For Sure (Scooch Song)
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"For Sure" is a
pop Pop or POP may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Pop music, a musical genre Artists * POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade * Pop! (British group), a UK pop group * Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band Album ...
song written by
Mike Stock Michael Stock (born 3 December 1951) is an English songwriter, record producer, musician, and member of the songwriting and production trio Stock Aitken Waterman. He has been responsible for over a hundred top-40 hits in the UK, including 16 n ...
,
Matt Aitken Matthew James Aitken (born 25 August 1956) is an English songwriter and record producer, brought up in Astley, Greater Manchester, best known as part of the 1980s/early-1990s songwriting/production trio Stock Aitken Waterman. Biography He beg ...
, and
Steve Crosby Steven Kent Crosby (born July 3, 1950) is an American former professional football coach and player. He spent 33 years in the National Football League (NFL)—3 as a player, 4 as a scout and 26 as a coach. Crosby was named the NFL Special Teams ...
and performed by British musical group
Scooch Scooch is a British pop group, comprising performers Natalie Powers, Caroline Barnes, David Ducasse and Russ Spencer. Scooch represented the United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest 2007 in Helsinki with their song "Flying the Flag (For Y ...
. With production helmed by Stock and Aitken, "For Sure" was released on 24 July 2000 as the fourth single from Scooch's 2000 debut album, ''Four Sure'', which was issued two weeks later. Caroline Barnes performs lead vocals on the song, describing how she communicates with her love interest during each day of the week except Sunday. Upon the song's release,
music critics Music journalism (or music criticism) is media criticism and reporting about music topics, including popular music, classical music, and traditional music. Journalists began writing about music in the eighteenth century, providing commentary on ...
responded positively to its composition but questioned the frequent
vocoder A vocoder (, a portmanteau of ''vo''ice and en''coder'') is a category of speech coding that analyzes and synthesizes the human voice signal for audio data compression, multiplexing, voice encryption or voice transformation. The vocoder wa ...
usage. "For Sure" debuted and peaked at number 15 on the UK Singles Chart on 30 July 2000, becoming the group's last charting single until "
Flying the Flag (For You) "Flying the Flag (For You)" is a song performed by British bubblegum pop dance group Scooch. The official single version was available from 30 April 2007 and was released as a physical CD single in the following week, on 7 May 2007. The song de ...
" in 2007. The song's music video features Scooch in a restaurant discussing Barnes' week, following along with the song's lyrics.


Composition

"For Sure" possess a different sound than the band's usual work, having been described as a "
Hi-NRG Hi-NRG (pronounced "high energy") is a genre of uptempo disco or electronic dance music (EDM) that originated during the late 1970s and early 1980s. As a music genre, typified by its fast tempo, staccato hi-hat rhythms (and the four-on-the-flo ...
flamenco Flamenco () is an art form based on the various folkloric music traditions of southern Spain, developed within the Gitanos, gitano subculture of the region of Andalusia, and also having historical presence in Extremadura and Region of Murcia, ...
"
pop Pop or POP may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Pop music, a musical genre Artists * POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade * Pop! (British group), a UK pop group * Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band Album ...
track driven by
cowbell A cowbell (or cow bell) is a bell (instrument), bell worn around the neck of free-roaming livestock so herders can keep track of an animal via the sound of the bell when the animal is grazing out of view in hilly landscapes or vast plains. ...
s and sporadically backed up by brass instruments. Lyrically, the song uses a "days of the week" motif, with the narrator describing how she and her love interest interact from Monday to Saturday during the verses. For the chorus, she proclaims her love for her crush, punctuated by the track's "ba-dup-bup-baya-ba-da-bup"
hook A hook is a tool consisting of a length of material, typically metal, that contains a portion that is curved/bent back or has a deeply grooved indentation, which serves to grab, latch or in any way attach itself onto another object. The hook's d ...
. Unlike most
Scooch Scooch is a British pop group, comprising performers Natalie Powers, Caroline Barnes, David Ducasse and Russ Spencer. Scooch represented the United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest 2007 in Helsinki with their song "Flying the Flag (For Y ...
tracks, Caroline Barnes sings lead vocals on the track instead of
Natalie Powers Natalie Powers is an English singer. She is the lead vocalist of the pop group Scooch, who represented the United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest 2007. Early career Natalie Powers began acting at the age of seven when she played the young ...
, who supplies the days of the week.
Vocoder A vocoder (, a portmanteau of ''vo''ice and en''coder'') is a category of speech coding that analyzes and synthesizes the human voice signal for audio data compression, multiplexing, voice encryption or voice transformation. The vocoder wa ...
effect are used frequently throughout the track.


Release and chart performance

On 24 July 2000, Accolade Records issued "For Sure" as the fourth single from ''Four Sure'', which was released two weeks later. Music website Can't Stop the Pop noted that releasing the single in this manner was a risky manoeuvre, citing the song's dissimilarity with other Scooch tracks and the sizeable impact it had to make to successfully benefit the album, which stalled at number 41 on the
UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is the United Kingdom's industry-recognised national record chart for album, albums. Entries are ranked by sales and audio streaming. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the O ...
upon its release. Three formats of "For Sure" were distributed in the United Kingdom: two
CD single A CD single is a single (music), music single in the form of a compact disc (CD). Originally the ''CD single'' standard (as defined in the Rainbow Books, Red Book) was an 8 cm (3-inch) "mini CD" (''CD3''); later on the term referred to any si ...
s and a
cassette single A cassette single (CS), also known by the trademark cassingle, or capitalised as the trademark Cassette Single, is a music single (music), single supplied in the form of a Compact Cassette. The cassette single was introduced in 1980 in music, 1 ...
. The cassette contains the radio edit of "For Sure" plus
B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph record, vinyl records and Compact cassette, cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side of a Single (music), single usually ...
"Forever We'll Be Strong", as well as a
karaoke is a type of interactive entertainment system usually offered in nightclubs and bars, where people sing along to pre-recorded accompaniment using a microphone. Its musical content is an instrumental rendition of a well-known popular song. I ...
version of the former track. The first UK CD replaces the karaoke version with a home movie from Scooch while the second CD, which was issued in Australia on 18 September 2000, contains various remixes of the song plus its video and a photo gallery. Six days after its release, "For Sure" debuted at its peak of number 15 on the UK Singles Chart, staying within the top 100 for six weeks. Its British sales alone registered on the
Eurochart Hot 100 The European Hot 100 Singles was compiled by ''Billboard'' and ''Music & Media'' magazine from March 1984 until December 2010. The chart was based on national singles sales charts in 17 European countries: Austria, Belgium (two charts separately f ...
, where it debuted and peaked at number 51 on the issue of 12 August 2000. In Australia, the song reached number 181 on the
ARIA Singles Chart The ARIA Charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling songs and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA became the offici ...
on 25 September 2000. "For Sure" was the last single Scooch released before their initial split, but it would not be their final charting song in the UK.


Critical reception

Can't Stop the Pop wrote that "For Sure" is a "brilliant" song, calling it a good summer track and highlighting its "frantic" production despite referring to it as a confusing shift in musical direction for the group, especially with Barnes on lead vocals. Reviewing the parent album, Pop Rescue labelled the track a "bouncy party song", calling the melody "catchy" but noting that the vocals sound too "processed" at times, comparing them to the vocals of
Cher Cher ( ; born Cheryl Sarkisian, May 20, 1946) is an American singer, actress and television personality. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Goddess of Pop", she is known for her Androgyny, androgynous contralto voice, Music an ...
's "
Believe Believe may refer to: *Belief, a psychological state in which an individual holds a proposition or premise to be true, with or without proof for such proposition *Faith, a belief in something which has not been proven Arts, entertainment, and me ...
". British trade paper ''
Music Week ''Music Week'' is a trade publication for the UK record industry distributed via a website and a monthly print magazine. It is published by Future. History Founded in 1959 as ''Record Retailer'', it relaunched on 18 March 1972 as ''Music We ...
'' reviewed the song on 15 July 2000, writing that the song "incorporate every pop cliché" and sounds like an
S Club 7 S Club, formerly known as S Club 7, are a British pop group formed in 1998 by Simon Fuller after he was fired as manager of the Spice Girls. Original members were Tina Barrett, Paul Cattermole, Jon Lee, Bradley McIntosh, Jo O'Meara, Ha ...
track. In his weekly UK chart review, British columnist
James Masterton James Masterton (born 2 September 1973) is a British music critic and columnist, his work focusing on the UK Singles Chart having been an online fixture on various sites since the 1990s. Masterton is also a producer for talkSPORT, and has worke ...
named the song Scooch's "catchiest" release.


Music video

A music video was made to promote the song. It commences with Powers and Barnes in a restaurant lavatory, where they introduce the song's theme by discussing how Barnes has spent her week. Once the song begins, they exit the restroom and meet up with their male bandmates, David Ducasse and
Russ Spencer Russell Spencer (born 1 March, 1980) is an English singer and television presenter. Scooch Originally formed in 1998, Spencer first gained prominence as a member of pop group Scooch, who signed to EMI and gained four top-twenty hits, includ ...
, at a booth, where Barnes proceeds to tell everyone about her recent affairs. As she does, brief scenes of her working in an office are shown, implying that she met her love interest at work. Eventually, Barnes begins dancing on her seat, to the embarrassment of her colleagues. Interspersed throughout the video are clips of the band performing with their backup dancers in either a colorful room or a grey warehouse. The handclaps used during these interims are not muted.


Track listings

UK CD1 # "For Sure" (radio edit) # "Forever We'll Be Strong" # Exclusive Scooch home movie UK CD2 and Australian CD single # "For Sure" (radio edit) # "For Sure" (Splash! extended pop 12-inch) # "For Sure" ( Motiv8 Intrepid vocal club mix) # "For Sure" (Motiv8 Intrepid radio version) # Enhanced "For Sure" video and picture galley UK cassette single # "For Sure" (radio edit) # "Forever We'll Be Strong" # "For Sure" (karaoke version)


Personnel

Personnel are taken from the UK CD1 liner notes. *
Mike Stock Michael Stock (born 3 December 1951) is an English songwriter, record producer, musician, and member of the songwriting and production trio Stock Aitken Waterman. He has been responsible for over a hundred top-40 hits in the UK, including 16 n ...
– writing, production *
Matt Aitken Matthew James Aitken (born 25 August 1956) is an English songwriter and record producer, brought up in Astley, Greater Manchester, best known as part of the 1980s/early-1990s songwriting/production trio Stock Aitken Waterman. Biography He beg ...
– writing, production *
Steve Crosby Steven Kent Crosby (born July 3, 1950) is an American former professional football coach and player. He spent 33 years in the National Football League (NFL)—3 as a player, 4 as a scout and 26 as a coach. Crosby was named the NFL Special Teams ...
– writing * The M&M All Stars – backing vocals, instruments * Lin Gardiner – mixing, engineering * Jeff Kendrick – assistant engineering


Charts


Release history


References

{{Reflist 2000 songs 2000 singles Scooch songs Songs written by Matt Aitken Songs written by Mike Stock (musician)