How to Make a Number One Record

MUSIC: (Call Me) Number One by The Tremeloes

This programme contains some strong language

Even in the 21st century,

a number one hit single remains an almost mythical achievement.

As we take a musical journey through six decades of UK number ones,

we meet the people who have had them, written them,

and those who've helped them reach the ultimate number one spot.

The number one record is what you hope for.

It's what you used to stand in your bedroom with your cricket bat

or your tennis racket pretending to be a rock and roller. Fantastic.

-Enjoyed it, wonderful.

-I'm in. I'm in the in crowd now.

I'm one of the exalted.

The idea of having a number one is ludicrous,

but when it actually happens, it's even more ludicrous.

We discover the role played by art, science, chance and manipulation,

and are there any short cuts or tried and tested routes

to reach the pinnacle of pop?

Good-lookingness of a singer, if you're talking about a straightforward pop song.

There is a science to it. You can feel it.

We would normally give 15 seconds for the first listen of a new song.

You've got Top Of The Pops,

you can more or less guarantee you've got a hit.

You've got to make sure that everybody within a seven-day period

goes out and buys that record and sells more than the next one.

All will be revealed as we uncover how to make a number one single.

# Here in my heart... #

The first artist to discover the route to a number one single

was Al Martino with his recording of Here In My Heart.

It was pre-rock and roll. I mean, it wasn't...

You know, Elvis had yet to put on his Blue Suede Shoes,

and nothing had really broken out

that was appealing to the teen audience.

What was it about Here In My Heart

that captured the public's imagination

and made it the first of what are now almost 1,300 UK number ones?

Well, Here In My Heart, it was a terrific vocal by Al Martino,

and it was at a time

when people used to live a lyric.

They used to hang on every word.

The NME started the chart in November 1952.

It was only a top 12 then.

And I think it was compiled from about a dozen different shops.

It was like a tiny, tiny proportion of the record shops in Britain they asked. You didn't have to

knock anybody off number one, because there wasn't a chart

the week before. It didn't exist.

# One, two, three o'clock, four o'clock, rock... #

One of the tried and tested routes to the number one spot,

that began in the '50s and continues to this day,

is having your song used in a hit movie.

Bill Haley was the first rock and roll artist

to reap the benefits of this, when Rock Around The Clock

was featured in the film Blackboard Jungle.

With Rock Around The Clock, it sort of broke rock and roll, as it were.

But I remember it mainly from the film, Blackboard Jungle.

When it was in that movie, it sort of broke really big.

When a film like that appears, you know,

everybody would behave the same way. Everybody would go and see it.

And so everybody would dutifully troop off,

they would go and buy, you know,

buy the record as one.

Another rocker to take the movie route to the top of the charts

was Elvis Presley. Jailhouse Rock became the first record

to enter the charts at number one,

after featuring in the film of the same name.

# You should've heard those knocked out jailbirds sing

# Let's rock

# Everybody, let's rock... #

Elvis never came to Britain. Obviously you'd hear his records

on the radio, you'd see the occasional picture in the paper,

but it was the films that brought him to life.

# Spider Murphy played the tenor saxophone

# Little Joe was blowin' on the slide trombone... #

The choreography on Jailhouse Rock

is just incredible. It's a beautiful thing to look at.

Elvis looks terrific.

The lines... It looks like a piece of modern art.

It's absolutely gorgeous.

How impressive that would have looked - you know,

the biggest rock and roll singer in the world

and this incredible choreographed scene

that really predates all sort of rock videos.

If a song is in a movie, that's, for me,

that's a catapult effect, as long as it's on the button

in terms of it being on that top 40 train,

in terms of what's now and at the moment.

# And I

# Will always love you... #

# I... #

The ability of the movie to help a song reach the number one spot

is something that has continued throughout the history

of the UK singles chart.

The power of a film to sell a tune is huge.

We go into a huge darkened space

and we all look up at a massive great screen -

it's one of the few times when music has our undivided attention.

And it's an immensely seductive thing.

In the '90s, in particular, you've only got to look at

three of the longest-standing number ones there have ever been,

you know - I Will Always Love You by Whitney Houston,

which is from The Bodyguard. (Everything I Do) I Do It For You

by Bryan Adams was from Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves.

# You know it's true

# Everything I do

# I do it for you... #

While I was doing the top 40, Everything I Do, Bryan Adams,

I think it made number one for 16 weeks.

It got a bit boring for me to sort of, you know,

sell the idea that the number one is...

still Bryan Adams.

# No other

# Could give more love... #

Who was still buying Bryan Adams

15 weeks after it had gone to number one?

Who is it that's in their car on a Tuesday morning going,

"Oh, yeah! Yeah, I've heard this 278 times.

"Now's the time to buy it." How does that happen?

# You know I love you

# I always will... #

Along with Love Is All Around by Wet Wet Wet,

which stayed at number one for 15 weeks, these songs would go on

to become three of the biggest selling number ones of all time.

But with many other movie songs falling flat,

what was the magic behind their success?

That's always a good question.

I would like to think, of course,

that it was something in the music.

But then I have to wonder, with that group of songs,

whether it's more a story of how they were promoted

than something in the music itself.

SCREAMING

Meanwhile, back in 1963 on Merseyside,

the rule book for how to have a number one was being rewritten,

and four lads would write their names into the history books

of UK number ones. The name of that group?

Gerry and the Pacemakers.

# How do you do what you do to me?

# I wish I knew

# If I knew how you do it to me

# I'd do it to you... #

When How Do You Do It got to number one, Brian Epstein rang me up,

said, "Gerry, we're number one."

It was fabulous because we were there before The Beatles

made their first number one. So when John, who was my best friend,

was having a go at me, I'd say, "John, shut up.

"We were there first. Clear off."

It's always great. Good fun.

# I like it, I like it

# I like the way you run your fingers through my hair... #

And then we got a song called I Like It, written by Mitch Murray.

So we did I Like It, which went to number one,

so that was two number ones.

And then we decided, "What can we do for our third?"

Cos nobody had ever had three number ones with their first three records.

So I got to the boys that night, and I said, I've got a great ballad -

You'll Never Walk Alone.

# And you'll never walk

# Alone... #

Within a couple of months it was number one,

and the beauty is, that we still have, that we were the first band

to have their first three records at number one.

The Beatles didn't even do that, and I kept reminding them

that we were the first band to do it. Fantastic.

Enjoyed it, wonderful.

And that will stay with me for the rest of my life.

It's hard to think that Gerry and the Pacemakers, for instance,

would have done as well without The Beatles breaking through first.

Once The Beatles broke,

all the record labels in London rushed to Liverpool just thinking

there was going to be a Beatles sound-alike in every club

everywhere they went. And, you know, they weren't wrong.

And they all got signed up,

and quite a few of them became hugely successful.

Gerry and the Pacemakers' first three singles were all number ones,

but the biggest selling single of the '60s

was this record here - She Loves You by The Beatles.

# She says she loves you

# And you know that can't be bad

# She loves you

# And you know you should be glad... #

She Loves You was the second of 17 number ones for the Fab Four.

And they were coming up with these fantastic three-minute songs

with great melodies, catchy lyrics, and it was brilliant.

Unlike Gerry and the Pacemakers, The Beatles wrote their own songs,

pioneering a new route for any group

who harboured aspirations to be number one.

They were the first band to come along that wrote their own songs.

In the past, bands, artists, they'd had songwriters,

mainly had songwriters writing for them. The Tin Pan Alley guys.

For the professional songwriters like Bill Martin

and Phil Coulter, who had reigned before The Beatles,

another road to the top of the charts would open up -

the Eurovision Song Contest.

We didn't think rock and roll.

We didn't think that's the way it's going.

I mean, I'd love to have written Whiter Shade Of Pale.

I'd love to have written Strawberry Fields Forever.

I'd love to have written

If You're Going To San Francisco Put Flowers In Your Hair.

But Puppet will be remembered

as the first one to win Eurovision

for Great Britain.

# I wonder

# If one day that you'll say that you care

# If you say you love me madly I'll gladly be there

# Like a puppet on a string... #

We weren't even...

You know, when they say it wasn't part of the style of the era,

it wasn't even in the middle of the road. It was just a joke.

# Love is just like a merry-go-round

# With all the fun of the fair... #

We were number one all over the world with Puppet On A String.

That was really a magical occasion -

to be top of the Rolling Stones, The Beatles,

Procol Harum, and there was Puppet up there.

It was the most thrilling moment of my life.

Except... Even my four kids,

nothing to do with it, this was better.

This was an incredible feeling, walking about, people said,

"He wrote Puppet On A String."

The songwriters behind the winning Eurovision entry

could almost be guaranteed a number one.

But in 1974, when the competition was held in Brighton,

for the first time ever a band won with a self-written song.

# Waterloo

# I was defeated You won the war... #

ABBA's Waterloo hit the top spot on the UK charts,

and was the first of nine number ones for the Swedish songsters.

But what was the secret of their success?

They were a phenomena. I mean, you had the combination

of two gorgeous girls and two clever songwriters.

And again, it's the song, the hooks, it all worked.

# Friday night and the lights are low

# Looking out for a place to go

# Mm, where they play the right music... #

The girls were amazing singers. Amazing.

I mean, accuracy like no-one else on the planet.

Dancing Queen, I think, is up there with the absolute greats.

And why is it so good? It's pretty silly. The lyrics, fairly silly.

But it's harmonic.

It's harmonic. The chord changes in the chorus are just so brilliant.

That: "Ya-da-da-da da-da..."

The way that melody runs against the chords. It just...

You've got no choice but to feel better when you hear it.

# And when you get the chance

# You are the dancing queen

# Young and sweet, only 17... #

They had a knack within the disco genre

of using harmonies that were ever so slightly different

and a little bit less standard

than what the other acts were doing at the time.

They mastered that balance

between where you need to be conventional -

seems to be structure -

where you need to be slightly unconventional -

seems to be harmony -

and where you really do want to be a bit more creative,

which is the melody.

# Mamma mia

# Here I go again My, my

# How can I resist you?

# Mamma mia... #

ABBA's songwriting genius is universally acknowledged.

But there is another factor to consider.

How much of any record's success

is down to record company marketeers and pluggers?

The idea of plugging is that every record is different,

and you'd have to look at the type of the record and the genre

and the airplay you're likely to get to kind of put a plan together.

But it's still about Radio 1.

I can't remember the last time

I walked into a meeting

and the first thing they didn't want

to talk about was national radio.

# Britain's favourite, Radio 1. #

Good afternoon. It's exactly five o'clock,

and this is Bruno Brookes here in London with the brand-new top 40.

It was every plugger's dream, every record company's dream,

every songwriter's dream,

to get their tracks played on Radio 1 daytime. It's as simple as that.

But, you know, that is determined by about six people

who sit round a table, and if they don't like you,

you ain't going to get played.

They were hugely, hugely powerful.

I think eight of them sat on the playlist committee.

And it was chaired by a woman called Doreen Davies. She was a very...

Always an elegant woman, always had her hair done, always that.

And you look at her and you think, you know, "That's my mum!"

But she was in charge of everything.

We'd have to think of devious ways of trying to, you know,

bring records to the attention of producers.

I remember one occasion,

I sort of paid off a guy who was cleaning the windows outside

a place where the BBC held the playlists, on the fourth floor.

I slipped him a couple of bob, I jumped in the thing

and pulled myself up, threw it in. Anyway, job done, I went off.

Unbeknown to me, I go off,

and I think it was because of the cheek, it went on the playlist.

At the time, it was Radio 1 and Top Of The Pops.

Simple as that.

You get those two - you get Radio 1 A-list at the time,

you've got Top Of The Pops -

you can more or less guarantee you got a hit.

Don't forget, in those days,

you turned on the telly at seven o'clock on a Thursday night

for Top Of The Pops, and 20 million people were watching you.

20 million!

# I won't laugh at you when you boo-hoo-hoo

# Cos I love you

# I can't turn my back on the things you lack

# Cos I love you... #

Luckily for us, we were great on telly.

We came across great on telly.

And so in the pubs the next day, people were talking about us.

Whether love us or hate us, we had an effect every time we went on TV.

And that was a big way to sell records.

Helped in a large part by their appearance on Top Of The Pops,

Slade's third single release, Coz I Luv You,

would become their first ever number one.

And of course, when we got that call

at ten o'clock in the morning that Tuesday morning,

"You're number one on the charts," the buzz is just phenomenal.

But then - the hard work starts, then.

Cos you've had a taste for it, so you want another one.

You don't want to be just one number one,

you want a string of number ones. And that's when it gets hard,

because that innocence that you had

when you'd written your first number one,

you don't know whether you're going to get that magic back again.

# Baby, baby, baby... #

Luckily for us, we had six number one records.

We built up, over a number of years, a solid fanbase.

After we'd had one number one record,

that fanbase gets much, much bigger.

When that happens, you know, you get such a demand for the next record

that you ship out so many records that go over the counter first week

that you're almost guaranteed the number one record.

And three of them went straight to number one the first day of release.

All in the same year,

the three that went to number one first day of release.

Nobody had ever done that before.

Not even The Beatles had done that before.

# ..don't know why any more... #

It was only when The Beatles had built massive popularity

that they could get a record to go

straight in at number one, because

that was quite rare in those days.

Because, you know, they didn't know how to...

The record companies didn't know how to manipulate the charts

in the way that they worked out how to do many, many years later.

As a PR, and as a record label,

the record label's ultimate is to have that number one.

Everybody wanted that number one. It's the prestige.

It's like football. You get the lead championship.

The same thing in a music world, in the music world.

You know, we all wanted to get that number one.

So the way that the chart could be manipulated was that...

When I was doing it it was all about barcodes, and Gallup ran the chart.

And for every single or album sold, there was a laser pen,

and that would be run over the barcode. I don't think I'm going to break any illusions here

to say that every single number, as it was called,

every reading of that barcode, wasn't actually a genuine sale.

And, you know, there were certain projects that you had to

overly promote, and you maybe had some...

you know, some gift vouchers to offer

if a certain single would go top 40.

So there was a lot of that kind of, like,

"Could we get a little deal going on?"

So there was always a bit of a kind of...

There was always a bit of Arthur Daley going on with the whole job.

But manipulation will only get your records so far.

The final choice of what becomes a number one is the public's,

and they can be hard to please.

If the public don't like the record, it won't go to number one.

If they like it, and the conditions are right,

the sales come in over the right span, and everything else...

The planets have aligned, you have a number one record.

Which is one reason you see this rich-gets-richer

phenomenon in popular music,

where you have certain tracks that become incredibly popular

even though there's other music that every formal scientific metric

would say is extremely similar.

And it can be dramatically less popular,

just because it's less popular.

That's the key part of the classic number one experience,

is that sense that you're all moving in lockstep.

You're all doing the same thing.

You're all enjoying that wonderful moment of blessed uniformity.

# Woah-oh-oh-oh... #

The first step on the ladder to the top of the charts

can simply be a great song. The Righteous Brothers' recording

of You've Lost That Loving Feeling

has long been acknowledged as one of the all-time great number ones.

So what are the musical ingredients needed for a potential chart topper?

The melody's got to hit you to pay attention.

Most people don't pay attention to the lyrics.

Most people don't.

Well, I think a lyric is very, very important. It depends on the song.

If it's a ballad, I think it's everything.

# You've lost that loving feeling

# Woah-oh-oh... #

It's the simplicity of the music and the lyrics.

And if there's a bit of love in it, that's nice.

And I think it's the marriage

of great melody, great lyric,

but you have to have

a brilliant artist to sing it.

And the story being told is one that people understand

and have been through and know.

Get all of that together and you're probably in business.

# My friend Stan's got a funny old man

# Oh, yeah

# Oh, yeah... #

As far as Slade were concerned,

a number one record was atmosphere, melody, lyrics,

it was capturing the essence of Slade.

# And from the way you blacked my eye

# I know that you're the reason why... #

It is not too difficult to write a sad ballad.

You put a few minor chords together, you get a sad story

or a love song, and you can probably come up with a decent song.

# My friend Jack's got an ache in his back... #

But to write a happy, uplifting pop-rock record

is very, very difficult. People sort of pooh-pooh it,

but it's not, it's really hard.

Ever since the advent of the UK singles chart,

another short cut to hitting the number one spot

is by winning a talent contest.

This first occurred back in 1953.

# Answer me, lord above

# Just what sin have I been guilty of?

# Tell me how I came to lose my... #

The first person to take this route to the top

was the pride of Kingston upon Hull, David Whitfield.

David Whitfield was the first singer to have a number one

who'd been discovered through a talent show,

which was Opportunity Knocks, It was still only on the radio then.

Well, there's been an awful a lot of talent competitions,

an awful lot of winners, and they've...

A lot of them have got to the top of the hit parade,

but they're what I call sort of one-hit wonders.

And he was always creeping into the hit parade in one way or another,

but never getting to the top again

until this marvellous Cara Mia came on the scene.

And of course, that stayed up there for ten weeks or so.

# Cara mia, why

# Must we say goodbye

# Each time we part

# My heart wants to die... #

He has had a statue erected of him,

and there's a little close, David Whitfield close,

and the people of Hull really loved him.

# Here are my arms

# You alone will share... #

The talent contest route to number one reached its peak

in the 21st century, as TV competitions grew in popularity

and songwriters such as Eg White found themselves in demand

to provide potential number ones.

# I'm here just like I said

# Though it's breaking every rule I've ever made

# My racing heart is just the same

# Why make it strong to break it once again? #

And then this is the pre-chorus, where you lift up a bit.

# And I'd like to say I do

# Give everything to you

# But that can never now be true

# So I say...

# ..think I'd better leave right now

# Before I fall any deeper... #

Pop Idol contestant Will Young topped the charts with this song

for two weeks, and in 2004,

Eg White was awarded the prestigious Ivor Novello

for best song of that year.

The verse, if anything, is rather like that Dolly Parton song,

I'll Always Love You. It's kind of loosely modelled on that.

# So please explain

# Why you're opening up a healing wound again

It really is country music. It's a total country music song.

And when I play it on a guitar, it becomes clear as anything to me.

It's not a pop song, really, it's a country, country song.

# But if I lose the highs at least I'm spared the lows

# Now I tremble in your arms... #

I remember just thinking,

it has to go up like a Mariah Carey song in the chorus.

It just has to go up.

# So I say

# I think I'd better leave right now

# Before I fall any deeper... #

When Leave Right Now hit the top spot on the charts,

it was the 966th song to reside at number one.

# Somebody better show me how... #

Is there a science involved in the writing of a hit song?

# Think I'd better leave right now... #

There is a science to writing a hit song.

The challenge is that it's a sort of implicit knowledge,

that a songwriter has a very good feel for,

but probably struggles to explain to you explicitly.

Yeah, OK, so you're not going to take two minutes

before you get to the chorus, you know? And you're not...

It's unlikely to be under 20 seconds,

you know, to get a build.

But I don't see it as a science.

The scientific state of the art has shown

that relatively longer notes and relatively smaller intervals

seem to make a tune stick in your head

to that obnoxious earworm level.

You've just got to have a great sounding track that's about the right speed

with a singer who can bring the pitch and the words across.

There is a science to it. You can feel it.

Making it explicit is surprisingly difficult to do.

You have to have that impact right away.

It's got to hit you right away.

That's the science. It's nothing to do with the length, or whatever.

The song must hit you.

Look at A Whiter Shade Of Pale.

There's nothing scientific about it,

you've just got to get the attention right away.

# We skipped the light fandango

# And turned cartwheels cross the floor... #

Now one of the things that often makes a number one is people feel

that they've heard it before, whether they have or they haven't.

You know, they feel it's building on some

pre-existing familiarity in their memory.

There are a lot of singles that also include something that

you might have heard before, and don't know what it is.

There might be a resemblance to something else.

And there's some importance in that too,

cos all of this plays on the psyche.

I think that is probably the artistic key

to writing a hit song.

It's finding a balance between being familiar but not too familiar.

And so I think the real art to writing

an extremely catchy song and a number one hit

is finding that balance. Having enough that's familiar

that you draw people in and you make people feel good and safe,

maybe even something that's familiar and makes them feel like

they're part of something bigger,

but then also has something that's a little bit different

and a little bit new.

# I love you

# But I gotta stay true... #

Mercy was a very, you know, sort of

Ray Charles-y kind of blues jam.

It was also such a simple song.

You know, I'd been writing all these songs for years

where I was showing off my songwriting -

"I can do this," you know?

But that song, it just wouldn't...

It would not be anything but what it was.

-# You got me begging you for mercy

-Yeah, yeah, yeah

-# Why won't you release me?

-Yeah, yeah, yeah... #

Mercy gave Duffy and songwriter-producer Steve Booker

their first UK number one.

The song remained at the top of the charts for five weeks in 2008.

You know, a song like Mercy by Duffy,

their ingredients of the production were pretty modern,

but essentially there was like a Dusty Springfield type thing.

There was something about it. Her vocal had this sort of '60s vibe

that you just... It kind of jumped out at you.

And obviously when you've got loads of different kinds of music

on a radio station, those songs are going to resonate

so much more these days.

-# I'm too hot

-Hot damn

# Called a police and a fireman

-# I'm too hot

-Hot damn... #

Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars recently spent seven weeks

at number one with Uptown Funk.

How much of this success is down to the genius

of Mark Ronson's record production?

Production plays a hell of a big part in it.

It's not just words and music,

it's how the whole thing comes together.

I mean, people always talk about great records today,

and that's fine, you know. But I was brought up with...

Well, you could tell a great song by a piano and a vocal.

Nothing else.

It's probably in the last ten years, maybe, that the producers themselves

have kind of stepped away from the desk

and into the limelight as the artist.

Normally they'd be sat there playing around,

and now they're the artists themselves.

# Don't believe me, just watch

# Don't believe me, just watch

-# Hey, hey, hey, oh!

-Stop! #

Songs have... They succeed for different reasons.

Sometimes it's all about the lyrics, it's all about the story.

Sometimes it's about the performer, everybody's just digging,

you know, they're so hot right now.

And other times some songs survive on a groove.

All different aspects of hit songs appeal for different reasons.

But if you hear China In Your Hand as Ronnie and I wrote it,

just with piano and vocal, it still delivers on that very basic

and simple presentation of just piano and vocal.

# It was a theme she had on a scheme he had

# Told in a foreign land

# To take life on earth to the second birth

# And the man was in command

# It was a flight on the wings of a young girl's dreams

# That flew too far away

# Don't push too far, your dreams are china in your hand

# Don't wish too hard because they may come true

# And you can't help them

# You don't know what you might have... #

And then the story of the song,

which was a parable for be careful what you wish for,

your dreams can come true, you can open Pandora's box,

everything comes out and then you can't control it any more.

So I think the story chimed with a lot of people.

I think the video was played on Top Of The Pops.

That was the springboard, and then everything starts to roll.

You get the phone call, you know, it's the call from above, really.

To get Top Of The Pops in those days was just everything.

# Oh, eyes wide

# Like a child in the form of man... #

And when we turned up to do our first Top Of The Pops appearance,

the buzz when we got to the studios was amazing.

"They're here, they're here."

You know, it was fantastic, and they were talking about us.

# Don't push too far, your dreams are china in your hand... #

When China In Your Hand went to number one, it was incredible.

And it stayed there for five weeks. You do think, "I'm in!

"I'm in the in crowd now! I'm one of the exalted," you know.

And it's a remarkable feeling, and I adjusted to it quite quickly.

I think I insisted red carpets were rolled out

and rose petals were thrown wherever I went, you know.

But you do think, "Nope, no-one can take this away, I've achieved it."

And when people say to us,

"Oh, China In Your Hand means so much to me

"because I was doing my A-levels, getting married,

"going through a tough time,"

it's a privilege to be part of their memories.

And if you've come up with a song that does that for other people,

I think that's a lovely position to be in.

We're very flattered that China is that song for some people,

as lots of songs are that song for me.

# Do you really want to hurt me? #

A catchy tune and a lyric that resonates with the public

is a good starting point on the road to a number one.

But, as artists like Boy George realised,

a bit of fashion and fantasy

could also play a crucial role in any march to the top of the charts.

George was very clever.

The thing with Culture Club,

the image was the main factor

in breaking them as a band.

# Karma karma karma karma karma chameleon

# You come and go

# You come and go

# Loving would be easy... #

It was part and parcel the personality

that you were buying into, that they had got something to offer,

other than what was in the groove of the track.

# Don't, don't you want me?

# You know I can't believe it

# When I hear that you won't see me... #

The Human League's Don't You Want Me?

held the number one spot for five weeks in 1981,

further testament to the power of pairing a great song

with a memorable image.

Image was very important in terms of artists

and the visual presentation of an artist was important.

It could be the difference between being number two

or number one, in many ways.

This guy had a choice of appearing on Top Of The Pops or getting married.

Guess what? He got married!

Steve "Silk" Hurley!

What we have learnt on our journey so far

is that getting to number one is dependent to a large part

on radio play, TV exposure,

a great song, and a strong image.

But sometimes a record comes along and makes it

without ticking any of those boxes.

One of these was Jack Your Body by Steve "Silk" Hurley.

Jack Your Body by Steve "Silk" Hurley

just sounded like the most alien record.

It sounded like clattering drums,

this weird, disembodied, processed voice,

which was just saying "jack your body" over and over again.

It's got no real hook, no real melody. It's all about rhythm.

Nothing had sounded like it before.

It basically broke all the rules in the way that

Rock Around The Clock had decades earlier.

# Jack your body

# Jack, jack your body

# Jack your body

# Jack, jack your body... #

It was purely a hit because it was getting played in the clubs

and Radio One wouldn't touch it.

Those clubbers then put it in the chart,

and it became in the public domain.

Radio then couldn't ignore it because it was happening,

they would play it.

And it was, "Who's he?" "Where did that come from?"

But it got to number one.

And again, it's like the question mark, how?

It was down to the ingredients in the track, and familiarity, really.

People hearing it and going, "Oh, yeah, I must get that track."

Or being perceived to be cool by buying that track.

And the terrible sadness is it never sounded as good in your home

as it would sound when you were off your face

in front of 5,000 people in a warehouse somewhere.

# Jack your body

# Jack, jack your body... #

Another way to hit the number one spot

without the need for vocal prowess or a haunting melody

is to tie your song to a major event.

So who better to write the England World Cup song in 1970

than Scotsman Bill Martin and Irishman Phil Coulter(?)

I always had to sell Phil the idea.

When I mentioned doing a football song, he said, "You're mad.

"I'm Irish, you're Scottish,

"and we're writing for the England World Cup squad!".

And I said, "Well, Scotland's not in the World Cup,

"and neither is Ireland!

"Who are we going to write for?"

# Back home, they'll be watching and waiting

# And cheering every move... #

It's actually like an old-fashioned song of the '40s,

"hang out the washing on the Siegfried Line",

or whatever it may be.

And it was so appealing,

and we got the right sound and everything was magic.

That's how you get a number one.

The England World Cup song reached number one on the chart,

but once our boys were knocked out in the quarterfinals,

the game was up for record sales back home.

We were selling 100,000 records a day.

The next day, we could not give them away as ashtrays.

That shows you how fickle the English public were.

They just dropped them like a stone.

And that's why we never wrote another football song again.

We thought, what's the point? None of them...

No other football song has been a great success.

Well, actually you've scored a bit of an own goal there, Bill,

because since 1970 there have been two other football songs

that have walked the hallowed turf at the top of the charts.

# We're singing for England

# England!

# Arrivederci, it's one on one... #

# Three lions on the shirt

# Jules Rimet still gleaming... #

The biggest planned event in the singles buying calendar,

one that does not depend upon the prowess

of the national football team,

and rolls around every year is Christmas.

# Christmas

# Stars coming down... #

It used to be the Holy Grail, Christmas number one.

Everybody went in a record shop at Christmas.

People would come in, you know,

it was like they had to have a certain number of things seasonal.

Mistletoe, tick. Christmas pudding, tick. Number one single, tick.

Got to have that.

Anything in any style, pretty much,

could make a number one at Christmas if it was quirky enough.

# Grandad

# Grandad, you're lovely...

So, you've got Grandad by Clive Dunn.

You know, there was

not a grandad in the United Kingdom that was not bought that record.

You know, the idea that Grandad was going to sit there

on Christmas morning and play it was ridiculous.

# That's what we all think of you... #

Nobody at that time was bringing out Christmas records.

In the past, in the '50s and '60s, there'd been Christmas songs

but not really number one records.

And Jimmy, my co-writer in the band,

one of his relatives said to him,

why don't you ever bring a song out that could be played every year,

like a birthday song or a Christmas song, something like that?

# Are you hanging up a stocking on your wall?

# It's the time that every Santa has a ball... #

I did the lyrics pretty quickly.

I went to the pub one night, got tanked up.

I was staying at my mum and dad's at the time,

and popped back after the pub with a bottle of whisky.

By five o'clock in the morning,

after we'd had a lock-in at the pub, I'd got all the lyrics done.

# So here it is, merry Christmas

# Everybody's having fun

# Look to the future now

# It's only just begun... #

We thought we'd have a hit record with this,

not knowing it was going to be a number one record.

We just couldn't sell them quick enough, we couldn't keep up

with demand, and it was still number one three weeks into January!

It was still selling! In France, it got to number one at Easter!

# Are you hanging up a stocking on your wall? #

42 years, that record has been playing and selling.

No way did we ever think that would happen.

I mean, it's been great for us, it's our pension,

but we could not have predicted it.

# Last Christmas, I gave you my heart, but the very next day... #

Another festive favourite that had all the necessary ingredients

for the number one spot

was Wham's Last Christmas.

At the time of the record's release,

Wham had just enjoyed three successive chart toppers.

We knew that was a number one in the can, because when you hear that,

you know that is such a great record, and such a catchy tune.

George had such a following with Wham at the time.

You know, the ship-out on that record was phenomenal.

Wham's Last Christmas,

it's my favourite Christmas record ever, it's amazing.

The video is...

The video is just so tacky, but brilliant.

That would have been planned six, seven months before Christmas.

The treatment for the video would have been bought in, everything.

As far as we knew, we had it in the bag.

# It doesn't surprise me... #

(Happy Christmas.)

But, for the boys from Wham,

the celebratory champagne was put on ice.

All bets were off when a record was released

in response to an unplanned global event.

# Feed the world... #

'It was just over two weeks ago

'that dozens of the biggest names in British pop music

'gathered together in a backstreet studio in West London.

'Their purpose, to make a record that would go straight to the

'top of the charts, with all proceeds being used to buy food

'and medical supplies for the starving families of Ethiopia.

'They call themselves Band Aid.

'They called their record Do They Know It's Christmas?

'This morning, they reached number one.

'It's the fastest selling record of all time.'

Band Aid was a phenomenon for obvious reasons,

and again, I think that shows

that music placed perfectly well in time

is stronger. It's time and place.

# Let them know it's Christmas time... #

Do They Know It's Christmas,

as well as keeping Wham off the number one spot,

would become the second biggest selling single of all time.

Nobody could predict the tragedy,

but also nobody could have predicted in advance that there'd

be a record coming out of it and that it would be so huge.

Everybody wants to participate,

they want to be part of this big cultural moment,

not just music moment.

# Let them know it's Christmas time

# Feed the world... #

But the biggest selling single of all time

came about because of a tragic event closer to home.

# Goodbye, England's rose

# May you ever grow in our hearts

# You were the grace that placed itself

# Where lives were torn apart... #

That was a unique week in 20th century British history, wasn't it?

You know, the death of Lady Diana.

And so you suddenly got this massive national focus

on looking for a way that they can express their grief.

I think when Diana died, I mean, it is a huge emotional moment.

People wanted to express how they felt, and they bought that record.

Everything went together to make that a number one.

# ..England's greenest hills... #

The promotion is beyond the normal standard promotion.

It's totally across-the-board.

You know, every paper would cover it,

every radio station would play it.

Every shop will stock it. I mean, you ticked every box.

Elton John's re-recorded version of Candle In The Wind

would go onto sell over four million copies in the UK alone,

and, to this day, remains the biggest selling number one ever.

# Every step I'm taking... #

David Whitfield might have been

the first person to top the charts via a talent contest back in 1953,

but he certainly wouldn't be the last,

and, by the start of this century,

young contenders would be taking this tried and tested route

to the summit of the singles chart with predictable regularity.

What happened in the present century

is that we got to see round the back of the machine.

So, if the papers are full of so and so is going to get to number one,

particularly because this bloke with a really annoying face

says it's going to go to number one,

it's natural instinct on the part of the public to go, no it bloody isn't!

And, in 2009, following four years of the Christmas number one

being held by the winners of that year's X Factor,

a section of the public, spurred on by a social media campaign,

decided enough was enough.

I'm going to find something that is as objectionable as possible,

you know.

Something that comes from completely the other side of the spectrum,

and I'm going to buy that, and I don't even like it!

# Killing in the name of...

# Killing in the name of... #

A husband and wife from the deepest,

darkest corner of Essex decided to make a campaign about it,

and they used Facebook and they got everybody to come together

and make a statement against something they didn't much like.

# Fuck you, I won't do what you tell me!

# Fuck you, I won't do what you tell me! #

I knew that the Rage Against the Machine record

was not something that people were going to be sitting

listening to on Christmas Day.

I knew that. I'm not an idiot.

And I knew it also wasn't a personal attack against me.

And...in the first couple of days,

I couldn't really grasp why it was going on,

but then, when I step outside of it now and look back,

it actually made it a historical chart battle.

# There's always gonna be another mountain

# I'm always gonna wanna make it move

# Always gonna be an uphill battle

# Sometimes I'm gonna to have to lose. #

It was an interesting one to see in terms of how you can rally

the British public, and how you can do that online

with no marketing spend, with no posters, with no big adverts.

This was just a Facebook campaign.

Right now, let's find out who is the Christmas number one 2009.

And I was actually told I was number one.

I got a phone call saying congratulations, you are number one.

But I had a funny feeling that I wasn't.

The Christmas number one 2009 is...

CROWD: # Killing in the name of! #

Rage Against The Machine!

At the time, I was a bit like, why me? Rain on my parade, you know.

To be honest, at that point in time, I was still over the moon

that I'd even got a number two, you know.

Now it's time for the final number one of 2009. It is Joe McElderry!

People were like, hang on,

he's got to have his opportunity to have number one.

I don't know whether it was people who'd already bought it

went out and bought it again, but it did get a number one.

I suppose in a way it made me appreciate it a lot more.

# There's always gonna be another mountain

# I'm always gonna wanna make it move

# Always gonna be an uphill battle

# Sometimes you're gonna to have to lo-o-o-ose... #

I think the feeling of having a number one is, for me, anyway,

it wasn't actually about it being number one, it was more like,

wow, think of the amount of people that have heard your song

and know the words to that song.

With it being number one, it gets played all over the radio.

For me, it was like, "God, almost everybody has heard this song",

and that for me was a more insane feeling

than the actual thing of being number one.

Here it is, it's number one on Top Of The Pops,

Way Down, with the great Elvis Presley.

Since the UK singles chart began in 1952,

there have been 17 posthumous number ones.

# Babe, you're getting closer

# The lights are going dim... #

Following his death in 1977,

Elvis Presley returned to the number one spot

after an absence of seven years.

There's a horrible, you know, black joke

that death in the music business is always a very good career move.

Because you're guaranteed loads and loads of attention.

At the time of John Lennon's death in 1980,

he'd never had a solo UK single at number one.

At the time that John Lennon was tragically murdered,

he had a new record out.

Suddenly, that gets loads of attention.

Loads of people feel that they have

to express their genuine grief by going and buying a record.

# Woman

# I can hardly express... #

During the two months following his death,

John topped the charts on three occasions

with three different records.

The gloom was lifted when he was replaced at the top of the charts

by Joe Dolce!

# What's-a matter you? Hey!

# Gotta no respect

# What-a you t'ink you do?

# Why you look-a so sad?

# It's-a not so bad

# It's-a nice-a place

# Ah, shaddap-a you face! #

That's my mamma!

Joe Dolce was supposed to be an Italian,

but wasn't, with this fun record.

It was not my cup of tea, but I had a job to do.

I promoted it and we ended up on Top Of The Pops,

and I'm holding a stick, doing the lyrics with my hand,

and he's singing away, Shaddap You Face.

# Why you look-a so sad... #

Appearing alongside Joe on Top Of The Pops

was Midge Ure and his group Ultravox,

who were stalled at number two with their song Vienna.

Ultravox had a great track out, and I'm looking at the other stage

and Midge is on the stage there,

and I'm saying to myself, I'm awfully sorry, Midge,

honestly, I mean, it's a job, it's a job.

# This means nothing to me

# Oh, Vienna... #

But it just showed you the eclectic taste that the audience had.

They bought more Joe Dolce than they did Ultra.

And the rest is history.

To be beaten to number one by what is clearly a novelty record,

here today, gone tomorrow,

does that make Shaddap You Face a better record than Vienna?

Midge Ure would say absolutely not, but in the public's eyes that

particular week, they preferred Shaddap You Face.

It's as simple as that.

There's nothing wrong with Shaddap You Face!

And the idea that this has kept something off number one

because something else has more of a right to be number one,

it's like saying you've got a right to win the Premier League.

You know, you either win it, or you don't.

Having kept Ultravox off the top spot

means that Joe Dolce is a fully paid up member of the number one club,

something that cannot be said of this guy,

who, despite being the voice of his generation,

has never had a UK number one.

# Oh, my name, it ain't nothing... #

Bob Dylan has never had a number one, but it doesn't surprise me,

because he doesn't really write three-minute pop songs.

He's not the kind of individual

that you could imagine on what was Top Of The Pops.

As it happens, neither have this bunch of Shepherd's Bush ruffians.

# Talking 'bout my generation

# Talking 'bout my generation... #

There's often songs that it's a surprise when someone says to you,

that song never went to number one,

like Chris Difford said, that he's never had a number one,

it's mad, if you think of the amount of hits.

# The Sweeney's doing 90

# Cos they've got the word to go

# To catch a gang of villains

# In a shed up at Heathrow... #

Some people think, "You must have had loads of number ones.

"We heard you on the radio so much, you know."

We had a greatest hits album, and all that stuff,

but no, we've never had a number one.

It's eluded us.

It's confusing because we used to sell like 30,000 singles a day

in those days, and to do that now, if we sold 30,000 singles

we'd be like Mark Ronson, we'd be there all year round.

It's very hard to get a number one anywhere in the world,

particularly in England.

# Born free... #

Despite having written two American number ones,

and winning an Oscar for this song,

Don Black has never occupied pole position in the UK.

Yes, I've had quite a few hits here.

In fact, I have looked at the number one spot.

There are many popular records that have never got to number one.

Huge records of their time,

but because they never quite got to the point

where they were the most popular record of that specific week,

they never got to number one.

One artist who did have a number one was Gnarls Barkley,

and, in March of 2006, history was made when he achieved it

without selling any records.

If that sounds crazy, you better believe it!

# Does that make me crazy?

# Does that make me crazy?

Crazy was the first record that went to number one on downloads alone

and that was a sea change.

The digital revolution has transformed the singles market

and it has transformed the singles chart as well.

These days, you hear a record on the radio,

you can immediately just download it on your phone.

You've got it instantaneously without any thought.

Crazy stayed at the number one spot for nine weeks in 2006,

and was the biggest selling single of that year.

And still, to this day, a record that sounds fresh and exciting.

A game changer record.

# I think you're crazy

# I think you're crazy... #

Our journey has taken us through six decades of number ones,

and, although we've travelled down many different roads

to reach the top spot, one thing is for sure.

It may not be essential,

but if you want your record to bear the hallmarks

of a classic number one, it helps to start with a great song.

It's great to have in your catalogue

a few big hit records, number one records,

that are still getting played 30 or 40 years on.

It...

It's a part of pop history, and it's something you can't buy.

# When your legs don't work like they used to before

# And I can't sweep you off of your feet... #

One song that has all the musical ingredients to be a future classic

is Ed Sheeran's Thinking Out Loud.

# Will your eyes still smile from your cheeks?

# Darling, I will be loving you

# Till we're 70... #

It's just brilliant. It's for ever.

A song like that is not about to go away.

You'll hear it on the radio in 15 years' time.

It will always be current.

#... heart at 23... #

# And I'm thinking about how people fall in love in mysterious ways... #

Sheeran co-wrote Thinking Out Loud with singer songwriter Amy Wadge.

The first time I heard it live was on Jools Holland,

and I went to watch it, and I remember just weeping.

The song would go on to become one of the biggest selling number ones

of the past year.

Is having a number one single still the ultimate dream?

My daughter is seven, and she said to me the other day, "You know,

"your dream has really come true, hasn't it?"

It actually made me quite teary

because I thought, "Yes, it has."

# Take me into your loving arms

# Kiss me under the light of a thousand stars

# Place your head on my beating heart

# I'm thinking out loud

# That maybe we found love right where we are... #

# Do you believe in magic

# In a young girl's heart?

# How the music can free her whenever it starts

# And it's magic

# If the music is groovy

# It makes you feel happy like an old time movie

# I'll tell you about the magic

# And it'll free your soul

# But it's like trying to tell a stranger about rock'n'roll... #