2001 in British music

This is a summary of 2001 in music in the United Kingdom, including the official charts from that year.

The year saw the tradition of UK acts dominating the top of the charts carried on from 2000. Songs were starting to spend 2–3 weeks at the summit improving on the large amounts of one week number ones from the previous year. CD sales also improved slightly with 3 million selling singles being issued this year. Overall, 30 songs topped the charts over the course of this year.

Summary

The first new #1 of the year was from the first ever Portuguese act to top the UK charts; Rui Di Silva featuring Cassandra and their dance track, "Touch Me" spent 1 week at the summit. The year ended with the announcement that the pop group Steps were to split up on Boxing Day.

21st century boybands

Five scored their final chart topper with the title track from their 3rd album, Kingsize, which peaked at #3. "Let's Dance" marked their final single as a group, with the follow up #4 hit, "Closer To Me" being released after news of the band's split. They released a Greatest Hits compilation at the end of the year which made #9. BBMak were another boyband to split, however their career was very short-lived with 2001 seeing the start and end of it. Their debut single, "Back Here" failed to make the Top 20 upon initial release, however was then re-issued and peaked at #5. The follow up single, "Still On Your Side" peaked at #8 and despite seeming to continue on with success, they disappeared after the release of their debut album Sooner Or Later, which was a very minimal Top 20 smash.

Blue were the most successful new boyband of 2001; their debut single "All Rise" only made #4, however with other boybands quickly fading away, it wasn't long before Blue could take centre stage. Their next 2 singles, "Too Close", a cover of the 1998 chart topper from US boyband Next & "If You Come Back", a slow love ballad quickly became chart toppers for the group. However, once again, Westlife became the most successful boyband of the year. Although their run of consecutive #1 singles had been broken the previous year by Bob The Builder, they quickly returned to the top spot with the Comic Relief single of the year, "Uptown Girl" (a cover of the Billy Joel 1983 UK #1) and "Queen Of My Heart". By the end of the year, they had accumulated a total of 9 #1 singles on the UK chart, putting them side by side with the Spice Girls & ABBA. Their 2nd album, entitled World Of Our Own, topped the UK albums chart for 1 week.

ABC aired a talent show, Making The Band, in which by the public vote, boyband O-Town were picked as winners. Their debut single, "Liquid Dreams" peaked at #3 in the UK and their follow up, "All Or Nothing", stalled one place lower.

Girl groups - changing styles

Girl groups were slowly changing away from 90s pop styles to a more R'N'B/Hip Hop direction. All Saints scored their final UK chart hit, with "All Hooked Up", a final release from their second album, peaking at #7. A greatest hits compilation, entitled All Hits followed, but it only made #18 on the albums chart.

Replacing Kerry Katona, Jenny Frost joined girl group Atomic Kitten, who became one of the main early 21st century pop girl groups. After the member change, the band's single "Whole Again", hit #1 for 4 weeks, becoming the longest stay since Westlife at New Year in 1999/2000 and also the 4th biggest selling single of the year. They scored a 2nd chart topper later in the year with a remake of The Bangles' "Eternal Flame" chart topper from 1989, which spent 2 weeks at the top and continued on to be one of the most successful groups of the decade.

Destiny's Child started the new trend for girl groups to veer away from pop, as their chart topping second album, Survivor spanned a 2nd consecutive #1 hit with the title track. The third single, "Emotion" peaked at #3. Mis-teeq, a girl group in a similar vein to Destiny's Child, scored great success throughout the year, with their #3 album Lickin' On Both Sides spanning 3 Top 10 hits; "Why", their #8 debut, "All I Want" (#2) & One Night Stand (#5). 3LW also made their debut on the UK charts with the #6 hit "No More (Baby I'ma Do Right)". Their follow up single only made #21 and their eponymous debut album was not released in the UK.

Film and TV music

2001 was a moderately successful year for film and television music, providing some memorable hit singles and albums. The Tweenies and Bob The Builder both released singles, the former of which was a Christmas release making #9 and the latter having his 2nd #1 single with a re-make of the #1 from 1999 by Lou Bega, "Mambo No. 5". This 2nd #1 made Bob the first non-human who "sung" on his recordings to hit the top more than once.

Two very successful movies, Moulin Rouge! and Bridget Jones's Diary, had equally successful soundtracks and produced memorable hit singles each. On the Bridget Jones soundtrack, former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell had a chart-topping hit with a cover of the Weather Girls classic "It's Raining Men", while Gabrielle provided her vocals on the #4 hit "Out Of Reach" which became her first Top 5 single since the chart-topping "Rise" in early 2000. The Moulin Rouge!collaboration proved to be slightly more successful with Christina Aguilera joining forces with Pink, Lil Kim and Mya on a cover of the 1975 hit single "Lady Marmalade" (itself previously covered in 1998 by All Saints. Their version proved to be even more successful, topping the charts worldwide and becoming the 900th single to top the UK charts.

Glitter became Mariah Carey's acting debut and the soundtrack became her 10th album release. Despite her massive worldwide success throughout the 90s, the new millennium did not take so kindly to her as both the movie and the soundtrack were a critical and commercial flop. Lead single "Loverboy" failed to make much of an impact, peaking at #12 in the UK (made #2 in the US, breaking her run of lead single chart toppers). The album peaked at #10 in the UK, another weak showing on Carey's behalf. Interestingly enough although the former of these singles failed to chart in the US and the latter was not released due to the weak performance of prior singles, "Never Too Far/Last Night a DJ Saved My Life" was able to crack the UK Top 40, peaking at #32.

Although it wasn't a huge success, LeAnn Rimes scored her 6th Top 40 hit in the UK, "I Need You", from the US TV mini-series, Jesus. Gone were the days when she could belt out a power ballad like "How Do I Live" that simply refused to leave the charts.

Charts

Singles

Albums

Top 40 Singles of 2001

Top 40 Albums of 2001

Categories

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