Countdown Every UK Number 1 single by Scottish acts

[Ome]

1994

Inside – Stiltskin

It was written by Peter Lawlor for the British Levi's advert "Creek". "Inside" is a post-grunge song with lyrics about escaping oppression.

"Inside" was released as a single on 25 April 1994 and spent one week at number one on the UK Singles Chart the following month, becoming the fourth song to top the listing following use in a Levi's advert. It was also a worldwide hit, reaching the top 10 in more than 10 European countries and finding moderate success in Australia, New Zealand, and the United States. The song was used as the music for Sky Sports' coverage of the Scottish Premier League between 1998 and 2002



Ever since a young kid I have always followed the charts and there has been a couple of occasions where I found myself having no knowledge of a song or its peak position, this is one of those.







1994

Love Is All Around - Wet Wet Wet

"Love Is All Around" is a song recorded by English rock band the Troggs, featuring a string quartet and a 'tick tock' sound on percussion, in D-major. It was written by lead singer Reg Presley and was purportedly inspired by a television transmission of the Joy Strings Salvation Army band's "Love That's All Around"

"Love Is All Around" has been covered by numerous artists, including R.E.M., with whom the Troggs subsequently recorded their 1992 comeback album Athens Andover. R.E.M.'s cover was a B-side on their 1991 "Radio Song" single, and they also played it during their first appearance at MTV's Unplugged series that same year. Wet Wet Wet's cover, for the soundtrack to the 1994 film Four Weddings and a Funeral, was an international hit and spent 15 consecutive weeks at number one on the UK Singles Chart.

Richard Curtis approached Wet Wet Wet about recording a cover song to soundtrack his film Four Weddings and a Funeral. The band got to pick between three choices of songs, the other two being "I Will Survive" by Gloria Gaynor and "Can't Smile Without You" by Barry Manilow. Singer Marti Pellow related that the decision to pick "Love is All Around" was an easy choice "because we knew we could make it our own". The song, which has a different introduction from the Troggs' version, was recorded in B flat major on 4 January 1994 and released in April.

Chart performance

On 15 May 1994, "Love Is All Around" entered the UK Singles Chart at number four. After climbing to number two the following week, it finally got to number one on 29 May. It then remained there for 15 weeks, the joint third-longest UK chart reign of all time (beaten only by Frankie Laine's "I Believe" which clocked up 18 weeks at the top during the 1950s and Bryan Adams' song from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You", which was number one for 16 consecutive weeks in 1991) with Drake's "One Dance" which also stayed at the top for 15 weeks in 2016. "Love Is All Around" spent a further 20 weeks in the UK Top 75. Throughout its chart run, some radio stations banned the song, as many listeners were fed up of hearing it for so long. The band themselves eventually took the decision to delete the record from sale, but did not manage to tie with Adams as "Saturday Night" by Whigfield entered straight at the top on 11 September 1994, with Wet Wet Wet dropping to number two..



Reg Presley famously spent some of his songwriting royalties on crop circle research. Pellow also recorded his own version of the song for inclusion on his 2002 album Marti Pellow Sings the Hits of Wet Wet Wet & Smile.



In 2004, Pellow told the Daily Record, "We did everybody's head in the summer of 1994." Nevertheless, Pellow said, "I still think it's a brilliant record. Its strength is its sheer simplicity. Any band would give their eye teeth to have a hit record like that. I'm very proud of it." In 2013, the year that Reg Presley died, "Love Is All Around" was named as the number one song in VH1's The Ultimate Movie Soundtrack: Top 100.



As of February 2021, it has sold 1.91 million copies in the United Kingdom, making it the country's best-selling love ballad of all time (including download and physical sales only), in front of songs including Bryan Adams's chart topping film theme (number 3 with 1.87 million copies sold) and "I Will Always Love You" by Whitney Houston (number 5 with 1.66 million sales)

This was our wedding song back in 1994. We already had a dozen songs that were special to us, but at the time, this song won us over big styley…

 

[Ome]

early Bananarama

I love early Banaramara. I'm very much Jolley & Swain over Stock Aitken and Waterman.


But, I never liked their version of the song and I wasn't a big fan of The Bluebells, preferring 'I'm Falling' to 'Young at Heart', though it did win me round in the end. Bluebells version, not the Bananas.

 

[James from London]

Inside – Stiltskin

'This record seems to be a case where the “manufactured” label – and all its tiresome baggage – is completely deserved. Writer Peter Lawlor put the track together specifically for the Levi’s ad “Creek” (old-timey, women, trousers, bathing hunk, twist ending – it’s a great commercial, I admit). He needed a singer and found Ray Wilson – later Phil Collins’ replacement in Genesis, closing some kind of circle of grudgeful blokiness. It’s Ray’s clench-arsed voice you hear being “broken minded” on “Inside”, but every other instrument is Lawlor.

The result is a spectacularly brazen jacking of grunge tropes ... a gross, shameless, blackly hilarious record. 3/10.'

STILTSKIN – “Inside” | FreakyTrigger

freakytrigger.co.uk

Love Is All Around - Wet Wet Wet

'Here’s a vast generalisation: most good love songs aren’t triumphant. They’re doubting, hoping, fearing, bittersweet somehow – even the most unabashed and delighted have a kind of humility to them, and actually the original “Love Is All Around” is a great example of that. There’s nothing of this in Wet Wet Wet’s reading – Pellow acts the lover as winner, all his ad libs and showy additions meant to point us to the fact that he’s got his girl, his happy ending, his full stop. Curtain up, show’s over.

Obviously this is something a soundtrack single can get away with to some extent. Its emotions don’t have to be earned – they can be outsourced, and a recording as bumptious as “Love Is All Around” can work because it’s a payoff for the film’s narrative. But soundtrack singles should also stand on their own – and stripped of context Wet Wet Wet’s “Love Is All Around” feels overblown and empty. When [Reg] Presley sings that love is all around, he sounds humbled by his sincere discovery of one of the universe’s great principles. When Pellow sings it, he sounds like he means it more tangibly – love is something he’s being showered in, like applause or champagne or confetti or maybe just money. 2/10'

WET WET WET – “Love Is All Around” | FreakyTrigger

freakytrigger.co.uk

 

[Willie Oleson]

Relight My Fire - Take That Ft. Lulu

I like the energetic vibe of TT's It Only Take A Minute Girl - almost as if it was meant to be a 90s song - but Relight My Fire sounds surprisingly dull, and more like doing a coverversion just-because-they-can.
Could It Be Magic wasn't so great either but at least I can appreciate it for its inappropriateness.

 

[James from London]

Relight My Fire sounds surprisingly dull, and more like doing a coverversion just-because-they-can.

I like it, but it doesn't quite hit the spot the way the original does. I never quite understood why, but this really nails it: Most disco cover versions by pop bands lack vocal chops, but more, they lack urgency – any sense that something is at stake, that these three, four or nine minutes are the singer’s only chance to get a feeling over, rather than one of many opportunities to put on some glitter and a wig.

Could It Be Magic wasn't so great either but at least I can appreciate it for its inappropriateness.

I really like all three versions. Take That's is the sexiest, Donna Summer's in the danciest and Barry Manilow's is the most high-up-where-the-stallion-meets-the-sun euphoric. (Or maybe That's is the danciest and Summer's is the sexiest -- I'd have to listen to them back to back to be sure).

 

[Willie Oleson]

but this really nails it: Most disco cover versions by pop bands lack vocal chops, but more, they lack urgency – any sense that something is at stake

And that is probably the big difference between a cover version of a disco song and a disco/dance cover version of a whatever genre song. The disco remake doesn't require that sense of urgency, although it's nice when that happens anyway.
At the risk of being laughed at, tarred and feathered and banned from the forum altogether I'd say that Santa Esmeralda's DLMBM is even better than the Animals version since that serenade/bollywood timbre suits the woe-is-me feel of the song.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

I really like all three versions.

I hold my hands up to not liking the TT version at all.

Surprisingly, it has nothing to do with my affection for Barry and Donna's versions. At the time of the TT single I had only a passing awareness of Barry's version, and I don't think I even knew about Donna's. I just really disliked (and still do) the arrangement and especially the stacatto, falsetto vocal with its upward inflections.

That said, I have enjoyed some of Take That's live versions. This is up there with my favourites:

Take That's is the sexiest, Donna Summer's in the danciest and Barry Manilow's is the most high-up-where-the-stallion-meets-the-sun euphoric. (Or maybe That's is the danciest and Summer's is the sexiest -- I'd have to listen to them back to back to be sure).

On songs alone I'd go with the latter. For me, TT's sexiness is all in the video (though I suppose the song itself is a little sexy in a cocky, last orders, drunken chat up kind of way), but it is rather foot-tapping. .

The ethereal full-length album version of Donna's has moments of pure sex with the Prelude To Love intro and the ASMR business between the first chorus and second verse:

 

[Willie Oleson]

Inside – Stiltskin

Interesting. Klone Records did a dance cover of this song but I've never found out who had done the original.
It's in the style of Abigail's Smells Like Teen Spirit so it's a case of "love it or hate it".

 

[Barbara Fan]

Inside – Stiltskin - eek, have no recollection of that one either

And got very sick of hearing Love is all around on the radio although Im sure Reg presley wasnt complaining ££££

 

[James from London]

On songs alone I'd go with the latter. For me, TT's sexiness is all in the video (though I suppose the song itself is a little sexy in a cocky, last orders, drunken chat up kind of way), but it is rather foot-tapping. .

The ethereal full-length album version of Donna's has moments of pure sex with the Prelude To Love intro and the ASMR business between the first chorus and second verse:

Yeah, I think I got my sexy and dancey the wrong way round. TT get the dancey points; DS gets the sexy ones.

 

[Ome]

I think I got my sexy and dancey the wrong way round.

It's all too deep for me.

 

[James from London]

It's nice how we've ended up discussing a song that was neither Scottish nor number 1.

 

[Ome]

1996

Knockin' On Heaven's Door – Dunblane

"Knockin' on Heaven's Door" is a song by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, written for the soundtrack of the 1973 film Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. Released as a single two months after the film's premiere, it became a worldwide hit, reaching the Top 10 in several countries.

In 1996 and with the consent of Dylan, Scottish musician Ted Christopher wrote a new verse for "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" in memory of the schoolchildren and teacher killed in the Dunblane school massacre. This has been, according to some sources, one of the few times Dylan has officially authorized anybody to add or change the lyrics to one of his songs.



This version of the song, featuring children from the village singing the chorus with the guitarist and producer of Dylan's album Infidels (1983), Mark Knopfler, was released on December 9 in the United Kingdom and reached No. 1 on the UK and Scottish Singles Charts, as well as No. 6 in Iceland and Ireland. The proceeds went to charities for children. The song was featured on the compilation album Hits 97, where all royalties from the song were given to three charities







2002

Colourblind – Darius

"Colourblind" is the debut single by Scottish singer and Pop Idol runner-up Darius Campbell. It is the first song taken from his debut solo album Dive In.

It was released on 29 July 2002 and reached number 1 in the UK Singles Chart for two weeks.[1] The song has sold 325,000 copies in the UK as stated by the Official UK Charts Company. It also peaked at Number 13 in the Irish Charts.

After turning down an offer of a multimillion-dollar record deal by Pop Idol judge Simon Cowell to sign with his record label, Darius began work on his solo album on which "Colourblind" would be included.

Darius had been working on the song pre-Pop Idol and was originally ignored by Cowell, however, after meeting with Pete Glenister and Deni Lew as well as Steve Lillywhite, the song began to be considered as a possible single.

 

[James from London]

Knockin' On Heaven's Door – Dunblane

'In the 12 years since Band Aid, the charts have hosted a lot of charity singles – more than enough to give you a cynical familiarity with the shape of them. A terrible thing happens; the public is horrified; a number of pop stars make themselves available to help – some selflessly, some perhaps not; a sombre track is found and a dirge of a cover recorded; Number One is reached; the proceeds are (we trust) distributed; the matter is closed, and if any good is done we do not hear about it. The Dunblane single is almost completely different from any of this ...

... “Throw Those Guns Away” [the flip side of the single] ... is an explicitly political charity record – perhaps the most focused political Number One ever. Most charity hits obscure the controversy and political wrangling that comes in tragedy’s wake: not so Dunblane. It is a specific intervention in an ongoing policy debate, a petition as much as a record: all handguns should be banned. Tony Blair adopted that policy, and it was law within six months of New Labour coming to power ...

The only thing it has in common with other charity hits is that the music isn’t any good. For once that doesn’t matter: this is as close to an unmarkable record as I’ll see. It gets an arbitrary number: these songs did the job they set out to, and now I will never play them again. 6/10'

DUNBLANE – “Throw These Guns Away” / “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door” | FreakyTrigger

freakytrigger.co.uk

Colourblind – Darius

'Such was the grip of Pop Idol on the singles-buying imagination that two winners weren’t enough – bronze medalist Darius Danesh got a career too. But “Colourblind” is not just a participation medal. In Darius we see not one but two of the classic reality pop tropes make their appearance. First of all – in his note-strangling debut on the Popstars series, wrestling “Baby One More Time” to the ground like prehistoric man tackling an aurochs, there’s the Freak: the terrible performer armoured in their own self-confidence who we indulge because we want to see what on earth they’ll do next.

'There’s little question that if the public had been given any say in things we’d have seen more from Darius in Popstars. But by the time they got a chance to vote for him and carry him to third place in Pop Idol, he’d reinvented himself to fit the second trope, the Artist: the figure who is Actually Talented but who must yet put themselves through the circus of a singing competition to gain recognition ...

'In general the Freak and the Artist are separate reality-show characters, and compared to the real maestros of each form – Jedward on the one hand, James Arthur on the other – Darius is far milder. But his trope-switching shows the basic linkage between the two ideas – in the sense that both need unusual reserves of self-belief, but also in the role both play in the keyfabe of reality TV. “Colourblind” became a hit partly because it was rejected by Simon Cowell, who decided Darius’ self-penned material didn’t cut it. The Freak and the Artist are both presented as rejections of Cowellism, one via excess, one via authenticity – they are useful parts of the reality show narrative because they preserve the illusion of autonomy, the idea that the story can be disrupted ...

'All of this is a lot more interesting to me than the actual song. “Colourblind” shoots its creative bolt quickly – you get the basic lyrical conceit immediately, and in any case whatever promise and momentum the verses build is frittered by the chorus. The emotional core of the song – D has lots of ambiguous negative feelings about his relationship but can’t sustain them in the face of her smile – just doesn’t fit the treatment he gives it. The sense of the lyric suggests something dark, helpless and conflicted, but Darius, eager to please his crowd now he’s finally got one, belts out a big jolly chorus. (It’s also not clear he knows what colourblindness is.) The arrangers do a creditable job gussying up slim ideas into something listenable, but not for the last time Simon Cowell is right: willpower and good intentions aren’t enough, and even next to “Anyone Of Us” or “Light My Fire”, this is muddled and thin. 4/10'

DARIUS – “Colourblind” | FreakyTrigger

freakytrigger.co.uk

 

[Barbara Fan]

Scotland isnt covering itself in Glory with the last few No 1s

So many great bands Big Country, Average White band, Deacon Blue, Nazareth and not a sniff of a number 1

 

[Willie Oleson]

FT quote: (It’s also not clear he knows what colourblindness is.)

Surely that falls under the catagory of artistic freedom? He's feeling green or yellow but those feelings/colours disappear when he sees/thinks of her.
It's not a bad song at all but the summerish feel (très de rigueur in late 90s/early 00s pop music) makes it sound a little run-of-the-mill.

Did it have strong contenders in those weeks it was #1 ? I mean, if the rest of the list was rubbish then this could have been a very justified best-selling single.

 

[Ome]

2003

Stop Living the Lie - David Sneddon

"Stop Living the Lie" it the debut single of Scottish singer-songwriter David Sneddon, taken from his album Seven Years – Ten Weeks. It was released through Mercury Records on 13 January 2003. During its first week of release, it charted at number one on the UK Singles Chart and reached number five in Ireland. Sneddon performed the song on the BBC's Fame Academy show, which he went on to win in December 2002.

Both the CD and cassette editions featured the radio edit of the song, a cover of Wet Wet Wet's "Goodnight Girl", and an acoustic version of Elton John's "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me", a song he performed live during the Fame Academy final shows.



2004

All This Time – Michelle

"All This Time" is a song written for the winner of the second and final series of Pop Idol in the United Kingdom. The last two acts in the show, Michelle McManus and Mark Rhodes both performed the song in the final: McManus went on to win, and released "All This Time" as her debut single. It reached number one on the UK Singles Chart on 11 January 2004 and remained there for three weeks, later being included on her debut album, The Meaning of Love. Subsequent releases failed to duplicate its success, and McManus was dropped by BMG

 

[Ome]

Did it have strong contenders in those weeks it was #1 ? I mean, if the rest of the list was rubbish then this could have been a very justified best-selling single.

Pos	LW	Title, Artist	Peak Pos	WoC		Chart Facts
1	1	COLOURBLIND DARIUS MERCURY	1	2
2	New	IN MY PLACE COLDPLAY PARLOPHONE	2	1
3	New	LIKE A PRAYER MADHOUSE SERIOUS	3	1
4	2	ANYONE OF US (STUPID MISTAKE) GARETH GATES S	1	5
5	3	BLACK SUITS COMIN' (NOD YA HEAD) WILL SMITH FT TRA-KNOX COLUMBIA	3	2
6	New	I NEED A GIRL/U DON'T HAVE TO CALL P. DIDDY/USHER PUFF DADDY	6	1
7	6	UNDERNEATH YOUR CLOTHES SHAKIRA EPIC	3	8
8	New	GIRL ALL THE BAD GUYS WANT BOWLING FOR SOUP MUSIC FOR NATIONS	8	1
9	5	AUTOMATIC HIGH S CLUB JUNIORS POLYDOR	2	3
10	8	THE LOGICAL SONG SCOOTER SHEFFIELD TUNES	2	9

 

[Willie Oleson]

Haha. All these tracks have been covered or remixed by Almighty records.

 

[James from London]

Stop Living the Lie - David Sneddon

'One possible reason Popstars’ producers risked an unconventional song with Girls Aloud: the show itself had competition. The BBC approached the reality TV era warily, but there was no way the Corporation could stay fully aloof from those kind of viewer numbers. Still, appearances had to be kept up – if the BBC was going to run a talent show, then by jingo it would involve real talent. And, in pop terms, that meant songwriting.

'[This is] a bad song by a beginning songwriter, ponderous and hand-wavey but probably no better or worse than most people’s first efforts. Except Sneddon’s are being pushed into standing as exemplars for Proper Talent and his single is in a situation where it was likely to get to the top however dubiously undercooked it was. This is, ironically, a far worse abuse of the charts than Pop Idol pulled, as there was no pretence Gareth or Will were anything but attractive young fellows singing the song they’d been given, which has been an element in pop since its dawn. Stop living the lie, indeed.

'Sneddon’s fame was quickly academic, but he’s gone on to a successful songwriting career, so I assume he got the basics sorted in the end. In some ways he’s a figure ahead of his time. If you’d asked me in January 2003 which of “Stop Living The Lie” or “Sound Of The Underground” would sound more like British pop in the 2010s, I’d have picked the high street futurism of Girls Aloud over the awkward young singer-songwriter guy. Wrong. 1/10'

DAVID SNEDDON – “Stop Living The Lie” | FreakyTrigger

freakytrigger.co.uk

All This Time – Michelle

Sadly, Popular hasn't reached this one yet!