The Top 60 Singles Sellers In The UK, Ever (Part 1)

The rules of engagement: singles sales in the UK for the named act, 1 Nov 1952 - 27 Dec 2003. Where two acts are credited, both are given the sales. For instance, Ebony and Ivory contributes about 700,000 to both Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder. Where there's no credit, the sales don't count; for instance, George Michael's uncredited backing vocals with Elton John on Wrap Her Up don't earn him the 80,000 sales.

60 Erasure (4,377,372)
Biggest seller: Crackers International ep (1988)
Best known for: The Abba-esque ep (1992)

Vince and Andy have been going for almost twenty years now, a fact to make me feel dead old already, and we've only just begun. I never really got the point until Crackers, but then the Wild! (89) and Chorus (91) albums soundtracked many a hazy day. The duo rather lost the plot after 1994, and returns have diminished each year, with the Lazy Cover Versions album emerging last year. I've purchased one single of theirs, Abba-esque.

59 Cher (4,380,650)
Biggest seller: Believe (1998)
Best known for: The Shoop Shoop Song (1991)

I'm surprised to see Cher so low, Believe shifted 1.4 million, Shoop another 600K, and her recent career seems to have been non-stop since late 1987. However, she's not been as prolific as (say) Erasure, and there have been surprisingly many misses in her recent career. The Lazy Cover Versions album, It's A Man's World, was in 1995, and gave perhaps her finest performances on Walking in Memphis and One by One.

58 Electric Light Orchestra (4,401,169)
Biggest / best known: Mr Blue Sky (1976)

Here's how much I know about 70s prog rock light: not much. Did very well to shift 4 million in the mid 70s, and they're the only group from that era to make the list.

57 Janet Jackson (4,409,645)
Biggest seller: Together Again (1997)
Best known for: Being Michael's sister (1962-)

Janet rose to fame in 1986, and has sold consistently, but never in that huge quantities. Her biggest hit came in the late 97 explosion of singles sales; that and The Best Things In Life Are Free account for almost 40% of her sales total.

56 Donna Summer (4,419,529)
Biggest / best known: I Feel Love (1979)

The disco diva par excellence sold copious quantities, went away, staged a generous comeback thanks to Stock Aiken and Waterman in 1989, and went away again. Her 1999 comeback with I Will Go With You should have been a monster, but wasn't.

55 Steps (4,448,499)
Biggest / best known: Heartbeat / Tragedy (1998)

A group of five youngsters whose cheesy harmonies hit a chord during the tail end of the late 90s sales explosion. The biggest hit sold over a million, and after their debut, every hit in a four year career went top ten without trying. Cheap and silly they may be, but their brand of carefree pop struck quite a chord. And then, four years after it all began, the group split over yule 2001. Yes, I've got quite a collection of Steps singles: 5678; One For Sorrow; Heartbeat / Tragedy; and Stomp.

54 Mariah Cantsing (4,449,607)
Biggest: Without You (1994)
Best known: Dreamlover (1993)

Surprising as it may sound, the vocal hystrionics didn't really catch on until Cantsing's third release, the overhyped Musicbox. It's actually been downhill ever since, with her brand of gratuitous vibrato irritating more and more people with each passing year.

53 Prince (4,465,596)
Biggest: Batdance (1989)
Best known: 1999 (1983)

His career in the UK really took off with the release of Purple Rain in 1984, and he remained one of the most consistent and prolific hitmakers until the mid 90s. By releasing an album each year, and three or four singles off each, Prince was sure to keep the sales figures turning over. His only chart-topper came in 1994 with the drippy Most Beautiful Girl In The World, after which his ego finally got the better of his talent. Prince fans were always too intense for a casual fan like me, and I didn't really appreciate his work at the time.

52 Take That (4,476,566)
Biggest: Back For Good (1995)
Best known: Pray (1993)

Revision 1.0 of the formula boy band, ver That "only" enjoyed three years at the top of their career, between Could It Be Magic at the end of 92 until they split at the start of 96. Eight singles from their debut Take That And Party album peaked at various positions from 79 to 2; eight of the remaining nine would be chart-toppers for at least a week. They sold huge quantities to screaming girlies, and Gary Barlow was a surefire nomination as Thatter Most Likely To... Hearing Pray every night during summer 93 endeared the group to me, though I was never a rabid fan.

51 Hot Chocolate (4,491,955)
Biggest: It Started With A Kiss (1978)
Best known: You Sexy Thing (1977)

Disco chancers struck lucky with a cheap soul formula. It worked, people bought it, but it really hasn't stood the test of time. The hits dried up in the early 80s, and only ironic revivals have kept the group in work.

50 Hollies (4,597,450 sales)
Biggest / best known: He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother (1967/88)

For those who found the Stones too nasty, there was always the Beatles. For those who found the Beatles too hard and nasty, there was always the Hollies. Five gentlemen from Manchester, who lived up to their clean cut image. Seemingly ubiquitous in the second half of the 60s, their disposable pop hasn't really stood the test of time. Can you name more than one Hollies track?

49 Frank Sinatra (4,596,630)
Biggest: My Way (1969-71)

Many reckon that Sinatra was the greatest voice that ever lived. Certainly, no one who ever heard his smoky jazz voice - or the teenybop craze, for sixty years ago Mr Sinatra was quite the youngster's idol - will ever forget it. Had the sales charts started earlier, Sinatra could easily be a million sales higher, and his regular hit-making popularity continued into the 1970s. My Way is responsible for 125 weeks on the chart (yes, that's almost two and a half years), and almost 20% of his career total. Yep, I've got a copy.

48 Bryan Adams (4,614,135)
Biggest / best known: Everything I Do (I Do It For You) (1991)

His biggest hit is responsible for slightly more than one in three of his sales. His second biggest hit, 1998's When I'm Gone is responsible for slightly more than one in six sales. Bryan stumbled along just outside the popular mainstream until *that* record, and he's been a consistent top 20 hitmaker since. I reckon his best work was his early work, Reckless a particular classic, and Waking Up The Neighbours - completed before *that* record - also worth investigating.

47 U2 (4,663,427)
Biggest: The Sweetest Thing (1998)
Best known: With Or Without You (1987)

Someone had to end Bryan's 16-week run at the top in 1991. The honour fell to U2's The Fly, and it's surely a coincidence that the Irish four-piece lands one place higher than their nemesis. Unlike Bry, the 2 have never sold huge numbers of singles, they've just been around long enough for lots and lots of respectible showings - almost every single makes the top ten, at least for a week - to add up to success. I never liked their wig-out stadium rock, but everything since Achtung Baby! comes recommended.

46 Englebert Humperdink (4,710,328)
Biggest / best known: Please Release Me (1967)

The perils of mass-marketing writ large: Englebert was the darling of the televised variety show, whoring his act on Palladium and Golden Shot and anywhere else that would have him. He evidently struck a chord, selling almost 2 million singles in 1967 alone, and going on to greater success and a residence in Vegas. His UK hits dried up in the early 70s, and now he's best known for having a silly name.

45 Gary Glitter (4,717,834)
Biggest: I'm The Leader Of The Gang (I Am) (1972)
Best known: Rock 'n' Roll (Part II) (1973)

Paul Gadd rose through the ranks of the early 70s glam rock revolution, becoming as much a poster boy as Roy Wood or Mud (neither of whom make this survey). Gary Glitter was the extravagant showman, always able to whip a crowd into a frenzy in spite of not being that gifted a singer. His star fell as quickly as it had risen, and a minor career revival in the 80s stalled quickly.

44 Pestside (4,726,116)
Biggest: Seasons In The Sun (1999)
Best known: Flying Without Wings (1999)

The youngest act on the list, racking up their sales at an average of 20,000 a week for the past four and a half years. Formula Pop Band 3.0 was the product Louis Walsh made ready for primetime, taking some bog-standard tunes, performing them in an adequate but uninspiring manner, and somehow convincing the record-buying public that they were the greatest thing since sliced bread, time after time. Canny marketing ensured the five-piece hit the top with their first seven releases, but all their original ideas had been used up after just six months. The Dodgy Covers Album? That'll be all of them, so it will.

43 Shadows (4,793,537)
Biggest / best known: Apache (1962)

Not just Cliff's backing band, the group came, saw, played guitar, then politely disbanded just after the height of their success. The Shads are one of the very few groups recognisable from just a few bars of their music.

42 Everly Brothers (4,827,957)
Biggest: All I Have To Do Is Dream / Claudette (1960)
Best known: Bye Bye Love (1958)

Between Sinatra and the Beatles came the original rock 'n' roll stars, and none were bigger than Phil and Don. The brothers Everly hit it big with their perfect harmonies and perfect pop songs, then split - live, on stage - just after the height of their success.

41 Duran Duran (4,846,531)
Biggest: The Reflex (1984)
Best known: Rio (1983)

MTV owes them, big time. If it wasn't for Duran Duran, the fledgling music channel wouldn't have had such a good clip library, and would have struggled far more. The group broke through in 1981, were the biggest thing in pop for eighteen months up to summer 84, and continued breaking ground into the 90s, only losing the plot with the Dodgy Covers Album in 1995. The group split just after the peak of its career (is anyone spotting a pattern here?) into Arcadia and The Power Station, not reuniting until last year. Even in the late 80s nadir, Duran Duran were making some brilliant pop music.

40 Wet Wet Wet (4,877,328)
Biggest: Love Is All Around (1994)
Best known: Sweet Little Mystery (1987)

It's fair to say the Wets career was a jumble of contradictions. Their public image glided from toothsome, polite pop stars to toothsome, polite lounge singers over their ten years in the public eye. The group's songs showed evidence of biting social commentary (1987 debut Wishing I Was Lucky) and the most wonderful soul (1990's Hold Back The River). However, their biggest hits came from cover versions (the Troggs cover, and 1988's chart-topping With A Little Help From My Friends) and drippy ballads (Goodnight Girl) that were atypical of their career. The group released their greatest hits package at the end of 1993, had The Massive Hit the following summer, and didn't do much of note afterwards. Marti Pellow split the band in 97, and perhaps a reunion isn't too far off.

39 Phil Collins (4,889,059)
Biggest: Against All Odds (1984)
Best known: You Can't Hurry Love (1983)

The Genesis drummer and singer kept his fans guessing through the 80s with a wide variety of projects, from the Buster motion picture to the polyplatinum No Jacket Required album and two Genesis projects. Though he's continued to record to the present day, over two thirds of Phil's sales came in the 80s. Er... what else is there to say? Nothing.

38 Pet Shop Boys (4,913,655)
Biggest: Always On My Mind (1987)
Best known: It's A Sin (1987)

Now this is very, very pleasing. Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe have been going for almost 20 years, and they've been plugging along to a disparate and devoted fanbase since the early 90s with not much to show for it. The Boys' glory days came with four chart-topping singles in the mid-80s, since when they've carved out a niche entirely of their own. 1991's singles collection showed just how versatile the group was, while last year's second singles collection explored how the sound had developed over the years. Yes, I've bought PSB singles: Go West and Se a Vida e.

37 Bert Bills (4,973,227)
Biggest / best known Angels / Walk This Sleigh (1997)

The exhibitionist from Take That made his solo debut with a George Michael cover in summer 96, and didn't follow it up for nine months. His third single fell short of the top ten, and pop's dumper and an appearance on Celebrity Big Brother 2 five years down the line beckoned. However, Guy Chambers came up with a masterpiece of a single, one that would cement Bert's place in pop's canon. Angels / Walk This Sleigh (yes, it was originally a double-A side) won BPI awards and the undying affection of radio programmers. Since then, Bert's stuck to a narrow formula, not chancing to do anything different. He's very successful and very good at what he does, but I can't help think that his records are the audio equivalent of Friends - there are only a few plots around which each revolves. Or, to put it another way, he's done nothing truly original since the 1999 North American "breakthrough" album The Ego Has Landed, a compilation of his first two UK releases. Bert has yet to break North America in any meaningful sense.

36 Frankie Goes To The Bank (5,008,067)
Biggest / best known: Relax (1983)

In the final analysis, Frankie were the ultimate flash-in-the-pan, pop-will-eat-itself group. Sold squillions of records on the back of *that* Radio 1 ban, then by clever dint of releasing a new format of Two Tribes every three weeks and flogging themselves to death. By the time the album came out, just eleven months after they'd first appeared, the UK was already beginning to tire of the band. Their second album, Liverpool couldn't possibly follow the pace they'd set themselves, and the band split in 1987. Canny marketing has repromoted the limited ouvre to death, with greatest hits packages in 1993 and 1999, accompanied by re-releases of all the favourite singles.

35 The Jam (5,094,055)
Biggest / best known: Going Underground (1980)

The Jam owed a lot to the punk movement, and contributed even more off their own bat. Another brief but passionate career, Paul Weller and his group broke through in 1978, and swiftly rose to be regular visitors to the top of the charts. The group split at the start of 1983, at the peak of their popularity. In retrospect, that was the right thing to do, as The Jam has become one of the quintissential early 80s English groups.

34 Adam and the Ants (5,296,965)
Biggest: Stand And Deliver (1981)
Best Known: Prince Charming (1981)

Another flash in the pan group from the early 80s, Stuart Goddard and his band drew their influences from African drumming, Native American dress, and good old English snarling. While the Jam appealed to the angry young man demographic, Adam was quite happy to play to a wider audience. He took solo billing from 1982, yielding Biggest Thing In Pop to Duran Duran, and rather disappeared after his Live Aid performance went down in infamy. The only hits collection, in 1993, didn't see a single re-release.

33 Wham! (5,298,431)
Biggest: Last Christmas (1984)
Best known: Wake Me Up Before You Go Go (1984)

If Adam Ant played to all ages, George and Andrew targetted the young female market, and did so with aplomb. They may have started out by going after all demographics - 1983's Wham Rap surely leans male - but they soon found their place as the Biggest Band In Pop. Only the Band Aid single - on which they performed - stopped the group from ending their career with five number one singles. Even though they weren't recording in early 1985, a tour of China, and then breaking the US, kept the duo in the public eye, and they bowed out in summer 1986 with a sell-out concert at Wembley. That's both their epitaph and their defining moment.

32 Diana Ross (5,326,780)
Biggest: I'm Still Waiting (1970)
Best known: Chain Reaction (1986)

The soul sensation rose through the ranks of the Supremes during the 60s, before casting aside her backing group at the end of the decade to fly solo. Never exactly the most fashionable act, Diana still managed to keep the hits rolling until the late 90s. This position is as much a testament to her longevity as her fanbase.

31 Madness (5,564,459)
Biggest / best known: House of Fun (1982)

The other quintissential early 80s English group, Madness wrote some witty, erudite jazz-funk numbers, ably sung by personable frontman Suggs. After a swift rise through the 2-Tone and ska scene in the early 80s, the group slowly lost their fanbase to age. Their later work was more contemplative - Yesterday's Men a particular classic - but the group split in late 1986. They reformed for some concerts in 1992, and have got together most years since. Only in 1999 did they try to record a new album, and singles Lovestruck and Johnny the Horse provide a neat encapsulation of everything that was good about Madness. They're welcome in my collection.

Before picking up the story, an estimate of the next acts to challenge the list. Britney Spears debuted 11 weeks before Pestside, and has sold at least 3.5 million singles. With a fair wind and continued career progression, she'll be challenging the 4.5 million mark by the end of next year.
Pop Idle winner Willy Oung started by selling 1.1 million in a week, but has slowed since. By the end of last year - barely 97 weeks into his career - Willy had sold around 2.6 million, and he could challenge this list in around two years.
Eminem, another 1999 debutant, has been the second most-charted act of the past five years. His popularity hasn't translated into explosive sales, his total is just over 2 million, and he needs to remain popular for at least five more years to threaten the list.