UK Singles Chart: 2001

Joining the 30+ UK Top 40 hits club this year was U2 whilst it would be the last we'd see of Rod Stewart and the Bee Gees:

	Artist	No of Hits	New Hits
1	Cliff Richard	115	Somewhere Over The Rainbow / What A Wonderful World
2	Elvis Presley	103	Suspicious Minds (Live)
3	Elton John	59	I Want Love
4	David Bowie	56
5	Madonna	53	What It Feels Like For A Girl
6	Status Quo	50
7	Queen	49
8	Michael Jackson	47	You Rock My World, Cry
9	Rod Stewart	45	I Can't Deny It
10	Paul McCartney	43
11	Diana Ross	42
12	Stevie Wonder	39
=	Rolling Stones	39
14	Prince	38
=	UB40	38	Since I Met You Lady / Sparkle Of My Eyes
16	Depeche Mode	36	Dream On, I Feel Loved, Freelove
17	Frank Sinatra	33
=	Pet Shop Boys	33
=	Tom Jones	33
=	Janet Jackson	33	All For You, Someone To Call My Lover, Son Of A Gun (I Betcha Think This Song)
21	Shakin Stevens	32
22	Roy Orbison	31
=	Bee Gees	31	This Is Where I Came In
=	Kylie Minogue	31	Can't Get You Out Of My Head
24	Lonnie Donegan	30
=	Beatles	30
=	Whitney Houston	30
=	U2	30	Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of, New Years Dub, Elevation, Walk On

In just their third year Westlife score their 9th number one putting them joint fifth of all time:

	Artist	No of #1s	New #1s
1	Elvis Presley	17
=	Beatles	17
3	Cliff Richard	14
4	Madonna	10
5	Abba	9
=	Spice Girls	9
=	Westlife	9	Uptown Girl, Queen of My Heart
8	Rolling Stones	8
=	Take That	8
10	George Michael	7
=	Michael Jackson	7
13	Slade	6
=	Rod Stewart	6
=	Boyzone	6
=	Blondie	6
=	Oasis	6
=	Queen	6
=	Kylie Minogue	6	Can't Get You Out Of My Head

No Whitney Houston this year so Madonna now holds the longest streak of consecutive years of Top 40 hits. Just four acts have had a hit every year for the last 6 years or more:

	Artist	Hits Every Year Since
1	Madonna	1989
2	Mariah Carey	1990
3	Mary J Blige	1993
4	R Kelly	1994

The most number ones a single act would have this year would be two, of which there a few. There were however three who had two singles and two number ones and therefore a 100% record.

One was Westlife who's number ones are listed above. Another was Atomic Kitten who had their first and second number ones with "Whole Again" and "Eternal Flame". It was just before the release of "Whole Again" that Kerry Katona left the group and was replaced by Jenny Frost. It was said that they were on the verge of getting dropped at the beginning of the year but were given a finally chance with "Whole Again" which seemingly saved their career.

A girl group who did get dropped this year was the Sugababes who failed to reach the Top 10 with either of their singles, "Run For Cover" and "Soul Sound", with the latter only managing to make number 30. As we know though, this would not be the last we'd see of the group.

The All Saints had their final hit "All Hooked Up" at the start of the year before splitting which reached number 7, meaning that all of their singles managed to reach the Top 10. They would reunite and be back in the charts a few years later.

Almost a year after their debut single, Supersister were back in the charts with their second single "Shopping". This only managed number 36 and this would be the last we'd see of them in the charts.

Once again we had some new girl groups having a crack at the charts. Stock and Aitken were back with the girl group Girls @ Play who had two hits which both came this year, "Airhead" and a cover of "Respectable" which had previously been and number one for Stock and Aitken but only managed number 29 this time.

We also had the only Top 40 hits for Tymes 4 with "Bodyrock" and "She Got Game". After having a lot of success with his Irish boybands, Louis Walsh brought us an Irish girl group Bellefire who only managed number 18 with their debut "Perfect Bliss". They would return to the charts beyond this year.

All of the Spice Girls had solo hits this year except for Mel C. It marked the end of the solo career of Mel B who's final hit was "Lullaby". Victoria Beckham had a number six with "Not Such An Innocent Girl". There were also number ones for Emma Bunton with "What Took You So Long" and for Geri Halliwell with "It's Raining Men" which would be her fourth and final number one, and also the final number one for any of the Spice Girls.

The main boy band to call it a day this year was 5ive who reached number one with "Let's Dance" before saying farewell with their final hit "Closer to Me". Like the All Saints they managed to make the Top 10 with all of their singles.

There was a new boy band waiting to fill the shoes of 5ive, Blue. They reached number four with their debut single "All Rise" and then followed up with the number ones "Too Close" and "If You Come Back".

The Backstreet Boys continued to have hits this year but ended their run of top ten hits when "More Than That" only managed number 12. N Sync had a top ten with "Pop" and didn't make the top ten with gone. Having a more successful year though were fellow Americans O Town who made number three with their debut "Liquid Dreams" and followed up with the number four "All or Nothing" but failed to reach the top ten again with their third hit "We Fit Together" only making 20.

There was a new Irish boy band this year, Reel, who debuted with "Life Me Up" which only made number 39. Australian boy band Human Nature had their only Top 40 hit this year with "He Don't Love You".

Having debuted at 37 with "Back Here" in 1999, BBMak returned this year with the same record making number 5 this time. They followed up with another top ten hit "Still On Your Side". Just one hit for A1 this year with "No More" which kept their 100% top ten record intact.

The third group to have two hits and two number ones was S Club 7 with "Don't Stop Movin'" and "Have You Ever". It was the end for the other big mixed gender pop group Steps who had four singles this year which were all double a-sides with their final hit being "Words Are Not Enough / I Know Him So Well". It was also the end for Vengaboys who only managed to reach number 28 with  "Forever As One".

There was another TV show group looking to follow in the footsteps of S Club 7 in the charts, Allstars. However they failed to reach the top ten with their two hits of the year, "Best Friends" and "Things That Go Bump In The Night" but they would be back.

The TV show which had the biggest impact on the charts this year was Popstars. It produced the group Hear'Say who inevitably reached number one with their debut "Pure And Simple". They also scored a number one with the follow up "The Way To Your Love" and made number four with "Everybody".

The five finalists on the show who never made the group formed their own group, Liberty. They debuted with the Garage record "Thinking It Over" which was produced by Pete Devereux of Artful Dodger and the Wideboys and reached number five. Their follow up "Doin' It" failed to reach the top ten and at the same time they were being sued by another band over use of the name Liberty.

We had three UK Garage number ones this year. First up was DJ Pied Piper & The Master Of Ceremonies with "Do You Really Like It" which would be their only Top 40 hit. Next up was "21 Seconds" by So Solid Crew who were also newcomers to the charts although it's members included Oxide & Neutrino who already had chart success as a duo. The So Solid Crew had another hit later in the year with "They Don't Know".

The final UK Garage number one was the penultimate one of the year from chart newcomer Daniel Bedingfield with "Gotta Get Thru This" which would go back to number one at the beginning of 2002.

The year brought us the next big UK female R&B group making their chart debut, Mis-Teeq. With UK Garage being hugely popular, their first two singles "Why" and "All I Want" were given Garage remixes before being released as singles. They had a third single this year with "One Night Stand".

It was the end of the Honeyz chart career this year with the single "I Don't Know" only making number 28. A follow up single "Talk to the Hand" was planned but they were dropped from their label and the single was never released.

Nelly Furtado made her debut this year with "I'm Like A Bird" which reached number 5. Her follow up "Turn Off the Light" went one place better at number four.

There was also the debut of Alicia Keys with "Fallin", Jaheim with "Could It Be", Jagged Edge with "Where the Party At" and Blu Cantrell with "Hit 'Em Up Style (Oops!)".

Shaggy retuned to the charts after a four year absence with the number one "It Wasn't Me" which first hit the charts 3 weeks prior to this and made number 31 on import sales alone. He also got to number one with his next single "Angel" and had a further two hits with "Luv Me Luv Me" and "Dance & Shout/Hope".

It was arguably the biggest year to date for Rap music. However the only Rap number one of the year was more of a novelty Rap record coming from Afroman with "Because I Got High".

It was the year Puff Daddy changed his name to P Diddy and had a hit with "Bad Boy For Life". 2Pac also continued his posthumous career with the singles "Until The End Of Time" and "Letter 2 My Unborn".

There were a number of Rap acts making their chart debuts this year. Eminems group D12 debuted with "Shit On You" and followed up with "Purple Pills" and "Fight Music". Outkast debuted with "Ms Jackson" and followed up with "So Fresh So Clean". MOP debuted with "Cold As Ice" and followed up with "Ante Up". Eve debuted with "Who's That Girl" and followed up with "Let Me Blow Ya Mind". Ludacris debuted with "What's Your Fantasy" and followed up with "Area Codes".

Also debuting were Xzibit with "X", Lil Bow Wow with "Bow Wow (That's My Name)", Black Eyed Peas with "Request + Line", NERD with "Lapdance" and Bubba Sparxxx with "Ugly".

Shade Shiest had his only UK Top 40 hit with "Where I Wanna Be" which featured Nate Dogg and Kurupt who himself was making his chart debut and followed up with his only hit as the main artist with "It's Over". Also making his debut as lead artist was Redman with "Smash Sumthin'" which featured Adam F who had previous chart success doing Drum & Bass.

There were just two Drum & Bass hits in the charts this year, "Dirty Beats" by Roni Size & Reprazent and "Love Is Not A Game" by Majik featuring Kathy Brown.

It was also a quiet year for Big Beat music with the only Top 10 hit coming from Fatboy Slim with "Star 69". Fatboy Slim had a couple of other hits plus we had Three Amigos with "25 Miles 2001" and Orbital with "Funny Break (One Is Enough)".

Eurodance was also having a quiet year but it gave us one hugely successful single, the number one "Hey Baby" by DJ Otzi. He followed this up with "Do Wah Diddy".

What was possibly the main reason for the lack of Eurodance is that a lot of Trance music was moving in this direction. We had tunes such as "Castles In The Sky" by Ian Van Dahl, "Who Do You Love Now " by Riva featuring Dannii Minogue and "True Love Never Dies" by Flip & Fill featuring Kelly Llorenna. At the same time a remix of "Set You Free" by N Trance entered the charts which in turn gave the original a new lease of life.

We also had the debut of Tiesto with the hit "Urban Train". Other well known Trance records this year included "Komodo (Save A Soul)" by Mauro Picotto, "On The Move" by Barthezz and "Resurrection" who became the second act from Russia to have a UK Top 40 single. The first came earlier this year with Alsou having her only hit with "Before You Love Me".

Prior to 2001 we had seen acts in the UK Singles Chart from most Western Europe countries with it mainly being the really small countries we were yet to see an act from. There was however still one largish Western Europe country we were yet to see and act from, Portugal.

However in 2001 we finally got our first act from Portugal, Rui Da Silva, who scored a number one with his only hit "Touch Me". At the time of writing this is still the only UK Top 40 hit we've had from a Portuguese act.

We also had a number one from Roger Sanchez with "Another Chance". Other big House records of the year included "Chase The Sun" by Planet Funk, "Harder Better Faster Stronger" by Daft Punk and "Where's Your Head At?" by Basement Jaxx.

Dance music still had a strong presence in the charts overall, but in the Rock world we saw the return of Ash to the charts after three years away with "Shining Light". Around this time they were on short lived Top of the Pops spin off programme TOTP@Play and said this would be the year for Rock music. Were they right?

Looking at the number ones you would say no, but looking beyond that it did look to be on the rise again. Ash managed to make the Top 10 with "Shining Light", but the three singles which followed didn't.

Notable debutants from the Rock/Indie world this year included Elbow with "Red", Strokes with "Hard To Explain / New York City Cops" and White Stripes with "Hotel Yorba". The likes of Manic Street Preachers, Stereophonics, Feeder, Travis and Muse all had hits and even bands many think were finished in the 90s such as Ocean Colour Scene, Shed Seven and Pulp were still having hits and still not finished. We did however have the final hits from James with "Getting Away With It (All Messed Up)" and Catatonia with "Stone by Stone".

On the heavier side of Rock music things were looking up too. We had debuts from Alien Ant Farm with "Smooth Criminal", Incubus with "Drive" and Creed with "With Arms Wide Open". There was also perhaps the best known Dandy Warhol's record "Bohemian Like You" plus we had the only UK hit for Dave Matthews Band with "The Space Between".

It was the biggest year to date for Nu Metal, although there were no Korn records in the charts this year. The biggest of these was the number one "Rollin" by Limp Bizkit. We also had debuts from Linkin Park with "One Step Closer", Papa Roach with "Last Resort" and System Of A Down with "Chop Suey".

There was also more Punk in the charts this year than in recent years with Green Day, Blink 182 and Offspring all having hits. There was also debuts for American Hi-Fi with "Flavor Of The Weak" and Sum 41 with "Fat Lip". Also having a Punk sound was Feeder with "Just A Day".

Having had several years of boybands/girl groups/fictional characters having Christmas number ones in previous years, the Christmas number one was a little bit different with Robbie Williams & Nicole Kidman doing a cover of "Somethin Stupid". This was the second number one of the year for Robbie Williams, his other being "Eternity/The Road to Mandalay".

That was 2001, the year Dance music was still going strong and Rock music was showing signs of a comeback. Will 2002 see the rise of Rock and fall of Dance?