So, onto 2014 for a rate of its number 1s – a whopping 38 to get through! 2026 could never (though 2000 could!)

Thank you to the mods for letting me rate what is imo the best year for music in the 2010s. A word first on where I was at in my life in 2014.

I had, over the previous 2 years, lost over 8 stone in weight so I found myself feeling much more body confident than I ever had. Although I was the grand age of 38 that year I went to London several times to visit the GAY bar on Old Compton Street then go to Heaven after for their cheesy night. The music at the GAY bar was mainly the current dance hits and this time and place coincided with some fantastic tunes being released. I also went abroad with friends for the first time to Barcelona that year, paving the way for future trips around Europe. This really cemented an affection from me for the big tunes of the day that happened to be chart toppers – this has rarely happened before and has not since! The songs that will do well here are rose tinted and I had a great time enjoying them. Plus I met a couple of Buzzjackers in London – more on that much later!

Away from me, what was going on in the world? Well, being 12 years ago, I had to use t’internet to help me find what the big UK news was – Scottish Independence Referendum (least said soonest mended on referendums in the 2010s!), severe winter flooding, the 100th year anniversary of the start if WW1 and the Tower of London poppies, the rise of UKIP and Glasgow hosted the Commonwealth games. Outside in the big bad world, Russia annexed Crimea, there was an Ebloa pandemic, Malaysia flight 370 disappeared and record temperatures were recorded worldwide.

In hindsight, there were signs of things to come – a pandemic, a referendum, the rise of far right, the invasion of Ukrainian territory and drastic weather. Still, simpler times than we live in now.

By 2014, I had been co-hosting the Sunday chart show thread for 8 years, so I listened to the whole chart show in full every week so I am pretty familiar with nearly all the number 1s (a few needed a refresher and one had completely left my memory). The other big news with the chart this year was the introduction of streaming counting towards ‘sales’ in the latter part of the year – the first number 1 to include streaming will be rated in due course.

On with the rate of the 38 number 1s – sorry if my write ups aren’t as long as some are (I have never been good with essays), but they are not written by AI, all stats and facts have been looked up and opinions are my own. Apologies in advance for any errors!

Thanks to Gezza for the number 1 sales & YE stats and Polyhex for the chart runs and Jaz for helping me source the above.

38. Ben Haenow – Something I Need

Chart run: 1-2-4-8-8-10-19-26-35-39-58-67-73R(4)-74 (14 weeks)

Sales at number 1: 214,239

Year End: 58

Number 2 peaks behind the chart topper: None

So, who do we have last then? Not really a shock that it is this year’s limp X Factor winner effort. I suspect he is more Ben Whonow then Ben Haenow these days.

A word on the 11th (!) series of the X Factor. Remember the categories singers were put in? Well, once Ben made it through bootcamp (the memories are trickling back now), he was put in the Over 26 categories (he was 29) and ‘mentored’ by Simon Cowell. He was suitably bland an inoffensive enough to never make the bottom 2 and ended up in the final with the wonderful Fleur East. Its clear that Fleur was by far the better winner, but hey ho, this was the X Factor after all (Fleur championed a certain song that will appear much later!)

So onto the inevitable crushing winners single that was still a depressing guarantee of the Christmas number 1 (for how long though? And also not in Ireland, a first for 9 years). Something I Need was chosen, a One Republic cover which sold 214,000 to be the Xmas chart topper.

It’s a decent enough song, it does suit Haenow’s voice, but it is oh uninspiring and magnolia. A well-deserved bottom place.

What happened to Haenow I hear you say? Well, his follow up with Kelly Clarkson peaked at number 21 and his album of limp covers peaked at number 10. You can almost still hear the dropping noise from SyCo.

Looking forward to this Matt.

A very dull song indeed to start, the follow up was far better with Kelly but also not amazing.

Somehow only have 35 in my Spotify list (I have not carried over #1's from 2013), but Ben Haenow's song takes the last position of these 35.

6 minutes ago, DaTilt said:

Somehow only have 35 in my Spotify list (I have not carried over #1's from 2013), but Ben Haenow's song takes the last position of these 35.

I have included one song that was number 1 in 2013, one in 2015 as well, so unsure where the other one is?

54 minutes ago, Jester said:

I have included one song that was number 1 in 2013, one in 2015 as well, so unsure where the other one is?

Found the 2 - so I can say that Ben Haenow is just second-last.

Yet more X Factor nonsense, can’t argue with it being last. Forgotten it again already

I completely forgot this/he existed, but it is utter gash. Imagine taking a ONEREPUBLIC song and making it even more bland!

Looking forward to following along as you do this countdown @Jester.

37. Will.i.am ft. Cody Wise – It's My Birthday

Chart run: 1-3-7-9-10-12-24-29-35-40-44-53-57-64 (14 weeks)

Sales at number 1: 74,034

Year End: 51

Number 2 peaks behind the chart topper: None

To be fair to this song, I gave it a further listen when planning my rank as I hadn’t willingly heard it since it left the top 40. The further listen did not change my mind on this and made it go lower down my rate.

This ‘effort’ was Will.i.am’s 10th UK chart topper, proving he was firstly able to take any old tripe to number 1 and secondly that he was literally everywhere from the late noughties to the mid 2010s – helped of course by being a coach on the Voice UK.

Researching this song I have discovered that it was originally called just ‘Birthday’, it samples an Indian song called Urvasi Urvasi (composed by AR Rahman of Jai Ho fame) and Fi Di Jockey, a Jamacian track (no, not Balegde!) and lyrically it is about every day being your birthday.

Cody Wise, the feature on this song, was a true one hit wonder in the UK and his follow up didn’t chart. He was signed to Will.i.am’s label so I assume the got the gig by who you know instead of talent.

This is a utter mess of a song and ranks a near bottom in terms of Will.i.am’s musical output - possibly on par with the awful Time of my Life from the BEPs. I think he could release any old crap and get a number 1 at this point, and this was clearly true. Non-number 1? Yes.

Looking forward to this!

I look back on 2014 pretty fondly in terms of both my personal life and the charts. I was particularly into commercial dance music at the time and even geeked out about it in my job interview for HMV towards the end of that year! I lost interest the following year and it never really recovered as I felt my electronic taste was now better served elsewhere.

No qualms about Ben Haenow dropping out first, I'd never seek that out. I remember rooting for Only The Young on X Factor that year and my biggest takeaway from that series in general was that random man who shouted out "ONLY THE YOUNG!" every week that felt like the last semi-relevant year, as they managed to squeeze one more festive chart-topper out of the show and Fleur East's performance of 'Uptown Funk' made a lot of noise.

I actually liked 'It's My Birthday' at the time, maybe the sample did some heavy lifting there, but it's aged terribly - very naff lyrics.

Just absolutely atrocious, I liked some of his ones from 2012/2013 but was pretty disgusted when that reached the top.

will.i.am and Cody not so Wise.

I didn't mind the song at the time, at least it was upbeat.

I don't mind 'Something I Need' personally but it's nothing special. Like OneRep's better but even that isn'tamong their best songs. Ben's collab with Kelly was better.

It's My Birthday' is crap.

Yeah it's terrible, I'd have it low too, possibly lower than Ben as it's just plain bad rather than just dull.

Oh I'd suppressed my memory of that will.i.am one, that's comfortably his worst #1 despite the competition for that title being fierce, utterly awful. X-Factor as usual very dull and in the bottom, good bottom 2.

Interested to see your thoughts on these.

Wow, I genuinely think there’s a number one I’ve never heard before, unless my brain has just blanked it out. Really boring and generic, with awful lazy lyrics and rhymes (if you can call will’s bits that). Didn’t think I’d be saying this after Haenow but this could easily content for last, I hope there’s not worse still to come.