Chart commentary by gooddelta

It’s a double celebration for Leona as she tops the album and singles charts

Leona Lewis has proved any doubters she had that she was always destined to become a massive star as her debut album Spirit has smashed Arctic Monkeys record to score the fastest selling debut album of all time, shifting almost 376,000 copies in one week. The single Bleeding Love impressively stays at No.1 for a 4th week with sales still well above average for a 2007 No.1 single. No.2 for an astonishing 4th week is Rule The World by Take That. The boys have started the UK leg of their tour this week, and this fact accompanied by strong airplay has meant that Rule The World is the first single to spend 4 consecutive weeks in 2nd place since Destiny’s Child did it with Lose My Breath in 2004. Kate Nash spent 5 weeks at No.2 in the summer but dipped to No.3 in her third week on the chart.

Rounding off a static top 3 is Timbaland’s Apologize. The track which features rock act One Republic means that frontman Ryan Tedder once again has two of his songs in the top 3 as he co-wrote Leona’s Bleeding Love with Jesse McCartney, a US singer who had a top 20 hit last year with Beautiful Soul. It’s the fifth week in the top 10 for Apologize now which has moved 6-7-4-3-3 so far in the top 10. No.4 this week is an eight place climb for Australian superstar Kylie Minogue. After a couple of years out of the charts battling breast cancer, the now fully healthy singer has launched 2 Hearts as the first single from her tenth album X which is out on November 26th. Written by dance act Kish Mauve, it is a rather subtle change of direction for Kylie, mixing together the pop elements of her 2000 and 2001 albums Light Years and Fever but retaining the electro sound of 2003’s Body Language. It is however her first lead single from an album of this decade not to reach No.1 and it is perhaps rather surprising that the song has only reached No.4. Rounding off the top 5 is Valerie by Mark Ronson and Amy Winehouse which has so far moved 7-3-2-5-5-4-5 in the top 10 and is therefore on its 7th week in the charts upper tier.

Alicia Keys moves up 3 places to No.6 after the physical release of No One, the first single from her upcoming new album As I Am. It is her joint 2nd biggest hit along with 2002’s Gangsta Lovin’ which was a duet with Eve. For the time being, Alicia’s 2001 debut single Fallen retains its title as her biggest hit in the UK. Westlife continue to hold up surprisingly well with Michael Buble cover Home which is down just 2 places to No.7. UK indie band Bloc Party score the highest new entry this week at No.8. It is a change in sound for the group as Flux is more of a dance orientated single than their previous material. It is their 4th UK top 10 hit after So Here We Are (#5) and Two More Years (#7) and their biggest hit The Prayer (#4) from earlier this year. No.9 this week is an oddity and the second highest new entry.

Raising money for Children In Need, the song Loch Lomond is an eight minute long track by a Scottish folk act, Runrig. For now, it is the most successful Children In Need related track as Spice Girls official single Headlines (Friendship Never Ends) moves down 3 places to No.23 on its second week on the chart ahead of a physical release on Monday And finally, No.10 is About You Now by Sugababes. The former No.1 single has so far moved 1-1-1-1-4-6-6-10 on its 8 week top 10 stay outclassing 2005’s Push The Button to make it their longest running top 10 hit to date. So in a good week for homegrown talent, this week’s top 10 features 6 British acts, 1 Irish act, an Australian and two American acts.

In a rather uneventful chart, only five songs join or rejoin the remainder of the top 40 this week. Blackburn based record label All Around The World have notched up a fair few hits since the early 1990’s and their latest success is Heartbroken by London act T2 featuring the vocals of female singer Jodie Aysha. The song is a dance/garage crossover single which is rare to hear these days. The garage genre exploded into the mainstream around 1999/2000 with acts such as Artful Dodger, So Solid Crew, Oxide & Neutrino and MJ Cole all having notable success in the UK. Since then there has only been a handful of crossover hits, from acts such as Jaimeson in 2003 and 3 Of A Kind who scored an infectious No.1 hit with Babycakes in 2004. Elvis Presley’s re-issue series of some of his most famous non chart topping singles continues with You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me which is in at No.16 this week. The single originally peaked at No.9 in 1971.

X Factor girl group Hope have almost left the competition twice so far ending up in the bottom two twice in the last three weeks. However, last week they performed Amy Winehouse’s Back To Black, the title track of her album and it was regarded as a stellar performance by many. The ‘download effect’ meant that in the hours following that performance, the single shot back up on the iTunes download chart and has resulted in a the track jumping back up 31 places this week to almost match its original No.25 peak. It is the 26th week in the top 75 in total for the single. Downloads have thrown up oddities in nearly every chart this year and this week is no exception. No.33 is a new entry Lahayna are a self proclaimed Rock/Funk/Soul band from London according to their MySpace page. Their debut single In The City has been popular with downloader’s this week and results in the group’s first top 40 single.

And scoring only the second top 40 single of their career in the UK is British rock act Led Zeppelin. The highly respected band are reuniting for a concert shortly and to commemorate the occasion, they have finally released their entire back catalogue to download outlets. Arguably their most famous track is the epic Stairway To Heaven which finally becomes a bonafide chart hit this week popping up at No.37 on download sales. Their only other charting single in the UK is Whole Lotta Love which was released as a single in 1997 and peaked at No.21. This entry suggests that when The Beatles finally release their back catalogue to iTunes they will likely score a few top 40 hits. However, the fact that one of the most legendary songs of all time can only get to No.37 will perhaps silence the critics who are expecting The Beatles classics to clog the top 10 when they are finally available to download.

There are a few songs making upward movements in the top 40 this week. Rihanna & Ne-Yo’s duet Hate That I Love You has been climbing for a few weeks and is up another place to No.15 this week. However, this is quite a bit lower than expected as the single was released physically this week. The X-Factor effect helps Shayne Ward who performed on last week’s show. Though Breathless, the song her performed, is not available to buy until Monday, fans have been buying more copies of No U Hang Up/If That’s Ok With You instead and as a result the single moves back into the top 20 climbing from No.21 to No.17. Nickelback reached the top 40 with Rockstar last week and the Canadian rockers leap 14 places into the top 20 this week after a physical release. And Phil Collins is back up a place to No.25 with In The Air Tonight, still picking up sales as a result of the Cadbury’s gorilla advert that it has been recently associated with.

Over in the album chart the aforementioned record breaker Leona Lewis scores the highest new entry of the week with Spirit at No.1. It’s one of six new entries in the top 10 album chart this week as sales start to pick up in time for the Christmas rush. To celebrate their reunion tour, the Spice Girls finally release their Greatest Hits collection. It debuts at No.2 far behind the sales of Leona and includes their 9 No.1’s as well as the No.2 single Stop, new songs Headlines and Voodoo and the popular album track Move Over. Westlife’s Back Home moves down to No.3 after a week at the top while Mothership, the best of Led Zeppelin is new at No.4. Celine Dion is back in the album chart at No.5 with her new release Taking Chances. The Eagles are down four places to No.6 while after two No.1 albums, The Killers rarities collection Sawdust is a new entry at No.7. Vivere, the best of Andrea Bocelli is in at No.8 while Take That’s Beautiful World climbs 115 places to No.9 this week. Though not listed as a new entry the album has been re-issued this week with 3 extra tracks and a DVD including 4 videos and an interview with the band. No.10 this week is the year’s biggest seller so far, Back To Black by Amy Winehouse.

The battle for No.1 next week should prove interesting as Leona will be looking to extend her reign to five weeks with Bleeding Love. The official Children In Need single, Headlines by the Spice Girls is released physically tomorrow and they will hope that it can follow 9 of their other 10 singles to the No.1 spot. However, their less than encouraging download sales could hinder the girls’ progress to the top spot. Other singles that are physically released next week and could make a splash in the top 40 come from Dizzee Rascal, Gallows, Justin Timberlake, Gallows, KT Tunstall, Maroon 5, Se:Sa, Shayne Ward and T2.

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