Atomic Kitten - You Are was set to be huge. I believe it charted on imports one week but then it was pulled from official release for some reason? It was going to give them another top 3 at least I reckon.

48 minutes ago, Mangø said:

Why was it ineligible, do you remember? I don't recall that at all and Wiki doesn't have an answer either!

Something about instant grat rules at the time iirc but could be wrong.

I think Keri Hilson - Turn My Swag On would've probably done quite well but wasn't available for download iirc.

Clean Baby Sleep White Noise (Looped)? Can’t deny it’s not a big song ;)

4 hours ago, Julian_ said:

Space Cowboy (another alias for Norman Cooke / Fatboy Slim) released a cover of Prince’s “I Would Die 4 U” in 2002. It had loads of radio play and was on course for the Top 10 but disqualified due to having 3 remixes on top of a B side.

Space Cowboy is Nick Dresti but the record was released on Southern Fried Records, Norman Cooke / Fatboy Slim's record label :)

4 minutes ago, tomwilkinson said:

Space Cowboy is Nick Dresti but the record was released on Southern Fried Records, Norman Cooke / Fatboy Slim's record label :)

Ah sorry - I think he was Norman’s protégé though and Norman was actively involved in the record. I remember him being asked about why it didn’t chart and saying basically because we screwed up.

Not quite the same: but it reminded me that the original version of Dreams by Gabrielle was pulled after getting loads of airplay because of the uncleared sample (or likeness) of Fast Car.

Nonetheless it set a new record for the highest debuting debut single of all time.

Please correct me if I’m wrong

2 hours ago, Tafty said:

Atomic Kitten - You Are was set to be huge. I believe it charted on imports one week but then it was pulled from official release for some reason? It was going to give them another top 3 at least I reckon.

Honestly, think it would have been another No.1 for them, however they obviously "couldn't promote it sufficiently"

2 hours ago, Dobbo said:

Something about instant grat rules at the time iirc but could be wrong.

Yes this is right! At the time, albums could only have one "instant grat" charting, given iTunes/the OCC didn't quite know how to handle them, nor separate their individual sales from an automatic download as part of the album pre-order. Break Free was ineligible until My Everything came out, because Problem was already an instant grat from the album pre-order! We see this chaos with Eminem, who had very erratic chart runs for Berzerk, Rap God and Survival due to these rules.

As for the topic at hand, I think anything that wasn't actually released here in the first place wouldn't make it "ineligible", because it's not like the sales were happening and just didn't count. It wasn't a huge hit by any means but one example I can think of is Alesha Dixon's The Way We Are, which I think could have been a top 40 hit but she chose to withdraw it from being able to chart unfortunately. Fleur East's Uptown Funk cover from X Factor would likely have scored a high chart position had it been eligible too, particularly before Mark Ronson brought the release of the original version forward.

Placebo - Special K is another one that was ineligible in the UK due to its irregular two CD single release I believe.

20 minutes ago, JosephBoone said:

As for the topic at hand, I think anything that wasn't actually released here in the first place wouldn't make it "ineligible", because it's not like the sales were happening and just didn't count. It wasn't a huge hit by any means but one example I can think of is Alesha Dixon's The Way We Are, which I think could have been a top 40 hit but she chose to withdraw it from being able to chart unfortunately. Fleur East's Uptown Funk cover from X Factor would likely have scored a high chart position had it been eligible too, particularly before Mark Ronson brought the release of the original version forward.

Out of interest, why did she choose to withdraw its chart eligibility? Seems odd that an artist would want to do that!

1 hour ago, Julian_ said:

Ah sorry - I think he was Norman’s protégé though and Norman was actively involved in the record. I remember him being asked about why it didn’t chart and saying basically because we screwed up.

It did chart at #55 though, was one format of it (like a vinyl) allowed or something?

But yeah, I couldn't believe that at the time. I was expecting to see it appear in the top 10 that week and then it just didn't.

14 minutes ago, C.O. said:

Honestly, think it would have been another No.1 for them, however they obviously "couldn't promote it sufficiently"

I highly doubt it would have been, it was already on an album which had sold reasonably well and Christmas 2001 was very fierce competition-wise. I always imagined it'd be like a #4 at that time or something.

I'm still pissed off at what happened with that though, as it's my favourite song of theirs!

19 minutes ago, Dircadirca said:

Placebo - Special K is another one that was ineligible in the UK due to its irregular two CD single release I believe.

This is from the Wikipedia page:

The band originally planned to release the single in the UK as a two part CD set as well as a 12" vinyl release. However, several radio stations refused to play the single due to its lyrical content, which would prevent the song from charting highly. Undeterred, the band reshuffled the release into one 7-track enhanced EP for CD, which would be ineligible for the charts. They issued a statement via their official fan club website, which read:

"The British Music Industry which has recently been championing disposable, facile pop and music which promotes homophobia, misogyny and violence has in it's [sic] infinite wisdom, taken offence to the lyrical content of our new single 'Special K'.

"This combined with our ongoing dissatisfaction with the two CD system, since we feel it rips off genuine music fans, has forced us to take the decision to bypass the system completely. 'Special K' will therefore be released on one single, available at regular CD single price, and comprise of 8 items which will make it non chart eligible.

"We feel this is the best deal for our fans and that it drives home the statement that we don't care about chart positions.

"Take care and have respect for each other. Keep the faith and never let the sycophants and small minded people of this world get you down.

Sincerely, Brian Molko Stefan Olsdal Steven Hewitt"

21 minutes ago, Mangø said:

Out of interest, why did she choose to withdraw its chart eligibility? Seems odd that an artist would want to do that!

Seems like she was making a point about being an independent artist and it not being a level playing field! https://www.digitalspy.com/music/a672929/this-is-why-alesha-dixon-is-re-writing-the-chart-rules-with-her-new-music/

4 hours ago, Dobbo said:

Something about instant grat rules at the time iirc but could be wrong.

Yeah think Taylors Welcome to New York was the first track to benefit from that change

MARRS - Pump up the Volume was temporarily ineligible because they had to replace the sample from Stock Aitken and Waterman's Roadblock which was not cleared. Still climbed to number 1 after the cleared version was released.

Edited April 29Apr 29 by zenon

52 minutes ago, zenon said:

MARRS - Pump up the Volume was temporarily ineligible because they had to replace the sample from Stock Aitken and Waterman's Roadblock which was not cleared. Still climbed to number 1 after the cleared version was released.

In 1992 Shut Up and Dance - Raving I'm Raving was ineligible during week 2 because of the uncleared sample hence its iconic 2-15-out chart run.

Yeah Ariana’s BreakFree was prevented from charting due to the instant gratification rule at the time.

Similarly Do What U Want by Lady Gaga didn’t chart for its first few weeks until ARTPOP came out as instant grats weren’t chart eligible. It would’ve had a couple of extra weeks top 10 had it been able to chart.

Interesting point on Fleur East’s version of Uptown Funk. I remember she performed it on X Factor as a contestant before the song had even been released by Bruno / Mark. It was an interesting promotional technique which paid off big time as the song went on to be huge.

I’m guessing X Factor contestant performances weren’t chart eligible because it might’ve been seen as favouriting certain contestants who did well on downloads etc.

I always thought it was strange x factor performances were ineligible to chart yet the voice ones weren't.

Lena’s Satellite was released midway through the week and not available for several days after she won Eurovision, hence its lowly debut of No.30 after the early hype had dissipated. Crazy label decision after Fairytale went top ten the previous year.

What was the issue with Obsessed by Mariah Carey? Didn’t it keep getting delayed over and over again while the hype was at its highest point? And by the time it came out it missed the top 40, yet is one of her biggest songs in the streaming era!

Such a shame that You Are by Atomic Kitten was pulled as I agree it was on course for top three and a decent chart run. The late 90s and early 00s had several examples of this - like We Are Here by DJ Pied Piper which was probably on course for top ten, and would have saved them from being a one hit wonder.

Also, I See Right Through To You by DJ Encore which was pulled at the last minute and would have gone top 20 I’m sure.