World of Chig   

7.11.05
Number one is number nine

Chig was curious to see where the Goldfrapp single ‘Number One’ would end up in today’s chart. Sadly, it hasn’t become a self-fulfilling prophecy, and ends up scraping into the top ten at number nine, but at least it allows us the opportunity for that seemingly unmathematical but factually correct headline.

Goldfrapp may be Madonna’s current listening pleasure (as she revealed on cd;uk yesterday), but they aren’t the first to try this trick. They were nearly the most successful though. In fact, they are the most successful humans to chart with a song called ‘Number One’, although Milo, Bella, Fizz and Jake arguably had a catchier tune. (Curiously, The Tweenies and Goldfrapp both have dog connections; Goldfrapp’s disturbing ones in video and the Tweenies’ canine chums Doodles and Izzles. Perhaps that’s the secret?)

Here are the chart peaks of all six similarly-titled hits. Note how it took 42 years for any hit with this name to appear. There are none from the start of the singles chart in 1952 until the naughtily-named US boyband in 1994.

05 Number 1 - The Tweenies(Nov 2000)
09 Number One – Goldfrapp (Nov 2005)
27 Number One – EYC (May 1994)
47 Number One – A (April 1998)
58 Number One/The Ritual – Ebony Dubsters (May 2004)
66 Number One – Playgroup (Nov 2001)


· link

Home