Comic Relief’s biggest selling singles revealed!

To celebrate Red Nose Day, Official Charts.com reveal The Official Comic Relief Chart - Comic Relief’s biggest selling singles of all-time!

Today is Red Nose Day, where the entire nation gets together to ‘do something funny for money’ and help raise funds for Comic Relief.

In addition to the Red Nose Day telethon - which kicks off on BBC 1 this evening at 7PM - an important part of Comic Relief’s fundraising has been persuading the likes of Sir Cliff Richard, the Spice Girls, Westlife and, more recently, One Direction to release charity singles.

Over the course of Comic Relief’s 28 year history, a total of 21 singles have been released, with a a combined sales tally of nearly 8 million copies. This includes 13 Official Number 1 Singles, six singles which have sold over half a million copies, and one million seller.

The first official Comic Relief single was released in 1986 and featured Cliff Richard and the cast of The Young Ones performing Cliff’s 1959 hit, Living Doll. It peaked at Number 1 on the Official Singles Chart helping Cliff become just one of a handful of artists who’ve managed to take the same song to Number 1 in completely separate chart runs.

Living Doll is the third biggest selling Comic Relief single to date; its biggest selling single would follow nearly 20 years later…

At Number 1 on The Official Comic Relief Chart is Tony Christie and Peter Kay’s Is This The Way To Amarillo?. Though not strictly an official Comic Relief reelase, Kay performed it live on Red Nose Day 2005, lip synching to Tony Christie's 1971 hit. It was released as a digital download the following Monday, with all proceeds going to Comic Relief.

Is This The Way To Amarillo? knocked McFly’s official Comic Relief single All About You/You've Got A Friend (Number 7 in The Official Comic Relief Chart) off the top of the Official Singles Chart, and stayed at Number 1 for seven weeks. To date, it has sold over 1.24 million copies and it is the only Comic Relief track to break the million copies sales barrier.

As well as having the biggest selling Comic Relief , Peter Kay has also appeared on the most Comic Relief singles; once as himself (Is This The Way To Amarillo?), and twice as his alter egos Brian Potter (from Phoenix Nights) on The Proclaimers' 2007 rendition of I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles), and Geraldine McQueen (she of Britain's Got the Pop Factor... and Possibly a New Celebrity Jesus Christ Soapstar Superstar Strictly on Ice fame) on Susan Boyle’s I Knew Him So Well.

So here it is, then, The Official Comic Relief Chart:

	TRACK	ARTIST	YEAR	PEAK POSITION
1	IS THIS THE WAY TO AMARILLO?	TONY CHRISTIE & PETER KAY	2005	1
2	UPTOWN GIRL	WESTLIFE	2001	1
3	LIVING DOLL	CLIFF RICHARD AND THE YOUNG ONES	1986	1
4	MAMA / WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE	SPICE GIRLS	1997	1
5	WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH, THE TOUGH GET GOING	BOYZONE	1999	1
6	SPIRIT IN THE SKY	GARETH GATES AND THE KUMARS	2003	1
7	ALL ABOUT YOU/YOU'VE GOT A FRIEND	MCFLY	2005	1
8	I'M GONNA BE (500 MILES)	THE PROCLAIMERS FT BRIAN POTTER AND ANDY PIPKIN	2007	1
9	JUST CAN'T GET ENOUGH	THE SATURDAYS	2009	2
10	HELP!	BANANARAMA AND LA NA NEE NEE NOO NOO	1989	3
11	GOLD FOREVER	THE WANTED	2011	3
12	ONE WAY OR ANOTHER (TEENAGE KICKS)	ONE DIRECTION	2013	1
13	THE STONK	HALE AND PACE	1991	1
14	LOVE CAN BUILD A BRIDGE	CHER, CHRISSIE HYNDE, NENEH CHERRY AND ERIC CLAPTON	1995	1
15	ROCKIN' AROUND THE CHRISTMAS TREE	MEL SMITH AND KIM WILDE	1987	3
16	BARRY ISLANDS IN THE STREAM	VANESSA JENKINS & BRYN WEST FT TOM JONES	2009	1
17	WALK THIS WAY	SUGABABES VS. GIRLS ALOUD	2007	1
18	STICK IT OUT	RIGHT SAID FRED	1993	4
19	ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS	PET SHOP BOYS AND ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS	1994	6
20	(I WANT TO BE) ELECTED	MR BEAN AND SMEAR CAMPAIGN	1992	9
21	I KNOW HIM SO WELL	SUSAN BOYLE AND GERALDINE MCQUEEN	2011	11