never had a number one hit

Never Had a #1… Part 3

/ UK #1s blog / 9 Comments

Welcome back to my ongoing countdown of the highest-selling artists never to have enjoyed a British singles chart #1!

This is based on a Wikipedia list of history’s highest sellers, around which there’s some controversy over reported sales vs. recorded sales and yadda yadda yadda… I explained it quite well in Part 1, if I do say so myself, so please follow this link to catch up. Here also is Part 2, which I published in November. Those two parts counted down the 40th to the 31st non-charttopping highest sellers, and included the illustrious likes of Bob Marley, Van Halen, Barry Manilow and Nirvana.

Let’s get on with the acts placed 30th to 26th in this list, then…

30. R.E.M.

Biggest hit: ‘The Great Beyond’ (#3, in 2000)

R.E.M. are one of those bands I have somehow never found the time to get into, beyond the big hits. By that I mean ‘Shiny, Happy People’ and ‘Everybody Hurts’. Neither of which were the band’s biggest UK hit. That’s ‘The Great Beyond’, from the soundtrack to the Andy Kaufman biopic ‘Man on the Moon’, and I was aware of its chorus, with the line about pushing an elephant up the stairs. For a band that released their first single in 1981, to have their biggest hit almost two decades later is impressive. In fact, their total of ten UK Top 10s is way beyond what I would have expected, from a band that never felt that big.

29. Johnny Cash

Biggest hits: ‘A Boy Named Sue’ (#4 in 1969) and ‘A Thing Called Love’ (#4 in 1972)

‘What’s the best song ever written?’ is an impossible question. Anyone who says they can answer it definitively is wrong. And yet, the answer is actually quite simple. It’s ‘A Boy Named Sue’ by Johnny Cash (and written by Shel Silverstein). Country music is all about story-telling, and boy is this a masterclass in painting an entire life story in under four minutes. From the epic opening line – Well my daddy left home when I was three, And he didn’t leave much to ma and me, Just this old guitar and an empty bottle of booze… – to the drama of son and father finally meeting in a dusty saloon, the plot twist of why his dad gave him a girl’s name, and the punchline of If I ever have a son, I think I’m gonna name him… Bill or George, Any damn thing but Sue! Add to this the fact that there are actual convicted prisoners whoopin’ at the end of every line of this song, live from San Quentin, with the man in black growling his way through this tale of men being men despite the world’s myriad cruelties… And yet, and maybe this is just me and the fact I first heard this song at a young and impressionable age, there’s a strongly queer element to this song. It’s a song about a big tough macho man… named Sue. My name is Sue! How do you do! he hollers upon entering the saloon. Alright honey, we all heard you. I love it. Layers upon layers upon layers.

Like R.E.M, Johnny Cash had a career spanning several decades, and it took him a long time to even make the UK charts. In fact, the two songs featured here are his only British Top 10s. The second was this cute country-gospel ditty about the power of love. It’s alright, but it’s sadly lacking in men with women’s names.

28. Alicia Keys

Biggest hit: ‘Empire State of Mind’ with Jay-Z (#2, in 2009)

Despite having a healthy chart career of her own throughout the ’00s, Alicia Keys’ biggest hit came when she sang a chorus for Jay-Z, on his 2009 smash ‘Empire State of Mind’. But what a chorus. Few if any cities have been eulogised in song as often as the Big Apple, and this record was a worthy 21st Century addition to the canon, to stand alongside Sinatra and Billy Joel, although it does stray into worn clichés about dreams being made and big lights inspiring you.

27. Linda Ronstadt

Biggest hit: ‘Don’t Know Much’ with Aaron Neville (#2, in 1989)

Like Johnny Cash, for all Linda Ronstadt’s wide-reaching success, across pop, rock, country, and folk, she only ever enjoyed two UK Top 10s, both of which were duets. This ballad was the second, and the bigger of the two. It features soul singer Aaron Neville, who like Ronstadt had been around since the sixties. So, on the one hand its impressive that these artists could score such a big hit two or more decades into their careers… On the other this song is pure late-eighties sludge, and does nothing for me.

26. James Taylor

Biggest Hit: ‘You’ve Got a Friend’ (#4 in 1971)

Even more short on big hits is James Taylor, whose one and only UK Top 10 is this beautiful ode to friendship. It was written by Carole King, but it was her friend Taylor who enjoyed a big hit with the song, although King does feature as a backing vocalist on this version. It’s a simple song – some might claim the lyrics are bordering on trite – but there’s beauty in simplicity. Plus, the melody is gorgeous. I sang this in my primary school choir, and am now thinking of all the friends I once had that I haven’t seen in decades… Actually, there’s a chart-topping version of ‘You’ve Got a Friend’ coming up soon, so perhaps we can discuss it in more detail then.

I hope you found something to enjoy in this latest installment. Once again the artists are very US-heavy, which is perhaps understandable given that that is the biggest music market in the world. In fact, looking back, all fifteen acts featured so far have been American! In the next installment, though, we’ll meet our first high-selling-but-not-chart-topping British acts.

Never Had a #1… Part 2

/ UK #1s blog / 11 Comments

Welcome to the second part of our countdown through the forty highest selling acts (worldwide) that have never managed a UK chart-topping single. Before cracking on with numbers 35-31, check out the first installment here, featuring some surprisingly big names and also an explanation of how the concept of ‘highest selling’ has been worked out.

All caught up? Then here’s the next five:

35. Green Day

Biggest hit: ‘The Saints Are Coming’ with U2 (#2, in 2006)

I was all ready to write about ‘American Idiot’ (#3, in 2004) as Green Day’s biggest hit… But the discographies don’t lie. Who knew, or remembered, that this duet with U2 had charted a place higher?

Recorded to raise money for those affected in New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina, and with a snatch of ‘House of the Rising Sun’ in the intro, this is a good cover of the Skids’ original. Yet it is also frustrating that this is Green Day’s biggest hit over some of their earlier pop-punk classics, or their era-defining ‘American Idiot’ hits. Though I feel some personal pride here, as Skids are from my hometown, and they always get slightly overshadowed by Big Country (the band Stuart Adamson formed post-Skids).

34. Nirvana

Biggest hit: ‘Heart-Shaped Box’ (#5, in 1993)

Two of the biggest alt-rock acts of the nineties, back to back. And again, not many people would pick ‘Heart-Shaped Box’ as Nirvana’s biggest hit, over you-know-what (it made #7). But I’m so glad it is, because it is a freakin’ tune! No band has more perfectly balanced heavy rock with pop melodies, and this is them at the peak of their powers, the lead single from third album ‘In Utero’, and probably the best song ever written about children with terminal cancer. Plus, the scene in the video with the band playing against a blood-red sky is the most gorgeous snapshot of that early-nineties, grunge aesthetic.

33. Imagine Dragons

Biggest Hit: ‘Sucker for Pain’ with Lil Wayne, Wiz Khalifa, Ty Dolla Sign & Logic (#11 in 2016)

Up next, Imagine Dragons. Or, as I like to call them, Everything That Is Wrong With Rock Music in the 21st Century. And of course they’ve sold more than Nirvana and Green Day… But like the illustrious pair that they outrank, Imagine Dragons biggest UK chart hit is not their most famous. (You know, the one that goes thump thump shout shout thump shout). In ‘Sucker for Pain’, from the ‘Suicide Squad’ soundtrack, they act as mere comperes, singing the same chorus over and over for a revolving cast of rappers, and their douchebaggery is diluted. It’s still not a very good song though.

32. Tom Petty

Biggest hit: ‘I Won’t Back Down’ with the Heartbreakers (#28, in 1989)

Like so many artists in this Top 40, Tom Petty was far more succesful in his native US (where this track made #12). And it’s kind of easy to see why, because this is proper, chugging, heartland rock that doesn’t quite translate to our green and sometimes pleasant land. But there’s a strong British influence on display here, with Jeff Lynne writing and producing (that beat has Lynne written all over it) and George Harrison on guitar. Speaking of Lynne and Harrison, the biggest UK hit that Petty featured on had come a year earlier: the Travelling Wilbury’s ‘Handle With Care’.

31. Van Halen

Biggest hit: ‘Jump’ (#7, in 1984)

Unlike every other act in this section, Van Halen’s biggest hit in the UK is the song you’d probably expect. In actual fact, ‘Jump’ was Van Halen’s first Top 40 hit in Britain. It’s interesting, American disinterest towards British glam rock in the seventies was largely replicated by the British public towards American glam metal in the eighties. And I have to admit that ‘Jump’ has always left this Brit fairly cold. It’s catchy, and the synth riff is memorable, but it pales in comparison to earlier, harder rocking Van Halen hits. It pales in comparison too to the other singles from ‘1984’, like ‘Panama’ and ‘Hot for Teacher. It was also perhaps a reason in lead singer David Lee Roth’s leaving the band the following year, as he saw it as too much of a departure from their original sound.

Before finishing this section, we should also mention three artists who would have featured here had they ever had a British hit. Luke Bryan (a 21st century C&W megastar who has had 30 Billboard country chart #1s), Johnny Hallyday (France’s biggest ever male star), and Ayumi Hamasaki (Japan’s best-selling solo star, and ‘Empress of Pop’ to much of Asia).

Never Had a #1… Part 1

/ UK #1s blog / 13 Comments

Good morning, pop-pickers! I’m revamping my semi-regular ‘Never Had a Number One’ feature. Instead of featuring a randomly chosen, #1-less, artist for a post, I’m going to start counting down the Top 40 very biggest acts that have never featured at the top of the UK singles charts.

I’m basing it on worldwide sales (in both singles and albums), and have used the ever-trusty Wikipedia as my main source. All the acts to appear in this new feature have sold at least 75 million records across the world. I’ll cover all the Top 40 in eight parts with five acts in each (plus six honorary mentions for acts who have sold loads but have never charted in the UK).

We’ll do it in ascending order, and this first part features the lowest-selling of the bunch (all around the 75 million worldwide sales mark). Starting with…

40. Barry Manilow

Biggest hit: ‘I Wanna Do It With You’ (#8, in 1982)

It is frankly amazing that this was not only Barry Manilow’s biggest UK hit, but his sole Top 10 single in Britain across an entire fifty-year career. I had never heard this song before, but I like it: unashamed soft-rock with cute retro flourishes. And a cracking sax solo. I admire the British public for making this his biggest hit, ahead of schlock like ‘Mandy’, or ‘Copacabana’, and admiration for the British public is not something I’ve had much of recently.

39. Bob Marley

Biggest hit: ‘Sun Is Shining’ (vs Funkstar De Luxe) (#3, in 1999)

A couple of surprises here too. First, that Bob Marley is so far down this list, and that his biggest UK chart hit was a dance remix released almost twenty years after his death. I did a post on Bob Marley a few years ago, so head over that way if you’d like more information on his non-charttopping career.

38. Kenny G

Biggest hit: ‘Songbird’ (#22, in 1987)

Some smooth, smooth jazz now. This list skews towards the US, because that’s where most records have historically been sold. Kenny G was remarkably, some might say bizarrely, popular in the States, and ‘Songbird’ made #4 there. Which is frankly amazing, and can only be explained by thousands of companies buying the record to use as their on-hold music. I have frequently tried to explain why some eighties music leaves me cold, and can offer no better explanation than pointing towards syrupy dross such as this.

37. Bob Seger

Biggest hit: ‘We’ve Got Tonight’ (#22, in 1995)

Another ‘much bigger in the US’ act: roots-rock icon Bob Seger. He released his first single in 1961, but had to wait fifteen years before charting in Britain, and another twenty years for his biggest hit. ‘We’ve Got Tonight’ had been recorded in 1978, and turned into a bigger hit for Kenny Rogers and Sheena Easton in 1983. A re-release in 1995 took it to #22 for Seger, and it finally made the UK Top 10 when covered by Groanin’ Ronan Keating and Lulu in 2002.

36. Alabama

Biggest hit: ‘Feels So Right’ (#91, in 1984)

More Americana now, from a band literally named after a State. Yee-haw! Alabama can count themselves lucky to feature, qualifying thanks to their solitary week’s appearance on the UK singles chart, at #91, in 1984. (KISS are the act they kept out of the Top 40, if you were wondering). They may have had little impact in Britain, but have a staggering thirty-two #1 hits on the Billboard Country Chart.

Hope you enjoyed the first part of this new feature, even if it was hardly a selection of classic records. Manilow and Marley in particular are much further down the list than I’d expected. Part 2 – very rock heavy – will be along in a couple of months!

Of course, these rankings can be disputed, and could be completely wrong. It’s near impossible to know exactly how many records an act has sold in every record shop in every country around the world, and downloads and streaming complicate things further. Wikipedia bases their ranking on ‘claimed sales’ rather than ‘certified units’, and for many artists the latter is much higher than the former. For example, the Beatles (who unsuprisingly are top of the best-sellers list) have certified sales of 296 million, but claimed sales of between 500-600 million. Michael Jackson, second on the list with 400-500 million claimed sales, actually tops the list on certified sales of 297 million.