OfficialCharts.com: We Are 1 (Part 2)

Yesterday was OfficialCharts.com’s first birthday. On October 11, 2011 the Official Charts Company re-launched OfficialCharts.com as the all-singing, all-dancing online destination for chart fans that you’ve come to know and love.

So, as a thank you to the millions and millions of you who have supported us week in, week out, we’re going to relive some of our favourite, poptastic moments from OfficialCharts.com’s first year of life over the next few days.

Here’s Part 2 of our first year online in review…

January

The new year kicked off with us crowning Ed Sheeran’s + the very first Official Number 1 album, and Coldplay’s Paradise the first Official Number 1 single of 2012 (on New Year’s Day no less). Then we set about crunching the numbers to work out who had clocked up the biggest selling singles and albums of the previous 12 months. We’ll give you a hint at who came out on top on both Top 20 charts: her name starts with ‘A’ and finishes with ‘dele’. Her album 21 was also crowned the longest-running Official Albums Chart Number 1 in over 40 years, too. 

February

On Saturday, February 11, everyone here at Official Charts HQ was saddened by the tragic death of Whitney Houston. While the entire music industry paid its respects, we did too, by counting down the late star’s Top 20 biggest selling tracks of all time. On a brighter note, later that month, we were lucky enough to witness Ed Sheeran, Adele and Emeli Sande walk home with some rather snazzy Peter Blake designed trophies at the 2012 BRIT Awards. 

February also saw a little track by the name of Somebody That I Used To Know by Antipodean stars Gotye and Kimbra begin its five week, non-consecutive reign at the top of the Official Singles Chart.  A true global success, hitting Number 1 in several countries including the Billboard Hot 100 in the US.  Months later, it is still the biggest selling single of 2012 so far in the UK.  Here’s Jo Whiley doing the honours of presenting Gotye with his Official Number 1 Award…

Oh, and did we mention that, on February 28 Adele’s 21 overtook Michael Jackson’s Bad to become the UK’s eighth biggest selling album of all-time!?!

March

On March 13, Una Healey from The Saturdays welcomed her baby daughter Aoife Belle into the world. If her bandmates were stuck for ideas of what to get her for Mother’s Day a few days later, they probably went out and bought The Military Wives album, In My Dreams (along with the rest of the country!). Needless to say, the Military Wives scored the Official Mother’s Day Number 1 album! Later that month, we welcomed back another working mum – Madonna. The Queen Of Pop’s album, MDNA, gave her her 12th Official Number 1 album. And finally, the unstoppable Adele continued her ascent up the UK’s all-time biggest selling albums chart, overtaking both Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side Of The Moon and Dire Straits' Brothers In Arms!

April

April saw the arrival of Carly Rae Jepsen’s  Call Me Maybe in the Official Singles Chart Top 40, and it’s been there, week in, week out, ever since! Check out a clip the Canadian star collecting her Official Number 1 Award from Reggie Yates below:

Also that month, our friends at BBC Radio 2 managed to persuade legendary DJ Tony Blackburn to return to the airwaves to host a special countdown of the Top 40 biggest selling albums of all-time, and we launched a brand spanking new albums chart. To coincide with Record Store Day, and highlight what physical product people are buying in the nation’s independent record retailers, we teamed up with some of the UK’s coolest independent shops to create the Official Record Store Chart. See what was the first ever Official Record Store Chart Number 1 here.