LadBaby repeats his sausage roll trick by getting another Christmas number one. Rod Stewart has a surprise second week at the top of the albums chart.
LadBaby gets another Christmas number one with another song about sausage rolls. Rod Stewart beats new albums from two high-profile artists to top the albums chart.
Last year’s battle for the Christmas number one took an unexpected turn when the first midweek update showed a song about sausage rolls out on top. Cue much excited media coverage. Cue, too, sceptical comments from chart watchers cautioning that, with little or no streaming, We Built This City (On Sausage Rolls) would struggle to maintain its momentum.
This posed a particular problem for one writer of chart commentaries. I was due to go into hospital on the Wednesday for a major operation. That meant writing most of the commentary on Monday and Tuesday, hoping I could just fill in the chart positions from my hospital bed on Friday. The uncertainty over who would top the chart made that more difficult than I had anticipated. Nevertheless, I managed to cobble something together.
The initial response to the news that LadBaby (aka Mark Hoyle) was going to try the same trick again (even down to replacing the words rock ‘n’ roll in a song with the words sausage roll) was, once again, one of scepticism. Surely he couldn’t pull it off twice with exactly the same joke? By the time of Monday’s update, the answer appeared to be an emphatic “Yes, he can” as I Love Sausage Rolls (based on Joan Jett’s I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll) had a healthy lead at the top. Just to make sure, he even released a swing version to boost his sales.
It comes, then, as no surprise that LadBaby gets a second successive Christmas number one. As last year, proceeds will be donated to the Trussell Trust, the country’s largest provider of food banks which helps to ease the pain of listening to the song.
So, what happens next year Will LadBaby aim to join the very small club of artists who have had a hat-trick of Christmas number ones? If so, what song will he choose? I think we can rule out Another Sausage Roll Christmas given that the original version has the name Gary Glitter attached to it. He could signal that he will call it a day after three by summoning his inner Lenny Kravitz and going for Sausage Roll Is Dead.
That leaves Stormzy and Ed Sheeran (not forgetting Burna Boy) at number two with Own It. Lewis Capaldi’s Before You Go (the Christmas number one in Ireland) climbs one place to number three. Dua Lipa’s Don’t Start Now falls one place to number four. Wham’s Last Christmas continues to be this year’s leading festive song, climbing two places to number five.
After eleven weeks at number one, Tones & I slumps to number ten with Dance Monkey. With sales of I Love Sausage Rolls so high, it is likely that she would have been dethroned this week even if Dance Monkey had not been moved on to the Accelerated Chart Ratio under which the value of her streams is halved. However, she would have been several places higher if the value of her streams had remained unchanged.
This week’s newcomers are dominated by more Christmas songs and tracks from two of the week’s big new album releases. The sole exception is a re-entry for Juice Wrld’s Lucid Dreams at number 27. This follows the death of the Chicagoan rapper at the age of just 21 earlier this month. The song reached number ten last year and is now likely to remain his biggest hit.
There are two new entries from Stormzy’s new album Heavy Is The Head, joining Own It on which he is the lead artist and bringing his total number of songs in this week’s chart up to the maximum of three. Audacity (featuring Headie One) enters at number six with Lessons at number nine. They bring his tally of top forty hits up to 21 with ten of them hitting the top ten.
The other big new album release was the second solo album from Harry Styles, Fine Line. Watermelon Smiles reached number 28 earlier this month before making way for Christmas songs. The release of the album sees the song return at number eighteen. Falling enters at number 39, becoming the fourth song from the album to reach the top forty. It is the second song called Falling in the top forty this week, joining the one by Trevor Daniel. Styles is also at number twelve with Adore You.
The John Legend version of Happy Christmas (War Is Over) enters at number 34. As I slagged it off last week, I won’t bother doing so again. That would be a waste of energy. A recent Christmas song re-enters the chart this week. For each of the last two years Sia’s Santa’s Coming For Us has not reached the top forty until the first chart after Christmas as streams of the song have climbed in the few days before the 25th. This year it manages to enter in time for the official Christmas chart at number 36.
Lewis Capaldi’s Someone You Loved falls to number 38. If he can hold on to a top forty place next week, he should complete a full year in the chart next month with ease when all the Christmas songs drop out.
Anyone looking at the list of new releases in December would have expected that there would be a battle between Harry Styles and Stormzy for the top spot. That, however, was to ignore the staying power of Roderick Stewart. After climbing to number one last week his You’re In My Heart gets a second week at the top. His 31 weeks at the top of the albums chart now see him sandwiched between Take That on 30 weeks and former member Robbie Williams on 36.
Rod Stewart’s unexpected second week at number one left two people whose debut album topped the chart battling it out for the runner-up spot with their second album. That rather less high profile race is won by Stormzy who is at number two with Heavy Is The Head, leaving Harry Styles’ Fine Line at number three. It’s not all bad news for Harry Styles though as he is top of the pile in Ireland. Both the Stormzy and Styles albums may well be in contention for a climb to the top in January.
Lewis Capaldi’s Divinely Uninspired To A Hellish Extent climbs back up to number four. Michael Ball and Alfie Boe are at number five with Back Together.
Andrea Bocelli’s Si Forever returns to the top forty at number 28. Taylor Swift’s Lover re-enters at number 32.
As is customary, there will be no Suedehead Chart Commentary next week. It will be back on Friday 3 January when the singles chart will be flooded with re-entries as the Christmas songs crash out. In the meantime, thanks for reading these ramblings throughout the year and…
Merry Christmas Suedehead. Joan Jett's version is also a cover. The much lesser known original is by the Arrows from 1975. They had two top 30 singles but 'I Love Rock'n'Roll' failed to chart.
Thanks for listening to Sausage rolls songs so I dont have to. Among those covers for next years chart-topper I'm guessing Sausage Rolls (I Gave You The Best Years Of My Life), God Gave Sausage Rolls To You, It's Only Sausage Rolls, and Sausage Rolls Star must be high on the likely list...
