Col1967

Looks like it's sunk without trace.

This is one I'm keeping half an eye on, should get there in the first half of next year. That's the thing with trickle sales, slow but steady, it takes time but they get there in the end!

Making the average stay at no.1 *exactly* 3 weeks!

Did anybody actually work out what the iTunes rolling chart was, after the original version of 'Happy' was clearly still there more than 48hrs after it was made album only?

The decline in singles sales is quite alarming and looks like the start of a long term trend rather than a mere 'blip'. Only time will tell of course.

Well not really, given that it was intended to stop the X-Factor winner getting to no.1. Still, it joins what is a very short list of campaign type songs that have actually made a significant impact.

Although with Christmas Day being on a Wednesday this year the 'gift card effect' will be somewhat diluted, being split over two chart weeks.

Yes indeed. So much for it being a 48hr rolling chart! I thought this would put the matter to bed, but it's just posed more questions.

Should make 2m in the next decade then.

Although if it wasn't for X-Factor perhaps there would have been some big new releases so sales wouldn't have been that low anyway.

It's a campaign song to stop the X-Factor winner getting to no.1 Think 'Rage Against the Machine'. It's doing very well actually, already up to no.15.

Yet another Chritsmas no.1 contest wrecked by X-Factor. Yawn. 'One More Sleep' looks like becoming the first really big new Chtistmas song for many years, well since Mariah Carey in 1992. It's a pity it won't be no.1 but Leona can hardly complain about being denied by the X-Factor.

'Nelson Mandela' by the Special AKA now in at no. 1455.

2004 was a very low sales period though. What surprised me is that she's had so many no1s, but many of them were at a time when I wasn't following the charts.

Never mind Slade, this is the best Christmas song of all time. Jdzo_vPnhio Peaked at a miserable no.37 in 1993, should have been massive. And unlike 'Christmas Wrapping' I think this has been largely forgotten, more's the pity.

I recall it being played a lot at the time, I guess it's just one of those tracks that for whatever reason manages to garner a lot of airplay that never gets translated into sales. Does anybody know where it normally gets to on iTunes? It's not in there yet.

Same here. Shame it was never a big hit, I don't think it even made the top 40.

Isn't that something of a contradiction, though? If you endorse something that surely means you accept it without reservation, so why won't it be considered canon?

There's something not quite right about all this. So 'White Christmas' was no.1 in 1942, 1945, 1946, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1950 & 1951. A pretty impressive run, huh? Certainly puts the modern day re-charting of downloaded Christmas tracks into perspective! So this chart ends just before the 'official' chart begins in November 1952 and where was 'White Christmas' at Christmas 1952? Nowhere in the top 10. Christmas no.1 for the previous 7 years, then suddenly not even in the top 10 the year after, sorry but that simply doesn't stack up. Of course for all we know it's the official chart that is 'wrong'.......

He did when his singles were doing well and he seemed like a decent, regular guy. Then he showed another side to his character when 'Stupid Stupid' didn't do as well as he thought it should.

Remember him coming on here and behaving like a spoilt brat complaining that not enough people were buying his song?

And outside the top 40, I think it was 'Rule the World' spent 4 consecutive weeks at no.83. Unfortunately due to Chart Stats demise I can't check this.

Lou Reed - Walk on the Wild Side. Though charting for obvious reasons and not the weather.

For the past 50 years around 2m appears to have been the limit for a 'normal' single. Only one (Mull of Kintyre) has ever done it in it's regular chart run. A tiny handful of others have crept over the mark in the download era. 'Relax', 'Rivers of Babylon' and possibly 'You're the one that I want', not sure about that last one. So it was always an exceptionally rare ocurrence. Just because 'Blurred Lines' won't do it doesn't mean it's never going to happen. I still think BL will ultimately sell 1.8m though. And anyhow, you can't judge where the singles market is going by what happens in one particular year. In the mid 2000s you could easily have said that a non charity/talent show winner would never sell 1m again.

'Arguably'. Meaning it's debatable. Some people might think so, others not. But she's certainly up there. Not that there is any quantifiable way of measuring 'fame'. And that's the reason it will stay 'arguably'.