Five decades of life-affirming number ones.
1 Love was originally released in 2002 in partnership with NME celebrating their 50th anniversary as well as 50 years since they printed the first ever singles chart in the UK. 1 Love saw the best of British artists come together to pick their favourite number one to cover for the album.
Having appeared on the 1995 HELP album, Oasis continued their support of War Child with an acoustic rendition of Slade’s Christmas classic ‘Merry Xmas Everybody’. Stereophonics chose ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ with Kelly Jones’s gravelly vocal complementing this stripped back version of the track written by Prince, performed by The Family and taken to number one by Sinead O’Connor in 1990.
Faithless and Dido stamped their mark on Beats International’s ‘Dub Be Good To Me’ whilst Jimmy Eat World transformed Prodigy’s ‘Firestarter’ stripping it back but keeping the dark and ominous mood of the original. The Prodigy themselves paid homage to their heroes The Specials with their own brooding version of ‘Ghost Town’.
The Manic Street Preachers joined Oasis in appearing on their second album for War Child with a cover of ‘Out Of Time’ and Muse began their journey with the charity by adding their unique spin to 1964 number one ‘The House of the Rising Sun’ by The Animals.
Elsewhere Elbow took on Thunderclap Newman with a beautiful, low-fi cover of ‘Something In The Air’, there are contributions from Starsailor, Badly Drawn Boy teamed up with Jools Holland and his Rhythm and Blues Orchestra and Feeder give a haunting cover of ‘The Power of Love’.
War Child Records have made this classic album available again on streaming platforms and pressed a limited run of red, yellow and black vinyl albums. Get your copy now!
Listen to the record
Check out the record and full track listing below or listen to the record on your favourite streaming service.
Full track listing:
Side A
Starsailor – All Or Nothing
Feeder – The Power Of Love
Sugababes – Killer
Muse – House Of The Rising Sun
Side B
Stereophonics – Nothing Compares 2 U
Faithless and Dido – Dub Be Good To Me
Oasis – Merry Christmas Everybody
Elbow – Something In The Air
Side C
The Reelists ft. Ms Dynamite – Back To Life (However Do You Want Me)
Manic Street Preachers – Out Of Time
Badly Drawn Boy and Jools Holland & His Rhythm and Blues Orchestra – Come On Eileen
The Prodigy – Firestarter
Side D
Jimmy Eat World – Firestarter
Darius – Pretty Flamingos
More Fire Crew ft Gabrielle – Dreams
McAlmont and Butler – Back For Good
