Ellie Goulding's biggest singles on the Official Chart revealed

Goodness Gracious, that's a lot of bops.
ellie-singles.jpg

Ellie Goulding has been one of the biggest British pop star exports for well over a decade, but it seems that now is the moment everyone is (finally) sitting up and taking notice of just how good she is. 

While her bop-heavy fifth album Higher Than Heaven is currently expected to debut at Number 1 (don't call it her most personal album to date!), her trance banger Miracle with Calvin Harris is also heading for a second week at the top of the Official Singles Chart, meaning Ellie could score the Official Chart Double for the first time in her career. 

The list of Ellie Goulding's Top 20 biggest singles in the UK, updated and revealed today, is also, for want of a better word...full of bops, and a true testament to how Ellie has seamlessly drifted between different sides of pop over her career.

You have kinetic New Wave (Goodness Gracious, perhaps her best ever?), emotionally fraught ballads (Explosions) and hands in the air synth-pop (Lights -  a massive hit in the US that never quite got its due in the UK, sorry about that!)

Before we reveal the Top 20 in full, let's take a closer look at the Top 10.

10. Anything Could Happen
Released: 2012
Official Singles Chart peak: Number 5
Total UK chart units: 620,000

The lead single from Ellie's second album Halcyon, Anything Could Happen was written by Kish Mauve member Jim Eliot (who also gifted Will Young his greatest song, Jealousy) and helped move Ellie from folk-pop into a more dark and desolate world of synth-pop electronica. It's a deceivingly bright and bubbly track from Ellie's most accomplished work, where she goes darker and deeper than ever before.

9. On My Mind
Released: 2015
Official Singles Chart peak: Number 5
Total UK chart units: 763,000

The big post-Love Me Like You Do single had Ellie with stardom firmly set in her eyes. 2015 LP Delirium is her best front-to-back pop opus, and contains loads of pop rammers that didn't make the list (Something In The Way You Move, Codes and Lost and Found to name just a few). On My Mind is another collaboration with Max Martin and his team, On My Mind still sounds like a thrilling left-of-centre turn for Ellie, although most of the chatter around the song was if it is really a reply track to Ed Sheeran's Don't (for what its worth, Ellie has always denied it, but it hasn't stopped those tongues wagging...).

8. Starry Eyed
Released: 2010
Official Singles Chart peak: Number 4
Total UK chart units: 775,000

Ellie's breakthrough hit treads a careful balance between folk, pop and dance - euphoric and otherworldly without being twee. Produced by Starsmith (who worked on most of Ellie's debut album Lights), the song spent three consecutive weeks at Number 4 on the Official Chart in Februrary that year, around the same time she won the BRITs Critics' Choice award

7. Still Falling For You
Released: 2016
Official Singles Chart peak: Number 11
Total UK chart units: 811,000

And just like that! Ellie gifted another stirring pop anthem to the soundtrack of a film, this time Bridget Jones' Baby. While the film itself probably didn't deserve a song of this calibre, Still Falling For You is a doe-eyed, lovely sequel to Love Me Like You Do that may have just missed the Top 10, but has certainly not aged. 

6. I Need Your Love (with Calvin Harris)
Released: 2012
Official Singles Chart peak: Number 4
Total UK chart units: 902,000

Calvin Harris has proved to be one of Ellie's most important (and successful) collaborators. Together, the duo have curated a thrilling trilogy of tracks together - culimating in their latest Number 1 together, Miracle. I Need Your Love was the beginning of a very fruitful partnership, even if its very 2012, EDM video-game esque production hasn't aged that well. 

Calvin Harris – Outside Lyrics | Genius Lyrics

5. Outside (with Calvin Harris)
Released: 2014
Official Singles Chart peak: Number 6
Total UK chart units: 1.2 million

Some sequels always outdo the original, such is the case with Outside, with its cascading beats and lovely orchestral, even at times post-disco-esque flares. The star of the show, however, is Ellie's voice; feather-light, to whom the song fits around like a glove. The track, despite placing fifth here, is also Ellie's second-best song on streaming in the UK; to date, receiving over 95 million streams.

4. Your Song
Released: 2010
Official Singles Chart peak: Number 2
Total UK chart units: 1.3 million

Ellie's twinkly cover of Elton John's Your Song was her second Top 10 and her highest peak until she got her chart-toppers, spending two weeks at Number 2 in December 2010, stuck behind The X Factor Finalists of 2010 and their cover of David Bowie's Heroes. Ellie covered the track for John Lewis's Christmas advert that year and was the first of their festive advert soundtracks to gain major chart success.

3. Burn
Released: 2013
Official Singles Chart peak: Number 1
Total UK chart units: 1.4 million

The road to Ellie's first UK Number 1 single was long and winding; Burn was originally written by Ryan Tedder for Leona Lewis (it was demoed for her Glassheart album, but never released) until it made its way to Ellie, receiving a tight production do-over from Greg Kurstin. The rest, as they say, is history. 

2. How Long Will I Love You
Released: 2013
Official Singles Chart peak: Number 3
Total UK chart units: 1.5 million

A surprising entry at Number 2 on this list, the stirring How Long Will I Love You (a cover of the original track by folk group The Waterboys) served as that year's Children In Need single (back when that did contribute to chart success, think Girls Aloud's Something New) and was a veritable festive hit for Ellie. It still retains its power, her third most-streamed song in the UK to date (83 million streams), as well as her best physical-seller. 

1. Love Me Like You Do
Released: 2015
Official Singles Chart peak: Number 1
Total UK chart units: 2.4 million

What are you waiting for? The swooping, cinematic Love Me Like You Do is officially Ellie's biggest track in the UK, and it really couldn't be anything else, could it?

To our years at least, a perfectly constructed pop ballad; Love Me Like You Do was originally written for Demi Lovato in mind, before its producer, Max Martin again, gave it to the team charged with adapting bonkbuster Fifty Shades Of Grey. Its co-writer Tove Lo may have recorded a demo, but it was Ellie who got the chance to front it properly, and when the film became an overnight sensation, so did the song. 

It was Ellie's second UK Number 1, hitting the top of the Official Singles Chart for a month, her longest-ever reign there. Overall, it's achieved a staggering 2.4 million chart units. It's also Ellie's most-downloaded track (857,000 downloads) and her most-streamed too (183 million).

Ellie Goulding's Official Top 20 biggest songs in the UK

POS TITLE ARTIST YEAR PEAK
1 LOVE ME LIKE YOU DO ELLIE GOULDING 2015 1
2 HOW LONG WILL I LOVE YOU ELLIE GOULDING 2013 3
3 BURN ELLIE GOULDING 2013 1
4 YOUR SONG ELLIE GOULDING 2010 2
5 OUTSIDE CALVIN HARRIS/ELLIE GOULDING 2014 6
6 I NEED YOUR LOVE CALVIN HARRIS/ELLIE GOULDING 2012 4
7 STILL FALLING FOR YOU ELLIE GOULDING 2016 11
8 STARRY EYED ELLIE GOULDING 2010 4
9 ON MY MIND ELLIE GOULDING 2015 5
10 ANYTHING COULD HAPPEN ELLIE GOULDING 2012 5
11 CLOSE TO ME ELLIE GOULDING/DIPLO/SWAE LEE 2018 17
12 HATE ME ELLIE GOULDING & JUICE WRLD 2019 33
13 SIXTEEN ELLIE GOULDING 2019 21
14 ARMY ELLIE GOULDING 2015 20
15 FIRST TIME KYGO FT ELLIE GOULDING 2017 34
16 LIGHTS ELLIE GOULDING 2010 49
17 WONDERMAN TINIE TEMPAH FT ELLIE GOULDING 2010 12
18 EXPLOSIONS ELLIE GOULDING 2012 13
19 RIVER ELLIE GOULDING 2019 1
20 GOODNESS GRACIOUS ELLIE GOULDING 2013 16

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T

TruthHurts

0

Standing the test of time our Ellie. When she recorded Your Song, I really didn't buy it because she was so young and the song I thought needed a more mature perspective but she's nailed it ever since. Miracle is a great banger! Well done Ellie.

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Rob Parkinson

1

'Lights' what a track

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Eoin Sioda

2

I seem to remember a then unknown singer called Ellie Goulding opening for Passion Pit a couple of years back. No one had heard of her at the time.