The Best of Westlife

With their DVD marking 10 years of countless hits and their break almost halfway through, I'll be listing down the most iconic Westlife songs during the past ten years, in no particular order. There are a lot of Westlife songs that I adore, but aren't on this list, because they weren't really as instrumental in shaping their career as much as these songs have been.

There will be maybe one or two(two in the case of the Westlife era) iconic songs from each era, so read away!

• Everybody Knows was the first of three songs(Forever and A Good Thing were the other two) that they recorded prior to their infamous audition in front of Simon Cowell that lead to him signing them. Amazing song, amazing melody, amazing harmonies and amazing vocals. No wonder Simon signed them 30 seconds into the song!
• Swear It Again is still to this day, an amazing song and a brilliant debut single choice. Suggested by Simon and solidified by his father, Swear It Again debuted at number one in Ireland and the UK, making them the only boyband to debut at number one. The song itself showed what Westlife is about, amazing songs, simple melodies, outstanding vocals and monumental key changes. Swear It Again made the formula for every other Westlife song, and it did it well.
• Flying Without Wings has become Westlife's most iconic song, and it sure deserves to be called that. Prior to this, people thought Westlife were just another boyband who happened to have two number one singles but when this song came out, they took it all back. Flying Without Wings(Or FWW as fans call it..) was extremely mature for them at the time, they were only 18/19/20 year-olds at the time, and solidified their success. And it the perfect example of the Westlife formula.
• My Love was Westlife's seventh consecutive number one single, and it was a smash. The whole Coast To Coast(or C2C as we call it..) era brought Westlife to new territories, most prominently Asia. I remember hearing the singles from the C2C era a lot here, only I didn't know they were Westlife(I was what, 6 at the time?) until years later. They literally just exploded. Their debut album told people that they had arrived, but C2C just planted them firmly into the industry, and My Love led the way.
• When You're Looking Like That is one of the more uptempo songs, and it's always been a favorite during concerts, mainly because it's got the rock edge and it's relatively easy to make dance routines for it(watch: the opening of their GH Tour). Plus the fact that Kian said the song has some 'mean' electric guitar on it(read: the end of Chapter 23 of their autobiography)
• World Of Our Own(Or WOOO, for both the album and the song..) sustained the success C2C had, and they attempted to break the US market for the second time with this song. It's certainly edgier than their other songs, but you can really hear Westlife's identity in the song. They tried to write their own songs with this album, but as Bop Bop Baby proved, they didn't go down too well with the British public. Back to the song, WOOO has become the staple Westlife uptempo song(Watch: Dancing On Ice performance, and maybe every tour since the song was released..). When they need to perform an uptempo song, this is the one to sing. 
• Unbreakable was the very first Westlife song I downloaded, and once again, it's a song created with the unmistakeable Westlife formula. Another ballad, but isn't that what Westlife do? They make amazing ballads, ballads that make the hair on the back of your neck stand up, and they do it extremely well. A perfect ballad for their Greatest Hits album.
• No, I'm not going to write about Mandy because I hate the song. On the Turnaround album, there's a track called Turnaround(duh.), and I personally think it should've been the lead single. It really had the possibility to be the next WOOO, with the edgy instrumentals and the fact that it's not a ballad! It's iconic in the sense that it would've been iconic, had it been released as a single.
• Then, Brian left. Allow Us To Be Frank(AUTBF) was released in 2004, but there's no really iconic song from that era, so I won't write much about it. The first of two themed albums, AUTBF is to this day, their lowest charting album.
• After AUTBF, Westlife went back to their roots, releasing You Raise Me Up, but that's not the iconic song from the Face To Face era, it's Amazing. Amazing is probably one of the most underrated Westlife songs ever. It's a brilliant pop song that reminds me of the days when Westlife weren't doing that many covers. Amazing was the song that made me buy my first Westlife album, and Amazing was the reason I became this big a fan. I don't see why the British didn't like the song, because it's downright brilliant!
• The Love Album came a year later, and it was another smash. The Rose was a beautiful version, but the iconic song of the TLA era is All Or Nothing. All Or Nothing was originally intended for Westlife to record, but Simon Cowell hated it, so it was given to O-Town and it became a hit. Years later, here they are, recording the song Simon rejected. Oh well, it's a gorgeous song, and a beautiful version.
• My personal favorite from Back Home is When I'm With You, but the iconic song from this era has got to be Catch My Breath. The song marks a new sound for Westlife, an updated sound with the same Westlife formula we all know and love. I seriously think this should've been the third single(fourth if you count Something Right) from Back Home, it would've left people wanting more from Westlife, and left all of us waiting for more next year.

EDIT: I can't believe I forgot this important song!

• During Westlife's first attempt at breaking the US market, they recorded a song specially for their US re-release called My Private Movie. Lyrically and melody-wise it was more for the US market, it sounded a lot like a typical Nsync song. It would've been huge, had they released this as a single, but as they said in their autobiography, if they had cracked the US, they wouldn't have lasted this long and had this much success, because the success would all go to their heads.