Coldplay do the double with their album and its title track Published on: 2008-06-22 by BuzzJack.com gooddelta || 316 Views
Viva La Vida, a track from Coldplay’s huge selling No.1 album Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends has stormed to the top having finally been made eligible for the UK charts this week. Ne-Yo’s Closer inches up a place to complete a download only top two, while last week’s No.1 single from Mint Royale dives all the way to No.8 this week.
(BuzzJack.com) -
Coldplay, led by the charismatic front man Chris Martin, formed in London in the late 1990s, with their first chart hit, Shiver, peaking at No.35 in 1999. The anthemic 2000 single Yellow paved the way for future success and the band’s first three albums have all sold over two million copies in the UK. Despite their huge success, the only thing to have eluded the band until now was a UK and US No.1 single, despite 2002’s In My Place and 2005’s Speed Of Sound both coming close, peaking at No.2. While the first official single from the album, Violet Hill, has so far peaked at No.8, having lost a lot of sales due to being given away free for a week in May, it is a different story for the more traditional Coldplay sounding track, Viva La Vida.
The song has been used in a recent iTunes advert around the world, and was released as an exclusive taster to the new album a few weeks ago. The OCC banned the single from charting in the UK up until now as they could not distinguish genuine sales of the track from those people downloading it purely as part of a pre-order package. Had it been allowed, the single would have been at No.4 last week. However, with the album now on full release, the single has been allowed to chart and has duly become the eighth UK No.1 single of the year. The same track has risen to No.1 in the US this week, marking the second British No.1 across the pond of 2008 following Leona Lewis’ Bleeding Love, and the first time that Coldplay have topped the singles chart there. In the UK, Viva La Vida is the fourth No.1 single in six weeks, following a week for The Ting Tings and two weeks apiece for Rihanna and Mint Royale. The first four chart toppers of the year all had at least four weeks at the top of the chart.
This week is also important as it is the first time the UK top two singles have both only been available to download. While Coldplay’s Viva La Vida is planned for a single release at some undetermined point in the future, Ne-Yo’s Closer is due out on Monday, but gets one final download push ahead of its physical release, rising another place to No.2. The single has moved 22-24-12-7-5-3-2 so far and is almost certain to complete its slow but steady rise to the No.1 spot next week to give Ne-Yo his second UK No.1 single. His 2006 debut single So Sick was his only other chart topper here and has sold almost 200,000 copies to date here. Closer looks like it could sell considerably than that more by the end of this year.
Rihanna’s former No.1 single Take A Bow spends its sixth week inside the top three this week. The track, a new addition to the re-release of Rihanna’s Good Girl Gone Bad album, falls just a place to No.3 this week. Sara Bareilles continues her rising success with the radio anthem Love Song. The song has already topped the UK airplay chart and climbs yet again this week, up a place to No.4 to match its US peak position, which it achieved earlier in the year. The top five is completed by American singer and rapper Chris Brown whose Forever has now moved 17-11-8-5 in its first four weeks. One of the men of the moment, the physical release of the single this week has lifted the song a further three places to No.5 to eclipse the No.8 peak of With You, Chris’ last single. It is his second UK top five single after 2006’s Run It, and he is likely to add a third in the coming weeks with his Jordin Sparks duet, No Air. The new version of Chris’ album Exclusive, repackaged with Forever and a few other new tracks, is released on Monday.
Gabriella Cilmi’s Sweet About Me does not climb again for now, but stays at a respectable No.6, the third week inside the top ten for a single which has been on the top 75 for four months now. The Australian singer has sold well over 100,000 copies of this single so far and her second single Save The Lies is due for release in August. That’s Not My Name, the former No.1 for Salford pop-indie duo The Ting Tings, falls three places to No.7 while last week’s No.1 single from Mint Royale dives to No.8. Singin’ In The Rain was an unexpected chart topper, propelled back to fame by dancer and Britain’s Got Talent winner George Sampson. After a two week spell at the top, the hype has died down and with sales so close this week, an initial midweek projection of a 1-2 drop has turned into a much steeper seven place drop from the top for the British dance act. The last single to fall from No.1 to outside the top five was McFly’s Baby’s Coming Back/Transylvania from just over a year ago, which embarrassingly dived 1-20 despite not being on any limited release, which was the excuse Elvis Presley’s One Night/I Got Stung had for posting the same drop in 2005.
Duffy’s former No.3 hit Warwick Avenue slides two places to No.9 just ahead of American Idol winner Jordin Sparks who follows her 74-22 climb last week with a further twelve place jump to No.10 with No Air. The song, which is picking up simultaneously increasing radio and TV support currently, is Jordin’s second single here after Tattoo. No Air will be the first to receive a physical release however, and this week marks the rare occasion of one artist having two songs simultaneously in the top ten, that of course being Chris Brown, Jordin’s duet partner on this track. Although two or more simultaneous top forty singles is nothing unusual these days, to have two in the top ten at the same time is rather rarer, and Chris has managed it just ahead of Coldplay, who have tracks at No.1 and No.11 this week. For Jordin, it is an impressive result, the singer now becoming the biggest international winner to come from American Idol since the inaugural winner Kelly Clarkson in 2002, who scored her first top ten hit, Miss Independent, in 2003, and has since sold almost two million albums in the UK, the biggest being 2005’s Breakaway. The show’s other winners; Ruben Studdard, Fantasia Barrino, Carrie Underwood, Taylor Hicks and David Cook are yet to have top forty hits in the UK, although the latter’s debut single Time Of My Life recently reached No.61 here. Therefore, the UK top ten this week features four British acts, four Americans, an Australian and a Barbadian.
Coldplay continue their run of success this week at No.11, as the former No.8 peaking hit, Violet Hill, jumps back up a place from No.12 last week. The next new entry comes courtesy of a collaboration between two huge American artists. Rapper Busta Rhymes’ only appearance on a UK No.1 to date has been on Don’t Cha, the 2005 debut single from Pussycat Dolls. Nu-Metal turned rap rock group Linkin Park’s highest peaking UK single so far was last year’s No.6 hit What I’ve Done, although 2001’s Crawling and In The End are more highly regarded amongst fans and critics. Linkin Park are of course no strangers to genre crossing collaborations, their biggest selling hit being 2005’s Numb/Encore, a duet with rapper Jay-Z which has, to date, spent 39 weeks in the top 75 and sold around 300,000 copies in the UK despite peaking at a lowly No.14. We Made It is the lead single from Busta’s new album Blessed and debuts at No.14 this week, with huge potential to climb at least into the top five in the coming weeks, if not higher. American trio Jonas Brothers have been huge in the last few years in their home country. The group, consisting of real life brothers Nick, Joe and Kevin, are big Disney stars and are not too far removed from the sound of Britain’s Busted and McFly. SOS is their first UK single and after a simultaneous physical and digital release, the song debuts at No.16 this week.
New boybands are few and far between in 2008 with the phase, huge in the early 1990s-mid 2000s, seemingly dead now. However, after the success of Jonas Brothers, another new male pop group debut at No.23 this week. Billiam, a manufactured four piece, go straight into the top forty with their second single My Generation. The band’s first single Beautiful Ones was a No.32 hit last September. Questions have arisen over the validity of this single as a bona fide chart hit, as thirty different versions of the song are available on iTunes, meaning that in theory less than 200 people could have bought all of the separate versions of the track to ensure that it charted. The likelihood of this being the case however is very unlikely, and it is more than likely that a large handful of the many thousands of people that saw them support Girls Aloud recently, purchased the single this week, be it physically or digitally.
Madonna’s Give It 2 Me, the second single to be lifted from the No.1 album Hard Candy, jumps eleven places to No.25 this week and is on course to become yet another top ten single for the singer who will shortly turn fifty. Flo Rida and Timbaland continue to head in the right direction too this week. The follow up to the No.2 single Low, Elevator does what it says on the tin and elevates thirteen places to No.27 this week, still a download only release with the physical due out on Monday. Maroon 5 and Rihanna’s duet If I Never See Your Face Again, is now not getting a physical release, but could still become a top twenty hit on the strength of download sales alone. After a drop last week, the single finds itself at a new peak of No.28 this week. Should it fail to make the top twenty however, it will be Rihanna’s first single to do so, although album track Disturbia recently fell just short of the top forty.
Canadian rock band Nickelback, responsible for the year’s second biggest seller, Rockstar, are back to the top forty with Photograph. The song, which features singer Chad Kroeger reminiscing about past memories, originally reached No.29 in 2005 as the first single from All The Right Reasons. With Rockstar making the band into megastars once again, Photograph looks as if it could go considerably higher this time around. The single moves back into the top forty for the first time since 2005 and oddly arrives once again at No.29. With a physical release due on Monday, it could well become an incredibly belated top twenty hit in seven days time. Meanwhile, American self proclaimed Rock/Funk band Cage The Elephant score their first top forty hit this week in the UK. Ain’t No Rest For The Wicked makes its entry at No.32. There’s just enough room for another US rock band to squeeze in to the top forty with this week’s final new entry, Weezer’s Pork & Beans, going in at No.40. The band have been around since the early 1990s but didn’t score their first top ten hit until 2005’s Beverley Hills reached No.9. Pork & Beans is a track from Weezer’s latest untitled album, known as ‘The Red Album’, which entered the album charts at No.21 this week.
Coldplay predictably do the double this week, with Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends easily holding on to the top spot for a second week, the first album to do so since Duffy’s Rockferry. Duffy herself is at No.2 with that album, which is well on its way to becoming a million seller in the UK, having sold well over 800,000 copies of it so far and putting the sales of 19 by Adele, who beat her in many ‘tips for 2008’ polls, to shame. Neil Diamond is down a place to No.3 with the consistent seller Home Before Dark.
All Around The World prove once again that dance albums can be successful. Hardcore producer and occasional singer Darren Styles has never had a UK top ten single yet many of the tracks on his debut album Skydivin’ are familiar with clubbers across the country. Darren goes straight in at No.4 this week, and follows the top ten success of Cascada, Ultrabeat and Scooter. N-Trance are tipped to be the next big artist album release from AATW, with a new as yet untitled album due out later in the year, which like Scooter, will come packaged with a bonus greatest hits disc. He is followed by Paul Weller, whose 22 Dreams slides a place to No.5. Elsewhere in the top ten; The Fratellis dip to No.6 with Here We Stand, Radiohead slide a place to No.7 with their Best Of, Feeder and Sara Bareilles are new at No.8 and No.9 with Silent Cry and Little Voice respectively, while the Reloaded version of Rihanna’s Good Girl Gone Bad album makes the top ten for the first time, inching up six places to No.10.
Having made it to No.1 for the first time ever, Coldplay will hope to stay in control with Viva La Vida for a second week but Ne-Yo’s Closer is probably the more likely candidate for next week’s No.1 as the physical single gets its release on Monday. Sara Bareilles, Rihanna and Gabriella Cilmi should continue to hang around while Busta Rhymes and Linkin Park could challenge for a top ten placing in seven days time. Other significant physical releases on Monday are due from Black Kids, Courteeners, Elliot Minor, Flo Rida feat Timbaland, Mariah Carey, MGMT, Nickelback and Weezer. Download entries can be expected for Freemasons and Ironik, whose street anthem, Stay With Me, could be a surprisingly big hit in the coming weeks. Coldplay should ease to a third week at the top of the album chart with new releases due from Sigur Ros, Chris Brown, Cage The Elephant, Jonas Brothers, Donna Summer, Infadels and The Rascals while the eagerly anticipated Clubland 13 should give All Around The World another No.1 compilation album.
