Whole Again

Atomic Kitten is a girl group founded in 1998 by OMD's Andy McCluskey and Stuart Kershaw. Their first four singles were middling hits and their debut album, Right Now, only reached #37. Their fifth single, "Whole Again," was a last-ditch attempt to save their record deal with Virgin Records. Atomic Kitten publicized the tune on TV, the tabloids, and personal appearances, and significantly there was airplay on BBC Radio 2 too, the first time the national radio station had backed the girls. The catchy tune caught the imagination of the public and it debuted at #1 in the UK, staying at the top for four weeks. The song also peaked atop the charts of Austria, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, and New Zealand.

Andy McCluskey and Stuart Kershaw originally wrote "Whole Again" for a girl band called Honeyhead in 1997. That project failed, but McCluskey and Kershaw believed in the song and when they formed Atomic Kitten, the girls recorded it for Right Now. At the suggestion of Virgin, McCluskey and Kershaw gave it to another songwriting duo, Bill Padley and Jeremy Godfrey, to transform the album track into a more melodic international hit single.

Lyrically, the song is one of unrequited love, with the girls telling their crush only he can make them "whole again." Andy McCuskey told 1000 UK #1 Hits by Jon Kutner and Spencer Leigh he took inspiration from the music of '60s girl groups, especially The Shirelles. "I loved the Shirelles, " he said, "and in many ways this is the sort of song The Shirelles would have been doing now."