Ariana Grande gets her third number one single. The Prodigy make it seven number one albums in a row.
Ariana Grande tops the singles chart with a surprise release. The Prosigy get a seventh number one album.
At the start of the week (which, in chart terms, means last Friday) it looked likely that Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper would be looking at a third week at the top of the singles chart. That looked rather less of a safe bet at the weekend when Ariana Grande released a brand new song - Thanks U, Next - just a couple months after her latest album. The song went to the top of the iTunes chart within a matter of hours and soon started to be streamed heavily. The late release meant that Monday’s chart update, showing Gaga and Cooper with a good lead at the top and Grande just outside the top thirty, was rather misleading.
By Wednesday’s update Grande was at the top of the pile and she ends the week with her third number one single, her first since Bang Bang (on which she had to compete against Jessie J) just over four years ago. The song is about as personal as they come, mentioning past boyfriends Mac Miller and Pete Davidson (to whom she was briefly engaged) by name. Both are mentioned in affectionate terms which marks the song out as different from other “break-up songs”, but we’d better move swiftly on without naming any names.
Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper’s Shallow falls to number two after a fortnight at the summit. Little Mix and Nicki Minaj’s Woman Like Me falls one place to number three. Calvin Harris and Sam Smith also slip one place, to number four with Promises. Rita Ora climbs one place back up to number five with Let You Love Me.
Two songs make big climbs into the top ten. Halsey’s Without Me is up thirteen places to number nine after four weeks in the 21-30 section of the chart; Jess Glynne climbs eleven places to number seven with Thursday to become the first ever single with the word Thursday in its title to make the top ten.
It is reasonable to conclude that MaryLynne (sic) and Brad Stella (who perform together as The Stellas) are fans of The Beatles, or John Lennon at least. The clue is in the fact that they called one daughter Lennon and gave another daughter Jude (presumably after the song Hey Jude, written by Paul McCartney for Lennon’s son Julian) as one of her forenames. The fact that their surname is the name of McCartney’s daughter is, I’m guessing, a coincidence. Those two daughters have recorded songs together, but Lennon has now branched out on her own (sort of) and teamed up with Jonas Blue and Liam Payne to record Polaroid. The song is a new entry at number sixteen, giving former One Directioner Payne his third new top forty hit of the year and Blue his third.
Polaroid is the first hit single to mention that particular brand in singular form in its title although Japan reached number 60 with Gentlemen Take Polaroids. Sadly Kitchens Of Distinction didn’t release their track Polaroids as a single. If they had, it would doubtless have been as big a smash as all their other singles.
A few years ago “empty space” might have referred to the area set aside by James Arthur for all the awards he was going to win after winning X Factor in 2012. He got the then obligatory number one single after his win but his career then nosedived. However, he surprised most observers by retuning in 2016 with another chart-topping single, Say You Won’t Let Go and has had a steady string of hits since then. This week he gets his first new top forty hit of 2018 with Empty Space at number 27.
When Luis Fonsi topped the chart last year with Despacito, many people would have been prepared to guess that he would be added to the list of one-hit wonders. He avoided hat tag (according to the strictest definition) by reaching number 46 with Echame La Culpa. Now he gets another top forty hit as a featured artist on Clean Bandit’s new single Baby (a title previously used by, among others, Justin Bieber whose vocals did so much to make Despacito a big hit). They are also joined by Marina (of and The Diamonds fame) who does her best to sound like Shakira. The song enters at number 33, giving Marina her first hit for six years.
In September this year Calvin Harris replaced Benny Blanco at the top of the singles chart. Just to show there is no animosity between them they have teamed up to record a single together. The result, I Found You, enters at number 35 to give Harris a 33rd top forty hit.
As if The Greatest Showman has not made enough money this year, there is now a new version of the soundtrack album with various singers performing new versions of the songs. It might have been called The Karaoke Showman but it wasn’t. Pink’s contribution to that album is A Million Dreams and that enters at number 37. The original version, performed by Ziv Zaifman and Hugh Jackman reached number 22.
When Essex boys The Prodigy had their first hit single in 1991 with Charly there was no real hint of how controversial they would become. That controversy stemmed from a number of videos that couldn’t be shown on children’s television and the release of a single called Smash My Bitch Up which many people accused of making light of domestic violence. Their peak success came in 1996 with two number one singles, Firestarter and Breathe. The subsequent album, The Fat Of The Land, also topped the chart as did its predecessor, the following three studio albums and a singles collection in 2005.
Last week they released their seventh studio album, No Tourists, and it enters at number one, extending their run to seven chart-topping albums in eight releases - a live album missed out on the top spot. Its release comes almost exactly 40 years after 10CC release of the equally unwelcoming-sounding Bloody Tourists.
The A Star Is Born soundtrack stays at number two while the Bohemain Rhapsody soundtrack holds steady at number three. Andrea Bocelli’s Si falls to number four after a week at the top. The Greatest Showman soundtrack is at number five.
While veteran songstress Barbra Streisand has never made any secret of her support for the Democrat party, she isn’t known as a singer of political songs. Her performance in a previous musical version of A Star Is Born is more representative of her career. Her new album, Walls, therefore marks a bit of a change of her direction for her 36th studio release. The title of the album gives a little hint of the message as does the inclusion of a song called Don’t Lie To Me. She ends it on a more upbeat note with a version of Happy Days Are Here Again. It is a new entry at number six.
The release of archive Bob Dylan material under the collective title “The Bootleg Series” continues with volume 14, More Blood, More Tracks. As the title suggests, the material dates from the time of his Blood On The Tracks album released in 1975. The single disc version has just one version of each song. A six-CD set gives listeners rather more choice. The album enters at number nine to bring Dylan’s tally of top forty albums up to sixty.
After gaining fame as one of the UK’s finest actresses (including playing Cilla Black) Sheridan Smith launched a musical career last year with her top ten album Sheridan. The follow-up, A Northern Soul, lands at number fifteen.
American rapper Metro Boomin (born Leland Wayne) makes his UK top forty debut with his third album, Not All Heroes Wear Capes, at number sixteen. This week’s reissue is a thirtieth anniversary edition of Metallica’s And Justice For All. The original version reached number four; the reissue enters at number 29.
Five years after the release of her debut album Katie Melua put out the Katie Melua Collection. That album peaked at number fifteen but I will resist a Public Service Broadcasting link to peak 15. Ten years on she has made another compilation, The Ultimate Collection, which enters at number 22. Most of the songs on the original compilation also appear on this one, along with some others from the intervening decade.
We are still only in early November, but Michael Bublé’s Christmas album enters the chart for the eighth successive year, at number seventeen.
Published on: 2018-11-09 by BuzzJack.com Suedehead2 || 214511 Views
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