AcerBen

I think track 1 downloads and streams are added to the double-a-side and track 2 downloads and streams are counted separately. Interestingly, Last Christmas has a separate chart run to Last Christmas/Everything She Wants - but they still add the sales and streams to the original double-a-side.

One chart week that springs to mind was w/e 10/04/99 1. Mr Oizo 184,000 2. Eminem 143,000 3. Phats & Small 116,000 4. Thank ABBA For The Music 99,000 Very high sales for 2-4!

Grace Davies - I Met A Boy Online - single out this Friday, with a CD single out on Feb 24 https://www.gracedaviesofficial.com/product...card-and-lyrics

I love Perfect! He does write the odd cringe lyric but I think it's a really lovely song.

He did a Zoom duet thing with Gary Barlow

Yep, and also we have to remember this was a different era, when artists gave each single time to breathe rather than putting a new one out every 5 minutes.

One thing that occured to me about "Rise Up" tonight is how astonishing it is that it's got a Gold certification despite having only ever spent 5 weeks in the top 100, never made the top 40, and that it's become a really well known song over the last few years purely on people either singing it on talent shows, or it being played in the background in TV shows. I don't think I've ever heard it on the radio. And also it was really Simon Cowell pushing it on his shows to start off, just because he liked it, that made it happen.

She probably sold more copies than she would otherwise have done though I reckon - her high sales would've partly been down to more people visiting their local chart wall to pick up Will's single. Edit - mind you I misremembered how much i sold first week. I thought it was more like 250,000

My pick: All-4-One "I Swear" was stuck behind Wet Wet Wet for 7 weeks in 1994

I'm getting there.. once I've got the re-issues of 8 and 9 I just need to buy the originals of 10-16 and I'm done. I don't tend to bother with all the spin-offs though. Except for the Now Dance ones in the 90s, and the 10th anniversary specials. There's one guy who's been on the news who has everything.

Toca's Miracle may never make it to streaming because of a conflict between the singer and the label. Think she never got paid enough royalties or something.

Yeah Will Young & Gareth Gates spring to mind too.. their early hits were only on Hits too. Some of the Hits comps in the late 90s and early 00s were actually better than the equivalent Now

With a really big hit, I'd always go with it being unavailable (because the label didn't want to hurt sales of the artist's single or album at that time) or wanting too much money for the licence, over it just being forgotten about or overlooked.

Just because they were on previous Nows doesn't mean they were always available though.

It did make the original Now 1994 though :)

It's on Capital too, so it's not over yet. (I think it's their weakest single in a while myself though..)

Ah great to see Ava make it! She's on Capital too now so fingers crossed it's another top 20 hit for her in due course.

Still a good read though.

Were the charts ever "untainted" and "pure" though? Even in the old days, it was vulnerable to hyping, and even when the sales were genuine the numbers would be affected by how many copies were available in the shops, how long for and when labels wanted to release them as singles. At least the manipulations they make now are for mostly good reasons. Plus the chart has never been there purely for us - it's always been there as a promotional tool for and paid for by the music industry. I really think they've just gone with top 75s now for consistency. I agree to a point that you can't compare the top 75 of now with those from the past, but most people probably aren't thinking about it as deeply as you. They probably just thought it was better from an aesthetic point of view to have them look the same as all the other books. I don't buy the idea of Music Week sticking with the top 75 purely to save money on ink and paper either.

I suppose it's better to be consistent with the previous books.

Not listened to the chart show for a bit, as I can't bear all the rap and hip-hop. But the top 40 is looking more poppy/dancey than it has for a while. Liking the new production on the show too. And Scott is still great.

This is going to feature Shayne Ward - random!

They're not v well known here but are big in Sweden and making some small waves in the U.S. - I know you sometimes include Scandipop favourites

Sash! have a new single called Coming Home out 15 Feb https://fb.watch/3eg4DfQYX4/

Smith & Thell's album Pixie's Parasol is out Feb 5 (digital only) https://twitter.com/SmithandThell/status/1352622940748132354