YMMV / Robbie Williams

• Americans Hate Tingle: He hasn't made much impact across The Pond. Williams' U.S. record label repackaged songs from his first two albums as the North American-only release The Ego Has Landed and shot a new video for "Angels" in an attempt to break him in America, but the single releases of "Angels" and "Millennium" failed to crack the U.S. top 40. Although MTV's staff loved Williams and put his videos into heavy rotation, his frequent appearances on the network in 1999 did not increase his popularity in the US. It's to the point where Williams can live in Los Angeles, where he has spent much of the past decade, in relative anonymity, a fact he is very pleased about.
  • All that said, he didn't do too bad in Canada, where The Ego Has Landed went platinum and he was prominently featured on MuchMusic for a few years, even headlining their Snow Job festival.
• Banned in China: "Jesus In A Camper Van" quoted from a Loudon Wainwright III song titled "I Am The Way", and Wainwright's lawyers eventually found out and wanted to sue. Due to UK law being different, Robbie was able to keep the track on the UK version, but he had to replace it in Europe, which he did with "It's Only Us" in 2002.
• Broken Base: He divided a lot of fans by abandoning rock music and becoming increasingly focused on his personality rather than the songwriting. There are a large number of people that are put off by his ego (even though he was actually quite self-deprecating at times).
• Follow the Leader: His album Life Thru A Lens was inspired by Oasis, who were considered a 'lad's band' at the time, and this was intended to give him a more masculine image after years of being in a boy band. It worked.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: He is hugely popular in Latin America, being the highest-selling non-Latino artist in the region.
  • Outside the UK, "Sin Sin Sin" is one of his most recognizable songs, but was not even a top 20 hit there. A Brazilian compilation "The Best So Far" even placed it as the first track.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight: "No Regrets" became this after Robbie reconciled with his former Take That bandmates and briefly rejoined them.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Williams' covered "She's The One" by World Party, who placed the blame on the label. However, it was more likely Guy Chambers' idea as he was a member of World Party in the late 80s and early 90s (although prior to them recording this song).
  • "Ego A Go Go", about Gary Barlow, features the line "Wonderland has crashed to the ground, the circus has gone - all that's left is the clowns". After Take That reformed, they released albums called "The Circus" and "Wonderland".
• Newer Than They Think: It's a surprise to many that "Angels" and "Let Me Entertain You" were his fifth and sixth singles respectively. The previous four - "Freedom", "Old Before I Die", "Lazy Days" and "South Of The Border" were gradually less and less popular, and if it wasn't for "Angels", it is said that the label would have dropped Williams. Williams and Chambers had not originally planned to release it as a single, but it ended up becoming his signature song.
  • And a minor one, but if you live in Europe, you may have a copy of the 1998 album "I've Been Expecting You" that features "It's Only Us" (replacing "Jesus In A Camper Van", which was cut for legal reasons). Not only was "It's Only Us" recorded in late 1999 (during the early sessions that would result in "Sing When You're Winning") but the reissue of the album that includes it didn't come out till 2002.
• Nightmare Fuel: The video for "Rock DJ"; have you ever wanted to see Robbie strip down until he's naked to attract the attention of a dancer, decide that's not enough, rip off his skin and continue to pull off muscles and organs even afterwards? No? Well, in case you change your mind, it's out there. Enters Crosses the Line Twice territory when he's left as a dancing animated skeleton, which - naturally - wins the dancer over.
  • His hidden tracks which often appear after 20 minutes of silence. Notably, "Stand Your Ground" is pretty creepy when you hear it for the first time.
  • "These Dreams" is quite unnerving.
  • His B-sides are often quite surreal compared to album tracks: "Falling In Bed Again", "Deceiving Is Believing", "Don't Do Love" & "Toxic" to name a few.
• Older Than They Think: A few examples:
  • "Forever Texas" was written and played live in 1999 and predates all the other songs from "Sing When You're Winning", suggesting that there was an entire unreleased record (and indeed, a fair amount of the b-sides resemble it far more than what made the album).
  • The 2003 single "Sexed Up" was first released in 1998 in a demo version, as the B-side to No Regrets.
  • "Feel" was demoed in 1999 though did not make it to Sing When You're Winning. When completing the track for Escapology, they actually reused the 1999 vocals as Williams felt he couldn't improve on them.
  • "Summertime" from 2006's Rudebox is a double one; an earlier version was released on a soundtrack in 2001, but the song actually dates back to 1996, co-written with Pulp member Antony Genn prior to Williams' work with Guy Chambers (the two also wrote "Killing Me" from Life Thru A Lens). Genn also produced a remix of Williams' first single "Freedom" at this time.
  • "Blasphemy" from 2009's Reality Killed The Video Star was originally written in the Escapology period in 2002 and is mentioned in the 2004 book Feel that covers the making of that album.
• Signature Song: "Angels", "Millennium", "Rock DJ", "Feel". If you're from most places outside the UK, it's likely "Sin Sin Sin" is one too. It was a massive hit in mainland Europe and South America, but moderate in the UK.
• Unreliable Narrator: Robbie first attempted "Angels" with an Irish musician called Ray Heffernan. The two's accounts of both are contradictory to each other, with the likely reason being Williams' claim that both were drinking heavily at the time and couldn't remember everything. Williams claiming he first wrote the song's verse lyrics from one of his sister's poems, and Heffernan claiming he had written them on guitar. At the time, the two had not written a chorus nor finalised all the lyrics, something Robbie did when working with Guy Chambers later on. When Heffernan attempted to get a co-credit on the song prior to the album's release, he hampered it by trying to claim credit for the previous single Old Before I Die which, whilst they may have played it together, had definitely been written prior to their meeting, on an otherwise uneventful stay with Desmond Child in Miami. Robbie's management paid £7500 to Heffernan and told him that Angels would just be an album track, and for a while they stuck to this promise. However, they did release it as the fourth single as Williams' label were considering dropping him if he didn't produce another hit. Heffernan was thanked on the single sleeve, although he felt resentment for years due to its success.
• Wasted Song: He did numerous excellent b-sides, and in some cases, like the ones for "Sing When You're Winning", they're better than several of the songs that made it to the album (due primarily to Executive Meddling in its final tracklisting).