The Top 40 biggest songs of 2015 on the Official Chart
It dominated the dancefloor throughout the year, so it was only natural Mark Ronson’s Uptown Funk is the biggest song of 2015.
The track, which features Bruno Mars, notched up a combined sales and streaming total of 1.76 million to finish at the top of the 2015 chart. The song’s total combined sales since its release in November 2014 stood at 2.25 million at year-end.
Uptown Funk proved unstoppable throughout the year. As well as spending a total of seven weeks at Number 1, the track logged 39 weeks in the Top 40 before finally exiting in October. View Uptown Funk and the rest of Mark Ronson’s chart history here.
MORE: The Official Top 40 Biggest Albums of 2015 revealed
Ronson fended off competition from several hugely successful tracks to top the year-end chart, which included 17 Number 1s in the total Top 40.
Finishing at Number 2 was OMI’s Cheerleader (Felix Jaehn Remix). The summer smash first entered the Official Singles Chart at Number 96 in January 2015 and steadily scaled the tally for 14 weeks until its April impact date, eventually reaching the summit in May and staying for four consecutive weeks. Cheerleader finished 2015 with a total of 1.52 million across downloads and streaming equivalent sales.
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Taking third place was Hozier’s Take Me To Church with 1.25 million combined sales. The stirring soul-blues track racked up huge sales over the year despite never reaching Number 1, peaking at 2 for four consecutive weeks after a 20-week climb inside the Top 40.
At Number 4 Ellie Goulding’s Love Me Like You Do, from smash hit movie 50 Shades Of Grey, which topped the chart for four weeks – holding Hozier off the top spot for three of them – back in February. By the end of 2015, the song notched up 1.19 million combined sales.
Rounding off the end of year Top 5 was Wiz Khalifa’s See You Again. The Fast & Furious 7 tribute to actor Paul Walker, which topped the Official Singles Chart for two weeks in April, finished close behind Goulding on 1.17 million sales and streams. It was also the first of two entries for the song’s guest star and co-writer Charlie Puth, who placed at 34 with his Meghan Trainor collaboration Marvin Gaye.
MORE: Check out the Official Top 40 biggest songs of 2017
Despite being released little over two months before the end of the year, Adele’s Hello landed in sixth place in the list with 1.12 million combined sales. The track smashed Official Chart records upon its release, being the biggest Number 1 single in three years and setting a new one-week streaming record. View Hello’s full UK chart run here.
Further down the tally, Justin Bieber made four entries in the Top 40, with two falling in the Top 10: What Do You Mean is at 9 with 988,000 combined sales and Sorry finishes at 10, racking up 934,000. His Skillex and Diplo collaboration Where Are U Now came in at 15 on 874,000 chart sales, and his most recent chart-topper Love Yourself is at Number 24, with a total of 719,000.
2015 was an incredible year for Bieber on the Official Chart. Among his many achievements, he scored his first UK Number 1 with What Do You Mean, logging 10 weeks at the top across those three Number 1s, and he became the first living artist to score eight Top 40 entries following the release of album Purpose. See where all his songs and albums have charted in the UK here.
Ed Sheeran landed three entries, with Thinking Out Loud finishing the highest at Number 12, with 917,000 combined sales across the year; Jess Glynne also managed three, led by Hold My Hand at 14 with 876,000 combined sales; and The Weeknd also scored a trio of entries, headed up by Can’t Feel My Face on 778,000 combined sales at 21.
The Official Top 40 Biggest Songs of 2015 appear below. See the full Top 100
1 | UPTOWN FUNK | MARK RONSON FEAT BRUNO MARS |
2 | CHEERLEADER (FELIX JAEHN REMIX) | OMI |
3 | TAKE ME TO CHURCH | HOZIER |
4 | LOVE ME LIKE YOU DO | ELLIE GOULDING |
5 | SEE YOU AGAIN | WIZ KHALIFA FEAT CHARLIE PUTH |
6 | HELLO | ADELE |
7 | LEAN ON | MAJOR LAZER FEAT MO & DJ SNAKE |
8 | HOLD BACK THE RIVER | JAMES BAY |
9 | WHAT DO YOU MEAN | JUSTIN BIEBER |
10 | SORRY | JUSTIN BIEBER |
11 | KING | YEARS & YEARS |
12 | THINKING OUT LOUD | ED SHEERAN |
13 | SUGAR | MAROON 5 |
14 | HOLD MY HAND | JESS GLYNNE |
15 | WHERE ARE U NOW | SKRILLEX & DIPLO/JUSTIN BIEBER |
16 | WANT TO WANT ME | JASON DERULO |
17 | ARE YOU WITH ME | LOST FREQUENCIES |
18 | FOURFIVE SECONDS | RIHANNA/KANYE WEST/MCCARTNEY |
19 | SHUT UP & DANCE | WALK THE MOON |
20 | HOW DEEP IS YOUR LOVE | CALVIN HARRIS & DISCIPLES |
21 | CAN'T FEEL MY FACE | WEEKND |
22 | FIRESTONE | KYGO FEAT CONRAD SEWELL |
23 | TRAP QUEEN | FETTY WAP |
24 | LOVE YOURSELF | JUSTIN BIEBER |
25 | THE HILLS | WEEKND |
26 | EARNED IT | WEEKND |
27 | BLACK MAGIC | LITTLE MIX |
28 | WISH YOU WERE MINE | PHILIP GEORGE |
29 | PHOTOGRAPH | ED SHEERAN |
30 | THE NIGHTS | AVICII |
31 | RUNAWAY (U & I) | GALANTIS |
32 | ELASTIC HEART | SIA |
33 | BLOODSTREAM | ED SHEERAN |
34 | MARVIN GAYE | CHARLIE PUTH FEAT MEGHAN TRAINOR |
35 | UP | OLLY MURS FEAT DEMI LOVATO |
36 | NOT LETTING GO | TINIE TEMPAH FEAT JESS GLYNNE |
37 | SHINE | YEARS & YEARS |
38 | AYO | CHRIS BROWN & TYGA |
39 | DON'T BE SO HARD ON YOURSELF | JESS GLYNNE |
40 | HOTLINE BLING | DRAKE |
©2016 Official Charts Company. All rights reserved.
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The Official Top 100 biggest songs of 2014
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C
Charlemagne
Not a proper guitar rock-n-roll song in the lot. Terrible times we're living in.
T
Tiffany
Hello should totally be number 1
KW
Karen Wong
Ed sheeran, james bay, hozier, avicii, adele<333333 some songs were pretty good imo but some are overrated!
B
Breanna
All of these songs tbh. Except Ed Sheeran
Don Mousseau
Yeah Ed's songs are great. Especially after you hear them 15 million times...
S
sgs
My favorite tune in 2015 was "Lean On" and glad it finished the year in the Top 20 both in the USA (#16) and in the UK (#7).
R
RockGolf
First time in decades (may since the mid-1980s) I can remember where the UK top 10 of the year were all hits in the US and vice versa.
Brian Keith Abengoza
Not James Bay though
I Am A Stegosaurus
That's true actually, I find it surprising Take Me To Church hit 2 in America too. But Hold Back The river deserved to be a US hit.
Mike Auld
"Cheerleader finishes 2015 with a combined sales total of 1.52 million" - I'm guessing it must be pretty near the million sales mark (without streaming) if it hasn't already passed it?
Johnny McVey
It definitely hasn't already sold 1 million, the OCC would've told us otherwise. I would guess that it must be around 900,000
Update: 810,000 proper copies. 190,000 more before it hits 1 million
Mrs. Brooks
Two top-10 hits for JB, and more impressive, three top-15 hits. #Slaying
LM
Lee Moore
Hozier was at #2 for 4 weeks but only 3 were consecutive
I Am A Stegosaurus
True.
Ricardo Assan
Black Magic #27 <3
SB
Steven Bruce
And when gone get album chart year top 100 please
SB
Steven Bruce
When are gone get number 41 to 100 please
Johnny McVey
*When are we gonna?
I Am A Stegosaurus
Good question. That will come up on End Of Year Charts when that's made I guess.
simon_g42
"When are we going to?"
Johnny McVey
What is Lean On's total?
A
Avi
Shame, that for the first time ever, Radio 1 didn't have a show of the Year-End Chart.
Dave Heartman
Why didn't Radio 1 broadcast the end-of-the-year chart this year?
A
Avi
I don't really know, but it seems like they no longer sees the chart as an important show.
simon_g42
The chart they broadcast as the 2014 End Of Year chart was a shambles. It was soon superseded by the proper version. They may have wanted to avoid a repeat of that fiasco.
Secondly, if it was always the intention to publish the chart today, scheduling such a show would have been difficult. They really needed to be able to broadcast it by yesterday evening.
I Am A Stegosaurus
If this really is sales based, it's surprising Four Five Seconds is now 18, though it was 6 a few months ago. Good thing it did drop though.
I Am A Stegosaurus
Not convinced Firestone is 22, but at least there's no Taylor Swift songs being thrown around all over the place.
Official Charts
Hi 3POP, as is mentioned in the article, this is combined sales and streams. We'll be posting separate sales-only and streams-only charts soon.
I Am A Stegosaurus
Oh okay.