Westlife's Top 20 biggest songs on the Official Charts

12 January 2019 | By Helen Ainsley

 

A look back at how the Irish group's timeless (and countless) hits stack up.

 

Westlife are one of the most successful groups of all time in the UK, holding fourteen Number 1 singles in the UK: a number only surpassed by The Beatles and Elvis Presley.

 

Known for stools (both for sitting on and getting up from dramatically), key changes, ballads and a few bops here and there, their first seven singles all debuted at Number 1 within 18 months of each other, leading a total of 25 Top 10 singles. Additionally, seven of their albums went straight to Number 1 on the Official Albums Chart.

 

Their new, long-awaited single Hello My Love is their first release following an eight-year hiatus, so to celebrate we're going to tell you things that no-one else knows, like the definitive list of Westlife's Top 20 biggest songs of all time. First, a few highlights:

 

When You're Looking Like That

A rare early uptempo number, When You're Looking Like That never actually charted in its own right; it had to settle for being a double A-side with Queen Of My Heart.

 

Despite this it remains one of their most popular tracks – it's their 6th most streamed song, clocking up 11.4 million plays – and appears in 20th place overall with 126,000 units via streaming and downloads only (as physical sales aren't counted – Queen of My Heart keeps those all to itself).

 

My Love

At 11 is My Love, in part an ode to the lads' home of Ireland. It's their fifth most-streamed single with 1.17 million across video and audio.

 

Make sure to check out the official music video for this one, featuring shots of Ireland's stunning beaches and the Cliffs of Moher – and some pretty liberal use of a green screen.

 

What About Now

One of Westlife's many super-successful covers, this is the band's most recent addition to the list – though this hasn't prevented it from being their eighth biggest song of all time.

 

The sales split is an interesting reflection of its year of release, 2009: 79% of its total sales are digital downloads vs. 8% physical and 13% audio and video streams.

 

Against All Odds

Westlife and Mariah? In the same studio? This really happened and the results were stellar. Westlife helped Mariah take her version of Phil Collins' 1984 Number 2 hit all the way to the top in 2000, notching up 441,000 combined sales. Westlife would repeat this formula five years later, teaming up with Diana Ross on a new version of her 1991 Number 2 hit When You Tell Me That You Love Me, which also peaked at Number 2.

 

Flying Without Wings

The band's third straight Number 1 in 1999, this was perhaps the first glimpse of the ballad masters the band would become. The rousing choir, Mark's impressive vocal acrobatics, those pristine white outfits and angelic smiles – millions of hearts across the country were lost and Westlife's place as kings of weepy slow songs was assured.

 

You Raise Me Up

Westlife perch on their high stools, crooning. The crowd listens, waiting, in silent anticipation. The song changes key. Westlife stand. The crowd goes wild.

 

Though it's been covered by countless artists, You Raise Me Up was first made popular by Josh Groban in 2003. In third place overall, Westlife's iconic version is their most-streamed single of all time with 19.7 million listens.

 

I Have A Dream/Seasons in the Sun

Another double-A side and two covers for the price of one, Westlife scored the Official Christmas Number 1 of 1999, and thus the first chart-topper of the 21st century. Westlife's version of I Have A Dream did what the original could not – ABBA's version had to settle for Christmas Number 2 exactly 20 years earlier, behind Pink Floyd. Blimey. It's their second biggest single and has shifted over 680,000 across physical, digital, and streaming equivalent sales.

 

Uptown Girl

At the top spot – having racked up over 920,000 total sales – Westlife's cover of the Billy Joel classic was their eighth Number 1. In the video for the track, which was Comic Relief's 2001 charity single, the boys sport some rather fetching American diner uniforms to serve high class patrons, portrayed by the likes of Robert Bathurst, Tim McInnerny, and of course Claudia Schiffer as the titular Uptown Girl.

 

Charity songs used to do pretty big business on physical format, as they tended to be available in most supermarkets, which is why to date the song's physical sales make up 81% of the total units, totalling 800,000 CDs and digital downloads.

 

Westlife's Official Top 20 biggest singles (physical sales + digital downloads + audio & video streams)

 

POS TITLE ARTIST HIGHEST POS YEAR

1 UPTOWN GIRL WESTLIFE 1 2001 920,000

2 I HAVE A DREAM/SEASONS IN THE SUN WESTLIFE 1 1999 680,000

3 YOU RAISE ME UP WESTLIFE 1 2005

4 FLYING WITHOUT WINGS WESTLIFE 1 1999

5 SWEAR IT AGAIN WESTLIFE 1 1999

6 AGAINST ALL ODDS MARIAH CAREY FT WESTLIFE 1 2000 441,000

7 WHAT MAKES A MAN WESTLIFE 2 2000

8 WHAT ABOUT NOW WESTLIFE 2 2009

9 QUEEN OF MY HEART WESTLIFE 1 2001

10 IF I LET YOU GO WESTLIFE 1 1999

11 MY LOVE WESTLIFE 1 2000

12 WORLD OF OUR OWN WESTLIFE 1 2002

13 FOOL AGAIN WESTLIFE 1 2000

14 UNBREAKABLE WESTLIFE 1 2002

15 HOME WESTLIFE 3 2007

16 MANDY WESTLIFE 1 2003

17 THE ROSE WESTLIFE 1 2006

18 BOP BOP BABY WESTLIFE 5 2002

19 WHEN YOU TELL ME THAT YOU LOVE ME WESTLIFE FT DIANA ROSS 2 2005

20 WHEN YOU'RE LOOKING LIKE THAT WESTLIFE N/A 2000 126,000

 

©2019 Official Charts Company. All rights reserved.

 

Westlife's Top 20 best-selling singles (paid-for sales)

POS TITLE ARTIST HIGHEST POS YEAR

1 UPTOWN GIRL WESTLIFE 1 2001 800,000

2 I HAVE A DREAM/SEASONS IN THE SUN WESTLIFE 1 1999

3 YOU RAISE ME UP WESTLIFE 1 2005

4 FLYING WITHOUT WINGS WESTLIFE 1 1999

5 WHAT MAKES A MAN WESTLIFE 2 2000

6 AGAINST ALL ODDS MARIAH CAREY FT WESTLIFE 1 2000

7 SWEAR IT AGAIN WESTLIFE 1 1999

8 QUEEN OF MY HEART WESTLIFE 1 2001

9 WHAT ABOUT NOW WESTLIFE 2 2009

10 IF I LET YOU GO WESTLIFE 1 1999

11 MY LOVE WESTLIFE 1 2000

12 WORLD OF OUR OWN WESTLIFE 1 2002

13 UNBREAKABLE WESTLIFE 1 2002

14 FOOL AGAIN WESTLIFE 1 2000

15 HOME WESTLIFE 3 2007

16 MANDY WESTLIFE 1 2003

17 THE ROSE WESTLIFE 1 2006

18 BOP BOP BABY WESTLIFE 5 2002

19 WHEN YOU TELL ME THAT YOU LOVE ME WESTLIFE FT DIANA ROSS 2 2005

20 TONIGHT/MISS YOU NIGHTS WESTLIFE 3 2003

 

©2019 Official Charts Company. All rights reserved.

 

Westlife's Top 20 most-streamed songs

POS TITLE ARTIST HIGHEST POS YEAR

1 YOU RAISE ME UP WESTLIFE 1 2005 19.7m

2 UPTOWN GIRL WESTLIFE 1 2001 12m

3 FLYING WITHOUT WINGS WESTLIFE 1 1999

4 WORLD OF OUR OWN WESTLIFE 1 2002

5 MY LOVE WESTLIFE 1 2000 11.7m

6 WHEN YOU'RE LOOKING LIKE THAT WESTLIFE N/A 2000 11.4m

7 I WANNA GROW OLD WITH YOU WESTLIFE N/A 2001

8 IF I LET YOU GO WESTLIFE 1 1999

9 SWEAR IT AGAIN WESTLIFE 1 1999

10 WHAT ABOUT NOW WESTLIFE 2 2009

11 QUEEN OF MY HEART WESTLIFE 1 2001

12 I'LL SEE YOU AGAIN WESTLIFE N/A 2009

13 SEASONS IN THE SUN WESTLIFE N/A 1999

14 I HAVE A DREAM/SEASONS IN THE SUN WESTLIFE 1 1999

15 AGAINST ALL ODDS MARIAH CAREY FT WESTLIFE 1 2000

16 THE ROSE WESTLIFE 1 2006

17 MANDY WESTLIFE 1 2003

18 HOME WESTLIFE 3 2007

19 I LAY MY LOVE ON YOU WESTLIFE N/A 2000

20 WHAT MAKES A MAN WESTLIFE 2 2000

 

©2019 Official Charts Company. All rights reserved.

Not to take away from their success but they seem to have been lucky due to circumstance only 2 possibly 3 platinum tracks and not a single million seller/ millionaire

When Your Looking Like That is by far their best. Telling that they have no millionsellers and 14 no1s!!

Their only good song in 12th place!

 

When Your Looking Like That is by far their best. Telling that they have no millionsellers and 14 no1s!!

 

Madonna has 13 of them, and no million sellers.

Legit 3 of their best singles not in the top 20... Something Right, Obvious, Amazing :cry:

World of Our Own is my favourite! It was said to have sold 195,000 physicals in 2002, and it has somewhere between 117,000 to 120,000 from streaming. I wonder how far away from Gold it is?

 

I'm wondering if OCC might have missed out Fool Again from the most-streamed songs list? Out of all of their singles on Spotify, it's their 10th most streamed. Unless a disproportionate number of its streams were achieved outside of the UK, I suppose.

What Makes A Man is already dislodged as their best selling original song. It was #4

 

I Wanna Grow Old With You, their most streamed song written by them, all five of them. I think they will perform this on their concerts in the future.

 

I'll See You Again, their tribute song to Kian and Nicky's fathers passing at the same year of 2009. Stephen Gately died from that year too.

Those streaming numbers surely show playlists make a huge difference, the 2 random non singles at 6 and 7 on the most streamed must surely be on playlists.

I'd say When You're Looking Like That is better known than some of their actual singles personally and it really should have been a double a-side or even a standalone single rather than relegated to b-side status. It was a rare uptempo moment for them among a sea of ballads back in 2001 and its video was on the music channels non-stop at the time, so i'm sure it's still pretty well remembered. (I have no idea where I Wanna Grow Old With You's popularity came from though!).

Their only good song in 12th place!

Madonna has 13 of them, and no million sellers.

 

Elvis has more than 20, and only one sold a million.

I echo the thoughts about 'when you're looking like that'.

 

It was on 'The Box' music channel a lot if I recall. I'm surprised it didn't go to No.1

 

'World of our own' holds up well today too. 'Bop bop baby' was quite different from their usual output at the time.

When You're Looking Like That's release was cancelled at the last minute

When You're Looking Like That's release was cancelled at the last minute

 

 

wasn't aware of that... what was the story? and when was supposed to be released? in the summer?

My theory was one, it didn't match the success of Uptown Girl on its debut releases on the neighboring countries like Sweden. Sweden, in my observation, had been Simon's benchmark when it comes to releases in Europe. For example, the Ain't That a Kick in the Head in 2004, they released it as a single first in Sweden and when they found out that the peak and sales were lower than expected. They had cancelled or stopped the UK/IE release of it.

 

Also, When You're Looking Like That leaked and it was already the fourth single of Coast to Coast in UK. he might be thinking it was too risky for them to release it and it might break their top charting streak in UK.

Edited January 14, 20196 yr by myxxd

Wasn’t when your looking like that a bside ?

 

The video had them in pants I seem to remember 😂

yes was included with Queen of my heart single but it's supposed to be a single release alone

It's such a shame that pop bands were so fussed with getting No.1/top 10/whatever the bar they'd set themselves was back then that some excellent pop songs didn't end up getting released.

 

Sure, standalone When You're Looking Like That probably would have missed No.1 as it was from an album that was nearly a year old at that point, but their streak had already been broken the previous Christmas with What Makes A Man. And I'm sure it would have gone top three at least.

 

Same with Atomic Kitten's You Are around the same time. That had everything set up for it to be a sizeable No.3/4 follow-up to two big No.1s, but they canned it at the last minute as it was clear it didn't have quite enough momentum behind it to be another No.1. I guess they didn't want to spoil their streak too.

Flying Without Wings is my favourite.

It's such a shame that pop bands were so fussed with getting No.1/top 10/whatever the bar they'd set themselves was back then that some excellent pop songs didn't end up getting released.

 

Sure, standalone When You're Looking Like That probably would have missed No.1 as it was from an album that was nearly a year old at that point, but their streak had already been broken the previous Christmas with What Makes A Man. And I'm sure it would have gone top three at least.

 

Same with Atomic Kitten's You Are around the same time. That had everything set up for it to be a sizeable No.3/4 follow-up to two big No.1s, but they canned it at the last minute as it was clear it didn't have quite enough momentum behind it to be another No.1. I guess they didn't want to spoil their streak too.

 

I think it's not the number one streak they cared about at that time but their top 3 or 5 streaks

 

You Are was given to Westlife first but ended up to Atomic Kitten.

Edited January 14, 20196 yr by myxxd

Flying Without Wings is their best.

Surprised by how low Mandy is, i had believed it was much bigger.

Edited January 14, 20196 yr by pippa