Each year I cover who has the most hits, the story was mainly how much Elvis and Cliff were miles ahead of everyone else and that nobody else caught Frank Sinatra or Lonnie Donegan, both of whom had the bulk of their hits in the 50s/early 60s. Then in the 80s several acts started to have over 30 hits to their name and it started to get a bit wordy. So instead I will have a table for those who have over 30s hits and will show what new hits they had if any. Likewise I'm going to do the same for number ones for those who have 6 or more.
Here are those with the most hits by 1990:
| Artist | No of Hits | New Hits | |
| 1 | Elvis Presley | 101 | |
| 2 | Cliff Richard | 99 | Stronger Than That, Silhouettes, From A Distance, Saviours Day |
| 3 | David Bowie | 44 | |
| 4 | Elton John | 41 | Sacrifice/Healing Hands, You Gotta Love Someone |
| 5 | Status Quo | 40 | The Anniversary Waltz - Part 1, The Anniversary Waltz - Part 2 |
| 6 | Paul McCartney | 39 | Put It There, Birthday, All My Trials |
| 7 | Stevie Wonder | 37 | |
| 8 | Queen | 35 | |
| 9 | Rod Stewart | 33 | Downtown Train, It Takes Two |
| 10 | Frank Sinatra | 32 | |
| 11 | Rolling Stones | 31 | Almost Hear You Sigh |
| 12 | Lonnie Donegan | 30 | |
| = | Diana Ross | 30 | |
| = | Shakin Stevens | 30 | I Might, The Best Christmas Of Them All |
and those with the most number ones:
| Artist | No of #1s | New #1s | |
| 1 | Elvis Presley | 17 | |
| = | Beatles | 17 | |
| 3 | Cliff Richard | 13 | Saviours Day |
| 4 | Abba | 9 | |
| 5 | Rolling Stones | 8 | |
| 6 | Madonna | 7 | Vogue |
| 7 | Slade | 6 | |
| = | Rod Stewart | 6 |
As well as now being just two hits behind Elvis Presley, Cliff Richard was still the person with the longest current streak of hits every year dating back to 1979 and also had the Christmas number one with "Saviours Day".
There were a few artists who had a hugely successful 1990, but the one who would be the success story of the year was Madonna. She had a number one with "Vogue" and two number twos with "Hanky Panky" and "Justify My Love".
So far it doesn't sound like the start of a new decade with the most successful act being a mid 80s debutant and a Christmas number one from a 50s debutant. Furthermore another act who could claim to be amongst the most successful of the year were 60s duo the Righteous Brothers who scored a number one with a rerelease of "Unchained Melody" and a number three with a rerelease of "You've Lost That Lovin Feeling".
We also had Elton John score his first solo number one with the double a side "Sacrifice/Healing Hands" which had both previously been released as separate singles and had both failed to reach the Top 40. Another number one was the Steve Miller Band with "The Joker", a 17 year old song which had been used on the Levi's ad.
Patsy Cline made a return to the charts after a 28 year absence with "Crazy" and Bobby Vinton returned after a 27 year absence with "Blue Velvet" which reached number two.
However there was plenty of new music for the 90s around too. Having debuted with a number one the previous year, New Kids on the Block followed up with the first number one of the year with "Hangin Tough". They went on to have 7 Top 40 singles this year, all of which reached the Top 10.
The second number one of the year was "Tears On My Pillow" by Kylie Minogue which would be the final number one for Stock Aitken & Waterman. Kylie also had a number two with "Better the Devil You Know" and a number four with "Step Back In Time". We had another new act from the Stock Aitken & Waterman camp in Lonnie Gordon who scored a number four with her debut "Happenin All Over Again".
The rest of the Stock Aitken & Waterman acts now seemed to be declining in popularity. Jason Donovan failed to reach the Top 10 with two of his four hits, Big Fun and Sonia collaborated on a charity single "You Got A Friend" but that record along with the other hits for both acts failed to reach the Top 10. There was a final Top 40 hit for Pat & Mick with "Use It Up and Wear It Out".
The late 80s saw the rise of House music in the charts but by 1990 a lot of the dance music was more downtempo, perhaps largely influenced by Soul II Soul. Amongst these was the number one record "Dub Be Good To Me" by Beats International, a group lead by a pre Fatboy Slim Norman Cook.
We still had Italo House present in the charts with four hits from Black Box, two for the 49ers and we also had the only hits from Gino Latino with "Welcome" and Don Pablos Animals with "Venus".
We were now seeing the emergence of Eurodance or Euro House in the charts and at the forefront of this was German act Snap who had the number one hit "The Power" and had a further three Top 10 singles. Also from Germany was Jam Tronik who had a cover of "Another Day In Paradise" and then there was German/Dutch act Twenty 4 Seven ft Captain Hollywood who had a couple of hits with "I Can't Stand It" and "Are You Dreaming".
Belgian act Technotronic had four hits this year plus the hit "Spin That Wheel" under the name Hi-Tek 3. Also from Belgium came Bizz Nizz with their only hit "Don't Miss The Partyline". However, the following year they would evolve into 2 Unlimited.
We also had a notable presence of Techno music in the charts, although some of the records could be debated as to whether they were House or Techno until the cows come home. Amongst these was the number one "Killer" by Adamski. This was his second hit, his first being "NRG" at the start of the year and he also had a hit with "Space Jungle". After singing on "Killer", Seal made his solo debut later on in the year with "Crazy".
Other well known hits of the techno variety this year included "Infinity" by Guru Josh, "LFO" by LFO, "Tricky Disco" by Tricky Disco and "Cubik/Olympic" by 808 State, "Olympic" being the theme to the new TV show The Word. We also had the debut of Orbital with "Chime".
The year also marked the beginning of the KLF in the charts under that name with the first hit being "What Time Is Love" which reached number 5 and actually turned out to be their lowest charting single.
Arguably the best known dance record of the year though was "Groove Is In the Heart" by Deee-Lite which was a double a side with the not so well known "What Is Love". Deee-Lite had a follow up single, another double a side with "Power Of Love / Deee-Lite Theme". They would release further singles but none of them made the Top 40.
This was the year the baggy sound really took off in the charts. The Stone Roses rereleased the two hits they had the previous year and had a further three hits. The Happy Mondays were also back and charted with perhaps their two best known hits "Step On" and "Kinky Afro".
We had the debut of Manchester groups the Inspiral Carpets with "This Is How It Feels", James with "How Was It For You", the Charlatans with "The Only One I Know" and Northside with "My Rising Star".
From Liverpool we had the Farm debut with "Groovy Train" and follow up with "All Together Now" and the La's have their only Top 40 hit with "There She Goes". From Scotland we had Primal Scream debut with "Loaded" and the Soup Dragons debut with "I'm Free".
Elsewhere we had Jesus Jones debut with "Real Real Real", EMF debut with "Unbelievable" and Candy Flip score their only Top 40 hit with their cover of "Strawberry Fields Forever".
11 years after we saw the first Rap/Hip Hop record in the Top 40 we finally get and Rap/Hip Hop number one. In fact their were two, first up was "Turtle Power" by Partners In Kryme and next came "Ice Ice Baby" by Vanilla Ice. Both were chart debutants but only Vanilla Ice would return with another hit.
We also had the debut of MC Hammer with "U Can't Touch This", NWA with "Express Yourself" and Dream Warriors with "Wash Your Face In My Sink".
The R&B music in the charts was mostly of the New Jack Swing variety. This included the only Motown record of the year, "Juicy" by Wrecks-N-Effect. Other records of note included "Poison" by Bell Biv Devoe and Glenn Medeiros collaborating with Bobby Brown on "She Ain't Worth It".
We also had En Vogue debut with "Hold On", but they weren't the only group to debut with a song of that title, Wilson Phillips debuted with a different song with the same title this year.
Iron Maiden had the only Heavy Metal record of the year with "Holy Smoke", but in the Thrash scene we saw the chart debut of Megadeth with "No More Mr Nice Guy" which was followed up with "Holy Wars... The Punishment Due". We also had Anthrax back in the charts with "In My World". That's now three of the big four Thrash bands we've had in the charts, the fourth, Slayer, never had a Top 40 hit.
From the Glam scene we had the debut of Skid Row with "18 And Life". We also had hits from Motley Crue, Poison and Vixen whilst we had the solo debut of Jon Bon Jovi with "Blaze Of Glory".
Thunder made their debut this year with "Dirty Love" and had a further three hits this year. There was also the debut of Little Angels with "Radical Your Lover" and followed up with the appropriately titled "She's A Little Angel".
Away from the more established rock genres, we had a more funky side to rock music hit the charts this year. There was the debut of Faith No More with "Epic" and the debut of Red Hot Chili Peppers with "Taste the Pain".
So far we've found the 50s Rock n Roll never really started until the late 50s, the 60s as we know it didn't really start until 63, the 70s killed of the 60s before the decade we knew really began and the 80s seemed to start in the late 70s, but what about the 90s.
Well if you look at the list of number ones it's almost like going back in time with the likes of Cliff Richard, Elton John and the Righteous Brothers amongst others. At the same time it doesn't look typical of the late 80s and there is plenty of new material in the charts.
I guess its the case where music from the more recent past was considered outdated, the new was happening now and absence has made the heart go fonder for some of the older acts and records. Will it be more of the same in 1991?
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