Britain’s forgotten No 1s revealed — from Vera Lynn to Crazy Frog
It’s a fate that has befallen many a number one hit. It go from seeming inescapable at every turn to falling off the airwaves in a matter of months; the soaring success sent into obscurity.
Now, however, these dead hits are being brought back to the nation’s ears once more, driven by a series of new specialist radio stations.
Analysis by The Times of national and local radio stations shows that there are dozens of UK No 1s from 1952 onwards that were unplayed or had play counts in single figures in 2023.
Among those being ignored by radio DJs are songs by Vera Lynn and Seventies rockers Mungo Jerry. However they are among the artists whose songs are making a comeback on stations including Boom Radio, sometimes reaching tens of thousands of listeners.
According to data compiled by Radiomonitor there were 44 unplayed No 1s in 2013, excluding figures from community radio stations. They include Girlfriend, by the singer-turned-actress Billie Piper, You Said No by the boy band Busted and the Crazy Frog version of Axel F, an Eighties hit reimagined as eurodance to capitalise on the 2005 ringtone craze.
In 2023 the number of hits with zero plays fell to 12, mostly No 1s from the 1950s. Boom Radio, founded in 2021 to appeal to the baby boomer generation, is one of many new stations breathing life into forgotten chart-toppers.
David Lloyd, who founded Boom with Paul Robey, said that veteran pop stars including Tony Christie and Suzi Quatro had got in touch to thank them for reviving their old hits.
Another grateful star is Lena Martell, who reached No 1 in 1979 with One Day at a Time. In 2013 it was played 75 times. Last year its play count was more than 150.
“When we started as a newcomer, we needed to carve out a distinctiveness that triggered the memories of our audience,” Lloyd said. “It’s lovely to hear a song that sounds like a rediscovery — something you listened to when you were getting ready to go out.
“In an algorithm-fuelled world, you only get more of what you know. What we’ve done is broken that with human intervention.”
Robey looks out for lost hits when he chooses the playlists with the help of veteran DJs such as Simon Bates and Roger Day. “A lot of these No 1 haven’t been played on the radio. They’re not considered good quality. But they were certainly bought in large figures in the 1960s.”
Cheesy FM, an internet radio station based in Manchester, is restoring the fame of songs such as It’s Chico Time, a justly forgotten hit by the 2006 X Factor contestant Chico. His song rose from nine plays in 2013 to 107 in 2023, a third of which were on Cheesy FM.
Other artists have benefited from a new wave of LGBT stations. Melanie C, the former Spice Girl, had a number one hit with I Turn to You in 2000 but in 2010 it was played three times, all by the British Forces Broadcasting Service. In 2023 the song was played 1,885 times by stations including Hits Radio Pride and Glitterbeam.
Some songs seem to be beyond rescue. Mungo Jerry, the British band best known for In the Summertime, got no plays in 2023 for their 1971 hit Baby Jump, possibly because its sexually aggressive lyrics include: “I dream that I was Humbert and she was Lolita.” This did not, however, prevent 21 community radio stations from playing it.
TV talent show contestants are most likely to have their hits forgotten.
Hear’Say (Popstars, 2001), David Sneddon (Fame Academy, 2002) and Sam & Mark (Pop Idol, 2004) all had No 1s with zero plays in 2013. Michelle McManus (Pop Idol, 2003) managed 31 plays, all on small radio stations.
All of them were promised instant fame, only to find that it evaporated just as quickly. All of them are now making small comebacks on the radio — although some, such as Hear’Say’s Myleene Klass, have moved on to bigger and better things. Sneddon’s Stop Living the Lie received 272 plays in 2023, three quarters of them on the Cornish station Rewind Radio.
Other artists have been shunned because of child sex offences. Gary Glitter had three No 1 in 1973 and 1974, which collectively received a single play in 2023 when the Bristol-based Base Radio broadcast I Love You Love Me Love. There were similar drops in popularity for Rolf Harris and R Kelly.
At the other end of the scale, there have been revivals for Shirley Bassey’s As I Love You, which rose from zero to 157 between 2013 and 2023, as well as the novelty acts Jive Bunny and Mr Blobby.
One of the biggest comebacks was by the Dutch Eurodance group Vengaboys, whose 1998 hit Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom! was played once in 2010, 96 times in 2013 and 2,553 times in 2023. The revival was largely thanks to the Bauer group, whose Northern Irish station Cool Old Skool played it 896 times to a presumably baffled audience.
There is still hope for artists forgotten by the DJs, however: the Crazy Frog has 2.1 million monthly listeners on Spotify worldwide and the newest track in its name, Funny Song, has attracted 39 million views on YouTube since its release in November.
What’s your favourite forgotten hit? Tell us in the comments below.