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| Slim
Whitman |
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Another important record is how many weeks a record can stay at the top of the
UK charts in a consecutive run (records that go back to the top are excluded
from this section).
This record hasn't changed much over the years. In 1952, the first Number 1, "Here
In My Heart" by Al Martino, topped the UK charts for 9 weeks. This set quite
a difficult record to beat, however in the summer of 1954 David Whitfield broke
the record when "Cara Mia" held on for 10 weeks.
It seemed difficult for a song to stay on longer than Cara Mia, but during the
1950's, songs did manage to stay at the top of the charts for very lengthy periods
of time. Therefore, the following year, US country singer, Slim Whitman held
on to the top for 11 weeks with his only No.1 single, "Rose Marie".
This record remained for 36 years and seemed impossible to beat, but in 1991,
Bryan Adams spent 16 weeks at the top with his hit single, "(Everything
I Do) I Do It For You", the theme song from the movie Robin Hood: Prince
of Thieves.
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| Bryan Adams |
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To date, no-one has beaten this record, but during the 90's there were some
close contenders. In 1992, Whitney Houston spent 10 weeks at the top with the
hit single from her movie, The Bodyguard, I Will Always Love You. In 1994,
the closest contender for most weeks at the top came from Wet Wet Wet's recording
of "Love Is All Around", featured in the movie Four Weddings and
a Funeral, which spent 15 weeks at the top. The charts started transforming
from the mid 90s and songs began spending less time at the top.
In 1998, Cher's "Believe" spent 7 weeks at the top becoming the last
single to spend more than 6 weeks at the top to date. In 2003, the Black Eyed
Peas spent 6 weeks at the top with their smash hit, "Where Is The Love",
and it became the first single to top the UK charts for more than 4 weeks in
the 21st Century. The longest stay at the top since then has been Eamon's "(****
It) I Don't Want You Back", which managed 4 weeks in the spring of 2004.
By looking at the charts recently, it is highly unlikely the record will be
broken anytime soon.
The record for most non consecutive weeks at No.1 is held by Frankie
Laine's "I Believe". In 1953, it spent 9 weeks at No.1, dropped
down for a week, returned to No.1 for 6 weeks, dropped down for a further
week and returned to No.1 a second time for 3 weeks. This totalled its run
at 18 weeks. It is also the only song in history to return to No.1 twice.
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