Record-Breakers and Trivia

Record Breakers and Trivia : Singles : Miscellany

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Parents / Offspring / Siblings Topping The Chart
Only one father / son combination has ever topped the charts each in their own right. Julio Iglesias topped the chart with "Begin The Beguine" in Nov 1981. More than twenty years later in February 2002, his son, Enrique hit number 1 with "Hero".

There was a close call in 1991 when Chesney Hawkes made number one with "The One And Only." His dad, Len 'Chip' Hawkes has previously occupied the top spot with "Silence Is Golden" (1967) but this was as part of a group; The Tremeloes. Similarly, both Ringo Starr (real name Richard Starkey) and his son, Zak Starkey, have topped the chart as drummers in different groups; Ringo with The Beatles and Zak with The Crowd ("You'll Never Walk Alone"), Baddiel & Skinner and The Lightning Seeds ("3 Lions '98") and Oasis ("The Imporatance Of Being Idle").

There are instances of parents/offspring topping the charts on the same track. Nancy Sinatra & Frank Sinatra hit number one with "Somethin' Stupid" in 1967.

Five years later Coventry band Lieutenant Pigeon made number one with "Mouldy Old Dough"; in this group was Rob Woodward and his mum, Hilda. Both played keyboards. Should proof be needed of the generation gap, heres a picture!

In 2003 Ozzy Osbourne and his daughter Kelly hit the top spot with "Changes," a remake of a track first sung by Ozzy on the Black Sabbath album "Volume 4" in 1972.

A mother-daughter combination is yet to reach the summit either separately or on the same disc.

But wait! One entire family consisting of mum, dad, son and daughters has in fact topped the chart; The Simpsons with "Do The Bartman" in Jan 1991! Now we're in a quandary; do cartoon characters count? D'oh!

Only three pairs of siblings have ever achieved separate solo number ones. They are:

Eden Kane (real name Richard Sarstedt) ("Well I Ask You" in 1961) and his younger brother Peter Sarstedt ("Where Do You Go To My Lovely" in 1969).
Donny Osmond ("Puppy Love" in 1972; "The Twelfth Of Never" in 1973; "Young Love" in 1973) and his younger brother Little Jimmy Osmond ("Long Haired Lover From Liverpool" in 1972)
Daniel Bedingfield ("Gotta Get Thru This" in 2001; "If You're Not The One" in 2002; "Never Gonna Leave Your Side" in 2003) and his younger sister Natasha ("These Words" in 2004).

Most Siblings In One Group
Eighties teenyboppers The Jets (who had one hit with "Crush On You" in 1987) came from the extremely large Wolfgramm family (17 children overall). The group was comprised of eight of the family's brothers and sisters; Leroy, Eddie, Eugene, Haini, Rudy, Kathi, Elizabeth, and Moana.

Artist having hits as a Solo, Duo, Trio, Quartet, Quintet etc
We were prompted to research this following a number of emails from folks taking part in trivia quizzes. The question asked was "which artist has had hit singles solo, and as part of a duo, trio, quintet and quartet." After some head scratching, we were contacted by the quiz-setters who acknowledged that they had made an error. But in our research we discovered perhaps one of the most impressive chart facts of all.

Paul McCartney not only had hits but topped the chart in each of the following guises.

1) Solo - "Pipes Of Peace" (1983)

2) Duo - with Stevie Wonder "Ebony And Ivory" (1982)

3) Trio - Wings ("Wings Mull Of Kintyre" / "Girls' School") (1977) (at this time Wings consisted of Paul McCartney, Linda McCartney and Denny Laine, [guitarist Jimmy McCulloch left the month before to join the re-formed Small Faces])

4) Quartet - Beatles (with John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr) (16 no. 1s from 1963-1969 in this formation).

5) Quintet - Beatles with Billy Preston - Get Back (1969)

Now, the above is impressive enough. But it gets get better, if a little tenuous;
6) Sextet - Ferry Aid (with Mel Appleby, Kim Appleby, Kate Bush, Boy George, Jim Diamond) (1987)

9) Nine - - with The Christians (Garry & Russell Christian and Henry Priestman), Holly Johnson, Gerry Marsden & Stock Aitken Waterman - "Ferry Cross The Mersey" (1989) - counting Mike Stock, Matt Aitken and Pete Waterman as three separate 'performers' as they had artist credits.

Multi - difficult to know exactly how many performed on this - Band Aid "Do They Know It's Christmas" (with Bananarama, Bob Geldof, Culture Club, David Bowie, Duran Duran, Eurythmics, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Heaven 17, Human League, Kool and the Gang, Midge Urge, Paul Young, Phil Collins, Spandau Ballet, Status Quo, Sting, The Style Council U2, Wham!). Paul also did a narration for the 'b' side to this disc.

Longest Hit Single
The Orb's 1992 hit "Blue Room" had a duration of 39 minutes and 58 seconds, two seconds shorter than the maximum permitted for a single under chart rules. There was, however, a second CD available which that featured shorter mixes.

Longest Top 40 track not to have a shortened version on sale is also the Number One with the longest running-time; Oasis' "All Around The World" (1998). It has a duration of 9 minutes 38 seconds.
The longest 7" A-side - and available in only that format - was "Inside Looking Out" by Grand Funk Railroad. It is 9 mins 31 secs long and scraped into the Top 40 at no. 40 in Feb 1971.

The first Number 1 to have a playing time of more than four minutes was Harry Belafonte's "Mary's Boy Child" (1957; 4 mins 12 secs).

Shortest Hit Single
The shortest duration of a hit single is 36 seconds. The track in question is "The Ladies' Bras" by Jonny Trunk & Wisbey; a download only single (2007). It beat the record set just a few weeks previously by "Spider Pig" - a track from the 2007 Simpsons Movie - by 26 seconds.

This record for shortest physical single is held by Nukleuz DJs. The title/lead track of their 2003 "DJ Nation - Bootleg Edition" EP was a mix of each of the other six tracks on the EP (available on three separate CD/12" singles) clocking in at just 1 minute 15 seconds seconds.
In terms of a complete physical song (ie. not a medley and/or download), "Let's Get Together" by Hayley Mills (1961) clocked in at is 1 minute 25 seconds. The US version of "Some Kinda Earthquake", an instrumental single by Duane Eddy, was abridged (1 minute 17 seconds in duration, 1959) but the British version ran at the full 1 min 53 secs.
The shortest chart-topper is Adam Faith's "What Do You Want" from 1959 (1 minute, 38 seconds).

Longest Note Held In A Hit
This record is held by Morten Harket, lead singer with group A-Ha. In "Summer Moved On" (no. 33, June 2000) he holds a vocal note for 20.2 seconds.
Click here to hear it (Real Audio).

Runner-up, and the man responsible for the longest note held on a solo single is Bill Withers. In his 1978 (and 1988) hit "Lovely Day", he holds a vocal note for 18 seconds. We're told that the note is the 'E' above 'middle C'.
Click here to hear it (Real Audio).

The longest note held by a woman, is found in "Dim All The Lights," Donna Summer's 1979 hit (16 seconds).
Click here to hear it (Real Audio).

It is worth pointing out that a number of recent dance tracks have utilised digital 'stretching' techniques to give the impression of extended vocals. We have management / record company confirmation that the notes being held in the above tracks were all done in 'real time' and represent genuine vocal skill. Click here to hear Morten Harket perform the "Summer Moved On" note live (really) at the 1998 Nobel Peace Prize Concert.

Most Repetitive Hit
Paul Johnson's 1999 hit "Get Get Down" consists of the word "Get" 52 times and no fewer than 246 repetitions of the word "Down." What's more, this is the original version not an extended mix!
Click here to hear an excerpt (Real Audio).

Top 40 Word Records
Longest Title:
The Face's / Rod Stewart's 1974 no. 12 hit "You Can Make Me Dance Sing Or Anything (Even Take The Dog For A Walk, Mend A Fuse, Fold Away The Ironing Board, Or Any Other Domestic Shortcomings)" has 115 letters (punctuation marks don't count!). The longest un-bracketed title is Meat Loaf's "Objects In The Rear View Mirror May Appear Closer Than They Are" (52 letters). It made no. 26 in May 1994.
The Freshies' 1981 release "I'm In Love With The Girl On A Certain Manchester Megastore Checkout Desk" (60 letters) peaked at number 54!

Shortest Title:
The titles of three hits have consisted of just one character:

"7" - by Prince & The New Power Generation (no. 27, December 1992)

"U" - by Loni Clark (no. 28, January 1994)

"X" - by Xzibit (no. 14, March 2001).
Shortest number 1 title is "If" by Telly Savalas (no. 1, Feb 1975).

Most DIFFERENT letters in a title:
Two tracks contain 21 different letters.

The aforementioned (longest title of all) - "You Can Make Me Dance Sing Or Anything (Even Take The Dog For A Walk, Mend A Fuse, Fold Away The Ironing Board, Or Any Other Domestic Shortcomings)" by The Faces / Rod Stewart

Secondly, and perhaps more impressively, as it contains fewer letters overall - "Does Your Chewing Gum Lose It's Flavour (On The Bedpost Overnight)" by Lonnie Donegan. (no.3, 1959)

The following double A sides / medleys also consist of 21 letters:

Robson & Jerome's "What Becomes Of The Broken Hearted / Saturday Night At The Movies / You'll Never Walk Alone" and

The Pet Shop Boys "Where The Streets Have No Name (Can't Take My Eyes Of You) / How Can You Expect To Be Taken Seriously"

Special mention must go to Dynasty's 1979 hit "I Don't Want To Be A Freak (But I Can't Help Myself)" and Kevin Johnson's 1975 offering "Rock 'N Roll (I Gave You The Best Years Of My Life)." Though much shorter than the above double-A side combinations, both manage to get through 20 different letters!

Unbracketed success goes to the following - both have 19 different letters;

The Hollies "The Day That Curly Billy Shot Down Crazy Sam McGhee"

Jona Lewie "You'll Always Find Me In The Kitchen At Parties"

Titles with the most letters without repetition are;

The Wamdue Project's "King Of My Castle" and

Bomfunk MCs' "Up Rocking Beats"... each is made up of 14 letters - all different.

Longest Words In Song Titles:

The un-hyphenated award goes to The Contours' - "Just A Little Misunderstanding" (16 letter word).

Legitimate hyphenation is seen in John Williams' - "Theme From E.T. (The Extra-Terrestrial) (16 letters).

Longest one-word title: Cliff Richard's "Congratulations" (15 letter word).

Disqualified for being daft!: Prince & The Revolution - "Anotherloverholenyohead" (23 letters) and Gilbert O'Sullivan "Ooh-Wakka-Doo-Wakka-Day" (19-lettered 'word').

Double-daft: Diana Ross "Doobedood'ndoobe Doobedood'ndoobe" (two 15-lettered words).

Nice try but not a real word (yet!): Red Hot Chili Peppers "Californication" (15)
>>> But what's the longest word in a lyric?

Word featuring in most titles
The word "The" features in more hit titles than any other word (2506). Runner-up, a long way behind is "You" (1489) (as of w/e 11th Oct 2003)
Word starting most titles
The word "I" starts more hit titles than any other word (644). Then it's "Love" (234), "Don't" (219) and "You" (214) (as of w/e 11th Oct 2003)

Least Different Letters Making Up An Artist - Title Combination
U2 - "One" (5 characters). This uses a number so it could be argued that the real record-holders are ABC - "SOS" and Moby - "Go" (both 6 letters). However, "Doop" by Doop has just 3 different letters! Least different letters for a non eponymous single is 4 for Abba - "SOS."

Palindromic Title by a Palindromic Artist
"SOS" by Abba is the only palindromic hit song by a palindromic artist.

The Vowel-Free Titles: The following are the only titles of four letters or more to be vowel free (excluding numeric titles like "1999"):

Crash Test Dummies - "Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm"

Julian Cope - "Try Try Try"

Blackout - "Mr DJ"

Concept - "Mr DJ"

Ultravox - "Hymn"

Moby - "Hymn"

Jason Donovan - "RSVP"

Pop Will Eat Itself - "RSVP"

Fall Out Boy - "Thnks Fr Th Mmrs"

Alphabetically First and Last Words In Titles
Alphabetically, the first word to appear in any song title is, somewhat obviously, "A"; it has appeared in several hundred titles. More obscure though, alphabetically speaking, the last word to appear in any title is "Zululand" (in King Kurt's 1983 hit, "Destination Zululand").

Least Different Words Used For Multi-Worded Titles:
Excluding single-worded titles, Destiny's Child are the only act to have three Top 40 hits and use no more than three different words in them; "No No No" (no. 5, 1998), "Bills, Bills, Bills" (no. 6, 1999), and "Jumpin' Jumpin'" (no. 5, 2000)

Biggest Name-Droppers:
Two groups have managed to take six girls' names into the Top 40:

The Everly Brothers: "Wake Up Little Susie" (1957), "Claudette" (1958), "Take A Message To Mary" (1959), "Poor Jenny" (1959), "Cathy's Clown" (1960), and "Lucille" (1960).

The Bachelors: ""Charmaine" (1963), "Diane" (1964), "Ramona" (1964), "Marie" (1965), "Hello Dolly" (1966) and "Marta" (1967). Thanks to chart guru Jon Kutner who points out that the Bachelors have a seventh if we include "Walk With Faith In Your Heart"!

Lyrical Connections Between Successive Number 1s
A favourite question in pop quizzes goes something like this:
"Which is the only record to have been knocked off the no.1 spot by a record whose title can be found in the lyric of the first song?"

The 'classic' answer is "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen. It contains the famous "mamma mia, mamma mia, mamma mia let me go" line. In January 1976, it was replaced at the top of the chart by none other than Abba's "Mamma Mia".

But a more striking (and more bizarre) answer arises from 1959 when Emile Ford & The Checkmates' "What Do You Want To Make Those Eyes At Me For" unseated Adam Faith's "What Do You Want" from number one. It's particularly odd as, during the transition, the tracks tied for the top spot and shared the position for one week!

But there are other examples, albeit less dramatic (ie. one-word titles), of this phenomenon:

In 1958, The Kalin Twins made no. 1 with "When". It replaced The Everly Brothers at the top; both tracks on their double A-Side "All I Have To Do Is Dream" and "Claudette" contained the word "When."

Two years later Anthony Newley made no. 1 with "Why". It replaced Michael Holliday's "Starry Eyed" at no. 1; the opening line of that song is "Why am I so starry eyed?"

In 1988, The Pet Shop Boys made no. 1 with "Heart". It replaced Aswad's "Don't Turn Around" at no. 1 (which contains the lines "Don't worry about this heart of mine" and "Coz you're gonna see my heart breaking").

The most recent example was seen in 2000. Madonna made no. 1 with "Music". It replaced Spiller's "Groovejet (If This Ain't Love)" at no. 1 (which contains the line "While we are moving, the music is soothing").

There are two instances of the reverse of this phenomenon - a track being toppled from no.1 by another which contains its full title in the lyric:

In 1960, Anthony Newley's "Why" was topped from no.1 by Adam Faith's "Poor Me" which contained "Why oh why do voices say to me, sit and cry, that this was meant to be."

In 1975, Telly Savalas "If" was topped from no.1 by The Bay City Rollers "Bye Bye Baby" which opened with the line "If you hate me after what I say."

Here's a interesting sub-category; Lyrical Prophecy Of Topping The Chart
On 15th Nov 1980, Blondie's "The Tide Is High" reached number 1. It included the line, "I'm gonna be your number one." It was knocked off the top spot on 29th Nov by Abba's "Super Trouper" which includes the line "feeling like a number one."

Most Popular Title For A Top 40 Single
Songs entitled "Angel" and "Crazy" have each made the Top 40 in 12 completely different tracks (ie. different tune / lyrics; not different versions of the same song).
Runners-up are: "I Believe" (10) and "Stay" (9).
The full list is here.

First Self-Penned Number 1
Mantovani's "Cara Mia" (July 1954; the 20th no. 1); it was composed by Mantovani and Bunny Lewis (under pen names Tulio Trapani and Lee Lange respectively).
Not until the 43rd Number 1 was an act entirely responsible for writing its own chart-topper; The Dreamweavers' "It's Almost Tomorrow" (March 1956).
Over twenty-eight years later Steveie Wonder became the first artist ever to write, produce and entirely perform a Number 1 ("I Just Called To Say I Love You", Sep 1984).

Eponymous Number Ones
When Mr. Blobby went to number one with "Mr Blobby" in 1993 it was the first time in 41 years of chart history that an eponymously title song achieved this feat. However, less than four months "Doop" hit number one by a band called Doop!

Hits In Most Languages
German pop/dance trio Sash! are the only act to have hits in four different languages. In 1997/8 they made the Top 40 with "Encore Une Fois" (in French), "Ecuador" (in Spanish), "Stay" and others (in English) and "La Primavera" (in Italian). Furthermore, though Sash's 1999 hit "Colour The World" was ostensively sung in English, it contained African lyrics by Nigerian vocalist Dr Alban and Finish singer Inka!

Petula Clark is the only British act to have hits in three languages; "Casanova" in German, "Ya Ya Twist" and "Chariot" in French and a host of others in English.

One group has graced the charts with hits in three languages. Kraftwerk had success with "Autobahn" (in their native German), "Tour De France" (French), five other Top 40 titles in English and one bilingual ("Expo 2000" mixed German and English).

Most Expletives
The Super Furry Animals 1996 hit "The Man Don't Give A..." contained 49 expletives; a record for a Top 40 single. The most for a solo hit is 33 in Eamon's 2004 track "F**k It (I Don't Want You Back)." This single also holds the record for most expletives in a chart-topper. The 'award' for most profanities in a hit by a female artist goes to Frankee whose 2004 number 1 "F.U.R.B. (F U Right Back)" (an answer song to Eamon's) contained 22 swear words.

Biggest Hit By A Non-Human Artist

In terms of chart success, this coverted title goes to The Archies for "Sugar Sugar" which spent 8 weeks at number 1 in 1969 (and stayed in the Top 40 for 22 weeks).
Created for mass consumption by bubblegum-pop genius Don Kirshner (the man who gave us the Monkees), the Archies existed on television as an animated series based on the comic book characters of the same name. The voices behind the singing cartoon characters were vocalists Ron Dante, Toni Wine and Andy Kim.

The biggest-selling single by a non-human group is "Teletubbies Say Eh-Oh" by The Teletubbies (1997, 1.1 million copies).

The biggest-selling single by a non-human soloist(!) is "Can We Fix It?" by Bob The Builder (year 2000, 1.0 million).

The Weirdness Of Blur's "Song 2"
The track "Song 2" was track 2 on the album "Blur". It was single 2 to be released from the album. It reached number 2 in the chart - and was just 2 minutes long!

Position-dodging
The Eurythmics have had 9 top ten hits. No two songs have peaked at the same position. The only position they have failed to achieve is No. 7 (they also have one number 11 hit and one number 12 hit, too!)

Most Graceful Retreat From Number 1
In chart history, four singles haven fallen from the Number 1 spot by one position for four consecutive weeks (ie. No. 1 to No. 2 to 3, 4, 5). They are:

Dickie Valentine - "Finger Of Suspicion" (1954)	[1-2-3-4-5-5-4-9-17]
Tommy Edwards - "It's All In The Game" (1958)	[1-2-3-4-5-4-8-11-15-27]
Michael Jackson - "You Are Not Alone" (1995)	[1-2-3-4-5-7-9-13-25-30-31]
Eminem - "The Real Slim Shady" (2000)	[1-2-3-4-5-7-8-10-11-15-23-33-38]
The following singles managed to 'double' their fall from the top for four consecutive weeks:
Chicago - "If You Leave Me Now" (1976)	[1-2-4-8-16-16-28-30-39]
Ian & The Blockheads - "Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick" (1978)	[1-2-4-8-16-21]
Abba - "The Winner Takes It All" (1980)	[1-2-4-8-16-30]
Wet Wet Wet - "Love Is All Around" (1994)	[1-2-4-8-16-21-35- 39]
The record for languishing at No. 2 on the way out (for 8 weeks!) goes to:
Johnnie Ray - "Such A Night" (1954)	[1-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-3-7-7-9-10-12]

Most 'Impressive' Symmetrical Chart Careers For A Title
Ten records in history have experienced symmetrical chart careers of four weeks (none has a longer symmetrical career). Of these, only four climbed as far as the top 30. They are:

Gloria Estefan - "Get On Your Feet" (1989)	[34-23-23-34]
The Beloved - "The Sun Rising" (1989)	[37-26-26-37]
Re-Flex - "The Politics Of Dancing" (1984)	[34-28-28-34]
Eric Clapton - "Wonderful Tonight (live)" (1991)	[35-30-30-35]

Artist 'Lapping' Himself
During the time Bryan Adams hit "(Everything I Do) I Do It For You" was at number one, his follow up single, "Can't Stop This Thing We Started", not only entered the chart, but climbed to number 12, fell down the chart and disappeared from the chart altogether.

First Chart Has-Been
Jane Wyman was the first chart act to completely disappear from the chart, never to return. 12th Dec 1952 was her second and final week on the chart singing 'Zing A Little Zong' with Bing Crosby.

When Was The Last Time...?

... there were no entries in the Top 10:

In March 2006, a new chart rule enabled download sales to count towards a single's chart position the week prior to the title being available in a 'hard' form (eg. CD). As download sales represented a relatively low proportion of overall sales at the time, this led to the return of a phenomenon which had been in decline for many years; titles entering the charts below their peak position and climbing! In w/e 29th April 2006 there were no new entries inside the Top 10, the first time that this had happened for more than four years. This looks set to become a more regular occurrence as it was repeated on the weeks ending 13th May, 8th July, 19th Aug, 2nd Sep, 30th Sep, 2nd Dec 2006 as well as 27th Jan, 10th Feb, 24th Feb, 3rd Mar, 17th Mar, 7th Apr, 5th May, 2nd June, 30th June, 28th July, 22nd Sep, 13 Oct, 17 Nov, 8th Dec 2007, 12th Jan, 2nd Feb, 1st Mar, 8th Mar, 15th, 29th Mar, 26th April, 10th May, 1st Jun, 29 Nov 2008, 31st Jan, 28th Mar, 11th Apr, 16th May 2009. We're going to discontinue this listing soon if this trend continues as it's getting out of hand!

More impressively, on week ending 29th Nov, the highest new entry was at no. 29 (Christian Falk featuring Robyn - "Dream On", though Snow Patrol's "Run" re-entered one place higher). It is rare for the entire upper half of the Top 40 to be devoid of new entries. The previous instances were 26th Apr 2008 when the highest new entry was at no. 25 (Goldfrapp, "Happiness") and 10th Feb 2007, when Kasabian entered at no. 22 with "Me Plus One". Before that, we have to go back to 1994 to find a Top 20 free of debuting singles (outside of the Festive period of course).
The 19th Aug 2006 chart not only featured no new entries into the Top 10, but also no "download-to-physical" climbers, making it doubly unusual.
Moreover, on the week ending 21st Apr 2007, the entire top 10 was a rearrangement of the previous week's top 10 (i.e. no songs climbing into, entering, or falling out of the top 10). This also happened on w/e 16th May 2009.

Throughout the 80s and 90s the number of "high new entries" grew rapidly as record companies became more focussed in targeting chart sales periods for dramatic debut positions. It was then rare (away from Christmas / New Year) to find a Top 10 with no new entries.

The last occurrence of this prior to the aforementioned download rule was w/e 9th Feb 2002 (highest new entry that week; "Dance For Me" by Mary J Blige at number 13).

More than seven years before that, in June 1994, there was a very rare new-entry-free Top 20, "Move Your Body" by Anticapella being the highest debutant at number 21. (NB: this excludes charts inside the festive season when it is usual for the chart to be somewhat stagnant.)

... a single climbed back up to number one:

Occasionally tracks drop from the number one spot and then do a 'U'- turn. Latest to do this was Shakira featuring Wyclef Jean with "Hips Don't Lie." It had topped the chart for w/e 8th July 2006, then being displaced for a total of three weeks by Lily Allen's "Smile" (2 weeks) and McFly's "Don't Stop Me Now / Please Please" (1 week). On w/e 5th Aug 2006 Shakira and Wyclef Jean reclaimed the no. 1 position. Prior to this, Eric Prydz had returned to the top with "Call On Me" in Oct 2004.

... a single spent more than X weeks at number one::

The last single to spend 5 or more weeks at number one was: Duffy - "Mercy" (Feb - Mar 2008) [5 weeks at no. 1] The last single to spend 6 or more weeks at number one was: Leona Lewis - "Bleeding Love" (Nov - Dec 2007) [7 weeks at no. 1]
The last single to spend 8 or more weeks at number one was: Rihanna featuring Jay-Z - "Umbrella" (May - July 2007) [10 weeks at no. 1]
The last single to spend 11 or more weeks at number one was: Wet Wet Wet - "Love Is All Around" (June-Sep 1994) [15 weeks at no. 1]
The last single to spend 16 or more weeks at number one was: Bryan Adams - "(Everything I Do) I Do It For You" (July-Nov 1991) [16 weeks at no. 1 - most ever consecutively.]
The last single to spend 17 or more weeks at number one was: Frankie Laine - "I Believe" (Apr-Sep 1953) [18 weeks at no. 1 - though in three separate spells at the top.]
More information.

... the Top 5 were all New Entries:

The most recent occurrence of the entire top 5 consisting of New Entries was w/e 29th Jan 2005. The previous occasion was w/e 13th Nov 2004; the fact attracted considerable attention as all five of the incumbents were American artists (in descending order: Eminem, Destiny's Child, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera featuring Missy Elliott, Usher) - a first. The first instance of all Top 5 singles being New Entries was w/e 31st Oct 1998 (Cher, George Michael, U2, Culture Club, Alanis Morissette).
On just two occasions (w/e 15th Apr 2000 and w/e 29th Jan 2005) the entire top 6 were debutantes.

... the Top 5 were all non-movers:

The week with most successive non-movers (excluding Christmas weeks) was in July 1955 when the whole Top 7 remained unchanged. Since then, only the whole of the Top 6 has ever remained static - on four occasions (9th July 1955, 8th April 1961, 30th May 1981 and 8th March 2008).

Top 7 : 9th July 1955 Top 6 : 8th March 2008

1 (1) Jimmy Young Unchained Melody 1 (1) Duffy Mercy

2 (2) Al Hibbler Unchained Melody 2 (2) H Two O featuring Platnum What's It Gonna Be

3 (3) Alma Cogan Dreamboat 3 (3) Nickelback Rockstar

4 (4) Eddie Calvert Cherry Pink And Apple Blossom White 4 (4) Basshunter ft DJ Mental Theo Now You're Gone

5 (5) The Crew Cuts Earth Angel 5 (5) Kylie Minogue Wow

6 (6) Dickie Valentine I Wonder 6 (6) Adele Chasing Pavements

7 (7) Rosemary Clooney Where Will The Baby's Dimple Be?

Most New Entries In The Top 40
On w/e 17th May 1997, the Top 40 chart contained a record-breaking twenty new entries (of which only one was a climber from further down the chart). The week ending 5th March 2005 also introduced us to nineteen 'pure' new entries, this time with no climbers.

Most New Entries In The Top 10
There have been seventeen occasions in chart history when seven titles of the Top 10 have been New Entries to the Top 40. The first such occurrence was w/e 19th April 1997. The top 10 looked like this:

Top 10 : 19th April 1997
1 (1) R Kelly I Believe I Can Fly

2 Blur Song 2

3 Orbital The Saint

4 (7) DJ Quicksilver Bellissima

5 Course Ready Or Not

6 (3) No Doubt Don't Speak

7 Shola Ama You Might Need Somebody

8 Kavana MFEO

9 Suede Lazy

10 Texas Halo

The most recent instance of seven New Entries in the Top 10 was w/e 3rd Sept 2005.

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