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Posted by: ThePoguesmith 6th December 2019, 06:32 PM

Good afternoon all, welcome to my personal top 20 singles for this week. Seven days ago, Dua Lipa returned to number one with 'Don't Start Now' on its fourth week inside the top 3. But with only two more rundowns left before our Christmas chart, has she hung on for another week? Let's find out...

THEPENSMITH'S TOP 20 SINGLES CHART
Week ending 6th December 2019
© AM LIMITED 2019

1. (2) LITTLE MIX - One I've Been Missing
2. (HNE) PEPPA PIG - Bing Bong Zoo
3. (1) DUA LIPA - Don't Start Now
4. (3) NOW UNITED - Legends
5. (4) JODIE WHITTAKER - Yellow
6. (5) ROBBIE WILLIAMS - Time For Change
7. (NE) THE SCRIPT - Run Through Walls
8. (6) BASTILLE - Can't Fight This Feeling
9. (NE) ENDOR - Pump It Up
10. (7) EMMA BUNTON - Coming Home For Christmas

11. (8) NIALL HORAN - Nice To Meet Ya
12. (NE) THE SHIRES - New Year
13. (9) MABEL - Loneliest Time Of Year
14. (10) MARK RONSON FEAT. YEBBA - Don't Leave Me Lonely
15. (11) GEORGE MICHAEL - This Is How (We Want To Get You High)
16. (NE) CAPULETS - Pushing
17. (13) WESTLIFE - My Blood
18. (14) LUKE EVANS - Changing
19. (12) FLEUR EAST - Size
20. (NE) UNA HEALY - Set You Free

Compiled from my own personal listening in the last seven days across streaming, digital and physical formats.

KEY

(1) - last week's position
(HNE) - highest new entry
(NE) - new entry
(RE) - re-entry

CHART COMMENTARY



Personal Christmas Chart T-2. And it's funny really. You wait months for a record to climb to the top rather than go straight in with a big bang, then two come along at once. Yes, Dua Lipa drops down again to #3 this week - it's fifth week inside the top 3 in all, but lowest position to date - as my words of seven days ago regarding Little Mix's gorgeously festive new single 'One I've Been Missing' come to fruition.



What with the release of it's video and it's suitable positioning on our festive playlist, it meant it was pretty inevitable it was going to climb to the top of our chart this week, thus giving Jesy, Leigh-Ann, Perrie and Jade their second chart topper of the year and seventh of their career all in all, and nearly eight years to the very week since their first, 'Cannonball', did it for them and bagged 2011's Christmas chart topper. Of course, this now puts them in a heartily good position to be the Christmas chart topper for this year, alas they will need to hang on for two more weeks to do so.

And then there's the very small matter of some unusual but nonetheless big competition from the record arriving as the highest new hit at #2 this week. Until last year, the proud and very British tradition of a silly seasonal hit - a sure sign if any that the festive season does crazy things to us all - had been all but absent from our December charts. Almost two decades ago, kid's TV handyman Bob the Builder (voiced by Men Behaving Badly star Neil Morrissey) gave S Club 7 a very near run for their money when 'Can We Fix It' stalled at #2 behind their 2000 chart topper 'Never Had A Dream Come True' (although he did overtake them to reach number one for the final chart of that year).

Then in 2007, another kid's favourite, Shaun the Sheep wound up in our festive top 10 with 'Life's a Treat'. And 2009's chart bought us the double whammy of the fictitious 'Banned' of St Trinian's (from the series of films about the anarchic girls' school of the same name) taking festive top honours with 'Up & Away', whilst The Muppets covered Queen's 'Bohemian Rhapsody' and made that year's Christmas top 5. After which, things got decidedly more serious, until last year, when Pinkfong took viral kid's YouTube hit 'Baby Shark' into the top 30 for Christmas.

And for this year? Step forward Peppa Pig. Voiced by child actor Harley Bird, the animated adventures of this Channel 5 cartoon favourite with younger viewers has been on air since 2004, so it's a little surprising it's taken this long for a music release of some description to be drummed up by its creators. Alas, that is what you see here, with the release of a successful album in the summer and now a single of one of the most popular songs from the show called 'Bing Bong Zoo' - silly, catchy, and yet surprisingly effective. All we will say for now is write off the festive hitmaking potential of this one at your peril.



A still strongly performing Now United and Jodie Whittaker complete the rest of this week's top 5 with their former chart toppers. The second highest new entry at #7 is of a slightly more saner inclination, as The Script secure their second top 10 hit from current chart topping album 'Sunsets and Full Moons', with 'Run Through Walls'. The first of course was 'The Last Time', which made #6 in October. It thus marks the first time in five years that they've enjoyed back to back top 10 hits off a new album, when 'Superheroes' and 'No Good In Goodbye' charted off their 'No Sound Without Silence' album.



So we've had the festive novelty and the sensitive slice of pop rock, what about the dancefloor banger? That can be found at this week's #9, with the debut hit for Endor, a DJ and producer from Brighton who has taken a sample from Danzel's 2004 hit of the same name (which got to #15 on our chart) and outpeaks it with this top 10 entry. A surefire hit for Christmas office parties the land over.



Last on our chart almost one year ago, The Shires are set to return with their fourth studio album 'Good Years' in March next year. Ahead of it comes their seasonally appropriate new single 'New Year' - not a cover of Sugababes' hit from December 2000 - but which reaches the same position as that, debuting at #12. It will need to climb if it is to repeat the top 10 successes of the three singles from their last album 'Accidentally on Purpose'.



And if you wanted proof this week that the Christmas rush can have a disastrous impact on certain artists, then look at the way both Capulets and Una Healy have performed this week. The former's debut EP 'Act One' reached the top 5 in September, but 'Pushing' is unable to build on this success and stalls at #16, whilst Healy's seventh solo release away from The Saturdays, a radically reimagined cover of 'Set You Free' - a 1995 hit for N-Trance which made #6 on our chart in a remixed form in September 2001 - is only able to reach #20 this week.





FLASHBACK TOP 10

Your chance to see how my personal top 10 was looking on this week in the last 20 years. This week in 2000: S Club 7 make it six in a row with their BBC Children In Need chart topper 'Never Had A Dream Come True', plus classic hits from Destiny's Child, Madonna and many more



1. (HNE) S CLUB 7 - Never Had A Dream Come True



2. (1) DESTINY'S CHILD - Independent Women, Pt 1
3. (NE) MADONNA - Don't Tell Me
4. (2) LEANN RIMES - Can't Fight The Moonlight
5. (3) CRAIG DAVID - Walking Away
6. (NE) SONIQUE - I Put A Spell On You
7. (4) DAFT PUNK - One More Time
8. (5) PUBLIC DOMAIN - Operation Blade (Bass In The Place)
9. (6) WU-TANG CLAN - Gravel Pit
10. (7) ARTFUL DODGER FEAT. LIFFORD - Please Don't Turn Me On