Tuesday, May 13, 2008

It's The Taking Part...

Every book about the UK charts has lists about the artists with the most No.1s, the one hit wonders and the like. But spare a thought for those artists that have released a large number of singles and who have never made the UK Top 10. Funnily enough there are more often than not rock bands. Saxon’s best performing single, And The Band Played On, got to No.12 in 1981. Having already released five singles that failed to crack the ten they took their own words to heart and had another nine records that barely even troubled the Top.30. The Alarm had 16 records none of which got higher than No.17. The Mission had one more non big hit; their best agonisingly got to No.11. Thunder have had eighteen hits, the best of which got to No.18. The most frustrated of all must be AC/DC who had 28 records that failed to reach the Top.10, although they did have 7 that made the Top.20. But all was not lost for Australia’s finest. They had 9 UK Top.10 albums, including the No.1 Back In Black in 1980.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Richard, feel sorry for the poor old Who. Never had a number 1 hit single in all their 45 years.

When Townshend wrote 'I Can See For Miles' in 1966 he thought he'd written a sure-fire number 1. I tend to agree with him - it's the best Who record ever. But it failed to make the grade. Townshend later said "I couldn't believe it. I spat on the British record-buying public!"

Richard Havers said...

Rich I agree; See for miles is just brilliant, so is Pictures of Lily. I'm in Glasgee having my laptop fixed so I can't check what kept see for miles off the top spot.

r morris said...

Didn't I Can See for Miles hit number one in the US? That would be some vindication.

r morris said...

Ooops. Only hit #9 in the US and #10 in Britain. Amazing.