On 23 August 1991, the day the World Wide Web became publicly available, Bryan Adams' "(Everything I Do) I Do It For You" held the number one spot in the singles charts on both sides of the Atlantic. Tim Berners-Lee's invention went on to transform how humanity communicates and shares information, while the song became one of the era's biggest chart phenomena, giving the moment a curious dual legacy in technology and music history.

The single, taken from the soundtrack to Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, had already topped the charts for over a month by that date. It went on to spend seven weeks at number one in the US and set a new record of 16 consecutive weeks at the top of the UK charts, an achievement that was unprecedented at the time. Thirty-five years on, the article notes the irony that the song can now be streamed via the very technology that launched alongside it.