The record company thought it might sell 50,000 copies if they were lucky. It went on to sell 30m. What was it about the darkness and anger of Nevermind that made it so successful?

The team look at some of the other songs in the charts the week of August 18, 1986: Dave Lee Roth's Yankee Rose, Bruce Hornsby & The Range smash The Way It Is and the neo-prog-pop of It Bites' Calling All The Heroes.

Peter Gabriel's chart-busting Sledgehammer was inescapable in August of 1986. But what was it about the ex-Genesis man's single that so caught the imagination on both sides of the Atlantic? Was it just its bonkers video? Or was there more to it? The team discuss…