Surprise new No.1 stuns Leona in the week before the Christmas chart

 

In the most shocking result at the top of the chart for quite some time Eva Cassidy and Katie Melua have debuted at No.1 with their cover of Louis Armstrong’s What A Wonderful World. The song, which is only available from Tesco’s website and supermarkets, has finally brought Leona Lewis’ run at No.1 to an end. Katie Melua, a Georgian born singer based in Britain has had 3 successful albums in the UK including two million selling No.1’s but her previous biggest single was 2005’s No.5 hit Nine Million Bicycles. Eva Cassidy died of cancer in 1996 but her music was bought to a new audience in 2001 by the BBC and she scored three No.1 albums between 2001 and 2003 including the million selling Songbird. Katie added her vocals to a version that Eva recorded in the 1990’s and it joins a list of songs that were surprise No.1 hits in the week before Christmas along with 2005’s Nizlopi and 2003’s Kelly and Ozzy Osbourne amongst others.

 

After 7 long weeks at No.1 Leona Lewis’ Bleeding Love has fallen a place to No.2. It has however become one of the decade’s most enduring hits and has sold over 700,000 copies in just 8 weeks. It is now only around 100,000 sales below the total of her first No.1 single A Moment Like This. US rap artist Soulja Boy soars seven places to No.3 after the physical release of Crank That (Soulja Boy). The crunk anthem has rock undertones and is arguably one of the more interesting songs to come from a genre which has spawned few hits in the UK, perhaps Ciara is the best known ambassador scoring three top 5 hits in 2005. In one of the closest battles for No.4 in a long time with reports suggesting only a handful of sales separated numbers four to ten, Mariah Carey finishes the highest. All I Want For Christmas Is You soared back into the top 10 last week for the first time since 1994 and this week it climbs a further four places to No.4, just two places shy of its original peak. It looks like it will be a fixture in the UK top 10 in December for many years to come. Mariah’s last top five single in the UK was 2005’s No.2 hit We Belong Together.

 

After two weeks at No.3, Girls Aloud slide two places with Call The Shots which is spending its 4th week in the top 10 in total. Timbaland and One Republic are also down a couple of places to No.6 having spent nine weeks in the top 10 with Apologize while Take That’s Rule The World is also down two places to No.7 after eight weeks in the top 10. The Pogues have spent the last two Christmases in the UK top 10 reaching No.3 in 2005 and No.6 in 2006. It originally peaked at No.2 in 1987. This week it returns to the top 10 for the fourth time in its chart life rising four places to No.8 after a renewed physical release, though you suspect the vast majority of its sales were from downloads. Taking a tumble that is almost unheard of in today’s fairly slow moving UK chart, T2 fall seven places to No.9 with the garage anthem Heartbroken. After three consecutive weeks at No.2 its slide to No.9 is all the more of a shock but as the sales were so close the song could have just as easily ended up at No.4.

 

And rounding off the top 10 is a six place climb for Cascada. The Anglo-German trio debuted at No.16 last week with What Hurts The Most, also recorded by Rascal Flatts and Jo O’Meara and their No.10 position beats Jo’s peak position of No.13 by three places. It is the 4th UK top 10 hit for Cascada after Everytime We Touch (#2), Truly Madly Deeply (#4) and Miracle (#8) making their claim to be ‘The UK’s biggest dance act’ to be highly accurate. The single was physically released this week and the b-side, a cover of Wham’s Last Christmas, has also been doing well, entering the top 200 on downloads alone. It also means that independent dance label All Around The World have two songs in the top 10 this week for the first time in years, T2 and Cascada.

 

The next big significant move is indeed Last Christmas by Wham. The song was a No.2 hit originally in 1984 and this week moves up from No.23 to No.14 edging ever closer to making the UK top 10 for a third time. British rock act Wizzard are not far behind and their festive 1970’s classic I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday surges eleven places to No.16 from No.27 last week. The song originally peaked at No.4 in 1973. US crooner Michael Buble’s X Factor performance last weekend helps him to score his first ever UK top 20 single as Lost soars sixty places to No.19. And rounding off the top 20 is a new entry for animated sheep Shaun The Sheep. The children’s programme has acquired cult status with children and adults alike in the past few months and therefore the single was expected to perform better with some people tipping it for No.1. However the song itself is not as strong as many animated children’s hits of the past and has to settle for a low top 20 placing.

 

Andy Williams continues to climb with The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year and the song, featured on the new Marks & Spencer advert, is up another four places to a new peak of No.21. Slade are up fifteen places to No.22 with Merry Xmas Everybody, originally a No.1 single in 1973 and Shakin’ Stevens surges ten places with the 1985 Christmas No.1 single Merry Xmas Everyone. Sugababes stay at No.26 with Change which is physically released on Monday and looks unlikely to reach the top 10. Though Sugababes generally have much bigger hits than Girls Aloud when they have a big hit, their smaller singles are generally much smaller with 5 of their previous 19 singles so far failing to reach the UK top 10.

 

1984 Christmas No.1 Do They Know It’s Christmas by Band Aid moves up eleven places to No.27 this week while Scottish singer Amy MacDonald scores her second top 40 hit of 2007 with the title track from her album This Is The Life. Mr Rock & Roll reached No.12 in the summer while follow up L.A. missed the top 40. Welsh band Stereophonics have been one of the most successful singles and albums acts of the last ten years but new single My Friends can only make it as far as No.32 after a physical release, their first single to miss the top 30 since 1997. Scouting For Girls had a huge recent top 10 hit with She’s So Lovely and new single Elvis Ain’t Dead, which is out physically on Monday, is up twenty places to No.33 this week. Chris Rea’s Christmas classic Driving Home For Christmas had never previously made the UK top 40 but this week climbs sixteen places to a new peak of No.35.

 

Rihanna’s forthcoming 4th single from Good Girl Gone Bad is Don’t Stop The Music. The song has a dancier edge than her previous more R & B influenced singles and has already been huge in Europe. It climbs into the top 40 for the first time this week at No.37. Meanwhile her former ten week No.1 Umbrella returns to the top 40 this week at No.38 after an acoustic version of the track was made available on iTunes. The song has nearly sold half a million copies and if sales continue in this way, she should make it to that milestone before the end of the year. Indie band Foals score the next new entry at No.39 with Balloons while John Lennon and Yoko Ono round off the top 40 with their Christmas classic Happy Xmas (War Is Over).

 

The album chart has no new entries this week as all of the big Christmas releases are now available. Leona Lewis might have been knocked from her singles perch but her album Spirit easily scores a fifth week at No.1. Westlife’s ninth studio album Back Home is a non-mover at No.2 and sales of that will undoubtedly rise next week after they performed on ITV1’s The Westlife Show on Saturday night, singing a number of songs from that album as well as some of their older singles. The X Factor effect has worked wonders for Michael Buble whose Call Me Irresponsible album has soared from No.21 to No.3 this week. After their reunion concert last week, Led Zeppelin’s Mothership has climbed back to its peak position of No.4 which pushes The Eagles new studio album Long Road Out Of Eden down a place to No.5. Andrea Bocelli’s hits album Vivere has been huge this Christmas and is a non-mover at No.6 this week. Shayne Ward’s Breathless has dropped four places to No.7 this week while Take That’s 2006 Christmas No.1 album Beautiful World is back up to No.8. This could be because of the claims that the new Deluxe Edition of the album featuring extra tracks and a DVD will only be available until Christmas. The current year to date No.1 album Back To Black from Amy Winehouse stays at No.9 this week while Whitney Houston rounds off the top 10 with The Ultimate Collection.

 

Next week is of course the Christmas chart and in 2005 and 2006 the X Factor winners Shayne Ward and Leona Lewis took the top spot. Scottish teenager Leon Jackson beat the favourite Rhydian Roberts in Saturday’s final of the show and will release his debut single on Wednesday on CD single with the download already available. The cover of Mariah and Whitney’s 1998 No.4 single When You Believe is expected to be the Christmas No.1 though not expected to sell in the same quantities as Shayne and Leona did. Should the unthinkable happen and Leon not get to No.1 the other main contenders are this week’s current No.1 from Katie Melua and Eva Cassidy as well as the Christmas songs currently climbing rapidly up the chart from Mariah Carey and The Pogues amongst others. Other singles released physically on Monday that could make the top 40 are due from Blake, Ernie K-Doe, Filo & Peri, Kate Nash, and The Killers whilst Scouting For Girls and Sugababes also physically release their singles which should climb next week.

 

Related Link: http://www.buzzjack.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=58732

Thanks again for the excellent commentary. Entertaining and informative, as ever.

 

(and as always more prompt than James Masterton!)

Yeah i agree. And you always try to say something positive about a song that doesn't really have anything positive about it like Soulja Boy

Cheers for the comments! glad people enjoy reading it

I hate it. Infact I hate you. And everything you stand for.

I am of course jesting :kink: Just trying to flitter away time whilst doing this crappy essay :(

 

WELL DONE RICHARD

Good job as always. I read this every week but always forget to reply so just wanted to come in and say thanks. ^_^

I am of course jesting :kink: Just trying to flitter away time whilst doing this crappy essay :(

 

:lol: I was worried then! I know how awful essays are...I have two I'm avoiding myself currently :(

and thanks to Rob and superbossanova!

An excellent read as always.

Yeah i agree. And you always try to say something positive about a song that doesn't really have anything positive about it like Soulja Boy

 

you could say: the cheesy nu-metal version is the better version

you could say: the cheesy nu-metal version is the better version

 

I have to admit, listening to Soulja Boy on the chart show was the first time I've ever sat through it in full and I had no idea if the rock bit was part of the radio edit or a different remix