http://www.billboard.com/photos/stylus/103715-header_all_no1_songs.jpg

(image from billboard.com)

 

From 2000 to 2009, there were 375 songs at #1 in either the UK or USA. 275 of them topped the UK Singles Chart while 130 topped the Billboard Hot 100...…which adds up to 405, so 30 songs reached #1 on both charts. (As an aside, we'’re not quite halfway into the current decade and already 25 songs have been UK and US #1s since 2010! So that'’s pretty cool.)

 

Over the last few years I'’ve pretty much memorized all 375 number-ones, not intentionally but just by spending a lot of time looking at retro charts. So it happened fairly effortlessly, and I decided that a real challenge would be to rank them all and figure out which ones I like best. I’'ve narrowed it down to the 250 songs that I actually like, and will count them all down over the next month.

 

Yes, this is a similar concept to jsilv'’s countdown. All I can say is it’'s a coincidence, we both did this around the same time...…and hopefully that’s good news for anyone who likes to read this sort of thing! :lol: I'’ll do my best with commentary, can'’t promise anything as good as my past threads but it's coming together nicely so far!

 

If you're not sure what songs could appear and don't want to be surprised, these lists will help you! 2000-09 USA #1s 2000-09 UK #1s

 

I've divided this into 30 posts, so *hopefully* you'll get one a day 'til the end of the month! Hope you're at least half as excited as I am!

Edited June 1, 201411 yr by Riser

So excited for this, I *loveeeeee* things like this! :)

Well Josh, it's just you and me! (lol not really, I see the others lurking)

 

250. Room 5 featuring Oliver Cheatham “Make Luv”

UK #1

249. Nizlopi “JCB”

UK #1

248. Madison Avenue “Don't Call Me Baby”

UK #1 (USA #88)

247. Flo Rida featuring T-Pain “Low”

USA #1 (UK #2)

246. Will Young “Light My Fire”

UK #1

245. Leona Lewis “A Moment Like This”

UK #1

244. Clay Aiken “This Is The Night”

USA #1

243. Modjo “Lady (Hear Me Tonight)”

UK #1 (USA #81)

242. Akon “Lonely”

UK #1 (USA #4)

241. Twista featuring Kanye West & Jamie Foxx “Slow Jamz”

USA #1 (UK #3)

 

As stated earlier, we technically don’t begin at the bottom of the list, as there are 125 songs ahead of these. So this group of ten is far from the worst #1s; most of them just passed me by at the time (even ‘Low’, somehow!) except for ‘Lonely’ and ‘Slow Jamz’, both of which sample songs that were first released in 1964. As for the rest, I’ve heard them a few times and they made enough of an impression to be included. It’s quite a surprise to see that Madison Avenue and Modjo both charted on Billboard! I’ll have to figure out if they got there from airplay, sales, or a little of each. Also kicking things off are a Pop Idol winner, an X Factor winner, and an American Idol runner-up who lost the final vote but beat champion Ruben Studdard to #1. Clay Aiken is currently running for U.S. Congress and the other candidate in his party shockingly died six days after losing the primary election last month. As for ‘A Moment Like This’, I’m of course more familiar with Kelly’s version, so expect that to feature much higher.

 

Nizlopi :wub: Aw, such a cute song.

 

Big fan of Low, Lonely and A Moment Like This too :cheer:

I love a lot of 2000's chart music so excited for this!

 

Make Luv & Lady (Hear Me Tonight) :wub: :wub:

Yay, pleased to have Jade in the audience :D

 

240. Joe featuring Mystikal “Stutter”

USA #1 (UK #7)

239. Sisqo “Incomplete”

USA #1 (UK #13)

238. Take That “Patience”

UK #1

237. So Solid Crew “21 Seconds”

UK #1

236. Kelly Osbourne & Ozzy Osbourne “Changes”

UK #1

235. Juvenile featuring Soulja Slim “Slow Motion”

USA #1

234. Ludacris featuring Shawnna “Stand Up!”

USA #1 (UK #14)

233. Alexandra Burke featuring Flo Rida “Bad Boys”

UK #1

232. Atomic Kitten “Eternal Flame”

UK #1

231. P!nk “So What”

#1 in USA and UK

 

A recurring statement in this section would be, “it’s good, but not their best effort at all.” ‘Patience’ doesn’t come close to the sheer beauty of Take That’s unlucky #2 hit ‘Rule The World’. ‘Stand Up’ has nothing on previous Ludacris/Shawnna collab ‘What’s Your Fantasy?’. ‘Bad Boys’ would be overshadowed for me by pretty much all of Alexandra’s subsequent singles. Likewise, ‘So What’ led P!nk’s Funhouse era which had a handful of her best EVER songs, this not being one of them! And Atomic Kitten simply relied too much on recording covers, though I do like them. We also have an appearance from the one and only Sisqo! You probably remember his ‘Thong Song’, which was *only* a #3 hit on both sides of the pond. That was such an obvious hit that his label made it an airplay-only single in the States to help sell the album, and then making it a B-side to ‘Incomplete’ which sent that to #1 instead. Yay chart manipulation!

 

 

Woop woop!

 

From that batch the one I absolutely love is Patience, WHAT a comeback, probably my favourite song by them ever, actually. :heart:

Edited June 2, 201411 yr by Jade

Modjo and Pink are my favourites from those sections respectably. I do wish other Pink tracks were no.1's officially in the UK than So What but I still like it to this day :D

230. Robbie Williams “Rock DJ”

UK #1

229. Shapeshifters “Lola's Theme”

UK #1

228. Kylie Minogue “Spinning Around”

UK #1

227. Britney Spears “Womanizer”

USA #1 (UK #3)

226. Arctic Monkeys “When The Sun Goes Down”

UK #1

225. Westlife “World Of Our Own”

UK #1

224. Beyoncé & Shakira “Beautiful Liar”

UK #1 (USA #3)

223. Usher “U Remind Me”

USA #1 (UK #3)

222. 50 Cent featuring Nate Dogg “21 Questions”

USA #1 (UK #6)

221. Orson “No Tomorrow”

UK #1

 

Some big pop stars make their first appearance on the list: Robbie, Kylie, Britney, Beyoncé, Shakira, and Usher. All of them have more entries to come except for Robbie. This is also the only time you’ll see Westlife, despite them having eleven number-one singles. I’m not familiar with most of them, but ‘World Of Our Own’ gets bonus points for being one of their originals. I am literally shocked to read that Orson is an American band. They literally did nothing there—and of course ‘No Tomorrow’ has the lowest weekly #1 sales ever in the UK—but they impressively climbed to the top of the UK charts and knocked Chico off by doing so. Also note that ’21 Questions’ is already the second song to have the number 21 in the title, after ’21 Seconds’ by So Solid Crew. Only one spot away from being #221 :kink: That's too bad!

 

 

 

Yay, that's probably my favourite Arctic Monkeys song :music:

 

Also, Shakira and Beyoncé duet is heaven

Rock DJ and Lola's Theme :wub: :wub:

 

The latter in particular is a HUGE favourite of mine, shame they only went top 10(?) once more with Back to Basics. :(

220. Atomic Kitten “The Tide Is High (Get The Feeling)”

UK #1

219. Tomcraft “Loneliness”

UK #1

218. The Black Eyed Peas “Meet Me Halfway”

UK #1 (USA #7)

217. Razorlight “America”

UK #1

216. Emma Bunton “What Took You So Long?”

UK #1

215. Jennifer Lopez featuring Ja Rule “I’m Real”

USA #1 (UK #4)

214. Leona Lewis “Run”

UK #1 (USA #81)

213. Destiny's Child “Independent Women Part 1”

#1 in USA and UK

212. Nelly featuring P. Diddy & Murphy Lee “Shake Ya Tailfeather”

USA #1 (UK #10)

211. Ciara featuring Petey Pablo “Goodies”

#1 in USA and UK

 

‘Meet Me Halfway’ sounded great at the time but I think it has aged terribly. Emma Bunton is the only Spice Girl to appear in the countdown. Leona’s cover of ‘Run’ is fantastic, and I wish I had known about it when it was first released, or when she first sang it in the Live Lounge. This was just before I started following the charts and I would have loved hearing this at #1! As great as it is, I’ll always be partial to Snow Patrol’s version. ‘Independent Women Part 1’ had an 11-week run at #1 on Billboard, which just seems crazy to me because it seems so forgotten now unlike some other Destiny’s Child hits, especially the four that are going to appear later on! ‘Shake Ya Tailfeather’ is a nice reminder of when Nelly was at his best, featuring the iconic line “I’m starvin’ like Marvin girrrrlll!” His absolute biggest hits will be coming later as well.

 

Loneliness, Run & What Took You So Long oh yessss :wub:

210. Hear'Say “Pure And Simple”

UK #1

209. Limp Bizkit “Rollin’ (Air Raid Vehicle)”

UK #1 (USA #65)

208. Flo Rida featuring Ke$ha “Right Round”

#1 in USA and UK

207. DJ Casper “Cha Cha Slide”

UK #1 (USA #83)

206. Usher “Confessions Part II”

USA #1 (UK #5)

205. Gorillaz featuring Shaun Ryder “Dare”

UK #1 (USA #87)

204. Rage Against The Machine “Killing In The Name”

UK #1

203. Sugababes “Push The Button”

UK #1

202. Mary J. Blige “Family Affair”

USA #1 (UK #8)

201. Gabrielle “Rise”

UK #1

 

Two songs here that I never would've guessed to have peaked anywhere near #1: ‘Rollin’ and ‘Cha Cha Slide’. The latter will always be fondly associated with school functions and the occasional wedding, but I didn't think of it as a hit single or in any chart context. Limp Bizkit’s song, on the other hand, was probably the loudest and heaviest #1 of the decade until ‘Killing In The Name’ swooped in at the very end of 2009. That was the first Christmas chart race I paid attention to and, needless to say, every year since then has been sadly less exciting :lol:. ‘Push The Button’ and ‘Rise’ are both very recent discoveries of mine; otherwise they’d be much higher as they are both wonderful. I already regret placing them this low! Rounding out that section are Gorillaz and Mary J. Blige, both of whom were quite deserving of a #1 in their respective homeland.

 

 

200. Afroman “Because I Got High”

UK #1 (USA #13)

199. Ja Rule featuring Ashanti “Always On Time”

USA #1 (UK #6)

198. Dizzee Rascal vs. Armand Van Helden “Bonkers”

UK #1

197. Tinchy Stryder featuring Amelle “Never Leave You”

UK #1

196. Pixie Lott “Mama Do”

UK #1

195. Beyoncé featuring Sean Paul “Baby Boy”

USA #1 (UK #2)

194. Timbaland featuring Nelly Furtado and Justin Timberlake “Give It To Me”

#1 in USA and UK

193. T.I. “Whatever You Like”

USA #1 (UK #47)

192. Madonna “Sorry”

UK #1 (USA #58)

191. Crazy Frog “Axel F”

UK #1 (USA #50)

 

Finally, a section with some fairly recent songs, including three in a row from 2009. Five years later, ‘Never Leave You’ and ‘Mama Do’ sound hopelessly stuck in that year. Also featured are two novelty songs courtesy of Afroman and Crazy Frog. If you’re interested in chart trivia: ‘Whatever You Like’ is the rare case of a Billboard #1 that misses the UK top 10. That was in 2008 and it’s only happened once more, in 2010 with ‘Imma Be’ by the Black Eyed Peas. Both of those, in fact, missed the UK top 40 entirely! Finally, Madonna makes her first of four appearances on the countdown.

 

 

Whatever You Like is okay, I always preferred Live Your Life though and it seems like the UK did too (it was a #2). I thought it would've gone top 40 though considering it was massive in the US.

 

Some great inclusions so far, my five favourites would be Bonkers, Right Round, Dare, Loneliness and Lola's Theme.

Whatever You Like is okay, I always preferred Live Your Life though and it seems like the UK did too (it was a #2). I thought it would've gone top 40 though considering it was massive in the US.

 

Some great inclusions so far, my five favourites would be Bonkers, Right Round, Dare, Loneliness and Lola's Theme.

Thanks Thermo! I prefer Live Your Life too, it's still to come. It seemed like T.I.'s UK success was more due to the Rihanna feature and likewise with Justin Timberlake on Dead And Gone. I remember Whatever You Like was given another push after that but still did poorly. And nowadays he can't get any success on his own!

 

190. Kanye West “Stronger”

#1 in USA and UK

189. Mario “Let Me Love You”

USA #1 (UK #2)

188. The Black Eyed Peas “I Gotta Feeling”

#1 in USA and UK

187. Basshunter “Now You’re Gone”

UK #1

186. Fergie featuring Ludacris “Glamorous”

USA #1 (UK #6)

185. Nelly featuring Tim McGraw “Over And Over”

UK #1 (USA #3)

184. Ja Rule featuring Ashanti “Wonderful”

UK #1 (USA #5)

183. Ne-Yo “So Sick”

#1 in USA and UK

182. Peter Kay’s Animated All-Star Band “The Official BBC Children In Need Medley”

UK #1

181. Shakira featuring Wyclef Jean “Hips Don’t Lie”

#1 in USA and UK

 

Well, this must be the R&B section, with the breakthrough singles from Mario and Ne-Yo and another track from Nelly, this time singing with the very urban Tim McGraw. Fergie shows up twice, with her own ‘Glamorous’ and with the Black Eyed Peas on their mega-smash ‘I Gotta Feeling’. This is the first section to have 4 songs that were #1s on both charts, and in fact eight of these ten were top-ten in both countries! Most of these are songs by American artists so that’s likely the reason. Believe it or not, ‘Let Me Love You’ was Billboard’s #8 song of the DECADE based on its cumulative chart points. :mellow: That’s the only weird one unless you count ‘I Gotta Feeling’ managing #5 with only half of its year-long chart run (the other half was in this decade). ‘Children In Need Medley’ was a properly amazing mashup of seven songs from five different decades; when you think of it that way it’s even more impressive how great they sound together! As an aside related to the video, I had no idea that Thomas the Tank Engine was originally voiced by Ringo Starr!

 

180. 3 of a Kind “Babycakes”

UK #1

179. Atomic Kitten “Whole Again”

UK #1

178. ‘N Sync “It’s Gonna Be Me”

USA #1 (UK #9)

177. Christina Aguilera, Lil Kim, Mya & Pink “Lady Marmalade”

#1 in USA and UK

176. Elvis Presley vs. JXL “A Little Less Conversation”

UK #1 (USA #50)

175. Outkast “Ms. Jackson”

USA #1 (UK #2)

174. David Guetta featuring Akon “Sexy Chick”

UK #1 (USA #5)

173. Oasis “Lyla”

UK #1

172. Rihanna “Take A Bow”

#1 in USA and UK

171. Eminem “Lose Yourself”

#1 in USA and UK

 

Oasis make their one and only appearance with “Lyla”. I quite like them but the tracks I like best either missed #1 or were from the 90s. “It’s Gonna Be Me” has to be one of NSync’s less-remembered hits but it was released when they were at their absolute peak. They had other songs more worthy of #1, needless to say. “Babycakes” get its share of hate and is generally considered one of the decade’s worst #1s but it sounds harmless to me. Its US equivalent would probably be D4L’s “Laffy Taffy”—#1 on Billboard, #29 in the UK. That song did NOT make the list. Elsewhere we have some serious classics—“A Little Less Conversation”, “Ms. Jackson”, and “Lose Yourself”. Plus Atomic Kitten and that “Lady Marmalade” collab make it five songs from 2001-02 in this section.

 

170. Jason Derulo “Whatcha Say”

USA #1 (UK #3)

169. Beyonce “If I Were A Boy”

UK #1 (USA #3)

168. Enrique Iglesias “Hero”

UK #1 (USA #3)

167. Liberty X “Just A Little”

UK #1

166. JLS “Beat Again”

UK #1

165. Taio Cruz “Break Your Heart”

#1 in USA and UK

164. Nelly featuring Kelly Rowland “Dilemma”

#1 in USA and UK

163. Craig David “Fill Me In”

UK #1 (USA #15)

162. Calvin Harris “I’m Not Alone”

UK #1

161. B2K featuring P. Diddy “Bump Bump Bump”

USA #1 (UK #11)

 

Another R&B-heavy section here, with “Just A Little”, “Fill Me In”, and “Bump Bump Bump” representing how pop sounded at the start of the decade and “Whatcha Say”, “Beat Again”, and “Break Your Heart” reminding us what was popular in 2009. The latter topped charts in two decades, the UK in ’09 and on Billboard in 2010 after Ludacris was pointlessly added to the song. If you had to guess which of those three artists would still be around five years later, would you have guessed Jason Derulo? Also in the mix are three of the defining ballads of the time—“If I Were A Boy”, “Hero”, and “Dilemma”. That leaves Calvin Harris, who has changed quite a lot since his first of many #1s. I remember hearing an interview from him around that time, and he talked about being turned down by so many artists when he’d ask them to feature on his album. How the tables have turned!