Steps’ Tragedy was another one that unusually stuck around for 5-6 weeks before climbing to No.1 too. Although I guess all saints did something similar a year earlier. How do I live was another one that’s not been mentioned that sat around for a while but never managed the top 5.

Growing up in the late 90s I remember always being puzzled when records were broken for the most no.1 debuts etc as I had no other concept of how the charts were. I do miss going to Woolies or Asda (as ours had a huge music section) and seeing the singles chart as it was usually a good indicator of how the Sunday chart would look. Also buying the odd single here and there. The only thing I didn’t like was that if a song you liked debuted at a relatively low spot you had to just accept that was it and it wouldn’t improve not to mention the high No.1 turnover at some points got very boring.

2 hours ago, Supercell said:

Steps’ Tragedy was another one that unusually stuck around for 5-6 weeks before climbing to No.1 too. Although I guess all saints did something similar a year earlier. How do I live was another one that’s not been mentioned that sat around for a while but never managed the top 5.

Growing up in the late 90s I remember always being puzzled when records were broken for the most no.1 debuts etc as I had no other concept of how the charts were. I do miss going to Woolies or Asda (as ours had a huge music section) and seeing the singles chart as it was usually a good indicator of how the Sunday chart would look. Also buying the odd single here and there. The only thing I didn’t like was that if a song you liked debuted at a relatively low spot you had to just accept that was it and it wouldn’t improve not to mention the high No.1 turnover at some points got very boring.

Yeah totally agree that at some points the turnover was far too high. Still better than the stagnant nature of today’s charts though I’d say. I quite liked the charts when downloads hit in the mid-noughties and we had a good mix of big debuts and songs entering low and climbing gradually again.

I remember in the early 90s the early 2 part CD singles were coming out. CD1 was released in a case that had space for another disc which would come out a week later, the idea being that the buyer would go back and get the 2nd one to complete the set. You'd possibly get a mini greatest hits album out of it with 3 earlier hits on each CD. Another one was to put 3 live tracks on each and the 2nd disc would maybe use a live version of the lead track. Some bands took it a stage further and did the same with all singles from the same album so you could get an entire concert by buying all the singles. My favourite was REM who released a cassette single for Tongue which used a full length blank tape for you to record the live tracks onto and had a reversible sleeve.

4 hours ago, robbied said:

Yeah totally agree that at some points the turnover was far too high. Still better than the stagnant nature of today’s charts though I’d say. I quite liked the charts when downloads hit in the mid-noughties and we had a good mix of big debuts and songs entering low and climbing gradually again.

Yeah agree it’s almost gone too far the other way now but the download era was a nice middle ground.

On 06/06/2026 at 08:42, Supercell said:

Steps’ Tragedy was another one that unusually stuck around for 5-6 weeks before climbing to No.1 too.

Was this to do it with being a 'double-A side' (a term that made very little sense in the post-vinyl era but carried on for a while) with Heartbeat? I think Heartbeat got all the promo when it first charted in late 1998, due to its Christmas-themed video, and then Tragedy soundtracked New Year parties into early 1999, hence its belated rise to the top that year.

Not sure if that was intentional or not, or what was intended as a fun bonus cover version ended up as the bigger hit, but it worked out great for the band all the same.

2 hours ago, BillyH said:

Was this to do it with being a 'double-A side' (a term that made very little sense in the post-vinyl era but carried on for a while) with Heartbeat? I think Heartbeat got all the promo when it first charted in late 1998, due to its Christmas-themed video, and then Tragedy soundtracked New Year parties into early 1999, hence its belated rise to the top that year.

Not sure if that was intentional or not, or what was intended as a fun bonus cover version ended up as the bigger hit, but it worked out great for the band all the same.

Yeah, 'Heartbeat' was the promoted side up to Christmas, with 'Tragedy' being promoted after Christmas.

Yeh I def liked the charts better before held back releases as you felt the no1s were better earned.