Written by: Nadir “RedOne” Khayat, Savan Kotecha, Julian Bunetta and Kristian Lundin Produced by: RedOne Album: Overcome UK release: August 2010 UK chart peak: 1
Was there ever a sweeter opening to a song than “RedOne… Alexandra…”? NOPE!
Alexandra Burke needed a banger to launch the deluxe re-package (remember when they were a thing?) of her Overcome album, and the man who produced Lady Gaga’s earliest masterpieces was very much up to the job. Start Without You is a summery, jaunty, feelgood anthem that does nothing more and nothing less than provide a cult classic for gay bars across the land.
Throwing objectivity completely out the window, there’s also some personal significance for me here: my uni housemates and I howled our own version of this – with CUSTOM LYRICS – at the beginning of our final year, when we were walking through Norwich en route to meet the new Freshers on our course. Reader, I did not know it at the time, but I was about to meet the love of my life, whooomst I am marrying next summer. And frankly WHAT a SONG to have associated with that?!
I’ll be writing about my favourite 100 pop songs of the decade; one a day for the last 100 days of 2019. They’re in no particular order, except the Top 10 – which will (obviously) come in late December.
