Which album has produced the most number one singles?
When five of an album’s 17 songs go to number one on the charts, you’d expect it to be something seismic. Sgt Pepper. Thriller. Blue. That level of iconic.
But instead, step forward… Westlife? No, your eyes are not deceiving you. The Irish boyband’s 1999 debut genuinely does hold major chart records for the acclaim it managed to create, much to the likely bemusement of anyone except those who were teenagers at the turn of the millennium. They really were that hot.
Indeed, when school friends Kian Egan, Mark Feehily, and Shane Filan formed a band in their native Sligo in 1997, they probably could never have imagined getting Louis Walsh as their manager, gaining two extra members, signing a major record deal, and releasing one of the biggest albums of the late 20th century all in the space of just two years.
Yet when their self-titled debut album first hit the shelves on November 1st, the critics weren’t exactly stunned by this supposed boyband revolution – Westlife had already been shored by supporting other outfits of their kind, like The Backstreet Boys and their fellow Irish rivals, Boyzone, but their own attempt at this glory seemed a little ill-fated at first.
In the manner of how these things tend to go, though, the fans did what they do best and made sure that the Irish heartthrobs had a seismic reign at the top of the charts – to this end, not one but five singles took the number one spot, including ‘Swear It Again’, ‘If I Let You Go’, ‘Flying Without Wings’, ‘Fool Again’, and the double A-side ‘I Have A Dream’/’Seasons in the Sun’.
How did Westlife’s album perform as a whole in the charts?
Despite this storming success on the face of it, Westlife had an odd streak of chart pedigree, both in good and bad ways. Yes, all five of the album’s singles went to the top within a year of release, but the record itself only enjoyed a quick soar before it plummeted out of top 40 obscurity again, in the blink of an eye.
It entered and peaked at number two, beaten only by the painfully ‘90s affair of Steps, but then something particularly odd happened. By its 58th week in the charts, it had naturally fallen to number 79, not unexpectedly. But then, the following week, it had bizarrely made its way back up to number three, without any rhyme or reason.
The week after that, it had jumped all the way back down to number 37, thus creating the biggest rise and fall in the history of the UK charts. But the weirdness didn’t stop there, either. A full two years after its original release, Westlife made its way back to number one in the Scottish album charts, after only getting to number six before. No one could explain it.
Maybe it was a symbol of how the album would come to haunt the musical canon for the rest of time, come to think of it. Regardless of whether you love them or loathe them, however, you have to hand it to Westlife for making chart history when they barely even knew what the music industry entailed. The kids from Sligo would be happy with that.
