Official Top 40 best-selling songs of 1993

The UK's top songs of 1993, featuring classics from Meat Loaf, Ace Of Base, Gabrielle and Take That.
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1993 saw Meat Loaf conquer the world with his single I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That), which became the UK's best-selling single of 1993.

The singer's power ballad was a true phenomenon, topping the charts in 28 countries, including the UK's Official Chart, where it spent seven weeks at Number 1 and sold 723,000 copies that year, according to Official Charts Company data. 

I'd Do Anything... served as the first single from Meat Loaf's Bat Out Of Hell II: Back Into Hell album, which was also the UK's top selling record of 1993. View Meat Loaf's Official Chart history in full here. Earlier this year, Meat Loaf collaborator Jim Steinman, who produced the song and its parent album, died aged 73 after a long illness.

In second place is UB40's (I Can't Help) Falling In Love With You, a reggae take on the Elvis classic that spent two weeks at the top in June and earned the band their third UK chart-topper, shifting 606,000 copies that year. 

Swedish group Ace Of Base scored the third best-seller of 1993 with All That She Wants (604k). The track was the group's global breakthrough (Wheel Of Fortune was a hit in their homeland the previous year), and logged three weeks at the summit in May-June. 

Rounding out the year-end Top 5 is club anthem No Limit by Dutch Eurodance band 2 Unlimited (532k) at 4, and the uplifting debut single from British singer-songwriter Gabrielle, Dreams, at 5 (513k). 

Elsewhere, the 1993 Christmas Number 1, Mr Blobby (the first ever eponymously titled Number 1), notched up 512,000 sales to place sixth overall that year, and Whitney Houston's I Will Always Love You - the best-selling single of 1992 - continued to perform well the following year, finishing 10th with another 395,000 sales in 1993.

Further down, The Bluebells' 1984 single Young At Heart ranks 12th following a re-release thanks its use in a Volkswagen TV advert, which saw it top the chart in March.

Take That domination was also in full force in 1993, with three entries in the year-end Top 40: Babe (14), their first Number 1 Pray (18), and Lulu collaboration Relight My Fire (28).

Finally, Freddie Mercury places 20th after landing a posthumous Number 1 with a remix of his song Living On My Own, far outperforming the Number 50 peak of the 1985 original.  

  SONG ARTIST PEAK
1 I'D DO ANYTHING FOR LOVE (BUT I WON'T DO THAT) MEATLOAF 1
2 (I CAN'T HELP) FALLING IN LOVE WITH YOU UB40 1
3 ALL THAT SHE WANTS ACE OF BASE 1
4 NO LIMIT 2 UNLIMITED 1
5 DREAMS GABRIELLE 1
6 MR BLOBBY MR BLOBBY 1
7 OH CAROLINA SHAGGY 1
8 WHAT IS LOVE HADDAWAY 2
9 MR VAIN CULTURE BEAT 1
10 I WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOU WHITNEY HOUSTON 1
11 FIVE LIVE EP GEORGE MICHAEL & QUEEN 1
12 YOUNG AT HEART THE BLUEBELLS 1
13 TEASE ME CHAKA DEMUS & PLIERS 3
14 BABE TAKE THAT 1
15 PLEASE FORGIVE ME BRYAN ADAMS 2
16 BOOM ! SHAKE THE ROOM JAZZY JEFF & FRESH PRINCE 1
17 INFORMER SNOW 2
18 PRAY TAKE THAT 1
19 SWEAT (A LA LA LA LA LONG) INNER CIRCLE 3
20 LIVING ON MY OWN FREDDIE MERCURY 1
21 WHAT'S UP? 4 NON BLONDES 2
22 THE KEY: THE SECRET URBAN COOKIE COLLECTIVE 2
23 DON'T BE A STRANGER DINA CARROLL 3
24 IT KEEPS RAININ' (TEARS FROM MY EYES) BITTY MCLEAN 2
25 TWO PRINCES SPIN DOCTORS 3
26 LITTLE BIRD/LOVE SONG FOR A VAMPIRE ANNIE LENNOX 3
27 THE RIVER OF DREAMS BILLY JOEL 3
28 RELIGHT MY FIRE TAKE THAT FEAT LULU 1
29 TRUE LOVE ELTON JOHN & KIKI DEE 2
30 THE LOVE I LOST WEST END FEAT SYBIL 3
31 TWIST & SHOUT CHAKA DEMUS & PLIERS 1
32 GIVE IT UP GOODMEN 5
33 FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS BEE GEES 4
34 RIGHT HERE SWV 3
35 MR LOVERMAN SHABBA RANKS 3
36 MOVING ON UP M PEOPLE 2
37 U GOT 2 LET THE MUSIC CAPPELLA 2
38 EXTERMINATE! SNAP FEAT NIKI HARIS 2
39 DEEP EAST 17 5
40 WHEN I'M GOOD AND READY SYBIL 5

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A

Apeliotes

0

1993. Despite some highlights, one of the worst years in British chart history. Pop hadn't recovered from the 80s. Rave had burnt out. Brit pop yet to get on its feet. The charts were padded out with short lived second rate acts and songs that barely anyone remembers.

K

Kamāl

3

informer! ya no say daddy me snow me I go blaaameeee.. a licky boom boom DOWN !