Well, this thread might have been repeated from another thread. But after talking about this subject with gooddelta in the Big Reunion thread, which songs are the most surprising 1s in your opinion? Here are some examples:

 

Atomic Kitten - Whole Again (wasn't supported very much on radio and didn't look likely to become a big hit)

Florence + The Machine - Spectrum (was the fifth single from Cermonials and didn't look likely to become a big hit either)

Eva Cassidy & Katie Melua - What A Wonderful World (was only made available through Tesco stores and only looked likely to become a big hit when the midweeks for that week were released)

Edited February 28, 201312 yr by Good Grief

Labrinth and Emeli Sande's Beneath Your Beautiful - even with an X Factor performance, I wouldn't have thought it would be such a massive number one.

Rudimental 'Feel The Love' was quite a surprise hit at the time IIRC.

Rudimental 'Feel The Love' was quite a surprise hit at the time IIRC.

 

Oh yes, I thought that was surprising as well.

 

Although I definitely thought that it would make the Top 10 at the time! :D

Robyn & Kleerup - With Every Heartbeat (I was shocked this made top 5 in it's first week, never mind number 1!)

Welcome to the Black Parade by My Chemical Romance - I was shocked at the time when I was just discovering the charts and I'm still shocked now, so utterly random, but amazing nonetheless.

Definitely Whole Again for me, to quote myself;

 

In the 15+ years that I've followed the charts Whole Again going to #1 was by FAR the biggest shock I can recall seeing. I was 13 and in year 9 at school at the time, I'd seen it on the Monday at about #15 in the Woolies chart and thought 'there's no way it's going to get that high after the flop of Follow Me'. There was no buzz around it, no radio support, their fanbase didn't seem interested in buying a ballad by Atomic Kitten and I recall reading a couple of days before that they were all set to be dropped after Kerry had left. I think I found out the mids whilst looking on the internet at school on the Wednesday morning and I literally couldn't believe it, I thought it was a mistake! It seems strange now to look back and think that nobody saw it coming but it was a genuine huge surprise. I still have no idea where they managed to muster up the support to sell over 60k in their first week, how had people even heard the song!? Obviously it grew from there and is one of the 'classics' of this millennium now but it started off so oddly.

 

I guess surprising #1's is another thread entirely, but Whole Again is the one that shocked me the most because Atomic Kitten were fading flopstars about to be dropped who turned it around with the fifth single from their smash #39 album, despite barely any media support!

 

What A Wonderful World was a real surprise though, I didn't even know it existed until the opening midweeks! I seem to recall the following since I've been following the charts being mildly surprising at the time too to me for whatever reason, perhaps I'd avoided/underestimated their hype;

 

> Vengaboys - Boom Boom Boom Boom (knew it would go top five but hadn't seen it doing as well as it did)

> Cliff Richard - The Millennium Prayer (didn't see this climbing to #1 at all...)

> Chicane/Bryan Adams - Don't Give Up (didn't see this coming, I thought 5ive would enter at #1 but they ended up at #9 with Don't Wanna Let You Go!)

> LeAnn Rimes - Can't Fight The Moonlight (was shocked when this debuted at the top, I hadn't noticed any hype around it)

> Limp Bizkit - Rollin' (ditto, although it became popular to take the piss out of quickly afterwards)

> DJ Sammy - Heaven (I'd been championing this for #1 since the summer but realistically expected Madonna/Craig David to beat it with considerable ease)

> Ja Rule, Ashanti & R Kelly - Wonderful (what was so great about this that it deserved #1 over all of the other similar stuff out at the time?)

> Mint Royale - Singin' In The Rain (didn't expect this to explode to #1 after Britain's Got Talent exposure)

> Nero - Promises (bizarre, very few people regard this as their best single!)

 

And it's a shame it never got to #1 officially but I was absolutely astounded when Release Me by Agnes went to #1 on iTunes! But I guess surprising iTunes #1's is another thread entirely!

I suppose that Price Tag was a surprising #1 as well. I certainly didn't expect it to go straight to #1! :o :D

> Chicane/Bryan Adams - Don't Give Up (didn't see this coming, I thought 5ive would enter at #1 but they ended up at #9 with Don't Wanna Let You Go!)

I saw this coming a mile off back in 2000 - it was everywhere and imo had one week wonder written all over it (especially after the huge success of When You're Gone). Forgotten number 1 mind :(

I suppose that Price Tag was a surprising #1 as well. I certainly didn't expect it to go straight to #1! :o :D

After the success of Do It Like A Dude and the exposure of Price Tag, it was pretty foreseeable imo.

Definitely Whole Again for me, to quote myself;

 

What A Wonderful World was a real surprise though, I didn't even know it existed until the opening midweeks!

 

I wonder if Atomic Kitten did any signings that week. Or maybe it was the news that Kerry had left Atomic Kitten that somehow got them the media attention they needed.

 

As for 'What A Wonderful World', I remember it well in the old days of ChC Media. Leona had been #1 for 7 weeks and I predicted there would be a new #1 that would shock everyone.

 

SHAUN THE SHEEP!!! :drama:

 

I remember being convinced it'd be #1, the typical early December #1 hit for Christmas before the inevitable X Factor winner took hold. Then I read the first set of midweeks and was gobsmacked Eva & Katie were #1 as I'd never heard it up until that point. Then someone posted the video off YouTube, gave it a listen and thought it was lovely in a sickly sweet twee kinda way and it ended up #1 in my PC for 3 weeks.

 

 

Razorlight - America

 

I feel the only one bit I didn't think it would get no.1 even though I wanted it too. Cascada and MCR are some others.

Also Orson - No tommorow.

I saw this coming a mile off back in 2000 - it was everywhere and imo had one week wonder written all over it (especially after the huge success of When You're Gone). Forgotten number 1 mind :(

 

Wasn't that a year and a half prior to Don't Give Up. Bryan Adams had a few hits in between in fact, most topically the Chicane remix of Cloud Number 9 in early 1999 which I guess lead to this collaboration. I was generally more on the ball with picking up hype with things but I didn't even see Don't Give Up going top five. I was on holiday in Tenerife at the time so had missed all of the mids. Tuned in on some British language station in Tenerife to hear the chart and was gobsmacked to hear that it had gone in at #1, although possibly more shocked to hear that 5ive had slumped in at #9! They seemed untouchable at that point, not that barely anybody remembers or cares about Don't Wanna Let You Go now of course :lol:

Candy was another as I didn't expect Robbie to get anymore no.1s.

I saw Don't Give Up getting to #1 also, it was huge on the club scene at the time and that seemed to have a genuinely huge affect on singles in 1999 and 2000. Chicane had been getting more and more popular after Saltwater too, their Chilled EP had done bizarrely well for a mini album also. Radio 1 seemed to be hammering the track while commercial stations played it because of the Bryan Adams connection.

I was a bit baffled to realise Enigma's "Sadeness Pt 1" got to #1 :o It was probably massive at the time, but it'd be hard to imagine a song like that getting anywhere near the chart nowadays (which is a shame, cause it's brilliant)

 

I was a bit baffled to realise Enigma's "Sadeness Pt 1" got to #1 :o It was probably massive at the time, but it'd be hard to imagine a song like that getting anywhere near the chart nowadays (which is a shame, cause it's brilliant)

The fact that it followed Iron Maiden came as a blessed relief though!

Ozzy & Kelly Osbourne - Changes (it was helped to #1 by Ozzy having a quad-bike accident in the week of release, but I still didn't expect it to be #1)

 

Pink - Just Like A Pill

 

Kings Of Leon - Sex On Fire (seems a bit odd now, but at the time it was a surprise, considering its first week was download-only, and they had never previously had a top 10 hit)

 

Steps - Stomp (but nowhere near as much of a shock as Baha Men climbing 14-2 that week)

I thought Whole Again was helped to number 1 by Westlife fans helping Kerry's (just ex) band do well to support Brian Mcfadden? I am sure it was something like that!