I thought my ‘Never Had a #1…’ series had reached a natural end. I’d gone through the main suspects: The Who, Bon Jovi, Janet Jackson, Bob Dylan, Bob Marley, among others, and was struggling to think of many other significant acts that hadn’t topped the UK singles chart. Until I remembered the act that can lay claim to being the unluckiest in chart history… Sash! (The exclamation mark is theirs, not mine…)
Between 1997 and 2000, Sash! scored five #2 singles without managing a single chart topper. Of course, plenty of acts have finished as runner-up more often than that. Madonna has twelve number two hits to her name, Cliff and Kylie have eleven… Elvis has seventeen if you include his 2005 re-releases. But the difference is that those legends also managed plenty of number ones between them. Not Sash!
Sash! were – still are – a German DJ and production four-piece, formed in 1995. They had a distinctive Euro-trance sound, and a clear ‘if it ain’t broke’ approach to hit-making, so this rundown of their tunes might start to sound like a spot-the-difference exercise…
‘Encore Une Fois’ – #2 in 1997
If you only listen to one of these, then make it this one. This is a banger, and the only one of Sash’s hits that I truly remember. The female vocalist has always made me think of a station announcer. The French title translates as ‘one more time’, which is fitting because…
‘Ecuador’ ft. Rodriguez – #2 in 1997
They came back with more of the same. For their follow up hit, they swapped a woman shouting in French for a man shouting in Spanish. Rodriguez, presumably. This is still pretty catchy, a little lighter, a little more House-y.
‘Stay’ ft. La Trec – #2 in 1997
Completing their hat-trick of #2s in 1997, we get an intro in a 3rd language. English! By this point it’s getting hard to tell one trance riff from the next, but at least this one does have verses and choruses, and not just shouting.
‘Mysterious Times’ ft. Tina Cousins – #2 in 1998
The second single from their second album (the lead only made #3!) is a little more subtle. I’d also say a little more bland. I actually miss the shouting.
‘Adelante’ – #2 in 2000
We return to something a little more banging, with a little more Spanish, for Sash’s final UK #2. ‘Adelante’ means ‘forward’, which is fitting for a song released in February 2000, with a whole new millenium stretching out promisingly ahead of us… I would struggle to tell any of their non-‘Encore Une Fois’ hits from the other, although this track has to be praised for the novel use of accordions in a dance song.
If anyone has any other suggestions for acts that would merit a ‘Never Had a #1’ post (as in acts with lots of hits but no chart-toppers, rather than a band you really like but that have never been above #23) then let me know in the comments!
Next up, we prepare to party like it’s 1999…
The UK Number Ones Blog 
Between 97-99 I used to do my own weekly top 40, and ‘Mysterious Times’ was a long-running number 1! For me it’s the one of Sash’s remarkable run of near misses that I wish had gone all the way. I did appreciate your comment about the shoutier songs 😀 though for me this had the more conventional pop song rather than dance song structure, and Tina’s ethereal vocals led me to her rather good solo album, which itself contained a number of unfair top-40 missers, notably ‘Forever’.
Interesting! I have to say that in quickly listening to all five when writing, ‘Mysterious Times’ was the one that stood out the least. But maybe that is because it’s the least in your face, and benefits from further listens. Or maybe I just like my Sash hits shouty,,,
I think Tina Cousins had a rough deal. If this or certain others of her songs were released today, most notably ‘Pray’, which did just about scrape top 20, she might well fare as well with them as the likes of Gracie Abrams currently.
I pretty much liked Sash and the run of hits on the whole – it does seem a bit unfair not to get at least one chart-topper! Re: Tina Cousins, my mate has a story of the time he got her to autograph his CD while she was waiting for a taxi after a PA in Bournemouth. Both sounded a little tipsy from what I gather 🙂
Something that jumps out at me Stewart…list to songs 2-5…listen to that drum beat. It’s the same one! They didn’t really bother to change it much at all. The first song has a little different slant on it so I would not include that one.
I’m not being sarcastic…hey it worked for everyone then and now well. I do believe they start with that basic beat and write on top of it.
I think the tempo and rhythm of the beat has a big bearing on what genre of dance music it is, and so an act that produces a certain type of music would generally stick to that beat… I think…
Yes they do…disco did something like it as well. I just never noticed how they mostly are the same thing.
Feeder; 20 Top 40 singles between 1997-2008. Never had a No.1 with two peaking at No.5 and one at No.10. Came close to a 4th when “Shatter” made No.11 in October 2005.
They also have visited the No.2 spot twice on the album charts and never got to No.1 so far in their career. They have 11 Top 10 albums but never got the one at the summit.
Nonetheless, in August 2019 they were inducted into Kerrang Radio’s Hall of Fame the same day they released their 10th Studio Album “Tallulah” and in 2001 were voted the Best British Live Act of 2001 by the readers of the magazine counterpart.