It's actually 36 Number 1s!!!

Back in December when the Olly Murs album I played on went to No. 1, I rather casually claimed that it was my 27th Number 1 –  without really checking that that was accurate. I had sort of roughly started to keep count around the 15th and just added from there as and when they came along. However it seems that all this time I’ve been making false claims. I discovered this because, on that post a friend asked me to provide a list! Ooh. I’d never thought of that.

And so, one afternoon with a few hours to spare I googled a list of all the UK & US no.1 albums and singles since 1980 and, bugger me I was wrong. It’s not 27….. it’s 35.

I found another 8 albums that I played on which went to No.1 either in the UK or US without me realising.

When you're young these things don’t seem to matter and so I never really took that much notice. However, as you get older these small triumphs take on more significance. In a world where the young - quite rightly – gradually usurp the old, it’s as though we search for evidence of our achievements – however small. Some kind of reassurance that we haven’t wasted the time allotted us.

Now, I’m not suggesting that playing on a few records is evidence of a life well lived, but somehow it assuages that feeling that time is running out to make a mark on the world.

And so, for the sake of accuracy – and in possibly the most maudlin announcement of all time – I’m happy to say that the Shania Twain album that went to Number 1 in the UK this week is my 36th