Official Top 40 best-selling songs of 1988

1988 in pop marked the arrival of Kylie Minogue, sibling duo Bros and the rise of house music, but it was long-standing chart icon Cliff Richard who claimed the year's best-selling single.

Mistletoe & Wine spent four weeks at Number 1 on the Official Singles Chart, across the whole of December - including the Christmas Number 1 - racking up an estimated 737,000 sales by the end of the year to claim 1988's top song, according to Official Charts Company data.

As revealed on Channel 5 series Britain's Favourite 80s Songs, the festive track was Cliff's 12th chart-topper and is still proving popular more than 30 years on from its release, re-entering the Top 100 at Christmas for the past two years during the festive season.

MORE: Official Top 40 best-selling songs of 1987

The UK's second best-seller of 1988 was The Only Way Is Up by Yazz & The Plastic Population, with 630,000 sales. The track - a cover of Otis Clay's 1980 single - spent five weeks at Number 1 that summer.

1988 was also the breakout year for Kylie Minogue; the Australian singer landed an impressive five Top 2 singles that year, all of which land on the end-of-year chart. Her debut UK release, I Should Be So Lucky, is third on 616,000 sales, followed by Jason Donovan collaboration Especially For You in fourth on 555,000 sales.

Rounding out the Top 5 is I Think We're Alone Now by Tiffany (498k); the US singer was just 16 when she hit the top with her first UK single, claiming three weeks at the summit.

A total of 20 songs occupied the Number 1 spot across the year, all of which feature on the end-of-year Top 40; including The Hollies' He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother, which hit the top 19 years after its release after being reissued thanks to its use in a beer advert.

Elsewhere, big debut singles that make the 1988 best-sellers list include Belinda Carlisle's Heaven Is A Place On Earth, Orinoco Flow by Irish artist Enya, and I Owe You Nothing by Bros.