I also don’t mind “Do The Bartman”. As novelty goes it’s quite well done and not boring or cringeworthy. Not sure how much higher I’d have it as I can’t immediately recall the whole list. I do know there’s one of my favourite ever triple back to backs which I hope all finish high.

"Do The Bartman" is fun but not great. Very much of its time and has not aged very well. A pity that it denied Nomad the top spot - one of the greatest chart hits in 1991.

"Do The Bartman" is another midfield candidate for me - there were worse #1's.

Do The Bartman is okay for what it is. I never hated it but wouldn’t choose to listen either. It feels lyrically a ‘novelty’ song but one that wants to be taken seriously musically, so an odd position to be in.

I took a sneaky peek at the 1991 number ones. It seems like a very polarised list for me, lots of dross but also lots of great songs. I’m curious to find out which run of three number ones you mean Julian, and whether they are also my favourites.

^ There's a triple whammy of 1991 #1s I'm very fond of as well so perhaps we all have the same run in mind!

'The Stonk' is dross so not complaining about that showing here.

I don't mind 'Do The Bartman' although would've rather seen that Nomad song at the top.

I remember reading that Nancy Cartwright and Sabrina Carpenter are related in some way, so chart-topping running in the family!

Pity Nancy didnt get the artist credit but it would have flopped had they done that! Unless Jacko had been a "feature". I was big on The Simpson's first 10 seasons, watched them on Sky, and enjoyed the mystery MJ guest spot - playing a character who thought he was Michael Jackson. I'll go so far as to say in their peak no sitcom has ever been better, the next 20 years less so as the top writers moved on to Futurama and that took over as the best. I dont mind the track, but I think Deep Deep Trouble sounds better these days...

All of these so far are in the category of "I've heard them but I'm not familiar enough to confidently know how they go" 😆

I hate The Stonk, definitely last for me, gah. Glad it's not a compilation mainstay so I don't hear it much although I finally got hold of Now 19 last year and it's on there.

Do The Bartman I also only have once, on Smash Hits 1991, interesting that they got the license for it over Now and Hits. I don't really mind the track, it's quite funky in the chorus. As the show was only shown on Sky in 1991 as you mention Jim, I'm surprised it even had enough hype to get to No.1. Then again, I recall still being very aware of the show at this point - we used to have a GameBoy game, Escape From Camp Deadly, which also came out in 1991, so it was obviously making cultural waves very early on.

7 hours ago, gooddelta said:

I hate The Stonk, definitely last for me, gah. Glad it's not a compilation mainstay so I don't hear it much although I finally got hold of Now 19 last year and it's on there.

Do The Bartman I also only have once, on Smash Hits 1991, interesting that they got the license for it over Now and Hits. I don't really mind the track, it's quite funky in the chorus. As the show was only shown on Sky in 1991 as you mention Jim, I'm surprised it even had enough hype to get to No.1. Then again, I recall still being very aware of the show at this point - we used to have a GameBoy game, Escape From Camp Deadly, which also came out in 1991, so it was obviously making cultural waves very early on.

I have those CD's - they didnt even bother putting Bartman on last on side 2, it was stuck in between 2 bangers in Peace and Insanity, which is truly bizarre. Looking at the track listing they clearly had no idea what they were doing in terms of mood creation and placing of randoms amongst bunches of tracks where they clearly dont belong....! 😄

I actually don't really dislike any of the bottom 3, although they probably would also rank there for me purely because 1991 was a very strong year for number 1s. I Wanna Sex You Up has a very cringe title and a bit of a messy song, but I do think some of production was quite innovative and I do still hear it from time to time today so it's not aged terribly.

Call me crazy but I don't hate The Stonk, completely naff and rubbish of course, but I'm not sure what makes it so offensive to be called one of the worst number 1s ever? Idk, I can't take it seriously enough to hate it.

Do The Bartman is a lot of fun, MJ's presence definitely lifts it above your average novelty song.

14 Jason Donovan - Any Dream Will Do

2 weeks in June 1991: 2-{1}-1-2-2-3-6-12-15-27-41-65->12

Kept off #1: None

#6 in EOY 1991

Weekly sales at #1: 97k; 93k

After rising to fame in his Australian homeland's soap Neighbours, Jason Donovan was signed up with Pete Waterman's label and started his music career with 6 Top 5 hits by the close of the 80s, including a hat-trick of #1s in 1989. However by 1991, having suffered diminishing returns which would culminate in his exit from PWL, he accepted the title role in Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at the London Palladium, and as well as success at the box office, he found himself back atop the charts for a fourth and final time. The musical, which dated back to the late 60s, had undergone a revival - although it only returned to the West End in 1991, I went to see a production of it at the Bristol Hippodrome in 1989, around the same time that we had learnt and performed the songs at my school. I'd subsequently got an earlier release of the songs from the musical on tape, so I was very familiar with all of them by the 90s, and it had started my interest in the Lloyd Webber works which soon moved into Cats, Phantom Of The Opera and Starlight Express, as well as musicals more generally, especially Les Misérables.

In fact, by the time this version was released and went to #1, I was pretty much over it, and remember feeling that the production and Jason's vocals were a little underwhelming in comparison to the recorded versions I'd already heard. I should perhaps have stuck to that assessment from my pre-teen self, and put this below 'The Stonk' and 'Do The Bartman' which I remember enjoying at the time. However since my interest in pop music and the charts took over in 1993, I've barely heard any version of this song - except for the Lee Mead #2 in 2007 which isn't any better than this one. My memories of the song remain dominated by learning it at school and doing the "ah-ah-ahh" backing vocals, and playing the tape on car journeys - so I can't bring myself to be too harsh on the version that gave it its crowning moment in the chart. I wouldn't choose to play it, but it's fine.

Awful song. I like Jason’s PWL output, but this is just boring and annoying. Not better than the X-Factor stuff in the 2000’s. Very close to bottom.

Jason is superb in Joseph - it’s my favourite musical and I was rather obsessed with the soundtrack back in the day. Still know every word!

He’s the gold standard as Joseph for me, so I’d have this much higher.

Saw him a couple of years ago at the Bristol Hippodrome where he played the Pharaoh and the narrator from the 1991 cast performed.

So this is one of the two songs I remember from the time in 1991 and it would be in my top five I think without looking at the list.

Any Dream Will Do is a fantastic composition and imo works nicely in Jason’s hands, dramatic in the right places, the kids choir backing works well and I love the instrumental too. We did a production of it at primary school too so I got to know the song so well. I still listen to it a lot, one of about three Jason songs I actually enjoy (along with Especially For You and When You Come Back To Me).

Not really a fan of Any Dream Will Do, it’s not something I’d choose to seek out. I’m sure Jason is great in the live show but I have to agree that his recorded vocals on this seem a bit uninspiring.

“Any Dream Will Do” has a lot of nostalgia from primary school music lessons and the like. I think the performance is fine and I’d rather listen to it than most of Jason’s songs - “When You Come Back To Me” being the only one I really like. I don’t think it will end up much higher in my ranking though.

I certainly understand everyone’s nostalgia for songs from school productions though. For me it’s the lyrics of Johnny Mathis’ When A Child Is Born that are permanently burnt onto my brain… whether I like it or not! 😆

Being too old for this to have existed when I was in Primary School, and indeed the whole concept of learning popular music of the 20th century at school - as far as I recall - I have no nostalgia for the song and didnt even know it existed until the 80's. I have sat through Gareth Gates starring in the musical, and I have to say it's no Jesus Christ Superstar or Evita, both of which are brilliant. Frankly I got bored, it's almost as if it was written for kids not grown-ups! 😄So, not a fan much of the song. It's an OK singalong I suppose, and would be higher than The Stonk for me, but behind The Simpsons.

The Stonk is awful, Bartman is a bit better.

Bartman keeping Nomad - Devotion off #1 is bad though, one of the best rave hits of the early 90s.

Any Dream Will Do is OK.

Edited September 5Sep 5 by TheSnake

13 Iron Maiden - Bring Your Daughter... To The Slaughter

2 weeks in December 1990 - January 1991: {1}-1-9-32-68->5

Kept off #1: None

Not in top 100 of any EOY

Weekly sales at #1: 41k (in 1990), 32k

Now for the lowest selling #1 of 1991, and in fact it had the lowest maximum weekly sale of any #1 in the 80s or 90s (edit: up to that point, second lowest by the end of the 90s, see next page) with that first week, as well as the record shortest chart run of a #1 for a long time. British heavy metal band Iron Maiden had established themselves with a devoted following, with 20 previous chart hits (if we combine the two releases of 1980 chart debut 'Running Free'), with the last 5 all making the Top 10. Then with an opportune release in the post-Christmas chart week at the end of 1990, their fans were galvanised to send this song straight to the top of the chart for what would be their only #1, and its second week sales were enough to keep it there in the first chart of 1991, before its subsequent collapse. To date there still hasn't been a multi-week #1 to have no other weeks in the Top 10, but this came mightily close.

I'm receptive to most types of rock music, but I rarely get on well with this type of metal - aside from the screamy vocals, I find the sound too much of a sensory overload for extended listening. That said, Iron Maiden could bash out the odd tune in the early 80s, particularly 'Run To The Hills', 'The Number Of The Beast' and 'The Trooper' (all of which would be Top 10 hits in the 2000s, the latter two for the first time as the singles market sank even lower). Their #1 hit has a much more limited cult classic status - just over 21 million Spotify streams while those mentioned each have over 10 times as many. However I admire that it takes some skill to play like this and to pull off the high notes as Bruce Dickinson does here, and the medieval-style chanting towards the end builds the atmosphere. In the context of #1s, it's certainly different and represents its genre commendably, although again it isn't something I'd choose to play.

I think you’ve mentioned most of the Iron Maiden songs I actually enjoy, plus “The Wicker Man” from the early ‘00s. This one has a remarkable title but is a very unremarkable song.