James Arthur still rules the roost in the singles chart. Green Day get a third number one album.
James Arthur remains at the top of the singles chart. Green Day head another long list of newcomers to the albums chart to get a third number one.
James Arthur’s Say You Won’t Let Go spends a third week at the top of the singles chart finishing well ahead of the rest of the field. Combined chart sales (real sales plus streams) of the looked set to reach a new high this week. If combined sales exceed 100,000, it will be only the third time in the second half of the year that the number one song has done so.
Last week’s numbers two and three swap places. Chainsmokers and Halsey return to number two with Closer while The Weeknd and Daft Punk slip to number three with Starboy. Ariana Grande and Nicki Minaj’s Side To Side climbs one place to number four. Sia and Kendrick Lamar are up three places to number five with The Greatest, matching the position it reached on entering the top forty four weeks ago.
The top ten still features back-to-back Bieber. Let Me Love You (with DJ Snake) and Cold Water (Major Lazer) are each down one place to numbers seven and eight respectively.
The only new entry of the week sees the return of Peter Hernandez, better known as Bruno Mars. Last year, for the first time since his first hit in 2010, he had no new entries in the UK chart although he did spend a large part of the year in the chart with Uptown Funk, released in 2014. He now ends his fallow period with 24K Magic at number nine. It is his fifteenth top forty hit and the tenth to reach the top ten. Whether he can add to his five UK number ones will be seen in the coming weeks.
The biggest climb of the week is achieved by Hailee Steinfeld, Zedd and Grey. They climb eleven places to number seventeen with Starving in its fourth week in the top forty. Neiked climbs ten places to number 24 with Sexual (or Sensual as Radio 1 insist on calling it).
Drake’s Controlla is back to haunt us at number 39 two weeks after we thought we’d seen the back of it.
Sia’s biggest hit of the year, Cheap Thrills, gets a 34th week in the top forty. From elsewhere in the former colonies, Drake’s One Dance has been around for 28 weeks. Calum Scott and Scot Calvin Harris have spent 24 weeks in the top forty with Dancing On My Own and This Is What You Came For respectively. The latter song features Rihanna who hails from another former colony. That particular ex-colony will celebrate fifty years of independence next month.
Once again we have to look to the albums chart for new entries and, once again, they start at the very top. There are ten new entries in the top twenty although none of the artists are making their chart debut. Indeed, some of them made their chart debut long before most of the people in the singles chart were born.
We start at the very top with Green Day whose first top forty entry came in October 1994 when Welcome To Paradise entered the singles chart. The parent album, Dookie (their third), was released the following week but it didn’t reach the top forty until the following year. The album’s popularity was enhanced with the re-release of the single Basket Case. That song initially stalled at number 55 but, following the success of Welcome To Paradise, it eventually became a top ten hit.
Green Day haven’t had a top forty single since 2009, but their albums continue to sell well. Revolution Radio, their twelfth studio set, is their eighth top ten album and their third chart-topper. They previously reached number one with American Idiot (2004) and 21st Century Breakdown (2009). The title of the first of those two albums was a reference to their opinion of the then US president. They may need to consider an updated version depending on what happens next month.
By the time Green Day were enjoying their first chart success, The Bee Gees were in the second half of the third decade of their chart career. They had their first hit single in 1967b with New York Mining Disaster 1941. Their peak success came in the latter half of the 1970s by which time their voices had got several octaves higher.
The three Gibb brothers (hence the name) and fourth brother Andy (who was never a Bee Gee) all released solo material, but none of it matched the success of the band. However, with Maurice and Robin both dead, a solo career is all that is left for Barry Gibb. Until now that solo career, in top forty terms, consisted of a minor hit single with Barbra Streisand (the singer, not a version of the song) in 1981 and that has been it. Now, having just turned 70, he has released his second solo album. The first, Now Voyager released in 1984, spent just two weeks in the top 100, peaking at number 85. The second, In The Now, is a new entry at number two. Continuing the family tradition, two of his children are credited as co-writers.
As a result of Gibb’s various promotional appearances, The Ultimate Bee Gees re-enters at number 39.
Many regular readers will know that following the charts can be a good way of getting a nice low score on Pointless. If contestants in a future edition (that is one recorded some time in the future) are ever asked to name acts who have had three or more top ten albums in the 2010s, a new name has been added to the list of likely pointless answers.
Floridian rock band Alter Bridge had their first top ten album with their third release, AB III, in 2010. Apart from chart followers and their fans, not many people noticed. Their second top ten entry, Fortress (number six, 2013) also passed most people by. Now the great British public have a third opportunity to fail to notice a top ten album by Alter Bridge as The Last Hero enters at number three.
Kaiser Chiefs marked their arrival on the music scene with a string of hit singles in the middle of the last decade. They also had three top two albums including a number one with Yours Truly Angry Mob. However, a change of decade also saw a decline in their fortunes with fourth album The Future Is Medieval falling short of the top ten. A Singles collection only just made it into the top twenty.
Two things happened that revived their career. First, a slimmed down singer Ricky Wilson accepted an offer to be a coach on The Voice, thereby reminding people of his existence. That decision - and the rather cynical release of a new album while the show was running - might have led to the critics sharpening their knives ready to savage their new material. Any plans they had to do so were spoiled when the album turned out to be rather good.
Education Education Education & War duly went to number one and even stayed there for a second week in April 2014, matching the two weeks achieved by Yours Truly Angry Mob. Their sixth studio album, Stay Together, lands at number four. The previous album title was based on an early catch phrase used by a former Prime Minister in his early days as leader of the opposition. Thankfully they haven’t used our current PM’s catch phrase this time, although Stay Together could be interpreted as a reference to the events that led to her ascent.
After a week at the top of the chart Craig David’s Following My Intuition falls to number five.
At one point a few years ago there seemed to be a risk that the singles chart was about to be taken over by Ryan Tedder with several songs penned by him gracing the top forty. If his songs have been a little less ubiquitous recently that may be because he has gone back to his day job as writer and singer with OneRepublic. The resultant album, Oh My My, is a new entry at number six. The co-writers include Peter Gabriel so there must be at least one good track on the album.
As mentioned above Barry Gibb has had to wait until just after his 70th birthday to get his first top forty solo album. Seasick Steve made his top forty debut at the relatively youthful age of 65-ish (his exact birthdate is not publicly known). Like Gibb, he did it with his second album. Since that success in 2006 he has been a regular visitor to the chart and this week he is back again. Keepin’ The Horse Between Me And The Ground is at number eight.
Ealing-based White Lies’ top forty career started in 2009, a time when bands of their ilk were still able to get into the singles chart. Their debut album, To Lose My Life, topped the chart at the end of January that year. The next two albums, Ritual (2011) and Big TV (2013) also made the top five. If they had released their fourth album, Friends, a few weeks ago, it would probably have maintained their top five record; it is certainly good enough to have done so. As it is, by releasing it at a time when there is a lot of competition, it lands at number eleven.
When new drugs are being tested, it is common practice to give some people in a group a placebo while letting them think that they are being given a real drug. That may be described as a form of white lie. That, in this week’s most contrived link, brings us to the multi-national band Placebo. They released their first, eponymous, album in 1996. To mark the 20th anniversary, albeit a few months late, they have released a new compilation, A Place For Us To Dream.
As well as singles such as Nancy Boy, Pure Morning and a brilliant version of Kate Bush’s Running Up That Hill, the album also includes selected album tracks and radio edits of songs. A 2004 singles collection reached the top ten. This latest compilation is at number 21.
The year after Placebo had their first appearance, Feeder saw three singles make the lower reaches of the chart before they finally broke into the top forty with High. Their ninth studio album, All Bright Electric, enters at number ten.
Two female singer-songwriters have new entries in the chart. Norah Jones is at number nine with Day Breaks and Kate Tempest is at number 28 with Let Them Eat Chaos. Sum 41 enter at number sixteen with 13 Voices, a crowd-funded album. Swedish metal band Meshuggah enter at number 32 with their eighth album The Violent Sleep Of Reason.
Film director Mat Whitecross is starting to make a habit of making films about the Britpop era of the early 1990s. A few years ago he made a very good film about the Stone Roses’ gig at Spike Island. Now he has made a documentary about Oasis, Supersonic. Both Gallagher brothers were involved although, inevitably, they each contributed separately. The release of the film has helped to lift their greatest hits set, Time Flies, back into the top forty at number 26 Whitecross’s next musical documentary will be about Coldplay.
Michael Kiwanuka re-enters at number 35 with Love And Hate; Little Mix’s Get Weird is back at number 37.
Published on: 2016-10-14 by BuzzJack.com Suedehead2 || 30195 Views
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