John_Squire

15 The Beatles - Day Tripper [#1, 1965] 12 Pink Floyd - Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2) [#1, 1979] 10 Tom Jones - Green, Green Grass Of Home [#1, 1966] 08 The Beatles - I Feel Fine [#1, 1964] 06 Elvis Presley - Return To Sender [#1, 1962] 05 The Beatles - I Want To Hold Your Hand [#1, 1963] 04 Slade - Merry Xmas Everybody [#1, 1973] 03 Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody [#1, 1975] 02 Mud - Lonely This Christmas [#1, 1974] 01 Al Martino - Here In My Heart [#1, 1952] -2 Jimmy Osmond - Long Haired Lover From Liverpool [#1, 1972]

Surprised that odds on Buble are as long as 100/1! Personally doubt he would do it but as he has some kind of ITV show coming up, plus any other TV exposure like Strictly that he may do, and I wouldn't be surprised to see one of his Christmas songs top 10. Not #1 - but he has a much better chance than some of the acts with shorter odds!

Rumer and PJ Harvey sales please vidcapper!

Firstly - I certainly don't think the quality of albums is worse than it was a few years ago! There always have, and always will be (for as long as albums exist) good and bad albums - if you consider bad to be rushed/badly produced/lazy/worse than the artist's previous/next album - all of which are subject to individual opinions anyway! All of which has nothing to do with why albums are selling less (OK - genre does have something to do with it - and the RnB/dance/rap/urban/pop/ mix that represents a lot of chart music right now isn't traditionally album-friendly - but that doesn't mean people aren't buying it). Economics almost certainly does play a part - if it's a choice between filling your car with petrol or a couple of CDs, most people will choose the first. Same with lots of essential vs non-essential purchases. That said, I don't think the cost of an album is the real problem. Chart albums almost always cost over £6, so they aren't loose-change purchases like fast food, magazines, etc. But them costing £7.99, £8.99, £9.99, I don't think that makes much of a difference. Despite the bad monetary situation well over 3m people have shelled out their £7-£11 on '21'. Maybe if it cost £2 or £3, then 4-5m people might have bought it - but personally I don't think only 300,000 people would have bought it if it cost at least £11.99. Cherry-picking is the obvious answer - more so than illegal downloading I think, because illegal downloads obviously impacted on singles far more in 2003-07, when album sales were at their highest. People are so used to buying their favourite tracks now, and at any time, that they don't bother with albums as much - whereas 10 or 20 years ago if you heard a random album track in a shop/bar/radio/TV and liked it, you had to buy the album to hear it, now you can just get the song off itunes and ignore the rest of the album. I think the idea of stopping cherry-picking should be up to the artist (or, unfortunately, the label) - if they choose, say, 4 singles off the album, then allow those 4 to be cherry-picked at any time, but make the rest of the album album-only. This would drive up sales for big artists a little - but not by much, since if an album is really anticipated it still sells well to start with - but I agree it might encourage illegal downloading of the 'forbidden' album tracks. In short, I think the CD album is doomed (sadly) - not completely, there will always be a niche market, but not in terms of millions of sales - the album as a form depends on what artists want to do, and what their labels allow. Sales will never recover to 2003-6 levels though IMO, unless a brilliant new format comes out. I suggest including a free album download code with every CD album - one for the car, one for the ipod. Wouldn't do much, but may help a tiny bit.

I Gotta Feeling (unfortunately! I hate it but I know very few others who do.)

This. Also, I don't really see how Maroon 5 & Christina are R2 fodder! Because they've turned 30? If we're going by the R1/R2 age demographics - Eminem is 37, J-Lo is 40, and David Guetta is 44 next month! Yes, Eminem is probably less likely to appeal to the stereotypical R2 listener than Maroon 5 are - but I'd argue that Jennifer Lopez might appeal more than M5 - and Lady Gaga, Beyonce, Rihanna could too; equally, a lot of the new stuff that Radio 2 playlists could appeal to the R1 demographic (not, granted, when it's artists like Doris Day or Status Quo, but then 35+ is a far bigger demographic than R1's) For me, Radio 1 isn't as good as it was when the daily line up was Chris Moyles (to be fair his show is usually OK when he's not being a tw*t), then more importantly Jo Whiley and Colin & Edith. Zane Lowe's shows are pretty good, and I quite like Scott Mills, but that's about it. 6 Music is better IMO, and in terms of new music Radio 2 have Janice Long and Dermot O'Leary - and although there is a lot of dross on R2, the variety of music is pretty good (and I'm 21).

I don't think so. What else will panicking last-minute Christmas shoppers put in their kids' stocking otherwise?

I like the idea of the 50:30:20 as an 'extra', but as for changing the chart to tht, or the rolling average, I don't agree. For example, One Direction #1 last week on 50/30/20 and this week on 4-week average - yet it's not the most popular in terms of weekly sales anymore, probably not in video sales either, nor in terms of points, don't ever want to include airplay in the charts but I doubt it's near the top of the airplay chart either. So IMO it's not number 1 this week or last week And TBH I don't think we need any more longevity in the charts when the number of 20-week-plus chart runs over the last 3-4 years is the highest it's ever been.

Thanks! I'm really surprised that cassettes made up so much of the market - well over half on those 1989 figures. You hardly ever see cassettes from that period these days - at least, not compared to vinyl! I guess 82.9m of those cassettes must have broken in car stereos! Personally I like cassette singles, less fussed on albums (especially if your favourite track is stuck halfway through one side). I guessed around 90-91 for CDs to overtake, so I'm not surprised by the 92 figures at all - I guess vinyl must have decreased pretty steeply year-on-year. Robbie - do you have vinyl figures for the rest of the 90s?

Does anyone know what year sales of CD albums overtook sales of vinyl albums in the UK?

Totally disagree :P I think 2000 was the best year of the 00s for pop and dance music - and Groovejet is one of the best songs from the year (though I agree it's probably not top 3-worthy - top three of the #1s in the year though!) Voted PS - got a soft spot for Sonique and Groovejet is the best of these three.

Can't remember if anyone's said it yet but a Kings of Leon GH could be MASSIVE. 1 Red Morning Light 2 Molly's Chambers 3 Holy Roller Novocaine or Wasted Time 3 The Bucket 4 Four Kicks 5 King of the Rodeo 6 On Call 7 Fans 8 Sex on Fire 9 Use Somebody 11 Revelry 12 Radioactive 13 New song 14 New song My list is possibly a bit too heavy on their first two albums - add an extra track from OBTN and COS; maybe just have 2 off YAYM (so 15 tracks total). Potentially a UK million seller? Then again, could be a relative flop. If handled right (great new track, X-Factor appearance, etc) it could be a massive 3rd quarter hit - potentially Christmas #1? I think it could do as well as Bon Jovi's Cross Road - KoL haven't had THAT many big hits, but neither had Bon Jovi, really.

:( wanted a Spiller-Mel C final

Holly Valance was too early with that second album. If she'd released it from about 05-08 it would have done way better.

I actually really like every song left...most would be at least 7/10s...gone for 'Reach'.