This week's Official UK Singles Chart
Consider that three weeks then for Beyonce Knowles as not even the challenge of a string of big new hits can displace her at the top of the charts. She thus now surpasses her bandmate Kelly Rowland in terms of success, Kelly having only had a fortnight run at the summit with Dilemma in October last year. The continuing success of Crazy In Love also means that the slowdown of the chart continues. Not content with the first pair of back to back four week Number One hits for the first time since 1995, we have now seen three successive chart-topping singles spend three weeks or more at the summit - the first time this has happened since the summer of 1995.
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2 SATISFACTION (Benny Benassi presents The Biz)
Data Recordings, home of Tomcraft's Loneliness hit paydirt once again with this licence, Benny Benassi's single winding up as the biggest new hit of the week. The likes of Fatboy Slim and other big names are huge fans of this track and the fine weather of the last week has made it a perfect atmoshere for this electro-trance monster to become an essential summer soundtrack. The Frenchman came very close to challenging for the Number One position but ultimately has to content himself with this perfectly respectable slot in the Top 3. The top end of the singles chart may look like it is 1995 but certain other acts in the listings this week give the chart an air of 1992. In which case this single is officially spacious. Man. [This was mostly about the video though].
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3 NO LETTING GO (Wayne Wonder)
No particular reason for this, unless you are the kind of person who thinks the weather is then kind of thing that influences record purchases, but there is no denying that in the hot weather Wayne Wonder's track sounds even better. The single takes advantage of an overall slump in sales this week to rocket four places up the chart to register its highest chart placing to date, entering the Top 3 for the very first time.
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What does "spacious" mean? Go ask someone in their 30s. Meanwhile it is good to see that the Coral's achievements in reaching the Top 10 back in March with Don't Think You're The First were far from a one-off. Their fourth hit single in the space of the last year becomes far and away their biggest, as anticipation of their forthcoming new album increases and dragging real music kicking and screaming even further into the Top 10 and a good thing too.
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Continuing their inexorable rise to teen stardom, D-Side make it look easy with a second Top 10 single, this following up Speechless which hit Number 9 back in April. If anything this is actually a much better single and is infectious enough to have mainstream appeal beyond the usual crowd of pre-teen girls at whom such records are normally aimed. They are still not quite household names but for the Irish foursome this is definitely a step in the right direction.
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13 GOLDEN RETRIEVER (Super Furry Animals)
Short and sweet this one as the Super Furry Animals storm the Top 20 with a single that is a mere 2.5 minutes long. Into that short time they cram enough energy to last a year however and in doing so land their first hit single for 18 months. The single actually came within an ace of hitting the Top 10 which would have given it the honour of being their first single to ever climb that high. Instead they remain furstratingly short after seven years of trying. Their biggest ever hit was the Number 11 peak of Northern Lites which charted in May 1999.
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14 JUST BECAUSE (Jane's Addiction)
It was on the very first Lolapalooza tour back in 1992 that Jane's Addiction famously announced that they were breaking up. First formed by charismatic frontman Perry Farell back in 1986, the band appeared to be on the verge of a long awaited commercial breakthrough when the personality clashes finally became too much. Their demise actually came as a huge shame as it meant that by and large they missed out on the grunge phenomenon that instead was led by the likes of Nirvana and Pearl Jam. Their only Top 40 single in this country came in March 1991 when the still memorable Been Caught Stealing barked its way to Number 34. Of course all of this is now ancient history as the band are back, and back it seems with avengeance. A new album entitled Strays, their first for 12 years, is on the cards and to herald it come this new single which shatters their old miserable chart record to smithereens, catapaulting this most outrageous of acts straight into the Top 20. Of course this chart placing may be helped by the fact that the single is a limited release, all formats having been deleted on the day of release. Consequently this chart placing is a one-off and you can confidently expect the single to charge to the depths in seven days time. Nonetheless, it is indeed 1992 once more and we love it.
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Her ability to chart big hits still is not in doubt. What Madonna does have a problem with it seems is making hit singles that cross over beyond her clearly still loyal fanbase. Every single from the American Life album has followed the same chart pattern - hitting the heights in the first week and crashing out of the Top 10 the next. With a 13 place drop this week, Hollywood is clearly no exception.
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A return to his solo Yomanda persona for mixmaster Paul Masterson, his last few hits having come under the Hi-Gate moniker reserved for his collaborations with Judge Jules. Hi-Gate get a credit on one of the remixes of this single as well, a track that had people speculating would eclipse the success of his most famous hit Synth & Strings (Number 8 in July 1999) but in the event winds up with a rather average looking Top 30 entry.
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24 WHITE WEDDING (Murderdolls)
Well now here is a change of direction you never thought you would see. Murderdolls are the new vehicle for Slipknot frontman Joey Jordison and free now from the hockey masks and cult status he is now free to make a bid for mainstream stardom. How else to explain this, an industrial rock version of the track first made famous back in the 1980s by Billy Idol. Just like Marilyn Manson's cover of Tainted Love last year, this single actually rocks like a good 'un, breathing unexpected new life into a track that admittedly was far from sounding dated in the first place. Billy Idol purists (are there any?) may scratch their heads in wonderment but this is at least a more faithful rendition than the last Idol cover to hit the UK charts, Scooter's Rebel Yell which hit Number 33 in May 1996.
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25 LOOOSE CANNON (Killing Joke)
Hi there, and welcome back to 1992 although maybe that should be 1986 or even 1995. The band that gave the music business both Jaz Coleman and Youth have been something of a floating project for the past decade or so, reassembling every few years for a new album inbetween the varied commitments of their members. What makes this particular comeback so notable however is the fact that it has given the group one of their biggest hit singles for some time. This is their first chart hit since 1996 when Democracy made Number 39 and their first to reach the Top 30 since The Pandemonium Single made Number 28 in July 1994. Loose Cannon however has beaten that placing and as a result has the honour of becoming their second biggest chart single ever. Only once in their long history have the group made the Top 20 - back In 1995 when Love Like Blood gave them a memorable Number 18.
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26 SOLDIER GIRL (Polyphonic Spree)
Fresh from their unique and striking performance at Glastonbury, the American pop choir make a welcome appearance in the charts. Still a long way from having a mainstream hit, this new track does at least see them land a spot in the Top 30 for the first time ever, following on from the Number 40 peak of Light And Day which charted in February. Prior to today, their biggest chart hit was their debut single Hanging Around which made Number 39 in October last year. [Only a minor hit but still the biggest and most famous Polyphonic Spree hit single. The one everyone recognises in an instant].
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30 HOW YOU GONNA ACT LIKE THAT (Tyrese)
A UK debut for US star Tyrese, the artist having been famous in the States for close on eight years now, first coming to peoples attention with a celebrated TV ad for Coca-Cola. This new single is taken from his second album I Wanna Go There but for the moment his star has some way to climb on these shores.
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32 YOUR MUSIC (Intenso Project)
Almost one year on the Intenso Project return with a followup to Luv Da Sunshine which many thought underperformed when it made Number 22 in August last year. Ben and Laura Jaye have their fans, there is no doubting that but despite sounding like it was made for the summer this single is little more than a chart also-ran.
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38 EVERYTHING EVENTUALLY (Appleton)
Oh dear me. It all seemed to be going so well for the Appleton sisters. They had released two singles both of which were incredibly good. Fantasy made Number 2 in September last year whilst the followup, the gorgeous Don't Worry, made a similarly impressive Number 5 back in April. Suddenly however it has all gone disastrously wrong and nobody really knows why. Everything Eventually was regarded as one of the better tracks on the album, the track was laid back and sizzled like the weather (according to reviews I have here) and you would be hard pressed to find anyone with a bad word to say about it. Except the British public that is. The early sales of the single indicated that it would not even make the Top 30 and it was almost as if a switch had been thrown. All promotion for the single was immediately cancelled when it became clear this was going to be a disaster. If you are reading this on Sunday evening when the chart is published then you will know just what the pop pages in the newspapers will be writing about tomorrow. Appleton single flops, future of record deal in doubt. You heard it here first, this single is da bomb. Literally.
