On The Floor still sounds great and it's fun having it back in the charts. I liked Lambada but this revamp is clubbier. I think I like it even more than I did at the time (and that was top 10 personal charts), and it might well be my fave J-Lo track ahead of Ain't It Funny.

Rihanna had some total bangers around that time, but What's My Name wasn't one of 'em! It's better than almost every record that has had Drake's name of the label, though and it went top 20 for me. At least Drake not sounding like a dalek in those days.

2 – We Found Love – Rihanna ft Calvin Harris

6 Weeks at #1 / Weekly Sales – 87,573 / 106,553 / 92,689 / 79,834 / 66,941 / 79,804

#5 in EOY 2011 – Total Sales of 902,500

The silver medal and that means second place in my countdown goes to an artist who continued to ride the wave of her popularity from previous years, its Rihanna with We Found Love ft Calvin Harris. Spending six weeks at #1 in two separate three week stints across October, November and December and would go on to see We Found Love end 2011 as the song with the most weeks at #1 for the year. When this was released I found it to be a real breath of fresh air as I hadn’t largely connected with many of the 10 different songs that topped the UK charts of the previous ten weeks. I have very clear memories of when this was released and it was on very regular rotation on car journeys with friends on weekends, we’d play it multiple times no matter where we went. I was going through a bit of a dry spell with listening to club bangers at this time of year but this reignited it again for me after some brilliant releases from earlier in the year.

As much as I love this though it probably wouldn’t make my top 5 Rihanna or even potentially top 10 Rihanna singles. Saying that though this is still an absolute banger of a song and was so incredibly close to being my #1. Unfortunately though it fell short to a song from an artist that had one of the all time biggest years in 2011, more on that next.

Of the six weeks We Found Love spend at #1 it only kept four songs with a #2 peak, Moves Like Jagger from Maroon 5 and Christina Aguilera, Lightning by  The Wanted, Take A Chance On Me by JLS and Good Feeling by Flo Rida.

Elsewhere on the charts over that six week period Gym Class Heros and Adam Levine debuted at #3 with Stereo Hearts, giving Adam Lavigne the #2 and #3 song that week. Kelly Clarkson debuted at #6 and Lana Del Rey at #9 with Mr Know It All and Video Games. Pixie Lott followed up her #1 hit All About Tonight with a #10 debut for follow up single What Do You Take Me For and One Direction’s follow up to the massively successful debut  single What Makes You Beautiful debuted at #3, Gott Be You.

1 – Someone Like You - Adele

5 Weeks at #1 / Weekly Sales – 111,739 / 114,792 / 116,347 / 95,654 / 82,357

#1 in EOY 2011 – Total Sales of 1,242,917

There could only be one song taking out my gold medal for my favourite #1 single of 2011 and that is the gigantic smash hit single Someone Like You by Adele. Released as the second single from her second album 21 in February Someone Like You debuted at #36 on the UK singles chart before climbing to #33 the following week and falling to #47 in it’s third week. Then of the 15^th of February Adele performed Someone Like You and that sent the song soaring up the charts, after selling less than 7,500 copies the week prior Somone Like You would rocket from #47 to #1 with sales of 111,739 copies. It then stayed at the top of the singles chart for an additional three weeks with sales of 114,792, 116,347 and 95,654 before being replaced by Don’t Hold Your Breath. It would however return to #1 the following week for one last week with sales of 82,357, by which point it had amassed sales of 632,607 copies.

I’ve always loved this song and been a big fan of Adele’s right from 2008. I can still remember reading a review in the newspaper for 19 a few days before it was released and it had made me curious to check it out, so I went on YouTube to listen to Chasing Pavements and I was hooked from then. The next day I got the train into the city and asked at the music store whether they’d got any copies of 19 in to go on sale the following day, to my surprise the guy working at the shop returned with CD is hand and asked if this was it. I looked at it, said yes and then they sold it to me. Over the next few years I regularly listened to 19 so when 21 was announced I was eagerly looking forward to it.

I loved 21 from the first listen and Someone Like You was my favourite song from the album, I can recall how many times I listened to that album, around the house, on the train, on car journeys I played it a heap. My preferred version of Someone Like You has to be her version from the 2011 Brits as it just feels so raw and emotional, I’d tapped the Brits that year as I wasn’t able to watch them at the time and I must’ve watched that performance at least 50 times in the first week, so much so that I think even my parents knew the words to the song…

Someone Like You took a little longer to find its way to #1 internationally though. It took until the end of June to reach #1 in Australia where it stayed for 7 weeks and it took until September for it to reach #1 in the US.

In the five weeks Someone Like You was at #1 it didn’t prevent any #2 from reaching the top (Price Tag and Don’t Hold Your Breath). Someone Like You would end 2011 as the highest selling song in the UK with sales of 1,242,917.

The full countdown:

1.      Someone Like You – Adele

2.      We Found Love – Rihanna ft Calvin Harris

3.      What’s My Name – Rihanna ft Drake

4.      One The Floor – Jennifer Lopez ft Pitbull

5.      Don’t Hold Your Breath – Nicole Scherzinger

6.      Price Tag – Jessie J ft B.o.B

7.      Give Me Everything – Pitbull ft Ne-Yo, Afrojack and Nayer

8.      Read All About It – Professor Green ft Emeli Sande

9.      We R Who We R – Kesha

10.  Dance With Me Tonight – Olly Murs

 

11.  Grenade – Bruno Mars

12.  No Regrets – Dappy

13.  Heart Skips a Bit – Olly Murs ft Rizzle Kicks

14.  Promises – Nero

15.  Louder – DJ Fresh ft Sian Evans

16.  What Makes You Beautiful – One Direction

17.  Stay Awake – Example

18.  All About Tonight – Pixie Lott

19.  Swagger Jagger – Cher Lloyd

20.  Party Rock Anthem – LMFAO ft Lauren Bennett and GoonRock

 

21.  Wherever You Are – Military Wives ft Gareth Malone

22.  The Lazy Song – Bruno Mars

23.  Changed The Way You Kissed Me – Example

24.  Loca People – Sak Noel

25.  Don’t Wanna Go Home – Jason Derulo

26.  Cannonball – Little Mix

27.  When We Collide – Matt Cardle

28.  Don’t Go – Wretch 32 ft Josh Kumra

29.  She Makes Me Wanna – JLS ft Dev

30.  Glad You Came – The Wanted

31.  Wishing On a Star – X Factor Finalists 2011 ft JLS and One Direction

Well that brings to a close my rank of the UK #1 Singles in 2011. Thank you everyone for following along with me and for commenting along with the countdown. I’ve loved following these from when @gooddelta started these mid last year and it really was an honour to be given this opportunity to participate in what is something I consider to be a very popular series in the 21^st Century Throwback Forum, so thank you for that opportunity @Julian_.

I found this to be quite the experience going through and revisiting all 31 UK #1’s from 2011. It brought back so many memories for me both good and bad and founds at times that doing this was quite therapeutic. So thank you for the care and love shown through as well with some of my commentaries, it really put a smile on my face.

I will now pass the baton over to @RabbitFurCoat who will be taking you through the UK #1’s of 2012.

So I had the same top 2 but the other way round!

We Found Love is my favourite Rihanna and my favourite Calvin song. A wonderful energetic banger with the ultimate of build and release, fantastic pop and club music. Those stabbing keyboards harking back to the piano of peak house music days. I love it!

Someone Like You is gorgeous of course, great emotive vocal performance though also restrained just enough. I also prefer that Brits performance, the emotion and the emphasis change in the chorus, absolutely jaw dropping though, even now.

Fantastic thread @Paddington James, really enjoyed your countdown and commentary and loved joining in. I’m so glad you enjoyed it too. I only hope I can get somewhere close to it in 2013, you’ve set a high bar. Particularly enjoyed your view from Australia!

Here’s my ranking:

1. We Found Love (feat. Calvin Harris) — Rihanna

2. Someone Like You — Adele

3. Price Tag (feat. B.o.B) — Jessie J

4. Promises — Nero

5. Glad You Came — The Wanted

6. Loca People (What the F**k!) — Sak Noel

7. Louder (feat. Sian Evans) — DJ Fresh

8. Don't Go (feat. Josh Kumra) — Wretch 32

9. Read All About It (feat. Emeli Sandé) — Professor Green

10. When We Collide — Matt Cardle

11. Grenade — Bruno Mars

12. What's My Name? (feat. Drake) — Rihanna

13. Give Me Everything (feat. Ne-Yo, Afrojack & Nayer) — Pitbull

14. Changed the Way You Kiss Me — Example

15. On the Floor (feat. Pitbull) — Jennifer Lopez

16. Don't Hold Your Breath — Nicole Scherzinger

17. Heart Skips a Beat (feat. Rizzle Kicks) — Olly Murs

18. What Makes You Beautiful — One Direction

19. Swagger Jagger — Cher Lloyd

20. Wherever You Are — Military Wives, Gareth Malone & London Symphony Orchestra

21. We R Who We R — Kesha

22. No Regrets — Dappy

23. All About Tonight — Pixie Lott

24. Party Rock Anthem (feat. Lauren Bennett & GoonRock) — LMFAO

25. The Lazy Song — Bruno Mars

26. Cannonball — Little Mix

27. Dance With Me Tonight — Olly Murs

28. Stay Awake — Example

29. She Makes Me Wanna (feat. Dev) — JLS

30. Don't Wanna Go Home — Jason Derulo

31. Wishing on a Star - X Factor Finalists

Thank you very much @Jaz13music I'm really pleased you enjoyed it! 😃

I know you'll do a fantastic job with the 2013 edition. I was a little nervous too, nut I just found a write up style that worked best for me. 🙂

Thank you @Paddington James for this nice countdown. Here is my positioning with the numbers from your ranking in brackets:

1. Heart Skips a Beat – Olly Murs ft Rizzle Kicks (13)

2. Grenade – Bruno Mars (11)

3. We R Who We R – Kesha (9)

4. Someone Like You – Adele (1)

5. On The Floor – Jennifer Lopez ft Pitbull (4)

6. Give Me Everything – Pitbull ft Ne-Yo, Afrojack and Nayer (7)

7. Glad You Came – The Wanted (30) <- biggest gap upwards, really love this song - it is so catchy

8. We Found Love – Rihanna ft Calvin Harris (2)

9. Price Tag – Jessie J ft B.o.B (6)

10. Changed The Way You Kissed Me – Example

11. Promises – Nero (14)

12. What Makes You Beautiful – One Direction (16)

13. Don’t Go – Wretch 32 ft Josh Kumra (28)

14. Party Rock Anthem – LMFAO ft Lauren Bennett and GoonRock (20)

15. Stay Awake – Example (17)

16. Don’t Hold Your Breath – Nicole Scherzinger (5)

17. The Lazy Song – Bruno Mars (22)

18. Louder – DJ Fresh ft Sian Evans (15)

19. Loca People – Sak Noel

20. What’s My Name – Rihanna ft Drake (3) <- biggest gap downwards, very average Rihanna song and I don't like the efforts from Drake much. Here start the songs I don't rate much.

21. Dance With Me Tonight – Olly Murs (10)

22. Read All About It – Professor Green ft Emeli Sande (8) <- Emeli's solo version so much better, shit rapping destroys songs

23. She Makes Me Wanna – JLS ft Dev (29)

24. All About Tonight – Pixie Lott (18)

25. When We Collide – Matt Cardle (27)

26. Don’t Wanna Go Home – Jason Derulo (25)

27. Cannonball – Little Mix (26)

28. No Regrets – Dappy (12)

29. Wherever You Are – Military Wives ft Gareth Malone (21)

30. Wishing On a Star – X Factor Finalists 2011 ft JLS and One Direction (31)

31. Swagger Jagger – Cher Lloyd (19) <- one of the worst songs of all time

Rihanna's Calvin-production is a bop, though I also wouldnt expect it would make my top 10 Rihanna tracks, and I did get a bit fed-up hearing it (still not sounding fresh again, so that's pending) but not nearly as fed up as I was with Someone Like You. A good ballad but I much preferred other singles off the album, and I havent really felt any need to listen to it for quite some time.

My top 5? Probably...

1. Grenade

2. On The Floor

3. Changed The Way You Kissed Me

4. Glad You Came

5. Heart Skips A Beat