Bigger Al

Is that latest update correct? Can't believe Peter Kay has fallen from 11 to 14. I would have thought it would be number 3 or 4 by now.

Obviously being on X Factor helped, but the reason Cheryl sold so well is because it is an outstanding pop song. At the end of the day, the better songs will sell more irrespective of the artist.

I don't get why people are saying Leona's single and album are not doing very well. Happy sold 85k copies which in an excellent total and would have made her number 1 most weeks. She will be number 4 or 5 this week I suspect with sales of around 55-60k and will probably sell in the region of 300k by the end of the year. What other female soloist has had 3 number 1's, 2 number 2's and a number 4 from their first 6 releases? 50k albums sold on the first day is outstanding. Don't forget this is one day's sales, not 2 as is the case with singles. It is misleading to compare Leona's sales with JLS or Robbie as their albums achieved the highest 2 individual week's sales this year. With albums the best ones are those which stay in the top 30 for months, not necessarily those which sell loads on their first week. I suspect Echo will still be top 30 in 6 month's time.

There was an offer on I Tunes where if you downloaded Everybody in Love, you could download Spell it Out for an extra 40p. I guess this is where the sales of Spell it Out have come from so I reckon it will be ineligible to chart this week.

I will set the ball rolling again this week with my top 5 prediction: 1. JLS (140k) 2. Cheryl Cole (75k) 3. Black Eyed Peas (60k) 4. Jay Sean (58k) 5. Chase & Status (45k) 6. Alexandra Burke (40k) Cheryl will probably still be the number 1 album, but I expect Bon Jovi to be number 2.

I will start off with my top 5 prediction (although the top 4 look obvious). 1 Cheryl Cole (150k) 2 Westlife (120k) 3 Jay Sean (90k) 4 Alexandra Burke (70k) 5 Black Eyed Peas (45k) Don't think any of Cheryl's other tracks will appear in the top 40 this week as I don't think they will be eligible and they will probably drop out anyway.

Yes, I did mean Jay-Z ft Alicia Keys. I think Cheryl will have sold far more than 37k copies. Looking at the popularity bars, I think it is interesting to see how low the bars are towards the bottom of the 40 which will remain about the same most weeks. At a similar time last week, the bars were higher than they are now, so I think Cheryl will sell more than Alex. I predict 95k for Cheryl and 30-35k for Alex in the first midweeks.

I think Whitney will drop out of the top 5 by Sunday, so I predict the top 5 as 1. Cheryl Cole 2. Alexandra Burke 3. Chipmunk 4. Robbie Williams 5. Jay-Z ft Rihanna

Quite a few songs have reached a higher position on the official chart than on I Tunes eg Celebration and Basshunter's latest offering which is 14 on the official chart, but hasn't gone higher than 17 on I Tunes. I still can't work out why Celebration sold so many copies, yet performed much worse on the I Tunes chart.

BEP's had a huge lead on Friday's mids so I think it is a racing certainty that they will go back to number 1.

Jules Rimet was a person. He was president of FIFA when the first World Cup was contested, and as he was the brainchild behind it, the trophy was named after him.

Surprised that Calvin is ahead of Tinchy as he had not overtaken Tinchy on i-tunes at any point. Is it to do with Calvin having different remixes out?

Album sales are low because there have been no major releases since Lungs. Florence look like spending their 5th week at number 2 which must be some kind of record.

Because it featured on Big Brother tonight. (Seriously)

I actually thought the sales should have been 20,900, not 2,900 for Mr Hudson last Tuesday. Regarding the current chart, JB had no sales on Sunday and only reached the top 10 on Monday with no physical release or other versions of the track being available. Number 30 sounds right to me and I would expect the popularity to fall away by the end of the week resulting in a position of around 15 to 20.

I don't think so, I'm afraid. I think Jacko still has another week after this week by which time Florence's sales will also drop. I think the next number one album will be Lady GaGa for another stint.

Candle in the Wind was actually released on the Saturday after Diana's funeral. I remember searching all over for a copy and not being able to buy it until Monday. Back to the original question, wasn't Mercy quite low down on the first set of mids?

JLS will still be number 1 on Sunday. Mr Hudson has now started to fall back on I-Tunes and BEP's are gaining but are too far behind to threaten the number one slot. BEP's could still challenge for number 2, I think.

I don't think the sales could have been capped at 9am on Sunday, because Frankmusik are at No 26, 2 places higher than Mr Hudson, and they only entered the I Tunes top 300 at 162 around Sunday lunchtime. Supernova must be either at number 2 or 3 judging by the popularity bars so something definitely isn't right. Can't see how Umbrella is a higher position than it has appeared on I tunes either.

Apart from the Cheeky Song, the Cheeky Girls had 4 other top 40 hits. Take your shoes off - No 3 2003 Hooray, Hooray! (It's a Cheeky Holiday) - No 3 2003 Have a Cheeky Christmas - No 10 2003 Cheeky Flamenco - No 29 2004 I think the Cheeky Girls are the only act to fail in the first audition and have a top 40 hit.

Does Escala with Palladino count? It just crept into the top 40 for 1 week and they were finalists in the 2nd edition of BGT.

Jessica actually finished 9th in the first Pop Idol and actually represted the UK in the Eurovision Song Contest with that song. Also didn't the Cheeky girls have a couple of other hits including Hooray, Hooray its a Cheeky Holiday or something like that. I also vaguely remember Chico entering the top 40 for 1 week with D I S C O.

Three O Three

I just checked last week's thread and Beat Again got to number 2 at around midday and got to number 1 at 1pm.

I think 15k for Beat Again is about what I would have expected. It is still on course for 120k for the week which is what I predicted on Sunday. Sunday would have been a huge day, but I can see no reason for the current level to drop off as JLS are doing lots of promotion and radio appearances.