Which number one vanished from the charts the quickest?
When artists first start out in the industry, you can imagine the range of checkpoints that they dream about along the way in carving out their success – first single, first radio play, first headline show… the list is endless. But invariably, as the rapture begins to take hold, it’s only natural for them to turn their sights to climbing one particular commercial mountain, with reaching the summit of the number one spot in the charts the ultimate end goal.
Then, when an artist does eventually complete that challenge, the champagne is always too sweet to let go of. After the first number one, they only clamour for more, racking up a budding string of hits to launch at the top spot – but only some of them stick. The brutal reality is that even if a song does go number one, it doesn’t always stay there, and some have tasted the bubbles of success and the sourness of downfall in the same mouthful.
Just ask Blur. Unfortunately for the Britpop band, they bear the unenviable title of having the number one song with the shortest stay in the charts in all of history, in the form of the 1997 tune ‘Beetlebum’. Although it started out strong, reaching number one, it quickly faltered and left the top 40 in practically no time at all, leaving the sweetness of success but a distant memory.
Remaining in the charts for only three weeks after its release, ‘Beetlebum’ first shot to number one in January 1997, before then dropping to number seven the following week, number 29 the week after, and then vanished entirely. Released as the lead single for their eponymous fifth studio album, it thankfully, however, didn’t act as an omen for the success of the rest of the record, but even still, it would have been a striking cause for concern.
Has any other artist had a number one leave the charts so quickly?
But if it makes them feel any better, Blur are not alone in their short shot at glory, as they were joined some years later by a second artist whose number one single was a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it affair. Believe it or not, Elvis Presley is the other recipient of this somewhat shameful crown, as a special reissue of one of his most enduring hits climbed to the top of the tree before rather ungraciously falling straight to the bottom.
Presley’s 1960 tune ‘It’s Now or Never’ was actually the King’s biggest ever hit upon its release, but in 2005 was given a fresh lease of life when a special 45th anniversary reissue was let loose on the charts. However, unlike its rapturous success the first time around, the song quickly fell from grace in the charts after dropping between numbers one, 14, and 27 within three weeks, before disappearing entirely.
Thus, Blur can take solace knowing that sometimes even the King of Rock and Roll could have such a thing as a number one flop. But the sentiment of the song in question is also ironically pertinent here, because as it turns out, vying for a number one single really can be a ‘Now or Never’ scenario.
