Many songs have been inspired by actors and actresses but are not referenced in the title, here’s some UK hits that did. (I’ve not included things like Lady Madonna which is clearly not about the American singer!)

 

Artist	Title	Year	Position
Danny Mirror	I Remember Elvis Presley	1977	4
Kim Carnes	Bette Davis Eyes	1981	10
Kirsty MacColl	There’s A Guy Works Down The Chip Shop Swears He’s Elvis	1981	14
Haysi Fantayzee	John Wayne Is Big Leggy	1982	11
Madness	Michael Caine	1984	11
Bananarama	Robert De Niro’s Waiting	1984	3
Suzanne Vega	Marlene Dietrich	1986	21
Stump	Charlton Heston	1988	72
Dire Straits	Calling Elvis	1991	21
Junior Vasquez	If Madonna Calls	1996	24
James	Just Like Fred Astaire	1999	17
Leilani	Flying Elvis	2000	73
Gorillaz	Clint Eastwood	2001	4
Manic Street Preachers	Let Robeson Sing	2001	19
Daniel Bedingfield	James Dean (I Wanna Know)	2002	4
Sheryl Crow	Steve McQueen	2002	44
Androids	Do It With Madonna	2003	15
Kill City	Just Like Bruce Lee	2004	64
Mika	Grace Kelly	2007	1
Robbie Williams & Pet Shop Boys	She’s Madonna	2007	16
The Automatic	Steve McQueen	2008	16
Scouting For Girls	Elvis Ain’t Dead	2008	8
Duck Sauce	Barbra Streisand	2010	3
Pharrell Williams	Marilyn Monroe	2014	25
Fall Out Boy	Uma Thurman	2015	71
Tiesto & Dzeko Ft Preme & Post Malone	Jackie Chan	2018	5

 

1st:
1957 Cool For Cats debuts on ITV television and hosted by Kent Walton.
1962 Dick Rowe at Decca Records famously turned down the Beatles in favour of Brian Poole and Tremeloes.
1963 Top Of The Pops first broadcast on BBC1 from a disused church in Manchester
1980 Cliff Richard awarded the M.B.E

2nd:
1965 The Dutch singles chart is launched.

4th:
1936 Billboard magazine publishes their first Top 100 singles chart.

5th:
1978 The Sex Pistols begin their distastrous US tour which only lasts nine days.

7th:
1958 The Flying V guitar is patented by Gibson.

8th:
1983 Gallup take over from The British Market Research Bureau as official compilers of the UK chart.

10th:
1948 Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson form Atlantic Records.

11th:
1963 The Beatles make their first UK TV appearance on Thank Your Lucky Stars.

14th:
1966 David Bowie changes his name from David Jones so not to get confused with a similar sounding Monkee.

15th:
1970 Diana Ross officially leaves the Supremes and is replaced by Jean Terrell.

16th:
1958 The Cavern Club in Matthew Street, Liverpool opens initially as a jazz club.

20th:
1958 Elvis Presley enters the U.S Army.
1960 Elvis Presley is promoted from Private to Sergeant in the U.S Army.
1982 Ozzy Osbourne bit the head off a live bat thinking it was a plastic one.
1994 Fatboy Slim launches his own Southern Fried record label.

24th:
1970 Robert Moog patents the Moog synthesizer.
1998 Oasis tops the UK singles chart with All Around The World and at 9m 38s becomes the longest number one single.

27th:
1984 Michael Jackson’s hair catches fire whilst filming a pepsi cola commercial in Los Angeles.

30th:
1969 The Beatles perform on the roof of the Apple building in Savile Row in London maing it the last time all four played together.

31st:
1965 P.J. Proby famously splits his trousers on stage at the Ritz Cinema in Luton.
1997 David Bowie becomes the first pop star to float himself on the stock market.

Here is a list of the top 10 best sellers of last year.

Singles	Artist	Title	Weeks on chart
10	Dua Lipa	IDGAF	24
9	Portugal. The Man	Feel It Still	31 ^
8	George Ezra	Paradise	36
7	Drake	Nice for What	13
6	Ed Sheeran	Perfect	79
5	Keala Settle & The Greatest Showman Ensemble	This Is Me	49*
4	Rudimental ft Jess Glynne, Macklemore & Dan Caplen	These Days	35
3	George Ezra	Shotgun	38*
2	Calvin Harris & Dua Lipa	One Kiss	31
1	Drake	God’s Plan	23
Albums	Artist	Title	Weeks on chart
10	Arctic Monkeys	Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino	21
9	Cast Recording	A Star Is Born	11*
8	Eminem	Kamikaze	16*
7	Dua Lipa	Dua Lipa	79^
6	Post Malone	Beerbongs & Bentleys	34*
5	Drake	Scorpion	25*
4	Original Cast Recording	Mamma Mia! – Here We Go Again	23*
3	Ed Sheeran	÷	94^
2	George Ezra	Staying At Tamara’s	39*
1	Original Soundtrack	The Greatest Showman	52*

* = still on the chart     ^ = weeks included from 2017

Some 2018 musical facts:

12 hours of music are uploaded to SoundCloud every minute.

The Grammy’s committee chose Alessia Cara as 2018’s Best New Artist.

The rapper Juice Wrld reportedly signed a $3 million deal before his songs were on Apple, Spotify, or TIDAL.

Cardi B and Lauryn Hill are the only female rappers with solo American number one hits.

Drake’s 2018 number one hit, Nice for What, was streamed more than 10 million times in 24 hours on Apple Music.

In 2018, it takes an average of 220 streams for an independent artist to make $1 on major streaming platforms.

The shortest track to make the UK chart in 2018 was XXXtentcion’s Bad. It reached number 23 and was timed at one minute and 31 seconds.

And the longest? Hugh Jackman and the Greatest Showman Ensemble’s From Now On which crept into the chart at number 71 and was five minutes and 45 seconds long.

Of the 16 number ones of 2018, the shortest was Benny Blanco, Halsey & Khalid’s Eastside which was two minutes and 49 seconds and the longest was Clean Bandit Featuring Demi Lovato’s Solo at a mere three minutes 39 seconds.

Whilst Ed Sheeran holds the record for the most entries in the UK chart at one time, Post Malone holds that record in the States. In May 2018, All 18 songs from his Beerbongs & Bentleys album made the Hot 100, nine of them in the top 20.

                                                                                                                             

There was been eight UK number ones with Christmas/Xmas in the title, but since the chart began officially in 1952, there have only been 34 hits (not including the chart-toppers), to have made the top 10, here’s the list and the positions they reached.

Artist	Title	Year	Position
Mantovani And His Orchestra	White Christmas	1952	6
David Whitfield	Santo Natale (Merry Christmas)	1954	2
The Goons	I’m Walking Backwards For Christmas	1956	4
Dickie Valentine	Christmas Island	1956	8
Adam Faith	Lonely Pup (In a Christmas Shop)	1960	4
Brenda Lee	Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree	1962	6
Elvis Presley	If Every Day Was Like Christmas	1966	9
John & Yoko & The Plastic Ono Band With The Harlem Community Choir	Happy Xmas (War Is Over)	1972	4
Wizzard	I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday	1973	4
The Goodies	Father Christmas Do Not Touch Me	1974	7
The Wombles	Wombling Merry Christmas	1974	2
Greg Lake	I Believe In Father Christmas	1975	2
Dana	It’s Gonna Be a Cold Cold Christmas	1975	4
Bing Crosby	White Christmas	1977	5
Paul Mcartney	Wonderful Christmastime	1979	6
Shakin’ Stevens	Blue Christmas	1982	2
Gary Glitter	Another Rock And Roll Christmas	1984	7
Wham!	Last Christmas	1984	2
Mel And Kim (Mel Smith & Kim Wilde)	Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree	1987	3
Gloria Estefan	Christmas Through Your Eyes	1992	8
Mariah Carey	All I Want For Christmas Is You	1994	2
Bon Jovi	Please Come Home for Christmas	1994	7
Childliners	The Gift of Christmas	1995	9
The Smurf	Your Christmas Wish	1996	8
Jane Mcdonald	Cruise Into Christmas	1998	10
Mr. Hanky Poo	Mr. Hanky the Christmas Poo	1999	4
The Tweenies	I Believe In Christmas	2001	9
Cheeky Girls	Have a Cheeky Christmas	2003	10
The Darkness Feat The Haberdashers’ Aske’s Hatcham College Choir	Christmas Time (Don’t Let the Bells End)	2003	2
The Idols	Happy Xmas (War Is Over)	2003	5
Cliff Richard Feat Brian May & Brian Bennett	21st Century Christmas	2006	2
Geraldine	Once Upon a Christmas Song	2008	5
Lou Monte	Dominick The Donkey (The Italian Xmas Donkey)	2011	3
Matt Terry	When Christmas Comes Around	2016	3