.
Ella covered them today in her rant about Kylie. However Chris/Alex over at the excellent SoundsofSweden got their day earlier though. Check out their brilliant mp3's on the new electronic pop band, Zeitgiest, that's getting me rather excited. Very uber.
Check out the rather brilliant interview with PussyCat Dolls in the magazine for bummers of the London sort in Boyz here.
Hotstuff Files reveals Girls Aloud got dressed in the dark for their new promo pictures.
Talking of which Fetch Me Some Music have the setlist for the new Girls Aloud Greatest Hits. It looks brilliant. Just so you know there was once an Kylie unreleased track with the same title as no.15. Hmmmmmmmm
DONTSTOPTHEPOP KYLIE ROUND UP
Kylie is set to release a dubious cash-in this November. The re-release of the Greatest Hits will include absolutely nothing new nor special but a bonus DVD which most fans will have on the original DVD release. Personally, I think this is a missed opportunity & Kylie, my darling, it reaks of desperation. Still, its a rather great, if old, photo and somewhat lovely cover. By the way, thats the official cover...check out her very strange big right hand. Weird...
Remembering that Kylie is about the music rather than these sad little cash-ins, re-releases, silly books, clothing lines, perfumes, dolls and calendars are some lovely Swedes. The music collective Zeitgeist have covered and bettered Kylie's last single Giving You Up with excellent results. See the groundbreaking the video by Andreas Sundqvist here.
Keeping with Kylie, she's working with a Danish writer Kasper Winding who most will find somewhere in the credits of their Daft Punk & Air Cd's. Some others will know him as the guy behind the huge hit Speechless. A few months ago DontStopthePop pleaded for Kylie to work with him and she has! Is she a reader of DSTP? If so, hi Kylie!
THE FLIRTS JukeBox and Passion
Passion
Jukebox
So I'm busy for a few days and StEtienne are everywhere. Talk about small revolutions! Now, I personally loved the SET because they really recalled some lost disco melodies namely from the girlband The Flirts. The band, which changed their members more than the Sugababes, came straight outta New York and have dictated the sound of the city we commonly attribute to Cyndi Lauper, Blondie and now the Scissor Sisters. Before the Go-Go Girls, before Bananarama, before Toto Cuelo and before Strawberry Switchblade you had the Flirts. Their importance to the current pop music scene should never be underplayed. Put them up there with Pet Shop Boys, Blondie, Kraftwerk and Depeche Mode.
When I play their music I get stinking whiffs of the Meatpacking district with its backwash gay discos, fashion maestros strutting down some lost alley like it was the catwalks of Milan, the orgasmic cries of $2 crack whores and Madonna creeping in the background taking it all down in her notebook called "world dominination". This area of New York has since turned into the place to relocate to after most of the wasteland developed into trendy lofts. However I imagine the disco stiletto heels of The Flirts can still be heard clicking away behind some dumpster and their thumping electro baselines probably shape the air the second the clock hits midnight. As you can see they also created a certain performance that many put down as originating from drag queens...
The Flirts sound was hi-NRG/synth-pop that would soon be cheapened and stolen by the British girlband Bananarama. Not only did the knock-off "Flirts" consist of three girls with similar radical styles but they also had audacity to claim they were the pioneers of the hardbase girlpop attitude that we see all the time in acts of today such as Girls Aloud, Spice Girls and PussyCat Dolls. Well tonight its my job to piss on that myth.
Produced by Bobby Orlando, their music has been totally ripped off yet the copycats have never quite achieved the same brilliance of the originals. When they did cover other greats such as Dusty and Divine(yes him) they always improved on the original. The tracks picked hopefully illustrates their electropop/discoRock fierceness. Passion sounds like a cross between a Kylie/Scissor Sisters collaboration, a St Etienne demo and a Gwen Stefani no.1 single. JukeBox sounds somewhat like girlie tribute to the Swedish poprock band Melody Club, The Killers and Blondie.
