Every Official UK Number 1 single by Welsh acts

[Ome]

1983

Total Eclipse of the Heart - Bonnie Tyler

"Total Eclipse of the Heart" is a song recorded by Welsh singer Bonnie Tyler. It was written and produced by Jim Steinman, and released on Tyler's fifth studio album, Faster Than the Speed of Night (1983). The song was released as a single by CBS/Columbia in 1983.

The song became Tyler's biggest career hit, topping the UK Singles Chart, and becoming the fifth-best-selling single in 1983 in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the single spent four weeks at the top of the charts, keeping another Steinman penned song "Making Love Out of Nothing at All" by Air Supply from reaching the top spot (a song Tyler would later cover in 1995), and it was Billboard's number-six song of the year for 1983. The song was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.

Worldwide, the single has sales in excess of 6 million copies and was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for sales of over 1 million copies after its release, updated to platinum in 2001 when the certification threshold changed. In 2015, the song was voted by the British public as the nation's third favourite 1980s number one in a poll for ITV.


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In 2003, Tyler re-recorded "Total Eclipse of the Heart" as a bilingual duet with French singer Kareen Antonn. The new version, titled "Si demain... (Turn Around)", featured French lyrics written by Emmanuel Pribys. It was released on 19 December 2003 by Yanis Records and appeared on Tyler's fourteenth studio album Simply Believe (2004). The song achieved platinum certification in Belgium and France, topping the charts in both countries.

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English singer Nicki French released a hi-NRG remake of "Total Eclipse of the Heart" in 1995, which was also a worldwide hit. It originally peaked at No. 54 on the UK Singles Chart in 1994, but reached No. 5 after being re-issued in 1995. In the United States, French's version peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, behind "Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?" by Bryan Adams and it garnered frequent airplay on AC radio. It enjoyed greater success in Australia, spending four nonconsecutive weeks at No. 2 behind "Here's Johnny!" by Hocus Pocus. Elsewhere, the cover reached number 13 in New Zealand, number 16 in Canada, and peaked within the top 10 of several European countries.

 

[James from London]

Oh Julie - Shakin' Stevens

"The shrill “Oh Julie” ... written by Shaky himself ... is an excellent case study in why doing your own songs is not always a good idea. Julie/truly, baby/maybe, leave/believe – he clunks his way artlessly through the Ladybird Book Of Rhymes and the song’s one-trick melody certainly can’t save it. ... Short as it thankfully is, “Oh Julie” still manages to be one of the most boring number ones going: a painfully perfunctory exercise in the deliberately generic. 2/10"

SHAKIN’ STEVENS – “Oh Julie” | FreakyTrigger

freakytrigger.co.uk

Total Eclipse of the Heart - Bonnie Tyler

"Pop repeats itself first as the sublime then as the ridiculous. “Total Eclipse Of The Heart” – especially when you watch the gauzy video – comes across as a big budget remake of Kate Bush’s “Wuthering Heights”. Pianos, crescendos, abstraction, abjection. But bigger isn’t always better.

"Or isn’t it? Jim Steinman is pomp rock’s master of scale: why settle for a delicate bas-relief when you could have Mount Rushmore every time? The avowed models for his colossal effects are Springsteen (I’m guessing not “Nebraska”) and Spector, but he takes them very much as pencil sketches for the absurd canvases he wants to create. Inevitably, what’s generally missing is heart: Steinman records have mightily entertained me but very rarely thrilled me in the way “Born To Run” or the Christmas Album have. In “Born To Run”, the record is big because the protagonist’s dreams are big. In “Bat Out Of Hell”, the record is big because it can be.

"There’s honour in that, mind you, and when Steinman’s on, he is on. “Total Eclipse Of The Heart” may replace emotion with scale, but at the top end scale is its own emotion. That being “OMG”, and this record’s gasping, OMG, needles-in-the-red moment is when Bonnie shreds herself to pieces on “We’re living in a powder keg and GIVING OFF SPARKS!” before that toweringly preposterous arpeggio and her spent, release-filled “I REALLY NEED YOU TONIGHT!”. And then the planet she’s standing on explodes, or something.

"Actually one of the great things about this monstrous balladosaurus is how even Steinman overreaches himself – the record buckles when it hits its climax and I get the (almost poignant!) impression he wanted it go to even bigger. This despite the fact that for the whole of that climactic verse the track already sounds like Zeus using his thunderbolts to play a drumkit made of atom bombs. Tyler herself does a terrific job in riding this song – even though it wastes the smokier gifts heard on “It’s A Heartache”, most other singers would have simply been jetsam flung into insignificance by the production’s bow wave.

"A grand folly, then – with a title like “Total Eclipse Of The Heart”, how could it not be? – but a very loveable one. I was awfully tempted to write this post in all caps. 8/10"

BONNIE TYLER – “Total Eclipse Of The Heart” | FreakyTrigger

freakytrigger.co.uk

 

[Ome]

1985

Merry Christmas Everyone - Shakin' Stevens

"Merry Christmas Everyone" is a festive song recorded by Welsh singer-songwriter Shakin' Stevens. Written by Bob Heatlie and produced by Dave Edmunds, it is the fourth and to date last number one single for Shakin' Stevens on the UK Singles Chart.

It was released on 25 November 1985 and was Christmas number one for that year. Ever since it has been included in many top-selling Christmas collections and received frequent airplay every Christmas. In 2007, the song re-entered the UK top 30 and reached number 22 on the Christmas chart. This is because downloads are now included in the UK Singles Chart; whereas in past years this would have been impossible unless there was a physical re-release of the song. From 2007 to 2017, the song charted in the UK at peak positions 22, 36, 47, 68, 42, 46, 54, 38, 26, 17 and 10. Originally only in the chart for eight weeks, it has since amassed over 70. In December 2018 it reached No. 9 in the UK chart, its highest position since 1985. In both December 2019 and December 2020, it did even better still, reaching No. 6 in the UK chart on both occasions

"Merry Christmas Everyone" was recorded in 1984. Its original planned release was put back by a year to avoid clashing with the runaway success of Band Aid's charity single "Do They Know It's Christmas?", to which Stevens did not contribute


Cover Version
In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, a supergroup known as the Celebs, which included Laura Tobin, Richard Arnold, Frank Bruno, The X Factor winner Sam Bailey and others, recorded a new rendition of "Merry Christmas Everyone" to raise money for both the Alzheimer's Society and Action for Children. It was released digitally on 11 December 2020, on independent record label Saga Entertainment. The music video debuted exclusively on Good Morning Britain the day before release

 

[Ome]

Fast Forward 12 Years....





1998

If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next - Manic Street Preachers

"If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next" is a song by Welsh alternative rock band Manic Street Preachers. It was released on 24 August 1998, through Epic Records as the first single from their fifth studio album, This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours (1998). The track sold 156,000 copies in its first week and reached number one on the UK Singles Chart in August 1998. Outside the United Kingdom, the song reached number one in Iceland and the top 20 in Norway and Sweden. It became the band's only song to chart in North America, peaking at number 19 on the Canadian RPM Alternative 30 chart.

The song is in the Guinness World Records as the number one single with the longest title without brackets. The song was voted number 20 on Channel 4's "100 Greatest Number One Singles" list. The song was performed at the Concert for Ukraine by the band on 29 March 2022.




Cover Versions

The song was covered by David Usher on his 2003 album Hallucinations. DJ Eric Chase also recorded a cover of the song in December 2009. Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke occasionally sang portions of the song during live performances of "Everything in Its Right Place" during Radiohead's 2001 tour



David Usher

Radiohead

 

[Mel O'Drama]

1998

If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next - Manic Street Preachers

I remember this mainly as the song that began a kind of rivalry with Steps.

One For Sorrow was released on the same date (24th August) and was pipped to the #1 post by If You Tolerate This...

A few weeks later, Steps released their debut album, Step One. The Manics' This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours was released the same week, and once again pushed Steps into the #2 position.

Both groups ended up in a fashionably retro chart battle just last year when the Steps album What The Future Holds Pt. 2 debuted at #2 in the album charts... just 2000 copies behind the Manics' The Ultra Vivid Lament.

 

[Ome]

Both groups ended up in a fashionably retro chart battle just last year when the Steps album What The Future Holds Pt. 2 debuted at #2 in the album charts... just 2000 copies behind the Manics' The Ultra Vivid Lament.

After what you mentioned happened in the 90s, this totally grabbed me. I wonder what went on in the heads of those involved in Steps to lose out again to the same band as before.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

I wonder what went on in the heads of those involved in Steps to lose out again to the same band as before.

I recall there were some friendly teasing tweets exchanged last year, and I think H and Lisa might have said something about being happy that it was still a #1 for Wales.

But yes... I'm sure some of the competition was real. Which group wouldn't want to be top of the charts? And it can only happen this way so many times before it becomes a bit personal.

 

[Ome]

But yes... I'm sure some of the competition was real

I just looked back at the Manics charting history and strangely, their last number one was 1998. They have released 8 studio albums since and none reached number one until this 9th album.

I love all this kind of charty stuff. Again, with having no number one’s since 1998, I wonder if the Steps people thought they could get revenge.


It’s all very fascinating.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

I just looked back at the Manics charting history and strangely, their last number one was 1998.

Gosh - that makes it even more bizarre.

I wonder if the Steps people thought they could get revenge.

Could be. Steps had a few number one albums since their initial clash (one studio album in 1999, plus two compilation albums). Perhaps they felt that put them in a stronger position.

Looking at their discographies, neither group are artists who have streams of #1 albums or singles. They both seem to have memorable Top Five hits. Perhaps this was just one of those weeks where there was a bit less competition from sellout artists and they decided it was their best chance.

It’s all very fascinating.

Agreed. I'm sure there's a heck of a lot of discussion that goes into it and it would be great to be a fly on the wall.

 

[James from London]

Merry Christmas Everyone - Shakin' Stevens

'The Christmas we get, we deserve: sometimes a Christmas song can reveal a group’s nature more than any other formal exercise. Slade’s raucous bacchanal; Wizzard wanting the whole year to be overloaded with tinsel; Wham turning the season into an excuse for soft-focus mirror-gazing – and now Shakey, offering shopworn material in bargain-bin fashion. It’s cheerful – when was he otherwise? – but it’s very, very cheap. The reel-off of rote Xmas imagery is the pop version of a bargain box of Christmas cards – it promises a selection but you know exactly what you’re going to get, the only surprise being quite how nasty all the artwork is.

"'.. Shakey for me is the sound of Christmas shopping, jingling on the tannoy while you cross names off your list and look at the plastic reindeers in the shopping centre diorama. Still part of the experience – but never something you look forward to. 2/10'

SHAKIN’ STEVENS – “Merry Christmas Everyone” | FreakyTrigger

freakytrigger.co.uk

If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next - Manic Street Preachers

'“You can interpret the lyrics,” huffed a Nazi goon caught nicking this song for the BNP’s website, “any way you want.” The specific double meaning of “if I can shoot rabbits, then I can shoot fascists” eludes me, but it’s true enough that the Manic Street Preachers’ lyricists had a taste for the oblique. Simple polemic was rarely their style: on their early records they favoured harsh, dense word-blocks, crushed by the transition to song into something barely singable, their uneasy imagery delivered by James Dean Bradfield as a compressed bark. But for all their rough treatment, the words mattered – for The Holy Bible the band took out double-page ads printing the record’s scorched, self-lacerating lyrics in full. They made records About Things, things number ones only occasionally break bread with: self-harm, depression, the decline of class consciousness. And here, apparently, the Spanish Civil War.

'But one of those things is not like the others. Why on earth make, in 1998, a record about the Spanish Civil War? Old battles had never been the Manics’ territory: they preferred live issues, current problems of culture and psychology. A song praising the Republicans in the Spanish conflict is not addressing a live issue: and, to be honest, there weren’t a lot of obvious 1998 analogies you could make for it. “If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next” is a magnificent title, but tolerate what? What line were the band drawing? Was it all a better-read version of Father Ted’s omniprotest: Down With This Sort Of Thing?

'So I’d like to suggest that something more is going on here, but before digging into what, it’s worth asking how we got to this in the first place. “If You Tolerate This” is a fanbase record, as surely as anything by Boyzone is. The Manics had been the most startling beneficiaries of the post-Oasis interest in British bands, hitting form and accessibility at just the right time for big, gestural rock to succeed. And to be horribly cynical about it, the tragedy of Richey Edwards established their bona fides as a serious band at the same time as his absence meant they could stumble into the mainstream without lyrics like “He’s a boy / You want a girl so cut off his cock” chewing up their column inches. “A Design For Life” was a remarkable single, a band pushed by guilt and circumstance into speaking plainly, seizing their platform and using it. They released it as a group with sympathy and a small, utterly devoted audience: they left it a band with a huge, solid fanbase.

'It made “If You Tolerate This…” – first single off the follow-up album – into a big moment, the kind of release other singles shuffle out the way of. But as is often the case, the fanbase flexed its muscles a record too late. “If You Tolerate This…” has none of the painful confidence of “A Design For Life”. It opens brilliantly – cold, Radiohead-style bursts of treated guitar, pulsing out and back like the respiration of some great, dying machine. But once it gets going and the strings and solos kick off, it’s the band settling into the cement shoes of lugubrious arena rock – footwear they found all too comfortable.

'So while it’s lovely to see them at Number One, what’s initially disappointing is that for the first time in their career, it didn’t feel like the group were over-reaching themselves. That had been a large part of their appeal. The earliest Manics made much of a love for Public Enemy and Guns’n’Roses, but the process they applied to those influences was pure indie pop: make a Quixotic attempt to match your idols with a tenth of their budget and technique, and trust that something inspiring comes out of it. They stood in relation to glam metal as Orange Juice stood to Chic and disco – a doomed, glorious tilt at a form that might end up wonderful in a different way.
Everything Must Go took the same trick and used it for stadium rock – gambling, successfully, that rough-hewn attempts at anthemic rock and thoughtful, sorrowful lyrics would rub well together. But it meant that when “If You Tolerate This…” came out, the surprise had become expectation. The band, inevitably, chortled about “subverting the mainstream”. But the idea of the Manic Street Preachers having a hit with a single about the Spanish Civil War felt right: was, instead, instantly comfortable and appealing enough by itself that the weary reality of it could be shrugged off.

'What redeems the record – lets it wring dignity from tedium – is that this gap between reputation and reality is exactly what the song is wrestling with. The crucial moment in “If You Tolerate This…” is the breakdown before the final chorus – “And on the street tonight an old man prays / With newspaper cuttings of his glory days”. It’s picking up on the “monuments put from pen to paper” part earlier – the way remembrance of heroism, even well-meant remembrance, turns into romance and abandons the messy subjectivity of the lives in question. And even as it acknowledges this, the song has been playing around in that romance – the title slogan, the rabbits quote, the totems of a long-gone, righteous struggle.

'It’s easy to see why this might resonate with the Manic Street Preachers. They had become a group defined by a gap: a vanished friend who was turning into stories and slogans himself. In a season of youth in the charts, “If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next” was less a subversive gesture, more a memento mori from a band that had finally found their place and were settling into a dependable success. Listen to Bradfield’s despairing, exhausted “aaaand” as he slides into the chorus – “If you tolerate this then your children will be next” is a warning, but not an avoidable one. History itself – the process of sorting and discarding, of turning fighters into forgotten men while their words survive – is the “this” that cannot be tolerated. But always is. 7/10'

 

[Ome]

I'm sure there's a heck of a lot of discussion that goes into it and it would be great to be a fly on the wall.

It bothered me (I don't know why I let it bother me, it just did) that Madonna's management team decided to release Rebel Heart on the week following The Brit Awards. I always thought the thought process would be how to achieve another number one, so releasing something the week after the awards show is a gamble definitely not worth getting into. I couldn't decide if it was arrogance or stupid.

Then again, a number one might not be what they want to achieve...

 

[Ome]

2000

The Masses Against the Classes - Manic Street Preachers

Released as a limited-edition single in January 2000. It was a stand-alone single, not featured on any studio album, and was deleted, removed from wholesale supply, on the day of release. Despite being deleted on the day of release, the single peaked at number one on the UK Singles Chart.

The title of the song is derived from a quotation from the 19th-century British Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone ("All the world over, I will back the masses against the classes"). The single begins with a Noam Chomsky quotation and ends with a quotation from Albert Camus. The record sleeve features the Cuban flag albeit without the star, a mark of the band's socialist political ideology. The band later played in Havana, in February 2001, to a sold-out Karl Marx theatre with Fidel Castro in the audience, whom they met when he arrived just thirty minutes before they were due to play

The single sold 76,000 copies in its first week and reached number one on the UK Singles Chart on 16 January 2000, and spent 9 weeks on the chart. It was the first new number one in 2000 and knocked Westlife's "I Have a Dream" / "Seasons in the Sun" off the top spot after four weeks

 

[Ome]

2005

Dakota - Stereophonics

"Dakota" (released in the United States as "Dakota (You Made Me Feel Like the One)") is a song by Welsh alternative rock band Stereophonics. It was the first single taken from their fifth studio album, Language. Sex. Violence. Other?, and was released on 28 February 2005. "Dakota" was the first and to date only Stereophonics single to reach number one and the last to reach the top ten on the UK Singles Chart and to chart on the US Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart. It also became the band's highest-charting single in both Australia and New Zealand. The song has been compared to the works of U2.


"Dakota" was the first Stereophonics single to achieve success on alternative rock radio stations in the United States—where it was promoted as "Dakota (You Made Me Feel Like the One)". After its American release on 21 March 2005, the single steadily gained ground on U.S. alternative rock radio, notably on stations such as WFNX, WBCN and KROQ-FM.

"Dakota" continued to gain support across the U.S. and eventually became the first Stereophonics song to chart on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart. It first charted on 9 July 2005, almost half a year after its original release. The song peaked at number 34 on the chart and remained on the chart for six weeks. It was their first and so far only single to make the chart.

The correct version of "Dakota" was included as the opening track on Stereophonics' first greatest hits compilation album Decade in the Sun.

 

[Ome]

2008


Mercy - Duffy

Co-written by Duffy and Steve Booker and produced by Booker, it was released worldwide in 2008 to critical acclaim and unprecedented chart success. As Duffy's first international release, the song is credited with firmly establishing her career and is now considered her signature song. "Mercy" received comparisons to Duffy's previous single, "Rockferry". Critical reviewers of "Mercy" noted similarities between the song to releases by Aretha Franklin, Dusty Springfield and the Supremes, as well as contemporaries such as fellow British singer Amy Winehouse.

"Mercy" was nominated for several awards in 2008, including the Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance at the 51st Grammy Awards. Well received by the public, "Mercy" peaked at number one on the UK Singles Chart in February 2008, remaining atop the chart for five weeks, and went on to become the third-best-selling single of 2008 in the United Kingdom, with sales of over 500,000 copies in the UK that year. It achieved worldwide chart success, topping the charts in Austria, Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, Norway, Republic of Ireland, Switzerland and Turkey, and peaked within the top five of the charts in Belgium, Denmark, France, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Romania, Spain and Sweden. Duffy attributed the chart success to the fact that "everyone is searching for liberty ... from themselves or from the world they’ve created around them" and "everyone would like to be set free". It is Duffy's best-selling single to date.


Cover Versions

The Fratellis also recorded "Mercy", mixed with the Minder theme tune.

OneRepublic

 

[Ome]

2009

(Barry) Islands in the Stream - Vanessa Jenkins, and Bryn West featuring Tom Jones and Robin Gibb

"Islands in the Stream" is a song written by the Bee Gees.

On March 8, 2009, Welsh actors Ruth Jones and Rob Brydon, in character as Vanessa Jenkins and Bryn West from the hit BBC sitcom Gavin & Stacey, released a version of the song as a single for Comic Relief. Sir Tom Jones also features on the song, performing the final verse and chorus, whilst Robin Gibb appears on the single as a backing vocalist.

Re-titled "(Barry) Islands in the Stream", in reference to the Barry Island setting of Gavin & Stacey, it entered at the top of the UK Singles Chart on March 15, 2009. This meant the Gibb Brothers had achieved number one songs in five successive decades, the first songwriters to achieve this feat. It also made Tom Jones, at the age of 68, the oldest person to have a UK number one song, until the record was taken in 2020 by Captain Tom Moore for his involvement in "You'll Never Walk Alone" at the age of 99.

The video was filmed in Barry Island, Las Vegas and the Nevada desert, with both Gibb and Jones appearing in the video alongside Jones and Brydon. Nigel Lythgoe also makes a cameo appearance as a talent competition judge.

 

[Ome]

2011


Louder - DJ Fresh ft Sian Evans

"Louder" is a song by British producer DJ Fresh. It features vocals from Welsh singer and former Kosheen frontwoman Sian Evans. The song serves as the theme song for the Lucozade Sport Lite campaign. It was released on 3 July 2011 on Ministry of Sound. "Louder" is considered an important landmark for dubstep music as it was the first of the genre to reach number one on the UK Singles Chart. The song was featured on the soundtrack to Studio Liverpool's Wipeout 2048 and used as the promotional theme for Fox8's reality programme Cricket Superstar.

The song debuted at number one on the UK Singles Chart, UK Dance Chart, UK Indie Chart and the Scottish Charts with first week sales in excess of 140,000 copies. In its second week, the single shifted additional 80,000 digital copies. The song also peaked number four on the Irish Singles Chart. As of February 2012, "Louder" had sold 507,659 units in the UK.

 

[Ome]

That's it, we are left waiting to find out what and when the next song from a Welsh act reaches the top of the Singles chart.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

Thanks for such a comprehensive and complete journey, @Ome.

It's been great, and as well as nostalgia there's been some wonderful trivia along the way. Who knows, this thread could mean the difference between winning and losing a pub quiz in years to come.

 

[James from London]

The Masses Against the Classes - Manic Street Preachers

This is a really interesting write-up but I felt I couldn't pull one quote out to do it justice:

MANIC STREET PREACHERS – "The Masses Against The Classes"

[From February 2015] “All over the world I will back the masses against the classes” – William Ewart Gladstone. Hello, it’s us again. Welcome to Popular. Welcome to 21st century pop music, now fifteen years old and dreadfully teenager-ish in its surly refusal[…]

freakytrigger.co.uk

Annoyingly, that's as far as the Number Ones have gotten so far, Welsh-wise.

Thanks for such a comprehensive and complete journey, @Ome.

Seconded. Can't wait for the Irish edition -- all those Westlives!

 

[Ome]

Thanks for such a comprehensive and complete journey

Can't wait for the Irish edition -

As well as this we have

• Every Australian Number 1 ever
• Every Canadian act to hit the Official Singles Chart top spot

And, one I'm looking forward to the most

• Billboard Hot 100 number-ones by British artists

Annoyingly, that's as far as the Number Ones have gotten so far, Welsh-wise.

Damn! I enjoy the little nuggets of info I get from Wiki while doing this, but I get more enjoyment and laughs from your Freaky Trigger extras.