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Official Top 40 best-selling songs of 1991

The top sellers of 1991, including Bryan Adam, Cher, The Simpsons, and The KLF.

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For those who were around to witness it, the UK's best-selling song of 1991 should come as no surprise: Bryan Adams' (Everything I Do) I Do It For You, which spent a mammoth 16 weeks at Number 1 that year. 

The track set - and still holds - a record for the longest run at the summit on the Official Singles Chart. Co-written by Adams for the film Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Everything I Do... sold 1.43 million copies in the UK, according to Official Charts Company data, to finish as the year's best-seller. The song also ranks as the UK's 15th best-selling single of all time.

Everything I Do... topped the charts in 19 countries and was the first of two UK chart-toppers for Adams, landing his second some nine years later as a vocalist on Chicane's Don't Give Up. View Bryan Adams' Official Chart history in full here.

The second best-seller of 1991 goes to Queen, whose re-release of Bohemian Rhapsody along with These Are The Days Of Our Lives following the death of Freddie Mercury was the year's Christmas Number 1. The single sold a massive 673,000 copies in a matter of weeks and remains the only song to hit the festive top spot twice, having first done so in 1975.

MORE: Official Top 40 best-selling songs of 1990

In third is Cher, who landed her first Number 1 single that year with The Shoop Shoop Song (483k), taken from the film Mermaids. London brothers Right Said Fred are fourth with their debut smash I'm Too Sexy (470k), and The Simpsons (specifically Bart) round out the Top 5 with Do The Bartman (430k). The new jack swing track became the first song by cartoon characters to hit Number 1 in 22 years, since The Archies' Sugar Sugar in 1969. 

Further down, Chesney Hawkes' anthem The One And Only finishes at 7, Diana Ross' Number 2 hit and 18th Top 10 When You Tell Me That You Love Me lands at 17, and The Clash are at 19 with their first Number 1 Should I Stay Or Should I Go, which topped the Official Chart in March after being used in an advert for Levi's. 

Finally, The KLF claim three entries on the year-end Top 40, led by the two-week chart-topper 3am Eternal at 12. 

Official Top 40 best-selling songs of 1991

  TITLE ARTIST PEAK
1 (EVERYTHING I DO) I DO IT FOR YOU BRYAN ADAMS 1
2 BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY/THESE ARE THE DAYS OF OUR LIVES QUEEN 1
3 THE SHOOP SHOOP SONG (IT'S IN HIS KISS) CHER 1
4 I'M TOO SEXY RIGHT SAID FRED 2
5 DO THE BARTMAN THE SIMPSONS 1
6 ANY DREAM WILL DO JASON DONOVAN 1
7 THE ONE AND ONLY CHESNEY HAWKES 1
8 DIZZY VIC REEVES & THE WONDER STUFF 1
9 INSANITY OCEANIC 3
10 I WANNA SEX YOU UP COLOR ME BADD 1
11 GET READY FOR THIS 2 UNLIMITED 2
12 3 A.M ETERNAL THE KLF FEAT CHILDREN OF THE REVOLUTION 1
13 BLACK OR WHITE MICHAEL JACKSON 1
14 LET'S TALK ABOUT SEX SALT 'N PEPA 2
15 DON'T LET THE SUN GO DOWN ON ME GEORGE MICHAEL/ELTON JOHN 1
16 MORE THAN WORDS EXTREME 2
17 WHEN YOU TELL ME THAT YOU LOVE ME DIANA ROSS 2
18 SUNSHINE ON A RAINY DAY (REMIX) ZOE 4
19 SHOULD I STAY OR SHOULD I GO THE CLASH 1
20 SIT DOWN JAMES 2
21 WIND OF CHANGE SCORPIONS 2
22 THE STONK HALE & PACE AND THE STONKERS 1
23 (I WANNA GIVE YOU) DEVOTION NOMAD FEAT MC MIKEE FREEDOM 2
24 NOW THAT WE'VE FOUND LOVE HEAVY D AND THE BOYZ 2
25 BABY BABY AMY GRANT 2
26 CHARLY PRODIGY 3
27 JUSTIFIED & ANCIENT KLF FT TAMMY WYNETTE 2
28 WORLD IN UNION KIRI TE KANAWA 4
29 PROMISE ME BEVERLEY CRAVEN 3
30 LAST TRAIN TO TRANCENTRAL KLF FT CHILDREN OF THE REVOLUTION 2
31 YOU GOT THE LOVE SOURCE FT CANDI STATON 4
32 GYPSY WOMAN (LA DA DEE) CRYSTAL WATERS 2
33 THINKING ABOUT YOUR LOVE KENNY THOMAS 4
34 RHYTHM OF MY HEART ROD STEWART 3
35 SET ADRIFT ON MEMORY BLISS PM DAWN 3
36 LOVE TO HATE YOU ERASURE 4
37 SADENESS PART 1 ENIGMA 1
38 CRAZY SEAL 2
39 MOVE ANY MOUNTAIN SHAMEN 4
40 EVERYBODY'S FREE (TO FEEL GOOD) ROZALLA 6

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A

addickted2hcharlton

1

Ere are good to see Kenny Thomas in ere, one of is best.

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John Credibility

0

Smells like teen spirit #1

S

Stu

3

This is what KLF is about....

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Blank

2

Only the KLF has multiple hits (3). But maybe also be more accurate in the terminology? Bohemian Rhapsody is the only *record* (or recording) that has been Christmas #1 twice, but both Mary's Boy Child and Do They Know It's Christmas had been the Christmas #1 *song* twice in different recordings (57/78 and 84/89 respectively) at this time. The latter has also done it since 1991 in a 3rd different recording.

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Bengy

1

The OCC said Bryan Adams sold 1,938,536 copies by September 2017. Now he sold only 1.43m in 1991. Did he really sell an extra 500,000 copies in 26 years when the song was not in the charts?

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Blank

3

It's only an average 20,000 a year / 500 copies a week, which shouldn't be enough to trouble the chart. I remember the classic stat that Don't Stop Me Now sold more than a McFly #1 in the same calendar year once, without ever going top 40. Long slow consistent sellers can sell quite a few over enough time!

LM

Lee Moore

2

That was the combined sales total quoted in 2017; the non steaming sales total was 1,848,154

GF

Gary Feld

0

now 1,870,000