With St Patrick’s Day being celebrated this week, I thought I would list the top 20 most successful Irish (or predominently Irish) acts in UK singles chart history. Here’s the list:

Act	Number of UK hits	number of number ones	Longest chart runner	Total weeks on singles chart
Hothouse Flowers	10	0	Don’t Go	36
Cranberries	10	0	Linger	55
The Script	13	1	Hall Of Fame	225
Ronan Keating	14	3	When You Say Nothing At All / If Tomorrow Never Comes	157
Val Doonican	14	0	Walk Tall	143
Boomtown Rats	14	2	Rat Trap	123
Chris De Burgh	15	1	The Lady In Red	71
Gilbert O’Sullivan	16	2	No Matter How I Try	145
Enya	16	1	I Don’t Wanna Know (With Mario Winans)	90
Pogues	17	Nil	Fairytale Of New York (With Kirsty MacColl)	144
Sinead O’Connor	17	1	Nothing Compares 2 U	70
Corrs	17	1	Breathless / So Young	109
Bachelors	17	1	Diane / Charmaine	187
Thin Lizzy	18	Nil	Sarah / Rosalie-(Cowgirl’s Song)	128
The Saturdays	18	1	Up	197
Daniel O’Donnell	19	Nil	I Just Want To Dance With You	71
Boyzone	21	6	Picture Of You	224
Ash	21	Nil	Oh Yeah	71
Westlife	28	14	I Have A Dream / Seasons In The Sun / You Raise Me Up	286 (inc 6 weeks curr)
U2	49	7	With Or Without You	339

The UK chart was extended from a top 50 to a top 75 on 13 May 1978, here is a list of all the acts who had just one UK hit which spent just one week at number 75. I wonder how many of these you’ve heard of!

Artist	Title	Year
Angelwitch	Sweet Danger	1980
Grand Prix	Keep On Believing	1982
Adicts	Bad Boy	1983
Dayton	The Sound Of Music	1985
Michael Lovesmith	Ain’t Nothin’ Like It	1986
Anthony Hopkins	Distant Star	1987
Deja	Serious	1989
Cheryl Pepsi Riley	Thanks For My Child	1990
Stop The Violence Movement	Self-Destruction	1990
Pretty Boy Floyd	Rock And Roll (Is Gonna Set The Night On Fire)	1991
Seduction	Heartbeat	1991
Apples	Eye Wonder	1992
Lost	Technofunk	1992
D’bora	Dream About You	1992
Simone	My Family Depends On Me	1993
Souled Out	In My Life	1994
Baby June	Hey! What’s Your Name	1995
DTOX	Shattered Glass	1995
Good Girls	Just Call Me	1995
Expose	I’ll Never Get Over You (Getting Over Me)	1995
Heartbeat Country	Heartbeat	1996
Jhelisa	Friendly Pressure	1996
Kreuz	Party All Night	1997
Depth Charge	Legend Of The Golden Snake	1998
Danielle Brisebois	Gimme Little Sign	1998
Quench	Dreams	1998
John Parish	That Was My Veil	1999
Shades	Serenade	1999
Inner Sanctum	How Soon Is Now	1999
Niels Van Goch	Pulverturm	2000
Der Dritte Raum	Hale Bopp	2000
Campag Velocet	Vito Satan	2001
Haziza	One More	2001
Proud Mary	Very Best Friend	2001
Cenoginerz	Git Down	2001
Ils	Next Level	2002
Goldfinger	Open Your Eyes	2002
Mr. Scruff	Sweetsmoke	2002
Pete Burns	Jack And Jill Party	2002
International Airport	Association!	2002
Flash Brothers	Amen (Don’t Be Afraid)	2004
Brendan Benson	Spit It Out	2004
Black Velvets	Once In A While	2005
Bonde Do Role	Office Boy	2005
Brit & Alex	Let It Go	2006
Remady	No Superstar	2007
Steve Mckenna	Scottish Soldier	2008
Gaslight Anthem	45	2010
Jermain Jackman	And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going	2012
Majestic & Jungle 70	Creeping In The Dark	2015
La La Land Cast	Another Day Of Sun	2017

The first artist to solely write and record his own American number one hit was Buddy Knox, his song Party Doll topped the chart in March 1957.

The first artist to solely write and record his own British number one hit was Russ Conway, his tune Side Saddle topped the exactly two years later in March 1959.

Joy Division’s late lead singer Ian Curtis’s dog was called Candy which was named after the Velvet Underground song, Candy Says.

The X Factor TV theme tune was composed by Andy Love who was a former member of the boy band Northern Line.

Herb Alpert is the only artist to have a American number one singles in both vocal and instrumental forms. The vocal was This Guy’s in Love With You in 1968 and an instrumental was Rise in 1979.

The ‘Beastie’ in Beastie Boys is meant to be an acronym for Boys Entering Anarchistic States Towards Internal Excellence.

Black Sabbath’s Paranoid was written in 20 minutes to fill a three minute gap on their forthcoming album.

The first UK hit version of With A Little Help From My Friends was by Joe Brown.

The Four Aces’ 1955 hit Love Is A Many Splendored Thing was the first American number one that was specifically written for a motion picture.

Jake Roche from Rixton is the son of Shane Ritchie and Coleen Nolan.

Following last week’s list of the youngest singers to top the Billboard singles chart, here is a list of the top 10 oldest.

Artist	Song	Number one in	Age
Sammy Davis Jr.	The Candy Man	1972	46 years 6 months
Dean Martin	Everybody Loves Somebody	1964	47 years 2 months
Bill Medley	(I’ve Had) The Time Of My Life	1987	47 years 2 months
Lorne Green	Ringo	1964	49 years 9 months
Elton John	Candle In The Wind-1997	1997	50 years 6 months
Frank Sinatra	Somethin’ Stupid	1967	51 years 4 months
Cher	Believe	1999	52 years 9 months
Morris Stoloff	Moonglow	1956	57 years 10 months
Lawrence Welk	Calcutta	1961	57 years 11 months
Louie Armstrong	Hello Dolly	1964	63 years 10 months

Here is a list of the 10 youngest solo singers to top the Billboard singles chart;

Artist	Song	Year of number one	Age
Stevie Wonder	Fingertips (Part 2)	1963	13 years 88 days
Donny Osmond	Go Away Little Girl	1971	13 years 276 days
Jimmy Boyd	I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus	1952	12 years 353 days
Michael Jackson	Ben	1972	14 years 46 days
Laurie London	He’s Got The Whole World In His Hands	1958	14 years 85 days
Little Peggy March	I Will Follow Him	1963	15 years 51 days
Brenda Lee	I’m Sorry	1960	15 years 220 days
Tiffany	I Think We’re Alone Now	1987	16 years 36 days
Paul Anka	Diana	1957	16 years 41 days
Brian Hyland	Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini	1960	16 years 270 days