What Were The Top Ten Selling Singles In 1994?
The Cold Open
Britain in 1994 felt like it was waiting for something to happen. John Major’s government clung on through sleaze and by-elections while Britpop rumbled in the distance. Channel 5 was approved but not yet switched on. Kurt Cobain’s death cast a shadow over music worldwide. Four Weddings and a Funeral made the UK box office a global force again, while the National Lottery fired up in November, giving everyone a new way to lose. On the charts, Wet Wet Wet dug in for a summer siege, boybands brooded in white puffa jackets, and even a novelty Eurodance trumpet marched into the Top 10.
Here are the top ten selling singles in the UK in 1994.
1. Love Is All Around – Wet Wet Wet
Sales: 1,780,000 • Label: Precious Organisation • Catalogue: JWLCD 22
From Four Weddings and a Funeral. Fifteen weeks at No 1 and still pulled by the band themselves when the public begged for mercy.
2. Saturday Night – Whigfield
Sales: 760,000 • Label: Systematic • Catalogue: SYSCD 1
Italian Euro-pop given a dance routine for holiday camps and hen nights. Two weeks at No 1 and a one-hit wonder sealed in neon.
3. Stay Another Day – East 17
Sales: 748,000 • Label: London • Catalogue: LONCD 354
A Christmas No 1 cloaked in white coats and earnest harmonies. Written about grief but marketed as boyband mistletoe.
4. Baby Come Back – Pato Banton
Sales: 698,000 • Label: IRS • Catalogue: PCD 742
UB40 on backing duties, Pato on the mic. Reggae-lite revival that parked itself at No 1 for four weeks.
5. I Swear – All-4-One
Sales: 680,000 • Label: Atlantic • Catalogue: A 7259 CD
American R&B balladry imported wholesale. Peaked at No 2 here but conquered weddings worldwide.
6. Always – Bon Jovi
Sales: 650,000 • Label: Mercury • Catalogue: JOVCD 15
Stadium rock’s last slow-dance hurrah. Charted at No 2, reminding the UK that hair metal could still sell when dressed as power ballad.
7. Without You – Mariah Carey
Sales: 600,000 • Label: Columbia • Catalogue: 659992 2
Harry Nilsson’s classic reinterpreted with diva lungs. Four weeks at No 1 and Mariah cemented as a UK chart heavyweight.
8. Crazy For You – Let Loose
Sales: 500,000 • Label: Mercury • Catalogue: CDEMS 332
Glossy Britpop-adjacent boyband pop. Peaked at No 2 and filled Smash Hits covers with floppy hair.
9. Doop – Doop
Sales: 480,000 • Label: XL Recordings • Catalogue: XLS 70CD
Charleston horns colliding with house beats. Two weeks at No 1 and absolute chaos on wedding dancefloors.
10. The Sign – Ace of Base
Sales: 460,000 • Label: London • Catalogue: ACECD 2
More Swedish pop precision. Only reached No 2 but conquered America and proved their hit factory was no fluke.
