Oh I forgot to mention Passengers… I really like that these days. I bought it at the time but didn’t listen to it that often, however over the years I’ve really grown to like it - the understated first half is quite beautiful and the Pavarotti parts are really dramatic and uplifting. When he starts singing it’s like the whole song just lifts to a new plain

Agreed. Pavarotti makes the record frankly

16TH DECEMBER

 

 

 

 

A tight week turned into a tough battle between The Beatles and Michael Jackson with the latter finally winning out. “Earth Song” had to improve sales by 39% to 149,000 to remain top of the pile helped on, if that’s the phrase, by Jackson’s collapse and hospitilisation this week which led to some erroneous news reports that he’d actually died! A second CD version with remixes of “Wanna Be Startin Something” also aided his case, “HIStory” is also back in the top 10 rising 13-9 as sales rapidly approach the million mark.

 

 

 

He wasn’t the midweek No 1 however because that belonged to the most successful group ever on the British chart- The Beatles. “Free As A Bird” was promoted as the first new Beatles single in 25 years but it actually dates back to 1977 as a John Lennon demo which his widow Yoko Ono gave to McCartney for the “Anthology” project and to which he, Starr and Harrison added their contributions. The song rushed into the lead but floundered as the week progressed selling 120,000 copies to debut at No 2.

 

 

The remainder of the top 5 are tight packed with Boyzone rebounding 5-3 (89,000), total sales now 257,000, Everything But The Girl spend an 8th week in the top 10 selling 496,000 in total including a massive 83,000 last week (an increase of 48% week on week) and Coolio drops 3-5 (82,000) as he moves over 900,000 copies. Even Coolio is up week on week- Christmas must be on its way!

 

 

Two acts with Greatest hits packages currently charting are Janet Jackson (No 18) and Luther Vandross (No 36) and some may recall that back in 1992 they duetted on “The Best Things In Life Are Free” which went all the way to No 2 behind Snap!’s “Rhythm Is A Dancer”. Now remixed by K-Klass (who revitilised Bobby Brown’s career earlier his year) the song is given new life and becomes a top 10 single all over again powering in at No 7 (45,000).

 

 

Robson & Jerome cave 2-6 (82,000) but hold the album top spot on another eye watering sale of 279,000 to sell its millionth copy in just 26 days- the fastest ever time to reach the milestone!

 

Bjork keeps pottering about the lower top 10, this week “It’s Oh So Quiet” inches 9-8 (43,000) meaning that it has moved 9-8-9-8 so far, and Mariah Carey & Boyz II Men retract 6-10 (38,000) indicating that it won’t be repeating its US success here.

 

 

At No 9 (41,000) is the only other new entry and it comes from the Childliners who as you might suspect are a conglomeration of acts put together in aid of the Childline charity, stars to appear here include Boyzone, Dannii Minogue and East 17 among others. “The Gift Of Christmas” was written by manager Tom Watkins and East 17’s Tony Mortimer.

 

 

Next week will see entries by Smokin Mojo Filters, Queen and Frank Bruno enter the race for the Festive chart topper!

 

 

1- EARTH SONG- Michael Jackson (149,000)

2- FREE AS A BIRD- The Beatles (120,000)

3- FATHER AND SON- Boyzone (89,000)

4- MISSING- Everything But The Girl (83,000)

5- GANGSTA’S PARADISE- Coolio Ft LV (82,000)

6- I BELIEVE/ UP ON THE ROOF- Robson & Jerome (82,000)

7- THE BEST THINGS IN LIFE ARE FREE (REMIX)- Luther Vandross & Janet Jackson (45,000)

8- IT’S OH SO QUIET- Bjork (43,000)

9- THE GIFT OF CHRISTMAS- Childliners (41,000)

10- ONE SWEET DAY- Mariah Carey & Boyz II Men (38,000)

 

I'm a week late but :wub: Disco 2000. I think that's their best one for me.

 

How did I never pick up on the 'Gloria' influence before now? :o

Just watched The Childliners on TOTP, appreciate it's for charity and a good cause but it really is something else posing more questions than answers. However I didn't realise it featured a pre fame (in the UK at any rate) Backstreet Boys and Peter Andre

I remember at the time it being treated as pretty much a dead cert across the media that the Beatles would be #1 so I was really surprised when Earth Song held on - although I was already pretty surprised that Earth Song had made #1 at all.

 

My other main memory of this week was being majorly surprised that Björk was still in the top 10... partly because it fell last week but also because it was Björk and it just seemed so unlikely that she would have a song in the top 10 for four weeks.

Just watched The Childliners on TOTP, appreciate it's for charity and a good cause but it really is something else posing more questions than answers. However I didn't realise it featured a pre fame (in the UK at any rate) Backstreet Boys and Peter Andre

Were Westlife there as well as Westside? Terrible song though.

 

 

Were Westlife there as well as Westside? Terrible song though.

No far too early for them thankfully. They were westside in 98.

So if the evil music career of Robson & Jerome had never happened, 1995's chart toppers may have looked like....

 

13/5/95- Dreamer- Livin' Joy (2 Weeks)

27/5/95- Guaglione- Perez 'Prez Prado & His Orchestra (1 Week)

3/6/95- Common People- Pulp (2 Weeks)

17/6/95- Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me- U2 (2 Weeks)

1/7/95- Boom Boom Boom- The Outhere Brothers (5 Weeks)

 

...

 

28/10/95- Gangsta's Paradise- Coolio ft L.V (2 Weeks)

11/11/95- Wonderwall- Oasis (1 Week)

18/11/95- Gangsta's Paradise- Coolio ft L.V. (3 Weeks- 5 Total)

9/12/95- Earth Song- Michael Jackson

 

Some classics would have got there compared to the now forgotten about nonsense from Robson & Jerome!

 

Also how am I now only finding out that the blonde girl from Deuce (who sings some lines in the childline track) was married to Ant (of Dec fame) for over a decade?

Was watching the TOTP episode from April 95 last night with Deuce and thought the blonde girl was rather nice looking, maybe they both met on set? They both were having a big year in 1995!

 

Some amazing top 10 sales!

What a shame that 'Disco 2000' was on the skipped TOTP episode where Gary Glitter was the guest presenter :( echoing the love for that one of course :wub:

 

I wish that 'Free As A Bird' had outpaced 'Earth Song' for the whole week! I do feel like Jeff Lynne's stamp on it is very strong, but I am into it.

Free as a Bird was ok but not that great, terrible top 2

 

can Bjork be #1 instead please!!

Edited April 6, 20241 yr by Bjork

Much as I love Björk (first 3 albums are perfection), that song gets right on my tits 😬

I remember Jacko beating the Beatles to the top spot was newsworthy at the time. MJ was quoted as being ‘thrilled’.

By this point there was bad blood between Jackson and McCartney anyway after Jackson bought the back catalogue of the beatles in 1985 and outbid McCartney. If I recall correctly they never really spoke again.

I’d forgotten about that. I’d have been miffed too if I was Macca.

It's a shame Free As A Bird couldn't hold on to it's midweek lead and topple the dirge that is Earth Song. MJ at his overblown worst.

Had a quick look at the rest of the Top 40 both weeks - I had no idea the David Bowie single (#39 in the first week) was a double A-side with 'The Man Who Sold The World', a live version but glad that made the Top 40 for him in some form. In the second week was a new entry at #27 we'd eventually hear a lot more of!

 

“Strangers When We Meet” was David Bowie's 50th Top 40 single (as announced by Mark Goodier on the chart) and it's one of my favourites <3

 

Often overlooked because much of his 90s output was quite patchy, but this was so good. There's a sadness and beauty in it that just cannot be beaten for me.

Was Bowie not more experimental in the 90s hence the hits dried up?