GARETH GATES AND WILL YOUNG – "The Long And Winding Road"

The original only works for me as one of a series of bulletins – along with The Ballad of John and Yoko – on the breakdown of The Beatles (and what they embodied as avatars of ‘The Sixties’). The syrupy signifiers of emotion in these singers’ gulping stage school performances drain the song of any interest.

I think that adding an attachment can appear as it’s own (normally invisible) post.

To address one of hardtogethits’ questions on his comment there, I think that Suspicious Minds was just Gareth Gates – it’s from the Soundtrack* to Lilo & Stitch, which is as surprising and good as this record isn’t.

*Or is it? Wikipedia claims that there’s five songs performed by Elvis and three of his reworked by modern acts – Wynonna Judd, A-Teens, and Gareth – but there’s only 7 Elvis songs on the tracklisting, and Suspicious Minds appears to be the King.

Stuart Maconie once used the phrase “soulless karaoke” to describe, IIRC, Westlife. It’s not a complicated phrase, but it’s atomic in its disdain for this kind of drivel.

I’m perversely proud of the fact that I thought Suspicious Minds was the ‘A’-side, or the more played track, or was on TOTP, or whatever. I’m utterly disappointed to see (from the cover art) these two tried “I Get The Sweetest Feeling”. Why? Just why?

Anyway, welcome back Tom, and thanks for everything so far!

Footnote: Thanks Mark G – my comment, wasn’t it. Hence reposting here.

“Bob – who should go on first at Live Aid”
“It’s gotta be Ver Quo right? Rockin’ All Over The World”

And he was, probably, right.

“Bob – what song should cap the Live 8 gigs”
“Well, it’s gotta be The Long and Winding Road right? We’re walking up to Edinburgh, debt cancellation is a long and winding road…”
“Not sure Bob. Macca – how about you finish with Hey Jude instead?”

Even Paul McCartney isn’t turfing this song out on the regular and, though he probably wouldn’t say so himself, it’s likely because it’s not good. Certainly not the one of his songs you’d reach for out of his catalogue and that’s probably for good reason. Even with all of Spector’s glurge wiped off it on Let It Be Naked, it’s an almost perfect marriage of title and song – The Long and Winding Circle probably the most apt – and really quite dull, if mildly and prettily reminiscent of other, better, Beatles tracks.

So it’s not just the production crew and Gareth and Will to blame here I reckon. That doesn’t make it worth listening to though. Dull and awful.

The Long and Boring Song. Ugh.

Here’s a question though, is it worse than the original?

Todd- it’s much worse. Before I listened to it, I thought it would merely be pointless, but it’s actually pretty awful. There’s a bit where they sing over each other which sounds really out of place. The instrumentation is thin, and as much as Phil Spector hammed it up for The Beatles, they hammed it down.

Nixon- I too noticed that typographical anomaly. I can’t believe it was intentional.
From 1987 when cd singles started becoming more mainstream, until c2015 when it was a challenge to find any, only two number singles didn’t have the title written on the spine. This was the first. ( I am obviously excluding those few thin cardboard efforts which were almost spineless- Professional Widow, Love Won’t Wait, Beetlebum etc)

Quite timely opening words from you there Tom given there’s a film that comes out in cinemas this weekend as I write this that explores the whole concept of ‘a world without the Beatles’ in a huge extreme. Time will tell if the soundtrack produces any future Popular entries!

To address the confusion re: the other two covers on this single. Gareth’s was indeed ‘Suspicious Minds’, from the soundtrack of the then newly released Disney film ‘Lilo & Stitch’. Will’s was his version of Jackie Wilson’s ‘I Get The Sweetest Feeling’, although it was only ‘Suspicious Minds’ that got TV promo and a music video (although Will did perform his version of ‘Sweetest Feeling’ on the final of the first series of American Idol that same month).

As for the main track which we’re discussing – not as bad as I remember it being to be honest. It’s dull, yes, but not hatefully so. Their voices actually work quite well together. The release of this single coincided with Will and Gareth heading out on a joint UK arena tour together called, imaginatively, the ‘Will & Gareth Tour’, with fellow Pop Idol finalist Zoe Birkett as a support act. As I recall they did a satellite link from one of the shows on the tour for TOTP when it hit number one.

I think the overall effect of this single and the tour was to nicely close the chapter on them being part of ‘and’, just as ‘Especially for You’ did for Kylie ‘and’ Jason twelve years previously and start giving them a chance to branch out in their own right. Both Fame Academy and the second series of Popstars had started airing when this hit the top, so they timed it pretty well to be honest to get in one last chart topper before attention were diverted onto more new hopefuls.

We do of course meet them once more apiece on the 2003 bunnies, by which point they’d taken radically different routes success wise and career wise. For ‘The Long and Winding Road’, I’m gonna settle on a 4 for this I think.

#2 watch: Oasis with ‘Little by Little’ in its first week, a debuting Avril Lavigne following at #3 with ‘Complicated’. A shame we don’t get to discuss her on Popular, not least because of the paradigm shift she ushered in where teen pop was concerned for a more rocky (at least relatively so) contigency. That said I cannot stand ‘Sk8r Boi’, back then or now.

Holly Valance with her almost forgotten ‘Down Boy’ (produced by Nellee Hooper, no less) was #2 on its second week. Interestingly the video for that, ‘Kiss Kiss’ and ‘The Long and Winding Road’ all share a director in Tim Royes, who also did ‘Sweet Dreams My L.A Ex’ for Rachel Stevens and ‘Red Dress’ and ‘Easy’ for the third lineup of Sugababes. He was sadly killed in an RTA in 2007, but he did a lot of memorable pop videos of this time.

In the absence of anything to add re the single in question* here’s some choice words from The Quietus on another one of Sir Paul’s which will no doubt endure better than The Long and Winding Road: https://thequietus.com/articles/26699-the-beatles-yesterday-lovecraft-john-higgs

* No really, after listening to the originals then listening to these covers my only noteworthy thought was wishing I had used that time to listen to Macca, Elvis and Jackie Wilson a second time.

Having not heard this for ages I decided to refresh my memory and found myself switching off the video with one minute to go. Which is strange because I don’t dislike the song as such and have nothing against either of the singers involved.

In all honesty this is the sound of a) water being trodden (even Gareth was capable of better) and b) hay being made while the sun was still shining. There was no guarantee that either Will or Gareth would remain bankable. And the relatively strong sales and two weeks at the top suggest that the fans were happy and few of them even liked this on its own merits. I’ll never condemn any artist for giving their public what they want and if enough people were willing to buy this to send it to number one, so be it.

@5: I’d suggest that, rather than seeking to “control” the conversation, Paul was just trying to keep a conversation going – or, more specifically, to transcribe into song his feelings as his beloved band neared its unhappy end. Personally, I’m grateful that his sadness at their disintegration found expression in so beautiful an elegy as “You Never Give Me Your Money” (and in the other songs to which Tom alludes, even where the end result was flawed). My sense is that Paul, more so than any of his bandmates, was keenly attuned to what the Beatles meant not only to him but also to millions of ordinary people, and that this merited a few songs that would try to make sense of – and to find some perspective on – their extraordinary career and their painful demise.

@21 Agreed! With one small caveat: I think “Her Majesty” was very much Paul’s idea – his way of humorously puncturing what might otherwise have been perceived as an overly grandiose conclusion to the Beatles’ recording career. Bear in mind that Abbey Road was very much intended as the band’s last will and testament – I’m not even sure whether they (or Paul at least) expected that the “Let It Be” album would ever see the light of day.

(and Wikipedia sez: Her Majesty was originally in the medley, between Mean Mr Mustard and Polythene Pam – Paul McCartney didn’t like it there and wanted it just removed, but the engineers stuck it on the end because they’d been trained not to throw anything away (?))

In answer to ShinyDave #15 I think it was still very much `advantage Gareth` at this point as his second single had performed better and, as you say, the double A for this was a Gareth solo recording and he was the one chosen for the Comic Relief single next Spring (hopefully I can get away with that as I’m bunnying the circumstances, not the song).

The decisive moment comes with the comeback singles where Will effectively plays his ace but we’ll get to that in due course.

I wouldn’t be surprised if they figured that Gareth was the kind of fast-burn act you had to push hard while you could (and the Jordan affair might have further entrenched that idea?), while Will was the likelier to become a lower-profile success for longer, perhaps more likely to have #1 albums than #1 singles.

Which kinda squares the circle of the two arguments above – Will was someone you built safely into a cash cow, Gareth was the instant bubblegum star you got cheap big hits with before moving on and replacing. And it was already clear that the replacement process was intact, though actually not yet that it would be an annual cycle; as mentioned, there was another ITV singing competition airing in October 2002, but it was Popstars: The Rivals, and – well, nine bunnies from now we’ll be discussing how much that differed from the other ITV singing competitions.

It was the last time Simon ever expressed an unequivocal vote past the semifinal stage. You may detect him liking one more than the other, but it’s always with a side order of “I love you as well” – won’t burn his boats a second time!

The song has never been a favourite of mine and I think Gareth and Will’s version is fairly pointless. 3/10 imho.