TOP 25 Hits of 2007

I've seen it more than often on personal blogs, when final day of the year comes, there's a countdown for the hits of the year in the blogger's heart. So here is my Top 25 of 2007 :

01 Mika "Relax (Take it easy)"
It looks like it will finally see a single release in the UK now it's been number one in the charts all over the planet!
02 Daniel Zueras "No quiero enamorarme"
Incredible! - A song in spanish that hasn't left my mp3 player for the whole year!
03 Hugh Grant (feat. Martin Fry) "Pop! goes my heart"
Yes! that 80's pastiche song from the film "music and lyrics" (Le comeback in french)
04 MC Solaar "Da Vinci Claude"
Incredible!² a rap artist in my Top five! But MC Solaar is just no "rap" artist, just a wonderful lyricist and this song is pure pop & fun perfection!
05 Scott Simons "Umbrella"
Yes! better than the original, Scott Simons' wet & haunting version of Rihanna's number one single
06 Maroon 5 "Makes Me Wonder"
07 Christophe Willem "Double Je"
08 The Attic feat. Therese "The Arrival"
09 Rihanna "Don't stop the music" ...even better for me than "Umbrella"
10 Lorie "Je Vais Vite"
a shame it's only been released lately! It could've been Top5 if released way before!
11 Scooch "Flying the flag for you"
12 Mika "Grace Kelly"
a second song for him in my Top25 but he's not the only one!
13 De Souza feat. Shena "Guilty"
14 Rihanna "Umbrella"
Another second single charting this year for me
15 Ysa Ferrer "To Bi Or Not To Bi" only that low in this charts because it's just been released digitally middle December... Check for its placing in 2008 Top25!
16 KleerUp feat. Robyn "With Every Heartbeat"
17 Magnus Carlsson "Live Forever"
18 Melissa Mars "Love machine"
19 Stefy "Chelsea"
20 Michal "All Alone With Your Gueule"
21 Nemesis "Number one in heaven"
22 DQ "Drama queen"
23 Sergey "Shattered Dreams"
24 Kylie Minogue "2 Hearts"
25 Infernal "I won't be crying"

What about the albums?
No chart placing for them... Let's just say albums of 2007 that have lived to the expectations and have still not left my mp3 player are in alphabetic order the following :
BWO "Fabricator" Booty Luv "Boogie 2Nite" Magnus Carlsson "Live Forever" Danny "Heatbeats" DQ "Drama Queen" Sophie Ellis-Bextor "Trip the light fantastic" Freemasons "Unmixed" José Galisteo "Remember" Girls Aloud "Tangled Up" David Guetta "Pop Life" Darren Hayes "This delicate thing we've made" Ian Levine "Northern Soul 2007" Lorie "2Lor en moi" Melissa Mars "A la recherche de l'amour perdu" Michal "All alone with my gueule" Dannii Minogue "Club Disco" Kylie Minogue "X" Nouveau Riche "Pink Trash" Rachel Panay "Back to love" Rihanna "Good girl gone bad" Lisa Scott-Lee "Never or now" September "Dancing Shoes" Slinkee Minx "Electric dreams" Stonebridge "Music takes me" Ultra Naté "Grime / Silk / Thunder" Jason Walker "Flexible" Shayne Ward "Breathless" Christophe Willem "Inventaire" (album of the year for me!) Peter Wilson "Follow me" Young Divas "New Attitude"

and there even was albums released at the end of 2006 that can still belong to this list of 2007 :
BWO "Halcyon days" FRANK "Devil's Got Your Gold" Louis "La nuit m'attend" Dannii Minogue "Hits & Beyond" Bob Sinclar "Western Dream" Jason Walker "This is my life" West End Girls "Goes PetShopping" Young Divas "Young Divas".

Jewels & Stone’s latest release : DARUSO’s first single

You may not know of Jewels & Stone but Julian Gingell and Barry Stone are the ones of Stock Aitken & Waterman's PWL studios' ex-engineers/mixers that keep their head up above the crowd and since 1993, the two young men have worked together, first as club remixers for Pete Waterman (on Boy Krazy, Lonnie Gordon, Erik or Sybil releases), then as writers/producers/remixers on their own rights, with more or less success..., before working along Almighty Associates or 19 Entertainement on loads of their releases.

I personnally cherish the following ones :
Belvedere Kane "Never felt as good"
Northern Line "Run for your life" (remix only)
Adam Rickitt "I breathe again" & "The best thing"
Stephen Gately (of Boyzone) "I believe" (remix only)
Sophie Ellis-Bextor "Down with love", "Murder on the dance-floor" (remix only), "Yes sir, I can boogie" & "Duel"
5ive "Let's dance" (remix only)
Hear'Say "The way to your love" (remix only)
S Club (7) "Don't stop movin'" (remix only) & "Discotek"
Gareth Gates "I've got no self control"
S Club Juniors "One step closer", "Automatic high", "New direction", "Feel the beat" & "Fool no more"
Rachel Stevens "Every little thing"
Stephanie McIntosh "Mistake" (remix only)
Dannii Minogue "Sunrise" & "I can't sleep at night"

Now they've decided to take it to a new level and recruited a female vocalist named Jess Russo to form a eurodance-poptrance act named DARUSO and follow the steps of Cascada and (fingers crossed) chart all around the globe.

Their first single is "Closest thing to heaven" and is already available for download with 7digital here :
http://indiestore.7digital.com/daruso/tracks
Three tracks are available at the worthy price of £0.79 each :
Closest thing to heaven (radio edit) 3:29
Closest thing to heaven (original club mix) 5:13
Closest thing to heaven (ballad version) 3:29
downloadable either in WMA, AAC or MP3 format.

Needless to say I've already bought all three and they're set to be on heavy rotation on my mp3 players .
Another song is able to be listened to on their myspace page (http://www.myspace.com/daruso), "Just another dream", and they both makes me want to have a full album CD between my hands very soon...

So I hope you'll all take a minute to listen to their songs ...then,
All you could do is buy them on line ...so that
due to their incredible number of downloads and online club charts, DARUSO can do nothing else but record a full album for a big record company smellin' potential SUCCE$$ and see it released worldwide with same figures as Cascada's first album.

Isn't this a bright perspective ?
Sure it can become soon a reality.
...For Julian & Barry have a real writing talent. Plus, they know how to use studios facilities to record/mix instant-appealing pop-dance records. Jess has a nice, pleasant & strong voice (either working on dance & ballad versions of the song) and as she's very good looking, she can front their group with enough charisma to win them a place on TV channels.

Once I saw a promo CDR of Julian & Barry demo productions for Digger Music on eBay but I didn't win the auction. Oh how I miss it ! I would've loved to hear all these secret jewels that are still sleeping in their studio. They're rumoured to have written & recorded more songs with Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Emma Bunton, Gareth Gates, Zoe Birkett or with Cathy Dennis. Their talent cannot stay wasted like this longer now! They need a BIG breakout with DARUSO to get a high value profile on the songwriting/production market and then we'll finally see all this good tunes released for our greatest pleasure... If only!