Brief 24: Tender

It's sometimes forgotten that Blur had not one but two major chart battles, and it's arguable that the second, less well remembered one, is more important than the first.

Everyone remembers Blur and Oasis in August 1995 and Blur's half-decent fun song beating Oasis' terrible song, and then that being a false harbinger, or a hare and tortoise or whatever.

But in February 1999, Blur went all out for glory again, and came up short.

'Tender' wasn't their first Number 2. 'Song 2' (1997) was also a Number 2, losing out to R Kelly's 'I Believe I Can Fly to Prison', but, if I recall correctly, that was more seen as a delightful triumph, a supposedly uncommercial song suddenly revealing itself to be a monster hit (it was the second single from 'Blur' and second singles didn't go to Number 1 all that often).

But 'Tender', which was, in 1999, the first single from '13', was given the big push. It was the comeback, the epic tearjerker, bold, unusual but destined for glory.

The plan all worked but for an unforeseen obstacle, which was the sudden emergence of one of the biggest pop songs of all time - 'Baby One More Time'. In this case, Blur didn't go head to head. 'Tender' was released a week after Britney Spears' debut single, and considering how many songs then stayed Number 1 for just 1 week, they might reasonably have expected the same would happen here. Big sales for 'One More Time' for one week, but then enough of a drop for 'Tender' to overtake.

But 'One More Time' was a phenomenon, and, though it was close, held on for that extra week, leaving 'Tender' at Number 2.

I remember being genuinely gutted, and I've always had slightly complex feelings about 'Tender'. I'm not sure I ever loved it, deep down, as much as I hoped I would, and what with its not achieving its stated aim, always saw it as a bit of a failure and the beginning of the end of Blur's pre-eminence.

There is some truth in that - they've only had one Top 5 single since then. But, when you look at the numbers, and what's more, the way 'Tender' was the emotional heart of their beautiful comeback in 2009, the idea of it as a failure looks ridiculous. It sold more than 100,000 copies in that first week, and more than 400,000 in total in the UK - extraordinary numbers for an indie band.

Nevertheless, I still see that as the end of something, rightly or wrongly. I still can't bring myself to accept 'One More Time' is a great pop song, it's the last bastion of my anti-pop snobbery. Perhaps that week was the dawning of the Max Martin era which has dominated pop music for more than two decades, and the last moment for great Britpop-era successful chart music - of course the likes of Coldplay, Franz Ferdinand, Arctic Monkeys were all hugely successful singles acts, but to me, they're all a different era.

'Tender' was, in a way, Britpop's last hurrah.