Pop Gem #101: Alphabeat – Fascination

We celebrate the peppy Danish band's debut hit from 2008.
alphabeat-fascination-2008.jpg

Every week we ask you to nominate your Pop Gems – those overlooked classics or big hits of yesteryear that deserve a place in our Pop Gem Hall Of Fame.

As we reached the 101st Pop Gem, we riffed on the Room 101 theme, but this wasn’t about pet hates. We wanted to know which songs you loved so much that you’d overplayed them – and almost never wanted to hear them again. If you’re still with us at this point, huge congrats.

This week, we allowed million sellers to join the party. Well if any song is going to be top of your play counts, it’ll be a million seller right?

Here’s how the Pop Gem Top 10 looked:

ARTIST TRACK PEAK POSITION YEAR
CARLY RAE JEPSEN CALL ME MAYBE 1 2012
RIHANNA WE FOUND LOVE 1 2011
ADELE ROLLING IN THE DEEP 2 2011
ALPHABEAT FASCINATION 6 2008
AMY MACDONALD MR ROCK & ROLL 12 2007
ROGUE TRADERS VOODOO CHILD 3 2006
JAMES BLUNT YOU'RE BEAUTIFUL 1 2005
YAZZ THE ONLY WAY IS UP 1 1988
TINA TURNER WHAT'S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT? 3 1984
DEXY'S MIDNIGHT RUNNERS COME ON EILEEN 1 1982

And when it came down to catchy tunes you just couldn’t stop playing, we reckoned Alphabeat’s Fascination had that ear worm quality that made it a perfect Pop Gem. Watch the video before we look more closely at our latest Hall Of Fame inductee.

The song

Fascination was the first single by the peppy Danish pop band and is their only Top 10 so far, reaching a peak of Number 6 in its third week in the Top 40 in March 2008. It’s sold 300,000 copies and spent 17 weeks in the Top 40.

Alphabeat’s chart story

Fascination was the band’s only Top 10 and was followed by four Top 40 singles – their most recent was 2010’s Hole In My Heart, which reached Number 29.

Over on the Official Albums Chart, they’ve scored two top 40s, with their self-titled debut reaching Number 10.

Welcome to the Pop Gem Hall Of Fame, Alphabeat – we don't think you're overplayed at all. Here's Fascination being given The X Factor contestant treatment in 2009, featuring Olly Murs and Stacey Solomon. 

All this week’s contenders

Check out the nine songs Alphabeat, erm, beat.

Pop Gem Hall Of Fame

Today's Pop Gem is the latest in a long line of amazing pop songs that have been inducted into our Pop Gem Hall Of Fame. Take a look at all the tracks who've received the honour so far

Every Pop Gem ever

Fancy reliving those perfect Pop Gems we already picked all over again? No worries, get your ears wrapped round these playlists on Spotify and Deezer.

Spotify

Deezer

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Anonymous

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Overplayed? According to comparemyradio.com, this song has been played a total of 3 times on UK radio this month!!