I have to admit I thought of Maroon 5 before I opened the thread but there are a lot of very peculiar cases here! Does anyone know what is the most that a song has sold in a week without being a #1 hit at any point? I know "The Climb" did close to half a million but it also got to #1 the week after anyway.

From the 21st century, I believe these are the Top 5 weekly sales for #2 songs that never reached #1:

 

230,747 Westlife - What Makes a Man [30/12/2000]

222,561 The Darkness - Christmas Time (Don't Let the Bells End!) [27/12/2003]

193,744 Ed Sheeran - Castle on the Hill [19/01/2017]

180,854 True Steppers & Dane Bowers feat. Victoria Beckham - Out of Your Mind [26/08/2000]

147,773 One True Voice - Sacred Trust / After You're Gone [28/12/2002]

Yeah COTH would of been an easy number one under pretty much any other circumstance, probably long running too

Edited February 12, 20214 yr by 777666jason

From the 21st century, I believe these are the Top 5 weekly sales for #2 songs that never reached #1:

 

230,747 Westlife - What Makes a Man [30/12/2000]

222,561 The Darkness - Christmas Time (Don't Let the Bells End!) [27/12/2003]

193,744 Ed Sheeran - Castle on the Hill [19/01/2017]

180,854 True Steppers & Dane Bowers feat. Victoria Beckham - Out of Your Mind [26/08/2000]

147,773 One True Voice - Sacred Trust / After You're Gone [28/12/2002]

Ah cheers for the quick and detailed reply, they all definitely make sense!

White Flag - held off top spot by biggest selling song of the year

 

We could say that about every song that was held off the top spot by the biggest seller of each year (assuming that the #2 wasn't a #1 before or after the biggest seller of the year)

It doesn't measure up to the examples here, but I also always think about how unlucky Rule The World by Take That was. It sold more than the majority of No.1s from 2007, and has gone onto become an enduring classic, it just ended up being released in the same week as another classic in Bleeding Love.

 

I can't really recall that many weeks - certainly after the mid 00s - where more than one future classic came out on the same day. Obviously Band Aid and Wham! was another much older example of that.

Shakira was unlucky too with Whenever, Wherever.

Shakira was unlucky too with Whenever, Wherever.

 

Yes, such a shame as that song really deserved to be No.1, it certainly felt gigantic at the time, just ran into the Pop Idol juggernaut at its peak.

 

I think iirc she'd have comfortably got it a week before over Westlife's World Of Our Own.

I think iirc she'd have comfortably got it a week before over Westlife's World Of Our Own.

 

According to Music Week at the time, WW sold 109,000, beating every weekly sale in 2002 up to that point (apart from Will Young obv.)

 

http://scans.chartarchive.org/UK/2002/UK%2...02002.03.09.pdf

Edited February 12, 20214 yr by Colm

Yes, such a shame as that song really deserved to be No.1, it certainly felt gigantic at the time, just ran into the Pop Idol juggernaut at its peak.

 

I think iirc she'd have comfortably got it a week before over Westlife's World Of Our Own.

 

She probably sold more copies than she would otherwise have done though I reckon - her high sales would've partly been down to more people visiting their local chart wall to pick up Will's single.

 

Edit - mind you I misremembered how much i sold first week. I thought it was more like 250,000

Edited February 12, 20214 yr by AcerBen

I can't really recall that many weeks - certainly after the mid 00s - where more than one future classic came out on the same day. Obviously Band Aid and Wham! was another much older example of that.

Not hits at the same time of course, but two of the very biggest hits from 2019, "I Don't Care" and "Dance Monkey" were released at the exact same time.

Completely forgot about the Years & Years thing when setting the options here. I now see David Zowie outsold them by less than 1k over the 5-day 'week', while they outsold him by more than 10k the next week in the first full tracking week of the Friday charts - so even if the switch had been staggered over two 6-day weeks, Shine would likely have been the #1 on one of those.

 

I'd still go with Moves Like Jagger myself - even if the charts continue for another 70 years, I doubt there'll be another song held at #2 by new entries over so many weeks again.

I voted for 'Moves Like Jagger' too.

 

The week the chart day moved from a Sunday to a Friday didn't just have the chart sales week curtailed to 5 days for that week, the chart was also compiled without any streaming data from Spotify. As Years & Years were ahead on what streaming data there was in the chart (David Zowie 1,706 streams, Years & Years 2,238) it's not inconceivable that they may have been able to make up the overall sales gap of 912 had Spotify data been included.

 

Doesn’t it feel like a relief that we don’t have to talk about Mariah or Wham! anymore in this context?

absolutely not only cos they're both classics but now we won't have to have the 'will this year finally be the year' and 'OCC robbed Mariah of a #1 peak' discussion anymore!

moves like jagger

Moves Like Jagger was my first thought before I even clicked on the thread

From the 21st century, I believe these are the Top 5 weekly sales for #2 songs that never reached #1:

 

230,747 Westlife - What Makes a Man [30/12/2000]

222,561 The Darkness - Christmas Time (Don't Let the Bells End!) [27/12/2003]

193,744 Ed Sheeran - Castle on the Hill [19/01/2017]

180,854 True Steppers & Dane Bowers feat. Victoria Beckham - Out of Your Mind [26/08/2000]

147,773 One True Voice - Sacred Trust / After You're Gone [28/12/2002]

 

Westlife topping another list, AND they're still in the EU!!!

Moves Like Jagger definitely, from those listed. The midweek Rihanna release really sabotaged its chance of getting a week. :lol:

 

I'd say Better In Time was pretty unlucky too. It was only a mere 300 copies behind Mercy but if the downloads for Footprints In The Sand were combined with BIT (since it was a double A-side single) then it would have easily made #1.

Honourable mention to Gordon Haskell 'How Wonderful You Are' from 2001, which finished at #2 behind Robbie/Nicole's 'Somethin Stupid' cover:

 

"Despite limited promotion, it charted as the Christmas number two in the UK Singles Chart. Although appearing on Top of the Pops that week, the broadcast was delayed for 14 months due to pressure from EMI Records, Robbie Williams' Management (David Enthoven who had managed him in King Crimson) and the City of London Bank who were arranging a 42 million pound deal with Williams. It is generally accepted that had he been broadcast he would have taken the No 1 from Williams and no explanation or apology was ever given by the BBC Executive Producer."

 

Apparently Radio 2's most requested song ever.

 

Is this actually true? It really reads like fan fiction. I've never even heard of the artist nor song so for them to be Radio 2's most requested song seems... implausible?

Why would he perform on Top of the Pops before the single had even charted?

Better In Time / Footprints In The Sand is an intriguing one. People could buy the physical single or download bundle which contained both tracks, or download one of the tracks individually, and the track which sold more on its own would be combined with the sales of the first two for chart purposes, while the other track would be left to chart on its own. I'd always thought those rules were fair, since many people would have downloaded both tracks individually and keeping these separate made more sense that counting them as two sales of the same product.

 

Thinking about it again, if there had been no option to download the tracks separately, how many of the people who downloaded enough of Footprints In The Sand to get it to #25, but didn't care enough for Better In Time to buy that, would instead have bought the double A-side? Perhaps we'll never know, but it hardly seems a stretch that it may have been enough to overturn the 311 sales margin that would have given it the #1.

Edited February 14, 20214 yr by jimwatts