Leona eases to third week at No.1 as big comebacks make muted debuts

 

2006’s X Factor winner Leona Lewis has proved once again that she is the hottest property in the UK music industry right now as Bleeding Love has clinched a third consecutive week at number one. In a fairly uneventful top 5 boyband Take That have retained the No.2 spot for a third consecutive week with Rule The World, taken from the soundtrack to the film Stardust. Leona and Take That go into another battle next week releasing albums Spirit and Beautiful World (Deluxe Edition) on Monday though Take That probably won’t expect a huge sales boost considering that the original version of that album is nearing two million sales in the UK alone. Rule The World is not the most unlucky No.2 single of the year, that honour goes to Kate Nash’s Foundations that had 5 non-consecutive weeks in the runners up spot during the summer including one week where it was just 16 copies behind the No.1 single.

 

On the climb this week at No.3 is Timbaland feat One Republic’s Apologize. The track has been gaining momentum over the last month and now becomes a third top 3 hit from Timbaland’s Shock Value album which reached No.2 earlier in the year. Also up a place to No.4 is Mark Ronson and Amy Winehouse’s cover of The Zutons’ Valerie. The single has been in the top five for five weeks now and is the biggest hit single for both parties involved. Stop Me also peaked at No.2 earlier in the year but spent three weeks in the top 5 while Amy Winehouse’s biggest hit before this was the No.7 2006 hit Rehab. Rounding off the top 5 this week is Westlife’s Home which slides just two places to No.5. The track has held up very well considering that it was not a No.1 single and that its parent album Back Home was released this week and had relatively large sales for a No.1 album.

 

Talking of singles that are holding up well, Sugababes are a non-mover at No.6 this week with the former chart topper About You Now. It’s the biggest hit to date for the trio and has so far spent seven weeks in the top 10. No.7 is a return to the top 10 for Craig David. Making his debut as Artful Dodger’s vocalist on Rewind, a No.2 hit in 1999, Craig was touted as the next big thing and lived up to the hype in 2000 scoring No.1 hits with Fill Me In and Seven Days and a No.1 album with Born To Do It. Though he has never returned to No.1 since 2000 this is his 11th top 10 single in the UK (13th if you count the two Artful Dodger singles). Hot Stuff samples the David Bowie No.1 hit Let’s Dance to interesting effect. Slightly more interesting is the b-side of the 2-track single which is a mash up of Hot Stuff with Bob Sinclar’s No.10 hit from last year, World Hold On.

 

Britney Spears spends a 4th week in the top 10 with Gimme More which slides just a place to No.8 this week. Her album Blackout is holding up far less impressively tumbling from No.2 to No.13 this week. No.9 is a whopping seventeen place climb for American soul singer Alicia Keys who was at No.26 last week with No One. It is only her 3rd top 10 hit in the UK following her classic 2001 debut hit Fallin’ and her 2002 duet with Eve, Gangsta Lovin’. Some of her other hits such as If I Ain’t Got You and Girlfriend have become contemporary classics but could not make the top 10 in the UK. She is likely to go even further next week when the physical is released. Freemasons spend a 4th week in the top 10 this week sliding just two places after three weeks at No.8 with the Alanis Morissette cover Uninvited.

 

Taking a look at some of the statistics in this week’s top 10 singles, four of the singles are covers or include a sample (#4, #5, #7, #10) while Timbaland’s No.3 single is a reworking of a One Republic track but the fact that the band are the credited featuring act on the song makes it less of a bonafide cover than some of the other singles in this week’s top 10. The country breakdown also makes for some interesting reading as the top 10 is dominated almost entirely by artists from two countries. UK acts are at #1, #2, #4, #6, #7 and #10 while US acts provide #3, #8 and #9. Irish act Westlife are the odd ones out at #5. Compare this to earlier in the year when American R & B was the dominant genre in our chart and US acts accounted for at times two thirds of the UK top 10. It seems that home grown talent has once again, and quite rightfully, become the dominant force in the UK as near the end of 2007.

 

Eight other singles join or rejoin the UK top 40 this week. Kylie Minogue makes her anticipated comeback with 2 Hearts debuting at No.12. The first single from her tenth studio album X due out in two weeks, it was expected to make a bigger first week splash considering the hype surrounding it. However it should definitely move into the top 10 next week to keep up her 100% top 10 strike rate of this decade to become her 14th of the decade and 31st in total since 1988. Elvis’ latest re-release is a successful one entering at No.13 with the classic former No.2 hit In The Ghetto. None of the re-releases have yet matched the top 5 success that all of 2005’s re-release series had, in fact all have entered between No.11 and No.17. Pussycat Doll Nicole Scherzinger’s first solo single Baby Love jumps back into the top 40 at No.14 this week after it finally received a physical release.

 

Next up at No.20 is this year’s official Children In Need Single. Spice Girls became a worldwide phenomenon when they launched in 1996 with Wannabe which was a seven week chart topper and a million selling single. During their short but successful career Melanie B, Melanie C, Victoria, Geri and Emma had 9 No.1 singles, 2 No.1 albums and 3 Christmas No.1 singles, though Geri was not featured on the two chart topping singles Goodbye (#1, December 1998) and Holler/Let Love Lead The Way (#1, October 2000) as she left the band in May 1998. The group had fairly successful solo careers in the UK with Melanie C scoring two No.1 singles in 2000 and Geri scoring four chart toppers between 1999 and 2001. Victoria Beckham was the only solo Spice not to have a UK chart topping single but is by far the most well known member of the band being part of the mega media circus ‘Brand Beckham’. The band reformed officially earlier in the year for a tour and Greatest Hits album which is out tomorrow and Headlines (Friendship Never Ends) is the first single. Perhaps No.20 is a surprisingly low debut for such a prolific band but it should climb in the coming weeks with its physical release and upcoming promotion. Should it reach No.1 it will be the 4th Children In Need related No.1 single of this century following S Club 7’s Never Had A Dream Come True (2000) and Have You Ever (2001) and Girls Aloud’s I’ll Stand By You (2004). Last year’s song was Downtown by Spice Girl Emma Bunton going it alone and peaked at No.3 in the UK.

 

Kanye West follows up his huge No.1 summer hit Stronger with an unspectacular follow up. Good Life had been in the top 40 for a few weeks before dropping out last week. However the added physical release gives it enough of a boost to reach a new peak of No.23 and is the first of two entries in the chart for rapper T-Pain who also features on Chris Brown’s Kiss Kiss (#38). US rock act Nickelback are still huge in the States scoring a multi million selling album with All The Right Reasons. It has been less of a success here though Country-tinged Rockstar is the third top 40 single from the album in the UK climbing to No.34 this week from last week’s No.45. Their biggest UK hit remains the huge 2002 single How You Remind Me. No.37 is a new entry to the top 40 for Amy Winehouse who uniquely features in the top 40 with the same track twice this week. Her cover of Valerie was originally on the b-side to Back To Black earlier this year in an acoustic form and enough people have downloaded it this week to warrant its entry to the top 40 and give Amy her 6th credit on a top 40 hit in the last 12 months. The final new entry is the comeback from French Candian singer Celine Dion most famous for the power ballad Think Twice (#1, 1995) and the Titanic soundtrack single My Heart Will Go On (#1, 1998), both of which sold a million copies in the UK. Taking Chances is a download only single which moves into the top 40 this week but looks unlikely to go any higher.

 

Climbers within this week’s top 40 come from Rihanna and Ne-Yo whose duet Hate That I Love You is on its final week before its physical release and surges eight places from No.24 to No.16. British indie band The Wombats climb two places back up the chart from No.32 to No.30 this week with Let’s Dance To Joy Division which in a world of The Hoosiers and Scouting For Girls should have realistically been a top 10 hit if those two acts can make it. The only other climber is Kiss Kiss by US rap star Chris Brown. The song which is currently No.1 in the US is not getting a physical release her but climbs to a new peak on downloads alone after being stuck at No.40 for the past two weeks.

 

It’s another new No.1 album this week as Irish band Westlife notch up a 7th chart topping album since their debut in 1999. Only their debut self titled album (#2, 1999) and Allow Us To Be Frank (#3, 2004) missed the top spot. Back Home is largely made up of brand new material, perhaps rare from a band we now expect to sing cover versions. Westlife’s success mean that The Eagles move down to No.2 while Whitney Houston climbs to a new peak of No.3 with The Ultimate Collection, shaping up to be a big Christmas seller. McFly are a successful singles act but haven’t had huge album success in terms of their sales. Their Greatest Hits album which apparently features 9 No.1 singles (if you count the two double a-side No.1 singles separately) debuts at No.4 this week. The only other new entry in the top 10 this week is a Motown tribute album from Boyz II Men at No.8 who would have been boosted by their X Factor appearance last weekend. Their 1992 No.1 hit End Of The Road was a re-entry to the top 75 singles at No.43 this week. Other new entries in the top 40 come from indie band Wombats (#11), Classical act Blake (#18), Amy Winehouse (#22), Sigur Ros (#23), Angels & Airwaves (#29), Jay-Z (#30) and Chris Brown (#31).

 

Next week’s singles chart could see a 4th week at No.1 for Bleeding Love considering its still far higher than average sales. Kylie Minogue debuted at No.12 with her comeback 2 Hearts this week and her physical release alongside a lot of promotional appearances this week should ensure that the single goes into the top 5 next week but is unlikely to reach the No.1 spot like most of her other comeback singles have done in recent years. Other singles that are physically released next week and could make a splash in the top 40 come from Alicia Keys, Bloc Party, Darren Hayes, Duran Duran, Elvis Presley, Fergie, Hard-Fi, Linkin Park, Nickelback and Rihanna & Ne-Yo.

 

Related Link: http://www.buzzjack.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=55620

That is excellent, Rich.

 

You are much better (and more accurate than) James Masterson.

Cheers Jester! Kind words indeed!

Great work Rich ^_^

 

On the opening page.. their are 2 Commentery's.. One from Goodelta and one from Buzzjack.com :unsure:

excellent write up and a huge well done for it

Quick question to those in the know!

 

Does anyone know why one of my commentaries (the Sean Kingston one) got over 58,000 views whereas last weeks one got less than 400 views...is the traffic to this site massively down :o

 

Or do people read these articles over a long period of time (which seems odd as they would be long out of date)

And cheers for the kind comments Jonny and Shameless!

Another good commentary.

 

No.7 is a return to the top 10 for Craig David. Making his debut as Artful Dodger’s vocalist on Rewind, a No.2 hit in 1999, Craig was touted as the next big thing and lived up to the hype in 2000 scoring No.1 hits with Fill Me In and Seven Days and a No.1 album with Born To Do It. Though he has never returned to No.1 since 2000 this is his 11th top 10 single in the UK (13th if you count the two Artful Dodger singles). Hot Stuff samples the David Bowie No.1 hit Let’s Dance to interesting effect. Slightly more interesting is the b-side of the 2-track single which is a mash up of Hot Stuff with Bob Sinclar’s No.10 hit from last year, World Hold On.

 

I only really discovered and showed interest in his last album, so nice to read about the bits I have missed. Thanks.

 

Another good commentary.

 

Thanks :cheer:

Quick question to those in the know!

 

Does anyone know why one of my commentaries (the Sean Kingston one) got over 58,000 views whereas last weeks one got less than 400 views...is the traffic to this site massively down :o

 

That's because we have changed the news system on the front page, last week.

 

Good commentary though

 

That's because we have changed the news system on the front page, last week.

 

Good commentary though

 

Ok cheers Mikey

 

:D

you've done a great job and your hard work is much appreciated! :cheer:

I'm thankful for Westlife's brand new album debuting at number one really.

A great original album indeed.

Edited November 12, 200717 yr by Nickyhin

SO RHIANNA AND NEYO ARE getting a cd release a few people last week said they wernt

I wus just thinking.... Could we not just move this to the Chart Commenery archive afterwoods... Like we do with the James Mastersoon comentery ^_^

SO RHIANNA AND NEYO ARE getting a cd release a few people last week said they wernt

 

Yes they are, I saw it in HMV yesterday :)