Robbie Williams

Is there life after being in a boy band? For a lucky few, there is, and Robbie Williams is one of those. Williams rose to the Top of the Pops as a member of British "Fab Five" boy band Take That, crashed and burned in a haze of drink and drugs, and lived not only to tell the tale, but to triumph once again as a solo artist. Tonight on Behind the Music …

If that's true, then Williams is just the man for the task. When it came time to release an album in America, his label combined the best of his two British releases and came up with the smugly (or hilariously, depending on your point of view) titled The Ego Has Landed.

"It's just a bit of fun," Williams told the L.A. Times, regarding the title. "I love puns. 'The showoff must go on,' I always say."

The Ego Has Landed was less than a blockbuster hit in America, though the single "Millennium" was a respectable (and timely) hit, and the album did earn its share of respect, including a place on many critics' Top 10 lists.

Williams remains philosophical about his fame and his music, telling Rolling Stone of the latter, "They can say anything they want about my music, because I know what my music is: straightforward good songs. That's all it is. And I'm not pretending it's anything more than that."

With his latest album, Sing When You're Winning, Williams is taking another crack at success over here, but whatever happens, it's all pretty much the same to him. "If it doesn't happen here, then I've still got a holiday place to come to," he told Interview, "and if it does happen here, I'll have enough money to go to the moon." Take that, America.

— Daniel Durchholz