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Posthumous chart challengers
Rock & roll pioneer Buddy Holly became the first artist to score a posthumous UK Number 1 single when It Doesn’t Matter Anymore reached the top spot in April 1959, 10 weeks after his tragic death in a plane crash aged 22 – spending 3 weeks at the summit and 15 weeks in the Top 10.
After Elvis sadly departed in August 1977, his mourning fans turned Way Down into his 17th Number 1 (his first for seven years). In total, Elvis has scored 5 posthumous singles, a UK chart record - Way Down, plus A Little Less Conversation (June 2002), Jailhouse Rock, One Night/I Got Stung, It’s Now Or Never (all Jan 2005).
Photo: Rex
Redding’s Dock Of The Bay became the first album to become a posthumous UK Number 1 following his sudden death aged 26 in a plane crash in December 1967. (Sitting On) The Dock Of The Bay (which peaked in the UK the previous April) also became the American charts’ first posthumous Number 1 single.
Hendrix’s Band Of Gypsys album rebounded to UK number 14 immediately after he passed away aged 27 in September 1970 (#14), to be followed by his first and only Number 1, Voodoo Chile, the following November.
In the weeks after his New York shooting in December 1980, Lennon classics (Just Like) Starting Over, Imagine and Woman claimed the Number 1 spot 7 weeks out of 9 – as well as the Number 2 single and album in Christmas week ((Just Like) Starting Over and its parent Double Fantasy).
The Queen frontman passed away aged 45 in November 1991 – just a few weeks later, Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody returned to Number 1 (cw These Are The Days Of Our Lives) for 5 weeks in December 1991 and January 1992, becoming the first single to top the chart in 4 different years (on top of 1975 and 1976).
Killed in a still unsolved drive-by shooting in September 1996, Tupac Shakur has scored 14 Top 40 hits on the Official Singles Chart since his death, including Elton John collaboration Ghatto Gospel, which spent three weeks at Number 1 in 2005.
Photo: Columbia Pictures
Two years after her tragic death in 1996, Cassidy scored a 1998 Number 1 album with Songbird, featuring her cover of Over The Rainbow. Within 5 years she had 2 further Number 1 albums (only Eva, Elvis and Michael Jackson can claim three posthumous Number 1 albums), and a Number 1 single through What A Wonderful World with Katie Melua in December 2007.
Killed in a drive-by shooting in March 1997, Biggie Smalls scored his first UK Top 40 with Life After Death just a few weeks later. But it was tribute song I’ll be Missing You (by Puff Daddy, Faith Evans and 112) which reached the greatest heights, spending 6 weeks as UK Number 1 that summer.
After dying in a plane crash aged just 22 (in August 2001), Aaliyah scored her first UK Number 1 with More Than A Woman six months later, while her self-titled album also reached Top 10. More Than A Woman was replaced at #1 by George Harrison’s My Sweet Lord, also a posthumous chart-topper.
After the King Of Pop’s untimely death in summer 2009, six Michael Jackson albums hit the Official Albums Top 40 (including a greatest hits at Number 1), while five singles hit the Official Singles Chart Top 40, with Man In The Mirror leading the way. Since then, Jackson has scored 3 posthumous Number 1 albums – two hits sets and Xscape.
Photo: Rex
Amy was just 27 when she died in July 2011, pushing 3 albums into the Official Albums Top 10 and 5 singles into the Official Singles Top 40 a week later. Over the following year, Amy’s fans bought 1.2m albums and 500,000 downloads and turned Back 2 Black into the biggest album of the 21st century at the time.
After her sad death aged 48 in February 2012, Whitney’s classic hit I Will Always Love You returned to the UK Top 20 for the first time in 18 years in the next week, as she claimed 13 places in the Top 100 and 2 albums in the Top 40.
Known as The Godfather of House Music, New York DJ and producer Frankie Knuckles passed away age 59 in March 2014 from complications with Type II diabetes. A week later, his track Your Love entered the Top 40 for the first time at Number 29 - his first entry Top 40 entry in nearly 20 years.
Having left us suddenly on August 2 2015, the nation has paid fulsome tribute to Cilla this week - aside from putting her Very Best Of hits set in the Official Albums Top 20, her former Number 1 Anyone Who Had A Heart re-entered the chart at 41.
Photo: Rex