Ja Rule was definitely one of the luckiest #1s ever. Although to be fair to him, it's not like he released on a completely dead week for new releases like that recent Nero example; it was more that Daniel Bedingfield and Dannii Minogue (who were expected by most to be an all-new top 2 that week) both significantly underperformed, and Eric Prydz was no threat after getting the lowest weekly sale for a #1 (at the time) the week before. But yes, he was lucky that those circumstances happened, for sure. Anyway, the week after was the week of the big all-American 5-way battle so he was cleared out in double quick time.

 

Historically, the time for these kind of #1s used to be January. Examples of this include Iron Maiden in 1991, 911 in 1999, the aforementioned Limp Bizkit in 2001, Aaliyah in 2002. However, this isn't particularly the case anymore and January is actually a pretty good month for sales meaning these kind of #1s don't happen much or at all there, plus it's usually when the record companies unleash their hyped up stars these days since the Sound Of poll came in. These days it seems to be the tail end of Summer that's the worst time - late July and August... see Ne-Yo and Nero in recent years, for example.

The first week of January is now the year's best sales week thanks to iTunes gift cards! The last two years we've also had the first new #1s of the year selling 100k+ (Iyaz in 2010 (Sidney sold nearly 100k as well) and Bruno in 2011 - I'm not counting Rihanna as the first new #1 here as it was a 2010 song which peaked in sales in 2010).

 

Actually What's My Name? is another example of a song which was looking like being a sizeable #2 hit but snuck a week at #1 when the #1's sales started to wear off.

Edited October 28, 201113 yr by Bré

CONTROVERSIALLY, I am going for 'Bad Romance'. It only sold 72,919 on its first week at #1, despite the massively-hyped X Factor performance, as well as the fact that the eight #1s preceding it all topped 100,000 sales. It also never went above 80,000 sales in a calendar week, with 76,265 during its second stay at #1, with the two weeks before it and the week after it having the #1 selling more than 100k.

 

Slate me all you like for saying it, but it's true! :P

Wow Groovejet sold alot in its first week. Didn't know that.

What about Never Ever by All Saints? Sold a hell of alot before reaching Number 1, but just about beat Bamboogie with much lower sales in the New Year 1998

Any No.1s from Westlife, McFly and b*witched

You can tell when people dislike certain bands lol! B*Witched with Blame It On The Weatherman was lucky, but none of their other songs got there on luck. Similarly Mcfly's first two number ones were not lucky.

Iron Maiden's only No. 1 single 'Bring Your Daughter...To The Slaughter' had very low sales, I believe.

 

Still a good achievement though, seeing as the BBC banned it. Things haven't changed much - radio still hates anything with distortion.

I'd say Gorillaz - Dare was extremely lucky, it got to #1 on the lowest sales in 2005 post-downloads being introduced. Especially Oasis had decreased a huge amount from the previous week and they were facing (2005-type admittedly) Rihanna as their nearest competition.

 

Did it actually increase in sales in the next week? Wouldn't be surprised, because PCD opened on 85k, and it was just behind them, and Doctor Pressure was behind them also on it's peak, and that made the year-end top 40.

 

Also, in The Lazy Song vibe, OMG. Yes, it came top 5 on year end sales, but it was such a nothing of a #1, only getting to it in the middle of 4 other weeks at #2. If there had been a big contender in the week it did get to #1, it would have been another mini-MLJ.

Iron Maiden's only No. 1 single 'Bring Your Daughter...To The Slaughter' had very low sales, I believe.

 

Still a good achievement though, seeing as the BBC banned it. Things haven't changed much - radio still hates anything with distortion.

 

Although ironically Radio 1 is the only mainstream station that touches bands like Bullet and Bring Me The Horizon...

Most of these 'lucky #1s' aren't so much lucky as they are record labels taking advantage of quiet weeks (especially in Westlife's cases). I would say songs like 'No Tomorrow' and 'The Lazy Song' which looked like being #2 hits but managed to sneak in a week at the top anyway due to dead weeks are more 'lucky' to have got there.

Generally speaking, the rule is:

 

If the nationality of the artist in question is British/Irish, then the label probably deliberately targeted a weak release week.

If the nationality of the artist is anything else, then the label probably had no idea how lucky they'd be when picking their week of release.

 

:P I say this half-jokingly, but it's pretty much true in a lot of cases.

 

Steps definitely only got to #1 with Heartbeat/Tragedy because of the huge post-Christmas collapse of the Spice Girls and Chef and the fact that there were no significant new releases out (the highest new entry was a re-release of Prince's 1999 at #10). So they were also lucky using the above logic. Poor Steps, that's both their two #1s mentioned in here now :lol:

 

I forgot a very obvious example in here, actually, thinking of songs slumping post-Xmas - Steve Brookstein's Against All Odds. Also took advantage of a huge post-Christmas slump of an Xmas song (Band Aid 20) to get to #1 on only something like not much above 20k.

Joe McElderry also sold far more in his first week than his week at #1 as well because Rage were only realistically going to challenge once (it's amazing they even stayed #2 the next week).

CONTROVERSIALLY, I am going for 'Bad Romance'. It only sold 72,919 on its first week at #1, despite the massively-hyped X Factor performance, as well as the fact that the eight #1s preceding it all topped 100,000 sales. It also never went above 80,000 sales in a calendar week, with 76,265 during its second stay at #1, with the two weeks before it and the week after it having the #1 selling more than 100k.

 

Slate me all you like for saying it, but it's true! :P

I can see your logic... BUT it must have been extremely lucky to have made #1 twice...

I can see your logic... BUT it must have been extremely lucky to have made #1 twice...

 

Its second week was just the post-Xmas slump of Joe and Rage coupled with lack of new releases, which is equally 'lucky'. I agree with Theo.

Edited October 28, 201113 yr by Bré

I had forgotten about Brookstein and McElderry - number ones by default

Its second week was just the post-Xmas slump of Joe and Rage coupled with lack of new releases, which is equally 'lucky'. I agree with Theo.

That's not totally true is it? Didn't it's sales actually increase again thanks to mass iTunes gift voucher spending?

That's not totally true is it? Didn't it's sales actually increase again thanks to mass iTunes gift voucher spending?

 

A lot of songs would have increased then, making the increasing sales argument less valid.

I guess we just have different classifications of lucky #1s. A lucky #1 to me is something that hardly sold anything in the end and had a swift chart run i.e. Nero.

 

Am I remembering rightly that one of Gareth Gates number ones was lucky to get there purely because his record label pulled 'One Step Too Far' by Faithless ft Dido as they were challenging for the top spot. Faithless ended up at #6 and plummeted out of the chart. I swear I remember reading that somewhere

Edited October 28, 201113 yr by Herbs

Ah no wait it was 'Unchained Melody' trying to make a fourth week at the top so that Gareth Gates number one reign was longer than Will Young's (part of Simon Cowell's revenge on the person he wanted to win finishing 2nd in pop idol). So Syco reportedly pulled Faithless so it couldnt challenge