The Cheese

Traditionally when this question comes up the answer is The St Winifred's School Choir - the only act in chart history to be one-hit wonders twice. They got to number one in their own right at Christmas 1980 with their only hit song 'There's No-one Quite Like Grandma' to become one hit wonders, but had also already appeared as backing singers on the 1978 Brian & Michael one-hit wonder number one 'Matchstalk Men and Matchstalk Cats and Dogs'. (as currently seen on TOTP 1978 showing on BBC4). As for the Human League, Soft Cell and A-ha being classed as one hit wonders by anyone, that's a bit laughable to be honest. The same way someone in their 60s might class The Wanted or One Direction as one hit wonders because they can only name one song.

Sex Pistols - God Save The Queen in 1977 was an unlucky number 2, being stuck behind Rod Stewart despite reportedly selling many more copies but having some of the sales data 'lost' by the compilers in order to save the country the embarassment of an anti-royal record going to number one in Jubilee week. I'm sure they would have come up with some way to discount some of the 'Ding Dong' sales if this week's controversy had happened back then also. John & Yoko - Happy Xmas (War Is Over) was unlucky to miss out at Christmas 1980 when it was probably the biggest seller in the one week of the year when sales data was compiled. Back then everything stopped over the Christmas/New Year week and the whole Top 75 was just republished for 2 weeks running. The song was rapidly rising at #4 when the charts shutdown before Christmas, and falling at #2 when the first chart of the new year was published. It's not just the death of Diana that had an effect of other record's chart runs. Back in 1977 Elvis dying meant the futuristic sounding instrumental Magic Fly by Space stuck at #2 for 3 weeks behind the Elvis track Way Down. And The KLF & Tammy Wynette - Justified And Ancient was denied 2 weeks at #1 back in January 1991 thanks to the reisssued Bohemian Rhapsody just after Freddie Mercury died. Instrumental tracks were often unlucky to stick at #2 in the 1970's. For example The Floral Dance by the Brighouse & Rastrick Brass Band was #2 for 6 consecutive weeks in December 77 / January 78 behind what was at the time the biggest selling single ever, Mull Of Kintyre. Later in 1978 another song to spend 6 weeks at #2 was The Smurf Song by Father Abraham & The Smurfs. That record happened to come out at the same time as the massive seller You're The One That I Want by John Travolta & Olivia Newton-John. I always thought O Superman by Laurie Anderson was an unlucky #2 in October 1981. The song zoomed up from #18 to #2 in one week - which was a massive climb back in those days - only behind the big selling It's My Party by Dave Stewart & Barbera Gaskin (which had done us all a favour by going up from #8 to #1 the week before, keeping The Birdie Song at #2). Had that week's chart been compiled a day or two later maybe Laurie Anderson would have had enough sales to overtake It's My Party too. As it was, she dropped a place to #3 the week after as Altered Images had the first of their 3 weeks at #2 with Happy Birthday.

Unbreak My Heart by the recently retired Toni Braxton. The Best Things In Life Are Free - Luther Vandross & Janet Jackson. And going back in time, everyone always (wrongly) assumes Denis by Blondie was a big number one.

God Save The Queen and Happy Xmas (War Is Over) were both number 1's in my book (and also in the OCC's books if they ever dared admit it) so it would be somewhat ironic if either of those two won the vote. I'd choose Hound Dog, Downtown, Oliver's Army, Vienna, Common People and Murder On The Dancefloor from their list if I had to pick one from each decade. But many of my favourite number two's are not on their lists. And I notice instrumentals are criminally under-represented. We have had many classic instrumental number two's over the years. Where are Theme From A Summer Place, Stranger On The Shore, Albatross, Fanfare For The Common Man, Magic Fly, The Floral Dance, Axel F, Crockett's Theme, French Kiss, Children, etc ?

Propaganda's Duel still gets very regular airplay on stations like Radio 2 and Magic FM - out of all proportion for what was at the time a minor #21 hit back in 1985. The Days of Pearly Spencer by David McWilliams totally missed the Top 50 back in 1967 for some reason, yet remained a regularly played song on classic oldies radio stations right up until the Marc Almond cover version hit #4 in 1992. I think it was even a Melody Maker single of the week or something like that, but it was on one of the smaller American record labels and distribution problems halted it's sales. And of course 1977's Thank You For Music by Abba was for several years one of their most popular and radio-friendly tracks, known to just about everyone, but not released as a single in the UK until finally slipping out at Christmas 1983 to promote a compilation album of love songs, over a year after Abba had actually split. Peaking at #33 in a New Wave Top 75 at a time when Abba were definately 'old wave'.

Speaking as a number one single collector, it's a sad day now that so many single releases have nothing physical to collect. Downloads just don't give me the same sense of 'possession' as holding something in my hand when we all know the identical product can be obtained illegally for free, not to mention the fact the resale value of a download is 0p. As a side note, the modern music section of eBay in the future is going to look pretty sparse. There are plenty of other number one collectors out there - you only have to look at the prices of promo CDs or Euro releases of records that go to UK number one zoom upwards on eBay as soon as it achieves that magical status. I think the most expensive so far has been Dirtee Disco from last year - £27 I think it cost me to get the promo CD, when the download would have been 79p. That was a rare example though - a combination of a big hit on a minor label meant there were relatively few promo copies to go round. But the point being there is a market for physical copies (of number one singles at least) since there are plenty of people out there with all 1155 in their collections whether on 78 rpm, 7 inch or CD single - all of whom will still buy each new number one as it hits the top of the charts. Now that owning a record has been reduced to just having a little file tucked away on a computer or MP3 player you are always at the mercy of an electrical fault or glitch wiping out part of what has been carefully amassed over months or years. For me there's still something tangible about actually holding something I have paid money for. However, with the first 4 number ones of 2011 all being download-only maybe it's time to bring my 34 year collecting habit to a halt. Sure, they're all on sale right now on eBay for £8 - £20 each, but all that money soon adds up to a much more expensive hobby than it used to be. Here's the last decade's worth of number one singles in pictoral form... 2000 - 2005 - facebook.com/album.php?aid=233278&id=755737005&l=ba7aeae27e 2005 - 2010 - facebook.com/album.php?aid=233610&id=755737005&l=73a21cb987 ...I'm not allowed to post links yet, so you'll have to add the www's in yourself to those above. It's not going to be possible to produce a similar photo album for the decade we are now living in.

Madonna - Lika a Prayer [no mention of Prince] The Simpsons - Do The Bartman [no mention of Michael Jackson] Come on You Reds - Manchester United FC [no mention of Status Quo] Baby Come Back - Pato Banton [no mention of UB40] And further down the chart... David Bowie - Hallo Spaceboy [no mention of Pet Shop Boys] And how about technicalities such as... Goody Two Shoes - Adam Ant [no mention of the Ants] Careless Whisper - George Michael [no mention of Andrew Ridgely]

Record stores that have closed down in Plymouth city centre in the last 10-15 yrs... Top independant store - Rival Records (now a charity shop) The Rival spin-off store opened by former employees - Different Class (now a Polish food shop) 2 branches of Our Price (top and bottom of town) The giant Virgin Megastore (now a bank) MVC (now a Poundland) Top secondhand store Music Video Exchange (now a clothes shop) Not to mention Woolworths of course (sat empty for over 2 yrs now) A couple of years ago a new shopping mall opened at the top end of town. There was a smallish Virgin record shop in there. It was taken over by Zavvi when Virgin went down. The Zavvi store was taken over by HMV a few months later when they went down. This now gave Plymouth two branches of HMV (the traditional two-floored one in the city centre, and this new smaller one in the shopping mall). Going back to the late 80s there was a different Virgin Megastore in town, which became an Edinburgh Woollen Mill shop, plus newsagent/toy/gift store Arcadia used to have a good selection of albums and singles. Of course there were outlets like Boots, WH Smiths, Littlewoods, Debenhams, etc. all with music departments too. Plus specialist dance, classical, second hand music shops, a thriving indoor market with several music stalls, even a superb independent store, Music Box, a little way out of town in the St Budeaux area. The first I knew of the city centre branch of HMV closing was an email from their Pure rewards scheme offering me a £5 voucher for the branch still open in the mall, since the town centre store I last shopped at was now closed. There was no mention of it closing down when I was in there just last week. A real shame for music buyers in my opinion. All those old shops mentioned above are just a memory now leaving just this one small HMV left in the shopping mall, which only devotes about 40% of it's floorspace to music anyway.