paulgilb

I think this week may have been the first time the top 5 were all new entries (excluding the first ever chart of course). Curiously, there were only 4 other new entries in the top 40, and 3 of those were re-issues/re-mixes.

Interesting to see the sales for #1 and #2 - it definitely seemed a lot closer between them at the time. 7 new entries in the top 10 equalled the record which still stands (even the Ed Sheeran week only managed 7 as two of his tracks in the top 10 were released prior to the album). Geeky fact about that chart: #34 was a new entry for Junior Jack - E Samba, which charted exactly 6 years to the day after the previous 'Samba' track to chart (Bellini's Samba De Janeiro). And there was a chart debut at #54 that week for Snow Patrol with Spitting Games (which reached #23 the following year on re-issue).

Get well soon!

Thanks to everybody for the thread! A 2010s version would be good, although I suspect there will be a lot more tricky decisions on which tracks are eligible.

Akon did not feature on Just Dance (although he did co-write the track according to Wikipedia) - it was just Lady Gaga and Colby O'Donis who were credited on it.

Thanks for hosting, Bré!

He did in 1999.

Thanks for hosting, gavindeejay!

It's also the same week as the anti-Trump campaign.

A couple of minor issues (neither of which affects the scoring): The original version of Hallelujah was by Leonard Cohen, and reached #36 - still a valid answer. Kylie's Tears On My Pillow is not a cover of the Johnny Nash song (even though both songs have the title line followed by 'pain in my heart'). It is a cover of a non-charting song by Little Anthony & The Imperials (who are a group, meaning the answer is still incorrect). Thanks for hosting the quiz - happy to have finished third!

Apologies if I have misunderstood this one, but I believe Annie Lennox has only had 10 top 40 hits as a soloist. Obviously she also had hits with The Eurythmics, but she did have a #1 with them.

New Radicals - You Get What You Give was also released that week. There was also an all-new top 3 that week: 1 (-) Mr Oizo - Flat Beat 2 (-) Cartoons - Witchdoctor 3 (-) Billie - Honey To The Bee Make of that what you will. Another big week (in terms of number of new releases, albeit in a low sales era) was w/e 16/10/2004, where 12 of the top 16 were new entries (including Robbie Williams - Radio at #1).

Thanks for hosting, Zarate!

Thanks for hosting, PeteFromLeeds!

Thanks for hosting, UltraReputation! FYI, my guess of A Little Less Conversation for #2 was because: (a) I hadn't yet heard 2002. (b) I wanted to answer the questions without Googling etc. © I rather naively assumed that some of the songs namechecked would actually be from 2002.

Thanks for hosting, Midge! Happy with 4th place!

3 weeks later Art Brut's Emily Kane reached #41, missing out on the top 40 by 2 sales (and would certainly have been top 40 on the physical-only chart). They never managed a top 40 hit.

That 2003 chart was the last one to be presented in the traditional (i.e. playing all 40 tracks) format, before Wes took over.

In fact their next hit to chart lower than its predecessor would be their 12th hit Side in 2001 (#14 vs Sing's #3). Their first 11 peaks: 40-39-30-38-16-14-13-10-8-5-3

So the week with the most such new entries is 13/10/2012, with 6 (by 5 different females). There are several other weeks with 5 females entering (of which the most notable was 15/11/2008). Note that 23/02/2002 appears 6 times, this is because Timo Maas (who is unquestionably male) has been included. There do also appear to be a couple of others who (I believe) are actually duos or groups (Aurora in 2000-02, Lucy Pearl, De Nada). Great list!

The singles chart announced 10 years ago today (16/12/2007, week ending 22/12/2007) featured what has to be one of the most "WTF" #1s all of time. It was actually a Tesco exclusive - only available either from Tesco stores or from Tesco Direct. However, as it was widely displayed throughout Tesco stores, it picked up a lot of 'impulse' purchases (this was partly the reason for the huge sales of singles in the late 1990s), leading to the song being #1 despite most of us being unaware the track even existed at the start of the week. Curiously, Eva Cassidy's previous highest-charting single was her version of Over The Rainbow, a song which was also covered in the 1990s by Israel Kamakawiwoʻole as a medley with What A Wonderful World (the same medley was also a #11 hit for Cliff Richard in 2001). Spookily, both Eva Cassidy and Israel Kamakawiwoʻole died in the 1990s in their 30s. The song had a very short chart run: 1-2-14-53. Surprisingly, its week at #1 was not its highest-selling week - it increased its sales in Week 2, but was knocked off #1 by Leon Jackson. The full top 40 plus selected others: 1 (-) Eva Cassidy & Katie Melua – What A Wonderful World 2 (1) Leona Lewis – Bleeding Love 3 (10) Soulja Boy Tell’Em – Crank That (Soulja Boy) 4 (8) Mariah Carey – All I Want For Christmas Is You 5 (3) Girls Aloud – Call The Shots 6 (4) Timbaland pts OneRepublic – Apologize 7 (5) Take That – Rule The World 8 (12) Pogues ft Kirsty MacColl – Fairytale Of New York 9 (2) T2 ft Jodie Aysha – Heartbroken 10 (16) Cascada – What Hurts The Most 11 (7) Mark Ronson ft Amy Winehouse – Valerie 12 (6) Alicia Keys – No One 13 (9) Shayne Ward – Breathless 14 (23) Wham! – Last Christmas 15 (14) Sugababes – About You Now 16 (27) Wizzard – I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday 17 (15) Westlife – Home 18 (11) Kylie Minogue – 2 Hearts 19 (re) Michael Buble – Lost 20 (-) Shaun The Sheep – Life’s A Treat 21 (25) Andy Williams – It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year 22 (37) Slade – Merry Xmas Everybody 23 (33) Shakin’ Stevens – Merry Christmas Everyone 24 (19) Rihanna ft Ne-Yo – Hate That I Love You 25 (22) Nickelback – Rockstar 26 (26) Sugababes – Change 27 (38) Band Aid – Do They Know It’s Christmas 28 (46) Amy MacDonald – This Is The Life 29 (24) Hoosiers – Goodbye Mr A 30 (17) Bloc Party – Flux 31 (18) Freemasons ft Bailey Tzuke – Uninvited 32 (-) Stereophonics – My Friends 33 (53) Scouting For Girls – Elvis Ain’t Dead 34 (28) Craig David – Hot Stuff (Let’s Dance) 35 (51) Chris Rea – Driving Home For Christmas 36 (31) 50 Cent ft Justin Timberlake & Timbaland – Ayo Technology 37 (68) Rihanna – Don’t Stop The Music 38 (50) Rihanna ft Jay-Z – Umbrella 39 (-) Foals – Balloons 40 (60) John & Yoko & Plastic Ono Band – Happy Xmas (War Is Over) 43 (44) Killers – Don’t Shoot Me Santa 45 (re) Michael Buble – Home 46 (-) Amy Winehouse – Love Is A Losing Game 47 (re) Led Zeppelin – Stairway To Heaven 48 (61) Bing Crosby – White Christmas 50 (72) David Guetta ft Cozi – Baby When The Light 51 (-) Crowded House – Pour Le Monde 57 (69) Newton Faulkner – Teardrop 58 (70) Kate Nash – Pumpkin Soup 61 (re) Boney M – Mary’s Boy Child/Oh My Lord 62 (-) Filo & Peri ft Eric Lumiere – Anthem 64 (71) Perry Como – It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas 65 (-) Elton John – Step Into Christmas 68 (re) Booty Luv – Some Kinda Rush 70 (re) Paul McCartney – Wonderful Christmastime 72 (re) Jona Lewie – Stop The Cavalry 73 (-) Jack Penate – Have I Been A Fool 2007 was the first year that all downloads could chart regardless of physical release, meaning that the Christmas songs returned to chart for the first time in many years (although Pogues and Slade had charted in 2005 and 2006 respectively due to physical re-issues). Mariah Carey was the highest at #4, but the Pogues overtook her on Xmas week (a situation that would be repeated in subsequent years), also peaking at #4 (both would peak at #12 the following Christmas). #25 was falling for the second week in a row - however, after Christmas it would climb and eventually reach #2.

Journey - Don't Stop Believin' (obviously became a bigger hit in the download era) Squeeze - Tempted Bruce Springsteen - Hungry Heart (reached #28 on re-issue in 1995) Van Morrison - Have I Told You Lately Billy Joel - She's Always A Woman (went top 40 in the download era after Fyfe Dangerfield covered it) Tracy Chapman - Baby Can I Hold You Tonight (Boyzone's cover reached #2 in 1997)

This chart was the last one whose chart show was presented by Mark Goodier (there were guest presenters for the next few weeks, then Scott Mills for a few weeks, before Wes took over).

Take That had previously managed 2 runs of 4 consecutive singles entering at #1.

Wikipedia suggests that Mason who featured on the Chicane track is Sylvia Mason-James, who has sung on numerous tracks, most notably on Jimmy Nail's 1992 #1 hit Ain't No Doubt.