Best Song of 2001: Heat #5

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Alicia put up a good fight but eventually the smaller-eyed singer won out - Bedingfield is THRU THIS. Britney, Jay-Z, Blu Cantrell and the White Stripes join him, with Nelly Furtado scraping through in 5th.

What's up next? Missy, Mariah, Martine and Mis-teeq await your ticks in Heat #5...

• You get a maximum of TEN TICKS over the three bits of the poll. The top five will go through to the next stage.



• If you want to change your vote (or tick too many by mistake), you can edit your votes by clicking on 'Poll #12345' then 'Fill Out Poll'.



• UK chart placings given in brackets.



• You have until Tuesday lunchtime to vote.



• Rep for your favourites in the comments! Youtube embeds very welcome.

[Poll #1437699]

Comments

what I need from you is not available in stores

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

For a while, J-Lo really was the best singles artist on the planet, wasn't she? My favourite thing about this video is how you just KNOW she demanded some assistant scurry along behind her picking up all the bling she cast off.

Such an immense pop song too, I love that BOOMING beat and that weird bouncing bassline and those amazing backing vox in the second verse - "you don't understand..."



Why are people ticking 'Lady Marmalade', btw? I mean...I don't hate it, it's impossible to hate, but it's just a shonky cover of a standard, right, nothing more and nothing less? There's so much similar stuff which is more deserving in this heat...

Re: what I need from you is not available in stores

[bengraham.livejournal.com]

I ticked 'Lady Marmalade' precisely because I felt there was nothing more deserving. Actually, I think I prefer the Pink/Lil' Kim/Mya/Christina version to the Labelle or All Saints versions.

Re: what I need from you is not available in stores

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

The All Saints version really needs to be erased from history. In fact All Saints were the worst covers band ever (compared to their rest of their awesome singles run).

Re: what I need from you is not available in stores

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Cr4p, I didn't see J-Lo and I typed the bloody poll out. FAIL. Right, byebye Outkast.

Re: what I need from you is not available in stores

[meserach.livejournal.com]

How is this languishing so badly right now? I thought this was a qualifier for def.

Re: what I need from you is not available in stores

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

Indeed. I said once on ILX that this is one of the most influential R&B songs of its time. Loads of European songs "borrowed" the hook in the ensuing months.

Re: what I need from you is not available in stores

[koganbot]

I'll probably end up ticking it, seeing as how I've got seven ticks to spend, and Lex is right, she really did put out a string of good singles, but I don't particular feel much from or towards her in any of those singles.

Re: what I need from you is not available in stores

[infov0re.livejournal.com]

I don't like it very much, but there's something about the production that really works for me - it feels very much slap bang in the middle of its era and genre; somewhat defining.

Oh, and I'd forgotten the Dance Break.

Re: what I need from you is not available in stores

[koganbot]

I don't hate it, it's impossible to hate

No it isn't! Loud, brassy, irritating attention-getter, can't stand it (though I'm sure I'll have to Boney Joan Rule that description).

Re: what I need from you is not available in stores

[meserach.livejournal.com]

STILL languishing. This cannot be borne!

Re: what I need from you is not available in stores

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

intolerable imo. can't work out for the life of me why anyone would tick the milquetoast liteness of bextor over j-lo's booming brassiness.

(not just here: while i don't hate bextor, the fact that she's held up as some sort of perfect pop star by many is totally baffling, at least partly because she's only ever had one good song, 'groovejet'.)

Re: what I need from you is not available in stores

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

Well, I ticked both. But you're quite right. There's no comparison really. And I must tick that awesome Foxy Brown tune. So bye bye S-EB.

Re: what I need from you is not available in stores

[weasel-seeker.livejournal.com]

Still not in the top 5? Seriously? What do we have to do?

Probably holds up the best of anything she did, and as much as I grew tired of her at the height of her ubiquity, her singles were really ace.

Seriously, this song is good enough that I forgive it for leading to the Canadian derivative "Shook" by Shawn Desman, which is truly truly awful.

Re: what I need from you is not available in stores

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

Joint 5th now. We're dragging it up by its boot straps. One last heave...