Camilla Cabello wins one of the tightest races at the top of the singles chart this year. Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds win a one-horse race at the top of the albums chart.
A close race at the top of the singles chart but an easy win for Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds in the albums chart.
There was a very tight race at the top of the singles chart this week between Camila Cabello’s Havana and Rita Ora’s less location-specific Anywhere. Cabello was aiming for a fifth week at number one while Ora was hoping for a fifth chart-topping single to equal the record for a female solo vocalist held by Cheryl Whatever-Her-Surname-Is-This-Week.
Once again Ora finished comfortably ahead on sales but Cabello’s lead on streaming kept her narrowly ahead in each of the midweek updates.
When the new chart was counted down the eventual winner was Camilla Cabello with Rita Ora spending a third week at number two. Ora will be performing on tonight’s Sounds Like Friday Night this evening. For reasons outlined below, it may not be enough to get her to number one next week.
Ora’s other current single, her Avicii collaboration Lonely Together, has had its streams downgraded this week which sees it crash nineteen places to number 33.
Almost nine months after entering at number four as an album track, Ed Sheeran’s Perfect climbs one place to a new peak of number three. A new version of the song with a guest vocalist has been rumoured for some time. Yesterday (Thursday) it was announced that there is, indeed, a new version and it features Beyoncé. This new version immediately improves the chances of Sheeran finishing a highly successful year with a Christmas number one single.
Marshmello and Khalid slip one place to number four with Silence. A period of silence would be vastly preferable to the “song” at number five, Big Shaq’s Man’s Not Hot.
Clean Bandit climb into the top ten at number six with the Julia Michaels-featuring I Miss You. It is Clean Bandit’s eighth top ten hit. The previous seven have all reached the top five with three of them going to number one. Julia Michaels beats her previous best chart position of number ten achieved with her solo single Issues earlier this year. MK climbs to number ten with 17.
This time of year used to see a number of new releases from alumni of X Factor as artists took advantage of the show’s big audiences to launch new material. However, in a rare sign of the British public showing good taste, people have abandoned the show in droves. Nevertheless, there is a new entry this week from the 2012 winner, James Arthur. His career seemed to be over almost before it began when a number of singles in 2013 performed poorly. He then came back in spectacular (and unexpected) fashion last year when he topped the chart with Say You Won’t Let Go. He had another top ten hit earlier this year as featured artist on Rudimental’s Sun Comes Up.
It is often said of the Germans that, with the first warm sunshine of the year, many of them are quick to take their clothes off for some nude sunbathing. That is probably not the inspiration for Arthur’s new single Naked, a new entry at number eleven.
After a shaky start, the BBC’s new music show Sounds Like Friday Night is beginning to show the potential to be a continuing presence in the schedules. It is gradually coming to be seen as a suitable platform for artists to showcase new material. In last week’s show, guest co-host Craig David took the opportunity to perform his new single I Know You with help from the band Bastille.
Some collaborations, when announced, seem fairly obvious. This is not one of them, but it works very well. Maybe Dan Smith of Bastille and Craig David should offer to do the next Bond theme. I’m sure they could come up with a suitable name - Daniel Craig perhaps. In the meantime, I Know You is a new entry at number 25.
Croydon-based singer Rachel Keen, under the moniker RAYE, had two hits last year as featured vocalist on Jonas Blue’s By Your Side and Jax Jones’ You Don’t Know Me. This week she gets her first hit as lead artist with Decline at number 34. While a failure to go any higher would represent a decline for RAYE, the song’s current position gives featured artist Mr Eazi (known to his Nigerian family as Oluwatosin Ajibade) a top forty debut.
And so, on the first day of December, we come to the festive update. Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas Is You climbs twelve places to number 22. Wham’s Last Christmas re-enters at number 29. After George Michael’s death on Christmas Day last year, many people felt that it would be a fitting tribute if this song was at number one this Christmas.
If Last Christmas makes it, one of the best-known pop quiz questions will require a new answer as it remains the best-selling (excluding made-up sales from streaming) song not to reach number one. In the (probably unlikely) event that it could sell around 175,000 actual copies, it would become the first song to register two million sales without topping the chart. I suppose we cannot rule out the possibility that it could sell its two millionth copy and top the chart in the same week.
All I Want For Christmas joins the select list of songs to have spent the equivalent of a year in the top forty. Ed Sheeran’s Shape Of You is not far behind, on 46 weeks.
Between 1994 and 2008 Oasis topped the chart with all seven of their studio albums. After the Gallagher brothers went their separate ways, main songwriter Noel also topped the chart with his first two albums with his new band High Flying Birds. This week he makes it a perfect ten as their third album, Who Built The Moon, soars straight to the top of the chart.
Whether you consider Noel Gsllagher to have matched or emulated The Beatles depends on your definition of a studio album as Yellow Submarine (a film soundtrack as well as an album) failed to top the chart. If that is excluded, Help (which did top the chart) should also be excluded. To complicate matters further A Hard Days Night had a mixture of tracks from the film (side one of the vinyl release) and other songs (side two). Excluding the two solely soundtrack albums, the Fab Four had ten successive number one studio albums. Only George Harrison topped the chart with his first post-Beatles solo album, giving him arguably eleven number ones from his first eleven studio albums.
The current single from the album, Holy Mountain, entered the chart back in October. This week it finally makes it into the top forty at number 31. The song has been compared by many - and with some justification - to the Rolling Stones’ 1965 number one Get Off Of My Cloud. To my ears there is also more than a hint of the only UK hit single by a Belgian punk, Plastic Bertrand’s Ca Plane Pour Moi.
Sam Smith’s The Thrill Of It All climbs spends another week at number two. Ed Sheeran’s ÷ climbs back up two places to number four; Michael Ball and Alfie Boe’s Together Again falls to number five.
The top six is completed by two re-entries following the release of deluxe (or, if you prefer, rip-off) editions. Little Mix had their first number one album with Glory Days late last year. The new edition enters at number three.
Perhaps more controversial is the deluxe edition of Elvis Presley and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra’s Christmas album as the original album was only released in October. The original version peaked at number 22, presumably due to a combination of people knowing about the deluxe version and thinking that early October is too soon for a Christmas album. The new version re-enters at number six.
After a week at the top (a phrase that has featured rather a lot in the albums round-up this year) Paloma Faith’s The Architect falls to number eight.
Another sure sign that Christmas is imminent is the appearance of new albums from Andre Rieu and Daniel O’Donnell. Perhaps one year they will save people money by releasing an album together. Of the two, only O’Donnell has released an album specifically aimed at the Christmas market. The album, called with a stunning lack of originality Christmas With Daniel (Live), enters at number nineteen. It has live versions of Christmas staples such as Winter Wonderland, Mary’s Boy Child and Santa Claus Is Coming To Town.
Andre Rieu’s album also has a fairly self-explanatory title. Amore comprises versions of various love songs including Love Me Tender although other choices, for example Beethoven’s Ode To Joy and Strauss’s Radetzky March seem to be stretching the theme somewhat. Amore is a new entry at number seven. The latter both fall into the category of tunes people will recognise even if they couldn’t name them.
Having been chosen to perform the song for this year’s John Lewis Christmas advert, Elbow have taken the opportunity to release their first Best Of album after twenty years as a band under that name. The album contains album tracks as well as singles and includes One Day Like This (obviously), Leaders Of The Free World, Lippy Kids, Starlings and many other equally excellent tracks. For anyone wanting to extend their knowledge of Elbow beyond the songs they already know, it is an excellent buy, It enters at number eleven.
The latest “celebrity album” comes from Anton de Beke, someone who tried to name himself after a duo but got a bit muddled. Perhaps we will soon be watching the likes of Morton Enwize and Thetu Roneez on our screens. Perhaps someone will even try the name Jazeon Bayonsay or Melon Soo.
Du Beke’s album, From The Top includes old classics such as Moon River and Fly Me To The Moon as well as a version of the rather more recent I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor. It lands at number 21, twenty places from the top.
The recent trend of celebrities releasing albums was started by Alexander Armstrong who enjoyed tremendous success with his A Year Of Songs album in 2015. Upon A Different Shore followed a year later and now he has released album number three, In A Winter Light which enters at number 26. If future Pointless contestants are asked to name songs from the album, the highest scores are likely to be for the guessable In The Bleak Midwinter, Silent Night and Winter Wonderland.
As mentioned in the singles section, this is the time of year when X Factor alumni release new material. In particular, it has become the standard time for the previous year’s winner to release their debut album. The fact that Trouble, the debut album from 2016 winner Matt Terry has not had much publicity could have been because it was such a sure-fire best-seller that there was no need. Alternatively, it could have been seen as such a dud that there was no point. It is a new entry at number 29. Guess which explanation for the lack of publicity is more likely.
Folky bloke Frank Turner enters at number 36 with his seventh solo album, Songbook. Iceland’s best-known singer Bjork is at number 25 with Utopia. Foo Fighters re-enter at number 37 with Concrete And Gold.
Published on: 2017-12-01 by BuzzJack.com Suedehead2 || 208872 Views
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