Leona scores a second week at No.1 to trounce the boyband onslaught

 

X Factor winner Leona Lewis has proved that her second single Bleeding Love was no flash in the pan success by scoring a second week at the top of the chart, once again way ahead of her competition. Take That won the battle of the boybands but had to settle for a second week in the runners up spot with Rule The World, their epic ballad lifted from the soundtrack to fantasy film Stardust. Leona releases her debut album Spirit on November 12th once again on the same day as a Take That release. However it’s not a brand new release but a repackage of the band’s multi-platinum comeback album Beautiful World which is out on November 12th with 4 new tracks and a bonus DVD.

 

Rounding up the top 3 and it’s a minor surprise for Irish boyband Westlife. Launched in 1999 Westlife’s first seven singles debuted at No.1 and everyone was shocked when Bob The Builder stopped What Makes A Man from getting the Xmas No.1 spot in 2000. Every year in October/November Westlife have released a ballad that has grabbed the No.1 spot apart from in 2004 when Allow Us To Be Frank, their Swing covers album had no singles released from it. New release Home is a cover of Michael Buble’s 2005 No.30 hit. Though not a huge hit it’s relatively well known, much like their previous two No.1 hits The Rose and You Raise Me Up. The formula was obviously expected to work again as it has done without fail since 1999 but few people could have predicted the massive success of Take That and Leona’s singles. It is however their 22nd top 5 hit in a row and comfortably inside the top 5 though once again the majority of their sales are from physical buyers. The new album Back Home is released this week and only features 3 covers this time around and apparently features some good quality new tracks so they should not have any problem grabbing their yearly No.1 album this time next week.

 

Timbaland has had a brilliant 2007 with two number one’s credited to him, Give It To Me and The Way I Are, both of which have sold over 200,000 copies in the UK as well as featuring as a credited performer on 50 Cent’s Ayo Technology. Apologize features American rock act One Republic and climbs three places to a new peak of No.4 this week. His album Shock Value has also performed impressively peaking at No.2 earlier in the year. Rounding off the top 5 is a non-mover from Mark Ronson and Amy Winehouse. Valerie scores a 4th consecutive week in the top 5 which is impressive seeing as Mark Ronson’s Version album has been a big success in itself this year peaking at No.2 and this is the third single from it. It seems that wherever Timbaland has been this year, fellow producer Mark Ronson is never far behind, most notably in April when Stop Me peaked one place behind Timbaland’s number one single Give It To Me.

 

Sugababes former No.1 single About You Now slides two places to No.6 this week while the album Change remains in the top 10 for a 4th week. Britney Spears is down a place to No.7 with her comeback single Gimme More which has peaked at No.3 so far. Freemasons are the only dance representative in the UK top 10 this week with Alanis Morissette cover Uninvited staying at No.8 for a third consecutive week this week. The Hoosiers are another non-mover this week with the radio friendly Goodbye Mr A scoring a 4th week in the top 10 this week. Rounding off this week’s UK top 10 is McFly who for the first time in a while don’t leave the top 10 on their second week. Their last single, the No.1 hit Baby’s Coming Back/Transylvania debuted at No.1 before plummeting to No.20 the following week so a seven place slide for The Heart Never Lies pales in comparison.

 

Nine other singles join the UK top 40 this week. Elvis Presley is back at No.15 with his latest re-release, the classic Viva Las Vegas. Originally released in 1964 the song first peaked at No.17 and this is therefore the first of the re-releases to outperform its original release. Koopa debut at No.16 this week with The Crash. The rock act from Essex have already scored two other hits this year, both on downloads alone as they are unsigned and release their music solely online with their ever growing fanbase being reflected in their slowly improving chart positions. The next song new to the top 40 is from Robyn. The Swede bounced onto the scene in 1996 with her first top 10 hit being the bubblegum pop song Show Me Love which peaked at No.8 in March 1998. She disappeared from the UK charts for 9 years but continued releasing music in Sweden, one of her most famous hits being Keep This Fire Burning which was later covered by Beverley Knight reaching No.16 in the UK in 2005. With Every Heartbeat which was produced by Kleerup was a No.1 single for Robyn in August and marked one of the more impressive comebacks of 2007. The second UK single to be taken from her top 20 album Robyn is Handle Me which debuts inside top 40 at No.17 this week but actually climbs from No.43 last week. Be Mine is expected to be next and will hopefully return her to the upper reaches of the chart as this popstar is too good to only score a couple of hits every decade.

 

Craig David has had a successful career in the UK since 1999 when he guested on Artful Dodger’s No.2 hit Rewind. Craig followed this in 2000 with the No.1 hits Fill Me In and 7 Days and the chart topping album Born To Do It. Since then he has had unheralded but reasonable success with singles such as Rise & Fall (2003), All The Way (2005), and Don’t Love You No More (I’m Sorry) (2005) all of which made the UK top 5. He last appeared in the chart as a featured artist on Kano’s top 20 hit This Is The Girl but Hot Stuff is his true comeback single. Debuting at No.19 on downloads alone it samples David Bowie’s 1983 No.1 hit Let’s Dance to considerably more success than Dutch dance act Hi_Tack whose own cover of the song only just made it to the top 40 when released a few weeks ago peaking at No.38.

 

The next new entry is at No.26 and is a welcome return for Alicia Keys. The soulful American singer’s biggest UK hit was her debut hit Fallin’ in 2001 which peaked at No.3. She has only troubled the UK top 10 once since with Gangsta Lovin’ a 2002 collaboration with rapper Eve. No One has however debuted at No.26 on downloads alone and could well give the singer her second solo top 10 hit in the coming weeks. York five piece Elliot Minor have scored two top 40 hits so far this year, Parallel Worlds (#31) and Jessica (#19) and their third single The White One Is Evil is a third top 40 hit for the band debuting at No.27 this week with their debut album coming soon. Avril Lavigne does her usual trick of following up a short string of large top 10 hits with a relative flop. Girlfriend and When You’re Gone both reached the top 3 and were amongst the biggest ever UK hits for the Canadian but Hot can only reach No.30 on its full release this week. Cliff Richard and The Cribs score the final two new hits of the week entering at No.38 and No.39 respectively with their new singles.

 

Climbers in the top 40 this week come from Rihanna whose Hate That I Love You moves up a place to No.24 on its third week in the top 40. Akon’s Sorry Blame It On Me gets a belated physical release and stalls at No.22 as a result. Had it been out five or six weeks earlier Akon would have undoubtedly scored a top 20 hit. And finally German dance act Samim surge seventeen places to No.12 following the physical release of Heater, an instrumental track based entirely around a sample of an old Colombian folk song played on an accordian.

 

The album chart has a new No.1 this week from The Eagles. The legendary band never made it to No.1 with their other UK charting albums so Long Road Out Of Eden, their first collection of new tracks for decades is their first chart topping success. Britney Spears matches the No.2 peak of her debut album Baby One More Time with long awaited comeback album Blackout. Despite her incredible singles success in the UK, the American has never scored a No.1 album here. The Hoosiers slide to No.3 this week while three more new entries follow. Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant has teamed up with singer Alison Krauss for a No.4 debut with Raising Sand while Whitney Houston is new in at No.5 with The Ultimate Collection, her last greatest hits album 2000’s The Greatest Hits being a million selling No.1. Daniel O’ Donnel and Mary Duff team up to score a No.6 with Together Again while the rest of the top 10 come from Amy Winehouse, Van Morrison, Mark Ronson and Sugababes who all fall this week.

 

Next week’s singles chart is an interesting one. Leona Lewis’ continuing high sales should ensure that she gets a third week at the top but there are two huge digital comebacks. Kylie Minogue releases her first single since 2005’s Giving You Up on Monday. 2 Hearts is a sophisticated electro-pop track and should at the very least reach the top 10 on downloads alone. The mighty Spice Girls reunion tour is about to get underway and their new single to promote the tour and Greatest Hits album Headlines (Friendship Never Ends) is also released to download outlets on Monday. It will be the group’s 11th single release, 9 of the other 10 topped the UK chart while Stop peaked at No.2 in 1998. Physically released singles that are likely to make a splash will come from Craig David, David Gray, Elvis Presley, Kanye West and Nicole Scherzinger.

 

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Excellent commentary!

your weekly report is what I look forward to every weekend :D

and yes Westlife's new album is truely brilliant. There are many marvellous original pop songs,

some are real good up-tempo tunes. there is even a slightly RnB song called When I'm With You.

This is a refreshing record which I think everyone should give it a listen.

I must admit this is a better read than James Masterton this week and since we can't post his commentaries no more its a welcome addition, I love the stats and facts posted in there.

 

Another job well done.

Excellent commentary!

your weekly report is what I look forward to every weekend :D

and yes Westlife's new album is truely brilliant. There are many marvellous original pop songs,

some are real good up-tempo tunes. there is even a slightly RnB song called When I'm With You.

This is a refreshing record which I think everyone should give it a listen.

 

Thank you, its nice to know people look forward to reading it!!!

 

I won't be buying Westlife's new album but I'm sure it'll be better than The Love Album at least!

 

I must admit this is a better read than James Masterton this week and since we can't post his commentaries no more its a welcome addition, I love the stats and facts posted in there.

 

Another job well done.

 

Cheers Mikey! I've bulked it up a bit now I know so many people are reading it...I try to give a more detailed account of all or most of the new entries now

I must admit this is a better read than James Masterton this week and since we can't post his commentaries no more its a welcome addition, I love the stats and facts posted in there.

 

Here, Here.

Another great commentary.

Thanks