Gezza

I recall it got reasonable traction on MTV in the UK but we were seemingly unimpressed

NO 54- UB40 (1,676,800) 14 UK TOP 40 HITS BIGGEST HIT: (I CAN’T HELP) FALLING IN LOVE WITH YOU (609,000) Far bigger in the first half of the decade than the second half, UB40 had been getting top 10 hits as far back as 1980. They scored 12 top 10 in the 80s and added a further 5 in the 90s including the No 1 “(I Can’t Help) Falling In Love With You” in 93 but their brand of reggae lite seemed to lose its synch with the British public, and after 98 and they disintegrated in various factions with much animosity.

NO 55- WHIGFIELD (1,668,900) 5 UK TOP 40 HITS BEST SELLER: SATURDAY NIGHT (1,092,000) The top selling wholly Danish act of the 90s was Whigfield who is, of course, best known for the million selling “Saturday Night”. She sold enough to be the 4th biggest singles act of 1994, and whilst barely anyone remembers any of her other hits she accumulated 4 top 10 hits in under 12 months. Like all massive hits “Saturday Night” ended up becoming a hindrance rather than an asset to her career, and the UK always considered her a novelty act, it didn’t help that subsequent hits sounded uncannily like a rewrite of her biggest hit.....

NO 56- THE OUTHERE BROTHERS (1,651,800) 5 UK TOP 40 HITS BIGGEST SELLER: BOOM BOOM BOOM (652,000) The 4th biggest selling singles act of 1995 are next. A couple of No 1 singles with “Don’t Stop (Wiggle Wiggle)” and “Boom Boom Boom” made them, temporarily, quite big for about 6 months. Their “talent” was the ability to put some rather rude and crude lyrics together with dance music, and hey presto the kids lapped it up, but their success was really limited to a 12 month time frame. A rather lame reprisal of “ole ole” in 97 was their final hit but hung about for only 3 weeks and then silence, a prime example of why under 10s shouldn’t be allowed to buy singles.....

I think it was settled about 10 years if I recall correctly. I think it should be fine, also I don't know the technical aspects of it but it seems that TOTP owns the right to broadcast their own shows rather than the acts on it. Hence the fact that whilst the promo for Fragms was not on youtube, the TOTP performances of the track always were

Agree with this. I appreciate the point of the show is to promote the weekly shows but I think it also needs to reflect what went wrong with TOTP. Truth is that by 2000 it had largely lost its selling power overtaken not only by specific music channels but also terrestrial TV like CD:Uk and it was too late to make some changes whixh may have helped (for example moving the show to Sunday) which by the time they got round it had no effect at all given the damage was done. I think also it moving away from showing what was in the charts to "exclusives" didn't help as it should have reflected the charts and kept the prestige of appearing on the show only when you had a hit. I won't even mention showing the same performance sometimes 3 times! It wasn't like there was a dearth of new hits to promote weekly....

Yes certainly in terms of UK sales he was a lesser star compared to the others you mention, how far behind he was we'll see by the end of the thread! His 80s sales were 2.6 million compared to Jackson's 5.4m and Madonna’s 7m so even if you add Prince’s 80s and 90s sales together you don't equal the others 80s only sales....let alone their sales in the 90s....

NO 57- SHAGGY (1,603,000) 7 UK TOP 40 HITS BIGGEST HIT: BOOMBASTIC (567,000) The most consistent reggae star of the 90s, Shaggy was a former Marine who abandoned the world of the Military for the life of a popstar. He had a rather erratic 90s and just when you thought he had disappeared he managed to emerge with another hit, debut hit “Oh Carolina” became his first No 1 in 1993 before waiting another two years for his next one “Boombastic”. Like Babylon Zoo he owed his success on that record to a Levi jeans advert, and it would be a further 6 years before he would collect another couple of number one songs in 2001 but all that is beyond the scope of this rundown.....

NO 58- PRINCE/ SYMBOL/ THE ARTIST FORMERLY KNOWN AS… (1,594,400) 19 TOP 40 HITS BIGGEST HIT: THE MOST BEAUTIFUL GIRL IN THE WORLD (348,000) After going through more name changes than Fatboy slim in the decade Prince surfaces at No 58. He finally got a UK chart topper in 1994 after 11 years of trying but ironically, it was the beginning of the end of his commercial powers. His final “original” top 10 hit was back in 95 with “Gold” but 9 top 10 hits in the decade is nothing to be sniffed at and he deserves his place in our top 100.....,

NO 59- TONI BRAXTON (1,570,900) 8 UK TOP 40 HITS BIGGEST HIT: UNBREAK MY HEART (780,000) Her two smash hits “Un-Break My Heart” and “Breathe Again” are the two main contributors to Braxton’s total here, but the singer was always much bigger in the states throughout the 90s. She was unlucky not to make the top here with those two records as, together, they spent 4 weeks in the runner spot on the charts....

I think to be fair if people want to discuss the programs "Big Hits Of..." and "The story Of" then that's fine to discuss in the other thread. Just use this one for the weekly programes?

Ah I see. No they are all classed individually.

Not sure what you mean? The individual acts didn't receive the sales of "Perfect Day" plus their own sales from their solo releases if that's what you mean?

NO 60- ROXETTE (1,550,600) 16 UK TOP 40 HITS BIGGEST HIT: IT MUST HAVE BEEN LOVE (428,000) Quite comfortably one of the biggest Scandinavian’s on this survey are Sweden’s Roxette. Like Savage Garden it took US success to prompt the UK to take notice, and even then we were luke warm, though “The Look” made the top 10 in 1989 follow up’s were unsuccessful and it took “It Must Have Been Love” (and a spot on the soundtrack of “Pretty Woman”) to re-launch them here in 1990. 4 top 10 hits was their tally in the 90s though a return to the charts in 97 with “I Wish I Could Fly” did make No 11 it was a brief return to their early 90s high...

NO 61- MEAT LOAF (1,547,200) 8 UK TOP 40 HITS BIGGEST HIT: I’D DO ANYTHING FOR LOVE (BUT I WON’T DO THAT) (761,000) Far outstripping his 80s sales the Loaf had a fantastic 90s with 1993 being a particularly standout year when Meat got the best selling single and album of the year, and he was the 4th biggest singles artist of that year with over 800K singles sold. In total 4 top 10 hits came his way through the decade, all unmistakeably Meat Loaf records delivered in his own high drama style....