X Factor 2006 winner Leona Lewis continues to show why she is by far the best thing to have ever come from the TV talent show as her Snow Patrol cover version Run smashes download sales records by storming in at No.1. Take That’s Greatest Day is down to No.2 after a week in control whilst Britney Spears’ Womanizer climbs four places to a new peak of No.3.

 

Having been controversially delayed for two weeks to boost the sales of the deluxe edition of her Spirit album, Leona Lewis’ Run was finally added to digital outlets this week, along with the rest of the album, and duly debuts at No.1 on download sales alone. The song also manages to become the fastest ever download only seller, having been purchased online 133,591 times this week. It is the third UK No.1 single for Leona, all three of which have been massive sellers. 2006 X Factor coronation single A Moment Like This sold north of 800,000 copies in the UK and spent four weeks at No.1. Unusually, she had a bigger selling hit with the follow up single. Bleeding Love has sold over 900,000 copies so far in the UK and spent seven weeks at No.1. 2008 looks set to be the third successive year that Leona has had a song in the Christmas top three, the high sales of this song likely to hold up well for at least another few weeks going into Christmas and beyond. The song itself is a cover version of Snow Patrol’s 2004 top five hit. Leona covered it in Jo Whiley’s Live Lounge last year for Radio 1 and the song became instantly popular. A studio version and video have been made, various performances on shows such as X Factor and Divas II combined with rising airplay have ensured that this is one of the year’s biggest hits. It is Leona’s fifth UK top five single in total, the last one, Forgive Me, coming just four weeks ago.

 

Take That have had a stunning start with their album but the first single from The Circus, Greatest Day, is down a spot to No.2 this week after just a week in control. Of their eleven UK No.1 singles, the only other to spend just one week at the top was 1993’s Babe which was replaced by Mr Blobby in time for that year’s Christmas No.1. This is the third successive year that we have had a Leona/Take That 1-2 after A Moment Like This/Patience in late 2006 and Bleeding Love/Rule The World in 2007. After a performance on X Factor last weekend which received very mixed reviews, the extra exposure did Britney Spears no harm at all as her new single Womanizer, the first from new album Circus, climbs four places to a new peak of No.3 on its fifth week inside the top ten. The song had looked set to be a milder hit having moved 4-8-9 before climbing back to No.7 last week and now to No.3. It certainly looks like Circus will be a bigger era for the US superstar than 2007’s Blackout era was, with next single, the title track Circus, already making a splash at No.32 this week. US singer Katy Perry, slowly changing from expectant one hit wonder to rising superstar, moves up a place to a new peak of No.4 with Hot ‘N’ Cold, the current No.1 single in Germany, whilst Human by The Killers is down a spot to No.5 on its fourth week inside the top five.

 

Beyoncé’s former No.1 single If I Were A Boy slides four places from No.2 to No.6 after five weeks inside the top ten and Live Your Life by T.I. and Rihanna dips four places to No.7 after four weeks inside the top ten. Akon’s Right Now (Na Na Na) climbs a place to No.8 on its second week inside the top ten and Alesha Dixon’s The Boy Does Nothing proves that it is no fluke success by spending an impressive fifth week inside the top ten, albeit dropping three places to No.9. Finally, Use Somebody gives American rock act Kings Of Leon their second consecutive top ten hit, moving up five places to No.10 ahead of the physical release next week and on what is now its ninth week in total inside the top forty. The band have truly moved up a gear this year and are currently one of the world’s biggest acts. They kicked off their tour in Brighton last Monday and are still going from strength to strength with current album, Only By The Night, looking certain to end up in the top five albums of the year. The top ten this week therefore features three British acts, five American acts, one American/Barbadian duet and one Senegalese artist.

 

Having looked to be on course for an unexpected No.1 single in the early midweek charts after iTunes data was missing, Mancunian band Oasis end up a lot lower down at No.12 with I’m Outta Time, the second single to be taken from their recent No.1 album Dig Out Your Soul. The ballad is their first single to miss the UK top ten since 1994’s Shakermaker, their second single. Oasis are not the first act to suffer from the rise in download sales. In recent weeks, long top ten runs by Madonna, McFly and Pussycat Dolls have all ended abruptly and Oasis are the latest to follow suite. The only recently active acts with sizeable runs of consecutive top ten singles left are Westlife, Girls Aloud and Boyzone although the latter look likely to miss the top ten for the first time next week as new single Better has failed to properly take off as yet. Kings Of Leon’s former No.1 single, Sex On Fire is back up three places to No.14, their second simultaneous top twenty hit this week.

 

The Christmas songs start to make a bigger assault on the chart this week, and with the official Christmas chart in two weeks time, it is interesting to compare the fortune of the songs to this time last year. At the same point last year, the top forty had Mariah’s All I Want For Christmas Is You at No.8, Fairytale Of New York by The Pogues feat Kirsty MacColl at No.12, Wham’s Last Christmas at No.23, Andy Williams’ It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year at No.25, Wizzard’s I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday at No.27, Shakin’ Stevens’ Merry Christmas Everyone at No.33, Slade’s Merry Xmas Everybody at No.37 and Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas at No.38. Clearly many people downloaded these songs last year and still have them now as Christmas songs are having a far lesser effect this year, although sales in general have shot up in the last twelve months and these songs need to sell many more copies now to reach the top forty. As it stands this week though, Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas Is You, which peaked at No.4 last year and No.2 in 1994, climbs twenty places to No.17. Fairytale Of New York, by Irish act The Pogues and late British singer Kirsty MacColl and a top ten hit in 1987, 2005, 2006 and 2007, is a re-entry to the top forty at No.19 this week and Wham’s Last Christmas is the only other festive song to appear, the 1984 million selling No.2 hit re-entering at No.36 this week.

 

New this week at No.18 is London based rapper Wiley who had a huge hit earlier in the year with Wearing My Rolex, which peaked at No.2. The follow up, Summertime, was less popular, peaking at No.45, but the third single from the Roll Deep member’s new album, See Clear Now, is his second top twenty hit of the year. Cash In My Pocket is produced by Mark Ronson and features guest vocals on the chorus from Australian singer Daniel Merriweather, who also featured on Mark Ronson’s 2007 No.2 hit Stop Me. Rihanna’s Rehab is up four places to No.20 this week. It is the seventh UK top twenty single from the Barbadian singer’s Good Girl Gone Bad album, a No.1 success last summer, this being one of the original tracks from it unlike Take A Bow and Disturbia which were from the re-issued version.

 

US singer Miley Cyrus makes a triumphant return to the top forty with 7 Things, the second single from her album Breakout. The singer performed the track on last weekend’s X Factor and it duly re-enters at a new peak of No.25 this week, and arguably would have been higher had the version that had been doing well on iTunes not been deleted midweek leaving another version to play catch up for the rest of the week. Broken Strings, a duet by James Morrison and Nelly Furtado is a new entry at No.33 this week. It is the second single from British singer/songwriter James’ second album, Songs For You, Truths For Me and follows the top ten hit You Make It Real. It is the first time Canadian artist Nelly Furtado has been seen in the top forty since last year’s Give It To Me, her collaboration with Timabalnd and Justin Timberlake, reached No.1. Britney has a second hit this week; the release of her new album Circus has prompted enough people to download the next single, the title track Circus, to allow an instant top forty debut for the track, which goes in at No.32. Although as it stands now, it is her first single not to reach the UK top twenty, it is highly unlikely that in the coming weeks it won’t become another top ten hit for the star.

 

Will Young’s Grace, the second single from his Let It Go album, a No.2 success, is another re-entry to the top forty at a new peak of No.33 this week following the physical release of the single. Grace had previously peaked at No.35 on download sales after an X Factor performance. It looks certain to become the original Pop Idol winner’s first single to miss the UK top twenty, his only other single to miss the top ten being the 2006 No.11 hit Who Am I, which went on to ultimately become a big airplay hit and spent seventeen weeks inside the top seventy five in total. Will’s biggest selling hit to date is still his debut single Evergreen/Anything Is Possible, the biggest seller of the decade in fact, although 2003’s Leave Right Now is arguably his most famous single. The final new entry to a more volatile top forty than usual is Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It) by Beyoncé. The new US No.1, over there it is being marketed as much as a lead single as If I Were A Boy due to airplay rules and radio stations specialising in specific genres in America. In the UK it was shoved onto the b-side of the If I Were A Boy single, but despite having received next to no airplay, the video has had moderate rotation on British music channels and the song duly becomes a top forty hit in its own right this week, debuting at No.37.

 

In ‘the battle of the circuses’ there is a clear winner this week, British band Take That flying to No.1 with The Circus after generally positive reviews and a VAT cut price point as low as £5.88 in Asda where it sold a vast percentage of its 432,000 total copies. It is the fifth UK chart topper for the band and their fifth studio album in total, after Take That And Party (#2, 1992), Everything Changes (#1, 1993), Nobody Else (#1, 1995) and Beautiful World (#1, 2006). Their other chart topper was 1995’s Greatest Hits whilst their 2005 hits collection, Never Forget: The Ultimate Collection, peaked at No.2. The Killers’ Day & Age slides to No.2 after a week at No.1 and Spirit by Leona Lewis is back up a place to No.3. The other Circus, by Britney Spears, debuts at No.4 this week, her sixth studio album, none of which have ever reached No.1 in the UK. Only By The Night by Kings Of Leon is back up a spot to No.5 ahead of Rhydian Roberts’ Rhydian which is off three places at No.6. A Decade In The Sun, the best of the Stereophonics, drops a place to No.7, The Priests eponymous debut album is down three places to No.8, Girls Aloud stay at No.9 with Out Of Control whilst Pink’s Funhouse is down two spots to No.10.

 

Next week’s chart should easily see a second week at the top for Leona Lewis’ Run before she is dethroned by her latest X Factor successor in two weeks time. Take That, Britney Spears, Beyoncé and The Killers should hang around at the top end of the chart whilst there are some high profile physical releases due out on Monday. Reformed Irish group Boyzone’s Tom Baxter cover, Better, is looking likely to miss the top ten, but should at least give them a second top forty hit of their comeback next week. Kings Of Leon could well climb into the top five with Use Somebody, already at No.10 and out physically on Monday, whilst the biggest new release, and one of the favourites for the Christmas No.2 is a cover of David Bowie/Bing Crosby’s Little Drummer Boy/Peace On Earth by BBC broadcaster and presenter, Sir Terry Wogan and Welsh classical singer Aled Jones. Other artists releasing singles that should make a notable impact next week include Gym Class Heroes feat Estelle, James Morrison feat Nelly Furtado, Ladyhawke and Status Quo. All of the big Christmas albums releases have now been and gone and there are very few big hitters left to come out this year now, Fall Out Boy’s Folie A Deux being the next one, out on December 15th. Albums released on Monday that may make an impact on next week’s chart however include those from Neil Young, Dr Dre, Wiley, Bob The Builder, David Cook, Brandy, Common and Panic At The Disco, whilst Girls Aloud release a deluxe edition of their chart topping Out Of Control album.

 

Thanks to Polyhex, EveryHit, ManicKangaroo and Play.com for various information and resources

Thanks again for the great read! Three consecutive Leona/Take That 1-2. :o

 

Gooddelta - 'Greatest Hits', by Take That, was not a 1995 Album. It came

out in 1996, & it was No.1 for 4 Weeks - all of April - that Year.

Gooddelta - 'Greatest Hits', by Take That, was not a 1995 Album. It came

out in 1996, & it was No.1 for 4 Weeks - all of April - that Year.

 

so you said :P

Thanks again for the great read! Three consecutive Leona/Take That 1-2. :o

 

I know :o odd but interesting fact!

I hadn't spotted the Leona/TT thing before! Good read! :D

I'm not sure whether this has been mentioned or not but James morrison was at No.31 this week. Will young was no.33 :P

Anyway apart from that hiccup, great read :D

Edited December 7, 200816 yr by KJ Christmas Rob

I hadn't spotted the Leona/TT thing before! Good read! :D

 

I only just noticed it when I was writing it up and got a sense of deja vu :lol:

I'm not sure whether this has been mentioned or not but James morrison was at No.31 this week. Will young was no.33 :P

Anyway apart from that hiccup, great read :D

 

my mistake, tired eyes after a hard day at work :cry:

my mistake, tired eyes after a hard day at work :cry:

 

Lol nevermind your commentary's are always great B)