As Pokémon GO sweeps the UK, look back to when Pokémon hit the Official Charts

Pokémon was one of the biggest crazes of the 1990’s - the trading cards and video games made everyone’s Pogs, yo-yos and Tamagotchis obsolete. The cartoon series helped make SM:TV Live the best thing ever. Fast forward to 2016, and Pokémon’s 20^th anniversary year is a memorable one thanks to the launch of Pokémon GO.

Pokémon GO is the augmented reality app that has got everyone reliving their youth whilst walking around like zombies and generally holding everyone else up as they try to hunt down an elusive Jigglypuff. We can’t talk, we’ve got quite the budding troupe of Pokémon Masters in the OCC office.

You may know that the game was created by the minds behind Google Earth, but were you aware that Pokémon has in fact impacted the Official Charts on several occasions? Let's take a look...

Music from the TV series

1999 was the first time that the Pocket Monsters craze led to an appearance on the Official Compilation Albums Chart. The anime TV show starring Ash, Brock and Misty was every Pokéfan's choice of Saturday morning TV viewing, and Pokémon – 2.B.A. Master: Music From The Hit TV Series album made it a.) totally acceptable to use 'down with the kids' abbreviation in such an outlandish manner, and b.) perfectly okay to know all of the words to the Pokémon theme song.

Honestly, we only knew the first verse and the chorus...

Peaking at a modest Number 20 on the Official Compilations Chart, 2.B.A. Master has the show's opening credits anthem as the opening track, followed by some strange pop numbers that hold a special place in this writer's heart. If you're going through a break-up, The Time Has Come (Pikachu's Goodbye) may just send you over the edge. If you're a Team Rocket fan, there's even an extended version of their popular motto on this forgotten gem of an album. The collection featured some cute PokéPop, but it was nothing compared to the roaring success future releases would have.

Music from Pokémon: The First Movie

Fast forward a year later and Pokémon: The First Movie took cinemas by storm - it was all that everyone on the planet I was talking about. A soundtrack collection named Pokémon: The First Movie - Music From and Inspired by the Motion Picture accompanied the film, and what a bizarrely brilliant tracklist it has. 

Pokémon: The First Movie's 16-track soundtrack featured tracks from Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Billie Piper, Aaron Carter, *NSYNC, Emma Bunton, 98 Degrees and B*Witched! Talk about a '90s popgasm.

Even more impressive than the Number 8 position on the Official Compilations Chart and the Gold certification from BPI is the success of the album's only single, Don't Say You Love Me by M2M. The debut single from the Norwegian girl group was heard during the end credits for the movie. We have no idea why it was chosen, but we're still here for it today - what a banger. Plenty of people in the UK thought so too, and single peaked at Number 16 in the Official Singles Chart. Look at what the rest of the Official UK Top 40 looked like that week.

The film itself hit Number 1 on the Official Video Chart and has sold 610,000 copies to date. 21 of you have snapped up a copy for yourselves so far in 2016, but we expect that number will rise. If not, Mewtwo will no doubt hunt you down and make you cough up those PokéDollars... 

Music from Pokémon The Movie 2000: The Power of One

A Pokémon-related single getting into the UK Top 20 was impressive, but believe it or not, a UK chart topper has appeared on another Pokémon movie soundtrack. Featured in the end credits for Pokémon's second-feature length film The Movie 2000: The Power of One, is Westlife's Number 1 single Flying Without Wings.

Another legendary act who also lent her vibrant vocals to the project was the late, great Donna Summer. Her tune The Power of One is an absolute belter. She was robbed of a Top 40 placing with that one.

There you have it folks, Pokémon's impact on the Official Charts. We're off to play Pokémon GO again now - we just missed out on catching a couple of Bellsprouts and a Electabuzz while writing this!

The Official Compilations Chart is posted here on OfficialCharts.com every Friday at 5.45pm. Click here to view the latest chart.