List of one-hit wonders on the UK Albums Chart

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The UK Albums Chart is a weekly record chart based on album sales from Sunday to Saturday in the United Kingdom. It listed only physical album sales until 2007, after which it also included albums sold digitally and streams (the latter included in 2015). [1] The chart is currently compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC) on behalf of the UK music industry, [2] and each week's new number one is first announced by BBC Radio 1 on their weekly chart show. [3]

Contents

The definition of a "one-hit wonder", as given by the reference text The Guinness Book of British Hit Albums , was any act that achieves a number one on the UK Album Chart and no other Top 40 entry. However, when Guinness first published the list in the 1980s the hit albums chart was a Top 100 with compilations included, until being split at the end of 1989 into a Top 75 Hit/Official Albums Chart and Top 20 Hit/Official Compilations Chart, [4] with a Top 200 artist albums chart being available to industry insiders from the 1990s. One hit wonders on the Singles Chart are artists with their number one being also their only Top 75 entry. Since the album chart was first published on 28 July 1956, [5] 20 acts have reached number one and had no other hit albums (Top 75 entries). Artists who have topped the album chart as solo artists but also charted as members of groups are exempted from the main list as well as those with smaller hits (listed separately).

One-hit wonders

ArtistAlbumRecord labelReached number
one (for the week ending)		Weeks at number oneNotesRef.
Freddy Cannon The Explosive Freddy Cannon Top Rank 12 March 19601The first number one album on the Record Retailer chart [6]
Blind Faith Blind Faith Polydor 20 September 19692Although the band Blind Faith had one number-one album and nothing else, each member of the supergroup (including Steve Winwood and Eric Clapton) had further album chart success. [7]
Johnny Hates Jazz Turn Back the Clock Virgin 23 January 19881Follow-up album Tall Stories (with The Cure's Phil Thornalley on vocals) failed to make the Top 75, while a couple of reunion albums in the 21st Century also failed to reach the chart. [8]
The Farm Spartacus Produce16 March 19911Follow-up albums failed to make the Top 75 [9]
Chaka Demus & Pliers Tease Me Mango 29 January 19942Had originally peaked at number 26 in July 1993, before being re-released and topping the chart in January 1994. [10]
Steve Brookstein Heart and Soul Syco 21 May 20051Winner of the 2004 series of The X Factor . Follow-up album 40,000 Things failed to make the Top 75 [11]
Ray Quinn Doing It My Way Syco 24 March 20071Runner-up in the 2006 series of The X Factor Follow-up album Undeniable failed to chart. [12]
The Commonwealth Band Sing Decca 9 June 20123Co-credit with Gary Barlow [13]
Pnau Good Morning to the Night Mercury 28 July 20121Co-credit with Elton John. Pnau have had charting albums in their native country Australia, band member Nick Littlemore has had three albums chart on the UK Album Top 100 with Empire of the Sun [14] [15]
Conor Maynard Contrast Parlophone 11 August 20121Follow-up album Covers failed to make the Top 75. [16]
Jahméne Douglas Love Never Fails RCA 3 August 20131Runner-up in the 2012 series of The X Factor . Follow-up album Unfathomable Phantasmagoria failed to make the Top 75. [17]
Viola Beach Viola Beach Fuller Beans11 August 20161The band's only album was released posthumously, all of the band members having died in a road accident earlier in the year. [18]
Celeste Not Your Muse Polydor 11 February 20211Compilation 1.1, a digital-exclusive re-issue of the EP Lately with extra songs "Coco Blood" and "Strange", reached number 7 on the UK Album Downloads Chart. [19]
Wet Leg Wet Leg Domino 15 April 20221As well as getting an OCC Award for a number one album, this duo were nearly in the running for the Guinness Book of British Hit Singles list of 'Least successful chart acts' (one single at number 75 for one week) as their discography now consists of two singles which have peaks of number 74 and 75, [20] with each single staying on the chart for 1 week each. [21]
Sam Ryder There's Nothing but Space, Man! Parlophone/Warner 22 December 20221Ryder was the entry for the United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest 2022, with his song "Space Man" coming second on 466 points. [22] [23]
Boygenius The Record Interscope 7 April 20231Boygenius is an indie supergroup [24] with the act collectively having two Top 75 album chart hits to their name before releasing The Record. Out of the three members, Phoebe Bridgers [25] has had the most success in the UK chart as a solo artist with Punisher , her second studio album, getting to number 6 in July 2020, while Julien Baker's third album Little Oblivions peaked at number 51 [26] in March 2021. In addition to these solo Top 75 hits, Home Video by the band's third member Lucy Dacus managed a number 85 chart position on the Top 100 in July 2021, but has no solo hits to her name, whether on the singles or albums chart. [27] In addition, The Record also debuted at number one on the Official Charts Company's Irish Albums Chart Top 50, making them a one hit wonder in Ireland as well. [28] [29]
Cian Ducrot Victory Polydor 17 August 20231This album sold the same amount of CDs (10,299) as the number two, Smile by Skindred, and managed to reach the number one spot with a gap of 149 units with Ducrot's 15,668 total sales being made up of 1,413 LPs, 689 cassettes, 1,484 downloads and points from streaming (the 15,519 sales for Skindred was also made up of CDs, digital sales, LPs and cassettes plus 312 USB sticks). However, neither act was at number one in the first released chart update, with People Like Me & You by The Sherlocks at the top and Skindred taking over the top spot for most of the week until the very last day. [30] [31]
Ren Sick Boi The Other Songs26 October 20231This album was placed at number two in the midweek charts with Rick Astley's Are We There Yet? being the number one album for most of the week. As Ren Gill was only 133 sales behind Astley when the update was issued on Wednesday, it was decided that a £4.99 digital version of his album would go on sale on his website on the Thursday, securing 4,533 more sales on the last day of tracking and the number one spot when the Official Albums Chart was released on 20 October 2023. [32] [33] [34] [35] [36]
The Last Dinner Party Prelude to Ecstasy Island 9 February 20241The 2024 Brit Award Rising Star winner sold 32,846 copies, including 14,058 LPs, 10,981 CDs and 1,852 cassettes, to debut at number one. [37] [38]
Chappell Roan The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess Island 15 August 20241This album reached number one, 46 weeks after being released thanks to the release of the Popstar (Clear Coke Bottle) [39] edition, which added 8,591 double vinyl album sales to the weekly total. The album features the Top 40 singles "Hot to Go!" [40] and "Red Wine Supernova" which were at number 15 and number 32 at the time, but not the Top 3 hit "Good Luck, Babe!". [41]

Most recent one-hit wonder to be removed from the list: What a Time to Be Alive by Tom Walker [42] [43] (October 2024)

Artists with a number one album and a smaller Top 75 hit

The Guinness Book of British Hit Albums was first issued in 1983, six years before the Top 75 albums chart hit definition came into being (with a full Top 150 Artist Albums Chart being published for people within the industry at this time). [44] As of January 2022, the OCC still track the number of Top 75 album hits on their website, but make available a Top 100 countdown to the public. The following list includes artists with more than one album chart hit who would have been seen as a one-hit wonder under the Guinness definition of 1983.

Number one albums: One-week wonders

When The Guinness Book of British Hit Albums was last published in the 1990s, the list of 'number one albums with the fewest weeks on the chart' was based on the Top 75, with the shortest chart stay for a number one album being 5 weeks with acts such as Little Angels (with their 1993 album Jam), [56] topping the list. In 2021, a never-to-be-beaten record was set with a number of albums debuting at the top and exiting the Top 75 the next week. In 2023, The Lottery Winners became the first artist to have a number 1 album go from #1 to outside the top 200.

The following is an update to the original 'number one albums with the fewest weeks on the chart' list but only lists those number one hit albums with one week in the Top 75 (as per The Guinness Book of British Hit Albums data):

See also

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References

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  2. ↑ "The Charts We Compile". London: Official Charts Company. 2010. Retrieved 28 June 2011.
  3. ↑ "The Official UK Top 40 Albums Chart". London: BBC Radio 1. 2011. Retrieved 28 June 2011.
  4. ↑ "Who We Are – History of the Official Charts – The Eighties". Official Charts Company.
  5. ↑ Mawer, Sharon (2008). "1956". London: The Official UK Charts Company. Archived from the original on 8 March 2009. Retrieved 28 June 2011.
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  7. ↑ "Blind Faith". London: Official Charts Company. 2010. Retrieved 1 August 2011.
  8. ↑ "Johnny Hates Jazz". London: Official Charts Company. 2010. Retrieved 1 August 2011.
  9. ↑ "Farm". London: Official Charts Company. 2010. Retrieved 1 August 2011.
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  11. ↑ "Steve Brookstein". London: Official Charts Company. 2010. Retrieved 1 August 2011.
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