Least remembered AS a Christmas number one maybe, but I remember it very fondly from the time. I'm also wondering if Paul McCartney's Frog Chorus or The Toy Dolls' Nellie the Elephant will be in the top 100 as they were also behind Band Aid and Wham!

 

As a person who didn't follow the chart in 1986 (I was 3) it just seems like a boring year in between Shaky and the Pogues!

JCB song, Reet Petite and Too Much all great tunes in their own different ways! Although watching the Spice Girls video there I don't think as a child I realised how obviously they were miming :unsure:

The song which is popularly claimed to be the song that saved Williams’ career, it certainly was his first major radio hit and revived the underperforming album “Life Thru A Lens”. It took 12 years to sell a million copies but a quarter of those came in three weeks in December 1997 as the song started a 12 week residence in the top 10 during which it never even made the top 3.

typo or did it only pass a million in 2009? :P

I think it did indeed take until 2009 to reach its millionth sale iirc!

reet petite :heart: ~ now there's a archetypal chrimbo office party anthem :party2:

typo or did it only pass a million in 2009? :P

Yes I think it did take 12 years to make a million.

A massive stack of CD singles of 'Angels' could be bought at HMV Oxford Street in London as late as 2009, at the same price as all the current hits. Not a re-issue or anything, still with the 1997 copyright date and what appeared to be unsold stock.

 

Happened with a long-gone music shop in Battersea around the same time, hundreds of 'Candle In The Wind 97' CDs for 10p each(!) and last year in Prague I found a shop still trying to shift copies of Helping Haiti's Everybody Hurts...

^^You usually find this with The Pogues each December - i have FONY in vinyl, cd and download now.

91. NELLY THE ELEPHANT- Toy Dolls (1984) 253,000

 

http://i63.tinypic.com/1f9v83.jpg

 

Punk leftovers The Toy Dolls originally released this at Christmas 1982 when it hit the top of the indie charts, fast forward two years they released it again and it shot into the top 5 in time for the big day. The original dates back to 1956 and was produced by George Martin in his pre Beatles days.

 

90. BREATHE- The Prodigy (1996) 254,000

 

http://i68.tinypic.com/148gdvb.jpg

 

Released at a time when the Prodigy suddenly could no wrong and before the release of “The Fat Of The Land” The track remained in the top 10 for 8 weeks partly due to the post Christmas lull, it is their biggest seller outselling “Firestarter” by over 100,000 as the 90s ended, not bad for a band who stated that they never believed they would release anything again that would sell as much as their first No 1.

 

89. IT’S OH SO QUIET- Bjork (1995) 254,000

 

http://i63.tinypic.com/9sez54.jpg

 

Starting out life sung in German by Horst Winter in 1948 and called "Und jetzt ist es still" it was translated into English and recorded by Betty Hutton in 1951 it was covered by Bjork in 1995 and became her only UK top 5 hit and one of only three top 10 singles in her long career. It benefitted heavily from an eye catching and memorable promo based on the film “Les Parapluies de Cherbourg”.

 

Breathe :wub: one of the all time greats, I doubt we'll see a better song on this countdown :P

 

I weirdly love It's Oh So Quiet despite not really getting into anything else by Bjork.

JCB song, Reet Petite and Too Much all great tunes in their own different ways! Although watching the Spice Girls video there I don't think as a child I realised how obviously they were miming :unsure:

 

How do you not mime in a pop video ?

It is of course possible to do a non-mimed music video - R.E.M. used to make a point of it - but miming is hardly remarkable.

How do you not mime in a pop video ?

 

That wasn't the official video though, it was a performance no?

Hooray for the Toy Dolls! One of the best records to come out of Sunderland - Futureheads and Kenickie probably making up all the rest!

88. SAVIOUR’S DAY- Cliff Richard (1990) 254,000

 

http://i63.tinypic.com/2n9x16t.jpg

 

Ah Cliff in the late 80s/ 90s meant only one thing at Christmas time, he’d be in the top 10, and sometimes, as in 1990, he’d even hit the top slot. First played to Richard in late 89 he waited a year to record it with the promo shot in Dorset on a sunny day in September 1990 (which is why the weather is rather fine in the video) the location for it was the same as used for the Tears For Fears video “Shout” 6 years before.

 

87. HEAL THE WORLD- Michael Jackson (1992) 255,000

 

http://i65.tinypic.com/34rt16c.png

 

The sixth of nine singles from “Dangerous” it reversed the trend of diminishing returns for singles from the album by becoming a major hit over Christmas 92 when it was only denied the top slot by Whitney Houston. Partly this was due to the charitable angle (he had just set up the “Heal The World Foundation”) and in part due to the fact that Christmas is all about the kids innit so the kid filled video seemed on point, and of course those allegations were still months ahead!

 

86. UPTOWN GIRL- Billy Joel (1983) 255,000

 

http://i66.tinypic.com/2qlbdjr.jpg

 

“Uptown Girl” started out in life as being about his then girlfriend Elle MacPherson but as the relationship fizzled out Joel commenced a new relationship with the model Christine Brinkley and finished the song off. It was on its way down the chart in December 1983 but was still selling by the bucket.

 

Yay Cliff has the first Xmas hit of our countdown!