Great Number Twos (that's the singles chart, not Chris Ofili's elephants)

"Common People"

"groove is in the heart", despite those dark rumours. rock dinosaur bastards.

i know a lot of people will be down on it, but Vienna is at least WELL KNOWN for not getting to no 1. i personally think it's fab.

The BIG THREE (God, I love these records):

Lipps Inc - Funkytown
Heatwave- Boogie Nights
La Belle Epoque - Black is Black

These are nearly as fantastic :

Slade - Gudbuy t'Jane
Slade - My Friend Stan
Slade - Far Far Away
The Real Thing - Can't Get By Without You
Sweet - Hellraiser
Sweet - Teenage Rampage
A-Ha - Take on me
Elton john - Rocket Man
Kinks - All Of The Day...
Kinks - Waterloo Sunset
Kinks - Lola
Bowie - The Jean Genie
Bowie - Modern Love
Hot Chocolate - No Doubt About It ("Let me tell you about the other night/it was really frightening")
Boney M - Rasputin
Boney M - Ma Baker
The Move - Night Of Fear
The Move - Flowers In The Rain
R. Dean Taylor - Indiana Wants Me
DaveCalrk Five - Bits and Pieces
Human League - Mirror Man
Human League - Keep Feeling Fascination
Small Faces - Lazy Sunday
Mud - the Cat Crept In

is there not a list of evey uk top 40 on a site somewhere ?
there used to be, and i think it 'got stopped' for some reason.

i'd love to find one. or a book for that matter.

This iste may be of some help in answering the question:

http://freespace.virgin.net/sharon.persky/uknumbertwos.htm

Sparks - "This Town Ain't..." may well get my vote.

'Some reason' = copyright of the chart compilers.

I think Robin once said that Guinness used to publish a companion volume to British Hit Singles that just listed all the charts, but I may have misremembered this. It would have had to be a pretty big book. They should launch a pay-as-you-go website with it all on, seening as they're being arsey about it.

If not Sparks, then SUAD's "Raving I'm Raving"

Heaven 17 - Temptation (it is the right song?)

Five Star - Rain or Shine
Alice Cooper - Poison

Forgot 'Poison' - it's awesome!

How can they be great if they only got to number 2?

(Kind of alright, but certainly not great: Fairytale of New York, Sit Down)

coz sometimes an awfully undeserving song gets to number one and keeps the great song at number two. The charts are subjective afterall.

george m's had a few judging by that list
what with wham and all. stevie v 'dirty cash'?
well i never knew that.
crackin that was. sophie ellis bextor's had 2 too.

other classics :
'tender' - blur, always forget that one.
'love shack'- b52's
'need you tonight' - inxs
'beat dis' - bomb the bass
'dance yourself dizzy' - liquid gold
'mickey' - toni basil
'golden brown' - stranglers
'what have i done to deserve this ?' - psb
'come back my love' - darts (*ducks*)
'aint gonna bump no more' - joe tex
'young herts run free' - candi staton
'jean genie' - david bowie
'donna' - 10cc

surely the worst has to be
'get ready for this' - 2 unlimited. jesus that was bad bad bad.
f*ckin terrible in fact. really really awful

Yeah, Robson and Green's Unchained Melody is so much better than Common People.

'tender' - blur, always forget that one.

oh god, and i tried so hard to forget that one.

Altered Images: "Happy Birthday"
Laurie Anderson: "O Superman"

... from that golden year of 1981.

The 1982 edition of the Guinness Book of BHS (!) had a special section at the back for #2s - omitting those records that merely paused in the silver medal position on their way up to/back down from the summit. It's at my parents, otherwise I'd do a stupidly long like what Tom done.

long list

BORN SLIPPY!

FUCKS the number twos is so imenselly better than the number ones. much much much better

Loads of tremendous suggestions, as well as some mad ones, inevitably. And I liked Two Unlimited, too. I'm going with Common People.

ROLL WITH IT

mildly surprised "Suspicious Minds" isn't mentioned here; surely it's pretty well-known that "Two Little Boys" kept it off the top? I'm sure it still rankles with Elvis fans that bloody "The Wonder Of You" was the only UK #1 of his "comeback" period. rankles even with *me*, come to that.

also early 70s: Clarence Carter's "Patches" is ace, and should have been #1 for three weeks instead of Matthews Sodding Southern Comfort. T Rex would have had two more number ones if novelty / comedy records hadn't been prone to spring from nowhere back then.