Camila Cabello tops the singles chart with Havana. There is a close battle at the top of the albums chart.
Camila Cabello climbs to the top of the singles chart. Two acts whose audience listen to Radio 2 battle it out for supremacy in the albums chart.
After three weeks stuck at number two and in its eighth week in the top ten, Camila Cabello and Young Thug’s Havana climbs to number one in the singles chart. The first number one song to contain the name of a capital city in its title was Winifred Atwell’s Poor People Of Paris in 1956. The most prominent near miss is Ultravox’s Vienna which famously spent four weeks at number two in 1981, three of them behind a song which should never be mentioned ion polite company.
Capital cities have also featured at the top of the chart in the name of a band. Berlin had a four-week run at number one with Take My Breath Away in 1986. Among the near misses there is Wellington, a member of The Wombles whose Wombling Merry Christmas reached number two in 1974. A special mention too for Los Lobos whose name contains a capital city. They topped the chart with La Bamba in 1987.
After four weeks at number one Post Malone and 21 Savage slip to number two with Rockstar. Marshmello and Khalid’s Silence and Avicii and Rita Ora’s Lonely Together are non-movers at numbers four and five respectively. Zayn Mail and Sia climb one place to number five with Dusk Till Dawn after the devil of a three-week run at number six.
Two songs have big climbs into the top eleven. Rita Ora’s Anywhere - her best single to my ears - climbs nine places to number eleven while Charlie Puth’s How Long is up eight places to number nine. The latter song featured on the BBC’s new music show Sounds Like Friday Night last week. NF’s Let You Down climbs thirteen places to number 27. MK’s 17 jumps ten places to number 26.
Selena Gomez and Marshmello enter at number sixteen. with Wolves. It is Gomez’ fourth top forty hit of the year although only one of them gas reached the top ten. For Marshmello it is a second hit of 2017. The best song with the word wolves in the title remains Warren Zevon’s Werewolves Of London which somehow only got to number 87 in 1987.
Clean Bandit’s last seven top forty singles have all reached the top five, three of the going all the way to number one. It remains to be seen whether I Miss You becomes only their second top forty hit to miss the top five; for now it is at number 28. Their only other top forty hit not to break into the top five (or even the top ten) was their brilliant debut hit Mozart’s House.
Taylor Swift’s Ready For It, re-enters at number 38. In the week of Hallowe’en Michael Jackson’s Thriller re-enters at number 34. When it was released in 1983 it got no higher than number ten giving it a regular slot on lists of “songs you thought got to number one but didn’t”.
Stormzy and MNEK enter at number 40 with Blinded By Your Grace Part II. It, along with Part I, entered the top 75 in March when the album was released, one of the reasons for the Official Charts Company imposing a limit on the number of tracks by one artist that can appear in the chart simultaneously. The best song about being blinded is Blinded By The Light, a Bruce Springsteen song which was a hit for Manfred Mann’s Earthband in 1976.
There are no new songs from former members of One Direction in the top forty this week. However, across the pond Niall Horan topped the American charts this week with his single Flicker. He became the third former One Directioner to get a solo number one single thereby equalling a record set by The Beatles. It is probably reasonable to guess that a fourth One Directioner will get a solo number one single before Ringo Starr manages it.
There was a battle at the top of the albums chart between two acts at the opposite ends of the Radio 2 audience. Representing younger listeners (by Radio 2 standards) were Welsh band Stereoponics while the more traditional Radio 2 audience was represented by Michael Ball and Alfie Boe.
Stereophonics made their singles chart debut in spring 1997 with their debut album, Word Gets Around, reaching the top ten in the autumn of the same year. Their career really took off the following year when they had their first top ten single, The Bartender And The Thief. By the time they released their second album, Performance And Cocktails, they had notched up another top ten single which helped get the album straight to number one. The album then remained in the top ten for an initial run of seventeen weeks and has spent a further twelve weeks in the top ten since then.
The next four studio albums also went to number one, up to and including Pull The Pin in 2007. The next two albums performed less well but they returned to the top of the chart with Keep The Village Alive in 2015. Now they return to the chart with their tenth studio album Scream Above The Sounds.
Alfie Boe and Michael Ball both made their name in musical theatre. Boe starred in Les Miserables in 2010; Ball starred in an earlier production of Les Mis before appearing in Phantom Of The Opera. The two paired up last year on Together and spent two weeks at number one at the turn of the year. Now they have teamed up again to release Together Again. With an eye on the Christmas market they have become approximately the 742,963rd act to record a version of White Christmas.
In Monday’s chart update Stereophonics held a healthy lead at the top of the chart. However, an ITV show at the weekend was certain to give Ball and Boe a sales boost while the Welsh band had no such free publicity. The boost was enough to see Ball and Boe finish the week at the top of the chart with Stereophonics at number two. Ball and Boe’s original Together album re-enters at number 36.
The clearest example of an album title that explains exactly what to expect in this week’s new entries is Gregory Porter’s Nat King Cole And Me. It contains Porter’s versions of his choice of Nat King Cole songs, a selection which, perhaps surprisingly, does not include When I Fall In Love. It cannot possibly be because he doesn’t think he can improve on Rick Astley’s version of the song. The album is a new entry at number three.
George Michael’s Listen Without Prejudice Vol 1 falls to number four after a week at the summit. Pink’s Beautiful is down three places to number five. Ed Sheeran’s ÷ leaves the top five after a 34 week run. It is at number six this week.
After a string of top ten albums Kelly Clarkson’s 2013 release, Wrapped In Red, didn’t even trouble the top forty, Therefore, the appearance of Meaning Of Life at number eleven represents something of a comeback. Fans of Douglas Adams might have preferred to see it at number 42.
In what has not been a good week for Hollywood (apart from Paul Hollywood who didn’t get confused by a time difference), Hollywood Undead enter at number 31 with Five. Hollywood Vampires chose not to use the time of year as an excuse to release a new album. Sadly, neither did Vampire Weekend.
Chris Brown, a horror show for many people, enters at number ten with Heartbreak On A Full Moon. London rapper Skrapz enters at number 33 with Different Cloth.
Steps have released a rip-off, sorry de-luxe, version of their Tears On The Dancefloor album. The marketing ploy seems to have paid off; it is back at number eight. Michael Jackson’s Scream compilation returns at number nineteen with his Number Ones set back at number 37. Harry Styles’ debut solo album is back at number 38, no doubt helped by a one-hour special on BBC1 last night (Thursday).
Published on: 2017-11-03 by BuzzJack.com Suedehead2 || 222071 Views
Fab comments as always, I'll add poor ol Camilla has been patiently waiting at the top of the sales chart for 3 weeks or so, so well deserved.
In sales, Morrissey is at 20 and Led Zeppelin at 40. Yes there are music fans who recognise and play non-dance/urban music, shock horror!
As you have already commented, Sounds Like Friday Night should really be called Sounds Like Top Of The Pops (minus the chart rundown)
I like to brag I've seen this week's albums chart-toppers in real life, Alfie backstage at Les Mis and Michael in drag (in a musical). I could also add Ultravox, Michael Jackson, Stereophonics, George Michael, and Ringo Starr but that would sound like bragging about how not-young I am, though Clean Bandit are local next week I can't bring myself to go and be the oldest there by some distance!
Talking of Ringo, he topped the US charts twice, with the awesomely fab George/Ringo song Photograph (not to be confused with the insipid Sheeran song) and a cover of You're Sixteen - given he was about 34 at the time, not perhaps the best choice of 50's song. The Fab Four all topped the US chart, John took the longest to do it, though Ringo had to make do with Number 2's in the UK - the fab Back Off Boogaloo notably.
I just saw Niall Horan's album in HMV without my glasses on. It def merges the L and I in uppercase FLICKER and sends out a very naughty message with a U instead....
I wasn't aware of this presumably intentional bit of hilarity but hey, good for a laugh!