119 (180) T’PAU (1,598,000) 1987 1.8318

 

http://i.ytimg.com/vi/PQn_xSxn-J0/hqdefault.jpg

 

“China In Your Hand” was the first song that I recall being obsessed with at the time of release, it was also their biggest seller and the 600th UK No 1 single. That aside the group rose to fame first in the US when “Heart And Soul” featured on a Pepe Jeans advert propelling the single to No 4, a position it repeated when re-issued in the UK later in 1987. Then of course came THAT hit which enabled parent album “Bridge Of Spies” to follow all the way to No 1 in November 87, sadly they were never to reach the dizzy heights again, their top 10 career ending with the next single “Valentine” in 1988.

 

Minor point, "China In Your Hand" was the 600th UK Number One, not the 700th.

 

Really enjoying this thread though.

This thread is really interesting, after my initial confusion it's now all making sense and it's fascinating to see acts from different eras being compared against eachother... how long did this take to compile? Must have been ages, surely? :o

 

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

 

now where are their rivals?

 

 

Very much higher.

 

 

I reckon their dominance in 1996 will put them quite high up. They prob sold +2.5 million albums and +1.5 million singles in that year.

 

This thread is really interesting, after my initial confusion it's now all making sense and it's fascinating to see acts from different eras being compared against each other... how long did this take to compile? Must have been ages, surely? :o

About 6 months from beginning to end :(

Crikey! That's quite the colossal effort! :o

 

One of the things I find fascinating is that acts are appearing with different years to those I would have expected... Justin Timberlake is the obvious example but there have been others too such as Erasure, Scissor Sisters, The Killers, Sia, Eternal & Coldplay that I'd have assumed would have been bigger in different eras - it certainly felt that way at the time.

Edited May 25, 201510 yr by dandystar

Yeah, I thought Erasure might have done better in 1992.

Baffling that Jess Glynn can be bigger than Blur!

118 (115) PINK (1,930,000) 2002 1.8343

 

http://www.premiertickets.me.uk/gallery/161/pink2.gif

 

Benefitting from all the singles from the album “Missundaztood” being released in the year 2002 is officially Pink’s best period, it also contained her first (and for 6 years her only) solo chart topping single “Just Like A Pill”. You have to feel slightly sorry for her in 2002 as she chased Enrique Iglesias all the way to be the best selling album of the year finally overtaking him in the penultimate week of the year only to be overtaken by Robbie Williams days later.

 

ALSO BIG IN: 2013

 

117 (198) HAIRCUT 100 (1,527,000) 1982 1.8530

 

 

For a brief time they were the teen band of choice in the UK (before the boy band era really started) with popular pin up Nick Hayward a Smash Hits Regular. The band only released four singles (all top 10) before they parted ways with Hayward who went solo with minor success and also proved to be their downfall but they’ll always have 1982 to remember.

 

116 (192) THE DARKNESS (1,544,000) 2003 1.8539

 

http://www.rankopedia.com/CandidatePix/130772.gif

 

Remember back in 2003 when the UK charts gave us the most unlikely of pop stars, a four piece glam rock band from Lowestoft. Their quirky brand of rock seemed to capture our imagination for 6 months during which time they won 3 BRIT awards, scored three top 10 hits (and almost a Christmas No 1) plus a million selling debut album. Then it was the usual story of drugs, rehab disbanding, reunion etc.

 

Great list.

 

Kylie - is she going to be bigger in 88, 01 or 02? In the noughties she had multiple albums charting and selling well, esp 2002. CGYOOMH 1million sales in 2001 was massive for the time.

 

But 88 was gigantic in sales - probably over 3 million albums and singles combined.

 

Madonna - who knows - massive in 85, 86, 87, 89, 90, 98, 99, 2000, 2005. Guessing '86. 3 charting albums and loads of singles.

I thought Pink might have been higher. Then again, she sells more consistently than most.

Great list.

 

Kylie - is she going to be bigger in 88, 01 or 02? In the noughties she had multiple albums charting and selling well, esp 2002. CGYOOMH 1million sales in 2001 was massive for the time.

 

But 88 was gigantic in sales - probably over 3 million albums and singles combined.

 

Yep, I think it will be 1988. Fever's (and its singles) sales will be spread over 2001 and 2002, whilst 1988 has ISBSL (platinum), Loco-Motion (gold), GTBC and JNSPP (silver), over 1 million of the album and a few weeks of Especially For You :P

115 (199) STARSOUND (1,508,000) 1981 1.8642

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/33/Starsound_-_Stars_On_45.jpg

 

Easy to forget now but back in 1981 there was a medley craze in the UK charts which even saw the Beatles join in! Starsound were the leading exponents of the genre mixing together their own session singer’s versions of Beatles tracks to great success and even a US No 1, not quite so lucky here as the “group” scored two Number two singles but did hit the top of the album charts before dying out quickly when 1982 came round.

 

114 (165) ROBERT MILES (1,657,000) 1996 1.8709

 

http://www.eurokdj.com/images/videos/captures/clip_miles_robert-children2.jpg

 

Still, apparently, the only Italian to ever win a BRIT- who knew. Anyway he is of course most famous for “Children” though his clear “classic” in my eyes is “One And One” but beyond the confines of 1996 he was pretty much unheard of here making it an extra shame that “Children” couldn’t keep its midweek No 1 slot to give him at least a mention in the nation’s favourite acts list.

 

113 (57) LEONA LEWIS (2,511,000) 2007 1.8763

 

http://realmusicpeople.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/blog3-leona-lewis.jpg

 

She’s only the 5th highest placed talent show act on our list, but in terms of X Factor winners she is way out in front. The Phenomenal “Bleeding Love” topped the charts for 7 weeks sold 787k to become the year’s best selling single but it was the fantastic start of her debut album “Spirit” which really enables her position here, it spent the last 7 weeks of the year at No 1 selling over 1.5 million including a record 375k in its first week, at the time a record for a debut album.

 

ALSO BIG IN: 2008, 2009

 

112 (132) PUFF DADDY (1,840,000) 1997 1.8766

 

http://www.xxlmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/puffdaddy2.jpg

 

Before P Diddy and Diddy there was Puff Daddy, the founder of Bad Boys Records and their major signing Notorious B.I.G whose work was produced by Puff Daddy. After Notorious was killed in March 1997 Combs emerged to make his first album under the Daddy moniker and gave us his tribute to his late friend “I’ll Be Missing You” which spent 6 weeks at No 1 over the summer of that year, his singles in 1997 amounted to 1.4 million which only placed him 4th in the singles acts of the year such was the competition.

 

111 (181) BARBRA STREISAND (1,592,000) 1980 1.8895

 

 

Streisand’s most successful period singles wise was between 1977-1980, and her biggest year in that period was 1980 and for that she can thanks the brother Gibb. They were suffering something of a backlash from the demise of Disco (a movement they were synonymous with thanks to their soundtrack to “Saturday Night Fever”) and so decided to write for other acts instead. They gave her the “Guilty” album and the single “Woman In Love” which both became Streisand’s first No 1’s on our charts.

 

110 (177) SOUL II SOUL (1,613,000) 1989 1.8965

 

http://i.ytimg.com/vi/1iQl46-zIcM/hqdefault.jpg

 

THE sound of Summer 89 without a doubt “Back To Life” spent 4 weeks at the summit and made Jazzie B the “must have” producer of the moment. It also introduced us to Nellee Hooper who went on to produce many an album for some big names in the 90s, not to mention the debut album “Club Classics” for Soul II Soul which similarly went all the way during those hot summer months.