Official Chart Flashback 2008: Girls Aloud – The Promise

It’s five years since Cheryl, Nadine, Kimberley, Nicola and Sarah had their fourth and final Number 1 – and one of their biggest hits.

Girls Aloud – Nadine Coyle, Kimberley Walsh, Nicola Roberts, Sarah Harding and Cheryl Cole – were famed for their catchy choruses, but The Promise’s “You’re gonna make me, make me love you” has to be their most triumphant earworm yet.

The Promise – number 1 this week on the Official Singles Chart in 2008 – came at a time when Girls Aloud were just about to release their fifth album. With a massive selling greatest hits behind them and a critically acclaimed fourth album, Tangled Up, under their belt, Out Of Control had a lot to live up to. And what better way to say “Yes, we are back! Back! BACK!” than to release a song that sounds nothing like you’ve ever released before – and hop on-board with a trend that was all over the Official Singles Chart.

“It was the era of pop 'doing brass', of Amy Winehouse and Mark Ronson, of the Sugababes doing that funny 'cover' of Here Come The Girls. And The Promise beat them all at their own game.” recalls Official Charts follower and Blinkbox digital music assistant Laurence Green.

"Halfway between Supremes-esque retro-glam, glitzy cabaret and the bouffant excesses of Saturday night telly, the track was at once nothing like any Girls Aloud single before it, yet somehow so completely, utterly 'them'.”

While the girls’ previous offerings had contained plenty of sass and, dare we say it, girl power, The Promise harked back to the sweeter and innocent girl groups of the ‘60s – all with that trademark cheeky wink that Girls Aloud did so well, of course.

Despite having more magical moments than you could shake a stick at (especially Sarah’s powerhouse “Here I aaaaam/ Walkin’ Primrose”) The Promise divided fans. Some missed the spiky attitude of earlier Aloud singles, while others loved their new melancholic side. Either way, it was a huge hit for them, and the record-buying public voted with their feet – or their computer mouse – giving The Promise a sales tally of 536,700 copies.

“It ended up becoming one of their best performing, most fondly remembered singles – and rightly so,” says Laurence. “Even now, it still feels like a timeless pop classic.”

Of all their 21 Top 10 hits, The Promise is their second biggest seller, behind debut single and Official Christmas Number 1 for 2002 Sound Of The Underground. The album it was taken from, Out Of Control, is also their second biggest selling album, racking up over 796,000 sales. Out Of Control comes in just behind the girls’ greatest hits The Sound Of Girls Aloud.

Out Of Control would be Girls Aloud’s final full studio album. After three singles – The Promise, Pet Shop Boys-penned The Loving Kind and, finally, Untouchable – the ladies took a break, with each member pursuing their own projects. Cheryl Cole has enjoyed the greatest success since going solo, with seven Top 20 hits as a lead artist, including three Number 1s.

Last year, as the band celebrated their 10th anniversary in music and reformed for a new tour (which turned out to be a farewell), the Official Charts Company crowned Girls Aloud the biggest selling girl group of the 21st Century.

Watch Girls Aloud’s triumphant performance of The Promise at the 2009 BRIT Awards. Warning: contains more feathers than Donald Duck’s plughole.