DanChartFan

Now you come to mention it I think I've had it on rare occasions in the past with completely unknown artists. I realise that the way youtube ads work literally anyone can pay Google Ads to circulate an ad for them on youtube, and they can name any youtube URL as being their ad, even if they don't own the video on the URL they name, so it could be any rich Zara Larsson fan who paid for it, or on the other hand it could have been the record label or some such.

In fairness it wouldn't take all that long to redo those weeks. That's partly because I'm now subscribed to Melody Charts, which makes the research of things like this so much easier and quicker than the OCC site does (and also doesn't jump scare me every 5 minutes like the OCC site does with Beetlejuice yelling at me or a referee blowing his whistle at me). It's also partly that I have already preemptively prepared a bit of paper with the next candidate for each of those weeks, so I should be prepped for the circumstance, unless any of the next candidates have inconveniently also somehow managed to make the Top 10 in the interim.

So earlier this evening I was doing some housework whilst one of my youtube playlists of 80s music was playing. It was a playlist of songs I had compiled based on some precise singles chart statistical criteria (regarding which a new thread potentially coming from me somewhere in the next few weeks) and so I wasn't entirely familiar with a lot of the tracks and therefore didn't notice immediately when a track started playing that wasn't a part of the playlist. The track played for literally about 2 minutes before I realised it was Zara Larsson's Midnight Sun (which clearly I don't find especially memorable, otherwise I would have caught on sooner). When I looked at it I realised that the official music video on youtube was playing to me as an advert. Not an advert to advertise the existence of the music video, but the music video itself was the advert. Someone has paid Google Ads to show me (and presumably plenty of others) her music video as an advert. Have any of your experienced anything like this? It will have been playing it out from the same URL so it would count as a play of the music video, so will this now count for the singles chart? And how many other people got this as an advert and didn't skip for 30 seconds or more and thus inadvertently contributed to her sales figure for next week's chart? Will she miraculously and unexpectedly rocket up the chart out of nowhere next week? How many other tracks are rising above their fair position in each week's chart (even if only by one or two places) on the basis of playing out to youtube viewers as a paid advert?

So no, it didn't crack the Top 10 yet, but reached a new peak of #12. That's 8 weeks now as the highest placed non-Top 10 single.

Olivia Rodrigo's The Cure drops another place to #4 to secure another week on this list.

Didn't Steps 5,6,7,8 break the record for most weeks in the Top 40 without making the Top 10? I guess that would count as a hoverer. Looking at Melody Charts it got 14 weeks in the 11-40 positions without any in the Top 10, but presumably the record is way more weeks than that now in the streaming era.

I'm still confused though, because the CD with that live version on it wasn't one of the three formats available in the UK anyway according to discogs. For 'I Love The Way You Love Me' Discogs shows a CD with number 562-242-2 that was available in both the UK and Europe, but which did not contain a version of No Matter What. Then there is another CD with number 563-199-2 that was UK only and again did not contain No Matter What. There is also the cassette single with number 563-198-4 which again did not contain No Matter What. The only CD version of that single which did contain the aforementioned live version of No Matter What was numbered 563-201-2 but according to discogs that was only issued in Europe, and not the UK. Was it a very small number of European imports finding their way over to British retailers that led to Polydor and Boyzone being punished? Or was it the label and band deliberately ensuring the older record was out of the Top 40 in order to not be punished by the OCC if they noticed those imports?

Discogs doesn't show any format of I Love The Way You Love Me that had No Matter What on it. I think the record label just prematurely killed off supplies of No Matter What so they could focus on ILTWYLM, though the latter turned out to not be as big a hit and they surely lost at least a few sales of the former.

Based on what Jim said earlier in the thread I think it's Idina Menzel's Let It Go with 13 weeks, one more than Mark Ambor's 12 with Belong Together.

Ella Langley's Choosin' Texas returns to its previous peak at #13 and get's a seventh week here. Will it crack the Top 10 next week and force me to recalculate 7 week's worth of this list?

Olivia Rodrigo's The Cure drops to #3 for a second week on this list.

I wonder if it was partly the gradual shift towards CD (and/or Cassettes) as the early 90s gave way to the late 90s. Not everyone would have adopted CD straight away so in the earlier 90s there would have been some who were vinyl only, as well as some of the newest consumers who were CD only, both of which would have restricted which singles they could buy if they weren't on all formats, or would have restricted which week they could buy it if the different formats were out in different weeks. By 1996 vinyl had all but died anyway, and the 3 format rule had been established by then, so most singles were 2 CDs and a cassette, and most people could buy and play either of those (or at least the cassette if not the CD), so everyone who wanted the release could be assured of getting it in week1 in a format they could play. Related to this is the fact that I seem to recall that Woolworths (at least in my hometown) started having a chart wall in around the mid 90s or so, once it was all CD/Cassette and therefore more possible to do without taking up to much space or having gaps (due to no CD for that release etc), whereas before that they had big wire baskets of vinyls, so maybe Woolworths deciding to merchandise music releases like they were a normal music retailer had an effect too (given Woolies may well have sold more music than anyone else anyway).

Ella Langley's Choosin' Texas at #16 get's a sixth week on this list. A new entry from Olivia Rodrigo in the Top 10, and two Zara Larsson climb into the 10, but as the latter had already been Top 10 there are no other changes to this list.

Olivia Rodrigo's The Cure is new at #2 and joins the list.

Ella Langley's Choosin' Texas at #17 get's a fifth week on this list. There are three new entries to the top 10 for Drake, but nothing climbs into the 10 from outside so no other changes to this list.