30TH DECEMBER

 

 

The Christmas chart arrives and as per usual sales surge upward and that includes the festive chart topper which this year goes to……Michael Jackson! “Earth Song” sold another 262,000 (a 74% increase week on week) to take the title and now has total sales of 677,000 enabling Jackson to have back to back platinum hits for the first time in his long career. The single should also overtake “One Day In Your Life” next week as his personal best seller, the album “HIStory” also becomes a million seller bang on cue!

 

 

 

Jacko’s nearest challenger was Mike Flowers Pops, some rather harshly refer to the outfit as a joke but over the past few years they’ve made a living turning classics and modern tracks into easy listening songs and have created something of a niche following. As part of Radio 1’s “Hits Of 1995” series Kevin Greening’s show asked the group to cover a recent hit and they decided on Oasis’ “Wonderwall” (which itself is back 10-7, 69,000) and the recording was championed by Chris Evans who made it record of the week. A Christmas campaign was soon underway and it duly arrives at No 2 (186,000) this week despite fading as the week progressed. Still they’d be pleased no doubt.

 

 

 

Meanwhile at the bottom of the top 10 are Eternal who score a sixth top 10 single from 8 releases with “I Am Blessed”. The song has drifted about the top 20 so far with a trajectory of 13-12-13 as it struggled to move in the face of new releases but with a quieter week this time around it finally moves 13-10 (47,000). The album “Power Of A Woman” has also improved over recent weeks 23-17-16-13.

 

 

Several other hits have very good weeks at least at retail, Boyzone drift 2-3 (165,000, up 71%) whilst Bjork holds at No 4 (94,000 up 26%) and Everything But The Girl also remain steady (74,000) with total sales almost an amazing 700,000 in total.

 

Coolio goes back up 7-6 (70,000) as he passes the million mark. The only two records to lose sales are from the Beatles 3-8 (59,000) and Robson & Jerome who dip 8-9 (59,000) but limp over the 1 million mark becoming only the second act after Frankie Goes To Hollywood to sell a million copies of both their first two singles. It’s also worth noting that their album sold a simply astonishing 483,000 copies last week- no album EVER sold as many copies in a week as Robson & Jerome did in the last 7 days rounding off an amazing year for the pair.

 

 

1- EARTH SONG- Michael Jackson (261,000)

2- WONDERWALL- Mike Flowers Pops (186,000)

3- FATHER AND SON- Boyzone (165,000)

4- IT’S OH SO QUIET- Bjork (94,000)

5- MISSING- Everything But The Girl (74,000)

6- GANGSTA’S PARADISE- Coolio Ft LV (70,000)

7- WONDERWALL- Oasis (69,000)

8- FREE AS A BIRD- The Beatles (59,000)

9- I BELIEVE/ UP ON THE ROOF- Robson & Jerome (59,000)

10- I AM BLESSED- Eternal (47,000)

 

483,000 people received a Robson and Jerome album for Christmas :(

The Robson and Jerome album reached 2 million sales on New Years Eve - only 48 days to reach 2 million sales - that was a record.

No spoilers please

The turnover of singles at the top end of the chart was speeding up considerably. I remember HMV used to have new release CD singles at £1.99 on their opening week then £3.99 from week 2 so why wait until week 2 to buy a single.

 

Number of songs to go in straight into the top 10 each year

 

1985 - 11

1986 - 9

1987 - 19

1988 - 20

1989 - 30

1990 - 24

1991 - 43

1992 - 60

1993 - 71

1994 - 74

1995 - 110

 

We had 11 songs go straight in at number 1 in 1995 - a record for a calendar year.

 

I know you don't do spoilers on this thread but just wait until we get to 2000 !!

 

I wasn’t expecting Earth Song to sell that much, it’s a huge leap from last week. Boyzone too.

terrible Xmas #1

What a truly abysmal top 3 for Christmas.

 

And 483,000 people went out to get a Robson & Jerome album the same week.

 

What in gods name were the putting in the water that week?

Just noticed this week Madonna's Oh Father got a very very belated UK release

had been the 4th single from Like a Prayer in the US back in 89

but the UK had Dear Jessie instead

and finally Oh Father got released as part of the Something to remember compilation in 95

 

peaked at a disappointing #16

her 3rd single ever to miss the top 10 I believe after Lucky Star and Take a Bow

Edited April 23, 20241 yr by Bjork

I bought Oh Father… it’s such a lovely song and a shame that it missed the top 10, although it being a single that was now already available on two albums will have inevitably severely limited its appeal.

 

Although it being released at Christmas could well be the deciding factor, I’d imagine its sales at #16 could well have been enough for top 10 at a different time of year

not 100% sure but I think Oh Father charted the 1st week of Jan, the one with very low sales traditionally

6TH JANUARY

 

 

1995 was an amazing year, a year in which single and album sales really exploded after a sluggish 90s so far. Finishing the year on top is Michael Jackson who has now spent 5 weeks at No 1 and has sold just over 800,000 copies of “Earth Song” including 123,000 last week. That makes it his personal best seller as well as the 6th biggest seller of 1995, Jackson also overtakes Madonna as the second biggest selling singles act of the 90s so far trailing only Take That as he moves over the 3 million mark in total sales since 1990.

 

 

Jackson’s sales are off a mighty 53% but as you might expect everything loses sales with Christmas sales all crammed into last week. Boyzone bounce back 3-2 (104,000) as they swap places with Mike Flowers Pops (99,000) and for a third week Bjork is No 4 (64,000) and Everything But The Girl are No 5 (56,000). With Oasis climbing 7-6 (54,000) and Coolio falling 6-7 (47,000) the top 10 is filled with massive sellers, “Father & Son” is now on 620,000, “It’s Oh So Quiet” has sold just over 400,000, “Missing” has sold just under 700,000 whilst “Wonderwall” is on 664,000- massive numbers considering none of them have been No 1.

 

Coolio and Robson & Jerome are of course both over a million “Up On The Roof/ I Believe” holds at No 9, (47,000) whilst the rather newer Eternal are still on the up 10-8 (47,000). The R & J album incidentally sold another 216,000 copies last week to become the first album to sell over 2 million in a year and is No 1 for a 7th straight week, the longest run for 4 years. Singles wise the duo are already the 5th biggest act of the decade- a phenomenal achievement in just 7 months.

 

 

The only new track to consider comes from Italian DJ Molella and features none other than The Outhere Brothers who are no strangers to the top 10 themselves, this their fourth appearance there in 10 months. “If You Wanna Party” is another song that struggled in the run up to Christmas but as those New Year’s parties rolled around it found its feet and has progressed 18-18-16-10 selling 36,000 in its last frame. The Outhere Brothers “new” album” (essentially a scaled down version of their previous one but featuring this new track) lifts 67-41 but they still have issues in breaking the album market given their phenomenal singles success.

 

 

1- EARTH SONG- Michael Jackson (123,000)

2- FATHER AND SON- Boyzone (104,000)

3- WONDERWALL- Mike Flowers Pops (99,000)

4- IT’S OH SO QUIET- Bjork (64,000)

5- MISSING- Everything But The Girl (56,000)

6- WONDERWALL- Oasis (54,000)

7- GANGSTA’S PARADISE- Coolio Ft LV (47,000)

8- I AM BLESSED- Eternal (47,000)

9- I BELIEVE/ UP ON THE ROOF- Robson & Jerome (47,000)

10- IF YOU WANNA PARTY- Molella Ft Outhere Brothers (36,000)

 

This is the first show from tonight's TOTP

“Missing” has sold just under 700,000 whilst “Wonderwall” is on 664,000- massive numbers considering none of them have been No 1.

Fantastic for 'Missing' to accumulate enough sales to make the EOY top 10, and for 'Wonderwall' I can't emphasise enough how extraordinary it was for a song by an 'indie' band to have this kind of longevity at the time.

 

Thanks for taking us through 1995 Gezza!