They’ve definitely got that wrong unfortunately!

 

Annoying :angry: :P

Week by Week sales of 'Steps' top 10 Hits: *courtesy of the Haven Forums

Last Thing On My Mind
39,000 - #06 [02/05/98]
34,000 - #07 [09/05/98]
41,000 - #09 [16/05/98]
31,000 - #07 [23/05/98]
31,000 - #06 [30/05/98]
29,000 - #09 [06/06/98]

One For Sorrow
140,000 - #02 [05/09/98]
64,000 - #06 [12/09/98]
48,000 - #06 [19/09/98]
38,000 - #07 [26/09/98]
35,000 - #10 [03/10/98]

Heartbeat/Tragedy
66,547 - #02 [21/11/98]
69,000 - #05 [28/11/98]
69,000 - #05 [05/12/98]
58,000 - #08 [12/12/98]
60,000 - #08 [19/12/98]
99,000 - #06 [26/12/98]
104,000 - #04 [02/01/99]
98.080 - #01 [09/01/99]
65,340 - #02 [16/01/99]
66,317 - #03 [23/01/99]
54,071 - #03 [30/01/99]
49,604 - #03 [06/02/99]
43,000 - #06 [13/02/99]
44,000 - #10 [20/02/99]
35,000 - #10 [27/02/99]

Better Best Forgotten
139,000 - #02 [20/03/99]
47,000 - #06 [27/03/99]

Love's Got A Hold On My Heart
101,500 - #02 [24/07/99]
76,000 - #03 [31/07/99]
51,000 - #05 [07/08/99]

After The Love Has Gone
59,000 - #05 [23/10/99]

Say You'll Be Mine/Better The Devil You Know
83,000 - #07 [25/12/99]
67,000 - #08 [01/01/00]
27,000 - #04 [08/01/00]
24,000 - #04 [15/01/00]

Deeper Shade of Blue
67,000 - #04 [15/04/00]
31,000 - #10 [22/04/00]

When I Said Goodbye/Summer of Love
52,500 - #05 [15/07/00]
37,000 - #06 [22/07/00]

Stomp
48,250 - #01 [28/10/00]
44,000 - #05 [04/11/00]
24,000 - #10 [11/11/00]

It's The Way You Make Me Feel
52,000 - #02 [13/01/01]
38,000 - #04 [20/01/01]
28,000 - #05 [27/01/01]

Here And Now/You'll Be Sorry
51,000 - #04 [16/06/01]

Chain Reaction/One For Sorrow (Remix)
108,000 - #02 [06/10/01]
53,000 - #04 [13/10/01]
37,000 - #06 [20/10/01]
22,000 - #10 [27/10/01]

Words Are Not Enough/I Know Him So Well
44,000 - #05 [15/12/01]

Edited June 13, 20223 yr by Nina West

Thanks and interesting to see!

Interesting that Stomp held up quite well in sales in week 2, despite the 1-5 fall!

 

Also interesting to see that Heartbeat/Tragedy sales increased in week 2 even though it fell 2-5, and also that weeks spent at #4 and #6 were with higher sales than its week at #1!

 

Thank you for posting! :cool:

Interesting how 'Last Thing On My Mind's highest sale in the top 10 was the week it was at the lowest position.

99k at No.6 in 1998! 83k at No.7 in 1999!

 

How I miss the late 90s <3

Great post Nina, i love getting sales breakdowns, i could read them all day.

Do you have the weekly album breakdowns?

That post was so interesting love seeing sales like that!

Do you have the weekly album breakdowns?

 

No unfortunately, the source I got them from Gezza from the Haven Forums, only does the singles.

 

And :( @ some of their #2 singles. High sales but not the top spot (especially OFS!).

Steps' Official biggest singles revealed: Tragedy, One For Sorrow, Deeper Shade Of Blue and more

23 August 2022 | By Carl Smith

 

This week, pop royalty Steps commemorate 25 years in music with the release of their Platinum Collection. Currently on course to become the band's fourth Number 1 album, ahead of competition from Aitch and actual Madonna midweek, it's a record positively bursting with bangers spanning a quarter of a decade.

 

And, since we've got a whole new appreciation of Steps' back catalogue of late, we thought we'd better update you on Claire Richards, Ian 'H' Watkins, Lee Latchford-Evans, Faye Tozer and Lisa Scott-Lee's Official Top 20 biggest hits in the UK to date.

 

It's time to begin, now count it in...

 

5. Better Best Forgotten

Album: Step One

Released: 1999

Combined UK chart units: 394,000

The fifth and final single lifted from Steps' debut, Better Best Forgotten is anything but. And while its accompanying music video is by no means a favourite of the band's (the metallic blue was a choice), the track remains a stone cold Steps classic.

 

4. Last Thing On My Mind

Album: Step One

Released: 1998

Combined UK chart units: 408,000

Following-up polarising debut single 5, 6, 7, 8, things could've gone either way. Would Steps be destined for 'one-hit wonder' status, or could they defy all odds and go the distance?

 

Thankfully, it was the latter. Second single Last Thing on My Mind, a cover of the 1993 Bananarama track, gave the group their first-ever Top 10 single; peaking at Number 6 in February 1998.

 

3. One For Sorrow

Album: Step One

Released: 1998

Combined UK chart units: 509,000

Heralded by Lisa as the song that 'really made people listen,' Steps' third single One for Sorrow comes third on the list. Peaking at Number 2 in May '98 and becoming the group's highest-charting single at the time, the ballad proved Steps were no one trick pony.

 

Vocals for days on this one, mate.

 

2. 5, 6, 7, 8

Album: Step One

Released: 1997

Combined UK chart units: 721,000

While Steps' techno-come-country creation might've been denounced as a novelty tune, solely suited to the confines of a school disco, their debut has racked up an impressive 721,000 combined UK chart units in its time.

 

5, 6, 7, 8 may not have ever made the UK Top 10, but it remains a staple of the band's live shows and, tbh, we wouldn't want it any other way.

 

1. Heartbeat/Tragedy

Album: Step One

Released: 1998

Combined UK chart units: 1,400,000

In at the top spot, boasting an incredible 1,400,000 combined UK chart units to its name, is Steps' first-ever UK Number 1 single. A double a-side of Step One ballad Heartbeat and their iconic cover of the Bee Gees' Tragedy, previously unreleased at the time, the Platinum-certified single remains Steps' biggest to date.

 

Steps' Official Top 20 biggest singles on the Official Chart

TITLE ARTIST PEAK YEAR

1 HEARTBEAT/TRAGEDY STEPS 1 1999

2 5 6 7 8 STEPS 14 1997

3 ONE FOR SORROW STEPS 2 1998

4 LAST THING ON MY MIND STEPS 6 1998

5 BETTER BEST FORGOTTEN STEPS 2 1999

6 LOVE'S GOT A HOLD ON MY HEART STEPS 2 1999

7 CHAIN REACTION STEPS 2 2001

8 SAY YOU'LL BE MINE/BETTER THE DEVIL STEPS 4 1999

9 IT'S THE WAY YOU MAKE ME FEEL STEPS 2 2001

10 DEEPER SHADE OF BLUE STEPS 4 2000

11 STOMP STEPS 1 2000

12 AFTER THE LOVE HAS GONE STEPS 5 1999

13 SCARED OF THE DARK STEPS 37 2017

14 WHEN I SAID GOODBYE/SUMMER OF LOVE STEPS 5 2000

15 WORDS ARE NOT ENOUGH STEPS 5 2001

16 HERE AND NOW/YOU'LL BE SORRY STEPS 4 2001

17 STORY OF A HEART STEPS 173 2017

18 MERRY XMAS EVERYBODY STEPS 2012

19 WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS STEPS 2020

20 SOMETHING IN YOUR EYES STEPS 2020

 

©2022 Official Charts Company. All rights reserved.

Thanks Liam!

 

1.4m "combined" for Heartbeat/Tragedy is interesting.

 

In the OCC mailer sent out earlier today, they said this though:

 

"Steps’ biggest song in the UK is also a million seller! Their fourth single - and first Number 1 - 1998’s Heartbeat/Tragedy has racked up 1.2 million chart units in the UK, including 1.15 million physical copies."

 

So what I'm deducing from this is that... Heartbeat/Tragedy as a Double A Side (with only Heartbeat downloads and streams contributing to it) is on a rounded up total of 1.2 million - because it's still not 2xPlatinum according to BPI.

 

And Tragedy by itself is almost at 200,000, rounding up the overall combined total to 1.4m?

 

Could we be about to see them achieve a 2xPlatinum certification for Heartbeat/Tragedy and a silver certification for Tragedy?

 

I won't rest until we have certification evidence that my above theories are correct x

 

~

 

5,6,7,8 on 721,000 - the last known update was 620,500 in May 2021. That's a remarkable 100,500 increase in sales in 15 months. Roughly speaking it's achieving 1,600 to 1,700 a week? At this rate it would become a million seller within the next 4 years. :o

 

One for Sorrow was on 484,000 in May 2021 and now it's 509,000. That's a 25,000 increase in 15 months. So 400-ish sales a week. On course for Platinum in late 2026.

 

Last Thing on My Mind has managed approx 8,000 sales in 7 months, so possibly approaching 300 sales a week.

 

Better Best Forgotten was reported as "over 390,000" in March 2022 but I'm not sure how accurate they were being there. If we take it to also mean "below 390,500" [with the assumption if it had been over that figure, they would have said "nearly 391,000" instead], then it would have risen by 3,500 to 4,000 in the past 5 months. That wouLd range from 175 to 200 sales a week. Well at this rate it'll be passing 400,000 sometime in Spring 2023. We won't find out via certification update though because it's already Gold because of shipments from 1999!

I’ve always wondered how do double A-side singles work? Do any sales/streams of both songs count towards the double A-side total, or are they both now counted separately in the download/streaming era.

It's just one song that counts to the Double A Side total. I'm not sure how the label/OCC decide which song it will be, but I'm assuming it's Heartbeat for Heartbeat/Tragedy! Based on its total rising so slowly. It really is crawling its way to 2xPlatinum, I'm very impatient for that to happen.

 

OCC decided to include the [what I'm assuming are] separate sales of Tragedy to reveal a "combined" figure of 1.4m, as a matter of interest, even though that's technically not a proper total sales figure for it because you can't really have two separate songs count towards just one single's total.

 

It's a pity that Steps' label and OCC seemingly didn't negotiate having 'Tragedy' count as the sales/streams for the Double A Side instead.

 

 

Back in 2008 when Leona Lewis released Better in Time/Footprints in the Sand, only Better in Time downloads counted to it, while Footprints in the Sand charted by itself as a separate entry!

 

A couple of years ago somebody sent me some Spice Girls sales and included separate sales for 'Mama' and 'Let Love Lead the Way'. Whereas 'Who Do You Think You Are' goes towards 'Mama/Who Do You Think You Are' and 'Holler' goes to 'Holler/Let Love Lead the Way'.

 

Overall it's definitely a bit messy, but of course the concept of the Double A Side pre-dated the digital era.

I've only just looked more closely at the fact that they shared a Top 20!

 

Interesting to see that 'Scared of the Dark' has a higher total than When I Said Goodbye/Summer of Love! Unfortunately we've not had an update for that single since June 2009 when it was on 163,554 sales. So at the very least we know that Sccared is on a higher figure than that. Annoying we also haven't had a recent figure for 'After the Love Has Gone' either, which was on 166,967 in June 2009. I would love to know how close these three singles are to Silver.

 

So Merry Xmas Everybody has done enough sales over the years to be within their Top 20 and ahead of many of their recent singles. (I'm not sure why OCC lists it as being a 2012 song, it's from 2000... maybe they mistakenly thought it's from their Christmas album).

 

Also mildly interesting to see that Words Are Not Enough/I Know Him So Well has overtaken Here and Now/You'll Be Sorry. In June 2009 it was slightly behind (112,664 - WANE/IKHSW, 113,890 - HAN/YBS).

 

I wish OCC had shared the sales of the entire Top 20 rather than just the Top 5, but oh well.

I know so frustrating they haven't shared sales for the entire top 20! I was thinking we might be able to work on approximate sales for the other new singles but they are all below here and now which is obs now their lowest seller from out of the sales we do have.

Those sales breakdowns are amazing

Those sales breakdowns are amazing

 

 

Really :blink: I was thinking oh great the same 5 WHAT ABOUT SCARED OF THE DARKKKK! :lol:

I did read somewhere SOTD had sold 170,000 copies which ATLHG was last on 166,000 so perhaps that has gone over 170,000 and SOTD is around that mark too?

Edited August 23, 20222 yr by spiceboy