1 hour ago, Jester said:

Missing made the million in the end didn’t it?

I love REM, one of very few American bands I like.

1.8 million now!

Another Level surprisingly high, I tend to find them very forgettable, prob as they werent bad and annoying, but never really had a classic either. EBTG obv there for Missing, but that unfairly overlooks the under-rated dance smash Wrong and just generally being good from 1984 onwards. REM more of an albums giant than pop hit-makers, so that's prob a good result overall all things considered. Sometimes they were great and sometimes not so much and chart positions didnt necessarily match which category I felt they slotted into....

NO 71- BILLIE (1.375,600)

5 UK TOP 40 HITS

BIGGEST HIT: GIRLFRIEND (302,000)

The second highest UK female soloist on the list was only producing hits for the last 18 months of the decade, five of them in total, all top 5. As one of the examples of “pure pop” that came to prominence in the late 90s Billie hit the top in July 1998 at the tender age of just 15 becoming the second youngest female to make the top after Helen Shapiro in the 60s and became only the second teenager ever to grab a hat-trick of chart toppers in May 2000 after Britney Spears.

A high profile relationship with Richie Neville from boyband Five in 1999 was the cause of hate mail being received by the singer, and she retired from the pop world after the relative failure of her second album in 2000- no idea what happened to her after that........

NO 70- 911 (1,381,200)

13 UK TOP 40 HITS

BIGGEST HIT: BODYSHAKIN (192,000)

The stats are very impressive on 911 actually, 10 straight top 10 hits between 1996-1999 including one chart topper “A little Bit More”, all racked up the sales. After the boyband split in 2000 lead singer Lee Brennan continued to write hits including a number one for Blue in 2001 with “If You Come Back” and married Lyndsey from B*Witched amongst other things (they split in 2011).....

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

5 UK TOP 40 HITS

BIGGEST HIT: THAT DON’T IMPRESS ME MUCH (763,000)

It took three albums to finally break her in the UK but once done the flood gates opened for Twain. The five top 20 hits she lifted from the album "Come on over" during the 90s are entirely responsible for the million plus singles she was indeed the 7th biggest selling act of 1999 thanks mainly of course to “That Don’t Impress Me Much” which spent 10 weeks in the top 10 in May- July of that year....

That classic album "Cime on over!"

It's actually my fave album ever!

Give me a break I'm copy and pasting this on my smartphone 😆

For such a huge albums act, REM really never managed to crack the singles chart at all.

42 minutes ago, dandy* said:

For such a huge albums act, REM really never managed to crack the singles chart at all.

The Great Beyond did manage top 3, plus they had a fair number of top 10s so it’s not as bad as you think!

Billie - i loved her back in the day 🥰🥰

If somebody had told me before completing this that Billie would be the 2nd biggest selling British female solo singer of the 90s Iwouldn't have believed them. The power of late 90s sales!

8 hours ago, Gezza said:

Give me a break I'm copy and pasting this on my smartphone 😆

🤭 we love you really! Now NO more mistakes, 😋

NO 68- WESTLIFE (1,432,300)

4 UK TOP 40 HITS

BIGGEST HIT: I HAVE A DREAM/ SEASONS IN THE SUN (479,000)

From the 7th biggest act of 99 to the 4th, and what turned out to be one of the biggest acts of the 00s into the bargain. Westlife released only 4 singles in the 90s but clubbed together they moved over 1.4 million in the final year of the decade, all four made No 1 (as indeed did the first 7 hits eventually). They were of course famously co- managed by Ronan Keating in their initial years (though this was later to be revealed as just a publicity stunt) and even knocked their mentor off the No 1 spot in August 99 when “If I Let You Go” deposed “When You Say Nothing At All”......

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

5 UK TOP 40 HITS

BIGGEST HIT: TRULY MADLY DEEPLY (645,000)

Whilst the smart money was on INXS ending up the top Aussie band of the 90s it actually ended up being Darren Hayes & Daniel Jones. “I Want You” was the breakthrough hit outside their native shores when it went top 10 in the US and helped the track make no 11 here, but it wasn’t until 1998 that they really got started.

Three top 10 hits followed by close of play in 99, including a million singles sold in 98 alone making them the 10th biggest act of that year, they returned with a second album just before the end of the decade but only one single was released and thusly didn’t majorly contribute to their figures...

Darren Hayes ❤️

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

8 UK TOP 40 HITS

BIGGEST HIT: NO SCRUBS (553,000)

 

Outstripping Salt N Pepa, En Vogue, and Destiny’s Child, TLC are the highest placed all US female group of the decade. They had hits spanning from 1992- 1999 and were lucky to have several big hits with long chart lives to help their sales tally. The group had effectively split by 2000 as Lopes had fallen out with the remaining band members over her contribution to the TLC brand, and whilst a reunion was apparently on the cards all hopes were dashed by the untimely death of Lopes in 2002....

Savage Garden. ❤️

Shania do Impress Me Much with that single, and the more fun follow-ups, though I could take or leave the ballads, and TLC were the best girl group of the decade from the USA. Some classics of the 90's to be sure. Lisa having the wrong contributions to the TLC brand possibly to do with burning a house down, having community service, and then very sadly dying in a needless accident. The rest are all flattered by their chart positions I think, as I wasnt target-audience, with the exception of Savage Garden who started with 2 classic pop tracks in I Want You and To The Moon And Back, before settling into MOR pleasantness. They made the Lighthouse Family look a bit more exciting, on the plus side, once into their ballad phase.

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

20 UK TOP 40 HITS

BIGGEST HIT: GO WEST (187,000)

80s Survivor’s Pet Shop Boys are up next. 20 top 20 hits throughout the decade led to consistent, if not spectacular sales and that 90s chart topper evaded them though of course “Go West” came very close indeed, and 93 was their biggest year sales wise. The group of course continue to this day and have become pop royalty now....

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

4 UK TOP 40 HITS

BIGGEST HIT: CHILDREN (764,000)

Italian DJ/ producer Robert Miles who contributed a meagre four hits to the decade but was the 5th biggest act of 1996. Biggest hit “Children” was written about “Strage del sabato sera” (Saturday Night Slaughter) when clubbers would be involved in car accidents when driving back in the early hours of Sunday morning and falling asleep at the wheel due to too much drink/ drugs etc.....