This year’s X Factor victor Alexandra Burke has scored a second week at the top of the UK singles chart with her debut single Hallelujah, a cover of the Leonard Cohen track. Leona Lewis climbs back up a place to No.2 with Run whilst Beyoncé is back up to No.3 with If I Were A Boy in an erratic chart majorly changed by the ‘iTunes gift card effect’.

 

As expected, Alexandra Burke’s version of Hallelujah picked up a substantial amount of last minute pre-Christmas sales, primarily as small gifts and stocking fillers one would assume as its physical sales greatly outweighed its digital sales. Leona Lewis moves back up a place to No.2, the former No.1 having spent four weeks inside the top three now, the first two of those at No.1. Similarly last year, Bleeding Love was No.3 in the Christmas chart only to climb back up to No.2 the week after. Run is one of an incredible twenty one climbers inside a top forty which also features six re-entries, three new entries and some alarming slumpers. Beyoncé’s former No.1 single, If I Were A Boy, moves back up a place to No.3 after eight weeks inside the top ten.

 

Broken Strings by James Morrison and Nelly Furtado is up two places to No.4 and duly becomes the biggest British hit to date for Morrison, outpeaking his 2006 debut single, You Give Me Something, which reached No.5. Broken Strings, from his current album, Songs For You, Truths For Me, which reached No.3 earlier in the year, is one of the few ‘second singles’ this year to perform better than their predecessor. The first single from the album, You Make It Real, peaked at No.7. It is Nelly Furtado’s seventh visit to the UK top five so far in her career. The only single of hers to reach the top ten but not the top five was 2007’s Say It Right, one of the early download only hits, which peaked at No.10 but spent an impressive twenty four weeks inside the top forty. Kings Of Leon’s former No.2 hit, Use Somebody, moves back up two spots to No.5 whilst Greatest Day, the former chart topper from Take That, jumps three places to No.6 after five weeks around.

 

Jeff Buckley’s Hallelujah shot up to No.2 last week in time for Christmas and with no more media and online campaigns the song has done well to stay in the upper reaches of the chart, but does fall back five places to No.7 this week, the second No.2 single in a row to have such a fall. Peter Kay’s Geraldine McQueen is the highest placed post Christmas survivor and falls just three places to No.8 with second single, Once Upon A Christmas Song. Katy Perry’s former No.4 hit Hot ‘N’ Cold has been an enduring follow up to the monster hit I Kissed A Girl, and returns to the top ten this week, back up five places to No.9 and followed swiftly by another song returning to the top ten, Human by The Killers, the former No.3 hit moving back up a place to No.10. The top ten this week therefore includes four British acts, five American acts and one British/Canadian duet.

 

In a hugely eventful chart, there are some huge fallers and some big climbers in the remainder of the top forty this week. In the past, big singles released at Christmas always had more longevity in the top forty due to the dearth of new releases, but since downloads have taken over, it is more a case of the last chart of the year becoming a ‘best of the year’ chart due to the ‘iTunes gift card effect’, where people who received iTunes gift cards for Christmas rush to download their favourite songs from during the year, this phenomenon helped along by the fact that this time of year sees many of these songs played once again on music channels or as backing music to TV shows rounding up the events of the year. Kings Of Leon benefit from this ‘iTunes gift card effect’, the former No.1 single Sex On Fire jumping back up nine places to No.12 on its sixteenth week around. Akon’s Right Now (Na Na Na) recovers from its hefty fall last week, moving back up five places to No.13 whilst Girls Aloud’s former No.1 single, The Promise, jumps back up five places to No.14. Pink’s former chart topper So What leaps back up eleven places to No.15 and Live Your Life by T.I. and Rihanna soars back up seven places to No.16.

 

Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It) by Beyoncé is up two places to a new peak of No.18, one of the few songs scaling new heights this week. Infinity 2008 by Guru Josh Project is up three places to No.21 ahead of the week’s highest re-entry, I Kissed A Girl by Katy Perry, which is back in at No.22. I Hate This Part by Pussycat Dolls jumps back up six spots to No.23 and Rihanna’s Rehab is up one place to No.24. Break Even by Irish trio The Script looks like one of the most likely contenders to ‘do a Rockstar’ in the new year, jumping back up five places to No.26 this week and likely to reach a new peak in seven days time, having spent eight weeks now in the lower reaches of the top forty, moving 34-24-25-25-27-28-31-26 so far.

 

The highest new entry to the top forty this week comes from American rapper 50 Cent. The first single from new album, Before I Self Destruct, due out in February, Get Up was released to download this week and duly enters the chart at No.27, in a week that nobody ever usually releases new music. It is the latest of many UK hits for the rapper since his 2003 debut with the top three hit In Da Club. That was the first of ten UK top ten hits that 50 Cent has featured on so far, the biggest coming late last summer when Ayo Technology got as high as No.2 and spent an impressive nineteen weeks inside the top forty.

 

Kanye West’s Love Lockdown leaps back up twelve places to No.28 this week whilst Rihanna’s huge former top three hit Disturbia re-enters the top forty at No.31. Duffy’s Rain On Your Parade is back up five places to No.32 and Papa Can You Hear Me from N-Dubz is back up a spot at No.33. Two re-entries follow; The Man Who Can’t Be Moved by The Script is back to the top forty at No.34 and Up by The Saturdays is back in at No.35 just ahead of Issues, the new single by the British girl group, which makes its first top forty appearance this week at No.36. This single appears to be doing better than the new Girls Aloud single, The Loving Kind, which despite the Christmas clearout still manages to fall out of the top forty from No.38 to No.46 and looking highly likely to become their first ever single not to reach the UK top ten. Ne-Yo’s Mad jumps two places to No.37, Kanye West finally breaks into the top forty with his new single Heartless, which arrives at No.38 this week, Kardinal Offishall and Akon are back in at No.39 with Dangerous and another Ne-Yo single, Miss Independent, returns at No.40 this week.

 

The album chart is far less eventful than the singles chart this week with the early January sales yet to have any major effect as the pre-Christmas day sales contributed a huge amount to this week’s chart. The top five remains static, meaning that Take That’s The Circus achieves a fourth week at No.1, Leona Lewis’ Spirit stays at No.2, Only By The Night by Kings Of Leon is still at No.3, Day & Age by The Killers remains at No.4 and Out Of Control by Girls Aloud sticks at No.5, all former No.1’s. Duffy’s Rockferry gets a boost, climbing four places to No.10 and ending the year as the biggest seller of 2008, whilst Stereophonics remain at No.7 with Decade In The Sun, their Best Of collection. Beyoncé’s I Am Sasha Fierce moves up to a new peak of No.8, swapping places with Il Divo’s The Promise which slides a spot to No.9. Pink’s former No.1 album Funhouse returns to the top ten at No.10 this week.

 

Next week’s chart should see some significant changes despite few new releases as the remaining Christmas songs disappear and ‘the hits of 2008’, ‘new hits for 2009’, the ‘iTunes gift card effect’ and the January sales all start to have an effect across both the singles and album charts. Alexandra Burke will be hoping to spend a third week in control with Hallelujah, which looks quite likely, although rising American star Lady Gaga, who has already launched her career successfully worldwide during 2008, has finally released the long anticipated Just Dance to download, and is expected to storm into the top five this time next week. Keane, Kevin Rudolf and Sugababes are the only acts releasing notable physical singles on Monday, this tactic of releasing in what was traditionally a ‘dead week’ in the past, is now fairly redundant, and these acts stand hardly any further chance of getting a hit single than in any other week. It worked for many acts in the past such as Iron Maiden and Victoria Beckham, who managed top three hits in early January low sales climates, although these days it is the summer months that sees the lowest sales in Britain now. The ‘iTunes gift card effect’ and unlimited availability of product, where in the past shops would usually be closed, has uniquely transformed what was traditionally the lowest sales week of the year to one of the highest.

 

For Sugababes, previously Britain’s top girl group, No Can Do looks set to be their smallest hit, having failed to even reach the top seventy five on downloads thus far. Hits from Leona Lewis, James Morrison and Nelly Furtado, Beyoncé and Kings Of Leon should stay towards the top end of the chart whilst future singles from Girls Aloud, The Saturdays and Pink might all have a better chance of taking off without the Christmas songs to contend with. There are no notable new album releases on Monday and with sales expected to plummet next week now that the Christmas rush is over, the top albums could really go to anyone next week, depending on what proves popular in the January sales, although Take That, Leona Lewis, Kings Of Leon, The Killers and Girls Aloud should all stay around the top end of the chart.

 

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

I don't think that's over for GA, gooddelta.

Radio's need to start playing 'The Loving Kind' more, leave 'The Promise' alone, and help 'TLK' :angry: :drama:

 

great read again Rich! I hope you're right about The Script :w00t:

 

Great read for the fact that the chart wasn't broadcasted this week :lol: Nice last commentary of 08

I don't think that's over for GA, gooddelta.

 

hopefully not, seeing as they are my favourite band, but sliding eight places isn't exactly a promising sign is it...I can see the physical boosting it to No.13 tops

Radio's need to start playing 'The Loving Kind' more, leave 'The Promise' alone, and help 'TLK' :angry: :drama:

 

great read again Rich! I hope you're right about The Script :w00t:

 

I agree, The Promise is still played on the hour whilst The Loving Kind is ignored, which is odd as it's almost exactly like Call The Shots which was played to death :lol:

Great read for the fact that the chart wasn't broadcasted this week :lol: Nice last commentary of 08

 

thanks Rob :D

Really interesting as usual. Your commentary is one of the reasons I joined Buzzjack. Thanks a lot.

I counted 28 climbers in the end, and only 1 re-entry, as the other tracks were all in the top 40 at some point.

Wow more climbers than fallers.

 

Fitting "One Would Assume" into your commentary made me laugh. Very formal :P (not that it matters at all btw).

 

I thought 50 Cent would retire if he didn't beat Kanye West in the album chart (in the USA i assume). So Get Up is the lead single from a new album now? :wacko: Obviously he's gone back on his word. Shame :smoke:

 

Sorry for the rambling post. Great read as always . Thanks for doing this throughout the year :D

I thought 50 Cent would retire if he didn't beat Kanye West in the album chart (in the USA i assume). So Get Up is the lead single from a new album now? :wacko: Obviously he's gone back on his word. Shame :smoke:

it was obviously a Publicity stunt that backfired... on HIM! Coz didn't KanYe beat him in America?? :unsure:

it was obviously a Publicity stunt that backfired... on HIM! Coz didn't KanYe beat him in America?? :unsure:

Exactly. So why has he returned? :lol:

Exactly. So why has he returned? :lol:

Because he thinks everyone has forgot about that :kink: How wrong is he? I wonder who will be the first person to bring it up, in an interview with him and see what he says. :kink:

Really interesting as usual. Your commentary is one of the reasons I joined Buzzjack. Thanks a lot.

 

that's always nice to hear :D

I counted 28 climbers in the end, and only 1 re-entry, as the other tracks were all in the top 40 at some point.

 

I only focus on the top 40 for the focus of my commentary, so my stats are like what Radio 1's stats would be if they bothered reading them out...if it's left the top 40 and come back in, I class it as a re-entry for the purpose of the survey of songs that I'm looking at...

 

If only I had the time to do a top 75 commentary :heehee:

Wow more climbers than fallers.

 

Fitting "One Would Assume" into your commentary made me laugh. Very formal :P (not that it matters at all btw).

 

I thought 50 Cent would retire if he didn't beat Kanye West in the album chart (in the USA i assume). So Get Up is the lead single from a new album now? :wacko: Obviously he's gone back on his word. Shame :smoke:

 

Sorry for the rambling post. Great read as always . Thanks for doing this throughout the year :D

 

I didn't even notice I did that :lol: it is on the front page though, so is an 'editorial' piece as opposed to an opinionated one