Gezza

A reminder these are sales purely in the decade (up to 2009) and NO SPOILERS please!

65. +-=÷x (Tour Collection)_ Ed Sheeran (NEW) 510,000 64. Happier Than Ever- Billie Eilish (67-70-68) 514,000 63. 21 Adele (98-60-64-56-56) 518,000 (T/S 5,693,000) 62. Starboy- The Weeknd (71-43) 525,000 (t/s 898,000) 61. Elv1s- 30 Number One Hits- Elvis Presley (93-71) 525,000 (T/S 2,477,000) More Sheeran here with his compilation entering the top 100, second albums from The Weeknd and Billie Eilish and Elvis is still going well! First Adele album showing up and now over 5.6 million!

70. The Diamond Collection- Post Malone (95) 497,000 69. Singles Collection- Britney Spears (100-87-73) 505,000 (T/S 720,000) 68. Red (Taylor’s Version)- Taylor Swift (81-64-57) 506,000 67. Curtain Call 2- Eminem (81) 507,000 66. The Singles Phil Collins (93-87-75-73-69) 509,000 (T/S 886,000) 4 greatest hits album are all on the rise on the countdown, one of them is the second album on the list from Eminem who is still selling the albums in the 20s. First appearance from Taylor Swift who needless to say has more albums than any other act on this list!

With the TOTP re-runs entering the 00s sometime in the summer, I thought it would be nice to do a little countdown of the best selling singles of the decade 2000-2009. There was a chart done by Radio 1 at the end of 2009 which you may recall but there were two flaws to the chart- namely that it inexplicably omitted a few tracks which should have been there and it also didn't include sales for the final week of the decade. That being said it can be found on the internet if you search for it so please no spoilers. A wider top 200 was produced which does include some estimates and was not therefore "official" in the same way the top 100 was but it is probably pretty accurate and I'm indebted to andy@haven (i think) for producing it at the time. So with all that said thanks also to the OCC, Polyhex, James Masterton, Wikipedia, Music week, Alan Jones, and anyone else that I inadvertedly may have used in the compilation!

75. X Ed Sheeran (52-43-46-61-67) 487,000 (T/S 4,017,000) 74. 1 The Beatles (34-31-28-27-45) 489,000 (T/S 4,008,000) 73. The Sound Of….- The Smiths (84) 491,000 (t/s 1,031,000) 72. We're All Alone In This Together Dave (36-33-37-59) 494,000 71. I Will Always Love You- The Best Of- Whitney Houston (83) 495,000 (T/S 632,000) No male has more albums on the list than Ed Sheeran- his first here has now sold over 4 million and moves past The Beatles who are impeded as previously explained. Dave’s second album takes a bow but improvement for GH sets from Whitney and The Smiths who get their first million selling album.

80. Seventeen Going Under- Sam Fender (58-63-76) 468,000 79. Definitive Collection Stevie Wonder (76-76-74-75-78) 475,000 (T/S 1,724,000) 78. After Hours The Weeknd (23-33-43-40-58) 477,000 77. Nirvana- Nirvana (92-80) 482,000 (t/s 1,557,000) 76. Christmas Michael Buble (57-52-56-58-65) 483,300 (T/S 3,512,400) 2nd from Sam Fender and Nirvana and Michael Buble’s yearly No 1 actually takes a dive regardless though it has sold over 3.5 million so we’ll forgive it.

I've gone back through some info i had and I can see what you mean- yes I agree the Blue album is on more- I make it 483k for the decade- will update the final list when i post it- it will be No 77 on the revised list.

My figure is an estimation and it depends on where the streaming points go- "1" charted continuously from 2018 to 2021 which would indicate the streaming figures were not gong to Blue throughout that period which would mean the 2020 is likely too high (unless you know for sure it is correct).

16TH JANUARY 1999 begins, the Christmas clear out starts and single sales dive, in total a mere 834,000 were sold in the last week, a third of the total of three weeks ago. All that creates the perfect storm to see the new Fatboy Slim single enter straight at the top giving Norman Cook his third chart topper and they’ve all been as parts of different groups, he previously made No 1 as a member of the Housemartins (1986) then Beats International (1990) and now under his current pseudonym. The single “Praise You” is built extensively around a sample from “Take Yo Praise” by Camille Yarborough and sold 80,913 copies to take the throne, it helps to push parent album “You’ve Come A Long Way Baby” 16-6 with total sales rapidly approaching 300,000 copies. Check out the promo which was shot in LA without permission of the cinema featured and stars the director Spike Jonze as the dance group leader and Fatboy Slim himself in the queue! For the first time in their long career the Gibb Brothers have two penned hits in the top 3, last week’s No 1 from Steps “Heartbeat/ Tragedy” falls to No 2 (65,340) and new at No 3 is Blockstar’s “You Should Be”, a dance hit from the hands of DJ Brandon Block. It features the chorus of the Bee Gees “You Should Be Dancing” re-recorded to avoid those lawyers and benefits from Block’s current residency on Kiss 100 convincing 42,000 buyers last week. Is there room for another boyband on the charts? It seems so with Ultra entering at No 8 (26,000) with “Rescue Me”, it’s the band’s fourth single in a year and marks a spectacular about turn in their chart fortunes with previous singles peaking at No’s 11, 16, and 28 before this one. The band were all school friends who took their name from the Depeche Mode album of the same name which gives you an idea how quickly they got signed. The debut album is out in a few weeks. A dance collaboration now, DJ Supreme is a much revered figure on the dance scene and his hit “Tha Wild Style” has had two shots at the charts reaching No 39 back in 1996 and then No 24 a year later with its latter appearance remaining his highest placing on the charts. It’s now been remixed by the Porn Kings using their own debut hit “Up To No Good” (No 28, 1996) to form “Up To The WildStyle” which now enters at No 10 (23,000). The sample you can hear (Which is also in the Porn Kings original) is Josh Wink’s “Higher State Of Consciousness” in case you wondered, and marks the third time the track has been in the top 10 in the last 4 years. So what’s happened elsewhere? Chef drops 3-4 (40,000) and sees The Spice Girls tumble past him 2-5 (38,000) with both titles now over the 700,000 mark their work is done. Mel C and Bryan Adams remain popular holding at No 6 (36,000) whilst Cher falls 4-7 (30,000), The Honeyz complete the top 10 by staying static at No 9 (24,000). 1- PRAISE YOU- Fatboy Slim (80,913) 2- HEARTBEAT/ TRAGEDY- Steps (65,340) 3- YOU SHOULD BE- Blockstar (42,000) 4- CHOCOLATE SALTY BALLS- Chef (40,000) 5- GOODBYE- Spice Girls (38,000) 6- WHEN YOU’RE GONE- Bryan Adams/ Mel C (36,000) 7- BELIEVE- Cher (30,000) 8- RESCUE ME- Ultra (26,000) 9- END OF THE LINE- Honeyz (24,000) 10- UP TO THE WILDSTYLE- Porn Kings Vs DJ Supreme (23,000)

85. Don't Smile At Me Billie Eilish (30-35-44-44-63) 454,000 (T/S 718,000) 84. Good Girl Gone Bad- Rihanna (97) 459,000 (t/s 2,519,000) 83. Greatest Hits….So Far Pink (89-89-79-79) 460,000 (t/s 1,581,000) 82. Legends Never Die Juice WRLD (18-23-30-46-62) 465,000 81. Certified Lover Boy Drake (81-51-48-72) 467,000 First of 4 albums from Billie Eilish pops up here, a strong urban presence from Drake and Juice WRLD, and Pink holds up well with the evergreen collection of hits. An old Rihanna album is still going great guns- confirmed classic?

90. 1967-1970- The Beatles (NEW) 435,000 (t/s 1,930,000) 89. Nevermind Nirvana (85-68-76-91) 435,000 (t/s 2,718,000) 88. Planet Her Doja Cat (74-45-55-74) 442,000 87. Greatest Hits Guns N Roses (84-93-84-86-87) 442,000 (t/s 2,601,000) 86. My love- The Essential Collection- Celine Dion (NEW) (337,000) (t/s 1,520,000) Streams are redirected away from “1” which now sees the 1967-70 compilation charge into the top 100, more GH sets litter this section from Celine Dion and Guns N Roses.

95. Direct Hits 2003-2013 The Killers (63-64-60-59-64) 424,000 (t/s 1,122,000) 94. Heavy Is The Head Stormzy (5-18-27-43-70) 427,000 (t/s 514,000) 93. Goodbye & Good Riddance Juice WRLD (40-41-55-68-75) 429,000 (t/s 559,000) 92. Number Ones Michael Jackson (39-32-26-33-61) 429,000 (t/s 3,160,000) 91. Graduation- Kanye West (NEW) 430,000 (t/s 1,061,000) Michael Jackson and The Killers are affected by streams allocated to other GH compilations and fall quickly but Kanye is back with his sophomore set as we cool on Stormzy.

100. Timeless- The All Time Greatest Hits Bee Gees (86-82-91-98) 413,000 (T/S 537,000) 99. Hypersonic Missiles Sam Fender (72-90-72-90-99) 417,000 (t/s 531,000) 98. The Eminem Show- Eminem (92) 420,000 (t/s 2,229,000) 97. Favourite Worst Nightmare- Arctic Monkeys (95-89-88) 423,000 (T/S 1,466,000) 96. Psychodrama- Dave (RE) (46-54-50-81-xx) 423,000 (t/s 590,000) Highlight here is a re-entry on the list for Dave who of course had a new album this year to spur on sales of his back catalogue. Otherwise Sam Fender and Bee Gees just holding on, and the first appearance for Eminem and Arctic Monkeys who have other albums to come!

Of 2025 yes- this is a decade to date list

We have 7 new entries plus a re-entry. Just 20 acts are responsible for 58% of the albums.

Will start tomorrow!

Another 12 months have gone by so let's see how it changed the top 100 best sellers of the 2020s! 33 of albums on the list are greatest hits compilations so where possible I'll try to focus on albums released in this decade..... Charts covered are 09.01.2020- 01.01.2026. The top positions will probably be well known so no spoilers please!

Yes it's back, the title says it all, a thread designed to "best guess" the sales week by week for 1999. We'll count down all the sounds of the year and hopefully generate a few "almost forgotten gems" along the way. As always thanks go to MFR, Vas tariner, Youtube, Wikipedia, MW, popscene, James Masterton, Discogs, and a few other sources who have helped over the years. The format will be the same every week with TOTP performances where available for those songs new to the top 10. So sit back and enjoy every top 10 hit of the 90s (eventually) because in this year we lived La Vida Loca

And that really is it for 1998! onwards and upwards!

9TH JANUARY It took 8 weeks to make it but this week Steps’ “Tragedy/ Heartbeat” makes the top spot whilst almost no-one predicted it! Debuting at No 2 back in November it’s been floating around the top 10 moving 2-5-5-8-8-6-4-1 so far and selling a whopping 626,000 as it makes the top spot. That includes a tally of 98,080 last week as the competition around it slumped it in the usual post Christmas manner. It is the first No 1 for the group whose profile has been increasing through the year enabling them to sell over 770,000 copies of their debut set “Step One” so far, it holds at No 3 but was a midweek No 1 before falling back- that double was oh so near! The single meanwhile is the first to climb to pole position since The Tamperer back in May, and has taken the longest time to make the top in a straight run since the All Saints almost a year ago. It’s a funny old world in pop! It also illustrates the turn around in appreciation for the brothers Gibb who in the last 3 years have seen their work taken to No 1 by Take That, Boyzone and now Steps, and No 2 hits for 911 and N-Trance all making them richer! The Spice Girls hold at No 2 shifting another 91,000 inching ahead of Chef who is toppled 1-3 (88,000) and joining them are other former chart toppers from Cher (3-4 56,745) and B*Witched (6-5, 47,000). Bryan Adams & Mel C are proving very resilient moving back up again 7-6 (37,000) and have crossed the 300,000 mark, and also getting a lift back up the charts are Will Smith 9-8 (34,000) and The Honeyz 10-9 (27,000) though obviously everything in the top 9 is losing sales including Denise & Johnny 5-7 (36,000). The only new song in the top 10 comes predictably enough from Prince who opportunely re-releases “1999”, a No 25 hit in 1983 and a much more impressive #2 in early 1985. It’s the original mix which has been re-released and proves to be his first appearance in the big league since “Gold” way back in 1995. This re-emerges at No 10 (25,000) as we say goodbye to 98! 1- TRAGEDY/ HEARTBEAT- Steps (98,080) 2- GOODBYE- Spice Girls (91,000) 3- CHOCOLATE SALTY BALLS- Chef (88,000) 4- BELIEVE- Cher (56,745) 5- TO YOU I BELONG- B*Witched (47,000) 6- WHEN YOU’RE GONE- Bryan Adams & Mel C (37,000) 7- ESPECIALLY FOR YOU- Denise & Jonny (36,000) 8- MIAMI- Will Smith (34,000) 9- END OF THE LINE- Honeyz (27,000) 10- 1999- Prince (25,000)

Final chart of 1998 tomorrow (which will be the first show shown on Jan 2nd)

2ND JANUARY With most of this week’s sales happening before Christmas we still get very healthy totals for the singles this week even though, predictably, there’s no new entries in the top 10. We do at least have a new No 1 though as Chef climbs 2-1 (220,000) which may put Isaac Hayes in the record book if you view the Chef as his work alone. It would mark a wait of 27 years between debut and a chart topper beating Jackie Wilson’s record established back in 1986, if you view it as a No 1 by the “South Park” character then it’s the third chart topper by an animated cartoon act following the Archies and The Simpsons. Naturally that means that The Spice Girls are deposed after just a week but a sale of 208,000 is hardly a bad sales figure and sees total sales almost reach platinum after a fortnight though it has fallen behind Chef’s total sales already. Both songs are already in the YTD top 15 and should make the top 10 when the final week’s sales are factored in. More record breaking from Cher. “Believe” bounces back 4-3 selling 120,292 in the process- that is a record breaking 10 weeks on the chart selling six figures in each week- it is now the 5th biggest selling of the 90s, the biggest selling single ever by a female solo act, and clearly isn’t done yet! Rounding of the 6 figure club are Steps with “Heartbeat/ Tragedy” on the climb again 6-4 (104,000), fast approaching platinum itself it is already their personal best seller. Denise & Johnny’s challenge is over as they fall 3-5 (77,000) but B”Witched hold up well 5-6 (71,000) and Bryan Adams & Mel C are clinging on there 8-7 (60,000). At the bottom of the top tier Boyzone return 15-8 (58,000) and Will Smith rebounds 11-9 (53,000) with the Honeyz completing the roundup 7-10 (49,000). 1- CHOCOLATE SALTY BALLS- Chef (220,000) 2- GOODBYE- Spice Girls (208,000) 3- BELIEVE- Cher (120,292) 4- HEARTBEAT/ TRAGEDY- Steps (104,000) 5- ESPECIALLY FOR YOU- Denise/ Johnny (77,000) 6- TO YOU I BELONG- B*Witched (71,000) 7- WHEN YOU’RE GONE- Bryan Adams/ Mel C (60,000) 8- I LOVE THE WAY YOU LOVE ME- Boyzone (58,000) 9- MIAMI- Will Smith (53,000) 10- END OF THE LINE- Honeyz (49,000)

Slight change of plan. TOTP returns on 2/1 showing the episode from 8/1/99 and 15/1/99 so it skips a chart week in essence. Therefore I'll post the missing week next weekend along with the final sales week of 1998 to conclude this thread. Then I'll open the 1999 one which will be the second show shown on the 2nd of January. If all that makes sense!

So that's it for TOTP 1998 though there are actually two more charts to post which are technically 1998 sales chart! So the thread will return in a few weeks with the final two charts in this thread before moving onto 1999 offically......

26TH DECEMBER B”Witched may have a hat-trick of chart toppers in 1998 but the daddy (should that be mummy?) of all girl groups return to claim their third Christmas chart topper- yes the Spice Girls have done it again. “Goodbye”, rumoured heavily to be about the departure of Halliwell from the group back in May, sold a very impressive 380,711 to do it, that’s the second highest opening tally of their career only bettered by the 429,000 “2 Become 1” recorded two years ago. The song actually dates back to last year and was originally intended for the “Spice World” album but didn’t get recorded due to time constraints, it got a dust down and a re-write and results in an 8th chart topper from 9 singles. They are just the second act ever to score three successive Christmas No 1 singles (The Beatles were the first in 1963, 64, and 65) and draw level with Take That as the act with the most chart toppers in the 90s, they pull themselves up to joint 5th on the all time list behind The Beatles, Elvis Presley, Cliff Richard and Abba. The video incidentally was shot at Mentmore Towers which also hosted the recent Five promo for “Until The Time Is Through”. For all of that impressive sale this was the first year that anything ran them even remotely close. That record was by the “South Park” character Chef as voiced by Issac Hayes who himself made the top 5 back in 1972 with “Theme From Shaft”, pushed by Radio 1’s Chris Moyles the track “Chocolate Salty Balls (P.S I Love You)” has just enough innuendo and fun to be a real challenger to the Spices selling a monumental 372,890 copies to enter at No 2, that’s the biggest weekly sale ever for a track which wasn’t Number One! Never in the running for No 1, but still putting in a healthy show of 141,000, was Denise Van Outen and Johnny Vaughan’s take on the Kylie Minogue & Jason Donovan classic “Especially For You”. Recorded for the Children In Need charity the duo performed the song on the night and created such positive feedback they decided to release it for Christmas. Pete Waterman is back on Production here with Steps helping out on backing vocals, all which sees it make No 3. Steps themselves climb up 8-6 (99,000) and have already sold 423,000 copies of “Tragedy/ Heartbeat” almost without anyone noticing. Bursting into the media over the course of the year after being the centre of the BBC docusoap “The Cruise” Jane McDonald has had quite a year. The singer could first be spotted in the promo for Black Lace’s 1983 #9 single “Superman” but now after 15 years she’s really hit the big time having left the show, gotten married (again shown on BBC 1) and gotten a recording contract. The latter resulted in a No 1 album in the summer and follows naturally to a stab at the festive top spot with “Cruise Into Christmas”, essentially a medley of festive favourites. It may be light entertainment but she certainly has an audience selling 68,000 copies last week which has been enough in some weeks this year for the No 1 position. Well done to Cher who despite dropping 2-4 sold another 123,699 raising her tally for the single “Believe” to 1,342,356 to see it move past Celine Dion and be crowned the biggest selling single of the year. It is also the 9th week it has recorded a sale of over 100,000 equalling the record set by “Barbie Girl” last year- can it make it a record next week? So long then to B*Witched who dive 1-5 (108,000) and The Honeyz who slip 5-7 (82,000). Bryan Adams and Mel C linger 6-8 (75,000) with a sales increase and Billie hurtles 3-9 (73,000). 1- GOODBYE- Spice Girls (380,711) 2- CHOCOLATE SALTY BALLS- Chef (372,890) 3- ESPECIALLY FOR YOU- Denise & Johnny (141,000) 4- BELIEVE- Cher (123,699) 5- TO YOU I BELONG- B*Witched (108,000) 6- HEARTBEAT/ TRAGEDY- Steps (99,000) 7- END OF THE LINE- Honeyz (82,000) 8- WHEN YOU’RE GONE- Bryan Adams/ Mel C (75,000) 9- SHE WANTS YOU- Billie (73,000) 10- CRUISE INTO CHRISTMAS- Jane McDonald (68,000)