This week's Official UK Singles Chart
1 ALL THE THINGS SHE SAID (Tatu)
It has been a quiet week for new releases, something which has caused some alarmingly strange movements to take place lower down the chart. At the top it means that Tatu spend a fourth week at the summit, almost by default more than anything else with a lack of any new or existing releases with the momentum to depose the pair. This means that the last ten weeks have seen just three singles top the singles chart: Girls Aloud for four, David Sneddon for two and now Tatu also having clocked up four. The last time there was this level of stability at the top of the singles chart came way back in 1997 when Elton John, The Spice Girls and Aqua spent 5,1 and 4 weeks at the top respectively. Can Tatu make it a fifth week at the top (something no single has done since 1998)? The answer to that takes just two words - Junior Senior.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
2 CRY ME A RIVER (Justin Timberlake)
Now you know me, personally I wouldn't do any of the Minogue sisters but this apparently is not a view shared by Justin Timberlake. Not content with gratuitously fondling Kylie when performing with her at the Brit Awards last week, he now has the tabloid press in a feeding frenzy as they try to get the definitive answer as to which member of the family he did the wild thing with at a hotel afterwards. [Mini tabloid kerfuffles we'd all forgotten...] To top all this his records are once again upwardly mobile this week. Cry Me A River assumes one again the Number 2 position it surrendered to Sinead Quinn's single last week whilst the album Justified steams to the top of the long player chart, two weeks after it was last top of the pile.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
A word or two for the achievements of Kelly Rowland's single, now four weeks old but clinging doggedly to its Top 5 slot. The single peaked at Number 2 when first released but has now spent the past three locked solidly at Number 4. Her duet with Nelly on Dilemma also continues to shift units, after nineteen weeks on release it is still on the Top 75, sliding ten places to No.52 this week.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
A new entry? Heavens... Olly and Gale storm into the Top 10 with this latest release, the follow-up to Long Distance which charted at Number 22 last November after their celebrated dotmusic-sponsored performance at the top of the BT Tower. Of course with such a dramatic turnaround in chart fortunes there is more to this than meets the eye and in fact the promotion of Painkiller has used the same technique employed by Doves on There Goes The Fear last year - namely making the single a limited edition one week only release, thus forcing everyone who wants to buy a copy to get hold of it this week before the chance has gone forever. Just as There Goes The Fear wound up as a Top 3 smash hit, so too Painkiller becomes far and away the biggest hit single Turin Brakes have had and, dare I say it, are ever likely to have. Some would say this kind of chart manipulation isn't exactly playing fair but at the end of the day there is nothing wrong with it and if it serves the purpose of exposing a quality act to the masses (see Doves again) then there are hardly any grounds for strong complaint.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Back then to the established hits and a couple of chart moves that can possibly be linked to the fact that it was half term week this week for much of the country, a fact that has in the past been show to lure bored teens with a handful of change into their local record shop. First to benefit are Busted whose second single makes a turnaround this week after having dropped out of the Top 10 last week. This single, which peaked at Number 2 back in January, makes a five place climb this week to land its highest chart position for three weeks.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
8 LIFESTYLES OF THE RICH AND FAMOUS (Good Charlotte)
This movement on the other hand is quite spectacular and completely unexpected. Good Charlotte's debut single was released at the start of the month and appeared in the chart two weeks ago at Number 13. A quite respectable placing and a solid start for the act, even if at the time I did wonder if they had anything to set themselves apart from their contemporaries. The single duly began to slide last week, slumping to Number 20. Now it seems Lifestyles Of The Rich And Famous has a second wind and dramatically climbs 12 places this week to claim a place inside the Top 10. [Such a strange move had to have some kind of promotional trick behind it, but damned if I can recall precisely what it was] Well if they needed something to make them distinctive, being the act that actually climbs the chart makes them something pretty special at the present time.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
A UK debut for Belgian star Kira, real name Natasja De Witte. She began her career at the age of 13 on the Belgian equivalent of Stars In Their Eyes before participating in her local version of Popstars, winding up as one of the finalists. Her debut single lands on the chart after a great deal of "look how good this is" comment from those who are normally paid to know about these things but at the end of the day is just your average euro trance single sung by a blonde woman. Perfectly Acceptable Pop for all that...
------------------------------------------------------------------------
A long overdue chart return for Moloko, who must now surely be considered chart veterans given that their first Top 40 single came back in 1996. 2003 marks the release of a brand new album, their first since Things To Make And Do in 2000 which spawned the Top 40 hits The Time Is Now and Pure Pleasure Seeker. Since then their only chart activity has been Rosin Murphy's vocal performance on Boris Dlugosch's Never Enough in June 2001 - a return of favours after he remixed Sing It Back into the Top 10 back in 1999. Back to the present time then and Familiar Feeling is a worthy new release, Rosin's distinctive vocals lead the way on a track whose production is reminiscent of their biggest hit The Time Is Now - acoustic guitars, fiddles and handclap rhythms on the most danceable single you will hear this year which barely features a trace of electronics. Of course the single also comes with remixes but they are at best superfluous.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
18 THE TRUTH IS NO WORDS (Music)
Still struggling manfully on in mid-table are The Music, here with their third chart single and a return to the Top 20 after Getaway could only reach Number 26 back in November 2002. Their biggest hit remains Take The Long Road And Walk It which hit Number 14 in August last year whilst their best song The People remains criminally uncharted after having been released in an ineligible package earlier in 2002.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
25 I WISH I WAS A GIRL (Violent Delight)
Some good old-school metal from Violent Delight as they make their debut on the back of some well received support slots for Hell Is For Heroes. This is actually their second crack at chart fame, first single Secret Smile having been released last August but falling some way short of the Top 75.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
A second chart single for Dee Dee who of course made Number 12 with her debut single Forever in July last year. Perfectly Acceptable Pop. Let's move on...
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Big up to everyone at All Around The World records who read these words every week and take great delight in my ignorance or lack of appreciation of their latest releases. Actually just for a change this is an example of Eurotrance finally getting it right. Someday began life as a Mariah Carey song, appearing on her debut album. It was her third single here and charted in early 1991 in a dramatically remixed version after it had become clear that (at that time) Britain was failing to get to grips with the idea of this hot new American star. Despite heavy promotion the single crashed out at Number 38 and effectively derailed her career in this country for 18 months. Resonance Q actually turn the song into the club stormer it always should have been, bringing out the soul of the song rather than destroying it and proving that not all cover versions are lesser recordings than the original. Oh don't worry, I'm not going soft - there is worse to come.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
32 THE FINAL ARREARS (Mull Historical Society)
Well over a year since their last hit Watching Xanadu, Mull Historical Society make a return to the singles chart. Their first single hit Number 36 so I guess you could call this progress.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
33 HARD TO SAY I'M SORRY (Aquagen)
Ah, welcome back to the dancefloor and a big hello to All Around The World again. The trend for Eurobeat massacres of classic 80s pop continues unabated in the shape of this heart and soul destruction of Chicago's famous ballad which originally hit Number 4 in September 1982. I'm painfully aware that a middle line has to be drawn here somewhere as whilst I dismiss original singles such as the Kira record as Perfectly Acceptable Pop I'm also dismissive of the genre when it turns to cover versions such as this one. Then again as the likes of Resonance Q have shown this week, when you choose the right song to cover you can actually produce a magical dance single. Lightning in a bottle is hard to capture though - just ask DJ Sammy.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Something of an inspirational tale this one as singer-songwriter Mark Joseph, tired of hammering on the doors of record companies to get noticed, has gone out and done everything himself. His debut single has been written, recorded, produced, promoted and distributed all through his own record label. After performing just about everywhere that would have him he managed to build up enough of a following to persuade Virgin stores to stock the single in six of their branches and their reward (and indeed his) is a sale that is enough to help the single to creep inside the Top 40. The single itself isn't half bad even if his voice tends just on the wrong side of whiny for it ever to become a large hit. Something tells me the mainstream music industry passed on him for a reason.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dave, you made a huge mistake here. You forgot the guest star. How else can you explain your last single One Vision (featuring Seal on vocals) charging to Number 8 back in October and this one barely registering a place in the Top 40. Get it sorted. [The single did indeed have a guest star though, an uncredited Beth Hirsch, last heard of as the female singer on Air's All I Need].
