The first No.1 single for last year becomes the highest selling track for the past year, as “Uptown Funk” by Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars claims the top spot on the ARIA Top 100 Singles of 2015.
“Uptown Funk” spent six weeks atop the ARIA Singles chart, three of those in 2014 and the other three during the first half of January 2015, and would stay in the Top 50 for the remainder (bar three weeks) of the year, racking up 9x▲Platinum in sales by the end of the year. “Uptown Funk” was the 29th biggest selling song of 2014 too, and this becomes Bruno’s second EOY Top 10 placing, his other one being “Just the Way You Are” (#8 for 2010) and this is Mark’s first ever EOY appearance. Of the 21 weeks that ‘Funk’ spent in the Top 10, sixteen of those occurred in 2015 and this was also the #1 song for the UK market last year.
By the end of January, Mark & Bruno were knocked off the top spot by the first new entry for 2015 and the debut track for OMI entitled “Cheerleader”, which spent three weeks at the top up until mid-February and is still charting in the lower half of the Top 100 at the moment, having racked up 5x▲Platinum in sales and 12 weeks in the Top 10. His No.8 follow-up “Hula Hoop” comes in at No.98 for the past year, and helped usher in the new tropical house dance sound, with “Cheerleader” finally topping the overseas charts by mid-year, and also becoming the #2 song in the UK for 2015.
The equal longest running No.1 of 2015 at six weeks was the first of the two to run that long at the top of the ARIA Singles chart, “See You Again” for Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth, which was used in the closing credits of the ‘Furious 7’ film, the last featuring the departed actor Paul Walker. “See You Again” leapt from #59 to #1 in its third week on the chart, helped by the film opening around the country, and gave both acts their first No.1 song in Australia, racking up eleven weeks in the Top 10 and also achieving 5x▲ Platinum in sales. This is the first EOY Top 10 for Wiz who had previously appeared as high as No.11 in 2012 on the Maroon 5 track “Payphone”, whilst Charlie has a second entry for 2015, the duet with Meghan Trainor “Marvin Gaye” (HP-4) which came in at No.38 for the past year.
The first of two EOY Top 10 entries that didn’t make it to the No.1 spot is the fourth biggest selling song of 2015, Hozier with his first chart entry “Take Me to Church”, which made it to No.2 for three weeks behind “Uptown Funk” and “Cheerleader” during late January and early February, but it also racked up sixteen weeks within the Top 10 and is also accredited with a 5x▲Platinum certification, the song returning to the Top 50 later in the year (August and October) when it was sung on The Voice and X-Factor by competing contestants and this was the third biggest song in the UK for last year.
That second No.1 song to spend six weeks at the top of the ARIA Singles Chart was the comeback for Adele, “Hello” which spent all of November and the first week of December at the top, having debuted there on the 2nd of November, which was the third and final song to enter at No.1 within the Top 100. And with her third album “25” now being crowned the #1 album for last year, the single “Hello” has already notched up 4x▲Platinum within the Top 3 for the nine weeks it spent there during 2015. Only spending a single week at the top in the first week of April was “Lean on” by Major Lazer featuring M0 and DJ Snake, but it did stay in the Top 10 for twelve weeks and at No.2 for four weeks after losing to the top spot to the mega-hit “See You Again”. The track is still within the Top 50 as of this week and Major Lazer also scores the #68 track for 2015 with the song “Powerful” featuring Ellie Goulding (HP-7) and his album “Peace is the Mission” lands at #83 for the past year, whilst it’s the first ever EOY placing for Major, his collaborator in DJ Snake also picks up the #73 2015 song with his track “You Know You Like it” (HP-11) featuring AlunaGeorge.
Ellie Goulding scored her first No.1 single in Australia last year with the theme from the movie ’50 Shades of Grey’, the song being “Love Me Like You Do”, which spent four weeks at the top from the last week of February, until mid-March. It was the fourth biggest song in the UK for 2015 and here it was #7, whilst she also scored EOY placing with the aforementioned “Powerful” by Major Lazer at #68 and then at #74 was “On My Mind” which spent two weeks at No.3 in late October. The other EOY Top 10 song that never made it to No.1 is the eighth biggest song for 2015, Walk the Moon with their first chart entry “Shut Up and Dance” which climbed to No.3 for two weeks in mid-May, spending fourteen weeks within the Top 10, ten of those weeks were in the 3, 4 and 5 positions.
The comeback kid for 2015 was Justin Bieber, who got his first boost back into the charts via the Skrillex and Diplo track “Where Are U Now” (HP-3, peaked April) and is the #17 song for last year, whilst his solo comeback and first ever No.1 single in Australia was “What Do You Mean?” which lands the #9 position for 2015. The song debuted at No.1 in the first week of September and spent the whole month at the top (4 weeks), and the track has not left the ARIA Top 10 since it debuted at No.1, that’s eighteen weeks and counting now. This was helped by him releasing two new tracks from his “Purpose” album (EOY #4) which also leapt into the top of the charts, “Sorry” spent five weeks at No.2 and lands at #16 whilst the follow-up “Love Yourself” has racked up four weeks at No.1 (three in 2015, 1 in 2016) and is the #25 song of 2015, giving him four songs in the EOY Top 30.
The tenth biggest song of 2015 is the collaboration between Rihanna, Kanye West and Paul McCartney, “FourFiveSeconds”, which spent a single week at No.1 in mid-Feb, sandwiched in-between “Cheerleader” and Ellie Goulding, and lasting ten weeks in the Top 10. It gave Rihanna her sixth No.1 for the decade and her ninth overall, plus the second for Kanye (first this decade) and the third No.1 for Paul McCartney in Australia, but his first in over thirty-eight years, as his previous chart topping single here was the December 1977 track “Mull of Kintyre” which spent eleven weeks at the top.
The fourth No.1 single for Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, “Downtown” is the #11 song for last year, spending four weeks at No.1 during all of October, and further No.1 songs to miss a Top 10 placing come from Taylor Swift and Kendrick Lamar with “Bad Blood” (3 weeks from early June) at #18, with further Taylor tracks making the EOY chart being “Style” (#31, HP-8), “Wildest Dreams” (#41, HP-3), “Shake it Off” (#49, HP-12 during 2015) and “Blank Space” (#55, HP-4 during 2015). Meghan Trainor and John Legend teamed up for the No.1 single “Like I’m Gonna Lose You” (#23, peaked June/July for four weeks) with further Meghan tracks making it are “Marvin Gaye” (#38, HP-4) “Dear Future Husband” (#39, HP-9) and “Lips are Movin” (#82, HP-13 during 2015).
There are four more back-to-back No.1’s after JB’s “Love Yourself”, with #26 being Grace with G-Eazy and “You Don’t Own Me” (1 week at #1, 25-May), then “Bills” (2 weeks from late March) for LunchMoney Lewis at #27 with his follow-up “Whip it!” (HP-11) making it in at #64. Lost Frequencies with their first entry “Are You With Me” (2 weeks from late July) at #28 and finally at #29, Calvin Harris with his first OZ No.1 single “How Deep is Your Love” (1 week in late August) with his earlier hit “Pray to God” with HAIM (HP-10) making it in at #83. The next former No.1 in the EOY listing is all the way down at #50 and is the also the only No.1 song here for One Direction, “Drag me Down” (1 week on 10-Aug), with the next Top 10 hit “Perfect” (HP-4) landing the #91 song for last year. The next former No.1 follows at #54 by Aussie Conrad Sewell and “Start Again” (1 week on 22-June) at #54, with his first chart entry on the Kygo song “Firestone” (HP-10) becoming the #37 song for last year. The lowest charting #1 song for 2015 is “Wings” by Delta Goodrem which spent two weeks at the top in mid-August during her stint as The Voice judge, and is the #88 song for last year.
The highest placed Australian act for last year is at #14, Sia with “Elastic Heart” (HP-5), with her only other entry being her former Top 5 hit “Chandelier” making it to #94 for 2015 (#6 in 2014). Jarryd James’ former No.2 single “Do You Remember” makes it to #22, after which is Grace at #26, and then all the way down to #46 is the next Aussie act, Vance Joy with “Fire & the Flood” (HP-6). Conrad was at #54, followed by The Hilltop Hoods with “Cosby Sweater” at #66, another Vance Joy and “Georgia” (HP-15) at #72 and then Chet Faker at #76 with “Talk is Cheap” (HP-6). Iggy Azalea’s “Trouble” (HP-10) with Jennifer Hudson was her only Top 10 hit this year, and it is at #84, whilst Peking Duk with Safia and “Take Me Over” (HP-7) is the #90 song for 2015 with the last two positions in the Top 100 going to local acts too, Chet Faker and Marcus Marr with “The Trouble with us” (HP-8) at #99 and “The Buzz” (HP-20) for Hermitude at #100.
Acts with multiple entries to the ARIA EOY chart for 2015 include The Weeknd with “Can’t Feel My Face” (HP-2) at #12, “The Hills” (HP-3) at #20 and his first big entry and also taken from the ’50 Shades of Grey’ soundtrack was “Earned it” (HP-13) at #80. Ed Sheeran has four entries within the hundred, starting with “Thinking of You” at #15, then “Photograph” (HP-9) at #33, on the Rudimental track “Lay it All on Me” (HP-7) at #77 and right behind at #78 is “Bloodstream” (HP-7). Newcomer James Bay lands two for 2015, “Hold Back the River” (HP-4) at #19 and then “Let it Go” (HP-8) at #35, and also landing two within the Top 50 are Galantis with “Peanut Butter Jelly” (HP-3) at #30 and their first entry “Runaway (U & I) (HP-4) at #44.
Sam Smith scored two as well, with “Lay Me Down” (HP-3) at #34 and his first big hit “Stay With Me” (#8 in 2014) selling enough during 2015 to land at #87. Jessie J’s cover of the ‘Pitch Perfect 2’ theme song “Flashlight” (HP-2) makes it to #40 for 2015 and she also makes it into the Top 100 with “Masterpiece” (HP-14) at #97. Avicii lands two entries as well, with “The Nights” (HP-9) at #45 and “Waiting for Love” (HP-15) at #75, whilst a new DJ in Robin Schulz scores three entries, “Sugar” (HP-3) with Francesco Yates makes it to #48 followed by “Headlights” (HP-2) at #63 and his first Top 10 in “Sun Goes Down” (HP-7) with Jasmine Thompson at #70. Chris Brown lands two entries, but both as a guest vocalist, with his appearance on the Pia Mia track “Do it Again” (HP-5) at #53 and his added vocals to the Deorro track “Five More Hours” (HP-7) in at #57.
Written, Compiled and Researched by Gavin Ryan.
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