Posted March 23, 200817 yr In a week of chart surprises, British soul singer Estelle’s new single, a collaboration with American rapper Kanye West, has replaced fellow British female Duffy’s Mercy at No.1 after a five week run at the top. Estelle Swaray was heavily hyped around the release of her debut single 1980 in 2004, but the song stalled at No.14 and the follow up Free only made it to No.15. In an Amy Winehouse style career boost, her new single American Boy has gone straight in to the top 40 at No.1 this week on the strength of download sales alone, becoming the sixth song to achieve this feat after Gnarls Barkley, Mika, Rihanna, Sugababes and Duffy. It is officially though a re-entry to the top 75 as it reached No.72 a couple of weeks ago when a live version was added to iTunes. It is the second No.1 single for Kanye West who had a solo No.1 single last year in the UK with the Daft Punk sampling Stronger. Estelle featured on the 2004 version of Do They Know It’s Christmas by Band Aid 20 but this is by far her biggest taste of chart success and with a physical release due on Monday, it is certain to extend its run next week. Her unexpected success is all the more surprising considering her comeback single Wait A Minute (Just A Touch) missed the top 75 altogether when released four months ago. Debuting at No.1 became the norm in Britain from 1995 onwards thanks to Take That’s Back For Good which was premiered six weeks before its release and duly sold over 300,000 copies on its week of release, altering record company tactics. However, since the download rules have come in many singles have been released shortly after their first play. With 2nd or 3rd singles from albums this is especially true as they are available to buy from the day the album comes out, meaning that the more ‘old fashioned’ chart runs tend to go to album tracks that have time to grow naturally. Two examples of this might be Fergie’s Big Girls Don’t Cry that went 38-28-8-2 or Timbaland’s The Way I Are which moved 18-6-4-3-1, both last summer. For comeback singles/1st single from an album, instant high debuts are more commonplace and with the increasing power of downloads over physicals now, debuts at No.1 are likely to once again become more regular from now on. Duffy of course debuted at No.1 on download sales alone with Mercy but after five weeks at the top the Welsh singer slides a place to No.2. Completing a clean sweep of British women in the top three this week is Leona Lewis. Her Sport Relief single Better In Time/Footprints In The Sand slides a place this week though Footprints In The Sand is once again listed as a separate entity and slides a place itself to No.26 this week. OneRepublic don’t budge from No.4 with Stop & Stare while Nickelback spend their 12th consecutive week in the top ten at No.5 this week, another non-mover. It would be foolish to rule out the possibility that this could become the most consistent top ten hit of the decade within the next few weeks. Shakira and Wyclef Jean’s Hips Don’t Lie spent 16 weeks in the top ten in 2006 so it has four weeks to go to equal that feat or five weeks to better it. Flo Rida and T-Pain’s former US No.1 single Low continues its upward move in the UK this week, and a day ahead of its physical release it climbs a place to a new peak of No.6 this week and is almost certain to move into the top five next week. The ‘Queen of Pop’ Madonna is next and is straight in at No.7 on downloads alone this week with 4 Minutes. It is the first single from her forthcoming hip hop influenced new album Hard Candy and features Justin Timberlake and Timbaland. It has received mixed feedback from fans and critics alike but at the very least it is Madonna’s 13th top ten hit of the decade and will undoubtedly move into the top five in the coming weeks. Though some would argue that No.7 is a low entry point for such a high profile comeback and collaboration, it is hugely impressive for a song that was released just a day after its first radio play which still does not have a video that has been released. Utah Saints slightly benefit from their physical release this week and Something Good ’08 climbs a place to a new peak of No.8, still four places short though of the No.4 peak of the original in 1992. Girls Aloud’s Can’t Speak French, the third single from their current album Tangled Up, has been moving steadily up the chart in the past few weeks and this week extends their run of consecutive top ten singles to 18 as it jumps up seven places to No.9 following its physical release. This run was however unofficially broken by Theme To St Trinians which reached No.51 in the chart a few months ago despite not being promoted and simply being a download hit from the soundtrack of the film St Trinians. It is an issue between Girls Aloud fans and chart fans. One argument is that it has not broken their run of hits as it was not an officially promoted single and never intended for release. The other argument is that it made the top 75 and is therefore an official ‘hit’ single under the rules of the Official Charts Company, and had the song made the top ten, would it have extended their run to 19 consecutive hits, or would Girls Aloud fans not count this in the tally? Rounding off the top ten this week is H ‘Two’ O feat Platnum with the bassline garage anthem What’s It Gonna Be. The song has been in the top ten for six weeks and is eerily echoing the chart pattern of the last big hit from the genre, T2’s Heartbroken, which spent three weeks at No.2 before diving to No.9. This song did however have one more week in the top three, moving down a place to No.3 after its three week stint in second place but now finds itself plummeting seven places to No.10. The top ten this week is less continental than it has been recently featuring six British acts, three American acts and a Canadian act. There is plenty of action outside the top ten this week too. Swedish DJ Basshunter’s former five week chart topper Now You’re Gone slides just a place after ten weeks inside the top ten while Taio Cruz and Alphabeat slide out of the top ten at No.12 and No.13 respectively. A couple of tracks that were physically released this week fail to capitalise on this proving that physicals are becoming more redundant as the weeks go by. American former emo band Panic At The Disco’s pop comeback single Nine In The Afternoon slides a place to No.14 while Denial by Sugababes is a non-mover at No.15 which makes it a smaller hit than even their last single Change which reached No.13 after its physical release. Chris Brown is physically released on Monday but may well have left it too late to score a second UK top ten hit as With You slides three places to No.17 this week. Adele’s Chasing Pavements is one of a number of records featuring on the No.1 compilation Now 69 which benefits from the ‘Now effect’ and the former No.2 single is back up four places at No.18. The ‘Now effect’ refers to tracks from the Now album being cherry picked from iTunes and having a boost in either sales or chart position, often both. Rounding off the top twenty is the biggest hit single for British indie band Guillemots. Get Over It debuts at No.20, beating the 2006 peak of Made Up Lovesong #43 by three places. Timbaland’s Apologize refuses to go away and is also helped by the ‘Now effect’ climbing two places to No.22. Interestingly though, the compilers of the album added the wrong version to the CD, and One Republic’s solo version of the track without Timbaland’s production is the one that is on the CD. A true future hit is straight in at No.23 this week. Sam Sparro is an LA based singer songwriter and the electro pop song Black & Gold is his debut single. Considering it was only available to download as a series of remixes for most of the week, it should climb considerably in the coming weeks now that the radio edit has been added to download sites. British based, New Zealand born singer Natasha Bedingfield released her 2nd album N.B. in the UK last year and it reached the top ten and spawned two top ten hit singles, I Wanna Have Your Babies and Soulmate, both of which peaked at No.7. Love Like This is her new single, part of the upcoming re-release of N.B. which features a bonus disc called Pocketful Of Sunshine. This album was recently released in the US where it debuted at No.3 with the single Love Like This peaking at No.11. The track, which features American rapper Sean Kingston, goes straight in at No.27 in the UK on downloads alone and should at the very least give her a 7th top 20 hit here in the next few weeks. American Hip Hop/Soul duo Gnarls Barkley had one of the biggest hits of the decade with their debut single Crazy in 2006 which was the very first download No.1 single and went on to spend nine weeks at the top. Cee-Lo and Dangermouse had a second top ten hit in 2006 with Smiley Faces and Run is their comeback single, debuting inside the top 40 for the first time this week at No.32. The single is not going to have a physical release so where it goes from here is anybody’s guess but it should at least give them a third top 30 hit single next week. The only other new entry to the top 40 this week is the debut single from Australian singer Gabriella Climi. She has been compared to Amy Winehouse with her brand of infectious pop soul and Sweet About Me is in at No.38 this week and debuts at No.13 in her homeland. There is also a re-entry to the top 40 this week. Scouting For Girls’ former No.8 single Elvis Ain’t Dead is back in at No.40 this week, another single benefiting from the ‘Now effect’. The album chart this week is packed with new entries but there is no change at the very top as Duffy’s Rockferry is in control for a third week and is now the biggest selling album of the year in the UK. Muse are no stranger to chart topping albums and are generally seen as one of the best live acts in the world. Their live album HAARP has done well and debuts at No.2 this week. OneRepublic slide just a place with their debut album Dreaming Out Loud at No.3 this week while Leona Lewis’ Spirit continues to edge ever closer to the two million sales mark, staying at No.4 this week. The album is released with a handful of new tracks in America next month where it is expected to make a big splash, her debut US single Bleeding Love already top ten across the pond and set for the top five at the very least when the next Billboard chart is announced. Elbow follow up their top 20 single Grounds For Divorce with a top five album as The Seldom Seen Kid is straight in at No.5 this week while Canadian singer Bryan Adams’ 11th studio album which has 11 tracks is cunningly titled 11 and goes straight in at No.6 this week. Nickelback’s 2005 album All The Right Reasons continues to do incredibly well but falls to No.7 this week while Amy Winehouse’s Deluxe Edition of Back To Black slides to No.8 this week. Mike Oldfield, best known for his seminal work Tubular Bells, is new at No.9 with Music Of The Spheres while there’s another new entry at No.10; Keep It Simple by Van Morrison. A quick look at what is likely to happen next week then. Estelle’s American Boy is out physically on Monday and with a price point of 99p for the CD, it should comfortably stay at No.1 next week. Madonna will hope to improve on No.7 with 4 Minutes and with the video due to premiere in the coming days, she is quite likely to do so. Duffy, Nickelback and OneRepublic will continue to linger around, Flo Rida will benefit from the physical release of Low and Sam Sparro is almost certain to climb into the top ten next week as his downloads continue to grow. Other singles that could make an impact next week are Bob Sinclar, Cascada, Chris Brown, James Blunt, Kate Nash, Snoop Dogg and Yael Naim whose singles are all released physically.
March 23, 200817 yr Author and to you! I wonder if any of the 11 guests currently reading this would care to join the board :P
March 23, 200817 yr Nice commentary. That huge country with seemingly no-one but people with a lot of huge uk chart success also known as "Sweden" has finally gone away, but will hopefully be back again with Who's That Girl. And i think there's a typo. The Guillemots most successful single before this one was #23, not #43.
March 23, 200817 yr Natasha Bedingfield was born in England, not New Zealand (although her brother Daniel was born in NZ). And Fergie's chart run was 60-37-28-8-2-. Other than that, brilliant stuff!
March 23, 200817 yr Nice good read, I didn't realise Estelle charted a fortnight ago, which makes it a re-entry at #1, when was the last time that happened
March 24, 200817 yr Jeese, do people feel the need to keep on bringing up the 'St Trinians' debate? It will just fuel more arguements. I thought it was left on the note that we will see what the Guiness Book of Records say next year.
March 24, 200817 yr Author Nice commentary. That huge country with seemingly no-one but people with a lot of huge uk chart success also known as "Sweden" has finally gone away, but will hopefully be back again with Who's That Girl. And i think there's a typo. The Guillemots most successful single before this one was #23, not #43. the song was called Love Song #43 ;)
March 24, 200817 yr Author nice read FYI mate... It's elbow's Highest chart placing at #5. cheers and thanks for the info!
March 24, 200817 yr Author Natasha Bedingfield was born in England, not New Zealand (although her brother Daniel was born in NZ). And Fergie's chart run was 60-37-28-8-2-. Other than that, brilliant stuff! Really :o I didn't realise that about Natasha, thanks for the info and the Fergie correction
March 24, 200817 yr Author As in Livin Joy in 95? It had a different catalogue number and was officially a re-release though wasn't it :unsure: otherwise you could apply the same argument to Madison Avenue in 2000
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