On the occasion of the 4th Of July, US youtuber Sean Fay Wolfe, whose channel Diamond Axe Studios analyzes US chart music did a speacial video analyzing some of the most astonishing UK #1 hit singles, most of them unknown to the American public. It includes Bob The Builder, Mr. Blobby, Swagger Jagger, Japanese Boy, Ebeneezer Goode, Mull Of Kintyre, Nutrocker, It's My Birthday, Marmalade's cover of O-bla-di O-bla-da, the Eamonn/Frankee double punch and Rage Against The X-Factor.

 

Edited July 5, 20214 yr by N-S

Eamon / Frankee is a surprise considering the former went Top 20 in the US! But we definitely took to the "drama" a lot more I guess

there'd be enough material for a few videos like those considering the sheer amount of UK #1s that never crossed over.

 

I am a fan of the channel and the video although it was very much on the side of 'let's laugh at the UK for their shit taste in music' for the most part, a lot of credible pop and EDM got overlooked in favour of novelty and charity songs. Surprised Eamon was never bigger than #16 in the US though.

there'd be enough material for a few videos like those considering the sheer amount of UK #1s that never crossed over.

 

I am a fan of the channel and the video although it was very much on the side of 'let's laugh at the UK for their shit taste in music' for the most part, a lot of credible pop and EDM got overlooked in favour of novelty and charity songs. Surprised Eamon was never bigger than #16 in the US though.

I think it probably did about as well as it could for a not-very-radio-friendly song, as CD singles were so dead (outside of American Idol singles) at the time that the Hot 100 was practically airplay-only. Eamon was actually the 4th best selling single of 2004 there (behind 3 American Idol artists), but that only made the difference between peaking at #16 on the Hot 100 and peaking at #19 on airplay.

I enjoyed watching that, it's an interesting topic and definitely scope for another couple of videos, especially if they focus on some of the genuinely great #1s that had zero impact in the US as well as all the bizarre novelty shit.

Mr blobby, Cher Lloyd and Bob the builder they aren't missing out on much then!

I don't know if this would work the other way around as US hits that did nothing chartwise in the UK seem to eventually be known here anyway - see 'Baby Got Back' (#1 US, #56 UK) and T-Pain's 'Buy U A Drank' (#1 US, #DNC UK) as two examples of that.

This was a very funny video, and I got to know more about these hits. Some of them I already listened to.

Been following both Diamond Axe and Mode Reviews since the end of 2018.