The oldest artists to score a Number 1 single in the UK

Proving that age really is just a number...

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Proving age really is just a number, below at the Top 10 oldest artists to score a Number 1 on the Official UK Singles Chart.

Captain Tom Moore

Song: You’ll Never Walk Alone
Age at Number 1: 99 years, 11 months
Year: 2020

At 99 years old (and just days before his 100^th birthday), Captain Tom Moore holds the record as the oldest artist to score a Number 1 on the Official Singles Chart. The war veteran captured the hearts of the nation and became a symbol of hope and unity during the coronavirus crisis after raising over £28 million for the NHS. To continue raising awareness of his cause, he teamed up with his favourite singer Michael Ball and the NHS Voices of Care Choir to release a cover of You’ll Never Walk Alone.

After a close battle with The Weeknd’s Blinding Lights, the track debuted at Number 1, helped by the Canadian star asking his fans to support Captain Tom. Captain Tom also becomes the first centenarian to hold a Number 1 single as his 100^th birthday falls during the week he holds the top spot.

Elton John

Song(s): Cold Heart (Pnau Remix), Merry Christmas, Sausage Rolls For Everyone
Age at Number 1: 74 years, 7 months / 74 years, 9 months
Year: 2021

2021 was a bumper year for Sir Elton - with a mammoth 3 Number 1 singles in his 74th year. First was Cold Heart (Pnau Remix) with Dua Lipa, and then the double whammy of festive single Merry Christmas with Ed Sheeran and Sausage Rolls For Everyone with Sheeran and LadBaby (2021's Christmas Number 1) that topped the Singles Chart one after the other when he was 74 years and 9 months old.

Tom Jones

Song: (Barry) Islands In The Stream
Age at Number 1: 68 years, 9 months
Year: 2009

Sir Tom featured on this chart-topping single released for Comic Relief in 2009. The song – a cover of Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton’s 1983 hit - features Ruth Jones and Rob Brydon, in character as Vanessa Jenkins and Bryn West from the hit BBC sitcom Gavin & Stacey, with Bee Gee Robin Gibb (one of the song’s writers) on backing vocals.

Louis Armstrong

Song: What A Wonderful World
Age at Number 1: 66 years, 10 months
Year: 1968

This wistful pop-jazz number was rumoured to have been turned down by Tony Bennett before being recorded by New Orleans singer Louis Armstrong. While it wasn’t initially hit in America, reportedly because it was disliked by Louis’ label boss Larry Newton, it was huge in the UK, landing at Number 1. In 1999 Louis’ recording was inducted into the Grammy Hall Of Fame.

Kate Bush

Song: Running Up That Hill
Age at Number 1: 63 years, 11 months
Year: 2022

The most recent entry in this list, Kate Bush had to wait 37 years for Running Up That Hill to hit Number 1 on the Official Singles Chart, but it was worth it. Thanks to a massive uplift from Stranger Things, Bush broke several records when Running Up That Hill ascended to the top; she is the oldest female artist in UK chart history to gain a UK chart history, boasts the longest gap between Number 1 singles and the longest time a single song has ever taken to reach the top spot.

Tony Christie

Song: (Is This The Way To) Amarillo
Age at Number 1: 61 years, 11 months
Year: 2005

A modest Number 18 hit when it was first released in 1971, Tony Christie's Amarillo was re-released with comedian Peter Key in 2005 for Comic Relief, after the track had featured in Peter's Pheonix Nights series. It gave Tony his first and only Number 1 to date, but it was a big one, topping the Official Singles Chart for seven weeks and becoming the best-seller of 2005.

MORE: The longest gaps between debut chart entries and first Number 1s on the Official Singles Chart

Frank Skinner

Song: Three Lions
Age at Number 1: 61 years, 5 months
Year: 2018

After two spells at Number 1 around the Euro ’96 and one during World Cup ’98, Three Lions unexpectedly found itself back at the top of the Official Singles Chart 22 years later for the World Cup in 2018. Three Lions is one of the UK's best-selling singles of all time, with over 1.6 million copies (excluding streams) sold since its release.

Cliff Richard

Song: Millennium Prayer
Age at Number 1: 59 years, 1 month
Year: 1999

Cliff landed a surprise hit in 1999 with Millennium Prayer, in which the words of the Lord's Prayer are set to the tune of Auld Lang Syne. Released in November 1999 as a charity single in the lead-up to the end of the 1900s, Cliff was forced to put out the track through independent label Papillon Records after his record label EMI declined to release it amid concerns for its commercial potential.

Elton John

Song: Ghetto Gospel (with 2Pac)
Age at Number 1: 58 years, 3 months
Year: 2005

The lead single from 2Pac's posthumous album Loyal To The Game had some extra heavyweight talent behind it, produced by Eminem and including a sample of Elton John's 1971 song Indian Sunset, landing Elton a feature credit. The track topped the Official Singles Chart for 3 weeks and earned Elton his seventh and most recent Number 1 single.

Michael Ball

Song: You’ll Never Walk Alone
Age at Number 1: 57 years, 9 months
Year: 2005

In helping Captain Tom Moore become the oldest artist to score a Number 1, Michael Ball himself also makes the Top 10 list. In addition to this, he joins a small club of artists who achieved their first Number 1 single decades after their first chart appearance. His debut single Love Changes Everything first charted at Number 2, 31 years ago in 1989. Only two other artists have waited longer for their chart-topping success - Ozzy Osbourne (33 years – Changes with Kelly Osbourne) and Tony Christie (34 years – Is This The Way To Amarillo with Peter Kay).

Leo Sayer

Song: Thunder In My Heart Again
Age when Number 1: 57 years, 8 months
Year: 2006

A Number 22 hit when it was first released in 1971, Thunder In My Heart topped the Official Chart 35 years later after it was given a club-friendly remix by Meck. It earnt the singer his second UK chart-topper, some 29 years after his first.

Ozzy Osbourne

Song: Changes (with Kelly Osbourne)
Age When Number 1: 55 years
Year: 2003

Three decades after Ozzy released Changes with Black Sabbath, he recorded a new version of it with his daughter Kelly, who had her own burgeoning music career at the time. Released amid their popular reality series The Osbournes, the revised version took off at topped the Official Chart in 2003.

The oldest artists to score a Number 1 single on the Official Chart

POS	ARTIST	AGE	YEAR	SONG
1	CAPT TOM MOORE	99 YRS, 11 M	2020	YOU'LL NEVER WALK ALONE
2	ELTON JOHN	74 YRS, 7 M / 74 YRS, 9 M	2021	COLD HEART / MERRY CHRISTMAS / SAUSAGE ROLLS FOR EVERYONE
3	TOM JONES	68 YRS, 9 M	2009	(BARRY) ISLANDS IN THE STREAM
4	LOUIS ARMSTRONG	66 YRS, 10 M	1968	WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD
5	KATE BUSH	63 YRS, 11 M	2022	RUNNING UP THAT HILL
6	TONY CHRISTIE	61 YRS, 11 M	2005	(IS THIS THE WAY TO) AMARILLO?
7	FRANK SKINNER	61 YRS, 5 M	2018	3 LIONS
8	CLIFF RICHARD	59 YRS, 1 M	1999	MILLENNIUM PRAYER
9	ELTON JOHN	58 YRS, 3 M	2005	GHETTO GOSPEL
10	MICHAEL BALL	57 YRS, 9 M	2020	YOU'LL NEVER WALK ALONE

Related artists

Felix Gabaldon

20th June 2022

So Cher's Believe didn't make it huh

Velvet Android

20th June 2022

She was 'only' 52 in 1998 – which felt pretty old for a popstar at the time, but not so much as time has gone on!

Admittedly, at that point she was probably the second oldest credited artist ever to top the charts – of the list on this page, only What A Wonderful World predates 1998, and I can't think of anyone else in the 52-57 age bracket who might have made it otherwise. Even Frank Sinatra was only about 50 when Strangers In The Night and Somethin' Stupid were Number Ones in the '60s.

Simon

19th June 2022

I agree with a comment made, Tom Jones shouldn’t be included, he was one of 4 named artists on islands in the stream. You either credit all of them or none of them as done before, but Jones currently receives the only credit which is so bizarre because Robin Gibb already has his own artist chart page (the other 2 singers don’t). So if Robin Gibb is credited he would be and should be part of this list, he is no less worthy of it than Tom Jones is. I’m no huge Bee gees fan I just have an issue with injustices. Hopefully it will be rectified one day.

BrainPhrozen Woodsheart

18th June 2022

A rather ageist post :(

Velvet Android

17th June 2022

Picking up on something mentioned below 2 years ago by Logi Venture – the list here only includes people credited by name on Number One singles, but not those who achieved one as part of bands. So while Frank Skinner appears as part of Baddiel, Skinner & the Lightning Seeds' return to the top spot in 2018, when he was 61, Ian Broudie (who, to compound the insult-by-omission, essentially is the Lightning Seeds) does not even though he was 59 at the time and should therefore slot into this list just above Sir Cliff.

Another such performer who should qualify is the doyenne of them all, HIlda Woodward, who played the distinctive -tonk piano that drove Lieutenant Pigeon's (basically) instrumental 1972 Number One classic, Mouldy Old Dough – which hit the top when when she was 58 years old. She was born in 1914, before any of the artists on this list other than Louis Armstrong. And, since her son Rob was in the band, she was also half of the only mother-and-son pairing ever to top the charts either separately or together.

MrDannyDoodah

17th June 2022

You've got Elton John listed in two separate places here... unless there are two separate artists who are both called Elton John and who both qualify for the list.

Velvet Android

17th June 2022

I took it to represent the fact that these are all the qualifying instances of artists reaching Number One when over the age of 55, rather than merely the 10 different oldest artists per se. So Elton qualified once for the list when hitting the top aged 58, then a second (and third, and fourth) time aged 74.

Snemyllas

17th June 2022

Leo Sayer's "Thunder In My Heart" did not hit the charts at first in 1971, but in 1977.

Velvet Android

17th June 2022

Hi OCC, I think you can probably edit the "earned Elton his seventh and most recent Number One single" from the Ghetto Gospel description now.

Also, Phoenix Nights, not 'Pheonix Nights'.

And blimey, "New Orleans singer" is certainly one way of describing the legendary jazz trumpeter and vocalist Louis Armstrong, but It's a bit reductive...

Nu No

17th June 2022

I guess older Women are less likely to have #01 Hits than Older man!

On this list Kate is the only Female artist getting a #01 with 63yo.

According to your other article Cher comes 2nd at 52yo.

Who is 3rd? Madonna at 47yo or is there any other female artist that was able to have a #01 Hit after 50yo?

Velvet Android

17th June 2022

That's a really good question – there's none that spring immediately to mind, for me.

Madonna must be third, I think – she was actually nearly 50 (approx. 49 years, 8 months) when she had her last chart-topping single to date, 4 Minutes, in duet with Justin Timberlake in 2008. Her last solo ones were indeed when she was 47, with both Hung Up and Sorry.

Cher herself qualifies at least once more in the list of Number Ones by oldest females, if that makes sense. She turned 45 while The Shoop Shoop Song (It's In His Kiss) was having its five-week run at the summit in 1991, then when part of Comic Relief single Love Can Build A Bridge (Cher, Chrissie Hynde & Neneh Cherry ft. Eric Clapton) in 1995 she was nearly 49.

Off the top of my head I can't think of any other female artists that can match this. So it's quite possible Cher and Madonna held down the top six spots in that list between them, with three each, until today.

Velvet Android

17th June 2022

Although, in saying that I've just ignored my own comments in a separate post a few minutes ago! The outright record-holder among women performers, as far as I know, was Hilda Woodward who appeared on a Number One as part of Lieutenant Pigeon, aged 58 when they topped the singles chart in October-November 1972 with Mouldy Old Dough – a mark unmatched for nearly 50 years, until today.

Meanwhile Debbie Harry was 53 when Blondie returned to Number One in 1999 after an 18-year hiatus, so I think that might well have made her the oldest woman to sing on any chart-topping single until this week. And in a sense still does, given that Maria was an all-new song – unlike Running Up That Hill, which was recorded when Kate Bush was only about 25-26.

Blank

30th April 2020

Louis Armstrong, the long-standing record holder, is still the only one in this top ten to be a newly recorded original song. All the others are either covers, credited samples or re-issues of some description.
I'd like to see the same list including only new recordings of new songs.

Thomas Sales

25th April 2020

Robin Gibb was a credited vocalist on Islands in the Stream and so deserves his own entry.

Marc

27th April 2020

Totally agree with you.

Simon

19th June 2022

Valid point his billing is equal to Tom Jones.

Simon

19th June 2022

Any other release like the Right said Fred and friends EP or the 5 live EP always credits all listed artists. Obviously songs like do they know it’s Christmas doesn’t but if you are concerning 4 named artists on a track, you credit all 4 as they have done before. This is an overlooked error.