I know plenty of people who don't know who Westlife are but when they hear World Of Our Own or When You're Looking Like That, they know the songs. And it is bit weird to put Take That alongside Madonna, The Beatles or Elvis - That That also probably have 2 very well songs and thats Back For Good and Never Forget, I highly doubt, say, some heavy metal dude knows other Take That songs. Same goes with Backstreet Boys - I Want It That Way and Everybody are probably most known hits by general public, Nsync have Bye Bye Bye...

Westlife are a boyband after all, it is unfair to expect they will be remembered as are Madonna, The Beatles or Elvis.

But I do stand by what I said - at least World Of our Own, Flying Without Wings and especially When You're Looking Like That are known songs.

Actually there are a lot of us out here who never took much notice of boy bands.

Out of all the Westlife songs that have been mentioned, the only one (apart from covers) that I recognise is 'Flying Without Wings'. And I wouldn't have been sure if it was by Westlife, Boyzone or Ronan Keating as they are all much of a muchness to me.

I couldn't name you many Take That songs either. It would probably be none if they hadn't done a Take That theme week on the X Factor back in the days when I still watched it. (Except for the Barry Manilow cover which was done so much better by Donna Summer.)

I think the criticism of Westlife is not so much to do with anyone hating them.but just despairing at what they represent.

Artists with most no.1 hits have by and large been hugely influential - Elvis, Beatles etc. and their place in pop history is indisputable. Westlife, by comparison, have simply been a hugely successful karaoke act and are symbolic of the poor state of pop music in recent years in terms of a complete lack of originality or innovation.

c'mon guys,

take that? to be recognized as much with madonna, presley and the beatles, the only single that i know from them is back for good, nothing more . nothing else

exactly, but i really wonder why many people here acted as if take that is such a great great artist to be much alike with michael jackson, elvis presley, and madonna. In our country, even in asia, they are not that popular, maybe can be tagged as a one hit wonder back then with back for good.

westlife may not be that influential musically, but we have to understand that they are a boyband! and as a boyband they have achieved a lot. they deserve their achivements.

flying without wings and world of our own will always be the most known boyband songs.

Gary Barlow at least wrote or co-wrote most of Take That's songs. Looking at Westlife songs there is barely a contribution by any of the band (going though there discography I only see 14'ish songs that have writing credits from the band members).

Not that I have any love for Take That (Patience was a decent tune) but you can clearly see they are/were a better act than Westlife.

Acts who have had more than 10 #1 singles are Take That (11), The Shadows (12), Madonna (13), Westlife (14), Cliff Richard (14), The Beatles (17) and Elvis Presley (21).

HOWEVER a true representation of if the act is popular with a cross section of the public is how many weeks at #1 the act has been. This is how the table would look.

1.Elvis Presley 80 wks,
2.The Beatles 69 wks,
3.Cliff Richard 46 wks,
4.The Shadows 44 wks,
5.Madonna 29 wks,
6.Take That 28 wks,
7.Westlife 20 wks,

I think this is why a lot of people don't rank Westlife highly as despite having 14 #1 singles only 4 of those lasted more than a week and even the ones that did were only 2 weeks at #1 bar 1 at 4 wks. This meaning their songs debut at #1 through a young fanbase then freefall down and why most don't remember them unlike others on the list. Westlife have had as many #1's as Cliff Richard but are 26 weeks behind him which is going on for half a year that pretty much tells it's own story. I know you can't compare band for band but if any group are equal on paper realistically there should be less of a gap.

Take That another boyband and 3 #1's less than Westlife have two months more at #1 so for this country which is what the thread is discussing not other countries they have reached a wider range of audience including in their initial boyband phase when only one single spent x1 week at #1 in the 90's. Only two songs in total have spent x1 week at #1 all others multiple weeks.
Like someone pointed out Take That through Gary Barlow wrote all the albums and they created the band dynamics internally such as Howard sorting the harmonies and Jason the choreography etc (not music but still creatively independent)

The number for Elvis and The Beatles are amazing over a year at #1 in the UK singles chart is really impressive.

ok that is your opinion, but they are so overrated! to be aligned with madonna, presley and beatles.. to think that they have a tolerable average kind of boyband music.. the only difference maybe that got them an edge over westlife is that they co wrote some of their songs...

fyi, westlife has also the ability to write good music, it's just that they were limited by their recording company back then, so that talent was not maximized.

I don't think we can honestly play the "creative" card, since Elvis, Cliff et al largely did not write their own material.

But it seems quite obvious to me that the main reason for the popularity of Westlife, Take That, and now One Direction is raging teenage hormones

I wasn't comparing Take That with the Beatles - I was comparing them to Westlife. If Westlife had the 'talent' to write their own songs, why didn't they? Clearly they were happy to sit back and do what they did rather than express any music integrity they may have had. That in my book lessons my already low opinion of them.

seriously, so elvis and cliff didn't write their own hit songs? i didnt know about that, i thought all of the artist mentioned above are that creative, artistic, talented who created their own music and that's how you presentem based on mocking and bashing westlife lack of artistry in writing their own songs..

people are really biased and and have that "creab mentalitity" hating others because they are successful.

What?

My post above #57 explains why Westlife aren't remembered perhaps as much as others on the list coun3spice.

I know the vast bulk of your posting history is totally solely Westlife related and keeping their legacy alive that's fine however the fact is people will have non glorified impressions of Westlife some will like many probably won't and even more won't care, that's really ok. No one is saying they didn't have 14 #1's but like my earlier post says the facts are compared to others they have had by far less weeks at #1 than the others. This thread isn't exclusive Westlife you can always start another one if you wish.

I still think it's amazing Elvis and The Beatles spent over a year at the top that truly is impressive.

Well if you are going to start analysing the stats in that way and assessing reach, you should include actual sales figures, streaming figures including youtube views and social media presence. That's because, if as you rightly suggest, Westlife records sold to the fanbase but not much beyond, you have to assess the size of the fanbase.

Also some of these artists have had hit records over a large number of years and in many decades. Westlife didn't have the same longevity as Elvis and The Beatles, not many do. However, I think it is surprising how successful Westlife actually were. And perhaps even more surprising that some of the group have financial difficulties.

This whole thing started because Will I Am got 10th #1 single, now it just got out of hand because of one defensive post by coun3spice which caused the others to push his buttons, which lead to more defensive posts by coun3spice.

Westlife were what they were, a boyband who a achieved a lot despite making huge mistakes like releasing to many covers, but it should be noted they were constantly arguing with Syco about it, it is a little unfair to just say "why didn't they wrote their own songs", general public just doesn't know the whole story.

They co-wrote 8 tracks on their 3rd album, but then their co-written single Bop Bop Baby ended "just" at no. 5 (oh the horror), which is the reason why I think they weren't encouraged to write anymore. It is very clear that they want to and are capable since Shane co-wrote his album, and Mark and even Nicky are doing the same.

And they were always an album band anyway, so I'm not surprised their single haven't charted for weeks and weeks - though selling 6 million singles and 20 million albums in the UK alone is not so bad I guess for a boyband.

But at least I hope we all can agree that Westlife are better than Will. I Am. It is actually a stupid claim because his hits with Black Eyed Peas are also counted in - so technically he actually doesn't have 10 no. 1's.

And I agree with the previous post - it really should be taken into consideration the huge longevity and most importantly the period, when the careers of Madonna, Cliff, especially The Beatles and Elvis started - they were the ones who started a musical trend, no wonder they were no.1 for so many weeks. And even Take That, consider the time when they started - early 90's when boyband craze was gigantic and they were the first UK boyband who were huge. Now they are doing extremely well mostly thanks to who they were and the nostalgia of it all - I bet if Westlife had released the album like Progress, they would have had huge backslash from the critics and the media. But because it was Take That, everyone praised the album like that.

cant believe Queen are not there
"The band have released a total of 18 number one albums, 18 number one singles, and 10 number one DVDs"

what is difference between a number 1 single and a number 1 ? ?

Not sure where you got the info that they had 18 number one singles? I think it is only 3.

Queen have only had 5 number ones to my knowledge.

Bohemian Rhapsody x 2
Under Pressure
Innuendo
Live Live EP with George Michael

.......they possibly are starting to approach that worldwide as they have had enormous success in many countries but 18 still seems a bit high.

*crab mentality

to clarify, i only insisted or keep on posting about westlife as a defense only to people who keeps on talking, insisting, bashing,posting hate comments about the lads achievements entering the list. the fact that the thread was initially made for will i am.

i find it just unfair for them to be treated that way, yes they do not write their own hit singles, just as the same with elvis and cliff

they don't produce a lot of "high quality" hits that can be remembered 10 or more years from now, a very typical boyband song i must say, just as the same with take that,

they always cover songs, just as the same with buble

but it is always them who always get that terrible bashing, just because they are successful??

to be fair and unbiased, they have decent songs especially in their earlier days which deserve to be number 1.

I think you'll find that both Cliff Richards and Michael Buble also get mocked as much as Westlife (certainly Cliff has been a punchline for decades!). I find it very strange though this thread you've only just found out Elvis didn't write his own music - do you have any music interests outside of Westlife at all?

of course, i am also a big fan of the script, the corrs, vanessa carlton, sara bareilles, goo goo dolls, the calling and the likes.

not planning to be a music expert to search for artists that i do not like (current artists, much more to artist that has lived beyond my time).


anyway, i beg to disagree that cliff and buble were mocked AS MUCH AS westlife, it is very evident here, both cliff and westlife share the same number of number 1 singles, but look who's getting much, i mean the ONLY artist in the list being bashed? even take that which i believe has the same reason of getting to to the list same with westlife (the teenage girl market) has not get any hate comments yet, on the contrary, they were even commended to be aligned with out time's greatest music artist such as madanna, presley, and the beatles.

Queen had more #1 singles in Europe compared to UK. Songs like Crazy Little Thing Called Love and I Want To Break Free were chart toppers in quite a few European countries.

How about Rihanna? She's surely not far away from the target unless she's already got there.

Umbrella, Take A Bow, Run This Town, Only Girl (In The World), What's My Name, We Found Love, Diamonds, The Monster and also Love The Way You Lie was the biggest selling single of 2010 so technically a #1 too. That would make nine #1 singles for Rihanna, and I'm sure that figure will become 10 when she releases her next lead single later this year.

Am I alone in finding this thread hilarious?

Anyway back on topic Will.I.Am is dreadful, I've asked before what it actually is that he does on his songs. Its not really rapping, its not really singing its not really talking, so what actually is it? NoRaSiTa?