Much higher sales climate as well on late 90s vs first half of the 90s

Such tension! Two absolutely iconic (and very English) acts in their own way….

I lived through the 90s but I

On 03/08/2026 at 11:15, Jade said:

Impressive for MJ in a less revered decade, his best '90s songs for me are some of the more underrated ones like 'Who Is It' and 'Stranger In Moscow'

Oh yes, on paper 'Beautiful Stranger' does looks surprising as Madonna's top '90s seller! The decade houses one of her most iconic songs in 'Vogue' and the entire Ray of Light era, so it's funny that this Austin Powers soundtrack song usurped everything else. I do like it though!

It can't be far ahead of Frozen as that ended 1998 in a similar end of year position as Beautiful Stranger did in 1999.

NO 2- ELTON JOHN (7,084,700)

19 UK TOP 10 HITS

BEST SELLER: CANDLE IN THE WIND 97/ SOMETHING ABOUT THE WAY YOU LOOK TONIGHT (4,859,000)

 

BEST SELLING ACT OF 1997

 

He came close, very close to topping this survey, thanks in the main to THAT song obviously. “Candle In The Wind 97” is of course the bestselling single of the decade and allowed Elton to be the bestselling single seller of 1997 when he moved over 4 million copies of that single alone, stripping it out of his total and Elton would fall down this chart to No 30 whilst sales of “Candle” alone would place him at No 7 for the 90s. Let’s not forget of course he did have a total of 8 top 10 hits including two other chart toppers in the decade before that massive boost.  Odd now to think that at the time we thought this sales tally would never be beaten!....

NO 1- THE SPICE GIRLS (7,285,400)

9 UK TOP 40 HITS

BIGGEST HIT: WANNABE (1,350,000)

 

BEST SELLING ACT OF 1996 AND 1998

 

So here they are- the bestselling singles act of the decade, and I’m sure it’s of little surprise to anyone. It was that final single “Goodbye” which secured victory over Elton who had overtaken them post “Candle In The Wind 97”. They were the bestselling act of both 1996 and 1998, playing second fiddle to Elton in 97 never selling less than 1.8 million singles in any of those years and romp to the top of this chart by just over 200K (and making an average sale per single of just over 800k, so to celebrate here they are with their last Single of the decade and a farewell track to this thread and the 90s for now….

Full top 100

NO 100. JIMMY NAIL (1,086,900)

NO 99. THE TELETUBBIES (1,103,000)

NO 98. RIGHTEOUS BROTHERS (1,109,100)

NO 97. HANSON (1,119,000)

NO 96. S CLUB 7 (1,129,400)

NO 95- CHAKA DEMUS & PLIERS (1,131,200)

NO 94- JASON DONOVAN (1,141.900)

NO 93. EN VOGUE (1,148,200)

NO 92- D:REAM (1,157,800)

NO 91. THE SHAMEN (1,163,600)

 

NO 90. TINA TURNER (1,164,600)

NO.89- RIGHT SAID FRED (1,166,600)

NO 88- RUN DMC (1,167,900)

NO 87- BABYLON ZOO (1,170,000)

NO 86- GINA G (1,174,900)

NO 85- TEXAS (1,212,300)

NO 84. PULP (1,233,400)

NO 83- MICHAEL BOLTON (1,257,300)

NO 82- THE KLF/ JUSTIFIED ANCIENTS OF MU-MU (1,262,000)

NO 81- N-TRANCE (1,280,000)

 

NO 80- DINA CARROLL (1,289,500)

NO 79- NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK (1,290,300)

NO 78- LIGHTHOUSE FAMILY (1,298,000)

NO 77- BOYZ II MEN (1,323,500)

NO 76- LISA STANSFIELD (1,334,300)

NO 75- NATALIE IMBRUGLIA (1,343,100)

NO 74. ANOTHER LEVEL (1,346,100)

NO 73- EVERYTHING BUT THE GIRL (1,351,600)

NO 72- R.E.M (1,362,700)

NO 71- BILLIE (1,375,600)

 

NO 70- 911 (1,381,200)

NO 69- SHANIA TWAIN (1,423,900)

NO 68- WESTLIFE (1,432,300)

NO 67- SAVAGE GARDEN (1,454,300)

NO 66- T.L.C (1,486,500)

NO 65- PET SHOP BOYS/ ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS (1,492,200)

NO 64- ROBERT MILES (1,508,000)

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

NO 62- VARIOUS ARTISTS- PERFECT DAY (1,539,000)

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

 

NO 60- ROXETTE (1,550,600)

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

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

NO 57- SHAGGY (1,603,000)

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

NO 55- WHIGFIELD (1,668,900)

NO 54- UB40 (1,676,800)

NO 53- ROD STEWART (1,691,300)

NO 52- MANIC STREET PREACHERS (1,709,500)

NO 51- JAMIROQUAI (1,720,900)

 

NO 50- M PEOPLE (1,801,500)

NO 49- ERASURE (1,806,100)

NO 48- KYLIE MINOGUE (1,834,500)

NO 47- THE BEAUTIFUL SOUTH (1,834,500)

NO 46- PUFF DADDY (1,903,600)

NO 45- PETER ANDRE (1,910,000)

NO 44- U2 (1,968,800)

NO 43- FIVE (1,979,600)

NO 42- COOLIO (1,989,600)

NO 41- GABRIELLE (1,990,400)

 

NO 40- 2 UNLIMITED (1,995,300)

NO 39- ACE OF BASE (2,014,400)

NO 38- BON JOVI (2,043,600)

NO 37- CLIFF RICHARD (2,069,900)

NO 36- THE VENGABOYS (2,079,500)

NO 35- LIGHTNING SEEDS (2,110,900)

NO 34 -SASH! (2,120,800)

NO 33- BRITNEY SPEARS (2,128,000)

NO 32- SIMPLY RED (2,148,900)

NO 31- SNAP! (2,220,300)

 

NO 30- ALL SAINTS (2,268,800)

NO 29- BACKSTREET BOYS (2,349,000)

NO 28- THE FUGEES/ REFUGEE ALLSTARZ (2,390,000)

NO 27- R KELLY (2,451,100)

NO 26- BLUR (2,532,300)

NO 25- QUEEN (2,543,300)

NO 24 B*WITCHED (2,651,800)

NO 23- ETERNAL (2,655,200)

NO 22- AQUA (2,808,000)

NO 21- ROBBIE WILLIAMS (2,833,000)

 

NO 20- THE PRODIGY (2,869,100)

NO 19- JANET JACKSON (3,162,100)

NO 18- WILL SMITH/ FRESH PRINCE (3,260,200)

NO 17- GEORGE MICHAEL (3,301,100)

NO 16- WET WET WET (3,361,200)

NO 15- STEPS (3,472,400)

NO 14- ROBSON & JEROME (3,484,300)

NO 13- CHER (3,564,700)

NO 12- EAST 17/ E-17 (3,865,400)

NO 11- WHITNEY HOUSTON (3,935,000)

 

NO 10- BRYAN ADAMS (4,030,300)

NO 9- MARIAH CAREY (4,047,200)

NO 8- MICHAEL JACKSON (4,402,700)

NO 7- TAKE THAT (4,662,300)

NO 6 MADONNA (5,142,500)

NO 5- CELINE DION (5,552,100)

NO 4- OASIS (5,690,400)

NO 3- BOYZONE (6,793,500)

NO 2- ELTON JOHN (7,084,700)

NO 1- THE SPICE GIRLS (7,285,400)

And that's about it- thanks as always to those that commented and made the thread!

Love or hate them, an average single sales figure of over 800K is very impressive. They deserve the title.

5 hours ago, chartjack2 said:

Such tension! Two absolutely iconic (and very English) acts in their own way….

...and 'Made In England' was one of Elton's 19 Top 40 hits in the decade! Not sure if many people could name more than about 5 of them without looking them up though.

No denying those Spice Girls sales though, and people went out and bought them too (what a concept eh) - after they won Gezza's first Groups rate in 2020 I said we may never see their like again, and we still haven't and probably won't.

Thanks for an interesting and informative countdown Gezza!

Well deserved winner. I would say the Spiceys and Oasis were THE bands of the 90s so good to see them at 1 and 4.

The Spice Girls were good pals to George

Congratulations to the Spice Girls

My favorite songs are 2 Become One and Viva Forever

Thank you Gezza I loved the 80s and 90s Countdown

Btw George was involved in more than 13.6 million single sales combined over the 2 Decades (80s &90s)

I knew it was going to be Spice Girls at #1 of course, their singles tally was so high for it not to be.

It's quite funny that Stop was the one that held them back for a bit in regards to being the best selling singles act of the decade as it sold 300k while every other singles had sold between 700k-1.3 million at that point. Not sure what went "wrong" with that one at the time, breaking their #1s streak and "only" going silver compared to everything else going platinum, especially since Viva forever put them back on track again. Stop has gone on to be their second most streamed track too and is now on approximately 1 million "sales." All a little bizarre with that song's history.

Anyways back on track, two very very British acts in their own way, a great top 2, amazing that one song along would have had Elton in the top 10!

I guess the spice girls were an ok ish band then , shame Elton didnt just pip them

Also cheers @Gezza for all the hard work as always

Elton highly flattered by that one-off global moment, more of a cultural event than a musical event, 30 sounds about reasonable for the 90's, though to be fair Elton's best years were undeniably the 70's but while super-massive in the USA he never did huge sales on singles bar one Kiki Dee duet. Albums sold well though. So he was kind of owed it, maybe. Also note his other biggies, Sacrifice/Healing Hands were also flops in the 80's despite clearly being among his best work in the 80's (both topped my charts in 1989!), so those sales were owed on his lower ranking in the 80's.

Spice Girls were another global phenomenon, so no problem with them grabbing the top spot really, that's fair enough. To add to the Stop! comments, It was my least-fave single of theirs at the time (and still, for the 90's) it just seemed like a disposable bit of singalong fluff - maybe that's why it's so big on streaming, catchy.

Thanks for doing this @Gezza genuinely enjoyed it so much, hoping for the 00s now! 😊

Oh the next thread will be a time period I've never done a thread on before...

Is it the best selling acts between 10am and 2pm on 5th April 1986?

3 minutes ago, dandy* said:

Is it the best selling acts between 10am and 2pm on 5th April 1986?

Dear god, please let it be this now! 😂

It isn't........but clearly now I have to write it!

I’ve just double checked and my random day was a Saturday so it will be exciting to see the post TOTP effect