Kylie Minogue’s Official Number 1 Singles’ Sales Revealed!

Next week Kylie releases her 12th studio album, and in this week’s Official Singles Chart she’s eyeing up her 35th Top 10 hit with Into The Blue. To celebrate Kylie’s return to the Official Charts, we count down each of Kylie’s Number 1 singles, from the very first in 1988, all the way up to her most recent in 2003 – in order of sales.

There’s no prizes for guessing what comes out on top, but there could be a few surprises along the way. Here’s Kylie’s lucky lucky lucky seven.

7. Slow (2003)

Coming off the back of Kylie’s million-selling album Fever, Slow was something of a surprise. Veering off from Fever’s energetic modern disco and taking a mean and moody electro direction, Slow saw Kylie at her sensuous best, with a sultry video filmed at the former Olympic aquatics centre in Barcelona. It spent just a week at Number 1 in miserable November – thank goodness for that super sunny video.

SALES: 130,000
WHO SHE BEAT: Kylie saw off competition from Blazin’ Squad’s anthem to playing old cassettes in your Walkman, Flip Reverse and knocked Fatman Scoop’s Be Faithful off the top in the process.
CHART FACT: Slow was kicked off Number 1 by Busted’s Crash The Wedding.

6. Tears On My Pillow (1990)

Kylie managed to do with her second album what she couldn’t with her first: score two Number 1s off it. Although Kylie was enjoying herself as a popstar, she didn’t want to leave acting behind for ever, and so acted in coming of age movie The Delinquents. Notable mainly for Kylie’s quite frankly dreadful hair throughout, and a very tame love scene in the middle, the movie was essential viewing for any hardcore Kylie fan. Tears On My Pillow was a cover of the Little Anthony & The Imperials song from 1958, which had never been a hit in the UK before. The song was also on the Grease soundtrack – it can be hard in the background as the Rydell kids get ready for their dance-off (not Kylie's version, obviously; she was only 10 at the time).

SALES: 260,000
WHO SHE BEAT: Kylie chucked New Kids On The Block’s Hangin’ Tough of the top spot. After just a week at Number 1, Tears On My Pillow was deposed by another blubfest – Sinead O’Connor's Nothing Compares 2 U
CHART FACT: Kylie wouldn’t have a Number 1 after Tears On My Pillow for another ten and a half years! Until…

5. Spinning Around (2000)

If there’s one thing Kylie knows how to pull off, it’s a comeback. After a few years of moderate chart success with singles from two albums Kylie Minogue and Impossible Princess, Kylie decided it was time to turn the pop factor back up to 100 with this breezy, empowering track, co-written by none other than Paula Abdul. Spending a week at Number 1 in July, Spinning Around was Kylie’s first chart-topper in a decade and the perfect song to let everyone know La Minogue was back in business. And there were those famous hotpants, of course…

SALES: 300,000
WHO SHE BEAT: Kylie replaced Black Legend’s Barry White-inspired You See The Trouble With Me and was eventually nudged out of pole position herself by Eminem with The Real Slim Shady.
CHART FACT: The week Kylie went in at Number 1, she beat four other new entries in the Top 10, including Big Reunion stars Damage and, famously, Girl Thing.

EXTRA CHART FACT: If Kylie’s 2010 hit All The Lovers had got to Number 1 – and some say it really, really should’ve done – it would’ve sat right here on her countdown, with almost 370,000 copies sold.

4. Hand On Your Heart (1989)

Kylie mania was in full swing by the time Kylie released her sixth single – the first off her second album Enjoy Yourself. Kylie kept it sweet and simple – no need to mess with the formula that had made her a megastar in just a year. Not yet, anyway. The video saw Kylie in a dazzling array of dresses that all looked rather similar. Well, sometimes, when you like something, you just want one in every colour, don’t you?

SALES: 488,000
WHO SHE BEAT: Hand On Your Heart despatched Bangles’ Eternal Flame off the top spot, seeing off competition from Queen’s I Want It All and London Boys’ Requiem.
CHART FACT: Hand On Your Heart was Kylie’s third Number 1, and the first of four Kylie chart-toppers that would spend just a week at the top.

3. I Should Be So Lucky (1988)

The one where it all began, in the UK at least. Kylie’s very first chart-topper was a phenomenon, leaping from 31 to 16 to Number 2, before finally jumping into pole position. With an arguably iconic video featuring Kylie in her best nightie and looking every inch the girl next door, the bittersweet I Should Be So Lucky was the sun-drenched soundtrack to a grey and dreary February. Kylie distanced herself from the song somewhat a little later in her career, although she did recite some lines from it at the Poetry Olympics in 1996, but she has since embraced her first worldwide hit and has been known to perform it on tour. Lucky lucky lucky us! (That’s quite enough ‘lucky’ puns, thanks – Good Fortune Ed)

SALES: 695,000
WHO SHE BEAT: I Should Be So Lucky made sure Tiffany’s I Think We’re Alone Now tumbled to the ground and right off Number 1. Not far behind was Taylor Dayne’s Tell it To My Heart, which had to settle for telling it to Kylie’s hand instead.
CHART FACT: I Should Be So Lucky kept two records off the top during its five weeks at Number 1: Beat Dis by Bomb The Bass and Rick Astley’s Together Forever.

2. Especially For You (with Jason Donovan) (1989)

It was the duet they said would never happen, but the world demanded it. Although Kylie and Jason were keeping their real-life romance under wraps, the swoonsome pair happily played along with press speculation by recording this devoted duet with accompanying cutesy video. It was released with the Official Christmas Number 1 spot in mind, but veteran rocker Cliff Richard had other ideas – it was his festive ditty Mistletoe And Wine that took the glory. Luckily, Ramsay Street’s hottest duo weren’t to be deterred, and they made it to be the first chart-topper of 1989 and stayed there for three weeks.

SALES: 997,000
WHO SHE BEAT: Especially For You got its own back on Mistletoe And Wine and sent it packing from Number 1, Kylie and Jason also beat Erasure’s Crackers International, keeping it off top for 3 weeks, along with Neneh Cherry’s Buffalo Stance. The song was finally removed from Number 1 by Marc Almond and Gene Pitney's new version of Something's Gotten Hold Of My Heart.
CHART FACT: In 1998, TV presenters Johnny Vaughan and Denise Van Outen covered the track for BBC Children In Need and took it all the way to Number 3.

1. Can’t Get You Out Of My Head (2001)

So we finally get to the big one, and there’s probably very few of you surprised that Kylie’s autumn smash from 2001 landed top of the heap. 2001 and 2002 saw Kylie entering her second imperial phase – Can’t Get You Out Of My Head was a phenomenon, and slammed straight in at Number 1 and held off some serious competition. The track was the lead single from album Fever, which has sold 1.7 million copies in the UK.

SALES: 1.17 million
WHO SHE BEAT: Kylie knocked DJ Otzi’s party classic Hey Baby (Uhh Aah) off Number 1. Other new entries, and having to settle for a week in Kylie’s shadow, were Victoria Beckham’s debut solo single Not Such An Innocent Girl (6), Shaggy’s Luv Me Luv Me (5) and a cover of Michael Jackson’s Smooth Criminal by Alien Ant Farm (3).
CHART FACT: After four weeks at Number 1, Can’t Get You Out Of My Head was finally deposed by Afroman’s Because I Got High. While at the top, Kylie held off Steps’ Chain Reaction; DJ Otzi (again) and Michael Jackson’s comeback single You Rock My World.

What's your favourite Kylie Number 1? And what singles do you think *should* have been Number 1 for Kylie? Tell us on Twitter!