Ongarboy

Won't this be a very subjective/personal taste list though? What's iconic to one person may be mediocre, indifferent or plain awful to others? The definition of "well known" may be subjective too. I havent heard of a couple of songs on your list and the physical era was my era! 😃 At least with the other list there was a defined criteria metric of having to be platinum (or was it multi platinum?) and also outside the top 40 for inclusion. This thread potentially can include every non top 40 song ever recorded as such a song may be iconic or well known to at least one Buzzjack member...just saying... 😃

I'm interested in the charts but know there's no point over engaging with friends or family on the subject who don't have the same interest. It would be like a darts or badminton fanatic talking incessantly about that to those who are not interested. Its about knowing your audience. I have a friend who is similarly interested but only in 80s/90s music which is my favourite era too. I have answered some very random pop music questions at table quizzes that no one else n the pub could answer so that's one benefit! Also, I'm not sure if this is an Irish thing (where I'm from) but a lot of my gay male friends are Eurovision fans. I mean they have encyclopedia knowledge, know every participant country song from every year and travel all over the continent to each Eurovision annually and gave regular Eurovision social nights here. I've been to a couple but they're too fan intensive for me!! I was interested in it during the 1980s/90s but stopped after Ireland stopped winning!! (ha ha). I get a similar vibe on these chart forums as I do to my friends Eurovision engagement...I suppose its also all about music and number positions too! 😄

I think so many people bought the Dirty Dancing soundtrack at the time that it probably impacted sales of that single. Time of My Life would have been promoted as the lead single. The classic Hungry Eyes also from DD charted poorly too but has had a similar successful new lease of life in the streaming era.

Apologies...having a blank moment!! I only read the first line...not the second!! 🙈

What is Whitney's pre 1994 sales tally for I Wanna Dance With Somebody, would you know? Thanks!

Can see it going 19 or 20 times Platinum by the time the tour hysteria ends!

Out of interest, what ranking and sales total does Whitney Houston's Best Of album have in the Top 100, please? It must be near double platinum soon. Thanks!

While Ordinary is now a Marmite song, at least it's refreshing that the best selling/most consumed song of the year so far is actually a song that isn't a carry over from previous years!

Wow...3 Noah Kahan tracks certified. It's like all his other songs became popular simultaneously on the back of Stick Season! Interesting to see Dolly's version of I Will Always Love You go Gold. Whitney's version seems under certified at just 2xP (last certified in 1993) considering it was a 10 weeks at Number One juggernaut of the 1990s and is still widely streamed to the current day. Has it not accumulated even 600k in almost 32 years to earn another platinum cert?

Surprised Adele's 30 has "only" sold 900k almost 4 years on...her stratospheric superstar sheen definitely had diminished by that album.

This list of No.1s probably could feature quite appropriately in the "Most Ordinary No.1" thread!! too!!

I think you mustn't have lived through the 80s or 90s if you haven't heard of most of those songs. Even if you despised the artist or acts or had no interest in pop music, they were pretty ubiquitous songs, particularly the 80s ones you listed and are definitely not ordinary! 😃

I think this definitely fits! I was living abroad in 1996 back when hits in one country had no correlation with hits in another country concurrently and you were simply unable to listen to them unless someone posted you the CD or cassette single! I remember coming home that Christmas eager to hear the big hits and Number Ones I had missed over the previous 6 months including my first listen to Wannabee months after everyone else even though my friends and relatives kept talking about this new huge girl band on phone calls home. Anyway I digress, I gradually caught up on all the hits including Lemon Tree, How Bizarre etc etc among others but I remember thinking how super bland and non descript Forever Love sounded. It's a song I've never really heard ever since on the radio as I'm guessing the only airplay it received was on chart shows during its initial chart run....the definition of ordinary...

I think this is where this survey starts to become subjective. Maybe it's an age thing but I'd imagine most anyone born before 1980 would instantly recognise this song for better or for worse. It may have generated Marmite type opinions at the time but it definitely wouldn't be classified as ordinary or non descript in my opinion. It famously featured on film cult classic Priscilla, Queen of the Desert too and has been parodied and lampooned in sketches and comedy shows over the years and it's the type of tune that a drunken group would mockingly burst into song if it came on the airwaves back in the day! It was that type of song! 😃 An "ordinary" or forgettable song would never get that much positive or negative attention.

It's interesting that calendar years are no longer as important a benchmark for how successful a song is any more which is kind of a shame. As an 80s and 90s pop music child, I can still vividly associate huge hits from back in the day with different calendar years that also had other milestone moments for me as I came of age whereas nowadays hits carry over into multiple years (Benson Boone anyone?) as their longevity grows and grows from infinite passive streaming, that it's not as easy to associate a song with a particular year. I think it devalues the notion of "the biggest hits of 20**" as half those songs will also be on next year's or last year'slist too (or in albums cases, the next decade). Look at Julian's weekly sales to date list. We're well into Quarter 2 of 2025 but the vast majority of bestsellers included are all songs that were hits in 2024. I guess it's just another evolution in the way we consume and track music....

Apologies if this has been asked before but if a song appears on a parent studio album by an artist and then subsequently appears on a greatest hits album by that artist, which album does the song's streams go to for counting/certificaion purposes? The studio or compilation album or both(i.e double counted)? I'm seeing lots of legacy artists on the OCC Album charts by way of their greatest hits albums enjoying healthy streams of their most successful hit songs. Does this mean the patent albums no longer benefit from the songs successful streams? Would be interesting to know. Thanks!

Remember you're saying this to a community where many proclaim a Number 2 peak as being a flop if its the alleged rival of the diva they're stanning for.... I know this is more about flop singles but I remember Whitney Houston releasing a studio album (Just Whitney)in 2002 a few short years after her very successful My Love Is Your Live album.and a No.1 peaking Greatest Hits collection and it failed to make the Top 75...it entered at #76 and disappeared thereafter. One lead single Whatchoolookinat was released that failed to hit the top 10 (#13 peak) and all other singles release plans were cancelled. As a major fan, I was disappointed as despite the inferior lead single, the rest of the albums tracks were quite good and it remains an underrated album. Thankfully her legacy lives on as she us a permanent feature of the top 100 due to her extensive greatest hits catalogue.

It's just bizarre that some of the lesser Christmas songs are now generating multi platinum certs. If you asked me what the top 50 Christmas songs are each year, I'd never have even considered that Buble cover. I prefer the Perry Como version. I find Buble covers of every song inferior to the original..he makes them sound bland.

Scary that some people stream Wham and Mariah's Christmas songs every day over the summer....

I think it unintentionally became an end of night drinking session anthem /college student nights anthem and people just keep nostalgically stream it to relive their youth/the good old days, hence it's evergreen success.

Aren't pre February 1994 sales not considered when awarding BPI certs due to change in chart compiler at the time? As Danni's peak commercial era was pre 1994 IIRC, then I think her chance of obtaining certs is very slim as she dies not have enough legacy appeal as other pre 1994 artists who've done well or at least better in the post 1994 era with their past hits.

What is the reason for the recent resurgence in appeal for Brown Eyed Girl? Or it just like another "Everywhere " by Fleetwood Mac in that Gen Z have discovered and decided to embrace it?

Pre 1989 I believe Silver was 250k, Gold was 500k and Platinum was 1 million. Perhaps they should reintroduce that as its too "easy" to get awarded certs nowadays. The benchmarks are too low that every album track that even casual fans of artists have never heard of are getting certs.

Whitney Houston goes double platinum for classic banger IT'S NOT RIGHT BUT IT'S OKAY!!! I love that song...especially the Thunderpuss remix!

I like the new format too. Great work!!