The official UK Top 40 Chart is today, not only based on sales of CDs and vinyl but also downloads and audio streams. With the rise of the likes of Spotify, this has led to some quirky results in the history of the charts, with a prime example being Ed Sheeran having several songs simultaneously in the top ten.

A look back at the Top 40 from decades ago paints a different picture, and some would say it was more fun to see if a favourite artist was climbing up the charts, having bought their single.

On this day in 2008, the top five had “Cry for You” by September, “Wearing My Rolex” by Wiley, “American Boy” by Estelle, “Black & Gold” by Sam Sparro and Madonna at number one with “4 Minutes” featuring Justin Timberlake. Apart from Madonna, the other four artists have had no further success, although surprisingly, September’s song was actually the biggest selling number five hit of 2008.

The 90’s saw the rise of boy bands, and twenty years ago today, Boyzone went straight in at number one with “All That I Need”. However, its popularity was short-lived, only holding the top position for one week before rapidly dropping out of the charts.

Other artists in the top five were Run-DMC, Kula Shaker, Tamperer and Catatonia.

The singles chart of 1988 was a curious mix of songs with no one particular genre standing out. Bananarama were at number five and surprisingly, despite their long-running career, have never had a number one hit single. The other artists in the top five were Hazell Dean, Danny Wilson and Fairground Attraction, all beaten to the top spot by “Theme from S-Express”, one of the early acid house songs.