The 2005 track was the first song by a British artist to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100 since Elton John's "Candle in the Wind" in 1997. It was actually the third single off of Blunt's debut album Back to Bedlam, but neither of the singles released beforehand made any impact in the states (kind of like everything he released afterward, too).
Blunt told Oprah Winfrey of the song, "It's kind of miserable. It was about seeing my ex-girlfriend on the Underground in London with her new man, who I didn't know existed. She and I caught eyes and lived a lifetime in that moment, but didn't do anything about it and haven't seen each other since."
But the moment must not have meant all that much to James, since he later said, "It's probably one of the least meaningful songs on the album and by no means people's favorite." In fact, James supposedly used "You're Beautiful" as a particularly grotesque pick-up tool, telling women he knew pre-fame he wrote it about them in order to woo them for the night. He was also romantically linked to Petra Nemcova, Lindsay Loha ,Mischa Barton and Paris Hilton; Dude likes to party.
James did score one other Hot 100 hit with his follow-up "Goodbye My Lover," although it peaked at No. 66. In 2010, James landed on another Billboard list: No. 6 on The 2000s' Best One-Hit Wonders. We've got to commend James for squeezing so much money out of a song about getting stoned, seeing your ex on the subway and thinking that time stood still.
