The One-Hit Wonders – The 2000s Part 8.

There weren’t that many European groups that had a lot of success on the UK singles chart throughout the 2000s decade, of course there is a language barrier in the way with most of the songs. This group did briefly find some success though. The Caesars were a rock group from Sweden (they formed in the mid-90s and were originally called Caesars Palace, but then changed this because there was already something else called that).

I remember that another group from Sweden that did have some success in this country around this time were The Hives, who did have some good songs, but this piece isn’t about them. The biggest (and indeed only) hit for The Caesars in the UK was “Jerk It Out”, which was originally released in April 2003, but got nowhere near the Top 40. But then, two years later in April 2005, this was rereleased and this time reached no. 8, and even made the Top 100 in America.

I suppose that it’s very clear why there was more success for this the second time around, what helped included much more radio airplay, and the video being frequently shown on all those music channels. The fact that this one featured in a lot of adverts, computer games, and TV shows definitely helped too. It was proof once again of how much songs are (over) promoted sometimes, but it definitely caught my attention.

Among the highlights of “Jerk It Out” for me were the organ, that was rather similar to the sound that featured on a lot of singles by Inspiral Carpets (maybe they borrowed it?), and according to the video, they also had a band member who could play the drums backwards, which was a rather impressive talent. Well it’s easy, once you know how it’s done, he would probably say.

In May 2005 their fourth of five albums “Paper Tigers” was released in the UK, and this made the Top 40, but only just. I expected that they would go on to have some more hit singles, but The Caesars never appeared again on the UK singles chart, I presume that they were rather popular in their native Sweden and across the rest of Europe too, but it was never really the case here.

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