This week's Official UK Singles Chart

1 FEEL IT (The Tamperer featuring Maya) 

It has been a long time since the top end of the chart has been this quiet. In another week when no major new releases were forthcoming the current overall quietness of the market is reflected in another close low-selling battle for Number One. After losing out by a whisker to All Saints last week the positions are reversed and The Tamperer finally advances to the top of the charts after six weeks, and who would have forseen that after the single had slumped to a career low of Number 5 a fortnight ago. Refreshingly this is now the second time this year that a single has reached Number One after a steady climb up the chart, this six week climb comparing favourably with the nine week rise experienced by All Saints' Never Ever in January. The chart position of Feel It will be a cause for celebration amongst the people behind dance imprint Pepper who have reached Number One with their first ever release, a fine achievement especially when you consider the track is based entirely on the work of other people. Whilst everyone knows that the chiming hook and bass rhythm of the track are borrowed from the Jacksons' Can You Feel It, the lead vocal with its "Whats She Gonna Look Like With A Chimney On Her" line that has intrigued so many people has now been identified as being sampled from the little known Urban Discharge track Wanna Drop A House (On That Bitch) which reached Number 51 in early 1996.

4 DANCE THE NIGHT AWAY (Mavericks) 

With no new entries at all in the Top 10, many current hits are given the opportunity to consolidate their chart positions. None do so more spectacularly than the Mavericks who see their first ever UK hit rise into the Top 5 after five weeks on release, they too doing so after the single had slumped to a low point of Number 10 just a fortnight ago. Who would have thought that a record sounding like the Travelling Wilburys crossed with Matchbox would become such a huge hit in 1998.

6 LAST THING ON MY MIND (Steps) 

Clearly there is something about Steps singles which make them long stayers. Last Thing On My Mind rebounds one place this week to make its chart career a perfectly symmetrical run of 6-7-9-7-6. It is a vast improvement on the song's first chart outing when recorded by Bananarama as their penultimate chart hit. Released in November 1992 it could only reach Number 71.

9 HOW DO I LIVE (LeAnn Rimes) 

To complete the series of strange chart moves inspired by a lack of competition from new singles, LeAnn Rimes advances into the Top 10 once more. Now 13 weeks into its chart run, the single has been in the Top 10 on three separate occasions, never rising higher than Number 7 and apart from one week at Number 17 it has never slumped lower than Number 12. A quite bizarre chart run.

11 AVA ADORE (Smashing Pumpkins) 

In a quiet week for new releases, the honour of the biggest new hit of the week goes to the Smashing Pumpkins, carrying with them a great deal of goodwill after the amount of tragedy they have had to overcome over the last couple of years. The first single from their forthcoming new album sees Billy Corrigan et al have their first chart hit in almost a year following their soundtrack hit The End Is The Beginning Is The End which reached Number 10 in June 1997. Their biggest hit remains Tonight Tonight which was a Number 7 hit in May 1996.

14 FIGHT FOR YOUR RIGHT (TO PARTY) (N.Y.C.C.) 

*sigh* that it should come to this. The 80s hip-hop revival boom sparked by the massive success of It's Like That has paved the way for one of the worst rap covers of all time. 'Fight For Your Right' was of course the very first hit single for the Beastie Boys, a Number 11 hit in March 1987 and an absolute sensation the first time around. Rather than have the original re-released, NYCC have instead produced a rather unimpressive cover. Right down to the tacky drum beats and unconvincing rapping this is little more than an insult to the memory of what was once a groundbreaking rap single.

16 OOH LA LA (Rod Stewart) 

Currently in the middle of one of his biggest media blitzes for years, Rod Stewart makes a triumphant return to the chart with the first of what could be several hit singles from his new album. As an interpreter of other people's songs, Rod stands in comparison with the very best. A seasoned musician, he can bring new life and new depth to even the most familiar of tracks and infuse them with his own style, hardened by decades of work as a performer. The new album features covers of tracks by artists as diverse as Skunk Anansie and Oasis (Cigarettes And Alcohol could almost have been written especially for him) but for the lead single he has chosen to rework a song which will be known to many of his longest-serving fans. Ooh La La was first recored by The Faces for their 1973 album of the same name but it was never a hit single, overshadowed by the international smash Cindy Incidentally. As a somewhat part time member of the group by that stage, Rod played no part in the recording of the track, the lead vocal on the original played by Ronnie Lane. 25 years on and the balance has been redressed and the new recording of the song brings Rod back into the Top 20 after an absence of two years.

18 EAT MY GOAL (Collapsed Lung) 

If anything is going to break the stillwater at the top end of the chart it is going to be the World Cup. Following the example of the 1996 European Championships the football tournament has inspired a flood of records like never before, all of which are due for release over the next few weeks. Nipping in ahead of the pack comes this track by Collapsed Lung via a TV ad. Coca-Cola's 'Eat Football...' campaign was born two years ago during Euro 96 and Collapsed Lung's song as used in the soundtrack to the ad was released in June that year only to make a disappointing Number 31. The company's support of football in Britain is well known thanks to their sponsorship of the League Cup competitions in both England and Scotland and various forms of the advertising campaign have been running on and off ever since, all using Eat My Goal as a backing track. Now interest has been sufficiently built up for the single to be released again and second time around it does much better, securing a Top 20 hit for the London-based rap group who have never quite lived up to expectations when it comes to commercial success. The success of Coca-Cola adverts in generating hit singles is well documented with famous Number Ones for the New Seekers and Robin Beck to name but two. Eat My Goal is the second Coke song in recent years to become a chart hit, following in the footsteps of Etta James' I Just Want To Make Love To You which made Number 5 in March 1996 after being used to advertise Diet Coke, another phenomenally successful campaign which is still being used today.

19 DEEPER LOVE (SYMPHONIC PARADISE) (B.B.E.) 

Back to more laid-back matters, BBE notch up their second Top 20 hit of the year, matching at a stroke the peak of Desire which charted back in February. The addition of vocals has added a new dimension to their tracks, this is a great single.

20 DO YOU REALLY WANT ME (Robyn) 

The second hit single for current Swedish sensation Robyn, this one maybe destined to struggle in the wake of the massive success of Show Me Love. Despite that first hit having been released back in March, peaking at Number 8 it is still in heavy rotation on many radio playlists, to the detriment of exposure for this new track.

21 MADE IT BACK (Beverley Knight) 

Legendary record label Parlophone has recently branched out into the world of R&B with its new Parlophone Rhymthm imprint and it is rewarded with a hit single after picking up this track from underrated British R&B diva Beverley Knight. She is perhaps best known for her 1995 recording Flavour Of The Old School which struggled for recognition at first and only made the Top 40 in late 1995 when a new set of mixes propelled it to Number 33. Since then she has only made odd appearances around the bottom end of the Top 75 but extensive airplay from even non-specialist stations has given this single a push that others have lacked. Consequently Made It Back gives her a long overdue mid-table chart entry.

25 MONEY GREEDY/BROKEN HOMES (Tricky) 

The creator of some of the most beautiful records going, King of trip-hop Tricky makes another of his sporadic chart appearances. This is his first single release of the year and follows his two chart entries under his own name last year Tricky Kid and Makes Me Wanna Die reaching Number 28 and 29 respectively. Never likely to have a major smash, he at least has had one big hit single, his collaboration with Garbage on Milk gave him the biggest hit of his career when it reached Number 10 in November 1996.

29 SUNNY CAME HOME (Shawn Colvin) 

Well if the Mavericks are in the Top 5 then I suppose anything is possible. Nine years after she released her first album, Shawn Colvin has a Top 30 hit single for the first time ever. Successive singles from her last few albums have grazed the bottom end of the singles chart but the only one to poke its nose into the Top 40 was her 1995 duet with regular singing collaborator Mary Chapin Carpenter One Cool Remove which managed a week at Number 40. The rather pleasant Grammy-winning track still won't turn her into a major star but does at least have the honour of becoming her biggest hit to date. The biggest, at least of the ones she is credited as performing on. Diehard fans can point to several previous chart appearances, most famously Suzanne Vega's 1987 hit Luka whose backing vocals were provided by one Miss S.Colvin.

32 LONELY, CRYIN', ONLY (Therapy?) 

The second single of the year for Therapy? who quite clearly no longer command the following they had a few years ago, a shame given that as far as I am concerned this is one of the best singles they have ever released. This, and March's Number 29 hit Church Of Noise rank as some of the smallest hits of their career.

38 ILOVEROCKNROLL (Jesus And Mary Chain) 

Similarly the Jesus And Mary Chain aren't exactly major hitmaking prospects these days but their singles still have plenty of energy in them. This too is their second hit of 1998, coming just six weeks since Cracking Up reached Number 35.