59 minutes ago, dandy* said:

That most recent top 10 surely has to be in contention for the chart with the most huge selling songs in the top 10 at the same time.

I can’t think of anything that would beat it!

Only the Boyzone song wasn’t really huge selling and that did ok for itself too, but everything else must have been platinum at the very least.

2 hours ago, gooddelta said:

How many of those Chickenshed singles had to be pulped or ended up in bargain bins. An advance order of 250k to sell little over 30k in week one is mad. I understand the sentiment behind it and why it might have appealed to fans of Diana but it just isn't a particularly good song, and was extremely dated sounding in this late '97 chart.

As the ultimate ignominy, it was outsold by Vanilla - No Way No Way

Thanks as ever for the trip through 1997 Gezza!

Woah, top 6 all over 100k for Christmas!

We must be nearly at an end to the near 6 month run of the number 1 selling over 100k as well?

The peak for CD singles!

Too Much being the worst Spice Girls single so far, and probably the worst until Headlines happened.

In 1997 a record ( at the time ) 21 songs go straight in at number 1.

Too Much was the 88th song to debut at number 1 in UK chart history.

There were 213 songs going straight into the top 10 in 1997 beating the 1996 record of 176.

How different things are in the streaming era when we have only had 18 son gs go straight into the top 10 after 5 months of 2025.

I remember I was rooting for Teletubbies to hold on

as Too Much is abysmal and their worst song ever and didn't deserve the #1

but alas, they were too popular

2 Become 1 or Viva Forever were great ballads but Too Much is just sugary, over- produced and without any emotional depth or substance

I quite like Too Much, it’s understated.

It’s not fantastic though, just not too bad.

I bought Too Much on CD, quite pleasant chart-topper for me. Totally worth it to keep Teletubbies off the top on my birthday. 😇

Where as I bought Teletubbies haha!!! I don't think I ever listened to it but I was at college and loads of students I knew bought it

Thanks Gezza - as informative and interesting as ever. Looking forward to these (and the repeats) running until the bitter end of 2006!

On 24/05/2025 at 10:34, Gezza said:

I was thinking yesterday what an odd time to launch a new act. Convention has it that Christmas is reserved for established big acts but Five is the first instance I can think of where it happened in the festive period.

Maybe Boyzone is another example in Xmas 94?

On 30/05/2025 at 17:17, Gezza said:

1- TOO MUCH- Spice Girls (218,000)
2- TELETUBBIES SAY EH-OH- Teletubbies (150,000)
3- PERFECT DAY- Various Artists (137,000)
4- NEVER EVER- All Saints (102,000)
5- TOGETHER AGAIN- Janet Jackson (91,000)
6- ANGELS- Robbie Williams (88,000)
7- BARBIE GIRL- Aqua (60,000)
8- TORN- Natalie Imbruglia (60,000)
9- BABY CAN I HOLD YOU/ SHOOTING STAR- Boyzone (58,000)
10- CANDLE IN THE WIND 97/ SOMETHING ABOUT THE WAY YOU LOOK TONIGHT- Elton John (54,000)

The end of 1997 has always been a fascinating period for single sales for me.

And final week, in particular where the top 10 all ended up in the 40 best selling songs of the year.