UK Singles Chart: 2006

2006 was the year Top of the Pops finished. The interest in the UK Singles Chart was already in decline as was the interest in Top of the Pops, hence it's cancelation. However for many of those who stuck with Top of the Pops until the end this is quite possibly where their interest in the UK Single Chart ended too.

For myself personally I was still watching the music channels regularly, some of the records this year bring back memories of "The Galaxy Chart" on MTV Dance for example. There were also other tunes I remember being played on the music channels a lot at the time that didn't chart and there were also big hits I have no recollection of existing.

Joining the 30+ UK Top 40 hits club this year is Morrissey and having their final hit this year is Janet Jackson:

	Artist	No of Hits	New Hits
1	Elvis Presley	123
2	Cliff Richard	121	21st Century Christmas / Move It
3	Elton John	68
4	Madonna	62	Sorry, Get Together, Jump
5	David Bowie	57
6	Status Quo	55
7	Queen	51	Another One Bites The Dust
8	Michael Jackson	48
9	Paul McCartney	46
10	Rod Stewart	45
11	Diana Ross	43
=	Rolling Stones	43
13	Depeche Mode	42	Suffer Well, John The Revelator / Lilian, Martyr
14	Stevie Wonder	41
15	UB40	40
=	Pet Shop Boys	40	I'm With Stupid, Minimal, Numb
17	Kylie Minogue	39
18	Prince	38
=	U2	38	One, The Saints Are Coming
20	Janet Jackson	37	Call On Me
21	Tom Jones	35	Stoned In Love
=	Mariah Carey	35	Say Somethin'
23	Bon Jovi	34	Welcome To Wherever You Are, Who Says You Can't Go Home
24	Frank Sinatra	33
=	Shakin Stevens	33
=	R Kelly	33	That's That
=	George Michael	33	An Easier Affair, This Is Not Real Love
28	Erasure	32
29	Roy Orbison	31
=	Bee Gees	31
=	Whitney Houston	31
=	Iron Maiden	31
=	REM	31
34	Lonnie Donegan	30
=	Beatles	30
=	Tina Turner	30
=	Duran Duran	30
=	Manic Street Preachers	30
=	Simply Red	30
=	Morrissey	30	You Have Killed Me, The Youngest Was The Most Loved, In The Future When All's Well, I Just Want To See The Boy Happy

Westlife join equal Cliff Richards 14 number ones, and scoring their 5th and 6th number ones are McFly who were the only act to score more than one number one this year:

	Artist	No of #1s	New #1s
1	Elvis Presley	21
2	Beatles	17
3	Cliff Richard	14
=	Westlife	14	The Rose
5	Madonna	12	Sorry
6	Abba	9
=	Spice Girls	9
=	Take That	9	Patience
9	Rolling Stones	8
=	Oasis	8
11	George Michael	7
=	Michael Jackson	7
=	Kylie Minogue	7
=	U2	7
=	Elton John	7
=	Eminem	7	Smack That
17	Slade	6
=	Rod Stewart	6
=	Boyzone	6
=	Blondie	6
=	Queen	6
=	Robbie Williams	6
=	McFly	6	Don't Stop Me Now / Please Please, Star Girl

R Kelly continues his streak of hits every year since 1994 and we have 9 acts who have had a hit every year in the decade to date:

	Artist	Hits Every Year Since
1	R Kelly	1994
2	Robbie Williams	1996
3	Missy Elliott	1997
=	Basement Jaxx	1999
=	Jennifer Lopez	1999
=	Westlife	1999
7	Snoop Dogg	2000
=	Nelly	2000
=	Sugababes	2000

Having scored the previous years Christmas number one, X Factor 2 winner Shayne Ward scored a number two with his follow up single "No Promises". His third single "Stand By Me" however failed to reach the top ten, but this wouldn't be the last we'd see of him in the charts.

X Factor 2 runner up Andy Abraham had his only hit this year, collaborating with Michael Underwood with "December Brings Me Back To You" which made number 18. X Factor 2 contestant Chico scored a number one with "It's Chico Time" but only made number 24 with his follow up "D.I.S.C.O." which would be his final hit. We also had the only hit from contestant Maria Lawson with "Sleepwalking" which made number 20.

X Factor 3 happened later on in the year and winner Leona Lewis had the Christmas number one with "A Moment Like This". She would be the only contestant from X Factor 3 to have a UK Top 40 hit.

The X Factor wasn't the only TV show giving us new chart acts, though the acts to come from these other shows were less successful. There was "Totally Frank" which gave us a Girl Group called Frank who reached number 40 with their only hit "I'm Not Shy".

Then there was "Big In America" which brought us the Boyband US5 who made number 38 with their only hit "Maria". We also had "Totally Boyband" which gave us the Boyband Upper Street which consisted of Dane Bowers of Another Level, Jimmy Constable of 911, Bradley McIntosh of S Club 7 and Danny Wood of New Kids on the Block and they made number 35 with their only hit with "The One".

More successful though was the return of Take That after 10 years away who reached number one with their comeback single "Patience". We also had the return of All Saints after 5 years away who reached number three with their comeback single "Rocksteady". This would be the final UK Top 40 single for All Saints, but Take That would be back.

Post-Busted bands Fightstar and Son of Dork both had their final hits this year with "Waste A Moment" and "Eddies Song" respectively. Remaining Busted member Matt Willis then started his solo career with the number seven "Up All Night". He followed up with "Hey Kid" and "Don't Let It Go To Waste" which both failed to reach the top ten.

Post-Blazin Squad group Friday Hill had their second and final hit this year with "One More Night Alone". All former Blue members had solo hits this year, with Antony Costa debuting with his only hit "Do You Ever Think Of Me" and Duncan James having his second and final hit with "Sooner Or Later". Lee Ryan had a hit with "When I Think Of You" and Simon Webbe had hits with "After All This Time" and "Coming Around Again". Both would have one more hit beyond this year.

Emma Bunton had her final solo hit this year with "Downtown" which was done for Children In Need and made number three. This would leave Mel C as the only Spice Girl who's solo UK Top 40 career was yet to finish.

We had the only solo hit from an Atomic Kitten member with Liz McClarnon reaching number 5 with "Woman In Love / I Get The Sweetest Feeling".

The end of 2005 saw Mutya Buena leave the Sugababes and in 2006 she had her debut solo hit collaborating with George Michael on "This Is Not Real Love". The Sugababes had two top ten hits with "Red Dress" and "Easy", but also scored their lowest charting single with "Follow Me Home" only reaching number 32.

The Pussycat Dolls were the most successful Girl Group of the year reaching number two with "Beep", number three with "Buttons" and number seven with "I Don't Need A Man". Nearly as successful was Girls Aloud who had a number three with "Something Kinda Ooooh", number four with "I Think We're Alone Now" and number six with "Whole Lotta History".

Icelandic Girl Group Nylon debuted with their only hit "Losing a Friend". We also had the only two hits from so called Indie Girl Group the Pipettes with "Your Kisses Are Wasted On Me" and "Pull Shapes".

Indie Music was arguably the biggest it had ever been from a chart perspective in 2006. The year began with the Arctic Monkeys scoring their second number one with their second hit "When The Sun Goes Down". Later on in the year we had a number one from Razorlight with "America".

Notable debutants from the Indie world included The Feeling with "Sewn", Klaxons with "Magick", Fratellis with "Henrietta" and Automatic with "Raoul".

Other notable Indie hits this year included "Chasing Cars" by Snow Patrol and "Valerie" by the Zutons. It was the sheer quantity of Indie in the charts though which made it a strong year for Indie, with easily far more records then any other specific genre. Other Indie acts having hits this year included Hard-Fi, Kooks, Starsailor, Maximo Park, Embrace, Keane, Kasabian, Feeder, Ordinary Boys, Editors and Franz Ferdinand amongst others.

From the Punk world we had the debut of Fall Out Boy with "Sugar We're Goin Down". We also had the final hits from Alkaline Trio with "Burn" and Towers Of London with "Air Guitar". There was also a Punk number one from My Chemical Romance with "Welcome to the Black Parade".

Green Day collaborated this year with U2 with their cover of "The Saints Are Coming". Former Blink 182 member Tom Delonge had his only hit with his new band Angels & Airwaves with "The Adventure".

The end of the Glam Metal revival looked to have come this year with the Darkness having their final hit with "Girlfriend". The music that allegedly killed it, Grunge was also looking like it's revival was ending with just Nickelback scoring a number 40 with "Far Away". We did however have a solo record from former Soundgarden singer Chris Cornell had a hit this year with "You Know My Name" but that wasn't really Grunge.

R&B singer Ne-Yo scored a number one with his debut hit "So Sick". This was knocked off number one by another R&B debutant, Gnarls Barkley with "Crazy". This was the first single to reach number one on downloads alone with the physical format being released the following week. This stayed at number one for 9 weeks, the longest time a record had been at number one since Wet Wet Wet had 15 weeks in 1994.

Both Nelly Furtado and Justin Timberlake returned with Timbaland produced albums this year and each scored their first number one singles, Nelly Furtado with "Maneater" and Justin Timberlake with "Sexyback".

Beyoncé had her second number one which again was collaborating with Jay-Z on Deja Vu. She also had a number three with "Check On It" and a number four with "Irreplaceable". Fellow former Destiny's Child member Letoya had her only solo record this year with "Torn".

There were chart debuts from Chris Brown with "Run It", T-Pain with "I'm Sprung" and "Taio Cruz I Just Wanna Know". There were also the only two hit for Cassie with "Me And U" and "Long Way 2 Go" and former Misteeq member Alesha Dixon made her solo debut with "Lipstick".

After 2Pac had scored his first posthumous number one the previous year, this year was the turn of Notorious BIG who had a number one with "Nasty Girl". Having his final hit this year was LL Cool J with "Control Myself" which was his second collaboration with Jennifer Lopez and like his first collaboration with her it made number two.

The Black Eyed Peas had two top ten hits with "Pump It" and "Mas Que Nada" before a 3 year absence from the charts. We saw the start of the solo careers of Black Eyed Peas member Will I Am, who collaborated with the Pussycat Dolls on "Beep" and Fergie who scored a number three with her debut "London Bridge".

We also had a couple of top tens from Busta Rhymes with "Touch It" and "I Love My Chick" and from P Diddy with "Come To Me" and "Tell Me". Chamillionaire scored a number two with his debut "Ridin'" which was a collaboration with Bone Thugs-N-Harmony member Krayzie Bone. He scored a number 35 with his follow up "Grown And Sexy" which would be his final hit. Overall it was a quiet year for Hip Hop compared to recent years.

It was also a quiet year for Dance music, but we did have a couple of Dance number ones. They were "Thunder In My Heart Again" by Meck featuring Leo Sayer and "Put Your Hands Up For Detroit" by Fedde Le Grand.

Most notable though was the lack of Trance music in the charts having been arguably the biggest Dance genre in the charts earlier in the decade. The only Trance records to chart this year were "Elysium (I Go Crazy)" by Ultrabeat vs Scott Brown which made number 35 and "Fire" by Ferry Corsten which made number 40.

We had the debut of German Eurodance act Cascada with the number two hit "Everytime We Touch". They followed this up with "Truly Madly Deeply" which made number four. There was also the only two hits for Micky Modelle vs Jessy with "Dancing In Dark" and "Over You". We had the final hits for Crazy Frog with "We Are the Champions" and "Last Christmas".

Naughty Boy made his chart debut with "Phat Beach (I'll Be Ready)" which was a Dance version of the Baywatch theme tune. This made number 36, but there was a more popular Dance version of the Baywatch theme tune in the charts at the same time from Sunblock with "I'll Be Ready" which made number four.

David Guetta was back in the charts with the vocals from his tune "Love Don't Let Me Go" mashed up with "Walking Away" by The Egg which was appropriately titled "Love Don't Let Me Go (Walking Away)" by David Guetta vs The Egg. It was also the year "We Are Your Friends" by Justice vs Simian charted which would be the only chart appearance for both acts.

Scissor Sisters scored their only number one this year with "I Don't Feel Like Dancing". This would also be their final top ten single with follow up "Land Of A Thousand Words" only reaching number 19.

We had the final hit for Massive Attack with "Live With Me" marking the end of a 15 year chart career where they were the first Trip Hop act to have a hit and we possibly the last.

Lily Allen made her chart debut this year with the number one hit "Smile". She also had a top ten hit with "LDN". She was one of the acts who broke through from the popularity of her MySpace account which was the big social network of the time.

The mid-00s is probably best remembered for having lots of Indie Music in the charts and so far this year illustrates it the best. Will the popularity of Indie Music continue into 2007?