The best No 1 records: Rihanna – Umbrella

The sodden summer of 2007 certainly gave a topical spin (in Britain at least) to one of the decade's great starmaking smashes. Thus far a likeable lightweight, Rihanna lucked out when Britney Spears' management told songwriters Christopher "Tricky" Stewart and Terius "The-Dream" Nash thanks but no thanks. The duo shopped their demo to a few more big names until an impatient Rihanna cornered Nash at the Grammy awards and told him: "Umbrella is mine." Indeed it was. She delivered exactly the vocal – tough, tender, unfussy – that this gargantuan R&B power ballad required. Right away Umbrella had the imperial determination of a song that wouldn't be stopped until it had conquered everything in its path, which it proceeded to do. It didn't rain: it poured.

See every No 1 hit from 2007