Julian_

We’re heading back to the ‘80s for our next Sunday Synctube marathon, hosted by @jimwatts . For those not familiar we’ve been doing these for a few years in the slot from 16:00 to 19:00 on Sundays when the chart show used to be broadcast! All are welcome.

Moving to Kelly - this still has the talent show winner feeling about it.

Jamelia’s been got good. “Something About You” was from her “Walk With Me” album and the 5th in her run of 6 Top 10 singles. It peaked at #9 in September 2006 was a little muted for the lead after a huge era, and the follow up was much better received. 8th: Jamelia - Something About You 8/27 votes (30%) 9th: Shaznay Lewis - Never Felt Like This Before 7/28 votes (25%) 10th: True Steppers featuring Dane Bowers - Buggin’ 14/34 votes (41%)

Being told not to come into Round 7 are Tom and the ‘Phonics. The song, about a strait laced man going to his first party, was written by Randy Newman in 1966 and recorded by Eric Burdon & The Animals. This cover reached #4 in March 2000. 5th: Tom Jones & Stereophonics - Mama Told Me Not To Come 12/30 votes (40%) 6th: Usher - U Got It Bad 9/30 votes (30%) 7th: Jay Sean - Ride It 11/31 votes (35%) 8th: McFly - The Heart Never Lies 10/31 votes (32%) 9th: Emma Bunton - Downtown 12/31 votes (39%) 10th: JoJo featuring Bow Wow - Baby It’s You 9/33 votes (27%)

Apologies for zoning out of this for a couple of weeks! Right let’s get the year finished. Either of these top 2 could easily have been 10s: probably my favourite song from each artist and they both have plenty of other great songs. And that means one of my favourite ever novelty hits has to settle for 3rd, aww! 9 Eminem Lose Yourself 942nd #1: the tension builds so beautifully throughout the verse and then releases on "lose": simply a marvellous track 9 Robbie Williams Feel The piano accompaniment on its own carries a good deal of emotion and Robbie has so much mature presence here 8 Liam Lynch United States Of Whatever Just 1:26 and the only hit for this US performer: it's so irreverent; delightfully random lyrically and lacking in structure 8 Bjork It's In Our Hands This was a greatest hits album release: as usual she brings us into her little world with hypnotic and sensual production 7 Daniel Bedingfield If You're Not The One 943rd #1: it is slushy and doesn't come close to his boundary pushing debut, but I think he carries this incredibly well 7 Bruce Springsteen Lonesome Day His only Top 40 so far this century: a reflective number that's very charming with a warm orchestral accompaniment 6 Atomic Kitten The Last Goodbye/Be With You I don't mind the 1st side which is safe but sweet, but the 2nd is a strong disco track that deserved more prominence 6 Rainbow (DJ George And MC Zippy) It's A Rainbow This is like the "Trip To Trumptown" style early '90s hardcore rave meets children's TV theme hits: I actually quite like it 6 The Cheeky Girls Cheeky Song (Touch My Bum) 1st hit for this Romanian duo who appeared on "Popstars: The Rivals": this is a simple but very fun and danceable track 5 Liberty X Holding On For You This is quite tame after the raunchy "Just A Little" and Mantronix cover, but it has a sweet sincerity that I rather enjoy 5 Darius Rushes This doesn't have the unique charm of "Colourblind" but it's a decent follow up: I enjoy the vocals and backing strings 5 TLC Girl Talk Their last hit recorded just a few days before Lisa's death, a well put together RnB track but nowhere near their best 4 Matt Darey And Marcella Woods U Shine On Matt's last hit with the same vocalist as the superb "Beautiful": this is in the same style but doesn't hit like that at all 4 Scooter Posse (I Need You On The Floor) It's the usual format with a techno track and high pitched sung track: not as strong a melody as "Neesaja" but not bad 3 Alicia Keys Girlfriend Another single from her that has a soulful style but lacks a little in melody and isn't so likely to grab anyone's attention 3 Ms Dynamite Put Him Out She's back to the man bashing with this 3rd single: again I do quite like the production but not so much the rest of it 3 Celine Dion Goodbye's (The Saddest Word) After 2 surprisingly invigorating singles she's back to the old fashioned power ballad style here: she does sing it well 2 Enrique Iglesias Maybe He sounds almost desperate on this ballad that's similar in style but inferior to "Hero": I prefer his more Latin material 2 Ronan Keating Featuring Lulu We've Got Tonight The original was Bob Seger's only Top 40: this cover is unnecessary and Lulu's rasping the only real point of interest 2 Anastacia You'll Never Be Alone She does best with retro style power pop: with this kind of soft ballad her strange vowel sounds and vocal twang grate 1 Nickelback Never Again The underperforming 3rd single: a hard hitting track about domestic abuse that's a grim listen and not in a good way 2002 Weeks 51 and 52: #1640 21/12/2002 Blue Featuring Elton John Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word 1 {1}-4-4-6-8-16-21-24-27-30-41-45-40-36-49-66-73->17 #1641 21/12/2002 Gareth Gates What My Heart Wants To Say 5 {5}-15-16-19-35-53-64-58R(3)-49-35-26-48-67->13 #1642 21/12/2002 S Club Juniors Puppy Love/Sleigh Ride 6 {6}-11-12-16-40-60-75-68R(2)-65-62->10 #1643 21/12/2002 Pink Family Portrait 11 {11}-16-14-12-20-23-31-44-65->9 #1644 21/12/2002 Ja Rule Featuring Bobby Brown Thug Lovin' 15 {15}-20-19-21-28-40-46-70->8 #1645 21/12/2002 Holly Valance Naughty Girl 16 {16}-25-22-22-30-42-50-51-58->9 #1646 21/12/2002 Russell Watson Nothing Sacred - A Song For Kirsty 17 {17}-22-29-40-56->5 #1647 21/12/2002 Bon Jovi Misunderstood 21 {21}-42-46-63-73R(6)->5 #1648 21/12/2002 Declan Featuring Young Voices Choir Tell Me Why 29 {29}-43-44-61->4 #1649 21/12/2002 David Gray The Other Side 35 {35}-51-62->3 #1650 28/12/2002 Girls Aloud Sound Of The Underground 1 {1}-1-1-1-3-5-9-15-19-19-22-27-38-42-57-56-71-67-56-71-73->21 #1651 28/12/2002 One True Voice Sacred Trust/After You're Gone 2 {2}-3-5-9-17-27-31-41-71->9 #1652 28/12/2002 Love Inc {CA} You're A Superstar 7 {7}-7-7-7-13-14-18-21-26-36-39-45-57->13 #1653 28/12/2002 Avril Lavigne Sk8er Boi 8 9-9-{8}-11-15-20-27-37-64->9 #1654 28/12/2002 Death In Vegas Featuring Liam Gallagher Scorpio Rising 14 {14}-21-27-33-55-68-69R(2)-75->8 #1655 28/12/2002 Pascal Featuring Karen Parry I Think We're Alone Now 23 {23}-25-34-46-67->5 #1656 28/12/2002 The Rolling Stones Don't Stop 36 {36}-64->2

It’s definitely the best song I’ve heard by them - was impressed!

I argue that people are choosing the playlist because of what’s on it. If it doesn’t have what people want to listen to in the first place they’ll move to another playlist. It’s a bit chicken and egg, but when people say “Wham!” only have the most popular Christmas song because it’s top of the playlists I say that it’s at the top of the playlists because it’s the most popular and not the other way round.

Well guess what’s in the current airplay Top 10 that’s sadly missing from the official Top 10… “Beautiful Things”. 1 Ordinary 2 Gold 3 Azizam 4 Nice To Meet You 5 Blessings 6 Pink Pony Club 7 Bloodline 8 Sapphire 9 Mystical Magical 10 Beautiful Things I mean I don’t agree with including airplay anyway but that really is far from an improvement.

Well “Old Phone” was only #4 on pure sales even in its release week and seems to have never made #1 on iTunes. (The pure sales #2 the same week “Old Phone” was #4 was that poor non #1 “Ordinary”!) It’s reached #47 on video streaming, #39 on audio streaming and only #17 on airplay even (and that not until a few weeks later). OK that’s UK airplay and not their favourite stations, but you’d really have to be quite creative with the data to make “Old Phone” a #1. (Not picking on Ed specifically - that just happens to be the most egregious example this year.)

But what measure is it? They don’t release any details. Now I can understand with something like “APT.” that if you spun the data slightly differently that might have made #1. But we’re saying Ed has had 3 #1s on the big Top 40 this year, presumably including “Old Phone”? Well there’s no way you can spin any of the sales or streaming data that would show “Old Phone” as having been the country’s #1 song at any point. If it is actually based on data at all it’s pretty flawed I suggest.

I’d go for the one that isn’t made up.

Are we allowed to do a ranking / say how we’re voting?

I feel like Lemon Demon would have avoided a 1st round exit with this one! 🍋

Worth noting that “Despacito” was doing more than 20k pure sales per week when it was #1 on ACR, which still counted in full. So it was a completely different ball game as now almost everything is halved.

1 Purple Disco Machine 2 TSHA 3 Skream & Benga

1 21P 2 King Gizzard 3 Biffy

1 Mark and Raye 2 Tyla 3 Blusher Addison

Does “Ordinary” stream best when it’s 15 degrees and a grey sky?

Coming soon… and somebody is looking rather smug about it.

Apologies slightly late 1 A-ha - Take on Me 2 Mary J. Blige - Family Affair 3 Elton John - I’m Still Standing 4 Avril Lavigne - My Happy Ending 5 James Blake - Loading 6 Addison Rae - Times Like These 7 The Saturdays - All Fired Up 8 Christina Aguilera - Fighter 9 Calvin Harris & Ellie Goulding - Miracle 10 Pet Shop Boys - Rent 11 CHVRCHES - Graves 12 SASAMI - Just Be Friends 13 Damiano David - Born With a Broken Heart 14 Charlie Puth - How Long 15 Enrique Iglesias feat. Ciara - Takin’ Back My Love 16 Fifth Harmony feat. Ty Dolla $ign - Work From Home

Because they’re only tracking the post 94 sales, I think that means that if something already has a 2x platinum certification it will only go to 3x platinum on having 1.8 million of post 94 sales. So we don’t get to see those huge old hits hitting the lower download and streaming milestones.

Week 24: 1 2 Alex Warren Ordinary 980,000 2 1 Lola Young Messy 946,000 1,120,000 3 3 Rosé and Bruno Mars APT. 891,000 1,250,000 4 4 Gracie Abrams That's So True 785,000 1,220,000 5 5 Chappell Roan Pink Pony Club 746,000 1,190,000 6 6 Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars Die With A Smile 725,000 1,360,000 7 7 Chrystal The Days 637,000 800,000 8 8 Billie Eilish Birds Of A Feather 606,000 1,830,000 9 9 Benson Boone Beautiful Things 601,000 2,390,000 10 10 Chappell Roan Good Luck, Babe! 584,000 1,790,000 11 11 Gigi Perez Sailor Song 546,000 1,140,000 12 12 Sabrina Carpenter Espresso 528,000 2,280,000 13 13 Teddy Swims Lose Control 527,000 2,360,000 14 14 Sabrina Carpenter Taste 525,000 1,320,000 15 15 Teddy Swims Bad Dreams 496,000 740,000 16 17 Tate McRae Sports Car 482,000 17 16 Teddy Swims The Door 480,000 1,150,000 18 18 Myles Smith Nice To Meet You 469,000 580,000 19 19 Shaboozey A Bar Song (Tipsy) 442,000 1,780,000 20 20 Myles Smith Stargazing 439,000 1,450,000 21 24 Ravyn Lenae Love Me Not 438,000 22 21 Kendrick Lamar Not Like Us 430,000 1,050,000 23 22 Hozier Too Sweet 423,000 1,890,000 24 23 Lady Gaga Abracadabra 411,000 25 25 Alex Warren Carry You Home 407,000 710,000 26 26 Noah Kahan Stick Season 401,000 2,920,000 27 27 Sabrina Carpenter Please Please Please 394,000 1,540,000 28 28 Sonny Fodera, Jazzy & D.O.D. Somedays 383,000 850,000 29 29 Sabrina Carpenter Bed Chem 375,000 770,000 30 32 WizTheMc & Bees & Honey Show Me Love 375,000 31 30 Sabrina Carpenter Busy Woman 371,000 32 31 Doechii Anxiety 362,000 33 33 Chappell Roan Hot To Go! 354,000 1,010,000 34 34 Kendrick Lamar & Sza Luther 347,000 440,000 35 36 The Killers Mr Brightside 346,000 6,410,000 36 35 Gracie Abrams I Love You, I'm Sorry 345,000 830,000 37 37 The Weeknd and Playboi Carti Timeless 331,000 560,000 38 39 Sam Fender People Watching 328,000 430,000 39 38 Kendrick Lamar & Sza All The Stars 327,000 2,240,000 40 41 Post Malone featuring Morgan Wallen I Had Some Help 325,000 1,240,000 47 48 Ed Sheeran Azizam 307,000 52 59 Sombr Undressed 277,000 62 70 Sombr Back To Friends 248,000 71 74 Morgan Seatree featuring Florence + The Machine Say My Name (Remix) 228,000 78 82 Benson Boone Sorry I'm Here For Someone Else 219,000 82 84 Sonny Fodera & Clementine Douglas Tell Me 217,000 And the new and re-entries are… Nothing! 😮

Week 24: 1 1 Sabrina Carpenter Short n' Sweet 330,000 700,000 2 2 Ed Sheeran +-=÷x (Tour Collection) 200,000 300,000 3 3 Sam Fender People Watching 180,000 4 5 Fleetwood Mac 50 Years: Don't Stop 159,000 1,630,000 5 4 The Weeknd The Highlights 158,000 1,390,000 6 6 Chappell Roan The Rise And Fall Of A Midwest Princess 151,000 450,000 7 7 SZA SOS 148,000 630,000 8 8 Elton John Diamonds 143,000 1,800,000 9 9 Charli XCX Brat 132,000 420,000 10 10 Billie Eilish Hit Me Hard And Soft 131,000 480,000 11 11 Tate McRae So Close To What 129,000 12 12 Taylor Swift The Tortured Poets Department 127,000 910,000 13 13 Lady Gaga Mayhem 126,000 14 14 Central Cee Can't Rush Greatness 124,000 15 15 Noah Kahan Stick Season 121,000 590,000 16 16 ABBA Gold: Greatest Hits 117,000 6,020,000 17 17 Oasis Time Flies... 1994-2009 115,000 2,150,000 18 18 Michael Jackson The Essential 114,000 1,950,000 19 20 Arctic Monkeys AM 111,000 2,210,000 20 19 Gracie Abrams The Secret Of Us 110,000 250,000 21 21 Eminem Curtain Call: The Hits 108,000 3,420,000 22 22 Fleetwood Mac Rumours 104,000 2,650,000 23 24 Linkin Park Papercuts 95,000 270,000 24 23 Olivia Rodrigo Guts 95,000 590,000 25 26 Olivia Rodrigo Sour 93,000 1,140,000 26 25 The Weeknd Hurry Up Tomorrow 92,000 27 27 Kendrick Lamar GNX 91,000 150,000 28 28 Ariana Grande Eternal Sunshine 88,000 270,000 29 29 Oasis (What's The Story) Morning Glory 87,000 5,390,000 30 30 Alex Warren You'll Be Alright Kid (Chapter 1) 85,000 110,000 31 32 Calvin Harris 96 Months 83,000 150,000 32 31 PartyNextDoor & Drake $ome $exy $ongs 4 U 83,000 33 33 Benson Boone Fireworks & Rollerblades 82,000 200,000 34 34 Queen Greatest Hits 81,000 3,120,000 35 36 Pitbull Greatest Hits 78,000 550,000 36 35 Teddy Swims I've Tried Everything But Therapy, Part 2 76,000 37 37 Post Malone The Diamond Collection 75,000 410,000 38 38 Ed Sheeran ÷ 74,000 4,410,000 39 39 Fontaines D.C. Romance 73,000 190,000 40 40 Maroon 5 Singles 72,000 910,000 78 84 Sleep Token Even In Arcadia 50,000 “Rebel Diamonds” by The Killers is back, replacing “The Very Best Of Bob Dylan”

I think we’re already there thanks to “Show Me Love” dropping off quite quickly! 19/6: 1 - Manchild (1) 2 1 Ordinary (1) 3 2 Love me not (2) 4 3 Pink pony club (2) 5 4 Undressed (4) 6 5 Family matters (5) 7 11 Back to friends (7) 8 7 Blessings (7) 9 - Sapphire (9) 10 9 Azizam (3) 11 8 Show me love (4) 12 6 Just Keep Watching (6) 13 10 Messy (1) 14 13 Beautiful things (1) 15 17 Can’t decide (15) 16 16 Shake it to the max (16) 17 14 APT (2) 18 15 Birds of a feather (2) 19 12 Bloodline (11) 20 21 Mystical magical (20) 21 - Dior (21) 22 18 The days (5) 23 20 That’s so true (1) 24 24 Good luck, babe! (2) 25 - Nice to each other (25) 26 27 Lose control (2) 27 23 Die with a smile (3) 28 19 Sports car (7) 29 33 One thing (29) 30 22 Hairdresser (22) 31 25 Carry you home (16) 32 32 Espresso (1) 33 28 Bad dreams (13) 34 30 Taste (1) 35 29 Stargazing (6) 36 26 Nice to meet you (12) 37 31 The door (13) 38 39 Dreams (22) 39 - Fame is a gun (39) 40 35 Sailor song (2) 41 36 A bar song (2) 42 37 Party 4 u (35) 43 44 Nokia (18) 44 42 Iris (3) 45 34 Revolving door (17) 46 40 Too sweet (1) 47 43 Mr Brightside (10) 48 38 Busy woman (11) 49 - The glen (49) 50 - People watching (11)