What song kept Pulp’s ‘Common People’ from hitting number one?
Injustice is fairly commonplace within the realm of the music industry, but the extensive list of classic tracks that never made it to the top of the charts is among the most infuriating.
If, for instance, you are looking for an indictment on the music-buying habits of the British public, look no further than the fact that Pulp’s defining anthem, ‘Common People’, peaked at number two.
It was during the blossoming period of Britpop that Jarvis Cocker’s Sheffield outfit made their first mark on the mainstream music industry, with His ‘n’ Hers hitting the airwaves in 1994. Although the band had actually been around, in one form or another, since the late 1970s, it was during this period of resurgence for guitar-led indie rock that they arrived on the radars of widespread audiences, and 1995’s Different Class is undoubtedly among the greatest records of that Britpop period.
Although that particular album is awash with some of Cocker’s finest songwriting efforts, from the ultimate festival anthem in ‘Sorted for E’s and Whizz’ to the unchained horniness of ‘Underwear’, if there is any one track which best captures the spirit of that time, it is ‘Common People’. Inspired by Cocker’s encounters with the upper-class, especially those pretending not to be, during his time in London, the song is one of those unavoidable anthems of the 1990s, up there with ‘Bittersweet Symphony’ and ‘Wonderwall’.
Even if you don’t identify as a Pulp fan, the chances are that you are more than well aware of ‘Common People’. After all, the track was immediately accepted into the collective consciousness of the UK and has since found its way onto a plethora of playlists for weddings, club nights, and sporting events across the land. It seems utterly bizarre, therefore, that the song never reached the number-one spot.
Debuting at number two in June of 1995, the song was still Pulp’s biggest commercial success to date, and it hasn’t been eclipsed in the years since. After two weeks at number two, the single began to drop down a few places, leaving Pulp without their rightful accolade of having a number-one, despite the fact that those two weeks weren’t particularly strong weeks for the chart.
There were, for example, no high-profile Britpop battles going on at that time, and the world was still a few months away from the fabled Oasis versus Blur debacle. In fact, the only other Britpop-adjacent record in the charts at the same time as ‘Common People’ was Oasis’s ‘Some Might Say’, which was on its way down after peaking at number one some weeks prior.
You would be forgiven for assuming that whatever song beat ‘Common People’ to the top spot must have eclipsed its lyrical mastery and rousing power, but, in actual fact, it was Robson and Jerome who kept it off the top of the charts with their version of ‘Unchained Melody’.
The UK charts have something of a special relationship with that particular track, having sent four different artists to number one with their respective recordings. Back in 1990, for example, The Righteous Brothers’ version was re-released in the wake of the film Ghost, and it went on to spend four weeks at number-one, where it kept Gazza from topping the charts with ‘Fog On The Tyne’ (yet another travesty at the hands of ‘Unchained Melody’).
Whatever the UK public’s fascination with that admittedly very catchy song, the fact that it stopped one of the greatest anthems of the Britpop age from taking its rightful crown is a grave injustice. On that basis alone, perhaps the British public should not be trusted to make big decisions in future.
