Gezza

NO 21- ROBBIE WILLIAMS (2,833,000) 10 UK TOP 40 HITS BIGGEST HIT: ANGELS (842,000) When he walked out of Take That in 95 the future was far from certain but by the decade end Williams was established as a solo artist. 1997’s “South Of The Border” proved the only blip in his string of top 10 hits that lasted until 2006, and not surprisingly he is the only member of Take That to make this list as a soloist. His strongest year was 1998 when he sold 1.3 million singles to be the 8th biggest act of the year thanks in the main to both “Angels” and “Millennium” his first chart topping single....

NO 22- AQUA (2,808,000) 5 UK TOP 40 HITS BEST SELLER: BARBIE GIRL (1,720,000) Aqua went the same way as Abba did 20 years prior when relationships within the group fell apart causing the group to disintegrate in 2001. All of this was to come though, and back in 1997 the group exploded onto the music scene with “Barbie Girl” which sold a million and was the first of three chart toppers in a row. They sold a million copies in both 97 & 98 meaning they finished in the top 10 best selling acts of both years, but their second album in 2000 met with a much more lukewarm reaction and matching sales. The band reunited in 2007 and are recording again but the UK remains unimpressed with the exception of “Barbie World” from the “Barbie” film in 2023, ironic as Mattel had of course sued Aqua unsuccessfully back in the 90s for infringement of the brand….

NO 23- ETERNAL (2,655,200) 15 UK TOP 40 HITS BIGGEST SELLER: I WANNA BE THE ONLY ONE (600,000) On paper this should be the biggest girl group on our rundown. Every one of their 15 releases made the top 20 with twelve of them hitting the top 10 yet they only just sneak No 2 on the girl group list. They made the top 100 best-selling acts every year 93-97 with 1997 proving to be their most lucrative year when they sold over a million to be the 10th best act of the year. Despite an ever-diminishing number of group members the group managed to roll on into 1999 when they finally gave up the ghost.....

Final three acts to miss the top 20 tomorrow including two that I suspect most would expect in the top 20!

NO 24 B*WITCHED (2,651,800) 7 UK TOP 40 HITS BIGGEST HIT: C’EST LA VIE (850,000) Bet no-one thought B*Witched would end up so high! They sold 2.6 million with only 7 singles, including four chart toppers. They were the 4th biggest sellers of 1998 and kept a top 20 place for the 99 equivalent, yet their chart career lasted in total under 2 years, but they made their money in those 24 months. They outstripped all but 23 acts of the entire decade, and all girl groups except two, I’m sure you can guess which ones they are......

NO 25- QUEEN (2,543,300) 14 UK TOP 40 HITS BIGGEST HIT: BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY/ THESE ARE THE DAYS OF OUR LIVES (973,000) Why let a small thing like the death of your lead single stop your career. Queen kept on selling singles and mining that legacy mercilessly post Mercury’s death having a good run, 7 top 10 hits including a trio of chart toppers, more than they got in any other decade of their career. “Bohemian Rhapsody” sold almost a million again in the wake of Mercury’s death and individually 91 was their best year when only Bryan Adams outsold them singles wise...

NO 26- BLUR (2,532,300) 21 UK TOP 40 HITS BIGGEST SELLER: COUNTRY HOUSE (645,000) There was little doubt that Blur would come off second best to Oasis on this survey as so it proves. Despite releasing more singles and getting more top 10 hits, 11 in total. The group first made the top 10 back in 1991 with “There’s No Other Way”, but it wasn’t until 1994 when sustained top 20 hits started to happen as the album “Parklife” and the Brit Pop movement took off. The following year they reached their peak singles sales wise with the big battle with Oasis was won and Blur shifted 770K singles...

NO 27- R KELLY (2,451,100) 16 UK TOP 40 HITS BEST SELLER: I BELIEVE I CAN FLY (676,000) Let’s file this one under he’s here and we can’t do much about it……..Part 2

NO 28- THE FUGEES/ REFUGEE ALLSTARZ (2,390,000) 8 UK TOP 40 HITS BIGGEST SELLER: KILLING ME SOFTLY (1,355,000) Only the Spice Girls outsold this lot in 1996. Two chart toppers in the form of “Ready Or Not” and the million selling “Killing Me Softly” injected the majority of the sales here, but the group had only five singles in total before splitting after just one album, Lauryn Hill had a brief solo career, and Wyclef Jean soon started the guest rapper of choice and appearing on everyone’s else’s singles setting the blue print for Will.i.am a decade later....

NO 29- BACKSTREET BOYS (2,349,000) 10 UK TOP 40 HITS BIGGEST HIT: AS LONG AS YOU LOVE ME (466,000) Yes those Girl Groups and Boy bands are falling like dominoes now and here’s the biggest US version of the genre. Though they took a while to take off in the UK where their third single was the one to break them, the band put together a string of nine top 10 singles between 1996 and the end of the decade to cruise into our top 30. The best year for the boys was 1997 when they sold over a million thanks in part to a delayed release schedule where the band released four singles to catch up with the US releases, all of which went top 4. They continued until 2002 when they took a break which proved costly, upon their return their success was only moderate and their last hit in 2009 reached the princely position of No 72.....

NO 30- ALL SAINTS (2,268,800) 5 UK TOP 40 HITS BEST SELLER: NEVER EVER (1,253,000) Urban chic and a love of combats were the hallmarks of the All Saints. In the wake of the Spice Girls the market became flooded by girl groups of which All Saints are one of the better examples, despite many bust ups they managed to finish the decade together (though the inevitable split came in early 2001). The band released 5 singles of which three went to No 1 all in 1998 during which they were the 7th best selling singles act, and on our list are the 4th highest placed girl group of the decade.....

NO 31- SNAP! (2,220,300) 10 UK TOP 40 HITS BIGGEST HIT: RHYTHM IS A DANCER (583,000) Nine top 10 hits and two chart toppers allow Snap! to make No 31 on our list. Their success was by and large confined to the first half of the decade where they were easily one of the top 10 best selling artists. The German production team were fine purveyors of euro pop, if not for tasteful lyrics (yes “Rhythm Is A Dancer” I’m looking at you) and outlived many of their contemporaries in early 90s dance grabbing top 20 hits as late as 1995....

NO 32- SIMPLY RED (2,148,900) 16 UK TOP 40 HITS BIGGEST HIT: FAIRGROUND (785,000) Mick Hucknell & co had a great 90s- not quite on the scale of the album charts but they proved they could move singles as well. They finally got a No 1 after 10 years of trying when “Fairground” made the top in 1995 but over the course of the decade they had 13 top 20 hits, and were one of the top 10 acts of 1995. Had their greatest year of success not been in 92 (when sales were low) then there is every chance they could have been placed very much higher on the rundown.....

They are a bit like The Beautiful south- I doubt I would ever buy a studio album by them but then you get a GH and you know and like 90% of it!

https://www.buzzjack.com/forums/topic/287479-00s-top-10-sales-week-by-week-2000/page/3/#comment-7993607 maybe 😁

I've changed the pic to make you happy! haha

NO 33- BRITNEY SPEARS (2,128,000) 3 UK TOP 40 HITS BIGGEST HIT: BABY ONE MORE TIME (1,445,000) BIGGEST SELLING ACT OF 1999 Here she is then. Just 3 hits in the space of 11 months took Ms Spears from obscurity to the decade top 40. The Mighty “...Baby one More Time” makes up more than 50% of her total of course but nobody sold more singles in the UK in 1999 than Britney, the tracks first week sale of 463K were a record at the time for a debut single and of course she’s still around these days knocking out a top 10 hit in 2022 but few debut videos created the impact that “Baby” did back in early 99.......

NO 34 -SASH! (2,120,800) 7 UK TOP 40 HITS BIGGEST HIT: ENCORE UNE FOIS (472,000) It’s a much more continental rundown for the 90s (over the 80s). Now it’s Germany’s time with DJ Sash who not only hit the No 2 spot on 4 occasions without ever getting to the top but also famously became the first act to record their first four hits in different languages, French, Spanish, English & Italian. Their debut year of 1997 was far and away their best when they sold over a million copies to be the 5th biggest act of the year in what was a stellar year for sales anyway. Like the Vengaboys they found the new decade a struggle and failed to chart outside 2000 except for a remix of their first hit which made the top 10 all over again in 2008....

Quite why "Life's Too Short" didn't smash the top 10 is still a mystery to me!

NO 35- LIGHTNING SEEDS (2,110,900) 13 UK TOP 40 HITS BIGGEST HIT: THREE LIONS (785,000) Ok, so without “3 Lions” they wouldn’t be on this list that's fair enough to say but the band also had 13 other hits outside that million seller and seven made the top 20. They were another band who seemed to hover under the radar for most of the 90s whilst silently accumulating hits and sales, by the mid 90s they were on a winning streak, and the band were a constant fixture on the top 100 best selling singles artists of the year 95-98....

NO 36- THE VENGABOYS (2,079,500) 5 UK TOP 40 HITS BIGGEST HIT: BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM (578,000) Selling a prodigious 1.7 million records in 99 to finish the year as the 2nd biggest act on the singles scene, the vengaboys first 5 singles are entirely responsible for their position here. All their singles went top 4 and in the Y/E 99 charts they placed three singles in the top 40 impressive by any one’s standards. As soon as the new decade came along however the hits dried up and 2001 saw the last time they graced the charts, brief and glorious....

NO 37- CLIFF RICHARD (2,069,900) 19 UK TOP 40 HITS BIGGEST HIT: MILLENNIUM PRAYER (860,000) By far the oldest star on this countdown and certainly the one with the longest chart history, Cliff didn’t have a terrible 90s outstripping far younger, and more fashionable bands. Naturally “Millennium Prayer” allows him to finish in the top 40 for the 90s and without it he would have finished down in 86th on this survey. He had 7 top 10 hits throughout the decade but cannily, as he became associated Christmas, he made sure he had a single available over the high selling festive period which ensured he maximised sales for his annual single and come the decade end reaped the benefits.....

NO 38- BON JOVI (2,043,600) 15 UK TOP 40 HITS BIGGEST HIT: ALWAYS (559,000) Despite pretty much turning out the same hit continually all decade long, 80s rockers Bon Jovi have proved many critics wrong and gone the distance- still producing hits into the 2010s. This total does not include solo sales for Jon Bon Jovi, yet despite that they are hardly needed to secure this lofty position, their biggest year being 94 when they finished in 6th place. Their biggest hit of the decade “Always” contributed heavily to that tally and indeed the decade end sales tally...

I'm here for the precision tunes version 😁

NO 39- ACE OF BASE (2,014,400) 12 UKTOP 40 HITS BIGGEST HIT: ALL THAT SHE WANTS (603,000) The “Abba for the 90s” are the first act to break the 2 million mark for singles sales in the 90s and also struck it very big in the US. “All That She Wants” and “The Sign” contribute over 1 million sales between the two of them at a time when singles sales weren’t amazing. A spate of successes at the end of the decade when sales were much healthier helped them to climb up the charts perhaps higher than most thought they would get....