James Blunt is not the only Brit waving the flag in the US this week as the eclectic trio of Arctic Monkeys, Ray Davies and Natasha Bedingfield all hit new chart highs across the pond.

 

While Atlantic-signed Blunt naturally steals the headlines with You’re Beautiful making him the first UK act to top the Billboard Hot 100 in more than eight years and his album Back To Bedlam climbing 8-5, he is only part of a busy and profitable week for British artists in the US.

 

Among them, Domino’s Arctic Monkeys make their maiden bow on the Billboard 200 with Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not entering at 24 with nearly 34,000 sales. It is the chart’s second highest new entry with the highest arrival Razor & Tie’s Kidz Bop entering at two behind the Walt Disney soundtrack High School Musical, which moves up five places to lead the chart with 101,000 sales. Last week’s number one, Ghetto Classics by Warner Bros-signed Jaheim, tumbles 1-10.

 

Lower down, the same chart’s new incumbents also include Ray Davies who automatically hits a new peak as a solo artist on the chart with his first fully-fledged solo album away from The Kinks. His album Other People’s Lives, released on V2, enters at 122. He reached a peak with The Kinks on the chart in 1966 when the gold-selling The Kinks Greatest Hits! made it to number nine.

 

In between Arctic Monkeys and Ray Davies, fellow British acts Natasha Bedingfield and KT Tunstall continue to make good progress. Bedingfield’s Unwritten, which previously peaked at 26 on its debut week last year, continues its revival with a 61-47 move as the Epic-issued track of the same name reaches a new peak on the Hot 100, climbing 9-8. Meanwhile, Relentless/Virgin’s Tunstall is proving to be a consistent performer with her debut album Eye To The Telescope which, in its first three weeks on the chart, has moved 47-57-52. Astralwerks-signed Beth Orton is showing similar consistency, moving 93-92-103 in her first three weeks with Comfort Of Strangers.

 

Over on the Hot 100, Blunt’s climb to number one after three weeks at two makes him only the third British act in the last decade to top the chart after Elton John who spent 14 weeks at the summit between October 1997 and the following January with Candle In The Wind 1997/Something About The Way You Look Tonight and Spice Girls whose Wannabe was a four-week chart-topper from February 1997. The only arrival into the Top 10 is Cascada’s Everytime We Touch, which moves 16-10, while the chart’s highest new entry is Prince’s Universal-issued Black Sweat at 60.

Good for Natasha! :cheer:

 

I hope she manages to sell at least Gold.