Olly Murs Daily

Writers: Ryan Tedder, Ammar Malik, Noel Zancanella

Producers: Ryan Tedder, Noel Zancanella

Album: Never Been Better

Release Date: 27/03/2015

B-Side: Seasons (Adam Turner Radio Mix) (Credits as above)

Chart Positions: #34 (UK), #18 (Scotland), #58 (Ireland)

Sales: 20-30k (UK, estimated)

As we touched on briefly with the entry for ‘Up’, the reason why Demi Lovato ended up on that single was part of a wider drive from Columbia, his US label, to push Olly’s profile Stateside. And it was also apparent in other collaborations on the ‘Never Been Better’ album – the third single being a fine case in point.

As well as being the frontman of pop rock band OneRepublic, Ryan Tedder is a one man pop hit writing machine of his own accord, having written countless international chart toppers like ‘Bleeding Love’ for Olly’s fellow X Factor alumni Leona Lewis, as well as ‘Halo’ for Beyoncé, ‘Rumour Has It’ for Adele and ‘Burn’ for Ellie Goulding to name but several. And it was he who co-wrote and produced this single.

‘Seasons’ was a very different sounding record for Olly at that time, with a darker lyric and a chorus that wasn’t quite a chorus over a minimal ska backing: ‘Listen, honey / To every word I say / I know that you don’t trust me / But I’m better than the stories about me’. And a series of infectious ‘woo-hoos’ that acted as another surrogate chorus. Popjustice, the usually caustic (certainly towards Olly) and irreverent pop music blog were full of praise for once, stating ‘there's loads to like about this, the third single from Olly's latest album ... [it’s] that rare pop beast: a song about holding your hands up and going, "fine, yes, I'm a bit of a w***er".

It was the first tentative signs of what the album campaign to follow was to hold, not least in the fast moving, stylised promo video from Ben Turner, which almost jarred slightly with how fans saw Olly, as he was caught red handed having an affair with another woman, whilst moving through a series of sets with changing seasons before rekindling over some kind of half Argentine tango with his jilted love interest at the end.

It’s certainly not one of his videos that’s stood up well with four years’ distance and didn’t as effectively mark his transition into a mature and respectable pop artist. It was one of those classic cases of the song being better than the video. With ‘Up’ still hanging around the charts, and rehearsals for the ‘Never Been Better’ tour being all consuming, it meant that whatever impact this single did have would be minimal.

So the fact it did secure Olly his fourteenth UK top 40 hit in the face of all that was something rather wonderful indeed, particularly for one of its strongest singles. As it entered the chart, he headed out on the arena tour for ‘Never Been Better’, and news broke of a very high-profile gig indeed for Olly on the TV front whilst he did so – but that’s another story for the next two entries...

OTHER THOUGHTS

Guest Artist: Demi Lovato

Writers: Wayne Hector, Daniel Davidsen, Maegan Cottone, Peter Wallevik, Mich Hansen

Producers: Cutfather, Daniel Davidsen, Peter Wallevik

Album: Never Been Better

Release Date: 04/01/2015

B-Side: Up (Live Acoustic Version) (Credits as above) / 'Dear Darlin’' (Live Performance at ITV Special)' (See 'Dear Darlin’' entry for writing credits)

Chart Positions: #4 (UK), #3 (Ireland), #3 (Slovenia), #5 (South Africa), #6 (Austria), #8 (US), #8 (Hungary), #9 (New Zealand), #14 (Australia), #15 (Belgium), #15 (Italy), #17 (Germany), #22 (Czech Republic), #28 (Switzerland), #29 (Slovakia)

Sales: 600k (UK, Platinum), 140k (Australia, 2x Platinum), 50k (Italy, Platinum), 15k (New Zealand, Platinum)

Nominations: ‘Best British Single’, BRIT Awards 2016

No sooner had 'Wrapped Up' charted - and foundered in its quest to give Olly another lead number one single from a new album - then plans almost immediately moved onto the single that was to follow it. And for only the second time in his career, it was to be a track that he didn't have a hand in writing.

An early demo of 'Up', written for the main part by one of his long time collaborators, Wayne Hector, and produced by the legendary Danish pop producer Cutfather - who had been behind countless UK and international chart toppers over a twenty year plus career - was put forward in the initial recording sessions for the 'Never Been Better' album.

A rousing, almost country esque mid-tempo thumper about rekindling the spark in a relationship gone awry that called to mind Lady Antebellum’s ‘Need You Now’, it was clear that Olly had recorded a sure-fire smash, but he felt that it needed another presence on it to elevate it to another level. Chiefly, in contrast to his other collaborations to that point, it needed a female vocal. Numerous different names were touted and approached - amongst them, Nicole Scherzinger, Cheryl and Ellie Goulding. But for his US label Columbia, keen on building Olly's Stateside profile after the success of the 'Right Place Right Time' album, they had their eyes on a much bigger star.

Enter Demi Lovato. A child star from the age of 10, she was one of the big breakout stars from the Disney fold like Britney Spears, Hilary Duff and Miley Cyrus before her, best known at that point for her role alongside Jonas Brothers in the 'Camp Rock' films for the Disney Channel. She had already successfully crossed over to a contemporary pop career, and was relatively well known to British audiences, having hit the UK top 10 with the hits 'Skyscraper' and 'Heart Attack'. However, her success here was a drop in the ocean compared to what it was Stateside, where she was absolutely huge – and in a further tie with The X Factor, she was also a judge on the US version of the series.

It made sense therefore, to have her on board for 'Up'. Demi flew over to the UK to film the video with Olly in November 2014, which saw them go hell for leather, Aerosmith style, around an old apartment, literally tearing down walls and smashing up instruments to find each other. She returned just a few weeks later at the start of December, when Olly and Demi debuted their first – and to date only - performance of the single together on the final of that year’s X Factor at Wembley Arena.

Even though the single didn’t officially appear until the new year, the impact of the performance and the song had clearly crossed over in a big way, as just on sales of the track as an album cut, it raced into the top 5 for Christmas that year, eventually settling at a peak of #4. It was still on the chart and all over the airwaves three months later, when Olly’s next single we’ll meet in our next review made its debut.

The plan had been to push ahead with this as a summer single in America following the release of the album Stateside in January 2015 and the conclusion of his UK arena tour in May. However, several changes of circumstance meant that this wasn’t to be, chiefly the availability of Demi for promotional commitments, but also with some developments in Olly’s career back in Blighty.

Regardless, it became a top 20 hit in fourteen other countries, and also earned Olly his fourth nomination at the BRIT awards for the ‘Best British Single’ trophy at the 2016 ceremony, and even now remains one of his most popular songs on tour, with everyone from Ella Eyre to former member of girl group legends The Saturdays, Vanessa White, joining him on occasion to perform Demi’s section. It also proved that even if it didn’t hit the top of the chart, a song like ‘Up’ proved that Olly was still one of pop’s most consistent hitmakers.

OTHER THOUGHTS

Album: Fourth

Writers/Producers: Jason Evigan, Sean Douglas, Sam Hollander, Claude Kelly, Steve Robson, Martin Johnson, Peter Wallevik, Daniel Davidsen, Cutfather, Ryan Tedder, TMS, Steve Mac, Wayne Hector, Paul Weller, Jamie Scott, Matt Prime, FutureCut, John Newman

Release Date: 24/11/2014 (Original) / 20/11/2015 (Reissue)

Chart Positions: #1 (UK), #1 (Scotland), #7 (Ireland), #20 (Switzerland), #27 (Australia), #28 (Finland), #38 (Germany), #38 (Denmark), #40 (Austria), #42 (US), #50 (Sweden)

Sales: 861k (UK, 2x Platinum)

As we touched on with our 'Wrapped Up' review, anything longer than six months away in pop and people can start to ask questions about an artist’s future, such is the fickle nature of the beast. Olly was certainly in more of an interesting position than most, having now had two back to back million selling, chart slaying albums. He had quite literally confounded all expectations. ‘Never Been Better’ was a significant album for that reason, but it’s also a landmark album in other respects.

Back when work on the ‘Right Place Right Time’ album had only just got under way in the summer of 2012, a massive shift in personnel happened at Epic Records. Nick Raphael and Jo Charrington, who had overseen Olly from his launch, were poached by Universal Records to head up the relaunched Capitol label, in turn going onto launch the successful careers of 5 Seconds of Summer and Sam Smith.

Eighteen months on, and whilst Olly stayed under the Sony umbrella, he subsequently moved from Epic to the reactivated RCA label, headed up by former Island Records MD Nick Gatfield, meaning he had a new A&R man overseeing him and a new album for the first time since his debut. Now entering his fifth year in pop – which many cynics will tell you is the point popularity can either sustain itself or wane from a peak for an artist – Olly had a hell of a lot to prove. It certainly explains why he took as long as he did on it.

This album had to cement his position and popularity in the UK music scene and most importantly, have the songs to back it up. And it’s fair to say that for the vast majority of the album, that was the case. Certainly, you’d be hard pressed to find a more fitting song to kick off the album than the cheekily titled ‘Did You Miss Me?’

Initially touted as the first single before Olly got cold feet about a potential press backlash regarding misunderstanding of the title, and co-written with Los Angeles based hitmaker Jason Evigan (Maroon 5, Madonna, Kelly Clarkson, Britney Spears) this mischief making, horn drenched, Prince-esque strut was bold, brash and attention grabbing: ‘I can tell that you’ve missed me / Cause your eyes give it away / I know you can’t resist me / So show me, show me, show me that you missed me’. It’s a shame he didn’t go with his instincts, because really pop is built on those grand moments of statements of intent.

For that same reason, the title track, co-written with the TMS team, and a record that upped the epic grandeur of ‘Army of Two’ from the last album, was also a highlight. Recorded with a 60-piece orchestra and coming off as part Bond theme part McFly at their hardest, it was a soaring rocket of a track that Olly stretched his vocal chops on, hitting higher notes than he ever had before, and which he performed to devastatingly brilliant effect on the accompanying tour for the album (more on which in a second).

TMS also offered light and shade to Olly’s personality as an artist on the tracks ‘Why Do I Love You’ and ‘Nothing Without You’. The latter was a plaintive, simplistic piano ballad, stating to his then girlfriend of the time that life without her would be nothing. The former track, however, was possibly one of the most dark and experimental tracks he’d done to that point, an almost psychedelic, Northern soul leaning pop number on the agony of being in love with a non-committal partner. It was in many ways, like the renegade evil twin of ‘Oh My Goodness’.

British singer songwriter John Newman, who’d famously topped the charts with drum and bass outfit Rudimental on their 2012 single ‘Feel The Love’, as well as hitting the charts with songs like ‘Come and Get It’ and ‘Love Me Again’, co-wrote ‘Stick With Me’, a pulsing dance track with an eerie choir effect produced by Steve Mac and Wayne Hector. Immediately following it was the very lustful ‘Can’t Say No’, a stripped to the bone part acoustic funk pop number.

But closing off the album was possibly one of the biggest coups Olly could have hoped for in his career at that moment. Some two years previously, he had performed a cover of ‘Broken Stones’, a track from ‘Stanley Road’, the iconic 1995 album from British rock legend Paul Weller, first for The Sun Biz Sessions, and then at his headline slot for the annual iTunes Festival in Camden, North London. Olly had grown up around Paul’s music in his dad’s record collection and had stated what a fan he was of both his solo work and his work in The Jam (he also covered their 1982 chart topper ‘A Town Called Malice’ on the previous tour).

Fast forward to spring 2014, and he was fortunate to meet Paul at the annual Teenage Cancer Trust fundraiser gig at the Royal Albert Hall in London, who mentioned that he had written the bones of a song with Olly in mind. With some additional co-writing from Olly, that song became ‘Let Me In’, a genuinely moving acoustic number which showed off the more soulful, reflective tones in his voice and which you could almost picture being sung around a campfire at dusk.

If ever he’d needed confirmation that he was more of a serious proposition than ever, then his work with such a respected legend was it. In fact, many reviewers subsequently highlighted it as such, with The Guardian proclaiming it to be “the best thing he’s done in his career” in their analysis of the album. Amy Davidson, reviewing the album for Digital Spy, was also full of praise, stating that with ‘Never Been Better’, “Olly isn't in the wallflower business, rather he fully intends on running with his title without a whiff of uncertainty.”

‘Never Been Better’ then, ultimately proved to be a prophetic title – it became his third consecutive UK number one album, once again taking just under a month to achieve its first platinum disc, as well as sailing into the top 10 or top 40 in seven other countries, eventually going onto be certified double platinum by the end of its chart run. It also showed that, far from being forgotten with a year away, Olly’s popularity was quite undiminished and had, well, never been better.

BONUS TRACKS, UNWRAPPED

As with his previous album, the original release of ‘Never Been Better’ came in a standard 13 track version, and a deluxe edition, once again in a digipak booklet format, and substituting the yellows and reds of the standard artwork for a mixture of creams and beiges, as well as four additional tracks.

Highlights among these extra four songs included ‘Ready for Love’, a folksy, rousing foot stomper that you could almost picture being sung by a 70s era Elton John (although no relation to his 1979 song and subsequent 2003 chart topper of the same name). The twilight strewn dreaminess of the ballad ‘History’ ensured that it quickly became a fan favourite, and was performed by Olly on that year’s telethon for ITV’s ‘Text Santa’ charity.

Internationally, fans in Germany and Japan were treated to two further bonus tracks. Only available on copies of the deluxe edition sold in the German entertainment store Mediamarkt, ‘Alone Tonight’ saw Olly team up once again with the Future Cut team on possibly the steamiest sounding song he’d recorded to that point: ‘Kiss me like a stranger / It’s time to misbehave, don’t leave me lonely / I can’t leave you alone tonight’. It’s still currently unavailable for streaming or digital download in any territory at time of writing.

'Alone Tonight’ was also on the deluxe edition in Japan, along with a very special track recorded with another music legend. ‘Sukiyaki’ (literally translated as ‘I Look Up As I Walk’) had been a phenomenally successful record for the Japanese crooner Kyu Sakamoto back in 1961, having sold something in excess of 13m copies worldwide. Olly was invited to re-record a version of the song with English lyrics, titled ‘Look at the Sky’, written by none other than Yoko Ono, who sung his praises highly of his performance of the song.

As of time of writing in May 2019, Olly is still yet to release a Christmas album despite much continual demand for him to do so. The ‘Unwrapped’ EP, a five-track acoustic EP given away free for download on Google Play during December 2014, and recorded at Google’s British headquarters in London, is thus the closest we’ve probably got to an official seasonal release of his. ‘Wrapped Up’ and ‘History’ were performed in his set, along with an additional cover of Wizzard’s ‘I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday’, in the same arrangement as his previous recording of the festive favourite for BBC Radio 1’s Live Lounge in December 2012.

NEVER BEEN BETTER: SPECIAL EDITION

As in 2013, Olly spent much of 2015 touring (and pursuing other activities as we’ll come onto discuss in later entries for this era). Once again with no time to get a full new album ready, he decided to repeat the formula that had worked so well for the last album by repacking it as a special edition for reissue a year after it first came out. A new black and yellow colour scheme adorned the artwork, the original 13 tracks from the album remained. And joining them were seven brand new songs, including a further two singles which we’ll be discussing at a later stage.

Claude Kelly and Steve Robson bought the frenetic funk to ‘Sacrifice’, a lively up-tempo floor filler that hardly had time to pause for breath. Meanwhile, Sam Hollander, an American based songwriter and producer who had written for decidedly more punk pop orientated artists like Blink 182 and Good Charlotte, delivered the haunting, lighters aloft ballad ‘If I Stay’, an empowering song about wanting to not give up on a relationship until the last.

‘Love Shouldn’t Be This Hard’ marked Olly’s first collaboration with Toby Gad, the hitmaker for the likes of Beyoncé, Pixie Lott and JLS. A genuinely compelling, almost country leaning midtempo about that awkward first stages of dating when there’s a desperate but repressed need to fill the silences, it seems all but forgotten now but is a gem worth unearthing.

Rounding off the repacked album were two more recordings for BBC Radio 1’s Live Lounge from December 2014: his then new single ‘Up’, performed acoustically with Ella Eyre, who subsequently performed it with him when she supported him on his UK and Ireland arena tour for the album in April 2015, and his version of Wham’s timeless festive favourite ‘Last Christmas’, gentle sleigh bells jingling in the background and all.

Ella also crops up on the second home video release of Olly’s, as the repack included the accompanying DVD of the fourth and final London O2 show of the ‘Never Been Better’ tour, recorded on 7th May 2015, as she performs ‘Up’ with him on there too. The DVD sadly had to omit the popular ‘Funk Medley’ section of the tour that year, owing to the failure of clearance for use of several of the songs in the medley for release. However, the performance of ‘Troublemaker’ with Robbie Williams as a surprise guest is retained and is well worth a watch even now.

Guest Artist: Travie McCoy

Writers: Olly Murs, Claude Kelly, Steve Robson, Travie McCoy

Producers: Steve Robson

Album: Never Been Better

Release Date: 16/11/2014

B-Side: ‘Wrapped Up (Cahill Radio Mix)’ (Credits as above)

Chart Positions: #3 (UK), #1 (Japan), #2 (Scotland), #3 (Belgium), #7 (Ireland), #9 (Czech Republic), #11 (Germany), #15 (Australia), #15 (Poland), #16 (Finland), #16 (Slovakia), #17 (Netherlands), #18 (Switzerland), #18 (Spain), #21 (Austria), #21 (Sweden), #40 (USA)

Sales: 600k (UK, Platinum), 35k (Australia, Gold), 40k (Sweden, Platinum)

A lot can happen inside a year, particularly in a world so fickle and trend dominated as pop music. Hence having been everywhere and anywhere for much of the previous year, 2014 was, by comparison, a very quiet time indeed for Olly. In fact, the only signs of him still being present in the public eye came in the form of a couple of one-off charity appearances, and also that June, at his now bi-annual venturing out onto the pitch at Old Trafford for Soccer Aid, a celebs and pros football match raising money for UNICEF (Olly has played five times in total for the England team now, and captained them to a win at the 2018 match).

For the first time since the start of his career, he was able to go take time out purely to focus on music (and in his words 'grow a beard and get fat'), hence the first nine months of 2014 were spent cooped up in the studio, writing and recording the songs that would go onto make his fourth album. Things certainly changed in a big way, for during the time Olly was away, there seemed to be a sudden explosion of solo male competition in the charts.

Ed Sheeran was now the biggest popstar on the planet, having just released his multi-platinum second album 'X' and huge hits like ‘Sing’ and ‘Thinking Out Loud’, and Sam Smith and George Ezra both released their debut efforts this year. It was clear that whatever Olly decided to come back with, it would have to make as big an impact as possible to remind people he was still at the top of his game despite being away for the best part of a year.

So already there was a lot riding on 'Wrapped Up' even before he unveiled it with a world exclusive first play on national radio at the beginning of that October. Coming off the back of the biggest selling album of his career to date, it made business sense on paper to repeat the formula of that album's trajectory again - launching the album with a killer floor filling pop stormer that just so happens to have an international guest star on it, even if some critics suggested it was a lazy move.

Owing sonic motifs to disco classics by Evelyn 'Champagne' King and - in a spooky forbearing of his future work, though he didn't know it then - Nile Rodgers and Chic, 'Wrapped Up' was a guitar driven dance pop funk workout with a stormer of a chorus and a cheekily placed double entendre involving locks and keys that screamed chart topper from the first play. The appearance of a guest rap from Travie McCoy, the lead rapper and founder of Gym Class Heroes, who had also scored big success with Bruno Mars on his worldwide hit 'Billionaire' in 2010, enhanced its credentials further.

One thing that Olly had also quietly achieved in the UK - without anyone realising it at the time - was the unique distinction of being the only British male solo artist to notch up a number one single with each lead release from a brand-new album. It surely stood to reason then, that 'Wrapped Up' would be joining that list and making it four in a row. However, several changes of circumstance meant this didn't go according to plan.

International promo was the focus from quite early on in the campaign, with the single being released and promoted in Australia first before we got it here in the UK. It meant that no thanks to an administrative error at Sony Music - who'd been slowly releasing select tracks off the new album as 'Instant Grat' teasers - that 'Wrapped Up' was mistakenly available for a couple of days to download off the UK store of iTunes two whole weeks before its official UK release date. One can only speculate what might have happened had they corrected the error sooner - but then this was compounded by another turn of events.

With just over a week to go until release, Olly then recieved a call from music legend Sir Bob Geldof, the man who'd put together the historic Band Aid single 'Do They Know It's Christmas' and subsequent Live Aid concerts to raise money for those living in developing countries. Olly was asked if he wanted to appear on the 30th anniversary recording alongside the likes of Bono, Chris Martin, One Direction, Rita Ora and Ed Sheeran, and he duly obliged.

As he returned to The X Factor live shows to launch 'Wrapped Up' proper with a homecoming performance on its release date of 16th November 2014, Sir Bob was there too to give the first play on terrestrial TV of the video for the Band Aid 30 recording of 'Do They Know It's Christmas'. He jokingly apologised to Olly on air after his interview with Dermot O’Leary, who now knew full well that 'Wrapped Up' was set to miss out on the top spot.

Seven days later, and this is exactly what happened. Even outsold by 'Real Love', the then new single from contemporary dance pop outfit Clean Bandit, who'd had a phenomenal year with their hit 'Rather Be' with Jess Glynne (and whose then violinist, Neil Amin Smith, was incredibly vicious about Olly on social media at the time, stating he was only fit for a low rent musical theatre career. He left the band over a year later and hasn’t been heard from since. Go figure), 'Wrapped Up' had to be content with a #3 debut and peak - still a great chart position, but by no means what was needed at this point.

It meant that Olly was on the UK's number one single that week, but just not the one he intended, with Band Aid 30 selling over a quarter of a million copies to top the chart, despite a heft of negative reviews and feedback from music critics, social commentators and soapbox preachers alike for the new version of 'Do They Know It's Christmas' on Twitter. Along with ‘Wrapped Up’, it was absent from the top 10 by the time Christmas came.

Despite the chart topping success of the parent album, and being a top 20 hit in thirteen other countries (including Japan, where it gave him his first chart topper), it was clear from the performance of ‘Wrapped Up’ that things had slipped a bit compared to the mammoth fanfare that had greeted ‘Troublemaker’ two years previously, and it wasn’t unfair to say that Olly suddenly had something to prove five years into his career. Fortunately, another huge single was waiting in the wings to quell those doubts...

OTHER THOUGHTS

Writers: Olly Murs, Ben Kohn, Pete Kelleher, Tom Barnes, Wayne Hector, Iain James

Producers: TMS

Album: Right Place Right Time

Release Date: 24/11/2013

B-Side: ‘Hand on Heart (LuvBug Remix)’ (Credits as above)

Chart Positions: #25 (UK), #20 (Poland), #46 (Spain), #53 (Germany), #50 (Ireland), #73 (Australia)

Sales: 10-20k (UK, estimated)

As we touched on briefly in the last entry, the lack of airplay and promo for the Classified remix Olly was featuring on was because he also had his own single on the go at that time as well. A year previously, he had cited the driving, lighters aloft power pop of ‘Hand on Heart’ as one of his favourites from the ‘Right Place Right Time’ album.

It seemed a fitting single therefore, to close the album campaign on, and to also bring attention to the ‘Special Edition’ repack that was being readied the same week of release. A more commercial single remix was commissioned, with additional production by Phil Tan – noted for his work with Mariah Carey and Rihanna - bolstering the more gospel like elements of the song to make it a real winter warmer.

‘Hand on Heart’ also provided a nice bookend to a successful year of touring, sales and promo appearances in the form of its video. Working once again with Vaughan Arnell, the video was the first of Olly’s to be shot entirely in monochrome and was a loving scene for scene homage to his tour buddy and showbiz brother Robbie Williams’ famous video for ‘Angels’ from fifteen years previously – a video which Arnell had also directed.

Robbie even turns up midway through the video for a brief game of football, a scene which many cited was the passing of one baton of glory to the other. Notching up his fifth consecutive UK top 40 hit from the album (and eleventh overall) there was no question that 2013 had been Olly’s year, but it was now time to look forward to the future – and a new album...

OTHER THOUGHTS

Remix duties on the digital bundle for the single came from a very good friend of Olly’s, although no one realised it at the time. For whilst he was celebrating the release of the repack of his third album, JLS, who he had supported on tour two years previously and had been labelmates with since his debut, were going their separate ways after five years together with a final tour and greatest hits album.

Marvin Humes from the band launched his career as a DJ and dance music producer with his new collective LuvBug the following year, and so this single marked the first ever commercial release of one of his remixes. Under his LuvBug alias, Humes has subsequently gone onto provide remixes for singles by Little Mix, MNEK, Cheryl, The Saturdays and even his former JLS bandmate Aston Merrygold.

Artist: Classified featuring Olly Murs

Writers: David Myles, Luke Boyd, Mark Pellizzer, Mike Boyd

Producers: Luke Boyd

Album: Right Place Right Time (Special Edition)

Release Date: 10/11/2013

Chart Positions: #36 (New Zealand)

At the same time that ‘Troublemaker’ was sitting proud atop the UK charts in November 2012, over the Atlantic in Canada, native rapper Lucas Boyd – better known by his stage name of Classified – was storming the airwaves and charts with a track called ‘Inner Ninja’. The original version was a collaboration with David Myles, a self-proclaimed ‘funk jazz roots’ singer songwriter, and had hit the top 5 and given the single’s parent album his first ever chart topper.

This ultra-cool hip hop stormer, calling to mind both ‘D.A.N.C.E’ by Justice and ‘Dirty Harry’ by Gorillaz was still doing rather well indeed when Olly had returned to North America and Canada in the spring of 2013 to promote the Stateside release of the ‘Right Place Right Time’ album. Classified’s record label was keen to break him across the pond, and thus asked Olly if he would mind re-recording the vocal for a special UK remix.

The result was this single, landing a whole two weeks before the repacked ‘Special Edition’ of the ‘Right Place Right Time’ album (on which this was added to the track list of), but perhaps owing to the fact it arrived a week before Olly’s own new single which was naturally getting far more airtime and promo (more on which next week of course) it flopped here – it was only in New Zealand that the track got granted a top 40 entry.

Writers: Olly Murs, Claude Kelly, Steve Robson

Producers: Steve Robson

Album: Right Place Right Time

Release Date: 25/08/2013

B-Side: ‘Right Place Right Time (Live from the O2 Arena)’ (Credits as above)

Chart Positions: #27 (UK), #22 (Scotland), #2 (Belgium), #53 (Germany), #74 (Ireland), #88 (Australia)

Sales: 20-30k (UK, estimated)

If the choice for a third single had been a tough one, then the fourth – and title track – off the third album was even easier for Olly. Though its chart placing belies it, ‘Right Place, Right Time’ was and continues to be a rousing crowd favourite on all of the tours it’s been performed on in the five years since it was released and was a celebratory moment for the man whom many had written off the chances of surviving past his first single.

In fact, it almost feels like more of the love letter to the fans that he was aiming for on ‘Army of Two’: ‘Right here and now, feels like forever / Never touch the ground when we’re together’. This tribal stadium pop stomper that Olly co-wrote with Claude and Steve even found time to throw in a very on trend but jarring dubstep breakdown at the song’s middle 8. It’s the most sonically diverse of the singles that were lifted from the parent album but was all the better for it.

The promo video from Dominic O’Riordan encapsulates this very mood of reflecting and feeling celebratory that the song talks about. In fact, it’s the ‘winners’ single montage reel’ video that Olly didn’t get after coming second on The X Factor, but better. It means that highlights of his time on the show – auditioning, performing at the final – is paired alongside footage from his time trekking in the desert for Comic Relief, shooting his videos, meeting his fans on tour and finishes with stunning footage filmed when he supported Robbie Williams at his Wembley Stadium gigs that summer.

Also included in the video is footage of his performance of the song on the live finals of that year’s Britain’s Got Talent, where he performed it exclusively for the first time a whole two months before its release as a single. Though possibly overlooked on its UK top 30 debut, ‘Right Place, Right Time’ is without doubt one of the most special moments in Olly’s singles canon purely because of what it stands for.

OTHER THOUGHTS

Writers: Olly Murs, Ed Drewett, Jim Eliot

Producers: Ed Drewett, Jim Eliot

Album: Right Place Right Time

Release Date: 26/05/2013

B-Side: ‘Don’t You Worry Child (BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge)’ (Writers: Axel Hedfors, Steve Angello, Sebastian Ingrosso, John Martin Lindström, Michel Zitron)

Chart Positions: #5 (UK), #1 (Austria), #1 (Luxembourg), #2 (Germany), #2 (Iceland), #2 (Lebanon), #4 (Scotland), #4 (Australia), #5 (Switzerland), #6 (Slovenia), #7 (Czech Republic), #8 (Ireland), #10 (Poland), #27 (Romania), #28 (New Zealand), #29 (Slovakia), #38 (Sweden), #68 (Belgium)

Sales: 700k (UK, Platinum)

Nominations: ‘Best British Single’, BRIT Awards 2014

As we established last week, ‘Army of Two’ was not a single release that Olly had been entirely happy with. ‘Troublemaker’ had launched the third album in a blaze of success and glory – not just in the UK but globally - and the ‘Right Place Right Time’ album was ticking over nicely sales wise. But he needed another single from there that could, if not better, at least match the success of that. Thankfully, the very song to be the third single was more obvious than he realised.

‘Dear Darlin’’ was one of the very first songs to come out of his sessions with Ed Drewett back in the summer of 2012. The genesis of it began when Ed – recently split from his long-term girlfriend – was talking about how he was struggling to process the fallout of the separation. During the sessions, on an iTunes binge, they’d been listening to ‘Stan’, the landmark 2000 hit for US rap superstar Eminem – well noted for its conversational style with each line starting ‘Dear Slim’, as an obsessed fan writes to their idol.

Obviously, no one in an Olly song was going to psychotically lock their girlfriend in the car of a boot and drive off a bridge to their untimely demise when the fan letters went unanswered by their hero - he’s not that kind of artist - but the idea of turning a ‘Dear John’ style letter into a pop song hadn’t really been done before. And thus from such little seeds of an idea, the mighty oak of a modern pop classic was born.

Many reviewers immediately highlighted the song as one of the key moments on the album when that was released. Olly’s vocal was at its most powerful, most broken-hearted and emotionally connecting here, the vulnerable simplicity of that and the piano contrasting with the song’s shuffly trip hop inclinations that called to mind 90s giants of the genre like Massive Attack and Urban Species.

Interest in the song on a public scale was initially heightened when he performed stripped back acoustic versions of it on both The Xtra Factor and This Morning during the early part of the album promo campaign before Christmas 2012. The reaction to it from the audience on tour the following spring consolidated its popularity, and in a three-way tie to be the next single (‘Hey You Beautiful’ and the song we’ll be meeting next week were the other options put forward), ‘Dear Darlin’’ was chosen.

It certainly seemed to be a risk to release such a slower paced song as a single just as the weather started to turn the corner towards summer, but with the likes of Daft Punk with Pharrell and Robin Thicke already owning the dancefloor that year, it immediately stood a better chance of standing out amongst their nu-disco thumpers like ‘Get Lucky’ and ‘Blurred Lines’ that characterised the long hot summer of 2013.

When released at the end of May, it took everyone by surprise, not least of all Olly, how well the single flew when it went to radio and TV, not only eventually crowning him with his first UK top 10 smash outside of his number ones since ‘Thinking of Me’ two years previously, but also bringing the ‘Right Place Right Time’ album back to the UK top 10 for much of the summer.

Internationally, it also hit the top 10 in twelve other countries – including Austria and Luxembourg, where it crowned him with a second number one hit in each of those countries, as well as being the 20th biggest selling single of 2013 in the UK. All really impressive stuff for a third single off an already huge selling album, but it just demonstrates how much he was riding the crest of a wave at this point, and this was the theme tune to that.

Along with ‘Troublemaker’ and ‘Dance With Me Tonight’, ‘Dear Darlin’’ is in the holy trinity of Olly’s all-time great singles for a reason. Even when performed on tour now, it only takes seconds for torches on phones to be held aloft because it’s the most universally connecting of all his back catalogue. And when you have a record like that in your canon, you know you’re on the way to pop legend status.

OTHER THOUGHTS

Both the digital bundle and the Germany/Europe only CD single paid host to the commercial release of one of many tracks first performed by Olly for the popular ‘Live Lounge’ slot on BBC Radio 1’s mid-morning show, famously hosted by Jo Whiley, then by Fearne Cotton (who was the host at the time of this particular recording during promo for ‘Army of Two’ in March 2013) and more recently Clara Amfo.

Writers: Olly Murs, Wayne Hector, Iyiola Babalola, Darren Lewis

Producers: Future Cut

Album: Right Place Right Time

Release Date: 10/03/2013

B-Side: ‘Army Of Two (Westfunk & Steve Smart Remix)’ (Credits as above)

Chart Positions: #12 (UK), #10 (Scotland), #13 (New Zealand), #18 (Ireland), #19 (Australia), #27 (Austria), #28 (Belgium), #59 (Slovakia), #88 (Czech Republic), #96 (Germany)

Sales: 200k (UK, Silver), 70k (Australia, Platinum)

For all the worldwide success that the third album attained, there curiously remains a handful of Olly's singles from that era which seem to have been less fondly remembered with the passing of time - including from the man himself. Regrettably, 'Army Of Two' is one of these. Had America not come calling in the summer of 2012, then the plan had initially been for this to go first as the lead single from the 'Right Place Right Time' album, with 'Troublemaker' following as the second single in November.

In the event, it had to wait until the following March to appear as the second single, by which point his second national arena tour to support the album was under way. Written ambiguously, so it could be viewed as either a love song or as anthem to Olly’s fanbase, affectionately christened as ‘Murs Army’, Future Cut worked with him once again on this song, which served not only as the opening track on the album but also the show opener on the Right Place Right Time tour.

Clocking in at five minutes in its original version on the album, it was chopped up for a more condensed sounding radio edit for single release, and thus lost a bit of its epic grandeur in its transition to being a single. Heavily influenced by both Take That and Coldplay, it’s military drum and orchestral sound made it the most ambitious sounding single of his career to date. Critically it was praised, with John Aizlewood at BBC Music calling it ‘a pop thumper of the highest order’, whilst Matthew Horton at Virgin Media drew favourable comparisons between the single and ‘Sowing The Seeds Of Love’ by 80s sophistipop giants Tears for Fears.

Legendary promo director Vaughan Arnell – whose previous credits included Olly’s mate Robbie Williams, as well as Spice Girls, All Saints, Will Young and George Michael, was bought on board to shoot the equally epic video at the Excel Conference Centre in East London, wherein a whole army of Ollys march forward in a deserted, futuristic underground car park, ever multiplying as the song builds and builds. It was Arnell’s work with George Michael in particular that influenced the video, as his Big! TV directed promo clip for his cover of Stevie Wonder’s ‘As’ with Mary J Blige had a similar premise. A separate video followed a month after its premiere, wherein fans who’d signed up to become an official ‘Murs Army’ member, certificate and all on his Facebook page were included on an animated montage.

Airplay wise, it did well on both radio and music video channels again in the run up to release, but chart wise was stunted by a combination of the still strong selling ‘Troublemaker’ hanging around the top 40, and what we can kindly dub as ‘Busy syndrome’ – releasing a single slap bang in the middle of a national tour, thus leaving minimal time to promote it. Thus its #12 peak was the highest it ever got – although still good for his eighth UK top 20 hit, as well as hitting the top 30 in five other countries (including Australia, where it went platinum after he performed it at the Silver Logies award ceremony that April), so nothing to be sniffed at. But it was undeniable that it had lacked the sensation and fanfare of the parent album’s first single.

It’s a shame really that, on the face of it, Olly disregards this single now based on its commercial performance, because it does have a lot of strengths that we’ve highlighted. One can only speculate therefore, what might have happened had it gone as the first single the previous summer as had originally been planned and if he’d view it in a different light. For now, we can appreciate ‘Army of Two’ as the biggest call to arms meets fan love letter ever penned by a pop artist.

OTHER THOUGHTS

Album: Third

Writers/Producers: Claude Kelly, Steve Robson, Chuck Harmony, Ed Drewett, Steve Kipner, Lucas Secon, Wayne Hector, Andrew Frampton, FutureCut, Iyiola Babalola, Darren Lewis, Jim Eliot, Iain James, Julian Bunetta, John Ryan, Carsten Mortensen, Adam Argyle, Martin Brammer, Matt Prime

Release Date: 26/11/2012 (Original) / 25/11/2013 (Reissue)

Chart Positions: #1 (UK), #1 (Scotland), #3 (Ireland), #5 (Austria), #6 (Switzerland), #14 (Sweden), #17 (Canada), #19 (US), #19 (Denmark), #20 (Australia), #22 (Germany), #27 (New Zealand), #32 (Japan), #38 (Finland)

Sales: 1.38m (UK, 4x Platinum), 100k (Germany, Gold), 15k (Ireland, Platinum), 35k (Australia, Gold), 10k (Austria, Gold)

It goes without saying that ‘Right Place Right Time’ is unquestionably Olly’s best album to date – certainly the one that fans cite as their favourite to this day. The 1.38m copies it shifted in the UK alone might explain that one away, but it doesn’t tell the full story of why he is still to this day the only male solo graduate of The X Factor to better the sales of each of his subsequent albums. However, just as with its lead single, Olly’s third album in as many years had a bit of a shaky start. At least, to its US release it did.

The plan from Colombia had initially been to release an American version of the ‘In Case You Didn’t Know’ album (proposed artwork here), which would have been a 50/50 split of songs from his first two albums, in early September 2012. The flop of the US remix of ‘Heart Skips A Beat’ quickly put paid to those plans – and just as well really, for by the time that idea was put on the backburner, he had a new studio album ready to go that could be released across all markets. Naturally, however, his home turf would be the first to get the album.

Knowing full well that this was an album with an eye on launching Olly internationally, the feel of the music was reflected in the choice of producers in order to appeal to as broad an audience as possible. On his down days in between the One Direction tour in the States, Olly hooked up with Claude Kelly in New York to write with his collaborative Stateside partner Chuck Harmony, collectively known under their performing  moniker of R&B/soul outfit Louis York. Out of those sessions  came several songs for the album: ‘Loud & Clear’ and ‘Head To Toe’: one, a sweeping, lighters aloft torch ballad that called to mind ‘X&Y’ era Coldplay, and the other a toe tapping swingathon with a jaunty piano line and a set of counting in verses.

Columbia also granted him access to two of their star boyband’s chief writers for the record, in the shape of LA based Julian Bunetta and John Ryan, who turned in possibly the most perfectly Olly song that’s ever existed on an album of his before or since. Little wonder then, that ‘What A Buzz’ was written especially with him in mind, a shuffly slice of kitchen sink breakbeat pop calling to mind Norman Cook (aka Fatboy Slim)’s remix of Cornershop’s 1998 chart topper ‘Brimful Of Asha’. It’s suitably cheeky Essex lilt about first date nerves was added courtesy of lyrics from Ed Drewett, a much in demand singer and songwriter from just over the border of Essex in Bishop’s Stortford, who had turned in two number one hits for The Wanted and duetted with Professor Green on his 2010 single ‘Need You Tonight’. The pair quickly became good friends and have continued to write together on subsequent albums of his.

Whilst it is less pronounced on this record, Olly was evolving and shifting sound again, this time, to corner the same funk laden pop avenue populated by Jamiroquai, M People and Maroon 5. The sound of the former is particularly prevalent on both ‘Troublemaker’ and on ‘Hey You Beautiful’, a four to the floor come-hither belter that proved a fan favourite after Olly’s performance of it over the suspended catwalk section of his supporting arena tour around the UK and Ireland for the album in the spring of 2013.

That tour was also a first, as on several of the numbers, Olly got to showcase his skills on the guitar and piano that he’d been painstakingly practicing away at in the year since the last tour. It was the latter that got an airing for his performance of this album’s closing track – a simple but stripped back piano number called ‘One Of These Days’. It trod the same path as ‘I Need You Now’ on the last album, but also took a slight leaning towards the sound of modern country and adult contemporary radio.

The album’s original release was accompanied by a deluxe edition, on which were four additional tracks (plus a small change in colour on the artwork’s font from black to dark red). This would be the first album of Olly’s to come out on two separate formats. Adam Argyle and Martin Brammer are once again behind three of the four songs on the deluxe version, best of all being the soaring midtempo piano pop stormer ‘Sliding Doors’, a conversational track about dreaming of life with someone else in another moment that was inspired by the Gwyneth Paltrow film from 1998 of the same name. The closing track, ‘The One’, was another of his collaborations with Ed Drewett, which Olly also played guitar on, and is a rousing number, almost evocative of a poppier ‘Tender’ by Blur, about offering support to a friend in a dark place.

Critical consensus was divided between applauding and denigrating his approach of going forward by advancing the same sound that had carried him through two multi-platinum albums already. But it was seemingly missing the point either way. As Lewis Corner, reviewing the album for entertainment website Digital Spy wrote, “it may not be a big departure from Murs’ previous efforts, but when you're on to a good thing, why change the pace?” With this still being the biggest studio release of his career by far, Olly’s third album definitely was a case of being in the right place at the right time.

RIGHT PLACE RIGHT TIME: SPECIAL EDITION 

When viewed retrospectively, 2013 was truly the year when Olly went global, with tour dates and promotional commitments expanding not only to Europe, but also to America, Australia and even Asia by year’s end – not to mention his successful stint supporting his ‘showbiz brother’ and former X Factor duet partner Robbie Williams on every single UK and European date of his ‘Take The Crown’ stadium tour that summer (the two would also record a rousing cover of ‘I Wanna Be Like You’ from the Disney adaptation of The Jungle Book for Williams’ second swing album ‘Swings Both Ways’).

This did however, create a small problem, in so far as all this hive of activity meant there was no time to record a new studio album for the end of the year, as had been the case in the last three years. Thankfully, Sony saw a little more mileage in the campaign for ‘Right Place Right Time’ to keep Olly active and present until he had his next album in the can, hence its repackaging and reissue with all new artwork almost a year after its original release.

The original twelve tracks on the album remained, and joining them were several tracks that had been recorded during the album sessions (some even earlier than that) but which for one reason or another hadn’t made the final cut first time round. It meant we got to hear ‘Stop Tryna Change Me’, a gentle paced toe tapper Olly co-wrote with Claude and Chuck which again, had a slight feel of country pop.

First demoed for ‘In Case You Didn’t Know’, ‘That’s Alright With Me’ was another jaunty post-Britpop offering from Samuel Preston and Mark Taylor, the sort of guitar flecked number you could see spilling forth from the mouths of The Kooks or Preston’s old band The Ordinary Boys. A stripped back seasonal take on Wizzard’s festive evergreen ‘I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday’, recorded back in December the previous year for BBC Radio 1’s popular ‘Live Lounge’ slot on Fearne Cotton’s mid-morning show follows and is a heart-warming delight.

Rounding out the new tracks were collaborations with two European pop chanteuses, both done to try and break Olly into their respective territories. It means that he turns up on ‘Did I Lose You’, a hypnotic, wistful track that you could’ve imagined playing over the opening credits of a Bond movie, for Italy’s Giorgia, whilst his own ‘Dear Darlin’ was given a Gallic reimagining by popular French star Alizée, who had scaled the UK top 10 in 2002 with her Europop thumper ‘Moi...Lolita’. Olly performed this version with Alizée at the Parisian date of his European tour that autumn whilst she was taking part in the French version of Strictly Come Dancing.

Guest Artist: Flo Rida

Writers: Olly Murs, Claude Kelly, Steve Robson, Tramar Dillard

Producers: Steve Robson

Album: Right Place Right Time

Release Date: 18/11/2012

B-Side: ‘Troublemaker (Cutmore Club Mix)’ (Credits as above)

Chart Positions: #1 (UK), #1 (Hungary), #1 (Scotland), #2 (Germany), #2 (Bulgaria), #2 (Luxembourg), #3 (Ireland), #3 (Austria), #4 (Australia), #4 (Japan), #5 (New Zealand), #5 (Slovakia), #5 (Belgium), #8 (Switzerland), #8 (Israel), #12 (Finland), #13 (Denmark), #14 (Italy), #15 (Canada), #16 (Brazil), #19 (Spain), #25 (USA), #31 (Sweden), #41 (France), #66 (Netherlands)

Sales: 765k+ (UK, Platinum), 1m (USA, Platinum), 160k (Canada, 2x Platinum), 280k (Australia, 4x Platinum), 150k (Germany, Gold), 15k (Austria/Italy/New Zealand, Gold/Platinum), 30k (Switzerland, Platinum), 140k (Sweden, 2x Platinum)

Nominations: 'Best British Single', BRIT Awards 2013 / ‘Most Performed Work’, Ivor Novello Awards 2014

As the autumn of 2012 dawned, six months had elapsed since Olly had last released a single in the UK – the longest such gap since his debut. Recording his third album was part of this, but the other reason was one we touched upon briefly before and will be exploring more in both this entry and in the ones to come. After a successful band or solo artist has achieved a substantial amount of success on home turf and in immediate surrounding territories as he had, it’s not usually unreasonable to try having a crack at what so many have attempted to become a success in, yet so few have achieved the elusive dream of - breaking the American market.

It’s not unfair to say that Olly had a struggle and then some to begin with. At his performance at the BRITs in February, some bigwig execs from Columbia, a subsidiary of Sony Music who Olly was signed to under Epic, were sat in the audience. They were impressed with what they saw, so much that his first Stateside deal was offered – but with a few caveats to address. Even though the US version of The X Factor had been on air for a year on Fox Network, his success as a result of the original UK series meant diddle squat there.

Fortunately, the timing was good. The early 2010s were something of a purple patch where British artists in America were concerned. Adele and Florence & The Machine had been resounding successes, Tinie Tempah was giving the US hip hop giants a run for their money. The Saturdays filmed a reality show for the E! network and had some success on dance charts. Hell, even the hopeless likes of The Wanted had a Billboard top 10 hit with their UK chart topper ‘Glad You Came’. But all of them were eclipsed by the gargantuan success of a boyband who shared something in common with Olly – chiefly, where they first came to attention.

Bronze finalists on the 2010 UK series of The X Factor, One Direction had already topped the charts with their debut ‘What Makes You Beautiful’ upon its September 2011 release in the UK, setting all manner of sales records in the process. Its success was quickly replicated across the pond, as a generation of Twitter trending uber fans who’d discovered them on the aforementioned social networking site and YouTube all started shrieking for mankind about a new British invasion. Columbia had signed One Direction in the US, and after seeing Olly perform at the BRITs, decided to put two and two together and have him support them on their first American tour that summer.

This initial attempt to make him known to a US audience was one met with nervous doubt by his audience back home, worried that Olly was on the verge of being made untouchable and inaccessible like they had become and lose the very British charm that had made him so appealing in the first place in order to make him more commercially palatable Stateside. The worries weren’t confounded any less when a radically different mix of ‘Heart Skips A Beat’ was chosen as his debut release in North America, ditching Rizzle Kicks from the original version in favour of obscure, buck toothed rapper Chiddy Bang. It was poorly received by fans on both sides of the pond, and also by an incensed Rizzle Kicks, who rightly called out Sony in the press for the botched A&R decision. The fact that the remixed single bombed out at #96 in the Billboard charts, even after two separate promo videos (one at a soccer match, the other on Venice Beach) and lacklustre radio play tells its own story.

When Olly returned home to continue recording and writing his third album in July that year, he was back working with Claude and Steve again, this time on a funk laden slice of pop about a wrong doing woman who proved irresistible. There was never any doubt that the driving disco funk pop of ‘Troublemaker’ had the potential to be a hit that would take him worldwide, but it needed an extra sparkle of magic to make it really take off. That sparkle came in the form of bechesticled US rapper Tramar Dillard, better known as Flo Rida. After all, he’d made more than his fair share of trips to the top of both the US and UK charts in recent years by the time he was approached, and had also guested on UK hit singles for The Saturdays and Alexandra Burke. Not for the first time in Olly’s career, however, the guest feature didn’t extend to the video for the song directed by Michael Baldwin, with Flo Rida’s part shot separately to his in Miami, bouncing car and all, whilst Olly hoofed it up pursuing and eventually hooking up with a hot girl around downtown Los Angeles who finds herself repeatedly fired from a series of jobs. At least it wasn’t the obvious choice of treatment for a song called ‘Troublemaker’. But again, showcasing an iconic look – the same long-sleeved granddad tee and braces he was rocking on the cover for the single’s parent album – cemented its imagery and his audience grew again.

Thankfully, those expecting more Chiddy Bang style buffoonery upon the single’s first radio play at the beginning of October – just as Olly began a national book signings tour in support of his illustrated autobiography ‘Happy Days’ – were breathing a sigh of relief when they heard the final version. Far from selling out, it was a stormer of a pop song up there with his best moments. A comfortable six weeks of solid airplay on TV and radio ahead of its mid-November release saw to it that, even with a chart battle against a returning Girls Aloud, who were marking their 10th anniversary with a new greatest hits album and that year’s BBC Children In Need single ‘Something New’, that Olly would achieve not only his biggest first week sales for a single – 125k are agreed to be the final number – on its way to sales of over three quarters of a million in the UK alone, but that he would also enjoy his first UK chart topper to spend more than a week at the top – his second week’s competition coming from Bruno Mars, whose ‘Locked Out Of Heaven’ had to settle for a #2 debut.

But crucially, ‘Troublemaker’ also did what the disastrous remix of ‘Heart Skips…’ had failed to do. It finally established him as the next UK success story in America, eventually reaching as high as the top 30 of the Billboard charts the following March, and shifting over one million copies in the process, as well as becoming a top 5 or top 10 hit in fourteen other countries. More nods at the following years BRITs and Ivor Novellos ceremonies confirmed just what a success the single had been for Olly. It had given him the freedom to becoming the international superstar he had dreamed of becoming on that audition stage all those years ago, whilst much like Take That before him, ensuring that he’d never forget where he was coming from.

OTHER THOUGHTS

Writers: Olly Murs, Adam Argyle, Martin Brammer

Producer: Martin Brammer, Dan Frampton

Album: In Case You Didn't Know

B-Side: 'Don't Say Goodnight Yet' (Writers: Olly Murs, Martin Brammer, Adam Argyle / Producers: Adam Argyle, Martin Brammer)

Release Date: 01/04/2012

Chart Positions: #13 (UK), #13 (Ireland), #10 (Scotland), #19 (Belgium), #24 (Germany) #27 (Austria)

Sales: 100k (UK, estimated)

Given the performance of the third and fourth singles after the release of his debut album, it might have seemed a gamble to some for Olly to venture another single off the follow-up, especially given the first two had already been huge selling number one hits. But he was in a substantially different place and ranking to a year previously, and with his first national arena tour completed, a performance at the BRITs and his fledgling success in Europe and Australia, he was riding the crest of a wave.

As sales of 'In Case You Didn't Know' in the UK inched their way towards the 1m mark, several songs were put forward as options for the third single. The eventual choice was 'Oh My Goodness', a Tamla Motown influenced number that saw Olly team up once again with Adam Argyle and Martin Brammer, following their successful collaborations on the first album.

Sonically, there's noticeable motifs from Stevie Wonder. Close your eyes and you can hear call backs to the likes of 'You Are The Sunshine Of My Life' and 'Uptight (Everything's Alright)'. Were it not for the writing credits bearing otherwise on the sleeve (but only if you were in Germany, who had the CD single exclusively for its July 2012 release in that territory, three months after it came out in the UK), you'd be forgiven for thinking it was the work of Holland/Dozier/Holland. But it was very much a sympathetic homage to the work of such greats.

'Oh My Goodness' was one of the first songs written for the second album in the spring of 2011 and was a mark of Olly's increasingly apparent ability to turn the everyday relatable into a great pop song. Inspired by a cute lady he'd seen on his lunch break at the studio where he was working with Adam and Martin, he went back that afternoon filled with inspiration to fit into the character of a man experiencing and consumed by love at first sight: 'Cause I don't know / If I can stop now / I'm going too fast, heart first / My head just can't slow me down'.

Acclaimed commercials and music promo director Marcus Lundin, who had worked with Olly on the video for 'Dance With Me Tonight', delivered another memorable promo for its follow-up that fitted well to the story of the song. Filmed on a twelve hour night shoot at the Westfield shopping complex in Stratford, East London - just minutes away from the newly built stadium for the 2012 Summer Olympics that were being held in the capital that year - it saw Olly give chase after a beautiful lady he sees on an escalator going in the opposite direction to his own - even at one point using a Segway to catch up with her.

It's blanket airplay on the music channels and radio airwaves did the job and bolstered by additional production on the single mix from Dan Frampton, the result was a thoroughly respectable third hit single off the 'In Case You Didn't Know' album, and the sixth top 20 hit in the UK of Olly's career, as well as top 30 placings in four other European countries. But as promo for the single finished, a territory far greater than those he'd cracked that had so far eluded him was calling: America. But that's a story to tell for next week...

OTHER THOUGHTS

Adam and Martin, along with Olly, were also responsible for this single's B-side, which, at time of writing in February 2019, is the last such original track to be featured on a commercial single release from Olly, rather than as a bonus track on a deluxe edition of an album as we'll see in the weeks to come. 'Don't Say Goodnight Yet' harks back a little to the same jaunty vibes of 'Busy' and 'Accidental', and sees Olly croon away, gently persuading a date to stay the night whilst he suggests putting on 'a little Stevie or Marvin / We could watch a scary movie, I don't mind'.

Album: Second

Writers/Producers: Claude Kelly, Steve Robson, Jim Eliot, Alex Smith, Samuel Preston, Mark Taylor, Adam Argyle, Martin Brammer, Andrew Frampton, Bayku, Patrick Jordan-Patrikios, Wayne Hector, Karen Poole, Matt Prime

Release Date: 28/11/2011

Chart Positions: #1 (UK), #2 (Ireland), #2 (Scotland), #10 (Sweden), #18 (Germany), #19 (Switzerland), #68 (Poland), #68 (Austria)

Sales: 1.12m (UK, 3x Platinum), 30k (Ireland, Platinum) 1m (Europe, Platinum)

If his debut album had been the sound of Olly trying to find his musical identity, then 'In Case You Didn't Know' was the sound of him finding complete clarity, taking and owning a sound and running with it. But his second album was as much about his own artistic and musical evolution as it was consolidation.

Much like his predocessing greats before him, he wasn't wanting to be stuck in one box for too long. And whilst his aptitude for melody, unusual lyrics and strong pop vocal sensibilities remained, he wanted to experiment and push himself to all boundaries where he could. And so out went the laidback reggae and ska influences of the debut, and in came a nod or two to the swinging 60s.

'Heart Skips A Beat' is a bit of an anomaly therefore – at least, where the album is concerned – with its early 90s dance leanings out of kilter with what follows on the other twelve tracks. But Olly's inclination towards revivalism of a musical decade that was over half a century old by the time he started writing and recording the second album wasn't too odd a proposition – his performances on his series of The X Factor of the likes of ‘Twist & Shout’ and ‘Superstition’ highlighted this.

True, artists such as Adele and Amy Winehouse, and even the likes of Baby Spice herself, Emma Bunton, had dabbled in a revived 60s sound with great success in the preceding decade of the 21st century. But the ethos of some of the 60′s greats seep through into the album, although not in a reductive way, but one that pays knowing respect and allows Olly to bring his own interpretation of the audial motifs and melodic ideas at work.

Motown, and in particular Stevie Wonder and early Michael Jackson seem to be his greatest musical influence on here, which is especially true of songs like ‘Just Smile’ and ‘Tell The World’ which fall right in the middle of the album, resplendent with sweetly soulful crooning, triumphant brass and clip clop drum beats. The former was co-written by Olly with ex-Alisha’s Attic star Karen Poole (Kylie, Sugababes, Will Young) and Matt Prime, whilst the latter had a guest rap from Abeeku Ribeiro, aka little-known songwriter and rapper called Bayku, who also co-wrote it.

The title track, another collaboration with Claude Kelly and Steve Robson, is a continuation of the story about the same lady friend that was being sung to on ‘Please Don’t Let Me Go’, which finds Olly still unable to move on from her, even when on the rebound, hence the wittily brilliant lyric of ‘Why would anyone stick around / When I can’t help screaming out at the worst time your name?’ It’s quite clear that this is the album where his character started to shine through more – ‘I Don’t Love You Too’, which reunited Murs with Wayne Hector, was inspired by an argument between his grandparents.

The simplicity of a Stevie Wonder or Diana Ross ballad is also felt on the song which many fans to this day cite as their favourite. ‘I Need You Now’ closes the album on a simple piano and cello backing, as Olly really proves his vocal chops on a song that is heartfelt, sensitive, and in comparison to the slower numbers on the first album, is delivered with belief and conviction. It’s not surprising that it was touted by many as a potential single after his show stopping rendition of it on The Xtra Factor on the eve of the album’s release. Alas it never came to fruition, but even now it’s still included in his setlist on tour.

Indeed, that song was a highlight of the nineteen-date sold out tour that accompanied it in February 2012, which less than a year after his first theatre tour, saw him progress to the arenas of the UK and Ireland. The story of his time on the road was chronicled for a three part documentary series for ITV2, called Olly: Life On Murs, which not only followed his antics on tour, but also saw him surprising some super fans in each city along the way – one of which just so happened to be the present writer on board an open top bus in Central London.

Writers: Olly Murs, Claude Kelly, Steve Robson

Producer: Steve Robson

Album: In Case You Didn't Know

Release Date: 20/11/2011

B-Side: 'Baby Blue Eyes' (Writers: Olly Murs, Paddy Byrne / Producer: Paddy Byrne)

Chart Positions: #1 (UK), #1 (Scotland), #2 (Ireland), #7 (Hungary), #20 (Belgium), #62 (Australia), #65 (Austria)

Sales: 810k+ (UK, Platinum)

Nominations: 'Most Performed Work', Ivor Novello Awards 2013

It's hard to know where to start when you discuss what is by all accounts a 'career' record for an artist. You know the ones we're talking about here: that one song above all their others which they're synonymous with, even ten or twenty years later. It’s also true to say, that a ‘career’ record usually emanates from quite humble beginnings.

Olly headed back to work with Claude Kelly and Steve Robson for the second album in 2011. After all, they had delivered his previous album’s biggest hit and number one, so it only made sense to go mining for a bit more pop gold from them. With a year under his belt, he was learning that being a single male in the public eye – especially in music – and being out on the road and enjoying all the trappings that came with it (particularly where female admirers were concerned) wasn’t without its downsides.

With social media on the rise, Olly has said that he often found the common response to ‘Do you fancy meeting up some time babe?’ to a prospective new beau he happened upon in a night spot/discotheque was always ‘Just add me on Facebook’ or ‘Send me a DM on Twitter’. Hardly the stuff great romance is made of. As someone with a view on the old school way of doing things, it’s not hard to see why Olly was frustrated.

This frustration came out in a writing session with Claude and Steve, when he came in to the studio one day and announced to them that he wanted to write a ‘really old, classic song about seeing a really fit girl on a night out’ and wooing her via the medium of singing and dancefloor magic. And thus ‘Dance With Me Tonight’ was born.

Like all the best pop songs, it sounds like about twenty of them in one sitting: a bit of ‘It’s Not Unusual’ here, a bit of ‘Love Machine’ and ‘Smiley Faces’ there. Claude even gave it an authentically old school, New Orleans soul bar touch by doing the spoken word intro of ‘Ladies and gentlemen, we’ve got a special treat for you tonight’. It was a thrilling mix of pop, doo-wop and 60s styled soul with one eye on dancefloors the land over. Its video also pandered to Olly’s playful cheeky side, as he rounded up a gang of party loving friends to woo a prospective beau with a (later revealed to be illegal) street party.

And Olly was confident that once it had been recorded, he not only had a hit on his hands, but that the direction of his second album – now to be titled as ‘In Case You Didn’t Know’ after another of his compositions with Claude and Steve – had been informed. However, when released ahead of the album in mid-November 2011, ‘Dance With Me Tonight’ had a much slower start than his first single off the album had.

You see, Rihanna (with Calvin Harris) had been seeing off all comers to the number one spot for well over a month with her colossal hit single ‘We Found Love’. High profile new singles from JLS, One Direction, The Wanted, Pixie Lott and The Saturdays had all been released in its wake and failed to knock her off the top. ‘Dance With Me Tonight’ looked as if it was going to be joining them when it debuted at #2, despite leading the way midweek. But this was reckoned on without Olly’s second homecoming performance on The X Factor stage, where he debuted its first live performance the very same night it entered the UK chart.

Sony Music had heard a month or so beforehand from Disney that puppet legends The Muppets were set to release a new feature film called, appropriately enough, The Muppets – first in North America for the Thanksgiving market, and then in the UK and Europe the following February. Jim Henson’s fuzzy and furry creations were still a much loved if conspicuously absent entity (at that point anyway) in the UK, and with a new movie came big new promotion opportunities.

Just about any big showbiz name you can think of from the last four decades has worked with them, so Olly knew it was an opportunity he couldn’t miss out on. Fozzie Bear, Animal, Stadler and Waldorf, and an army of singing penguins and chickens – oh, and crucially, Miss Piggy – hopped over to the UK to join him for his first performance of ‘Dance With Me Tonight’, with a specially re-recorded studio version for the performance making it onto the UK version of The Muppets soundtrack the following year.

Olly and The Muppets proved a winning combination, and the subsequent buzz around it was the most there had been around a result show guest performance in years. So much so that, in a national newspaper’s end of series poll, it was voted as the guest performance of that year’s X Factor. The week the ‘In Case You Didn’t Know’ album headed chart bound, the single held its #2 berth whilst a charity single by that year’s X Factor finalists debuted at the top.

But as airplay grew and ‘Dance With Me Tonight’ started to fill floors the land over, the momentum was enough to ensure that it climbed to the number one spot in the UK on its third week, becoming his third chart topper. With over 200,000 sales to its name already by that point, it had sold more copies than any other single that year before hitting number one. It then went onto shift well over another half a million copies by the time it finished its twenty-week run inside the chart, confirming it as by far and away the biggest seller of his career.

And, as if to prove that good things often come from a place of frustration, the single found itself nominated for a prestigious Ivor Novello award for songwriting 18 months later, in the ‘Most Performed Work’ category at the 2013 ceremony, further cementing Olly’s credentials as an artist, performer and songwriter. Not bad for a song written from being tired of finding love on social media.

OTHER THOUGHTS

Guest Artist: Rizzle Kicks

Writers: Alex Smith, Samuel Preston, Jim Eliot, Jordan Stephens, Harley Alexander Sule

Producers: Alex Smith, Matt Furmidge

Album: In Case You Didn't Know

Release Date: 21/08/2011

B-Side: 'On My Cloud' (Writers: Olly Murs, Mark Taylor, Samuel Preston / Producer: Mark Taylor)

Chart Positions: #1 (UK), #1 (Germany), #1 (Luxembourg), #1 (Switzerland), #1 (Poland), #2 (Scotland), #6 (Ireland), #6 (Austria), #9 (Belgium), #12 (Hungary), #60 (Sweden), #67 (Romania), #76 (Netherlands), #85 (Australia), #91 (Canada)*, #96 (US)*

Sales: 700k+ (UK, Platinum), 450k (Germany, 3x Platinum), 15k (Austria, Platinum), 30k (Switzerland, Platinum)

Nominations: 'Best British Single', BRIT Awards 2012

It doesn't matter what genre you operate in, the age-old music industry cliché of the "difficult second album" can either make or break an artist if they're to confirm themselves as a long-term prospect. And whilst it wasn’t difficult for him, as the summer of 2011 dawned, Olly was no different when it came to his follow-up effort. He had already started writing and recording for it in March that same year.

The demo of 'Heart Skips A Beat' had actually been around for the best part of a year and had started life when it was initially put forward for consideration to be included on his self-titled debut album. Nick Raphael and Jo Charrington at Epic however, whilst impressed with it, decided to hold it back for inclusion on his second album. The track was written by the then up & coming songwriter and producer Alex Smith (who had cut his teeth on a clutch of top 20 hits for motormouthed Brit rapper Example) in collaboration with former lead singer and guitarist with The Ordinary Boys, Samuel Preston, and Jim Eliot, formerly one half of electropop duo Kish Mauve, who had been behind "2 Hearts" and "All The Lovers", both massive hits for Aussie pop royalty Kylie Minogue.

It marked the first time that Olly hadn't had a hand in writing a single, but speaking to Music Week on its release, he understood what a special song it was from the get-go: "It was a curve ball and nothing like anything else on the album, but I loved the production and the writers wrote it for me." Sonically, it retained some of the sprightly, catchy feel of 'Thinking of Me', whilst also introducing an early 90s dance/big beat styling, in the vein of The 45 King, Beats International or Dee-Lite (the latter of which’s single "Groove Is In The Heart" Olly performed as a mashup with this single at the following year's BRIT Awards when it earned him his second nomination for the 'Best British Single' trophy).

But there were two more vital rolls of the dice to be made before the single bought him to another level of success altogether. The first was the appearance of Jordan Stephens and Harley Alexander Sule, aka Brighton based teenage hip hop duo Rizzle Kicks, who had been making waves that summer after signing to Universal Island the year before and were riding high in the UK top 10 with their debut single 'Down With The Trumpets'. Sensing that they were to become a big name, even on a rival label, they were approached by Epic to contribute a guest rap to 'Heart Skips A Beat'. They immediately obliged, and their perfectly cheeky, playful rap was incorporated on just two weeks before the final version was cut and delivered to radio.

They also turned up to join Olly at the single's video shoot. Filmed at the skate park in Mile End, East London in July 2011, with a cast of two dozen extras hoofing it around a giant Olly sized record player, it was the perfect backdrop for the single, as Olly, resplendent in a straw trilby, blue and white striped tee and red chinos, delivered one of the most iconic videos and looks of his career. 'Heart Skips A Beat' took many people in the UK by surprise, including many of the detractors who'd disputed he'd even get past his first single a year previously and were now grudgingly eating their words. As its release drew closer, it had built up a good head of steam with strong airplay on radio and TV. And then, on the weekend of its 21st August release, there was also the first showcase for Olly's other seemingly endless pool of talents in entertainment.

Towards the end of his first theatre tour, a call came in from the producers at The X Factor. Some major personnel shifts had occurred on the show, which was then still at its peak - chiefly, the departures of Simon Cowell and Cheryl (albeit briefly) to the then just launched US version of the format, and Dannii Minogue to concentrate on being a full-time mum.

Only Dermot O’Leary (hosting the main show) and Louis Walsh (on the judging panel) remained for the new look show, this time headed by the Captain of Take That, Gary Barlow, and also consisting of former Destiny's Child star Kelly Rowland and Tulisa, the lead female vocalist with British hip hop group N-Dubz. Former Blue Peter presenter Konnie Huq, the host of the show's lovingly irreverent ITV2 spin off, The Xtra Factor, had also left after just one year.

The producers, knowing how popular he was and that he'd bring the cheeky likeability needed to the show, had Olly in mind to take over from her. An understandably nervous Olly, who by his own admission couldn't dream of hosting anything on his own, let alone a show as big as the very one he got his start from, fortunately had an anchor to play off. Enter one-time CBBC and MTV host Caroline Flack, who had been on the ITV2 spin off for I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here for two years and was already a hit with the same channel's audience.

They immediately proved a winning combination, and it was indeed our very own fansite which christened them with the name which their loyal army of internet shippers - but chiefly the ones on here - have used for them ever since (Carolly). All of these factors combined to ensure that Olly was, not for the first time in his career, going to confound his critics by launching his second album with a bang, and just a week shy of a whole year since ‘Please Don’t Let Me Go’ managed it, ‘Heart Skips A Beat’ rocketed straight in at the top to give him his second UK number one.

It was still on the chart some thirteen weeks later, when the single we’ll meet next week was about to make its debut. And it was also with this single that Olly broke a territory which, after the UK, is to this day one of the most ardent supporters of him and his music, as it hit the top in Germany the following spring, as well as hitting number one in three other European countries. A modern pop classic to be proud of.

OTHER THOUGHTS

Another taster of this single’s parent album was given as a B-side, in the form of an early version of the perky, piano led dream pop meets Britpop number ‘On My Cloud’. Olly co-wrote this with Samuel Preston, whilst additional writing and production came from Mark Taylor at Metrophonic, who had amongst other things produced Cher’s mega-selling number one hit ‘Believe’ in 1998. When performed on tour the following year, Olly did it as a mashup with ‘I Need A Dollar’, which had been a huge worldwide hit for Aloe Blacc twelve months previously.

Writers: Olly Murs, Adam Argyle, Martin Brammer

Producers: Adam Argyle, Martin Brammer

Album: Olly Murs

Release Date: 27/05/2011

B-Side: 'Takes A Lot' (Writers: Olly Murs, John Green, Phil Thornalley / Producer: Phil Thornalley)

Chart Positions: #45 (UK)

Sales: 15-20k (UK, estimated)

Of all Olly's early single releases, it's fair to say that 'Busy' is one of the most fondly remembered - even if its chart performance suggests otherwise. Along with 'I Blame Hollywood' on the Olly Murs album, it marked his first collaboration with Adam Argyle and Martin Brammer. Leeds born Argyle had briefly been signed as a solo artist in the early 00s to Gut Records, the label of Olly's future fellow coach on The Voice, Sir Tom Jones, whilst Brammer had been lead vocalist of Kane Gang, a sophistipop band in the vein of Scritti Politti, who enjoyed a top 20 hit in 1984 with 'Closest Thing To Heaven'.

Between them as songwriters, they had already penned hits for the likes of Melanie C, James Morrison, Rachel Stevens, Lighthouse Family and Newton Faulkner, and in subsequent years they have gone onto write hits for Sigala, Rita Ora and Dua Lipa. 'Busy' is a sweet and breezy little song, with Olly singing to a prospective beau that he doesn't care about the world going by when he's got the perfect girl with whom he can get 'busy doing nothing'. It epitomises the very spirit of a good single from Olly, and even to this day remains a solid fan favourite.

The idea of this song being sung to the perfect girl spilled forth into the song's video too. 'Busy' saw Olly team up with acclaimed director Corin Hardy, well noted for in his words 'bending the rules' and presenting the abstract in his previous videos for artists ranging from McFly to Keane. Inspired by the cult independent film 'Lars and the Real Girl', a bespectacled, slightly eccentric Olly lives a solitary existence in a 1970s style chalet bungalow, all the while building and piecing together 'Rose', a papier mache mannequin who he builds to be his perfect girl.

When announced as the album's fourth single in April 2011, fans the land over rejoiced that one of its strongest songs was getting its turn in the spotlight and on the airwaves. However, many thought it should have come sooner than it did. Indeed, for a song so well loved in his canon, it’s surprising it took the label as long as it did for it to surface. Not least because Olly was suddenly in demand in more ways than one, as we’ll start to explore in the coming weeks. His first ever sold out national tour around the UK's theatres commenced a month before the single was released, meaning that as with his previous single, there was no time left to promote it when it was finally released on 27th May. Not to mention that it had already been available to download from the album for a whole six months, and the single became his first to fail to chart inside the top 40, tanking out at #45.

It was a number of factors that contributed to this happening. Being the fourth single off an already huge selling, double platinum album was one. Poor scheduling of the single release with a busy UK tour schedule was another – he joined labelmates and fellow X Factor alumni JLS as the support act on their summer stadium tour just days after his own theatre tour finished.

But if there’s one thing ‘Busy’ did bring him as a single, it was royalties pay dirt, as it was used in a wealth of TV shows and advertising campaigns for several years afterwards. Most notably, it was used on the Marks & Spencer TV adverts for their food range and was also the theme tune to short lived BBC sitcom Me & Mrs Jones, starring Coupling’s Sarah Alexander, Men Behaving Badly star Neil Morrissey and former star of 90s girl group Eternal, Kellé Bryan.

OTHER THOUGHTS

Writers: James Morrison, John Shanks

Producer: John Shanks

Album: Olly Murs

Release Date: 06/03/2011

B-Side: 'C'mon C'mon' (Writers: Olly Murs, Mads Hauge / Producer: Phil Thornalley)

Chart Positions: #20 (UK), #24 (Scotland)

Sales: 63.5k (UK)

Although it's only a commonly known fact to uber fans, 'Heart On My Sleeve' actually marks Olly's first ever cover version. The track was written by much loved British singer songwriter James Morrison ('You Give Me Something', 'Broken Strings' with Nelly Furtado) in collaboration with John Shanks, the American super producer who has, amongst other things, powered Take That to their two multimillion selling comeback albums in both 2006's 'Beautiful World' and 2008's 'The Circus'.

It first found its way onto the only studio album of Michael Johns, a finalist on the 2008 series of American Idol. It peaked inside the top 30 of the Billboard Adult Contemporary Chart in the States in 2009, and it was happened upon a year later and suggested for Olly to record for his debut album.

Even with a growing fanbase, two top 5 hits, a BRIT nomination and a platinum selling album to his name, the level of derision and criticism against him from music bores and snobs was growing at an alarming rate too. Olly's bouncy pop and everyman approach appeared to be so at odds with the sort of music that was popular at the start of the second decade of the 21st century, and certain people were only too happy to let their feelings be known. The now defunct bitchy gossip site Holy Moly for example, took total umbrage with him, and said he was simply repurposing the failed music career of ex-EastEnder Sid 'Rickaaay' Owen. Miaow!

You can understand therefore, why Epic wanted to move away from the feel of the first two singles and go for something that would showcase Olly's vocal ability, another facet to him as a performer, and demonstrate his way with a slower, more emotionally powered song. But whilst fine as a track on the album, 'Heart On My Sleeve' just wasn't up to the job as a single. As we discussed in our review of its parent album last week, if the label absolutely did have to go with a ballad, there were better options available.

Even when kitted out in a slick black roll neck jumper and trousers that made him look like the natural choice for the next Milk Tray man, a grey and drizzly night shoot in London's South Bank for the video couldn't help lift any excitement around the song, and Olly has gone on record in recent years to say that for this reason it's one of his least favourite singles.

It's release also happened to coincide with a charity trek that Olly had signed up for a few months previously. Following in the footsteps of Gary Barlow and his team of celebrity pals who had trekked up Mount Kilimanjaro for Comic Relief two years previously, he joined the likes of Craig David, Lorraine Kelly and Scott Mills on a five day trek through the Kaisut desert in Kenya to raise money for that year's Red Nose Day.

By the time he came back from the trek, which raised £1.3m to help prevent and cure blindness, he was understandably exhausted. Just a handful of TV performances and minimal radio airplay - owed in part to the fact his first two singles were still being hammered on the airwaves - and the lack of a physical release to power sales all conspired to ensure that the single just scraped into the top 20. For a brief moment, you could hear the music snobs circling like vultures at this relative flop.

It's undeniable that Olly has got better at showcasing his more emotional side the further down the line he's got, but it was a shame that commercially, a blot on his copybook had to come this early into his career. What it did achieve though, was to help him learn from the mistake of its release and free him up to move onto bigger and better things. So, when viewed in that respect, 'Heart On My Sleeve' is the single that needed to happen.

OTHER THOUGHTS