Didn't they get a #2 recently though? That song that Heart FM play all the time. I'm sure they were probably close that time. I think they got beaten by a massive selling song like Bad Boys or Fight For This Love, although I can't remember for certain.

 

And actually, we're probably never going to get songs selling 150,000+ like those ever again (apart from charity songs and X Factor songs).

 

it was What About Now in 2009, and yes it was actually their highest charting since 2006- mainly because the Daughtry one was pretty big at the time, their first song since 2007 plus it had decent promotion and still gets some airplay now- it still wasn't close though, Cheryl beat them easily

 

It was 'Fight For This Love'. Thing is, Westlife were never massive selling artists - especially in their early days. Out of four UK #1 hits in 1999, only 'I Have A Dream' sold enough to end up inside the top 40 biggest selling singles of that year.

 

Wow, that's not good. If the #1 was determined by, say, sales from the past 14 days, instead of the past 7 days (although this would be stupid, because then 1 sale would count towards 2 consecutive charts, and the charts wouldn't represent the most popular song of the week, like they're supposed to, but hypopthetically :lol:), I wonder how many #1s they would've got then! If they had any 2-weekers, those would've still been #1s obviously.

Westlife (or should I say, their management) were very good at playing the charts tactically and forecasting things to achieve their #1 singles. They nearly always timed their releases very well to release at the perfect time when they could get to #1 with a lower sales than normally needed. In fact, in the latter half (last six months) of 1999, the only two #1s that sold less than 100,000 in their first week were both Westlife songs! Talk about a coincidence - or not.

 

Although I shouldn't be too harsh on Westlife about this, as pretty much all the major British pop acts did this. They rarely released against each other, avoided other big competition, and timed their releases so they would knock each other off #1 whilst they appeared on all the kids TV shows like Live & Kicking, SMTV Live etc. Geri Halliwell, Five, Billie Piper, Steps, S Club 7, B*Witched and the rest were also guilty of doing it at various times. It's why the prestige of the #1 spot in the late 90s and early 00s is widely considered to be a bit of a joke by most people who followed the charts at that time, and definitely contributed somewhat to it changing so often.

 

But Westlife were by far the biggest beneficiaries of this - so I'm quite happy to sling the mud their way for it. Their tally of 14 #1s is truly the biggest joke in chart history and borderline disgusts me to be honest :(

Edited February 4, 201114 yr by superbossanova

Westlife (or should I say, their management) were very good at playing the charts tactically and forecasting things to achieve their #1 singles. They nearly always timed their releases very well to release at the perfect time when they could get to #1 with a lower sales than normally needed. In fact, in the latter half (last six months) of 1999, the only two #1s that sold less than 100,000 in their first week were both Westlife songs! Talk about a coincidence - or not.

 

Although I shouldn't be too harsh on Westlife about this, as pretty much all the major British pop acts did this. They rarely released against each other, avoided other big competition, and timed their releases so they would knock each other off #1 whilst they appeared on all the kids TV shows like Live & Kicking, SMTV Live etc. Geri Halliwell, Five, Billie Piper, Steps, S Club 7, B*Witched and the rest were also guilty of doing it at various times. It's why the prestige of the #1 spot in the late 90s and early 00s is widely considered to be a bit of a joke by most people who followed the charts at that time, and definitely contributed somewhat to it changing so often.

 

But Westlife were by far the biggest beneficiaries of this - so I'm quite happy to sling the mud their way for it. Their tally of 14 #1s is truly the biggest joke in chart history and borderline disgusts me to be honest :(

 

Per Virgin Hit Singles, only 'I Have A Dream' of their singles, went platinum.

Uptown Girl sold around 750k I think and was their biggest seller so they had two platinum records. Indeed though, they only probably 'deserved' 4 or 5 of their 14 #1 singles based on sales merit, and zero based on musical merit :kink: (ok I'll let them have Flying Without Wings).

Swear It Again was my 'favourite', but I still wouldn't rush to listen to it, or say it deserved #1. It is one of only four Westlife singles to last for a second week I suppose, although that was purely due to pitiful competition (the only new top 10 entries that week were the Offspring's totally forgettable follow-up to PF(FAWG) and Cast!! :drama:)

 

Flying Without Wings is probably their most enduring though, I guess, and surely one of the only ones of the 14 the public would even be able to name.

Swear It Again was my 'favourite', but I still wouldn't rush to listen to it, or say it deserved #1. It is one of only four Westlife singles to last for a second week I suppose, although that was purely due to pitiful competition (the only new top 10 entries that week were the Offspring's totally forgettable follow-up to PF(FAWG) and Cast!! :drama:)

 

Flying Without Wings is probably their most enduring though, I guess, and surely one of the only ones of the 14 the public would even be able to name.

 

I never understood how that Offspring song got as high as #2, I always assumed it was just off the back of PF(FAWG) but I guess it being a dead week for releases would have helped it rather. Shame TLC couldn't have risen a couple more places with No Scrubs seeing as that was the week they shot up from 9-3.

 

True, it's gone down as a pop 'classic' of sorts, which can't really be said about anything else they've released. I still hear World Of Our Own occasionally but I do wish Shakira had been released the week before (instead of walking into the path of Will Young's Evergreen :/) as she would have beaten that song to #1 easily.

we have another one this week - chipmunk and chris brown - champion was midweek number one all week, and jessie j overtook them

we have another one this week - chipmunk and chris brown - champion was midweek number one all week, and jessie j overtook them

 

This is a bigger injustice than Westlife's 14 #1s, imo. :(

This is a bigger injustice than Westlife's 14 #1s, imo. :(

:lol: Your borderline allergy to any song lasting more than a week at #1 is very strange. Does it really kill you inside that much?

 

You should try moving to Japan. They seem to have a new #1 every week. I'd like to see what goes on to cause that over there - I can only assume they must be using our old late 90s/early 00s model and front-loading everything to the top.

 

And NOTHING is a bigger injustice than Westlife's 14 #1s. Their entire career is a disgrace, let's be honest.

You should try moving to Japan. They seem to have a new #1 every week. I'd like to see what goes on to cause that over there - I can only assume they must be using our old late 90s/early 00s model and front-loading everything to the top.

I studied Japanese music in year 9 and apparantly they plug a brand new young artist for a whole week to get them to the top spot and earn loads for the record label, then completely forget about them and move onto the next one. :lol: Seems incredible harsh!

I studied Japanese music in year 9 and apparantly they plug a brand new young artist for a whole week to get them to the top spot and earn loads for the record label, then completely forget about them and move onto the next one. :lol: Seems incredible harsh!

 

I don't think so. I listened to all the 2010 #1s on the Japan Hot 100 (it was an interesting experience, some really good songs actually!), and I've looked at the other charts for other years and so on, and it's mostly the same artists getting all the #1s.

 

There's a boy group called Arashi, and they've had over 30 #1s!!! Literally EVERYTHING they release goes to #1. They do have some incredible songs though. My favourite is Monster.

 

The Japan music scene is quite good to be honest. My main criticism is that I think they should open up more to music from other countries (and likewize, other countries should open up to their music, because we are missing out on some brilliant songs), and also, it's VERY pop dominated. Hip hop is rare in comparison in Japan.

 

I don't have an "allergy" to having a 2-weeker at #1. Like if it's a song that is literally incredible, I'd be fine with it getting 2 weeks, likewize, if a song is dreadful, I'd be fine with a previous #1 beating it. Likewize, if a song is about to break a record, I'll be happy for it to go all the way. Like when the Black Eyed Peas got 26 weeks at #1 in the US in 2009. I mean, their music was incredible, so I was like "fair enough, of course people need to buy these songs, we're all human", but when it got to the point where it was actually feasible for them to break the record, it was kind of like "Why not. Might aswell support them". I can also tolerate songs having more than 1 week at #1, if they're non-consecutive, although I also prefer to avoid that, again, unless it's a masterpiece.

Edited February 13, 201114 yr by Eric_Blob

I don't think so. I listened to all the 2010 #1s on the Japan Hot 100 (it was an interesting experience, some really good songs actually!), and I've looked at the other charts for other years and so on, and it's mostly the same artists getting all the #1s.

 

There's a boy group called Arashi, and they've had over 30 #1s!!! Literally EVERYTHING they release goes to #1. They do have some incredible songs though. My favourite is Monster.

 

The Japan music scene is quite good to be honest. My main criticism is that I think they should open up more to music from other countries (and likewize, other countries should open up to their music, because we are missing out on some brilliant songs), and also, it's VERY pop dominated. Hip hop is rare in comparison in Japan.

 

I don't have an "allergy" to having a 2-weeker at #1. Like if it's a song that is literally incredible, I'd be fine with it getting 2 weeks, likewize, if a song is dreadful, I'd be fine with a previous #1 beating it. Likewize, if a song is about to break a record, I'll be happy for it to go all the way. Like when the Black Eyed Peas got 26 weeks at #1 in the US in 2009. I mean, their music was incredible, so I was like "fair enough, of course people need to buy these songs, we're all human", but when it got to the point where it was actually feasible for them to break the record, it was kind of like "Why not. Might aswell support them". I can also tolerate songs having more than 1 week at #1, if they're non-consecutive, although I also prefer to avoid that, again, unless it's a masterpiece.

 

Will you stop spelling the word 'wise' with a z, seriously, it's not that hard. :wacko:

Will you stop spelling the word 'wise' with a z, seriously, it's not that hard. :wacko:

 

I'm sorry. I've been spelling it that way for almost 2 decades. It's sort of hard to get out of the habit. :lol:

Japan Hot 100 isn't the official chart, and it's quite irrelevant as radio isn't very popular in Japan.

Not that the official ORICON chart is relevant either, as only physical CD sales are included. Only a few acts can shift a large amount of those, such as AKB48 who are releasing on Tuesday and will probably shift a million copies!

Yeah, AKB48 were another one of those acts who seemed to be at #1 all the time aswell!! I ended up hearing quite a lot of their songs. :lol:

 

I'm not sure, but I read that the Oricon chart was the official one. That's what it said on wikipedia anyway. I chose the Japan Hot 100 simply because it's Billboard, and I also follow(ed) the European and the US Hot 100s.

I studied Japanese music in year 9 and apparantly they plug a brand new young artist for a whole week to get them to the top spot and earn loads for the record label, then completely forget about them and move onto the next one. :lol: Seems incredible harsh!

 

What type of school was that :o

Anyway, to answer the original question, it's happened 9 times since R1 started doing the midweek chart update (almost certain to go up to 10 after this week as Adele is likely to get #1):

 

Chart Date Midweek #1 / Actual #1

 

20/03/2010 Pass Out / Pass Out

27/03/2010 Pass Out / Telephone

03/04/2010 Telephone / Telephone

10/04/2010 This Ain’t A Love Song / This Ain’t A Love Song

17/04/2010 This Ain’t A Love Song / This Ain’t A Love Song

24/04/2010 This Ain’t A Love Song / OMG

01/05/2010 Once / Once

08/05/2010 Good Times / Good Times

15/05/2010 Good Times / Good Times

22/05/2010 Good Times / Good Times

29/05/2010 Nothin’ On You / Nothin’ On You

05/06/2010 Dirtee Disco / Dirtee Disco

12/06/2010 Nothin’ On You / Gettin’ Over You

19/06/2010 Frisky / Shout

26/06/2010 Shout / Shout

03/07/2010 California Gurls / California Gurls

10/07/2010 California Gurls / California Gurls

17/07/2010 The Club Is Alive / The Club Is Alive

24/07/2010 Airplanes / Airplanes

31/07/2010 We No Speak Americano / We No Speak Americano

07/08/2010 All Time Low / All Time Low

14/08/2010 Beautiful Monser / Beautiful Monster

21/08/2010 Missing You / Club Can’t Handle Me

28/08/2010 Love The Way You Lie / Green Light

04/09/2010 Dynamite / Dynamite

11/09/2010 Please Don’t Let Me Go / Please Don’t Let Me Go

18/09/2010 Start Without You / Start Without You

25/09/2010 Start Without You / Start Without You

02/10/2010 Just The Way You Are / Just The Way You Are

09/10/2010 Written In The Stars / Written In The Stars

16/10/2010 F**k You! / F**k You!

23/10/2010 F**k You! / F**k You!

30/10/2010 Just The Way You Are / Just The Way You Are

06/11/2010 Promise This / Promise This

13/11/2010 Only Girl (In The World) / Only Girl (In The World)

20/11/2010 Only Girl (In The World) / Only Girl (In The World)

27/11/2010 Love You More / Love You More

04/12/2010 Heroes / Heroes

11/12/2010 Heroes / Heroes

18/12/2010 Whip My Hair / The Time (Dirty Bit)

25/12/2010 When We Collide / When We Collide

01/01/2011 When We Collide / When We Collide

08/01/2011 (no midweek update) / When We Collide

15/01/2011 What’s My Name? / What’s My Name?

22/01/2011 Grenade / Grenade

29/01/2011 Rolling In The Deep / Grenade

05/02/2011 We R Who We R / We R Who We R

12/02/2011 Price Tag / Price Tag

19/02/2011 Champion / Price Tag

Edited February 20, 201114 yr by Bray

Anyway, to answer the original question, it's happened 9 times since R1 started doing the midweek chart update (almost certain to go up to 10 after this week as Adele is likely to get #1):

 

Chart Date Midweek #1 / Actual #1

29/01/2011 Rolling In The Deep / Grenade

05/02/2011 We R Who We R / We R Who We R

12/02/2011 Price Tag / Price Tag

19/02/2011 Champion / Price Tag

 

So, likely 3 in the last 5 weeks.

 

Coincidence perhaps, or indicative of a change in sales patterns?

So, likely 3 in the last 5 weeks.

 

Coincidence perhaps, or indicative of a change in sales patterns?

 

Not sure, but when it does happen it tends to happen several times in a short time period - only 3 weeks separated PO/Telephone & TAALS/OMG, then NOY/GOY & Frisky/Shout were on consecutive weeks, as were MY/CCHM & LTWYL/GL.

 

WMH/TT(DB) seems to be the only standalone case.

 

It might all just be one big coincidence though.

Edited February 20, 201114 yr by Bray