More Hits Than You Think: Whigfield

Late last year I started to do an occasional series of posts about music acts only famous for 1 or 2 hits but had more of a chart career than many think. It's been a while since the first post but I've finally got round to the 2nd one, this time it's Whigfield.

Throughout the summer of 1994 we had "Love Is All Around" by Wet Wet Wet at number one. It was number one so long that even Wet Wet Wet got sick of it, but in September it was finally knocked off the top by Whigfield with Saturday Night. It was her debut hit and went straight in at number one, making her the first act since the charts began to make their chart debut at number one.

It was a massive hit, people were singing and doing the dance to it everywhere. For many people, that's where the story of Whigfield ends. But she wasn't finished just yet.

Given the huge success of her debut single, there must have been people who thought she could be a contender for Christmas number one with her 2nd hit, Another Day. It charted in December, the same week East 17 climbed to number one with "Stay Another Day" and was the 3rd highest new entry behind "All I Want For Christmas Is You" by Mariah Carey and the debut from Boyzone, "Love Me For A Reason". It eventually reached number 7 in the first week of 1995.

Perhaps the reason few remember "Another Day" is that it sounds pretty much the same as "Saturday Night". It was written by the same 2 Italian producers who wrote "Saturday Night" along with Annerley Gordon who has long been rumoured to be the actually singer on Whigfields songs.

Her 3rd single came in June 1995 with Think of You. Those who do remember it will most like to remember it for the line "I need you inside me tonight". It matched the success of "Another Day" reaching number 7, but this time it didn't sound like "Saturday Night". It had the same songwriters and was a cheesy Eurodance song though.

In September 1995, just under a year after "Saturday Night", she failed to reach the Top 10 for the first time with here 4th single, Close to You. This time she was singing a ballad. I remember being in shock hearing it for the first time, it sounded nothing like you'd expect a Whigfield song to sound like and that was perhaps her downfall. But despite her not reaching the Top 10, she still managed make her chart career last over a year with it.

She wasn't done yet though. In December 1995 she released a double a-side which would be her final Top 40 hit. One side was a cover of Last Christmas by Wham! and the other side was Big Time. Both songs were done reggae style. This only made 21 in the charts and spent it's final week in the Top 40 in the final week of 1995 which would be the last week we'd see Whigfield in the Top 40.

Still a 16 month chart career for someone who'd considered a one hit wonder is pretty good going.

More Hits Than You Think: Jive Bunny & the Mastermixers

Of every act that has ever had a UK Top 40 hit, just under half of them have never had another Top 40 hit. Around two thirds of them have never had more than 2 Top 40 hits. Despite this there are still a number of acts who have had more than 2 hits whilst only being remembered for 1 or maybe 2 songs. Therefore I thought I'd start a series of posts looking at acts who've had more hits than most people would think.

The subject of this first post is Jive Bunny & the Mastermixers. For the casual listener it's probably quite difficult to say how many hits they're remembered for but few would guess they had 8. Essentially it was a cartoon rabbit who would do medleys of old songs and was big in the second half of 1989.

Those who know their chart stats will know that they were the fourth act in chart history to reach number one with their first three Top 40 hits. The first was "Swing the Mood" which is most likely their best known. Then came "That's What I Like" which I'd say is quite well known, but because of the medley nature of their tunes some may think it's part of "Swing the Mood". Their final number one was a Christmas medley called "Let's Party" which was there for one week at the end of 1989 before getting knocked off by Band Aid II. Given you never hear it at Christmas time I'd say not too many people remember it.

Surprisingly though the hits kept coming until 1991. The next of these was That Sounds Good to Me which made number 4. It begins and ends with "Everybody Needs Somebody to Love" by the Blues Brothers which itself hit the Top 40 the following month in the same week this left the Top 40.

The came their final Top 10 hit Can Can You Party which made number 8. It begins and ends with the "Can-Can" and features "Greased Lightning" which itself was part of another medley, "Grease Megamix" later on in the year.

Next up was Let's Swing Again which made number 19 in November 1990. It had only been out the Top 40 for a couple of weeks when the next hit The Crazy Party Mixes hit the Top 40. This made number 13 but judging by the 554 views on YouTube it's doesn't look like too many people remember, or want to remember it. This has to be the weirdest one of their hits.

Their final hit was Over to You John (Here We Go Again) which climbed to number 28 in its 3rd week in April 1991 before dropping out the Top 40 two weeks later. This was apparently a charity single to raise money for St Johns Ambulance.

As I've already mentioned, the nature of their tunes makes it difficult to know what I remember and what I don't. I certainly don't remember them still being around in 1991 though.