’93-’13: Push The Button, Sugababes

A series highlighting great (but critically-ignored) songs from the past twenty years.

One of a surprisingly slim number of songs about sexual frustration driven by male inactivity, this stomping pop track was the lead single from 2005’s Taller In More Ways – and one of the few singles by the UK three-piece to make the trip across the ocean to Australia. Despite a slow start here, the track reached #3, achieving Platinum sales – by far the group’s most successful single.

The lyrical genesis stems from Sugababe Keisha Buchanan’s crush on a prominent UK artist who was working with the group’s producer Dallas Austin at the time. Despite being as blatantly forward as you’d expect a Sugababe to be (“I’d be like, there’s this good movie coming out, you know, dropping hints, she told The Guardian. “And he’d be like, ’that movie sounds great, let me know what it’s like if you go see it’”) the guy failed to, well… push the button, resulting in an incomplete for Buchanan and one of the most undeniable pop songs of the past decade.

And for those who enjoy their lyrics taken literally, Tassimo used the track for their range of one-push coffee machines. Do you take sugar, babe?