BillyH

Sound of the Underground was recorded in 2001 by Orchid! The year before that was Robbie's Frank Sinatra cover, so the last original Christmas #1 was in 2000. Which was, erm... EDIT: Actually, if you want to be really picky, 'Can We Fix It' was a remixed and extended version of a pre-existing television theme tune first heard two years earlier. Westlife a year before charted with a double A-side of covers, so we're back to 1998 and 'Goodbye' by the Spice Girls as the last truly original Christmas #1. Bob is a funnier answer though.

Yeah, if the choir gets it I can see this being the default easy Xmas #1 until at least the end of the decade. A new one every year. Half of me wonders if it's now just going to be charity releases until the end of time, even with the Spotify effect - look out for 1-OUT chart runs at Christmas in the future.

So as I've probs mentioned before, this was the track that changed everything for me. As a 14 year old I'd only really listened to pop before with little interest in hard rock or dance, and while XTM is certainly an example of dance in its more poppier form, it was the first track of its kind I'd not just liked but really really loved, helped a lot by The Box (as previously mentioned) playing it all the time for weeks and helping its astonishing for the time chart run. By 2004 dance was all I listened to, and I finally discovered most of the classics I'd missed back in the 1990s when I was too young to appreciate them. All thanks to XTM for helping to open my ears!

Anyone remember how utterly huge this was back in 1994-95? I was only little (six) but everyone was talking about it, the ads were on TV all the time, my parents were addicted to it and watched it religiously (never won). ITV had to actually put the numbers up live on screen during Blind Date as otherwise they'd lose millions of viewers every Saturday night. It's odd actually now how small it is compared to its mid-90s dominance, even my Grandma just goes online now to check her numbers when she bothers to play. This is a brilliant site, searches your selected numbers for every week of the Lottery's history and sees how much you would have won, and inevitably how much you would have lost: http://www.lotterysearch.org/ Putting the usual 'family birthdays' lot in for me, the most I'd have won in one go is £45 :P Overall had I played every week since day 1, I'd have won £512 in 22 years but lost £2,000 on buying the tickets!

:dance: Era-definer!!

I just got an audience ticket for this!! But I don't know if I'll be able to make it yet as I've just started a new job :( Hope so though, I may be getting older (28) but it would still be cool seeing some of the above live, 'Faded' especially is my favourite song of the year so that would be heavenly!

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/12/26/article-2078488-0F419FDA00000578-589_468x313.jpg "BAAAAAABY, I LIKE YOUR STYLE..."

'One Dance' with sleighbells over the top.

The year I was born, so one I'll always have a positive attachment to :P But I think you're missing most of the dance music there, '88 being the huge birth of house being a major impact in the UK charts after a handful of era-beginning singles in '87. Plus it was the peak of acts like the Pet Shop Boys and Erasure who made some of the greatest pop singles of all time, let alone the decade. I'm a massive fan of what one writer brilliantly called the "Neighties" in general, that era circa 1988-1992 that weren't quite the Eighties and weren't quite the Nineties but somewhere in between! Equally my parents were born in the late 1960s and absolutely adore the fashion, sounds and culture of their earliest years, even though they were in nappies when it all happened...

For me Mark is the voice of the chart - when I first started getting into it in a major way in the late 90s/early noughties, his was still the voice that excitedly counted down the top 40 every Sunday evening. His breathless "IT'S HERE!! NOW (number)!!" voiceovers for the Now albums are also unmatched and truly make each album sound like a genuine event. Can't believe he's 55 as I still think of him as fairly youthful - Radio 1 sacked him after he turned 40! Hope he gets better soon.

Anyone mentioned Maggie Reilly yet? Had a #4 hit in 1983 with Moonlight Shadow, except, erm, technically didn't...

I haven't enjoyed much from this year, but I'm 28 and music doesn't soundtrack my life as much as it did in my late teens-early twenties, 2007-2012 being pretty heavenly throughout for me. Everyone will always have a positive attachment to the songs that soundtracked the best eras of their life, no matter their musical merit. I'd be a fool to say that every number 1 single in the late noughties/early tens was awesome, but when you're out with mates/drunk in a club/happily with your partner then everything is going to sound brilliant no matter what! If you're going through tough teenage times, or in the middle of a mid-late twenties quarter life crisis, then perhaps not so much is going to stand out. It would be wrong for me to sneer at Drake or James Arthur or whoever everyone's listening to these days as it's not my generation and I'm not in the right state of youthful mind to enjoy them. For those attempting to find specific 'reasons' as to why they don't personally like current chart music - it's streaming's fault, it's Drake's fault etc - people have been doing this since the dawn of the charts, pinpointing some kind of current musical or purchasing trend as stopping 'real' or 'good' music from getting the positions they deserve. Had Buzzjack existed in the 1960s you'd get some members idolising The Beatles' every move and others who'd absolutely despise them for their overplayed ubiquity, dragging down the charts becoming a succession of identikit 'beat groups' all cashing in on the same sound and making everything the same. See also glam rock in the 70s, synthpop in the 80s, Eurodance in the 90s and 'indie landfill' a decade ago, things being so much better in the days before streaming/downloads/CDs/home taping/etc spoiled all the fun. Not saying anyone's wrong as all sounds and trends get exhausted eventually, but for every 20-30 something falling out of love for the charts, there's a kid or early teenager joining the boat. There are no 'good' or 'bad' songs - good music is everything you enjoy, bad something you don't. Buzzjack in twenty years...

...so not the original vinyl album at all, then, that's a completely different tracklist to the original. Fairytale of New York didn't even exist in 1985. How weirdly bizarre and pointless.

Don't think so - from what I know that started out as a bootleg mix by a couple of German DJs that eventually got a commercial release with Queen's approval. Bit of background first for those who don't know (and I'm not an expert so correct me if I'm talking nonsense) - when the rave scene 'split' in 1993-94 into happy hardcore and jungle, the latter ended up getting much more media hype and commercial chart success thanks to its popularity in London and the south of England, whereas happy hardcore suffered despite doing much better in Scotland and the north. Jungle was huge around the summer of 1994 and into '95 - here is a great article from The Independent about it from the time - but radio and the media began turning its back on it after various sensational stories about crime-ridden clubs and violence related to the sound - that and M-Beat/General Levy's 'Incredible' going top ten in late 1994 and General Levy quickly getting a huge ego and going around telling everyone "I run jungle!" or something, which annoyed a ton of people at the time. So jungle evolved, got a new name - "drum & bass" - and by the late 90s it was regularly making the UK charts, and despite the sound being somewhat commercialised and watered down since remains a big dance genre today. Happy hardcore on the other hand had a very brief flurry of chart success around 1995-96 - its peak when Technohead's 'I Wanna Be A Hippy' shot up to #6 - but faded soon after, despite a series of hugely hit-potential tracks circulating the clubs that kept the fast breakbeats and heavy bass but with extremely poppy vocal tracks over the top - in theory the perfect dance/pop crossover records, but they were never pushed or given the attention they deserved, so despite being major club favourites in the late 1990s never ended up charting. Cut to 2002. Flip & Fill cover 1997's 'Shooting Star' by Bang, slow it down and turn it into trance-pop and score a massive #2 hit with it, causing everyone to hurriedly hunt down all those hardcore anthems from a few years earlier and give them the same treatment! In fairness, usually the original artists were involved in some way and would have approved the remakes. All of the below hits were originally happy hardcore floorfillers of the late 1990s, all of which slowed down and remade into top 40 hits during 2002 to 2004: * Flip & Fill - Shooting Star (original by Bang) * Flip & Fill - Field of Dreams (original by Force & Styles) * Flip & Fill - Discoland (original by Tiny Tot) * Aquagen - Hard to Say I'm Sorry (original by Highlander, original original an early 80s power ballad by Chicago) * Kelly Llorenna - Heart of Gold (original by Force & Styles) * * Interactive's 'Forever Young' (cover of the 80s Alphaville hit - not the Louisa Johnson song!) - charted top 40 twice, once as its happy hardcore original in 1996 (#28) and again as a trancepop remake in 2003 (#37). And as mentioned a few pages ago, Nakatomi's 'Children of the Night' was re-released in its original form in late 2002, and charted at #31 - no remix/remake needed - years after its first attempt in 1996 only made #149. One more from 2006, this time with the original artist given equal credit: * Ultrabeat vs Scott Brown - Elysium (originally a Scott Brown instrumental) There's even more on the first few 'Clubland' albums that either didn't get released or failed to chart - Starsplash's 'Wonderful Days' on Clubland 1 (original by Charly Lownoise & Mental Theo), and The Force's 'Paradise & Dreams' on Clubland 4 (original by Force & Styles, Ultrabeat did a version later too). Some of the remakes are pretty good but it does feel a shame that the originals never quite crossed over into the mainstream. (Darren) Styles would later score some big chart hits as part of Styles & Breeze though. ...ok, I'm going to bed :P

Forgot about I'll Be Your Angel until recently, it's an awesome slice of trancepop - that background melody is gloriously catchy! Pleasantly surprised it went top ten, heard it a fair bit around that time. Hard To Say I'm Sorry is a JAM, the fact that it only reached #33 is almost insulting. Like a ton of trancepop hits around this time, it's based on an old 90s happy hardcore tune (Highlander - Hold Me Now) that sampled the same 80s Chicago original, and has the distinction of being the first happy hardcore track I ever remember hearing - absolutely fell in love with the genre immediately! The of the Aquagen version is pretty good too, I'll give them that - link goes to the full mix but a shorter one's available on Clubland II.

I'd wait until official confirmation to be sure, it's not on Now's website but it has an Amazon listing: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Thats-What-Call-Ch...L/dp/B01LX6VJW3

Utterly perfect. This surely had #1 all over it - big, epic production while still sounding poppy enough for radio play, your by-now-standard cartoon video for Box airplay, the "Is that Charlotte Church?!" angle for the media and potential talking point...and then the album 'Now Dance 2003', released October 2002, ruins everything by putting an early version of the track on the album three months before its release, meaning a ton of potential buyers already had a version of the song. The album was number 1 on the UK Compilations Chart too, so that's at least a few thousand sales lost because of that odd screwup. Not that it hurt Spiller when Now 46 put Groovejet on there early, but that did end up being part of a massive chart battle and illegal mp3s were way bigger by '03. (The version on the Now album was by 'Alphaland', which discogs tell me is also Jurgen/Darren but under another alias. Not sure if the vocals were by Charlotte on that mix but they sounded seriously similar and it's hard to tell the difference). Amazing track but oddly sad to listen to with the knowledge that we're heading to the end of the road for trance hits.

I'd go for 2014. Or maybe 1997...

What a mould of garage genres in True! You've got late 90s speed garage, early noughties 2-step and even the beginnings of late noughties 'bassline' garage there - this could have easily still been a hit in 2008. This is surely the last garage dance #1 until Heartbroken, unless I'm missing anything obvious. Complete is less interesting, an early example of a dull pop track with some vaguely D&B drums half-heartedly thrown over the top to give it some edge - something extremely common place a decade later, though I realise I'll probably be completely alone with that opinion as it was definitely a popular song.

I've (controversially) mentioned before that my enjoyment of Chainsmokers songs is completely the inverse to their chart peaks. Roses (the lowest peaking) is a great track in its own right, #Selfie (second lowest) tons of fun in a nightmarish sort of way - the backing track coupled with the demented vocals always sounded wonderfully claustrophobic to me, really giving you the feeling of being in some mad club with irritating revellers downing shots and taking selfies. The main 'character' is meant to be a bit horrifying in a what-the-hell-have-we-become sort of way. The other two hits are just really dull generic pop tracks, neither with the odd beauty of Roses or the pleasingly chaotic madness of Selfie.

Musical formats have come and gone over the last 60-odd years, but I don't think a full 'first and last' list has ever been done in terms of number 1 singles and the formats they were released on - might seem a bit of an odd subject but it's something I find interesting! Here's the beginnings of a list based on what I know (which is limited): 7" Vinyl First: Easy (I think) - Al Martino - Here In My Heart (1952), officially the ever first #1 single, was available on this format. Although the older 10" 78rpm format was still going strong at the time, which goes into a whole level of gramophone record knowledge I'm no expert on. Last: Complicated. Culture Beat - Mr Vain (1993) was definitely the first #1 not available on 7", which would make the 'last' up to that point Freddie Mercury - Living On My Own, but of course there have been plenty since, as my signed copy of La Roux - Bulletproof proudly confirms. With the continued vinyl 'revival' we may not have a definitive answer for this for some time. 12" Vinyl First: Obviously 12" albums have been around for years, but the 12" single only arrived in the disco era when extended dance mixes became popular. I don't have an answer for this but presumably some kind of disco track in the late 1970s, I've seen the year 1977 stated around. Last: Celine Dion - Think Twice (1995) was the first #1 single not available on vinyl in any form, but again there's been plenty since! Another with no obvious answer. Cassette First: The UK charts took years to add the cassette single as an official format. Frankie Goes To Hollywood - The Power of Love (1984) was released on the format, but I believe it wasn't until 1989 when the format was included - Kylie Minogue - Hand On Your Heart (1989) would have got to #1 earlier had her cassette total been included in her sales tally. I added that fact to Wikipedia a few years ago, so presumably I read it somewhere! Last: Fairly sure this is Elton John - Are You Ready For Love (2003) as Music Week stated this a few years back. Can't imagine any #1 singles released on the format after that. I've seen it stated before that Chemical Brothers - Block Rockin' Beats (1997) was the first, or at least one of the first #1s not available on cassette since the format became official, but don't quote me on that - could have some truth as 'Setting Sun' definitely had a cassette release. CD First: This has been positively stated to be Whitney Houston - I Wanna Dance With Somebody (1987) which sounds right to me, at least officially. Last: Oh boy. Well...Coldplay - Viva La Vida (2008) was the first #1 since '87 not to be given a CD single release, at least in the UK - it got one internationally, so if you count that then instead the milestone goes to Leona Lewis - Run later that year. Then a seriously long fizzle out of the format happened, you could still find plenty for 2009 and even 2010 releases but then things get very patchy. The current week's Physical Singles Chart lists both Sam Smith - Writing's On The Wall and Little Mix - Black Magic as physical releases still in the chart, both from 2015. Could it be one of those? Surely there'll be some sort of charity or novelty release on the format in the future though...was the NHS choir track released on CD? Digital download First: Not counting the millions of 'illegal' mp3 uploads starting in the second half of the 1990s, the iTunes Store was launched in the UK on June 15th, 2004, and downloads were added to the chart on April 17th 2005. If we count that second date as official, the first new #1 single to include digital downloads from its first week would be Akon - Lonely (2005) - you could also count Tony Christie & Peter Kay - Is This The Way To Amarillo as being the #1 on the first combined physical/downloads chart, but most of its weeks were achieved with physical sales only. Last: Ain't happened yet, unless I've missed some major milestone news. Spotify First: Spotify launched in 2008, but its data didn't become part of the UK charts until July 2014. Using the same rules as downloads above, that makes Ariana Grande feat Iggy Azalea - Problem (2014) the first official #1 single including streaming...that's obviously way later than when most actually first started using the service, but otherwise you might as well say it's Al Martino again as decades worth of former #1s are available to stream. Last: Haha no. Singles have also been released on Minidisc and (lol) 'USB', but I don't think either format lasted long enough to even have any #1s to their name. Anyone able to shed some more light on any of the above, filling in the gaps or correcting what I have?

Ok, the opening piano couldn't be more Set You Free if it tried, but GOD I loved this back in the day - in the cold winter months this sounded unbelievably epic, like the 1990s colliding with the noughties in three minutes of awesome. Amazed it went top five but this is the era when any old dance hit charted brilliantly in the low January sales - it always used to be my fave chart month of the year for that reason! The one I was originally thinking would start 2003 must be coming soon, it went top 3 on the main chart... Still trying to work this one out! I'll probably know it when it arrives but for now I'm trying to rack my brain remembering what was (mildly) big around that time...

Oh, not the brave new track I was expecting...but still a divine JAM of a song!

My guess with (the AWESOME) You're A Superstar's delayed chart success is that it was probably a club fave for years before someone realised its hit potential if properly pushed - see also Let Me Be Your Fantasy & Set You Free in the 90s. But someone who was actually clubbing at the time (I'm still four/five years away!) can correct me if wrong. 2003 has some of my favourite tracks of the decade if not *all time*, one of my favourite years ever for music. From what I remember the next track is utterly amazing and the first half of the year follows suit, the second half not so much but still with some incredible anthems. Just hope they make it here!

I got really into Top of the Pops again around this time, I remember the Rainbow performance quite vividly (how could you not!) and became a major Big Brovaz fan after that first performance of Nu Flow. Odd to think that the ill-advised "all new" revamp/beginning of the end was only about a year away, it seemed pretty fine how it was at this point but I know there were crisises behind the scenes with increasingly falling ratings. It certainly wasn't in the weekly top 30 by then - that went to other high profile programmes such as Ground Force and Celebrity Bargain Hunt. It's certainly a myth that no one bothered with it after 1991 or so (which is what most seem to suggest when examining why the show ended when it did) - it might not have been at its 1970s/80s levels of viewing, and I eventually switched full time to CD:UK on the other side which seemed way cooler, but it was still worth a watch - those Kelly Llorenna performances are fantastic, properly making the songs into events! The start of that 'Forever' performance though..."They've had FIFTY top ten hits!", what :lol: And maybe mentioned before but what on earth at that 'Set You Free' performance - introduced as a remix but they play the original?! You can imagine Rob Searle being pretty pissed off watching at home :P