Cee-lo: got it out of his system
It’s a salutory lesson for the old way of doing (music) business. Robbie Williams and Gary Barlow have plugged their comeback single on every possible radio and TV outlet, chummed up on Strictly and Paul O’Grady and still Shame, the biggest UK music story in years, can’t get to number one.
The duo have been f-bombed by Cee-Lo Green whose foul-mouthed F*** You, retitled Forget You for Radio 2 listeners, is heading for the top, with sales of 33,000 to 24,000 according to the midweek charts.
The Atlanta singer’s “dissing the ex” song, of course, became a viral sensation, chalking up 2 million YouTube plays in its first five days and beat X Factor uploads to become the UK’s most viewed clip.
F**k You was also featured on 4,500 music blogs around the world and topped the Hype Machine MP3 blog aggregator.
But despite being freely available online the “cheap as chips” marketing campaign stoked up demand for fans to actually buy the track and release dates were brought forward.
It helps that F*** You is a smart funk-soul track and much more than a novelty record. Green’s Lady Killer album, out next month, has more of the same. If you like Plan B, you’ll probably be getting it for Xmas.
Shame however sounds like a Gary Barlow tribute song and the Brokeback Mountain video and TV performances may have unsettled the duo’s core audience. There’s better on the full Take That with Robbie album to come.
Now that really ought to get to number one, unless Simon Cowell has other ideas.
