Gezza

NO 95- CHAKA DEMUS & PLIERS (1,131,200) 6 UK TOP 40 HITS BIGGEST HIT: TWIST AND SHOUT (428,000) Starting out as successful artists in their own right, the pivotal moment came in 1991 when they teamed up and the duo was formed. 1993 was a great year for Reggae and these guys were one of the main beneficiaries pumping out 3 top 5 hits in just 6 months but as Reggae faded as a chart fad during 1994 their fortunes waned.

Sorry I was referring to Labour and if they could replicate that showing in other parts of the country. I might have got the wrong meaning of the original post 😄

112 were always credited it on it (at the time and still on Polyhex though I see the OCC have once again played about with the credit and they have gone- Wiki and Discogs agree with me).

I genuinely thought you were praising my methodology and decision making until half way through this 😄

NO 96. S CLUB 7 (1,129,400) 3 UK TOP 40 HITS BIGGEST HIT: BRING IT ALL BACK (623,000) One of the most important questions of 1999 was did you wanna see Bradley swing? Or Rachel do her thing? Well enough people cared enough to push the TV stars over the million mark sales wise and into our top 100 of the decade, after they got launched by Simon Fuller (former Spice Girls manager) on “Miami 7”. Indeed Fuller formed the band after being sacked as manager for the spice’s and used the same writers for this group, and admitted later on that this is the route he would have taken with the Spice Girls had he not been fired. They make the list on the strength of three singles and just 1999’s sales (they were actually the 6th biggest selling act of that year), the band continued until 2003 hitting the top 5 with all their releases before committing pop euthanasia and spawning moderate solo successes for the members. They’re a beautiful reminder of the pure pop era of the late 90s.

NO 97. HANSON (1,119,000) 5 UK TOP 40 HITS BIGGEST HIT: MMMBOP (712,000) Another act who were hyped pre-release of their debut single and true enough “MMMBop” didn’t disappoint with its catchiness propelling the brothers to No 1 instantly. In truth they soon started to generate negative comments from the music press as the hits became smaller and they had fizzled out before the end of the decade. An unexpected return to the top 10 in 2005 with “Penny & Me” proved a short lived reprieve from the dumper....

NO 98. RIGHTEOUS BROTHERS (1,109,100) 2 UK TOP 40 HITS BIGGEST HIT: UNCHAINED MELODY (862,000) Another act who hit the million on the strength of two singles. The film “Ghost” was of course responsible for the re-issue of “Unchained Melody” which turned into 1990’s best selling track, and their 1965 No 1 “You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling” then made the top 3 all over again before the year was out. After that they had run out of tracks that people remembered and wisely the record company thought it best to leave it there....

Not likely. They're as popular as a wet weekend in the country. However I do believe that reform are genuinely on the slide and their moment has passed

To note- there is no TOTP episode for the last chart I posted as it was NYE when the show would have gone out (if made).

1ST JANUARY With all the new releases crammed into last week there are no new entries in the entire top 40 but we’ve still got some interesting action going on. For only the second time in their short career Westlife manage to not only hold the top spot but this time around they increase their sales in doing so, “I Have A Dream/ Seasons In The Sun” sold a mighty 231,000 copies last week bringing its total to 444,000 after 14 days making it already the group’s biggest seller! Cliff Richard remains ominously at No 2 (112,956) and with total sales of over 830,000 “Millennium Prayer” becomes his biggest seller since the 60s. With John Lennon holding at No 3 (107,000) it means that Westlife aren’t as assured a third week as it may look given the promo of these will have approaching the millennium next week. The big winner of the week is Mr Hanky, his “Christmas Poo” floats 8-4 (92,000) and may grab a surprise week at the top once the festive period is gone in a fortnight. Other tracks getting a new lease of life are The Artful Dodger 6-5 (92,000), Vengaboys 10-9 (43,000), and a returning Alice Deejay 11-10 (43,000). With S Club 7 dropping 5-6 (86,000) you’ll note that less than a thousand separated numbers 4-6 who could have ended up in any order. Cuban Boys dive 4-7 (78,000) and Steps fall 7-8 (67,000)- next week we’ll get the final chart of the 90s and the 20th Century! 1- I HAVE A DREAM/ SEASONS IN THE SUN- Westlife (231,000) 2- THE MILLENNIUM PRAYER- Cliff Richard (112,956) 3- IMAGINE- John Lennon (107,000) 4- MR HANKEY THE CHRISTMAS POO- Mr Hankey (92,000) 5- RE-REWIND THE CROWD SAY BO SELECTA- Artful Dodger Ft Craig David (92,000) 6- TWO IN A MILLION/ YOU’RE MY NUMBER ONE- S Club 7 (86,000) 7- COGNOSCENTI VS INTELEGENSIA- Cuban Boys (78,000) 8- SAY YOU’LL BE MINE/ BETTER THE DEVIL YOU KNOW- Steps (67,000) 9- KISS (WHEN THE SUN DON’T SHINE)- Vengaboys (43,000) 10- BACK IN MY LIFE- Alice Deejay (43,000)

25TH DECEMBER Christmas, chart wise, falls as far from the big day as possible getting announced on 19th December and covering sales for 12th-18th December but that hasn’t affected sales too badly with most seeing a nice boost, and yes that includes Cliff Richard- but has he done it? Well the short answer is no, “Millennium Prayer” sold a best yet 170,256 as it faltered at the final stage and drops to No 2 this week, it gives way to Westlife who become the second act in history to debut at No 1 with every one of their first four singles, they follow fellow countrymen B*witched in that respect but had to sell more than double the weekly sales of any of their previous hits to do it. “Seasons In The Sun/ I Have A Dream” are of course both covers of the Terry Jacks 1974 #1 and the ABBA 1979 #2 hits (though Terry Jacks version is a cover in itself it is the most famous version), by way of trivia Jacks was actually knocked off the top by ABBA’s “Waterloo” back in the day. Westlife’s versions are both available on album’s with “Seasons” on their debut album and “Dream” on the “ABBAmania” compilation CD which sprung from the ITV Special earlier in the year, but that didn’t dent sales as the double A-Side posted a tally of 213,000 copies last week to outstrip Cliff Richard. They are also just the third act in history to score four chart toppers in a calendar year following Elvis Presley (1961 & 1962) and The Shadows (1963)- illustrious company! Of course with the Millennium just a fortnight away the fight isn’t over for Cliff and his tally of 723,618 is enough for 8th position on the YTD- keep your eye on it, it’s starting to look like a million seller! John Lennon’s “Imagine” becomes only the fourth track to be a top 10 single three times over for the same act reaching No 6 (1975), No 1 (1981) and now No 3 after shifting 148,000 copies last week, the others incidentally being “You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling”, “Holiday” and “You Sexy Thing”. It’s re-release in this case is prompted by the campaign to make it No 1 for the millennium and it hasn’t done badly in that respect. The winner of the novelty single for Christmas are the Cuban Boys, a production team from Cornwall who only formed last year and found favour with John Peel for their cheeky songs. They’ve taken a sample from Roger Miller’s “Whistle Stop” and married it to music which is played on a loop when you visit the hamsterdance.com website, which is something of a cult hit, and is itself a sample of the music from the Disney film “Robin Hood”. Entitled “Cognoscenti Vs Intelligentsia” the song started as a viral hit but has had strong support from Radio 1 DJ Jo Whiley and debuts at No 4 (104,000) as a result. Fear the hamster! After two top 2 singles S Club 7 may have to settle for a smaller hit this time around with double A-Side “You’re My Number One/ Two In A Million” debuting at No 5 (97,000). The former title first got its airing on “Miami 7” TV show whilst “Million” was the theme to their BBC special “Boyfriends & Birthdays” and is co-penned by former popstar Cathy Dennis, but both appear on their album “S Club” which remains top 20 and has gone Platinum already. Another act who released a double A-Side this week were Steps, “Say You’ll Be Mine” is the third single to be lifted from “Steptacular” which has already sold over 750,000 since its release eight weeks ago and still sits in the top 10. The track has been paired with their version of the Kylie Minogue 1990 #2 single “Better The Devil You Know” which the band premiered on their recent “The Next Step” tour, together the tracks arrive at No 7 (83,000) to become the group’s 7th top 10 single on the trot but it is their lowest debut single “5,6,7,8” in 1997. Last year Chef pulled off a surprise chart topper with “Chocolate Salty Balls” but it doesn’t look so great for Mr Hanky. “The Christmas Poo” is the offering this year from the South Park creators and featured in a recent episode to bolster the campaign, it's performed by the character Cowboy Timmy. 70,000 of you did buy it though as it premieres at No 8. Elsewhere The Artful Dodger tumble 2-6 (83,000), William Orbit slips 4-9 (69,000) and The Vengaboys hurtle 3-10 (66,000). With all next week’s sales pre-Christmas don’t expect much alteration to the sales for a week at least! 1- I HAVE A DREAM/ SEASONS IN THE SUN- Westlife (213,000) 2- THE MILLENNIUM PRAYER- Cliff Richard (170,256) 3- IMAGINE- John Lennon (148,000) 4- COGNOSCENTI VS INTELLEGENSIA- Cuban Boys (104,000) 5- TWO IN A MILLION/ YOU’RE MY NUMBER ONE- S Club 7 (97,000) 6- RE-REWIND THE CROWD SAY BO SELECTA- Artful Dodger Ft Craig David (83,000) 7- SAY YOU’LL BE MINE/ BETTER THE DEVIL YOU KNOW- Steps (83,000) 8- MR HANKEY THE CHRISTMAS POO- Mr Hankey (70,000) 9- BARBER’S ADAGIO FOR STRINGS- William Orbit (69,000) 10- KISS (WHEN THE SUN DON’T SHINE)- Vengaboys (66,000)

Hurrah for "Gambler" too....

"WEA revealed in August 85 that the original plan for the album was to release 5 singles with "Angel" "Pretender" and "Love Don't Live Here Anymore" all slated for release but the addition of "Into The Groove" along with the recent Jimmy Nail cover of the track has meant that "Love Don't Live Here Anymore" has now been scrapped as a UK single." This is from my 1985 Gallup thread (Aug 17). I assume it comes from either record mirror or music week from the time.

No they aren't all combined so it would only feature here if a various artists record had sold enough in its own right....

Exactly. Now consider how we think those powers will be used by a potential reform government in the future......

Initially it was down for a single release (in the initial planning for the 5 singles) but by the time they got round to it Jimmy Nail had done his version rendering hers pointless in the UK at least. Releasing "crazy for you" and "gambler " also delayed the scheduling.

I should add (contrary to my own rules) that I decided to exclude Faith Evans and 112 as they would only make the list thanks to a million seller on which they were only featured acts. If I Hadn't then you wouldn't have got Jimmy Nail and Teletubbies which I'm sure you'll agree are more important....

NO 99. THE TELETUBBIES (1,103,000) 1 UK TOP 40 HIT BIGGEST HIT: TELETUBBIES SAY EH-OH (1,103,000) There are just two acts who make it on this with just one hit. Here’s the first, BBC’s “Teletubbies” was a big hit not only with the kids but with Students who made the theme tune a million seller! Tinky Winky, Dipsy, Laa-Laa, and Po first got aired in March 1997 and by the summer was attracting audiences of 2 million, of course that led to the unleashing of merchandise such as dolls and figures all of which created a cultural moment by the end of the year and to this track selling 900,000 in just 4 weeks! Wisely they quit whilst ahead and the original series ended in 2001 before the inevitable reboot.

NO 100. JIMMY NAIL (1,086,900) 6 UK TOP 40 HITS BIGGEST HIT: CROCODILE SHOES (417,000) Spending the 90s split between the TV screen and the charts proved lucrative for Nail whose highlight came in 1992 with the chart topping “Ain’t No Doubt”. He was a singer before he started acting though it was rising to fame in “Auf Wiedersehen, Pet” that saw him finally crack the charts in 1985 with “Love Don’t Live Here Anymore” which ultimately scuppered a release of the same song in the UK charts by Madonna. Later on the pair teamed up in the film “Evita” though Nail’s chart career was by that time pretty much over.

Right I'll do the first two today.......for the links I'll try to use non top 10 singles where possible as i fear we've discussed top 10 singles in the 90s to death recently! (or I certainly have)- but it may not be possible on all the acts...

Well hello to you! Now that the 90s have finished in terms of my Gallup threads and also the TOTP repeats it's time to reflect on the updated and more accurate top 100 best selling artists of the decade according to sales in the UK. Thanks again go to Robbie and Kobyhardrian for panel sales for 1990-1994 to improve this list. In keeping with all my threads if an act is credited then they receive all the sales for that track, so (for example) both Janet Jackson and Michael Jackson get the full sales for “Scream”. Now with all that said we can crack on with the rundown- each act will be revealed with their biggest hit listed and, where appropriate, he biggest selling act of individual years will also be indicated! Just who did sell more singles than anyone else in the 90s? The answer will be revealed N.B The above is just a reminder of the 90s music scene, it doesn't indicate that all the acts featured will appear on the list nor does it resemble the actual best selling singles of the 90s!

I think the unintended consequence of this could be that if adults have to prove their identity via credit cards/ passports etc then you have a far greater chance of data breaches from sites (especially new ones that pop up in reaction to some getting blocked) which makes us less secure so i think it needs a lot of thought before implementation but I doubt that will happen knowing this lot.

There are actually three charts left to post in 1999 (December 25, January 1, and 8) so I'll post 2 charts on Friday and 1 the week after in this thread. It will mean that the TOTP episodes shown on 26/6 will be split between threads with the other show in the 2000 thread.

Confirmed start date of 26/6

only 1 show tonight and it is the last "regular" TOTP of the decade- the Christmas special 99 is on next week.