Official Top 40 best-selling singles of 1998

Some of the biggest songs of the year included Believe by Cher, Celine Dion's My Heart Will Go On and C'est La Vie by B'Witched.
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It's exceedingly rare for an artist to return from a period in the commercial doldrums with a record-breaking Number 1 single, let alone nearly 30 years into their career. But in 1998, Cher proved once and for all that she was not most artists. To the rules, she was always an exception.

But Believe could never have been made in any other year than 1998, and it couldn't have been released by anyone other than Cher. Taking the fairly new technology of AutoTune, it seemed to rejoice in stretching Cher's iconic, deep voice into the realms of absurdity. The perfect fit, really, for a song that's about learning to love yourself after you've been left alone and changed by someone.

Believe proved to be revelatory for Cher, who was 52 at the time of its release. Debuting atop the Official Singles Chart, it stayed at Number 1 for a total of seven weeks and is still her best-selling single in the UK today.

With sales totalling over 1.5 million copies (1.8 million overall), Believe was the UK's best-selling single of 1998 - and the first song by a female solo artist to be certified Triple Platinum. It also holds the distinction of being the highest-selling single by a female act - ever - on the Official Charts. 

Now that's what you call a comeback. 

MORE: The UK's best-selling singles of all time

Meanwhile, taking second place is a little-known song from a little-known film by a little-known singer. Celine Dion's My Heart Will Go On helped Titanic become (at the time at least) the highest-grossing film of all time, and its reception on the Official Singles Chart also reflects that, it also reached Number 1 and stayed at the top for two weeks and shifted 1.3m that year. 

In third is Jason Nevins' remix of Run DMC's It's Like That, on 1.09m. The rework of the hip-hop classic was hugely popular across Europe before its UK release, helping it soar to the top spot and achieve the unthinkable: breaking Spice Girls' run of Number 1 hits as their single Stop was forced to settle for second place. 

Two Irish acts also made a massive impact on the charts in 1998. Boyband Boyzone continued their dominance with their cover of Whistle Down The Wind's No Matter What becoming their fourth UK Number 1 and the fourth most popular song of the year (1.07m). 

But it was the girls that came out on top that year. Seen by many to be the natural successors to Spice Girls, B'Witched made a massive impression with the most entries in the year-end Top 40, with three. They include debut single C'est La Vie (5, 851k), Rollercoaster (21) and To You I Belong (33), all of which peaked at Number 1.

MORE: The Top 40 best-selling songs of 1997

Elsewhere in the Top 10, Chef, a character from South Park made a punt for Christmas Number 1 with Chocolate Salty Balls (PS I Love You) but still manages to place seventh at the years-end (682k). That year's actual Christmas Number 1 was Spice Girls with Goodbye (680k). Their third consecutive Christmas Number 1 single, they became the first act to earn the accolade since The Beatles - a feat that was also equalled last year by LadBaby. Another Spice Number 1 that year, Viva Forever, lands at Number 13.

Official Top 40 best-selling singles of 1998

  TITLE ARTIST PEAK
1 BELIEVE CHER 1
2 MY HEART WILL GO ON CELINE DION 1
3 IT'S LIKE THAT RUN DMC VS. JASON NEVINS 1
4 NO MATTER WHAT BOYZONE 1
5 C'EST LA VIE B'WITCHED 1
6 HOW DO I LIVE LEANN RIMES 7
7 CHOCOLATE SALTY BALLS (PS I LOVE YOU) CHEF 1
8 GOODBYE SPICE GIRLS 1
9 GHETTO SUPASTAR (THAT IS WHAT YOU ARE) PRAS MICHEL FT. ODB AND MYA 2
10 TRULY MADLY DEEPLY SAVAGE GARDEN 4
11 MUSIC SOUNDS BETTER WITH YOU STARDUST 2
12 HEARTBEAT/TRAGEDY STEPS 1
13 VIVA FOREVER SPICE GIRLS 1
14 3 LIONS '98 BADDIEL/SKINNER/LIGHTNING SEEDS 1
15 DOCTOR JONES AQUA 1
16 NEVER EVER ALL SAINTS 1
17 I DON'T WANT TO MISS A THING AEROSMITH 4
18 THE BOY IS MINE BRANDY & MONICA 2
19 FEEL IT TAMPERER FT. MAYA 1
20 BRIMFUL OF ASHA CORNERSHOP 1
21 ROLLERCOASTER B'WITCHED 1
22 FROZEN MADONNA 1
23 HORNY MOUSSE T VS. HOT'N'JUICY 2
24 VINDALOO FAT LES 2
25 ANGELS ROBBIE WILLIAMS 4
26 DANCE THE NIGHT AWAY MAVERICKS 4
27 UNDER THE BRIDGE/LADY MARMALADE ALL SAINTS 1
28 FREAK ME ANOTHER LEVEL 1
29 MILLENNIUM ROBBIE WILLIAMS 1
30 TO THE MOON AND BACK SAVAGE GARDEN 3
31 ONE FOR SORROW STEPS 2
32 TOGETHER AGAIN JANET JACKSON 4
33 TO YOU I BELONG B'WITCHED 1
34 GOT THE FEELIN' FIVE 3
35 HIGH LIGHTHOUSE FAMILY 4
36 FINALLY FOUND HONEYZ 4
37 PERFECT 10 BEAUTIFUL SOUTH 2
38 SEX ON THE BEACH T-SPOON 2
39 SAVE TONIGHT EAGLE-EYE CHERRY 6
40 I LOVE THE WAY YOU LOVE ME BOYZONE 2

©2021 Official Charts Company. All rights reserved.

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MP

Mr P

0

This chart is wrong. I sat and recorded this top 40 when Mark Goodyear was the DJ for BBC Radio 1's UK weekly countdown back in 98. This is clearly a combined sales of the songs overall and not the sales of just that year as, for example, Usher's - All I Wanna was at 40, Chef was at 12, Spice Girls - Viva Forever was at 10 and Pras Michel was at 7. The top 6 are in the correct order.

Official Charts company why are you not 'official'?

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Blank

1

Article says Cher was nearly 30 years into her career, with a #1 in 1965, she was OVER 30 years into her career at this point. A longer career than most of the other hitmakers' lives.

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Blank

1

Goes to show how much Spice Girls sold again - Goodbye top 10 of the year wit just 1 week of sales!
Also remember the rare strange quirk of LeAnn RImes: higher on the year-end chart than the peak weekly chart. Steps with their first million seller didn't get it's millionth sale (or peak position) until the new year

GF

Gary Feld

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Spice Girls had 2 weeks of sales to be in top 10 of the year, not one. That's why Chef is above them.

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Velvet Android

0

Good stuff George and OCC, I think the chart positions given are all correct this time! A few typos in the text, though, if you don’t mind me pointing them out early:

“Debuting atop the Official Singles Chart and stayed at Number 1 for a total of seven weeks” should read “Debuting atop the Official Singles Chart, it stayed...”
Triple Platinum, not Tripe Platinum!

Boyzone “with their cover of Whistle Down the Wind’s No Matter What”

“Seen as many to be the natural successors to Spice Girls” should be “Seen by many...”, and it should be “entries” in the same sentence not “entires”.

It might be worth mentioning that Chef was performed by a bona fide soul legend in Isaac Hayes, by the way...

S

Stu

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OCC: 3 days later, and no one has bothered to amend a simple typo from tripe to triple!!! You can do better than this. Or do you accept tripe?!!!

S

Stu

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Thanks OCC for the correction! How about changing the Cher reference from 'nearly 30 years' to 'just over 30 years' as has been pointed out and all will be better with the world!