Basically, remove the non-number 1s and fill in with biggest sellers.

Anyone fancy giving 1995 a crack? I had a try but there's so many big and long-running hits, particularly near the end of the year, it's difficult to guess which ones would still have been #1 on streaming - would Set You Free have got there? Common People? Guaglione? Missing? Wonderwall? And would Robson & Jerome have had anywhere near the success they did?

 

I think streaming would have boosted the Outhere Brothers even more, I can see them being huge Spotify faves - and, as controversial as it may sound, I don't think 'Some Might Say' would have made it. Instead Take That's 'Back For Good' would have hung on another week, followed by 'Dreamer' for a bit and maybe even a quick appearance of Guaglione, I can imagine it getting tons of streams at ironic student house parties of the time.

 

The trickiest is the Set You Free/Think Twice battle. In theory you'd assume Celine would do excellently on sales but N-Trance would kill it on streams, but I think Celine could still have managed a couple weeks around Valentines Day that year - Set You Free was big but Think Twice was a huge radio hit, one of the few that six-year-old me remembers from the time.

lots of maybes in that year, the charity tracks would def not do well, and despite huge physical sales, i dont see Robson & Jerome getting much streaming at all, they appealed very much to older women who rarely bought albums. Knock a few weeks off and go for the biggest pop hit at 2 or 3 I'd guess! Michael Jackson and Coolio would have gained weeks though.

1984:

 

Pipes of Peace - Paul McCartney (1 week)

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun - Cyndi Lauper (2 weeks)

Relax - Frankie Goes To Hollywood (9 weeks)

99 Luftbaloons - Nena (1 week)

Hello - Lionel Richie (1 week)

Against All Odds - Phil Collins (3 weeks)

Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go - Wham (2 weeks)

Two Tribes - Frankie Goes To Hollywood (12 weeks)

Agadoo - Black Lace (1 week)

Careless Whisper - George Michael (5 weeks)

I Just Called To Say I Love You - Stevie Wonder (5 weeks)

Wham - Freedom (2 weeks)

Chaka Khan - Feel For You (2 weeks)

The Power Of Love - Frankie Goes To Hollywood (2 weeks)

Do They Know It's Christmas - Band Aid (5 weeks)

 

This was the year of Frankie Goes To Hollywood and Wham/George Michael. "The Power Of Love" would have added an extra week to it's tally and my favourite of their three #1s. I reckon "Agadoo" would have snuck a week in as the song was popular at the time. Phil Collins would have made the summit too with the amazing "Against All Odds". Don't forget, that Cyndi Lauper song was HUGE.

Edited August 2, 20168 yr by MyKindOfLove

interesting choices, yes Frankie & Wham! ruled, though Duran were big too, I think they may have grabbed a few on top still. I also wonder if Radio Ga Ga might have done it for one week - it topped my chart so I'm biased of course :lol:

love the KLF end-of-year run, pretty sure that's accurate, Bo Rap was more charity based tribute to Freddie than actual song popularity - I bought Bo Rap in 1975 and played it to death, so that's when it probably would have had a longer run (sadly for Abba), while in 1991 it was all KLF for me (not that I was young then, but I still had teenage tastes. Some say I still do :lol: )

 

Was Those are the Days not played a lot as a new Queen track on radio? It was always one of my favs, especially the sad video.

A bit off topic but do people think the addition of streams in 2015 have yes made the chart static and a little boring but a bit more like the past it has endured the most popular tracks and most remembered tracks get to the top - do people agree?

 

I'm watching TOTPs 1982 on BBC 4 a lot now - could someone who remembers that era do one for that year?

Not sure if Days Of Our Lives was that big a radio hit, I suspect the play would have been split 50/50 with Bo Rap with neither track dominating overall. Certainly don't recall it on Radio 1 that much at any rate, though I wouldn't swear to it!

 

Streaming has made the chart torturously slow, and I'm not convinced the most popular hits are the most-streamed - more the biggest hits available to stream amongst a young core streaming audience. Drake isn't as universally popular as Justin Timberlake (and hasn't outsold JT on downloads) while some tracks do much better as downloads and on radio, such as Elle King and Christine, cos they have an older audience bias.

 

That said, fairly obviously if my generation had had streaming, then Bowie, T.Rex, Slade would have wiped out the likes of Shirley Bassey, Perry Como, Elvis, and all of the golden oldie reissues from the charts, not to mention the many novelty records. On the downside Donny Osmond would probably have been at number one for months as his fans were practically rabid with obsessive enthusiasm. The Justin Bieber of his day... :lol:

I think Kylie And Jason would have been even bigger on streaming and hogged the number one spot like Beiber! B-)

 

1989

Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan Especially For You 6

Marc Almond with Gene Pitney Somethings Gotten Hold Of My Heart 1

Simple Minds Belfast Child 1

Jason Donovan Too Many Broken Hearts 6

Madonna Like A Prayer 5

The Bangles Eternal Flame 1

Kylie Minogue Hand On Your Heart 5

Jason Donovan Sealed With A kiss 4

Soul II Soul ft Caron Wheeler Back To Life 1

Sonia You'll Never Stop Me Loving You 3

Jive Bunny Swing The Mood 1

Black Box Ride On Time 10

New Kids On The Block You Got It (The Right Stuff) 4

Jason Donovan When You Come Back To Me 4

 

I think you're prob right about SAW in general, they were mightily huge amongst that core pop teen fanbase. The Bangles and Soul II Soul may have grabbed a couple of weeks, but I'm not sure Marc Almond would have had even one week as much of the sales were from an older fanbase.

Could see New Kids on the Block dominating a few top tens in the first half of 1990, maybe even a Bieber style 1-2-3 at one point - by the time they reached the UK they'd been hitmakers in the States for a year, so all their hits to date were rush-released here over the next few months to catch up with the US schedule.

your probably right, they charted seven singles in 1990 and over a million sales, which was good for the early 90's. They didn't have the longevity that other teen idols that came after them enjoyed, which is a pity as some of their songs were quite good. Maybe the change of name and music style in later years was their downfall.

 

06/01/1990 New Kids On The Block Hangin' Tough {1990} 1 9-{1}-1-2-7-14-26-39-49->9

17/03/1990 New Kids On The Block I'll Be Loving You (Forever) 5 11-{5}-7-12-22-23-31-47->8

12/05/1990 New Kids On The Block Cover Girl 4 8-{4}-4-8-14-29-42-65->8

16/06/1990 New Kids On The Block Step By Step 2 {2}-5-12-23-30-45-72->7

04/08/1990 New Kids On The Block Tonight 3 17-8-6-4-{3}-5-8-20-30-50->10

13/10/1990 New Kids On The Block Let's Try Again/Didn't I (Blow Your Mind) 8 16-{8}-16-24-47->5

08/12/1990 New Kids On The Block This One's For The Children 9 13-{9}-13-20-15-38-62->7

Edited August 16, 20168 yr by fiesta