Elton John reclaims third from David Bowie with four hits this year, whilst the Rolling Stones had three Top 40 hits this year, the last time they had three in a single year was in 1966.
| Artist | No of Hits | New Hits | |
| 1 | Cliff Richard | 108 | All I Have To Do Is Dream/Miss You Nights |
| 2 | Elvis Presley | 101 | |
| 3 | Elton John | 50 | Don't Go Breaking My Heart, Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing, Can You Feel the Love Tonight, Circle of Life |
| 4 | David Bowie | 48 | |
| 5 | Status Quo | 46 | I Didn't Mean It, Sherri Don't Fail Me Now, Restless |
| 6 | Queen | 41 | |
| 7 | Paul McCartney | 40 | |
| = | Rod Stewart | 40 | All For Love |
| 9 | Stevie Wonder | 37 | |
| = | Michael Jackson | 37 | |
| = | Diana Ross | 37 | The Best Years of My Life |
| 12 | Rolling Stones | 35 | Love Is Strong, You Got Me Rocking, Out of Tears |
| = | Madonna | 35 | I'll Remember, Secret, Take A Bow |
| 14 | Frank Sinatra | 33 | |
| = | Prince | 33 | The Most Beautiful Girl In the World, Letitgo |
| 16 | Shakin Stevens | 32 | |
| = | UB40 | 32 | C'est La Vie, Reggae Music |
| 18 | Roy Orbison | 31 | |
| 19 | Lonnie Donegan | 30 |
Still no changes in terms of most number ones:
| 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 | |
| 7 | Slade | 6 | |
| = | Rod Stewart | 6 |
The big talking point of the UK Top 40 in 1994 is the 15 weeks spent at number one for Wet Wet Wet with "Love Is All Around", just one short of Bryan Adams record. Much like Bryan Adams, this was an act you would associate more with the 80s than 90s. They had Top 40 hits every year since 1987, but this was only their second of ten Top 40 hits of the 90s to make the Top Ten, the other being "Goodnight Girl" which was also a number one.
Given the only other hit for Wet Wet Wet this year made number 20, they probably weren't the success story of the year as it's based on one song. It would once again be Take That who had two number ones with "Everything Changes" and "Sure", and a number three with "Love Ain't Here Anymore". They were also the only act to have more than one number ones this year.
East 17 though had the Christmas number one with "Stay Another Day". They also had a number three with "Around the World" and a number seven with "Steam".
The other three boybands that had debuted the previous year all hit their peaks this year, Bad Boys Inc with "More To This World" which was their only Top 10 at number 8, EYC with "Black Book" at number 14 and Worlds Apart with "Could It Be I'm Falling In Love" at number 15. It also marked the end of the chart careers of Bad Boys Inc and Worlds Apart, but EYC had one more hit the following year.
There were new boybands in the charts this year, including the Simon Cowell created Ultimate Kaos. They scored what proved to be their only Top 10 hit with "Some Girls". The band featured Ryan Elliott who's the son of Maxi Priest.
Ultimate Kaos wasn't Simon Cowells only contribution to the charts this year though. He was also behind "Power Rangers" by Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and "Them Girls Them Girls" by Zig & Zag.
The most successful boyband debut of the decade so far came from Let Loose who reached number two with "Crazy For You". They narrowly missed out on the Top Ten with their follow up "Seventeen" reaching 11, but they would return the following year.
The most notable boyband debut came in December with Boyzone debuting with "Love Me For A Reason" which became the Christmas number three, behind "All I Want For Christmas Is You" by Mariah Carey at number two.
In the dance music world, 1994 is often remembered as being the year of Jungle. We did have Jungle in the charts for the first time too, but there were only three record to make the Top 40. The first was "Incredible" by M-Beat featuring General Levy, the second was "Original Nuttah" by UK Apachi with Shy FX and finally we had "Sweet Love" by M-Beat featuring Nazlyn.
The nearest we got to Jungle outside these records was "Voodoo People" by the Prodigy which was the second hit of the year after "No Good (Start The Dance)". There were also a couple of Breakbeat tunes which were a couple of years old but making the Top 40 for the first time. These were "Set You Free" by N Trance which only just made the Top 40 reaching number 39, but would reach number two when rereleased at the beginning of the next year. The other one was "Let Me Be Your Fantasy" by Baby D which made number one.
In the Acid Jazz scene we continued to have hits from Jamiroquai whilst Incognito and the Brand New Heavies returned to the charts. We also had the only two hits from Urban Species with "Spiritual Love" and "Brother", and Galliano with "Long Time Gone" and "Twyford Down". We also had the solo debut of Young Disciples singer Carleen Anderson with "Nervous Breakdown".
We had the final hits from Oui 3 with "Fact Of Life" and One Dove with "Why Don't You Take Me". Shara Nelson had hits with "Uptight" and "Inside Out", and Massive Attack returned to the charts with "Sly". Bomb the Bass returned for his final two hits which were both Trip Hop records with "Bug Powder Dust" and "Darkheart".
After Felix got the ball rolling with Hardbag music in 1992, we had some further Hardbag records this year with "Hold That Sucker Down" by OT Quartet, "Girls + Boys" by Hed Boys, "Cantgetaman Cantgetajob (Life's A Bitch)" by Sister Bliss with Colette and "Short Dick Man" by 20 Fingers featuring Gillette.
Future Sound of London had their third hit in three years with "Lifeforms". Joining them in the Electronic/World crossover music was the return of Enigma with "Return To Innocence". They followed this up with "The Eyes of Truth" and "The Age of Loneliness". We also had the debut of Deep Forest with "Sweet Lullaby" which they followed up with "Deep Forest" and "Savanna Dance".
The bulk of the Dance music in the charts this year though was House. Several of the now well established chart acts such as Alison Limerick, Ce Ce Peniston, D Mob, Rozalla, M People, Crystal Waters and KWS had hits this year plus we had a second hit from 2 In A Room with "El Trago (The Drink)".
Perhaps the most significant debutant from a House perspective this years was Sasha who debuted with "Higher Ground" which he followed up with "Magic". Norman Cook was back in the charts, this time under the alias of Pizzaman with the record "Trippin' On Sunshine".
It was Eurodance that was more prominent at the top end of the charts with number ones coming from Doop with "Doop", Tony Di Bart with "The Real Thing" and Whigfield with "Saturday Night".
Other notable debutants included Jam & Spoon with "Right In The Night (Fall In Love With Music)", Reel 2 Real featuring The Mad Stuntman with "I Like To Move It" and MC Sar & The Real McCoy with "Another Night".
We were also seeing Eurodance covers of rock tunes, most notably "Whats Up" by DJ Miko, a cover of the 4 Non Blondes record from the previous year. We also had Abigail do a cover of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana. There was also "Eighteen Strings" by Tinman which sampled the "Smells Like Teen Spirit" riff.
We established that 1993 was the last we'd see of Nirvana in the charts, but what about the other Grunge bands?
We had the first and only Grunge number one from British newcomers Stiltskin with "Inside". They followed up with "Footsteps" and that's the last we'd see of them. Pearl Jam, Soundgarden and L7 returned to the charts, it was the last we'd see of L7 but Pearl Jam and Soundgarden would be back. There was also "Disarm" by Smashing Pumpkins, whilst Soul Asylum had a more grungy sound with the hits "Black Gold" and "Somebody to Shove".
There was no Goth Rock or Thrash, but Glam Metal band Motley Crue had their final Top 40 hit with "Hooligan's Holiday". Metal was kept going by Therapy? and the Almighty, and we also had the only hit from Kerbdog with "Dummy Crusher". Groove Metal band Pantera had their final two hits with "I'm Broken" and "Planet Caravan".
There were still plenty of 70s/80s Hard Rock bands in the charts with Def Leppard, Alice Cooper, Guns n Roses, Aerosmith, Gun and Whitesnake all having hits. Probably more surprising though was this year saw the debut of Wildhearts with "Caffeine Bomb" and Skin with "Money/Unbelievable". Whilst Grunge was said to have killed of Glam Metal more than anything else, its was supposed to have killed off bands like these too. We also saw the first example of the music credited with killing off Grunge, Pop Punk, with Green Day making their debut with "Welcome to Paradise".
It is however true that the harder side of Rock music seemed to be in decline by this point which can be put down to the rise in Brit Pop. Blur had a surge in popularity with songs from their "ParkLife" album, the first hit being "Girls And Boys" and the others being the title track, "To the End" and "End of the Century".
We had the debuts of Elastica with "Line Up", Oasis with "Supersonic", Pulp with "Do You Remember The First Time", Echobelly with "I Can't Imagine The World Without Me", Shed Seven with "Speakeasy", Dodgy with "Staying Out For The Summer" and Gene with "Sleep Well Tonight". Suede and Paul Weller continued to have hits this year too.
It was also a good year for R&B music with some more notable debutants this year. These included Toni Braxton with "Breathe Again", Joe with "I'm In Luv", R Kelly with "Your Body's Callin'", Aaliyah with "Back and Forth" and Jodeci with "Feenin'". Also despite having several hits as a songwriter going back to the 80s, this year marked the debut of Babyface as an artist with "When Can I See You".
We also had the Rap/R&B crossover hit "Whatta Man" by Salt-N-Pepa with En Vogue. Rap/Hip Hop music was now proving to be a mainstay of the charts. The start of the year saw the debut of Dr Dre with "Nuthin But A G Thang / Let Me Ride". We also had the first example of Miami Bass in the UK charts with "Whoomp! (There It Is)" by Tag Team. There was also the only UK hit for Domino with "Getto Jam".
Some British Rap acts had their only Top 40 hits this year too including "Teenage Sensation" by Credit To The Nation, "Switch" by Senser and "Yabba Dabba Doo" by Darkman. There was also the only hit for Danish rapper Lucas with "Lucas With The Lid Off".
Warren G & Nate Dogg made their debuts with "Regulate" and we also had hits this year from Snoop Doggy Dogg, Ice-T, Arrested Development, Cypress Hill, Beastie Boys, House Of Pain, Public Enemy and Ice Cube.
The reggae revival showed no signs of fading with number ones from Chaka Demus & Pliers with "Twist & Shout" and Pato Banton with "Baby Come Back". Other big hits of the year included "Shine" by Aswad, "Baby I Love Your Way" by Big Mountain, "You Don't Love Me (No No No)" by Dawn Penn, "Compliments On Your Kiss" by Red Dragon with Brian & Tony Gold and "The Sign" by Ace of Base.
Cyndi Lauper released "Hey Now (Girls Just Want To Have Fun)" which was a reggae inspired remake of "Girls Just Want To Have Fun". We also had a return to the charts after a 24 year absence for Jimmy Cliff with his final hit "I Can See Clearly Now".
The returnee this year after the longest absence though was Louis Armstrong who returned after a 26 year absence with his final "We Have All the Time in the World". There was also a final hit for fellow 1952 debutant Nat 'King' Cole "Let's Face the Music and Dance". This would be the last time a 1952 debutant would have a Top 40 hit at the time of writing. All the 1953 and 1954 debutants chart careers had already finished by this point too, but a 1955 debutant would have a hit the following year.
With the charts being in their 43rd year now, many countries have had acts who have had UK Top 40 hits so it's become a rarity to see a new country in the charts. However this year saw the first act from Senegal with Youssou N'Dour scoring his only Top 40 hit with "7 Seconds" with Neneh Cherry.
Now we've reached the mid point of the 90s we are seeing that many genres are coming and going from the charts quite quickly. At the same time though there are examples of music in the charts that has been around for some time. In the case of this year, records like "Set You Free" and "Let Me Be Your Fantasy" that had been around the underground since 1992, or from the R&B scene we get records like "She's Got That Vibe" by R Kelly which was actually from 1991.
So we go into the late 90s next, what of the early 90s will survive? and who was the 1955 debutant to have a hit that year?
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