I remember in 1989 the Top 2 in the End of Year chart were

 

1.Black Box - Ride on Time 840,000

2.Jive Bunny - Swing the Mood 825,000

 

they ended up being right next to each other in the Chart of the Decade - around numbers 22 and 23 I believe.

 

Has it ever been closer than this?

 

 

 

Has it ever been so close that we didn't know until it was announced? 1996 was close, if I remember righty - The Fugees v The Spice Girls.

Edited December 27, 200915 yr by tonyttt31

1996, as you said, was close:

 

1. Killing Me Softly - Fugees - 1,351,664

2. Wannabe - Spice Girls - 1,331,216

 

and the two singles ended up as 11th and 12th best sellers of the 90s with end of decade sales being:

 

11. Killing Me Softly - 1,355,404

12. Wannabe - 1,350,703

 

I can't think of any other time apart from 1989 and 1996 when end of year sales were so close between the top 2 singles. I'm sure it's happened but none that I can recall over the past 35 years.

Edited December 27, 200915 yr by Robbie

1996, as you said, was close:

 

1. Killing Me Softly - Fugees - 1,351,664

2. Wannabe - Spice Girls - 1,331,216

 

and the two singles ended up as 11th and 12th best sellers of the 90s with end of decade sales being:

 

11. Killing Me Softly - 1,355,404

12. Wannabe - 1,350,703

 

I can't think of any other time apart from 1989 and 1996 when end of year sales were so close between the top 2 singles. I'm sure it's happened but none that I can recall over the past 35 years.

 

i wonder if wannabe has overtaken killing me softly now?

Those Spice/Fugees figures seem over-inflated, where did you find those figures?

 

Wannabe was on 1,211,000 in June 2009. Readjusted from a figure given in 2002 - 1,269,000.

Those Spice/Fugees figures seem over-inflated, where did you find those figures?

 

Wannabe was on 1,211,000 in June 2009. Readjusted from a figure given in 2002 - 1,269,000.

They were the original sales figures given in the 90s. The sales figures for those two records (and sales of all other records from March 1994 to March 1997) were adjusted downwards a few years ago due to a change in how the OCC calculated sales for all records in those years, hence the lower figures that have appeared in recent years. The OCC now appear to have gone back to their original figures, I assume they are now unsure how to treat sales from those years.

 

Other examples of records from those years that have had sales changed:

 

Unchained Melody - Robson and Jerome - had sold 1,843,701 at the end of the 90s, in 2007 this was revised down to 1,390,000

Love Is All Around - Wet, Wet, Wet - had sold 1,783,912 at the end of the 90s, in 2007 the figure was adjusted to 1,300,000

 

and poor Whigfield, Saturday Night went from being a million seller in the 90s (1,092,284) to 800,000 in 2007.

 

In all the OCC revised the amount of singles to pass a million sales in the 90s from 25 to 20.

 

In the past few months the OCC have now gone back to using their original sales figures!

I don't remember Wannabe ever being 1.35m though, and back in 2002 no changes had been made yet, had they? (1,269,000 was a figure published in the 2002 Guinness Book of Hit Singles by the way)

 

I never saw sales during the 1990s, but all the 1996 EOY lists I've seen (on Haven forum for instance) had it as 1.27m anyway!

 

(PS: Not saying you're wrong, I just don't know if sales had changed by 2002 compared to the 90s, and maybe the figures given in the 90s were estimates anyway! :D)

The story of Wannabe's sales goes something like this. In Music Weeks, 1996 year end analysis it was given as 1.261 million, it eventually sold on into 1997 and sold 1.269 million (this figure was given in 2002 all time list). The 1.35 million figure comes from Hit Music Newsletters (an off-shoot of Music Week) year end list, which they published with sales (these were the figures posted up on the old Dot Music Forums, which have since been circulated around all the forums and internet). The difference in the figures is purely because these figures used the old system of multipliers to achieve total market sales, and Hit Music and MW (Alan Jones) were each using different multipliers to achieve their figures. When the OCC adopted the new system using the Defined Universe Sales the figure for Wannabe then became 1.180 million. (of course this has since increased with the addition of Download sales), the last figure I have of 1.211 million is upto Jun 2009.

Edited December 27, 200915 yr by fiesta

Thanks fiesta, you've explained it far better than I could have managed! I did make an attempt to explain it a bit more fully but couldn't find an adequate way of explaining it and ended up scrapping my post.

 

Whichever figures we use, in 1996 Killing Me Softly and Wannabe were very close to each other in sales, closer than Black Box and Jive Bunny were in 1989. To my knowledge this is the closest the top 2 have been since actual sales figures began to be used in 1969.

Thanks for explanations fiesta and Robbie!

 

All these different sales and sales methods get confusing after a while. :lol:

The 1996 figures for the Fugees and Spice Girls from Hit Music were calculated using 16 as the multiplier (i.e. panel sales x 16 = market sales).

 

Alan Jones' figures from Music Week are close to using 15 as the multiplier (15 had been used by Hit Music until the final quarter), but not exact. Maybe he used some hybrid of 15 and 16, but the point of change was not the end of the third quarter / start of the fourth quarter. He wasn't using the defined universe sales (DUS) back then, although he has often used them since.

 

In the all-time Top 100 singles from 2002, and referring to sales occurring in 1996 only

 

2 Become 1, Gangsta's Paradise, Earth Song and Wonderwall - DUS has been used

Spaceman by Babylon Zoo - panel sales x 16 has been used

Killing Me Softly and Wannabe - panel sales x 15 appears to have been used

 

All this drama over wannabe sales resurfaces every now and then! Funny, must affect tonnes of sales from this era but its always wannabe you hear from!

What I wonder is in the all time list is wannabe still narrowly ahead of never ever by all saints? The spices had a bigger comeback but I imagine never ever aging better and having more longterm appeal in terms of background downloads.

 

Its the battle for biggest ever girlband single even after all these years!