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Savage Love stays at number one
Jawsh 685 and Jason Derulo's Savage Love stays at the top of the singles chart. Woking's veteran mod Paul Weller tops the albums chart.


Jawsh 685 and Jason Derulo stay at the top of the singles chart. Paul Weller gets his fourth solo number one album.

After climbing to the top of the chart last week, Jawsh 685 and Jason Derulo comfortably get a second week at number one with Savage Love. Only the first of Derulo’s five number one singles (In My Head in 2010) has failed to get at least a second week at the top.

Jawsh 685 and Jason Derulo head an unchanged top six ahead of Dababy and Roddy Ricch’s Rockstar, Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande’s Rain On Me, Topic and A7S’s Breaking Me, S1mba and DTG’s Rover and Harry Styles’ Watermelon Sugar.

AJ Tracey and Mabel have a new entry at number seven with West 10. Mabel’s record company have used the track to exploit a feature of the current chart rules. In the early days of the chart, when the charts were compiled using sales from a small sample of record shops, a record company could try to manipulate the chart by getting staff to buy copies from one of those shops.

When technological advances meant that all sales from all shops were counted, that was no longer a major issue as a few additional sales made little difference to the overall figures. Record companies therefore had to find new ways of boosting an album’s place in the chart. That often meant, for example, limited edition releases on coloured vinyl or a CD with extra tracks.

The increasingly complicated chart rules to include a combination of two completely separate things (streaming and actual sales) have opened up new ways to boost an album’s performance, either for a new release or for an older album. As all streams of an individual track count towards “sales” of the host album, a record company can simply keep adding tracks to the version of the album on streaming sites and thereby gain extra “sales”. The addition of West 10 to Mabel’s High Expectations album (ahead of the now misleadingly-titled High Expectations - Intro) has helped lift the album twelv places to number fifteen.

There have been several occasions in recent months when I have commented on the lack of new entries. This week we have - drum roll, please - a massive NINE in the top forty. The bad news is that three of them are a result of the release of a new album by Pop Smoke. The Woo (featuring 50 Cent and Roddy Ricch) is at number nine, For The Night (featuring Lil Baby and his brother Da) is at fourteen and Mood Swings (featuring Lil Tjay) is at 23. These three entries quadruple Pop Smoke’s tally of top forty hits in one fell swoop. His appearance on The Woo sees 50 Cent return to the chart for the first time since he reached number two with My Life in 2013. If the three-song limit was not in operation, there would be around half-a-dozen more entries from Mr Smoke in the top forty this week.

The next new entry sees the return of another artist who has been absent from the chart for a while. MNEK’s last chart entry was as the featured artist on Stormzy’s best song Blinded By Your Grace in 2017. He now returns at number fifteen, featuring on Joel Corry’s new single Head & Heart. Corry’s previous single, Lonely, drops out of the top forty this week leaving Head & Heart on its lonesome.

Back in the 1980s, the name Woy was associated with Roy Jenkins, a politician who pronounced the letter R as a W. That moniker was later passed on to football manager Roy Hodgson. None of that has anything to do with Woi, a new entry at number 24 for Digga D. His previous hit, Mr Sheeen, provoked comments about furniture polish.

American rapper Jack Thomas makes his UK top forty debut at number 29 with What’s Poppin. He has chosen to stand out from most rappers by sticking to his given name - Jack is short for Jackman. He hasn’t chosen to stand out from most rappers by the quality of his work.

Kanye West made the headlines this week by teasing about the possibility of joining the race for the US presidency in November. This is surely entirely unrelated to the fact that he has some new music to promote, starting with a role on Ty Dolla Sign’s Ego Death, a new entry at number 34. The song also features FKA Twigs who makes her first appearance in the top forty singles and Skrillex, last in the top forty five years ago with the Justin Bieber-assisted Where Are U Now. At least Bieber eventually found that U with some help from Ariana Grand and now they are stuck with it.

This year has seen an unusual number of pairs of songs with the same title in the top forty, some of them appearing in the chart simultaneously. Their number increases this week with the appearance at number 38 of Circles by Deno featuring OFB, Bandokay and Double LZ. The title was also used by Post Malone on his single that reached number three last year but was still in the top forty earlier in 2020 and for Mac Miller’s posthumous album. Deno, a 17-year-old rapper from Brixton, makes his first top forty appearance as do OFB and Double LZ. Bandokay featured on Mastermind’s War which reached number 39 earlier this year.

The top three albums are all new entries with Paul Weller’s fifteenth solo studio album, On Sunset, leading the way. Its appearance at number one, and the lack of any tracks from the album in the top 100, provide an illustration of how followers of different types of music consume their music in different ways. If somebody buys an album (whether a physical copy or a download), that counts as one sale for the album and no sales for any of the tracks. Therefore, an artist whose fans still stick to the old-fashioned habit of buying music can still get a number one album but rarely make any headway into the singles chart.

Weller’s first chart-topping solo album came at the third attempt (excluding a live album) with Stanley Road in 1995, an album named after the road in Woking where he grew up. He subsequently topped the chart with Illumination (2002) and 22 Dreams (2008). Now, twelve years on, he finally gets his fourth number one with On Sunset. Only one of The Jam’s albums (The Gift, 1982) reached number one. Similarly, the much-maligned Style Council also only topped the chart once (Our Favourite Shop, 1985). None of Weller’s albums, solo or as part of a band, has stayed at number one for a second week.

By contrast to fans of the likes of Paul Weller, rap fans are more likely to stream their music. As a result, Pop Smoke’s posthumous release Shoot For The Stars, Aim For The Moon gets three of its tracks in the top forty (see above) but is only at number two in the albums chart. His mixtape Meet The Woo 2, which reached number 22 earlier this year before climbing too number sixteen two weeks later following his death, re-enters at number 32.

Last week’s commentary included a mention of Katherine Jenkins and Vera Lynn’s recording of We’ll Meet Again’s inclusion in the list of best-selling songs of the year so far. I didn’t mention (because I hadn’t noticed) that Jenkins had a new album out. I can mention it this week though as Cinema Paradiso, a collection of songs from films, is a new entry at number three. It is only her second top three album following Rejoice in 2007 and its tracks include Singin’ In The Rain, Moon River (used in Breakfast At Tiffany’s - the film, not the song of that name) and Lord Of The Rings.

The title track comes from the film of the same name, one of many films with a score written by Italian composer Ennio Morricone who died this week at the age of 91. Morricone had been composing classing music for some time before he branched out into film scores. He did so by working with director Sergio Leone who he had first met when they attend the same primary school.

His film scores provided hits for Hugo Montenegro with the theme from The Good, The Bad and the Ugly (number one, 1960) and Chi Mai (number two, 1981). The latter tune was written for the long-forgotten film Maddalena in 1971 but gained a new lease of life when it was used as the theme time for the BBC drama The Life and Times of David Lloyd George.

Morricone’s influence is perhaps best illustrated by the array of artists who recorded tracks for a tribute album We All Love Ennio Morricone in 2007. How many other composers would attract performers from Bruce Springsteen and Metallica to Celine Dion and Andrea Bocelli? He continued to perform almost up to the time that live performances were suspended around the world with his final appearance coming in Rome in January.

The Shadows recorded a version of Chi Mai although it was never released as a single. The band started as Cliff Richard’s backing band in the 1950s (originally called The Drifters until the American group of the same name forced a change) before releasing their first single as a standalone group in 1960.

The Shadows’ early hits, until they disbanded in 1968, were generally original compositions but they re-formed in the 1970s and started recording mostly cover versions, often including instrumental versions of hit songs. One of their rare songs to include vocals was the UK entry for the 1975 Eurovision Song Contest, Let Me Be The One.

In 2004, they announced that they were disbanding once again and embarked on a farewell tour. An album recorded on the tour was released at the end of that year but it failed to set the charts alight. Now, a few weeks short of the sixtieth anniversary of their first Cliff-less single, a new edition of the album, with a DVD, has been released and it enters at number 37.

Lewis Capaldi’s Divinely Uninspired To A Hellish Extent stays at number four. It has been in the chart for 60 weeks without ever leaving the top ten. It has spent just three of those 60 weeks outside the top five.

Bob Dylan’s Rough And Ready Ways falls three places to number five. His last album to spend three weeks in the top ten was Together Through Life in 2009.

Last week’s number one, Haim’s Women In Music - Part 3, crashes to number 24.

When Sparks reached number seven with their 23rd studio album in 2017, it was their first appearance in the top ten since Propaganda in 1974 and only their third top ten album in their long career. This week they get a fourth as A Steady Drip Drip Drip enters at number six. It is, of course, another wonderful album and contains tracks with typically Sparks-esque titles such as Lawnmower, I’m Toast and, with the sort of pun only Sparks can get away with, Onomato Pia. The only other mention of a lawnmower in song that springs to mind is the line “Me, I’m just a lawnmower / You can tell me by the way I walk” in Genesis’s I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe), their debut hit single in 1974.

Southampton band Bury Tomorrow made their first chart appearance in 2014 with their third album Runes. They continue their run of releasing an album in even years and getting into the top forty with Cannibal at number ten, their highest chart position. Whether they manage a second week in the top 100 (a feat that has eluded them so far) remains to be seen.

Although they are described as a London-based band, Dream Wife’s heritage is rather more interesting than that might suggest. One member was born in Iceland and lived in California for eight years before training as an opera singer in Reykjavik. The two other members met in Somerset but the band was created when all three were at Brighton University. Their eponymous debut album reached number 60 in 2018; album number two, So When You Gonna, is at number eighteen.
Published on: 2020-07-10 by BuzzJack.com Suedehead2 || 22855 Views
Comments (2)
 
Popchartfreak
10 Jul 2020 - 19:10
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I was sweet 16 when Sparks arrived complete and original with This Town Ain't Big Enough. I loved it immensely on one listen. I bought it, and 46 years later they are as fab as at any stage in their long career. Heart-warming to see them getting critical acclaim still!

I must say, all the streaming-led "sales" for rap acts that get no radio play will make for interesting social studies in decades to come when "big hits" of the time are thought to be what are largely niche-interest acts that pass most people by. That includes Kanye West these days, long past his innovative days and well into his Trump-promoting "give me the money" tax bonanzas-for-the-rich phase. Hey ho, well done on struggling through the singles chart this week!
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Suedehead2
10 Jul 2020 - 20:59
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Thanks laugh.gif

I remember hearing This Town... and thinking it was very different from anything else I’d ever heard. Of course, their first TOTP appearance had them marked down as a novelty act but they are definitely not that.
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