This week's Official UK Singles Chart

1 CAN'T FIGHT THE MOONLIGHT (LeAnn Rimes) 

The film Coyote Ugly may not have exactly had people queueing round the block but this somewhat belated release from its soundtrack could hardly have been bigger, propelling LeAnn Rimes rather surprisingly to the top of the charts, ahead even of a single that was being tipped as a certainty several weeks ago. This is the first UK Number One single for the American teenager. Coincidentally it was a song from a film that kick-started her UK career back in 1998 when her rendition of How Do I Live spent over six months inside the Top 40, the longest such run for 14 years even though it only ever peaked at Number 7. Trish Yearwood actually performed the song in the film Con Air so it is perhaps appropriate that Miss Rimes should now have a hit with a soundtrack single that was hers to begin with. In a way it is a shame that she never topped the chart back in 1998 as she was in a position to lay claim to being one of the youngest women ever to have a Number One single. She does so today at the age of 18 years and 3 months, making her two years older than fellow countrywoman Tiffany who was just 16 years and 3 months old when she topped the chart with I Think We're Alone Now in January 1988. The youngest solo Englishwoman to reach Number One was Helen Shapiro who was just a month shy of her 15th birthday when she topped the chart with You Don't Know in August 1961. More recently Billie Piper was just a few weeks short of turning 16 when Because We Want To hit the top in July 1998.

2 ONE MORE TIME (Daft Punk) 

This was the single that was expected by every smug music pundit you could name to top the chart this week. Instead, the current club floor-filler has to content itself with the runners-up slot which at the end of the day can hardly be considered a failure. One More Time is the single in which Thomas Bangalter shows just how commercial he can get, the somewhat epic track being one of the rare breed of dance records that actually sound as good on the radio and at home as they do inside a club. The heavily vocoded singer on the track is deep house legend Romanthony making this almost certainly the most commercial record he has ever been involved with. One More Time is far and away the biggest Daft Punk single to date, the collective having already had Top 10 hits with Da Funk (No.7) and Around The World (No.5) in early 1997.

4 PLEASE DON'T TURN ME ON (Artful Dodger) 

Almost one year on from the very start of the garage craze in the charts and whilst the mainstream attention to the style appears to be dying out, the singles are still capable of racing into the chart. Having seen their original guest star Craig David turn into a megastar in 2000 you have to feel a certain amount of sympathy for Artful Dodger as the forgotten men in this revolution. That is of course until you look at their chart performances, this being their fourth straight Top 10 hit and their second biggest to date, Please Don't Turn Me On easily passing the Number 6 peak of their last single Woman Trouble - even though that single had the added attraction of a return appearance by Craig David on vocals. Singer on this track is 'Lifford' whose previous claim to fame was as lead singer of Public Demand. Their name turned out to be an ironic joke as they only ever had one chart single, Invisible which made Number 41 in February 1997.

5 FEEL THE BEAT (Darude) 

Remember Sandstorm? That was the Number 3 hit from Darude which spent most of the summer in the sets of club DJs and which had the honour of beating the Bomfunk MCs into the chart as the first ever Top 10 hit from Finland. Feel The Beat is essentially Sandstorm Part II although with the intensity cranked up just a notch, enough to make this a worthy successor to that hit rather than a formulaic clone. Other producers take note.

6 GRAVEL PIT (Wu-Tang Clan) 

It is entirely possible that you have never heard of the Wu-Tang Clan (although if that is the case then you are hereby obliged to go check out the dotmusic microsite which will tell you everything you need to know). Even if this is the case you will almost certainly have heard of one or two of the individuals within the group. Members of the Wu-Tang clan include the likes of Ghostface Killah, ODB, Method Man and RZA, all of whom have had chart singles either in their own right or in collaboration with other people over the last few years. Such was the buzz about the Staten Island collective that their last album Wu-Tang Forever shot to the top of the album chart in June 1997 without the group ever having released a commercial single. Indeed the only single from the platter to chart was Triumph which emerged two months later and failed to live up to its name, peaking at Number 46. Three years on and after a slew of hits from some of the names mentioned above, the Wu-Tang Clan are back together and so finally and belatedly make a collective impact on the UK charts with this first single from a forthcoming new album. Having said that the Wu-Tang Clan have indeed been placed higher up the singles chart than this as they received a co-credit on their reworking of Texas' Say What You Want which made Number 4 in March 1998 as a double a-side with Insane. This strange collaboration had its roots in the rather well-received performance of the track by the two acts at that year's Brit Awards ceremony.

8 SAME OLD BRAND NEW YOU (A1) 

A strong set of new entries (plus I suspect the faint possibility that nobody outside the groups' mailshotted fan base cared all that much) means that not only do A1 only last a week at the top but they take a rather heavy tumble down the listings in the process, becoming one of the select handful of acts to fall straight out of the Top 5 from the Number One position. In fact they are the second act this year to suffer that most ignoble of reverses, Westlife having also tumbled 1-8 back in April with Fool Again. The record for this kind of fall has been held since 1958 by Harry Belafonte's rendition of Mary's Boy Child which made a drop of 1-12, the only single ever to drop from Number One straight out of the Top 10. The closest anyone has come since has been a fall of 1-10 achieved by the Flying Pickets with Only You in January 1984.

11 DANCING IN THE MOONLIGHT (Toploader) 

Believe it or not this is now the third release for Toploader's Dancing In The Moonlight. It first came out back in 1999 when the group were being touted as the best band not to have yet had a hit single. When re-released it became their breakthrough hit, reaching Number 19 back in March. Now after two more singles (Achilles Heel and Just Hold On) it is clearly time for Dancing In The Moonlight to make a reappearance. This time around the single benefits (at least I think that was what the effect was intended to be) from a remix by Norwegian production team Stargate which for what it's worth I think almost totally ruins the song but has at the very least propelled Dancing In The Moonlight back into the Top 20 to confirm its status as their second biggest chart hit to date. The song was originally recorded in 1973 by King Harvest who reached Number 13 in America with the track despite never charting over here.

16 HOLD ME (Savage Garden) 

The third single release of the year for the increasingly colourless Savage Garden, this the followup to to Affirmation which charted at Number 8 back in April. Despite never commanding the hysterical levels of support they have in certain parts of Europe the Australian duo continue to be consistent with their chart placings over here. This is now their 8th Top 20 hit (ninth if you count both versions of I Want You as separate hits).

18 DEVIL (666) 

From Germany comes this rather formulaic four minutes of techno featuring a bloke shouting "I'm a D E V I L... I'm a Devil" throughout most of the track. Presumably this was meant to be an important concept although from this side it stands as the funniest dance record I've heard in months.

20 DON'T MESS WITH MY MAN (Lucy Pearl) 

Lucy Pearl's debut single Dance Tonight didn't exactly set the charts alight when it was released back in July, the single making a brief Top 40 appearance at Number 36. Nonetheless I said at the time that it boded well for the future and so it proves as the second release from the R&B supergroup make a far stronger showing and benefits from some increased TV and radio exposure to creep inside the Top 20. Quite where they go from here is still open to question as En Vogue singer Dawn Robinson has reportedly expressed her reluctance to do any further work with Shaheed Muhammed and Raphael Saddiq but given that she was second choice behind Jay Kay to be the lead singer on the project you suspect this won't be too much of a setback.

23 SOMEONE THERE FOR ME (Richard Blackwood) 

The third single for comedian/presenter/wise-ass turned rapper to hit the chart, this following Mama Who's Da Man (No.3) and Get With The Wicked (No.10) into the charts. What little novelty appeal the concept of Richard Blackwood as a pop star once possessed appears to be fast wearing off and it is possible that after this he will stick to MTV and Channel 4. Please.

27 ONCE AROUND THE BLOCK (Badly Drawn Boy) 

With the Mercury Music Prize under his belt (or maybe his hat) we should now be treating Badly Drawn Boy as a proper star, even if he still hasn't quite cracked the nut that is commercial chart success. Once Around The Block was his first chart single and peaked at Number 46 when first released in September last year. Now re-released it becomes his second Top 40 single, the follow-up to Disillusion which made Number 25 back in September.

32 ONLY TIME (Enya) 

Do you think things have been getting a little too hectic lately? Good job Enya is here to calm everything down. Back in 1988 Enya was arguably the first person ever to take ethereal new age music to the top of the chart when she reached the summit with Orinoco Flow. Since then she has put together an extensive if sporadic run of hits and featured on more than a few film soundtracks along the way. Only Time is her first Top 40 single for almost four years, her last appearance coming in December 1996 when On My Way Home made Number 26. Her last Top 10 appearance was more than a year before that, Anywhere Is having reached Number 7 in November 1995. [This would end up being Enya's final Top 40 hit to date, a shame really as it is actually one of her loveliest].

35 INTRO (Alan Braxe and Fred Falke) 

Before you say "who?" it is probably worth pointing out that one of these men had a hand in one of the most famous dance singles of the late 1990s. Alan Braxe is actually Alain Queme who was one of the three Frenchmen who teamed up as Stardust in 1998 to make the now classic Music Sounds Better With You. As chance would have it this single hits the Top 40 in the same week as Daft Punk - better known as Thomas Bangalter - who was also one of the members of Stardust.