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Oddest #1 Albums

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    #26
    Originally posted by DPDPDPDP View Post
    My Dad had a Slim Whitman LP which had a song called "Happy Anniversary" on it. I always remember him playing this song every year on their wedding anniversary.

    Jim Reeves was a big favourite of my mum.
    There, bet you're glad to know that.
    We are, DPx4, rest assured

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      #27
      Enigma’s MCMXC AD in the UK roundabout 1990 (obviously)

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        #28
        Hah, I've got the feeling it actually topped the charts in early 1991!


        ...yep, late January of MCMXCI: https://www.officialcharts.com/chart...19910120/7502/


        Also in the Top Ten that week, I notice, was the Three Tenors' In Concert album, which had spent five weeks at the summit the previous autumn. That January was in the middle of a 13-month window where Luciano Pavarotti spent 11 weeks at Number One with three different albums, which would have seemed extraordinary a year earlier – but thanks to the 'Nessun Dorma effect' arising from Italia '90 he (and to a somewhat lesser extent José Carreras and Plácido Domingo) had a colossal explosion in crossover popularity. I can't think of any other classical albums actually topping the pop charts, off the top of my head, though I stand to be corrected...

        Edit: Actually, has André Rieu managed it? He's had loads of huge-selling crossover albums, which again is pretty odd on the surface of things.
        Last edited by Various Artist; 13-10-2018, 21:36.

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          #29
          Not quite, it turns out: nine Top 10s for Rieu, including two No.2s and three No.4s, but no Number Ones.

          Il Divo had three Number Ones in 2004-8, though they were obviously specifically marketed as a classical-crossover 'boy band', so I'm arbitrarily ruling them out on those possibly spurious grounds.

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            #30
            Originally posted by Various Artist View Post
            Hah, I've got the feeling it actually topped the charts in early 1991!


            ...yep, late January of MCMXCI: https://www.officialcharts.com/chart...19910120/7502/
            Slightly less unexpected after Sadeness had been a #1 single of course but yes, still odd. Although that whole New Age thing did become quite popular in the early 90s, Enigma were quite an extreme example of it.

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              #31
              Happy Anniversary went Top 20 in 1974, allowing the moustachioed Mr Whitman a brief moment alongside Sparks, Slade, Queen and The Wombles. He and (the admittedly great) Jim Reeves were the easy-listening C&W staples of the middle-classes back then. And Don Williams. And that bloke who did The Crystal Chandelier.

              Originally posted by MsD View Post
              Ian Brown is a popstar in my eyes.
              He might be, but his name 'isn't'. That was my only point.

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                #32
                The Royal Wedding went No. 1 in August 1981, only six weeks after No Sleep Til Hammersmith by Motorhead.

                1976-1977 was very odd, due to TV advertised No. 1s: Burt Weedon, Muppets, Connie Francis, Slim Whitman.

                https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...s_of_the_1970s
                Last edited by Satchmo Distel; 14-10-2018, 12:01.

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                  #33
                  I'd completely forgotten Carter USM's week at number one in 1992.

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                    #34
                    [QUOTE=Jah Womble;1483028] And that bloke who did The Crystal Chandelier.



                    Charley Pride whose selling point was/is that he's a black C&W singer. Still recording today, in his heyday he was RCA's biggest act since Elvis Presley.

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                      #35
                      My late grandma was a bit of an old racist, to be honest, but she loved Johnny Mathis and Charley Pride.

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                        #36
                        Because they "knew their place"?

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                          #37
                          [QUOTE=wittoner;1483302]
                          Originally posted by Jah Womble View Post
                          And that bloke who did The Crystal Chandelier.



                          Charley Pride whose selling point was/is that he's a black C&W singer. Still recording today, in his heyday he was RCA's biggest act since Elvis Presley.
                          Had to Google, but I think it's the older Carl Belew version that I remember - it was on a jukebox at one my local college pubs that was equally-frequented by elderly Mackeson-drinking ladies and snakebitey-goth students.

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                            #38
                            Carter USM a tremendous shout.

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                              #39
                              The Farm scoring a number one album (Spartacus, 1991) still feels odd to me - although it was on the back of two Top Ten singles.

                              Ditto The Boo Radleys (Wake Up!, 1995), albeit to a somewhat lesser extent.

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                                #40
                                The Boo Radleys rode the Britpop Bubble to get that number one, didn't they.

                                Ah, Britpop, those were the days... when even Mansun got to number 1 (as referenced on page 1 of the thread)

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                                  #41
                                  Apologies if Jah has already noted this, but I think this thread highlights that such albums could not make No.1 today. Their front-loaded sales would be overtaken by the artificial counting of downloads and streams from Drake, Sheeran, Greatest Showman, etc.

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                                    #42
                                    Ah, jeez. Now I'm getting all nostalgic for early '90s Madchester and shit-pop stuff: The Farm, Carter, Carpets, Charlatans, etc.

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                                      #43
                                      Originally posted by Patrick Thistle View Post
                                      The Boo Radleys rode the Britpop Bubble to get that number one, didn't they.
                                      I've heard that elsewhere, but think it's a shade unfair. Okay, it's undeniable that Wake Up Boo! had been the band's most commercial single to date (and had been all over the radio that spring), however, its poppy tune concealed quite a dark lyric and the remainder of the album was not that far-removed from what had been on 1993's Giant Steps. By the next, C'mon Kids, the UK pop brigade had pretty much decided that the Boo Radleys were not for them - and the final, Kingsize, barely did any trade at all by comparison.

                                      Originally posted by Satchmo Distel View Post
                                      Apologies if Jah has already noted this, but I think this thread highlights that such albums could not make No.1 today.
                                      I've certainly noted similar on other threads, that's for sure. (Sorry, it's something of a bugbear of mine!)

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                                        #44
                                        Welcome To The Pleasuredome.

                                        How did that get past the censors? "Krisco Kisses" indeed!?

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                                          #45
                                          I'll be honest, I had no idea at all what that meant at the time.

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                                            #46
                                            Originally posted by Jah Womble View Post
                                            By the next, C'mon Kids, the UK pop brigade had pretty much decided that the Boo Radleys were not for them
                                            Doesn't that kind of prove my point though. I doubt they'd have ever got noticed but for Britpop. And at the time the MM and NME consensus was 'Wake up Boo' was them trying to go commercial.

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                                              #47
                                              People - especially hacks - said it, but I don't see that WUB! (or the album) were that far-removed from what the band had been about previously. They were always melodic, not to mention a little eccentric.

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