Every Friday, I’m publishing my top ten songs from a single year and this week it’s the turn of 2001.
For previous top ten tunes, please click on the year: 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
Within the whole of this weekly series of posts, I have been trying to avoid putting any distressing photos here in the news section, but whatever “upbeat” or “non-stressful” photo I tried to choose for 2001, it just felt like I was making a mockery of the biggest event that took place this year.
In 2001, GP Harold Shipman is still making news as it’s reported that he could have actually killed up to 300 patients, the age of consent for male homosexual acts is reduced to the same as heterosexual and lesbian acts (16yrs), Libyan Abdelbaset Ali Mohamed Al Mergrahi is convicted of the Pan Am flight bombing back in 1988, Foot and Mouth crisis begins in the UK, a rail crash near Selby kills 10 people, Donald Campbell’s body and speedboat are recovered from the bottom of Coniston Water in Cumbria 34 years after he tried to break the water speed record, the Eden Project opens in Cornwall, a Dutch lorry driver is sentenced to 14yrs in prison after 56 Chinese immigrants were found suffocated in the back of his lorry, an anti-capitalist riot n London turns violent, Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott punches a protester who throws an egg at him, Labour wins a second consecutive election and Tony Blair remains Prime Minister, William Hague resigns as Conservative party leader, race riots take place in both Burnley and Bradford, the first episode of The Office airs on British TV, riots breaks out in Brixton in London over the fatal shooting of Derek Bennett by police, Conservative MP Neil Hamilton and his wife Christine Hamilton are arrested on suspicion of sexual assault, Iain Duncan Smith becomes leader of the Conservative party, the IRA announce that they are beginning to decommission their weapons, Beatle George Harrison dies.
On 9/11- hijackers simultaneously take control of four US commercial airliners, two of the planes are crashed into the World Trade Center in NYC, within 2hrs both towers collapse, the third plane is crashed into the Pentagon in Virginia and the fourth crashed into a rural field in Pensylvania, almost 3000 people lost their lives and over 6000 were injured. 67 of the victims who lost their lives were British, the highest number of victims from another country other than America. 412 of the people that lost their lives were emergency workers who responded to the attacks.
The films Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, Moulin Rouge, Shrek, Donnie Darko and Bridget Jones’s Diary are all released. I celebrated my 25th Birthday.
This year saw me graduate from university. I would put my official graduation photo up here for you, but it’s my parents’ house. Does anyone hang up their graduation photos in their own home? Anyway, 2001 is a much better year for music than last year. As you can see my taste in music was definitely migrating more towards soul and neo-soul than guitar bands. I got very bored of the guitar bands that were on offer during the noughties. Whilst I know they have big fan bases, I am personally not a fan of bands like Coldplay, Travis, Stereophonics, Keane and all of those other male guitar bands that were around at the time. My taste in music was definitely more female and soulful in the noughties. So, here’s the best 10 songs from 2001, in no particular order.
1. Family Affair by Mary J Blige
2. Video by India Arie
3. Teenage Dirtbag by Wheatus
4. Clint Eastwood by Gorillaz
5. Survivor by Destiny’s Child
6. Fallin’ by Alicia Keys
7. A Long Walk by Jill Scott
8. Get Ur Freak On by Missy Elliot
9. Can’t Get You Out of My Head by Kylie Minogue
10. Lady (Hear Me Tonight) by Modjo
This week my favourite track is our Kylie followed closely by India. So, tell me, which one is your favourite?
See you next week for 2002!
Just Another Blog From a Woman 
2001 was a bad year so many awful things happened so many lives lost!
The foot and mouth crisis was horrendous over here though. I can almost smell the burning flesh today. I can remember seeing the images on the news and the smell hanging in the air from devastated farms.
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forgot to comment on your song choices – Teenage Dirtbag is still a TUNNNNE today also big fan of Survivor, Can’t Get You Outta My Head and Falling!
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Very good choices. Yes 2001 was horrific. I remember the devastated farmers too. Their livelihood literally going up in smoke. It was horrible.
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My vote goes for Fallin’…..the song will be stuck in my head all day long.
I was doing a clinical nursing rotation in Jacksonville, NC. The home of one of the largest military bases on the east coast of the USA when the towers fell. All we heard was the military base come alive with fighter jets taking to the sky. I will never forget the felling of the ground rumbling and shaking, and the string desire to get the hell out of that town quickly. I just wanted to be home with my daughters.
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Oh fucking hell. That sent chills down me. That just sounds terrifying.
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Still sends chills for me all these years later.
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Clint Eastwood followed by Teenage Dirtbag, it was a lean time musically.
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The 00s was rubbish for music. After 4 fantastic decades of music, it really took a downward spiral. Usually when I do these lists, I end up with about 30 songs that I then have to narrow down to 10, but now I’m finding I’m almost struggling to find 10 in the first place. It gets a bit better again in the 10s though.
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What a year yes, as you say it changed so many lives. I also will never forget the many awful things that happened. I won’t go over them all again.! You have picked some great songs here really like all of them . But Kylie Minogue stands out for me, as usual it son related this time my youngest. He was at the Guildford Academy of performing arts wanting to become a sound recordist. Kylie was not in anyway his taste but the tutors used it as an example of the perfect pop song, layered, repedative , catchy and with a great melody…. Had to listen to it a lot! It became and earworm to me…. I said I wouldn’t but when the towers went down we were on holiday in Estapona… I went back to our room to find hubby watching a disaster movie…sadly it was the news. A strange year across the world. I also loved The film Donnie Darko! My all time favourite for that though was Imogen Heap and Jeff Beck Rolling And Tumbling.
See you tomorrow 😁💜
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I can imagine it would’ve been the perfect pop song to study. Did he become a sound recordist?
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He did worked for a record company for a while but when he decided to get married his eldest brother convenced him to move over to IT as as he put it “the music business is not steady mate” best advice he could of been given and not from us dreaded parents. 😀
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Ha probably very sage advice.
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It was and it worked out well for him 💜
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2001, not all bad that year. For us it was a lot of olive trees being planted, long hours working. Music and a few other devices got us through. My pick would be Can’t get you out of my head.
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Sounds very lovely. I guess 2001 did contain one of the worst times of my life (my grandmother died- who I was very close to) and one of the best times of my life (I got the degree class that I wanted and worked so hard for. I was mighty proud of myself and still am. I got it despite so many things going against me). But that’s life. Full of swings and roundabouts. Peaks and troughs.
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Well done you, and yes that is what life is all about ups and downs, and more importantly how we deal with the downs and not so much the highs. Just learnt of another friend with stage 3 cancer. Life can be fucken hard. My Nana dying would be one of the saddest times of my life too. Best of all our Nana/Grandmother will always be proud of us no matter what 🙂
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I’m so sorry to hear about your friend, Suzanne. Cancer is nothing but a fucker.
I have absolutely no doubt that they will be proud of us x
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I love Alicia Keys. She is someone I really admire, so my vote goes with Fallin. Xx
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Very commendable choice, my friend x
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OOO I actually know more than just one song this week! YASSS
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YAAAAAY! Woo-hop!
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Awesome list as always!
2001 was a stressful year for me too…but I still had so much fun back then – listening to a lot of these tunes along the way! 🙂
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Cheers Josy. Am glad you still managed to have some fun times in 2001 x
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The year the towers went down… bit also the year I not married… so bittersweet…
Missy Elliott! Yess!!!
Destiny’s Child! YESS!
Kylie-tgat pocket rocket! Yes!!
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Yes, yes and YES to all three of those. Excellent choices. See- I finally did get round to replying haha x
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HA Ha!! I understand the pressure!!!!
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Haha x
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Has to be Modjo for me, what a tune 🙂
I was living in Japan 1999-2002, so I was a bit out of the loop music-wise at the time!
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It’s SUCH a tune, isn’t it? Ah yes I can imagine you missed out on the music scene of those years. Still, living in Japan must’ve been awesome.
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Some great pics – used to love Teenage Dirtbag, still can’t not sing along to it when I hear it!!
Caz x
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Ha excellent! Cheers.
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Gorillaz for me out of that lot. Astonishing that 9/11 was so long ago. I’m sure everyone remembers where they were when they saw that footage. I have got my graduation photo on the wall, but I have an excuse as I only graduated in 2017!
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Oh too right! I’d have my photo on the wall too if I’d graduated recently. I remember the day of 9/11. I just remember all my friends congregating round my flat and depressing ourselves by just constantly watching the news. Horrific.
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