NZ singles chart hits milestone 

It has taken over 30 years, but this week we had our 500th official number one single.

Helen Reddy's Free and Easy was the first official number one in New Zealand in May 1975 and this week Gnarls Barkley's Crazy has taken the honours.

Crazy made music history in April when it became the first song to reach number one in the UK based solely on computer downloads. The song by Barkley, a made-up character who is actually a collaboration between US hip-hop producer Brian Burton and singer Thomas Calloway, is still number one in the UK and at number three in Australia

The 500 mark came up in May, which is celebrated as New Zealand music month. While Crazy is not a New Zealand single we can be proud that there have been 48 number one singles by New Zealand artists.

The longest running of those was hip hop artist Scribe's Stand Up which spent 12 weeks at number one in 2003.

He overtook the previous record of nine weeks which was held by Sailing Away, recorded in 1986 for New Zealand's America's Cup campaign.

Our longest running number one of all time though was not from a New Zealand artist and in fact goes to a group that many people would not readily admit to liking - let alone purchasing their music.

During the days of disco in 1978 Kiwi's danced the night away to Boney M's River's of Babylon for a record 14 weeks.
 
On the bright side it could have been worse, it could have been ABBA or Billy Ray Cyrus.

The current top ten singles in NZ:

1 Crazy  - Gnarls Barkley
2 Hips Don't Lie  - Shakira feat. Wyclef Jean
3 S.O.S. (Rescue Me) - Rihanna
4 Touch It - Busta Rhymes Universal
5  Beep - The Pussycat Dolls feat. Will.I.Am9852802
6 Bathe In The River - Mt Raskil PS feat. Hollie Smith (Kiwi)
7 Dani California - Red Hot Chili Peppers
8 I'm In Luv (Wit A Stripper)  - T-Pain feat. Mike Jones
9 Savin' Me - Nickelback
10 Forever Young  - Youthgroup