Welcome to 1991, everybody, a year when the pace of the charts was slower, when records went up as well as down, when Mark Goodier's nominated replacement on the chart show was Tommy Vance, and where every number one single was a classic. Except one. We'll be providing two illustrated examples for most of the charts from this year.

Fifteen new entries into the top 75, and we're going to write about almost none of them; instead, this week's emphasis will be on the hold-overs from 1990. As is traditional at the start of the new year (or was, before the list was clogged up by festive songs older than the chart show host(s)), lots of old records fell away in a controlled manner - Being boring, the Pet Shop Boys' best single of 1990, moved 63-66; The Beautiful South's My book, their best single of 1990, went 53-65, and The Proclaimers' King of the road went 40-63. A couple of classics in the bottom end, Peter Gabriel had re-released Solsbury hill to promote his hits collection, it dipped 58-62, though made 31 in Scotland; and World of Twist had the ahead-of-its-time The Storm, this week rising 75-74.

Maureen came in at 75 with Where has all the love gone, and hard house act Dream Frequency warbled about Love peace and harmony at 72; they would progress into the top 40 a couple of times in 1992. The Black Crowes put Twice as hard in at 71. More hair-rock was in at 60, Surface hit with The first time. Donna Summer's career had been one of occasional big hits interspersed with many fallow years; a remix project allowed Breakaway to chart at 59. The song had originally been recorded in 1932 as the theme to the BBC National Programme's travel show, and would continue to be used until the programme was axed in 1998. The Big Dish came in at 58 with Miss America, about which more next week. Paul Young was new at 57 with Calling you, about which we remember nothing. Do we win?

From the file labelled "never a hit, though they did try" comes Silje Nergaard. The Norwegian jazz vocalist used her pitch-perfect voice on Tell me where you're going, enlisted Pat Metheny to provide the backing band, and ... nothing. Not a flicker. OK, a move from 60-55 (and number 38 in the Scottish chart) did beat the song's first release the previous spring, when it had stalled just outside the top 75, but this was top weight for her one and only hit. Not that this has stopped Silje (that's pronounced Celia) from using her silky vocal talents to great effect at jazz concerts around the world.

New at 51 came Oleta Adams' Get here, about which we'll have more to say in a future week. A pair of unlikely duets anchored the top 50: Patrick MacNee and Honor Blackman's Kinky boots (27-50) had been made into a top 5 hit after being a running joke on Simon Mayo's breakfast show. Storming ahead (70-49) were Deborah Harry and Iggy Pop performing Well did you evah! from the Red Hot and Blue charity project. In 1991, charity records had a certain level of - what's the word... Charity records had a certain level of artistic integrity, and didn't just throw two popular groups of the day together to have a cat fight and broadcast the results. No, Red Hot and Blue was a series of covers of Cole Porter classics, to which the songwriting and artist's royalties were donated to AIDS charities. The album's lead single was Neneh Cherry's underwhelming performance of I've got you under my skin (number 25 the previous October); highlights included the reunion of the Pogues and Kirsty MacColl on Miss Otis regrets, and the Thompson Twins playing Who wants to be a millionaire?.

Record Mirror's chart commentator, Alan Jones, noted that Betty Boo's 29-47 move was one of the worst for a song that had been played on Top of the Pops. By 1997 standards, that's a good result. No appearance on the Thursday night musical extravaganza this week for Will To Power; I'm not in love was a straight cover of the 10CC chart-topper from 1975, this week climbing three to 46. And Mötörhead was up three to 45 with The one to sing the blues. The group hadn't seriously challenged for the top 40 since Iron fist made 29 in spring 1982, and hadn't had a hit single since summer 1986. Their only success in subsequent years was a re-release of Ace of spades, which made 23 in September 1993 after being used in an advertisement for Pot Noodle. Somewhat surprisingly, there was no re-issue on the back of the song's use in Dick 'n' Dom in da Bungalow.

Just outside the top 40 came former New Edition man Ralph Tresvant, his soulful song Sensitivity charted at 42. One place lower was one of three painfully rubbish songs in the chart, Orchestra On the Half Shell's Turtle rhapsody. It crammed in as many references as possible to that great fashion hype of the day, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Hero Turtles. So many references that the song went to pot. In the summer, anything to do with the TMNHT turned to gold, but by the end of the year, dreck like this was soundly rejected by the nation's children. The song went 39-41-38-36-43...

From this week, Radio 1 began to count down the chart at 4.30, giving two-and-a-half hours to the best-sellers list. It was enough to play every record in the top 40, albeit with some fairly brutal edits of records sliding down the list. Prior to this week, the chart had only begun at 5pm, a necessity in the days until 25 March 1990 when the programme went out on Radio 2's FM frequency. The 150-minute arrangement lasted only 62 weeks, the start was pushed back to 4pm from 16 March 1992, where it has remained ever since. The concept of playing every record in the top 40 was abolished in 2003. This commentary also brings in occasional details from the Scottish Top 40: at this time, Tom Ferrie's show aired on Radio Scotland at 10.10 on Friday evenings, and was made by Network Chart compilers MRIB from sales in their Scottish panel from Friday to Thursday.

The first record played on the new top 40 show? David Lee Roth's A li'l ain't enough, a proper new entry, so more next week. Belinda Carlisle had been bobbling under the top 40 since mid-December with Summer rain, this week climbing five places to 39. After starting with the career-defining Heaven is a place on earth, Carlisle found the hits more difficult to come by, and four of her last seven hits had peaked within spitting distance of 40.

Two more records from the pile labelled Festering Piles of Horse Manure, and - like the Turtles - from the other two biggest cultural phenomena of 1990. Down 23 to 38 went the New Kids On The Block, performing This one's for the children. Ver New Kids were the bubblegum pop sensations of 1990, churning out such classics as Step By Step and Tonight. There were also some tremendous clunkers, not least this sickly-sweet load of nonsense, originally made in 1989 as part of a Yuletide album. The single was a stopgap ahead of their new album due in February, and became the group's eighth top 10 hit of 1990. With the exception of Elvis Presley's re-release campaign in 2005, no act has had more top ten hits in a year since.

But wait, there's another record that makes NKotB and OoaHS sound like Grade I classics. Down six at 37 came Gazza, performing Geordie boys (Gazza rap). Paul Gascoigne had risen to fame in 1989, following his multi-million pound transfer from Division II Newcastle to Division I Tottenham. Gascoigne was selected for the England football squad, which came through a fortunate draw to make the semi-finals of the 1990 world cup. After being booked in the match, Gascoigne burst into tears as he would miss the third-place play off, should England get there. The press built this into an iconic moment, and made Gascoigne into a top-flight star. One of the spin-offs was a short-lived recording contract: his interpretation of Fog on the Tyne was tuneless, spineless, rhythm-free, and gut-wrenchingly awful, and sold enough copies in a quiet week to make number 2. The follow-up was equally tuneless, spineless, rhythm-free, and gut-wrenchingly awful, but by now the Grate British Public was wise to the trick and the single peaked at 31. Even more mercifully, Gascoigne has never again darkened the door of a recording studio.

New at 36 came the High with Box set go, up 22 to 35 went Prefab Sprout with Jordan the ep, and up 13 to 32 for the Stranglers with a re-release of Always the sun. More on these next week. The biggest-seller of 1990 was the Righteous Brothers' version of the melody from Unchained. Neophyte producer Simon Cowell looked into the mirror while hearing this song, fell in love with what he saw, transferred that affection to the tune, and inflicted versions by Robson and Jerome (1995) and Gagagareth Gates (2002) on an otherwise unsuspecting public.

More climbers into the top 40 for Robert Palmer - the medley Mercy mercy me / I want you was up 21 to 30; Bananarama's Preacher man rose 12 to 29; and Off-Shore put I can't take the power up 19 to 27. Sting was on his difficult third solo album, The Soul Cages marked his transition from second-rate funkster to tedious eco-worrier, though upbeat lead single All this time was straight in at 26. Surprisingly, it's only his fifth top 40 single, and second in five years. Alexander O'Neal put All true man in at 24; his biggest hit was 1987's Criticise, but his smooth soul had been a consistent hit-maker since 1985.

Into the top 20, anchored this week by the outgoing Yuletide number 1, Saviour's Day. The song was released at the start of December, but was second favourite for the festive top spot behind Madonna's tribute to John Major's negotiating position, Justify my hard ecu. Madge peaked too early, and it was ultimately Vanilla Ice (of whom more anon) that submitted the stiffest challenge. Cliff's single was written by Chris Eaton, a thoroughly nice bloke, and is certainly in the better half of Yuletide toppers over the last two decades. Not the best of sellers, though - it's scrapping with the Williams / Kidman duet from 2001 and Leon Jackson from 2007 as the smallest sellers in recent history, each responsible for well under half-a-million sales. After its solitary week at the summit, the song fell like a Cliff Richard christmas single, an outcome that shouldn't surprise anyone. 6-3-2-1-3-20 so far.

Status Quo were marking their 25,000th anniversary in the music business by putting out medleys of old hits. A bit like Jive Bunny, only all performed by the hoary old rockers. The anniversary waltz part one had missed the top spot by a gnat's crotchet in October, losing out to the Beautiful South's A little time. The anniversary waltz part 2 came out for Yule, and made the top 20. Like the songs, the group will be back.

New at 18 came Pop Will Eat Itself with X Y and Zee; more on them next week. Whitney Houston's third studio album was a bit of a disappointment, but All the man that I need was the stand-out track, a rich ballad here climbing 9 to 17. Hard-rock crazy people Anthrax had their biggest hit to date as Got the time moved up 7 to 16. The group had had a top 20 hit in 1987 with Who's the man, taking the piss out of over-earnest rappers. This new hit featured fast talking over a rock beat, something that wouldn't be accepted in the closed-minded Kerrang fraternity for another decade.

Highest new entry honours went to Jesus Jones, International bright young thing was new at 15. More on them next week, too. Patsy Cline's Crazy had been re-released for reasons we don't recall, and climbed 7 to 14. The television premiere of Dirty Dancing propelled Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes's (I've had) the time of my life back up 21 places to 13; the song had originally been a number 6 hit when the film came out in autumn 1987. A superfluous medley of Black Box's four hits to date proved they really were Ride on time done a bit differently, climbing 2 to a peak of 12. Madonna - whose high-water mark was a week at the top in Scotland and on the Network Chart - dipped three to 11.

Into the top 10 for C&C Music Factory's Gonna make you sweat. Snap! had had a very good 1990, churning out dumb techno beats with savvy raps; Mary had a little boy was their third top-ten single, this week a non-mover at 9. MC Hammer was also a breakthrough act, Pray spent five weeks moving between 11 and this week's peak at 8, only to be overshadowed by Take That's cover a couple of years later. The Righteous Brothers's second single in the chart, a re-release of 1965's You've lost that loving feeling, had made number 3 two weeks ago, this week dipping a place to 7. It's the fifth week running that Bill Medley has had two vocal performances in the top 20. The Farm's attempt at the festive topper was perhaps the strongest of 1990's failures: All together now was a less rubbish take on the football-in-the-trenches story told by Paul McCartney's Pipes of peace seven years earlier. It peaked at 4 two weeks before the big one, and this week rebounded a place to 6. The song was re-activated in support of Everton's successful FA Cup run in 1995 (peaking at 22) and England's somewhat less successful Euro '04 campaign (a number 5 hit).

Vanilla Ice's Ice ice baby spent four weeks at the top, before being dethroned by Cliff. This week, down from 2 to 5. Seal's Crazy rose from 11 to 4, more on this next week. John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John had had two number one hits in 1978, and a mix of those songs and others from the Grease musical broke their streak by only making number 3. It's the highest of three medleys in the top 20. Up two to 2 went Enigma's Sadness part 1.

1991 began, though, with one of the most bizarre records ever to be a number one single. Iron Maiden had first had a hit single in early 1980, and slowly but surely cemented their place in the new wave of British metal; 1982's Run to the hills began a run of 31 top 20 hits from 34 releases, and since 1988 the band's had sixteen top ten hits. They've survived line-up changes, including the change of lead singer that killed Genesis stone dead.

The number one single, Bring your daughter... to the slaughter annoyed many people for its complete cynicism. Five formats - a 12-inch picture disk, one-sided 7-inch, two-sided 7-inch, 12-inch with calendar, and cassette single with otherwise-unavailable artwork - made each item a collectable for the group's fans, and ensured the group could bank on 40,000 first-week sales. Even if the song is released on christmas eve, a notoriously slow week for sales. Anthrax, another group popular with rock fans, jumped on the bandwagon by pushing their single forward a week.

In the event, the 42,000 sales were made to fewer than 20,000 people, but proved sufficient to keep Vanilla Ice at bay. Retaining the top spot for a second week proved that (gasp!) ver Maiden might actually be attracting some new listeners, but more likely that 29,000 could be enough for a number one single in an exceptionally slow week. The hit single - originally marked for one of the Elm Street movies, but withdrawn because it was too good for that schlock - contains some exceptionally rudey lyrics if you care to listen to them.

The song wasn't typical of the album No Prayer for the Dying, a raw and gutsy performance, which in turn was something of an artistic regression from the group's stock of historical and literate allusions. Like its follow-up, 1992's Fear of the Dark, the only song the band deems worth remembering was the second single - in the latter case, From here to eternity. That album's lead single Be quick or be dead narrowly missed out on the number 1 spot, and with Simon Cowell's satanic spawn monopolising the chart in the quiet weeks around new year, it looks impossible anyone will ever repeat Iron Maiden's technique for a number one single.

Bring your daughter... to the slaughter remains a remarkable record; this week's 29,000 remained the lowest one-week sale of a number one until the Presley re-release campaign in 2005. The total sale of 100,000 is still one of the lowest for a number one single, and it's the last single to reach the number 1 spot without a version on CD - though CD singles were released in other countries, none came out in the UK. It's also the only number one single of the 90s for which we've never seen a video clip; the video contains scenes of zombies and horror, and is routinely skipped by those wusses on VH-1 when counting down every number one single of the 1990s. Apart from the interesting one.

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