Splendid, another of the greatest pop singles of all time, it's
Umbrella - Rihanna ft Jay-Z
which was Number 1 for nine whole weeks in the summer of 2007. Nine weeks hardly seems enough. Why didn't people keep on buying it? Why did more people buy The Way I Are by Timbaland ft Keri Hilson one week in early August?
Some see Rihanna as one of 21st century pop's great auteurs along with Beyonce, Taylor Swift and Lady Gaga, but I don't think she's quite that. I think she has more to thank other people for than they do, but the main, key thing, about Rihanna is that on her best songs, of which Umbrella is one - probably her greatest - ,her voice is the most perfect sound in the history of pop music.
And that's, above all, why her success, her popularity, is long-lasting and relentless. Ten songs with over a billion spotify streams. 14 US Number 1s. Over 250 million record sales.
I haven't quite got into Rihanna as an albums artist, despite giving it a go. I'm happy with a handful of singles. I love Umbrella more each year. Diamonds likewise (Diamonds is written by Sia, whose other monster hits are Chandelier and Titanium. Hmm ... fertile theme). Back to Umbrela, which is, first and foremost, a great song. It was almost sung by Britney Spears (don't think would have been good) and Mary J Blige (would have been great, but not this great). It has leant itself to many cover versions. It works well as a rock song. It's a big-hearted song of love, friendship, protection.
Tom Breihan, the American writer of Number Ones, admits he gave it a poor review at the time, felt Rihanna's vocals cold for what the song was, and only came to love and understand it later. Her vocals have a metallic edge, but they're not cold. They're ... a lot more than that.
I agree with him that Jay-Z's rap is a bit hopeless, nothing more than intro, but it's out of the way by the time the song starts. The verses are good, the chorus is magnificent, the "ella" hook is, let's admit, somewhat catchy.
I had probably drifted a fair way from the pop charts at this point. I don't think I heard Umbrella until it was everywhere. Everywhere it was.
Times were busy in 2007. I got my first real DVT, bought it at the five and dime. That kept me busy for the first few months of the year. Got on facebook around April. Doom. Went to All Tomorrow's Parties (Cave and Newsom etc), Latitude, Lovebox and End of the Road. Also fitted in two weeks in New York. Blair stood down. The smoking ban came in. It rained a lot.
Somewhere within all that I noticed Umbrella was everywhere like very few songs are ... Wonderwall, Angels, Amarillo, Get Lucky. ... everywhere. And that it was good.
I remember it being sung in the changing room of my football team, after I started playing football again, after I'd stopped taking warfarin, before I broke my leg. I remember the Manics covering it at the O2.
It's the greatest, but not the only good, Number 1 of 2007 - Grace Kelly, Ruby, Shine is not a bad start to the year. With Every Heartbeat, Stronger, Bleeding Love, towards the end of it. Feels like Bleeding Love owes something to Umbrella. That's another great single, in any case.
I have a funny little Rihanna postscript, in any case. I think, I'm not certain but I think, that Rihanna watched my team play cricket in April 2003. We were on tour to Barbados, playing one of several games against a collection of promising teen Bajans (we were an adult team, not bad, not great) - that day their team definitely included someone called Ryan Hinds who'd already played a test match,
Anyway, during the hot afternoon, a glamorous young woman came to watch and chat with the Barbadian team. Rihanna would have been 15 at the time, her first hit was a year or two later. It was clear this was someone who was already a significant person in Barbados. It's possible one of the players was her boyfriend, I can't remember. Rihanna definitely likes cricket, she's been seen at quite a few West Indies games, and was at a school called Combermere with the likes of Carlos Brathwaite and Chris Jordan. Barbados is a small place. I don't know for sure it was her, but it tickles me to think part of her journey to global superstardom was an afternoon watching a bang-average team of English ex-public schoolboys struggling to keep pace with a team of Barbados teenagers.
I remember the food after the meal that day was sensational. I don't think it rained.
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