London based rapper Dizzee Rascal’s collaboration with singer Chrome and producer Calvin Harris has stayed at No.1 for a second week, now with the help of physical sales as well as the download sales that took it to the top last week. Sweden’s Basshunter inches up a place to No.2 while Jordin Sparks & Chris Brown complete a successful week for songs that were physically released on Monday, back up to their previous peak of No.3.

 

Dizzee, Basshunter and Jordin were expected to make up the top three this week based on their download success, and despite Basshunter leading the physical pack, Dizzee and Calvin’s downloads were too much for the Swede and he ends up at No.2 this week. Nevertheless, it’s just a place behind the No.1 peak, his debut UK hit Now You’re Gone reached in January. That single looked poised to break the 400,000 sales barrier this week meaning that it has now gone gold in the UK. The other gold selling singles this year have been Duffy’s Mercy and Nickelback’s Rockstar, while Estelle’s American Boy looks set to break through the 400,000 barrier in the coming weeks.

 

American Idol winner Jordin Sparks had a swift climb to success with No Air, moving 22-10-3 in a three week period before sliding back to No.4 last week. A combination of the physical release and promotional activities in the UK, most notably an interview and performance on ITV1 chat show Loose Women, pushes the single back to its peak of No.3, where you expect it will be a member of the top ten for a good few more weeks yet. Ne-Yo’s Closer is edging ever closer to the 200,000 silver sales mark and spends another week in the top five this week, dipping two places to No.4. It is the seventh week inside the top ten for Closer now, having moved 7-5-3-2-1-2-4 in the last seven weeks.

 

Ironik’s street anthem Stay With Me shows some surprising stability, and actually climbs a place to a new peak of No.5 this week. Ironik and female singer Ny performed an impressive acoustic version of the track in the Radio 1 Live Lounge recently, and it has helped to increase sales of the song, having been made available to download on iTunes. The highest new entry to the top forty this week is from American star Kid Rock. Famously previously married to Pamela Anderson, the rock singer has never had a big hit in the UK before, his previous biggest success being the 2000 No.25 single American Bad Ass. New single All Summer Long is tipped to be the crossover international hit of the summer; a No.6 hit here on downloads alone it has already topped the charts in Germany, Switzerland and Austria. The song is instantly memorable, perhaps largely to the fact that it samples two well known songs; Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Sweet Home Alabama and Warren Zevon’s Werewolves Of London. With radio stations almost certain to latch onto the track in the same way that they supported Nickelback’s Rockstar six months ago, this song is likely to end the year as one of the biggest sellers.

 

Chris Brown still has two singles in the top ten simultaneously, but Forever slides two places to No.7 this week. Gabriella Cilmi’s Sweet About Me continues to linger about. Despite having been available to purchase for much of the year, there are still newcomers to the track every week, and it climbs back up a place to No.8 this week, making it one of the most prolific hits never to reach the top five. Rihanna’s former No.1 single Take A Bow slides a places to No.9 just ahead of Busta Rhymes & Linkin Park’s collaboration We Made It. The song has now spent three consecutive weeks at No.10, having moved 14-10-10-10 in its first four weeks. The top ten this week therefore includes five American acts, a Swede, a Barbadian, an Australian and just two Brits, both of those rap artists, signalling a weak period for home grown pop and rock music.

 

There is little action outside the top ten with only Coldplay leaving it, down to No.11 with Viva La Vida, and every other song from No.12 to No.16 falling a place each from last week. Madonna’s Give It 2 Me is climbing painfully slowly, up just a place to No.17. With the physical formats released next week, Madonna’s loyal fanbase should ensure at least a seven place climb to take this track into the top ten but it looks unlikely to go down as one of the ‘queen of pop’s classic singles. Nickelback are back doing what they do best this week; climbing to a new peak. With Rockstar having famously gone as high as No.2 earlier this year having been written off late last year, Photograph, originally the first single from their 2005 album All The Right Reasons, is finally making its presence felt with increasing download sales pushing the track into the top twenty for the first time at No.18 this week. Whether or not it can continue to climb in the same way that its predecessor did remains to be seen.

 

Flo Rida and T-Pain’s Low has been hanging around for months now having peaked at No.2 earlier in the year. Nonetheless, the track continues to sell in reasonable quantities week by week and jumps back up six places to No.22 this week. Another couple of physically released singles make their presence felt this week by becoming top forty hits. Brighton based indie band The Kooks follow up their No.3 hit, Always Where I Need To Be, with Shine On, another infectious radio friendly song which seems to be following the recent trend of indie flops, missing the top twenty altogether despite following a similar formula to all of their previous hit singles, such as Naïve and She Moves In Her Own Way, both huge in 2006. Nevertheless, Shine On does manage a higher position than expected based on last week’s position of No.53. The song jumps into the top forty at No.25.

 

Next up is the debut solo single from Texas singer Sharleen Spiteri. All The Times I Cried is the first release from the Scottish singer’s debut album Melody, which is out on Monday. The single goes into the top forty at No.26 and Sharleen will hope that her album will follow in the footsteps of some of Texas’ albums by topping the UK chart. White On Blonde was of course the biggest success for the group, the 1997 multi million selling album spawning the singles Say What You Want, Halo and Black Eyed Boy amongst others, whilst the band’s 2000 Greatest Hits album sold around two million copies in the UK alone. Although many people feel that Sharleen is tapping into the Motown influenced market opened up by Amy Winehouse and Duffy, it is perhaps more like an extension of some of the songs from Texas’ White On Blonde album, which owed a lot to Motown music itself.

 

The next new entry is for The Last Shadow Puppets. A side project of Alex Turner from the Arctic Monkeys and Miles Kane of The Rascals, their debut album The Age Of The Understatement went to No.1 earlier in the year, whilst the single of the same name reached the top ten. Second single Standing Next To Me also has a 1960s feel to it and the track, which was physically released last Monday, goes into the top forty at No.30 this week. In a rather slow week in the singles chart, most of the songs below No.30 are sliding, apart from Duffy’s Mercy which is a non-mover at No.33 and Maroon 5 and Rihanna’s If I Never See Your Face Again which is back up one place to No.35. This incredibly slow turnaround is blocking new singles from The Wombats, NERD, Usher and Adele from entering the top forty, all of those acts sitting outside and waiting to enter, although the chance has probably passed for NERD and The Wombats whose latest singles have already received their physical release.

 

No change at the top of the album charts yet again as Coldplay and Duffy, the year’s two biggest sellers, stay static at No.1 and No.2 respectively. Chris Brown’s Exclusive is also a non-mover at No.3 ahead of The Ting Tings’ former No.1 album We Started Nothing which is back up two places to No.4. The highest new entry is at No.5 courtesy of Black Kids’ debut album Partie Traumatic whilst Darren Styles spends a fourth week in the top ten with Skydivin’, down just a place to No.6. Amy Winehouse continues to sell almost two years since the release of Back To Black. The Deluxe Edition of the album is a non-mover at No.7 this week. Nickelback climb back to the top ten with All The Right Reasons, the former No.2 album back to No.8 this week just ahead of Beck’s new album Modern Guilt which goes in at No.9. Rihanna rounds off the top ten with the former No.1 album Good Girl Gone Bad, down a place to No.10.

 

Next week’s chart should see some competition for Dizzee and Calvin’s hold on the top spot. McFly have hit the top spot seven times thanks to a loyal fanbase and comeback single One For The Radio is a certainty for a top three entry next week. Whether it can become an eighth chart topper for the quartet will be discovered next week. Kid Rock, who receives his physical release on Monday, Basshunter and Jordin Sparks feat Chris Brown should all stick around in the top five although Madonna’s Give It 2 Me should also benefit from physical sales and will be a definite top ten hit in seven days time. Other notable physical releases are due on Monday from Annie, CSS, The Feeling, Linkin Park, One Night Only and Primal Scream. With its sales rapidly falling, Coldplay will be lucky to stay as the No.1 album again next week with high new entries expected from Sharleen Spiteri and Basshunter while albums from Nas, The Hold Steady and My Bloody Valentine should make some sort of impression.

Interesting read, Rich. But Chris Brown has 2 hits in the top forty simultaneously, not top 10 ;)

Interesting read, Rich. But Chris Brown has 2 hits in the top forty simultaneously, not top 10 ;)

 

No Air and Forever are his songs and are in the top ten simultaneously :P

 

:w00t:

No Air and Forever are his songs and are in the top ten simultaneously :P

:drama: I'm such a mess

:heehee:

Good read as always, so much better than James Masterton

thanks a lot Martin :D glad people are still enjoying it

Reading your commentary, it looks like Mc Fly have chosen a tough week to release AGAIN. So they should get a more deserving position of #5 or #6.

 

Great as always

McFly should shift 30k surely...that would be enough for No.2 I would have thought...I can't see them toppling Dizzee but stranger things have happened...

Well its not in the top 40 of itunes yet, and i think its fanbase is slowly deserting them. Their other singles might have sold 35k in the first week, but i'm sure a lot of that would be from download sales and casual buyers, their other singles would have probably been inside the top 10 download chart, surely?

 

And i read your commentary twice for some reason :P .

they've never done that well on downloads though have they...people could be holding back for this week's Mail On Sunday though as the song will be on the free album they are giving away...

 

they have some sort of 3 for £4 thing going on in HMV too...its only 8 months since their last single sold 40k in its first week to get to No.3!

The album releases are looking very slim this week, I'm expecting some old albums returning due to the T in the Park effect.

I'm expecting to see big success for Basshunter and Sharleen Spiteri but apart from that there's nothing out that I can see being a big success

Same comment as usual rich... Great Read... blardy blarrr :lol:

thanks Johnjo :D