2005 McFly: All About You/You've Got A Friend

A McFly double A side and 2005's 'official' Comic Relief charity single, 'All About You' is a brass augmented acoustic stroll through lead vocalist Tom Fletcher's love for his girlfriend/wife to be. Youthful pop with a spring in its step, 'All About You' is McFly's most fully realised number one to date showing little of the meander of old and only an uncanny (to my ears anyway) resemblance to Buddy Holly's 'That's What They Say' stopping me from embracing it more enthusiastically. The world wasn't waiting for another earnest but dull run-through of Carol King's hardy perennial 'You've Got A Friend', but that's precisely what McFly offer up on the flip side. As a song it's solid enough to withstand just about anything, but I'd have a lot more patience for McFly's version if its promotional video didn't feature the band poking around and performing in an African village while random facts ('2.3 million children have lost one or both parents to Aids') flash up on the screen. At a stroke it tars King's micro study in one on one personal assurance with the macro brush of the same patronising hand wring of conscience clearing drabness that Girl's Aloud tarred 'I'll Stand By You' with (and which sits ill with that 'zany' cover). Or maybe I'm just being too sensitive. Again.