The best No 1 records: Cornershop – Brimful of Asha

1998: Fatboy Slim's big-beat makeover unexpectedly took the indie underdogs and their puzzling lyrics to No 1

Cornershop's ode to filmic escapism, Bollywood playback singer Asha Bhosle and 7in singles has to be one of the most unexpected chart-toppers in history – a testament to pop music's strange currencies. This was a band, after all, that began life in protest at the apolitical nature of British music, that once wore their musical ineptitude on their sleeves and whose name inverted a whitey slur against British Asians. When Brimful of Asha was first released in 1997, it barely scraped the top 70. But by the time Fatboy Slim had given the slouchy original a big-beat makeover, its added bounce and puzzling lyrics took the indie underdogs to the masses, kicking Céline Dion's Titanic anthem to the kerb and introducing the phrase "everybody needs a bosom for a pillow" to the nation's playgrounds.


Cornershop - Brimful of Asha by FabCure

See every No 1 from 1998

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Malik Meer

The GuardianTramp

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