July 17Jul 17 Author NO 44- U2 (1,968,800)13 UK TOP 40 HITSBIGGEST HIT: HOLD ME THRILL ME KISS ME KILL ME (471,000) whilst they had 10 top 20 hits in both decades the group managed a couple of chart toppers in the former decade, and 1995’s “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me” being their best selling single to date when it was released. The band were never really a singles act, and whilst singles tended to enter and peak high, they tended to be 2 or 3 week affairs with a quick slump, the record mentioned being an exception mainly to its continual promotion on the “Batman Forever” film.... They sold just 16,000 singles more in the 90s than the 80s!
July 17Jul 17 Author NO 43- FIVE (1,979,600)7 UK TOP 40 HITSBIGGEST HIT: KEEP ON MOVIN (421,000) The bad-boy boyband it was cool to like and the natural heirs to East 17, Five (also known as 5ive- that’s sooooo 90s) accumulated 7 straight top 10 hits in the last 25 months of the decade to accelerate into the top 50 for the decade! After steadily improving chart positions from their debut “Slam Dunk (Da Funk) which made No 10, the group final nabbed a No 1 in Nov 99 with just a month to spare. They must have been frustrated after a trio of No 2 hits in 1998-99 saw them top midweek charts in some cases but fail to hold onto the top slot. Their success remained solid until their demise in 2001 by which time their string of top 10 hits had expanded to eleven......
July 17Jul 17 Author NO 42- COOLIO (1,989,600)7 UK TOP 40 HITSBIGGEST HIT: GANGSRTA’S PARADISE (1.268,000) With “Gangsta’s Paradise” contributing over half his total, Coolio must be truly thankfully for the idea to sample Stevie Wonder. His remaining three top 10 hits topped up his tally and a further big hit was scored in 1997 when “C U When U get There” (which again contained a sample, this time Pachelbel’s Canon) sold a very healthy 300K +. A very quiet 00s peaked for him with an appearance in “Celebrity Big Brother” where he didn’t exactly come across well!....
July 17Jul 17 U2 and Five very respectable and deserved slots there, consistency rather than the biggie that has flattered Coolio somewhat. A classic yes, and C U When U Get There is fab too, but excluding those two wouldnt leave much in the way of sales.
July 18Jul 18 Author NO 41- GABRIELLE (1,990,400)10 UK TOP 40 HITSBIGGEST HIT: IF YOU EVER (549,000) So here’s the best selling UK female soloist of the decade. A debut single and No 1 “Dreams” kick started her career which although erratic was successful, and by the end of the decade she had accrued 10 hits of which 6 had gone top 10. Often underestimated, her success was pretty solid for 10 years although she hasn’t really been seen for a while now she certainly left her mark on the 90s and is perhaps the surprise bigest selling UK Female Solo Artist of the decade....
July 18Jul 18 Author NO 40- 2 UNLIMITED (1,995,300)14 UK TOP 40 HITSBIGGEST HIT: NO LIMIT (531,000) Meanwhile these are only the 2nd highest placed Dutch act on our list. Pete Waterman recalls that he was sent their singles with Ray’s vocals on them which were, allegedly, so bad he had to remove them before they were given a release. No matter as they were hits anyway. “Commercial dance” (There’s a phrase you don’t hear that much anymore) was a powerful force in the 90s chart and 2 Unlimited rode into the charts on the back of it. All 14 of their hits were in this decade and all made the top 40 though after 94 the top 10 hits ceased, interestingly they were the 2nd biggest selling single artists of 1993, beaten only by Take That.....
July 18Jul 18 Author NO 39- ACE OF BASE (2,014,400)12 UKTOP 40 HITSBIGGEST HIT: ALL THAT SHE WANTS (603,000) The “Abba for the 90s” are the first act to break the 2 million mark for singles sales in the 90s and also struck it very big in the US. “All That She Wants” and “The Sign” contribute over 1 million sales between the two of them at a time when singles sales weren’t amazing. A spate of successes at the end of the decade when sales were much healthier helped them to climb up the charts perhaps higher than most thought they would get....
July 18Jul 18 Gabrielle!!! I'm a huge fan and she is sadly so underrated. She had such a solid run of great singles and a few really good albums too... Rise is up there as one of my favourite albums ever!
July 19Jul 19 Gabrielle did well, and earned that sales total pretty much, though oddly her best year was 2000 for me. 2 Unlimited did well to extend a couple of good singles into a long run of hits, but few are memorable these days, Ace Of Base also seemed like a short-run band but came big in the later end of the decade with their best stuff, so good to see them in the top 40. Pop is not a dirty word to me, when done well.
July 19Jul 19 Gabrielle , wow she has some killer material that she has written mostly herself! She always had huge gaps between album campaigns and still managed to have hits. If You Ever huge sales but stuck behind the power of the spice girls.If you like Gabrielle back then check out ‘Shine’. I am so pleased you chose Forget About The World, a song lyrically about her friend telling her that she is a lesbian. The single mix of this song on all the compilations slaps.
July 19Jul 19 Author NO 38- BON JOVI (2,043,600)15 UK TOP 40 HITSBIGGEST HIT: ALWAYS (559,000) Despite pretty much turning out the same hit continually all decade long, 80s rockers Bon Jovi have proved many critics wrong and gone the distance- still producing hits into the 2010s. This total does not include solo sales for Jon Bon Jovi, yet despite that they are hardly needed to secure this lofty position, their biggest year being 94 when they finished in 6th place. Their biggest hit of the decade “Always” contributed heavily to that tally and indeed the decade end sales tally...
July 19Jul 19 Author NO 37- CLIFF RICHARD (2,069,900)19 UK TOP 40 HITSBIGGEST HIT: MILLENNIUM PRAYER (860,000) By far the oldest star on this countdown and certainly the one with the longest chart history, Cliff didn’t have a terrible 90s outstripping far younger, and more fashionable bands. Naturally “Millennium Prayer” allows him to finish in the top 40 for the 90s and without it he would have finished down in 86th on this survey. He had 7 top 10 hits throughout the decade but cannily, as he became associated Christmas, he made sure he had a single available over the high selling festive period which ensured he maximised sales for his annual single and come the decade end reaped the benefits.....
July 19Jul 19 Author NO 36- THE VENGABOYS (2,079,500)5 UK TOP 40 HITSBIGGEST HIT: BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM (578,000) Selling a prodigious 1.7 million records in 99 to finish the year as the 2nd biggest act on the singles scene, the vengaboys first 5 singles are entirely responsible for their position here. All their singles went top 4 and in the Y/E 99 charts they placed three singles in the top 40 impressive by any one’s standards. As soon as the new decade came along however the hits dried up and 2001 saw the last time they graced the charts, brief and glorious....
July 19Jul 19 Goodness Vengaboys weren't even on my radar to be included in this! Can't think why though she had some massive hits. I saw them as a support act for Steps in 2017 and they were actually brilliant, I came away a bigger fan than I had previously been.
July 20Jul 20 Vengaboys, well thats a shock, I see them as a novelty act that had a brief career oops. Cliff at 86th would have been more appropriate for everything he released (still largely decent) until the albatross that is Millennium Prayer. Bon Jovi a bit flattered by Always selling well, but then again Jon Bon Jovi solo is pretty much Bon Jovi anyway, so it evens out. Can I link my lunchtime with Jon backstage at the Radio One Roadshow again? Thanks. This is my video...
July 20Jul 20 Author NO 35- LIGHTNING SEEDS (2,110,900)13 UK TOP 40 HITSBIGGEST HIT: THREE LIONS (785,000) Ok, so without “3 Lions” they wouldn’t be on this list that's fair enough to say but the band also had 13 other hits outside that million seller and seven made the top 20. They were another band who seemed to hover under the radar for most of the 90s whilst silently accumulating hits and sales, by the mid 90s they were on a winning streak, and the band were a constant fixture on the top 100 best selling singles artists of the year 95-98....
July 20Jul 20 Author NO 34 -SASH! (2,120,800)7 UK TOP 40 HITSBIGGEST HIT: ENCORE UNE FOIS (472,000) It’s a much more continental rundown for the 90s (over the 80s). Now it’s Germany’s time with DJ Sash who not only hit the No 2 spot on 4 occasions without ever getting to the top but also famously became the first act to record their first four hits in different languages, French, Spanish, English & Italian. Their debut year of 1997 was far and away their best when they sold over a million copies to be the 5th biggest act of the year in what was a stellar year for sales anyway. Like the Vengaboys they found the new decade a struggle and failed to chart outside 2000 except for a remix of their first hit which made the top 10 all over again in 2008....
July 20Jul 20 Author NO 33- BRITNEY SPEARS (2,128,000)3 UK TOP 40 HITSBIGGEST HIT: BABY ONE MORE TIME (1,445,000) BIGGEST SELLING ACT OF 1999 Here she is then. Just 3 hits in the space of 11 months took Ms Spears from obscurity to the decade top 40. The Mighty “...Baby one More Time” makes up more than 50% of her total of course but nobody sold more singles in the UK in 1999 than Britney, the tracks first week sale of 463K were a record at the time for a debut single and of course she’s still around these days knocking out a top 10 hit in 2022 but few debut videos created the impact that “Baby” did back in early 99.......
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