New Year, new 'chart of the year', obviously. In the end it was Tony Christie who had the best selling single of 2005 - an achievement I am guessing even the most 'finger on the pulse' of you out there would not have predicted this time last year. But the Peter Kay endorsed '(Is This The Way To) Amarillo' was, indeed, the biggest selling single of 2005.
As for the other big sellers, well, while you may have predicted big success for an X Factor winner, you didn't know his name would be Shayne Ward until a couple of weeks back. Meanwhile James Blunt was unproven this time last year, and the Crazy Frog was still just an irritating new ring tone. Yet Shayne Ward's 'That's My Goal', Crazy Frog's 'Axel F' and James Blunt's 'You're Beautiful' were the second, third and fourth best selling singles of the year, respectively.
That McFly would have the fifth best selling single with a Comic Relief fundraiser was perhaps more predictable as 2005 began - the 'All About You'/ 'You've Got A Friend' double a-side was the fifth biggest seller.
But who cares about all that? The single may have had something of a revival in 2005 thanks to growing download sales - but no one really makes any money out of them do they, so what about album sales?
There it is Mr Blunt who triumphs, scoring the biggest selling album of the year. Again, something few would have probably predicted twelve months ago, but no surprise come the end of the year given the huge popularity and constant chart presence of 'Back To Bedlam' ever since its release back in June.
That new albums from Coldplay, Robbie Williams and Gorillaz would also be some of the big sellers of the year (second, third and fifth respectively) was also wholly predictable - delivering EMI three of the five best sellers.
Other best seller albums in 2005 included Kaiser Chiefs (5), Westlife (6), KT Tunstall (7), Kelly Clarkson (8), Eminem (9) and Faithless (10) - the last two both greatest hits packages. Meanwhile, slightly lower down the chart of the year, proof that albums can continue to sell months after release. In the second half of the top 20 best selling albums of 2005 are four LPs released in 2004 - The Killers 'Hot Fuss' (12), Green Day's 'American Idiot' (16), Scissor Sister's 'Scissor Sisters' (17) and Keane's 'Hopes And Fears' (18). It will be interesting to see which 2005 albums also appear in the chart of 2006 this time next year.