Bob fixes it to be number one in battle for top single prize of 2000.

When 31 singles topped the chart back in 1998 it was a new record. That was subsequently shattered in 1999, when there were 36 singles number ones, and comprehensively beaten again last year, with no fewer than 43 singles taking turns at the top.

The inability of any single to spend even four weeks at number one was but one symptom that last year was not a vintage one for singles overall. Further evidence that the format was in the doldrums was provided by the fact that in the whole year only eight singles managed to sell more than half a million copies, compared to 20 in each of the two previous years. And the biggest of them all -- for the first time -- was not even by a human being. It was, of course, animated children's TV character Bob The Builder's Can We Fix It, which sold more than 850,000 copies in December to claim the title which had long seemed likely to go to All Saints' Pure Shores.

Bob The Builder's victory follows Britney Spears' triumph in 1999 and gives distributor Pinnacle the number one single for the second year in a row. It is the first single on the BBC label to become the number one of the year, although the Beeb came close in 1986 when Every Loser Wins by Nick Berry was number two to the Communards' Don't Leave Me This Way.

The BBC/Pinnacle triumph was fitting, as the indie sector as a whole was buoyant once again, with 28 of the 100 biggest sellers of the year reaching the trade through independent distributors. That is six more than the previous record, set in 1999, and marks the third year in a row that indies have raised their game. No major distributor came near to matching the indies' share; Universal was closest with 19 records in the Top 100. Pinnacle contributed 15 records to the indies' haul, with its parent company Zomba's flagship Jive label providing nine of them.

The downturn in singles sales slashed the number of acts selling more than 1m singles in the year from nine to five, even though artists were credited for any record which sold more than 120 copies, the number required to reach the survey's cut-off position of 5,000. The number 100 single in 2000 sold just 150,000 copies and would have been ranked 25 places lower in 1999.

The race to see who was the best-selling act of the year was the closest ever, with Westlife just shading it from Eminem and Craig David. The Irish group started the year at number one, ended it at number two and had three further number ones in the intervening months, but still ended up with a comparatively modest tally of 1,243,510 sales. Eminem all but equalled that, with a hip hop best-ever tally of 1,241,996. And he was only 422 sales ahead of third-placed Craig David, whose tally was boosted by his Artful Dodger collaborations as well as by his own solo career.

The Baha Men enjoyed a lengthy run in the Top 10 with Who Let The Dogs Out, which finished in fourth place for the year with sales of more than 617,000 copies even though it did not reach number one. Many number one hits sold far fewer than half that tally, with the year's lowest-ranking chart-topper being the Manic Street Preachers' The Masses Against The Classes, which sold only 142,000 copies in its life and finished at number 110 for the year.