I never quite got the Joe Dulce/Ultravox situation. Dulce beat Ultravox fair and square right? It's just that people prefer Ultravox right?

Chart history has countless examples of crap no.1s keeping off great no.2s so why that one in particular?

It is also often forgotten that Vienna's first week at number two was behind (recently assassinated) John Lennon's Woman. The first person to deprive Vienna of the top slot was Mark Chapman.

If John Lennon had not been shot, the #1s would have gone like this -

 

20/12/80 There’s No One Quite Like Grandma (3 weeks)

10/01/81 Stop the Cavalry (1 week)

17/01/81 Antmusic (2 weeks)

31/01/81 In the Air Tonight (2 weeks)

14/02/81 Vienna (1 week)

21/02/81 Shaddup You Face (3 weeks)

14/03/81 Kings of the Wild Frontier (1 week)

21/03/81 This Ole House (4 weeks)

 

So Mark Chapman denied Adam & the Ants two #1s!

One that caused a bit of controversy at the time was The Jam's A Town Called Malice/Precious, which was available in 2 different formats, allowing it to beat Golden Brown by The Stranglers to #1 despite more people buying the latter song. Obviously releasing songs in multiple formats subsequently became commonplace.

2 unreal singles tbf!

One that caused a bit of controversy at the time was The Jam's A Town Called Malice/Precious, which was available in 2 different formats, allowing it to beat Golden Brown by The Stranglers to #1 despite more people buying the latter song. Obviously releasing songs in multiple formats subsequently became commonplace.

I thought the main issue was the The Jam released their single at the start of the chart week.

If John Lennon had not been shot, the #1s would have gone like this -

 

20/12/80 There’s No One Quite Like Grandma (3 weeks)

10/01/81 Stop the Cavalry (1 week)

17/01/81 Antmusic (2 weeks)

31/01/81 In the Air Tonight (2 weeks)

14/02/81 Vienna (1 week)

21/02/81 Shaddup You Face (3 weeks)

14/03/81 Kings of the Wild Frontier (1 week)

21/03/81 This Ole House (4 weeks)

 

So Mark Chapman denied Adam & the Ants two #1s!

 

Wow as well as one of the best Christmas songs and one of Phil Collins' best.

 

Ellie Goulding's "River" - not controversial in terms of the song itself but more so the how it got to #1 being an Amazon exclusive and the power of Alexa!

Amazon had created 9 Xmas playlists that year. River was the only song to have appeared on all of them. She was guaranteed to be played by track 15 if they were being played in order and she was even played by track 4 on 66% of them. Truly a song chosen by corporate overlords and practically zero people went out of their way to listen to it on Amazon considering it only had a measly 153 sales. Mariah sold literally 3,000 more copies than that digitally.

Could we say that All I Want For Christmas Is You and Last Christmas are a bit controversial for making No.1 every year recently, some 30-40 years after first release... and the only reason why is because they are on so many playlists across all platforms and are therefore played and counted hundreds of thousands of times when they aren't chosen to be listened to individually but just as a Christmas song?

 

The big ass flaw of counting any old song in the streaming age of the charts.

Is the messaging in 'Ebeneezer Goode' really "subliminal"? Maybe it's just because I've always known what it means but it seems pretty overt to me :lol: (it's hidden about as much as the meaning of, say, '34+35')

Is the messaging in 'Ebeneezer Goode' really "subliminal"? Maybe it's just because I've always known what it means but it seems pretty overt to me :lol: (it's hidden about as much as the meaning of, say, '34+35')

 

I think it was more at the time, certain establishment groups such as the BBC specifically dismissed it as nonsense lyrics and happily aired it on TOTP when it climbed to #1 during their own drugs awareness week. :lol:

Don't! You'll summon a demon :arrr:

 

:lol: Michaaaaaaaaael where are yoooooooooooooooou?

 

Ps I was joking re the fix for those who don't realise, I don't see what benefit the chart company would have from fixing anything (other than perhaps Sex Pistols).

Edited April 15, 20232 yr by spiceboy

..and of course the most controversial number one was Manuel and The Music of the Mountains aka bandleader Geoff Love who was announced as number one in early 1976 with Rodrigo's Guitar Concerto D'Aranuez. It holds the record for shortest ever reign at number one. A few hours after the Tuesday chart show when it was later revealed the whole chart had been messed up due to the first ever example of an IT glitch...

I was curious how 'Relax' was mentioned on the chart show while it was #1 and banned, so here's a Mixcloud link if anyone wants to hear. The #2 was played with no introduction, then Simon Bates counts down the top 10, including 'Relax' at #1, quickly explains that they don't find 'Relax' suitable for broadcast, and then wraps up the show.

I would say one of the most controversial number 1s would be Please Please Me by the Beatles due to histoiry rewriting. At the time everyone knew it was no.1 as the NME, MM, Disc and BBC averaged charts attested to. However time has been rewritten as the small lowly 'for industry' RR chart has been adopted as the 'official' chart despite its considerably smaller number of contributing stores (30-85 vs 110-250) and Please Please Me was held at no.2 on that chart....

One that caused a bit of controversy at the time was The Jam's A Town Called Malice/Precious, which was available in 2 different formats, allowing it to beat Golden Brown by The Stranglers to #1 despite more people buying the latter song. Obviously releasing songs in multiple formats subsequently became commonplace.

 

Although of course if Stranglers 'Golden Brown' had made no.1, that would have been an extremely controversial no.1 due to the subject matter of the song - heroin (although not referred to by name).

Had a quick look through responses and a bit surprised I haven't seen the only number one single to be completely banned by the BBC not mentioned. No, it wasn't Relax or F**k it. It was Je t'aime Moi Non Plus by Serge Gainsbourg & Jane Birkin. Tell Laura I Love Her by Ricky Valance in 1960 was also briefly banned.

That was already mentioned.

A definite welcome 'controversy', but wasn't Kate Bush's RUTH allowed a rule change while others did not?

A definite welcome 'controversy', but wasn't Kate Bush's RUTH allowed a rule change while others did not?

Except for the christmas songs, Kate Bush is the only one which would've been no.1 if it had been reset prior to it actually being reset on its 3rd week on the chart as it was the biggest seller/streamer on its second week. Also technically not a rule change, as its always been said that if the record company asks for a reset due to new promotion of a record that the OCC will consider it. If its older than 3 years then it can't get an automatic reset (25% increase), but I don't think a manual reset has ever been excluded?

Edited April 20, 20232 yr by braindeadpj

Kate Bush was the first 3+ year old song to be granted an SCR reset after having already been a hit on its original release (although there were a few cases here and there of songs that charted for the first time after being given resets despite being 3+ years old). So although it wasn't a rule change per se, either no labels ever requested such resets before Kate Bush or they always denied them until then. The fact that such resets have become quite commonplace and sometimes for pretty tenuous reasons since then makes me think it's the latter, but that's entirely speculation.