This week's Official UK Singles Chart
Hey he is a man full of surprises. Not only did R Kelly top the charts last week despite facing some rather serious criminal charges, this week he goes one better and retains his crown in the face of stiff opposition from one of the most talked about pop acts of the moment. So it is that Ignition Remix spends a second week at the summit, a feat helped in part by a distribution problem that prevented some shops from obtaining full stocks of the single in its first week on release. This has led to a knock-on effect of some of the sales that may well have been made last week being made this week instead and helping to prolong the market leading sales of the single. Who'd be a retailer? R Kelly's biggest hit to date remains 1997s I Believe I Can Fly which spent three weeks at the top of the charts - Ignition Remix now just one step away from that total.
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2 NO GOOD ADVICE (Girls Aloud)
It isn't unfair to say that nobody was expecting Girls Aloud to be any good at all. With Hear'say - the group created by the first Popstars TV series - having spectacularly imploded in public view, the chances of any of the two acts emerging from the second series of the show having any kind of impact at all seemed rather slim. For the boy band One True Voice that did appear to be true, their Christmas single was branded rubbish by all and sundry, its members remain distinctly anonymous and nobody seems to care about their forthcoming second single. Girls Aloud were a different prospect as their single Sound Of The Underground was of course bloody marvellous, topping the charts for four weeks over Christmas and suddenly making everyone very keen to find out what they would do next. Here then is your answer. No Good Advice follows on from where the first single left off, a spunky and sparkling single featuring some rather surprising names in the credits (Lena from Aqua co-wrote it!) and one which confirms them as a pop force to be reckoned with. Indeed so successful has the promotion of the girls been that it has been all but forgotten that they were created by a TV show, they have transcended that in a way that Hear'Say never quite managed. The only disappointment is that they have been denied a second successive Number One single by the continuing run of R Kelly but make no mistake, as far as most people are concerned this is easily the single of the week.
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Now well established as a chart star it seems, Seal Paul gets busy (ahem) with the task of having a second hit single following the Top 5 success of the re-released Gimmie The Light back in February. In truth this new single isn't quite as spectacular with half the crossover appeal but clearly that has not stopped people from snapping it up. Get Busy debuts this week at Number 4 to give him his biggest hit so far. [No mention here for the fact that this was the first of several singles to chart during the summer to be based on Steven Marsden's Diwali Riddim, the handclap beat being almost inescapable during the period].
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*alert* Former Steps singer warning. Hard on the heels of H & Claire and Faye Tozer comes the third female from the five-piece, Lisa Scott-Lee. To launch her solo career she has decided to take the sex kitten route, appearing in videos and on TV in a succession of skimpy outfits (including one that on Saturday left far too little to the imagination). With her bum all over the newspapers it is almost too easy to actually ignore the fact that she is promoting a pop record. Happily the record itself is actually too good to ignore, a breezy pop stomper co-written by the lady herself that actually knocks the insipid disco efforts of former bandmates H & Claire way out of the park. Lisa always appeared to be the quiet one in Steps, frequently letting her two blonde colleagues take most of the limelight. Now it appears she is ready to come into her own, hopefully with more singles such as this one.
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9 ALL ABOUT LOVIN' YOU (Bon Jovi)
Hit single Number 3 in the current sequence for Bon Jovi, the 80s veterans still showing that they have untapped commercial potential in the 21st century. Following on from Misunderstood's rather disappointing Number 21 peak at Christmas, this new single returns them to the Top 10, their 16th such hit single. Scanning their list of hits reveals the fun fact that they have had a single peak at every single position within the Top 10 except one - to date a Number One single still eludes them.
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13 EVERYBODY COME ON (CAN U FEEL IT) (Mr Redz vs DJ Skribble)
Well this was a smash hit waiting to happen wasn't it? Can You Feel It by Mr Redz first surfaced as an underground club hit last year. For whatever reason it was never judged to have quite the commercial potential that would justify a proper mainstream release - that was until the Stanton Warriors took matters into their own hands and fused the single with the beats from another 'lost' hit single in the shape of a DJ Skribble mix of Busta and Rampage. Following this? The resultant hybrid now becomes this hit single, one which sounds even better when we actually get some sunshine.
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Swinging swiftly from one musical style to another, here at long long last is the brand new single from the Deftones, their first release since 2001s mini album Back To School. The appearance of this single on the chart will doubtless spark joy amongst veteran fans of the rock act for it is only their second Top 40 entry ever. The first came way back in March 1998 when My Own Summer (Shove It) ascended to the dizzy heights of Number 29. Five years later they finally are Top 20 hitmakers. Noisy Top 20 hitmakers you have to admit, but hitmakers nonetheless.
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16 SOUTHAMPTON BOYS (Red 'N' White Machines)
This weekend just gone has been FA Cup Final weekend, the English football season reaches its climax when Arsenal took on Southampton at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium. The tradition of the teams reaching the final releasing records to celebrate this appeared to have died out in recent years, mainly I suspect due to the fact that it often seems to be the same teams who reach the final year after year. Arsenal have now been there three times running so the novelty of making a record each time has of course worn off. In the absence of 'official' songs from the clubs themselves it has fallen to the fans themselves to put their musical talents to good use. No less than six different unofficial Saints cup final anthems were released in time for the final but only one has actually managed to find its way into the charts - this tender ditty from the Red N' White Machines. These are of course the UK charts - where anything is possible.
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19 HOME (Bone Thugs-N-Harmony featuring Phil Collins)
Bone Thugs-N-Harmony are one of those acts whose most famous track is actually better known that they are. Their name was made back in 1996 with their single Tha Crossroads. It was a US Number One and was a reasonably sized hit here, making Number 8 in August that year. It turned out to be a brief flash in the pan as far as their chart fortunes over here were concerned, their last hit single coming just one year later when Look Into My Eyes hit Number 16. Then last year Tha Crossroads was resurrected in a note for note cover version by Blazin' Squad who took the song to the very top of the chart. Maybe the door was now open for the Bone Thugs-N-Harmony comeback. Well here it is, and what a fascinating single it is. Many may well remember the 2001 compilation album Urban Renewal which brought with it the revelation that ageing rocker Phil Collins was something of a hero amongst the American R&B and hip-hop crowd. That fascination still continues as this single is based heavily around Phil's own 1985 hit single Take Me Home. Sampling heavily from the track, the rappers weave their own lyrics around the melody to create what is a quite mesmerising rap track. Phil Collins himself appears alongside the group in the video to give it his own seal of approval and the shock really is that such an obvious smash hit single could only land at Number 19. Well what with the Americans doing Phil Collins and with Craig David and the Sugababes sampling Sting it can surely be only a matter of time before we see non-ironic remixes of Cliff Richard tracks. Well if Westlife can do Miss You Nights...
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The second hit single of the year and the third from the current Wildhearts album. So Into You is the follow-up to Stormy In The North/Karma In The South which hit Number 17 back in February. Both their last two singles have performed better on the chart than the first release from the album, Vanilla Radio which could only hit Number 26 in October last year.
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23 WHY CAN'T I BE YOU (Shed Seven)
A long awaited new release from Shed Seven whose last chart appearance was a little over two years ago. Cry For Help was their last single, a Number 30 hit single that was supposed to represent a new dawn for the act after a spectacular falling out with their old record label. Its parent album Truth Be Told could only manage a solitary week on the chart and failed to spawn any further hit singles. One further change of label later and here they are again with a brand new single to herald a live album due for release very shortly. In spite of all their troubles, Shed Seven have always managed to sound something close to awesome and this single does not disappoint. Not a massive hit but if after their second successive two year hiatus they can still manage Top 30 hits they must be doing something right.
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30 CHICKEN (Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster)
A second hit single of the year for Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster. Their appeal still remains frustratingly limited, this single creeping into the Top 30 in a similar manner to their last hit Psychosis Safari which made Number 26 back in January.
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It's Been Awhile. Both the title of Staind's biggest ever hit and a statement of how long it has been since they were in the charts. The US rockers have never really managed a follow-up hit to that debut single, which made Number 15 in September 2001. Their next release Outside could only limp to Number 33 three months later whilst their third single For You missed the Top 40 altogether in early 2002. Taken from a forthcoming new album, Price To Pay had the potential to return them to Top 20 hitmaking ways but sadly it can do little more than limp into the Top 40.
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Just before he died in late 2001, George Harrison was putting the finishing touches to a new album entitled Brainwashed. 18 months after his death the album finally hits the shops and with it comes this brand new single. The cynical view is to say that had he still been alive it is unlikely that this single would have come anywhere near the charts, but as it is it serves as another nice tribute to one quarter of the most famous pop group ever to walk the planet. The chart-topping re-release of My Sweet Lord from last year aside, this is his first Top 40 hit single with new material since When We Was Fab hit Number 25 in February 1988.
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39 SHE'S GONNA BREAK SOON (Less Than Jake)
A very very long overdue chart debut for Less Than Jake, the rock act having formed back in 1992 but who to date have never yet had a Top 40 hit single in this country. They have made the singles chart twice before, once in 2000 with All My Best Friends Are Metalheads (Number 51) and then again a year later with the single Gainesville Rock City (Number 57). OK so it isn't a massive hit single but for them it is far and away their biggest ever, so indulge them a small celebration.
