It’s a good week for 60s influenced UK female soul singers. Duffy’s Mercy spends a third week at the top of the singles chart with a huge lead over her competition after its physical release. Meanwhile Amy Winehouse returns to the top of the album chart with Back To Black.

 

In a top ten which contains no new entries and seven non-movers, Duffy easily stays ahead of the pack with Mercy. The song is now on its 3rd week at No.1, though the first two were on download sales alone. Her debut album Rockferry is out on Monday and is certain to take the top spot next week where she will almost certainly do the double as Mercy is so far ahead of its competition at the moment. Garage bassline anthem What’s It Gonna Be by H ‘Two’ O feat Platnum is a non-mover at No.2 and it is also on its third week on the chart. Nickelback’s Rockstar refuses to go away and spends its 6th consecutive week in the top 3, sticking in third place. The song of course took a long time to reach the top three having originally looked to have peaked at No.19 late in 2007.

 

Basshunter’s former No.1 single Now You’re Gone is also proving continually popular and despite dropping download sales, its high physical sales are keeping it in the top five where it stays at No.4 this week. Kylie Minogue completes our static top five this week with Wow. The song took absolutely ages to gain any sort of momentum, lingering about in the low top 30 for a couple of months. However after its physical release last week, downloads have also continued to grow and Kylie proves that Wow is no fluke top five hit.

 

Adele’s Chasing Pavements stays at No.6 this week. The track has been in the top ten for seven weeks and is one of the year’s biggest sellers. We finally have some change at No.7 as Rihanna’s Don’t Stop The Music jumps back up a place after eight weeks in the top ten. One Republic continue to climb on download only sales and jump up a place to a new peak of No.8 this week with Stop & Stare. David Jordan’s Sun Goes Down slides two places to No.9 after five weeks in the top ten while Kelly Rowland’s Work is yet another non-mover, completing the top ten. Work has spent six weeks in the top ten and is her only solo single to have such staying power, though her duet with Nelly in 2002, the No.1 single Dilemma, spent nine weeks in the top ten. With no newcomers, the top ten once again features four Brits, two Americans, a Canadian, A Barbadian, an Australian and a Swede.

 

The winds of change can finally be felt just outside the top ten as British rapper and producer Taio Cruz surges to No.11 with Come On Girl. The track features Luciana Caporaso who has featured on hits by Bodyrox and Super Mal in the past 18 months. It became Cruz’s biggest chart hit last week and still on download sales alone it looks set to soar into the top ten next week when released physically. Flo Rida and T-Pain’s Low has amazingly clocked up 10 weeks at No.1 in the US selling over three million downloads. It jumps to No.12 here this week and is certain to be a top ten hit here very soon. Timbaland’s Scream is having a slower climb up the chart than his previous two singles managed, though this is understandable as it is the fourth single from the huge selling Shock Value album. It is up four places to a new peak of No.16 this week. Chris Brown is the next big mover, soaring to No.19 with the ballad With You, again on download sales alone. Take That round off the top 20 with the former No.2 and gold selling single Rule The World which jumps back to No.20 this week.

 

Danish pop band Alphabeat have been tipped for big things by many people and they score their first ever UK top 40 hit this week with Fascination. The anthemic pop song has already been huge in Denmark and will certainly move into the top 20 next week when released physically. Mika’s Relax Take It Easy is back up two places to No.28 this week while Moving To New York by Wombats soars back up six places to No.31 for no apparent reason. There is a new download entry at No.32 for British garage bassline act Delinquent feat KCat. My Destiny is the song and is the third big hit from the genre in recent months following Heartbroken and What’s It Gonna Be. The song is released on AATW records on Monday and should get a top 20 position next week.

 

Girls Aloud have back to back entries in the top 40 this week as their former top 3 single Call The Shots jumps back to No.34. The song should pass 200,000 sales in the next couple of weeks making it one of their biggest selling hits to date. Meanwhile, their new single Can’t Speak French progresses from No.49 last week to No.35 this week and is sure to give them yet another top ten hit when released physically in the coming weeks.

 

Leona Lewis has had two No.1 singles with her first two singles and the double a-side Better In Time/Footprints In The Sand is aiming to give her a third when released physically on March 10th. For now though enters the top 40 for the first time at No.38 on download sales. Westlife round off the top 40 with a new entry for new single Us Against The World in at No.40. The Irish band have never missed the top five with an official single before but with the physical formats due out this Monday, it looks unlikely that they will gain enough momentum to continue their incredible run of top five hits.

 

The album chart is hugely influenced by Mother’s Day this week and the No.1 goes to Amy Winehouse’s Back To Black. The troubled singer’s album was the biggest seller of 2007 and spent much of last year in the top ten. However, it is the new Deluxe Edition that is up two places to No.1 for the first time this week which adds a bonus disc of b-sides, unreleased tracks and demos to the original package. Goldfrapp just miss out on a second No.1 album as Seventh Tree debuts at No.2. Mika’s back to No.3 with Life In Cartoon Motion while Michael Buble’s Call Me Irresponsible seems to pop up for every occasion (Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day) and is back up from No.14 to No.4 this week.

 

Adele’s back to No.5 this week with 19 while Nickelback miss out on a second number one album and slide back to No.6 this week from No.2 last week. Mark Ronson’s Version slides three places to No.7 while Donny Osmond has a new entry at No.8 wit From Donny With Love. Michael Jackson’s Thriller 25 slides to No.9 while Billy Fury is back to the top ten with His Wondrous Story at No.10 meaning last week’s No.1 from The Feeling falls all the way from No.1 to No.11.

 

Next week looks quite busy release wise though Duffy should have no trouble getting a fourth week in control with Mercy while her album Rockferry should join it at the top of the chart. H ‘Two’ O continue to sell well and could well stay at No.2 for a third week while a slew of physical releases will aim to climb into the top ten next week. Taio Cruz, Alphabeat, Westlife and One Republic are the big hits due out on Monday while Delinquent feat KCat, Amy MacDonald and KT Tunstall also release singles.

four Brits, two Americans, a Canadian, A Barbadian, an Australian and a Swede.

 

Nice commentary and ive only just realised Basshunte is Swedish. Swedes having a lot of success

Thanks Harve, indeed they are!

You do indeed have good commentaries every week. The only problem I have is that I wish you would have some own opinions about the songs there and not just about based on their chart positions. Since we all can see the chart positions by looking at the charts I would well appreciate seeing some of your own opinions there too, making the commentary more of your own.

Really :o as I put it on the front news page its more of a news piece as opposed to me airing my personal views on the songs...what do other people think?

Its fine as it is. Its a commentary and I don't think a commentary should be flavoured either way with opinions. That can be done in individual forum threads.

 

Norma

One of the reasons I enjoy reading this report is you say it as it is and don't add your own opinions.

 

I felt the last guy's commentary contained too many of his own opinions, hence me stopping reading it.

 

Another great read. Thanks.

 

Well done Duffy.

ok I'll keep it as it is, cheers Norma and Dindy

You do indeed have good commentaries every week. The only problem I have is that I wish you would have some own opinions about the songs there and not just about based on their chart positions.

 

but you can only do this if you are Charlie Brooker and can really get some venom and humour into the article or it just becomes 'i like this, i dont like this' - and in that case its better as it is

 

(tho i think there should be a Charlie Brooker for music on bbc four - maybe david quantick and paul morley could fill the void but then again maybe they will end up as the music equivalent of jonathan meedes)

If I started putting my own views in, it would be a love in session for Kylie, H 'Two' etc...and venom everytime Scouting For Girls or The Hoosiers chart...:rofl:

 

Are 1 Republic Australian

No American, Kylie's the Australian act in the top ten :)

I probably wasn't very clear about what I meant when I said that there should be more of your own comments (I was quite drunk when writing it so that's my excuse). I didn't mean that you should write that you like this track and hate that and so on, what I meant you could put some of your own ideas/opinions there why, for example, a particular song is having a surprisingly long run at the top or why some heavily hyped song did flop. So kinda like tell us what is your opinion about some unexpected/expected thing in the charts. Also many people here are actually from outside UK and therefore that might give them some more insight for the week's chart. But even if you keep it as it is, it is perfectly fine that way also.

I probably wasn't very clear about what I meant when I said that there should be more of your own comments (I was quite drunk when writing it so that's my excuse). I didn't mean that you should write that you like this track and hate that and so on, what I meant you could put some of your own ideas/opinions there why, for example, a particular song is having a surprisingly long run at the top or why some heavily hyped song did flop. So kinda like tell us what is your opinion about some unexpected/expected thing in the charts. Also many people here are actually from outside UK and therefore that might give them some more insight for the week's chart. But even if you keep it as it is, it is perfectly fine that way also.

 

ok, I understand :D often though I will put stuff like that in, for example, I'll mention a Brits performance helping a track, or for example when I mentioned Britney's heavy media coverage around the release of Piece Of Me...