Official Charts Flashback 2004: The Streets – Dry Your Eyes

Remember that cheeky chap with a bit of an edge who changed the UK garage scene for ever? Ten years ago, The Streets aka Mike Skinner was enjoying the biggest success of his career, thanks to an unusual, emotional ballad.

The Streets had seen some two years’ worth of chart success, but it was the release of second album A Grand Don’t Come For Free that turned hype and buzz into bona fide mainstream success.

Lead single Fit But You Know it saw Mike break into the Top 10 for the very first time, peaking at Number 4 and with appetite for Mike’s stories about the ups and downs of being a working class twenty-something stronger than ever, it paved the way for a smash hit follow-up. Dry Your Eyes, a heartfelt ballad about love and loss, was a departure for the usually gritty and uptempo Mike, standing out from The Streets’ usual beat-heavy take on modern life.

If it was a risk, it certainly paid off: Dry Your Eyes debuted at the top of the Official Singles Chart this week in 2004 and has sold over 345,000 copies to be The Streets’ bestselling single.

Dry Your Eyes would be Mike’s only Number 1 single. Five albums in, The Streets decided to call it a day, after 14 Top 40 hits (including four Top 10s). Over on the Official Albums Chart, The Streets scored two Number 1s, A Grand Don’t Come For Free (2004) and The Hardest Way To Make An Easy Living (2006). All five releases went Top 10, with final album Computers and Blues peaking at Number 8.

A Grand Don’t Come For Free was the big one – it’s sold over 1.1 million copies to date.

Watch the video for Fit But You Know It before we count down the rest of our retro Top 5.

2: Shapeshifters – Lola’s Theme
Last week’s Number 1 takes a tumble after just a week at the top. Lola’s Theme, like a lot of dance hits in the mid-Noughties, started life as an instrumental and was well-known to clubbers. Thanks to the vocal talents of singer Cookie, the track found new fans and debuted at the top spot. Three more Top 40 hits followed, but Lola’s Theme remains the group’s biggest seller – it’s shifted over 300,000 copies.

3: Rachel Stevens – Some Girls
Another near miss for the former S Clubber – it was her second single to debut at Number 2 and go no further. Some Girls was 2004’s official Sport Relief single and was produced by Richard X, who’d originally written it with Girls Aloud in mind. Imagine! Some Girls has sold over 145,000 copies in the UK. Rachel scored seven solo Top 40s, with all but two of them going Top 10.

4: J-Kwon – Tipsy
It was no move for American rapper J-Kwon, who, although he didn’t quite know it yet, would go on to be a genuine one-hit wonder. J-Kwon sold over 150,000 copies of Tipsy, an international hit, but never again graced the Official Singles Chart in the UK. Sadness.

5: Usher – Burn
Another former Number 1 in the Top 5, Usher’s third chart-topper out of four. Remember the others? Sure you do: debut hit You Make Me Wanna (1998), Yeah (2004) and OMG with will.i.am from 2010. In 16 years of chart success – 16! – Usher has scored 22 Top 40 hits, including 16 Top 10s.

See the full Top 40 from this week in 2004.

This time last year…
Avicii’s Wake Me Up went straight in at Number 1, selling 237,000 copies in its first week on sale, making it 2013’s fastest selling single. Take a look at the Top 40 this time last year including new entries from Selena Gomez, Avril Lavigne and Lucy Spraggan.