Sunday 14 January 2018

UK Singles Chart: 1995

In 1995 we had the return of Elvis Presley to the Top 40 after a 12 year absence, but Cliff Richard now had some distance on him in terms of number of hits. We had hits this year from 14 of the 19 acts who have had 30+ Top 40 hits. Here is the list:

  Artist No of Hits New Hits
1 Cliff Richard 110 Misunderstood Man, Had to Be
2 Elvis Presley 102 The Twelfth of Never
3 Elton John 52 Believe, Made in England
4 David Bowie 50 The Hearts Filthy Lesson, Strangers When We Meet/The Man Who Sold the World 
5 Status Quo 47 When You Walk in the Room
6 Queen 43 Heaven for Everyone, A Winters Tale
7 Rod Stewart 41 You're the Star
8 Paul McCartney 40  
= Michael Jackson 40 Scream, You Are Not Alone, Earth Song
10 Diana Ross 39 Take Me Higher, I'm Gone
11 Stevie Wonder 38 For Your Love
= Madonna 38 Bedtime Story, Human Nature, You'll See
13 Rolling Stones 37 I Go Wild, Like a Rolling Stone
14 Prince 35 Eye Hate U, Gold
15 Frank Sinatra 33  
= UB40 33 Until My Dying Day
17 Shakin Stevens 32  
18 Roy Orbison 31  
19 Lonnie Donegan 30  

Number ones from Take That and Michael Jackson put them in the list of acts to have 6 or more number ones with Michael Jackson having the Christmas number one with "Earth Song":

  Artist No of #1s New #1s
1 Elvis Presley 17  
= Beatles 17  
3 Cliff Richard 13  
4 Abba 9  
5 Rolling Stones 8  
6 Madonna 7  
= Take That 7 Back For Good, Never Forget
8 Slade 6  
= Rod Stewart 6  
= Michael Jackson 6 You Are Not Alone, Earth Song

As for several years now the act with the longest streak of hits has been Cliff Richard, but I thought it would be interesting to include a list of those acts on a streak of 7+ years. Here's the list:

  Artist Hits Every Year Since
1 Cliff Richard 1979
2 Prince 1983
3 Whitney Houston 1985
4 Wet Wet Wet 1987
5 Gloria Estefan 1988
9 Cher 1989
= Madonna 1989

The announcer for the Christmas Top of the Pops of 1995 summed up the year as the one where Robbie left Take That, Louise left Eternal, but we gained Robson & Jerome.

Robson & Jerome were one of three acts to score two number ones this year. Their number ones were their only hits of the year and were both double a sides and covers which were "Unchained Melody/(There'll Be Bluebirds Over) The White Cliffs of Dover" and "I Believe/Up on the Roof". The man behind this was Simon Cowell and this was the first number one he was behind.

Take That were another act that had two hits which both reached number one. These were "Back For Good" with Robbie and "Never Forget" without him.

The other act to score two number ones this year were the Outhere Brothers. The number ones were "Don't Stop (Wiggle Wiggle)" and "Boom Boom Boom". They also had top tens with "La La La Hey Hey" and "If You Wanna Party". Despite their huge success this year, they would only have one minor hit beyond this year.

East 17 had three hits this year, "Let It Rain" which reached number 10, "Hold My Body Tight" which was number 12 and then in October they scored a number 4 with the first single of their new album with "Thunder".

Having made their debut in late 1994, Boyzone had a further three hits this year with the number threes "Key To My Life" and "So Good" and the number two "Father & Son". Fellow 1994 boyband debutants Let Loose had a mixed year scoring a top ten with "Best In Me" but failing to make the Top 10 with their other hits "One Night Stand" and "Everybody Say Everybody Do" with the latter just making number 29.

Ultimate Kaos were struggling with their follow up hits with their most successful this year being the number 17 "Hoochie Booty" which sounded quite similar to future Peter Andre number one "Flava". EYC had their final hit with the number 33 "Ooh-Ah-Aa (I Feel It)". There was a new boyband for 1995 with Gemini debuting with "Even Though You Broke My Heart" which only made number 40. Things would improve for them, but not by a great deal.

We had the debut of MN8 with "I've Got A Little Something For You" which made number two. They followed up with the Top Tens "If You Only Let Me In" and "Happy", but their fourth hit "Baby It's You" only made number 22. They would be back, but would have no more top tens.

It took until October for a Post-Louise Eternal to have their first hit of the year, but it seemed to do them no harm with "Power of a Woman" reaching number five. Their follow up "I Am Blessed" reached number seven.

There was no shortage of R&B in the charts in 1995 with debuts from Brownstone with "If You Love Me", Montell Jordan with "This Is How We Do It", Brandy with "I Wanna Be Down", Monica with "Don't Take It Personal (Just One Of Dem Days)", Mark Morrison with "Crazy", Beverley Knight with "Flavour Of The Old School", D'Angelo with "Brown Sugar" and Xscape with "Feels So Good".

Notable R&B hits of the year include R Kelly with "Bump N' Grind", Aaliyah with "Age Ain't Nothing But A Number", Jodeci with "Freek 'N You" and TLC with "Waterfalls".

There was notably less Rap/Hip Hop in the charts this year though, although we did get our fourth number one from that genre, "Gangstas Paradise" by Coolio featuring LV.

We had the debut of Method Man with "I'll Be There For You - You're All I Need To Get By" which featured Mary J Blige, Notorious BIG with "One More Chance / Stay With Me", Bone Thugs-N-Harmony with "1st Of Tha Month" and Skee-Lo with "I Wish".We also had the only hits for Paris with "Guerilla Funk", Rappin' 4-Tay with "I'll Be Around" and Eusebe with "Summertime Healing".

Having their final hits this year were Naughty By Nature with "Feel Me Flow", House Of Pain with "Over There (I Don't Care)" and Guru with "Feel the Music". Other Rap/Hip Hop hits of the year included Warren G with "Do You See", Dr Dre with "Keep Their Heads Ringin" and Cypress Hill with "Throw Your Set In The Air".

Reggae shows no signs of going away, with one of the acts who kicked off this revival in 1993 scores his second number one with Shaggy topping the charts with "Boombastic". Another big hit of the year was the only one for Ini Kamoze with "Here Comes The Hotstepper".

There were also hits for China Black, Apache Indian, Aswad, Bitty McLean, Pato Banton, Shabba Ranks, C J Lewis, UB40 plus solo material from Ali Campbell. Of these acts though, only UB40 and Pato Banton would return to the UK Top 40 beyond this year.

There was lots of different varieties of dance music in the charts this year. It was the biggest year to date chart wise for Hardbag with tunes like "Fee Fi Fo Fum" by Candy Girls and "U Girls (Look So Sexy)" by Nush. There were also hits from Rollo with "Love Love Love - Here I Come" and Sister Bliss with "Oh! What A World".

More significantly though to the dance music world was Rollo and Sister Bliss collaborating to bring us the debut of Faithless with "Salva Mea (Save Me)" and followed up by "Insomnia". However it wouldn't be until they were rereleased the following year when they would have the big impact they had.

In the Trip Hop world we had the debuts of Portishead with "Glory Box" and Tricky with "Overcome" whilst Massive Attack would also be present in the charts this year.

The rave scene was very much split into Happy Hardcore and Drum & Bass/Jungle by this year and we had two Top 40 hits a piece. The Happy Hardcore ones were "Tears Don't Lie" by Mark Oh and "Move Your Ass" by Scooter and the Drum & Bass ones were "Fire" by Prizna featuring Demolition Man and "Inner City Life" by Goldie. Baby D charted with a record in the pre-rave scene split style with "(Everybody's Got To Learn Sometime) I Need Your Loving".

Early rave scene pioneers the Prodigy had moved into a new direction, Big Beat, with the hit "Poison". This paved the way for the debut of Big Beat pioneers the Chemical Brothers who had hits with "Leave Home" and "Life Is Sweet".

We were also starting to see Trance emerge as a scene in it's own right from a chart perspective with the first example of the year coming from Paul Oakenfold with "Reach Up (Papa's Got A Brand New Pig Bag)" by Perfecto Allstarz. This was followed by the debut of BT with "Embracing The Sunshine" and then we had the debut of Grace with "Not Over Yet" which also involved Paul Oakenfold. Another significant record which came at the end of the year was "Are You Out There" by Crescendo.

The first number one of the year came from Rednex with "Cotton Eye Joe" which hit the Top 40 in late 1994. They followed up with the very similarly sounding "Old Pop In An Oak". There was another Eurodance number one which originally charted in 1994 with Livin Joy reaching the top spot with "Dreamer".

It was once again a very strong year for Eurodance music, other notable hits included "Baby Baby" by Corona, "Scatman" by Scatman John and "Everybody" by Clock.

Despite it's failure to get to number one, there is a strong case to argue that the biggest dance record of the year comes from the Original with "I Luv U Baby". It would have actually been number one if it wasn't for the big chart battle of the year, Blur vs Oasis, as it was the number three that week.

Blur of course won that battle with "Country House" reaching number one and "Roll With It" by Oasis reaching number two. It was the first number one for Blur whilst Oasis managed their first earlier in the year with "Some Might Say".

It was the strongest year to date for Brit Pop music with many notable debutants such as Sleeper with "Inbetweener", Supergrass with "Mansize Rooster", Boo Radleys with "Wake Up Boo!", Reef with "Good Feeling", McAlmont & Butler with "Yes", Verve with "This Is Music", Black Grape with "Reverend Black Grape", Bluetones with "Are You Blind Or Are You Blind", Cast with "Finetime", Menswear with "Daydreamer", Ash with "Girl From Mars" and Marion with "Let's All Go Together".

However, all Brit Pop seemed to be was a way of lumping all British guitar based bands that don't easily fit into another genre together.

Hard rock music is looking quite dated by 1995 with no debutants from that genre this year. The hits came from Guns 'N' Roses, Thunder, Van Halen, Wildhearts, Gun, Skin, Ugly Kid Joe, AC/DC and Def Leppard.

Heavy Metal has old timers Iron Maiden chart with "Man on the Edge" and Ozzy Osbourne with "Perry Mason" whilst we have "Jonestown Mind" by the Almighty and the only hit from the Rollins Band with "Liar / Disconnected". Megadeth have their final hit with "Train Of Consequences".

A post Nirvana grunge scene see's Pearl Jam, Soundgarden and Alice in Chains, the other three of the big four all chart this year. Kurt Cobains wife Courtney Loves band Hole debut with "Doll Parts" and follow up with "Violet". Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl debuts his new band the Foo Fighters with "This Is A Call" but has moved away from Grunge music.

Pop Punk steps up a gear this year with further hits from Green Day including "Basket Case". We also see the debut of Offspring with "Self Esteem" and Weezer with "Undone - The Sweater Song" which they followed up with "Buddy Holly" and "Say It Ain't So". There is also the only Top 40 hit for the reunited Go-Go's with "The Whole World Lost Its Head" which fits in nicely with the Pop Punk scene.

We have the first act from Barbados chart this year, Rayvon, who collaborated with Shaggy on "In the Summertime". He would have one further hit which was also a collaboration with Shaggy.

We also have the debut of Finn with "Suffer Never". This means that three of the five chart acts to date who come from New Zealand feature Neil and Tim Finn, the other two being Split Enz and Crowded House and the other two New Zealand acts being John Rowles and Kiri Te Kanawa.

On the subject of nationalities, we have the only chart hits from Eurogroove who is Japanese and we have the only chart hits from Tokyo Ghetto Pussy who are an alias of Jam & Spoon who are German.

As mentioned in my 1994 review, there is a 1955 debutant returning to the charts this year. Perez 'Prez' Prado & His Orchestra had a number 2 with "Guaglione", his first hit in 37 years and his third and final hit.

We also had a return to the charts after 13 years for the Beatles who had hits with "Baby It's You" and "Free As A Bird", the latter reaching number two.

Finally it's worth giving a mention to "Think Twice" by Celine Dion which spent 7 weeks at number one. It was released in 1994 but took until February 1995 to reach the top spot and was the fourth Top 40 hit for Celine Dion.

The best way to sum up 1995 is that it very much seemed like the mid point of the 90s. Will 1996 seem the same or will it take us into the late 90s?

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