UK Singles Chart: 2002

Joining the 30+ UK Top 40 hits club this year was Bon Jovi:

	Artist	No of Hits	New Hits
1	Cliff Richard	116	Let Me Be The One
2	Elvis Presley	104	A Little Less Conversation
3	Elton John	63	This Train Don't Stop There Anymore, Original Sin, Your Song, Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word
4	David Bowie	57	Everyone Says Hi
5	Madonna	54	Die Another Day
6	Status Quo	51	Jam Side Down
7	Queen	49
8	Michael Jackson	47
9	Rod Stewart	45
10	Paul McCartney	43
11	Diana Ross	42
12	Rolling Stones	40	Don't Stop
13	Stevie Wonder	39
14	Prince	38
=	UB40	38
16	Depeche Mode	36
17	Pet Shop Boys	35	Home And Dry, I Get Along
18	Tom Jones	34	Tom Jones International
=	Janet Jackson	34	Feel It Boy
=	Kylie Minogue	34	In Your Eyes, Love At First Sight, Come Into My World
21	Frank Sinatra	33
22	Shakin Stevens	32
23	Roy Orbison	31
=	Bee Gees	31
=	U2	31	Electrical Storm
=	Whitney Houston	31	Whatchulookinat
27	Lonnie Donegan	30
=	Beatles	30
=	Bon Jovi	30	Everyday, Misunderstood

After jointly holding first place for most number ones with the Beatles for 25 years, Elvis solely takes first place with his 18th number one:

	Artist	No of #1s	New #1s
1	Elvis Presley	18	A Little Less Conversation
2	Beatles	17
3	Cliff Richard	14
4	Westlife	11	World Of Our Own, Unbreakable
5	Madonna	10
6	Abba	9
=	Spice Girls	9
8	Rolling Stones	8
=	Take That	8
10	George Michael	7
=	Michael Jackson	7
=	Oasis	7	The Hindu Times
13	Slade	6
=	Rod Stewart	6
=	Boyzone	6
=	Blondie	6
=	Queen	6
=	Kylie Minogue	6

Madonna remains the act to hold the most consecutive years of hits:

	Artist	Hits Every Year Since
1	Madonna	1989
2	Mariah Carey	1990
3	Mary J Blige	1993
4	R Kelly	1994
5	Backstreet Boys	1996
=	Robbie Williams	1996
=	Super Furry Animals	1996

The story of 2002 begins with a new TV show which began towards the end of 2001, Pop Idol. The series ended in February 2002 and the winner was Will Young who was also the most successful act chart wise of 2002 with three number ones with "Anything Is Possible/Evergreen", "Light My Fire" and "The Long And Winding Road / Suspicious Minds" plus a number two with "Don't Let Me Down / You And I".

The third number one from Will Young featured Pop Idol runner up Gareth Gates who also had a hugely successfully year. He also had number ones with "Unchained Melody" and "Anyone Of Us (Stupid Mistake)" plus a number five with "What My Heart Wants To Say".

It wasn't just Will Young and Gareth Gates from Pop Idol to enjoy chart success this year. Darius had a number one with "Colourblind" and a number five with "Rushes". There were also hits for Rosie Ribbons with "Blink", Rik Waller with "I Will Always Love You" and "Something Inside (So Strong)", Sarah Whatmore with "When I Lost You" and Jessica Garlick with "Come Back" which was also the UK Eurovision entry.

Westlife were still the leading boyband of 2002 with two number ones plus a number five with "Bop Bop Baby". It was also a successful year for Blue who had a number one alongside Elton John with "Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word" plus top ten hits "Fly By II" and "One Love".

It was the end of the chart career of A1 who started the year with the number two "Caught in the Middle" but failed to reach the top ten with their final hit "Make It Good". It was also the end for N Sync who's final hit "Girlfriend" was their biggest hit reaching number two. Also ending their chart careers were Lyte Funkie Ones with "Every Other Time", Reel with "You Take Me Away" and BBMak with "Out Of My Heart" whilst Backstreet Boys went on hiatus, with their final hit prior to this being "Drowning".

The hiatus of Backstreet Boys and N Sync brought us the start of the solo careers for one member of each group. Nick Carter from the Backstreet Boys had his only hit with "Help Me" which made number 17. More successful was Justin Timberlake from N Sync who made number two with his debut hit "Like I Love You".

There were also new boybands making their debuts this year. The Blazin Squad reached number one with their debut "Crossroads" and followed up with the top ten single "Love On The Line". There was also the debut of Busted with "What I Go To School For" which made number three.

We had the only hit for Natural with "Put Your Arms Around Me" and the first of two hits for 3rd Edge with "In And Out". Following the breakup of Steps, group member Lisa Scott Lee turned to music management bring us a boyband consisting of her three brothers called 3SL. They had their only two hits this year with "Take It Easy" and "Touch Me Tease Me".

H and Claire from Steps formed a duo called H and Claire and had their only hits this year with "DJ", "Half A Heart" and "All Out Of Love / Beauty And The Beast" which all made the top ten. There was also the only solo effort from Steps member Faye Tozer with "Someone Like You" which was a collaboration with Russell Watson.

S Club 7 became S Club this year when member Paul Cattermole left the group. Their final hit before dropping the 7 from their name was "You" and as S Club they had a hit with "Alive". The year also brought us the S Club Juniors who had a trio of number twos this year with "One Step Closer", "Automatic High" and "New Direction" plus a number six with "Puppy Love / Sleigh Ride".

Less than a year after winning Popstars, Hear Say member Kym Marsh left the group. She was replaced by Johnny Shentall and they had a hit with "Lovin Is Easy" which would be their final hit.

It was a more successful year for Popstars runner up group Liberty X who scored their only number one with "Just A Little". They also had top five hits with "Got To Have Your Love" and "Holding On For You".

The TV show Popstars returned for another series this year, but this time it was Popstars: The Rivals. The winners of the show were a boyband and a girl group who would go head to head with each other for Christmas Number One. Before the conclusion of the show we had the chart debuts of contestants the Cheeky Girls with "The Cheeky Song".

The winning boyband of the series was One True Voice who lost the battle for Christmas Number One reaching number two with "Sacred Trust / After You're Gone". Winning the show and battle was Girls Aloud who made number one with "Sound of the Underground".

After their career looked to be over the previous year, the Sugababes were the most successful girl group of the year scoring two number ones with "Freak Like Me" and "Round Round" plus a top ten hit with "Stronger / Angels With Dirty Faces".

It was also a good year for Atomic Kitten who scored a number one with "The Tide Is High (Get The Feeling)", a number two with "Last Goodbye / Be With You" and a number three with "It's OK". Bellefire stayed consistent scoring their second number 18 with their second single "All I Want Is You" and Smoke 2 Seven had their only hit this year with "Been There Done That".

Once again there was a lot of Trance music in the charts this year, particularly Vocal Trance. The biggest of these was "Heaven" by DJ Sammy which made number one and was a cover of the Bryan Adams song of the same title.

DJ Sammy wasn't the only one having Trance versions of old hits. We also had "Tell It To My Heart" by Kelly Llorenna, "Because The Night" by Jan Wayne, "Take My Breath Away" by Soda Club featuring Hannah Alethea and "I Think We're Alone Now" by Pascal featuring Karen Parry.

Then we had the return to the charts after a 6 year absence for Scooter with their take on "The Logical Song". They now had more of a Trance sound than the Happy Hardcore they had done previously and had further hits with "Nessaja" and "Posse (I Need You On The Floor)".

Then there were the Trance, or also known as Scouse House, versions of old Happy Hardcore tunes which were "Shooting Star" by Flip & Fill and "Heart of Gold" by Kelly Llorenna. We also had the first Happy Hardcore tune in the charts since 1996, "Children of the Night" by Nakatomi which had reached number two in Holland in 1996 and missed the UK Top 40 in 1998. Incidentally the last act to have a Happy Hardcore hit in the UK Top 40 prior to this was Scooter.

Another first since 1996 was a Drum & Bass top ten single. In fact there were two, the number 2 hit "Addicted to Bass" by Puretone and "Shake UR Body" by Shy FX. The only previous Drum & Bass top tens were "Walking Wounded" by Everything But The Girl and if you include Jungle, "Incredible" by M-Beat featuring General Levy. Shy FX had another hit with "Don't Wanna Know" and we also had hits from Shimon & Andy C with "Body Rock" and DJ Marky & XRS featuring Stamina MC with "LK (Carolina Carol Bela)".

The new sound in the dance music world for this year was Electroclash. This included the tunes "Sunglasses At Night" by Tiga & Zyntherius, "Set It Off" by Peaches, "Emerge" by Fischerspooner and "Silver Screen Shower Scene" by "Felix Da Housecat".

UK Garage was still going strong at the beginning of the year but in the second half of the year we had no UK Garage whatsoever. The final UK Garage hit of the year came from American singer Jaheim with a remix of "Just In Case" which had been and R&B hit for him the previous year.

Some members of the So Solid Crew went solo this year but they were doing Rap music as opposed to UK Garage. Romeo was first with "Romeo Dunn" and he followed this up with "It's All Gravy". then Harvey had his only hit with "Get Up and Move". Oxide & Neutrino teamed up with fellow member Kowdean on the hit "Dem Girlz (I Don't Know Why)".

There were two Rap number ones this year which both came from Eminem, "Without Me" and "Lose Yourself". He also had a top five hit with "Cleanin' Out My Closet".

Notable debutants this year included Dilated Peoples with their only hit "Worst Comes to Worst", Fat Joe with "What's Love" and NORE with his only hit "Nothin".

Rapper Nelly collaborated with Destinys Child member Kelly Rowland with the number one R&B record "Dilemma". Fellow Destinys Child member Beyoncé also made her solo debut this year with "Work It Out".

Christina Aguilera also made an R&B record collaborating with rapper Redman on the number one record "Dirrty". Britney Spears did the same collaborating with Pharrell Williams on "Boys" which was a top ten hit.

The first number one of the year was a posthumous released from Aaliyah with "More Than A Woman". She had another hit with "Rock the Boat" and it was following the shooting of this video when she died in a plane crash.

The second number one of the year was also a posthumous one with a reissue of "My Sweet Lord" by George Harrison who died towards the end of 2001. Although guitar music was starting to rise in popularity again, there was only one other number one you would describe as guitar music, "The Hindu Times" by Oasis.

Oasis also scored two number twos with "Stop Crying Your Heart Out" and "Little By Little / She Is Love" and they seemed very much the survivors of the original big four of Brit Pop. Blur hadn't had a hit for a couple of years, Pulp had their final hit with "Bad Cover Version" and Suede weren't finished yet and had a couple of minor hits this year with "Positivity" and "Obsessions".

There was a new big four in the Indie world from the sub genre Garage Rock. The Strokes had debuted the previous year and had a hit this year with "Someday". The White Stripes had also debuted the previous year and had two hits this year with "Fell In Love With A Girl" and "Dead Leaves And The Dirty Ground".

The other two made their debuts this year. The Hives debuted with "Hate To Say I Told You So" and followed up with "Main Offender". Finally The Vines debuted with "Highly Evolved" and followed up with "Get Free" and "Outtathaway".

The most notable UK band from this genre making their debut this year were the Libertines with "What A Waster" and followed this up with "Up The Bracket". Elsewhere we had the debuts of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club with "Love Burns", Datsuns with "In Love" and Yeah Yeah Yeahs with "Machine".

There was no Green Day, Blink 182 or Offspring in the charts this year but there were other bands keeping Pop Punk going, most notably Sum 41 who had hits with "Motivation", "It's What We're All About" and "Still Waiting". There were also debuts for Bowling for Soup with "Girl All The Bad Guys Want" and the only hit for New Found Glory with "My Friends Over You". There was also the only hit for Ska Punk band Spunge with "Jump On Demand".

The year saw a return to the charts for Grunge music. Perhaps the best known of these bands was Nickelback who debuted with "How You Remind Me" and also had hits with "Too Bad" and "Never Again". Nickelback singer Chad Kroeger also had a solo hit with "Hero".

Also bringing back Grunge was Puddle of Mudd who debuted with "Control" and followed up with "Blurry" and "She Fuckin Hates Me". Then there was The Calling who debuted with "Wherever You Will Go" and followed up with "Adrienne".

It was also a good year for former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl who had a top ten hit with the Foo Fighters with "All My Life" which was their first top ten hit since their debut in 1995. He also returned to drumming featuring on the hits "No One Knows" by Queens Of The Stone Age and "Wonderboy" by Tenacious D.

The revival of rock music seemingly paved the way for some acts of yesteryear to return to the charts including Ozzy Osbourne with "Dreamer / Gets Me Through", Def Leppard with "Now" and Wildhearts with "Vanilla Radio".

The question I always ask myself after looking at each year is what was this the year of? For 2002 I think it's best described as the year of what's happened before.

It had been common for pop acts to do covers for several years, but you also look at the amount of dance covers which go beyond sampling, the Rap and R&B acts are mostly already established, the Garage Rock which is heavily influenced by music of yesteryear and the return of Grunge, this seems the best way to describe it. Will this trend continue in 2003?