135. (91) THE VERVE (2,190,000) 1997 1.6286

 

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The Verve’s history is pretty much one of a group that can’t work together with an internal argument rate probably matched only by Oasis! After splitting in 1995 after one of their best singles “History”, they reformed in 1997 to catch the tail end of Britpop with the last truly successful album of the movement “Urban Hymns” which opened with 250k sales in week one and 1.3 million for the year becoming the 9th biggest album of the decade. Three top 10 singles plus the chart topping “Drugs Don’t Work” helped make 1997 a magical year from them.

 

134 (98) MIKA (2,098,000) 2007 1.6413

 

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Winner of the BBC “Sound Of” for 2007 Mika soon showed he was worthy of the accolade with the No 1 single “Grace Kelly” and four other top 10 hits throughout the year in addition to the million selling album “Life In Cartoon Motion”. He was famously turned down by Simon Cowell before he hit the big time and more recently became a judge on X Factor.....in Italy.

 

Grace Kelly was the only thing MIKA ever did that I liked.

133 (118) JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE (1,915,000) 2003 1.6719

 

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BEST SELLING YEAR: 2013

 

The 700,000+ selling “Mirrors” became his biggest selling single which when added to three albums released in 2013 make that his best selling year but there is little doubt that Timberlake was one of the biggest stars of 2003. A blistering BRIT performance saw his debut album “Justified” soar to No 1 and house four top 15 singles by year end as it amassed 1.4 million sales making that difficult transition from boyband member to a genuine worldwide solo star.

 

132 (86) ALICIA KEYS (2,219,000) 2010 1.6757

 

 

A consistent, if unspectacular, career is probably an apt description for Keys’ UK chart record since her first hit “Fallin” back in 2001, but in 2010 she got a big boost thanks to providing the vocals on Jay Z’s “Empire State Of Mind” which was chance really as Mary J Blige was in the running for that gig initially. Keys recorded her own sequel to the song which became a top 10 hit in 2010 along with the fantastic “Try Sleeping With a broken heart”.

 

131 (48) AMY WINEHOUSE (2,693,000) 2007 BIGGEST ACT 1.6901

 

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2007 was undoubtedly the year we all went a little crazy for Winehouse, it was also pretty much the last year when she didn’t feature in the papers for all the wrong reasons. “Back To Black” was the biggest album of the year outstripping Leona Lewis by just 36,000 copies and moving almost half a million singles (no easy feat in the sales climate of 2007). It all came to a tragic end however in 2011 when Winehouse died without ever recording a follow up album.

 

Yay for Olly :yahoo: He's still, as far as I'm aware, X Factor's only former charge to have two million selling albums ('In Case You Didn't Know' and 'Right Place Right Time').

130 (153) ELVIS PRESLEY (1,710,000) 2002 1.6930

 

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Proving there will always be a market for his music, Elvis continues to sell long after his death, and in 2002 he got a major boost from a remix by JXL of his 1968 track “A Little Less Conversation” which was used in a Nike advert that summer to advertise their world cup sponsorship. It provided him with a 18th number one single breaking a 25 year tie with the Beatles for the act with the most UK No 1 singles, album “Elv1s- 30 #1 Hits” also became his 11th No 1 on that chart.

 

129 (52) DAVID GUETTA (2,654,000) 2012 1.6981

 

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Though he was outsold by Flo Rida singles wise in 2012 Guetta gets his revenge here thanks to his much better album sales with “Nothing But The Beat”. He was the provider of occasional hits in the Noughties but made it big after his album “One Love” started to produce major international hits, and he couldn’t be stopped scoring 9 top 10 hits between 09 and 2011. Then came 2012 in which he got his first million seller in “Titanium” in addition to four other top 10 smashes thanks in part to a couple of re-issues of the NBTB album.

 

ALSO BIG IN: 2011

 

128 (183) BOBBY BROWN (1,580,000) 1989 1.7195

 

http://images1.phoenixnewtimes.com/imager/u/original/6599830/bobby_brown_rsz.jpg

 

Former lead vocalist with New Edition, who scored a UK No 1 with “Candy Girl” in 1983, Brown was effectively fired from the band for misbehaviour, he got his revenge by going solo and in 1989 outsold everything he’d done with the group. Landing the theme to “Ghostbusters II” assisted no doubt but then so do 5 top 40 hits, he also became the year's dance sensation bridging the gap between Michael Jackson and MC Hammer.

 

2003 really felt like Justin Timberlake's biggest year. Obviously you have 2006/07 too, but that felt more down to Timbaland than 2003 if I remember rightly.

 

He was probably the biggest breakout star of that year (along with 50 Cent, Beyonce, The Black Eyed Peas & Sean Paul).

127 (93) GEORGE EZRA (2,067,000) 2014 1.7326

 

 

Another graduate from the BBC “Sound Of” list (he finished fifth in the 2014 poll) Ezra was one of the biggest new stars that last year produced. With singles “Budapest” and “Blame It On Me” spending a combined total of 30 weeks in the top 20 and the album “Wanted On Voyage” spent 26 weeks in the charts without leaving the top 10, a promising start.

 

126 (49) DUFFY (2,692,000) 2008 1.7547

 

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The first Welsh Female solo act to make the UK No 1 spot in 24 years the future for Ms Duffy looked very bright as 2008 closed with the third biggest single of the year “Mercy” and the best selling album in the form of the 1.6 million selling “Rockferry”. BRITS and Grammy’s followed, sadly accompanied by a Diet Coke ad and a flop second album which seems to have killed off her pop career, not to worry in 2008 she was at least queen of the charts for 12 months.

 

125 (182) NELLY (1,580,000) 2002 1.7629

 

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In 2002 when we weren’t buying singles by Pop Idol finalists (yes they’re both here) we were buying Nelly singles. The mighty “Dilemma” became his first chart topper thanks in part to a guest spot by Kelly Rowland who actually topped the charts before band mate Beyonce managed it, and had a large summer hit with “Hot In Herre”.

 

I don't care for anyone else's opinion, Duffy will always be amazing to me.

124 (200) HOWARD JONES (1,507,000) 1984 1.7782

 

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Nine consecutive top 20 singles between 1983 and 1986 evidence the chart consistency of Howard Jones in the mid 80s, and in 1984 he combined three top 10 singles with a No 1 album “Human’s Lib”. He was one of the acts to appear at Live Aid and one of the more notable names in the synthpop movement so deserves his place on this rundown.

 

123 (96) BLUR (2,130,000) 1995 1.7826

 

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In the year of the great Britpop battle it was all about chart positions and sales- who would win the momentous chart battle of 25.08.95- history of course records that Blur came out on top with “Country House” and certainly the 274k they sold in that week would never be replicated by the band. Follow up “The Universal” is perhaps better known these days as the British Gas advert music but it helped parent album “The Great Escape” to 1995 sales of almost 900,000 copies, now where are their rivals?

 

122 (41) JESS GLYNNE (2,780,000) 2014 1.7866

 

http://www.clickmusic.com/images/uploads/jess-glynn-official-no1.jpg

 

With no album sales at all to help her, Jess Glynne was certainly lucky in her collaborations during 2014 picking up three top 2 hits with Clean Bandit and Route 94 and laying the ground work for her debut album in 2015 with her solo single “Right Here” which was produced by Gorgon City. She easily managed to outpace all her collaboration partners and must be thinking it was a blessing in disguise being turned down for X Factor when she was just 15.

 

121 (124) SAVAGE GARDEN (1,880,000) 1998 1.8128

 

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Breaking in almost every major territory in the world in 96/97 the UK was slow to catch on not awarding them a top 10 hit until early 1998 when “Truly Madly Deeply” spent 11 weeks in the big 10 without getting higher than No 4. “To The Moon & Back” went one better and their debut album narrowly missed out on No 1 although it still sold over 700k in the year, success that they never quite managed again.

 

120 (89) BLUE (2,200,000) 2002 1.8224

 

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Rivalling Westlife in 2002 as the country’s biggest Boyband , they managed to rope in Elton John for their third No 1 single at the end of 02 as well as releasing their second album “One Love” which sold a million copies in just 8 weeks. Their debut album “All Rise” also rose (sorry) to the top in May that year (for its first time) in its 22nd week on the charts and also sold a further half a million, they reformed for Eurovision and for the show “The Big Reunion” though sales have been unimpressive to say the least.

 

ALSO BIG IN: 2001