The Hit Parade

Couple of little additions off the top of my head: Animalhouse were formed by ex-members of Ride (Gardner and Colbert) Matt Hales of Aqualung also charted (barely) as a member of Ruth Tom Rowlands is the name of the Ariel/Chemical Brothers guy H-Boogie is Estelle's sister Also, should Chuck D be cross-referenced to Public Enemy in the Anthrax entry? I wonder (but don't know) whether Mick Avory in Bobby Angelo & The Tuxedos is the same one who was in the Kinks. Keep up the good work. On a digression, I don't remember Animal's cover of 'Wipeout' but I wonder what Frank Oz did as it's an instrumental.

Maybe they should have released it a few months ago instead of just sitting on it for no reason.

Seriously, though, what is supposed to be baroque about the song? It's just an RnB pop track with some violins in the background, which is about as baroque as 'Coz I Luv You' by Slade.

I've never even heard 'Dibby Dibby Sound' but I knew Vidcapper would hate it.

Surely this is the greatest baroque pop song ever? pWkD0OhNDhc (only got to 59 though)

Knowing what was Number One on the first Millward Brown chart though, I don't think it's a song that needs much more hype.

Graham Betts says All Blue were "produced by Kerri Chandler and Jerome Sydenham", whatever that means. Unfortunately you've also spelt the Jagz Kooner wrong twice in the Aloof entry, though it's arguably his fault for having such a silly name. Also, should Altered Images be cross-referenced to Hipsway and Texas (via Johnny McElhone)?

'I Write The Songs' True, but Barry Manilow didn't write that one either: it was by Bruce Johnston who thus became the first Beach Boy to win a Grammy. And the only one until Brian Wilson got one in 2005.

'Werewolves Of London' is a big Radio 2 fave so I'd be amazed if it didn't come up (unless they exclude it because of that Kid Rock monstrosity). On the same basis I'd not be surprised to hear 'Driver's Seat' by Sniff N The Tears or 'Eye In The Sky' by the Alan Parsons project. And since it's Blackburn, I expect he'll work in some of the classic Motown and Stax songs that weren't UK hits either.

I'm sure there are people who only buy these campaign songs once they're seen to be doing well though - I presume that's part of the reason why so many more people sign up to these things than actually buy the tracks. So at least there will be some T10 effect, though it may be masked by other things - of course 'Highway' hasn't had its 48 hours yet and unlike a real new release it won't have pre-orders.

The Beatles release a boxed set of their US albums (and 12 of them individually) on the 20th of January: http://www.thebeatles.com/news/ladies-and-gentlemen-beatles

Noddy Holder and Jim Lea own the Slade catalogue via their company Whild John music (it's named after their middle names) and yes as the songwriters they get a bigger share of anything. And of course they make money off cover versions too, but the other two do still get something.

That embed's not working for me but I found it here: https://soundcloud.com/dukedumont/duke-dumo...eat-jax-jones-i (Not sure why he has to record his own track off the radio to put it online, but that's another story).

So after a year of the underperforming album market, the one month people do want to buy albums there's a shortage. Well done record industry.

Up to 298 on my LPB. Thankfully no sign of Simple Minds.

It's one thing to say it didn't work with 'We Own The Night', but then again their next single was 'Show Me Love America' which was held back for months, entered the Top 10 and then bombed out of the chart as fast as it could. Did that really work any better?

I can't remember the last time I was so ambivalent about as song as I am about 'Blurred Lines', although obviously it's not ambivalence that sells records. Of course, a lot of people bought Adele's album instead of the single, ISTM that's less the case with Thicko.

I'm seeing on Twitter that ITV is broken in large parts of the country. Don't know whether that is slowing down the XF effect?

No McFly was pre-album: a version of the album had been given away with a newspaper, but 'Lies' wasn't on it; it was then released as a single to promote the paid-for re-release of the album.

How many times are Deep Purple going to keep releasing that album?

Yeah, Bruce has had some long pauses in his career but in this century he's been pretty prolific for a veteran act, I presume that's a sign of how much he enjoys himself doing it. The new album is tenuously a studio album - it's unreleased songs and covers - but he calls it one so I suppose it does count.

Surely making the Christmas Number One "what it used to be" would be choosing a non-Christmas song? Only a small minority of Christmas Number Ones actually are Christmas-related songs, it's just that they tend to bunch in particular eras so they seem more common than they really are.

On the other hand, I remember Colin Murray discussing the Top 40 entry of The Wedding Present with 'I'm From Further North Than You', and expressing surprise that they were still around - and that was on the chart dated 12-2-2005, so it would have been announced on the 5th. Maybe the Duran conversation happened in one of the song's later chart weeks?

I understand that it's in some ways rational to buy their music now - it's not like you're going to hear it on the radio anytime soon - but of course he gets the royalties. Just like Gary Glitter still gets his. Obviously, he won't get much out of a few hundred 79p downloads though.

I think the Adele thing was on the DVD chart, not the album one. So unless it gets a certification I doubt we'll have much idea of sales.