Just a simple song but God I love it Embedded in me, so bittersweet I’m addicted, I’m a melancholic Sing it again, I’ll be your Poll forever: THE BOO RADLEYS - ILM artist poll #60 or new numbering #65

While I like Lazy Day as a kind of a throwaway song, it didn't get near my top 25, and I didn't expect to see it in top 10! It's a very energetic 1 minute and 34 seconds admittedly and a fun little song, but it's just too short and simple to be a classic. Coming up next: Tranquillo? :p

Can't believe there's only six songs left. I won't reveal my number one yet but it's not looking good for it.

Coming up next: Tranquillo?

i completely forgot about that. for those of you who don't know. that is a song that is before the first song on Kingsize. you have to rewind the CD to get to that song.

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-13vN7GP1i8w/VTqVUVWuZ2I/AAAAAAAAAfE/VJkG0GZtTls/s400-no/C%27Mon%2BKids%2Bm.jpg

6. New Brighton Promenade
From: C’mon Kids
Released: Aug 14, 1996
362 Points, 12 Votes

YouTube

yes, a song i voted for around 12 or so. such a brilliant little song.

"This life is not easy
but one thing that can please me
the memory of me and my friends
kickin' round your shores"

This is the song C'mon Kids song I was referring to earlier. Had no idea it would be this high but very happy to see it here.

New Brighton Promenade was #13 on my list, and my favourite from C'mon Kids. The song always makes me feel a bit nostalgic.
I'm listening to it again right now and wondering why I didn't put it higher on my list. That's top 10 material, easily... but, you know, the competition is tough.

Another one I thought only I liked - surprised and pleased to see it up here

It was my number six. It's always been my favourite C'mon Kids song.

I find it strange and quite surprising that no song has got more than 12 votes (out of 21) even at this stage! How Wake Up Boo! for example only got 5 votes is beyond me. We all really seem to like different kind of songs.

I mean, I would have thought that the songs in Top 10 would have been on pretty much everyone's list.

Youtube comment under NBP:

It's a shame that the Boo Radleys are remembered chiefly for the breakfast show staple "Wake Up Boo!". "C'mon Kids" is a forgotten masterpiece, a proper "journey" of an album whose greatness creeps up on you. The glorious "I believe in love" crescendo of "Four Saints" perfectly sets up this 3 minutes of nostalgic pop genius.

arrgh! i didn't realise you'd be counting down over the weekend!

just been catching up. very surprised at the amount of Kingsize and Learning To Walk songs, especially in proportion to GS and Wake Up. Nothing wrong with these (Learning to Walk has gone up in my estimation in recent years, not so much Kingsize which is their Think Tank - a good handful of good songs and a good few clunkers too). Still holding out for my number 1.

I am refreshing this page quite a lot right now.

Top 5

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-otXFoYWzph4/VT1Ev316RyI/AAAAAAAAAsE/sq0BaV8Sg3c/w400-h350-no/From%2BThe%2BBench%2BAt%2BBelvidere%2Btwo%2Bm.jpg

5. From The Bench At Belvedere
From: Stand Alone Single (not on an album)
Released: Sept 22, 1995
374 Points, 11 Votes, 1 Number One

YouTube
Can't find the video :-(

Hooray! This was my number one. One of the most beautiful songs ever.

OTM!

love, love, love this song, sounds like summer. just checked my ballot to see where i placed it and come to find out i actually didn't vote for it? wow, very shocked that this one dropped off.

this is a great song. it deserved to be as big a hit as WUB. My first ever gig by a 'proper' band was the Boos touring this EP at Cambridge Corn Exchange on my 15th(?) birthday.

Always thought it was strange how quickly it came out after It's Lulu.

listening back to the boos in recent weeks, i can't help but feel I can still listen to everything from Wake Up and before while the C'Mon Kids through Kingsize era has aged rather poorly for some reason. Even though C'Mon Kids was supposed to be a return to the experimentalism of Giant Steps, there's something a little plastic and polished about the production. It suffers from coming straight after the Oasis era when suddenly even bands who had preceded them - Ride (in the guise of Hurricane #1); The Stone Roses (The Seahorses) had to have a particular guitar sound. Even the cover of Kingsize SCREAMS 'Hey it's 1998 - we've got a software package and we're going to use it!'

It's Lulu is such a wretched song. They really should've taken it off the album, let alone released it as a single. Reaching Out From Here or Twinside would have made much better choices.

not so much Kingsize which is their Think Tank

i think i'd think a lot more highly of kingsize if they'd left off free huey. it ruins the flow and there are already just a few too many songs on there.

that is funny you should say that about "It's Lulu." both "Free Huey" and "It's Lulu" got no votes. i think "It's Lulu" is okay but i have also heard Martin Carr doesn't like it either.

Find The Answer Within and It's Lulu are my two least favourite singles on Wake Up.

i quite like 'Find the Answer Within'. Not sure it was the best choice of follow-up to WUB though. I like the backwards singing on that one - played forward they say 'If you like a lot of fighting with your football, join our club' and 'Can you see the little doggies do it doggy style?'

From The Bench at Belvidere is pretty great, but to me it doesn't sound like same kind of a potential hit as Wake Up Boo!
It's Lulu seems to have bombed and isn't gonna appear in this poll, but I don't get all the hate for the song. It's the same kind of a throwaway song as Lazy Day for me - just a fun little track in between the more interesting stuff. I guess it's the most WUB-like song on the album, which is why someone at Creation decided that it'd be a good single. Martin Carr himself apparently doesn't rate the track that high either. Reaching Out From Here might have been a decent choice for the third single, but I disagree about Twinside.

Obviously I meant those are two least favourite songs not just singles.

'Old Newsstand' should have been a single. Why wasn't it a single?

I think Twinside would have been a great single. It's such a brilliant and catchy song that shows a different side to the album. I think this is how the singles should have gone.

Twinside
Wake Up Boo!
Reaching Out From Here
Stuck on Amber

whenever i played Kingsize i do skip "Free Huey" and sort of look at that album without that song. when i was playing Kingsize this time around for this poll i did listen and found that it doesn't bother me anymore.

I remember someone once describing that song as "crap jazz". I love that song, but I could think of a few better singles from Kingsize.

re: Lulu - it's just so cheesy and plays into the hands of the 'Boos just write happy-clappy radio-pop' crew. The lyrics and subject matter are just bad bad bad - Kevin & Perry in song format with loads of throwaway 'here she comes now, here she comes now, it's Lulu' stuff. just brash, clunky and unintentionally condescending.

I am listening to Kingsize now with Free Huey taken out and it's a lot easier on the ears. I'm actually enjoying 'Monuments for a Dead Century', which I always felt was a bit forced. Without Free Huey on the album the songs flow together much better, almost in a similar way to GS.

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-g9CryKTJqKg/VT1LiRieYxI/AAAAAAAAAs0/ZyyIa0dw3pg/w400-h419-no/Wish%2BI%2BWas%2BSkinny%2Bm.jpg

4. Wish I Was Skinny
From: Giant Steps and Stand Alone Single
Released: Sept 30, 1993
387 Points, 13 Votes

Music video by The Boo Radleys performing Wish I Was Skinny

didn't make my list but a fun song. catchy Boos.

Always felt Wish I Was Skinny was a good song but never liked how it came in on GS (same as Barney & Me). This musically and lyrically straight-forwarded song slam in the middle of a spaced-out, psychedelic trip. Bit conflicted about it coming in quite so high to be honest and starting to worry my number 1 won't make it.

Twinside as the first single? Had that actually happened, we might not be here now talking about this poll! I just can't imagine it being such a huge radio friendly hit as Wake Up Boo! was. WUB is just insanely catchy - twenty years later people still remember that refrain and the trumpets. Twinside is obviously a very cool track, but it hasn't got any catchy "hooks" like that.

I'm pleasantly surprised by New Brighton Promenade's high placing. It's tucked away in the last third of C'Mon Kids and rarely gets mentioned as a stand out, but it's really sweet and great and goes to prove the Boos' greatest moments were never necessarily their most prominent.

xpost Oh yeah, I never listen to Free Huey whenever I play that album.

Take WUB and It's Lulu out the equation and the Wake Up album is an incredibly bleak record; on a par with The Bends for quiet, contemplative miserabilism mixed witht he odd flourish of sixties psychedelia. Makes for slim pickings in following up WUB, admittedly, but Twinside was indie-club friendly and rocked quite a lot, so I'd have had that over It's Lulu anytime.

I think of Twinside being the lead single like Lenny being the lead single from I Should Coco. Instead of putting Alright out straight away they went with a harder sounding song probably knowing Alright would be a massive hit later on that kept the album selling for the rest of the year.

Wow, Kingsize is really effing good without that horrible song on it. Just constantly doing different things and yet a steady vibe flowing through it. It's a fine album.

bloody hell, i am worried about the next two songs. evidently everyone knows what #1'll be

if it's Barney & Me, I'll feel very deflated.

Wish I Was Skinny was my #10! It's indeed as musically and lyrically straight-forward as possible (like a few other Boos pop gems), but not everything has to be so complicated. Carr had (and still has) the tendency to go all weird at some point in most of his songs, which is one thing that made The Boos such a great band, but every now and then he also managed to keep things simple which was also cool. I always thought that The Boos found the perfect balance between that weirdness and the simplicity.

Wow, Kingsize is really effing good without that horrible song on it. Just constantly doing different things and yet a steady vibe flowing through it. It's a fine album.

this makes me very happy. wonder if you would ever see the day. :-)