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Posted by: BillyH 9th October 2016, 05:17 PM

Musical formats have come and gone over the last 60-odd years, but I don't think a full 'first and last' list has ever been done in terms of number 1 singles and the formats they were released on - might seem a bit of an odd subject but it's something I find interesting!

Here's the beginnings of a list based on what I know (which is limited):

7" Vinyl
First: Easy (I think) - Al Martino - Here In My Heart (1952), officially the ever first #1 single, was available on this format. Although the older 10" 78rpm format was still going strong at the time, which goes into a whole level of gramophone record knowledge I'm no expert on.

Last: Complicated. Culture Beat - Mr Vain (1993) was definitely the first #1 not available on 7", which would make the 'last' up to that point Freddie Mercury - Living On My Own, but of course there have been plenty since, as my signed copy of La Roux - Bulletproof proudly confirms. With the continued vinyl 'revival' we may not have a definitive answer for this for some time.

12" Vinyl
First: Obviously 12" albums have been around for years, but the 12" single only arrived in the disco era when extended dance mixes became popular. I don't have an answer for this but presumably some kind of disco track in the late 1970s, I've seen the year 1977 stated around.

Last: Celine Dion - Think Twice (1995) was the first #1 single not available on vinyl in any form, but again there's been plenty since! Another with no obvious answer.

Cassette
First: The UK charts took years to add the cassette single as an official format. Frankie Goes To Hollywood - The Power of Love (1984) was released on the format, but I believe it wasn't until 1989 when the format was included - Kylie Minogue - Hand On Your Heart (1989) would have got to #1 earlier had her cassette total been included in her sales tally. I added that fact to Wikipedia a few years ago, so presumably I read it somewhere!

Last: Fairly sure this is Elton John - Are You Ready For Love (2003) as Music Week stated this a few years back. Can't imagine any #1 singles released on the format after that. I've seen it stated before that Chemical Brothers - Block Rockin' Beats (1997) was the first, or at least one of the first #1s not available on cassette since the format became official, but don't quote me on that - could have some truth as 'Setting Sun' definitely had a cassette release.

CD
First: This has been positively stated to be Whitney Houston - I Wanna Dance With Somebody (1987) which sounds right to me, at least officially.

Last: Oh boy. Well...Coldplay - Viva La Vida (2008) was the first #1 since '87 not to be given a CD single release, at least in the UK - it got one internationally, so if you count that then instead the milestone goes to Leona Lewis - Run later that year. Then a seriously long fizzle out of the format happened, you could still find plenty for 2009 and even 2010 releases but then things get very patchy.
The current week's Physical Singles Chart lists both Sam Smith - Writing's On The Wall and Little Mix - Black Magic as physical releases still in the chart, both from 2015. Could it be one of those? Surely there'll be some sort of charity or novelty release on the format in the future though...was the NHS choir track released on CD?

Digital download
First: Not counting the millions of 'illegal' mp3 uploads starting in the second half of the 1990s, the iTunes Store was launched in the UK on June 15th, 2004, and downloads were added to the chart on April 17th 2005. If we count that second date as official, the first new #1 single to include digital downloads from its first week would be Akon - Lonely (2005) - you could also count Tony Christie & Peter Kay - Is This The Way To Amarillo as being the #1 on the first combined physical/downloads chart, but most of its weeks were achieved with physical sales only.

Last: Ain't happened yet, unless I've missed some major milestone news.

Spotify
First: Spotify launched in 2008, but its data didn't become part of the UK charts until July 2014. Using the same rules as downloads above, that makes Ariana Grande feat Iggy Azalea - Problem (2014) the first official #1 single including streaming...that's obviously way later than when most actually first started using the service, but otherwise you might as well say it's Al Martino again as decades worth of former #1s are available to stream.

Last: Haha no.

Singles have also been released on Minidisc and (lol) 'USB', but I don't think either format lasted long enough to even have any #1s to their name.

Anyone able to shed some more light on any of the above, filling in the gaps or correcting what I have?

Posted by: ThePensmith 9th October 2016, 05:51 PM

Not so much on the last #1 front, but I found it quite amusing a few years' back to read *NSYNC's "I'll Never Stop" was still selling in modest quantities on cassette some 13 years after originally going top 20. I'd love to know which store was stocking that much of a backlog of it!

Posted by: JosephStyles 9th October 2016, 05:54 PM

Major Lazer's Cold Water has actually been released on CD (worldwide) so really that's the last one to date I think!

Really interesting thread, thanks for compiling!!

Posted by: Gezza 9th October 2016, 05:58 PM

The first No 1 available on Cassette was I believe "Imagine" by John Lennon, however I don't think that single sales were included for chart purposes until 1983. The incident with "Hand On Your Heart" related to it's retail price not the format itself.

Posted by: Doctor Blind 9th October 2016, 08:00 PM

Busted “Crashed The Wedding” was released on cassette (reached #1 in November 2003) later than Elton I believe.

https://www.discogs.com/Busted-Crashed-The-Wedding/release/7871677

Posted by: AcerBen 9th October 2016, 08:05 PM

Leona's Run was released on CD in Germany

What about DVD singles? Earliest one I can recall is Hear'Say's Pure And Simple. Maybe Amarillo was the last?

Posted by: JosephStyles 9th October 2016, 08:11 PM

Britney Spears' Everytime had a DVD single a couple of months later!

They didn't make #1 of course but some of The Vamps' singles had DVD singles with them, including I Found a Girl from earlier this year! Thought it may be interesting to point out as they seem such a rare format these days, even more so than CD singles.

Posted by: Doctor Blind 9th October 2016, 08:12 PM

May also be worth contacting http://fatherandy2.proboards.com/user/47 over at Haven - he has a collection of every #1 single since Nov 52 on every format, though I think he stopped in 2008 when Mint Royale kind of ruined it...

Posted by: *Ben* 9th October 2016, 08:13 PM

There are still a lot of singles that are released on CD in Germany

Posted by: Ethan 9th October 2016, 08:18 PM

interesting read~

Posted by: ankietarrr 9th October 2016, 08:24 PM

Lol there are plenty of CDs in any music shop like HMV are you on drugs all?

Posted by: JosephStyles 9th October 2016, 08:27 PM

CD *singles*. There are plenty of albums but not singles.

Posted by: Shaky Fan 9th October 2016, 08:53 PM

Technically yes but the follow-up to Mr Vain - Anything - was released on 7" and there was a remix of Mr Vain on the B-side!

https://www.discogs.com/Culture-Beat-Anything/release/1459648

Posted by: AcerBen 9th October 2016, 09:09 PM

Everytime was 2004, Amarillo was 2005

Posted by: AcerBen 9th October 2016, 09:10 PM

Yeah but Billy was trying to work out the first UK #1 that wasn't released on CD single anywhere, so it wasn't that

Posted by: JosephStyles 9th October 2016, 09:12 PM

omg :') I got my years wrong, ignore me

Posted by: Robbie 9th October 2016, 09:47 PM

Cassette singles have been chart eligible since the first cassette single was released in 1978. However at one point there was a minimum dealer price which was set at the same amount as a 12" single and this severely restricted sales of the format. In May 1989 the minimum price was reduced to the same as a 7" single. It was the reduction in the minimum price that led to the growth in availability and subsequent popularity of the format. The minimum price was reduced the week Kylie entered at number 2 with 'Hand On Your Heart', 11,000 cassette sales of the single in its week of release were ruled chart ineligible as they were priced the same as a 7" single. Had they been included Kylie would have entered the chart at number 1 - and would have been the first solo female artist to do so.

The first number 1 to be available as a cassette single was 'Woman' by John Lennon, in January 1981. The first cassette only single to chart was 'Your Cassette Pet' by Bow Wow Wow in December 1980.

Posted by: The Hit Parade 9th October 2016, 09:48 PM

I agree that 'Block Rockin' Beats' wasn't on cassette (they did 2 CDs and 12" instead) but it was preceded by 'Beetlebum' (on 2CDs and 7") a few months earlier.

Posted by: Doctor Blind 9th October 2016, 09:51 PM

Bow Wow Wow also had a single called “C30, C60, C90, Go” which scraped the Top 40 in early 1980. A song literally dedicated to the format! Side B was blank to allow you to record a song off the radio on to it.

Posted by: Riser 10th October 2016, 04:50 AM

Of course YouTube doesn't contribute to the chart, but presumably 'One Dance' is the first #1 in the YouTube era with no official audio on there. I thought that was notable enough for this thread, we'll see if it becomes more common (I hope not).

Posted by: Lenny 10th October 2016, 03:46 PM

Interesting idea - I think it'd also be interesting to see a list whereby say, the first and last tracks to achieve the vast majority of its sales on a format were number 1. So over 50% of their sales came from one format?

Posted by: ankietarrr 10th October 2016, 09:02 PM

and you can be sure the last one

Since OD many artist try to repeat this but they are punished by poor chart run instead.

BTW hard to understand what is the difference between stream and YT play Toutube should contribute to chart more than stream as it requires more effort to play favourite song there