NO 63- MARK MORRISON (1,539,000)

8 UK TOP 40 HITS

BIGGEST HIT: RETURN OF THE MACK (838,000)

Equally as famous for his stints in prison as his stints in the charts, Mark Morrison was probably the biggest UK R n B star of the mid 90s and strung together five straight top 10 hits in 96-97. Needless to say it all ended in ignominy when Morrison was sentenced to do community service and instead got a look-a-like to do it whilst he went off on tour. As a student in Leicester at the time I still recall seeing his jeep around town with “only God Can Judge Me” written on the spare wheel on the back.....nice...

Pet Shop Boys doing pretty well to say 80's is their massive era, and mostly due to consistency across the decade and beyond. And sheer quality. I'm biased. Robert Miles tracks were good, but shows how a few hits can distort position/sales vs longer careers. Return Of The Mack is a classic, and Mark Morrison is a role model to absolutely dozens and dozens of people. I wonder if the Warders' gave him a few bars of it when he arrived for a spell resting at H.M.'s pleasure....

NO 62- VARIOUS ARTISTS- PERFECT DAY (1,539,500)

1 UK TOP 40 HITS

BIGGEST HIT: PERFECT DAY (1,539,000)

Originally put together by the BBC to promote its range of Music programmes they decided to use the new version of “Perfect Day” for that year's Children In Need appeal. Debuting at No 1 the single sold 385K in its first week , over a million to become the 4th biggest single of the year and the act (if they are that) were the 6th biggest single sellers of 97. It was the first of 6 CIN chart toppers but remains far and away the biggest selling and are the highest placed “act” to be here thanks to just 1 release .....

NO 61- MEAT LOAF (1,547,200)

8 UK TOP 40 HITS

BIGGEST HIT: I’D DO ANYTHING FOR LOVE (BUT I WON’T DO THAT) (761,000)

Far outstripping his 80s sales the Loaf had a fantastic 90s with 1993 being a particularly standout year when Meat got the best selling single and album of the year, and he was the 4th biggest singles artist of that year with over 800K singles sold. In total 4 top 10 hits came his way through the decade, all unmistakeably Meat Loaf records delivered in his own high drama style....

NO 60- ROXETTE (1,550,600)

16 UK TOP 40 HITS

BIGGEST HIT: IT MUST HAVE BEEN LOVE (428,000)

Quite comfortably one of the biggest Scandinavian’s on this survey are Sweden’s Roxette. Like Savage Garden it took US success to prompt the UK to take notice, and even then we were luke warm, though “The Look” made the top 10 in 1989 follow up’s were unsuccessful and it took “It Must Have Been Love” (and a spot on the soundtrack of “Pretty Woman”) to re-launch them here in 1990. 4 top 10 hits was their tally in the 90s though a return to the charts in 97 with “I Wish I Could Fly” did make No 11 it was a brief return to their early 90s high...

That has really shocked me re Meatloaf! Single sales must have been low in 1993 if 760k was the biggest selling single of the year! 🫨

Were “Various Artists” technically credited on any other track than “Perfect Day”?

2 hours ago, Spiceboy said:

That has really shocked me re Meatloaf! Single sales must have been low in 1993 if 760k was the biggest selling single of the year! 🫨

That’s great sales for any song from the early 90s!! Take out the rare long runners like Whitney & Bryan Adams and I suspect Meat Loaf sold quite a bit more than the vast majority of other #1s

This list will be heavily biased towards the second half of the 90s when sales were significantly better so any acts from 90-94 will have done really well to feature

2 hours ago, chartjack2 said:

Were “Various Artists” technically credited on any other track than “Perfect Day”?

Not sure what you mean? The individual acts didn't receive the sales of "Perfect Day" plus their own sales from their solo releases if that's what you mean?

No I mean other hits attributed to the specific moniker “Various Artists”

1 hour ago, chartjack2 said:

No I mean other hits attributed to the specific moniker “Various Artists”

Ah I see. No they are all classed individually.

8 hours ago, dandy* said:

That’s great sales for any song from the early 90s!! Take out the rare long runners like Whitney & Bryan Adams and I suspect Meat Loaf sold quite a bit more than the vast majority of other #1s

This list will be heavily biased towards the second half of the 90s when sales were significantly better so any acts from 90-94 will have done really well to feature

It still surprises me, I thought it was a million seller easily especially with 7 weeks at #1. Not discrediting its success just shows that sales in the early 90s were clearly lower.

NO 59- TONI BRAXTON (1,570,900)

8 UK TOP 40 HITS

BIGGEST HIT: UNBREAK MY HEART (780,000)

Her two smash hits “Un-Break My Heart” and “Breathe Again” are the two main contributors to Braxton’s total here, but the singer was always much bigger in the states throughout the 90s. She was unlucky not to make the top here with those two records as, together, they spent 4 weeks in the runner spot on the charts....

NO 58- PRINCE/ SYMBOL/ THE ARTIST FORMERLY KNOWN AS… (1,594,400)

19 TOP 40 HITS

BIGGEST HIT: THE MOST BEAUTIFUL GIRL IN THE WORLD (348,000)

 

After going through more name changes than Fatboy slim in the decade Prince surfaces at No 58. He finally got a UK chart topper in 1994 after 11 years of trying but ironically, it was the beginning of the end of his commercial powers. His final “original” top 10 hit was back in 95 with “Gold” but 9 top 10 hits in the decade is nothing to be sniffed at and he deserves his place in our top 100.....,

NO 57- SHAGGY (1,603,000)

7 UK TOP 40 HITS

BIGGEST HIT: BOOMBASTIC (567,000)

 

The most consistent reggae star of the 90s, Shaggy was a former Marine who abandoned the world of the Military for the life of a popstar. He had a rather erratic 90s and just when you thought he had disappeared he managed to emerge with another hit, debut hit “Oh Carolina” became his first No 1 in 1993 before waiting another two years for his next one “Boombastic”.

 

 Like Babylon Zoo he owed his success on that record to a Levi jeans advert, and it would be a further 6 years before he would collect another couple of number one songs in 2001 but all that is beyond the scope of this rundown.....

Prince is such an interesting one. Undeniably an icon and a legend but not quite as big a seller as his reputation maybe? I always grew up putting him in the same league as Michael Jackson and Madonna (and creatively I think he was) but they vastly outsold him and had longer lasting success.

5 minutes ago, Spiceboy said:

Prince is such an interesting one. Undeniably an icon and a legend but not quite as big a seller as his reputation maybe? I always grew up putting him in the same league as Michael Jackson and Madonna (and creatively I think he was) but they vastly outsold him and had longer lasting success.

Yes certainly in terms of UK sales he was a lesser star compared to the others you mention, how far behind he was we'll see by the end of the thread! His 80s sales were 2.6 million compared to Jackson's 5.4m and Madonna’s 7m so even if you add Prince’s 80s and 90s sales together you don't equal the others 80s only sales....let alone their sales in the 90s....

Prince was a major iconic pop star, prolific too which will have helped his sales total, but his commercially disastrous "Slave" response to Warner Brothers did in potential extra sales when they were higher generally. Totally deserves to be higher on the rundown despite that and the 80's being his classic era. Meat Loaf was more compensation for not being huge in singles in the 70's as one might have thought in terms of timeless tracks. His 90's stuff was decent but not on a par with the orginal Bat Out Of Hell.

Shaggy's great fun, always happy to have him around confounding people who are not fans, and still around, I just bought his tasteful cover of Ain't No Sunshine with Sting low-key helping, but he still bungs out great singalong reggae and totally deserves to be on the 90's list. Toni Braxton, not generally a fan, over-emoting at times for me but she had a couple of decent ballads, one good remix, and a lot of forgettable but not actually bad stuff. So her placing is more of a surprise.

Roxette are fab. That UK lull after The Look was mystifying as singles off Look Sharp were just as good (and became hits eventually) but they lost out on Dangerous getting sales separately from the big ballad Listen To Your Heart in early 1980 as it was in the USA. So I reckon they should have been a few places higher.

Roxette are a big childhood favourite of mine, their singles from the first two albums are really wonderful pop songs

NO 56- THE OUTHERE BROTHERS (1,651,800)

5 UK TOP 40 HITS

BIGGEST SELLER: BOOM BOOM BOOM (652,000)

The 4th biggest selling singles act of 1995 are next. A couple of No 1 singles with “Don’t Stop (Wiggle Wiggle)” and “Boom Boom Boom” made them, temporarily, quite big for about 6 months. Their “talent” was the ability to put some rather rude and crude lyrics together with dance music, and hey presto the kids lapped it up, but their success was really limited to a 12 month time frame. A rather lame reprisal of “ole ole” in 97 was their final hit but hung about for only 3 weeks and then silence, a prime example of why under 10s shouldn’t be allowed to buy singles.....