NO 85- TEXAS (1,212,300)

13 UK TOP 40 HITS

BIGGEST HIT: SAY WHAT YOU WANT (258,000)

 

 

Although they broke through in 1989, Texas spent most of the 90s in the lower top 40 with a limited fanbase and not a lot of interest.  That changed in 1997 when “Say What You Want” suddenly caught the imagination of British public in a dull January lull and their radio friendly album “White On Blonde” provided them with a steady stream of hits for the rest of the year making them a major act for the remainder of the decade.

NO 84. PULP (1,233,400)

UK TOP 40 HITS: 11

BIGGEST HIT: COMMON PEOPLE (332,000)

 

One of three acts to make our rundown that I would consider “Brit pop” makes this a poor list in terms of representation of that genre. Perhaps this is because Indie music always sells primarily in the album format, not in singles, anyway I’m sure you can guess the other two acts.

 

Pulp had made the top 20 before 95 but it was during that infamously hot summer that they struck it big with “Common People” before going even closer to the No 1 spot with “Mis-Shapes/ Sorted For E-s & Whizz” but with the demise of Brit pop in 97 the bands fortunes faded, sales fizzled out, and the band called it a day....for a time anyway.

Catching up , i just looked at Gina G’s chart run for Oh Ah, Just A Little Bit, i had no idea it took 8 weeks to climb to number 1!

Has there been many more songs that took more weeks to hot the top? (not xmas songs)

22 minutes ago, vibe said:

Catching up , i just looked at Gina G’s chart run for Oh Ah, Just A Little Bit, i had no idea it took 8 weeks to climb to number 1!

Has there been many more songs that took more weeks to hot the top? (not xmas songs)

Quite common now, or were you referring to before Gina G?

Gina G did the impossible and had a decent chart career for a while past her debut being a Eurovision entry. This really did not happen often unless you were a winner.

It was good for her and nice to see at the time.

Even now, Ohh Ahh has a lasting love for it.

I supposed when your a baby in the 90s you forget how big (or should I say consistent) a lot of artists were and had many more minor hits than I remembered

26 minutes ago, Gezza said:

Quite common now, or were you referring to before Gina G?

of this time

1 hour ago, vibe said:

of this time

no we had 16 weeks climbs for Jennufer Rush and Celine Dion by this point, however it may hold the record for most weeks taken by a song that debuted in the top 10 and never left it until it after it made No 1. @jimwatts loves a chart trivia fact! I can't think of a song before OAJALB to spend as long in that sense

31 minutes ago, Gezza said:

no we had 16 weeks climbs for Jennufer Rush and Celine Dion by this point, however it may hold the record for most weeks taken by a song that debuted in the top 10 and never left it until it after it made No 1. @jimwatts loves a chart trivia fact! I can't think of a song before OAJALB to spend as long in that sense

Since you asked:

In 1953, Mantovani's 'The Song From The Moulin Rouge' debuted at #10 and stayed Top 10 all the way to reaching #1 on its 12th week!

For the 1990s however, 'Think Twice' reached #1 on its 9th week in the Top 10 in 1995, but as Gezza mentioned it debuted below the Top 10, so Gina G's was probably the longest climb to #1 after debuting Top 10 for a very long time, possibly since the 1950s. It was soon beaten by All Saints' 'Never Ever' which climbed to #1 on its 9th week in 1998.

1 hour ago, vibe said:

of this time

No there were longer climbs to the top.

12 minutes ago, jimwatts said:

Since you asked:

In 1953, Mantovani's 'The Song From The Moulin Rouge' debuted at #10 and stayed Top 10 all the way to reaching #1 on its 12th week!

For the 1990s however, 'Think Twice' reached #1 on its 9th week in the Top 10 in 1995, but as Gezza mentioned it debuted below the Top 10, so Gina G's was probably the longest climb to #1 after debuting Top 10 for a very long time, possibly since the 1950s. It was soon beaten by All Saints' 'Never Ever' which climbed to #1 on its 9th week in 1998.

I thought you'd have the answer! I personally wouldn't count the 50s or early 60s given the chart was much smaller and the sample size of record shops was also smaller but up to people how they want to judge it.

Yay Pulp! Glad they made the list.

On 19/06/2026 at 12:16, Gezza said:

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

3 UK TOP 40 HITS

BIGGEST HIT: BRING IT ALL BACK (623,000)

 

One of the most important questions of 1999 was did you wanna see Bradley swing? Or Rachel do her thing? Well enough people cared enough to push the TV stars over the million mark sales wise and into our top 100 of the decade, after they got launched by Simon Fuller (former Spice Girls manager) on “Miami 7”.  Indeed Fuller formed the band after being sacked as manager for the spice’s and used the same writers for this group, and admitted later on that this is the route he would have taken with the Spice Girls had he not been fired.

 

They make the list on the strength of three singles and just 1999’s sales (they were actually the 6th biggest selling act of that year), the band continued until 2003 hitting the top 5 with all their releases before committing pop euthanasia and spawning moderate solo successes for the members. They’re a beautiful reminder of the pure pop era of the late 90s.

We missed out on Miami Spice TV series!! 😭 I can't see Spice Girls singing any of the S Club singles though. 🤔

On 19/06/2026 at 12:23, Gezza said:

I genuinely thought you were praising my methodology and decision making until half way through this 😄

He wasn't?? He better be!

Really enjoying the write ups @Gezza, I've followed the thread so don't miss any! ❤️

2 hours ago, Gezza said:

No there were longer climbs to the top.

I thought you'd have the answer! I personally wouldn't count the 50s or early 60s given the chart was much smaller and the sample size of record shops was also smaller but up to people how they want to judge it.

2 hours ago, jimwatts said:

Since you asked:

In 1953, Mantovani's 'The Song From The Moulin Rouge' debuted at #10 and stayed Top 10 all the way to reaching #1 on its 12th week!

For the 1990s however, 'Think Twice' reached #1 on its 9th week in the Top 10 in 1995, but as Gezza mentioned it debuted below the Top 10, so Gina G's was probably the longest climb to #1 after debuting Top 10 for a very long time, possibly since the 1950s. It was soon beaten by All Saints' 'Never Ever' which climbed to #1 on its 9th week in 1998.

Thank you both for the update i remember Think Twice and Never Ever climbing to the top both classics.

Bit surprised Common People didn't sell more!

Looking forward to seeing some of my coming of age acts (B*Witched, Steps, Spice Girls, even the now-transphobic sisters in Eternal...)

8 hours ago, jimwatts said:

In 1953, Mantovani's 'The Song From The Moulin Rouge' debuted at #10 and stayed Top 10 all the way to reaching #1 on its 12th week!

That was down to 1950's record buyers dreaming of holidays in Paris I assume!

Oh wow I didn't know that stuff about Gina G's career, but frustrating.

I have very vague memories of hearing Ooh Aah…Just A Little Bit around that time, but I was 8 years old and only starting to get into music.

10 hours ago, Herbs said:

Bit surprised Common People didn't sell more!

Looking forward to seeing some of my coming of age acts (B*Witched, Steps, Spice Girls, even the now-transphobic sisters in Eternal...)

Sales for singles were not stellar in general for Indie bands like Pulp, the exception being Oasis of course.

They were more album sellers.

Great to see Texas and Pulp make the list, two acts that easily deserved to have several huge sellers, but as mentioned they shifted albums. Texas remain under-rated and Sharleen one of the best live pop singers/frontspeople of the era, and that's still true, she makes it sound effortless when it isn't. The shift from Scottish Americana to Blue-eyed retro soul eventually paid off bigtime thanks to Chris Evans pushing Say What You Want and then back again on that BRITS mash-up.